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Five Android apps that prolong your smartphone’s battery life

Posted on May 7, 2013 by The Soul Brother

By Scott Webster

Have you found yourself wishing that your Android’s battery would last longer? Don’t answer that, I already know. Be it poor app design, ever-larger display sizes, or our constant desire to play mobile games, we’re eating up battery life faster than we’d like.

As a platform, Android has improved with each iteration and task management, and multitasking keeps getting smarter.

With that said, one of the first complaints from new smartphone users is that the battery doesn’t seem to live up to expectations. Sure, the 2013 crop of flagship phones seems promising, but not everyone wants a Samsung Galaxy S4 or an HTC One. What’s more, not everyone wants to go to Verizon for a Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD.

Thankfully, Android developers have been looking for ways to improve the life of a smartphone’s battery. The early days of Android saw the rise of task killers and app managers that would shut down apps and free up memory. Over time, however, Android would become more efficient and handle the processes at a platform level. Many handsets now have custom touches built in that will adjust settings based on remaining battery life in an effort to squeeze out just a few more minutes. Unfortunately, things are still far from perfect.

I have spent time exploring a number of battery apps over the years, and I have become quite fond of some of them. Here’s a list of five of my favorite apps for prolonging the life of your Android’s battery. To be clear, there are a few settings that will be found on more than one app. Keeping that in mind, I tried to highlight some of the better options for each title.

Posted in News from the Soul Brother | Tagged Android, App, battery, cellular, Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD, Samsung Galaxy S4, smartphone, technology | 1 Comment

Mom’s work is never done – and now it’s worth less, too

Posted on May 7, 2013 by The Soul Brother

By Allison Linn

If moms earned wages for the work they do around the house and with the kids, they’d be getting a pay cut this year.The take-home pay that a mother would earn for everything from cooking to handling the family finances would total at $59,862 if she were paid on the open market, according to Insure.com’s analysis of government data on hourly wages.That’s down from $60,182 in 2012 and $61,436 in 2011, Insure.com’s annual Mother’s Day Index shows.The drop is because typical wages for some domestic jobs have fallen, said Amy Danise, a spokeswoman for Insure.com.The Mother’s Day Index tallies 14 jobs that moms might perform, including cooking, driving, cleaning and taking care of the kids, and then looks at Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data for those tasks. Danise said the website compiled its list by brainstorming about typical mothers’ tasks, and coming up with a typical number of hours she might spend on them.By Insure.com’s tally, a mom’s average work week would be significantly longer than 40 hours – although most moms would probably also agree that parenting requires far longer hours than your average desk job.

Posted in News from the Soul Brother | Tagged Bureau of Labor Statistics, economy, equal value, middle class, money, Mother, motherhood, parenting, Wage | Leave a comment

Rita Pierson – Every kid needs a champion

Posted on May 7, 2013 by The Soul Brother

A fantastic presentation from a seasoned, experienced teacher to new teachers and old ones who have lost their “spark.”

Posted in Soul Brother Presents | Tagged education, Educators, inspiration, K through 12, message, New and Prospective Teachers, professional development, Teacher | Leave a comment

Meet the new pot entrepreneurs

Posted on May 7, 2013 by The Soul Brother

By Jose Pagliery

Washington State’s budding marijuana industry has drawn entrepreneurs from all careers and backgrounds.

The professional investors

Entrepreneur: Brendan Kennedy and Michael Blue

Background: Finance, bank executive

Weed-related job: Private equity

To those in Washington, these two are known as the slick guys in suits from Yale. They represent big money, and that brings hope to those entering the for-profit marijuana industry.

Brendan Kennedy and Michael Blue run Privateer Holdings, a private equity group. They find wealthy individuals and get them to pour cash into cannabis startups. Investors include cattle ranchers in Texas, New York financiers, Florida physicians and a corn farmer in Iowa.

Their biggest challenge right now is overcoming investors’ fears about uncertainty. Washington already allows for medical marijuana, and state rules will soon be in place to spawn a profitable industry of growers and sellers. But federal authorities could shut down anyone at any time.

Another difficulty they face is dealing with entrepreneurs who come from the world of illicit drugs. Kennedy and Blue concluded weed culture just doesn’t translate well into the business world.

“Dispensary owners didn’t meet our expectations,” Kennedy said. “They were really good people… but that doesn’t necessarily make them great business operators.”

Privateer has bought one company, Leafly, a WebMD of weed. And they’re looking for others. In the meantime, they’re trying to give the cannabis industry a more professional look.

“Part of what we’re trying to do is elevate the conversation, to bring the whole industry out of the shadows and into the light,” Kennedy said. “We don’t have pot leafs on here. We Read More Meet the new pot entrepreneurs – The professional investors (1) – CNNMoney.

Posted in News from the Soul Brother | Tagged Brendan Kennedy, business, Cannabis, CNNMoney.com, economy, entrepreneurship, Leafly, marijuana, money, Washington, Washington State | 1 Comment

I Thought Solitary Confinement in Iran Was Bad — Then I Went Inside America’s Prisons

Posted on May 7, 2013 by The Soul Brother

By Shane Bauer

Shane Bauer was one of the three American hikers imprisoned in Iran after being apprehended on the Iraqi border in 2009. He spent 26 months in Tehran’s Evin Prison, 4 of them in solitary. Bauer is winner of the 2013 Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism for the article below, his special investigation into solitary confinement. The winning feature was published in Mother Jones and supported by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute.

IT’S BEEN SEVEN MONTHS since I’ve been inside a prison cell. Now I’m back, sort of. The experience is eerily like my dreams, where I am a prisoner in another man’s cell. Like the cell I go back to in my sleep, this one is built for solitary confinement. I’m taking intermittent, heaving breaths, like I can’t get enough air. This still happens to me from time to time, especially in tight spaces. At a little over 11 by 7 feet, this cell is smaller than any I’ve ever inhabited. You can’t pace in it.

Like in my dreams, I case the space for the means of staying sane. Is there a TV to watch, a book to read, a round object to toss? The pathetic artifacts of this inmate’s life remind me of objects that were once everything to me: a stack of books, a handmade chessboard, a few scattered pieces of artwork taped to the concrete, a family photo, large manila envelopes full of letters. I know that these things are his world.

“So when you’re in Iran and in solitary confinement,” asks my guide, Lieutenant Chris Acosta, “was it different?” His tone makes clear that he believes an Iranian prison to be a bad place.

He’s right about that. After being apprehended on the Iran-Iraq border, Sarah Shourd, Josh Fattal, and I were held in Evin Prison’s isolation ward for political prisoners. Sarah remained there for 13 months, Josh and I for 26 months. We were held incommunicado. We never knew when, or if, we would get out. We didn’t go to trial for two years. When we did we had no way to speak to a lawyer and no means of contesting the charges against us, which included espionage. The alleged evidence the court held was “confidential.”

Posted in News from the Soul Brother | Tagged California, Evin Prison, incarceration, Iran, Iran–Iraq border, jail, Mother Jones (magazine), Pelican Bay, Solitary confinement, Tehran, torture, United States | 1 Comment

New York AG: Wells Fargo, BofA Violated National Foreclosure Settlement

Posted on May 7, 2013 by The Soul Brother

By Shahien Nasiripour

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday he may sue Wells Fargo and Bank of America for allegedly violating the terms of last year’s multi-state mortgage settlement, despite questions over his authority to do so.

The agreement, reached by the Department of Justice, Department of Housing and Urban Development and 49 state attorneys general, called for the five largest mortgage companies to significantly revamp their procedures for dealing with distressed borrowers. It called on them to provide billions of dollars in aid to those borrowers and change the way they pursue home repossessions, in exchange for prosecutors dropping legal claims that the companies systematically violated borrowers’ rights when using faulty, so-called “robosigned” documents in foreclosure proceedings.

Consumer advocates have heralded the establishment of standards for how the companies would treat borrowers who fell behind on their payments as the settlement’s signature achievement. The new mortgage servicing provisions were supposed to “address the issues that led to the creation of the settlement,” according to Joseph Smith, the settlement’s official monitor.

The five banks — JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup and Ally Financial — collectively service more than half of all outstanding U.S. home loans. Since Oct. 2, 2012, they have had to comply with 304 mortgage servicing requirements, including offering struggling borrowers the opportunity to avoid foreclosure and approving or denying loan modifications within 30 days of receiving a complete application.

Schneiderman said Monday his office has uncovered 339 alleged violations of the settlement’s terms, 210 concerning Wells Fargo and 129 concerning Bank of America. He said he intends to sue the banks for “repeatedly violating” the settlement if the monitoring committee of representatives from various federal and state agencies declines to take action.

Posted in News from the Soul Brother | Tagged Ally Financial, Bank of America, economy, Eric Schneiderman, foreclosure, Joseph Smith, JPMorgan Chase, money, Mortgage loan, New York Attorney General, Wells Fargo | Leave a comment

What will the online sales tax bill mean for you?

Posted on May 7, 2013 by The Soul Brother

By Anick Jesdanun

Congress is considering legislation that would give states the ability to require out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes. If the measure passes, consumers would lose a loophole that has resulted in years of tax-free online shopping. Out-of-state merchants would have to collect statewide sales taxes on Internet, mail-order and other purchases — as well as any county and local sales taxes. Why is this necessary? And what will this mean for your online purchases?

Here’s a guide:

Q. Don’t I already pay sales taxes on Internet purchases?

A. Sometimes. Some retailers already collect sales taxes for where you live, but many don’t and haven’t been required to do so.

In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can’t force businesses elsewhere to collect those taxes unless the company has a physical presence in that state — such as a physical retail store or an office. Retailers that operate in one or a few states typically collect taxes only for those states and not others.

Q. Why haven’t retailers collected the taxes anyway, if they are already collecting them for some states?

Retailers argue that it’s complex to keep track of state, county and local taxes in thousands of jurisdictions across the nation. It’s not just the different rates, but different rules on what products are and aren’t taxed. Some states exempt clothing, for instance, and some charge taxes only when the price is above a certain amount. Bubble gum might be considered candy in one state and a tax-exempt food item in another.

Out-of-state retailers don’t emphasize this, but not having to collect the taxes also makes their products cheaper, compared with in-state retailers that have to.