Help Newbie: What are your favorite apps?

[narutoreplicate]

Well, I'm a soon-to-be Galaxy S Captivate owner, and I've been reading and watching practically everything I can find about the phone every single day. I even check this forum every three hours or so!

I've finally ran out of video reviews and 9-page written and 10 minute video reviews to read and watch. I'm an Android virgin, so I want to know exactly I'll do the moment I turn on my device and get a chance to play with it the first time!

I've gotten some really great ideas of what I'm going to get already from Lifehacker, but what I want to know is what your guys' opinion, pro Galaxy S owners. What are your favorite apps? Discuss! <3

(Yes, one-click lag fix will be my first download )

 

[kylec]

I recently joined the smartphone community myself. And i went with the captivate, partly because i'm already an at&t customer and this phone has a lot of nice features. Since i've had the phone i haven't had too much trouble. And this forum is great for any questions or problems u may encounter. I highly recommend the captivate. It's basically just like an i-phone minus a few features. But u can get insurance and i promise u won't be upset with this phone. As for apps, it all depends on what u like to do. There is a car home and desk home app specifically for the captivate in the market, and they r free! I have a google app a few games and other tools. The only downfall is that there is no front camera or flash. But those were trade offs i was willing to loose. I would rather have a better phone than a flash. When i purchased my new phone i went into the settings and fooled aroind with some things to get myself familliar with the phone. Since i'm new to smartphones i found that this is the best method. Also if u r looking to do something specific samsung has a website that will walk and show u through every step, i just google the question. I reallized how amazing this phone really is and i am stoked with my decision. I got my phone at walmart for 150, but i heard if u go to walmart.com it's only $99+shipping.

 

[narutoreplicate]

I wasn't really asking for a recommendation of whether or not I should get the phone

With over a 150 views, it's clearly a topic that people are interested in So does anyone have any recommendations of what apps you guys love?

And, yes, I have also read the other forums discussing apps, but I'm more interested in the Galaxy S specific apps.

 

[snapper.fishes]

Commencing dump..... 5....4....3....2....1.....

Games:
Abduction
Air hockey: EM
AndroPaint Lite
Antigen
Gameboid
Hawx
Heavy Gunner
Invadroid
Jump
Labyrinth
Moron Test
Nova
Panzer Panic
Paper toss
Pinball
Pocket racing
Shoot u!
Plant VS zombie (Not on the market. You will need to do some heavy digging for this one )
Gold Miner

Multimedia:
JetVD-YouTubeAi (As far as I know, the only youtube downloader still on the market.)
Photoshop

Internet:
Opera mini (not too bad with the compression feature. Good for saving bandwidth)
XDA
Yaaic (IRC client)

Tools:
ES File manager
ES Task manager
ES Security manager
Apps Organizer
Barcode Generator (For reading QR code on web pages from your phone. Save the image, then open it using this app)
Barcode Scanner
Gmote
gStrings (for tuning music instrument)

Social:
BeejiveIM (closed beta, but the download link is passed around like a pack of cigarette)

News:
Time Mobile (had offline mode. Can download and read later.)

Root only:
Titanium backup
Market Enabler

 

[jollygoon]

Here's a list of all my apps:
Jollygoon's Apps on the phone

But these ones are the best:
Autokiller - Frees up RAM to ease lag.
Battery Indicator - It does what it says it does and the cool thing is it puts an icon in the notification tray that has battery percentage and estimated time left.
Tasker - If you read lifehacker you know what this is and this is well worth the $5.
Rom manager - Easy nandroid management and later to flash custom ROMs as well as the much anticipated cyanogenmod ROM.
Launcherpro - I don't like the look of TouchWiz and the customization is fantastic. If you want themes better off using ADWlauncher but I much prefer Launcherpro.
Air Control - Fun addictive air traffic control game.
Handcent SMS - It just works.

Hope this helps.

 

[ironman666]

Ok i'm gonna list my fav apps. Some of these are allready mention.
__________________________________________________

Barcode Scanner - Scan barcodes, very nice to use when browsing on your
desktop computer and finding apps by scanning the barcode that brings you directly to the Android Marked

Barcode Scanner - Android app on AppBrain

__________________________________________________

Estrongs File Explorer - Imo the best filemanager, and its great when you want to transfer files from your phone to a pc through wifi

EStrongs File Explorer - Android app on AppBrain

__________________________________________________

APNdroid - Prevents your phone from connecting to net over 3G/EDGE/GPRS. Helps to save the battery. Adds suffix to APN names and types to disable them. Its basicly a on/off widget for dataconnections

APNdroid - Android app on AppBrain

__________________________________________________

Brighness Level - This is widget, which allows you easily change screen brightness. And is imo the best looking widget.
(you can also change the brightness on your screen by swiping your finger left/right in the top status bar on your phone, but then it goes only as low as 8%)

Brightness Level - Android app on AppBrain

__________________________________________________

Post it desk -A very simple post-it widget! Great for putting up short reminders, the widget comes in 3 sizes, and is very nice looking

Post it desk - Android app on AppBrain

__________________________________________________

LauncherPro - Changes the default launcher to Launcherpro, which is a very nice customizable launcher, if you purchase the plus version it also have some nice widgets

LauncherPro - Android app on AppBrain

__________________________________________________

xPiano - Its what the name says, a piano app. It has multitouch and is fun to play around with, its the best piano app i've tried.

xPiano - Android app on AppBrain

__________________________________________________

Large Image Viewer - Its a very nice gallary app. It became my replacement because the inbuildt gallary app is awfull when you use it to zoom, because it becomes blurry. With this app, the pics are crystal clear

Large Image Viewer - Android app on AppBrain

__________________________________________________

Instant Hear rate -This one is a pretty cool one. Put indexfinger infront of camera, make shure you have a good lighting. You will see your heart rate.

Instant heart rate - Android app on AppBrain

__________________________________________________

AudioManager Widget - Something i cant live without. Audio Manager is a home-screen Widget and Volume manager that allows you to get live readings of your current volume levels on your Android phone. Tap on the widget to adjust the volume levels.

AudioManager Widget - Android app on AppBrain

__________________________________________________

 

[M22RDY]

Multimedia:
JetVD-YouTubeAi
Photoshop

Wow! Excellent list

JetVD i never knew about, downloaded and very useful
Photoshop, currently running CS4 on the computer, nice mobile version.

... I think we'll keep you around for a bit longer.

Another one I found was "Dropbox" a great way to sync files between my computer and my phone using WIFI rather than Bluetooth, it creates a share folders and you just drop files into them from the phone or computer and each one can access all files.

Requires registration and has a 250mb limit (which can be extended to 8gb with referrals, or a pay account of upto 100gb.

Another is "Robo Defence" game, highly addictive but I dont have a credit card to get a google checkout account, roll on paypal.

Note Everything = lets you write, paint and even record via voice. It even has a handy google docs plugin that will allow you to download from google docs, edit then re-upload again back into google docs.

 

[_wolf_]

This thread is awesome.

 

[rakesh_s]

Some of my fav games are

Super tumble
Doodle jump
Hyper jump
Drop
Drop7
Alchemy
Bonsai blast
GeoQuiz
TrafficJam

Fun App:
Photfunia

 

[narutoreplicate]

This thread is awesome.

Very much agreed. I've been reading some of these apps, I didn't actually know that I needed an app for bar-code scanning; I always thought that was built-in...

I will definitely go through all these a) once I get my phone, or b) whenever I feel like procrastinating. It'll be post-by-post, app-by-app, so your efforts here are not in vain! This definitely pumps me up for getting it... The reason I can't yet, is because Canada's Rogers is slow getting the Galaxy S (Captivate) available.

I could get the Vibrant from another company, but I like the design of Cap. better.

Edit: Anyone have a reliable app for finding the name/artist of a song by just hearing it?

ps: Thanks everyone!!
pss: And a special thanks @ironman666 for including all the barcodes for all the mentioned apps, since that would make it even easier to go through DD
psss: @snapper.fishes, categorized too?! Yes!!

 

[Urko]

Edit: Anyone have a reliable app for finding the name/artist of a song by just hearing it?


Try Shazam Encore, if you look around on the web you can get it for free or just download free version from app market. The only thing is you have limited tags ( 7 per month) to find songs. It really works great

 

[Urko]

Quick settings - turn on/off Wi-Fi, 3g, GPS, ringer...
Retro clock
CoPilot Live - navigation
Robo Defense - shooting game
Superyatzy - dice game
My tracks - record your trsck
Doodle jump
Spirit Level - shows angle degrees
Aussie weather - weather radar
Handcet SMS
Advance task killer
Alchemy
Keepass - store your passwords
Dropbox - easy and quick to transfer files frm PC to your phone
Astro - file manager

 

[NZtechfreak]

Apps:
Beautiful Widgets, a must
LauncherPro Plus (seriously, the Plus version is so worth it for the widgets)
Widget Locker (need to use No Lock in conjunction with it to turn off default lock screen)
Powerstrip - multitasking manager, run any widget anywhere in the phone (in apps whatever)
Trillian (in beta, not available via Market just yet, nice IM aggregator)
Appbrain Market Sync and Fast Installer
CallTrack - back up call logs to Google Calender
SMS Backup - backs up SMS to your Gmail
GRemote Pro
IMDB
Last.FM
NewsRoom (favorite news reader, but better alternatives if you're already a Google Reader user - FeedR and NewsRob are oft cited examples)
Shazam (although Soundhound might be better since Shazam is now paid)
Pricespy
Run.Gps (non-Market app, brilliant sports tracker with heart rate monitor integration)
TuneWiki
Vignette

Root stuff and tweaks:
Rescan Media (Root version, turns off media scanning at boot, a boon!)
ROM Manager
Titanium Backup
Voodoo Lagfix
ShootMe

Games:
GameBoid
PSX4Droid
NOVA (excellent FPS, just the thing for showing off your fancy GPU!)
Guns n Glory (Awesome take on a Tower Defence game)
Krazy Cart Racing (Samsung apps game)
Asphalt (Samsung apps game)
WordFued (Scrabble clone)

 

[FraggerCrue]

Ironman, thanks for the heads up on APNDroid. I'm running the Galaxy on t-mo without a data plan and that was the final piece to make this my perfect phone.

 

[bonehead0069]

is there a good music organizer out there?

 

[_wolf_]

When I bought my Galaxy S this thread really helped me know what to download because I was very new to Android at the time (and I'm probably still nowhere as knowledge as you guys).

I've been using Galaxy S for a few months now and I've accumulated a bunch of apps so I figured I'd list them here

Just so y'all know: I haven't rooted my phone. I dunno how to root and I'm scared of bricking my phone.



Launcher Apps:

1. Launcher Pro Plus - I've bought the full version. I love this.
2. ADW Launcher - Recently downloaded and have not explored it fully but it looks pretty decent.

Productivity / Utility / Tools Apps:

1. Advanced Task Killer - This really helped me fix the lag problem on my phone. Also, after I downloaded so many apps my score on the Quadrant because very low. After downloading ATK I have bumped my score back above the Galaxy S average. In short: a must have app. Everybody has been talking about it and it really lives up to expectations.
2. Adobe Reader - for all your .pdf files
3. AppBrain App Market - Best place to connect to Market and download apps.
4. Bookmarks to SD - Helps manage bookmarks from various browser apps. There was a thread out here about if you download Launcher Pro and you want the bookmarks widget to have your Dolphin bookmarks you need to import them to the SD card, etc...do a search for this thread if you're interested.
5. Camera 360 - Supposed to be much better than the stock camera app. You need to buy the full version for all the benefits. I haven't used this app more than 2-3 times so I don't know much about it. Sorry.
6. Catch Notes - It's a form of note taking. Decent app. Again, not much experience exploring this.
7. ColorNote - Great app. Helps differentiate notes by colors, etc. Very simple.
8. Dolphin Browser HD - Very nice app to browse the web. I use this one all the time.
9. Gemini Calendar - Another Calendar app.
10. Jorte - Calendar app which consolidates events, appointments, etc etc....I dunno why I have this one.
11. Quadrant Standard - Sets the benchmark for your phone's performance. This way you know how your phone is performing against other Android devices.
12. Skyfire - Alternative browser to Dolphin. It plays Flash vids so I've downloaded it specifically for that purpose.
13. Tapatalk RO - To access vBulletin web forums.
14. Wifi Analyzer - Exactly what it sounds like.
15. Hancent SMS - Totally forgot about this. This is my default sms messenger. I love this App.

Multimedia Apps:

1. Backgrounds - To download various wallpapers. Decent selection.
2. BestTube - To download YouTube videos to your phone. I love this.
3. Blogger-droid - Connects to your Blogspot Dashboard.
4. Facebook - Facebook App
5. Flikie Wallpapers - Another wallpaper app. I like this.
6. JustPictures - Consolidate all your gallery, Facebook, etc pictures at one location.
7. Photoshop Express - Same functions as regular photoshop except this is more limited.
8. Twidroid - Twitter app
9. Zedge - All multimedia source

Games:

1. Air Control Lite - Fly your planes around and make sure you land them before they explode. Great time killer.
2. Angry Birds - Very cool game.
3. Armored Defense Lite - Tower defense / strategy game
4. Chess - Chess
5. City Jump - scale the walls of the city (vertically) and avoid obstacles, monsters and creatures of the dark.
6. Dope Wars - This is the same as the PC game of the old days. I love this game lol...
7. Empire Defense - another Tower Defense game
8. Guns 'n' Glory - Tower Defense game
9. iBasket - Basketball game. 2D. Just aim and shoot.
10. Kamikaze Race - Top view racing game.
11. My Paper Plane 2 Lite - Use your phone to guide your paper plane around the obstacle courses
12. Ricochet Kills Lite - Use the rebounding bullets to kill your enemies. Fun way to pass the time.
13. Robo Defense - Best Tower Defense game
14. Scooter Hero - Jump over obstacles while riding your bike
15. Slugs - Kill the slugs falling from the sky
16. Sniper - Exactly what it sounds like.
17. Soccer - Soccer game
18. Soccer Shots - Top View soccer shots
19. Spider Man - Use your web skills to land on spaced out landing zones
20. Tank Recon 3D Lite - Fun game. Think of it like a first person shooter. You're the tank. Go kill the other tanks.
21. Zombie Duck - Time to go hunting for zombie ducks!!

----------x-----------

This is all for now. I'll add more as and when I download some keepers.

Hope this helps!

 

[_wolf_]

I just rooted my phone. Here's the info: http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s/215771-slowwwww.html#post1868049

 

[NZtechfreak]

App discoveries for me since I last posted here:

Winamp
Tasker
Pocket Legends
Castle Warriors (requires 2.2 to work)
Doodle Bowling (requires 2.2 to work)
Angry Birds
Fruit Ninja
The Moron Test
Chrome to Phone
Guitar Tabs
Opera Mobile

I cannot recommend Tasker highly enough, there is a learning curve involved, but it is surely one of the most powerful softwares for Android.

Some really nice high quality games on that list too...

 

[narutoreplicate]

I'm glad people are still digging this up. I actually (finally) got the Galaxy S Captivate last week, and this was bookmarked as the first site I visited when I got home I'm happy to say that most of the apps posted were useful in getting my hands dirty into the Android app world. Keep this baby goin'!

 

[_wolf_]

I'm glad people are still digging this up. I actually (finally) got the Galaxy S Captivate last week, and this was bookmarked as the first site I visited when I got home I'm happy to say that most of the apps posted were useful in getting my hands dirty into the Android app world. Keep this baby goin'!

I figure bumping up old threads is better than creating new ones with similar/same info. It keeps things consolidated and when new people come by they can just read the whole thread to figure things out versus reading a whole bunch of scattered info. I'm glad this thread is going as well.

 

[caesey]

Thanks to all the contributors of this thread, came to know about a lot of useful apps thru this!

Here are some of my own favourite apps:

Astrid Tasks - Very handy to do list manager, also has widget support.

AppRemover - Helps you uninstall apps

Evernote - Popular note taking app, supports online sync so you can access your notes over the web & PC. Also support picture & audio notes.

Tweetdeck - Yet another twitter app, but give it a try before you dismiss it, interface & speed of this app is good.

XDA - Neat application for browsing XDA forums (where all the lag fixes are developed). Wish this forum had such an app too!

Also take a look at these widgets:

Android Agenda Widget - Fully featured calendar widget that also supports integration with task apps like Astrid.

CurveFish Widgets - search for the developer / publisher Curvefish. They have a few ON / OFF widgets, most useful ones are "silent mode", "brightness level" & "APN".

Fancy Widget - Weather/Clock combined, similar to the one you see in HTC phone. Looks great & best part is that its free!

Gauge Battery - For monitoring your battery life, the gauge gives it a unique look

3G Watchdog - For monitoring your Edge / 3G usage, results are accurate.

 

[caesey]

Also, Reduce Photo Size - Very handy app when you are taking a quick snap & want to email it. Use this app to scale down the photo size without compromising on image quality.

 

[joeh]

Hi

Does anybody have any recommendations for a decent podcasting app for the Samsung Galaxy? It doesnt necessarily have to be a free one either.

Cheers
Joe

 

[NZtechfreak]

Try Googles "Listen" podcasting app? I'm sure there are better, but its free and not a bad place to start...

EDIT: Today I'm enjoying SMS2PC, and also enjoying using Market Enabler (Root required) in order to get apps that are unavailable here (Ebay app I'm looking at you!).

 

[TradiePete]

Hi guys,

Great thread. Picked up a lot of good ideas here. Many thanks to all.

I'd like to add one I downloaded a couple of days ago from the Samsung App store (as opposed from the Android one) called "Snap n Go".

Once installed on your phone (and an .exe setup done on your PC) it allows you to transfer files from your PC to your SGS just by taking a picture of if, assuming you have a home wi-fi with both PC and SGS connected to it.

Eg. you have a picture on your PC screen you want to transfer to your phone, use Snap n go to take a picture of it and it copies the actual file, not the image, to your phones SD card. Want to copy an album fill of songs? - bring up the folder on your PC, select the files, click, and all the files get copied to your SD card for your listening pleasure. I copied 24 songs last night in 2 camera clicks.

Now maybe I'm easily impressed but I think that's clever. Took a few goes to get the camera the right distance from the screen but works great on my SGS 2.2 and Vista. (Still trying to get it on my macbook running Win7 via fusion)