Your Cellphone and Favorite Apps

[Zelig]

Blackberry

Emails can be sent to my phone, very useful feature.
Full on keyboard, with nice tactile buttons you can push down - feels so much better then a touch screen.
The interface is pretty bare bones but it is easy to do things.

Any modern phone gets emails.

I used to thing tactile buttons were better, but after switching and becoming competent with a touch screen, I've learned better.

 

[Quintillus]

So what is it? What kind of phone do you have?
Were you able to get a deal of any kind?
What pocket do you keep it in?
Does it really play that important of a role in your life?
If you don't have a phone what's wrong with you? Why don't you have a cellphone?
Is your cellphone "new" or "old"?

Also please recommend some cool, interesting, or useful apps you think are worth checking out if you have a smart phone.

I have the Sony Ericsson K800i. It works well as a phone, as a music player, and as a camera. I'm happy with my decision to go with it.

It's an "old" phone in that it came out 5.5 years ago, but I just got it a few months ago. I couldn't have afforded it when it came out, though, so I'll take getting it for a small fraction of the price and unlocked. And in several ways, such as appearance and low-or-no-light camera performance, it's better than even many modern smartphones such as the iPhone 4G. But that shouldn't be too surprising - Apple never was known for great flash support.

In some ways it serves an important purpose - it's my alarm clock, and is obviously useful for communication. But I don't bring it everywhere, either. It's not going to supplant my car or the Internet or sleeping on a bed instead of an air mattress in a popularity contest. And, worst case, I have backup phones should it spontaneously combust. Still, I have no intentions of switching to a landline.

The only bad thing is that my carrier, AT&T, has horrendous coverage where I live, and similarly bad coverage where I work, and in numerous other areas throughout my city. One of the nice things about traveling - getting good cell phone reception. I'm planning to try out T-Mobile soon in hopes of getting better reception. The benefits of having an unlocked phone. Now, if only the U.S. actually had more than two or three carriers in an area that were compatible with whatever unlocked phone you have.

So, I might switch phones if T-Mobile has sucky reception, too, and I need a U.S.-only compatible phone. But I'd still keep my current phone for international travel, and possibly intra-U.S. travel to cities with halfway decent coverage.

Now to the interesting part, Apps.

Since I don't have a data plan (too expensive for the benefit, IMO, plus what warpus said about not wanting Internet everywhere), I don't have many applications. Among the more useful ones I've found are a compass application (useful when you're lost, and also nifty in that it is based entirely on mathematical algorithms and the current date and time), and the ubiquitous flashlight application. I also like that my phone places no restrictions whatsoever on alarms and ringtones other than it has to be able to play it. No silly paying $1.50 for a ringtone of a song you can buy in its entirity for 99 cents on Amazon, or jumping through hoops to get around artificial restrictions.

 

[Skwink]

I have a dumbphone with a slide-out keyboard. I use it to talk to people and that's pretty much it. It's a Samsung something or other.

I considered getting a smartphone, but I'm already addicted to the internet - I don't need it following me everywhere.. When I'm not at home at work I'm FREE from the internets and I like it that way

I might have the same one, Samsung Intensity II. I'm buying an iPhone soon though. My favorite function on it is the alarm clock. I like how it wakes me up and is reliable most days.

 

[kochman]

I have a dumbphone with a slide-out keyboard. I use it to talk to people and that's pretty much it. It's a Samsung something or other.

I considered getting a smartphone, but I'm already addicted to the internet - I don't need it following me everywhere.. When I'm not at home at work I'm FREE from the internets and I like it that way

I was pretty much the same, worried about my affinity for the internets...
It is fine, I don't look much more than I did before and now I have the internets at my fingertips... movie schedule, no prob... directions, no prob... plane tickets, no prob... etc, etc.

I just got mine at Christmas, I held out till then... but I'm glad I finally converted.

 

[Mise]

My apps, of course.

I have a Motorola Atrix, which I bought for £250 in July. I pay £10 per month for "unlimited" internet, unlimited texts and 250 minutes of calls. I'm thinking of switching to another provider, though, who provide unlimited internet without the quotes around them for £15.

Seriously, I use the Economister app I made literally every day... which is why I made it...

Apps which I don't believe anyone has mentioned but are still useful include:

LUKS Manager - On the fly disk encryption. Very cool, easy to use interface, but requires root and probably a different kernel. There are more accessible disk encryption utilities, but this one lets me start and stop things with scripts and such. Anyway, I just wanted to trigger in people's heads that you can encrypt your personal files on your phone, in case you lose it.
BetterBatteryStats - Tells you which apps are draining power (free from XDA forums)
Swype Beta - My favourite keyboard. Beta version is much better than the Swype that comes with your phone.
WiFi Keyboard - This lets you use your computer's keyboard to type onto your phone via WiFi. Useful for typing out long emails on your phone (I can access my work email on my phone but not my home computer), for playing games, typing in terminal commands, etc.
GScript Lite - Useful to run regularly used terminal commands on your phone (can create shortcuts on homescreen)
DiskUsage - Visualises your SD-card to see what's taking up the most space on it.
QuickPic - Replaces your Camera Gallery. Much better than Google's, probably better than the one that comes with your phone.
KeePassDroid - stores all your passwords, works with the desktop version
Samba Filesharing - Shares your phone's SD card over wireless LAN. So on Windows you can map your phone to a network drive (mine is Z: and Y: ) so that you can store files on your phone and seamlessly use them on your computer. Your computer just sees the files at e.g. "Z:\personal\Dream Journal.docx". It means that (a) you don't have to plug your phone in via USB to transfer files, and (b) you don't need to worry about syncing two different versions of your files - you just keep one version on your phone, and your computer thinks it's just stored on a network drive.
Instant Heart Rate - You put your finger over the camera lens and it tells you your heart rate. It does this by using the flash on your phone to light up your finger, and then the camera detects changes in light intensity as the blood passes through your fingers.
WiFi QR Generator - VERY handy when your friends come round and they want your WiFi password. It generates a QR code for your wifi, which includes the password and allows your friend to just scan the barcode in the normal Barcode Scanner app and connect automatically.

EDIT: Remembered another one: Smart Tools - can measure angles, sizes, distances, and so on. Not accurate enough to depend on but handy in a pinch.

 

[warpus]

I might have the same one, Samsung Intensity II. I'm buying an iPhone soon though. My favorite function on it is the alarm clock. I like how it wakes me up and is reliable most days.

Hmm I don't think I have the intensity. I looked it up - it looks similar but there are minor differences.. and I don't remember mine being called that. Either way I bet the functionality is similar - mine has an alarm clock built in though.

It is fine, I don't look much more than I did before and now I have the internets at my fingertips... movie schedule, no prob... directions, no prob... plane tickets, no prob... etc, etc.

Yeah there are times when that would come in handy. I wouldn't be surprised if I convert eventually, but for now I'm very content with what i have

 

[Tecknojock]

Samsung Focus S (Windows 7 Phone)
Well, just got it 2 days ago after my last phone, a Samsung Focus, also a win7phone, took a dip in the sea during spring break.

Most used apps:
Web Browser
Email
Maps
Weather Channel Weather app
PageOnce - to keep track of my finances

All my other apps I use sporadically. I'm an internet addict, and after getting a smart phone, I don't think I could go back.

 

[Quintillus]

Seriously, I use the Economister app I made literally every day... which is why I made it...
KeePassDroid - stores all your passwords, works with the desktop version
Instant Heart Rate - You put your finger over the camera lens and it tells you your heart rate. It does this by using the flash on your phone to light up your finger, and then the camera detects changes in light intensity as the blood passes through your fingers.

Nice, making your own app . And now all CFC users can stalk your Android apps page... and maybe end up buying them.

Is the KeePassDroid compatible with the 2.x desktop version or 1.x desktop version? I have the dumbphone version on my dumbphone, but it's only compatible with 1.x, which is kind of inconvenient since I already had the 2.x version with a bunch of passwords on my computer.

The heart rate program sounds pretty cool. Have you done comparisons with other methods to see how accurate it is?

 

[Oruc]

It's some samsung phone, which I bought because all the letters have their own individual key which helps with texting and it was cheap.
I've never been entirely sure what apps are so I don't think I have any?

 

[Mise]

Nice, making your own app . And now all CFC users can stalk your Android apps page... and maybe end up buying them.

If anyone on CFC wants any of my apps they can have them for free

Is the KeePassDroid compatible with the 2.x desktop version or 1.x desktop version? I have the dumbphone version on my dumbphone, but it's only compatible with 1.x, which is kind of inconvenient since I already had the 2.x version with a bunch of passwords on my computer.

It can read 2.x files, but can only write to 1.x files. A little inconvenient, but I rarely have a need to save a new password while I'm on my phone out and about. I use the Samba Filesharing app to use my desktop PC to write to the file when I need to.

The heart rate program sounds pretty cool. Have you done comparisons with other methods to see how accurate it is?

When it works, it's as good as counting heartbeats manually for 15 seconds and multiplying by 4. However, because it depends on light sensitivity, it can be a little fussy. It shows a little cardiograph line that depicts light intensity, and an animated heart that flashes when it detects a beat (i.e. a significant change in light intensity), so it's easy to tell when it's working and when it's not (due to ambient light conditions screwing things up, usually). It's free so you may as well give it a go