Free App Friday - 8/27/2010
Friday, August 27, 2010 at 8:05AM 
We've been workin' for the weekend, and yup, it's almost here. To get things kicked off, we're bestowing upon you our weekly cattle call of free apps available for your Android smartphone. We've got apps for bad habits, opening your mind, and the auto-repair-challenged this week, so come join us on our quick journey through the land of the free.
Habit Streak
We've all got 'em. Those annoying habits, like drinking too much prune juice, sending bitter text messages to your boss, posting videos on Facebook of the dog sniffing his butt. You know, those kinds of things. Habit Streak comes to the rescue by turning the task of breaking those habits into a kind of game. You enter your habits, set a reminder time to check in with the app, and then it keeps track of how many days you've gone habit-free. If you miss a day, the count restarts to zero. Granted, you could lie, but seriously, that little bit of accountability, even if it's just to a simple app, can actually go a long way. It's been eight whole days since I stopped running out on the porch and screamed profanity.
Brookings
The Brookings Institution is a Washington D.C. think-tank that has been around longer than William Shatner. They have contributed research and opinions from highly regarded experts to numerous policy and legislative decisions for almost a century. With their new app, you can read their latest articles or watch video clips regarding current issues facing the U.S. as well as the world. They provide an interesting alternative to the typical news networks and magazines.
DroidIris
DroidIris is a well written image search utility that provides a "3D" interface to your search results. The image search is powered by Google Images. You can easily zoom in on photos, save them to your SD card, or set a photo as your wallpaper. The user interface is slick and works well. Be careful though, I can see this app chewing up a decent amount of bandwidth after a while.
Repair Pal
I drive, by choice, a ten year old truck. I love my truck. I would not give it up for anything in the world. However, I am about as good with vehicle repairs as our cat is at washing dishes. So when something goes wrong, I'm better off leaving it to an expert to take care of. Anyone who has dealt with repair shops before knows that prices can be all over the map. That's where RepairPal comes in. You tell it what kind of vehicle you drive, what you suspect needs fixed, and it gives you an average cost based on your location. It can also provide you a list of local repair shops, which you can now talked to armed with knowing about what they should be charging you.
Mini Info
Mini Info is a home screen widget that can provide you a wealth of information. On the 2x1 widget itself, it displays battery level, internal storage, and SD card free space. By tapping on the widget, you can dive in to more details, including CPU and RAM usage. As a bonus, tapping the widget also provides toggles for WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Volume Control, and Display Brightness. The widget itself looks great and won't be an eye sore on your phone.
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