Finding the best Android apps out on any given month, week or even day is a tall order. Flick through the “just in” section of the Android Market and you’ll find stacks of apps you wouldn’t recommend to your worst enemy. And many of the makers even have the nerve to charge you for ‘em. The solution? Our best Android apps of the week, right here.
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!
Facebook
World-famous geek and now infamous social oddball Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg talked in San Francisco this week about Facebook’s future. Soon you’ll be able to geotag virtually everything you do, so that your legions of fans can follow you around, dropping their coats over puddles for you and opening any doors that might stand in your way. The truth, of course, is that no-one cares. Get over yourself already.
Just as Z-dog was riffing in his own awkward, and yet kinda smug, way, new Facebook apps hit the App Store and Android Market. Facebook for Android has been the poor cousin to the iPhone version for some time now, but this new edition brings it a fresh set of only-slightly musty hand-me-downs. Groups and Places are in, perfect for segmenting all of your ardent fans into whatever form of segregation you wish, and ensuring Facebook a position as one of the best Android apps.
Twitter
Another android app that hasn’t been anywhere near as up-to-date as its shiny iPhone alternative until now is Twitter. Alongside the Facebook re-vamp, Twitter for Android has been given a good hard kick up the jacksie.
The app is now faster, and makes it much easier for you to find out about the tweeters tweeting the tweets you’re reading, and adds the nifty pull to refresh feature – so no more tapping away at that refresh button. It makes us wonder – why does Android always seem to draw the short straw? The poor little chap’s trying his best.
Frostwire
Limewire may have just been shut down, but if we’ve learnt anything from the battle against piracy it’s that, like a game of whack-a-mole, if you shut down a pirate, another one will just pop up somewhere else. Frostwire’s a bit like a mobile version of Limewire.
It’s a peer-to-peer network that shows you tonnes of other users, how many files they have and how far away they are from you. You can rifle through their stuff, broken down into apps, docs, pics, video and music.
If you want to find dodgy pornography and viruses, there’ll be plenty on Frostwire, but if you’re more discerning about the files you stash on your mobile – approach with caution!
BT Phone Book
For all the claims of convenience we lump on the web, it’s often too open to avoid making your brain start seeping out of your lugholes. Search for an Indian restaurant in Manchester and you’ll invariably dredge up some bizarre subcontinent-literature book group in a small town in the US called Manchester. Sometimes it’s enough to make you pine after the good old days of paper A-Zs.
Let’s not pack up our PCs yet though because BT Phone Book is here to save the day. Thankfully, this isn’t just a 1000-page eBook offering the drab contents of the real-life BT Phone book, but a nifty location-aware place finder that feels like a next gen version of the directory that everyone knows, and some even love. Just type in a keyword and BT Phone Book will find any nearby related companies. And guess what – it actually works. One of the best Android apps for reference out there.
Kik Messenger
Kik Messenger has a bold aim. It wants you to forget standard text messaging and embrace the Kik way of life with its over-the-mobile-web texting alternative. But if you can’t convince your mates to do the same, like a cult with one person in it, Kik Messenger isn’t much use.
Step into the app and it’s like walking into a room. You whisper out a quiet “helloooo?” and if bounces back off the walls eerily. There’s not much to Kik Messenger, but there’s a reason for this.
Get your mates to download it too and you have a free alternative to text messaging, one that’s designed to look and feel just like texting too. No one wants to hang around in an empty room, especially not a virtual one, but fill it with friends and you have a party on your hands.
QR Codes courtesy of www.cyrket.com
