Modern life is a constant rush from place to place with very little time to waste. This includes having to spend what feels like (and sometimes is) hours on the phone reporting issues or trying to get help for a problem. However, with the development of various apps, this is starting to change.
Justmoney looks at some apps that have been developed to help make your life simpler and easier.
Find&Fix
The Find&Fixapp was developed for the Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) and allows residents in the Johannesburg area to report any potholes that they come across for fixing.
According to a report, a new feature will soon be added to the Find&Fix app, which will allow the contractors and other people who repair the potholes to take a photo of the repair and upload it.
This will allow Johannesburg residents to assess the quality of the work, as well as to see how long it takes for a pothole to be filled in once it has been reported.
City of Cape Town eServices
To make the reporting of problems within the City of Cape Town easier, the municipality has launched an eServiceswebsite, which allows residents to quickly and easily report issues relating to street lights, meter queries, road repairs, flooding and tree removals to the city.
AA Service Rescue app
The AA has launched an app of its own, called AA Rescue Service.
According to the AA, it “creates a seamless and fast channel for assistance in the event of a roadside emergency, turning your smart or feature phone, into a Rescue Me button. The app is available for all, so basically anyone with a cellphone can register for the service.”
Load Shedding apps
There are a variety apps available to assist people in finding out when and where load shedding will be taking place.
Eskom has the Load Shedding Checkerapp which is available for BlackBerry, Android and Windows phones.
Earlier this week, News24 launched a new load shedding app called GridWatch. The website explains how the app works. “We have collected and aggregated load shedding schedules for Eskom- and Municipality-supplied customers across South Africa.
“As there is no central database of load shedding schedules for all of South Africa, we have manually collected Municipal data from a variety of sources into one place, using one standardised display. Eskom has kindly agreed to send us their updated schedule each week.
“While we have made every effort to ensure the validity of each schedule, and will continue to update schedules and add new schedules as they become available, we have no way of guaranteeing that each schedule will be adhered to by the corresponding supply authority.
“This site will therefore show you the scheduled outages for your areas, but may not correspond directly to what is happening in your area in real time.”
For more helpful load shedding apps, click here.
Government apps
On the South African Government website, it states: “The South African Government launched a new app for mobile phones and tablets with information and news from government on 11 February 2015.”
The app is available for free download from the Google Play Storeor Apple App Store.
Volkswagen Service App
With apps being developed with the intention of making our lives easier, Volkswagen has developed an app which allows you to keep track of all your car’s details.
The Volkswagen Service Appoffers “you a variety of different features to assist you with all you servicing questions and situations. Best of all, it affords you the freedom of choice in selecting the service features that best suit your specific needs.”
The features include:
· MyCar Registration, which allows you to keep track of all details and information pertaining to your vehicle.
· Roadside Assistant, which “indicates your current location and allows you to contact the call centre at the push of a button so that we may assist you with Roadside Assistance.”
· Parking Assistant, which allows you to find your car easily in the parking lot. “It lets you take a snapshot of where your car is, stores notes about your car’s surroundings and even marks the exact GPS location of your parked car.”
GoMetro
For public transport users GoMetro is both an app, and a web service which shows when the next train, or bus will be arriving, and how long it will take to reach your destination.
You simply have to put in what area you live – Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, or KwaZulu Natal –, where you want to go to, and where your end destination is.
The app also has announcements for when public transport is delayed, or cancelled.
These are only some of the apps available to help make people’s lives simpler and easier. Other apps available include ones to help you plan the day’s meal, which includes the shopping list of what you need to buy, or even apps to track your sleep, and how many steps you take.