I just bought a new Android based phone. It’s a lot different than my Crackberry, that’s for sure. I need some aps put on it, though. I already installed a flashlight ap, and I’m going to put on Lemon to track receipts, but I need more. EMS related, not EMS related, serious aps, fun aps, all kinds of aps.
Send me suggestions, please.
There are so many… Probably not as many than for the iPhone (my wife has one of those, so our philosophies differ on that point), but a good number just the same.
I loaded the Dolphin browser – I like it better than the one that came with the phone. I also have the Nook app loaded; I have it loaded on my tablet as well and it is nice to have access to the same books on both devices. Then there are the science/medical apps I have loaded: the electronic ALS field guide (from Informed), the NH and MA EMS protocols, a periodic table, and a 3-D rendering of the brain which does some neat stuff with internal structures. I also downloaded an app that I’m using to help me brush up on the conversational Russian I’ve been trying to learn – it’s a good app but I may not keep it. I also downloaded a bunch of games from Backflip Studios. They are really good at helping me waste time….
K9Mail if you don’t like the standard mail app. Skype. GoogleTalk if you use that. Scramble with Friends (it’s like Boggle), Archipelago (nice strategy game), Angry Birds (of course), Instagram (to be a cool kid)…
Those cover most of the apps I use regularly.
Thanks. I have to think about Angry Birds, it seems time wastingly addictive. That’s what I have a blog for, although you can be forgiven for thinking otherwise lately. What is Instagram?
Instagram is a way to make what is really a pretty good camera take crappy post-processed photos that you can then share on your media of choice.
Birds can be a time waster, but I tend to only play games in short stretches, and a few levels of Angry Birds can make waiting at the doc’s office/sitting post/waiting for the spouse a whole lot less tedious.
I second K9Mail and Dolphin, both much more polished than the stock apps.
Cargo Decoder, an electronic version of the 2008 Emergency Response Guidebook. If nothing else, its interesting to know what the truck next to you on the highway is carrying.
Evernote, to record and search text, photo, and audio notes and automatically have them sync with your computer.
Lets see, I got a notepad app, KeyRing (so I could get rid of all the annoying tags on my key chain, course, now yet ANOTHER company has that information on me…), Majesty (and expansion, take off on a computer game if you’re not familer) and 700 Solitare Games Free. I also got two different radio apps (since not all the stations I like to listen too were on the first one.
I got and deleted Lookout for Android (a security software) and their Ad detector software as one or both kept crashing my phone.
Skype was already on the phone and I’d like to delete it, and if you have an app preinstalled called “City ID” DO NOT CLICK ON IT. Just opening it activates a 15day trial that you cannot opt out of (till the trial is over) that results in personal information on who’s calling you sent to a third party. I’m not even sure opting out at the end of the trial really shut if off as I periodically find it running in the background.
Juice Defender. It will help (ish) conserve your battery life. The Android OS really sucks power (one of many reasons why I’m not sorry I got rid of my Droid, but that’s neither here nor there), and JD does make a difference.
Got it, thanks.
I’m not a fan of this. Running an app to constantly tell you there’s an app running that may waste battery charge also wastes power. There are more efficient ways to manage the battery, but that’s an exhaustive post. Look it up on Android Police or Android Central, and you’ll see they’re not really fans of this type of app either, and why they’re not.
Google translate is a must. I’ve only used it once on a scene, but it made the patient smile.
Cargo Decoder has been fun to play with, but I’m really glad I haven’t had the need to test it in the field.
My friends say that they love Epocrates, but I found my browser to be faster to get the same information.
I like using Ringo to personalize everyone’s ring tone.
Ditto on Google Translator. You need a basic calculator app that can also do conversions. I recommend the little tool kit – the level is especially nice. Find My Friends if any of your family has an Android or iPhone (or the “Where’s my Droid” – does that come standard?). A blogging app if it’s available. Kindle app for sure. OpenTable for restaurants outside your usual range. I love Allrecipes. Dictionary.com – yay for word of the day!
The calculator that comes with the HTC is basic, to be nice about it. So far I haven’t found one that I like better. I really need one with % so I can figure out tips in restaurants!
EMS Mobile–Good general basic information for those 2 am calls
Wiser–Similar to Cargo Decoder
Goodle Translate– Can either type words in and translates them or can speak them (English to Whatever language and vice-versa)
ASL (American Sign Language) Sign Language with just the alphabet
Scanner Radio
Non EMS
IMDB–Movies and more
Crackle Movies some tv shows (good for watching while posting)
Draw Something
Dolphin Browser
I Heart Radio
Slacker Radio
Hope this helps and good luck
Thanks, it helps a lot. I got Dolphin already as well as K-9 email. I’m going to check out the others some of them look very interesting. I’ll have to figure out how to blog from the phone too.
How about spell-check? It’s “apps”, not “aps” (although it can be argued that’s where I belong).
Seems it can be spelled either way. Besides, you can put a N in front and it comes “Naps”!
The two i use the most are Google Voice and Stitcher
Readability is pretty good if you want to save some web stories to read offline. I like using it for pages on some medication information so I can have it ready if I need to. The cool thing about it is you can sink it with your computer and send pages to your phone.
I also liked widgets like circle launcher that you can put on your home screen and then launch your favorite apps quickly. There’s a free version.
There are tons of others. There is also a way to get the Amazon app store on your phone and every day they have a free app. You have to go to Amazon and send the link to your phone from their site though. Happy hunting.
NASA has lots of cool apps that you can get from the NASA.gov site. Google Sky app is excellent also.
First things first here… I have to pitch my blog, http://www.unwiredmedic.com, because this is what I do a lot of. I’m quite experienced on Android phones and hacking them too, so I can point you to many resources if you want to make your phone do more than the phone carrier you are using sticks you with (and believe me the phone can do a lot more than they let you). I’m picky about what I allow to remain on the phone, and I hate apps that start themselves without my permission. My phone can do almost as much as my PC, including output the image to a projector or HDMI LCD, so I can present, edit things, design, record, photograph, message with e-mail and social media, play games, and more. Now here’s a list that doesn’t include every app I’d LIKE to have on there since I don’t have enough space on my current Motorola Triumph to run more.
Presently on my Android phone:
* avast! (Free antivirus and if you root your phone, you can get this hard installed into the phone’s core image so if someone steals it and does a hard reset to wipe everything, avast! remains and still lets you track your phone and wipe it remotely or report it – GET THIS DONE FIRST!!! – Don’t forget malware has been proliferative since Android is the #1 most used phone operating system)
* Cerberus (Security app. Some of the function is redundant to avast!, but there are some unique features. 1 week free trial, and sometimes they give pro licenses away after you have the app and create an account, but even still, it’s worth the $5 or so they charge for the pro version.)
* ePocrates
* iTriage
* Gordon Edward’s Scanner Radio
* Tune-In Radio (offers scanner channels and weather radio channels in addition to almost every web-simulcast radio station in the country)
* ConvertPad
* EMS Speak (translation app I’m evaluating)
* Google Translate
* WISER (or you can use the web-based WebWISER
* Evernote (GREAT note taking app)
* SugarSync (syncs your pics and vids, plus any files you designate to cloud storage, so you can get the files back from any computer or mobile device – check my blog for a referral link to sign up if you want)
* Skyscape free apps
* Relief Central by Unbound Medicine
* QRG (Quick Response Guide for hybrid, electric, biodiesel vehicles. See my recent blog post on this)
* QuickOffice Pro (My favorite of all the Office suite apps, and I’ve tried ALL the major ones)
* Amazon Appstore (A free premium Android app every day. Thanks to this, I have a copy of every major office suite app’s premium edition, and some great games come from it too)
* Amazon Kindle (I also subscribe to the RSS Feed from konthecheap.wordpress.com where they send links to free books every day of the week. I must have well over 300 books I can read anytime.)
* B&N Nook (Same people that do the Kindle on the Cheap blog above do this one for Nook: the-cheap.net and I have a few dozen books from this site.)
* Poweramp (I don’t care for the interface too much, but the sound quality beats any other music player – NO CONTEST!)
* Spirit Level (How many times do you wish you had a level so you could put a picture frame on the wall, but either don’t have one, or don’t want to walk all the way out to the shed or garage to get it? You phone can do it too)
* BlueputDroid (makes your phone into a PC mouse or game controller over bluetooth)
* WordPress (app to allow you to post to your EMS Blogs – or any other WP-based – site)
* Barcode Scanner (reads QR codes and regular barcodes)
* CardMobili (takes all your keychain/loyalty cards and digitizes them. Because of this app, I dropped 20 of these cards from my wallet!)
* KeyRing (same as CardMobili – I’m just comparing the two, and this one has a Blackberry, Android, Windows Phone, and iPhone version, so I can move devices and keep the account sync’ed on all)
* PaperCamera (neat photo app that does different designs on your pics than Instagram)
* Instagram (had it in the first couple hours they released it and have it on my iPhone too. It’s okay, but Photoshop is better.)
* Adobe Photoshop Express
* Tricorder (get the one by Ian Cameron Smith – It’s great for psych patients and geek patients)
* Cool Reader (reads any ebook format, including PDF – better than Adobe Reader for Android in my opinion)
* DroidLight (simple but effective. Doesn’t have sirens and programmable secret code flashes like other apps)
* Vlingo (better than Siri for iPhone. You can run the app, then put it in car mode and never touch a button afterwards, and it works over a bluetooth headset. Dial calls, start Navigation app, send text messages, and have it read incoming texts to you).
* StarChart (by Escapist Games – showss youwhat constelations you are looking at, and if you point it at the ground, you can see what constellations are above China)
* AngryBirds and AngryBirds Rio, FruitNinja and FruitNinja Puss In Boots, SuperWhy, Puzzles, and Monkey Preschool for my little boy
* Solitaire
* Mojo NES and John NES Lite (Original NES system emulators – you have to provide your own game ROMS to use)
* Twitter
* Foursquare
* Accupedo (pedometer app that has a widget that shows steps, miles, calories, and time active – Works great!)
* Jason Calhoun’s Quick Apps and System Info Widget (just Google “Jason Calhoun” – System Info Widget can be customized to show status of RAM, memory, SD Card remaining capacity, battery, temperature fo device, sound profiles, reboot button, etc. See my blog about this app.)
* File Manager by Rhythm Software (If you don’t have one native with your phone, and not every Android phone does, this one is good, but there are a couple others that are good too)
* Adobe FLash Player (eh, you can do pretty well without it, now that so many sites have gone away from Flash to use HTML5)
* GPS Altimeter
* Voxer (an IM and PTT communications app)
* I use GingerBreak to “root” my phone so I can have the avast! and Cerberus master controls and someone cannot simply hard reset my phone and wipe out all traces of my ownership.
* Titanium Backup (root required to make this work right. Backs up your phone to SD card and is supposed to give you ability to Freeze bloatware apps that come with the phone so they quit wasting your precious memory and RAM, allowing you to run and save more of what YOU want. Backups are important in case you drop your phone or submerge it in something disgusting and replace it with another. Just move the SD card over and restore your data.)
* Superuser (root required – gives your apps access to restricted parts of the phone so you can change files around, and make administrative changes and customize the phone more.)
* Informed apps like ALS Field Guide would be nice to add, but I just don’t have any more space!
That should keep anyone busy for a few minutes.
Apparently Tricorder was pulled at the demand of the CBS lawyers. I’ve put Avast! on, although I kind of like AVG better. It seems that it will be easier to stay out of trouble with AVG.
Oh, yes, since I know you’re a fan of the 2nd Amendment, there’s an app for USA Carry.
If you drag your phone out for some long-distance shooting, pick up Strelok. It’s a ballistic calculator that will save 3 rifle/scope/ammunition combinations. It even works in ‘airplane mode’, so if you’re so far out in the sticks that there aren’t any cell towers, you can still use it.
The best reason to get strelok is because it will save your zeroing weather separately from the current weather. zeroed at 2500ft 90degF 10% humidity (say, southern Idaho), but shooting at 100/100/100 (Georgia or Texas)? It will figure the adjustments for you.
Neat app. Thanks.