Must Have Android Apps and Games? (Part II)

Discodog

blueser wrote: »

Anyone able to recommend a decent app for tracking the progress of a flight you're on, utilising GPS? Something that could show speed, direction of travel, location at any given point in the trip etc. Thanks.

Would gps work inside a plane ? Flightradar will do most of what you want.

The high horse brigade

Discodog wrote: »

Would gps work inside a plane ? Flightradar will do most of what you want.

Yes if you hold your phone beside the widow, you'll not have data though

blueser

Discodog wrote: »

Would gps work inside a plane ? Flightradar will do most of what you want.

But how do you connect to flightradar when there's no signal (data or mobile) up there?

corkie

blueser wrote: »

But how do you connect to flightradar when there's no signal (data or mobile) up there?

Some flights have on board wifi now, but you probably have to pay through the nose to access it?

https://www.letsflycheaper.com/blog/airlines-that-offer-inflight-wifi-the-definitive-2018-list/

Doge

I haven't recommended an app in a long time but this one was a life saver for me.

Popup Ad Detector
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=popup.ads.detector

About a week ago I was getting popup ads on my One Plus 5, despite no apps running in the foreground.

I even factory reset phone a few days ago for the first time since I bought it, as it was driving me that mad.
And was careful enough about restoring apps that could be the culprit but somehow it snuck through.
The popups came back a while ago and I have this a go.
It has a floating icon shows the icon of the current app running, including your launcher.
So when the ad came up again it showed the icon of the culprit and also has a "tap to uninstall option" along with the name of the app.

I used an app called app watcher earlier in the week but that just shows a list of previously opened apps.

The floating icon with this app is a much better way of quickly identifying the culprit as it shows the active app before brining up the list of recently active apps.

The culprit was "WiFi Password Show Pro" which I downloaded from the Play Store last week.

I was the first to leave a negative review about the background popup service it installs and I reported to google.

For those who are curious or want to debug here's the link to the culprit on the play store,

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.masterwifitools.wifipasswordshow

I presume installing a background app popup service within the apps background service is against the Play Store rules?

Doge

Also forgot to tip my hat to Nova Launcher and it's backup function for restoring my widgets, icon folders and icon layout on the home screen to save me from having to redo it after the factory reset.

It even shows the apps you have not reinstalled as a grey icon and will try to find them on the play store when you click them.

It's extremely clever.

corkie

^^^ Mentioned the popup detector 10 days ago after feedback from another thread. with someone having a similar problem. Good to hear it worked for you as well.

Doge

corkie wrote: »

^^^ Mentioned the popup detector 10 days ago after feedback from another thread. with someone having a similar problem. Good to hear it worked for you as well.

Sorry for stealing your thunder!

I haven't been checking the thread as often as I used to.

Perhaps a sign that these malicious apps are on the rise?

blueser

corkie wrote: »

Some flights have on board wifi now, but you probably have to pay through the nose to access it?

https://www.letsflycheaper.com/blog/airlines-that-offer-inflight-wifi-the-definitive-2018-list/

Wifi?It's mainly Ryanair flights I use. We consider ourselves lucky to have wings!

Idleater

blueser wrote: »

Wifi?It's mainly Ryanair flights I use. We consider ourselves lucky to have wings!

What are you looking to do? Actually track the route or look at the heading, speed altitude etc?

If you want to track, an activity tracker like Strava will do it, if live info, I've an app called GPS test that shows all sorts of telemetry.

the heathen

blueser wrote:

Anyone able to recommend a decent app for tracking the progress of a flight you're on, utilising GPS? Something that could show speed, direction of travel, location at any given point in the trip etc. Thanks.

I often open Google Maps during a flight just to see where we are. It won't give you speed etc but you'll get your direction and location.

Suckit

Shelter

Shelter?
Shelter is a free and open source app that employs the “Work Profile” feature of modern Android phones to provide further control and isolation between apps.
Why should you use this?
Apps inside shelter get a separate virtual file system that is isolated from your primary, where all your apps live. This means any sketchy big brother app you install with Shelter will have its own isolated file system and contacts (As seen in the picture). This is useful where you want to run a critical apps that insist on having storage and contact permission to go beyond the start screen.

Features
Clone two of the same apps and use them at the same time. (Two messenger, Instagram, HULU accounts)
Apps inside Shelter have their own file storage, contacts list.
“Freeze” (disable) background-heavy, tracking-heavy or seldom-used apps when you don’t need them. This is especially true if you use apps from Chinese companies like Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent.

Caveats
Shelter is not a full sandbox implementation. It cannot protect you from:
Security bugs of the Android system or Linux kernel
Backdoors installed in your Android system (so please use an open-source ROM if you are concerned about this)
Backdoors installed into the firmwares (no way to work around this)
Any other bugs or limitations imposed by the Android system. (i.e. If Android chooses to expose some information into the work profile, there is nothing I could do about it)

Also, Shelter cannot create more than 1 work profile on one Android device, and cannot co-exist with any other apps that manages a Work Profile.

blueser

Idleater wrote: »

What are you looking to do? Actually track the route or look at the heading, speed altitude etc?

If you want to track, an activity tracker like Strava will do it, if live info, I've an app called GPS test that shows all sorts of telemetry.

Looking for stuff like airspeed, current location, altitude etc. Nothing too fancy.

John mac

blueser wrote: »

Anyone able to recommend a decent app for tracking the progress of a flight you're on, utilising GPS? Something that could show speed, direction of travel, location at any given point in the trip etc. Thanks.

I use gps test, (free version) shows speed gps location direction of travel altitude etc just need to hold phone close to window..only thing it dosnt do is show you a spot on the globe . just shows lat,long, coordinates .

dougm1970

blueser wrote: »

Wifi?It's mainly Ryanair flights I use. We consider ourselves lucky to have wings!

haha
not often a forum response gives me a laugh like that

corkie

25 temporarily free and 17 on-sale apps and games to start the week






20 new and notable Android apps from the last two weeks including Shoelace, 321FIT, and ruff (6/29/19 - 7/13/19)





16 best new Android games released this last week including Dr. Mario World, The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, and Bananagrams: The Official Game

new2tri19

have an iphone 6 but can’t hear calls coming in great ( which is not great !)
never had an android , was going to buy a new iphone but they arebmad expensive . if i got a cheap android phone could i take my music from iphone to new android ? also does android have youtube / strava /whatsapp?
any recommendations for a phone like iphone but cheaper that can do what i need , i have 30gb of music on iphone that is like to keep and use with wireless headphones , is all this possible for under 250€? thanks

DopeTech

new2tri19 wrote: »

have an iphone 6 but can’t hear calls coming in great ( which is not great !)
never had an android , was going to buy a new iphone but they arebmad expensive . if i got a cheap android phone could i take my music from iphone to new android ? also does android have youtube / strava /whatsapp?
any recommendations for a phone like iphone but cheaper that can do what i need , i have 30gb of music on iphone that is like to keep and use with wireless headphones , is all this possible for under 250€? thanks

You could do it on a budget of half that. Have a look at the Samsung Galaxy A range.

The high horse brigade

Sir Dosser wrote: »

You could do it on a budget of half that. Have a look at the Samsung Galaxy A range.

And also look at the Xiaomi mi A2. I prefer the Xiaomi over Samsung as it's part of the Android One program and gets updates straight from Google
https://www.eglobalcentral.eu/xiaomi-mi-a2-4gb-64gb-dual-sim-sim-free-unlocked-with-3d-curved-premium-tempered-glass-screen-protector-black-edge-black.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjrvpBRC0ARIsAFrFuV8qQkHMArojxxzLEpGgkjlb_Ylc1tqaFOX5gfXhkXtfXDDKcwFUeuUaApQOEALw_wcB

https://goo.gl/search/Android+One
Android One, System software

corkie

Taking another look at SCRCPY, after not using/updating it in over a year.

I know widows is developing 'Your Phone' app, but that requires low energy Bluetooth on both devices for screen mirroring?

Works over adb wifi now as well, so your device doesn't need to be connected by USB.

Note: - If you have adb tools setup up with a path in windows, the copy of it in this folder will conflict with it. Just rename it in that folder.

If you need to turn of your phone display when using it press, CTRL+o in windows while the window is active. Use device power button to turn on display again.

If you put something in the clipboard on your device, you can copy it on to your windows. See the comments linked in the change log.



Was preparing this post to include with a deals post, but it got longer than I thought, so an extra post.

DopeTech

The high horse brigade wrote: »

And also look at the Xiaomi mi A2. I prefer the Xiaomi over Samsung as it's part of the Android One program and gets updates straight from Google
https://www.eglobalcentral.eu/xiaomi-mi-a2-4gb-64gb-dual-sim-sim-free-unlocked-with-3d-curved-premium-tempered-glass-screen-protector-black-edge-black.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjrvpBRC0ARIsAFrFuV8qQkHMArojxxzLEpGgkjlb_Ylc1tqaFOX5gfXhkXtfXDDKcwFUeuUaApQOEALw_wcB

https://goo.gl/search/Android+One
Android One, System software

I'd agree with you about Android one. I prefer it over Samsungs one ui but the cameras are what let's the xiaomis down.

corkie

27 temporarily free and 17 on-sale apps and games for Wednesday

banie01

corkie wrote: »

27 temporarily free and 17 on-sale apps and games for Wednesday

Nice to see simple pro back on offer!
It's the one social media wrapper I keep going back to.

rustledjimmies

Not sure about that ES PRO Manager entry. Looks like a very new app piggybacking on the ES File Explorer name (and cloning the look) which itself is surrounded by controversy and recently pulled from the Play store (along with it's publisher, ES Global - https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/04/27/es-file-manager-vanishes-from-play-store-possibly-part-of-do-global-scandal/)

Testament1

Deleted ES a long time ago in favour of Solid Explorer after someone recommended it here, big fan of it.

Simple Pro is a great tool. So good to browse FB and Insta using a dark theme and zero sponsored bullsh*t ads, get it while you can!

banie01

Testament1 wrote: »

Deleted ES a long time ago in favour of Solid Explorer after someone recommended it here, big fan of it.

Simple Pro is a great tool. So good to browse FB and Insta using a dark theme and zero sponsored bullsh*t ads, get it while you can!

I ditched ES in favour of FX, and I only really use that for the .APK explorer and system tool functions.

Regarding Simple pro, I've used it for a couple of years as my wrapper for FB, Insta and Twitter. Easy setup, great dark mode and plenty of customized options.

IMO it's main competition is Friendly, and it's just not as good I also don't like the way Friendly sets out to tack on Insta and Twitter as chargeable add on apps whereas Simple is just that.


Simple

marcbrophy

Any of these explorers have the network capabilities of ES? Like connecting to dropbox?
That's the one thing I use it for, to sideload apps on Android TV etc!

banie01

marcbrophy wrote: »

Any of these explorers have the network capabilities of ES? Like connecting to dropbox?
That's the one thing I use it for, to sideload apps on Android TV etc!

FX Plus Pro and Total Commander off the top off my head.

FX Plus pro has a 7day trial and is @$3 to buy.
Can't remember how much Total Commander is, for customisation TC probably has more options and plugins available.
If memory serves however it is having issues with OneDrive bit everything else should be grand.

Ps I use FX pro for the same thing on the shield.
Also very handy to allow you to enable any Nvidia region locked apps until next reboot, Vudu, Hulu and so on.
I need to use it to enable BBC and ITV on one of my Shields and it works a treat.

marcbrophy

banie01 wrote: »

FX Plus Pro and Total Commander off the top off my head.

FX Plus pro has a 7day trial and is @$3 to buy.
Can't remember how much Total Commander is, for customisation TC probably has more options and plugins available.
If memory serves however it is having issues with OneDrive bit everything else should be grand.

Ps I use FX pro for the same thing on the shield.
Also very handy to allow you to enable any Nvidia region locked apps until next reboot, Vudu, Hulu and so on.
I need to use it to enable BBC and ITV on one of my Shields and it works a treat.

Cool, I've been looking to ditch ES for years and I will do that for €3 no hassle!

Oh shít that sounds brilliant! Any chance you've a link to a guide on how to do that stuff on shield?
Does it support All4?

The high horse brigade

marcbrophy wrote: »

Any of these explorers have the network capabilities of ES? Like connecting to dropbox?
That's the one thing I use it for, to sideload apps on Android TV etc!

Solid explorer has all of them, I've been using it for years