There are many who get an Android device and then try to find the best and most addictive / most useful apps to install on them. There are certain free apps that are worth the space, and there are other free apps that fail miserably at that. Many of the free ones only copy one-another. I dare you to go to the market and find a few good apps. Most of them, especially the games, are just cheap copies of Temple Run. Most are basically Temple Run with a re-skin. Through this article, I will try and recommend to you a few ( 10, as the title suggests ) Free apps that are popular at the moment, and most importantly, that will be useful for you. Some are dedicated towards your entertainment and others are dedicated towards usefulness ( it is rare to find truly useful ones among the Free section – most of them cost at least a dollar or two ). There are many free ones that help besides the ones mentioned here, but I thought I’d put some aside from the obvious Skype, Facebook and Yahoo ones.
MX Player
Few older phones have the preinstalled codecs to perfectly run and view without any loss the higher quality video formats. That is what this particular app serves. Most of all, it’s free. Rare is an app that in its free service allows you to run full HD videos even on the older phones. Of course, it will consume a bit of hardware strength to run it at such quality, but in the end it is all worth it. You will be able to brag to your friends that you can run HD on a phone and they can’t ( assuming you both have the same phones ). I have personally used this video player in comparison with many others and can honestly say that this one fulfilled my expectations better than others. It offers you near-premium quality and that’s saying something when you’re talking about a free app.
Shazam
You may have heard about this app before or seen it referenced here and there. What this app does is identify songs. You know when you hear only a small bit in a song and enjoy it so much that you want to find the full thing? That’s what this app does. If you’ve found a song on the radio that like, or even an intro of a user on YouTube, this particular app will help you identify that song in a matter of seconds. It’s easy to use, 100% free and it only requires a small registration to the community in order to use. It does so much more than just identify and tag musical pieces, but I’ll let you discover the rest for yourself. After all, what do you have to lose if you get it ?
Drag Racing
This is one of the rare racing games that is free to play and even has multiplayer for you to compete against your friends or total strangers. As someone who has played this game, I can say it’s much easier to advance and grow in level if you play the multiplayer side as you are awarded with much more ingame currency and experience there. The mechanic of this game is simple. You do nothing aside from those 10s races you saw in the first Fast & Furious movie. You need to know when to shift gears and when to use the nitro. If anything, this game teaches you patience, quick-thinking and improves your reaction time.
AVG AntiVirus
It is rare to find a good antivirus program that comes without any strings attached. Now you may think that AVG is a bad antivirus program or may have other preferences as far as antiviruses go, but it is rare to find one for free. If you don’t like, I suggest you not use it and see where you get to without any installed. I have been using this Antivirus for more than 1 year and my phone is running like it did in the first week. Now you can take my word for it if you like, or you can mistrust me when I say that this is a good antivirus. However, I recommend you try it out for a bit, after all it’s a free app, so you have nothing to lose in the process.
Photo Warp
Many people, especially the newer users of Android who are of older or younger ages, desire that “program which makes you take funny pictures”. Well, I was unable to you such a program, but here is an app that does pretty much the same thing. As the name would suggest, this app allows you to warp, stretch and modify pictures once you’ve finished taking it. While the app won’t add a filter to it, it allows you to easily work your magic with a picture sort of like a minor photoshop that allows you to transform and modify the picture in whichever way you see fit. In the end, it’s a pretty useful app with which you can get a few laughs and giggles with your friends. It doesn’t take a lot of tech savvy to use this app and most importantly it doesn’t cost anything to try out.
Panorama – 360
This particular app does exactly what its name suggests. If you do not know what a Panorama is, allow me explain in a few words: it allows you to make a single picture which covers 360 degrees ( sort of like a circular view of everything ). Now most of the newer phones have this feature already enabled in them, as they have a strong camera in the first place. However, if you find yourself in the situation in which you desire to make such pictures, yet lack the camera to successfully take them, you will be glad to know that this app enables you to do so. I haven’t tried it myself as I don’t really use the camera of the phone too much, but I imagine that it would come in quite handy for those who lack the hardware to do it without. Since it’s free, I see no disadvantage in not giving it a shot.
Glow Hockey
This particular app here is most useful if you have a wide screen ( a 4.7 one ) or if you have a tablet. It’s extremely fun to play with another player, each at a side of a screen. I have engaged in this app against a live opponent multiple times and can say hands down that this app is one of the more fun ones you could find for free. I strongly recommend trying it out as you don’t really have anything to lose in that. Also, if you’re to consider how many hours of entertainment this app will provide you with, you will most certainly not regret its download ( especially since it doesn’t cost anything ).
ES – File Explorer
As I also mentioned on a few other occasions, if you have your phone’s OS at anything better than 2.3 Ginger Bread, then you will not have direct access to the My Files section which contains all of the physical folders of said device. In that case, you will need a File Explorer / File Managed to help navigate you to that particular area for further editing ( especially if you plan on doing some development or just want to root your device ). It is rare to find a File Explorer that’s free, therefore I give you this particular app which should help you that task.
Bar Code Scanner
This is an app you’ve probably heard of before. It is a simple app that uses the camera of your phone to scan the bar code on certain products and then looks up automatically other prices for that product and customer reviews ( depending on what it is you’re scanning ). It is a pretty useful app to have since it offers you the possibility of getting more information for yourself as a customer. It’s particularly great since it comes for free without costing you anything aside from some minutes of your time.
Flow
This is a fairly interesting game which I play often when I am bored or in a stressful situation. It helps calm the mind as it engages you into logical thinking. The purpose is simple: connect two colors and cover up the entire background. Can be easier for some rather than others. All and all it’s a pretty interesting game with which you can space out for a few hours and lose some time with. It’s particularly enjoyable since it won’t set you back any at all and it won’t take any toll on your wallet.
