Extending with Apps - Running Android: Using Your Phone and Tablet for Work and Play - page 13

Extending with Apps
Apps and Widgets
All Android devices come with a number of pre-installed apps (short for “applications”) and
widgets that let you do many things with your phone or tablet, such as browsing the Internet
with Chrome, checking email with the Gmail and Email apps, staying active on social net-
works with the Facebook and Twitter apps, reading books and magazines with Play Books,
Kindle for Android and Play Magazines, watching movies and TV shows with Play Movies
and TV, listening to music with Play Music, listening to books with Audible Audiobooks,
finding places and getting directions with Google Maps, managing appointments with Cal-
endar and contacts with Contacts+, and many more.
In addition, the Google Play Store offers tens of thousands of apps that offer alternatives to
the pre-installed apps, as well as adding many new capabilities to Android. The following
chapters describe many of the pre-installed apps as well as some of the best apps from
Google Play while showing you how to use your phone or tablet to do things.
You can shop the Google Play Store from the Play Store app that is pre-installed on the
device, or from Google Play on your computer at https://play.google.com/store/apps .
While we're at it, what's the difference between an app and a widget? An app is a computer
program that runs on your Android device. Apps are represented by icons on the screen of
the tablet. Apps are usually started by tapping the icon. Long-pressing the icon brings up a
pop-up menu of options that let you edit settings, remove the icon from its current location,
get info on the app, and uninstall it.
A widget is a graphic that may be as small as an icon or fill the entire screen. Most widgets
are interactive and present more information than can be displayed in an icon. Some apps
come with their own widgets, and you can also buy sets of widgets.
Good examples are the weather widgets described in Keeping up with the Weather . Tapping
a widget usually opens the parent app but some apps can be set to open other apps. Tapping
the clock and date widgets that are installed on the Home screen by default open the alarm
app and Google Calendar app.