With the advent and proliferation of smartphones over the past few years, there have been various new software applications to accommodate those smartphones. A lot of the applications may be very similar to ones you can find and probably use on your computers very regularly. On the other hand, these powerful devices are opening up the floodgates of opportunity for new and different types of applications. Lately, there’s been a surge of applications that take advantage of the phone’s key feature: mobility.


Just think about the benefits of using location as the main focus of some of your apps that you use daily. You’re localizing yourself within the world wide web – something that can seem so open like outer space. Everything you do, look at or fool with can be entirely tailored for your exact location.


There have been a few major applications that have taken this bull by the horns and specialized in this arena. You have more than likely heard of at least one of these. I will go into a few of them right now:


FourSquare

FourSquare was one of the forefathers of this type of technology. They began quite early and have a big following in the more populous cities out there. It’s basically an app that you can “check-in” to places based off your location. The benefits of this sort of app is purely of social nature. You can find out where your friends and family are checked into and even explore the city you’re in if you’re feeling adventurous. As you explore more and more, you’ll gain badges and credibility that could later become useful!


Facebook Places

Facebook pretty much ripped this off straight from FourSquare. I personally haven’t touched it very much since it was released, but it provides the same functionality as above. The benefits of using Facebook, though, would be the wide network of people that you can tap into (being that it’s so much easier to join rather than creating a new account on FourSquare).


Shopkick

Shopkick is a fairly new app that takes location and applies it to shopping. Checking into a certain store may open up discounts for you that others are not able to obtain. As you walk into these stores, you earn kickbucks where you can save up and spend on gear as you wish. This is such a great concept, but you have to make sure that your city is one of the few that are supported by Shopkick.


As you can see, location-based apps are really in their infancy right now. As smartphones continue to spread and more and more cities are in tune with this sort of technology, you’ll find a lot more options and more variety out there. Time will progress and this new form of app will mature into something rather monstrous (at least in my personal opinion).

Using a browser on your computer is a way of life. If you want to do just about anything on the internet, you’re going to use your browser. Any way you cut it, you may or may not realize how important your browser is on your computing experience. With something so important in today’s world, there are always going to be varying options.

So what is a browser? They’re basically computer applications that decipher code (HTML and other languages) into displaying information in a simple and aesthetic way. Think about it, if there were no websites, you’d look at lists of pdf, txt, image and many other files.

With the many different browsers out there, they each process code and display things a little differently from one another. I’ll get into a little more detail for some of the major players out there for you:

Internet Explorer: The old school behemoth. You’ve just about certainly used IE before if you’ve owned or worked on a PC. Microsoft built this thing into a powerhouse back in its heyday, but now it begins to lag behind its competitors. One thing it has going for it, though, is its use in businesses — especially those that lean on Microsoft technologies for security.

Firefox: A bit newer than IE, Mozilla’s Firefox was released in 2004. It gained popularity as more and more users converted over due to its speed and functionality. Firefox brings to the table tabs (before IE did), a built-in search box and browser extensions. These extensions are created by 3rd party developers to basically make your life much easier.

Chrome: One of the newest browsers to join in on the fun, Chrome is quickly becoming a powerhouse. Google built this thing from the ground up using all sorts of open-source technologies in 2008. In typical Google fashion, this browser is keeping things as simplistic as possible, URL bar searching, including all the aforementioned capabilities of Firefox.

Safari: Ah yes, you Mac users are included here too. If you’re a Mac user, more likely than not you’re using Safari. Safari is in most cases the fastest browser available on Mac computers. All the other browsers may work on Mac’s OSX, but not nearly as crisp as Safari. Safari also includes many of the features mentioned above, but lacks it’s competitive advantage of speed once you step into the world of PCs.

So there you have it. Sure, switching browsers may not completely transform your browsing experience, but it could sure make it a little more enjoyable. Employing some of the useful features from a browser could make you quite more efficient at what you do. If change isn’t your thing, keep on using IE6… but beware of being left in the dust as far as newer sites that utilize more and more advanced technologies are released.

Everyone and their grandmother has a Facebook nowadays. If it wasn’t Facebook, it’d be MySpace or some other stand-in. Why have they become so popular? Because they connect people. People love the access to friends, family, old acquaintances and the like. Each social network has it’s own purpose and target audience. Facebook is general socializing, Last.fm is music, etc. Today, I’m going to tell you a bit about a more business-oriented social network: LinkedIn.

LinkedIn was created only 7 years ago and is a leader in its category. While it’s nowhere near Facebook in terms of users, it’s mainly due to the different target audience. LinkedIn is specifically for building and maintaining your business connections. You can utilize this social network to give a colleague his/her much-deserved kudos or to connect with your current and former colleagues and classmates to further your professional network. With this sort of economy, you never know when a large and resourceful network could be useful!

In addition to building connections, you may join groups that you may belong to (such as alumni networks, trade organizations, etc) and follow certain companies of interest. This allows you to post messages and be updated with the most current information of your particular category. It also even connects you with individuals with common interests and skills.

You may also browse through various job openings and put your name into the hat. Along with that, you may also be able to conversate with the recruiters and build relationships. Although this could be useful, the job search aspect may not be as fruitful as using a typical job search website instead. I suppose this only would work as long as the company in question actively uses and updates LinkedIn with their company’s needs.

Although this is a great place to maintain your connections and business contacts, this website could prove a bit daunting for those just entering into the workforce with very few contacts. Regardless, there are many tools to aid you in anything you wish to accomplish in the business world through this website without the need for face-to-face interaction. I mean, who uses business cards nowadays anyways?

There are plenty of ways to manage your money. While many people opt with going to the local bank that puts a teller’s face and hands on your cellar of cash, more and more people are starting to move towards a more technical form. Starting with Quicken, a software system you’d buy for your personal bookkeeping and taxes, people started to digitize their checkbooks. The only key difference is that it was a standalone software system on their computers, no other parties involved (for the most part). Now, you’re beginning to see many more options to handle all your accounts and funds – online options.

Now you may be a bit cautious with online money management, and rightfully so. People can hack your computers, steal your login information, have access to all your accounts, etc. The thing is, a website like Mint.com only displays the information. You cannot go into your Mint account and start transferring money around. So even though you hand over your credit cards, drivers licenses and social security numbers to the random bank teller, or have your statements snail mailed to you, online money management proves just as vulnerable as any other conventional method.

Probably the most popular online money management website out there is Mint.com. It started off as a small start up that quickly spread like wildfire and was eventually bought out by Quicken. They’ve been a pretty solid option if you’re looking to have a central hub for all your cash flows.

Having been using the Quicken Online website for over a year and moving over to Mint (forcefully, since Quicken decided to shut down their old site in favor of Mint after buying them out), I’ve seen a couple different options. I really liked the way Quicken Online worked and was formatted and now I’m starting to get used to and enjoy my Mint setup. My only real disappointment with Mint is a lack of balance and bill forecasting features that QO had. Other than that, the UI is great, everything’s smooth and it’s pretty much very similar to my previous experience.

Getting set up on Mint.com is pretty easy. Once you create a Mint.com account, you can start entering your checking accounts, savings accounts, 401ks, loans, etc into the system. It simply asks for your login credentials you use for each of their websites. Once entered, it crawls through each individual account’s information and relays it back to you.

In addition to viewing you past transactions and account balances, you may also look to the future. Setting budgets for many different categories is also available. A new feature that was just added recently was the ability to set a financial goal for yourself and Mint helps you track your progress towards that goal. You can also be recommended for various accounts that could actually have you save money in the long run, so keep a look out on their site.

All in all, if you can get over the feeling of being exposed on the internet, Mint.com is a great way to centralize your finances, set your goals and track your progress to meet those goals. With it being so easy to access your account (either by pc, phone, text, etc) you can be on the go and know your entire financial situation. Personally, this tool helps me sleep easier at times, since I can know my whole picture rather than having a list of websites and accounts I need to check on a regular basis. I highly suggest you check it out.

Social. It’s the new thing nowadays. Whether it’s your favorite website, online video game, iPhone app and just about anything else in your digital cabinet, you’ll find some sort of social component built into it (and usually thriving).

It’s no secret that people like to share their experiences and thoughts with others, regardless if anybody else cares. I suppose that’s just what humans do… socialize. Something that has been taking off lately is the sprawl of social deal websites. Don’t you always hear about how such a great deal somebody received? People love saving money, so why not band together and save money together? Well that’s what these websites take aim for.

The concept is that a single deal per city is broadcasted for some incredibly low price (often 50% off gift cards) and all the subscribers and people surfing through the website begin ordering the deal. A specific number of deals must be met for the deal to be on, so the more people the better. If the number of people is not reached, then the deal will not proceed and your credit cards will not be charged.

There are many ways to share this information for the great deals. You can sign up for daily email notifications, RSS feeds or download an app on your phone to keep track of the daily deals. Along with the Facebook, email, Twitter, etc buttons, you can also share a link with friends after you’ve bought the deal (on Living Social). If 3 people that you shared the link with order the item, yours is free. Incentive, eh?

Groupon was the first to take a stranglehold on this simple, yet great idea. With great success, come many copycats. Of all of them out there, Living Social is the main competitor to Groupon. The major functionalities of both sites are pretty much the same, except for a few nuances.

Now why do these local companies sign up for these deals at such a high discount? Well, because it drives revenues and creates more customers – hopefully repeat customers. There have been cases where a Groupon deal nearly bankrupts businesses due to the high costs of putting on such a discount, but usually the good outweighs the bad.

So, if you love saving money and have 10 seconds a day to check on a deal or two, you may find something you really want for half the price. I’ve certainly found a few great deals already.