MAKING A PROFIT FROM AMAZON RETURNS

Around half a trillion dollars worth of stuff is returned to places like Amazon and Walmart every year. Millions of pounds of it wind up in landfills, but you can make money from the rest. Savvy shoppers buy the returned items at stores like “Dirt Cheap.”  Resellers focus on the latest crazes, such as InstaPots, Air Fryers, and massage guns. A couple of nursing school students profiled by NPR’s “Planet Money” say they earn about $800 a week at their local Treasure Hunt store. But they have to endure crazy Black-Friday-like stampedes to get what they want, using binoculars to peek into the store before it opens and heading in the opposite direction of their competitors. An alternative is the […]

Read more

SOMETHING NEW IN GMAIL

Joy’s favorite part of Gmail is the “Undo” button, which allows you to call back an email that on second thought, you shouldn’t have sent. You can set it to hesitate for as long as 30 seconds, which allows for short naps. Now this second-thought-er is available in the free Gmail app for Android and iPhone. To try out the “undo” feature of the Gmail app on your phone, compose a message as you normally would. After you send it, look at the bottom of your screen. Tap “undo.” There’s also a new Gmail look available for your computer. If you’re a Gmail user this new version should pop up as a choice, meaning it will show you what’s new […]

Read more

SEE IT LATER

Pressed for time or feeling sleepy? “Pocket” is a free app for saving articles and pictures to look at later. The app is available for Windows, Macs, phones and tablets. That’s everything but billboards. To get started on your computer, go to GetPocket.com and install it. If you use Firefox as your browser, it comes with it. Once installed, you can click the tiny picture of a pocket in the upper right of your screen any time you want to save an item for later viewing. To find the stuff you’ve saved, click on the pocket and “view list.” It might also save whatever you’re looking at right at that moment at the same time, but live with it. So […]

Read more

ATTENTION MAGAZINE LOVERS

Joy’s friend Frieda loves Atlantic magazine, but never thought to download its app until we suggested it. Come to think of it, we didn’t either. We subscribe to a number of magazines and newspapers but only recently downloaded their apps.

Read more

MAGAZINES ON PARADE

Having magazines on an iPad or Android tablet is a nice idea and costs just $10 a month with an app called “NextIssue.” The app came out two years ago but has improved a lot since then. Back in 2012, there were only 27 magazines available. Now there are 119 for the basic price, and more if you’re willing to pay $15 a month.  A free 30-day trial gives you an idea of what’s available, and a new feature allows you to print out the articles (handy for recipes). Our favorite magazine, “The Economist,” isn’t there, but then, several of its articles are free online each month at economist.com.

Read more

PRINT LIVES

Just when you thought print was dead, along comes a new magazine from the website AllRecipes.com. Instead of going from print to digital, it’s going from digital to print. Of course, the website will still exist, but this November you can get the magazine too. The new “AllRecipes” magazine will cost $12 for a two-year subscription. The initial subscriber base is expected to be 500,000, which is very big. (People are always asking “What’s cooking?”). Print is handy to have in the kitchen. It’s easier to drip tomato sauce on a printed page than on your iPad. Mashable.com reports that print advertising in the food category is up over 10 percent this year. Bon Appetit’s advertising revenue was up 42 […]

Read more

INTERNET PUBLIC LIBRARY

ipl.org : The call letters stand for “Internet Public Library,” a reference service provided by Drexel University dozens of other universities. There are more than 13,000 texts online, plus links to newspapers, magazines and libraries around the world. There are research sections designed for children and teenagers as well as adults. An outstanding service.

Read more

APP HAPPY

Windows 8 users who download the Barnes and Noble “Nook” app can get seven free books and six free magazine subscriptions.

Read more

TAKE IT WITH YOU

Joy uses Bluesquirrel to make yearbooks for her P.E.O. chapter. (The letters stand for Philanthropic Educational Organization.) It’s an old program that has been out for many years but is regularly updated. It was originally designed to easily turn Word documents into small booklets but the latest version can also transfer files to iPhones, iPads and Android tablets.

Read more

BOOKS FOR YOUR INNER INVENTOR

From the mid 19th through the 20 century, America was the world leader in technology. Perhaps the most important driver of those advances was kids who liked to take apart clocks. They took apart other things as well, of course: toasters, radios, automobile engines, etc.

Read more