No messin’ around — they’re Winamp, Launcher 7, and aCalendar. When you finish reading this post, you will be just dying to check ‘em out.

Let’s start with Winamp. Yeah, if you’re a seasoned Android user, chances are you already know about/use it. But I’m a guy coming from TuneWiki, and previously I just couldn’t imagine music without TuneWiki. But then, a horrible thing happened. They released a new version, and unfortunately the newer-isn’t-always-better thing really applies. See, they overdeveloped it. The reason I loved Tunewiki was because its interface was dead simple, looked good enough, and resembled an iPod. So why switch, when that seems so good?

Truth be told, it was perfect, but when the new version came out, a nag message decided to start popping up every time I launched the app, telling me there was a new version, and that I really, really should download it. There wasn’t an option to disable it, much to my dismay, ESPECIALLY after paying for the ad-free version. My patience lasted about a month, then I looked elsewhere.

Enter Winamp. It feels similar enough to TuneWiki, with notable differences. First, I really like the sliding pane that goes between the currently-playing song and the music browser. It has the good ‘ole Artist/Song/Album buttons that are a little better laid out than TuneWiki. I miss the easy “Shuffle All” button that TuneWiki had, but it’s only in the context menu now. All in all, a very capable player that just works.

Now, the fun stuff. The second transition was going from Zeam to Launch 7. Let me first say that I’ve always been a humongous fan of the Windows Phone launcher, because instead of gawky icons like most Android launchers use, Windows Phone opts for big, easy-to-touch tiles that can display useful information like unread text messages and such. I’ve tried to replicate that look in Zeam with Desktop Visualizer, but the widgets it produces are hard to set-up and customize.

Launcher 7 not only knocks the ball out of the park, but it fires that bad boy right over the perimeter fence, and straight out to Kyrgyzstan. I’ve always been a fan of simple and functional, but the more customization the better, in all cases. Launcher 7 replicates the Windows Phone look perfectly. It looks and feels great, with subtle animations and beautiful, simple contrast. And, it’s got plenty of options for customizing tiles in terms of color and function. Awe-SOME!

The third and final transition was from Pure Grid Calender Widget (By Francois DESLANDES!!) to aCalendar. There wasn’t anything specifically wrong with Pure Grid. I still think it’s a well-developed and great-looking calendar widget…for a standard Android homescreen app. Now that I’m running Launcher 7, widgets just don’t quite fit in anymore. Surprised? I don’t blame you. I guess I just never quite felt too attached to any one widget, except this calendar.

The main gripe with Pure Grid is that the functionality is limited purely by widget-hood. I live by my Google calendar, and while Pure Grid replicated it pretty damn well, I though there were a lot of things that could be improved. After some research, I tried aCalendar and I found it to offer a handful of features that put it above Pure Grid. First off, it’s a full app, not a widget. Which superfine by me. Calendars need space. I love how swiping any direction takes you to the next view. This switches between Day, Month, and a closer up view of 6-7 days. The actual event layout looks like a compressed version of a full Google calendar, with the actual event bars rather than the lame striped vertical bars offered by the stock calendar. Way, way way better.

So there ya have it. Get out on the Market and grab yourself some of this Android deliciousness! It’s the modern age of smartphones, and these days apps are getting better than ever. Fun stuff.