Smarterware

The Best Android Apps are Made by Google

Right now, Android is the phone OS you want only if your whole life is already tied up in your Google account. All of Android's can't-get-this-anywhere-else applications are made by Google. Android's Gmail client, Google Voice, Google Goggles, Google Maps, and even Google Sky and Google Listen are Android applications that either have no exact parallel on other platforms like the iPhone, or do things that their counterparts on other platforms can't match. Let's break this down.

Android's Gmail client is one of the two primary reasons why I went Android. If you live in Gmail in the browser, you'll swear by the fact that the Android Gmail client supports threaded conversations, labels, muting conversations, marking as spam--all the advanced Gmail goodness you get in the native webapp. The second primary app I use Android for is Google Voice. Being able to text via Google Voice for free as if it were the phone's native SMS application and get voicemail transcription in-app is awesome.* Beyond the Gmail/Google Voice two-punch, Google Maps gets updates on Android faster than on the iPhone or anywhere else, like turn-by-turn directions and What's Nearby. Finally, the brand new Google Goggles app looks like a search application I will use as often as search-by-voice.

The question is: where are the standout, can't-get-this-anywhere-else THIRD-PARTY Android apps?

Read the rest »

How iPhone 3.0 Stacks Up Against Android

Apple made some exciting announcements about what's coming down the pipe for the iPhone this summer, so over at Lifehacker this morning I took at look at seeing how it all stacks up against Google's Android.

Overall I'm still a happy Android user, but I'll give it to Apple: the application potential and accessory control is looking really good. If they nail push notifications, iPhone 3.0 will be a really big deal. Check out the full article: Android Versus iPhone 3.0: The Showdown.