10 Best Back-to-School Apps
Written by: Jason Notte
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NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- Back-to-school shopping is as much about buying parents some peace of mind as it is about filling students' backpacks and dorm rooms.
Shoppers can do a lot of the former while minimizing the latter by taking a break from the big box stores and spending some time and very little cash searching for apps. The National Retail Federation says the average parent of a kindergarten- through high-school-age child will spend $688 on back-to-school shopping this year. Online shoppers will take a bigger hit by spending $879 from their offices or sofas this summer.
Considering those considerable costs, wired families already shelling out for Internet providers, data plans and tech toys may want to cut corners where they can. We browsed this school year's app offerings and found some to recommend:
Shoppers can do a lot of the former while minimizing the latter by taking a break from the big box stores and spending some time and very little cash searching for apps. The National Retail Federation says the average parent of a kindergarten- through high-school-age child will spend $688 on back-to-school shopping this year. Online shoppers will take a bigger hit by spending $879 from their offices or sofas this summer.
Considering those considerable costs, wired families already shelling out for Internet providers, data plans and tech toys may want to cut corners where they can. We browsed this school year's app offerings and found some to recommend:
iStudiezPro
Available for: Apple(AAPL) iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
Price: 99 cents
Ever wish you were less of a helicopter parent and more of an Apocalypse Now air cavalry parent? Welcome to the world of iStudiezPro, where an app that masquerades as an organizer for students also functions as an academic house-arrest bracelet. Parents can check their kids' term paper deadlines, grades, homework, tests and test preparation with the app's scheduling tools and notification system. Sure, kids might benefit from alerts the app sends when assignments are due, but parents get to keep up with the Joneses and keep their kids on the Ivy path with a GPA calculator and information that syncs with their calendars.
