My Favorite Android Apps

Lately I’ve had a few different people ask me to recommend some good Android Apps to them. While I’m really excited that these friends and relatives are switching to Android-powered phones, I find myself talking about the same cool apps over and over. Those of you who know me in person can attest that I really don’ t mind talking about Android apps, and could discuss the topic ad nauseum, so to help everyone out I’ve decided to compile a list of Android apps that I use constantly, often, everyday, or ones that I think are essential for every Android user, or ones that are simply just freakin sweet.

Oh, and I recommend first downloading the Barcode Scanner app, so if you want to try one of these apps you can just open Barcode Scanner and scan the square QR code next to the description (yes, just hold your phone up to the screen and scan it [how cool is THAT!!]), which will take you directly to the app in the Android Market. I know, that IS cool! But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of awesome that will be discussed here, so read on. Here’s the list, somewhat organized for your convenience:

Awesome Apps from Google

Google Voice: ties into your GV account, so you can make, receive, forward calls to/from your Google voice number. It can also send and receive GV texts through your phone. I set up my cell number to forward to my GV voicemail box, because it transcribes the voicemail and sends it as a text to my phone, so I don’t have to listen to voicemails through Verizon anymore The only catch is that Google Voice is currently in invite-only mode, so you may need to find a friend with an account to invite you, or you can request an invite from the good folks at Google here. Free.

Google Listen: If you’re into podcasts, this app lets you subscribe, stream, or download podcasts for later. You can also search through thousands of podcasts and manage them on your PC via Google Reader. A great way to stay up to date with all your favorite podcasts without having to download them for listening while driving, or exercising, or really whenever you’d like. Free.

Google Skymap: This app always blows people away when I show it to them. What it does is reads your position via GPS, and reads the direction you’re facing using the internal compass on your phone, as well as the tilt angle from the accelerometer, and shows the stars you’re looking at in the sky right on your screen, with labels for all of them, including constellations, planets, etc. So the next time you look up and wonder what that bright star is, or what constellation you’re looking at, or if what you’re really seeing is Venus, it’s all right there. Free.

Google Goggles: Take a picture of a storefront, DVD cover, logo, etc., and goggles will recognize it and give you an augmented reality view with more information about it. Still in the developing phase, and maybe not too useful yet, but it’s definitely one to keep track of as they update it. Rumors are that they’re working on implementing text translations (chinatown store names, french restaurant menus, etc, etc) into it in the future for on-the-fly translation of stuff. Pretty cool. Free.

Other Cool Stuff:

OrbLive (Free): This app comes in two flavors: free and paid. The paid version is $9.99, and well worth it if you’d use it. Orb is a service that you sign up for that allows you to share all of your media and documents from your home PC over the web. And since it’s on your phone, you have streaming access to all of your music, videos, pictures, documents, and even webcams and TV tuner card. I use it to watch live TV on my phone that comes through my PC, and to check up on my dog through my webcam when I’m not at home. If you have a supported tuner card, you can even schedule TV recordings and watch recorded shows on your phone. I’m recommending the free version because $10 is a lot to try something out. The free version is a bit limited (it selects three pieces of each type of media, and no webcam access) but it will give you a good idea if it will work for you. As of now, it’s more or less a clunky port of their iPhone version of the app, but hopefully they’ll fix it soon. Still pretty cool, in any case. To get it running, you also need to download some software for your PC that aggregates your media and serves it to your Orb account.

Easy Tether (Lite): Another wicked awesome app that’s free, albeit a little bit limited. This app also requires a software download on your computer (laptop, likely), and it’s what I’m using right now to write this post. In short, it tethers your phone’s internet connection to your computer through the USB cable, allowing you to browse the web as though you had one of those expensive “wireless anywhere” cards and plans. The lite version blocks https websites after the trial period. The full version is $9.95 and gives you the https access, and is well worth it if you consider the alternative: a $100 wireless card and a $30 per month plan through the provider. Just make sure you have an unlimited data plan through your wireless phone provider. And if you’re good with Windows ICS, you can even tether your PS3 and XBox360

Ringdroid: Remember with the iPhone how you’d have to buy a song ($.99), then buy a ringtone version of the same song ($.99 AGAIN), then make the clip in iTunes, then sync it to your phone (or, optionally, do all that yourself for free with some audio editing software and file extension renaming) just to get a song as your ringtone? Not anymore! Ringdroid lets you take any song on your device and select the part you want as a ringtone ON YOUR DEVICE and set it for the ringtone, all for free! No more buying the song multiple times or syncing your whole phone just for a new ringtone! And, as I said, it’s FREE! Need I say more? Oh, one more thing: you can also record your own ringtone straight on your device to use as a ringtone too. What more could you want?

SayMyName: This is a really useful app that I use every time I drive. Here’s the scenario: I’m driving with my phone’s headphone jack running into my car stereo listening to my music on my Droid. The phone rings, the music fades out, and SayMyName reads the name of the person who is calling, so I can either answer it on my bluetooth or ignore it, depending on who it is. Or, I hear the text message alert tone, the music fades out, and SayMyName reads (via text-to-speech) the sender’s name of the text message, as well as the contents of the text message to me, so I never have to take my eyes off the road. No more wondering who it is or what they want – SayMyName reads it to you! This app is literally a potential lifesaver. Sometimes the robot-sounding voice is hard to understand, but that’s the text-to-speech engine’s fault, and will hopefully improve. You can usually get the general gist of the message, though, and by adding a shortcut to the app on your homescreen, it’s quick to turn on when you get into your car, and off (don’t forget!) when you get (safely) to where you’re going. It’s even customizable to how it reads the name/number of the caller. Note: the QR code is for Android version 1.6+, which should be good for most of you, but if you’re on an earlier Android version, just do a search for SayMyName in the Market instead. Free, but the developer also accepts donations.

SNesoid (Lite): Simply put, it’s a Super Nintendo emulator for your Android phone. This one makes iPhone users jealous all the time. The lite version doesn’t let you load or save game states, but the full version does and is $3.98. It reads ROMs that you may have to do some searching for, but you may already have a bunch on your computer if you’re familiar with emulators and whatnot. It’s a good way to play all your favorite old games right on your phone! You can also search around the Market for other emulators, such as NES, Game Boy, GBA, CPS, many other consoles and arcade systems, and yes, even Windows 7.

RemoteFile: Ever wanted to transfer a file to your phone or PC real fast, but was too lazy to bust out your USB cable and mount it on your computer? Now you don’t have to. Just jump onto your home Wi-Fi network, and fire up RemoteFile, which will give you an IP address to go to on your PC’s browser to get access to your SD card on your phone. You can then upload and download straight to your phone, without the need for your USB cable. This comes in really handy especially for just needing to transfer one or two files when you’re in a rush, and has so far worked flawlessly for me. Definitely useful, definitely worth the price: Free.

mp3taggerpro: If you’re like me, a lot of times the tags on your MP3s still don’t work quite right, even though you go through a lot of trouble to try to get them perfect on your computer before transferring them to your device. With this app you can automatically or manually retag all the mp3s on your device, including album art, in a quick and easy way, including bulk retagging. No more ugly missing album art image. This is one of the first apps I purchased, and it’s been totally worth it. It’s .99 Euros (about $1.49), but there’s also a free version that doesn’t do quite as much.

Movies: Chances are you’ve seen this one on the featured section in the Market, but I’m recommending it because it’s really a lot of app all in one. It will show you theaters, showtimes, trailers, as well as allow you to browse DVDs, reviews, Rotten Tomato ratings, and my favorite part, NetFlix Queue management. Really useful for anything movie related, and, free!

There are many more apps I’d love to discuss here, but I think these are a good start. I really want to discuss some widgets, because I think Android’s widget capabilities are what really makes it customizable, and totally better than the iPhone OS. I also want to discuss more “advanced” apps, such as homescreen replacement, battery savers, task killers, and security apps, so be sure to check back for that. Until then, have fun, and if you find any killer apps, feel free to leave a comment and recommend it!