APPs installed on my portable devices

I decided I would share what APPs I have installed on my portable devices (Cell Phone, Android tablet, & iPod)

My Cell - a Blackberry Curve 8530 - the Blackberry is pretty much all business, it was my first true smart device (Ok, My 1st was the 8330 Curve, The 8530 is that much better) The biggest issue I have with the blackberry is how long it takes to start up. So the APPs I have installed:

1) Weatherbug App - Weather Updates, and alerts - it works pretty well, doesn't use a lot of battery power
2) Flickr
3) Loopt
4) Tumblr
5) Yammer
6) Gowalla
7) Four Square
8) TwitVid
9) UberSocial (Formally UberTwitter)
10) Fuze Meeting
11) HP ePrint
12) Mr. Number Callblock
13) Blackberry Traffic
14) Mr Number
15) pMessenger
16) mobiletag (Reads Barcodes)
17) BBAprs (still heavy under development)
18) Waze
19) GPS Fox Hunt
20) BTC Mapper
21) SA Time
22) Go Daddy Mobile
23) TviderLite
24) BBScanner
25) Pandora
26) Google Voice
27) mIQ
28) Paypal
29) Google Maps
30) GPS Tracker
31) Google Sync

Yes pretty much the Blackberry is all about business, I am able to sync (mostly) with Google, use almost all of my eMail accounts, get real time (or near real time updates), It has camera, GPS, WIFI, and Bluetooth

Comes pre-loaded with a bunch of useful stuff, and some stuff I've used maybe once, other then the slow startup time, there is really nothing bad I can say about my BB. IF I did have one "complaint" it would be the lack of Amateur Radio APPs for it.


My 2nd "smart" device was/is a Cruz Reader Android based tablet - this device almost turned me off of the Android OS, the user experience is/was horrable. IT lacks, integration with Google, it lacks Google Market, it lacks a mic, it lacks, it lacks it lack...IT is also slow, thou it does start up quickly. AS a book reader it is ok, but still lacks some of the most basic features of even some of the cheap ebook readers. Despite all this I was able to get some apps to install on it, they are:

1) App Center & CruzMarket - App Center is an alternative to Google Market, but still doesn't link with market links in web pages, very frustrating. CruzMarket - is Cruz market - but it lacks almost as much as the device itself.

2) Drop Box - nothing to say about this, other then this is a great service, and great way to share files, apps, and other stuff between many devices

3) Frodo 64 - Commodore 64 emulator

4) Laputa - This is an ebook reader app, it was not the standard app for this device, and is much better then the one that came with the reader

5) Pandora - Works pretty well on this device, maybe one of the saving graces for this device

6) Google Voice - it took me a long time to finally get this, find it on a site other then google market stie, and get it to install and work - Despite the face this isn't a phone, Google Voice does work for SMS, doesn't work to make calls. (But I text as much as anything else)

7) Youtube - This was the only way I could get youtube videos to work.

8) File Expert - This is an "advanced" file manager

SO what APPs came preinstalled on this device:

1) Alarm Clock, Astro, Borders (The native book reader), Browser (WWW browser), Calculator, Calendar (Will NOT Sync with google), CruzSync (Really this is a Zumo Drive, a service like dropbox), DevTools (Thou I am not sure why these are included), Dr. Eye (???), eBuddy, Email (That I did get to sync with google finally), Facebook Mobile App, Fancy Widget (Desktop Widgets), Gallery (Pictures - Why is this included, there is no camera??? I guess you can use this as photo frame but the pictures would need to be on a SD card), Music (an MP3 player), Napster (don't use napster, don't like napster, can't uninstalled napster), Officesuite (Which is a tool for reading & using office docs and pdf files - there are better PDF readers, but this was included), twidroyd (an Twitter app), UerWallpapers.

As I said this device almost turned me off the Android OS, but I realized it was Androids fault (per say) as much as it was that the device just lacked what it really needed to make it a good choice to run the OS in the first place. This device probably would have been better off running an OS designed for it, and not a hacked up version of Android.

It does run OS 2.1. So are there any plus sides to this device?
Well, as a book reader it's ok, but you need to find the right ebook software, what it comes with is not great. - It lacks a text to speech mode that alot of the new ebook readers have now.

I do like the Pandora app on this device as well, even thou the speakers are pretty small on it, but for general listening to while I am not doing anything else it works pretty good.

My 3rd Device I bought pretty much because I was not at all happy with the Cruz, I saw it, in the Cell phone section of Best Buy, and started to message around with it, Realized it was much more of what I thought an Android device should be, after talking to the sales guy for a little while, and finding out it really was a Cell phone that didn't need to be activated. I bought it.
A Huawei S7 tablet Android OS 2.1 based device. The differences between the Cruz & the Huawei are amazing - Dual Camera (Front & Back), GPS, WIFI, Micro SD card, expansion slot, The ability to become a phone (With Sim Card), Almost Full Google Integration, Here are the APPs I have installed on it:

1) Airmail (This was required by another app)
2) Android IRC - an IRC client
3) Android System Info
4) Android VNC - a VNC client
5) AndroZip - File Manager and Zip utility
6) APRS Viewer
7) Battery Status
8) Blogger-Droid
9) Books - This is a Google app for the Google book site
10) Boxee - a remote for a Boxee Box or the Boxee player
11) Bump - file transfer by bumping two devices together (took a while to get the hang of it, but it works with my iPod running bump as well)
12) ConnectBot - Telnet/SSH client
13) DropBox
14) EchoLink
15) Call Log
16) Fring
17) Frodo C64
18) Gas Buddy
19) gDocs
20) GeoBeagle - Geocach App
21) Glympse
22) Google Buzz
23) GPS status
24) GPS Tracker
25) gTasks
26) HAM
27) HamSatDroid
28) In-Vehicle Track/Video Recorder
29) IRLP Finder
30) Justin.tv
31) Kik Messenger
32) Mad Yapper
33) Miso - app that works with gomiso.com website
34) MyIP
36) Network Discovery
37) Pandora
38) PayPal
39) PingChat
40) Pixelpipe
41) pMessenger
42) QR Droid - QR Barcode reader
43) Scanner Radio
44) Signals - This APP shows the meanings of various Q signals/10 signals, etc
45) Sipdroid - a sip phone app
46) Skype
47) Sound Cloud
48) Stitcher Radio
49) Sudoku Free
50) Google Voice
51) TV.com
52) Twidroyd
53) Twisty - Classic Infocom game interpreter
54) Ustream Broadcaster
55) Google Talk (Can't remember if this was something I installed or if it was included)
56) Voice Recorder
57) Wigle WIFI wardriving
58) Word Press
59) YouTube

The biggest disavantage to this device, has to be it's size - no that isn't really right, it will fit in your hand, but it's kind of awkward to use. It does almost fully integrate with Google
it lacked 2 things that I figured would be an almost no brainier, a Youtube player, and away to upload videos to youtube.
If the Blackberry is all about business, the Huawei S7 is really all about play. There are a ton of Amateur Radio Apps in the market, and more can be found on the web. As well as a ton of other stuff.

My 4th and Last "Smart" Device is a 4th Generation iPod touch, I know a few people will ask why I bought an iPod and not the iPad. Short answer was price was a factor. Longer answer, price was a factor, and I wasn't sure if I was going to like the whole "Apple" experience. I have used an iPod once before, it wasn't at all what I thought it would be like, but was a good experience for the short time I had it (That was either a 1st or 2nd gerneration touch I didn't own it, I was only allowed to play with it shortly)
Again I bought this at Best Buy, the sales people didn't really know much about it (Which didn't surprise me at all). The iPod lacks one interesting feature, but makes up for it by using a interesting trianglation method - It lacks a GPS, it uses WIFI to figure out where you are. When I first got this it was way off from where I was really located (by 20 to 30 miles), but in about a week, it is now only about a block off, very interesting to me how it works.

The other thing about the iPod, all apps have to come from the appstore - unless you jail break your device (something I am unwilling at this point to do), this is both good and bad thou. It means that Apple ultimately has the say so over just what can and can't be installed. It also means that if you can't find it in the appstore you are going to get it any time soon. But it also means that more likely then not the apps have been tested for your device and will work

So here are the Apps I have installed on my iPod:

1) 5-0 Radio - This is another Police Scanner type of app, which works more or less the same as all the rest
2) Echolink - Works Great
3) Google Voice - I can use this to make calls, but what it does is call my cell, and the party I want to talk to, pretty slick thou - I can still send SMS messages from the ipod
4) Ham
5) iAPRS
6) Skype
7) TV.com - Doesn't work as well as on the Android, it's a little sluggish, but most of the time watchable
8) iBooks - Although this probably should count as being included, I had to download and install it to use it
9) Pandora - I think I like Pandora radio or something it's on all my devices
10) SystemInfo
11) Text Free & Text Free w/Voice - Both work very well, I can make calls with it (Both Make & Recieve)
12) iCall - VoIP - can make calls but not receive them, it uses my cell number to display on the caller ID, it's free if I listen to an AD before the call is placed
13) Ham Search - Call Sign lookup tool - works even if there is no WIFI connection, if you are ever out where there is no cell/wifi coverage you may want to grab this app
14) iRover - is a Amateur Call Log
15) Dropbox
16) Sudoku
17) Satellite Tracker
18) Find iPhone
19) Side Reel - TV guide style app
20) Bump - It took a bit, but I was able to move files from my Android table to the iPod, this is a really cool app.
21) Miso - app that connects to gomiso.com
22) Friend Caller - Another VoIP phone App, can make out going calls, but shows as Unavailable on the caller ID (works off of the free2call website), have to buy credits, or free PC/PC calls I guess is how this works, It kind of reminds me of Skype (Even the test call message is very much like Skypes)
23) Media5-Fone - SIP phone - This uses Gizmo which I guess will soon be gone, it had a way to set this up with other SIP phone providers, but I can't find away to remove Gizmo - the "Free" version only allows one account to be setup.
24) Boxee - This is a remote for the Boxee Box & Boxee player
25) Dragon Dictation - Pretty good Speech to Text program, works fairly well, if you speak clearly
26) HeyTell - This is a Voice Instant Messenger interesting idea, thou I don't know anyone else that uses it.
27) Text Now - SMS text message service -
28) Stickham
29) Radio NOAA - This is like the scanner apps, but it's for the NOAA weather stations, I have it installed with the hopes that NOAA will start to stream from this area. But right now there are no NOAA WX stations streaming here.
30) Voxer - Another Voice Instant Messenger - I don't know anyone using it, but I have it installed
31) Frotz - Infocom game interpreter
32) Audio Books - Books that are in the Public Domain so mostly free, audio books
33) Gas Cubby - For once I have found an app that is useful! :-) LOL I use this all the time, gas mileage, service updates, very handy app
34) Pixelpipe
35) Ustream Broadcaster
36) Twitcasting
37) Zuujit
38) Buy or Sell
39) Tumblr
40) Posterous
41) Cinch - Voice Style social network, interesting idea
42) Glympse
43) StatusNet
44) Live Profile
45) Secret Server - Password Manager
46) Legends Viewer - works with http://dynamiclegend.com I am still trying to wrap my noodle around just what this service does. I am not sure why we need it, because to me it looks like you can do pretty much the same thing with google maps, and don't need another app to do it
47) FizWoz - This is an app to sell pictures and videos
48) Pager - Weird idea, it's a "pager" of sorts, it uses a "fake" telephone number, (no area code), it's not a real number so you can't call it and page yourself or give it to anyone unless they goto the web-site then they can page you - (https://pagerapp.com) - This might be a neat app if the creator provided some type of API for the site, as it is, it just takes up space on the ipod
49) Caster FREE - this app will let you create a podcast - I haven't setup an account yet
50) StickWars 2 - it was a free app of the day a few days ago, I am pretty much stuck thou, no resources left, and can't win with out them.
51) FreeAppADay - speaking of Free Apps - this is the app that tells you which ones are free for the day
52) GooTasks - Google Task intergeneration to a point, the free version doesn't sync or syncs only in one direction. Still it's ok if you need to get your tasks for the day off Google and are not somewhere where there is a computer
53) PingChat
54) pMessenger
55) Check Book Free
56 Ohms Law

Over all I am kind of leaning toward using the iPod the most, it seems to have a good verity of apps is fast, runs good on WIFI, has decent battery life, and can fit in my pocket.

Could PingChat be what we are looking for?

One of the reasons I got into ham radio was because of APRS, and the thought and possibility of using just about any device to communicate with other hams, as out lined in - http://aprs.org/aprs-messaging.html well I found the reality of this to be somewhat less then what I had hoped for. I have even tried to write a couple of computer programs in order to do SMS messing from cell phones into the APRS system, (And I am still working on one of these programs), 73s.org has a way to send a message from an APRS radio and have it displayed on twitter - My APRS2TWITTER script has the ability to do the same, and to beable to send a message from twitter into the APRS system
http://code.google.com/p/aprs2twitter and with all that, I am still not seeing what I thought would be almost 2nd nature.

That is until today, I came across a cross platform instant messenger called PingChat (PingChat.com) It works on Android, Blackberry, and iPhone - it's a voice/text/picture messagenger and on some platforms it can also send maps. From what I saw the blackberry app is still in beta, and is kind of buggy (I own both a blackberry, and an Android) The android app seems to be solid and stable. The thing about this app is you don't need to know the persons cell phone number, you just need there ping-id The ID can be almost anything, the app doesn't require a password, and once a user name is regestered on a phone it's becomes stays with it.
The app is also push enabled, so it doesn't need to be running in order to get a new message, and in my testing of the app, if your phone is off, pingchat.com stores a message till your phone comes back on...thou I don't know how long it will hold a message before it decides it can't be delivered.
There is also a way to do a group chat, but from reading a little bit about that, it may still be a work in progress.

SO why am I so excited about this app? Well, my ping-ID on my Android Device is my call KD8BXP, and on my blackberry it's KD8BXP-1 (Though as I said the blackberry app is a bit buggy) - fellow hams, can download and install the app, use there call signs for the ping-id, and bango we have a network close to what was promised for APRS.
Yes, it's not a ham app persay, but it could be used for such things, it doesn't go into any of the other ham radio systems (yes, that is true), which means that ANYONE who knows your call can contact you via pingchat.

Pingchat says a desktop app is in the works, I would like to see this, because it might be possable to bridge this app to APRS, but with that in mind, who ever comes up with a way to do that would need to remember to have a passcode system in place to keep non-hams out of APRS.

I don't know, is this something we have been waiting for for a while or am I just thinking to myslef again!

-LeRoy, KD8BXP

Androids

So I've been thinking the past few days about Androids in Sci-Fi, Specifically I've been thinking about the different types of Androids seen in Star Trek, and even more specifically in TOS (The Original Series) Captains Kirk time!

I remember three different types of Androids from TOS - Memory Alpha Wiki says there were 4 different types. Maybe the most memorable would be Ruk in "What little girls are made of", Ruk was the last of that type of Android, and was finally destroyed, But "The Old Ones" machines still worked, and able to still create Androids - Since a human used the machine, the "blank" androids had a more human appearance, and Dr. Roger Korby figured out how to imprint his brain pattern on to the blanks - Ruk of course was an alien (Android), did "The Old Ones" look like him? Did they also imprint their brain patterns into the Androids? Ruk,with a little help from Captain Kirk, remembered what had long been forgotten, Ruk seemed to have a high emotional response. This episode is probably the one episode that most people thinking about when you say Android and TOS. But too me probably not the best example of Androids in TOS.

The 2nd Android that I remember from TOS would be the Norman type Androids, ("I, Mudd") also were created by aliens, There creators were from the Andromeda Galaxy, they must have been a humanoid race, I say this because all of the Androids were in a humanoid form. Unlike Ruk however they relied on a higher mind - The Norman Android was in control, and directed what the others should do. Of course after Kirk realized this he was able to exploit it, and in the end was able to out think the machines. Honestly this type of "hive-mind" reminds more of the Borg, and not really of a free thinking type Android. As such, Norman may have been the only true Android, and the other machines was more robotic in nature with limited AI. When problems raised the others always asked for Norman. And based on the number there was only one Norman. This episode however is a very memorable and favorite episode - I think more for Henry Mudd then for the Androids.
And too me still not the best example of an Android in TOS.

SO the 3rd Android that I remember from TOS would be the "Flint" type Android. Flint was a human, and was near immortal, He was able to create several models of Rayna - There were a total of I believe 17, the 1st 16 were not entirely successful. Rayna 17 was made to be his perfect mate, someone who would live a lifetime with him. And being a near immortal that could be a very long time. Flint was born around 3834BC and had seen friends & family grown old and die, while he continued on. The Android he created reminds me a lot of the Soong type Androids from TNG. And although Rayna 17 did ultimately fail, she achieved what Soong's Android Data was attempting to achieve his whole life, and only Lai (Data's Daughter) was able to achieve on her own. Rayna 17 found her humanity - but failed because she wasn't aware that she was an Android. I find the Flint type Android and Flint himself to be very similar to Soong and Soong Type Androids. Flint was told by Dr. McCoy that because he left Earth, he also lost what ever it was that was making him immortal. My first thought was could McCoy have been wrong, and is Flint also Dr Soong? Of course if that were true you'd probably need to ignore the episodes of Enterprise (personally, I choice to ignore most of those episodes anyways, because personally I don't think they fit into the prime timeline anyways) Then again, Flint was very long lived, he could have been Arik Soong, not a whole lot is known about him. But logically it would make more since that Noonian Soong found and read papers that Flint wrote, as well as the early work done by Arik Soong in the field of artificial life. At any point, Flint was the first human to build a working Android that was not "clunky, or artificial"

Memory Alpha Wiki also lists, the Sargon-type androids, which I can honestly say I know which episode they are talking about, but I can't remember any Androids. But again, Sargon would have been from an alien race, I think I will have to re-watch - "Return to Tomorrow".

APRS messages 2 SMS txt

I have a working prototype of a APRS messaging to SMS gateway working, - IT is still limited as to what it can and can not do. I am not storing any personal information for any length of time, just long enough to get the job done - I am using APRS.FI, Telku, Findu, and Imified.

What I am working on is going to be 2 way, so a HAM using SMS could send a message to a HAM on APRS - and visa/versa - however as it stands right now, the messages coming from APRS get sent FROM one phone number, and the messages being sent TO APRS go into a different phone number, In order to keep non-HAM out of the system I setup a "PASSCODE" system, so you must know your passcode in order to send a message from SMS and get it into the APRS system.

That part of the what I am trying to put together, will also try to verify your call sign (Unfortunately at this time this will only work for U.S. hams), IT will only work with base call signs at this point, - IE: NO SSID - thou you can still send a message to someone using an SSID. (I just need to set down and rewrite the code a bit to allow SSIDs, just haven't done it yet)

The 2nd part, would be what you do on the APRS side of things -
Send a message to SMS2 - the phone number of the ham you want to contact, a "|" and a brief message

so it would be something like this
1231231234|this is a test

the 2nd part of the my script checks aprs.is system (I'm thinking maybe every 5 mins) - and if a message is new, it will forward it to the phone number

I guess the question would - what if you don't know the phone number? I don't want the responsibility of storing anybodies personal information, so I don't want to make a hugh data base of hams and the phone numbers.
SO the question is would there maybe be a better way for the APRS to SMS response?
Honestly, I can't think of anything, but there are people who are much smarter then I am.

Any thoughts? any ideas?


This is still very much a work in progress. VERY VERY much a work in progress.

LeRoy, KD8BXP

Problems deleting Direct Messages from twitter using PHP/Curl and the Supertweet.net api

Basically my problem is outlined above. I am trying to delete direct messages using the message id - using php and the supertweet.api - I've looked at the twitter API wiki have not found what I am doing wrong.

This is the response I get back:

The method specified in the request is not allowed for the resource identified by the request URI You can get technical details http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.4.6

Going to the w3.org web site this is what it says:

10.4.6 405 Method Not Allowed

The method specified in the Request-Line is not allowed for the resource identified by the Request-URI. The response MUST include an Allow header containing a list of valid methods for the requested resource.

Which to me isn't helpful.

My code is this:

$msgdestroy = "http://api.supertweet.net/1/direct_messages/destroy/";
$msgidid = $checksum3[$counter1] . '.xml'; //this is the id of the message.

function distroydm($destroyurl,$user,$password, $msgidid) {
$curl_handle = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, "$destroyurl");
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "$msgidid");
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "DELETE");
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$user:$password");
$buffer=curl_exec($curl_handle);
curl_close($curl_handle);

return $buffer;
}

The twitter API says, to do this:
curl -u user:password --http-request DELETE http://api.twitter.com/1/direct_messages/destroy/88619848.xml

Which would be a command line, of the above code (I think), when I run it via the command line, however - I get the same error directing me back to w3.org

I've googled this, and didn't find anything helpful - Hoping someone who understands the API a bit better maybe able to give me some idea as to what I am doing wrong.

-Thanks - LeRoy, KD8BXP