There are more then millions of Android Apps available over internet.
However to get the Best of the Android Apps and that too which are
available without any cost involved is a tedious task to do.
Well, I take my words back !! No more it would be an issue, here you go with the Top 100 best free Android Apps for your gaming, social networking needs, productivity, business, lifestyle plus much more.
Best Free Android Apps – Seesmic
There
are many Twitter apps on Android – and Twitter itself shook up the
scene with the launch of its own-brand app recently – but we’re sticking
with Seesmic. Offering support for multiple accounts, a home page
widget showing latest tweets and an incredibly slick and professional
design, it’s one of the finest examples of app development out there
today.
Best Free Android Apps – Facebook for Android
Facebook for Android is lacking in features compared to Facebook itself, but a recent update added
Inbox support to the Android app, finally allowing its users to
communicate in almost real time. The app’s fast and stable, with a
simplicity that reminds you of the old days when using Facebook used to
be bearable.
Best Free Android Apps – ASTRO File Manager
ASTRO
is nothing more than a Windows-style file explorer, but if you’re into
tinkering and directly installing Android APK files yourself, it’s
essential to stick something like this on your phone. It makes your
phone feel like a computer, and makes you feel like you’re in charge of
it.
Best Free Android Apps – UK Jobs
Hey, times are hard and you’ve got to pay for your oppressive monthly mobile phone contract somehow. Offering a fully searchable database of current UK job vacancies, UK Jobs,
which pulls in its data from independent employment site 1job.co.uk is,
a slightly cumbersome but useful and non-governmental tool.
Best Free Android Apps – Hotmail
Microsoft
has teamed up with developer SEVEN to offer an official Hotmail app for
Android, which gives users a simple, clean interface, push notification
support and even lets you manage multiple Hotmail accounts from within
the app. If your email needs haven’t yet been assimilated by Google,
it’s a useful option.
Best Free Android Apps – Google Sky Map
A
stunning app that renders Patrick Moore obsolete, by using your phone’s
orientation tools to give you an accurate representation of the stars
and planets on your screen. Point your phone at the sky, then learn what
constellations are visible and if that’s a UFO or just Venus. Google
Sky Map even works indoors, if you’re not keen on getting cold.
Best Free Android Apps – Layar
The
stunning augmented reality app Layar has recently gone commercial,
adding an online shop that allows users to buy AR content such as travel
guides, local house price apps
and much more. But you’re still able to use the numerous free Layers to
pop data up over real-world locations, delivering a satisfying
futuristic experience.
Best Free Android Apps – Foursquare
The
social media darling Foursquare is represented in fine form on Android,
with the Google app offering easy one-click check-ins, integrated
Google Maps for a seamless Google-branded experience and home page
shortcut options to all your favourite places.
Best Free Android Apps – WordPress for Android
WordPress
for Android started out as independent creation wpToGo, before
WordPress decided it liked it so much it bought it up – hiring the maker
to develop it in-house. It’s very feature-packed, with the latest
version offering full integration with other apps, letting you spin
content and send it directly to the app for easy updating. It could do
with more image insertion tools, though.
Best Free Android Apps – Google Goggles
A
bit of a novelty, in that Google Goggles lets you take photos and have
Google analyse them and come back with a search results page for what it
thinks you’re looking at. However, the app’s main use is as a QR code
reader, which lets you scan barcodes for quick access to apps and
whatever data people choose to embed in the odd little data squares.
Best Free Android Apps – Winamp
Yes,
the same Winamp from a decade ago. It’s had an Android app for some
time, with recent updates adding support for iTunes, Mac syncing, plenty
of music streaming options, new release lists and Shoutcast integration
for radio support. It’s a fine, free media player.
Best Free Android Apps – BBC News
While
the BBC’s Android iPlayer app is a bit on the disappointing side, the
corporation’s BBC News app is much more refined. There’s a stylish
grid-based front page, plus
you’re able to swipe from left to right to switch between stories in
your chosen specialist category. A recent update also added a couple of
Home screen widgets, too, plus the ability to submit your own news tips,
as if the BBC was a small blog clamouring for content.
Best Free Android Apps – RAC Traffic
An
official production of the motoring organisation, RAC Traffic is dead
simple – it guesstimates your location via the mobile signal, then pops
up the current traffic alerts for your area. It’s much better than
having to listen to the radio for the odd update about arterial
blockages.
Best Free Android Apps – Swype
The
odd line-drawing alternate keyboard Swype is a love-it or hate-it kind
of thing, with the significant amount of re-learning required to make
the most of it quite offputting to some users. Once you’re familiar with
the idea, though, it’s genius – with advanced prediction options
further speeding your line-typing. Swype is not available through the
Android Market – the only way to install is is via a direct download
from the maker.
Best Free Android Apps – Evernote
After
the Android version of Dropbox, the next best solution for keeping all
your ‘business’ in one place is Evernote – which lets you stash and sync
all your text notes, voice memos and files on your phone and access
them through a desktop computer.
Best Free Android Apps – Flickr
As
well as supporting Flickr uploading, this app also lets you capture
photos from within the app and comes complete with a set of filters, so
you can hipsterise your life with ease. It supports sharing with Twitter
and Facebook as well, so your other, non-photo-nerd friends can enjoy
the results of today’s snapping session.
Best Free Android Apps – Last.fm
The
subscription-based thrills of Last.fm open up a world of music
streaming on your mobile. You have to ‘buy in’ to the odd Last.fm way of
organising things and suggesting new music, but if you’re easily led
and not restricted by bandwidth it’s a superb tool.
Best Free Android Apps – Google Maps Navigation
An
absolute must-get. As long as you have Android 1.6 or above, the latest
update to Google Maps introduces turn-by-turn voice navigation,
simultaneously devastating the satnav industry while boosting the in-car
dashboard dock/charger
accessory scene. Route calculations are done at the outset of your trip,
minimising data transfer en route and keeping you on target even when
the GPS signal drops. It’s amazing, it works, and it’s free.
Best Free Android Apps – 3banana Notes/ Catch Notes
A
simple note-taking tool that lets you sync those disjointed, late night
thoughts you have together into one huge, incoherent database. If you
have a Snaptic account you’re able to sync the Android app with that too
– or you can simply log in with your Google details for instant mobile
jotting. Once written, notes may also be pinned to the home screen,
creating a little post-it note-style reminder icon.
Best Free Android Apps – gvSIG Mini Maps
gvSIG
Mini Maps is an incredibly comprehensive mapping tool which combines
major online maps including Google, Bing, Open Street Map and more,
which will win UK fans for one huge reason alone – it supports the
official and recently open-sourced Ordnance Survey data. This means
you’re never more than a post code search away from seeing where you are
in OS-level detail, which offers much more in the way of accurate local
data than other map tools provide.
Best Free Android Apps – Astrid Task / Todo list
Astrid
describes itself as an “open source” task list, which includes syncing
support with www.rememberthemilk.com for the ultimate in minutiae
management. You set a list of tasks and are then able to order them
according to their importance – also setting off a timer to see
precisely how long you’ve wasted on Twitter instead of doing the job
in hand. It’s basically the world’s most complex and in-depth personal
to do list, which, if used correctly, will consume more time than the
tasks themselves. Ideal for expert-level procrastinators.
Best Free Android Apps – Shareprice
Shareprice
uses your login from financial site www.iii.co.uk to offer live share
price updates on your Android phone. Watch your nest-egg lose 50 per
cent in value every three weeks during the latest trans-global financial
crisis, live! It’s ideal for users with share values so low they have
to be checked in private, to ensure their partner doesn’t see exactly
how much money has disappeared into some notional financial black hole.
Best Free Android Apps – Skifta
Skifta
is the first software tool to be granted DLNA certification, meaning it
turns your Android phone into an official DLNA device. This in turn
means streaming all of your household media to your phone, and beaming
your phone videos to your TV. Seems a little buggy at the moment, but
there are plenty of updates arriving all the time. Requires Android 2.2
or higher.
Best Free Android Apps – Dropbox
The
Android version of the insanely popular stuff-syncing app has arrived,
and while Dropbox is a little lacking in the sort of fancy auto-syncing
options many were hoping for, it still works as expected. Files have to
be specifically downloaded to your phone to be edited or shared, which
is not quite the automated dream offered by the desktop tools, but it’s
still Dropbox on Android. Six months ago that was a distant, crazy
fantasy.
Best Free Android Apps – London Tube Status
Reduce
the misery of being told you’ve just missed a train and it’s a
14-minute wait until the next one with London Tube Status, which
combines travel status updates and live departure times. It also
includes a home screen widget that shows your favourite (or at least
your most used) platform departures, making it easy to check how much
you’ve just missed the next one by while tearing down the escalators.
Best Free Android Apps – Amazon UK
Amazon
recently launched an official Android app, replacing its reliance on a
mobile web store. The app’s very simple and fast to use, and even
includes full shopping cart features with Amazon’s one-click system once
you’ve signed in with your usual account details.
Best Free Android Apps – Meebo IM
If
you like to pass the time exchanging smiley faces and abbreviations
with your friends through instant messaging apps, you ought to get a
copy of Meebo IM. It’s an instant messaging aggregator, incorporating
AIM, MSN, Yahoo, MySpace, Facebook, good old ICQ and more, serving
everything up in one convenient interface. Typing in all your logins and
passwords for everything is the only, very temporary, inconvenience.
Best Free Android Apps – Beelicious
If
you’re into the slightly last-generation social networking site
Delicious, you ought to get yourself organised with one of the many
third-party Android apps out there that support the bookmarking tool.
Such as Beelicious, which, once you’ve got through the slightly
cumbersome initial set-up process, lets you simply send website links to
your Delicious account via the Android browser’s ‘Share Page’ sub menu.
Best Free Android Apps – TweetDeck
The
new star on the Twitter app scene, TweetDeck for Android is one amazing
little tool. As well as presenting your timeline, DMs and replies in
separate side-by-side panels that you swipe the screen to flip between,
it can also pull in Facebook status updates. And mix it all in together.
And it does Foursquare. And Buzz.
Best Free Android Apps – iPlayer
The
BBC’s iPlayer app has finally arrived, and a right weird old mixed bag
it is, too. On the one hand, support for streaming radio and live TV
channels (Wi-Fi only) elevates this over the Android 2.2 compatible
mobile website, but the requirement for Android 2.2 and Flash Player
10.1 remains. And there’s no 3G streaming, not even of radio feeds. And
you can’t download shows, unlike in the sadly departed Beebplayer. And
the radio requires the screen to be on at all times. Strange app, this.
Best Free Android Apps – Google Reader
Google
has brought its RSS feed tool into the app era, launching its Google
Reader for Android. It’s got some great functionality built in, with
support for multiple Google accounts and plenty of thread customisation
options. You’re also able to use the volume rocker to page up and down
between messages, which is handy for extra-lazy news assimilation.
Best Free Android Apps – BT FON
BT’s
incredibly clever FON network is often a lifesaver, letting you legally
borrow Wi-Fi for free in many public places. And while standing outside
strangers’ houses. The BT FON Android app lets you automate the sign-in
process, so you can walk around towns and housing estates safe in the
knowledge that your phone’s always seeking out available Wi-Fi. You need
a BT FON username, though, so sort that out before you venture out into
the scary internet-free world.
Best Free Android Apps – Amazon Kindle
Amazon’s
Kindle app is a great e-reader, which is seamlessly linked with your
Amazon account. Support for magazines and newspapers is limited at the
moment, with only a handful of niche publications in Android-friendly
format. But for books it’s great, with plenty of screen and text display
options to get it looking a way that hurts your eyes the least. Another
exciting new way to collect classic novels you’ll probably never get
around to reading because there’s the internet now.
ES File Explorer
We’re officially out-of-love with previous favourite file explorer ASTRO, thanks to it now coming plastered with ads. ES File Explorer
is prettier, ad-free, and comes with a much more user-friendly and
functional interface. And yes, Android users have favourite file
explorers.
Androidify
Let your hair down by creating a realistic interpretation of what you hair looks like with Androidify.
It’s an avatar creator that uses the Android mascot as its base,
letting you swap trousers and hats with the swipe of a finger. Results
are then sharable via Twitter and the usual social tools. There aren’t
enough types of beard, though. Please release a Beard Expansion Pack.
Kongregate Arcade
Thanks to Android’s Flash Player powers, casual gaming portal Kongregate
is able to bring a huge number of its internet games to Android. They
run in the browser so resolutions can be a bit all over the place, but
with over 300 games to choose from there’s bound to be something there
for you.
Blogger
The Google-owned Blogger platform now has a presence in the current decade, thanks to the official Blogger app.
It’s remarkably simple, supports image uploads and geo-tagging and
imports the settings of all blogs associated with your Gmail account.
There’s no fancy editing the positions of your photos, which just get
chucked in at the bottom, but it works.
RD Mute
RD Mute
serves one purpose – to turn off all phone sounds when the Android
accelerometer tells it you’ve picked it up and turned it over. It’s a
‘silent mode’ shortcut for when you can’t even be bothered to press a
button. Put your phone on its front to shut it up – and add any very
important numbers to the app’s exceptions list, so people you don’t mind
talking to can get through.
Angry Birds
The
amazingly popular iOS game moved to Android recently, earning over two
million downloads during its first weekend of availability.
The
Android version is free, unlike the Apple release, with maker Rovio
opting to stick a few adverts on it rather than charge an upfront fee.
The result is a massive and very challenging physics puzzler that’s
incredibly polished and professional. For free. It defies all the laws
of modern retail.
Angry Birds for Android was first available to download from app store GetJar but is now available through Android Market.
Bebbled
Bebbled
is your standard gem-shuffling thing, only presented in a professional
style you wouldn’t be surprised to see running on something featuring a
Nintendo badge with an asking price of £19.99.
You only drop gems
on other gems to nuke larger groups of the same colour, but with
ever-tightening demands for score combos and scenes that require you to
rotate your phone to flip the play field on its head, Bebbled soon morphs into an incredibly complex challenge.
Red Stone
There’s an awful lot of square-shuffling games on Android and Red Stone
is one of the best. And one of the hardest. You start off with a big
fat ‘King’ square that’s four times of the normal ‘pawn’ squares, then
set about shuffling things so the fat King can get through to an exit at
the top of the screen.
It’s hard to accurately describe a puzzle game in the written word, but seriously, it’s a good game.
Newton
Released a few months back in beta form, Newton
is a maths/physics challenge that has you lining up shots at a target –
but having to contend with the laws of nature, in the form of pushers,
pullers, benders (no laughing), mirrors and traps, all deflecting your
shot from its target.
The developer is still adding levels to it at the moment, so one day Newtonmight be finished and might cost money. But for now it’s free and a great indie creation.
Sketch Online
Surprisingly free of crude representations of the male genitalia, Sketch Online
is a sociable guessing game where users do little drawings then battle
to correctly guess what’s being drawn first. It’s like Mavis Beacon for
the Bebo generation. The version labelled “Beta” is free, and if you
like it there’s the option to pay for an ad-free copy. But Google can’t
make you. Yet.
Drop
Some might call Drop
a game, others might classify it as a tech demo that illustrates the
accuracy of the Android platform’s accelerometer, thanks to how playing
it simply involves tilting your phone while making a little bouncy ball
falls between gaps in the platforms. Either way it’ll amuse you for a
while and inform you of the accuracy of your accelerometer – a win-win
situation.
Frozen Bubble
Another key theme of the independent Android gaming scene is (ports of) clones of popular titles. Like Frozen Bubble,
which is based around the ancient and many-times-copied concept of
firing gems up a screen to make little groups of similarly coloured
clusters. That’s what you do. You’ve probably done it a million times
before, so if it’s your thing get this downloaded.
Replica Island
Replica Island
is an extremely polished platform game that pulls off the shock result
of being very playable on an Android trackball. The heavy momentum of
the character means you’re only switching direction with the ball or
d-pad, letting you whizz about the levels with ease. Then there’s
jumping, bottom-bouncing, collecting and all the other usual platform
formalities.
Gem Miner
In Gem Miner
you are a sort of mole character that likes to dig things out of the
ground. But that’s not important. The game itself has you micro-managing
the raw materials you find, upgrading your digging powers and buying
bigger and better tools and maps. Looks great, plays well on Android’s
limited button array. Go on, suck the very life out of the planet.
ConnecToo
Another coloured-square-based puzzle game, only ConnecToo
has you joining them up. Link red to red, then blue to blue – then see
if you’ve left a pathway through to link yellow to yellow. You probably
haven’t, so delete it all and try again.
A brilliantly simple concept. ConnecToo used to be a paid-for game, but was recently switched to an ad-supported model – meaning it now costs you £0.00.
Titres
Once you’re successfully rewired your brain’s 25 years of playing Tetris in a certain way with certain buttons and got used to tapping the screen to rotate your blocks, it’s… Tetris.
It hinges on how much you enjoy placing things with your phone’s trackball or pad. If you’re good at it, it’s a superb Tetris clone. Let’s hope it doesn’t get sued out of existence.
Best Free Android Apps – Trap!
Not
the best-looking game you’ll ever play, with its shabby brown
backgrounds and rudimentary text making it look like something you’d
find running on a PC in the year 1985. But Trap! is good.
You draw
lines to box in moving spheres, gaining points for cordoning off chunks
of the screen. That sounds rubbish, so please invest two minutes of
your time having a go on it so you don’t think we’re talking nonsense.
Jewels
Coloured
gems again, and this time your job is to switch pairs to make larger
groups which then disappear. That might also sound quite familiar. The
good thing about Jewels
is its size and presentation, managing to look professional while
packing in more levels than should really be given away for free.
OpenSudoku
We had to put one Sudoku game in here, so we’ll go with OpenSudoku – which lives up to its open tag thanks to letting users install packs of new puzzles generated by Sudoku makers. It’s entirely possible you could use this to play new Sudoku puzzles for the rest of your life, if that’s not too terrifying a thought.
Abduction!
Abduction! is a sweet little platform jumping game, presented in a similarly quirky and hand-drawn style as the super-fashionable Doodle Jump.
You can’t argue with cute cows and penguins with parachutes, or a game
that’s easy to play with one hand thanks to its super accessible
accelerometer controls.
The Great Land Grab
A cross between a map tool and Foursquare, The Great Land Grab
sorts your local area into small rectangular packets of land – which
you take ownership of by travelling through them in real-time and buying
them up.
Then someone else nicks them off you the next day, a bit like real-world Risk.
A great idea, as long as you don’t mind nuking your battery by leaving
your phone sitting there on the train with its GPS radio on.
Brain Genius Deluxe
Our
basic legal training tells us it’s better to use the word “homage” than
to label something a “rip-off”, so we’ll recommend this as a simple
“homage” to the famed Nintendo Brain Training franchise.
Clearly Brain Genius Deluxe
is not going to be as slick, but there’s enough content in here to keep
you “brain training” (yes, it even uses that phrase) until your battery
dies. The presentation’s painfully slow, but then again that might be
the game teaching you patience.
Coloroid
Coloroid is aery, very simple and has the look of the aftermath of an explosion in a Tetris
factory, but it works. All you do is expand coloured areas, trying to
fill them in with colours in as few moves as possible – like using
Photoshop’s fill tool at a competitive level.
Cestos
Cestos
is sort of a futuristic recreation of curling, where players chuck
marbles at each other to try and smash everyone else’s balls/gems down
the drain and out of the zone. The best part is this all happens online
against real humans, so as long as there’s a few other bored people out
there at the same time you’ll have a real, devious, cheating, quitting
person to play against. Great.
Air Control
One
of the other common themes on the Android gaming scene is clones of
games based around pretending to be an air traffic controller, where you
guide planes to landing strips with a swish of your finger. There are
loads of them, all pretty much the same thing – we’ve chosen Air Control as it’s an ad-supported release, so is technically free.
GalaxIR
GalaxIR
is a futuristic strategy game with an abstract look, where players
micro-manage an attacking alien fleet. Pick a planet, pick an attack
point, then hope your troops have the balls to carry it off. There’s not
much structure to the game as yet, but that’s what you get when you’re
on the bleeding-edge of free, independent Android gaming development.
Graviturn
Graviturn
is an accelerometer based maze game, where the aim is to roll a red
ball out of a maze by tilting your phone around. Seems embarrassingly
easy at first, until increasing numbers of green balls appear on screen.
If any green balls roll off the screen you die and have to try again.
It’s abstract. It’s good.
Alchemy Classic
There are a few variants on Alchemy out there, each offering a similarly weird experience. In Alchemy Classic
you match up elements to create their (vaguely) scientific offspring,
so dumping water onto earth makes a swamp, and so on. It’s a brain
teaser thing and best played by those who enjoy spending many hours in
the company of the process of elimination.
Action Potato
In Action Potato
you control three pots. Pressing on the pots makes them jump up into
the air, where they harvest potatoes. See how many you can get in a row.
That’s the gist of it. And don’t collect the rotten potatoes, else you
die. That really is it. The Android Market stats say this is on well
over 250,000 downloads, so it’s doing something right.
Scrambled Net
Scrambled Net
is based around the age-old concept of lining up pipes and tubes, but
has been jazzed up with images of computer terminals, high score
tracking and animations. Still looks like something you’d have played on
a Nokia during the last decade, but it’s free – and looking rubbish
hardly stopped Snake from taking off, did it?
Dropwords
Dropwords
is laid out like your standard Android block-based puzzle game, the
difference here is we’re not dealing with gems – you make blocks
disappear by spelling out words from the jumbled heap of letters.
There’s not an enormous amount of point to it, but you can at least
submit your scores and best words to the server, where an AI version of
Susie Dent will pass her approval.
Barrr
What you do in Barrr
is man-manage a bar world, pointing men at the beers, games or tattoo
parlour, then taking their money off them once they’re drunk and happy
like a good capitalist. And make sure they go to the toilet. Things, as
things do in games, soon start speeding up and it gets rather insane and
difficult.
Tetronimo
The name gives it away – this is a Tetris clone. Or rather it’s a game that uses the same sort of block-shifting rules as Tetris,
only with a very nice and user friendly touchscreen area beneath the
block pit to make it easy to play. We’re having trouble locating this on
the Android Market at time of writing – either a glitch or the
inevitable legal troubles.
UPDATE: Tetronimo seems to have been removed from the Market, but there’s now an official Tetris app available to download.
Wordfeud
Wordfeud is a superb little clone of Scrabble,
with a big, clear screen and online play options that actually work.
The game’s been offered for free with some hefty advertising over it
thanks to the developer being based in Norway – which only received
paid-for app sales support recently. A paid version may arrive soon, but
Wordfeud remains free right now.
Friction Mobile
Friction Mobile
is a very odd concept that makes no sense in still images. You fire a
ball into the screen, then try to hit that ball with other balls until
it explodes. The catch is you’re not allowed to bounce balls backwards
into your own face. Because then you die. Sounds rubbish, but works
well. It’s free, so give it a no-obligation, no-commitment whirl.
Geared
Geared
is a weird little thing finally converted over to Android from iPhone.
It’s an embarrassingly simple concept – players slot different sized
cogs into place on the screen, with the aim being to power one gear from
another. Then, as is video game tradition, it gets harder and harder.
Plus there are 150 levels of it all.
Meganoid
A stunning little retro game, Meganoid
plays and looks like something that ought to be running on a Nintendo
emulator. But it isn’t. It’s new and on Android. It’s a speed-based
challenge, using on-screen or accelerometer controls to jump and bounce
through ever-hardening levels. Developer Orange Pixel is aggressively
supporting it, too, with constant map packs, characters and more
regularly appearing for download.
Cordy
A standard and traditional platform game. Cordy
is a speed-based affair, with players running, jumping and collecting
their way through its pretty green levels, using an electrical cable to
jump, swing over obstacles and grab energy. Uses on-screen buttons so
can be a bit tough to play, but comes with 12 free levels to get you
going.
Angry Birds Rio
Yet more Angry Birds for fans of the simplistic trial and error physics game.Angry Birds Rio
is another chapter-based effort as well, with developer Rovio leaving
tempting empty slots on the menu screen for periodic updates of new
levels. More of the same, but with a prettier, 3D look to it this time
thanks to a vague association with animated movie Rio.
Grave Defense Holidays
As with Angry Birds,
the maker of this superb tower defence game has spun out a separate
version it fills with seasonal levels. Recently updated with an Easter
map, this free version of the game also includes Valentine, Christmas
and St Patrick’s Day themed maps. Currently calls itself Grave Defense Easter. Easily one of the best examples of the tactical genre.
Words with Friends Free
The popular iPhone Scrabble-alike is now on Android, with an ad-supported version up on the Android Market for free. Words with Friends Free
should actually be called Words for People Without Any Friends, as once
installed it lets users play with complete strangers online – or pick
specific people from your contacts list. It’s turn-based, so several
ongoing games can be strung out for days.
PewPew
Very similar in style and concept to Xbox and Xbox 360 retro classic Geometry Wars. In fact, one might legally be able to get away with calling it a right old rip-off. Android PewPew
is a rock-hard 2D shooting game packed with alternate game modes. It’s a
bit rough around the edges and requires a powerful phone to run
smoothly, but when it does it’s a fantastic thing.
Tap Fish
A
nice looking little aquarium, that combines the timeless hobby of
staring at goldfish with game elements based around breeding new
varieties. There’s a slight sting in the tail here in that Tap Fish
is one of the initial wave of “freemium” Android games brought into
life thanks to Google’s launch of in-app billing. The really cool new
stuff costs little bits of money.
Beats, Advanced Rhythm Game
A standard rhythm action, button pressing music game for Android. Beatsmanages
to outdo the official music games by including a Download Song tab,
where it’s possible to install new song files created by users. It’s
very hard and very fast. Just like they should be. Runs perfectly on an
HTC Desire, too, so there’s no blaming glitches for not doing very well.
Pinball Deluxe
Pinball Deluxe
is an actually decent pinball sim for Android, and it’s free. At the
moment it comes with four tables – Wild West, Carnival, Space Frontier
and Diving for Treasure. Ball movement is convincing, and although a bit
of the magic is lost thanks to having to use on-screen buttons, it’s a
smooth enough experience. It’s ad-supported. Don’t press those. You
don’t get a bonus.
Pulse
Pulse
deserves a place of honour on your home screen for one reason: it
aggregates the web. The idea is to showing top stories from around the
web, but each one shows a quick thumbnail. When you click, you can read
just the basic story and view photos without the usual clutter. It’s
also easy to share links.
Google Earth
Google Earth
is free, like most Google apps, but worth the download on the Xoom
because of how quickly it works on the Tegra processor. In our tests,
zooming into a London street corner, the app worked smoother than
anything we’ve seen on the iPad for mapping software. You can plan
routes as well, see topographical info, and search for landmarks all
over the world.
Google Sky Map
One of those rare apps that makes people gasp when they first use it, Sky Map
shows star constellations in real-time as you move your tablet around
the night sky. You can zoom in and choose to hide some objects, such as
planets, to make it easier to find what you want.
Google Body
Google Body
lives up to the Google mission statement: you can find anything, even
your femur. The interface for looking at the human body is very
intuitive – you can zoom in on any body part, view just a skeleton or
muscles, and search for body parts, muscles, bones, or just about any
part of our anatomy.
Kindle
When we picked the top Android apps many eons ago, Kindle was a top contender. On Android 3.0, it is less compelling, since the Google Books app works quite well. However, any books you have previously purchased from the Kindle Store appear here automatically.
Double Twist
Double Twist
does not add any new twist to music playback on the Xoom. What it does
provide is a desktop app that can sync all of your music, videos,
photos, and podcasts. The Xoom version is obviously a re-formatting of
the smartphone version, but when you okay a song the album cover appears
in HD and the controls for advancing through tracks are easy to find
and use on the larger screen.
Adobe Connect Mobile
For those who already use Adobe Connect, the mobile version
for Xoom is a must-download. For the rest of us, this screen-sharing
and webconferencing system works well on a tablet because you can
instant chat with colleagues, share your screen, and host meetings.
Unfortunately, the webcam did not work with the Xoom version (it did
work on a BlackBerry PlayBook).
FlightTrack (£3.07)
One of the few paid apps on our list, FlightTrack
is a top pick because it allows you to check flight departures and
arrivals quickly, see an icon of your plane during flight, and check for
flight changes. The interface is also robust: you can search for
flights at 4,000 airports and for 1,400 airlines.
Androidify
Androidify
has no practical function, but that doesn’t mean it’s useless. You can
customize the green Droid character with crazy hair and paints, then
share your creation on multiple services, including Picasa and Dropbox,
attach the image to any contact, store in your Gallery, or send by
email.
DocsToGo
The free version of this app
is a must-download if you routinely need to view Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, and other Office documents. You can’t edit docs, and the
free version does not work with Google Docs, but you can open files from
the local storage on your tablet.
SoundHound
The main reason we like SoundHound
is because it actually works. A music recognition engine, the app will
“listen” to recorded music and tell you the artist name, track, and
album. We identified about a dozen songs accurately. The app is not as
good at recognizing a song you hum or whistle, though.
Springpad
Springpad
is a free app for organizing your notes and tasks for the day in one
place. You can also add pictures, music, and other media. One of the
best features: you can search for shops nearby and then add them to the
app along with a note and a map. You can also scan barcodes and add
those items in the app.
Weatherbug
We prefer Weatherbug
over AccuWeather because it’s…less buggy. (AccuWeather tends to crash
or freeze on Android 3.0.) You can quickly see current conditions,
alerts, and weather forecasts. The app works automatically for your
current location using GPS but you can add any other city.
Cordy
Next to Angry Birds Rio, Cordy
is one of the better games on offer for Android 3.0. You control a tiny
robot who has to make his way across a gameworld, usually by jumping
over objects, pushing and pulling them, or throwing things. The graphics
are amazingly detailed.
Touchdown
Not to be confused with a football app, Touchdown
allows you to easily tap into your Microsoft Exchange email and
calendar. Configuring the app is easy: you just tap in your username and
password. The interface is modeled after Microsoft Outlook with tabs on
the left and a preview pane at right.
Gun Bros.
A game made originally for iPhone and iPad, Gun Bros.
is a top-down shooter that looks amazing on Android 3.0: crisp
graphics, good sci-fi sound effects, and fast gameplay. The game is a
bit buggy and the controls can be wonky, but the onslaught of enemies
requires some extra strategy.
Dungeon Defenders
One of the only games with an online component, Dungeon Defenders
is a chaotic action game with some RPG elements. You can collect items
and power-ups, level-up your character, and – when playing online –
compare you’re the stats of your character with others for bragging
rights.
USA Today
Not quite as useful as Pulse for catching up on the news, USA Today
shows you the news of the day – covering global news, sports,
technology, and other areas in a clean interface. Includes current
weather and forecast, a photo viewer, voting, and stock market listings.
AniWorld Lite
AniWorld Lite
is an excellent app for kids aged one to five. It teaches kids the
names of different animals and gives them a chance to feed and pet them.
While the app itself is very basic, it’s the “Hey, pet me” feature that
will have you and your kids rolling on the floor.
HomeWork
HomeWork
is not a fun app, it’s a helpful one and aimed at the older kids. Using
this free app they can schedule homework and lessons, set reminders,
plan for exam revision, and manage their time more effectively. It works
well on a tablet, supporting both screen angles, and is extremely
intuitive to use.
iStory Books
Free books complete with voice-over, pictures and alternative languages. Fancy teaching your tot Spanish? There’s a Cinderella for that… iStory Booksis
a simple but sweet app that’s good for entertaining the kids. Eleven
free books are included from the get go with new ones added every two
weeks.
Ant Smasher
Ant Smasher
is a free app kids and adults can enjoy with vicarious murderous
intent. Smash the ants with your finger, don’t smash the bees, try not
to die. Sound easy? It isn’t. Addictive fun for kids aged four and up,
and ideal for building their reflexes.
0-10 Numbers
0-10 Numbers
is all about overachiever baby having fun with numbers and it is
excellent for what it does. Bright colours, anthropomorphised
characters, careful enunciation, it’s a learning resource that works
well for kids aged two to four.
TomnJerry Tube
TomnJerry Tube has gathered all the Tom and Jerry
classic cartoons from 1941 to 2005 in one easily accessed library. You
choose the toon and the app takes you to its location on YouTube. They
play a dream on a tablet or a phone.
Steamy Window
Steamy Window
is plain daft and completely brilliant. Kids love making pictures on
steamy windows so just hand them the tablet or phone and hit Steamy
Window and, voila, they have steam galore to play with. By blowing into
the mike you create more steam. Genius.
Talking Gina the Giraffe
Talking Gina the Giraffe
is a huge hit with kids. You stroke, feed, water, and play Patty Cake
with Gina to keep her happy. Reflex building, movie making, cute little
rewards if you keep her happy. Watch out for in-game spending, though:
some content demands cash.
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