With many thousands of applications available for smart phones and other devices, finding the right ones for helping you manage your finances could be daunting. These sites can simplify.
-- Shop, get gas. Here, from 20somethingfinance.com, is a list of "best" money-saving personal-finance apps for devices that run on Google's Android software. The list includes Gas Finder, which identifies nearby gas stations and what they're charging, and ShopSavvy, which compares prices on any item whose bar code you can scan.
-- iPhone apps. About.com's financial-software area lists 19 free and low-cost iPhone apps recommended by "guide" Shelley Elmblad. Read short descriptions, or click for longer reviews. Suggestions include Pageonce Personal Assistant, which allows secure setup of multiple bank, credit card, and brokerage accounts, and management of cell phone minutes as well as frequent-flier and online-shopping accounts. Another lets you send money from a PayPal account to anyone on your iPhone Contact list.
Pageonce is also available for BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Mobile devices.
-- Mint, anyone? Personal-finance site Mint.com has free iPhone and Android apps to extend Mint's budgeting and account-tracking features to mobile devices. Download the Android version from the site, or follow a link to the Apple iTunes store for the iPhone version. Mint.com, owned by Intuit Inc., shows users' account activity and recommends how to save money.
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-- App appeal. The assortment of app reviews at appappeal.com will explain some unusual tools, such as Buxfer, Wikinvest, and BillMonk. The latter describes itself as a sort of bill collector for "roommates, young professionals, and college students; it has been used for splitting bills like rent, utilities, meals, and beers. BillMonk also allows users to keep track of books, DVDs, or other items that they have lent to or borrowed from their friends."
