Low on Space
Monday, 21st December 2009,
I recently had to revert back to using a 1GB memory card in my G1, since the 16GB card spontaneously corrupted. Ever since, my phone’s been helpfully pointing out, at least once per day, that it’s short of storage space and suggesting that I manage my applications; by “manage” it means “delete”.
There are some apps that I could delete but I’m reluctant to do so because I like them and might forget what they’re called should I acquire a more powerful android device and wish to reinstall them. There are others that I rarely use but do exactly what I need them to do on those rare occasions that I do need them. Until now, I’ve been managing to hang on to the aforementioned apps by deleting apps that I’ve installed either because they looked as though they’d do what I needed but didn’t or simply because they looked shiny in the store but quickly dulled with use. However, with Christmas looming, last night I thought I’d try installing the RTM android app – and it’s a whopper (~3.75MB). I’m determined to give it a proper trial but this means that finally I’m going to have to get ruthless with the other apps.
As I shall probably wish/need to reinstall some of them at a later date, if not on this phone then another, here’s a rollcall of the victims of this cull:
| Name | Description | Use | Pros | Cons | Size | Version | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BeyondPod | Full featured podcast manager and RSS feed reader. | Managing the few podcasts I subscribe to. | Easy to use. Can schedule automated checks and downloads. | I get stuck in the interface, looping between the various screens as to exit, instead of pressing “Back”, you have to press “Home”. Also, I’ve yet to get it to successfully subscribe to ABC’s MediaWatch vodcast; not sure if that’s a problem with the vodcast or the app. | 1.55MB + 1.01MB data | 204 | BeyondPod Team |
| Phonebook | Contacts management: “unified communications inbox” (calls and SMS), stats, birthday notifications, search, groups. | Alternative to the default address book. | Much better than the default address book. | I only keep in contact with a few people via voice calls and/or SMS so don’t really need/use the advanced features. | 1.87MB + 88KB data | 106 | Voxmobili – Onmobile |
| Meridian | Media player: search, lyrics, subtitles, gestures, ID3 edit, rating, meta data. | For playing media (mostly audio) stored on my phone, which isn’t much with this smaller SD card. | Much better than the default app. | I rarely listen to the music stored on my phone, preferring to stream from online radio services instead. | 1.53MB + 100KB data | 75 | III – Romulus Urakagi Ts’ai |
| IcWord | Document viewer: Microsoft Word only. | Allows me to open and read MS Word documents. | Provides functionality that isn’t available to me by default. | Only useful for MS Word documents. | 1.16MB | 2 | Derek Li |
| FBReader | eBook reader: epub, oeb and fb2. | Reading novels. | Gives me the option to read a book without having to carry anything extra around with me. | I prefer to read the paper version. | 1.09MB + 44KB data | 527 | Geometer Plus |
| Pixelpipe Pro | Media uploader: images, video, audio, text. | Posting to Flickr. | I can upload instantly, no need to wait until I have access to a more capable PC with internet access. | I very rarely use it. | 1.05MB + 76KB data | 23 | Pixelpipe |
| WordUp! | Word game, very like Boggle. | Killing time on the bus. | I love word games. | I don’t use my phone to play games very often. | 0.98MB + 52KB data | 28 | Anthrological |
| Odd One Out | Game: spot the odd one out, against the clock. | Get’s pretty challenging to beat the clock towards the end. | Not enough variety, just the same shapes but with less time. | I don’t use my phone to play games very often | 264KB | 9 | CRSoft |
| OffiViewer | Office document viewer. Opens PDF, Word, Exel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument and RTF files. | For reading random documents downloaded off the web or received as email attachments. | I don’t have to wait until I get to a more capable PC. | I don’t use my phone to read office documents very often | 240KB + 4KB data | 12 | Art of Solving |
The RTM app had better be good…
