I have featured a few ways before to make free calls to the US and other international countries before. 

And trust me, there’s a lot of websites that offer such services. I just found a cool one named CallingAmerica.com.

CallingAmerica.com looks promising and unique as it doesn’t require you to download any software at all. It completely works right from the browser.

How it works

CallingAmerica works by detecting your computers Microphone via Flash. All you need is a broadband connection to start making calls to US numbers. Registering with the site is FREE and optional. But, without registering you can only make 2 minute calls. After registration, you can make calls of 15 minute duration. And unlimited calls. That’s a big plus for going through the now-much-of a hassle registration.

You can make free calls to US & Canada from CallingAmerica.com. It lets you call any number of times and to both landline and mobile numbers. This could be great for anyone with a computer & a broadband connection.

I can see this being very useful when I’m travelling and on certain occasions. Obviously, I am going to send this post to my friends in India so they can call me for free.

Of course, this won’t replace my regular phone line where I am just paying $20/year for long distance. If you are wondering how, check out my MagicJack Review.  It’s really incredible.

Another great alternative to make free international calls to over 30+ countries is Talkster. Check out the link to find out how that works. It even lets you make group calls.

If you have someone try this or if you try it, let me know it works. Do you know a better alternative that works for you, please share it with us.

Calling America for Free - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2011/04/13 (RSS)

Banks offered free checking accounts while covering that cost with overdraft fees, debit card interchange fees, etc. But, new regulations are putting a cap on overdraft fees and interchange fees that is going to affect their important revenue stream.

So, how is that going to affect us?

You guessed it. ‘Free checking accounts’ with no minimum balance or monthly fees are going to become a rarity if it hasn’t already.

So, while I was doing a financial house cleaning over the holidays I started looking around for checking account alternatives than the ones I have.

I came across this tool in Mint.com which lets you compare checking accounts (and other types of bank accounts) with a nifty tools fitted with sliders and auto-updating pages.

You can play with things like

• Minimum to open
• Monthly fees
• Minimum monthly balance
• APY
• ATM fees

Once you select your values (financial not moral), Mint shows you the banks that fit your terms. You can also provide an average balance you usually have and your current APY. Then you see how much you save/lose by switching to a new account.

Ally Bank

A surprising find from this tool was Ally Bank. This name is familiar to me as GM’s financial arm GMAC is now Ally Bank. I had no idea they were offering regular banking services with ‘too good to be true’ terms. Here is why I say that. They provide

• No minimum balance
• $0 monthly fee
• Free online checking and bill pay
• Free MasterCard debit card, checks and unlimited check writing
• No ATM fees at ANY ATM nationwide – they reimburse you for fees
• Free balance alerts
• FDIC insured
• maximum $9 per day overdraft fees – yes $9!
• Plus, 0.5% APY on your checking account balance

Doesn’t this sound too good to be true? Guess what, I am this close to closing my main checking account and moving my direct deposit to Ally.

If the $9 overdraft fee didn’t catch your eyes, I am sure the 0.50% interest checking did. Yes, that’s higher than most interest checking and even some savings accounts. I am not getting compensated to write this. In fact, I am going to do a little bit more research on this bank before switching. If any of my readers here have used it or use them, please let me know in the comments.

Ally Interest Checking Account

Best Checking Account of 2010

Mint has posted a list of best checking accounts of 2010 and undoubtedly Ally ranks amongst the top followed by Charles Shwab.

Here is another tool I reviewed earlier to compare bank accounts – Find Better Banks (review). It has even more options to play around and more detailed than the Mint.com tool.

Finding the Best Free Checking Account - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2010/12/30 (RSS)

The service was ad-supported so you had to sit through a commercial before watching a TV show or one of the free movies. One downside with Hulu so far was that you could only go back a few trailing episodes for any TV show. You could not see all the episodes in a season.

Hulu has introduced a new subscription based service called Hulu Plus.

"Hulu Plus is a new, revolutionary ad-supported subscription product that is incremental and complementary to the existing Hulu service," the company said in its blog today.

It will cost you $9.99 per month and here is what you get for it

• Every single episode of the current season will be available
• Watch Hulu in different media platforms
• Free iOS 4 apps for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad over 3G and Wi-Fi
• Intenet-enabled TVS, Blu-ray players
• Playstation 3 to get this soon and XBox 360 in early 2011
• Plus Subscribers get a HD 720p stream for all shows

At the moment, Hulu is taking only preview invite requests and testing out their subscription service. No word on if their service will be available on a Hulu branded set top box or if it will be available on the Roku box made popular by Netflix.

Although Hulu Plus looks interesting, between Graboid (for movie streaming and downloads) and Netflix we get all the TV shows and episodes (not just the current season) streaming to our Sony HDTV via Sony Playstation 3. Hulu indeed has the advantage of airing current shows while Netflix doesn’t. We tend to start watching a series after it becomes really popular. We are just watching Lost and in Season 3.

But, at $9.99/month Hulu Plus is looking like a real good alternative to cable TV subscription for sure. What do you think?

{ via Hulu blog }

Hulu Announces Hulu Plus Subscription Service - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2010/06/30 (RSS)

If you have been lusting after one here is a deal that’s going to tempt you a lot. So don’t blame me if you end up making your wallet lighter.

Samsung 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz 3D LED HDTV (Black) is available for $2299.99 with free shipping from Amazon.com. A quick Google Products search showed me that this Samsung 3D LED TV is selling for around $3000!!!

Here are some of the features listed

• Screen Size: 55 inches
• Full 1080p HD: Enjoy the powerful picture quality, vivid colors and stunning clarity of Full HD 1080p resolution.
• 240 Hz Clear Motion Rate: Samsung 240 Hz technology delivers even the fastest onscreen motion with utterly life like clarity.
• 3D-ready: Samsung 3D technology makes images leap off the screen– so you feel like you’re a part of the action. Sync up with our Samsung Blu-ray player to experience movies in 3D on your TV – and enjoy more TV broadcasts in stunning 3D, coming soon.
• Internet@TV: Connect to an ever-expanding portal of your favorite digital content. Customizable widgets give you access to BLOCKBUSTER, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Amazon Video On Demand and more – all on your HDTV.
• Ultra Slim Design: Stunning ultra slim depth – includes tuner (no external transceiver box).
• Ultra Clear Panel: Advanced technology lets you enjoy crisp image details, natural skin tones, excellent shadow detail, and vibrant colors.
• Touch of Color design: Exclusive Mystic Earth Touch of Color design combines texture and color that can complement any room.
• and more

Plus, there is a cool offer with this TV where you get a 3D Starter kit worth $350 with the purchase of a Blu-ray disc player along with the TV.

Check out the Samsung 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz 3D LED HDTV and read completely about its amazing array of features and users rave reviews on it.

Deal: Samsung 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz 3D LED HDTV $2299 - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2010/04/27 (RSS)

Budget Planner – Mint.com

The Tiger Woods Economy Via Mint.com - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2010/04/08 (RSS)

Christmas shopping began for many of us with the Black Friday deals. Amazon had a lot of nice deals for a geek’s version of a perfect Christmas gift like the Canon T1i, Nintendo Wii, Kindle DX, iPod Touch 32GB, PlayStation 3, etc., and they still have some nice Holiday deals.

The biggest perceived perk with shopping at Amazon for many of us being the no sales tax. On a big ticket items like a HDTV, Digital Cameras, etc. that could be a nice chunk of change you don’t have to pay. Plus, most of the items that ship from Amazon have free shipping for orders over $25.

If you are planning on buying Christmas gifts from Amazon, make sure you order before these days to be guaranteed shipment before Christmas.

For December 24 delivery

• Free shipping – Order by Dec 17
• Standard shipping – Oder by Dec 20
• Next day shipping – Order by Dec 23 (3:30 PM Pacific)

For a full list of other online retailer deadlines, check this link.

Free Christmas Songs/Carols from Amazon

Amazon MP3 store is having a 25 days of free music where they unveil a free song for download every day until Christmas.

I was so glad to see that so many of our readers took advantage of the Amazon’s Canon Rebel T1i deal I posted here. Hope you are enjoying your new camera like I am.

Also, if you are looking for an awesome non-DSLR but a Digital camera that will be a great step up from casual to a photography enthusiast, my previous recommendation was the Canon SX10 IS.

Now, its successor Canon Powershot SX20 IS with HD video recording is available in Amazon now.

If you come across a super cool tech deal from Amazon, share with me in the comments and I will share with other tech shoppers. I hope to continue to share with you as I find them.

Advance happy holidays!

2009 Christmas Shopping Roundup – Amazon Edition - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2009/12/06 (RSS)

Lifehacker had an interesting post yesterday that prompted me to post this article

In fact, I have used the same title here.

What Free Apps Are You Thankful for?

I love finding free and quality applications that we can use everyday and share it here for anyone looking for one. In light of Thanksgiving, I would like to take some time to list a few free apps I am really thankful for that I use day to day.

image credit: buxtrosion

I will categorize these into 3 categories – Web apps, desktop apps and iPhone apps. As you can see, I have pretty much contain my enthusiasm about my favorite apps and have written about it here one time or another.

Web Apps I am thankful for

• Gmail – my primary personal email
• Google Reader – my choice RSS reader (I also use Feedly time to time)
• Passpack – my choice online password manager
• Remember the Milk – my GTD tool. I even have a Pro account
• Flickr – for photo sharing
• HootSuite – My Twitter web client to manage multiple accounts and stats tracking
• WordPress – Not really a webapp but a blogging platform
• Ninite – Software installations made easy
• Evernote – Note taking app
• LogMeIn – Web based remote control application
• Screentoaster – web based screen recording app
• Anyvite – best Evite alternative

Desktop Apps I am thankful for

• Dropbox – file backup software that supports Windows, Mac & Linux plus has a web interface
• Tweetdeck – My twitter desktop client
• Firefox – my browser of choice
• Notepad++ – a text editor
• Windows Live Writer – blogging client
• Trakkboard – Google Analytics desktop Adobe AIR app
• Evernote – Note taking app
• TVersity Media Server – use it to stream movies, pictures, music to my TV via Playstation 3
• 7-zip – A file archiver (zip/unzip) and a fast file browser
• Launchy – A fast and easy application launcher

iPhone Apps

I am going to try to write a post tomorrow at Top iPhone Resource and link it here as I think it would reach a wider iPhone audience there.

What free apps that you use are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

What Free Apps Are You Thankful For? - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2009/11/24 (RSS)

ZoneAlarm is known for their Free and Pro Firewall offerings.

ZoneAlarm is hosting a 24 hour Trick or Treat and offering their ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall 2010 for FREE! It’s a $39.95 value.

The license you get with this is valid for up to 3 PCs.

The offer is valid between 6am PST 10/13/09 to 6am PST 10/14/09.

So what are you waiting for?  Get it now.

Download ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall 2010

Free ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall 2010 (24 hours only) - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2009/10/13 (RSS)

If you have a valid US college email address, read on. Or if you know someone who has one and would help you out, keep reading.

Microsoft has a promotion going at Win741.com where they are offering U.S. students Windows 7 Home Premium edition for just $30!

Windows 7 Home Premium is going to retail at $120 for an upgrade. So this is an incredible deal to get in on right now. This deal is valid until Jan 3rd 2010.

Remember, you should be able to login and check your US college email address as most links through this purchase will be sent to that email address.

How to Pre-Order Windows 7 Home Premium?

1. Go to Win741.com
2. Click on the square with $29.99 on it
3. Click Buy now and you will be taken to this page
4. Enter your college email address
5. You will receive a confirmation email to that email address
6. Click the link in the email and you will take to a Purchase page
7. Enter your information and credit card info
8. You will receive another confirmation email with a receipt of your purchase

You are all set for now. You will receive another email on October 22nd when Windows 7 launches with a link to download Windows 7 Home Premium.

Enjoy the new version of Windows 7 at this awesome price.

[via Gizmodo]

Pre-Order Windows 7 Home Premium for $30 - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2009/09/21 (RSS)

We have owned the 500GB Western Digital Passport for a while. We love it for its size (about the size of an iPhone) and portability.

But, we are quickly filling it up and have been looking around for a 1TB external hard drive which we would just keep at home for backups. Small form factor wasn’t a consideration.

Since we were happy with Western Digital, we were looking at the 1TB Western Digital MyBook but the price for it has stayed over $100 for a while.

Until I came across Iomega Prestige 1 TB USB External Hard Drive. This beautiful external USB hard drive had great reviews on Amazon plus it has a 7200 rpm hard drive. Most $100 1TB drives featured only a 5400/5600 rpm drives.

This morning though, Priya spotted a deal on Dell where they had IOmega Prestige 1TB drive for $74.99. It usually sells for $109.99 but Dell had a $35 instant savings – no mail in rebate, instant! (I had a $5 tax bringing the total to $79.99 for me).

Plus, they offer a Free 2nd Business Day shipping!

So we ordered one and I just wanted to share it with my readers who might be looking for a good external hard drive!

Plus, this drive gets you a software license for Secure EMC Retrospect HD backup software and a 2GB Mozy Online backup account thrown in!

Happy Friday!

Friday Tech Deal: 1TB IOmega External USB Hard Drive $75 Shipped - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2009/09/18 (RSS)

MagicJack is the VOIP phone service that costs $20/year for long distance phone calls. I have written a MagicJack review a while back and have been using it for almost over 18 months happily.

In a recent MagicJack software update, I noticed something that will make the road warriors very happy!

One great thing about Magicjack is its portability. Because of the small size of the MagicJack dongle, I could literally carry my home phone number wherever I go as long as I have an Internet connection in my laptop.

MagicJack works great in cable modem or DSL setup. But, I have heard of some issues while using MagicJack with wireless Internet via EVDO or HSDPA connections.

MagicJack has introduced a special setup for Air Cards (3G). Here’s what you will see in your MagicJack toggle

Do not use the Air Card setting for Faxing. However, the Air Card (3G) setting may be your only option for good voice quality if you use wireless cards from AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc. or are in certain foreign countries. DO NOT use this option if you have DSL, Cable, FIOS, or WI-Fi.

So, if you have trouble using MajicJack with a 3G tethering signal, try this new option in your MajicJack Review.

MagicJack Gets Laptop Friendly Setting - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2009/08/30 (RSS)

I am a huge fan of Magicjack and have used it for over 2 years now replacing my traditional AT&T landline. We have saved hundreds of dollars a year in phone bills as Magicjack costs just $40 in the first year and then $20/year from then onwards.

In fact, with the purchase of Magicjack, you even get a local phone number that you can use to make and receive phone calls. You can read all about Magicjack voip in my detailed review here.

Alot of people don’t trust Magicjack because of its spammy looking website and a visible lack of customer support link etc in their website. So, it was nice to see that Mint.com recommended MagicJack in their top gifts for father’s day!

You can also see that I recommended MagicJack as a money saving tip in Matt’s Frugalfice testimonies.

You can also read about it in RT’s is MagicJack cheaper than Skype article.

MagicJack VOIP – Recommended even by Mint.com - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2009/07/19 (RSS)

I have taken an interest in being better at personal finance after landing in my first job 6 years back. I have tried using Wesabe – the social personal finance management tool. Now, I am a firm believer in Mint as it lets me track all my financial accounts easily in one place. I will share my views on Mint in another review shortly.

I like online banks such as ING Direct to save money at a better interest rates than what the brick and mortar banks offer.

I was recently introduced to SmartyPig by my buddy @mattjabs of Debt Free Adventure – a great inspiration for me in the personal finance front as well. (I am on Twitter too).

What is SmartyPig?

SmartyPig is simply a savings account dedicated to a goal that you can simply tap into when you have reached that goal. While earning a nice 3.25% APY on your savings.

You could do this by opening multiple accounts within your ING Direct account as well. But, SmartyPig differs here by adding the social angle to it. Plus, once you have set up your savings account, the deductions happen automatically. You won’t miss the money or spend it if you had what you have to start with after the deductions. Just like any other payroll deduction.

Here’s a quick look at SmartyPig

• You can choose to keep your savings goal private or chose to share it with friends/family.
• Friends and Family can make contributions to your public goals
• Share your public goals via widgets on your blog or social media sites like Facebook, MySpace or via email.
• Setup as many goals as you want and start funding them automatically. The funding stops as soon as the goal is reached.
• Fund your goals automatically from your bank account until the goal is reached
• Funds are handled by West Bank – a FDIC insured bank.
• Lets you track your progress with some pretty tools
• When your goal is complete, you can do one of 3 things
  • Move all your savings + interest to your bank account (ACH) – takes up to 7 business days
  • Get one of the retailer gift cards gettings a bonus of upto 6% on top of savings and interest
  • Or get your savings + interest on a SmartyPig MasterCard debit card – no fees attached
• Integrate your savings account into the web 2.0 personal finance sites such as Mint, Wesabe, Yodlee, etc.
• It’s FREE for SmartyPig customers. If you are not a SmartyPig customer and want to make a contribution or buy a SmartyPig gift card with a credit card, then you pay a flat $2.9% in fees.
  

Some Gotchas with SmartyPig

The 3.25% APY offered for the savings account is very appealing and more than my ING Orange Savings APY at the moment. Plus, we have a loan with 0% interest for 2 years that we wanted to start saving for while accumulating interest until the time comes to pay it off. And we plan to use SmartyPig for that purpose. Here are a few things I learnt by reading their FAQ section that wasn’t apparent initially

• No hidden fees but there’s a minimum goal amount of $250 and a maximum of $250,000
• You have to be a US Citizen. Resident aliens with a Social Security Number must provide their passport number, country of issuance and expiration date. Plus, you also need to provide your drivers license number to create an account.
• You can’t put your monthly contribution on hold. So make sure you can live without it before you setup one.  (read next 2 points)
• You can change your funding source though as long as there isn’t a pending transaction
• You can also stop your goals anytime without penalty
• You can also add one-time contributions to your goal anytime without a penalty

My $0.02 on SmartPig

SmartyPig is a great innovative way of saving money that can be used for personal finance as well as for group activities like collecting for charity, etc. By making your savings goals public to your friends and family, you can receive the encouragement and support some times we need to do the right thing. Or even get help from them in times of need.

One of the SmartyPig testimonials shows how someone setup an account for her sister when she was away with Peace Corps. She was saving for her sister during the unpaid months as well shared it with friends and family who also volunteered to contribute to that account. A great example of how useful this can be.

Plus, if you have kids of any age SmartyPig can be a great way to show them the good habit of saving for something they want really.

How do you save for your goals? Does SmartyPig look appealing to you?

(If you are on Twitter, we have a new feature where you can display your Twitter id in your comments! Come try it out.)

SmartyPig – Savings Can Be Social Too - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2009/03/16 (RSS)

If you are a freelancer and looking for a free, web based billing application, CurdBee might be right up your alley. There are plenty of paid alternatives, but if your needs are simple CurdBee is definitely worth considering.

CurdBee Features

• Sign up for a FREE account
• Choose your own unique address – for eg. yourname.curdbee.com for your billing url.
• Create a list of your clients
• Set a default currency with an option of 10 international currencies
• Lets you create invoices quickly
• Create line items for your invoices so you can bill usual items at set prices
• Add notes to your invoices
• Attach key status labels to your invoices to track different invoices – Draft, Sent, Viewed, Paid, Closed
• Items tab lets you create items for use in Invoices
• Dashboard view quickly shows you overdue invoices, recently paid invoices and sent invoices.
• Set up Curdbee to receive payments via PayPal or Google Checkout.
• Also, personalize your Curdbee site with your logo and color scheme.

My $0.02

Curdbee is a simple web-based billing application. We have tried to use QuickBooks for my wife’s freelancing gigs but it is way overkill for what we need it for. We are giving Curdbee a try and it is a joy to use as it’s simple and intuitive. It addresses the essentials – creating invoices, tracking them, getting paid.

Curdbee is a free service and their FAQ hints at a future premium version but promises to keep the core features always FREE.

CurdBee was developed by Vesess and I will review their other product HoteloTravel shortly.

CurdBee – Free Web-based Billing App for Freelancers - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2009/02/17 (RSS)

One thing that has changed is the amount of information available in advance in the Internet about the Black Friday deals.

It used to circulate in badly formatted Word documents & Excel spreadsheets. Now, there are whole sites dedicated to it and they are doing a fabulous job at it.

I have come across a few nice sites and resources that I wanted to round up and share it with you. Here’s what you will find in this article:

• Best Black Friday Websites
• Online & In-store Black Friday Sale Links
• Best of 2008 Black Friday Deals
• Surprise Apple Sales Event
  

Best Black Friday Websites

BFADS.NET

One of the best Black Friday deal websites around and my first stop every morning to check out new ads.
Here are a few things I like about this site

• View scanned ads online for pretty all the major stores. Download zip of PDF files and print it to take it with you.
• Categorized, searchable list of items on sale
• Narrow down sale items to view Early bird sale items only
• With a free account, you can create your own online shopping list with a single click
• Daily contests. Today: Xbox 360 Arcade or a $150 Kmart Gift Card
• Daily Black Friday Deals updates
• Separate section for online deals
• Black Friday online sales timeline
• Buying Guides
  
  • Laptop Buying Guide
  • Television Buying Guide
  • GPS Buying Guide
  • Video Game Console Comparison
  • Top 10 Video Games
• Mobile interface to view in your cell phone
• BUY NOW links shows you online deals that are available right now to purchase.

Visit Bfads.net

BLACKFRIDAY.INFO

BlackFriday.info is another goldmine of Black Friday deal info with features similar to bfads.net. Plus, they have a little bit more

• Choose a category and see deals from across all stores
• Sort the categorized deals by Price to compare the best deals easily
• Create your own shopping list
• Online coupons & discount codes section
• Section to see what’s available online to purchase right now. For eg. Walmart has a Viore 42″ Class Full HD 1080p LCD HDTV w/Digital Tuner for sale right now for $694.98

Visit BlackFriday.info

SLICKDEALS.NET FORUMS

If there is one forum I visit often it’s the SlickDeals.net forums. Now, they have an exclusive Black Friday forum that has all kinds of information in there. Here’s a taste of some of the threads

• Master Index of Black Friday Ads
• Black Friday Tips, information and FAQ
• Excel Spreadsheet with Black Friday filtered ads
• Black Friday Strike Teams
• HDTV Deals section

Visit SlickDeals Black Friday Forums

MORE BLACK FRIDAY SITES

if the above three didn’t give all the information you needed, here are a few more to check out

• BlogtheInternet.com – Comprehensive deal info on variety of categories.
• DealNews.com Black Friday Sales
• TheBlackFriday.com
• iBlackFriday.com
• BlackFridayOnline.com
• Gadgetell Black Friday Roundup
• TGIBlackFriday.com
• BlackFridayAds.com
• Mashable.com’s list of 10 best Black Friday Ads

Online Black Friday Sales

Some of us hate the lines and the crowd that’s part of shopping in-store. And the retailers know it. So, a lot of the retailers have started offering their best deals online. Some of them even well before Black Friday. Here is a list of retailers you can find online deals right now

INFO ON BF ONLINE DEALS

• Thanksgiving and Black Friday Online Sales Timeline at Bfads.net
  This constantly updated list show you the online deals going on right now. It also has list of different online retailers’ online sale timings and when you can expect to see them go on sale.

LIST OF BF ONLINE DEALS

Here is a list of Online Sales I have my eye on

• Best Buy Friday Doorbuster Sales
• Sear’s Doorbuster Sales Online tonight – Free shipping on orders over $99
• Amazon.com Black Friday Deals (Amazon link) – All week this week
• NewEgg.com Black Friday Pre-sale – 6PM EST
  
• Walmart.com Online Specials – including this Viore 42″ Class Full HD 1080p LCD HDTV w/Digital Tuner for sale right now for $694.98
• MacMall 57-hour Apple Products Sale
• J&R Black Friday Move Sale – DVDs as low as $3.99
• 6th Ave Pre-Black Friday Deals
• Dell Small Business Black Friday Deals
• Kohl’s Pre-thanksgiving Sale – Going on now
• Buy.com Thanksgiving Sale – Going on now
• Staples – The Big Event – Going on now
• Target Online-only Sale
• ToysR’Us Online Sale
• Circuit City Daily Doorbuster Deals
• Ikea One-day Only Seize the Day Sale

Ok, this list should keep you busy for a while. Now, how about if you don’t have the patience to scour the hundreds of deals out there to compare and find the best ones out there? Here comes the shortcut.

2008 Best Black Friday Deals

PC Magazine, that is going online only shortly, has compiled some of the best black friday deals out there for this year. Here’s a few of the best deals at various places:

• HDTV: Samsung 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV (LN46A500) – available at Best Buy, BJ’s, Circuit City & Sears for $1100. It seems it’s comparable to LN46A500 model which was considered one of the best in that size but with fewer inputs.
• Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS (Digital Elph) – Office Depot will be selling silver & blue model for $150. But, I am not sure if this would be my pick. I like the Canon SD880 IS that is selling for around $200 better.
• Blu-ray Player: Samsung BDP-1500 Blu-ray Disc Player – another winning Samsung model will be selling at $199 at Circuit City.
• Laptop: Dell Inspiron Mini 9 – Dell is offering the Ubuntu Linux version of Mini 9 for $299.
• Laptop: HP Laptop HP G50-112NR – Office Depot will be offering this laptop with 15.4″ screen, a dual-core CPU, 3GB ram, 160GB hard Drive for $350. Best Buy also has this Toshiba 15.4″ Dual-Core Laptop w/ 3GB, 160GB, Turion 64 X2 for $379.99
• Printer: HP Color LaserJet CP1215 – Staples will be selling this one for $150 on Black Friday.
• Blu-ray Player: Magnavox NB500MG9 Blu-ray Player – Walmart is bringing this at the bargain basement price of $128 on Black Friday. If you are looking for a sweet deal, this definitely is one.
• GPS: TomTom One 125 – You can purchase this at many places for $100 through the weekend and the price will go up to $130 through the holidays.

Share your own finds in the comments and we will consider adding it here.

Apple Black Friday Sale

Apple usually don’t hold any special sales for Thanksgiving. This year is a little different and they are hosting a 10day only special sale. The details aren’t out yet about the sale except for this teaser email.

Hope you enjoyed this post on finding good deals on this Black Friday and even all week in some online sales this week. If all these deals didn’t tempt you, you can be like JD of Get Rich Slowly and celebrate a Buy Nothing Day! And I will have a special place for you in my heart for doing something I obviously couldn’t.

If you enjoyed this post, I’d appreciate a Digg, Stumble, Tweet or however you spread the word with your favorite social media tool. Thank you and Happy Holidays!

Guide to 2008 Online & In-Store Black Friday Deals - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2008/11/26 (RSS)

Talkster is the new kid on the free international calls market and looks very promising. You can call your friends or family in 30+ international destinations for FREE with Talkster.

How it works

You can call your friends from your computer, cell phone browser or via SMS.

1. Enter your name, phone number, your friends name & phone number at Talkster.com
2. You will get a local phone number and your friend will get a local number in his country. You can save this for the friend in your phone book and use it anytime.
3. Call your local Talkster number and when your friend answers, ask him to hang up and call his local Talkster number. But, you don’t hang up. he should have gotten his local Talkster number in his Caller ID or via SMS.
4. When he calls his local number, you will both be connected and you can talk free as much as you want

The only difference with doing this via SMS is you will send an SMS to a Talkster number with this information and you will both receive SMS with your local numbers to call.

Unlimited Talk Time

Previous free international phone services I have seen had some sort of time restrictions but Talkster doesn’t seem to have any. You don’t need a credit card or even need to register for an account!

Group Call

I like this feature a lot. You can even add up to 5 friends for a group call and you can reach the whole group with one single phone number.

What’s the Catch

Well, to be in business Talkster needs to make money through this. And they do that by asking you to listen to short advertisements (10 secs or less) with offers or coupons to products/services, etc.

Considering you can make free long distance and international calls that could save you tons of money, listening to a brief ad shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

Alternatives?

If you need to talk to someone from another country quite often, you could probably ship them a MagicJack with a local number as yours and you can just talk all the time. if you haven’t heard of MagicJack and how you can have a phone service for $20/year, you can check out my MagicJack Review.

What do you think of this service? Would you be trying it out to call a friend you haven’t spoken in a while?

Free International Calls to 30+ Countries with Talkster - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2008/11/18 (RSS)

MAMD has changed foces from technology a while back to making money through blogging. And Mark is doing an excellent job at that as well. In fact, he is holding this mega contest just to help folks make money.

So what do you win?

The prizes are sure to make your head spin with excitement! I do it did mine.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

One lucky person will win the following prizes:

1) One year free of the Swamp (Business) hosting plan (valued at $179) — sponsored by HostGator.

2) A FREE developer’s license to either the WP-Vybe theme (valued at $299) OR WP-Mag theme (valued at $279) — sponsored by Solostream

3) A FREE license to AceMoney (valued at $30) — sponsored by MechCAD

4) A FREE license to StoreStacker (valued at $97) — sponsored by StoreStacker

5) A FREE license to Market Samurai (valued at $149) — sponsored by Market Samurai

6) A FREE iPod Nano 4GB (valued at $95) — sponsored by Shawal

7) Ad placement on GarryConn.com — sponsored by Garry Conn

First place winner

1) One year free of the Baby hosting plan at HostGator (valued at $119) — sponsored by Busby SEO Test

A FREE Premium license to either the WP-Vybe theme (valued at $199) OR the WP-Mag theme (valued at $179) — sponsored by Solostream

Second place winner

A FREE Basic license to the WP-Vybe (valued at $99) OR the WP-Mag theme (valued at $79) — sponsored by Solostream

How to Enter?

Check out the contest post details to find out how you can enter the contest. There are many ways and Mark offers generous points no matter which options you choose to use to enter the contest.

Contest deadline?

The contest began October 28, 2008 and will end 12 p.m.
midnight Central, November 18, 2008. The winners will be announced
shortly after.

So, are you ready to win some cool prizes? I have been getting serious with making money online with blogging and some of these tools are sure to give me a nice srpingboard, should I win. Wish me luck now, would ya?

MAMD’s Mega Contest – A Blogger’s Jackpot - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2008/11/07 (RSS)

If you are wondering how presidential elections work in US, check out the video in the link. It couldn’t be explained better.

Here are a few that stand out:

• Free Ben & Jerry’s Icecream between 5-8pm
• Free Krispy Kreme star-shaped doughnuts
• Free Tall Starbucks Coffee nationwide
• Free 3-piece Chicken tenders, fries & 20oz drink at Shane’s Ribshack
• Free Chicken Sandwich at Chic-a-fila – Nov 4 & Nov 5
• Free flu vaccinations by a non-profit organization’s project – Vote and Vax
• Free cup of joe at Books-A-Million
• Free taco at California Tortilla
• Free happy hour appetizer at DailyGrill
• Free junior frosty at Wendy’s
  

Plus, there are tons of other local establishments that offering freeebies for those who voted. Check out this Wiki page at Slickdeals.net to find if there is any local places that offer you a snack or two.

If you know of any that’s not listed, you can share that info here in the comments or in the Wiki page as well. If you had to miss lunch or just tired from standing in the lines, maybe some of these could be refreshing.

{via Lifehacker}

2008 Election Day Freebies - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2008/11/04 (RSS)

Twitter can be used for so many things. Some useful and some just fun. How would you like to track your spending with Twitter?

TweetWhatYouSpend.com lets you do just that. It lets you tweet your spending from your mobile as you are shopping and spending money throughout the day. This way you don’t have to save receipts that don’t need to be saved like the one for your Latte or the change you spent on a magazine etc. You can still track those little spending habits.

All the tweets you send to twys gets entered into a Cash Journal at TweetWhatYouSpend.com website. You can create categories and drag 7 drop entries into different categories. You cam also set daily spending limits.

Here is the table of complete syntax guide to using TweetWhatyouSpend:

As you can see in the table, you can even categorize your spending as you tweet by adding a < Business.You can later export your Cash Journal as a spreadsheet and import it into your favorite financial tool that you have. Now, you can track your cash expenses too.

We all have different ways of keeping track of our expenses. TweetWhatyouSend will appeal to those who are on Twitter a lot including from their mobile phone. How do you keep track of your cash spendings?

Use Twitter to Track Your Spending - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2008/10/21 (RSS)

Craigslist has adopted the less is more principal in terms of design, features, etc. ut, for the power users it’s interface can be limiting at times. We have looked at a Craigslist alternative before (Crgslst.com) but it has been blocked. I have found a few more alternatives now.

CLHack.com – A nifty javascript driven web interface

Clhack.com provides a familiar Windows Explorer look in teh web with the States and Cities presented in a folder hierarchy structure.

Once you dig into the United States or Canada, the state/province, the city, it lists the various categories under the city. Clicking on US -> Michigan -> Lansing -> Cars+Trucks look like the picture. Plus, the pictures zoom out when you mouse over it.

You have the option to see the listing with pictures (default) or all listings. You can search through the listings, choose to search only the titles and set a min or max price or both.

I also like the fact that the whole interface is tabbed. Which means you can keep the existing searches open and start a new search in a different tab. This means i can search for an item across cities or even states in different tabs.It even remembered my last search tab when I closed and re-opened the tab in Firefox.

Now, let’s take a look at a desktop alternative.

CraigsPal – Advanced Craigslist Search

Now, if you are looking for something beyond just a nice looking interface than the 90′s look of the original, CraigsPal might fit the bill. CraigsPal is a Windows based desktop software that brings additional features like

• Highly customized filtered content
• Multi-city, multi-state search
• Ability to remove listings containing certain words
• Browsing with keyboard shortcuts
• Spam flagging

CraigsPal comes in free and paid versions ($29.99). With the paid version, you get additional features like

• fully automated search
• instant notifier for search results
• email/mobile notifier

The free version is pretty useful too although it has ads on one side. It can be very useful if you are on Craigslist everyday looking for stuff in various cities.

Search All Craig’s

If you are quickly looking up stuff though and you want to get listings of a particular item no matter where they are in the country, like a freelance job, Search All Craigs can help. All Craigs is a Google Custom Search engine, just like the WordPress Custom Search engine I put together. It is helpful while searching across the country for something but its helpfulness ends there.

You don’t get image previews or advanced filtering capabilty you get with the other 2. But, someone took the trouble to put this together and is definitely worth a mention.

Craigslist is an excellent place to find some items at a steal. Using a powerful visual interfaces such as these could make you a Craigslist ninja and zap items or get gigs before others can. Do you have any Craigslist secrets you would like to share with us? Comment away.

3 Excellent Craigslist Interface Alternatives - Originally published at ShanKrila.com on 2008/09/30 (RSS)