Another gem of an application/hack I found today. It turns your Android phone’s utility multi fold. This hack – Brut Google Maps – makes Google Maps Voice Navigation International. For some reason, Google has enabled this feature only for few selected countries in their official Maps/Navigation apps on Android.

But remember, this feature only works if you have an active Internet connection. Manufactures like Motorola has partnered with MapMyIndia to offer offline maps for India. You can even purchase the MapMyIndia navigation software for various platforms separately.

I’m very happy Brut’s hack saved me some bucks!. Let me know if this worked for you in the comments.

Download:

Google Maps with free Global Navigation
md5sum: 456b3fe71f74bb8b76a443be4075473c

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Android, as you might think – is infinitely customizable. But the freedom to do does not come by default. You need to root your favorite Android device to enjoy its true potential. Rooting a device lets you run programs and processes with the super user permissions. Though dangerous if used without knowing what you are doing, it is a very powerful tool for the Pro-consumers out there. Keep a backup / dump of your original manufacturer’s ROM before you venture out to root your Android device. This will help you retain your warranty.

Here are some of the benefits of having a rooted device.

• AdjBrightness : Adjust / Decrease and lock the brightness of your Android Screen. This helps save battery and your eyes!
• AutoKiller : This nifty tool available as free on the Market lets you customize the garbage collection intervals of Android operating system. That means better performance compared to the ordinary Task killers in the market.
• Titanium Backup : Hands down the best tool available right now to keep backup of your Apps and related data securely in the SD Card. This saves plenty of time and efforts if you are frequent ‘ROM Flasher’
• WiFi Tethering: Android 2.2 (Froyo) supports WiFi tethering (Creating a Mobile Wifi hotspot using your mobile). But this is a operator dependent service and you may have to subscribe to special plans to avail such services. But the rooted phones can enjoy a better Wifi Tethering service, without any of these hindrances. In my experience this works faster and consumers less energy than the official ones.
• Moving Caches to SD Card: System memory on Android phones are still a luxury. Recovering every bit of the precious space by moving the Caches to the external SD Card will yield better performances.
• Better Themes: Once rooted you have the capability to skin your Android phones to any level.
• Freedom! – Once a proper su (Super User) is obtained, the opportunities are limitless. Freedom to do whatever you want with your device!

Did I miss anything?.. Let me know in the comments.

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I’ve been using a Google ADP1(G1) and then a Samsung Spica(i5700) on various Android builds (1.1, Cupcake, Donut & Eclair). Following are my essential Android apps list.

• ADW Launcher
  I am not a fan of the default Android Home app or the ones the Manufacturers installs by default. After various trials of LauncherPro, Helix etc.., ADW Launcher is the one which stays on my Android Mobile. It is highly customizable and has very less memory footprint. It is blazingly fast except for some occasional widget selection issues. But the developer updates this app vigorously.
• AndroNoter
  All my notes needs to be available everywhere. I use SimpleNote as my notes platform. It has clients on the Mac, PC, iPhone and now Android. AndroNoter is a very good SimpleNote client which supports transparent sync with the SimpleNote cloud. The search options are really fast.

• Barcode Scanner – to quickly launch the Market application upon scanning App QR Codes 
• Fring
  Fring is the default VOIP client for the GTalk. It has various other options. But I use only for VOIP over 2G/WiFi with my patents & friends who are on Google Talk.
• Camera 360
  This is the only Android application I’ve purchased yet. It is worth it. Offers plenty of filters and effects for the Camera.
• Handecent SMS
  With SPAM SMSs pouring in every minute these days, blacklisting is very important to me. Handecent does the job albeit a bit slow to start. 
• Swype
  Swype is a very intuitive text input mechanism which is getting pre-packaged with modern Android mobiles. I joined their beta and got an early access. Swype’s heuristics algorithms are very accurate most of the time. It is miles above the pretty useless default Android Soft keyboard.
• Kindle
  I own a Kindle2 and have the purchased books available everywhere – iPhone, iPad and now Android is a boon. The WhisperSync works perfectly. The screen brightness dim options are really useful too.
• MinFreeManager
  Using a Task Manager helps a lot to save the battery life of any Android phone. MinFreeManager goes a step beyond and helps configure the system much better. Remmeber, you need to be rooted to run this application.
• Google SkyMap
  Nothing amazes my friends more than this application. When held up against the open sky, it tells how small in the heavens are you!.
• Engadget
  To get my daily dose of flame baits.
• Wireless Tether for Root Users
  There are occasions when the power is gone and the Wifi Router blacks out. This tethering application acts as a temporary WiFi router for my WiFi-only iPad. This is useful when you are travelling too.
• Official Twitter app for Android
  I tried plenty of others in the Market, but settled on the Official one, because it is not friends with fail whale most of the time.
• Places Directory from Google
  A useful location based application to find out the nearest Gas Stations and ATMs, among others.
• Awesome Drop
  AwesomeDrop is a neatly done combo of an HTML5 web app and an Android utility. You drop a file in to the web app, the file will get automatically downloaded to your Android Mobile. I would have loved more if the application did a clipboard copy from the computer to the Mobile too and vice versa. Unlike the Pastebot iPhone application, AwesomeDrop works over the 2G/3G and does not need a local WiFi.
  
• Revathi Recipes
  Yummmy recipes! – from Biriyani to Dosa!
• Opera Mini
  Lifesaver on a slow 2G network while browsing the web.

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Here is my (not-so) shiny new toy!. An HTC G1 – The official Google Android Developer Phone 1. She just arrived today via UPS international courier. I had some difficulty connecting to the Google Servers during the initial registration process. But after editing the Airtel APN settings manually and deleting other pre-installed APNs I could connect. I shall post a detailed review later. I am really interested to know about other Android Phone Owners/Developers in India/elsewhere. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments :)

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