5 FREE Android App Favorites – Navigate, Facebook, Stream Music & More

Yesterday, I activated my Motorola Droid and my first order of business was digging into all the great Apps in the Android Market. I’ll be providing reviews and top Droid Apps postings in the future, but wanted to start by showing you the 5 best free Android Apps I’ve found thus far.

Advanced Task Killer 1.5.1 (Tools) 4.5 Stars, 6103 ratings, 250K+ downloads, 56KB

“This tool is also known as ATK. It is a tool to kill applications running. Click to select or unselect the app. Long press to activate pop-up menu. What’s new: Show memory information. Run faster.”

Google Maps 3.3.1 (Tools) 4.5 Stars, 48,838 ratings, 250K+ downloads, 2.70MB

“Download the latest release of Google Maps, and never carry a paper map again. New features in Google Maps: GPS Navigation, US (only). Labs (compass arrow, scale bar, terrain layer, more). Report a problem. Google Maps also includes: business listings, driving/transit/walking directions, street view, traffic.”

Facebook for Android 1.1.2 (Social) 3.5 Stars, 23,240 ratings, 250K+ downloads, 1.24MB

“Facebook for Android makes it easy to stay connected and share information with friends. You can share status updates from your homes creen, check out news feed, look at your friends’ walls and user info, upload photos and share links. 1.1.2 adds the ability to browse your friends profiles and native photo integration.”

Pandora Radio 1.1.2 (Music) 4.5 Stars, 23,177 ratings, 250K+ downloads, 629KB

“Pandora Radio is your own FREE personalized radio now available to stream music on your phone. Start with the name of your favorite artists, songs, or classical composers and Pandora will create a “station” that plays their music and more music like it. Already a Pandora User? Just log in to enjoy your stations.

Mediafly Audio Podcast 0.36 (Music) 4 Stars, 198 ratings, 10K to 50K downloads, 847KB

“Mediafly Mobile is your way to organize and discover podcasts, shows, radio & streams from your Android device. Full offline support: download, podcatcher, or stream intelligent search, personalize your lists. Many popular channels to start. Sync across devices (e.g. iPhone). No ads.”

The bread and butter of the Android for me is Google Maps. You get turn-by-turn voice navigation free, street view, and so many more great features with Google Maps. Another favorite is Advanced Task Kill, which is the app I was always hoping to find on the BlackBerry. Having too many programs running in the background can degrade the performance and battery life of your smartphone and this App provides a simple solution with just a tap of the finger.

Though the iPhone Facebook App is better overall, the Facebook for Android integrates extremely well with your contacts. I can simply add a contact by typing in their first and last name the save as it automatically will populate their Facebook profile photo, e-mail, phone number and link to their Facebook profile (providing the contact has a Facebook profile).

Pandora is Pandora. It’s awesome on every platform I’ve used it. Mediafly brings me all my favorite podcasts with the ability to use autodownload as new episodes are published. This App will keep me from breaking out the iPod Touch.

The Android Market has countless Apps, many of which are free. I’ve downloaded more than 20 Apps to start experimenting, but the five I highlighted today are my favorites thus far. Do you have any favorite Android Apps you’d recommend?