One of the challenges of unboxing and using your new droid is knowing what is good and what is bad in the App Market. First thing I did was search for people's top 10 lists for apps. After a month of using my droid I have found that the lists that were published are either outdated, or published by folks that have not waded into the depths of the market that I have. So anyways, here is my list of top 10 apps. It is by no means all inclusive, and I'm sure many of my choices are inferior to similar apps that I didn't have the good fortune of finding. If you prefer an alternative to one of my 10, make sure you post your list or favorites, so we can help folks know what's out there and what is the latest and greatest. At the moment, the droid market doesn't let you filter results by downloads or rating, so a thread like this is necessary for now.
Here they are, no order.
1. Lookout Mobile Security -- Is a antivirus/malware program that also is synced with a website that will locate your phone via the gps if you lose it or gets stolen. When you are close, you can activate the scream feature to have it make a really loud siren noise. Great app to have if you lose your phone a lot. It will also back up your pictures, txts, and contacts to the website daily. This app was actually used to catch a thief who stole a man's phone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0-8P1PUdJQ (NOTE: I would have put Mobile Defense in place of Lookout, but at the moment I believe mobile defense is in a closed beta)
2. Square -- Application similar to paypal that lets you take credit card payments right from your phone. If you sign up for free they will mail you (takes a while) a credit card attachment for your phone that allows you to swipe credit cards right on your phone. If you are in business and need to accept credit card payments remotely, this is your answer.
3. PhoneMyPC -- Absolutely the best application I have seen hands down. It allows you to remotely control your desktop computer from your phone. It is just like the computer software LogMeIn and GoToMyPC, but it is on your phone. Imagine, having the entire contents and functionality of your home computer anywhere you go, and that is PhoneMyPC. I love it.
4. Listen -- Allows you to listen to your favorite podcasts (if you are switching over from an iphone, itouch, or ipod)
5. Pandora Radio -- You tell pandora what your favorite song or artist is and it
creates a radio station of music that matches your selection. Pretty much a must have for any person that uses their droid for music.
6. Google Maps -- Most phones come with this, but I still can't get over how Uber google maps is.
7. Dropbox -- The only program that I have found that makes it easy to send an application to another person. Dropbox is an internet hard drive. You upload files from your computer or phone to your dropbox. You can then access them from your computer for phone at a latter time. So this makes transfer of files from your computer to phone easy without using a USB cord. Also, you can email or text another person a link to a file in your dropbox so that they can download it. I tried to share an application I had bought with a friend for about an hour trying many different apps, and dropbox was the only one that worked easily without an hour of troubleshooting.
8. Barcode Scanner -- If you are in a store and buying a new TV but aren't sure if you could get the TV for a better price online or somewhere else, then Barcode Scanner is what you need. You just use the camera function of your phone with the barcode scanner app to scan the product barcode, and it immediately shows you that item and what the cost of it is at different locations in your area. Another Must have.
9. PdaNET -- Of course you have internet on your phone and it is possible to browse webpages, but would be a lot easier if you could do it on your laptop. But when you're out camping, there is no wireless signal. If only you could use the internet on your cellphone through the computer. With PdaNET you can. Install the app, follow the instructions, hook your phone up to your laptop with the USB cord, and you now can surf the internet using your phone as a modem.
10. ASTRO File Manager -- If you like to surf the files on your phone and do a lot of transferring of files to and from your phone this is the app for you. it also lets you back up your applications to your computer. This is a must have if you BUY a lot of apps. I had an incident where I was forced to buy an app twice for some unknown error where it didn't recognize that my phone had purchased it a week earlier. You should be able to uninstall and install an app whenever you want through the market once you've bought it, but there are errors now and again. This app lets you take your installed applications and back them all up to "APK" files that you can transfer to your computer just in case something happens.
OK, I lied, two more, 10 was not enough
11. Advanced Task Killer -- Lets you stop all the programs running in the background on your droid. If your phone is doing funny things and running slowly, you just have to tap this application to close all the other apps running on your phone so that it will run smoothly again.
12. Ringdroid -- Allows you to take existing song files on your phone and create ringers out of them. Really a very well done app. I have taken a few of my favorite MP3s and clipped out sections of the songs to create as ringers. It's free and you don't have to use the generic ringers that came with your phone.
Please post your favorites, and what they do.
Here they are, no order.
1. Lookout Mobile Security -- Is a antivirus/malware program that also is synced with a website that will locate your phone via the gps if you lose it or gets stolen. When you are close, you can activate the scream feature to have it make a really loud siren noise. Great app to have if you lose your phone a lot. It will also back up your pictures, txts, and contacts to the website daily. This app was actually used to catch a thief who stole a man's phone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0-8P1PUdJQ (NOTE: I would have put Mobile Defense in place of Lookout, but at the moment I believe mobile defense is in a closed beta)
2. Square -- Application similar to paypal that lets you take credit card payments right from your phone. If you sign up for free they will mail you (takes a while) a credit card attachment for your phone that allows you to swipe credit cards right on your phone. If you are in business and need to accept credit card payments remotely, this is your answer.
3. PhoneMyPC -- Absolutely the best application I have seen hands down. It allows you to remotely control your desktop computer from your phone. It is just like the computer software LogMeIn and GoToMyPC, but it is on your phone. Imagine, having the entire contents and functionality of your home computer anywhere you go, and that is PhoneMyPC. I love it.
4. Listen -- Allows you to listen to your favorite podcasts (if you are switching over from an iphone, itouch, or ipod)
5. Pandora Radio -- You tell pandora what your favorite song or artist is and it
creates a radio station of music that matches your selection. Pretty much a must have for any person that uses their droid for music.
6. Google Maps -- Most phones come with this, but I still can't get over how Uber google maps is.
7. Dropbox -- The only program that I have found that makes it easy to send an application to another person. Dropbox is an internet hard drive. You upload files from your computer or phone to your dropbox. You can then access them from your computer for phone at a latter time. So this makes transfer of files from your computer to phone easy without using a USB cord. Also, you can email or text another person a link to a file in your dropbox so that they can download it. I tried to share an application I had bought with a friend for about an hour trying many different apps, and dropbox was the only one that worked easily without an hour of troubleshooting.
8. Barcode Scanner -- If you are in a store and buying a new TV but aren't sure if you could get the TV for a better price online or somewhere else, then Barcode Scanner is what you need. You just use the camera function of your phone with the barcode scanner app to scan the product barcode, and it immediately shows you that item and what the cost of it is at different locations in your area. Another Must have.
9. PdaNET -- Of course you have internet on your phone and it is possible to browse webpages, but would be a lot easier if you could do it on your laptop. But when you're out camping, there is no wireless signal. If only you could use the internet on your cellphone through the computer. With PdaNET you can. Install the app, follow the instructions, hook your phone up to your laptop with the USB cord, and you now can surf the internet using your phone as a modem.
10. ASTRO File Manager -- If you like to surf the files on your phone and do a lot of transferring of files to and from your phone this is the app for you. it also lets you back up your applications to your computer. This is a must have if you BUY a lot of apps. I had an incident where I was forced to buy an app twice for some unknown error where it didn't recognize that my phone had purchased it a week earlier. You should be able to uninstall and install an app whenever you want through the market once you've bought it, but there are errors now and again. This app lets you take your installed applications and back them all up to "APK" files that you can transfer to your computer just in case something happens.
OK, I lied, two more, 10 was not enough
11. Advanced Task Killer -- Lets you stop all the programs running in the background on your droid. If your phone is doing funny things and running slowly, you just have to tap this application to close all the other apps running on your phone so that it will run smoothly again.
12. Ringdroid -- Allows you to take existing song files on your phone and create ringers out of them. Really a very well done app. I have taken a few of my favorite MP3s and clipped out sections of the songs to create as ringers. It's free and you don't have to use the generic ringers that came with your phone.
Please post your favorites, and what they do.
