Helpful Holiday Phone Apps
MIAMI (CBS4) - One of the most frustrating parts of the holidays is remembering where you parked your car. But there's an app for that, as CBS4's Cynthia Demos discovered when she have her car to her photographer, Hassan, to park.
She also gave him her smart phone. The plan was for him to park the car somewhere in the Dadeland Mall parking lot, unknown to Demos, bring back her phone and see if she could locate her car.
Hassan found a spot, opened up the App, hit "parked here" so the GPS would take note of the spot, and then headed back to Cynthia.
"Welcome back," exclaimed Cynthia. "I'm never going to find it. Let's see. Where did I park?
Cynthia then opened up the GPS G-Park App. "Ok, I'm the blue dot and my car is the red dot. Let's go take a look for it."
As Demos begins to walk, the GPS points north.
"Which way is North," Demos asked out loud. "The red dot is where I parked..."
As she is on her journey at Dadeland, Demos met Pam Rice, an avid App user who told Cynthia that her trips to the grocery store aren't always merry.
"Often, I would write down my list on a piece of paper and then turn, you know, hop in the car, and leave it on the counter," said Rice.
Now Pam Rice uses ZipList. It's an App on her smart phone that helps keep her grocery list in check.
From bagging food to bagging discounts, technology expert Jennifer Jolly explained how a slew of smart phone Apps can prevent holiday headaches.
One of her favorite is Shop-N-Tella. It rounds up product reviews and recommendations from industry experts such as the Shop-N-Tella social networking community and sites like Facebook and Twitter.
"Say you want to buy a new smart phone. You ask it a question, and it sends it out to your entire social media base, to cell phone and smart phone experts, and you get a real-time answer," said Jolly.
And the answer to where Hassan parked Cynthia's car is quickly being revealed.
"It's a few more turns," said Demos.
Demos also discovered the Gift Plan App. It allows you to easily keep track of what you need to buy and jot down notes on gift ideas, personal tastes and clothing sizes. You can also plan your holiday menu with ZipList, a digital grocery list.
Erin Gifford is with ZipList. "It automatically sorts everything by aisle. You can also start searching for recipes and add everything you need to your shopping list with one click."
Pam Rice likes the sharing feature. "Say I'm out running errands and my husband thinks of something that he needs, he can actually add something to the list."
So while Pam's at the grocery store... Demos is still looking for her car.
"There it is! It worked," cried Demos. "It's here where Hassan parked it."
The Apps cost you anywhere from 99-cents to $2.99. The one Demos downloaded for free didn't work, but the G-Park App did.
