Using Apps To Help Run Your Life

Having a smartphone or a mobile device has somewhat become a style statement, but apart from appearance and style appeal, these devices allow you to perform all tasks that you would perform with your laptop or computer. This is the main reason of smartphone and mobile device popularity. Technology has been designed and redesigned to make our lives simpler. And the same goes for apps as well. With the number of apps reaching an exponential curve, it’s hard to keep a track of the ones that are truly worth your time. There are a variety of iPhone, Android, Finance, Website and Health apps that are guaranteed to make your life easier and better, and much easier to organize.
Assistance – Vlingo Virtual Assistant. We’ve got so much overloading in our lives that we’d all love to have personal assistants. Vlingo is one such voice-powered assistant that can make your life easier. While driving, running, working or even when you’re too lazy to type on the phone – Vlingo lets you send emails, texts, call people, search the web, update statuses, get answers to questions – giving you a handsfree experience.
One instance where the app should really come handy is when you’re driving. The app has an integrated in car option that lets you wake up the voice system by simple saying Hey Vlingo. The automated assistant lets you call, text, navigate and even speak incoming messages. Now, that’s one free assistant that’ll do exactly what you want it to do.
Jump Desktop – Control your computer, control your life. Have you ever been half-way to the office when you realize that you forgot a file on your home PC? With Jump Desktop you can get that info or access that file from anywhere, using practically any device. Jump Desktop is a full featured RDP and VNC client and can connect to existing RDP and VNC servers using just an IP address or host name. That’s convenient, powerful and a major time and stress saver. The only problem I can see is that you need Gmail to run a lot of it and there are a lot of folks who hate Gmail.
Best Feature – Use your Gmail account to manage your computer connections from virtually any device.
Organization – Pocket. An app that lets you save that great stuff for later. If you see a lot of great info, videos and other stuff all day long on the net. Problem; sometimes there not enough time to read it right away, or you like it so much but it gets ‘lost’ and you can’t find it again. That’s where Pocket comes in handy. Simply use the App to store that video, cake recipe, sports article or whatever, and then access it later from any device. The organization seems intuitive but it’ll hold out a ‘thumbs up’ until you can use it long term and see if it really makes things more convenient or is just another time-sucker.
Best Feature – Anything you put in Pocket is visible anytime, whether you’re on-line or not. Love it!
Food – Recipe search. Food, Another important aspect of your life – because you are what you eat, right? Nobody wants to look like a jackfruit anyway! This recipe app lets you discover new recipes, save your original recipes in the cloud and cook great food – with detailed instructions. Over 70,000 recipes means you’ll never get bored of your food. Oh, and if you have a specific diet, the app caters to include diabetic, baby food, vegetarian and gluten free food as well. This app is definitely a must have for bachelors or students living away from home.
We all know the benefits of eating healthy food. So, how does this make your life ‘easier’? Firstly, the search gives you a list of recipes you can make based on the ingredients you have, saving you a lot of trouble. Secondly, it helps you plan your food habits – what’s good and what should be avoided in an orderly yet fun fashion. Even if ‘Maggi’ is all you can cook at present, rest assured this app will help you become a pro in cooking!
Traffic & directions -Waze. Interact with other drivers locally to save time, money and outsmart the cops. With Waze you actually can get real-time traffic info and directions around the blockage, alert friends about it, and get notes from other drivers about traffic, speed-traps and other hazards. It’s hands-free also, a great safety feature. You can share your location on the go through text or email too. Only problem is that, if you’re late and the boss wants to know your eta you can’t tell him 30 minutes because of ‘traffic’ if you’re down the block in front of Dunkin Donuts.
Best Feature – When the Waze app is open it gives passive feedback to other drivers.
Tracker- Find My iPhone. Find My iPhone is free for anyone with an iPhone 4, iPad, or 4th generation iPod touch (iOS 4.2 or later required). All you have to do is to sign in with your Apple ID on your qualifying device and turn on Find My iPhone to allow you to locate it.
Read – Pocket. We’re used to using many devices in our lives – there’s a smartphone, a work PC, home PC and sometimes a notebook or a tablet. Syncing all of your browser data between them is a problem. There are browsers though, like Chrome that now offer synchronization features where you can simply access all your bookmarks across devices.
If you like keeping up with the latest buzz and stories, an app called Pocket is a must. The app is free for download and allows you to bookmark pages across all these devices. Those using the iPad would know it by the name – Read It Later. The app also picks up all the content from these web pages, putting it in a very simple, magazine-like format. It’s even more convenient, as there are plugins available for browsers and adding bookmarks takes a second.
Finance – iWallet. How much did you spend on your food last month? Did you spend a lot on gifts this Diwali – how much? How much of your savings did you splurge on clothing? If you can answer the above questions in a jiffy, you either have a super computer of a brain, or you’re a miser. Either way, with expenses increasing, keeping track of finances has been one of the biggest challenges to man in recent times. Say hello to iWallet – your smarter money management system.
This application lets you record your expenses with a few taps. You can categorize your spendings, analyse them and create budgets. After feeding in the data, you can visually compare where you spent more and what requires your immediate attention. Add your own categories, create your own mode of payment and finally stop worrying about your money.
Money Management- Xpenser. The concept of Xpenser is that it records your purchases immediately; all you need to do is that update the data as soon as you pay or bill or make a purchase. This also supports advanced search result; through this you can find the receipts and data instantly. You only have to text the title of data in the search box and it will be highlighted. It is recently updated with an added feature of time tracking.
Health – Pocket Yoga. The mind and body yearn for peace. But in today’s crazy world, man has forgotten to keep touch with the basic essentials of life. As cliché as it may sound, there’s a reason why health comes first in healthy, wealthy and wise. With Pocket Yoga, you have a personal yoga instructor wherever you go. This app shows you instructions and images for different yoga poses and guides you through the entire course.
So, how does it make your life easier? For starters, yoga helps you release the intense anxiety and stress you put your mind and body through. With all those features packed into an app, you can now practice it in a quiet zone in your office, your balcony or your nearby park or garden. There’s no stopping you from your peaceful life now!
NeedFood – The grocery list for picture people. NeedFood is an iPhone app that makes putting together your next grocery list a snap or, to be more precise, a snap pea. Instead of the old, boring ‘shopping list’ NeedFood give you an app full of colourful food icons (over 540) that you can use to build your shopping list. No need to type, just tap. It’s customizable, simple and actually kind of fun. It’s easier than typing on a small keyboard, but the drawback is you can’t leave yourself notes because it’s all pictures.
Best Feature- You can create custom icons your favourite foods.