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3 Free Applications To Help You Find Your Next Apartment [iPhone - US Only]

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:47:05 +0000

Looking for an apartment can be hard work. You need to find a place that is affordable, in a good area, nice looking and so many other things, that it can be overwhelming. Sure, a million websites show you the prices for apartments, but sometimes you want to look at apartments while out and about using a dedicated application for your iPhone. What if you are at the apartment and you want to see if the place stacks up to the description?

Fear not, apartment shopper, because with these three US-based iPhone apps, you will be ready to hit the apartment market with your best foot forward and armed with as much knowledge on what is available as possible. Each of these three apps has some great features, and because they are all free, there really is no reason not to download them all! Between the three, it is nearly impossible not to find what you need.

Apartment Guide

This is a great application for finding your next place to live. When you first boot it up, it will ask you to allow it to use your location, if you say yes it will be able to find apartments near you. At first, you can simply tap the “Search Nearby” button, and it will show you the apartments close to you. From the search nearby screen, you can tap refine to narrow the results by price, bedrooms, bathrooms and other parameters.

Clicking any result will bring you to the screen for more details on the apartment. You can quickly click “Call now” to call the place and set up an appointment to see the units. You will also be able to see a detailed description of the units, as well as a breakdown of different models and their prices. They also show amenities, pet policies, community features and special features.

You can also used the advanced search to limit the results it shows you to only ones that meet specific requirements. Of course, if you are not looking for an apartment near you, you can also type in a zip code to search anywhere. Another cool feature is that the app will remember places you have viewed recently as well as those you have called. It also allows you to store any place as a favorite for easy access later.

Trulia

Trulia is a full featured real estate iPhone application that does everything from finding houses for sale, houses that are sold, places that have been reduced in price, open houses and of course apartments for rent. To view the places available for rent, simply tap “For Rent” from the main screen. By default, the application will show you an aerial map view of all the places available in your proximity. You can tap any of them for a more detailed view.

If you do not enjoy looking at a map, you can tap the list button on the bottom right of the screen to view the apartments in an easy to read format. You can also tap the magnifying glass symbol to search using location, minimum and maximum rent, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and other things that are important in your search.

You can add places to favorites, but you must create a free account with Trulia. The nice thing about this is that you can get access to your favorites from another device or computer. Trulia, while not as easy to navigate as some apps, is your one stop real estate iPhone application.

MyApartmentMap

This app is incredibly streamlined and easy to navigate. It launches a simple screen that asks, “Where do you want your apartment?” The front page also features any places you have saved on the bottom. To start your search, simply enter a zip code or city into the box and click “Search!”

The results will start with a list, showing you all the apartments for rent in the area. You can scroll through these to find the one you like. At the top of the screen is where you can customize how you view the results. You can click “Map,” which, you guessed it, shows the results on a map. You can also click “Data,” which is an awesome feature that shows averages for the apartments in your results. You can see the average rents based on size and other data about the places you are looking for. You can also view deals on apartments in your area by clicking on the “Deals” tab.

On the top left of the screen you can click “Filter” to tweak the results. Do you need an apartment that will let you keep your dog? Do you need a place that is under $1,000 a month? Well from this screen, you can customize all that and more.

Conclusion

With these three applications, you will be ready to find the perfect place to live, for the right price and in a great location. They make finding an apartment as simple and painless as possible. The best part is; you can take them with you while looking at the places, to make sure they stack up to their description.

Image Credit: ShutterStock

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[HELP NEEDED] Tell Us Your Favorite Portable Apps & Get A T-Shirt!

admin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:47:09 +0000

Do you have a USB stick? How about a Dropbox account, or a shared folder of some sort? If so, I want you to pause for a moment and take a peek inside. What software do you carry with you wherever you go? What applications that don’t require installation, but that are essential to your workflow? We are compiling another list of The Best Of, this time featuring exclusively portable software. If it has an installer, it doesn’t go on the list. Only stuff you can unzip, drop in a folder, and run. Oh, and it has to be for Windows – sorry, Linux and Mac fans.

Help us build the list! All you need to do is leave a comment below, with your favorite portable apps (and links), as well as why you love them. Make sure these apps are not in the list below, which our staff compiled. The five commenters we deem most helpful will win a free MakeUseOf T-shirt! It’s our way of saying thanks.

What are you waiting for? Check out this list and leave your suggestions below!

Security/Privacy

Productivity

Communication

Web/FTP

System Tools

Multimedia

So voice out in the comments with your suggestions and you could win a free MakeUseOf t-shirt!

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5 iPhone Apps To Help You Battle Dragons

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:47:10 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/skyrim-dragonfight-with-iphone.jpg?323f2c" alt="iphone app dragon" />If you have no idea what Skyrim is, you might want to read Dave’s title="3 Reasons All Gamers Need To Play The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim [MUO Gaming]" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-reasons-gamers-play-elder-scrolls-skyrim-muo-gaming/">3 reasons why you should play Skyrim now, or listen to our lengthy discussion in href="http://technophiliapodcast.com/2011/episode-3-skyrim-and-other-stuff/">episode 3 of our weekly Technophilia Podcast (nsfw language).

The sheer scale of Skyrim – not only in terms of explorable areas, but also the stories and lore contained within characters, books, and taverns – results in a game that many will never get to fully experience. So here are 4 iPhone apps and 1 eBook to aid you in your epic quest and help you get the most out this amazing game – because unlike href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/author/dleclair/">Dave, we don’t all have 12 hours a day to play video games!

Unofficial Guide to Skyrim ( href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/unofficial-guide-for-skyrim/id479632357?mt=8">iTunes – $1.99)

A text-only affair, this is a full walkthrough and guide to all the quests in Skyrim, as well as some extras in the way of FAQs, achievements, talents trees, and tips.

Generally, I deplore the use of walkthroughs and people like Dave who look up sneaky ways of levelling up faster. In a game with these many quests though, there have been occasions where my clairvoyance spell (which usually shows a path to the objective) has been useless, and I just can’t figure out something which the designers clearly intended to be patently obvious. In those cases, where my experience of the game is being detracted from – this guide can be a lifesaver.

Is the app worth $1.99 when you can basically find the same information online? Right now, having been without a home internet connection for a week – thank you very much Virgin Media – I would be inclined to say yes. The content in the app is 100% original work, so if a quick help guide to use offline or without significantly taking away from important Skyrim time is what you’re after, this could be it.

DragonShout ( href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-shout/id483488468?mt=8">iTunes – free):

For iPhone and iPad, DragonShout is a personal map, to-do list and journey log for the really hardcore role-players. The app doesn’t reveal any locations, walkthroughs or facilitate any kind of cheating or fast-levelling – rather, it’s just a blank map slate onto which you can record your thoughts, significant moments etc. It’s incredibly helpful for those times when you discover an abandoned Dwarven mine and promise to come back to explore it later, only to find you’ve then bought a house, found a life partner and suddenly all your epic exploration goals have slowly faded to the wayside.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/dragonshout.jpg?323f2c" alt="iphone app dragon" width="580" height="378" />

Social features href="http://www.dragonshoutapp.com/">are also promised, whereby you can share locations and journal entries with other users – though the idea of reading endless tweets of “w000t, just killed my first dragon here” is not particularly appealing to me.

Skyrim Alchemist ( href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skyrim-alchemist/id484305110?mt=8">iTunes – $0.99)

Alchemy is something that has completed eluded me in Skyrim, much as chemistry did in high school. Though I obsessively collect alchemical components, they’re all sitting as yet unused in a big chest. I just can’t seem to find any recipes, and combining things randomly just results in a big mess of greenish gloop on my newly waxed wooden floor that my trusty thane Lydia is forced to mop up.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/alchemist-app.jpg?323f2c" alt="battle dragons game" width="580" height="428" />

This simple app – a steal at 99 cents – is like the Wikipedia of Alchemy, showing the exact effects of each ingredient and cross referencing them with other ingredients with the same effect. Epic. Is this cheating? Probably. I’ll justify it to myself as having summoned a fire demon who just happens to have an incredible knowledge of alchemical components though, so that’s my conscience in the clear. “Lydia, tidy this mess up, I think I just snorted some vampire dust”

MAppZ – Skyrim Edition ( href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mappz-skyrim-edition/id480785855?mt=8">iTunes – $2.99)

This is one for the real cheaters out there, and it’s a straight up labelled map of every location in the Skyrim universe. With downloadable updates from other users and a gorgeous UI that works on the iPad too, the only downside is the somewhat expensive price. I’m not sure I could justify this myself, but if you’re happy playing like a dirty cheat (just kidding!) then it’s certainly a useful little app to have.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/skyrim-mappz.jpeg?323f2c" alt="battle dragons game" width="480" height="320" />

Books of Skyrim Compendium EBook ( href="http://capane.us/2011/11/24/dovahkiin-gutenberg/">free):

Honestly, I’m usually not one to actually read the books in Skyrim. Like most people I open them hoping to find a beneficial perk, then sell the expensive ones on to some intellectual type in the nearest town in the hope of saving enough to purchase an ever larger strip of sharpened metal or perhaps a new rug for the house.

But if you do find the urge to engross yourself even further into the lore of Elder Scrolls, one happy chap has helpfully extracted, formatted and compiled them all into a single ebook for your download pleasure – thats 1665 pages in the smallest font size apparently. These probably aren’t technically legal, but I also doubt that Bethesda will complain of lost revenue. href="http://capane.us/2011/11/24/dovahkiin-gutenberg/">Download either from here.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/books-of-skyrim.jpg?323f2c" alt="iphone app dragon" width="580" height="296" />

The fact that there’s an app for that just goes to show how enormous Skyrim really is, so however you choose to play I do hope you’re enjoying your experience. Found any other cool Skyrim apps you’d like to share, or perhaps even some stories you’re dying to tell? Well, I’d love to hear them in the comments, so do share.

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Help the Environment: Places Where You Can Donate Old Computers

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:47:09 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/recycle_logo_intro.png?323f2c" alt="donate old computers" /> href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-great-ways-donate-computer">Electronic waste, or e-waste as it is more commonly known, is a huge problem facing both the developed and undeveloped world. Many old computer parts contain materials that are href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-tips-on-how-to-go-green-save-money">hazardous to the environment and burying your old Dell in a landfill is not helping the situation.

Instead of throwing it out, why not donate your old computer? One person’s href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-lightweight-linux-distributions-give-pc-lease-life">box of outdated silicon is another’s treasure chest, and there are plenty of individuals, charities and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/recycling">recycling schemes willing to take your old machine away for free.

Your Local Donation Or Recycling Scheme

This one might require a bit of a searching on your part, but a local resource means you don’t have to drive far and the charity or organisation might even pick up your old computer themselves.

There are all sorts of local schemes throughout the world, and the best way to find them is through local government. Your local council or authority should be familiar with local recycling schemes or charities that take old tech and be willing to point you in the direction of some worthy causes.

Examples local to me (Melbourne, Victoria) include the href="http://www.bytebackaustralia.com.au/locations">Byteback scheme and href="http://www.computerbank.org.au/">Computerbank (cheap $30 PCs running Linux), and when I lived in the UK there were plenty of local charities and community groups willing to take in components, boxes and laptops for refurbishment.

href="http://www.freecycle.org/">Freecycle

Devised and established as a way of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-websites-recycle-reuse-stuff-protect-environment">redistributing items that are no longer wanted or required, Freecycle operates all over the globe. This means you can join your local chapter and simply advertise your freebies (any non-living, legally saleable item) before whoever wants them comes forward to claim.

Freecycle uses Yahoo Groups as its main engine, so you’ll need a Yahoo account to give things away (though you can sign in with both href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/facebook">Facebook and Google these days). It’s up to you who gets the goods and the claimant is responsible for collection.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/freecycle_melbourne.png?323f2c" alt="donate old computers" width="580" height="353" />

Freecycle is a very environmentally friendly way of re-using pretty much anything you can think of and I can’t think of a single reason not to use the service!

When signing up for a Freecycle group on Yahoo, unless you’re happy to be emailed hundreds of times a day choose “Special Notices Only” for your email preferences, otherwise each and every offer will make its way into your inbox.

North America: href="http://womeninbusiness.about.com/od/donateusedpcsequipment/tp/10donatecomputers.htm">About.com Donation Resources & href="http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/donate.htm">EPA Advice

MakeUseOf is an international website with readers all around the globe, so I’ve split these next few resources by locale. About.com’s Women in Business section has produced a list of ten top donation and recycling organizations that are relevant to US and Canadian residents.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/earth911.png?323f2c" alt="donate used computers" width="580" height="497" />

Included is the excellent href="http://earth911.com/">Earth911 which searches for local businesses and partners willing to recycle or accept old machines, href="http://www.techsoup.org/">TechSoup, the href="http://worldcomputerexchange.org/">World Computer Exchange (which annoyingly only has US and Canadian chapters) and href="http://www.pcsforschools.org/">Computers for Schools amongst others.

The EPA Advice link contains a few other resources and another facility for finding local recycling projects. Regardless of who you donate to, the resources on both sites are more than worthy of your unwanted electronics.

UK: href="http://www.itforcharities.co.uk/pcs.htm">IT For Charities Resources & href="http://www.computeraid.org/">Computer Aid International

If you’re in the UK and looking to donate an old PC then you’re bound to find somewhere nearby on the IT For Charities list of links above. Included are links to companies, not-for-profit organizations and bonafide charities who will all take your unwanted computers away.

Computer Aid International are another charity who do especially good work with the donations they receive. The equipment is taken in, refurbished and shipped off to countries where computers and technology are not as accessible. Thus far the charity has sent nearly 200,000 computers around the world to help poorer nations get online.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/computer_aid_international.png?323f2c" alt="donate used computers" width="580" height="368" />

There are also a lot of community workshop programs and local outreach centres in the UK that use old computers for all sorts of tasks, including basic IT training and charity work.

Australia: href="http://www.recyclingnearyou.com.au/">Recycling Near You & href="http://www.givenow.com.au/otherways/electricals">GiveNow Resources

Recycling Near You is an Australian website that will help you recycle virtually anything, including old computers, monitors and accessories. The website uses your location to deliver relevant results that are local to you, including both charities, companies and recycling schemes.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/givenow_australia.png?323f2c" alt="donate used computers" width="580" height="333" />

Whilst the aforementioned website is probably the quickest way of finding a local recycling centre, there are some very valuable resources on GiveNow.com.au. Each is separated by state and region, making it easy to find the right links.

Worldwide: Retailers & Manufacturers

This is by no means a golden rule that is upheld everywhere, but many manufacturers and even retailers will now take in unwanted electronic equipment. Computer manufacturers such as href="http://www.apple.com/recycling/">Apple and href="http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/dell-environment-recycling">Dell both have recycling schemes where in certain countries they will accept any brand of waste and waive a fee (note you might still be charged for pick-up).

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/apple_recycling_scheme.png?323f2c" alt="donate old computers" width="580" height="263" />

Retailers similarly offer recycling schemes, especially when new products are purchased. These sorts of schemes are popular with large items like refrigerators and ovens, but it might also be worth asking about computer recycling. A benefit to using a retailer like this is that they will often come to your house, remove the equipment for you and swallow any recycling costs that may apply.

Whilst many international and national laws state that these products must be recycled responsibly, don’t forget that this isn’t quite the same as donating to charity.

Conclusion

There are plenty of charities, organizations and companies who will accept your old computers to prevent them ending up in a landfill somewhere, so the next time you get rid of a PC or monitor don’t forget to look up both local and national schemes. By recycling or href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-crowd-funding-websites-support-favourite-charities-bands-projects/">donating to a good cause you can feel great about helping someone out and even better about the fact that your old kit isn’t sitting in a landfill.

How are you going to get rid of your next PC? Any other resources we should know about to donate old computers? Have you recycled a PC before? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&searchterm=recycle&illustrations=on&search_group=&orient=&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&commercial_ok=&color=&show_color_wheel=1#id=83630602&src=41b45515f80ba5b34cbae0a597e7171c-1-20" rel="nofollow">Shutterstock

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Help the Environment: Places Where You Can Donate Old Computers

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:47:09 +0000

Your Local Donation Or Recycling Scheme

This one might require a bit of a searching on your part, but a local resource means you don’t have to drive far and the charity or organisation might even pick up your old computer themselves.

href="http://www.freecycle.org/">Freecycle

Freecycle is a very environmentally friendly way of re-using pretty much anything you can think of and I can’t think of a single reason not to use the service!

North America: href="http://womeninbusiness.about.com/od/donateusedpcsequipment/tp/10donatecomputers.htm">About.com Donation Resources & href="http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/donate.htm">EPA Advice

UK: href="http://www.itforcharities.co.uk/pcs.htm">IT For Charities Resources & href="http://www.computeraid.org/">Computer Aid International

There are also a lot of community workshop programs and local outreach centres in the UK that use old computers for all sorts of tasks, including basic IT training and charity work.

Australia: href="http://www.recyclingnearyou.com.au/">Recycling Near You & href="http://www.givenow.com.au/otherways/electricals">GiveNow Resources

Worldwide: Retailers & Manufacturers

Whilst many international and national laws state that these products must be recycled responsibly, don’t forget that this isn’t quite the same as donating to charity.

Conclusion

How are you going to get rid of your next PC? Any other resources we should know about to donate old computers? Have you recycled a PC before? Let us know in the comments.

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3 Free Apps To Help You Get Ready For Ski & Snowboard Season [iPhone]

admin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:47:35 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/shutterstock_62184385-e1323188811469.jpg?323f2c" alt="" />Winter is right around the corner. This year, I am taking up a new hobby. I am going to start skiing. I have played hockey for the last 15 years, so I am no stranger to winter sports, but skiing is a completely new beast for me. For the first time in my life, I am actually looking forward to seeing snow, and generally, I hate snow more than anyone else in the world.

Since I am a giant nerd, the first thing I did when I decided to ski was to look for iPhone apps dedicated to the sport. It turns out there are a few good ones out there that provide some incredibly useful information for skiers and snowboarders. They offer different features, ranging from mountain conditions to equipment buying guides. With these apps, you will be ready to hit the slopes. Just do not drop your phone in the snow; I can tell you from first hand experience, that will not end well.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ski-snow-report/id300412347?mt=8">Ski & Snow Report

Ski & Snow Report is an awesome application for tracking the conditions at your favorite mountains. This is especially useful at this time of the year, when most of the mountains are still closed and are just getting ready to open. With this application, you can easily store all of your favorite mountains.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Skireport2-e1323190937160.jpg?323f2c" alt="" width="386" height="580" />

The app also has a “nearby” feature, which allows you to check the conditions of the mountains within a reasonable distance of your current location. Not only is this useful for finding out the conditions of the mountains, but you can also use it to find spots to ski that you may not have heard of. Obviously, if you are out of the town, you will probably not be familiar with the mountains in the area, so having an app like this will help a great deal.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/SkiReport1-e1323191100240.jpg?323f2c" alt="" width="386" height="580" />

The last awesome feature this app has is push alerts. It will tell you whenever one of your favorite mountains receives a fresh layer of powder. You can set the threshold for how much snow it needs to receive before it sends you an alert.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onthesnow-gear-guide/id395749705?mt=8">On the Snow Gear Guide

This is an application for finding your new ski or snowboard equipment. After all, you cannot be ready to hit the mountain if you do not have all of the proper equipment. Gear Guide makes it easy to find exactly what you need based on your skill level, gender and sport (ski or snowboard).

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Gearguide1-e1323191124862.jpg?323f2c" alt="" width="386" height="580" />

When you first start the application, it will ask you the aforementioned questions and show you the equipment that is right for you based on your answers. After all, a new skier does not need to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on high-end skis, when a middle of the road pair would more than suffice.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Gearguide2-e1323191057541.jpg?323f2c" alt="" width="386" height="580" />

In addition to the gear guide, this app offers videos and a glossary. The glossary is especially helpful for new skiers who are not familiar with all of the jargon used by more experienced snow sport participants.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/allsnow-ski-snow-reports-offline/id417601403?mt=8">AllSnow

AllSnow is another mountain tracking application, similar to Ski Report. It has the ability to find out the status at local mountains. It also tells you lift ticket prices for the mountains you are looking at and provides a link to their website.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Allsnow2-e1323191242178.jpg?323f2c" alt="" width="386" height="580" />

They offer complete trail maps of most major mountains. This is very useful if you want to know what kinds of runs the mountains have before you go. The application also has a premium feature, where you can buy runs for various mountains and use GPS to track yourself. It provides information such as time and top speed for runs you have purchased.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/AllSNow1-e1323191345791.jpg?323f2c" alt="" width="386" height="580" />

This application also has a social aspect. Users can leave reviews of mountains and individual trails at mountains. This way, you can find out what you are getting into before you head to the slopes.

Conclusion

I cannot wait for winter so I can hit the mountains. Now that I have these iPhone apps, I will be much more prepared. I know which mountains are open, and I have a better understanding of the gear I need. Now, you will too.

Are you a skier? Did these apps help you get ready for the season? Let us know in the comments!

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5 Free iPhone Apps To Help You Get Started With A Vegan Lifestyle

admin — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 01:47:26 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/shutterstock_72700804-e1322754939334.jpg" alt="" />

I have been hearing more and more people talk about living the vegan lifestyle. As someone who closely follows the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, I was surprised how many fighters choose to live vegan. At first, I was unsure about what made the vegan lifestyle different from a vegetarian, but I looked into it, and it is quite a difference.

I have come to realize that being a true vegan consists of not using any animal products, and it is much more than not eating certain things. I can tell you right now that I am not a vegan, but I am always fascinated with learning more about other lifestyles and what they consist of.

If you are interested in finding out more about the vegan way of life, and are perhaps interested in adopting it yourself, than I have some iPhone apps that will help you out a great deal. These apps offer everything from basic information on what it is like to be a vegan, recipes and ways to get more active in the vegan community and make a difference.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id391901035">Be Vegan

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bevegan-e1322755016479.jpg" alt="" width="386" height="580" />

This application is a good starting point for someone looking to get into the vegan lifestyle. It offers some basic recipes, though not as many as some of the other apps we will talk about later. Where this app shines is in their news and stories about things that are happening in the vegan world. They cover all the latest news and dig into the science behind being a vegan.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vegscan/id386227119?mt=8">VegScan

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/vegscan-e1322755144298.jpg" alt="" width="386" height="580" />

This app allows users to scan barcodes for items while shopping and find out if the item is vegan and vegetarian. It is a user maintained app, so some items will not be there. You can add them if you know whether the item is or is not vegan. You earn points for adding items, so it makes it something of a game. The scanning worked well when I tested it, and even if the item wasn’t listed, it always detected the bar code.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whole-foods-market-recipes/id320029256?mt=8">Whole Foods Recipes

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/wholefoods-e1322755187138.jpg" alt="" width="386" height="580" />

This is an application from the Whole Foods Stores. This application is not dedicated to Vegans, but it does have a tremendous database of Vegan recipes. By simply clicking on “Special Diets”, you can show only vegan recipes. They also have special picks for all kinds of other lifestyles if vegan is not your thing. If you shop at Whole Foods this is a must have app because you can quickly add all the items in a recipe to your shopping list, and have it readily available the next time you go to the store.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/veganyumyum-mobile/id294390088?mt=8">VeganYumYum Mobile

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/veganyumyum-e1322755234924.jpg" alt="" width="386" height="580" />

YumYum is one of the more popular online recipe boards, so it only makes sense that they would have a vegan version. This app is simple and straightforward. It is a list of all the vegan recipes on their website. There are well over 50 recipes on there. Each recipe has pictures, a list of ingredients and systematic instructions for preparation. They also have the ability to add a recipe to your favorites, so if you find something you love and want to make again, it will be just a couple of taps away.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/peta/id421236952?mt=8">PETA

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/PETA-e1322755270267.jpg" alt="" width="386" height="580" />

The official PETA app has everything you need to know about helping animals. If choosing not to eat any animal products is not enough, and you want to take it to the next level than the PETA app has just what you need. It offers all the latest issues that need to be addressed. You can take action on any of the alerts and earn points and rankings. If you are looking to step up your involvement, check out this application. Even if you are not a vegan and you just want to help animals this is a great app to help you get involved.

Conclusion

With these applications, you will be ready to make the lifestyle change, if you should choose to do so. Obviously, being a vegan is not for everyone, including myself. If you think it might be for you, check out these applications and see if they help move you in the right direction.

What do you think of these apps and if you tried them, did they help you. Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: href="http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/573547/573547,1299571492,7/stock-photo-vegetarian-meal-72700804.jpg" rel="nofollow">ShutterStock

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5 Gmail Filters To Help Prioritize & Organize Your Inbox

admin — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:47:15 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/GMailTips08.png" alt="inbox gmail filter" />It was just months ago that Gmail introduced SmartLabels, a lazy way of automating the most basic filtering and labeling of Gmail messages (as detailed in href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/gmail-labs-introduces-automated-filtering-smart-labels-news/">this article). For some of us though, putting our trust into a Gmail Labs feature and depending on it to completely control our personal email account is a little iffy.

We’ve explained before href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/set-email-filters-gmail-hotmail-yahoo/">how to set up filters in your email and that’s a good start towards efficiently handling your inbox. What filters should each and every person have in their arsenal so that their inbox is as orderly as mine?

I’m here to help you get started in setting up your first five filters, or help you add on to your current collection. These five should handle daily-to-weekly activities of the everyday internet guy or gal and get that inbox looking as clean as a whistle. Paired with our href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ultimate-gmail-collection-over-80-tools-and-tips/">extensive list of Gmail tools and tips, you’ll be a guru of the inbox.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail1.png" alt="inbox gmail filter" width="574" height="498" />

Let’s start by logging in to your Gmail account and clicking on Create filter.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail2.png" alt="gmail filters" width="442" height="202" />

You’ll then see the following appear:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail32.png" alt="gmail filters" width="500" height="197" />

If you’re using Gmail’s new design, you’ll go about things by clicking the downwards arrow in the search field to show the following:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail-new1.png" alt="gmail filters" width="353" height="482" />

Now we’re ready to go ahead and crank out some filters.

Forums

Forums are an ever-growing part of the internet. With chat rooms practically dead outside of our social networking circles, this is where we go to communicate on the web. A huge bulk of these forums are running either href="http://www.vbulletin.com/">vBulletin or href="http://www.phpbb.com/">phpBB. The following filters are built around their default email templates:

Subject: “Action Requires to Active Membership for”
Subject: “Reply to thread”
Subject: “You are subscribed to the forum”
Subject: “New Private Message at”
Has the words: “Your password has been securely stored in our database and cannot be retrieved.”
Subject: “Topic reply notification”

As our first example, let me offer a little tutoring. You can set these filters up completely individually or lumped together. For example, we can compound all of the Subject criteria as:

Subject: “Action Requires to Active Membership for” OR “Reply to thread” OR “You are subscribed to the forum” OR “New Private Message at” OR “Topic reply notification”

You still have to remember to create a separate filter for the Has the words criteria, also. Be advised that there is a character limit in the criteria fields. I am not 100% sure of that exact hard limit, bit there may be a scenario where you have to break a lump filter into two filters. It all depends on how you’d like to do it. /> Now is a good time to let you know how all the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/master-the-google-search-like-a-god-save-time/">Google’s search operands work in the filter creation process.

Once you’ve decided this, you want to click Next Step. Check the box beside Apply the label and set up a new label name if you must:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail-labels-old.png" alt="prioritize gmail inbox" width="507" height="240" />

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail-labels-new.png" alt="prioritize gmail inbox" width="546" height="245" />

I’d also recommend checking the box beside “Also apply filter to conversations below.” That will go ahead and automatically organize emails you’ve received in the past so that everything is neat and orderly. Once finished, your Filters tab in Settings should look something like:

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-93050" title="Old Gmail Settings" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail-settings-old.png" alt="prioritize gmail inbox" width="551" height="252" />

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-93051" title="New Gmail Settings" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail-settings-new.png" alt="" width="551" height="189" />

Now that you’ve been effectively broken in to the process, let’s continue on!

Newsletters

Not all newsletters are bad. href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/subscribe-to-makeuseof-newsletter">Some of them are quite good and worth keeping. Reddit and other social sites have boomed recently with the suggestion of creating a filter to automatically send emails with certain words directly to your trash. There are too many reasons why this is a bad idea. One extremely simple filter should make labeling every one of your newsletter subscriptions painless:

Has the words: unsubscribe

Purchases

Keeping track of your online shopping is incredibly important. The following filters have proven effective for me in labeling all of my buys:

Has the words: receipt
Subject: invoice
Subject: order

Account Information

Labeling your logins for each website that you sign up for could be the difference between searching for five minutes and five seconds. A single filter will help you achieve greatness:

Has the words: username AND password

Financial

It’s important to see those credit card and bank statements and warnings. Here’s something to get you started:

From: paypal.com OR capitalone.com OR chase.com OR americanexpress.com OR discover.com OR bankofamerica.com OR citi.com OR citibank.com OR mastercard.com OR visa.com OR hsbc.com OR tdbank.com OR jpmorgan.com OR wellsfargo.com

Of course it’s a little difficult for me to squeeze every single bank and creditor into this list, so this is one that can be improved upon. You can go ahead and add yours in there if you must. It’s also highly recommended that you check the box beside Never send it to Spam, too. If not, definitely Star it. The only instance I can see in which excluding these messages from spam may become troublesome is in the case of phishing. Gmail is very good at alerting users about phishing attempts, however.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail_rs.png" alt="inbox gmail filter" width="440" height="331" />

These five filters should put you on the right track to really seeing a visual change in the way your email fleshes out. The possibilities are quite endless but you must remember to make very accurate and precise filters. You don’t want a filter so broad that important emails can slip between the cracks and become wrongly categorized. If you need any help or have any other suggestions, feel free to contribute in the comments!

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5 Gmail Filters To Help Prioritize & Organize Your Inbox

admin — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:47:16 +0000

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail1.png" alt="inbox gmail filter" width="574" height="498" />

Let’s start by logging in to your Gmail account and clicking on Create filter.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail2.png" alt="gmail filters" width="442" height="202" />

You’ll then see the following appear:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail32.png" alt="gmail filters" width="500" height="197" />

If you’re using Gmail’s new design, you’ll go about things by clicking the downwards arrow in the search field to show the following:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail-new1.png" alt="gmail filters" width="353" height="482" />

Now we’re ready to go ahead and crank out some filters.

Forums

Subject: “Action Requires to Active Membership for”
Subject: “Reply to thread”
Subject: “You are subscribed to the forum”
Subject: “New Private Message at”
Has the words: “Your password has been securely stored in our database and cannot be retrieved.”
Subject: “Topic reply notification”

As our first example, let me offer a little tutoring. You can set these filters up completely individually or lumped together. For example, we can compound all of the Subject criteria as:

Subject: “Action Requires to Active Membership for” OR “Reply to thread” OR “You are subscribed to the forum” OR “New Private Message at” OR “Topic reply notification”

Once you’ve decided this, you want to click Next Step. Check the box beside Apply the label and set up a new label name if you must:

Now that you’ve been effectively broken in to the process, let’s continue on!

Newsletters

Has the words: unsubscribe

Purchases

Keeping track of your online shopping is incredibly important. The following filters have proven effective for me in labeling all of my buys:

Has the words: receipt
Subject: invoice
Subject: order

Account Information

Labeling your logins for each website that you sign up for could be the difference between searching for five minutes and five seconds. A single filter will help you achieve greatness:

Has the words: username AND password

Financial

It’s important to see those credit card and bank statements and warnings. Here’s something to get you started:

From: paypal.com OR capitalone.com OR chase.com OR americanexpress.com OR discover.com OR bankofamerica.com OR citi.com OR citibank.com OR mastercard.com OR visa.com OR hsbc.com OR tdbank.com OR jpmorgan.com OR wellsfargo.com

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gmail_rs.png" alt="inbox gmail filter" width="440" height="331" />

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5 Scholarship Search Sites To Help Students Get Financial Aid

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:47:09 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/scholarship-300x300.jpg" alt=""/>Education is about finding the right kind of opportunities. With so many educational opportunities around us, it’s difficult not to miss one. It’s easy to pay your way through, but if you want something on merit, scholarships are the engines for higher education.

Searching for scholarships is a way of life in countries like the United States. It is considered to be one of the more stressful stages of one’s educational career. With the right scholarship in hand, it obviously becomes the most rewarding one later on.

There are a gazillion scholarship search engines and websites on the web. Each of them could potentially lead you to a fitting scholarship that could help you save a few dollars. So, here’s looking at a few useful ones that could save you a lot of legwork in search of financial aid.

href="http://www.fastweb.com/">FastWeb

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/scholarship01.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="251" />

Fifteen years in the search for the right financial aid for students and counting makes this web service one to bookmark. You don’t have to pay a penny as it tries to match you with roughly 1.5 million scholarships worth over $3.4 billion across a diverse range of educational needs. The site also caters to adult education.

There are other tools on hand like advice on student life and tools such as financial aid calculators, discussion boards, and checklists. Some of the advice comes from past beneficiaries who applied and won scholarships. FastWeb merely connects students with scholarship sponsors and then gets out of the way. On its part, FastWeb does screen sponsors to ensure their legitimacy and the privacy policy protects applicant details.

href="http://www.scholarships.com/">Scholarships.com

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/scholarship02.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="354" />

Here you search more than 2.7 million college scholarships and grants worth more than $19 billion. The site has a detailed directory listing over 7,000 colleges, their admission statistics, tuition and fees, financial aid and scholarships, academic majors etc. The free scholarship search website allows you to manage your scholarship search with your own profile. The College Matchmaker helps you find and connect to the right school.

As usual, you start by creating your profile and then use it to match scholarships to your educational needs. You can match scholarships by – dollar amount, deadline, rank, and scholarship name. You can use the site as a tracking tool for your desired sponsor. The site helps you in composing and personalizing a scholarship application letter.

href="http://www.zinch.com/">Zinch

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/scholarship03.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="344" />

The Facebook Connect option suggests that this scholarship site has a social networking angle built into it. Zinch has a score system (Swagger) that measures your activity on the site and positions your profile accordingly. The site so far has featured $1.9 Billion in educational aid. 800+ college recruiters can connect you to 5000 schools in its database.

As the screen above shows, the advanced filters can help you sort through the results and select the right scholarship. The site is planning scholarship help for non-U.S. schools soon.

href="http://apps.collegeboard.org/cbsearch_ss/welcome.jsp">College Board

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/scholarship05.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="429" />

The site has a database size of 2300 colleges and $3 Billion in educational finance aid. The site has a slew of tools that help students calculate cost of loans, compare loans, compare aid awards, calculate college savings etc. that helps to give the right picture for informed decisions.

The scholarship search relies on the information you feed into your profile and then the brief questionnaire helps you match your education level, talents, and background to the proper loan.

href="https://studentaid2.ed.gov/">FSA (Federal Student Aid)

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/scholarship04.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="454" />

The U.S. Government site helps students access more than $150 billion in new aid annually. The main tool and the focus area for the site is the development, distribution, and processing of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the form used to apply for all federal, as well as for many state, regional and private student aid programs. This covers the three modes – grants, loans, and work study – the program uses to fund aid for students.

Though these five sites are U.S. specific, they are useful for foreign students too as a large number of them hunt around for the right href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/college/">college to enroll in. Legitimate scholarship sites help you avoid scams and fraudsters and secure your href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/education/">education without giving away an arm or a leg. Are you on a scholarship hunt? Have you ever landed financial aid with the help of a scholarship search site? Give us a shout.

Image Credit: rel="nofollow" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=72573592">Shutterstock

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