My dad just got an Samsung Captivate Galaxy S Android phone, and I'd like your opinions on what some of the best apps are. He's a professional photographer whose interests include human space exploration, and the classic atari game Lunar Lander. He's an avid Star Trek and Star Wars fan, and has already expressed an interest in voice to text and police scanner applications.

Also, is there any kind of hacking I need to do to get the most of this, like I would an iPhone, or is it really as open and modifiable as I've been led to believe?

No hacking at all, you either open up the market and download, or set it to allow third-party apps (a simple toggle in one of the menus) and download from a site. As for apps, here're the ones I really like, though they may not be applicable to him:
Google Goggles (may have it be default)
Google Sky Map
ConnectBot (SSH)
AndoridIRC
Set! (Card game)
Stroids

That's all I've got right now, but I just put on a new rom, so I'll be adding more as I need them.

Thanks, this is awesome. Also I'm typing this on the phone right now, so freaking cool. Oh sweet it has voice to text built in.

RoboDefense... man can I tell you... I play this game alllll the time. It's a tower defense game, but you level up your towers with points you earn from beating a map, and they will always stay leveled up once you buy their next upgrade. Even if you are not a TD kind of person, I suggest trying this out, you'll get hooked

Unless you're on AT&T. Then you need to root it for non-market apps. That's rarely necessary, though.

As for apps, if he's a sports fan, ESPN Score Center is good. Also, most teams have their own app with a widget to easily display scores and next games. That can really help out.

Also, Handcent is a very nice SMS client. It supports text reminders which can really help out if you have your phone silenced and miss texts every once in a while.

The Amazon Appstore gives a free app every day. It's worth checking out.

And everyone loves Pandora or TinyShark.

GOOGLE SKY MAP. 'Nuff said.

* ZippyDee is easily amused

That's not exactly true. There's a program on XDA called http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=731245 that will allow the loading of 3rd party apps for any device. Before I rooted, this was excellent.

But I suppose you want an App list

Andy - 83, 85, and 86 are all Ti 83. 85 and 86 emulators that are no longer in development (Ti shut him down. Shocker. ), but they can still be found around the internet. They are VERY nice, just they don't allow the loading of programs

AutomateIt - By far my favorite app. Allows for automation/programming on your phone. Given, it's only a simple If _ do _, but it can get quite complex. And the dev for this is very active and willing to take suggestions.

If you use Firefox at home, I would suggest getting Firefox on your phone. It syncs beautifully.

Widgetsoid- While I know widgets tend to slow down your phone/eat up battery, this lets you make widgets with tons of customization.

Teamviewer - Remote desktop client. Works great for both computers that I use it on.

However if you do root, here are some Root only apps.

AdFree - I only use this in the cases of extremely ridiculous ads, because it works so well.

Wired & Wireless tether apps. These you kinda have to hunt for, but they may or may not be worth your time.

SetCPU - Over or underclock your phone. I found this to be a bit buggy on mine, but it might just be the hardware.


And if you're wondering, I'm on a Motorola Atrix "4G" Rooted, and using 4.1.83 which enables "4G".

Edit: The program is called Sideload Wonder Machine.

Nice find!

You can also sideload using the tools from the Android SDK. That's how the Sideload Wonder Machine works, but it just wraps the SDK tools with an interface.

I have a Captivate too. Older Captivates (like the one I bought) came with Eclair (2.1, that is). I don't know if newer ones come with the Froyo update, but you can check under Settings -> About Phone -> Firmware Version.

Unfortunately Samsung and AT&T didn't distribute the Froyo update over the air, so to update you need to follow the directions on this page.

Netflix: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.netflix.mediaclient&feature=search_result

Robot Unicorn Attack: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.RobotUnicornAttack&feature=search_result

The fact that that is an Android application makes me feel that all is right with the world.

I don't know if I can pay for something I can play for free on my flash-enabled web browser...

How exactly are you hitting 'x' and 'z' on your android phone? Also, have you tried playing it on a phone? The framerate of the flash version isn't great.