After getting the chance to join in on the TorrentDroid alpha test and being able to see first hand how it works I decided to try out its competition. BarTor, which was formerly known as ScanTorrent takes a slightly different approach while accomplishing the same goal. Where TorrentDroid aims to give users the most choice in where they search for their torrents by letting you do the search in a browser and sending the resulting downloaded torrent to your home computer, BarTor aims more at ease of use by parsing the results of a torrent search for you and displaying them in a scrollable list. BarTor also supports Vuse as a torrent client but unfortunately uTorrent runs better for me in wine than Vuse does by itself. Each app starts by finding what you are looking for, whether it be by scanning the barcode of a DVD/CD/game or by typing in your query by hand and ends with your Android device causing your home computer to download the resulting media. Below are screenshots of my brief use of BarTor. I would have posted screenshots of TorrentDroid but since it is still in alpha I did not know if the author would want that.

Earlier today I was invited to be an alpha tester for TorrentDroid which you probably have heard of from the AndroidAndMe bounty contest. This was a contest that accepted donations towards the “bounty” which was paid to the contest winner. The winning app had to be the first to meet all criteria of the contest, which basically consisted of scanning an upc code, finding the title of the movie/cd/game and searching for it on a torrent site. Once found, a torrent file needed to be downloaded to the phone and sent to the webui of uTorrent to start downloading. The idea is that you are walking around WalMart, find a movie you want to see, scan it and by the time you get home the movie is waiting for you.

Having been searching for a torrent client for Android (which I probably will never find) for months now, I was instantly interested and applied for the alpha tests. My first impressions are that this is really going to work out and will be a popular application if the price is kept reasonable. I first setup uTorrent (in wine since I am on linux (hint hint, ktorrent support please?)) and got the webui working. I tested the app by scanning an DVD that I own (hey, I’m too lazy to go to the store) and told it to use isohunt.com to search. I picked a decent match and downloaded the torrent and told it to open with TorrentDroid. Within 3 seconds uTorrent on my desktop was downloading the movie for me. There are user customizable torrent search engine options so you can tell it to search wherever you want and you can load new engines via a text file for greater customization. This application is very usable, but also rough around the edges (hence the alpha still). With a little bit of work on the UI and making things a little easier on the non techy users I can see this app easily being one of the most used on the market in a few weeks/months.

I had been reading about calibrating your battery for a while. I had been putting it off for a while for no good reason but reading a forum post somewhere made me go for it. It started one day at work when I would turn on everything during each of my breaks and do whatever I could to wear the battery down. By the end of my shift I was about 7% and the phone kept trying to take a nap on me. When I got home I turned everything back on and went into power manager and watched the voltage drop till I was at 1%. After about 15 minutes at 1% the phone brought up a dialog about saving settings and shutting down. I first thought this was an odd way for a phone to “die” and was expecting more of a *poof*. At this point I did what the forum post said and I left the phone off while plugging it into the charger. I left it there all night and unplugged it the next day at around 10am. I did not power the phone back on until it had fully charged (this is the important part from what I have read). Starting that day I was able to use my phone lightly to moderately for 3 days straight.

I ended plugging it back in about 70 hours after its last charge and the phone was still at 58% capacity. During those 3 days I made about 5 phone calls, checked the market (on wifi or 3g) 2+ times a day and downloaded 1-3 apps each time I checked the market. I ran aTrackDog once during this and updated probably about 10 apps. I also used Gtalk about 2-4 times a day, played a few games and did some web surfing. During those 3 days I had wireless, cell location and gps all enabled (not using them all the time of course, but all were on).

Before the calibration I was barely able to get through my full 8 hour shift without charging during my breaks to keep the phone running the full day. This is such a drastic change that I thought I would let those who are experiencing the dreaded G1 battery life woes know that the calibration really does work. It is easy to do and does not take that much time if you kill it before you go to sleep and let it fully charge overnight.

I was on freenode in #android chatting with some of the people there about my site and about how I was trying to add an “Authors Site” line on each download. I mentioned how hard it was to track down some of the developers sites because some of them do not have one. I had an idea and decided to try it out as a “beta”.

Developers who have already released applications or games for Android but are lacking a site of their own and would like a place to release their programs and offer support can apply for a “mini forum” and be given control (mostly) of that forum. They would then be able to keep an updated sticky about their latest versions, add FAQs and provide basic support from that forum. As I am unsure as to how well this will work out, these forums will be given to VERY SELECT developers at first while I test it out. Check it out here.

11 more android game and application downloads added today. It is getting harder and harder to find anything downloadable for Android so each update I do is a big feat. Registering is NOT required to download, but please register to help this site grow. The larger it gets, the more files there will be to download.

• AndNav
• FBReader
• Tea.ch Cards Flashcards Light
• WordMate
• HandyCalc
• OmniSoft Chopper Fight
• Memo Game For Android
• OmniSoft Mini-Dogfight
• OmniSoft Mini-Jetfight
• Snake
• OmniSoft TenPin Bowling

Enjoy these latest Android downloads

I just added 5 new games from OmniSoft to the download section. All are supposed to be Android ready .apk files. Let me know in the forums of they do not work.

• OmniSoft City Stage Android Game
• OmniSoft 3D Nine Hole Golf Android Game
• OmniSoft Snow Rally Canada Android Game
• OmniSoft Super-G Stunt Android Game
• OmniSoft Volcano Island Android Game

Googlebot visited a few times last night and the download counters started jumping. The games seem to be the most popularly downloaded so far, so I know where to focus my searches for now. If you are wondering about the excessive use of “Android Application” and “Android Game” on each download that was done because I wanted any links on search engines to be more directly targeted to android so that other platform users were not downloading android apps or games to use on non android devices.

Welcome to Android-DLs.com – The site is still under construction but feel free to browse around the downloads or peek at the forums. Both are quite bare for now, but I am working on that. I started this site after trying to find some apps or games for Android and spending a long time finding nothing downloadable. I eventually found some sites with Android downloads but they are spread out and often not updated. I also created an Android device database that I will keep current with all “official” Android devices and as much information and specifications on that device as I can find. Registered users will be able to view the ratings for each device and also add their own vote for it.

The forum will be a little bare for a while but feel free to help by adding to it. I have left downloads as open to anyone and not just registered users but I will have to see how my bandwidth does each month. I know its a pain to register for a site just to download something. If you feel you would be able to assist with any thing on the site, whether it is helping in the Android Forum or by uploading new Android apps or games, you can email me at admin at android-dls dot com and I will try to reply as soon as possible.

As of yet I do not own any Android devices but I do know that my next phone will run Android. I am not sure if I will wait for the next version of the “gPhone” or if I will splurge and get the current G1 to play with but I do look forward to putting some of these Android downloads to good use myself on something besides an emulator.