It’s that time of year folks, it’s the time parents love and kids hate… Back to school! We at TalkAndroid have compiled a nice list of apps that will be useful to any college student and may even help out a few high school kids as well. So with that being said, class is in session!
1. Fring
What’s the best way to stay connected with your family and friends who you left behind when you went off to school? A regular phone call is great, but it doesn’t get much better than a video call. Skype has typically been the go-to platform for video calls and VOIP calls in general, but seeing as it’s not supported on many devices, that sort of rules it out in my book.
Fring however works on essentially any Android phone with a camera (no front-facing camera is necessary.) Fring is free to download and works over 3G, 4G and wifi networks. You will want to watch your data usage or be on wifi if you’re going to be making a lot of video calls however.
Rate & download: Fring (Free)
2. Google Shopper
Are you getting the best price for that book you’re buying? What about those grocery items? Rest assured with Shopper. By using image recognition software, you can scan covers of books, CDs, DVDs, video games, etc etc and then be prompted with online sellers, local sellers and product info. You also have the ability to save your searches and share your searches. If for some reason the cover scan isn’t working, shopper also supports barcode scanning and voice searches as well.
Rate & download: Google Shopper (Free)
3. Evernote
One thing that practically every student has in common is the need to take notes of some kind. One of the best note-taking apps by far is Evernote. This award-winning app lets you remember and recall anything that happens in your life. From notes to ideas to snapshots to recordings, put everything into Evernote and it instantly synchronizes from your phone to the Web to your PC.
Rate & download: Evernote (Free)
4. Google Places
More often than not, going to college means going to a new and unfamiliar area. Where’s the nearest gas station? Laundromat? Restaurant? Google Places will point you in the right direction.
Rate & download: Google Places (Free)
Side note: If you’re just concerned about finding something to eat, then look no further than Urbanspoon. It allows you to search by your location, food type (Mexican, burgers, Italian, etc) and price.
Rate & download: Urbanspoon (Free)
5. Mint
As a college student, money is always tight. Even if you have a job while going to school, you’ve got to worry about rent, books, food, booze, loans (maybe), maybe a parking spot, etc etc. There are a LOT of things to keep track of for your monthly budget, and Mint for Android does a fantastic job of all of them. There really isn’t a better personal finance tool available for your phone or the web than Mint.com’s app for Android.
Rate & download: Mint (Free)
6. PhoneWeaver
You’re in a quiet classroom or in the library, and your phone goes off… forgot to silence it. You rise in the morning and your phone is dead… Google Maps with GPS was left in the background, killing your battery life. You wake your phone in the middle of the night to check the time and are instantly blinded… forgot to turn down the brightness. It’s quite annoying, no?
PhoneWeaver for Android fixes all of these things for you. Set up a GPS trigger so that when you walk into your library (or other school building) your phone automatically goes to silent mode. Trigger options are manual, location, agenda (time based) and connection (charging for example). Feel free to read our PhoneWeaver review
Rate & download: PhoneWeaver ($6.99)
7. Kaka Flashcards
One of the most important things in a majority of classes is memorization. Be it words, definitions, formulas, elements, etc etc Memorizing these things has become a major part of education. One of the most common ways for students to learn this information is creating flash cards. Well not everyone wants to carry around a stack of 3x5in cards. That’s where this app comes to the rescue. It allows you to download flashcards from a variety of subjects, or you can create your own.
Rate & download: Kaka Flashcards (Free)
8. doubleTwist
Obviously music plays a big part in your college life. Whether it’s putting together a great party playlist, or just a few mellow songs for studying, having an easy way to manage the music on your phone is as important as ever. But have you ever tried using the built in music player on your Android device to sync your music with your computer? Not very good is it? That’s what I thought. Enter doubleTwist.
doubleTwist is arguably one of the best media applications for syncing your music with your Android phone. Not only will it import your iTunes playlists, but it syncs ratings, playcounts and even your podcasts.
Rate & download: doubleTwist (Free)
9. Dropbox
Do you hate having to hook your phone up to your computer just to put music on it? What about if you typed up some notes on your phone and want to send the file to your computer, what’s the easiest way to get it there? Normally you’d have to email yourself or use the USB cable. But there’s a far easier way, using Dropbox for Android.
Dropbox for Android creates a Dropbox folder on your microSD card. Any files you put there will be sent to your Dropbox “cloud” which all of your devices (your phone & computer usually) will sync to. This makes it incredibly easy to share files across multiple devices. Just a note though, is that it’s a little easier to create a Dropbox account on your computer, instead of from your phone.
Rate & download: Dropbox (Free)
10. Android Agenda Widget
Obviously the life of a student is full of scheduling. Class at 2pm, then a study group at 4pm, followed up with intramural kickball at 6pm and finally you have that date at 9pm. But how do you keep track of it all? Are you old school and write things on paper? Well if you are, you won’t be for long.
The Android Agenda Widget is a fantastic widget which easily puts your days activities within a fingertips reach. It can sync from a variety of different calendars (not just Google’s) and it displays them beautifully on your desktop. The widget itself is very customizable and has ten different sizes to choose from. So it’ll have a display option to fit even the pickiest of users. As a bonus for you LauncherPro or ADW launcher users, your widget will even be scrollable.
Rate & download: Android Agenda Widget (Free)
BONUS!
11. Class Buddy / Class Buddy Pro
One of the most difficult things in school to do is keep track of your grades and schedule. Now from what I’ve read about this app, the calendar isn’t that great at all, so use your calendar of choice and the Android Agenda Widget above.
What these apps are best at is keeping track of your terms/semesters, courses/classes, calculating cumlative gpa and class attendance. If that’s all you need, then Class Buddy is for you.
Rate & download: Class Buddy (Free)
So what will the “Pro” version of Class Buddy get you for $2.49? Probably the biggest thing missing in the non-pro version in my opinion and that’s the ability to keep track of individual grades on homework, quizes, tests etc. That will allow you to figure out your GPA “on the fly” during the course of your semester.
Rate & download: Class Buddy Pro ($2.49)
So there you have it, TalkAndroid’s Top 10 err… I mean top 11 student apps for Android. We hope you enjoyed our list and found some great new apps as a result. If you’ve been using any of these apps for a while, or you’d like to suggest a few more useful apps for students, let us know in the comments
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