Photo credit: connected.retailnetgroup.com

I have seen Red Laser before, but never really utilized it. I saw it on a talk show one morning and realized how handy this app can be around this time of the year. The app lets you easily compare prices to all the local shopping centers for any particular item. It even lets you know where the deals are, so you don't have to waste time during these few valuable shopping days we have left. Red Laser lets you save all your favorite items and keep track of where the deals are, just incase the deals aren't the best right away. It even reduces your key chain load by keeping all your loyalty cards in one place on the app. 

My holiday shopping is done, but for anyone looking for those last minute gifts I think this one is a keeper. I will have to try this one out next year. 

As I was watching the news this morning, the Today show did a story on Pinterest and their new function, Place Pinning. 

Now "pincers" everywhere can associate maps with any of their current boards. They can easily plan family vacations by organizing all the activities in a certain place on a board. They can also pin their favorite things to do to a board specifically about a certain place they have visited. 

If you aren't familiar with Pinterest. There are thousands of "pins" pictures of things under all kinds of categories; clothes, cars, crafts, food, cute animals, etc. When you see something you like you can chose to pin it to a certain board (a group of things) a.k.a My Family Vacation for example. When you log into your account you can have as many boards as you want that organize all the things you like. 

Well the time is nearing, graduation... that is a scary thought. It seems like just yesterday I was lying in bed before my first day of college asking myself so many questions... Will my roommate be normal? Will I like the school? Do they have good food? 

But, yes I'm happy to say I have finally done it. I have made it to graduation.  I even found myself a full time job. Soon I will be living on my own, so I guess it's time to put on my big girl shoes and get to work. 

Lately, I've been obsessed with apartment hunting and sometimes I'm not with my computer. I found these three apps that have helped me tremendously.

Realtor.com, Trulia and Zillow. I don't live in the town I'm eventually going to move to, where my job is located, so it's fun to search through these apps and find apartments that might fit my needs. 

Realtor.com has always been my go to when I'm searching on my computer. In general i have a strange obsession with house-hunting, which may be due to the fact that I've moved at least 10 times and I am constantly watching HGTV. The app however wasn't impressive to me. There were very few listings, where I found plenty of other listings on other apps. 

Zillow is great if you want to creep on your neighbors or see how much your old houses have sold/ are for sale for. It provides every record of almost every house that isn't currently occupied. For that it is great, but I don't need all that for apartment hunting. 

Trulia has turned out to be my favorite, which I really had no idea existed before a few months ago. It provides the most listings and the simplest filters for my needs. It also provides plenty of pictures for me to get a good sense of what kind of place I'm dealing with. I also can save my favorites right on my phone and it's easy for me to show my boyfriend our potential living quarters. I do not like the pet filter though, for some reason no properties show when I include the must allow pets option but when you read the description of the apartments it says something like "pet friendly." 

Discover... Collect... Remember with Evernote Food. 

If you're like me, you love to cook but you now with Pinterest Recipes and online recipes you have endless screenshots of your favorite recipes instead of a physical book of them. 

I've found the answer, Evernote Food keeps all your recipes in one place. This way I can avoid forgetting my favorite recipes and throw out those butter smeared pieces of paper. 

The app even remembers your favorite places to eat and what your favorite thing you ate there was. For those of you who aren't exactly sous chef's in the kitchen, this app can help you keep all those restaurants straight. 

Ever since I downloaded Mavericks onto my MacBook Pro my computer is SO SLOW.

I have never had any problems before this new software. I didn't use it for long by itself when I downloaded the new versions of iMovie and iPhoto, but I think they may be the problem.

When I open iPhoto my computer completely freaks out. Maybe I have too many photos on my computer, because I do have a lot ... I really don't think that should be an issue though.

iMovie is completely different and has seemed to move backwards not forwards. Now to insert a red title slide you have to place the red background first and then put the title slide over it. In the previous version you could do both in one click.

I am not very happy and I hope Apple fixes this soon. Is anyone else having these problems?

https://discussions.apple.com/message/23467623#23467623

Here's what Mavericks can do:

Since there's already a Starbucks on campus, you might want to try out the Starbucks app. 

You can save your favorite stores, drinks, coffees and food. You can even see the nutritional facts in all your treats. It even lets you know when they are available, either all year or seasonal. 

You can also pay with the app if you have a Starbucks Card. You just sign up on the app and you can check your balance, reload your card and collect rewards at your local Starbucks for free stuff! Who doesn't  like free stuff...

You can only get rewards though if you have a Starbucks Card. :(

If you're feeling generous, you can send your friends eGifts for their favorite Starbucks goodies. 

If you're lost and in dire need of a caffeine fix, never fear this app can help you find the closest Starbucks to you. 

I discover Evernote.

My professor had mentioned using this program last year, but I didn't think much of it so I did everything the hard way, as always. Evernote is an app that lets you save documents you want to read later and keep them organized all in one place, a.k.a a virtual notebook. I have found it so useful in class. When I look onto our school website, D2L on my phone there is an option that appears in the right hand side of any document that gives you the option to open in Evernote. Once I open a document in Evernote it is saved till I delete it. This way I can quickly glance at the powerpoint in class when I can't see past the people who sit in front of me. 

Once i have a document saved to Evernote I can access it anywhere, on my iPhone with the Evernote app, on my laptop by visiting www.evernote.com and on any other device I might be on. 

This weekend I am participating in a bar crawl. For those of you who may not know, this requires a large group of people and myself to visit as many bars as we can in Lancaster until we are crawling to the next. I don't think you literally have to crawl, but it may feel like you are. 

My point is, when things start getting a little hazy, and you're not sure where you are or which way is up look to these apps to help you find your way.       

If you know where you are going look to Google Maps or the Apple Maps app to help. They are simple and include an option for walking directions. In Google Maps, once you click search there is an icon towards the middle of the screen that looks like a martini glass, click that to find closest bars near you. Then when you click on the car option in the bottom right corner you can change the setting by clicking the person walking at the top of the screen. If you have a bike, which I don't recommend drinking and riding, there is an option for that as well and also a bus route option. DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE EVER. 

Apple maps also will find bars located near you. In order to find them though you must type in bars/pubs/night life into the search bar to find those. It also has walking, bus and driving routes. This app comes standard with your iPhone. 

Other apps that focus on business and the quality of that business include:

1. Yelp- Where you can add reviews from your phone of the bars you have visited. This is a brand new feature with the app. You can also check into the bars, see where your friends are, talk with your friends about the restaurants or bars and also find deals at locations near you. 

2. Foursquare- We've discussed this app before, but this app allows you to see what your friends are saying about the best and the trashiest bars in town. Where to stay away from and where the party's at! 

So now you're drunk, you've found your way home and you're feeling a little down and phone happy. I didn't know these existed, but yes there is an app to stop you from making those embarrassing drunk phone calls. For IOS, Drunk Dial NO! provides this service for $1.00. This app stops you from calling people you have previously told this app not to let you call/email/text. The app blocks those contacts for the night and eases your hungover mind of any embarrassment, as well as protecting you from yourself when you're drunk. 

As I begin to run more and more I begin to think that all those people out there who are addicted to running aren’t crazy after all. I feel better about myself physically and mentally.

I actually enjoy running, especially now when it is beginning to get cooler. I decided I’m going to compile all my running app information into one post so that you don’t lose track of them, since I am not on a solid running schedule yet. Here is a list of apps I will review if you are eager and want to test them out with me.

1. Runtastic - I used this Tuesday when I ran and I really liked all the information it gives you. Even the website gives you more details. If you upgrade to the Gold membership you can do a lot more with your friends, who you’re able to compare yourself to. You can also cheer them on as well as recieve motivation from them.

2. Runkeeper- Coming soon!

3 Endomondo- Coming soon!

4. Nike+- Coming soon!

5. Ghost Runner- Coming soon!

I want to apologize for my previous statement about Allison Dufty being the voice of Siri. Apparently I was not alone as Dufty explains in her About me page on her website that millions of people confused The Verge's article about how computer voices work with Allison Dufty, confused readers with the title of the article which they have now changed. "There are many computer voices out there, and I am one of them, just not THAT one."

Here is the link to Dufty's explanation, http://www.allisondufty.com.

Here is the link to Susan Bennett's interview with The Verge claiming she IS the voice of Siri. http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/4/4801812/the-voice-of-siri-is-susan-bennett

This morning I went for a run on my usual route. This is approximately 3 miles, maybe a little more. It didn't go exactly as I had planned. I walked the last half mile because my toenail is about to come off from the 5k i ran Sunday. Sorry for the gross information, but incase you were concerned ... don't worry I already ordered a 1/2 size bigger shoe.  

Since I walked part of the way, my pace was not good. That is the beauty of the Map My Run app though. Every mile you complete the app interrupts your music to tell you how far you have ran and what your pace is. During the second mile I ran at a 10:03 pace, which was faster than my 5K time. I used to think it was a bad thing, because I would feel like i had been running much farther and conclude that my robot lady must be mistaken.

This app is simple to start. Once you have opened the app there are two buttons at the top, record and log. Hit record and you are ready to start your workout. Hit log if you have already finished your workout, but want to be able to remember what you accomplished that day. 

After you have finished your work out you are able to log this workout for future reference. You can also log other activities that you might do; there is a long list of options. The app tells you how far you ran, the duration of the run, the pace, the GPS feature tracks your route, it lets you add comments about your route, and tells you how many calories you burned. 

Map My Run also allows you to post to your Facebook or Twitter your workout and get feedback on your performance. I like to keep those types of things to myself, so I keep the privacy setting to only me. 

The app also lets you keep track of your calories, what food you have eaten, what you have had to drink, what you weigh on a particular day, and also the amount of water you have consumed. The app accounts for the calories you have consumed and the calories you have burned. It also adds up all the nutritional facts about the food you record and follows your weight goal to tell you if you are on track or not. 

That's right folks its running season! I am not an experienced runner what so ever, but I did complete my first 5K on Sunday! After much convincing by my boyfriend and his family, I finally to do it. I never enjoyed running but I have been running for the past couple months and have decided it is well worth the effort. I'd just like to point out that it is much easier to run a 5K on Ocean City New Jersey's boardwalk with perfect weather and an overview of the beach. 

This gave me an idea to give exercise apps a run for their money. Each day I run this week I will test a different running companion app. I will let it up to you to decide, which app you prefer. 

Social media, an outlet for friends to connect and share moments of their lives through the internet. For some it is a great tool to overcome distance and busy lifestyles. For others it is just a creepy way to know and over analyze every thought that comes to all of your friends heads, whether you have 40 friends or 4,000 friends. 

The number one app that all of you should have is Flipboard. If you have a Facebook and a Twitter but are tired of flipping back and forth between the two, this app will change your life. Flipboard allows you to combine both showing you what is on your newsfeed and all the most recent tweets. It also allows you to choose your interests and provides the latest news stories, but is separated by the topics you chose when you download the app. It takes a little getting used to navigate, but it is extremely simple and puts everything in one place. You can even post to your Facebook and Twitter through the app. Flipboard, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter get my vote as the most practical apps. All these apps could be useful, it just depends where you are and who uses them. Don't forget you can always invite your friends to use an app you think they might like. 

Also, I want to provide a list of social media apps for those people who would like some variety in their lives. You are not limited to only Facebook and Twitter.