Category Archives: LJ

Rounding out my series of Top 10 Droid apps, herein my Top 10 Fun/Entertainment Apps (in alphabetical order):

1. Aldiko Book Reader: Read and download thousands of books, most for free, or import your own ePub files. Excellent and customizable navigation and viewing, including font color, margins, bookmarks, etc.
2. Bubble: When I first reviewed my Droid, I said that I couldn’t find an app to enable me to use my Droid as a level. Silly me.
3. Droid Comic Viewer: An image, comic, and manga viewer that can open CBZ/ZIP, CBR/RAR, JPG, PNG, and BMP files and image folders.
4. Listen: Podcast catcher. Searches, subscribes, downloads, and streams.
5. Google Sky Map: Your own personal planetarium on your phone.
6. MagicMarker: A touch-paint program for writing and drawing neon on a black background.
7. Metal Detector: Yes, it turns your Droid into a metal detector. How cool is that?
8. Torch and ColorFlashlight Fun Flashlight: Another two-fer. Torch turns the Droid’s LED camera flash into a flashlight and provides a widget for the home screen. Also has strobe and Morse code FX. ColorFlashlight Fun Flashlight turns the Droid’s screen into a flashlight. Again with various FX.
9. Pandora: Personalized Internet radio goodness.
10. TV.com: Streaming television shows.

And some honorable mentions that didn’t make my Top 10 lists.

Essential Apps:

• MyBookmarks and Bookmark Importer: Used both of these to import my Firefox bookmarks into my phone, first to the default browser and then via the default browser to Dolphin. The process wasn’t pretty, or exactly what I’d call efficient, but it worked.

Useful Apps:

• Food Finder: Quick and easy way to find a nearby restaurant based on cuisine type.
• GPS Status: Displays your GPS and sensor data, including the position and signal strength of satellites, your position, speed and acceleration, and bearing.
• Twidroid: A solid Twitter client.
• Voice Recorder: A voice recorder with widget option.

Fun Apps:

• LED Scroller: Creates a scrolling LED marquee.
• Moon Phase: Shows the current phase of the moon.
• Phaser: OMG it’s a phaser simulator.
• The Schwartz Unsheathed: OMG it’s a lightsaber simulator.
• Text to Speech Toy: Speaks the text you enter. This was a close contender for Top 10, but the voice is a bit too robotic. Although, y’know, I may use this app this year at Dragon*Con if—as I always do—I lose my voice again.

Okay, I’ve had my Droid for about a month, and I no longer bring my laptop in to work with me every day. Yes, my Droid has replaced my Sony VAIO ultraportable laptop.

Granted, in addition to my Droid, I’ve added a 320GB passport external hard drive containing all the files on my laptop, a mini USB cable and a mini-to-micro USB adapter, and a Bluetooth dongle (for faster file transfers from my work PC) to my daily gadget paraphernalia. But those are ancillary and could easily be forgone. Also, this is the busy time of the year at my day job, which is also a factor in my not carting my laptop back and forth. But it is a very real testament of how powerful a little computer the Droid is that I’ve felt capable of leaving my heretofore perpetual sidekick at home.

I also went app happy, which is another reason I feel able to leave my laptop behind. The apps I’ve installed have extended my Droid’s functionality, providing me with (most of) the missing tools to make it a viable alternative to my laptop.

Currently, I’ve got over 50 installed—all free with one notable exception—and I continue to regularly peruse Android Market for shiny, new ones. Over the next couple days, I’ll list my Top 10 Most Useful and Top 10 Fun apps as well as some honorable mentions. For today, here’s my Top 10 Most Essential Apps (compiled in alphabetical order).

Top 10 Essential Apps:

1. Advanced Task Killer (Free): Kills applications running in the background that I don’t want up in order to keep my Droid zipping along.
2. ASTRO File Manager: Directory navigation, file/folder management, etc. If this hadn’t been free, I would’ve happily paid for it.
3. AudioManager Widget: Home screen widget to get live readings of and adjust volume levels.
4. Bluetooth File Transfer: Lets me use FTP and Object Push Profile (OPP) to send and receive files wirelessly to and from my Droid/PC.
5. Documents to Go: The only app I paid for. The free version allows you to view MS Word and Excel files and attachments; the pay one lets you edit them as well as provides a PDF viewer and a PowerPoint viewer/editor. Yes, I can now write on my Droid.
6. Dophin Browser: A better browser than the default IMO. Provides multi-touch/pinch-to-zoom, tabs, and gesture recognition, and I think it’s faster, too.
7. Photoshop.com Mobile: Edits and transforms photos—crop, rotate, flip, saturate, blur, etc.
8. SysTray Monitor: Provides a status bar indicator for battery percentage remaining and SD space, internal storage, and RAM memory available.
9. WeatherBug: Location specific and ongoing current conditions, forecasts, maps, severe weather alerts, etc.
10. WiFi Status: Places a notification in the status bar if wifi is turned on and you are not connected to a network. Saves battery life.