5 essential apps for your new Android phone

If you’ve taken the plunge and decided to splash out on an Android phone then you’re probably wondering what apps you should install first. Load up the Android Market or visit the new Amazon Appstore and you’ll be confronted with a dazzling array of different apps – and choosing from these seems like a daunting prospect at first.

To help ease you in to the world of Android apps, we’ve put together a small guide below to the first five apps you should install on your new device. You should find them all useful, entertaining and above all, easy to use, showcasing exactly how cool your new Android phone can be!

Astro File Manager

This is a good one to install first because it will help you manage all of the content that you’re going to install on your new device. Astro File Manager lets you organize documents, files and folders; manage tasks and processes, and perform backups. It comes with a handy application manager, which gives you a clear view of all your installed apps and lets you save them to your SD card if you like.

Twitter

Having an Android phone with a data plan is great for social networking – and if you haven’t got into Twitter yet it’s a good excuse to get yourself out there. The official Twitter client provides a clear and easy way to post tweets from your phone. Other features include simple controls for viewing tweets, mentions, retweets, lists and direct messages, options for managing your profile, and on-the-fly trending info.

Facebook

Staying on top of Facebook is going to get much easier now you’ve got an Android device. The excellent Facebook app for Android offers an effortless way of checking the network on the go. Besides posting status updates, you can easily grab pictures with your phone and add them to Facebook, view upcoming events, and quickly exchange messages with your contacts.

TuneIn Radio

Perhaps the perfect app for a long journey, TuneIn Radio lets you listen to radio stations and podcasts from around the World on your Android phone. You can pick from a choice of more than 40,000 stations, searching by keyword, category, or genre. Reception is near perfect when listening via 3G or WiFi, and battery usage isn’t too excessive.

Angry Birds

Another great time-killer for the bus-stop or an airport waiting lounge, Angry Birds is a fun, addictive mobile game. The object of this mega popular game is to catapult birds into structures in order to smash the evil pigs that live inside them. With cute, colorful graphics and absorbing gameplay, this is one of those games that’s virtually impossible to put down.