‘Tis the season to be “Appy”! The holiday season is fast approaching and as you finish last minute shopping and decking the halls we would like to take this opportunity to remind you that technology can play a big role in enhancing the festive season with your family and friends! Do any of you have that relative who sits in the corner on their smartphone while ignoring the rest of the family?! Well instead of Cousin Timmy playing Angry birds in a solo session, encourage him to download one or more of these apps that will create conversation, laughter, sharing and so much more with the whole family! We have also included apps that will help you to keep your waist-line in check, impress your relatives, find your way to gas and food and other helpful apps!
No More Socks
This handy little app will help you get your holiday shopping organized! This app allows you to organize all of the people on your shopping list and your gift-buying budget. The app also helps you keep track of all of your holiday events and gives you gift suggestions from other users. This app is also good for all year round: keep track of friends and family birthdays, anniversaries or other special occasions!
FoodGawker
Want to impress your relatives with your amazing cooking skills and culinary delights?! Well look no further than the foodgawker app. This app displays beautiful photos and recipes from cooking blogs around the world. Browse and search for recipes that will tantalize your guest’s taste buds! Think outside the turkey this Christmas and shake it up with inspired recipes from around the globe! Don’t forget dessert, the pictures on this app alone will having you asking for second helpings!
If you are culinarily challenged or just feel like relaxing and leaving the cooking to the experts, then look no further than Urban Spoon. This app will help you find restaurants in your area based on your GPS location. You can also filter your search by neighborhood, cuisine or price! If any of you have ever watched Mrs. Doubtfire you could take a page from “her” book and get your food to go, dish it up on your own serving dishes, splash some water and flour on your face and take credit as your friends and family marvel at your fine-cooking skills!
If you are in Canada and planning to visit relatives across the country then you will need to download this handy app that will help you locate gas, snacks and groceries on your cross-country journey. Using your GPS location this app will show you the locations of the nearest gar bars and food stores and give you directions. Whether you are low on gas or grandma phoned you and said to pick up some cranberry sauce before you arrive, you can rest assured that this app will guide you to the nearest Co-op location!
Diet & Food Tracker – SparkPeople
If you, like many of us, tend to over indulge in the holiday food, snacks and drinks and your main physically activity over the holiday season includes lifting more turkey to your mouth (no that does not count as 40 “bicep curls!) then you may want to consider downloading a diet tracker app such as SparkPeople! This sensible app allows you to track your daily calories and encourages you to add daily physical activity to counteract that holiday bulge. Your clothes will thank you once the holiday season is over: instead of shouting out “My pants shrunk!” once the holiday season is over you can thank SparkPeople for keeping you on track!
Make sure to capture those precious holiday moments with a photo-capturing app like Instagram! Instagram not only captures your beautiful family moments but also allows you to customize your photos with beautiful filtered effects. Once you are satisfied with your works of art you can share them with your social networks over Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare and Posterous.
This fun little app scans a person or their fingerprint to determine if the person has been “Naughty” or “Nice” this year! Hopefully Santa will still visit your house even if you have a few “naughty” ratings!
Talking Santa
This app is not only great for the kids but is guaranteed to get even the adults laughing! Speak to Santa and he will repeat what you say in his jolly voice! We were impressed with this app because not only does it include cute graphics and animations but it allows you to choose a “child’s mode”, create a custom postcard that you can share with your social networks, and many other fun little functions that will get people laughing and sharing.
Those are just a few of the great apps that will hopefully enhance your Holiday Season! If you have any other great apps that are a must-have for this holiday season leave us a comment!
~ Happy Holidays and All the best in 2013!~
