Back in January, I wrote about the best g1 apps that could be found in the market. Since that date, a lot of new apps came up, and the Cupcakes update also changed a few rules. So what are the essential apps you need on your Android phone to get the most out of it ?
App Manager
The first app you want to install from the market is the App Manager. From this app, you can launch, uninstall, copy to SD or search the app in the market. You can also backup all of your applications to the SD card in a few clicks. Most importantly, you can easily install apps from your SD card, which is the gateway to downloading any app you want online and putting it on your phone.
Scoreboard
The simple app was developed by Google. This app allows you to keep track of all of your favorite sports team through your phone’s notifications system. It takes about half an hour to set it up, but then you don’t have to worry about it ever again, and sports results come to you live automatically.
Babble
Babble is the only Facebook app I know for the g1 that runs smoothly. From Babble, you can easily access your friends’ feeds, and drop comments on your friends’ updates. Uploading photos and videos to your profile are also part of the experience. The developer also added a quick ‘log out/log in as a different user’ button, which is quite smart !
MyTracks
I just love this application. Through your phone’s GPS, MyTracks will record your position while you are on the go. I personally use it to compare how I perform when I rollerblade to work. I think most people use it for their biking or walking hikes. Once you are done recording, MyTracks creates an KML file and a map on your Google’s MyMaps account. You can then easily share this map’s URL or embed it anywhere you want.
Glympse
At first sight, Glympse is very similar to MyTracks (or Latitude, Google geolocation-based social network). Glympse is different because it lets you easily share your location live with the person(s) you want, during the amount of time you want. The persons who receive the Glympse can see your location in real-time on a map, from a computer or on a phone.
Twidroyd
I am not a super active Twitter user, but anytime I want to interact with the Twitter platform only, Twidroyd has been the best app to let me easily tweet and read tweets. From my friends’ feeds page, I can ‘reply’, ‘show profile’, ‘favorite’, ‘retweet’ or ‘send direct message’ to any item displayed. You can also search Twitter for fresh content about a specific subject, see what’s hot on Twitterverse.com and access your favorite items. In the settings (and this is what I like), you can enable notifications for different kinds of events, chose your photo hosting provider, chose your url shortener, and much much more…
Androzip
Androzip is the best and easiest way to bundle documents in a ZIP file (ZIP, GZIP, TAR). From within the app, you can easily select several documents, ZIP’em, and send it to whoever you want. Must-have if you want to manage a lot of documents through your phone.
S3Anywhere
If you have an S3 Amazon account, you will love this app. It lets you easily access any bucket of your account, and provides the upload/download functions to share files between your cloud hard disk and your phone. It becomes interesting when you consider that you can access your documents on S3, ZIP them with Androzip, and send them from your gmail app to anyone you want.
MyAccount
It’s the app from T-Mobile to keep track of your account’s balance. It’s very simple, but I think it is the first time you can access your account balance info from your phone in one click. Must-have!
Metal Detector
The metal detector… detects metal. It acts like a magnet and guides you to the closest source of metal around you. From the settings, you can define the sensitivity of the detector (more sensitive also means more battery used). This is not an essential app to have, but the technology it is built on is pretty interesting. By putting a magnet in a phone, it is the first time that we have a phone that can directly interact with your surrounding environment. It is the cornerstone to a generation of smarter phones (yep, even smarter than what we already have today).