Photo by lwallensteinHas it really been almost a year since my last blog post. Well, I guess the reality is that gives you an idea of the way things have been going. BUSY!

I’ve been the proud user of a Motorola Droid X since launch day last year. Over the course of the last several months, I cut my teeth on rooting and testing numerous ROMs and apps. More as a note for myself, I am including a list of some of the Android apps that I like to install after a data wipe and ROM install. The marketplace changes fast so this are merely some of my favorites for the time being.

• YouVersion Bible – Yup, one of the first things I add. I never realized how much more frequently I get in the Word now that it is essentially always with me. This seems to be the best app for me as the UI is clean and functionality sufficient for my needs. The options for a large number of versions and translations is helpful when wanting to get a different view of things.
• Droid X Bootstrap – By “The Man” Koush. A must if you have a rooted Droid X. This, along with a good backup and ClockWorkMod,  has saved my bacon a number of times. There are other ways of getting into recovery but this is fairly foolproof and a good way of supporting koush’s work.
• Droid X Forums – Just because it makes it much easier to keep up with the site and forums.
• Droid Overclock – I’ve used this and QuickClock Advanced. I’m currently running Rubix Focused and found I like jrummy’s Droid Overclock better at the moment. That could easily change next week. Honestly, the UI for QuickClock just annoys me.
• Twitter – Just the stock Twitter app. I’ve tried many of the other clients and keep coming back to the stock now that I’ve reduced the number of accounts I’m using. Besides, they don’t want us developing other Twitter clients… (*rolls eyes*).
• Facebook – Again, I keep coming back to the stock apps. It is all I need really. Why deal with other apps with so many features of which I don’t use most of. It’s clean and it works. Only wish the shortcut would go the the dashboard and not news feed view.
• Gmail – If the ROM doesn’t already have it, Gmail is a must.
• Google Voice – I’ve configure the X and my other phones to use Google Voice for voicemail. I love the, sometimes comically wrong, automated transcription and one place for all my voicemail. I do not use it for outgoing calls at all.
• Google Maps – Makes getting places just too easy. Now updated with the new traffic re-routing feature….gotta have.
• Root Explorer – If you need to tweak system files or get/put APKs… this is the tool.

My Homescreen with "Make My Clock Widget"

Now there are a couple of other apps I’ve been playing with recently that may be of interest.

• Make Your Clock Widget – This is currently in Beta and available via XDA forums. There is a 6 minute video on how it works however I just started with a downloaded template and modified to my liking. Thinking about purchasing Widget Locker just so I can have this on my lock screen.
• Flow for Facebook – This is an app that claims to pickup where the stock Facebook app falls short. I’m not real keen on the lag of the app nor the un-polished UI but the notifications feature is a big plus. I probably won’t keep this at the moment but it has some promise.

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