I thought I'd take a break this week and throw out a few random apps I've been trying out lately. Some good, some so-so and some are just downright fun.
Let's start with something simple.
I've written previously about sensors that can help grill food. But what if you want to cook multiple foods on a stove? A kitchen timer is always a big help, but most of the time, kitchen timers only let you program a single cooking time.
Thyme fixes that problem by allowing users to set up to five timers -- one for the oven and four for different burners. The app shows five timers laid out in a pattern similar to a stovetop, and it tracks the timing for each one. This enables Thyme to let a cook know when the food on the rear left burner is ready, for example.
Thyme, available for free for iOS and Android, is incredibly easy to use. Simply moving the finger around the edge of the circle places the timer on the correct number of minutes. The timers will work if the app is up or running in the background, and it continues to work even if the phone goes to sleep.
The only downside is the timer doesn't beep for very long. So if a person misses it, well, they miss it. Still, Thyme is a great idea and is very useful.
The next app is called Goodshop. It's only available on iOS at the moment, but it's free.
The idea behind it is a great one: It puts coupons, specials and deals from a variety of popular online stores together into one app. The best part is, a portion of the proceeds from items sold through the app go to a charity of the user's choosing. The list is extensive and includes national charities such as the American Red Cross, The Humane Society or the Susan G. Komen Foundation, as well as local charities, including churches, schools and hospitals.
The list of stores also is fairly extensive and varies greatly in the types of merchandise being offered. The list includes clothing stores such as JC Penney and Kohl's, home improvement stores such as Lowe's and Home Depot, general retail centers such as Amazon and Walmart, and even stores for us nerds, such as Newegg and Think Geek.
Users set the charity of their choice (only one, but you can change the choice later), then browse coupons and deals in each store. After the purchase is made, a portion of the money will be donated to the charity. The portion varies from store to store, but the app tells you the percentage before a purchase is made, which is nice.
Unfortunately, Goodshop's execution isn't as good as its idea.
There were a few times when I tried to put items into the store's shopping cart, such as at Kohl's, but I was unable to do so. The app somehow blocked the ability to save the item in the shopping cart. No shopping cart, no purchase. It was only with a few instances, though. While I had difficulty putting the plum-colored cardigan in my shopping cart at Kohl's, I had no problem getting the Klingon bat'leth letter opener.
Goodshop is a nice idea but it has a few kinks to work out. I really love the idea, though.
Next up was a new social media application called MatchCut. The free app, available for iOS and Android, takes multiple videos and pieces them together to match a piece of music. The app provides the instrumental music for the videos.
I'll be honest; I didn't expect much from this app. I spend hours editing videos. However, MatchCut really surprised me. It worked perfectly and it did so in a quick, efficient manner. Videos could be saved, loaded to YouTube or even placed on Facebook.
The videos are short, less than 30 seconds, but they work wonderfully with the music. I made one in particular I really liked, where I took several time-lapse videos I had made of sunsets and put those with some dramatic music. The result is pretty awesome. The video will be up on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tech-Spotlight-column/143770982301273).
Finally, I have to mention a little game I found. The game, Groops, is only available for iOS and costs 99 cents.
On its face, the game appears very basic. A player is given a grid of objects, and the matching groups must be chosen from the objects. The objects are shapes that either have patterns, shapes or solid color within them. "Groops" can all match or can be one of each type. For example, one groop can be circles with a triangle, a square and an hourglass, as long as the circles are the same color and pattern underneath.
The game starts out very simply, but as it goes on, it gets a lot harder. It doesn't have a ton of levels, and it will seem they go by quickly, at first. Eventually, it gets to the point where the limited number of hints available at the bottom of the screen come in very handy.
Groops is a real brain teaser. It's one of those games that really stimulates the brain. The easy-to-hard levels allow just about anyone to play, and it becomes more fun the more challenging it becomes.
These apps are available whether you're cooking, shopping or just needing a bit of fun. Who doesn't need that?
Melissa L. Jones can be reached via email at [email protected].
SundayMonday Business on 08/25/2014