:: BASIC IDEA
:: SOCIAL STRIKINGSharing expenses is often a touchy subject, even among friends. No one wants to pay too much, but they also want to make sure everything is split evenly. And this is exactly the kind of situation iOmoney was created to handle.
Originally a Palm OS and Pocket PC application, iOmoney has finally made its way on to the App Store. With it, users can track the expenses of their entire group and see exactly who owes what to whom with a couple of taps. If five friends (three singles and one couple) go on a trip together, each group transaction can be entered into the app for easy tracking. Along with basic costs, each bill can be marked as payed (or partially paid) by any individual in the group with debts calculated automatically. So if "Helen" picks up the check for dinner, iOmoney will be able to tell exactly how much each of the others owes her.
An example provided by the developer can be found here, but it's not a necessity. iOmoney is pretty easy to figure out through a bit of experimentation. Tap to add, type in a few values, occasionally check the Debts & Balances tab to see how it's all being split. Easy stuff.
iOmoney is available on the App Store right now in both a full ($4.99) and lite (Free) version. Anyone who finds themselves out with friends a lot would do well to try it out.
Let's say that your table has four people, and that the total bill comes to $65. One person got a soup and salad, one got a sandwich, one got a big pasta bowl, and the other ordered two fried appetizers and a beer. After dealing with the guy at the table that only carries cash, the other three have to decide on how to divvy up the bill. They could divide it by 3, including tip, or try to divvy out tax and tip amounts depending on order size. More than likely one of the people will say, "This is stupid, I'll take this one and you take the next." We live in the 21st century yet we're still stuck on the bill.
As you've probably guessed by now, there's an app for that. Split was created with the unequal split in mind, letting you assign different amounts to different people. All you have to do is add the correct number of people to the table (that is adorned with an attractive hand-drawn appearance), add bill values to the correct person, and BLAM, the app shows you how much each person should pay. It's as easy as, well, ordering.
The only thing that I can find wrong with Split is that it was obviously made by a European who uses the comma ($40,99) instead of the decimal point ($40.99), and that really isn't a big deal. Just don't be the math/finance challenged guy that gets suckered into paying $4,099 when the app says to pay $40,99.
Tap Tap Tap, developer of a couple of the most popular and beautifully designed applications like Where To? (4.5 stars), Tipluator (3.5 stars) has imploded over differences in direction between it's founders. It's a theme we've seen before in iPhone developer Tapulous.
In this corporate divorce, most of the software has gone to Sophia Teutschler and will go under her Sophiestication Software name. This includes Tipulator, Groceries (unreleased), and Where Am I? (unreleased). The one odd ball, Where To? will be sold off by Tap Tap Tap and has already been removed from the App Store.
Tap Tap Tap has a few other projects in the works, though no details have been released.
For more info on this, see the latest Tap Tap Tap blog post here.
