Lee Bierer: There’s an app for that college class

There are more than 500,000 apps out there, from the ridiculous to the downright ingenious. And there are some exciting and practical apps for college students. (These are all Android apps.)

• Recordoid: “Lite” version is free. somyac.com/recordoid/recordoid.html.

Many students find that they are better able to retain information from their readings or lecture classes when they record their notes aloud and then listen. Recordoid not only records your voice but also allows you to organize and store your notes in an accessible way.

• Evernote: Free. evernote.com.

This note-taking application works with a Web app and your desktop. You can create “notebooks” for each class and it will keep you organized. Take notes with your phone via text, voice or even photos, and it will sync everything to your PC. Conduct a Web search and save Web pages to your account. You’ll be able to find everything fast because you can search by keyword, tag or even handwritten notes.

• Catch: Free. catch.com.

This is another note-taking app, similar to Evernote, but it also integrates with Twitter and Facebook. Catch easily creates notes with text, voice or pictures online and offline. You can add multiple voice recordings and photos to any note, invite friends to contribute content and filter your notes by date, tags and priorities. Your work is protected with a secure sync and your own PIN.

• DroidScan: ”Lite” version is free. droidscan.com.

This app is a portable document scanner. It allows you to take pictures and turn them into pdf documents, and it can be synced with Google Docs and Evernote. You can snap photos of business cards, whiteboards, documents and receipts, then share them through Web services and cloud storage providers.

• Wolfram Alpha: $3.99. wolframalpha.com.

Knowledge at your fingertips. This computing app takes data that you input and turns it into valuable information. It’s not just for math equations either; it answers questions across thousands of disciplines – “from finance and food to math and medicine to stocks and spacecraft to wordplay and weather.”

• Astrid: Free. astrid.com.

This is more than your basic to-do list. It is described as “the personal assistant you’ve always wanted.” You can maintain separate task lists for academics, social activities and work responsibilities. Astrid features include deadlines, descriptions, setting priorities, tagging and even adding notes.