1. Pulse
Pulse deserves a place on honor on your home screen for one reason: it aggregates the Web. The idea is to showing top stories from around the Web, but each one shows a quick thumbnail. When you click, you can read just the basic story and view photos without the usual clutter. It's also easy to share links.
2. Google Sky Map
One of those rare apps that makes people gasp when they first use it,
Sky Map shows star constellations in real-time as you move your tablet around the night sky. You can zoom in and choose to hide some objects, such as planets, to make it easier to find what you want.
3. Google Body
Google Body lives up to the Google mission statement: you can find anything, even your femur. The interface for looking at the human body is very intuitive - you can zoom in on any body part, view just a skeleton or muscles, and search for body parts, muscles, bones, or just about any part of our anatomy.
4. Kindle
When we picked the top Android apps many eons ago,
Kindle was a top contender. On Android 3.0, it is less compelling, since the Google Books works quite well. However, any books you have previously purchased from the Kindle Store appear here automatically.
5. Angry Birds Rio
A game based on the movie,
Angry Birds Rio is not only addictive, it's also free. On each level, the goal is to rescue the birds Blu and Jewel, featured in the film. The game mechanics are the same as the original, minus the pigs: you pull a rubber band back and launch a bird to knock down buildings.
6. Androidify
Androidify has no practical function, but that doesn't mean it's useless. You can customize the green Droid character with crazy hair and paints, then share your creation on multiple services, including Picasa and Dropbox, attach the image to any contact, store in your Gallery, or send by email.
7. Dropbox
Some businesses say they could not operate as smoothly without
Dropbox. The reason: the app lets you share just about anything in a common portal that's accessible from anywhere. On Android 3.0, the app is one of the best ways to send images, video, and documents to the device.
8. DocsToGo
The free version of
DocsToGo is a must-download if you routinely need to view Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office documents. You can't edit docs, and the free version does not work with Google Docs, but you can open files from the local storage on your tablet.
9. Weatherbug
We prefer
Weatherbug over AccuWeather because it's…less buggy. (AccuWeather tends to crash or freeze on Android 3.0.) You can quickly see current conditions, alerts, and weather forecasts. The app works automatically for your current location using GPS but you can add any other city.
10. Cordy
Next to
Angry Birds Rio,
Cordy is one of the better games on offer for Android 3.0. You control a tiny robot who has to make his way across a gameworld, usually by jumping over objects, pushing and pulling them, or throwing things. The graphics are amazingly detailed.
11. Touchdown
Not to be confused with an American football app,
Touchdown allows you to easily tap into your Microsoft Exchange e-mail and calendar. Configuring the app is easy: you just tap in your username and password. The interface is modeled after Microsoft Outlook with tabs on the left and a preview pane at right.
12. Gun Bros.
A game made originally for iPhone and iPad,
Gun Bros. is a top-down shooter that looks amazing on Android 3.0: crisp graphics, good sci-fi sound effects, and fast gameplay. The game is a bit buggy and the controls can be wonky, but the onslaught of enemies requires some extra strategy.
13. Dungeon Defenders
One of the only games with an online component,
Dungeon Defenders is a chaotic action game with some RPG elements. You can collect items and power-ups, level-up your character, and - when playing online, compare you're the stats of your character with others for bragging rights.
14. USA Today
Not quite as useful as Pulse for catching up on the news, the
USA Today app shows you the news of the day - covering global news, sports, technology, and other areas in a clean interface. Includes current weather and forecast, a photo viewer, voting, and stock market listings.
15. Glympse
The main strength of this proximity-sharing app is that you don't have to register or even share any personal details other than your location.
Glympse first finds out where you are using GPS. You can then send the location via e-mail or SMS, or update your Facebook or Twitter status.
16. Evernote
Evernote is an extremely popular app which helps you collect notes throughout the day and save them to the Evernote site, where you can access them from other devices. For example, you can jot down phone numbers or reminders. The app is just scaled up for Android 3.0 but still has some smartphone vestiges.
17. MiniSquadron! Lite
A brilliant game with so-so graphics,
Mini Squadron Lite is side-scrolling game where you control and airplane with your fingers and shoot down enemy craft. The only ding compared to higher-ranked games is that the graphics tend to look a bit blurry on Android 3.0, but the gameplay is frantically fun.
18. Latitude
An extra add-on for Google Maps,
Latitude allows you to share your location automatically with only those you select (and are also using Latitude). The advantage on Android 3.0 is that the map is much easier to see, which is helpful when you want to track the locale of nearby friends.
19. DrawFree
We won't say
DrawFree is the best sketching app for Android - but, for now, it is the only one and it's free. There are a few options for selecting brush, pen, or marker and then choosing a color. The Motorola Xoom we used for testing is highly responsive to subtle finger sketches.
20. Earthquake!
Not the most timely app, since Japan has recently suffered a horrendous disaster.
Earthquake does help you keep tabs on minor and major earthquakes across the globe. More importantly, it makes use of the wide tablet screen, showing quakes on the left and a zoomable map on the right.
