Washington - As a real estate agent, one of my go-to app recommendations for buyers and sellers alike is RoomScan. It allows you to digitally create a floor plan that is surprisingly accurate, all with little effort.
For sellers, that means we can easily create handouts for open houses. For buyers, it's a fun and convenient way to measure whether their furniture will fit while they wait during a home inspection.
The best part: It's simple to use. Just tap the phone once against each wall of a room, and the app will draw an outline of the room's shape — and include measurements of the length of walls as well as the room's total square footage.
The basic version costs $0.99 on iOS, though for $4.99 you can purchase the Pro version for more advanced features. The app is not available on Android.
Tim Savoy
Summer means plenty of hikes, nature walks and visits to the arboretum. It also, perhaps, means you'll be hearing incessantly those three little words from your children: “What is that?” Happily, there's an app to help.
The LikeThat Garden app — one of a series of scan-and-identify apps from the company — lets you hold your smartphone camera up to a flower or plant so that it can tell you immediately what it is, and even how to care for it. The app needs the Internet to work, but you can save pictures to your phone and analyse them later when you have cellphone service.
The app works most effectively when your photo is taken up close and in full light, so you're best off using it during the day. Still, it's great for those of us who can't tell a petunia from a tuberose but want to sound as if we do. Free, for iOS and Android devices.
Hayley Tsukayama
Washington Post