Game Type: Puzzle, Casual

Price: Free; $0.99 for ad-free version

Get It: If you enjoy word games and casual puzzle games like Bejeweled

I have to admit that when I think about Android games, I tend to focus on the ones that keep my kids entertained. But lately I’ve been hogging the phone for myself so I can play Dropwords.

This game is sort of a cross between Bejeweled, Scrabble, and a word search. You start with a grid of letter blocks and find as many words as you can before the clock runs out. The letters can be touching in any direction—up or down, sideways, or diagonal—and you can keep switching directions. For example, you could go down, to the left, then up. Longer words earn higher scores and a time bonus. After you find a word, those letters disappear, the other blocks slide down, and new ones appear at the top.

If you get stuck, you can shuffle the tiles or discard them for a whole new set. There doesn’t seem to be any penalty for doing this, which seems a little odd to me.

Modes of play and customizing your game: In addition to choosing the size of your letter grid (four, five, or six letters down and across), you can choose from three themes and six modes of play, and you can decide whether to use the Scrabble dictionary, Webster’s, or both.

Choose letters by swiping or tapping; I find that swiping is faster but more likely to result in errors. If you make a mistake, go back and tap the previous, correct letter.

Modes of play include normal, hard, lightning (which gives you just a little time), blocker (which blocks off random locations across the board), relax (an easier mode), and untimed. High scores are tracked separately for each mode.

Ambiance: This game’s look and feel are OK; they aren’t quite as sleek as something like Angry Birds or Plants vs. Zombies, especially in the free, ad-supported version. But unlike those fancy-graphics games, it won’t take up a huge amount of space on your phone. And if the ads bother you, 99 cents for the “pro” version really isn’t bad.

Social networking: Like quite a few games and apps, Dropwords has recently added the option to connect with a community of game-playing friends. Signing up for this network gives you access to chats, circles, a leader board, and extra challenges.

My recommendation: Give Dropwords a try. And if your kids ask why you’re hogging the phone, claim that you’re reading an important e-mail from their school principal.

A few times in my life, people have given me book journals as gifts. I do love to read, and the journals seemed like a great idea, but somehow they never got used. So now I’m trying it a new way: on Android, of course, with MyBookDroid.

A virtual bookshelf: In the past, after reading a book, you would put it on a bookshelf in your house, giving you a nice visual reminder of what you’d read over the years. Now you might download the book, or resell it online, or check it out of the library. (Yeah, I know, that last option was always available.) Instead of keeping books on your shelves, you can enter them into MyBookDroid, and your list is always with you.

Adding books: If you have a physical copy of a book, use the built-in barcode scanner to scan the ISBN, and the app quickly displays the title, author, cover, publisher, number of pages, and date you added it. If you don’t have the book in front of you, you can search by author, title or keyword, or manually enter the ISBN. Or, if your daughter “published” this particular book in her kindergarten class and she hasn’t gotten around to obtaining an ISBN, the “Create book” feature lets you add all the information manually.

Handy features: Tag each volume as “Have read,” “To read,” “I Own,” “Reading Now,” “Favorite,” or “Want to Buy/Own.” (You can select as many of these as you like.) You can also assign the book a rating, compare prices at online booksellers, find it on Goodreads or Google, or get a list of similar books. Goodreads reviews and ratings are integrated into the app, and you can also add your own notes or quotes from the book.

Goodreads integration: If you’re already a fan of the website Goodreads, then MyBookDroid is a perfect mobile companion. You can import your Goodreads books into the app, and you can use the app to add books to your Goodreads account.

Ease of use: Overall, I’ve found MyBookDroid to be quite easy to use. Even with my tiny keyboard, keeping track of book information and my related notes is definitely easier than it ever was with pen and paper. The barcode scanner has worked every time, and the search function works well too. The only thing that sometimes trips me up is waiting for the Goodreads reviews to load, which can take a while. Overall, if you’re a book lover, I definitely recommend that you check this one out.

DropBox is a file-syncing service that automatically uploads files from specified folders on a computer or device to the Dropbox servers, making your synced files available to any computer via the web or installed DropBox folder. If you don’t already use DropBox on your computer, I highly recommend checking it out: referral link. There is also an official DropBox app for Android.

I already have and use DropBox and was excited to hear about the relatively new Android app called DropSnap. It is supposed to automatically sync photos from your Android device to your DropBox account at specified intervals or when you take a picture. As someone who takes a lot of photos on my Droid and either shares them right away on Twitter then forgets about them, or transfers them en masse via USB or email, I was happy to see another solution for managing the pics on my phone.

I installed DropSnap from the Android Market and logged into my DropBox account via the app, changed one setting, and within minutes, my DropBox folder on my laptop was starting to fill up with photos from my phone! So simple.

The only problem I had was that the setting wasn’t super-intuitive. When you click on “Manage Rules” and set the Default rule, you have to click the button on top to navigate to the camera folder on your phone (for me, it was /DCIM/Camera), then click the button on the bottom to select the DropBox folder you would like the pictures to sync to. Some simple instructions on this screen would make first-time use less puzzling.

As I understand it, the free trial allows auto-syncing for 3 days, then you have to manually open the app to synchronize or upgrade to the paid Premium version, which currently costs $3.99. The premium version also specifies that it can auto-upload videos, but I have not tried that function yet.

If you’re a DropBox user, DropSync is a must-have Android app!

This post is part of our series called “Female Faves”, where we pick a category of apps and feature the ones that are highest-rated and most-downloaded by women according to AppBrain’s “Popular Among: Women” filter. Since it would be difficult to fully test all of the apps, we won’t review all of them, but if you have or try any of them, please chime in in the comments!

Again, these are some of the highest-rated apps that are most popular among women according to AppBrain – we don’t pick them! If these aren’t your favorites, tell us what yours are below!

Dinner is one of my favorite parts of the day. Figuring out what to make for dinner, on the other hand, can be a pain. There’s something about having to make this decision day after day after day…. I want it to be easier, and also more fun. The Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner offers a little of both.

Not just for dinner: Despite its name, the Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner is a comprehensive recipe app that includes breakfast, desserts, appetizers, beverages, salads, side dishes, soups, and breads, in addition to main dishes. Choose one of these categories, then choose a main ingredient (chicken, chocolate, and so forth), followed by a “ready in” option: 20 minutes or less, 45 minutes or less, over an hour, slow cooker, or “any.” Then select “View Matches” to get recipes sorted by relevance, rating, title, or popularity. There’s also a search function if you know what you’re looking for.

Plenty of options: Allrecipes.com is a popular cooking website where users can post recipes, and the Dinner Spinner app draws on 40,000 of those user contributions. The database is so extensive that even funny-sounding combinations can turn up some good choices; I tried combining the category “bread” with the main ingredient “shellfish” plus “45 minutes or less,” and actually came up with four matches, including two for crab rangoon. Yum! Sadly, however, I apparently took it too far when I tried combining “bread” with “chocolate” and “slow cooker.” No results for that one.

Are the recipes any good? This app draws on the website’s user-submitted recipes, which can be quite varied but often lean toward homey comfort foods; my search for quick fish main courses, for example, turned up several types of tuna salad and tuna melts, along with other recipes like blackened tilapia and Cajun-crusted snapper filets. Like the Allrecipes.com website, Dinner Spinner lets you see user-submitted ratings and reviews to help you choose the best dishes. It also gives you the prep time, complete recipe instructions, and nutritional information for each recipe.

Spin for your dinner: This is the most fun part, if the least practical. When you just want to throw up your hands and let someone else decide what’s for dinner, you can simply open up Dinner Spinner and then give your phone a quick shake. The app will “spin” each category for you in a kind of dinner lottery and give you results for whatever combination it has randomly selected. This can be fun because you might hit on combinations that never occurred to you—and after all, sometimes shaking things up is exactly what the dinner hour needs.

My recommendation: Definitely worth a spin.

For years now, whenever I lose track of my car in a big parking lot or forget which street I parked on, I’ve been asking: “If we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we get a team of pirates to remind me where I left the car?” At last my entreaties have been answered, in the form of Carrr Matey. The Android Market offers a few apps for finding your car, all with similar functionality; but according to my investigations, this is the only one with a pirate theme.

Dropping anchor: When I’m walking away from my car, I occasionally forget all about paying attention to where I parked. In those situations, Carrr Matey is no use. But more often, I’m thinking, “Hmmm, I should probably remember this spot.” And then I take note of some details, but by the time I’m heading back to the car, I may have forgotten them. This is where Carrr Matey can help.

Once you’ve parked, you open Carrr Matey and select Drop Anchor. Now your location is marked, even if you somehow forget that you’re in the middle of the third row after the middle elevator on the second floor.

As a backup, you can also select Harbor, which lets you note your floor, level, space number, and the color of your parking section. (This is especially handy if you can’t get a GPS signal in a covered parking lot.)

Finding your way back: Once you’ve dropped anchor, you can close Carrr Matey for as long as you like. When you open it back up, select “Find Vessel” to get directions back to your car. Carrr Matey will give you the option of getting walking directions from Google Maps or using a compass, which points you in the direction of your car while also displaying the approximate distance.

Docking timer: When you drop anchor, Carrr Matey asks whether you want to set a timer, which is quick and easy to do. If you’ve parked in a spot with a meter or a time limit, this can give you a handy reminder when your time’s up.

Does it work? Yes. … Sort of. This app is not precise enough to absolutely pinpoint the location of your car using the compass or the walking directions. When I sat in the driver’s seat of my car, the compass said I was 15 yards away, and the walking directions were about the same. But this gets you close enough to visually spot your car, or to hear it beeping when you press the button on your car remote.

People who use Android’s other car-finding apps give similar reports of their accuracy—not perfect, but good enough. I like Carrr Matey best because it adds a little fun and silliness to the task. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind getting a pirate theme for some of my other straightforward utilities. My alarm clock and note-taking apps, for example, could benefit from a little buccaneering flair.

Those of us that are wary about malware and viruses in software always say, “Read the permissions!”, meaning that you should really understand what you are giving the app permission to do when you install it. Google makes you click through an app’s security permission list when installing for a reason – so it’s not their fault if you allow an app to steal your information!

However, even though I’m a programmer myself, I still find myself installing apps with security permissions that I don’t fully understand! It’s not easy to know what all of the various mysterious-sounding permission names mean, so I decided it might be a good idea to dive in and find out what a few of these permissions really allow the app publishers to do and share that info here.

The first one I want to research is one of the most common: Phone Calls – Read Phone State & Identity. Why would a ringtone app need to know my phone’s unique identifier? Why would a wallpaper app need to know whether I’m in a call or not? What do phone state and identity really mean anyway?

The first place I looked for information was the Android SDK documentation – which is the reference material developers use when building their apps. The list of permissions was interesting, but not particularly enlightening. It said that “READ_PHONE_STATE” allows your app to access the state of the phone. OK, so what does that mean? Digging deeper, I found the various values for “phone state” listed here, which include “Call State – Ringing” and “Data Connected”. So, basically the app can tell whether you’re in a call or not and what the state of your data connection is.

But the more concerning part of the permission is the “identity” part. Allowing an app to track a phone’s unique identifier allows them to track your usage of the app, and allow a developer to know whether one person has downloaded several of their apps. Basically, it’s like letting Google track your search history: it may not know who you are exactly, but tracking your usage over time allows a company to build a profile of your individual activity.

It turns out that the main reasons developers give for needing this permission are:

1. they need a way to assign a unique ID to you for registration/activation purposes, or
2. they are using an advertising system like AdMob that requires them to use this permission so the 3rd-party advertiser can collect statistics.

Since most free app developers rely on advertising to fund their businesses, you can see why so many apps need this permission, but you also have to understand the trade-off: both the advertiser and the app publisher can track your usage of the app, and your usage across multiple apps if they collect all that data centrally (which advertisers definitely do).

This one is pretty tough to avoid, so I’d say just be especially wary of typically-suspicious apps (like ringtone apps) that use this permission and only install apps with this permission from developers you trust.

I rely a lot on the app’s marketplace rating to determine safety. Although it’s not a definite indicator (a developer could create a really great app and still use your information maliciously, or a developer with good intentions could just publish a really poor app), if I see an app with a really poor rating, especially if a developer has multiple apps with really poor ratings, I am suspicious that they may be spending too little time on improving their application because their reason for wanting you to download their app has nothing to do with its quality, they just want your information or ad impressions.

So, overall, keep your eyes open and uninstall apps that make you suspicious, but keep in mind that sometimes dangerous-sounding permissions are necessary for non-malicious purposes.

I do have a suggestion for Google, though – allow us to opt-out of individual permissions! If we download an app and find that it can run just fine without reading our “identity”, then we should be able to disable that “feature” of each app on an individual basis.

On a related note, I just heard about an app today called “Privacy Blocker” that claims to do just that, and I hope to review it here in the future!

What other permissions do you want us to explore here on WomenWithDroids? Let us know in the comments!

I’m far from being an expert on meditation, but from what I’ve been reading in The New York Times and elsewhere, it seems that meditating should make me smarter, healthier, happier, and an all-around nicer person. But meditating can be hard, and frankly, sometimes it’s more fun to watch Glee. It helps to set aside a very specific amount of time to devote to meditation. And, to avoid watching the clock, a timer comes in handy.

Zen Timer is a fairly simple app that lets you set a pleasant-sounding timer for your meditation session. (You can also use it for yoga or other mindful activities.) When you’re aiming for a tranquil mind, you don’t really want a loud, blaring alarm or a high-pitched, beeping kitchen timer. Instead, Zen Timer lets you select from the sounds of six different Tibetan singing bowls or a traditional wood block.

Highly customizable: Zen Timer gives you lots of options for customizing your meditation session. In addition to choosing the type of sound, you can decide whether you want to hear it once, twice, or three times. You can start your session with an optional beginning bell and add interval bells as often as you choose. For each type of bell—beginning, interval, and ending—you set the type of bell, the number of strikes, and the volume. Zen Timer will remember your settings for next time, and if you have several different routines, you can save all of them, rather than having to make the changes each time. You also have the option to block calls and texts until your session is done.

Logging your sessions: Zen Timer automatically keeps a log of your meditation sessions. If you choose, it canprompt you to add a journal entry at the end of each session, and you have the option of sharing your activity through your Facebook account.

My recommendation: I love Zen Timer’s plethora of customization features, and the bells have a beautiful sound that’s just right for staying in a peaceful frame of mind. The one thing this app lacks is reminders, which could be helpful in establishing a new meditation routine like I’ve been trying to do. Of course, you could always set up reminders through your e-mail system, or through a to-do list app like Astrid, but I’d love to see it as a built-in feature here.

Overall, I think this is a great app for a beginner like me, and I imagine it would work equally well for more experienced meditators. I’ll be keeping Zen Timer on my phone and endeavoring to use it more often.

So, as long-time readers of this blog know already, I’m a fan of the highly-rated LauncherPro and wrote about its basic features when I re-did my homescreen last year. (If you aren’t familiar with LauncherPro, you should read that article first since I’m not going to mention the main benefits again here.)

I have since paid for LauncherPro+, mainly to support the amazing app developer Federico who constantly improves the app and adds neat features, but also to have access to the paid features. Now that I’ve been using it for a while, I wanted to highlight my favorite new features since the last time I wrote about Launcher Pro.

1. Virtual Looping – Since you can add extra homescreens with LauncherPro, you may get tired of swiping all the way from the first to the last homescreen regularly. The new version solves that problem by creating an option to pop to the first homescreen when you scroll past the last and vice-versa! It’s a simple feature, but a good one.
   
2. Dock Pop-Ups – One of the best features of LauncherPro is the launcher dock, which has recently been made even better. Now, you can long-press on a dock icon (and remember, you can fully customize the icons and apps on the launcher) and create a “swipe gesture action”. You can set it up to launch a certain shortcut, open notifications, or several other options, but my favorite is the pop-up.
   

   For instance, when I swipe up on the App Drawer Icon, I now get a quick-list of recent apps – and more than you get when you hold down the Home button! You can also set pop-ups to show missed calls, texts, and more.
   

3. Widgets – The paid version, LauncherPro+, has a bunch of great widgets to choose from. I use the calendar widget, which comes in 3 sizes, and can display monthly calendar view or current agenda view.
   

   You’ll have to wait for the next edition of Renee’s Homescreen Makeover to find out about those volume widgets at the bottom!

   Here are some of the other widgets that are available:
   

   If you have photos of a lot of your contacts, you could use this beautiful “People” widget!
   

   
   Image from launcherpro.com

If you don’t already have a launcher that you’re impressed with, I encourage you to download the free version of LauncherPro and give it a shot. Then, if you fall in love with it like I did, upgrade to the full version and support the developer! The latest cool update he put out? Transitions! And another feature is supposed to come out very soon… can’t wait to see what it is!

LauncherPro for Android on AppBrain

P.S. It has been 1 year since we launched Women With Droids! Thanks for a great first year, everyone – looking forward to many more! See our top posts from 2010 here.





Related posts:

• Renee’s Homescreen Makeover: LauncherPro
• Renee’s Homescreen Makeover: Apps Organizer
• Renee’s Homescreen Makeover: Audio Widgets

]]> https://www.womenwithdroids.com/2011/01/renees-homescreen-makeover-launcherpro-follow-up/feed/ 3 https://www.womenwithdroids.com/2010/12/ultimate-android-accessory-gift-guide/ https://www.womenwithdroids.com/2010/12/ultimate-android-accessory-gift-guide/#comments Sun, 19 Dec 2010 17:51:20 +0000 http://www.womenwithdroids.com/?p=1933 Related posts:
• Accessory Review: Auto AirVent Mount by Accessory Power
• Accessory Review: Tune Belt
• Accessory Reviews: Droidette Sleeve & Invisible Shield
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For all of you last-minute Christmas/holiday shoppers, you do still have some time to buy online at many stores with quick shipping options. Here are the top 10 Android accessory gifts WomenWithDroids recommends for your friends & family with Android devices that you can still get in time if you buy them right now!

10. Phone Stand: Twitter user @waterNdirt thinks that beanbag chairs for your phone make good gifts, and we agree! ThinkGeek has several phone stand options, including beanbag chairs. You still have time to order from ThinkGeek with UPS 2-day shipping. Check out these cute phone stand options!

Beanbag Cellphone Chair $9.99

Cellphone Hand Stand $14.99

Grassy Lawn Charging Station $24.99

9. Invisible Shield: One thing in common among Android phone users, regardless of plan or model, is that they want to protect their investments. Twitter user @LoveToText says that the ZAGG Invisible Shield makes a good gift. It is a great way to protect a phone from scratches without adding bulk. See our review here.




Find a ZAGG InvisibleSHIELD for your phone!

8. Protective Case: The Invisible Shield protects the phone body & screen from scratches, but won’t help much if the phone is dropped. For additional protection, give a highly-rated case, like Body Glove, Otterbox or Seido Innocase:

7. Tune Belt/Tune Band: If you have a friend or family member that works out, make it easy for them to listen to music on their Android phone by buying them a belt or band to keep it safely strapped to their body. See our review of Tune Belt here.

6. Touch Gloves: It’s winter and no one wants to have to expose their hands to the cold in order to use their touchscreen device! We reviewed one pair here. These gloves that have conductive thread in the fingertips would make thoughtful and functional gifts:

Degrees® Suburban Touch Gloves from Kohl’s

Isotoner SmarTouch Tech Stretch Gloves

5. Portable Speaker: Phone speakers are limited in volume and range of sound. Enhance their listening experience and allow them to listen without headphones by giving them a cool portable rechargeable speaker, like the X-Mini II that we recently reviewed:

4. Android Dolls : There are a lot of places to get Android-related dolls and figurines online. Many are handmade, and all are so cute! Check to make sure the seller offers shipping upgrades so you get it on time, though!

lilredbug on Etsy (recommended by @androidashley) – Angry Birds pig	Android Mini by Dead Zebra	Droidette Mini Pillow – Droidette Shop
Glendora on Etsy – Crochet Amigurumi Android	Angry Birds Plush Dolls ToyWiz	jan553 on Etsy – Android plush

3. Phone Dock: It’s really great that we can add functionality to our phones by using a media dock or a car dock. Check out our review of the Droid Dock here. Find one for your gift-recipient’s phone by searching on Amazon:

Android Car Mounts on Amazon

Media/Charging Cradles on Amazon

2. Droidette T-Shirt: Of course, we think any fan of WomenWithDroids.com would just LOVE one of our Droidette tees! Check them out at CafePress (more styles there, as well as a few other branded items):

$19.49	$17.19	$22.99	$31
Go to the Women With Droids CafePress Shop NOTE: You have to order on Monday in order to get an item in time for Christmas!

1. Phone Sleeve/Case: A phone sleeve or case is one of the best gifts for an Android owner. It helps protect the phone and adds style, as well as adding some Android identity if you go for one that has a Droid or Droidette on it! There are tons of great sleeve styles out there, and for our #1 gift pick, we’d like to highlight some Etsy crafters that make cool handmade sleeves and cases. Of course, since these are handmade, you’ll have to check on availability with each Etsy seller to see if these can be shipped in time for Christmas:

thameowdesigns on Etsy	freshonmondays on Etsy	khudgins on Etsy
rainydaye on Etsy	pippichick on Etsy	bloodsweatandthread on Etsy




We hope you enjoyed these gift ideas. Run to your store if it’s something you can get there, or BUY IT NOW (after checking the retailer’s shipping speeds) if you want to order it online and get it shipped on time!!

Or, you could always gift one to yourself >(:] )=

Did we miss anything cool? Let us know in the comments!





Related posts:

• Accessory Review: Auto AirVent Mount by Accessory Power
• Accessory Review: Tune Belt
• Accessory Reviews: Droidette Sleeve & Invisible Shield

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