With new phones coming out so often these days, many people are opting to sell their original phone so they can buy the new, greatest and latest phone model that’s out. Who can blame them? Who wouldn’t want the latest model phone with all of the latest cool features the phone offers? However, when new phones come out, they can be quite expensive. Look at the iPhones. Without contracts, these phones can run you over $500 even if you use your Discover Card for 5% off. It would be very costly to having to keep upgrading to the newest model iPhone every year at the high cost of $500. But when you sell your old phones, you can use that money to offset some of the costs for the new phone. You can sell mobile phones at ebay or craigslist, or simply even sell them to one of your friends. Just because you don’t need your old phone anymore doesn’t necessarily mean that other people can’t enjoy them either. I personally have two old phones that are not currently in use. They work completely well and I’ve kept them as a backup to my current iPhone. If I needed money quick, I could receive cash for mobile phone by selling or recycling it at a discounted price to someone who could use a new used phone. Sell cash is a great idea. There are sites that offer this service and they make it very simple to do. No need to wait for a buyer. They will do all of the work for you and send you payment as a buyer is located. Just make sure as you upgrade to a newer and better phone, consider all of best cell phone plans for your new phone, especially for smart phones these days.

My wife was very excited to purchase and decorate our first Christmas tree together as husband and wife. She was so excited that she bought the tree in mid-November. We opted to buy an artificial tree over the eco-friendlier real tree or even using a rent-a-tree service, purely for cost reasons. She also wanted to put up more lights inside AND outside of our house, but we haven’t gotten to it yet because I’ve been too busy (err lazy). But hopefully, we’ll have more lights up soon. Have you put your Christmas lights yet?

There is this one house in our neighborhood that goes way beyond crazy with their decorations and lights during this time of the year. With so many light bulbs used, I always wondered how much it costs them leave their lights on throughout the night every night. But for our house, we currently have about 200 mini lights around our tree and additional 100 lights that wrap around our staircase. According to the box the light bulbs came in, each set of 100 lights consumes about 2o watt of energy. We leave the light on for about 7 hours every day from 5pm to 12am. At around 9 cents per kWh in the Baltimore area currently, it’s easy to calculate the energy consumption of my lights.

watt x time x electricity rate = total cost

(20w x 3) x (7 hours) x ($0.09/1000 watt hr) =  $0.0378 per day

That’s less than 4 cents per day! Even if we add 10 times more lights outside of our house, that’ll still only cost us less than 40 cents a day. But for that house in my neighborhood, I won’t be surprised if it costs them 100 times more than  the 40 cents. we just calculated That means I’m assuming they pay $40 per day or $1,200 a month to have their lights up. That is some serious money!

What kind of lights do you have up?

Last year, I waited in line for 10 hours. It was brutal, frustrating, and such a waste of time. But when I finally got my iPhone 4 at a little past 1am, I was the happiest guy in the world. I had the latest hottest gadget in the world! But that was over a year ago. There’s a brand new latest hottest gadget in the world and people are again lining up in front of their respective Apple Stores. I refuse to wait 10 hours in line anymore. Although I didn’t qualify for the new version, I pre-ordered one for my wife and is on it’s way to my front door right now. But for those who are standing in line right now, it’s going to be a long day, unless you pay huge sum of money to cut to the front of the line. Meanwhile, I leave you with a few articles around the blogging world.

Beating The Index: Aroway Energy: A Rising Junior Oil Company in Alberta’s Hot Peace River Arch Area

Invest With Passion: Harrisburg And Bankruptcy

20′s Finance: Best Investment Advice: Avoid the Next Fad

Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance: “What Should I Invest In?”

Money Reasons: Reader Thoughts – Response to Sacrifices Made On the Road To Become A Millionaire

My Multiple Incomes: Counting on Investment Income

101 Centavos: Caffe’ Corretto: The Government Hates Guitars

60k Project: You Can Choose To Be Happy

Everything Finance: Prosper Peer to Peer Lending: A Review

Praire Eco Thrifter: Fossil Fuel Alternatives: Biofuel vs. Electric

The Debt Myth: Pay Less, Have More Money

Ultimate Smart Money: Planning For Retirement Outside Your Country

Christian PF: Should Our Giving Be Motivated by Rewards?

I woke up at 3am with my wife on the morning of October 4, 2011 to be one of the firsts to purchase the new Apple iPhone 4s. Unfortunately for us, the website was jammed as usual and they had a notice up saying that the website will be back up shortly. The next morning, we were able to make our purchase and were so relieved to have finally completed the order. Because we had an Apple gift card, we did not need to use the 5% cash back bonus through Discover Card’s shopping portal ShopDiscover.

That’s right, when you use log on to your Discover Card and shop through their online shopping portal ShopDiscover, you can receive 5% cash back bonus on almost all Apple products, including iPhones! This is a change from last year where iPhone was not eligible for the cash back bonus.

Shop the Apple Store for the iPad, iPhone, MacBook Family, iMac, iPod and Apple TV, plus the latest curated accessories for your favorite Apple device. Enjoy free shipping on every order over $50 and earn 5% Cashback Bonus from ShopDiscover when you shop at the Apple Store.

• Offer not valid on gift wrap, gift card, gift certificate, iTunes, Apple One to One Membership, shipping, or Apple in-store tutorial services
• Offer is not valid in combination with any other offers
• Must link to retailer site from the ShopDiscover Web page found at Discovercard.com and use your Discover Card
• Offer is subject to change, including termination, without notice
• Cashback Bonus will only be rewarded to a customer for up to five (5) units per eligible product, except iPhone, in which case reward will only be issued for up to two (2) units within a 30-day period.
• The promotional Cashback Bonus will be applied to your account within 8 weeks
• View complete ShopDiscover terms and disclosure

So, if you’re still in the market for a new iPhone, make sure you take advantage of Discover Card’s Cash Back bonus. Just for information, Apple reported that over 1 million iPhone 4s has been pre-ordered on the first day. Last year, they 600,000 were pre-ordered and sold a total of more than 1.5 million on launch day. So at this rate, they’re on pace to break last year’s record. Are you going to get yours?

First off, I apologize for not having been very active. It’s been roughly 18 days since my previous post and that’s unacceptable. I just have been super busy with wedding planning details. Yes, I am getting married next week, but I’ll save that for a future post.

As you all know, tomorrow is the launch of the much anticipated Apple iPad2. Anxious Apple lovers have already begun waiting line in front of their favorite Apple Store in hopes to be one of the first people to be proud owners of the new toy. Last year, for the launch of iPhone4, I ended up waiting in line for 15 hours total, even though I had pre-ordered mine. It was crazy, but even as I reflect on it now, it was all worth it! But people who are standing in line early for iPad2 aren’t necessarily in it for the device. They’re in line hoping to make a small (or big) profit from their number position of the line. For instance, people who are the first in line will sell their spot to someone else for a disclosed amount of money. Of course, the earlier positions have higher value than the later positions. There is a student in New York City who is currently first in line and have been offered up to $650 for her spot.

Personally, I would never pay any money for a spot in line. But I would definitely stand in line if I knew there would be potential buyers of my spot, especially for $650. What about you? Would you pay $650 or any other amount for an early spot in the iPad line? People are getting smarter every day!

I’m not planning on making the purchase at the store this time around. I’ll probably take advantage of 5% cashback  at the online Apple Store through Discover Card with my iPad2 purchase later.

Amazon launched their online streaming video service this past week and Netflix stock plummeted over 20% in response. Amazon’s online streaming video service is very similar to that of Netflix online streaming video service and the pricing is very comparable as well. But which service is better? Will you switch over from Netflix to Amazon Instant Video? Will you subscribe to both? Let’s compare and analyze different categories to see whether Netflix or Amazon Instant Video comes on top.

Cost – Amazon
The cost for Netflix streaming only is $7.99 per month with no agreement required. The cost for Amazon Instant Video streaming is $79 per year. This cost is to upgrade your Amazon account to Prime, which gives you free 2-day shipping upgrade in most purchases. Once you upgrade to Prime, you’re basically locked in for the entire year. So with Amazon, not only will you have the added benefit of paying an average monthly due of only $6.67, you will receive free 2-day shipping on your purchases as well.

Watch On TV – Netflix
Netflix and Amazon both offer many different ways to watch streaming content on your TV. First you can simply use a laptop or a computer and use your TV as an extended monitor to watch your streaming content. No additional devices are required for this setup. But there are many other DVD and BluRay players that are compatible with both Netflix and Amazon. Roku Players are another popular device that allows you to watch both streaming content and starts at only $59.99. However, at this point, I have to give the nudge to Netflix simply because they’ve been around longer and more devices are available for Netflix compatibility.

Content Selection – Netflix
Both of these On-Demand streaming services do not provide huge selection of the most current movies and tv shows, mostly due to licensing issues. However, Netflix overcame this hurdle by signing licensing agreements with Starz, CBS, NBC, Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, among many others. With Amazon, you’ll see more of foreign and B-movie selections.

Rent or Buy Option – Netflix
Amazon offers rent or buy option for Prime members as well as regular members. There are some selections that Prime members must still pay additional amount to rent. Netflix does not offer their members an option to purchase a movie file. They do allow unlimited one-at-a-time dvd rental for additional $2 per month. With Netflix, you can add unreleased movies to your queue so when they are released, you will receive the dvd rental delivered to you right away.

Watch Offline – Amazon
Netflix does not provide an option to watch movies offline, unless you’re watching a DVD. Amazon offers an option to download a movie file onto a portable media player to watch offline. You can also download onto your computer and watch it offline using Unbox Media Player, which you can download for free.

As you can see, both companies have advantages and disadvantages over each other. Review the summary below and pick and choose wisely. I personally, like Netflix, but I will give Amazon a try since I am currently a Prime member.

AT&T announced that they will provide free 1000 rollover minutes to all of their existing customers, as long as you text them that you want the free minutes. This news comes one day after Verizon started selling iPhones on their network. This may be a marketing ploy for AT&T to keep their customers from switching to Verizon. There is no catch and their reasons are that they just want to thank their customers for their loyalty.

To claim your 1000 free rollover minutes, simply Text “Yes” to 11113020. It may take 4-6 weeks for the free minutes to appear in your account.

Personally, I already have over 4,000 rollover minutes accumulated in my account. I don’t think I’ll ever use it up as I only use about 100 of my 450 anytime minutes every month. But for those who have a family plan with multiple lines, this freebie might become useful.

I think Apple is the big winner in all of this. While AT&T fight over customers, Apple will retain, if not gain additional customers as more iPhones are sold to Verizon customers. Apple stock recently hit its all time high and will probably go even higher. I’m glad I bought into the rumor a few months back. You can still buy Apple stock by signing up for one of the budget online trading platforms.

I also have no plans two change my carrier to Verizon either. Although AT&T could improve their dropped call frequency, I’m OK with the service. What about you? Will you be switching anytime soon?

Netflix changed their subscription plans over this past weekend and subscribers now have the option to choose streaming only content, without DVDs mailed to your mailbox. Alternatively, the cheapest plan, with 1-DVD out at a time is going up from $8.99 to $9.99. So, the effective cost to rent 1-DVD at a time is $2/month. If you watch a movie every weekend, you could receive as many as 4 DVDs in any given month with this plan, costing you only 50 cents per rental.

I am a current Netflix subscriber and was only interested in streaming content when i signed up. Since subscription for streaming only content wasn’t available for me at the time, I chose the 1-DVD out a time plan for $8.99. I thought that was still a fantastic deal. However, I haven’t been using the DVD portion of the subscription as often as I like to. I have been holding onto the same DVD for over 2 months now and I still have not watched it. I think I will change my subscription to streaming only content and still save me a dollar every month.

Netflix as a company has been on steroids the last couple years and have doubled their subscribers over this time period. It doesn’t appear Netflix will go under any time soon and in fact will probably become even stronger as they work very hard to increase their already vast selection library of streaming content as well as DVD choices.

Refer to my previous post on Netflix Review, but you may sign up for Netflix directly here.

Apple Peel is the new up and coming thing for Apple iPod products, transforming them into the magnificent iPhone! It’s basically a case with integrated adapter that turns iPod Touch into an version that allows you to make phone calls, virtually transforming them into an iPhone. However, only 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Generation Touch models are supported. So, if you have one of these versions of iPods, have a crappy phone, and about $100 to spare, the new Apple Peel is probably for you.  It does not support 3G, but includes a removable 800mAh battery which gives you up to 3 hours of talk time and 120 hours of standby juice. It’s currently only available in China, but you can preorder yours today for only $99. Since it require a SIM card, I assume it will only work with AT&T network.

applepeel-520.org

The iPod needs to be jailbroken because the adapter works by utilizing the iPhone voice calling and text messaging applications. The adapter will not automatically add these applications to the iPod touch so users will need to do install them manually.

So, what do you think? Would you consider buying this Apple Peel? Note that this product was invented by a Chinese company and has no affiliation with the actual Apple company.

Roku recently dropped their prices on their entire line of Roku Players, now starting at $59.99 for the base model. The HD-XR model, their top of the line, now only costs $89.99 with 10% coupon code, SAVE, normally at the reduced price of $99.99. With the HD-XR model, you can stream Netflix movies, wirelessly, high definition video with HDMI connector, as well as play 1080p HD videos (with future free upgrade). Additionally, it comes back with 30-day money back guarantee, so you really have nothing to lose. Take advantage of the 10% off coupon and you can get the HD-XR model for only $89.99, which previously ran as high as $129.99. Just enter SAVE at checkout.

You can read my full review on Roku Players here.