Galaxy S II: The Missing Manual

Chapter 11. Downloading and Using Apps

WHY DO YOU HAVE the Samsung Galaxy S II rather than a plain-Jane cellphone? If you’re like most people, it’s for the phone’s apps, which let you handle email, Google Maps, Contacts, and your calendar, as well as countless unexpected and remarkable things like using your phone as a bar code reader or a guitar tuner.

The Galaxy S II features plenty of great built-in apps, which are covered throughout this book. One of its great features, though, is that it lets you download and use new apps as well—and those new apps do just about everything under the sun (and sometimes a few things that seem beyond the range of the solar system).

In this chapter, you’ll find out how to get and use those apps, as well as how to uninstall and troubleshoot them. It’ll also show you how to use a few of the more amazing Android apps available online.

The Galaxy S II’s Free and Easy Approach to Apps

THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S II, like all Android phones, takes a different approach to the use of apps than some other phones. There’s absolutely no limitation on what you can download. Android’s developer, Google, doesn’t step in to say what you can and can’t download, and neither does the Galaxy S II’s manufacturer, Samsung, or its carriers.

Note

The Galaxy S II uses the Android operating system, and so can run any apps written for Android.

That means you’re ...