Thursday, July 15, 2010

My Favorite Droid Programs from the Android Market

The Android Market for the Droid phones and many other smart phones is growing very quickly and offers some really remarkable programs (or Apps if you prefer).

Instead of just posting and describing the most popular ones, I'd rather just post about what programs I enjoy the most. Maybe you have these and agree, or just maybe you'll find something new to expand your phone functionality and entertainment!

1. ShapeWriter Slide Keyboard (Out of the Market but was Free)

This keyboard for the time is no longer offered on the Android Market (so why are you posting it?!), well its just so awesome I couldn't opt to not post about it. ShapeWriter is a slide keyboard, meaning you trace the letters of a word you want to enter and the predictive text feature picks up the word it thinks you are tracing and posts it. It is about 98% accurate I believe and it is the absolute fastest way to text and any other thing you'd like to write about. I'm so addicted to using a slide keyboard, I get sick when I try to use a standard default keyboard now. Below I will leave a link to the ShapeWriter APK file so you can download it to your phone.

2. Status Notes (Paid and Free)

Status Notes is a beautifully simple yet affective little program. It lets you make notes and it will put them in your Status bar. You can choose different icons to show up in your status bar for your entries. The choices aren't that grand, but it's better than nothing. I find myself using this program all the time, making lists of movies I want to buy or watch, keeping a budget, keeping track of appointments or just simply leaving myself little notes of things to do or remember. There is a free version and pay version. The only difference is the pay version gives you the ability to have multiple Status Notes in your status bar. Try it out, you won't want to be without it once you've used it.

3. Word Up! (Free)

Word Up! is an addictive word find game that is offered for free on the Android Market. You slide your fingers across the letters to make as many words as you can before the time runs out. That simple! But the program has so many great customization options, you can select the board color, minimum letter count, game time, what kind of dictionary and so much more. You can also play this with another person, not online, but it's still fun to play with someone your are hanging out with. Like I said it's quite addictive and I'll spend countless hours playing this word gem.

4. Media Tracker (Paid)

Media tracker is a great tool that is minimal yet very effective at what it does. It needs no extra frills and whistles to do it's job, and it does it very well. It's an application to keep track of media of all types, DVD's/Blu-Rays, HDDVD's, VHS, Xbox and Playstation games and digital media. I currently have over 570 DVD/Blu-Ray titles that I've scanned in, and it's very quick and simple to use. Once again another great program that lets you customize the look and feel of the program. I'm constantly changing the colors on my list to suit my current mood. The developer of this program is a great guy, he constantly updates it with new features and bug fixes. He is also very responsive to user comments and suggestions, and will most likely implement your idea's (assuming you don't ask for a fart sound every time you click a movie...but that would be interesting). Check it out, it's well worth the price!

5. Sharetones (Free)

Sharetones is a great program for downloading and creating your own ringtones. It incorporates the highly skilled and useful program Ringdroid. But it beats out the standard Ringdroid program by having a Fade In/Fade Out feature that the original for some idiotic reason still does not have..NO IDEA..? But yeah, if you would like to make your own ringtones this is the way to go, its easy to use and has a high quality approach to making ringtones. The only downside is you need to be using 3G or Wi-Fi to use since you are signed into their network for sharing purposes when you make ringtones. You can also make alarm and alert sounds in the program and set all the options on your phone. Next to Ringdroid, this is the best choice for creating ringtones.

6. Linda Manager (Free)

Linda Manager is an application and file manager. You can peruse your SD card or internal memory and manage and delete programs through and easy to use interface. Also you get readouts of what all your programs entail. Besides using the default App Manager this is the next best thing.

7. History Eraser (Free)

History Eraser is a program that I couldn't live with out for sure. It helps keep my Droid running smooth and staying clean and not bogged down by useless information and caches. It will erase the history of the following..Phone Call Log, Frequently Called Contacts, Standard Browser Search, Market Search, Google Map, YouTube and Shortcuts. All of those things can add up if you use your phone a lot, so its best to keep it clean and running smoothly. Everyone should have this program.

For now I'm going to stop at 7, yeah a weird place to stop, but well my mind wonders, and its wondering now what a Human Sized Blender would do to a person. Hope you enjoyed those reviews or the programs if you decide to give them a try.

ShapeWriter APK file

The Motorola Droid "X"


Well, the new Droid came out today, the Droid X! I went to go and purchase one but they were sold out everywhere. But at the Verizon store I went to they would sell you one and it will arrive in two business days. So, I'll either recieve it on Saturday or most likely this coming Monday.


The Droid X has so many great new features! Of course one of the biggest new functions is the ability to shoot High Definition video in a 720p resolution. As long as your light source is good the videos will look amazing! Also the new Droid has three microphones on it which is quite a plus for all the video enthusiasts. It has one mic for narration, one for subject and one on the top of the phone for noise cancellation. I'm quite the avid cinematographer so I'm very excited to get the phone and play around with all the new video functions.

On the older Droids in the Android Market they offer Tethering programs (which can turn your cell phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot), but the new phone comes stock with this feature, which is really cool. This could come in handy if your ISP is down and you want to jump on the Internet. Actually it's probably the best if you don't currently have the internet but you have a computer or some other internet ready device. Now you can sync the device to your Smart Phone and voila you can now surf the mighty web. You can also sync it to your Xbox or PlayStation 3, but if you are attempting to play multiplayer shooters of some sort, I wouldn't recommend it.

Some other cool features about the X are the new 4 by 3 inches screen, it's humongous i saw it in the store. I think it must have the largest screen on a cell phone right now (this is just opinion i haven't researched this yet). Also the Droid X comes with a default of seven home screens. You could already achieve this on other Droid phones using Home Alternatives (Launcher Pro Beta being my favorite hands down), but this way there is no extra programs needed. Also in the bottom dock on the phone you can press buttons that will take you to whatever screen you desire. One of the last things that is really cool about the new version of the Droid is the super fast 1GHZ processor. I played around with the floor model in the store today and I must say that the speed difference between the Droid and the Droid X is quite noticeable.

So for now that raps up my little review of the Motorola Droid X that was released today. I'm sure I'll have more to talk about once I get my Droid in the next couple of days. Thanks for listening to the rants of an Android Maniac!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.7

KORN....Remember Who You Are (Special Edition)


I bought Korn's new album, "Remember Who You Are" today, and I'm pretty impressed so far. I was nauseated with their last album "Untitled", but the new album actually sounds like Korn, as opposed to last one which sounding nothing like the band.

I haven't fully delved into this great work of music all the way, but so far "Oildale (Leave Me Alone)" is starting to grow on me and become a favorite. And, in addition to that the last track "Holding All These Lies" is quite powerful and conveys a lot of emotion and angst. I'll probably review it more once I've listened to it, like 4 or 5 times, then I will have a better gist of it.