Discussion at Barcamp Boston 8.
The theme was advice for basic apps in Android for a recent switcher (me). Great discussion, lots of fun.
Uniquely Andoidy apps
Homescreen managers allow you to customize how your phone’s homescreen looks or works
- Apex
- Nova Launcher
- Aviate (beta, invite-only)
Alternate keyboards
Apps with good widgets (glanceable info on your homescreen or lock screen)
- Weatherbomb
- Yahoo Weather
- Weatherbug Elite
- Eye in the Sky
- Google Now (which was acclaimed freakishly useful if kinda creepy)
- Smooth Calendar (quick preview of next appointments)
Sensors not available on iPhones
- barometers and altimeters are included in many Android phones, allowing weird and cool apps.
Phone software replacement software. Android lets you totally swap out the whole set of software your carrier provides.
- Cyanogen Mod
- Fdroid store (all open software)
Music apps. Several folks in the room thought it was perfectly viable to use cloud music services rather than syncing a huge personal library. Folks with limited data plans were not so keen.
- Soundcloud
- Spotify
- Google Play Music
Calendar. What was wanted was a calendar that worked like the stock IOS calendar.
Camera apps. Camera replacement apps are much sparser for Android, possibly because it’s harder to charge for them directly.
- Focal
- Camera Zoom FX
- Stock HTC camera
- Google+ and Dropbox’s auto upload/backup feature for photos was popular
Notetaking apps. Things like Simplenote or Vesper or Elements for IOS.
- Evernote
- Dragon Mobile Assistant (Nuance voice notes)
- Google Keep
Task managers
- Wunderlist
- Anydo
- Trello (esp. for businesses)
Personal Cloud Storage
- Pogoplug
- Space Monkey
Podcasts
- Pocketcasts was pretty much the universal choice.
GPS
- Waze (basic navigation)
- Google Maps (basic)
- Copilot (long road trips)
- Alpine Quest (hiking)
- My Tracks (includes maps of altitude and speed)
