Even though I’ve owned my own business for more than 20 years, my promotional skills were a bit stale. Like many others in my generation I relied on traditional advertising and public relations for marketing. As far as social media, I had a website, and shared stories on Facebook with friends, but that was about it.

Not enough in today’s market. Everyone talks about a social media strategy. As I joined the ranks of the 16.4percent of the 55+ market (not coincidentally, the largest group of self-employed individuals in this country) I knew I had to kick it up a notch.

So I created a LinkedIn profile, signed up for Twitter, and started subscribing to every relevant blog and other publication in my field.

I scoured the Internet for articles offering productivity, social media and networking advice. Soon my email Inbox had more than 200 messages at any given moment. (That’s not counting all my shopping and discount site alerts, like Gilt and One Kings Lane.)

It was overwhelming. First, I learned about the basic productivity apps, that I have shared in prior blogs. There is Evernote, the online filing cabinet system; and Pocket, the app that copies and saves web pages. I started storing all my word document files in Dropbox so I could access them on any computer or mobile device.

Like most entrepreneurs, the more I researched, the more digital chatter I received. I still use Evernote, Pocket and Dropbox, but I’ve found some other apps and websites that are helping me streamline my day.

Here are four of my new favorites to help keep me organized in my encore career.

TheSwizzle.com: This site helps me manage my email inbox. It lets users easily unsubscribe from emails that they no longer want by placing all commercial email addresses in one for list, to quickly check off. No more hitting the unsubscribe button on each individual email. For commercial emails you want to continue, like certain catalogs, newsletters or shopping sites, it places them all in one email. Once a day, users receive a Swizzle email, with all of the other emails inside of it. This site has done wonders for organizing my email inbox, giving me a quick view of my business emails.

LinkedIn Apps

Cardmunch: This a free iPhone app that converts business cards into Contacts. Snap a photo of a business card and it loads up in your phone and sends a request to the contact asking to connect on LinkedIn. No more typing the card information into your contact list.

The new LinkedIn Contacts app sorts contacts by region for easy reference

LinkedIn Contacts:  This a brand new free iPhone app that transfers all of your LinkedIn contacts into a phone book. It has the potential to become a businessperson’s primary contact list phone book and personal assistant.

Users can sync their iPhone address book, Gmail, Google Contacts & Calendar, Yahoo mail and contacts, Outlook Mail, Contacts & Calendar, CardMunch, Evernote and even TripIt all in Contacts.
It’s great for business trips, as users can sort their contacts by region and easily identify who they want to connect with when they travel.

Organizing Your Social Media

Hootsuite: It’s marketed as a social media management system for organization’s to launch campaigns, but I use it to organize people I follow on Twitter and to schedule my Tweets, LinkedIn and Facebook updates.

I recommend going through the tutorial and learning how it works so you can set up topic streams, and add the people you want to follow in lists. Now I spend 30 minutes each morning, noon and evening keeping tabs on my Twitter influencers and my tweets. I can also schedule all of my posts on my other social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn.

It’s a “must have” for anyone who uses social media — which is everyone in business in 2013.

Are you considering a next step in your life or career? Check out Life Reimagined to get started. 

Also of Interest

• Retiring Boomers Driving Sales of Small Businesses
• Ground Control to Commander Chris Hadfield: ‘Hallo Spaceboy’
• Join AARP: Savings, resources and news for your well-being

See the AARP home page for deals, savings tips, trivia and more

I decided to dedicate one week to trying some new applications purely designed to amuse me. No time management apps, no healthcare apps, no organization apps, no how to count calorie apps —just enjoyable apps.

After a bit of playing around, here’s my list of four fun apps for the 50+ crowd:

Candycrush

Why it’s cool:

It’s a new simple game that actually exercises your mind, but keeps your adrenaline flowing so you don’t realize it’s training your memory.

How it works:

Upon opening the app, a board of assorted candy appears on the screen. The object is to find three or four identical candies in a row, touch them and score points.  Certain combinations create striped candy, wrapped candy and rainbow candy. Merge these specials to produce spectacular effects such as Super Stripe and Mega Candy worth even more points.

What makes it fun:

The game first appeared on Facebook, but now can be played online, or downloaded for free on any Apple or Android device. The concept is similar to the popular Boomer game Bejeweled Blitz, but it offers more visible hints so advancing levels is easier—making it a bit more fun.

When to use it:

In doctor’s offices, waiting for friends to arrive in coffee shop, at a boring sports event or any other time you want a respite from daily living.

Magisto

Why it’s cool:

It’s a free app that turns your videos into movies.

How to use it:

You open the camera roll on your phone and place a check mark in the box next to the videos you want to turn into a movie. Then you select music, themes and special effects from a list. You also can use your own music.

What makes it fun:

Magisto takes the best parts of your videos (I’m not sure how, but the dead, soundless parts of mine were not in the video), adds your chosen music, themes, and effects, and splices them into beautiful little movies. In a few minutes, your movie is complete and you can share it with others across all platforms of social media.

When to use it:

It’s great for preserving family memories or for making goofy videos of your pets, like I do.  Available on iPhone and Android.

Repix

Why it’s cool:

This new free app  got 1.5 million downloads in the first seven days on the market and clear success is how it brings out the creative side in users. It offers a selection of 11 style brushes to alter photos.

How it works:

Once it’s open, you chose a brush and operate it with your finger. You can paint photos that you have stored on your camera roll or in Facebook.

My husband Steve as a poster thanks to Repix

What makes it fun:

You can rework your photos to look like cartoons, posters, and charcoal or dot drawings with the free brushes. Many more brush styles are available for purchase. I turned a photo of my husband into a poster.

When to use it:

Use it anytime, anywhere when you want to give your photos a personalized feel, or you want to exhibit your artistic abilities.

Flipboard

Why it’s cool:

This free app is the original personalized social magazine, but it just keeps improving. Its newest feature allows you to create your own magazines (think file folders with web clippings) and share them with others through social media.

How to use it:

If you haven’t tried it, download it now on your iPhone or Android devices, sit down, open it up and watch an hour fly by.  Simple instructions guide you through a process to design individual categories, and algorithms fill the categories with magazines on topics you have chosen.

What makes it fun:

It uses a magazine format with beautiful alluring colors and lets you read newspapers, periodicals and blogs personalized to your interests.

When to use it:

Whenever you want to read magazines.

What are your favorite apps for relaxing? Please share them in the comments section – I might want to check them out myself! 

Photo credit from Mr. T in DC on Flickr. 

Also of Interest

• Games for 50+: Grandparents & Grandchildren Find Adventures, Memories
• Cut Utility Costs with LED, CFL and Halogen Lightbulbs
• Join AARP: Savings, resources and news for your well-being

See the AARP home page for deals, savings tips, trivia and more

I’ve become a fitness gadget slave in my quest to burn the most calories possible during daily exercise and now, with the Digifit App, all my stats are in one place.

I’m in love.

Digifit has rocked my workout world. The free app works on the Android and iPhone and does all the basics like track your workouts, record times and analyze results. But the real wonders come when you pay $7.99 to connect and sync all of your gadgets and weight loss apps together.
After I wake up each morning:

• I hook my Fitbit to my clothing to begin counting my steps.

• I head to the gym and attach my Schoche heart rate monitor on my arm.

• Open my Digifit App on my smartphone that integrates the Fitbit and Schoche information.

• Hop on the bike, elliptical or treadmill, press the Digifit icon that matches the machine I selected, and everything ignites.

Within seconds, through Digifit, I see my heart rate, my workout zone, my calories burned, my time, distance, and lots of other great stats. I can listen to my phone’s music playlist through the app, receive phone calls and texts, and never miss an exercise beat.

A display of my exercise stats on Digifit

An Organized Workout

Now my extremely personalized entire workout is in one place —controlled through my smartphone.

• Easy to understand instructions guided me through the initial setup process where I entered my age, weight, resting heart rate and maximum heart rate into the app (It can also be done on the computer through the app’s dashboard).

• The terrific web dashboard has simple to understand instructions that helped me figure out my resting and maximum heart rate.

• In addition to pairing it with Fitbit and my heart rate monitor, I also added my calorie counting-fitness app LoseIt (there are several available for selection).

• It also has the ability to link with other activity and health devices like the Withings Body Scale, Withings Blood Pressure Monitor, and the Zero Sleep Monitor –three gadgets I don’t presently own —yet.

The Takeaway

At the conclusion of a workout there are:

• Straightforward data charts measuring heart rate at each phase, distance, and calories burned, even fat calories burned.

• Tracking tabs of workouts segregated, by times, heart rate recovery, calories, distance, etc
.
• Tabs to “share workout” that add the calories burned to LoseIt or MyFitness Pal with one tap. A “sync” tab that syncs all the values of the workout to the apps website for further review.

• A computerized male gravitar that jumps up and down shouting “great job”, “new record” or “way to go.”

Digifit and its digital components are my new BFFs of exercise. I never leave home without them.

Also of Interest

• 5 Great Travel Apps for 50+ Crowd
• The Fat After 50 You Really Need to Fear (and How to Get Rid of It)
• Join AARP: Savings, resources and news for your well-being

See the AARP home page for deals, savings tips, trivia and more

As always, I look for apps that are easy for people like me, in the 50+ category, to navigate, understand and use. No fancy gizmos — just the facts.

Here are my top five travel apps that can make your journey — be it near or far — piloted from the palm of your hand.

Pro tip: Use the same email address for all of your travel sites. It just makes life easier. You remember the address and then the apps can interact with each other. If you like the site once you’ve explored it on line, download it to your mobile device. That way you can see the real beauty of communications from the beginning.

Top 5 Travel Apps

1. Searching for the best deal on flights or hotels? Try Hipmunk. You can use it on your computer and on your Android or iPhone. The site is designed with lots of white space and big blue letters that are easy on the eyes. The buttons are large and easy to find, the navigation simple, and a bonus is the cute chipmunk mascot that guides users. Log-in isn’t necessary to search, another plus. Flights can be sorted by price, duration, airlines, or by Agony. Agony is a computer generated rating that uses price, duration, and number of stops as a determinant. Hotels use the Trip Advisor ratings. An online personal assistant is available during Pacific Standard Time business hours.
2. Now that you have your reservations, keeping track of them is easy and efficient in TripIt. Once you register yourself online on TripIt, you can forward all of your email airline and hotel confirmations to plans to TripIt.com. They will appear in your TripIt account on your mobile device and on your computer as well. No more shuffling through paper when you arrive at the hotel check-in desk, just open your TripIt app and viola, it’s all there. There also is an option to invite others into your network so you can share your itinerary with the ease of a click. For frequent travelers, I recommend TripIt Pro, a $49 annual subscription service that sends instant alerts about flight and gate changes, helps find alternate flights, open seats, tracks airline points and more. Available for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7.
3. You’ve arrived at your destination. You check-in with your confirmation information in your TripIt mobile app, head to your room, unpack, and you’re ready for coffee or a drink. But where to go? Try the AroundMe app. It’s designed to quickly find information about your surroundings. The apps uses a GPS to locate your phone and offers lists, complete with names and addresses of nearby coffee shops, restaurants, bars, pharmacies, and hospitals. This app is great for road trips to help locate gas stations, hotels, other places of interest. It’s available for iPhone and Android.
4. If you’re looking for historical sites nearby, History® Here is a must. You can press a simple button that says “Use my current location” or enter a U.S. city or zip code, select a radius from 1 to 500 miles and a map with push pins on all of the historical landmarks pops up. Scroll to the list icon on the top of the screen and view a brief description of each attraction. This app, from A&E TV, is great to use at home as well when you’re looking for something different to explore. It reminds us of what is in our own backyards. Available for Android or iPhone.
5. While there are lots of fun adventures in travel, they aren’t any fun if we’re not in good health. However, sometimes that’s out of our control. We catch the flu, hurt our foot or arm, or get a toothache. We need a doctor, and most likely we don’t want to spend all day in a hospital emergency room. Enter ZocDoc. It’s a mobile app available for iPhone or Android that helps you find a doctor or dentist by specialty, location, date and insurance accepted. You can read patient reviews on each doctor, including their resumes and make an appointment right from your mobile device. A great app to have, just in case.

Bon Voyage!

I spent two days at the massive Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas searching for mobile apps and gadgets that could help people 50+ enhance their lives.

I saw many products including newfangled televisions, stereo speakers the size of an egg, wristwatch phones (yes, Dick Tracy fans, they have arrived!), cars that drive themselves and completely tricked out smart phone cases that all could be used by boomers and seniors.  While many of the gadgets would be fun to have, I wanted to zero in on a few that could help us navigate through life in an easier and healthier way.

Wearable Devices

These are little devices you can hook onto your clothing or wear like wristbands.  They have names like NikeFuel, Fitbit and Fitbug. They keep track of how many steps you take per day (10,000 being the optimum) how many flights of stairs you walk, how much energy (calories) you burn and how many miles you walked in a day.  The data is synced with an app on your smartphone or computer and gives you your activity levels on an easy to read dashboard.  They are available on line or in retail stores for about $100.

My husband and I started wearing Fitbits a few weeks ago.  I received one as a gift and loved it so much I bought him one.  Now we’re in a little healthy (pardon the pun) competition.

It didn’t start out like that, but we just can’t resist comparing notes. Every day, we check with each other to see who has taken the most steps or climbed the most flights of stairs.  In fact, one day we shared that we each parked a little further away from a store in a parking lot, just to get some extra steps.  It’s really a fun way to increase your daily activity.

Special phones

As wristphones make their way into the stratosphere, it’s good to know that some entrepreneurs are looking out for older people whose eyesight is dwindling or who have parents who need assistance.

• CareLine+ phone, by vetch, demonstrated a landline phone with large buttons, and a very easy to read caller ID panel using black letters on a white background for vision impaired users.  What makes the phone unique is that it has an emergency monitoring system with no monthly monitoring fees. The phone system–  that retails for $119, also comes with a cordless phone, plus a portable safety pendant with speaker phone.  Users can answer the phone with their safety pendant.
• SpareOnePlus is an emergency mobile phone that is small and thin and runs on two AA batteries, has a 15-year shelf life when stored used (that’s right, 15 YEARS), and has 10 hours of talk time while in use with a battery that lasts 15 years.  It can make calls to emergency services (911, police, fire, etc.) without being connected to a carrier.  It also includes a GPS tracker, which can locate the user in an emergency.  Its location can also be displayed through an iPhone app, which would need to be paired with the SpareOne Plus prior to use.  It is waterproof and has a white LED light that provides up to 24 hours of continuous light.  It won the CES Design and Innovation 2013 award in the “Tech for a Better World” category and it is a great addition to your emergency toolkit.

Special smartphone cases

For those of us who use our smartphones often and find we are constantly running out of power, usually when we are away from a charging plug– these charging packs are a lifesaver.

Brands like mophie (for Apple products) and mycharge (for Apple and all other brands) offer charging packs that look and feel just like plastic smartphone cases but keep your phone charged on the go.  These entry level battery cases retail for under $100 and offer four hours of extra talk time.  Both companies offer more powerful charging cases that can charge multiple devices for more hours.

A forkful of weight loss

This item seemed to be the most fun and attract the most attention at the show.  It’s called the HAPifork, and promises to be the “world’s first fork that helps you lose weight.”

Sign me up.  The first ever-electronic fork claims to track the number of fork servings taken per minute per meal.   If you eat too fast, the fork lights up and gently vibrates, signaling to slow down.

The weight loss idea being; the slower you eat, the less you eat, the more weight you lose.  The HAPifork transmits your eating data from your fork to your with computer and/or smart phone so you can record it and review it on a dashboard.  And—get this—you can share your “forkfuls per minute” with your friends and loved ones.

I’m not quite sure how my friends would react getting an email from me with the number of forkfuls of breakfast I consumed.  I think that may fall under the TMI category.

The HAPifork is a product of the French based HAPilabs that’s mission is to “help people in the 21^st century take control of their “HAPiness, health and fitness through applications and mobile connected devices. For $99, a brightly colored mobile electronic fork that might be the answer to an overeater’s prayers.  Who knows?

These are just a few of the new and exciting products I discovered at the CES show.  Check back for future reviews.

I must admit, I download a lot of toads before I find a prince.  So I offer these suggestions for my favorite apps of 2012 after extensive personal research. What apps did you use most this year? Tell me in the comments — I need review suggestions!

Here are my criteria:

• An app must entertain, help or inform my “boomer” peers, as well as our older friends and family.  Since the mobile app market is expanding exponentially, I think it’s important to look for apps that will enhance our lives through technology.
• The app must be easy to read, easy to use and easy to navigate.  Admittedly, some apps work better and read better on tablets, so I try recommending apps that are available on both devices. After all that app testing, I figure if I don’t understand the app, our readers won’t either.
• The app needs to have a good customer support service.  I’m not interested in a great app that doesn’t offer help quickly if something goes wrong.  I’ve only strayed from this once when I recommended Dropbox, which is fabulous for storing documents in the cloud, but has lousy customer service.  I waited for a week for an email to respond to my question.  I didn’t like it, but the usefulness of the app supersedes the poor customer feedback.  Hopefully, that will change soon.

So, here is my list of my top 10 apps for 2012.  I’ve tried to include apps that cross a multitude of interests and some that haven’t made it to mainstream conversation.  In other words, you may be the first one of your friends to share the app, making you a real tech leader. I think the kids call that an “early adopter.”

1.  Medcoach is a medication adherence app available on Apple and Android. I think this is the best app in the medication reminder category.  It’s seamless.  It’s easy to follow your medication and vitamin schedule as prescribed by your doctor.  It delivers friendly reminder messages to your phone. It can even connect you to your pharmacy for prescription refills.  And there is a live person on the support desk.  This app is my husband’s ultimate favorite.
2. Emergencylink allows you to store your important contacts and copies of all your crucial records in one location.  In an emergency, this information can be easily accessed by your loved ones.  In case you are in an accident, the first responders can access your information by calling the 24-hour live support emergency hotline.  They’ll be able to access an emergency contact number and any other information you think they should know. They also offer key rings and wallet cards with users account numbers.  So far it’s available for iPad, iPhone, and Android users.
3. Zite is a personalized magazine designed to deliver stories from across the globe in categories users select.  The more you read, the better it gets.  There are other curated news sites out there that I’ve tested, but this one just seems to flow better.  It’s easy on the eyes, and offers the widest range of worldwide magazines.  It’s a great app to use in doctors’ waiting rooms.  It’s available for Apple and Android.
4. Lumosity is a series of brain training games that you can play to enhance your brain’s speed, memory, attention, problem solving and flexibility.  Users pick the area of their brain they want to train. They get harder as you progress, and easier if you struggle.  Newcomers are treated to a free trial; then it is a subscription-based app.  It’s only available on Apple mobile devices, but the brain training games can be done on any computer.
5. LoseIt is the app I use more than any other on my mobile phone.  It allows me to track my daily intake of food and exercise.  It has a huge database of food, and allows users to scan and store bar codes from packages.  It even develops a personalized database of foods you’ve eaten so you don’t have to search for them every time you want to make an entry.  And if you’re like me, I eat the same breakfast every day. LoseIt stores the meal under the Previous Meals section — all I have to do is tap it to make the entry.  It also syncs with Fitbit.  It’s available on iPhone and Android.
6. AARP, which I promise I’m not just listing because I blog for AARP.  It is a great app and available for iPhone and Android.  If you want a quick rundown of all news affecting boomers, seniors and caregivers, this app is spot on.  From legislative news, to budgeting, to coping skills, this app has everything front and center.  It takes the highlights from all if its publications and publishes them on this one app.  As one would expect, it’s easy to read, easy to navigate and has relevant content for its audience. My favorite section is the Benefits section where I find great discounts at stores I frequent.  On more than one occasion, I’ve been in a store and looked it up in the benefits section — only to find a discount code.  I just showed my phone at checkout and received the discount.
7. Ocean House Media is an app store that publishes educational and inspirational book apps for children.  It publishes more than 265 mobile and desktop apps for all Apple products, Android, Nook tablets, Kindle Fire, HP TouchPad and all Windows 8 devices. This group recently unveiled Dr. Seuss books, in which users can record their own voice reading the book and share it with others. It’s a great find for grandparents who want to connect with their grandchildren.
8. Karma is a free app, available on iPhone, Android and through Facebook, that lets users send instant gifts to people without knowing the recipient’s mailing address.  After selecting from a large array of interesting and unusual gifts, the app sends an instant message to your recipient by text or email.  Then the receiver is responsible for supplying the shipping address. And in case your recipient doesn’t want or need the particular gift you selected, he or she can exchange it before it’s sent.  This is a great way to gift your 20- or 30-something relatives, friends or business associates.  It removes the hassle of shopping and shipping, and they can be happy with the selection.  And it’s instant.
9. Kayak is the only app you need when you travel.  You can find hotels, flights and cars. You can keep everything about your trip — your agenda, your flight tracker, even airport information — all in one location.  It even has a packing checklist. Another plus: you can input your information on your computer if you wish, and it syncs with your app. Plus, it’s free.
10. TV Guide is a popular app for a good reason.  Now that we are blessed with so many channel selections thanks to cable and satellite television, it can take quite a while to scroll through the television menu searching for a program to watch.  The TV Guide app puts the whole listing in the palm of your hand.  Another great feature: it uses a GPS to determine your location, so if you’re traveling and want to watch a favorite show you can easily locate it.  Great for nights in hotels.

All of these may not be for you, but try the ones that sound interesting.

Oh, and please do let me know which apps you used over and over again in 2012. I need more to try!

If you’re looking for great books to guide you through using your new iPad, or setting up your Facebook privacy settings, check out our Bookstore at bookstore.aarp.org  for lots of great choices. 

I love discount online shopping.  In fact, some days I worry I’m addicted to it.

I’m a member of the popular deep discount  “members only” clothing and home goods websites Gilt Groupe, Rue La La, Haute Look and One Kings Lane.  I say “members only” with a smile, because anyone who signs up becomes a member.

Every day, and twice a day during the holiday shopping season, these sites send me emails highlighting items that are discounted 50 percent or more.

On the average, their deals last three days.  During the last couple of years I’ve bought a pair of gloves, a couple of ties for my husband, and some earrings.  Many of the clothes seemed geared to younger people, or just not right for my body, so while I look every day I’m not a frequent buyer.

Recently, my 30-something fashionista niece told me about the Neiman Marcus Mid-day Dash site.

“It’s great, Aunt Suzie,” she says.  “ Every day for two hours around noon Neiman’s offers great clothes for huge discounts. “

Her mom scoffs, saying, “Sounds great, but who is at their computer at noon?”

I am.  I’m a writer, and most days I’m front and center at my computer.  (There is a mobile app for the site, but personally I like to do my shopping on a large screen.)

So I sign up for emails on the Neiman Marcus main site. Of course, that includes the Mid-day Dash and  Neiman’s Last Call store—the 24-hour deep discount center. More discounts! More shopping!

The emails start flooding my inbox, fervently calling my name, enticing me with the best sales of the day, promising slashed prices.  I’m hooked.  I feel like one of those people lining up outside of the stores on Black Friday waiting to rush in for the big day bargains.

Add those sales to the daily Groupon and LivingSocial deals, plus the holiday sales from department stores, and my email box is swarming with stuff I just don’t want to miss.

I’ve become a Boomer statistic.  According to a Forrester Report published in November 2011, boomers aged 56-66 spend the most online, followed by those aged 46-55. Only the oldest Americans spend less than Gen X (and slightly less than Gen Y) online.

To track my completed online purchases, I file the confirmation email in a folder in my online mail account marked “email orders.”  That’s worked pretty well, but sometimes I forget the details of the shipping dates.  And I definitely forget the amount of money I spend online.

Then I discovered a free app called Slice, which has given my online shopping a reality check.  It’s available for iPhone and Android.  I registered for Slice with the email account I use for online purchasing, and all my online activity was imported into the app.

Slice claims it’s “the simplest way to organize everything you buy online.  Link your email box and it automatically works across your favorite merchants.”

It’s really true.  With a couple of easy steps, all my online purchases were imported to my phone.

The wow factor for me is the “History” feature.  On one screen I can see my purchase history.  Each entry contains the name of the item, the store where it was purchased, the date it was purchased, its price, a photo, and a notation if it’s in transit or delivered.  It includes the order receipt, the store phone number and a “return by” date.

Across the top of the page is a scroll bar containing the number of items purchased and the amount of money spent for online purchases.   The first time I saw the figure I nearly fainted, but then I realized it dated back to 2010.  Then I saw the “filter” button.  Whew.

The app filters purchases by date: last month, last six months, last year, or a custom date range of your choice.  It also filters by category (apparel, electronics, office products, toys, travel, etc.), by item type (hotel reservations, subscriptions, tickets, etc.)  and by specific merchant.

Last month I ordered some vitamin supplements online and wanted to order some more, but I couldn’t remember the site name.  When I was scrolling through the Merchants section, which only contains merchants I have used, the site name popped up.  That’s cool.

Using this app will help me manage my holiday shopping well. It will be right at my fingertips on my phone when I’m in the mall.  That way when I’m wondering “did I already buy a gift  for my 1-year-old  grandniece, “ I can check  Slice.

And it will keep me abreast of my “midday dash” purchasing, which is sure to curb my race for the deal.

If you and your kids or grandkids own an Apple device, the force of your voice can be with them.

Dr. Seuss Enterprises and app publisher Oceanhouse Media, Inc. are offering an exclusive ”Record and Share” feature for Dr. Seuss’s award-winning children’s digital books in the App Store℠.

For the first time, users can record themselves reading a Dr. Seuss story and then share the recording with anyone who also owns the digital book. Recipients who do not have the digital book can listen to the recording as a standard audio file. Multiple voice tracks can be saved within the digital book as well.

Currently there are 14 “Record and Share” book apps.  Most are Dr. Seuss’s award winning stories, but there are several from the Berenstain Bears collection.  “Record and Share”app prices range from $1.99 to $4.99 per book.  There are a couple of free LITE versions that give the reader an eight-page sampler version.

I tried the “Record and Share” Green Eggs & Ham book app and I must admit I thought it was pretty darn cool.  Users can personalize the narration, any way they want.  You can add the child’s name, say funny phrases like “are you listening Ella?” or anything else.  I don’t have any grandchildren, so I recorded it for my 29-year-old son.  I plan to let him listen to the recorded story when he visits for Thanksgiving.  However, I’m sure it won’t be met with the same enthusiasm as it would by a young grandchild.

I showed the app to my girlfriend last night who has a five-year-old grandson she will be visiting soon.  She downloaded it immediately and plans to record and read a Dr. Seuss book to little Benjamin as soon as she sees him.  “Before I leave town I’m going to download it on his mother’s iPad so he can have me with him after I’ve gone home,” she said excitedly.  “This is great!”

It’s also a terrific feature for working or traveling parents who want to leave a personalized story for their child while they are away from home.

There are three ways to read the digital books

• “Read to Me” — listen to the narrated story with words highlighted as they are read.

• “Read it Myself” — read the book in its traditional form.

•  ”Auto Play” — plays like a movie, automatically reading and turning pages. Great for younger children.

 Additional Features:

•  Picture / Word association — words zoom up and are spoken when pictures are touched.
•  Individual words highlight and are read aloud when tapped.
• Professional audio narration.
•  Custom background audio for each scene.

I think these story apps will make great holiday gifts for kids and grandkids, and provide a warm, educational connection through reading.

What do you think?

Enter the GeoQpon app.  It’s an up-to-the-minute aggregator of daily deals offered by ZIP code.  Users are only asked to enter their ZIP codes, no other personal sign up information, which triggers a display of hundreds of deals.  Deals can be segmented by category, distance, or brand.  Users can also click on “Today’s offers” to get really specific.

The app is categorized like this:

• Brand offers: these are offers from major retailers.  They are valid for in-store or online purchases depending on the offer.
• Local offers: these are from local stores in and near the ZIP code users select.  Users can filter by category, location, or even by entering a particular name for the retail establishment.
• Favorite: just like other apps, you can select the star next to the store name or offer title for easy reference.  (I already am a favorite to Camp Bow Wow, which is a beloved locale of my Goldendoodle Lexie.)

Once of the cool things about GeoQpon is it also displays local Groupon deals, baking both of the deal sites into one app.  Once users select a deal, they can view a map of its location.  Users can redeem their deals by showing the offer image on the phone to the store cashier.  There also is a print option using the email feature for those more comfortable with paper.

The free app is available on iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry and Nokia.  Users who want the free app have to tolerate the scrolling ads on the bottom of the page for area establishments.   Ad-free packages are available for three months at $2.99, six months at $4.99 or one year for $7.99.

The app is using crowdsourcing to expand its business.  Users are rewarded with GeoCodes, which are unique, personal codes that allows them to receive money for recruiting their favorite local retailers and restaurants to publish offers on GeoQpons. Only businesses that pay for the service are included, so users won’t find all of the deals available in the universe on the site.

Social networking plays a major role with this app. In addition, users are frequently asked to post reviews in the app stores, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

The app is pretty straightforward and easy to use, and users can pick deals as they travel throughout the day using the app’s GPS device.  So I think GeoQpons might have a real place in the coupon market.  What do you think? Have you seen another app that does this better?

Just download the free Washington Post Politics App and leap into the campaign season with gusto.

The app, launched earlier this year, offers terrific photos, graphics, and animation of everything political.  It features news and analysis, interactive maps with state-by-state polls, historical election results, campaign ads and candidate issues at-a-glance. It also contains, my personal favorite –the factchecker.com

It you want to be a part of the political discussion this fall, this app’s for you.  Even the novice politico will find this app easy to navigate and interesting.  It contains articles from all the big television networks, both liberal and conservative.

But for the real political junkies who want to follow social media, the new feature called “The Forum” makes this app a real keeper.

The Forum identifies, organizes and presents content from the most influential political voices on Twitter.  The Forum arranges the tweets into six groups: news outlets, campaigns, partisans, prominent office holders, fact checkers and jesters.  Tweeters’ names and titles are displayed in addition to Twitter handles, making it simple for users to know exactly who is saying what.

For those who really want to lead the conversation, check out the “Trending Tweets” section of The Forum, where hot issues of the moment are isolated for easy reference.

Readers do not have to have a Twitter account to read these tweets.

“The Forum enables new and experienced Twitter users alike to quickly see what the political experts, office holders and newsmakers are saying without so much as creating a Twitter account, let alone finding, following and organizing hundreds of people,” said Beth Jacobs, general manager of mobile, for the Washington Post.

In a true testament to to the app, my husband a political pro and conservative, who usually disagrees with the Washington Post editorials, called the app “for the most part unbiased with good information.”

The app, while educational, informational and entertaining, does have a few glitches.  Sometimes ,when I tried to watch a video on my iPad (a first generation iPad), the app would close down.  The engineers at the Post said it’s because my iPad version can’t handle the high definition videos.  While that’s an annoyance, it’s certainly not a barrier for use.  The app’s free, the information is offered in a straightforward format, it has all range of opinions, and it’s educational.

Politics is important.  Even as we tire of the long campaign season, it’s essential to remember that we all have a responsibility to vote.  Elections are a privilege of living in a free country and this app is just one vehicle to help us make an informed choice.