

Matt Cutts: Android apps that I love - yanw
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/39-android-apps-you-should-try/

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barrkel
I'd add in NewsRob, an offline RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader -
excellent for public transport etc. Caches images, can cache linked web pages
too.

Arity is a nice calculator - free expression input, can graph in 2 and 3d.

Battery Left is an decent widget. It has a 1x1 widget that you can put on your
home screen which estimates battery time remaining, along with a more precise
% figure. It learns based on previous discharge cycles.

Act 1 Video Player is IMO much better than the default video player - it has a
nice touch-swipe skipping mechanism for locating in files.

ES File Explorer is a pretty good file manager, especially since it can browse
remote file systems over FTP, SMB (i.e. Windows shares), Bluetooth, etc. This
means you can copy over music, movies etc. from your network shares onto your
phone without having to plug into USB or remove the SD card (usually requires
removing battery, rebooting phone etc.)

Another file manager, ASTRO, is handy particularly for browsing photos.
Android 2.1's Gallery app is fine for a handful of photos, but it slows to a
crawl if you've built up a bunch. As a file manager, it understands nested
directories, unlike Gallery. B&B Gallery is a useful counterpart to it;
Gallery downsamples images before loading them, but B&B Gallery doesn't,
meaning you can zoom in and see more details. ASTRO can also create zip files.

AutoRotate is another widget - it can sit on your home screen and toggle the
auto-rotate system setting upon touch. Very useful for browsing the web in bed
or similarly reclined. To get the same functionality on my iPod Touch, I had
to jailbreak it.

And finally as a pure artistic toy, Doodledroid is a lot of fun. It has a
selection of brushes with configurable dynamics, and fingerpainting with it
feels good.

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minouye
Great list. I'd add following:

\- DoggCatcher: Fantastic podcast manager. I used Listen for a couple of
months but I had several annoying issues with playback.

\- WebSharing: A great little app that allows you to access and transfer files
over Wifi. Great for when you want to move something to your phone and you
don't want to get out the USB cable.

\- ShopSavvy: IMO the best mobile comparison shopping app on any mobile device

\- xScope: A great lightweight browser

\- FeedR: A no-nosense feedreader

\- DroidLight: If you have a flash on your phone, turn it into a flashlight!

\- TouchDown: An amazing tool for viewing Outlook email/calendar. If you use
Exchange for mail, this is a must have--it basically replicates all Outlook
functionality on your phone.

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GavinB
Thanks for the tip on TouchDown. I'm finally free from having to punch in my
username and password every few minutes just to get to Outlook Web Access.

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peregrine
Some apps he missed but are also very very good are..

Aldiko: Excellent high quality ebook reader, with automatic download from
feedbooks, gutenberg and import your own. Thinking Space: mind mapping
Instafetch: instapaper integration. Mint: Mint.com's app

Android is really developing.

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GavinB
It's really sad that Aldiko is such a good reader, but has no bookstore that
sells current books for it.

I'm stuck with Kobo's old Shortcovers app, which even they admit is outdated.

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martythemaniak
Shameless self-plug: Phonalyzr is my little baby :)

Also, I just tried Swype and its actually quite incredible. I think you can
easily type twice as fast with it. Since the beta is closed, you can get the
apk from my site: <http://phonalyzr.com/com.swype.android.inputmethod.apk>

~~~
cullenking
I like your app! Unfortunately, it's something to just look at once/twice a
month, but, nice work! Excited to checkout swype, thanks for the link. It's
not pirated, just a closed beta?

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anigbrowl
An insanely useful collection - I'd never have spotted some of these just
browsing the Android app store, which badly needs improvement.

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nooneelse
AppBrain is good for finding and managing apps. It also lets you put apps you
hear about in lists, so you don't have to act on recommendations before you
forget them.

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bwr
Self promotion: "Edge Finder" applies an edge detection algorithm on the
camera preview. Falls into the useless (but neat in my opinion) category. Also
source is available :)

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tocomment
Do you charge for it? How did you build it?

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bwr
It is free. I just thought it would be a fun experiment while learning the
android SDK. It ended up being more difficult than I thought it would due to
how the camera preview works. There doesn't seem to be any way of getting the
camera preview without displaying it on a SurfaceView. The only way I could
figure out how to get it to work was to put a View on top of it to draw the
edge image on. I also tried making the View I draw on top a SurfaceView which
allows for more control of when you update the view but you can only have one
and for some reason that I don't understand I only ever saw the camera preview
when trying this. The algorithm itself is just the most basic edge detection
algorithm I could find:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_detection#Other_first-
orde...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_detection#Other_first-
order_methods) I'm not entirely sure if that is what you were asking. It just
requires the android NDK and SDK to build it. The source is at
<http://github.com/bwr/edgefinder>

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KWD
Well I've bookmarked this thread as I get my Android phone (Droid Incredible)
tomorrow. Verizon surprised me with a ship date earlier than expected.

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cludwin
Good list,

I would also add the following:

a good sudoku game like opensudoku.

connectbot for when you need to fix stuff on your server on the go (I did an
app review on this app ... it's a must have).

I think slacker is better then pandora (better variety imho)

Bonus: For those who still go into video stores... use google goggles. If you
take a pic of the dvd case, goggles usually is smart enough to take you to the
IMDB page for that movie. - Instant movie review w/ no typing

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SandB0x
Any recommendations for a Google Reader app? The mobile site is nice but I
would like offline access for commuting.

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barrkel
NewsRob, as I mentioned in my other comment.

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ZeroGravitas
I'm amused at how high/low-tech the method for passing on apps recommendations
to friends is (generating a 2D barcode encoding some kind of URL that the
other phone owner photographs, presumably with a special app?). Sound like
something Google should standardize on.

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nooneelse
AppBrain has a "Share with a friend" function to send a recommendation via
several channels (email, IM, etc).

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mark_l_watson
Good list, I just installed Compass and BBC news apps.

"Car Home" remains my favorite app because it can show the area you are in as
a composite satellite image and roads, do voice navigation, voice queries to
find specific types of businesses near you, etc.

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tocomment
How can the metal detector app work? I'm drawing a blank. Does anyone have any
theories?

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RK
The internal magnetometer can measure local magnetic field changes due to
ferrous metals.

~~~
tocomment
He says it works on non ferrous metals too. That's what really baffles me.

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RK
Well, most things will have some non-zero magnetic susceptibility that will
affect an ambient magnetic field. Ferromagnetic materials will have a larger
effect.

I just loaded "Metal Detector" on my Nexus One and played around with it. It
seemed to only detect ferrous metals. For example it picked small steel tools
fine, but couldn't sense an entire plastic bag full of (US) coins or aluminum
objects.

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ctd
Did you see the Metal Detector app? I don't know if it's useful, but it's a
cool idea.

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minouye
It works most of the time, but it's not accurate enough for any sort of
application other than, "hey my phone told me this file-cabinet is metal!"

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chewbranca
I'm surprised no one mentioned evernote. They released an android app a while
back, very useful. I use it a lot for keeping track of receipts for invoices
and various things I want to take a picture of and return to.

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bitwize
DroidSound: MOD, S3M, XM, IT, NES, Genesis, etc. music player

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barake
Wifi Analyzer rocks. Also try these: StopWatch, Timeriffic (ringer & radio
settings based on schedules), Toss It, Trap! (it's Jezzball!)

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albemuth
I hate that I can't download google listen on my phone, restricting an app
such as this per carrier makes no sense to me :/

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zmmmmm
Get a pre-paid sim from another carrier. Don't activate it, just put it in
your phone while you install whatever you want. Then switch back to your
normal sim card. Presto - apps installed!

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jackowayed
Pretty awesome hack, but doesn't work if you're on a lame network that doesn't
use SIM cards.

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Dobbs
I love "Remember the Milk". Wonderful android app and even better web app

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Concours
shameless self-plug: soccer world cup 2010 - wm2010 is my app fo the coming
soccer world cup, if you love soccer you should give it a try.

I also like the Mint app and my tracks.

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milofelipe
Great list! I'm installing some of the apps now.

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tpiddy
cant wait to buy a htc evo and use some of these apps

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apphacker
The only app I miss from my iPhone is Amazon Kindle. I really hope they make
an android version soon.

