Tag: Lifestyle »

Schools rely on fundraising efforts from parents and supporters of their establishments, even more so in recent years thanks to the ever tighter budgets being implemented during these tough economic times. There are plenty of ways to raise money but so many of these are either time-intensive, hugely inconvenient or even expensive for supporters to back. Those people struggling need to check out Shoparoo. It's a new app that's set to make things so much easier and more profitable for schools and their supporters.

Basically, the app turns grocery receipts into money for schools. All the user has to do is take a photo of their receipt via the Shoparoo app and watch the "Roo Points" flood in for their designated school. It's as simple as that. The more spent, the more points awarded with bonuses for clear pictures of receipts and regular submissions.

The folks at Shoparoo have managed to work out a deal that involves information gathered by the app being used to identify trends and general consumer behavior. Shoppers don't have to worry about any excessive personal information being taken though as no credit card or bank details are required. Users can even cross out certain items on their receipts if they'd rather not disclose it. It's a great way of ensuring that market research benefits you, not just major companies.

Jared Schrieber, co-founder and CEO of Shoparoo, explained the benefits to us. "The concept of turning grocery purchases into school donations is already widely adopted throughout the U.S.," he said. "What's so unique about our approach is that there's absolutely nothing specific that parents have to buy, sell or collect in order to raise money for their school. This makes Shoparoo an amazingly hassle-free fundraiser and a natural complement to schools' existing Box Tops and labels collection programs."

It's a pretty neat idea and it's already been backed by numerous major companies such as Dove, Hellmanns and Knorr. Over 200 schools have already signed up to the project with it promised to be simple to join. Funds are then credited automatically based on the Roo Points accumulated.

Why not give it a try for your school? Let us know your experiences of the service.

Shoparoo is available now for free.

Eagle eyed sports fans may have noticed the prominence of a certain piece of technology during games. Soccer fans: remember pre-penalty shootouts seeing a tactics guy pull out the iPad and show the goalkeeper what to expect from the opposition? iPads are useful for many situations.

CoachNote offers a way of creating sports drills, strategies and tactics, all from an iOS device and it'll be a real hit for coaches as well as fans. The app makes it easy to create complex plays and strategies with tools for drawing lines in multiple colors to explain what's going on.

It's an ideal tool for many different sports from football to baseball, basketball, ice hockey, even water polo and ultimate frisbee. Throughout, it's simple and intuitive to adjust things such as player movement or ball/puck movement.

It's even possible to record the plays and share them with others.

CoachNote is out now for iPhone and iPad and priced at $1.99 for a limited time, increasing to $3.99 soon.

It's been said that everyone has a good novel inside them. It's just a matter of finding the time to write it all down! Book Writer might not be able to add extra hours to the day, but it can make creating a book that's possible to read through iBooks or send to friends, much easier.

The app makes it simple to produce all kinds of books from photo books to cookbooks, manuals or even children's stories, all through the wealth of options within. It's simple to add photos or videos to a book, as well as resizes such images and move them around easily. It's the kind of thing that would be great for collating memories from a special event.

Once created, it's just as simple to share the book via iTunes, email or by printing the document, making it a great way to share creations with friends and family.

Book Writer is out now, priced at $3.99, and it's an Universal app.