So a few months ago, it was time to upgrade our phones. I really really wanted an iPhone, I already had an iPod touch, both my siblings and most of my friends had iPhones, and I was so excited for apps. But, when we started really looking into it, iPhones are EXPENSIVE! And my tech loving husband really wanted to go Android. Once we found Droids on sale for $19.99 with a new contract, the deal was sealed. And it's taken a bit of a settling in period, but I am in love with this phone! Today, I am going to share with you my favorite apps! If you aren't a tech geek, it's hard to find a good list of apps for your Droid. These are apps I use everyday! I'm not going to go into depth on Facebook (I use the stock app) or Gmail, lol. I only use the stock camera app. I would definitely suggest going to the market and downloading a bar code scanner before you start reading. Many of the apps have QR codes (little black and white boxes) and you can scan them right off your computer screen with your phone!
1.
Shortyz Crossword Puzzles - This game is easily the most used thing on my phone! It has a list of crossword puzzles that download everyday. Between 3 and 9 new puzzles everyday! I have yet to run out of new puzzles to do, it has a ton of settings to customize everything and it pretty much blows every other crossword game out of the water. And the best part, it's completely free!
2.
Our Groceries - This app is really cool because it syncs with everyone's phone and the internet. So everyone who has an Android phone, iPhone, Blackberry, or web access can add things to your shopping lists. (The main list holder has to give everyone else access via email) This is super helpful for us, because we can just add things to the list when we run out of them and then either one of us can shop on the way home from work. Also, completely free!
3.
Touiteur - I am completely addicted to Twitter, so when I got this phone, I played with a TON of Twitter apps. This one wins for mindlessly easy navigation, color coding for important tweets, and it just looks really nice! It also holds the last place that you read, so you don't miss any tweets. I do have the official Twitter app installed as well, because it integrates with the phone book, which I really like. There is a free and a paid version of this and I have no idea what the paid app is for, lol!
4.
Slacker Radio - Ok, there are a lot options out there for radio on your phone. I also have
Pandora and
iheartradio installed. I almost exclusively use Slacker though. I love that you have the option to tweet when you favorite a song (need to set it up online) and it plays a lot more new music. Pandora is my husband's pick, because he likes older music and you can make custom stations on your phone. I really love the idea behind the iheartradio app and it's awesome to use if I'm at home and not moving my phone, but it doesn't work as well if my phone is in motion, which doesn't help in the car. All of these apps are free!
5.
DoubleTwist - One of my biggest drawbacks for switching to Android was my music. My music was almost exclusively on iTunes and I could not figure out how to get it onto my phone. This app works with your computer and is literally iTunes for your Android phone. It is AMAZING. It imports your iTunes lists, custom playlists, and videos and allows you to sync your music and things to your phones just like iTunes. Syncing used to be really slow and it may still be when you first start using it, but a recent update made it much speedier. This is the best mp3 player I've found for Android and the integration with iTunes makes it super familiar and easy to use. This is in beta and it's free for now, but it won't be forever!
6.
Kindle - it's Kindle, for your phone! I love this one, though I haven't had much time to use it lately. You can scale the size of the letters and the brightness of the screen. I got used to reading on the small screen quickly and there are a good amount of free and low cost books available for you to try it out! The app is free, the books cost money.
7.
Photoshop Express - I love this app because it's super easy to get photos from my phone to my computer this way. All you need to do is sign up for an account at photoshop.com and then you will be able to upload photos from your phone to the photoshop website and from there you can download the photos to your computer or post them on the web. This app is free and the only thing I don't love about it is, it only works with the stock camera. If you download a camera app, it won't find those. You can send the photos from the gallery in your phone straight to Picasa, Facebook, Twitter or email though, but not all of those are "hi res"
Games for Me:
*
Word Feud - just like Words with Friends, I play the free version with no issues. (I'm lauracw, if you want to play!) I recently bought
Word Wise, which says you can play cross platform, Android and iPhone, but it's not a slick looking at Word Fued.
*
Fruit Ninja - you slash fruit with a sword, I know it sounds lame, but it's super fun! This app costs $1
*
Jewels - this app is like Bejeweled, it free and a great time waster!
*
Angry Birds Lite - this game is super fun and addicting, currently it's in beta testing so only a limited free version is available
Games for Kids (well, my 4 yo):
*
Kids Connect - Katelyn adores connect the dots and I like this one because it snaps to the dots and then shows a picture of what you've made. We have the free version of this and a few of their other games and these are her top games!
* Memory Games - You can get pretty much any kind character memory game, Katelyn's favorite is a Disney Princess one
*
Preschool Learning - another game where we are only playing the free version, but there is a paid version as well. There are four games in this one and Katelyn really likes the one where she can write letters.
Wow, that's a lot of stuff, lol!! I have never had an issue with any of the games I am recommending here. I am using a rooted Motorola Droid on Verizon.
Do you have an Android phone or are you thinking of switching? What are your must have apps?
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