Weekly Apps in Review – Episode II – Samba and Psycho

With CES, Mac World, and everything else going on, one thing will always trump them all: WAR. This week was an interesting one with android apps; and we hope you dig that much deeper into the bizarre comments that are made on the Market to find some actually useful ones. So, without further adu, I present: WAR!

(This week will feature average ratings on the Market. Also, we will make sure WAR stays away from the ultra annoying “shopping list” type of applications that you might as well have a 6 year old use. AlsoSquared, if you want my up-to-the-second thoughts on apps, Android, unrelated stuff, and other stuff/stuff, or want to pick my brain, follow and discuss with me on Twitter!)

1. Better Bookmarks – 3 stars – This app is like a few others in the Market, but it offers a nifty “auto-getting” of a webpage’s favicon (the icon in each tab of a website in your browser…such as the small “t” in on twitter.com). This allows for quicker homescreen bookmark-making.

2. Speaking Pad – 4 stars – Take a wild guess. Seems kind of plain and boring, but when coupled with the TTSL (text-to-speech library), one can literally amuse himself/herself and his/her friend(s) for hours. Write it on the pad, and listen to it speak! It’s too bad that it doesn’t support four letter words!

3. Vincent – 3.5 stars – NERD ALERT! Now that everyone but the special upper-class are reading – Vincent is an all powerful (I mean soon to be all powerful) application that allows a user to connect to a CIFS/Windows (can you say S-A-M-B-A with me?) share, and subsequently downloads all files within that share to a user-specified directory on the G1’s SD card. Pretty nifty, and once it gets a few more features could be very promising. 

4. AndFTP – 4 stars – Semi-Nerd Alert! Geez, who’s still reading? There are a few other deeply buried Android based FTP clients out there, but from my experience AndFTP is by far and away the best option. It includes a clean UI, handset/server file browser, and allows for uploads and downloads. And…….FTP. Get it?

5. G1 Psycho – 3.5 stars – Now that you’re done wiping away the tears of laughter, it just gets better. There seems to be literally no reason in my mind why G1 Psycho is not a 5 star app. In Episode I of WAR, I introduced “The Schwartz Unleashed”, a light saber app. Yeah, you thought that was good? This app puts others to shame: it displays an accelerometer based Knife onscreen, and when one certain “murderer” shakes one certain “G1”, one certain “Eerie string sound heard in the hit show Psycho” plays. You know, that “EEEEH EEEH EEEEEH EEEEEEH” sound?

6. Simple Shopping List – 2.5 stars – Whoops! Never mind!

7. Lite version of Skype – 3 stars – Here’s a buzzword: “Skype!”. Okay, after you’re done ogling, I assume you could download “Lite version of Skype”. Some people, in some far-reaching situations, could find this app useful, but in it’s first day of release, I’ve really found it unusable and annoying. Before I say anything else, let me explain that this app uses your cellular plan minutes to make calls, even when it is to another Skype enabled device. The reviews have been mixed, and I have a hard time seeing this app being terribly useful. ‘Nuff said. 

8. RSS Reader – 3.5 stars – Does what it says it does. WYSIWYG, IOW. It could be a little better than the token few other RSS apps out on the market, but I’m still yearning for something a little more integrated and pretty. 

The battle for this week is over. WAR will continue with Episode III next week…and we hope you stay tuned. Don’t touch that dial! (Because there isn’t one.)

Also, just a reminder – make sure to follow me on Twitter – I’d love to discuss Android, the newest energy drink, and anything else on your mind/browser. Feel free to command me to download an app, try it out, and give my opinion.  Consider it my outreach program for the world! Hope to see you there.