More Compact Contractions?

A couple weeks ago I was thinking about how we use contractions. You know, like to shorten sentences and combine words to communicate thoughts faster. An example of the particular contraction I was thinking about would be, “I haven’t done that yet.” The word “haven’t” of course being “have not“. Now change the sentence to “I have done it already.” You would shorten this to, “I’ve done it already.” There is another contraction you could use though. What about “I’ve not done that yet“? You can combine both “I have” and “have not“. So here’s my question in the whole thing…. why don’t we ever do both?

When you think about it, the whole point of using contractions is to compact sentences to save time and communicate a thought quicker and more efficiently. So why up “upgrade” our contractions and combine three, maybe four, words together. For example, the sentence in my example above would become, “I’ve’nt done that yet.” It still means “I have not” but it’s even quicker to say and look, it takes a six-word sentence and turns it into a four-word sentence. I’m sure there are many other instances where this method could save even more time.

How about taking the sentence a little further: “I have not done that yet, but it is not out of the question.” This could then become: “I’ve’nt done that yet, but it’sn’t out of the question.” This is also combining “it’s” and “isn’t” to make “it’sn’t”.

I often hear the phrase “could not have” contracted to “couldn’t have” but when said quickly sounds like “couldn’t've“. Same goes for “would not have” to “wouldn’t have” but sounds like “wouldn’t've“.

Did you know that “o’clock” means “of the clock”?

Finally Got My Evo!

If you’ve seen my past posts you already know about all the problems I’ve had with my Samsung Moment. So I wont repeat it all and relive those horrors. Just last week I was eligible for an upgrade. I went in as soon as I possibly could (which was the day before my upgrade date) and did my upgrade. Unfortunately they did not have any in the store so I had to overnight ship it. This was on a Thursday at around 4pm Pacific time. Which meant it wouldn’t get processed until Friday. It didn’t arrive until Monday afternoon. I could barely wait that long.

The day after I did my upgrade I decided to buy an extended battery. I knew as soon as I got my Evo I wouldn’t be able to put it down. This extended battery more than doubles the battery power from the 1500mAh battery it comes with to 3500mAh. So my phone and my extended battery arrived on the same day. I put the battery in at around 5pm and it had a little less than half the power left. I put it through some extremely heavy use and it was still in the green when I plugged it in before bed at around 11pm. Even better than that, it easily than lasts me the whole day with heavy use all day. By “heavy use” I mean installing/uninstalling apps, streaming, texting, emailing, etc. The battery adds a little extra bulk to the phone (it comes with a special battery door to make up for the double-sized battery) but there are two benefits of this. For one, when you lay the phone down on it’s back it does not lay on the camera lens so you don’t have to worry about scratching it up. Second, it also doesn’t cover the speaker so you can hear it better if it rings. Personally I think it fits better in my hand than when I’ve held it with the stock battery and battery door. Oh and the kickstand still works with no problems.

So far I am loving this phone so much. I am not missing a single thing about my Samsung Moment and it’s unreliable hardware. My Evo does what I want it to do, when I want it to do it. This is how Android is supposed to work.

Samsung Tablet That’s Actually A “Tablet”

When it comes to tablets I have a hard time putting anything with a screen smaller than 10″ in this category. So last year when Samsung introduced the Galaxy Tab I really just saw it as an Android phone for those with really poor vision. I’ve played around with the original Galaxy Tab at a Best Buy one day and it really just felt like an Android phone with a really big screen. To me it really had more of a novelty item feel than a real tablet computing experience. It was pretty much the apps I had on my phone, functioning the same way as they do on my phone, but much more spread out.

Not too long ago Motorola announced the “Xoom” being the first Android tablet to be running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) which is a version of the Android operating system specifically designed for the larger screens of tablets. After seeing how brilliant Honeycomb’s interface is I decided that any large Android device without Honeycomb is nothing more than a big phone/media player. Then I saw the Xoom’s $799 price tag and I was able to create a third “standard” for an Android tablet that’s worth waiting in line for: Price.

Samsung recently announced the next version of their Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (the previously rumored “Galaxy Tab 2″). The “10.1″, of course, comes from it’s screen size. They listened when people said they wanted a bigger screen on a tablet. They also put a 1GHz Dual Core Tegra 2 processor in the thing and polished it with Android 3.0 Honeycomb. It will be priced at $499 for the 16GB model and $599 for the 32GB model (basically $100 more for twice the space). Unfortunately it doesn’t look like there will be a slot for an external memory card. I could be wrong but I haven’t seen anything showing one yet. Which is really disappointing because I’m all for buying the lower-capacity model and getting a 32GB memory card. It looks like they would rather keep you from doing that. Which to me is very Apple-ish. There will also be a smaller 8.9″ version priced at $469 for 16GB and $569 for 32GB but as I mentioned above I don’t really acknowledge anything under 10 inches. That’s what she said.

My only concern is that I currently own a Samsung Android phone. I own the Samsung Moment and my wife owns the Samsung Intercept. I have to say these are probably among the worst Android devices in existence in terms of hardware reliability. In fact, my Moment randomly unlocked it’s screen and restarted itself twice today. Our phones constantly freeze when doing very important things like looking something up, trying to get directions because we’re lost or answering a call. You know, all those situations where you need it to work right away. However, if I’m bored and just screwing around with it, it can actually work pretty well. I’m sure I mentioned this in a previous post but my phone once froze while trying to answer my wife’s call, then rebooted itself about four or five times out of nowhere. It literally took about 30 minutes to get the phone to turn back on and boot up to the point where I could call her back. Luckily I was at my laptop and was able to text her through Google Voice to let her know what was going on so she didn’t worry why I didn’t answer and if she calls back it is going straight to voice mail.

So if I were to go ahead and get the upcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1 my biggest concern will be the fact that it is Samsung. I’ve already decided I’ll never buy another Samsung phone again simply because the Moment and the Intercept have ruined that for me. I’ve also heard from a few people who had the Evo, switched to the Epic and after a few months it’s started getting really buggy and they ended up going back to their Evo’s. However, I think with it being a tablet and not something I could really rely on as my primary form of communication, it may be a different story. At the same time if I’m going to spend that much money it better impress me every time I pick it up for at least the next year. My Samsung Moment stopped impressing me after a few months. That was also just before it was discontinued because it was just that bad.

As always I’ll watch many reviews on YouTube shortly after it’s finally released. My advice for those of you who watch videos before making a decision: Don’t watch their commercials or their demonstrations. Find reviews by real customers who paid real money and put it to real use. If I can ever get my hands on one, I’d love to give it my review. Unfortunately that probably won’t happen for a while.

TuneIn – Mobile Radio App

So I think I found my new favorite radio app for my Android phone. There are plenty of apps out there, and I’ve tried quite a few of them. I started off with Pandora, which is very popular, but it wasn’t for me. Mainly because I don’t want to have to skip through so many things. My taste in music is very unusual so the idea of an app that learns what you’re into over time sounds cool, but it’s not so easy for the app to get used to what I like. I may hate most of one genre of music but love one band in that genre. I also tried Last.fm which is a similar concept.

I then came across TuneWiki which also uses ShoutCast which was able to play a lot of internet radio stations I really love (like AH.fm, Teklab, etc). Unfortunately is has issues loading sometimes, but it’s not often enough for me to uninstall this one from my phone. After a while I found XiiaLive (the “lite” version of course ). It has a really nice interface and access to a lot of really good internet radio stations.

I live in Las Vegas and there are really only two actual radio stations I will listen to. One is 91.5 KUNV which is a Jazz station. I find it relaxing sometimes. The other, which I listen to almost all the time, is 94.5 “The Vibe” which plays Electronic and Dance music. Unfortunately my particular Android phone does not have a built-in FM tuner (like many other Android phones out there) so I am not able to listen to this station whenever I want. I also get very poor reception when I listen to it in my car. My friend has the same reception issues with this station. Tonight I found an app that plays local stations over the internet. Which means two things: 1) I can listen to 94.5 on my phone and 2) it is perfectly clear!

This awesome app I am referring to is called TuneIn by RadioTime.com. You can create an account so you can add stations to your “preset” stations and also listen online. However, an account is not required at all to use the app. When searching for a radio station you can browse by genre, location, language and you can even enter text into a search box. When you browse by location you go by continent, country, state, city. So if there’s a local station you listen to in another state/country you can most likely find it as long as that station also broadcasts over the internet (which most are starting to do to reach a wider audience).

I’ve provided links to the app below. It is available on Android, Blackberry and iPhone and, of course, it’s free or I most likely wouldn’t be talking about it.

Get TuneIn for:
[ Android | Blackberry | iPhone ]

TeamViewer for Android – Beta Release

I just received an email this morning letting me know the beta release of Team Viewer for Android devices is now available. I’ve been using Team Viewer for a few months now and I have it installed on all of my computers (Windows 7, Windows XP, Mac OS X, Ubuntu 10.04, Linux Mint 9) and now I’m using the beta version on my Android phone (Android 2.1).

For those of you who don’t know what TeamViewer is, it’s a way to control one computer from another computer/device from anywhere. I use it between my laptop and work computer. Every Friday I backup all my artwork files onto our network server. It takes hours to do it so I start it right before I leave work and I made a small “shutdown timer” program that will shut down my computer at a certain time. I usually set it for around 10pm. A little after 10pm I’ll open TeamViewer on my laptop and see if my work computer shows up in my “Partners” list. If so that means it’s still on and something went wrong so I’ll be able to take control of it right from my laptop and fix whatever happened. If it doesn’t show up it means everything worked and it shut down.

There’s also a “Quick Support” version of TeamViewer that you could have someone download if they need help with their computer. It doesn’t require them to install anything which is perfect for those non tech-savvy people you know that are always asking for help . It generates a numeric ID and password that they can give to you so you can connect to them. It alerts you before someone connects unless you’ve given them special “auto-connect” privileges. You can even share specific windows if you need help with a certain program but don’t want them to be able to see anything else you have open. You also still have full control over your computer even while someone else is controlling it. So you don’t have to worry about someone taking control of your computer without your permission and doing things you don’t want them to.

I’ve used other remote access software in the past but most of them are either too expensive for my usage or their free version is way too limited for what I need it for. I’ve also used another popular remote access app for Android (that sells for around $30). Luckily I got to try it out without paying for it because it ran pretty slow on my phone. My Samsung Moment isn’t exactly a high-end Android device. Which doesn’t matter with Team Viewer because it runs smoothly even using it over my cell network. So far I’ve had no reason to turn my wifi on before using it. If your mobile device has a physical Qwerty keyboard it is fully functional within the Team Viewer app (virtual keyboards also works for those without the physical keyboard).

There are paid versions for Business, Premium and Corporate usage but for what I need it for the free version is more than enough for simple remote tasks. It even includes a messaging feature so you can send a message to another computer before connecting. Once you have established a connection you can enable audio and/or video chat to assist them even better.

If you’ve been looking for remote access software, even if you’re already using another service, try out Team Viewer.

Idiot Drivers

So I was driving today on my lunch break from work. I was in the far right lane and this car in front of me was slowing down so they could turn into a Wal Mart shopping center. Naturally I slow down as well so they could turn. Well this junky silver van behind me wasn’t paying much attention and had to slow down abruptly to avoid rear-ending me. Then he honks his horn and starts flipping me off. I can also see he’s yelling and screaming at me (as if I could hear him, ha!). So I return the favor and flip him one back. By this time the car had turned into the Wal Mart shopping center and I was accelerating back to the speed limit (which was 45mph). While I’m accelerating back to the normal speed the van behind me is so furious that I flipped him off too that he aggressively gets into the lane to our left (the middle of the three lanes) cutting off a truck in the process. Next he decided to try and speed up to pass me but there was another car in his lane just ahead of me so there wasn’t enough room for him to pass. At this time I had now approached the speed limit again. I look over and he’s next to me flipping me off, yelling and making all kinds of unusual hand gestures. So I flip him off again because he’s an idiot and I just continue to drive.

Next he starts slowing down but is uncomfortably close to me in my lane. (SIDE NOTE: I am not a speeder. I try very carefully to always go the speed limit. So I’m not going to speed to get away from this guy, especially since I know he’ll just speed to catch up to me and cause even more danger). So he’s really close to my lane continuing to make (possibly offensive, if I knew what they meant) hand gestures towards me and now the car in front of him had moved ahead enough that I knew exactly what he was going to do next…. He started to speed up and he was going to speed by me, dodge the car in front of him and either speed off or slam on his breaks in front of me. I felt I should try to keep him from doing that. I was close to my street anyway so all I had to do was stall his dangerous and immature behavior for about thirty seconds and I could turn and be gone.

So just before he sped up I got over into his lane and carefully slowed down. Not slamming on my breaks. I got a really great deal on my car (practically brand new) a couple years ago and I would never risk having someone rear-end me. Period. I love my car. Anyway, I slow down (just easing my foot off the gas) and he has to slow down too. So then I get back over into my lane now that there is a safer amount of distance between us and the other cars. So what does he do? He, very aggressively, gets back into my lane (behind me) takes a picture (or at least pretends to) with his phone, gets back into his lane just as aggressively, speeds ahead of me (flipping me off and screaming at the same time), then darts over into me lane (now in front of me) and looks at me in his rear-view mirror as he begins to slow down very rapidly. Luckily, thanks to my calculations earlier, just as he started to slow down I was at my turn. I turned onto the street I needed to and he was gone.

I felt the need to blog this because it really irritated me that someone could be such a jerk over nothing. All of this was because I slowed down to allow someone else to turn. What really got me was that he felt the need to take a picture of my car. Whether or not he actually took a picture is unknown. Though I do feel uneasy about such a rude piece of garbage having my license plate number if he did take a picture. You never know, he could turn around and file a fake police report using my license plate. You just never know with the kind of people in this world. Maybe the guy was already having a bad day and was just in a bad mood, but that is absolutely NOT an excuse to act that way towards someone else. I have bad days too but I’m not going to unleash my anger at the driver in front of me because their following the rules of the road is an inconvenience to my driving/breaking foot.

A word of advice to all drivers out there: If you don’t want to slow down to let other cars get where they need to go, get the hell out of the turning lane. And if you want to drive like an asshole get a four-wheeler and do it out in the desert where you won’t put innocent people’s lives in danger because you’re an angry human being.

Do Moments Last?

This question actually referring to the Samsung Moment that I was so excited to finally get my hands on back in April (see post). I had not had any problems with it until a few days ago. Suddenly, out of nowhere, it would freeze for no reason, apps would force constantly and it would take a minimum of five minutes to boot up (literally). The worst of it was this past Saturday when my wife tried to call me. My phone froze showing her incoming call but would not let me answer. By the time the phone “unfroze” I had missed the call. So I tried to call her back but by dialer kept force closing on me. Next I tried to open Handcent to text her and tell her what happen but that caused the phone to freeze and then reboot on it’s own. After about five minutes it finally got to the lock screen but then rebooted itself again. Another five minutes went by and it got to the lock screen and actually unlocked. From there it would take about another two or three minutes before everything started up enough for me to actually use it and when it did everything was extremely slow. I was seconds away from just flashing the phone and starting over from scratch. I literally had the software open ready to plug it in and reinstall the operating system.

I got so tired of dealing with the lagging, freezing, force closes and random reboots that I finally just went ahead and re-flashed my phone this morning and reinstalled the apps I absolutely need. So far it’s been working great. Just like when I first got the phone. It’s snappy and everything is working fine. I’m hoping the issue was a result of how many apps I have installed and uninstalled. I’m constantly trying new apps and trying new settings so I’m wondering if over time that has an effect on the phone this way. Could anyone out there confirm this to be true or not? If so I will just have to get used to re-flashing my phone every couple of months.

A friend of mine has the HTC Evo and I was comparing the on-screen Qwerty on it to my physical keyboard. I had a chance to get an Evo a few months ago at the new member price but I passed it up because I’ve been waiting on the Samsung Epic for it’s Qwerty keyboard. Now I’m not so sure anymore.

Looking at reviews and advice from people who also own/owned the Samsung Moment I have seen a lot of bad reviews about the quality of Samsung phones. My wife has the Samsung Intercept and while it has improved a few things from the Samsung Moment, it lags and force closes all the time too. The worst part about the issues we both have is they only happen when it’s most inconvenient. My phone never craps out on me when I’m just messing around to pass the time. It only happens when I’m trying to look up something important or trying to send an important email or text message.

When I first started hearing about the Samsung Epic I was very impressed. I was very interested in the 1GHz processor and the 4G support the Evo had but I really like having a physical Qwerty keyboard. Lately I’ve been wondering if I really want to risk another Samsung device or just go ahead with the HTC Evo. It’s pretty well known that HTC makes quality phones. Plus they’ve been making Android devices since the very first (the G1 for T-Mobile). I’ve seen reviews from people who are still rockin that phone because it still working just fine for them. However, after playing around with my friends Evo for a little bit I’m starting to think twice about needing the physical keyboard. It’s screen is so large that the on screen keyboard is much easier to use than, for example, my Moment.

At this point I’m just trying to get info from people who have owned the Moment and now have the Epic and/or have had the Evo and the Epic. From what I have heard it seems the battery life on the Evo is much better. As it is right now, my Moment will die before the end of the day with barely any use. If I take it off the charger when I leave for work at 7:30 and actually use the thing for the internet or music or anything it will die by around 4:00. Which is why I have my USB charger to make sure it’s fully charged before leaving work so it can die before the evening is over from me using it while at home.

As it is right now I’m leaning towards getting the Evo as soon as I can. For some reason I’m still wanting to want the Epic, but I think I’d feel more comfortable trusting HTC right now.

Samsung Epic 4g from Sprint

So I’m still waiting for any word on the Samsung Epic, the second 4G-capable device from Sprint. I was really excited about the Evo but my only reason for not jumping on that when I had the chance is there are a few things about my Samsung Moment that I know I would miss.

First of all being the most obvious lack of Qwerty keyboard on the Evo. Normally (and to most people) this isn’t a problem and I’m sure eventually I will let this one slide as well. However, for right now I’m not willing to give up a full qwerty keyboard. I’ve been spoiled in having that option with the last three phones I have owned.

Another feature I would really miss is this brilliant AMOLED display. I’ve played with an Evo recently, as well as a couple other Android devices, and after being so used to the AMOLED display on my Samsung Moment everything else just seems old. When I was originally torn between the Samsung Moment and the HTC Hero the display really wasn’t a deciding factor, they keyboard and processor were, but after having it and getting used to it I don’t think I could go with anything else. Unless it was the amazingly better Super AMOLED display (SAMOLED) that will be on the Samsung Epic. These new displays are thinner, brighter and have better visibility in direct sunlight. Which is great because that’s really the only gripe I have about the AMOLED display on my Moment is that it’s sometimes difficult to see in direct sunlight. At least with sunglasses on. Lowering my sunglasses and holding the phone a little closer to my face solves the problem, but in all honesty I shouldn’t have to do that.

So far it appears the Samsung Epic could be a huge competitor with the HTC Evo. Their specs are pretty comparable and it would be interesting to see how the Epic’s Hummingbird processor rivals the Evo’s Snapdragon processor. I’ve read that the Hummingbird processor should be faster and more energy efficient, however it won’t be too long after its release that the next Snapdragon processor will exceed the Hummingbird processors’ performance…. but then again we’ll have to wait for the next device featuring it before we can really compare. So it’s not like this will be an upgradeable feature is current phones, otherwise the Evo would stay top of the food chain.

Shipping with Android 2.1 (Eclair) with the promise of an Android 2.2 (Froyo) upgrade shortly after this device should be top of the line for some time…. and by “some time” in the tech world I mean a couple months until the next best thing comes out.

For now I’m perfectly happy with my Samsung Moment. Though the Epic would be the perfect upgrade.

Full specs?

Weighing at just under 5.5 ounces with Android 2.1 (will upgrade to 2.2)

Cortex A8 Hummingbird 1GHz Processor

4.90 x 2.54 x 0.56 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen

1xEV-DO rev.A/WiMAX network connectivity

802.11b/g/n WiFi connectivity

A-GPS

5MP rear camera capable of 720p HD video (with LED flash, auto-focus and digital zoom)

VGA front facing camera (for video chatting)

512 MB RAM / 512 MB ROM

microSD card slot for external memory cards up to 32GB

3.5mm headphone jack (this has become pretty important to me)

2.1 Stereo Bluetooth

Audio Playback: MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, AMR, MIDI

Video Playback: MPEG4, H.263, H.264

….and of course the infinitely great features of the Android operating system.

Google Voice Now Open To Everyone

Today Google finally opened up their Google Voice feature to everyone. If you saw my previous post about Google Voice you can see I got an invitation from Google to try it out at the beginning of this year. At the time I did not yet have my Android phone so I couldn’t yet try out all of it’s features. I could still use GV to direct it’s calls to my phone, but it couldn’t try out the Google Voice app.

You do not need an Android phone to have a Google Voice number. Having an Android phone simply allows you to access your messages easier and use the Visual Voice Mail service. You can still call your Google Voice number and input your pin to listen to your messages one by one with any other phone. So if you don’t have an Android device don’t let that keep you from trying out Google Voice!

There are many uses for Google Voice. One reason I’ve been using it is so I don’t have to give out my primary number when a phone number is required for something but I feel like they might use my number for soliciting. Another use for it would be to use your Google number as one phone number to reach multiple lines. Let’s say you have multiple phones (for some reason). Maybe you have a personal phone, a work phone, and a home phone. You can link all these numbers to your Google Voice account so when someone calls your Google number it will ring all your phones at the same time. As soon as you answer one of the ringing phones it connects the call and the other phones stop ringing. This could be used as a way to guarantee people are able to get ahold of you.

You could also use it as kind of a “home” phone. These days most people use their mobile phones as their primary phone and home phone landlines are being phased out. If you wanted a single “home” number that everyone in the family could be contacted from equally, you could link up everyone’s cell phones to the Google Voice account. Now when someone calls the home (Google) number it will ring the whole family’s cell phones. If you answer and the call was for someone else, you could forward the connected call to that phone so that person may answer the call. It would be like someone calling your house, you answer, they ask for someone else, you put the phone down and yell for the other person and they pick it up. The only difference is you can be on the other side of town, or the other side of the country.

Another use people have found very useful is adding their Google number to a calling circle. Some wireless plans have the ability to add certain people you call the most so, regardless of their network, all of your calls to and from those people will not count towards your plans minutes. I’ve heard of some people adding their Google number to their calling circle, then giving out their Google number as their primary number. What this does is no matter who calls your Google number they are connected to your Google number and your Google number then calls you to connect the call to you. This causes all of your incoming calls will be from your Google number so having that number on your calling circle will mean none of your incoming calls will count towards your minutes. Placing outgoing calls with your Google Voice number is a little bit tricky if you don’t have a phone that supports the Google Voice app. Sorry iPhone users but because Apple is run by Nazis they will not support this app. Without the app you can still place outgoing calls with your Google number. All you do is call your Google Voice number (from any phone), press star * and enter your PIN. From there you will have a menu with a list of actions you can perform. Press 2 to place a call. Next you simply dial the number you would like to call from your Google Voice number. This is how you would place outgoing calls with a phone that does not support a Google Voice app. This can also be done from any phone. So you can use your friends phone or even a pay phone to place calls from your Google number.

NOTE: Sprint customers who have “Any mobile, Any time” can already call any other number regardless of their network as long as it is a wireless number. This does not apply to landlines. Remember that Google Voice numbers are considered landlines so any calls to/from your Google Voice number will count towards your minutes. Also, you should test this out before you decide to do this. Since a lot of people have thought of this wireless providers might find a way around this.

When you log in to your Google Voice account (http://www.google.com/voice) you can view all text messages sent/received with your Google number as well as read and listen to all your voice mails. Yes I said “read” your voice mails. Google Voice will automatically transcribe your voicemail messages so that you can actually read them. It’s not always perfect due to the way some people talk (mumbling, accents, etc.) or background noises. Sometimes it’s mistakes can be quite humorous. If you’re a Gmail user you will notice the Google Voice interface is very similar to your Gmail and it is very easy to use. You can also choose to be notified via text message or email whenever your Google number gets a new voicemail. Another cool feature for Gmail (which is currently under “Labs”) is that it will allow you to listen to your new voicemail right from the notification email.

If it sounds like something you might be interested in, give it a shot! It is now open to anyone in the United States. You can choose your zip code and choose from a list of available phone numbers. Just note that you will need to link it to an existing phone number before you can use it. It will then call you with a confirmation number that you will have to enter in a text box to start using Google Voice.

One last note when setting up your Google Voice account, if you choose to just use the voicemail service with your existing mobile number you will need to make sure your wireless service will accept it and that there are no additional fees from your wireless provider for using Google Voice instead of your carriers voicemail service.

TV Listing App for Android

I recently came across an app that I found useful enough to share with others. It’s called TV Listings from TVGuide-USA.com. Their web site immediately only shows the app for the iPhone but those of use who actually have a decent device can click the “Android” link at the very top of the page. To download it, search for it on the Android Market. It’s completely free and it’s a very small app so it doesn’t hurt to try it out and see how you like it!

When the app stars up you input your zip code or have it locate you to find your zip code if you’re traveling. From there it will pull up a list of available networks for your area (DirectTV, Cox, Cox Digital, etc). Choose which one you’re using and it will immediately load the full listing of shows, movies and sports. If you only want to see what movies or sports are currently on you can choose from the tabs at the top. Listed by channel, the bold shows at the top are shows currently on while the two shows/movies in the smaller font are the next two shows/movies coming on. Also displaying their start times to the immediate left of the title.

Tapping on a channel slot will bring up detailed information about every show so you can see if it’s an episode you haven’t seen before or just anything you’d be interested in. Scrolling down from this screen will also show you more shows for the rest of the day. I’ve found that using this app is much faster and more convenient than scrolling through the guide on my TV. I can see more listings and channels at once, narrow down what I’m looking for (especially if I’m in the mood for a movie rather than a show) and I can still be watching my TV in full screen while I search. Even more than that, I can be looking for a show to watch later while I’m waiting in line at a grocery store, waiting for my car at the car wash, or sitting on the crapper at work.

Once you have found a show simply tap on it and you can set a reminder. You can set reminders to go off right when the show starts, ten minutes, one hour or six hours before the show starts. This is great if you’re waiting for one show and decide to watch another show or movie while you’re waiting but don’t want to get caught up in the other show and forget to change the channel.

Screenshots taken from my own device