F-Droid is the FOSS
application store for Android phone
One of the cool things about Android is the open market model. The folks at Google don't mind at all if
you side load apps, or use your phone to build apps of your
own, or even if you install a whole separate application market. That's
the real meaning of open when you hear the word being tossed around so freely.
Because the platform is open, we get to see things like F-Droid.
F-Droid is a third party application
"store" that hosts FOSS (Free
and Open Source Software) in a repository
for easy installation and updating. The repo is full of open-source software
written under a variety of licenses, but all nice and FOSSy enough to please
most any die-hard fan.
Having it laid out all nicely this
way offers a few benefits as well. You can choose which version of an app to
install, track which FOSS apps you have installed, and turn on update notifications right in the app settings. It's an
excellent way to manage things, and closely mimics software repos from
popular desktop Linux distributions. Even the F-Droid app itself is
FOSS and licensed under the GPLv2+.
Of course we can't mention any
third party application centers without thinking of security. F-Droid tackles this in a pretty novel
way. Developers can upload a pre-built apk file, but the preferred way is
to upload the source. F-Droid then builds an signs the code, creating an apk
file they guarantee is 100% derived from the source code anyone can look
through. Community oversight has long been a staple of the FOSS world, and when
source is readily available you'll find that very few shenanigans are tried.
A collection of useful, open source
applications that demonstrate basic features of the Android platform.
- Amazed: A
simple but addictive accelerometer-based marble-guidance game.
- AndroidGlobalTime: a full representation of the Earth that you
can spin around.
- AnyCut: A
utility that lets users create Home screen shortcuts to nearly anything in
the system.
- Clickin2DaBeat: A game that mashes up YouTube with custom
rhythm-game logic.
- DivideAndConquer: a game in which you must isolate bouncing
balls by creating walls around them.
- HeightMapProfiler: A simple 3D performance testing tool that
renders a 3D height map.
- LOLcat Builder: O HAI. I CN HAS CHEEZBURGER?! IM N UR PHONE,
CAPTIONIN UR PHOTOS.
- Panoramio: An app that shows you nearby photos and points of interest.
- Photostream: An app that lets you view photostreams from online photo-hosting
services.
- Radar: A
radar-style relative location display view, used by Panoramio and others.
- RingsExtended: A utility that provides enhanced control
over ringtones.
- Samples:
Miscellaneous examples showing features of the Android platform (among
which OpenGL ES).
- SpriteMethodTest: An application that compares the speed of
various 2D sprite drawing methods.
- WebViewDemo: How Java and JavaScript can call each other inside a WebView.
- WikiNotes: A wiki note pad that uses intents to navigate to wiki words and
other rich content stored in the notes.
References:
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