Add Widgets to Android's Daydream Mode for a More Useful Idle Screen

Android: Daydream mode is a pretty underutilized feature on Android, but Dashclock makes it much more useful. By adding Dashclock (or other Daydream-compatible widgets to your Daydream screen, you can have an always-on display of all the information you want. As we covered earlier this week, Dashclock is already one of the best widgets you can add to your phone or tablet. Daydream mode automatically kicks in when your display turns off while docked or charging. So, if you have a phone or tablet sitting at your desk, try adding the widgets. Dashclock isn't the only widget you can add, either. Tumblr, Google Currents, and others can plug directly into Daydream mode.

What's the Best Way to Send Money Online?

I've heard that Google now lets you send money to people with an email address. It sounds pretty neat, but is that really the best way to send money? Is PayPal any better? Are there other ways? Sincerely, Totally Not A Western Union Spy Dear Spy Guy, Yes, Google's new app lets you send money to anyone with an email address and yes, it's pretty neat. However, before you start putting money into Google's hands, let's take a look at the other options available to you. As it turns out, sending money over the internet isn't a new problem. While most solutions deal with how to pay a merchant or company, there are still plenty of ways to send your buddy ten bucks. 1-Google Wallet 2-PayPal 3-Square Cash 4-Chase QuickPay

1-Google Wallet

We may as well ride the news' coattails and start here. Google's entry into the money space allows anyone with a Google account to send cash to anyone with an email account. It's pretty neat! And, in fact, you can send the money from just about any of your financial institutions. Wallet allows you to add bank accounts, debit cards, or credit cards to fund your Wallet balance with. It's not perfect, though. Pros It's simple to send money. Just add an email address, an amount, and which account you'd like to send it from. No fees for transferring from a bank account or Wallet balance. You can potentially incur a fee if you send from a debit or credit card, but the rest are fee-free. Everyone knows Google. If you send money to someone who doesn't have a Wallet account, convincing them to sign up to receive your money won't be as hard as explaining why they need an account with some obscure company. Cons Getting money out is hard. You can use your Google Wallet account to pay for things online (or in select stores with the right phone). Transferring to a bank account is harder. Maybe even impossible. Some versions of Google's help docs show that this is possible while others have been edited to remove such references. If you're thinking of accepting money to Wallet, be sure you can spend it or get it out first. There are fees for debit and credit cards. The standard fee for sending money via a debit or credit card is 2.9%. This isn't the most money in the world, but if you need to pay someone for rent, it could be a nice chunk of change. Google Wallet is having a hard time. Google's been pushing to make Wallet a staple of online and retail commerce for a while, but virtually every company that Google needs support from has pushed back. Carriers, retailers, credit card companies, smartphone manufacturers, even Larry Page at times. While the service is pretty neat right now, it may not get better and some features could end up getting the dreaded Google Axe. Google Wallet is a pretty good option if you're deep in Google's ecosystem and if you don't plan on sending a lot of money. Unless you know you can get the cash out, you won't want to send someone rent money with it.

2-PayPal

Okay, so Google had its chance to pitch. What about PayPal? They've been around for fifteen years doing nothing but sending money every which way. They have to be pretty good at it by now, right? Actually, yeah, kind of. PayPal is definitely pretty good. Pros You can spend PayPal money anywhere. I mean anywhere. In addition to most places online accepting PayPal, you can sign up for a PayPal Mastercard and spend it in stores or anywhere that doesn't accept your account directly. Send money to any email address or phone number. As neat as Google's option is, it's not unique. You can already send money to someone using their email address with PayPal. Cons You'll pay fees for debit and credit cards. Just like Google Wallet, if you send money from one of your debit or credit cards, you're going to be paying a small percentage. Fortunately, you can avoid this by carrying a balance in your PayPal account (transfers to PayPal from your bank account are free), which is much less worrisome since you can actually spend it. Sometimes PayPal freezes accounts. It's not unheard of for PayPal accounts to have problems, particularly if you deal with overseas or abnormal fees. My personal experience has been wonderful, and PayPal may even be much better than it used to be, but problems can still happen. Transfers to bank accounts can take days. If you have a PayPal debit card, life is pretty sweet. If you don't, though, spending money you receive via PayPal can potentially take a lot of time. To the tune of multiple days just to transfer it out. For most cases, PayPal is probably the way you'll want to go, if nothing else for the versatility. That being said, if you don't sign up for a PayPal debit card, it's going to be considerably harder to spend your money immediately. To make life easier, set up an account, add your bank information, and get the Mastercard. Maybe you won't need it that often, but you'll be glad you have it when you do.

3-Square Cash

Square is still a relative newcomer to the payments field, but the company has a lot of really good ideas. Square Cash, the invite-only service, is one of the more recent ones and it's pretty neat: instead of making someone sign up for Square, you can send money directly to someone's debit card. Sounds great, right? Ehhh. Pros There's no need for a Square account. Both Google and PayPal require you to set up an account to receive money. You can send it to someone without an account, but they can't do anything with their cash until they sign up. Flat fee for sending money (and none for receiving). While it sucks that you'll have a fee every time you send cash, Square's fee is fixed at $0.50. For a $5 transfer, that's quite a bit, but for anything above around $170, you'll pay less sending with Square than you will with PayPal or Google. Cons You probably can't use it right now. Square Cash is an invite-only service right now. Except, you can only get invited by someone with the service who is willing to send you cash. It doesn't take a large transfer, but it can still be pretty difficult to get your hands on an account. Square Cash is a one-off feature. Square does have a suite of other financial features, but most of them are targeted towards merchants. PayPal and Google Wallet are consumer-oriented services with a host of features you can use to pay for things. Conversely, you'll be setting up a Square account with a bunch of financial information for a single feature—assuming you can even get an invite. The invite-only nature of Square Cash means that debating its usefulness is moot for most people to begin with. However, if you can get your hands on an account, it will probably be a little easier to send money to someone since you don't have to go through a middle-man account.

4-Chase QuickPay

Who says newfangled internet companies are the only ones who can have any fun? Chase Bank has its own method for person-to-person money transfers and it's surprisingly not that bad. Provided at least one of you has a Chase account. Pros You can send money directly to any U.S. bank. Unlike PayPal and Google, you can send money directly to any U.S. bank. Most financial institutions can do this once you've associated your account with another, but Chase QuickPay lets you do so without having to go to the trouble. If you use Chase, you don't need any new accounts. Everything else here requires you to sign up for a service that you're probably not going to be using as your main bank. If you prefer to consolidate, Chase is a one-stop shop. There are no fees at all. Isn't that nice? Chase QuickPay is the one service that doesn't charge money to send or receive. However, Cons Someone involved has to have a Chase bank account. Setting up a bank account is much harder than signing up for PayPal or Google Wallet. If neither you nor the person you're sending money to uses Chase, it's going to be one of the least convenient options. Actually, that's pretty much it. I could nitpick, but really that's the deciding factor. Chase QuickPay is pretty great for Chase customers and useless for non-customers. Pretty black-and-white. In general, there are a lot of ways to send money online, but which one is best really comes down to your needs. As I mentioned earlier, PayPal is fantastic for my needs and I've never had a problem. That's just me, though. There are plenty of alternatives if you don't trust PayPal.

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