Sunday 15 April 2018

Apps Uni Student Should Have

After 4 years studying in my university, I realise certain apps really are indispensable and could really make your life easy. I won't be sharing apps that are meant to aid studying, but I'll instead share some apps that I am currently using which I find really useful for daily lives.

1. SPENDING TRACKER

Spending tracker is an awesome app that could help you manage your budget. It allows you to key in your monthly budget, and then track the expenses of your month. Of course, you'll have to manually key in every expens you made. What's awesome is that it even allows categories: eating out, shopping, fuel, travel, holiday, entertainment etc, and you can add your own categories if you want. It is an awesome app that helps track your money flow, and it's useful if you have a tight budget.

You usually don't really know how much you've spent until you meticulously track all transactions. Record down all money you've spent, regardless how small it is. For fuel, for drinks, for food, for printing services, for rent, for internet, for washing et cetera, and you'll realise you have always spent more than you imagined because all these small transactions, when accumulated, actually exert some pressure on your finance if you trace them properly.


2. MYFITNESSPAL

Okay, I don't use this to track my exercise because basically, the only exercise I have is walking. I walk a lot while I study because I am not a richass and I have no car. So wherever I want to go, I'm dependent on my two legs. This app could track how much exercise you've done in a day, and for those who are obsessed with weight-lifting, this app would be helpful too, although you probably would need to subscribe it to get better features.

However, this app is good for watching your calorie, and that's the function I'm using. Living outside, sometimes, you just cannot resist the temptation to splash your money on some fancy, high-end food in some restaurant after you've submitted some heavy assignments and projects. However, these food really come with heavy calories, and are often packed with zero nutrients. 

This app could help you watch your intake. Of course, it's only an approximation but it's enough to help you watch your calorie. It'll also warn you if you have exceeded your daily salt or fat intake. You'll have to create an account (it's free), and key in some information like your height and weight, and whether you decide to gain, maintain or lose weight, and it'll help approximate how much calorie you should be taking in a day.



You will get to enter what you have eaten in a day, and the app helps sort it by breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack. It used to send an alert warning when I forgot to record what I ate for lunch previously, but this notification hasn't appeared for a while.



On the main page, it'll show how much calorie you've gulped down, and how much calorie is left for you to take in for the rest of the day. I don't record how much exercise because it records only walking, and walking is very subjective. If you wanna know how much you have burnt by walking, I advise you to use walking tracker instead. It'll even suggest how much steps you will need to have a day.


You can input what food you've taken. Just key in some key words, and as shown above many options will appear. You can also record how many servings you have taken (1 plate, 2 plates, or maybe half a plate) to more accurately record the calorie you've taken. Of course, as these all vary, it's only for approximation purpose to warn you that you probably have overeaten.

3. FIND NEAR ME

Find Near Me is an awesome app if you're studying in a foreign place. This app, which I believe is dependent on the public's contribution, would use your current location and show you what's around you. You can get whether there's ATM, Bank, Restaurants, Cinemas around you et cetera and it's very helpful. If you need an ATM and you're not sure where's the closest one, this app can show you all ATM close-by, and you'll be surprised where you can find an ATM.

Worry about what to eat and don't know what options are there? This app could solve your problem too.


As you can see above, you get to choose what you find to want.


For example, I wanna see what restaurant are around me currently, and this app shows me what restaurants are around me. It even shows ratings given by other patrons.

To me, this is an awesome app you must have if you're studying in a foreign place.

4. GO VEGGIE MALAYSIA

This app is for all Vegetarians. I am not a vegetarian but I am now leaning close to eating less meat. I cannot go meatless just yet - meat is irresistible, but I acknowledge that eating too much meat is unhealthy and since I'm not into bodybuilding, I don't really have to eat a lot of meat. I try to be less meat and this app could show me all vegetarian stalls around me. 

This app depends on the public's contribution as well, and it has a Facebook page. In the Facebook page which are embedded in the apps, you can see where is the stall, you'll have its GPS coordinate to input in your navigation app, and it'll also show you the menu and its operation hours. It's a must-have app for all vegetarians because, seriously, there are many freaking vegetarian stalls hidden in corners of many kopitiams.

You also get to pick whether you want a budget meal or a recommended meal. You get to choose by selecting whether you want to eat in the morning, afternoon or at night, and the app will show you stalls that would be open at the time you want to eat.




 5. TONTON

Let's admit it, living outside is boring, especially if it's a suburban area or a remote area or within a forest and you've little entertainment around you to kill your time with. Ya, Netflix is helpful but you need to subscribe it. There's tons of illegal websites to stream your favourite drama but not all of them work all the time. And if your university censors a lot of websites, then it really would feel like you're in hell.

Tonton helps me a lot. Tonton is live-streaming app of local dramas and television stations, and it allows you to stream TV3, NTV7, 8TV and TV9 live. Hence, it provides some entertainment to some people who have no other alternatives. Personally, I like NTV7 and 8TV because they still host a number of good shows, and hence TONTON is one of the very few entertainment websites I'm still surfing. What's even great about it is - it is free! There's ads though, but the most important thing is it is free! Else, you can choose to subscribe, for RM10/month or RM96/year. 





Of course, some apps are necessary. Grab comes in very handy, though I used to enjoy Uber more. Now, MyCar is gaining momentum so there's still some show to watch. But Grab is something you might really want to use for now.

That's all for now. If there's any better app I'll update here.



2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Well, it wasn't useful for me because I didn't surf YouTube a lot. But sure it could be great for some!

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