Android Applications

We’ve recently taken a look at some of our favourite applications for the various smartphone platforms; S60, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. Now we turn our attention to the new kids on the block, Android. A member of the Open Handset alliance, a consortium of 48 telecoms related companies, Android is an open source platform, with much of the code freely available to software developers. This should help software developers to create tightly integrated programs that will enhance functionality and deliver a really top class user experience. There are not many handsets currently available running the Android OS, but as the number of handsets increase we expect the number of top applications to follow. For now, here are a few of our favourite Android apps.

Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopaedia, gets an Android makeover with Wikitude. Offering easy access to Wikipedia articles and features, Wikitude has some nice additionals included. Something that caught our eye was the ‘augmented reality cam’ which adds detail to items in pictures you have captured that have Wikipedia articles written about them. For example, if you are in Rome, and you take a picture of St Peter’s Basilica, or the Colosseum, you can label the items and get more information directly from Wikipedia. Sounds pretty cool.

Imeem Mobile is a mobile application that allows you to tune in to music on the move, anywhere, anytime. One of the few music websites that has licenses to stream music from all the main music labels, Imeem Mobile is made for the music lover. Search for your favourite band or artist, and listen to the songs on the move. Playlists are created, and recommendations made based on the music you listen to. You can also download the tunes you are listening to via Amazon; the song is automatically put straight into your phone’s music library. The app will record a history of the music you listen to, and you can create your own music stations based around favourite artists. There are also stations that play the Top 100 songs on Imeem, as well as spotlight and discover sections, for Imeem recommendations and promoting new music acts.

BreadCrumbz is all about visiting places and sharing what you see with friends. Guides will tell you about the places you are visiting, with pictures of all the main areas of interest. As you move around, you create a breadcrumb trail which can be shared with friends who may also be interested in visiting the area. You can even leave voice instructions, if the people you are sharing your journey with are new to the area. The whole concept of the application is based on community development, so the app will be as good as you want it to be.

We’ve looked at Twitter applications on some of the other software platforms, and ordinarily we don’t like to repeat applications across operating systems, otherwise we’re just repeating ourselves here. But Twitterdroid is the first Twitter application for Android mobiles, and Twitter *is* the in thing for 2009. Twitterdroid gives access to the full range of Twitter services, so you can follow your friends as they Tweet away with regular updates to their timeline. There’s sure to be more Android apps for Twitter in the coming months, but for now Twitterdroid is the one they all have to aim to beat.

This application will turn your Android device into a portable mini Karaoke device! Once installed, TuneWiki will scan your device for any stored music. Once done, TuneWiki connects to servers and will download lyrics to the device for those songs, and also any album art if that is not already stored. Open the TuneWiki app and you can select from a list of Artists, Albums, Playlists, etc, the standard look for a music player front page. Once you’ve chosen your song, the music starts to play and the song lyrics appear on the screen. If you find the lyrics are slightly out of sync then you can edit these for the first time the song plays. Once done, your final edit is uploaded to the TuneWiki servers, so that anyone else who downloads the song in the future will benefit from your editing. There is a community side to the TuneWiki app too, that allows you to login and share your passion for music with others in your area. Through the feedback gathered from users on their devices, TuneWiki will also supply a list of most popular songs, within the last hour, that day, that week, month, and of all time. Just flick through the list and if you see a song you like, hit the play button.

And that completes our list of current favourite Android apps. With such a new and young operating system, the best thing is this list is just going to grow as more and more developers start to offer applications for the Android OS.