With Valentine's Day upon us, application developers have come up with smartphone tools that can do just about anything short of guaranteeing you'll be head over heads in love.
There are apps for both the valentine-ready (digital flowers, anyone?) and the valentine-hungry, including every type of mobile-dating tool imaginable. These darts in Cupid's digital quiver, whether they're for iPhone or Android, free and fee-based, range from sophisticated to silly to downright stupid.
Let's start with the valentine-challenged. Once you've gotten into the mood by downloading Valentine's Day Fun Facts on your Android and learned about the meaning of the color of roses, it's time to go find someone you can actually give them to. Got an iPhone? Love your iPhone? Then go straight to Cupidtino - a riff on Apple's hometown of Cupertino, Calif. - a meet-up app that will put you in touch with other lovers of all things Apple.
"We've definitely seen a spike in traffic this week because of Valentine's Day approaching," said Amol Kelkar, 35, co-founder of the Seattle-based site. "People love the app even more than our website because they'd rather do their date-searching on the go. Plus they're all Apple fans, so they'll have plenty to talk about."
One app firmly focused on the fine art of flirting is San Francisco-based Skout.
"Our app," said founder Christian Wiklund, "helps inject serendipity into people's lives."
Use Skout to send virtual flowers, teddy bears or even diamonds. The app's free, though you pay anywhere from 20 cents to $10 in real money to send those not-so-real roses. Wiklund calls virtual gifts "a great icebreaker. When you get virtual flowers, the recipient has the same feeling as getting a real gift because someone has sent them something that costs money."
Skout, which asks a few initial questions to find out what sort of person you're seeking, is one of a growing number of location-based apps that let you know how far away other app users are from you at any given moment. But in an effort to avoid seeming stalker-like, Skout doesn't provide exact distances if that person is within a half mile of you.
But Grindr sure does. Because this wildly popular dating app for the gay community tells you if your potential valentine is within feet of you, Grindr makes Skout seem downright tame. "Two feet away?" Just look down the bar. Click the picture, click "chat," and you're good to go.
"We find that if Valentine's Day rolls around and you don't have a valentine then Grindr's that kick in the butt to remind you that maybe you should find someone," said Joel Simkhai, founder and CEO of the 3-year-old app, which has both free and fee versions available for the iPhone and Android phones. "So each year around this time, we find a lot of our users go back on the hunt."
Once you do find a potential date, download Valentine Scanner on your Android or Love Finger Scan on your iPhone. When you press your fingertips and your date's to the screen, these apps mysteriously determine how compatible you really are. Don't ask how they do it. Just believe.
For all of you lucky enough to be in a valentine-worthy relationship, the app choices are practically endless. Beyond the obvious ones - Godiva Mobile and 1800Flowers, to name just two -- the romantically inclined could spend a thousand Valentine's Days wading through this thicket of digital desire.
Kiss My Valentine's a free Android-only app that lets you set reminders for Valentine gifts and send timed greetings throughout the day to your loved ones in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese.
Next, download LaDiDa, a cool iPhone app that lets you record a love song karaoke-style, make it sound respectable even if you can't carry a note, and then send it to the love of your life. For $2.99, you're made over into a professional singer, thanks to artificial intelligence that corrects the pitch of your voice.
While she or he is enjoying your offering, you'll be downloading the free Apple Cards app, choosing the "Love" category of course, then creating your own Valentine's Day card compete with a photo of your awesome mug. With a couple of clicks and a bit of sales tax and shipping, your card will be heading through the U.S. mail by the time he or she is done listening to you croon.
And if that's not enough saccharine sweetness for one Valentine's Day, download iWrite: Love Poems and let your 99-cent iPhone app help you compose instant sonnets for your Valentine, or at least come up with computer-generated poems as a fallback.
