What Android Apps Do You Recommend?

I get asked this often enough that I decided to just make a web page that I can update from time to time instead of re-writing the list each time.  But before we get to the list, here’s a word about battery life:

A Word About Battery Life:

One of the chief complaints about any smart phone is short battery life.  With Android you can selectively enable and disable features that might be using a lot of your battery, and you also have some tools that help you discern where your power is going.  These can help you make smart choices about what to uninstall or disable.

If you go into Settings, About Phone, Battery Usage it will tell you which states and apps most used the battery.  It also has a “discharge graph” at the top of the list.  If you tap on that graph it will give you a more detailed look at the graph, and below that tell you which services were using the most power during that time.  This is very useful for tracking down battery hogs.

If it’s not readily apparent what’s eating your juice, try disabling certain apps for a day and see how that affects the usage.  Apps that do lots of background data transfers are often culprits, as well as apps that use the GPS to keep track of your location throughout the day.  And some apps are just poorly written and suck the life out of your phone just by being there.

Another thing to be aware of is how Li-Ion batteries work (this applies to both modern smart phones and laptops, both of which use Li-Ion batteries).  It used to be, back in the days of Ni-Cad and NiMH rechargeable batteries, that it was a good idea to run the battery all the way down, at least occasionally, to avoid getting a “memory effect” that would reduce your battery’s capacity.  Li-Ion batteries actually prefer to be topped-off more frequently, and don’t like to be left on the charger after their full.  In fact, the two things that hurt the battery’s longevity the most is 1) running it all the way down, and 2) leaving it on the charger after it’s full.  It’s not bad to occasionally run the battery all the way down (sometimes you don’t have a choice), but it’s best to avoid it in regular operation if you can.  One other thing that Li-Ion batteries hate is getting hot, so don’t leave them in your car on sunny days.

And with out further ado, Here’s My List of Favorite Apps:

Google Maps (Free!)

Most Android phones come with Google Maps, but you should check to make sure you have the latest version from the Market.  This app will replace your GPS navigation unit and you’ll never look back.  It also acts as an always up-to-date yellow pages directory through the included “Places” app.  “Star” locations from your computer while logged into to the Google Maps website and they sync to your phone, making route planning a breeze.  Truly one of the star apps for the phone!

Google Voice Search (Free!)

Another included Google app that you should make sure you have the latest version of.  This allows you to perform various actions by speaking to your phone.  Very useful!  A list of actions are available here.

Remember the Milk (Inexpensive “Premium” service required)

Used in concert with the web service of the same name, this grocery/to-do list app is great.  Get in the habit of updating the list when you notice you need something and you’ll never forget to pick it up when you go to the store.  Get your spouse to share your account and install it on their phone and you they’ll always remember to bring home beer from the store.

Locale ($10)

This app changes the setting on your phone based on time, location, and a host of other variables.  Want your phone to go to silent at night?  Want your spouse to always ring through at full volume no matter what the ringer volume is set at?  How about your babbysitter?  Want it to change your screen background while you’re at work?  You can do that and so much more with this app.

Edwin (Free!)

A fun app to play with at a party (with questionable real-world usefulness).  Edwin let’s you verbally ask a large variety of questions of your phone, and it replies back verbally with answers.  It’s very impressive!  It uses a combination of Google and Wolfram Alpha to answer questions about the weather (“What’s the weather in Seattle?”), public statistics (“What’s the population of Japan?”), do calculations (“What is 2 plus 2?”) and a ton of other, random stuff (“When is Obama’s birthday?”).  The help menu has a listing of acceptable question types that Edwin understands.

Shush (Free!)

Shush activates when you turn the ringer on your phone all the way down to silent.  It pops up a question about how long you want to have the ringer “shushed”.  When you put in a time, say, for two hours while you’re in a movie theatre, it then remembers to turn your ringer back on when the time is up.  Simple, but brilliant!

SVOX Voice “Grace” ($3)

This is a replacement voice for Android that does navigation, runs Edwin, and anything else your phone wants to talk to you about.  MUCH better than the stock voice (in my opinion).  You have to install the SVOX Engine (free) first.

Gentle Alarm ($3 for full version)

A little wordy with help screens when you first start using it, this is the most configurable alarm clock there is.  You can set every variable you can think of for each day of the week, including alarm sound/song, soft-start-up duration, snooze duration, repeat intervals, etc.

Dropbox (Free!)

Used in concert with the web service of the same name, this app makes it easy to wirelessly move photos and files between your phone and multiple PCs.  Dropbox by itself (separate from Android) is a stellar app for syncing stuff between multiple machines.

Epistle (Free!)

A text based notepad app with a powerful twist - It saves your notes in your Dopbox folder so they are instantly available and editable from either your phone or your PCs.  Brilliant!

Google Sky Map (Free!)

Point your phone at the night sky and Sky Map labels the stars, constellations and planets.  Very cool if you’re at all an astronomy geek!

Google Goggles (Free!)

This app is billed as a “visual search” app, and that’s a good description.  Take a picture of barcodes, products, landmarks, foreign text, and it will come back with comparative prices, alternate purchase locations, identifications and translations.  I once used it to correctly identify a unique geographical landmark in a painting in someones office.  It’s pretty incredible.  More info here.

Wifi Analyzer (Free)

This app maps all the wifi networks being used nearby.  This is very helpful for deciding what channel you should put your own wifi router on to avoid interference.

Voice Recorder (Free!)

It’s always good to have a simple voice recorder at the ready.

Google Shopper (Free!)

There are several comparative shopping programs available for Android, Google’s is well written. More info here.

For more info on how to be a power user with your phone, here is a great article from Lifehacker that lists some of the deeper benefits of being in the Android world.