Best Android Free Financial Apps

My Top Favourite Free Android Financial Apps

First Published Date: March 1, 2012 ADawnJournal.com

Technology has made it possible to keep your money manager in your pocket or in your bag these days. Stay on top of your finances like a Pro with these free Android money management and financial apps. Today, I am going to discuss some of my favourite android apps I keep handy on my cell phone and on my tablet.

Mint.com Personal Finance by Intuit Inc. – View all your accounts and manage your money in one place with this Android app. This seems to be the only one app that works with all major Canadian banks. Don’t forget to make it password protected on your smart phone or tablet.

Stocks by Dato – View your stock portfolio or world stock markets on your screen with the Stocks app. It has the ability to sync with Google Finance portfolios and view all stocks saved on Google finance. It also supports Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange.

Gold Live by Kitco Metals Inc. – This app lets you view precious metals like gold, silver, platinum live prices and also keep world stock markets and financial news at your fingertips with various charts and data. Gold Live does not come with a widget, but its home screen is customizable and neat enough to install this app on your phone or tablet.

Bloomberg for Smartphone or Tablet by Bloomberg LP – Get world financial news, world market data, stock tracking tools, major currency exchange rates, and much more from Bloomberg. It brings so much information that it can be overwhelming, but if you would like to keep on top of the global financial news, this is for you.

Exchange Rates by Russell Wilson – A very simple, but packed- with- features currency converter. Ad-free content and a minimalistic screen make this app better than other currency converter apps on the market.

Link: https://market.android.com/

Did You Get Your Free Canadian Phone Number For Android, Apple Smartphone or Tablet?

Dell Launches Dell Voice – A Free Phone For Canadians

First Published Date: March 8, 2012 ADawnJournal.com

(Dell Voice is now Fongo at Fongo)

Dell recently rolled out their free VOIP phone service Dell Voice for Android, Apple, and Windows devices exclusively for Canadians. A Blackberry version will soon be launched as well. Dell Voice is powered by Fongo, a VOIP tech company located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

How Does Dell Voice Work?

Dell Voice is an app that you need to install on your smartphone or tablet. You will be asked to choose your free Canadian phone number from the available cities across Canada during registration. I was not able to get a Toronto area code number 416 or 649. However, I was able to get area code 289 number – which is a local number for Toronto as well. If you would like to port your existing number, a $25 charge applies.

Is Dell Voice Is Really Free?

Dell Voice uses Internet to place and receive calls. You can receive unlimited calls on your device and place calls to most of the Canadian cities for free regardless of your location, as long as you have Internet connection (3G, 4G, WiFi). Dell Voice also comes with voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding up to 3 separate numbers, 911 emergency service, and much more – all for free.

A Few Things You Need to Be Aware Of

Dell Voice uses your Internet or phone’s data connection to make calls. It uses 1 MB per minute of your data when you are on a call. If you do not have an unlimited data plan on your phone, keep an eye on your data uses as you may exceed your allocated data plan. You can easily keep an eye on your data uses by installing a data monitor application on your phone. If you are using Dell Voice to make and receive calls using your home’s Internet connection via WiFi, keep an eye on your broadband uses if your plan is not unlimited.

Also, to keep your free Canadian phone number forever, don’t forget to use Dell Voice at least once every 90 days. You can easily avoid the deletion of your free number by buying a VoIP unlock key, if you are planning to use it every 90 days.

The World Is Your Local Area Code

The possibilities are endless with Dell Voice. The whole world is your local call as long as you have a smartphone or tablet and an Internet connection. This is a must-have app for global travellers as it breaks the barriers and boundaries of placing and receiving local calls anywhere on earth. For example, on my upcoming trip to the Philippines, I will have my Asus Transformer Tablet with me. With the Dell

Voice app, I will be able to make local calls to Canada from the Philippines and my friends and family will be able to call me local from Canada as well, although I am 7000 miles away.

Last Word

Currently, Skype does not offer a paid or a free Canadian phone number to receive calls and it charges $2.99 per month to make calls within the USA and Canada. Google Voice keeps promising a big time roll out in Canada, but it does not look like it will happen anytime soon in the near future. Dell Canada’s launching Dell Voice is the right move in the right direction to secure its place in the competitive VoIP sector, as VoIP is the future of telecommunications.

Online Grocery Shopping During COVID-19 Coronavirus | Tips & Tricks

Longo's Grocery Gateway vs. Metro Online Compare | Which Online Grocery Is Better

When it comes to online grocery shopping, it works mainly two ways. You can grocery shop online directly from the grocery supermarket itself or you can go through a 3rd party provider who will let you pick items from multiple groceries and will deliver them to your doorstep for a fee.

These fees can be hefty depending on how many items you buy or how many different grocery stores or supermarkets you use to pick your items. Some of these providers are Cornershop, Easy Peasy Grocery Delivery, Inabuggy, Instacart, and many others.

I tried to buy from 2 grocery supermarkets, Longo’s and Metro, who provide online grocery services and deliver their own groceries through their own online stores Grocery Gateway and Metro Online.

Both of these online grocery stores have a $50 minimum purchase requirement and delivery fees are $10 (Grocery Gateway) and $12 (Metro).

I was able to pick my items, but there were no time slots available for delivery as far as their system allowed. Due to the COVID-19 situation, people bought and booked these slots some time ago.

Metro showed one time slot available, but when I tried to grab it, it seemed like their system was not functioning properly and I was unable to book it. You will see more in the video.

Metro’s cart didn’t show the total when I was purchasing items. It only showed the number of items instead. To see if I met the minimum, I had to click on the cart each time after adding an item, which didn’t make sense.

Grocery Gateway showed my total from any page, without clicking on the cart.

Overall, I found Longo’s Grocery gateway offered a better user-friendly layout and an overall pleasant online grocery shopping experience. Things were much more organized than Metro and everything was easier to find.

How To Get Free Internet (No Kidding)

Get Free Hi-Speed Internet for Your Home and Save $50 or More per Month

First Published: May 11, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

Is This A Trick To Make Me Read Your Article?

The purpose of this article is not to trick you to read it by giving unrealistic tips such as going to an Internet cafe or Wi-Fi hotspot zone and sit there all day long to have free Internet access; or not to give you an even more nonsense tip such as drive around the neighbourhood to find an unsecure Internet network and sit in front of that house in your car with your laptop to have free Internet access (and oh yes, don’t forget to keep an eye out for police cruisers).

The purpose of this article is to give you enough information to have free Internet at home and at outside – without paying for a separate Internet connection. I will tell you what you need to save around $50 per month, and I will also tell you what you can do to overcome some technological limitations – if you are not a tech savvy person. However, after learning about all the tips and tricks, just like anything else, some of you may not want to go through the pain and hassle (if you think it that way) to save $50 a month – and that is perfectly understandable. However, I will tell you this that I have been using free Internet and saving $50 a month for 4 months now since I discontinued my regular Internet service in January 2011.

What You Must Need To Have Free Internet

Here is what you must need to have this work for you:

An Android smart phone (same procedure mentioned here should work for other smart phones; however, I use Android and am only familiar with Android)

A phone plan with unlimited data. In Canada, Mobilicity and Wind Mobile offer unlimited data plan.

A tethering app or software

A USB/micro USB cable

What Is Tethering?

Tethering is the process in which you use your smart phone to get Internet access for your laptop or desktop. Your smart phone and your computer can be connected via USB cable or wirelessly via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection.

How Do I Actually Connect My Smart Phone and Computer To Get Free Internet Access?

The way I do it, and this is the easiest way to tether with an older version of the Android operating system, is to use a USB cable and very user-friendly tethering application such as Easy Tether.

Here are the steps in order:

You need to install tethering software on your computer and smart phone. There are many available on Android market so you can pick the one that suits your needs. I use Easy Tether.

Connect your computer and smart phone via a cable.

You may need to change some settings on your phone. The tethering software’s website will tell you what settings need to be changed and it should not be that complicated.

What If I Am Not Tech-Savvy Enough To Do It On My Own?

Tethering is not hard to do; however, I realise that some of you may not be able to do it. What can you do in that case? Find someone else to do it for you. If you know a high school kid who is on the Internet 24/7 in your neighbourhood or even in your home, most likely this kid will be able to do it for you.

Another easy way to find someone is to check cell phone stores. The folks who works there are usually very tech-savvy and they can do it for you in a snap. One geeky guy at my phone store did a lot of work for me when I first bought my smart phone, as I had even no idea how to pick up a call on a smart phone. As a token of appreciation, I gave him some cigars upon returning home from Cuba. This is the guy who also taught me how to tether. One point here – don’t expect someone to work for free for you. Offer them money and they will be happy to go the extra mile for you and it is only fair. For example, offer someone $100 to set up tethering for you and I can almost tell you with certainty that this will be an offer someone won’t be able to refuse. Don’t worry about spending $100 when you will be saving $50+ a month on a regular basis.

Technology Makes Life Easier

In newer versions of Android phones, you will not have to go through setting up tethering and so on to enjoy free Internet. Google has added built-in tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot functionality so you can tether easily or use your smart phone as a high-speed wireless modem to share an Internet connection among many computers.

The Last Word

My smart phone does not support Wi-Fi hotspot functionality – so I am limited to have Internet only on one computer at a time. I am hoping to get a new version of the Android phone shortly so I can have Internet on all my computers at the same time. And yes, with the money I am saving after disconnecting my regular Internet – which comes out to be about $600 annually (12 X $50), I can afford to buy a new phone shortly.

Is Chromebook Going to Be A Bridge to The Future of Computers?

Google’s Attempt to Change Our Behaviour

First Published Date : May 18, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

Google just unveiled its new cloud-based laptop that runs on Google’s Chrome operating system. Acer and Samsung will the first to bring netbooks based on the Chrome OS platform. Bringing a computer based on a brand new concept is Google’s newest attempt to change how consumers use their computers and possibly build a bridge from the present to the future world of computers. However, will Google be successful building this bridge? Today, I am going to discuss some advantages and disadvantages of web-based computers like Chromebook and then you can decide whether it will succeed or will be a failure.

Advantages

You can forget about installing and updating software, running anti-virus, and so on. It’s all done automatically.

Takes 8 seconds to boot.

It’s always connected to the Internet, as Chromebook uses the Internet as its hard drive.

Low-power consumption and the battery lasts much longer than a traditional laptop

Runs much smoother than a traditional Windows-powered laptop

Disadvantages

People are not yet comfortable enough with cloud computing. It will be hard to overcome the psychological barrier of surrendering personal data on Google servers.

You will not be able to download and install programs you have known and used at length onto Chromebook. As you will not be able to use many programs you require on a daily basis, having a Chromebook will be meaningless.

As Chromebook is powered by the Internet, it will be dysfunctional (most of the applications) if there is no Internet access. However, as far as my understanding goes, some of the apps may work without the Internet. So, you are buying something for which you need to have an Internet connection 24/7 – which is not practical for many of us. For example, if you use the Toronto subway to commute or having a coffee at a coffee shop in the world’s largest underground shopping complex PATH in downtown Toronto, a Chromebook netbook will be useless.

Priced at $350 to $500, it’s not cheap and available only from two manufacturers.

Last Word

The main thing to overcome here is the psychological barrier. A product made to change our traditional computer experience will not be a smooth transition for sure. If you would like to get a feeling of what Chromebook will be like, try using only Google Chrome browser and all the applications only accessible via Chrome for a week – and you will get a feel for it. Coming back to our question – is Chromebook going to build a bridge to the future? It all depends on how consumers react.