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I was asked by a fellow Twitter user, RhondaUSA, a soon to be new Android user, for a list of “essential apps”.

For her – and everyone else – I’ll share a list of the apps I have installed in my phone; this list is in two parts – the ones I immediately install after upgrading the OS – and the rest.

The “immediate install” list includes:

1) WeatherBug Pro – worth the 2 bucks – it’s nice having the current conditions and three-day forecast on my home screen.

2) Gtasks – a great app to use for Google Tasks – I have two widgets on my home screen: one for my task list and another for the grocery list.

3) Laik Agenda Widget – my wife and I use Google Calendar to share our schedules and the kids’ schedules. The widget is front and center on my home screen.

4) Battery Watcher widget – I like being able to quickly see the percentage left; this does a great job.

5) Retro Clock – I like having a large, easily visible digital clock on the main part of the home screen.

The rest of my downloads include:

6) Speed Test (from Ookla) – nice being able to check your data speeds wherever. This is an easy and effective speed test app.

7) MySpeed – a great combination of a GPS speedometer superimposed over a Google Maps image of where you are right now.

8) TiKL – Touch to Talk – gives Android phones a Nextel-style walkie talkie functionality – the wife and I use this pretty regularly.

9) DigitalClockMini – worth a buck – a very efficient use of a 1 x 1 space on a homescreen – time, day, date, and seconds indicator.

10) TweetDeck – still in beta – but a very promising combination Facebook/ Twitter/ Google Buzz client.

11) T-Mobile My Account – a decent app to show your account balance, SMS quota status, minutes used.

12) Ringdroid – a great app to choose and set audio clips as ring, notification, and alarm sounds on your Android phone.

13) Sleek Camera – a decent camera app with a great zoom feature.

14) Opera Mini – a slick, quick, efficient app for when you don’t need all the bells and whistles of the stock Android browser, especially when you’re not on 3G or Wi-Fi.

15) gReader – a decent Google Reader Android app.

16) Solitaire (by Ken Magic) – a nice game to fritter away time when needed.

17) AutoRotate OnOff – for times when the auto-rotation of the screen can be inconvenient or annoying.

18) ES File Explorer – a great file explorer app that works with the phone’s SD card, a home or business Wi-Fi network, or Bluetooth file system.

19) ixMat Scanner – a quick and efficient barcode app.

20) Google Voice – a tightly integrated front end for Google Voice – can handle calling as well as SMS and voicemail. I mainly use it for the voicemail and SMS (without using my allotted messages from the T-Mobile account).

21) mVideoPlayer – a stable, easy to use video player.

These are the main apps I use on a daily basis on my T-Mobile G1. I have a 8GB Micro SD card on it and run Android 2.2 “Froyo” with CyanogenMod 6.0 RC3.

Enjoy! :)

I’ve been a fan of Opera Mini for a while. It was the primary browser on my first smartphone, the Windows Mobile powered T-Mobile Dash; Mini blew the doors off the default browser, Pocket Internet Explorer.

While some pan Opera Mini for having a somewhat different user interface, its speed more than makes up for it – and the learning curve isn’t that bad.

I’ve used the Android version of Opera Mini 5 for a couple of weeks – and it’s the fastest web browser on my T-Mobile G1. While the standard issue Webkit-based Android web browser is no slouch, at times it chokes on certain web sites. And Opera Mini is noticeably faster than the other web browsers I’ve tried on my G1: Dolphin Browser and the alpha version of Skyfire.

Here are my raves about Opera Mini 5:
1) It starts up more quickly than the stock Android web browser.
2) Its server-side data compression makes web pages render the quickest of any browser on my G1, even on a slow data connection.
3) Its “Speed Dial” start page gives users a quick way to get to their most accessed web sites.
4) Opera Mini uses the “Opera Link” online bookmark storage: handy if one also uses the Opera desktop browser. It was VERY HANDY when I migrated from Windows Mobile to Android.

Here are my rants about Opera Mini 5:
1) It needs an “out of the box” way to be made a phone’s default browser. There’s a separate app to do this; but this is a glaring omission.
2) The app needs to be more multitasking friendly. Right now, Opera Mini relaunches every time a user switches to it from using another app: major annoyance.
3) Opera Mini needs the ability to share web pages just like the stock browser does. It needs to be able to seamlessly pass links to other apps such as SMS, Twitter and Facebook clients, and email programs.
4) In addition having Opera Link, it needs to be able to import or use the same bookmarks accessed by the stock browser (as Skyfire and Dolphin already do).

Opera Mini is a very promising alternative web browser for Android. It’s a few tweaks away from becoming my default browser. Its deficiencies primarily center around how it works with other apps.

Earlier tonight, I updated Adobe Reader on my laptop to the latest version – then as usual I went into the Registry Editor applet and took out one registry key that ALWAYS gets added when this program is updated.

I disabled the “speed launch” startup task that Adobe INSISTS on adding to the registry.

I have a simple missive to Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, RealNetworks, and nearly every other software maker:

Code your primary executables so they launch quickly – and STOP SLOWING DOWN MY PC’S BOOT TIME WITH STARTUP TASKS!!!!

There are some apps that justifiably run at startup: mainly security-related programs such as antivirus, anti-spyware, and firewall apps. Most of the time, though, startup apps are about as useful as tits on a bull. Yes, I’m talking about the goodies left with installations of RealPlayer, QuickTime Player, Microsoft Office, and other software.

When my mom got a new major-brand PC a couple of years ago, of course it was loaded with crapware – and about half of said crapware had useless tasks slated to run at startup. One of the first things I did for Mom was trim almost all the startup entries from the Windows XP “StartUp” folder and “Run” keys from the registry.

I’m taking a wild-ass guess that the folks at software makers who “drink the marketing Kool-Ade” might have a role in slowing down the startup times of PC users and cluttering up the system trays of PCs the world over. I’m guessing said misguided marketing souls insist that apps put icons into the system trays of users to remind said users to use said apps.

As a result, many PC system trays resemble the the front of the uniform shirts of highly decorated NYPD officers. Said PCs probably also take forever to reach a usable state after booting up.

Call this a way to adjust the signal/noise ratio on my Twitter account, along with a way to better share web clippings that catch my fancy – and a way to force myself to comment more on said web clippings rather than just put them “out there”:

Before this weekend, I handled interesting (to me anyway) links in one of two ways: If a link simply “catches my eye”, I’d click the “share” icon in Google Reader – and up to three of these links would be automatically ported each half hour to my Twitter account. If a link really got my attention, I’d manually share it, add a usually snarky remark, and post it to Twitter (and maybe Facebook too).

One of my pet peeves is seeing “blowhards” on Twitter: users who just spout off and show little if any sign of interacting with other users. More and more lately, I felt like I was slowly showing signs of becoming a blowhard; I decided some adjustments were in order.

In addition to the already established daily journal of my Twitter posts, I’ve added a new daily post: the “link dump” – an automated blog entry that will post early each morning showing the web articles during the last 24 hours that I’ve flagged as “shared” on Google Reader.

I may or may not pimp out the daily link dump post – if there’s nothing that looks interesting on second glance I won’t tout the daily post on Facebook and/or Twitter. If I want to immediately share things that I consider pressing, I’ll still manually share said web links via Twitter and/or Facebook – or even as a standalone blog post here.

It’s my hope that these changes will make my Tweets – and Facebook posts – more interesting – and that the feeds for those who follow me on these platforms are less cluttered.

The primary way I keep up with RSS feeds is using Google Reader. Today, I took a major step to clean up the information clutter and back down on the cyber-overload. I was getting sick of seeing 1000+ unread items every time I went to check Google Reader.

I have my feeds broken down into 11 groups:

*Android Stuff – updates on the Android mobile phone operating system: news, downloads, and other related items.
*Media Stuff – news relating to the media business and journalism.
*Nonlocal News – news feeds from places where I used to live: the Jackson (MS), Rochester (NY), and Seattle areas.
*Personal Blogs – feeds for blogs of people I know in real life and/or online.
*Points of view – my catch-all for feeds related to religion, politics, opinion, and humor.
*Spanning the Globe – US and International news feeds.
*Sports Sites – sports opinion and news feeds, including sports media.
*Tabloid Trash and Entertainment – gossip and entertainment news feeds.
*Tech News – technology opinion and news feeds.
*Yokels – Ohio local news feeds.
*Mobile Quick Reads – content in this group overlaps the other 10 – and is intended to give me a quick read on my smartphone. I have a homescreen shortcut to this web page on my G1. I have two, at most three feeds from each of the other groups also in this group.

During my Google Reader purge, I made a goal to trim each of my 10 groups down to no more than 12 feeds each (some had 15 or 20) and I succeeded. In the end, I went down from 140 feeds to 95 – a cut of one-third of the feeds I had followed. Since the feeds from “spanning the globe” are high volume, I trimmed that one down from 15 to 4.

Going through Reader this evening, it seems much easier to get the updates I want to keep up with. We’ll see how it works in the long term.

Now only if decluttering my house would be this easy. :)

It amazes me to see how many people who give themselves the title “social media guru” or “internet marketing expert” who in reality have no clue about the basics of using services such as Twitter.

It’s become a daily ritual for me to check my Twitter followers list. And it’s become a daily frustration: most times when I check new followers, I’m lucky if I follow back one or two users – one or two who even come close to using Twitter as a true social medium. Most of my new followers are little more than cyber-blowhards.

More often than not, the new Twitter followers I encounter seem to use the service as a “mass medium” – feeding a steady diet of links, quotes, promotional pabulum, braggadocio, and/or vapid crap. At a minimum, I tend to block users whose tweets show little sign of true interaction. If they’re particularly obnoxious, I’ll hit the “block and report spam” button.

There are many people out there using Twitter who truly “get it” – who take great pains to interact with other users – and who don’t primarily use Twitter as a one-way soapbox, a virtual version of “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations”, a megaphone, or a brag book. I’m sick of those who use it as the latter.

Twitter’s about interaction – hence the term, “social medium”. The obtuse twits who use Twitter as a mass medium are little more than shrill popinjays and cyber-nuisances. Such twits need to grab the clue phone – lines two, three, and four – STAT!

One year to the day before the inauguration earlier this year of President Barack Obama, I embarked upon a new social media adventure – Twitter. I have to thank @klively for getting me intrigued with Twitter. After seeing her tweets, along those from her fiance, @jmilles, porting over to Facebook, I took the plunge and signed up for Twitter.

Since January 20, 2008, 545 days ago, I’ve tweeted 10,000 times. For the math-inclined, that’s a 18.35 tweets average per day. I have to thank Trish, Emma-Grace, and Jacob for keeping me grounded and not completely addicted to Twitter (just 80 percent addicted).

The best lesson I’ve learned during the last 545 days? How to cut the BS and get to the point. I’ve said this before and will say it again – having only 140 characters to make one’s point is the best writing coach around.

There also have been a number of people who have made this social media adventure interesting. This is by no means an all-inclusive list; if you’re not listed here, please don’t take it as a personal affront and/or an indication you’re “chopped liver”.

First off, thanks to @9to5to9 for commiserating with me as a fellow parent and media alum. Props to @ladycurmudgeon for the familiar face I knew previously from LiveJournal – and for the support. Thanks to @ParadisaCorbasi for being a consistent voice of reason and not being afraid to call “bullshit” on me when needed. Also on the “no BS” train is @Phoena, whose willingness to not mince words is awesome. And then there’s @MustBeBenHughes, who is one of the most scheming and enterprising folks I’ve encountered online.

I can’t forget @promodiva, whom I’ve known for more than 20 years – and who along with her hubby, @engineernerd, have been accepting of me, even if I am a dirty pinko commie crackpot. ;)

Then there are six of my favorite muses on Twitter, @Dmular (who also lives a short hop from me near Akron), @velvet_trope, @TheDailyBlonde, @JaedaDewalt, @shannonkringen, and @LizStrauss. Thanks for the inspiration.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to some of my long-time online friends who also jumped on the Twitter parade – and have stayed along for the ride: @Allyson13, @stevesheeky, @russindc, @JameyKarr, and @eliz_beth.

Then there are the northeast Ohio media types who have opened themselves up to this former media type; thanks to @EdwardEsposito, @EricMansfield, @FMacek, @chuckcollins, @VincentDuffy (also a fellow Walsh grad), and @telichtwit8.

And it’s also been fun keeping up with other media folks such as @MissAttitude, @JayHMT, @ohmygoff, @WeatherKim, @dlkeough,@DanaWillhoit, @JasonNBC4 (aka “the human scanner”), and @ishwie.

Then there’s the group I call “the fun bunch” on Twitter. These include: @fabgirl, @RandomNicole, @Trillian1117, @JamiMiami, @CherylHarrison, @jooleeanna, @JuliaGoolia, @wizzardsblog, @qualityfrog, @YatPundit, @LorettaK, @WubbzyJen, @gemmegirl, @amyramirez, @MtnMom, @CesLSU, @CavsGirl4Life, @CindyTG, @SandiHockeyMom, @Windstream,@mdsuburbs, @iconic88, and @hookbill – plus the three whom I call the “LA Trio” – @pinksugacupcake, @AnneKinLA, and @RosevilleRockLn. Thanks, everyone.

Last, and certainly not least, I need to give shoutouts to @JosetteMarie and @Jason_of_DS, both cool folks from my workplace; and give props to my longtime good friend and former fellow Rochester media colleague, @racyguy14619, who is just getting started on Twitter.

And if I didn’t mention you, thanks. Here’s to tens of thousands more Tweets! :)

Thanks to my friend Ken for a great time the last two days up in Rochester, NY. I had gotten there Wednesday afternoon and just got back home a couple of hours ago. I had planned to stay until tomorrow afternoon – but due to sick kids I came home a day early so Trish wasn’t stuck with them for three straight days. Emma-Grace apparently has a cold and Jacob might be coming down with one too.

I owe apologies to all my Facebook and Twitter friends and former Rochester media colleagues for not hitting a “happy hour” to meet up with folks in person. The original plan had been for me to make a “happy hour” tonight – but had to scuttle them. Next time I’ll be more diligent in setting one up. I am deeply sorry I wasn’t terribly sociable this time around.

Now – to the piece de resistance (or the coup de grace) – the ten things I learned during my whirlwind return to Rochester Wednesday night through Friday afternoon:

10) I was reminded that J.W. Dundee Honey Brown beer is still IMO the best brew on the planet.

9) The State Police troop covering the NY State Thruway has essentially put the kibosh on media covering incidents on the toll road – reportedly due to orders to troopers to strictly enforce with media vehicles the “Emergency Stopping Only” rule on the highway. Apparently a number of news people have been threatened with arrest if they got out of their cars to shoot pictures or video of accidents or other emergency incidents there.

8) I was reminded how much I loved my old neighborhood in Rochester, just off Monroe Ave and a short walk from Park Avenue. Wellesley Street was an awesome place to live.

7) I’m still convinced 15 years later that NY State’s requirement for periodic vehicle inspections is part of a blatant “money grab” for the auto repair establishments licensed to do them.

6) Once a user gets east of Buffalo, T-Mobile’s wireless data coverage absolutely sucks. Connections dropped repeatedly – and requests repeatedly timed out on my smartphone.

5) By going around the city, I was reminded why I loved Rochester: the culture, the diversity, the activity, the many great businesses and other institutions that call it home. In many ways it reminds me of a mini version of Seattle. I had begun to feel “down” on Rochester after hearing about crime after crime after crime lately.

4) Ken reminded me that the best way to avoid stress is to pick one’s battles and that sometimes the best response of all consists of two letters: “OK”.

3) I was VERY disappointed in the customer service of Rochester Gas & Electric. Due to a minor mistake, an unscheduled lack of power was extended from one day to two days. Way to go, RG&E, for not trying to make a reasonable accommodation to help a customer who had made an honest mistake. Double-check-minus for you!

2) By taking a trip through the Wegmans store in Pittsford, I was reminded of perhaps the thing I miss most about living in Rochester – being able to go to what hands-down and anywhere is the most awesome grocery store with the best service around. I was almost drooling going through their VERY extensive deli section.

1) While I got to be a “fly on the wall” in the studio during the 5pm and 6pm newscasts on Rochester ABC affiliate WHAM-TV 13, I was reminded how much I miss working in TV news – and why I’ve been out of “the biz” for 13 years.

On July 4, 1996, I left the building at WROC-TV, moved to Seattle, and opened a new chapter in my life. I’m still glad I did.

Thanks again for a great time, Ken; hope to get back up there soon…

spent a few hours today cleaning the house and doing dishes and making cole slaw for a picnic tomorrow and shepherd’s pie for dinner tonight.

Here’s the playlist I was running on my G1 while doing that stuff today:

The Dead Milkmen: Bitchin’ Camaro, Right Wing Pigeons, Taking Retards to the Zoo
Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain
Tom Lehrer: The Elements, Smut, National Brotherhood Week, So Long Mom I’m off to Drop the Bomb, Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, Bright College Days, Vatican Rag
Napoleon XIV: They’re Coming to Take Me Away
Blue Oyster Cult: Joan Crawford
The Ramones: I Wanna Be Sedated
Dan Zanes: Catch That Train
John Valby: Madonna, Yo-Ho, Leprosy, and a couple of other titles I won’t share for reasons of decorum.
Monty Python: I Bet You They Won’t Play This Song On The Radio
Laurie Berkner: The Happiest Song I know
Crash Test Dummies: Keep A Lid On Things
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young: Ohio
Quiet Riot: Bang Your Head (Metal Health)
Steve Dahl & Teenage Radiation: Heal Me (parody of Blondie’s “Call Me” lampooning faith healer Ernest Angley)
Sir Mixalot: Baby Got Back, Bremelo
U2: Vertigo
B-52s: Quiche Lorraine, Love Shack, Rock Lobster
unknown: We Love Ernest Angley
South Park movie soundtrack: Blame Canada
Theme from Groucho Marx, “You Bet Your Life”
Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis: raunchy outtakes from promo shoot for movie, “The Caddy”
Ren and Stimpy Show: Happy Happy Joy Joy Song

I have three playlists on my G1 – “Tunes”, which consists of primarily grown-up songs; “Kid Songs” which include songs from Dan Zanes, Milkshake, and Laurie Berkner; and a number of TV news themes.

I need to add more songs – still have about 6GB left on the 8GB micro SD card in my G1. Are these music choices all over the map or what? :)

For most of the four months I’ve had my T-Mobile G1, I’ve found app support for Facebook to be for the most part lame. I tried FBook – but it was flakier than an apple pie. Since then, I’ve mainly used the Android browser on Facebook’s mobile site, http://m.facebook.com – until yesterday.

A new and very promising native Android app for accessing Facebook was unleashed on the Android Market Friday (7/3/09). It’s called “Bloo” and it arrived with a lot of advance hype and buzz that it would be “the” killer app for Facebook for the Android platform. When it was released, I decided to take the plunge and spend $1.49 for it.

After having it for about 12 hours, I can say the app lived up to the hype – and was well worth the money. I gave it a “four star” rating on the Android Market. Two things I wish it had were the ability to see more than one page of the Facebook “Feed” and a button to retrieve more than one page of it. The other thing it needs is a screen to read the inbox.

The setup went reasonably well – being able to retrieve a six-character security key from Facebook and enter it into Bloo made authenticating a snap. Setting the access permissions to read and write to the FB account took a few minutes but worked well once it was done.

I was pleasantly surprised to not even have the app for eight hours and have an update for the app in the Market already (and a second update is coming this weekend). The developer has done well with his first effort – and this app has the potential and promise to improve and be the definitive native Facebook app for Android.

Here are some more looks at the app:

All in all, MAJOR props to Dimitris Couchell for a GREAT initial effort on Bloo. You did very well – and I look forward to seeing this app grow and develop further.