After installing YNAB, you’ll be asked to connect your banking and credit accounts if you’d like. Doing so lets the app pull in all of your financial transactions which can then be assigned to different spending categories. If you aren’t comfortable handing over this information, you can also enter transactions manually, although the company uses some pretty serious encryption algorithms, so security doesn’t seem like an issue.

In either event, you can initially assign transactions to any of the app’s five categories: immediate obligations; true expenses; debt payments; quality of life goals; and just for fun. While YNAB says these categories can get you budgeting quickly and effectively, you also have the ability to change any of the category names, as well as add new ones.

Give Your Money a Job

Once your transactions are entered (or imported), YNAB will help guide you through their four-pronged approach to managing your money wisely. The main driver of the app is that it will require you to “Give Every Dollar A Job.” This means that for every deposit you make, you’ll need to assign every cent of it to one of your categories. The second principle the app puts to use is the idea that you should “Embrace Your Expenses,” meaning that not only should you cover regular monthly bills like utilities, but you should also save a bit each month to cover longer-term expenses like property taxes.

The third YNAB principle is “Roll With The Punches,” which basically means that you are allowed to move your money out of the categories you’ve put it in should unexpected expenses arise. If you need a car repair, for example, you might have to take some money away from your “life goals” or your “just for fun” categories. Finally, YNAB will guide to you “Age Your Money,” so that if you live paycheck to paycheck, you’ll be able to begin getting ahead of your expenses by having enough in your account to cover them before you get paid.

Beyond helping you apportion your money this way, YNAB also offers an extensive library of video lessons, has numerous question-and-answer opportunities, and will even pair you up with a personal coach to help you get started understanding and using the app.

So it’s pretty clear that YNAB has got the right tools and strategy to help you get a handle on your spending and help you work toward your financial goals. Its color-coded charts and graphs and easy-access interface (available for all major desktop and mobile platforms) also turns what is often seen as a dull task into more of an enjoyable game-like endeavor. But … is it worth its price tag?

The answer is: it depends.

Budget Wisely

If you purchase YNAB on a monthly basis, each payment will be $11.99. Sign up on an annual basis and you’ll save some cash, but you’ll need to shell out $84 per year. Clearly if you are someone who struggles with budgeting, saving, or getting a grip on your spending then you could certainly make up that cost by improving your financial picture using YNAB. According to the company, people that are new to budgeting save, on average, $600 in their first two months and $6000 after a year. If you were to see the same results, the app’s fee is a no-brainer.

But when you consider that other apps such as Mint also offer you a way to track, categorize and budget your spending for free, you might do best to try them out first.

Still, YNAB is more of a proactive app, helping you decide where you money is going to go before you spend it, rather than tracking it after the fact like Mint, so there is some value there.

Perhaps the best idea is to take advantage of YNAB’s 34-day free trial. This would let you get familiar with the program, learn a thing or two and find out if it really will help you save. No credit card is required for sign-up, so ending your trial is pretty easy, which is yet another reason why the software is easy to recommend.

Download YNAB here.

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Of course, nothing beats getting a little bit of fresh air to find out what the weather outside your window is like. But if that’s simply not practical, Weather Dock is a great stand-in. Once you download it from the Mac App Store, it automatically appears in your dock. Allow it to know your location and it will instantly bring up the current weather conditions. Depending on the number of icons in your dock, this can be a bit difficult to see, as more dock apps makes each icon a bit smaller, but still, you should be able to at least be able to see the current temperature at a glance.

Weather Wizard

Things get really interesting when you click on the icon, though. Do so and you’ll be presented with a colorful grid showing you details about the current conditions, the forecast for the day and the weather outlook for the next three days. Included in current conditions, you’ll find the “feels like” temperature, wind speed, wind direction, rain accumulation, dew point, humidity, and sunrise and sunset times. 

This is also where you can access the app’s control panel by heading to Preferences under the Weather Dock name in your toolbar. This will allow you to choose what you’d like the dock icon to display: current conditions, today’s forecast, or tomorrow’s forecast. You can also set the font color and choose how fast you’d like its small animation to run. 

Launching the preferences panel also gives you the chance to upgrade Weather Dock for $2.99. Doing so removes ads, lets you see seven instead of three days of forecasts, gives you the ability to add extra locations, and provides three days worth of hourly forecasts. The fee is minimal and, if you want a quick, simple way to be on top of the weather, there aren’t many better or more affordable ways to get there than with the full-featured version of this app. On the other hand, if you’re not a total weatherbug, then the free version should work just fine. 

As for accuracy, the data used by the app is provided by The Weather Company, the new name for The Weather Channel. It’s a company owned by IBM and is well-known for its accurate forecasting ability, so we found the data provided by the app to be very reliable. 

Download Weather Dock Here

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Thanks to ever-advancing technology, it’s become easier than ever to keep track of your personal finances using a wide range of software solutions, apps, and cloud-based programs. One service that consistently stands out in this space is

Getting Started

When you fire up Mint for the first time, you are asked to add any accounts you are interested in tracking. These include checking, savings, investment and credit card accounts. To link an account, you simply enter the login details for each and the software does the rest, bringing your transactions directly into the Mint interface. While it might sound a bit scary to turn over those credentials to a third party, the software takes extra precautions to safeguard your data, including storing login details in a separate database protected with multi-layer encryption. Mint is also owned by Intuit, the same company that owns TurboTax and QuickBooks, so they’re no strangers in handling and protecting sensitive data – and they are certified by security experts Norton.

Patterns

Once your accounts are uploaded, the software immediately begins analyzing your spending patterns to spot trends. It does this based on the automatic assignment of categories to each transaction and while it does a fair job of guessing, for complete accuracy, you’ll want to go through all transactions initially and assign them according to the way you do your accounting. The program will remember your choices and make the correct assignments going forward. While you can’t change top-level choices, you can create second-level categories to fine-tune the software. You can also use custom tags for transactions to make it easier to search your financial history. 

Accounts are updated frequently, or you can force an update through a sync function, which means you don’t have to wait until your banking statements arrive each month to see where you stand financially.

Other Features

Mint also provides you a real-time look at your credit score for free (as long as you provide it your social security number when you get started). It gets this data from TransUnion and will alert you whenever new information is added or a query on your credit status comes in. 

Investment tracking is also included for no extra charge and Mint will even compare your portfolio to major benchmarks like the S&P 500, as well as analyze brokerage fees and alert you to potential savings. 

Finally, Mint will help you create a budget and will alert you whenever you are coming close to exceeding spending in the categories you set up. Alerts will also come through when unusual fees (such as credit card late fees) show up or when large, suspicious transactions appear on any of your accounts. 

Why is it free?

Mint comes with advertising for financial products that may be of interest to you. While ad-based software is typically annoying, we found that Mint actually does suggest useful products and investment tools. For example, because it knows how much you are paying in bank fees, it could suggest accounts that have lower fees, saving you money. 

In all, it’s virtually impossible to find a more robust, secure, and helpful financial planning app anywhere for free. In fact, Mint can even hold its own when compared to most paid accounting solutions, so it’s certainly worth a try.

Download Mint For Free Now

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Free Trial

Like many apps, WikiCamps comes with a 14-day free trial. After that, it costs a one-time payment of $1.99 for lifetime access. The free trial period is well worth it because you can try out different destinations to see just how well it will work for you. Many users report a lack of data on local attractions and campsites, while our tests were data rich, so it might just depend on where you’re looking. It seems WikiCamps has a strong following in Australia, so the crowd-sourced information it relies on might just take some time to fill in around the rest of the world.

Smart Features

Beyond the actual data it contains (or doesn’t contain), WikiCamps has a wealth of smart features. Tap the hamburger button in the top-left of the screen, and you’re presented with a list of nearby attractions, campgrounds, hotels and more. Or you can enter a destination to see what might be in the area where you intend to travel.

Tap on any one attraction and, if available, you’ll find contact details, photos, web links, user ratings and a mapping button that lets you load directions into your favorite mapping app such as Wayze, Google Maps or TomTom Go. You also get a week-long weather forecast for the site. Plus, because this is a Wiki built by members, you can edit the site if you notice that something is wrong or if you want to add additional information or photos, and you can also leave and read reviews from other users.

A filter button lets you sort sites according to what you’re looking for and helps clear the clutter. You can for example, switch the toggles to include only free campgrounds that accept pets and have water facilities. You can see results either on the map or the list. One unfortunate thing is that the app seems to use Google Maps, so you wind up seeing all of the destinations that Google provides, but they aren’t all clickable so things can get a bit confusing. 

Another nice aspect of WikiCamps is the ability to download offline data on a state-by-state basis, so you can access sites even in remote areas where you might not be able to get online. Also, there is a travel forum where you can ask others any questions you might have about destinations.

Trip Planning

While the app offers a trip-planning function, we found it difficult and confusing to use. You can search on your destination, but there seems to be no easy way to indicate that you want to add it as the end point in your trip. Instead, you can try to build a trip by tapping on sites and tapping “Add To Planner,” but it’s a cumbersome way to go about things. 

Worth A Try?

Because WikiTrips is built by the community, it can be hit or miss in terms of the information it provides. Some spots have lots of entries, while others are fairly bare. And the Trip Planner doesn’t seem to have much utility. But, for just $1.99 it might be a worthwhile tool to add to a frequent-camper’s resources, and it’s certainly worth taking the two-week free trial out for a spin.

Download WikiCamps Here

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Nearby

The major benefit of Roadtrippers is its friendly, easy-to-navigate interface. When opening the app, you can tap the “Nearby” button and you’ll be presented with large icons ranging from “Breakfast” to “Take a Walk.” Tap one of those and you’ll see what’s in your location in that category on a map. Tap further and you’ll get a description of the destination along with reviews and hours of operation, if available. In our tests, the app provided useful information just about 40 percent of the time. 

Once you have your destination chosen, you can choose to “Start Trip,” which will take you to your phone’s mapping app, or “Navigate,” which leads to a screen asking you to download Roadtripper’s beta turn-by-turn navigation system. We can’t imagine why you’d do that when your native mapping app should be just fine.

Start a Trip

Where Roadtrippers really shines is through the use of its “Start A Trip” function. Here you simply enter a destination and choose which attractions you’d like to highlight along your route. You can choose to focus on pretty much anything you’d find on a road trip from national parks to nightlife. You can add and remove different categories to suit the focus of your trip, and the “nearby” function is still available to show you what’s in your immediate area as you drive.

Roadtripper allows you to add up to seven destinations along your route in the free version; any more than that and you’ll need to upgrade to Roadtrippers Plus, which costs $29.99 per year. 

Another standout feature of Roadtrippers is the free guide section. These are articles built around a theme such as “48 Hours in New York City,” or “007’s America.” They can help you plan a unique vacation or you can just enjoy them as fun armchair travel adventures.

Roadtrippers is available online and as an iOS and Android app.

Download The Roadtrippers App Here

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Free Version

In the free version of Sygic Travel Maps, you’ll have the option of either exploring a map of your immediate area or planning a trip.

Exploring will take you to a map overview dotted with small icons and images. Click on one of these, and you discover an interesting attraction such as a park, historic monument, museum, movie theater and more. The icons will also lead you to nearby hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, train routes and bus stops. It is by no means exhaustive, but definitely clues you in to lots of destinations in your area. Click on the image or icon and you’ll have the chance to navigate to it, add it to a trip or mark it as a favorite. 

Unfortunately, though, descriptions of the destinations are only available in the premium version of the software. So you might see a nearby museum in which you might be interested. If available, the app will show you a photo of it, but in terms of additional information such as opening hours or what the attraction is all about, you’ll have to upgrade – or use a Google search.

Speaking of Google, when you click the “navigate” button on any attraction, the app will kick you out to your preferred mapping software on your device such as Google or Apple Maps, which begs the question: why use Sygic in the first place?

Some users might find an answer to that question in the app’s “Trip” feature. When you set out for a trip, you can enter your final destination in the app and you’ll have access to a range of information about it. This includes a list of interesting local places, tours, a weather forecast, links to car rentals and hotels, and a map of the destination. If you want to download all of that information for use offline though, you’ll again have to upgrade to the premium version.

Premium

Upgrading to the Premium version of the app gets you the features described above – access to offline maps and data along with enhanced place descriptions – plus you get walking directions, and an ad-free experience. Fortunately, upgrading is relatively affordable, and several different plans make it easy to try out. You can choose monthly for $3.99; yearly for $14.99; or you can buy lifetime access for $19.99, which is clearly the best deal. 

But starting out with the free version of the app, comparing it to other mapping and navigation apps like Google Maps and Wayze, certainly seems like a good first step. You might find that Sygic’s easy navigation, friendly interface, and complete trip-planning package suits you better than those other offerings. 

Sygic Travel Maps is available on the internet as well as a downloadable app for Apple and Android devices.

Download Sygic Travel Now

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Pick a Pixlr path

Getting started with Pixlr begins with choosing either Pixler X, which is a more basic and easy-to-use version of the software, or Pixler E, which provides more tools, but might be a bit much for those new to photo editing. Both versions are free.

Next, simply open a photo, which you can do by either navigating to one stored on your device, or by entering a URL for a web-based image. Alternatively, you can start from scratch by selecting from one of Pixlr’s many blank templates which include handy specs for items including Icon, Instagram, Facebook Cover, and more. As if that wasn’t enough, Pixlr also integrates with free photo site Unsplash, so you can import any of those images to work on with a simple search and click. 

Natural navigation

Once you’ve got a project to work on, navigating your options is as easy as selecting one of the icons on the left. Hovering over each button pulls up a handy box with an illustration to tell you exactly which tools the icon will open. You have all of the usual photo editing tools here including resizing the canvas and photo, creating and working with layers, cropping, adding effects, and applying an impressive number of filters, which are combinable and controlled with slide bars. This all adds up to lots of creative freedom to get exactly the look you want. 

Of particular note is Pixlr’s “Liquify” tool that allows you to swirl, enlarge, or shrink small portions of a photo for an impressive degree of fine tuning. Other options include a cutout tool, that lets you extract elements from the photo into other layers or delete them altogether; a “Retouch” suite that lets you dodge/burn, clone and heal any area of a photo; text insertion; and doodle tools including a variety of brushes, pens, shapes and an eraser. 

Down the right side of the screen you’ll find your layers arranged in an easy-to-navigate strip.

No watermarks

When you’re done working with an image, you have the option to save or download your file in a variety of formats including JPG, PNG, and WEBP. A particularly appealing component of Pixlr is that the images you download are completely watermark free – so you don’t get roped into having to shell out cash after you get your creation just the way you want it.

That being said, Pixlr does offer two upgraded versions of the software – both of which eliminate the banner ads you’ll have to put up with if you use the free version. The Premium level costs $3.99 per month when paid on an annual basis and adds additional editing tools, including what the company calls “AI CutOut,” the ability to use the software’s “eye” to instantly remove backgrounds. On top of that, you get 3,000 additional overlays, 7,000 more stickers and icons, 5,000 decorative fonts and video tutorials. Stepping up to the Professional version, which costs $14.99/year based on an annual membership, increases the number of overlays to 28,000, and provides access to Pixlr’s own “Stock Content” which is a repository of over 10 million images, graphics, fonts, video clips and 3D files. 

Whether or not you’ll need to upgrade really depends on how deep you want to go with photo editing. But signing up for the free version is certainly a smart step, and you just might find that it has all you need to add professional flare to your images. 

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What you get with the free version

When you sign up for a free TripIt account, you’ll be asked whether or not you want to populate the app automatically as your travel confirmations hit your inbox, which you can do if you have a GMail, Yahoo or Outlook mail account. Say yes, and the app will scan your email box every 24 hours and add any flight, hotel or car reservations it detects. If you don’t want the auto-fill feature to work, all you need to do is forward any confirmations you receive to plans@tripit.com and they will automatically be added to your itinerary. If that still feels too nosey, you can also enter trip details manually. 

You can access your itineraries from the main screen, and when you click into an upcoming trip, all your data will be displayed in a list organized by the time of the events involved in your travel. TripIt makes it easy to share your plans with a click or a tap and offers some fun additional features like integration with your maps app and a summary of how much your trip will cost.

While those are all handy features, upgrading to TripIt Pro juices things up a bit.

TripIt Pro

One of the biggest challenges to modern travel is the fact that schedules are often changed due to delays. In the basic TripIt app, you won’t be automatically alerted to these changes, so you’ll still have to monitor things through the individual providers’ apps or websites, which kind of defeats the purpose of having TripIt in the first place. 

Upgrading to Pro, which costs $49 per year integrates automatic schedule changes. 

The Pro level will also let you know if the price of your flight has changed after you book or even if a better seat becomes available, and it will send automatic schedule changes to your “Inner Circle,” a group of people you choose to share your plans with. It also sends check-in reminders, shows the wait times at security gates, tells you where to get your bags, helps you navigate the airport itself, and even gives you a bit of country-specific travel information.

Summary

If you only travel occasionally, the free version of TripIt can certainly make things easier for you. Having an at-a-glance itinerary is certainly nice, and being easily able to share your plans is handy. If, however, you take more than a few trips a year, the Pro version seems worth the extra $50 per year – if for nothing else than having the peace-of-mind of knowing that you’ll get instant alerts to any changes in gates, flight times, or other glitches in your schedule. Both apps are available in desktop and mobile versions for Macs and PCs.

 Download TripIt Here

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Features

Unlike Photoshop, Krita is more aimed at straight-up illustrations, and so it’s a compelling tool for game designers, illustrators, comic creators and other makers who draw from scratch. You can, of course bring in photos and work on them just fine in Krita, but if photo work is your primary goal, you’ll likely want to get a more specialized software package.

However, when it comes to painting, Krita is hard to beat. 

You’ll find all the usual tools here including the chance to choose from over 100 different preset brush styles (including pens and pencils), as well as the chance to completely customize your own brush by working with nine different brush engines. One nice feature that illustrates Krita’s cooperative spirit, is that it offers users the ability to import brushes from other users and share brushes you create with the community. 

The software works with the layers system familiar to all Photoshop users, but the latest release of the software improved layer management, making it more flexible and intuitive. 

While Krita could rest on simply being a painting tool, the organization’s ethos leads to continual improvements, so with the new release of the software, animation is now supported. Just drop in your illustrations and the software will stitch them together into a smooth flow. And speaking of smooth, Krita also comes with built-in brush stabilizers to smooth out your lines if you have a shaky hand. 

The software is also packed with vector tools – including speech bubbles that make it easy to add words to your comics – and a new wrap-around mode lets you create repeat patterns that morph as you alter just one image. 

Speed

The standout feature of Krita’s new release might well be its improved speed. After all, the rallying cry of the 2015 Kickstarter campaign was “Let’s make it faster than Photoshop!” While it’s hard to say if that goal was achieved, it’s clear that Krita has received a serious speed boost. Previously, when working with very large canvases and large brushstrokes, users would have to put up with lag as the image rendered and re-rendered. Now, a real-time preview feature lets you see what you’re doing as you’re doing it, removing a source of frustration for serious designers.

Download

Krita is available free for Windows, Mac and Linux, or inexpensive paid versions can be bought from the Windows Store ($9.97) or Steam ($9.99). Paying for a version lets you support Krita’s future development and entitles you to automatic updates every time one is released. 

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Unlike other secure messaging apps like Viber, Signal is open sourced, peer reviewed and it is funded through donations rather than through ads or purchases. Plus, Signal is a non-profit organization, so it’s not looking to impress shareholders. All of this adds up to super-secure software that’s constantly monitored for flaws and has only one focus – keeping your communications encrypted from the time they leave your device until they arrive at the intended recipient. Along the way no one – not even Signal – can read or listen to them.

Installation

Setting up Signal is pretty straightforward. Once downloaded to your phone or tablet, the app will ask for permission to access your contacts and other media on your phone as well as the ability to make phone calls. It will also ask for your phone number so that it can send you a verification code. One of the fun surprises is that once the code is received, it autofills and moves you along in the setup process. Next, you’re asked to set up your profile which consists of nothing more than entering your last name, and finally you’re asked to create a four-digit PIN.

After this quick process you have the option of making Signal your default SMS app. Doing so can take a little while based on the number of text messages currently stored on your phone, because they are all moved to Signal’s encrypted database. Doing so also integrates Signal with your text messages – so if you want to keep those separate from your Signal chats, you’ll want to skip this step.

Use

Anyone familiar with any other messaging app will have no problem using Signal. A pencil icon starts a new message which you can then send to a group or an individual. While composing a message, you can click on an icon to the left of the text field to add a sticker or emoji, or you can tap the camera icon to send a photo or video or the microphone for a voice clip. One particularly novel feature of Signal is that you can also use the “Note To Self” icon to send yourself notes or files you’d like to keep secure.

Before writing your message, Signal will tell you if your message is encrypted or not right in the input window. Messages to other Signal members are encrypted, those to non-Signal members are not. 

Once in a message, tapping the three dots in the upper right corner allows you to access settings for that conversation. You can change the color of the speech bubbles, view all of the media you’ve shared with that contact, search in the message chain or set the “disappearing message feature,” which lends a SnapChat-like functionality to the software by allowing you to choose how long a message will last in the thread before vanishing. 

Calling

Signal also has VoIP (internet-based calling) baked in. Calls to any other Signal users are encrypted, while trying to make a call from within the app to a non-Signal member will simply route the call through your phone’s normal carrier. 

Linking

In addition to the Android and iOS versions, Signal is also available in desktop versions for PCs and Macs, but to install it, you need to first have the app on a mobile device. Once you do, linking is as simple as launching the software on your machine, and scanning the barcode that appears with your mobile device.

In all, Signal is amazingly robust, very intuitive to use and offers unbeatable end-to-end privacy. And did we mention that it’s free?  

Get Signal for Android on Softonic.com

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