Pokemon Online – Indie app of the day

What is Pokemon Online?

Pokemon Online is one of the few Pokemon experiences you can get on Android without going through the hassle of downloading an emulator and the games. The idea behind the app is simple. It strips away all the RPG and story elements and lets battle your Pokemon team online against other players. The purpose is to hone your battle strategies, see which teams do the best, and figure out strategies for beating harder opponents.

Despite the lack of story elements and RPG mechanics, the game manages to offer quite a bit of content. You can either have a team selected for you at random or you can carefully craft your own. By craft your own, I mean you get to pick which Pokemon you want, their abilities, and their level. This means you can go with your favorites or experiment with ones you’ve never used before. Given the number of Pokemon available, the number of permutations are quite large.

Once in battle, you play as though it were a typical Pokemon battle by selecting moves and abilities against a live opponent. This means connecting to a server which means you’ll need to have an internet connection in order to play. Aside from choosing your Pokemon team and moves, you can also play by various rule sets. If you want to play by the old school Pokemon Red or Blue rules, you can choose those or if you want to play by a newer rule set, you can. Playing by different rule sets can cause different effects depending on what attacks you use. That adds a fun layer of complexity on top of an already decently fun battle system.

Along with battling people, you can also participate in chat rooms and private messages if you so choose. It’s also worth nothing that there is a desktop version of this for the big three desktop operating systems which allows you to transport teams and face people cross platform. There is also a fairly active community of players complete with forums if you decide you want to get even further into the community.

What is wrong with this app?

The worst that’s been reported are server connection issues. Every now and then people will not be able to connect in order to play against other people. Another bug that has been frequently reported is the in-game menu button not working for some people. It seems to be pretty random so it’s a roll of the dice. If you don’t get those issues, it seems to be a fairly stable and solid application. Of course, like any online community populated by hardcore fans, there may be a little animosity but those are the risks we all take when joining new communities.

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Final thoughts

Overall, this is a fun little game. It’s not the classic Pokemon that everyone knows and loves, but if you’ve always been into the battling part of Pokemon then this is an app you can’t miss. There are the occasional server issues and a few bugs, but nothing too bad. It is important to remember that this is the battle part of Pokemon only. If you’re more of a fan of the story and didn’t enjoy the battling part so much, you probably will not enjoy this app. If you want to check it out, use the button below.

Check out the last indie app of the day: FarFaria

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Taking On Amazon, Target Expands Online Subscriptions Program To More Categories, Lowers Prices

Target has significantly expanded its subscription-based e-commerce service, first launched last fall as a response to Amazon’s popular “Subscribe and Save” program, by increasing the number of online items available for subscription purchase from just 200 to now 1,500. While the company’s original focus was on baby-care items, the now revamped service offers similar savings for other everyday purchases, including cleaning supplies, health and beauty aids, pet treats and training pads, grocery items, home and offices supplies, and more.

The Minneapolis-headquartered retailer first debuted “Target Subscriptions” as a pilot program in September, with just 150 items related to baby-care, like diapers, wipes, training pants, and other regular purchases designed to appeal to new parents. Customers were able to order these items to be delivered in four, six, eight, ten and twelve-week installments, but unlike with competitor Amazon, there was not an additional savings for ordering on a subscription basis at the time of launch.

That has now changed.

Previously, customers were offered free shipping, and those paying with the Target card or Target VISA could save an additional 5 percent on purchases. Those programs remain in place today, but now the retailer is offering an additional 5 percent discount on all subscriptions orders. That means those paying with their Target cards could save a total of 10 percent on their orders while also not paying shipping.

In addition, some items have extra savings attached to them on a promotional basis – for instance, a special offer found on several items across the site (like this Tide detergent, e.g.) is promising a $10 gift card to those buying three items from the “Household” category. The move is likely meant to encourage users to sign up for regular shipments, which, over time, would be worth more to the company than the initial $10 loss.

Target also tells us that the subscriptions service grew quickly after its initial launch, and now accounts for more than 15% of online sales for eligible items. To be clear, that’s not 15 percent of total sales, but 15 percent of the eligible items’ sales on Target.com.

The company declined to break out its online sales figures, however.

Target also last fall introduced a pick-up program, similar to other online retailers including large competitor Wal-Mart, which allows shoppers to buy online and then pick-up at the store. That program began with 35,000 items and has since grown to 60,000, and now accounts for 10 percent of Target’s online business.

DATA Act, Which Would Make Government-Spending Data Available Online, Passes Senate

The Senate unanimously passed the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, or DATA Act, today.

The DATA Act is designed to help bring new transparency to spending by the federal government, by making spending data available to the public at USASpending.gov. The bill’s goal, to quote the Congressional Research Service’s (CRS) summary, is to “provide consistent, reliable, and searchable government-wide spending data.” That data will “improve the quality of data submitted to USASpending.gov by holding federal agencies accountable for the completeness and accuracy of the data submitted,” according to the CRS.

No politician wants to be caught opposing clarity in government spending, which makes the act’s unanimous passage unsurprising.

As the Washington Post notes, “[t]he final language also requires everything the federal government spends at the appropriations account level to be published on USASpending.gov, with the exception of classified material and information that wouldn’t be revealed in response to a Freedom of Information Request.”

Precisely.

The more data we the regular folk and assorted watchdog groups have, the better oversight we can impugn upon our elected officials from every branch and level of government.

Republican House leadership appears confident of quick passage:

And original co-sponsors of the bill in the House that passed in November seem quite content with the Senate’s actions:

The original version of the bill passed the House by a vote of 388-1. Given that, the chance of it failing to pass the House this go-round is incredibly low.

With broad definitions of what counts as a group that must report its spending, the DATA Act would force the Secretary of the Treasury to start tracking submitted data from “each federal agency” monthly, with data including “outlays, funds reprogrammed or transferred,” according to the CRS.

The secretary will set the regulations for data, and as possible make the information collected available in formats that are “widely accepted, nonproprietary, searchable, [and] platform independent.” This will harmonize data from various agencies, allowing for better comparison and historical tracking. Also, no group should be able to hide behind technical issues to prevent public oversight.

The Director of the Office of Management and Budget will have a role, as well, helping to set data standards, and putting together a two-year pilot program to help gel rules so that reporting standards are not onerous to parties forced to comply.

Nice to see the above on the fast track. It’ll take years, according to current language, to get the program fully up and running. But given current momentum, I think it’s safe to say that whoever wins the next presidential election will see, early in their first term, a new amount of light spilling in from outside on just what the government is buying and how much it’s willing to pay.

IMAGE BY FLICKR USER Zoe Rudisill UNDER CC BY 2.0 LICENSE (IMAGE HAS BEEN CROPPED) 

Patent troll demands money for paying with a card online (yes, really)

Ngader

Whether it is a copyright troll or a patent troll, today’s society seems to have a troll for just about every general aspect of business life. To be fair, I am not talking about companies who make products and are protecting their rights. The following companies are ones who make nothing, research nothing and do nothing other than sue businesses through a Non-Practicing Entity.

Today, we have a new way in which people and businesses are being shaken down for basic business activities. If you are a business with customers who pay their credit cards online, Landmark Technology, LLC, can sue you for patent infringement. Yes, by paying with a credit card online, whether through your phone or computer.

As TechDirt notes, Landmark makes no products and offers no services. However, they own patent 6,289,319 which deals with ‘Automatic Business and Financial Transaction Processing System.’

Landmark has been suing people under several names since 2003 and has gotten tens of thousands of dollars by scaring small businesses into paying them for the ability to stay out of court. Recently, Lockwood has decided to sue Dunkin’ Donuts, Abercrombie & Fitch, Caesar’s Gaming, Hitachi and Harley-Davidson, Louis Vuitton, The Children’s Place, Rubbermaid and others.

Landmark has the same type of business practice that other trolls have in that they simply send demand letters and follow that up with a lawsuit. TrollingEffects.org has an example of a letter sent by Landmark to businesses that supposedly infringe on Landmark’s patents of “network technologies relating to Internet searching, bill pay, and business-to-business transactions.”

Hopefully, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gets the Senate to pass their version of the Innovation Act, which sailed through Congress late last year but has since been watered down due to lobbyists from, among others, patent troll king, Intellectual Ventures.

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myWebRoom Picks Up $2.8M To Build Out Its Online Platform For Self Expression, Drops Beta Tag

This morning myWebRoom dropped its beta tag and announced that it has raised a total of $2.8 million to date.

As a service, myWebRoom is something of a hybrid social, bookmarking, and user-expression experience. In short, each myWebRoom user has a WebRoom that might look something like this:

(Yes, that’s my Facebook profile picture. I apologize.) Anyhoo, WebRooms items are interchangeable and clickable. Click on the computer, and you are presented with a number of search engine options, for example. Other items offer up different sets of personalizable websites.

So, your room is at once a portal of sorts, and a digital representation of things that you like. The company intends to make money by having brands pay it to put their items in the WebRooms of its users and so forth. You could put a Sony TV, if I can invent an example, in your WebRoom, perhaps.

myWebRooms also includes a social component in that you can have “friends” on the site (you can invite them in from Facebook, naturally).

The $2.8 million includes $600,000 in angel money, and $2.2 million from Konstantin Nikolaev, a Russian billionaire.

What I like about myWebRooms is that I am utterly not in its potential user group. Wrapping a skin around my Web experience, while perhaps aesthetically pleasing, would only slow me down. Also, I have an actual apartment to decorate, making my need for a rival digital space somewhat lessened.

That said, it’s good to realize you are not the only person alive.

During its beta period, the company picked up 35,000 registered users, generating around 25,000 monthly hits. Leaving beta, the company told TechCrunch that it wants to reach 100,000 registered users by the end of the year. That’s a modest goal.

myWebRoom will need to scale quickly to attract large-dollar brands — at lower levels of usage it wouldn’t present a large enough audience to garner the sort of brand attention that it needs to be a viable business.

So fresh out of beta and with a stack of cash, myWebRoom now needs to prove product-market fit.

Moot Rebrands As Muut (Yes, Really), Raises $770K To Make Online Forums Less Ugly

Moot.it, a startup launched last April to do away with ugly online forums by offering a flexible, customizable and more modern-looking platform for online discussions, has raised $770,000 in new funding and is changing its name to Muut. (Hey, they wanted the .com, so you get what you get these days.)

The funding was led by Oregon Angel Fund, and the other notable investor is the Portland Seed Fund.

Over the course of the year, the company has grown its customer base to over 28,000 and its user base to 300,000, and is currently adding thousands of new users per day. Muut also says its application is now being loaded approximately 150 million times per month.

The company was founded by Portland-based serial entrepreneur Courtney Couch, along with jQuery Tools creator Tero Piirainen and Janne Lehtinen, both of Helsinki. The team had previously been working on a web video player called Flowplayer before creating Muut.

The idea for the startup, like many others, came about because it was something the founders needed for themselves. They were running a separate support system and separate forums, but wanted something that would combine the content, unifying the commenting and the forums, while not looking like something “from the ’90s,” Couch had once said. As it turned out, it was slim pickins’ out there, so the team created Moot, now Muut.

With Muut, site owners can design their discussion platforms however they want. You can use it for commenting, forums or both combined, and you can customize those discussions in a variety of ways – like flat or threaded comments, for example – while also allowing users to comment using their same login they might use for your own website or software. The platform works on mobile, too, including iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.

“Muut seems to fill a glaring void on the internet: that of a super fast, built-for-mobile, easy-to-use, lightweight, beautiful, uncluttered forum and commenting solution that you can embed on your site and style to your liking,” explains the company, in an announcement going up later today. (We took a deeper look into its feature set last year, which you can read here.)

Since its debut, Muut has added the single sign-on functionality, plus custom navigation (to change how the right navigation works, and what content appears in the “all posts” section), introduced a graphical designer with pre-built themes, private forums with developer accounts, made SEO improvements, added Google Analytics integration, support for image uploading and galleries, added an option to select and share text to quote on Facebook or Twitter, expanded its language support (now in 25 languages), and more. (Yes, these are just the highlights).

The company, which competes to some extent with products like Discourse, Livefyre, Disqus and others, declined to discuss revenue specifics. Its freemium service starts at $8/month for paid accounts, but Couch would not say what percentage of users are free vs. paid. However, he did note that revenue has been growing at 30% on average every month over the past 6 months.

Portland-based Muut, now a team of 9, will use the new investment to continue product development over the course of 2014, with plans for forum data importers, integrations into WordPress and other platforms, Muut API documentation for deeper integration, administrative features, and more.

ePantry Launches An Online Grocery Offering Sustainable Goods, Automatically Shipped To Your Door

A new online grocery called ePantry, publicly launching today, believes that consumers do care about buying green and sustainable products, but they often choose not to because it’s less convenient. That is, when you run out of dish soap or laundry detergent, for example, you simply head over to your local store and grab whatever’s on the shelf – and it might not be the best choice for the environment.

The solution, ePantry believes, is to offer a variety of sustainable household items that are automatically shipped to you on a regular schedule, based on when you’re expected to run out. That way, not only will you have the convenience that comes with shopping online and automated shipments, you’ll also never be stuck buying your household goods from local shops or groceries that may have limited “green” selections.

“I really care about the environment, personally, and it always bothered me that people made decisions based on what was convenient,” explains co-founder Stuart Landesberg, who previously worked in consumer and tech investing before co-founding ePantry around 18 months ago.

“I really believe that in 10 years, nobody’s ever going to run out of anything – there’s going to be an anticipatory system that knows that you’re about to pull that last sheet – and it will show up at your door when you need it,” says Landesberg.

He says he started the company under the premise that price was not actually what was preventing consumers from shopping more “green,” explaining that this idea that sustainable products are much more expensive is actually a myth. To be clear, the company isn’t targeting the coupon cutter necessarily, but ePantry’s prices are sometimes even cheaper than the grocery store, Landesberg claims, and they try to have fun with offering discounts, too. For example, right now, you can tell a joke to the people staffing their online chat to receive $2 off your order. (Yes, really).

On ePantry today, there are just over half a dozen brands, including familiar green names like Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day, Method, Seventh Generation, Green Forest, Preserve, Casabella, and more, but that list is growing, as the service is now expanding into personal care. In total, there are around 400 or 500 SKUs on ePantry at present, Landesberg estimates.

The company also recently partnered with Method to deepen the brand’s involvement with ePantry.

Of course, recurring subscriptions for common household goods and other toiletries is something that Amazon offers today with its “Subscribe and Save” program, which lets you automatically replenish everything from kitchen cleaners to shampoos and more. But Landesberg believes there’s still room for a smaller player to scratch out a niche for themselves, given that the CPG (consumer packaged goods) category today is “well under 2% online” he says. “The consumers are up for grabs,” he adds.

ePantry had been running a private beta before quietly opening up to the public at the end of last year, but had yet to broadcast news about its availability, preferring for a softer, more gradual launch. But already the service is seeing some pick-up, with less than a 1 percent attrition rate among customers who have placed their second order on the site, the co-founder tells us.

And while Landesberg won’t detail the size of the current user base, he paints a representative picture, noting that on one day this week the company shipped out 138 orders, and the average order size is around $45-$47, equating to around $200-$300 per year per customer.

The company, also co-founded by Chris Clark, previously Director of Product and Engineering at Kaggle, and Jordan Savage of Goodby Silverstein, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding, mainly from angels.

The investor list includes: John McAtee (VP at Google), Jeff Clarke (CEO of Kodak), Erik Blachford (Ex-CEO of Expedia/Terrapass), Cary Rosenzweig (former brand manager in charge of Tide, ex-IMVU CEO), Taek Kwon (Ex-CEO of Friendster), as well as several ex-TPG Capital colleagues and managing directors at TPG and Toro Investment Partners (where Landesberg previously worked), Fleming Corp., and others.

Now a team of nine full-time in San Francisco, the plan is to grow the site’s product selection and begin getting the word out that ePantry exists to interested consumers.

Online Banking – 5 Services That Will Change The Way You Bank

It’s not really a stretch to say that the big banks aren’t keeping up with the curve. Not only do they seem perfectly happy to ignore the needs of small customers, but these big banks aren’t really doing well trying to keep up with the mobile-centric lifestyles of today’s urban dwellers. Between the fees and the lack of mobile support from the big banks, it’s no wonder that alternative and mobile-friendly banking solutions are starting to emerge. If mobile payment systems are here to stay, maybe online and mobile-friendly banking is next in line.

These mobile banking services take advantage of the possibilities afforded by being online and mobile, providing cool features that you just won’t see in the online apps from your traditional big banks. These services aren’t actually banks themselves, and are still backed by traditional banks, but each provides an interface and features that are worlds apart from what you’d get from a traditional bank’s mobile offerings. Here’s a list of five that might pique your interest.

Recommended Reading: Digital Wallets – 10 Mobile Payment Systems To Take You There

1. Simple

Simple has been around for a while, and is one of the leading lights in this new generation of online banking services. Simple has easy to use web and mobile banking tools, which come with rich budgeting tools. For instance, you can set goals and request regular reports. You can even deposit checks using your smartphone. Simple is almost entirely free to use; the only fees Simple charges are a $2 International ATM Cash Withdrawal Fee, an $8 Treasurer’s Check Fee and a $1 Over the Counter Cash Withdrawal fee.

Simple also sends you a Simple Visa card, which can be used like any other card to make purchases. Simple is available by invitation only, and only to residents of the United States. However, Simple was recently acquired by BBVA for $117 million, and although this acquisition doesn’t seem to have changed much yet, there’s a possibility that this acquisition may lead to Simple expanding beyond the United States. The Simple app is available for both Android and iOS.

2. GoBank

GoBank is a mobile-first bank that eliminates a lot of the fees and complexity associated with traditional banking. WithGoBank you can sign up straight from your smartphone, and it lets you send money and deposit checks straight from your smartphone. You can also use the GoBank app to create and send a paper check free of charge. GoBank has a large network of free ATMs, with 40,000 free GoBank ATMs spread across the United States. Deposits can be made at any Green Dot retailer, including Wal-Mart.

GoBank, like most online banking services, includes robust budgeting tools, such as letting you set custom alerts for specific situations. GoBank gives you your own debit card for free. For added personalization, for a fee of $9, you can even customize it with a photo from Facebook. GoBank is only available for United States residents. Interestingly, GoBank has a negotiable monthly membership fee that ranges from completely free up to $9. GoBank supports both Android and iOS smartphones.

3. Moven

Moven is a mobile banking service and app that has only recently left beta. The app provides a lot of useful real-time information, including real-time updates and spending alerts. Moven also has useful budgeting and bookkeeping features, such as the ability to analyse spending across all your credit and debit cards. Moven even lets you send money through the app using either Facebook, email or mobile phone number. The Facebook integration also lets you see a map of social events, which may come in handy.

One thing that sets Moven apart, though, is that you can manage other accounts and cards through the app. Moven accounts are almost completely free, with charges only incurred for international ATM withdrawals. You’ll also be charged if you with draw from non-STAR Surcharge-free ATMs, although this is charged by the vendor and not by Moven. Moven is invite-only at the moment, and is only open to residents of the United States. The Moven app is available for Android and iOS.

4. Avuba

Avuba is a new mobile-first, completely-digital online bank. Avuba has an always-available 24/7 helpline, and promises that you’ll be able to start banking within 24 hours of signing up. Avuba also supports authentification via text message and all the easy money transfer options you’d expect from a mobile banking app. Avuba offers free credit and debit cards. What’s more, Avuba waives withdrawal fees; even international withdrawals won’t incur any extra fees. Avuba also provides advanced analytics, letting users track their spending behavior thoroughly.

Avuba is invite-only at the moment, and is currently entirely free to use, although they are discussing a 7 Euro monthly fee. The site doesn’t seem to explicitly mention any regional limitations, but it’s safe to assume that Avuba is at the very least limited to German residents. Avuba is also one of the 11 startups that’s part of startup accelerator Techstars’ London 2014 intake, which should help raise funds to improve Avuba even further.

5. Holvi

Holvi is an online bank that aims to help businesses, events and associations better manage their finances. Holvi works just like your conventional bank account, but with a clean interface designed for web and mobile use, plus a lot of tools and features that are usually associated with dedicated accounting software and services. For instance, Holvi has real-time invoicing built into the service, alongside budgeting and real-time bookkeeping features. You can also gather expense claims and pay them directly from your account.

In addition to these accounting features, Holvi lets you invite other users to manage the same account. Definitely something useful for businesses and associations. This is complemented by an account Feed that lets all users see exactly what’s been going on with the money. Holvi even provides an online store for each account. Holvi is currently only available for Finnish residents, but the company plans to expand its services to the rest of the European Union in the future.

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Create Online Video Presentations Easily With Movenote

Presentations are a great way to explain things and get important information across to an audience. However, there are times when it’s just impossible to conduct a presentation in real-time, be it due to distance or simply lack of time. Sure, you could just email your slides or publish them online, but without the all-important human element, it can be hard to communicate and get your point across. If you’ve ever wished for an easy way to overcome this problem by combining slides with audio and visual narration, you can stop wishing. Say hello to Movenote.

Movenote is an app and website that lets you create video slidecasts, which the app calls Movenotes. Movenote lets you accompany your slides with a video narration. If giving a presentation in real life is impossible for whatever reason, Movenote might just be the next best thing. If this sounds useful to you, read on to find out more.

Recommended Reading: Create Beautiful Presentations Easily With Slidebean

Getting Started With Movenote

To get started using Movenote, just log on to the website and register a new account if you don’t have one. You can also log in using your Google, Facebook or LinkedIn accounts. However, it looks like you’ll only have Google Drive integration if you login using a Google account.

Once you’ve logged in, go through Movenote’s terms and conditions. Once you’re done with that, you can watch some YouTube videos with tips on getting started with Movenote. Finally, Movenote will ask for your permission to use your webcam.

Using Movenote

This is what the main Movenote interface looks like:

Your slides take up the bulk of the screen, with your webcam’s output on the right side of the screen. This is so that you can see yourself while you’re recording the Movenote. Press the pencil icon beside the presentation title to edit the Movenote’s title. Archive is where you access older Movenotes.

Adding slides is simple as clicking on Add Slides and choosing whether to add files from your computer or from your Google Drive account.

Once you’ve added your slides, either from your computer or from Google Drive, you can rearrange and delete them however you wish. Just press Re-order at the top of the slide display and a new window will pop up allowing you to re-order and delete slides.

Recording Your Presentation

Once you’re satisfied with your slides, you can start recording your Movenote. Just press the red Record button; Movenote will start a countdown and then begin recording. While recording, just narrate as you normally would, and click the arrows above the slide display in order to move through the slides. You can also turn your mouse cursor into a laser pointer by holding your mouse button down; this can be useful for highlighting certain parts of a slide.

Once you’re done recording, click Pause. You can then either resume recording, start over if you made a mistake, or press Save & preview if you’re satisfied with your recording.

Once you press Save & preview, Movenote will take a few minutes to generate your Movenote. How long Movenote takes depends on the length of the presentation.

You have a number of ways to share your completed Movenote. You can email the link via Gmail, copy the public link, or share it on social networks including Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Movenote also has AddThis integration, letting you share your Movenote on a lot of other social platforms such as Pinterest and Tumblr.

There are a few other controls at the bottom of the screen. The seekbar and the slide counter work in tandem with each other, in that moving through the slides also advances through the Movenote. Viewers also have the option to download the slides in .PDF format.

There’s also a settings menu that lets you do a few extra things, including adding a link, editing the slides, generating an embed code as well as deleting the Movenote.

Conclusion

Movenote is an incredibly useful tool if you want to accompany slides and presentations with audio-visual narration and explanations. If you’ve ever wanted to keep the human element of presentations while sharing information across the Internet, then Movenote is definitely something you’ll want to try out.

Movenote is also available for mobile platforms, both Android and iOS. There’s also a Movenote Chrome app as well as a Movenote for Gmail extension that lets you create Movenotes directly from Gmail.

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Selling Stuff Online, Android Phones, and Podcast Goodbyes

This week on the podcast we're answering your questions about prepaid cellphone carriers, selling stuff online, and choosing Android phones—plus an announcement about the future of the Lifehacker podcast.

How to Listen to This Week's Episode

Here's how you can listen to our episode:

Announcement

After a 100+ episode run, we regret to announce that the Lifehacker show will be on an indefinite hiatus. It's been an awesome time, but the Lifehacker team needs to take some time to focus on some other things. Thanks to all of you who have been with us over the years! If nothing else, know that the Lifehacker podcast had an effect on the world—our news about LinkedIn's two-factor authentication is cited on Wikipedia.

Questions

Jacob asks, "I do A LOT of video recording and like to save all of my videos. The problem, though, is that they take up a lot of space (in AVCHD format). Is there a format I could use to save space with a minimal loss in quality? What program would I need to do this?"

Handbrake, compressed H.264. Basically, it's the same format with a different wrapper at a lower bitrate, but because the compression isn't being carried out in real time by a camera it can retain the same/similar quality at a lower bit rate.

Tony asks, "What are my choices for a prepaid carrier that uses AT&T's network? I'm looking for a cheaper option."

You have a lot of choices. Check out our list of the five most popular (though most are Verizon and Sprint-based), as well as our guide to picking a prepaid carrier. Once you want to start your search, this Wikipedia page has a huge list of the MVNOs in the US, and which carrier they're attached to.

Keri asks, "I have a new Windows 7 desktop that I would like to setup with Wake On LAN to turn on my computer when I'm away. I've got the WOL option enabled in the BIOS and in the power management settings. However, when it comes to setting up the IP address, I am lost: do I have to pay for DynDNS or will DHCP reservations work fine?"

The two are actually for different things, so it depends on what you're trying to do. Think of it this way: if you're only accessing your computer from inside your home network, then all you need is DHCP reservations. If you're accessing your computer from outside your network, you'll need DynDNS.

Sam writes, "I wanted to ask about some good ways to sell used stuff online. I know there are options with Amazon, eBay, and others. However I don't know if and how one is better than the other."

It depends a lot on what you're selling and how much money you'd like to make (vs. how much work you'd like to do). You should find most of what you need to know in our complete guide to selling your stuff. You can also sell it on Facebook, too.

Every listener ever asks, "Moto X or Nexus 5?" "Samsung Note 3 or S5?" "Insert Android phone here or insert Android phone here?" "How do I choose an Android phone?"

This is a question we get almost every week—but no one can answer it but you! My recommendation: read reviews from a trusted gadget site like Gizmodo, or another Android-focused outlet. Chances are, even googling the two will give you a lot of information and comparisons from people who have used both. You might also check out our guide to picking your next Android phone.

Tips

This week, we're all on the show sharing our favorite tips of all time:

Downloads

And, in honor of our final episode, we shared some of our favorite brain-boosting podcasts. You can find them and many others in this awesome list.

Thanks everyone for a great run! Be sure to subscribe to Lifehacker's RSS or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ to keep up with us now that the podcast is over.

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Can I Learn How to Play an Instrument Online?

S

Dear Lifehacker,
I've always wanted to learn how to play the guitar, but I can't afford private lessons. Plenty of people have told me I can learn on my own with online tools, but I have no idea where to start. How would you suggest I learn how to play?

Sincerely,
Waiting to Shred

Dear WS,
Learning an instrument is a bit intimidating at first, but the benefits range from increasing your memory capacity to making your better at math. You can learn to play on your own as long as you're willing to spend the time doing it. Here are a few of the better resources and the habits that'll help you along the way.

Use Free Video and Web Tutorials

You have a ton of options for learning how to play an instrument online. YouTube is one of best ways to get expert education on playing an instrument for free and you can find lessons for just about any instrument you can imagine.

YouTube's music section has tutorials for how to play any instrument in pretty much any style you want. Search for the instrument you want to learn, and spend a couple of minutes watching the teacher. If they feel like a good fit, you're done. If not, move onto the next one. It's okay if you're picky because you have a ton of options, so find a teacher you like.

If videos aren't your thing, you can almost always find free written guides for most instruments. About's hobbies section can help with common instruments like the guitar and piano. Otherwise, a Google search should reveal free guides for just about every instrument imaginable.

If sheet music is more your thing, a web app like Soundslice is an excellent way to learn songs with both interactive notation and tabs. Just queue up a song and you see the song streaming across a sheet of music. Similarly, you can use YouTube to learn songs you already love. Chordify turns a music video on YouTube into tabs so you can practice and play them.

Use Mobile Apps to Practice (or Study) on the Go

S

Both the iTunes App Store and Google Play have massive directory's of mobile apps that help you take your learning on the go. It might sound silly, but having a way to (quietly) practice an instrument on the bus is pretty great.

As you'd expect, the bulk of these apps teach you skills like chords and how to read sheet music. They do a good enough job at it that you might find yourself using them even when you're at home. Assuming you don't want to take your instrument of choice with you everywhere you go, an app's a pretty stand-in for most aspects of the learning process.

Get Live Video Help When You Need It

S

Sometimes no amount of video tutorials or reading can help you figure something out. In that case, it's time to turn to a real life teacher. Teachers are great because it's easier to ask a real human questions. They can also point out if your posture is bad or if you're misunderstanding a core concept.

Of course, a real person does cost money, but since one-off meetings are more common online than they are with an in-person teacher, you won't need to spend as much. Google's Helpouts are a great place to find a cheap teacher, and music lessons over Skype or Bandhappy are easy to set up. You don't need to do this for a full course of lessons, but for the occasional question and check-in, a video meeting can help a lot.

Set Up a Practice Time and Stick to It

S

When you're learning how to play an instrument on your own, it's important to stick with some kind of routine. As with any online education, it's best if you're independently driven since a teacher won't hound you to finish your work every week. So, set a time and practice deliberately. If you need some help with motivation, we've got you covered.

You'll also want to intentionally hinder yourself sometimes. As we've pointed out before, failure helps us learn. When you're taking lessons online or learning how to play a specific song from YouTube, it's easy to rely too much on those guides. Remember to take a step away from the computer and practice without it now and again.

After you get comfortable with playing, it's a good idea to start recording yourself to see how you sound so you can improve. You don't need a special crazy music production studio. Your phone or computer's mic is fine. The goal is to make yourself aware of your mistakes so you know what you need to work on. This is an important part of having a teacher that's hard to emulate on your own, but it's possible if you can tune your ear enough to notice your mistakes.

Finally, have fun and experiment. It's easy to get caught up in rushing through a series of videos or a set of lessons and forget to enjoy what you're doing. Don't be afraid to walk away from the computer and start writing your own stuff. Even it's terrible it'll at least be your own.

Good luck!
Lifehacker

Photo by woodleywonderworks.

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