The smart phone is part of our daily lives. Having one in Mexico makes things a lot easier. Even a simple trip to the grocery store goes more smoothly with a loaded phone in hand. Next to social media apps, these are the ones that we have found the most useful while living and traveling in Mexico.
XE Currency Converter
Cost: Free
With the constant change in the pesos to dollar exchange rate, it is nice to know what you are actually spending.
Spanish Dictionary and Translator
Cost: Fee
This app, by Curiosity Media, doesn’t have every word in it, and falls a bit short of a good old Webster, but it does the trick in a pinch. Not only does it show you the written word, it will conjugate the verb for you and play the translation so you can hear the pronunciation. The app has a few games on it to help you learn Spanish, plus a word of the day feature to remind you to keep working on your language skills.
Google Translate (World Lens)
Cost: Free
This app called “World Lens”(was owned by Quest Visual but has now been bought by Google) allows you to point the camera on your smart phone at any printed material and it will translate it for you into another language. It is best for signs or labels. It is not really meant for documents. I have the Spanish/English extension downloaded. It is not perfect, but this app has come along way. Now that Google owns them, they have been incorporated into their Google Translate app on iTunes, but it is still called “World Lens” on Google Play.
Units Plus
Cost: Free
“Units Plus Best Unit & Currency Converter” is a handy metric to imperial conversion to have. It converts meters to feet or temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit. This app converts length, area, volume, speed, weight, time, temperature and more. Handy for everything from cooking to renting a 200 square meter apartment. It does have a currency converter on it as well, but I personally prefer XE Currency Converter.
Skype
Cost: Free to Cheap
We no longer have a phone in our house. We rely on our cell phones for local calls, but for long distance to Canada or the USA we use Skype. Pronounced sky-pee in Spanish. Skype to Skype calls are free. Or you can use Skype to a land line or cell for only pennies a minute.
All of these apps are available for both Andriod and Apple products. What are you favourite apps? We would like to hear about them. Add them to the comments at the top of the post.
