Android Apps to make your SmartPhone Smarter

Android devices account for more than half of most smartphone sales and as per the stats from Samsung, more than 211 million smartphones running Android were sold globally in the third quarter of 2013. Wow!

This also makes it a perfect reason to write this article. In this post I’ve shortlisted the top ranking Android Apps (I use many from this list) that can actually make your smartphone smarter and help organize your life. You can search for these apps in Google PlayStore and install from there. I’ve also added a link in case if you would like to directly access it.

• uNote, Organized Notes (Open in GooglePlay)
  This application allows to easily organize notes in bullet points, lists, and folders. It is really very easy to take both short and long notes. Consider this as a simple notepad application which allows you to take down notes quickly in meetings or while traveling.
• MyLifeOrganised (Open in GooglePlay)
  MyLifeOrganized is an easy-to-use, yet powerful and intuitive to-do list, task manager and outliner. The app also allows you to build a task management system to suit your needs. Most features are free forever and the free version is fully usable, but many user reviews say that the advanced features in the Pro version provide a valuable productivity boost.
• Business Cards Organised (Open in GooglePlay)
  Now you can photo your new business cards, and forget about the paper. The app allows you to take a photo of a new business card and store it in your phone in 10 seconds max. Additional data about the business card owner can be added anytime. Even take a photo of the person and attach it to the contact details. You can also search by name and description fields to find a specific business card from your phone. The only problem I found is that it did not allow to crop the pictures.
• My Effectiveness Habits (Open in GooglePlay)
  The app is not for those who need a simple, thoughtless list to write down their to-dos. As a productivity framework, it helps you define your priorities and vision of your goals, overview and motivation of your deeds, plans, actions. Using it, you create a hierarchy of actions to reach your goals, where actions of one goal are totally separated from actions of another goal, thus helping you concentrate much better on the current goal and action. The app is inspired by the book of Dr. Stephen R. Covey “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. This app has lot of science built in to it and I simply love this app.
• Flipboard (Open in GooglePlay)
  Flipboard gives you news and updates from around the world — all in one place. Catch up on everything from your favourite teams to the latest in tech or design. I just love the interface.
• Hootsuite (Open in GooglePlay)
  Manage and schedule posts to multiple social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare and more, all from one app. Hootsuite is free for up to 3 social network accounts and so it suffices my need for updating my Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Expensify (Open in GooglePlay)
  Expensify is a great solution to remedy this travel pain-point as it manages all of your expenses for you while on the road. Take a photo of cash receipts and Expensify will track each expense and even compile it into an expense report.
• Pocket (Open in GooglePlay)
  Pocket allows you to safely store all your sensitive data such as bank account details and passwords on your phone. The data is encrypted using the industry standard AES-256. Only you will be able to access your data via a master password. The most nagging thing with this app are the adverts that pop up in the free version.

Last but not the least, what happens if the phone is stolen or misplaced? I use the following app to secure my mobile:

• Lookout Mobile Security (Open in GooglePlay)
  Lookout Security & Antivirus offers top-notch protection against mobile threats, phone loss and theft. With your registered email, you will be able to log into Lookout.com to locate your phone, view the backed up data and manage your devices, anytime, anywhere.

Which apps are you using to make your smartphone are real smart device? Do share as other readers would love to hear from you.