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Filed under: Finance

Filed under: Business, Finance, Productivity

Comment follow-up: camelcamelcamel tracks Amazon prices

camelcamelcamel

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!

Filed under: Finance, Freeware, Social Software

Stock Tweet App makes tracking Twitter stock discussions easy

Stock Tweet AppStock 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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Filed under: Business, Finance

TradingSim lets you practice day trading (and I ask if it's any good)

TradingSim

TradingSim is an Flash-based day trading simulator. You can practice buying and selling all sorts of securities without involving (and risking) any money. Some might say I should have put this under our "time-wasters" category, but I think it can actually be a useful tool for people who are looking into day trading (that's how I found it).

The market for trading simulators (and training in day trading in general) is hectic, almost seedy. There is so much junk and hype, that it's very difficult to tell what's good and what's a scam. The key thing which makes me wonder about this tool is that I don't understand its business model. How do these guys plan to make money?

If any of our readers are active day traders, do share in the comments: What are the best tools you've used to practice "paper trading" (no money involved)?

Be warned, though: Since this is such a scammy subject, I will be particularly easy on the ban-hammer. No spammy links, whatsoever. Post only tools you've actually used and that you're not affiliated with.

Filed under: Finance, Utilities, Macintosh, Productivity

Quicken Essentials for Mac shows Mint.com's influence

Intuit's acquisition of Mint.com (and hiring of Mint creator Aaron Patzer) made a big splash last September. Users bailed out of Mint, thinking that Intuit's corporate influence would have a negative impact on the site. What I didn't see coming was Mint and Patzer's influence on Intuit's flagship finance app, Quicken. The new Quicken Essentials for Mac has Mint written all over it.

As Ars Technica points out, this is the first new version of Quicken for Mac in 4 years, and it's coming out after blowing several previous deadlines. There's no online bill pay and there's no stock tracking (which might turn some users off), but there's also a big upside. The interface has been simplified and made more Mac-like (or, some might say, more Mint-like) and you can import and link financial data from thousands of banks and credit institutions.

The reason it's called Quicken Essentials, according to Patzer in a MacWorld interview, is because it delivers a nice implementation of the features which the majority of Quicken users consider, well, essential.

It does the things we liked about Mint, too: keeping tabs on your account, and giving an easy visual readout of your spending, by category. There's even a tag cloud. I'm not saying Quicken Essentials is perfect, or even complete, for all Mac users, but it's leaps and bounds beyond the previous version.

Filed under: Finance, Microsoft

Microsoft posts devilish Q4 earnings of $6.66 billion

In 1975 Bill Gates, Paul Allen and a certain unnamed, cloven-hoofed, hot-under-the-collar associate made a pact: to rule the world! It seems, 35 years, billions of dollars and dozens of lawsuits later that they've made it.

For the quarter ending December 2009, Microsoft saw a net, record-breaking profit of 6.66 billion dollars on revenue of 19 billion dollars -- in just three months! Driven by the release of Windows 7 this was actually the most successful quarter money-wise in Microsoft's history. This might come as a little bit of a shock to the PC naysayers, what with the apparent loss of ground to Apple, but it's just proof that the PC market in specific, and tech sector in general, is still very strong indeed.

If the inferno-like profit wasn't enough to send you reeling -- have a think about the profit margin. I still can't get my head around the 30% difference between revenue and profit. Ah, software! Ah, a greater-than-90-percent market share! Ah... I'm in the wrong business...

In other news, Windows 7 flew off the shelves 234% faster than Windows Vista. Big surprise -- Vista was obviously Microsoft's attempt to strike a deal with Gabe and Him which obviously didn't last very long.
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Filed under: Finance, Kids, iPhone

Don't forget to feed your kids during the economic downturn -- use this iPhone app!!

I'm not a parent, nor am I kid -- but that doesn't prevent me from appreciating a totally neat iPhone app called 'Kids Eat For' (I guess the domain with 'free' on the end was already taken?)

Basically -- and this is about as basic as apps get -- this app just shows you where the nearest restaurant with a kids-eat-for-free deal. The developers say that the database is kept up to date, with new deals added daily and expired deals removed -- so you don't have to have one of those embarrassing moments when it comes to paying the bill... and you actually have to pay for your kids. Oops.

I guess you'd be able to trade in your iPhone to pay the bill, if it came to that.

Or, wait a second... if you didn't splurge and buy an iPhone in the first place, maybe you could afford to feed your kids proper home-cooked food instead, rather than going out and gorging on crappy ribs and all-you-can-eat wings at the local Armadillo Willy's (what on earth is that?)

At just $3 -- and yes, this is sadly only for restaurants in the USA (at the moment!) -- Kids Eat For must surely be a must-have for all parents. Well, parents with iPhones.

Filed under: Finance, Web

BillShrink now helps you find the best bank accounts, CDs

BillShrink Banks
BillShrink is a web service that helps you find the best deals on cellphone service, credit card accounts, and even the best gas prices. Since launching a year and a half ago as a wireless comparison engine, the BillShrink team has steadily continued adding new services. Now BillShrink has added bank accounts to its lineup.

In order to find the best savings accounts and CDs, you enter the amount of cash you have saved, an estimate of how much you expect to set aside each month, and where you live. You can also choose additional details like the services you need from a bank including online bill payment check writing, nearby ATM access and direct deposit.

Once you enter all that info, BillShrink will spit out a list of options for your area that should help you save money. For instance, BillShrink may recommend opening a new bank account or a bank account at one institution plus a CD at another.

[via TechCrunch]

Filed under: Business, Finance, Web services

Intuit buys Mint.com, sends users running

Intuit, the company behind financial management app Quicken, has purchased Mint.com, a web-based personal finance tracker, for $170 million. Quicken already has a web version that plugs into its desktop software, and Mint apparently isn't going to replace it. Meanwhile, Intuit doesn't have plans to change the way Mint works, and the CEO of Mint is joining the company to direct its online operations.

That's not enough to reassure some Mint users, though, who are fleeing the site in fear of Intuit's awful user experience and propensity to milk its customers for fees.

Felix Salmon, a blogger at Reuters, describes Intuit as "The Borg," and plans to deactivate his Mint account (although he admits he doesn't use it often). Users in Mint's forums are also not convinced that Mint will be helping to improve Intuit, rather than being swallowed and ruined by it.

What do you think? Is the Intuit Borg going to assimilate Mint, or will it stay as it is? Will you be keeping your account, or canceling it? Take the poll after the break!

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Filed under: Finance, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

Portfolio: Free, flashy stock tracker based on Adobe AIR

Portfolio Viewer
Portfolio Viewer is a slick desktop application for keeping track of the value of your stock portfolio. While it doesn't link to your investment account for actually making trades, the program does plot user-entered transactions on a chart and keep track of historic stock and fund prices.

You can create multiple portfolios like, say, one for your retirement account and another for your investment account. You can use the application to lookup stock and fund ticker symbols. And you can view detailed information in several handy graphs that show you the change in value of individual stocks or your entire portfolio over time. There's also a pie chart that shows how your funds are allocated.

Portfolio Viewer can import your investments from Quicken, Microsoft Money, or Excel files. And since the application is based on Adobe AIR, it can run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

[via RefreshingApps]

Filed under: Finance, Productivity, Web services, Mobile, Web

Track your spending online with TextHog


There's a lot of great financial tracking software out there now. Sites like Mint and Rudder that link up to your bank account and track your spending automatically are great, but what if you don't want to give your account information to a finance site? Texthog is a lot like old-school DIY checkbook balancing, except replacing pen and paper with SMS, email and Twitter.

You can send a transaction to Texthog through one of the aforementioned mobile methods, or just log into the site and add one later. Logging in is also good for changing dates and such if you text a transaction to Texthog after the fact. You can also tag and organize your expenses, and generate spending reports. It might be more work than letting some automated service track your account, but it's also more accurate, because you're recording expenses as you charge them, rather than when they eventually clear your account.

Filed under: Finance, Windows, Microsoft, Commercial

Quicken offers coupons to attract abandoned Microsoft Money users

Quicken discountLast week Microsoft announced that it would be discontinuing Microsoft Money, the company's personal finance application. Download Squad readers came up with a number of great suggestions for anyone looking for a replacement. But the 800 pound gorilla in the room is Quicken. And now Intuit, the company behind Quicken are reaching out to Microsoft Money customers by offering tools to import Money data to Quicken. The company is also offering discounts of up to $50 on Quicken software.

Those coupons start at $20 off the price of Quicken Deluxe, bringing the price down to $39.99. You can also get $30 off the price of Quicken Premier or Home& Business, or $50 off the price of Rental Property Manager. Or if your finances aren't that complicated, you could just try Quicken Online for free.

The coupons are good through July 31st. Microsoft will stop selling Money at the end of June, although support will be available through January, 2011.

Filed under: Finance, Windows, Microsoft

It's time to say goodbye to Microsoft Money

Microsoft Money PlusNo, that headline doesn't mean that Microsoft isn't making money as in cash profits anymore. But Microsoft has decided to discontinue Microsoft Money, its personal finance application.

Microsoft will stop selling the application in June, although it will still be supported for another 18 months or so. After that point, you'll still be able to use the software to manage your finances, but it won't be able to get automated feeds from banks, credit cards, and other financial institutions. You'll have to download or enter that information manually.

Normally, users get 2 years of service, but if you purchase Microsoft Money this month, the product will still only be supported until January, 2011. It might be time to look at Quicken or another personal finance package. What do you use to manage your finances? Pen and paper? Mint? Let us know in the comments.

[via CNET]

Filed under: Finance, Security, Web services, Op-Ed

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

Early morning Tuesday a software malfunction caused a security breach at Rudder, a web based financial management service Download Squad has covered in the past.

It seems a number of Rudder users received email intended for a ton of other users, and in some cases one user received hundreds of emails intended for other users of the service.

Soon after, Twitter went crazy with tweets and retweets about Rudder's security breach, and before you know it a mishap affecting hundreds of users was being widely commented on by thousands of people.

So how serious is it, really?

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Filed under: Finance, Mobile Minute, iPhone

DailyFinance for iPhone


For a while now the top contender in iPhone finance apps was Bloomberg Mobile. Enter DailyFinance's iPhone app [iTunes link], featuring real-time quotes, portfolios and watchlists and some rather impressive charting tools. Mike Rose has a nice write-up over on TUAW, and the DailyFinance site has a good summary of features and a demo video. It's a free download, so try it and let us know what you think in the comments.

Editor's Note: DownloadSquad's parent company Weblogs, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL.

Filed under: Finance, Productivity, Web services, web 2.0

TimeXchange: Simple web-based timesheet management



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.


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Chromatic is a color-coded platformer with a twist - Time Waster

Chromatic is one of the best time-wasters I've recently come across. It's all about the gameplay -- no Flash graphics here. You play a "circle" (it doesn't really have a name in the game). You move around with the arrow keys, and you change colors with Z, X, and C. You can either be red, blue, or yellow, and you can switch at any time during the game. Each color has different capabilities -- yellow can double-jump, while red has a longer dash (which is like a forward sprint, activated by double-pressing DOWN). Each ...

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