I regularly come across people who have just bought android phones, and inevitably we get talking about cool apps you can download. Here’s a list of the best apps I’ve found on Android, stuff that I just can’t get by without at this stage.

  • Astrid - to do list manager, hugely useful. There is a RememberTheMilk app too, but it only works for 30 days then you need to pay for a pro account.
  • Linda File Manager – browse your SD card, install apps from it, copy, cut, paste, move, rename files
  • Seesmic - really great twitter app
  • ChompSMS - way better than the default SMS app
  • Facebook - the official app
  • GMote - control pc / media centre from the phone. You need to install an app on the PC first, but its kinda neat! turns screen into trackpad, so you can actually just mouse around from the couch
  • Meridian - best media player on it – not perfect but better than anything else out there
  • Aldiko - ebook reader. Really good, packed full of neat features and gorgeous to look at and use.
  • Barcode Scanner – scan barcodes and search them on line
  • Evernote - only started using this since I got the phone, but its great! upload notes, photos, sound bytes etc to personal storage
  • pktAuctions - ebay app, not official but very good. You can browse, and bid through it.
  • Google Sky Map – A map of the night sky, uses the built in accelerometer & compass to tell what way you’re pointing. Great for impressing people with.
  • Bump - transfer files and contacts between android phones and/or iphones by bumping them together AKNotepad – simple notepad clone
  • Layar - a neat app which overlays info about your surroundings onto the camera feed,
  • AppManager - lets you uninstall apps, works far better than the standard android uninstaller
  • Flashlight - turns screen white, not particularly bright but better than nothing in the dark!
  • aFile - very useful app which allows you to connect to the phone from your laptop via wifi. If you can’t find the cable right this second but need to download a picture from the camera, you can always email it to yourself, OR you can fire up aFile. Doesn’t always work though
  • NetCounter - essential – keep track of your downloads through wifi or 3g, see how much you’ve used
  • WiFi analyser – lets you see the strength of all the various wifi signals around you
  • DoubleTwist - media player, hooks into desktop client for Windows or Mac, syncs music neatly either from iTunes or other sources. Its a work in progress but very sleek. I still prefer Meridian but I get the feeling I’ll prefer this someday.
  • Qype - Find nearby pubs, shops, restaurants etc.
  • Eirxor - eircom WEP hacking tool, handy if someone you know loses their router password. Thats all I’m saying.
  • Katawa - collection of web comics
  • Twitter - official twitter app. I don’t think It’s as good as Seesmic
  • Epicurious - Recipe app, ties in to Epicurious.com
  • IMDB official app – just launched the other day! Official app for sussing out what the hell that guy is from
  • Grooveshark - streamed music, only works with VIP (Paid) version of GrooveShark though.
  • Shazam - Identify music being played, just like the iphone version.
  • My Tracks – record where you go, how far you’ve travelled and share with friends or keep to yourself

Keyboards:

It’s easy to replace the default keyboard on android, and two stand out as excellent replacements. Swype or Shapewriter. Both use a system where you draw a continuous line through the letters of each word instead of tapping. Both are intuitive and highly useable. Swype has the edge in useability but some prefer ShapeWriter as it can do things like toggle the case (UPPER/lower/Sentence) after a word is written