Just a list of a few free Android apps that I think are pretty great and you would be doing yourself a favour if you were to download them.
Startup Cleaner
While I’ve already outlined in this post why you should never use a task killer on your Android phone, I do highly recommend this app to make sure those pesky default apps you never use do not even start in the first place. That annoying Stocks app, for example – I never use it, but it’s always running on my phone. With Startup Cleaner you can stop it from ever starting and using up system resources. Once you have selected the apps you wish to block, you will need to restart your phone for the changes to take effect.
ConnectBot
The other day I was on the train on the way to work and I got an SMS saying there was an emergency on one of our sites. From previous experience with this same issue I knew that the way to fix it is to simply restart the server. Because I had ConnectBot installed I could easily SSH into the server and restart it – the whole process took about 30 seconds and the problem was solved. ConnectBot is easily the most powerful SSH client that I’ve discovered. If you manage servers or even if you just want to impress your friends with how geeky you can be, then this app is perfect.
Gmote
Quite simply, Gmote turns your phone into a remote control for your PC and it works on Windows, Mac and Linux. It operates over WiFi, so you don’t need a Bluetooth connection – you just need an active wireless network. You need to install the Gmote server on your computer (a 23 MB download from their site) and tell it where you keep your media files. The app on your phone picks up the server’s existence immediately and you can browse your media files on your phone and select to either play them on the phone itself or on your PC. The playback is smooth and selecting files from your phone has an immediate effect on your PC – there’s little to no lag at all.
Smart Shortcuts
There are a few apps that perform a similar function to Smart Shortcuts, but this is definitely the best that I’ve used. You can use it to create shortcuts on your home screen that open up a popup filled with links to whatever you like. You can include apps, internet bookmarks, contacts, files, folders or any combination thereof. It’s a great app for saving space on your home screen and grouping your apps in handy little links.
WhatsApp
WhatsApp is a messaging client that automatically links into your phone’s contacts list and allows you to message any of them who also have WhatsApp installed. If you’ve ever user BlackBerry’s native messaging service, then you’ll know exactly how this would work. It’s customisable, easy to use and will save you a ton of money on your phone bill. A huge advantage of it is that you can chat to anyone who has the app installed no matter what phone they have – it works across Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Nokia.
DroidStats
Ever wondered how close you are to your SMS, data or call limits for the month? DroidStats will easily keep track of this info for you and also comes with various widgets that enable you to see that info right on your home screen. It also includes a handy feature that will estimate how close you will get to your limits by the end of the month based on your current usage. It’s basically a really useful tracking tool and will help keep you in check when it comes to saving money.
App 2 SD Free
Some Android phones (the HTC Desire in particular) don’t have a huge amount of native hard drive space – they rely on the SD card for storage. In Android 2.2+ you are able to move some apps to your SD card in order to free up space on your hard drive. This will be an app specific option and depends on the app developer and whether they included that option. App 2 SD makes it easy to find out which apps are able to moved to the SD card and then move them across. It will also notify you if a freshly installed app can be moved as soon as it is installed.
AVG Antivirus
In this day and age, almost all your systems need an antivrius program of some kind – who better to trust to protect your Android device than AVG? This app runs in the background scanning any received data including apps,downloads, SMSs and MMSs. It’s unobtrusive and will alert you to anything suspicious. There’s no reason not to install it really.
Auto WiFi Off
One of the main reasons for your phone battery depleting rapidly will be the continued use of WiFi even when you are not actually connected to a WiFi network. This simple little app monitors your WiFi usage and when you have been disconnected from a network for a specified period of time (30 seconds in my case) it will switch your WiFi antenna off. This will make a huge difference to your battery life. You will have to switch your WiFi on again when you return to a network, but that’s a small price to pay for that extra battery life.
Elixir
Last, but certainly not least, is Elixir – this is the most user-friendly system monitor app that I’ve used so far. After searching for one that would give me hardware and system info in an easy to understand way I finally discovered this. If you want to know more about how your phone is running then this is the app for you. It comes with customisable widgets that you can use to view info and also switch phone features on or off.
This list is by no means complete and there are plenty more apps that are worthwhile, but I thought I’d keep this list to just a few to make it easier to digest. There are also paid versions of some of these apps, but they are sadly inaccessible in South Africa. If you have any more apps you can recommend then put them in the comments – the more functional we can make our phones the better.
Excellent resource! Thank you.