Eric Stewart: Running Off At The Mouth

I’m not much of a shopper … off line, anyway.  On line, I’ll take my time to Google to my heart’s content in an effort to find something that does what I need it to and costs as little as possible.

It’s with this in mind that I discuss AppBrain.  AppBrain, to me, is what the Android App Market should have been.  It’s more than just an app for installing applications; it’s a website where you can search for and review apps, choose a bunch of them to install, and then at your leisure go back to your phone, open and sync the AppBrain app, and then go through the process of installing all of your selected apps.

As an AppBrain member (which isn’t hard to establish – you use your Google account just like you do with your phone), you can even provide or read reviews on apps (in addition to the regular Market reviews).  Lists (with optional filters, such as “free only”) exist for popular (all time/today/this week) apps, games (broken down by type), and other categories.

I’ve just discovered, while writing this app, that they’ve released a “Fast Web Installer” app that will do the installs onto your phone apparently without you having to run AppBrain (which actually doesn’t work well for me right this second since I’m in a basement office).

There’s not much to configure (though if you’re paranoid, you’ll want to disable public access to your app list on the AppBrain website).  I use the AppBrain app at least once a day to check for updates to my current apps, and usually hit the AppBrain website to look at the popular apps a couple of times a day.

Not much else to say I guess.  If you want to shop for an app, don’t use the Market … use AppBrain!

EDIT: New features now include a Push-Install, where you can have an app you choose on the website install on the phone immediately, no need to mess with the phone!