Game Type: Arcade, Casual Price: Free Get It: Absolutely, if you like arcade games or take subways, this game is a must. When I was a kid games were pretty simple. You could learn the rules in about 5 seconds and jump right in on mastering the straightforward skills required. Oh, they would take a lot of effort to master and some people are still pushing the envelope on high scores in those classics, but anyone could play and enjoy them without any preparation or even a tutorial. While I’ve...

If you’re a fan of the stars then you’ll want to check out Google’s Sky Map for Android. Self-described as a “window to the night sky,” this app does a great job of rolling together a telescope, the Hayden Planetarium, and your phone into one. Just launch the app and instantly your phone kicks into a kind of telescope-mode with six visible layers of astral information. A handy dis/enable feature allows you to view any combination the Stars, Constellations, Messier...

As an entrepreneur/writer/musician on a very tight budget I have hit the point where much of my financial life involves PayPal. It was inevitable, really. I log in almost daily on my computer but the old Android app was essentially useless. I needed ways to withdraw, look up histories, and my dearest dream was to find a way to use it to charge people for merchandise in person reliably. The wait is over. PayPal has released a new and sublimely improved app, available in the Market. When you...

You probably didn’t buy your Android for playing games, but you’ve probably downloaded a couple since you’ve gotten your device. Who doesn’t like a fun game when you’re waiting at the doctor’s office or while lying in bed? Here is a round-up of some of our favorite Android games, along with the AppBrain.com links, for easy download. Wordfeud FREE is a new game for Android that is similar to Words With Friends on the iOS platform. Unfortunately, you...

The default SMS client on Android can be kind of boring, but Handcent SMS spices things up all for free! With lots of features that can be personalized to your preferences, you can make your SMS client yours. You can change display type – traditional Android style or iPhone-like style and also change the colors of incoming and outgoing messages and bubbles. I like how you can add a personalized background to the app, too. Handcent has 5 font add-ons that you can download (and a keyboard)...

College kids are moving back to school and starting classes here in Virginia, and I thought it would be fun to look up what Android apps are available that could help make the college transition a little simpler and more organized. I am super-jealous of kids that have smartphones to help with school. I got a Palm IIIc my senior year of college, and it did help me keep track of assignments (and give me Bejeweled to play between classes), but it’s nothing compared to the power and...

Expanding your cooking repertoire is easy with an Android app like CookIt. Enter the ingredients you have and search through the list for a dish you’d like to prepare. Once you find a dish, click on its name to get a list of ingredients you’ll need. Use the tab at the top to click back and forth between Ingredients and Preparation. Under the Ingredients tab, you’ll see how many servings you will be preparing, details of each ingredient so there’s no guessing about how...

I am often asked in real life and on twitter what Android apps everyone should have. So, we did a little experiment here at Women With Droids to see which apps were found most often on our contributors’ phones, and we wanted to share the results with you! Participating contributors were: Ellie, CraftLass, Liz, Deb, Taylor, and myself. You can read more about us on our About page (I will update it with our recently-added contributors soon!) and see recommendations from each of us...

This is Part 3 of the “Renee’s Homescreen Makeover” Series. Click here for Part 2, “Wallpaper Sync”, if you missed it. The next app that I used to improve my phone’s home interface is Apps Organizer. Apps Organizer allows you to add tags to your apps, then add icons to your homescreen that open a “folder” of apps with a tag. I really disliked the built-in folder system on Android — how you had to drag apps into the folders, and how you couldn’t easily...

Guest-contributor Taylor from Autostraddle got her hands on Froyo early and offered to give us a sneak peek of what’s in store! Enjoy. With Android 2.2 rolling out to more devices any day now, let’s take a look at what to expect. Thanks to HTC’s Froyo leak (whoops!), I managed to manually install the update before it officially hit, so here are a handful of my favorite changes. 1. Speed: Froyo is zippier across the board. This is probably the centerpiece of 2.2, but...