Now if you can get used to the whole idea of reading comics on the phone, then this one is for you. The Comics App for iPhone and iPad and has lots of free downloadable comics and you can buy more to read if you so wish.

Now this one is for the creative soul in you and at a pinch will keep the kids busy as well. Tone Pad has a musical grid set up that lets you create your own ringtones and loops. You can make melody by touching the screen and seeing notes light up. You can also share the tunes with others.

The social networking and chat applications are a must IMHO, so you should have the Facebook app which has a unique grid interface and is actually better designed than the browser version according to many. Then there is the Twitter app which offers real time top tweets, trending topics and maps. Skype is I think the best chat service and the Skype app lets you make international calls, send and receive instant messages and do all the usual skype stuff.

Around Me is a useful app for getting all sorts of information about services around where you are – ATMs, gas stations, coffee shops, bars, hotels, hospitals, movie theaters and at the top of the list is the Apple retail stores because you know that’s more important than hospitals. It tells you the location of the nearest one and then gives out the map for how to get there.

Words and language I find fascinating, so this Dictionary and thesaurus app is a must for someone like me.  And just in case you have a problem with a pronouncing a word (everyone has to look up soigné, don’t they?) you can hear the word as well.

For some fun edit options for pictures you take with your phone, you can try the Photoshop Express App. Be warned this is not the fully loaded version, but it gets a lot done.

So have fun with these and share some of your fave apps as well.

Intex Recreation Slide’N Fun Play Center, Age 6+ with Shelf Box from Amazon is your basic pool that is compact but can fit at least two people in it – it has to levels and a small slide – and since this one is inflatable it comes with a repair patch as well. You can stow it away in its shelf box when not in use. Good deal for $44.

The Banzai Typhoon Twist Water Slide is an altogether more elaborate affair with a big splash pool and a good sized curving slide. Good fun item that can keep kids busy for hours and big enough to let you cool off yourself if you fancy a soak. Currently available from Next Tag at the discount of 33%, down to $400 from $600.

The Double Canon blast Slide is another fun item – this one also has a nice long slide and climbing apparatus on the side to let kids get to the top and slide down again. It is puncture resistant and is made with heavy duty Dura-Tech construction for maximum durability. It also includes continuous airflow blower and looks like a good deal for $389.

For those of us who are lucky enough to have an actual real pool there are many options available for water slides that don’t include a splash pool, such as this Intex Water slide that can be situated in such a way as to abut the pool so that kids that slide off it directly into the pool. The slide has an inflatable seat on one side and climbing apparatus on the other for easy access to the top of the slide. Rather a good deal for 85 bucks I thought.

And if you want to look at more deals on water slides, portable as well as the sort that are added to a proper pool, you may want to take a look at the Next Tag Water Slide and Pool page for more options and price comparisons.

Medicare Scam: This is something like a mobile lab scam – where the fraudsters target the elderly pretending to conduct fake checkups and then charging their Medicare account. Then another modus operandi is offering ‘free’ products door to door and then charging their Medicare account. Then there are those to steal someone’s identification number and use it to conduct tests; such as the woman who was charged for semen analysis and prostate exams!

Funeral Scams: There are the usual misleading pricing and faulty coffin problems that are faced by many in connection with funerals, but the major problem is posed by the Prepaid Funeral concept. Here a senior would, in order to ease the financial burden on their survivors, opt for a prepaid funeral – these are stacked against the buyer, are often fraudulent and fail to deliver all or some of what is promised.

The Census Scam: Here a person turns up claiming to be asking questions for the purposes of collating information about the census. They then proceed to ask about your bank account information, social security number and other financial details. Many provide this information in good faith, unaware that the motives are far from legal.

Anti Aging Products: The quest for a long life and a young body is a never ending one – it appeals to people’s vanity and their survival instinct to stay alive. So the many pills, sprays, lotions, creams and myriad other products that promise “reduced lines” or “youthful skin” or “look 10 years younger” make you sign up for a “free trial” and charge you for hundreds of dollars.

Care Giver Scams: As seniors come to rely more and more upon a caregiver, the dishonest ones may start to siphon off funds, insurance policies and other properties.

Lottery and Sweepstake Scams: Typically one is informed of having won a lottery but that there is a processing fee required and then one gets suckered for some more money.

The Fake Grandkids Scam: A supposed grandkid will call and say they are in dire need of money and are stuck somewhere. Or there will be a Canadian police officer who will call and tell you about a grandchild arrested in Canada asking that bail or bond is required to be furnished.

So beware of these and other senior scams.

Lawrence J (Larry) Ellison cofounder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, the computer software giant, enjoys a total compensation upward of 130 million dollars a year. Salary bonus and other compensations make up about 6 million of that with more than $124 million coming from stock gains.

Ralph Lauren, of Polo Ralph Lauren is a fashion icon like no other and his pay packet is over 30 million dollars a year. A 15 million a year salary along with other perks worth 7 million and stock gains of nearly 8 million make him a very rich man indeed!

Rupert Murdoch, the Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, has a net worth of about 6 billion and makes about 15 million dollars a year. His money comes from salary and bonuses mainly – about 13 million and another 2 million in other compensation. We don’t know if he makes anything from stock gains.

Leslie Wexner, Chairman and CEO of Limited Brands, also makes his money from salary and bonuses rather than stock gains. His total compensation is 8.8 million dollars a year, with a 6.8 million dollar yearly salary.

J. Willard Marriott Jr., the Chairman and CEO of Marriott International, has the comparatively modest salary of $1.2 million, with other compensations of $1.6 million and stock gains of $4.1 million totaling to a yearly compensation of nearly 7 million dollars.

Apart from these worthies Fredrick Smith of FedEx, Michael S Dell of Dell, Charles W Ergen of DISH Network, Jeffrey P Bezos of Amazon, and Sheldon G Adelson of Las Vegas Sands are the among the list of seriously well paid American leaders of industry.

One may well wonder why the guys at Apple and Google did not get a mention here. The reason for that would be that Steve Jobs of Apple and Eric Schmidt of Google take home the princely sum of $1 to run their companies! How’s that for rich!

Fru-call it: If you are planning to make a big ticket purchase, say a new TV or similar, and you are at a shop where the salesman is making a great pitch to you, take a minute and do a check. You can just use your cell phone to go online for a minute and check on this website called Frucall as to the best available price for a given item and then make up your mind.

Online Coupon Codes: The next time you are checking out or paying for an item online and the page asks you for a coupon code or a promotional offer, pause a while. Online sites offer a lot of information about online coupon codes. Check out sites such as Keycode.com, currentcodes.com, Slickdeals.net or findsavings.com. They offer organised information about retailers and their offers, and freebies and rebates. Online forums also offer a great deal of help.

Freecycle.org:  This is a salutary nonprofit effort to reduce waste and junk and make sure that when you have no use for something it can go to someone else who may make good use of it. It is an effort to keep things off the landfills and make more productive use of them. So if you have a crib that your baby outgrew, someone else may make very good use of it and someone else may have a hamster cage they have no use for that may be really useful for you!

Out of Order Hotel Rooms: This tip could save you a lot of money when you travel. When checking in, ask at the reception if they don’t have any out of work hotel rooms; you know the ones with a stain on the carpet that is yet to be cleaned out, or the one with a broken TV (blessed silence without the idiot box may be an excellent idea). This could also help save you a bunch of money if you bargain a bit there!

1. Charlie bit my finger – again (192 million views) The cute quotient is undeniably vey high here; two adorable little brothers playing; one biting the other’s finger playfully, the other thinking it’s funny. For a while. Before “It really hurts!”
2. Evolution of Dance (143 million views) This one is such a classic, most of us have watched it at some point. Starting with Elvis Presley, this one is a medley of all the most popular tracks ever made!
3. Pitbull – I know you want me (121 million views) Rapper Pitbull’s track is foot tapping and hugely enjoyable. The video is average IMHO in spite of the voluptuous women; not really spectacular.
4. Laughing baby Hahaha (120 million views) Those of us who are parents have done this; enjoyed baby’s belly laugh by making silly sounds. A timeless classic; heartwarmingly adorable!
5. Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA (120 million views)
6. Miley Cyrus 7 Things music video (119 million views) I have to admit that I really don’t get how this kid is so hugely popular. Both tracks are nice, foot tapping and about girl power and everything, but 120 and 119 million views? “Whatever”, as they say…
7. Achmed the dead terrorist (112 million views) Jeff Dunham and his skeleton ventriloquist dummy, the non-terrifying terrorist-with-a turban are hilarious. Take the 10 minutes and watch this one if you haven’t
8. Lo que tu queiras oir (100 million views) I don’t know Spanish so I have no idea what this one is about but apparently it translates to Whatever You Want To Hear and is a Spanish language short drama by Guillermo Zapata. According to Wikipedia there is “Sofia”, who returns home to find a voicemail from her husband, “Miguel”, announcing that he has left her. Sofia is initially depressed, but decides to remix the voice-mail so that it sounds like Miguel telling her that he loves her and that he is sorry for leaving her and asking for forgiveness. Sofia then tells the remixed-voicemail that she will not take Miguel back
9. Susan Boyle (93 million views) This one is a classic about the plain Jane with an abiding talent made popular by reality shows and the youtube generation
10. Timbaland – Apologise (81 million views) Nice enough, albeit not a vastly original track, evidently famous enough for 81 million views!

What makes a car popular? It is a question with no simple answers, because if there was a simple answer every car manufacturer would be on to it, and there would be no flop models!

In my humble view it is good value for money that makes a car popular: a combination of good features, better than average looks and cost effectiveness are what makes a car popular. Increasingly now, fuel efficiency is becoming a factor too as oil prices keep fluctuating and people become more environment and resource conscious. Without further ado, here is the top ten list from Forbes:

1. Toyota Corolla – this one has been a best seller for years, and in the last year alone it sold close to a million units (over 900,000) worldwide! Even the big Toyota recall (sticky accelerator and pedal entrapment concerns) is not expected to affect sales
2. The Ford Focus – 10 models of the same engineering platform are being developed for markets around the world. It is expected that this will have rich dividends in terms of boosting scale and saving money. Last year saw the sale of 781,139 Ford Focus cars.
3. The Ford Fiesta – this one is positioned as a world car that is catching on even in the less prosperous parts of the world where reasons of economy make a virtue of the smaller cars. It is even making a comeback in the US, having sold 724,502 units last year.
4. The Volkswagen Golf – this is another classic hatchback in many parts of the world. This is a company bestseller and sold with 705,276 last year
5. Honda Civic – this car has built a reputation for reliability and is great value for money. 686,000 cars sold in 160 countries around the world last year.
6. Toyota Camry – An American best seller, half of the global sales of 679,117 cars was in the United States.
7. Honda Accord – Another car hugely popular in the US. World wide sales were 586,584, half of which were sold in the US.
8. Peugeot 207 – This is the European classic. Though it isn’t sold in the US, it sold 536,090 units worldwide last year.
9. Volkswagen Polo – 467,047 units sold worldwide last year in their different variants- sedan, hatchback, wagon and coupe.
10. Toyota Yaris (Vitz in Japan) – 466,267 units sold last year though this car is more popular in the middle east, Europe and South Africa.

Never give anyone your card:  This is stating the obvious but bears repeating. Even if an honest looking well dressed young exec type tells you his company is offering you a new credit card with a higher limit, don’t be tempted. He may even make you fill out a form but do not hand over your current credit card to this personable stranger. Also keep your credit card safe and in a secure place.

When you lose your credit card, inform the credit card company immediately: This also may be an obvious one, but it bears repeating that the earlier you report the loss, the fewer the chances of the card being misused. As soon as you inform the company, they can freeze the card and no further use can be made of it.

Also inform the company immediately if you don’t receive your credit card statement regularly. It could be that a fraudster has changed your billing address and that is the reason you aren’t getting your bills regularly.

Keep all passwords, PINs and TINs securely and change them frequently: Also it goes without saying that you never keep your passwords and PINs together with the card or have obvious ones like your birth date etc.

Use chip based cards: Rather than the black magnetic stripe, chip based cards offer better user protection. Copying the data on the chip or tinkering with it in any way is way more difficult so your card is safer. Many establishments do not even accept non chip based cards.

Be careful while shopping online: Fraudsters have a number of innovative ways to get your credit card information online. So be sure to use your credit card only on those sites that are secure. Usually the site name will be prefixed with https instead of just http to indicate security and the little yellow lock will signify that.

Destroy all old cards: If you now have a new card with a higher limit or because the old one expired, make sure that you destroy the old one properly to protect yourself against identity theft. This youtube video shows you exactly how to destroy your old credit card:

Keep a watch on your mail: This may be the best time to check your ‘junk’ mail. It is likely that people are mailing you coupons in those little envelopes that you routinely trash so just check to see that you aren’t missing out on any good deals. Also check your email to see if any freebie offers or coupons are coming your way.

Websites offering freebies: Enfamil is a good place to start. On this site you can get yourself up to $250 worth of freebies. You need to fill out a registration form which will guide you on how to get those baby freebies and other offers. Similac strong moms similarly offers up to $329 in offers. You can get yourself free samples, coupons for infant formula and a bunch of other stuff. Also check Walmart for their offers or freebies if any; they usually have a bunch of offers so don’t forget to check the store as well as the website.

Diapers help: Now as any parent will tell you, diapers are a significant expense for the first couple of years at least, of a baby’s life. There is help at hand here as well; you can check the Pampers, Huggies and other diaper websites for offers and free samples. Also you can make a few calls for getting those free diapers: Kimberly-Clark at 1(800) TEL-SCOT will give you information about Huggies freebies and 1(800) 543-0480 at Proctor and Gamble will tell you what is on offer from Pampers.

Government-sponsored Women, Infants, and Children Program: Check with the hospital or your health care provider about aid that you can get from the government from all the different programs that offer help to people with new kids. Hospitals also offer free starter kits that you should inquire after if you are not offered them.

So hopefully all those who are expecting that bundle of joy or are already enjoying the rigmarole of sleepless nights, constant changing and feedings, this will be a useful resource

Pay off debt: For most people being debt free offers the most satisfaction and relief. On an online poll, more than 50% responders chose to use their tax refund amount to pay off debts or get as close to debt free as possible.

Build up a nest egg or add to it: If you do not have an emergency fund yet, then this is the best place for your tax refund to go. If you already have a nest egg, so to speak; feather it! Reinforce the emergency fund and make sure that you have a larger amount to fall back on, if there is an emergency.

Take a much needed vacation: This may, on the face of it seem like a frivolous expense. But sometimes a vacation can be a much needed way to recharge; a break can be just the thing to give you a boost of fresh energy. It can be a way to become more productive once again.

Additions / alterations / repairs to the home: If the bathroom has been crying out for a makeover for a while now; or if that old carpet is definitely bald and frayed, or if some furniture needs replacing then really that solid little amount of the refund may be just the thing. It makes particular sense to use the money to get the kind of alterations made that will help save more money in the long run. For instance making your home more energy efficient will save you money in the long run which is money well spent right now.

Increase retirement contributions: This is a good long term plan to augment saving for your future.

If none of these seem an urgent requirement for you, then by all means blow up your refund amount on things that offer instant, even immense satisfaction!