Apps for the weekend
Admit it – you love it when the weekend arrives. A chance to take a break and finally get some of those chores done or just kick back and escape the crowds. Everyone wishes to have a relaxed and pleasant weekend, but all too often those hopes of having a fantastic few days off are dashed simply because you can’t find that much to do.
Without a way to find what’s on at the weekend – whether that’s a movie, an event, or simply finding a new restaurant or bar – there’s a chance that you’ll waste those precious few days of free time. But with today’s abundance of apps, we’re all just a few button pushes away from making the most of our personal time.
In this post, we’ll take a quick peek at a few apps to help you kick off the holiday…
Where Chefs Eat
This popular app is currently riding high in the iOS App Store’s Travel charts, and although expensive at £10.99, is regarded as being one of the best apps to find all the best dining spots, wherever you may be in the world.
The app is billed simply as “The ultimate restaurant guide chosen by more than 600 of the world’s best chefs, from Heston Blumenthal to René Redzepi and David Chang. Whether you are home or away, with over 3,000 personal recommendations in more than 70 countries, Where Chefs Eat is an essential app for anyone that appreciates good food”.
The app itself is based on the well-known book of the same name, and consists of a selection of options – where chefs eat (i.e. the restaurants) and “tipped for”, with more specific information contained within each one. You can also choose by location – by continent, country and city, filtering restaurants that match the criteria chosen.
There’s also a wealth of information about each restaurant – such as dress code, if credit cards are accepted, and so on. Considering the book is a weighty tome at hundreds of pages, having the app to hand is a much more convenient alternative…
Various shopping apps
As it’s the weekend, most people indulge in a spot of shopping. Almost all the high street chains now have their own shopping apps – Boots, M&S, John Lewis, Debenhams, ASDA, Tesco, and many more. Looking through the current most popular shopping apps, Amazon is consistently the top Free app, and it’s easy to see why, as the app itself is well designed. The latest version for the iPhone even includes 3D Touch, with shortcuts to popular features such as Today’s Bargains.
If I had to single out one of the most genuinely useful shopping apps, I’d pick an app called Cruelty Cutter, which lets you scan a product and obtain a response about its animal testing status.
Weather apps…
In the UK, almost everything you do on the weekend necessitates checking the weather forecast beforehand. It’s no good organising a camping trip or Sunday BBQ if it’s going to be pouring with rain.
Whilst most smartphones these days already include built in weather apps (and there’s no shortage of websites and TV weather channels), it’s nevertheless useful having a few extra weather apps on your smartphone. One of the very best is Dark Sky, but if you’re one of those people that prefers a more humorous take on the weather, take a look at CARROT Weather.
The idea is simple – the weather forecast is delivered by a talking robot, and there are plenty of amusing animations to go with the forecasts. There’s even an Apple Watch app…CARROT Weather is currently the #1 app in the iOS weather app charts.
For Android users, one of the more unusual weather apps is the Grumpy Weather widget (rated 16+), which tells the weather how it really is…(you have been warned!).
Have a great weekend!
