Having upgraded to Froyo from Eclair, some apps which i have recommended before are no longer needed in my opinion. Here’s a rundown on the keepers and losers as well as new apps you may want to use with Froyo:
Keepers
- APN on-off Widget – Froyo now actually comes with a “Data network mode” option to turn data on/off from the long-press power button menu. Despite that, it is still far easier to the same through a widget on the home page. There are a few Apps that offer this functionality and I’ve settled on “APN on-off Widget”.
Losers
- Advanced Task Killer – Froyo comes with a built-in Task Manager which to me does the job and takes the place of ATK. Interestingly, the number of active tasks indicated in the Task Manager tallies with the apps you actually launched, whereas back in Eclair, ATK would report a lot of tasks running in the background which you never expected them to be running (since you didn’t launch them).
- Startup Cleaner – Since it’s no longer the case that apps seem to get launched on their own during startup, or at least the Task Manager tells me so.
- SeePU – Again, Froyo comes with a built-in widget called Program Monitor that reports the number of active apps running as well as the general “health” indicated through a colour coded bar. Granted, this widget is nowhere near the aesthetics of SeePU, and it takes up 2 slots on your precious home page screen. What i’ve decided to do is to not use either, since the phone is already much more responsive than before due to superior task management and i don’t actually need to monitor the CPU/RAM utilization anymore.
- Auto Mount – In Eclair, Auto Mount solved the pain of having to pull down the notification page to mount USB storage. With Froyo, a button to turn on/off the USB storage is displayed upon plugging in the USB cable and this is exactly how it should be.
- One Click Lag Fix – this may be a contentious recommendation, since fast enough for me may not be fast enough for you. Froyo is fast enough for me, so i’ll pass on this one.
New apps
- Tethering Widget – To turn on tethering, you’d have to navigate 2 levels deep into Settings. Previously, with Eclair on my Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung provided a “PC Internet” button to turn on USB tethering under their “Quick Launch” menu that is displayed when you plug in the USB cable. Now, with both USB and Wifi Tethering offered as standard features in Froyo, Samsung removed the “PC Internet” button, which forces you to have to go through Settings. Fret not, “Tethering Widget” comes to your rescue! It gives you the option to toggle either USB or Wifi tethering with a single click! Naturally it is placed just beside the APN on-off Widget on my home screen.
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