1. Vouchercloud

Vouchercloud is available as an app where you can receive your vouchers through text message or as a voucher code directly on your phone. This voucher is then presented to the cashier upon paying to enjoy valuable savings. The vouchers available are on a wide range of items from leisure and entertainment, from Alton Towers vouchers to eating out, to travel and many more.

The Vouchercloud app is now available on all smartphone platforms including Windows phones, iPhones, Android and Google. This enables the buyer to enjoy money saving discounts while on the go.

Another handy feature in this app is that it’ll helpfully provide you with a map of your local area, marking local participating businesses so that you can be sure that you’re always getting the best deal in town!

2. Hot Deals UK

Hot Deals UK has a wide selection of deals, vouchers, sale items and freebies available with a great app that is available for both iOS and Android based mobile devices. Get the information through push notifications, newsletters or just do a basic search in your area and see the great deals available to you. Hot Deals UK is a community run app where consumers share information and voucher codes with other consumers, so you can always count on someone to be keeping the database fresh!

3. Red Laser

Red Laser is one of the top iPhone, Windows and Android phone apps for those that want to pay the best price when you walk into any store and see a must have item. It’s so easy to use; you scan the item you’re interested in and the app will do the rest. You’ll be presented with buying options, product information, directions to retailers and more at the tap of a button.

If someone in the family has food allergies, this app is a definite must have. Scan the barcode of any food item and a list of the allergens will be available for you to check and determine whether the food is safe to take home with you.

4. Pricecheckah

Pricecheckah is a money saving tool available for the iPhone. It enables you to save money when you have the urge for an impulse buy or see something you really want. All you do is scan in the barcode or type in the name and Pricecheckah will find you the cheapest prices even from places such as eBay and Amazon, where you can order it straight away and have it delivered.

5. Spendometer

Spendometer is ideal for anyone who is trying to save money or buy on a budget. This free app lets you set daily, weekly or even monthly budgets and you just pop in your spending as you go. It will soon advise you if you are saving or overspending. Perfect for students who are living on a very tight budget and need to ensure they don’t overspend.

Whatever phone you have whether it’s Android, iPhone, Windows mobile or Blackberry, you can enjoy great shopping and discount code apps if you are trying to save money. Everyone these days is trying to save every penny possible and walking into a store and buying any item often isn’t an option. Being able to easily compare prices, receive discount codes and find the latest deals near you, is the great way to enjoy what you love but still save money wherever possible.

The team at Broadband Choices love to help you save money. Compare broadband plan prices at BroadbandChoices.co.uk.

Today the subject is Big Apple apps—and not just apps for Apple devices, we’ll hit some Android apps that will make your trip to New York City way easier and a whole lot more fun. Everything happens faster in NYC, hence the phrase “New York minute,” so having great local information ready to go on your smartphone is a major plus. Let’s get started.

Apps to navigate New York City

NYSubView Pro

Unless you’re coming from Tokyo, there’s a good chance the public transit system in your home doesn’t quite measure up to the size and complexity of the NYC public transportation system. For visitors looking to minimize transportation costs, the subway is the way to go. This free iOS app gives you a map with all the lines and stations. It also includes bus maps. If you want more bells and whistles, iTrans NYC Subway is available for iPhones and iPads at $3.99.

Cab Sense NYC

We’ve probably all seen a movie when heroine gets stuck in Manhattan, it’s raining and she can’t get a cab to pull over. Obviously she didn’t have this iOS and Android app. This app uses data from a variety of sources to find the best corners to hail an open cab. It’s sensitive to the time of day, the day of the week and your current location. There’s even a “time slider” you can use if you want to plan ahead.

Leave the 5 lb. guide book at home

The Best of New York by Baffled By Travel

With great apps like this one, we’ll never need to waste space in our carry-ons with another guide book again. This good looking app covers sights, attractions, arts and entertainment, shopping, and hotels in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx. Along with excellent articles there are lots of photos and videos. You can sort by price, location, and even distance from your current location. Free iOS app.

GuidePal: New York City Guide

GuidePal offers guides to cities all around the world. They feature recommendations from locals who give you the skinny on the hidden gems, the must-sees, favorite local hotspots and quirky venues. This free app is available for both Android and iOS devices.

New York: Condé Nast Traveller City Guide

If you can spare 99 cents and prefer a name that has been long established in the travel industry, this iOS app fits the ticket. Shopping, hotels, nightlife, and what to see and do while in NYC are covered in great depth. Offline maps will help keep your data usage under control. There are also excellent audio tours of the editors’ favorite places.

Shop ’til you drop

VanDam NYC ShopSmart

This app uses advanced interactive mapping technology to fly you through the streets of New York City and put you up close and personal to more than 600 stories, from the city’s trendy boutiques to the Meat Market in Manhattan. The maps work with or without a wi-fi signal. This one is a $2.99 iOS app.

Eat your way through NYC

OpenTable

Even if you aren’t traveling to the Big Apple, you’ll want to have this free app on your smartphone or tablet. You can quickly find nearby restaurants on an interactive map, read reviews, get a feel for prices, scan menus and make reservations.

Real Pizza of New York

WARNING: Chicagoans stop reading here. There, now we can talk. NYC’s thin crust pizza is arguably the best in the world. With this iOS app you can get find the top local pizza joints as recommended by the people who know: the locals. You can even use this app to build your own pizza tour or New York City. $3.99 in the iTunes app store.

These tips brought to you by Metropolitan Walks, offering ground zero and wall street walking tours.

Android smartphones are excellent devices for keeping up with all the most important details of everyday life. Not only can you stay connected with your family and friends with phone calls and text messaging, you can also keep productive and organized with the variety of great apps you can download from Google Play.

These include apps that are related to driving. Plenty of these useful apps can help you to save money while you are out on the road in your car. Five of the best are discussed below.

1. WhatGas Petrol Prices Pro

WhatGas Petrol Prices Pro is 99 cents at Google Play. It is a great tool for finding the cheapest gas and fuel prices no matter where you are and can help you to save money. The app works on your GPS and shows you a list of gas stations where you can get the best deals on gas or shows you maps that direct you to various spots where you can purchase gas at cheap prices as well as the names of the stations and prices you can expect to pay.

2. Waze Social GPS and Life Traffic

Waze Social GPS and Live Traffic is a popular free app for Android phones that can help you connect to other drivers socially. It provides you information on traffic in your local area via GPS and shows you where you can buy gas with the best prices. You can also view the traffic through live cameras along your route that are built within the app and get information about any accidents or traffic jams.

The app can also direct you to an alternate route that is best for you in the event that there are any incidents on your normal one.

3. RideMinder

RideMinder is a free app that comes to Google Play for Android phones courtesy of Firestone Complete Auto Care. It allows drivers to receive recommendations on service for their vehicles, maintenance, helps them to keep track of mileage and locate the cheapest gas in the area, which can help them to save money. You can also call for roadside assistance if you need it as well as purchase new tires.

4. Saving Money on Fuel Prices

Saving Money on Fuel Prices is an app that costs $9.99 and that you may find very useful to have at your fingertips on your Android smartphone. It is a book that gives plenty of helpful information about how to save money on gas and other fuel for your vehicle during a time when these items are more expensive than ever.

Studying the tips found in the app can give you the know how on saving money when you visit a gas station or local garage.

5. Open Road: Fuel Economy Basic

Open Road: Fuel Economy Basic is another great free app for Android phones that can help drivers to save money. With it, you can enter the location where you plan on going and other useful information, such as the distance you will have to travel so that you can find the best route for saving money and resources.

It runs on GPS and allows you to monitor your trip and the average cost of fuel you use while driving. You can also save destinations that you frequent within the app, which makes tracking more convenient when you travel.

John Smith is a writer for BikeInsurance.net – a website for bike insurance cover.

How the Android Fooducate App. Works

The Android Fooducate app is one of the simplest apps to use, especially considering the benefits that come with its use. Many people already know that they can use their Android smartphones to scan QR codes, but fewer realize that with the Fooducate app they can also scan barcodes. And the information that is provided upon scanning food label barcodes is priceless. Simply pick up an item, any item, scan the bar code and choose which type of information you would like to review. Making the right food choices is getting more and more difficult these days, due mostly to the vast amount of information that is on the food labels. In addition, product companies do not make the nutritional information all that easy to understand, which brings me to the number one benefit of using the Fooducate Android application. When you scan a specific products’ bar code, Fooducate will provide you with easy to understand nutritional information, so that you can make the best choice. The app. goes beyond describing ingredients and nutritional content, though, and also grades the item on a letter grade scale and even suggests healthier options when a product gets a lower nutritional grade. This application not only lets you know what you are eating, but it also really takes the guesswork out of maintaining a healthier diet.

Pros of Using the Fooducate App. for Your Android

• Easy to understand information.

• Instant alternative food suggestions.

• Application is free.

Cons of Using the Fooducate App. for Your Android

• Using the app lengthens grocery store trips.

• Some products not listed.

• Substitutions sometimes highly unsimilar.

Alternatives not always that much different in regards to nutrients and ingredients. To be sure, there are many useful Android applications that are designed to make our lives easier, but it is important to remember that if we become overloaded with applications many activities will take much longer. With the Android Fooducate app. the good weighs against the bad though, as it can help you to make important changes in your eating habits, not an easy thing for most people to do.

Louis Namon is an android fan and guest blogger, interested in video products, registry cleaner and software.

Why you want it

The whole idea of the service is that you can store stuff in the cloud. As far as I know there’s no actual list of file formats that are supported by Dropbox and there’s no actual reason for that because you just keep your files  there. You don’t play or run them there. That means that you can store pretty much everything there.   So, some of the ways to use Dropbox:

• you can keep all sorts of docs there (PDF, doc, docx, txt, etc);
• photos (they can also get uploaded right from your Android device);
• movies.

And there’s one more way to use Dropbox for. I just learned about it the other day. It’s going to just blow your mind. It turns out that you can actually host a site right in your Dropbox account. Sure thing, you can’t execute database-driven sites, but if you just have a site with a few HTML files, you can definitely host them there.

First launch

So, once you install it and fire it up for the first time, you’ll have the interface with the following 2 options: login to your existing account or  create a new one. At this point, you should know for yourself which way to go.

Features

The main screen of the application shows the folders in your root directory so that you can just tap the folder you need in order to open it up and access the file or folder you’re looking for. Once you found the item of interest (file or folder), you can either just click on it to download and open it or you can just click the triangle to the left of your file name and choose one of the following options:

• share (via any app on your device that can do that);
• favorite (if you mark an item as favorite, you’ll be able to access it in the Favorites folder);
• delete (the name says it all);
• rename (the same idea here);
• export (say, to your SD card or via Bluetooth, etc);

Menu button

If you decide to tap the menu button, you’ll be presented with the following options:

• search (you can search your whole Dropbox area for a file or folder);
• new folder (if you need more structure for your files);
• new text file (you can even create a new text file for, say, saving your password there or just in order to take some notes);
• refresh (in case you know that you’ve got something new in your Dropbox account;
• help (use this features if you need assistance when you’re not sure how to do something);
• settings.

Settings

I’m just going to point out the most crucial options in the area: pass lock (in case you need to make access to your Dropbox account really safe, you can enable the feature); unlink device from Dropbox (you can use the feature when you want to sign out from your Dropbox account either just for security reasons or if you just want to sign in as a different user); turn off camera upload (you want to tick it if you don’t want your photos taken on the device to be automatically uploaded to your Dropbox vault).

Bottom line

My personal verdict as for the app is that it is totally worth it, because you get access to all the files that you have in your cloud for no extra fee. Well, you just actually need to make sure that you use WiFi for that.   And what is your take on that?

I’m Kenneth from WebDesign Bureau. I can explain how to make a website or just create it for you. Plus, I’m crazy about all the things web and mobile.

Ways of Sending SMS text from your Computer

Android is one of the tools through which people can send SMS texts from their computers to phones. This means that even if your phone’s battery has gone off or you have misplaced your phone, you can still send SMS texts for free from the computer. You can not only send but also receive these SMS texts from the computer. It is interesting to note that you can send SMS texts from your computer irrespective of where you are at any hour of the day or night.

1)         Using Email to send texts from your computer

Ø  Without a doubt, the easiest and most readily available way through which you can send texts from your computer is through your email. In the earlier days of Internet and Email services, this was not at all possible. However, the latest innovations have seen this made possible as most email accounts have added this feature. It is only possible as long as you have opened an email account with the provider of your choice.

Ø  Opening an email account is not charged but is a free process and some of the most common accounts are provided by Gmail as well as Yahoo Mail. You simply log on to your account, then proceed to create a new email or compose new one. You then enter the entire digits of the phone number which you are interested in sending an SMS text to followed by the provider’s email code details.

Ø  However, you should note that most SMS texts sent from the computer through the email services are limited to only 160 characters. This means that you ought to restrict your SMS text to only these characters and not seek to go beyond this. You need not worry about any reply sent back to you as you will receive it through your inbox folder in your email account. There is no limit as to how many SMS texts you can send this way.

2)         Benefits of Sending SMS Texts from Computer

Ø  Depending on the type of phone that you own, it may be a bit difficult to send or receive SMS text messages at any given time. However, the fact that you can carry out these services using the computer means that this process has probably been simplified for many people. The fact that the phones may go off from time and thus inconvenience you makes computers appear quite friendly and easy options for this.

Ø  In some cases, using a computer is much easier for many people as you can send the same message to several numbers all at once at a much cheaper rater. In fact it is a free process in almost all cases whereas if you opt to use your phone for this purpose, you have to be prepared to pay some fee. Some phone providers charge subsidized rates for this purpose while others offer prime rates when the texts are sent.

Ilya Elbert blogs for several IT Consulting Charlotte and Computer Support Charlotte corporations.

There are hundreds of thousands of free apps available for Android phones so with all the wonderful free apps that will never cost you a penny, why would you want to pay for an app?

Because they’re worth it.

I don’t purchase a lot of apps, but there are a handful of great paid apps available for Android that I think are well worth the little bit of extra cash they cost. Most of them are really reasonably priced, often costing less than a drink from Starbucks.

Here are what I feel are the 10 best paid apps for Android Phones – all are available directly from the Android Market.

One last thing, I decided not to feature any games (like Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja) since games depend so much on personal preference and I don’t play many games though I do have a weakness for Airport Mania.

Tasker – If you’ve seen the Smart Actions commercial for the Motorola Droid Razr then you probably have some idea what this app can do. Smart Actions basically duplicates Tasker’s functionality but offers less features and makes it a bit more user friendly.

Tasker is an automation app. For example, it can launch your music player (whichever you use) when you plug-in headphones. If can go into airplane mode at night to conserve battery life. It can turn Wi-Fi on when you’re at home but turn it off when you’re not and with thousands of pre-made profiles, you don’t need programming expertise to use it.

Bottom line, if you’re only willing to pay for one app, this is the app to get.

WaveSecure – McAfee bought this company a couple years back and surprisingly they didn’t ruin it. It’s still great. This is a security app for your phone so if your phone is ever lost or stolen, you can remotely lock down your device if it’s missing so that nobody starts accessing your personal data or calling and harassing your friends (that actually happened to my sister once). If you’ve decided it’s unlikely that you’ll ever get your phone back, you can wipe your personal data off the phone remotely as well. It does backups and device locating as well. It’s the most expensive app on this last and will run $19.99 a year but I think it’s $20 well spent for keeping your personal information safe.

SlideIT / Flex T9 / SwiftKey X Keyboard – There are a lot of things I love about Android. The stock keyboard isn’t one of them. It’s not as bad as it used to be, but there are much better keyboards out there. Personally, I think Swype is the best keyboard app out there, but unless your phone comes with it preinstalled, it’s a pain to get it working. The Flex T9 and SlideIT keyboards are the closest thing to Swype that you can download from the Android Market.  I personally used Flex T9 for about a year and it works great.  I haven’t played with SlideIT much but it has earned an Editor’s Choice from the Android Market and has been voted the best keyboard replacement app for Android and you can even try it out for 15 days for free before you have to pay for it to make sure you like it. If you prefer a keyboard that’s a bit more familiar, try the SwiftKey X Keyboard. It works a lot like a regular keyboard but with excellent memory of words you use frequently.

Camera Zoom FX – This has been voted the best camera app for Android and it’s easy to see why. It adds a lot of “real” camera features like burst mode and a timer. It also has voice activated, collage, stable shot, and time lapse shooting modes. With a ton of post processing features for editing your photos on your phone, it’ll make your smartphone camera seem like the only phone you really need and when combined with the camera improvements made in Ice Cream Sandwich, it’s amazing.

Gentle Alarm – I’ll just say this, I hate alarm clocks with a passion – hate them. I do my best to avoid using an alarm clock whenever possible. However, like you, I don’t always have a choice – I have to be awake by a certain time.

A few years ago I got my favorite alarm clock of all time – a SleepTracker watch. It works by monitoring your sleep cycles and waking you up when you’re not in a deep sleep so you can wake up feeling rested. Research has shown that if you’re jolted out of a deep sleep, you’re more likely to be tired and cranky and feeling “like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” It sounds a little gimmicky, but it works… as long as you don’t mind wearing a watch when you sleep or spending $150 on the thing. I found wearing a watch to bed kind of weird, but it’s still my favorite as you can set it so it only vibrates in the morning. When it’s attached to your arm, that’s plenty to wake you up.

Now your cell phone doesn’t have that capability since you’re not going to wear it to bed, but Gentle Alarm uses the same principle of gently easing your out of sleep.

It starts with a pre alarm phase and very quiet music. If you wake up at this point, you’re in a light sleep cycle and it’s a good time to get up. I find myself waking up during this period about 1/3 of the time. If you don’t wake up during the pre-alarm, then the regular alarm goes off and it plays music that slowly gets louder. If you still don’t wake up, it has an extremely loud white noise siren

And if you are the kind of person who will mindless tap the snooze button, you can have it make you solve a math problem or solve a pattern challenge.

This app has a few neat features that I really like and it’s all very customizable. My favorite alarm clock app (if there can be such a thing for a person who hates alarm clocks).

AirSync by doubleTwist – doubleTwist is an iTunes like app for managing music on your Android phone. It can read your iTunes playlists and sync them to your phone when you plug it in via the USB cable. The AirSync allows you to do all of this via WiFi, without wires!

Locale with Astrid – One neat feature that Apple built into their iPhone is a location aware reminders app. However, Android users have had that capability for a while by using two apps – Locale and the accompanying Astrid Locale Add-On. If you have milk on your list and you drive by a grocery store, it’ll remind you to get some milk.

Business Calendar – Since I’m a boring business guy, this app is greatly preferred over the standard Calendar app built into Android since it allows me to sync not only with Google Calendar, but also Basecamp. I can see everything in one nice little widget.

PocketCasts – I’ve become a bit of a podcasting junkie in the car these days. I rarely listen to radio because I’ve got so many fantastic (and commercial free) podcasts that I can listen to instead. Google Listen is a free alternative if you want to listen to podcasts (nearly all podcasts are free, btw), but I think PocketCasts is just way better and it’s super easy to use. Well worth the $3 it’ll cost you.

Read It Later – There is a free version of this app, but the pro version is better since it doesn’t limit you. If you’ve ever been reading an article on your phone but don’t have time to finish it, this app allows you to save it for later. It makes the article available offline and syncs it to your computer as well as your phone.

Best Paid Apps For Rooted Phones

And while I won’t to into a lot of detail about these four apps below, here are my favorite apps for people with rooted phones.

Titanium Backup Pro ($6.58)

ROM Manager ($5.99)

Root Explorer ($3.99)

Absolute System Root Tools ($1.99)


 

Both are intended to be top of the line smartphones in the Android ecosystem and both feature 4G/LTE connectivity, but there are some small differences between the phones you’ll want to take into account before you decide which one to buy.   Watch the video below to learn more:

These are two high end smartphones that have very little in common.    Watch the video to see just how different and which one you’ll want to be carrying around in your pocket.

And if you’re really interested in delving into the differences between the operating systems themselves, I highly recommend watching my Ice Cream Sandwich vs iOS 5 video.

I recently had a friend turn her back on her iPhone (which she loved) because the $100 a month she had to shell out was straining her budget.  She ultimately went back to a standard cell phone (the kind with just a number pad) and with her eschewing such fantastic technology, I think she secretly wants to be Amish (kidding… sort of).

So I’m on a mission today – if you have a smartphone, I’d like to help you keep it.  If you don’t have one yet, hopefully I can help you justify the purchase of a new one.

Today I’ll show you all of the legitimate ways that a smartphone, whether it be an Android phone or the Jesus Phone iPhone, can truly help you save money.

1) You Don’t Have To Buy So Many Gadgets

While you may not have ever been a Star Trek fan, you’ve certainly seen or heard of the tricoder used on the show.  It’s pretty much a “do everything” gadget.  With recent advances in smartphones, it’s getting closer to becoming a reality and the Life Sciences Prize Group just commissioned an “X Prize” and a $10 million reward for the team that can build one.

While today’s smartphone still can’t operate as a medical scanner, there are several legitimate gadgets you no longer need to buy:

GPS Navigation Device

Before I got my smartphone, I had three GPS devices, two handhelds and an automotive GPS.  Since I bought my Droid in November of 2009, they’ve been sitting in a drawer collecting dust.  I haven’t found any need to use any other GPS device and with Android you get the pretty darn good Google Maps Navigation Beta.  Sure, Navigon Mobile Navigator is better, but you probably don’t need it.   If you have an iPhone you may want to spend the $50 or so on it, but it still saves you from spending $150-$300 on a dedicated unit you’ll only use once in a while.

Music Player / iPod

I still have a 2^nd generation iPod… in a drawer… somewhere.   While I think my iPod is a superior music player than my Droid, I haven’t used it in the past six months – it’s so much easier to just take my phone with me and it does the job just fine.    And with apps like Double Twist for Android that will sync your iTunes playlists and music, there’s really no need to keep an iPod handy.  And since the iPhone is an iPod, there’s no excuse there unless you really want a little music player to strap to your arm while you’re working out (personally, I just make sure I wear a pair of shorts with pockets).

Digital Camera

Yes, a modern smartphone can replace a digital camera, but with a couple caveats.  First, if you’re used to a digital SLR, then I lied – you can’t.  However, if you typically use a pocket digital camera for pictures, high end smartphones like the iPhone, HTC Inspire 4G, HTC MyTouch Slide 4G, and Samsung Galaxy S 4G all have really good digital cameras built in and with onboard editing,  easy uploading to photo sharing sites like Facebook and Flickr, their ease of use easily compensates for the slightly (emphasis on slightly) higher quality you can get out of a digital camera.   I’m not going to include a video camera in this list yet since handheld video cameras can still outperform a smartphone video camera by a significant margin but the day is coming when your phone will be a perfectly good camcorder as well… give it a year or two.

And there are professional photographers who have shown that you really can take professional quality photography using an iPhone and a good eye for the right shot.

Alarm Clock

Okay, so most phones have a built in alarm clock, but apps like Gentle alarm are a whole lot nicer than that incessant buzzing your standard cell phone alarm or regular alarm clock is going to give you.  My alarm clock plays music, starting quietly and slowly getting louder over the course of 10 minutes to make waking up easier and more pleasant.   I don’t like alarm clocks in the first place and don’t really see the need to ever buy a new one.

Voice Recorder

I know that a lot of people don’t carry a voice recorder with them… but I used to.  However, my phone has made that thing obsolete as my phone has a large storage capacity and it’s even easier to transfer those files to my computer than ever before.

Stop Watch

Okay, so a stop watch doesn’t cost much to begin with and they last forever once you have one, but if you put a stop watch app on your phone, you’ll always have it with you and they really do work just as well as the real thing.

Nintendo 3DS / Sony PSP

If you like having games with you when you’re on a road trip, sitting in the airport, or riding the bus to work, you have to really be into games to bother buying a handheld gaming device like the 3DS or PSP when the iPhone has thousands of fantastic games that are a lot cheaper (most games cost between $.99 and $4.99)   Heck, on Android, you can even get a Playstation Certified smartphone (the Xperia Play) that has a real playstation controller built in – just slide up the screen and your controller is revealed.    If you like gaming on a portable device, get a smartphone.

Calculator / Graphing Calculator

I remember that in college I needed two calculators – a graphing calculator ($120) and a scientific calculator ($20).  My roommate needed a specialized finance calculator ($30).   There are free or very cheap apps that’ll run on your phone that can replace every kind

Cargo Pants

Now that you don’t need to carry all this junk around, you don’t need a pair of pants with a ton of pockets anymore, either.

2) Never Buy Another Ringtone

Ringtones are a racket and there’s really no good reason to buy one anymore when smartphone apps will allow you to turn any song into a ringtone… for free!  And you can completely customize the ringtone to be just what you like all on the phone – you don’t need to do any editing on your computer first.  On Android I use RingDroid – for the iPhone I recommend Ringtone Designer.

3) Stop Paying ATM Fees

It’s a fact of life that most banks are going to charge you to use their ATM if you’re not one of their customers and there are plenty of times where you just don’t know where the closest ATM for your bank is.  However, your smartphone can save you from getting fleeced for $2-$5 at the ATM by locating the closest one.  If you do business with a large bank, they probably already have an app out for your phone.  If you bank with a smaller bank, just bookmark their ATM locator page on your phone.

There are also apps likes ATM Hunter and Allpoint which can help you find ATMs in the area that are surcharge free (there are 37,000 free ones in Allpoint’s database).

4) Carry Your Coupons With You

Now as a guy I’m the first to admit I don’t clip coupons… ever!  I’m not going to spend any time with a flyer I got in the mail with a pair of scissors clipping coupons and putting them in my wallet.  However,  if coupons are easy to put on my phone, I’m okay with using them since they don’t take much time to find, access, and use.  For the iPhone, the best coupon app is probably Coupon Sherpa – for Android go with The Coupons.    There are plenty of store specific apps but to be honest, I’m too lazy to use those – if you’re a little more motivated, you could certainly save a bunch of money every month.

5) Compare Prices – Avoid Buying Crappy Products

A few months ago I was in Sears with a friend of mine and we saw a product that looked really interesting but the claims seemed a little “too good to be true.”  So since I had my smartphone with me, I just scanned the barcode and we were able to pull up several reviews of the product indicating that it didn’t work and it’d be a waste of money.    Saved us from wasting $15.

You can also use the barcode scanner on your phone (it scans by using your phone’s camera in case you’re not familiar with them) to compare prices.   While I wouldn’t bother on low priced items like groceries, I’d certainly be willing to use it to compare prices of power tools or electronics.

6) Store Discount / Loyalty Cards

I can’t even tell you how many discount or loyalty cards I’ve lost over the years.  There are a lot of stores I go to that give them out that I only shop at a few times a year and when I do go back, I’ve either forgotten the card in my desk drawer or it’s lost or been through the wash a few times.

However, your phone can help you manage all those cards to make your life easier.  Just download the app CardStar (they have an Android, iPhone, and Blackberry app) and you can store all of your discount cards on your phone.

Now it’s no sweat to keep all of those cards with me when I’m out shopping.

For shopping for groceries, there is an app called Grocery IQ that is really cool.  First of all, whenever you run out of something or you’re getting low, just scan the barcode at home and it’ll put the item on a list so you actually remember to buy it when you to got the grocery store.  That feature alone makes it worth it to me since it often takes me two or three trips to the store to remember to buy items that I’ve run out of.   It also stores you’re the discount cards to the grocery stores you go to and keeps you up to date on sales and coupons.

And while we’re saving money, let’s not forget about gas.  If you live in a city, even a small city, there are probably several choices of gas stations that are all convenient for you to visit.  However, since gas prices literally fluctuate daily, knowing which station has the cheapest gas that day is a pain unless you’re going to drive by all of them… and you’re not going to do that because that’d waste more money than you could ever save.  So just download the app GasBuddy and it’ll help you find which gas station has the cheapest gas that day.

7) Unlimited Calling… Without An Unlimited Plan

I know I know – phone calls are so last century… but I know a lot of people do spend quite a bit of time on the phone and will burn through their anytime minutes quickly.

However, there is a workaround you can use to hack your Android phone and make unlimited phone calls as much as you want.  The only thing you need to make sure you get is a cell phone plan that has a friends and family option.  You really only need one number to make this work so get the cheapest plan.

Then you just need to make sure you have a Google Voice account setup and then you need to download an app called Google Voice Callback.

Next, setup one of your “friends and family” numbers to be your Google Voice number.  Remember that Google Voice makes long distance calls to anyone in the United States for free.

When you use Google Voice Callback, you end up using your cell phone to call your Google Voice number, then the app uses Google Voice to place the long distance call.    The end result is unlimited long distance even on a much cheaper plan.

You can also use Skype to make phone calls so if you don’t want to setup the system I just mentioned, then just use Skype to make calls.

Either way you slice it, the only time you should be using anytime minutes is when you’re receiving phone calls… all your outgoing calls can be placed without using any of your minutes.

8 ) Tethering / Mobile Hotspot Without An Additional Charge

I remember a few years ago getting a mobile broadband card for my laptop.  I traveled a lot and needed to be able to get on the Internet in more places than just airports and coffee shops so I paid the $60/month it cost.

These days the cell phone companies are happy to let your share the Internet connection from your smartphone supply an internet connection to your laptop or any other mobile device… for a fee – usually $30/month.

That’s still ridiculous especially if you have an unlimited data plan considering you can do it without paying an extra dime.

Disclaimer: The following information isn’t exactly approved by the cell phone carriers – in fact they’re very much against this so remember you could be violating the terms of your contract if you follow any of the advice below.  The consequences of following my advice are unknown but could result in your service being terminated, or additional charges being added to your bill, or you might be placed in a burlap sack and beaten with reeds – I really don’t know.

What I do know is that I’m already paying the cell phone company over $100/month to begin with, I’m not going to lose a wink of sleep over not giving them even more money every month, but ultimately the decision is up to you and if you feel it’s morally wrong or you can’t handle the potential consequences (known or unknown), then don’t do it – nobody’s twisting your arm.  The information below is for informational purposes only – you take full responsibility for any consequences that come from putting it into practice. [/disclaimer]

AT&T and Verizon have been cracking down on unauthorized tethering apps like PDAnet and Tether lately since they only want you to use their apps that they’ll charge you an arm and a leg for.

While you can still find those apps, the easiest way to future proof your phone is to root it if you’re an Android user or Jailbreak it if you’re an iPhone user.

Just Google it for directions (try “root + your phone’s model” or “jailbreak iphone”).  The process is different for every phone and changes frequently for may phones which means that how to do it is well beyond the scope of this already lengthy article and would require yet another lengthy disclaimer.

Once you’re rooted or Jailbroken, you’ll able to download apps like Wireless Tether for Android (free) and MyWi 4.0 for the iPhone ($19.99 on Cydia or Intelliborn.com).

Then you can use your phone as a Wifi hotspot for no additional charge and power your iPad, Android tablet, laptop or whatever the heck you want.

Conclusion

So there you have it – several ways to justify the additional cost of a smartphone.  Have any other ways you can use a smartphone to save money?  Just post in the comments – we’re always looking for more cool tips.