How To Get Price Drop Alerts For (Almost) Any Product

Most of us do not have the time to keep an eye on the price of all the products we're interested in.

Price!pinx is a quick and convenient solution to notify you about price drops of any product on almost any website.

New to Price!pinx ? Get started, receive your price drop emails and save!

It can save you time and energy by monitoring the price for you! It will also send you a price drop alert email if the product goes on sale.

You simply provide your email address to Price!pinx, then add their bookmarklet to your browser's links bar. When you see a price you think/hope will go lower, highlight it and then hit the "!pinx" link.

Teach Your Kids Good Habits...By Having Fun Online

What do kids enjoy doing the most? -- talking with their friends, playing video games, and watching cartoons.

So the key idea behind Handipoints is to motivate kids to do their chores and act responsibly in order to earn the right to do the things that they enjoy the most.



For kids, Handipoints is a fun way to earn cool Rewards for completing your chores, homework, and simply lending others a hand!

As a parent, you have a special area in Handipoints just for you. With the Handipoints Parent Portal you can keep track of your child's Tasks, Goals and progress while helping them learn responsible, healthy habits.



The powerful and easy-to-use interface of the Parent Portal is highly customizable, so there's no limiting your imagination.

Work together with your child to add Tasks and Goals to fit your life. It's the perfect toolkit to teach your kids to be Happy, Healthy and Smart.

For more information you can read parents' testimonials or simply sign up for a FREE account and give it a try.

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How To Switch Banks In 3 Easy Steps

I bank with Comerica; and I hate it.

The reason I started banking with them in the first place; is that they were the only branch on campus at my previous employer (BMC Software), which was a big plus.

But I've left BMC in 2003, and I'm still stuck with Comerica, their non-existing service and exorbitant fees.

Why?

Because switching banks is a hassle.

Most consumers have direct deposits, automatic withdrawals and online bill payees set up with their current bank.

Each one of the companies that deposits and withdraws from your account needs to be informed if you have new account information.

Calling around to get instructions and forms is the kind of task that always gets pushed down a to-do list. And, if you use your bank's online bill payment system, you could have 5 to 30 different payees, some with automatic payment schedules that need to be re-typed and moved over as well.

So naturally, when I came accross BankSwitcher; I just had to write about it.

Switching banks can be hard...

BankSwitcher was invented to make it much easier to go to a new bank.

Now, you can bank with the company that is offering the best products, rather than staying with a bank we don't like - just because it's an overwhelming task to move.

BankSwitcher looks at your banking activity to identify things you will need to do if you want to switch banks (e.g., change direct deposits and automatic payments). You progress through BankSwitcher in three steps:

1. Gather bank activity. BankSwitcher looks for items that will need to be changed when you switch banks, such as direct deposits and automatic payments.
2. Choose what to switch. You select the Billers and Depositors you want included in your Switching Checklist based on the items compiled in Step 1.
3. Print your Switching Checklist. Then, BankSwitcher generates a printable document (PDF format) with everything you need to change banks. You can use your Switching Checklist whenever you want.

BankSwitcher "...follow strict standards to protect all personal information submitted to us...":

• All data is transmitted using secure socket layer technology (SSL).
• Our network is highly secure, firewalled, and fully encrypted.
• Any information that we don't need to keep (e.g. bank login information, account numbers, etc.) is never written to disk and immediately erased from memory after use.

BankSwitcher empowers you to find a better bank, but switching is up to you. So if you do use it; please give us some feedback.

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A Free Photoshop Alternative For Professionals

Previously, I have posted about Picnik - a hosted, free Photoshop alternative.

While most users (like me) will find Picnik intuitive and easy to use, professional users may miss some of the more advanced tools and features that Photoshop offers.

And that's exactly where Splashup comes in.

Splashup

Splashup, formerly Fauxto, is a FREE, powerful editing tool and photo manager.

With all the features professionals use and novices want, it's easy to use, works in real-time and allows you to edit many images at once.

Splashup runs in all browsers, integrates seamlessly with top photosharing sites, and even has its own file format so you can save your work in progress.

To learn more about Splashup, take the online tour
or simply jump in and try it out.

Once you're ready, simply sign up for a FREE account.

Life Changing Disease? Help and Get Help From Patients Like You

Have you been diagnosed with a "life-changing" disease?

PatientsLikeMe is a new, FREE site with the goal to enable people to share information that can improve the lives of patients diagnosed with life-changing diseases.

PatientsLikeMe : Patients Helping Patients To Live Better Every Day

To make this happen, they've created a platform for collecting and sharing real world, outcome-based patient data (patientslikeme.com) and are establishing data-sharing partnerships with doctors, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, research organizations, and non-profits.

The site was inspired by a young carpenter named Stephen Heywood, who in 1998 was diagnosed with ALS.

The Heywood family began taking charge of Stephen's care, searching the world over for ideas that would extend his life and improve the way he lived.

This set in motion a series of events that have led to PatientsLikeMe, a new system of medicine by patients for patients.

Using the site, you can read all about the experiences of other real people who are afflicted with certain illnesses as well as share your own experiences. The purpose, then, is to allow users to interact with one another, track how treatments are working for other members, and explore the side effects patients are seeing with certain treatments.

How To Create an Internet "Safe Zone" For Your Kids

Previously, we covered How To Child-Proof The Internet For Your Kids with PikLuk -- a FREE service that provides a safe Internet experience for your children.

Today, we'll cover KidZui - a paid service, that may be well worth the price.

KidZui - The Internet for Kids

KidZui creates a "safe zone" for your kids inside the "internet", using a custom built browser.

The company has hired around 200 teachers and parents from across the United States to scour the net for appropriate sites and content. So far they’ve whitelisted about 500,000 websites, pictures and videos.

Parents receive weekly emails that will keep you up-to-date with what your kids are searching for and looking at on KidZui.

Use the parent account on KidZui.com, accessed from any browser to tune in to what your kids think is cool and plan family activities around their evolving interests.

KidZui - The Internet for Kids

Here you can adjust each of your kids’ age settings to ensure that KidZui is appropriate for their motor skills and reading ability. Find the level that is best for now and change it as they grow.

Overall, KidZui guarantees kids’ safety and provides them with a portal into the best parts of the web. I have no doubt that parents will be willing to cough up $10 for the monthly subscription fee (or $5/mo, its current promotional rate).

Ladies...Get A Free Extreme Makeover

Would you like to try a virtual makeover?

Taaz.com is a fun, FREE and easy-to-use website that gives women the opportunity to “try on” the hottest makeup and hairstyle looks from the convenience of their homes.

From creating the perfect smoky eye to painting on a dramatic ruby-red lip for a night out on the town, taaz.com allows you to become a makeup artist and try out different looks.


Users start by uploading their own digital photo and then experiment with a palette of thousands of colors and shades in products ranging from foundation and concealer to multi-tone eye shadow and lip gloss – even colored contact lenses!.

With the addition of a hairstyle or change of hair color, the look is complete.

The effects are immediate, simple to use and so life-like that the saved result looks like a real photograph.

The new "look" can be saved, printed, emailed to friends; put on greeting cards; or used as online profile pictures on Facebook or MySpace.

How To Turn Your Pictures Into Videos

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand pictures.

But making a video clip used to be a hard, lengthy process; mostly reserved to apple-worshiping, design freaks (just kidding honey).

That is until now.


Animoto is one of the coolest services I have seen in a while.

It offers a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos.

Look at what I have been able to produce in a few minutes of work:




Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music.

Produced in widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer.

The heart of Animoto is its newly developed Cinematic A.I. technology that "...thinks like an actual director and editor...".

It analyzes and combines user-selected images and music with the same sophisticated post-production skills and techniques that are used in television and film.

The technology takes into account every nuance of a song: the genre, song structure, energy, rhythm, instrumentation, and vocals.

Videos can be emailed, embedded on websites including blogs and social network sites like Facebook and MySpace, and downloaded onto your computer.

How To Find Your Next Roommates

Roomapes.com is a FREE a resource where you can post, search and rate roommates.

Roomapes.com: Post. Search. Rate. Housing and Roommates.

"...Roomapes was started by rentpayers who were frustrated with the crapshoot process of picking roommates. Sure, you might have previously met them at some social function or even had a conversation at a coffee shop, but how in the world do you find out how they behave as a roommate?..."

You can search for available shares by geographic region or by zip code. To list your residence, enter a profile complete with rent amount, housing situation, listing description, and a picture.

So start you search for your next roommate at Roomapes.com --> and research those potential roommates BEFORE living with them.

Teach Your Kids Math With A Video Game They'll Love

Timez Attack is a high-end educational game built specifically for multiplication tables -- and it shows.



Mastering multiplication Tables is a critical turning point in a child's education.

Because math builds on itself, a failure to master the multiplication tables will keep them from conquering all their future mathematic challenges. Without these core math skills, children will quickly fall behind, causing them to permanently label themselves as "bad at math" or decide they "hate math."

The problem, of course, is that multiplication tables are tough. Very tough. And the tools we get to tackle this challenge are extremely ineffective.

Flash cards can teach multiplication tables, but few parents or children have the patience and desire to keep banging away on something so boring for weeks on end.

The obvious alternative is a multiplication tables game.

Your kids will love it because it's a cool game. You will love it because they'll be learning.

Download the FREE, base version or, for more info watch the demo below:

Help Your Kids Improve Their Spelling Skills And Expand Their Vocabulary

SpellingCity is a new, FREE educational site that can help children of all ages improve their spelling skills and expand their vocabulary.

It can also be used by teachers and parents to teach their students how to spell properly with their own spelling lists.

Home - SpellingCity.com

You start by entering words into the spelling test, and test your spelling skills. You can also play a game with the words you entered.

If you’re a teacher or parent, you can register, which will allow you to enter your own spelling list, and test your students/children with your list.

Students can also play several games with your spelling lists.

Other features SpellingCity offers:

• contains over 25,000 words, including plurals, contractions, 3rd person tenses, and more
• uses a REAL human voice that says both the word and the word in a sentence
• 'Teach Me' function that spells out a word
• teachers and parents can enter their very own spelling lists to test their students/children on
• students can play games with the words they enter or with their teacher’s spelling lists

How To Turn Your WebCam Into a Free Photo Booth

Mac users have long had Photobooth.

Now everyone else can join the fun.

Cameroid, is a FREE web version of Apple's famous program.


Taking pictures of yourself has never been more fun.

Add a special image effect such as Sepia, Black & White, Glow, Comic Book, or X-Ray. See the screen flash white.

Cameroid - Use your webcam to take photos online!

Instantly you have a photo you can save to your desktop, print or share with friend and family.

A Free, Online Alternative To Quicken And MS Money

Mint is a powerful, easy and secure Web–based solution for managing your finances. And it’s FREE.

You simply register anonymously using any valid email address, and then add the log–in information for the online bank, credit union, credit card and investment accounts you want to consolidate in Mint.

Mint connects to more than 5,000 US financial institutions. Your account information is updated daily. Mint automatically categorizes all your purchases, showing you how much you spend on gas, groceries, parking, rent, restaurants, DVD rentals and more, with amazing precision.

An advanced alerting system highlights any unusual activity, low balances, unwanted fees and charges, and upcoming bills so you’re in constant contact with your money—effortlessly.

Mint goes way beyond just reporting. Mint constantly searches through thousands of offers from hundreds of providers to find the best deals on everything from bank accounts to credit cards; cable, phone and Internet plans; and more. Mint’s suggestions are “unique to you” based on your individual spending patterns. For example, if you have $20,000 in a bank account that’s earning no interest, Mint might recommend a high interest rate savings account from ING or HSBC. Acting on that suggestion would give you an extra $900 in interest income over a year.

For more information, you can review mint's features or watch the demo below, by their founder Aaaron Patzer:

How To Get Your Pic On A Magazine Cover

MagMyPic.com is a FREE website that allows users to combine their picture with custom made Magazine covers in the likeness of popular Magazines.



MagMyPic.com is an affiliate marketing effort that works to distribute and market subscriptions to each of the magazines displayed on MMP while providing a fun and entertaining way for users to display their picture.

MagMyPic - Fake Magazine Covers with your Photo!

So play around with it and have some fun...