Apps for your Android device

[Tiberius]

Android is a very popular operating system, and (according to some reports) is outselling the iOS on the iPhone (source), and if not, it's certainly giving iOS a hard time.

With this rise in the Android OS's popularity, I thought it would be a good idea if we shared some of the apps we like to use for our Android phones and tablets. I have both, actually, a Galaxy Note 2 phone running 4.1.2, and an Acer Iconia running 3.2.1. Quite happy with them both.

I have the standard Google Maps app (love the sat nav feature, it got quite a work out on a recent road trip) and other standards such as Facebook.

Some of the others that I installed are Wikipedia, Skype and YouTube.

Some ones that you might not have heard of are:

Goodreads, a book review app that has reviews from users, as well as a neat barcode scan function to look up a book.

Soundhound which listens to a bit of music and tells you what the song is, along with links so you can download the song, find the lyrics, etc.

RealCalc, a solid scientific calculator app.

Photo Editor, which is surprisingly full featured for a free app, with individual colour curves and a lot of other powerful functions.

I also have the popular games like Angry Birds and Bad Piggies. I've found a few lesser known games, like Major Mayhem, Mouse, Lazors, Cube, Hot Death Uno and a colour game called Blendoku.

Have you found any useful apps for your Android devices? Please share, and don't forget the links!

 

[Stoo]

ScummVM is great for playing old adventure games like Day of the Tentacle. (note you need to supply the games yourself, ie find the old disks somewhere.) A lot of retro-gaming emulators don't handle so well phones and tablets, IMO, due to the inadequacies of a touchscreen interface, but the point-and-click style of the adventures translates quite neatly.

Evernote is something I've found handy lately for jotting down notes, reminders, shopping lists etc. I run it on just about all my PCs and gadgets.

Feedly has become my RSS reader of choice now that google is due to shut down theirs

winamp because old habits die hard and I've been using it since like 1999

 

[tighr]

B/R Team Stream from Bleacher Report has become my go-to sports app. You select your sports, your teams, your leagues/conferences/etc. Then you can get live push notifications when news concerning your teams is breaking. I used to dislike B/R as a site, but they have really stepped up their game the last year or so.

 

[farmkid]

Battery Monitor Widget and System Tuner are two utilities from the same publisher that I find quite useful for keeping track of what my phone is doing.

Button Savior allows you to do a lot of things you normally have to push the physical buttons for using only the screen to help the phone last longer.

GPS Essentials has lots of GPS-related functions. GPS Test is good for troubleshooting your GPS system if you're having trouble getting it to work right. It also has some good functions but, while better for troubleshooting, doesn't do as much as GPS Essentials.

GoTasks is a good task management app that syncs with your Google Tasks for those who want something to help them manage their time better. There are several others as well, but this is the one I settled on.

gStrings is good for the musical among us. It's a richly-featured app for tuning instruments.

The Coupons App and YP Local Search are good for finding coupons, local restaurants, gas prices, etc.

Wifi Analyzer finds all Wifi signals in range and helps you connect to Wifi networks.

SMS Backup and Restore is good for backing up your text messages so you don't lose them with OS updates/crashes/etc. It can also be used to transfer your messages to a new phone.

 

[Timby]

I would be lost without Evernote.

aWallet is a pretty good password generation and management tool.

Field Trip is indispensable for when you're visiting a new city.

Hotel Tonight works well for when you're trying to book a hotel at the last minute.

Shortyz is a great free crossword puzzle app.

Also, Taxi Magic is great. You can use it to book a taxi, and it works in quite a few cities. So, so handy.

 

[Infern0]

Here is the pick of the ones I have

100 Push Ups - Works like a personal trainer and good for a basic workout while on the road.

Amazon Kindle - for all your Trek Ebooks

Broken Sword 1 & 2, great point and click adventure games

DC comics and Marvel Comics, a good time waster lets you download many a comic (you have to pay but it's cheap)

Filmon, an app that lets you watch some british tv channels live

Final Fantasy Dimension, good old school style FF game

Flipboard, a good news/magazine app that you can customise

Machinarium, another good point and click game

Mass Effect, a spin off ME game, fantastic graphics and good gameplay

Movietube, let you watch tons of movies

N64oid, 64 Emulator

Tune in Radio Pro, lets you listen to most any radio station in the world

 

[Tiberius]

I use Flipboard myself. Found lots of cool things with it.

 

[B.J.]

Aside from the standard integrated Google Calendar, the most useful app I use is COL Reminder. If I have something that I need to be reminded of later (like "Pick up milk on the way home"), it's a very easy and lightweight way of doing it. I could technically use the calendar for that, but I don't need stuff like that clogging it up.

I also have the WAFF Storm Tracker app, which pings me when there are severe weather alerts. Definitely needed in this part of the country.

The only app I've paid for is Sketchbook Mobile, which is a very nice sketching/painting app!

 

[scotthm]

DVD Profiler: One of my favorite desktop applications has finally made it to Android. Not free, but very useful if you have a lot of DVDs/Blu-rays.

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[Retu]

Sensor Camera: I use this little app to take photos with my phone. Mainly because it has a setting for adjusting JPEG compression rate, which my phone's default camera software lacks. (And of course the default quality setting is set to as low as possible) App also gives an artificial horizon. It helps to prevent tilted pictures.

 

[Tiberius]

Here's one which I would consider almost indispensable.

Android Lost

If you lose your phone, you can have it display a message giving details on how to return it to you. You can even have it speak out loud with the synthesized voice. You can have it sound a siren (which attracts attention to the thief or just makes it easy if you've lost it in your room somewhere. A particularly nice set of features is the GPS location so you can find out exactly where your phone is. And you can have a message come up on the screen with an OK button, and as soon as they press the OK button, it takes a photo - handy to grab a snapshot of whoever stole your phone. You also have the option of completely wiping your phone's memory and SD card.

Best of all, it's COMPLETELY FREE

Seriously, I can't recommend this app enough.

 

[DCR]

I like Zinio on my tablet. It may not be SF, but they've had lots of sales so I've been able to pick up something like a six year subscription to Automobile magazine for a grand total of maybe 20 bucks.

 

[wildstar]

Word Lens is amazing. Live translation of signs, matches the colour of the words and background too. And tracks it to lock it to the sources position.

 

[theblitz]

BSPlayer is a must.

Being from Israel I have to recommend Waze. Seems that Google liked it enough to buy it.