Tippr.com: A Good Alternative to Groupon

Several months ago I wrote about the wonders of Groupon.com, as they were the quickest out of the gate in the Local Deal of Day arena.   More and more combatants have entered the fray over these last few months and Tippr.com seems to be a standout, as the dust continues to settle.  While all the Groupon knockoffs, ehem, I mean alternatives, seem to be offering great local deals of the day on a consistent basis, I’m getting a little tired of the same old half off a $40 restaurant tab.

Groupon, Living Social, Buywithme, etc all seem to be cycling through the the half off restaurant deals every day, at least in my neck of the woods (Washington, DC/Northern VA area).  So I decided to give Tippr.com a try, and have been impressed with their offerins to date, or at least not as bored with them.

One of the interesting things about Tippr.com that sets them apart from Groupon and the others is their maximum discount on a deal of the day gets bigger as more and more subscribers click to buy it!   I love when I see a local deal that I want, it already is offered at say 50%, and then later in the day after more people have bought, the discount goes up to 75% or more!  Cha-Ching!

Tippr.com is just as easy to use as all the rest:

1. Subscribe at Tippr.com with your email address and select your city of choice and they’ll send you the deals of the day for that city each morning
2. Share it with your friends, colleagues, family, enemies, the dog next door.  Remember, the more people who buy, the more you all save!
3. Click on the Buy Now button. If you like what you see, buy it, and when the deal closes, they email you the voucher which you can print at home and redeem at the vendors place of business or online if it’s an online vendor.

It doesn’t get any easier than that!  They are know to offer deals of the day at local restaurants, spas, retail shops, city events, bars, theaters and more.   They are starting out slow, so the cities they currently offer deals of the day for are:

So the next time you’re feeling the need to save some money, give Tippr.com a try.  And remember….you’ve got to spend money, to save money.

©2010 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

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1. Get Your Groupon: Local Deals Of The Day I discovered Groupon.com on the Today show a couple months...

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Attack of the killer Internet Security 2010 virus or hostage ware.

I pride myself on my stellar record for avoiding virus’s and spyware on my Windows Vista Sony Vaio laptop, so I was slightly amused yet pissed to see the annoying popup in my system tray saying my system is unsafe and I need to purchase and install Internet Security 2010.  It’s a clever little virus that almost made me believe it was a Microsoft Security alert.  Until I saw that it was asking me to pony up some money to buy the INTERNET SECURITY 2010 program.  I thought that sounded fishy, so I googled Internet Security 2010 and was inundated with pages mentioning this was a virus.  So what ever you do, do not buy this program!  If you already have, be sure to call you credit card company immediately!

So after a quick sigh, I attempted to run my AVG free software.  To my dismay the Internet Security 2010 virus blocked it, and Microsoft Security from running so that I could quarantine the little bastard.  Now I began to think that this little nuisance virus was more formidable than I originally thought.  So another quick google for “How to Remove Internet Security 2010 Virus” and I saw that indeed this would be more of a challenge than I first reckoned!

Now I had to sort through the search results, avoiding the ones that were clearly spam.  After much reading I happened on a website that had a somewhat strange url, but the info regarding how to remove the Internet Security 2010 virus seemed legit:  www.bleepingcomputer.com.  I was a little hesitant to use this sites methods as it requires you to download and run a file called rkill.com which will end all the virus process that are currently running on your system.  Of course the obvious danger with that is that rkill.com could be a virus.  Well I’m here to tell you it is not a virus, and it worked perfectly!  On some systems, including mine, this filename won’t work (the virus at work again), so the site provides a link to a different file name, which did run and killed all the virus processes.  This allowed me to then Malwarebytes software to find and quarantine the infected files.  Sweetness!

I’m not going to go into a step by process for removing this annoying Internet Security 2010 virus, as it is well documented on bleepingcomputer.com at the link below.  So if your system is being held hostage by the Vista internet security 2010 virus, don’t despair, removing it is not as difficult as you think!  Good luck.

Information on how to remove the Internet Security 2010 Virus HERE

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I discovered Groupon.com on the Today show a couple months ago when they highlighted their incredible deals of the day. As I’ve pointed out many times in the past, this webchicklet likes a bargain, and with Groupon.com daily deals, bargains are a daily event!

Unlike the popular Woot.com site which brings a single product deal of the day to the masses, Groupon features a daily deal from a local business in each of the cities it covers across the United States and Canada.

I’ve recently found a new and useful alternative to Groupon.com (it’s always good to have options on saving more money!) Their current city coverage is not as large as Groupon, however their deals tend to be even better for my city (D.C.) so check them out. The site is TIPPR.com.   They currently have deals in Atlanta, Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Washington DC, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, and Honolulu. Enjoy the savings.

How Does Groupon Work?

Every day, Groupon features an amazing deal on a product or services or restaurant in your local area. You can just visit the Groupon.com site each morning, or better yet, just subscribe to your local city and receive the deal of the day in your email. There is a minimum number of purchases required for the deal to be “on”, and varies from company to company. If you purchase the deal, your credit card is not run until the minimum is reached.

Why do I LOVE Groupon.com?

Groupon currently runs deals of the day for 52 cities, but are always looking to expand to additional cities. They have also started to break some cities up into multiple regions. For example, I live close to Washington, DC, in northern Virginia. Originally they only offered a Washington, DC deal of the day. Now they also offer deals of the day for Northern Virginia and Montgomery County north of DC. This gives me more options and opportunities for more deals, and lets me discover some cool businesses in my local area that I haven’t heard of before!

Groupon is also great for getting an amazing deal on a gift for a friend or significant other, and they make it easy for you to email the gift directly to the recipient, or you can print off the groupon yourself and hand deliver it.  Just two days ago I paid $37 for a $90 facial for a friends birthday gift!  How sweet is that?

And that is the main reason I LOVE Groupon.com.  Typical savings on these deals of the day are at least 50%, and quite often much more! Cha Ching!

Why Do Businesses LOVE Groupon.com?

Groupon gives local business an amazing opportunity to advertise their business and to drive thousands of new customers into their business!  It’s especially popular with businesses that rely on repeat business such as restaurants, yoga, spas, massage therapists, bakeries, etc. Most businesses that have been featured on Groupon report that many of their Groupon customers are now repeat customers. Unlike traditional advertising, businesses don’t have to front any money for their deal of the day feature, and don’t have to cross their fingers and hope they’ll see new customers. Groupon brings guaranteed customers and guaranteed sales. Groupon makes their money by taking a percentage of each sale. A great Win – Win situation!

Here’s a list of cities Groupon currently features deals of the day:

Atlanta Austin Baltimore Boston Cincinnati Cleveland Charlotte Chicago Columbus Dallas Denver Houston Indianapolis Kansas City Las Vegas Los Angeles Los Angeles-Inland Los Angeles-Orange County Miami Minneapolis / St Paul Nashville New York Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Portland San Antonio San Diego San Jose San Francisco Seattle St. Louis Tampa Washington DC Washington DC- NoVa Washington DC- Montgomery County

Groupon will soon be adding the following cities:

Albuquerque   Detroit   Fort Worth   Fresno   Jacksonville   Louisville   Memphis   Milwaukee   Oklahoma City   Omaha   Raleigh/Durham   Sacramento   Virginia Beach

Some Groupon Quick Stats:

Groupon currently has over 2.2 Million subscribers and to date have sold over 1.5 million groupons, and have saved consumers over $74 million!! Not bad for a company that started just over a year ago!

I am addicted to the Groupon Deals of the Day, and I’m sure you will be too. So go ahead, and get your groupon!

©2010 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

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My significant other has been flying alot lately, and I was looking for a way to track her flight status so I would know whether she would be late arriving, or even early (yeah, that doesn’t happen often!).  A quick search on google and I found FlightStats.com.

Flightstats.com is owned by Conducive Technology Corp., a leading provider of worldwide flight status data to the travel and transportation industry.  I assume that’s how they make their money.   But they also provide flight status, flight stats, and flight schedules to the we the common web surfer, free of charge!

The site is laid out simply and has an easy to use interface.  On the main page you get a map of the United States with color coded dots indicating the current real time airport delay index.  This gives me a quick indication of whether I’ll be driving to the airport sooner or later.  Next, on the right side (see photo) you can check any given flights status, searching by flight number, by airport, or by route.  I really like that fact that I can check the flight status by route, as I usually don’t know my spouse’s fight number, but always know the departure and arrival airport and the approximate time of the flight.

When you search by route you get a listing of all the flight schedule for your given date, for the given departure city.  In my example for Miami to St. Kitts, for today, there is only one flight for this route, and stats such as scheduled and actual departure time are listed as well as estimated arrival and actual arrival time.  If you click on the flight number link, a new window pops up giving you all kinds of cool stats on this particular flight.  You also see a google map with the airplanes current position.  Below this map is a link saying “track this flight in real time”.  This is the coolest feature of flightstats.com.  Data includes current flight speed, flight direction, elevation, and a large google map of the flights current position, updated every minute or so.

There is a ton of other free flight status and airport weather updates, along with some desktop widgets for flight status and schedule updates.  I have yet to download any of the flight status widgets and desktop tools, but will review them here on Webchicklet.com as soon as I do.  In the meantime, next time your friends or loved ones are flying somewhere, be sure to give FlightStats.com a try, it’s a fun and super useful free tool!

©2010 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

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Late last year I wrote about a few of my favorite relaxing games. Based on the high interest in this post from web searchers, clearly a lot of other people are looking for some soothing, relaxing games to soothe their overactive brains. Casual games seem to be all the rage these days as we work harder and longer, and still have less time and money. My only prerequisite for a casual relaxing game are relaxed mouse movements, quiet calming music and/or graphics and a slight, but not too demanding challenge to set the brain free. So here are a few more relaxing games for you to give your brain a little mid day break.

This first game is called Auditorium.  This game has to be the most relaxing game on the net.  There are no right or wrong answers, the music is so soothing and almost hypnotic.  You create your own music by deflecting the light rays.  The most soothing and relaxing games I’ve ever played.

Although there is no music in Starshine, it is still one of the more interesting relaxing games on the web.  The goal is to collect all the spinning stars as fast as possible.  You click on the various constellations to change your comets center of gravity and change its direction to collect the stars.  A simple but effective game to give your brain a deserved diversion.

©2010 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

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Twitter Horse Race Results

This Webchicklet likes to bet on the horses occasionally, so what better way to get your horse race results than through Twitter?

Great news for all horse racing fans, XpressBet, Inc just announced that they are launching an automated horse race results service, utilizing the ever popular Twitter.  Using XpressBet’s proprietary technology, the Twitter Automated Results Service was launched just last week.  The horse race results service is currently tweeting over 50 horse tracks, so you should be able to pick up the results for your favorite local track, or any of the big ones worldwide.

It’s super easy to get set up and it costs…nothing!!  All you have to do:

• Visit XpressBet.com

XpressBet.com Twitter Horse Race Results

• Click on the Twitter banner
• Check the list of race tracks, with their corresponding Twitter Username (list included here, below)
• Login to Twitter, and follow any of the Tracks listed below.

Here’s the current list of horse race tracks that XpressBet follows, along with the Twitter username:

Then, just wait patiently by your computer, or phone, for the results on race day!

Pocono Race Results on Twitter

Now you too can quickly see how much more money you’ve lost with the Twitter horse race results from XpressBet.com!  How cool is that?

©2010 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

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Once in a while I like to do a quick roundup of some of the cool sites and apps that I come across, and today’s list is one that centers around our senses – specifically some eye candy and auditory apps.

Bumptop

First up in the list is Bumptop. We got a sneak preview of Bumptop 2 years ago at a Ted conference, but it’s finally been released, and it’s as cool as expected. This 3D interactive desktop manager has to be seen to be appreciated. Here’s a video I found of it.

Babbel

Let’s switch over to the sense of hearing for a moment. If you’ve always wanted to learn a foreign language, the web makes it so easy these days. I’m sure there are lots of places to learn this, but I’ve recently been using babbel.com to learn Spanish. The exercises are fun and intuitive. You can learn on your own or practice with other people around the world. It uses images and real voices, and it keeps track of your progress. There’s lots of reasons babbel.com makes it easier to learn a language, but you almost need to try it to understand. Here’s a little screenshot of my dashboard.

Speed Dial

Switching back to the visual again, there’s Firefox’s Speed Dial addon. This addon mimics Opera’s speed dial functionality. It’s configurable, and you can have separate tabbed speed dials allowing you to visually organize your favorite sites. Here’s a screenshot of one of my tabbed Speed Dials.

CoolIris

And finally, to end this sensory journey on a visual bang, is CoolIris. This is eye candy that allows you to quickly browse photos and media in a very cool way. By quickly (and infinitely) scrolling through a wall of photos or videos, you can easily pick out what you need. Works for media on your computer, or on websites like MySpace, Facebook, Hulu, Youtube, Picasa, Flickr, Google Images, and lots more. Again, only a visual look at it does it justice, so here’s a video I found that shows it better.

Technology is starting to get fun again as the bling catches up to the imagination. Have fun with these cool apps.

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I’ve just started using Tonido, but I’m already massively in love with it. Can a geeky web chicklet be in love with an application? Of course she can! And I am.

Tonido is all about social networking, sharing of files and photos, workflow, and everything else you probably use the web for – all rolled into one – and the best part? Your data and contacts are stored right where they need to be – on your own computer.

How many times have websites folded, and all of your precious data, friends, and contact information disappeared with it? Maybe it hasn’t happened to you, but it has to lots of people. Tonido aims to solve that problem, by making sure your data stays with you.

Tonido apps work whether you are online or offline. There are some features that require being online to use, yes, but the applications themselves work just fine offline. I’d love to see a way to have EVERYTHING work even if Tonido disappears, but some things would stop working if they no longer existed. Certain sharing and remote connection features would not work if they disappeared. Nevertheless, you’d still have access to all your data and contacts, and that’s important.

Essentially, Tonido creates a trusted peer-to-peer network between you and the people you trust. Your network can securely share data, files, pictures, etc. using a beautiful, well-designed interface. It currently comes with several nice apps, including a blog, a jukebox, photo manager, calendar/todo workspace manager, messaging system, and more. And it is extendible, so more apps will be added over time. It’s really cool, and I can’t possibly do it justice by talking about it. You need to see it for yourself.

Go to Tonido.com and also check out the screenshots and video at www.tonido.com/application_screenshots.html. Here are a couple screenshots, just to whet your geeky appetite, but go check them out at the site.

Yes, this thing works from an iphone. Yes, it works from ANYTHING that is web-enabled. Yes, it is browser-based. Yes, it can be used via your browser even when you aren’t online (although not all features can be). It rocks. Really. Seriously. Am I gushing enough yet? That’s the sign of a geek gal in love with a killer app.

Oh and did I mention it works on basically anything? Windows? Yep. Mac? Yep. Linux? Yep. Seriously cool. Go get it now. (Oh yeah, and it’s free too. My heart goes pitter-patter at the thought).

©2010 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

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Scenario: You’ve placed an order online and want to track the shipment’s progress until it reaches its destination.

Problem: You have to continually go to the carrier’s site to check the status of the shipment via its tracking number, but it is often a waste of time, because the status usually hasn’t changed since the last time you checked.

Solution: Be notified every time the package’s status changes.

I do most of my purchasing online, so I get a fair amount of packages delivered. I also don’t have a lot of spare time available to me (who does?), so I don’t like wasting it by checking shipping status every so often, with nothing to show for the time I wasted. Now I don’t have to waste my time, because I now use a free service called TrackMyShipments.com.

Want to know what it does? After you register for a free account, here’s how it works.

As soon as you receive a “We’ve shipped your order” email from any company you ordered from that contains a tracking number, just forward that email to track@trackmyshipments.com. That’s it. From then on, every time the package’s status changes (arrives at a location or leaves a location, gets checked in, etc.), you’ll get notified. Simple as that. You forward just ONE email, one time, and from then on, you’ll know exactly what’s going on with your package. Here’s a sample of some emails I’ve received for a package I’m expecting to be delivered today.

Email received: 2/15 15:50

Your email with the subject line:

‘[Fwd: Your Amazon.com order has shipped (#105-….’

was successfully received and we
have begun to track that shipment.

www.trackmyshipments.com
—————————–

Email received: 2/15 16:52

At 02/15/2009 16:16:47

Your shipment from AMAZON sent via UPS
has a new status.

The new status is: BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED.
The destination is: MYTOWN, MYSTATE, US.
Expected Delivery: 02/18/2009
—————————–

Email received: 2/16 13:17

At 02/16/2009 12:57:00

Your shipment from AMAZON sent via UPS
has a new status.

The new status is: ORIGIN SCAN.
This shipment is currently in: SHARONVILLE,,OH,US.

The destination is: MYTOWN, MYSTATE, US.
Expected Delivery: 02/18/2009
—————————–

Email received: 2/16 21:33

At 02/16/2009 21:33:00

Your shipment from AMAZON sent via UPS
has a new status.

The new status is: IN TRANSIT TO.
This shipment on its way to: JACKSON,39201,MS,US.

The destination is: MYTOWN, MYSTATE, US.
Expected Delivery: 02/18/2009
—————————–

Email received: 2/17 01:11

At 02/17/2009 00:55:00

Your shipment from AMAZON sent via UPS
has a new status.

The new status is: ARRIVAL SCAN.
This shipment is currently in: NASHVILLE,37201,TN,US.

The destination is: MYTOWN, MYSTATE, US.
Expected Delivery: 02/18/2009
—————————–

Email received: 2/17 3:24

At 02/17/2009 02:58:00

Your shipment from AMAZON sent via UPS
has a new status.

The new status is: IN TRANSIT TO.
This shipment on its way to: JACKSON,39201,MS,US.

The destination is: MYTOWN, MYSTATE, US.
Expected Delivery: 02/18/2009
—————————–

Email received: 2/17 8:53

At 02/17/2009 08:25:00

Your shipment from AMAZON sent via UPS
has a new status.

The new status is: ARRIVAL SCAN.
This shipment is currently in: MEMPHIS,37501,TN,US.

The destination is: MYTOWN, MYSTATE, US.
Expected Delivery: 02/18/2009
—————————–

Email received: 2/17 11:23

At 02/17/2009 11:22:00

Your shipment from AMAZON sent via UPS
has a new status.

The new status is: IN TRANSIT TO.
This shipment on its way to: JACKSON,39201,MS,US.

The destination is: MYTOWN, MYSTATE, US.
Expected Delivery: 02/18/2009

Pretty cool, huh? Of course, you can also look at the statuses on trackmyshipment’s web site as well, and visualize it on a map there. I prefer just getting the emails, however.

I use the free version currently, which lets me check up to 10 shipments at one time. If you want to be able to track unlimited shipments, and get SMS alerts, you can opt for the Pro version which is $20/year.

And yes, there’s an iPhone app for it too! (Not that I have an iPhone). The free version of the iPhone app only lets you track 1 shipment at a time.

If you’ve got a tracking number for Fedex, UPS, USPS (United States Postal Service) or DHL, you’re able to use this service. I love this one!

©2010 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

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When my favorite to-do app/assistant, Sandy (iwantsandy.com), closed down, I was frantic. It was like someone unplugged my memory. What would I do without my virtual assistant, Sandy, reminding me of everything I needed to remember every single day? Since then, I’ve been on a quest to find a replacement for Sandy. I’ve tried a few of the most popular apps, such as Remember The Milk. But for now, at least, I’ve settled on ToodleDo. Here are a few reasons why.

1. The first thing I did was check out ToodleDo’s feature comparison graph to see how they stacked up to the competition in terms of features. I suggest you check it out too. It was clear to me pretty quickly that ToodleDo would handle everything I needed.
2. I needed to schedule tasks by date and time, rather than just a strict to-do at any time. I can do that.
3. I needed to schedule recurring tasks. I can do that.
4. I needed to have ToodleDo email me to remind me of tasks. It does that.
5. I needed to be able to communicate with ToodleDo via SMS, preferably via Twitter. I can do that.
6. I needed to be able to schedule tasks in easy to remember language, such as telling it something like “Call Joe next Friday at 2:30pm”, or by using the form fields – whichever was convenient. I can do that.
7. I needed to have my task list automatically sync up with my iCal-based computer calendar app. It does that.
8. I didn’t know I needed this next feature until I saw it was available, and then I knew I needed it! I needed the ability to interact with and display my task list in my Firefox browser’s sidebar. I can do that! Below are some screenshots of what the task list looks like in my browser sidebar, in various views.

Because of all the features, the ease of use, the sidebar ability, and all the ways I can interact with it, ToodleDo is the to-do app for me. But it really has so many features that I haven’t even touched upon, that you should check it out for yourself. It probably does exactly what you’ve always wanted a to-do app to do for you, and more.

©2010 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

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