Every New Year’s Eve starts so poetically, doesn’t it? You wake up, excited for the party in the evening and contemplating potential resolutions you’re making with yourself. This is the year you’ll get your stuff together, work out more, be a better person, maybe donate a few weekends to a local soup kitchen.
By the next morning, it’s all you can do to lift your head off of the floor, bed or couch where you finally hit the ground the night before. A greasy brunch follows and the year begins just like the last one ended – haphazard but enjoyable. Nothing wrong with any of that.
But let’s not just do the same old thing this year. To usher in 2012, let’s involve some new iPhone apps and see if things truly will be different in the new year. Instead of trolling someone else’s thoughtfully planned end-of-the-year event, maybe it’s time you threw your own. It’s not too late, you know. Better parties have been thrown together in less time.
You can use the New Years Eve Party Planner ($0.99) app to help you out. Party Planner will, as the name suggests, help you plan out activities and themes for your potential bash. You can create a guest list, jot down specific party cocktails and even set a budget for your party. Everyone knows there’s no such thing as a good party that didn’t begin on a carefully constructed spreadsheet.
If all of that sounds like just so much effort, and you’d rather get away for a while, the app selection is fairly limited. Apparently if you’re not already aware of a potential New Year’s Eve party by now, you’re supposed to sit quietly in the dark. But I won’t have it, and neither will the city of Las Vegas, either. The NYE LasVegas app ($0.99) provides a list of the events happening at various hotels along the strip, and even provides links to purchase tickets to these extravagant galas.
But not everyone can just hop a plane to Vegas, and really, not everyone wants to. There are plenty of options for quieter celebrations, too. The one-two punch of Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball App – 2012 (Free) and New Year 2012 FX Audio ($2.99) can bring the party right to your humble abode.
Times Square’s official NYE app lets you peek right into one of the most famous New Year’s Eve parties around. You can read about the history of the celebration, see photos and event schedules, and then watch live streaming video of all of the festivities. And you don’t have to stand around in chilly New York for even a second.
New Years 2012 FX Audio, meanwhile, brings the classic “Auld Lang Syne” to your iPhone in style. It also comes with some chimes care of the giant London clock, Big Ben.
If a party isn’t in the plans, at least create a few resolutions for yourself using the Resolutions 2012 app ($0.99). You can record resolutions and then track their success as the year goes on. You can even set reminders to make sure you stay committed to your goal for the entire year.
New Year’s Eve has been built up so tremendously at this point it can all feel like a bit of overkill, but that’s no reason to not take the opportunity to have some fun and maybe give yourself a fresh start and new perspective as you enter the new year. If not, at least you’ll have a few new apps with which to play.
