The Convenience of Transferring Money – Zoompass

I realize I haven’t been posting in a while. I’ve been preoccupied lately, but I’ll try to get back on track and posting on a regular basis.

Today, I’ll be talking about an App that I’ve been using for over a year now that I find very beneficial, but unable to convince people to sign up for it. That app is Zoompass.

So what is Zoompass? It’s basically a pre-paid MasterCard that’s also tied to a mobile app. Now you might be wondering why you would ever need a prepaid MasterCard when you already have Credit Cards, and that is why you’re reading this article.

So, I’ll start of with what I think is the number one benefit of using this app. For starters, it’s free to transfer money to other users. So if you ever come across a situation where you have to split a bill unevenly, you’ll be able to send and receive money to another user to the penny. I know sometimes it’s only a few dollars, but I really hate overtipping and like to avoid it as much as possible.

Second, is it has PayPass equipped. If you don’t know what PayPass is, it’s a new feature equipped on a lot of new Credit Cards which allows you to tap the card rather than swiping, or using the chip. It saves a lot of time for quick transactions at Tim Hortons where you just want to get in and out as quickly as possible.

Third, it’s a Credit Card. I have a lot of friends who have made mistakes over the years with their credit and just can’t get approved for any credit card. Now that really sucks, because there are many things that require a credit card before you can even sign up. Fortunately, there are prepaid solutions such as Zoompass to solve that problem.

The final feature I’ll be talking about is International Transfers. Zoompass is tied to Western Union, so if you plan on making any transfers via Western Union, you can do it all from your phone. There’s no longer a need to visit a Western Union branch just to send money to your relative in another country.

If you’re interested in signing up, visit the Zoompass website. After you fill out the form, and you’ll receive your very own Zoompass MasterCard in the mail shortly after.

Now I should mention that there are some fees associated with this card. They are very easy to avoid as long as you stay within their guidelines. You have to remember that it is a prepaid CreditCard, so it must always have a balance on it in order to use it without getting charged. With that being said, I’ve never had to pay a penny since I’ve had it. I have it set to automatically take money out of my bank account once it drops below a certain balance. You can learn more about the fees on their Feed & Limits page.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading this and considered signing up. Hopefully this App will eventually become popular and I can start using it with others I know.

Why MacBooks are cheaper than PCs in the long run

As you might know by now, I am a huge Apple and Macbook fan. If I could only choose one Apple device that I have to stick with for the rest of my life, it would definitely have to be the Macbook. Yes, they do have a high initial cost, there’s no denying that, but in the long run I think you’ll be saving a lot of time and money and here’s why:

1. No viruses

Say what you will, but I’ve owned MacBooks for 5 years now and have never had a virus once. I should also mention that I download a lot of stuff and browse a lot of sites. My bandwidth usage is through the roof. Now I’m not saying it’s not possible to get a virus on a Mac, it is very possible. It’s just that nobody I know that owns a Mac has ever gotten one. Can you say the same about a PC? This will save you from a lot of headaches from having to reformat.

2. Longer usage life

This is one of the main reasons why I think it is worth it to invest in a Mac. If this was the only difference from a PC, I would pay the extra money for this reason alone. I’ve probably owned 5 different laptops before I bought my first Macbook, and all of them had the same problem. They would become sluggish after a year or two. Who cares about specs if it’s slow. The problem a lot of other laptops is their hardware is cheap and slow down due to heat. The hardware components in a Macbook are just better and are more able to tolerate the heat.

3. The best of both worlds

It’s true that not all software runs on Macs. A lot of them are only made for Windows, more specifically a lot of games. The great thing about this is that Apple has a great solution for you that they provide at no additional cost; It’s called Bootcamp. It’ll run a virtual copy of Windows on your system that will have the exact same funcationality of a PC you bought anywhere else. I personally use Windows for all my gaming and Mac OS when play time is over. (There’s also Parallels and VM Ware, but I’ll get to that in a future post.)

4. Time Machine Daily Backups

You don’t drive a car without insurance, so why run your system without backups? I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of sensitive information on my hard drive that I’d be devistated if it was lost. It doesn’t happen often, but hard drives do fail, and when it does you don’t want to be stuck without a backup. That’s the great thing about Time Machine, it backs up your hard drive on a regular basis, so you can rewind your Mac to how it was running at a specific time. Windows also has an option for backing up, but it backs up the entire hard drive each time. Not very time or space efficient.

5. Resale value

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve had 5 different laptops before I bought my first Macbook and I have to say that I have not resold any of them. Now it’s not because I couldn’t have sold them. I was just embarrassed to sell someone an old and slow laptop that would frustrate them. I can’t say the same about a Mac, it’s something that I would gladly sell, not to mention their resale value holds up quite well. My friend had a Macbook and decided to upgrade after 6 years, and when she listed it, she ended up getting more than her asking price. There was just that much demand. If you don’t believe me, check out the completed listings on eBay.

6. Looks cool

I don’t know why, but I just think they look really cool. I kinda like to deck mine out with cases and stickers, but they look pretty good bare naked. I like how the monitor lights up the Apple logo and how the keyboard has a backlight. That’s just my opinion though.

So that pretty much sums up my list of why I think it’s worth it to buy a Macbook. Notice that I didn’t mention that the OS was better. This is because I actually kinda like the Windows 7 OS. It actually has some features that I would like Apple to incorperate, but I believe the Mac is just an overall better system inside and out. Let me know if you agree or disagree. I hope if you’re a PC user that after reading this your next notebook purchase will be a Macbook. Just in case it wasn’t already.

How to download any song or audio byte – From Youtube

First I’d like to say that I don’t intend you use this for any illegal purposes. This is written strictly for fair use to inform you of a way of taking a short 10 second audio byte from any YouTube video and putting it in say a presentation you may have. With that said, let’s get started.

After reading this you should be able to extract audio from any YouTube video and convert it into MP3. So there’s really just a few steps you have to follow. I know I’ve been writing a lot of lists lately, and I don’t plan to change it now?

Step 1

Search YouTube for a video that has audio you’d like to extract into an MP3 file. In my example I am going to search for “Summer Paradise” by Simple Plan featuring Sean Paul.

Step 2

Go through the list of videos and select one you find suitable. I suggest listening to the whole video first to ensure that the audio doesn’t cut off somewhere in the middle of the clip.

Step 3

After finding a suitable clip, copy the URL by highlight it, right clicking, and selecting ‘Copy’ from the list.

Step 4

Open a new browser tab if you’d like, but it isn’t required as long as you have the URL copied from the previous step. In the new browser tab, go to the Listen To YouTube website at www.listentoyoutube.com or click the link.

 

Step 5

Scroll down until you see a text box where it asks you to enter the URL. Paste the URL you copied earlier here by right-clicking and selecting ‘Paste’. You then have an option of Standard Quality or High Quality. I suggest you choose high quality since MP3s don’t take up a lot of space anyways. After you’re done, click the blue GO button.

Step 6

The website will then begin extracting your video. It usually take about 30 seconds. More or less depending on the length of the video and the speed of your internet connection.

Step 7

After it is done, you will be displayed with a sponsored ad. You can click on it if it interests you, otherwise click the link at the top that asks you to continue.

Step 8

You will be displayed with a page that says your file is ready for download. Click the link to proceed.

Step 9

Finally, you will be presented with one final button that when you click, your file should begin downloading.

Step 10

The file should be saved in whatever path you set the downloads of your browser to. Insert the file into your presentation or open the file with your favourite music player and enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial. Let me know if there are any other Mac or iOS tutorials you would like me to write about.

Reasons to invest in an iOS or Android smartphone – Key Features of The Maps App

I’m always surprised when people ask me if I had a hard time finding a place. Sometimes I wonder if they just ask for conversation sake or if they actually meant it. In today’s day and age, I really never have a problem finding any place at all. Even in a new city, I find it easy to get around and here’s why: My iPhone’s maps app.

I’m sure by now most of you already own a smartphone with the Maps app equipped, but this article is for people who are thinking about investing in a smartphone, or just didn’t know about the full potential of their Maps app. So I’m gonna go over what I think are 5 of the most important features:

1. Finds locations near you

When I first arrived in Calgary, I was trying to figure out where all the nearest stores were around me. Now some people might do this by searching up addresses in Google and then looking them up on a map, but that’s very tedious and time consuming. With the Maps app, I just search for the name of the place in the search field and it’ll automatically put a pin on all the possible locations for that search criteria. You’ll instantly know all the stores are in that location. How’s that for convenience?

2. It can show you traffic

Have you ever been driving down a route only to think to yourself later, “damn, I should’ve taken the other route.” Well with the Maps app, you’ll be able to avoid that problem. It shows you which routes are heavy with traffic by highlighting them in red, and the ones that are clear by highlighting them in green. As long as you remember to check before rush hour, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what route you should take and save yourself a lot of time.

3. It can show you travel times of different routes you can take by driving, bus, or by foot

Now I really like this feature because it gives me a rough estimate of how long it’s going to take me to get to a place. It’s really useful when you’re trying to figure out what time you should leave your house. It also gives you bus routes with the approximate time the bus will arrive, which will help you out a lot during your commute.

4. Drop a pin to remember where you parked

I’m a sucker for forgetting where I parked. If you ask my friends, they’ll have a number of stories of times where I lost my car. The truth is I usually never bother to make a mental note of where I parked unless I’m by myself. I always expect my friends to remember for me. Well as long as you remember to drop a pin on your parking location, you’ll be able to avoid this problem.

5. Google street view

This is one of my favourite features on the Maps app. It will actually show you what is in the surrounding area. It was especially useful for me when I first moved to Calgary and was looking for a place to stay. I was looking up the addresses of potential places to live, and some of the houses looked beat to hell on street view and already knew it was a place I didn’t want to live. I didn’t even bother to pay a visit and saved a lot of time. It also helps to confirm that a place actually exists in that area.

Well those are the main features I find the most useful in the Maps app. I hope you were able to pick up something from reading this. If there’s anything you think I missed or should have included, please let me know and I’ll try to include it in a future update.

Why I will never use Bell Mobility as my mobile network provider again!

The reason why I actually decided to start blogging again is because I have been having a really bad experiences with Bell Mobility lately and it has angered me so much to the point where I want to share it with the world.

I think Bell is one of THE WORST service providers IN THE WORLD! The only thing I can’t complain about is that their network is fast and it works, but here are the reasons why I will never sign another contract with them again and why you shouldn’t either:

1. Terrible Customer Service

I have never experienced such terrible customer service in my life. To fix a problem on your account, you will literally be on the phone for at least 30 minutes. I’ve actually logged probably 5 hours with them by now, and I’m never going to get that time back. Now it’s not necessarily the customer service agent’s fault, the employees just don’t have the authority to make the changes without consulting their supervisor first. They need to seriously fix this and give them more authority.

2. They’re not flexible

I once accidentally went over on my data usage. I really have no idea how this happened, but somehow on Christmas Eve I managed to use 1GB of data in a span of a day. It ended up adding a whopping $170 to my bill. I definitely was not happy about this, but I was hoping they’d at least be able to do something to soften the burden. THEY CAN’T AND THEY WON’T! You’ll have to eat up those costs. With a stupid policy like that, I wish I had some kind of ripoff insurance. At least inform me or cut off my service. For this reason alone, I would not want to be with Bell for the chance that this might happen again.

3. They’re expensive

There are a lot of cheaper options out there. Wind and Mobilicity both provide unlimited Voice and Data plans for less than $45/month. With Bell you’ll have a limited plan that you’ll pay at least $60/month for. You’ll be stuck in a contract with a high buyout price, and you’ll have a chance of going over your usage and being eaten alive. I usually don’t mind paying more for service, but if you’re going to cost more than the service better be great as well.

4. They will waste your time and tell you things that don’t make sense

I decided that since I went over on my data usage and had to pay a ridiculous amount, I’d counter this by increasing my data to 1GB and paying a little more. What do you think happened? Yes I did have to pay more, but a little more is kind of an understatement.

A whopping $300 more! So I went to check what the problem was…

Something I used to get for free, I was now being charged $30.27/MB for. THIRTY DOLLARS AND SEVENTY CENTS PER MEGABYTE! If that wasn’t icing on the cake, the decided to throw in a $10/MB charge for e-mail and internet just in case I didn’t notice the first one.

Okay, so fine… mistakes happen. I called them to get things sorted out and sure enough I was put on hold for 25 minutes. I know it was 25 minutes, because I was checking the timer on my phone. What happens after the 25 minutes? They hang up. Are you serious? Please pay me $10 for wasting my time. So I called back and it was answered by some guy who could barely speak english and finally I was able to get a hold of a lady. I explained the situation and told her that I didn’t want to be kept waiting because I was already very frustrated.

She informed me that she would have to speak with her supervisor, so I told her to please let me speak to her supervisor, because I really didn’t want to waste anymore time. Finally after wasting another 3o minutes, they finally credited the $290.76 charge for the data usage, but what about the $1o charge for the e-mail usage?

She tried to explain to me that the charge is because I am on a flex plan and that if I pass the 1GB usage, I will automatically be switched to the 3GB plan. Fine, but where does it say that on the bill and why was it only for 1MB? If it’s not stated properly, then I’m not paying for it. Then she began stalling and looking at things on her system and that’s when I just lost it.

Me: I don’t get it, why can’t just credit the $10? Just put it back on my account and stop wasting time. If you can’t do it then let me talk to your supervisor.
Lady: Ok sir, I’m going to talk to my supervisor, can you hold on again for a moment?
Me: Fine.

Finally after another 10 minutes or so, she finally told me that her supervisor approved a credit on the $10 charge and finally concludes my worst customer service experience ever.

I really just hope whoever reads this will try to stay away from Bell Mobility as much as possible. Please share it with your friends so they too can see this scumbag they call a company. Do not fall for their promos, they will eat away at you and waste your time, and then come back later for leftovers. I’ve said it many times before, though they’re not related. TD Canada Trust has the best customer service I’ve ever seen. Sure they charge a lot, but their service is above and beyond. I hope more companies will strive to be like them.

Finally to conclude this post, I want to thank you Bell Canada. Because of you, I summoned the energy and passion to start blogging again. I just really hope you guys try make some changes in the future. If there’s something I learned about customer service, when there’s a problem, you don’t just make it right; You make it right and exceed the customer’s expectations. That’s how you take something negative and turn it into something positive.

#BellMobility hashtag on Twitter. Really? Not one positive tweet?

Birth of my Blog!

Hello readers,

Welcome to my blog! First let me tell you a little about myself. I am Canadian and currently reside in the city of Calgary, Alberta. I am a huge fan of technology and I read and learn about it constantly. I’m always interested on hearing about new gadgets that will shape the future as well as making our lives easier.

A lot of my friends come to me when they need help with their technology, so I’m hoping this blog will be there to help others when they need it. If there are any topics you want covered, please leave me a message or comment. This way I can help you, and also help me to create content for this blog.

For now you can follow me on Twitter for updates. My Twitter username is OSXiOSGod and I will try to tweet on a regular basis.

Please leave me a comment for any questions you may have. Look forward to hearing from you.