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In Pictures: 15 Killer Android Apps for the G1

If Google wants its Android-based phones to unseat Apple's iPhone as the top touch-screen handsets, it will have to offer cool apps. On the G1, T-Mobile customers will be the first to check out about 50 available applications. T-Mobile says that all apps are free until 2009. Here's a look at some of them.

By Tom Spring, PCWorld

5 of 16

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Reduce Risk While Keeping Tabs on the Family

If you buy everyone in your family a G1, you'll be able to keep tabs on one another using mobile mapping software that will plot your family's whereabouts through an application called FreeFamilyWatch. The service sends a warning when you or any family members have entered a reportedly risky environment. Risk factors are based on crime statistics, environmental health hazards, or unfolding emergencies.

T-Mobile G1

Lock Up Your G1 With Your Eye

Biowallet uses biometric iris-scan authentication to lock down your G1. Put the phone's camera to your eye and wait, and the software scans your eye to verify that it's you. The security software also allows you to send remote commands to your phone in the event that it is stolen.

Calling a Cab Was Never So Easy

CallACab finds the local cab company for you--and it knows your location, too. This application is handy if you're traveling and you don't know the local cab number or an easy way to give directions to your current location and your destination.

These Bread Crumbs Are Made of JPEGs

With BreadCrumbz you leave behind a trail of pictures, not crumbs, for others to follow. Through this software you create a step-by-step visual map using photos you've taken with the G1. You can then share routes with just your friends or make routes public.

Reduce Risk While Keeping Tabs on the Family

Virtual Worlds Go Mobile

City Slikkers is a location-based game that employs the G1's GPS capabilities to let you interact with nearby people using the same application. City Slikkers creates a virtual world that you inhabit with other nearby City Slikkers users. You can interact with other Slikkers and modify your virtual environment too.

G1 Goes to Work in the Kitchen

As its name suggests, Cooking Capsules is a cooking application that shows cooking videos, lets you create recipe ingredient lists, and helps you explore new recipes. Using the phone's GPS capabilities, Cooking Capsules can also help you find the nearest grocery store.

Jukebox in the Cloud

Diggin is a music application for wireless streaming of music from preset Internet-based radio stations. It also has discovery tools for finding music, a tool that will show you a song's lyrics, and a highly customizable user interface.

GPS Tool Keeps You Out of Harms Way

Em-Radar keeps you informed of sudden severe weather conditions and emergencies near your location. Using the G1's GPS capabilities, Em-Beacon also helps you locate and stay connected to loved ones in an emergency.

G1 Turns a Cell Phone Into Geeky Golf Gear

Golfing gear just became more phone friendly, with the debut of the GolfPlay Android application. Using the G1's GPS mapping technology, GolfPlay can display a 2D map overview of courses as you play on them. It also allows you to access historical data such as course scoring and the distance between holes. GolfPlay creates a social network that you can join to exchange course impressions and scores.

Get Thrifty, G1 Style

The Android application ShopSavvy allows you to run your own cheapest-price check on the go. While in a store, you can scan a bar code on a product with your G1's camera; ShopSavvy will then retrieve the best prices for that product available online and at the nearest store.

'Get a Life' With This G1 App

Do you find yourself complaining that you have no life? The LifeAware application may not be able to give you a life, but it will help you make the best of the one you have. LifeAware uses the G1's GPS technology to help you keep tabs of other people running LifeAware on their GPS-enabled phones. If you walk into a zone where a friend is, you'll receive an alert.

Getting Lost Has Never Been So Productive

PedNav is a location-aware day planner that allows you to create an itinerary and suggests public-transit routes as well as walking directions. Want to stop by a certain grocery store, have lunch at a nearby cafe, or drop by a record shop? PedNav is aware of your location and schedule, and based on that information it will give reminders of what you intended to do and when might be a good time to do it.

Annotate Directly on G1 Pics, and Send

PicSay allows you to take a picture with the G1's phone and then embed text, graphics, and effects into it. That way, when you take a picture of Times Square, you can circle the Naked Cowboy and note directly on the picture what you think of him.

Carpooling Has Never Been This Easy

Piggyback is a handy application for people who carpool. It links you to a network of like-minded people willing to give you a lift, and lets you offer a ride too. To use the service just enter your destination into the application and make your car available for searching by other PiggyBack users. Interested parties can send you a ride request, which you are free to accept or decline.

Like this slide show? Check out PC World's G1 slide show and our complete G1 review.