There’s a Group For That

With more than 185,000 apps to consider for your iPhone (or Android), we’re well into the stage where word of mouth is key to discovering what to download. One way to trade stories about devices and apps is through a new group in the Baltimore area called BUMPA (Baltimore Users of Mobile Products by Apple/Android). At their inaugural meeting at the Hunt Valley Wegman’s Thursday morning, founder Bruce R. Marshall and attendees demonstrated some of the more interesting apps, presented here courtesy of the PR Buzzsaw:

Bump – This app makes sharing contact info with people quick and easy. If you have the app, just hold your phones and gently bump hands with another person using Bump, and voila, the bumper’s information instantly appears in your contacts. You can share photos and contacts, compare friends, or become Facebook friends in seconds. Wild. [Free]

Fluent News Reader – Fluent aggregates news sources into a single, intelligently organized, fully customizable mobile newspaper. It allows you to create up to three of your own custom sections based on keyword searches. The New York Times and CNET both named Fluent News “App of the Week.” [Free]

Red Laser – This one allows your iPhone to scan a bar code (you could be holding a product at a store) and then it instantly displays alternative places to purchase the same item – online as well as other stores – and the related prices. As they say, it allows you to “shop smarter.” [Free]

Wolfram Alpha – Called the world’s first “computational knowledge engine,” it’s a service that answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from structured data, rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer, the way a search engine would. [$1.99]

Dragon Dictation – An easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to speak into your device and instantly have your words appear in the form of a text or email message that you can save or send. [Free]

Weather Bug – Receive live weather conditions, forecast, radar, weather cameras and daily video outlook in this Web 2.0-style application designed for the iPhone. [Free]

shoot it! – This app enables you to send a real, photo postcard to anyone in the world directly from your mobile device. Your personalized postcard will be delivered in just days. Just take the pic and click on the app to have it sent! [App is free, as is first post card; then it's 99-cents per postcard]

The BUMPA group plans to meet on a regular basis, so if you want to connect with other iPhone and Android aficionados, make sure you’re on the list by liking BUMPA on Facebook and visiting www.bumpa.org or www.bumpa.net. In the meantime, what’s your can’t-live-without app?