Stardot

Diaro

Diaro is a personal diary or journal application targeted at people who want to note down their thoughts, experiences and insights on a regular basis. Unlike a lot of other applications in this list, Diaro is not built for quick note-taking. The interface makes it easy to see which days you wrote, and shows a preview of the entries for each day. You can attach any number of images to each entry, making this a good tool to also capture key moments in a day. Most importantly, all your entries are password protected.

Diaro

Price: Free

Evernote

Evernote is one of the most popular universal note taking applications out there with clients for the web and most desktop and mobile platforms. With the Android application, you can create text notes or image notes with your phone’s camera. All notes are stored in the cloud and you can search, edit or delete notes from the application. Categorization options include folders and tags. The only downside is that there’s no free offline access to notes, which means you need to be connected to a data network to be able to search and access your notes (unless you have a paid Premium account).

Evernote

Price: Free (Premium costs $5/month or $45/year)
Full review: Evernote

Springpad

Springpad is similar to Evernote in many ways, with an excellent web app, a native Chrome application and mobile apps for the iOS and Android. Unlike Evernote though, Springpad comes with free offline access to your entire notes database and some excellent features for organizing notes. The visually rich interface with its notes stacks and custom backgrounds is innovative, but can take a while to get used to for new users.

Springpad

Price: Free
Full review: Springpad

Extensive Notes

Think of Extensive Notes as the swiss army knife of note-taking on Android. The application is chock-full of features – some of them not even remotely related to note-taking – I keep coming across new features every time I use it. Aside from a bunch of different note types, you get to-do lists, calculators of various types, unit conversion, Google Translate, lyrics search, album art search… I could go on and on. Just check out the insanely long description in the application’s market page.

Extensive Notes

Price: Free

Catch Notes

Another one in the Web and Mobile based notes applications, Catch Notes takes a much simpler, clutter-free approach. You register for an account at catch.com and all your notes are synced online, ready for you to access anywhere. Note types include text, image, image gallery, audio and reminders. In case you would rather avoid creating a new user account on another web service, you can also use your Google account to sign in to the application and sync your notes.

Catch Notes

Price: Free

Note Everything

Note Everything is a very simple note taking application with support for multiple types of notes and the ability to categorize them in folders. The interface resembles a physical notepad, which I don’t really fancy too much because of the added clutter, but might be a selling point for some. An interesting and potentially useful feature is the ability to import Palm and Outlook memos directly into the application.

Note Everything

Price: Free

Epistle

Unlike some of the higher profile applications in this list, Epistle takes a different approach to syncing your notes online – it uses Dropbox. All your notes are saved to your Dropbox folder and therefore synced with every device you have Dropbox installed on. In terms of features, Epistle is pretty barebones and allows for only plain text notes (it doesn’t even have bullet lists), which makes it super snappy and a good option for quick, no-nonsense note-taking.

Epistle

Price: Free
Full review: Epistle

Mobisle Notes To Do

Mobisle Notes is one of the better looking note applications on the Android Market. This one again uses the physical notepad as a visual metaphor for its design, but manages to keep it subtle enough that you can focus on the writing part. Notes are of two types – plain text and todo – where the latter simply adds a checkbox at the beginning of each line of text. You can easily switch between both formats by tapping a button at the bottom of the screen. Although notes are locally stored in the free version, there is a Pro version that includes Google Docs sync.

Epistle

Price: Free (~$1.50 for the Pro version)

Tofu Notes

At first glance, it is easy to mistake Tofu Note for an iOS application. The beautifully rendered graphics and attention to detail is not a very common trait in Android applications. At its core, Tofu Notes is a very simple note-taking application that is best suited for quick lists and snippets of information. The ‘coming soon’ list boasts some interesting features that the developers have lined up, including online sync.

Tofu Notes

Price: Free

InkPad Notes

InkPad Notes takes the pen and paper concept a step further; as well as having notepad-style background graphics, the font mimics a real life hand-drawn feel. One interesting feature in InkPad Notes is the ability to share notes with others as a text message, e-mail, etc. This can also be used as a crude way to back up your notes by sending them to your e-mail address.

InkPad Notes

Price: Free

ColorNote Notepad Notes

The granddaddy of Android note-taking applications. ColorNote Notepad Notes has been around for a while and has raked up in excess of 5 million downloads to date. And not without reason. The application is full to the brim with features like color coding for notes, checklists, calendar integration, password lock and more. It also has a pretty nifty set of widgets for quick access to your notes.

ColorNote Notepad

Price: Free

Slide Notes

Another take on the notebook-as-an-interface approach, Slide Notes tries to add a new twist to the metaphor by letting you slide through a horizontal stack of notes. The look and feel tries to mimic the look of a notebook down to the book cover, and is a bit too strong for my taste. You can also share notes over e-mail or on Twitter and Facebook if you have the respective applications already installed.

Slide Notes

Price: Free

Todo/GTD

Taskos

Taskos is a simple yet powerful todo list manager for Android with a pretty rich set of features. It lets you add tasks by typing them in or dictating them using the voice recognition feature on Android phones, even straight from the home screen through the Taskos widget. One interesting feature is the ability to auto-complete names from your contact list, and call them right from inside the application. This can be a huge timesaver for tasks that involve calling people. Taskos syncs perfectly with Google Tasks, making it easy to add and edit tasks no matter where you are.

Taskos

Price: Free

Astrid

Astrid has been around for a while, and with over a million downloads it is by far one of the most popular todo list applications on the Android Market. You can create tasks and organize them with tags, assign priorities, add notes, due dates and set alarms. The handy home screen widget does a good job of providing an at-a-glance views of what’s on your plate. Tasks can be synced with Google Tasks and Producteev (Astrid even had Remember The Milk integration, but that was removed a while back for non-compliance with RTM’s API guidelines). To top it all, Astrid is open-source, so if you have some development chops, you can contribute to make it even better.

Astrid

Price: Free

WaToDo!

WAToDo takes the GTD approach for productivity and brings it to the Android platform to help users collect, manage and compete tasks on a day-to-day basis. The application lets you create tasks and assign them to projects and contexts, with support for unlimited sub-projects levels, repeating tasks and alarms. The interface is nice and colorful with heavy emphasis on the status of each task, project and context. It can be a bit overwhelming for regular users, but if you are a fan of David Allen’s GTD methodology, this one’s for you.

WaToDo

Price: $2.00 (Lite version available)

Action Complete

If you are like me and need an application to make a good first impression, you’re going to like Action Complete. The application brings a fresh look to the usual todo list arena and also comes with a strong set of features to boot. Based on the GTD methodology, the application lets you add tasks and organize them with tags, projects and contexts. It is a perfect companion to theActionComplete web application and syncs perfectly between the mobile and web versions.

Action Complete

Price: Free ($4.99 Pro version available)

Remember the Milk

On the web, Remember the Milk is one of the most popular todo list managers. With a feature set second to none and a very powerful UI – including one of the best ‘quick add’ features out there – it has been my application of choice for a few years now. The Android application lives up the promise of its older sibling and delivers the same experience without compromising much on details. Even the quick add field works just like the web application. The only real downside is that the mobile application is no use unless you have a $25 per year RTM Pro account. You get a 10-day trial starting from the time you enter your login details in the Android application, but it will stop working once that period is over.

Remember the milk

Price: Free (but useless without a $25/year RTM Pro account)

GTasks

When Google launched its tasks addon to GMail and then made it available as a standalone service a few months later, a lot of people declared other task list applications DOA. Fortunately for the other applications though, Google has been very slow in adding features and mobile applications to the product. That’s where GTasks comes into play. The application plays as a front-end to your Google Tasks list and bolsters the experience with a solid set of features one only wishes were available in the original Google Tasks on an Android Device. You can swipe across the screen to jump through different task lists and use gestures to interact with the todo items or change their status to “done”.

GTasks

Price: Free

Action Method

From the makers of Behance, one of the most respected design portfolio services on the web: Action Method complements its sibling applications on the web and in physical printed paper format. The focus on visual design and usability clearly shows in the way the applications looks and behaves, with a very strong grey and blue branding and subtle gradients all over the place. All tasks are synced with the web version of the application and are available wherever you go. The application also has a collaborative aspect, which lets you manage task lists in a group by assigning them to colleagues and friends, and tracking the tasks to completion.

ActionMethod

Price: Free

DGT GTD & ToDo

Another GTD implementation for the Android, this one comes with a disclaimer of being a work in progress. DGT GTD & ToDo is pretty solid for an Alpha build and works well for the most part. You get the usual set of features in a neat, clean interface that makes reviewing your pending tasks easy. You can create custom lists, export and import your tasks (which is pretty important since this is an Alpha version and may crash at times) and a promising list of features coming soon to the application. For fans of the GTD methodology, it’s worth giving this one a try.

DGT GTD & ToDo

Price: Free

noodles – ToDo List

I have no clue what would have led the developers to call their application ‘Noodles’, but it does make one sit up and take notice in the sea of similar applications on the market. Noodles is a minimal todo list management application that focuses on letting you get in and out quickly without having to spend time struggling with multiple controls. There is extensive use of drag and drop and gestures throughout the application, and the handy widget makes it easy to review what’s coming up right from the home screen.

Noodles ToDo List

Price: Free

Now Do This

In a market full of todo applications trying to cram in as many features as possible, here’s one that tries to go the other way. Now Do This takes an interesting approach to getting things done – do one thing at a time. The application’s interface is as minimal as it can get. The concept is pretty simple – you set yourself one task to focus on at a time, and be done with it before moving on to anything else. The application is based on the site NowDoThis.com, although it is not affiliated in any way and is a personal port from the developer.

Now Do This

Price: Free

Due Today

Due Today is another feature-packed todo list application for Android with a ton of features and a family of clients on different platforms. It is one of few applications in this category with a native Windows client and sync support for the ToodleDo.com web application. You can create tasks and sub-tasks, organize them in folders and with tags, assign due dates and priorities, set alarms and much more. It also provides multiple views to help you review your pending tasks from different perspectives.

Due Today

Price: $2.99

Calendar

Jorte

If a lot of what you do on your phone revolves around the calendar, this is one application not to be missed. Jorte is a pretty little calendar application with a boat load of features and a price tag you can’t beat. You get the usual calendar with multiple views, synced with your Google Calendar, as well as memos, tasks and notes. The UI is pretty slick as well, although the default pink palette may not be for everyone. The good news is that it is also extremely customizable. When viewing events, elements like addresses and phone numbers are automatically highlighted, letting you tap them to quickly perform the respective tasks.

Jorte

Price: Free

Calendar Pad Pro

Calendar Pad Pro is a minimalist and simple calendar application that has a few features and focuses on getting them right. You get three different views – day, month & week as well as the ability to have the current week and month on-screen at once using the widgets. Although there is a free version of the application available on the market, the Pro version comes with the ability to change calendar settings and customize colors to suit your style.

Calendar Pad Pro

Price: ¥240 (~$3.00; free version available)

CalenGoo

CalenGoo is from the developers of the popular iOS application of the same name. The first thing that strikes you when you look at the application is how much information it packs on a tiny phone screen without looking too cluttered or unusable. The month view is a good example of good use of screen estate for information presentation. The daily view also does a good job of letting you see your engagements through the day and lets you easily work things around as necessary. The application also has a nice landscape mode for the week view. Like the name suggests, all your events are synced with Google Calendar and are available anywhere you go.

Calengoo

Price: €4.53 (about $6.50)

AA Task

Contrary to what the name suggests, AA Task is more of a scheduling application than a todo list manager. Heavily dependent on the calendar view that dominates the application’s interface, the application lets you add events, memos, anniversaries and more to the calendar and keep a track of everything from a single location. A master password can be set to keep anyone else from accessing your data.

AA Task

Price: Free

Simple Calendar Widget

The simple calendar widget does something really simple by default – it shows your next appointment on the home screen. You can have multiple widgets showing, one each for a different calendar, all showing upcoming event or events, based on the preferences you set. You can customize the font and background color for each widget as well as the date display.

Simple Calendar Widget

Price: Free

Pure Grid Calendar Widget

Pure Grid Calendar Widget takes an approach directly opposite that of the Simple Calendar Widget – it attempts to squeeze in as much information as possible in a home screen widget. You can set it to display the entire month, week or day, with color coded events and notes. The look & feel is customizable with different skins for each type of view. Events can be added as single events or repeating events with complex conditions like bi-weekly and bi-monthly events.

Pure Grid Calendar Widget

Price: €1.49 (about $2.10)

Business Calendar

Business Calendar is another calendar application that tries to cram as much information as it can into the calendar view on your phone, with mostly decent success. The multi-day view is zoomable, letting you get an overview and then quickly zoom in on a particular week or day for more details. Also included is a powerful search function to quickly find what you need and modify/delete things easily. The home screen widget is good for an at-a-glance view of upcoming events.

Business Calendar

Price: €3.99 (about $5.60)

Executive Assistant +

A price tag of $6.99 for a mobile application can sound pretty steep in today’s conditions, but Executive Assistant + tries to justify that cost by providing an all-in-one interface for quickly reviewing your schedule, e-mail, messages, tasks, call status, twitter and facebook updates, and more. Moreover, the application can be set as a lock screen widget or home screen widget, or used as a standalone application. The application is also Honeycomb-compatible with views optimized for the larger tablet resolution.

Executive Assistant +

Price: Free

Upcomings

Upcomings is a minimal scheduling application that simply lets you set and see upcoming tasks in a list format with color coding and tags for organization. Tasks can be added as single events or repeating tasks and you can set reminders to each task for an easy followup. There is also a simple home screen widget for an even quicker access to your schedule.

Upcomings

Price: Free

Calendar GoWidget

From the talented team that created the excellent Go Launcher Ex and Go SMS, this is as beautiful a calendar widget as you can get. A very new entry into the market, the widget lets you see the month at a glance or a list of upcoming events, and also lets you add events right from the home screen. If you don’t like the widgets taking up a big chunk of your home screen, there is also a smaller widget that can list all the tasks for the day in a compact view.

Calendar GoWidget

Price: Free

Time Tracking

Yast – Time Tracker

When it comes to tracking how I spend my time across different projects, I’ve found my phone a much better choice to use than a desktop or web app. Yast is the mobile client for the web app of the same name and does a very good job of letting you quickly and easily start a timer for a project you are working on at any point in time. All the data is automatically synced with the web app. You can have sub-projects nested under projects for easy management and tracking. The five most recently used projects are available on the home screen of the application, so starting and stopping the timer for them is a one-click trick.

Yast Time Tracker

Price: Free

RescueTime

Ever wonder where all the time goes in spite of how much work you seem to be doing at your desk? RescueTime tries to solve that problem by keeping a track of what you are doing through the day and then presents a report of all activity. The application will tell you how much time you spend with what application on your phone, including the website you visit inside the browser. It will also keep a track of the calls you make and receive. The reports are also generally accurate and beautifully presented.

RescueTime

Price: Free

My Work Clock

My Work Clock is a very simple, minimalist time tracking application that lets you simply punch in the amount of time you spent working through the day. There is very little else to it, so if you need time tracking across projects with detailed reports, this one is not for you. But if all you need to see is how long you work every day, the simplicity of punching in and out for jobs cannot be ignored. There is also a neat little option to add entries to the calendar.

My Work Clock

Price: Free

Toggl Timer

Another mobile application based on a web app of the same name, toggl shares a lot of the features that Yast has, with the added advantage of some very good looking graphics. Apart from selecting a project, you can also enter the task that you spent time on. For someone whose hourly rates vary depending on the type of task performed, this can be a killer feature. Another great addition is the ability to set whether a task is billable or not, which is reflected in the reports, letting you separate non-earning tasks.

Toggl Timer

Price: Free

Dr. Timer Jr

Another very simple time tracking application for Android, Dr Timer Jr comes with probably the sleekest UI in this category. You can start and stop the timer to add time on a project, add notes to each session and get reports as tables as well as charts. The notes are all searchable. One neat feature is the ability to add images as notes which can be handy if you want to keep track of something you wrote on the board during a brainstorming session, for example. There are also a couple of compact home screen widgets for easy access to the timer.

Dr Timer Jr

Price: Free

Miscelleneous

Friday

Knowing what all you have been up to with your phone can be pretty enlightening. It can often help you analyze how you spend your time and figure out ways to improve on certain aspects. Friday is a personal analytics tool that provides a deep insight into how you use your phone – how many calls you make and when, whom you text the most, where you are most active or inactive, and so on. I’ve often seen people getting really surprised at the amount of information one can get out of this application.

Friday

Price: Free
Full review: Friday

Habit Streak

One of the biggest problems with resolutions (the kinds we set at the beginning of every year) is that they get lost in the hustle of everyday life for lack of a way to track progress. Habit Tracker tries to solve that problem by letting you set goals and track your progress with them on a daily basis. Once you have entered the goals or habits in the application, it’s a simple matter of going in every day and checking things off as you do them (or as you reach the end of the day without doing them, in case of habits you are trying to break). The application will tell you how long of an unbroken streak you have on a particular goal, motivating you to keep going at it.

Habit Streak

Price: Free

Routinely

Routinely is similar to Habit Streak in that it lets you set goals of a certain type and then keep track of how you are doing with them on a regular basis. You get a bunch of options to display how your list is presented and uses color coding to differentiate between goals you are doing good with and those that are falling behind. There is also a nice calendar view that shows check marks for every day that you have done well on a goal.

Routinely

Price: Free

Pomodroido

The Pomodoro technique is a time management method developed by Fransesco Cirillo. It allows you to focus on critical tasks at hand by setting a timer to create 25 minute work periods separated by 5 minute breaks. Pomodroido is a simple implementation of the technique for the Android platform. You can adjust the pomodoro time and interval time according to your convenience. There’s not much else to it, which goes well with the minimalistic concept of the technique. If you are trying to figure out a way to start focusing better, this one might be worth trying out.

Pomodroido

Price: Free

Read It Later

One of the biggest barriers to productivity in this day and age is probably the constant barrage of news and updates from website we subscribe to. My preferred way to avoid such distractions and focus on work through the day is to save articles for reading later and then take them up at leisure. And nothing comes close to the convenience and experience that Read It Later provides on Android. Saved articles are all downloaded for offline reading – images and all – as well as the web version of most articles in case you would like to read something in its full glory. And it syncs perfectly with the online version, meaning you always have an up-to-date reading list, no matter where you peruse it.

Read It Later

Price: $2.99
Full review: Read It Later

Camera360

Camera360 tries to be the Swiss Army knife of photography apps on the Android, and does a pretty good job of it. Six different shooting modes and more than 30 effects mean it will be a while before you run out of different ways to shoot a picture. Try the tilt-shift mode for miniature mode-like images, or maybe the scenery mode to embed your photo as part of another scene.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Retro Camera

If old school images are your thing, it’s hard to beat the utility of retro camera. The app comes with 5 vintage cameras and a bunch of vignetting and surface effects to make your pics look like authentic antiques. The process is simple – choose a camera, decide whether you want a color or a black & white photo and press the shutter on the screen. The darkroom-style gallery for viewing photos is a nice touch.

Android version: 1.5 and up

FxCamera

FxCamera does one thing: allow you to take photos from your mobile camera and apply a few interesting effects to them. The list is not long, although the 5 effects that are included work as one would expect them to. For a free app, it is definitely worth a try.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Camera3D

Take 3D pictures from your normal phone camera. Before you get excited, note that the app simply lets you take pictures of a subject from different angles and then lets you preview them as a seamless 3D image. When taking pictures, a ghost image of the previous shot shows to help align the next one appropriately. You can then view the images from inside the app using the phone’s accelerometer.

Android version: 1.6 and up

Action Snap

Ever wanted the ability to quickly capture multiple frames when shooting a fast action sequence, in hopes that the timing will be right on at least one? Action Snap will let you do just that – capture four quick shots and compose them in one image. You can choose the interval between shots, decide to align the images in four columns or quadrants and select a photo effect.

Android version: 2.1 and up

PRO Paint Camera

PRO Paint Camera supercharges the stock Android camera with a pack of goodies: ten filters, two white balance settings, and the ability to edit photos. As well as the regular brightness- and contrast-related settings, the app also lets you choose from a bunch of clipart images to add to your photos along with text annotations in various fonts. Perfect for making LOLCat pictures on the go.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Mobile Hidden Camera

If you ever need to take photographs without letting others know, but were worried the image preview on your screen or the shutter sound would give you away, Mobile Hidden Camera is what you need. The app installs itself with a notepad icon, and when you launch it shows nothing but a blank screen. No preview, no shutter noise, no flash. The app stealthily takes your photo (or video) and saves it for later.

Android version: 1.1 and up

Photaf 3D Panorama Free

Certain situations lend themselves to beautifully to panoramic images – like landscapes, or our messy desks. The problem with making such images though, is the process of taking multiple images and stitching them together. Photaf 3D Panorama doesn’t just take the pictures and automatically stitch them together, it also provides a 3D panorama viewer in which to preview your images in a 360 degree view. It even has an auto-shoot mode that takes care of shooting the right portions for each frame.

Android version: 2.1 and up

Camera Fun Free

Camera Fun Free takes a slightly different approach to applying effects to photos – it lets you preview the effect BEFORE the photo is captured. You can select one of 6 lens filters and see how the picture will appear right in the image preview on your screen. Once you are happy with the result, simply click the shutter to capture the image as you see it.

Android version: 1.6 and up

Face Blender

You can call Face Blender a one-trick-pony, and not even a very consistent one at that. But when it does work, the results can be pretty funny. The idea is to take photos of two people and the app will then blend them to combine features and create a hybrid face. It needs the two images to be pretty close in terms of alignment for the trick to work, though, so patience is key. If you don’t care for technical accuracy on the other hand, its good for a few good laughs with friends.

Android version: 2.1 and up

View

So you’ve captured a ton of images and now want to browse them, or maybe show them around. Android’s built-in picture gallery should do the trick for viewing images on your device or on your Picasa Web account, but what if you need more than that?

QuickPic

The stock Android Gallery app is nice and functional, but not exactly the fastest one around. It sacrifices speed for that animated scrolling jazz. If a super simple and fast image viewer is what you need, QuickPic fits the bill. It makes viewing images on the phone quick and functional. You get all the usual viewing and managing options, including a nice multi-select mode for batch operations. Nothing more, nothing less.

Android version: 2.0 and up

JustPictures

JustPictures goes beyond the stock gallery app by supporting a slew of photo sharing sites including (but not limited to) Flickr, Smugmug, Facebook and even DeviantArt, in addition to images on the phone and Picasa Web. Once you connect your accounts to these sites within the app, you get one-click access to all images on the sites. You can also browse the images, set them as wallpaper, and more.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Picasa Tool Pro

If you need more control over your Picasa Web photo albums than the stock gallery app offers, you can try Picasa Tool Pro. The app provides complete control over your online albums and supports multiple accounts. Other features include a batch uploader, customized queries and the ability to set a photo from the online album as a contact or wallpaper image.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Flickr Explorer

Flickr Explorer is a dedicated Flickr photo explorer app, which provides complete access to photos on the popular online photo sharing site. You can browse recent, popular and interesting images on Flickr, search by keywords or tags, search by location on a map, and download or set images as wallpaper.

Android version: 1.5 and up

PiQture Free

PiQture Free is another image viewing application with support for local images and integration with online photo sharing services like Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket and Facebook. Apart from browsing and adding to your online photo albums on these sites, the app allows for keyword-based search and includes some basic image editing features for manipulating photos.

Android version: 2.0 and up

Image Loader

How often do you come across an image link in your Twitter stream which is from an image hosting site that’s not officially supported by the Twitter app? Viewing these images means opening the link in the browser and waiting for the entire page to load, often with more ads than real content. Image Loader eases that pain by opening images from a long list of image hosting services directly, without the need to open the web page. Click the image link and select ‘Image Loader’ to open up just the image.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Edit

Now that we have all the images we need, let’s make them better. Whether it’s for simple cropping or rotating, color variations, or to add annotations and drawings on top of them, image editing apps are a dime a dozen in the Android market. Here’s some of the more interesting ones.

Adobe Photoshop Express

In the desktop image editing world, Adobe Photoshop is the pretty much king of the hill. Sure, the mobile version of the behemoth doesn’t do everything its big brother does on the desktop, but it has enough features to help you fix a photo and quickly share it with others. Apart from the usual brightness- and contrast-related controls, the app has a handy ‘straighten’ option that will automatically rotate images so they don’t look tilted. You can also add some fun effects and upload them to your online Photoshop.comaccount.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Facebox

Try your hand at caricatures with this photo manipulation app. If you’re familiar with Photoshop, this one works very much like the ‘Liquify’ filter, allowing you to pinch and expand features on a face to warp it. Although it is primarily focused on faces, you can edit pretty much any image with it. The app also supports taking pictures from your phone’s camera, and throws a bit of face detection into the mix. Once you’ve twisted an image to your heart’s content, you can save it for later, or share it with friends for some laughs.

Android version: 1.6 and up

PicSay

Turn your photos into more by distorting them and adding stickers with this app. Need to put words to a funny face in a photo? Want to use one as an invitation for a party? That’s the kind of thing this app specializes in. You can do some basic image editing, and then add titles, speech bubbles, graphics and some snazzy effects, all on your phone. Although the free version is pretty complete in terms of features, a paid version – PicSay Pro – is also available for $4.10, and comes with more features and stickers, most interestingly a faux HDR effect and a tilt-shift effect.

Android version: 1.5 and up

PhotoFunia

If you have seen the PhotoFunia website, you know exactly what this app does. You get a bunch of scenarios with your photo superimposed in strategic locations within the image. So what you have in the end is your photo appearing on the cover of a magazine, or on a billboard in Times Square, or even a sketch on a painter’s canvas. This is somewhat similar to the scenario mode in Camera360, but with many more scenarios to choose from. You can either shoot a new photo with your camera or select an existing one. Note that this app requires you to be connected to the internet to even start.

Android version: 1.6 and up

PhotoWonder

If you need to make minor edits to your photos and create collages to share with friends, PhotoWonder is worth a look. It lets you add color effects to your photos, add stickers and frames, and create beautiful collage images with two or more photos. A couple of portrait enhancement effects (to improve eyes and skin) are also included, but the result may vary depending on the input.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Draw and Share

Draw and Share is more of a drawing app than an image editing one, with the ability to include photographs in your drawings thrown in. What you get are a set of brush sizes and styles, and some basic clipart images. It’s not for professional paintings, but can be quite handy for some quick fun with colors.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Sketch Me

The premise of this app is very simple – convert photographs to sketches. You can use existing images from your phone, or capture one through the camera and quickly see how the effect works. If you like what you see, you can share the image using Android’s stock sharing menu.

Android version: 1.5 and up

AnDrawing

AnDrawing is another in the long line-up of apps that allow you to edit and enhance your images, add stickers and clipart, add text and share them with friends on Facebook. It tries to set itself apart with some interesting and unique drawing effects and the ability to geotag your artwork.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Photoid

Photoid lets you apply various effects to your photos with real time previews, lets you add frames, stickers and text, and create interesting collages with multiple images. The collection of clipart and collage templates is pretty big and they keep releasing seasonal add-on packages on a regular basis to keep the freshness and re-usability factor up.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Pic Paint

Pic Paint, like most others in this list, lets you edit your photos, add clipart and text and share them with your friends. What sets it apart is the varied library of assets it comes with, and the ability to have curved text.

Android version: 2.1 and up

Liquid Face Lite

Liquid Face Lite is another app that could make you into a caricature artist overnight. You basically take a portrait photo and pinch and swipe your way to tweak it into something funny. Then, pick from a variety of props and add speech bubbles before sharing them with your friends.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Share

The last step with most images – especially in today’s ‘social’ era – is to share them with our friends and families. By default, you can upload images to your Picasa Web albums or send them as attachments in e-mails, but the process is not always seamless. Here’s a look at some apps that take the hassle out of sharing images, no matter what platform you prefer.

picplz

picplz bills itself as an easy way to make your photos look amazing and share them with others. And it does a pretty good job at both. The effects – although not as extensive as a number of other apps – work just right for the most part. Where picplz really shines, though, is in its ability to connect with a variety of services –- Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare and Posterous at last count -– and seamlessly publish your images to them all.

Android version: 2.1 and up

Camera File

Imaging you were writing to someone on your phone, and needed to attach a photograph of something right there. You need to get out of the mail app, capture the image, save it, go back to the mail and manually attach the file. Camera File tries to solve the problem by adding a link in the ‘Type of attachment’ dialog to directly take a snap and automatically attach it with the mail, all from within the mail client.

Android version: 1.6 and up

SpeedyUploader Lite

Speedy Uploader Lite is a super quick way to add a bunch of photos and videos to Facebook in a single shot. The app supports batch uploading to Facebook with integrated captions and tagging. You can create albums, change sharing settings, and view and reply to comments, all from inside the app.

Android version: 1.6 and up

Photobucket Mobile

Photobucket has long been one of the biggest photo sharing sites on the web, and continues to be the service of choice for many thanks to its simplicity. If you use Photobucket to store and share images, the official Android app is a must-have. You can browse your collection online, download photos, and upload to the site – either manually or automatically.

Android version: 1.5 and up

Tumblr

Over the last few years, Tumblr has grown as one of the biggest microblogging sites on the web and a lot of people use it as a photoblog, among other things. The official Tumblr app makes it super easy to post to your blog directly from your phone. For photos, it integrates with the phone’s camera, letting you snap an image right from within the app and post it directly to the blog.

Android version: 2.1 and up

1. Feedly (Free)

Feedly is obviously the number one on this list as it clearly stands out from the crowd by its “out of the box” layout with minimal text based article listings and cute little icons. Powered by Google Reader, Twitter, Instapaper and Read It Later, it is clearly the best news feed reader out there.

Feedly: 1. Title Page; 2. Options drop down menu

Feedly comes in both light and dark versions. The opening page has nice big title and lots of white space that is pleasing to the eye. When you tap the header bar you get a nice scrolling options drop down menu with a pre-populated list of useful RSS feed sources. If you sign in to Google Reader then this list will be replaced by your Google Reader settings.

Feedly Article layout: 1. Source title with refresh and search icons; 2. progress indicator; 3. Like, save for later and share icons; 4. minimal text based article layout

I am really digging the minimal style of article lists with thumbnails. The icons in the top bar are self explanatory and users have no difficulty in using them. Articles are displayed with minimal text based layout by default but users can always switch to web view.

Feedly Image Gallery: 1. portrait style; 2. landscape style

The image gallery is excellent and has two styles depending on the source feed with titles overlaid. I have checked various multimedia RSS feeds and found the experience exhilarating. Vimeo or Youtube feeds work the best.

2. Pulse News (Free)

Our close runner up to the top position is Pulse News App. True to its description, Pulse takes your favorite websites (including Facebook) and transforms them into a colorful and interactive mosaic. It is also my favorite App for daily use. The developers clearly made a remarkable feat by redefining the “listview” for articles; instead of a vertical scrolling list we find a very convenient horizontal scrolling news feed with thumbnails. The smooth transitions and animated swipes make it an enjoyable experience.

Pulse - how to add a source

When you first open the Pulse News App, you will find an elegant handwritten instructions panel to add source feeds. The latest update comes with five main pages (1) or containers to hold the news feeds. Just like Feedly there is a pre-populated list of sources. For example when you click on Technology (2) from the Top page it will instantly add “Top Stories in Technology” to that page (3). You can swipe left or right on each row (4) to see current and previous articles. Clicking on the thumbnail will move the entire row down, exposing the article view.

Pulse News - Manage Sources

Settings like refresh all (1) and manage sources (2) makes your life easier to update all source news feeds in one click, delete a feed (3) and rearrange feed rows (4) by clicking and dragging up or down within each page.

Pulse - Share to Facebook and Twitter

Advanced options like background updates, auto-update on wifi only (1) and stored login information for facebook and twitter (2) lets you share each individual article to your social network easily and save some 3G data usage. In contrast to Feedly there is clear link in the top to switch between text and web views (3) and a nicer sharing icon tray (4).

Note to developer: Some user reviews complain about performance issues in certain phone models.

3. CNN (Free)

CNN News App - Headlines and Dashboard

CNN for Android Phone is definitely a smarter, sleeker way to experience a world of news and insights. I was really impressed by the dark theme and multimedia content (2). If you are someone who wants breaking news with video content then this App is a must to download. The dashboard icon (1) is a useful shortcut to headlines (3),  iReport (4)  and other options.

CNN - horizontal swipe articles view

I like the white dots (2) in the bottom that show the navigation for horizontal swiping. There are icons in the top for dashboard and full article (1). Each article has a large thumbnail filling the screen (3) and related topics (4) highlighted below the title.

CNN News App - iReport and Video content

You can also watch video clips from related stories; the video quality is very good.

4. CNET (Free)

CNET News app delivers award-winning coverage of the consumer technology world and a must download for every tech savvy person out there. The best features are image galleries and video content. The bad part is many users complain that there are too many ads. But nevertheless it is a well designed app and deserves to be on this list.

CNET News

5. MSNBC (Free)

MSNBC is a very popular news source, backed by Microsoft, with rich multimedia content. The MSNBC app for Android meets our expectations and provide diverse and engaging articles and related videos. I really love the flower petal (or is it two peacocks?) navigation to various sections of the news.

MSNBC News for Android

The Zumobi Network has many similar apps in the Android Market and worth checking it out. My only complain is the huge logo in the bottom and the amount of ads. This app made this list purely because of the aesthetics and nice icons. For controlling instant updates you need to download another app called Airmail which i think is an unnecessary step.

Note to developer: Please integrate the Airmail feature into the app instead of supplying it as a separate download

6. USA Today (Free)

I have been using USA Today since the Android 1.5 days as it was the only one that would work in those ancient versions. It is very useful for latest US News, Sports, Weather, Pictures and Snapshots.

USA Today: 1. main category; 2. subsections

USA Today - 1. weather; 2. snapshots

7. HuffingtonPost (Free)

We all love HuffingtonPost.com and this app is definitely worth checking out. It has been well designed with clean interface and different color palettes for various sections of the app. Although this app has some issues running on certain phone models it is definitely a good one to have if it works on yours. Some important features are the search function, the ability to download all articles for offline reading, and the landscape mode. I have checked the video content and it works in most cases.

HuffingtonPost - 1. article list; 2. single view

HuffingtonPost - video content

8. NPR News (Free)

I usually listen to Shoutcast for online radio. A friend suggested NPR News as an alternative and I got hooked into it. Its like a portable NPR and public radio station player for your Android. I like the clean interface and search options using your current GPS location. You can listen to live streaming radio all day (works great on wifi), and even on the move, provided you have an unlimited data plan.

Note to developer: Please include options to disable GPS and exit the menu.

NPR News: 1. player; 2. playlist

9. Yahoo News (Free)

I have Yahoo as my homepage on the desktop. So I wanted to check out the Yahoo News App for Android… and was a little disappointed actually. I liked the clean minimal layout but don’t we expect more from Yahoo? Yahoo search is integrated and the content is fantastic. You can probably use the browser to visit the mobile website of Yahoo instead of downloading this app, but the app will save you a lot on loading time and data usage.

Yahoo News: 1. search; 2. navigation

10. Taptu (Free)

I was saving the best for the last entry in this list. Taptu is a relatively unknown (at least to me) news app; I happened to find it while researching for this article. It caught my attention because the layout was similar to Pulse News and my initial thought was that someone cloned Pulse. But I have to admit that it is so much better than Pulse. First of all it has both light and dark themes and works great in both orientations. Most significantly it is faster than Pulse and has a better search for RSS feeds.

Taptu

Adding sources, managing source feeds and scrolling through content are pretty much similar to Pulse. The best part is it works great on tablets (Honeycomb) too. Read articles will not have a shadow which is a really neat  and subtle user interface. It also supports multiple accounts for sharing articles on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. The Streamstudio option lets you delete, rearrange, and merge feeds. If you like Pulse then I am sure you will lov

Paper Toss (Free)

Paper Toss

In one of the first games I played on the iPhone, you simply threw a crumpled piece of paper in the trashcan with a flick of your finger. “That’s stupid! Why would you pay for something as trivial as that” I said. That was before I spent half an hour playing it myself. Paper Toss is an Android game that takes the same concept and adds a bit of variation with a variable speed fan and different settings. The goal is simple – try and throw the paper ball in the trashcan while taking into consideration the direction and speed of airflow from the fan. Simple, addictive fun.

aTilt 3D Labyrinth ($3.99)

aTilt 3D Labyrinth

Here’s another very simple yet addictive concept. Remember the tiny mazes you played with as a kid, where the idea was to move a tiny ball through the maze to the circle in the center? aTilt 3D Labyrinth recreates the same concept on an Android Phone, complete with realistic graphics, near-realistic control over the plane of the maze thanks to the accelerometer and a decent variety of puzzles to keep casual gamers busy for a while.

Angry Birds Rio (Free, ad-supported)

Angry Birds Rio

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you’ve most probably heard of Angry Birds. Arguably the most popular mobile game in the world, Angry Birds spawned two sequels, Rio being the last of them (and by far the best). The basic idea is still the same: you use a slingshot to hurl different kinds of birds to knock things over – though, in this version, your goal is to rescue other captured birds. Different materials add variety to the structures and influence strategy, as do the various powers of the birds that impact the landscape accordingly.

You might also like to check out these previous iterations of the game:

• Angry Birds (Free)
• Angry Birds Seasons (Free)

Apparatus ($2.97)

Apparatus

In a physics-based games roundup, things don’t get any more literal than Apparatus. The game is in fact a workshop where you use various materials at your disposal to build the most complex of structures to solve puzzles. From laying out blocks and leading marbles to hit certain targets, to building machines with motors and batteries, the game has it all for the mechanically inclined. If you have ever enjoyed games like Crazy Machines on the PC, this one is for you. It can get really hard very quickly, though, so get involved only if you are prepared to give it your time and patience.

Cut the Rope ($1.01)

Cut the Rope

Easily one of the most polished games on the Android Market, Cut the Rope has you doing something seemingly simple: cuting a bunch of ropes to make sure a cute little creature gets its candy. And it seems so for the first couple of levels. But once you start dealing with clever combinations of ropes, additional hurdles in ways of water bubbles, spikes, spiders and balloons, and the pressure to collect three stars before finishing each level, things get really fun and addictive. What makes Cut the Rope work where many other similar games have failed is the extremely clever level design.

For more info, see our full review of Cut the Rope.

X Construction ($1.43)

X Construction

X Construction is a very good example of how good mechanics and attention to detail are much more important in a game than snazzy graphics and sound. The game’s premise is simple: build a bridge over a crevice with a limited amount of material, making sure it is solid enough to let a train cross over. What adds complexity – and fun – to the task is that the bridge follows the laws of physics and therefore will break if the load is not balanced across the beams appropriately.

Sprinkle ($1.99)

Sprinkle

Sprinkle is a pretty new game, that attempts to bring something new to the physics-based games – water. At its core, it is a puzzle game with a slight twist. You control a water cannon placed in the top-left corner of the screen and a whole bunch of beautifully rendered landscapes filling up the rest of the screen. The objective is to extinguish a fire on each level by figuring a way to get the water to reach it. The awesome graphics come at a price though: the game is only available for nVidia Tegra based devices. If you are the proud owner of one, what are you waiting for? For the rest of us, drooling over the video may not be the best way to spend an evening.

Chalk Ball ($2.13)

Chalk Ball

The first time I played Chalk Ball, I was left wondering – after the two hours that I spent playing it, of course – why no one else had thought about this before! The concept is simple: the canvas is a chalkboard, you have a piece of chalk, and there’s a ball that you need to stop from falling through by drawing lines with the chalk so the ball bounces back up. The chalk becomes smaller every time you draw a line, but you can recover it by hitting certain symbols that appear randomly on the board. Things get more complex than that, but the basic premise of the game is to stop the ball from giving in to gravity and falling through.

Super Stickman Golf (Free)

Super Stickman Golf

Another iOS hit that has been ported over the Android, Super Stickman Golf doesn’t come across as much at first glance. A simple stick figure with something akin to a golf club and some very simple landscapes don’t generate much interest, but save your judgement till you get down to playing it. This is a miniature golf game that ignores physics rules in the way the landscapes are laid out, while at the same time applying them to great effect in the way you play your shots. The clever level design keeps things just difficult enough while leaving you with wanting to beat your own high score – and therefore coming back to the game – again and again.

Pollushot ($0.99)

Pollushot

Pollushot takes the slingshot-based gameplay of Angry Birds to another level and merges it with concepts from classic games, like Breakout. The result is a fun game where you use your slingshot to fire at enemies coming from the top, catch the ammo that is dispersed when they blow up and use it to fire at more enemies. The gameplay is fast-paced and gets really overwhelming fairly quickly, so make sure you are a fan of games like Breakout and Asteroids before getting into this one. If you crave the trigger-happy action, and have a powerful enough device to handle the graphics and animation, go for it by all means.

DailyComix

Cyanide and Happiness, Something of that Ilk and Awkward Zombie are three of my favorite webcomics. If I could have all the hours spent reading them back I wouldn’t want them, because they were hours well spent!

Good Organisation and Easy-to-Use Reader

DailyComix has dozens of well known webcomics available for free. It’s ad-supported which is a bit of a bummer but they don’t get in the way. Organisation is pretty good. Three tabs along the top called ‘Favourite’, ‘Recent’ and ‘All Comics’ keep everything in order.

The webcomics download pretty fast and for every webcomic, the entire archive is available to your through the application. The design is simplistic but looks good – each webcomic has its own icon, this being the only imagery used throughout the application’s design. All in all, well worth a download if you enjoy webcomics as much as I do.

Market Link: DailyComix
Price: Free
Requires: 2.1 and up
Developer: Klaymore

Rage Reader

For those of you who may not know, Rage Comics (otherwise known as ‘FFFUUUUU comics’) are badly drawn stick men about silly everyday situations that use the same ‘cut and paste’ facial expressions in every strip. There made by fans of the comic with little or no central publishing which has attributed to its viral success. They live mostly on Internet forums and blogs.

Pretty basic application, but it suits the nature of the comic.

Rage Reader harvests these comics and download them straight to your phone. Because people are encouraged to make their own, a proportion of them will be pretty bad. Rage Reader does, however, have a voting system built in which keeps the pick of the litter on the homescreen for you.

Readability is okay. I stress that these comics are mostly conjured up using MS Paint so at times, you can come across on that has been re-sized poorly. For the most part, Rage Reader handles them just fine with zoom being only a pinch away. A must for fans of Rage comics.

Market Link: Rage Reader
Price: Free
Requires: 2.1 and up
Developer: Zolgatron

Vintage Comic Droid

Although it’d be hard to tell from afar, there is (or at least was) more to the world of comics than Marvel and DC. Today’s domain pretty much consists of the battle between the two publishers whilst the rest squabble over what’s left of the audience. Pre-1960, comics were very different. Superheroes were rare. Tales of WW2 marines fighting Nazis, football match victories and fairy tales such as Robin Hood were popular.

Vintage Comic Droid has gathered thousands of free public domain titles from this era and made them available on your Android phone. The first thing that strikes you about this application is the design; it’s simply amazing. The fonts are taken right out of a comic book speech bubble, your library is organised into visually pleasing comic book boxes, and all the imagery looks fantastic.

Top class design and great resolution comics

The comic book reader can be a little slow to respond at times but that’s more than made up for by the high resolution scans of each comic. The major drawback with this application is that, because the comic books are of such a high quality, they take aeons to download. I’m not talking ten or fifteen minutes either; more like an hour or two over a strong WiFi connection. It’s best to select a few titles that catch your eye and then leave them downloading in the background whilst you go about your business.

Overall it’s a very cool application for anyone interested in classic titles.

Market Link: Vintage Comic Droid
Price: Free
Requires: 2.1 and up
Developer: Eingrad

Fresh Comics

This one doesn’t allow you to actually read comics at all. Why have I included it in the list then? Simple. Because many of us, particularly when reading big titles that we fork out cash for, want a paper copy either for readability or a collection. Perhaps both. So never miss a new issue or special edition again with Fresh Comics.

All the big name publishers are updates automatically

Its main feature is to update you on that weeks releases from all the major publishing houses such as DC, Marvel, DMP, Bongo, Archie and many, many more. Each update has a picture of the cover of the issue along with a sypnosis.

If that wasn’t enough, the ‘Shops’ tabs gives you a list of local comic book stores where you can pick up the latest new issues.

Market Link: Fresh Comics
Price: Free
Requires: 2.0 and up
Developer: Audacious Software

Comics

The name says it all really. In my opinion, for your average comic book buff, this is the best application on the Android Market at the minute. While the others are all really good, they have their limitations, flaws and only serve limited purposes. Comics on the other hand is like having your local comic book store right there in your pocket. Every major comic ready to be purchased at the click of a button.

All you need is the application and an account which you can register for there and then.

Top class design and great mainstream selection

This app has been designed to perfection. Everything looks great and is clean cut. All the images load quickly too. The actual reader itself is amazing. You can browse via single panes to make sure your getting all the action or zoom out to page level to take in those bigger drawings.

While the application is focused on making money via sales you don’t have to begin buying right away to get a feel for this application’s power and ease of use. Most big series have their first issue as free so you can try them out. And there’s plenty of graphic novel previews to sample as well. So if mainstream comic books are more your thing I definitely recommend Comics for Android.

Market Link: Comics
Price: Free
Requires: 2.1 and up
Developer: Comixology

 

Paypal

Whether you use it for eBay, for transferring money abroad, or simply to complement your current account at your bank, Paypal is a very flexible (and cost-effective) way to manage your money. The Android application allows you to send and receive money on the go, check your account balance, and deposit and withdraw funds remotely.

There are a number of tools built into the application as well: a bill calculator allowing you to split a bill evenly, and another yool whereby you can “bump” phones together to send money across. The app is very functional and renders the web version of PayPal almost useless owing to the amount of features built into the mobile edition. It is extremely useful for frequent users.

Price: Free
Requires: Android 1.6 and above and a PayPal account (free)
Market Link: PayPal
Developer: PayPal