Google Music Increases Invites

Well it looks like Google Music users can now invite up to five friends instead of just two.  This flows well with Google's scaled approach in beta testing for many of it's products. (See Google+ which also followed this scheme and now allows current users to invite up to 150 friends.)

Free SlingBox to Insight Customers?

Oh yes there's a catch, there's always a catch.

For those of you who don't know a SlingBox is a set top box that is connected to your existing cable box and the internet via your existing broadband connection that allows you to stream your TV to any capable mobile device computer all for a one time fee of $300 for the box and $30 for the app.

Time Warner announced Tuesday the beginning of a sales promotion that it would reimburse subscribers to it's $99 50Mbps broadband plan the entire cost of a SlingBox.  What does that have to do with Insight customers? Well as it turns out, Time Warner will be acquiring Insight Communications for a cool $3 billion cash.

Depending on the duration of the promotion and the transition to complete, it is plausible for current Insight 50Mbps broadband customers to get a piece of this pie.   

utorrent to launch a paid version...

Irony swings open the door and says "hey hey hey!"

http://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-to-launch-paid-bittorrent-client-110715/

How to Reuse Limited-Use Online Coupons

When shopping online, one would be a fool not to check RetailMeNot.com for any online coupons applicable to the site you are buying from. There are often many coupons to choose from (especially for pizza restaurants).  But most of these have a usage limit.  For instance, when ordering from dominos.com, most coupons have a limited use of 2 times.

On dominos.com, I've found that simply changing the name, email, and/or phone number allows you to reuse the coupon even if delivering to the same address.  Every site handles the usage count differently so your mileage may vary, but It's worth a shot if you are scrapped for cash. Don't forget about tenminutemail.com, the site that gives you an email address (and inbox) for ten minutes (or more if you need it), and then deletes the account after use.  This can be useful for sites requiring "click-through confirmation" of a link they email you.  This may come in handy when cheating at online coupons [and avoiding spam].

Wireless Phone-to-Car Audio for $60

When in the car, It is always nice to eliminate clutter.  While on a road trip I began thinking that there must be a better way to listen to Pandora than having the power and aux cable plugged into my phone at the same time.  Well, this is a setup eliminates one of those cables, and is one that I use regularly.  For this to work you must have an auxillary input on your car stereo.  Most new cars include this. Most aftermarket stereos at least have it as an option (I had to get a 20$ cable to add an aux in to my Alpine unit). 

Required:
Sony Ericsson MW600 Bluetooth headphones
Any 1/8" mini stereo male-to-male cable or in my case, this adapter.

The setup couldn't be more straight forward. The feature of the MW600 that makes this possible is the headphones use a standard 1/8" mini stereo jack for connectivity between the bluetooth reciever and headphones.  You could even plug in your own headphones if you desire. But we will be using this jack to connect our bluetooth headset to the aux input of the car stereo. 

The operation is what really makes this setup shine.  Once paired to the MW600, your cell phone will automatically connect to it when it's in range.  The MW600 will last about 4-5 days powered on, sitting in the glove box, automatically pairing itself to your phone as you get in and out of the car.  In my truck (as shown below) the aux in is right on the front of the CD player, so I chose the adapter route.  This saves greatly on cable clutter.

Ideally you would have a separate bluetooth earpiece for accepting calls.  You can delegate the media and phone audio channels to separate bluetooth devices in the settings of most smartphones (all android phones include this feature).  I use this arrangement for Pandora and Google Maps Navigation.  The navigation voice comes through the car speakers at an independant volume level to that of the media volume if using an Android phone.  While Pandora is playing music, Android will automatically pause Pandora if the nice navigation lady needs to tell you something.  The same can be said if a phone call interrupts Pandora.  The phone call can be taken on either of the two Bluetooth receivers.  When taken through the MW600,  your car speakers act like a speaker phone.     

Below are a couple of pictures of my setup.

How to Destroy Your iPhone's Headphone Jack

Use this:

http://www.bgr.com/2011/03/09/verifone-ceo-slams-mobile-payments-startup-over-security-concerns-video/

Google+ vs Facebook [UPDATED]

Many don't see much of a difference in Google+ when compared to our beloved Facebook.  Some of the big differences may not be immediately obvious, so I've pointed out the main differences in the two below in a handy chart: