It's Friday, which means we're going to talk about some great smartphone apps that are either free or near-free. I like to highlight apps that either make your life easier or are just plain fun.
Let's start off with one for Androids, Kingsoft Office. It's basically an entire office suite, giving you the ability to both view and edit documents, spreadsheets, and even Powerpoints presentations on your Android smartphones and tablets. This office suite is now free as of 12/14/11. It got 4 1/2 stars out of 5 over nearly 900 reviews. Download Kingsoft Office here.
The next app is one I posted about over a year ago, but it's become so useful to me that I think it's worth another mention: Square. It's basically a free device and free app for Iphone, Ipad and Android that allows anyone with a bank account to accept all major credit cards (Visa, MC, AmEx, and Discover), with a straight 2.75% fee per swipe. If you key in the card number instead, the fee is 3.5% plus $0.15 per transaction.
The genius of Square lies in its simplicity. Plug in the device, bring up the app, swipe and accept. The payment shows up in your account the next day. You can request the free device and app here. If you're a freelancer, small businessperson or you sell things at shows and don't want to pay for an ecommerce setup, this is a frugal and useful alternative.
Next one is a fun little game: Clue, by the makers of the old Clue board game. You basically use logic and hints to figure out whodunit in ten different murder scenarios. It's $0.99 for the Iphone, Ipod Touch or Ipad game. It didn't get top reviews, but I'm a logic puzzle junkie, so I enjoyed it. The only two things I didn't like about it were 1) you get only ten scenarios to solve and 2) it's really nothing like the board game. But it's a fun cheap game on its own. Download Clue here.
Last one up is also a $0.99 app for Ipad and Iphone, and believe it or not, it's an app from Bertolli called Let's Cook. It basically shows entertaining videos of recipes by a gourmet chef, Fabio Viviani (yes, his name is actually Fabio). I really enjoy watching hokey cooking shows, so for me, this was a real treat for a buck. You can download Let's Cook here.
Got a free or near-free app to recommend? Please let me know! I'd love your input.
Evernote is revolutionizing my life -- all of my lists are going there. No more paper all over my life!!!!
ReplyDeleteI was just introduced to GroceryIQ, which is a fabu way to organize our shopping lists. Apparently, if my husband had a smartphone, too, we could synchronize our list between the two phones. Snazzy, huh?