A Mom Geek’s Top 5 Awesome Web Apps
(note from cgc: Today’s post is from a wonderful guest author – how about a warm welcome to Mommy Geek who happens to like a lot of the same apps that I like!)
A Mom Geek’s Top 5 Awesome Web Apps
As a young mother (25 years old, bonified member of the iGeneration) I am almost constantly connected. Whether it’s my laptop, netbook or my Android-powered smart phone, I rely on the internet.
There are a number of web-based applications (web apps) that I rely on to get my work (and play) done. These apps are free, easy to use, and frankly they make my life easier.
Remember the Milk – Remember the Milk is more than just a to-do system. Especially when combined with the Getting Things Done organization system, this app can be a way of life. If you have iPhone, Twitter account or Android powered phone, you can easily check your list & add new tasks while on the run. When at home, learn easy keyboard shortcuts to power your way through the list. Tags help to categorize tasks, and you can have separate lists. For example, I like to keep these lists: Errands, Computer, Home, Work, Phone . These are lists within the context of where I am – so I know that when I get home, I can check my Home list to see what I have to do next, and when I’m out doing errands, my Errrands list will keep me on track. Free to use, with additional features if you upgrade to a Pro account. Mobile tip: Download the iPhone app (pro version) or bookmark the mobile site (free) on your iPhone, or download free app Astrid for your Android-powered device for seamless integration.
Pandora – Music and Starbucks power my day. Pandora is a web-based music streaming application, yes, but it’s also so much more. With a free Pandora account, I can create custom music stations – commercial free! – by selecting a song or artist that I love. Pandora uses complex music analysis algorithms (a.k.a. magic) to play songs that are similar to the song I used as the basis for the station. I can fine-tune my station by giving a song a thumbs up, or thumbs down. It couldn’t be simpler. Available on Android-powered phones, the iPhone, and online for free. Beats paying for satellite radio, doesn’t it?
Pixlr – I take photos of my kids, things I see on the street, #FAIL situations in the grocery store… I take a lot of pictures. When I don’t have the time to open up GIMP, I go to Pixlr. A free, full-featured photo editor, Pixlr will let me open a photo from my computer or the web, make edits complete with layers, resize, change colors, the whole shebang. I can save my photo back to my computer in a number of formats including .gif, .jpg and .png, all in a matter of minutes. It’s free, and you don’t even need to sign up for an account to use it – just click and go!
Drop Box – With so many devices to store and access information, you might imagine that I have a lot of files scattered in a lot of places. 2GB of free online storage via the convenient and reputable Drop Box makes it a helluva lot easier to manage my most critical files. Whether it’s image files for my home business (Wordpress & graphic design) or pics of the kids, Drop Box makes it super simple to sync, store & access my important files. Need more storage? They have monthly plans at a really reasonable cost.
Mint – Mint.com has a whole new approach to money management. It’s a free online (secure) money management system. You can connect all of your banking accounts, including credit cards, checking, savings, PayPal, car loans, home loans… the list goes on. Mint.com intelligently tracks and categorizes your spending, provides amazing, easy to read graphs, helps you budget… I can’t speak highly enough of this tool. Try it out for a month or so and you’ll see a huge difference in the way you view your spending and saving habits.
Try ‘em out, integrate them into your life, or even just take a look at the impressive feature set. The world is slowly moving towards cloud computing, and web apps are going to be an integral part of that process. Why not? They certainly make my life easier.
MommyGeek blogs about her life at Mommy Geekology 2.0 and about Wordpress and technology in general at her business blog, Rent a Geek Mom. A 25 year old mother of 2 sweet girls, she spends each day balancing technology, parenting and life in general. Technology makes her life run more smoothly, which makes her gadget addiction almost justifiable.
2.17.2010 at 10:18 AM