Guide • December 31, 2014

Best of 2014

Our 12 favorite sites and apps from the past year

12. Agent

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Considering you spend more time with it than anyone else, you’d think your phone would truly know you by now. With Agent, it does. This custom Android homescreen anticipates your needs by location, time, and calendar, and can even save your battery. BFF.

Go to Agent
11. WineGlass

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Speaking of dining out, don’t be the person who just orders the second-cheapest wine. Use WineGlass for iOS to scan any wine list and get smart, crowdsourced takes on the most delicious, well-priced, and peaty (whatever the hell that means) bottles.

Go to WineGlass
10. TV Food Maps

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One of the life’s most burning questions is “Where should we eat?” That becomes easier to answer with TV Food Maps: a site that harnesses the collective intelligence of TV’s most refined palates and creates maps of the world’s top spots for dining.

Go to TV Food Maps
9. Elevate

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A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but with Elevate it’s a shockingly fun thing to hone. While away the hours on the train with games to improve your attention, focus, retention, and more, and watch your progress over time. We feel smarter already.

Go to Elevate
8. Honey

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For the frugal, the search for a great deal never ends. For those using Honey, it ends where it begins: with a handy browser plugin that scours the Web for deals and applies them to the products you’re viewing, so you get maximum savings with no work.

Go to Honey
7. BuyPartisan

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Money is everything in politics.

Use BuyPartisan to scan product barcodes and instantly find out what political parties that company’s leadership, employees, and board of directors have supported. This way, you know where your dollars are really going.

Go to BuyPartisan
6. Bawte

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Two reactions when you buy something: First, yay! Second, can I toss the instructions and registration? The answer to number two is yes… if you use Bawte. This app stores all that info permanently and will also notify you of recalls and expiring warranties.

Go to Bawte
5. AirHelp

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Did you know you’re entitled to be reimbursed when your flight is super delayed? Neither did we, until we found AirHelp. This site and app helps travelers easily file claims for delayed and canceled flights and get properly compensated, fast.

Go to AirHelp
4. Acorns

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Investing is as vital to your future as it is intimidating. Acorns not only makes it easy by saving runoff change from all your purchases, it also makes it cheap and safe with low management fees and a diversified portfolio.

Go to Acorns
3. Virtru

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This era will be remembered as the one when electronic privacy came under siege. Well, consider Virtru your moat. This plugin and app fortifies your emails and attachments with military-grade encryption and control over who can access said data.

Go to Virtru
2. WordLens

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When a truly great piece of technology comes along, it changes how you see things. With Word Lens, that was literally true. This app (since acquired by Google) translates text from and to any language using only your smartphone camera.
1. Dollar a Day

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Really great apps should make the world a better place. By automating charitable donations right from your bank account to worthy causes, Dollar a Day doesn’t just change your life for the better, it also changes the lives of deserving people worldwide.

Go to Dollar a Day