1. K9-Mail – I wasn’t a fan of the default Android mail. Blackberry really was great about one thing; email. With K9-Mail, it gets a little closer as you can set how often you want email pulled off the server, whereas I believe the default Android mail system only does that for Gmail.
2. Google Talk – If you don’t have unlimited texting for your Android, the Google Talk app is a great alternative. You can text all you want w/out incurring any overage fees for texting too much. The only drawback is that the other person needs Google Talk as well.
3. Facebook – I’m hardly addicted to it, but it’s become a standard app. It’s so easy to take pics, upload to Facebook, tag people, reply, send messages, etc.
4. TweetCaster – I think this is, by far, the best Twitter app for Android. The primary reason is how it handles multiple accounts. I’ve tried others and almost switched to TweetDeck, but there were definite pros with TweetCaster that I couldn’t find elsewhere (i.e. autofill for names, quick follow, etc.)
5. WordPress – It’s just like it’s Blackberry counterpart, but as with most apps, it’s improved over time. I’m able to take a picture with my phone, share it via the WordPress app (like Facebook) and it will upload it into a post.
6. Reddit Is Fun – If you like Reddit, but want something better than their mobile site, this app makes surfing Reddit, well, fun.
7. CraigsNotifica – This handy unofficial Craigslist app makes searching and tracking items on Craigslist a breeze. Plus, as the name implies, you can set up notifications to alert you when a new item that matches your query is added.
8. Pandora – With a new phone, I tried a new service and even paid for Slacker. It didn’t get along with my phone and I’d frequently have to relaunch it, which is a pain while driving, or mowing the lawn. Pandora, even though you can’t cache stations, works much better.
9. Gas Buddy – As gas prices continue to rise, I’m finding that I use this app more and more. It serves a singular purpose, and that is to help you find the lowest gas prices in your area.
10. Google Sky Map – The coolness factor of this app is off the charts! Turn this app on and you instantly have in front of you a map of constellations and planets, wherever you point your phone. My son was learning about planets in preschool & he loves this app too!

Obviously, there are a lot of other apps I use and some I would include based on frequency of use, but, like Droidin (the best LinkedIn app I could find), they just aren’t that great. I also use Tapatalk for a few forums I frequent, but many forum scripts have their own built in mobile versions that are just as good.

What are your favorite Android apps?

• WordPress – This free app from WordPress has allowed me monitor and update all of my blogs from just about anywhere.
• Pandora – There are several free streaming music apps for the Blackberry. With Pandora I can enter favorite bands or songs and channels with similar music is created.
• Facebook and MySpace – I’ll just lump these together, since they pretty much do the same thing – updating the social networking sites.
• Google Sync – Blackberry has its own calendar, but I already use Google Calendar. This app syncs the two, as well as you contacts.
• Google Mobile App – Sometimes it’s too time consuming to bring up a the Blackberry browser and manually typing in your query. With this app, you can speak your question, or keywords and it will search for you. (Apparently, this does not work on the Blackberry Storm)
• UberTwitter – This is pretty much the king of Twitter apps for the Blackberry and retains most, if not all, of the functionality Twitter.com offers. Of course, it’s no match for a PC client like TweetDeck.
• PayPal – There’s not too much to this one, but being able to send payments and check your acct history while traveling is pretty cool.
• The Weather Channel – I prefer this weather app over others, like WeatherEye, because it offers a longer forecast and has less intrusive advertising.
• Poynt – From locating businesses, restaurants movie times and gas prices near you, this app does a lot!
• Blackberry Messenger – This one is pretty muck a given. It’s a quick and easy way to chat and share pictures with friends and famiy.

Most of the Blackberry apps listed above can be found at BlackBerry App World and the CrackBerry App Store. Enjoy!

1. Google Search – I have the Google bar installed, which not only provides an easy way to search, but also displays Page Rank. I can also type an address directly into the search and quickly locate an address on Google Maps. Another feature I use often is “define:” – put that before a word to get definitions from several sources, or to check spelling.
2. Google Calendar – My wife and I were having a hard time getting our schedules in order and since I only use web-based email accounts I can access from anywhere, Outlook was out of the question. Google Calendar lets us add our appointments and repeating events like birthdays, and then sync our calendars together.
3. Digg / Reddit – They’re essentially the same thing being news aggregators. I use each to get the latest news and, while I’ve used Digg longer, I tend to open both at the same time and peruse each equally. One thing I don’t like about Reddit is how the news on the front page can be stagnant throughout a day.
4. Woot – While I think most of the crap on Woot is… well… crap, I try to check it daily. I have gotten some good deals on some mp3 players and a Roomba. And, I got a DVD player that turned out to be a complete piece of junk, but they took it back. I have yet to get a Bag of Crap…
5. Snopes – With the amount of junk that spreads quickly around the Internet, everyone should have this bookmarked or on their start page. Most recently I used it to learn that Mr. Rogers was, in fact, not an ex-Navy Seal, nor are his arms covered with tattoos.
6. NetFlix / RedBox – Together, these two resources make a great combination. I never thought we got our money’s worth out of the 3-DVD package on NetFlix, so we dropped it down to one-at-a-time. And if we ever need a movie quickly while waiting for NetFlix to deliver, we can dash over to a RedBox and rent it for $1.00 per 24hrs.
7. NewEgg – Whenever I need, say, a new flash drive, the first place I turn to is NewEgg. The reviews are usually accurate and well written. Even if I read reviews elsewhere, I’ll return to NewEgg for low prices and because I’ve always had a great experience.
8. Facebook / MySpace – I started, reluctantly on MySpace and never did much with it except keep in touch with some family members. Unfortunately, it seemed like most of the people I went to school with missed the social networking bandwagon. It turns out many of them were on Facebook. I prefer Facebook’s clean GUI and faster speeds, but keep both accounts open.
9. Consumerist – This is, by far, one of my favorite blogs. It’s a great blog that deals with poor customer service and shady business practices, and it’s not rare that something can stir up something in my emotions. I recently linked to two of their articles involving McDonald’s.
10. SlipperyBrick – I’m sure there are a zillion gadget blogs out there, but this one stood out and made it to my bookmarks first. I think I originally found it on Digg or Reddit with a link to a “Lego safe.” From then on, I’ve been hooked. I even posted about a cool tool I found on that site.
11. ABestWeb – This is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in, or involved with, affiliate marketing. There are also sections devoted to other forms of revenue generating and general design and promtion discussion. The owner, Haiko, is a real stand up guy who doesn’t take crap from anyone.
12. Firefox – I’ll admit that I haven’t tried Opera, or Chrome, but I don’t think I need to, other than for cross browser compatibility testing. Firefox does everything I need it to and then some. I’m always finding something new and great about it. Best of all, it’s not Internet Explorer.
13. WordPress – With this blog, I’ve become quite interested in new plugins, widgets and themes. There are many resources related to WordPress. Too many to list. It amazes me, to this day, that it provides so much for free, yet is so well supported.
14. Picasa – We recently moved most of our family photos over to Picasa from being hosted on our own site. Picasa offers numerous options to users and visitors, including allowing people to print your photos. There are also several WordPress plugins to display your Picasa albums in your own blog’s photo gallery.
15. CPSC Recall List – I strongly suggest that people sign up for the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) subscription lists for recall notifications. Through this list, I found that our son’s crib was being recalled. These lists also provided information regarding recalls for pet food and toys made in China. Don’t wait for this stuff to show up on the news!
16. My Start Page – There are so many resources I utilize, not to mention links to my sites, admin panels, stats, etc., that I have a fully loaded custom start page with everything I use on a regular basis. I’ve also added feeds for some other sites I track, as well as having the Google Calendar embedded.

Other blogs have created similar lists as you can see here, here, here, here, here and here.

What’s on your list? Do you see anything I use that has a better alternative?

The virus is contained in the “flash_player.exe” file that it attempts to download. Apparently the virus will turn your computer into a zombie machine that’s part of a botnet.

The first thing I’m doing when I get home is alerting my friend about this. It’s not only affecting Facebook users, but also members of MySpace. Instructions for removing the virus can be found here.