Many of us now live with our phone in hand, all day long. Even a lot of us who live in Costa Rica. Some fanatics even do so at night.
When you are retired, your phone stops being important to you, or it’s supposed to. Your desktop, or your laptop give you all the necessary connections to your family back home, right?
Facebook is one example of technology, which stopped being technology to many. My 83 year old mom is on Facebook, all day long. That is because it’s her connection to the world, her kids and grandkids who all live in other countries. Her friends and cousins live in Spain, Australia, Belgium, France, the US, Canada, England, Germany, and Costa Rica.
Isn’t it cool to have 115 friends from all over the world that you can stay in touch with when your 83 years old? Yeah, my mom is very international and if you are living in Costa Rica, I’m sure you are too. Or you might be as soon as you move away from your family, looking for a better, warmer and exciting life in Costa Rica.
So most of us know about Facebook. Soon, everything you do inside your home will be managed by internet & technology and you’ll find smart homes everywhere; it’s in the future of real estate too.
You’d like to get used to all that technology by using smart apps? Don’t be afraid, these 11 free apps are really helpful to anybody living in Costa Rica.
Watching Channel 7 news, the newsreader told us about a new app. I think it’s a great one. When I am with clients, they always ask “what is that kind of tree”? Well, I never know because I’m a real estate agent, not an arborist or biologist. I have no clue about trees. And that is what “Ojeadores” or “Arboles Mágicos” is all about.
1. Arboles Mágicos (Magic trees)
If you download the free app (Ojeadorews) and install it, it will tell you in English (because my phone is in English) to identify the species of a tree by selecting the color of the flowers. Click on it and you get a rainbow of colors where you can make your selection. Each color will give you the tree’s name, it’s origin, when it flowers, the days of flowering, the flower’s dimensions, the average tree height, the main seed disperser and the native region of the tree.
Please make a donation to help planting more than the 9,000 native trees that were already planted by the creators of this wonderful app. Available for iPhone, iPad and Android.
This app gave me the idea to look for more interesting apps that will make living in Costa Rica easier.
2. Qué Comemos? (What to Eat)
Qué Comemos is an app that will give you Express food from over 150 restaurants in Costa Rica. Download app and find Choice of Wings | American | Smoothies | Coffee | Meat | Chinese | Empanadas | Burgers | International | Seafood | Mexican | Pasta | Peruvian | Pizza | Chicken | Dessert | Healthy | Sandwich | Sushi | Tacos | Ticpical | Japanese. Available in English for iPhone, iPad and Android.
3. Up for a cuddle?
Who doesn’t need a cuddle once in a while? Feeling lonely? But please ask your spouse for permission first if you’d like to be cuddled by someone else. Download Spoonr, the #1 location-based social-meeting app for cuddling to find someone near you who also needs to be cuddled. Available for iPhone, iPad and Android.
4. Bird sounds Costa Rica
Bird sounds Costa Rica lite offers a free download with a collection of 166 songs and calls of 30 bird species of Costa Rica Available for iPhone, iPad and Android. Upgrade available for $19,99.
5. From basic maintenance to cleaning tricks
There are always those home-tasks that you don’t know the solution for. Brightnest is an app that you candownload to help you organize your home, schedule cleaning, how to, tricks and tips, DIY crafts and other impossible to know stuff that will come in handy all the time.
6. Smart Home for the techies
Crazy about making your own home a smart home? You can do it little by little with Homekit. Manage your light, locks, cooling, shades and many other gadgets from your iPhone.
7. A Costa Rica guide
BigGuide Costa Rica map, Ultimate Tourist Guide and Offline Voice Navigator is a new app, download now, that was just launched in April 2016 and does not have any reviews yet. Will do for voice navigation and find best places without an internet connection. Available only for iPhone and iPad.
8. Pets in Costa Rica
Pets app Costa Rica will find you the closest veterinarian, grooming, pet spa in Costa Rica by Province . Only available for iPhone and iPad.
9. Get to know Costa Rica
App by the Ministry of Tourism, showing where to go, what to do, where the promotions are and many things more. Get to know Costa Rica at bargain prices by using “A turistear”. Available for iPhone, iPad and Android in English.
10. Voice Translator
Voice translator allows you to translate what you say in more than 50 languages (Speech to text), dictate text instead of typing it and listen to the translation (speech). Available for iPhone, iPad and Android.
11. Ruta Alterna
This free app was designed to show you how to get around the traffic jams in San Jose. Not that there is anwhere else to go when you hit one, but give it a try by downloading Ruta Alterna on your iPhone or Android.
12. waze
a few others also recommended to make mention of Waze, which is a great GPS – Navigation System app. I know many locals who use it to send another person how to get to a certain place.
If you have any other apps that will help others living in Costa Rica, feel free to send them to me and I’ll check them out and share it with others on this blog.
If you like this blog, connect with me on Google+ or subscribe to my newsletter by clicking the banner below.
