This week, we look at two money-saving apps on the store. BargainBin is an App Store discount hunter and Spend is a budget tracker with style.
BargainBin
Reviewed by Rémy
In many ways, BargainBin is an App Store addict's dream. The free application tracks App discounts as they come to the store, categorized and sorted by "sale" - a price drop of less than fifty percent, "bargain" - more than fifty percent, and "free". The apps are then shown by date in a list, and tapping on a particular item can show you screenshots, a description, the App Store page or you can also choose to Watch the app. The Watch feature is really a 'wish list' of apps that you would love to buy but can't quite afford (TomTom, anyone?), added either by the method described above or through the built-in search function.
Perhaps the best feature of BargainBin is it's support for Push Notifications. By default (when notifications are allowed, of course) BargainBin will send you a message informing you that one of your Watch apps has been reduced by the developer - tapping 'View' on the alert brings up the same list of options (screenshots, description etc.) as mentioned above. In addition to these notifications, BargainBin has an array of options for sending out additional Push Notifications for other *applications that have also been discounted.
In terms of interface, BargainBin is still a little rough around the edges. It lacks simplicity in some areas and at times the screen feels very cluttered, often with irrelevant information. Put it this way - if the developers starting putting ads in the app, it would become unusable. Aside from that, it's a very powerful app for finding discounts and the developers should be commended for their implementation of Push Notifications.
I have concerns that the idea of "I'll wait until it's cheaper" may be harmful to independent developers, and you could argue that apps like these contribute to the "race to the bottom" that has been attributed as one of the App Store's many problems. My only advice to potential users of BargainBin (along with other apps and websites) would be to properly compensate the purveyors of fine applications when you see fit.
Version reviewed: 3.0.1
Price: Free
Developer: Proximi, Inc.
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Spend
Reviewed by Rémy
If you (like me) find budget tracking to be a difficult and time-consuming task, may I ask you to step right up and download Spend, a beautiful personal budget manager. Upon entering the lightweight iPhone app you're invited to create your first budget, a relatively quick and simple task that's comparable to the way in which events are added to the Calendar app. From there you're free to add deposits and expenses as they come and add these to the budget quickly. Recurring expenses and cycle deposits can be added too.
Along the bottom of the Spend home screen for adding/editing budget groups (by default, Spend includes Active/Inactive groups), there's a bunch of options for, say, "more advanced" tracking, with options to set a PIN specifically for the Spend app (a very clever option) and "Smart Title" search preferences. Spend can also export to CSV for you in this menu. The developer has also set up a support and FAQ forum on his website, and links to these have conveniently been included in this same menu. Spend allows you to search for particular items and the statistics features shows weekly, monthly and yearly graphs based on deposits and expenses.
Since it was first released in August 2008, Spend has continued to improve and add new features to the point where I would now strongly recommend the app to anyone who wants to track where exactly all their money's going without too much hassle. The developer offers a "lite" version of the app for free on the App Store, but just over $1 is a relatively small price to pay for a very polished iPhone app.
Version reviewed: 2.16
Price: $1.19
Developer: Adamcode.com
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iPhone App Reviews - BargainBin, Spend