App of the month February

Keep track of your flights and listen to music for free with YOURLifeChoices best free and paid app of the month. 

Free app of the month:

Spotify

Since it was launched in 2012, music app Spotify has been steadily growing in popularity. The app allows you to legally stream music from the internet for free. This means that you can listen to almost any song imaginable (Spotify’s library holds over 30 million songs), whenever you want to, just by searching for the name of the song or artist in the app.

If you’re unfamiliar of the concept of ‘streaming’, it works the same way as YouTube works. The songs are downloaded as you listen to them, and then deleted so that they don’t clog up your device. You can also listen to and create your own custom playlists.

Unfortunately the one drawback of the service is that it has to make money somehow, so your listening will be interrupted with a couple of ads every 15 minutes or so, similar to when listening to the radio.

A premium service is available for $11.99 a month, which will give you extra features and remove the ads. When you sign up, you’ll be given 30 days of premium for free, and if you follow this guide from LaptopMag.com, you can get the free trial without the paid subscription that follows.

Spotify is available for free on Desktop, iPhone, iPad and Android.

Bear in mind that streaming music from Spotify will use a lot of internet data, as you are required to download each song as you listen to it. So if you’re on a limited plan you may want to use the service sparingly or perhaps only use it over wifi.

Paid app of the month:

Flightradar24 

This flight-tracking app will give you a host of features that allow you to keep track of every flight in the entire world. The features list is quite extensive, but here are some that standout:

• view the arrival and departure boards for any major airport
• watch planes move in real time on a map of the world
• set alerts to notify you of when a specific flight departs and arrives
• jump into the cockpit and watch a simulated 3d view of the earth from the pilot seat as planes fly across the globe.

 

Flightradar24 is great for keeping track of friends’ and families’ flights, as you can set it to notify you when their flights leave and arrive. The app provides you with real time information on delays, which can save you from waiting around at the airport to pick up someone who won’t be arriving due to a cancellation or delay. The 3d simulation view is quite a bit of fun, and it can give you a little digital preview of the views you’ll be seeing on an upcoming flight.

Flightradar24 is available for iPhone and iPad for $3.99, and Android for $4.99.

Some features are available through additional in-app purchases.

You can test out the basic features with the free version for iPhone, iPad or Android, to see if you want to purchase the full version.