TODO

TODO apps were amongst the first things I installed on my android.

There's many good TODO apps, with all kinds of UIs and features.  The first one I stuck with was Astrid, because of it's widget.  If I have to remember to open an app to know what I have to do, my tasks will remain undone.  And if a widget's an eye sore, there's no way I'll keep it on my main desktops.

My pick's something I discovered during the last apps sale, named simply Tasks.

Tasks sync with google tasks and let you manage multiple accounts with multiple tasks lists.  It also offers a great widget that's got a clean look and that not only let you see your tasks, but mark them completed without having to open the app.  And it offers two themes, white and black, the black one having a transparent background.  I just love transparent stuff on my desktops :)

Another thing that shines by it's simplicity is it's manual sorting. While automagic sorting based on priority, deadline and other factors might seem interesting, it's never quite right.  Much better to just sort it your way, and adjust it as your priorities change.

Battery widget

Sadly, many modern "phones" have quite a short battery life.

You can't make your phone's battery perform better, but you can keep and eye on it and, if it's not satisfying, try and figure out why it's not performing as you'd like it to.

One tool I like for that is Gauge Battery Widget.  It's a simple, clean little configurable widget that displays your battery level as a percentage and gauge of your choice.  Clicking on it will let you reach the system's top battery consumers screen.  This lets you quickly see those stats without having to dig through the system menus.

Normally, most phone should have "Display" as their top battery consumer.  Powering up that nice screen does take juice.  But if you're unlucky, your top battery consumer will be "Android OS", which is a generic name for a bunch of system processes.

Let there be light!

Light.  One thing that's so useful when you need it but that you never carry around.

Many android devices are equipped with a pretty decent light to be used as your camera's flash.  But while it's not officially suggested you use it as a flashlight when you're stuck in a dark corner, many apps offer just that.

My favorite one is Tiny Flashlight.

First, because of it's nice customizable widget that let you control the light from one touch.  And because it's free and works great.  But you may also like it's other features, like turning the screen white, or any color of your choice, if your device dosen't have a camera flash, or it's other less obviously useful features like strobe and "police" light.

In any case, I wouldn't carry an android without it installed and readily available.

Alarm Clocks

I now totally depend on my Android to wake up in the morning.

The obvious reasons are that contrary to my bedside table's alarm clock, I can have any number of alarms, that rings on different days (and don't ring on weekends), using any sound or song I want.  But there's a few more advantages to alarm clock apps.

Interesting features include naps (ring in X minutes), speak on wake (use Text To Speech to say the time or weather), night clock mode (if you dock your phone), snooze and dismiss control (like requiring to solve a math question to turn off the alarm, to make sure you're really up) and, one of my favorite, "gentle" alarm.  This plays your selected sound at a slowly increasing volume to wake you up gently :)

There's many good alarm clock apps with similar features, but playing with the main ones got me to choose Alarm Clock Plus.  It offers all of the above features in a clean packages, and comes with a neat clock widget.

If you're using android's default alarm clock, or worst, still relying on that old beige thing beside your bed, head over to the market and download something that will wake you up in a more enjoyable way while letting you sleep later when you can.