Must Have Apps STICKY

[cdogg777]

I see that people are asking "What are the must have apps, I just got a Droid". And I see responses like "we get this question a lot, search the forums". I am one of those who just got a Droid, and have searched and found a couple threads that give almost no answers because people seem to be tired of answering the question, i don't know. So my suggestion is make a Sticky thread of some approved "Must have Apps".

Couple "fun" suggestions for the thread may be.
1) Lock it. And weekly have a vote/contest/thread of what app to add to the list.
2) Lock it. Only mods can add apps/widgets.
3) Leave it open, and a person can post the app with a brief description.

Just an idea I thought I'd throw out there.

 

[jstafford1]

I don't think this is necessary because any "must have" apps are totally dependant on the individual. I used to have some "must haves" and never used them. So how important were they really?

sent from somewhere...

 

[doublea500]

I don't think this is necessary because any "must have" apps are totally dependant on the individual. I used to have some "must haves" and never used them. So how important were they really?

sent from somewhere...

Yep I totally agree with you. And plus some apps become taken over by better apps.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[debdroid1a]

Here are a few I think should be sticky's. Or at least somewhere that people can refer to again, when they're new.
They're all personal and dependant on what people think and prefer.

If you could only have/recommend 5 APPS ?
ETA: The first few pages are older, so if you want, start from the end. And add your own you find 5 that you really like.

Screenshots of peoples Droid desktops?
this is where I learned what a Widget was. I think it's a great page. The first few pages are older, so if you want, start from the end.

Here's another one that would be good for new members to review
How to be safe, find trusted apps, & avoid viruses - A guide for those new to Android

I think people also suggest to search the forum because that is the easiest way to find things (that's how I found my second link, of course I knew what I was looking for)...

 

[cdogg777]

I don't think this is necessary because any "must have" apps are totally dependant on the individual. I used to have some "must haves" and never used them. So how important were they really?

sent from somewhere...

I'm not thinking of what some experienced user may use in 3years every day. Think from a new Droid user POV. What apps should they get to get familiar with it. I would never known about "my profiles" app if my buddy didn't tell me it was a MUST HAVE app. Therefore I think it's very relevant. It's a GREAT starting point for someone.

 

[cdogg777]

Here are a few I think should be sticky's. Or at least somewhere that people can refer to again, when they're new.
They're all personal and dependant on what people think and prefer.

If you could only have/recommend 5 APPS ?

Screenshots of peoples Droid desktops?
this is where I learned what a Widget was. I think it's a great page. The first few pages are older, so if you want, start from the end.

Here's another one that would be good for new members to review
How to be safe, find trusted apps, & avoid viruses - A guide for those new to Android

I think people also suggest to search the forum because that is the easiest way to find things (that's how I found my second link, of course I knew what I was looking for)...

That Top5 would be a good one to sticky...or something similar. Myself, I am going to check out many of the apps mentioned.

 

[debdroid1a]

I don't think this is necessary because any "must have" apps are totally dependant on the individual. I used to have some "must haves" and never used them. So how important were they really?

sent from somewhere...

Yep I totally agree with you. And plus some apps become taken over by better apps.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

That's true. There are some better apps now then there were.

To the OP: sometimes someone comes here and doesn't even bother looking in the discussions to find a post that they want to read. They just post a question expecting immediate and correct answers. In this Sub-Forum "Droid Applications" there are a ton of great threads. The first one I posted of the 5 Apps was several pages back because new discussions have been started.

 

[cdogg777]

One thing I noticed with that Top5. That was started 2years ago. Some of the mentioned apps are must have because the phone has inconvenient feature. Such as the SMS app. Must have to compensate for the poor phone design. Well, 2years later may not be the case.

Instead of a sticky must have..how about..
App of the week.
App of the month...

With an archive.

Just thinking of something easy a new user can see.

 

[debdroid1a]

More threads on this sub-forum
Must have apps/widgets

 

[ArtieD]

Rather than argue or point you elsewhere, I'll just give you my list. I use them all.[FONT=&quot]

[/FONT] Android phones come with a lot of terrific Applications built in. But I’ve found that in almost every case there is a better one out there in the Market. And most of them are free. Then you need a bunch of extra Apps to round out your phone to make it all it can really be. So here are my recommendations for the Apps you need to replace the built-in Apps and supplement them with the rest of what’s possible to take your phone to the next level. All of the Apps in my list are free unless a price is indicated.

CAR APPS

• aCar by Armond Avanes – Track car gasoline and repair services and expenses. Calculates fuel economy.
• Carrr Matey by Lionbra Studios – Pirate theme car locator. Mark where you park your car and then get directions back to it. Also has meter timer. Does not work in indoor parking structures. I’ve had trouble sometimes with it not finding my location when parking the car.
• Parking Car Finder SE by Binarytech Interactive – Same as Carr Matey, but adds ability to save parking structure information like floor and space number. Has some annoying adds for the premium version.
• Gas Buddy by GasBuddy.com- Provides gasoline prices for nearby gas station.

DROID UTILITIES

• AppRemover by CurveFish – Easy way to remove Apps. The Apps are listed alphabetically. Just select your App and then select OK. Poof. The Google way is Settings, Applications, Manage Applications, Select the App you want to delete (and they are not always in alphabetical order), Uninstall.
• EasyTether Liteby Mobile Stream (Free or $9.95 for the pro version) - This allows you to use your phone for broadband access for your notebook PC for FREE!! That means you can access the internet on your computer from anywhere your phone has data access. It's a little program you put on your phone and on your PC. You connect your phone to the computer with the data cable. Click a couple of buttons and bingo you’re on the net. This is instead of using the Mobile Hot Spot App from VerizonWireless for $20/month. Granted the Mobile Hot Spot is wireless and allows you to connect up to five devices, but this one works just as well for one PC. I upgraded to the pro version because it adds the capability to connect the secure sites (https). If you stay in a hotel that charges for internet access, it will pay for itself in one day. I highly recommend you use a genuine Motorola cable for this link up to insure data will be transferred.
• Sound Manager by Daniel Roozen – This App allows you to individually adjust the six volume settings easily and in one convenient place. I really like that you can schedule each volume independently. I want to be able hear my phone ring at night, but I don’t want to be awakened by email or text message alerts. So I schedule the “Notification Volume” only to be silent during the night. I also schedule all the volumes to return to my default values every morning so it clears any changes I might have made during the prior day.
• MySettings by JQ Soft – This App gives you one button access to 12 setting categories that you use frequently. I keep it right on my center home page. That way I can easily change Ringer Mode, Brightness Level, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Auto Sync, Airplane Mode, etc. Before I found this, I had a half dozen Apps and Widgets to get to all these settings. I also use Quick Settings by Sergy Shafarnka. It does the same things as MySettings, but you access it by pulling down the Notification Bar. I’m still comparing to see which one I like better. It is nice that Quick Settings is available any time.
• Where’s My Droid by alienmanfc6 – Don’t worry about misplacing or losing your Droid. If it’s nearby, send a text message to your phone saying “Wheres my droid.” The App will put the volume up to max and start ringing your phone. Can’t remember where your phone is? Send a text message to your phone saying “GPS my droid.” You’ll get a reply with the GPS coordinates of your phone. Put the coordinates in Google Maps and see where it is.
• ASTRO File Manager by Metago – Great way to access the files on your phone. You can create folders, move files, delete files, etc. All the things you typically do to manage files.
  • If you’re looking to find your photo files on the phone…they are in this directory: /sdcard/dcim/camera. FYI. dcim stands for Digital Camera Images.
  • If you want to add your own sounds or music to the list of Notifications and Ringtones…put your mp3 files in this directory: /sdcard/media/audio/notifications or ringtones
• SystemPanelLite by NextApp, Inc. – This App allows you to easily shut down any individual App, all Apps or only certain types of Apps.
• Battery Indicator by Darshan Computing – This App tells you the percentage of battery remaining in the notification bar. I like seeing the number better than the graphic representation provided by Google. If you swipe down on the Notification Bar you will see more information about your battery, then if you press on the line with the Battery Indicator information you will see even more information and gain access to settings for the App.
• Backgrounds by Stylem Media and/or Coveroid Wallpapers by Eldev, LLC– Each provides thousands of nice backgrounds for your home page Wallpaper or other use (like a Handcent Background). You can select favorites and then have them rotate on a frequency you select. I change mine daily. One glitch – the rotation feature stops if you reset your phone. So when you restart your phone you need to restart the App to start the rotation again (at least for the Backgrounds App, haven’t tested Wallpapers).
  • You can use your own photo or image for a background. It should be in jpeg format, sized at 960x854 pixels and 256 dpi resolution. But you can try any size. From Gallery or ASTRO File Manager long press on the image or file and select Set As and then Wallpaper. A cropping box will appear on the image. Press on one of the edges to stretch the box to your desired size. Press in the middle of the box to drag it the area of the picture you want to use. Select Save and you’ve got it. Images that aren’t too busy and are darker in color tend to work best.
• Shake2Mute by Atrant SG – Ever forget to turn of the ringer when in the movies or a restaurant and get a call? Just give your phone a quick shake and it silences the phone. It only silences it for that call, so you still need to change the setting to silent mode for future calls. But at least you can put a stop to it quickly.

ADVANCED DROID UTILITIES

• LauncherPro by Federico Carnales and Home Switcher by ymst – Home Switcher allows you to switch between the built-in Android Home Screens and alternate Home Screen Apps such as LauncherPro. LauncherPro is a terrific replacement for the default Home Screen allowing you to customize almost every feature on the Home Screen. The feature I like the most is you can change the number of icons that appear on each Home Screen Page. You can select from 1 to 10 columns and rows. I like 5x5 the best. Six columns is tight, but workable. Anything over five rows and the text gets cropped. I also really like that you get space for four Apps on the Dock Bar (the bottom row on the screen with Phone and Contacts) and you can change them. So I replaced Contacts with Contacts Search and then added Handcent Text Messaging and K-9 Email. You can even have more Dock space if you want it. So now I have 29 icons on each Home Screen Page compared to 18 originally. That allows me to fit everything onto 3 Pages where I had 5 before. And the App does lots more. A couple of notes:
  • LaucherPro does not copy anything other than the Wallpaper from your default Home Screen. So you need to repopulate the screens from scratch. It helped me that I had screen prints of my original Home Screens, but it’s a bit of a chore.
  • You won’t find LauncherPro in your App Drawer (the list of all your Apps that you pull up from below the Home Screen). You edit the settings by using the Menu hard button and then Preferences.
  • You switch back to your original Home Screen by using the App Home Switcher, which you will find in the App Drawer. Suggest you copy it to the Home Screen until you’re sure you want to switch. Then designate LauncherPro as the Default.
  • The Home Screen Pages are designated 1 through 7, not Center, Left and Right. You can designate which Page is your center Page. I started with 7 screens and used Page 4 as my center. Then I wanted to cut back to only 3 pages. Problem…Pages 4 and 5 were cut off. They come back if you increase the number of Home Pages to 5 or more. So, I’ll stick with 5. The beauty here is efficiency. You get more stuff on fewer screens.
  • App Names – I think it’s dumb that App names on the home page are limited to one line. I’d say about half the App names won’t fit in the space allowed. The App drawer and organization Apps like App Organizer allow two lines. I don’t know of any way to make two lines for the App names on the home screen, but you can rename the Apps to something shorter and more appropriate. For instance, I changed Astrid Tasks to just Tasks, and Springpad to just Notes. It’s actually more informative and to the point. Note the method below works for LauncherPro, but does not work on the built-in Home Screen. Other Apps allow App renaming and some even allow changing the icon image.

i. To change the App names: long press on an open spot on the Home Screen where you want the App, select Shortcuts, Applications, scroll down and select the App you want to use, and you then you will be presented with a popup window which will give the opportunity to enter the name of your choice.

• Tasker by Crafty Apps (~$6.00) – This is an App that allows you to program your phone to perform actions based on conditions such as time, location, phone events, etc. It is a bit challenging to program, but worth it if you want to go to the next level. I had to read the instructions and look at some examples, but I was able to figure it out. I use it to turn the Notification Volume to zero and turn the screen brightness to 0 (dim but not zero) when I turn on the Digital Clock App. I only use Digital Clock as a night clock. So now I won’t be awakened by a Notification sound when an email or text message arrives in the middle of the night. Then I have it set the Media Volume to Level 6 when the Good Morning App is opened. That’s my wake-up alarm. And I want it loud enough to wake me up, but not too loud. Oddly, you can’t set the alarm volume from within that App. When I connect my Bluetooth headphones it adjusts the Media Volume to 15 and presents me with a menu of Pandora, doubleTwist and Audible. But when I connect my wired headphones it sets the volume to 5. When I go to my local movie theater, it sets the phone to silent mode and then when I leave it turns the ringer back on. Those are just a few examples.

NEWS & SPORTS

• WeatherBug by WeatherBug Mobile or The Weather Channel by The Weather Channel – Both work great at providing current weather and forecast for your current location or locations you designate. They can also put the current temperature in status bar. They just present the information a little differently. Either one will work fine for you.
• AP Mobile by The Associate Press – Great news App
• Thomson Reuters News by Handmark – Very similar to AP Mobile. Not sure which one I prefer.
• NYTimes by The New York Times Company – Excellent news site.
• Wikidroid for Wikipedia by Sirius Applications Ltd. – This App gives easy access to Wikipedia formatted perfectly for your Droid screen.
• NubiNews Reader by NubiNews – Customizable news collection App. Allows you select from a wide variety of news sources.
• Newspapers by Dale Jefferson – Convenient access to many, many newspapers. Select your favorites…you need to because there are so many. I use LA Times, OC Register, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, etc. Presentation of each newspaper is similar, but different from native application from each newspaper. So compare for yourself, but generally I like their appearance.
• CNBC by NBC Universal, Inc. – Great for business news and stock market reports.
• Earthquake! By Reto Meier – Reports on earthquakes around the world. Can give you an alert when earthquakes occur meeting criteria you set. It’s surprising how many large quakes occur every day around the world. I like to have it available so that I can determine how close the epicenter is if I feel a quake.
• SportsTap by Mobile 1 Sports – Great App for tracking scores and progress of all your favorite teams or all teams. Also gives alerts to score changes. Gives a lot more information, but I like the way you can quickly get to any score and then get all the details if you want.
• ESPN Score Center by ESPN Inc – ESPN’s sports news App. Terrific of all the sports news and scores you should need.

MEDIA APPS

• Pandora Radio by Pandora – My absolute favorite. Build custom radio stations based on your music preferences. Also available on for your PC. The PC and mobile versions share the same radio stations you create, but the PC version has a limit of 40 hours per month for the free version. The PC version has an advertisement about once every eight songs. The mobile version has an ad about once every three hours. The pro version with no time limits and no ads is $40/year. Be sure to select “High – Cell Network Audio Quality” from the Preferences menu. Get some good stereo audio Bluetooth headphones and you’ll hear things you’ve never heard before.
• Music by doubleTwist - software to sync iTunes music and playlists to Droid phones. Download App from Market on phone and software for your PC at http://www.doubletwist.com. The App also provides access to hundreds of internet radio sites. If you have a lot of iTunes media, the program on your PC will take a very long time (several hours for me) to catalog the media. And then takes a similar amount of time to sync to the phone. You can select which playlists (and corresponding music) you want to download to the phone.

3. Audible for Android by Audible, Inc – I love to listen to Books on Tape or I guess it’s Books on Android now. The quality is terrific on this App. You can buy the books online at www.audible.com or directly from the App. You get a discount if you sign up for a subscription and there are a number of starter incentives. I use the widget that comes with it so I have quick access to the play and pause buttons on my home screen.
4. Kindle for Android by Amazon Mobile – This App allows you to read books on your phone. I don’t really use this, but the Droid X screen is large enough that is definitely possible to read books on your phone. They have hundreds of classic books for free. I downloaded a couple to test it out. Works fine. I may use it in the future if I run out of other things to do on the Droid.
5. Movies by Flixter – Find movies playing at local (or your designated location) theaters. Movie previews, times, etc.
6. IMDb Movies & TV by IMDb – Movie reviews for current and upcoming movies. Also does old movies (not in theaters anymore, on DVD or TV), TV shows and more.
7. DIRECTV by DIRECTV Inc. – Must have if you use DirecTV. Search for shows and program your DIRECTV DVR from your phone.
8. SlingPlayer Mobile by Sling Media ($29.99) – This App allows you to watch your home TV DVR on your mobile phone. You also need a Sling Box (about $190 or $250) at home connected to your DVR. It’s not too hot for sporting events, but works great for news, talk shows and movies.
PRODUCTIVITY APPS

• K-9 Mail by K-9 Dog Walkers – I use this for all my personal Email (including Gmail) and work Email accounts. This is an email app that is 10 times better than the built-in email App. It allows me to sync both ways with my email server. So when I delete an Email on the phone, it gets deleted on the server and vice versa. The default Email App wouldn’t do that for my Cox or company accounts. Now they all work. The other issue I wanted and got is that when you delete or dismiss an email I want to go the next email, not back to the list of emails. Done. You may not have these issues on your work account if you're using Microsoft Exchange Server. But it's an issue for other accounts.
  • I set the App to open the Unified Inbox (Menu, Settings, Global Settings, Interaction, Start in Unified Inbox). Then I set it up so that all of my personal accounts (Cox, hotmail and Gmail) open in the Unified inbox (For each Email Account – Open the Account, More, Settings, Folder Settings, Unify). That way I see email from all my personal accounts in one place but I keep my work Email separate. You can color code them so you can easily see which account they are from. Set one account to be the default send from account (Open the Account you want to be default, More, Settings, Account Settings, General Settings, Default Account). If you want to send from a particular account then go to that account (Menu, Accounts, select the Account you want to send from) and then messages you send (Menu, Compose, write your message, then Menu, Send) from there will be identified as being sent from that Account.

i. Footnote – Turns out I stopped using the Unified Inbox because when you read messages in the Unified Inbox it doesn’t clear the message count in the Notification Bar and that bothers me. The message count in the Notification Bar will clear if you access new messages from either the Account the message was sent to in K9 or from the Notification drop down menu. So I just go through my messages one Account at a Time.

• • I set up a separate icon on my Home Screen for my company Email account. So when I want to send from that account I just have one tap to access it. You do that by adding a Widget. It’s under Shortcuts, K-9 Accounts.
  • You can also set different notifications for each account including sound, vibration and blinking notification LED (with a color you select). Change these setting while in the Account you want to change (Menu, More, Settings, Account Settings, Notifications).
  • I recommend the Always show images setting. You need to set this for each Account (Menu, Settings, Account Settings, Display, Always show images, From Anyone). It’s for this reason alone that I switched Gmail to K-9. Otherwise you need to press a button to “show images” to see any graphics with an email. And it seems like almost all emails have some graphics, especially commercial ones like newsletters.
  • I also recommend two additional global settings: Multi-select checkboxes and Single-column layout. Multi-select allows you to check multiple emails and delete or move them with one command. Single-column allows you to easily see wide graphics on you narrow mobile phone. This is an issue with ads from Costco, Frys and others. You still get to see everything, but is stretches the images out in a tall column. Changes these from the Accounts page: Menu, Settings, Display, Mult-select checkboxes and Single-column layout.
  • I recommend you checkout all the setting options, but I think the ones I recommended are critical to a good experience and email is one of the most important Apps on your phone, so it’s worth the effort to do it right.
  • Note that you will not get synchronization on folders other than Inbox on POP3 accounts like Cox, Hotmail or Yahoo. You will get folder synchronization for Gmail or corporate accounts that use Microsoft Exchange Server. This is due to a POP3 design limitation and applies to most smart phones (I believe that Blackberry and Windows Mobile phones can sync Outlook folders via USB cable). If folders are important to you, you can access those accounts from the Browser. If you do that a lot, then set up a Shortcut on your Home screen.
  • Also note that Gmail is a Push Email service, meaning that as soon as an Email arrives at the Google server it is forwarded to your phone. This instant arrival service will work in both the Gmail App and for a Gmail Account on K-9 Email. The POP3 accounts only get mail when the phone synchronizes. That’s why you need to specify the synchronization frequency. Synchronization uses up some battery power, so that’s why you need to choose between frequent synchronization and longer battery life. I use 15 minutes for the synchronization frequency. In theory you don’t need to synchronize Gmail on a schedule because of the push feature. As I said, your email will arrive automatically and instantly, but deletions from the server do not synchronize unless a synchronization command is issued from the phone. So I also set my Gmail account to also synchronize every 15 minutes.
• Handcent SMS by handcent admin – A better text messaging App than the default one. The layout is better looking with your choice of colors and fonts. Provides additional options, like a link to the phone to call the sender, ability to read the message aloud to you and more. I did have trouble with the notification bar incorrectly reporting the number of unread text messages until I disabled Notifications in the default messaging App settings. Then it worked fine.
• CompanionLink by Sync calendar and contacts on Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry - CompanionLink ($39.99) - This syncs contacts, calendar items and tasks from Outlook to GMail Contacts, Calendar and Tasks and both ways. This is the only app I've bought to date, but I really needed it because I just want one list of contacts, but I want it on my computer and my phone and I want to be able to make changes on either device and have it transfer automatically to the other. Works great. I recently (Oct. 2010) found a free App that reportedly syncs Outlook Contacts. The reviews are about 65%/35% works/doesn’t work. But it might be worth a try. You would then need to use the free Google Calendar Sync program on your PC, which I’ve tested and works fine. The contact sync App is Go Contact Sync by mikhail-webgear and is also found on your PC at: GO Contact Sync | Download GO Contact Sync software for free at SourceForge.net
• Dolphin Browser by Dolphin Browser I like this browser better than the built-browser mainly because it allows for saving Bookmarks in folders. This is really important to be able organize Bookmarks in a manner that allows you to easily access them. It works better in other ways too. I tried Opera Mini Browser by Opera Software ASA and liked it better than the built-in browser too, but didn’t like the way some pages set up. In fact there were some pages I couldn’t get links to work.
• Springpad by Spring Partners, Inc. – Great multi-purpose notepad to save anything you want to remember notes, shopping lists, recipes, businesses, restaurants and more. Allows different types of notes depending on type. Plain note, lists, restaurants, books, wines and more categories. Links some references like restaurants to web sites. I use it for random notes to myself, shopping lists hardware store, Costco, etc.). You can also synchronize it with a PC version on your PC.
• Astrid Task/Todo List by Todoroo Inc. – I don’t know where the Google Tasks App is, but this one works fine. It syncs with Tasks created on the Google Mail App on your PC. Just a nice simple way to keep to-do lists current.
• Quickoffice by Motorola - This app comes with the DROID X and allows you to create and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on your mobile phone. It also has a pdf viewer. I didn’t know that the phone came with this App so I bought Documents to Go for $9.99. It does the same thing, so if you have non Motorola phone and need this function Documents to Go will do the job.
• Adobe Reader by Adobe Systems – Allows opening and reading pdf files. If you use Quickoffice or Documents to Go, you don’t really need this.
• Dropbox by Dropbox, Inc. – Easy way to share and synchronize files between your PC and your mobile phone. Even allows multiple PC’s. Download Dropbox program to your PC and then any files you put in the “Dropbox” folder on either device are always available synced on any device that has your Dropbox. It also makes it easy to share files on your phone with others. Just long press the file name and you get options to send the file or a link to the file via email our text message. I had a little trouble finding the files on the phone. You need to access the files through the Dropbox App. The names of the files appear there, but they don't download until you tap the file. Apparently there is some restriction in the operating system that prevents automatic downloading. No problem going the other way and the syncing is automatic.
• PrinterShare Droid by Mobile Dynamix ($4.95) – Allows printing a variety of documents (Pictures, Web Pages, Calendar, Contacts, Text Messages, Gmail, Google Docs and PDF Files) to Wi-Fi connected local printers. You can also print to remote printers from your phone. That feature requires a program to be installed on the receiving computer. I’ve tested both Wi-Fi and remote printing and they both work. But I haven’t really had a need for printing directly from my phone.
• Dictionary.com by Dictionary.com LLC – Dictionary and Thesaurus all in one.
• SketchNSave by Joseph Labreque – Nice little App for making little hand sketches.
• White & Yellow Pages by Yellow Pages Directories – Who needs phone books anymore.

RESTAURANTS & PLACES

• Tip Calculator by Tradefields by iStockManager – I love this tip calculator. Very easy to use and customizable. I like to tip on the pre-tax amount. Can do. I like to round the tip amount up to the next higher whole dollar. Can do. I sometimes split the check. Can do and splits by any number of people.
• Yelp by Yelp – This App helps you find restaurants, bars, coffee shops, drugstores, banks, gas stations and more. Try the Monocle feature to find nearby restaurants and bars. It’s like X-Ray vision.
• Our Groceries by HeadCode – I use this App to keep my grocery list. It’s very easy to use. I have separate lists for regular grocery store, Trader Joes, Costco, etc. It also syncs with another (or several) user. Joanne’s not too good about using it, but the concept is good.
• Happy Hours by GoTime – Find happy hour specials deals at nearby restaurants and bars, giving details of the specials and applicable times.
• Urbanspoon by Urbanspoon Team – Great tool for finding restaurants nearby or at your destination. Good rating system and reviews. Fun slot machine recommends restaurant randomly.
• WHERE by WHERE Inc. – Find out where all kinds of things are nearby or a location you specify. Movies, Restaurants, Events, Coffee Shops, etc.
• OpenTable by Open Table – App for making reservations at most nice restaurants.
• Fast Food Finder by Michael Quach – I know it isn’t healthy, but sometimes you just need something quick. This lets you find fast food joints that are close by,
• Places by Google – Helps you find nearby Restaurants, Coffee Shops, Bars, Hotels, Attractions, ATM’s, Gas Stations and more.
• Calorie Counter by FatSecret – Get calories and nutritional information food, restaurant items and much more.

SHOPPING APPS

• Amazon.com by Amazon Mobile – Shop on Amazoon.com right from your phone.
• eBay by eBay Mobile – Easy way to check out things on eBay
• Barcode Scanner by ZXing Team – Scan barcodes with your phone and get links to information about the product and places to buy the product.
• ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner by Big in Japan, Inc. – Scan a barcode and get comparison prices.
• QuickUnit Price by CWE Software – Quick way to compare different size packages for the best value

TOOLS

• CardioTrainer by WorkSmart Labs Inc. – Great exercise tracking App. Traces your walk, run or bike ride and then calculates distance, calories burned and time. Gives verbal updates and you go and then stores all the info.
• Google Voice by Google Inc. – This item is a long story all by itself. Call me if you want all the details. I use one phone number to ring me at work and on my mobile simultaneously, screen calls, transcribe voicemail into text messages and much more.
• Digital Clock by Notes – Great night clock and wake-up alarm. Sets the display to show a large digital clock in horizontal mode. You can adjust the color and brightness. Set the alarm to be a ringtone, music and/or vibrate. You can also adjust the volume of the music or alarm.
• Relax and Sleep by Mizu Software Solutions – Neat App for generating environmental sounds to put you to sleep. You can combine a wide variety of sounds such as rain, ocean, crickets, frogs, train, etc. You can adjust the volume of each one independently.
• Stopwatch & Timer by sportstracklive.com – I like this easy to use stopwatch and timer. It’s very easy to set the times and the numbers are large and easy to read.
• COL Reminder by Christian Grasser – Nice little App for quick reminders. There are other ways to remind yourself of something (Calendar, Timer, Alarm Clock, etc.), but they require quite a few steps to make an entry. This one is fast and easy. Just select a category, type in your reminder message and select when you want to be reminded: either an amount of time from now or a specific date and time.
• Droid LED Flashlight by Motorola Inc. – Use your phone as a flashlight. This app lights up the two LED’s on the back of the phone that are used as the flash for the camera. It’s quite bright.
• Google Maps and Street View on Google Maps –Google Maps comes pre-installed and it’s a terrific mapping App. But there a couple of things you need to do to get the most out of it. There are a couple of Labs you should add. Labs are experimental features that Google is working on that they say “aren’t quite ready for primetime.” Maybe not, but I like them as they are and want them now. You add them by going to Menu, More, Labs. I recommend Traffic with Labels and Bubble Buttons. Check out the others. Street View provides street-level imagery on your phone. Install Street View from the Market. To use Street View, open Google Maps, search for a place or long press on the map, and tap the Street View Option (the penguin shaped person).
• Google Earth by Google Inc. – Similar to Maps, but focused more on satellite imagery.
• My Location by ruimanifo – This App allows you to mark your location for future reference. Once marked you can send your location coordinates to someone else via email or SMS text message. They can then open the location in Google Maps and see where you are. This can be useful to mark and locate your car, locate your origin when going on a hike, or if you get separated from friends or family at a big outdoor event, or amusement park. I like to use it when I find a gold nugget. That way I can come back later whenever I need some more. Those little gold mines can be hard to find without a Droid.
• Real Estate Droid by Awesome Android Apps and Zillow by Zillow.com – Great real estate apps. Prices of homes for sale and much more.

TRAVEL APPS

• Trip Case by Sabre Inc – Great travel App. Keeps track of all your reservations: air, car rental, hotel, etc. Gives you updates on air departure and arrival terminals, gates and times. Sends reminders to you and others you list. Best thing – you forward your reservation to trip.com and it populates your App automatically. That way you don’t need to enter all those icky details like airline name, flight number, confirmation number, etc. Also provides easy access to airline phone numbers and alternate flight information. Great if you need to make changes. Has companion App for your PC at www.tripcase.com.
• FLYsmart by Geodelic Systems Inc - This App provides detailed information about airports. It gives maps and details about parking, terminal maps, restaurant and rest room locations in the terminals, flight tracking and a lot more.
• Street View on Google by Google Inc. – Provides street views on Google Maps
• Google Sky Map by Google Inc. – Map the stars
• Google Goggles by Google Inc. – Take a picture of just about anything and get links to information about the object or place. Categories: Books, DVD’s, Landmarks, Logos, Artwork, Businesses, Products, Barcodes, Text and Contact Info.
• FlightStats Lite for Android by FlightStats – This App lets you track the status of a flight. Great for when you’re going to pick someone up at the airport.
• TripAdvisor by TripAdvisor – This App helps you find Restaurants, Hotels, Flights, Things to Do and more. Nice aid while you’re travelling or planning a trip.
• Taxi Magic by Ride Charge – Schedule and track your next taxi ride.

 

[debdroid1a]

One thing I noticed with that Top5. That was started 2years ago. Some of the mentioned apps are must have because the phone has inconvenient feature. Such as the SMS app. Must have to compensate for the poor phone design. Well, 2years later may not be the case.

Instead of a sticky must have..how about..
App of the week.
App of the month...

With an archive.

Just thinking of something easy a new user can see.

Well it's not that easy as new members post everywhere.... not just on this forum... they ask in every forum or any forum they think will get answers (and maybe they just didn't see this forum). So they're also looking in different forums. So I don't know if that will help much.

With the Top5 list, you may want to start from the end of the list and work your way to the front. I suggested that one the other link I posed, but it would work for any of those. The last threads int he Top5 are newest. Last post was 3/30/2011

Also it is subjective to what people want.

For example

eBook apps. I love them. I’ve read more having them on my phone then when I had an older phone without this option.
Kindle. Yes this is the Amazon e-book reader on Andoid. It’s free. In the market. You can download free or even books that cost money. Some are reduced in price and some are occassionally free (maybe for a limited time, so check that). You can do this from your phone or the amazon site.
Aldiko. This ones’ not bad. You can even get the Project Gutenberg books which are old, out of copyright books, on there (info on how to do that on the Gutenberg site). They also have free and paid books.
FBReader. I hadn’t heard about this, but Gutenberg has how they can do this with Gutenberg and mentions it’s an Andoird e-book. So it’s something to look into on the market and check it out.
Kobo. Another e-book reader. I haven’t used this one that much, but Have it on my phone.
Nook. The Barnes and Noble e-book reader on your Android phone.
Laputa Book reader. this one aparently has some books that aren't suppose to be ebooks, such as the Harry Potter books, they've never been digitized. So use this at your own discretion and decision.

As you can see, the eBook list can even be longer then this, there's some for library books that may or may not work in your area or you may choose not to use them (I haven't because they're not in my area).

So if I only suggested MY personal favorite, it would be Kindle. You might miss out on some wonderful ebook readers. That's why taking time to read boards is so important.

Weekly apps?
The Droid Applications forum has some all the time that a website puts out. For example:
Top Weekly Android Apps (28/3 To 3/4)
Top Weekly Android Apps (4/4 To 9/4)
Plus these discussions
Top Apps for Rooted
Whats your all time favorite apps?! (last post 3/16/2011)
Best twitter app?


The Droid Games forum has
Android recommend games overview
Best free games?
Top 5 Android Games Of Year

the Droid General Discussions forum has
Top 5 Apps --Categories - Requires You To Think!!
best clock widget to use?

The Motorola Droid forum has
Best "Notes" app?

The d X General Discussions forum has
favorite apps?


Hope this helps in your search for the apps. dancedroid

 

[cdogg777]

Holy crap. Just sticky that post!

 

[takeshi]

So my suggestion is make a Sticky thread of some approved "Must have Apps".

No point as it's highly subjective. Stickies are only useful for objective topics.

I'm not thinking of what some experienced user may use in 3years every day. Think from a new Droid user POV. What apps should they get to get familiar with it.

Again, highly subjective. Simply reading the Applications subforum would address this. It's not a suitable sticky topic just because newbies are too lazy to do their own homework. If someone wants top app lists then searching will yield plenty to choose from.

 

[debdroid1a]

Plus someone may want several opinions on different apps and not just the top 5 of all.

For example:
What's your favorite home replacement ?
Which launcher are you using
Any good video chat apps yet similar to Facetime?

and so on...

 

[Beardface]

NEWS & SPORTS

• SportsTap by Mobile 1 Sports – Great App for tracking scores and progress of all your favorite teams or all teams. Also gives alerts to score changes. Gives a lot more information, but I like the way you can quickly get to any score and then get all the details if you want.
• ESPN Score Center by ESPN Inc – ESPN’s sports news App. Terrific of all the sports news and scores you should need.

I used to use the ScoreCenter on both my Droid and TBolt and used to use SportsTap on my old iTouch. Recently deleted ScoreCenter because its just overloaded with issues and rarely updated correctly. I downloaded LiveScores by Yahoo, and man... its nice. Has a much better interface than ScoreCenter, scores update faster, and the widget is the same size. I'd recommend trying it!