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Comparing the Lyft, Uber, and Sidecar Apps

In recent years, applications such as Uber, Lyft and Sidecar – which offer an affordable alternative to traditional taxi or cab rides – have increased in popularity.  If you’re considering downloading an app such as Uber, Lyft or Sidecar, continue reading to discover some of the differences between the three apps, as well as some of the advantages and disadvantages of each app.

Requesting a ride:

When you request a ride using Uber or Lyft, you’ll automatically get matched with a driver.  Whilst all of Uber and Lyft’s drivers have passed background checks, you don’t have the option of choosing your own driver.  On the other hand, if you request a ride with Sidecar you’ll be presented with a list of drivers who can transport you from point a to point b; you choose which one you want.  Better yet, you can sort your search results by the shortest estimated time arrival or by price.  As a bonus, if you’re impressed with your driver, Sidecar will also allow you to save your driver to a handy favorites list.

Choice of vehicles:

Should you download Uber, you’ll have the option of a luxury car or a large SUV as an alternative to requesting a standard ride.  Uber also offers a black car service, should you require a private driver to ferry you around in a high-end sedan for a day.  Like Uber, Lyft also offers an SUV option for groups of friends who are looking to travel together and require a little extra space.  Should you download Sidecar, each driver’s car model and year will be displayed, so that you can easily choose a vehicle which suits your personal preferences.

Payment:

With all three apps, you’ll be required to pay your fare using your smartphone app.  Should you book a ride with Sidecar or Lyft, you’ll manually pay your fare at the end of your ride, by pushing a few buttons.  In contrast, if you book a ride with Uber, your fare will automatically be charged to your chosen credit card, so you won’t have to lift a finger.  Better yet, you’ll also be automatically emailed a copy of your receipt.

Pricing & Promo Codes:

One of Sidecar’s biggest selling points is that your fare is pre-determined before you get picked up, so there’s no need to stress about your fare increasing every time your driver stops in traffic or at a red light.  Unfortunately, at this point in time when you book a ride with Uber or Lyft, you’ll only be given an estimate of the fare you can expect to pay.  However, neither Lyft or Uber offers a price guarantee, so you could end up paying double the amount that you were shown when you requested a ride.  If you’re new to the Lyft platform, you can get your first ride for free by using a Lyft promo code when entering your payment information.  Using a promotional discount code can help you save some money while trying out a new service.  You can use a trip estimator for Uber to understand how much your ride will cost.

Tipping:

With Uber and Sidecar there’s no need to tip your driver as your tip is already calculated into your fare, whilst if you book a ride with Lyft you can choose to tip your driver a preset sum such as $1, $2 or $5, which just one tap on your smartphone.

Looking to share a lift in order to save money?

If you’re looking for a lift in a large metropolitan city such as Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York and have the Lyft app installed on your phone, you can opt to share a ride with other Lyft users in order to save up to 60% off your Lyft fare.  Sidecar also gives users the opportunity to share a ride with a second rider in order to save 50% off their Sidecar fare.  Uber also has a carpooling option aptly named UberPool, which features the same type of savings as the other services.

Interested in tracking your ride?

The Sidecar app allows users to filter their driver results by estimated time arrival.  So if you need a little extra time to get ready, you can opt for a driver who is located 10-15 minutes away from your current location.  Better yet, Uber and Lyft both offer maps that show you exactly how far away your ride is.

At the end of the day, you can’t go wrong downloading Sidecar, Uber or Lyft as all three applications have hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers and offer value for the cost.  The app you should download depends on a variety of factors including whether or not you want to be able to choose your driver or would like the option of sharing a ride with other users.

The post Comparing the Lyft, Uber, and Sidecar Apps appeared first on CruzApp.

5 Smartphone Shopping Apps for the Holidays

The holidays are here and all of us are waiting to shop.  There are ways to do shopping without wasting time in long queues at malls, though.  To make shopping more fun, we came up with the top 5 shopping apps to save your time, money and energy, so that you can save those for your loved ones this holiday season.

1. Amazon Shopping by “Amazon Mobile LLC”

The first one is Amazon.  This application provides everything from a to z items.  It takes a minute or so to download and install the app.  It works all right on both iphone and Android, and the Windows phone as well.  After installation it asks you to sign-in or sign-up/register, but it allows browsing through without signup as well.  To start shopping, there are departments and filters.  The feature that will save the most time is the barcode scanner of Amazon.  The bar code scanner captures any bar code one scans in and finds that product in Amazon; therefore it gets easier to search a product.  Another functionality of the Amazon app is that you can share the link of a product via email, Facebook, Twitter and so on.  Moreover, they have site tutorials on how to use certain products.  For example, not sure how to use tent for the first time?  There is a tutorial for that.  It comes in really handy when deciding on whether to buy a product or not.  This app is getting more and more popular among consumers because of its easy-to-use functionality and vast range of products from different companies around the world.

2. Etsy : Handmade and Vintage Goods by “Etsy Inc.”

This app takes about 2 minutes to get downloaded and installed on a smart phone.  It gives the option to sign in with a Google or a Facebook account to personalize the app for you.  It comes in English, German, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian languages.  This gives new options to connect with the seller of an item.  So, one can be more clear on the item chosen with all of the suggestions based on selected items.  One can directly visit the shop of the seller and choose directly from there too, if preferred.  The next time he comes back to Etsy, it will be automatically organized.  Therefore it can eliminate the time of searching and browsing as well.

It even gives notifications when new items ship in from one’s favorite store.

In addition, it is also possible to have your own shop on Etsy to sell personal goods.  If an individual is looking for business or networking, he/she can connect to vendors in Events by Etsy.  The main purpose of this app is more on the casual side, so it is usually more in demand during holiday seasons.  It is all about handmade crafts and arts, renovated items and outfits which work quite well in the holiday season.

3. Zweet by “Zweet”Shopping Was Never This Sweet!

The third on the list is Zweet, mainly for getting discounts and savings on holiday shopping.  This app provides savings on shopping of all kinds, but mainly on grocery shopping.  After a user signs up, they show a number of offers on items sold by Zweet.  These offer items can be purchased from any shop.  After purchasing the discount offered item, the user has to upload the receipt of the item to Zweet.  For instance, for xyz item you get a $2.00 cash back offer.  A user can buy this xyz item from anywhere and upload the receipt to get $2.00 back from Zweet.  Moreover, the app provides notifications whenever new items get added in the offers or deals list, so users won’t miss out on the chance to make money while shopping during the holidays.  The reason people are choosing this app is to save few dollars while shopping from anywhere and everywhere as Zweet does not put restrictions on where you can or should get an item from.

4. Geek :  Smarter Shopping by “Wish Inc.”

This app – as the name says – is for smarter shopping options.  It allows you to get more done in less time.  After signing up it takes you to the general page, where users can choose a department to purchase from.  One can also find hourly deals and can save up to few percent on a deal with free delivery up to a certain amount based on the order.  The best thing about Geek is their discount offers, where one can get up to 50% – 80% lower prices than local stores on the same items.  It is because of their direct dealing with manufacturers and cutting out the cost of the middleman that they can be so beneficial to customers.  This app is especially suitable for teenagers as they use great deals of gadgets and accessories.  It also provides notifications on discounts of hourly offers and so on.

5. Wanelo by “Wanelo Inc.”

Wanelo for all smartphones takes only a minute to download and install and asks for signup using Facebook, Gmail or any email account.  This app can be suitable for long term use because it asks for the interests of the individual and customizes the shopping items based on user choices.  It uses a concept based on the following example:  If one follows person A, then the style of person A will be added to panel of those who followed him/her.  The best things to buy from Wanelo are clothes; it gives descriptions on size with inches and general size tags.  Moreover, it narrows down choices based on what an individual’s interest is, which in turn is based on who or what that individual is following.  Wanelo targets all age groups with vast varieties of fashion, accessories, decors, furniture and gadgets too at very low prices.

There are a number of other applications as well which provide similar and different functionalities for shopping during the holidays.  Examples include Wish, Our Groceries, and Shopping List (which gets the list of products ready for you each time you want to shop) and many more.  It should be known that every app listed will be accessing data from our smartphones in more ways, including the use of cookies, photos, contact numbers etc.  Therefore, it is always better to know what data the app is using from your smartphone for security and privacy purposes.

One can choose whatever app(s) best suit his/her own needs.  In order to make shopping more reliable and easy, it is always better to go with best ones of course.  Let us know what are your favorite shopping apps are.  Happy Holidays to All !

The post 5 Smartphone Shopping Apps for the Holidays appeared first on CruzApp.