Hey there,
I have tried to gather the best freeware applications Android has to offer, with descriptions, links back to the developer's websites and QR codes that leads directly to the Market. It's about a 100 apps divided in various categories.
I'm curious what you guys think of the guide? Would your Top 100 list differ a lot from mine? I hope some of you will have use for it!
Here's the URL if you want to check it out:
The Ever-Growing List of Awesome Android Applications
If you can think of any more applications that should be on the list, please let me know
Thanks
-- Lars
As a new Hero-user (on my third week now), I must say one thing: Thank you so much!! =)
Thanks! Glad someone liked it, at least
A bunch of new apps have been added to the collection, and if anyone knows of a great app that's not included - please let me know.
Nice work!
There's a quite a few top lists, and some are better than others, both in content and layout, but I always discover some new apps worth checking out. I very much like that the entire list is visible on one page, with short descriptions.
Would like to point out that Think Android's AppManager (both free and pro versions) has been renamed to AppMonster.
phaelox said:
Nice work!
Would like to point out that Think Android's AppManager (both free and pro versions) has been renamed to AppMonster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure? Because I couldn't find a free version of AppMonster, but AppManager is still available?
Thanks, helped a lot.
MapleDouglas said:
Are you sure? Because I couldn't find a free version of AppMonster, but AppManager is still available?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The creators of the app announced the name change on their website: http://think-android.com
"App Manager" has been renamed to "AppMonster" in market a while ago now (but it depends on what country you're in). If I search for App Manager it only shows apps with similar names, not the app by Think Android.
Androlib now only shows AppMonster in some -not all- non-English markets, namely Chinese, Czech, Italian, Japanese, Russian. And even then in some markets only the Pro and in some only the Free versions. I think Androlib is not that up to date.
http://www.androlib.com/r.aspx?r=appmonster
AppBrain correctly shows the app as "AppMonster": http://www.appbrain.com/search?q=appmonster
Far too much use of the word "awesome", but a nice list, thanks for your efforts.
phaelox said:
"App Manager" has been renamed to "AppMonster" in market a while ago now (but it depends on what country you're in). If I search for App Manager it only shows apps with similar names, not the app by Think Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right. I was tricked by AndroLib.com, initially, since it didn't show any results for AppMonster when I did a search.
@knightnz I try to use the word "awesome" with caution, but I like to alliterate
I've added a new section to the guide with the top free Android live wallpapers
Did I fail to include any good ones?
Apologies for my criticism, but a pure list is not so useful in my opinion; I mean, there's Google for that.
It would be much more useful if this was a ranking, where users can vote their best 10 apps, for example.
Super great lists. Few worthy ones:
1) ColorDict: Universal dictionary reader for Wordnet, data downloaded to local memory (SD Card) for offline view
2) RealCalc: Best replacement calculator
3) Uninstaller: to uninstall apps. Phone's manage application way too slow
4) KeePassDroid: android keepass for storing logins and passwords. If setup with Dropbox or sugarsync, then can sync between phone and computer.
5) Call History: detail call logs better than what 1.5 offer with ability to back up.
6) Moto Phone Portal : access phone by wifi in same network using browser. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=574677
7) xScope GL : Another web browser with much better functionality. Free version limited to number of favs.
8) Skyfire beta : surprisingly fast enough and only option available to view web based videos until Flash 10 lands.
Did I miss K9 or it's not on the list???
Hi again,
I've done some major updates to the Android apps guide, and it now includes all the top widgets and live wallpapers as well. I've also removed some outdated software, and added blue borders to the very best applications so they're easier to spot.
All apps, widgets and live wallpapers are free
Cheers
Ok, its that time now!
Attention Android Themers! Project Theme Manager is a Go!
We are opening our newest project to the public in Beta form. Now is your chance if you want to be a part of this exciting new project!
The public website is at http://n3xgenapps.com and registration is free and open.
To Android Themers:
We need your assistance in getting this project off the ground. Without your themes in the public listing, this project is completely useless. For that reason, we are not releasing the Android App just yet. I'm sure you know the public would tear it apart in the market with bad reviews for lack of theme choice and 1 stars, etc.
Feel free to join us on Freenode IRC (#N3xGenApps) at any time for more information or to give some feedback, or even just to chat.
To the rest of the public:
The android app is in the market and FREE to everyone! Go grab your copy and get your theme on! https://market.android.com/details?id=com.n3xgenapps.theme.manager
Thanks, and as always, enjoy!
N3xGen Theme Manager has just been updated!
We've added the ability for developers to include their themes in multiple types and categories now, which means its now even easier to find the themes you're looking for.
New App Features
★ New icon and theme! - Thanks Kovdev!
★ You can now view an image in full screen.
★ Bug fixed (Hopefully, let me know if otherwise via email).
★ Added an all apps tab inside each theme section.
New Site Features
★ Added a donate button.
★ Developers can now have multiple categories per theme.
★ A new advanced edit screen to edit your existing themes.
More changes are in the near future as well.
http://www.n3xgenapps.com
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.n3xgenapps.theme.manager
Enjoy!
Sneak peek at the upcoming Android App:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyxW3pcrdMI
added all my themes
The app has finally been released to the Android market for everyone!
Go get your theme on!
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.n3xgenapps.theme.manager
Nice app - telling all my friends to add their themes in
Presumably once non-market themes can be uploaded MIUI themes could be added too.
Sent from my DHD
So is this just for aosp roms? I'm a themer for the EVO 3d.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
mayfield103 said:
So is this just for aosp roms? I'm a themer for the EVO 3d.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right now it only downloads themes from the market like ADW, LP, GOLauncher, and ThemeChooser. But we are working on adding in developer uploads (and/or outside linking to files), which will allow for rooted theming to take place (update.zip and metamorph, etc).
very nice, very fast. More theme and this is the best app for themes XD i love it
http://n3xgenapps.com/blog/Compatibility-fixes-with-Theme-Manager-app-now-in-market!
We've fixed some compatibility issues and now support down to 2.1 Eclair API (update is in the market). This should make the app more widely available among devices.
We also have an apk for 1.6 Donut API, but we're still testing it at the moment. Expect to see this pushed to market later tonight or early tomorrow.
Question regarding the themes - let's say I'm a themer from a google-checkout-unsupported-country (thank you, google...) and I have a LP theme I've put on sale through paypal, for a buck - and I'd like to expand the audience.
Shortly - does this hypothetical (ekhm, http://blazingdroid.blogspot.com/2011/08/dark-metro-solid-black.html ) theme has to be already available in the android market as a paid app if I'd like to submit it to you (which means you don't handle the accounting), or somehow you've just discovered a savior-solution for a lot of people who are in a situation like mine?
Because, you know, that would be simply awesome. Paypal mobile payments library perhaps? Simple concept - theme preview in Theme Manager, user taps buy button > webView opens within the app (users don't like the browser popping up), user inputs his paypal credentials (or the browser, if it already had them rembered)> user taps buy button > theme apk automatically downloads to a folder on sd card, Theme Manager applies it. Done. Snappy.
EDIT
feature request - fullscreen preview screenshots. The existing ones, well, they're available, but my guess is users want bigger ones. More details.
citizen_x said:
Question regarding the themes - let's say I'm a themer from a google-checkout-unsupported-country (thank you, google...) and I have a LP theme I've put on sale through paypal, for a buck - and I'd like to expand the audience.
Shortly - does this hypothetical (ekhm, http://blazingdroid.blogspot.com/2011/08/dark-metro-solid-black.html ) theme has to be already available in the android market as a paid app if I'd like to submit it to you (which means you don't handle the accounting), or somehow you've just discovered a savior-solution for a lot of people who are in a situation like mine?
Because, you know, that would be simply awesome. Paypal mobile payments library perhaps? Simple concept - theme preview in Theme Manager, user taps buy button > webView opens within the app (users don't like the browser popping up), user inputs his paypal credentials (or the browser, if it already had them rembered)> user taps buy button > theme apk automatically downloads to a folder on sd card, Theme Manager applies it. Done. Snappy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish there was a way to do that, but unfortunately we are requiring all paid themes submitted to our app to be directed through the official android market (for legal reasons).
citizen_x said:
feature request - fullscreen preview screenshots. The existing ones, well, they're available, but my guess is users want bigger ones. More details.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EDIT: Actually, this is already been updated and is in the market.
Yup, just been reading your site, the update notice.
Screenshots yeah
Fast responsive developer - tick.
Great idea for an app - tick.
Neat, jazzy execution - tick.
Ease of use - tick.
Large theme database - pending.
You know where it goes? To a sccessfull business model.
Lots of normal, xda-unaware users would gladly see a tool for better theme management. This is it. With time, it will get more publicity. Become more popular. Spread as the preferred way, easy, hassle-free way to apply themes - at least for the standard users.
Cause installing a custom rom and theming it top to bottom requires root, and root requires lose of warranty, and 95% of people like their warranties more.. Plain simple.
____
Edit: Just added my theme.
Feature request - clickable hyperlinks in the theme description. They're kinda vital for the ease user experience You know, quick setup guide [here], some hints [there], a resource pack of icons, walls [there], contact dev [my site].
small bug - '&' turns into '&'
Updated the app and the site.
Details in O.P.
Enjoy!
So, there have been a ton of complaints about the facebook app on windows phone 8. Am I missing something? Why would anyone put an app on thier WP8 phone, when the People Hub ties all that together? I don't even have a facebook app installed, because everything I need to do is done from the hub.I can post an update, check in, see my notifications, whats new specific to my stuff or my friends that I have grouped exclusive.
So what am I missing?
Nothing. Some people are not used to having working things out of the box, so they just download apps to replace what the system already does.
My point exactly. I would even go much more further, I would ban all FB, Twitter... apps from the market since they r not needed at all. Instead, I would want some RDP apps for free, also some good database apps etc...
Good! I thought it was just me! Thanks guys.
Sent from my wicked sexy HTC 8X windows phone using Board Express
There is quite some functionality in the Apps though that is not available in the Hub. It's conversation views in Twitter or Groups in Facebook. If you use those Features you can't rely on the People Hub alone.
StevieBallz said:
There is quite some functionality in the Apps though that is not available in the Hub. It's conversation views in Twitter or Groups in Facebook. If you use those Features you can't rely on the People Hub alone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Groups in facebook? Isn't that the same as Groups in the stock app? I don't do twitter, so cant answer to that. But still have found more functionality as well as easier interface when using the stock app on the phone.
I think OP has to look at things way wider. Maybe you just treat your phone more personal...
1)Facebook app can allow me lend my friend/families the phone and he can have a quick look at his facebook. (more social)
2)Facebook allow me to take control of another account I own( not saying about pages though, not sure WP8 facebook app can allow users to manage the page we owned)
3)respond to friend request.
4)As for myself, I have subscribe to many funny pages and news ones, the endless timeline give me look at what I have missed unlike the facebook/twitter integration,it does limits certain number of news/tweets and we can't scroll down after that.
I think these are the things you missing, might be more when compare to facebook apps on other platform since facebook app on wp has lesser feature.
sylau90 said:
I think OP has to look at things way wider. Maybe you just treat your phone more personal...
1)Facebook app can allow me lend my friend/families the phone and he can have a quick look at his facebook. (more social)
2)Facebook allow me to take control of another account I own( not saying about pages though, not sure WP8 facebook app can allow users to manage the page we owned)
3)respond to friend request.
4)As for myself, I have subscribe to many funny pages and news ones, the endless timeline give me look at what I have missed unlike the facebook/twitter integration,it does limits certain number of news/tweets and we can't scroll down after that.
I think these are the things you missing, might be more when compare to facebook apps on other platform since facebook app on wp has lesser feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, my friends are goofballs. If I let them have access to my phone, I get crazy posts on FB, and my profile picture suddenly changes to a crotch picture. So, no one gets to screw with my phone except the better half (and now Jr thanks to Kids Corner). But then again, I do the same to them!
And I don't have more than 1 facebook account, but I see where you can add accounts, so maybe someone who has two accounts can try to add an account under thier different one? Might allow it, although, I think it would merge the two, which could become confusing.
And I have not noticed friend requests, so will have to see if I get one recently and see how that works.
I see where your coming from, guess since I am not a power user I don't utilize all the capabilities that FB has, nor the native / 3rd party app.
Thanks for clarifying, FINALLY some one did! Thanks!
Groups are not the same as WP Groups (well, something similar exists with the lists Feature but that's an entirely different Topic).
Facebook Groups can have members and have there own pin wall, calendar, etc. You can use them e.g. to bundle all the Information on a certain Topic like e.g. when you are part of a certain Club. To my knowledge I can't Access those from the People Hub.
I'm only using two of them but those pretty frequentlly. There are other Features not used by everyone but rather important to others that are not available in the People Hub.
Thanks for the info!
Sent from my wicked sexy HTC 8X windows phone using Board Express
It's missing a lot of the interaction you'd get from the website or a third-party app, for instance:
The messaging app does not pick up Facebook message threads, for one (Just chats).
You can't edit your own status updates.
You can't friend/unfriend people.
The Facebook People Hub is meant more for getting the basic info on people that you have on your contacts list and to keep them in the loop on you. That's it. I think these limitations are by design.
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"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Note: This version of the app has hit its token limit, for more info on my plans and its future, check out this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56228193&postcount=553
Hello guys! From the creators of Sliding Messaging Pro, I would like to announce one of our new projects: Talon for Twitter!
This one, along with klinkdawg's EvolveSMS are the two brand new apps that we have been creating the past few months. They are full of polish, features, and beautiful design and KitKat style! Both of these apps are availible on the Google Play store today, but lets get to know Talon a little first
Talon for Twitter - Google Play Store
-----------------------------------------------------
Play Store Description:
Get fully immersed in your Twitter with this beautiful, feature PACKED Twitter client with a design that actually makes sense!
Created with Android 4.4 (KitKat) in mind. Includes full screen layouts, stunning animations and more! Of course that doesn't mean earlier versions of android get left out! The only thing that wasn't able to be recreated in Android 4.3 and below was the transparent navigation and status bars... Sorry! It just isn't possible
Beautiful, up-to-date layouts, designs, and neat animations isn't the only thing Talon has going for it though! The list of features is enormous as well, doing everything you could ever want from a Twitter app right off the bat. Even though it is new, I have added every single major and minor Twitter feature that I think is absolutely essential plus a ton that most people wouldn't even think of. Here is a pretty comprehensive list of its features:
Twitter features:
- Live streaming support
- Support for 2 accounts
- View your timelines (main, mentions, direct messages, links, and pictures)
- View retweets, favorites, Local and world trending, user profiles, Twitter lists, and more
- Favorite users
- Search Twitter
- Delete, favorite, retweet, quote, and reply to statuses
- view replies to statuses
- Update your profile picture, banner, location, and user description
- block, follow, and add users to lists
- search for your friends to tweet at
- Attach pictures to your tweets
- Attach locations to your tweets
- And the list goes on
Customization features:
- Extremely powerful developer theme engine (Read the second post )
- Choose between either "Talon" or "Hangouts" layouts
- Choose from 3 beautiful base themes (light, dark, and pitch black)
- Custom text sizes
- Night mode
- Auto-Refresh options
- Custom notification settings
- And many other goodies in there as well!
App Features:
- "Talon Pull" to be always listening for interactions (mentions, retweets, favorites, new followers, and direct messages)
- Expandable, actionable, and dynamic notification system
- Full app popup
- Full emoji support
- View in-line Twitter and Instagram pictures
- View in-line YouTube thumbnails
- Native YouTube player
- In-app browser
- Complete landscape and tablet modes
- Advance to new pages in a "windowed" viewing mode
- Never leave your timeline with in-line replies, favorites, and retweets
- Actionable toast bar so you always know where you are and can jump to the top
- Hiding action bar
- "Do not disturb" mode
- Widget for main timeline
- DashClock Extension
- Draft system for unsent/failed tweets
- Google style pull to refresh for quick refreshing
- Save tweet pictures
- Share content with other apps, to and from Talon
You will never go back to your old Twitter client again!
Enjoy Talon and don't hesitate to contact me with questions, requests, or bugs!
Thanks!
Contact me (Luke Klinker):
Email: [email protected]
My Twitter: @lukeklinker
Talon's Twitter: @TalonAndroid
Google+ Beta Page
Emojis
Here are two different emoji plugins for you to choose from, choose whichever suits you best, install it and never worry about it again!
Sliding Emoji Keyboard - Android
Sliding Emoji Keyboard - iOS
Permissions Explained:
- Write to Storage: Saves pictures to your SD card and writes them into the cache.
- Read from Storage: Used when backing up settings.
- Location: Used for trends and attaching locations to tweets.
- Network Communication: Obviously have to be able to interact with Twitter
- Network State: Used so the user can toggle background sync to only over WiFi.
- Run at Startup: Re-schedules the background refreshes.
- Keep Awake: Used for background refreshes and waking the screen.
- Vibrate: Used for the notifications.
Credits:
- Jacob Klinker: to many things to list! Tons of ideas, support, and inspiration
- Aaron Klinker: Icon Design
- Other open-source libraries and resources used can be found under the 'Get Help' section in settings.
-----------------------------------------------------
Screenshots:
-----------------------------------------------------
Closing Comments:
I have worked really hard to bring you guys a great experience right from the start this time and it really shows, from the login screen to the timelines, you will be fully satisfied with the design, execution and finesse that Talon brings to your phone. It isn't going to take months to get up to speed like Sliding Messaging did. I have designed this to be efficient, fast, and just work, right from the start. I learned a ton from that app and Talon goes to show just how much.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do, sound off in the comments with question, concerns, suggestion, or whatever else you feel like saying about the app!
One more thing to say before I leave you here, please remember that this is XDA, and you are all expected to be a little bit different Android users, if you are having a force close or something, I would like you to be able to post a logcat of it. If you are wondering about why I did something the way I did, then I will probably explain it to you in a programming sense instead of how I would to a normal user on the Google+ beta page or something, because that makes much more sense to me, is easier on me, and you should be able to understand it a little bit better... Just keep that in mind and stay on topic please
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
1.) Push Notifications
I am just going to say this now, before anyone asks: Push notifications will not be coming to Talon unless something changes with the Twitter APIs. I have created "Talon Pull" with is simply an always on, listening/streaming service that will receive new tweets from Twitter whenever your Twitter handle is included. To read more about this option, look at the "Talon Pull" section below the "Reasons" section.
Reasons
This will be the more technical part of this post, if you don't want to read and understand it, then you will have to just accept my answer from above. If you don't accept that I know what I am talking about... Then by all means, read on, I will try to keep it as simple as possible.
To access Twitter, they have provided us with the REST APIs (currently version 1.1). These APIs allow developers to communicate with Twitter in real time by just submitting requests to get data from the network. They make it relatively simple - if you know what your doing - to obtain the data that they allow you to get and store, but there are plenty of limitations to these APIs, which make sense: Twitter is a completely free service and make their money off of advertisements. They want people to use their official Twitter products (such as the web or their own Android app) to access their services because they are able to place advertisements in them and that is the only way they make money. So they just aren't going to make some things available for 3rd party developers.
One of those things is their push notification system. As I said before, they allow us to access their services with these REST APIs, but they also have a Streaming API available so that a 3rd party service, such as this one, could be "always connected". Sounds great right? Maybe, maybe not. More testing probably needs to go into it, because it is very new in Talon. For the past few weeks though, I can say that it doesn't seem to take up much more battery than sycning on an intervol does. So try it and let me know. I have done the best I can to optimize this service, but if you want to know more about it, read below in the "Talon Pull" section
What these streaming APIs should be used for is a server side interaction that would then connect to GCM (Google Cloud Messaging) and send push notifications from there. I would love to say I am working on something like this, but it isn't possible for a developer like me. I don't have the time, resources, or knowledge to set up a complex server like this. The knowledge I could get, but I am a 20 year old kid, working off of this 1 MB/sec internet connection while being a full time college student at the University of Iowa. I wouldn't be able to handle the upkeep of the system like this or the traffic. I just don't have the backend necessary for this type of thing, and there aren't many developers who do. So push notifications from the server side? Way out of the question.
That leaves only one thing to do: wait. Maybe Twitter will open up some kind of push notification service to it's developers, but I wouldn't count on that. The ideal thing for them to do would be to set up their own GCM server for us to communicate with, but I don't see that as being likely at all because of the advertising. That would take away one of the main draws for their app, leaving it with almost nothing that 3rd party developers can't do. For now though, "Talon Pull" seems to be working well and I would encourage you all to try it out. Battery seems to be fine, the one drawback is that you must be connected to a datasource right when the interaction happens or it won't be saved or shown.
Talon Pull - My solution/workaround
As I said before, this is NOT push notifications. Push notifications are sent to your device to notify you from some kind of server. They aren't always on, and only turn on when your device receives the info from the web service.
Talon Pull on the other hand, uses Twitter's Streaming API to just create an "always on" service to be constantly listening for and streaming tweets that contain your Twitter Handle. The way this works is that you are signed in with your API keys after you turn on the option to enable Talon Pull. I then just create this "listener" that Twitter's servers will send new tweets to. Luckily, they will take care of most of the filtering of those tweets on their end, to reduce the load as much as possible on your device (because before the filtering, it literally will receive every single public tweet that is happening. It was amazing when I first flipped and saw the tweets flowing over my log haha). So we filter it down to as few of tweets actually reaching your device as possible, then I start broadcasting the notifications when you receive the new ones.
Overall, it is a relatively simple process, the problem with it though, you have probably already realized, you have to be constantly connected with a data service or the app won't know when to receive the new tweets. Obviously that is the part that is going to end up taking the battery (if it does), not "bloated" or "un-optimized" code as some of you I sure believed. So far though, through my testing, it doesn't seem to have a very big impact on battery overall, but I suppose that it potentially could if you are using Twitter that much more than I do.
If there was a better way, I wish I could find it. I think that this is the method that most 3rd party services use to send you those fake "push notifications". So there ya have it, hope you learned something. It works well and it is the only way to get a lot of information like who favorited or retweeted your statuses
Conclusion
Thanks for the read, if you made it all the way, hope that gives you an idea as to why push notifications just aren't even an option at this point and what my solution to that problem has been, even if it is not ideal. It works, and it seems to be working quite well for me.
So just know: "Talon Pull" isn't quite the same as push notifications, but it is as close as you are going to get and is working better for me than I would have ever imagined. Enjoy!
2.) Translucency
Why aren’t my status bar and navigation bar translucent like in all of the screenshots?!?
This is an Android 4.4 KitKat feature only. Get a new phone/ROM if you want it.
3.) Theming Support and Limitations
We have created a pretty powerful theme engine for Talon and EvolveSMS this time around, but it isn't without its limitations.
The main app color will always be orange. Don't ask to change it. That isn't something I can theme dynamically or read from an add on package, themers can change the orange glow on the in-line buttons (favorite, retweet, and send), but that is as much as your are going to get with that one.
4.) Viewing users who "retweet" and "favorite" your statuses
This is another thing that isn't going to happen at this point. It isn't possible to get the user ID's or their names with the current version of the API's.
Maybe Twitter will open this up in the future, but I wouldn't get your hopes up.For now, the best you will get is the numbers on them
The only way to get this information is through the use of "Talon Pull" and the Streaming API's. When you get a retweet or favorite, it will be put in the interactions drawer on the right side of any activities with drawers.The only way to get this information is through the use of "Talon Pull" and the Streaming API's. When you get a retweet or favorite, it will be put in the interactions drawer on the right side of any activities with drawers.
5.) Clearing the Cache
If you know much about caching in Android, then you may wonder why in the world I would want to clear it every time you switch themes.
The answer is pretty simple: to vastly improve the performance and the smooth scrolling in the app, I save the profile pictures according to the current theme's style, whether that is circle (like the "Talon" layout) or square (like the "Hangouts" layout). This preference is also available to themers in the add-on themes.
By caching them directly as circles, it alleviates the need to do it on the fly which could consume quite a bit of processing power on older phones and would just be a complete waste to render them like that every time.
You may think it is a hassle, but you would be thanking me if you knew the difference it makes.
You can also view the current cache size and clear it manually from "Advanced Settings".
6.) Battery Consumption
If you use Talon a lot throughout the day, it is going to take up battery, simple as that. I find that on a 30 min refresh intervol for the different timelines and manually going in and browsing/updating throughout the day, it takes about 4-5% of my battery. I would say this is pretty normal because there are days that Google+ takes up to 10% with just casual browsing.
If that isn't acceptable for you though, then there are a few things you can do to reduce battery consumption:
1.) Turn down the refresh interval on the timelines. This is the big one. It is those background services that are going to drain your battery.
2.) Turn off "Refresh on Startup".
3.) Turn off "Talon Pull" and "Live Streaming"
4.) Don't have it sync the second account's mentions
And if all else fails... Get off Twitter and do something productive for awhile =D haha any app that accesses the internet and refreshes as much as a Twitter client is inherently going to use more battery in the background. There are ways to reduce it, but not always ways around it!
7.) Custom ROMs Immersive Mode
My custom ROM has "Immersive Mode" and Talon doesn't seem to play nice with it! What's up with that?!
The way that immersive mode works in your ROMs currently isn't so hot unfortunately. There is a reason Google didn't put it into the whole system because app developers would have problems implementing the "translucency" with conflicting system stuff.
Not to fret to much though, I was able to get things working smoothly with it in Talon. The problem was that my ListView's are expanded through the different system bars. This can be a big problem if you try to switch to "Immersive" in the middle of doing something in the app. You will notice the margins get all wanky on the top and the bottom of your lists.
It can be easily solve though by just restarting the app by swiping it out of your recent apps screen. Sorry, but that is the best I am going to be able to do here, Translucent bars an "Immersive Mode" just weren't meant to work together.
Theming in Talon
Theming in Talon for Twitter
Real quick, before you get to far into the content, I want to let all you developers know about one of, if not the standout feature of Talon and EvolveSMS: one incredibly powerful theme engine.
Along with these apps, me and Jacob have completely redesigned and rethought our old "Theme Engine" from Sliding Messaging! Although the Sliding Messaging one was cool and great for the average user to customize, it was slow, cluttered, limited, and just bad design from a developer perspective. This won't be an issue with these apps though. We remade everything about it to bring you the ultimate themeing and customization experience, without the bloat and slowdowns. You won't be disappointed when you see what it can do!
All this theme engine takes is a little bit of knowledge about layouts and resources in Android, along with the Android SDK to compile and distribute your package as an APK, then you can make both of these apps into literally ANYTHING you want. We are able to read the layouts, drawables, and some of the colors directly from your compiled package and place them in our apps! Sweet huh, you thought this kind of design your own thing was only for homescreens
And the best part: it is completely free and you can easily share these themes with anyone when you are done by just sending the APK or putting it on the Google Play Store!
For more info on these and to start making Talon really your own, check out these links:
1.) Talon Theming Example/Walkthrough on GitHub
2.) Google+ Community Theming Section - A great place to share so anyone can see and use your themes, not just XDA users
3.) Google+ Theming Post
gonna try it out soon
Amazing Twitter app, absolutely loving it so far. It is just stunning, and kudos to going with transparent navbar instead of immersive, it looks fantastic and doesn't require a gesutre to get to.
Yeah, I completely agree that transparent is the way to go over immersive on something like this, it takes more work, but definitely with it!
Why do you only support for 2 accounts? It's just a question!
Pac-Man said:
Why do you only support for 2 accounts? It's just a question!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, a little embarrassing, but because the logic behind coding more than that gets way complex... haha
klinkdawg24 said:
Well, a little embarrassing, but because the logic behind coding more than that gets way complex... haha
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't worry! But I hope you'll add multiaccount. There're a lot of people that love it
Anyway it's a good app with a perfect design. My sincerelly congratulations!
Enviado desde mi Nexus 4 mediante Tapatalk
Will love to try it, I paid for falcon and then it got free
Hoping for xda version
Maybe I'm just stupid.. How do you pull up replies to others tweets? Beautiful app btw... Love it...
wow this app looks beautiful, would love to try it, unfortunately, i dont have a credit card and can't purchase from google play. Will there be a free or xda version coming soon? if not is there any way for me to try this out? signed up for the beta as well
I got the app a couple of hours ago and it's amazing.
Just a few things..
Where did the Talon Pull notifications go when they are received? I have to manually to update the timeline anyway.
You have to pull down for too long in order to update. You should adjust it
You should definitely implement threaded DMs, that would be pretty cool
Great app btw,
donwhall70 said:
Maybe I'm just stupid.. How do you pull up replies to others tweets? Beautiful app btw... Love it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
right now, you can only look backwards at tweets, looking forward will come when i figure it out haha
alkspo said:
wow this app looks beautiful, would love to try it, unfortunately, i dont have a credit card and can't purchase from google play. Will there be a free or xda version coming soon? if not is there any way for me to try this out? signed up for the beta as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, because of the token limit, this app is going to be paid, I thought about an XDA version with different tokens, but that would just go against Twitters rules still
Kage0x said:
I got the app a couple of hours ago and it's amazing.
Just a few things..
Where did the Talon Pull notifications go when they are received? I have to manually to update the timeline anyway.
You have to pull down for too long in order to update. You should adjust it
You should definitely implement threaded DMs, that would be pretty cool
Great app btw,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.) They go to the interactions drawer on the right, make sure you are on the newest version and it will work better (1.01)
2.) i changed it for the version im releasing now
3.) yeah the dm's have a lot of work i know!
Version 1.05
(up in ~2 hours)
Well, day one is coming to a close and i have added some nice stuff for all of you
There was an update earlier that solved some issues with the Talon Pull service not working and tweets being saved twice in some places. That was version 1.01.
Changelog for 1.05:
Correctly mute retweets
- Higher quality images on timeline
- Dismiss all on interactions drawer
- In-app browser is now optional
- Lowered swipe length for Pull to Refresh
- Option to display both screenname and name on timeline tweets
- Open app from clicking icon on widget
- Finished German translation
- Fixed contact images on layout change
- Attempted fixes for Play Store crash reports
I hopefully got the force closes that were reported today taken care of. Although there weren't many, which makes me happy
Let me know how this version works for all of you!
hi mate
the last update is wonderful
it fix almost every complain ppl have.... BUT.....
PLEASE and i repeat PLEASE don't use the same way of plume to manage DM
the DM must be in threaded conversations, with the ability to delete entire threads, just like a normal "sms" application does, and just like tweetbot does.
please fix the dm section and this could be the real deal for android users.
faremoney said:
hi mate
the last update is wonderful
it fix almost every complain ppl have.... BUT.....
PLEASE and i repeat PLEASE don't use the same way of plume to manage DM
the DM must be in threaded conversations, with the ability to delete entire threads, just like a normal "sms" application does, and just like tweetbot does.
please fix the dm section and this could be the real deal for android users.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DMs will get a big rewrite, but I have a few other things I need to do first
klinkdawg24 said:
DMs will get a big rewrite, but I have a few other things I need to do first
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very nice app. I only have two "issues" Local Trends is displaying trendings from another country. The same happened to me with Falcon Pro so, I guess you both use same location service. It would be nice to have an option to select trends manually for people who is living in another country and wanna know what is happenning in their "home"
The other issue I found is that I think data loading is faster in other Twitter clients especially with timeline refresh
OK, this gets better and better.
The pull to refresh is better than before, but it still needs some improvement. Take a look at how the one from the gmail app behaves. That one is perfect. But this is just a minor issue, so it's not a big deal
Regarding the DM issue, could you at least change the order in which they are displayed, or at least give us the opportunity to do so? It's kinda weird to have the old ones first. But it really depends on long will it take to rewrite the whole thing, if you're going to do it
Also, I really think mentions notifications from the Talon Pull should go directly into the mentions tab instead of the additional drawer, but maybe that's just me
awesome. perhaps the only competitor falсon. you can do that display images if given a direct link to it? (everywhere)
view who retweet/favorite. display real-time, I mean like 20:14, but not 14 minutes ago. thx, man.