This is a guest post by Spencer Sands. He was raised in Austin and is a second year student at The University of Texas studying chemical engineering. You can contact him at spencerpsands AT gmail.com

This year will no doubt be another year of technological expansion. A myriad of iPhone applications are being generated every day, and I have come across 5 applications that could possibly see a rise in 2010.

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Lose It!

Who doesn’t want to get in shape as part of their new year’s resolution? I’ve seen the gym lately, and there is no doubt that more people are trying to take a step towards a fitter body. Lose It! lets you set nutritional goals by giving you a good estimate of how many calories you need every day and compares it to how many you are eating. The application allows you to enter foods in many ways- you can search for a food or even make a custom food that allows you to put in the nutrition facts straight from the label. This application can really be a wake up call, if you find yourself going over your calorie budget repeatedly. Lose It! will also keep track of different nutrients in your diet, to ensure that you get the balance you need. This application is definitely a great way to start the New Year.

OpenTable

So maybe you already feel in control of your health and you want to indulge in filet mignon and cheesecake. OpenTable is the next application you should look at. OpenTable allows you to get listings of restaurants in your area and make a reservation from your iPhone. Before making the reservation, you can scroll through the menu and ensure they have your favorite dish. Once you’ve selected a restaurant, pull up the map to find it. This already good-looking app could make some great additions in the future, like the ability to get directions to a specific restaurant.

Words With Friends Free

A little fun is always good for living a balanced life, so try out the Words with Friends Free application. Not too complex, just a simple game of scrabble that you can play with friends online while out and about. You can play different games with different people at the same time, and hopefully some updates will come in the future to allow parties of 3 or more to play on the same board. Caution: This game is addicting.

Evernote

Assuming you eventually put down the Words with Friends app, your next stop should be to check out Evernote. Evernote allows you to combine text, picture and voice notes into one area. You can even star your favorite notes for keeping. The application can be quite useful to students for putting many bits of info into one location. The tips section will share many ideas for the uses of Evernote and some of them are quite handy.

Assemble

A feature gaining popularity on the iPhone is the ability to share your location with other iPhone users. In the era of twitter, constantly updating your friends on your activities is becoming mainstream. Enter Assemble, an application that allows you to send a message and location all in one bundle. This can be beneficial when trying to gather friends to meet up at a certain location. Adding contacts to your list can be a slight hassle, as you have to know the email address of the friend. However, this application is putting forth some great new ideas that could expand over the year, and hopefully we see some updates in the near future.

It would be nearly impossible to try out all the applications that come out, but the above-mentioned apps caught my eye and definitely have the potential to become fun and convenient. Feel free to express your opinion of these applications or suggest improvements you would like to see in the comments below.