Things to do in Cape Town, the Helderberg, and the Cape Winelands
An good little .cbr comic book archive reader for Android devices is Droid Comic Viewer (previously known as Android Comic Viewer), a free and full featured mobile comic book reader from the good folks over at Robot Comics.
It has all the normal stuff (as well as a few nice touchscreen niceties) that you would expect from a comic book reader, including:
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One of the most useful (and most used) apps on my Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Ace is UltraChron Stopwatch Lite, developed by TheSpinningHead. What it is, is a fantastically easy to use, responsive stopwatch and timer application.
Although perhaps a little garish in design, the stopwatch and timers are very configurable, features a voice to count down those important bits, the ability to capture lap times and create timed histories thanks to its editable descriptions. It also features persistent notifications and has the ability to wake the phone, meaning that you don’t have to worry about losing your timer or stopwatch after your screen lock saver kicks in!
Very nice, very easy to use, and most importantly of all, works damn well, making it well worth your while to install on your device. (Works a charm in the kitchen for cooking purposes!)
Anyway, search for UltraChron in the market place to download and install!
Thanks must go out to developer Nikolay Ananiev for his useful Android app, Tiny Flashlight + LED. This application essentially turns your phone into a torch, making use of the camera’s build in LED light that is normally only used by the camera as a flash. As you can well imagine, the LED is pretty bright, meaning that I can now safely navigate my way to the bedroom, avoiding dogs, cats and sleeping wife, with nothing more than my Samsung Galaxy Ace in hand!
Outside of the LED light functionality, it also makes use of the screen as a light source, and with this one gives you a variety of color and effect options, which could prove to be useful say in an emergency situation.
Finally, the last thing about this app which is particularly great is that it comes with the ability to create a widget, meaning that you can place a torch on and off button right there on your desktop! Very, very useful.
Certainly one of my favourite apps installed on my phone, and one well worth grabbing! Oh, and did I mention it is free? :)
Search for Tiny Flashlight in the market place to download and install!
Although I don’t do a lot of barcode or QR code scanning myself in my personal capacity, my development work does necessitate having a barcode scanner on my Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Ace.
My favourite barcode scanning app at the moment is QuickMark Barcode Scanner from SimpleAct Inc., a free mobile app that allows auto-scanning of multiple barcode formates from your phone. (Quick Code, QR Code, Data Matrix, EAN 8/13, Code39, Code128, Interleaved 2of5 in case you were wondering.)
The scanning is pretty accurate, and depending on the data retrieved from the scanned code, it allows you to either store the data as a new contact, write the data to a file, or direct the phone’s browser at the captured URL. It also saves a history of your scans.
There are a number of scan source options available to you, including the device’s camera (the most common use), an image file containing a barcode, a webpage containing embedded barcodes or even just plain old manual input.
Works a charm, easy to use and set up, and coming in at the low, low price of free, it is well, well worth the effort of grabbing!
Search for QuickMark Barcode Scanner in the market place to download and install!
One thing that annoys me about the Android phone is that there isn’t a built in way to check the status of your GPS unit on the device – in other words you can never be sure if the damn thing is working or not, has a fix, or is just trying to direct you to the nearest coffee shop.
Thankfully developer EclipSim has taken the time to come up with a brilliant Android App that is yours for free, is stunningly simple in execution, but literally tells you everything you ever wanted to know about all the sensors packed into that remarkable little device you currently hold in your hand.
GPS Status & Toolbox (more commonly referred to as just GPS Status) basically grabs all the readings from your phone’s sensors and then displays them in a compass and data table form, constantly refreshing so that you can see exactly what your phone is getting up to. Amongst the data it reveals is GPS Position, Signal Strength of Satellites, Accuracy Level, Speed, Acceleration, and Bearing.
This information is then packed into a compass with both magnetic and true north, a leveling tool, and of course the data list. The display is quite configurable, giving you different color options that are suited to different light conditions, and a slew of unit formatting options and settings which should cover every possible user imaginable.
An absolutely essential tool in my opinion, simple, effective, well thought out, and more importantly, one that does everything you could possibly need to feel secure that your device is functioning like you need it to.
And did I mention it is free? (Ad-supported, but nothing a click of the donation button can’t solve.)
Search for GPS Status in the market place to download and install!
