At my job, we have neither signal nor wifi in certain places (bathroom in the basement). So would appreciate tips on apps to kill five minutes.
I’ll be the old stodger voice and mention that taking 5 minutes from time to time to not be stimulated is good for mental health, and apparently creativity too.
… And then I’ll put in my vote for Simon Tatham’s puzzle collection. (In F-droid as Puzzles, app by Chris Boyle)
Just a nice collection of quick, simple puzzles. A perfect time killer. It’s a staple that I’ve got on all the devices in my old 2000s PDA collection since it was also built for Windows Mobile and PalmOS.
It was WHAT? Time to dust off my HP Jornadas
I’ll have to try and remember where I found the Windows Mobile version of it. While there’s a humongous website for downloading PalmOS programs, I haven’t found one for Windows Mobile yet.
self-promotion caveat: I’m building my sudoku game to be offline and fully accessible: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=digital.cyberpuffin.sudoku
The only thing that might constitute an “ad” is a button on the main menu that leads to a promotion page for my print-on-demand book.
I have ebooks on my phone that I read when I can’t get Internet.
I’m pretty sure reading ebooks is the most common thing I do with my phone.
What apps do you use to read your ebooks?
Koreader on FDroid.
Putting in my vote for Librera reader here. Also on f-droid
Libby for books from the library. Moon reader for other epubs.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon
Warning: HIGHLY addictive.
Just won the game like a minute ago
How?? Pixel dungeon is like 99% RNG
Once you get the hang of it, you can win like 95% of the games.
In the first ten levels, starve yourself and only eat at 30% hp.
Use corners and other obstacles to your advantage to get sneak-attacks. Don’t equip any unidentified equipment if possible - especially if it is suspiciously high level for the area. It is probably cursed. Save up your upgrade scrolls until you find some tier 4 or 5 weapons and armor. If you’re a mage, just dump them in your wand of fire from lvl 1 with no regrets.
Learn how the bosses attack. The slime hits really hard after charging, so figure out how to dodge or get out of range.Interesting! I’ll test out your tips
I one trick mage class. I always upgrade my staff as soon as I find a scroll. Once I feel comfortable I’ll then imbue my staff and continue to upgrade it.
Is that a bad idea? I’ve always felt comfortable doing that because I know that my staff will always be my primary weapon.
I’ve never beaten the game. Only got past the gnome king a handful of times.
Ugh, true.
Libby, to read books/magazines with your library card.
This is the absolute goat of logic puzzle games. It has all of them offline, free, with multiple difficulties. Simon Tatham’s Puzzles
Tatham’s puzzles are great!
Also in this vein, PySol FC has an exstensive library of solitaire card and tile games. Definitely worth checking out.
I little too specific but when I have spare time I use AnkiDroid to memorize kanji.
I like Flow Free and their other related games for wasting time.
Flow Freepixel dungeon series is very pick up and put down-able. they’re all roguelikes, f/oss, with different variations for different game experiences. right now i’m playing Experienced Pixel Dungeon because it introduces a character class I really like (the duelist: rather than being a straight fighter or a caster it’s a melee weapon fighter where each type of melee weapon comes with a different special attack).
The fun in these is that for each variation the gameplay will be similar, but have different elements added. There are some that have skill trees, some that have new PC classes like I outlined above, some that are just basic nethack/rogue clones with a GUI, and a bunch that I haven’t tried yet. And they’re all offline, turn based, and let you save at any point so you can just pinch it off and get back to whatever you need to do in an instant.
Anki might be worth your while if you are trying to learn something.
Load it up with a flashcard deck of something you want to remember, and it’ll show you those flashcards. Lots of people use it to learn languages, but it’s also good for anything that requires memorisation.
fdroid 2048 - for my 1 minute elevator ride
Started a 6x6 game months ago and am still not done yet. It’s super repetitive but perfect to just reset your mind for a while every now and then
2048 & Retro Stack are on fdroid, and there are other decent offline games on the playstore
The lemmy apps could probably implement something like
Offline Reader for Reddit
Duet
Seeneva. It’s a comic reading app. I’ve taken to reading manga like “Go Go Loser Ranger” and “Akira” during the lulls where I would scroll mindlessly.
2048