Submitted by R. Neal on Thu, 2009/12/17 - 7:00pm

In addition to the built-in apps, I've got the following cool (and free) apps on my Droid:

The Weather Channel: What you'd expect. Nice widget with current conditions for your home screen, tap for more detailed and extended forecasts.

Voice Recorder by Mamoru Tokashiki: Not sure why a voice recorder isn't part of the basic kit, but I found this one to be the simplest and easiest to use.

Notes by Yuli: Again not sure why this isn't part of the basic setup, but this one is also simple and straightforward. But, with a voice recorder it might not get much use.

Clock Apps by Noam Wolf: This app with the nondescript name is a useful, simple and easy to use countdown timer and stop watch.

My Tracks by Google: This is the ultimate pedometer. It uses GPS to track your distance, time, average speed, elevation change, and more, all in real time. And it can show you where you are on a Google map in real time, too. When you're done with your walk or hike or whatever you can save your track, see it on a Google map, share it, etc.

Barcode Scanner by the ZXing Team: Scans the UPC barcode for just about anything and pops up a Google page with reviews and pricing from online retailers for comparison shopping. It uses the camera to scan (duh) and capture can be a little finicky (tip: get as flat an angle of view as possible in good lighting).

Key Ring by Froogloid: Captures the "loyalty/discount card" info from your store and keyring cards and displays them on your Droid for the cashier to scan at checkout. If you have the Barcode Scanner (above) installed, you can use it to scan and capture your card info. I've scanned my Kroger and Food City keyring barcodes, but haven't actually tried to use them at a store yet. Great idea, though.

Google Sky Map: Very cool app with sophisticated but simple to use GPS/time enabled interface. Point it at the sky and it shows you the named constallations, planets, and more from your location. Bonus: it includes a search function. Type in the name of a planet or object, and a locater pops up that guides you to it by moving the Droid in the indicated direction. (Mars is apparently right under my chair at the moment.)

Compass by Snaptic: Not the most useful gadget (unless you're lost in the woods I guess) but a cool analog (or digital if you prefer) good old fashioned compass when all else fails. It's also a nice demo of the Droid screen/graphics and direction/position sensing capabilities.

All of thess apps are free and can be found using the "Market" app on your Droid. Search for the app name, and look for the publisher name mentioned. (Or explore other variations of similar apps from other publishers).

What's on your Droid?

107
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bizgrrl's picture

• My Tracks by Google:

My Tracks by Google: This is the ultimate pedometer. It uses GPS to track your distance, time, average speed, elevation change, and more, all in real time.

Next they need a plug in heart monitor so a person can see if they are getting their heart rate to the desired level during that walk, run, bike ride.

 

Mike Cohen's picture

On my Droid

I like the Droid Light app from Motorola. Screen goes to image of light bulb that you can tap on or off. The backside has a pretty decent LED light it controls. If you drop something at night, need to see where a key goes, etc. it can be handy. Probably burns through battery pretty quick.

Given that there's the light built in I don't know why it's not an "installed with device" application. Either that or it had a light function installed and I missed it.

James Wilson Doe III's picture

What's on my Droid?

Nothing. I'm not impressed with the Android operating system because it's just a dumbed down version of Apple's operating system for the iPhone, which was designed to be marketed a a cash cow to lazy slacker kids who only want to use their PDA as some kind of overly expensive, buggy and restrictive toy.

The Droid phone itself is a decent piece of equipment, but without the feature set and indepth customization options of a real operating system, it's just another overpriced misappropriation of our planet's dwindling material resources. I'll stick with my optimized Fuze and just be grateful there's one more shiny thing on the market distracting the easily impressed from doing any real damage in life.

James Wilson Doe III's picture

Android v WinMo

A nice comparison between the systems was done by this guy. I didn't know Android users couldn't run their apps off of SD cards! What's the system memory on those things, 256MB? Less with shared RAM?

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