My favourite Android Apps

I've been using my Google Android-based HTC Magic for almost 4 months now. In that brief time, I've seen the growth in apps for Android accelerate rapidly. I had expected that...or I wouldn't have bought an Android-based phone.

Last week New Zealand finally got access to the paid apps in the Android Market. Until then, we had to make do with the 'lite' versions or buy apps directly from the developers or via alternative markets like SlideME.com.

Does access to paid apps make any difference? Sometimes no, but most times.....yes. It does make a difference. In the past week I've bought a fair number of apps, many being the "full" versions of the free apps I had been using. Here, then, is my list of "must-have" (for me) Android apps - free or paid. I do not include any of the apps pre-loaded on the phones when purchased (like Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Camera, Camcorder, Gallery, etc...) because you get them anyway.

Handcent SMS - best SMS messaging apps I've seen so far. A little on the large side, but rich in function to justify it. You can send pretty much anything possible to send as an attachment to TXT, PXT and audio or video. There are several font packs available allowing you to display your messages the way you want to see them. By default, they are presented as bubbles in a thread of messages to and from each person or list of people. The only thing it lacks is groups and ability to delete individual messages rather than threads. This app is free, but would be well worth paying for. ChompSMS is a close second. Try both.

Twidroid Pro - The best Twitter app for Android so far. I bought the "full version" and was rewarded with some additional functionality around URL shortening and photo uploading. Plus - maybe the "I paid for it" placebo effect - it seems faster and more stable. Honourable mention must go to Swift for Android. It's very close to being better than Twidroid....but not quite. Try both. See what you think.

Task Panel - One of the many apps you can get to help keep your Android system running fast, clean and tight. As Android multi-tasks whatever you choose to run, it is possible to start a lot of tasks and the system eventually starts to become sluggish as it juggles your need for instant response with the needs of the 20 apps you've already got running....and that TXT message someone has just sent you. Cleanoid is another good (and free) task killing app. I used it for most of the past 4 months, but I prefer the cleaner look of Task Panel and the way task Panel lets me kill any single app instantly just by tapping on it. Try both.

Shazam - This app is a "must-have" for anyone who has any interest in music. It listens to whatever it hears, then tells you the name of the song, the artists and the album it's on. Watching CSI and want to know what the awesome tune they're playing during a segment is? Turn on Shazam and point the phone's mic at the sounds...and it will more often than not be able to tell you exactly what the song is. To me, this is awesome, amazing magic and I really like it. Get this app! It's free.

iMusic / iMusic Tao - This app comes in free and paid versions. "Tao" is the paid version. The functionality is almost identical. That means I don't know what the difference is. Either way, you search on songs, find songs, listen to songs streaming...or download songs temporarily for listening with a view to buying. Paired with Shazam, they make an awesome combo. One evening this week I heard a song in a TV progam, "shazamed" it...then searched on iMusic...and it had it playing on my phone while it was still playing on the TV. In-cred-ible.

Better Keyboard - This app offers you an alternative keyboard to use with Android. It's prettier, has skins...and is a little bit larger. It also seems a bit more responsive....especially on those edge keys where the default keyboard seems to be slightly shy about recognizing you're touching them. Whether that difference is perceived, or real, I'm happy with Better Keyboard and have stuck with it. That is high praise as I tend to ditch a useless or buggy app fairly ruthlessly.

AndExplorer - A superior file manager for Android. It opens at /root and you can view any of the system files you're allowed to see without rooting your phone to become root (It's the unix / linux version of "Administrator" in Windows) yourself. You can also look at the sdcard file storage either through the file tree or via the "sdcard" button at the top. AndExplorer also handles Zip and tar archives seamlessly.

EStrongs File Manager - Another superior file manager with a slightly different set of features. It only sees root when the sdcard isn't present. But it does see Windows / Samba file shares on the local subnet and let you get access to them. Andexplorer can't do that. If you're using EStrongs File Manager, you also want to get AndroZip for handling compressed archives of various types. It handles more types than AndExplorer and AndroZip is something of a filemanager in its own right. There is a fair bit of overlap among the three and I'd recommend getting them all.

RepliGo Reader - A paid app and the best I've seen, by far, for reading all kinds of Adobe PDF files. Android as sold to date does not come with any way to read PDF files. It's a gap I'm sure will be closed, but at time of writing it's still a gap. RepliGo Reader is one of the pricier apps (most are pennies or a dollar) at US$7.95-ish. But it opened an 84-page PDF that no other app could open...so it won me over. The best of the free PDF readers that I've tried is ICViewer. It will handle any PDF up to 10MB. As far as I know, the other free apps are restricted to 1MB or less. ICViewer does the PDF conversion on a remote server, so you wouldn't want to be accessing anything confidential with it. But it works and its free.

Bluetooth File Transfer - This app fills most of a gap in Android. By itself, Android can't do the Bluetooth file transfer functions most phones do in their sleep. It's a big gap, to be honest...and there has been a lot of griping about it. The good news is this app lets you send files ans receive files with other Bluetooth phone. I've tested with it a cheapo Huawei 3G phone (badged as Vodafone) and it works fine. It can even see the folders on the phone, as a sort of file manager, but getting into the folders on the phone I was using didn't work. That said, just selecting a file and sending it blind (as you would normally do) worked fine. Gap closed.

Facebook - If you're into Facebook, then you need Facebook's free Android app. No more needs to be said.

Wifi Buddy, Wifi Analyzer and WiFinder are all useful and all are worth getting to aid you in your search for WiFi - free or otherwise. They help you locate WiFi and have differing capabilities as to whether or not they can connect you to what they find. There also widgets for the Android home to turn WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS on and off with a single touch. Having all three modes of connectivity on all the time can chew through your battery.

There are a host of other apps I couls mention, but they pertain more to my interests than any universal concept of usefulness. I also

I like Camera ZOOM FX for taking photos with many different instant effects...and this app also allows you to have a zoom capability up to 6 times the standard view, all done by software. If you're into taking fun pics, then this paid app is a must have.

There are sound apps, image apps, games, emulators (2 x Commodore 64 emultors!)...and a host of other apps doing a myriad of things. There are alternate Home screen apps (aHome and OPEN Home)...and hundreds of themes for each / both. Google Sky Map is an awesome app for night sky watchers.

Check out the Android Market. There were close to 100 new apps today, alone....the rush appears to be on.

If what you want isn't there today.....it may well be there tomorrow.