One such app is Picksie. The premise is that, based on both your interests and on picks by Picksie experts, the app shows you all the kinds of events and entertainment options occurring around you, so you don’t miss out on anything (even things you didn’t know were happening!). You can also search for different kinds of places or activities if you have something particular in mind, sync up with your Facebook profile, and see all the options on a comprehensive map of your location.

Similarly, AroundMe takes into account where you are and links you to all the different things you could want nearby (e.g. parking, banks, restaurants, clubs, you-name-it). With easily accessible map and street views, an augmented reality view when you turn the phone to landscape mode, links to online reviews, one-click calling to locations of interest, and the ability to quickly share your finds on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and SMS as well as save them to favorites for later, the app definitely makes accessing what’s around very agreeable.

While they both have great things to offer and enormous entertainment potential, I actually think they could take some cues from each other and would be better if their efforts combined. For instance, I love that you don’t need an account to use AroundMe. I get that Picksie takes cues from your interests, but if you could simply input your immediate desires, wouldn’t that be just as effective? Also, despite things that I searched for (and, might I add, knew for a fact were in my area), Picksie returned with some odd, albeit interesting, things and did not at all link me to what I wanted. For that reason, with specific locations in mind, AroundMe definitely had the edge, as it shows you everything around with no details to spare.

However, I am fond of the Picksie design, with its cute graphics and sleek yet simple aesthetics. While the augmented reality element of AroundMe is pretty cool, it’s interface is a little lacking, and visually does not do justice to its functionality. Furthermore, I love how Picksie has quick links to “Here & Now”, “Entertainment”, and “Dining”, as opposed to just places of interest. I think AroundMe could certainly benefit from the addition of activities as well as locations, and the whole element of spontaneity and picks by experts certainly adds an intrigue that AroundMe currently lacks. Sometimes I don’t know what I’m looking for; sometimes the best way to experience a place is to get lost and simply just discover the events around, instead of having a solid place or point in mind.

Therefore, I propose PicksAroundMe. Put the two together and see what kind of magic can happen. Enable expert input, incorporate festivals, activities, entertaining ideas, as well as the ability to find what you need when you need it. What do you think? Are you partial to one or the other, or do you think there is partnership potential?

GasBuddy: This app is based on gasbuddy.com and works with both iPhones and Androids, so feel free to spread the news around to friends in both communities. It boasts one-click functionality that lets you see all the gas stations around you and what their current gas prices are. It is based on its users updating the prices as they encounter them, so for every price that you report, you’re entered to win prizes and giveaways, including a once-a-week gift card for $250 worth of gas (talk about saving!). Users have given the GasBuddy app 3 out of 5 stars, stating that it still has some bugs that need to be fixed and people need to realize that price reports are based basically on word-of-mouth so it may not be 100% accurate all the time (there is no price database that can be drawn from other than consumer knowledge). However, people also find it to be surprisingly accurate, interactive, and a great tool for finding places where you can get the gas you prefer (e.g. ethanol-free) at a price you prefer too.

Cheap Gas!: This app also works for iPhone and Android and provides gasbuddy.com information, so how does it differ from GasBuddy itself? Well, Cheap Gas! also enables you to map a route to the cheapest gas nearby and provides interesting options like an Augmented Reality view. There’s a range of ways to locate the best gas stations and views when finding them, but again relies on users’ reports for the most up-to-date pricing. Not surprisingly, considering it’s using another service’s information, Cheap Gas! only has 2.5 stars compared to GasBuddy’s 3, as users cite problems with bugs, functionality, and accuracy,  as well as difficulty finding certain gas stations to update, especially the more obscure or local ones. However, users do say that when it works, it is great, and is a fast and easy to way to spot the cheapest places to fuel up.

Where: While this may not be a gas app in the conventional sense, one of Where’s features also links to gasbuddy.com to display the best gas prices around you. However, since this app also enables you to access a plethora of other interesting venues, events, items of interest in your area, deals, and personalized recommendations for where to go and what to do, Where is the perfect app for road trips, travel, or even simple explorations of your own town. The gas tool just further ensures that you will be happy where you’re going, even if it requires you to get gas. Users have given Where 3 out of 5 stars, saying that some of the information is out-of-date and that it could stand to do a little more research in some areas, but also praising it for being an easy, fun way to find something to do (and the new bump feature doesn’t hurt either!).

Bankrate.com: Okay, this technically is not an app (although it really should be), but you can certainly take advantage of it through your built-in web browser. By going to bankrate.com, you have access to a variety of different calculators that will help you make important financial decisions, including that consideration of: will driving the extra miles to a cheaper gas station actually be worth it? Yes it’s true, some gas stations may offer a few cents difference, but you also have to think that it will may take gas to get there. Use this nifty tool to calculate if the distance driven to get a better price will actually translate into savings in the end.

With Blacktop, you can organize your Foursquare and Facebook check-ins into trips, so you can retrace your steps from a wild night or create a visualization for the vacation you just took. Furthermore, you can supplement these journeys with photos and comments at each point so you can really re-live the experience. Finally, share these trips with your friends on Facebook, and make everyone who wasn’t a part of your escapades extremely jealous.

Similarly, TrackinU Universal maps your or your friends’ geotagged tweets as you update all around town, so that you can keep track of the most attention-grabbing places. This app enables all geotagged tweets to be recorded or allows you to create a trip-specific tweet track.  Save and send the maps you create, check out others’ journey maps as they update them, and keep tabs on where Twitter has taken you.

GPS features are enabled, so users of the app only need to specify their departure time and destination.  This information is then automatically posted on the map so that potential car sharers can see if their routes match up. When everything is in sync, users can contact each other either by phone or through ECOTAXI’s internal messaging service. While this may seem a sketchier way to arrange carpools, it certainly does achieve the app’s three main goals: reducing the cost of a journey by sharing it with others, combating carbon warming, and meeting new (and likely interesting) people. Granted, Carsharing may be for the more adventurous iPhone users, but it definitely allows you to get a lot more for your mileage — including a better environmental conscience, some money saved, and potentially great connections.

Just to let you know, this app can’t be downloaded in Cuba because of all that bs U.S.-Cuba politics. It won’t work anyway but if you try, you will probably find yourself locked in one of Castro bros’ places…

So get this app BEFORE you get to Cuba.Enough of the warning, let’s get started on the review.

As you know, Havana is that romantic city yet forbidden and communist. There are these tourist designated areas and those forbidden zones. Who knows what happens when you accidentally stumble into one of those zones.

The app Havana Good Time is created by Conner Gorry, a travel writer, an essayist, and an journalist, and she knows just about everything that has to do with living in Cuba. Whether it’s an 8 hours-black out, aguardiente, wild camping, 5 cent ciguars, Cuban funerals, or disaster preparation.

With this guide written by a professional, you can find with accuracy the hottest venues, museums, hotels, bars and other fun things to do in Havana. Numerous restaurants reviews are also available, and they are all places the author dined at herself.

Worried about language, local custom? No problem, Havana Good Time also provides you with local and practical information and tips, including how to do and get a lot of the stuff without paying a cent(oh wait, isn’t it supposed be like that in a Communist country?).

Last but not the least – updates are free for life.

If you are a traveler and are going to Cuba, there’s no need to buy a guide book because this app is the best one there is.

The first picture is appropriately Che Guevara – The revolution still lives!

iExit: This app is specially designed to tell you where your next interstate exit is, as it calculates exactly where you are, what direction you’re going in, and how fast you’re progressing. Furthermore, it tells you what exactly is at each exit, and can even tell you where to find points of interest when you’re not on the highway. All of your favorites can easily be stored so that you don’t need reception to find what you need, just the ability to gather GPS readings.

Rest Area Finder: Similar to iExit, this app tells you where upcoming rest areas, scenic points, and welcome areas are, as well as what you can find at each place. As your location changes, the Rest Area Finder map does too, and enables you to expand out to 100 or 500 miles so that you know what points of interest are coming up.

With each of these apps, you can rest assured that you will always be able to find what you’re looking for, and even things that you’re not. Make sure your road trip is more of an epic journey by utilizing these apps and discovering all the great things that lie beyond the highways.

GPSed tracks your trip and allows you to upload pictures along the way so that your friends and family don’t miss a step. No matter where in the world your trip is taking you, Google Maps will trace your track and store it in an online archive. The app connects you to GPSed.com where you can make your tracks public to other people, it also gives you the option of making your tracks public on facebook. The app contains a map that will allow you to  view exactly where you are going, while you are actually physically moving. My favourite part of the app is the specific measures that the app uses to track your trip. The app will tell you your speed, your elevation, your moving average and will allow you to add a photo at any point of your trip. Imagine walking the streets of Paris, seeing a beautiful monument, taking a picture of it and making it public so that your family and friends can see exactly what you’re seeing. You can also add tracks and have more than one going at once. Whether you are taking that road trip you’ve always wanted to take or you are finally going on that huge trip to Europe, keep track of what you do and see while staying connected to your friends and family with the GPSed app.

uPackingList begins by allowing you to create a list that you can name according to your trip. There are sixteen categories from which you choose articles from in order to organize what and how many of each item you will need on your trip. They really cover everything too, from underwear to watering the plants before you leave, you can add anything and everything to your list. Once you are done selecting the items,there is a pack icon that will list all the items you selected and tell you the percentage of the packing that you have completed. You can save lists and add pictures to the items you have and essentially customize your packing experience. This app will pretty much pack your things for you, without actually placing the articles in your bag, until robots can do that, thats your job but this app definitely covers the bases and will take your packing experience from being a huge hassle to pleasant and kind of fun.

It really does have all the information you could need about New York City and its displayed in a fun, colourful and easy to use way. The app has received a lot of attention, even having been endorsed by the Mayor of New York. I am not a native New Yorker but I get the sense that this app gives you a lot of good ideas, and tools for navigating through the streets of New York all the while allowing you to get everything you need done. If you spend time in New York or are from there but are looking to expand your knowledge of the city, download this app and I really don’t think you could go wrong, it is free after all.

Pros

The search engine, that also serves as the home page for Allrecipes.com is unique because it allows you to search not only by ingredient, but by “ready in time”, giving the cook with a lot to do, the ability to search for a meal that will only take 20 minutes to complete. Big Oven’s homepage is also really neat because it offers an index of cool ways to organize your account on the app. There is the favorites list, the my try soon list, the really important grocery list where you can search recipes and choose items from it that you do not have at home, it adds it to the list so that when you make the trip to the store you know what you’re missing. There is also the leftover wizard that allows you to add ingredients that you have left over and compiles a relevant list of recipes, the whats for dinner? tab allows you to see what people around the world are eating that night for dinner, the random recipe tab and the ultimate, the Big Oven Glossary. Needless to say, there are so many different ways a person can take advantage of this app. You have to sign up by email, but it is a simple two minute process that results in a complete and most effective use of the app.

Cons

The simplicity of Allrecipes.com might not be enough for the cooks who want to challenge themselves, while it makes finding recipes easy, according to its search engine, it just doesn’t beat all the cool extra stuff that Big Oven offers. I mean coconut mashed potatoes — they would never be on Allrecipes.com. Big Oven definitely wins in the “cool” factor. However, the same way that Allrecipes.com may be over simplified, Big Oven is a little complex, there isn’t really a way to navigate it quickly especially if you do have a time crunch, Allrecipes.com is the way to go. All in all, using either app will make you feel really hungry and make you wish that you had more of an urge to use the oven over the microwave. Its important to know what you want to get out of the app and what takes precedence in your search criteria for recipes; time or creativity. Once you have that nailed, either app will come through in providing a recipe that’s right for you.

Its not only fun to watch the screen shake until it lands on the right restaurant but reading the reviews and learning the location of the restaurant in so little time makes you feel like you won’t go wrong with your choice. Did I mention it’s free? And serves both U.S and Canadian cities? This is an app I would have on my iphone and be using all the time. No more mistakes in choosing restaurants. This app will do it for you. The one thing to consider is the consistency in the information provided for each restaurant, while some include the option to view the menu others don’t. However, a small price to pay for an amazing free app that will improve your eating out experience. Enjoy!