A few weeks ago we wrote an article on the Top 5 Android Apps for Motorola Droid. It was an all-encompassing look at our 5 favorites. But we left out a number of great apps. In the next few weeks we’ll be looking at a variety categories and publishing our favorites! This week, we’ll be looking at the Top 3 News and Weather Apps for the Motorola Droid.
As always, with the help of Twitter followers and Luke, we’ve created a list of the Top 3 News and Weather apps. What we found particularly difficult was collecting apps that would actually do everything we needed from a news and weather application. I continued to go to different apps for more relevant and specialized content. Tell us what you think in the comments below and enjoy.
- USA Today – [Link to Site]
Winner: Best All-Around News/Weather App- The 678kb USA Today app is powerful and fast. Flipping through the different panels of Headlines, Scores, Weather, Pictures, and Snapshots is a breeze. The application is set to update each time you start up the program and can be manually updated on the bottom of the screen. Weather is conveniently located in the banner with degrees Fahrenheit and basic weather logos. This program does headline news really really well with an elaborate array of: Top News, Life, Money, Sports, etc. By clicking the Weather tab, you’ll get a 5-day weather forecast.
- Dislikes: Weather is by default, set to New York City. Doesn’t allow for background news updates. Refresh interval isn’t customizable. News articles are little snippets of what a New York Times article would be.
- Google Finance – [Link to Site]
Winner: Best Financial News Source- Unlike it’s iPhone counterpart, the Droid doesn’t have companies like E*Trade developing stock and market apps. Fortunately, the Google/Android team has created the Finance app. The application is a bare-bones streaming quote checker for the market. Check anything you want and it will stream the latest quote. In a simple, 3-tab design, the Finance application can have your Google portfolio synced and you’ll see all your favorites in one easy to access tab. The “news” tab has a basic collection of overall market sentiment and news. Want to know what is happening today in the market and where your stocks are? Then Finance is for you. Finance comes with a little widget for the home screen that can load your personal portfolio write to your desktop.
- Dislikes: It’s too simple. The streaming isn’t true streaming, just a periodic update from time to time with the most recent quote. Refresh intervals for the widget need to be quicker. A more graphical user interface could definitely make this application shine.
- Weatherbug - [Link to Site]
Winner: Best Weather App- The Weatherbug application used to be an ad-ware filled mess of spam for Windows computers. Now you can get it for your Android phones! All kidding aside, the Weatherbug application is the most convenient, simple, and easy to use weather app for the Droid. Personally, I use it because it displays a temperature in the notification panel of my Droid. Even on restart of my phone, the Weatherbug application starts up and displays an accurate temperature to my location. I don’t need a fully featured weather application–just the barebones; current temp and high for the day. By sliding down the notification panel, I can see the current temperature again, but also see today’s high and basic prediction (e.g., “Partly Sunny”).
- Dislikes: The actual application is buggy (no pun intended). The ads can be cumbersome in the free version. The user interface seems a tad slow and outdated.
What we still want to see:
- New York Times – [Link to Site]
- Unfortunately, there isn’t a New York Times application like the iPhone. The iPhone version is incredibly powerful and the user interface is truly intuitive. We’d love to see NYT wise up and develop for the Android.
- NPR - [Link to Site]
- This was previously mentioned in our Top 5 Android Apps article, and we have yet to see the application in the Android Market. Recent reports and news has suggested that NPR is fast on its way to having on for the store. Also, the goal is to make the Android app more feature-filled than its iPhone counterpart. We’ll see!
Please comment below or Twitter us if you have any other apps that we should take a look at or left out!
This is nothing new, and it’s still the ultimate personalized radio. Pandora delivers a fantastic application and service to Android and iPhone. The experience is hindered by a basic ad on the bottom of the application, but it’s nothing compared to the ads and messages that Pandora places on its website. Pandora let’s you create personalized stations with a thumbs up/down voting system. It allows you to bookmark songs and artists for later viewing. The application also supports the adding and removal of new “stations” that can be based off of artist, song, album, etc.
There is no native application to download, subscribe, and listen to your latest podcasts. DoggCatcher is the perfect accoutrement to your powerful device. It comes at a price though, $6.99, which makes it one of the most expensive apps in the Market. In fact, it’s the only app that requires a purchase on this list. But it’s still well worth it and powerful. DoggCatcher lets you select and subscribe to your favorite podcasts, and unlike the iPhone (AT&T), you can download as large a file as you’d like. While burning through battery, it can download that 131 MB episode of Diggnation for immediate viewing. And if you don’t feel like burning through battery life, you can choose to have the device only download new episodes on Wi-Fi and/or while being plugged into power. Unlike Pandora, DoggCatcher responds to disconnects from headphones and Bluetooth, pausing where you are.
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