10 Smartphone Apps That Boost Your Efficiency 

If you have any cell phone on a plan, it is not hard to get smart phone for free when you upgrade. Just a couple weeks ago T-Mobile was giving away all their smart phones free w/ contract

What phone / what carrier?

Samsung Transform Ultra from Boost. It's running Android 2.3 Seems like a pretty spiffy phone but then again I've been using a Samsung Seek forever so everything seems really nice.

I understand that it comes with a TouchWiz UI which is the home launcher option for Samsung. You can choose to customize this by downloading other launchers in the market. The popular ones are

Launcher Pro ( I use it myself)
ADW
Go Launcher

if you choose to download a different launcher, download Home Manager too. Comes in handy while setting default HOME and switching launchers if you wish to.

Also some other APPS I use frequently
ASTRID
Catch Notes
Amazon ( mobile )
AppBrain ( backs up my apps, Android Market is supposed to do that but when I changed my phone a couple of months back it did not. App Brain came in handy)
Boat Browser ( replacement for stock browser, other popular browsers are Miren and Dolphin)
Google Reader
Groupon/Living Social
ShopSavvy/RedLaser/ Google Shopper / ( for scanning prices while shopping in-store)

YPMobile - for checking local stuff + gives you gas prices

WeatherBug for weather ( I compared a bunch of them, this one seemed to be the least drain on battery)

if you phone has an LED ( to be used for the camera ) you might want to download FLASHLIGHT. Comes in super handy.

Moviefone/Fandango for movies

Shazam for music ( free one lets you tag 5 free / month)

Sportacular for scores

Tasker for phone management ( Costs $6 but worth every penny. You can program your phone in many ways. read about it. Very useful app)

Quickpic for photo management ( I don't like the stock one

Screen Filter - to lower brightness of your screen in the negative. Comes in handy while reading something at night. Screen glare does not kill you + saves on battery.

Battery Mix - battery management

Whatsapp / Kik - these are popular messaging clients

Zegde - for downloading cool wallpapers and free ringtones

Flicke is another cool wallpaper app

If you root your phone then WI-FI Tether and Root Explorer

Another app which is proving to be super useful is the amazon app store. You have to go to amazon.com to download it. Amazon gives out one paid app for FREE everyday. I have downloaded a few and been using some. Good thing is that whatever app you choose to download doesn't have to be installed on the phone. It will be stored in your Appstore as a listing and can be used in the future.

Apps2SD - Android 2.2 and later all versions have option to move apps to SD card. This apps just reminds me to do it everytime a new app is installed. I find it useful although I don't have to do it since I have 16GB of internal memory. In case you have less internal memory this will be useful to have.

SmartShortcuts - Folder organizer. TouchWiz UI has this inbuilt but since I chose a different launcher I installed on. Another good one is called Folder Organizer but it's paid.

Wow thanks for the list! I actually have a few of these already surprisingly. An app I used a lot on my ipad that I found Android has is RadarScope for weather. It's $10 but it sure is handy. I live in Tornado Alley so I like to have a really good radar.

I've been so confused though because a lot of the apps I used on Apple's ios are available on Android but are completely different. It's weird how that works. A few others that I loved are just not available. It makes things a bit more challenging.

Very good point