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Filed under: iPhone, MobileMe, iPod touch

Apple’s MobileMe site at me.com used to be completely useless on the iPhone or iPod touch in Mobile Safari — you’d get a splash page telling you to set up your contacts, calendars, and mail accounts, but that was about it. No webmail access, no direct access to galleries, iDisk, or even Find My iPhone. Apple introduced standalone apps that addressed some of these shortcomings (iDisk and Gallery), but there was still no way to access Find My iPhone unless you resorted to workarounds.

Things have improved somewhat with the new MobileMe page. Instead of simply admonishing you to set everything up on your Mac or PC, MobileMe now provides you with a link to instructions for setting up mail, contacts, and calendars. There’s also links to download the iDisk and Gallery apps from the App Store. What’s most useful about the change is you now have the ability to use Find My iPhone from an iPhone.

This might seem dumb at first — “If I have my iPhone in my hand, why do I need to find it?” you may ask — but if your household has multiple iPhone users and one of them leaves an iPhone at a pub, until now your only option was to dash home and try to find it on your computer. Now, you can access all the Find My iPhone features right at the moment your friend or significant other gets that wide-eyed, “I just misplaced a paycheck worth of electronics!” expression on his or her face. You can send an immediate message to the iPhone to get that loud, pinging submarine noise, which just might help you find the iPhone before you even leave the pub.

Find My iPhone is still only available as part of a yearly $99 MobileMe subscription.

TUAWFind My iPhone now works in Mobile Safari originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Next time you’re cleaning out your closets, keep in mind that some of what you’re getting rid of might fetch a few bucks at your local clothing consignment shop. Here are some tips for getting the most from your old threads.

Photo by kthread.

Unlike charitable foundations and resale shops that take in your cast-offs and give you a tax write-off receipt in return, consignment shops sell your old clothes for you in exchange for a cut of the profit you make. Most shops have very exacting policies for what they’ll take and how they’ll sell it so you can get the most buck for your bang.

Financial strategy blog One Paycheck at a Time has several tips for working with a consignment shop to sell your stuff. Of course, you’ll want your old duds in ship-shape condition, so make sure everything is spot-free, washed, ironed, and on a hanger. Then, call ahead to check on pricing policies, since they tend to vary. Most will keep items on the store’s rack for two to four weeks, and take a 50% cut of the price your clothing sells for. That may seem steep but, after all, they’re doing most of the work for you.

It’s also a good idea to consider the location of the shop and what you’re selling before schlepping your stuff across town:

Consignment stores are not created equal. Typically the better the neighborhood, the better the clothing, and therefore, the higher the price tag. Some very high-end clothing consignment shops only accept designer labels. If your clothes are not designer label, remember this store for an upcoming special event where you may need to buy a special outfit. After wearing it, have it dry cleaned and resell it!

Have you ever sold your old clothes at a consignment shop? How’d you make out? Was it worth the effort? Share your experiences in the comments.

Here’s what people are going to remember about Brutal Legend: Jack Black as Eddie Riggs. This isn’t a star showing up and talking into a microphone for a bullet point on the back of the box and a nice paycheck on the way out of the studio, this is a performance with real heart. Black introduces the game in a quick video when you first place the disc in, and he’s been working publicity for the title like a champ—all these things add up to make his vocal work one of the high points of the game.

Of course, when you’re speaking the words of the now-legendary Tim Schafer, the mind behind the dialog in games like Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and Psychonauts, it helps. This is a man who wrote a game that’s a love letter to heavy metal music; it’s no surprise he and Jack Black were such a tight fit when it came to making the game as fun to listen to and watch as it is.

The problem is that the game simply isn’t very fun to play.

Apple might be talking a big game about how it’s revising the App Store approval process with an oversight board and trotting out Phil Schiller to do damage control at opportune moments, but the process itself is still generating inconsistent and maddening results — like today’s rejection of an app advocating for healthcare reform called iSinglePayer, which was rejected for being “politically charged.” Yeah, that’s insane, especially since the app just consists of healthcare spending information and a GPS-driven lookup tool for local Congress members and how much money they’ve received in health-sector donations. Say what you want about the political motivations of the app, but that’s a fairly benign set of functions, and it’s one that’s been echoed by political apps on both sides of the aisle since the launch of the App Store. So why this rejection, and why now, when apps with names like “Conservative Talking Points” have been approved? And honestly, how is it even possible anyone at Apple is dumb enough to reject this without anticipating the firestorm of controversy it would cause? Who knows anymore — we have a feeling ol’ Phil’s about to earn his paycheck explaining this one.

P.S.- We’re not here to debate politics, so keep it clean down there, mmkay?

[Via Daring Fireball]

Apple rejects iSinglePayer iPhone app for being ‘politically charged’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like driver’s license copies and health insurance sign-ups, 401k plans are something most employees sign off on their first day and never look back at. Webapp Brightscope aims to give workers fare more information about how their plan is doing.

The independent site provides a number ranking for companies it can compile data on, taking fees, employer contribution matching, employee participation, and other factors into account. The site doesn’t give a whole lot out about how their rankings are achieved, but it does provide a clean interface to scan all the data you’d like about average account balances, who’s managing the plan, and other data. You can contribute your own findings and comments on a company (anonymously, if you’d like), and see how other companies in the industry match up with their own 401k plans.

It’s not the most fun data in the world to look over, especially given the market conditions, but BrightScope just might inspire you to look at how much you’re putting in, and getting back, from your paycheck withholding. Free to use, sign-ups required for some features.

Given the state of the economy, it’s prudent to spend your paycheck wisely. Money weblog Visual Economics has posted a chart detailing how the average U.S. consumer spends his paycheck.

According to statistics culled from the Department of Labor, Americans, on average, spend $8,758 annually on transportation-related expenses, $2,698 on entertainment, and $6,133 on food. (Alcohol expenditures clocked in at $457.) Perhaps not surprisingly, most of our pay—$16,920 of it— goes into our homes.

Browse the full chart at Visual Economics, then let’s hear how you compare to these stats. Keeping in mind that averages vary, how representative are they of your habits? Share how you break down your spending in the comments.