Must Read: Sorry, but bringing back the Start menu won't help Windows 8

Topic: Hardware

Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

Summary: Here are the top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets I am currently using, with some honorable mentions thrown in for good measure.

James Kendrick

By for Mobile News |

Android is criticized (and rightly so) for the lack of apps optimized for tablets in the Market. Apps are the lifeblood of any mobile platform, and the Android tablet offerings are not growing at a fast pace. There are some good Android apps for tablets available, and I have already latched onto a few that provide good utility for me on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 running Honeycomb 3.1. Here are the top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets I am currently using, with some honorable mentions thrown in for free.

Check out the top apps, including the honorable mentions in this gallery

Image Gallery: The top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets gallery Image Gallery: Charge Image Gallery: Charge
Gmail. Like my buddy Jason Perlow, I am a heavy user of Gmail and need a good tablet app to take full advantage of my communications. Gmail for Honeycomb is outstanding, and may be reason enough to buy a Honeycomb tablet for like individuals who may be sitting on the fence. It makes good use of labels and starred emails and presents everything in a multi-pane view for easy access. It is preinstalled on tablets running Honeycomb.

Plume. I am a heavy Twitter user and Plume has long been my favorite client for Android. The latest version is optimized for Honeycomb tablets and is a great use of the tablet screen. It presents three columns on the screen and has been touch-optimized to make it easy to operate. Tapping on a tweet opens up a useful window with lots of options and information. On top of all the big screen goodies, Plume is lightning fast in operation. Free, €1.99 to remove ads.

Honorable mention for Honeycomb Twitter apps: Tweetcomb and Tweetcaster HD.

Newsr. I spend a lot of time each day going through thousands of Google Reader RSS feeds, and a good app is a must for the tablet. Newsr is such an app that presents RSS feeds, article lists and a full content article window in a 3-pane display on the tablet that facilitates quickly processing many RSS feeds. It is so good I find I can process thousands of items faster on the Honeycomb tablet than on the desktop in Google Reader. That's pretty powerful stuff. Free.

Honorable mention for Honeycomb RSS reader apps: JustReader, News360

Thinking Space Pro. I use mind mapping to build outlines for writing projects, and the big screen of a tablet makes this much easier than on smaller devices. Thinking Space Pro takes full advantage of the display, with a thoughtful control system designed from the ground up to be run by touch. Building and manipulating maps is as easy as touching the screen and dragging topics around as desired. £2.95.

Kindle. I read lots of ebooks and the Honeycomb optimizations for the Kindle app are very good. The user's library is presented in a pleasant format that is easy to operate, and the reader provides a very natural interface for reading books. The app has all of the features you expect, and they all get out of the way when it is time to read the book. Free.

SwiftKey Beta for Tablets. The Galaxy Tab ships with some good onscreen keyboards for text entry, but they pale in comparison to the SwiftKey Beta for Tablets keyboard. It has the predictive text SwiftKey is famous for, and combines that with an onscreen presentation that is tailored for the tablet screen. There is a selectable split keyboard designed for thumb typing that mimics the design of the upcoming iPad 3 keyboard recently shown off by Apple. The SwiftKey beta is a closed beta that requires a request for invitation to participate.

There are other apps available for Honeycomb tablets that are not included on this list. I purposely avoided games even though there are dozens of them available. These are the productivity apps I am using heavily on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. I am constantly trying new apps and will surely find others as time passes. Leave your pick for top Honeycomb tablet apps in the TalkBack below.

See related coverage:

Topics: Hardware, Laptops, Mobility, Tablets

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

36 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

    THX for the list... I can slo recommend Springpadit and Dropbox. great for sharing files, ideas and a lot more!
    rvanderveen
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

      @rvanderveen
      Those are good!

      If you need an office app - try Polaris Office - personally like it better than QuickOffice HD or DocsToGo :)
      :D
      rhonin
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

        @rhonin thanks for these, I just bought a new <a href="http://www.android-tablet.org">Galaxy Tab</a> and I was looking for some apps to put on it!
        Jeffrey1980
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

    Check out the Thumb Keyboard which runs on Android 2.2 or Honeycomb. Operates on the same basic premise as the SwiftKey Beta, but is a full production app. I use it on my Droid X and my Galaxy Tab which I have a test load of Honeycomb running on. Works great and is available for about 2 USD on the Android Market.
    bidniss
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

    I like to study the bible in my spare time and use an app called Grace Bible. parts of the interface are just ok on a tablet but the actual reading part is great and takes advantage of the big screen and multitouch. just my 2?
    Vsnt79
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

    Ever since Motorola XOOM appeared on the market the scarcity of tablet optimized apps was bemoaned far and wide. And yet Android Market has hardly any mechanisms for finding the apps that *are* native Honeycomb apps, apart from "featured tablet apps," a small set created by secret powers. We published a specialized eBook reader/bookstore for developers (eCarrel)(https://market.android.com/details?id=com.ambrosoft.searchlib) specifically for Honeycomb but, frustratingly, it is very hard to find on the Market unless you know it by name. Check it out: with have Pogue's "Missing Manuals" and much more from O'Reilly!
    eCarrel
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

      @eCarrel Just a note that I tried eCarrel and I don't think it's ready for a lot of attention yet. No search in your bookstore, horrible initial login/register screen, no free ebooks to see how it works, book previews are just table of contents, you have no web site, etc. I recommend you fix these things before worrying about the Android Market.
      bminer1@...
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

        @bminer1@... Many thanks for your feedback! Work continues here every day on improving the system (app/cloud/ebook preprocessing). Previews do show 20% of book content, but you need to click on TOC items; your feedback tells me this is not obvious: please try again. And bookstore search has always worked--it is fundamental to the system; I am puzzled that it failed for you... Website: yes -- upgrading today to Drupal 7... site likely still down :-(
        eCarrel
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

        @bminer1@... The website is back at http://ecarrel.com
        but I am sure it will be down again for a short while
        as GoDaddy updates Drupal to 7.
        Your feedback will help improve the very next version.
        Well, nobody can start with 2.0... Same has been true
        about Android itself.
        eCarrel
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

        @bminer1@... A second note that 1) I agree the Android Market makes it difficult to find tablet apps. I've downloaded and installed a number of apps only to uninstall them immediately when they run in a small window on my Tab 10.1 and 2) I agree the world needs a good developer eReader! Please continue to improve eCarrel and I look forward to updates!
        bminer1@...
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

    I like gmail, dropbox also and 2x mobile management!
    - 2X MM is great for businesses for managing their Android devices, including tracking on Google maps as well as publishing apps to your group etc. you can find out more at 2x.com
    downloadable in the Android Market.
    virthddman
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

      @virthddman I agree, especially Dropbox ties it all together for me. Pilots should take a look at Avilution, my second source cockpit Electronic Flight Bag. The Galaxy Tab is a great low priced solution with a GPS giving me moving map situational awareness . All Tabs should have a built in GPS. Great stuff!
      barrettjet
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

    Here's a productivity app. Keep your younger kids busy with Occupied for Kids. I gave it to my kids to play on a car trip and the car was quiet for hours. It gave me time to work on other stuff.
    Steve0212
    Reply Vote

  • Swype Beta for Android

    One of the nicest things I came across using my Samsung Galaxy S smartphone was Swype.

    There isn't a better solution.

    h-t-t-p://beta.swype.com/

    Get it!
    Dietrich T. Schmitz, *~* Your Linux Advocate
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

      @Dietrich T. Schmitz, *~* Your Linux Advocate
      chuckle ;)
      It works pretty good on my Transformer in portrait mode.
      rhonin
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

    My favorites:
    Office - Polaris
    eMail - Gmail
    Game - Pocket Legends
    Storage - DropBox
    General Use - Google Sky Map and PhoneMyPC

    and many others :)

    As a general note - there are a lot of good tablet apps for Honeycomb. If in doubt try one of the non-tablet apps. Most work very well and scale great. For the rare few that do not work, there is always uninstall.
    rhonin
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

    Can someone post a link to obtain Polaris Office? I thought it was only available for the Asus Transformer..
    gkuhs@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets - Taptu

    James, you have to check out Taptu (www.taptu.com). I won't say anything more here except it regularly attracts 4 and 5 stars out of 5, and I can disclose an interest in its success :-)
    psheld
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets

    Great, great, great article. I really needed suggestions for productivity apps, and have no interest in (yet more) games... Unless they're for my cat, of course.
    Violet Blue
    Reply Vote

  • CNBC Real-Time for Honeycomb is pretty good

    Nice ticker and watchlist functionality.
    iravgupta
    Reply Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close