iPhone Apps

Today starts the first of my recommendations for iPhone (and possibly Android) Apps. As the owner of both an iPad and an iPhone, I like to be up to date with some of the best apps (short for applications) out there. Here are few that I find helpful. I hope you agree.

Do you have a score or more of those loyalty cards that supermarkets and pharmacies and airlines give out? Until recently, I had a keychain filled with these little cards for stores such as Albertson’s, Smith’s, and CVS, as well as cards for United, Continental, and/or American airlines. Now I have all my loyalty cards listed on a convenient iPhone app called CardStar. The app lets you take a picture of the loyalty card bar code so you don’t have to enter the pesky numbers. Then when you get to the store, just click on the CardStar app find the name of the store (which is nicely alphabetized) and you’re done. Since I have my iPhone with me all the time, it’s a great way to access all those cards and I don’t have the wad of cards to deal with in my pocket! Because the app is connected to a location map, the right loyalty card will appear on your screen when you “tell” it to!

The other day I told you about Words With Friends. This is a fun way to stay in touch with friends, keep your mind active, and if you are in a long line, you can always pull out your smartphone and play a round or two.

One of my favorite news apps is Fluent News! It’s a compiler of headlines...click on a headline you want to read, and the article appears. It has variable print, so you can make letters larger in order to read them on a small screen.

If you are a camper there are 2 apps to find campgrounds in the USA. Instead of carrying the huge campground directories around, get one or both of these apps and let your smartphone do the work. You can search for nearby campgrounds; call or email the campground; and look at the maps for detailed directions. In addition, you can save your favorite campgrounds so you can find them again and again. RVParking.com and RVPark Finder are both free and useful.

Lastly, there’s DocScan. Just the other day a check was mailed to me and I needed to tell the person who sent it to me, that I had received it. I clicked on DocScan and it took a perfect picture of the check and placed it in an email. Of course you can do the same thing with the camera function on an iPhone, but it’s hard to crop the resulting picture and oftentimes, small print appears fuzzy. Not with DocScan. It’s made to focus on small print and it’s really easy to crop a document.

BTW, I usually “buy” free apps and if I like them, I upgrade to the paid version. Sometimes, the free app works so well, it does not need upgrading.