10 Best Android Apps Of 2013
From a slick password manager to a top-notch image editor, these standout Android apps will improve your mobile life.
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First, the disclaimer: We acknowledge the inherent lunacy of hand picking the 10 best apps from a field of 1 million and counting. Even when you subtract the obvious duds -- wallpaper, jokes, and farting apps need not apply -- you're left with a pretty sizable number of worthy contenders.
Since this is InformationWeek, we tend to veer toward the pragmatic business side of things, but that doesn't mean all our picks are no-nonsense enterprise apps. This year's winners range from the expected to the eclectic, with a few surprises thrown in to keep things interesting. And rather than including top-notch selections from last year's Android top 10 list -- which you should check out, by the way -- we've gone with a fresh batch of apps this year.
Android's dominance of the global mobile market is old news, but that doesn't mean the platform has grown out of its awkward phase. There's no shortage of apps, obviously, but the tablet situation remains messy. Too many apps aren't optimized for slates -- a problem exacerbated by the motley mix of vendors, screen resolutions, and other technical factors that make the Android platform a pain for developers.
InformationWeek contributor Eric Zeman encountered this firsthand when he bought a Google Nexus 7 tablet in June. The tablet version of several apps he installed wouldn't run properly on the new device, forcing him to switch to the less elegant (on a larger display) smartphone versions.
"The tablet app experience is a fundamental problem with Android that has yet to be resolved," Zeman wrote. "Far too many Android apps are simply not designed or optimized for use with tablets."
That's changing, of course, and Android's growing share of the global tablet market is helping matters by making the platform increasingly attractive to developers. Alternatively, continued fragmentation of the Android platform -- a troubling scenario where various incarnations of the mobile OS pop up around the world -- could have the opposite effect.
According to the research firm IDC, Android tablet makers are grabbing marketshare. Samsung's slice of the global tablet pie rose to 20.4% in the third quarter from 12.4% a year earlier. Acer, Asus, and Lenovo also showed significant growth, although their shares remained in the low single digits. Apple had a 29.4% share, and that number may rise with the recent launch of the iPad Air and the second-generation iPad mini.
But never mind the stats for now. Click the image above to start our slideshow of the top 10 Android apps for 2013. Disagree with our picks? Let us know in the comment section below.
With more people toting Android tablets, their potential as remote access devices grows, as well. Splashtop 2 Remote Desktop is a great way to operate a Mac or Windows PC via an Android slate. It lets you run desktop programs remotely, view and edit files without fussing with transfers or syncs, and even watch HD movies (depending on the speed of your Internet connection, naturally). The personal edition is free for noncommercial use, but you'll want the Anywhere Access Pack ($1.99 monthly or $16.99 annually) for remote access via the Net. Business and enterprise editions are available, too.
The Google Play Store abounds with free password managers that encrypt and safeguard sensitive personal information, but Dashlane is one of the best. It uses AES-256 encryption to store passwords, and it automatically enters login information and online forms (e.g., with names and mailing addresses). It saves encrypted data, including password, credit card, and other personal details, on your device or in the cloud. Its premium edition ($30 per year) allows you to sync data to all of your PCs (Windows or Mac), smartphones, and tablets.
There are many worthy competitors in this crowded field, so you might want to check out Keeper, LastPass, and Norton Identity Safe, as well.
You're probably familiar with Evernote and Microsoft OneNote -- both great note-taking apps -- but the lesser-known Google Keep is a good alternative for Android users. Announced in March 2013, Google Keep is handy for adding quick text notes with photos. It transcribes voice comments on the fly and with generally good accuracy. It's less powerful than Evernote or OneNote, particularly for collaborative use, and it doesn't support important mobile platforms such as iOS, Blackberry, and Windows Phone. That said, Google Keep is easy to use and boasts a clean UI -- and it's free.
Not a fan of the default Gmail app? You're not alone. The free Boomerang is a great alternative. With its clean design and convenient gesture commands, Boomerang makes it easy to view and organize your inbox. You can "snooze" an email message and have it return to your inbox when you need it -- tomorrow, in two days, or next week, for instance. You can schedule messages to be sent later, and you can track responses to your emails. Boomerang currently works only with Gmail and Google Apps accounts, but support for other services is coming soon, the developer says.
Open Whisper Systems has a duo of privacy apps that security seekers should try. TextSecure replaces the default SMS/MMS messenger app on an Android phone. It encrypts texts on your device, as well as those in transit to other TextSecure users. And since it encrypts messages locally, if your phone is lost or stolen, your texts are secure. TextSecure is free and uses open-source, peer-reviewed cryptographic protocols.
RedPhone cloaks voice conversations. It uses your phone's regular number to send and receive calls, providing end-to-end encryption for furtive chats. And, like TextSecure, RedPhone is free and open-source. Can you hear me now, NSA?
BlackBerry's smartphone business may be swirling southward, but its cross-platform BBM is a bona fide hit. The company announced more than 20 million new BBM users soon after the app's October release on Android and iOS. BBM's clean, intuitive UI makes it a good choice for sharing documents, photos, voice notes, and other information. The app has some nice privacy features, too, including the use of PINs (rather than phone numbers or email addresses) to identify users.
This may seem like an odd pick for a top 10 list, but the simplest apps are often the most useful. The free Call Recorder is a painless way to record business and personal calls on phones running Android 4.1 or newer. (It may work on Android 4.0.3 devices, but the developer recommends an upgrade to 4.1.) The app can save calls in MP3 format on an SD card, and it can organize recordings in multiple views -- by time, date, name, and so on.
We like the Call Recorder UI, but if it's not your favorite, there are many alternatives available in the Google Play Store, including All Call Recorder and Clever Mobile's Call Recorder.
Do Androids sleep? If so, do they sleep well?
Sleep As Android is an alarm clock app with a built-in sleep cycle monitor. To use it, simply place your plugged-in Android handset near you on the mattress. The app uses the phone's accelerometer to track your snoozing activities, including light and deep sleep cycles and snoring patterns. It will wake you during a light sleep cycle, which reportedly leaves you more rested than being jarred awake during a deep cycle. (Your regular alarm clock lacks this sensitivity -- what a jerk.) It even records your snoring, so you can finally hear the racket your partner has been griping about.
Sleep As Android's interface is a bit too busy with numerous crowded graphs and charts detailing your sleep habits, but traveling execs (ugh, hotel beds) and harried insomniacs should give the app a try.
Google's free Android Device Manager brings Apple's Find My iPhone loss and theft protection to Android devices. After logging into your Google Account, you can track down a missing Android phone or tablet, reset the lost device's screen-lock PIN, and erase all its data.
The app works as promised, but some Google Play commenters have pointed out that Android Device Manager lacks a very important feature: password protection. This extra security step would prevent a bad guy from stealing an unlocked Android tablet, for instance, and using Device Manager to erase data on the owner's other Android devices. Our advice: Keep an eye on this app, which will be very useful once Google makes this easy fix.
If you're looking for a mobile photo editor that does it all, it's hard to top PicsArt Photo Studio, a popular Android app with more image manipulation tools than most smartphone shutterbugs will ever use. You can modify photos in numerous ways using masks, frames, overlays, clipart, and sundry other tricks. And the PicsArt Artists Network adds a social touch by letting you create personal art galleries, compete in drawing and photo contests, and connect with fellow creative types. The PicsArt app has been downloaded more than 90 million times (Android and iOS combined), so it's obviously struck a chord with mobile artists.
If you're looking for a mobile photo editor that does it all, it's hard to top PicsArt Photo Studio, a popular Android app with more image manipulation tools than most smartphone shutterbugs will ever use. You can modify photos in numerous ways using masks, frames, overlays, clipart, and sundry other tricks. And the PicsArt Artists Network adds a social touch by letting you create personal art galleries, compete in drawing and photo contests, and connect with fellow creative types. The PicsArt app has been downloaded more than 90 million times (Android and iOS combined), so it's obviously struck a chord with mobile artists.
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