3G Watchdog is an excellent android application that enables you to monitor your mobile data usage. It includes three different colored icons (red, orange and green) that may appear in your taskbar to alert you to your current usage, and whether or not you are reaching a pre-specified limit that you can adjust in the settings page. The application also includes a very detailed reports page that can break down your usage by the past day, week and month, as well as let you know how much internet you would use throughout the rest of the month based on your current usage average. Sliding down the taskbar shows you a mini report that gives you a visual meter reading of your current month’s internet usage as well as a numeric reading, too. The application also includes two different widgets that you can place on your home screen so you can monitor your usage right from there, without having to open the app every time you want to do a quick check.

For anyone who may be on a limited usage data plan, this application can definitely help you stay within your quota. Just browse to this page on your Android phone then click on the Market link below to be taken directly to the download page in the market for this application. Enjoy!

Market Link: 3G Watchdog

So, today get’s to feature another really awesome application for Android, called aCar. This free, but slightly limited application, was developed to allow vehicle owners to track all sorts of expenses that their car accrues, such as purchases of fuel, maintenance, insurance, and other costs related to owning a car. Once you’ve used the application for a while and kept accurate information on your expenses for your vehicle, you’ll notice that charts start to populate, giving you awesome information such as your average MPG between fill-ups, cost per day, miles between fill-ups and much more. So, let’s touch on three different details of this application that make it worth donating to have.

aCar Main Screen

1) We’ll focus on the main screen as the first aspect of this application. First off you’ll notice a ton of buttons when you open the app, as shown on the image to your left. (Click it to make it larger.) Here, you have a huge pile of options to choose from. There are several different expense types that you can track, you can also track trip expenses, browse records, view about 10 different informational charts, set reminders for maintenance purposes and so much more.

I joined 3 different screenshots together, to make this one image, which is all of the stuff on the main page of this application when you first start it. The middle section summarizes certain details for the last month and for the last 3 months across seven different metrics: your Average MPG, Average Price/Gal of Fuel, Total Cost to Fill your Tank, Total Service Costs, and Total Expenses (outside of service costs), Cost Per Day (Average), and Cost Per Mile (Average), all for 1 month and 3 months. Then,  you get 2 small graphs that show you your price per gallon at each fill up and miles per gallon that is calculated at each fill up.

There is one final section on the home screen of this application that gives you the last 9 or 10 activities, whether they be fill-ups, services, expenses or whatever.

aCar Adding a Vehicle

2) Now, we will focus on adding a vehicle. First off, you will select the middle icon in the second row with a car icon labeled “Vehicle”. This is the screen where we add a new vehicle. In the screenshot to the left, you will see that you can log many details about your car including the name (that you want to name it), the Make, Model, Year, License Plate Number, VIN, Insurance Policy (who it’s thru), the Purchase Price, Fuel Tank Capacity, Body Style, Color, Engine Displacement (ie. 3.8l, 3800cc, etc), Tire Size for the front and rear tires, and maybe some additional notes that you want to add for the car. Then when you are finished, you just click the blue floppy disk icon at the top right of the page, and your vehicle is saved! It’s as simple as that.

aCar Gasoline Purchase

3) We will now focus on adding a fill-up to your vehicle, inside the aCar application. On the main screen, you’ll select the upper left icon that has a picture of a gas pump, labeled “Fill Up Rec.” We will then begin to add our information about our fillup to the selected vehicle we have. You’ll insert the current mileage on the Odometer in the first box, then in the following boxes, you will insert the amount of gas purchased, the price per gallon of gas, how much it costed you. Then, you will select whether or not you filled your tank to the top or not. Select the vehicle you put fuel in in the drop down box next to ‘Vehicle’. Then you can select the type of fuel you purchased, the brand, station, payment type, tags(whatever those are), and add notes if you wish. Then you will press on the blue floppy disk at the upper right of the screen to save this fill-up record!

This application really is pretty neat when you get to know it. The difference between the free and paid versions is basically the ability to backup your information at any time and the ability to export that information, which can be very useful if you want to transfer all your aCar data to another phone. I highly recommend the donate version, which is a simple $5 USD, so you can keep your data safe on your phone without having to worry!

I’ve been using this pretty cool app called Speed Test from the Android Market, and I have to say, it is very accurate! Basically ti can measure your internet speeds coming to your phone from anywhere you are, as long as you have an internet signal, whether it be a EvDo or 1xRTT signal. I’ve created some screenshots to show you what it looks like on my HTC Hero, including my most current speed test, as well as a few menu options and my suggestion on the setting you should use to understand your phone’s ACTUAL speed, in terms of the speed you would see if you downloaded something, in the box that opens when you click a download link on Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome for example.

If you’re interested in downloading the app right now, you can do so via 2 methods here, or by going to the Android Market to download it. It is called Speedtest.net Speed Test.

You can click on the QR code below to download the app to your computer or use your Barcode Scanner to download the app directly to your phone.

Below are the screenshots I promised, showing you some of the settings I have my phone set to, so you can get the most accurate information as well as what the app looks like! Enjoy!