1. SwiftKey

Although SwiftKey is not the app on this list that I use the most, it is one that I have come to value the most. The keyboard of your Android device is always going to be one of the most used apps and it’s important to have a good one. I’ve gone through a  lot of keyboards through the years and finally settled on SwiftKey. With the recent swipe  functionality that was added, it has great prediction and easy typing.

SwiftKey in action

2. Relaunch

Although I have nothing against the stock Android Launcher, or any other launcher for that matter, the part that always has annoyed me is the need to open the Launcher, or “home”, just so I can open another app. It’s inconvenient. Enter Relaunch.

Yes, Relaunch is also a launcher but not along the lines of ADW, Nova, Go Launcher EX and the likes. Relaunch works differently. Basically you touch the side of either side of the screen and an icon based menu pops out. You drag your finger to the category got are looking for and then to the actual app icon. Once you release the icon, your app launches.

The beauty of Relaunch is that it is available from any app, from any screen. So, if you’re in the middle of surfing the web, you can immediately jump to your email, Google+ or whatever the app may be. You can completely skip the home screen. In fact, I have found that as a result, I rarely use the home screen for launching applications, I primarily use it as a data aggregator (which you will understand more in the next item).

3. Chameleon

Chameleon is, just like Relaunch, a launcher. However, it’s also more than that. It is truly a home replacement. Chameleon started out as a Kickstarter project that after being funded eventually reached Google Play and the Android masses. Reception has been mixed, to say the least, primarily I think because of what appears to be a very slow development and release schedule. Chameleon is also pretty buggy still.

Regardless of its faults, I love Chameleon. I guess you can say that Chameleon is a contextual launch. The Chameleon team puts it this way:

“[Chameleon] is designed to give you the most relevant information that you want, when you want it.”

What this means is that depending of time and location, Chameleon will change it’s layout to fit the circumstances. During the day, you may have work related information while at night, it’s all about social networks.

Chameleon is not without its fault but it’s a lot more appealing the any of the other “standard” launchers.

4. DigiCal

The calendar app on the Samsung that I have is one that I do not like. So, in an effort to find something more Holo-inspired, I went looking for a replacement and pretty quickly found DigiCal.

DigiCal is a very competent replacement for stock or OEM calendar apps. It fits well with the Holo UI scheme, it’s smooth and well, it just works. In my opinion, one of the better calendar apps out there.

5. DropBox

With the cloud becoming more and more important, Dropbox is a must. Being able to store, sync and access the files I want on any devices that supports Dropbox is so liberating. I love that, as I did just today, was able to pull up a logo I created at home on my home computer directly on my Android phone and show someone else interested in something similar. I didn’t have to go back home, dig around for the file, send it to them etc. Very convenient. Not to mention that the Ubuntu client works flawlessly. A must have.

6. Google Drive

If you have Dropbox, do you need Google Drive? Well, good question. I think the answer is yes. In fact, if Google had an Ubuntu app that was able to sync as Dropbox does, I’d drop Dropbox in a heartbeat. The beauty of Google Drive is that any documents created using Google Docs are saved on there. Documents can be stored, shared, emailed etc. from Google Drive. Your photos from Google+ now also resides in Google Drive, bumping the space of Google Drive to 15GB.  If you are an Android user, using Google Drive definitely makes sense.

7. WunderList

There are tons of to-do lists available on Android. Throughout the years, I have tried many of them. I just never found one that really stuck with me. Until Wunderlist. The thing I like about Wunderlist is that it’s available on Android, it’s available as a Chrome app, it’s available as a Windows app. It’s ideal for keeping track of all kinds of things but for me, it just happens to work well with the work I do and that ultimately is why I’ve kept using it.

8. WordPress

Obviously, I blog now and then and although I rarely blog from my Android devices, the recent updates to the WordPress app has made keeping track of visitor stats, comments etc. much, much easier. With three sites running on WordPress, the WordPress app is a great way to manage these various sites without always having to login using a computer. If you use WordPress, the Android WordPress app is a must.

9. Contacts+/Dial+/Message+

Really a trio of apps, Contacts+ replaces your contacts, dialer and messenger app. The primary reason I was drawn to this combination was the messenger app. With the popup window for incoming messages, it’s a very convenient way to respond to messages, regardless of what you’re doing. There are of course other apps that does the same but the trio of apps in this suite just creates a uniform user interface that I really like. Is it the best option out there? Probably not but I like it.

10. BeyondPod

For many years, I used the podcast player Google supplied (can’t remember what it was called). Recently, I was introduced to BeyondPod and when I found it, I saw no reason to look further. It’s got a great interface, search functionality, the ability to add external feeds and so on. If you have any interest in podcasts, BeyondPod is worth the price.

Stay tuned for part 2 of my top indispensable Android apps!

Those who consider themselves gamers have without a doubt followed the recent announcements of the PS4 and the XBox One with interest. Sony put a ton of software and games on display while Microsoft gave us a view of the physical console but much less in the form of software. Beyond all the hardware specs and games, a burning question has been brewing for a while now. Well, in all honesty, there are several but one in particular that hit me just tonight: always-online.

The always-online concept is simple: in order to operate your console, or at the very least play any games, your console always has to be connected to the Internet. Naturally, this gives rise to all kinds of concerns, whether you are a privacy buff or just live in a cabin in the woods with no Internet connection.

The thing that struck me as I was thinking about this tonight was that although we may not be quite aware of it yet, the always-online concept is already creeping into the gaming world from a perspective I hadn’t considered before: mobile gaming.

In all honesty, I may be completely behind the curve on this one and perhaps I just need to wake up and face reality. Perhaps all of you already realized this long ago. Regardless, I guess I just woke up.

So, let me get back to where I was going with this blog entry. Considering that summer just decided to come visit us here in Alaska, we’re of course busy planning camping trips etc. Although the great outdoors and enjoying the good weather is much of what we like to do here in the summers, once in a while some gaming comes in handy, especially on long trips.

Knowing that at least one trip is not that far away, I decided to take a look at some of the games on my tablet, to see which games will I be able to play even if I for some reason find myself without a wifi connection.

I was dismayed at what I found.

As of today, here are some of the games I play with some regularity, even if it’s just once or twice a week.

• Real Racing 3
• The Simpsons Tapped Out
• World at Arms
• Train Crisis
• Emergency
• Angry Birds
• Fester Mudd
• Total War Battles

Of the above, the top three are on my more frequent list of games. To my dismay, I found that neither Real Racing 3, Tapped Out or World at Arms are playable without an Internet connection. RR3 insists that it needs to download 1MB of something, Tapped Out blames me for not having a connection and World at Arms also requires connectivity.

The rest of the lot seem fine. So, in my particular case, three of eight games could not be played on the road. See what I’m getting at here?

While we wring our hands about consoles that may need to be connected all the time, or once a day, or once a month, the games on our smartphones and tablets already have started moving in that direction. Often, we may not even notice because these devices are connected anyway for surfing, email, IM, Facebook and whatever else.

I guess my question is: are we making a big stink about something on our consoles while inadvertently supporting it on our mobile devices? You tell me.

Tall Tech Tales has been around in one form or another for several years now. It’s always been geared towards technology, such as mobile tech, Ubuntu, gaming etc. Lately, with much of my life now involves my beautiful kids, my focus has changed a little bit. Although I tend to continue this blog, I’ll be focusing a bit more on parent-related stuff, specifically Android apps that are helpful to parents and Android apps that are great for kids.

With that, I’m introducing The Android Parent. Available at http://www.androidparent.us, it will focus on apps related to parents and their kids. There will be news, reviews and some tutorials. Who knows what else. Of course, being a parent, writing on TAP or TTT will only happen as there is time so keep that in mind. It won’t be an everyday regular flow of news and articles.

Having said that though, you’re welcome to head over there and visit.

Why? For some reason, Google goofed the news.

If you use Google News, you know that on the right hand side are usually a few links to local news. In my case, that’s Anchorage. I usually take a peek at these headlines too, even though I get more by looking at the local sites. Here’s what I saw (click images for larger version):

In the lower right side column, you can see the yellow highlighted link related to Palin’s hockey rink. Ok, so nothing odd about that, right? Sarah Palin is from Alaska, it’s not surprising to see her in a headline related to Alaska. One thing to note is that supposedly this article was updated 19 hours previously.

I click on the link and I’m taken to the article shown in the screenshot below. Again, nothing odd, just another article. Until you get to the 4th paragraph, where it talks about Sarah Palin now being the running mate of John McCain.

At this point, I had to read the article over again. Then, I started looking for the date. When was this article written? Note the date circled in red. September 6, 2008.

What?

Yep, an article from September 6, 2008, showed up in the news feed of my Google News. Imagine that. Oh, and if you’re interested in the original WSJ article, click here.

The next question: how in the world did that happen?

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing bad about these articles. At least, I don’t think so. They’re a good and useful guide to have to assist with a new adventure for those that never before have used Ubuntu. For the rest of us, it’s a gentle reminder to remember to do those things…again.

So, I’ll throw my hat into the ring as well and offer up my own list of apps I’ll be installing after my installation of 13.04.

Why? Simple: my list is never the same as what I see on the official sites and someone else might find this interesting too.

1. Third-party codecs
2. Chromium
3. GIMP
4. Dropbox
5. Friends
6. Polly
7. VLC
8. Banshee
9. Filezilla
10. NixNote
11. Bluefish
12. Eclipse + Android SDK
13. Shutter
14. Play On Linux
15. Virtual Box
16. Steam

As you can see, 16 apps made the list of apps that will be downloaded first. There are a number of other apps also in the queue, but the above are the ones that I’ve already downloaded or will be downloading this weekend to at least partially get back to where I was before I upgraded. For those interested, most of the above apps are available through the Ubuntu Software Center.

What apps are you installing right away that may not be on the typical top 10 list?

The Installation

My upgrade path this time around was a bit different than previously. I’ve been doing upgrades to existing installations for the last couple of years. Hearing the good reviews for 13.04, I decided it would be a good opportunity to do a fresh install and start over without some of the junk accumulated in config files and other mysterious places.

The install was simple. I popped the DVD in my drive and went through the steps. I can’t recall how long exactly it took but everything went fine. I think the only unclear piece during the installation phase was the selection of what wireless network to use. That step doesn’t say specifically to double-click the network you want to connect to so that created a few moments of confusion. Otherwise, piece of cake, like most previous Ubuntu installations.

First Impressions

First of all, I noticed booting was definitely faster compared to my 12.10 installation. I can’t say whether that’s related to just a one release difference or the difference between multiple incremental upgrades compared to a fresh install.

Second, once I got to the desktop I saw with my own eyes what everyone else has been saying all along: Ubuntu 13.04 and Unity in particular is significantly faster than it was on my 12.10 installation. Not only is the Unity Dash faster when it comes to appearing but search results are also much faster. In 12.04 and 12.10 I had to turn down some of the graphical effects to make it usable. In 13.04, I haven’t had to do that (at least not yet). That in itself was worth the upgrade.

The third part I noticed right away was that seeing and connecting to shared network drives worked without me having to do a thing. I think that previously, I mucked up the network share piece in one way or another and it just never worked right. Considering that I keep a lot of stuff on network drives, this was welcome news.

I am now at the point of reinstalling software, copying data I really want on my computer back to the computer and in general trying to get back to the point where I was at. I’m also busy performing the 10 Things to do after installing Ubuntu 13.04. Of course, I have my own take on what apps are really needed beyond that and I’ll address that in the next post, in the next few days.

Overall, after using 13.04 less than a full day, I like what I see. It’s by far the most polished release so far. Well done to all of those that put time into developing 13.04.

As you may have read in my last post, I have decided to go with a fresh install this time around. However, before I can even contemplate installing anything new, and much less from scratch, I need to backup everything I’ve collected over the years. Fortunately, i began that process last week as part of my home media server project but I realized today that even with backing up hundreds of GB, and I still had about 40GB in my /home folder that I really had no idea what it all was. I after further investigation I found a smattering of cache files, leftovers from software I no longer use and so on. What was left over I’ve started copying to an external drive for easy access once the new install is done. Which reminds me… I should probably copy my fstab file somewhere as well so that I can easily setup my network drives again.

With the backup in it’s second hour of copying I think I’ll call it a night and pick up with the actual install tomorrow night.

My next project? Upgrading to Ubuntu 13.04. I’ve been doing upgrades since one of the 11.xx releases, perhaps even 10.xx, I can’t remember for sure. Over the years, I’ve noticed that my system has been filling up with junk and I’ve decided to do a clean install. So, I’m currently in the middle of moving music, photos, movies and other important things to external harddrives. Then the adventure starts again when 13.04 is release.

The other project I’m in the middle of is setting up an old computer as a file/media server. The number of photos, music etc. is becoming too large for me to keep on one computer and with my wife getting into photography, for us both to have access to the photos I need them in a central location. I’m using Ubuntu 12.04 for this project, simply because it’s a LTS release.

I’ll have more on this in the next few weeks as well as I get everything working as I want it to.

Now, back to copying files…

If you’re interested in trying out what’s currently out there, check out this XDA-Developers thread:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2168473

As of the most recent posts, there is now a working version for the TF101. I haven’t read through the whole thread yet so I would strongly recommend you do so to ensure you’re not missing something important.

As for me, I think I’ll hang on a little longer before I load Ubuntu onto my TF101. I use it too much at the moment for that. I will, however, investigate using it on one of my many phones…

If you try it, I’m curious to know how well it works.

Update: Quite a few additional devices are now supported thanks to the developer community. Here’s the link:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Devices#Work_in_progress

First, www.transforumerforums.com is where I started. The following post regarding the TeamEOS 4.2 ROM really contains everything you need to root your TF101, load a customer recovery, find the ROM etc. The only thing I skipped were steps 2 and 3, mostly because I wanted to start fresh (#2) and the initial instructions I followed didn’t say anything about the upgrade in #3. Otherwise, it’s all there. Here’s the actual link:

http://www.transformerforums.com/forum/asus-transformer-tf101-development/33773-official-faq-teameos-4-android-4-2-x-tf101.html

Another useful site is XDA Developers. Here’s another link that I found useful:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2063406

There are two things I would say you need to do:

1. Read, read, read! Make sure you understand what you are doing and you know what your next step is.

2. Don’t blame me or anyone else if you screw it up. That’s the disclaimer. If you flash your TF101 with a custom ROM, you are ultimately responsible.

Finally, like I said in my initial post about upgrading my TF101 to Jelly Bean, it’s absolutely worth it.

Let me know how it goes and I’ll share the longer version at some point later when I have time to finish it.