Sunday, July 25, 2010

apps...apps...apps...

Been testing out my X10 MP for a couple of days now, and I have to say I'm very impressed.

Been downloading, installing, testing, uninstalling apps for the past 3 days... battery life is about 5 hours of non-stop surfing, chatting, and camera use. Screen on full power. The follwing are apps that I think I'll be keeping on my phone for a while.

GPS - MapDroyd ... amazing little app. Works offline, and has quite detailed street maps of the Philippines. Has other countries as well, taken from OpenStreetMap.org

The X10 Mini Pro's GPS is very decent. Takes a while to get an initial lock, but keeps a lock quite well. I don't have data service active yet, so it was running purely on the data from the GPS, cel-ID, and compass. Under stormy conditions and under an elevated highway, GPS stayed locked while the phone was resting on my center console in my car.

Over-all, I have to say that the GPS is almost as good as a dedicated Garmin unit... although Garmins still outperform mobile phone GPS (regardless of brand, unless it's the Garmin mobile phone) for non-critical applications, it's decent enough.

**Thanks to Mr. Dennis Manzano of SE PH for the tip on this app at the SE Expo!**


SMS - Handcent SMS. Much nicer to look at than then default SMS app. Allows easy access to speec synthesis for reading your incoming SMS to you.








Contacts - Phonebook 2.0 .. still not perfect, but way better than built in phonebook. I wish Android has much better contact management. Sort order can't be changed, and fields are a bit clumsy to edit. This is more inherent in Android than the apps for it. Maybe 2.2 will introduce a much better phonebook app.




Internet - Opera... nuff said. Dunno if the built in browser is a stripped down Chrome (why wouldn't it be) but it's not very pleasant to use. Default browser keeps opening a new window everytime you enter a new page... very annoying. Switched to Opera, much better.




Misc - Tricorder ... for all Star Trek fans... this thing displays all the information gathered from your phone's sensors... Wifi, Blutooth, GPS, cel-ID, accelerometer, gyroscope, electronic compass, etc.

Other neat apps that I like are
PhoneVoice: speaks alerts when incoming calls or SMS are received and says the name of the caller or sender.
Calendar Pad: Much better calendar viewer... gets data from built in cal app.
eBuddy: centralized IM app (although I was never a fan of this, YM for Android isn't official yet and the one out now keeps crashing)

On a separate note, the following Google apps are amazing: Google Goggles, Sky Map & Google Translate.

What apps do you have on your droid phone?

11 comments:

  1. Can I ask if keyboard shortcuts work on Opera Mini on the X10 Mini Pro?

    ReplyDelete
  2. What keystrokes specifically? I can try them out for you and give you feedback... but there are no ctrl or alt keys on the Mini Pro so I'm not sure how you would execute shortcuts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 2 = Page Up
    8 = Page Down
    4 = Page Left
    6 = Page Right
    (works on symbian & blackberry versions of opera mini)

    pressing # or * shows up a list of shortcuts on screen (for symbian)

    thanks in advance :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey lee, you'll be happy to know that the shortcuts work. My only comment is, this is a touchscreen phone, so flicking you finger is much faster than engaging the number lock and pressing a key. (on the Mini Pro, you have to press a blue function key to engage the numeric keypad)

    But yes, the shortcuts work when the numeric keypad is engaged.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. cool, thanx for the quick response.

    i was thinking of waiting for the gsm version of droid 2 to arrive in singapore, but as my e71 battery is faulty, think i will have to make my decision soon.

    not too many qwerty android phones around...

    ReplyDelete
  6. No problem! And thanks for reading my little blog! Means a lot.

    Re, qwerty androids... I really love the keyboard on the Mini Pro, but in all honesty, I rarely use it. Even when answering emails and blogs... I end up using the T9 (and multi-tap) more often since it allows me to blog, email, text, etc...with one hand (that was a major consideration I had for the Mini/Mini Pro that the X10 couldn't accomplish.

    If you really think you'll need the qwerty, by all means... I'm just saying that I've found that one-handed T9 (even multiple-tap) on the Mini Pro is far more practical and convenient for me than I ever thought it would be.

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  7. hi there. I really commend you for putting up a very nice review of the SE x10 mini pro. It really means a lot especially to those who are deciding on which phone to buy. BTW, I would just like to ask if it's possible to open and edit doc/excel/pdf files here? thanks in advance :)

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  8. Also, is it possible to use Skype thru this mobile? hehe TIA! :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey Cheapee! Thanks for reading...and I'm glad my blog could help you out in some way! :)

    Office document editing is possible through paid apps... unfortunately, paid apps are not available in the Philippines just yet. I will keep you posted on that since they're supposed to have the paid market up soon.

    But in all honesty, the X10 Mini has a very small screen, and even if editing was possible, I wouldn't recommend it on a regular basis, only for extreme emergencies. You'd be better off getting the full sized Androids like the Galaxy or Nexus 1.

    Regarding Skype, currently in development since it's only available in the US with Verizon. But Skype is supposedly working on a version for the global market soon. But the X10 line doesn't have a front facing camera so video calls won't be practical.

    The X10 Mini Pro handles all my communications, not my document editing. I blog from it, but I wouldn't want to type out a document on it, even with the keyboard.

    I use the X10 Mini Pro as my internet, SMS, and voice call hub. It works as my mobile Wifi hotspot, handles all my facebook, twitter, email, and SMS messages, and phone calls. I do not play games on it, nor do I edit work documents or spreadsheets on it.

    If you need to do this on the move, I would recommend the X10 Mini as your phone, then still get a netbook to work on.

    The X10 Mini is a great communication device, but it can't do everything. Not practical with the screen that it has. That's the trade off for having the smallest Android phone currently on the market.

    It is an incredible digital secretary/assistant though, and the voice recognition and voice alerts are extremely useful.

    Check out my review on the speech capabilities of Android on my X10 MP

    http://www.techgospelaccordingtojohn.com/2010/09/speak-up.html

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ah I see. Another thing, is Android user friendly? Someone told me that if I were to choose between Android and Symbian (that is, Xperia x10 mini pro vs. nokia c6) I should choose the latter since it also has massive downloadable applications. so what do you think?

    Aside from the doc viewer, I also want a good camera phone. my current phone is the SE Z610i which has a 2mp camera and I believe that SE really makes good phones but the software is my problem right now. so I don't know how to decide on this one. Any inputs? :) Thanks again.

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  11. It really depends. I would agree that Symbian has more apps at the moment since it's much older.

    Both the C6 and almost any Android phone out would fit your criteria. As well as the iPhone 4.

    Android can be as simple, or as complicated as you want it to be.

    And Android functions best when connected to the internet, since it's the first device to be part of the cloud computing generation. All contact & calendar management are done online via Gmail/Cal

    If that isn't how you work, and if you don't have much access to the internet, then the C6 (or a Symbian device) and iPhone 4 might be better choices.

    ReplyDelete

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