That time of year - gifts

One of the things on my To Do list was to get the gifts for my family and neighbors purchased and sent/delivered. To keep track of who gets what, and what I needed to buy at the store, I decided to visit the app store to see what I could find to help out in these tasks.

I found several apps when I searched on "gifts". The search returned:

• gift planner (7)
  
• giftlist (1)
  
• gifter (2)
  
• gift grab (4)
  
• gifter stress lifter (1)
  
• gift cards (1)
  
• geschenkidee (giftidea) (1)
  
• gift list shopper (3)
  
• gift lists (54/19) - for some reason the MyWords app to learn a new language for several languages appeared under this category
  
• christmas gift stack (1)
• christmas gift tracker (1)
• Nice list holiday gift manager (1)
• mgifts - gift list manager (1)
  

(Actually as I was looking at the apps, I was funding so many more that had to do with gifts. It is never ending!!)

Under the items returned, there were a number of applications (see figure in parenthesis) ranging from free to $12.99. Actually the $12.99 one was iBear Money which is more of a way to control your money flow. I guess some folks have paid for this since there were 9 reviews.

There were applications specifically for an event such as Wedding, Hanukkah, Birthday and Christmas.

Most applications let you set a budget for your gift giving, and tracked how well you were doing and allowed you to send your list via email. Most used the contact list to select who to you wanted to purchase your gift for. Some protected the list with a passcode (good for households with snooping kids ;-), and tracked the number of days left to the event. Some applications allow you to upload photos of the gifts.

Other applications took the stress out of gift giving and provided gift ideas. (Gifter, Gifter Stress Lifter). These were free and tied into merchants such as Sam's Club.

There were applications that also let you keep track of the gifts that you have received (GiftList)

Some of them were not for gifts at all but were games (those under Gift Grab and Christmas Gift Stack)

So which one(s) to choose??? None of the above applications showed up in the Top 25 Lists, nor the Featured Lists, so, I guess it will be to read the descriptions and the reviewes to see what is the best for me.

One unique application I found was Gift Cards (by Trillusion Media). It makes it fast and easy to buy, send and redeem gift cards from your iPhone of iPod Touch. It includes top brands like Barnes & Noble, REI, Macy's, Gap and many more. It lets you send both physical and e-Gift cards from your iPhone. You can personalize with a message, buy now and send up to 30 days later (though this feature is not working at this time), find stores in your area and map directions, store gift cards on your phone for easy access. I will have to try this one out. This one was Free.

One that I downloaded and began to use was Gift Planner (by The Archer Group). It was at the top of the list and had several good reviews. It allowed me to set up a budget for each group (family, work, friends) and then for each person added within the group. I could add gifts with price and then connect the gift to the person. It had a nice looking interface. It was Free.

mGifts (by mSeven Software LLC) had good reviews. It allows you to customize stores you shop at and events you are interested in (bday, Christmas, etc.). You can attach a photo to the give and it gives you a summary view of what you have purchased and what you still need to purchase. This one was $1.99. I downloaded it and will try it out to see if there is any difference for the price.

There were some very nice looking ones like

• Better Christmas List ($2.99)
• Asking Santa ($2.99)
  
• Santa's Little Helper ($0.99)
  
• My Christmas List ($1.99)
  
• Santa's List, ($1.99)
  
• Christmas List ($2.99)
• Christmas Shopping ($1.99)
  

but I didn't download because I can't see paying for an app for a one time year use where there are general purpose apps, or free apps.