The Must Have Android Apps

[deputc26]

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.

couldn't find power control.

Edit:found it, it exists by default.

 

[Glitchny]

couldn't find power control.

Edit:found it, it exists by default.

comes on the phone (droid), just hold down on a home page and go to widgets, should be there.

 

[troytime]

discovered timerific last night. sweet app - lets you build a schedule that will change your settings.
so like at midnight the ringer is silenced and wifi is disabled. then at 7am it's unsilenced and wifi is enabled again. then at 8:30 wifi is disabled, then re-enabled at 5:30

pretty sweet app

 

[troytime]

oh, and find my droid
you can text your phone a pre-selected word or phrase and it will ring uncontrollably.

so if you lose your phone, you can text it (from another phone or web) to help find it.

 

[Spoooon]

Timerific sounds pretty cool.

I thought cardio trainer was pretty cool. I don't know about the exercise stuff, but I was curious about how far away my parking lot is from my office. 0.44 miles. I don't know if there are other apps that do something similar or not.

 

[Deeko]

Timerific sounds pretty cool.

I thought cardio trainer was pretty cool. I don't know about the exercise stuff, but I was curious about how far away my parking lot is from my office. 0.44 miles. I don't know if there are other apps that do something similar or not.

My Tracks, by Google.

 

[deputc26]

I am a flight instructor and I just began using My Tracks as a teaching aid by analyzing the track after the flight, aside from being really cool, it is genuinely useful!

 

[Deeko]

I am a flight instructor and I just began using My Tracks as a teaching aid by analyzing the track after the flight, aside from being really cool, it is genuinely useful!

Nice. Yea, I love My Tracks. I use it for running, for driving (see how long/fast a trip was), all kinds of things.

 

[drpull]

Apps i use all the time:

TasKiller - the free task killer app
eBuddy - for logging into various chat services
ShopSavvy - find info on products via barscanner
Ultimate Stopwatch - good for timing stuff, duh, and has a countdown timer with alarm (for things like cooking, etc)
MotoTorch - A widget based flashlight app that uses the camera flash as a light source. Very cool!

 

[PlatinumGold]

my 2 favorite apps so far

Locale - changes your ring volume settings, turns bluetooth and wifi on and off all based on your gps location. so at work i have one set of settings. at home another and at church a different one.

dxtop - i looked at open home at first, but i prefer the dxtop. it has a built in task manager as well as 4 desktops you can navigate to. nice task manager at bottom of screen. will change orientation even when on home screen.

 

[oznerol]

Any way to update apps you don't download from the Marketplace? If I download from the dev directly, do I need to do that from then on to get it updated or is there a simpler way?

Also, recommended apps:

AndroZip - file browser with a bunch of useful features
iMusic - basically searches the internet for public mp3s and lets you stream them to your phone.
Speed Test - as expected, tests your dl/upload speed.
Net Counter - gives running total of data transfered lifetime/monthly via cell/wi-fi
Meebo IM - best IM client on android

 

[lokiju]

Apps i use all the time:

TasKiller - the free task killer app
eBuddy - for logging into various chat services
ShopSavvy - find info on products via barscanner
Ultimate Stopwatch - good for timing stuff, duh, and has a countdown timer with alarm (for things like cooking, etc)
MotoTorch - A widget based flashlight app that uses the camera flash as a light source. Very cool!

Sweet! I've been looking for an app that'd do just that.

Just bought it (only 99 cents) and it works perfectly.

EDIT: even better, it's free now.

Seems to have changed my screen time out to some super short time for some reason though, but easy enough to fix in settings.

 

[vshah]

Sweet! I've been looking for an app that'd do just that.

Just bought it (only 99 cents) and it works perfectly.

man, i miss the led flash on my w800i. the G1 has to do with a stupid white screen flashlight app.

 

[Glitchny]

dxtop - i looked at open home at first, but i prefer the dxtop. it has a built in task manager as well as 4 desktops you can navigate to. nice task manager at bottom of screen. will change orientation even when on home screen.

I just tried out the trial version of dxtop on my droid and I've gotta say I'm impressed. It is pretty damn cool, is there a way to just have dxTop straight up replace the default home/desktop?

 

[destrekor]

I just tried out the trial version of dxtop on my droid and I've gotta say I'm impressed. It is pretty damn cool, is there a way to just have dxTop straight up replace the default home/desktop?

It should do that. Well, if you press the Home button on the bottom edge of the phone, if you recently installed a new home replacement app, it should pop up with a prompt asking which Home you want to open, with the option of making whichever you choose the default Home as well.

I was using OpenHome, and recently switched to GDE, and with the recent Droid-specific updates, it just keeps getting better and better. It's very nice, and with the Fade transition, absolutely amazing and so smooth.

If anyone tries it, I am using the "Obsidian skin for GDE", and it's very nice.
I like having two permanent soft touch options on the left and right of the drawer, and the skin makes them not intrude with the feel at all. I have Phone and Contacts permanently accessible no matter which screen I'm on. And sounds like the developer has taken a request to make Gmail an option for the two soft-touch launchers flanking the drawer, and has even said "it's at the top of the list now" for upcoming features to be introduced.

 

[wolf2009]

I just tried out the trial version of dxtop on my droid and I've gotta say I'm impressed. It is pretty damn cool, is there a way to just have dxTop straight up replace the default home/desktop?

i didn't find any trial version for dxtop in the marketplace. all i could find were themes

 

[Glitchny]

i didn't find any trial version for dxtop in the marketplace. all i could find were themes

yea it took me a second as well, search for "dxTop: home" it should pull up the demo/full versions with that.

I find it funny that the android market has such a terrible search feature.

 

[The-Noid]

Anyone know of a good alarm clock that lets you select mp3 from your sd card?

 

[vshah]

btw FRING was recently released for android!
now we can make/receive google talk or skype calls over wifi or 3g

 

[maziwanka]

btw FRING was recently released for android!
now we can make/receive google talk or skype calls over wifi or 3g

that is pretty impressive

 

[maziwanka]

yea it took me a second as well, search for "dxTop: home" it should pull up the demo/full versions with that.

I find it funny that the android market has such a terrible search feature.

i didn't really like dxtop. it was also a bit laggy for me.

 

[Spoooon]

btw FRING was recently released for android!
now we can make/receive google talk or skype calls over wifi or 3g

What would be the advantage of that? Phone calls that don't use minutes?

 

[Glitchny]

i didn't really like dxtop. it was also a bit laggy for me.

it was ok, then i tried GDE, and yea so much for dxTop.

 

[maziwanka]

What would be the advantage of that? Phone calls that don't use minutes?

yea. i think it ends up making your cell a skype handset or a handset for use over google voice. pretty neat

 

[Hadsus]

This is outstanding:

http://uk.androlib.com/android.application.com-netgate-qpwn.aspx

Personal Assistant.