![Click here to read MyWeather Is a Customizable, "6X More Precise" Weather App for iPhone, Android, and Web](http://betacache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/17/2011/05/small_1300-aotd-myweather.jpg "Click here to read MyWeather Is a Customizable, "6X More Precise" Weather App for iPhone, Android, and Web")
iPhone/Android/Web: There are so many weather apps available that weather is its own category in the mobile app stores. MyWeather is a new app that promises 6x better precision than The Weather Channel, Accuweather, and others, as well as more personalization. More »
A portable and internet-connected device with a touch screen, especially a sizable one like the iPad, makes for a pretty slick platform for reading news. Here’s a look at the five most popular iOS newsreader apps. More »
Last week we asked you to share your favorite mobile alarm application, then we tallied up the most popular answers and compared them. Now we’re back to highlight your favorite. More »
The folks at Dropbox have been busy lately, and tonight they’re letting loose the results. A clever Android client is out of beta, a BlackBerry interface is on the way, and an API launch opens up an interesting app-storage-mashup future. More »
BlackBerry – Smartphone – Android – Handhelds – Dropbox
iTunes is letting more of its content out onto the open web these days, offering up song previews and, just recently, iPhone/iPod app details. You can check out screenshots, reviews, pricing, and most of the other details you’d get inside iTunes from your browser now when you click on a direct app link. Not every direct app link worked in a quick morning test, but over time, expect far fewer grumbles from those who don’t have iTunes installed but want to see just a few things inside Apple’s walled garden. [TechCrunch]
Microsoft’s Visual Search tool, introduced earlier this week, turns out to be a pretty helpful platform for browsing free and paid iPhone applications. It’s a trade-off: you won’t have to fire up iTunes, but you will have to install Silverlight.
Reader Anunay writes in with the link to turn Bing into a robust search for iPhone apps. From left-hand links, you can narrow your search by broad categories, specific prices, publishers, or other criteria. Hovering over an app icon gives you ranking, category, and release date information, and clicking an icon brings you to a Bing search page for that app—which, in turn, generally leads you to a developer's page and iTunes link. For those who don't like to (or can't) fire up iTunes to browse and search apps, it's a decent alternative, even if it requires installing a third-party plug-in. Thanks Anunay!
iPhone/iPod touch: There have been third-party apps like Flickit to upload iPhone photos directly to Flickr, but Flickr’s own app has hit the App Store, combining tools for uploading, tagging, search, and set organizing in a crisp-looking package.
The main page, shown at top, is where you get the most functionality, with an ever-present upload button in the upper right, beautifully cascading random images in the main frame, and quick access to your photo stream and those of your friends. Tapping a photo shows a pretty big view of the pic, and clicking for an even larger view gives you a full-screen, scroll-around vista.
Image uploading is also an easy and slick affair, with clearly understood privacy controls and big areas to tap to add tags, descriptions, and set inclusion. More interestingly, it’s probably not a coincidence that this app is landing in the App Store one day before Apple likely introduces iPod touch models with 3.2MP cameras.
Flickr is a free download for iPhone and iPod touch models running at least the 3.0 firmware. Uploads and profile features require a free Flickr account.
Qik, a streaming video app that’s already shown up on Android and jailbroken iPhones, has an official app for the iPhone 3GS out. It’s Wi-Fi only, and without live streaming, but the developers say that will change.
In the meantime, Qik does have at least one truly notable advantage over the native video capture tool—allowing for video captures in portrait or landscape modes. There's also location capturing for videos, and easier sharing tools for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and simple email sends. Qik can also share videos already stored on your video roll. In other words, if you've dug Qik's functionality on another platform already, and you don't mind the Wi-Fi-only and streaming limitations, you'll probably dig Qik for the 3GS. It's a free download for iPhone 3GS only.
The Android Market keeps growing, new phones are coming to seemingly every carrier, but finding the best, most useful stuff remains a challenge. We’re helping out with 10 apps that get things done and make Android life easier.
We’ve previously posted our Android app picks, in two different lists of a dozen each. This list adds some recent discoveries and neat apps we’ve stumbled upon.
Want to see the whole list without all the clicks? View all the items on one page here.
As always, we heartily welcome your own suggestions for useful, productive, or just awesome Android apps in the comments.
What sets Astrid apart from the many, many task/to-do managers out there? Two great features. One is its mostly seamless synchronization with cloud-based task manager Remember the Milk, which can happen in the background or when you hit "Sync". The other is its turbo-charged nagging powers. Astrid places itself in your notification area when a task is due and literally forces you to head over to the task to get rid of that nagging little squid-like icon. That's right—hitting "Clear Notifications" won't kill your to-do, and when you arrive at Astrid's home screen, it pops up the thing that needs doing with a rotating phrase, like "Do it and you'll feel better" or "Are you ready, tiger?" That might sound annoying to some, but to those whose thumbs are quick to put things off, Astrid is just the right kind of cure. Finally, if you're into the whole geolocation thing, Astrid can plug into Locale, the awesome conditional phone manager mentioned in a previous Android round-up, to do things like remind you to buy stamps when you’re near a post office, or drop off those clothes in your trunk whenever you’re around a Goodwill.
It must be said that SnapPhoto is not the most stable of applications. When it does work, though, it adds a slew of photo geek tools to your camera with a slide-out top panel. ISO controls, automatic or custom white balance, stabilizing software, effects, and, perhaps most helpful, a timer are available, along with quality and size modifiers. Reviewers’ consensus and personal experience find that the app gets less stable the more shots one takes, but for pulling off one key frame with your phone, it’s definitely worth the price.
It's a free, full-featured podcast client for Android—not an easy thing to find. It sports a few small ads that run along the bottom of the screen, but they're far from intrusive. ACast can search popular podcast databases to find your podcast feeds or accept manual URL entries, and lets you set up whether it updates, downloads, or streams your shows over Wi-Fi only or through a cell network. The app's own podcast player allows for auto-queueing of downloaded items, but those happy with Android's own minimal music player (assuming they exist) can simply play their tunes as normal. Be sure to hit up ACast's flush settings menu to customize how and when your shows are culled from the net.
When Android’s “Donut” revision lands, users will have a dedicated widget for one-click settings changes. In the meantime, Rounded Labs offers up five separate one-square widgets that simply turn Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and your phone ringer on or off, and change your screen brightness with every tap. The GPS widget actually sends you to a settings dialog to click once more and toggle GPS, but two clicks are definitely better than four.
Sherpa's not the first app that finds the stuff around you using GPS or Wi-Fi location, but it might be the most personalized. Sherpa's results come in a familiar map layout or a revolving "carousel," and are filtered by the time of day—it theoretically won't send you to a dry cleaners at 3 a.m. unless it's a 24-hour spot. Sherpa also "learns" from what you've previously selected, so that it presents Caribou Coffee shops when you're visiting Raleigh if you've looked for them in Atlanta. It could stand to move a bit faster, but it hooks in well to Android's native map, email, and location tools, and might just discover something new for you right across from where you're standing.
If Locale‘s uber-customization and multi-part settings are a bit too much for your needs, and you just want your phone not to ring at night and buzz while you’re at work, Sound Manager is what you should grab. The basic screen lets you set individual volumes, so notifications are silent while ringtones are audible, for instance. The scheduling capabilities are where it’s at though, given that most of us work, sleep, eat, and do other ritual activities we’d rather not have interrupted by new Twitter direct messages or emailed Amazon shipping alerts.
We’ve mentioned this Windows/Android app combo before, but it’s worth noting again because it still works, and it’s still probably the easiest way to turn a 3G/EDGE connection into a connection of last resort for your laptop. Uncooperative eateries and ransom-pushing airports can be bypassed with a simple click of Connect on both the phone and a Windows taskbar item. The bummer is that it requires having a USB cable connection between the handset and the computer, but otherwise it provides a decent hook-up for low-bandwidth necessities. (Original post)
Like its iPhone counterpart, Amazon’s app can “remember” whatever you take a picture of and send to it with reasonably amazing accuracy. Where the Android app surpasses it is in its barcode scanning ability. If an item you want to save to a wishlist, suggest to a friend, or note for your own purchase later doesn’t photograph well, or can’t be found by Amazon, the bar code will almost always hit the nail on the head. Whatever you do in the app is also noted in your Amazon account, so it makes for a great list builder, whether or not you’ve got the time to tinker right there in the store. (Original post)
Astro is one of those apps you wish wasn’t necessary, but are glad a developer took the time to whip it up. It’s basically a serious file browser, one that can download (nearly) any file you find a URL for, pass files on your SD card along to the Gmail client for attaching, find the files that your music or movie player can’t seem to find on their own (insert grumbling here), and back up your downloaded applications to your SD card. You won’t use it too often, but you’ll be glad it’s there when you need it.
Okay, so you could theoretically call this a goofy tenth item tacked onto a list of nine perfectly productive apps. But that theory assumes you’ll never be stuck in an unbearably long line, terminal, or car ride, and desperately want to engage in a little Tower-Defense-like action with eye-catching Tron-style graphics. The free version contains only one level at Normal difficulty, but it’s more than enough to keep a casual defender captivated. From notably extensive testing, this also doesn’t appear to be as much of a battery drainer as other Android games.
Six months ago we pointed out the best Android apps to boost your mobile productivity, but since then more free applications have appeared in the Market that offer useful features you don’t want to miss.
Let’s take a look at a few notable free apps that make getting things done with your Android handset easier and more fun. All of these are available in the Android Market on your phone; the apps that have dedicated web sites are linked below.
Gmote: Turn Android into a remote control for your computer and its music and movies with Gmote. Perfect for controlling your media center PC under the television from the couch, Gmote can browse what media files you want to play and offers regular play, pause, rewind, and volume controls (as shown). Alternately, you can go into Gmote’s touchpad mode and drive the mouse on your computer screen with your phone, launching and switching applications. Gmote requires that you install server software on your computer as well as the Android app to work.
Sticky: Android doesn’t come with a built in notes application, but Sticky will give you colored digital Post-Its you can hide or show, drag and drop around your Android home screen.
Nightwatch: If you charge your phone on your nightstand while you sleep, you want Nightwatch. Nightwatch converts Android into a fullscreen clock automatically when you plug it in to charge.
Hungry!: Simplify your visits to the supermarket with Hungry!, a grocery shopping application. Enter the list of items you need to pick up at the grocery store, and check them off as you buy them with Hungry!. You can email your shopping list to your spouse with Hungry!, and see your purchase history and top most-bought items, as well.
Shake Awake: One of Android’s annoyances (that will hopefully be fixed in future releases) is lack of easy access to the keypad when you’re on a call. Right now, when you’re on a call, Android slips into sleep mode, which means you have to mess with the wake button to punch in numbers on the keypad (like a teleconference PIN or to use any number-driven menu system). Shake Awake is here to fix that annoyance: While you’re on a call, a quick movement of the handset wakes up Android for easy keypad access.
Useful Switchers: Easily toggle and configure Android’s settings with Useful Switchers, an all-in-one settings panel. Set your ringer behavior (sound and/or vibration), toggle your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane Mode, and GPS on and off, set your screen brightness and timeout, and even launch a handy flashlight (bright white screen) all from one pane in Useful Switchers.
Contacts Clean-up: If you’re the type who likes all of the dollar bills in your wallet smoothed out, all facing the same way, and sorted by denomination, then you probably want all your contacts’ phone numbers to be in the same format, too. Contacts Clean-up does just that: you enter the phone number format you like best (with or without dashes, dots, country codes, etc), and Contacts Clean-up will sweep through your contacts list and reformat them all in one shot.
ActionComplete: Practitioners of David Allen’s Getting Things Done productivity system should check out ActionComplete, and GTD manager for Android. Set up your projects, next actions, wait list, and pending lists in ActionComplete, and associate people, places, and tags with each. ActionComplete will notify you when something is due—or if you've got location-awareness on, if you're in the place you've got something to do. (I haven't tested the location awareness/places feature thoroughly myself, but head into the app's preferences to turn on location awareness.) ActionComplete's web site says a web-based version of the app is "coming soon" as well.
No Signal Alert: When you walk into any dead zone where your phone’s got zero bars of cell reception, No Signal Alert lets you know. Especially useful for when you’re expecting that important call that just isn’t coming (because it can’t!), No Signal Alert offers audio, vibration, and status bar alerts when you’ve got no bars.
Free Dictionary Org: Ok, it’s not the fanciest dictionary we’ve ever used, but it’s free and it works like you’d expect: you enter a word to look up (and it suggests words as you tap), and Free Dictionary Org displays a definition fetched from the web (so it doesn’t work offline).
Weather Channel: While it’s not the prettiest weather application you’ll ever see, the Weather Channel app is serious about giving you the current conditions, hourly, 36-hour, and 10-day forecast. Set up multiple places in this app for easy crowing about how perfect it is in San Diego while your relatives are getting hailed on in Oklahoma.
Locale: Make sure your ringer switches to vibrate during that weekly meeting, but goes on full blast at home with Locale, a location-aware settings manager for Android. Based on conditions like battery power, location, date, or time, Locale can change Android’s settings automatically for you.
Even six months later, previously mentioned Compare Everywhere, Shazam, and AnyCut are still prime free Android apps, as well as Secrets password manager and GV for Google Voice users.
Special thanks to the folks at Android and Me and the commenters on this Smarterware post for informing this article. If you’re feeling like some more Android eye candy, check out my Show Off Your Android Flickr group.
What are your favorite useful and free Android apps? Let us know in the comments.
Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding editor, loves a good free Android app. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
