I have my first smart phone, which means I get apps (It’s Android HTC if that matters). Never even used one of these before.
Please suggest the best apps to get, preferably free.
Useful ones preferably, but I’ve a feeling the Dopers will know some fun ones too 
I’ll be the first to mention that the Amazon marketplace gives away a free app (that’s usually paid) each day. More often than not it’s nothing you’re interested in but it’s always worth taking a daily look.
I don’t have much on my phone except for games and the standard Twitter, Pandora, Kindle Reader, etc. One useful app is either Soundhound or Shazam which both do the same thing: listen to a song and identify it for you so you’ll know who that is on the grocery store intercom music. Both have free versions and I don’t have a real preference on which is better. I use Soundhound, my wife uses Shazam and sometimes we race them with about 50/50 results.
I love the apps Words With Friends and Hanging With Friends. They are both free but you can upgrade to an ad-free version, which I have not bothered to do.
My go-to game on my iPhone is Plants vs. Zombies. There is a free app that lets you play a certain number of levels, and that was enough to convince me to pay the $2.75 or whatever it was for the full game.
There’s a relatively new free game called Dooooors (I may be off on the number of o’s) which is a room escape game with, I believe, 34 levels.
A lot of us with iPhones like Tapatalk for browsing message boards. It’s a lot easier to read that trying to read SD on a browser. I’m not absolutely positive that there’s an Android app for it, though.
I use these apps the most: WeatherBug, Dolphin browser (it has ‘gestures’ to easily jump to favorite websites), Google toolkit (for gmail), TextNow (free texting), Netflix, AP (for news) Meebo (for IM programs), Facebook and Twitter apps, App/box Pro (for a bunch of apps like flashlight, tip figuring, etc.), iMDB app for looking up movies and actors fast, and iMissal (the Catholic Mass).
Some fun ones are QuickPix for continuous camera shots, Starwalk for an accurately labeled look at the night sky, TED for TED talks, Fandango for buying movie tickets, and Pink Pad for keeping track of your periods (or a female pal’s) and fertility.
Draw Something is the latest social game craze - Pictionary, more-or-less, and very fun. Lots of Dopers and Raffers play. I second Dolphin Browser. Wordsmith and Word Feud are superior games to Words With Friends, though identical in concept. Winamp is my media player - easy and free. TuneIn radio for replays of out-of-area radio shows and podcasts. Yelp.
ETA : I actively dislike Tapatalk. Maybe iPhone version is better, but the Adroid is clunky, IMO. I read the Dope on Dolphin Browser, and it’s just fine. But I have a big-ish screen, a Droid X
Joe
Here’s a previous thread, (which probably could use some updating).
Here are some of my current favorites.
Lookout Mobile Security has a virus checker for downloaded apps, and it locates your phone for you on a google map if you’ve lost it. It can make your phone play a siren even if you’ve got the ringer muted, if you’ve misplaced it somewhere.
JuiceDefender helps preserve battery life.
Shortyz Crossword Puzzles - download many syndicated crossword puzzles every day.
There are a zillion “Find My Car” apps to help you remember where you parked your car.
You might want something like App2SD to move your apps to your SD card instead of using up all of your phone storage capacity.
I have Dropbox on my phone to automatically transfer photos I take to my computer, as soon as I take them.
gStrings - a guitar tuning app
I use an app called Shush! which, when you turn off your ringer, asks if you want it automatically turned back on after a length of time.
Screenshot will come in handy when your autocorrect comes up with embarrassing corrections.
My Tracks tells you how far you’ve gone (like for walks or runs) and shows you a little map of it.
Prey is an anti-theft app, helps you locate your phone if it’s stolen. Has some overlap with Lookout, but different.
Zombie Booth - zombify photos, even animate them.
Whatever you do, even if someone tells you otherwise, do NOT download any kind of “app killer”
They just aren’t needed on any current Android phones, and will make the phone run worse.
I also swear by App2SD to move apps to the SD card and free up precious space on the phone.
Our Groceries–great list app that you can synch with other phones and their website. My SO and I start at opposite ends of the grocery store using it, crossing out as we go, and it instantly synchs on our phones. I keep meaning to befuddle him by adding things like “crab nipples” and “disposable lorgnettes” for the aisles I know he’s covering.
Evernote–useful app for notes. Pretty neat how you can make scribbled notes, photo notes, audio notes, and audio-to-text notes, among other things. Easily shared, and can synch with your computer.
ShopSavvy–barcode reader that does price comparisons and other things.
Evi–kind of fun and helpful, like Siri for the Iphone.
MyFitnessPal–for keeping track of food eaten and exercise done.
TuneIn Radio is pretty good if you want to stream the programming of actual brick-and-mortar stations. IHeartRadio by Clear Channel Communications is another option which tends to offer mainly Clear Channel outlets as you’d expect. OTOH they did just start carrying my local NPR outlet.
From just glancing at my app drawer, I also have to recommend Wifi Manager and Titanium Backup.
You will want to check out this forum, especially if you are planning to root your device. (Rooting: gaining superuser access so you can get rid of the carrier’s bloatware or flash a custom ROM.)
If you go to concerts at all, Gigbox is great. It tells you what bands are coming to the venues around your location, or you can search by band and see where they are playing. With the free version you can also create a watchlist of up to 50 artists, to make it easier to track their concerts. I love going to concerts so it has been really handy for me.
The Movies app by Rotten Tomatoes and Flixter is pretty good. It shows what movies are in theaters now and their showtimes, along with the reviews and information about the movies.
And my favorite games are Fruit Ninja, Bejeweled, and Marble Blast.
I started a thread like this last month when I got my phone.
Two that I love, just because I’m dazzled by the technology and what a marvelous age we live in:
Google Sky: point it at the stars and it tells you what you’re looking at.
SoundHound: listens to music, identifies the song, and scrolls the lyrics. Gobsmacked.
One I really like and so far unmentioned is Gas Buddy.
It tells you the current price of gas at various stations around you, sortable by location or price.
mmm
I went through a honeymoon period where I downloaded a bunch of apps and games when I first got my Galaxy S2, but about 4 months later, I ended up deleting most of them because I realized I rarely ever used them. So, this is a list of those that have survived the cut:
Another vote for Dolphin Browser. This is easily the most frequently used app on my phone. Let’s just say since getting my phone, I haven’t taken a book or magazine into the john with me :p.
HP ePrint. I believe there are two versions of this out on the market. One lets you print to your home printer (if it’s an HP), and the other one (the one I use) lets you send your file to any Fedex Office (AKA Kinko’s) and print directly from one of their self-serve copiers. To spare some confusion, the latter version can be downloaded from Fedex Office’s website.
If you have Xfinity cable and internet, you have to download the Xfinity TV app! Not only does it show you the program listings (so you never have to display the guide on your TV screen) you can also change channels using your phone!
Any of the numerous flashlight apps that uses the LED flash on you camera as a flashlight. This has served me well on many occasions. Same goes for any simple compass app.
A rather gratuitous one is Lighter Free. In an age where people are holding up their phones at concerts, this lets you kick it old school (sorta) by turning your phone into a virtual Zippo, cool sound effect and all.
And finally, Smart Measure. This brilliant app uses a combination of the phone’s camera, accelerometers, and the Pythagorean theorem to calculate how far something is from you and/or how tall it is.
I won’t delve into the games since that’s really a matter of taste, but I will warn you that though the Geico Brostache is pretty awesome, the coolness quickly fades when you realize the only way to close it is to force-quit the program. That kind of bugginess sort of scares me, especially in a program created by a large commercial entity.
Try to make a list of online services that you use: Facebook, Dropbox etc. Chances are there is a free app which is worth downloading. Same goes for websites that you visit frequently though in some cases you may prefer just to use a good browser like Dolphin or Opera Mini.
Check out the editors’ choice and staff choice sections on the Play Store.
When it comes to free games you might want to try out the Angry Birds games, Temple Run, Racing Moto. Check out the paid games some time too, several of them are easily worth the few dollars they cost: some that I enjoy are Quell Reflect, Riptide GP, Sentinel 3.
Don’t forget to search for Android-only downloads like widgets and live wallpapers. Widgets usually come along with apps but a few good ones like CalWidget are standalone and free.
Another vote here for TuneIn Radio. Something like 40,000 stations from all around the world, streaming to your phone. There’s even a station broadcasting from Antarctica.
I’ll add a few which were not mentioned before:
adfree (needs root): keeps the adds from some apps at bay
The following two are handy for me, but I’m a “frequent flasher”, so you may not need them.
Titanium Backup (needs root): backup/restore apps and their data. I have it scheduled at once a week,
additionally, I use Call logs backup & restore and SMSbackup+ to save call and text history
quickpic : speedy picture viewer
MX player: plays all kinds of video with hardware accel., subtitles,…
Tapatalk : forum app
Freecell : when having a private moment…
Alarmdroid: alarmclock that can handle a lot of different files, as well as playlists, I have a playlist with birdcalls to wake me in the morning.
Rainy Days: before going out to exercise: is it going to rain in the next half hour ?
My work clock
The widgets that are on my screen :
Beweather : 5 day forecast
Smooth calendar: display upcoming appointments
GoTasks: display google’s todo
Dualmount SD widget: mount your phone on your pc without dismounting the data drive from your phone, it’ll make sense once you see what Android’s standard mounting does.
And remember that gmail and all the other google products are the backbone of an Android phone, so you get to sync them to your phone. Calendar, mail, contacts, maps,…
Forgot one : Llama : change settings according to you (cell) location : I have it set to automatically enable wifi when I’m at home and to put my ringtones to a low volume when at work for instance.
edit : Ah, I see it made it to the above list
If you value your time don’t bother with Temple Run, it will devour your free time.
I heartily recommend:
Gesture Search
Waze
Flixster
Google Sky Map
Evernote
Slacker Radio
Sportacular
Yelp
IMDB
Brightest Flashlight
I shockingly also find many “corporate” apps useful such as
Southwest
United
Wells Fargo
Fidelity
PayFlex
I also recommend a Cloud storage service such as Dropbox, ZUmoDrive or the upcoming Google Cloud service (next week I beleive)