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Best Android apps for fathers and dads
We recently did a post about the best Android apps for mothers and moms, so now it’s dad’s time to shine. The father is often called the King of the House, but he’s more than just that. He’s also as involved as mothers are in the household chores, work, and taking care of the kids.
That’s why we’ve put together apps that can help dads manage the house, keep track of the kids, put together a special meal when it’s his turn of the week to cook, and keep updated with his favorite sports.
When you’ve got kids, every waking hour of your day becomes dedicated to them. That means your old routines, like exercising, may no longer have any space in your busy day. If you’ve fallen out of the exercise groove, don’t despair because C25k Couch to 5k by RunDouble will help you pick it right back up.
This app gives you access to the Couch to 5k training program, which literally aims to get you off your couch and into shape. C25k Couch to 5k is a fully featured trial, so you can access everything and get the feel of the app as it should be experienced.
Choose a music playlist and start running. The app will track your total and interval distance, giving you pace and distance updates. Once you hit halfway, the app will notify you so you know when to turn around and start heading for home.
The app packs more than just training from your couch to hitting 5k; it also includes Zero to 10k and Five to 10k for when you want to really test yourself. The first two weeks of the basic plans are for free and if you feel like the C25k training program is working for you, you can upgrade to the full plan for just US$1.60.
If you’re struggling to juggle the hours of your day, you can save a lot of time by paying your bills through Pageonce – Money & Bills. This app allows you to track, control, and quickly pay all your bills right from your Android device.
Pageonce lets you track all your money and bills in one place and to make sure you’ll never forget when you’re supposed to pay for your electricity or water, Pageonce can even give you reminders. Each bill you pay through Pageonce costs US$0.30 but that greatly helps you save on commuting or gassing up your car. You can also monitor your credit card and bank transfers through this app, as well as view detailed bill and account statements.
Pageonce also lets you track your investment portfolio, frequent flier miles and rewards, and your mobile minutes, texts, and data usage. Imagine being able to do all of that right from your Android device. If you’re feeling a little leery of Pageonce, you can check out the list of banks that support the app and the credit unions the app supports by visiting its Google Play Store page.
If you’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed trying to figure out numbers but you’re not quite willing to find an accountant to help you out, then Financial Calculators can give you the extra help you need in crunching those figures. This app, developed by BiShiNews, is packed with a number of features, such as the TVM Calculator, a currency converter, a Loan Calculator, Compound Interest Calculator, Retirement/401k Calculator, Tip Calculator, and of course a regular calculator.
If that isn’t enough for you, Financial Calculators also packs Annual Percentage Rate (APR) Calculator, Return on Investment (ROI) Calculator, Auto Loan/Lease Calculator and an IRR NPV Calculator.
Don’t get too overwhelmed with the wide range of calculators this app offers. Each calculator can be accessed through a separate screen, which means that you’ll be able to see only the calculator you need. Whether you’re a business person or you’re thinking about talking to a car seller, arm yourself with Financial Calculators on your Android device. Financial Calculators is free to download from the Google Play Store.
So, you’ve got a new DIY project, maybe crafting something for fun with the kids or helping your wife spruce up one of the rooms of your house. You’re going to need tools, materials, and a variety of other things that you can get at your nearest Home Depot. But, before you venture out to the store, you might want to take The Home Depot with you.
This app, an official release by the company of the same name, allows you to research and purchase over 300,000 products directly from your phone. Say, you’re redecorating the guest room. You’re going to need some new wallpaper, so launch The Home Depot app on your device and check the store inventory and what aisle you can find it in. If you’ve found one that you like, you can buy it directly through your phone so you can pick it up later at the store.
If you’ve just moved to a new house and a new town, the app can help you locate the nearest Home Depot in your area via GPS or by entering your ZIP code. Once you get to the Home Depot store, navigate it using The Home Depot’s in-store map.
Now that you’ve got the materials that you need from the Home Depot, it’s time to get working. But, put away that pen and that piece of paper because you won’t need a whole toolbox to get work done when you have Smart Tools on your Android device.
You can measure length, angle, distance, height, direction and sound, with just your Android phone. This app comes with 5 different tool sets for a total of 15 tools. Set 1 allows to you measure length, angle, slope, and level, while Set 2 lets you determine distance, height, width, and area. Set 3 has a compass, a metal detector and a GPS; Set 4 has a sound level meter and a vibrometer, and last but not the least, Set 5 has a flashlight.
If you’ve got something you need to measure, this app’s got your back covered by using your Android device’s touchscreen and sensors. Smart Tools is your all-in-one tool, so you don’t need to bring a toolbox with you while you’re working. You can purchase the Smart Tools app for US$2.43 from the Google Play Store.
When the whole family’s out and about, doing their own things, it can get pretty hard to make plans. You and your wife are at work, and your kids are at school and sometimes, when you get home, everyone’s worn out after a long day. When you get up in the morning, it’s a mad dash to beat rush hour, so you hardly ever get time to sit down together at the table.
Thankfully, there’s an app that can help you. Introducing Cozi Family Calendar & Lists. Set up a family homepage on the app’s website, Cozi.com, so you and your family members can add your own schedules to the shared calendar. Seeing everyone’s schedules in one place makes it easy to plot family appointments, meetings, and events.
The Cozi Family Calendar & Lists apps allows you to view your family calendar right from your device. You won’t need to wait until you get access to a computer. If it looks like the whole family’s got a busy week ahead of them, you can opt to send the Weekly Agenda e-mail to all your family members so everyone knows if you’ve got a family dental appointment.
So, Dad, it’s your turn to cook dinner tonight. But, what do you cook? Why settle for the same old dish you cook every time it’s your turn when you’ve got Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner on your Android device. You can access over 40,000 recipes submitted by users, allowing you to search for recipes by ingredient, especially when you’re dying to get rid of the pork you bought a few days back.
If you want to try something completely random, give your phone a shake for inspiration. Using Dinner Spinner’s scanner, scan items in to permanently add them to your spinner; this allows you to search easily for any recipe that uses that ingredient.
You can even scan ingredients in to add them to your shopping list. If you want multiple shopping lists, more search options and other helpful tools that can aid home cooks just like yourself, you can purchase Dinner Spinner Pro from the Google Play Store.
No matter how old our kids get, we still worry a lot about them, especially when we know that they have a penchant for roaming around the city. What about when disaster strikes? How can you locate your kids quickly and accurately? Life360 Family Locator is an app that allows you to locate your family members and check for safety points and threats nearby using GPS, Wi-Fi, and Cell Triangulation family locator technology.
You can also use Life360 to send and receive panic alerts, so you can either ask for help or help out a family member who needs it. You can view a location history breadcrumb trail for everyone on your account, as well as check in with one touch to let your family members know you’re okay.
It’s extremely handy when hurricane season comes rolling around. If you live in a flood- or earthquake-prone country, Life360 can give you some peace of mind.
The Life360 Family Locator app is available for free and you’ll only need to pay to locate people who do not have an Android or iPhone.
Family members coming down with the occasional bug isn’t unusual, but when they’re expressing discomfort that’s beyond the scope of your practical knowledge of illnesses, you might need extra help. Unless you’re a doctor or you’ve got a close friend who’s got medical expertise, you may not figure out what your wife or child is sick with.
Thankfully there’s WebMD for Android, giving you round-the-clock access to health information. You can access WebMD’s Symptom Checker, Drugs & Treatments, First Aid Information, and Local Health Listings.
You don’t need to be connected to the Internet to be able to access and use WebMD’s first aid information, which can be absolutely critical when you’re in an emergency situation. If your children aren’t feeling very well, ask them what part of the body they feel discomfort in, so you can narrow down your search with Symptom Checker and find out potential conditions and causes.
Make sure that you know your medicine with Drug & Treatments; search for a pill’s use, side effect, warnings, and more. And, in case that you need serious medical attention, WebMD helps you locate the closest physician, hospital, and pharmacy without the use of an Internet connection.
Who says that just because you’re a full time dad, you can’t keep updated on the latest happenings in the sports world? Having to wrestle the remote from your kids might be tiring and having to pop open your laptop when you’re exhausted can be discouraging, but you still have your Android device.
You can get live scores from hundreds of leagues around the world delivered to your device with ESPN ScoreCenter. Regardless of what sport you’re into and which league you follow, you can get access to personalized scoreboards and live game details such as last play, in-game stats, boxscores, and game summaries.
You’ll always be on top of the news with the live events of the day, breaking news, and analysis, or you can just watch freshly cut video clips. You can follow all your favorite teams on one card, so you have something to talk about with your friends when you run into them. ESPN ScoreCenter is available on the Google Play Store for free.
Those were just some of the best apps for fathers, helping them to get off the couch and back into shape, shop for materials for their latest DIY project, track and monitor the rest of the family, and make a scrumptious meal for the family.
The app list may be titled for dads and fathers but we’re certainly not saying that mothers can’t enjoy and take advantage of these apps, too. In fact, you don’t need to be a dad yourself to enjoy these apps. If your own father has an Android device, make his day by downloading some or all of these apps to his device.
What about you? What Android apps would you recommend to the Android-owning dads and fathers out there?