What apps do you use?

[pTac]

First let me say getting a Droid was the best thing I ever did! Don't know how I lived without it. Now I am curious, what apps do you guys get the most use out of on a regular basis? Just looking to see what I might want to add to my list of goodies. I use the calendar for scheduling the most. What else is good???

 

[whitneyshae]

Congrats on the new phone. There are enough threads out there about this though.

It's really hard to find threads that fit your exact needs or that will answer your questions, so please, if you aren't willing to help then just don't comment at all. Thanks.

 

[whitneyshae]

Are you wanting games, social networking, reference, etc? Let me know what you are wanting and I'll tell you what I use.

I, too, am looking for new apps so this thread will help me too if more people reply.

 

[gnath9]

I use the calendar for scheduling the most. What else is good???

agenda widget is awesome I use the 4X4 size and dedicate one whole screen to it.

 

[frank325]

My most used apps:

iheartradio - every morning on my way to work to listen to the Bob & Tom show.
Meridian - my preferred media player for mp3 and video.
Movies (flixster) - great for showtimes, reviews, etc.
Shopsavvy - for barcode scanning.

 

[KittenHoarder]

I use Gmail, Facebook, Google Maps, The Weather Channel, my bank app (Wells Fargo), Redbox codes, discount calculator, last.fm, youtube and the barcode scanner the most. I don't actually get any real use out of that last one but it's just so fun to use

 

[skilaufen]

Google Voice: a must have. It gives you a second phone number and free texting plus many other things.

Astro File Manager: Dev does a great job updating and maintaining the app

Act 1 Video Player: I like the interface much better than the stock.

These are just a few of the apps I have and like.

 

[wrstone]

Well, here's my general inventory:

• Sonic Screwdriver: Ok, I admit it, I'm a geek. But as it happens, I had a hand in this app. The next versions are going to be very cool ...
  
  
• Tricorder: the most useful useless app you can ever download. You may not be a Star Trek fan, but what this app can tell you about your device and its sensors is amazing.
  
  To be honest, I can fire up the Magnetic sensor and spend hours just wandering around reading magnetic fields. It's just extremely cool.
  
  
• Meridian: an all-around media player, and just generally a hell of a lot better than the stock apps. Uses industry-standard .m3u files for playlists, meaning you can create playlists on your desktop and just copy them to the SD card.
  
  
• Aldiko: eReader. Just awesome, period. Download endless volumes of free books. I've got the entire works of H. Beam Piper, all the Sherlock Holmes novels, the complete works of Edgar Rice Burroughs ...
  
  This app caused me to go out and begin a collection of ebooks (free and otherwise) that is now larger than my physical library of some 1500 books. I now own almost everything I own physically as ebooks -- plus a whole bunch of public domain works I could never cost-justify.
  
  Freaking awesome, period. With a little work, you can get books downloaded for the Kindle, B&N, Borders apps, etc, all visible inside Aldiko.
  
  
• Astro File Manager, with SMB and Bluetooth Plugins: What it says on the box. With the plugins, you can connect to Windows shares, browse bluetooth shares, etc.
  
  
• Skyfire: Web browser. Considerably better than Browser on just about every level. It was supporting Flash videos before Froyo.
  
  
• The Schwartz Unsheathed: everybody needs a light sabre ...
  
  
• Google Sky: astronomy app. Words fail me. Fire this up, go outside, aim it at the night sky, and wherever you point it, you'll get instantaneous detail on whatever objects are in your view.
  
  Awesome Augmented Reality app. I can't wait until I have datashades and this view is simply superimposed onto my real view of the sky.
  
  
• AirPainter: write words in the air for other Droid users to see.
  
  If you don't see the marketing applications inherent in this app, you're not thinking about it very hard.
  
  
• Recordoid: voice recorder. Unlike some other recorder apps, the microphone uses an omnidirectional rather than unidirectional algorithm. Ordinarily, unidirectional is better for recording a phone voice, but bad for recording a meeting or public event.
  
  This app is best for recording meetings or public events.
  
  
• A Online Radio/Cherry Rplayer: a streaming audio app. Can choose from Shoutcast and other streams: view real-time stream lists, search for real-time content.
  
  I've successfully driven 500 miles with this app running, getting considerably better reception than radio and with few if any drops.
  
  I'm not sure what the deal is with these two apps. They're made by the same company, appear to have the same interface and code base, yet they're both under development. I generally use A Online Radio, but I've got both downloaded in case there's some new feature that one gets and the other lacks.
  
  
• Old Time Radio Player: actually a front-end for public domain old time radio programs on the Web. I'm not sure where the back end is located (possibly the Internet Archive?), but the practical upshot is thousands of OTR programs simultaneously streamed and downloaded to your Droid.
  
  Another good companion when driving across I-80 through Iowa and Illinois ...
  
  
• Torrent-Fu: remote control app for Bittorrent servers, particularly Transmission.
  
  Check this out:
  
  When correctly configured, I can walk into a bookstore, record store, etc. I whip out Torrent-Fu, use its bar code scanner interface to scan a bar code or label. I hit "search" and it goes out to various Bittorrent search engines looking for a matching torrent.
  
  When it finds one (and it always does), I have the option of immediately adding the torrent to my home Bittorrent client remotely. Simply amazing.
  
  
• Droid Comic Viewer: a comic book reader. Supports various online comics as well as standard .cbz and .cbr comic book archives. I've been working my way through the entire Action Comics series, from 1938 to present.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but these are the apps I use a lot or that I find amazing in some fashion.

Bill Stone

 

[Rammknot]

@wrstone

Awesome list of apps, a lot i haven't heard of, and just got. Love you for this lol. wanted a torrent app like that and a good shoutcast app.

 

[pTac]

agenda widget is awesome I use the 4X4 size and dedicate one whole screen to it.

Just DL'd agenda widget. Played with it a bit and I am impressed! Might have to think about switching my scheduling to that widget! Thanks!!!

 

[wrstone]

Well, what the hell, as long as I'm on a roll ...

• Bell Ringer: What it says on the box. Presents a variety of bells to the user, and pressing the screen or shaking the Droid rings the bell.
  
  Useful for when you can't get your teenage daughters' attention, among other things.
  
  
• Advanced Task Killer: One of the things Android does badly is cleaning up after exited programs. You probably don't know this, but at any given time, there are probably 10-20 apps running in the background, none of which needs to be.
  
  This is one of the best task-switchers/killers. Wouldn't be without it.
  
  
• AudioManager: a volume control. Amazing that Android doesn't have this natively.
  
  The day one of my co-workers bought his Droid, he inexplicably lost all volume across his system, and accessing the volume controls did nothing. He exchanged his Droid, had the exact same thing happen again, then mentioned it to me.
  
  He downloaded this app and solved the problem.
  
  
• Blockx 3D: Tetris played in 3D, as if you were looking down from the top of the falling blocks rather than viewing it from the side. Turns Tetris into an FPS (sort of).
  
  
• c:geo: I wasn't into geocaching as a hobby until I downloaded this app. It's quite amazing. See geocaches on Google Maps, coordinate to them on foot with a radar image or a compass ... it's really quite amazing.
  
  Also interfaces to databases at geocaching.com. Write notes directly from the app, etc.
  
  
• Congress/Congress Console: interfaces to the U.S. government. See what bills were worked on today, read their texts. Look up your Congressman or Senator, see what bills they sponsored, their public activities, etc.
  
  I was first impressed when the app asked if I wanted to look up my Congressman based on my GPS location.
  
  
• ConnectBot: SSH client. 'Nuff said.
  
  
• Dope Wars: port to Android of the classic game. No surprises here, just selling drugs.
  
  
• Drudge Easy: Drudge's mobile Web site sucks. If you read Drudge on your Droid, you want this app. It's not doing anything complicated, just reformatting for the Droid.
  
  
• Gdocs: view, edit, download, sync to your Google Docs. Works on Google App accounts as well.
  
  It doesn't have the kind of advanced editing of the Web interface, but without a big screen, it would be kind of pointless. It's effing awesome, however, to have easy access to Google Docs.
  
  
• Google Translate: Google has successfully created the Universal Translator. it's not perfected yet (I speak French, so I know how bad it can be), but it will be. Another couple of major revisions, and this will be fantastic.
  
  
• MaplePaint: mis-named "paint" program. It's actually a vector graphics program that saves files as compressed SVG. Amazing, if you know anything about vector graphics and SVG.
  
  
• MotTorch LED: a flashlight app that uses your Droid's camera flash as a flashlight. Not particularly amazing, but it includes a home screen widget that activates the light with a single press.
  
  Rather cool when you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
  
  
• My Maps Editor: interfaces and edits your Google "My Maps". View your "My Maps" inside Maps on the Droid.
  
  
• Qik: interfaces to qik.com, an online service similar to YouTube.
  
  Admittedly, this app does little that YouTube can't. Videos can be uploaded or streamed live to your qik.com. Completed videos are then automatically posted to YouTube, tweeted, and Facebooked.
  
  For me, it's mostly a question of CYA. If I take some videos that I think are important, it's nice to know that multiple copies are floating around the cloud. Also, the streaming feature is cool, even if there are sites and apps doing it better.
  
  
• SpacePhysics: one of the only games I've paid for. Try it, you'll see why.
  
  
• System: a task manager/killer, but highly graphical and informative. If you want to know something of what's going on under the Droid's hood, this is the app.
  
  
• United States Constitution: The U.S. Constitution and other founding documents in a searchable, readable database/book format.
  
  Want to piss off your Congressman? Show up at one of his/her town hall meetings, hand him/her your Droid, and ask them to find where in your easily-searchable, handheld edition the Constitution authorizes the Federal Government to do what it does.
  
  The reason he/she'll be pissed is because in most cases, there's no authorization at all. They hate it when you point that out.
  
  
• WeatherBug: a weather app. Having yanked Weather Watcher off a million PCs because it's so annoying, I simply went with some other vendor's app.
  
  This one's nice: I've set up multiple locations to give an ear-piercing alarm when the NWS issues a weather advisory. Works like a charm.
  
  
• WireGoggles: converts the image in your camera viewfinder to an apparent monochrome wireframe picture.
  
  Also one of the few apps I've paid money for. It's not doing anything you can't do with PhotoShop, but it's doing it on-the-fly with your camera.
  
  
• Google Voice: replacement voicemail/SMS for your Droid. Get it immediately. Verizon's versions can't hold a candle.
  
  Plus, with Google Voice, you get all kinds of Voice-ey features that only Google Voice has. I've not used Verizon's voice mail, SMS, or even phone number since I got Google Voice.

That's a bit more comprehensive, though it's not everything on my Droid by a long shot. But they are some of the cooler apps.

Bill Stone

 

[Cameronbic]

Pandora Kind of a mainstay on any phone these days. I listen to it for hours on end. I find myself using it in the car more than my radio or iPod nowadays, especially when using navigation. It's nice to have the audio for the navigation break in, rather than having to turn my stereo down so as to not miss the nav alerts.

Jorte I have tried most of the calendar widgets out there and I just tend to favor this one for the widget. I use this for my month-at-a-glance view displaying the full month then have Agenda Widget above that just to display my four soonest items on the agenda.

Beautiful Widgets This was my first paid app and I haven't regretted it. It doesn't add a ton of functionality, but it's nice. It's also nice to have a link to the calendar, alarm clock and weather right on my main screen. Ton of skins, a lot of customization.

CIDR calculator I'm lazy...

Movies Just being able to change up my Netflix queue on my phone is reason enough to have this app; I'm one of those that will have a movie I want to watch pop into my head, then forget by the time I get to a computer. The rest of the functionality is pure cake.

The Weather Channel App I love the app. Ton of information, easy access to a radar, the ability to add multiple cities and swipe to move from city to city is nice. I don't have a bad thing to say about this app. I have heard some like Weatherbug better, but I have a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to weatherbug from my time in tech support. Everytime I see it the term plague jumps to mind.

3Banana It's pretty ticky, but the thing that kept me away from every other notepad-y app was; if you create a link to a note onto the home screen, then delete the actual note in the other apps, the link on the home screen stays, then crashes when you try to launch it. In some cases, the note would actually launch, even after you deleted it, but didn't show up in the apps list of notes, even after a reboot. No such trouble with 3Banana, and it's a great little notepad app. Backs everything up to snaptic too. No complaints, it does exactly what it needs to.

Handcent The best messaging replacer app for my money (free!). Tons of bells and whistles. Even when you turn off those bells and whistles, the features are quite deep. When I got it I spent several hours over the course of several days playing around with the way I wanted it to look and behave.

WordUp! and Pobs are the only two games that have a permanent place on my phone. When playing WordUP! be sure to keep in mind that the thing seems to have been made in the UK somewhere; words like Sot, Git and Loo are recognized, where they would be left out of an American made version.

Mint It's actually a great tool, but it's been ridiculously laggy and slow to update, it's still a great means to keep up with the money in your accounts, or lack thereof...

 

[Outlaw.99]

I keep it simple and use only one home screen:

Engadet Widget (download)- My Geek news, and I set it to Mobile news...

Weather/ News Widget (stock) - Local temp and sports news...

NFL Mobile - Verizon Download...

Calendar Widget (stock) - Self Explain...

Vignette - (Excellant pay camera App) My pics are better on my Droid with this...

Facebook (stock) - Mainly for contact pic sync

SMS Popup (download) - Great basic messaging app...


Past ones that I just didnt use, or lost their luster:


Syncmypics - Only good on Ally with broken Socialite..

ATK - It seems killing apps really doesnt help, but thats a whole different debate...

Android and Me - Prefer Engadget

Facebook Widget (stock) - Too big and no info... I use the shortcut...

 

[kevpan815]

My Favorite App is IHeartRadio! It allows My to listen to my favorite radio station here in the Chicago Area, and it allows me 2 listen to Ryan Seacrest's Top 40 songs of the week on my Droid!