A friend of mine recently got his first smart phone, an Android. My wife has also recently moved into the world of smart phones, again, an Android. I’ve been working with Android for a year now and loving it, and not even remotely non-vocal about it. I even picked up a Droid tablet, an Asus Transformer
(which I LOVE). My advice on apps has been solicited a few times. I forwarded the most recent request to G+, Twitter & Facebook.
Funny thing is, I’ve installed a ton of apps and then uninstalled most of them. There are only a few that I’ve found really, really useful. Note, this is beyond the basic stuff that comes with the phone, email, web browsing, maps, navigation, calendar, etc. That stuff is wonderful. I’m talking apps. Here’s my list:
- TripIt, if you travel,TripIt is a glory, just a glory.
- Springpad is great for taking notes on the go, especially if you combine it with the Barcode Scanner app
- PdaNet is good for tethering, again, if you’re travelling
- Kindle, just in case
- Cardstar, because I don’t want that crap hanging off my key chain
- Google Sky Map, ‘cause it’s wicked cool
- HIIT Internval Trainer is a great timer for Tabata’s.
- JogTracker Pro is OK as an way for tracking mileage walked, jogged, etc. I’m still looking for something better here.
- Tasker, hard to describe. Check it out.
And that’s all I’ve got on my phone. I have a different list for my tablet. I’ll compile that at some point (I need to post a review of the tablet).
Here are some of the responses I got from my beg. I might try a couple of these that I haven’t heard of:
- Note Everything, Simple note app that is reduced to the max
- PomLife
- LLama profile manager. nice to know your phone will be quiet/loud, even if you forget set set it…
- Dropbox
- Google+
- soundhound
- skype
- kindle
- walgreens (if you Rx with them)
- Quickoffice
- WiFi Analyzer
- Chrome to Phone
- CamScanner. That lets you take a picture of a document and it converts to a PDF.
- Amazon
I use RunKeeper rather than JogTracker – Doesn’t just do GPS-enabled activities but other stuff too…
Love TripIt (though I have the iphone version). Heard other people recommending SpringPad, so I’m going to check it out, thanks!
Grant….thanks for the tip on the transformer. I kept waiting and looking for something and kept debating between laptop, netbook, and tablet. The transformer is awesome and the perfect solution for me. Have you been able to get your transformer on the internet through your android phone?
TedTalks, there are a few options. Takes all the latest talks from TED.com and lets you watch them/save to favorites.
Ryan, I have some beta software from PDANet, but I haven’t tried it yet (been busy). But now… I’ll try it real quick.
Hmph… Sorta, kinda worked. needs more experimenting and I don’t have time right now.
Thanks Grant! You must be talking about the PdaNet for tablets beta app. I’ll play around with it as well and see if I get any results.
Yeah, I don’t think it quite worked although I followed all the directions. Took a bunch of tries to get to “not quite” working status.