I’ve just taken the plunge on a 16gb @ £199, intending to go on a £12pm GiffGaff (for unlimited internet). My old phone was a bit cheap, slow and constantly low on space once I’d installed whatsapp, so I never really explored much beyond what was already there.
Anyway, I believe this phone won’t come with loads of apps and stuff already crammed onto it. So, where do I start getting the most out of it? I’ve signed up to Google Music, so I can play all the music from my laptop, on the phone. Are there any other Google services worth having, preferably FOC (I don’t mind paying a one off charge)?

It all depends what you want it for (sensible answer alert)..
If all you want to do is play games, then get lots of games.
I use mine to organise my life, so email, decent calendar widget, user definable databases (memento is good for this – create easy to enter databases such as “work mileage”, “private work” etc on the go).
Google maps, and the new google search/cards thing is good, and comes installed already..

DrP

First things first:

Yes, sorry.
Not interested in games.
I was thinking more basic stuff ie worthwhile Google services, monitor for giffgaff service credit, diary, make it slicker, look nice. I might mean widgets, rather than apps (I don’t even know what widgets are!).

Strava, NO 😡

Not sure of apps but worth looking at the Three deal on the one plan which gives you loads of minutes and texts as well as all you can eat data but also tethering included especially if you have a tablet etc

get a decent launcher or widget system on there. try Nova launcher or HD Widgets. This is one of the major advantages of android over iPhone IME, you can turn anything on or off from the front screen.

I haven’t needed to add much to mine form standard. Setting up email is pretty simple. A dropbox account is good for backing up pictures and transferring files. A power widget is handy to turn data/wifi/bluetooth/gps etc on and off from the home screen to maximise battery.

If you are thinking of joining GiffGaff, and you should it’s cheap and good, you can use my referral for a free fiver for each of us: GiffGaff referral. You don’t really need a widget to monitor it. You get a pop up at the end of each call/text and it is prominently displayed on your dashboard on the website so just add a web short cut.

It comes with quite a lot of the google stuff on it already – and then it does auto updates. There is a certain amount of trusting your data to google required.

It is pretty slick and nice to start with. Love mine.

Do you go abroad a lot? I found GiffGaff was really rubbish at doing the auto top-up when I was on hols, leaving me unable to get in touch with family when I got injured.

Gonna ditch them before next year’s trip.

+1 Dropbox

Oh, and you *say* you’re not interested but Stickman Downhiller is a great MTB game.

careful, that glass back can shatter very easily.

Seems a shame to get a stock Android phone, in all it’s speedy, clean glory. Then pack it out with third party apps and shonky launchers.

Music (prefer Spotify to Google Music still), Dropbox (or Google Drive), Maps, Twitter/Facebook, Splashtop for checking things on my home PC while I’m out.

That’s about it for me.

I just got a nice case for £2 delievered off ebay to protect my new Nexus 4 btw.

Or if you’re feeling rich, the official bumper is lovely 😉 I was never a fan of the rounded glass, this adds edges to it and a metal strip around. The way they’ve done the buttons is better than I’ve seen on a third party case as well.

QuickOffice (snooze) is now free to anyone with a Google account and offers 15GB of storage on Google Drive.

Google Play Music is amazing.

Best browser I’ve found is NB Pro (nee Naked Browser, so called because it’s tiny and very fast)

Nova Launcher is the best launcher that I’ve used although still go back to using ADW every now and again.

There are loads of Twitter clients, none is perfect imo but I use Seesmic, Reddit is Fun for reddit.

Just started using currents, not sure if I like it or not but well worth exploring

Podkicker for podcasts.

Swiftkey is an amazing keyboard

Tune In Radio for all radio requirements.

Endomondo for sports tracking

Viewranger for OS maps

Candy Crush to suck your life and self respect from you

Strava (if that interests you). I’ve got it on my phone, but only if I forget my Garmin when packing my bag.

TuneIn Radio – depends on your data limit though whether you’ll use it much. Works on wi-fi too though.

ES File Explorer

Google Maps

RAC traffic if you do a lot of driving

Rainwatch
BBC Weather
Met Office – I have all three in a folder (and believe the best forecast….)

Notes (for making notes). Has a good widget

There’s a London Underground map app called ‘London’ that is excellent.

Flickr
Photobucket

MMnavigator is the best mapping software if you have access to full OS maps…
I’ve got the whole of the UK in 50k IN MY POCKET….

I feel like God….

DrP

Flashlight

GPS Test Plus

WifFi Analyser

GTasks

iBoobs Full and Rack Stare…

strava
swiftkey
facebook
instagram
guardian news
bbc news
met office
sky +
peppa pig
os atlas (os maps)
iplayer radio
banking

I use Navfree for car sat nav (iPhone version).
Pretty good for free. You can even get europe versions for free too. I used it a lot en france

google sky

showbox (if you use it for watching tv n stuff)

yr.no for weather

star trek tricorder app, some useful features, signal detection etc but mostly just cool sounds

eww @ instagram (especially those with stupid degraded colour casts)

just have these on mine, in no particular order:

yr.no weather app
endomondo
google maps, google drive, google skymap (that’s ace), and google goggles (can be fun and/or useful)
dropbox

and the app for the local public transport system (for checking how to get to nearest tram stop when the chain snaps again, look up bus/tram times, and buy an e-ticket)

oh and cribbage pro (the only game I have on the phone)

any recommendations for a quick note taking app?

I bought TomTom for navigating, I don’t fully trust the data network enough to use online maps…

Other stuff:
Springpad (or Evernote)
BBC News
Firefox (some sites don’t work with Chrome, for whatever reason…)
Skype
Whatsapp
My bank’s app
Dropbox
Google+ (useful for automatic photo backups)
HDR Camera
Kindle
Tour Tracker
Dogg Catcher (podcasts)

any recommendations for a quick note taking app?

I like Springpad, it also syncs nicely with Chrome on the desktop.

http://www.phonetipsandtricks.com/tips/google-nexus-4/?page=1

thanks – will check that one. have jota at the moment for making a few notes.

also use a pan-european garmin for nav usually, otherwise gmaps etc. navigation is probably going to cost me a data roaming charge. but it’s handy to have the feature in the phone.

Google translate is pretty good.
Tasker if you’re a geek (I use it 🙂 )
St Johns Ambulance app (loads of emergence medical stuff)
Screebl to keep the phone display active while you’re using it

Backcountrynavigator (you can try for free, but the paid version is worthwhile). OS maps (or any other supported source) on the go. You can store them ‘offline’ so you dont need mobile coverage to use when outside.

Evernote, stores notes, voice memos etc. Syncs to the your pc/mac.

Dropbox, syncs to desktop/web for storing files.

Glympse, a way of sharing your location with *anyone* for a predefined time. Handy when you’re heading to an appointment, you can share your location for say 30 mins. After this they cant track you.

Google translate is pretty good

google goggles is clever enough to scan and ocr foreign text, and then call google translate to translate it (as well as many other useful/useless things)
That’s one thing I use it for.

The main things I use are

Dolphin Browser (don’t really like the standard one)
Life Reminders (not sure why there’s nothing like this on the standard S3, even my old nokias had this!)
Facebook
Instagram
Gmail
MyFitnessPal
Met Office
BBC News
Dropbox

Think that’s about it actually!

I’d look at virgin sim only deals. 30 day rolling contract and uses orange/T-Mobile masts when virgin ones aren’t available. Mines a tenner for loads of texts, more than enough minutes for me and 1gb data.

Also might be worth looking at some NFC tags

Also might be worth looking at some NFC tags

I was hoping it might come with some?

Some interesting stuff, thanks. Like I say, I’m particularly interested in back office stuff. Nova launcher, HD Widgets, Swiftkey, screebl and a few others look like the sort of thing.

Has anyone found an app which is like a traditional diary?? day to view, where you can flip thru the pages, backwards and forwards and use a stylus to write notes?????

I’d look at virgin sim only deals. 30 day rolling contract and uses orange/T-Mobile masts when virgin ones aren’t available. Mines a tenner for loads of texts, more than enough minutes for me and 1gb data.

Virgin is a MVNO, it always uses other mast (they do not have their own network).

And obviously Swype for the keyboard…

why? Google stock keyboard is swipe enabled and is free.

stock keyboard is very good

squeezebox remote
tvcatchup
skysportsfootball
guardian
wifi analyser

if i can get something to make my coffee, chop the wood and ride my bike….

has anyone bothered rooting it?
I had a desire for 18 months prior to the nexus4 which I put cyanogen mod on, tbh I can’t see any benefit doing to the nexus4 as the stock os is so great. Thoughts?

I had a desire for 18 months prior to the nexus4 which I put cyanogen mod on, tbh I can’t see any benefit doing to the nexus4 as the stock os is so great. Thoughts?

Yes I’ve rooted it but still run stock Android, only really did it for a few aps which require root now most of them run root free, and to do something we’re not allowed to discuss on here. Personally I wouldn’t bother unless you’ve got a hankering to run CM or any of the other ROMs