Android for beginners: Setting up your phone

eBook reading apps

Smartphones and tablets aren't the best of devices for enjoying eBooks on the go, but if you insist on doing your reading this way, at least you can count on some pretty decent software backup.

Fabrik

Fabrik might come off as just another eBook reading app, but it isn't. What makes it different is that it uses the Dropbox cloud storage service to sync your reading progress across multiple devices. This way you may start reading on your tablet and continue later on from your phone without having to manually find the page you were on.

Fabrik

Other than that, Fabrik offers the standard eBook reading app features such as font size, type, line spacing and screen brightness adjustment including a special night mode. The app also automatically finds book covers, if they are missing.

Currently, the app supports txt, epub, mobi and prc book formats with more coming soon.

Get Fabrik (Free) | Get Fabrik Pro ($2.98)

Moon+ Reader

Moon+ Reader is yet another very popular eBook reading app with great format support including epub, pdf, mobi, chm, cbr, cbz, umd, fb2, txt, html, rar, zip and OPDS. You can navigate pages using the volume rocker, the screen or you can configure any hardware key you'd want to do the job.

Moon+ Reader

A really neat feature is the auto-scroll mode, allowing you to just kick back, relax and enjoy the book you're reading. In addition, the page turning effect is user configurable; you can set the speed, color and transparency of the effect. There are also five page flipping animations to choose from.

Get Moon+ Reader (Free) | Get Moon+ Reader Pro ($4.99)

Amazon Kindle

If you're an Amazon customer and have already purchased some eBooks from there, then the Kindle app for Android is a must. With a built-in dictionary allowing for quick word look-up, the Kindle app also allows you to sample the books before purchasing them.

Amazon Kindle

However, just like Fabrik, Kindle's killer feature is the ability to sync books between devices, in addition to syncing your progress within a book. The list of features continues with page bookmarks, notes and text highlights.

Get Amazon Kindle (Free)

Google Books

Google Books is the next logical step in the search engine's plan of selling books online. In the usual company fashion, the e-book reading app features a clean and minimal design. All your books are arranged in a 3D carousel and look really fancy.

Google Books

Reading itself is pleasant, too. The transition effect for page scrolling is smooth and eye-pleasing and you can easily fast-forward through pages via a simple scroll at the bottom of the screen.

Get Google Books (Free)

File Managers

At some point in time, you'll need to move files around in your Android smartphone, and unfortunately, not all droids have a built-in file manager to get the job done. Even if they do, however, there are better apps in the Play Store to handle the task at hand.

ASTRO File manager

ASTRO File Manager is one of the most popular file browsers out there with some really cool features and tools under its belt. You can browse and organize all sorts of files including pictures, music, videos or documents.

ASTRO File Manager

Swiping to the left of the app unveils a panel, which gives you access to the different storages attached to your phone (such as SD card, external HDD, etc) as well as to available network locations.

ASTRO has great built-in support for cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive making the upload of files to the cloud while on the go a piece of cake.

Get ASTRO File Manager (Free) | Get ASTRO File Manager Pro Key ($3.99)

Solid Explorer

Solid Explorer features a unique two-panel user interface, which allows for some cool interactions. You can long-tap to select a folder, slide it to the right to reveal the second panel and drop it at its new location.

This file explorer app boasts great support for cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, etc. You can copy and paste file from the cloud to your phone and vice versa. It's visually appealing, too, with a holo-themed design.

Solid Explorer

You can also browse locations from your home or office network, making it possible to transfer and access files from shared folders on multiple computers.

Get Solid Explorer (Trial) (Free) | Get Solid Explorer Unlocker ($1.99)