CoboltFM: free last.fm on all Android phones everywhere

Update 1: CoboltFM and KLastFM are dead. Last.fm changed things for the worse and pulled the plug on free streaming for almost everyone. Believe it or not, most of the planet can't stream anymore even if they pay. Last.fm refugees can still stream custom radio stations from Grooveshark with Dood's Music Streamer.

Update 2: Liquid Bear still plays last.fm radio on Android.

Streaming tracks from last.fm is free if you're in Germany, the UK, or the USA. The rest of the world has to pay for it. If you're not in one of the three "free" countries, you can't stream last.fm on your phone, not even if you pay.

This is totally wrong! The internet was never meant to be crippled by borders and other geographical restrictions.

KLastFM solves the problem for Android by letting everyone stream last.fm radio. No matter where on the planet you are, you get the same free streaming radio stations that the germans, english, and americans get on their computers.

But KLastFM is not a very nice app. It has an ugly user interface, erratic scrobbling, and it comes with a very annoying ad banner that screams to be blocked by AdFree or AdAway.

Enter CoboltFM. It looks better, is more stable, doesn't have any ads, and the source code is freely available for everyone.

CoboltFM precaches tracks for seamless switching to the next song. It used to vibrate when loading or changing tracks, but after I complained about it in an Android Market comment the makers of Cobolt added an off switch to get rid of the shakes (thanx for that, Cobolt!). The icons are big, which is nice but makes it a little bit too easy to love, ban, or share a track by accident. CoboltFM would be better if the less frequently used buttons (love, ban, share) are a lot smaller than pause, stop, and next.

A nice touch is the "show profile page" button in the menu, which takes you straight to your last.fm profile in your default web browser.

If your launcher lets you change icons, you may want to replace the CoboltFM icon by something that looks like the last.fm logo. I use the last.fm icon from the GO Launcher EX theme RBW.

The verdict: CoboltFM is better than KLastFM, and if you're in one of the over 200 countries where last.fm won't stream to your phone, CoboltFM is infinitely better than the official last.fm app.

• CoboltFM (Android Market)
• CoboltFM (CoboltForge)

Want more?

• KLastFM (last.fm), QueueTube (YouTube music clips), Dood's Music Streamer (GrooveShark)

Update 1: CoboltFM and KLastFM are dead. Last.fm changed things for the worse and pulled the plug on free streaming for almost everyone. Believe it or not, most of the planet can't stream anymore even if they pay. Last.fm refugees can still stream custom radio stations from Grooveshark with Dood's Music Streamer.

Update 2: Liquid Bear still plays last.fm radio on Android.

File manager ES File Explorer adds more cloud: now talks with box.net too

ES File Explorer is an excellent app to manage the files on your SD card, and if your phone is rooted it lets you into your system files too.

It doesn't stop at your phone. ES File Explorer doubles as an FTP client (not as an FTP server, though), receives files over bluetooth, talks to Samba servers, and it connects to your Dropbox and SugarSync cloud storage as if they were standard FTP servers. The latest update got even more cloudy: now it does box.net too.

Something that didn't change: the plugins. The most useful are the app manager to back up your apk installers, and the bookmark manager to send shortcuts to your files to your home screens.

It still makes and breaks ZIP archives, and it unpacks RARs.

A great app indeed, but it has one bad habit: mystery network traffic when you enable root access. Does it collect usage statistics or what? If all of you ask about it in your Android Market comments or email to the developer (contact@estrongs.com) maybe we'll find out?

• ES File Explorer (Android Market)
• ES File Explorer (EStrongs)

Dolphin Browser phones home again, here's how to stop it

When Dolphin Browser was caught sending your entire surfing history to its webzine server they got so much bad publicity that they had to clean up their act real quick. You'd expect that they learned something from that fiasco, but they didn't.

Dolphin HD version 7.1.0 was caught spying on the same day that it was released.

The new Dolphin sends your Android ID (a number that stays with your phone forever), a Dolphin client ID, your carrier and phone specifications to https://tracken.dolphin-browser.com.

Well, at least they use encryption. And the information isn't really that sensitive. Still, they frequently grab usage statistics and information about your phone without letting you opt out.

Of course you can opt out yourself. The obvious method is to remove Dolphin from your phone, but then you miss out on all its features which leave the competition in the dust. A better way to stop Dolphin from phoning home is to block the target URL in your Android hosts file. This file is usually in /system/etc/hosts. You can edit it manually, or feed the offending domain names to the blocklist of AdAway. Either way, you'll need root access. The URL to block is tracken.dolphin-browser.com.

To cut the line between Dolphin and its maker add these three lines to your hosts file or block the domains with AdAway:

127.0.0.1 tracken.dolphin-browser.com
127.0.0.1 en.mywebzines.com
127.0.0.1 pnsen.dolphin-browser.com

The first line stops usage stats collection. The second line cuts off URL collection by the webzines server (Dolphin stopped sending it, but you never know if it comes back). The third line prevents the popup that begs you to rate Dolphin in the Android Market.

Phoning home is not the only new feature of version 7.1.0. The update allows importing bookmarks from Dolphin Mini, deleting bookmarks from the side bar, picking a different search engine if you don't like Google (you can choose Bing and Yahoo too), and some bug fixes under the hood. Too bad for Dolphin that its data grabbing will get much more attention than the bookmark and search improvements.

Dolphin still doesn't encrypt its backups, so if someone steals your phone they can pull all sorts of private info from your SD card, even if your phone is locked.

Update: Dolphin finally encrypts your backups!

Gesture commands, tabs, plugins, bookmarks sidebar etcetera make Dolphin an excellent mobile web browser, but the way it handles security and privacy is unacceptable. It shares its bad habits with plenty of other Android apps, so root your phone and protect it with electronic condoms like AdAway, DroidWall, and LBE Privacy Guard. Android and its apps need a permanent reminder that it's your phone and your data.

• Dolphin Browser HD

CSipSimple adds plugins for Skype and other VoIP services

Open source VoIP app CSipSimple is not affiliated with any VoIP provider, so it doesn't favor one over the other like Nimbuzz and fring do. Because it doesn't route your calls through its own servers it sounds a lot better than the competition. It integrates with your native dialer app unless you tell it not to, in which case it stays out. Other features include switching off your ringer when you're on a VoIP call to keep incoming calls from blowing up your ears, a clean uncluttered user interface, and support for multiple simultaneous calls.

The latest update adds a new low bandwidth codec for when you're on a slow 3G (or worse) connection. Combined with a new echo killer your calls will be friendly for your ears even if your internet is as slow as the government.

But the real big change in CSipSimple is a new set of plugins. There's a plugin for Betamax. Nope, that's not the old and extinct VCR format, but a collection of SIP providers like VoipCheap, 12voip, and dozens more. Of course you could already use all those SIP services with CSipSimple, but with the new plugins you can now also use their local access numbers and callback service. This can be useful if your mobile carrier doesn't allow you to use classic VoIP over their data network or if you're about to hit your data limit.

The other plugin is for Skype. This first version just launches the Skype client if you pick a Skype contact from CSipSimple, so you need to have the official Skype app installed on your phone. Maybe one day CSipSimple will add the Skype support that Nimbuzz and fring had to drop?

• CSipSimple (Google code)
• CSipSimple (Android Market)
• CSipSimple Skype plugin (Android Market) Update: the Skype plugin has been removed from the Android Market.
• CSipSimple Betamax plugin (Android Market)