iPAD SOCIAL APP
Addicted to your social network?
MyPad is a social-networking junkie’s dream, or a solution for anyone frustrated by Facebook’s Timeline format. It provides access to Facebook and Twitter accounts from one program. The free app was clearly designed with Facebook in mind, laying out the social network’s features — such as photos, messages and events — in an easy-to-use format. The Twitter integration could use some tweaks, though, as you can’t view Twitter lists from the app. MyPad does provides some extras beyond Facebook and Twitter, such as quick access to Hype Machine, a free music streaming service.
Andy Vuong, The Denver Post
DEVICE REVIEW
Sony’s lackluster SmartWatch
Sony Corp.’s SmartWatch is sort of a remote control for smartphones, taking many of the phone’s most useful features out of your pocket and strapping them on your arm. The $149.95 gadget is a little plastic and chrome cube, about the size of Apple’s smaller iPods. It clips to a large rubber wristband, but you can easily fasten it to a pocket or the strap of a backpack. Unfortunately, like so many other Sony products, the SmartWatch has a half-baked feel. Its performance is sluggish at times, its software can seem a little primitive and its wireless radio system is unreliable. But there is a germ of a good idea here.
Hiawatha Bray, The Boston Globe
“CENTSIBLE SAVER”
New to couponing …
Q: I’m new to couponing and was wondering what is the best way to get multiple coupons for items that you like and use?
A: There are several ways to get multiple coupons for the items you purchase most often. Here are a few of the methods I use:
• Purchase additional Sunday newspapers.
• Attend a coupon swap. Get together with friends who coupon and share your unwanted coupons. At a swap, folks gather and pass envelopes full of coupons in a circle. Take the coupons you want and pass the rest until all the envelopes make it around the circle.
• Start a coupon train, which is essentially a more informal and more time-efficient version of a swap. Save your unwanted coupons in an envelope and pass them to a couponing friend. That person will remove the coupons he or she wants, add new ones and pass to the next couponer.
• Print coupons online. Most coupon sites will allow you to print two of each coupon offered.
Amy Dunn is McClatchy Newspapers’ “Censible Saver.” To send her a question: adunn@newsobserver.com
