Smartphone Apps of the Month – January

January is named after the Roman god Janus, who was responsible for protecting gates and doorways. In order to meet the requirements of his job, Janus had two faces. One face looked to the future and the other to the past. I thought of Janus when picking two of my favorite smartphone apps to start off the New Year: Noom Walk Pedometer, for where I am going, and Ancestry, for where I came from.

Noom Walk Pedometer: Available on Android.

Janus may have guarded Roman gates and doors, but if you’re like me, after the holidays you need to guard against weight gain. That’s both the allure and curse of the winter season: so many meals and desserts and parties, over such a short period of time. Invariably, one of my resolutions for a new year usually has to do with keeping fit and healthy. And one of my preferred ways to reach this goal is by walking more.

Now, thanks to a smartphone app known as the Noom Walk Pedometer, my smartphone can count the steps I take, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Best of all, it’s a free app, requires no external hardware, and uses less than 2% of your phone’s battery.

To help keep motivated, Noom Walk lets you share your progress with friends. Once you’re connected to Facebook, you can see all your friends who are also using the app and high-five each other on your step counts. If you want to keep your step count to yourself, simply switch the app to private mode.

Thanks to the free Noom Walk app, no matter where or how far you walk in 2014, you’ll never walk alone.

Ancestry: Available on iPhone and Android.

Whether you’re a budding genealogist or the noted family expert, Ancestry is a free user-friendly smartphone app that interacts with the Ancestry.com website and makes finding and learning more about one’s own family both fun and easy. When you subscribe to the Ancestry website service, you get a free trial and access to more than 11 billion historical records.

Not sure where to start? Not a problem. Tell the app what you know and it will start the search for you. You can add and view records, as well as photos and events for each person in your family tree.

The app is powered by the world’s leading family history website and provides hints to help you make new discoveries. You’re able to view high-res images of historical documents related to your family, as well as see family members at a glance. And you’ll learn about historical events that happened during the lives of those ancestors.

It’s easy to share your discoveries with other family members and friends. The app even includes a relationship calculator to help you understand how you’re related to people in your tree.

This amazing free tool helps you discover your ancestry anytime, anywhere… with your fingertips, from your phone!

Whether you’re using your smartphone to look ahead or to glance back, may the apps be with you.