The second biggest New Year’s resolution, after losing weight is  getting your financial house in order.  Many people start the New Year vowing to pay down debt or committing to finally knowing where their dollars are being spent.  Increasing or starting your savings on top of that would just be icing on the cake.  Keeping track of your money has never been an easy task which is why there’s Mint, the online personal finance manager.

Mint is a free web-based personal financial management service that allows users to have a full view of their financial situation.  Once you sign up, you provide Mint with access to all your financial accounts (banks, credit cards, credit unions, investments, loan transactions, etc.) to track all your expenses through a single user interface.  Mint automatically categorizes each transaction then provides visual graphs and pie charts showing exactly how you’re spending your money.  Users can also set up budgets and make goals along with the option to manually enter transactions.  

Mint provides bank-level data security for the transaction information stored on the site and provides an extra level of comfort by being a read-only service.  That means you can only view and organize your money with Mint but you cannot move money between or out of accounts.  Mint also provides you with 24/7 protection by having a proactive email and text alert system to notify users about any large or unusual purchases in any of their accounts.

The best feature about Mint is that unlike other personal accounting software like Quicken, there is no need to hold onto receipts since Mint takes the transactions directly from your financial accounts and updates the transactions automatically in real-time.  

There is an app for both the iPhone and Android market along with the ability to access it from your Yahoo home page.   

So stop trying to be a bookkeeper and finally get control of your finances.  Start using Mint today.

Happy Web Wednesday!

There are so many mobile applications in the marketplace today that I normally stick to web sites for Web Wednesday’s - until now! Bump!

Found in October 2008, Bump is an innovative mobile app that allows users to exchange information by literally bumping their mobile phones together to exchange information, kind of like a digital fist-bump. The technology is available for both the iPhone and android marketplace and even works with the iPad. With more than 15 million downloads so far, the company is seeking to bridge the gap that exists between the physical and digital worlds.

The technology is so revolutionary that iOS users can do a “virtual bump” which allows you to connect with friends in your address book that also have the bump app even if you can’t physically bump their device.

Bump is such a ground breaking app, that once you download it you can share much more than just contact information. You can share your calendar, photos; even connect on social networks like Facebook and Twitter using Bump. The company has a growing API team that is creating new applications for the product like:

• Bump money into a friend’s PayPal account
• Exchange Stick it Notes
• Play a virtual game of darts
• Share the Top 100 songs
• Recommend Wines by the bar

So download Bump today and start finding countless, fun and unique ways to share information with your friends.

Happy Web Wednesday!

Deep down inside, we all wished we were singers or musicians at some point in our lives. Don’t believe me? Check out the numerous television shows competing for your attention like “American Idol”, “Making the Band” or “America’s Got Talent”.  If you wanted to perform right now, there are probably a few Karaoke bars within 15 miles of where you live.  And if performing in front of the mike isn’t your thing, who among us doesn’t like producing a beat with Garage Band on the Mac?  Now if you can hum a tune and have a microphone and computer, UJAM just might turn you into the next Beyonce or P. Diddy.

 
Founded by musicians Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams in 2010, UJAM is a cloud-based platform that allows anyone from novice to skilled musician to easily create and produce real music.   Start a session by singing, humming or whistling a melody or song into your computer. You  can also use the audio file that is already on your hard drive.  The UJAM music editor lets you change the instruments, tempo, pitch, and mix between vocals and music to create your own composition.

Once you’re done composing, you can save your work for another session or download the finished product into an MP3 format.   Your masterpiece can be currently shared on Facebook, with other social networks sure to be on the way soon.

It is free to create an account on the site which is still in beta, and the user can produce up to ten songs. 

UJAM can be a great resource for anyone who needs to produce music for a project on a very limited budget. So, for a drop dead easy way of turning noise into the joy of music, check out UJAM today.

Happy Web Wednesday!

If you’re like me, you probably rely on friends more than so-called critics for your entertainment selections. After all, who knows more about what you like than the people who know you best.  With the explosion of social networks, it was only a matter of time before someone took the concept of recommendations to another level. That someone is Getglue.

GetGlue  is an entertainment-based social network that allows its users to check-in (like Foursquare) to their favorite entertainment vehicle of choice such as books, movies, music, TV shows, games, gadgets, wine and the like.  Like Foursquare, there are gaming elements that include points, badges and stickers, along with a daily leader board to add to the fun.  The more you check-in, the more GetGlue learns about you and will recommend entertainment options that you might find interesting.  There is even a web browser extension that recognizes pages about movies, TV shows, music, books and other entertainment sites you visit.  It allows users to build their “likes” profile as they surf the web which lets GetGlue offer a more personalized recommendation to the user. 

Follow people just like on Twitter to see what they enjoy; and vote or reply to their comments if you desire. GetGlue allows you to share your check-ins on other social networks like Facebook and Twitter, so you can share your recommendation with your friends, and discover what they like as well.  There is even live streaming so you get to see what your friends or others recommend in real-time. 

GetGlue check-ins can be made on the GetGlue website or through mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Android.  There is even a mobile website (getglue.com/mobile) if you don’t own a Smartphone.

So forget plain Facebook “like” buttons you see everywhere and join in on the hottest growing check-in service- GetGlue.

Happy Web Wednesday! 

The more people you follow on Twitter, the more your timeline starts to resemble endless rows of tweets with links attached.  Who has the time to click on every link to find out what information the link contains? What if you had the ability to see a brief description of each link as you scroll through your Twitter timeline? Or better yet, the ability to see the full content of the link by double clicking on it? Now you can using Lazyscope.

Lazyscope is an Adobe Air application, which can be downloaded to Windows, Mac or Linux. Once you’ve downloaded it, you sign into your Twitter account and you’ll see your feed on the left with an empty pane on the right.  If there’s a link in your left pane, you’ll see a preview of the content.  Double clicking on that preview brings the full view of the link on the right side of the application.   

Lazyscope features the exact Twitter layout so you will see your favorites, messages, Twitter lists, and notifications. You can even post your tweets just like you would from the web site.

So starting using x-ray vision for your Twitter feed, check out Lazyscope!