I’ve had my Samsung Moment Android Phone
I love LauncherPro. This app adds a toolbar along the bottom of your screen for up to twelve additional icons! Not only does this save space on your homescreen for other icons, but it puts your most frequently used icons front and center for you to use no matter what screen you’re on. There is a donate version that unlocks some additional features such as themeing, but the free version works just fine. It has several dozen options, so you can tweak to your heart’s content.
I love a great deal. And Groupon has the best ones. I can use this app to show the stores, restuaruants and attractions I visit instead of wasting paper by printing a coupon! I’ve used it on a tour of Manhattan and it was easy. Groupon is in a lot of cities, so you might find this useful, too. You can check on the status of your Groupons and also buy new ones if you see something that suits your fancy!
While it is not the prettiest Twitter client out there, Twidroyd PRO is definitely one of the full-featured clients that I keep coming back to. With the PRO version (which is about $5 USD), you get colored themes (I prefer Aviator Black) and multiple account support. That might not seem important to the average user, but if you’re a power user like me, you’ll find this handy! The size of the app has been pared down some, which is good, and with video support and bit.ly support, most users will find that Twidroyd is the best app for them.
Games on Android are notorious for being inferior to those on the iPhone. Since I have never used an iPhone, I can’t really say, but I’ll take everyone’s word for it. Despite the quality (or lack thereof), Replica Island is my favorite game on Android. It reminds you of old school Super Mario Brothers in its simplicity and game play. The gist of the game is to locate a mysterious artifact on the island. You are going to have to use your super powers and a little ingenuity to make this happen. This free game has 35 levels and 3 alternative endings.
Sprint (and other service providers) add bloatware to their phones that automatically start whether you want them to or not. Startup Auditor generates a list of these apps and gives you the choice of stopping them from starting upon phone boot up (to decrease boot time) or from starting at all. This app has a free version with ads, but I found this app so useful that I paid for the ad-free version.
doubleTwist Player is the only free player I’ve found that plays my compilation albums without breaking it up into dozens of albums because the artists are different! This no-nonsense app has a widget now and looks a lot better than the default Android player. Also, it comes with a desktop client that syncs your iTunes playlists to your Android phone for listening on the go and lets you purchase Amazon.com music right from the desktop app.
I need to view ALL of my day’s appointments at one glance. The free CalWidget makes it oh so easy to view all of my appointments in widgets that range in size up to 4×4. I use the 2×2 one on my homescreen. You can customize the colors of the widget, so it color coordinates with your homescreen wallpaper or your favorite team’s colors! This app is a must have if you are busy and Google Calendar’s one appointment at a time display doesn’t work for you.
SMS Backup does exactly what the name implies – it backs up SMS messages to your Gmail account. Options include marking the imported messages as read and syncing in smaller batches. It does not put your messages back onto your phone, but I don’t really care about that, when I can search threaded conversations directly from Gmail on my phone. It even threads the emails in batches of 100 by name in Gmail, so it is easily searchable and stops your inbox from looking like a huge disaster zone.
In addition to my day job of being a geek girl, I am also a political nerd. I love all things politics and enjoy learning more about the political process. Congress is an app that puts the current legislation and happenings on Capitol Hill at my fingertips. I can search and see what my congressman or Senators are doing or not doing. Is there a bill about farms out? Who sponsored it? Who didn’t vote for it? All of that is available through this free app.
Android users, what’s your favorite app or apps? What apps would you like to see? Let’s hear it in the comments!
PDF 
