Combine your cash gift cards

Over the years I’ve gotten a number of ‘cash’ gift cards (Visa, American Express) which, unlike a store gift card from Starbucks or Target, act like debit cards. They have a cash value that you can use anywhere. What would often happen is, I’d use part of the balance on the card, but leave some remainder. I’d forget about the card or I just didn’t want to deal with using multiple cards when paying for a purchase. Eventually I’d take the card(s) out of my wallet and they’d …

Netflix bait-and-switch?

I’m a HUGE fan of Netflix. I started with them around 1998, when they only offered DVDs. They were the first major player in what became the streaming video market. Today, I looked up a movie I’ve wanted to see – “Due Date”. When I did the search on Google, the page on the left is what came up… when I hovered over the movie poster, the “Play” icon was displayed, with the text “Start Your Free Trial to Watch”. Once I signed in, I went to play …

A new search box trend

Recently I’ve seen several websites that are ‘hiding’ the site search functionality. I don’t understand why… and I don’t like it. It’s hard enough to find what you’re looking for in a lot of modern navigation bars. Now with just a search ‘icon’, it makes it even harder to find. Here’s two of the many examples I’ve seen lately: Rally Software DealNews.com I think it’s much easier to quickly scan for that search text field – everyone is use to it, it’s easier to find than a single …

Another reason to use Google Voice

I’ve been on Google Voice for several years, though I only fully committed to it about 3 years ago. “Fully” meaning that I changed my phone number everywhere and started telling friends and family to stop using the ‘physical’ number attached to the mobile. For those who haven’t used/heard of Voice, the basic idea is this – one number for everything. If you call me (my Google Voice number), my home, work, mobile phone and even my computer will all ring at the same time. So no more …

Delete a single URL from your Chrome history

Have you ever mis-typed a web address only to have that stupid URL come back every time you start to type the correct address? You’d like to be able to type just a few letters, then when the right page ‘auto-completes’, just hit ENTER to go there? Yeah – but that doesn’t work if you fat-fingered the 8th letter… so then you have to use the down arrow key or grab the mouse and click the right one (or just keep typing the whole thing!) Here’s a tip …

EZQuickOrder mobile app

If you’ve been to Qdoba, Chipotle, McDonald’s or ANY food location at Disneyland, there’s a good chance you’ve stood in line for at least several minutes waiting to order. Usually you use that wait time to study the menu and get everyone’s orders figured out. Imagine a big QR code around the entrance or line for the restaurant you’re waiting at, suggesting that you pre-build your order. The customer scans the code, which takes them to a simplified mobile version of the restaurant’s menu, with the instructions to …

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