Its A Bird. Its A Plane No, Its Super Droid!

Your Droid phone can do amazing things

Your Droid phone can do amazing things. Out of the box Droid phones is a still and video camera, an address book, a GPS navigator, and yes, even a phone. But with some downloaded apps, your Droid becomes Super Droid.

It's a Bird. It's a Plane... No, it's Super Droid!

So many apps, so little time. Depending on what you like to do, there's an app for that. You can turn your Droid phone into a flashlight, a TV remote control, a barcode scanner, and a compass. You can download a guitar tuner, a voice recorder, an app to do remote printing, and so much more. Below you will find 12 apps that Lincoln Spector, at PC World, thinks are the best 12 Android apps, most free.

* Flashlight - Motorola Droid has an app called DroidLight that turns your Droid into a flashlight. Launch your DroidLight and your camera's LED flash turns on to light your way. The DroidLight requires a camera with flash, of course. It doesn't work on all Smartphones. But the app is free, so download it and give it a try. It is the very first app I downloaded when I got my Droid X. I use it a lot.

* Tape Recorder - Your Smartphone has a microphone and a memory. You can use it to record conversations, notes to remind yourself of tasks, or even live music. Keep in mind that usually it is illegal to record live concerts. With many recording apps for Android, Lincoln recommends the free RecForge Lite and its paid version ($6), RecForge. The default records in mp3 format, but you can also choose wav or ogg formats. After you've recorded something, you can attach an additional recording to the end, convert it to another format, or share it via e-mail, Gmail, Bluetooth, or text message.

* TV Remote Control - I'm not sure why you would want to have an app that acts as a remote control for your TV, and Lincoln doesn't think turning your phone into a universal remote will really work too well. The problem is that phones don't emit infrared signals. But if you want to turn on your TV's Wi-Fi feature, you can set it up so your phone acts as a remote. The app Lincoln recommends is the free Boxee Wifi Remote.

* Remote Keyboard and Mouse - You can control your Windows PC from your Android phone. The free, open-source RemoteDroid uses your network and Java to act as another keyboard and mouse for your PC. I can't really see that this app is very practical. I don't like using my keyboard on my Droid X for texting, so controlling my PC with it? Seems too hard to me.

* Alarm Clock - Your Droid phone already comes with an alarm clock, but Alarm Clock Plus is so much nicer. I downloaded this app right after I got my phone. I have it set to tropical music to wake up to in the morning. The snooze feature is really nice as well. You can have the alarm start on low volume and increase with each snooze. You can set up multiple alarms and for example have a weekend alarm and a work day alarm. You can download the free version if you don't care about the ads, or pay $1.79 for the ad free version.

* Compass - Catch.com's free Compass displays a working compass on your Android phone's screen, complete with an arrow that always points North. The compass can also point to Due North as well as Magnetic North. It has 7 compass designs from antique to GPS, and you can save your current longitude and latitude as a place, and later you can bring up the place in Google Maps for directions back to it. Convenient if you are one of those people who gets lost easily or forgets where you parked the car.

* Notepad, Post-its, and Refrigerator Door - Use your Android to remind you, just like Post-It notes. You can set reminders, share notes via SMS and email, and pin notes to your home screen. It has themes to choose from as well as tags to organize the notes. You can sort and search, export and import and even back up your notes to Catch.com.

* Barcode Scanner - This app, Barcode Scanner, is very cool. By just pointing at the manufacturer's barcode on an item, you can get all kinds of helpful information. You may find reviews, where else you can buy it and whether you can get a better deal. See my blog, Scan and Save: New Shopping Apps. This can be a very valuable tool during the holiday shopping season!

* Weight Watcher's Diary - Whether you are trying to lose weight or just maintain a healthier eating style, this app can help you. This app helps you track your food consumption, exercise and even has a special calculator to help you figure out the points you've used. You can get a custom report on weekly point amounts. Sounds like this app will be one I download after the holidays!

* Portable Music Player - Android phones already come with a portable music player, but Maxim Petrov's PowerAMP provides some awesome audio settings: a ten-band equalizer; preamp control; and separate dials for controlling bass, treble, and volume. Lincoln thinks this app is too cool for school. Right now the app is free, but look for its final version to be $5.

* Guitar Tuner - Don't you just hate it when your guitar gets out of tune? This app, Cohortor.org's gStrings, takes the guesswork out of tuning. There is a free version, but gStrings+ also has a battery saver that is worth the $1.50 you pay for the app. Lincoln's wife, a professional musician and music teacher, described gStrings as "Clearly a professional tuner for many instruments."

* Metronome - The full version of Zealy Technology's Metronome ($1) provides all you need to keep the beat. I'm not sure I have much need for this app, but you musicians out there may.

There are so many apps out there for Droid phones. A good source to browse is the Android Market, either on your Droid phone or at the Droid Market website. What are my personal favorites? I use the DroidLight all the time, as well as AlarmPlus. Another favorite is GoogleVoice. Honestly with all the games you can download, the ability to watch live TV or movies, and of course the phone calls, there is so little time for life outside of Droid Land.

by: CellPlaza

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