Public — Social Media meets Investing

If you know the stock market, you can make some serious bank. But for many of us, it is challenging because we DON’T know the market. Where does one start? What is a good stock? How much money should be invested? These questions are endless and, I’d wager, prevent people from taking the first steps into the market. After all, only a fool would bet what little they have only to lose it all.

Public is a social media app for stocks, crypto, and ETFs, that I’ve become quite fond if. On the surface, it is for buying/selling stocks but a little deeper one will find a community of people—beginners and pros alike.

Like a Twitter for investing, one can follow other investors, they can follow you back, and you can join groups to discuss things like # cheapstocks which is a personal favorite of mine. As you work your investments, every sell or buy can be posted into a feed, giving both insight to what you and others are investing. See what is hot, what has been most generous in daily gains or see what stocks are dropping (Buy the dip!).

Websites like E*TRADE are very complicated and impossible to navigate. That can be the different between making a lot of money and losing a lot of money. Quick buys and sells are sometimes vital if one day trades (careful!) and an app like Public gives you all the power of a general investing platform with the simplicity of a social media app.

Once the setup of an account is complete, linking a debit card or bank account allows for easy cashing out or transferring money in for investing. This money is available to invest immediately and all the traditional functions are available like buy market price, limits, and so forth.

I’m not a financial advisor so I probably need to preface this by saying, this article is for demonstration and entertainment purposes only. I’ve been successful overall in making a few dollars using Public and generally think it is a good way to get into the marketplace. You can start with a single dollar if you want and get your feet wet. To help, my referral link below will get you free stock. Free money!

And if you’re curious about what stocks invest in, feel free to follow me on Public! I mostly dabble in penny stocks on Public—speed is very important to making money as penny stocks can be very volatile so Public is a great platform for me.

Check out Public and start investing.

Transit — Avoid Crowds with New Real-Time Info

One of my absolute favorite apps and top ten must-have apps just got a great new update to help you identify if the transit route (bus, train, etc.) is crowded. For those who must venture out during this lockdown, help preserve your health and others’ with as much information as you can have. Knowledge is power.

Image courtesy of Transit

“Amidst the chaos, transit continues to provide an essential lifeline to riders who need to get around. Nurses, doctors, your grocery store clerk. We want to make it easier for them — and you — to avoid crowds when taking public transit. We’re now publishing crowding data from transit agencies, and have started asking more agencies to contribute this info.”

— Transit

They have some impressive information using the real-time data provided by transit authorities throughout the world. Check out their article and read more about how Transit is helping people travel safely.

Transit on Medium

Download Transit (highly recommended)

Deliveries — Package Tracking on your Apple Devices

Some of the best apps are apps that make every day things a little simpler. One of my favorite apps to help with little tasks is Deliveries. It does one thing and does it really well. It tracks packages.

From FedEx to USPS, Royal Mail and DHL, grab a tracking number and one will receive notifications on Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Deliveries shows locations, delivery estimates, days to arrival and more. Add a name to the delivery should there be more than one coming from the same courier.

Made by JuneCloud, they are a small developer out fo Detroit making only a few apps but all really well designed. Not only do they help one track their packages, they also make a simple and classy notes app called Notefile.

Today Deliveries users received an update making this app even more useful: Siri Shortcuts. Simply say to Siri, “Show me my deliveries,” and a quick view of what deliveries are available show up.

Some other nifty features of Deliveries are the ability for it to add the estimated delivery date to one’s calendar. It will show up as an all day even so even when one’s eyes aren’t on the app or Notification Center, Calendar will still keep one updated.

Deliveries is available on all iOS, macOS, and watchOS devices, tracking a package can be done from desktop to pocket to wrist and it syncs via iCloud.

It is one of my favorite things to see the Deliveries complication on my Apple Watch watchface with the days until a delivery—with a single tap, I get all the same information as on iPhone or iPad.

Additionally. If more information is needed, Deliveries is pulling data from the couriers’ website and one can quickly jump to the detailed information.

It is a five dollar app but totally worth it. The new Siri features really make it a quick and easy app to work with and the interface remains one of my favorite.

Tip: If one copies a tracking number from an e-mail or website, upon opening Deliveries on iOS, a “quick entry” notification pops up for speedy input.

Deliveries from JuneCloud

iOS: $5
macOS: $5