Android Soft. Part 1: IM, book reader, system utilities

One of the first, after buying a new phone, is the question of software.
So much to put: a messenger, a book reader and an RSS reader, a file manager and much more. Android Market offers a rather large selection of free programs in each category.

Android is a new system. Therefore, unfortunately, in most cases, it is impossible to choose the “ideal” program for some purpose. Everyone has their pros and cons.

This series of posts will tell you about the pros and cons of the best programs in several categories. And for a snack - a list of must have programs that should be (almost) for everyone.
')
I did not take into account some wonderful program? Recorded plus in cons? Write comments - the post will be updated to leave a really useful mark in the history of the habr :)

Ladies and gentlemen, start the motors market.

Go.

Barcode scanner

The most convenient way for me is to give a link to the program, and for you to install the program in question are Barcode links. Therefore, I advise you to start our journey into the world of Android software with this program. Enter the query "barcode scanner" in the market and install the first program (from ZXing team)

IM

Google Talk is definitely good. But if you need another protocol, and tricks with the addition of transports to Google are not suitable / disliked - you need a separate client.

We will consider only multiprotocol clients. It makes no sense to delve into the one-protocol protocol, because there are no worthy options among them. Here, the principle of “the lack of an ideal solution” works in full, therefore, first, customers will have to consider without Skype support, and then “for Skype” customers

A few common words: you cannot copy the text of one of the previous messages in one of the described clients. None of them could not extract all the names of ICQ contacts - several were displayed as a number.

Meebo im

The best interface, the presence of history (need a meebo account), no ads. It is possible to see the full contact profile (as a link to a page on the Internet, but others do not have one). But - it does not reconnect after the communication breaks, which reduces all its advantages to nothing. We are waiting for updates.

IM +

Golden mean. Not the best, but a good interface, reconnects. You can not see the contact profile. In the free version - advertising in the list of contacts, there is no support for avatars.

eBuddy

The interface is better than that of IM +. But - you can not collapse the group, Avatars only in the chat but not in the list, you can not see the full profile. Requires the creation of your account. Reconnectit. Light problems with Cyrillic were noticed, but maybe I just had no luck.

Skype

Go to the Skype-containing programs. Skype Lite Beta discard immediately. It is so beta that it is impossible to use it. Call support is not and is not expected.

Nimbuzz

Worthy options 2: fring and Nimbuzz. They are almost identical in functionality, but nimbuzz has a more pleasant interface (for example, it allows you to hide offline contacts, supports groups and does not list your entire phone book in the contact list).

Although both of these programs support other protocols, I do not recommend it. Groups, avatars are not supported, there is no possibility to create several accounts of one protocol, there is no possibility to log in only to some of the created accounts. Yes, and the interface is sharpened by calls - every time clicking on the contact ICQ you will helpfully ask you - would you like to call this contact?

Book reader

FBReaderJ

Most e-books in Russian are in fb2 format. Therefore, we are interested in the program with the support of this format. Unfortunately, such a program is essentially one. Excellent interface, day and night mode, convenient library, support for fb2.zip. But - no support for txt, rtf, doc, no status bar.

File Manager, Process Manager, Application Manager

Astro file manager

Why put three programs, when there is one that copes with all the functions? The absolute leader in three categories. The only problem noticed is that it does not open some RAR archives. Therefore, I recommend that you keep AndroZip installed as a reserve.

The end of the first part

To be continued. Ahead - twitter clients, rss readers and the promised list must have :)