Thing #21

I have a few apps to recommend for this Thing. The first one I'd recommend is called Around Me. It's available from iTunes. I don't know about its availability for Android users. This app sits front and center on my home screen because I use it all the time, especially when I'm traveling, but even around the Twin Cities. As the name indicates, this app informs you about what's "around" you. It lists restaurants and bars, gas stations, hospitals, hotels, post offices, grocery stores, etc. You can also search for specific stores, Target for instance, and it will locate the closest Target to your location. I have found this app to be endlessly useful as I've traveled to Las Vegas, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and as a recent transplant to the Twin Cities. Just the other day I was with a friend dropping a car off for repairs in a neighborhood neither of us is familiar with. We wanted to eat lunch and find a bakery. The app directed us to A Baker's Wife Pastry Shop and Pupuseria la Palmera. We had a delicious lunch of cheese and locoro pupusas with fried plantanos con lecheria for desert. The bakery was closed, but we intend to find our way back to it.

Another app I use regularly is called Flixster, the most downloaded movie app of all time. You can browse the top box office movies and movies showing soon, look up show times at your favorite theaters and buy tickets, watch movie trailers, get critic reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, and view and manage your Netflix queue. It allows you to create a list of favorite movie theaters so the films at the theaters you usually go to are at the top of your phone. If you regularly attend movies, this app is for you.

I recommended the A Beautiful Mess photography app in Thing #9 so I won’t go into detail here except to say it’s a simple and fun app that I regularly use to dress up my Instagram photos.

I also recommend checking out apps from your own bank. My bank, Commerce Bank, has an easy and elegant app that allows me to check my account and do transfers between accounts. I use it regularly.