letter to the editor
mark lindasee
Bit depth #1437
mark lindasee
There are three types of apps on your smartphone. System apps come with your device and usually can’t be removed.
Next, there are apps that provide services, and finally, there are optional apps that give your device personality and satisfy your personal tastes.
Here are some that have worked for me.
In general, I avoid home screen and UI hacks. Most of them, like Nova Launcher, are cute, but the way you interact with the interface doesn’t change much. Niagara is an exception, but it’s worth the money.
Rather than seeing a barrage of app icons, Niagara replaces that virtual metaphor with a list you can configure with the apps you access most often.
Including media players and date and time, the list can contain 9 to 10 apps. There are handy alphabet keys on the right that can be used to jump to software not on the main list.
If you can’t think of nine apps to put on your list, Niagara will track the apps you access most often and add them to your list. If you agree, you can pin it there.
try out. I would be confused if this wasn’t running on my phone, but this is a clear indicator that the interface has been improved.
Finding a good word processor on the Play Store is difficult. You’ll find quite a few apps, but the files they generate won’t open properly in your desktop word processor.
If you use Office365, there is an Android version.
I prefer apps that work on multiple platforms, as I move back and forth between operating systems. Evernote has a great, if unoriginal, word processor that delivers clean, easy-to-use text wherever you open the app. When your phone is online, every time you save data, it will appear in every instance of the app you have installed.
The free Evernote plan syncs two devices. If that’s enough, you’re ready to go.
While it’s possible to create a simple to-do list using Evernote, why not take advantage of all the great sorting and organizing features of Microsoft’s free To-Do?
When you create a list with this app, it instantly appears on all other devices you have installed it on.
I can’t tell you how much stress this has saved me at the grocery store, hardware store, and pharmacy.
I have a disturbing number of email addresses to keep track of and prefer to view my emails in one comprehensive app.
For Android, this is BlueMail (if you don’t have access to Outlook). It’s a well-designed, full-featured email client for Android (and all other platforms) that connects to many email servers, including the standard Android email client. suffocate.
Entertainment media on smartphones should be seamless. If you need to access files downloaded to your device (many services have their own dedicated apps), VLC is your go-to for video files, and just like your computer’s desktop, there are file encodings available for download. Read.
When it comes to music and audio files, I can’t recommend my old favorite Rocket Player enough. As an early adopter, I own a paid key to the app that avoids the new subscription fee, but the app isn’t as smooth, bug-free, and has a ton of bad reviews on the Play Store.
Consider AIMP and Player Pro to be the stars of a much broader spectrum of audio players. Both have free versions that support audiophile digital formats such as FLAC. Player Pro has the benefit of an Internet radio feature that automatically adds local radio stations, but we found that some streams were unreadable. It costs $5 to move to the ad-free Pro version.
An e-pub digital book reader is an essential item for reading those books that you don’t often have time to read. Moon Reader matches the Kindle app experience (easy to set up and disappears during use), and like Player Pro, the ad-free pro version costs $9, but we know that price can vary. It is being
Mark Lyndersay is the editor of technewstt.com. An expanded version of this column can be found at: