There’s nothing quite like switching on a new phone, staring at the blank home screen, and wondering just what you’re going to install. Google Android users are particularly lucky; not only are they given one of the most flexible and powerful operating systems on the market, they’re given access to a huge amount of applications to fill it out with immediately.
These four applications are our personal favourites – the applications we find ourselves using almost every day. If you’re a new Android user with little to differentiate your phone from the millions of others, these four applications are a great place to start. Download, customize, and personalize the world’s most flexible, powerful, and important mobile operating system.
IMEasy is one of the most powerful instant messaging tools available for any mobile platform. Equipped with handwriting tools, mapping functions, and its own built-in painting interface, this messaging application is the ultimate platform for keeping in touch digitally.
Support is currently quite limited, although the IMEasy community is growing quickly. IMEasy supports AOL Instant Messenger and other popular digital messaging platforms, giving you instant access to your contact list wherever there’s a mobile broadband signal.
When it comes to mobile access, Wikipedia is one of the web’s most impressive examples. Pages are automatically resized and reformatted, allowing almost any mobile device to access the largest free encyclopedia without running into distorted images or unreadable information.
But despite being good, mobile Wikipedia is far from perfect. Quickpedia aims to change that. This Android-only mobile application optimizes Wikipedia for your mobile phone, boasting an improved search interface and the ability to save Wikipedia pages to your phone’s memory or remote storage.
While iPhone users have to put up with draconian customization rules, Android users are relatively free to customize their operating system as they see fit. Open Home makes customizing your Android-powered phone simple, providing users with quick access to new keyboards, backgrounds, and operating system skins.
If you’re growing tired of the standard Android interface, this application is a must-have. While compatibility problems have popped up in the past the Open Home team is dedicated to fixing them; the application is now in its fourth iteration, with a number of former problems eliminated.
Pandora is the world’s most popular online radio application, hosting thousands of user-built radio stations and playing millions of different songs on a monthly basis. If you’re already a Pandora PC user, switching over to the Android version is simple, stress-free, and quick.
Simply download the Pandora application on the Android Market, or use Pandora’s online barcode system to automatically find and download the application. Registration is simple; just use the same details as you would on your PC, and log in to find all your favourite radio stations, artists, and genres nearly sorted and easily accessible.
