1) Handcent SMS: Within few days of using the default SMS app, i got bored of its bland look, this is where Handcent SMS, comes to rescue and spices up the texting screen, with various options like changing theme, SMS threading, different settings for each user, customizing notification types, unread message count widget. It is the best SMS app available in market. Also no annoying Ads like most free apps in the market.

2) Note Everything: As the name indicates note everything is ideal note taking app for android, it can take notes in various forms, including simple text, voice notes, picture notes, bar-code notes, notes from Google docs. Creation of folders to create hierarchal structure. Notes searching is also added functionality. Only thing it lacks is a good widget, otherwise its a perfect app for note taking.

3) Tweetcaster: For all twitter obsessed android users, tweetcaster, quenches the thirst for tweeting. Excellent and fast interface design, with loads and loads of customization options. Seesmic is also a similar and powerful twitter client for android. Both these apps lack a widget though, so if widget is a must then twidroid is the only free option available in the android market.

4) ES Task Manager: One good as well as bad thing about android is its multitasking, although its a huge huge advantage to have multiple apps running at the same time, its also a memory hog, eats away memory and also reduces battery life. Hence to manage tasks, kill them or ignore them is where ES Task Manager comes in. Simple to use interface, excellent widget are just a few good things about this. It is a must have for every android user. If you dont like this and need another similar app, Advanced Task Manager Free edition is the alternative option.

5) Quick Settings: Its a must have for all android users, used to quickly change brightness level, enable disable wi-fi, data settings, enable and disable 3g, check battery levels, name it and you got it. Its a must have for all Android users.

In part 2 we will see five more must have apps for android

The KMplayer: This certainly is one player to rue them all, one of my favorites. If KMplayer doesnt play a video format then better luck with that video. Wide range of codec support, including flv, rm, mkv, avi and more. Also Kmplayer can be configured based on computers configuration for better playback. For more information on The Kmplayer head over here.

VLC Media Player: Perhaps the most widely used video player by masses. Recently vlc player grauated to version 1, with increased stability. Apart from playing all the formats , it can also stream video which is ubique to this player.Format support is amost as extensive as The Kmplayer but is still a bit behind. To know more about VLC  player head right over here.

Mplayer: The oldest, most widely supported, Geek-o-licious, Customizable open source player available. Name a platform and Mplayer is available, due to its portability Mplayer is available on various platforms Windows, Linux, Play station, Wii etc. Codec support is also extensive. The only drawback is that it can ba a bit intimidating for a new user. For more information on Mplayer for windows its right here.

GOM Player: A relatively new player in the market, GOM plater claims to be a light weight player that plays everything. Although its codec support is not as great as The Kmplyer, some people still prefer it due to its light weight. To know more about GOM player go right here.

MPC with K-Lite: Everyones favorite Media player classic when coupled with a powerful codec pack like K-Lite becomes a multimedia powe house that can play any format you throw at it. Personally i feel MPC is boring cos of its age old interface, but one think that cant be ignored is how well it performs on windows machines. Any one intersted in giving it a go, its right here.

For five free audio players look at my previous post.

Audio Players:

Media Monkey: The best media player cum organizer that one can get for free, although paid version exists, the free version is more than enough to manage huge libraries of Music. It also features a in built tag editor so edit the Mp3 tags and better organize the music. Sync feature with Ipod’s or in fact any other portable media player is a plus point. The only drawback is it is not open source hence not many customizing options apart from changing of skins and plugins that are available.For any one looking to manage a huge music collection look no further than this. Latest version of Media Monkey can be downloaded here.

J. River Media Jukebox: One more worthy alternative, and almost identical in features to Media Monkey, the only diffrerence is that the Mp3 Tag editor is not as fully featured as media monkey, it also has similar drawbacks as media monkey that is it is not open source. It syncs with most portable audio devices like ipod’s, mobile phones etc. Download J. River Media Jukebox here.

Foobar2000 : By default one of the most dumb players to look at. But dont be fooled by its looks, its the most customizable media player available for free. It plays almost all the audio formats including FLAC. It has various advanced features like replaygain, gapless playback. The drawback is that this audio player is not for common users, its a geek’s favorite audio player. Give it a try, and get it here.

Winamp: Everyone’s favorite audio player after windows media player and probable the most widely known free audio player. Sync’s with alost all the portable devices, wide range of presets and format supports. Also there is very active community support for winamp so expect a galore of plugins. Get winamp here.

Amarok: Last but not the least, and also happens to be my favorite audio player among all the above, with excellent sound reproduction. Wide range of audio format support. The only drawback being its windwos version is still in alpha stage. But for those using linux amarok is the best. Have look at amarok here.

Next post will be five better video players.

1. Abiword: Without a doubt one of the best freeware word processor available. Abiword can read and edit almost all the coomon documet formats like MS word documents, open office documents, rtf files, txt files etc. Also Abiword is multiplatform it can run on windows, linux, solaris etc giving user the flexibility to run on any operating system. Another major plus point about Abiword is its ligh weight and quick startup , it almost starts in an instant so you are not pestered by annoying splash images at start and can jump into work right away. Give it a try and it will be liked for sure. Abiword can be downloaded for free here.

2. OpenOffice.org Writer: Probably the best MS word alternative known to most people. It has almost all the features that MS word can offer and a common man can use. Very simple to use and an elegant interface are an added advantage. Only disadvantage i can think of is that it is slightly slow to start with that annoying splash, which will bog down a few potential users. But for users looking for a complete word processing package to replace MS word Openoffice.org Writer is the best choice. Try it here.

3. Google docs : For all the online lovers word processing cannot get better than this. Although the product is in beta stage it mimics almost all the most used features of MS Word. And with offline functionality of google docs ( with google gears ) it can be used without internet connection which makes it one of the best competetor in word processing market. The biggest plus point for google docs is availaility of documents on the move ( atleast where ever internet is available ). Also google docs can read and import all the common document types. Give google docs a try and you will love it. Try Google docs here.

4. IBM Lotus Symphony : Relatively unkown in office suite market IBM lotus Symphony is attrating good share of attention these days. This office suite based on openoffice.org includes a writer with very good features and support for all the common document types. The interface is much smoother and betterl organized than openoffice writer. Try it out here.

5. Zoho Writer: Zoho office was one of the first complete online office suites available, and as with all the other online office tools its still in beta stage. But dont let this beta stop you from using it, zoho writer is probably the best online writer available and in my personal opinion beats google docs fair and square. It even supports offline editing just like google docs. For all those willing to give it a try its right over here.

1) Dexpot: One of the best free virtual desktop softwares. Both Features and usability are topnotch. By default it comes with 4 virtual desktops, in netbook where space is a real constraint this is really useful. More abt it here.

2) The KMplayer: Being low on resources netbooks need a very good media player to play 720p videos. I tried windows media player, VLC player and noticed small hitch in both of them when playing 720p videos, but when i tried KMplyer no hitch was noticed. Just make sure that during initial configuration you select 1Ghz as your processor speed for good performance. Also KMplayer plays almost any video you throw at it. It can be downloaded here.

3) Chrome/Firefox: Its very hard to decide which one to use. I will say both are good chrome is best suited for netbooks because of its minimalistic interface thereby increasing the space avaialbe for browsing. Get it here.

Firefox can be configured to do the same using small tweeks like full screen mode, hiding status bar, hiding  bookmarks bar. But dude to firefox addons i prefer firefox more than chrome.  Get firefox here.

4) Avira Antivir: Freeware Antivirus cant get better than this. Just try it and you will know what you have been missing. After trying avast, comodo i finally found this much better. Only drawback is one pestering Ad per startup. Anyways get it here.

5) Everything: Everything is a must have for any computer with ntfs file system. Instantaneous search is what you get by using this software. Best of all it can be run from a pendrive. Only drawback i can think of is that it cant search in fat file system. Just use it to believe it, windows default search is ages behind this tool. Get it here.

6) Free Commander: Since netbooks lack desktop real estate, opening too many windows can be a real hassle, this is where free commander comes to rescue, with ability to open upto four locations at a time, tabbed file manager support. Free commander is the best alternative to standard windows file manager. Get it here.

7) Teracopy: Speedup, Pause and be in total control of your file copying using teracopy. Teracopy is a worthy replacement to standard windows copy function, with many addons that will make you forget windows copy in a jiffy.The best feature of teracopy is ability to pause and resume copying. Tera copy with free commander is a superb combination that will put windows explorer to shame. Get teracopy here.

8 ) Pidgin: Having a simgle IM client handle all your accounts is really useful for a netbook as it reduces the resources utilised, there is no better free universal IM cleint for windows than Pidgin. Get Pidgin Here. Another worthy mention here is Digsby. But it is still not as polished as Pidgin.

9) CCleaner: This a free privacy, registry and optimization tool. It is more important for netbooks since there is less ram and processing power in hand and keeping it optimized is always a requirement. Get CCleaner here.

10) Openoffice.org: Last but by no means the least is openoffice.org. The best freeware office suite available, and also it is very light on resources hence the best office suite for netbook. Get Openoffice.org here.

Another superlight weight wordprocessor worthy of mention is Abiword. It is best for users who are looking only for word processing. Get it here.

Any comments or additions to the above list are most welcome.  Also all the opinions above are purely personal, If any of the softwares cause harm to your computer its none of my responsibility.

Digsby is a very good IM client and it does a superb job of combining all social networks, IM and email accounts at one place but the only problem is it is not yet polished unlike pidgin which is a seasoned campaigner. Also another big thing lacking in digsby is lack of native linux client.

Now to the main part, with this simple steps below you can configure both your face book and twitter accounts with gaim.

How to configure facebook account

1) First and foremost you need to have pidgin installed ( the latest version), you can get it from here.

2) If pidgin is open, close it and exit.

3) Get Facebook plugin for pidgin here.

4) Install the exe downloaded above.

5) Open pidgin and go to Accounts–>Manage Accounts–> Add

Pidgin Accounts

6) Select facebook from protocol dropdown list, add your facebook details after that. check on remember password if you dont want to type password again and again.

Facebook account details

7) Now click on Add button at bottom and you are ready to go. Enable your facebook account in pidgin if it isnt enabled by default.

Add Twitter account to pidgin.

1) Install this package Twitter package for pidgin.

2) Follow the same steps as above ie facebook account steps and you are ready to go with twitter account on pidgin.

Comments are welcome

Thanks to below google code projects for making this possible  Pidgin facebook chat and microblog purple.