If you are currently in the market for your next smartphone, chances are high that you’re choosing between the iPhone and one of the multiple Android phones. Well, there’s a reason why there are so many devices running this operating system: it’s just that good!
First of all, it’s free for the manufacturers, operators and users, which means there are no added costs for the software. Second, there are thousands of developers working on creating apps for any area of your life and work, and these apps enable your phone to do so much more than simply make calls, read emails and surf the Web (which is a very enjoyable experience, by the way).
You can do a lot of interesting things with an Android phone, and below you’ll find a small list of some pretty cool apps that you can get on the marketplace. If you decide to get an Android phone, be sure to check them out.
Shazam. Shazam is a pretty cool app for Android, which lets you easily discover new music, purchase it from online stores and share it with your friends (the list, not the songs themselves). It works by accessing a database of over 15 million songs, and giving you recommendations based on your preferences. Most of the times, you’ll get some pretty damn good matches, and you’ll end up loving the new music. You can also use your phone’s microphone to record and identify any song that is playing on the TV, radio or online, so if you like it, you can know exactly which one it is and buy it immediately.
Google Goggles. Goggles is a pretty innovative concept that has only recently become possible on smartphones. It is a visual search tool that is only available for Android phones, a perk you get for choosing Google’s operating system. You can take photos of anything and find results online that match it, like forum discussions, other photos, ratings, descriptions and other things. You can also use it to translate any signs from most of the languages in the world, which is pretty useful when traveling.
Google Skymap. Skymap is yet another cool app for Android from Google. It lets you view the map of the sky and position, names and descriptions of various celestial objects and stars. It’s very interesting, especially if you’re into astronomy, and gives you something to do at night. You can also use it as a navigation tool if you’re a sailor, sort of like a compass/sextant device, which is also nice.
PowerAmp. PowerAmp is one of the best looking and most functional music players for Android. It’s got every feature you might need, and you can sort your music by artist, album, year, and other factors, as well as create playlists and search for songs and albums using the keyboard. The controls and interface are very easy to use and look classy, with old-style knobs and other things. Of course, there is support for skins if you want to change that.
Gentle Alarm. If you want to turn your phone into the most functional alarm ever, Gentle Alarm is a must have. The app has all the features you can think of when it comes to waking you up or reminding you of an event. Aside from the usual features, it has support for Text-To-Speech and Speech-To-Text, so your phone can wake you up with a specific message and you can dismiss the alarms with your voice. Another unique and very useful feature is the pre-alarm mode, where the app sounds a very quiet alarm 30 minutes before the set time, so that you wake up from deep sleep slowly and refreshed – interestingly, it works pretty well.
With over 300,000 apps on the marketplace, you are bound to find even more very cool apps for your Android device, so if you are interested, just open the market app and start searching. But first of all, you should really try the above apps – I’m sure you’re going to like them.
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