As you join the hordes of other young people flocking back to college campuses across the country, there’s no doubt you’re looking for ways to use your smartphone to make college that much easier.
With hundreds of thousands of apps in the AppStore and Google Play, how do you decide which apps will actually help you get through the semester? You come to RadioShack, of course – we’ve scoped out the top 5 FREE apps for students here, but feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments for a chance to win an HTC One X or an HTC EVO 4G LTE.
Evernote
This is an easy first choice. No matter what device – laptop, iPad, or smartphone – you can use the free Evernote app to organize your notes across your entire class schedule. We recommend making good use of the ability to attach photos and voice clips to your notes – it’ll be much easier to understand your own notes if you’ve got a photo of the chalkboard to reference.
Kindle
Another app you can use on pretty much any gadget you can name, Kindle is a great way to lighten your load and quit toting books all over. True story: one class I took in college had 17 books that I needed to buy. Sure would have been nice to have them on my Kindle app instead of falling out of my backpack all semester. WhisperSync keeps your bookmarks in sync across devices, too, so you can start reading on your phone and finish on your Kindle Fire.
Cash4Books
This might be better used at the end of the semester, but it’s definitely a must-have. They’ve been around since 2004, and the Cash4Books mobile app makes it super easy to offload your old textbooks for a little summer spending cash.
gFlash+
Make studying easier with digital flashcards and tests, right on your mobile device. Even better, you can create your card sets in Google Docs and then sync them over to the app, making it really easy to share study guides with others in your group.
Dropbox
Forget carrying around a USB stick, just throw all your docs on Dropbox’s 2GB of free storage and access them anywhere. With support for nearly every gadget under the sun, Dropbox makes it easy to always have access to the right files. Side benefit: Dropbox can automatically upload a backup of your photos when you snap them with your phone. Never lose a party pic again.
If you need a new smartphone to try these apps on, RadioShack has a large selection of FREE Android smartphones available. We’ve also got more high-end phones, and you can use RadioShack’s Trade and Save program to get INSTANT savings when you trade in your old phone!
Tell us YOUR favorite smartphone app for college students in the comments below – we’ll pick 5 random winners to get their choice of an HTC One X from AT&T or an HTC EVO 4G LTE from Sprint from RadioShack!
One comment/entry per person. To enter, leave a comment below, telling us your favorite app for college students. Contest begins at 6:00 am CST on August 14th, 2012 and ends at 5:00 pm CST on August 16th, 2012. Winners will be chosen randomly by RadioShack and announced after 12:00 pm CST on August 17, 2012. Winner will have their choice of an HTC One X from AT&T or an HTC EVO 4G LTE from Sprint. No substitutions for prizes.
No payment or purchase necessary to win. Neither a purchase nor payment will improve your chances of winning. While you’re pretty cool in our book, you are not a winner of this contest yet. Void where prohibited. Must be a resident of the 50 United States to win. Employees of RadioShack and their families are ineligible.
Lynn
I love my living social, groupon, and scoutmob apps because we college students really need to watch our pennies.
Brad
I use Facebook’s app for quick status checks. Easier than firing up Safari.
Tiffany Sparks
Wow, there are so many great apps that can make a college student’s life a little easier. I think Twitter is great for sharing your thoughts and collaborating inside and outsider with your fellow peers. Another great app is Chegg. Any college student knows how expensive textbooks can be and with this app you can rent or buy them and save tons of money. A great app for downtime that I recently discovered is Viggle. When you are in your dorm watching tv you can check into your favorite shows and earn points to use towards rewards such as gift cards. What college student wouldn’t love this?!
Dominick
My favorite app for college students is iTunes u because it offers free courses for students to catch up on subjects that they need additional assistance with as well as give students a head start on different subjects that they are interested in
Sal
Tasks Free. It’s a fantastically elegant Google tasks manager and it helps me stay organized on a per class basis.
Curtis
scanner pro so you can make pdf docs.
Joey Sylvester
FluxCards has always been a great flash card app with it’s accessibility to quizlet for premade flash cards by other students
Jasmine
I like dropbox. I misplace my flashdrive a lot and this helps me from having a mini heart attack after I’ve turned my purse inside out looking for my flashdrive. I will check out evernote. I am trying new study methods this year!
Chris Woodward
The Wolfram Alpha app is amazing. I don’t know what I’d do without it.
Tim
Weatherbug! It is invaluable when you have to walk a city block or two from the parking garage to the main campus.
Steve
Google drive is a great app to have on the run. Being able to sync all of your work, collaborate with other people and share your work with the world if you choose. I recommend it to everyone.
Viren Sakariya
I use DropBox for sharing my all College details and all the assignments of College.
DropBox has the brand new all technology and the all new Dimensions and Stunning Look.
I recommended to all to use DropBox.
Jeff
Google Translate… Whether for foreign language credit, communicating with students abroad, or texting messages in another language, this is a must for college both academically and as a time waster.
Alex
I use dropbox for android regularly. It’s an awesome app for any college student
Joy
WhoIsIt is an app which allows certain numbers (VIP) to call/text/email while silencing others. It’s a great way to let important numbers (LIKE MOM!) get through overnight but silence your annoying friend from drunk texting you at 2 am.
Nicolas
Plume app is one of my favorite apps. Keep up to date of what is happening with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.
Let your friends know where you are with Foursquare
To relax you have games like Tiny Tower
Scot
Note Everything to compete with the Evernote app. Google maps to find the party! WeatherBug so you don’t get wet on the way to class.
Chelsea
I feel the most important app for a college student is…. Lookout mobile security. It comes in handy incase you forgot your phone in a lecture hall because it can locate your phone using GPS.
kenneth
Numerous apps like these is why people love to depend on technology. Especially when comes to be used for the right materials students need in college. I am not a big app person but, reading information about apps right here really enlightened my knowledge! Matter of fact i am downloading one right now.
Ben
Office suite pro for android is the best for college due to the great editing and viewing abilities.
Steve
Box for cloud based storage, way better than dropbox, others can collaborate much more feature rich. Solid Explorer for a beautiful file manager.
edward
Office suit with out life would suck
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobisystems.editor.office_registered
infamous2FoB
Pinger, notes, twitter, facebook, safari and dolphin hd!
Pedro Rafael Cruz
I’m a military veteran and I really love my Entertainment app. It provides savings based on geographic location, lot’s of BOGO coupons, discount offers and such for just about everything a Student could need except that BrandSpankin’ new HTC EVO 4G LTE from Sprint lol!
Dakota
Groupon, saving money is always a great thing for college students. Wolframalpha is a great knowledge database which could definitely come in handy. Also documents to go is a very useful app for whenever you need extra portable office documents.
Seth
Swiftkey 3 is a good app for anyone to have.
Lizzy
I love Dropbox!!! I also use Rocket Player to listen to my podcasts while walking and running errands.
Tom
1Password it helps keep all of your passwords secure and organized. College students have enough to remember already.
Angel Garcia
Facebook because my whole Eco294 class cheated off of the private group we created
Ellie W
My college age son uses Evernote and it has been a life saver. Well, a grade saver anyway.
Harry
One app that would be good is 4shared. You can save SO much money finding textbooks, music, and movies, and use that money towards more important things… (Like food!)
Dylan Perales
I’d definitely say dropbox, keep your school docs wherever you are.
Kelly
myHomework is a great app for students to keep up with assignment due dates. With myHomework you can track classes, homework, tests, and assignments.
Ian
“Pocket” or “Instapaper” are must have apps for college students, or a similar save to read/watch later app. It allows you to store all those webpages you need to catch up on for your class as well as a batch of youtube videos to watch after taking that last test. It all depends on how you use it, if you are saving items to review later so you can study for the class at hand that is good vs. distracting yourself from studying by plowing through the backlog of items you have when you need to be studying! I highly recommend a save for later type app.
Jennifer Nguyen
I love cash4books and groupon because we’re always on a tight budget and trying to save as much as possible while spending as least as possible and groupon as well because they always have great specials on food!
Eric Johnson
Spotify or Pandora for the long music mixes always helps me study and do better on exams!
Barbara
Taskos To-Do List is great for keeping track of assignments, errands, and other things that need to get done
Mark Reisch
ShopSavvy is the best way to save money! As a college student, saving as much money as possible is extremely important!
Jane
Amazon Student is one of my favorite (free) apps.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.student.android&hl=en
The Amazon Student app allows instant price-checks on textbooks. Simply scan a barcode to check a price, or use one-click access to scan items you want to buy or sell back.
I am all about getting a good deal on textbooks!!
Chris
I love the amazon student app. It gives me everything i could ever need to buy right at my finger tips. It also gives you free Amazon prime for 6 months.
gary tittle
skydrive ,foursquare,and polaris office.
Lenny
Smart tool is my personal favorite . As a college student, this apparently has help me alot
Gulam Yezdani
Wikipedia.. i dont think theres a need for explanation!
Robert
All recipes
Dictionary.com
Tasks
Maps
Gas Buddy
All are very useful apps.
Ian Fong
My favorite application would have to be instagram. Even though it is not an application that makes you in your daily life as a college student but it is a way that you can express your self and capture that wonderful moments that you make during your time in college.
Abe
I like using voice recorder so I can recap what I may have missed in my notes. Comes in handy a lot
Randy
Dropbox is a must have in college. For both, personal and teams. Invaluable for group projects.
F. Colman
Pandora is my fav for creating playlists and listening to new music.
Kathy
I think Living Social is a great app to have when you are searching for deals and discounts.
helenlam
I like the mapquest app
Jill
I love Pocket. It lets me mark interesting items to read later.
I am also addicted to twitter.
arvind
Camscanner is a great app to turn your phone into a mobile scanner and create PDFs. Comes in handy when you need to scan notes of lesson.
Kenia
My favorite app for college would be Chegg. It’s a app for renting textbooks. I have saved hundreds of dollars paying rent for my textbooks then by buying them retail or buying a used book. You can even grt etextbooks for more savings =] They even plant a tree for every rental, it can’t get better then that.
Thanks for posting about this topic, I will be downloading some apps =]
Zach
I been using Evernote for awhile now. It is by far one of the most useful apps I have on my phone. It allows me to quickly jot down any notes I need to take. Or write down some reminders of things I need to do later. And the best part its free!
Chris
As a student, myself, my favorite app to use is “WolfFramAlpha” app. It’s a great app!!
Ann
I love StudyDroid. I can easily make flashcards and study while I am in line or on the bus.
Thanks Radio Shack for the great contest! I could really use a new smartphone for school this year.
praveena
This is pretty cool post, lot of information for students.
Larry
WikiDroid for Wikipedia. It’s the mobile version of Wikipedia and is a breeze to use and is super fast!!!
It also supports voice searches.
Kim
Wolfram Alpha is one of my top favorite apps!!!! I look up stuff all the time. It is especially useful for my math and science classes.
I also use Evernote all the time. It keeps me organized.
Great post… I love reading about everyones fav apps.
Kay
DoubleTwist for listening and sharing my music playlists.
Mint for keeping track of my $$$.
Skype for keeping in touch with my parents and far away friends.
Julie
I would choose dropbox so I could have access to any files I needed no matter what device or where I was.
marilyn
Dropbox is great! It helps a lot when working on group projects.
I also have to recommend Wolfram Alpha app. I am studying chemical engineering and it is so helpful to have scientific facts at my fingertips.
Thanks Radio Shack for getting us ready to go back to school!
Pablo
I use Dropbox a lot, its a great app and I love it. When I go to hangout with friends or I take a small trip its very nice to take a picture or video and instantly be able to have it on my laptop as well. I would recommend to anyone who hasn’t tried it yet.
Rory
I love the mindsnacks languages apps (I have the French one). They actually make learning a new language pretty enjoyable and I would recommend them to anyone wanting to learn a new language at uni.
Tin Hoy
Awesome. My recommended app for students would be google plus. Great for Hangouts to keep in touch with family, Circles to keep friends and fellow students ordered, and Messenger for instant group IM.
Jaylin
Hipswap for selling and buying stuff where I’m located. It’s great if you’re trying to get something or sell something quickly
Theresumebuilder
Evernote and Hootsuite are both excellent apps! Makes my notes more organized and even let’s me take notes while I’m on the go..be it in picture or voice message. Hootsuite makes my social media profile management easier and faster which saves me time. Both really are excellent and useful apps, definitely a must have!