The Best Android Applications

3. Wikitude

As hopeless Wikipedia addicts, the last thing we probably need is an application to make looking things up on the site even easier, but we can’t help but love the concept. Besides some fairly plain features like plotting Wikipedia entries across a map, Wikitude actually boasts an “augmented reality cam” which will peg items in your photograph that have Wikipedia entries about them. For example, taking a picture of a mountain range allows it to label each mountain and show you more information on each one with further clicking. Terminator vision, a reality? And with Wikipedia? Yes, please! (link)

2. BreadCrumbz

Sometimes a line on a map just doesn’t cut it. BreadCrumbz helps create directions for the orienteering-challenged by snapping first-person photos of a route as you walk it. You can even record spoken voice directions to accompany the route. Besides creating alternatives to the traditional map-based approach, BreadCrumbz also serves as a substitute navigation system when GPS isn’t available, like indoors. Ever live in a maze-like apartment complex where finding the building is only half the battle of getting to your room? BreadCrumbz gives guests a picture-by-picture path straight to your door. (link)

1. Piggyback

Unless you like to plot trips to the grocery store weeks in advance and travel on somebody else’s rigid schedule, Web rideshares don’t really work out that great. Piggyback breaks the agonizing process of preplanning by showing rideshare possibilities in real time. Drivers see possible passengers along their routes, and passengers see possible rides. It will even keep track of how far you take a passenger, divvy up gas costs automatically, and then handle the transaction automatically every month via PayPal. Think Hitchhiking 2.0. (link)