Spotify is about to release their own version of Gift cards that will be in store in time for Christmas.
Gift cards will come in £10, £30 and £50 options. You can redeem the cards for Spotify subscriptions or download tracks.
To redeem a card just head over to our ‘Redeem your code‘ page and enter the PIN number on the back of the card. Starting today Morrisons will be the first store to start selling our gift cards. Spotify will be dding many more retail shops in the near future, stay tuned.
Over at FlowingData they have put together a great infographic, which shows the most disliked videos on YouTube of all time. It seems like Justin Bieber is doing amazingly well to have five of his music videos in the list.
Most people know how to use Twitter search by now. You use their unique algorithm to find both profiles based on common interests or locations, or via live feed updates that are being posted as we speak. This has made it a great way to find specific information, especially for following and keeping up to date on certain topics.
When it comes to Twitter, you might not think you can use their search to save money, much less become more environmentally conscious. But you would be wrong; it is easy to use their hashtag system to do just that. That is because it doesn’t just link you with specific groups or businesses. Instead, you find updates that are always changing that use the same topic for interest.
You might be wondering what that means for you. Basically, you will be able to find anyone who might be talking about saving money or living a more sustainable life in that moment. Anyone talking about it anywhere could have a good tip or a link that could benefit you, and you will have the power to see whatever is more recent any time you look.
Now, these ten hashtags can be used to save a little cash while create a more self sufficient, sustainable and eco-conscious lifestyle. All with a simple search and follow.
5 For Saving Money
#savings – This hashtag will give you a ton of options for deals which are linked from both personal and company profiles. However, sometimes they can be a little hard to navigate because they use locations to specify the deal. For example, you can find savings in Boston, or in Atlanta. You might want to narrow it down a bit to find what you are looking for.
#frugality – If you are looking for tips on how to save money in your day to day life, you will get a lot of them here. #frugality is a hashtag used by people all over the web to tell about how they managed to save a few dollars, or links to specials they have come across. But mostly, there are ideas such as biking, using phones during certain hours or places to buy items more cheaply second hand.
#deals – This are almost exclusively online deals from companies or websites that are third party for the stores. They provide small explanations of those promotions, with a link out. AmazonDeals commonly uses this hashtag, as does SheSpeaksDeals and others.
#bargains – I have noticed a lot of freebies posted under this Twitter hashtag, which is a plus. Otherwise, it is just a way of expressing excitement for personal account users on getting deals, which can give you a nudge in the right direction. There are also some savings sites that use it to talk about clearance or sales items on online shops.
#coupons – Everyone loves coupons, right? This hashtag will point you to coupons from all over the web, as well as for in-store deals you can print. Sometimes they just send you to linked sales pages from local shops, which shows specials currently being offered. This becomes a much more active hashtag between the months of October – December, especially with Black Friday right around the corner, and predictions popping up everywhere.
5 For A Sustainable Life
#sustainability – Saving resources is an important part of protecting our world. Especially in a time where the natural items given from the Earth are so often exploited, with increasingly dire consequences. #sustainability is all about eliminating waste through better methods of extraction, policies and using what is already available to us before going for something new.
#slowfood – You know all about “fast food” and the problems that come along with it. Now, there is a focus on “slow food”, or that which is gained, made and traded in a more positive way. This assists in both the planet, the people and local economies, and can be equated to fair trade on a very basic level. This hashtag has tweets all about that process, and how you can get involved.
#sustainable – Rather than used alone, this hashtag is usually combined with others that give it context, such as #greenliving, #corporateresponsibility and others. It is similar to the #sustainability hashtag, in that it informs and promotes on the process of more replenishing and responsibly using resource, as well as finding better ways to do things.
#susty – This is a more obscure tag that uses an abbreviation to speak about sustainability. It is usually put in posts by individual users rather than foundations or companies. It is also almost always partnered with other hashtags to generate context and make it easier to share with others.
#sustainableagriculture – Sustainable agriculture is not a new concept, but it is one that it just developing mainstream followers and interest. It is a means or producing and transporting food that is positive for the environment, as well as for the people who consume it. This usually include organic farms, but also anything that is part of a program to deplete hunger on both local and global scales, through distribution. You will also find posts dedicated to proper animal treatment in the agricultural process, as well.
Conclusion
It is interesting how sustainability and money saving go hand in hand. When you make a real effort to reduce the use of resources, you will be reusing or limiting the use of a number of products. This means cash saved for you as your spending goes down, and a positive feeling of helping yourself and others out.
Twitter has made it simpler than ever to share in this process and learn how to do it more effectively. If you are a tweeter, but hashtags do you use toward this purpose? Let us know in the comments, as well as how it has been helping you to change your life.
Annie is a frugal writer for Life Insurance Finder, a money-saving resource based in Australia.
It seems like Gdgt is having a very busy 24 hours at the moment. There have been reports that Gdgt has signed a new deal with Engadget to provide product based information at the bottom of all their articles. This is a big deal for Gdgt as it provides them with millions of readers each month and opens the doors to a lot of the AOL network.
Additionally, Gdgt is rumoured to be in talks with Cnet who want to acquire the company. There were no details on the numbers and founders declined to comment.
Gdgt is a great technology product database and its great to see them growing nicely.
p.s. It also helps if your founders also founded Engadget.. the largest gadget site on the web!
As males are usually the ones playing video games (or so it’s assumed), it makes sense that guys would make up the majority of the gaming industry. The number of women employed in the field is paltry in comparison. However, the Entertainment Software Association conducted research in 2011 showing the number of females in the industry is on the rise, and women now make up 42 percent of all gamers. Females over the age of 18 are one of the quickest growing gamer demographics. Although video game studies aren’t so prevalent a field yet that there are any PhD options online, dedicated game development education is also growing and seeing an influx of female students. Despite this swelling of the ranks, women still have a hard time finding their way into the professional field of video games. Not only do they remain in the minority, they’re also paid less than their male counterparts.
Females are rarely treated with the same respect as males in the gaming industry, both in online and real-life interactions. Women working in the world of gaming aren’t taken as seriously as men. What continues to makes things even worse is the prevalent portrayal of females in video games: many are dressed in provocative clothing to accentuate extra-large busts, like the archetypal Lara Croft. Tammy Yap, a video game programmer for six years, says she asked one of her male colleagues (she was the only female) why women were always dressed like Vegas show girls. After all, this might offend some women and drive them away from gaming. The reply she received was: “What difference does it make? Women don’t play games.” Her colleague’s retort serves as a good example of the general attitude of most men when it comes to women gamers.
Unfortunately, female gamers aren’t getting their opinions attended to in the video game world. With so few women working in the industry, the video game market is close to being entirely ruled by men. Without having a female representative making her voice heard in the industry, female gamers won’t find as many games that they’re interested in on the market. Famous video game producer Denise Fulton thinks if more women played video games, then more women would start landing jobs in the industry. The consensus is that they would if more games were available that were more appealing to female players.
Playing video games is still branded as a boyish hobby. Women looking to enter the gaming industry already have it tough, but the rate at which they are finding jobs may stagnate if fellow female gamers aren’t willing to step up. Thankfully, this path has already begun being forged by prominent gaming women such as Morgan Webb and Denise Fulton, and indeed the evidence suggests the number of girls playing games is rising. Perceptions are already changing, and it may be only a matter of time before women’s presence in the game industry better reflects their growing numbers among players.
Wikileaks seems to be fighting their biggest battle yet! Funding!
“WikiLeaks has lost an estimated 95% of donations due to financial blockade,” WikiLeaks spokeswoman Kristinn Hrafnsson said. “It could have received 40 million to 50 million Euros if it weren’t for the blockade,” she added.
Wikileaks has been blocked via Paypal, Visa and more. However, there are other ways to donate. All you need to do is check out their support page for full details.
p.s. not sure if these donations are tax deductable.
It has been leaked that Nokia will be launching their first Windows Phone 7 mobile phones next week. There is still no word on exactly what the devices will be called, but they will all be running Windows Mobile 7.5
We hope to have more details on the release in the coming days.
As you may have heard the official Steve Jobs biography is out. It is going to be an amazing book that gives a huge amount of insight into the man behind the Apple. The Steve Jobs biography is already available on the Kindle and in the iBook store.
Ive embedded the 60 minutes interview with Walter Isaacson, the authorized biographer of Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs.
This new device aims to enhance your multimedia experience, its called SMELLIT. SMELLIT allows you to smell you favourite movies and video games. It has a very interesting design that looks quite a lot like desktop speakers.
SMELLIT is still in prototype, so we still dont know the exact details on what smells the device will be able to produce. However, there are a lot of times when I watch tv when Im very glad I dont have smellivision.
Google has just released their new flagship Android phone, the Google Galaxy Nexus. There is a quick run down of the Google Galaxy Nexus specs against other mainstream smartphones.
