I confess, l love all the new technology around today to make life a lot more comfortable.  Fast and energy efficient washers and dryers, bread makers, crock-pots, pasta makers, dishwashers, trash compactors, and Panini irons really make a woman’s life so much easier, entertaining faster, and her work load lighter.  

Who can help but to love the iphone and all the apps available?  There is far more than just games, Facebook, and Twitter apps for today’s woman.  Why stay in the Stone Age when you can make your life so much more efficient with today’s technology?  

Here are some must-have apps for the homemaker.  Many of these can be used for the iPad and some for the iTouch as well.

Food, Restaurants, and Kitchen Apps:

Yelp-  free

Features:

● Search for businesses near you

● Tap quick links to find nearby bars, restaurants, cafes and more

● Narrow your searches by 'hood, distance, price, and what's open now

● Browse reviews to read what's great (and not so great) in your city

● Add Quick Tips, photos, and draft reviews for your favorite businesses

● Check-in and share on Facebook and Twitter

● Make reservations on OpenTable without leaving the Yelp app

● Look up addresses and phone numbers for thousands of businesses, then call or map them from your iPhone

Foursquare- free

While on the go, you can easily tell friends where you are, share pictures, get their comments ("I'm right around the corner, I'll stop by to say hello"), and get insider tips ("order the Lobster Ravioli; it's the best dish by far."). Tons of places offer discounts and freebies to foursquare users, and you earn points and badges for doing the things you love.

The Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Recipe Finder

The Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Recipe Finder helps you decide what's for dinner with hundreds of savory, time saving slow cooker recipes right at your finger tips! Browse a wide variety of recipes, shake to generate random recipes or enjoy the recipe of the day. You can also create your shopping list and calculate the ingredients based on any recipe selection.

Is That Gluten Free - $7.99

Is That Gluten Free is designed for those with gluten sensitivities, Celiac Disease or anyone wanting more information on gluten-free products or leading a gluten free lifestyle. Search by Category, Brand or Product Name.

Kitchen Calculator Pro -$3.99

How many of us struggle with "kitchen math?" The Kitchen Calculator PRO app makes cooking and measuring so much easier. Kitchen Calculator PRO does all the recipe conversions for you, and makes it simple to scale recipes up (or down) to change the number of servings the recipe yields.

FoodEssentials Scanner- $2.99

I am addicted to scanners.  Instant information at your fingertips and you can scan it from your cell phone.  Technology is amazing!

The FoodEssentials scanner is the premier food label scanning device for anyone who wants to know what is in their food. Scan products and learn about their allergen, additive, ingredient and nutrient properties, customize your food label view, and find healthier products for you and your family.

Woman’s Day Cooking Assistant- free

Discover the benefits of a personal cooking assistant that fits right in the palm of your hand! The editors of Woman’s Day, one of the largest women’s lifestyle brands reaching more than 24 million monthly readers, bring you the Woman’s Day Cooking Assistant. Featuring everything from last-minute meal ideas to a convenient cooking-time calculator, the Woman’s Day Cooking Assistant Application is guaranteed to make cooking easier.

Useful Everyday Homemaking iPhone Tools

e-Nag Reminders By SubaTuba -$2.99

Organize your busy life, create good habits and eliminate some of the verbal nagging you have to do. e-Nag will become your indispensable personal assistant, sending your preset text reminders to family and friends.

Notability $2.99

Notability might be the best note-taking application  for the iphone, with tons of useful features that are easily accessed through the app's intuitive interface. Perfect for students or really anyone who needs to gather and organize information, Notability lets you use your onscreen keyboard (or a compatible Bluetooth keyboard) to keep track of information by grouping your notes into categories by subject.

Coupon Sherpa Mobile Coupons- Free

Finally, an application that provides hundreds of in-store coupons for many merchants right on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Save money on clothing, shoes, restaurants, electronics, travel, jewelry, sporting goods, books and more.

Coupon Sherpa gives users easy access to two types of coupons.

1. Exclusive Coupons - This application features coupons from many retailers that are exclusive to Coupon Sherpa users. Show these coupons at checkout to receive the discount.

2. In-Store Coupons from the Internet - The Coupon Sherpa staff scours the internet daily to conveniently bring you the best in-store coupons. Find a coupon you would like to use by searching for the store name or category then show it on your iPhone at check out, or email it to a friend or yourself to print out and bring into a store.

Valuable iPhone Tools For Moms

Chore Pad By Nannek- $2.99

Features include:

- Weekly and daily chore chart views

- Chore icons

- Collect stars to "buy" rewards

- See all rewards received in the rewards history view

- Collect checkmarks to earn trophies

- Add chores to the Chore Chest for easy assignment to multiple users

- Customize chores for each user

- Set up repeat intervals and assign chores to any combination of days

- Drag and drop chore reordering

- User photo selection complete with move and scale

Symptom Checker .MD- Free

Avoid the long waits in the ER or Doctor’s office.  Instead use this app! Symptom Checker .MD differs from all other symptom checker apps because we give you trusted medical search results PLUS match these results to local doctors and specialists that can treat your family’s symptoms or conditions with just One-Click.

iRewardChart: Parents Reward Tracker Behavior Chore chart $3.99

1. Type their name,

2. Select a few tasks from our list of suggestions, and

3. Reward their accomplishments with a single tap in the weekly chart

When stars have been earned, your child can pick from the default list of suggested rewards, or you can setup your own custom rewards especially tailored for each of your children, like "$2 Pocket Money" or "One Hour Of TV".

Children love to feel responsible, challenged and respected. But most children don't like being told what to do... iRewardChart also allows you to set up abstract goals like "Patience" and "Sharing With Others", so rewards teach the virtues you want your child to learn.

Mom Maps -Free

Looking for a great play date place? Need to find some indoor fun on a rainy day or somewhere to get the wiggles out when you're on the road? Mom Maps lets you tap the collective wisdom of parents everywhere to find kid-friendly fun when you need it. Search our extensive list of parks, playgrounds, restaurants, museums and indoor play areas, as well as reviews by parents, for parents. We also partner with top parent bloggers and family travel experts to bring you their top kid-friendly picks.

There you have it- valuable iphone apps for the everyday homemaker.  If you would like more like this article on Facebook and I’ll write more iphone apps for homemakers articles.