Android Apps I use

Yesterday I was going through the Apps installed on my android smart phone and was somewhat astonished by the fact that I have downloaded and installed over 20 apps on my mobile phone, which I use on regular basis (I normally uninstall the ones I do not use).

So I thought about making a blogpost about the Android Apps I use and what I use them for and a smallish review of them as well.

Adobe Photoshop Express: A photo editing app for the Android smart phones and tablets by Adobe. However, not as fully featured as its desktop counterpart and most importantly, missing the ability to change resolution of the photographs and place copyright marks on them. In all likelihood, will be switching to something better in future (recommendations are most welcomed).

Adobe Reader: Adobe Reader for the Android phones, lets me view PDF attachments and most importantly, lets me refer to my DSLR’s manual on my phone.

Angry Birds Rio: Somewhat better and newer version of the famous Angry Birds game.

Compass: Compass App for Androids, in particular I love and use its GPS compass to not only see the heading, but also to find altitude on the fly. Indispensable for travelers, and works well and fast. Sadly, does not runs in background.

ES File Explorer: A file explorer app I use to browse through SD card contents, can also be used as an FTP client.

Glass Widgets: This is the default widget on my phone’s home screen and displays time, temperature, date and calendar entries on a small yet good looking package, really a boon for smart phones with small displays and those looking to have access to these frequently required info, without having to scroll through multiple screens.

Google Docs: Great for editing and viewing documents on the fly.

Google Goggles: Haven’t used it extensively, but it is a nifty app for people like me, who are too lazy to type the product/book name and can thus use the bar code scanner.

Google Reader: Android version of my favorite RSS Feed reader.

Moneycontrol Markets on Mobile: Easy and light app to access Indian stock market info, too bad it does not has a widget.

My Tracks: Lets me log my tracks while traveling (used it extensively during my Winter trip to Ladakh) and share them easily with fellow BCMTians in either GPX or KML formats and can be easily uploaded onto Google Maps and Docs.

Notes: A lightweight app to take and store small notes, best thing is, they can be password protected as well.

Opera Mini web browser: I don’t use it nearly as much on my Xperia Mini, as I used to use it on my Nokia mobile phone, but I still use it when internet speed is quite slow or I want to minimize data usage.

Photo Tools: Fantastic app for photogs, lets one calculate hyperfocal distance and more importantly (at least for me) Blue and Golden Hours, based on GPS or network based location. There is a lot more to this app than just this, but I mainly use it for Blue and Golden Hours calculator and also moon phases.

Speedtest.net: Great App for boasting rights, if your 3g connection works decently fast :D.

Tapatalk Forum App: A convenient App to access all your favorite forums on the go (including BCMTouring).

The Times of India: Newspaper on the go, something which finally convinced me to stop buying the newspaper completely!

Tiny Flashlight + LED: Lets you use your LED flash or even the screen’s light as torch, indispensable for travelers.

Twitter: An app which finally brought me back to Twitter and hopefully would ensure my active participation on it.

WordPress: Great App for blogging on the move if you have a WordPress powered blog.

Zinio: Lets me read my magazine subscriptions on my mobile phone, not really a great fan of this app, but it does work well enough.

Zombie Dash: A contra style game on the android, love its intensity and game play.

Of course apart from these, I also extensively use the default browser, GMail client, Youtube App, Facebook App and Google Maps on a regular basis, but didn’t really mentioned them as they come already installed on the phone.