Ok, it's about time I revisited this topic. There have been two major Android updates (ice cream sandwich, and jelly bean) since I first talked about this, along with a lot of maturing of the app availability in Google Play. The atmosphere and attitude toward paid apps in Android has also become more accepting. It's only fair that I revisit the topic.
I have also found value in the Amazon App Store. While I do not like their use of a DRM scheme that requires a call to the mothership every time you open an app, I do appreciate the Free App of The Day. It isn't always a quality app, but it is always free.
I would love to address tablet specific apps, but there just aren't that many on Android yet.
Let's start with the freebies. Everybody likes something for free right? I'll kick off with Google's stuff and then on to the rest of the Android world.
Google Music
This is a mix of several things in one. It is a cloud locker storage service for your music, a music player that can play local files as well as stream them from your locker, and a music store all in one. You'll have to set up the service from your home computer and upload all of your music (may take a while based on the size of your library) to get the full benefit. No worries if you have an expansive library, you get storage for up to twenty thousand songs for free. There also have been no reports of anyone being asked any questions about the origin of their music, so if it's a back up copy of your cd's you will be fine.
Google Voice
Another multi-platform service here. This is both a VOIP style phone alternative, SMS (but not MMS) provider, and visual voicemail all rolled into one. I primarily use it for the visual voicemail, but it is handy to have a second number to use on things that will be more public than you would want a cell number to be, like domain registration or a craigslist.org ad.
Google Maps
This one comes on any Google approved device. It is simply the all around best. Street view, turn by turn navigation (that doesn't have any missing cities or mis-labeled airports), and the ability to search for restaurants and other points of interest near you make this a strong front runner. You can get one, sometimes two pieces from other apps, but for the total package this is it.
Google Drive
This is Google's competitor to Dropbox, an online file storage service. It has a very similar feature set, just a different set of visual cues. They have also integrated Google Docs with Drive giving you the ability to create and edit office style docs on the go. Not better than Dropbox, but they do offer 5 GB of free storage and I'm sure that you can find a use for that.
Chrome
This replacement browser is only available to those running 4.0 and up. If your device supports it, go for it. To truly appreciate it though you need to use chrome on your computers too. It syncs bookmarks, auto-fill form data, saved passwords if you like, and even the last page that your other devices viewed.
Evernote
This app has become indispensable. I use it to save almost everything! It syncs across my myriad devices, has a cool tablet interface and can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. It can be used to save important info (the number for your printer cartridges), make grocery lists, keep track of music that you want to buy or books that you want to read, or just to save notes for later. You can share your content with others, either note by note or entire notebooks. After a bit of playing with it, it becomes second nature to save just about anything that you might have normally written down on a scrap of paper here instead.
Mint
This is kind of like Evernote for money. You log into your bank and credit card accounts (and any other financial accounts you have including loans and retirement funds) through this app and it keeps tabs on where your money is coming from and going to. It can help you set up a budget for anything that you want, from saving up for something to measuring your disposable income. It may be frightening to give all of that info to someone (or one app), but rest assured that they work at least as hard on security as they do on their service.
Keeper
There are a TON of password management apps out there. I have tried almost all of them, paid and free. Keeper is a freemium (free with limited functionality) app so it's going here. The free app offers a vault for your passwords locked down with 128 bit AES encryption that is quite secure. It offers cool features like a self destruct if you enter the wrong master password too many times. It has the ability to organize your login information into folders, and back it up to their web servers. Even the limited free functions are worth the download. If you choose to pay $10 per year per device, then you can set them up very easily to sync across the internet or through your local network.
Nook
There are a lot of e-book reading apps out there. Some of them are tied to a book seller like this one, and some are free standing accepting most e-books that you bring from other places. For the former I prefer Nook. The library is one of the biggest out there and the prices are reasonable. There isn't as much self published material, but that can be a pro as well as a con since it keeps down some of the noise. The Nook app is more visually appealing with its virtual page turns and multiple fonts and colors. It was the first to offer lending or your books and syncing your place in your current book across any device (as long as it was purchased from them and not side loaded). In the end the choice between e-book apps will likely be about which store you prefer to buy your e-books from.
Kindle
I don't use it because my library is tied up in the Nook app, but the Kindle app is also available. It still isn't as good looking, but it does offer a couple of cool features. This one also offers syncing your current page across devices, but it offers a new feature that you can't get anywhere else. You can sync your current spot with audible.com books and skip back and forth between reading and listening to supported books.
Overdrive Media Console
This is what you'll need to borrow library e-books, and audio books. It includes its own reader and player apps. Not beautiful, but functional and it keeps the libraries providing free (if time restricted) content.
Angry Birds
This is the new Doom for mobile devices. You know that your operating system isn't "there" yet until there is a port of Angry Birds running on it. Chances are that you've at least heard of it or seen the merchandise in your local retailer.
Dropbox
This is the OG of online file storage. They have the most polished app of their type of service. It comes with what is becoming the industry standard of 5 GB free storage, but you can earn more for free by sharing it around a bit. They also offer instant hassle free uploading of any picture taken on your device (includes tablets) without counting it toward your storage limit. You can send individual files or folders to others, and also allow them to become a collaborator on folders. They would then be able to upload, download and otherwise make changes to files that you shared with them.
Pandora
This app is pretty awesome at understanding what makes music similar. You just tell it an artist, a song, an album, or a genre and it makes you a custom radio station. It is ad supported, so you will get commercials in your playlist. If you don't like a song then you can give it a thumbs down and you won't hear it again. If you just don't want to hear that song at the moment then you can skip up to six songs an hour. There are other similar services out there, but I have pretty much stuck with Pandora. If you don't like the ads, there is also a subscription that can be bought to get rid of the ads and remove the 6 skip limit.
Barcode Scanner
There are a few different apps that provide this functionality, including Google's Shopper, but this one provides the most bang in one place. You can scan pretty much any barcode, product, link, or QR code (those funny square barcodes). It can be fed into Amazon's app, Google's or any other app that helps you shop by barcode as well as reading any code that has another purpose like sending you to a website.
Shazam
This one is for those times when you hear a song on the radio, in a tv show or movie and want to know who sings it and what the title is. Just boot it up and it listens and gives you all the info about the song. Another big feature is that it lets you publish what you are listening to to your favorite social media network. If you are the kind of person that purchases music instead of subscribing to a service, then you can make use of the direct links to purchase the song from iTunes and Amazon.
Andmade Share
Sometimes you want to share a funny picture, link or webpage through more than one outlet. Facebook and MMS, Twitter and Linkedin, print and Email. That's what Andmade Share does, gives you a list of apps that you can send your content through and a checklist next to them so you can perform all the different functions before you return to the content. I have been using this one for months to send pics to my friends on Facebook and text to those that aren't.
Currents
This is another Google offering. It's basically a very pretty RSS reader. It takes the RSS feeds that you give it and presents them in a very magazine like manner. This is the direct competitor to FlipBoard on Android. I use this one daily to stay current on news from multiple sources.
Facebook and Twitter
Ok, I'm not going to cover these. They are simply portals to the services that you would find on the web.
Pocket
For those times when you see a cool webpage or article that you want to read or explore but just don't have the time for right now. Save it to your Pocket and read it later at your leisure. Especially cool if you find things on your phone and would like to view them later on your tablet.
Swype
Ok, one of the coolest features that Android offers is the ability to customize almost anything about your device. As a result you can have a custom keyboard, whic h is what Swype is. Instead of traditionally typing though, you simply drag your finger through the letters of the word that you want to spell and Swype does the rest. There is also a VERY accurate speech recognition engine in it as well. You talk, it types and punctuates. Now the only way to get it if it wasn't preinstalled by your phone manufacturer is to go to their website and download the Beta version.There are some competitors and Android itself is getting into the trace to type game on the next version, but Swype is still my favorite.
Banking apps
There is an app for almost every bank out there. If you get a crazy notion to try a new bank, give USAA a shot. Their app is amazing! Same day deposit of checks through the app, the ability to move money to and from any bank, pay almost any bill all without leaving the app.
Skype
This is the granddaddy of video calling apps. It works on 3g (or 4g) and on wifi. You can also use this to make phone calls, but that is a paid service. There are competitors, but Skype has the largest adoption rate and a great user experience.
Square Register
Ok, this app falls into my must haves, but the market for it may not be that huge. This app allows anyone to accept credit card payments and get them deposited straight into your bank account. You can combine a free credit card reader dongle that plugs into a headset jack for ease of use. You can either buy the reader at a retail location like Radio Shack for $10 and then get it refunded from Square, or fill out a form online and they will mail you one. I use it to collect small fees and for that time when somebody borrows a little cash and only has a card to pay it back.
Ok, now I'm going to get into paid apps. The attitude toward paid apps had gotten warmer in the last year. At first there wasn't too much opportunity for paid apps to make it very far, but with some advancements like carrier billing and more app availability, the Play store has become a great place to get quality paid apps. As a side note though, keep a watch on the Amazon App Store for their Free Paid App Of The Day. Often it's a new app that is trying to get started. Sometimes that's great, other times not so good. Sometimes it's a more seasoned app jump starting it's download numbers. Without further ado...paid apps.
Beautiful Widgets
This app gets you a bundle of very nice looking clock and weather widgets, as well as home screen animations. You can also get the weather set as your live wallpaper. Its cheap and pretty.
BeyondPod
This podcast manager is the best experience that I have found since Google Listen went down. There are a ton of options, schedule updates and download times, build playlists automatically, base your updates on network availability and so on. It handles video and audio, streamed or downloaded. If you like podcasts, this is the easiest way to handle them.
Business Calendar
After the recent update to Google Calendar, most of the features of this app have been folded into the stock Android experience. The biggest thing that I still use though is the awesome widget. It's resizable, the color and transparency are adjustable, and it's just good looking. Most importantly, you can choose what info you want the widget to display and how it does it.
Office Replacement Apps
Ok, I have tried almost every one of these apps that are on the market and they all have their ups and downs. There are rumors of an official Microsoft Office for Android release next year, but until then we will have to make do. Documents to Go Full seems to offer the best experience all around, but it falls down like almost all of them when it comes to Power Point documents. It definitely offers the best viewing experience for PDF and Excel files. QuickOffice Pro is the first runner up. They have a rich Word and Excel experience. Creating Excel sheets on any of these isn't as easy as it is on a pc, but it is manageable.
Netflix and Hulu+
These are both basically just portals to the same content that you would find on the web. The apps are technically free, but require you to set up a subscription through the web to access any content, so I put them here. I love being able to take their content with me when I'm not at home. This offers a great way to catch up on back episodes of your shows, keep yourself or your kids entertained on trips, or even a way to watch something quietly in another room. Traveling, especially in hotel rooms, waiting at a Dr appointment, or just something to do on your lunch break.
PrinterShare
This app allows you to print over any printers that are connected to the same network as you (when on wifi of course). Your printer doesn't have to be wifi, as long as it is connected to and visible from the network. It doesn't support every printer in the world, but it gets a lot of them. I use this one on a regular basis with Canon and Kodak printers. They offer a free version to make sure that your printer is compatible. It does require downloading a couple of separate libraries to render different files, but it warns you and is a direct download from within the app.
Photoshop Touch
This is a pretty awesome app. First thing to remember, you're working with a phone or tablet, not a computer. These devices don't have the horsepower that a full on pc has to offer, no matter how new or cool it is. That being said, this app offers a fairly large suite of tools to modify and retouch your pics. It contains a short tutorial for each function, but I would still say to practice before you get disappointed.
Games. Ok, yeah I know that there are a metric buttload of games available. I'm not much of an Android gamer and I don't really feel qualified to pass judgement either way on any of them. I have a hard time getting my attention caught by anything without a physical controller. I do enjoy the occasional round of Stupid Zombies, but that's where my expertise ends.
That's about it. I'm sure that I have missed someone's favorite app, and I look forward to hearing about it. The intent of this is all about discovery and I would love to find my next favorite out there!
