The default music player on Android sucks. It works, but the playlist management, music management, etc, sucks. I’ve read around for recommendations, but MixZing had a unique feature that attracted me to it. Other players tried other unique features, but none of them really drew me in. So, I downloaded MixZing and gave it a try.
Android 2.0 introduced Google Maps with turn by turn navigation. If you’re a gadget geek as well as someone who follows the stock markets, you would have noticed when this was announced that stock prices for Tomtom, Garmin, and other GPS makers dropped. Google Maps with navigation provides navigation, maps search, business search, basically everything you get from Google Maps, in general, with Google’s online mapping. So why did this spell doom for the GPS makers? Google Maps with turn by turn navigation is included with Android 2.0 and all map data is updated frequently at no additional charge. The GPS makers do not update their map data frequently, and most of them charge for their updates.
Meebo IM is an instant messaging application for multiple platforms, including Android. It allows using multiple IM services, including the major ones such as Live, GTalk, AIM, and others. It is a reasonably light weight application that has a service running in the background to maintain your connections so that you can receive IMs at any time.
I recently wrote an article on tips for maximizing your battery life on your Android device. As I’m learning more and more about Android and the apps that run on it, I’m discovering more ways to check the performance of various parts of the device. A recent discovery of mine was to monitor the awake time of Android. Checking awake time is a very good way to determine what your battery drain will look like.
I’ve been experimenting with maximizing my battery savings on my new Droid Eris without compromising its usefulness. The standby time rating is over 2 weeks, but I will tell you that if you actually use the device, it will spend a lot of time on the charger, and will need to be charged daily. Standby is the lowest power usage possible without turning the device off completely. Talk time is rated at approximately 5 hours max, meaning continuous use can kill the battery in under 5 hours. I suspect average use will see anywhere from 8 hours to 24 hours between charges. What I intend to do is find the best way to maximize the time between charges without making it totally useless.
