Ever feel like you need a personal assistant to help you get through November and December? These apps will make you feel like you've hired someone to help. If you know of other helpful holiday apps, tell us on our Facebook page.
1. Skyscanner Hotel Search
If you’re going home for the holidays but not looking forward to sleeping on grandma's sleeper sofa or the twin bed in your childhood room, then check out the new hotel app from Skyscanner. It makes it easy to search, compare, and book a room using the major travel aggregators. For Android and iOS.
2. Acorns
While you’re out spending money on family and friends, you can also be saving and investing money for yourself. Acorns rounds up your debit- and credit-card transactions and invests that change for you into a diversified portfolio, making it easy to put savings on autopilot. For Android and iOS.
3. Treat
Create personalized holiday cards on the go using Treat, a new service from Shutterfly that lets you easily create and send paper cards from your mobile device. Your holiday cards can be personal, unique, and fun all at the same time. Caveat: Although the app is free, the cards are not. For iOS.
Our picks can help you get the most out of Black Friday and beyond, and check out these apps that will save you the most when shopping.
4. Sidechef
This cooking app has step-by-step, photo-driven recipes and hands-free voice commands—all of which come in handy when you're experimenting with a new dish. Good for cooks at any level, this app also makes every step—browsing recipes, purchasing ingredients, eating the meal—easy to share from your device. For iOS.
5. KnowledgeBook: Cooking
Sidechef is currently only available for iOS, so here’s another fun cooking app that Android users can enjoy, with one big difference—KnowledgeBook: Cooking doesn't have any recipes. Instead, the app contains all the little bits of information and rules of thumb that help you use and understand your recipes: What can be substituted for buttermilk in a pinch? How many bananas do you need to make 1 cup of slices? How many cups in a pint? For Android and iOS. (Here's the link for the iTunes version).
6. Snow Stars
Let it snow! (On your phone’s home screen, that is.) Snow Stars is an interactive wallpaper that has snowflakes dancing in the air with a cool 3D effect. So even if it isn’t actually snowing outside, you can bring some winter beauty into your home this holiday season. For Android.
Visit our Holiday Gift Ideas page where you'll find our experts' picks on:
- Top tech gifts for kids and teens
- Top tech gift for Mom and Dad
- Top tech gifts for Grandparents
- Top tech gifts for $200 or less
- Top tech gifts for $100 or less
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