Two weeks ago I posted a list of recommended Android apps. Two weeks is a long time, though, and some of those recommendations have changed and I’ve stumbled across some more.

So, here’s an update…

Changes

WikiMobile has been replaced with Quickpedia for viewing Wikipedia – overall, it’s a much better viewing experience.

Advanced Task Manager and ASTRO have been replaced by ES Task Manager and ES File Explorer. There was nothing wrong with the original apps, but the two ES replacements, being from the same developer, are more integrated and, importantly, ES File Explorer had a killer feature for me – the ability to map to my home network drives. Don’t forget to use the ES Task Manager widget (Advanced Task Manager has one too) for an instant clear-down of running apps.

Profilechanger was far too unreliable, quite often not updating my profile. The replacement, Timeriffic, has more options and has been, so far, 100% reliable.

Updates

I mentioned a lack of decent Google Reader App. I tried NewsRob but wasn’t impressed – I’m sticking to the mobile version of the Google site for now.

BeyondPod did, indeed, become my podcast app of choice – Listen was far too flaky and unreliable.

New Apps

Appbrain is one of many websites that allow you to view the Android marketplace. What sets it apart, though, is its matching App that allows you to choose an item from its site and then install it directly to your phone.

It will even sync your app list with the site, allowing you to view (and share, if you’d like) those that you have installed. Look out for a full review and more details about AppBrain coming up…

One of the most useful apps that I’ve installed recently is Wifi Analyzer – this will display, graphically, your wi-fi network in a number of different ways. From strength meters to channel ratings, this is a really excellent program.

One app I purposefully haven’t installed is toggleheadset. A known bug in Android means that sometimes the software doesn’t switch sound from the speaker to the headset when one is plugged in. Up until now I’ve never experienced the problem – until yesterday. So now I have it installed and have the useful widget on my home screen – one quick touch and it forces the sound source to swap.

After much reviewing of Twitter software, I settled on TwiDroid or, more importantly, TwiDroid PRO. For a while it wasn’t available to me in the marketplace (for unknown reasons) but then appeared. So far, I’m enjoying it. However, I don’t wish to be alerted to new Tweets so have the background updates switched off – however, the updating of messages when you enter the app is quite slow. I wish they had an option to background update but not alert!

Anyone with a phone such as a Hero should be aware of security and, in particular, the possibility of having the phone stolen. WaveSecure Mobile is a solution to this. Install the app and from their website you can, via texts sent to the phone, request information to be sent back, including location. You can even perform a full backup to their servers and wipe any data on the phone. Unbelievably, it’s free!

Lastly, a couple of pratical programs – UltraChron Stopwatch and RealCalc Scientific Calculator. The former is a Stopwatch and countdown timer (with speech!) and the latter is a full scientific calculator which includes (and the reason I wanted it) base conversion.

Still Reviewing

There are a couple of apps that I’ve installed but haven’t yet had a chance to try properly. These are…

1. Where’s My Droid – text your phone and it will ramp up the volume and alert you to where it is!
2. android-vnc-viewer – VNC remote viewer, allowing you remote access to a PC. Will be trying this, hopefully, later today!