I’ve been eyeing the development of the Google Android-platform based phones since a few years ago when it was just rumored that there was some sort of Gphone in the works. As time has gone on, we have learned that Google didn’t create its own phone but instead created a platform which can be used to develop a phone. And now those new phones are beginning to be released to the market and I’m intrigued.

The first phone that came out was the G1, a T-mobile phone with smartphone features and a unique design that incorporates both a touchscreen keyboard and a full QWERTY keyboard. Right on the heels of that phone, the same handset maker (HTC) is about to come out with the HTC Magic. Although this phone is also an Android-based phone, the differences in the handset between this and the G1 make it possible to see how one phone platform can be implemented differently because of design.

The HTC Magic is probably only coming out in Europe although rumors indicate a version of it may reach the U.S. at some point later this year. I’m not itching for it to come here or for me to get my hands on it. However, I’m interested in continuing to watch the phones that are developed on this platform. I think there is a lot of potential for something really creative and cool to come out of this situation … I just don’t quite feel like I’m seeing it yet.

Tags: android, g1, g2, google, google phone, htc magic, phones, Technology

I don’t think that I’m someone who shops a lot. I don’t buy a lot of new things. I don’t splurge on pricey shoes or go to department stores just because there’s a sale. I don’t even really find shopping to be all that fun despite getting the urge to do it now and then.

And yet, somehow I do end up purchasing new things on a regular basis. I have a closet that is bursting at the seams with clothes. I have more pots and pans than I could possibly use with the little amount that I cook in one sitting. And I almost always go over my set monthly budget for extraneous spending even though the amount I’ve set for myself is definitely liberal.

So do I actually shop a lot? The thing is that I don’t really shop all that much. But I shop sometimes and I’m kind of a packrat even though I try not to be and I end up with way more stuff than one person needs. And I do spend a lot even though I try to be frugal – not so much on new things but on yoga classes and massage and fancy groceries and going out to see artsy things.

Some people have a real addiction to shopping. That’s not me. But I can see how it happens because every single month I justify unnecessary spending by telling myself that I need to buy this for that party or that for this event. I can see how it happens that people make excuses when they really want to spend money that they don’t have.

I think it’s important to be smart about shopping and I think, for the most part, that I am smart about it. But I also think there’s a little bit of that potential for addiction inside of me and I’m just glad that somehow I learned moderation along the way!

Tags: Frugal Living, kathryn vercillo, money, Personal Finance, shopping, shopping addiction

I remember the first time that I got one of those exorbitant cell phone bills. I had been traveling and I didn’t yet know about the way that roaming charges worked. This was quite a few years ago, when mobile phones were still somewhat new and the average person hadn’t been exposed to the nuances of complicated billing yet. Wherever I had traveled wasn’t included in my cell phone plan and I was charged some huge fee for using my phone away from home. (Isn’t the point of using a cell phone being able to call others when away from home?!)

I learned my lesson then and things have gotten a bit better here now. They’re also getting better in Europe where legislators have just agreed to a plan for reduced calling and text messaging fees when roaming amongst the different countries there.

It’s shocking to me sometimes that we’re even still dealing with these issues. It seems obvious to me that we should have flat rate data and calling plans that include international roaming free of charge. We’re a global society. And those people who are tech savvy enough to understand their phone charges and the options for mobile VoIP can indeed keep cell phone costs down even while traveling. But it seems like this should be a more widespread thing for the average phone user instead of something that just the tech savvy know how to get.

Tags: cell phone, costs, fees, kathryn vercillo, laws, mobile phone, money, phone bill, Technology, Wireless

As money has been getting tighter and tighter for everyone I know, I suddenly find myself fielding a lot of questions about the work that I do. Many people think that perhaps they can easily get into freelance writing and make some money at it so they want to know what I do to earn money. I’m happy to answer these questions not only because I like to be helpful but also because it reminds me of how tough what I do actually is.

One of the things that I’ve remembered from these discussions is that most people don’t know how involved Google is with advertising methods online and how it is possible to make money yourself as a result of that. Google has everything from AdSense for Blog Content to Coupon Templates for Businesses. I mention these things in passing to people asking me questions about my work and their ears perk up because they’ve never heard of these things before.

This reminds me that it’s taken me a long time to learn what I know about the web writing and blogging business. When I first started out, I didn’t know about these things either. And the fact that I’ve picked up all of these skills over the years sometimes gets overlooked because mostly I just do what I do and that stuff all adds up in the background. But it’s a real business and a tough one and those of us who are doing it should stop to pat ourselves on the back sometimes.

Tags: adwords, business, coupon template, freelance, google, google adwords, kathryn vercillo, web 2.0, web writing

One of the posts that I wrote about in the not too distant past on this blog was about serving drinks as a career. There are a lot of pros and cons to being a bartender but it’s definitely one job choice for a lot of people. Employment is a big issues for a lot of people right now and it’s discussed intelligently through the many different articles submitted to the Career and Internships blog carnival where my own post was featured.

The other articles that were included in this carnival were on different jobs, careers and job issues. These topics included job interview tricks and tips, looking for and finding a new job using today’s technology, working after retirement, working for love vs. money and the issue of boring employment. All quite important topics for the working world today I think.

What other topics do you wish would have been covered here? It seems that we’re talking a lot about how to get or keep jobs in today’s recession but are there other employment issues that are also pressing which aren’t being covered by your favorite blogs? Tell me, I’d love to know!

Tags: best blogs, blog carnival, blog roundup, blogging, blogs, Careers, diary of a smart chick, education, employment, information, kathryn vercillo, work

I spend a lot of time online. When I say a lot, I mean more than the average person. On any given day, I probably find myself online for a minimum of ten hours. Sometimes quite a bit more. This is due to the fact that I work online as well as play online.

Because I spend so much time online, I’ve had to learn a lot about being safe online. I know about every aspect of this from protecting myself from identity theft online to being aware of crazy online predators. And I also know a lot about online scams.

Perhaps that’s why I was able to successfully and thoroughly answer this question on Yahoo! Answers about avoiding scams when doing online shopping. I hope the tips that I gave were useful not only to the asker who chose my answer as the best one but also to others who stumble across the question.

Tags: answer question, internet, online scams, online shopping, scams, smart shopping, Yahoo Answers

Most of the time I’m not someone who is a fan of newly coined phrases. The reason for this is that I think they’re a trendy way to describe something that already has a name which is totally adequate. However, there are exceptions to this. One exception is the term innerpreneur.

The word innerpreneur is, in some ways, a new word for entrepreneur. However, it describes something that is distinctly different from entrepreneurship and something that doesn’t have another name that I know of. For that reason, I think it’s a word that has value.

An innerpreneur is defined as someone who decides to launch their own business but who is motivated by very specific reasons for doing so. Those reasons have to do with a true desire to start a business that is going to be constantly challenge and to allow for the individual’s own personal growth. The innerpreneur is also interested in creating social change with his or her work. And he or she is uniquely capable of identifying opportunities in society that allow for this to happen.

I think that innerpreneur is a great word to describe a segment of entrepreneurs in today’s society. I also think that the current economy is great for innerpreneurs. We’re in a time when we really need people to be creative and forward thinking in a way that is good for the whole instead of just the individual. Hopefully there are some people out there who will rise to the challenge!

Tags: business, creative, economy, entrepreneur, innerpreneur, innerpreneurship, people, small business, start a business

Something that I was reading earlier today made me start thinking about the cost of weddings. Do you know how much money people are spending to get married these days? Even budget weddings are expensive. Heck, even choosing to elope instead of getting married with a big ceremony can be expensive if you’re not careful about how you do it. So why is it that people spend a small fortune on the ceremony of marriage?

I know the reasons that everyone says that they don’t mind spending money on a wedding. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime-event. It’s an important rite of passage. It’s a great gathering of friends and family that is worth the cost that comes with it. Yada yada yada.

I still don’t get it.

Perhaps this is because I’m just not a person who much likes ceremonies. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve been to some really fun weddings. I have ideas in mind that would surely make any wedding of mine a blast to attend. I just don’t think it’s worth a five-figure number for a single-day event that may or may not turn out like you planned.

Maybe I’m just not romantic enough. Or maybe I’m just not traditional enough. I’m not sure.

What’s your opinion? Are weddings today really worth their cost?

Tags: ceremony, cost of wedding, elope, getting married, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, marriage, wedding

I am active on Twitter. I post to Twitter daily. I have four different RSS feeds that add my blog content to Twitter throughout the day. I have about 400 Twitter followers and follow about that many people. I am starting to make use of Twitter clients and Twitter tools like TweetDeck. I link my Twitter account in various ways to other social networking sites that I’m on.

And yet, the fact of the matter is that I don’t love Twitter. Or maybe I do.

For the most part, I don’t enjoy Twitter. I don’t like the format that it’s in because it seems messy and complicated and overwhelming. Even with the use of Twitter clients, I don’t find Twitter to be friendly on the eyes (or the brain). I also don’t like that Twitter seems to be most effective as a tool for blog traffic if you’re following tons of people but that means that you’ve got to look at Twitter updates every few seconds because there are so many people posting all of the time.

But there’s definitely something that draws me to Twitter. It’s addictive. It’s interesting. I can see what people are thinking about all of the time. I get links to information that I wouldn’t otherwise have seen. I feel connected to the world around me by virtue of the fact that we’re chatting online even though I see a level of superficiality to all of that online communication.

You know, come to think of it, my love/hate relationship with Twitter is a lot like my love/hate relationship with the city of Las Vegas. I don’t like Las Vegas much. It’s overstimulating and overwhelming and superficial in so many ways. But I go to Vegas fairly often because it’s a convenient vacation, most of what I want from a trip can be found there and the benefits of traveling there sometimes outweigh the negatives of the experience. Now if only Twitter had showgirls and slots … you know, I bet if I looked around, it might.

Tags: hubpages, internet, kathryn vercillo, online networking, Social Networking, Technology, twitter, twitter tips, web, web 2.0

I occasionally get the opportunity to combine my interest in different topics through research and writing of one article. For example, I recently wrote about mobile coupons. This allowed me to research the topic of mobile phones as well as to write about the topic of personal finance, both of which are topics that I write on regularly and find myself interested by.

Mobile coupons are interested because they take something that’s been around for a really long time (coupons) and change it in order to adapt to modern technology. Mobile phones are now capable of advanced web searches and mutli-media message receipt which allows for coupons to be accessed and redeemed using only the phone.

Come to think of it, this allows me to touch on another topic that interests me which is green living. After all, if you’re not printing up a bunch of coupons then you are saving a lot of trees. Of course, there’s a balance to be struck because mobile phones do use energy which is a different type of waste but generally mobile coupons seem greener than traditional coupons as far as I can tell. Smart stuff!

Tags: discount, kathryn vercillo, mobile coupons, mobile phone, Personal Finance, save money, Wireless, writing