It’s great that all my shopping stores now offer convenient apps so the need to actually physically walk into the store appears to be diminishing. The not-so-great thing is I find myself cruising these apps during a busy Monday and buying things I don’t need as means of relaxation. Which really isn’t all that relaxing once you receive the credit card bill. So I’ve decided next year I will aim to download less of the shopping apps and more of the useful, productive, educational, fun apps. Taking a break from life doesn’t have to cost a fortune!

As I’m shopping for some interesting apps out there, I find these and I’m like wait, these are pretty cool. Does anyone else know about these?

Reporter: Have you ever wanted to track the minutae of your life? You know, how many cups of coffee you’ve drank in a year, or which of your friends you’ve seen the most? Reporter, by Facebook Timeline Designer Nicholas Felton, can send you custom quizzes six times a day to find out, then graph the results. Hmmm I’m curious and scared at the same time. Not sure how I feel about a service telling me politely at the end of the year how I’ve managed to not have a life!

Panic Button: You can call 911 from a smartphone’s lock screen, but Amnesty International has built something better for reporters in dangerous areas. (Or anyone with an Android phone, really.) It’s a Panic Button that you can activate in case of an emergency just by clicking the power button on your phone several times. It will send alerts and location data to three selected contacts. Don’t be messin’ with it unless you absolutely have to!

Foodscores: Looks beyond a nutrition label and rates your grub on a scale of 1 – 10 based on nutrition (the standard calories, fat, and protein stuff); ingredients (including undisclosed pesticides, contaminants, or antibiotics); and processing (how far has that product come from its source whole foods). Nothing is hidden from their database of 80,000 products. You don’t want to know how they feel about Kellogg’s Corn Flakes either!

OK well…these are good for today…unless you’re hungry for more…then you may want to check out my previous posts on:  productivity apps, travel apps and other fun apps. Enjoy!