My Recommended Android Apps for October

So last month I got my phone and after a few weeks of use I knocked up my first ‘recommended apps’ list. Well now it’s time for Round Two. I’ve played with a few more apps since, found alternatives to others, and removed a handful too. As always you can see my current apps over at AppBrain

Minecraft Canary – This one isn’t like a huge ‘everyone should go out and grab it’ app, but for those of you who play Minecraft it can be quite useful. It’s main function, the ‘canary’ is a dawn/dusk clock to help mange the days when you’re underground. This will probably become less necessary when the Halloween update hits with a clock. It also has links to Minecraft related sites like Notchs blog, the forum, wiki etc.

TED Mobile – TED is a collection of short conferences on interesting topics from interesting people. The TED app lets you watch these talks on your phone. It’s especially useful for me now that I’ve been told that TED are a useful and citeable reference for my FMP. And they’re an enjoyable and worthwhile way to while away 18 minutes.

Handcent SMS – A shinier SMS app than the default. Presents text messages similar to the iPhone. Remember that if you use it you’ll want to disable notifications from the default client or else you’ll get two alerts each time you get a text.

Dolphin Browser HD – An alternative browser, I’ve also played with Skyfire, and going to have a shot with Fennec and the upcoming Opera update in the future, but for now Dolphin is my fave. It has gestures, which for once I’ve found a use for them (on a desktop they’re pretty redundant) and is a bit more useable. My main complaint would be the default zoom distance is a bit too zoomed in and I can’t see a way to change the scaling. It also supports plug-ins from twitter to lastpass.

Sleep Bot – I have issues with sleeping. So I thought I’d grab this to keep on top of things and help get the optimum amount of sleep. It has a widget that lets you quickly clock in and out when you sleep and wake up. It’s main problem is the user. If I forget to clock in one night or clock out, then it royally screws up the ‘sleep debt’. My current sleep debt for example is ‘-15hr 50min’.

Photoshop Express – I’ve not use this one too much, and will mostly be useful for touching up images before tweeting or adding to dropbox to share. It’s got the basic’s for anyone who’d need it, but you won’t be doing any digital painting or compositing images together with this.

So that’s it for this months roundup, it’s less because I covered a lot last month. It’ll probably slow down over time, I’m not really going out my way to get every app and review them. And theres some apps I don’t much need, but could be useful to other people.