17
Mar 10

Droid Apps I’m Using – March 2010

UPDATE March 2010:

It’s been four months now since I bought a Motorola Droid super-smart-phone, and I’ve come to love my little pocket PC in a way I’ve never loved another phone/gadget. I was worried at first that I’d be annoyed by not being able to type on it one-handed, or that the larger form factor would feel heavy and clunky. Neither of those initial concerns causes me a moment’s pause after a few months of use, and the interface issues that confused me at first aren’t an issue today. It is without a doubt the best gadget purchase I’ve made to date.

In the interest of keeping a good log of the apps I’m using, I figured I should update my original post to remove the apps I ended up never using and adding the ones I’ve found since early December. So here’s the updated list.

Use Daily/Very Frequently:

Advanced Task Manager
Handy for seeing what’s running on the phone and killing it if necessary

AP mobile
News n stuff, pretty self explanatory.

Astrid
A To Do list that synchs with Remember the Milk which synchs with Gmail. nice!

BettrFlickr
Synchs pix from Droid to my Flickr account, lets me know when someone favorites or comments on a pic on Flickr.  Great app.

ConnectBot
SSH/telnet client on yer phone.

Evernote
Synchs with my Evernote account on the web, best notemaking software I’ve found on mobile OR web.

Foursquare
Fun to see who else frequents the RL locations you visit.  I’m the mayor of my favorite breakfast place.  😉

Google Voice
Synchs your Google Voice account with your phone, can make outgoing calls from your GVoice # or just get messages/vmails

Layar
Augmented reality here at last!  Point your camera in any direction and choose the layer of data you want to appear on top – everything from who’s tweeting near you to local pizza joints to.. whatever.  Very fun.

Linda File Manager
Manage/view/use files on the SD card in your phone or local memory though that sounds like you can hose things if you don’t know what you’re doing.

NPR News
I hardly listen to NPR on the actual radio anymore, I can catch all my fave shows every day right on Droid.  I have such a crush on Ira Glass’ voice. *swoon*

Pandora
Plays a radio station based on your music tastes. LOVE this app.

Qik
Instant live vide streaming to the intarnetz. V.cool! Will also auto publish to YouTube and alert your friends on Twitter when you start a live stream if you set it up that way.

Seesmic
Twitter client that works really well.  I check this wayyyy too frequently 🙂

Talk
GoogleTalk, all your gmail contacts available for IM

Wikitude Premium
Sort of like Layar but includes different data sets – layer data on top of your reality, including flickr, youtube, wikipedia entries, and lots of other stuff.  Funny though, it shows my Flickr pix taken here at home as being 3km away.  Hmmmm.  Still, if you’re interested in augmented reality, it’s an alternative to Layar and they’ve been adding more data sets over time.

Use Less Frequently But Good To Have

Aldiko and Aldiko premium
Books! Lots o books! I can actually read on this thing. Who needs Kindle?

Amazon and Amazon MP3
I was browsing for holiday gifts..

AndroZip
Another file manager that lets you work with zip, rar, tar, gzip and other compressed files.

Beam Reader
PDF Reader for Droid

Barcode Scanner
Snap a pic of a bardcode on any product, searches google for product description and price comparisons

Compass
It’s a compass. 🙂

FTPServer
FTP files to/from your phone.

GDocs
Viewing google docs on the phone.

GMote
Turns your phone into a remote for the PC, play music, videos, etc.

HiAIM
AOL IM client, not too pleased with this one but I haven’t found a good alternative yet.

Mother TED
TED Talks on your Droid. yay, I’m a big fan.

NYTimes
News headlines

Photoshop Mobile
Edit, crop, touch up photos right on your phone

VoiceRecorder
Record your voice, send the files to Gmail.

Where
Find stuff around you, weather, news, movies, gas stations, coupons, traffic, etc.

WiFinder
Scans for wireless networks, occasionally finds networks the phone doesn’t seem to find by default.

WPTogo
Post to your WordPress blog from your phone.

What great apps am I missing??


28
Nov 09

Droid Apps I’m Using

So far I’m digging the Droid. Some interface things still confuse me, but I’m learning and overall it’s a HUGE improvement over the LG Touch phone I was using.

Here are the apps I’ve downloaded and actually used so far:

Advanced Task Manager
Handy for seeing what’s running on the phone and killing it if necessary

Aldiko and Aldiko premium
Books! Lots o books! I can actually read on this thing. Who needs Kindle?

Amazon and Amazon MP3
I was browsing for holiday gifts..

AP mobile
News n stuff, pretty self explanatory.

Astrid
A To Do list that synchs with Remember the Milk which synchs with Gmail. nice!

Barcode Scanner
Snap a pic of a bardcode on any product, searches google for product description and price comparisons

Compass
It’s a compass. 🙂

ConnectBot
SSH/telnet client on yer phone.

Foursquare
Haven’t really used this yet since it isn’t active in Cincinnati, but I’m ready when it gets here. 😉

FTPServer
FTP files to/from your phone.

GDocs
Viewing google docs on the phone.

GMote
Turns your phone into a remote for the PC, play music, videos, etc.

Google Voice
Synchs your Google Voice account with your phone, can make outgoing calls from your GVoice # or just get messages/vmails

HiAIM
AOL IM client, not too pleased with this one but I haven’t found a good alternative yet.

Linda File Manager
Manage/view/use files on the SD card in your phone or local memory though that sounds like you can hose things if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Mother TED
TED Talks on your Droid. yay, I’m a big fan.

NYTimes
News headlines

Pandora
Plays a radio station based on your music tastes. LOVE this app.

Photoshop Mobile
Edit, crop, touch up photos right on your phone

Qik
Instant live vide streaming to the intarnetz. V.cool! Will also auto publish to YouTube and alert your friends on Twitter when you start a live stream if you set it up that way.

Seesmic
Twitter client that works. 🙂

Talk
GoogleTalk, all your gmail contacts available for IM

VoiceRecorder
Record your voice, send the files to Gmail.

Where
Find stuff around you, weather, news, movies, gas stations, coupons, traffic, etc.

WiFinder
Scans for wireless networks, occasionally finds networks the phone doesn’t seem to find by default.

Wikitude Premium
Go in camera mode, look out at the world, Wikipedia entries pop up on the screen. First Augmented Reality app I’ve seen actually working on the Droid. You can set the radius around you from 10 miles to 1 mile, floating Wikipedia icons pop up with Wikipedia entries about whatever’s in front of you (that’s listed, of course).

WPTogo
Post to your WordPress blog from your phone.

Anxiously awaiting Layar for Droid.  What else should I be trying?