Antennas Android app allows you to see where the GSM towers used by your phone are located.

Antennas is a very simple but useful Android app, which is designed for those who wish know where the GSM towers to which their phones communicate with the network are located. The app also gives details about GSM/CDMA cellular status (and the RF strength). It works the best with 2G, as the 3G/CDMA support is limited by Android. Because of this, users are reporting a reduced accuracy on 3G/CDMA.  However, on 2G it should be working just fine.

The app takes only a little over 35kb, and it works just perfect for me (I'm running on a 2.2 Nexus One on 2G). The towers seem to be located really accurate. It is possible to view their location in two ways, on a normal (Google) map or on a satellite map (Google Satellite).

You can download it from the Market by searching "Antennas" (first result, app created by mploy).

Solving AccuWeather's app force close problem (Android).

If you're an Android user, you probably know that after the latest update, AccuWeather app stopped working and everybody complains about this (any device, any Android version). It simply force closes after the launch. It seems that AccuWeather is never going to update that app, so I found a way of getting AccuWeather data on your device, under the same interface.

There are more AccuWeather apps in the Market, if you search for them. However, I've found one which really works, so if you search for "ACCU WEATHER Quick" (yes, ACCU WEATHER with capital letters), you'll get an AccuWeather app which really works. It seems to be released by Accuweather.com (nobody knows exactly), and it has a few bugs, but at least it works. Some users reported problems with the widget, problems that I don't confirm. There were also reported some problems with the accuracy of displayed information, but as I've just downloaded it, I think that the information is quite accurate.

So, go to the Market and download "ACCU WEATHER Quick" app to see if that one works for you.

iPhoDroid, the simplest way of installing Android on you iPhone, is available for download (Windows).

iPhoDroid is probably a really waited application for lots of iPhone users. It allows now the installation of Android on your iPhone, under Windows operating systems. However, it is not clear if it is compatible with any Windows or with any iPhone, but it should work over XP and Vista (both 32 and 64-bit platforms), and for the 3G iPhone (from what I've seen on YouTube).

I don't know if it works with Windows 7 or not, or for the other models of iPhone, but as long as you haven't found anyway a confirmation that it works with your OS and with your iPhone, I don't recommend you trying this. Moreover, you're doing everything on your own responsibility, so if something goes wrong, you might have to restore your device.

Direct download for official site (please notify me if the link becomes unavailable): iPhoDroid download.

AccuWeather Android app gets an update which breaks it.

AccuWeather.com is probably one of the most known weather websites in the world (together with weather.com), and it has, of course, a dedicated app in the Android Market. It has been recently updated (I don't know exactly when because I just came from Greece and I couldn't see there any updates because of the weak connection I had), so I updated it today.

It has a much cooler interface than before, but, unfortunately, it crashes every time I try to open it. It can be used for about one second, then, it stops working and has to be force closed. I'm running Android 2.2 on a Nexus One, but it seems that this doesn't matter, as everybody reports the same problem after update. I've already reported the problem, and the guys from AccuWeather have to move fast, because even if the app currently has 3 stars and a half, I'm sure that its rating is going to fall soon.

Twitter own Android app launched.

Twitter has launched their own Android app, and it is not something extraordinary at all. It connects with your Google contacts (if you want), it has a clear blue interface (maybe too blue) and interesting video effects. I won't explain them, as you can download it yourself and test it.

But what I must tell you related to the effects is that it uses an active background (that blue characteristic clouds are moving), and it seems that this slows my phone down. Considering that this is a Nexus One and I feel that clouds moving, I don't know how this application works on slower devices. Even if the application has many options, the interface makes it seem...a bit too simple.

In my point of view, Seesmic is better than this Twitter app. You can get Twitter's own application via the Android Market by searching "Twitter" (first app).

Seesmic. Probably the best Twitter client for Android based devices.

When I was planning to buy my Nexus One, I was quite decided what Twitter client I was going to use, because a friend of mine said that Seesmic is the best option for Android. And so it was. After I got my Nexus One and I found a free WiFi AP, the first thing I did was to download Seesmic. And I wasn't disappointed at all.

Seesmic is probably the best Twitter client for devices which are running this OS. It offers a very clear (high resolution) interface, combining light colors (where the tweets are received) with black colors (where are the options), and a red line in the upper part, which makes the application look better than any other Twitter client I have ever seen (on any other mobile OS).

The application doesn't just look excellent, it also moves excellent. Anyway, it has no reason not to do it since the device has 1GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM. There are plenty of options offered by the application, so it can be easily compared to a desktop client (TweetDeck for example).

The scrolling is not as smooth as it is on the iPhone, but the main advantage here is that if you move the finger across the screen fast, it scrolls down until the bottom of the list automatically. Plus, while you scroll down, the list of older tweets is automatically fetched.

The application is always running in the background, and I discovered this because I was woken up several times during the night every time I got a reply or a DM. Actually, the application is not making any kind of pushing because new tweets aren't loaded until you open the application, but it just checks periodically for any replies or DMs.

It has also a pretty annoying bug (or it's just a communication error with Twitter), which makes all the tweets which were sent up to 1 hour ago to appear as sent 1 hour ago. I mean, if somebody sent a tweet 15 minutes ago, it appears as sent 1 hour ago. I didn't observe any other bug into the application.

To get it, simply search "Seesmic" into the Market.

Apple banishes aggressively (and abusively, I think) apps from AppStore.

A large number of applications from the App Store capable of searching nearby access points, offering many details about them, and connecting to them, had disappeared recently. Today, I was surprised to discover this thing. So, I've googled a little, and I found that Apple pulled from the App Store intentionally some of that kind of applications.

There were more cases in which Apple pulled from App Store some applications, because they said that...they did it because for some legal reasons. I can't think of what could 6 WiFi manager apps (for current case) have violated, but I'm pretty sure that they did it because that's what they wanted to.

Recently, Apple published a clear list of apps that will not be approved or will be pulled from the App Store if they exist, in case that they will not respect that list. Apple said that that apps were explicitly referring to adult content. A completely abusive behavior of Apple, in my opinion. That apps were not really referring at what they said. Their official explication was that they "want to protect children".

But lets return to what made me angry today. I searched for eWiFi into the App Store, a way better WiFi searcher than what Apple offers by iPhone's settings, but it was not there. I found that a number of 6 apps of that type were banished: WiFiTrack, WiFiFoForum, yFy Network Finder, WiFi Get, eWiFi, and WiFi Analyzer. I was not able to find anywhere a clear explication from Apple regarding this situation.

That's not cool, Apple. I was some time ago a big fan of Apple. Today, I am a fan of them because of their laptops. Aggressive and excessive restrictions from iPhone made me a fan of Google's Nexus One. I think that its OS is definitely superior at the moment compared to iPhone's.

Spawn Lite: a free light show play on your iPhone (entertaining).

Spawn Lite is an iPhone App which will make a light show on your phone. It has some hidden features, which I'm going to describe you. You have to move two fingers in the same or opposite direction, on the following side:

• (vertical) on the left side to change the length of the lights
• (vertical) on the middle of the screen to change the length of the lights
• (vertical) on the right side to change the color of the lights
• (horizontal) on the middle of the screen to change the movement speed of the lights

It's simple. But because it's a lite version, it includes advertising (on the bottom of the screen). Multitouch is supported. Please leave a comment if you like it. Below is a video to demonstrate you how it works.

Search it in the App Store: "Spawn Lite".

INCREDIBLE how the voice search from Google App works (iPhone).

Google has its own App for iPhone, which offers a large number of features (they are not included into the App, they are only listed there, and launched in Safari when tapped):

• Gmail
• Calendar
• Docs
• Talk
• Tasks
• Reader
• News
• Notebook
• Photos
• Translate
• Maps
• and YouTube

The App has its own browser, which has Voice Search option. And this is an amazing feature. It's so far the best App of this type I've ever seen. It recognizes perfectly everything that I say to it. I know, it's not a big thing for an English native speaker, but for me (I'm from Romania), it's the first application I've ever seen that is able to "understand" any word I say to it.

I've also tested Microsoft's App, named Bing, but it really sucks here. From 10 words I say to it, it understands only 2 of them, while Google understands at least 9, most of the time all of them.

So, search it in the App Store: "Google" or download via your PC/Mac from here. (remember to activate voice search from settings)

Transform your iPhone into a flash drive.

Managing files between iPhone and PC/Mac has never been easy, since these tasks need iTunes, which we all know that is not an expert. However, there are available some applications for iPhone that can transform it into a wireless flash drive.

The application I'm going to talk about is named "Discovery". This works only if the computer and the iPhone are connected on the same Wi-Fi. You can download and upload various content between your computer and your iPhone, without need the use of any cable. You can view documents, video, music, pictures and more.

It has a function named "Nearby", which will detect any iPhone that is around and has Discovery service running, allowing you to share files with them. After launch, the application will tell you what address to type into your browser in order to access the iPhone. It's compatible with any OS. And the best part, it's FREE. (commercial version also available, but the only difference is that it removes advertisement)

Search it in App Store: "Discovery".

A must-have iPhone application for any student (very useful).

What you would say about an application on your iPhone that can tell you everything you need to know for mathematics? It can help you with algebra (has table of prime numbers, divisibility rules, propositions and properties, factorization, quadratic equation, logarithms, etc), geometry (both plane and in space) and analysis (where the trigonometry and other things like functions are included). It has even scientific calculator, temperature, quadratic and percentage calculators, and an extremely good...help, for you.

I've been warned by somebody from WolframAlpha that iMathematics is violating terms of use, by using the functionality that is going to be described. So, for WolframAlpha on iPhone, please take a look at their official application at: http://products.wolframalpha.com/iphone/, rather than using the following functionality of iMathematics.

{----But to take its advantage, you need to have internet (Wi-Fi, 3G or EDGE). You probably guessed, it's Wolfram Alpha. A powerful online tool that can make everything for you at mathematics (resolve your exercises). It helped me many times when I wanted to verify if my homework at maths was correct, or if I didn't know how to resolve an exercise, and it told me all the formulas that must be used, and even made the whole exercise for me.----}

Available for free in App Store. Get it: "iMathematics".

Informations about skiing locations on your iPhone.

Getting informations about skiing locations from all over the world on your iPhone is very simple. There are several applications that can do this job, but the application that I'm using is called "Snow Report". After the last update, the application loads really fast, and works without any problem. It can automatically detect the location where you are via GPS, or you can choose the location from a list. The maximum number of locations it can store is 12.


For each location, it will display how much snow is expected for the following 24 hours, 48 hours, and the following 7 days, the depth of the snow on top and on base, then, if the resort is open or not and how many lifts and trails are open and closed. Then it will show the temperature at the resort and the condition of the skiing surface, followed by three buttons which will show the following when pressed: five day forecast, resort webcam, and resort information. At the bottom, it will show how much time ago the informations were last updated.


The application is, of course, free, and it can be found on the AppStore by searching "snow and ski report by rei" (the application will have an icon on which is written "REI").