My Favorite Android Apps

My friend John Obeto recently blogged about application usage and Windows Mobile and wondered how many apps people have installed.  I am not a WinMo user, but do use Android which offers a (more?) robust app ecosystem.  My Motorola Atrix currently has 42 apps installed including a couple of app specific language packs.

Before delving into installed apps, it is important to understand my application strategy.  My experience with previous phones (non-Android) suggests that an excessive number of applications can impact phone performance.  Thus, I am quite selective when choosing applications and will often remove ones that I either don’t use or use infrequently.  With that said here is a list of the ones that I find most valuable.  Any feedback or suggestions on alternative applications is welcome!

Productivity Apps:

1. KeePassDroid – Great open source password tool – Must have
2. Open Signal Maps – Used for configuring my wireless repeater.  Candidate for removal
3. gReader – A great RSS reader that integrates with Google Reader – Must have
4. ESPN ScoreCenter
5. Google Shopper – This one seems cool, but I never use it.  Possible deletion candidate
6. Dropbox – Works great especially with KeePassDroid – Must have
7. Movies (aka Flixster) – Great when looking for movies
8. DoggCatcher – A great podcast player
9. FlightTrack – Fantastic for flight information including real time updates – Must have for frequent travelers
10. HotelsByMe – Used infrequently and so I might delete it
11. Photo Tools Pro – Great tools for advanced photography
12. Seesmic
13. K-9 Mail – An alternative to the GMail client used to send large files
14. TripIt
15. Google Music
16. TweetDeck
17. MyAT&T
18. YouTube

Third party tools:

1. XFinity – Painfully slow and kludgy, but the channel guides are beneficial
2. Bank account application – (Prefer to keep the bank info private)

Keyboards – Still testing out options:

1. Swiftkey X
2. Perfect Keyboard
3. Smart Keyboard Pro – Currently my favorite – A must have
4. Gingerbread Keyboard

Utilities:

1. Setting Profiles Lite – An indispensible ringer profile tool – A must have
2. Digital Clock Widget – Did not like the native clock widget
3. Battery Monitor Widget – Love the granular battery life information – A must have
4. OI File Manager – Required by some application (Drop Box?)
5. Juice Defender Beta – Not currently using this; it is a candidate for removal
6. WordPress – A great tool to review and edit WordPress blog content and comments
7. AndroBlip – Application to manage and view postings on Blipfoto
8. Vlingo – Powerful voice recognition.  Works great! – A must have
9. Google Maps
10. Speedtest.net Mobile Speed test
11. Any Cut

Games – Still looking for really good ones

1. Air Control – Fun!  I like this one – My current favorite game
2. Airport Mania – Fun! But buggy because I cannot save a game.  It is on the list for removal
3. Mouse Trap – A fun maze game
4. Shaky Tower – Trying this one out and deciding whether to keep it
5. Tank Hero – Still in trial like Shaky Tower