Talking Your Tech: What's your favorite app?

— -- With hundreds of thousands of apps available for Apple and Android smartphones, you'd think finding new ones to download would be easy. But the bounty of choices can be overwhelming, leaving many of us to turn to friends for recommendations.

Today it's your turn to pass along a tip. Over the past couple of weeks we asked USA TODAY's online readers and consumers we visited at a Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta to tell us about favorite under-the-radar apps.

Folks clearly love their apps, and want to tell the world about them. Over 150 of you wrote to us. The list was so diverse we can't give you a top five, as most apps had one or two votes. No single app stood out over the others. So here are 15 highlights of some of your favorite apps — under-the-radar or not — that you can't live with out:

Audiogalaxy Mobile. (Free. Apple/Android). Streams music from your computer to your device. "I have been using this for quite awhile and LOVE it. Every single song on my home computer is streamed to my device. It has worked flawlessly on my Droid on trips when Sirius or Pandora cut out. I switch to Audiogalaxy and it keeps playing my music. "—Jim Lively, Johnstown, Pa.

AroundMe. (Free. Apple/Android.) Uses GPS to figure out where you are to show you local hot spots. "I get lost easily. I always need to find things, and need to know where there's coffee, where there's food, where there's museums."—Darla Brown, St. Louis.

AstroCantus. ($1.99, Apple). Latin for 'star song,' the app detects stars, planets and galaxies as the earth turns and assigns each a musical value. "It uses the stars going above our heads to play musical notes, which in turn make soothing, serene music. I often start AstroCantus and let it play in my home or office while I'm doing other things. …it just makes the atmosphere so much nicer."—Margie Naylor, Nashville, Tenn.

Checkbook. ($1.99, Apple/ Android). Replaces your paper checkbook to manage daily finances."Enables you to have multiple bank accounts and it helps me keep my accounts balanced with a simple entry of a credit or debit transaction on my iPhone. Love living paperless. …no more checkbooks to balance manually."—Debby Rance, Clayton, Ind.

Evernote. (Free. Multiple platforms). Lets you create notes, snap photos, and record voice memos. "It isn't sexy, but it stores everything I could possibly need and makes it available to me via my iPhone. This includes work stuff, personal stuff, you name it. Simply my most reliable go to app."—Daniel Paul, Los Angeles.

Find MyiPhone. (Free. Apple): "Don't have an iPhone, but do have iPad and iPod Touch. Before this app our couch swallowed up our iPod and it was gone for four months. Now we just push a button and the Touch or iPad is located." —Lisa Chertok, Columbia, Md.

Flipboard (Free. For iPad). The app that turns your friends Facebook and Twitter postings into a daily newsmagazine is "just wonderful for us information junkies."—Jackie Evans, Eugene, Ore.

Gas Buddy. (Free. Apple/Android/Windows). GasBuddy is a community of users working together to update gas prices. "I want the best price on gas, plus it tells me where the nearest station is as well as a chance to win gas," —D. Cole, Aurora Ill.

Grocery IQ. (Free. Apple/Android). Lets you build shopping lists quickly with features like predictive search and barcode scanning. "I either scan in or manually enter our grocery and household weekly purchases. I just click them as needed to add to my list. I no longer write lists on paper. Plus, it syncs with my iPad, husband's iPad and his Droid." —Joanne Schaus, Twinsburg, Ohio.

Kik Messenger. (Free. Multiple platforms). Cross-platform messenger app. "It works just like regular texting except it allows you to instantly message another user without the need of a special telephone number. It's simple, free, private, and like texting, quick and convenient."—Giovanni Castillo, Sugarland, Texas.

Nike + GPS: (Apple, $1.99). Let you map your runs, chart progress. "I hate running … I mean HATE it. But I am a competitive person. Nike+ GPS plots out my runs and actually shows me on a map when I picked up speed (or in my case shows the steady decline in speed) as well as (giving) me constant updates on how far I have gone. It makes running bearable (almost)."—Nick Spurlock, Louisville, KY.

Penultimate ($1.99, Apple). Handwriting app. "A sketch book of sorts that allows you to create books (like file folders) and you can write or draw on the pages of the book, like a journal or sketch book. This is the easiest program to use and it is extremely useful to me in my job … I design homes for a living and I often do room additions or remodel work and need to go on site to measure things. While I am on site with the client, I can sketch up what is already there, make notes (in a different color ink) about what needs to be torn down, and turn the page and sketch up what they want. Then I can email the drawing — one page or the entire book — to the client with my bid, or to my builders for quick bids, anything. —Janne Zaccagnino, Arlington, Texas.

Turbcast. ($1.99, Apple) Uses aviation weather data to forecast what to expect on your flight. "It predicts turbulence. I find the passengers love it. It's a great reference tool for me too."—Martha Stevens, Las Vegas flight attendant.

Weight Watchers Mobile. (Free. Apple/Android). Weight-loss tool. "I cannot make it through a day without it. It is more important than e-mail."—Randy Quick, Chicago.

Words with Friends. (Free, Apple/Android). Word game for mobile. "It's like playing Scrabble online with friends. It's fun."—Paige Campbell, Atlanta.

Finally, you didn't ask, but here's my all-time favorite, most-used app:

Phanfare. (Free app download, Apple/Android, but service costs $99 yearly.)

The premium photo-sharing service doesn't get the acclaim of rival Smugmug, but on mobile it's head and shoulders superior to the Smug in every which way. How so? Simple, one click access to my complete photo library, in the cloud. With Phanfare, I don't have to go through the pain of getting my digital photos into the iPhone through the cumbersome Apple sync process. Instead, I just upload them to Phanfare, and voila — they're on my phone. Simple to use — and update — I use it every day."

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On Monday's Talking Your Tech: Actor Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law, Psych) talks about his eBay obsession.

Next week on Talking Your Tech: What's tops on your list of tech gifts for the holidays? Tell us about it for a chance to be featured on USA TODAY.

E-mail us at techcomments@usatoday.com. Or reach out to Jefferson Graham directly:

E-mail him at jgraham@usatoday.com

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