Following yesterday’s post about my new toy, this one is about some of the applications to make it go. It will be fairly brief because I haven’t had a lot of time to explore, but the main aim is to provide a space for reader’s comments, so if you have an Android app you like, please leave a comment and let us know about it.
Office Stuff
- “Docs to Go” reads MS Office documents and pdf files. I upgraded to the “pro” version for about $14, which allows editing, jump to a page number in a pdf file, see more than the first sheet of a spreadsheet and various other enhancements. I’m happy with the pdf reader, but the Office readers are disappointing. Word files are wrapped to fill the screen for any zoom level, and many graphics appeared as black boxes. In Excel the text is displayed reasonably well, but it seems it doesn’t display charts at all.
- E-cell xls Pro: Display also disappointing with no charts, and the text formatting shown much less accurately than Docs to Go. Editing text does seem easier though. Both Excel programs offer no VBA support.
Other stuff:
- Gallery – the built-in image file viewer, works very nicely, fast and good resolution with a very intuitive interface.
- Barcode scanner – scans all sorts of barcodes, worth the free download if only to scan bar-code links to other applications.
- Cam scanner – scanned documents from camera images. Didn’t work well on the one I tried, but maybe the Acer camera just isn’t up to it. I’ll try it with some images from my SLR some time.
- Convert pad – nice unit conversion program. Very easy to use and fairly comprehensive. I just wish I could copy and paste into Excel easily.
- Autocad WS – this is very nice, you can upload Autocad drawings and view and edit them, all from your browser. Just requires a free account set up.
That’s all for now. Anyone with a good Android app, please leave a comment.
Newton Excel Bach, not (just) an Excel Blog 
Personally I can’t do without Springpad. It’s possibly the most useful app for note-taking (written and voice), reminders, to-do lists and even bookmarking websites. Not only that but it integrates nicely into Google Chrome and Firefox (I think) so you can pick up your notes from any device.
Definitely worth a try. Evernote is similar but I feel a little more restricted.
Matt
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Thanks Matt, I’ll give it a go.
Nice site by the way (and good move starting with a number and getting up the top of the blog roll :))
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Some apps I’ve found helpful:
Cash2QIF – if you use Quicken (or other finance program that imports QIF files) and want to enter purchases while you’re out and about.
K-9 Mail – a superior version of the Android e-mail app
Note Everything Pro – An excellent note taking app. It makes text, voice, drawing and photo notes. It also has support for checklists.
LauncherPro – a superior homescreen/launching app. It’s fast, stable and adds features not found in the stock launching app.
Touchdown – Only if you use Microsoft Exchange as your e-mail backbone. It syncs beautifully with Exchange, unlike the stock calendar and e-mail apps.
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“Both Excel programs offer no VBA support.”
🙂
Ross
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I have just installed hackerskeyboard from the market.
It’s wonderful! It has cursor keys, numbers on the top row, function keys, standard top row symbols when you press shift. Just like a normal keyboard!
Entered with hackerskeyboard.
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Just picked up this link from Eng-Tips:
The Best Andorid Apps for Construction Management: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/construction/the-best-construction-android-apps-1061011/
“We’ve sifted through the irrelevant and poorly rated apps to bring you the cream of the crop. (You’re welcome.) Here, we profile the best construction management apps built for the Android. Each review comes complete with the average user rating, device compatibility and OS requirements, and pricing.”
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