Travel app

Hipmunk: Another good app that will help you plan your vacation easier and with less headaches. You can use the app to find the best deals for you on hotels and flights. You'll see all the flights on a timeline, helping you make the best choice for your vacation. The interesting thing about this app is that unlike other apps it doesn't show you the cheapest flights first, but instead it uses an "agony" algorithm, which incorporates important factors like how long you'll be traveling and how many stops you'll make. The hotel results are shown on a map so you can see exactly where you'll stay. You can also turn on heatmaps that will show you the best areas to stay based on unique interests like food, landmarks, nightlife and more. When you're done you can book your vacation from your phone, email it to somebody else or finish booking from your computer. Here's the link. From the phone search for "hipmunk" and install. Happy travels!

Game

Pirates of the Caribbean: Very nice game that combines a good story with awesome graphics and with social game playing. In the game you become a pirate and create your own ship and crew and go on all kinds of quests, all over the Caribbean sea. Since this game is played online, you can invite your friends to join your crew. The bigger your crew the stronger you'll be. You can battle other pirate ships, explore different islands and collect gold that will allow you to upgrade your ship and become a bigger threat. Here's the link. From the phone search for "pirates of the caribbean" and install. Happy plundering!

Social app

Poynt: This app provides a nice way to find and connect with businesses, movies, restaurants, people, offers and events near you. The app will allow you to call businesses, map directions, view showtimes and movie trailers, reserve a table at a local restaurant. If you're looking for cool things to do, wherever you are, use Poynt. Poynt is free and available in India, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Spain, Australia and Germany. Here's the link. From the phone search for "poynt" and install. Happy Poynting!

News app

Flipboard: This app allows you to access all the news you are interested in, all in one place. You can connect Flipboard to 12 different social networks ( including  Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, Google Reader, LinkedIn, Flickr, 500px, Sina Weibo and Renren) and can also get news from specialized outlets like BBC, USA Today, The Verge and others. All these news in one place. Enjoy Flipboard in 14 localized editions—for Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Spain, Taiwan, U.S. and U.K. From the phone search for "flipboard" and install.

Game

Sudoku free: If you're one of the people that actually can finish this game (not me), try it. This is one of the best (if not the best) sudoku apps available for Android. It has 4 levels (easy, medium, hard and extreme), easy to use interface, undo and redo, intelligent hints, pencil marks and more. If you have to exit the game before finishing, it will keep it exactly where you were left. Here's the link. From the phone search for "sudoku free" and install.

Video sharing app

Socialcam:  This app provides the easiest way to share videos with your friends. It will allow you to share your videos as well as browse, like and comment on your friend's videos. The features are pretty cool, too: you can upload videos while they're recording, record videos offline and they will be uploaded automatically when you reconnect to the Internet, tag your friends in your videos, notifications when you're tagged on videos posted by your friends. Here's the link. From the phone search for "socialcam" and install.

Tennis app

Wimbledon: Once again, nice app for tennis fans who like to stay in touch with one of the biggest tennis tournament of the year. This is the official app of the Wimbledon tournament, and it has a lot of cool features: live scores, results, schedule of play, draws, news player profiles, live Wimbledon radio, video on demand and more. Here's the link. From the phone search for "wimbledon" and install. The tournament runs from June 25 to July 08.

Music control app

Music Volume EQ: If you're a little more serious about the music on your phone, try this app. It can help you improve your listening experience. The official description is: "volume slider with live music stereo led VU meter and five band Equalizer with Bass Boost and Virtualizer effects". Now, I don't understand half of that but it sounds cool. Seriously, the app has some nice features: media volume control, 9 equalizer presets, home screen widget, lock media volume and more. The app works with most music players (Android music player, Winamp, Google music, MixZing, Poweramp and more). Here's the link. From the phone search for "music volume eq" and install. Happy jammin'!

Networking app

LinkedIn: This is the Android app of the very successful network for professionals. For those not familiar with LinkedIn, it's kind of like Facebook for adult professionals. It provides a way to connect and stay in touch with others in your field of occupation. According to their website, LinkedIn has over 160 million members in 200 countries. This is a very good way of creating a network of people with the same interest as you. Also, a good way of expending your career. Here's the link. From the phone search for "linkedin" and install. And if you get that high paying job through LinkedIn, remember who helped you (me). Just kidding.

Messaging app

SMS Text Messaging: This app allows you to send and receive text messages from your computer. Very helpful for people that spend a lot of time in front of their computers and don't want to check their phones all the time for text messages. All you have to do is install the app on your phone then go to http://mightytext.net/install from your computer and set it up. It's free to use the app, but you're still responsible for carrier charges for texts. And for the receiver it will look like you sent the text from your phone. Here's the link. From the phone search for "sms text messaging" and install.

WiFi finder app

WiFi Finder: This app will help you find WiFi Internet connections when you're on the go. It finds free and paid WiFi hotspots. You can scan for hotspots around you, search for public WiFi anywhere in the world, view hotspot details, get directions and share the hotspot. You can also filter results by location (cafe, hotel, etc.) or provider type. Here's the link. From the phone search for "wifi finder" and install. Happy hunting!

Game

Homerun Battle 2: Nice game to play even if you don't know too much about baseball. You can customize your player in a whole bunch of different ways: by gender, body structure, skin tone and more. The game has 6 different modes: duel, survivor, mission, burning, arcade and training. You can play against players from all over the world. You can even choose the stadium you're playing on. Here's the link. From the phone search for "homerun battle 2" and install. Best way to play a sport without leaving your couch!

Finance app

PayPal: If you ever wired money to somebody, or made a payment online, you are familiar with PayPal. This is the app that allows you to send money to friends, make payments, check your account and more. Some of the features ( snap a photo of your check to add money directly from the app; free to send money within the US when you use a bank account or PayPal balance) are only available to U.S. users. You can also find different businesses  that allow PayPal as payment. Here's the link. From the phone search for "paypal" and install.

Entertainment app

GetGlue: If you like to stay informed with the latest movies and TV shows, this app might be a good tool. It's a social network for entertainment, where you can talk to others about new movies or TV shows you like. You can even chat with other users, while you're watching your favorite show. If you watch a show or a movie and can't quite understand the plot, now you can talk about it with people interested in it. Maybe somebody can tell me what exactly happened in "Lost". I didn't really get it. Here's the link. From the phone search for "get glue" and install.

Puzzle game

One Touch Drawing: For those of us who prefer games that really challenge the brain, this is an app worth trying. The objective is simple: you have to draw given objects with only one touch. you can't lift the finger from the screen until you're done. Some levels will add new challenges: lines that need to be passed twice, one directional line, direction trigger and other. In "survival mode" you can only make one mistake, then you're done. Here's the link. From the phone search for "one touch drawing" and install.

Sharing app

Glassboard: This is a very nice app that allows you to share all kind of things with your friends and family. You can share  messages, photos, videos, and locations with different groups: family, friends, co-workers, classmates, volunteers, and more. Everything is private. Unlike Facebook, everything you share (messages, pictures,videos) is only between you and the person you're sharing with. Everything is confidential. Here's the link. From the phone search for "glassboard" and install.

Game

Uno: One of the classic card games is now available to be played on an Android device. Very easy to play and very true to the original game, it can be played online with your friends and family (through WiFi). You can also take on difficult challenges in Tournament mode. Here's the link. From the phone search for "uno" and install.

Game

Ice Age Village: If you enjoyed the movie "Ice Age", try the game. You will interact with all of your favorite characters as they lead you on quests and missions. You can play mini games featuring Scrat (that little squirrel looking thing). And then you get to build a village for all the creatures that lost their homes because of the ice melting.  Frequent updates will include new characters, buildings, quests and mini-games. Here's the link. From the phone search for "ice age village" and install.

Shopping app

Shopper: A nice app that will help you make a decision when you're trying to shop for something. It provides information for millions of products. You can search by cover art, barcode, voice and text search.

You can find local and online prices, reviews, specifications, videos, and more to help you make the best purchasing decision. You can even save items to your shopping list. Here's the link. From the phone search for "shopper" and install.

Data plan monitor app

Onavo Count: This is a very useful app, especially for those of us who have limits on their data allowance every month. The app is very nice and allows for great customization. It will let you know at any time where you are with your data usage and also will let you know what apps are using most of your data. You'll get alerts about apps that are hogging your data, when you approach your data cap or when you're roaming. You can restrict certain apps to only connect when you're on WiFi. very simple to setup: all you have to do at the beginning is to specify your data cap, billing cycle and cost and you're good to go. I really like the feature that shows you what apps are using the most data. Here's the link. From the phone search for "onavo count" and install.

*** This app supports hundreds of operators around the world, including Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, O2, Vodafone, Orange, Movistar, Three (3), Bell, Rogers, Claro, Telus, Virgin and Optus.

Game

Roll it: If you like games that will actually challenge your brain more, try this one. The objective of the game is to roll a cube that has a key on one of the faces until it covers the tile with the lock. And try to make it in as few moves as possible. Sounds simple but it can be pretty challenging. Oh, you'll also encounter all kinds of traps on the way. Graphics are pretty cool and sound and music are also nice. Here's the link. From the phone search for "roll it" and install.

Litle tools app

Easy Toys + Flashlight: This is an app that can be very useful in a lot of situations. It includes 8 different functions: flashlight, compass, magnifier, simple measure, cross vertical measure, plumb, bubble level, distance measure. Nothing super fancy but it can help you in a pinch. The magnifier feature can very helpful when reading tiny prints. Here's the link. From the phone search for "easy toys + flashlight" and install.

Game

Logos quiz:  Another simple game that can help you kill some time at the dentist office or while waiting for an oil change. All you have to do is guess which company's logo appears on the screen. The game has over 350 logos and once you guess few, you unlock another level. Here's the link. From the phone search for "logos quiz" and install.

Restaurant search app

Urbanspoon: This app can be very useful when trying to figure out where to eat. You simply shake your phone and based on your location, the app will make a suggestion. If you don't like it just shake the phone again and you'll get another suggestion. Pretty easy. The app is available in US, Canada, and most major cities in the UK and Australia. Here's the link. From the phone, search for "urbanspoon" and install.

Game

100 floors: This is a puzzle game that's easy to learn and play. The objective is to make it to the last floor by solving different puzzles on every floor of the building. They are pretty simple and they use different functions of your phone: pinch, poke, shake, tilt, swipe the on-screen images. You can pick certain items up and use them from your inventory. Here's the link. From the phone search for "100 floors" and install.