Best Free Android Apps »
Here you will find the best free Android apps across a wide range of categories. Visit dotTech’s Android App Repository for a better viewing experience.
[Android] Best free anti-theft (device tracker/phone finder) app
Scared of losing your device, either to theft or personal negligence? While there is no way to ensure 100% chance of recovery of your lost Android device, there are apps out there that will help you in either getting your device back or, if you can’t get it back, protecting [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free tethering (and WiFi hotspot) app
Tethering is the ability to share your mobile device’s (phone or tablet) internet connection with other devices, whether that be a computer or another mobile device. Being able to tether (and create a WiFi hotspot) is a native feature of Android. However, unless you are using a Nexus One, Nexus [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free battery/power saver
The Achilles heel of smartphones is battery life. You may be able to do almost anything on your device, but when it runs out of battery you can do nothing. We all want to be able to enjoy our expensive phones without having to be stuck to an outlet all [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free voice call/chat (VoIP — free “Internet phone calls”) app
The advent of the modern smartphone has brought many unconventional, new functionality to our cell phones. At the same time, it has transformed how we perform conventional cell phone tasks of calling and messaging. VoIP — which stands for voice over Internet protocol — is one such transformation.
With VoIP [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free office documents editor
A few months ago I wrote an article discussing the best free office documents viewer on Android. Now we revisit the realm of office documents, but this time we are looking for the best free office documents editor.
Before we discuss what app is the best free office documents [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free video call/chat app
Not all phones/tablets have front facing cameras. However, for the ones that do, video calling/chatting is an exciting feature. However, although the technology has been around for years, video calling/chatting is a resource intensive process. Although many apps claim to provide users with optimal video calling/chatting functionality, in reality most [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free OCR (image-to-text) app
OCR (Optical Character Recognition, also known as image-to-text) is a delicacy on PCs; the technology itself has advanced leaps and bounds, but the price of this technology is still out of the reach of many. The good, quality OCR programs on Windows cost an arm and a leg while the [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free sticky notes app
Sticky notes are a great way to serve as reminders for things you need to do/things you need to remember. However, using actual sticky notes can be somewhat of a hassle. With everything becoming digital nowadays, why not replace physical sticky notes with sticky notes on your phone? Oh wait, [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free password manager
Some of us use the same password for every login. (Very bad idea.) If you are one of these people, you don’t require a password manager. (Unless, of course, you need a password manager to remember all your usernames. Would it then be considered a username manager? o_O) However, many [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free anti-virus app
![[Android] Best free anti-virus app](http://cdn.dottech.org/media/2011/06/qrcode_lookoutmobilesecurity-290x160.png)
Does Android have viruses (otherwise known as malware)? Everything has viruses, regardless of what Apple fanboys want you to believe. The real questions are: What are the chances of your Android phone being infected? Do you *have* to download anti-virus (also known as anti-malware or mobile security) apps to protect [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free network data usage monitor
“Unlimited” data plans are a thing of past. For both prepaid and post-paid, most everyone is now on a data plan with a quota (hard cap quota, such as AT&T’s 2 GB a month with overage charges, or soft cap such as T-Mobile’s 2 GB a month but no overage [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free cloud storage/file sync app
Originally written on June 2, 2011. Updated on June 2, 2011 to include SugarSync.
With more and more people using their smartphones for more work than play, it is becoming increasingly important to have access to files across all platforms. In other words, many people desire a way to easily [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free task killer/task manager
When Android first came out, users were dumbfounded how they is no “exit” button to close apps. Google, of course, responded with some technical jargon how Android intelligently manages apps, blah, blah, blah, how there is no need to “exit” apps, blah, blah, and some more blah; but users still [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free RSS reader/news aggregator
One of the many uses of a smartphone is the ability to get the latest news/articles from your favorite websites on the go. No longer must you sit at your computer with your morning coffee to catchup on what you might have missed while you wasted your life sleeping. However, [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free video player
One of the best features on my Samsung Galaxy S was that it supported most, if not all, video codecs and could play almost any type of video. My Nexus S, on the other hand, does not have this extensive codec support; and I am sure many other Android phones [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free Internet firewall
You (probably) have a firewall on your PC, but you don’t think you need a firewall for your phone. I will give you two reasons why you may want to reconsider:
- Every app and its grandmother wants to be able to access the Internet nowadays (typically for ads, but sometimes
[...]
Read More »[Android] Best free app manager
Originally posted May 28, 2011. Updated May 29, 2011 to include AntTek App Manager. Updated on June 7, 2011 to clarify a point about Gemini App Manager.
You have a zillion apps installed on your shiny Android; but now you need a way to manage them. You need the ability [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free image viewer
All Android handsets come with an image viewer, typically the stock image gallery app provided by Google. The problem is many times these image viewers are slow and buggy. For example, on my Nexus S the stock image gallery takes a noticeable amount of time to search for new image [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free clipboard manager
Having a clipboard manager on your Windows PC is very handy because it makes it easy and convenient to retrieve previously copied content. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do the same on your phone? Sure, for most people clipboard management may not be as useful on an [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free office documents viewer
Part of the smartphone experience is to be able to do anything (well, almost anything) on your device. This means being able to view/read office documents. While there are some phones that come with an office document viewer (such as Samsung devices), other phones do not. Even for phones that [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free PDF reader
What is the point of having a smartphone if it cannot read your super-duper-important PDF documents? In this article we take a look at all the free PDF readers/viewers available on Android Market and recommend the PDF reader/viewer we feel is the best of the lot. But be warned: You [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free privacy cleaner
I have nothing (much) to hide, but the idea of someone invading my privacy by looking at my activity history (such as my browser history) makes my skin crawl. I am sure many other people feel the same way. Thus, we have looked for the best Android privacy cleaners*, reviewed [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free files protector
Originally written on May 23, 2011. Updated on May 28, 2011 and June 4, 2011 to make some clarifications about File Locker.
Not to be confused with application locking, protecting files is a way to prevent access to specific files. (File protecting methods can range from encryption to simple password [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free application locker
While we tend to keep our phones to ourselves (at least, I do), there are times when we are forced to lend our devices to others. Our smartphones are precious; many times we just don’t want anyone and everyone snooping around, regardless of if we have something to hide or [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free instant messenger
Gtalk is built into Android. However, what if not all your friends use Gtalk? Must you download one app for every instant messaging platform out there? Heck no. In this article we review and recommend the best free instant messenger app, allowing you to keep in contact with all your [...]
Read More »[Android] Best free file manager
Some (most) phones come with file manager apps; others do not. The brilliance of Android is even for those that have file manager apps, you can still download a different file manager app if you want from Android Market. This article explores and recommends the best free file manager app [...]
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