Watching out for a few small things during your day, however, can help extend battery life on your trusty device and make sure you’ve got enough juice to make it all day and well into the night.

Mixed signals
It takes extra juice for your smartphone to search for a data connection. If you’re somewhere where you won’t get a signal, like an airplane or subway, putting your phone in airplane mode or turning it off altogether will prevent it from draining your battery. Turning your phone on does require a bit of extra power, so it’s best to save shutting it off for times when you plan to leave it off for a while, rather than something like a 20-minute subway ride to work in the morning. Thinking of it as car mode or subway mode instead of airplane mode might just be the mental trick you need!

Likewise, turn off wifi when you don’t need it. When it’s active, your phone scans for available wifi connections constantly, which kills battery life. If you’re using the wifi in a coffee shop or bookstore, remember to disable that connection when you’re done to avoid draining your battery while you’re on the road.

Focus on the task at hand
Sure, you can have your email open, search for directions to a local restaurant, watch a video on YouTube, and play Angry Birds at the same time — but chances are you’re really only focused on one of those tasks. Everything you have open on your phone is using some amount of battery power. Try to focus on doing just one thing at a time on your phone, and close unnecessary applications to keep them from draining your battery.

Things like your GPS and the bluetooth connection you use to connect to your hands-free device in the car gobble up a ton of battery power and are of no use to you unless you’re doing a few specific tasks.  

Bright future
Bright screens look great but are a huge drain on your phone’s battery. To stretch your phone’s life, go into the controls or settings and dim the backlight or brightness of your screen. While the dimmest setting might be difficult to read (especially if you’re somewhere brightly lit), something toward the middle will extend your battery life without putting too much strain on your eyes. If your phone has an auto-brightness option, using that can be a one-step solution to balancing battery life and ease of reading.

Along those same lines, try to avoid using animated backgrounds on your phone. Remember, the less you ask of your phone, the less it draws on your battery.

Bad vibrations
It takes more battery power for your phone to vibrate than it does to ring. While you absolutely want to have your phone on vibrate (or turned off) when you’re at a movie or in a meeting, keeping your ringer on at other times can help extend battery life.

Mandatory nap time
Just as you would with a toddler, the easiest way to make sure your smartphone’s battery lasts all night is to give it a nap at some point during the day. If you’re headed into a meeting for a few hours, turn off your phone and leave it in your desk. Likewise, if you’re out to dinner with close friends or on a date, turn off your phone and focus on your companions. Not only will you look like a better employee and friend for focusing on the people around you in real life, you’ll also save that much more juice for later.

Still having trouble?
If you still find yourself running out of battery life before the end of the day, plug into a charging bag or use an external battery pack such as Morphie’s JuicePack to strap on some extra power for the road.

This article was written by Emily Price and originally appeared on Tecca

Most bloggers suggest that you add carpooling or public transportation to your commute to save money on gas and help the environment. While that is the most altruistic advice, there is little chance you will be willing to give up your freedom of the road. Here are some ways you can start conserving gas and saving money on your commute:

Use the right gas. A lot of people think that high-octane gas is better than lower-octane gas because the higher stuff is labeled “premium.” Premium is better than regular, right? In reality, octane simply refers to how much the fuel can be compressed before it combusts. High octane means it can be compressed more. Only buy the expensive stuff if your car requires it.

Combine trips. One of the most draining things your car does to the gas tank is start up in the morning. By taking the time to get all of the mechanical, electronic, and automatic systems heated and up to speed, your car is not optimizing its fuel use. Instead of stopping at home, make an itinerary before runnning errands. Visit the bank to get cash, Target to buy laundry detergent, then the grocery store last to avoid spoiled food.

Cash-back credit cards. If you are going to drive yourself to work, buck up and face the reality that a portion of your paycheck will go to the gas station. Many large stations offer their own credit cards for exclusive use at their stations. Big banks also offer their own lines of credit for cash back at the pump and even allow you to use their services no matter which station you choose.

Lose the extra baggage. A couple of lawn chairs, a cooler, and a wet blanket from the Jimmy Buffetconcert are still taking up space in your trunk. It’s December and you saw him in late July. Whether you likeJimmy Buffet or not, there are probably some unused items clogging up space in your trunk and backseat. Simple physics states that the heavier an object is, the more energy it will take to move it. Clean out your vehicle and save money on gas.

Change your oil. Most people don’t consider their oil to play a major factor in fuel conservation. By choosing the correct blend according to your vehicle’s owner manual, you can add substance-removing additives to your engine, increase lubrication performance, and reduce the amount of gas you need.

The early bird gets the petro. Most people think that filling up when the weather is cold will give them a savings advantage. While this is half true, barely, it is only part of the story. Gas chains decide to change prices closer to noon than any other time of the day. While the morning may be frosty, the weather has negligible effects on your pump. But getting in before the price change could save you some money.

Purchase gas anywhere. You might think that large oil companies like BP, Shell, and Exxon-Mobile have the highest prices on gas because they can. What most don’t realize is that smaller, locally-run stations actually have to charge just as much to stay competitive and not run out of their supply. If you are really looking for a cheap gas fix, turn to websites like GasPriceWatch.com and apps like GasBuddy to find the best deals in your area.

While none of these tips are guaranteed silver bullets to eliminate your pain at the pump, combined, they work like a team to save you trips to the gas station. If you are still unsure about saving money on gas, speak to your dealer or mechanic to find out what methods work best for your vehicle.

By Jim Wang

http://autos.yahoo.com

The biggest thing holding most people back from starting their own business is money. But the truth is, you don’t have to have a lot of money to start a business.

“If I get one more stinking, whining email about how impossible it is to start a business without any money, I am going to explode!” entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz wrote in his book, “The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.”

In fact, Michalowicz argues that having the money could actually be bad when you’re starting a business.

“The lack of money is actually advantageous,” he said. “I’ve seen better businesses start off with no money than those with a lot of money. If you have no money, it forces you start asking better questions, which leads you to better answers.”

“If you have the ability to send me an email, you clearly have access to a computer or cell phone — more than enough tools to get started,” he wrote in the book.

In fact, there are many businesses you can start for under $5,000. Buying a franchise isn’t one of them: Most fast-food franchises cost $100,000 or more to start and with some, you need at least half of that in cash.

Consider the story of Stewart Vernon of Macon, Georgia, who used a few thousand dollars he’d saved up in college to buy a truck and some chemicals , and opened a pool-cleaning business. Every year for the first four years he doubled his revenue; he became a millionaire by 25. He has now turned the business into a franchise.

Or, the story of Dave Petrillo and Dave Jackson, two twenty-something engineers who have been friends since childhood, who invented Coffee Joulies, stainless steel beans that instantly cool down your coffee and then keep it hot for up to five hours. They didn’t have a lot of money to start their business, so they bought some supplies and made prototypes in Petrillo’s parents’ basement and then put their product on Kickstarter.com, a grassroots-fundraising site. They set a goal of raising about $9,000 . The product was such a hit, they made over $300,000 and recently moved to Oneida, NY, where they’ve contracted an old silverware factory to crank out Coffee Joulies to meet the booming demand.

Michalowicz says you can start just about any business for under $5,000.

“I would even argue you could start your own airline for under $5,000! People might say, ‘A jet costs $50 million, no way!’ but maybe you start out teaching flying lessons or opening a business that caters to the airline industry, then build up your business until you have enough to buy that first plane.”

Whether you’re selling products or services, your biggest expenses will be space and salaries, said Michalowicz, who learned the hard way about blowing too much money too soon . He picked up a few tips for saving money along the way. For example, redirecting phone numbers. He thumbed through the phone book and called the number of every competitor. If any were disconnected, he would call the phone company and ask for that number.

“I had no money to advertise but I thought, ‘I need my phone ringing now!’” he said.

And, when he needed an attorney but had no money to hire one, he contacted a business-law professor and offered to allow the class to use his business as a case study , in exchange for the students drafting his legal work and having the professor look them over to make sure they were done properly.

Jill Bliss, who sells posters and stationery online and in stores, has her own money-saving strategy: Recycling. Whatever doesn’t sell, she recycles and turns into something else.

Feeling inspired? Here are 10 businesses you can start for under $5,000.

Consulting

Consulting is probably the easiest business to start on the cheap, because you’re selling your expertise, be it in human resources, technology, the environment, social media or whatever, and you can launch the business from home. Consulting is big business: Companies are expected to spend more than $360 billion on consulting services this year, according to Plunkett Research.

Overhead costs will include business cards, marketing and any required certification. Plus, Michalowicz notes, most people forget that when you work from home, your utility bills jump — and it’s more wear and tear on your car, driving to clients’ offices, meetings or networking events.

Selling an Invention

The Coffee Joulies guys are a testament to the fact that you don’t need a ton of money bring your product to market. They spent $4,000 of their own money to have a local machine shop make a mold for them and then just started cranking out prototypes of Coffee Joulies (pictured left) by hand in one of their parents’ basements. They raised more than $300,000 on grassroots-fundraising site Kickstarter.com, which helped them take their business to the next level — mass production.

Other ways to sell an invention without a lot of money include entering an inventors’ contest, like those held by the Future Business Leaders of America, By Kids for Kids, MIT, FIRST and Intel. Or, some catalogs will allow you to submit your inventions directly to them for consideration. The Walter Drake catalog, for example, will even help you develop and tweak your product to take it from a rough prototype to a polished ready-for-market form if they think you have a good idea.

Selling a Hand-Made Product

By Cindy Perman
26 May 2011

www.cnbc.com

That is, until she said she learned from her first-time moms group that there’s a “secret ingredient” in all premium orange juices that companies are not required to put on their labeling.

Now, after writing Whole Foods, she refuses to buy her favorite, “365″ juice, amid uncertainty about its contents.

“One of the moms said she had read about [how the juice is made] and they held it in tanks for up to a year and it pretty much lost all of its flavor and had to be reinvigorated with these flavor packs, which are essentially chemicals,” said Murakhver, 40, and co-author of “They Eat What?: A Cultural Encyclopedia of Weird and Exotic Food from around the World.”

For the last 30 years, the citrus industry has used flavor packs to process what the Food and Drug Administration identifies as “pasteurized” orange juice. That includes top brands such as Tropicana, Minute Maid, Simply Orange and Florida Natural, among others.

Murakhver said the addition of the flavor packs long after orange juice is stored actually makes those premium juices more like a concentrate, and consumers need to know that.

Experts estimate two-thirds of all Americans drink Florida orange juice for breakfast, and companies spend millions on their marketing campaigns touting its health benefits.

The “not from concentrate” brands appeared on store shelves sometime in the 1980s to differentiate them from frozen juice and other bottled concentrates. Despite its high price tag — now up to $4 a carton — sales of the premium brands have soared.

But those juices don’t just jump from the grove to the breakfast table.

After oranges are picked, they are shipped off to be processed. They are squeezed and pasteurized and, if they are not bound for frozen concentrate, are kept in aseptic storage, which involves stripping the juice of oxygen in a process called “deaeration,” and kept in million-gallon tanks for up to a year.

Before packaging and shipping, the juice is then jazzed up with an added flavor pack, gleaned from orange byproducts such as the peel and pulp, to compensate for the loss of taste and aroma during the heating process.

Different brands use different flavor packs to give their product its unique and always consistent taste. Minute Maid, for example, has a distinctive candy-sweet flavor.

Kristen Gunter, executive director of the Florida Citrus Processors Association, confirmed that juices are blended and stored and that flavor packs are added to pasteurized juice before shipping to stores.

Flavor packs are created from the volatile compounds that escape from the orange during the pasteurization step.

But, she said, “It’s not made in a lab or made in a chemical process, but comes through the physical process of boiling and capturing the [orange essence].”

The pasteurization process not only  makes the food safe, but stabilizes the juice, which in its fresh state separates. Adding the flavor packs ensures a consistent flavor.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grades the quality of the juice based on color, flavor and defects.

“To get grade A, we have to blend it,” she said. “Because oranges and their growing seasons vary, both the Valencia — ‘king of the oranges’ — and its lesser cousin, the Hamlin, are combined in the process.

“A processor is faced with harvesting the crop and giving the consumer some sense of what [he or she] might be getting,” she said. “You buy branded orange juice, you kind of want it to taste, generally, the same. That expectation is met by blending different varieties and, in order to blend, storage is involved.”

By  SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES

www.abcnews.go.com