My Favorite Android Apps

Recently two of my friends got Samsung Galaxy S2 phones as their first Android phone and asked me what apps they should get. Here they are in order of importance:

SwiftKey X Keyboard
Samsung stock keyboard sucks, and this keyboard is even better than all other keyboards. SwiftKey will predict the next word you are going to type even before hitting a letter. It will even learn based upon your Gmail and Facebook accounts. There is a 30 day trial before you are forced to buy the full version, but after a couple of days you will know that you want to buy it. And like all Android purchases, you can use it on all future android phones you use.

Color Note
No more pieces of paper! I would make many lists, only to cross a few off and start a new list on another piece of paper. Everything is simple with color note! I have a list for the store, to do, business opportunities, blogs to write,... Many list! It will backup to your sd card, but my favorite is to backup to Google on open. When I make a change, I close color note, and reopen. Then I can view my updated lists on my tablet and make changes. I just wish it synced on exit too. Awesome for a free app.

Google Shopper
The best shopping app hands down! I have taken an item at Best Buy to scan with Shopper, found a lower price at another local store and Best Buy will match it at the register. It will also show you where you can get the item online. And with all Google searches, you can speak to text search.

Pandora
I sold all of my CDs because of Pandora. Thankfully I have the last of the unlimited Internet through Verizon. I love that I can make different stations based on what music artists I like.

Craigslist Notification
My ultimate deal finder! Setup a default region, and search for what you are looking for. You can limit to search only titles and you can specify a price range that you are looking for. It will notify you as soon as someone post an item in your search criteria so you can be the first to contact them about it.

Keyring
I had a busy keyring filled with customer cards to different stores. Keyring allows you to scan them in to your phone and save them online. This is helpful if you ever change phones. My keys are much lighter now that I just take my phone with me. Unfortunately Toys R Us is the only store that can scan directly from your phone.

Daily Workout
There are a number of different daily workout apps. The free ones are quite enough to use. I like using the Daily Ab Workout for 5 minutes the best.

Google Translate
This is a nice one to keep in your back pocket for whenever you would like to translate something. You can speak and it will speak back! Pick a number of languages and with one touch of the screen you can switch the from and to languages to translate.

Weather Bug
My favorite weather application. I turn off the alert notifications, but keep the temperature notification on so I can see Weather Bug in my notification area for faster viewing. Weather Bug will show the current weather, forecast, radar and even a current view of a location nearby. You can even setup other areas to view. There is a follow me setting which will always show your weather first.

Chrome to Phone
This app uses your Google login to share a website that you are viewing from your computer directly and instantly to your phone. You must be using Chrome from your computer and have the button installed on your Chrome browser.

Google Music
Store your music on the cloud! Access your music from anywhere on any device with Google Music. You should install the application from your computer and it will allow you to sync your computer and an itunes account (for the converted) to Google Music. Whenever you buy new music from the marketplace, it will be available instantly and you can download it to your computer if you like.

XiiaLive Lite
Best Internet radio streaming application. I was frustrated with TuneWiki since it would not buffer Shoutcast radio stations. This one does so if your Internet connection drops monetary, your music won't.

Halle Berry Wallpaper
Halle Berry is great, but when you open the application, hit your back button to show a plethora of different wallpaper categories. Nothing X-Rated. Sorry perverts. Lol

Google Docs
Who needs Microsoft Office when you use Google Docs! Take your word processing, spreadsheets and presentations with you to access from anywhere. With this application you can even send your docs as attachments through Gmail.

Those are my essential applications for every Android device.