There’s an app for that.
For $6.99, you can download the Waterminder app to your Apple devices, and it will measure your water intake and keep you properly hydrated.
For $39.99, you can get Paprika Recipe Manager 3, which promises to “Organize your recipes. Create grocery lists. Plan your meals. Download recipes from your favourite websites, Seamlessly sync to all your devices.”
For $3.99, Pocket Yoga promises “you can keep up with your practice at your own pace in the comfort of your own home. Simply roll out your mat, place your device in front, and Pocket Yoga will guide you through your entire session.” Twenty-seven sessions! Pose dictionary included!
This is not to say that we’re technologically coddled, with our phones taking the place of the ordinary operation of daily life. Wait — it’s exactly that.
Got $54.99? Home Inventory will keep track of all your stuff for insurance purposes, along with receipts and warranty information. Another $6.99 will get you Dog Monitor, which, if you leave your home computer on, will let you use your phone to “check on your dog while you’re at work — know when it’s barking, talk to your dog remotely, and see live video. It is a must-have for any dog owner.” Of course, that’s competing with PetCamApp, which lets you “Be with your pet, even you’re not at home.”
Lost those pesky kids? Hook your whole family up to Family Track Central, which is “a desktop application that helps you keep track of the geographic locations of your family members in real time through their IOS devices. … Wouldn’t it be nice if you get a local notification from your Mac when your family member approaches an area they are not supposed to go to? That’s what Family Track Central is about.”
You can open the front door, check the weather and decide whether you need a sweater, a jacket or a coat, or you can spend $13.99 on Swackett; “Our unique approach is to combine raw weather data with thoughtfully crafted people symbols (called ‘peeps’) who always appear appropriately dressed for the weather. If it happens to be cold outside, Swackett peeps appear dressed in winter hats, coats and boots. A hot, sunny day? Swackett peeps appear wearing shorts and sunglasses — and they even remember to bring along drinking water and sunblock.” Who knows? Maybe the peeps also use Waterminder.
This is not to say that we’re technologically coddled, with our phones taking the place of the ordinary operation of daily life. Wait — it’s exactly that.
You grow up, leave the nest — and then spend enough on apps to have your phone be the nest you’ve spent so much time trying to escape.
Or you can live a little more like your parents, who can no doubt handle all those things without even having a smart phone.
They used to call it common sense — and they didn’t have to buy an app for that.
