Some of the Best Android Applications*

* IMHO of course

I recently switched to using a phone running Google's Android. Once I got the hang of the capacitive touch-screen I went straight to trying out some of the many applications in the Google Android Market. Some were uninstalled immediately but many others persist. The phone, and HTC Hero, came with a range of built-in Android and HTC applications, and after trying Market alternatives, the HTC ones were often the best option. Below my list of installed applications. I won't be keeping all of these, but they are all worthy of consideration.

• Internet
  • ConnectBot by Kenny Root and Jeffrey Sharkey - Excellent SSH client
  • androidVNC by androidVNC + antlersoft - Very usable VNC client
  • RemoteRDP Demo - RDP client, haven't tested it yet
  • VPN Connection - Connects to Cisco VPN concentrators only
  • Ping by ilMobile Apps - IP ping utility
  • AndFTP by Lysesoft - Excellent FTP and SFTP client
  • Sipdroid - Make SIP phone calls over the Internet
  • aWhois by Aphys - whois utility (domain names only)
  • DaraIRC by WebImpact Inc - Clean IRC client
  • Transdroid by Eirc Kok - P2P Downloader
  • URL Juicer by Smudge IT - Shorten and share URLs
  • URL Shortner by Ivan Greene - Shorten and share URLs
• Office
  • KeePassDroid by Brian Pellin - Android version of KeePass password storage
  • Keeper Password & Data Vault - Password store that supports desktop sync
  • PDF Viewer by HTC - Very capable PDF viewer
  • QuickOffice - Mini office app
  • Documents To Go 2.0 Main App by DataViz - View Word and Excel documents
  • Calendar by HTC - Good calendar
  • Mail by HTC - Excellent IMAP email client
  • Messages - Good SMS app
  • Note Everything by SoftXperience - Text, audio, or drawing (no photo support)
  • AK Notepad - Good basic notepad
  • Astrid Task/Todo List by we <3 astrid - Excellent task manager (no sync)
  • Scan2PDF Mobile by burrotech - Make a PDF from one or more phone photos
• System
  • TaskManager by HTC Standard task manager
  • Battery Widget by mippin.com - More detailed battery level
  • ASTRO File Manager by Metago - Excellent file manager
  • TasKiller by Thibaut Nicolas - Mass kill running applications (with an ignore list)
  • Inserty (free) by room.404 - Insert template text anywhere, with GPS substitution
  • WeFi Connect by wefi - Test every wifi connection within range
  • NetMeter by Bernhard Suter - Display Wifi and 3G network activity, very good
  • Phonalyzer by Martin Drashkov - Analyse your call log
  • Speedtest by Xtreme Labs - Test Wifi speed (only works with Wifi)
  • NetCounter - Counts network traffic
  • NetBilling by Coollet - Excellent traffic counter, watches your quota
  • Missed Reminder by Denis Solonenko - Recurring SMS/email/missed call reminders
  • vizAccess Starhub - Auto-brower-login for Singapore Wifi
  • Shake Awake - Turn off the screen lock during calls by moving the phone
  • AutoSpeaker by IdeeNote - Enable speakerphone when you put your phone down
  • PhoneCard - Phone card app
  • Market by Google - Access to Google evail market (with app blocking)
  • SayMyName by Tom Tasche
  • HotspotConnect by Jean-loup Gailly - Helps connect to browser login hotspots
  • Text Widget by Alex Byrnes - Display SMS messages in full as they arrive
  • MessageWidget by Till Essers - Display SMS messages in full as they arrive
  • Ticket by MiSc - Scrolling Text on your screen
  • SMS Backup by Christoph Studer - Backup your SMS messages as Gmail Messages
  • Barcode Scanner by ZXing Team - Also used by other barcode apps
• Games
  • Doom for Android by Scheff's Blend - Port of Doom, works
  • Bubble Defense by Second Gear Games - Clean and pleasant tower defense game
  • Teeter by HTC - Free tilt game
    
  • Space War by Lim Thye Chean - 2D vertical scroller app
  • Dungeon Wonders Lite - RPG, don't know much yet
  • Air Hockey by JJCgames - Play Air Hockey with your finger
  • Frodo C64 - C64 emulator, includes on screen keyboard
  • XGalaga by Design2Code - Excellent conversion of Galaga
  • Cestos by Chicken Brick Studios
  • Zombie, Run! by Pete Dolan - Interesting augmented reality game
  • Akaline by sotap -
  • Stroids Demo by Michael Angel - High-glitz version of Asteroids with finger control
  • Asteroids - Would be good, but requires hardware keyboard
  • Pocket Pupply Lite by hanimoble.com - Cute 2D scroller that I don't understand
  • Orbs.KnockOff by DevAndroid
  • Path of a Warrier by Gamevil - RPG of some kind
  • Abduction by Phil Symonds - Excellent jumping game using accelerometer
  • Zebra Paint by Peter Dornbach - Cute colour-by-numbers, also good for kids :-)
  • Gang Wars Lite by DevAndoird - Complex MMOG that I don't understand
  • Buka by Hexage.net
  • Android MUD Client by Timothy Swatz - Connect to text-based MUDs
  • Retro Defense Lite by Lava Labs Ltd - Tron-style tower defense game, quite good
  • Robo Defense Free - Large map tower defense game, with aircraft, lots of option by doesn't seem well balanced
  • RockOut - Guitar by Active Frequency - Play some guitar chords by touching the screen
• Social
  • Wapedia by Taptu - Assisted search and browsing for Wikipedia
  • Peep by HTC - Twitter client
  • Facebook Android by Facebook - Limited Facebook client
  • Twitroid by Zimmerman & Marban - Excellent alternative to HTC's Peep
  • Skype Lite (BETA) - Supports Skype chat (BEWARE beta very slow)
  • Jabiru by Michael "zet" Zbortek - Jabber/XMPP client
  • Music by HTC - Okay Android app
  • Mother Feed by MotherApp - Friendfeed client
• Location
  • Google Maps by Google - Goole maps viewer
  • Google Sky Map by Google - Compass-based viewing of sky map
  • My Tracks by Google
  • Layar Reality Browser by Layer - Overlay locations on live video
  • ShopSavvy by Big in Japan - Scan and search products by bar code
  • Compare Everywhere by CompareEverywhere - Scan and search products by bar code
  • Footprints by HTC - Excellent diary app with photo, audio, GPS, and maps support
  • Here I Am by Code Sector - Sends people where you are by SMS or email
  • GPS Status 2 - Excellent GPS/Compass/Accelerometer information
  • GPS Speedometer by Char Software - Display your GPS-based speed
  • My Maps Editor by Google - Create and edit your Google Maps
  • Track My Life - Personal tracker
  • DroidTracker - Personal tracker
• Pictures and Photos
  • Camera by HTC - Standard photo app
  • PicSay - Photo Editor by Shinycore - Fantastic fun adding speech bubbles to photos
  • Albums by HTC - Standard picture viewer
  • Draw! by thewongandonly.com - Simple finger drawing, good fun
• Audio
  • Music by HTC - Ok music player
  • Listen by Google - Great audio podcast downloaded and player
  • Voice Recorder by HTC - Standard voice recorder
  • DroidRecord by Gonzo Computing - Alternative voice recorder
  • RingDroid by Ringdroid Team - Edit MP3's and turn portions into ring tones
  • Shazam by Shazam Entertainment - Sample and recognise music, then buy it
• Video
  
  • YouTube by HTC - Great Youtube player
  • Mother TED by MotherApp - Video podcast downloader and player for TED
  • Qik by Qik - Live video broadcast
  • Camcorder by HTC - Standard video recorder
  • Ustream Broadcaster by Ustream.tv
  • Video Player by Jeff Hamilton - Good free video player
  • Act 1 Video Player by HyperAware - Very good video player ($)
• Completely Silly
  • Bummer Button by Localtone Interactive - Big button that makes a sily noise

Note that there are many applications I am unable to try; it turns out that Google is not much less evil than Apple when it comes to their app store. I am unable to try or buy most commercial Google applications, because Google blocks them in many countries including Australia and Singapore (Why, I do not know). It is sad that Google isn't living up to its promise of an open market for Android applications. (If you are an Android app developer you should know you are missing out on a lot income because of the Google Market blocking of application sales.)

In some countries, especially the US, Google is collaborating with mobile phone operators to tell Android phone owners what applications they are allowed to run on their phone, e.g. by blocking tethering applications for Android phones. A protest application is available: KeepAndroidOpen by MichaelHuang.