It's much better than having to listen to the radio for the odd update about arterial blockages. The odd line-drawing alternate keyboard Swype is a love-it or hate-it kind of thing, with the significant amount of re-learning required to make the most of it quite off-putting to some users. Once you're familiar with the idea, though, it's genius - with advanced prediction options further speeding your line-typing. After a long period of availability only through a beta test or having pre-loaded on your phone by the maker, Swype's now available on Google Play - in both free trial and paid options. As well as supporting Flickr uploading, this app also lets you capture photos from within the app and comes complete with a set of filters, so you can hipsterise your life with ease. It supports sharing with Twitter and Facebook as well, so your other, non-photo-nerd friends can enjoy the results of today's snapping session. An absolute must-get. As long as you have Android 1.6 or above, the latest update to Google Maps introduces turn-by-turn voice navigation, simultaneously devastating the satnav industry while boosting the in-car dashboard dock/charger accessory scene.
Route calculations are done at the outset of your trip, minimising data transfer en route and keeping you on target even when the GPS signal drops. It's amazing, it works, and it's free. There's a huge, resizable widget that provides quick access to its features and lets you dismiss completed tasks, with the mic option pulling up a voice recorder to automatically add tasks to your schedule without typing. It's free, although should you start a task with the word "buy" a green shopping trolley appears, tempting you to press it and buy things from Amazon instead of trudging to the shops. Google Keep is the Android maker's own attempt at muscling in on the clipboard and to-do list app, presenting a versatile corkboard tool that lets users record audio notes, capture photos, create checklists and more. The star of the show is the resizable Home screen widget, from which you can access all the features and hit buttons to record clips and take images.
Google's so proud of Keep that it's become canon - and comes pre-loaded as part of Android 4.3's app set. Watch your nest-egg lose 50 per cent in value every three weeks during the latest trans-global financial crisis, live! It's ideal for users with share values so low they have to be checked in private, to ensure their partner doesn't see exactly how much money has disappeared into some notional financial black hole. Skifta is the first software tool to be granted DLNA certification, meaning it turns your Android phone into an official DLNA device. This in turn means streaming all of your household media to your phone, and beaming your phone videos to your TV. Seems a little buggy at the moment, but there are plenty of updates arriving all the time. Requires Android 2.2 or higher. The Android version of the insanely popular stuff-syncing app has arrived, and while Dropbox is a little lacking in the sort of fancy auto-syncing options many were hoping for, it still works as expected.