Besides mobile voice communications, what do you get with a $179, G-1 phone? Lots of free stuff! Check out the winners in Google’s Developer Challenge. Here are PC World’s 15 favorite applications and Read/Write Web’s top ten.
There are already over 50 apps available at the Android Market. The applications include multimedia, location-based tools, barcode scanners, travel guides and games. Handango also has both free and pay downloadable apps.
Here’s a list from TechCrunch of ten apps worth downloading.
- imeem Mobile: It’s a jukebox in your pocket, and the progressive download means that your song doesn’t skip when you go into an elevator.
- ShopSavvy: Turns your phone into a barcode scanner and then gives you price comparisons both online and in nearby retail stores.
- Pac-Man: The original arcade game from Namco. Free on the Android (it costs $7.99 on the iPhone). The rollerball is an excellent joystick.
- BreadCrumbz: You can leave photo and voice marker breadcrumbz along any route that others can then follow later on. Ties into the phone’s GPS, maps, camera, and microphone.
- Wikitude: A travel guide that pulls up information from Wikipedia about nearby locations and puts them on a map, along with photos from Panoramio. Really useful geo-mashup.
- Shazam : Put the phone up to a radio or speaker playing a song and Shazam will tell you the name and the artist, just like the iPhone app.
- SplashPlay: Teaches you how to play the guitar by playing music and showing a fret board that you can play on the screen in sync with the music. The app is marketing for a similar tutorial device you can buy for your guitar, but it really teaches you how to play.
- iSkoot for Skype : Lets you use your Skype account to IM your contacts, make Skype calls over the Internet, and uses the phone for SkypeOut calls (this is one of teh apps that was taken down, but should go up again)
- MyCloset : This one’s more for the ladies, but a very nicely done app. You take apicture of every article of clothes in your closet, categorize them (top, bottom, shoes, accessories, etc.), select months when they can be worn, and then you can mix and match to plan out your outfits. The only thing it needs is some way to note weather a piece of clothing is clean or not.
- Cab4Me Light : A simple app that gives you phone numbers of cab companies based on where you are.
Gmail for mobile 2.0 runs on the G1 as does Google Maps with Street View (above). The T-Mobile G1 specs are based on the HTC Dream:
- Google Android operating system
- 528MHz Qualcomm 7210 processor
- Quad-band GSM (850/1800/1900 MHz)
- Dual-band UMTS/HSDPA (1700/2100 MHz)
- 256MB ROM and 192MB RAM
- 3.17 inch 480×320 high resolution display
- 1150 mAh battery
- 3.2 megapixel camera with geo-tagging functionality
- Integrated GPS receiver
- Integrated 802.11 b/g WiFi radio
- Integrated Bluetooth 2.0 radio with EDR
- microSD card slot with support for SDHC cards (1GB microSD card pre-installed)
- Dedicated 5-row QWERTY keyboard
- Weight: 5.6 ounces
- Dimensions:: 4.60 inches x 2.16 inches x 0.62 inches
The T-Mobile G1 is only the first Android phone (wikipedia). Sprint and others are expected to have their own versions in the coming months. The App Store (Android Market) is the thing.
Smartphones are currently about 15 percent of the entire mobile phone market, but are predicted to grow to 40 to 50 percent within the next five years. PC World compares the Google Android phone with its competitors, the iPhone 3G (AT&T), BlackBerry Bold 9000 (AT&T), BlackBerry Storm 9530 (Verizon), and HTC Touch Diamond (Sprint).
Mobile Data Traffic by Application is expected to shift to video and internet access.
Nielsen says the U.S. has 26M Smartphone subscribers out of the 260M cellular subscribers.
Related Android articles on Dailywireless include; iPhone: Money Machine, WiFi Positioning: Everywhere. All the Time., Open Warfare: Android Vrs Symbian, WhereCampPDX Unconference, G1 Reviews
