Reporting Tools

Buddi

Personal finance programs today have a lot of features, but they can be quite expensive. Buddi is an open source and easy to use personal finance software. Developed by Wyatt Olson, there are versions for Windows, the Mac and Linux. Note that it only runs on Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Buddi provides enough budgeting and finance functions without complicated menus and options. The tabbed interface is intuitive. You can make new accounts for savings, investments, checking and cash. You can also add a prepaid account, loan, line of credit liability and credit card.

GateGuru

It comes as no surprise that GateGuru by Mobility Apps LLC is one of the top rated apps for the iPhone and Android. Pertinent information like airport amenities, push notifications and data about flight is within your reach. GateGuru has four modules namely Airports, High Flyers, Account and Trips. Most of the time you will be at the airport section. Its coverage is extensive; you can search the entire list, by city, airport code or location. Favorite amenities and airports can be bookmarked. You can even track your flights in real time.

RunKeeper

unKeeper is a personal trainer mobile app. Created by FitnessKeeper Inc, it also functions as a tracker for running, cycling, and biking. You can also use it for hiking and ski runs via your device’s GPS. The app is suitable for those taking morning jogs as well as serious runners. It’s a nice free app for checking your lap times too.

Cartes du Ciel

Cartes du Ciel (or Sky Chart) is an astronomy program. Created by Patrick Chevalley, it is a powerful planetarium with features similar to commercially available software. Cartes du Ciel precisely shows the placements of stars. Information on several stars are also provided. But it offers a lot more. Cartes du Ciel can also give you information on planets, asteroids, nebulae, galaxies and comets. The software supports many catalogs including Guide Star and Tycho. Other catalogs can be used so you can see thousands of stars.

Feedly

There are a lot of useful Google Chrome extensions, and Feedly is one of them. It works like a news reader, informing you the latest news from blogs, feeds, Twitter, Facebook and other sites. The contents are displayed in a magazine-like manner. Feedly also integrates nicely with YouTube, Amazon, Delicious, Google Reader and other popular sites. Feedly provides many ways to edit, work, display, filter and add content. You’ll have to spend some time configuring the program, but it’s worth it. After setting up Feedly, you will end up with a custom made magazine digest consisting of stuff you want. The app also provides suggestions, a lot of which are pretty good and spot on.

Urbanspoon

There’s no shortage of places to eat, but how do you know which ones are good? Well you can try Urbanspoon, a free app (Android / iPhone) that allows you to search for the best restaurants around you. There are several ways to filter your searches. Once you register for free, you can look for eating places that have entered the Village Voice's "Best of" lists. You can also look for restaurants with a James Beard Foundation award, or those that made it into the dining blog Eater’s “essential” restaurants. This new option is great if you want to find out the places the food critics are raving about.

Zotero

Zotero is open source software for academic research. It is primarily aimed at professionals and students. But anyone who has to do research will find the program handy. Zotero gathers your materials in one place which you can then search and edit. The software is developed by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. The software allows you to add webpage snapshots, videos, images, audio files, PDFs and other files.

Libre Office

LibreOffice published by the Document Foundation is a complete free office suite. It may not be as popular as other high priced office suites, but in terms of features it can compete very well. The best part is that it is completely free. When you start the program, a menu will appear. This allows you to select what program to use. The choices are Writer, Math, Impress, Draw, Base and Calc. Impress is a presentation program while Base is used for database integration.