Android

Here's a look at smartphone applications to foliate a family tree, digitize and post old family snapshots, and probe for family connections among obituaries published around the world. Ancestry , by Ancestry.com, for Android and Apple, is free - at the start. When you load Ancestry, it asks you to sign up. You'll have to decide if the family tree you'll build is public or private. Going public makes it a bit easier for possible distant relatives to find you and get in touch. To start building your tree, tap on the icons marked with your name, "Add Father," and "Add Mother" to fill in details and add photos.

Smartphone applications can ease the business of trading contact information with new acquaintances and facilitate on-the-fly video conferences, thus enhancing your social-networking capabilities. Bump , from Bump Technologies Inc., is a free app for iPhone and Android that passes contact information or photos from one smart device to another by, yes, bumping them together. The move does not depend on both parties having the same type of phone, and it looks magical. What happens is that both devices communicate with Bump Technologies' cloud servers, which detect the smartphones' locations and their simultaneous "bump" to make an educated guess that the devices are trying to contact each other.

Some smartphone applications will relieve you of having to lug around a deck of reward cards for supermarkets and retail outlets, offering not only convenience but reduced pocket clutter. And, if you're intent on posting your every move as a social-media event, such apps help to turn a trip to the drugstore into a likable moment among your Facebook friends. These apps include tutorials that explain how to get your loyalty and reward accounts loaded into the phone and ready to flash at the cash register.

IN THE REGION VWR buys U.K. lab supplier VWR International L.L.C. , of Radnor, acquired Lab3 Ltd. , a scientific laboratory supplies distributor in Bristol, United Kingdom. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. It's the third acquisition for VWR in 2012, with previous purchases of a lab-supplies distributor in the Czech Republic and a German distributor of clean-room products. The privately held VWR had 2011 net sales of $4.1 billion. - Mike Armstrong   Layoffs by Acme parent Acme Markets owner Supervalu Inc. said it would lay off 700 people at its Shaw's and Star Market supermarkets across New England by Nov. 3 in a cost-cutting move coinciding with ongoing efforts to find a buyer for the debt-addled corporation.

Technology has made taking great, sharp, richly colored photographs easy. So, of course, it's now cool to make pictures look as if they were taken on pinhole cameras or broken Instamatics with exploding flashcubes. Smartphone applications for achieving that vintage look are enormously popular and make it easy to doctor photos and then post them online. Here are two: Instagram , free from Burbn Inc., has an array of preset photo effects that you can apply while taking a picture, or use to alter an existing photo from the camera roll in your iPhone.

If I knew how to pick stocks, which I don't, that information might stay under my hat. But I will tell you about a new smartphone app that, according to its creator, provides more than the usual stock charts for making investment decisions. Chaikin Power Tools is a free iPhone app from Philadelphia-based Chaikin Stock Research L.L.C. The most striking thing about the app is the Chaikin Power Gauge - a screen of red-to-green bars that blares, at a glance, whether you should sell, hold, or buy a stock, as judged by the proprietary software behind the app. That software combines company earnings, expert opinion, share price-to-volume activity, and other "metrics" to render its findings.

Shopping online recently for life insurance gave me a disturbing window into websites' "privacy policies," as they are quaintly called, and drove me back for now to a traditional, off-line agent. The widely touted website where I started seemed to have modest plans for any data I entered. Essentially, it promised to use my personal information only to provide quotes or other product pitches, send me surveys, answer my requests, or offer me information "on products and services offered by our select business partners.

Cooling your heels at the airport? This app will help you find dining options. And there are deals for bargain-hunters. Name: Gate Guru for Android and iPhone What it does: Puts information on amenities at more than 120 airports in your pocket. Covers the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, with 50 more airports to be added soon. Cost: Free What's hot: The food section of this app is handy if you're looking for non-fast-food options or want to avoid restaurants with slow service.

Do you use your AAA membership for only roadside assistance? This app reminds you that there are many opportunities to save money with your card when traveling. Name: AAA Discounts Available for: iPhone and Android What it does: Uses GPS to pinpoint and track your location, then sends you merchant discount offers in your area. You can plug in a city you might be traveling to and check discounts before you book your travel. I found 20 percent off hotel bookings and car rental, plus train discounts and cheaper tickets to museums.

Postcard apps are getting better. Many send real postcards from smartphone images; with this app, though, postcards are created so quickly that you can spend more time taking the perfect photo. Name: Postcard on the Run Available for: Android and iPhone What it does: Helps you turn smartphone camera images into real postcards that can be sent anywhere in the world. Cost: The app is free, but mailing the postcards starts at $1.49. What's hot: Don't sweat it if you don't have a person's mailing address.