If your New Year’s resolution involves selling a home in 2011, you’ve got some work to do: There’s lots of inventory out there and in a buyer’s market like this one, getting an offer on a home can be challenging.
An interesting opinion piece in the New York Times this week on what would happen if the government got out of supporting 30-year mortgages via GSE’s like Freddie and Fannie. The author concludes it would almost certainly be the end of the road for the fixed-rate 30-year mortgage. And it would be harder to implement than it looks.
Was there a new smart phone under the tree for you this year? Feeling out of the loop when it comes to iPhone apps? New York Times technology writer Bob Tedeschi shares the Top 10 Must-Have Apps for the iPhone. And if you have a new Android or Blackberry, Gizmodo has its guide to How to Make that New Smartphone Actually Smart.
Now that you have a new phone, what do you do with the old one? With the U.S. generating over 2 million tons of electronics waste each year, many states have opted for recycling and safe disposal laws. Before you dump your old TV, computer or other equipment in the trash, know where your state stands. The Washington Post gives the scoop.
And if your old phone still is in working order, why not see if you can get some cash for it? Eric Gwinn of the Chicago Tribune has some suggestions for selling your old electronics. To get the most out of your sale, be sure you have the model number, smaller items sell faster and it’s best to include all the original manuals, box and disks.
And what about the Christmas tree? Lots of towns and communities now offer ways to recycle via local parks departments and such, but there are other more creative solutions. In Chico, CA you can donate them to the local goat farm where they will become a tasty treat. Or how about a new habitat for fish (good news for anglers).
Wrapping paper, boxes, broken ornaments – this is generally a heavy season for trash. Unless you’re the Johnson family from Mill Valley, CA. The generally have no trash and only minimal recycling each week. Longing for the simple life yourself? It sounds like a full-time job to me (could I even bring my own jars and containers to the local supermarket?), but Sunset has a slide show of how they do it.
Google introduced the term “superphone” in January with the launch of the Nexus One Google phone. According to Google VP Andy Rubin, the new term refers to all the innovations that superphones have that didn’t exist a couple years ago.
Now there’s a lot of industry discussion on what distinguishes a superphone from the widely-used smartphones.
While a smartphone has features like a touchscreen, a camera, applications, and web browsing capabilities, superphones’ screens are larger, and they have impressive cameras that allow for high-quality photo and video capturing. Superphones also have better software that allows for more multitasking, social applications are more integrated, and web browsing is more advanced and faster due to open-source browsers.
This chart from Mobile Beat highlights some basic differences in features:
Also visit CNET.com and Gigaom.com for more specific software, hardware, and platform specifications for superphones.
Samsung’s CSO Omar Khan has said superphones are the “power of a netbook in the palm of your hand…What users expect is the same experience they have on their netbooks or PCs in an uncompromised fashion.”
A recent Pew Internet survey supports Khan’s thinking: Compared with April 2009, cell phone owners are now more likely to use their mobile phones to take pictures, text, browse the internet, and record videos.
SF Gate, 7/10/10
So which superphones are best? JKontherun.com lists the top 5 to watch
- HTC EVO
- Nexus One
- HTC Desire
- HTC HD2
- Samsung Galaxy S
For additional information on smartphones, check out Information Central’s Field Guide to Choosing & Using a Smartphone
