Readers offer their best tips for using up the last of your gift cards, getting people to use your Dropbox referral links, and launching the Android keyboard when it doesn't launch automatically.
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About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments, share it here, or email it to tips at lifehacker.com.
Use the Last of Your Visa Gift Cards Online
Photo by Declan Jewell.
Adam notes that, while many retailers may not let you use two forms of payment, you can turn them into other online gift cards:
The problem with Visa/AMEX gift cards is that it's difficult to spend every cent. It usually takes several transactions to whittle away the majority of the gift card's value. Once the remaining balance gets low enough, you forget to use it or have trouble finding suitable transactions that are cheap enough. Adding to the frustration, most retailers won't accept two forms of payment for a single bill so these cards just collect dust in your wallet.
The best way to get your money's worth (literally) is to convert your Visa/AMEX gift cards into Amazon.com dollars. Since they are just credit cards with a spending limit, you can use them to purchase Amazon gift cards. Amazon makes this very easy to do because you can purchase a gift card in any incremental value up to $5,000. In order to redeem the entire value you will need to purchase TWO Amazon gift cards. The first gift card should be the Visa/AMEX gift card value minus $1. Then purchase a second gift card for the remaining $1 balance. Amazon uses a $1 authorization to confirm the credit card, or gift card in this case, is legitimate. If you try to use the full value initially, it will get declined. If you have a $50 AMEX gift card, buy a $49 Amazon gift card followed by a $1 gift card. If you have a $14.56 AMEX gift card, buy a $13.56 Amazon gift card followed by a $1 gift card. It's that simple.
Don't let these companies keep our unredeemed dollars to spend as their own, convert them to Amazon bucks today!
On the other side of the coin, while Amazon has a lot of great stuff, you can't get everything there. If you have an Amazon gift card you can, however, buy gift cards to other stores there—so I used the Amazon gift card my aunt gave me to buy an iTunes gift card, and then load up my new iPad with apps.
Turn Off Password Management for Distracting Sites
Andy shares a simple, but possibly effective tip for those that get easily distracted:
Facebook costing you grades or time? Change your homepage away from Facebook to a work-related site, and stop it from remembering your password! Two small tips, two crucial inhibitors of your path to distraction.
Hold Menu to Launch the Android Keyboard
OCEntertainment tells us how to launch the Android keyboard when it fails to launch itself:
In many screens, pressing and holding your phone's Menu key will call up the virtual keyboard. I NEVER KNEW THIS.
This is especially helpful in apps that don't launch the keyboard automatically, like Terminal Emulator or the Swype Installer. Droid users can use their physical keyboards, but most Android users will be able to resort to this.
Snap Pictures of Your Car's Odometer to Track Service
Photo by Kennejima.
Android shares a way to keep track of your car's service:
A good way to keep track of when you get something done to your car is take pictures of the odometer. When I get the oil changed on my car, I basically take a picture of the miles on the odometer and just upload it straight to Picasa under a certain album. Picasa saves all the time stamps from the day it was taken and you can enable GPS to see where you did whatever you did to your car.
You can do it to any photo uploading website under your account to keep your phone from getting clogged or losing your phone or losing all the data accidently. It doesn't have to be just for oil changes. Just whenever something is taken care of on your car, take a picture of the miles and add a caption explaining what was done. Now you have a great history of your car and you know when something needs changed. Also, good for when you are selling your car. So, the person who is buying it knows what's been done and when it's been done and is most likely to buy it knowing that you've been on top of your stuff.