I have really gotten hooked on Roadside America, a web site with a cool $2.99 iPhone app that shows you what’s nearby, as you travel. Not the normal touristy stuff, mind, you, but weird, unusual and fun paces to see and check out. It knows where you are and what’s nearby and makes any trip super fun, alerting you to must-visit attractions that make for memorable travel.

Then there’s Road Ninja, a free iPhone and Android app aimed at helping cost-conscious travelers save money as they travel the interstate system. Road Ninja knows your location and tells you what’s coming at the next exit. You can search by category or name, locating points of interest and telling you the best exit to take to find what you’re looking for.

One more tool: The Weather Underground Road Trip Planner. Type in your departure location and time and your destination and it will give you a map and the weather report for places along the way so you know what you’re heading to. Very handy.

Has your to-do list grown over the winter? Now that it’s warm weather time again, it’s time to catch up on those projects. To help you fix and build all the things on your do-it-yourself list, I have some practical apps to get you going.

If making something is on your list, try the new Instructables app. It is filled with more Do-It-Your self projects than you can think of, cool and fun projects. There are iPhone and Android apps – free – or the full Instructable library can be accessed from your computer via its main website.

Howcast is a great app for Apple and Android devices that offers instructional videos on how to do just everything from work projects to beauty tips to fixing stuff. Just call up the video you want, click and watch. Howcast…shows you how, right on your screen.

Finally, for the iPhone, there’s Handy Man DIY, a $1.49 app that helps you with just about any home improvement project, offering check lists of building supplies, helping you plan out the job and then offering how-to instructions and even price estimates on how much t will cost you to get it done.

First thing is your Mom needs is a card. A real card. Sincerely Ink cards for the iPhone and Android let you design a customized card for your Mom. Choose from various templates, add your own picture and words and the app will even mail it to your Mom…in plenty of time for her big day. Also great for birthdays and anniversaries.

Still unsure what to get Mom? Try the free El Gifto app for Android and iPhone. It’s like a personal shopper – helping you to find the perfect gifts for anyone, even pets. You simply click on the details of who you’re buying for, what they’re personality type is, the occasion, how much you want to spend and presto!… El Gifto presents you with tons of great gift ideas.

One thing every Mom likes: Dinner out. Use the Open Table app to find the perfect restaurant near you and to make a reservation. There is a map, a description of cuisine. Even photos of special dishes. Free, for all mobile platforms.

With warm weather and summer fast approaching, many of us once again are spending more time at the gym or outdoors, cycling, running, walking and working out to get n shape and ready for another swim suit season. We have some fitness apps that will help keep you motivated as they track your progress.

Map My Ride is THE app to get if cycling is your thing. It uses your smartphone’s GPS capabilities to track, map and measure your ride. You can even share and compare routes with other bicycle buddies and the app also lets you keep track of your food, counting calories for you so you can add nutrition to your training schedule.

For runners,, the Map my Run app does the same thing. Same with Map My Walk for those power walkers out there. All the Map MY apps work on all major mobile platforms, Apple, Android and Blackberry.

If you are a female and your idea of a workout is in the gym, check out the Nike Training Club app. It teaches and logs full body workouts, with detailed instructions. Free for Apple and Android devices.

For men and women gym rats, try the Fitness Builder app. The app is a free download and you get a month free, afterwards there’s a membership fee. But it is like a virtual personal trainer and walks you through hundreds of exercises and drag and drop workout plans. For apple and Android.

Rise is a new app for the iPhone that is both simple to set and elegant to see. You just swipe, tap and set. The alarm display is sleek and minimal, perhaps the easiest one I’ve set up. Use music or sounds to wake you. Cost is $1.99 and it only works for the iPhone.

For Android and Apple, check out Wave Alarm. AT $2.99, this app uses your smartphone’s motion detection capabilities to shut the arm off. You don’t have to touch the screen to silence the alarm, just wave your hand. It also displays weather and lets you choose between alarm sounds and music.

If you have trouble getting up, try the Freaky Alarm. It won’t let you push the snooze control unless you first solve some puzzles and mind games, all designed, of course, to get you thinking…and wake your brain. It’s $1.99 for the iPhone.

Haze is a very distinctive new minimalist weather app, very colorful, providing the forecast at a glance. Swipe through temperature, sunshine hours and rain chance or dive even deeper and get detailed information about your current location. Cost is a rather steep $2.99.

Weatherwise is free for Apple and Android devices and displays the weather with very cool illustrated displays. It comes with this bonsai tree background but you can also choose different themes – at a buck each -  to use instead.

Kelvin is another app designed for fast and easy to read information display. You get temperature and forecast details in a format that tells you what’s happening out there at a glance. Free, for the iPhone.

One more…Nooly for Apple and Android.  This is hyper local weather. It predicts the weather for every 5 minutes, the time rain will start or end. It’s updated constantly  for over 13 million locations in the US. And it’s totally free.

The Goodhousekeeping Magazine folks have a great @Home app for the iPhone that will get you started with cleaning. How to remove spots and stains,  advice on reorganizing, redesigning all the stuff you want to do to make your home sparkle. Totally free.

Thinking of having a garage sale? Get the Rumgr app. Take a picture of your item and post it online to a growing network of bargain hunters. It even shows what’s available and for sale near you. You can do the same with a whole slew of apps for Craigs List. Just do a search on your app store.  There are lost of  Craigs List apps for Apple and Android devices.

If you’re spring cleaning your closets, you’re almost guaranteed to find a few gadgets you no longer use. Gather up all of those unused gadgets—whether they’re laptops, game consoles, cell phones or even DVDs—and sell them to NextWorth. Once you strike a deal they’ll help you ship it to them and then send you back a check.

First let me show you Zillow. Both the app – for Apple and Android devices – and the website allow you to quickly search for homes for sale in any area of the country and to also access foreclosure listings in your area, auctions and bank-owned properties. Zillow also will send you notifications when new listings hit the market, drop in price, have an open house date, or are sold so that you are always in the know.

I also really like Trulia. It lists all the homes for sale plus neighborhood profiles, school info and once you set up a free account, a place to ask questions, hear from prospective real estate agents and learn about the latest market trends for a given area.

Finally, check out Realtor.com, it boasts listings on 3 million U.S. homes, more than any other real estate app. It has multiple photos, open house information, pricing and property details on nearly any home for sale in the country – with most listings updated every 15 minutes. Also for Apple and Android.

Brewster is like your contact list on steroids. It brings together everyone you know – contacts from your iPhone, LinkedIn, Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter. It creates your own personalized address book. Additionally, syncing Brewster to your iPhone address book keeps your contacts’ information up-to-date and adds large photos to every contact.

Another new contact app called Smartr. It works with the iPhone and Android devices and based on all your emails from Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Outlook for Windows, it automatically creates detailed profiles for all your contacts, including your communication history with them and updates on their status from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

One more – Cobook. You can get an iPhone and a Mac computer version of this. It uses the contacts accounts you’ve already set up through iCloud, Google, and Exchange. Pick a contact, and their info appears. But you also get links to their Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn paerticlatars for a detailed report on each contact.

A sure sign of spring is the return of the birds. Migrating birds make their way north and with them comes warm weather. In spring, we all become bird watchers and I have some apps that will help you track and identify the feathered friends in your neighborhood.

I warn you, top bird watching apps are expensive. Perhaps the best one is the iBird Explorer Pro. costing $20 for Apple, Android and Windows mobile devices. This is very comprehensive, very detailed. It lists every species -all 924 – of them found in North America, Canada, Hawaii, and all coasts and islands. You can get regiona apps for localized parts of North America for $10.

You can save $5 bucks by instead getting Audubon Birds. It works on pretty much all mobile smartphones and tablets and comes from the Audubon Society. It offers color photos and even plays the chirps and tweets of the different species. There’s a map that shows where sightings have been in your area. And it links with the Nature Share online community to share different sightings.

One last app…a little cheaper. At $6, the National Geographic Field Guide for North American Birds offers a pretty good interactive guide for the iPhone and iPad. There are photos, identification helps and maps.