BT Fon’s an odd little Android app. It doesn’t really offer much more than a graphical front end for your Android phone’s Wireless & Networks management tab, but it does offer to let you auto-connect to BT’s national network of wi-fi hotspots.

There’s also a clever little option to have the app always connect to your preferred networks first, so you don’t have to worry about connecting to the wrong access point when at home.

It’s worth installing BT Fon simply to remind yourself to use its wi-fi hotspots when out and about instead of your mobile data connection. If you have a BT broadband account, wi-fi access is free through all UK hotspots. Which is very, very useful.

There’s also a charity thing on the go at the moment, where BT donates 50p to worthy causes each time it’s downloaded. So you might as well, you’ll feel marginally better about yourself.

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This is the simplest app we’ve yet featured. No Lock has just the one function – disabling the swipe unlocking requirement of Android 2.x handsets.

Once installed, you stick a widget on the Home screen and use it to toggle the screen lock on and off. That’s all it does.

Basically it lets you turn your phone on and off from standby without the extra swipe. Any button press wakes it up. The extra swipe was annoying me. Now it is gone. Not good for people who pocket their phones, but ideal if your phone is mainly desk based.

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This is slightly old news to those of you on the BLEEDING EDGE of Android, but if you’re in possession of a phone upgraded to Android 2.2 and loaded with the final version of the Flash Player, you’ll be automatically redirected to the BBC’s hot new mobile version of the iPlayer site.

So we thought we’d take a look at how iPlayer operates on Android. The novelty of taking screenshots of stuff on our phone still hasn’t worn off.

So there it is. Android iPlayer operates entirely within the web browser, as you’d expect, along with an impressively comprehensive collection of options – adding shows to your Favourites lists, sorting and searching by channel and day, and much more. It offers all the functionality of the desktop version.

You’re able to watch shows in this miniaturised picture format, with a bit more information around the edges. Handy if you’re the modern sort who finds it impossible to concentrate on one particular thing for more than three seconds at a time. And if you’re watching TV on your phone, that’s likely to be the case.

The Favourites tag works, as in it remembers your favourites between web sessions (we turned our Desire off and on again to check this…). It’s a shame there are no super-hardcore options to tweak picture quality manually dependent on connection speed and phone processor power, though, as that’d keep Android users well happy.

Rotate the phone and the view scales up a little more. At this resolution, picture quality is still great – plus the player skips quickly through shows with pretty much nothing in the way of buffering. Of course we’re reviewing this when connected via wi-fi – that’s a compulsory requirement.

This is what you see when accessing iPlayer via the mobile network. It won’t work for most of you, unless you’re on Three or Vodafone and sitting on a picnic blanket right beneath a 3G mobile mast on a sunny day.

When zoomed to full screen, picture quality is not so hot. It’s pixelated. Not as bad as watching standard definition broadcast TV scaled up on an HDTV, but not super-sharp either. The BBC is pushing out a special 400kbps stream for us mobile users.

The only issue we have is the size of that pause button – it’s minuscule. And shoved away at the unresponsive corner of the screen. You’ll be in trouble if you have to perform an ‘Emergency Pause’.

Although it all takes place within the Android browser, BBC’s Android iPlayer is a surprisingly app-like experience. Everything’s simple, uniform, and quick.

Kirsty Wark must’ve doubled her salary since the launch of BBC4. She’s on everything.

Oh, and it also does radio. We’re running out of things to talk about, so best stop. It’s a great, great app. If you’re not yet running Android 2.2 it’s certainly something to look forward to.

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Exercise, I am reliably informed, is apparently a good way to “lose weight” and “get fit”, as well as “not get diabetes”. With this in mind I have recently taken to wheezily jogging around my estate of an evening, but as you can imagine this was not before an enormous amount of procrastination. Choosing the correct running shoes was only part of the problem (or way to put off the inevitable) – I also had to make sure I was using the correct GPS tracking running app on my phone.

Runner is one of the many exercise tracking apps available, although it is specifically geared towards running (or jogging) and it’s also free. It boasts some great features such as complete tracking of times, averages, distances, speeds and calories burned, as well a small history of your recent runs, which can also be rendered via Google Maps.

A feature I particularly enjoyed is the voice-over, which can tell you how fast you’re going, how long you’ve been running and what distance you’ve covered. Thanks to Android’s lovely multi-tasking, you can even use this feature while listening to the music app. It’s genuinely encouraging when you’re trying to reach a certain distance on each run.

The only drawback with this app is that it will only store the details of your 5 most recent runs. If you want a more complete history you will need to pay for the company’s SportsTracker app, currently at £5.99 in the market. Aside from this, you can’t really ask for more features in a free app. Perhaps the company just realised that 5 is the number of runs a middle aged man will attempt before giving up on exercise and going back to crying into a bag of crisps at night instead? QR code below!

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London’s about to embark upon a massive experiment, where thousands of bikes are left about the city for users to pick up, and then hopefully not throw into the Thames in a drunken rage at 3.45am when the poppers start wearing off.

There are a few apps already out there offering to show you where the free cycle racks are located, but the pick of the bunch is London Cycle Hire. Because it looks nice. Here’s what’s on offer:

To help you locate and use the London cycle hire network.

Current features include:

- All TFL cycle hire locations
- Nearest cycle hire location
- Size of hire location (rack size)
- Directions to cycle hire location
- Time your journey (with cost estimate)

Which looks like this.

The data’s actually already freely available on the Transport for London web site, so presumably it’s rather easy for app-makers to port it all across to Android. Or you could just use your browser, but that’s not getting into the spirit of Android, is it?

The London Cycle Hire app costs 50p if you like the look of it.

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First Aid is designed to help you follow the right procedures in an emergency medical situation, or support others who are doing so. Using short texts, pictures, and links to some nicely produced YouTube videos, this app explains how to deal with almost every imaginable emergency, from allergic reactions to poisoning and even electrocution.

In fact this is such a solidly good, comprehensive app, that it’s hard to think of anything witty to write about it. How about: it’s the Reader’s Digest complete family healthcare book your Mum and Dad have, condensed onto your phone.

Along with all the neatly categorised instructions, the app has a separate section for dispelling myths about first aid (such as putting butter on burns or tipping your head back if you have a nose bleed), and if that’s not enough there is even a quiz you can take to test your paramedic knowledge, and a handy list of things that should be in your first aid kit.

Bravo, Health Team (the credited authors), whoever you are. QR code below:

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Studies show that a mobile phone spends at least 2% of its lifespan down the back of a sofa or under a shopping bag in the car, while its owner scrambles around the house trying desperately to find it. If you’re silly enough to put your phone on silent, you won’t even be able to call it to locate it by listening for the ring tone. UNTIL NOW.

Where’s My Droid is a free app that solves this tedious problem. Send a specific text to your phone and Where’s My Droid will turn your ringtone volume up and start ringing. The only requirement is access to another phone to send that text, which makes this app unsuitable for friendless wonders.

Here’s the QR code if you’re into that sort of thing:

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It’s a pretty HUGE understatement to call ADW.Launcher a mere app, as the tool basically reskins your entire Android phone in one swoop, bringing numerous customisation options to the desktop setup.

You’ll be most impressed by ADW.Launcher if you’re coming to it from one of the vanilla early versions of Android like the commonplace 1.6, with the app cloning many of the features from later update of the OS – and upping the number of Home screens. Useful if you’re running out of desktop space.

Here’s a few screens of ADW.Launcher running on our standard HTC Magic, which features Android 1.6 underneath. You won’t recognise it. It is honestly like getting a new mobile phone, only without having to spend hours dealing with an aggressive call centre operative.

Check out our new dock. ADW.Launcher is an absolutely amazing piece of work, that spruces up any old version of Android beyond recognition. 3D app drawers, customisable icons, pages and pages of extra tiny customisations – it’s up there alongside the best things you’ll see on Android. We’re still a little amazed by it, to be honest.

And as you can see from the last shot, we haven’t worked out what to do with the extra two home screens we’ve found ourselves with.

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SquirrelCam is, as hopefully you’ve already subconsciously realised, a webcam that’s pointing at a squirrel and you can look at it through your Android phone. Yes, that’s all. If it’s not working, heed the advice of the maker – “If image is black, it’s probably nighttime”.

Here’s the description:

“Watch live video from a webcam pointed at a squirrels’ nest in Berkeley, CA. Save still images. Walnuts weekdays at 2pm PST. If image is black, it’s probably nighttime; squirrels like sleep, too. To get past cartoon image, press video button.

“2.5.2 – App can be installed on SD card in Android 2.2.”

No, the app isn’t broken. It’s just dark. Lovely work. Here’s what you’ll see during the daylight hours:

Ideal if you live in a bedsit without any windows, we suppose.

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If you’re stuck on a ‘vanilla’ version of Android and are lusting over the delicious HTC Sense flip clock that’s EVERYWHERE, here’s a nice solution – Flip Clock Widget Large. It’s a… you can guess. It’s a new, larger, 4×2 icon space version of the same developer’s older Flip Clock Widget.

Install it on your Home screen and you’re able to set a shortcut to apps you want to launch when you press each side of the clock. You can have the hours opening up the web browser, and the minutes opening up a Twitter client, if you want to confuse yourself or anyone that steals your phone.

Looks a little more professional than the Retro Clock Widget, plus it’s free unlike other famed flip clock competitor the lovely Beautiful Widgets. We’ve just tested it on our HTC Magic which is running Android 1.6 and it works just fine, if that’s any help.

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