Cell Phone Battery Dying Super Fast?

Is your cell phone dying way to fast or not lasting through the day? 

  • First check out your app that you are currently running.  A good way to check is to run an app manager.  For those running Android, don't pick the one in the market with the red icon...it is a virus and you will have to factory restart your phone. The app manager will tell you how many apps you are running in the background and similar to Windows Task Manager you can force the app to shut down.   
  • Always use a bluetooth?  Give it a break if you are low on battery life as it is a huge battery drainer.
  • WiFi and GPS usage will quickly suck the life out of your battery, if you're not using it turn it off.  You might want to make sure that it's not on auto turn on when around a WiFi signal.  You can find out in your WiFi setting on the phone.  If you have a data plan and have a good signal there's no reason to use your WiFi, you are just draining your battery.
  • Turn off the vibrate and just let the phone light up to let you know there is a incoming call.  It takes a lot of battery life for the phone shake like crazy.  You might "enjoy it" but keep this tip in mind if you are running low on battery life.
On second thought you could just stick the Energizer Energi To Go in your bag.  This is a cool little gadget that charges your phone from two AA batteries.  You can change out the tips to fit a number of different products.  This little thing was a must have for a 8 hour flight to Hawaii to keep my Ipod running. 

Google Reader: How to Import

Download this file.  This is an xml file that has a list of all the coupon sites I watch, about 30 sites.  This file is hosted on my personal server so it is a safe file.  Make sure you know where you saved the file to on your computer.

Log into google reader.
On the top right click on setting- there might be a drop down, choose the google reader settings.
You will see a bunch of tabs going across your screen.
Click on Import/Export.
Click the browser button and select the file you downloaded from this site.
Click Upload.

Once it's complete - click on the google reader logo in the top left if the page doesn't automatically refresh.
That's it.

Google Reader- Keeping It Simple

If you are like me, you like to watch the coupon blog sites to find the best deal or the latest printable coupons.  Google Reader makes it so easy to check several sites by only going to one site.  By viewing the website in a feed reader you are actually viewing an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed.

Check out this four step process to setting up your google reader.

First:  Sign up with Google (you can use any email as your log in name once you register it)
Second:  Click on google reader in the top left menu, you many have to click more.
Third:  On the top left click the add a subscription.
Fourth:  A box will come up enter a blog or website, such as gadgetgirltips.com  The blog will appear in the window on the right. 

You can also add a feed to Google Reader by looking for this simple logo on the right.  Clicking on it will walk you though adding the website to your google reader.

There are several types of feed readers, but I like google reader since there are many apps for Iphone/Itouch and Android phones.

Above is a screenshot of my google reader account. 

Happy Surfering.

$5 Movies and FREE Popcorn.

Up for a movie Mon through Thurs?  Dickenson Movie Theatre have movie tickets for only $5 for all shows Mon-Thurs. Go on Tuesday and BYOB (Bring Your Own Bowl) days and get all you can eat FREE popcorn.  This is for all Dickinson Theatres.

Good Deals of the Day


Here's my 12 bottles of Purex that I got for $24 total at Walgreens. Through the end of the month Walgreens has Purex Buy one at 5.99 and get one free. I had a coupon for BOGO FREE for Purex. So I got 3 bottles for $5.99...well, $6.85 with tax. For those who think I'm crazy (like a certain Brother-in-law) for buying multiple papers...this is the reason, I had four BOGO FREE coupons.

Here's my FREE Tylenol PM. They have Tylenol PM for $2.99 on sale, there is a walgreen in store coupon for $1.50 and top it with $2.00 off coupon from Tylenol.com I had a $.50 overage so it took $.50 off one of the Purex purchases.

Google's Free 411 service

 Google is giving you a FREE option to find that phone number. Call "1-800-GOOG-411", give the location and business type, and they'll connect you free of charge. Click here to watch a video on how it works.

We're expanding our topics!!!

Not only are we are going to be telling you about little tech tips but also about good deals and how to use to the technology to save you money!!!  This may include the random thoughts.

Mass Image Resizer

This is for all my concert buddies...Mihov Image Resizer

Save time and frustration on resizing your images for posting to the forum by using this great little program. This mass image resizer doesn't just resize image but makes a copy of the image so no need to worry about copying over the original file.

Click here to check it out.

Kindle for Blackberry

Great news for Blackberry users! Amazon is offering a free download on the Kindle application for Blackberries.

Thanks: Common Sense with Money

Animoto: This easy way to music vidieos

I came upon this site about six months ago and have been loving it ever since.  This site takes boring photo slideshows and puts them on steroids but does all the work for you.  It's literally a three steps program.
1.  upload your photos/video
2.  upload or add music already on the site.
3. Hit Done.

Here's a little video I did for my sister and brother-in-law for their anniversary.


The amount of time you will have to wait for the video to be finished will determine on how many pics and/or videos you have. A 3 mins video will take about 45 mins to render, but the system will email you when it's done. 
 
Keep in mind the videos will only be 5-10 secs, it's meant to highlight a part of the video.

You can do Free Short Video (30 secs) or upgrade to the Full Videos for ($30 a year).  I've already completed 20 videos or so in the six months I've been using the program. 


Common Questions:

Do I have to pay $5 to download.
---No, only the high resolution videos are $5 which are made for TV.  You can download a small version for your computer.

Can I upload my own music.
--Yes, I usually use my own music.

Can I use Itunes...
--There is a disclaimer on the website reference copyrighted music, so check out our post tomorrow on converting music files.