I recently ran across a series of apps that have one common goal: to simplify your life. Some are related to improving your healthcare and mental well being, while others are more practical in nature and help with things like parking meters, finding a dog sitter, and more. Enjoy.
Heal.com – On demand medical care
Heal describes itself as wanting to “be your family’s first choice for healthcare.” Their mission is to make it easy and affordable to see a doctor on your schedule. The Heal app guarantees having a doctor visit your home within 2 hours, 365 days a year – basically an Uber-type service for healthcare. Cost is reasonable, and is either covered by co-pay from insurance companies such as Anthem and Blue Shield, or you pay a $99 flat fee per visit. Nick Desai, a technology veteran, and Dr. Renee Dua are the company’s founders. The company recently raised $26.9M in series A, which it plans to use to disrupt the $3T healthcare industry.
DogVacay.com – On demand service for pet owners
DogVacay is a service that connects pet owners to pet sitters. The service is simple: just enter your zip code in the app and locate multiple pet sitters in your neighborhood or nearby. The company is the leading online service connecting pet owners with over 30,000 loving sitters across the U.S. and Canada. Since its founding in 2012, DogVacay has received rave reviews from various press outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, and others.
Euphebe.com – Prepared healthy food delivery and wellness coach
EUPHEBE is a food for health program. Based on scientific and medical research, the service offers a 28 day nutrition program that is designed to “make you look + feel better “, according the company’s website. The service delivers weekly prepared meals that are not only nutritious, but are delicious and designed to put an end to those constant hunger pangs and energy crashes we all experience from time to time. The service includes a health coach who monitors your progress, and keeps you focused on achieving your goals. The result for their customers weight loss, improved energy and mood. The service is currently offered in NYC and increasingly across the US.
Paybyphone.com – Parking and toll road fee payment
For those of you who live in an urban area like San Francisco or NYC, PayByPhone is an app that allows you to pay for parking using its app. It’s a simple process: locate your location, plug in your security code and add time to your meter. The service is available across 300 cities globally. Within the US and Canada, users also have the option to select Apple Pay as a default form of payment within the app, along with the current options of securely stored credit cards. The company’s is hoping to disrupt this $100 billion market.
iA writer – Text editor
A word processor that organizes thoughts and helps maintain focus. It has been described as “a minimalist text editor” and it is available for Apple OS X, Android, and iOS. The app was developed by a company called Information Architects, which traditionally has been focused on consulting in the field of user experience design, marketing and management of digital products. The idea of iA Writer is “to keep you focused on just writing”. The app itself is free.
Muji to Relax – White noise app to help you relax or sleep
The app is free and available for iOS and Android. There are six sounds of nature recorded across various regions of Japan. These sounds use high quality stereophonic sounds that will help you get to sleep, and the recordings are made using a a special microphone that resembles the head of a person
Stop, Breathe and Think – Meditation app
Various prominent research studies have shown the benefits of meditation not only for mental health but also for your overall health. Stop, Breathe & Think is a non-profit whose mission is to “inspire the world to practice mental wellness, every day.” With that in mind, they’ve developed an app that allows its users to practice mindfulness and help them meditate.
BitNavi is a blog conceived by Karl Motey in the heart of Silicon Valley, dedicated to emerging technologies and strategic business issues challenging the industry.
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