My well-proven companion Nokia N810 used for remote administration of FreeBSD servers was getting old, slow and outdated. It was my mobile SSH device for the last 4 years (probably one of the best solutions at time of purchase). Unfortunately, it was lacking phone functions (Bluetooth and WiFi only).
So I decided to go for a new device. I needed a smartphone with a decent screen, a hardware keyboard and an acceptable operating system (I need a SSH client). There are not many devices with an acceptable hardware keyboard on the European market. After a long decision process I chose the Sony Ericsson Xperia pro and it am happy with my choice.
After unpacking and turning it on I started looking for useful ad-free or open source applications for my new Android device.
Here are the open source applications I recommend:
- K-9 (outstanding mail client)
- Android Privacy Guard (PGP solution, works with K-9)
- ConnectBot (telnet and ssh client)
- Open Manager (file manager)
Not open source anymore, but still free and ad-free:
- Xabber (messenger with XMPP support)
- Wifi Manager (detect and manage wireless networks)
- AndExplorer (file manager)
- AndFTP (FTP, SCP and SFTP client)
- AndSMB (SMB client)
- Wyse PocketCloud (RDP and VNC client, not really ad-free but good)