Jim Fitter's Good Android Apps Thread

[jimfitter]

...Get this, plug one end into your OBDII socket and the other into a tablet or netbook, ignition on, read error codes, you're done.

That's a very handy tool, and one I didn't have. Found it offered on Amazon, so I'll have that model in 2 days. I've thought about getting one before, but never followed up on it, nor had a particular model recommended to me. With my daughters now driving their own cars, and my wife with hers, this'll be handy. Thanks plenty for that review, Frank.

Since the subject is for now, laptops in the garage, I just wanted to comment that something as simple as changing a tail light can be daunting, with all the different car models and their lens mountings/configurations. Luckily, we have YouTube. With a little Google search, I can usually find a repair video for the specific car make and model, showing just how to complete that task, and countless others. What a world!

Did you try the Poweramp music player for Android, yet? I now have a Galaxy S5, which supports a 128GB Micro SD. With the large storage I'm able to listen to my CDs in lossless (FLAC) format. Both the phone and Poweramp also support 24bit Hi-rez audio. Huge files, but the depth of the sound is a huge step up from lossy. Whether you're playing MP3 or FLAC, or one of Apple's codecs, Poweramp is still the best Android player I've used.

[Frank Lion]

Since the subject is for now, laptops in the garage, I just wanted to comment that something as simple as changing a tail light can be daunting, with all the different car models and their lens mountings/configurations. Luckily, we have YouTube. With a little Google search, I can usually find a repair video for the specific car make and model, showing just how to complete that task, and countless others. What a world!

Yep, when you see a good 'how-to' vid you really do realise just how poor the written word is as a means of communication.

Did you try the Poweramp music player for Android, yet?

I did and I'm aware that it really is the best out there, but it was overkill for my limited aural requirements.

I went for MX Player for films/vids and it does the job very well. It also has a little known audio output just for mp3. I also use the somewhat clinically named 'MP3 Player' for other audio needs.

Turning to apps, and I'll detail some far more interesting ones another time, ES File Explorer is essential and also allows you to easily root your device, when required.

The next essential is a firewall, partly to stop apps constantly calling home or sending your info to them, but really as a very easy way to control ads. When you look at it, I suppose around two thirds of your apps don't need to access the Net (games, graphics, audio, etc. etc) and if you stop them doing so, then you are instantly no longer plagued by those stupid little banner ads that constantly flash away. There are loads of firewalls out there, but I chose DroidWall as being effective and easy to understand. In addition to allowing your Net apps through, do make sure you allow the kernel and Media server access as well, otherwise things will not go well.

Privacy-wise, then S.S.E. (Secret Space Encryptor) is the one to go for. Even then, a smartphone/tablet will still be far from private/secure in the same way that a desktop OS can be, so bear that in mind.

Returning to the subject of ads, the firewall will rid you of an awful lot of them. As for the rest, there are a number of ways to go...or not. The non-rooted ad-blocking is usually by VPN (virtual proxy network) and is painfully slow.

You then have things like Adblock Plus and Ad Away. The first is known here and the other uses a rooted hosts file method. Both have one thing in common - both use damn long lists that the computer has to read every single time a page is loaded and both slow things down. No, it's not subjective, 'hangs' are what theme writers look for all the time. Just like us, give a computer a long list and it will take time to read it.

I ended up just using my usual, now, 40 line hosts file rooted into /etc. By hitting the just ad (mainly Google) servers this means I don't need 100,000+ line lists of advertisers. The result is that 95% of ads are gone just by using those few lines and slowdown is nil.

A damn dull post I know, but it is important to get that stuff covered and out of the way. More enjoyable apps to come and as a treat for making it to the end, here's one of the best out there - http://www.fireproofgames.com/the-room

Edit - store tv tuner stuff here - w_scan -ft -c GB -M>> /home/user/channels.conf