Each year, Neowin asks the community for top iPhone, Firefox and Windows Mobile applications you can't live without. With Android making such a massive presence in the consumer market and with their online market placing growing exponentially, it's just too hard to forget.
Back in August, I asked the community what where their all time favourite applications for Android that they can't live without, and this is the list they came up with. These applications make your daily day-to-day tasks just a little bit easier and to help you connect with friends and social networks.
#10 Barcode Scanner: Starting off our list is Barcode Scanner. A lot of consumers out there might have never know just how powerful their smartphones really can be. If you've ever seen a weird looking square black and white barcode on a product before then this is the app to help you read those codes. This app can read both QR codes and can hold information like a website URL, text or even a phone number.
QR codes can help you learn more about a product, reveal special information or even help track down a product like a book or bag of chips.
Price: Free!
This app can be found on: Android Marketplace
#9 Google Maps and Navigation: There is nothing worse than getting lost while driving. Google Maps and Navigation is available on all Android handsets with a data plan and GPS receiver. This handy little application can help you find driving, walking and even bus directions to get to your destination.
Price: Free!
This app can be found on: Android Marketplace
#8 Astro: Astro seems to be one of the more complete file manager applications in the Android marketplace. If you've ever wanted to dig a little deeper into your file system, you should give Astro a try. Astro can also read your built-in SD card slot, making it easy to transfer any applications, pictures or even videos from location to location.
From Astro, you can edit, delete, move and manage your entire file system on your Android phone. This application is more focused on advanced users, and may not be for everyone.
Price: Free and Paid
This app can be found on: Android Marketplace
#7 Handcent SMS: Handcent for the Android is a very customizable SMS application, including backgrounds, themes, and even a very useful popup window. You can customize the way your messages are received and displayed, including coloured bubbles and background wallpaper, to give your SMS's a nicer look and feel.
Handcent SMS comes with some very useful features, including a speech-to-text and even a feature to read your text messages to you. Handcent displays your messages in a threaded view, making it easier to keep track of your conversations between friends.
Price: Free!
This app can be found on: Android Marketplace
#6 Battery Indicator: The title says it all. If you've ever wondered what your battery percentage is at with some detailed information, give the free lite version a try. Battery Indicator gives you information about your battery health, temperature, volts and information about when it was last charged, or how it's currently charging.
Price: Free!
This app can be found on: Android Marketplace
#5 Facebook: With over 500 million users, it's hard to ignore social networks, which makes Facebook a must have, if you do use Facebook of course. This application lets you post status updates, photos, videos and even check-in through Places.
Facebook has recently been updated, showing Android users some love with a very anticipated update. Facebook for Android gives you the full mobile experience, and then some, in this application.
Price: Free!
This app can be found on: Android Marketplace
#4 Weather and Toggle Widget: Many of you submitted all types of weather related applications, which made having a weather application on your phone the fourth most important app to own. Weather may not be the most predictable thing on this planet, but you can still get updates and even widgets on your home screen for the current weather in your area.
Price: Free to paid
This app can be found on: Android Marketplace
#3 Twitter: We all know keeping up to date with social networks is important, so it's no doubt that Twitter landed on the top 10. Easily read all the latest tweets from the people you're following, share your thoughts with your followers, check your mentions, direct messages or search for trending topics all from this application.
Twitter for Android gives you the full mobile experience all on your phone, including conversations, check profiles and follow or unfollow, and even retweet posts you like. If you aren't using Twitter, this application isn't for you, but for those of you who do, this is a must have application.
Price: Free!
This app can be found on: Android Marketplace
#2 Advanced Task Killer: As voted by our community, Advanced Task Killer came in at #2 on our top 10. The title of this application really does speak for itself, it helps you kill all your running tasks, to help you save battery life.
The simple and easy to use interface lets you kill your tasks in a single click, which removes any application running in your multitasking, conserving your battery life. With this application, you can kill individual applications too. This is a must have application.
Price: Free!
This app can be found on: Android Marketplace
#1 Launcher Pro: As voted by our community, launcher Pro comes in at #1 on our top 10. Launcher Pro gives you a totally new Android experience for your phone. This application comes loaded with a ton of features, including landscape home screen, endless scrolling applications, a taskbar-like trey to quickly launch applications, hide applications, force multi-tasking, widgets, multiple home screens, and many more options.
Launcher Pro comes with a ton of helpful tweaks and customizable options to adjust your phones appearance and functionality. This is a must have application.
Price: Free!
This app can be found on: Android Marketplace
If you want to find more exciting applications from our community, join our forum discussion here, registration is free!
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