With a little improvisation and some MacGyver-style know-how, you can easily amplify your smartphone’s speakers using common items from around the house. As you can see in the infographic below, there are two methods, depending on where the speakers are located on your phone.

Smartphones with Bottom-Facing Speakers

To make a simple amplifier for a smartphone with bottom-facing speakers, you’ll need these items: tape, a Pringles container, a utility knife, a highlighter, a roll of toilet paper, a binder clip, a can of spray paint (optional), and of course, your mobile phone.

Steps 1 & 2: Begin by using the highlighter to mark an area at one end of the Pringles can – this area should be the approximate width of your phone so it will fit snugly. Then use the utility knife to make a rectangular cut according to the dimensions of your mobile device.

Step 3: Next, take the binder clip and position it near the center of the tube. Place the metallic clips onto the container so that binder’s opening area (used for binding papers) is facing away from the container. Tape the metallic clips to the tube so it stays upright when your phone is placed into it.

Step 4: Now, you can optionally spray paint the tube your color of choice. Be careful to do this in a ventilated area, and take care not to breathe any fumes. Wait for the paint to dry before moving to the next step.

Steps 5 & 6: Pull two or three 14-inch strips of tissue from your toilet paper roll. These don’t need to be precise, but you can measure them if you feel it’s necessary. Ball them up and put them into the opposite end of the tube.

Step 7: Insert your smartphone, hit play, and get ready to party.

Smartphones with a Rear-Facing Speaker

In order to construct an amplifier for phones with back-facing speakers, you’ll need to gather up some items: your phone, three bobby pins, a utility knife, and a plastic disposable SOLO cup.

Step 1 & 2: Start by bending two of the bobby pins out into a 90-degree right angle. Then bend them back in so that they will fit snugly around the bottom of your phone. Make sure one end is a little longer than the other.

Step 3: Cut a rectangle that’s roughly the dimensions of your phone’s speaker into the cup. Be sure to leave a little more room at the top according to where the speaker is positioned on your phone.

Step 4: Cut four little holes into the cup. The holes should be slightly less than the width of your phone.

Step 5: Put the two bobby pins from steps 1 & 2 into the holes according to steps A and B in the diagram below. Use the third bobby pin by running it through the top holes, bending it to securely hold the other two booby pins.

Step 6: Place your phone into the clips and hit play. Depending on the weight of your phone, you may need to weigh the cup down in order for it remain upright (Note: do not use a liquid). Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll be all set to enjoy some great music with your friends.

DJ Miller is a graduate student out of Tampa, FL. He is an avid gadget geek with a passion for creativity and ingenuity. He first learned how to make this homemade speaker with his T-Mobile Smartphone and then realized it could work for everyone. You can follow him on twitter @MillerHeWrote.

Not all smartphones have good battery life, and there’s nothing worse than being away from home and having your phone suddenly die. There are products out there to help this situation, like portable battery chargers and cases that add extra life. But is it enough to take away the concern? We put this question to our writers, asking them how important battery life is on smartphone choices.

Laura Tucker

I’m an Apple fangirl, so I’m always going to have iPhones. I wouldn’t change to another smartphone just because of battery life. I’m not even sure what it would take to get me to switch away from the iPhone. Luckily for me, my iPhone 5 has good charging time. I can plug it in and have it fully charged in an hour, and it generally lasts me throughout a whole day without dying, unless I have the GPS on or am watching a lot of media on it. However, my son’s Android seems to always be dying. He often carries a charging cord with him to charge it while he’s gone. Yet he likes his Motorola phones and doesn’t want to change.

Emmanuel Banks

Emmanuel agrees that battery life is important, but it’s “not a deal breaker.” If an “amazing smartphone doesn’t have the battery life to cut it, then I will look at battery packs.” He finds it a “nuisance” to have to deal with battery packs, but has had to do this (and doesn’t mind doing it) with some “amazing phones with subpar battery life.”

Trevor Dobrygoski

Battery life isn’t a big concern of Trevor’s. He doesn’t even consider it when he’s buying a new smartphone or tablet. He realizes, though, that his usage is vastly different than it is for most people he knows, so “the best I can do is take the battery life for the average person and cut it in half.” If the need arrises, he will use apps such as JuiceDefender or purchase additional batteries.

Ruji Chapnik

Battery life is definitely something Ruji considers, but it isn’t a major factor in her buying decisions about smartphones. She currently has an LG Spectrum that has terrible battery life. “Even if I’m not actively using it, it won’t make it through a day.” It can die after just a few hours of occasional use for Google maps or web browsing. She carries a charger with her when she leaves and has also purchased extra batteries. Still, battery life will be factored into her next phone decision, but if she finds a nice one with with poor battery life, she’ll just keep up with her current routine.

Damien Oh

Damien is very conscious with how he uses his phone and makes sure that his battery doesn’t run flat on him. He also have a portable battery pack that he brings along when he doesn’t have access to the power outlet for a long period of time. When buying a new phone, the battery life is of the least concern to him and doesn’t affect which smartphone he is getting.

Miguel Leiva-Gomez

Miguel looks at this question very pragmatically, knowing battery life is “paramount only to those who need to spend lots of time away from an outlet,” and since this will happen to everyone at some point, it has to have some importance to everyone, at least to some extent. However, he feels the most important consideration when choosing a smartphone, especially people who don’t have to go through battery problems often, is “the durability of the phone as well as its response time.

Conclusion

It seems the writers all agree on the level of importance of battery life when choosing a smartphone. It should never ever be the most important reason when making a choice, but it does factor in. Since there are so many items on the market to help with battery life, there will always be more things to take into consideration when making that choice.

What about you? Does the battery life affects your purchase decision?

Photo Credits: Mk2010 on Wikimedia and Puramyan31 on Wikimedia

Of course, there was a point when jailbreaking or rooting seemed like almost a necessity. When the iPhone first appeared on the scene, for the whole first year, third party apps didn’t exist. Jailbreaking existed so that people could have a way to load third party apps onto the phones. Think of the smartphone in your pocket right now and imagine if it had no third party apps! Now it’s different, though, as they all come shipped with so many more options. We put this question to our writers here at Make Tech Easier, asking if they feels it’s worth it to jailbreak or root a phone.

Laura Tucker

Even though I had one of those original iPhones, I still never considered jailbreaking it. I just couldn’t do it. It would have invalidated my warranty. I wanted to know my phone was covered if anything happened to it. However, I respect the practice and believe it’s necessary to the mobile community. Some of the apps developed by Apple were copied from the apps in the cydia store. If they weren’t doing that, the apps and features we are allowed on our phones wouldn’t be nearly as advanced as there would be no big drive to create all that.

Miguel Leiva-Gomez

Looking at it more pragmatically, Miguel breaks it down, saying if you own a small business it’s not worth it to jailbreak or root your smartphone, as “the inbuilt security on the phone is no longer useful in situations where an app can potentially gain full access to the kernel.” It doesn’t matter how many more options you gain if you lose the security. If you’re using the phone purely as a consumer, he feels it’s only worth it if “you’re smart about what you do with the phone.”

Trevor Dobrygoski

Trevor feels somewhat similarly. He doesn’t see the point to jailbreaking or rooting if “you are just rooting to say it’s rooted … especially if it is your everyday phone with a warranty.” There’s no point to doing it and breaking the warranty if you don’t have a use for it in that condition. However, he had a device once that was very limited on space, so he rooted it to remove the apps he didn’t use to install apps that would be more useful to him.

Emmanuel Banks

This is very similar to the way Emmanuel views the practice. He feels most people jailbreak their iPhones because it’s the “cool” thing to do or “so easy.” Yet he advises against it and wouldn’t do it to his iPhone 5 with security as one of the major reasons. He’s one who did it during the days of the original iPhone, when it was a sixty to seventy step process, but he’s “lived and learned” and advises against it now. It seems to him that many who do it to the iPhone do it to make it seem more like an Android, and if you “want an Android so much, get one.”

Bertel King, Jr.

Bertel admits he doesn’t generally root his devices anymore. He thinks it’s most worth it when “an Android phone has stopped receiving updates from its manufacturer/carrier and a consumer wants to extend the life of the phone (or tablet).” That’s a point well made. In this era, the major devices are getting huge updates every year, and occasionally even more often, and sometimes the companies stops adding the enhancements to the older devices. Yet, if the device is still in great working condition, you may want those features still.

Ruji Chapnik

It’s the chance to have as many choices with her phones as she wants that attracts Ruji to the practice of rooting her Android phones. She doesn’t do anything “too crazy,” no CyanogenMod or custom ROMs or anything,” but she enjoys the ability to tether, take screenshots, and use root-only apps such as DroidSheep and Shark.

Damien Oh

Damien unabashedly admits to jailbreaking and rooting both his iOS and Android devices. For him, it makes the phone “an even better phone that it was originally and opens up plenty of possibilities that were not possible without jailbreaking or rooting.”

Conclusion

Our writers seem to be breaking down the jailbreak or root process into one factor. You have to make sure it is worth your while. It can lead to a greater use and enjoyment of your smartphone or tablet, but you also suffer consequences, such as a loss of security. If you have a good reason to do it, proceed with caution. If you have already done it to a device you own or owned, weigh in and comment below, letting us know your thought process into it and how you feel after you have jailbroken or rooted your device.

Previously Windows Phone jumped into the game with a lot of fanfare, but they really haven’t made a dent in the market controlled by Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS. Despite this, Ubuntu and Firefox, as well as Tizen, have recently announced plans to join the crowded smartphone and mobile operating system market.

Mozilla has been successful with its Firefox browser, competing against Google Chrome and Apple’s Safari, and now they are ready to jump into the mobile game as well. They have plans to release Firefox OS sometime this year. Ubuntu has had its own success as a desktop operating system for Linux computers, and now they, too, want to jump into the mobile OS market with Ubuntu Touch. Tizen has no immediate plans to be released in the US, but with backers such as Samsung and Sprint Nextel Corp. a member of the Tizen Association, it makes you wonder how long it will be before Tizen-enabled phones are in the States.

Image credit: Mobile Phones Old and New

The burning question is, of course, what will happen in this market. What will happen to Android and Apple? Will they continue to control the mobile OS market or will they give up some of their dominance to the overcrowded market?

Android has been gaining momentum on Apple recently, but maybe the newbies coming in will hurt their trend. For a long time, the fight has been Apple vs. the other guys, and that goes all the way back to desktop computers, as well as mobile phones and tablets. With three more joining “the other guys,” does that boost Apple’s rank and take away some of Android’s share?

It’s a good guess that Apple isn’t too worried right now, despite the mess that their stocks have become with unhappy investors. It seems far more likely that Android users will fall from the ranks to try the services of the Ubuntu and Firefox OS rather than Apple users, and if Tizen is released in the US, that’s only going to complicate things even more. It will still be Apple vs. the other guys, and the other guys will be splitting that share five ways.

What do you think?

1. Tablet Stand

If you want to work long hours on your tablet, you have to make sure you have a good stand that can allow the tablet to stand at different angles. The good thing about a tablet stand is that it can be portable and attach when required or even double as the protection cover for your tablet.

2. Keyboard

It’s obvious what is missing from a tablet to make it truly like a laptop – the keyboard and trackpad/mouse. First, forget the trackpad/mouse. Touchscreens eliminate the need for a trackpad or mouse. For casual browsing, the keyboard is redundant as well, but for serious work, you will be more productive with a physical keyboard.

There are plenty of keyboard options in the market, and most of them make use of Bluetooth to connect to your tablet. Tablets such as the Transformer series from ASUS even come with a keyboard dock that is fully integrated with the tablet.

One note of caution: examine the keyboards before you buy them. You have to make sure that you can type comfortably on it and it is not missing necessary keys like “Shift” or “Enter”.

3. Apps

Now that you have a physical setup that resembles a laptop or a desktop, the next thing is to setup the software. This needs a slightly different way of thinking – instead of the regular software you install on your desktop, we will mostly deal with apps on your tablet (unless you are using the new Surface Pro). To use your tablet the way you would a desktop, you just have to find apps that do all of your required functions.

Browsers

Most of the browsers that you use on your desktop are also available on your tablet. Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari (mobile) and Opera are available for both iOS and Android, and Microsoft’s Surface uses Internet Explorer 10. Other browsers include Dolphin, Skyfire, Maxthon and more.

In term of capabilities, these browsers are not up to mark as compared to their desktop version, but I have found no (or little) issues when using them for my work.

Documents

Whether you want to take some quick notes, write an essay, or write your blog, there will always be an app for it. Tablets reign over laptops in that you can even handwrite notes and illustrate them with handwriting apps. You can work on Microsoft Office documents with Quickoffice, Documents to go and iWork documents in iWork. For document collaboration, Google Drive is one good app that allows you to create document and share with others.

Social Networking

One of the easiest things to do on a tablet is social networking. All the major sites have apps, and sometimes they have functionality built into apps. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all available in apps, as well as video communication like Skype.

Music

You can start with iTunes, but it only gets better from there. You can use a player that will also identifies music for you with SoundHound, can play radio stations across the globe with TuneIn Radio, and can stream music with Pandora. Or you can combine your music and social networking with site like Spotify.

4. Cloud

Unlike desktop where it is comes with TB of storage space, most tablets are short of physical storage space. This is where a cloud storage service comes in. Whether it’s iCloud, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, etc., you can now store all your documents, photos, media without your tablet running out of space. You can create a network of all your devices, and back up everything to each device, or only back up what you want where you want. Many of these start as a free service, but also have paid premium service for an extra cost.

5. Simulating Your Desktop

Lastly, there may be a few times when your tablet just won’t do, and you really need the services of a laptop or desktop computer. For that, you can remote connect to your desktop and control your desktop directly from your tablet. Splashtop is one of the more popular app for remote controlling your desktop. Teamviewer is another great alternative.

It’s definitely possible to make your tablet as powerful as a desktop. What makes tablets more attractive these days than desktop or laptop computers is technology eliminating the need and giving more advantages to the tablets.

How do you make your tablet as powerful as a desktop?

The following gives a quick reference to the evolution of bandwidths and how they’re used, as well as the difference between the currently available bandwidths.

Definition of a Cellular Network

Cellular networks are provided by mobile phone service carriers. Each one has their own. The network is made up of individual cells emitting radio frequencies through a certain area. If you are within that area, and use that individual carrier, you will be able to pick up that cell signal. The carriers license their service of cell towers with different strengths, whether they’re 3G or something else. If you have a mobile device that allows for that strength of cell service, and you’re in an area that provides it, you’ll be able to pick up its transmitted radio waves.

1G

The names of these different signals refer to the age of the technology behind the signal. 1G simply means the first generation wireless signal. Truthfully, it existed beforehand, but this was the first time it was available to everyone. The signal was strong enough to transfer phone calls, but transferring data wasn’t in the picture at the time. The networks that used this signal were analog networks.

2G

2G was the first digital cellular network, and it was bigger and better than 1G. While it offered enough capacity to to send data, it was still limited. The data it was transferring was mostly just text messages. It really couldn’t handle more than that. To connect with anything online, however, it still needed to to be done through dial-up.

2.5G

This is the first time the cellular service made it possible to be “always on.” It doesn’t work through dial-up, and instead keeps the users always connected so that they can place a call or use data whenever they want. Because of this, cell phone service providers for the first time started billing subscribers by the kilobyte instead of by the minute.

EDGE

EDGE (Enhanced Data-rates for GSM Evolution) is really still just a 2.5G. However, they found a way to use that same technology to get double the transfer speed than simply 2.5G. This meant it was faster than 2.5G, but not as fast as the standard that had already been set for the the future 3G.

3G

To be recognized as 3G, a network has to not only stick to a certain speed requirement, but it also has to feature a smooth transition from a 2G network. It received an upgrade referred to as Revision A, allowing for faster uploads and downloads, which became a necessity for the sharing of pictures and videos. the 3G standard wasn’t fast enough.

4G

The 4G standard allows for 1Gbps when stationary and 100Mbps when mobile, making it 250 times better than the 3G technology. Because of this, the FCC wants it used in rural areas, as working with a cell tower is easier than adding fiber optics in those areas. Because of that extreme improvement, though, there is currently no true “4G” available, despite the claims of phones and phone services. Instead they are really using a technology being referred to as LTE and WiMAX. They are indeed faster, but not as much as the 4G standard allows.

The lack of the 4G does call into question why it is routinely allowed for phone manufacturers and service providers to call their highest bandwidth 4G, as there simply isn’t one available on the market right now. Your phone might say you’re picking up a 4G signal, but it isn’t. It’s really a modified 3G signal. Once you travel out of your 3G or “4G” area, you will most likely fall into the EDGE network, or fall into having no service whatsoever.

WordPress plugin

Since the number of websites running on WordPress, regardless if they are labeled as blogs, is huge and growing, the first solution happens to be a WordPress plugin. Actually there are several plugins to choose from. Several years ago we featured an article on MobilePress. There is another very popular plugin called WPtouch Pro.

If you find the right WordPress plugin, it will automatically redirect our mobile friends to a good looking mobile version of your site. Many of them offer some customization options so you can make sure the mobile site reflects what the full-sized site looks like.

Flexible design

Many website designers decide to make one design instead of two. They can make the site flexible enough to look good at almost any resolution. For instance, take a look at this site (maketecheasier.com). Try it! Resize the browser window and see the changes that take place as the window shrinks. The design looks good all the way down to the size of a mobile phone’s browser.

This type of design can be tricky and hiring a good designer to make it look and work nice might be the best route to take.

Mobile app

Did you know that you can also make your website or blog into a mobile app? You can even have them listed on iTunes and the Google Play Store. This can be a good way to not only make your site mobile friendly but get the word out at the same time.

There are several choices when it comes to websites that offer the service for free. Try appsbar.com and freeblogapps.com.

Custom design

The last and final option is to hire someone to design a mobile version of your website from scratch. They can do anything from taking your design and shrinking it, setting up your site to redirect mobile browser users to the new site, all the way down to rewording the copy to fit better on a smaller screen.

Obviously this can be the most expensive of the options but with a design team on your side, you’ve got personalized service and someone to turn to when it doesn’t work right. A good example of a service that can help in this capacity is NotixTech. They can handle making your site mobile-friendly but can also handle mobile coupons, marketing campaigns and QR codes.

Conclusion

The answer to the mobile-friendly website conundrum really depends on your situation. In the article we discussed four very different solutions and each one may work really well for different circumstances. Which one works for you? Oh, and what other solutions can you think of?

As soon as everyone started carrying electronic devices, whether they were laptops, iPods, or cell phones, the flight attendants started making announcements to turn them off after a certain time. As fun as they are to use, and at some times necessary, they can also interfere with the signal transmission of the airplane. There’s nothing that important that could warrant interfering with the plane you’re riding in with it possibly causing an accident.

Electronic devices then started coming equipped with something called “Airplane Mode”. Sometimes it’s called something else, such as “Offline Mode”, but it’s still the same thing. What it does is disable the device from transmitting signals, while still allowing it to be used in other ways. While you won’t be able to text or send emails, you will be able to listen to music, take photos and play games that are standalone and work without transmitting signals. You can also write emails and texts and save them to send later when the Airplane Mode is turned off.

Most devices will show you that you’re in Airplane Mode in some way. The Apple iOS shows a little airplane in the upper left corner and can be accessed in the Settings menu. If you try to use the Internet, it asks you to either take it out of Airplane Mode or get under WiFi. Different devices and different services treat Airplane Mode differently. Some allow GPS and Bluetooth, while others do not. It would be worth it to check out your device before you fly to find out what will still work under Airplane mode and what won’t.

Confusing all of this even more is that many airlines are now offering a WiFi service onboard. And that is used while you’re in the Airplane Mode, which doesn’t initially seem to make sense. However, the airlines are using the Gogo service which has cellular towers across the U.S. The devices connect to the antenna on the plane, instead of antennas on the ground, which means they don’t interfere with the cell towers. Additionally, devices using the Gogo service WiFi transmit on a lower power, preventing interference with the signals the planes are submitting.

Does phone signal really crash the plane?

Theoretically, electronic devices, including phones, computers, radio receivers will emit electromagnetic wave that could interfere with the plane navigational system, but in real life, there have not been any experiment or concrete proof that these electronic signals directly resulted in the crashing of the plane.

According to the Wikipedia, most, if not, all airlines still ban the use of cell phone on their planes simply because there are no conclusive safety tests to prove otherwise. There are no return in investment in conducting such tests, so for safety reasons, it is just best to disable the use of electronic devices. We are not discounting the fact that using of electronic devices could affect the plane, but is just that there is no concrete proof to say that using of mobile device is the sole culprit for crashing the plane. It is still best to switch your mobile phone to Airplane mode (or switch it off completely) since you can’t make any phone call with it at 30,000 feets above ground anyway.

There’s an additional reason to use the Airplane Mode as well, and it has nothing to do with air travel. Since Airplane Mode requires much less power to operate the device, it means it’s a good mode to switch to to save power if you’re running low on power and not needing to be using it for anything that would be transmitting signals.

Keep in mind that when flying, even though you put your device into Airplane Mode, when the flight attendants or captain announce that all electronic devices must be stored away, that means all of them whether they are in Airplane Mode or not. They will let you know when you can use them again, which is usually when they achieve a certain altitude or when they touch down again.

Image credit: Crashed Plane by Big Stock Photo.

1. Brides

This app is not your average planning app. It’s set up in a blog style with each section covering an every area of concern for a bride-to-be. With new content being added continually, you are sure to be inspired.

In the Healthy Bride section, you will find recipes and cleansing diets that will help you look and feel great on your wedding day. The Martha Stewart Guide is “A Good Thing” for great suggestions of unique and perfect wedding touches. In Broke Bride, you will find all things related to having a wedding on a budget. Find great ideas for inexpensive attire and DIY projects that will give you more bang for your buck. The Etiquette section gives you answers to all of those questions you want to know, but are afraid to ask! The Wed Plan News tab gives you news and articles with advice on everything from song suggestions to picking the right vendors for your big day. This app will keep you up to date on hot new wedding ideas! Best of all, it’s free!

2. Wedding Dance Songs

Everyone has been to that boring wedding that has bad music selections or exactly the same music as the last wedding you went to. This free app is perfect for helping you choose songs that have meaning for those special dances like your first dance and the father-daughter dance. Keep the party going with a fresh selection of songs to dance the night away.

3. Wedding Chatter

This free app is an eclectic mix of  inspiration. If you are a bride in search of something unique, this is the place to look! The Offbeat and Unique tab has an ever changing column showcasing various wedding ideas that are sure to appeal to the unique bride. In the Budget and DIY tab, you will find ways to be creative with your wedding budget and fabulous DIY designs for wedding decor.  This is also the first app I have seen that showcases an Eco-friendly idea section. It has some great Eco-friendly wedding planning ideas and ways to recycle things from your wedding (like your bouquet) in some really pretty ways.  There are additional tabs for Invitations, Music, Cakes, Flowers and Bridal Beauty making this the app to have for all things wedding related.

4. Wedding Budget Pro

This app will help you Keep track of multiple budgets. Customize them to fit your needs by giving each category an estimated budget. It will be displayed along with the actual total and remaining budget to help you see how much you have left to spend. $2.99

5. Pinspiration

This brand new app for 2012 is my favorite since I’m a huge Pinterest fan! Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where you can organize and share all the things you find on the web. Browse everything from photography, hair and makeup to wedding inspiration. With the Pinspiration app, you can browse various categories in Pinterest without having an account. If you have a Pinterest account already, you can upload pictures of things you love direct to your boards to share with others. Whether you are just browsing or have an account, this free app is invaluable.

Whether you need a budget, debt reduction plan or both, these great apps for Windows Phone 7 will allow you to be organized and stay on top of all your financial responsibilities.

Budgeting Apps

1. Spending Money

This is a great app for someone who doesn’t need a whole budget, but needs to manage money until the next payday. It helps you stick to a weekly or monthly spending allowance by being a mobile bank register. Enter the next payday, spending limit, and spending as it occurs. Then watch the tracker count down how much money you have left to spend until payday. When you want to see where your money went, simply view the chart by day or category.

2. My Budget

This budgeting app allows you to manage multiple accounts tracking expenses for work and home. Assign each transaction a category to see where you are spending most. In addition to scheduling bills and transactions on the go, you can track expenses with spending limits and scan receipts to keep everything organized. View daily, weekly and monthly charts of budgeted expenses, actual expenses, and bills by category. The easy to use control panel and at a glance balance viewing will help you stay on top of your financial goals!

3. Finance Helper

This full budget app allows you to create a recurring budget with fixed and variable expenses. After your fixed expenses are established, you will only need to create a monthly budget for items that vary. In addition to managing a monthly budget, this app has a built in calculator which will estimate your monthly loan payment as well as interest for existing loans. A full repayment schedule will be generated for the loans you enter and the extra payment calculator will show you what interest you could save by paying a little extra each month.

4. MoBudget

This powerful budgeting system can be used to track expenses, as well as organize incoming and outgoing line items. Not only can you set reminders for upcoming payments, incomes and bills, you can also pin live tiles to your start menu so you will never miss a due date again! The colorful budgeting graph displays actual balances versus budgeted balances so you will be more careful to stay on budget. If you are a poor manager of credit cards, use the credit card usage tool which displays credit card payment estimates and warnings. There is a free trial but for $1.99 the full version is a steal!

Manage Debts and Property

A budget is only the first piece of the puzzle when it comes to personal organization and fiscal responsibility. Sometimes we have extra income and don’t spend it where it can best be utilized or we are the ones lending money or personal items never to be seen again. We get busy and as time goes by, we forget who borrowed what. There are great apps for tools to manage those type of debts as well.

5. Quick Snowball

This app is based on the Debt Snowball Method in which you pay the minimums on everything and attack small debt items first. Just enter your debt and interest rates and you will have a calculated balance along with a goal payoff date.

6. Debt Control

This is a great tool to manage borrowed money and items. Fill in the person’s name, contact info, and what they borrowed from you. You can attach a picture of the item so you can see if there was any damage done to the property upon it’s return. The “My Debts” page will display who borrowed what, a picture of the item and how long it has been borrowed. Then, you have the option to call the person about the item’s return. No more forgetting who you lent that book or money to.

As you roll into 2012, what are you going to do to take control of your money and personal property?

Image credit : alancleaver_2000

1. Text To Chat

This feature allows on the fly conversion from texting to Facebook chats so you have the ability to text and chat at the same time! Talk about multitasking!  Go to either the “me” tile or go to the “people” tile. Select your picture then “set chat status“, which is where you can change your chat availability. To see if someone is online to chat with, select the “message” tile then select the person you want to chat with. Tap on the “double arrow icon” on the bottom of the screen and you will see a display with a text option and their Facebook chat availability.

2. Link Inboxes

If you have more than one email service linked to your phone, they each take up a tile space on the start screen. Now there is a cool feature where you can link your inboxes together into one tile and see all your messages in one place. The really cool thing about it is you don’t have to link ALL of the email accounts together. You can leave a work email tile only, with two other generic email accounts linked or any combination that works for you. To do this, open an “email” tile and tap on the … icon at the bottom of the screen. Select the “link inboxes” option and it will open a list of your email accounts. Tap each one that you want to link together and like magic, they merge into one tile! Additional side features to that is the ability to rename the tile or pin individual folders to your start screen so you can see only what you want.

3. Camera Features

The update features to the camera include automatic detecting of faces when you’re uploading pictures to Facebook or Windows Live – just tap, tag, and post. It also now allows you to pin whole albums to your start screen including albums from Facebook and your camera roll with an option to also delete all contents of the album if you “long press” on it.

4. Interrupted Task

I can’t tell you how many times I have been in the middle of an email or text and I flip over to something else for a second and I have lost everything I was typing. I was used to the iPhone which allowed you to switch between tasks without losing what you were doing so that was a pet peeve of the Windows 7 phone for me. With the update, you can now get back to what you were doing by simply “long pressing” the “back button” and slide the screen until you find the task you were last on.

5. Voice Texting

This is by far one of my favorite new features because I am constantly on the go and communicate with most people by text. I don’t like the Bluetooth ear piece or have the hands-free option in my car so this has been very handy. If you go into “settings” then “speech“, you can select how you want to receive your incoming texts. If you use Bluetooth or wear a headset, there is an option for that or simply select the “always on” option. When a message comes in, it will tell you who the message is from and give you the option to read it aloud or ignore. After it is read, it will give you the option to reply or be done. If you chose to reply, speak your message and say send. Simple hands free texting is faster and safer!

6. Bing Features

I have always been a Google user but since getting this phone, I have embraced Bing. Some neat features include the ability to not only search for a shopping mall but go even further and view an indoor map of the mall! No more wandering around looking for a directory only to find that it is now an advertisement for a store you don’t shop at! You can also be listening to a song on the radio that you want to know more about. Hit the Bing “music icon” and it will recognize the song, produce the album art, song title and link to the Zune Marketplace so you can purchase it.

7. Music

The only problem I had with the music feature, was having to unlock the phone every time I wanted to forward past a song or pause it. If you want to have a new music experience, follow these steps! Go to “settings -> lock -> wallpaper” and select “show artist when playing music” to ON. Now when you play music, the artist appears as your wallpaper and all the controls are right there as well. No need to unlock anything and it gives a nice user experience with the changing screen.

8. Copy & Paste

In all the reviews about the Mango update, nobody mentioned copy and paste! This was the main feature I missed from the iPhone and I am so happy to have it back! You can copy and paste about anything you want. I mostly use it to copy a text I sent someone and send it to someone else or copy into email. Simply “long press” on the message and select “copy“. Go to the application you want to paste it to and tap the little “clipboard icon” to paste it.

Mobile cloud syncing is kind of a big deal for a lot of people who are on the go more than at their desk. Pogoplug comes with 5GB of cloud storage that works with Android and iOS devices. You will get automatic syncing of your pictures, videos and music with the option to stream them from your mobile device or on your computer.

Getting started with Pogoplug

For starters, you will need an account. You just need to give them an emai-pogoplugl address and a password. This will be enough to create your account and get you to the links to download the apps you need to install.

The downloads

There are 2 downloads you will need: one to your desktop and one to your mobile device. I will be showing screen shots for Android, but here is a link to download the iOS version.

Click here or scan the QR code to download the Pogoplug from the Android market.

-pogoplug

You will also want to download the desktop application.

You will need to log into your account on both your computer and your Android device.

Syncing your files

On your Android, your pictures will be automatically uploaded to the Pogoplug server. It took a while for the thumbnails to display though. Other than the images, nothing else automatically upload from the phone. You can manually upload videos, pictures, music and other files from your mobile device to your 5GB of cloud storage.

During the uploading, the original picture, instead of a resized version, is uploaded. Having the original uploaded to the cloud means you won’t need to worry about your photos getting lost if something happens to your mobile device.

Also, if you have files on your computer you would like to access while mobile, you can drag and drop the files to the desktop application.

-pogoplug

Streaming media

A really cool thing you can do with your synced audio and video media is stream them to your devices. If you have a song stored in your account, you can play the song as if it was on your phone. The same is true with videos you have uploaded to your cloud storage.

If you have a lot of music stored and labeled well, you can even search by artist, genre, song or album title.

Pros

• Automatic picture and video uploads
• Streaming media from the cloud
• Simple desktop app

Cons

• Only pictures and videos can be uploaded from your Android

Conclusion

Pogoplug is a great work in progress. They have the right idea and have a great start. Right now it is great for those who want a spot to backup their pictures instantly and having some of their favorite mp3 files easily accessible.

If Pogoplug wants to play with the big boys like Google Music and Amazon’s cloud player and storage, they will need to add some features or at minimum allow better uploading options.

What cloud apps do you use to store and stream all of your digital media?

1. USA Today

The front of this app looks just like a newspaper. This paper is a non-local newspaper available all over the country, and one always filled with general news. The iPad version is no different. On the face of it is the headlines, sports scores, and weather that you can match to your own local weather. Clicking on a news article pulls up the full text along with the options to change the text size for easier readability and sharing options, including Facebook, Twitter, Email. This app is 100% free.

2. Chicago Tribune

I’m a Chicago girl, so I’m looking for some more local news. While I can get an iPhone app for a suburban newspaper, I like the Trib app because it’s laid out great and has everything I want except extremely local news. It, too, looks like the front of a newspaper, with top stories, breaking stories, and the weather. It also includes options to “Favorite” an article you want to remember, and the same sharing and viewing options as USA Today. While the app is free, and the headlining articles are all included, to get the full paper electronically, a subscription is required.

3. Chicago Sun-Times

Again, I’m looking for some Chicago news, and this electronic news is so much different. Instead of having clean and attractive articles, the entire newspaper is scanned in. Every single page is here, including the ads, and it’s all free with the app. You can flip through the entire newspaper and just read the parts you want, just as you would a paper edition.

While the Sun-Times includes options on the side to flip through, highlight articles, etc., you can do a two-finger click on an article of interest, and it will pull up a larger version of just the text for you to read.

4. Newsweek

If you’re a political news junkie, Newsweek is a magazine you might already be buying, but you can also get daily stories on your iPad. You can subscribe to it on your iPad and also buy individual issues, including archived issues. Additionally, it offers slideshows for viewing.

5. People

This one works much like Newsweek, except it doesn’t have the daily news articles. All that’s offered in the free People app is the opportunity to buy individual issues or subscribe electronically. It also includes archived issues. If you’re already a print subscriber, subscribing to the electronic version will be free.

6. Sports Illustrated

Again, it works much the same as Newsweek and People. However, the Sports Illustrated app is more like Newsweek in that it also has daily stories to be read. It, too, can be subscribed to electronically, and can also be purchased through single issues. If you’re already a print subscriber, the electronic version will be free.

7. Oprah

Oprah didn’t hide her love of the iPad, making it one of her last season’s “Favorite Things.” because of this, it only makes sense that she would have a great iPad app for viewing an electronic version of her magazine. Oprah’s Magazine app isn’t just great for reading the magazine’s articles, it’s also very interactive. Opening an issue for the first time, a video of Oprah plays as she introduces the issue. Older issues are free to download, but the newer ones will cost you. This issue from last December featured her Favorite Things with interactive 360 degree views, yet it also has regular articles, such as this interview with Tyler Perry.

This is just a small sampling of the newspapers and magazines available for the iPad. The Kindle now makes periodicals available on its iPhone and iPad apps, but so far the choices offered don’t come close to what’s offered via individual apps for the iPad.

1. iLyrics

iLyrics is the good place to start simply because it’s currently a free app. As its name implies, it will find lyrics within iOS apps. It does. It works very well at displaying the lyrics that it finds for the songs playing. The problem is that it doesn’t find all the lyrics. I listen to some very obscure music. Additionally, I’m a big American Idol fan, and I download songs throughout the season, but these don’t come up with lyrics in this app. It’s easy, but not always effective.

2. LyricFind

LyricFind works much the same as iLyrics. One difference is that it also includes album and artist info. It’s a great addition, although it doesn’t have the aesthetic appeal that iLyrics does. That’s all in the free version. In the paid version, there is also the ability to search by title, artist, and known lyrics. You can also submit lyrics that you have found yourself, or corrections, and they will see about changing or adding them..

3. Instant Lyrics

The simply named Instant Lyrics does a better job of finding the lyrics than some of the others do, but the reason is because it works through Safari, and also costs $1.99. It utilizes multiple lyrics search engines in Safari to search for the lyrics you’re looking for. The problem with this is that it requires a lot of bouncing around. After that song finished playing, you have to initiate the app again, call up the next song, and it then goes back to Safari again. If you’re playing a lot of songs, it’s not very applicable. However, you can have it store your favorite songs for quicker recognition.

4. Soundhound

Soundhound used to be much more limiting than it is. The free version used to only allow a certain number of music searches, but now it’s unlimited. It includes iPod controls to all of your stored music and will also bring up the lyrics. Again, it’s only if the app can find it.

SoundHound has one other large benefit. It can identify songs by listening to it play on another device, such as the radio, TV, etc. In that way it works very much like Shazam. Yet, it also searches for songs by your voice. You can sing or hum into it and it can find those songs based on your own knowledge. It also has a field where you can type in name and artist. Once it identifies a song, it comes up with links to download it, album art, a google search of lyrics, etc.

While there is no lyrics app for the iPad that does everything I want it to, from finding, displaying, and editing of lyrics, it seems Soundhound offers me the most options, and is free as well. While it doesn’t find all the lyrics, neither do the others. On top of all that, it has that great search function. For the more obscure songs that it won’t find, I can always bounce back to the Lyrics app.

What about you? How do you find lyrics for your songs in iPad?

If you’re looking for a photo editor that will clean up, sharpen, add text, etc., you’re looking in the wrong place. But if you’re looking to make some really different and fun pictures, it will do much better. Its best feature is that it has so many options, it’s questionable if you’ll ever use all of them. It allows you to either take a photo through the app, use a photo from your camera roll, or import a photo from Facebook or your documents.

I decided to use this picture of my daughter and one of my dogs. Upon importing or snapping the desired photo, the app takes you to a screen where you can crop the photo to being square, or leave it as is. The next screen is the main editing screen. Along the bottom are standard editing screens such as cropping, rotating, and brightness and contrast, etc. Along the top, it has the option to do any of nearly 200 effects.

Once you choose which effect you want, there’s more options after that. You can either use it as is, or you can change the amount, brightness, contrast, etc., depending on the effect.

Additionally, you can just apply the effect to certain pieces of your photo. It has a brush to paint the effect on certain pieces. It also has an eraser to take it off of certain pieces. Additionally, there are a few buttons to create a mask around a shape, with it also allowing you to invert the mask. Where it falls short is that it offers your some brush options, but not different sizes. It’s hard to paint the effects in such broad sweeping strokes.

Once you’re done setting the effect the way you want it, hit Apply, and while you wait for it to finish, it gives you a trivia fact, a different one every time. It’s a fun little extra. At this point, you can choose to finish or continue. You don’t have to stop with just one effect, and can add effect upon effect.

Once your image is set the way you want it, as with the rest of the app, it gives you plenty of choices. You can save the image to your device’s photo album, documents, or clipboard, or you can print it as well. You can also share it via:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Flickr
• Email
• Tumblr
• Instagram

The app works on both the iPhone and the iPad, but the size of it is more suited for the iPhone, meaning it’s most likely a native iPhone app that works on the iPad. However, I found it hard to do the brush strokes on the small iPhone screen, so I did the work for this picture on the iPad and just used it at 2X the size. I ended up not using the brushes for this, so I definitely still could have done it on the iPhone, however.

FX Studio (iTunes link)

The answer is that there are still a few things the iPad can’t do, but not many, and once Apple updates the iOS in the fall, that will be even less. Steve Jobs recently promised a PC-free experience, and it seems to be getting closer to that, but still isn’t quite there yet. Here’s a rundown of a few of the limitations I have found.

Mail

The mail experience is very close to being the same as I have on my Macs. I can have multiple accounts, and send and receive in much the same way. The major difference is in attachments. I can attach photos as well as documents, but I can’t always see everyone else’s. If they send a photo or document, I can view it, but if it ends up being a zipped file, I can’t open it. It might be something that is available with an app, but as it stands with the regular Mail app, I can’t.

Browser

Browsing the web is very close to what you have on a PC. Most sites are viewed just the same. There are some sites that give you a mobile view instead of a regular desktop view, but usually at some place on a site, it offers the choice of a desktop or mobile view. Pop-up windows open in an additional window. What isn’t good is that Safari doesn’t have tabbed viewing, but that’s supposedly changing in the next update.

There are also other browser apps that offer a sometimes better experience. However, sites that have fields for you to fill in do not work the same. If you type a long sentence that extends beyond the input field width, you can’t scroll through it. For instance, I can’t upload an article in WordPress, because I’m writing more text than fits in the box, and while it puts it in there, I can’t scroll through it to edit. I have found apps that handle blogging, but some other websites I submit articles to that don’t work off a blogging platform don’t work, and I need to still submit using my Mac. Some sites work still and some don’t.

YouTube

There’s an app just for YouTube which works great for browsing and viewing YouTube videos. However, if you want to do something other than browsing or viewing, it’s not available there. For example, to embed a video, the coding isn’t there. I have found a workaround, though. If i go to YouTube in the browser,  there’s an option there to view it on desktop, and then it has all the regular options like you would have on a normal desktop browser.

Photo Editing

For most normal photo editing, such as things you do for personal photos, optional photo editing apps work great. However, for photo editing I need to do for websites, it doesn’t offer a good workaround. I have to do my photo-editing on the Mac. I haven’t found an editor that keeps a good resolution.

Music

There isn’t anything I can’t do with music that I can do on my Mac, whether it’s buying or playing music. However, I can only buy music via iTunes to have it automatically upload to the iPad. Music that I downloaded from Wal-Mart, that was only available there and not on iTunes, had to be downloaded on the Mac, uploaded to iTunes, then dragged into the iPad.

Writing

I do most of my writing in Evernote, or at least I save all my articles in Evernote. But one reason I use Evernote is because I can sync it between my Mac, my iPad, and my iPhone. Even though I’m writing now on my iPad, I know I have to upload via my Mac, so I’ll save it in Evernote, and when I go back to the Mac, it will be there as well. For this experience, there is no difference between the iPad and the Mac.

Conclusion

The answer to the question is NO, at least for me from a writer’s perspective. The iPad does not do “everything” my Mac does, although it does come pretty close. If I was a casual Internet user, it probably would be more than sufficient. Being that I conduct most of my life on the Internet, it doesn’t do everything; however, I still prefer this experience, as it’s a faster and easier experience. Additionally, I know that as they continue to make strides in the mobile experience, my experience will improve as well.

What about you? Has your iPad replaced your computer?

1. Tabbed Browsing. For Safari to not have tabbed browsing on the iPad is really just inexcusable. It’s understandable on the iPhone, as you don’t have that type of space anyway, but for the iPad, you need it. iChrome’s tabbed browsing works just the same as you would expect it to and want it to. You can add tabs by clicking the “+” and delete them by clicking the “X.”

2. Bookmarks. All web browsers have bookmarks, even Safari, but iChrome makes them easy to use. There are no extra menus to add them. You simply click the star to the right of the URL field. To recall your bookmarks, click the bookmarks menu that looks like an opened book. To delete them, click edit, then the minus that appears next to the one(s) you want to delete. Click the icon in the far right to move them up or down in the list, and click the arrow next to that to edit the URL or name of the bookmark.

3. Reading Offline. There are a lot of apps and websites you can use to save web pages for offline reading. iChrome puts that option right there in the browser for you. If you click the eyeglasses in the URL bar, it adds the website to the Read Later list. If you click the icon that looks like a list, it recalls all the sites you saved to read later. Clicking edit allows you to delete them by clicking on the minus.

4. Sharing. It’s extremely easy to share your web pages with social networking sites. Clicking the icon that looks like a box with an arrow gives you a menu that allows you to share the site with Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Diigo, or Email. If you choose more, you get even more social networking sites. There’s no need to add other apps to aid in sharing. It’s all right there.

5. Tools. iChrome used to end with the above options, but they have now added even more that allow it to act even more like a desktop browser. It allows you to print, which depends more on the type of printer you have than the browser itself. It also allows “find in page,” something lacking in Safari and other mobile browsers.  Additional options are controlling passwords, and clearing history, cookies, and caché, things you can only do with Safari if you go to the general iPad settings. It also offers you a choice of search engines to work within iChrome and a list of browsers you want it to “behave” as.

Using iChrome is still very much using a mobile web browser, but with all of these options, it makes it so that you don’t miss using a desktop browser at all.

iChromy (iTunes link)

AudioGalaxy is very easy to use. There is almost zero setup required.

Go to AudioGalaxy and sign up for an account.

Once you have completed the registration, download and install the AudioGalaxy helper (currently only available for Windows and Mac, though it is said that the Windows version works in Linux under WINE).

Once the AudioGalaxy helper is up and running, you should see your collection of music appears in the AudioGalaxy site. You can then create your playlist and play your music in the browser.

To get it working in your mobile device, download the app for Android or iOS.

Sign in to the app and you will see your music collection in the phone. Just like any music player, you can view by artists, albums, genre and add songs to playlist.

You can then play the songs you want and even set it in repeat or shuffle mode.

All in all, this has to be one of the easiest way to stream your music. Almost zero setup and it works out of the box. You don’t even need to install iTunes or any other media player to get it working. One thing though, to be able to stream your music, the host computer needs to be running and connected to the Web at all the time. You also need internet connection on your mobile device to access the music. Other than that, this is almost perfect. What do you think?

Making the iPad practical

As an entertainment tool, iPad is excellent. But to get it to perform networking stuff, it failed miserably. It is not that the hardware sucked (in fact, the hardware is among the best in the market), it is just that Apple did not create the necessary software for it to do the tasks. This is where third party apps come in to fill the gap, and File Browser is one such useful app. It brings practical network and file access direct to your iPad for less than three bucks.

Installing and setting up FileBrowser

The installing of FileBrowser is the same as any other app. Just go to the AppStore and tap the “Install” button.

Setting it up is pretty easy too. While there are QuickGuide and Setup Documentation (both Mac and Windows versions, depending on the computer your connecting to), I have never read them and still able to get it connected. If I can do it, so can you too.

I installed the application and started right in. Click on “Menu -> Machines” button, and there’s the “+” button to start adding connections. Connecting to all of the other machines on my network was a snap, but remember that spelling counts here; if the name of the computer for the machine you’re connecting to isn’t exactly right, it won’t connect. This is the one place FileBrowser fails to live up to expectations for me… If you could browse network devices and just choose one, it would be a total lock, but adding machines could prove to be a bit annoying.

Streaming Video and Audio from Anywhere (On Your Network)

Once the machine name and login information is supplied, the connection is instantaneous, and this thing is fast! Now that you’re connected to another machine, you can browse the entire directory, including attached devices. You can copy to and from the other machines, or execute or stream files stored remotely.

Read that part again – you can execute or stream any file stored on any other device! That means you now have direct access from your iPad to the 250GB of BitTorrent movies you’ve been collecting for the last year. And we’re back to the iPad being… an entertainment device. You can also view, save and share photo collections quickly and easily, as showcased below.

Wrap-Up

Bottom line, this application has saved me more time and made my iPad use more enjoyable than any other software I’ve come across. It’s one of those essential utilities that you take for granted when you have it, but couldn’t live without. Do you have apps that are in a similar vein, or other ways of accessing your stuff from an iOS device? As always, let us know below!

Software Downloads

The first and most important step to this process is to download the necessary software. You’re going to need two separate programs – Mac The Ripper and iSquint. Bascially, Mac The Ripper rips, or extracts, DVDs to your hard drive, and iSquint converts the video to be compatible with iOS devices. Mac The Ripper can be downloaded here and iSquint can be downloaded here.

Note: You can also use Handbrake to do rip your DVD into iOS compatible format. The only issue is that Handbrake does not support copy-protected DVDs while Mac The Ripper does.

Using Mac The Ripper

The first step is to insert the DVD of your choice into the Mac. Open Mac The Ripper. It will read and recognize the disc in your DVD drivet. Now you must click on the “Mode” option and change the “Full Disc Extraction” option to “Title Only Extraction”. Below these options, you want to make sure you have selected the title that is the longest and says “(MF)” or main feature. After you’ve completed this, you can return to the Disc tab and press GO!. In some cases, the program might prompt you to select a RCE Region. If it does, select RCE 1 and then click GO!. Finally, choose a location to save the file and let Mac The Ripper do its job. It will take some time.

Using iSquint

Once the DVD has been ripped, you can remove the movie and close Mac The Ripper altogether. Now open the file that was created, go into the “Video_TS” file, and drag the item into iSquint. Be sure that you have selected the “Optimize for iPod” option and have “H.264 Encoding” enabled. If you want to, you can select “Add to iTunes”. In my experience, this has given me a few problems, so you might want to avoid it. Personally, I disable it and just drag the file into iTunes manually when iSquint has finished. Choose the location for the movie to be saved in and click Start to begin the conversion process. Now all you have to do is wait until the file is converted into an iOS compatible video.

Wrap-Up

Finally, once iSquint finishes, open up iTunes and find the new video file. Click and drag it into your iTunes library and add it to your iOS device just like you would for any other video. Now that you’ve added the movie go ahead and quit iSquint and go enjoy it on-the-go with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad!

Do you know any other ways to convert videos? Better, faster ways maybe? Give us all your comments below!