Since my induction to the HTC Fan Club and my recent self-appointment to the position of HTC Fan Boy (formerly Android Padawan), I have been forcing myself to try something new with the phone every day. Before I got my Eris, the closest that I had come to apps was Installous on a jailbroken iPod Touch. Due to the nature of finding and installing hacked apps with Installous, I had a “Hunt and Download” mentality rather than a “Browse and Try” one when it came to apps; it took so long to find, download and install the apps, I didn’t have the patience to just “try out” hacked apps.

Now that I have the HTC, with its thousands of free (and pseudo-free) apps, I can easily just skim through the list and install as many as I want to try. So, in my daily effort to explore my new phone, I decided to sample a whole bunch of free apps. These are some of the best ones I found:

Hoccer

I first saw this app in the featured list at the top of the Marketplace home page, but only installed it after browsing through the productivity list and seeing it for a second time. The name is pretty nondescript, probably why I passed it by initially, but, man, is it useful. The name is Hoccer and it brings fun and unity to the world of file sharing.

If this were any other app, after installing, you would have to put in a username, password, confirm password, email, accept privacy statement, accept TOS statement, your mother’s maiden name and the last girl you slept with (hey, where’s the N/A option?). But with Hoccer, the TOS is all they care about. And after that, there are only three screens necessary to teach you how to use the app! After that 30 seconds (41 if you can’t read pictures), you’re ready to start receiving. The sender selects a file(s) and makes a Frisbee throwing motion to send, and the receiver makes a catching motion to receive (careful, wrist strap not included). Once the actions have been completed, it takes about five seconds to sync and then, depending on the size of the file, a few seconds to transfer.

My only gripe is the loss of photo quality when transferring pictures. Other than that, it’s a fantastic, simple and clean program that’s also free! And the best part: it’s cross platform! So if you wanna send that sexy picture of your level 50 Night Elf Hunter to the girl with the iPhone, but you have an Android, don’t fret! She shall see your geekdom! But probably not your geekdong. Good job dorking it up, buddy.

ServersMan

ServersMan pulls double-duty as a file manager and file server. Need to transfer some documents to your Android? Don’t have a cable? Need more than what Quick Office offers (like pictures, or videos)? Then this is a great solution.

Once you have ServersMan all set up, it will give you a URL that will allow you to access your files from any browser anywhere. However, while the Android side will let you view everything you have on the phone, the browser side only has access to files that have been put into specific folders. In other words, even if you have pictures on your phone, you can’t view them from a computer until you put them in a specific, ServersMan folder. You can also create and delete files from the browser and phone, but (probably for security purposes), on the browser side, you can only create/delete certain files separate from your phone’s root directory.

There are other apps out there that offer similar functionality, so if you know of any free ones you think are better, drop them into the comments section below!

Stitcher

This app is fantastic for me because I have an uncanny ability to ignore certain forms of communication for years at a time, an ability that endangers myself and everyone around me (yes, the hit TV show Heroes is based off of my life). For instance, how the hell do I get Twitter followers? Is that REALLY David Caruso’s Twitter? What the hell is Twitter? Anyway, this app fills one of those voids, namely podcasts.

Stitcher is the self proclaimed radio of podcasts. It offers a search feature, a favorites feature, and my favorite part, a topics feature. Just click your topic and it populates a long list of sub-topics. Select one of those (such as GamerZONE) and a list of around 100 podcasts show up. Now click Menu, and select “Play all.” You’ll be on your way to finding what podcasts you like in no time!

There you have it. Here are some apps I also tried that didn’t make it onto my list, but you may like.

Tv.com
Xumii
Video Player
Stool Scanner (tried our best, but it never got the poop type right…)