In 1992, my wife and I moved from Texas to Oklahoma City and bought our first new home. At that time, and for years to come almost every driveway had a newspaper thrown onto it every morning. When I travelled overnight, I loved getting a USA Today newspaper and loved reading it in the morning at the hotel with my coffee and breakfast. And, if I was lucky enough to get the government rate at the Embassy Suites, I would get to enjoy a copy of the Wall Street Journal also. I've always enjoyed spreading a printed newspaper out on a table and browsing the various news articles and commentaries.
Now, it is rare to to see a newspaper on a driveway and I'm not sure if our local paper even does print delivery anymore. You can't find a newspaper stand on the corner or in front of your grocery store. Most newspapers have gone to electronic publishing. This leads me to the title of this blog of "There's an App for That". This is an often used saying in advertisements and in general conversation.
Today when I get up in the morning I open my News app on my iPhone and browse today's news. I have gotten used to this format and really don't mind it at all. The news feed has catered my news to things I'm interested in and topics I have requested news on. I start with the News app and then check my Email app for any great new offers on cruises or notification from Amazon on what my wife has been buying. I then click on the Stocks app to see how the stock futures are doing and browse the business news. Next in my routine is to grab my first cup of coffee and then check the Facebook app for more news and nonsense.
There literally is an app for anything. Apps are very handy for quick access to accounts and information. I have two credit card apps that I monitor purchases on and use to make payments in a matter of seconds. We utilize two accounts that give us airline points and cruise points and we use them much like a debit card. I may make eight payments a month as I pay the card balance frequently to keep up. I have a Great Clips app that allows me to check the wait time and then check in online so that I can get a quick haircut. I used this a few days ago and as soon as I walked in and gave my name they escorted me to a chair. I have a Chick-fil-A app that allows me to go in and pass the line up by sitting at a table and do a quick mobile order to my table. Plus, I get points towards food!
I have a Carnival Cruise app that tells me how many days to my next cruise. A Ring app that lets me keep track of what movement is happening outside my house or at my front door. I have three hotel apps for easy and quick booking of a hotel stay, plus earn points. I have a MapMyWalk app that will map, time and mark distance for any walk I do for exercise. I have Spotify and Amazon Music for music when I need it. I have a Regal movie app to check movie times. An Uber and Lyft app for transportation if needed. Hulu and Netflix app that allows me to watch a show. Papa John and Dominos apps for pizza. I have a Checkbook app and bank app to keep track of checking and savings accounts and a 529 app that will instantly give me balance and account info on our grandchildren's accounts.
All of these apps really make life a little easier to have access to about anything you want or need. I'm a retired federal employee and soon the Thrift Savings Program (the government version of a 401K) will have an app to check balances and make transfers. They are a little behind in their technology! In retirement these apps can help you monitor your health, finances, travel and many other things.
For this blog, I searched the App Store on my phone to see what is out there. You can find apps for about any topic you can think of. Any hobby you may enjoy will have numerous apps to help you enjoy it more. I searched my hobby of metal detecting. They have apps to identify rocks and to log your finds.
I use the notes app on my phone for various lists and notes. When searching the App Store, I discovered numerous "To Do List" apps and want to explore that more. I am a list maker and this could be awesome! I'm sure there are a lot of apps that I could probably use but don't know they are out there.
With apps, everything is instantaneous. Want to know the weather as soon as you get up? Check the app, no more waiting for 15 minutes for the weather forecast to cycle through on the morning news. Need traffic reports, local news or what to do this weekend? There's an app for that. The best thing is that you don't have to put on your slippers and get wet or cold going out to the end of your driveway to grab your soggy newspaper in the winter!
What apps to you use in your life? Do they make your life a little easier in some way? Do you use any unique apps in retirement?
There truly is an app for about anything and everything. There is still a daily paper here in Phoenix but I haven't bought it in ages. I used to enjoy getting the paper at home at various other places we have lived and reading the mail that way. Now I have an app Newsbreak that combs all the local news and provides stories of interest. I like that. I'm on the usual apps, Facebook, Instagram, Pandora, Netflix and the like. Like you I have an app for banking. I used to write reviews for Yelp so I have the Yelp app still on my phone to look at reviews and also to see if some restaurants we want to go to have wait lists attached to Yelp which then we'll use if we are going to eat there. Every so often I do go through my apps and delete some if I haven't used them in awhile and might not use them in the future. Another one I like, but rarely use, is for parking here in the Phoenix area, especially downtown. It allows you to see where there are open spaces and then you can just put the parking meter number in on the app and it will set up parking time for you; all linked to a bank card. Very convenient and you don't have to worry about having change to "feed the meter."
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I often delete unused apps also to free up a little space on the phone. I recently got a parking app on while standing by a parking meter that only takes payment by app. Not only are newspapers gone, but so are the parking meters that take coins.
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