With the economy in continuing decline, keeping tight control over your money is no longer just for obsessives. These financial apps for Google Android help you count every penny.

Personal Budget Droid is a simple budget- and bills-tracker that lets you create multiple monthly budgets for groceries, housing costs, and so on. You enter every budget name and transaction by hand, but the app keeps a transaction history and calculates how much you have left for each category.

The more sophisticated FireWallet works with budgets inside various accounts and protects your information behind a four-digit pin you change from the all-zero default. It's a bit trickier to navigate, but also shoehorns in more options. In addition to a more refined interface, FireWallet has graphs and charts to help visualize your spending, and a rudimentary tool to alert you of upcoming bills. Both it and Personal Budget Droid are missing templates and more powerful features to optionally suck in real-time data from your checking, savings, and stock portfolios. Time for a mobile version of Mint?

Flick to either side for a calc that rounds up; up or down gets you a breakdown of numbers to pass around.

(Credit: TouchTip)

TouchTip is our current favorite tip calculator for Google Android. Flick a finger left or right to slide between a simple tip calculator that rounds up to the nearest dollar or ten dollars, and one featuring a ten-digit keypad. Both views use the bill total, tax, and number of diners to calculate your total payment. Flicking up or down produces a breakdown of what you owe that you can pass around the table to friends.

Personal Tip Jar hails from the same developer as Personal Budget Droid, and shares a few visual characteristics, including a useless "news" tab. Yet Tip Jar is a great niche nod to those whose incomes are built substantially on tips. While a fuller budgeting app could easily accommodate gains from tipping, this application provides a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly summary at a glance.

Stock apps on Android are extremely mediocre, but the simply named Stock App is better than other skeletal tickers. This one opens with Dow, Nasdaq, S&P 500, Yahoo, and Google presets. You can add your own by pressing the menu key, and can browse frequently traded stocks. Stock App displays the value and percentage change up front; double-tap an entry to see more stats. While it's functional, Android is sorely missing the completeness of a stock-tracker like Bloomberg for iPhone. Get to it, developers.

Yahoo and Virgin Mobile have reached an agreement according to which prior’s search service will be pre-installed to latter’s 4 million mobile subscribers in the UK. The search engine is trying to grab the mobile search market in the Europe. After UK, the next key targets of Yahoo are France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

According to Mitch Lazar, Yahoo’s head of mobile operations in the Europe:

We will continue to focus on investing in this area. It falls squarely within our strategy of indispensable starting points.

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Reuters:

The media company, which owns cable news network CNN and movie studio Warner Bros among its media properties, is proposing the split after it separates from its Time Warner Cable Inc unit early in 2009.

A special meeting of stockholders will be held on Jan. 16 at its New York headquarters. It said in a proxy filing that stockholders will be asked to vote on a reverse stock split in a ratio of either 1-for-2 or 1-for-3, as determined by the board.

Time Warner owns 84 percent of Time Warner Cable and its shareholders will receive a special one-time dividend of $10.9 billion when it separates from the cable unit.

The media company said its board believes that following the separation, the market price and trading ranges for Time Warner stock may be significantly lower than the current market price due to the fact that Time Warner will have distributed all of its Time Warner Cable shares to Time Warner shareholders.

The board said it believes that increasing Time Warner's absolute share price will make it a more liquid and marketable stock. It said some institutional investors and investment funds are prohibited from investing in lower-priced stocks.

Another benefit: The new stock price will be less embarrassing.

For all those who are still not sure what Cooliris is, it is a browser plugin that enables you to surf the Web with a cinematic style. The wall on which it shows thumbnails of images, videos, news pulled from various sources and so on, allows you to be fully immersed in a 3D environment. You can easily surf the Web simply by dragging, sliding, clicking and selecting the thumbnails with your mouse.

On the iPhone, you will get a similar experience to that in your computer browser. There is the same 3D wall loaded with rows of picture thumbnails. What is different is that you are using your finger to slide, click and select rather than using the mouse.

To slide the 3D wall across the screen, you just need to do a ’swipe’ left or ’swipe’ right with your finger. Alternatively, if you are too lazy to use your finger, simply tilt iPhone up, down, left, right and you can see the wall move accordingly to the direction you tilt.

When you tap on a thumbnail, Cooliris will zoom the image and position it to the center of the screen. Description of the image and its URL will be loaded at the bottom of the screen. There is also an ‘email’ and ‘download’ icons so that you can easily share the image with your friends.

To checkout the image’s URL, simply tap on the URL and the mobile Safari will load within Cooliris. Once you are done, tap on the ‘Webview’ and it will bring you back to the Cooliris interface.

There are two main features in Cooliris for iPhone: ‘Discover’ and ‘Search’. The Shopping function that is found in the browser version is not available in this iPhone version.

In the Discover section, Cooliris can cleverly detect your location and serve you the information that is closely related to your locale. It is just like an image-based StumbleUpon for iPhone, except that it is more customized to your preferences. You can also select from the channels to get it to display interesting images/videos/news. Personally, I like to use the Wallpaper channel to discover and download new wallpaper for my iPhone.

The Search function allows you to search from a variety of sites, including Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Flickr, deviantArt and SmugMug. I do not have any success with the YouTube search. When I perform a search in YouTube, nothing loads up even after 5 minutes of waiting. I have no problem searching and playing video in the in-built YouTube app, so I guess this is one of the bugs on the Cooliris app. Other than this, the search on the rest of the search engine works perfectly fine.

Cooliris for iPhone has given a new definition to Web surfing on the iPhone. This is not just another app that you use to ‘wow’ your friends, but an app that truly maximizes the touch action and accelerometer of the iPhone and brings your Web surfing experience to the next level. This is definitely the app that I would recommend to everyone.

Cooliris for the iPhone is available for the iPhone/iPod Touch and can be downloaded for free in the iPhone App store.

(By) Damien Oh is an all-out technology geek who loves to tweak and hack various operating systems to make life easier. Check out his blog at MakeTechEasier.com where he shares all the tips, tricks and tutorials.

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Why? Because Clearwire's "Clear" brand sounds a lot less silly. And unlike Xohm, it already has some traction. Per Google (GOOG) Trends:

Clearwire closed its $14.5 billion deal with Sprint last Friday. Other investors include Intel (INTC), Comcast (CMCSA), Google (GOOG), and Time Warner Cable (TWC).

Clearwire shares are up 2.9% today to $7.20.

See Also:
Sprint Loses A Key Executive
Sprint Nextel Still Winning The Mobile Internet Wars
New Wireless Deals, Tech To Shake Up Industry... Maybe, Someday

Opera only commands 0.7% of the desktop browser market -- already trailing the much-newer Google (GOOG) Chrome -- which has 0.8%. But that's not where the revenue comes from: Opera is reporting strong growth in license revenues for its Opera Mini mobile browser.

Bloomberg: Shares climbed as much as 1.9 kroner, or 11 percent, to 18.5 kroner, and were at 18.2 kroner as of 9:31 a.m. local time, the highest intraday level since Sept. 12, valuing the company at 2.2 billion kroner ($310 million).

Net income for the three months ended Sept. 31 rose to 33.3 million kroner [$4.7 million] from 4.65 million kroner a year earlier, Opera reported to the Oslo stock exchange. Analysts on average had estimated profit at 15.5 million kroner.

See Also:
Opera's New Mobile Web Browser Now Available: Good News For Carriers
Why Firefox Is Thinking Small: Mobile Browser Market To Explode

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A Full Cup - offers how-tos for those seeking coupons and discounts.

Bright Hub - shares information about how scientific facts evolve into the latest technology.

Bukisa - lets you share your knowledge and then get paid when others access it.

Church Media Design - offers tips and tricks for the church media designer in video podcast format.

College-Cram - social learning site that allows students to organize their schoolwork.

eHow - provides video and textual tutorials on hundreds of subject areas.

Howcast - offers professionally made and user generated how-to videos.

Makezine - features thousands of DIY projects for the hands-on enthusiast.

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It is revolutionary because they simplified it.

They stripped the User Interface down to its bare essentials; made it snappier, more efficient and sophisticated on the inside; then delivered it to the public. And we love it. When I say “we”, I actually mean “they”. That’s because I use a Mac and Google hasn’t quite got the OS X version of Chrome up to speed yet. However, all Mac users can rest assured that they are working on it.

So as usual, Mac users will have to wait it out while everyone else on Windows enjoy their new toy. Luckily, a small group of developers came up with an imitation of Chrome, a Chrome-sque browser if you will, for OS X.

Although it is merely a technological demo, there are 3 words I can utter about Stainless. It has potential - and I’m not the only one who shares this opinion. Most of us who have taken Stainless for a ride will agree that it is quite usable, considering that it is still in its very early stages of development. I’m guessing that it is because it is inspired by Chrome, it is a fair bit more stable, quicker and simpler to use - and that appeals to most people who are stuck with the productivity-driven mindset of “Do more with less time”.

So how does Stainless compare to Chrome? I have no idea. I refuse to run Chrome on Windows or try Crossover Chromium. I want to maintain that purity of excitement and amazement when I run Chrome of OS X for the first time after Google is ready to dish it to us. For the time being, Stainless is the furthest I will ever get to Chrome.

From the screenshots, I assume that Stainless looks a bit like Chrome. It has a very simple user interface: separate address bars for each tab, forward/back/refresh buttons and a New Tab plus (+) sign. Like Chrome, it also comes with its own Process Manager and because it is a multi-process browser, that means each separate browser tab is actually an individual process (not a collective one like Safari, for instance). If a particular tab is irresponsive, you can close that tab without affecting others. This also means that performance is increased since each browser tab is processed separately.

Surfing is noticeably more responsive and quicker. The whole browser ‘feels’ lighter than Safari, definitely. There is also an option to open a Private Browsing Window where no history, cache or other information are stored. Personally, I don’t see the point of the private browsing mode for the time being - I don’t think Stainless stores browsing history just yet! It doesn’t even have a bookmark manager and it isn’t integrated with Keychain so usernames and passwords aren’t stored.

Overall, Stainless has managed to impress me, even if it is only a demo. I can’t even begin to fathom what Google Chrome on OS X is capable of.

If you want to take Stainless for a spin, you can download it here. Take note, it is for Leopard only. For those of you who have actually used Chrome, let me know how Stainless compares. I can only read your experiences since I want to keep myself a Chrome-virgin.

(By) Jackson Chung is a full-time medical student attempting to perform a juggling act with relationship, studies and his future.

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First, the Times' report:

SOFTWARE giant Microsoft is in talks to acquire Yahoo's online search business for $20 billion ( 13 billion).

The proposal forms the centrepiece of a complex transaction that would see Microsoft support a new management team to take control of Yahoo. But there is no intention of Microsoft tabling another takeover bid for the web giant, after its aborted $47.5 billion offer this summer.

It is thought that Jonathan Miller, ex-chairman and chief executive of AOL, and Ross Levinsohn, a former president of Fox Interactive Media, have been lined up to lead the new management team. Senior directors at Microsoft and Yahoo are understood to have agreed the broad terms of a deal, but there is no guarantee that it will succeed...

Under the terms of the proposed transaction, Microsoft would provide a $5 billion facility to the Miller and Levinsohn management team. The duo would raise an additional $5 billion from external investors.

This cash would be used to buy convertible preference shares and warrants which would give it a holding in excess of 30% of Yahoo.

The external investors would also have the right to appoint three of Yahoo's 11 board directors. The talks with Yahoo involve Microsoft obtaining a 10-year operating agreement to manage the search business. It would also receive a two-year call option to buy the search business for $20 billion. That would leave Yahoo to run its own e-mail, messaging, and content services.

It is expected that the operating agreement would boost Yahoo's income by as much as $2 billion per annum.

And now Kara Swisher's debunking:

A report in the Times of London in which Microsoft would buy Yahoo's search business in a convoluted $20 billion deal that would include well-known Internet execs Jon Miller and Ross Levinsohn, is-in the words of one key player-'total fiction.'

Actually, that's Levinsohn speaking, on the record. But that's also the essential word from all key players regarding the Times' report.

BoomTown has spoken to top sources at Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) too and all scoff at such a deal now taking place or that either side has been in any such discussions of late.

Who to believe? Let's assume the truth is somewhere in the middle. Even if there are no actual talks taking place right this minute, there should be.

The $20 billion number is almost certainly fiction, given that, last summer, Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo's search business for $1 billion. Microsoft also wants to own and run the search technology, so the idea of having a call option doesn't really make sense. Microsoft and Yahoo need to merge their search businesses, however, and both companies have said publicly they are happy to discuss a deal, so the idea that they're working on something is perfectly plausible. (And if they aren't now, soon.)

Ross Levinsohn and Jon Miller, meanwhile, would make fine additions to Yahoo's senior team, and they are almost certainly being considered for those roles.

Lastly, unlike everyone else in the economy, Microsoft has cash coming out of its ears. So the idea of Microsoft using some of that cash to facilitate a Yahoo deal (which it also tried to do last summer). also makes sense.

Bottom line: If Yahoo and Microsoft aren't discussing a search deal right now, they should be and soon will be. And Yahoo's short list of candidates for CEO probably includes Jon.

See Also: The Biggest Losers: 20 Moguls Creamed By The Crash

Yahoo! Inc., whose shares fell 60 percent since Microsoft Corp.’s $44.5 billion takeover offer, may find the next CEO, but definitely the new boss will have troublesome times with Yang aboard.

Yang stepped down as CEO on Nov. 17 after a troublesome regime at Yahoo!, especially after February he rejected Microsoft’s $31-a-share offer; a 62 percent premium to Yahoo’s price at the time.

There’s certainly the potential for trouble, said Heath Terry, an analyst at Arlington, Virginia-based FBR Capital Markets Corp. who has an “underperform” rating on the shares. In the minds of Jerry, most of the board and employees, this is still Jerry’s company.

Yang a board member, will now be the Chief Yahoo focusing on global strategy, products and technology. In this financial crunch time the new CEO must restructure the company for sale and hence to do that Yahoo board must give authoritative powers to the CEO, unless that is done bright candidates might not show up.

I think Yahoo would be hurt by Jerry departing entirely, Jerry is the touchstone. Yahoo needs to remember its origins, and it needs to remember its mythology, said an analyst.

But what do you think, should Jerry say goodbye all together? Or will his presence have an effect on Yahoo’s future?

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