Brian Sawyer is an editor for O’Reilly Media’s Head First division and the co-author of Best Android Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders. The following is based in part on content from the book.

Wherever you are, if you find yourself alone and in need of entertainment, you’ll likely reach for your Android phone. Of course your phone is already a great MP3 player, but it can be so much more. This roundup will help you turn your mobile into a portable entertainment center.

You’ll find apps for syncing your media library, playing your own music and video, streaming radio and online video, listening to podcasts and audiobooks, watching TV, reading books and magazines — even controlling your desktop media remotely from your phone. In all, these 10 apps (and a few significant honorable mentions) should provide you with a much richer media entertainment experience than you might have thought possible with Android.

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1. Best Media Syncing App: doubleTwist

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One of the best software applications for Android isn’t even technically an Android app. That is, it’s designed for use with your Android phone, but you won’t find it in the Market, because it’s actually a desktop application for your Mac or PC. DoubleTwist helps you buy and sync music from Amazon’s MP3 store, iTunes, and any other music, video, or photo files that live on your desktop. It will even convert videos to the right format to watch on your device. Just drag and drop to take all your media with you.

As a complement to the desktop software (which it requires for syncing), doubleTwist also recently released its own media player on the mobile side. It’s pretty slick, but it’s missing a few features that keep it from being the best media player (though I still recommend the desktop syncing app, which will work with your phone regardless of which media player you’re running on the device).

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2. Best Music/Video Player: TuneWiki

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In addition to the media player that comes preloaded on your phone, the Android Market has many apps to enhance your listening or viewing experience. TuneWiki is the best of them, offering an intuitive interface for your music library, access to Internet radio through SHOUTcast or Last.fm, lyrics search, music maps, Top 50, playlists, and more. To make your experience more social, you can share your tastes and status via Blip, Twitter, or Facebook.

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3. Best Remote Control: Gmote

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Gmote turns your Android phone into a remote control for the media library on your computer. Once you’ve installed the Gmote server on your computer (a small download with an easy setup), just launch the app from your phone, enter your password, and immediately gain wireless access to iTunes, your photo library, and any other folders you define. Then, use Gmote’s on-screen navigation to play tracks on your computer. As of the 2.0 release, you can even stream songs through your phone’s speaker.

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4. Best Personalized Radio: Pandora

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Pandora is your own personalized radio, playing just the kind of songs you’re interested in and helping you find new artists with similar styles. Create a unique station for each of your distinct musical tastes and tune in to whatever you’re in the mood for. The more you listen, the better Pandora learns what you really like, providing even more targeted suggestions. If you’re already a Pandora user, just log in to get immediate access to your existing personal stations.

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Honorable mention: Last.fm

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Last.fm is a very close second to Pandora, and it connects with a variety of other media players and apps through plug-ins. In fact, you’ll find plenty of users who swear by Last.fm over Pandora, making the decision of which app to use largely a result of personal preference or which online service you might already use.

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5. Best Streaming Radio: Rhapsody

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Pandora and Last.fm are great (and free) if you know generally what you’re in the mood for. But if you knowexactly what you want and you want it now, go with the on-demand streaming music service offered by Rhapsody. For a monthly subscription, you’ll get immediate access to millions of songs to match your whim. Rather than buying tracks or albums to remain in your collection permanently, Rhapsody gives you all the tunes you want, right now.

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6. Best Podcast Player: Listen

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If you have a standing engagement with audio programs online, there’s no need to hunt around for new episodes or launch them from a link in an RSS reader. Let Google’s Listen podcast manager find, organize, and stream all of your favorites in one place. Search for new programs, subscribe to channels, and download fresh shows as they’re available. When you get behind on episodes, create a queue to remind you of the stuff you want to catch up on when you have some downtime.

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7. Best Audiobook Player: Audible

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Most music players aren’t really designed to work well with audiobooks, which you want to bookmark, listen to in chapters, pick up where you left off, etc. Not only that, but even attempts at developing audiobooks have been extremely limited by their inability to play proprietary files from the most popular provider of audiobooks. Finally, Audible has released its Android app as an open and free beta (Audible account required, obviously), which gets the audiobook experience right.

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8. Best App for Watching TV: SPB TV

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If watching TV in your doctor’s waiting room doesn’t cut it, give this app a try. SPB TV allows you to take your own TV programs wherever you go. The free “lite” version is shown here, but you’ll probably want to splurge for the pay version ($9.95) to get more channels. There’s even a picture-in-picture feature, which is handy if you’re not sure which program to watch. Obviously, this isn’t a full cable-like TV in your pocket — it has limitations, including battery life and bandwidth constraints. But it still beats watching airport TV.

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Honorable Mention: TV.com

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If you’re looking for shows offered by the CBS-owned TV.com, this app presents plenty of clips and a number of full-length episodes from CBS (including CBS News and CBS Sports), CW, Showtime, CNET, and more. Despite these somewhat limited options, TV.com still has a better selection of quality programming than any other mobile TV app for Android, and everything is presented on a smooth and watchable interface.

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9. Best E-book Reader: Aldiko

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Who needs another expensive device dedicated to just reading books when you already have your Android phone with you? Aldiko gets mobile book reading right, with an eye-pleasing, customizable format (by font, color, margins, etc.). You can curl up with your favorite books or take them on the go. Aldiko will read any ePub file, which you can import yourself or download through Aldiko’s online catalog.

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10. Best Magazine Reader: Issuu Mobile

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Your e-book reader handles your novels and nonfiction books perfectly, but it’s useless with the shorter-form and more ephemeral stuff of magazines and newspapers. For that, Issuu Mobile is a good start, offering a great interface for reading magazines, getting news feeds, organizing a periodical library, and managing subscriptions. Its selection is somewhat limited at the moment, but the technology is developed well enough that it could eventually become your go-to digital newsstand.

The Wall Street Journal reported some new details about the long-rumored Google music service, this time with a tasty Android twist.

Google’s plan, it seems, is to launch a download service first — one that is tied to the company’s search engine — and then to progress to an online subscription service by 2011. The ultimate goal is to have a cloud-based subscription service that could stream directly to Android-based devices.

While rumors and reports about Google formally entering the music sales or subscriptions space have been ongoing for years, this time the talk might be for real. In October, Google launched its music discovery search features. At the time, we discussed its implications on the music business as a whole.

Additionally, VEVO (a partnership service between YouTube and Universal Records) has at least theoretically created better relationships between the major labels and the search giant. However, when trying to assess Google’s overall music strategy, Android appears poised to be the biggest catalyst.

At Google I/O, Google showed off technology that would allow Android users to stream music off of their desktop computers right on to their phones. That’s very cool and offers a glimpse of what a cloud-based subscription service may offer. While Android can support direct over-the-air purchasing from the Amazon MP3 store, the overall music player and music experience still doesn’t quite have the finesse of iTunes and its integrated multi-device solution.

While The Wall Street Journal article mentions Android in relation to phone handsets and a streaming subscription, I actually think the implications for such a service are even greater on other Android devices.

Think about it: If your Android-based Google TV can also stream any music you want to your home stereo, that becomes an Apple TV without limiting users to their own libraries. And what about automobiles with Android-embedded systems? Those products aren’t on the market but manufacturers are interested. Having the ability to access that streaming subscription from your car, your home and your phone could make a Google-branded music subscription service succeed where so many others have failed.

What do you think about the potential for an Android-enhanced Google music service?