By Roni Jenkins

While many of us have a love/hate relationship with technology, when it comes to making our lives easier, saving time and helping organize us, we’re on the love side.  Here are few of our favorite  technology and apps that you’re going to fall in love with too.

CardStar  You know all those reward cards you carry around in your wallet that you never find? Well here’s an app that lets you upload a photo of each card, and then you simply show the barcode of the card at checkout.

Gethuman.com: fastest way to bypass those pesky automated phone systems and speak to a human. Includes numbers for Groupon, Facebook, Bank of America, etc.

Starbuck app:  Keeping the impatient caffeinated nationwide! For those of you who just can’t wait to spend $4 for your Venti latte, Starbucks allows customers to pre-order and prepay using a mobile app. You can place your order, hop on the subway, get to your destination, exit and pick up your Starbucks. Voila!

Visit a City: I cannot speak more highly about this app and website. It has pre-planned itineraries and custom itineraries from various trip lengths across pretty much every major city in the world. I recently planned a 7 day trip to Paris and was able to customize my itinerary. I input my hotel, then I would drag and drop from a selection of things to do while in that city. Each has a description of the venue, a recommend time it takes to visit and will automatically calculate time it takes to travel from one place to another. You can add in “lunch” and “dinner” or anything else you like. Each thing you do during your stay is mapped out on a daily map and you can drag and drop according to the route you want to take. From desktop, print out a full itinerary with descriptions of each place and in app you can follow along and stick to a schedule. Best self-guided travel site ever! No joke.

Cozi: the best sharing calendar for your busy family. Better than Google calendar, better than Post-it notes, better than a chalk board. I add in all of my families work and school schedules, plus appointments and events for anyone in our family to follow. You can add multiple family members– parents, grandparents, babysitters– and give them access. I love that the schedule can go directly to my children’s emails to help remind them of what’s going on for that week. Keeps everyone in the loop. Also has a shopping list, “honey-do” list and other handy things. I use the free version and it works great.

Vivino:  Show off your wine snobbery to your friends and never pick a bad wine again. Take a picture of a wine bottle with your phone, upload to Vivino. Get reviews, rankings, and pricing for most wines. Add your own reviews and ranking. This is the only app I’ve ever paid for. It actually stores all those wines I’ve drank and organizes it for me in my collection.

PEEL:  Peel is a free smart TV remote app that turns your smartphone or tablet into a smart universal remote.  I personally use this app all the time since my kids seem to lose the TV remote on me constantly and I’d get stuck watching Disney XD and pulling out my hair. Includes a channel lineup.

Roni Jenkins is a founding partner in The Three Tomatoes and a VP, Interactive Marketing at a mid-size ad agency in NYC. She shares her social media and digital marketing savvy with the 3Ts. She is a Mom of three young children, is actively involved in several non-profit organization, including UN Women and the National MS Society and loves to run in the mud. She is inspired by her Mom and other women who have paved the way for working moms like her to be able to balance work and life.