Ask lj: android apps

[forgotten_aria]

I'm kind of behind the times when it comes to cell phones. I'm hoping to get a nice shiny new one in the near future, but the features I want seem to greatly limit my choices. I know that andriod is getting a lot of nice apps, but the service I use has no data. Do all andriod apps require data? or are there some cool tools that work off line? IE, is someone who has no data plan just not care about the andriod OS?

Comments

[spazzymunky.livejournal.com]

I feel you, the sad thing is that Android and the Iphone are now the new leading "smartphones" so blackberrys kind of get screwed when it comes to apps. I'm sure that apps that connect the the interwebz need data though.

[jered]

Many apps are offline, but I believe that setting up the phone (and certainly synchronizing it) require data access. (You may be able to do these solely over Wifi at home, though.) Additionally, most carriers don't allow you to "sideload" apps from your computer -- they require you download them over the air. Finally, I don't think any of the carriers will sell you an Android phone without requiring data access.

If you're on a GSM network you could buy an unlocked phone and only use data on Wifi and make things work, but it probably wouldn't be an ideal experience.

[totient]

My favorite sudoku/etc app (mPlayer) sadly does require net to function -- it downloads each gameboard from the mothership.

There are some other apps that also gratuitously use the net (some of the GPS loggers, for instance) but for the most part non-net-using versions are available, and those will run your batteries down less even if you do have net, which makes them tend to win over net-using ones.

[obra.livejournal.com]

There's just about nothing that requires data service instead of WiFi.
And there's lots of good stuff that works offline.

There are mapping apps that use openstreetmap data stored to SD. There are arcade emulators. There's...lots.