One of the main reasons we whip out our smartphones these days is to utilize apps. Particularly in real estate, there are myriad apps that can help with productivity if you’re an agent and help you understand the market if you’re a consumer-Evernote, DocuSign, RECalc and USHUD are just a few examples. But, let’s face it, all work and no play makes for a really boring day. Those daily lulls while waiting for a client, for a meeting to start or to meet up with friends are stolen moments for smartphone users looking to rendezvous with their favorite time-kill apps. Don’t look so perplexed-you know you’re guilty of it! So what are some of the more entertaining apps out there that are as addicting as holiday sugar cookies? In honor of the infamous “end of the year top 10s and 5s list” style, we decided to name our top 5 time-kill apps:
Twitter: While this could without a doubt count as a “productive” app, it is just as conducive to frivolity. I am admittedly guilty of surfing my timeline, bypassing “@Slate The Supreme Court is about to reshape this country” and “@housingwire median home list prices rise 4.05% over last year” for the tempting tweet lying just below : “@KimKardashian Last night was KRAY!” What did Kim do that was so exciting? And what was she wearing?! She would of course have a shortened photo link revealing an image of herself adorned in something form-fitting and absolutely fabulous.
We all do this and we all love it. Tweets from the glitterati and less than economic-policy-changing twitter pages are sometimes the antidote to an otherwise scary day.
Angry Birds
This has perhaps been one of the most talked about apps this past year. And I will say with confidence that, if you’re a realtor, there’s next to zero chance it will bring in business for you. But, man, it’s addictive. Sometimes there’s nothing more satisfying than slinging multicolored birds to crush evil green pigs and achieve a “new high score.”
While the app’s concept may sound puerile, the offers from investors to help parent company, Rovio, go public are anything but so. Rovio most recently received $42 million in March and is looking to raise $1 billion before going public. But, hey, who cares about IPOs when you’ve got a “new high score” to shatter before at the tail end of a lunch break.
Pictorial
While this app is a great way to pass those precious dull moments in your day, it also helps develop spatial reasoning, a common part of intelligence tests. As described on their page in iTunes –“how quickly can you guess what pictures are hidden from you in the night sky full of starts? Can you discover the story behind the dance of snowflakes in the arctic blizzard? Will you be the first to solve the mystery of the pirate’s ship?” By moving you finger at just the right angles, you can discover beautiful pictures hidden in five different storylines: Night City, Arctic, Treasure Island Fairy Forest and Halloween (the free version is just Night City).
This is a super cool way to pass time and challenge your mind simultaneously. If you don’t believe me, check out some of the ratings on Pictorial’s iTunes page.
Fruit Ninja
This is my guilty pleasure. If consuming Fruit Ninja’s goodness counted towards my overall bodily intake of fruits’ vitamins and minerals, I’d be one healthy gal! If you don’t have the app (gasp!), this is the overall objective: slice and dice as many fruits that pop up on your screen as possible. That’s it. But you have to be deft enough to cut through the sweet juices of up to dozens of melons, berries and bananas flooding your screen. As described on its iTunes page, Fruit Ninja is “satisfying fruit carnage.” We sure enjoy every juicy moment.
Didn’t think we’d pick this one? We sorta had to. With facebook’s nearly 1 billion users, it’s hard not to run into someone who doesn’t have the app on their phone to satisfy their daily need for social interaction with friends and family.
While Facebook is an essential part of modern marketing strategy, it can also be a major time suck. The joy of uploading media such as photos of yourself in in your latest shopping spree garb, or the video of your newborn, or the video of the weird tricks your dog can do, has become contagious, enrapturing all corners of the globe.
If you say that you don’t check you facebook app at least a few times a week, you can consider yourself “not with it.” According to mobiThinking, Facebook is one of the top 10 mobile destinations for smartphone users.
Thanks for letting us officially educate you on how to waste your time!
What are your favorite time kill apps?