iPhone Apps

Who says sending handwritten notes is a lost cause? Times may be a-changin', but so are our options for delivering a card via snail mail. Today you can send your love straight from your smartphone, iPad, or computer, all thanks to practical apps and websites. You don't ever actually have to pick up a pen to send a thoughtful "handwritten note." Read on to find out how to make your life easier the next time all those birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries roll around.

Felt Cards

The Felt Cards iPad app (free) lets your finger, or a stylus, do the talking. Here's the process: choose an original card design, select an ink color, and write your message on your iPad. You can also write out the addresses on the envelope to complete the authenticity. Felt then prints and mails it, all for the cost of $4. Does it get any easier than that?

Postable

Because it features a digital address book that loved ones can fill out, Postable can be your one-stop shop for sending handwritten notes. Keep in mind that the site only offers thank you cards, but you won't be disappointed — the designs are fun and unique. Choose from realistic handwriting fonts to write your message, and the company will then stamp and mail the note out. All cards cost $2 plus the price of the stamp.

Discover more digitally "handwritten" options after the break.

Sure, apps that add type to photos are nothing new, but an app that does that plus a whole lot more? That's novel. Enter A Beautiful Mess ($1) — an app from the popular site of the same name — where scrapbooking meets Instagram meets blogging.

A Beautiful Mess gives you many ways to play with photos and make them look pretty and fun. First select the picture you want to spruce up, choose a filter and cutesy border, then add text to the image. Pick from four fonts, and move and resize the text in any color you wish. Go even further by adding doodles, like bikes and word bubbles, and throw on phrases like "Adventure!" The app even offers more doodles and fonts for $1 per pack. After you've created your masterpiece, of course, you can share it on social sites or email it.

There's no denying that the app is a great way to make your snaps stand out. For that, it sure does put the "beautiful" in beautiful mess.

Google finally has a solution for those multiplatform relationships (you know, if he's an Android and she's an iOS or vice versa), and it's called Hangouts. The video chatting feature for Google+ is now a standalone app for Android and iOS and as an extension for Chrome.

How is the Hangouts app, introduced at today's Google I/O conference, about to change the way we communicate? By eliminating the barriers between different mobile platforms that prevent texters on different types of devices from sending video, photos, and — most importantly — Emoji. Hangouts is a messaging app that streamlines conversation between multiple people, enabling one-on-one or group chatting across both iPhone and Android devices.

You can invite up to 10 friends to a video call and "hang out" on a computer or a smartphone. Conversations, shared photos, and video call history are kept in the cloud, so you always have access to those threads even if you lose your device.

Synchronicity is definitely one of Hangouts' best features. Once you get a notification for a new message on one device, that alert will be silenced across your computer or other devices. There's even a snooze option when you need some peace and quiet from notifications. Download Hangouts and see how Google's new app bridges the multiplatform divide!

It's happened to all of us: your friend recommends a book or a bar, and you forget to jot it own or can't find it buried in your pile of sticky notes later. Now Thinglist ($2) promises to help you access the info in a snap.

Billed as your "want-to-do list," the app is an easy way to keep track of ideas and recommendations so you don't have to rack your brain trying to remember the name of a person or place that's on the tip of your tongue.

The app works two ways. First, when you want to make a note of something, you click on a plus sign, add a name, and then choose the category that it fits under, like food or movie or product. You can even add notes like "great happy hour deal" before you save. Then, when you want to find something, just filter by category to see what you've jotted down before.

It's simple, beautifully designed (just look at those fun icons), and set up to make life a whole lot easier. Isn't that what apps are supposed to be?

Tired of games that have you feeling like you're in a different dimension? Maybe you're wishing for more minimalist designs. Well, meet Dots, a free app from Betaworks that's so pretty and simple, it's like a breath of fresh air.

Here's the scoop: you have 60 seconds to connect as many dots by color as possible. As soon as you swipe them away, new dots take their place. Tip: if you draw a square with dots of the same color, it removes that color completely, giving you one less thing to worry about. Share your score on Facebook and Twitter, and challenge friends to beat it. Buy dots, if you wish ($5 gets you 50,000) to purchase "power ups" that let you stop the clock, remove dots, or expand the board.

Before you know it, a minute's up, and you're strategizing your next go at it. Is it grade-school easy? Yes. Addictive? Absolutely.

Having now added tech entrepreneur to her accomplishments with the lifestyle website goop and its accompanying travel guide apps, Gwyneth Paltrow was right at home during an Apple Store Meet the Developer panel in New York City last night. We had a chance to talk with the Iron Man 3 star about the gadgets in her carry-on, her favorite iPad games to play with the kids, and the eternal question: text or call?

POPSUGAR: Why did you want to get into this travel app business?

Gwyneth Paltrow: It was a natural extension of what we do at goop anyway, which is curation basically. I love food; I love to travel; I’m a very curious person. I was always the person my friends call and say, "I’m going to New York, where should I do this? I’m going to Paris" . . . whatever. I was always that person. I had books everywhere of things that I loved in various cities and I just thought, "I would love to have it for myself." I started working on the content and I love having a place to go to where it’s places that I love and doctors that are amazing, just all that useful information. When I moved to England, for example, I didn’t know that if you have an emergency, you don’t dial 911. All that stuff. Anything you would need as a traveler.

PS: We’re in the Apple store — are you a texter or a good old-fashioned phone call?

GP: I’ve become a texter. I find it so quick. It’s also made phone calls a lot more special. I do text more than I call, for sure. Now a phone call is a real thing — it’s like, "Are you available to talk?" It’s not like it used to be.

PS: When you travel, what are your must-take travel gadgets?

GP: iPhone and iPad, for sure. I love my iPad mini: I’ve got all my books on there, TV shows — I think that thing is a genius. And my Bose noise-cancelling headphones.

Discover the iPad games Gwyneth plays with her kids and the "girl porn" social network after the jump.

When you're waiting on a late bus or a handcrafted cappuccino, Twitter, Instagram, or whatever other social feed fills your idle time no longer needs to be your boredom go-to. After downloading Tapestry (free for iOS and Android), you'll get lost in the app's wonderful collection of bite-size short stories. Welcome to your new form of digital escapism.

The app is a reading portal that features original copy and illustrations from bestselling authors like Robin Sloan in a fun, bite-size format. Each story is "tappable." There's no page-turn animation, no swiping — just a tap. The stories only move forward, and tapping gives the creations a stop-motion effect.

Some are funny, like ""It's Hard Being Two," and others are thought provoking, like "Underwater Philosophers." But they're all adorable and completely original. New tappable stories are delivered to your Android or iOS device regularly, and if you're inspired to create one yourself, sign up and do so, then be sure to share your tappable essays with us.

When you've created an App Store success yourself, just any ol' app won't suffice on that precious homescreen real estate. Since Gwyneth Paltrow's goop City Guides app ($4) — in-the-know travel tips and must-see destinations in New York, Los Angeles, and London — is an iOS hit, you can bet the actress and digital media entrepreneur has curated her own list of recommended downloads, which she recently shared with us.

From tools that ease travel woes to a "pinteresting" addiction, discover the international jet-setter's most-used apps after the jump.