(Guest post by Nick Rusnak owner of http://info-junkie.com, your source for tutorials, hardware, game, and software reviews, and much more. Come check us out!)
Smartphones, and primarily touchscreen smart phones, seem to be the future of cell phones as we know it. You would be hard-pressed to find someone these days not using a touchscreen smart phone. Many people use the popular I-Phone, as it was the first touchscreen smart phones to hit the market on a large-scale. However, lately Android has found its customer base, and more people than ever are using Android powered phones. Android's app market provides the user with the ability to not only customize their phone, but also the content that it holds. Most applications downloaded today are third-party, user submitted ones, and there are a lot out there. I mean a lot!
Android had over 450,000 apps at the end of last year. It can be hard to decided which apps are worth it, and which are simply a waste of your time. With the price of some apps ranging from $1.00 - $10.00 and over, it is important to know that the app you are downloading won't just become, "wasted space" on your phone. In this article I will give you my top 10 Android apps of 2013, and explain why you should get them. Keep in mind some of the apps on this list were not released in 2013, but still deserve a place on this list.
Splashtop comes in at number two for several reasons. There have been quite a few apps claiming to do what Spalshtop does so well, and sadly they were all a huge disappointment. Splashtop Remote Desktop HD, if you couldn't tell from the name is a remote desktop, designed to sync with your Windows, or Mac computer. This app allows you to take your computer with you wherever you go. You can listen to music right off your computer, get important work documents on the go, or maybe turn in some homework you forgot at home, the possibilities are endless. As long as you have a connection to wi-fi or a 3G/4G network any file on your computer can now be on your Android powered device. I highly recommend getting this app.
With the price of gas being so high these days it's no wonder apps like GasBuddy have been popping up on the Android market. However, this is truly a worthwhile app for several reasons. First off it is free, you won't have to pay a cent to use this app. Secondly it convenient, it has several options, whether you want to just find the closest cheap gas station near your, or search a specific city/zip/postal code area. You can even report gas prices to others, to help them find cheap gas. However, I think the kicker to this app is that you have a chance of winning $250 in gas. If you do a lot of driving, or just like to save money on gas this app is for you, get it now.
There are a lot of music streaming apps out there today. One of the first, and most popular was Pandora. Spotify is very similar to Pandora and Slacker Radio, in many ways. Spotify just seems to do what they do better and bigger. You have to pay with Spotify to get all of their premium features, but they do allow you a 48 hour premium trial period, where you can decide if Spotify is for you, or if you want to go with another music app. Spotify gives you access to millions, yes literally millions of songs, and does not put restrictions on which songs you can add to playlists like Slacker does. You can listen to your custom playlists offline, and even share them with your friends or sync them to your phone. I would say if you have to pick one music app for your phone. Make Spotify that app.
iTriage was created by two ER doctors. This is a must-have app for everyone, it is an amazing tool to use if you think you are getting sick, or are in an emergency situation. iTriage has a myriad of features that come with it. You can search symptoms, learn potential causes, and find the closest facility, doctor, or hospital near you. The features do not stop there. You can find the average wait time for hospitals, emergency rooms, and urgent care facilities. This app even offers a discount at most pharmacies that gives you 10 - 85% off generic medications, all you have to do is show them the screen before you check out. There have been other medical apps on the Android app market before, but this is by far the best. One more thing, this app is 100% free, pick it up now.
Adobe Photoshop Touch comes in at 6th place on my list. Everyone who knows graphic design or editing photos, knows that Photoshop is the best program out there for your pc or mac. Thankfully, now photoshop comes to your Android powered device!This is by far the best app on the market right now for editing photos, and pictures. It has more options than I can list here, is extremely powerful and simple to use. If you are in the market for editing software on your phone or tablet, this should be your only choice. With a price of only $4.99, you can't beat Adobe Photoshop Touch with any other editing application, or software. I highly recommend this app, get it now.
You just spent over $200.00 on your brand new phone, what do you do now? Protect it, with avast! Everyone who owns an Android phone should have some type of security or anti-virus app installed. There are some good apps out there for security, but in my opinion, this one is the best. With a price tag of free, and an incredible list of security features, this app simply cannot be beat. Some of the features are: Antivirus scans, privacy report, anti-theft (tracking, memory wipe, etc.), web shield, SMS/call filtering, and much more! If you are in need of an antivirus / security app for your phone, this app is a no-brainer. Go pick it up now on the Android marketplace.
Are you a blogger? Chances are if you are reading this article then you may be. It has never been easier to start, add posts, or edit your blog with Wordpress. Wordpress seems to be the favorite application that bloggers use. Only one problem remained, bloggers could not edit or add posts to their blogs on the go. Well now they can, with the inroduction of Wordpress for Android, you can take your blog with you wherever you go. This app has almost all of the same features your computer wordpress account has. The only drawback is that you are unable to use custom plugins with this app, but you can still type up posts on the go, and give them a quick edit when you get home. I highly recommend this app to any blogger, or anyone wanting to start their own blog. This app is free, so go pick it up now.
Lets face it the default browser for Android is anything but ideal. Thankfully, Google has released Chrome web browser for Android power devices. This app is everything that you want it to be and more. Features include: lightning fast browser speed, search and navigate quickly, intuitive browser tabs, sync your bookmarks between your phone and your computer, and even send pages from Chrome to your computer. If you have ever used Chrome on your desktop or Laptop, you already know how fast it is. Mix that with a great functioning app, and a ton of features and you have Chrome for Android app. I highly recommend you pick this one up as soon as possible.
Coming in at number 10 it's Widgetsoid. Widgetsoid is an app aimed at allowing you to make custom widgets on any of your phone, or tablet's pages. Every seen that clock, or weather icon at the top of your screen? Thats a widget. This app brings more features than I can even describe in this article, but I'll list some of the big ones. Features include: custom colors, transparency, custom lables, sizes, icon color, horizontal and verticle widgets, show/hide dividers, widget backup, widget profiles (switch between different widget configurations), and much more! This app has over 50 different toggles in it. If you are into customizing your phone, and making shortcuts and widgets to make your life easier, then this app is for you. Oh by the way, its free on Android marketplace.
Smartphones, and primarily touchscreen smart phones, seem to be the future of cell phones as we know it. You would be hard-pressed to find someone these days not using a touchscreen smart phone. Many people use the popular I-Phone, as it was the first touchscreen smart phones to hit the market on a large-scale. However, lately Android has found its customer base, and more people than ever are using Android powered phones. Android's app market provides the user with the ability to not only customize their phone, but also the content that it holds. Most applications downloaded today are third-party, user submitted ones, and there are a lot out there. I mean a lot!
Android had over 450,000 apps at the end of last year. It can be hard to decided which apps are worth it, and which are simply a waste of your time. With the price of some apps ranging from $1.00 - $10.00 and over, it is important to know that the app you are downloading won't just become, "wasted space" on your phone. In this article I will give you my top 10 Android apps of 2013, and explain why you should get them. Keep in mind some of the apps on this list were not released in 2013, but still deserve a place on this list.
#1 - SwiftKey
If you have not already heard about this app, it is definitely worth checking out. SwiftKey is an app the replaces your Android's standard keyboard, and swaps it out for SwiftKey's. Now some of you may be saying, "my old Android powered keyboard works fine, why should I replace it?" The answer is, Swiftkey makes typing out text messages emails, Facebook posts, and everything else infinitely faster. It is fully customization, and even has the option to run languages simultaneously, for those of you who are bilingual. It does a much better job of completing words, and its swype function is much more accurate than Android's standard swype. However, it is hard to convince someone to switch to SwiftKey if they haven't tried it out for themselves. Luckily there is a free version of the app so you can give it a test run. There is a reason why this app was #1 in the Android market longer than any other app last year. If you haven't yet made the switch to Swiftkey I highly recommend that you give this app a try.
#2 - Splashtop Remote Desktop HD
#3 - GasBuddy
#4 - Spotify
#5 - iTriage
#6 - Adobe Photoshop Touch
#7 - Avast! Mobile Security
#8 - Wordpress for Android
#9 - Chrome for Android
#10 - Widgetsoid
