I told you about dropping my Samsung Propel in the bathtub whilst checking the water temperature, right? Maybe I didn’t but I’m too lazy at this moment to go back and check. I took the phone apart, tossed it in a Ziploc bag full of uncooked rice and crossed my fingers the phone could be resurrected.
The phone DID work but had this fixation with the number three. Ever few seconds, it would spontaneously dial 3 which made leaving voice mails a real bitch.
Favorite Android Apps[1]
Games:
Abduction! – You’re a bouncing cow with a mission to save your herd from the aliens. Really.
Air Horn – Not really a game, per se, but it sure is a heck of a lot of fun.
Paper Toss – It’s exactly what it sounds like. You toss a wad of paper into the trash can. Your nemesis is a fan bent on blowing the paper away from the can.
Steamy Window – You know how you draw pictures in the steam on the mirror after you get out of the shower? Now you can do that on your phone. Blow into the mic to get more steam.
Talking Tom Cat – I despise this app. Cara and Ollie LOVED it. They win. They outnumber me. You talk to the ugly gray cat, it records what you say and then says it back to you except about three octaves higher. You can also pet it and pull its tail.
News and Info:
BBC News, CNET, CNN, Dictionary.com, Drudge Report, Fox Business, Fox News, NY Times, NPR News, TMZ, USA Today, The Weather Channel
[smartads]
Handy Stuff You’re Gonna Want:
Adobe Reader – Every now and then, you find a person who likes to annoy you by making a link a .pdf document. This should help.
Advanced Task Killer – The Captivate “multi-tasks”…kind of. You’re going to end up with a lot of things running on your phone because you’re going to forget they were paused and next thing you know, you’ve got thirty things up and then you’re all like, “WFT?!” Use this app to assassinate stuff you don’t want running. Just uncheck stuff you want to keep alive.
Antivirus Free – Sometimes good phones go bad. This app scans what you’re doing and keeps your phone on the straight and narrow.
Barcode Scanner – Well…it does what it says: it scans barcodes of tons of stuff. This should probably be one of the first things you download. You can also scan these things called QR Codes like this one:
Bubble – Because you never know when you need something level.
Bump – Think “fist bump” but with phones. And you transfer data. Bump your phone and their phone together and you can exchange photos and contacts and all kinds of cool things. Works with the iPhone too.
Fxcamera – Takes your Captivate’s 5mp camera and makes it even cooler. Examples:
Google Search by Voice – You’re too lazy to type in your search. Say it instead.
Photoshop.com Mobile – A pared down version of the real thing. Easy to use.
Ringdroid – Make yourself some ringtones.
Shake – Uninstall – Easy as could be. Open up what you want to kill and then shake the crap out of it while holding search. All gone.
Microsoft Tag Reader – You’ll see Tags a lot in magazines and your barcode scanner doesn’t like them one little bit. Get the Tag Reader so you can access the cool bonus content.
Useful Stuff and Social Media:
The Coupons App – To save stuff as favorites, you have to upgrade but the free app is still pretty sweet. Find all kinds of local stuff and just present your phone to get the discount.
Discount Calculator – For those of us who are mentally slothish when it comes to math.
Epicurious Recipes – Yum! More than 28k recipes at your fingertips. Choose a meal time, a main ingredient or look at the recipe of the day. You can even make a shopping list for whatever you’re making for dinner.
Official Facebook App – Maybe there’s a better Facebook out there but I don’t use Facebook a whole lot and I like this one just fine.
Nook for Android – I have to give Tucker credit for this download’ he grabbed it while he was drooling over my phone. I have been considering the Nook anyway and having the baby version on my phone convinces me I need the daddy version.
Official Twitter App – Again, I’m sure there are probably better apps out there but I’m A-OK with the official Twitter Android app and I have over 6k followers. If the Twitter app can keep up with me, I’m pretty sure it can keep up with you.
Where’s My Droid? – How many times have you turned your phone on silent and then lost the thing? With this app, you set a word you can remember and then borrow someone’s phone and text your number. Silent mode’s switched off and the phone starts ringing. If you use the “donate” version then you can send a text from your computer via email. For full instructions, check out the Where’s My Droid instruction page.
So. There’s my list of apps I’ve downloaded twice now. Twice because I had to wipe my phone about an hour after I got it – I made the mistake of importing all of my Gmail contacts. Don’t do that. Trust me.
Hope this helps when you get your Captivate or whatever it is you get.
Edited to add: If you’re having issues with the Captivate not syncing with Kies, here’s what you do:
- Menu button on the far left
- Settings
- Applications
- Touch “Samsung Kies” – On my phone it’s at the very top.
- Now try to connect your phone to your computer via your USB cable.
Video explanation with sweet stop motion:
- [1]In no particular order↩