I love this thing.  It’s not perfect. I’m running an htc incredible on verizon and it’s got some flaws: battery life (especially since recent upgrade). Verizon insists I must have skype, and no matter how much I try to kill it with advanced task killer free, Skype mobile™ pops right back up and keeps on running.  This alone is enough to leave me perpetually irritated, although I can’t exactly say why.  But other than crapware that won’t go away, this phone does kick some ass, and I’ve found myself relying on some apps over the last month since I”ve gotten this phone. I’ve been very interested in Android as a development platform, and it’s very interesting to see apps such as Luach for Android which aren’t even available within the Android Marketplace still having a presence on the phone’s platform through alternate distribution methods.  That alone is a reason to be excited  by what the Android platform represents – a decentralized development space will create some amazing tools very, very quickly.  (& yes I know this list will age just as quickly.)

One application I do not think will be disappearing any time soon is ‘Layar‘ – a kind of augmented reality browser that overlays the video camera display in real time.  I downloaded it specifically to have access to the TweepsAround layar, which superimposes all nearby geographically tagged public tweets onto the video display of my phone.  Absolutely fascinating, although a pretty big battery suck – I feel very strongly that this kind of interface is only going to become more popular.

Speaking of twitter, I played with a number of twitter apps on android.  I actually continue to use all of them, to greater and lesser degrees, including TweepsAround, I also have Twitter’s official android application, Seesmic for Android, and Twidroyd, which I purchased.  Of these, I use twidroyd for multiple accounts and seesmic for my main account on twitter, and I’ve been fairly happy with that arrangement.

I mentioned Zenonia above, I’ve also purchased Radiant, and both of those two games were worth the couple of bucks I spent on them, in terms of time I’ve spent actually playing them.  I won’t bother listing any of the games I haven’t played more than once.  Somewhat connected to that, I’ve also become quite fond of the tarot for android application Tarotbot I’ve been able to be part of the beta test on, and which is now in full release.  (Here is an interesting interview with the developer of Tarotbot and his call for additional tarot deck artwork.)

I also incorporate both wordpress’s app and tumblr’s app into my daily blogging, and – being the political geek I am – I also use the Congress application every couple of days out of a kind of need for over-saturation.  I do take in a lot of news through the phone, both through google news (usually just through the aforementioned Dolphin browser) or through the NPR app.  And of course, twitter itself..  and I’m also linked in to YouTube directly with another app.

What is missing from my phone, by choice, is Facebook.  I’m sure there’s great facebook apps, I just don’t care to use them.  I do, however, have ACV, DieDroid, and a Star Trek Sounds and Ringtones app plus a Combadge app.  I purchased an Hours application and Delux Moon, both to get a feel for how useful this phone might be as a “magickal” tool.  I even found a app called Magick, but, beyond the magical compass, I haven’t found it to be of much use.

What I do find myself playing with thought is Retro Camera, FXCamera, and Sketcher, often just uploading the results directly to Flickr accounts.  I can also upload to my server, thanks to AndFTP, easily one of the most valuable of the apps I am using, and ASTRO, which gives me a much better look at the files on my htc incredible.  Finally, I love Gmote - an app that turns my phone into a way to browse media on my computer and run a presentation or just turn my phone into a touchpad – pure genius.  Again, my phone isn’t perfect, but these apps are very much worth exploring if you’ve got an android phone of your own.