The Official Android Apps Thread

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Games, Apps, and goodies for the Droid (Milestone)
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ASTRO -- Good File Manager
Advanced Task Killer -- Close pesky background programs
PicSay Pro -- Really good quality picture editor
Robotic Guitarist -- Guitar strummer with rich, fantastic audio
Ringdroid - Clip out music segments to create ringtones


RETRO:
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Frodo - Play C64 *.dsk and *.prg
Snesoid - Donkey Kong Country @98% speed on a phone. Nice


I must say, the display and audio quality on the "droooid" is superb

[syntaxerror]

Okay. I'm tired of Abduction and I don't like Bejweled. I need new Droid game ideas

There is a brilliant new game called ShootU! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chtjv...layer_embedded
Its a ragdoll shooter but the implementation is sweet

See also Space Physics if you like the Crayon Physics type of game - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydaSx...eature=related

Another one I find addictive is Trap! (which I can't put down at the moment)

Flight Director / Flight Control are also good. Manage the incoming planes landing them on the various strips and avoiding collisions

Not strictly a game but bags of fun is Metal Detector. It really works too!
The Milestone/Droids accelerometer has a magnetic sensor which is located below the camera (when viewed as landscape). Placing metal objects there causes a "detection" by the software. It's crazy what you can do with this phone

[Womp]

Jesus, he's becoming a whore and doesn't even own the thing yet. I wonder if you will make it past the 30 day 'trial' period.

Adding to that above list...

Mini Info Widget - A simple little battery/memory status widget that gives you a quick look at your battery percentage along with internal/external memory usage. Much more accurate than the stock battery in the notification bar.

Buzz Deck - Nice random site aggregator based around customizable 'cards' that list 20 of the latest news stories happening around the web on the subjects that interest you (For me it is tech/gaming). Sort of like an RSS reader for dummies but great for a quick read on the crapper.

[bitblt]

These have already been listed above but I highly recommend them:

ASTRO File Manager (essential)
AndExplorer (does some things better than ASTRO)
Google Goggles (amazing picture, cover, logo, barcode, recognition scanner)
Pandora (fantastic streaming radio app/widget)
Shazam (impressive song identification app)

Some things that haven’t been mentioned yet:

APPS:

Advanced Task Manager – This is my favorite task killer app/widget. It also provides system info, backups, and will quickly remove unwanted apps from your phone.

AndroZip File Manager – Works with zip/rar/7zip and other archive files. Works as a plug-in for other file managers like ASTRO and AndExplorer.

Backup for Root Users – Like the name says this is for ROOT users only. This will do a backup of everything inside your phone to your SD card. This app can be dangerous if not used correctly when restoring. I use the apk restore option when experimenting with different Android ROMs. Also see Titanium Backup (root) for backup/restore of individual apps and data.

BeamReader PDF Viewer – This is a pretty decent free PDF viewer with a nice search and zoom interface.

Benchmark (by softweg) – Measure and compare phone performance. Also see apps BenchmarkPi and Neocore.

ES Task Manager – A simple but aggressive task killer app/widget. The widget is nice because it displays memory info and kills all tasks with a single click. The app allows you to select certain tasks to be ignored.

Free Memory (by CocoNuts) – A widget with a transparent look that simply displays free memory.

Home++ An alternative Home screen app launcher with lots of features: Configure from 3 to 7 home screens, handy visual screen switcher, screen wrap around, advanced widgets, advanced power strip, hide/unhide notification bar, built-in task manager, etc. (Personally I think the power strip is too busy and I disable everything but five buttons: dialer, browser, apps tray, task list, and notification button. Note long holding some buttons provides extra functionality.) Home++ works well with most Android phones. Home++ is not compatible with Live Wallpaper (yet) and does not support skins and themes like other Home Launchers such as Open Home and aHome.

Open Home – This is another alternative Home/Launcher that focuses more on appearance than extra functionality. You can create custom themes by downloading hundreds of free/paid skins, icons, and fonts from the Android Market. Open Home is even compatible with aHome themes. Open Home is by far the most popular and supported alternative Home/Launcher. Open Home also supports Live Wallpaper.

Note Everything – A handy little app that organizes text, paint, and voice notes.

OverclockWidget This is for ROOT users only. This widget monitors and displays current CPU speed and gives older Android phones like G1/Dream/MyTouch3G/Saphire extra CPU speed. It can also be configured to under-clock when the screen is off to conserve battery life. Not compatible with some optimized Android ROMs but is otherwise safe to experiment with. Has a skin option.

PhoneFlicks – Manage your Netflix account and queues more easily than using the browser.

Remote Desktop – Remote control your Windows PC. Works pretty well but is overpriced IMO. Also see free VNC apps.

Weather Widget (Android Apps version) – This is another one of my favorite widgets with a nice transparent look. This widget displays weather information in various widget sizes. The paid version has a combo Weather & Flip Clock that also displays the date and looks almost identical to the HTC Hero Flip Clock. There is also a plug-in for this widget called Weather Widget Forecast that displays nice transparent weather animations when activated.

Wired and Wireless Tether – Root users only. Use your phone as a 3G internet gateway for your laptop while on the road.

GAMES: (excluding many emulators)

PAC-MAN (by Namco) – This is a decent port of the arcade classic. Free to T-Mobile uses.

Frogger (by Konami) – Another decent port of an arcade classic.

Mistique chapter 1 – Download this free for a limited time. Not bad for a free point and click type 3D adventure game.

Robo Defense – Simple yet surprisingly addictive tower defense type game. Not bad for free.

ScummVM – Need I say more? Play classic Lucas Arts point and click adventure games etc.

[Shane R. Monroe]

Any "Seek and Find" games on the Droid? I know Womp's wife is a slut for them - my wife is too. With the higher res, it should prove cool.

[bitblt]

Any "Seek and Find" games on the Droid? I know Womp's wife is a slut for them - my wife is too. With the higher res, it should prove cool.

Oh sure I've seen those kinds of games. I can't recommend a specific one ATM.

[bitblt]

Any "Seek and Find" games on the Droid? I know Womp's wife is a slut for them - my wife is too. With the higher res, it should prove cool.

I stumbled across a series of Search and Find games called IHideUFind. I only tried the free IHide UFind Lite version. It seemed pretty basic to me but maybe the paid versions have more to offer?

[Chris]

The Nexus One is a hot phone. That is the first one to really get me to look at Android.

[Womp]

Task Killers are basically pointless given how the OS handles the memory. I have Task Panel Lite installed purely for killing apps that insist on loading upon boot automatically when I do a reboot or killing an app that may choke up and not even allow me to Force Close at times...Otherwise there is really no reason to use them, especially consistently.

For rooted phones I'd recommend Cache Cleaner as it is fantastic at freeing up the BS residual app cache that can be left behind or accumulated and giving back precious on board RAM.

[bitblt]

You might be surprised how many tasks can be sitting in memory doing nothing. This isn't so bad if you have a fresh phone with lots of free memory. Android 2.1 does have good memory management and task scheduling. The problem becomes more apparent as you install more applications and build up more app data, app histories, learned libraries, preferences, etc. Kind of like how windows get bloated. Deleting cache is defintely helpful but not always desirable with certain apps. Older Android phones may also have enemic amounts of RAM. Task killers free up precious memory to keep your phone responsive especially while multitasking. It certainly doesn't hurt to have a task killer sitting in your tool chest.

(BTW this post was done on my Android phone using voice annotation.)