Technology and Making

Barcode Scanner uses the G1's camera to read barcodes on pretty much any product, then run a Google Product search based on the data. This allows you to compare prices on books, music and movies which interest you, or just find out more about them with a quick search.

JotNot uses the G1's camera to take an image of a piece of text you wish to store, then applies some clever processing to render it as clear and clean as possible, essentially turning your phone into a scanner. The image can then be stored or converted to text via an OCR application.

Loot is a very featureful money management program, supporting multiple customisable accounts, transfer between accounts, transactions that are switchable between Budget and Actual, and purging. It updates regularly and is, for my money (sorry) the strongest contender in this category.

A powerful database allowing you to organise all your movies, books, music and other media in one place, My Collection can use Barcode Scanner (if you have it installed) to quickly add items to your list, as well as do intelligent searches and tag items you have loaned out (and who you've loaned them to). Updating regularly.

Already wellknown on other platforms, Shazam identifies tunes heard over the G1's microphone from an online database.

Even if you don't already have an interest in astronomy, Skymap is a dazzling demonstration of the capabilities of the G1. It uses GPS, the internal compass and accelerometer to display a map of constellations and other celestial bodies depending on which way you are pointing the phone, providing an explorable virtual sky mapped to your real location.

Translates any word or phrase to or from ten different languages, and with TTS Service installed it can speak the translated phrase aloud.