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Essential Android Applications

I have a new post on this. Go here: https://blog.f12.no/wp/2010/08/06/redommended-android-applications/

I have had my HTC Magic for a little over a month eight months now. I’m still satisfied, though I’m contemplating getting a Google Nexus One next year. I’ve updated my apps list below. Not all of them are necessary for handsets like Hero, but I’m still on Magic so I need some extra extensions. 🙂

System

  • PandaHome – Home screen replacement. Gives me as many home screens as I want and a nice dock.
  • Locale – Profiles for your android. Adjusts sound etc. based on location or other parameters.
  • AutoLock – Delays the need to draw your unlock pattern.
  • Useful Switchers – Easy access to switch on and off the things that consume battery.
  • TasKiller – Kill off tasks.

SMS and contacts

  • Handcent SMS – iPhone like SMS handling with bubbles and all.
  • SMS Popup – Popup covering the screen on SMS instead of just the top bar notifications.
  • SMS Templates – Templates for sending SMS.
  • SyncMyPix – Get profile pictures from Facebook as contact photos.

Connectivity

  • Toggle Data – If you don’t have a free data plan, you really don’t want your Android to go checking the net all the time. This lets you turn off and on data usage.
  • Wisync – Automatically turn off data sync when not on WiFi.
  • Wifi Analyzer – Nice to have when messing around with my APs to find the free channels.
  • WeFi Connect – Scan, connect and test open connections in the area until one succeeds.
  • NetSentry – Keep track of downloaded data.
  • Bluetooth File Transfer – Send and receive files over Bluetooth (sadly not standard).

Productivity

  • Share Your Board – Takes a snapshot of your whiteboard, corrects the angles, crops and increases contrast. I mail mine to Evernote for search and storage.
  • Evernote – Capture anything, for ever. It even does OCR on any images so you can search for what you have written.
  • GDocs Notepad – Notepad that Syncs to a folder on Google Docs.
  • Remember The Milk – My essential GTD app. Nice widget for displaying list of current tasks. Only works if you are a paying member of RTM.
  • Thinking Space – Easy mind maps for Android. Syncs to “the cloud”, but no alternative client for editing (yet?).

Media

  • Spotify – Music like I like it.
  • Google Listen – Podcasts
  • Qik – Stream your video live, and store them when you’re done broadcasting.
  • Shazam – Figure out which song is playing on the radio.
  • SnapTell – Snap pictures of videos, books etc. and get online quotes and links to IMDB etc. Also supports bar codes.
  • Backgrounds – Easy way of finding new ones when you get tired of the one you got.

Travel and location

  • Flightstats Lite – Not really a good app (just sends you to the web all the time), but nice shortcuts for getting your flight status.
  • TripIt – Keep track of trips and contacts trips. Nice sync option to have everything on your phone before you leave.
  • Trafikanten – Bus, train, tram and subway info for Oslo.
  • Here I Am – Send your current location via SMS or Mail.
  • My Tracks – Get the tracks and stats from your trip and export GPX file for Geotagging.
  • MyCityBikes – Status for bikes in Oslo and other cities. Lets me find nearest bike, and nearest free slot.
  • Wikitude – Augumented reality and the ultimate show off app. Can also help you find restaurants etc. near by. 😉

Misc

  • Barcode Scanner – Scan barcodes and open in browser or do a search. Eases installation of applications on the links below.
  • Seesmic – Twitter client with twitter lists.
  • Transdroid – Add and manage torrents in a variety of torrent clients on your computer.
  • Brightkite – Location based social microblogging. The best so far. 🙂
  • Bubble – Level anything. 🙂
  • Meebo IM – Connect to just about any IM service, and use the same account as meebo.com.

Anything else I should be using? Let me know. 🙂

7 replies on “Essential Android Applications”

Astrid : Task List that has a Locale plugin and syncs with rememberthemilk.com
Allows you to get location based task notification.

I was using that, but often found that it wasn’t that suited to quickly opening and adding/checking tasks off (it often wouldn’t sync properly and lose either tasks I had entered or that I had completed tasks). It also failed when I couldn’t connect to the net (e.g. there’s a blackspot in my local supermarket, so I couldn’t see what I needed to buy).
Astrid has better support for task deadlines, reminders etc.

I think the roadmap of astrid also talks about have sync capabilities with google tasks when then open an API for them.

WiSyncPlus because it drastically improves battery life, lets you synchronize exactly when you want, and even completely defer all Internet traffic to WIFI if you so desire. Super configurable. Even has built in, optional roaming protection which automatically shuts down your data connection when you start to roam.

WiSyncPlus is WiSync’s big brother on steroids.

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