5 Apps We Count On to Keep Our Lives in Order
Without them, what would we do?
17 September, 2019
Get Your Shit Together
10 November, 2021
If you’re anything like us, you’ve showed up to more than one meeting with a flushed face and an untucked shirt all because you had to hop out of your gridlocked Uber for the sweaty, cramped L train. Or maybe your AC has failed you and broken down on one of the hottest days of the year when you’re meant to be hosting your in-laws for dinner? Why don’t we put our iPhone addiction to good use with technology that helps us get out of those sort of predicaments. For this reason, we’ve put together the five apps that help us get through even the worst of days.
Mint
Still topping off our list for the best way to keep our shit—as in, our finances—together is Mint. With Mint you can manage all of your accounts, track and pay your bills directly from the app, create budgets that will keep you on track (a category will turn yellow and then red as you approach your spending limit), and get your credit score all in one place. It will even track all of your spending and put it into an easy-to-read pie chart, so you can see exactly where your money is going. Now you can save up for those new fall fashions you've had your eyes on.
Handy
No one human can do it *all*. Although, sometimes, we like to think we can. But when our kitchen faucet starts spraying water all over the walls and ceiling, that’s when we wave the white flag and open the Handy app. With it you can book the best cleaners and handymen—plumbers, electrical workers, and painters—for anything that goes awry.
Waze
We would never show up on time if it weren’t for Waze. Even in the most pull-out-your-hair traffic jams, it’ll steer you to the fastest route, weaving you around any accidents, construction, or congestion along the way.
Google Translate
This Google app will quite literally change your life while traveling. Download the languages of the country you are visiting (so that they can be accessed offline), and hold your phone up to a menu or sign and it will automatically (and quickly) translate into English—or another language of your choosing. It also translates as you type and gives you an instant speech translation. Magnifique, non?
Mobile Passport
Nobody likes waiting in agonizingly long lines at the airport. Travel should be easy, if you ask us, but more often than not it isn't. Cue Mobile Passport—an app that is authorized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and lets you breeze through customs right as you land into the United States. How does it work? Add your passport information, answer some questions about your trip, and when you land, hit Submit. You'll get an electronic CBP receipt to scan in at the special Mobile Passport Control lane. Then you’re on your way. Consider it another version of Global Entry, and your way to skip out on those annoying blue-and-white customs forms. The Mobile Passport Control lane is currently available in 20+ U.S. airports, with more to come. Happy landings!
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