google

ThinkFree Office (Document Viewer)

You might be someone with an all round Internet facility and would not mind spending a few MBs of data transfer for viewing those documents which are so very important to you. This app is not for those. It is for those who even when without an internet connection would want to view their documents. It is for those who would like to see what exactly they have in the document without having to upload to an online service (say Google Docs) and then ask the website to display the content.

While there are numerous applications which promise to display your documents on mobile so very well, no one gets close to ThinkOffice. There are two versions, lite and full. Of course, the lite has ads, and cannot create documents while the full version is paid and can edit documents and can also show you the PDF files. In case, you just want a document viewer, but no editor, this is the app you want.

It can display the files created with MS office. You can open .DOC, .DOCX, .PPT, .PPTX, .XLS and .XLSX formats using this application. It can display almost everything as you want. However, there are minor glitches, as is with every other software out there. The first problem we found in the Word File viewer was that it does not get the images right. If you have images in the document and you have text wrapped around them, they don’t show the way they should. The second problem we found was nothing. Well, there are ads in every free app, almost. So we won’t count that as a glitch.

GO SMS Pro (Messaging better than Messaging)

One does not need extra software to send and receive messages. The software which comes with the phone is enough to send messages. But before you go away to the next software, let us tell you something about this little sweet software: you want it! Read on for the reason.
By default, android devices would show you the threaded view of SMS conversations. But there are some who want to have that old style of having their inbox, outbox, drafts and sent messages separated. Android’s built in SMS app is not capable of that. GO SMS Pro does that for you!

Face it: life is boring when it’s black and white. While the default white over black android theme for the SMS app is really cool, some prefer other colours, as well. GO SMS Pro gets you quite a few interesting themes and you can switch between them at any time.
Would you not like to feel a little more romantic when messaging your fiancée, or your girlfriend, or wife than when messaging your office colleagues? Definitely yes! If you say ‘no’, we would still say ‘yes’. Colours add interest to life. They make it beautiful. Go SMS Pro allow you to have a valentine theme for the ones you love and a colourless ones for those whom you do not like. Not only themes but almost every setting is configurable for individual contacts on your list.

Real Media Player (Multimedia player)

The reason we call it a ‘Multimedia’ player for the Android platform is that it can play all types of media, music, videos and pictures. Yes, you got that right. It plays pictures too. On its first run, it would scan all the media on your internal and external memory and then get you ready within a couple of minutes (ok, your hardware matters) and you can then have a media gallery. Click on how you want to look at things and you have them!

Well, the interface looks good but is not very intuitive when it comes to the music library, although it’s simply great. Videos are fine and so is the pictures gallery in it. All your videos are shown in one view, no matter where they are. Same is with the pictures. All of them are under one hood. No galleries, no fancy options but surely a good player for most media types.

Best feature of Real player on Android is the picture slideshow, we say. Just put in the track you would love to play and start the slideshow with the music in the background. This is something which we love about this application. Try it and you will see. One of the biggest reasons we mention it is: it plays a lot of video formats. We tried out quite a few like DivX, XviD and it fared well.

Along with the great applications to make your phone a real jewel, you, at times will require those small little applications which are not for show-off but purely to help you with some specific tasks. While Android will not let you down with its capacities, we at times do want something more than the 'default'. It is then we want another file manager or an extra software for reading a few text files! Android app market, as usual has a lot of apps for every task. We will show you the ones which you will find the most useful.

Offline Dictionaries

It does what it sounds like. Although the application itself is of merely 400 KB, it is useless in that regard. Once you have downloaded the application, you will have to choose which dictionary you want to download and install. We chose the wordnet English dictionary and the application worked as you would like it to! Just input the word and you will be served with the meaning and to help you understand, it will also show you the examples (inline) as well as synonyms.

Android is well known for its great market place. You can download what you want and there is something for everyone. Of course we cannot talk about someone who loves ribbon bar of Office 2010 but otherwise, for those who understand that no matter what, a mobile is not a full blown computer, there is something. We, however, think that in the sea of all those millions of applications which today’s app stores boast about, there has to be the ones which would shine among the rest. Ranging from small nifty calculators to document viewers, the market is full of applications.

However, we surely like to get things done for free rather than paying for them. Here we present to you the applications which we believe are the best ones in their area. Also, new software keeps pouring into the market every now and then. Look at the date and we will try to keep you updated with the latest and the greatest software in every field. Here is the list for now: