My Favorite Android Apps for the Samsung Galaxy S Smartphone

I recently caved in to the smartphone rage with my purchase of a Samsung Galaxy S from T-Mobile. My old cell phone was over 5 years old so it's really like moving into overdrive by getting one of these smartphones. It didn't take me very long to start loading up on Android apps (most of which are available for free) which are quite useful. There are literally tens of thousands of applications (apps) that have been written for the Google Android platform so you could spend alot of time finding apps. I'm finding more all the time!

Here's a list of some of my favorite (free) Android apps (in no particular order):

• Blue Mobile - Provides up to the minute stock prices, currency exchange rates, silver, gold, crude oil etc. as well as world stock market exchanges and a lot more! This is a cool little app. Update: This app has been updated and is now simply called 'Blue'. Still have great features and is free.
  
• Google Maps - This free app has the features of the regular Google Maps that we access on the web but also has a navigation feature. Using the built-in GPS feature on your smartphone it can display your current position then guide you to a location that you choose. If you want directions to a particular location on the map, you can touch the screen and get voice navigation to that location! Very cool. The program is still in beta (test mode) but it seems to work pretty well. The voice is a bit mechanical though!
• Google Sky Map - You turn this free app on and hold your phone up to the sky and it displays a map of the sky showing the location of various planets, stars and galaxies! You can also search for a particular object by name or by searching in some of the preloaded images of planets and galaxies that come with the app. Alot of fun!
• gStrings - For the musicians out there. This app turns your smartphone into a guitar tuner or instrument tuner. The app automatically detects the note that is being played and displays a meter showing how sharp or flat the pitch is. It also displays the actual frequency of the note being played (with accuracy down to the tenth of a hertz). Also has advanced settings for mic sensitivity, orchestra tunings etc. Very useful app for the musician. Update: I've experimented a little more with this and found that it can tune individual strings or notes as well as function in a general mode where it listens for the pitch. This is an incredible free app! Now I have my guitar tuner no matter where I am!
• Evernote - This free app is very useful for business purposes as it allows files to uploaded to a web server for storage. It will allow you to make text notes and audio notes and upload them to a webserver for storage. It will also allow you to take photos (taken with your smartphone built-in camera) and upload them too. Here's the best part, if you photograph a document with text and upload it, the program automatically scans the text to make it searchable! For example, if you upload a picture of a document you can later search for key words in that document. You can also add tags to uploaded files to make them easier to search later.
• CardioTrainer - I use this app both for keeping track of my cardio workouts and for motivation. The free version is all I'm using now and it's great. It uses a Google map and displays your route that you've covered, speed, distance traveled, calories burned along with a chart showing the varying speed of your walk/run. Update: This free app also has a nice chart graph that displays the speed of your walk/run during your workout which makes it useful to see how your interval training is progressing. Absolutely love it.
• Kindle - Download and read books on your smartphone. Nice if stuck in an airport or if you don't feel like dragging a lot of books around.
• Reuters News Pro - Great news source for all types of news, especially world events, business/economy, market indices, commodities, science/technology, health, sports, internet/entertainment news. Easy to glide and scroll through categories. The arrangement allows fast access to many news stories. Very handy indeed!
• Newsy - Video news stories from around the world arranged in a gliding window format that allows you to swype to the next video story. This news service doesn't have as much voluminous content as others but I've gotten some video news stories here that I haven't seen elsewhere and in some cases I've heard about news before it hits elsewhere.
• Weatherbug - Very nice weather app. I tried out the free version and that's good enough for most people. I paid the 2 bucks for the paid app and it's great as well.
• GasBuddy - Find cheap gas near you. This uses the GPS feature of the phone to show you gas stations near your current location and shows prices too.
• EasyMoney - Budgeting and bill reminder. The bill reminder aspect of this app alone is great! Update: The app is free for 30 days but then you have to buy to keep using.
  
• Alarms & Clocks - This came preloaded on the phone and is an awesome app. It has an alarm clock, world clock, stopwatch and timer all in one app! Very useful!

Let me know what great Android apps you're using in the 'Comments' section below!