If your anything like me you’ve cough world cup fever!!! Ive been using my android phone to keep up to date on the games i cant be at the pub to see, track my teams, and overall enrich my world cup experience! i thought I’d share some of the apps I’ve been using:

The best app I’ve found so far for tracking stats, players, finding times, etc etc is “World Droidcup”! its got a pretty interface, ALOT of information, but can sometimes be slow on the updating. I had to run the app a couple times before it started working properly, but its definitely number one on my list for its ease of use and abundance of information (after some initial hiccups)

My second favorite app for getting all the information you can handle on the game is Goal.com Mobile! its sleek, shiny, and gives you alot of information! Its coverage for the world cup isn’t perfect, but if you are a soccer fan then i definitely recommend this for all your games post world cup! you can set favorites in every league, track players, get updates on stats and standings. its absolutely wonderful for soccer in general!

And I’ve saved the best for last! One of the great things about hosting this world cup in South Africa is the energy you get from the fans in the stand! So much national pride, love of the game, and they have brought their own touch to the game…. that’s right, I’m talking about the Vuvuzelas! The wonderful horns that will forever remind me of soccer! And this is the best app to get your Vuvuzela on in your local pub or watch party! “World Cup Virtual Vuvuzela” Ive tested all the ones on the market now, and this one is absolutely the best!

That’s all Ive got for now! not really much else that would improve the world cup for an android user other than mobile video, looks like we will need to wait till next world cup for that one! Hope you enjoy my suggestions!!

Ive been getting alot of questions about where to find non market android apps lately, so i wanted to introduce you to “SlideME”. its the absolute best source for android app excellence! Ive installed several apps form them wiht no issue, one was paid and my payment info has (sofar) been kept safe! in short i have no complaints whatsoever about them! and they house some of the most fun (and non market approved) android apps! To install this app youll hafto enable non market apps (duh) then just scan this barcode:

Or go to think address on your android phone:

http://SlideME.org/sam2.apk

Some of these apps require you to root your phone. if your not rooted just avoid those apps. Ill post a step by step later on how to root your Android device!

With all the new android users since the release of the “Droid” phone i thought i would give some updates on the best android app!
Locale is an excellent app for managing your phone and some of the annoyances that come with phone ownership. the best way to give you an idea of what locale does is to give examples. For instance… When you go to the movies you need to silence your phone, maybe set it to vibrate, and dim the screen so when you check whats goin on during the movie your not blinding everyone behind you. Locale can do that for you without you even touching the phone. Just setup conditions for the movies. mine were the GPS coordinates of the theaters locally. so when i arrive there, my phone is silenced, dims, and the wifi turns off to save battery.
I also have a condition of “low battery” setup, so when my battery reacher 20% or less i have locale Automatically turn off wifi, gps, bluetooth, dim the screen etc etc. Your conditions can be almost anything the phone can detect, form presence of a wifi signal, to gps location and many more. the results of the situation can be anything! i used to have it Automatically birghtkite check in for me using the SMS plugin! so i didnt even hafto look at brightkite, when i showed up at a placemark it would Automatically send the text to the brightkite SMS. So yeah, Definitely check out Locale! its won the Android developers challenge and the Mike’s Seal Of Approval!
Scan the barcode with your android phone to install the app!

So ive recently gotten on this much needed fitness kick, and started walking and occasionally jogging. Recently i also started using the android app SportyPal.  Its an awesome way to track almost all aspects of your workout!

Pretty much any workout where a gps can track you its useful for. roller blading, walking, jogging, cycling, even a mixture of them it can track your distance, speed, calories burned, top speed, all kinda of spiffy things. Ill post my test workout below, itll give you a good idea of how it tracks things. on this workout i was walking,m then decided to pick up the pace a couple times to see how the app would react.

You can see the velocity and altitude graphs aswell as how long it took to get between checkpoints. the app can automatically post your stats to Facebook and twitter, or just upload them to the sportypal.com website to track them. if you click on the right side of the map above it will display all kinds of spiffy information that a serious exercise enthusiast would love!
If your at all interested in working out, or just want to play with a very spiffy app i defiantly recommend this for anyone. casual go on a walk every now and then types to “i fucking love cycling” folk. and its free so if you don’t like it ill refund your money Just scan the barcode below to install!

Decided to post another workout im proud of

Short story before we start, i was aw Quakecon 2009 earlier this month and the network would not allow steam connections to cut down on bandwidth abuse, but my Steam install had not updated in a while so i could not play any of my Steam games on the LAN. if i had setup this Tethering solution all of my problems would have been solved. if you have an android phone id recommend you get tethering setup even if you don’t think you will need it. because when you do its already too late.
So this is how to setup your android device to act as a proxy for connectivity to the Internet, or Tethering!
First off, like most unconventional solutions, you need to enable installing non market android apps. To do this Hit Menu then settings then Applications, then check the Unknown Sources box. While your in that area we will also need to enable USB Debugging to do that go to Menu then Settings, Then Applications, then Development, then check the USB debugging box. Now we are ready to install the app to allow for Tethering. To facilitate this I’ve generated this handy QR code. Just open the Android Barcode Scanner and scan this:

We are done with the Device settings for now. next we will need to turn to the computer you want to use tethering with, usually a laptop but it can be any computer. You should already have the android driver installed, If your have an up to date Windows or MAC computer you can skip that, but for a Linux compy you’ll need to go Here to install the Android Driver.
Now you’ll want to install the Android SDK! Quick and easy install, but its a 100MB+ Install Mac, Windows, and Linux installs can be found Here. When your done installing, plug your phone into the computer, and run the app we installed “Proxy app”.Press the “Start Proxy” Button. Now open a Command prompt in the folder that you uncompressed the SDK. Navigate to the location of adb.exe.For example mine was “C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Desktop\android-sdk-windows-1.5_r3\tools” as the folder containing the file. so i hit start, then run, then cmd, then typed “cd c:\Documents and Settings\Username\Desktop\android-sdk-windows-1.5_r3\tools”. once your there type “adb forward tcp:8080 localabstract:Proxy” for a windows box, or if your on a Linux or mac “./adb forward tcp:8080 localabstract:Proxy”. This will start the Proxy server running on port 8080.
This is the easy part, set firefox to use a Proxy server to do that go to Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Settings > Manual proxy Configuration, and fill in the HTTP proxy as localhost, and the port as 8080. Hit OK and your done!
You can now access the Internet on your computer through your Android Phone! Enjoy!

In my Previous Post about google voice i suggested that users download an app called GV to use Google Voice from your Android phone. well its time to uninstall that 3rd party app and switch to Google’s Google Voice App!
The reason i suggest Google’s version over GV is that the new version handles system resources MUCH better. They basically make it so your phone behaves as if it is your Google voice number. that is you have the ability to configure it to behave so. right now i have it setup so all outgoing calls go through google voice, the GV app has that capability but it was slow loading, took a long time to connect the call, and even then only worked half the time. Text messaging is also improved upon, rather than the lack luster interface of GV we get a shiny screen similar to the default messaging screen. and the messages go by much quicker than the GV app could. but how could they not. My thanks go out to the guy who wrote GV for getting us something to fill the time before Google got around to making an app! Well Done! In short Google has done an amazing job of completely integrating Google voice into the android platform!

To download the app just scan the QR Code!

I love everything augmented reality! Ever since BIL ive been hella interested in an augmented reality system thats content is community driven, and Wikitude is exactly that. sounds like a very specific thing to wish for.. but trust me… its worth wishing for. The app has alot to offer as far as hard data. it pulls your location gia GPS and uses the compass to point you in the direction of location based Qype and Wikipedia entries. the awesome part, and the augmented reality part is the camera mode. Wikitude overlays way points of interesting landmarks and descriptions on the display of your Android phone. Its really best described in this video.

Its not a terribly useful app at the moment unless your going sight seeing, but it is an awesome way to show off the ideas behind augmented reality. And a spiffy toy to play with. Scan the QR-code to get the app. Enjoy!

Ok, this has been a long time coming, I’ve been using google voice since the grandcentral change, and everything i love about grandcentral had been moved over, and improved greatly!! The features of google voice are:

Call screening – Announce and screen callers
Listen in – Listen before taking a call
Block calls – Keep unwanted callers at bay
SMS – Send, receive, and store SMS
Place calls – Call US numbers for free
Taking calls – Answer on any of your phones
Phone routing – Phones ring based on who calls
Forwarding phones – Add phones and decide which ring
Voicemail transcripts – Read what your voicemail says
Listen to voicemail – Check online or from your phone
Notifications – Receive voicemails via email or SMS
Personalize greeting – Vary greetings by caller
Share voicemail – Forward or download voicemails
Conference calling – Join people into a single call
Call record – Record calls and store them online
Call switch – Switch phones during a call
Mobile site – View your inbox from your mobile
GOOG-411 – Check directory assistance
Manage groups – Set preferences by group

and each one of them is displayed so masterfully that i have begun using my Google voice # more than my regular phone number (The Google Voice app for Android has helped ALOT there!). One of the best features, and strangely unmentioned in Googles feature list is the Contacts! they do such an wonderful job of managing contacts, contact lists, and contact groups that its impossible to go back to any other management system! Ive used it to setup one voicemail message for family members and another for business contacts. seems like a useless feature but is totally awesome! Its voicemail system is also ZomgsWTFlol Amazing! If I’m in a meeting and forced to ignore a call that i needed to take, the transcript of the voicemail will be text messaged to me shortly after the message is left! Text messaging, as well as placing calls can all be done though the web interface, so it has the potential to save you alot of money on text messages. and a whole lot more money if you put your google voice number in your Fav5 (then all you calls can be free ). There are just so many small things that when put together make an amazing product!
Oh and the Google voice app for the android OS makes it Amazingly easy to route all your calls and text messages though the Google Voice system! The GV app also has surprisingly good contact management, and a few other spiffy features, but its main use is routing calls though google voice. If you have a Voice account, and a G1 but havnt installed GV yet now is your chance!

Update: Download Google’s GV app instead

This was the 3rd app i ever installed on my G1. one of the most usefull but it has been removed form the market. what it does is send repeating text messages up to 100 at a time to any number. Its aweosme, the name truly explains the app. Google removed it form the app store because it can be used for malitious means. which is pretty much all i use it for… spamming the hell out of friends (and enemies ) anyway its not gone! If you enable the ability to install non market apps you can still have your SMSBarrage! the guy who wrote it (Jake Wharton) is hosting it on his site now and still updating it! alot of people are asking how to install it, so i went and made this handy Barcode.  Again you must enable non market apps, then just scan the barcode with your barcode scanner app, and install! 

Note: this is version 1.1.3, im told 2.0 will be out soon, when it comes out i will update the barcode.

Its Here!!! well almost. ive been an avid Brightkite user since before i got my G1, but began trending to using latitude, especially since the new version of maps came out. this was mostly because there was no Brightkite app for android! but thats all changing, The Android brightkite app is now in beta!
If your already a Brightkite user youll be happy to hear that almsot all the features of the web interface have been translated over to the Android app. including whats going on around you, a Really nice “Find Me” feature, its just all around great! now for the part that most of you came for… Heres how to get it.
First enable non market apps in Settings>Applications, then open your barcode scanner and scan the QR Code below. Next… ENJOY!.