The Economist comes to the iPhone and iPad, hopes to get a million readers in three years originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Capital One offers you a different loan APR depending on your Web browser originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Most carriers don't just offer one cellphone package; you usually get a wide variety of options - how many text messages per month, how much data traffic, how many minutes, etc.

Up until today, I would usually lean towards the "unlimited" options, just because it made me feel safer. After all, nobody likes to find out at the end of the month that they were charged extra for going over the limit. And even if your provider sends you a "usage warning" SMS before you go over the limit, that's no fun.

Stats is a free, comprehensive Android app that seeks to help out with exactly this situation. This little gem quietly collects all of the stats concerning your phone usage: data in and out over 3G and over Wi-Fi (separately), SMSes sent and received, minutes called and received - everything.

You can also set up limits, and the app notifies you when you hit that limit. It's very useful for benchmarking, too. For example, if you're curious to know how much data one minute of Skype consumes, just check Stats first, make a call, and then check Stats again.

Stats is completely free, and it has no in-program banners or other nags. I highly recommend it.

Stats is a great Android app for tracking phone usage originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 09 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Cost of living calculations are really tricky. They require a ton of data, and the data keeps shifting and changing. So, when you're trying to figure out the relative difference in cost of living between two places, it's best to have more than one source.

Some time ago, I wrote about Expatistan, and commenter Jack recommended Numbeo in reply. He says that it "seems to be a bit better," and I tend to agree.

Both sites suffer from a pretty abysmal UI and visual design, but Numbeo's data feels a bit more solid. One key thing that's missing is the use of dates. For example, the site claims that a meal at a cheap restaurant in Toronto goes for 9.39 USD. When was this data point added to the site? These things tend to change; if it's a year old, it's probably a lot less reliable than if it's a month old.

That said, the site can give you a general sense of what it costs to live somewhere and what the median pay is there.

Thanks for the tip, Jack! If anyone knows of a better, more reliable tool, please share in the comments!

Comment followup: Numbeo is another (better) cost of living calculator originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When I wrote about Amazon price tracker Tracktor, commenter Accounts pointedly remarked, "camelcamelcamel.com blows this site out of the water." Boy, he was right.

Despite its odd name, camelcamelcamel is a serious-looking Amazon price tracker, with a Firefox add-on and a Chrome add-on. The site uses a chart format similar to Tracktor's (I don't know who's imitating who here, though).

They track other vendors, too. There's camelbuy for Best Buy, camelegg for Newegg, and a couple of other sites.

The homepage offers four tabs that feature products with recent price drops. You can see Top Daily Drops in absolute numbers (USD) or by percentage. The same goes for Top Weekly Drops (absolute or percentage).

They also support local Amazon subsites: Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK. They also provide something they call "Camel Concierge," which is a fancy name for a Twitter client that DMs you when items you want drop in price. That feature comes in handy if you prefer Twitter to RSS. However, you can also subscribe to a per product RSS feed that shows recent price changes in the product you're interested in.

Thanks for the tip, Accounts! If any of you know of better options, leave a comment!

Comment follow-up: camelcamelcamel tracks Amazon prices originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 14 May 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Stock traders are among the many groups of people who have taken up Twitter as a way to discuss their interests. They've even developed their own shorthand; a stock symbol is typically prefaced with a dollar sign, such as $MSFT, and tweets that discuss stocks often end with two dollar signs.

Stock Tweet App has taken these conventions and used them to build a custom interface for viewing Twitter with a scrolling live stream of all stock-related tweets. Alternatively, you can use the Custom Stock List option to type in the symbol for a few stocks you're interested in tracking, and only tweets concerning those stocks will be shown.

We've previously covered StockTwits in this space, and while they cover the same ground functionally, the styles of the two sites are very different. Of the two, I prefer Stock Tweet App, but there's a sneak peek of a new beta version of StockTwits available which is worth checking out.

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Stock Tweet App makes tracking Twitter stock discussions easy originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TradingSim lets you practice day trading (and I ask if it's any good) originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Quicken Essentials for Mac shows Mint.com's influence originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Microsoft posts devilish Q4 earnings of $6.66 billion originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Don't forget to feed your kids during the economic downturn -- use this iPhone app!! originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

BillShrink now helps you find the best bank accounts, CDs originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Intuit buys Mint.com, sends users running

Intuit buys Mint.com, sends users running originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Portfolio: Free, flashy stock tracker based on Adobe AIR originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Track your spending online with TextHog originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Quicken offers coupons to attract abandoned Microsoft Money users originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's time to say goodbye to Microsoft Money originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Is Rudder's security breach really serious or is the web overreacting?

Is Rudder's security breach really serious or is the web overreacting? originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 20 May 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

DailyFinance for iPhone originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Keeping track of billable hours is a crucial task for companies and individuals alike. And although there are literally hundreds of time tracking and time card applications, most are designed to be used in a very specific ecosystem. This can get tricky if you are working on a proejct with both employees and contract workers, and your tracking system is only designated to work based with regular employees. If you are a freelancer and you work with clients and collaborate with other developers, time reporting can be even more problematic.

These are the types of hurdles TimeXchange, which officially launched today, hopes to help overcome. TimeXchange, which bills itself as "part web-app, part social network," is designed to reduce data entry redundancy and help people using different backends work and collabrate together more efficiently.

This is how it works: you sign up for a TimeXchange account and create a new project, select your role in the project and then indicate if you are working by yourself or on a team. If working on a team, you can invite other users, indicate what level of control they have (can they approve timesheets, can they see budget and billing information), etc. If you are invited to join a project, you simply respond to an e-mail, and create your own free TimeXchange account so that you can collaborate with the rest of your team.

Here's where TimeXchange is different than a base level time or budget management repository: you can easily export your data into other formats or integrate with other services. You can export your data (either project or individual) as a PDF, CSV or QuickBooks file. In the near future, support for 37Signals Basecamp API and an iGoogle widget will allow you to import existing Basecamp project data and to-do lists.

Continue reading TimeXchange: Simple web-based timesheet management

TimeXchange: Simple web-based timesheet management originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

FreshBooks launches industry bookmarks originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.