Tigsfan’s Mumblings

*Updated 4/3/10* 

Almost immediately after receiving my phone, I went about finding the best apps for the platform.  Here I have composed this list by only listing the Top Applications that I use and require on my Droid.  This list will be updated as necessary with new apps that I deem to be "Must-Haves." 

*Of Note* I have only included applications that need to be installed, not those prepackaged on the phone.

Top Applications:

1. Google Voice - This application was arguably the reason I wanted the Droid so bad in the first place.  I have been using Google Voice for almost a year and it has become an essential component to my wireless communication.  This application does everything that you would expect it to and more. Including: Optional automatic usage of Google Voice number on outbound calls, SMS management, Visual Voicemail and transcriptions, etc… Amazing product.

2. Where’s My Droid? - Ever lost your cellphone when it was on vibrate or silent and spent hours trying to find it? Well, this app eliminates that problem entirely.  By sending a chosen worded text message to your phone, it will activate your phone to its loudest ringer setting, and will proceed to blast a notification sound until you find it.  All I can say is, THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS APP! A definite must-have.

3. Hootsuite - My new favorite Twitter client. Great for managing multiple accounts. Downfall being that the pro version costs about $5.

4. Facebook - The facebook Android application is awesome for several reasons. It gives you a pretty, fast, and intuitive interface to view and post to your facebook account.  It also gives you the awesome ability to import pictures, phone numbers, and notes from Facebook directly into your Contacts (which then syncs with Google Contacts, AWESOME).  If you love facebook, you’ll need this app.

5. Advanced Task Killer Free - Long name for an application that does one thing. Ends the background tasks of your running Android applications.  If you’re a power user who wants your Droid (or any other Android phone) to be running at top speed you will need this app.

6.  Astro or Root Explorer - File management is hard to come by with the default programs in Android.  Astra adds that missing management by adding advanced tools for digging through your Android device’s file system.

7.  Barcode Scanner - This application adds the ability to scan barcodes (surprise surprise) of application links.  If you do some searching online for Android applications, this tool will be invaluable as it skips the need to type in URL’s.

8.  Evernote - Coolest Note-Taking and Organizational System, Ever. If you’re not using Evernote, you definitely should be as it provides amazing note taking and transcribing features.  I have the app added to take pictures of receipts, record voice commands, and create on the go shopping lists, but this program really can be used for anything.

9. A Online Radio- While the app name doesn’t do it justice, this amazing little player can pick up radio streams in various cities across the United States. Specifically I use it to listen to 97.1 (local sports talk radio station) when I’m on the road.  Very very helpful app.

10. Google Listen - Simply the best podcast management listen, download, and subscribe tool available for Android users. Excellent application from Google.

11. Movies - Like Movies? Want to know showtimes, figure out what’s coming out, or watch trailers? This is your application. Tons and tons of information about the latest movies out. Great app.

12.  Key Ring - While I don’t have many reward’s cards, library cards, or bonus cards, the ones I do have are now consolidated into this application.  This little app will create scannable barcodes based on the card numbers entered. Not the most exciting, but definitely useful.

13. Mabillo Ringtones - Not going to go into much detail with this one other then to say it is a sweet and quick way to find free ringtones.

14. HelixLauncher - The best replacement home screen for the Droid. Just check the link for screenshots to see what I mean. Very helpful. Adds stationary links on the bottom of the screen. 

15.  Shazam - I personally consider this to be a "Must-Have" app for the fact that it provides a solution to a problem I run into regularly.... What's that song I'm listening to? Shazam quickly finds the answer (assuming its in its database) and provides you with links to download the song.  It's one of those apps that just does exactly what its supposed to do, perfectly. 

16. Dialer One - This application is great at what it does. And that is to add the ability to add to the basic dialing functionality.  In addition to allowing you to dial numbers by hand, it has call history, and alphabetical typing (via the dialing number interface) to call contacts.  The last of these functions mimics pretty much all older cellphones, but I love it.

17. Color Note or Remember the Milk (Paid) - Both of these are to-do/notetaking applications. Both are great, they just do different things. Color Note is a great free note taking application. Remember the Milk on the other hand is the defacto standard of all note-taking clients.  It allows you to synchronize with www.rememberthemilk.com which is great added function, as well as allowing schedules due-dates, structured levels of importance, etc...

18. Clock App from Nexus One - What makes this application so great is that it essentially replaces the boring alarm application built into the Droid, and replaces it with a full on dock like application. It shows has weather info, alarms, and turns the Droid into a more typical bedside alarm clock. take a look at the link for the download of the application or to see screenshots of the app in action.

19. Weather - This is the weather application provided by The Weather Channel.  It's great for any and all weather info.

20. WaveSecure - This is the best of the best when it comes to security applications for the Droid. I'd recommend checking out the provided link for all the info, but heres a quick rundown: Locate Lost Phone, Turn off Silent Mode and Ring (in order to find lost phone), Remotely Lock/Wipe Data on Phone. Also, it allows you to backup media online.  Great program to have, even if you never use it.

 

Just saw Trans Siberian Orchestra in concert Great Spectacular Amazing show.

Here’s a straight up list of what I consider to be the best free antivirus software available.  All of these are suitable, or even more suitable then the offerings that McAffee and Norton provide. The list is broken down into groups of users that the antivirus solutions are best suited for.

For the “Microsoft fan, and Light on Resources” fanatic:

- Microsoft Security Essentials

For the “I Want Reliability and All in One Protection” buff:

- AVG Free Edition

- Avast Home Edition

- AntiVir Personal

For the “Cutting Edge, Antivirus in the Cloud” dude:

- Immunet Protect

- Panda Cloud Antivirus

To anyone curious, I have recently used Microsoft Security Essentials, Panda Cloud Antivirus, and just today have begun to try out Immunet Protect.

Mmmmmm Nothing better then some Ray’s Ice Cream…

Rainbow I spotted outside of Grand Traverse Pie Company. Piece of pie was excellent, but this rainbow was incredible.

To be honest with you,” he said, “I got back to the side and I was listening, and I’m like, ‘They’ve been playing music?’ I didn’t hear any music when I was hitting. Didn’t hear a word. All I heard was, ‘Two outs … three outs … four outs … five outs.

Brandon Inge talking about if the music playing in the background affected his performance in the homerun derby. (He hit zero homeruns)

Safari 4 was released today and put simply, I wanted to try it out.

Unfortunately, I didn’t want to try out Bonjour or Apple Software Updater, which is included in the default installation of Safari 4.

So, I used a trick that I picked up from Ed Bott, to bypass installing these bloated services.

How to Install Safari 4 without the Bloat:

1.  Download the Safari 4 installer from apple.  You can find it here.  
2.  Grab your favorite archiving utility (I recommend the excellent 7-zip) and open up the SafariSetup.exe file you just downloaded.  
3.  Extract the Safari.exe file from the installer to your desktop. 
4.  Open up the command line window. Vista/Win7 users, hit the Windows key then type “cmd” (minus the quotes)  and hit Enter, XP Users, click on Start -> Then Run and type “cmd” (minus the quotes)
5.  Navigate to your desktop directory in the command line by using the “cd” command.  (Ex:  cd C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Desktop )
6.  Finally, simply type Safari.exe -passive into the command line.  
7.  The installer will run, and you are all set. Enjoy your bloat free web surfing on Safari 4!

Boo’s

- Datsyuk still injured. Not booing Datsyuk, obviously if he could play he would, it just has clearly hurt the team of late, and I’m hoping he’ll get back in their tonight.

- NHL Referee’s. The “Bettman Game” the other night was reflecting of the entire NHL playoffs. The ref’s have been terrible, and I just have to feel that the NHL can do better then that.

- The Crosby ass-kissing on CBC. Almost unbearable. I’ll leave it at that.

Rah’s

Sports:

-Johan Franzen’s Play in the Playoffs: This in and of itself has amazed me, and his play reminds me of former Red Wing Brendan Shanahan (totally wearing his jersey today on a side note) in that he simply can out-muscle his opponent and get those tough goals.

- Edwin Jackson had an arm still? I sure as hell didn’t see this coming. I would’ve guessed he would have been maybe a decent 4th pitcher, but his play has made him a solid #2 and if not for JV’s play in May, he may have been fighting for 1. Absolutely astounded at how well he has pitched.

- Ken Holland. His genius still amazes me, with acquisitions of guys like Helm and Abdicator, who have had major contributions to this year’s playoffs.

-The Tigers play of late. With their horrible series against the Red Sox behind us, the Tigs still are in 1st place with Minnesota 2.5 games back.

Software

- SRWareIron (Portable Application): This portable web browser based on Google Chrome’s open source backend Chromium has a couple of bonus features such as Adblocking powers, as well as removing the “sending home” that Chrome does. You can read about it here (translated from German).

- Chromium Updater: I recently have been trying to replace Firefox (and its extensions) with Chromium and bookmarklets. I’m a nightly tester freak so the Chromium Updater has been a blessing, does exactly what it says, downloads the latest nightly build of chromium and installs it, quickly and efficiently.

- CodySafe (portable application): This is a portable application manager, similar to PortableApps but with a few more features. It has an eject button which automates the process of ejecting a drive, as well as tons of other great feature. You can read about it CPU-Z tells me everything that I could want to know about the make and model of my CPU. CoreTemp on the other hand, reads the core temps sensors on my CPU and tells me if I’m pushing that stock heatsink a bit too much.

Bookmarklets (Follow the links to find the bookmarklets, as I have not directly linked to them here):

- LastPass Login/Fill: I can’t link my personal LastPass bookmarklet here, but it essentially allows the user to use their lastpass.com account while logged into a browser like Chrome, or Opera (or Firefox, but for that they have their own extension, same w/ IE) . By the way, if you haven’t checked out www.lastpass.com already, you’re missing out on an excellent, browser related online password tool. Absolutely excellent, because now I only have to remember 1 password as opposed to hundreds.

- bit.ly sidebar: While I have went back and forth between using bit.ly and tr.im, recently I’ve been using bit.ly for its great sidebar bookmarklet. Check it out on their site http://bit.ly

- Tweetpkr: This gives me a quick overlaid view of my twitter stream on the current webpage that I’m on as well as a quick tweet box for fast twittering.

- Clip to Evernote: This is probably my most used bookmarklet, as I use the excellent note-taking application Evernote for a majority of my banking and schoolwork. Anytime I purchase something I use this handy bookmarklet and its instantly uploaded to Evernote for online and offline browsing and organizing. For school, its great for organizing pdf’s, documents, and notes from my professors.

Movies

- Finally saw Star Trek with the fiance and her parents, and I absolutely loved it. I am a VERY casual Star Trek fan, and found solace in the fact that the movie appealed to non-Trekkies as well as devoted fans. Hell, even my buddy Ed who vowed to never see it, ended up checking it out and liking it.

- In Bruges. Probably one of my favorite dark comedy films that I’ve seen in my lifetime. Absolutely fantastic acting by Collin Farrell (never thought Id type that after Phonebooth). All I have to say is karate-chopping a midget. Go see it.

This all comes courtesy of the work done by dreg2003 on motownsports.com

This is merely a re-typing of his game.  Thanks all goes to him.

The Jim Price Drinking Game

1 Drink
When Jim says “Wow!” >Double if its two consecutive wows (that means 4 drinks).
When Jim says “Dan”
When Jim says “This is a professional hitter”

2 Drinks
When Jim says “Good/bad swings(s)”
When Jim says “That’s a Faygo homerun, 100 delicious years”
When Jim says “Baby”
When Jim says “Nice area” > double if he says “Beautiful area”
When Jim prolongs the word “third” as in “Batting thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiird, Carlos Guillen”

3 Drinks
When Jim ads -er to somebody’s name, as in Craigger or Diekster.
When Jim refers Kenny Rogers as “the professor”
When Jim says “No question/doubt about it”
When Jim says “Late breaking movement”
When Jim says “The game around the game” or “he understand the game around him”.
When Jim takes a big breath right into the mic.
When Jim says “The art of pitching”
When Jim refers to Al Kaline as “Mr. Kaline” double if he refers to him as “#6”

5 Drinks
When Jim says “…qualify the speed of the runner”
When Jim talks about funnel cakes
When Jim says “Tools of intelligence”
When Jim refers to baseball as “combat” double if it’s “mortal combat”
When Jim says “Boy I will tell you what”
When Jim says “Mojo”
When Jim says “To all of you youngsters/young kids listening”
When Jim says “wasn’t he a catcher” when talking about a manager.
When Jim gets overly excited about an opponents homerun.

7 Drinks
If they ever bring back the Pepsi promotion and Jim says, “Make mine diet!”
When Jim says “I heard [the batter’s] eyes click from up here” in reference to hanging breaking ball.
When Jim talks about catchers being the most intelligent players on the field or anything else referring to catchers being superior.
When Jim talks about his lemonade

10 Drinks
For every inning Jim starts as the play-by-play man, even though I haven’t heard him do this in quite a while.
When Jim references his role in the 1968 world championship team.
When Jim refers to fantasy campers as “Pretenders” instead of prospects.

20 Drinks
If the game time temp is 68 plus or minus a degree and Jim then makes reference to the 68 championship team

He didn’t make a mistake. In hindsight, if he had a slow-motion camera to review it, he may not have (blown the play dead). He did what all officials are instructed to do. Blow the whistle when they don’t see the puck. And he didn’t see the puck. He said he talked to the players on the ice. It’s an emotional game. He wanted to explain to the players on the ice, as he saw it, the puck was out of sight and he blew the whistle. The assumption was that the puck was covered.

-E.J. McGuire, series manager for the NHL, discussing the horrible play that ended the wings chances at a comeback, when referee Brad Watson intended to call an early whistle and blew a definite goal by Marian Hossa dead.