Top 7 Smart Phone Applications to Make Your Life Easier

March 16, 2010 — -- Post-it notes and to-do lists, your days may be numbered.

A Moffet Field, Calif., start-up called ReQall launched a new service this week that stands to blow old-fashioned ways of organizing out of the water.

The company already manages a free service that lets users call a toll-free number to record memos, appointments and other errands. Speech recognition software analyzes the message and then sends reminder notes via instant messaging or e-mail.

The new service builds on that and uses location-based technology to remind you of each item as you approach the relevant place.

Need to pick up milk from the grocery store? It'll text you your entire grocery list as you move toward the store.

If you choose to share your account with friends and family, they can enter reminders for you (even if they don't subscribe to the service).

The service syncs with Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar to analyze your life and figure out what kinds of reminders you need, and when. And where.

ReQall works on both iPhone and BlackBerries, but the latest version is a little pricier than other helpful apps out there. The premium service that sends location-activated reminders costs $2.99 a month, or $24.99 a year.

There are myriad other programs (apps for short) taking advantage of the growth of wireless handheld devices (handhelds for short). The names range from Financer to iFitness to Dog Whistle to, well, you get the idea.

Have a need? Someone out there is trying to fill it now, quickly, with almost no effort (and little or no upfront cost) on your part.

Many of the apps are designed for the iPhone, perhaps the best-known of handhelds.

But as the market grows, so do the possibilities. Here's a small sampling:

So you're late again. You're a woman with a busy career but you're newly married and you have hopes for a family, too.

You're trying to get to a meeting when you hear the familiar ping of your cell phone, telling you a text message has arrived.

You open it: "Your fertile window opens today and lasts five more days," it says. "Stress can get in the way of conception, so relax and get a massage, meditate or take a yoga class."

The text you just received is from -- yes, this is its real name -- Booty Caller. The app is free, offered by a parenting Web site called BabyCenter.com.

Do you really want a text to remind you this might be a good time for sex? It may not be your idea of spontaneous fun, but its makers say it may well help you squeeze some fun -- and a new baby as well -- into an overscheduled life.

"Booty Caller is definitely a sign of the times," Linda Murray, the editor-in-chief of BabyCenter.com, wrote in an e-mail. Her site, she said, "set out to create a tool that would provide fertility information as well as tips on getting pregnant in fun, digestible text messages."

"We've been at it for a while," said Jonathan Bulkeley, the CEO of Scanbuy Inc., "and the idea's been the same: making it easier for you to navigate using the camera on your phone, instead of the keypad on your phone."

Point your camera phone at, say, an ad for running shoes, and your phone's screen will quickly show you a Web site with specs and user reviews. Point the phone at the code on a kid's shirt, and you're directed straight to his or her Facebook page.

Bulkeley said he can see countless other uses: How about a marker, for instance, on the wrapper for a head of lettuce that tells you how long ago it was picked from the field? He has even seen a code on a grave marker that lets you read about the life of the person to whom you're paying respects.

Financer

Picture yourself in the store, intrigued by the pair of running shoes you checked out via Scanbuy, and you're about to order them. But can you afford them?

Financer is a portable electronic ledger, a way for you to keep track of your money, no matter where you are.

"Financer is one of our most popular applications; and we've seen an increase in demand since the recession," said David Becker, CEO of its maker, dBelement.

The screen of your iPhone takes on the look of a checkbook ledger, the same thing you used a generation ago, except that it does the math for you.

The market's down; maybe you'd better hold off on the shoes.

It will also keep you honest. You can keep a log of what you've done, get an idea of your progress and, if you don't like it, you can try Fit Phone.

Or, if you're like so many of us when it comes to New Year's resolutions, you can stop and feel guilty.

In which case, you may want to download ...

Fast-Food Calorie Counter

This is an app for those of us who choose to drown our sorrows with a burger and fries. Tap in any of 4,700 items from 41 chains and it will tell you the calorie count, amount of fat, number of carbs and everything else you need to know to go back and buy those running shoes. $2.99 via Apple from Concrete Software.

And last but not least...

Users blow into the iBreath and a readout of their blood-alcohol content appears on the phone's screen.

"All kinds of people are using it," said developer Don Bassler, CEO of David Steele, the iBreath's manufacturer. "Parents of kids, college students, wives for husbands, boyfriends for girlfriends. The demographic starts dubiously as low as 16, but is basically the 18 to 50 crowd."

The iBreath debuted at Christmas and, according to Bassler, the company has sold thousands of the devices. It retails for $79.99 on the company's Web site.

Of course, even though we think these seven apps can go a long way in terms of making a hectic life a whole lot easier, mentioning these particular apps does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of them.

Each has many competitors, and you're invited to weigh in with suggestions in our comments section. Many apps have features you will love or hate, and the only way to find out for sure is to try them for yourself.

But most of the apps are either free or very cheap, which means a barrier has been crossed. There are a million things you can now do, with very little effort, on what you used to think was only your cell phone.

Unless, of course, you prefer to do them on paper, or a computer, or even -- what a quaint idea -- in the flesh.