I’m not saying they got it perfect, but it’s much improved. They added events, made it look better and all of that.

What’s missing:

• Facebook chat
• Te ability to view tagged photos of me or another person (this one kills me because I can only look at my or other peoples’ albums)
• Tagging photos from the device

So check for an update in the market and see for yourself.

Don’t expect an iTunes/Winamp/Media Player replacement over here. It plays the videos in a ghetto ass java window, and it plays music on your PC in the background (you can’t see it from your computer). Hell you can even install it on your sibling’s computer and mess with him/her.  Anyway, this works well if you’re lazy like me and don’t want to get up.

This app also has a touchpad mode to control your mouse, so you can use it to advance PowerPoint presentations (seems like a waste of phone battery to me, since the screen would need to stay on).

Do I use it all the time? Nope. But it’s something cool to have that works well, especially when I get a new laptop with HDMI out and want to watch stuff on my TV.

Check out gmote.org for more info.

(No screenshot today because I’m lazy. Wanna fight about it?)

Everyone needs to download this Launcher Pro immediately. This isn’t an app. It’s a complete homescreen replacement. What does it do? It pretty much gives you up to 7 homescreens, and replaces the bland app drawer slider with the bottom bar from Froyo. I know I first said that anyone who skins Android is an asshole. That’s still true, but this does not count so I’m not a hypocrite. It is based on Froyo (Android 2.2) and doesn’t redo the icons to look dumb (like HTC sense does).

Take a look at the before and after:

The bar on the bottom is called the dock. In Android 2.1 on the Moto Droid, you only get the app drawer slider. Motorola and/or Verizon stripped out the 3D app drawer and the 5 homescreens that made it in the 2.1 update for the Nexus One.  In Froyo and in Android 2.2, this is standard. If Motorola/Verizon release Android 2.2 without more homescreens and with the same half assed app drawer, I will be super pissed. So along comes Launcher Pro. Take a look at my before and after screenshots above. The screenshot on the right is better because it neatly packs my phone dialer, contacts, app drawer, messaging and browser on the bottom, so I don’t have to have icons for all of those all over my homescreen. See how much more space I have? That vertical slider thing under the app drawer (the checker square thing) tells you what homescreen I’m on.

This homescreen replacement has shitloads of options and you can pretty much customize anything you want. To access options, hit your menu button from the homescreen and click Preferences, which will bring up a settings menu (left screenshot). You can enable the 3D app drawer, change the dock background, lock the background wallpaper from scrolling when you switch screens, add unread message and missed call counts, etc. It also has an expose (that OSX thing where it shows all the homescreens together(see right image). You can backup your homescreens to a settings file on the SD card  and restore them on that phone or another device.

So in conclusion, this probably slows down your phone and uses more battery, but it looks mad good, gives you Froyo looking homescreen and shortcuts and if you have the original Droid, you can add up to 7 homescreens. Epic win in my book.

I will absolutely uninstall this if Verizon’s 2.2 update includes multiple homescreens, a dock and the app drawer. But until then, this made my phone so much more convenient.

To get this bad boy running is a little confusing, since it doesn’t run like an app. Once you download it, press your home button on your phone. It will ask you if you want to “complete action using” Home or Launcher Pro. Check “use by default for this action” then click launcher pro. If you don’t it will ask you if you want to use the native home app or  the custom Launcher every time. To restore this and get your normal homescreen back, you can clear the default by going to Settings–>Applications–>Manage Applications and clicking on Launcher Pro, then clicking Clear defaults. When you press the home screen again, it  will bring up the “complete action using” Home or Launcher Pro option. Check the box and then click Home. OR EASIER – ignore all that babble and just uninstall it.

Download it from the market below (scan it or click the barcode on your phone):

Today’s Android app of the week: City Caller ID. An oldie, but goodie. It’s relatively simple. City Caller ID places the city and state on your incoming call screen sothat you can recognize where a call is originating from.

Not only does it look up area codes, it also looks up the next three digits to narrow it down to a town. This may not be accurate for cell phones, but you get the general idea.

So what stinks about this app? The database isn’t stored on the SD card, so it uses about 3MB even though the app is 100kb or so. I contacted the developer and he said he was going to try to implement it, but got shut down. Still worth the download and install.

This is no longer available on the Android Market because some moron with a software patent threatened legal action against the developer. But I’m awesome and have the APK file for you, so grab it here. (You’ll have to put that on your SD card, go to settings–>applications and check unknown sources, then browse to the file using something like AndroZip or APK Installer and install. Little tricky for the newbies, leave me a comment if you’re confused.

It just needs a few more features to be perfect:

• It needs to scan datamatrix codes
• You should be generate text and share that via barcode (You kind of can but it has to be on your clipboard, since you can share what’s on there)

Other than that, it’s a sweet app.

The only thing it needs to do is read datamatrix. Download it from the Market below (or click the image on your android device)!

You can blame Mr. George Lucas, who has the rights to the name droid from Star Wars. It’s absolutely ridiculous that the name had to change to avoid legal trouble. Jeez.

Anyway, grab a  copy if you have an Android grab a copy of  Twidroyd here. Also, it will be bundled on many phones as a result of this new deal. Enjoy.

Mangler is an open source Ventrilo Client. If you don’t know what Ventrilo is, then it’s pretty useless to you, but Ventrilo is a push to talk voice server usually used by gamers. You usually push a hotkey to transmit and talk to people you’re playing games with. And now I can pop in to see if anyone is connected on the go!

Ventrilo is tricky, because it is closed source and development is very secretive. Someone was making a client for Linux and then this dude decided to port the code to Android. Amazing!

Mangler is in alpha right now and much more features are going to be added later. The fact that it connects, transmits and receives audio – all on 3G or wi-fi just amazes me. Sweet!

What’s missing: Key transmit binding (assign a button on your phone to transmit) and an icon in the notification pane (letting you know that you’re connected to a server). Very minor. The fact that it works is killer.

One catch – it’s not registered in the Android market, so if you want to install it, you’ll have to go to settings–>Applications and check “Unknown sources” to allow the install of non-Market applications. To download it, head over here or scan the following barcode:

Scan this to Download Mangler 1.0-alpha3. You'll have to install it manually

Edit: It’s available on the market now. Search Mangler

This little app is amazing. It connects to your GPS and gives you your live coordinates, a compass, acceleration, altitude, pitch/tilt of the phone and speed. Those little green dots are the actual locations of GPS satellites in the sky.

You can share your location in GMail, twitter or Google Maps. You can also lock in your location and it will help you navigate back to it.

Very simple app, but it’s great for getting your speed and direction in a car or something. It’s also great to see how many satellites are visible / fixed to troubleshoot GPS issues (if it doesn’t connect).

To download, scan the following QR code, or search “GPS status” in the Android Market.