Groupon Moving Mobile

Groupon Moving Mobile
Photo by TechCrunch

Groupon Moving Mobile

Groupon has already changed the way many people shop, eat and buy stuff, now they are trying to do it again. Likely this latest move is in response to the abundance of competition popping up from everywhere, most notably from Microsoft which recently launched Bing Deals. Bing Deals is like an online coupon aggregator. It will search the web for the best daily deals being offered by any coupon service, which definitely gives it a leg up on the services which handle only their own daily deal.

The new Groupon Now mobile app will make finding coupons much easier. Users will be presented with two options: “I’m hungry” or “I’m bored.”

Pick one, click it and a list of location-based daily deals will be presented to you. Coupons will still look the same way, but will be more than one-time only deals. Businesses who use Groupon will be able to set a deal, say a $20 meal for just $10, then set the time they want the coupon offer to run. This is fantastic news for businesses hoping to make the most of immediate offers. The service is very adaptable to their needs. If the local Mexican restaurant has a special tonight because they ordered too many taco shells, they can send that out immediately on Groupon Now.

Mashable.com says that Groupon is the fastest growing company in history. This is due in no small part to the fact their service is just what the savvy buying public wants. It seems everyone is online looking for a good deal. Groupon was the first to start giving it to them. LivingSocial is their biggest competitor so far. It already has a mobile app with a similar on-demand slant than the forthcoming Groupon Now.

Microsoft’s Bing Deals is also mobile, so it will likely drive at least some of the traffic the two major players will be receiving.

The idea of Groupon Now hardly seems ground breaking. Giving people what they want when they are looking for it has always been good business. In today’s digital world, with on demand technology and portable devices in every pocket, handbag and backpack, it would seem like an easy enough thing to do. Groupon is getting redding for its IPOn which they say is valued at $25 billion. No doubt Groupon Now will make them even more valuable.

Sheeja Mathew has been an avid social networking and helps rate lifestyle based websites that can help people make their lives easier. She’s published many articles on various lifestyle tools and also runs a website on how to hire a Virtual Assistant. If you’re interested in many of the services such as a Virtual Assistant, please feel free to visit her website.

5 Ways to Cut Your Cell Phone Bill

Do you think you’re paying too much for your cell phone? Would you like to change that? A mere fifteen years after cell phones were first introduced to the public back in 1977 with only 2000 customers, 60 million people now have cell phones. It’s now t a $30 billion a year industry. If you don’t want to contribute any more to that $30 billion than is absolutely necessary, read on.

A JD Powers and Associates report states that the average basic service cell phone package costs $63 per month, and those with more advanced features runs an average of $77 per month. Keep in mind that is for a single phone. Multiply that by each individual contract your household has; technology doesn’t come cheap. Don’t despair! Here are five easy ways to cut your monthly cell phone charges-without feeling like you’ve been transported back to the dark ages.

Samsung Large Screen TV Tops the JD Power Survey 2013 (Photo credit: samsungtomorrow)
  1. Think twice before buying a smart phone. There are plenty of great phones on the market that allow you to call, text, take and send pictures, search the web, and take advantage of all sorts of great apps for less money. Case in point: ATT Mobility charges smart phone users a minimum of $15 for 200 MB of internet usage per month, while customers using phones with most all of the same capabilities can have unlimited usage for $10. That’s a $60 a year difference. Speaking of phones, don’t buy a phone based on how cute it is. Buy for durability and how easy it is for you to operate. Just like anything else, there are some products that are simply better than others. The same JD Powers and Associates report mentioned above reports that Sony Ericson, Samsung, and Motorola make the best phones on the market.
  2. Don’t buy ring tones. Ever. Several online websites has thousands of ring tones that are absolutely free. No strings attached, no limit on how many you can select, and nothing to sign up for. Just search for your favorite songs or tones, download and save. The end.
  3. Take advantage of family plans. With one primary account holder, most providers allow you to add up to 4 additional phones for around $10 a piece per month (plus taxes). You can also take advantage of bundling your features to spread the cost of unlimited texting and other added features between plan participants. Wirefly.com is one arguably the best site on the internet to comparison shop for the cellular provider and phone plan for you.
  4. Do the math. Many young couple find themselves paying out money unnecessarily for two separate phone plans. They don’t want to pay the early out charges most carriers charge for breaking your contract. But think about it…if each person is paying $75 for their phone plan, and that amount could be reduced by approximately $60 a month, that’s a yearly savings of $720! Compare that to the usual $200 to $300 charged by the major cellular service providers for canceling a contract before it expires. That $400 to $500 dollars will go a long way toward paying down student loans, credit card debt, or next year’s vacation.
  5. Take advantage of little known discounts, and rethink your plan. Employees of the postal system are entitled to a 25% discount with Sprint, while all other federal employees get a 15% discount. Many credit unions, as well as companies that manufacture components used in cellular technology or those associated with the marketing of cellular services are allowed 10-15% discounts, as well. Check with your provider to see what, if anything, you qualify for. As for your phone plan…do you really need 1000 anytime minutes? With unlimited calling to people in your network, and the roll-over plans that have been adopted over the last few years, just about everyone could take a lesser plan and shave $10-$15 dollars a month off their plan.

This article was contributed by Darla Nicole.  Darla writes about credit card rewards and deals.  A popular choice for college students with large cell phone bills is the Citi Student Dividend card which offers 5% cash back for utilities.

The Top 5 Navigation Apps for Smart Phones

Navigation Apps for Smart Phones

The dawn of the smart-phones has brought about not only the phenomena of increasing head injuries as people walk into lamp posts while sending text message to their friends and playing Angry Birds. More interestingly however, the mass adoption of these lifestyle devices has brought about a renegotiation with the physical landscape and the way we interact with our environments. Here are the top 5 Navigation Apps for Smart Phones.

Navigation Apps photo
Photo by IntelFreePress Navigation Apps for Smart Phones

Not only have smart phones effectively made the trusty old Sat Nav obsolete, they’ve left the old timer trudging off into the distanced red-faced and feeling dejected. You see, a smart phone just tell you where you are and where to go, it tells you where your friends think you should, or recommends places it thinks you want go , yep it can read your mind.

So what are the top five navigational apps out at the moment for the iPhone?

  1. Tom Tom Sat Nav

All the functionality of a full sized Tom Tom Sat Nav, in one tint app. This allows you to do everything you would with a regular sat nav, on your phone. You can set a location and have the app read out directions to you in a range of hilarious voices, as well as save locations.

2. FourSquare

Foursquare is as much a game as a social network. It allows you to publish your physical location to all your friends so they can keep tabs on your whereabouts 24/7 – if you so wish! Find great places in hometown and recommend venues to others by adding tips. You can also get vouchers and exclusive deals by becoming the ‘major’ of certain locations.

  1. Layar

Layar is an augmented reality app that uses your phone’s camera to take a snapshot of your environment and label it with markers that show points of interest. The bigger the marker, the closer the point of interest, simply walk towards it virtual signposts to find the nearest coffee house or gym

  1. Track Me

This is a great app for anxious parents. Simply get your kids to install the app on their phone and you can track where they are and whether or not they are using their phone. Only problem is you may have some difficulty convincing your kids to install this one!

  1. Google Maps

Not strictly an app since it comes as standard with the phone, Google Maps is like a ‘diet’ sat nav. You can now determine exactly where you are on the map and plot a route to your desired location, particularly useful for on-foot journeys.

Joe is a smart-phone lover and and blogger for a car shop selling some great sat nav deals

Is your cell phone killing you?

For decades now scientists have been debating whether the radiation emitted from cell phones is causing permanent damage to the brains of people who use them. A new government funded study by the National Institutes of Health seems to suggest it is doing something, but scientists are not quite certain what that is.

Let’s be clear: according to researchers the electromagnetic radiation produced by a cell phones affects glucose metabolism. When glucose metabolism inside your brain goes up, cells get activated. The complete study was published in the Journal of American Medical Association and includes the caveat that while they know something is happening inside the brain, they don’t know what. The researchers said the cell phone need to be bombarding the brain for at least 50 minutes before any increase in brain activity was noted.

radiation emitted from cell phones
Photo by SOMBILON PHOTOGRAPHY | GALLERY | VIDEOGRAPHY (radiation emitted from cell phones)

Maybe it is activating extra sensory perception, maybe it is burning calories, maybe it is doing nothing at all. They have no idea.

Like all scientific research which determines something is going on but does not reveal what exactly that is (like, say, global warming) they recommend more research be conducted.

In May 2010 the Interphone project by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the largest study of cell phone use and brain tumors ever conducted found that “no increase in risk was observed with the use of mobile phones.” The agency studied the effects of cell phone use of dozens of subjects over a ten year period. That is a substantial test group.

The latest research also tested dozens of subjects, 47 otherwise healthy adults to be precise. They tested brain levels when the cell phone was turned off and compared these with results when the phone was turned on. The study showed “significantly higher” brain activity in the area closest to where the antenna was located on the phone.

The brain is a sensitive electromagnetic instrument all by itself. It probably doesn’t need to be further stimulated by an outside device. But researchers can not say with any degree of certainty that the effects of 50 minutes of cell phone use will harm the brain of a healthy adult. They cannot say the same for adults with brains that have suffered some sort of previous damage or the brains of children, with thinner skull structures than their adult counterparts.

This is not the first time research has shown cell phone use could pose a hazard. Again and again some researchers have claimed that the electromagnetic emissions of cells phone could cause bran cancer or strokes or something, though no one has yet produced one shred of evidence to prove these claims.

Today, there are more than 300 million cell phones in use in the United States alone and almost 1 billion in use around the world. With that type of wide spread use it would seem if there was any type of negative effect it would hardly take a team of researchers and a group of 47 healthy adults talking on their phones for 50 minutes to prove it.

Thomas is the Founder and CEO of a premiere Virtual Assistant company in the US. He also consults on Search Engine Optimization and how to make your day more efficient thru the use of Virtual Assistants. To find out more information please feel free to visit their website.

How the iPhone Has Changed the Way We Communicate

It’s no surprise, but the Apple iPhone has been one of the most widely used smart phones internationally. The iPhone was first released to the market back June 2007, offered solely to AT&T customers as a combination between a widescreen iPod, cell phone and pocket device. Since the release, over 1 million iPhone’s were sold in just three months time. By June 2008, Apple launched the iPhone 3G and in just three days, over 1 million were purchased. A year later, the iPhone 3Gs was available and within two days, over 1 million were sold to new and existing Apple customers. In June 2010, Apple fans rushed to the scene and over 600,000 iPhone 4’s were pre-ordered while 1 million were sold on the date of release. This year, the iPhone 5 is expecting to hit stores by end of summer and numbers are projected to be more outstanding than the last. Let’s look at the ways that the iPhone has changed the way we communicate.

iPhone Has Changed the Way We Communicate
iPhone Has Changed the Way We Communicate

So what’s the hype about the iPhone?

Dating back to 2006, the way we communicated was vastly different. It seemed that only businesses owners and those in power utilized a cell phone to communicate on the go. Since then, the introduction of smart phones allowed consumers to navigate the web and text message, sending instant alerts to family, friends and co-workers, whether in a public setting, in a classroom or in a meeting. The ability to communicate anywhere at any time was exhilarating.

Changing the Way We Communicate

The iPhone launch meant an infiltration of our daily means of communication. It’s a device that captures our life in the palm of our hand. Consumers have the ability to customize their phone as they customize their life.

Given the capacity of the iPhone, users can opt to add or remove applications of their liking and prioritize them given the difference screen options available. Not only is the device another way to express ones personality and interests, but it serves as a central location that easily fits in your pocket, storing, editing and getting alerts for meetings on calendars, utilizing GPS navigation on the road, making and editing notes, sending and receiving emails, capturing special moments as a video or still photography, checking the weather, making calculations, listening to music, reading books, solving debates by instant web browsing, making online purchases, and the list goes on.

The iPhone Has Changed the Way We Communicate

We are now able to Skype, Facebook, tweet, and check-in to points of interest, all in real-time. Society is no longer still. Things are happening every moment around us and the iPhone allows us to document activities and thoughts along the way. In simple terms, the iPhone makes interacting, engaging, and networking stronger than ever before.

Lorna Horne is a freelance writer who covers a variety of topics in the electronics and gadgets industry. She absolutely loves her Apple iPhone and is always trying to stay on the bleeding edge of mobile technology. Thanks for reading about how the iPhone has changed the way we communicate.