Android App Picks + Playlist Solution

A quick update on life with the Android, specifically a few application picks and one solution to a problem stated back in May. Not exhaustive and excludes the ones auto installed with the phone distribution. There's still a balance to keep in mind, it's not a laptop, but these work for me.

Essential

• Seesmic - If you use Twitter, you need Seesmic. Everywhere.
• Facebook - I know, but its essential to stay connected to dispersed family.
• Advanced Task Killer - One stop application termination to cleanup all the apps you've opened and switched away from.
  

Fun

• Google Sky Map - this has been an fun/impressive app when camping at the beach. Like any astronomy, not so much in the suburbs.
• Barcode Scanner - can be used to scan SKU labels for quick price comparisons
• Guitar Chords Lite - clean, lightweight UI for quick chord reference
• Reversi, Chess, Checkers, MeteroLite - probably haven't played a full game of any, but work well when I hand the phone off on long car trips
  

In Progress

• EverNote - The "Evernote GTD How To" (don't change a thing, trust me) took my favorite desktop app one step up. However, Saved Searches don't translate to the Android app so full GTD is out, but the text and audio notes do allow me to get things out of my mind.
  

Not For Me

• NewsRob - Just not the same as Google Reader
  

Future

• Kindle - My firmware doesn't support it, but this is one I really want to like. Not sure I want to go rogue just to try this either - at least not now.
• Any automated task killer - for the apps that auto restart that I don't (think) I need. Need to learn more about why some auto start first. Edit 2010.09.09 - Task Manager does this well. Ignore and Auto-kill lists, plenty of options, don't have to be an Android internals expert.
  

Playlist Solution

• Banshee pulls down and syncs podcasts plus my music just fine, but it nor any Linux app will transfer playlists. Turns out Android will read any .m3u file with a directory structure as a playlist.
• So mount the SD card, switch to music/ and issue "find . -name "*.mp3" > PlayListName.m3u", then gedit as needed. Once the file is saved and the SD card unmounted, the installed Music app will now automatically find and use the playlist. Not perfect or automatic, but good enough for me.

If it helps someone...Enjoy!