Posted 06/03/2011 at 10:30am | by Florence Ion You may not be privy to the world of Android (or even interested in learning its ways), but you can't deny that you don't utilize Google just a little bit (a tiny bit, even) on your own phone. Stop being so bashful about the habit and give in! Here are three free apps to help reinforce your Google habit with your iOS device or Mac, and three more reasons why Google's services still play a heavy party in our daily lives. The notion of that is kind of scary, by the way. But we'll deal. If you're big on using Gmail, Mailbox is a great, barebones mail tool for sending and receiving messages. It's free, without any bugs or advertisements, and the interface is easy to use. Anyway, enjoy the screenshot of my inbox. Got a picture to share of a beautiful place Read More

There's no shortage of location-based search apps. One of my favorites is Around Me, but there are plenty of others. Smith Micro has come up with its own search app that has some nice additions, and misses a few things too. The free app, called Locality, uses Google searching to find the nearest restaurants, pharmacies, hospitals, etc. It does that well, generating a list of places, or it can show them on a map. One nice feature is an 'Events' function, so you can see things that might be of special interest around you. Some things it found were local concerts, antique shows, and some commercial events like sales at local stores. The app also features a selection of geo-tagged photos. They are provided by Panoramio, and it's a nice addition to this compact little app. Sadly, the photos are only one way affairs. You can see submitted photos, but you Read More