Top Free Android Applications

Since a week I have the latest Android phone of Sony Ericsson, the X10. As it is my first Android phone, the first thing I did was searching the Android Market for great apps to get the maximum out of my Android system.

In this post I will show you my selection of apps that I found useful, interesting or just fun to have.

The useful apps

9292ov Pro

This application allows you to plan your trip with all Dutch public transport. It also shows you how much you must pay for the tickets and you can share your advise via mail or Twitter. Furthermore, it holds a list of all delays, allows you to save your advise or explore places of departure or arrival locations by using the map function. And for the people that can not read Dutch, it’s also available in English.

ES File Explorer

There are a lot of file managers in the Market, but I chose this one, because it has a good interface that doesn’t hurt my eyes and has a few interesting features. It has support for FTP and allows you to manage/(un)install your apps. Beside managing your files on the phone, you can also manage your files on a PC via LAN.

Task Manager

Android keep your application open at the background. This is really nice, but also can make you phone slow or maybe even worse, drain your battery. Task Manager allows you to close these applications. Just like the file manager, there are a lot of these apps. I think that this one, is a nice and simple application, that is easy to understand and easy to use.

JuiceDefender

The batteries of smart phones in general don’t last really long. Juice Defender is an app that saves power and extends your battery life by controlling the data connection and WiFi of the device. You can schedule the activation of the data connection or even turn it off. I have scheduled it to enable my data connection for 1 minute every 15 minutes. You also have an ultimate (paid) version, which give you more possibilities.

ConnectBot

Every developer wants to have a SSH client on this mobile phone ;). ConnectBot is one of the available clients in the Market. It can manage simultaneous SSH sessions, copy/paste between other applications and even create secure tunnels.

The show off apps

Google Goggles

With Google Goggles you can search for an object with your camera phone. It can identify text, landmarks, books, contact info, artwork, places. wine and logos. With your camera you make a picture, which will be analyzed. If the object is recognized, the app will provide you with the found information.  It works quite good and is really a must have app on your android phone.

Google Sky Maps

Google Sky Maps lets you discover and browse the night sky. It uses your phone’s orientation sensors to show you a star map for your location. You can search for planets, stars, constellations and the application will point you to the right direction. Since version 1.5 they added image of Hubble.

Layer Reality Browser

Layar is an augmented reality browser that, as they say it, shows you the things you can’t see. The app is provided with hundreds of layers (free and paid) that allows you to find the most useful things as hotels and restaurants or the most crazy things as your Avatar’s body. The Layar Catalog contains a lot of local and international layers. You (or JTeam) can even create your own layer. Really cool and also useful for finding things nearby.

The fun apps

Ringdroid

Ringdroid is a ringtone creator. This app lets you manipulate any song of your phone. After you have selected a song you can easily select a part of the song via two sliders. If you have selected the right part, you can save the song. Ringdroid then gives you the option to use the song as a ringtone and/or a notification.

Abduction

Abduction is an addictive game for your Android phone. Your herd has been abducted by aliens, so now you have to save your friends. It uses the accelerometer, meaning you have to tilt your phone to make your way up to the aliens. To get to the spaceship you have to bounce up in a series of platforms. It has nice graphics and it is a good time-wasting game.

Epic Fails

The term “epic fail” is popular on the Internet. People place it onto photos or short videos that depict unsuccessful events or people falling short of expectations. Epic Fails shows you the most hilarious fail pictures. Nothing more, but extremely funny to show to your friends. You can share the pictures with your friends via all kind of applications like mail, facebook or picasa.

PicSay

PicSay is a photo editor. You can add effects, word-balloons, titles and graphics. The pro (paid) version contains a lot more features and is propably more worthwhile. It has an intuitive interface, which is easy to use. I had a little bit of trouble to resize the items, but you probably just have to get used to it.

JTeam and Android

Within JTeam we have the knowledge and experience to create Android applications. So if you have a great idea for an application or maybe want to have a mobile app version of your website, you can contact us by filling in the contact form here and we can help you conquer the Android world.