Top must-have free Android apps

Sorting through the thousands of apps in the Android marketplace can be a daunting task, so here’s my list of must-have apps (in no particular order) to get you started with customizing your new smartphone:

1. Facebook: chances are everybody purchasing a new smartphone has a Facebook account and the Facebook app is much better than the mobile website version so you’ll want to download it.
2. Google Finance: If you own stocks or just like to keep an eye on the market you’ll want to pick up this app, with charts, news and tickers.
3. Shazam:  With this app you hold your phone up to any song that is playing and after it listens for a few seconds tells you the artist and album and gives you links to buy the song or lookup a youtube video.
4. Google Goggles: This app scans almost anything and looks it up online. It works great with paintings, barcodes, text (and can translate) and many other things.
5. Google Sky Map: This app overlays constellations and planets when you hold the phone up to the sky.
6. Google Navigation: Turn by turn navigation.
7. Scanner Radio: police scanner
8. USAA: If you have a USAA online bank account you can use this app to deposit checks by simply taking a picture of them
9. Pandora: You type in the name of a band you like and it makes a radio station with similiar artists, great when plugged into your car stereo with the optional car dock.
10. Droid Light: sometimes you need to use your phone as a flashlight and this app turns on the camera’s LED so you can.

This list doesn’t include any games for now, but I’ll be working on a seperate top 10 list for those as well.

Are there any apps that you use that I should add to the list?

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