Topic: Just got an S4... any must-have apps? (Read 2336 times)

I'll probably dive back in to the Android world in 18 months again, we'll see.  But yes, I wish I would have had a chance to try out the swiftkey keyboard.

For now though, I am quite enjoying the addition of an iPad to my arsenal of electronics, due to the money saved by just using my old iPhone and selling the S4. 

Here's the ultimate battery saving app. I just found it and its already saving me tons of battery life. These smart phones suck power like crack addicts.

Its called DS Battery Saver Pro.

This app simply puts your phone in deep sleep timer. It will wake up after a set period, turn on all network devices, sync, and then go back to sleep after a specified time. So far with this app my phone uses 3% battery per hour, that's 30+ hours with very lite use, waking every 15 minutes to sync.

Unfortunately if you need to answer all incoming voice calls then this app will not work for you.

The issue is that AT&T (and Verison) S4s have locked bootloaders, though an temporary (you need to redo it every time you flash) exploit is available.

I like litecoin widget better than bitcoin widget.
litecoin widget is able to display a whole bunch of coins including bitcoin and it's faster to refresh the price

My must have Apps:

1password
Evernote
Google Authenticator
Waze
K-9 mail (WAY superior to the built-in mail app)
Dropbox
Spotify
Whatsapp
JuiceDefender
Skype
My Bank's app
Smart Tools
Bitcoin Widget
Bitcoinium

It's true that the iPhone keyboard is better than the Samsung one - but Swiftkey (a third party app which replaces the Samsung KeyBoard) is WAY superior to both of them. You can actually fully customize it, it learns the way you write and it pretty much "writes all alone by itself". Plus, on Swiftkey you can set up three preferred languages for the autocorrection, so you do not need to switch between languages when writing. I know many english speakers only write in english, but for many of us who use +3 languages per day is a HUGE advantage.

I think you shoud have given a little bit more time to your Android - it's true that iPhone works pretty good "out of the box", while on the contrary you need to tweak the Android for it to really shine. But, as soon as you have put a little amount to work in it (downloading the widgets that are relevant for you, replacing the keyboard and other apps that control key functions), you will discover a world where "everything is possible", while on iOS you are locked inside Apple's very limited world.

My must-have apps list:

Es File Explorer
Fing Network Tools
Astrid Tasks
Photo Editor
Groove IP
MyWeather Mobile
Adaway
Chrome
Unified Remote (paid)

i switch between browsers depending on how patient i am at the time.

also, i would suggest getting Cyanogenmod flashed to your phone. Its available for Rogers and TMobile versions of the S4, last time I checked. There may be unofficial builds for the other carriers.

Let me know if you get Cyanogenmod up and running on a Galaxy S4 (AT&T)

Someone's got their head on straight. Note: firefox does not use the system proxy setting, so good luck getting it to work over Tor. Chrome does.

redphone

text secure

gibberbot

twidere

fdroid

jitsi(alpha)

k9 email

fire Fox

orbot

Mine too.  That's why I like keyboards that will autocorrect for me, so I can just get in the general area of what I was trying to do and it makes it into what I was actually trying to write.

That's SwiftKey's specialty. Some of the big OEM's should stop trying to make their own crappy keyboards and just make a deal with SwiftKey.
I tend to agree about the speed, but two-thumbing gets tiring more quickly, especially because you're lifting them vertically.

Use your nails, or try swiping.

Wait -- it's possible to type on these things? My big, fat thumbs are always pressing 2-3 keys unless I switch to landscape mode, and then I usually can't see what I'm typing. Whatever happened to those phones with the slide-out keyboards? 

I think I tried a keyboard called "Perfect Keyboard" which was better than the default, but still not great with regards to autocorrection.  If Swiftkey wasn't one of the stock keyboards available, I didn't try it, sadly, as I may have liked it.  Swype is cool and probably fast if you're used to typing on a phone with one hand to begin with.  As it is, swyping could never be as fast as I type with two thumbs, since it only uses one finger and have more traveling time between letters.  Even after I got used to the swype keyboard (it was the one I used the most) and was swyping across words as fast as I physically could, it still doesn't hold a candle to just plain old autocorrected-without-looking thumb typing.

Anyway, yes, agree to disagree.  Obviously, different keyboards are better for one person vs another based on how they type.

Agree to disagree on the keyboard. Having tried the iPhone keyboard, Swiftkey, and Swype (latest beta), I've found that swiping is much faster than tapping, and SwiftKey's AutoCorrect is more accurate than the iPhone's (it will sometimes predict 4 words in advance!)

Edit: yes, no Android phone that I know of ships with a good keyboard.

Agree that the screen is smaller than I'd like it to be on the iPhone, but it's too big on the S4 for some things... I never really decided if I liked the 5" screen size or not.  1080p was awesome, but I couldn't one-hand it across the entire screen like I can on the iPhone.  It's more like using a tablet instead of using a phone.

App store censoring is annoying, lockscreen widgets are cool, I agree, and replacing the battery and storage is awesome.  The downsides just threw me off too much though.  I'll probably try the latest and greatest Android offering in another year and a half, when I am again eligible for an upgrade, and see if I like it.

The keyboard is way better on the iPhone though.  It actually autocorrects properly.    If you do so much as add an extra letter on the S4, it would come up with all sorts of words you didn't want.  The iPhone's autocorrect is just a lot smarter, and means I can type essentially without looking and very quickly, and it almost always comes out how I wanted it to, even though every other letter was mistyped.

You sound like me switching from an iPhone.
"Lots of little things I just really didn't like about it. The keyboard is terrible (there's no way to try even one other), the screen is tiny, the appstore is blatantly censored for political views and there's no way to sideload apps, I can't use lockscreen widgets (or widgets at all), can't replace the battery (useful on long trips), can't expand the tiny storage space with an SD card, no Bitcoin allowed, etc etc. Android does everything I want it to, so I switched to it.

Yep, I really did.  Lots of little things I just really didn't like about it.  The keyboard is terrible (all of them), the screen is very hard to see in sunlight, some apps are $10 or $20 on Android while free on iOS, I can't go from the lock screen straight to taking a picture, taking a screenshot of the phone didn't work 80% of the time, etc.  The iPhone just does everything I want it to do except Bitcoin (hopefully more support in that area will come soon), so I switched back.

Useful

Falcon - lovely twitter widget.

Miner status - keep an eye on your mining rig.

Barcode scanner - for all your QR and UPC needs.  Nice feature is that it will de-shorten URLs for you, so you can see where you're going before you go there, which is essential with the QR-driven malware going around.

FBreader - Nice featureful epub, etc. reader

Realcalc - nice scientific calculator

Battery Snap - nice battery stats app, with an informative widget

Android Terminal Emulator - Use your shell.  Useful for various purposes.

Busybox - Full set of real shell tools for above terminal.

DNSchanger - Hand your carrier a bit less information about your activities

Droidwall - Pick and choose what apps get to use the internet and when.

Catlog - Logcat reader.  Essential for bug reporting.

GPS Status & Toolbox - Gives you additional details on your GPS status

MinFreeManager - Tweak the values for the low memory killer, either to keep more RAM free or keep apps from being killed when you don't want them gone.

Silent Toggle widget - Quick one-touch widget to toggle between normal, vibrate, and silent.

SpeedHud - Speedometer and trip logger.

SuperSU - More full-featured superuser manager

To Do List Widget - Exactly what it sounds like.  It's a simple and convenient to-do list.

VLC for Android beta - It's VLC on Android.  Still has some bugs, but is steadily improving.

Amusing


Soundhound and/or Shazam - Never wonder what song is playing again.

Coloreye - Identifies colours by Pantone name and RGB hex.

It's 5 o'Clock Somewhere - And now you know where exactly.

Simple Moon Phase Widget - Tells you the current moon phase and gives a calender of the phases.  Nice for werewolves or the curious.

Feels so good to finally get rid of the Itunes closed-shit, right?