GOOGLE WALLET STORES YOUR CARDS

My membership card for a local art museum never arrived. “We don’t use physical cards anymore,” the museum staffer explained. She suggested Google Wallet. The free Google Wallet app for Android now contains my museum card, credit card and loyalty cards from restaurants and stores. It can also store virtual car keys, transit cards and vaccination cards. If I had also been able to store my driver’s license, I would have saved a lot of hassle at the airport recently when I accidentally left my I.D. at home. But the Wallet only accepts driver’s licenses issued in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia or Maryland. With Google Pay, a part of Wallet, I can use my phone instead of a credit card. It’s […]

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REFURBISHED APPLE PRODUCTS FOR LESS

A reader’s seven year-old iMac refused to power on. Apple couldn’t fix it. “They first tried the power fix, which didn’t work, then tried replacing the logic board,” she said, “which also didn’t work.” To repair it would have cost $900. “I am extremely disgusted,” she said. “I paid more than a thousand dollars for it. I think it should last longer than that. But it is what it is. Now I need a new computer.” Unfortunately, a computer that lasts seven years is par for the course. On average, they last three to eight years. But desktops last longer than laptops because they get better airflow, which reduces heat, the enemy of electronic components. It’s also easier to swap […]

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BETTER RETURNS

I felt guilty returning a pair of black pants to Amazon. They will probably be dumped, shredded or both. There’s a name for this: “DIF” or “destroy in field.” Defective gadgets, luxury goods and cheap clothing are all candidates for the shredder. An Amazon spokesman told the New Yorker that nothing goes back on sale after the seal is broken or the wrap is torn. Returning stuff is part of a growing trend. A century ago, only two percent of stuff was returned to J.C. Penney’s department stores. Today, 40 percent of clothing on average goes back to US retailers. Returns are about to get even easier no matter where you do your shopping. A company called “Pollen Returns,” run […]

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GETTING CHEAP STUFF FROM CHINA

A young friend told me that the same $12 necklace from Target is only $1 from China. How is that possible? Chinese sites like Temu rely on a loophole in US customs laws. If a product is less than $800, they can ship it directly to a shopper without being inspected or taxed. There’s a bill in Congress to stop that, but for now you can get amazing deals. Temu is the number one free shopping app in the Apple app store and the Google play store, beating out Amazon and Walmart. Here’s the catch: According to ZDNet, it takes 10 days to deliver your package and it may look different than it did on Temu. But you’re guaranteed a […]

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PUBLISHING YOUR BOOK ON AMAZON

Publishing a book through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing turned out to be both easier and harder than I thought.  After tearing my hair out at first, I discovered Amazon’s template for a five-by-eight inch paperback. I also noticed a lengthy guide and a long video tutorial, but I can never sit through those. So whenever I had a question, I hit the chat button and got a live person. They didn’t always know the answer but kept me moving right along, encouraging me to skip design elements I didn’t need. Besides texting, I could have talked on the phone or emailed them. Each time, they were available within seconds. I’m working on a historical novella for a retired professor of […]

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AVOIDING SCAMS

A reader wrote: “Two days ago my wife was nearly in tears after falling for a scam email that looked exactly like it was from the SAS Shoe site.” She was out $45 bucks. Others are being scammed by phony vaccine surveys. One reader said he was nearly taken in by a fake Pfizer survey, but hovered over the return email, which revealed sketchy-looking characters. If you do a Google search on “PSA post vaccine survey scam,” the US government at ICE.gov will show you exactly what the scammer’s email looks like. Don’t worry if you’ve already opened one. Just don’t click anywhere or open any attachments. There’s still time to panic. Google Pay and Mint Track Your Spending  Sometimes, […]

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WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A WAY

I just made a will using free online tools. I didn’t need a lawyer. I did it all at LawDepot.com during their one-week free trial. LegalDepot has hundreds of templates for legal documents, including power-of-attorney forms. After the free trial, it costs $35 a month or $108 a year if paid annually. I easily finished mine within the freebie period. I was motivated by my local women’s club, which has a special “pinning ceremony” for those who name the club in their wills, even for a small amount. I’m looking forward to getting my pin. Another group I support gave me a free paperweight. When I told the ladies that I was naming the club in my will, they assumed […]

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BRILLIANT APP MAKES US ALL SMARTER

For Christmas, my nephew got me a year’s subscription to an app called “Brilliant.” Maybe I’ll end up being as brilliant as he is.  Brilliant.org has over 60 “STEM” courses (science, technology, engineering and math.) They include everything from pre-algebra to the paradoxes of infinity. There’s a free version, but it only gives you the first few chapters of each topic. The paid version is $150 a year or $25 a month. It’s an amazing way to learn, taking you up a gentle slope until you’re “thinking like a scientist,” or doing advanced statistics, or in my case, learning “science essentials,” which includes the history of important discoveries. I’m  tempted by the cryptocurrency course, which has comic art, but it […]

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BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH PROVES DEADLY

Windows is famous for its startling “blue screen of death.” I got a lighter shade recently. Then my hard drive died. I could have opened my PC, removed the hard drive and installed a new one. Instead, I asked the local repair shop to back up my files on an external drive and install an SSD. The SSD, or “solid state drive,” will be much faster and more reliable.  The shop charged $150 for the backup, much more than the $99 fee BestBuy charges. But that’s because the dying drive made it a slow recovery process. BestBuy’s price also varies with the ease of recovery.  The shop said that installation of the new drive would cost me $275. So before […]

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GETTING A LYFT

The Lyft app often gets my pickup point wrong. Sometimes, I have to walk to a popular restaurant in order to be found. I had an awful time at the airport recently. When I put in the name, O’Hare International, the app should have prompted me to choose a specific pickup zone. It didn’t do that, so I typed in O’Hare’s address. What a mistake. The driver never came near to where I was standing. In the cold frosty air, I twiddled my frozen thumbs. I texted him repeatedly to say I was in “Green Zone D.” I also left a voicemail. When he called me back, I shouted “Green Zone D” over and over. The connection was faulty but […]

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