Stumble Upon Your New Favorite App

There is an app for just about anything these days, but how do we decide which one’s are worthy enough to download? Many go with the ones that are featured and highest rated, but even then you must decide between the hundreds of recommendations. The most convincing force in what is downloaded is word of mouth, the applications being talked about the most by your friends, classmates, family, and coworkers are the ones you will most likely download. I have an app that I have personally become attached to for reading and entertainment is Stumble Upon. This application allows you to select from a list of interests including sports, news, art, fitness, humor, and many more in order to find the best articles, pictures, and videos customized to your liking. In many situations I find myself bored and would like to entertain myself but don’t know exactly what I want, so I let Stumble Upon find something for me.

All I have to do to be entertained is to open the app and hit the stumble button until I find something that catches my interest. I have found some of the best workout tips, stunning pictures, motivating quotes, hilarious videos, and informative articles using Stumble Upon. By giving the pages you find a thumbs up or thumbs down the app can learn what you like best, so it will provide links based on what people with similar interests have liked. By basing the selection of what they are providing you from your customized interests, you are getting personalized recommendations from people like yourself, so it is almost impossible for you to not find something that will make you laugh, smile or think within a couple of minutes. Also by connecting your favorite social media sites you can share what you find with your friends using the touch of a button. This app is genius and I have not gone a day without using it. Try it out and let me know what you think.

http://www.stumbleupon.com

Spotify: The Digital Music Solution

Modern day technology with the internet has allowed music to expand to a whole new level where it can be hard narrow down the choices of all the different ways we can listen, download, discover, and organize a music library. Spotify is an online application that gives users instant access to an enormous, up-to-date music database. With this endless supply of content one can search through their favorite songs, find related artists, listen to customized radio, compile playlists, and discover new music; all with excellent sound quality.

You can get Spotify on your computer with all of these features for free, but of course there are going to be periodically annoying commercials that interrupt your listening. Unlike iTunes you can still search and listen to an entire song without paying 99 cents, so it is still worth the download. Once getting hooked, you can avoid the commercials by paying $5 a month for unlimited listening on the computer, but if you like to take music everywhere you go like myself it is worth upgrading to Premium for $10 a month in order to utilize the Spotify app on your mobile device.

As a music addict, I am always looking for new music in all different genres depending on what mood I am in, what I am doing, who I am with, etc. With Spotify I have access to thousands of albums for less than the cost of one new CD a month. Previously, I was the one who would download my music for free through various programs, so it is a big deal for me to pay for a music service and it is completely worth it. I was sucked in with the free one-month premium trial, and now I can’t imagine being without it. I use it at home, in the gym, in the car, on the way to class, and at my friend’s houses. I have my favorite songs organized in playlists, I continuously discover new music, and even if I don’t know what I want to listen to I can put on a radio station based on an artist, song, album, or playlist that I like and it does the work for me. Spotify is a convenient, all-in-one digital music solution that I definitely recommend for everyone to try!

http://www.spotify.com/us/