New to Android: Best Most Essential Apps (Not Games)

AbsoluteZero

Hey alls.

I just bought my very first smart phone (LG Optimus V - Android 2.2) and am completely new to this Android business. I'm slowly figuring it out, but I am completely bewildered by the gazillions of apps available.

So.. what are the best of the best, awesomest, most essential apps (not games) that I need to download to my phone post-haste?

Even if it's just something that gives me the weather or news or something mundane like that, if it is the best at what it does, I want to know about it!

Your recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Elin

I like the Photobucket app for easily transferring my pictures to my computer. You might also want to check the Android thread over in Moes.

Dehumanized

couple quick recommendations:

handcent SMS (improved text messaging)
iMDB (it's basically a faster version of their mobile site, still awesome)

AbsoluteZero

Elin wrote: »

I like the Photobucket app for easily transferring my pictures to my computer. You might also want to check the Android thread over in Moes.

That thread is most helpful indeed!

I will still heed any suggestions here as well if anyone has them.

*goes back to fiddling with phone*

Psychotic One

Pandora

Ringdroid

Zedge

This should be a good start. Pandora could be swapped for Last.FM if you prefer that music service.
The Endgadget news app is also a good one if you want a decent tech news feed.

admanb

If you already use Dropbox you should have already realized you need the app. If you don't already use Dropbox, what's wrong with you?

DragonPup

iBodger for your warmahordes. I like Plume for twitter but I havent tried the new officiap app yet. DoubleTwist for music. WeatherBug for, well, the weather. Oh, and RetroCamera because it is awesome.

MichaelLC

Pretty much everything from Google.

I just bought Beautiful Widgets, and it's cool, a lot of choices.

Got my icons from this site.

tony_important

Plume is an excellent twitter client. I got the paid version about 10 min after playing around with the free one

Free version: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.levelup.touiteur

Paid: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.levelup.touiteurpremium

I will also second getting most of the apps google has popped out.

I use IMO for instant messaging (you can link up skype, msn, aol, etc), it's really good and I haven't had an issues running it at all.

IMO: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.imo.android.imoim

AbsoluteZero

admanb wrote: »

If you already use Dropbox you should have already realized you need the app. If you don't already use Dropbox, what's wrong with you?

At the risk of sounding like a silly goose, what is Dropbox?

Also is there a better browser than the stock android browser? This one is a bit crashy for my tastes.

DragonPup

DropBox is basically cloud file storage that you can access on your phone or computer.

admanb

AbsoluteZero wrote: »

admanb wrote: »

If you already use Dropbox you should have already realized you need the app. If you don't already use Dropbox, what's wrong with you?

At the risk of sounding like a silly goose, what is Dropbox?

Also is there a better browser than the stock android browser? This one is a bit crashy for my tastes.

I like Dolphin Browser Mini.

nexuscrawler

Dolphin mini or HD.

nexuscrawler

Also all the google apps are pretty must have

maps, navigation, Liisten(podcasts), Books, Shopper,

Seattle Thread

Pulse.

Shadowfire

You mentioned weather apps, and I think the Weather Channel app is the most accurate. However, the best looking widget is easily Snowstorm... it'll give you a quick look at the weather, but if you see snow on the horizon, checking TWC's app is better to find out what hell you're in for.

Cardstar organizes all your annoying store cards into one app so you don't need them in your wallet or on your keychain anymore.

DailyStrip is an easy to use comic strip reader. It has Dilbert, Fox Trot, Calvin & Hobbes, and xkcd so happiness.

Lightning Bug is a white noise generator, great to fall asleep to.

If you do lots of presentations, PRemoteDroid will sync over wifi or bluetooth to your computer and work as a mouse and keyboard for your PC. Also kinda cool as a remote for a media center, I suppose.

Games: Game Dev Story is bizarrely addictive.

Also, motherfucking Angry Birds. Also, Angry Birds Seasons. Really, these should be your first downloads after the Google apps. :P

Rikushix

Am I the only person who doesn't like Lightning Bug?

I don't even remember what the context was now, but a month or two ago I was playing around with it, and the very first time I tried using the white noise to fall asleep, an alarm went off half an hour later, making all sorts of strange noises at full volume even though the media volume and master volume was at a minimum. When I tried to quit the app the alarm persisted. I had to turn my phone off.

This pissed me off to no end. God. That fucking app has the worst UI in the world.

Are there any other good white noise apps? Or give me one good reason to come back to Lightning Bug?

Shadowfire

There's actually a separate volume for alarms... download Quick Settings and you can set all four volume levels (system, alarm, notification, media). Should have mentioned that in my list.

Edit: six, sorry. Add ringer and voice call volume to the list.

Djeet

I use ColorNote for notes and todo lists.

I was quite surprised the EVO didn't come with a built in memo/notepad app.

SunDragon

Any free flashlight app.

As someone who is at work and has no power because somebody just took out the pole with his car, it is very handy for hitting the toilet and not the floor.

skettios

Seconding handcent sms

AK Notepad is nice for quick notes. I use it as my shopping list a bunch

Battery Indicator - see the % of battery

Power Control widget - quickly turnon/off wifi, bluetooth, gps and adjust screen brightness.

harry.timbershaft

ConnectBot - SSH client
DoggCatcher - Podcasts
KeePassDroid - Password manager

Muriden

Ring Scheduler: set times for different volumes and phone modes, if you don't want to have your battery draining with data checkins over night you can set it to be in "airplane mode" during the wee hours.
Shazam: Ever hear a song and can't think of the name or artist?
ChompSMS: I like the layout better than the default messaging service that came with my Desire.
Winamp: Music!
Tricorder: If you are a Star Trek nerd like me .

Pretty much anything google makes.

nexuscrawler

SunDragon wrote: »

Any free flashlight app.

As someone who is at work and has no power because somebody just took out the pole with his car, it is very handy for hitting the toilet and not the floor.

If you're phone has an LED camera flash TeslaLED is great

There's one called Color flashlight that uses the screen instead

xThanatoSx

Cardiotrainer - if you exercise and want to keep track of your workouts. There's a paid version, but the free version does basically everything I need it to.

MrIamMe

k9 mail is the best email program I have found.

Astro and any cut - great for managing files etc

mVideoplayer - awesome for playing movie files

wifinder - nice wifi finder

juicedefender - battery saving app.

Selner

The Barcode Scanner is fun.

If you drink wine you should look into the wine registry apps.
I personally use Wine+List, which lets you scan the barcodes on wine bottles and save and rate them.

And I 2nd the Weather Channel app. I've tried several of the weather apps and it's been the most useful for me.

nexuscrawler

The best WTF use of an app is solving sudoku with google goggles

corcorigan

Selner wrote: »

The Barcode Scanner is fun.

If you drink wine you should look into the wine registry apps.
I personally use Wine+List, which lets you scan the barcodes on wine bottles and save and rate them.

Why am I only hearing about this now?!

Neyla

Linda Manager - a program to look at what is all on your phone/sd card. Makes it easier to remove things like ringtones (something you created and didn't like) or unintstall programs etc. A must have if your still in the fiddling around to see what you like stage.

Easy Phone Tunes - if you were like me and have itunes on your PC, this will allow you to sync your music to your Andriod phone. I haven't touched my Ipod in ages now.

White and Yellow pages - I can't stress how awesome this app is. You enter what you want to find (say pizza) it will find everything pizza related listing them closes to your GPS location. Then you have the option to open a navigator where it acts excatly like a TomTom (speech directions). Which is fantastic for someone like me who gets lost easy in the city :P or if you travel somewhere different, plus with all the cellphone laws now in effect I can't keep checking google maps for directions.

Gasbuddy - reports all the prices for gas stations listing them closes to your GPS location.

Facebook - I love it and hate it. I find it doesn't always post everything in Newsfeed (even with the right options). It will make your phone peep for notifications (pokes, wall posts, messages)

Ebuddy - universal IM. Works with Facebook, ICQ, Messenger, etc.

AbsoluteZero

All this stuff is pretty great so far, keep the suggestions coming!

Does anyone know of a good RSS feed reader with a nice widget? Does Pulse do that?

Seattle Thread

AbsoluteZero wrote: »

All this stuff is pretty great so far, keep the suggestions coming!

Does anyone know of a good RSS feed reader with a nice widget? Does Pulse do that?

Yep. I don't use the widgets because the app itself is so goddamn intuitive. Scroll vertically to browse through your feeds, scroll each line horizontally to browse through their articles.

exis

I use Springpad for notes/tasks. It has a web interface too which is handy.

Google Sky Map for showing off your phone (probably mentioned already).

AbsoluteZero

Makershot wrote: »

AbsoluteZero wrote: »

All this stuff is pretty great so far, keep the suggestions coming!

Does anyone know of a good RSS feed reader with a nice widget? Does Pulse do that?

Yep. I don't use the widgets because the app itself is so goddamn intuitive. Scroll vertically to browse through your feeds, scroll each line horizontally to browse through their articles.

Awesome.

tony_important

Neyla wrote: »

Facebook - I love it and hate it. I find it doesn't always post everything in Newsfeed (even with the right options). It will make your phone peep for notifications (pokes, wall posts, messages)

I find the facebook app is a battery hog like no other with notifications turned on.
I turned off all notification messages and dropped the automatic background updating to curb this. I can ping my facebook when I feel like it, and it's not making my phone go CRAZY and totally die by the end of the day.

Some people say use a task killer regularly to keep your battery life, but I think they actually do more harm than good. I have one installed just in case to kill unresponsive apps.

exis

Oh wow. Pulse is swank as hell.

Jokerman

Excelent call on pulse, thanks guys!

nexuscrawler

I generally just use Google Reader

AbsoluteZero

I am now in love with Pulse. I love the widgets for my most frequently read feeds.

JacksWastedLife

I would use the hell out of Pulse but I have 40+ feeds in my google reader that are organized into folders. Pulse only lets me add 20 feeds total and I can't group them. If I publicize the group feeds and add those aggregate feeds into Pulse I can have quasi-folders. But not every feed item gets listed and it doesn't sync back to my google reader account.

So I use google reader and mourn the lack of a single app that has all the features I want.

Alegis

i've put a list with some apps in here

most stuff already been mentioned however