Like most of us, the Mobile for me is an integral part of my life. Although there are times when I pray that it stops ringing, its still a really important part of my life. All of us will remember in the early days of the mobile phone, there used to be instances of people leaving their phones at home, or forgetting it somewhere. These days its gotten more uncommon for something like that to happen, this just means that its really a good addition to our attire. But, is the mobile phone just popular because of the Calls and Messages (Maybe about 90% usage) or something more. No, I am still not hinting at the uses of the Mobile Phone Camera, which of course is one of my most popular posts here.

If people just wanted Mobile Phones for the calls and messages there would have been no market for the iPhones, the Blackberries and the sorts. So why is the iPhone so popular and why is the Android getting popular so quick ? A 4 letter word, Apps. Yes, its the Apps thats driving people towards the smartphones. Its not just good apps, but really everything that developers are putting up. Some are awesome, and some are pure crap.

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However, its an undeniable fact that people are really bought over by the App phenomenon and the Apps are here to stay. Apps ranging from the usual Facebook to Twitter are available, but as an Engineer I am looking to round up a list of tools that the Apps are trying to replace. I am going to round up these apps for the Android Phone as thats my new phone as well And BTW I have used all of these apps, and best of all they are all free.  Here are 12 of these tools :

1. RealCalc Scientific Calculator

A fully featured scientific calculator which looks and operates like the real thing. Result history, unit conversions, percentages, memories, hex/bin/oct, RPN mode and full help. Use this QR Code for the Download from the Market.

2. Conversion Tool

Simple tool that converts types of units (Distance, Pressure, Temperature, Volume, Weight) from one unit to another. NOTE: This application meant to serve as a simple and quick tool for basic calculations. Do not expect scientific calculation accuracy. (Although it is pretty damn close)

3. Smart Measure

Smart Measure allows you to measure the approximate distance and height of an object. To measure, just stand up, and touch the shutter. The most important thing is focusing the camera on the GROUND, NOT the object.

4. Bubble level

A spirit level. Hold any of the phone’s four sides against an object to test it for level or plumb, or lay it down on a flat surface for a 360° level.

5. deciBel

A simple sound level meter that uses the phone mic to measure sound pressure levels. It displays the current, maximum and minimum values in decibels, and generates sound level charts.

6. Metal Detector

Turns your cell phone into a metal detector, and makes people with iPhones jealous.

7. Compass

Android’s leading Compass, plus location display & geo-tagged notes. Reset magnetometer by waving your phone in a figure 8 motion several times.

8. StopWatch & Timer

StopWatch and count down timer. Clean, simple, reliable: Stop watch timer, Countdown timer, Choose colors, Optional status bar indicator. Timer: re-use last 3 recent countdowns, use alarm/ringtones, choose audio stream. Stopwatch: record laps, control by volume key, add lap on stop option.

9. LED Light

LED Light” is an app that lights LED of the camera. This can be used as a usual app and a widget. Hardware is not guaranteed. Please use it by the self-responsibility.

10. DroidScale

This dynamic app turns your phone into a digital scale that you can take with you wherever you go! Weigh normal household items with your friends, and see who can get the closest guess! Weighs in grams or ounces!

11. Tuner – gStrings

gStrings (cohortor.org/gstrings) is a chromatic tuner application measuring sound pitch and intensity. It will let you tune any musical instrument (violin, viola, violoncello, bass, guitar, piano, wind instruments).

12. Vuvuzela

The name is more self explanatory than anything else.

It is true however that life definitely was simpler when Apples and Blackberries were just fruits.