by @katiedoyle

ANDROID PHONES ARE BLOWING UP!

Not literally of course-at least not that I know of. Yikes!

I’ve had a Android G1 for almost a year and I’ve loved (almost) every second of it! I’m gonna give you a few of my favorite things about the Android platform and then, a few of my favorite apps. Now, keep in mind, I can only speak for my phone and my experience with it. If you’re looking into a particular phone, do the usual research to find out everything you need to know to suit your needs.

The reason I got a G1 was because it was the biggest and baddest smart phone offered by my phone company, T-Mobile.

What I like about the Android, and what’s been giving it a boost over the iPhone is that Android is not exclusive to T-Mobile. It’s an OS that is being used on a bunch of different phones, with a bunch of different phone makers, across a bunch of different mobile companies and they’re constantly working to make it better.

You hate T-Mobile? No problem! Head on over to Verizon and you can be the proud owner of a shiny new Motorola Droid. AT&T doesn’t have an Android model available right now, but the rumor mill says they will very soon.

And as far as T-Mobile goes, I’ve heard a lot of complaints about T-Mobile’s service, but I’ve never had a problem. Now that my city has 3G, it’s fast and I get it pretty much everywhere.

Another thing I love about T-Mobile? Their customer service is outstanding. I’ve never called and gotten a representative that was anything less than overly helpful 24-hours a day. And it doesn’t hurt that most times, the representative has a southern accent and it makes my day.

Now, this isn’t something standard on all phones using the Android OS, but a lot of them have it and I couldn’t live without it. It’s the full slide out keyboard! Sometimes when you’re trying to send a text message you don’t want to fuss with the on screen touch typing! YOU JUST WANT TO PRESS SOME DAMN BUTTONS! And I love not having to press five buttons to get any kind of punctuation. Not a problem for people who don’t use punctuation in their texts, but a huge problem for me.

I think I’m an Android-er for life. I’m a huge fan of the functionality of the OS and see no end in sight for the development of new and better phone models that I can keep buying without having to get rid of all the handy apps I’ve become very attached to.

Like the following (little hint-all of the apps I mention are free!)…

1. Twidroid-My preferred Twitter app. It loads a ton of Tweets on the screen, lets me view conversations I have going, lets you re-tweet with comment, or re-tweet with Twitters newest re-tweet feature. The best part? It’s FREE! There is a Pro version that’s only 5 dollars, but there’s no needs the Pro version is addressing that I don’t think the free version does well enough for me.

2. Advanced Task Killer-Just like a computer, your phone has a bunch of little apps running in the background. The Advanced Task Killer lists all of the apps running and lets you “kill” the apps you don’t want or need running.

3. Alice-This app is a recent discovery I’m really digging. It syncs up with my Last.fm account and makes a list of musicians I listen to and the it finds tours! And then, it stars the artists who are going on tour and will be visiting a venue close to you! I’ve already found a couple shows I’m psyched to go see.

4. AK Notepad-Just a plain little notepad. Simple, to the point. No muss, no fuss, but able to send your notes through text message, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and any other ways you have of sending messages!

5. Google maps/goggles/sky maps-All Google developed apps, all free, all super neat! Google maps is…just what it says and helps me out a lot. The directions are—stupid sometimes, but there is an inexplicable comfort in knowing you can’t get lost. The Goggles is something Google developed and is kind of fun. You take a photo using the app (things like book or DVD covers) and it searches the Google image data bank and will essentially Google the image for you. And the Google Sky Map—it uses your phone’s GPS to determine your location and matches the sky you see to a map of constellations, planets, and other awesome stuff. In another feature, you can search for a constellation and it tells you which way to turn and find it.

6. Where’s My Droid?-Oh man. This is—this is the most amazing and useful app I’ve ever heard of in my life. You know how you put your phone on silent and then you misplace it and you call it from another phone and then you realize “OH CRAP! MY PHONE IS ON SILENT!” Well, that is no longer a problem! Text the phrase “Where’s my droid?” (or any other key word you want and will rememeber. Mine is “marco”) and your phone will magically switch off silent and start ringing so you can hear it! It has saved my butt more than once.

7. Shazam-I think a lot of people know this app, but if you don’t…You ever hear a song on the radio and think, “I really like that song! I wonder who it is!” And then you can’t figure it out and the song becomes a kind of lost cause? No more! All you have to do is open up Shazam and it will “tag” the song for you. That is, it will listen to the song and pick the name and artist of the song-seemingly-out of nowhere. It’s pretty great.

8. Ringdroid-This handy little app takes MP3 files on your phone and lets you clip them to make ring tones and alert tones. In true geek fashion my ringtone is the Bad Horse Chourus and when I get a message, my phone enthusiastically declares “Balls” Doctor Horrible style.

9. SMS Popup-This app is another thing I couldn’t live without. It shows the text from text messages in a pop-up (not in the notification bar as is standard) and allows you to close the message, delete the message, or reply without unlocking your home screen.

10. Photoshop.com Mobile-It’s Photoshop. On your phone. And it’s free. I KNOW it’s basic, but how much photo editing are you planning on doing on your phone anyway?

And that’s it. My little top ten. My little view of my awesome phone I couldn’t live without and a view into the growing world of Android.