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Andor’s Trail

November 30, 2011 in Games, Reviews by F-Droid | 1 comment

Andor’s Trail is a classic RPG. Your brother, the Andor of the title, has disappeared, and via a series of interlinked quests your job is to find out what’s happened to him.

The action takes place on a tiled top-down map, which although not complete yet, covers a very large area with a wide variety of environments. The world is populated by various humans to help and hinder you in your quests, and the obligatory range of wild animals and mythical beasts, all of which deliver up the usual combination of gold, experience and dropped objects when killed via combat in the classic turn-based stats-driven style.

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FOSDEM Schedules

February 4, 2011 in News, Reviews by CiaranG | 1 comment

It seemed like a shame that although there are two choices of FOSS application to keep track of the busy FOSDEM schedule on your phone, you were told, or indeed forced, to use proprietary software to get your hands on them. Well no more – they’re both in the repository now.

FOSDEM

Option one is the dedicated FOSDEM application, as seen in the first screenshot.

On my device, this had quite a few visual flaws – half chopped off text in the lists, and even in the main logo.

Also, a greyed-out button tells me I need to press a ‘Search’ hardware button I don’t have in order to search Hint: the SDK docs explain how to do search properly.

On the other hand, being a dedicated app it’s easier to use, packed with detailed information and works very well.

Giggity

Option two is Giggity, which is a more generic solution. Although it comes preloaded with the data for this year’s FOSDEM, it’s a generic schedule viewer that can load and display xcal/Pentabarf XML files for any kind of event.

This one could save you from having to have a different app for every conference you attend.

Summary

Both apps can remind you of upcoming events you’ve favourited. Each application has its strengths and weaknesses – maybe you should grab both to be on the safe side. Search for ‘FOSDEM’ in the FDroid client, or get the APKs direct from here and here.

Sokoban

January 6, 2011 in Apps, Games, Reviews by F-Droid | No comments

No prizes for guessing that Sokoban is an implementation of the classic game Sokoban. Unless you’ve never heard of it of course. I’ll assume that’s the case, otherwise this would be a very short review.

Sokoban is 30 years old, and is a puzzle game that involves moving your character around and pushing multiple things onto targets. Originally the things were boxes (Sokoban is Japanese for warehouse man) but in this version they’re some kind of shiny red gem. Sounds simple? The tricky part is that these things get in each others way, and your way. In practice, it’s hard, and in the process of completing the first 67 levels I’ve declared many of them impossible and closed the application in disgust before going back and trying again later. Clearly it’s addictive too.

This version has a total of 354 levels to play through – the only question is whether you can complete that many without either frying your brain or smashing up your phone.

The graphics are nothing to write home about, and the menu screens are particularly sparse (standard Android buttons and nothing else) but this doesn’t matter at all. The game plays perfectly, with nice touches such as zooming in and out with the volume buttons, and undoing a move with the back button. You can move with the direction buttons/pad/whatever-new-fangled-thing-your-phone-has but it seems much easier to use the other option of just dragging your finger around the screen.

Definitely give this one a try if you like puzzle games.

Vital Statistics

You can install it from the FDroid repository client, or download the APK directly if you prefer.

ConnectBot

November 4, 2010 in Apps, Reviews, Utilities by F-Droid | 2 comments

ConnectBot is an essential tool for the sysadmin on the move, or the stationary sysadmin on the beach. It’s a fully functional SSH client packed with useful features, including:

  • Multiple concurrent connections that stay open in the background
  • Port forwarding
  • Key management, for password-less logins

A clever feature is ‘URL Scan’ which grabs anything that looks like a URL from the terminal and presents a list where you can click to open it in the browser.

Ideally you’d use this with a physical keyboard, both for speed and screen space reasons. Even so, it’s perfectly usable with a virtual keyboard and there are plenty of customisable features to make life easier in that scenario.

ConnectBot is extremely useful to have around, especially in an emergency, and is actively developed. Highly recommended.

Vital Statistics

market://search?q=pname:org.connectbot

Available in the Android Market (scan/click the QR code opposite) or, of course, via the FDroid repository.

Missile Intercept

October 22, 2010 in Games, Reviews by F-Droid | 2 comments

Missile Intercept is a game modelled on the classic Missile Command, complete with retro-style graphics. You’re defending three cities at the bottom of the screen from destruction by incoming enemy missiles.

The gameplay changes somewhat due to the touch screen interface, because you aim your counter-missiles by simply touching the appropriate point on the screen – no need to manoeuvre a crosshair around. In addition to this though, are two non-standard things – your counter-missiles explode immediately where you target them, which means you don’t need to account for the time they take to get there, and also you seem to have a virtually unlimited supply.

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MathDoku

October 16, 2010 in Apps, Games, Reviews by F-Droid | No comments

I’ll start by saying that I hate Sudoku, it always struck me as very tedious, and I’ve never heard of KenKen, the variation on which this game is apparently based. In case you’re clueless too, it’s like Sudoku but bits of the grid are boxed off and have to ‘solve’ the simple arithmetical puzzle for that box. If that doesn’t make sense, look at the screenshot – the three squares at the bottom right are boxed off and have to add up to twelve.

On a 4×4 grid, the smallest you can have, it’s pretty easy. You can choose any size from there up to 8×8, which is, let’s just say slightly tricky.

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StatusNet Mobile

October 14, 2010 in Apps, Communication, Reviews by F-Droid | 2 comments

This is the official client for StatusNet microblogs, including the popular Identi.ca.

On one hand I expected great things from this, because it comes direct from StatusNet’s excellent development team. On the other, I had grave reservations when I heard it was being developed using Appcelerator Titanium. When it came to it, I decided I was right on both counts.

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gvSIG Mini

October 13, 2010 in Apps, Geo, Reviews by F-Droid | 4 comments

There are plenty of options for mapping on Android, including the virtually ubiquitous Google Maps. However, none of them are even in the same league as gvSIG Mini.

One of the main things that sets this app apart from the competition is that it’s a generic viewer, rather than being tied to a specific map provider, or a particular company’s commercial interests. Any tile map source can be used, either in online or offline modes.

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NetCounter

October 13, 2010 in Apps, Reviews, Utilities by F-Droid | 2 comments

NetCounter is a simple but effective application to keep track of your data usage. It counts cell and wi-fi data separately and displays a summary of both in an easy to read format. You can see the total used ever, and the amount used in the current calendar month, as well as figures for today and the last 7 days.

If you want to get fancy, you can long click on the interfaces and items in the display to get pretty graphs, add new counters – maybe you want the last 14 days, for example. You can also set up alerts on any of these counters, so if you’ve got a monthly cell data allowance, you can get a notification when you’re getting close to it.

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FBReader

October 7, 2010 in Apps, Books, Reviews by F-Droid | 2 comments

Yesterday we looked at real books so today it’s the turn of e-books. FBReader is an e-book reader based on the desktop application of the same name.

Although it’s currently at what sounds like a lowly version 0.7, the reading interface is slick and flawless. You have full control of the fonts and colours used – double control, in fact, because there is a day mode and a night mode, each of which retain their individual settings. Navigation between pages can be done by swiping the screen, but the more sensible option is using the volume buttons. For broader navigation, you can access the table of contents or set and jump between bookmarks.

When you come back to FBReader it immediately resumes exactly where you left off, and also remembers your place in any other books you’ve had open.

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