Since I dipped my feet into the Android pool I can now also start spewing out lists of those not to be missed Android apps. Well frankly most of the list I’ve seen are stuffed with things I don’t find that practical so I’m going to stick with stuff that’s actually useful. Or stuff that I’m using at least daily, or almost daily myself.
Here it is:
- The stock browser: That’s right. No fancy Dolphin stuff for me plz. I still find this one better because the Dolphin tabs take up too much space anyway. The bookmark feature with preview is also nice. Just one thing I’m missing here (and in other browsers), that’s being able to scroll left/right to another open window. Why didn’t anyone think of that?
- Stock energy manager. Clearly the fastest way to switch on/off wifi/bluetooth/screen brightness/etc straight from your browsers home screen. Plenty of apps for this in the market, but why bother installing anything else if the stock one is great.
- Catch.com notes. This is a note keeping app which syncs between your Android and the web. You can login on the website with your Google account (big plus) so it takes only a second to setup. It’s simple and fast to edit notes on the phone or from your desktop which makes this a very good in-the-cloud notepad app. The notes support you to add links and photo’s to them (taken straight from the phone’s cam) and let you set a reminder at a specific date and time in case you really shouldn’t forget something. Really handy.
- FBReader: an Open Source (bonus point) eBook reader supporting the most common formats. The simply UI (bonus point) is fast and reading is a breeze. I’ve seen fancy things with fake a bookshelf and all but that’s just memory hogging eye candy. Lot’s of tweak-able settings to make sure it behaves just the way you want it. Nice. Did I mention it’s Open Source goodness?
- Barcode scanner: this one is great if you see a QR code somewhere which contains the link to an app you want to try. Just point your cam at the screen and wham-bam, it scans it, reads it and gives you a nicely clickable link to download that super-app. Life couldn’t be easier. This thing also scans regular retail bar codes and allows you to look up the article and compare prices. Life has again never been easier.
- LED light. There are a few fake-flashlight apps out there that simply light up your phone’s screen. Lame isn’t it? This one is different. It takes advantage of your phone’s LED flashlight instead. If your phone has a LED flash, this is the way to go. With a Milestone for example (my phone btw, but you probably guessed that) you don’t really need a flashlight anymore if you have this app. Awesome. Might be a bloody expensive phone but it’s also a flashlight! Totally makes it worth it right?
- Advanced Task Killer Free: It kills your active tasks. Nice. Well, it is nice cause in a lot of cases you don’t even know what’s running on the phone and sucking up resources. I also set it to kill itself. Yes. I’m evil like that.
- Tweetdeck. This must the the best Twitter client for Android out there. I’ve tried the original one from Twitter one and the Frenchy Touiteur but Tweetdeck roshambo’s both of them hard. I don’t fancy the desktop version much but this twitter client simply pwnz. Also does Facebook btw. Meh.
So. Any totally awesome apps not in there that you’re using? Feel free to drop them in the comments!
Picture by Solo, cc-licensed.