Apps IN GENERAL - reccomandation&help

[Swond 120]

Hi all. There is a toppic for apps, that works fine with landscape mode. Lets proceed also with apps in general and try to help each other for some hints or to review usefull apps. Feel free to ask and answer. 

This is not about landscape-specific, so I guess it won't be profitable to merge that together. 

So at the beginning my case is about phone automation. While using Symbian phone, I have app called BestProfiles (or similar). This app can set some phone features related to specific situations - time, location, both together etc. For example when it is 10PM, it turns off Bletooth, data connection and silents the phone until 6AM (when it also turn on wanted functions). It allows only family calls. Or you can set the phone silent when you come to a bank for example (location restriction).

My question is: does anybody know such an app for this automated stuff? I was looking for apps called "*profile*" on Android, but none of what I tried met my expectations.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Swond

[Rob. S. 1,647]

For automation, what comes to my mind for Android is Tasker. (Didn't do much with it myself yet, though.)

[enPfzr4v 239]

Screenshot Assistant is an awesome little replacement for your google assistant shortcut if you're not using the google assistant: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.beatbrot.screenshotassistant/

It lets you quickly take a screenshot, crop it, draw a little, and share it directly to an app without having to save a file and open it in something else. It's free and open source.

[EskeRahn 5,427]

The key apps I would recommend anyone are

3C All-in-one Toolbox Pro (Especially if you with adb give it android.permission.BATTERY_STATS )

GSAM Battery Monitor Pro (Especially if you with adb give it android.permission.BATTERY_STATS )

Greenify - to help automatically clean up, the bloat that you have chosen not to disable due to occasional usage.

Android Assistant - To help manually clean up

Netguard - a non-root VPN 'firewall'.

Textra - a nice SMS/MMS app, that works great with a real keyboard NOT giving a small window of a few lines for entering the text..

Open Camera - (Though there is an API bug on the Pro1 preventing HDR from working properly)

QuickPic - a standard picture gallery app, but I particularly like the simple editor for reducing image to lower resolution and/or crop/rotate easily. Many more fancy exists but I find this a good balance between abilities and simplicity.

Navmii - nice free offline maps, you can buy away the ads for trifles - as I recall it was something like $3, I paid ten years ago...

[Hook 2,945]

13 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

QuickPic - a standard picture gallery app, but I particularly like the simple editor for reducing image to lower resolution and/or crop/rotate easily. Many more fancy exists but I find this a good balance between abilities and simplicity.

I would stay away from QuickPic.  I used to swear by it, but it is now owned by Cheetah Mobile a notorious spyware publisher.  I replaced it with Gallery Pro by Simple Mobile for which your description is appropriate.  If you are using an old pre-Cheater Mobile apk, then you are ok, but folks should be careful.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Hook
Correcting name of app.

[EskeRahn 5,427]

1 minute ago, Hook said:

I would stay away from QuickPic.  I used to swear by it, but it is now owned by Cheetah Mobile a renown spyware publisher.  I replaced it with Gallery by Simple Mobile for which your description is appropriate.  If you are using an old pre-Cheater Mobile apk, then you are ok, but folks should be careful.

Oh spyware requires network access to be effective, and I do not give it access. But of course Netguard could be spying too.

[VaZso 1,997]

Shake Light - On my Moto G6, there was a built-in feature to turn on/off flash by shaking the phone. It does the same thing which also works on Pro1. It is completely ad-free and works in background
DualSimRinger - As Pro1 currently does not have a setting of separate ringtones for two SIMs, I have installed this app yesterday. It looks to be working well, however, it seems it will request an in-app purchase in a week...
Fast Notepad - I use it to take some quick notes sometimes
Aqua Mail - I found it as the best e-mail client for me because it supports aliases, has perfect IMAP Push support, its interface is very good and it works well. However, free version gives an annoying signature at the end of e-mails. I could buy Pro version at half the current price but I really like this application.
Hacker's Keyboard - Not the most interesting program for the Pro1 but it provides a full-featured keyboard in landscape mode if someone does not want to open the HW keyboard. However, it consumes most of the screen. I also use it in portrait mode when the keyboard is closed. It supports national layouts.

[EskeRahn 5,427]

42 minutes ago, Hook said:

I would stay away from QuickPic.  I used to swear by it, but it is now owned by Cheetah Mobile a notorious spyware publisher.  I replaced it with Gallery by Simple Mobile for which your description is appropriate.  If you are using an old pre-Cheater Mobile apk, then you are ok, but folks should be careful.

...Just tried it and i really like the QuickPic way you can reduce quickly to a standard number in one direction, without having to enter it. And also the both coarse and fine rotate.

Most often I take a picture to be used for a mail or MMS, go to edit, crop it, and choose a suitable reduction size (What the original would have been without crop), and save. And most often kill the original. I have found a few others that can do this, but none as simple. (or they had other issues)

[Hook 2,945]

9 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

...Just tried it and i really like the QuickPic way you can reduce quickly to a standard number in one direction, without having to enter it. And also the both coarse and fine rotate.

Most often I take a picture to be used for a mail or MMS, go to edit, crop it, and choose a suitable reduction size (What the original would have been without crop), and save. And most often kill the original. I have found a few others that can do this, but none as simple. (or they had other issues)

If I'm understanding what you are describing, Simple Mobile Gallery does that as well-- Hit edit pencil, tap transform.

It is pretty close to a free QuickPic knockoff without ads.  Not trying to get you to change, just info for others.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.gallery&hl=en_US

Edited January 5, 2020 by Hook

[EskeRahn 5,427]

16 minutes ago, Hook said:

Hit edit pencil, tap transform.

Yeah, and that gives me a dialogue box to enter the wanted resolution manually. Versatile but not fast.

But don't get me wrong, many are MUCH worse out there, concetrating on silly 'effects' rather than usability. So absolutely one of the better I have seen.

(And the quick aspect ratio selection defaults to landscape, even for a originals in portrait, so to use you would need to rotate, crop and rotate back, possible but overcomplicated)

[Hook 2,945]

2 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

Yeah, and that gives me a dialogue box to enter the wanted resolution manually. Versatile but not fast.

(And the quick aspect ratio selection defaults to landscape, even for a originals in portrait, so to use you would need to rotate, crop and rotate back, possible but overcomplicated)

Odd.  Not what I get.  I get a sliding bar of aspect ratios, a rotation arrow that does the 4 standard rotations and a finger slider that lets me to make any rotation I want.

[silversolver 849]

2 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

Navmii - nice free offline maps, you can buy away the ads for trifles - as I recall it was something like $3, I paid ten years ago...

I tried it and was unimpressed with it, though I don't remember exactly why. I think it was because it wouldn't take GPS coordinates instead of an address, relying on What3Words instead. Also I seem to remember it struggling with many normal addresses. I tried really, really hard to like it, because I liked what it was. I just couldn't do it.

In the end, I settled on Sygic Navigation. I'm still using the free version, which works fine if you don't need turn-by-turn and can just follow the line on the map. /edit It gives you a free trial of the full-featured version when first installed, so I do know how it behaves when not restricted. /end edit :) Offline maps are a breeze to install, so you're not using any data unless you turn on traffic, which incidentally includes a lot of cool community features to beat the heat, so to speak. :) I don't use SatNav very much, but when I do this has delivered. The premium stuff is significantly more expensive than $3, but they make black friday offers and such from time to time. It's still a great deal less than a dedicated $500 device that doesn't even come with free map updates. :O

Edited January 5, 2020 by silversolver

[elvissteinjr 359]

The Simple Mobile Tools apps are also available on F-Droid. Surprisingly In their pro versions even. The gallery might not receive any updates there in the near future though as the dev decided to use a closed source SDK for the new photo editor.
Just recently switched after QuickPic started behaving a bit weird in the recent versions... and well now I know why.
The only thing I'm missing so far is a true folder browsing mode. The one in the app is odd with folders that only contain additional sub-folders with images and displays those one level to early or something... Somewhat missing the point of having a folder structure.

What do you guys use a web browser these days? I'm using Vivaldi on PC, but the mobile beta they have is pretty barebones to be honest.
There's a couple of names that usually get thrown around (namely Brave and Firefox I suppose?), but what is truly the best choice for power users?

[silversolver 849]

@elvissteinjr Brave, by far. Of course that's just my opinion. I support what they are attempting to achieve, and they're making a fabulous product in the process. I use it desktop and mobile almost exclusively--exclusively on my devices new enough to run it....as mentioned elsewhere I do have some shockingly old machines still in use. On them I use FireFox or its derivatives.

[VaZso 1,997]

17 minutes ago, elvissteinjr said:

What do you guys use a web browser these days? I'm using Vivaldi on PC, but the mobile beta they have is pretty barebones to be honest.

I use Vivaldi on PC and usually Firefox on Android.

[Polaris 423]

Yes, 100% agree with @silversolver, for me, Brave is the only way to go.  I run it on everything I can and it works well.  I too support what they are attempting to achieve, but even if I didn't it runs quickly and efficiently.

[Hook 2,945]

A lot of the apps that are my go to apps are apps I have been using forever.  I can't very well say they are the greatest apps, just that they have always worked well enough for me that I haven't been tempted to go looking for replacements. 

Also, I'm not an IT person.  I am a writer (not published but something I've taken on in earnest as I approached retirement and a phone with a hardware keyboard fits well in my scalable write/edit anywhere plans. Otherwise, my phone is mainly a PDA

My key go-to apps:

DropBox - Really, this is the thumb drive in the sky that lets me keep all of my work and all  of my devices in sync and so no matter what device I am writing on, I can pick up where I left off. And, so far, at least, I don't think DropBox is scanning my stuff to feed me ads.

TextMaker - A very complete word processor for Android, with versions for Windows and Linux.  I primarilt use Windows, but I have a Linux laptop and so I like software that covers all 3 platforms.  I have the Pricy HD version of this software, but I wouldn't recommend buying it just now.  It is long in tooth and there is a new version coming, hopefully sometime this year.  The "Basic" version is quite good and ad free, I believe. Acces to files on DropBox is currently broken, but my file Manager is smart enough to throw the files into Textmaker when it retrieves them.  That will be fixed in the new version.

NoteCase Pro - You can't even get this from the Play Store (or F-Droid).  You have to download it from here: https://www.notecasepro.com   It's a hierarchical notes and outliner program that can take attachments.  Combined with Textmake I have a reasonable approximation of Scrivener. Uses DropBox to sync.

PlanMaker Basic - Good spreadsheet.  I'm not an excel wiz, but I use it to make basic tables

Explorer/ Root explorer - Version depends on if I am rooted or not, but an excellent file manager in either.  Very different metaphor than most file managers, but very full featured. 

Deja Office - A powerful PIM suite that syncs with many Windows desktop programs, including Outlook.  I Use DJO's own CRM Desktop which is a moderized Palm Desktop.  Works with iOS and Macs, but not with Linux.

FireFox - Have used on all my computers and devices since it was Phoenix v0.38 and seems to always work nicely. Never touched Chrome.

Safe-In-Cloud - Password Manager that uses Dropbox to sync. I discovered it looking for a passsword manager that would import well from multiple other password apps as I switched around a lot going from Palm OS to Symbian to Android.  This app was spectacular at import and has a free Windows desktop.  I have been very happy with it.

Those are my big ones.  I want a good text editor and settled recently on QuickEdit+ but it is too soon to say "this is it."

I'm looking forward to these lists... maybe I'll get tempted by something new. 🙂

[EskeRahn 5,427]

8 hours ago, Hook said:

Odd.  Not what I get.  I get a sliding bar of aspect ratios, a rotation arrow that does the 4 standard rotations and a finger slider that lets me to make any rotation I want.

Hmm I do not even see 3:2 It does not look at all like what you got... Maybe one of the many settings... Will have a look again.

You are sure it is not another editor you launch from within the "Simple Gallery"? Your image look like one of the others I tried....

This is what the "Simple Mobile Tools" Gallery's editor looks like here:

[Swond 120]

Locus map: For those who needs to record tracks in nature or to work with maps a lot. You can also work with  .gpx files and also share them or whatever - usefull eg. for guides. Has many features and different (mostly paid) maps - also for cycling or hiking. The program has so many setups, that it may get annoing for someone, but when you get used to it, I am sure there is no better app. Also can work as a bycicle trip computer with nav. Good to purchase pro. Not that expensive and very usefull. Unfotrunately the lifetime licence is for programm only. When you need some map, you still have to buy it. Anyway, you can many of them find by google and save manually to the folder of Locus 😉

Mapy. cz: perfect maps with topographic lines, all for free. Usefull for hiking and cycling, recently it can also navigate cars, but I did not try yet if it is worth to use as a car navigation. In other aspects it is a reliable app I can confirm. 

Edited January 5, 2020 by Swond

[Swond 120]

And how about the BEST PROFILES from symbian alternative, nobody knows? Check what it does: https://www.smartphoneware.com/index.php?did=profiles_s3_s60_3_5

Just trying PhoneProfilesPlus right now, seems pretty cool, but missing the profile activation by entered location.. Anyone experienced? 

[Rob. S. 1,647]

1 hour ago, Swond said:

And how about the BEST PROFILES from symbian alternative, nobody knows? Check what it does: https://www.smartphoneware.com/index.php?did=profiles_s3_s60_3_5

Just trying PhoneProfilesPlus right now, seems pretty cool, but missing the profile activation by entered location.. Anyone experienced? 

In my first reply above, I mentioned Tasker – did you have a look at it? From the examples for what it can do, on their website:

Quote

change phone settings by

• application: long screen timeout in a book reader
• time: screen brightness lower in the evening
• location: ringer volume high at the office, turn off keyguard at home

Edited January 5, 2020 by Rob. S.

[Rob. S. 1,647]

11 hours ago, VaZso said:

Aqua Mail - I found it as the best e-mail client for me because it supports aliases, has perfect IMAP Push support, its interface is very good and it works well. 

Does it support message encyrption (PGP)? Or does anyone know of any modern app that does (and doesn't route your mail through their own servers where the store and read it, like some of the more modern-looking Android apps actually do)? For the time being, I'm still using the rather dated K-9 Mail, which does offer message encryption. It doesn't offer identities with different SMTP servers for one mail account, like Thunderbird does. 

Edited January 5, 2020 by Rob. S.

[Rob. S. 1,647]

2 hours ago, Swond said:

Locus map: For those who needs to record tracks in nature or to work with maps a lot

I really like it. Wouldn't go out hiking without. The usefulness of course depends on how good the available maps are for where you are. And sometimes the offline maps are worse (less detailed) than the online maps of the same source, like "Outdoor Active", which is what I use for Germany...

[Hook 2,945]

3 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

Hmm I do not even see 3:2 It does not look at all like what you got... Maybe one of the many settings... Will have a look again.

You are sure it is not another editor you launch from within the "Simple Gallery"? Your image look like one of the others I tried....

This is what the "Simple Mobile Tools" Gallery's editor looks like here:

Doh!  Apparently I have the Pro version.  So long ago, I didn't remember and it only identifies itself as Pro on the about screen.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.gallery.pro  

Lol.  In fact, reading through the description for the non-Pro version, but apparently they are now only supporting and updating the Pro version.  Of course, I can't see the price since I have it installed.  I just know I've been very happy with it and I tend to buy Pro versions if I really like an app.

Sorry, Sir. 

[EskeRahn 5,427]

3 minutes ago, Hook said:

Doh!  Apparently I have the Pro version.  So long ago, I didn't remember and it only identifies itself as Pro on the about screen.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.gallery.pro  

Lol.  In fact, reading through the description for the non-Pro version, but apparently they are now only supporting and updating the Pro version.  Of course, I can't see the price since I have it installed.  I just know I've been very happy with it and I tend to buy Pro versions if I really like an app.

Sorry, Sir. 

Ah I see. It cost a whole US dollar. I will do the investment in the experiment.... 🤣