Best Android Apps – 2012

Invariably one of the main points of interest for smart owners is finding great apps that will make their Android phone awesome and more useful. There are apps that will make you wonder how you ever did without them while others add convenience, resourcefulness, fun and productivity to the user experience.

Whether you are looking for a way to be more productive, have fun, or showoff; here are some of the top Android apps for 2012.

Cool & Awesome App – Sometimes you just want to impress your friends with what your Android smart phone can do – install these apps and amaze them with just how awesome your phone can really be.

1. Smart Measure – Turn on this app, stand at one wall in a room, point the crosshair on the camera to the base of the wall on the other side and ‘Smart Measure’ will calculate the distance. It uses basic trigonometry and some wizardry that works surprisingly well.


2. Instant Heart – Place the camera on a fingertip and this app will read the change of color in the finger that occurs every time your heart beats – it measures those pulses to calculate your heart rate.


3. Talking Tom Cat – If you like cute cats you will like this app. Talking Tom repeats everything you say in a funny voice. You can pet him, poke him and even grab his tail. You may get tired of it after a few days, but it is a fun app.

Must have Apps – If you have an Android phone you should have these apps or something similar installed.

1. Lookout – Smart phones and tablets are vulnerable to malware just as much as PCs. Lookout will help you keep your Android safe from malicious software and can even help you recover your phone if it is lost or misplaced.


2. Google Maps – Arguable the best mapping and navigation software you can install on your Android.


3. 3g Watchdog – Going over your data plan’s quota can be very expensive. This app helps you keep track of just how much you are downloading over WiFi, 3G and 4G data connections. You can set alerts for when you reach a preset percentage of your quota and even have the app turn off data services when the threshold is reached.


4. Advance task Killer – Helps you improve the performance of your Android by closing apps that run in the background


5. Juice Defender – Helps your Android better manage battery hogging tasks and processes in a bid to improve how much work and play you get out of each charge. It does so by turning off syncing tasks, GPS, WiFi, 4G and processes that drain the battery.

Productivity Apps – These will help you stay productive while you wait inline or when you are on the road.

1. King Office – Create, view and edit Word, spreadsheets and presentations on your Android.


2. ASTRO File Manager – lets you take charge of your Android and all the files that are stored there.

Downtime Apps – Here are some Android apps that will keep you entertained when you want to have some fun or have too much free time on your hands.

• Bubble Blast – Each bubble you pop cause a chain reaction that also burst nearby bubbles. The objective is to use this chain reaction to completely pop all the bubbles with the limited number of tries you are given – it can be surprisingly challenging and fun though it is a simple concept.


• Fruit Ninja – You can be a ninja without shedding blood. This game challenges your sword skills to see how completely you can slice all the fruits that are tossed up on screen without hitting the bombs that are often thrown into the mix.


• Angry Birds – The most popular app for mobile devices. Help the birds to take revenge on the pigs for stealing their eggs – kamakazi style.

Stay-In-Touch Apps – Be in the know in terms of what your friends are up to and what’s going on the world.

• Facebook – An Android optimize app that lets you follow what your Facebook friends are doing, read your messages, respond to friend requests and other FB related tasks while on the go.


• gReader – You don’t need to install a separate app or make bookmarks for each of your favorite news, technology and current affairs site. Once they have a RSS feed you can access and read their content from this app.


• ESPN ScoreCenter – Brings you news, scores, and standings from hundreds of sports leagues across the globe.

Recommended Apps – You can get by without these apps but these Android apps will extend the resourcefulness of your Android.

• Camera360 – Offers many more options than you will find on the stock Android Camera app. The app has features to apply special effects such as HDR, old style effect, LOMO, funny effects, tilt-shift, color shift among others. You can also shoot in a two or four picture composition mode, burst mode and blur mode. Camera360 has many other features that can really improve the capabilities of cameras on even low-end cell phones.


• Evernote – Whenever you have an ah-ah moment, a burst of brilliance or just want to make note of what is running through your mind Evernote allows you to not only make jottings on your phone but also attach an voice, video and pictures to the note if you want.


• Shush – The only problem with remembering to turn off your cell phone’s ringer is remember to turn it back on once you are out of the meeting. Each time you turn off the ringer Shush will ask you to set what time you want it to be turned back on. This ensures that you don’t miss any important call – it works very well.


• CamScanner – Scan a receipt, invoice multi-page contract or any other document with your phone, convert it to a PDF and send it via email, fax or save it on your phone for your records.


• Skype – Call other devices that have Skype installed and get lower rates for calling long distance numbers. If your phone has a front camera you can also make video calls for free.

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