App-play

One of the few flaws of my latest car is that it doesn't pick up Long Wave on the radio. That's not a big flaw but it could have stopped me listening to cricket commentary. And anyone knows me knows that if it were anatomically possible, I'd gnaw my ears off to get to England test match cricket commentary.

But ... an away trip with work provided the ideal excuse to test out a new bit of playing with toys. Test Match starts 0600. Trip was scheduled to start at 0600. Spooky coincidence ? Maybe :-) To be honest, it was pure coincidence because I budget for a 60mph average, which makes the 120 mile trip roughly 2 hours. And then I add an hour of leeway because of traffic and because it's always better to arrive fresh and relaxed for a meeting than flustered due to being late. So a 0900 start (set up time needed before 0930 meeting start) meant getting on the road by 0600. I actually managed to get on the road a bit earlier which allowed a chance for a wake up coffee :-)

Hey - I'm getting away from the purpose of this post :-)

What apps am I using on the Android phone right now ? When I first got my latest phone, I didn't think I'd use the smartphone aspects half as much as I do. What makes it better is that I can send the audio from the phone to the car via Bluetooth.

Bluetooth integration - this comes with the phone and car and allows them to do things like handsfree carphoning. The Lexus kit works really well, it's like having a spiderphone in the car. Impressive.

Tune In Radio -

Lack of LongWave for Radio 4 LW made me go "oops" as I realised it would put a severe cramp into being able to listen to cricket commentary. Enter this app, which allows you to easily get to internet radio stations (that you could get to via their sites anyway!) through its own custom menus. It worked pretty well and its buffering meant that silent moments due to bad signal weren't plentiful enough to get annoying.

I'd heartily recommend this app, although I'd put a warning down that it will munch through your internet data allocation if you use it too much. Bluetooth integration worked well and sound quality matched or bettered that of the car's AM radio.

Radardroid -

This is a speed camera database app that runs on an Android phone. It'll use the phone's GPS to tell it where you are and lets you know if there's danger of speeding fines ... Bluetooth integration didn't seem to work though and the database was either patchy or being quiet due to me not speeding. Still, having a "Speed Camera Soon" voice coming from the centre console is better than no warnings at all :-)

Will have to give it another shot when I'm not using the phone for cricket commentary. I also need to recruit a friend to keep an eye on the speed display while I hit a steady speed like 60 on normal roads or 70 on motorway. Purpose - see exactly how much my speedo overreads, I think it's a +5% overread which I'm ok with. I'll need help for that because I don't want to be holding the phone up to read it while doing 60-70.

Marinetraffic - Lets you see where ships are in the world because there's loads of people out there who collect reports from the AIS (Automatic Identification System) boxes they have on board. I don't use this that much but it's a nice to have if you're interested.

ECBCricket - Essential for the cricket fan. Gives up to date score info where available.

Game authenticators - After having my Eve account info stolen, I take authentication a bit more seriously. I have both the Blizzard authenticator and the SWTOR authenticator. If you're involved in either game, it's worth having the authenticator. It's free. They give you a number with lots of digits that changes every minute, you put the number in with the login. Hackers could get your password but not the authenticator code.

Facebook - Hey. I'm an info junkie :-) Facebook = info. That reminds me ... done. (That was me switching Firefox tabs to poke Craziequeen)

Maps - This one came with the Google phone but is handier than you'd think ... The traffic overlay lets you quickly check how insane it would be to hit particular roads. Now I just need to remember to check it before venturing out the door ...

Notes - Another built in app. I use it to take postcodes to the car for satnav and used it today for logging my journey info. (Miles & Time for expenses and flexi)

TrackID - ever wondered what that great song is that's playing in the shop ? TrackID might tell you. If you get a signal, which I struggle to get in HMV these days.

Finally, IMDB - the mobile version of the Internet Movie Data Base which occasionally gets used.

I could say I use other apps like the calendar but I'm not that organised :-)