Whether you’ve got an iPhone, Droid, Blackberry or Palm, it’s the apps that make your smartphone – and your life – brilliant!

Epicurious Recipes and Shopping List

 Best for: Indecisive chefs

 Struggling to decide what to cook for supper? Fret about food choices no more! From decadent desserts to healthy lunches, this app allows you to browse more than 25,000 professionally tested recipes from food magazines, popular cookbooks, top chefs and restaurants. You can create shopping lists, email recipes and save your favourites. It’s time to build up hearty appetites for winter.

Tube Refund Pro

Best for: Commuters

Did you know the tube, DLR and overground offer refunds when delays occur? Travellers in-the-know often hesitate about applying for a refund due to long, time-consuming forms. But with train fares rising all the time and delays frequently occurring, it’s important you claim your pennies back.

Tube Refund Pro stores your details so you only have to enter the journey information and it tracks the status of previous claims. Newspapers and blogs are raving about this money saver, so make sure you register for your free, 30-day trial. Next time you’re late for work, perhaps you won’t begrudge the train driver as much.

ShopStyle

Best for: Fashionistas

Save yourself trawling up and down the high street for the perfect little black dress by firing up this literal shopping centre on your phone! Type what you’re looking for into the search engine, sit back and see what pops up. With tempting options from New Look to Net-A-Porter, be sure to enter your price limit so that your online shopping baskets don’t get too heavy.

Red Laser

Best for: Savvy shoppers

When you’re feeling indecisive over a somewhat pricey purchase, just stop for a second. Scan the product’s barcode with your iphone camera and Red Laser will hunt for the cheapest price online. For expensive products such as electrical goods and gadgets, this is a real moneysaver. Taking home that new flatscreen television never felt so good.

Nike Training Club

Best for: Fitness fanatics

With the party season just around the corner, the mission to look buff and beautiful is now on. So, what could be more handy than having your own personal trainer just a tap away? With more than 60 custom-built workouts featuring audio guidance and on-demand instruction from a Nike Pro Trainer, you can now tone up, no matter what the time or where you are.

Beauty Product Reviews by TotalBeauty.com

Best for: Cosmetic queens

With the ever-expanding beauty market, shopping for a new mascara or moisturiser can be a daunting process. TotalBeauty.com has more than 280,000 consumer reviews and ratings on skin care, hair care, make-up and electrical goods from designer brands and high street favourites. The days of novelty make-up buys are finally over. This app really is a girl’s best friend.

Free books – 23,469 classics to go

Best for: Bookworms

As the dark nights draw in, there’s nothing better than curling up with a good book. From The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to The War of The Worlds, you can dip into a whole library of classics with this inbuilt e-reader. And when you’ve finished reading, an automatic bookmark will save your place until your next bookish moment.

Echofon

Best for: Twitter-holics

If your Twitter feed is never more than a glance away, this app is for you. Echofon’s powerful Tweet-authoring screen lets you write Tweets, upload photos and video and even update your current location, whilst providing a straightforward way to view your timeline, messages, replies and favourites. The signature syncing feature and push notifications will definitely give you something to Tweet about. And you can even upgrade to Echofon Pro to remove all advertisements.

Lorraine says... ‘Sky News and Sky Sports apps keep me in touch with news and other scores when I am at Tannadice Park watching Dundee United play.’

 Image: Getty