Social networks are getting more creative as new sites come up with unique angles to connect people (and get attention). I took a look at two fun new services that you might like, especially if you’re sick of Twitter and Facebook! Enjoy:
People either love shopping or they hate shopping. But it’s something that has to be done, and both sides always appreciate a hassle-free (or at the very least, hassle-light) shopping experience, right? Today’s Current Tech video explores a couple of your best online options.
By the way, I fall into the “shopaholic” category, which oh-so-coincidentally has contributed to some major money woes. Help me Current Tech community, you’re my only hope.
Twitter’s popular, Twitter’s all the rage, blah blah blah. Twitter also doesn’t always work that well, and is missing a lot of important functionality in my oh-so-humble (not really) opinion. This next web tip will show you a few ways I pull a better experience out of the service with a couple free tools. Also, my hatred of babies.
So yesterday at Candlestick Park my iPhone got swiped. And I was having such a good day, too (Niners won, and SF fans know that doesn’t happen that often!).
After panicking for a while, I called AT&T to figure out what my options were. Unfortunately, since I hadn’t opted into paying extra for MobileMe with my first iPhone, I couldn’t track it down or wipe it remotely. AT&T could shut off my service, but that’s about it. And if for any reason someone was closely watching me type out my passcode to unlock my phone the few times I used it from my seat at the game, they’d have access to a lot of things. A LOT OF THINGS. That iPhone was my computer away from the computer.
I knew I’d make myself crazy obsessing over possible identity theft (or just some creep reading my Gmail archive), so I did what I had to do: I drove directly to the downtown San Francisco Apple store to buy myself a new 3GS, the same phone I scoffed at upgrading to mere months ago because the upgrade price was something crazy like $400. Which is exactly what I had to pay yesterday, because of some subsidized unit/contract B.S. that’s been explained in great detail to me but is still dumb and stupid and expensive.
And then today I’m reading Gizmodo, one of my favorite tech/gadget blogs, and I read about how iPhone carrier AT&T is going to charge people like me to fix its crappy network that doesn’t really work that well in my house. And that just makes me really mad and disappointed and I’m painfully aware that this I got myself into this mess by not keeping a better eye on my iPhone at the game yesterday, but I’m just tired of feeling like I’m being gauged at every corner, you know?
I made the following video last week in an attempt to gain some insight into how to manage my finances better. Here’s where you come in: watch the video, hear my sob story, feel sorry for me, mock me under your breath, and then tell me how you do it better. I really need the help, because when I’m 70 I want to have saved enough cash to buy a double-wide.
By the way, so far in the comments section I’ve gotten a lot of votes for Quicken, some for Mint.com, a BlazeWallet iPhone mention, and a recommendation to try Ace Money from Current Tech member SteveBoland (don’t think your webcam response went unnoticed, Steve! Good to see you out there, and thanks!)
That woman would be me, btw. I review Facebook’s new tagging feature in the following video and come to some conclusions about what’s really going on. Hope you like!
