Everything You Need To Know about Windows Phone 7 Apps

Check out featured apps and games for Windows Phone 7! The hottest apps for Windows Phone 7. These are all the heavy hitters that you have grown to love on your iPhone or Android handset and are now available on Windows Phone 7. In the run up to the launch of the new Windows Phone 7, Microsoft has kept anticipation running high with teasing reveals of the new mobile operating system that it hopes will make it a strong competitor in the smartphone market. We also know that Microsoft gave specific hardware conditions to its handset manufacturers making it clear from the outset that any new Windows Phone will have excellent specs.

However even though it's apparent that the WP7 handsets are great pieces of hardware, from the standards set by competitors iOS4 and Android it's clear that the success or failure of a modern smartphone OS depends on the strength of its apps.

What apps will come preinstalled?
You can expect WP7 to come ready with the basics for smartphones - calendar, email and browser. Microsoft is also emphasizing its integration with social networking and the OS's reception of steady updates from Twitter and Facebook.

There are a couple of nice features look out for too - small things like being able to collectively email a group meeting from your calendar app with a message if you are running late.

Rather than being dumped in a mixed grid system, Windows Phone 7 devices such as the HTC Mozart will arrange apps into their correct 'hub' areas. Microsoft hops this will make apps easier to find, with photo apps in the photo hub and music apps in the music hub and favorites on the home screen.

Will third party apps be available?
Third party apps are definitely available. The platform already has plenty of support from leading software companies. These will be offered from the Windows Phones Marketplace.

Tell me about Marketplace.
Like Apple's App Store, Marketplace is the gateway to all apps available for your phone. Microsoft has promised to do its best to organise the store for easy perusing and will be highlighting new apps on a daily basis to keep you up to date.

However, with 150 000 apps available for the iPhone 4 and 30 000 for Android the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace does certainly have some catching up to do. Microsoft is encouraging development by offering app development tools for free with developers only paying $99 when they decide to publish in the Marketplace. They've also been keen to demonstrate how easy the OS is to develop for, showing onstage that a basic Twitter app could be put together in under ten minutes.

Will I be able to get all my favorite apps there?

• Twitter and Facebook
Twitter has built its own app for Windows Phone 7 to specifically suit the user interface. It will support multiple accounts and let you browse through tweets without signing or being a Twitter user in the first place. Full Facebook integration with your contacts list will be standard.

• Spotify
The makers of the wildly popular music streaming service have confirmed it will soon be available on WP7, meaning you can listen to millions of tracks streamed over your Wi-Fi connection. If you know you're not going to get a connection - on a plane or underground - you can even download playlists. To use it on your phone though you'll need a premium account and with Microsoft's Zune streaming platform preinstalled free, there will definitely be some users who will switch.

• eBay
The world's largest online marketplace will let you search, bid, buy and monitor your selling activity via your phone with an app available on launch day.

• Seesmic
Seesmic is growing in popularity as a handy app that congregates all your social networking activity in one place, letting you comment on photos, update status and more across several accounts.

• Others
With Associated Press and Electronic Arts on board we will also be seeing a news app and plenty of games respectively. What is absent so far though is Skype for cheap VoIP calls, Mozilla Firefox, game sensation Angry Birds and the popular Polaroid app Hipstamatic.

How exactly will multitasking work? What about those incredible cross platform game demos? Whither WinMo 6.x, and its devs? (And what's with this "Classic" and "Starter Edition" business?) What happens to the Zune? Will we see more hardware? What about the mysterious Chassis 3? Why are developers already worried? We've got at least an hour here, folks, so expect answers. Lots of answers.

New Features

When we met Windows Phone 7 Series, it was all about taking a first look. But we really didn't get a great idea as to how the operating system works, underneath the Zune-like skin. Here's are the new OS and dev features Microsoft's announced today.

• A Push Notification Service: Called the "Microsoft Notification Service," this sounds an awful lot like Apple's push notification system, which lends credence to the interpretation of Microsoft's talk about multitasking as meaning that it doesn't really exist, or that it's at least heavily managed. As you can see above, they pop up in a small tray at the top of the screen, rather than the obnoxious pop-up system that the iPhone uses.
• A Microsoft Location Service: This is like a clearing house for location data, or "single point of reference to acquire location information." This is more of a developer tool than anything else, I think, but it suggest location service's being totally and easily accessible, and not just in terms of raw data. This is basically just Bing everywhere, in both user and developer terms.
• Silverlight, Silverlight, Silverlight: Windows Phone 7 apps are largely developed in Silverlight, which you probably only know as that plugin you had to install that one time to watch the Olympics. It can also create apps that are significantly more complicated than video players.
• Dev Tools Will Be Free: Windows Phone 7 development tools for Visual Studio and Microsoft Expression Blend (a UI dev tool) will be free to download.
• App Developers Can Start Today: The free tools are available at developer.windowsphone.com, as of right now. While developers won't have phones for a while, they'll have the PC emulator, which even allows for touchscreen input. (If you have a touchscreen PC, of course.)

• No Mac Dev Support: And yeah, of course, there's no development on Mac.

The Marketplace

We didn't even get to to see the new Windows Phone Marketplace in action in February, but now Microsoft's pulled the curtain back.

• It's Panoramic: It's going to look like the rest of Windows Phone 7, which is to say, it's going to be swipey and zoomy and all those things that made Windows Phone 7 interesting looking. You know, hubs within hubs within hubs within hubs. Hubs!

• Buying options: It'll handle one-time credit card purchases, operator billing, and ad-supported apps.

• App trials: Microsoft is going to require developers to allow buyers to trial apps before buying them. Good for us, potentially scary for devs. UPDATE: It's not actually a requirement, just an option. What this is, really, is an old-school app trial system: You use an app until your dev-defined trial is over, or until you get tired of the missing features, then you buy it, which instantly activates the remaining functionality, no extra download required.

• The Zune Client: You can browse the Marketplace from the Zune client, like you can access the App Store from iTunes. This gives Windows Phone 7 a leg up over the likes of Android and webOS, which limit app installation to the handset. But! The Zune software is Windows-only.

This doesn't just mean you won't be able to install apps from your desktop your phone on Windows Phone 7, it means that you won't be able to sync anything with your desktop, be it music, movies or photos. And there's no USB syncing outside of the Zune software client, so you can't just dump media onto your phone, mass storage style. In other words, if you don't have a PC, you can't really listen to your music or watch your videos on your WP7 phone.

• Multitasking: Like we'd said before, it's really not there. There will be certain provisions for multitasking—music is the one Microsoft is talking about now, for app like Pandora—but there won't be pure multitasking. (You won't, for example, be able to run Skype or a Twitter app in the background. So, again, this is an Apple-like approach for the least Apple-like company in existence.)

• Copy and Paste: The current build doesn't have it, back at launch, word was that it might not ever show up on the platform. Now, Engadget's hearing the the final build may not be able to take text from here and put it there. This omission would be more curious, because there's really no upside, as in the case of limiting multitasking. Also: What the hell? Also also: They've got at least six months to fix this.

• Only two resolution will be allowed: For the foreseeable future, Microsoft's only allowing two resolutions—the 800x480 WVGA resolution we've seen on the first hardware already, and later, a 480x320 HVGA resolution—for Windows Phone 7 handsets. Developers will only have to write for two screen sizes, which helps keep developing for the platform relatively simple.

• Windows Mobile 6.x Apps Won't Work: Scott Guthrie confirmed to us that 6.x apps would need to be ported in order to work, and that this may not be a simple process—you could, for example, carry over some interface assets, or some core .NET programming from one platform to the other, but there'll be no simple patch from one platform to the other.

The First Apps

 

The first round of app partners is solid, for sure:

AWS Convergence Technologies ? WeatherBug, Citrix Systems Inc., Clarity Consulting Inc., Cypress Consulting, EA Mobile, Fandango Inc., Foursquare Labs Inc., frog design inc., Glu Mobile Inc., Graphic.ly, Hudson Entertainment Inc., IdentityMine Inc., IMDb.com Inc., Larva Labs, Match.com LLC, Matchbox Mobile Ltd., Microsoft Game Studios, Namco Networks America Inc., Oberon Media Inc., Pageonce Inc., Pandora Media Inc., Photobucket Inc., PopCap Games Inc., Seesmic, Shazam Entertainment Ltd., Sling Media, SPB Software Inc., stimulant, TeleCommunications Systems Inc., Touchality LLC and Vertigo Software Inc

We also got our first glimpse at the apps, which maintain the Windows Phone 7 aesthetic surprisingly well.

The first batch gives a preview of what Windows Phone 7 apps will be—that is to say, deeply integrated. Another instant reaction? A lot of these developers write for the iPhone and Android, which is a good sign and a bad one: A good one, because Microsoft needs these guys to reach anything resembling app parity with other platforms; and a bad one, because it drives home just how much catching up Microsoft is going to have to do come WinPho 7's release. None of the other platforms, for what it's worth, have paps as pretty as some of these—a point that's really driven home when you see their 3D transforms and animations.

With others, like Hush Hush, you can see that Microsoft is open to modal interfaces as well, which is to say, interfaces that look nothing like Zune or Windows Phone 7.

Since Windows Phone 7 apps are developed largely in Silverlight, you can download and incorporate Silverlight libraries that already exist. In other words, some of the interface elements, animations and icons that you've gotten used to seeing in Silverlight app interfaces might turn up in Windows Phone 7 apps later on. We'll also see some services that have depended on Silverlight before easily ported to the phone. Like what? Ho ho, like mother***king Netflix (which, while shown off here, won't necessarily get a real release)

Games, as we've seen a bit of before, have the potential to be great, not just because of the platform's minimum requirements (which make the iPhone's hardware seem downright clunky) but because of the deep Xbox Live integration.

The takeaway at the end of the app demos—which made up a tremendous chunk of this keynote—is that Microsoft knows how important apps are for Windows Phone 7, or more importantly, how instrumental the lack of decent apps was in the decline of Windows Mobile 6.x. They're going all out, claiming that devs can create apps in a matter of minutes, and (so far) coddling them as much as possible. The one thing they can't control, though, is how fast customers pick up on Windows Phone 7 Series. Without an audience, developers won't bother to write apps; without apps, buyers won't bother buying Windows Phone 7 Series phones. Microsoft's new mobile strategy may be impressive, but it could find itself stuck in a Catch-22 come release time.

All the Rest

Obviously, Microsoft didn't run through all the stuff they'd already covered back at Mobile World Congress when Windows Phone 7 was announced, so here's the rest of the story.

• A new piece of hardware showed its face today. (Above.) This time it's from Samsung. Externally, it's indistinguishable from the Omnia HD. Internally, you can assume it falls inline with Microsoft's minimum requirements for Windows Phone 7.

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Android - Google Guide to Gingerbread Tips and Tricks

My favorite tips and apps for Nexus S, which features Android 2.3, Gingerbread. A lot of Googlers liked it, so we thought some of you might enjoy it as well. So, i just shared some of my "favorite tips and apps for Nexus S." And you've gotta figure that my favorite tips and tricks are probably worth checking out. Some Android power users might snort at the idea that they didn't know how to, say, turn a stack of images into a slideshow, but the list should be a nice primer for most Nexus owners regardless.

Keep in mind most of these are specific to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Here's my list:

1. Tips

• Visual cue for scrolling: When you are in a scrollable list (like your Gmail inbox) and you reach the end of the list it shows an orange hue—a visual cue that you can’t scroll anymore.
• Notification bar icons (Wi-Fi, network coverage bars, etc.): Turn green when you have an uninhibited connection to Google, white when you don't. Hint: if you're in a hotel or airport using Wi-Fi, the bars won't turn green until you launch the browser and get past the captive portal.
• Voice actions: Tell your phone what to do by pressing the microphone icon next to the search box on the home screen, or long press the magnifying glass. You can tell it to send an email or text message (“send text to mom, see you for pizza at 7”), call someone ("call mom"), navigate somewhere (“navigate to pizza”), or listen to music ("listen to Mamma Mia").
• Find things you’ve downloaded from your browser: Your downloads are now neatly collected in a Downloads manager, which you can find in the apps drawer.
• Turn a Gallery stack into a slideshow: In Gallery, when you are looking at a stack of photos, put two fingers on the stack and spread them. The stack spreads out and the pictures flow from one finger to the other, a moving slideshow that lets you see all of the photos.
• Walk, don’t drive: Once you’ve gotten directions within Google Maps, click on the walking person icon to get walking directions.
• Easy text copy/paste from a webpage: To copy/paste from a webpage, long press some text, drag the handles around to select the text you want to copy, and press somewhere in the highlighted region. To paste, simply long press a text entry box and select paste. Gmail is a bit different: you need to go to Menu > More > Select Text.
• Turn your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot: Go to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Tethering & Portable Hotspot. (You may have to pay extra for this feature.)
• Look at Maps in 3D: With the latest release of Google Maps, you can now look at 3D maps. Tilt the map by sliding two fingers vertically up/down the screen, and rotate it by placing two fingers on the map and sliding in a circular motion, e.g., from 12 and 6 o’clock to 3 and 9.
• Cool shutdown effect: When you put the phone to sleep, you’ll see an animation that resembles an old cathode tube TV turning off.

2. Keyboard tricks

• Shift+Key to capitalize a word: In Gingerbread (and supported hardware), you can Shift+Key to capitalize a letter instead of going to a separate all caps keyboard.
• Auto-complete: The space bar lights up when auto-complete can finish a word.
• Quick replace: Tap on any previously typed word, then tap on a suggestion to automatically replace it with the suggested word.
• Easy access to special characters (like numbers, punctuation): Press and hold any key to go to the special character keyboard. You can also press and hold the "," key for an extensive punctuation keyboard.

3. Applications

• Angry Birds: Popular game that lets you knock down blocks by slingshotting birds.
• Astro: Awesome file explorer app. Browse and access the directories on your phone, and take full advantage of its capabilities. Great if you’re a power user.
• Chrome to Phone: This one is really useful for Chrome users. You can send anything you browse on your computer to your phone. So if you are heading out to a restaurant or party and look up directions on your computer, just click the “send to phone” button (requires Chrome to Phone extension) and that exact page will open on your phone. Same with virtually any webpage.
• Flash: Install from Android Market to watch Flash videos embedded throughout the web. Runs even better on Gingerbread.
• Fruit Ninja: A juicy action game that tests your ability to smash flying fruit. A fun time-killer on the bus or train.
• FXCamera: Popular photo sharing app with slick effects and filters.
• Google Maps: Use your device as a GPS navigation system with free turn-by-turn voice guidance, and take advantage of other Google Maps features like Street View, Latitude and Places.
• Instant Heart Rate: Measure your heart rate using your camera.
• Phoneanlyzr: Track your phone usage: who you text most, call most, average call length distribution, etc.
• RemoteDroid: Control your computer from your phone. Gives you a mobile wireless mouse and keyboard. Great if you’re using your computer for music or movies.
• Shazam: Identifies virtually any song you are listening to.
• SoundHound: Record a snippet of a song and get it identified instantly. You can even hum (if you can carry a tune!).
• Tango: A free, high-quality video call app that works on both 3G and Wi-Fi. If your device has a front facing camera (e.g., Nexus S), you will love this app.
• YouTube: New UI. Plus, portrait-mode player, and view comments and drop-down box video information

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6 Ways to Make that New Smartphone Actually Smart

“Smartphone are meant for the people who are smart enough to upgrade & utilize the device,not for the dumb people who wants to use the phone as a style statement/Trendy device….”,said someone. As a mobile enthusiast, we all tend to believe that smartphone users are really smart as us. Smart phone users ‘actually’ know what a widget/App is and how to install/use widgets and other apps in the mobile. So, uh, now what? Here's a step-by-step guide to be smarter with your smartphone . Smartphone users looking for a new handheld device should have to get back into the smart phone game.

How to Make that New Smartphone Actually Smart

1. Getting Started

 

Out of the box, most smartphones aren't all that smart. In fact, many can be downright idiotic. Prepping your new pocket ‘puter means some hand-holding, which also means slogging through a checklist of occasionally tedious (but necessary) steps. Don't worry, we're here to help. Remember, this device will be your constant companion for the next year or two. So you'll want to start the relationship off right.

2. Pre-charging Tip

 

Regardless of the specific smartphone you received for the holidays, the weakest link is likely its battery. Treating your Li-ion with respect will not only extend the life and usefulness of your new phone, but also boost its resale value—just in case you decide to dump to back on the market prematurely. Lucky for you, almost all the major manufacturers offer guidance here, including Palm, Apple, and BlackBerry. What they won't tell you, however, is that you must resist the urge to immediately charge your smartphone. Yup, let that 30-60 percent charge go down to zero before plugging in. Juicing up your smartphone in its half-charged state will make the battery components settle faster. That, in turn, will mean it won't be able to re-charge as efficiently in the future. Ideally, you should always wait for the battery to drain before recharging to maintain good health, but the occasional slip won't matter much. If you really want to understand these fickle little bricks, check out our Giz explains feature on why batteries die.

3. Moving Your Data

a. Contacts

 

Why no one has figured out how to make this process easier is beyond us. Anyhow, here are a few options for shuffling all your contacts to your new handset:

• The easiest way is to simply have your carrier to do it. This option is particularly useful if you're upgrading on the same carrier. Stop by your local retail store and a service rep should be able to transfer them in a minute or two. Beware: If you're switching carriers, there may be a small fee associated with the contacts relocation. Be sure to ask.
• If you have a GSM phone, you can also use its SIM card to make the transfer. These days almost every phone (smart or dumb) will have an option to ‘write all contacts' to a SIM card. After you've done this, simply remove your old card and slide it into your new phone. Be sure to transfer all your contacts from the old SIM onto your new phone's memory, as you'll be taking the old SIM out again. This, of course, won't work for CDMA (SIM-less) carriers. Sorry, Verizon and Sprint customers.
• You can also use Google Sync and a protocol called SyncML to make the transfer. Google Sync supports quite a few smartphones, including the iPhone, as well as ones from Nokia, Windows, and BlackBerry. Once it pulls all your old contacts into your Google account, you can go back to the cloud and make it rain contacts.

Email

 

Depending the phone, e-mail can either be a tremendous pain in the ass or a breeze. You're first step is, again, consulting the manufacturers: Most, like Apple, Google, Palm and Microsoft, offer quick setup guides. Note that depending on the service provider and phone, Exchange and Gmail setups will be completely different. Here's a good rule of thumb to keep in mind during the process: use IMAP (not POP). This will keep your messages and their read/unread statuses in sync with your desktop clients. Because most of your e-mail downloading will be still be happening over 3G for now, you'll also want to set some limits. A 10 kb cap for individual message sizes is best. This can help boost the speed of your incoming messages.

Calendars

Google Calendar users have it the easiest—particularly if they're using a new Android phone. By default, your calendars will automatically sync with your phone. The Pre 2 will do this too, while the iPhone needs to be configured with CalDav.

4. Media and Syncing

A smartphone isn't designed to be a solitary device. You'll need to check in with home base (a desktop or laptop) now and again. That means you'll be dealing with a cadre of desktop software to transfer personal info, music, videos and photos. If you're a MobileMe customer, Apple takes care of syncing bookmarks, calendars, contacts for you over the air. Still, you'll need to download iTunes to use and active your phone. For BlackBerry users, you can download the BlackBerry Desktop Manager. Windows phone 6.5 and 7 users are best served by Windows Device Center. And if you're against using official software, Android and Palm phones (as well as Windows phones, iPhone and BlackBerrys) all play nice with doubleTwist, a cross-platform music player/media syncing app.

Converting Video

Your 32GBs are crying for content. But you can't just copy all those torrented videos over to your smartphone. First you'll need to encode them with something like Handbrake. You're aiming for converting those files to 320x240 h.264 here. Most new smartphones will be able to play that back without a hitch.

5. Apps? Apps. Apps!

They can make or break a smartphone. So where do you go to find the essentials? There's no better place than Giz. But before diving into the downloads, we recommend you familiarize yourself with the affiliated app stores. Here's our comprehensive list and their respective advantages and disadvantages. Okay, now onto the apps!

iPhone

Your first stop should be Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps Directory. It's a compendium of the best of the best, and everything else you need to make your iPhone into a mobile powerhouse. If you'd rather not pay for apps, we got you covered too. Check out our Essential Free Apps. Just be careful. Those free versions seem to be stealing your personal info without asking. We also do regular posts and weekly roundups, so be sure to check them out too.

Android

Snag the Nexus S? You'll want to hit up our 10 Best Android Apps roundup. Keep yours eyes peeled for our monthly roundups too for the latest additions to the store.

BlackBerry

Here, we defer to the specialists: CrackBerry not only does regular reviews, they even have their own app store. In many ways, it's even better than BlackBerry's official shop, which isn't really saying much.

Palm

Palm doesn't exactly have a thriving app store. While it's a little dated, you can go through our Essential PalmOS roundup. Beyond that, PreCentral's official app reviews are fairly fantastic. Also worth checking out is their extensive homebrew app gallery, which has about as many decent apps in it as the official catalog.

Windows Phone 7

First, peep our roundup of Windows Phone 7 Apps. Next, check out our list of seven essential apps. Done.

OS Tricks and Tips

Whether you're coming to your smartphone's operating system fresh or are a seasoned veteran, here are a few tips for getting the most out of your new device.

iOS

Double-tap quick app switching, killing background apps, fiddling with the wallpaper—our pals at Lifehacker cover them all.

Android

Gingerbread is here, y'all. Check out Google's Senior VP of Product Management, Jonathan Rosenberg's list of tips. They're good.

WebOS

PreCentral has a nice basic list of WebOS tricks. And if you just snagged the Pre 2, check out Palm's own site.

Windows Phone 7

Head over to Microsoft's site for the basics.

Blackberry

You can either head over the BlackBerry's official tips and tricks site, or read through TechRadar's comprehensive list.

6. The Accessories

No smartphone is perfect. And frankly, it's easy to go overboard on accessories that make up for those inevitable faults. Resist that urge. Remember, you'll only be dumping more money into a device that you're ditching in two years (maybe less). That said, there are definitely some worthwhile investments you can make. Here's our list:

A Case

Yes, they can ruin the cut of your smartphone's jib. But even with Gorilla Glass, liquid metal and all those other fancy materials, your new smartphone is heartbreakingly fragile. Put simply: You're going to want a case. You can go crazy if you want, but there's no need to spend much. Here's our list of sub-$5 cases that'll get the job done. The main thing to make sure of is that your device's corners are covered. It's the edge impacts that typically shatter the glass. We'll remind you here of the same thing we did last year: You're now stuck in a multi-thousand dollar contract with this one device, which itself costs hundreds of dollars to replace. So yeah, be careful.

Headphones

If your phone wasn't your primary music player before, it is now. Step one: Throw out the headphones or headset it came with. Seriously, none of them are good. We love Bowers & Wilkins P5s if you want to pamper your ears a bit. If you'd rather go with something more discrete (and cheap), you can't beat a pair of Shures either. Just remember, a decent pair of earphones will cost you 100 bones or more—with the exception of maybe the MC5s. It'll be worth it as long as your digital music collection is up to the task.

Storage

Most smartphones either come with internal or "expandable storage. If yours falls into the latter category, it likely means it's got an empty microSD slot somewhere. Rule of thumb: If your phone comes with less than 2GB of space and has said slot, you need to fill it. Go ahead and grab at least an 8GB microSD card. They can be found online for well under $20.

Cables

Picking up a spare charging cable for your phone is never a bad idea. For most smartphones this is a simple mini/microUSB cable. For iPhones, it's an iPod dock connector. Trust us, you will lose them, and having a backup can be a life saving on road trips and in the office.

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Top Best Android Apps for Business Must Have 2011

Time is precious and all business entrepreneurs will undoubtedly agree with the fact that time is money. Gadgets and technology get together. This year, sales of smartphones based on Google's Android operating system have begun to surpass Apple's iPhone in the U.S., according to Nielsen. With increasing interest in Android handsets, mobile application developers are starting to make business-specific apps. Here are 10 apps from Google's Android Market, selected with the help of Google, that are popular and highly rated (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 the highest) by users.

When you are looking for a smartphone other than an iPhone, the Andoid smartphone might be the one you're looking for. Cellular South reveals the best Android apps for business and reminds users that Android is also for professionals. The choice of apps for the Android mobile operating system is bewildering, so Jason Hiner picks out some of his favourites. If you own an Android smartphone, you can make your life a lot easier with apps that enhance your business productivity while you're on the business ecommerce.

Documents to Go 3.0 (DataViz)

Free viewer; $14.99 for full version
Rating: 4.5 stars
View, edit, and create Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe PDF files. If you want to edit or create files, you'll need to buy the full version.

PocketCloud (Wyse Technology)

Free for limited features; $14.99 for full version
Rating: 4.5 stars
Access Windows, Mac, or Linux desktop files and applications from your handset. It's free to use with home machines, but workers who want to use this with a corporate computer on a network need to buy the full version.

Ignition for Android (LogMeIn)

$29.99
Rating: 4.5 stars
Your computers become an extension of your Android smartphone with this app. Remotely access and control both work and home computers, as long as they're connected to the Internet.

UPS Mobile App for Android (UPS)

Free
Rating: 4 stars
Track packages or freight shipments from your handset and estimate shipment costs and delivery times. This app also lets you access your address book and payment info at UPS.com and find the nearest UPS service locations.

TouchDown (NitroDesk)

Free 30-day trial; $19.99
Rating: 4.5 stars
Workers can connect to corporate e-mail with Android devices and get new e-mail messages pushed to smartphones rather than needing to remember to download messages. TouchDown supports encryption, and the IT department can wipe data on the device should it be lost or stolen.

Astro File Manager (Metago)

Free; $3.99 for app with no ads
Rating: 5 stars
This app helps you copy, move, delete, and rename files on your smartphone. It also lets you send files as attachments to e-mail messages and read and extract compressed files, such as Zip and Tar files.

Evernote (Evernote)

Free
Rating: 4 stars
Evernote helps you remember things, whether it's a receipt from that last business dinner or the name of the executive you met at a conference. The app lets you type a text note, clip a Web page, snap a photo, or grab a screen shot and store it, organize it, and find it later.

Travel Organizer (TripIT)

Free
Rating: 4 stars
When you're on the road, you can see the details of your itinerary, get maps and directions, and make phone calls straight from your itinerary with the tap of a finger.

Expense Reports (Expensify)]

Free
Rating: 4 stars
Never lose another receipt. Log expenses, scan receipts, and take comfort that a free service will back up those receipts online. This app also lets you import expenses and receipts from your credit-card or bank account.

Dropbox (Dropbox)

Free
Rating: 4.5 stars
Sync files between your computers and mobile devices. Share links to files and save photos and videos from your camera to your computers. This app also lets you browse a Dropbox folder from your handset.

Admittedly, I feel more confident downloading apps from the Apple store than I do from the Android Marketplace because I know that Apple strives to protect. Cellular South Touts Android Apps for Business Users The software can business users the possibility to easily find the most useful and fun Android apps available today. Top 15 Android Business Apps Highly useful Andriod apps for a wide variety of business tasks, from travel aids to financial transactions to office productivity.

10 Must-Have Android Apps for Business Whether you're running the next great business pitch from your phone or you just need to jot down ideas and edit documents on the go, we have you covered. 101 Best Android Apps in Business Here are the results for 101 Best Android Apps in Business on 101 Best Android Apps. Vote for your favourite applications.

10 must-have Android apps for business  Whether you're running the next great business pitch from your phone or you just need to jot down ideas and edit documents on the go business online. 11 Must-Have Android Apps for Business Among all the apps pouring into Google's Market, here are a few notable gems.

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Top 25 Best Android Apps for Business Most Wanted

Have you decked out your Droid with business apps yet? If not, take heed: Google Android phones still have a ways to go in terms of business functionality. But there are a few promising apps already. Here are some of the best Android apps for business we could find. Here are the results for 101 Best Android Apps in Business on 101 Best Android Apps. Vote for your favourite applications. Best Business Apps For Android - Here's a list of useful apps for phones that run on Google's mobile platform. Most of the mobile application development company offer best services in business e-commerce apps.

iPhone apps development has developed as the most fruitful business for many agents and officer : A List Of The 10 Best Android Apps - Business Insider Visual searching, augmented reality, geofencing, and more! Cellular South reveals the best Android apps for business and reminds users that Android is also for professionals. Best Android apps Illustration by Otto SteiningerHere are the top productivity tools, Replacing it can open unlimited business opportunities.

While the apps below are good, expect to see many improvements from developers in the coming year.

25. Phonebook

Manage your contacts through this slick app, which lets you see missed calls, unread emails, text message, and upcoming birthdays by contact. Also lets you upload a photo of your contact. Handy if you have trouble keeping your contacts straight.

24. Sprite Android Backup

Image: Androidzoom

Prevention is the best medicine for system health. Back up and restore your system using thiscomprehensive $5 app.

23. Google Voice

Use a unique phone number for this VoIP service. It transcribes your voicemails, gives you free text messages, integrates with your phone’s address book, and offers cheap international calls. Like Skype, but Googlified.

22. Cab4Me

If you’re a business traveler, this free app, which finds cab companies near your GPS location, can help keep you out of a jam. Cab company listings include user reviews and contact information.

21. The Weather Channel

This handy app offers the kinds of in-depth forecasts you would expect from the Weather Channel. Features include live video. The app automatically updates your location through your phone’s GPS.

20. Astro File Manager

Image: HTCpedia

An app like Astro’s is essential for keeping your machine healthy. This free program keeps your files and system performance in check. It backs up your apps to a memory card, lets you see what processes are running, how much memory your systems is using, and CPU usage.

19. Stocks

App image not available.

This free app piggybacks on Google Finance data to show you quotes and trends. Covers markets around the world.

18. Talk to Me

An excellent travel survival tool. Say something in one language, and it talks back to you in another. Current languages include English, German, Spanish, French, and Italian. Best of all, it’s free.

17. Greed

Image: Droidapplications

Greed lets you read your RSS feeds without opening a browser. Stay up on news, blogs, and your industry quickly and easily.

16. TripIt

If you’re a frequent traveler, TripIt is your friend. It organizes flight, hotel, restaurant, and other itinerary information in an easy-to-read form. Also helps you find and contact places on the road through directions and contact info. Top 25 Best Android Apps for Business Must Have

15. Currency

Currency converts more than 160 currencies using real-time foreign exchange rates. Comes with a tip calculator and, if you’re into forex trading, trends, charts, and news as well.

14. Seesmic

Possibly the best Droid app out there for Twitter users. Timelines organize your tweets; you can also save them as drafts and arrange notifications. There’s more. Seesmic is video and image-capable, shortens URLs, spellchecks, and supports multiple accounts.

13. Key Ring

Scan your gym, grocery store, or other membership card into your Droid. Key Ring stores each card’s barcode in a drop-down menu. Scan the barcode directly from your Droid the next time you go shopping or do any other activities requiring a card.

12. VNC Viewer

Stay leashed to your desktop with this handy app. It lets you safely log in and connect to a remote machine, so that you can make easy little changes without actually storing anything on your smartphone.

11. Google Maps Navigation

Possibly the best map app out there. Search by talking to the app. Or enter a landmark, business name, or other vague criteria, and Google Maps will generate results. Includes live traffic data, satellite view, street view, and turn-by-turn navigation. This app comes with Droid 1.6 models and higher.

10. Cashbook

Image for Droid not available. This Cashbook for iPhone image is from Appolicious.

This expense tracker lets you easily enter and track your business expenses. It also tracks your weekly and monthly balance. Comes with password protection.

9. ActionComplete

If GTD (Getting Things Done) and the Four Quadrants of time management are part of your daily vocabulary, ActionComplete is made for you. It’s a project management-style to-do list app, which lets you group tasks into actions, schedule actions to be taken by others, prioritize projects, tag actions, set reminders, and more. Bonus: It’s free.

8. MightyMeeting

MightyMeeting acts like a remote control for your PowerPoint presentations. Upload your presentations to MightyMeeting, tag them for easy retrieval, and deliver your presentations through your Droid. You can invite others to see your presentation and edit it, too.

7. Astrid

This clean, easy-to-use to do list is a classic. Astrid, which is free, offers you reminders, checklists, tagging, and priority setting functions. You can backup your lists to RemembertheMilk.com, a free online to-do list application.

6. Spreadsheet

This versatile, XLS-compatible spreadsheet gives you 100 spreadsheet functions. They include searching, sorting, and formatting. You can also view, edit, and send attachments through other applications like Gmail.

5. AK Notepad

Take notes on your smartphone, make to-do lists, and put up reminder alarms with this easy-to-use notepad. You can email or SMS your note, as well as search notes by title. Simple, fast, and often indispensable.

4. mShare

mShare is where FTP and chat meet mobile. The app lets you transfer or exchange files to and from your computer and other mobile devices. It also works for any size file, as well as contacts and data storage.

3. GDocs

GDocs lets you take your Google docs anywhere. Create or upload your documents on Google Docs, then review them in micro format on your Android app.

2. Documents to Go

View and edit your Microsoft Office documents, PowerPoint included, through this $30 app, which also does PDF. The free version will do Word and Excel only.

1. Locale

This smart app uses GPS, WiFi, and cell signal to adjust your phone settings based on where you are, and when. It will automatically turn itself off in meetings and movies, remind you to charge the phone when battery runs low, and more. There’s no better way to have your phone take care of itself.

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101 Best Android Apps in Business and in Fun Here are the results for 101 Best Android Apps in Business and in Fun on 101 Best Android Apps. Vote for your favourite applications. Cellular South Reveals the Best Android™ Apps to Help Conquer Tax Cellular South has identified and is recommending some of the best Android apps for mobile phones to help consumers conquer tax-filing.

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