The Apps I’m running on my Android Nexus S right now…

Although I have to admit that some of the things that annoy me about my Nexus S are still there (such as the poor battery life, particularly if all the cool and useful features are enabled), I’ve increasingly started to grow a true affinity towards some of the features the Android platform over iOS, particularly when it comes to intercepting phone events. As I’ve mentioned in my review of the Nexus S, applications such as Rebtel (for long distance calls) can intercept the call while you are making it as it recognizes the number as a long distance number and then allows you to dial straight via the Rebtel service (or Skype, or any other type of long distance service). This inherent flexibility in the Android platform allows for many other cool things to be possible, including messaging and the integration of other services via the ‘share’ feature built-into the OS.

At this point in time, I think I’ve stabilized in the number and types of apps I have, and therefore the list below will give you an idea of how I use my phone and which apps I’ve found to be the most useful (in no particular order):

Angry Birds – Well, you need a game…

Audible – To listen to audiobooks from Audbile.com as the native media player doesn’t have the codec for Audible’s content.

Beluga – Just trying it out for now, but a group messaging app.

Calculator – Just a simple calculator for the phone.

Compass (catch.com) – Just a simple compass for the phone.

Enhanced Mail (Quantum Solutions) – The native non-gmail email client on Android is absolutely horrible. This ‘relatively’ cheap one basically mirrors the functionality of the original but adds all the necessary missing features such as moving mail between folders, and assigning folders to sent, trash, etc..

LunaSolCal Mobile (Volker Voecking Software) –  A daylight widget so I can see what time the sun rises and sets.

Urban Spoon – For looking up restaurants

TED Air (OGQ) – To see TED talks

WhatsApp Messenger  – Group Messaging

GroupMe – Group Messaging

Retro Camera Plus (Urbian) – I paid to remove the ads. It’s effectively the same as Hipstamatic, but unfortunately, slow to load, leading to many lost pic opportunities as well as having a limited number of cameras.

Network Monitor Pro – This application lets me monitor the total data consumed on 3G per day (or week, or month). This is useful for when I’m roaming and have a cap I want to set.

Flash Player 10.2 – A bit slow to load stuff, but useful when browsing the web.

Extended Controls (Honolulu team) – What I use to assign other hot keys on my main page to turn off 3G and the like

Hullomail Smart Voicemail – I use this instead of Vodafone’s default voicemail service, and I quite like it.

OpenTable – Useful for booking restaurant tables

Facebook – no description needed

Watchdog Task Manager (Zomut) – Task Killers in the traditional form are no longer really necessary with Gingerbread (2.3), however Watchdog, on top of having the ability to tell you mem utilization, should you want to get dirty, also allows you to monitor the more important indicator of battery drain, CPU draining processes. By setting up a CPU alert, Watchdog will let me know when an app is hung, and I need to manually kill it or I can set an autokill if it crosses a certain threshold.

Rail Planner Live (Thales) – To take the next train home (UK).

NXP Tag writer – To create NFC tags, but I have yet to come across any.

PicPlz – Similar to other sharing services, it allows you to have a social network around photo sharing with easy post-to other social networks (and the typical filters to make stuff look cooler and retro).

Google Goggles – Awesome multipurpose app.. I use it for card reading and/or QR -Code reading

InstaFetch Lite (Immortal) – An Instapaper Client. Pretty good.

Notepad (BanderLabs) – A simple notepad without the requirement to sign up for some account somewhere

Tuner (Cohortor.org) – A guitar tuner

Rebtel – To make cheap calls, awesomely execute on Android

Foursquare – Another one not needing a description

Swype – An awesome text-entry alternative to the stock android keyboard. You have to try it to believe it.

Gauge Battery Widget  (Tomas Hubalek) – Cool looking widget to give you the exact status of your battery

Dropbox – Good mobile client for cloud sync service

Spotify – Music Service

Stopwatch & Timer (sportstracklive.com) – due to the Android default clock missing this functionality

Skype – More cheap calls

Twitter – Another service that doesn’t need a description

Defend Homeland (ESC Mobile)- My attempt to buy an RTS game for Android, but quite disappointing and overly simple.

Related articles

• Rebtel Makes Free International Android-to-Android Calls [Downloads] (lifehacker.com)
• Hands-on with the Google Nexus S 4G (electronista.com)
• Samsung Nexus S Review – Or.. how an iPhone fan came to try Android (chromewalker.com)
• Rebtel’s Free Calling App Available for BlackBerry (phonescoop.com)
• Google and Sprint Buddy Up on Nexus S, Google Voice (technologizer.com)
• Google says in-app purchasing ready to test on Android (electronista.com)
• Google removes over 51 popular malware-infested Android apps (edibleapple.com)
• 7 Of Google Android’s Little Annoyances & How To Fix Them (makeuseof.com)
• Samsung Nexus S vs. Samsung Galaxy S 2 (brighthub.com)
• Official Android 2.3.3 updates for Nexus One and Nexus S unearthed, available to the impatient (linksalphatest.wordpress.com)
• Official Android 2.3.3 updates for Nexus One and Nexus S unearthed, available to the impatient (engadget.com)
• “iOS 5 Likely Pushed To The Fall After A Cloud Unveiling At WWDC” and related posts (techcrunch.com)