Spring 2014

Lifestyle Apps

Apps that make life a little easier!

Julia Yaroshinsky

Location

Location, location, location… These handy app’s let you know what’s nearby in unfamiliar areas.

AroundMe

AroundMe is a very popular app. When you first open the app it gives you a list of categories of commonly searched places like gas stations and banks. Once you click on a category, it lists a number of locations in your area, in order of distance, and links to Google Maps to give you directions. AroundMe also provides the phone numbers and website for each location, if available. Looking for something specific? AroundMe also has a search option that’s pretty spot on in correlating your search term to businesses around you.

MappedIn

MappedIn is a smaller, but very useful application for “Waterloo-ites”. This app was created by two students at the University of Waterloo and was even featured (and won some money!) through the popular reality T.V. show, Dragons Den. This app is similar to AroundMe, but provides a list of locations in a particular venue (like Conestoga Mall, or the University of Waterloo). Ideally, this app is designed for enclosed spaces that can be difficult to navigate. It provides a map of the venue you’re in and then provides directions from your location to another location in the venue.

This app does have two downfalls currently: it’s limited to locations in the Waterloo/Kitchener area and its interface isn’t quite perfect yet. I would still recommend a download though, because it’s always improving and expanding. It is generally very helpful for hard to find rooms on campus or small stores in shopping areas.

Fitness

There are a million and one fitness apps out there right now, but from my experience these two have the most options and are super motivating in helping you keep to your fitness regime.

Endomodo

Endomodo is a very popular app with a variety of options available for tracking distance and non-distance exercises. The app is most used for running, but also tracks a number of different exercises. The number one reason I favour this app is that the list of exercises is really quite extensive and includes basics like running or biking, weight training, yoga and aerobics, and even sports like basketball and tennis. It also gives you important statistics after your work out is done, like your average speed, amount of calories burned and even your maximum and minimum altitudes. If you connect the app to a heart rate monitor it will also give you heart rate statistics. This app is also great if you’re just starting to run and don’t know what kind of routes to take. It connects to all the people in your area using the app and lets you view their favourite routes and even lets you challenge them. Best of all, you can get all these great features for free. If you want to skip the ads and get extra features like interval training programs, step counters, and motivational tools, there’s also a premium version of the app available for monthly or yearly subscription fees.

FitBit

If you’re looking for the whole package when it comes to tracking your fitness regime, FitBit is definitely an app worth taking a look at it. The app itself is free, but if you want constant stats you can invest in an actual FitBit gadget and track activity levels throughout the day. The app on its own helps you calculate how many calories you consume, how many calories you burn and your hydration level. Overall, the app’s goal is to let you know if you’re consuming too much and if you need to be more active to keep to your daily goal. Many people use FitBit’s social media aspect to encourage each other to meet fitness goals.

My two favourite things about this app are that it lets you search for both types of activities and food. This make it very easy to use and provides greater accuracy if you’re not actually wearing a FitBit gadget. It also differs significantly from the Endomodo app because it gathers data on your water and food consumption. Don’t know which to choose? Don’t worry about it; FitBit is compatible with Endomodo. The real challenge is choosing which FitBit gadget you want.

Food

Cooking and restaurant choosing challenged? These apps will have you covered!

Bigoven

Bigoven is a recipe app with more than 250,000 recipes and a super handy “leftovers” function, along with several other handy functions. The leftover function is a useful and fun function which lets you plug in three ingredients and then generates recipes that use those ingredients. This function is great if you have a hard time working leftover ingredients into other meals. On top of this, the app provides a grocery list function which lists all the ingredients you’ll need for the specific recipes you have in mind for the week, as well as a menu planner for helping you plan your meals. The app provides lots of helpful categories for helping you choose what kind of meal you want to make and often provides nutritional breakdowns for different meals. As you can imagine, not only can this app help improve your cooking skills, but it’ll help save you some dollars with the leftovers function!

OpenTable

Don’t feel like cooking some days? Want to eat out but avoid the line ups? Then OpenTable is the app for you. OpenTable is a relatively simple app, but can make life a lot easier when you’re trying to choose a restaurant. Often, when I find myself too tired to cook and want to go to a restaurant I regret it. I struggle to choose a place and when my friends and I get there it’s packed. We end up waiting another half an hour on top of the 20 minutes it took us to decide where to go. OpenTable will help you avoid this by showing you how busy restaurants in your area are and letting you book a reservation through your phone. With this app you’ll never have to stare jealously (and hungrily) at the people who’ve already been seated; you’ll be amongst them almost as soon as you walk through the door.

The apps above are all seriously great apps. You might find yourself using some frequently, and others less, but when you do use them they feel less like lifestyle apps, and more like lifesavers!

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