There are already thousands of apps for Android, both free and paid, and the list is growing every day. Android phones are being released and sold like delicious cupcakes, with the user base gaining percentage every day, stealing users from the almost defunct Windows Mobile and the “a-bit-behind-time” iPhone platforms.
One thing that is hard to do on Android is find good and worthy apps. Even using Google Search, it’s kind of hard to find something that will suit you, as there are a lot of apps that are missing a certain feature or have been abandoned and are no longer supported. But that is not to say that you can’t!
On the contrary, because of the open source code and the loyal developer base, there are hundreds of apps that can do exactly what you need, nothing less, and nothing more. The big majority of free apps are created by users of the operating system themselves, so they do exactly what people need and solve an existing problem.
This is unlike the “by developers – for users” software creation process used by a lot of software companies. Often developers and programmers are given a task to create an application, but they don’t know what real users want, so they end up creating something beautiful, yet practically useless.
Anyway, this article is not about the different existing software design and creation philosophies, but about 5 very cool and interesting Android apps that you absolutely should check out. Here they are:
Talk to me:
This amazing free app translates anything you say or write into another language. Yes, it’s a real time speech-to-speech personal translator! Granted, it’s not as accurate as a human, it can still help you a lot if you’re in a foreign country or are talking to a foreign tourist who’s asking for directions. How can such a powerful app be completely free? Well, it’s not that complicated, actually. It is a clever automated front-end that uses the Android Voice Recognition and Text to Speech together with Google Translate to do what it does. And it works very well! The only thing you’ll need is a stable and relatively fast (EDGE, which is common all over the world, would suffice) Internet connection for when you want to use it.
Talk to me
Layar Reality Browser:
This is an Augmented Reality (AR) application that is simply very cool to use. It’s like you’re in one of those futuristic movies where the computer tells the user everything they want to know about their surroundings. Layar does that by using all the information and data provided by its large base of users, as well as the integration with Twitter and Facebook. So, when you’re in a new town and want to eat something, you can hold your phone up, search for the best café and you’ll see a list of pointers (using a superimposed layer on top of real time camera footage) for the closest cafes. You can also use the GPS to navigate to a place, see the latest Tweets and Facebook updates of the people near you (using Layar’s location data and face recognition), see the main tourist attractions, meetings you can attend and do many other interesting things. You just have to try it out!
Layar Reality Browser
Google Voice:
This application comes preinstalled with newer Android 2.0 phones like the Nexus One and Motorola Droid. It allows you to make cheap calls over the Internet to any phone number in the world and send SMS to any mobile number. You get your own number from Google, which you can use just like a regular phone. A huge benefit is that you can make calls over any WiFi network, which can reduce the money you spend on minutes significantly. A very interesting and useful feature is the automatic transcription, which transcribes any voice mail received into text, so you can read it instead of listening. This saves you a lot of bandwidth and time. You can also quickly translate any text to a wide selection of languages using Google Translate.
Google Voice
aTrackDog:
I said in the beginning of this article that Android apps are a bit hard to find. Well, aTrackDog partially solves this problem by giving you access to a database bigger than the official Marketplace, where you can find a lot more useful applications which you never would’ve found otherwise. It works like the Marketplace, but uses an additional database (a more open-source, user maintained one) to search for apps you may need.
aTrackDog
The Schwartz Unsheathed:
This app brings the Force to you. Or at least a lightsaber an imaginary lightsaber. Still, it’s lots of fun for when you have nothing else better to do or want to surprise a Star Wars fan with something he’s never seen before (and believe me, they’ve seen a lot 
. The schwartzsaber can change colors and make swinging sounds just like in the movies using the phone’s accelerometer as a sensor. The sounds are pretty convincing, too, especially on the Motorola Droid.
The Schwartz Unsheathed
If you haven’t found and tested the above apps already, be sure to do so. As you can see, they offer a few amazing new ways to use your phone, and solve a lot of real-life problems. And as most of them are free (or have a free version), there’s no reason not to try them.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Indeed these andriod applications were worth a review.These are actually good examples of modern day technology where user suitability is kept the prime concern.If we consider search platforms , then the recently launched open source search platforms too have suitability as a key feature, Solr being one of them.
There is no doubt in my mind that the apps on iphone are far superior to the apps on Android. The problem with Android’s apps are they are limited and don’t seem as user friendly, I know Google wants to improve or capitalize on Android’s apps database, but I think it will never compete with Apple. Just look at the amount of apps listed on iphone index sites like http://www.dozeniphone.com and you will see what I mean. The iPhone has an app for everything, Android has an app for some things. That’s the difference.