Gadgets

There are many apps out there for the iPhone, and with user favorites such social media apps like Facebook and Twitter leading the way. However, there are many out there that are just as useful and amazing as the aforementioned apps but are virtually unknown. If you’ve always wanted to fill your iPhone with useful apps but are too busy to browse the plethora of apps available at the App Store, here are some of the best ones that seem to never make “the best of” lists but bring great functionality to your smartgadget.

FileThis

Do you view your utility bills via your trusty smartphone? If you do, you’ll love FileThis. This app allows you to gather and organize online statements and other documents that your credit card or insurance company mails you. The app smartly converts these documents to text-searchable PDF files and delivers it to the cloud service of your choice. With FileThis, you can always review your statements with ease. You will also never lose files even if you happen to misplace your phone since they’ll be stored in cloud.

SitOrSquat

When you travel to a non-English speaking country, don’t you just hate it when you can’t easily ask a trivial question like where the toilet is? SitorSquat is the world’s most convenient app for locating nearby toilets. Currently, the app has over 65,000 registered toilets worldwide and the database is still growing thanks to a dedicated community that helps update SitOrSquat regularly.

SnapGuide

Sometimes, learning how to do a certain task can be difficult if you just read text instructions. With SnapGuide, however, DIY guides are made easy. The app is filled with how-to guides for everything from art to food, and each is illustrated with detailed steps. It’s a great app to have around at all times, especially if you’re a bit of a DIY fan. Users can create guides of their own to share with the community.

Smartphones are quite possibly the fastest growing industry in the world, and it isn’t too surprising given the scope of people who use them now. According to the company that manages the entertainment site Pocket Fruity, mobile sales are expected to surpass $40 billion in 2015 so we will probably see more apps in the future that revolutionize the way we see things in every part of our lives.

Do you use a less than popular app that you feels is underappreciated? Share it with us in the comments section!

It won’t have escaped your notice that we have been refurbing our kitchen recently.  It was a very big job and whilst the major work was done all at one time, we didn’t really think about appliances (apart from leaving spaces for them) till afterwards as the dust was settling.  Part of that was budgeting, but a lot of it was that there were so many decisions to make that we chose not to make them all at once.  That meant that we were able to shop around and research our appliances in a bit more depth rather than rushing into decisions because of deadlines.  It helped too that we were going for free-standing appliances rather than built-in ones, as we felt that was more flexible.

A key part of the look of your kitchen is your fridge or your freezer.  We had a look at quite a range of fridge freezers going around many a retail shop and out-of-town warehouse to see a good selection of appliances and find a good deal.  I think it’s important to understand what you want from a fridge freezer before you start shopping and points to consider include:

• Do you want the same size fridge and freezer space?  Would you prefer a bigger fridge or a bigger freezer?
• How big a fridge freezer can you fit in your kitchen?  How much food storage place will you need? Think about the future too – will you need more in the foreseeable future?
• Do you want your fridge at the top?  Or the bottom?  Or do you want your fridge and freezer to stand side by side each other, with each extending vertically?
• Do you want a drinks dispenser?  Ice maker?  Any other features?
• Consider energy efficiency.  Fuel bills are high these days, so it can save you money to have an energy-efficient fridge freezer.

My iPhone comes with me pretty much whereever I go and it certainly comes on trips away.  MyTrendyPhone offered me the chance to try out their iPhone 4 travel kit which contains all the things you need when you are out and about with your phone.

Contained in the kit are:

• iPhone 4 Stylus
• iPhone 4 USB Wall Charger
• iPhone 4 USB Car Charger
• iPhone 4 Charge/Sync Cable

Over the last few weeks I’ve been trying these out.  I’ve found the car charger to be very useful and I leave it in the glove box of the car with the charge/sync cable.  It seems to take longer to charge up from the car than from the mains, but on a longer journey that won’t be an issue.  I discovered that my phone had died as I left the house and it was charged sufficiently to do 1 or 2 short tasks by the time I’d driven for 5 to 10 minutes.  That could be handy if you are meeting someone and perhaps need to be able to pick up a text or phone call in case of delays.

I tried using the stylus at home, but preferred to use my phone without it.  That said, I think it would great to use it if you were out and about in the cold and wanted to keep your gloves on.  I’ll be keeping mine handy for that.

I didn’t get to use the two pin wall charger, but I’m planning on taking that on my next trip abroad.  One of the issues when travelling it that charging up your phone takes up one travel plug and that can be rather restrictive.  Now I can leave my three pin plug behind and just take the two pin one when I travel in Europe.

If I was getting a new phone, I’d certainly want a kit like this iPhone 4 travel kit to go with it and I rather wish I’d had it long ago because it would have been very useful.