Best Free Android Applications

[Davieys]

Found this good site Galaxy S2 Apps which has some really good android apps on it. My favourites are Shazam and Around Me. Does anyone else know some good apps?

[Davieys]

Anyone? Thanks

[articdust]

I would love to see this thread become more active. I have noticed that people on howardforums are as active as they are on say XDA. But like is said, would love to see this topic thrive.

[azoicwight]

Are games included in App catagory? Tank hero and Super KO boxing are amazing!

[Davieys]

Tank Hero looks so good thanks!

[articdust]

what about games and apps you find on the Internet. In say the 0Day sections? Some private torrent sites, which I can't namerelease phone apps and games all the time. How would someone add those onto the phone?

[Steve Punter]

If you have a rooted phone, one my favorite FREE apps is Samba Filesharing. This utility puts your phone on your WiFi network and you can access its files just as you do any other drive on any computer in your network. This allows you to copy files to or from it without the need for a USB cable and without having to put it into a dedicated mode that locks your phone out of the Flash storage (that means you can continue to use your phone as normal while still having complete read/write access to it from any computer on your LAN).

Another free app I used frequently is ES File Explorer. There are plenty of file explorers available for Android, but I particularly like this one for its generous integration of other data sources. You can connect to network shares on your LAN, to FTP sites, and to various cloud drives (including DropBox, SugarSync, & Box). You can freely transfer files from one source to another. It memorizes the necessary logon credentials so that you never need to enter them more than once. On my phone it means I have immediate access to any of the shares on my network, an FTP site I used frequently, and my DropBox and SugarSync cloud drives. You can even access your network shares over 3G by just setting up a VPN on one of your computers and then using the standard Android VPN client to connect.

QuickPic is my absolute favorite picture viewer. Everyone has their own views on what constitutes a great file viewer, but this one just seems to do everything right.

TuneIn Radio lets you listen to a positively huge number of streamed radio stations throughout the world. If a station has an online presence, you'll probably be able to listen to it using TuneIn Radio. The UI is well-designed and the stability is second to none. I've listened to radio stations using this app over periods of hours while driving, without any interruptions (with the exception of a handful of buffering issues that were caused either by the quality of my 3G connection at the time, or the quality of the connection to the radio station's server).

Hi-Q MP3 Recorder lets you quickly record voice notes in super-high-quality 128 kilobit MP3 format. This uses much less space than recorders that render to WAV format, but with virtually no detectable loss of quality. MP3 files are compatible with virtually any player so you can email the recordings with no fear that the person you send them to won't be able to play them (though arguably that essentially true of WAV files, but I'm not sure if Macs can natively play that file format).

[articdust]

I would like to say THANK YOU Steve Punter for listing those 3 programs with an excellent description. Those sound like 3 apps I'm definitely going to check out. I wish more people would take some time and list some other apps they use on a daily basis. I went online and looked at the Android Market and queried the most purchased and top downloads. There are so many that look so lame. So it's good to see people posting to weave out the ****** apps for the good ones. Like for example Steve Punter said he likes ES File Explorer over the only hundreds of file mangers I have seen.

Thanks again Steve and anyone else who decides to take part in this topic.

[ecarlson]

Here are a few of the free apps I use, in no particular order, all from the regular Android Market:

- Parcels: Track packages, with notifications

- TV listings for Android

- Key Ring Rewards Cards: So you can scan your rewards cards, and not have to keep them all in your wallet.

- WiFi Analyzer

- My Tracks: To track your walks and such via GPS.

- Bluetooth File Transfer: A file manager, and you can also transfer via BlueTooth to other phones, your PC, and other devices. I recently used it to transfer some files off my old phone to my new phone via BlueTooth.

- Pandora internet radio

- GasBuddy - Find Cheap Gas

- Battery Watcher Widget

- Missed Call Reminder: For Phone, MMS, SMS messages

- Craigslist: Automatic notifications for your searches

- QuickPic: Much batter than Gallery

- DiskUsage: Graphically shows what is using your app space and SD card space (among others)

- Remote WAV Free: For playing WAV formatted voicemail messages you receive in your e-mail, like from Comcast/XFinity voicemail.

[articdust]

ecarlson Absolutely Excellent work! This is what I wanted from people. You listed apps that people can use on a daily basis. I am going to try out everyone you mentioned because in my daily life they seem useable. Now not ever app people mention will be like this for me, but yours did. And as being new to the market and smart-phones you did an excellent job! Thank you so much for your post.

Anyone else have a great app that hasn't been mentioned yet, please post. It only helps others and lets the developer know what an awesome job he is doing by the amount of downloads the app receives. Thanks again ecarlson!

[zazahan]

Thanks. Searched for some of them.

[articdust]

No one else has any input on this thread or topic? I find that VERY hard to believe since there is SO many users . By the way, when you install Titanium Back up, do you have to pay the $7.99 if your phone is rooted?

[Steve Punter]

You don't HAVE to pay for Titanium Backup, but there are a few limitations to the free version that will become rather apparent in time. The biggest is when recovering multiple backed-up apps (especially if you have to reset the phone and re-install ALL of your apps). In the free version you must manually okay the installation of each and every app, whereas with the pay version the installation takes place without your intervention.

Another limitation of the free version is that you can only save one version of a app at any given time. This means that if you one day notice that the newest version of an app is messed up or the programmer has made a change you can't stomach, then you might not be able to restore to an older version (depending upon whether you've refreshed your backups since the update was made).

If you can live with the limitations, then the free version should be fine, but if you use Titanium Backup seriously, you really must get the pay version.

[Davieys]

I will take a look free version and see how I like it :P

[tcross8361]

Thanks Steve Punter for the heads up on Samba Filesharing.

Since I've taken one, I'll leave one. Double Twist Media player is a nice app I have been using lately.