DROID killer apps

[jducoeur]

baagvai mentioned Pandora as a killer app in the previous thread; I haven't been motivated by that yet, but I've observed two that are making a big difference for me:

-- GMail. I'd been starting to move more of my correspondence towards my gmail account anyway, but the DROID provides a lot more impetus. Getting that little "ring" every time something hits my Inbox means that I notice and respond to email faster than I *ever* have before. I'm suddenly starting to think of the Android OS as Google's sneaky way of getting people much more hooked on its tools. Speaking of which, the real surprise was:

-- Google Listen. This is their podcast client, which I'd been "enh" about initially. I've never really done podcasts seriously: I don't sync my iPod very often, so I never had enough loaded for it to be useful. But doing it directly through the phone makes a huge difference -- it means that I can dive into whatever I want, as I get into the car. (In practice, this most often means that I can listen to Marketplace when I'm driving, regardless of whether or not that happens to be the 6:30 - 7 timeslot.) So now, I'm actually starting to think about what other podcasts I might find interesting and useful, because they're literally to hand. And the sound quality and responsiveness have been astonishingly good so far: Marketplace sounds as good as on the FM, with just a few seconds of buffering to start.

Comments

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

Do you use Google Calendar on the Droid yet?

Gmail has owned my life ever since I found out I can put my mail and my calendar and even documents all in the same place. If there were a way I could have it send audible reminders to my phone, I'd be in heaven.

With all the storage space, it's also become my portable flash drive substitute.

[jducoeur]

Yaas -- the Google Calendar app is quite nice. The UI isn't identical to the Web version, of course (the screen's just too small), but it's close enough to be pretty obvious for anyone who is used to the Web one.

[laurion]

Um, Google Calendar can send SMS reminders to your phone. That's what I do currently. A nice audible reminder.

(Actually I also have gcal sync with my iPod [not iPhone] so I can get reminders there and reference my calendar as well.)

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

My phone is 8+ years old and doesn't do SMS. :) But that's good to know for the future.

(Which will be remedied soon, because there's something rattling around inside it that is causing an electrical short that spontaneously turns the phone off.)

[laurion]

Ah. Mine is only 5 years old (RAZR), so it has all them there bells and whistles. Ok, it did when it came out. I'm just happy it does bluetooth so I can use it hands free in the car.

[laurion]

I'm a complete podcast junkie (it's what led me to hosting one). In practice this has meant syncing the iPod at least several times per week. I've thrown more weight onto the smartphone scales just for the ability to automagically have fresh podcasts.

(If you're looking for suggestions I can give a few)

[jducoeur]

I'd certainly be interested in what you'd recommend: while I doubt our tastes and interests are identical, I'm sure they overlap...

[laurion]

One of the best known out there is Coverville, an all cover songs podcast, but that one is definitely a 'try it and see if you like it' show.

Off the top of my head, there's The Economist, which has different enough material from the print work to be worth checking out. Planet Money is NPR's podcast on the world of economics. You've already found that a lot of the NPR regular shows are available in podcast form. at various times I've had This American Life and Car Talk in there, but now it's mostly Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and the 5 minute news update.

ABC puts out a podcast of Obama's weekly address. I guess in some sense its the modern version of the fireside chat, but not as lengthy.

I have a handful of a cappella podcasts, but I'll gloss over those.

Also, I've been listening to books in serialized form, either from Librivox or from Podiobooks.

And I hope you're already listening to Second Shift.

[jducoeur]

Following up on this:

Coverville is interesting, but their taste doesn't seem to run quite the same as mine -- I've listened to a couple of eps so far (admittedly a small sample) and in every case I really did like the original more. In particular, the covers seem to most often be mellower than the original, and my tastes don't run to mellow. (My favorite-ever cover is the Bangles' version of "Hazy Shade of Winter": a massively kicked-up version from the original.)

The Economist stuff I'm still playing with. It seems to all be a bit too short to be worth really working into my brain, but I'm paying some attention. I hadn't realized that NPR had such a selection of podcasts: I'm slightly intimidated, but it's very cool.

The books are intriguing, but I am actually kinda fond of Audible.

And I actually hadn't even *heard* of Second Shift. Looks neat: I'll have to find some time to listen to it.

Thanks for the pointers -- lots of good food for thought!