I’ve recently covered iPhone apps that can be used to improve productivity, but there are other mobile devices out htere without that popular “i” prefix attached.
Though not as huge as the iPhone App Store, the collection of apps for Android phones is a pretty good one. That means you are likely to find some great productivity tools here, too.
1. Voice Recorder: As the name suggests, this app lets you get things done by recording your voice on your Android phone. The app could be used to record a conversation, interview, take notes or to quickly capture a random idea. There’s a timer that runs while you record, and the resultant files could be emailed as an attachment to your Gmail account. The app is free to use.
2. Remember The Milk: Remember the Milk for Android is the Android version of the popular task management service. It lets you access your RTM tasks and reminders, see tasks that are located nearby (uses the location feature of the phone), and add new tasks and sync it with your RTM account. The app is only available for those who use the RTM pro version — which costs $25 a year.
3. Astrid: If RTM’s pro version doesn’t excite you and you are looking for a free (yet effective) to-do list app for Android then Astrid is the one you need. It makes adding and viewing tasks really simple and has features like reminders, notes, task filters and much more. And here’s the nice part – it also syncs with the aforementioned RTM. Definitely worth a try.
4. Springpad: An innovative Android app that lets you save stuff worth remembering. It goes beyond the conventional note-taking method and adds much more to your information by pulling in related data from sites like Amazon, Netflix, Yelp and many more. You could also easily search for a store or a nearby restaurant using this tool. And all this at the right price: $0.
5. Any Cut: Any Cut aims to make your Android phone experience a smooth one. One of the major grievances of all the smartphone users, be it Android or iPhone, is that once the phone gets loaded with apps and tools it becomes time-consuming to find the stuff you need. It’s just like a cluttered computer desktop. This app helps you create shortcuts for other apps and phone functions right on the homescreen, thereby saving you the time you’d be spending in finding them.
6. Slide Screen: If you are an advanced smartphone user and use your Android phone to do a lot of things, then is a must-have app. It aims to enhance your productivity by customizing the Android home screen in a way that allows you to access all kinds of information quickly and easily. It offers much more than the default Android home screen.
7. ASTRO File Manager: This app provides a file managing interface that facilitates faster navigation of various files stored in your phone’s internal memory — as well as the external memory card. And that’s just the start. It can also backup files, has built-in viewers for text and images, works over bluetooth, accepts SFTP, has a task manager and much more.
8. GDocs: If most of your document editing and viewing happens inside Google Docs then you might want to give this a shot. It has a clean and simple interface that lets you access the documents in your Google Docs account and work on them with your Android phone. Once you are done editing, you can save it and the app will automatically sync it with Google Docs.
9. Evernote: This is the first of the productive iPhone apps we talked about that finds itself in the Android apps list too. And it deserves the mention. Its note-taking and syncing capabilities are well above par, and the experience is much the same on the Android phone as well. All the Evernote features, like text notes, voice memos, photo snapshots, file upload and attachments are available.
10. Dropbox: Lastly, we’ve got the second (and last) app that also appears in both the iPhone and Android productivity tools list. Like its iPhone counterpart, this app also lets you access your Dropbox on the go, upload, view and share files and most of the other things you do with your Dropbox account.
What are your favorite Android productivity apps? Share them in the comments.
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For To Do Lists I use GTasks, which syncs with Google Tasks (though only manually if you don’t pay for it), the Android Paypal app for handing payments/funds on the go, and Time Droid, which is a time tracker that syncs with Freshbooks.
Nice list. There are two others I’d add. The first is Hootsuite. The best way of posting to multiple Twitter accounts and getting Twitter notifications. The second is iSMEStorage which lets my access my personal FTP server, Google Docs and Amazon S3 files in one file system (they support 10 other storage clouds) and also enables me to sync notes, upload pictures, and sync files from the cloud of my choice to the phone and vice-versa
well, I suggest you to try MyTask and MySettings from jqsoft
nice Ui
I would say Astrid is far better than remember the milk especially because it is free. Evernote never uploaded an important voice recording I made so thumbs down for them.
I prefer netMemo for capturing ideas and thoughts in short voice messages to myself. The app makes it very easy to have the resulting voice recording sent to a pre-defined e-mail address.
I’ve been using Remember the Milk (RTM) for years now and I love the Android app, but I’m just not willing to pay $25/year for a pro account. I’ve tried Astrid, but the syncing for RTM just never seems to work quite right, so I’m using DroidMilk now. It’s just the mobile and iGoogle web pages, but that’s really all I need.
If you’d like a tool for managing your time and projects, you can use this web-application inspired by David Allen’s GTD:
Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage and prioritize your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
Comes with a mobile version too, and with an Android app.
Re: Voice Recorder for Android……there’s a better one – HiFiCorder.
Check it out.
hificorder.com
For To Do Lists I use Toodeldo “http://www.toodledo.com” , it’s free and very powerful
http://www.catch.com – seems to be smoother than Evernote
Also http://www.doit.im – really easy to use!
Nice list, thank you.
yeah, the nine tips, about that Its note-taking and syncing capabilities are well above par, and the experience is much the same on the Android phone as well.
File Explorer https://market.android.com/details?id=com.anttek.explorer&feature=search_result from AntTek is very good as well
You may want to check out another Android application called MobilCTI Power Dialer. It costs only $2.99 and works with Android 2.2 or higher systems.
This application will turn an Android phone into a powerful dialer for a fraction of cost. Whether you are a politician or a real estate agent or a sales person for a small business or individual searching for a job, you will find it very productive and a must have a tool.
This application will increase productivity by:
1)Call contacts one after another from list
2)Automatically track number of attempts
3)Schedule/Track callbacks.
4)Comes with powerful reporting capability to track progress.
Please search for “Mobile Power Dialer” in the Android Market Place.
Just to add another app to the discussion – ShoutDone – it’s GTD-ready, Evernote-compatible, and there’s a free version. It’s got a really nice UI and is worth a look. http://www.shoutdone.com