The Android NZ Apps of the Week 31/10/2011 [AOTW]

Jump in for the apps that took our attention this week!

Murray Winiata - Parcels (Free)

No, this isn't a screenshot from
my phone (you call tell because
a MacBook is in the list)

This weeks app from me is one that I really enjoy as someone who regularly receives a lot of packages from overseas - the excellent Parcels from Timo Behrmann. I'm particularly bad at waiting, and I was formerly an habitual 'checker' whilst awaiting exciting things like new phones, checking the tracking information as often as I could... Like any obsessive-compulsive disorder it began to interfere with daily life... Fortunately Parcels was able to break the shackles of my affliction.

Parcels is not an intricate app, all the app does is track your parcels. If an app is going to have a narrow focus and do just one thing, I've always though it had better do it well. Parcels exemplifies this principle.

Parcels works for many different postal services and couriers, and of course all the bigger players like Fedex, DHL, UPS, and Royal Mail are represented (if you catch the QR-code Market link below you'll be able to check the full list of supported services).

Enter your tracking code, set the refresh interval, set the notifications, and you're away. In the home screen you'll see all your present and past packages, and for ease of use each company is colour coded differently. If you click on the item you'll get a detailed view with more information, and can even click on an item to see it's location in Google Maps. In particular the scheduling of tracking information retrievals is what makes the app for me. I can set it, and forget it, secure in the knowledge that if anything changes I will know about it in no time flat. 

I need to point out here that in order to get Parcels in many countries you'll need to use the Root app Market Enabler to fake a network carrier from the US. That said a quick perusal of the Market reveals there are now lots of apps of this kind that you could try as alternatives - the most highly rated ones being Parcel Trace, Package Buddy, and the paid app Package Tracker Pro.

Gianpy Belaunde - Astrid (Free)

Up to now the large majority of my app recommendations have been based on games, which is a bit misleading as my phone reflects my life directly, a part of which is focused on productivity and tasks.

This week I want to talk about my all time favorite to do list application, Astrid. Only a couple of months ago I started my first year of university, this led me to look for ways to make my life easier, as I knew I'd be getting a large workload. After constant struggle looking for the right app, I came across Astrid To-Do list on the Android market.

A free download, Astrid is a simple application that looks to solve one problem, organization. It is designed to help you get work done or remind you of something you need to do. Creating a task is easy and you then get a list-view of all your active tasks with 'due-dates'.

Some noteworthy features of the application include optional notifications, ability to sync with Google tasks and also widgets that can be placed for additional convenience. This is an application that can be as simple or as complex as you need it do be.

You can also add tasks via voice dictation, which is useful for people who type slowly or just want to add something quickly.

Overall, the application is definitely worth trying, you've got nothing to lose since it's free. Try it out and see just how much easier it will make your life!

Andy Carruthers - SVOX ($3.39)

Using turn-by-turn navigation software on your Android device? Audio notifications? E-book reading aloud? Other text-to-speech like having your emails or texts read to you while you're driving? Yeah? Well I have good news for you.

You can finally park that oh-so-synthetic PICO voice that you've been putting up with and replace it with something decent. More than decent, actually.

SVOX Classic Text To Speech is a runtime TSR that you can install for free on your handset which allows you to use various highly realistic voices, male and female, in your native language. You can install UK English, Aussie English and American English, or any of more than 25 other languages – some with male and female versions. That's the good news.

The slightly less good news is that each voice you download and install will cost you some hard-earned dosh. And some languages, specifically Maori and other Pacific Island languages, are missing in action. So it's not the perfect app. Yet.

The better news is that the voice files are actually quite cheap, considering how really excellent they are. You'll pay $3.99 South Pacific Pesos for each.

I went for the English “Victoria” accent, not just because it's a sexy one, but also because it's easily understood, and a female voice has more cut-though in a noisier environment such as a car or motorcycle. Or a fighter jet – the military also chooses female voices for its audio notification systems (“Bitchin' Betty” as she's known to American airmen) – and the “Pull up, pull up” terrain warning voice on commercial airliners is similarly female.

The best news though is that the voice transforms the audio experience of your apps. Annunciation and pronunciation are excellent, modulation is amazingly consistent and the voices are just so darn pleasant to listen to.

So why wouldn't you pony up the paltry four bucks that it'll cost to reap these awesome audio benefits? You don't use any apps that offer voice augmentation? That'd be a reason, but probably the only one.

This app is one of my favourites - I can't imagine Maps or Navigon without it. Get it and you'll enjoy your phone even more. Four out of five stars from me.

Nick Monrad - Google Sky Map (Free)

Google Sky Map. It lets you explore the night’s sky in a truly amazing way. Essentially you just point your phone up towards whichever part of the sky you’re interested in and it shows you the names stars, planets and constellations. As you move around to view other parts of the sky, Google Sky Map moves with you. It also has a night mode to dim down the screen so that your view of the night sky is less diminished.

If you want to find something in particular you can search for it and then you’ll have arrows guiding your hand to view the right part of the sky. You can zoom in and out with multi-touch gestures to hone in on your favourite constellation.

Some of the other cool features are:

• Time Travel – letting you view the sky as it was 1000 years ago, or 1000 years in the future 
• A Gallery of amazing photographs from the Hubble Telescope – it even lets you find where in the sky the image came from 
• Manual mode where you can use your finger to navigate the night sky 
• Enabling/disabling of Stars, Constellations, Messier Objects, Planets, Meteor Showers, RA/Dec Grid and the Horizon 

Essentially, if you’re interested in the sky at all then give Google Sky Map a go!

Anita Paling - Prey Anti-theft (Free)

I could use my own words to describe this application but their website does a really nice job, it's succinct and accurate: Prey lets you keep track of your phone or laptop at all times, and will help you find it if it ever gets lost or stolen. It's lightweight, open source software, and free for anyone to use. And it just works.


I've got Prey installed on the laptop, ASUS eee Transformer and my Samsung Galaxy S2. I've also installed it on my first Android phone, the Galaxy S.

Over the last week I've been in the midst of changing phone providers and that's meant swapping one SIM for another. What I'd forgotten was that Prey would recognise this difference and begin to track my phone.

There were two things that alerted me to the tracking. My GPS was active. It puzzled me until I got my first email providing a report of where my phone was currently located.

No doubt you've at least heard of apps that will track and locate a missing device. Some say they'll track to within X kilometres (or miles). I really can't remember what claims Prey make. What I can say is the reports they send, with a map of the location of my phone, have been absolutely accurate to the house.

I use another application as a virus scan and it will also locate a missing device. But I must have to manually trigger that.

What Prey does is manage all of that effortlessly, without any intervention from me. As soon as a new SIM is detected, and provided GPS is already on, the device is tracked. And great too that this application is also available for the laptop. You can have up to 3 devices on the one account for free.

You can also text the phone to start Prey. You can set your own phrase for the text. And once that text is sent then it will start Prey. Same for stopping Prey. You can choose a contact that will receive a text when a new SIM is detected which will advise the new phone number. Sounds pretty clever to me.

Obviously if you've misplaced your phone, or someone helped themselves to your phone, you're kinda stuck to manually start and stop Prey from the phone. That's when you jump on the website and set the device to missing. And then the reports start coming. On the free plan you'll receive a maximum of 10 reports for each device. Once you have 11 reports, the oldest one will drop off, leaving at all times a maximum of 10.

There's a short video explaining even more features than I've mentioned here. It's just a couple of minutes. I'm sure if you're interested in tracing a missing device, you can find the time to check this out.

Nik Turner - Screen Filter (Free, Girlfriend approved!)

If you use your phone like I do and/or are as pathetic and nerdy, you’ll often find yourself bored in bed, surfing the internets or playing games in the dark while your loving, tolerant partner attempts to sleep next to the eye-searing white glare of your phone’s lowest brightness setting. Or, alternatively, waking up at such an ungodly hour that the light from your phone’s screen melts your early morning face off. Screen Filter is the relationship and eye-soothing solution. By offering much lower levels of brightness than standard, this app lets you happily tap away without turning the room into some kind of Poltergeist re-enactment.

That’s, well, it. Deceptively simple, and a great idea. There’s a slider to select how dim you want the screen to be, with example text to preview, and the option to enable or disable the button backlights where applicable. The app is launched with a single tap of the icon, and the settings are accessed via the notification display. Be warned, tapping the notification switches the app off, as does tapping the icon a second time – brace yourself for the glare. There you have it – Screen Filter is a simple utility that I, at least, find indispensable [+1 -Ed].