As is common with smartphone users these days, applications drive the usage of the phone in its not talk functions. When I show people my Motorola Droid, I am often asked which applications I use on the phone, so I’ve compiled a list of my current Droid apps. This list does not include any applications that are part of the phone that I use often, like Google Maps and Visual Voicemail.
All of the apps below can be reached on androlib and can be easily installed by using Barcode Scanner to scan the QR code on the page. All of the apps I have installed so far are free (or the free version), so no cost is incurred downloading any of these applications.
- Android Comics Viewer (ACV) – A good app for viewing pictures. In addition to viewing single pictures, it can show pictures from compressed formats like RAR and CBR, plus view directories of pictures.
- Advanced Task Killer (ATK) – As I covered in a previous blog, ATK is a great way to kill apps when I am not using them to free memory and save battery life.
- Astro File Manager – An easy way to view the file and directory contents of the Droid
- Bump – A fun way to share contact information with people by bumping your phones together. The future of business cards.
- Connectbot – SSH client to connect to remote servers
- ConnectFour – The classic game of four in a row, and the only game on my Droid
- Foursquare – A Droid client for the social network “game”
- Google Goggles – The hip, new Google search app – which I have yet to get to recognize a single item I’ve taken a picture of.
- Google Sky Map – The app I always use to demo the phone. Run the app and point your phone at the sky to get an Augmented Reality view of the constellations overhead.
- Key Ring – This great app scans the barcodes on your rewards cards (or any card with a barcode, like a gym membership), so you don’t have to carry the cards. When checking out, just hand the phone to the cashier and let her scan the UPC from the phone.
- Last.fm – Streaming music app that creates radio stations based on what I regularly listen to thru iTunes or based on a band or song.
- Mother TED – Mother TED gives streaming access to every TED Talk released online, sorted by name, category, etc. and streams them to the phone in very clear audio and video.
- Pandora Radio – A streaming music app, like Last.fm, that allows me to listen to radio stations based on a band or song I like.
- Photoshop.com Mobile – An app that allows me to make quick edits to pictures from the phone. While not as full featured as Photoshop on the computer, good for quick crops, edits and limited filters.
- Seesmic – A nice looking Twitter client, but ultimately slower than Twidroid and prone to slowing down and crashing.
- Shazam – When I am listening to the radio or in a store and wonder what song I am hearing, I let Shazam give it a listen and it comes back and tells me who I hear.
- Task Manager – Like ATK above, and featured in the same blog post, Task Manager is a more advanced task killer for the Droid.
- Twidroid – A basic Twitter client for the Droid. While not as pretty as Seesmic, less crash prone.
- wpToGo – When I want to work on a blog post or manage my blog away from home, wpToGo is a serviceable way to handle WordPress on the go. While not as full featured as the WordPress Admin on the web browser, much more useful on the phone handset.
These are the apps currently on my Droid. I hope the list was of use to you. If you think there are other apps I should check out, please let me know in the comments below.
