Shared by anthony

While some of these facebook page creation tools require a subscription, most offer free trials and tools, especially while pages first begin and have a a small amount of fans.

Facebook page management tools help businesses improve their social media presence. We’ve culled ten companies, from a huge category of providers, that can help your brand build a more enticing page on the social network. Let us know in the comments section which providers you prefer for page building, whether they’re included in the list here or not.

Mediafeedia

Mediafeedia offers tools that aim to streamline the management of professional Facebook pages. From custom tab creation to scheduling posts, take a glance at the video tutorials this vendor

©2012 Anthony Cerreta. All Rights Reserved.

Shared by anthony

Good friend and industry colleague Matthias Galica, Founder & CEO of ShareSquare at http:getsharesquare.com, provides valuable insight in this latest article from CNN.

(CNN) — A confused crossword puzzle. A psychedelic postage stamp. A bar code on drugs.

This is how a QR, or Quick Response, code may appear to most people. You may have noticed these black-and-white squares showing up in subway ads or in pages of magazines. Thanks to our growing addiction to our smartphones, you’ll likely be seeing more of them.

QR codes are showing up in more and more places: posters, storefront window displays, TV advertisements, business cards, websites and even on T-shirts. When accessed with your phone, a QR code takes you to a landing page where you’ll usually find special promotional content.

The QR code was invented by a Japanese company called DENSO Corp., a subsidy of Toyota, in 1994. The codes have been used in Japan for years and are quite common there. But only now are they becoming mainstream in the United States.

Here’s how they work:

First, you must download a QR scanning application for your smartphone. When you see a QR code on a poster or billboard, open the scanning app and use the phone’s camera to focus the code on your screen. The application will recognize the code and automatically open up the link, video or image in your phone’s browser. You just need an internet connection to access the content.

Many QR scanning applications — RedLaser is a popular one — are available for Android, iPhone, BlackBerry and Symbian phones. Anyone can generate their own QR code for free. And you can link it to anything — from URLs to contact information to your GPS location.

Brands and companies are increasingly taking advantage of this relatively low-cost marketing tool. Last year, the animated movie “9″ was promoted with green posters containing only a large QR code that took users to a new trailer and special features.

A recent issue of Wired magazine included an ad by watchmaker Tag Heuer that contained a QR code that led users to images of its latest collection of timepieces. Magazine ads have used QR codes to promote everything from hair-care products to sheepskin boots to diamonds.

A QR code promotes Mini Cooper cars.

Even New York City launched a QR code campaign in Times Square that linked to Notify NYC, the city’s official source of emergency events and services.

And people are responding. According to a February survey of U.S. smartphone users by MGH, a Baltimore social-media marketing company, 32% of respondents said they have scanned a QR code.

Of those, 53% said they used the code to get a coupon or discount. And 72% said they were more likely to remember an advertisement with a QR code.

Getting something extra

Matthias Galica, CEO of ShareSquare, a QR code platform, said he believes that QR codes have changed the way people consume services and products.

“Imagine you see a poster of your favorite artist’s upcoming concert,” Galica said. “Usually, you would have to go home to look them up. But QR codes work as paper-based hyperlinks that can lead you to music videos, the site for MP3 downloads, and even purchase tickets right there.”

But will that incentive prompt people to whip out their phones and scan the QR code? Galica seems to thinks so, and reminds us using our phone to get something in return is not a new concept.

“The ‘text to win’ SMS campaigns have been very successful, and that’s the trigger for QR codes,” Galica said. “Something like getting a coupon through a QR code is a powerful call to action.”

Mobile coupon apps by companies such as Groupon and Living Social also may have helped familiarize consumers with the idea of using their smartphones to earn discounts.

The kind of mobile content that the QR code leads to is as equally important as creating one. Rich Brooks, CEO of flyte new media, a Web design and internet marketing firm, said the rewards one gets through scanning QR codes should be valuable.

Brooks said he once came across a company’s Facebook page whose avatar was a QR code. When he scanned the code with his phone, it led him to the same Facebook page he had opened on his computer, leaving him disappointed.

“I mean, what’s the point of that?” he said. “You need to deliver something that is not available elsewhere and is something worthwhile, surprising,”

Brooks suggests QR codes should lead to discount coupons, a virtual tour of a real-estate property or a never-before-seen video, for example.

“You can the damage the brand of the company if you don’t provide something of significant value,” he said. “And I would not want to use your company.”

The Lupe fiasco

An ill-conceived QR code promotion can even backfire. A case in point: the release of a special version of hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco’s third full-length album, “Lasers.”

On a chilly night in February, groups of Fiasco fans flocked to New York’s Union Square after getting a mysterious tweet from him that said, “union square, nyc. just look up in the sky. 7pm.”

As the crowd waited, people speculated what was going to happen. Maybe the Chicago rapper would show up and put on a surprise concert. Instead, a laser show was projected on the side of a nearby warehouse. The show ended with a customized QR code that Fiasco’s Twitter followers recognized immediately as his Twitter icon.

It took them to a landing page to pre-order a special version of the album that cost $50.

“The QR Code flashed and played previews for what looked like a music video — with no sound,” wrote Myles Tanzer on a New York University blog. “People began to walk away very quickly, to say the least.”

Tanzer said fans left the scene vowing to download the album online for free, ending in a huge marketing faux pas for Fiasco.

QR codes on 34th Street

Macy’s “Backstage Pass” QR code led users to videos.

On the other hand, experts say, Macy’s iconic New York department store seems to have gotten QR codes right.

Early in 2011, QR codes began appearing inside Macy’s trademark stars in storefront windows and strategically inside the store. Even sales associates wore lanyards with the code for customers to use.

When scanned, the code directs customers to Macy’s special “Backstage Pass” landing page that offers behind-the-scenes videos of star designers such as Martha Stewart putting the finishing touches to a cake.

Holly Thomas, vice president of media relations at Macy’s, said that the store saw the opportunity to use QR codes to deliver unique content, especially when customers are not in front of a computer.

“It’s one application that can speak to customers across so many vehicles,” she said. “QR codes are such a sensible way to send content with immediacy.”

And the campaign has met with some success. According to Thomas, during one week in February, there were an estimated 20,000 downloads through QR codes alone.

Presenting a QR code

Both Galica and Brooks said they believe the United States has reached a tipping point in terms of smartphone usage. In other words, most affluent professionals — the kind of person advertisers love — have smartphones now, making it necessary to include QR codes with all marketing material.

However, Wayne Sutton, a digital marketing strategist, said that how marketers present a QR code will differ from company to company. He cited a recent Calvin Klein billboard in New York that contained a massive red QR code under the title “Get it uncensored” and nothing else. Calvin Klein could get away with it because the ad was edgy, just like the company, he said.

“At this early age of QR codes, though, there should be additional information and images on the poster (to provide context),” Sutton said.

That does not mean that companies cannot get creative with their QR code marketing. Sutton said that many QR codes can have patterns or logos embedded in them and around them, as long as the code itself works properly.

To ShareSquare’s Galica, there’s something about a basic black and white QR code, and the promise of its hidden message, that makes it striking.

“I’ll admit, it’s not a beautiful thing and stands out as a sore thumb,” he said. “But it ends up being a signal that gets you something in return.”

Measuring success

Like internet ads, QR codes can help companies measure how many people are using the code and at what time. By having easily traceable analytics, marketing firms can view results and know if their QR code campaign is successful.

“QR codes may not give the best immediate returns of investments, but they can tell a prospective buyer how cool and hip your company is,” Brooks said.

But more work needs to be done to raise awareness among American consumers about QR codes and how they work, experts said.

While some consumers know how to use their phone cameras to scan, many do not. Galica said he believes scanning QR codes is not always intuitive and should not be taken for granted. He suggests that QR codes should be accompanied with text such as, “Scan with any barcode scanner on your phone.”

It is important, he said, to communicate the use of QR codes; otherwise, there is point in having them at all.

“If you don’t have the opportunity to interact with an advertisement you see, the meaning is lost,” Galica said.

Still, experts said QR codes are here to stay and will revolutionize the way companies market their products — as long as they reward consumers with content that is relevant to them.

“QR codes can be a powerful tool of marketing if they are leveraged in a clever way,” Sutton said.

The rest is here:
Marketers embracing QR codes, for better or worse – CNN.com

©2012 Anthony Cerreta. All Rights Reserved.

Ekaterina Walter is a social media strategist at Intel. She is a part of Intel’s Social Media Center of Excellence and is responsible for company-wide social media enablement and corporate social networking strategy.

Once your brand is on Facebook, the question becomes: How you engage those fans and sustain a meaningful online dialogue with your customers. Facebook fans will only want to engage with us if we serve up relevant content and truly participate. We also forget about EdgeRank — Facebook’s News Feed algorithm that helps display “relevant” stories. The News Feed only displays a small subset of stories generated by the friends and brands users engage with the most. The more popular your story, the more likely it is to show up in people’s News Feed. News Feed optimization becomes as important as your content strategy.

Let’s explore ways we can create updates that are optimized for the News Feed and engagement. Below are some dos and don’ts to remember each time you tackle that all-important question, “What should we post to our Facebook Page today?”

1. Don’t Automate Your Status Updates

Don’t automatically feed your blog posts or your Twitter updates into your Page. Often, automated content doesn’t make it into users’ News Feeds. Your fans can also distinguish between “auto” posts and customized ones. For a lot of brand pages, auto posts do not engender engagement.

Don’t share the exact same content across all networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) in exactly the same format. We all understand the value of saving time, but respect your customers enough to manually post customized copy. You will get far better engagement and show your fans you care. Some folks who use Facebook don’t really like Twitter and get irritated when they see hashtags or other Twitter-specific content in their Facebook stream.

2. Don’t Be Afraid to Show You’re Human

Thank your fans for their replies and for sharing their opinions with you. From time to time, talk about things other than your products. Wish them happy holidays. Ask them fun questions or to share their personal stories.

If you make a mistake — admit it. Everyone knows you are human, and no one expects you to be perfect. You will actually score points for admitting that instead of trying to hide it.

Don’t be afraid of negative comments or people posting on sensitive topics. You’ll find that most of the time your fans will jump in and defend you or address these comments for you. And that carries much more weight than you trying to chime in. And at the end of the day, this is your opportunity to turn haters into loyalists by providing timely responses and great customer service.

3. Do Post More Photos and Videos

Media like videos and photos always perform well on Facebook. Not only do they seem to be a favorite of the News Feed algorithm, but they just grab people’s attention in a feed full of text updates. A lot of web users choose to watch more than they read.

Facebook also offers you a nice little feature that helps bring more fans to your Page. If you post a video and a non-fan of your Page sees it, a little non-intrusive call to action will pop up in the top-left corner that invites them to Like your Page.

4. Do Put Your Fans in Charge Every Now and Then

Not afraid to crowdsource? Your Facebook Page is a perfect place for it. Not only will your fans feel valued and heard, but some of their decisions might help your content strategy in the long run. Let’s face it — sometimes we don’t always make choices that resonate with our customers.

My favorite example of this was Budweiser. They let their fans choose the commercial that would run during the 2010 Super Bowl.

5. Do Target Your Status Updates

If you are a global brand, make good use of targeting. We sometimes forget that not all of our fans want to know about campaigns or contests we are running in a specific region or country. Target your updates by country or language as necessary. In the U.S. you can even target by state and city.

6. Do Ask Questions and Involve Your Fans

Want your fans to express their views on a topic? Ask them. Want your fans to share their favorite content with you? Ask them. Want your fans to share your content? Ask them. You get the point.

If you want your fans to participate more, just ask them every now and then, you will be surprised how many of them respond. Multiple experiments by other brands and yours truly show that the posts where you include a call to action get better than average engagement.

7. Do Watch Your Post Frequency and Timing

Don’t overwhelm your fans with too many posts. I suggest posting once a day to start with and potentially moving to twice a day, especially if you have great news to share. As far as timing goes, many people catch up on their Facebook activity at the end of the day and during weekends. However, this trend varies, and might be different for your target audience. Be patient, watch the response trends on your Page, and identify the frequency and timing that works best for you.

8. Do Have a Unique Voice

It is important to know your voice. Skittles does a good job maintaining a consistent brand voice on their Facebook Page. It’s entertaining, funny and refreshing.

That is not to say that you shouldn’t experiment and step outside your comfort zone to see what else might work for you. Find a voice and tone that is representative of your brand and yourself.

9. Do Diversify Your Content

Change up your content every now and then. Often, people are not sure what to post on a regular basis. You could try adding how-tos, trivia about your company, breaking news, polls, fill-in-the-blanks, relevant third-party content, multimedia, or even experts to speak about your field or business.

10. Do Track the Performance of Your Posts

Do you know your average number of comments and Likes per post? Watch for trends on your Page and feedback from your consumers on topics/programs/discussions and adjust your content strategy appropriately. Don’t become complacent.

Hopefully these tips will help you gain an edge on EdgeRank, and put your brand on top.

Go here to see the original:
Mashable – Blog – 10 Tips for Posting on Your Brand’s Facebook Page

©2012 Anthony Cerreta. All Rights Reserved.

Shared by anthony

Tumblr is getting more and more popular despite the often downtime, which is opposite of Facebook. I also don’t know why they do not allow comments. I’m curious to hear what everyone else does or does not like or not like about Tumblr(?)

Multiple Services

I have multiple services with a simple click, which is a great time saver. I have the option to stay in touch with my readers on Facebook, Twitter and WordPress by posting everything simultaneously through Tumblr.

Post via Mobile

It truly is easy to post via my mobile device with an Android Tumblr app. As a matter of fact, that is how I started my Tumblr blog with my app in less than 10 minutes!

Tumblr Themes

Tumblr’s custom themes flow with my creative juices because they are super easy to select and upload. You can watch the video below to see what I mean.

Allow Others To Post

I can allow others to post to my Tumblr roll after queuing and approving them, of course.

Analytics

I can easily integrate my analytics. If you have a google analytics account, you simply edit your theme and put the GA script in there. That is always very cool for widening wallet.

Import my RSS

I haven’t done this yet, but it’s worthwhile. I can automatically import any RSS feed into my Tumblr roll.

Custom Domain

If I want to stand out, which I do, I can use a Custom Domain.

More:
7 Tumblr Features That Make Blogging Easier Than Ever Before

©2012 Anthony Cerreta. All Rights Reserved.

Shared by anthony

Great video presentation and statistics why brands need to continue to take control of their presence on facebook.

The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.

Read the original here:
The World Is Obsessed With Facebook on Vimeo

©2012 Anthony Cerreta. All Rights Reserved.

Shared by MatrixxResearch

We recently proposed — with Google and Kantar Video as chief sponsors — a new, standardized metric for pricing and serving video advertising to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Digital Video Committee: “Cost Per View” (CPV). This would distinguish ads viewers choose to watch (“views”) from ads that automatically load in a video player (“impressions”), making a “view” mean the same thing as it does on YouTube — someone chose to watch a video.

Read more in our joint editorial with Google:

http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/video-advertising-ditch-impressions-cost-view/149142/

Thanks,

David Burch | Communications Director | TubeMogul

TubeMogul proposed and Google endorsed a new metric — cost per view (CPV) — to the IAB Digital Video Committee for review. CPV pricing would apply to all video ads that are user-initiated, distinguishing ads that viewers choose to watch from those that simply load by default within a video player or on a page, which would continue to be priced in “impressions.” For example, a “view” would be counted for video ads watched through pre-roll ad selectors, completed pre-rolls that offered the viewer an option to “skip,” or in-banner video ads that users click to watch. An “impression” would be logged for all other video ads.

Why define it this way? Viewer intention to watch an ad is widely seen as a proxy for whether a brand message is being delivered and consumed. In the next year, Kantar Media will release joint research with us analyzing specific benefits in detail. Early numbers from YouTube’s TrueView in-stream ads — which let viewers choose whether to watch an ad and only charge an advertiser if a viewer completes the ad — are promising, with 20%-70% choosing to watch an ad. Still more research by Vivaki on Hulu’s pre-roll ad selector also demonstrates the value in measuring user-initiated views

Excerpt from:
Why Video Advertising Needs to Dump Impressions and Move to 'Cost Per View' | DigitalNext: A Blog on Emerging Media and Technology -…

©2012 Anthony Cerreta. All Rights Reserved.

It's getting harder out there for a guy who wants to raise big public fanfare around his marriage proposal. In the media-saturated American scene, you see proposals turning up in newspaper ads, skywriting appeals and–of course–the venerable stadium Jumbotron. So how does a lovestruck beau make his offer really stand out?  Why, he asks his lady to marry him in a TV commercial, of course. And that’s just what David Jones–a Cleveland-based video producer, conveniently enough–did yesterday to in a successful bid for the hand of his girlfriend, Dee Horton.

See original here:
Ohio man runs a commercial to propose to his girlfriend – Yahoo! News

©2012 Anthony Cerreta. All Rights Reserved.

10 Best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Blogs

Visit link:
10 Best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Blogs : Media : Technology : Blogs.com

©2012 Anthony Cerreta. All Rights Reserved.

Interactive YouTube videos up engagement by letting the viewer decide the course of the action, or play around with the content. Here’s 10 great examples of the format, which we think will be big in 2011.

More here:
10 Incredible Interactive YouTube Videos

©2012 Anthony Cerreta. All Rights Reserved.

The best Android apps of all time are a hard bunch to pick: after all, there’s now an estimated 230,000 different Android apps and games on the Android Market alone to choose from, and that’s not even the only repository for programs that’ll run on Google’s mobile OS.

But pick them we did, and you can see them – and download them – right from our epic guide right here. Grab your Android phone, make a cuppa and read on for the best Android apps of all time: Top 100.

There’s no statistical procedure for making the cut: these our simply the 100 best Android apps as decided by Electricpig’s staff, who live and breathe Android. These are the ones we use day in, day out, and have earned a vital place on our Android phones’ all too limited internal storage.

We’ve not included core Google apps that come preloaded, like Gmail, Voice Search, Google Maps and Navigation, or others that come pre-installed in supported phones like Adobe Flash 10.1. If you’ve got an Android phone, you’ll already have these, and you’ll already know they’re awesome. Likewise, we’ve only included Android apps that are available in the UK – so no Google Voice for now.

For download links, we’ve not provided QR codes, but instead linked through to AppBrain wherever possible: that way, whether you’re on PC, tablet or Android phone, you can click through to a central hub page where you can see reviews, pricing, direct Android Market link and QR codes. Where an Android app isn’t sold through the Market, we’ve linked to the developer’s download page so you can buy it just as easily. But enough talk: read on and see the best Android apps of all time!

3G Watchdog
Free
In network speak, “unlimited” data rarely means unlimited – you’ve almost certainly got a cap for your downloads, be it 500MB, 1GB or 3GB. Just pop this in and 3G Watchdog tracks how much you’ve slurped each month so you know when to cut back on the keyboard cat clips on YouTube. You can see at a glance just by pulling down the notification bar, making it incredibly convenient.

7digital
Free
7digital is largely invisible to your man on the street, and yet it probably powers a music hub or download service you use regularly. It makes up the big three with iTunes and Amazon for the number of tunes it has in its library, and most tracks are high quality MP3s. New content is added all the time, and it’s beginning to come into its own right as a one stop shop for MP3 downloads.

Abduction!
Free
Look. This game is not original. This is a Doodle Jump rip off. The cow couldn’t look more fraudulent than if he was wearing a pair of Kevin Kline undies. But it is free, and Doodle Jump for Android is not. So! Go get it.

Adobe Photoshop Express
Free
Adobe Photoshop Express means you can give much needed touch ups to those washed out smartphone snaps. Add soft focus, colour correct, crop, change to sepia or black and white and add one touch effects like vignettes. The photo browser also lets you organise your snaps, and upload them to the usual raft of social networking sites.

Adobe Reader
Free
Have you ever accidentally tried to View a PDF in Gmail, and witnessed Google Docs butcher it in front of your eyes? Yeah, Google doesn’t do PDFs very well. Luckily, Adobe does: this comfortably opens PDFs you’re sent, wrapping and rezizing text and letting you get your pinch to zoom on too. Grab it now, and be grateful when the times comes and you need to use it in a jam – like you’ve forgotten to print off an e-ticket, for instance.

ADW.Launcher
Free
ADW.Launcher is another homescreen rejigger that really makes you wonder what the big phone makers were doing when they crafted their Android software skins. It’s fast, clean and completely customisable, letting you put what you see fit in your own dock. If you don’t like LauncherPro try this, but for Heaven’s sake, don’t put up with Motoblur on your Motorola Milestone or Defy.

Album Art Grabber
£1.99
You may be surprised to find while plonking your iTunes collection on yoru Android phone’s SD card for the first time that album art doesn’t come with it. Apple doesn’t actually use the standard way to tag tracks with their respective graphics, but this one click solution fills the gap for you, and stashes images on the SD card too – plus if you object to a naked baby on your homescreen while listening to Nirvana, you can change the artwork to any other picture you have too.

Aldiko Book Reader
Free
The Kindle Android app is great if you use Amazon’s ereader platform on other devices too, but we like a bit of competition, and Aldiko certainly gives, with its own book store. Plus, you can open your own eBook files you already own, as it’s down with most formats.

Amazon Kindle
Free
The Amazon Kindle app for Android gives you access to over 500,000 ebooks through the Amazon ebook portal. If you’ve got a Kindle, you can also use WhisperSync to link up your accounts and devices so that you’ll never lose your page. Anything you buy can be read across devices, and reading is flexible, with customiseable text size, bookmarks and annotations.

Amazon MP3
Free
Buy music on your Android phone from Amazon’s massive music library. Think of this as the Android alternative to the iPhone’s iTunes music store. OK, so there aren’t any music videos, podcasts, audiobooks or any other frippery that Apple likes to chuck in amongst the digital tunes. On the other hand, Amazon MP3 is incredibly easy to use, densely packed with musical choice, and often cheaper than Apple’s music store too!

Check out our Best Android phone Top 5 now!

android2cloud
Free
It’s ChromeToPhone, but right back at ya. android2cloud simply lets you shove what you were reading on your phone straight to your desktop browser for when you get back in the door and want to carry on reading at a respectable font size.

Angry Birds
Free
Does Angry Birds need an introduction? Probably not. If you still haven’t taken the plunge and started flinging feathered ammunition across your Android phone’s screen, you’re missing out on a mobile gaming phenomenon. It’s completely free on Android, with only small ads popping up now and again. Addictive, fun and fiendishly difficult at times. We can’t recommend it highly enough.

Angry Birds Seasons
Free
Angry Birds Seasons is the Angry Birds that gets, well, you guessed it, all the Angry Birds seasonal content. That means Christmas specials, Halloween themes and in a couple of weeks it will probably be the hub that gets the better-than-flowers Valentine’s edition of Angry Birds. We know you’re not sick of the original yet, but this makes doubly sure you’ll be able to have fun wherever you take your Android phone.

App 2 SD
Free
So here’s the deal: an Android 2.2 and up phone allows you to install alot of apps to your SD card, rather than your phone’s limited internal storage – something even a high end phone like the Google Nexus One has very little of indeed. But if you’ve filled up your internal storage or are running a phone with Android 2.1 or lower, App 2 SD acts as a band aid. It won’t let you run apps from your SD card, but it will let you move them to it for when you don’t need them, and reinstall quickly when the time comes.

AppAware Market
Free
AppAware Market mixes things up a bit when it comes to Android Market recommendation by crowdsourcing ratings. Not only can you see the top installed Android apps from AppAware users, you can see which ones have been uninstalled the most, see the top apps of those nearby you, and even those of your friends who’ve opted in too. Give it a go: it’s free and you never know what you might find.

AppBrain App Market
Free
Google’s recent update to the Android Market still leaves it woefully behind the iPhone App Store – not least because after two and a half years there is still no desktop version to browse. Thanks guys. In the meantime, AppBrain App Market does a fantastic job of recommending good apps to you absed on previous downloads, and shows you hot picks and apps which have had a price drop too. One of the best Android apps to get started finding all the others, no matter what phone you own.

AppsFire
Free
AppsFire, like AppAware, plucks out app recommendations based on what the masses are downloading. It does so in a very visual manner, letting you pluck down app from the Market like sweets at a pick’n’mix stand, amd even shows you what certain industry veterans are installing on their Google phones too.

Astro File Manager
Free
A handy, simple way to get access to the file structure on your Android phone – you’ll want to do this from time to time when you can’t find the video you want to send, or a certain ROM for your emulators. it can even zip up files to send – this really makes your Android phone a portable PC.

Auto Mount Your SD Card
Free
This really is an elegant solution for something Google really ought to get off its bum and fix itself. Install it, and now when you plug your Android phone in to your computer (PC or Mac), it automatically mounts as external USB storage, negating the need for the laborious process of unlocking your phone and confirming this every time you want to grab some pics or sideload something.

Backgrounds
Free
Ever tried to use your own photo as a background for your Android phone? Bet it went horribly wrong, and got all stretched, didn’t it? That’s because Android uses an unusual resolution, to give that effect of the background moving ever so slightly when you swipe through homescreens. Backgrounds is a free app that lets you pick out plenty, and they all look just great. If you’re using an Android phone with an AMOLED screen (rather than LCD), try an all black image, and see if it gives you a battery life boost. That one’s on us.

See our Best Android phone budget Top 5 here!

Barcode Scanner
Free
We could complain about the Android Market until Google releases the next big OS update and then some, but we must admit, we like the ability to pull up a link from a QR code (Those blotch black and white squares) since it saves the hassle of hammering out a URL. Grab Barcode Scanner, point your Android phone’s camera at one and watch as it pulls up the link. As the name suggests, it’s also rather good at checking out regular barcodes for price comparison too, which is nice.

Battery Indicator
Free
We imagine there’s a cynical reason most smartphones don’t show remaining battery on the homescreen as a percentage rather than a vague symbol, but the benevolent folks behind Battery Indicator are here to help. Install, and it’ll give you a precise percentage of juice left in the notification bar, in an icon no bigger than the default icon. If you have an Android phone with a pathetic battery, like the HTC Desire HD, you need to try this out, pronto.

Beautiful Widgets
£1.28
We stick with the more utilitarian Widgetsoid on our own Google Nexus S, but if you’re the sort of person who lusts after HTC’s suite of Android widgets but have a different brand of phone, this is the best Android app for you. It’s stuffed full of hundreds of lavish looking homescreen applets, with lots of animations to choose from, and customisable power control bars too.

Bonsai Blast
Free
Imagine Puzzle Bobble in an ornate Oriental garden: then imagine not having to pay for the privilege of playing this ace colour coordinated casual game. Now stop imagining and go and download it from the Market: Bonsai Blast is one of the best free Android games out there.

Box.net
Free
We love Dropbox, but there’s always Box.net if you want more storage without having to pay: you get 5GB of cloud storage as opposed to Dropbox’s poxy 2GB. That’s yours to play around with as you see fit, so store what you like on it – we find it’s a very useful phone photo storage solution for those without a paid for Flickr account.

Brothers In Arms 2
£3
Gameloft simply loves to mimic the IP of big name console franchises and stick them on mobile. This Call of Duty aping Android title however is well worth the price, with glorious graphics and a fantastic campaign to blast through. You’ll have to buy it on Gameloft’s Android portal rather than the Market, but it’s worth hunting down.

Bump
Free
If you use the PayPal Android app, you might have used Bump’s tech before. Bump is super nifty tech that means you can share stuff with other people just by bumping your phones together, in a sort of smartphone data smooch. It works between operating systems too, so you can have an unlikely romance between an Android and an iPhone, iPad, or even an iPod touch.

CamScanner
Free
A scanner! In your phone! We’re big advocates of paperless offices but for the times you do need to scan a document in, the CamScanner Android app works eerily well, even with the awful sensors Motorola still sticks on most of its phones these days. Simply take a shot, select the corners of the page in the image, and watch as it twiddles with the contrast and whatnot to give you a smooth, flat, white sheet of paper with your text on.

Carr Matey
Free
We imagine Yanks used to enormous shopping centres and even bigger carparks love this little app, but it’ll probably come in handy from time to time in cramped Blighty too. You simply drop a pin where you parked your car, then track it back to where you left it, while laughing at the pirate themes directions Carr Matey gives you. Handy, and absolutely not recommended if you park your car in an area where you’re likely to get robbed walking back to it, for both your motor and your mobile.

CoPilot Live
£22.98
Google Maps Navigation is truly one of the most groundbreaking developments in software of the last decade – it’s now built in on Android, which is why we haven’t included it here. But even it has its flaws: it only caches some mapping, so you need a 3G connection, which is a no go in parts of the countryside, and abroad if you don’t want a huge bill. CoPilot Live however is full PND software for your phone at a knockdown price, with locally stored maps. Ace.

Best HTC phone Top 5: See the list!

Dolphin Browser HD
Free
Dolphin Browser HD is superior to the stock (and already recent) Android browser app in every way. It’s faster, still supports Flash 10.1 on Android 2.2 and up, and offers gestures, letting you jump straight back up to the top of a page in an instant for instance – an obvious UI feature Google has failed to figure out as of yet. Google devs, this is one of the best Android apps you could learn from.

doubleTwist AirSync
£3.13
We love the free desktop version of doubleTwist as a simple way to sync music and media to any phone that isn’t an iPhone, with an eerily similar iTunes-interface and absolutely none of the Ping. This complementary Android app adds the awesome extra feature of wireless sync. While it’s a pricier solution than WinAmp, we really like the sparse, get-the-job-done approach of the desktop software it works with.

Dropbox
Free
Stashing files in the cloud is the smart way to centralise your digital documents, but in practice it can sometimes be quite fiddly. Enter, Dropbox. This neat cloud storage app hooks you up with gigs and gigs of free storage (and you can earn more by referring friends). Pay a bit of money and you can get oodles of space. Dropbox lets you tap into your files anywhere, and even better, plenty of other apps sync with Dropbox to automatically save things like photos and audio clips.

Dungeon Defenders: First Wave
£3.13
Dungeon Defenders is the first Android game to use Epic’s Unreal mobile engine, and it looks glorious. It plays it too, offering up a heady mix of tower defence and action roleplaying that’ll please both casual gamers and World of Warcraft addicts alike. The only thing to watch out for: you’ll need a powerful Android phone with a big chunk of space free on its SD card (600MB), as it’’s so graphically intensive.

Emulator ROMs
Free
We honestly don’t know how some stuff gets greenlit on the Android Market, but the deviant, retro gamer in us is glad for it in this case. Emulator ROMs is styled just like the Android Market, and simply lets you download the ROMs of games you can play on Android emulators for PlayStation, SNES and the like. You can be playing Donkey Kong Country in minutes, it’s that simple – it even lets you launch the game from within the app. Before you start though, make sure you own all of the games and systems you plan on emulating. Mmkay? Mmkay.

EVAC
£0.99
EVAC plays like Pac-Man fell asleep and woke up inside The Grid. This beautiful neon puzzle game gives you plenty of mazes to beat, and makes you think about your gameplan rather than relying on twitch reactions. Those using an Android phone with a high res WVGA (800×480) screen should opt for EVAC HD, while those with HVGA screens or lower (Like the HTC Hero and HTC Legend) should go with the regular version.

Evernote
Free
Evernote is the don of mobile note taking. The Android app lets you type notes and make an audio note at the same time, then attach a file, take a photo, then file it away neatly with some appropriate tags and pinning it into one of your digital notebooks. As soon as you hit save, that note will sync with any other version of Evernote you use, be it on a tablet, PC or Mac.

Facebook
Free
Facebook needs no introduction. While it’s usually later to get features than the iOS Facebook app, Zuckerberg and pals are pushing to get Android up to speed, with Places and improved Groups added just before Christmas. Like all Facebook apps, it’s free. Fingers crossed it’ll be getting Deals soon too!

Foursquare
Free
Use your GPS-enabled Android phone to check-in to places and earn badges and (possibly) discounts at selected stores, bars and restaurants. Special check-in combinations earn special badges. Do a tour of four Apple stores in a day, for instance, and you’ll unlock a special Mac-lover badge. Checking in absurdly often? You’ll get the over-shareing badge. It’s a bit like being a digital cub scout, earning badges for roaming around, rather than tying fiddly knots. Fun, too.

Frostwire
Free
If you’re a Torrent addict, here’s a handy tip: set up a watched folder in your Dropbox account, then save torrents from anywhere (IE your phone) to trigger the download. Or, use Frostwire, an actual P2P client (Similar to Limewire) for Android. We’d strongly urge you to use it only over Wi-Fi (And for legal downloads only of course), but it’s well worth investigating to see what you can nab off other users, wherever you are. Music, photos, videos, apps, have your pick!

Find out what the five best Android apps of all time are here!

FxCamera
Free
Unless you’re rocking a Motorola Milestone XT720 or Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, the chances are your Android phone’s camera is a bit awful. In which case, we suggest you spruce up your pictures by overlaying them wtih retro templates to mask this fact, while giving them a Polaroid 70s feel in the process. For now, this is the closest you’ll get to Instagram on Android, and it’s well worth a look if you’re disatisfied with the quality of your smartphone’s piccies.

Game Dev Story
£1.60
Remember how in the 90s you played Theme Hospital to death? This cute sim gives off those great Bullfrog vibes, placing you in charge of a game development studio. Plan years ahead, garner rave reviews and prepare for new console releases. Seriously, weirdly addictive.

Google Chrome to Phone
Free
Reading something in your browser at home, then need to head out? If you’re signed into your Google account on Chrome (or Firefox with a plug-in) you can sling them to your Android 2.2 or up phone, and carry on reading on the bus, courtesy of the free Google Chrome To Phone.

Google Earth
Free
Google Earth serves little purpose in everyday use, other than to look absolutely amazing. Which it does. You could spend hours just zooming in and out of the world, marvelling at its beauty, and Google’s phenomenal ability to capture it all. And we have – and we advise you to do the same.

Google Goggles
Free
A glimpse into the future, this first party Android app shows where image search is headed. Take a photo and Google Goggles will do its darndest to work out what exactly is in the shot, and bring you details about it. Snap a painting in a gallery for instance, and you can find out who it’s by and more – the same goes for landmarks. It’ll also translate some languages for you on the fly, though if you’re using it on your jollies, watch out for pesky roaming charges.

Google Listen
Free
Google’s own podcast trapper-keeper Google Listen is still in beta, but works a treat for sucking down the latest episodes of your favourite audio shows, and cleverly uses Google Reader for managing on the desktop. It’s one for casual podcast listeners rather than audiobook obsessives, but it gets the job done with litle fuss for free.

Google Reader
Free
Google took a strangely long time to come out with a native Android app for its popular RSS reader, but now that it’s here we don’t know how we coped without it. The Google Reader Android app is just like the web version optimized for a small screen, with handy options to view video embeds and even navigate through posts up and down with the volume keys. It’s text heavy, sure, but that’s quite alright with us when it works flawlessly.

Google Sky Map
Free
One of the best educashional Android apps: this chin stroking official Google app shows you the night sky, and all the constellations and clusters that supposedly look like an animal but clearly don’t. Or at least it shows you what you would see where it not for urban smog getting in the way. Anyway, the Google Sky Map Android app lets you look like Patrick Moore, and that’s good enough for us.

Google Translate
Free
Google Translate’s handy on a desktop, but inifnitely more so on your phone, when you’re likely to be out and about asking people Polly voo English? It translates on the fly, offering up voice input and even a scary new mode where you can chat over IM in English and Spanish, while the Google Translate iPhone app does all the translation.

Gun Bros
Free
Gun Bros looks every bit as good on Android as it does on the iPhone. As two beefy brothers with guns (Hence the name), you walk around annihilating wave after wave of alien enemies, in a cross between the Duke Nukem games of the 1990s and Streets of Rage. It’s still in beta however, so expect some bugs – but at least it doesn’t cost a penny.

Want to see the five best free Android apps? Click here!

Handcent SMS
Free
Handcent SMS replaces the stock messaging Android app on your phone with a new look program bursting with added features. You can completely customise layout and notifications for different friends, group text people easily and change the layout as you see fit. There’s a ton of themes to download, and plenty of plug-ins on the Android Market too which give you new fonts, emoticons and more.

HulloMail
Free
We really hate voicemail – not so much because the messages people leave us are never good ones, but just because ringing up the network, then pressing all the buttons to listen to it, then having to hear them all again if you missed a bit of it, then trying to delete it, is. A. Nightmare. HulloMail is a simple Visual Voicemail Android app that’s a cinch to set up, and simply gives you voicemails like they were MP3 audio files you can stop and scrub as you like.

InstaFetch Pro
Free
InstaFetch does a great job of integrating with InstaPaper, the web service that reduces long form articles to text with no ads or nonsense getting in the way: the traffic is two way as well, since you can shove articles from your Android browser to InstaPaper as well. Add offline caching of articles into the mix, and you’ve got the best InstaPaper Android app.

JuiceDefender
Free
Google’s always coming up with new ways to save power but there’s no denying that Android can slurp through your battery’s juice all too quickly. JuiceDefender is a nice solution, turning off various settings at thresholds you specify to make sure you don’t run out for an emergency, and is much more comprehensive on rooted phones, which can toggle many more. We’re recommending this over any task killers (Note their absence from our Best Android apps 100 list) as a power saving solution, as particularly on Android 2.2 and up, task killers are just a placebo, and if anything, can waste power.

Keyboard from Android 2.3
Free
Android 2.3 comes with an amazing new touchscreen keyboard, which is almost as responsive as the iPhone’s legendary QWERTY – and adds some killer UI features on top too. For those lumbered with a Google Nexus One or older Android phone with a bobbins custom manufacturer keyboard (LG and Acer, we’re looking at you), this open source interpretation of it is free and works like a charm.

Kik Messenger
Free
We’re big fans of WhatsApp for smartphone instant messaging, but the other program gaining traction is Kik Messenger, which works like a charm, using a more SMS style layout for your chats with friends. Really, it’s just a question of trying both out to see which more of your friends use – don’t expect any BlackBerry mates on this one though, as the developer is in the midst of a legal brawl with RIM.

Last.fm
Free
The Last.fm Android app has been around for years now, and while it’s been eclipsed by the likes of Spotify’s mobile offerings, it still offers a lot of choice for very little. It’s also still a great way to discover new music, letting you create your own personal radio station, where music discovery is one of Spotify’s few failings.

LauncherPro
Free
Unless you own a HTC Sense Android phone, use a custom ROM or a Nexus handset, please don’t take offense when we say your Android launcher is awful – with special laginess prizes going out to Sony Ericsson and Motorola. Luckily, you can speed things up and customise your homescreen to your heart’s content by installing LauncherPro instead, which gives you a nice plain dock to tool with, and no laggy social feeds hubs cemented on. Seriously, give it a go and see how much more enjoyable it makes Android.

Meridian Media Player Autonomy
Free
Not everyone likes to keep enormous, lossless FLAC versions of their songs on their Android phone’s SD cards, but audio purists will appreciate the extra format support this smart music player offers over the bult in Android sound slinger. Meridian also lets you edit the ID3 tags of all your songs on the fly, which is handy if your CD ripping software of choice hasn’t done it already. Or you’re, er, sourcing music from, how shall we say, “elsewhere”.

MiniSquadron Special Edition
£1.88
MiniSquadron is like an evil, aviation version of Micro Machines. Shoot down rival planes, perform acrobatics to dodge and generaly just survive – which is much easier said than done. Add to that the frantic multiplayer versus mode over Wi-Fi and you’re looking at a winner of an Android game. The special edition version comes with eight extra levels of awesomeness.

Find out what the best Android games Top 5 are right now!

My Tracks
Free
The must have fitness Android app. This free download elegantly tracks your GPS movement in excercise, charting speed, distance and even elevation. Then once you’re done, you can upload data to a Google spreadsheet, and see it visualised on Google Maps. It’s always demoralising at first to discover you haven’t run nearly as far as you thought, but bear with it and this app will have you as fit as a circus act in no time.

N.O.V.A
£3
First Person Shooters, or FPS games, don’t get much better than this on mobile. It’s beautifully made, with some outright ingenious gameplay elements and controls that work wonderfully, even on the cramped screen of a mobile phone. Fragging, deathmatches, rocket-jumping. If all these phrases are alien to you, this is the perfect introduction. If you’re an old hand at first person action, you’ll still find N.O.V.A a treat.

PayPal
Free
What did we do before PayPal? With the Paypal Android app you can check payments, transfers, balance, and even go Dutch. Every payment is confirmed with a pin or password too, so it’s secure. The best bit of the PayPal app though is the Bump tech that’s inside – knock two Android phones together and exchange details for quick and easy payments.

PdaNet
Free
If you’ve got a phone running Android 2.2 or up, the chances are you have a mobile WiFi hotspot app built right in. For everyone else who wishes to apply their Android phone’s 3G connection to their laptop, there’s PDAnet. It’s free, it works with PC and Macs, and the only catch is it’s through USB tethering or Bluetooth rather than Wi-Fi. Go get it.

Pocket God
£0.62
ngmoco’s charming game is like Lionhead’s Black & White parboiled down into an Android app. Decide the fate of your little islanders and rain death from the sky or bring bountious harvests. While some of the actions you can trigger are incredibly morbid, Pocket God is still an adorable Android game that for the price is a must have download.

Pocket Legends
Free
While it is technically possible to play World of Warcraft on an Android phone, it’s not ideal, since it’s designed for a huge PC screen. The free Pocket Legends on the other hand is a gorgeous looking massively mutliplayer online RPG, played through and designed for your Android. Sure, the combat is simplified, but you can play with friends over Wi-Fi and 3G. And it’s free! Get questing.

Prey Phone Tracker
Free
Prey is a simple app you will hopefully never have run. Just install it and set up an account on Prey’s website, then should somebody swipe your Android phone, you can simply track it, Find My iPhone style. It’s worth noting new HTC Sense Android phones have a similar feature built in, and you’ll need to have your GPS on for this to work – but you can trigger that remotely if you prefer to keep it off most of the time with Tasker, another app on our Best Android apps of all time list.

Profile Valet
Free
Tasker is a fantastic Android app, but there’s no denying it can be daunting to use. By contrast, Profile Valet makes setting up automated settings based on location or time of day a doddle. Want your phone on silence between midnight and 7am? Easy. Wi-Fi on when you get home? Sure thing. It’s a shame there aren’t more actions it can trigger or be set off by like Tasker, but it’s free and painless, so it’s the next best thing.

psx4droid
£3.76
While some new Google phones will eventually get access to Sony’s PlayStation Suite, many more Android phones are capable of playing PlayStation One classic games right now. You’ll need this, plus a few other tips and tricks, but luckily we’ve got a full walkthrough for you explaining how you can create your very own PlayStation Phone. Find the right game, and it works like a dream – there’s a lite free version if you want to check it works before forking out.

Pulse News Reader
Free
Android doesn’t have too many visual, magazine style RSS reader apps at the moment, in the same way iOS boasts – though that may change with the advent of Android 3.0 Honeycomb for tablets. In the meantime, Pulse News Reader is the best of the bunch, presenting news feeds and blogs in a gorgeous layout – plus there’s offline caching for when you’re on the train with poor or no signal, and Facebook news feed integration. If you’ve never used RSS before and have an Android phone, we urge you to try this one out.

Want the best Android music apps? See our list here!

Remote Desktop
Free
While mobile VNC is easy on modern smartphones, this flips things on its head by giving you access to your Android phone from your computer instead: check out the contents of its storage, get notifications on your computer screen and even send SMS messages with your keyboard. Great for office workers.

RockPlayer Lite
Free
Android isn’t known for its video format support, and if this is a dealbreaker for you, we suggest you go with a Samsung Galaxy S phone – Samsung’s gone above and beyond to offer native support for usually unplayable AVI and MKV files. For the rest of us, RockPlayer does a great job of opening any clip in any format in a pinch – perfect for watching TV shows on the go.

Skype
Free
Skype for Android gives you access to a full contacts list (and syncs with your Google contacts on your phone), lets you make in-app calls on the cheap (or for free if you call another Skyper) and has instant message support that can work one to one or with a group. Hook up to Wi-Fi if you’re going to Skype from abroad to avoid pesky roaming charges though!

Slice It!
Free
As with all the puzzle flavoured best Android apps on our list, Slice It! hooks you by starting off easily, and ramping up the difficulty until you’ve drained your HTC Desire HD’s battery by playing it for two hours continuously. You’re presented with shapes you have to plaster lines across and cut into the reuired number of segments of equal surface area. Even if you didn’t dig geometry, you’ll dig this ad-supported free game.

SlideScreen
Free
Like LauncherPro, this gets rids of the random garbage launcher your Android phone manufacturer has likely enforced upon you. Instead of paring it down however, this Android app transforms your homescreen into a beautiful, visual guide to all your notifications, with the latest from calls, text messages, email, Twitter and even RSS. Take that in your static homescreen face, iPhone.

SlingPlayer Mobile
£18.85
Sling boxes aren’t for everyone, but for those on the road a lot they’re a great way of watching your TV and set top boxes. The Android implementation of the SlingPlayer Mobile app is the best we’ve seen so far, with easy on screen controls and great image quality, and it doesn’t use Flash, so Android 2.1 and up phones will work – even a lowly HTC Hero. Pricey? Yes. Worth it? Yup.

Smart Rotator
Free
We love the screen orientation lock options in iOS, but this free app does you one better by making the whole setup completely automated. You simply designate which Android apps auto-rotate and which don’t. It’s particularly helpful if you browse the web only in landscape or portrait, for instance.

Smooth Calendar
Free
Google’s calendar widget will take a huge chunk of screen real estate, without ever showing more than one day’s events ahead. Smooth Calendar on the other hand, is a nice thin bar with a clean visual indication of the day, and detailed descriptions of your next three upcoming events. This has pride of place on our Google Nexus S‘ homescreen.

SMS Backup +
Free
Historians are going to look back at this time and curse us: SMS messages really are the most transient form of communciation humans have ever invented. Other than speech. Anyway, the point is, SMS Backup + lets you preserve your 153 character gems for posterity by backing them up to a label on your Gmail account. It keeps them as conversations, just as your Android phone does, which is handy too.

Snesoid
£2.50
While only more recent Android phones will cope with psx4droid and the PlayStation back catalogue, Snesoid is slightly less demanding, and still lets you indulge in some super retro gaming action. It plays all your SNES roms with ease, and if your Android is touchscreen only, overlays the screen with a nice array of virtual buttons. It’s a paid for Android app, but also one of the very best Android apps full stop. Well worth it.

Five of the best Android GPS apps

Spectral Souls
£9.16
It’s true. There are a ton of great RPGs you could play on a SNES emulator on your Android phone for a lot less than the price of Spectral Souls – but just think of how you’ll be helping the Android gaming dev scene with your contribution! Also, this is a massive, bloomin’ marvellous retro-ish adventure game which will suck your time like Dragon Quest IX does on the Nintendo DS.

Spotify
Free
As many tunes as you can stuff into your ears, with offline caching that’ll stop you blitzing that 3G data allowance too. Spotify’s music streaming app is very nearly perfect, and a must-own for music-loving Android owners. The only downside is you’ll need to fork out cash for a monthly Spotify subscription – £9.99 in the UK. It’s worth every penny though. Note that the link above will take you through to Spotify’s mobile site for download, as AppBrain doesn’t currently list the European only app.

SwiftKey Keyboard
£1.25
SwiftKey is another keyboard Android app that gets better as you use it. It tries to predict the next word you’ll use based on sentence structure, rather than just the current word you’re typing, and it learns your lingo over time, making it eerily efficient. If you’re on an Android 2.1 or lower phone, we strongly advise you to check this out – and it looks a lot like HTC’s Android keyboard, which is a tres good thing.

SwipePad Beta
Free
While Android’s ace homescreen lets you slap shortcuts for essential apps on it, after installing all of these ones here in our best Android apps Top 100, it’ll be a tad full. And exiting out of the app you’re in to switch another from the menu screen can be a pain too. This essential Android app lets you create a dock you can summon at anytime by swiping up from the edge of the screen, and you can fill it with your must use programs, contacts and even Gmail labels. Marvellously convenient.

Swype
Free
Swype is one of a new wave of unconventional touchscreen keyboards available on Android. Instead of poking one key at a time, you swipe (Get it?) across the screen for the word you want – it’s eerily accurate and if you give it time to learn your new words, get’s very fast. It’s worth trying on any Android phone, but if you’ve got one with an unresponsive resistive touchscreen it’s absolutely essential. You can download it simply by clicking through to the company’s site and registering.

SyncMyPix
Free
You probably won’t need this if you’re sporting a HTC Sense or Sony Ericsson Android phone, but for the rest of us, Google’s attempts at linking Facebook profiles to those in your phonebook often falls short, with no way to manually join them. SyncMyPix makes a much more intelligent attempt at populating your contacts with Facebook profile pics, so you can see who’s calling you at a glance.

Tasker
£3.99
Tasker lets you create incredible, complex profiles based on everything from your location to whether the Wi-Fi is on, or your headphones are plugged in. Then they lie dormant in the background, triggering actions at your convenience: we’ve got our Google Nexus set to turn off the PIN lock when we get home and give us a list of media playing apps to launch when we plug in our cans. It’s utterly brilliant, and well worth the time to customise. In fact, it’s so good, we named it in our Best Android apps of 2010.

The Sims 3
£3.25
If we have to explain the concept of The Sims to you at this point, honestly, where have you been for the last decade plus? We only ask, because it sounds like the sort of pop culture vacuum we could retreat to and not have to hear anything more about Peaches Geldof and Katie Price, it’s that ubiquitous. Anyway, The Sims 3 is the The Sims 3, letting you control (or maltreat) your beings as you see fit, and watch as it unfolds. Absorbing fun.

Tick!
Free
One of the most baffling omissions in Android is a simple timer app. There just isn’t one that’s easy to find. While we wait for Google to slap its forehead and put one into the Clock app, grab Tick! instead. You simply wind up an analog dial for the number of minutes you need, then watch it countdown. Handy for cooking and the like.

TuneIn Radio
Free
Instant access to the world of internet radio. Listen to rumba stations from Cuba, or country from the deep south. Over 40,000 channels, with browsing by type and genre, plus presets to save your favourites. This version is free, with banner ads, but if you fancy an ad-free version get your hands on RadioTime.

See the five best free Android games here

TV Show Favs
Free
TV Show Favs is for the sort of person who follows American TV schedules rather than waiting months for the BBC to pick up a hot new show: You just enter the shows you watch, and then it’ll remind you when the next new show airs, as well as let you keep tab of the episodes you’ve already seen. Perfect for boxset addicts.

TweetDeck
Free
TweetDeck for Android might just be a better option than the official Twitter app for Android, depending on what you want to do. TweetDeck lets you pull in more than one account, plus Foursquare, Facebook and Google Buzz feeds, as well as the usual replies, mentions and retweet functions, and it looks a whole lot nicer than the desktop client.

Twitter
Free
The Twitter Android app does everything you need to keep up to date with all your tweeps on the go. Tweet, reply, retweet, share and favourite tweets, and will also let you keep on top of your lists, alter your profile. Be aware though, to use the Twitter for Android app, you’ll need to be running Android 2.1 or higher. An older version than this means you’re stuck with the mobile app.

Twonky Mobile
Free
Increasingly, Android phone peddlers are including some form of media streaming app built in – Samsung, Motorola, HTC and Acer all offer this feature on their new Google phones. Have something different and want to join in the fun and stream music and video from your phone to DLNA friendly devices in your house? Grab Twonky Mobile, which is currently free. It’ll let you create your own DLNA or UPnP server, so you can stream TV shows from your phone to your PS3 plugged into your telly, for instance.

Waze: Community GPS
Free
This is one of the best Android apps for the helpful rather than the greedy – right now its use is pretty limited in the UK. But the point of this social GPS satnav app is to build up a crowdsourced, intelligent map. Users submit their routes – and this in turn helps it plot the real best route. It’s only just starting to take off in the UK so Google motorists, chip in!

WhatsApp Messenger
Free
You know how all your friends still lugging BlackBerrys around love their BlackBerry Messenger? Get them to install this cross platform alternative instead: you can holler at friends on Android, iPhone, BlackBerry and Symbian phones, using micro amounts of data instead of wasting valuable texts for long conversations. It’s instant messaging, but tied to your mobile number so as soon as you install it you’ll see which of your friends use it and are available to pester.

Widgetsoid
Free
Widgetsoid lets you conjure up widgets of just about any shape for your homescreen, then stuff them full of toggles for all sorts of power controls, settings and media toggles. Want a bar that lets you toggle 2G and 3G, remove the PIN lock and toggle screen brightness? Want it vertical? Whatever, you choose.

Wii Controller IME
£2.51
Your Android phone is likely capable of powering through some glorious looking games, including high power ones that were never meant for touchscreens, like Quake 3 and PlayStation ROMs. Wii Controller IME provides a novel way to play them with buttons instead, by simpy letting you pair up to four Nintendo Wii controllers over Bluetooth. Sure, it’s not a particularly portable solution, but you might just be able to cope with the stares on a long train journey.

WinAmp
Free
WinAmp for Android is a great music player made even better by the addition of wireless desktop syncing and iTunes library importing. Just leave your phone lying around in the radius of your home network, and presto, all the latest songs you ripped on your computer will be there. Magic.

Wyse Pocketcloud
Free
Ever find yourself wishing you could connect to your PC or Mac and peruse all its contents (and see its desktop) on your Android phone? Wyse Pocketcloud is your go to Android app then. This RDP/VNC freebie works like a charm, and for all your Android 2.2 and up folks, can be installed on your Android phone’s SD card to save space. The free version is only limited to one computer and without 128-bit crazy encryption – but that might be enough for most!

Made it to the end? What did you think? Are there any apps you think are missing from our Best Android apps of all time list? Tell us what they are, in the comments below!

Related posts:

1. Best free Android apps
2. Android Market to get paid apps early this year
3. First Android apps revealed!

Read this article:
Best Android apps of all time: Top 100

©2012 Anthony Cerreta. All Rights Reserved.