15 of My First Motorola Droid Apps

Looks like I am one of the noobs yet again as I recently traded up the old Blackberry cell phone for a shiny new Motorola DROID, the Android is available for Verizon Wireless customers and if you haven’t seen about 18,000 ads for the Droid by now I will just assume you live in a cave. When it comes to “smart phones” AT&T has had the lock with the iPhone up until recently when Verizon released the Droid to it’s wireless customers, o.k. let’s face it the iPhone is still the market monster and has something like 500,000,000,000,000…. (you get it), apps.

One thing I want to point out about my list of Droid apps is mainly based on the things that I need or require a cell phone to do, of course with all of the spiffy free Droid apps available I have a few other goodies in here too. I typically look for Droid business apps and Droid apps that make every task I do as simple as possible. One of the apps that I haven’t been able to find yet is an Android app for getting rid of the annoying auto-lock feature, it’s one of my 10 Things I Hate About Motorola Droid. Trust me I hate it a lot.

15 Motorola DROID Apps

Here’s my list of Motorola Droid apps, since I am a Droid beginner I would assume that most of these Droid apps would be good for just about anyone, there are def. a few Droid apps for business owners. I hope you enjoy.

1. Advanced Task Manager

Thanks to @thePromoterTV on twitter I was introduced to this handy little app that makes it easy to manage and kill specific tasks and apps that might be running in the background and slowing your Droid down.

2. AK Notepad

Any small business owner, blogger or pretty much anyone that likes to keep notes of things on the fly will find AK Notepad pretty handy. It’s a simple Droid app for taking notes, you can also schedule reminders for those time sensitive notes.

3. Better Keyboard

I can’t really say that this is a MUCH better keyboard app for Droid then the actual keyboard that comes with Droid, it does allow for the installation of additional skins and font packs that make it somewhat easier to see the keys. I still have the clumsy thumb syndrome, so entering text with the touch keyboard can still be tricky. Practice, practice, practice.

4. Documents to Go

This is a killer app that I can’t possibly do without, this is your Microsoft Office package on the go. Word to Go and Excel to Go were my two main reasons for picking this Droid app up, if you get the full version key you can access and edit information on the go. A must have for any small business owner.

5. Google Goggles

I can’t really say that this is the most useful Droid app on the planet, but it’s entire concept is just mind blowing…. Take a picture of any item with Google Goggles and Google will attempt to return search engine results based on the pictured item. Sure it has it’s hiccups but it can be pretty fun to screw around with from time to time.

6. Group SMS 2.0 Edition

Every once and a while I need to send the same text message to a group of people, this is not longer an all day event thanks to Group SMS for Droid. This app allows you to create groups or lists of contacts that you can keep neatly together, when you need to message the entire group you type it once and send. Done deal.

7. Handcent SMS

I desire a little more excitement in the text messaging portion of my life, especially now that I no longer have a Blackberry and can’t take advantage of Blackberry Messenger. I really hope that a someone puts together an app for Droid that is like Blackberry Messenger, that really was my favorite feature of pretty much any cell phone I have owned up until this point. If you grab this app to spruce up your SMS don’t forget to try out some of the free font packs and themes for Handcent, there’s also some nice options in this app to make texting a little easier.

8. Lookout Mobile Security

This was officially the first app I added to my Droid, the guy at Verizon selling the phone recommended that I install it. It took me a few days to actually do anything with the app and when I finally did I was pleasently surprised that this app offered much more than just mobile security. Automatic backup of contacts and other important information make this a must have for more than just the obvious reasons.

9. Pure Grid Calendar Widget

Here’s a pretty sweet calendar widget that will automatically sync with your Google calendar, it makes scheduling appointments and keeping them much easier when you can check via your cell or desktop computer.

10. Scan2PDF

Not a Droid app that everyone needs to have but certainly one that I need to have, simply take a picture of a document and Scan 2 PDF will generate an editable PDF file that can be sent via email, etc. Must have for anyone that does a lot of faxing and emailing of documents, team this up with EFax and your golden.

11.Visual Voice Mail

If your anything like me chances are you hate calling in to check your voice mail, in many cases the voice mail on your phone might be from someone you axctually already spoke to since checking voice mail. Who wants to go through and hit the number seven and do all of these crazy things, with the Visual Voice Mail Motorola Droid app you can check your voice mail directly from you Droid without calling voice mail, you can also delete messages in your voice mail box right from your touch screen.

12. Twitroid

All though I no longer use the Twidroid Twitter app for Droid phones anymore I put it on the list because it was one of my first apps and it also helped get the job done on Twitter when I needed it to. I have since moved on to the Seesmic for Android application because it supports multiple accounts and the send tweet interface is much easier to use then the Twidroid apps send tweet.

13. Quick Dial

I hate trying to scroll through contacts to get to the contact I need to get a hold of, especially when I am driving because I don’t use a hand set when I drive. Call me Mr. Safety. Anyway, the auto-locking feature of the Droid pisses me off, it makes making a phone call in a hurry something that doesn’t exist out of the box, with Quick Dial you can set up 12 contacts that you call the most on the handy one touch dial screen that Quick Dial for Droid brings up.

14. DX Top

Who wants a phone like an Android phone that has endless customization opportunities without having a little flair or theme change, DX Top is a pretty sweet theme pack that adds an additional screen for more shortcuts and applications, not to mention the ability to pick from a ridiculous amount of theme design packs. If you want to customize things a little more give DX Top apps a try.

15. Dial Zero

Here’s a pretty sweet Android app that makes it nice and easy to find the 1-800 number or customer service number you need, in addition to helping you find the numbers it also helps you navigate through the red tape of corporate auto-answer systems by getting you to a live customer service rep quickly. I really can’t say that I have any experience with this app, the last part of the sentence above was based on what the app says. If it doesn’t do it, don’t scream at me about it.

That’s pretty much where I am at with my new Motorola Droid and the apps that I’ve played around with so far, I’m hardly a Droid guru so if you have any Droid apps that you would like to recommend please leave a comment and I’ll check it out. Chances are you can expect to see more posts about Droid applications in the near future, if you are considering making the change to a Motorola Droid or you already have one please consider connecting with me via my Facebook Fan Page or on Twitter @extremejohn or better yet subscribe to my rss feed and you’ll know the minute I post something new.

Tagged as: android, android applications, android apps, business apps, droid, droid applications, droid apps, motoral droid