Category Archives: Cool Apps

How Artificial Intelligence can build Twitter Peeps

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As a software entrepreneur, I always appreciate well-designed software. Look and feel is important but ease-of-use and highly useful features are even more paramount.  About a year ago, I introduced you to software called Crowdfire that helps you build Twitter followers.  Using the software, I personally grew my Twitter followers by about 20,000 in a year.

Just recently, Crowdfire converted their software to an artificial intelligence engine using data analytics as its core. The new software is called Crowdfire 2.0 and the artificial intelligence is referred to as Firebot. Here’s how it works.

Firebot asks you a few questions about the keywords you are targeting with your blog, your competitors, and the types of posts you enjoy sharing. By answering a few questions, it builds an internal analytics map that is used to recommend things for you to do each day to build your Twitter followers.

These recommendations are called Prescriptions and once you install Crowdfire, Firebot provides a convenient notification each day to guide you through increasing your followers. Going through the prescriptions each day takes less than 3 minutes and it provides an area that tells you why it is suggesting a specific action.

The best way to demonstrate this is to show you how I use it. Check out this movie:

Artificial Intelligence by Crowdfire

http://screencast.com/t/BirOknhFy

In the movie, notice how it crunches your analytics — looking at your existing followers, the types of things you normally share, your targeted keywords and smoothly guides you through recommendations on what to do next.  I always tap the WHY button for each recommendation and it clearly explains why it is recommending the action.

How do you take advantage of this Artificial Intelligence?

You can download Crowdfire from their website at https://www.crowdfireapp.com. If you want to be part of the beta for Crowdfire 2.0, go to http://invite.crowdfireapp.com/beta.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

Steve and his wife built a software company, sold it and retired early. Steve enjoys blogging about lifestyle freedom, financial independence and technology. If you like this blog, subscribe here to get an email each time he posts.

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App Review: Skype is more than just free calls

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Today’s app review is for the Skype app, the best way to make free phone calls through your smartphone or web browser. You may be surprised to find that Skype can do much more than just make phone calls, read on to learn more.

What Skype Is

Skype is an app that allows you to make free video calls, message others, and share your PC screen with others.

You can begin chatting with other people by adding them to your contacts. Once they have accepted your invitation, you can chat with them just as you can with any other messaging tool.

Skype

A little-known feature of Skype is the ability to share your screen with others. Let’s imagine that you need to show a friend how to use a website, you can share your screen with them and let them visually see everything you are doing.

Skype

You can call someone for free using Skype if both of you are using Skype. However, there are times when you want to call someone who has a land line and does not have Skype. You can do that and pay by the minute.

Skype

Who Made Skype

Microsoft is the maker of Skype. Hundreds of millions of people are already using Skype to do all sorts of things together.

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Why Skype is Awesome

Skype is awesome because you can make free phone calls and share your PC screen with others.

Download for iPhone  |  Android

About this Blog

Steve and his wife built a software company, sold it and retired early. Steve enjoys blogging about lifestyle freedom, financial independence, and technology. If you like this blog, subscribe here to get an email each time he posts.

If you like this post, you might also like these prior posts:

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App Review: Evernote is your Notes on Steroids

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Today’s app review is for the Evernote app, the premier notes manager. With Evernote, you will have a digital workspace to organize all your notes, ideas, articles, and other useful artifacts.

What Evernote Is

Evernote is a digital workspace for your ideas, lists, images, and tasks in one place.

Evernote manage notes

It also allows you to clip and save articles from the web and put them into your personal workspace.

Evernote clip notes

All your notes can be styled with rich text editing and you can easily check off your to-do list using the app.

Evernote create styled notes

You can even sketch drawings and notations directly into the note.

Evernote sketch notes

Who Made Evernote

Evernote Corporation is the maker of Evernote. They build apps and products that are defining the way individuals and teams work today. As one workspace that lives across your phone, tablet, and computer, Evernote is the place to write free from distraction, collect information, find what you need, and present your ideas to the world.

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Why Evernote is Awesome

Evernote makes capturing your ideas and notes easy and it works across all devices you normally work with: phone, web browser, and tablet.

Download for iPhone  |  Android

About this Blog

Steve and his wife built a software company, sold it and retired early. Steve enjoys blogging about lifestyle freedom, financial independence, and technology. If you like this blog, subscribe here to get an email each time he posts.

If you like this post, you might also like these prior posts:

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App Review: Any.do To-Do List & Task List

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Today’s app review is for the Any.do app, the premier to-do and task list manager. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed with your endless list of things to do — Any.do really helps out.

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What Any.do Is

The Any.do app lets you organize to-do and task lists. When you first install it, it asks you what you would like to organize.

Any.do Organize

Once you choose your categories, you can then add your to-do list. As you add them, you can quickly mark them as completed by swiping right. You can also reorganize tasks by dragging them to the order you desire.

Any.do To Do List

If you would like to share a list with someone else, you simply add them as a sharer. Imagine that you and your spouse are grocery shopping and you want to split up the duties of getting groceries. You could make a list, share it with your spouse, and each of you can see as the other crosses items off the list.

Any.do Shared Lists

Who Made Any.do

Any.DO was founded in 2010 by Omer Perchik, Yoni Lindenfeld & Itay Kahana. Frustrated by the inefficiency of the available tools to actually help organize his life, Omer was inspired to do something about it. His goal was to create a tool to simplify the way people organize their lives, to allow them more time for fun. He really hit the mark with Any.do.

Why Any.do is Awesome

The simplicity of the user interface is what makes Any.do so awesome. For example, to add a new item, you swipe down. To complete an item, you swipe right. To get rid of completed items, you shake your phone and the app exclaims “WOW!“. Very cool.

Download for iPhone  |  Android

About this Blog

Steve and his wife built a software company, sold it and retired early. Steve enjoys blogging about lifestyle freedom, financial independence and technology. If you like this blog, subscribe here to get an email each time he posts.

If you like this post, you might also like these prior posts:

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How to fix Selfie Photos (Facetune makes it beautiful)

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Today’s app review is for the Facetune app. If you’ve ever create a selfie or photo of a friend and it did not turn out well, you can fix it with Facetune.

Beautify photos with Facetune

What Facetune Is

The Facetune app is all about improving your photos. We all create photos that are not picture perfect. Correcting photos with tools like Photoshop can be expensive and hard to learn. With Facetune, you can smooth blemishes, erase imperfections, whiten teeth, and cover over gray hair. You can even reshape jawlines, apply makeup, reshape noses, and much more.

Once you open a photo, you can choose an action (like to smooth an area of skin) and correct it:

Facetune Smooth Blemishes

You can also whiten teeth and enhance your smile. You can even make smiles wider and more pronounced:

Facetune Whiten Teeth

Removing pimples and other facial blemishes is a breeze:

Facetune Erase Pimples

Once you’ve edited a photo, you can quickly compare it to the original.

Who Made It

Lightricks Ltd is the developer of Facetune.

Why Facetune is Awesome

Facetune is awesome because you can quickly fix selfies and other photos without purchasing expensive photo editing software like Photoshop. It’s easy to use and quick to learn.

Download for iPhone  |  Download for Android

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About this Blog

Steve and his wife built a software company, sold it and retired early. Steve enjoys blogging about lifestyle freedom, financial independence, and technology. If you like this blog, subscribe here to get an email each time he posts.

If you like this post, you might also like these prior posts:

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App Review: aMemoryJog Password Manager App

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Today’s app review is for the aMemoryJog password manager app. If you’re like me, you probably have tons of information that you use from time-to-time that are important yet easy-to-forget. Stuff like account numbers, WiFi codes, loyalty account numbers can be put into aMemoryJog and you can whip out your phone and quickly find any information.

What the aMemoryJog Password Manager App Is

First, full disclosure. Unlike the other apps on the Cool Apps section of this blog, I designed and created the aMemoryJog  password manager app so this review may seem a bit biased. However, I created the app because I wanted a more affordable way to store easy-to-forget info, so on with the review.

The aMemoryJog  password manager app is all about securely organizing information that’s easy-to-forget. For example, we have a storage unit where we store some stuff for a house we are building. The code to enter the storage unit is long and is not memorable. I put that code into aMemoryJog and when I am at the unit, I simply whip out my phone to recall it.

aMemoryJog Password Manager App

Using it for storage codes is just an example. I use it for tracking VIN and tag numbers for my automobiles, banking codes, software license codes and much more. I use it so much, I wrote a blog about how using it is like using a Swiss Army knife.

My son is in college and he swears by it — he uses it to track all his passwords and school information. Lots of others like it as well, about 1,000 new users come on board every month.

aMemoryJog - Best Password Manager for iPhone

One the coolest features is that it works as an app for the iPhone but also has a web edition so if you are at your computer, you can quickly pull up your information using your web browser. But if you’re away from your computer, you can pull out your phone and see the same information because it seamlessly syncs together.

aMemoryJog Password Manager Web Edition

Who Made aMemoryJog

Yours truly made the aMemoryJog password manager app under my company name Flip Flop Software. Hey, I live at the beach and rarely wear shoes so my company is aptly named.

Why aMemoryJog is Awesome

I wanted to offer an alternative to the big password managers (you know them: 1Password, Dashlane, Keeper, etc.). Those are all great apps but here’s how aMemoryJog is different:

  • There is a totally free edition that works well for lots of people. The free edition is not limited by the number of items than can be stored, however, it does not sync with the web edition unless you purchase the paid edition.
  • The competitors tend to get pricey. If you decide to purchase the aMemoryJog iPhone edition, you get a free 1-year subscription to the web edition. Likewise, if you buy a 1-year subscription to the web edition, you get the iPhone edition for free. The competitors normally charge you for the web edition separately and the cost is normally much higher.
  • The aMemoryJog password manager app has a recycle bin, so if you mistakenly delete an item, you can restore it. None of the competitors have that feature.
  • The aMemoryJog password manager app has a remote self-destruct feature. God forbid, what if your iPhone gets lost or stolen, you will probably be sweating someone getting into your password manager. With aMemoryJog, if that happens, you just log into the web edition and set it to automatically wipe out the aMemoryJog data on the iPhone (which you can later restore if you buy a new phone). Pretty cool stuff.

Download FREE edition for iPhone | Download PAID edition for iPhone | Signup for Web Edition

About this Blog

Steve and his wife built a software company, sold it and retired early. Steve enjoys blogging about lifestyle freedom, financial independence, and technology. If you like this blog, subscribe here to get an email each time he posts.

If you like this post, you might also like these prior posts:

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App Review: Fitness Buddy

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Today’s app review is for the Fitness Buddy app. Whether you workout in a gym or if you have a home gym, workout routines can get stale. With Fitness Buddy , you can  quickly create new workout routines to keep your workouts fresh and fun.

What Fitness Buddy Is

The Fitness Buddy app is all about improving your fitness. It allows you to build a custom workout routine for specific body parts and for different fitness levels. When you start, you can choose  beginner, intermediate or advance levels workouts or you can choose a workout to support a specific goal (like weight loss or improved muscle definition).

Choose your fitness level with Fitness Buddy

It then creates an exercise routine based on your criteria and shows you each exercise in the routine. If you don’t like a specific exercise, you can easily change to one you enjoy.

Fitness Buddy creates exercise routines by body part

One the coolest features is the instructional video. For each exercise, it provides an animation that shows you exactly how to perform it.

Fitness Buddy has instructions for each exercise

Who Made Fitness Buddy

Azumio Inc. is the developer of Fitness Buddy. Azumio is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and is the leading app developer for fitness mobile apps. With over 70 million downloads to date, Azumio is dedicated to the improvement of people’s health and livelihood by influencing healthy behavior through the use of innovative mobile applications.

Why Fitness Buddy is Awesome

Fitness Buddy is awesome because it does not matter if you go to a gym to workout or workout at home, you can easily find a workout routine that you will enjoy. And you can rotate the routines monthly to keep the workouts fresh and fun.

Download for iPhone  |  Android

About this Blog

Steve and his wife built a software company, sold it and retired early. Steve enjoys blogging about lifestyle freedom, financial independence and technology. If you like this blog, subscribe here to get an email each time he posts.

If you like this post, you might also like these prior posts:

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App Review: Golf GPS

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Today’s app review is for the Golf GPS app. I have been using this app since October 2013 and it tracks my golf scores, handicap, and provides statistics that show what my average strokes are on a specific hole on a specific golf course.

What Golf GPS Is

The Golf GPS app is all about improving your golf handicap. It tracks scores, handicap and provides statistics for each hole played. You can even track how many times you hit the fairway on your drive, how often you 3-putt and other interesting stats.

Golf GPS golf stats

But I think the best feature is the GPS. You simply walk up to your ball, tap the hole on the score card and it shows you the distance to the pin. It also shows you distances to specific areas of the fairway (like distance to a stream or other impediment).

Golf GPS yardage

To get started, you simply download it, tap Courses then it will show you all the golf courses in near you. Once you find the one you are about to play, tap to Download the score card. Once you have downloaded the score card once, you never have to do it again.

Golf GPS scorecard

Once you have the course score card downloaded, simply tap Rounds to start tracking your score. You can track scores for yourself and for others.

Who Made Golf GPS

StrackaLine is the developer of Golf GPS. StrackaLine was founded in 2007 by father and son, Jim and Chase Stracka. Both are avid golfers and set off on the project to combine their expertise in technology with their passion for the game of golf.

Why Golf GPS is Awesome

Golf GPS app is awesome because you can keep all of  your golf rounds in a single app, allowing you to go back and see what you’ve scored over the past year or so. But even more impressive is the GPS. It’s great to simply walk up on your ball and know exactly how far it is to the pin.

Download for iPhone

About this Blog

Steve and his wife built a software company, sold it and retired early. Steve enjoys blogging about lifestyle freedom, financial independence and technology. If you like this blog, subscribe here to get an email each time he posts.

If you like this post, you might also like these prior posts:

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App Review: Road Bike by Runtastic

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Today’s app review is for the Road Bike app by Runtastic. I have been cycling for recreation for a long time but 2 years ago I started making it a regular part of my exercise routine. Cycling is great for your heart and your waistline. In an hour, you can burn between 500 – 800 calories, depending on how fast you go. I have ridden a half century (50 miles) twice (once by myself and once with my youngest son).

What Road Bike Is

The Road Bike app is all about tracking your cycling rides. It tracks average speed, max speed, elevation change, calories, average pace, and more. It also uses the GPS to show your route and even records the temperature.

To get started, you simply download it, tap Session then tap Start. You can pause your ride if you stop at street crossings or if you are just taking a break. If you like to play music during your ride, you can stream your favorite playlist.

As you are cycling, it also announces your progress every mile or so (the timing is configurable). It can announce miles traveled, average speed, average heart rate, and average pace.

Road Bike App

Who Made Road Bike

Runtastic is the developer of Road Bike, they have develop lots of different fitness related apps for running, heart rate monitoring, nutrition and working out.

Why Road Bike is Awesome

Road Bike is awesome because you can keep track of all of your rides. If I ever wonder how many miles I’ve cycled in the past year or so, I can go there to see it. My history shows that I’ve logged 2,677 miles since August 2013 and went for rides 178 times. It also shows that I’ve ridden over 34,839 feet in elevation gain.

Another awesome feature is the heart rate monitoring. With an optional heart rate strap, you can monitor your heart rate in real-time. I don’t always use this feature but my wife uses it religiously.

Download It

Download for iPhone  | Download for Android

About this Blog

Steve and his wife built a software company, sold it and retired early. Steve enjoys blogging about lifestyle freedom, financial independence and technology. If you like this blog, subscribe here to get an email each time he posts.

If you like this post, you might also like these prior posts:

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How to download free apps in the Apple App Store without a Password

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Finally! With Apple’s release iOS 8.3, you no longer have to enter a password each time you wish to download a free app from the app store.  Since this is a new feature for iOS and it is OFF by default, here is how you turn the feature on.

Before starting, make sure you are on iOS 8.3 or higher (tap Settings | General | Software Update). Then watch this quick movie to see how to disable the prompting of a password for free apps:

Brought to you by aMemoryJog

This blog was brought to you by aMemoryJog, a free password management app for the iPhone. If you are looking for an app to track your passwords and other easy-to-forget information, download aMemoryJog now at http://apple.co/1BsnQ7K. Why not, it’s free!

Password Keeper App

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