1. Launcher Pro Android is open, fine! But most device manufacturers misuse this.

We have the To uch Sense UIs, the Motoblurs, the Touch Wiz interfaces and so on sitting on top of the default Android UI and they suck big time. Launcher pro gives you a ton o f options for UI customisation. 2. Facebook Okay, the Facebook app for Android is far from perfect but is definitely the mos t used (not useful, FB itself is such a waste of your precious productive time) app. The iOS counterpart is better in many ways but as there is not a very good alternative to this, Android users spend most of their smartphone time on this a pp. 3. Advanced Task Killer Free Android's true multi-tasking can be a little tricky sometimes. This gives rise t o the need of manually managing the memory resources just like in our good old W indows. Of all the task managers out there, including the in-stock one, the Adva nced Task Killer Free is the cheapest ($0, can't get cheaper than that) and easi est to use 4. Rock Player This is probably the best video player out there for Android which supports most formats. The lite version has ads which do not interrupt the video substantiall y. The video is smooth and clear and satisfactory on a mobile phone 5. Chrome to Phone Register your phone and Chrome browser with this app and you are granted the pow er of sending any web link from your browser to phone instantly. It's more like Read-It-Later functionality, but on your phone. 6. Dropbox This is the best productivity app out there. The option to view, download and sh are documents or any file for that matter makes it very appealing and a must-hav e. 7. Brightest Flashlight Free Most Android phones have a camera and an LED flash too. The OS does not allow th e flash to be continuously on and hence this app. I found this app easy to use and very simplistic. It makes a funny noise when la unched though. 8. Google Music Google Music Beta is an online music storing service where you can save your pur chased (or stolen for piracy sites) music in the cloud and play it from any devi ce. There is an app for this on Android which plays your saved music both from y our device and the cloud. The UI is impressive but a little laggy / buggy I must say. 9. Netflix

Netflix is finally out on most Android devices after having several hardware acc eleration issues especially with NVIDIA processors. This is a must have for Netf lix on-the-go users who watch Instant-Play videos on Netflix. 10. Browsers The built-in browser is pretty slick and quick but lacks features like tabbed br owsing, private browsing, etc. There are several browser replacements on the And roid platform, viz. Skyfire, Firefox, Opera, Dolphin, etc, etc. Dolphin browser's interface is neat and includes tabbed browsing. InBrowser can be used for private browsing. 11. Pulse Pulse is a content aggregator with a beautiful interface. Several websites, blog s, RSS feeds can be added to this app for a one-stop access. You can also log in to this app using Facebook connect to see the links and videos posted in your ne twork. 12. QR Droid / Red Laser These two apps are content directors. Use your phone's camera to point to a barc ode or QR code and the app will direct you to a web page, app, give you contact details, product page with pricing and reviews, etc. 13. Team Viewer After a long wait I got Team Viewer installed on my Atrix without having to root the device. Team Viewer is the best for VNC client. You can control your computer, share you r desktop, etc. using this VNC client. 14. HeyWire Heywire is a text/tweet/chat client. As its tagline says 'Text, tweet and chat l ike crazy', it certainly allows you to do that. The latest updates have made this app fast and responsive. Facebook chat and twi tter are integrated right into this app. This can be used to send free SMSs. 15. Tango Tango allows users to make cross-platform (Andoid to iOS and vice versa) video c alls, even over 3G! Video quality is however mediocre over 3G. It is a good replacement for FaceTime . 16. Sound Hound Sound Hound works on an algorithm which identifies a song based on a recording a part of the song and checking it across its own database. The app is almost accurate when you play the song. Might not work as expected wh en you sing into the app. Shazam is an alternative.

17. Zedge Zedge is a one-stop shop for ringtones and wallpapers, all for free. The app is easy to use and has tons of options to personalise your phone. 18. Queue Tube This app lets you play Youtube video's audio. Let me rephrase. You can queue you tube videos into this app so that only the audio from the video is played. This facilitates multi-tasking when trying to listen to a song on Youtube. 19. Ustream Ustream is for the amateur journalist out there who would like to stream live vi deos from their phone over 3G. The video quality is mediocre, yet will suffice. Miscellaneous Following is the list of apps I found useful and whose name is self-explanatory, hence no description is required. Battery Status (On Notification bar) Auto Rotate Switch CNN Engadget Cnet TV Google Goggles