Crappy phone, great apps

I recently purchased a cheap pay-as-you-go Android smartphone with no intention to ever use the phone feature.  After removing several non-essential apps from the phone, I installed the following useful (and free!) apps:

• UTILITY
  • Plane Mode Tweaker by Chislon Chow
    • This app allows you to let your WiFi through the phone’s “Airplane Mode.”  All cell phones, even those that have never been registered with any phone carrier, will periodically communicate with nearby cell towers.  Using this app, I can turn off that ability – while still leaving the WiFi untouched.  By turning off just the cell radio in the phone, I was able to extend the battery life significantly.
  • Tina Time-Lapse by B.nana Technology
    • This is a really great free app with lots of settings.  If you buy the paid app, it seems to have more settings and abilities.
  • Voice Recorder by Mamoru Tokashiki
    • I’ve been using this useful app for years to make notes to myself.  ((And once to record the sounds of a tiger.))1
  •  VNC Viewer by RealVNCLimited
    • Control any other computer running a VNC server.
  • GPS Navigation
    • There are several apps that don’t require an internet connection to provide turn-by-turn navigation.  The tradeoff you have to use the app to download “OpenStreetMap” maps of any area through which you wish to navigate through.
    • MapFactor: GPS Navigation by MapFactor
      • I need to test this app out more.
    • Navfree USA: Free Satnav by Navmii
      • I need to test this app out more.
    • Polaris Navigation GPS by DS Software
      • I found the user interface to be confusing.  I suspect it is most useful for letting people create GPS maps while they hike, backpack, or travel.  Uninstalled.
• ENTERTAINMENT
  • Chess Time – Muliplayer Chess by Haptic Apps LLC
    • Great app if you enjoy the occasional chess game.  I use it to play against friends2 all the time.
  • IMDB Movies & TV
    • Sometimes you just have to know the name of the actress who’s playing the barrista.
  • Shazam
    • Sometimes you just have to know the name of a song playing in a movie or TV show.
  •  Netflix
    • It is downright ridiculous to me that I can buy a $20 appliance for watching movies over a wireless connection.

Also, once you install apps on the phone, you’ll want to go to the app manager and move them to “internal memory.”  Although it sounds the phone is asking you if you want to move all the apps to the very limited 1GB of the phone’s internal memory, what you’re really doing is moving the apps to the “internal memory” of the 4GB microSD card.

1. True story. [↩]
2. And enemies [↩]