Use a USB-to-Serial Adapter on a Chromebook with Beagle Term

I love my Acer C720 Chromebook. However, as a Network Administrator I was constantly having to switch over to my Windows laptop to use a USB-to-Serial adapter to configure networking equipment. At least until I discovered an application called Beagle Term for Chrome.

Beagle Term

Platform: Google Chrome

Price: Free

Download Page

What is it?

Beagle Team a serial terminal emulator, written entirely in JavaScript and can be added to any device that supports Google Chrome Apps--For instance, Chrome OS. Additionally, it is lightweight, easy to use, open-source, and free!

Bottom Line

Beagle Term is a necessity for anyone that has to use USB-to-Serial adapters--especially with a Chromebook. In my experience, not only is it super easy to install (you press one button), but it is much easier than connecting to a serial interface with PuTTY on a Windows device.

Have any great Chrome apps that you don't know how others can live without? Or have anything to add about Beagle Term? Tell us about it in the comments below.

FreedomPop's 100% Free Internet: Review and Tips

FreedomPop is a company with a mission to deliver free and fast mobile services to all Americans. Wait, did I just say free? Yes, free! …To a point. Let me tell you my experiences of owning one of their mobile 4G hotspots.

FreedomPop offers hotspots (among other devices from their website) that give you free data every month at no additional charge. You only need to purchase one of these hotspots a single time, after which you can simply continue to receive free monthly data. However, it can be difficult trying to gather all of the necessary information from FreedomPop that you need to make an educated purchase. The following is my experience dealing with FreedomPop and suggestions on how to utilize the free options concerning their 4G hotspots.

Plans and Services

With the purchase of a portable hotspot from FreedomPop you get 500MB of free data a month. If you go over this limit, you will be charged. However, if 500MB isn't enough, you can permanently get an additional 50MB of data per a “Freedom Friend” associated with your account--for a maximum of an extra 500MB a month. These “Freedom Friends” can easily be found if you just do a quick google search. Not only do you get free data from having friends, but friends can send or request additional data from each other for free, which is great if it looks like you may run out of data before the end of the month. If you are still running short on data, you can earn even more for the month by completing additional offers like surveys and app downloads through the FreedomPop mobile app.

Now, it should be noted that your unused data does not roll over to each month unless you pay for the “FreedomPop Rollover Service” for $3.99 a month. This brings me to some of the things you need to be aware of.

• When you set up your account with FreedomPop, they will try to sign you up for trial plans that charge you after one month. If you don’t want to pay, make sure you are only signed up for the “Free 500MB” plan.
• If you are trying to use FreedomPop for free, you will want to disable “Automatic Top-Up” under billing settings, which is enabled by default. If “Automatic Top-Up” is left enabled it will automatically charge your account $10 if you reach 400MB of usage in a month. However, even with this disabled, you will need to make sure you do not exceed your monthly data allocation to avoid being charged.

The HotSpot

Now as far as the device goes, I managed to pick up a FreedomPop Overdrive during a sale of FreedomPop's for $25. Keep in mind though that they don't have them on sale for this cheap very often. Although I was happy with the price I paid, the shipping time for this product was much longer than expected. It took 22 days from the day I ordered the device to the day it arrived at my doorstep. Shipping times this long are common with FreedomPop products, so if you need your device right now, you may want to look for something else. The device itself was very easy to set up, change the password on, etc. The device does run off the Sprint network, so speeds are good as long as you are in a sufficient Sprint coverage area.

Conclusion

All in all, a FreedomPop hotspot is a fantastic device to keep on hand. However, it is not for the faint hearted. You will need to diligently watch your data usage and set it up properly if you don't want to pay anything extra. While it probably won’t cover all your data usage, it is fairly convenient to keep in your laptop bag, purse, or car as an emergency hotspot if you cannot find a trusted public network. Have any questions or experiences you would like to share? Tell us about them in the comments below.

How to Use Perk TV with Multiple Phones

Perk TV is an application for Android and iOS that pays you to watch ads. What sets Perk TV apart from other applications like this (e.g. Swagbucks) is that ads continually play without physical interaction (pressing buttons) for hours at a time. Taking advantage of this opportunity, you can easily buy some phones, install the app, and start earning passive income. Setup is easy, and you can be making $30+ per month per a phone starting right now!

Before you start, check to see if your internet service provider has a data cap, since streaming videos 24/7 chews up a lot of data.

Step One: Sign Up

Sign up for Perk TV

Step Two: Purchase Phones

If you are going to buy phones to run Perk TV, go with cheap Android devices that meet the minimum requirements for Perk TV. Currently, the requirements are just Android 4.0 or higher and WiFi. One of the most popular phones for running Perk TV is the Kyocera Hydro. At the time of this article the Hydros can be purchased on Amazon for about $30 and Amazon will buy the Hydros back for about $9. Because the Hydros earn around $1 a day, you would only have to run the phone for 21 days ($30 - $9) to break even if you choose to sell the phone back after that point. Anything afterwards is profit. Also note that you can have up to five phones per an account.

Kyocera Hydro on Amazon

Step Three: Prep the Phones

To maximize earning potential on your phones you will want the following applications:

• Perk TV - The application
• Always On - Keeps the screen on
• Screen Filter - Dims the screen to save electricity

Optional: If you root the phones you can freeze (disable) all unnecessary applications with Titanium Backup Pro to conserve resources for Perk TV.

Step Four: Setup

Plug your phones into a cheap surge protector or a multi-port usb wall charger near your wireless access point and you (Perk TV's terms and Conditions state that users must physically be in front of the phone(s) when using Perk apps). When you open Perk TV you have the option to play application trailers or movie trailers. Start with application trailers as they earn faster. The phone will automatically switch back to movie trailers after a while, but that's alright.

Step Five: Maintenance

Although not always required, reboot the phones once a day to prevent them from crashing. Phones can sometimes go days without a reboot, but it is better to reboot daily to avoid this risk.

Step Six: Earn and Redeem

That's it! Welcome to the world of perking!

I currently have four Kyocera Hydros that earn about $120+ dollars a month, which pays for my groceries. 

Using Perk TV already or coming up with ideas on how to set your phones up? Tell us about it in the comments section below. If you liked this article, check out my post on How to Make a Passive Income from an Idle Computer. Happy perking!

UPDATE: Perk TV now gives a prompt every 5 hours reading "Are you still watching?" Although annoying, it is not a huge inconvenience given the rewards you still get, and if you are physically in front of the phones when using Perk TV--like their Terms and Conditions state.

How I Get Free Music, TV Shows, Movies, and More (Legally)

As a broke college student it’s hard to legally get a hold of the digital products I want. Luckily, over time I have stumbled across ways to get these products legally and free or very cheap. This article discusses how I currently get my digital products.

Music
I have always preferred online streaming services like Last.fm and Pandora over purchasing albums or songs. However, the one thing I hated was the audio quality. When I listened to music in my car, the bass was painful to listen to. Additionally, deafening screeches or squeals commonly appeared when I turned up the volume. Luckily, I stumbled upon an application called HitBliss a couple weeks ago. HitBliss is an application that gives you rewards for watching ads. It took me just a few minutes after downloading the application to my phone to get a month subscription to Pandora One absolutely free--the high quality, ad free version of Pandora. I’ve been using Pandora One for a couple weeks now, and it has been wonderful. Now I am able to turn up the volume in my car without the deafening screeches or squeals and pretty decent bass.

TV Shows & Movies
Between school and work, I rarely have a chance to watch a show or movie when it airs on TV. Additionally, I don’t want to pay to stream something online if I’ll probably only watch it once. HitBliss saved me again. Not only can you order a Pandora One subscription on HitBliss, but you can also rent movies (including new releases) and purchase TV shows (usually the day after they air). It took less than twenty minutes of watching ads (I was actually watching YouTube on my computer while HitBliss ran on my phone) to earn enough credit to purchase three episodes of Suits and rent a movie. The application links to your Amazon account to make the purchases and rentals. One downside is that you are limited to four Amazon purchases/rentals a week. However, I've decided that there is no reason for me to watch more than four shows/movies a week, so I'm currently okay with this limit.

Applications

Honestly, most of the applications I use are either freeware or free web apps. However, this doesn't help for my phone. For that I use Google Opinion Rewards. Google Opinion Rewards is a free app in the Google Play Store that gives you Google Play credit for taking short surveys. About once a week a notification will prompt you to take a one to ten question survey. Afterwards, credit will be applied to your account. I’ve bought several Android apps this way. Additionally, this credit works for anything in the Google Play Store, including movies, TV shows, comics and books.

Books
I've never been much of a casual reader. If I read, it tends to be technical books that are hard to read digitally to start with. I've noticed that I can read these books much faster and comprehend a lot more when I have a tangible copy. Now I take advantage of my local library if I decide it’s not worth paying for. Furthermore, if my library doesn’t have the book I am looking for, they have a lending program where they can borrow books from participating libraries. I just tell them what I’m looking for, and they will have it shipped from a library that carries it at no cost to me. It is definitely work checking to see if your library participates in a program like this one. Not only is this program available for books, but also audiobooks and movies.

Audiobooks
Audiobooks are very important to me. I commute to work and school, so I like to listen to them during my drive. This wouldn’t be a big deal, but I listen to audiobooks at twice the normal speed or higher just because the readers talk so slow. Doing this allows me to listen to two or three full Audiobooks a week during my commute. However, there is no way I could pay for over a hundred audiobooks a year. The library has become my best friend again. Additionally, if I ever find myself waiting for an audiobook to come in, I just listen to public domain content through ezPDF Reader’s read aloud feature.

Video Games
Console gamers, I can’t help you. I'm a PC gamer and always will be. One of the reasons I’m a PC gamer is because it is so cheap. I've decided that I have no problem waiting for a new release to come on sale. I never buy a game if it isn't on sale or in a bundle. After all, my Steam library is packed for of games I haven't even downloaded yet. If I feel tempted to purchase a game at full price, I just get myself sucked back into TF2 and forget about the other game.

Conclusion
Overall, I’m happy with my methods for acquiring these products. Some of these methods have worked great for me for a long time. Have another method not listed here? Let me know in the comments below.