App of the Week: AnyList

Since I've been working in the mobile industry for almost 10 years, I think it's about time that I start blogging about mobile apps. So, welcome to my very first App of the Week post!

Me at the supermarket: 

Wait... What was I supposed to buy?

If this sounds like you, welcome to my world. I think of myself as having a great memory but for whatever reason, I feel like a lost puppy when I'm in a grocery store. Chock it up to my lack of cooking skills and never knowing which ingredients I need for a certain recipe I'm attempting that night, or perhaps it's because my husband barks some last minute requests to me as I'm walking out the door. Whatever the issue is, it suddenly occurred to me that there might be an app for that! Although I've been working in mobile, I never really thought I needed a grocery app... that is, until now.

For months, I've been reading tech news about Remember The Milk, so I tried this app first. This app is actually available for the iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry 10, and the web. It also integrates with your Siri, Outlook, Gmail, Evernote, and more. There are also other services that offer RTM integration through their API, but I digress.

Remember The Milk has a cute little cow icon and that was very appealing to me.  Wow, talk about judging a book by its cover!

Believe it or not, RTM was just way too complicated for me. Here are a couple of screenshots:

I'm pretty darn tech savvy so it wasn't difficult to use per say, but it just wasn't exactly what I was looking for in this particular case. I already create calendar reminders for my personal tasks and I really just needed help at the grocery store!

Dear app developers, please just solve my problems, make my life easier, and stop adding other features that you think I'll love but probably won't ever use, thanks.

So, I did some more research and downloaded Yummly. Cute app name, right? Plus, their website is awesome. It's colorful, organized, fun, and made me feel (for a few moments) that I could be an amazing cook if I just followed these recipes!

Unfortunately, I felt overwhelmed by their iPhone app. :-(

Discovering recipes is fun because the photographs are visually stunning and frankly, make you hungry. I love pinning recipes on Pinterest and this was similar. You just hit that orange "Yum" button and all of the recipes you think are yummy go into a special section which you can access later. The problem is that when you try to access the recipe directions, you're brought to a different website each time (since these recipes are being funneled in from a variety of other sites). I'm still an amateur chef so I need directions to be consistently clear, and hopping from site to site where your cooking abilities are expected to be rather high just frustrated me. And again... I need an app for grocery shopping!!!!

Yummly does offer a grocery list aspect but it's tied to their recipes and I was looking for something quick and easy. For Yummly, I'll probably just keep browsing their pretty website.

Finally, I found AnyList! Cue the violins! The screenshots shown below may look simple but hey, that's what I need! The best part of this app is that I can share my grocery list with my husband. I can just hit "Share" which will prompt a push notification to his phone, or I can simply send it via email or text message. Once I found this feature, I was hooked. I can create an entire full grocery list and poof- he'll get it with one quick tap so he can pick up everything on his way home from work. AnyList also organizes your list into sections that match your grocery store so you won't forget to pick up the eggs in the dairy section when you're already buying that milk.

The app automatically pre-populates items when you begin to type them.

They also offer up a few free recipes which are super easy for beginners like me!

AnyList is free but there is a one year subscription version for $9.99 called AnyList Complete which allows you to attach photos to list items and choose list themes with new fonts, textures, and colors. The paid version also gives you a passcode lock so you can keep gift ideas secret from family members. I'll probably just stick to this free version but it's nice to know that they will be adding new features to enhance the app. Like Yummly, AnyList is only available for iOS devices but let's hope they're building an Android version too.

What app have you been tinkering with lately?

The Pinning Dance: One Pinner's Analysis of Pinterest

Like the masses, I'm completely addicted to Pinterest. I was recently asked why I thought Pinterest was so successful and why it seems to be growing so unbelievably fast.

My first answer was simple: It's visual. Let's face it, most of us are visual people. We love eye candy. We're attracted to a product by its appearance, a recipe by the photo of the food,  and yes, a book by its cover. In fact, I would venture to guess that most Pinterest users repin a picture without even clicking on it  to read the text associated with the picture. I'm guilty of that myself.

So, I dug deeper. I came across this great infographic below. I'm admittedly growing tired of most infographics but this one is actually quite interesting and speaks the truth, in my humble opinion.

(Source: Mashable http://tinyurl.com/cb6q3ue)

I would also add the fact that Pinterest is deepy personal, customizable, and dare I say somewhat solitary-- but in a good way. Let me explain. When I linger on Pinterest, I'm not really actively engaging with friends or family. For the most part, I keep to myself. I see something, I repin it. I may be repinning a friend's pin, yes, but the act of repinning is the extent of my interaction with them. They'll see that I repinned it and that's enough.

I continue to build my boards and create my personal collections more for myself than for anybody else. I want to remember a beautiful photograph, so I pin it. I do this so I can return to my board at any later date to find that photograph again and admire it, or be inspired by it to create something else of my own. I pin a recipe so I can either make it myself down the road, or share it with a baker friend of mine. She'll see it on my board and repin it for herself. Again, that's the extent of our dialogue.

In essence, the act of pinning and repinning has literally become our entire conversation. I pin, you pin, a friend pins, I repin, somebody else pins, a stranger repins, a friend of the stranger repins, and so forth.  Pins are repeated for days, sometimes weeks to come. I've nicknamed this act of pinning and repinning: "The Pinning Dance."

(Pretend that pushpin above is spinning like a ballerina).

I still thoroughly enjoy The Pinning Dance and as such, I'd like to invite you to follow me on Pinterest here. I'd also love to hear your thoughts on Pinterest too! Please feel free to leave a comment on this post.

In other news (no pun intended), I'm busy this weekend writing an article for a local newspaper!

Stay tuned to hear more about that story next week!

Pinterest a.k.a. My Latest Obsession

Do you know about Pinterest? If not, you should. Pinterest is a virtual (and visual) pinboard website and app that allows you to share photos, products, articles, and more with all of your friends. I could literally sit on the site for hours and once you get the hang of things, you'll probably feel the same way. The recipes alone look so delicious that you'll repin tons, even if you plan on never cooking them.

Here's the latest product that I pinned:


This limited-edition T-shirt from Hendrick Boards is available only until February 15th and reads: "BE THE PERSON YOUR DOG THINKS YOU ARE." With every purchase, a percentage is donated back to animal shelters, including Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue (the local dog rescue I work for). So, click that link and buy a tee!

Click here to follow me on Pinterest and find other cool things I obsess over.