Free Apps That Can Save Your Money

It is estimated that 96% of the world’s population (7.1 billion) or 6.8 billion are mobile users, according to the February 2013 report of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This represents a 13.3% increase over the 6.0 billion of 2011 and higher by 25.9% than the 5.4 billion subscribers in 2010. There was also an increase on time spent by the average US mobile user from 2 hrs and 38 minutes daily in March of 2013 to 2 hrs and 42 minutes daily as of March of 2014 as reported by Flurry news.

In addition to the huge number of mobile users, there is also the sheer number of mobile applications available on various App stores. From the  iTunes App store alone, downloaded Apps reached50 billion for the Month of May in 2013. And out of the 2 hrs and 42 minutes time spent on mobile devices, 86%of them were spent on downloaded Apps, a clear evidence of how Apps have dominated the mobile world.

In general, mobile Apps are supposed to make life easier. There are business Apps that literally put your business in your pocket. There are also apps that revolutionize learning and Apps for pure pleasure and leisure such as Apps to download music,movies and games, Apps to connect with friends  and more. What adds to the universal acceptance of Apps is the availability of free Apps, some of which make saving money easy.

Let’s look at these money saving free Apps:

* Pic2shop, MySuperList & Idealo

These are barcode readers or scanners that allow you to compare prices of what you need and get them at the cheapest price from a specific retailer. These Apps usually have an extensive database of products from a multitude of local and online retailers.

Pic2Shop is the pioneer barcode scanner and is one of the few Apps that can read barcodes even without autofocus on all Android and iPhone models. Meanwhile, MySuperlist has added features that allow you to enjoy cash backs and set price alerts.

* Spendometer

This is one of the best free mobile Apps for saving money. It’s a brilliant budgeting App that makes daily cash management easy and simple. You can create a budget, input your spending and generate a spending report on it. The Spendometer can also generate the data on how much cash is on hand and how much has already been spent on a weekly or monthly basis. All you need to do is input all your spending and Spendometer will do the rest.

* Skype

Skype save you on phone bills. It is a free App that allows you to send a message or make a call, even a video call for free. You can even send photos of any size to friends, family and associates without paying an exorbitant fee For Multi-Media Messaging Services. And you can do all these wherever you are or whenever you want to as long as there is an Internet connection.

* Livingsocial

Livingsocial offers huge discounts on vacations, gyms, spas, restaurants, live performances and events and more in your area as well as in the whole of Australia. Daily discount deals are available and you can buy directly using your mobile device. You can enjoy an active social life at very little cost with Livingsocial.

Conclusion

We have mentioned a few apps only, there are many apps but they're are all not free of charge. If you know any other apps that will save your money let us know by commenting on this post.

How to Save Money Each Month – 76 Easy Things You Can Do Right Now

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What Security Professionals Can Learn From The 5-Year Old Xbox Hacker

Sometimes news of poor security hits and it sends the whole web-o-sphere into panic. Heartbleed was an example of one such story. Other times, one can't help but to get a laugh out of weak security. A story that hit last week worth a laugh involved an Xbox account being hacked not by a teenager with a lot of time on his hands, not by a world class hacker or cyber criminals, but by a five year old kid who wanted to play some games he didn't have access to.

Shortly after Christmas last year, the child's parents caught him playing games on the Xbox that he shouldn't have been able to play, having somehow hacked his father's account to buy any game he pleased.

When asked how he broke into the account, the method used turned out to be... well, kind of ridiculous. He had tried guessing a password to his father's account. When that didn't work, he was taken to a password verification screen where... he hit the space-bar a bunch of times and logged in.

Interestingly, Microsoft actually offers a $10,000 bounty to hackers who can crack their system. Given that this seems to have been more of a fluke than a targeted hack, the family didn't get to reap the rewards, but it's kind of funny that educated, technical-minded hackers looking for backdoors and weak points have nothing on a little kid who really wants to play Minecraft.

Microsoft has fixed the hack, so don't bother trying to score some free games. In the future, a few tips that security professionals might want to keep in mind:

• Don't Just Rely on Professionals

A professional coder is thinking from a professional perspective. They're not looking for dumb hacks that any five year old kid could employ, they're looking for, well, a challenge. When you put a $10,000 bounty on finding security flaws, hackers are looking for a ten thousand dollar hack.

• Keep a Five Year Old on the Payroll

Child labor laws probably won't allow this, but rewarding children and casual gamers who can hack the system with free games or whatever prizes are appropriate to your website or gaming service wouldn't be a bad idea. You never know who's going to discover your weak points, so extending bounties to anyone who can find them can help to bring these weaknesses to light in the future.

• Double Verification Can be Annoying, but Necessary

We might not like typing our credit card number in for every single purchase, but adding an extra security wall after login, at least where money is involved, can help to prevent unauthorized payments, so that even if someone can hack your Xbox Live or Steam account, they won't necessarily be able to make purchases in your name.

"Sometimes security science may seem like it's more, well, art than science," said Jason Hope, tech expert (https://medium.com/@jasonhope) "but with a rigorous approach to developing and testing systems for passwords, verification and online signatures, it's not impossible to build a rock-solid security setup." The five year old hacker doesn't get to keep all the games he bought, but if he keeps at it, he may one day land a job as a professional White Hat hacker. Companies like Sony and Facebook are known to hire professional hackers on a part time and full time basis in order to explore their security systems' flaws and offer tips to improve their verification processes.

Fortunately, it doesn't seem as if the hack has been discovered prior to now, as nobody seems to be coming forward with stories of having their accounts hijacked with the spacebar hack. Most of all, the whole affair has just been a little embarrassing for Microsoft, who generally has a better track record than this when it comes to online security.

In the aftermath of this, it's easy to imagine hundreds of gamers trying similar hacks on the PlayStation Network, Steam and Xbox Live in hopes of scoring a bounty, or at least a few games.

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