Any suggestions for paid one time purchase apps on the Google play store?
Nova launcher prime
Nova was amazing but they’ve been bought out. I tried Niagra Launcher and after being frustrated with a new UI, I absolutely love it.
Interesting, i’ll have a look on it
Edit: gave it a try, but you have to remember the exact name of every app, and i dont care enough to remember if the name is ‘store’ or ‘market’ or ‘app store’ for example
Fair enough! Everyone has a different flavor palette. It also takes a week to get used to. After that one week, I never went back.
Yeah, I’m with you on that. I tend to install a ton of interesting apps when I see them, and categorize them into groups (many apps fit multiple groups) so when I’m looking to do something in particular the apps that might fill the need are together to try it with. If those search launchers allowed for adding multiple tags to each app for categorizing and searching, then they’d probably work well enough for me to try.
Not after they have been acquired by analytics company Branch
Also bought Nova Launcher Prime, but they were apparently acquired in the last year so now Nova is spyware? Anyway, I switched over to Kvaesitso and couldn’t be happier.
nova prime + netguard to keep it off the internet has kept me using it. “search focused” launchers are not how I use my phone and nothing else has all the features nova does without being able to just dump the stupid home screen search bar.
Dicey Dungeons is pretty great.
Super Hexagon from the same creator is super great/hard.
Minimalist phone Launcher that helps to use addictive apps less. And overall a boring home that demotivates you to use your phone.
Plenty of those for free on F-Droid & IzzyOnDroid.
Torque and a $5 BT car computer dongle. It tells you everything about your car. You can see what warning lights mean and clear the codes.
What dongle do you recommend?
What are the main things you use it for? All I ever do is change tires and oil. Both my cars are old, but have never broken down.
To oversimplify, your car maintains a list of faults, and if that list isn’t empty, it’ll turn on the check engine light. An obd2 code reader let’s you see those codes. I can vouch that these Bluetooth readers + torque are the cheapest way to get these codes without going to a parts store. Even if you have no intention of doing your own work on your car, it’s good to have an idea what the problem is so your mechanic doesn’t rip you off.
They generally only return obd2 codes though, which are required by law for emissions. Many automakers keep extra, proprietary codes that require expensive, proprietary tools to read.
Am I looking at the wrong Torque? Doesnt work on newer versions of Android, and their webpage recommends a bunch of $150 OBD BT readers that are all discontinued a decade ago.
It’s not the freshest app but it works
“This app isn’t available for your device because it was made for an older version of Android.”
I have a pixel 6.
Huh, I have a OnePlus 8t on Android 14, so one version behind. There are other apps that’ll read obd2, but I haven’t tried any of them so I can’t make a recommendation. Torque’s been the standard for years though, so it’s too bad that it’s apparently behind on updates
Oh and as for the reader, this is the one that I’ve bought:
Panlong Bluetooth OBD2 OBDII Car… https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PJPHEBO?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
It’s super cheap, I had to replace it once a couple years ago because the first one rattled apart, but for the price who gives a fuck
I’m not the person you replied to, but it’s great for telling you why the check engine light is on. If you’re somewhere that requires emission testing: you can diagnose if you have an exhaust leak, bad O2 sensor, clogged catalytic converter, etc. Besides that: its good just to know if the check engine light can be safely ignored.
Nice, fortunately my check engine light has never been on, but when it comes on, I’m doing this!
I’ve started using Piston instead. It’s more clean and modern looking and seems to do everything that torque did for me.
Read Era is technically free, but I paid for premium years ago and have never regretted it. I can open any kind of uncorrupted book file, from the Amazon reader format to PDF to epub, and everything else I’ve ever come across. It has a great search function, and the ability to file a book into a custom ‘Collection’. You can edit the details of a book, like adding Author or pusblisher info, add your own personal notes to a page or highlighted quote, see an aggregate of all your highlights in a particular file, and adjust the font, background color, and contrast to your hearts content.
I make my whole family use it now, cause I love it so much and Premium works on Family share.
I bought moon reader 7 years ago and still use it.
Updoot for moon reader
Smart audiobook player, fit notes. That’s all I got and they’re kind of niche
Fit notes is free? Is it a different one?
You can donate and unlock some things
Smart Audiobook Player +1 such a good, feature complete app.
Macrodroid. It is like Tasker, but with a much much better UI.
Fair Email. I grabbed it from F Droid and paid direct though.
Power amp music player
PhotoPills
Invaluable as a photographer. I think it’s closed source though which is a shame.
CamScanner (intuitive and powerful scanner app that processes images exceptionally well and interfaces cleanly with all sorts of other apps) and Hiper Calc Pro (scientific calculator that shows you your input and looks like a classic calculator interface)
There’s an open source pdf scanner that works exceptionally well
That’s great! It’s not super helpful for me, though, since I teach students that often aren’t good at troubleshooting technology issues on their own so I need an app that’s pretty universal and user-friendly. Plus, the question specifically asked about stuff in the Android play store…
The github has download links for fdroid, apk, obtainium, and play store. Here’s the play store link if you want it
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.akylas.documentscanner
I was going to mention camscanner, but it’s been years since I was in the android phone, so I wasn’t sure if it’s even still around.
Templar Battleforce is a great little turn based strategy game with a squad of persistent troops fighting across missions.
Balatro
I think my cousin told me he really likes this game. Is it really worth the price?
It is one of the best games I’ve played this year. Really easy to get into for short bits, I pirated it first, played for a few hours on PC, bought it, played it for a few dozen more, and happily bought it for my phone.
Really good, very addictive
Yes
Very much worthwhile. Pick up Slay the Spire while you’re at it.
I got it yesterday, it’s bloody solid. Did tend to demolish my battery a bit, but that night just have been because time was dissolving before by very eyes. If you commute or have to burn time a lot (I spent a lot of time in hospital waiting rooms recently) then it’s amazing m no microtransactions either
I didnt enjoy it but my friends that do have lost days to it lol
MiXplorer: Tabbed file explorer with many features. You can get it for free from their website, but it’s available paid on Google Play.
Symfonium: Music player compatible with many backends, such as local storage, WebDAV, Subsonic (which includes Ampache, Navidrome)
aCalendar+: Calendar app with many widgets. Best part is the persistent notification, which shows what’s happening today, and will happen tomorrow.
Cryptomator: Cross-platform file encryption program, also open source.
FL studio is pretty good. Got it ages ago and it still gets updates
Just wanted to add that it’s a music sequencing/composition/recording tool. I also bought it some 20 years ago and they really delivered the lifetime free upgrade thing - bought some upgrades and plug-in packs now and then nonetheless - - great tool. I feel that presently, I use roughly 20% of its features, but I never find the time to dig deeper.
edit: refering to the Desktop version
