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The popularity of Android phones exploded in 2011, with new device activations topping over half a million a day worldwide. So it’s not surprising that a mountain of Android apps is out there, including plenty of quality downloads that don’t cost a thing.
I weeded through all kinds of new titles for 2011 that are available for free. The categories ranged from productivity to social sharing apps, photo editing management, , of course, games. From that field, I came up with this list of keepers. t’s start with music.
Smartr brings all your contacts social networks together into one easily searchable attractive place. Currently in beta for Android, the app draws information from nkedIn, Facebook, Twitter about everyone you e-mail, text, call, literally putting names with faces ( more).
ts of messaging apps are available, but the power user base of Facebook makes a difference here. You can message other users, send regular texts, access Facebook chat, create group conversations, even easily add location photos.
Skitch is all about adding data more to images. Fifteen years ago, the power to add digital drawings to photos other images was reserved for TV weather people sportscasters. Now Skitch, from the makers of Evernote, makes it easy to scribble or draw on photos as well as edit share them. You can add names to photos resize them, then post them quickly to Twitter or Facebook, or even draw a map. Not surprisingly, anything you do in Skitch syncs up to Evernote quite nicely.
Gouncher EX, an extended version of the incredibly popular home-screen replacement app, was released in early 2011 has since been installed tens of millions of times. Its personalized themes, widgets, tons of other options give you total control over your mobile experience.
It was a good year for Android word freaks. rds with Friends beat the legendary board game Scrabble to the punch with its app in the spring, but Scrabble followed with its own Android launch over the summer. F remains more popular, but both provide plenty of hours of entertainment for word nerds.
Get rds th Friends Free or Scrabble Free
It’s hard to believe an official Docs app didn’t make it to Android until earlier this year. The app provides all the simple ways of accessing, editing, sharing documents on the go that you’d expect. Other cool features include the ability to photograph any text with your phone convert it into an editable doc, thanks to its integrated optical character recognition.
This is a new spin on the old-school game Hangman from the makers of rds with Friends, another hit word game on this list. A social-based approach to mobile gaming, Hanging with Friends introduces some features you might not recognize from the analog original, such as strategy, goofy avatars in danger, trash talking.
In nuary, Translate saw a big update with the addition of conversation mode. That means that Translate allows for a bilingual conversation, with each party speaking in their own language into the device’s microphone listening for a translation via the speaker. A fall update exped the alpha version of the mode to include more than a dozen languages.
Drag Racing is le sition for a new generation. One of the most-downloaded free apps in the Android et, this realistic racing game lets you try out more than 50 cars rise to glory against other competitors in its o ague.
One of a number of comparable Android answers to Apple’s Siri voice assistant on the ione 4S, SpeakToit is the best of the batch. ile it might not be able to challenge Siri head-to-head just yet, the voice recognition knowledge engine are a very good start for a beta version.
Now we have an app for when disaster strikes. This emergency preparedness app from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is worth having just for the database of shelter locations alone, but it also provides preparedness checklists, applications for disaster assistance, volunteering information.
Get FEMA
New to the United States (it started out as a Europe-only service), Spotify provides music streaming with a fully legitimate, on-dem catalog of 15 million songs, without the sketchiness of other music services. For $10 a month, you can download more than 3000 tracks to your device for offline access.
ile okout remains the most popular name in mobile antivirus apps, broot is the fastest-rising wireless security star. Both its free paid apps came out of beta this year have received positive reviews (SecureAnywhere is a mobile version of its paid multiplatform security product). One of broot’s strengths is its scanning speed, which comes from its cloud-based approach.
Myather claims to be six times more accurate than the ather Channel’s app, thanks to its ability to pinpoint more-exact locations using G rather than a zip code. I tested it out for about a week, it seems to live up to its promise, at least in terms of forecasts reporting of current conditions that matched my home outdoor thermometer.
The only thing more unstoppable than a worldwide franchise on a roll, apparently, is when that franchise hooks up with the Hollywood promotional machine. This follow-up to the massively popular game transports the irate avian heroes to Rio de neiro brings characters from the animated film, Rio, into the fray.
though the release of Yahoo’s official Flickr app took a while, it’s now here, it turns out to be a strong competitor to Instagram, the iOS app sensation. Flickr has all the photo-sharing photo-organizing abilities that you’d expect, it comes with cool camera functions, such as customizable filters.
The concept is simple enough—use arrows, magic spells, more to fight back the waves of monsters attacking your castle. Easy game play, an old-school 8-bit aesthetic, plenty of action, just a splash of Dungeons Dragons flavor makes for a hit in this game that’s already racked up millions of downloads.
Zombies are everywhere lately, including in this very popular shooter that’s a follow-up to the original Contract Killer game for Android.
ghtbox is a robust photo editing management app that attempts to fill in for the lack of an Instagram app on the Android platform. ghtbox is a successful substitute, with many features to enhance photos share them via seamless connections to Facebook Twitter.
One of the most original niche apps of 2011. Inspired by an event at the Occupy ll Street protest, the app works like a digital panic button broadcasts a preset message to friends, family, anyone else you choose in the event the authorities don’t appreciate your demonstrating activities.
A Netflix app compatible with the majority of Android devices took a while to arrive, but by midautumn the app was finally working on all phones tablets with Android 2.2 later. Stream movies TV shows directly to your small Android screen if you are a subscriber with the right plan.
This flight-search app creates nice visual search results on a par with others like Kayak, but its algorithm is smarter filters for something called the “agony” factor. Agony components include things like travel time number of stops.
GroceryiQ takes all the best features from numerous shopping-list apps jams them into one well-executed app that’s available in versions for both phones Honeycomb tablets. Build lists with voice comms, scan barcodes, get coupons, integrate with points other incentive programs, more.
Get Grocery iQ or Grocery iQ for Tablet
Not exactly an app, this alternative to the Android et offers a select paid app for free every day, is bound to become a source of more exclusive interesting new offerings in the near future as Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet takes off.
