Must Have Android Apps-March 2013

Recommended apps for your android phone – march 2013.

Communication & Social

• Gmail – No need to explain what Gmail is. Because, for most of us Email=Gmail.
• IMO – Multi-protocol Instant Messenger that can handle G-talk, Facebook, Yahoo, AIM etc simultaneously with support for multiple accounts. With a sleek interface and optimal battery consumption. Look no further than IMO for your chatting needs!
• Watsapp – No need to explain this either. If you want to pay for any app then this is it. grab a copy as soon as you run out of your free subscription limit.
• Opera Mini – The fastest browser on the planet. With data compression technology it saves on your data consumption and hence your internet bill!
• Naked Browser – Cheesy names apart, this is the most secure, un-bloated and capable browser for android. It may(ok definitely!) looks ugly, but its fast and secure.
• Facebook – This is the official FB app. bloated, but if you update your location on FB frequently and sync your contacts to FB then this use this.
• Twitter – The official twitter app. Simple and gets the job done.
• Linkedin – To access linkedin, this is the best app.
• Handcent SMS – A definite must have app for the replacement of stock SMS app for android. With tons of features and facilities, you cannot go wrong with this. Also, its fast and eats less memory.
• Skype – Skype is the default app for Video chatting. Period.
• Instagram – Social photography with Instagram is the craze of the day.
• Burrp! – Finding a local restaurant/hotel was never easier. Comes with reviews and photographs as well.

Music and Media

• Poweramp – The best music player on android platform. If you decide to buy any app for android, buy this! You cannot go wrong here. It comes with huge amount of customization and an aesthetic interface. And the sound quality with proper equalizer settings is unparalleled.
• MX Player – The VLC player for android. Plays anything you throw at it. It supports subtitles and hardware acceleration as well.
• TED – The official app for viewing TED videos.
• Youtube – The official You-tube App.
• Soundhound – Cannot identify the song that you heard at some place? Just hum the tune into this app ans it will search it for you. Also gives options for downloading the song.

Productivity

• Adobe Reader – PDF document viewer for Android.
• Advanced English Thesaurus – The best dictionary/Thesaurus app. Fast and has over 1.4 Million words and definitions. 
• Dropbox – Sync your important documents across all your devices using Dropbox. You can use to sync your important files between your PC and Phone using dropbox.
• Evernote – The ultimate and most popular note taking app for android.
• OfficeSuite – View MS office documents, PowerPoint Presentations and Excel Sheets with this application.
• AlarmSticky Note – The best Sticky note widget with a built in alarm for reminding you of the task.

Personalization

• Swiftkey – The most popular keyboard  with text prediction for android.
• Swype – If swiping is your thing then swype is the ultimate keyboard for you.
• Google Hindi Input – Type in Hindi on your Phone. Also doubles as a normal keyboard.
• LauncherPro – The fastest customization launcher for your phone.
• Zedge – With Millions of ringtones, notification sounds & wallpapers, you cannot go wrong with zedge. Download high quality wallpapers at the click of a button.

Reference and Books

• Aldiko – E book reader which offers thousands of free and paid books for you.
• Cool Reader – The reader that can display tons of formats.
• Google Books – The official Google books app.
• Army Survival Guide – Just in case you are stuck in an inhospitable environment, this will ensure that you survive.
• World Factbook – Facts about all the countries in the world.

Tools & Utilities

• AirDroid – This is the app you are looking for if you have to transfer files from your PC to your Phone over Wi-Fi. With a gorgeous user-interface & many more features, you will never go back to using a cable anymore. 
• AppBackup and Restore – To backup the APK files of the app that you have installed on your phone.
• Autorun Manager(ROOTED) – This App is for Rooted Phones. There are many android apps that start up unnecessarily and slow down your phone. Auto-run Manager disables such apps and hence makes your phone run faster.
• Battery Indicator – Battery indicator app that displays your battery status as a percentage. Enables you to track battery consumption more accurately.
• Bluetooth File Transfer – This may not be the most aesthetically pleasing app, but is rich on features and hence the favourite as a file manager.
• Compass – Just in case!
• AnTuTu CPU Master(ROOTED) – This App is for Rooted Phones. You can control the frequency of your phones CPU with this app. On supported kernels, overclocking is also possible.
• Google Sky Maps – Google maps for the night sky.
• Google Maps – No need to explain this. With this app you shall never get lost/stray from your destination.
• Link2SD(ROOTED) – This App is for Rooted Phones. If you have low internal phone memory  then this app is for you. you can link the apps on SD card(which is different from “move to SD card”) and use some part your SD card as phone memory, and free your phones actual internal memory.
• M-Indicator – Local Train/Best Bus/Auto/Cab Transit application for Mumbai.
• Pixlr Express – The most feature filled photo-editing application on android.
• Pocket – Read-it-later service which stores the webpages that you marked as to be read at a later time.
• QuickPic – The best gallery replacement tool for your phone. Fast and feature-filled.
• RealCalc – Scientific Calculator for Android.
• Superuser(ROOTED) – This App is for Rooted Phones. Manage Superuser permission for your phone.
• Titanium Backup (ROOTED) – This App is for Rooted Phones. The best backup application. Period. Titanium Backup is the sole reason that many people ROOT their android devices. Along with Link2SD, this app opens up numerous possibilities for your phone.
• Watchdog – Instead of using task killer, I recommend you to use Watchdog instead. It monitors applications and when they exceed a certain level of CPU activity(Hang/Crash/Freeze) , It notifies the user. The user can then kill the frozen app and use his phone smoothly.
• uTorrent – The best app to download torrent files.

Readers of this blog are encouraged to express their opinion on the matter by leaving a comment below.

OPINION: Should You Use A Task Manager for Android?

So you have finally realized that your android phone is becoming slow after installing (and uninstalling) hundreds of Apps. You search the internet for cure and find the counterpart of windows task manager for android which offers to speed up your system. You install it, configure it and pray that the system becomes like it was when you bought your phone. But alas, it doesn’t happen. You uninstall the app, find another one that claims to be better than the original and install it, but still no performance improvement. Some of you may even go for the paid ones, thinking that the paid ones might offer the promised performance jump but you are disappointed there as well and then you question yourself, Was it really worth it? Well, this blog post is an answer to this question of yours! So, Read Along.

What are Task Managers/Task Killers?

Task Managers/Task Killers are applications which forcefully kills applications. It is the android counterpart of Windows Task Manager. These Task managers claim to speed up your phone, increase the battery life by killing idle applications or processes. The increase in performance is claimed by freeing up the RAM on the phone. while the increase in battery life is said to be because of decreased CPU power consumption achieved due to closing the idle apps. These applications also say that the battery life increases because the application no longer constantly downloads advertisements in the background, which invariably leads to eating up the battery.

The counter point to the argument offered by the app makers is that the recent versions of Android utilizes RAM in a a totally different way than that on windows. So, more free RAM Does NOT mean faster phone. Those who oppose Task Managers say that older versions of android(1.6) may have needed it, but recent versions those especially above Froyo (Android 2.2+) definitely do not need it.

Stuff That Slows Your Phone & Eats into Battery life

Before I answer the ultimate question, let us see the things that DO slow down your phone. These are;

• Bad Applications: These are the ones that really slow down your phone. These are non-optimally written pieces of code that crash your system the moment you push it. So, my recommendation is to avoid such applications altogether. If you cannot do that then try to choose the one which has exit button!
• Advertisements: Yes, these constantly use the bandwidth of your phone to serve you with ads. Free applications are usually full of such ads. My recommendation is to again avoid such applications. If not possible, then ROOT Your Phone. This will enable you to use the firewall feature of Application such as Avast Antivirus. This will block all the ads on your phone.
• Good Applications That Crash: Now, sometimes even good applications due to no reason whatsoever freeze. These are another reason that decrease your phones performance.

So, Do You Really Need A Task Manager?

YES! You should; But, Yes there is a big BUT there. The Configuration of the application (Task Killer) should be done appropriately to get any benefit out of it. The application should be configured as follows;

1. Select a Task Manager that has feature of Ignoring selected applications,
2. Ignore the applications that you want to run continuously such as GMail, Facebook, WhatsApp, Gtalk, IMO etc.
3. Disable the Auto kill Feature. What? I hear you ask…Yes you heard it right, you need to disable the auto kill feature because it doesn’t help. The applications that get auto killed usually start again in 2-3 seconds, connect to the internet download ads/synchronize. ie they just take up system resources up for no reasons, not to mention consuming battery in the process as well.
4. Also, Ignore the applications that start on their own to download Ads/synchronize, for the above said reason. It is however, recommended to avoid using such applications altogether.
5. Use the Kill Feature only when any application Freezes/Crashes/Hangs.
6. That’s it!

Your Phone is now configured for performance! This should increase the performance of your phone by about 15-20% only not anything more than that. But, as it is, every last bit of performance and battery life matters when you are about to kill that Caw-Cawing Pig! (#AngryBirds)

Readers of this blog are encouraged to express their opinion on the matter by leaving a comment below.