A guide to Amazon's Appstore

Google's Play store is not the only app store available on Android. If every day, you would like to get - for free - an app that you would ordinarily have to buy, fire up the Amazon Appstore.

On top of this, you get access to apps that are not available on Google Play store here and some apps on Amazon's Appstore are cheaper.

But you do need a workaround.

Here is a guide to get you started.

Step 1: Visit www.amazon.com and sign up for a free account.

Step 2: Within the account settings on the Amazon website, enable 1-Click. To do that, you will need a United States address. You can get one using an address generator, such as realusaaddress.com. If you happen to use forwarding services, such as Vpost or comGateway, to forward Amazon purchases to Singapore, the US addresses provided by these services work as well.

You can, however, use your Singapore-based credit or debit card to buy apps.

Step 3: Using your mobile browser, go to the Amazon Appstore site (www.amazon.com/getappstore). You will be prompted to download the Amazon Appstore app. The programme is compatible with all Android devices on Android version 2.2 or later.

Step 4: Check the Unknown Sources box in the menu of your smartphone or tablet settings.

The option should be under Security or Applications. This allows the app to be installed.

Step 5: Launch the Amazon Appstore from the Notifications or Downloads menu and install the app. Log in with your Amazon account.

Step 6: Download any free app. This enables the 1-Click purchasing process and completes the workaround.

Here are the top five apps we found.

1. Netflix

Free, but subscription starts from US$7.99 (S$10.90) a month

Once you succeed in subscribing to this US video-streaming service, you can use Netflix on any Android device you own.

Although the app is free, you will need the subscription to access Netflix's content.

Your device must be connected to your home Wi-Fi network and you also need a VPN service linked to your home network.

With this, you can watch Netflix anywhere in your home and not only where there is a TV set.

2. Food Network In The Kitchen Free

Food Network's cookbook app is for the budding chef or ambitious home cook.

Packed with recipes from TV chefs, such as Bobby Flay and Rachael Ray, and with new ones added every month, it promises to spice up that weekend dinner.

3. Kindle for Android

Free, titles available from US$0.99

Amazon's eBook reader app has more than 850,000 titles and 100 magazines and newspapers available.

Get started with the free titles such as Les Miserables and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

If you already have a Kindle device, the app syncs automatically and even includes your last page read, bookmarks and notes.

4. Pandora

Free, but subscription is US$4.99 a month

The music-streaming service is an alternative to Spotify and charges half of what Spotify does.

You can create up to 100 personalised music stations, and play music based on genres or from artistes you like.

The app prides itself on music discovery, introducing songs and bands you may not have heard of.

5. OfficeSuite Professional 8

US$0.99

The same app is available on the Singapore Google Play store for $13.27, or about 10 times more.

OfficeSuite lets you view, create and edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files on your smartphone or tablet.

It even has support for PDF files, and offers "Export to PDF" and "PDF camera scanning" functions. The app lets you share your documents in several ways, by Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth or cloud services such as Google Drive and DropBox.

This article was first published on Feb 25, 2015.
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