My Top Android Apps

The subject of the top apps has been widely popular across the app space and is... well... very subjective of course! Considering myself now a semi advanced Android user (four months experience with two primary phones and a tablet in the car's dashboard), I decided to offer my opinion on the apps I use most.

As a foreword, I have to add, since adopting the 5.3" Samsung Galaxy Note as my primary phone, I dropped all the tablets I had been using before. As of today, the Note is my only mobile teleputer I carry and use on a daily basis. My other machine is the Lenovo X220 laptop, but nowadays this is not considered a mobile device. I have to admit this setup works excellent. Just two computing devices in total, minimal clutter, maximized mobility and productivity (at home the Lenovo is docked most of the time, connected to the 27" Apple Cinema Display).

So back to the apps.

1. The app number one is Gmail. I run two private accounts and a business (powered by Google Apps for Business) account. The Gmail app handles all three of them perfectly and is the most loved and used app on my Note. Honestly - this is the primary app I own this device for. I would rather drop Voice calls than Gmail.

2. The app number two is Google Reader. My RSS aggregator of choice. I LOVE IT. It has phenomenally simplified interface, nothing fancy as The Early Edition or Pulse or similar siblings. Probably the simplest possible. And very effective. Swipe left/right and that is it. It is enough to say I have almost never used the desktop version or the Reader since starting the mobile version for the first time. What certainly helps here, is the screen size / resolution of the Note, as some of the RSS items fall back to their Web sources when drilled down. Good browser / screen / resolution on mobile helps here a lot.

3. The app number three is Evernote. It is such simple in concept, you have to wonder why it has overtaken both Microsoft (One Note / Office) and Google (Documents). But it did. I am a premium subscriber to the Evernote service, paying for offline access. I use Evernote for all sorts of note taking activities. Have to say the landscape mode Samsung touch keyboard helps here. The landscape 5.3" display perfectly matches my fingers as I thumb - type. Both iPad and 8-10" Android tablets were too big and heavy and 3-4" phones too small.

4. The app number four is the Camera. The Galaxy Note has an excellent imaging sensor. Most of the time I use the Camera to take snapshots of discussion whiteboards in the office. Then using the business Google Docs account I upload them directly to our company collections. We have a dedicated archive folder for photos and this effective way we can always reach for the source snapshot of any project / discussion.

5. The app number five is Twitter. I am not a heavy Twitter user. Trying to avoid Information overload I prefer to follow people who do not tweet more than once a day, with 3 per week being my favorite. I can handle about 10-20 Twitter messages per day and the careful selection of the sources I am very happy with the result.

6. The number six is RocketDial Pro, a very sophisticated phone dialer. I use it for one primary reason. The native Android Dialer is very poor. Especially poor when it comes to searching for contacts and selecting a contact to dial. It simply takes way too many strokes and touches to do what should be instant (and what was instant on a BlackBerry, if you want a reference). The RocketDial has two features I consider a must. One is the big number keypad. And the other is the T9-based search across the entire address book. So basically any of my 1000+ contacts is not more than 4 clicks away. It is  hard to imagine how such a basic function like a native dialer has been so badly implemented in an operating system fighting for the King of the Hill status. Fortunately the RocketDial fixes this (although at the same time introducing a jungle of hundreds of other unnecessary features). But after three years with a BlackBerry, the native Android Dialer was unacceptable for me. That is why I use the Rocket. At the same time placing it as a 6th on the list, you get the sense of what I do with the phone. All sorts of things but voice calls. As I said at the eComm session last June. A phone is no longer a phone.

This is the top six. Of course there are more, I have 45 apps installed in total. Among the others I use Facebook, Navigon, ezPDF reader, Music and more. But there is a significant gap between this first six I use many times a day everyday, and the others, being used only on occasion.