20. Google
Maps Navigation
Price: Free
An absolute must-get. As long as you have
Android 1.6 or above, the latest update to Google Maps introduces turn-by-turn
voice navigation, simultaneously devastating the sat-nav industry while
boosting the in-car dashboard dock/ charger accessory screen. Route
calculations are done at the outset of your trip, minimizing data transfer en
route and keeping you on target even when the GPS signal drops. It’s amazing,
it works and it’s free.
21. Catch
Notes
Price: Free
A simple note-taking tool, Catch Notes
enables you to synchronize those disjointed, late-night thoughts you have
together into one huge, incoherent database. If you have a Snaptic account,
you’re able to sync the Android app with that too- or you can simply log in
with your Google details for instant mobile jotting. Once written, notes may
also be pinned to the homescreen, creating a little sticky note- style reminder
icon.
22. gvSIG Mini
Maps
Price: Free
gvSIG Mini Maps is an incredibly
comprehensive mapping tool, which combines major online maps including Google,
Bing, Open Street Map and more. And it will win UK fans for one huge reason
alone- it supports the official and recently open-sourced Ordnance Survey data.
This means you’re never more than a postcode search away from seeing where you
are in OS-level detail, which offers much more in the way of accurate local
data than other map tools provide.
23. Astrid
Price: Free
Astrid describes itself as an ‘open source’
task list, which includes syncing support with Rememberthemilk.com for the
ultimate in minutiae management. You set a list of tasks and are then able to
order them according to their importance – also setting off a timer to see
precisely how long you’ve wasted on Twitter instead of doing the job in hand.
It’s basically the world’s most complex and in-depth personal to-do list,
which, if used correctly, consumes more time than the tasks themselves. Ideal
for expert-level procrastinators.
24. Shareprice
Price: Free
Shareprice uses your login details from
financial site www.iii.co.uk to offer live
share price updates on your Android phone. Watch your nest-egg lose 50 per cent
in value every three weeks during the latest trans-global financial crisis,
live! It’s ideal for users with share values so low they have to be checked in
private, to ensure their partner doesn’t see exactly how much money has
disappeared into some notional financial black hole.
25. Skifta
Price: Free
Skifta is the first software tool to be
granted DLNA certification, meaning that it turns your Android smartphone into
an official DLNA device. This in turn means streaming all of your household
media to your phone, and beaming all your phone videos to your TV. It does seem
a little buggy at the moment, but there are plenty of updates arriving all the
time. Requires Android 2.2 or higher.
26. Dropbox
Price: Free
The Android version of the insanely popular
stuff-syncing app has arrived, and while Dropbox is a little lacking in the
sort of fancy auto-syncing options many were hoping for, it still works as
expected. Files have to be specifically downloaded to your phone in order to be
edited or shared, which is not quite the automated dream offered by the desktop
tools, but it’s still Dropbox on Android.
27. London
Tube Status
Price: Free
Reduce the misery of being told you’ve just
missed wait until the next one with London Tube Status, which combines travel
status, updates and live departure times. It also includes a homescreen widget
that shows your favorite (or at least your most used) platform departures,
making it easy to check by how much you’ve just missed the next train while
tearing madly down the escalators.
28. Amazon UK
Price: Free
Amazon recently launched an official
Android app, replacing its reliance on a mobile web store. The app is very
simple and fast to use, and even includes full shopping cart features with
Amazon’s one-click system- once you’ve signed in with your usual account
details. Now all those impulse buys can be even more impulsive.
29. eBuddy
Chat
Price: Free
If you like to pass the time exchanging
smiley faces and abbreviations with your friends through instant messaging
apps, you ought to get a copy of eBuddy Messenger. It’s an instant messaging aggregator,
incorporating AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Myspace, Facebook, good old ICQ and more,
serving everything up in one convenient interface. Typing in all your logins
and passwords for all those services is the only, very temporary,
inconvenience.
30. Beelicious
Price: Free
If you’re into the slightly last-generation
social networking site Delicious, you ought to get yourself organized with one
of the many third-party Android apps out there that support the bookmarking
tool. Such as Beelicious, which, once you have got through the slightly
cumbersome initial set-up process, enables you to simply send website links to
your Delicious account via the Android browser’s ‘Share Page’ sub-menu.
31. TweetDeck
Price: Free
A star on the Twitter app scene, TweetDeck
for Android is one amazing little tool. As well as presenting your timeline,
direct messages and replies in separate side-by-side panels that you swipe the
screen to flip between, it can also pull in Facebook status updates. And mix it
all in together. And it does Foursquare. And Buzz
32. iPlayer
Price: Free
The BBC came in for quite a lot of stick
over its Android iPlayer app, with the code lacking some basic features and
requiring Adobe’s discontinued Flash Player in order to work properly. Happily,
most of the issues have now bee fixed in a recent update, while the BBC’s
standalone Media Player removes the need for Flash. It also works while
minimized and with the screen turned off, so is actually usable as a radio
player. Much better.
33. Google
Reader
Price: Free
Google has brought its RSS feed tool into
the app era, launching its Google Reader for Android. It’s got some great
functionality built in, with support for multiple Google accounts and plenty of
thread customization options. You’re also able to use the volume rocker to page
up and down between messages, which are handy for those wanting extra-lazy news
assimilation.
34. BT Wi-Fi
Price: Free
BT’s incredibly clever FON network is often
a lifesaver, enabling you to legally borrow Wi-Fi for free in many public
places. And while standing outside strangers’ houses. The BT Wi-Fi Android app
(formerly known as BT FON) enables you to automate the sign-in process, so you
can walk around towns and housing estates safe in the knowledge that your
phone’s always seeking out available Wi-Fi. You need a BT Wi-Fi username,
though, so sort that out before you venture out into the scary internet-free
world.
35. Amazon
Kindle
Price: Free
Amazon’s Kindle app is a great e-reader,
which is seamlessly linked with your Amazon account. Support for magazines and
newspapers are limited at the moment, with only a handful of niche publications
in Android-friendly format. But for books it’s great, with plenty of screen and
text display options to get it looking a way that hurts your eyes the least.
Another exciting new way to collect classic novels you’ll probably never get
around to reading because there’s the internet now.
36. Endomondo
Price: free
The free version of Endomondo is essential
if you’re sporty, or even if you just like using a GPS tool to stalk yourself
walking around. You select an activity, initiate GPS mode and It keeps track of
you, times you and even whispers robotic words of encouragement at you, before
generating a stylish map charting your achievements. A map that you can spam
out to social networks to show of the fact that you can ride a bike.
37. Androidify
Price: Free
Let your hair down by creating a realistic
interpretation of what your barnet looks like with Androidify. It’s an avatar
creator that uses the Android mascot as its base, enabling you to swap trousers
and hats with the swipe of a finger. Results are then sharable via Twitter and
the usual social tools. There aren’t enough types of beard, though. Please
release a Beard Expansion Pack!
38. Kongregate
Arcade
Price: Free
Thanks to Android’s Flash Player powers,
casual gaming portal Kongregate is able to bring a hug number of its internet
games to the Android platform. They run in the browser, os resolutions can be a
bit all over the place, but with over 300 games to choose from, there’s bound
to be something there to help you waste a few hours.
39. Blogger
Price: Free
The Google-owned Blogger platform now has a
presence in the current decade, thanks to the official Blogger app. It’s
remarkably simple, supports image uploads and geo-tagging, and imports the
settings of all blogs associated with your Gmail account. There’s no fancy
editing the positions of your photos, which just get chucked in at the bottom,
but it works.
