Make sure you split the check properly with Bill Splitter

With the rise of smartphones has come the rise of useful applications — as in, applications that are directly useful in every day situations. One type of app that has gained prominence is the kind that splits up your restaurant bill. Divvying up the check is a time-worn ritual that no one wants to experience. It can get contentious, and no one wants that after a satisfying meal. There are plenty of these apps in the Market, but 1) we haven’t yet covered one here, and 2) even if we did I’d still feature Bill Splitter. It’s a great app, found on the xda blog, that takes care of literally everything you need when splitting a bill among friends or business associates. You can essentially enter your receipt into the app. Once you enter each item and its price, you can assign a person to those items. Then, after adding custom tax and tip percentages, you get a readout of exactly what each person owes. There is no mistaking, no estimating, no “accidentally” underpaying. Everything is in front of you, in concrete terms. You can even send each person a receipt via SMS. That should make it easier on your poor waiter, too, if you all decide to pay with credit cards. There is a perfectly good and free version of Bill Splitter, which you can download from the Market. But because the developer, Rejinderi, is kind enough to offer the free version with no limitations, I recommend that you pay the 82 cents for the pro version. It’s a pittance for an app that you’ll find useful any time you go out.