The top Android apps that you shouldn’t live without.

Below is my list of Android apps that every phone should have (in my humble opinion).  Some of these might require root access.

ADW.Launcher (AnderWeb)

Extremely customizable launcher replacement.  This gives you back the control of your Android phone that HTC Sense and Moto Blur like to hide from you.

Google Maps (Google Inc.)

This app will be the reason GPS navigation units are no longer sold.  Especially now that Google Navigation beta is included.  Pick your destination and view your route as a normal Google map or as GPS style turn-by-turn directions.

Google Voice (Google Inc.)

Set up your Google Voice account, then install this on your phone.  It can take your voice mails and transcribe them so you can read them like a text message (although the translations are sometimes more comical than readable).  No more calling a voice mail number to retrieve messages.  They are downloaded to your phone for you to listen to.  You can also use this to text and make calls from your Google voice number.

Pandora Radio (Pandora)

Take your music with you.  I love this app for road trips.  When there is nothing on the radio, fire up Pandora.  Most of the same options that are available on the full website are in this app.

Astro File Manager (Metago)

I don’t know why these phones don’t come with a file manager from the factory.  The Astro user interface isn’t the most intuitive, but it’s not all that complicated either.  This gives you a way to browse all of the files that you have on your phone.  It has a nice photo viewer and a few other perks too.

AK Notepad (Catch.com)

Great little notepad for keeping track of your random thoughts.  Organizes notes in a list format.  Easy to use.

doubleTwist Playter (doubletwist)

Just replace your standard music player with this.

ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner (ShopSavvy, Inc)
Barcode Scanner (ZXing Team)

These are great for the comparison shopper.  Next time you’re in a store, use one of these to scan a barcode and see what local store has the best price and where on the internet you can find the best deal.

Wifi Analyzer (farproc)

Use this to identify dead spots in your home wifi (that’s why you keep dropping your connection on when you’re on the couch…).  See how much other traffic is on the same channel as you (and move your router to a better channel… but that’s a post). Also great for when you need to find an open hotspot.  It gives you multiple graphs to see what kind of wifi traffic is in the air.

Samba Filesharing (funkyFresh)

See this post:  Samba Filesharing for your Android phone

Tuner – gString (cohortor.org)

While the name may make you think otherwise, this is just a guitar tuner.  No explicit content.  And a nice little guitar tuner it is.  It can sound a specific note, tune only to that note, or auto tune any note you play.

RealCalc Scientific Calculator (Brain Overspill)

This is for the inner geek in you.  I guess not everyone needs a fully functional scientific calculator at their disposal, but that doesn’t mean having it is a bad thing.  For those of us in technical fields, or geeks in general, this is a great little app.  This blows away any stock calculator app that I’ve seen.

Unit Converter – ConvertPad (Sunny Moon)

Another tool for engineers, that has potential for more common usage.  Every wonder how many teaspoons are in a gallon?  Or how many light years is in one astronomical unit?  This little program will convert every unit you’ll ever need and many that you never would think of.

ESPN

This widget lives on your desktop and shows you the latest scores of your favorite teams.  The interface is a little cumbersome and includes a link to the ESPN mobile webpage.  Once you get your favorite teams set up, the widget makes it easy to keep up on those oh so important scores.