Loving it more and more...

The more I use my Droid the more I love it. I wish the touch screen was as responsive and smooth as others, but I can deal.

We all have our favorite features and apps so here is a quick run-down of mine:

Features:
- Folders : Nice for a clean screen but quick access
- Photo Frame widget : I *love* having pics of my family right there for quick easy viewing.
It helps put a smile on my face throughout the day.
- Touch Hold Home : Quick access to last 8 apps used...very handy!
- WiFi : My cell service is awful where I live. The WiFi is the only thing saving my sanity.
If only it would connect faster.

My favorite apps:
- MobileOrg : Requires Emacs+OrgMode on the desktop, but very handy for read-only. Syncing with
the SD card saves my butt since SSL with untrusted CAs is an issue for Droid.
- Battery Level Widget : I love numbers and not just "levels"
- Voice Memos : Quick, easy, efficient, handy, simple.
- Meebo : IM
- Seesmic : Twitter, can handle multiple accounts.
- Pandora : Streaming music
- Barcode Scanner : Love it can read QR codes as well.
- c:geo : Geocaching on the go
- PowerVocab : Better than I thought and useful if you're also into...
- Wordfeud : Addictive. Start a game with me!
- ConnectBot : SSH for Droide. AWESOME!!!!
- Power Widget : Quick and handy for turning Wifi/GPS/Brightness on/off
- Frodo C64 : C'mon, with a name like C64Whiz, how could I not?
- C64 ASM Live Wallpaper : See previous comment.
- JobTracker : Fun when walking and I love it computes calories burned. Unfortunately it
makes quite clear I'm not exercising enough!
- Thinking Space : Mind Map software compatible with Freeplane and Freemind. I use email to
transfer them from desktop to Droid.
- PhillyD App : Entertaining. Now if only Shane Dawson's would be ported to Android.

These aren't all the apps I have, but these are my default installs. And BTW, they're all FREE! Do you have any favorite, not well know apps? I'm always looking for little gems. Take care...

--C64Whiz

Quick Desktop View

Did you know on Android v2.2 if you touch and hold the bottom of the
screen where your quick icons (phone, apps, browser) are located you'll
get 5 pop up screens. Tap on which one you want instead of sliding
screens left or right or even multiple taps on the corner dots. Enjoy!

--C64Whiz

Stand Alone Contacts

I don't know about you, but I like having contacts on my cell phone.
However, on the Droid the contacts get sync'd with Google contacts.
This means the information (sometimes private) is not stored on Google
servers. I'm not saying Google is not secure, but they've had problems
in the past and some information I'm just not willing to risk.
Unfortunately I've had difficulty finding a contacts app which still
provides the ability to tap a phone number or email address in order to
call or email that person.

Well, it turns out a solution exists which uses built-in functionality
of the phone but requires me to get my contacts into an HTML file. In
short, I generate an HTML file, get it onto my phone (usually the SD
card), and then use a browser to view the HTML file. The browser even
has the ability to identify phone numbers (xxx.xxx.xxxx or xxx-xxx-xxxx)
and email addresses (xxxx@xxxxx.xxx). Tapping on them results in making
a call or composing an email. However it appears to require the Astro
File Manager to be installed.

To transfer my HTML file(s) of contacts, I prefer just emailing them to
whatever email address you've setup for your phone. Personally, I use
K-9 Mail so it allows me to save the attached files.

Once on the SD card, I use a special URL to access the file in the
browser. Assume the file is called "contacts.html" and is stored on the
SD card in the root directory. The URL is:

content://com.metago.astro.filesystem/sdcard/contacts.html?text/html

I even created a shortcut, of a bookmark, so I can access this file
directly from my home screen. One thing however, when I tap on the
shortcut on the home screen, I get presented with 3 options:

Dolphin Browser
File Editor
HTML Viewer

The default browser that came with the Droid is not listed. This may be
because I have Dolphin installed.

Once viewing the file, you should be able to tap on phone numbers or
email addresses and be taken to the appropriate app.

Enjoy and let me know how you do!

UPDATE: I uninstalled Dolphin and Astro to see if things would still
work. They did not. I was still able to view the file with "HTML
Viewer" (I had a simpler file manager installed) but that must be from
yet another app I have installed. No "URL" was shown and nothing came
up on the Settings menu. Which means no easy way to access the file.

Next, I installed Astro only. Went into Astro and tapped on my
"contacts.html" file. Now only 'File Editor' and 'HTMLViewer' were
options. Still not the default browser. Worse yet, the HTMLViewer
didn't allow the recognition of phone numbers and email addresses.

However, from my initial setup above, I still had the bookmark in the
default browser. When I went *into* the default browser app and then
select the bookmark with the "content..." URL, I *was* able to view the
file in the browser. Furthermore, phone numbers and email address
*were* recognized. Unfortunately, the shortcut on my home screen (to
the bookmark) still only resulted in "File Editor" and "HTMLViewer" as
possible applications to open the file. Go figure.

So it seems to have an icon on your home screen to take you to a
browser, Astro and Dolphin (maybe an alternative) ought to be installed.
Otherwise, you still need Astro but would then need to launch the
browser application *then* select your bookmark.

Enjoy!

JogTracker - One Fine App

If you walk, jog, or bike <a
href="http://www.jogtracker.com/">JogTracker</a> is a nice little app to
keep track of distance, calories, time, and even maps of your ride. You
can even upload your trips to their web site and have friends linked up.
The app is free and I find it inspiring me to walk more often just to
see how many calories I burn, how far I walked, and have a map of where
I walked. Give it a shot and feel free to add me as a friend.

Bad Looking Posts

Just wanted to apologize for the poor looking posts. Due to constraints
at work, I do my posting from a mail client and formatting is pretty
bad. I'll clean them up when I can.

Clearing All Calendar Data

I recently loaded a ton of data into my calendar via "ICS BOT" and hated
it. Wanting to clear the entire calendar, I found this post on <a
href="http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid/32744-how-delete-all-calendar-entries-droid.html#post233218">Android
Forums</a>. Then it turns out some one else figured out how to expand
the applications list to <a
href="http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid/32744-how-delete-all-calendar-entries-droid.html#post1128254">include
all apps</a> and not just downloaded ones.

Worked like a charm. All entries gone!

My New Droid

So I just got a new Motorola Droid and have been learning quite a bit.
I figured what better way to share the info than to start a blog. So
here you go. Enjoy, comment, provide feedback, and learn.