Love is in the air once again, just a few days before Valentine’s Day. But in this day and age, it gets harder and harder to make a good impression with each passing year. For you geeks out there, we have some automated home services and mobile apps that will keep you on track for Valentine’s Day, minimizing distractions between you and your sweetheart.

The perfect Valentine

Start off with the Couple app to help you and your partner sync up your schedule, save all your quirky memories, and create a private little world of your own.  It’s like a social network but just for the two of you.

Then on Valentine’s Day, you two can just stay in and have a budget-friendly evening at home.  Cook for each other using inspiration from My Valentine Recipes, $0.99 for iOS. If you’re an Android user, the Valentines Day Recipes Cupcake can help you satiate both your sweet tooth and your sweetheart.

When you’re done cooking or baking, and it’s time for both of you to take a seat and enjoy your labor of love, play some tunes using the Valentine RADIO app for iOS or Android to set the mood.

To top things off, send your partner a sweet ecard.  If you’re both fans of The Walking Dead, you can choose a pre-made Valentine’s Day Zombie ecard and send it via Facebook, Instagram, SMS, or email, or choose a photo and add your own gruesomely sweet note.

The suave smart home

Extending apps into the world of connected devices, there’s several smart services out there that can help you out on Valentine’s Day.

Before heading out for the day, make sure your home is clean so everything will be perfect when you and your partner return from work.  Of course, you may not have time to do this in the morning, so why not get an iRobot Braava 380t?  It has two settings – one does sweeping only, but if you want a really clean floor, you can set it to also mop it.  It comes with a NorthStar Navigation Cube that sends a signal to the iRobot to track its progress and make sure every inch of your floor gets cleaned.  You can program it to start cleaning your floors before you leave so you can come home to fresh clean floors.

It’s nice to surprise your sweetheart, but fumbling with your door key can ruin your suave seduction play.  To have that  grand entrance to your clean and romantically prepped abode, why not install a smart lock?  Try Kevo from Kwikset.  It’s a smart lock that connects using Bluetooth Smart Ready/Bluetooth 4.0, which is found on iPhone 4S or higher, or with a key fob that comes with the lock.  And when it’s time for romance, lock the front door from your smartphone – never ruining the moment.

And to set the mood right in your home, why not invest in a Philips Hue?  The Philips Hue system, if you’re not familiar, is a connected light bulb which you can control remotely.  Not only that, it changes color, so you can set it to your partner’s favorite hue to recreate the perfect sunset you shared on your first vacation together.  It’s a simple add on to your home but it can really help set the mood for the perfect night.

photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography via photopin cc