Yeah but i'm not sure it worked properly. I think I have cached maps on there now, but i'm not sure how long they'll stay put. In the end I gave up and printed the bits of map I really wanted. I'm hoping there's a decent 3G signal at LHR so I can have another try before my flight leaves.

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Thanks. I will try that. Between my wife and I we have two iPhones (one Verizon and one ATT ) and a Verizon android for navigation. All we need on this island or the nearby coast of Maine is a cellular data signal :(

That is such a product manager's view (ie. not really looking at the customer experience). I don't charge my phone every night.

Meh. Even with the vaunted iPhone I had to recharge every night.

Droid apps
 

I have a Droid incredible and frequently tell my wife, IPhone user, that mine's better, whatever.

Droid app's

Radar Now, Flight Stats, Open Table, My City Way, turn by turn navigation can't be better..I use it all the time.;)

Note that this feature is only on the Android version of Goog Maps. They delay the newest features on iPhone by quite a while.

Lookout mobile is great.with the gps tracking feature. I also like whatsapp. A msg app over many platforms.

WhatsApp is great. Works flawlessly between my Nexus One and various iPhones and Androids. There's no need to use oldfashoined SMS when most people already have a data plan. ^

My kids have a phone lock on their Motorola Droid where they have to draw a pattern with a finger on the face to use the phone.
Do you know about Where's My Droid? When installed, it allows you to send a text to your missing phone from another phone that will activate the missing phone and start it ringing at full volume. You can also text your phone with a code "GPS my Droid" so that it returns a text with a Google map indicating the location of your missing phone.

+1. If a Samsung Rugby could sound an alarm for you when the phone is off, why is it that a droid-based smart phone can't? I'd download an app that would cure this in a heartbeat, if it existed.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

You can probably put your Android in airplane mode if battery life is a concern. In my experience, however, the bulk of power is used by the screen or GPS, neither of which is an issue at night.

Babbler for me.

Apps for office docs & project time
 

Hi all

I am a new Android user and would am looking currently for a good app with which I can view and modify office docs and pdf (just viewing).

Also an app for collecting what I am doing during the day. Where I can configure different customer / projects and register the amount of time / day that I work for that particular project.

I looked at Android Market and there are different solutions, but I would be happy to get your recommendations from fellow travelers.
Thanks,
W

Documents to Go by DataViz has been the default app for MS Office docs since the earliest days of PalmPilots. The full version for Android is $15 and handles pretty much everything, including working with PDF files. They have a free version which will view, but not modify, the Excel, Word, Powerpoint, and PDF files. You can also buy Adobe's PDF Create app ($10).

Just like there are alternatives to MS products on your PC, there are alternatives to DataViz on Android. QuickOfficePro and OfficeSuite 5.0 offer similar funtionality, but cost just as much or more than Documents to Go, so I don't know why you would consider them. Both these, plus Open Office, have free versions, but they just view, don't allow edit.

Less clear choices for project time keeping. TimeClock from Spotlight Six seems fairly good. I use It's About Time from Rexrode ($8). It's a good choice if you want a direct import into QuickBooks for invoicing (which I use). If you go to market.android.com, select the categories tab on the upper left, go to Business, search for "time keeper" or "time keeping", you'll find many, both free and paid apps. Read the reviews. Most of these look very similar (it's a very simple database application to create).

I don't think this is good advice. I believe "airplane mode" turns off data connections, but doesn't close any open apps. Open apps that interact with the network continually "ping" to say "anybody home", and will do so repeatedly until they get a response. With data turned off they'll never get a response so the pinging will continue endlessly.

An app like Task Killer will turn off any open apps you select and should help the battery drain issue. I frequently find that I have 20 or more apps churning away in the background, and using Task Killer does seem to increase battery life.