Apps you can't live without?

As you might have noticed if you've been on the Play store, its celebrating one year since the renaming and rebranding of the Android marketplace. To celebrate, Google has launched a sale across its movies, books and apps, which is a bit of a letdown to say the least. There's not much on there that's enticing or new in terms of sales. It's basically an EA sale at the moment, one that happens every now and again and I really hope that more apps are added otherwise this will be the worst promotion they've done, period. It's also quite difficult to find what's on sale as there doesn't seem to be somewhere on the Play store where all these promotions are collated. You can check out the 'sale' here.

Since we're on the topic of apps, I always wonder what apps other people have that they think are 'must haves'. I mean the ones that you can't do without and quite unique in what they do. I have quite a few, with the most used app on my phone being Whatsapp, if you don't know what it is then either you've been living under a rock or you have no friends (sorry!), or both. I think the next most important app I have is Titanium Backup but this one is only for rooted users and if you're rooted then you've probably heard about it and what it can do. I guess most of my 'must have' apps are some of the most popular on Android so here's a few gems which I think people could definitely do with:

• mSecure
• AirDroid
• CurrentWidget
• Endomondo PRO
• Kingsoft Office
• Plume

mSecure

Store all your important data in this app, be it credit card details or website passwords. You can even create complicated, random passwords that the app can store for various websites so you can rest easy in the knowledge that your password is very strong and you don't have to remember it as it's stored, fully encrypted mind, on your phone. Instead of having to remember all your passwords for various websites, you only need to remember the password to access the app! Bear in mind you, if someone manages to guess this password then all the information stored is at their mercy. If your password is strong enough you can at least be assured that no-one can access the data stored on mSecure even if your phone is stolen or lost.

AirDroid

A very neat, simple app that allows you to access many of your phone's functions over wifi. You can send text messages, check your phone log and access your media and files and transfer files to and from your phone to your PC/Laptop. It's a feature rich app that you have to try to understand where the reviews are coming from and I think once you've tried it, this app will definitely remain on your phone. One drawback if you plan on using this app for transferring files is that you have to accept the slower transfer speeds compared to connecting your phone up using a USB cable so I wouldn't plan on transferring movies or your music library just yet using this method. For the odd files here and there though it does save you the hassle of connecting your phone up every time or trying to use Dropbox/Google Drive. 

CurrentWidget

This is a bit of a niche app, but I think a lot of people have come across a time when their phone hasn't been charging as quickly as it usually does. This clever widget can tell you what current your phone is accepting when charging so you can see whether your phone is charging normally or not. If it's not, you usually need to unplug your phone from the charger and just plug it back in. If this doesn't solve your issue you might have to change your charger or there could be a more serious problem. Either way, this phone is very useful for isolating the cause of why your phone is charging slowly.

Endomondo PRO

Do you do any sort of distance sports? If yes, then the chances are Endomondo can track your progress when your training. I do a lot of running and use it very regularly, it provides invaluable data when you're training and helps you to train with different modes such as interval training. The best part of the app in my mind is that you can make an Endomondo account online and view in depth how you work out and view all the data the app has collected. I haven't come across another app that does what Endomondo does anywhere near as well or as efficiently. It's definitely one that you must have if you do distance based training of any sort.

Kingsoft Office

One of the best mobile Office suites I've been able to find and it's free! It really doesn't get any better that this, I've tried both free and paid Office apps but none of them are as functional as this or as easy to use. I use this day to day and have slowly started removing my other Office suite apps as I've always kept a few on my phone just in case I want to use a feature that one of them didn't have. It doesn't feel like this with, I can do everything I need to do and do it well and on top of that, it can read PDFs. Perfect, well near enough.

Plume

For Twitter users only! This app is one of the best Twitter clients on the market in my opinion. We've lost quite a few Twitter apps recently owing to the ridiculous 100K user token ceiling that some apps have hit. But that aside, I've found Plume to be a very clean, efficient Twitter client that is much better than the official Twitter app (then again most 3rd party clients are) and competes very well with other Twitter clients on the market. I especially like the design of the app and how easy and intuitive it is to use. 

I'm sure there are a lot of apps that are vital to other users, let me know what your 'must have' apps are and your reasons why.

Mo

Android and battery life - not a lost cause yet.

How long does your Android powered smartphone last with a full charge? My guess is that no more than a day, maybe two at a big stretch. Hell, I don't think people who claim their phone lasts two days are using it enough! My phone is currently sat here on 22 per cent battery remaining and I've only used it for nine hours. To be fair, I've used it for a run amongst a lot of other things today so this is a bit of a special case. Usually it does last me the whole day without any problems.

In my mind, I think a lot of people are missing out on decent battery life because of ignorance. Not to say I blame them, finding out why your phone doesn't last too long after a full charge isn't easy, but it's not that difficult either. I'll explain what I mean and how I try to extend my phone's battery life.

Background apps

First, let's talk about how your phone is inadvertently draining without you even realising. How many applications do you have installed on your phone? How many of them are running services in the background that you're aware of? The chances are that you don't know, or you do but only to some extent. The easiest way to check is to have a look in the phone settings, then click on 'Applications Manager' and scroll to the right to have a look at the running applications and services. Take a look at the list and see if any of them surprise you. Every widget you have on your phone's launcher (the thing you see when you press the home button) will constantly run in the background, after all it needs to since it's an interactive widget and if it didn't then nothing would happen when you tap on it. Strip them away and what else is left? There could be some applications which you didn't expect to run in the background. These are generally the ones to look out for as they can cause extra battery drain. Usually you can open up the application that is running in the background and adjust the settings so that it desists from doing so, at the cost of maybe giving you push notifications. If some applications don't have the option to stop running in the background or you think they shouldn't be, then I would suggest getting in touch with the developers and/or removing the app. Most apps shouldn't run in the background unless they're giving you something back.

Extending battery life

Now lets talk about ways to save battery life, I alway see posts on forums on how to do this but most of the time they're just a bit over the top and generally limit the functionality of your phone. For example, using 2G (Second generation) network rather than 3G/HSDPA (Third generation/High-speed downlink packet access). What is the point of having a fast data connection and smartphone if you're going to limit yourself to technology first introduced in 1992? I'm going to try to be different, I'm not going to tell you to put your phone in airplane mode until you need to make a call or anything like that. Instead I suggest using Tasker and Juice Defender (Standard and Ultimate combined) to come up with ways of saving battery when you are definitely not going to use your phone. Both of these applications are on the Play Store and they are very powerful tools, although Juice Defender unfortunately seems to be lacking updates at the moment.

Match made in heaven 

Starting with Tasker, you can set it to disable auto-sync, turn off data connectivity or reduce screen brightness (amongst a whole host of other things) to its lowest level during certain times of the day to save battery. Most people sleep during the night (hear me out before you say anything!) and don't need their phone to retrieve emails and other notifications. So instead of disabling auto-sync at night or turn off data manually, you can make a profile in Tasker that does it automatically, say between the hours of 12 midnight and 8 in the morning, every day. This saves a lot of battery and you'll find your battery hasn't drained nearly as much during the early hours as it would have done otherwise. You can also set an end task so that Tasker enables auto-sync at the end of the time period so the next day you'll get push notifications. I used to use this to save myself some battery during the night until I started using Juice Defender and Tasker combined.

Juice Defender by itself can save you a lot of battery, but if you're like me and always on your phone you might find it a little annoying especially when it comes to applications like Whatsapp. I've resorted to using Juice Defender while I'm asleep instead of all the time. Tasker is able to enable/disable Juice Defender so you can set up a profile in Juice Defender and then let the two apps do all the work at night. You can set Juice Defender to do a lot more to save battery with a lot more ease compared to Tasker alone so these two apps make a perfect couple for saving battery.

Wrap up

I've only scratched the surface of the functionality of these two apps and how to save battery but it's definitely a start. I've also tried to keep this guide for non-rooted phones as everyone can benefit this way. Have a play around with both of the apps until you get the hang of them and take control of your phone and it's battery usage! There's a bit of a steep learning curve but you'll be so happy once you've passed it.

Apart from this, there are other way of reducing battery drain but I don't believe in reducing your phone's functionality for more battery. Like I said before, it defeats the purpose of having a smartphone in the first place!

Mo