The Must Have Android Apps

[Bateluer]

With Android phones becoming more and more common, what are your favorite Android apps? Post the name, pricing, and Android version compatibility.

I'm still cruising the Android Market on my Droid and I've grabbed a number of apps, but haven't really used much of them yet.

 

[shortylickens]

Well, its been a long time since I had my G1, so I dont remember much from that. And I just got my Droid yesterday so I only got about a hundred apps so far. Lemme look.

-Where is pretty cool. Automatically looks up points of interest in your immediate area, but I dont know if its any better than Google. The stuff is mostly random but over time you can customize the results. FREE.

-Mosquito noise generator will be useful at school for pissing off the kiddies. I'm 30 and can only hear about half the frequencies. Any time those teeny boppers get out of line I will blast them. FREE.

Am still looking for a good Spanish Translator thats free or dirt cheap. I have several free programs right now that suck ass.

-The Dizzler music on demand program is basic but functional. It doesnt need to access very many features of the phone, and doesnt slow down the system. Its free and the audio quality is suprisingly good, but it buffers slowly and if you lose the song (which happens way too much) you have to start over again from the beginning. There are other free programs available but they require too much access to stuff on my phone. I dont trust them, even if they work well. FREE.

-Theres about a thousand weather apps but my fave is the Weather Channel Widget because it can be made small and still give you good info, and one click gets you full info quickly. FREE, but with ads.

-Advanced Task Killer is OK but there was a powerful program killer I need to track down and reinstall. Supposedly Android 2.0 has a lot more shit running all the time. FREE.

-My Verizon is a required app and they probably should have just installed it by default. Gives all your account stuff in an easy-to-view format. FREE.

-Ahh, TasKIller Free is the app that works great. Lets you see everything clearly and kills it dead. Minimum of fuss. FREE.

-WeFi is a good app to automatically find and connect to wifi spots. I notice even Android 2.0 has a little trouble automatically connecting to known wifi spots.

Actually, I was suprised by some of the cool stuff that came with the Droid, stuff which I assume is Android 2.0 standard since apparantly neither Moto or Verizon adding anything to this phone. The battery drain analyzer is sweet, although I already knew the screen with the big power user. Google maps works great, voice search is suprisingly powerful and fast.
Anyway, lets get some more apps listed.

 

[Bateluer]

From PC World:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/181630/verizons_droid_10_apps_to_get_you_started.html

 

[Deeko]

-Twidroid - the best full-featured Twitter client
-Twidgit - twitter homescreen widgit
-SportsTap - the best sports scores/notification program
-BetterKeyboard - a replacement for the stock virtual keyboard, WAY better
-My Tracks - uses GPS/Google Maps to track running/driving/whatever
-Places - shows you various stores and whatnot nearby
-ShopSavvy - scan a barcode, it tells you prices of that item at local stores and on the internet
-Advanced Task Killer/Task KIller - task managers
-Amazon - shop from your phone, or take a picture of something, and the app will try to find it on Amazon, kinda fun
-Quote Pro - stock application. Better than Google's Finance app IMO
-Facebook/Myspace/LinkedIn - I shouldn't have to explain these
-Pandora - its Pandora
-Phonalyzr - Interesting stats about your call log
-Shazam - listens to music and tries to tell you what song it is
-SMS Backup - automatically sends your text messages to gmail w/ label applied
-SMS Popup - Pop up notification of text messages
-Weather Widgit - Gives you a clock/weather app similar to that found on HTC SenseUI phones
-Weather Channel - its the weather channel

 

[Pliablemoose]

Key Ring Rewards-lets you pitch those store car bar codes, and the check out person freaks out when you hand them your phone instead of a card

 

[Platypus]

ConnectBot is a great multi featured SSH client

 

[MyThirdEye]

This thread makes me sad because I don't have the new Droid yet. GRR

 

[Bateluer]

Whats a good Android 2.0/Droid compatible Battery monitor/management widget?

 

[shortylickens]

Whats a good Android 2.0/Droid compatible Battery monitor/management widget?

With 2.0 you probably wont need it. They include a good on/off widget with the device and the battery monitor in the Settings is quite comprehensive.

Also, I appreciate the PC world list above, but several items are no longer to be found. Unless the Search isnt working right on the Market.

 

[Cdubneeddeal]

Key Ring Rewards-lets you pitch those store car bar codes, and the check out person freaks out when you hand them your phone instead of a card

Wow awesome! What a cool app. So easy to use and convenient. Thank you!

 

[Pliablemoose]

I use Sherpa a bit, and Layar is pretty cool

 

[maziwanka]

Wow awesome! What a cool app. So easy to use and convenient. Thank you!

is it just me but i can't find this app in the store

 

[Cdubneeddeal]

is it just me but i can't find this app in the store

Just search for key ring without the rewards. I. had a difficult time as well.

 

[Deeko]

yea its weird. For as much as Google is the king of search, the search function in the Android Market is only marginal.

 

[Deeko]

is it just me but i can't find this app in the store

http://www.froogloid.com/froogloid/attn-droid-2-0-key-ring-a2b-and-cowpotato-users#more-873

Apparently its only available on Android 1.5/1.6 so far.

 

[maziwanka]

http://www.froogloid.com/froogloid/attn-droid-2-0-key-ring-a2b-and-cowpotato-users#more-873

Apparently its only available on Android 1.5/1.6 so far.

cool. i like their approach. also, i found this program Locale - if it works like it says it's supposed to, bad fucking ass. i always forget to turn vibrate on when i go to work.

 

[Deeko]

Another app I find pretty useful - AppSwipe. The default task switcher in Android only lets you switch between 6 apps - AppSwipe lets you switch between all of them - and close them too.

 

[Pliablemoose]

cool. i like their approach.

Key Ring Rewards was just patched, and works with 2.0. You have to maually key in the numbers at the moment, but they'll fix it.

I always joke with the check out folks, "Yep, I'm from the future."

It's also in the Apple App store.



Ringdroid turns any mp3 on your msd card into a ringtone, I've used it for some time.

I really hope they manage to squeeze 2.0 on the G1

 

[Bateluer]

Ringdroid turns any mp3 on your msd card into a ringtone, I've used it for some time.

I really hope they manage to squeeze 2.0 on the G1

Got that one.

DrunkBlocker would probably be useful for people like me who like to text when they're drinking.

 

[Cuda1447]

Can't believe no one has said this yet... Handcent. Best messaging app by far. Custom ringtones for different people. Changing of fonts, colors, backgrounds, picture backgrounds, led light colors, vibrate patterns, # of vibrates etc etc.... by FAR the best messaging app. Oh, popup text alert with quick reply AND voice reply as well.

 

[destrekor]

Can't believe no one has said this yet... Handcent. Best messaging app by far. Custom ringtones for different people. Changing of fonts, colors, backgrounds, picture backgrounds, led light colors, vibrate patterns, # of vibrates etc etc.... by FAR the best messaging app. Oh, popup text alert with quick reply AND voice reply as well.

a new messaging app... hmm.

Does it completely replace the integrated messaging app (think: SMS/MMS) with a standalone application, or just restyle and add more options to the integrated software?
Or does it completely replace the integrated software and proceed to completely integrate with Android on it's own?

I like how messaging is set up right now, but some of the things you described sound like nice options that I assume are not included in the messaging interface (admittedly I have not discovered all the options and features as of yet). But I like the look and feel, and like doing everything from the Contacts menu with the pop up over the contact's name feature. I'll click message from there.

 

[Deeko]

Can't believe no one has said this yet... Handcent. Best messaging app by far. Custom ringtones for different people. Changing of fonts, colors, backgrounds, picture backgrounds, led light colors, vibrate patterns, # of vibrates etc etc.... by FAR the best messaging app. Oh, popup text alert with quick reply AND voice reply as well.

I never really liked Handcent. I used ChompSMS a little bit, its nice. SMS Popup does the better features of Handcent, well, better (popupd, quick reply, all those notification options)

 

[Cdubneeddeal]

I've been using Handset and I really like it. really wish it would replace the stock sms program but it send a message to both. BTW I tried to use the bar code program tonight but it wouldn't work. Tried the flatbed and the hand reader but no go.

 

[troytime]

taskiller
power control (sweet widget that puts on/off buttons for all the wifi/bluetooth/etc)
google voice app - you can make calls with google voice, and the best thing ever: switch your voicemail over to google voice (inside your g-voice account). when you get a voicemail, it will show up in the app transcribed with a PLAY button so you can listen if you want.

 

[Jeff7181]

Calorie Counter - great if you're a health nut, complete with bar code scanner and nutrition labels
Barcode Scanner - for non-food items, lets you do a Google web search to find the barcodes online
Keeper - store passwords, allows you to categorize them and sort
Solitaire - comes with 3 common game types
Finance - very clean interface, pulls portfolio info from Google Finance