Grocery shopping made easier (and without killing a tree)

Deb Brown — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:46:51 +0000

If you're like me you've spent years grabbing random pieces of paper for your grocery lists. I don't shop very often so lists invariably get buried somewhere in my purse, thrown out by accident or lost. I also don't like to shop and being single means I really don't have to often.

In the world of smartphones and environmentally friendly alternatives (or going green), I've discovered a handy little tool for my Droid called Grocery King. This app has proven to be a perfect alternative to paper lists.

The Grocery King was one of the very first apps I installed on my Droid. I've installed about 300 more for different uses since then. Out of the roughly 300, I maintain around 200 and consider the Grocery King near the top of my list of keepers.

This app is so useful because:

Items can be easily added to the list and referred to.
Common grocery items already exist and are grouped according to the aisle they would typically be in for most grocery stores.
I can mark items as favorites and enter my own items either manually or via barcode scan. For all items I can indicate quantity, add price, tax, coupon information and more.
As I load items into my cart I can easily check them off the list.
If I want to, I can establish a budget and not allow my list to exceed it. This is not only personally useful, it could come in quite handy for party or other event planning that requires spending a certain amount.
I can share my shopping list with anyone via email.
I can scan all of my shopping reward cards into my phone and during checkout, the cashier can scan the card information directly from my phone.

While I've managed to master an alternative for my grocery lists, I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to paper or plastic during checkout. I too often forget to bring my cloth bags into the store when I go shopping.

More screen shots:

Oprah's "No Phone Zone Pledge"

Deb Brown — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:00:31 +0000

Talking on a cell phone while driving can be dangerous because so many become so easily distracted and take their focus off the road. Texting while driving is also very dangerous. Some say it's more dangerous than drunk driving. Do your part to help put an end to distracted driving in general by taking Oprah's No Phone Zone Pledge and share the pledge with your family and friends.

Organizing the smartphone "desktop"

Deb Brown — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:31:47 +0000

There's a bit of real estate on the Droid; thank goodness because one can never have enough. By default, my Droid came with three home screens. One index finger swipe to the right or left gets me to either of them. When I organized my home screens I decided the main home screen would include the most used and critical apps organized by category. I'll explain how I get the best and most use out of these screens in this post. Hopefully this information will help other smartphone users, regardless of platform, who may be struggling with a method for organizing all of their handy apps.

Home screen one (or the main screen) includes quick access to my phone dialer, contacts, text messaging, voice mail, calendar, Gmail/email, and task related apps. While smartphones can do so much more, I think having the most basic apps accessible from the main screen is essential.

The inventor of GPS deserves a big ol' hug if not some presidential medal. I am so impressed with the GPS capabilities that I will be dedicating an entire future post to this function. This means I won't be elaborating on all of its splendor in this post but suffice to say, besides communication tools and internet access, GPS is the most essential, beneficial, satisfying, useful function there is. Many other apps take advantage of and build upon GPS functionality, too.

In addition to GPS, the navigation category on my home screen includes various mass transit tools (DC Metro map and specific transit info, NYC bus and subway information, traffic and road conditions, speed trap and police scanner information and broadcasts, etc.). Yes, if I wanted to, I could sit around all day and listen to the local police scanners to find out what my neighbors in this city are up to.

Home screens two and three also include categorized apps and widgets. How I organized these screens has a lot to do with how I organize my life. From a technical standpoint, how I've organized these apps by category will be explained in a separate upcoming post.Home screen two includes what I consider my "serious" and "productive" apps. I have quick access to my personal accounts (finance, utilities, insurance, retirement, etc.) and financial tools (up to the minute stock market info, calculators, etc.). Some of the calculators are especially useful for my student loans, car buying, home buying, retirement planning and more.

Also included on home screen two are apps for my career (job search, time trackers, wireless printer access, project management, a job widget featuring one of the latest job postings, etc.), self-employment/business and productivity (access to my web sites, apps for creating and accessing Microsoft Office files, package tracking, time sheet, invoicing, etc.), reference and education (ebooks, Wikipedia and other encyclopedia tools, flash card creators, access to dictionaries, etc.), and technical (for the geek in me I've categorized administrative, security, virus scanning, FTP, installer, task manager and other related apps).

Last, but not least, I've categorized those often useful little tools like a flashlight app (yes, I can set my phone to act like a flashlight), regular calculator, unit converter, price comparison, timer, stopwatch, and even a tip calculator for when I dine out.

A lot is crammed into home screen two. I will highlight some of the apps in future posts.

Home screen three is just as "busy" as home screen two. This screen includes what I consider my "recreational" or more "personal" apps. Near the top of the list of the most useful are grocery and other shopping apps like digital coupons (including its widget), price comparison, apps that include merchant reviews (like Yelp), mall maps (yes, I can see the layout of hundreds of malls across the country), and apps specific to certain merchants (Amazon, eBay, etc.). Other useful apps include home inventory, health trackers (exercise, medications, diet/nutrition, recipes, etc.), news feeds, and weather (including live conditions and weather radar).

For the lighter side of my life I have categorized my games (Mahjong, Hearts, etc.), entertainment (movie theaters, books/ebooks, television channel guides and alerts, streaming radio stations and other music tools, etc.), and social networks (Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, etc.).

I've also made some room for my hobby and travel interests. Useful apps for camera effects, Photoshop, image manipulation, etc. are organized in my photography category. For the restless and adventurous side of me, I've categorized airline web site access, real time flight stats, journey and trip journals, maps, and more.

Until the smartphone, my regular cell phone, PC or laptop were considered my most essential and useful life tools. While some would argue that we've become a society too dependent upon gadgets for every day living, there are actual benefits to having this particular gadget with you at all times. To take advantage of those benefits, compartmentalizing how you access them is essential to a satisfactory end user experience.

Mobileaholic.com: Tech Talk

Grocery shopping made easier (and without killing a tree)

Oprah's "No Phone Zone Pledge"

Organizing the smartphone "desktop"