Top 10 Free Apps For Your Smartphone

If you are like me, your smart phone is filled with apps, some that you use a little and some that you use a lot.

I must have over 100 apps on my iPhone, and I'll be honest, most I rarely use. But there are ten that I use a lot.

Here are my 10 Favorite FREE Apps that I cannot live without

10. Last Pass. If you are like me, you hate having to remember passwords for all your accounts, (E-mail, Facebook, Amazon Shopping, etc) you can store all of them right here. Last Pass is a password manager that can store all your passwords and it can even generate strong ones for your other Apps. You only have to remember one password. Tip: Don't make the password 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. Come up with something better.

9. Weather Channel App: You got to know what the weather is and this app makes it so easy. I love the 7-day and hour by hour forecast at your fingertips, weather radar, cool weather videos and more. What's really cool, is that if you travel or have favorite cities, you can save as many cities on the app you like and instantly check the forecast and current conditions.

8. GasBuddy. I'm cheap and hate to overpay for gas. I travel quite a bit between Rockford, to DeKalb, to Belvidere, to Rochelle and everywhere in between, so needless to say I spend alot of money in fuel costs. You would be amazed at how much prices can differ on a gallon of gas. this week, for example, the average price of a gallon of gas in Rockford is $2.47/ gallon, while in Belvidere it has been as low as $2.09 a gallon. GasBuddy allows you to punch in your favorite cities and instantly check in on the price of a gallon of gas. The app depends on users to update prices as they travel, so the information is usually never more three hours old. This app has saved me a ton of money over the last three years.

7. Google Photos. I take a lot of photos and like to hang onto them, unfortunately, I run into a space crunch with the amount of allotted storage available on my iPhone. It's a common problem, so for me it's Google Photos to the rescue. What makes it cool is that it offers its unlimited photo storage. With the app, you can store an unlimited number of high-quality photos in your free Google account. If you want super resolution, the app will allow you to store up to 15GB of original resolution photos in your free Google Drive space.

6. Waze. This app is great for outsmarting traffic! Waze is the world's largest community-based traffic and navigation app. The app depends on other drivers to share real-time traffic and road information. The app will direct you around accidents, and congestion and even save you gas money by directing you to the least expensive cheapest station on your route (not out of the way). Caution, sometimes it will make you take lots of extras right and left turns when traveling in larger populated areas, like downtown Rockford

5. Kindle. Like to read books? There is no reason to go out and buy a Kindle when you can use your smartphone or iPad to do the same thing. Amazon's FREE Kindle app is a e-book reader that lets you instantly access your digital library. You can change the font size, the background and other features to enhance your reading experience.

4. Uber. A must have if you need a ride. It has saved me on many occasions where my vehicle broke down Uber is an 'on-demand' ride sharing and car booking app. Fares are calculated and handled through credit card or Paypal. I used Uber recently when I took Metra downtown a few weeks ago to go to Chicago. Coming back, our Metra train was out of service and we were stranded in Cicero. My car was parked in Elburn. It was Uber to the rescue.

3. Google Maps. Don't get lost! You can't if you have this handy FREE app. The app offers turn-by-turn navigation (Yes it will talk to you). in addition, like Waze, it will offer live traffic information along with points of interest. It's great for mapping a long road trip.

2. Quick Scan. Like to comparison ship, you bet you do. How many times have you been shopping and com across an item and wondered if you should buy it there on the spot, or get it elsewhere. Quick scan will allow you to scan the UPC of the item with your smart phone camera, and instantly search the internet for other local stores or on-line vendors that sell the identical product. The app will pull up the prices, so you can make an informed buying decision. It's also comes in handy, if the store is out of the product and will direct you to another nearby store that also sells the product.

1. The New Q98.5 App for IOS and Android. We have been waiting for this one for a long time. With the new app you can listen to Q98.5 Online anytime, anywhere, right from the app. No more fumbling around radio apps trying to find Q98.5.

The App also features :

Push notification for Rockford breaking news, weather,
Cool contests, shows and more
Stream music, weather and traffic updates live from Q98.5
the latest local news
watch cool watch videos,
view photo galleries & listen to audio content and more