AppBrain/Evo Question - Noob here

[LikeAChampion3]

This will be my first smartphone (other than a brief jaunt with the Pre), so Android itself is brand new to me. I have spent a lot of time on this and other sites learning as much as possible...I guarantee I know more about this phone than the RS people I am going to buy it from!

Anyway, I decided to prep a little and go into AppBrain to research some apps and line a few up for Friday. Before I knew it, I had over 40 apps queued up and I had to make myself stop. I showed my wife how to do it and she threw 25 into her account and called me at work asking if she can "break the new phone" with too much stuff.

Now the question: How much is too much? I seriously doubt that downloading so many apps right away is a bad thing, but I just want to make sure that I don't cause any problems inadvertently. Where should I draw the line (be it at a certain number of apps or type)?

 

[SassyLina]

40 apps aren't that many but I understand your concern. Just disable some of the apps so that they don't automatically download to your phone. I would suggest trying a few at a time and eliminating the ones you don't like. Your list will start to reduce in size. Also android apps dont take up much room on your device. There file sizes are small compared to other platforms.HTH

 

[Brainerd]

Check out the "total size" of the apps you have in your "Apps on the phone" list. From what I've been reading, the Evo's 1gb memory has at least 300mb for apps. So, keeping it under 300mb should be fine. The rest is taken up by the OS and pre-installed apps.

I've created a second list called "apps under consideration." You can then move those apps into your phone list by selecting them and then adding them to the phone list.

Remember, you must first install the AppBrain app from the Android Market and then run a sync from it for all of your settings on the AppBrain Web site to take affect.

1 more day! Enjoy.

 

[LikeAChampion3]

40 apps aren't that many but I understand your concern. Just disable some of the apps so that they don't automatically download to your phone. I would suggest trying a few at a time and eliminating the ones you don't like. Your list will start to reduce in size. Also android apps dont take up much room on your device. There file sizes are small compared to other platforms.HTH

Makes sense, I'll play around in AppBrain and figure out how to do that.

Brainerd - I didn't realize that you could do that in AppBrain, I'll check it out. I was just worried about downloading so many at once. I assume that once they are downloaded, I'll then have to manually install them, so it isn't like I'll overload or my phone for an hour as soon as I install the phone app.

Thanks for the clarification and fast replies

 

[skeeve]

I've selected close to 90 apps so far haha. (also coming from the pre)
The way I'm going to handle it is maybe a little silly but I think it'll work for me. I know the appbrain app is super convenient, but I'm not going to install it until after I've gone through all 90 of those apps one by one.

Basically I'm using appbrain as like a netflix queue. I can browse all the apps, select the ones I think are cool, find out exactly how much I think I want and what impact that would have on my device. But if I just installed them all automatically I feel like I'd forget what I had on my phone and end up not using half of them.

So I'm going to download one by one, and play with each one. Maybe delete a few as I go, but at the very least I'll have something to remember about each app I install other than that it looked cool on a website

After that, I'll probably install the appbrain app so I can install apps from my computer (until I get Froyo and this just becomes part of the marketplace)

 

[ihbsbA]

It sounds like we n00bs are doing the same thing! I went to AppBrain since the market isn't easily viewable online, and added tons of apps to a list I made called "apps for Evo". I did notice the "apps on phone" link and stayed away from that. I'm glad to know how AppBrain works before hand - and will use care when installing apps. Now I just need to know how "widgets" work, I don't understand what they do and if they stay active or if you close them down, etc. Coming from Palm, WinMo, and BlackBerry, I leared out of habit, to close everything to increase battery life but I think that will defeat the purpose and affect my experience on Android. As I understand it, having these widgets running is what makes this device so cool...(But kills the battery?)

 

[imtravis]

I have approx. 163 apps on my Samsung Moment according to AppBrain, and those will be transferred over to my Evo tomorow (I'll probably be able to spend five minutes playing, then the rest of the day downloading/configuring apps).

 

[Paladin]

I also have a ton of apps (130+)queued up for install. All the main apps will fit, no problem, the only total about 113MB.

My Soundboard App list (61) will have to wait until FroYo since they take up as much room as the normal apps due to the sound files. 120 MB for these alone.These HAVE to go on the SDcard. ii

 

[LikeAChampion3]

Glad to see I am not the only one!

Evo girl - I am sure there is a good explanation of widgets on this forum somewhere, likely in the Apps area. I have the same understanding as you do, my only question is whether widgets need to be "installed" like apps do or if they are just available after download. Either way, I am sure it will be easy to figure out. I am also wondering if they drain the battery constantly or only when you are on the screen that they are loaded on? If you loaded up all 7 home screens with widgets that are all constantly updating, I can see that having a huge impact on battery life.

Regardless, the whole "poor battery" complaint is a joke in my opinion because its the same for everything else in life, including technology. The harder you work something, the more you'll have to replenish its resources. As mentioned, I had a Pre for a couple weeks and the battery seemed to get stronger every day, I would expect the same from a new device like the Evo. I use a BB Tour for work and I just don't do anything on it anymore other than email and phone because it drains the battery...oh yeah, and it really doesn't do anything that well anyways (including the "being a phone" thing). I still have to charge it every day, too.

imtravis - I am not even considering loading AppBrain on the phone until I get home and have a WiFI connection. I am going to make my wife drive home from RS so I can play with the phone for 5 minutes...I would likely not be an attentive driver if I kept glancing at the box in the backseat. Once I have WiFi, I will load AppBrain and the downloads will go much more quickly and I won't have to wait as long. 163 Apps is insane, I won't go there simply because I don't want to overload myself on day 1. I would rather have 10 apps I know well and can use regularly than forget half of the ones I am using...especially if having so many will cause potential problems on the device.

Also, my 40+ apps do not add up to anywhere near the 300 mb capacity, so no issues there!

 

[krwren#AC]

I'm up to 91 apps and will install them when I get my Evo tomorrow at 1pm.

 

[johnh1234]

Keep in mind that installing apps on the evo makes it very sluggish during the process - I got mine and started loading it up and was immediately concerned by the non-responsive evo- but once everything is installed, it is plenty speedy.

 

[LikeAChampion3]

Am I to understand that anything not on the "Apps on the Phone" list will not be downloaded until I put them on that list? Strange that when I created a second list and added some of my selected apps to it, they were simply "copied" over, and not "moved" (in other words they just duplicated the selected apps into the new list, kind of defeating the purpose).

I don't mean to turn this into a non-Evo focused thread, but considering most of the new Android and AppBrain users are likely getting this phone tomorrow, hopefully someone can shed some light.

Thanks!

 

[LikeAChampion3]

Keep in mind that installing apps on the evo makes it very sluggish during the process - I got mine and started loading it up and was immediately concerned by the non-responsive evo- but once everything is installed, it is plenty speedy.

There is a difference between "downloading" and "installing" apps through AppBrain, correct? My understanding is that the program will download all of the apps loaded in the queue one after the other, but I'll have to then install them one at a time.

 

[johnh1234]

No, you have to do each one manually, but they download and install with one click.