Five months has passed since I last wrote an article on my favorite Android apps, I am have made a few replacements. While there are new apps everyday, these are what I consider the most useful among the 650,000 available apps at Google Play Store.
I did not include in my list the dialer, SMS, Calendar, Social Networking (Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn), news reader, calculator and flashlight apps as I use the proprietary HTC apps installed on my phone. These are my most used Google Play apps:
1. Swiftkey 3 Keyboard (Paid). Literally the app I use most. Since I bought this app a year ago, I have received the next two major revision free. It is the best Android keyboard available. Swiftkey, combines excellent word prediction with a highly customizable keyboard. It learns your habits and can even predicts whole words for you before you type the first letter of the next word. You can do more than just change the theme, you can change the size of the keys. Give it a try.
2. Gmail (Pre-installed/Free). For Gmail users, the best email app is Google Gmail app. It basically gives you the same degree of functionality as if you were on your desktop.
3. Dropbox (Free). Drop box keeps my files in synced between my desktop replacement and ultraportable laptop and allows my phone to access the files synced. You now have Google Drive for Android which gives you more free space. But Dropox only gives you 2 GB of web storage free, but can work your way up to 20 GB via referrals and tasks. Sign up through this link, and you start out with 2.5 GB.
4. Tasks (Paid). One thing Google does not have is a Google Tasks client for Android. There are many apps in the Play Store that sync with Google Tasks. Task by Team Tasks does so elegantly. Some of the other apps try to do too much. It looks and feels like an official Google ICS app. Has excellent widgets too.
5. Pocket (formerly ReadItLater)(Free). Android's Instapaper. A great way to save links to view later on your phone or other device. Pocket will sync your unread items list and also formats articles in a phone or tablet friendly format. Instapaper is not on Android too, but Pocket is the better app.
6. Google Maps (Pre-installed/Free). We all need maps. This is the best around and it is free. Google Maps includes, Navigation, Places and Latitude. Places is particularly useful telling you what Restaurants, Bars and Cafes nearby and helps you find them.
7. Picsay Pro. There are plenty of great photo editing apps on the Android Market. Picsay Pro is the best in my opinion. Try the free version. The Pro Version is much better and worth the money.
8. Screen Lock (Free/Donate). I use this to lock my phone using the capacitative search button. This saves some wear on tear on my power button. Free app is fully functional, but I got the donate version. Wanted to support the developer so that we see more great stuff from him.
9. Evernote (Free). Android has many excellent note taking apps with cloud storage, but with new Android specific interface Evernote is the best.
10. Viber (Free). Viber is a VOIP and instant messaging app. Unlike Skype, Viber was born on mobile so it is is much more resource efficient than Skype. The app even supports push notifications on Android. Available on other platforms, this is a good way to communicate with friends for free. Viber customer support is also second to none.
11. ezPDF Reader (Paid). The key feature of this PDF reader is text reflow. It can wrap the text on PDF documents so they fit the boundaries of the screen.
12. Wopnersoft Unit Converter (Free). There are plenty of good unit converter in the Android Market. This one works well and is add free.
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