Ten Fun and Useful Apps for Winter Playtime and Travels

The news for the middle months of 2014 was mixed. Chinese hackers gained access to U.S. employee data bases. A passenger plane was shot down over the Ukraine. Germany won the World Cup in Soccer. And actor James Garner passed away.

But the news for mobile apps is good — they just keep getting better and better.

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Apps for Winter

Feedly

Get your news and information sorted and delivered from blogs and other social media feeds with Feedly. If you are a “blogoholic” — this is definitely the winter app for you.

Foursquare

Used by over 40 million this summer to keep up with friends, places and events across the country, Foursquare continues to be very useful. It’s great for vacationers and those traveling on business, giving simple and clear directions to restaurants, entertainment venues, hotels and convention centers.

Pocket

With Pocket, you can save all your photos, videos and documents to retrieve anytime and anyplace without the need for the Internet. A bonus feature is that it is seamlessly integrated with Evernote.

Duolingo

Duolingo is a must for your trips abroad. It has dozens of simple yet challenging games to help you brush up on your high school Spanish or to start learning Vietnamese before you even board your flight.

Snapseed

Now run by Google, Snapseed will turn your winter photos into works of art. It edits, tints, crops and does many other things to make your casual selfie or group photo look like a Stieglitz.

Pixotale

Use Pixotale to create picture-rich narratives about your life and travels. Its gorgeous interface motivates users to create visually rich stories by choosing a centerpiece graphic and options to add text, graphs and maps. Your story becomes very personal and very visual with this setup.

GasBuddy

Use GasBuddy to find the lowest gasoline and diesel prices in the areas you are traveling through, or will be traveling through. It’s updated at least once every day including Sunday. So you’ll have real time information on where to gas up next for that long road trip you’ve been promising yourself for ages.

Pizza Compass

This is not a nationwide app yet.  It’s only good for the New York City area. But if you happen to be vacationing in the Big Apple this winter and crave a slice of authentic Brooklyn pizza pie, Pizza Compass will tell you how far away it is and the business hours of operation. Mangia, mangia!

Pingspot

Pingspot allows you to ping spots you visit and leave a photo and a recommendation (or warning!) to your friends. If you’ve had a super experience at a theater, restaurant, mall, beach, lake, resort, hot dog stand or anything else, use this app to spread the good word among your friends so they can enjoy the fruits of your serendipity. Or you can arrange to go back with them and enjoy it all over again.

Apps Photo via Shutterstock

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