WaveSecure
WaveSecure is the must have security app on your phone. It can help track down lost or stolen phones, remotely track the location of the phone/sim information, and even remotely lock or wipe the phone is needed. In addition, you can use it to backup/restore data on your phone. Finally, if your phone is stolen and a new sim card in inserted, WaveSecure will lock down the phone unless the secure code is entered.
WaveSecure is currently free for Android but costs $19.90 per year subscription on other platforms.

Contact Owner
You can never be too paranoid. Another security app that displays your (or anyone else’s ) contact information on the “lock screen” of your Android device, so that if you happen to lose it the finder will know how to contact you.

Advanced Task Manager
While there are other free task managers, this app is a step above and beyond. The user interface is well thought out, clean and professional. You can view process/system level information, memory footprints of currently running apps and if you have root access, you can terminate running apps. You can also white-list apps that should not be terminated.
Currently sells for 99c.

Google Voice
If you make plenty of long distance/international calling, this is a must have app. No longer do you need to call a central line, remember passcodes and then dial the international number. Just setup international dialing through voice, and dial away just like you would any local contact. International rates are very reasonable and sound quality is impeccable. In addition, messaging to and from voice is free and no text messaging charges apply. Check out the site for all the other goodies that generally apply to Google Voice and aren’t specific to Android.

Wifi tether for Root Users
This doesn’t apply to the community as a whole because you need to be running a custom ROM with root access. This app created a wireless access point to which you can connect your laptop to and then tether connections through your phone’s data connection. It couldn’t be easier to setup, supports encryption and in general works great.

There are many other apps that came close but didn’t make the top 5 cut. Some of them include Gesture Search, Juice Defender, Meebo IM, Shazam and Sipdroid.

However, unlike the desktop/laptop OS’s where Apple can be rigid about policies, the phone market isn’t where Apple can afford to keep up with these nuisances. For one, this market segment has much more competition. Also, things can change quickly with a year or two. There is a minor wow-factor with the iPhone but that is quickly fading with better Andriod sets coming out and Palm, Mircrosoft among others pushing their own OS’s which are just as competive.

I was a Sony Ericsson (not smartphone) user for a long time. I tried various other models and none seemed to match up to the Sony Ericsson in terms of usability. I think the interface was simple, placement of menu items was very intuitive and in general just easy to use.

The Android OS does just that. Everything is laid out in easy to read, intuitive places, Menu options are short and do not overwhelm. Enabling and disabling services is easy.

Most of the things I dislike about Android aren’t really the OS’s fault. It is the HTC G1. It is big and bulky, feels cheap and just lacking glam. However, the OS isn’t without its flaws. Considering it is currently at 1.5 I understand it has plenty of time to develop. However

* There is no support for WPA-Enterprise. The browser doesn’t support bookmarklets. I think these and others like these are basic functionality and needs to be addressed.

* The menu button provides additional options for the app or the OS in general. For one, this isn’t intuitive. Moreover, the options are still very basic. Furthermore, the options cannot be user configured. For example, if you are using the browser and want to go to the home page, you need to click Menu -> More -> Home page. If I want Home page to show on the main menu, there is no way to do this.

* The battery like is terrible. Not the OS fault but it contributes. Backgrounding processes keeps them running and keeps the battery draining. I’m not a fan of push notifications really, but something needs to be done.

* Wifi pickup is weak. Don’t know what the cause is but at coffee shops where my laptop works fine, the G1 doesn’t pick up the SSID or picks it up briefly then drops.

There are tons of other minor things but I suppose those exist with every phone out there.

It’s not all grey. As a smartphone, Android is great. It’s interface is clean. The usability is great. Most apps in the market are free and good. There are tons of those great little features that I really like and make the phone fun to use.

Overall, I’m sticking with it. Since I haven’t used the IPhone intensely, this won’t be a shootout. But I dislike the way Apple arm-wrestles the market, the apps, and its users and I don’t want any part of that.

Finally, one thing to point out is I’m using the G1 with no data plan. While most people I met say this defeats the purpose, I disagree strongly. Wifi is predominant in most places and increasing daily. Besides the two places I spend most of my time has wireless access. So I don’t miss out on anything.

Overall rating 3.5 stars.