(Androidbloke:  Thanks to Daniel for guest posting this- I hope its useful to all you new users of Android devices to help you make the best of your awesome new devices!)

Over the past two weeks, Google has been presenting the #ADL2010 events across America and Europe. They will be presenting 3 more events over the next few weeks in Asia. Everyone who attended one of the #ADL2010 events received either a free Nexus One or a free Motorola Droid.

I attended the event in London and it was great meeting many other android developers. I noticed a few people switching from an iPhone or a Symbian based phone to the Nexus One that they had just received. Many of whom had no idea what apps they should get, one guy on twitter asked me what apps I found useful, so I came up with a short list which I then emailed to the London Android Group. From there, I was approached by Androidbloke to make this blog post.

Tip: You can purchase any app on the Market Place and use it for up to two days (although to be on the safe side, stick with 24 hours) and still get a full refund, so you can “test” all the paid apps out if you want. However, if you “test” one app out by buying it then uninstalling it to get your money back, you won’t be able to “test” it again… you only get a refund once for each app!

USEFUL APPS:

Twidroid PRO
A great Twitter app, I enjoyed the free one so much I decided to go PRO. Of course for those who prefer to use free apps there’s always Seesmic which is just as good!

3banana
A little note taking app, I suppose I should just stick with using Evernote as that syncs online, this is just an app on the phone – no sync to any website, but it’s simple to use and I’ve found it handy when taking notes during events.

ASTRO
Very handy file manager app. This is a must-have app!

WaveSecure Beta
Keeps your phone “secure,” in case it gets stolen. Blocks other SIM cards from being used on your phone, tracks your phone via GPS so you can view where your phone is, you can even use the website to delete all your data on the phone if it does get stolen. Also includes backup options so you can backup your contacts/call logs to the site.

Advanced Task Killer Free
Handy for extending the battery life, just “kill off” those apps that you don’t want running the background… although the garbage collection works well, it’s handy to be able to kill off one or two apps that are draining your battery.

Astrid
Handy task tracker tool that syncs with RememberTheMilk, haven’t found a better task tracking tool yet, but if you find one let me know!

Layar Reality Browser 2.1
Augmented reality app, various different “layars” to pick. Such as “nearest tube station” or “visual tweets” etc.

Google Sky Map
Great app for finding out where the stars and planets are.

ShopSavvy
Just scan a barcode (or QR code) and it’ll search for reviews, lowest price, and closest store that sells that item. Works great, almost bought a book from Waterstones but used this on it and found it was 60% cheaper online and it didn’t have great reviews.

Speed Test
Handy if you want to find out how fast your WiFi or 3g connection is, or if you want to find out your IP.

StopWatch
I’ve been using the countdown feature for timing cooking lately, I’m sure there’s probably a better app out there, but this does exactly what I want.

Wifi Analyzer
Very good to double check what the best connection is, or which ones are open.

SEMI-USEFUL:

Bump
It’s on the iPhone, pretty sure it’s on the Blackberry too. You basically just “bump” your phone with another phone and it exchanges contact information… handy if you don’t have a spare business card – Although both phones would need Bump and would need it running before you can exchange info via a “bump,” also I think you need 3g/WiFi connection too, since for some reason it connects to the Bump network.

BBC News
Read the BBC News headlines and then click on them to read the full article.

Color Flashlight
If it’s too dark and you can’t find the keyhole, then this turns your screen pure white (or any color you pick), can be set to full brightness etc.

BatteryTime Lite
I use it on my home screen so I can click on it and see how long left I have for standby/web/calling etc.

WikiMobile
Pretty handy if you want to Wiki something on the go.

DailyStrip
A bunch of free comics rolled into one app. Dilbert, xkcd and Cyanide & Happiness are my favourites!

PicSay
Free version, allows you to edit photos easily, add comments, change hue, etc.

Digital Clock Widget
I use it on the home screen, 3×1 so it shows the date and time.

Barcode Scanner
Can also scan QRCode, I guess I don’t need this when I have ShopSavvy and Google Goggles, although this one is just so easy to use and another app mentioned that I needed it.

Locale
You can set conditions for things to happen, e.g. I have a night setting, so from 1am till 6am, it turns off the sound, vibration and pulse light, but after that it reverts back to “defaults” – You can set conditions based on time or location, so if you’re at work, you could have the sound go off – so whenever you get to work, the sound can go off automatically, but when you leave work it’ll go back on. There is a bunch of plugins for it too, so you can setup even more conditions or events, like having your PC turn on when you get home via WOL from your phone.

Draw!
Fun to just draw pictures with your finger, but it comes with a red vs blue “mini-game” where you’re either red paint or blue paint and have X amount of seconds to colour in more then the other user/CPU.

eBuddy
It’s a multi-IM tool, handy for me as I’m on AIM and MSN a lot, also works for Facebook chat too.

Evernote
Store notes, syncs with the online website, you can store up to 2 or 3gb with a free Evernote account.

Free Dictionary Org
Can be useful if you don’t know the meaning of a word.

fring
multi-IM tool, well it’s more for VOIP, so it’s more of multi-VOIP tool, I use it for Skype, as the Skype Lite app is terrible – on that you have to pay for Skype-to-Skype, but on here it’s free.

GPS Status
Shows information about how fast you’re travelling, elevation level, acceleration in g, etc.

NewsRob
Keep up to date with your RSS feeds from Google Reader, I’m just using the free version as I don’t need the extra features the “pro” one has.* (checkout our Newsrob Application showcase here!)

Shazam
Handy if you hear a music song that you like but you don’t know what it is.

GAMES:

Abduction! World Attack
Great app, I paid for it but there is a free version. I used the free one for a bit then decided to buy the full one. The full one is brilliant, loads of challenges, maps, characters. It’s great fun!

ArtfulBits aiMinesweeper
I’m still using the free one. It’s just like Minesweeper but with a little better graphics.

Bebbled
Similar to Jewelled/SameColor, you simply have to reach the required points by clicking on the colours that are touching each other.

Flight Director (LITE)
Fun little game, can get quite difficult once you reach 30+ landed planes/choppers. It was very popular on the iPhone.

Coloroid
Spread the colour and complete the page under the par.

Frozen Bubble
I’ve always liked it on PC (under a different name though), simply aim the bubble up and shoot to match it with the other same coloured bubbles.

Iconic Memory
Great memory game, worth trying out, you might get hooked!

Light Racer 3D Basic
It’s basically TRON, if you don’t know the movie TRON, then it’s similar to playing 2-player Snake.

Phit Droid 3rd Edition
Fun little puzzle game, where you have to fit the pieces into a rectangle, can get quite difficult, thousands of levels.

OTHER:

Aloqa
Haven’t used it yet, but it’s for local information about a certain city, so useful if you travel to foreign places a lot.

aTrackDog
Keeps track of application updates, although I think if you go to the market place, then it automatically checks updates for all apps installed, so maybe I don’t need this app anymore.

Bartender
Handy if you want to mix up something, or if you just want to look for something to buy.

Compass
Does what it says on the tin.

deciBel
Figured I’d see how noisy my brother can be when he has his music on, but haven’t used it much yet.

Hoccer
“Throw data via GPS” – Figured I’d play around and see how it works, but haven’t found anyone who uses it yet.

London City
It’s the London Tube Map stored in one app with “route search” – so if you’re not sure how to get to a certain station, you can just use this and it’ll tell you the line(s) to take. It’s offline too, so works underground.

Metal Detector
Novelty app, it works but it can’t replace a real metal detector.

Share by QRCode
“Add-on” type of app for other apps, so you can share by QR Code, it displays the QR Code on your screen so someone else can scan it off you, good for sharing a url or similar.

WordPress
If you have a WordPress blog, then check this out. I’ve only just set one up so I’ll probably start blogging with this.

Yelp
It’s like YellowPages, but it’s a community driven review of each business, handy if you want to check a restaurant to ensure it’s worth going to.

If you have anymore apps, feel free to add to the list!

Cheers!

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