Apps that works great with a real keyboard and in landscape

[EskeRahn 5,460]

Apps working well in landscape, optimally using the keyboard well

• Web-browser
  FireFox, 4.4, 100M+, Recommendation
  FireFox Focus, 4.4, 5M+, Recommendation
  Kiwi Browser, 4.5, 1M+, Recommendation
  Keyboard Browser, 4.3, 10K+, Recommendation
• Mail
  BlueMail, 4.6, 5M+, Recommendation
  K9-mail, 4.2, 5M+, Recommendation
  AquaMail, 4.5, 1M+, Recommendation
  AirMail, 3.4, 1K+, Recommendation
   
• MediaPlayer
  Kodi Media Player, 4.2, 10M+, Recommendation
   
• Sidebar Launcher
  Ivy (Sidebar Launcher, Widgets, RSS), 4.0, 100K+, Recommendation
   
• Terminal
  Termux, 4.6, 1M+, Recommendation in other thread
   
• Office
  Softmaker Office, 3.8-4.2, 10-100K+, Recommendation
   
• ToDo
  MyLifeOrganized: To-Do List, 4.3, 100K+, Recommendation
   
• Notes
  Standard Notes, 4.0, 50K+, Recommendation
   
• Calendar
  Agenda, 3.4, 1K+, Recommendation

 

Suggestions

Please add your suggestions in comments below, and I will adjust the list in this primary post

Please give your reasons for suggesting it for the list! Why is it especially suited for the PRO1?

Please include a suggested category (new or existing)

 

Smallprints:

This is intended to be a list of apps that will work well in landscape and optimally uses the keyboard well.
But only those where none/few of the competitors does too.

I plan to place them here in groups.They will be ordered within the groups by a (subjective) mix of number of users and their rating.

Some apps I see no reason to include. e.g. apps for displaying video or streaming TV, or full screen games or similar that are naturally in landscape, unless they got some especially keyboard-friendly features,

Also apps that has no substitutes should be omitted. (e.g. an app for your bank, some special hardware, national rail roads...).

I will just write the name (with link) and ratings of the apps, and link to a recommending post with the actual reason why it is suggested as suitable for landscape/keyboard.

Please don't misuse this for advertising style posts, those will be moderated partially or even deleted

Please include the ratings and number of downloads from the Android Market (also known by the silly name Play Store), as this can give a hint on the apps general qualities. so no reason for a general review of the app, primarily what matters to the Pro¹, or how it differs from others in the group.

Feel free to suggest several apps for the same category. There are no such thing as a best app for everyone and everything.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

Suggested apps

(By "works unproblematic in landscape" I among other things mean that they don't make odd scaling, or omit to wrap things differently)

 

Mail

K9-mail, 4.2, 5M+,

This works unproblematic in landscape, and supports navigation with arrow keys, and also supports tab/shift+tab

As far as I know, some functionality is touch only

An advanced mail client with a lot of options. Key navigation also active in setup.

(Many mail clients insists on threaded view, I just HATE that, and though default, it is an option here)

Here the look compared to Gmail native app

 

web-browser

FireFox, 4.4, 100M+

This works unproblematic in landscape, and supports navigation with arrow keys, and also supports tab/shift+tab

Navigation slightly different if a site is requested in desktop mode.

As far as I know, some functionality is touch only

 

FireFox Focus, 4.4, 5M+

As above, but privacy focused.

 

Keyboard Browser, 4.3, 10K+

As the name says this is DESIGNED to be used with a keyboard, and it works well in landscape also.

[nikolaykhramchenkov 0]

Maybe Gemini PDA apps will work too.

Mail: AirMail (based on K9)

Calendar: Agenda

[EskeRahn 5,460]

Maybe Gemini PDA apps will work too.

 

Mail: AirMail (based on K9)

 

Calendar: Agenda

 

No "whys"? And please also give the numbers on them, to help people in evaluating if it could be interesting.

[nikolaykhramchenkov 0]

xnike wrote:

Maybe Gemini PDA

apps

will work too.

 

Mail:

AirMail

(based on K9)

 

Calendar:

Agenda

No “whys”? And please also give the numbers on them, to help people in evaluating if it could be interesting.

 

It's 3 for the moment: AirMail, Agenda, Notes. The last one is not cool or convenient IMHO, so I did not mention it. Anyway I provided a direct link to application store containing a full list of Planet Computers applications.

 

I am an owner of Gemini PDA, AirMail and Agenda app work fine for me, but according to reviews in the application store there are issues with devices produced not by Planet Computers. Pro1 will have more recent version of Android and different hardware so it's a high probability that we'll see issues on Pro1 and they would not be fixed ASAP.

[aznfantasystar 5]

Browser:

Kiwi Browser, 4.5, 13k, link

 

From the KEYone and KEY2, it carries all of the keyboard shortcuts that was designed for Chrome, as it's built on Chromium Engine. It also has swipe gesture such as Swipe-left to go back, Swipe-right to go forward. It also has the ability to move the URL-bar to the bottom of the screen and control swipe-gestures for Multi-tasking.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

Added recommendation of Termux, based on this thread.

[Craig 1,435]

Here the look compared to Gmail native app

 

FYI, Gmail has other view options than that. You probably forgot the first time you run it it gives you three choices.

Anyways, In settings, change 'conversation list density to Compact (or even comfortable) and you'll get a lot more on your screen that that.

 

Don't get me wrong, K-9 is great, I used it for years, but the gmail client isn't that bad in landscape if set compact.

 

[foren 1]

I would like to add:

 

Mail client: Aqua Mail (Pro). I'm using the pro version, not sure about the free version.

 

Office: Softmaker Office HD for Android: tested Textmaker HD + Planmaker HD - MS Office compatible, works very well in landscape and with physical keyboards

 

ToDo: MLO 3

 

All apps regularly used on phone and tablet using bluetooth keyboards in landscape mode. Phone is a Moto Z Play, so results should be comparable to the Pro1.

[Hook 3,020]

I would like to add:

 

Mail client: Aqua Mail (Pro). I’m using the pro version, not sure about the free version.

 

Office: Softmaker Office HD for Android: tested Textmaker HD + Planmaker HD – MS Office compatible, works very well in landscape and with physical keyboards

 

ToDo: MLO 3

 

All apps regularly used on phone and tablet using bluetooth keyboards in landscape mode. Phone is a Moto Z Play, so results should be comparable to the Pro1.

 

I will note here that I made a post in the Softmaker forums (I use Softmaker office on Windows, Android and Linux) telling them about the F(X) Pro 1. They are working on a new version of the Android apps (thought they have been doing so for a year now and it's not clear when they will be released). However, for the new version I asked them to consider adding a method by which, if you had a keyboard, you could jump to certain screen elements such as the button bar without touching the screen and then use the arrow keys to find a button, They said they would send the suggestion to the development team, FWTW.

[CornholioGSM 338]

...maybe i am stupid but what is problem with landscape picture + keyboard? I am on photon Q and i dont have problem with approx 90% of apps. Yess some apps have problem in landscape mode - but it are apps like youtube go, bank app etc...in these apps are qwerty not needed

[Craig 1,435]

I should add dolphin browser. It has settings for traditional desktop style tabs, instead of swipe methods to switch, which some may find useful If you try it, tap the puzzle piece to bring up the control panel which has six toggles. toggle the 'tabs' option (plus the fullscreen and desktop if you like).

[EskeRahn 5,460]

…maybe i am stupid but what is problem with landscape picture + keyboard? I am on photon Q and i dont have problem with approx 90% of apps. Yess some apps have problem in landscape mode – but it are apps like youtube go, bank app etc…in these apps are qwerty not needed

 

Lucky you with the 90%.... In my experience more often than not the apps I try out does not work in landscape, or does not use the landscape form, but just stretches the portrait layout leaving a lot of white-space and a lot of scrolling to use the app...

 

And I think you might have omitted the smallprints section:

Some apps I see no reason to include. e.g. apps for displaying video or streaming TV, or full screen games or similar that are naturally in landscape, unless they got some especially keyboard-friendly features,

 

Also apps that has no substitutes should be omitted. (e.g. an app for your bank, some special hardware, national rail roads…).

 

The whole idea is for apps with multiple alternatives, to guide people towards those that works best on the Pro1.

 

 

[Doktor Oswaldo 904]

A small note to Firefox. It seems to be possible to install tridactyl on a mobile firefox.

Tridactyl is a vim controll plugin for firefox. Which allows a *complete* control of the browser from the keyboard. I hope this will work on the pro1.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

A small note to Firefox. It seems to be possible to install tridactyl on a mobile firefox.

 

Tridactyl is a vim controll plugin for firefox. Which allows a *complete* control of the browser from the keyboard. I hope this will work on the pro1.

 

Sounds like a medicine *LOL*

 

Tried it a bit and honnestly can't find head and tail of it, but it does 'something', requires a LOT of permissions though.

 

[attachment file=32133]

[attachment file=32134]

 

[3zet 100]

X-Plore.

[Doktor Oswaldo 904]

doktor.oswaldo wrote:

A small note to Firefox. It seems to be possible to install tridactyl on a mobile firefox.

 

Tridactyl is a vim controll plugin for firefox. Which allows a *complete* control of the browser from the keyboard. I hope this will work on the pro1.

Sounds like a medicine *LOL*

 

Tried it a bit and honnestly can’t find head and tail of it, but it does ‘something’, requires a LOT of permissions though.

 

Yes it does. It has to because it changes a lot. But it is on github https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl and does nothing evil with the permissions. Just a quick tutorial for you:

 

t to open a new tab. f to highlight links (and follow), gi go to first input (so a typical flow is tgoogle.com<CR>gu<searchterm>f).

 

But anyway thank you very much for testing!

[EskeRahn 5,460]

Yes it does. It has to because it changes a lot. But it is on github https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl and does nothing evil with the permissions. Just a quick tutorial for you:

 

t to open a new tab. f to highlight links (and follow), gi go to first input (so a typical flow is tgoogle.com<cr>gu<searchterm>f).

 

But anyway thank you very much for testing!</searchterm></cr>

 

Pressing "t" does not do anything, but the G does go to end of page, so SOMETHING works. I haven't dug into what, just deactivated it, maybe I will play with it later.

[Guest]

I would like dejaoffice to work with the fxtec. Dejaoffice is a syncing software which helps bridge between MS outlook desktop and android (I am managing my tasks in desktop outlook, so I can manage them offline and then sync).

I used Dejaoffice about 6 years ago in landscape mode with a motorola photon (also an android with physical keyboard).

 

It would be really useful to have the full screen available to read the task in Dejaoffice incl. the other fields and the details of the notes about the task. At the moment on Android, the virtual keyboard takes all the space, which makes no more fun to use Dejaoffice.

 

Thanks in advance

Chris

[Hook 3,020]

I would like dejaoffice to work with the fxtec. Dejaoffice is a syncing software which helps bridge between MS outlook desktop and android (I am managing my tasks in desktop outlook, so I can manage them offline and then sync).

 

I used Dejaoffice about 6 years ago in landscape mode with a motorola photon (also an android with physical keyboard).

 

It would be really useful to have the full screen available to read the task in Dejaoffice incl. the other fields and the details of the notes about the task. At the moment on Android, the virtual keyboard takes all the space, which makes no more fun to use Dejaoffice.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Chris

 

This is more a thread for reporting apps that work well with landscape keyboards than a thread to make requests. I also use DejaOffice. Are you saying that on the photon the on-screen keyboard came up? I have used DJO in landscape on my Samsung Tablet witha BT keyboard and there is no on-screen keyboard. I would certainly expect that with the Pro1. Once I have the Pro1, if I see anything that would benefit from tweaking or some feature, I will take it to the developer who is pretty open.

[Guest]

Reply from Deja office:

 

Chris,

Thank you for contacting CompanionLink support.

It looks like that device is running Android Pie, so there shouldn't be any compatibility issue. If anything you may just need to enable Tablet mode in DejaOffice Settings > General settings.

Thank You,

Conley H.

DejaOffice Support
www.dejaoffice.com

Ticket Details

[Hook 3,020]

I'll report on this next week when I have my Pro 1.  🙂

[robert.prior1985 97]

@EskeRahn In regards to the Office Suite is their a reason we are not all about Microsoft.... Again please understand I am not a great Techie its just I am used to using this software and want to make sure I can work on the go also.

You are a star!!! and why are there no little training videos from you!?

[EskeRahn 5,460]

1 hour ago, robert.prior1985 said:

@EskeRahn In regards to the Office Suite is their a reason we are not all about Microsoft.... Again please understand I am not a great Techie its just I am used to using this software and want to make sure I can work on the go also.

You are a star!!! and why are there no little training videos from you!?

Haven't tried the MS Office on a keyboard phone, and as no one has suggested if it is good or bad here, it is not on the list.

I just added a few apps by my self, and collected what people suggested. But the idea never got much traction, I had expected more people to chip in...

The whole thing looks a little odd after the forum upgrade, but forgot to straighten in out.... Will see if I can pull myself together and reformat it.

[robert.prior1985 97]

11 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

Haven't tried the MS Office on a keyboard phone, and as no one has suggested if it is good or bad here, it is not on the list.

I just added a few apps by my self, and collected what people suggested. But the idea never got much traction, I had expected more people to chip in...

The whole thing looks a little odd after the forum upgrade, but forgot to straighten in out.... Will see if I can pull myself together and reformat it.

Well I am due to be placed in Next weeks shipment and will let you know how all is when I get my phone and which apps I find helpful/good. It will probably be crossword games and Excel spreadsheets! Lol! 

Thank you for all the help anyways. 🙂