Tag: apps

Extending the Battery Life of Verizon Android Phones

Android Low BatteryIf you have an android phone such as the Droid or Incredible, you know how horrible the battery life is. If you don’t touch the phone all day, you MIGHT make it to lunch time before needing to recharge it.

Thanks to Terry, I now have two backup batteries and a dedicated wall charger for spare batteries with an extra spare battery in my pocket at all times for when I’ll be away from a wall outlet for more than 4-6 hours. Sad, I know.

The good news is that I discovered a fantastic way to extend the battery life of your android phone on the Verizon network. Continue reading “Extending the Battery Life of Verizon Android Phones”

Offline Maps for Android

Offline Maps and Navigation for Android
Offline Navigation with NavDroyd

After August’s 2 week trip to Africa and not having net access with my Incredible (running Android), I wanted to find a solution that let me pull maps and have them cached offline. With my upcoming trip to Italy, now seems like a good time to test a solution.

There are a ton of paid options, but I’m looking for a free offline map option. The best one so far seems to be MyDroid which is currently downloading maps onto my phone.

At first glance, the maps seem great, but there’s no search or routing options available. Seems good for finding yourself on a map and navigating the old school way, but not much more.

MyDroyd is their companion product that does some routing, but is limited to certain published cities. Boo.

NavDroyd, another companion product that is currently €4.99, that seems to offer turn-by-turn, offline, driving and walking directions. This might be the win.

Oddly, the apps don’t share the same map data, so you have to store multiple copies of maps for apps from the same company – and the map files are BIG! (Italy is 68MB alone)

After I return from Italy, I’ll post on how it all worked out. In the mean time, any suggestions for alternate apps?