Pip pip! It’s best Android apps of the month time. We hate to break it to you, but if you spend anything more than a tiny fraction of the time spent with your mobile making calls, you’re doing it wrong. The ridiculous number of smartphone apps available make your phone the most multi-talented gadget you own – but they also make it a headache-inducing ball pen of possibilities. To help you out, we’ll be rounding up the best Android apps to check out every month. Starting…now.
Before we start, search for, download and install Barcode Scanner, then point the Barcode Scanner app at the QR codes on this page to zip straight to the Android Market to install everything listed. Chop chop!
Skype
Theft is great when you can get away with it, apart from that inevitable moment when your conscience kicks in, probably as you’re half-way through downloading the latest awful Rob Schneider blockbuster. Or lifting a purse from a granny’s handbag as you thoughtfully guide the old dear over the road. VoIP’s a bit like phone call theft, but there’s no moral problem here. It’s totally 100% legal, like.
Skype bypasses your mobile network, so as long as your data package is ripe enough, you can call your mates for free if they’re on Skype too. It’s been available on iPhone for blooming ages, so it’s about time Skype’s programming geeks got off their backsides, closed down the World of Warcraft window that they keep on minimising whenever anyone walks past and brought it out on everyone’s second favourite app store. So, er, here it is. So long as you you’ve got a supported phone, this is one of the best Android apps to hit the UK in a good long while.
Firefox 4 Beta
It’s generally acknowledged among the tech savvy that the world would be a better place if everyone still ignorant enough to still use Internet Explorer was rounded up and sterilised, so why do so many of us in the know make do with our built-in phone browsers? Hmm? Using Android’s basic browser isn’t such a damning offence (BlackBerry OS 5′s browser is though – utterly bobbins), but one of the best browsers has now become one of the best Android apps. It is still in Beta though, so if it makes your phone burst into flames and burns down your house/pokey bedsit, don’t blame us. You won’t find it on the market, so head on through to Mozilla’s download page to grab it instead.
Wolfram Alpha
If you don’t know someone who smugly announces the knowledge of some obscure fact at every opportunity, it’s likely that this delightful person is you. Well done. If you want to up your smugness quotient, Wolfram Alpha’s one of the best Android apps you can buy. Yep, although it doesn’t get you any more content than you’ll find from the Wolfram Alpha web portal, this ain’t a freebie.
Just type in a question, such as “how heavy is a blue whale” or “how how is the sun” and Wolfram Alpha will do the rest. It’s an express train heading straight to smugsville, but it’s also ridiculously fascinating and works a helluva lot better than Ask Jeeves ever did.
Check out our Best Android phone Top 5 now!
Kindle for Android
Why did Amazon call its ebook reader the Kindle? Kindle? Kindling? Fire? Book burning? Not without a fascist undertone or two, if you ask us. The Kindle app for Android, which gives your smartphone virtually everything the dedicated ebook gadget offers, apart from the skill of not straining your eyes into oblivion if you try to read Anna Karenina on it. The app’s been available for ages now, but the recent major update lets you search through whole books for a phrase or keyword – very useful for finding the sexy bits in the classics. There’s plenty of sex in Shakespeare, if you look for it.
Loads of classic freebies are available from the Kindle service, but paid-for books are still pretty pricey. It’s one of the best Android apps, sure, but the Kindle service still has a way to go before its subliminal book burning suggestions will get us really wanting to set fire to our our paperbacks.
3G Watchdog
Unlimited data plans for your smartphone are all but dead, but don’t worry, they were never really unlimited anyway. It’s all in the small print, folks – those fair use limits you could trip over just by watching the Star Wars kid video on Youtube a few too many times. The bad news is that some carriers are actually starting to charge you when you go over their pesky limits – before the rules were as well enforced as the drinking age limit in your local dodgy corner shop.
3G Watchdog keeps an eye on your data usage to make sure that you don’t stream too many songs – or porno flicks, in Apple CEO Steve Jobs’s mind – and earn yourself a mobile internet charge. We’re yet to experience the pain of being hit with one of these mobile data dealies, but we expect it’d feel like returning to your car to find out you’ve been stung with a parking fine. Bad times.
QR Codes courtesy of www.cyrket.com
