The 10 most fun non-gaming apps on Android

It's early days for Google's Android platform, but all the signs are that this is going to be a major contender on the mobile gaming scene in 2009. Until then, though, you may find the Games section of the Market rather sparsely populated. Which is a worry with the Christmas period approaching, when many of us G1 owners will be stuck at our parents' houses with only a festive edition of Animals Do the Funniest Things to occupy us.

"Look, the dog head-butted the patio door!"

One area of the G1 market you may not have paid much attention to is the Applications section. Filled though it is with a fair amount of pointless tat, there are a few gems that could well keep you occupied during those particularly empty moments. Here's our pick.

The 10 most fun non-gaming apps on Android

10. Magic 8-Ball
Developer: Dennis Bond
Vital for those 'Should I have chips for tea?' moments, Magic 8-Ball uses the G1's accelerometer to replicate the workings of the random/mystical/pointless globular decision making toy. As inexplicably addictive as the real thing, download this and you'll be making life-changing decisions based on the whims of an electronic device in no time. If you weren't already, that is.

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9. Global Factbook: European Edition
Developer: Gamelion Studios
This app aims to teach you more than you'd ever want or need to know about each of the countries of Europe. It uses the GPS feature to home in on your location, and offers you a comprehensive rundown of your country, from its general history to the number of unpaved airports it has. The quiz feature is a bit more light-hearted, although we're ashamed to admit that we didn't know what the public debt of Kazakhstan was last year (7.7 per cent of their GDP, of course). It doesn't appear to have been optimised all that well for the G1's control inputs, but it's a pretty comprehensive little factual app, and worth a look.

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8. Life
Developer: SoftwareForMe
Based on the legendary (to geeks) 1970 life simulator of mathematician John Horton Conway, Life starts with a blank screen and asks you to touch several random points to get things started. From these areas sprout several pulsating blocky things (technical term) which in turn evolve (or die) and give life to further blocky things. You can step in and influence proceedings with a simple touch, or you can let things develop naturally. I'm really not explaining it very well, so check out the Wikipedia description for a more scientific rundown. Suffice to say it's oddly hypnotic and doubtless very clever indeed.

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7. Bartender
Developer: Jon L
So you're sat around at your parent's house on December 26th, pretending to be asleep while everyone else goes for a walk. What to do now? Why not raid their drinks cabinet and boot up Bartender, which contains over 100 drink recipes, and make it a day to remember-only-fuzzily? Featuring an ever-growing list of drinks and an excellent search facility, which allows you to search for cocktails by ingredients, Bartender really is a neat little app. It also helps answer the surprisingly-often-asked question of what actually goes into a White Russian.

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6. Toddler Lock
Developer: Marco Nelissen
This one's aimed at keeping younger kids quiet without running the risk of having them call your work or use the wifi feature to accidentally hack into the Pentagon. It certainly kept me amused for a good few minutes. Basically, as the child (or twenty-something simpleton) touches the screen a random coloured shape appears, accompanied by a similarly random chime. As the screen gets busier, the shapes overlap and form a lovely collage, like you used to make at school. The mixture of colour and sound has a strangely therapeutic effect, and I found myself turning to it after agonizing sessions on Generic Rubbish Portable Game 2008, just to keep me sane.

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5. Voice Recorder
Developer: Mamoru Tokashiki
Does exactly what it says on the tin, providing an easy to use, high quality means of capturing conversations. Or rude noises, depending on your mentality. The real genius, though, is that you can (as with a number of other Android apps) instantly send the completed sound file to a colleague or loved one via email or SMS. Feeling bored and amorous? Send a sloppily enunciated "I love you" to your partner. Feeling bored and juvenile? Send a rude parping sound to your best mate. Just try not to mix up the two, or you could end up losing both.

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4. PicSay
Developer: Shinycore
A bright and breezy image editor, allowing you to add word balloons, graphics and trippy effects to your pictures. Crucially, it's dead easy to use, and it pins your latest creation to the main menu with a helpful little thumbnail. I quickly got to work modifying a still I had downloaded from the film Hero (I forget why). Within minutes I had given a wistful-looking Maggie Cheung a comedy moustache, a red hooter and a speech bubble reading "I'm over here!" Yes, I'm quite the wag.

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3. TuneWiki
Developer: TuneWiki
I swiftly opted for TuneWiki as my main music app over the default G1 player thanks to its ability to search for album art, but it's so much more than that. Not only does TuneWiki offer up the ability to search for song lyrics, but it will automatically sync them to your music. Hey presto – you have your very own pocket karaoke machine! Also on offer is a YouTube-powered music video feature, as well as a social aspect where you can see what others around the world have been listening to or viewing through the clever utilization of Google Maps.

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2. Panoramio
Developer: Mike Cleron
This requires the Radar app to run, which can be found in the 'Software libraries' category, but it's well worth the minimal extra effort. Using a detailed satellite map of the world, you can zoom in on any area of any country and tap the 'Search Panoramio' button at the bottom. Before you know it, a stream of photos featuring local landmarks and interesting places to visit appears. Finding familiar places in countries you've visited is a game in itself – and a jolly fun one at that.

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1. ShopSavvy
Developer: Big in Japan, Inc
Okay, so it's not meant to be entertaining in the slightest, but I've probably spent more time with this tool than with any of the games (bar Bonsai Blast and Pac-Man) on the Market. It's essentially a shopping tool, which uses the G1's much derided camera to scan product bar-codes. It then checks online to find the best price available, and lets you know if there are any local stores that might stock the item. The latter feature is still very much a work-in-progress, but I simply enjoy rummaging around my house, scanning everything from a can of beans to a PSP game to see a) if it registers and b) how cheap it's going for. There's a slightly Pokémon-esque feel to recording and referencing anything with a stripy box on the packaging. If only we could make the items fight…