Syllable Teaches You How to Speed Read

iOS: Speed reading is a great skill to have when you need to quickly get through a massive block of text, but it takes time to learn how to do it. Syllable is an app that teaches you speed reading techniques by pulling articles from your clipboard, Pocket, or Instapaper. We've talked about speed reading before and Syllable teaches a technique that reduces subvocalization, which is when you read words to yourself in your head. Syllable does this by quickly pacing through the articles you give it quickly so you don't have the chance to read the words aloud. Syllable also allows you to use another technique called chunking where you only read certain words. If you want to learn how to speed read, Syllable's a nice way to do it since it integrates with Pocket and Instapaper. If nothing else maybe you'll actually get through that backlog of 200 long form articles you've saved.

How Can I Get Decent Internet in a Rural Setting?

Even if you're not in a truly remote area, getting just a little outside the boundaries of local cable and DSL providers can mean real problems for internet access. If you've got experience getting internet service outside regular service zones, come help out a fellow reader. John writes: I will soon be moving from a small Midwest city to a farm house that has been in my family for generations. My fiance and I decided a while back that we were looking for some more room to plant our own food and generally be more self sustaining. So far I haven't been able to come up with a good solution for internet access on our new property. We won't be in the middle of no where, only about 10 miles from where we live now, there's no cable or DSL service. I have no experience with satellite internet providers or mobile hotspots and I wondered if you had an advice on these fronts. Or maybe there are some options that I am not considering? Some of my work involves teaching classes online. I know that I could do that work from either my office space or a coffee shop, but there would be some advantages to doing it from home as well. We have also "cut the cord" at our house in town and have been making use of online streaming services and a traditional television antenna. Have you some advice? Post it below!

Build Your Own Clutter-Reducing, Modular Shelving from Cardboard Boxes

If you don't care much about the look of your shelves, Instructables user makedo-able shows off how to build a nice set up modular shelving from cardboard boxes. The shelves require just a few cardboard boxes and Makedo pins to construct. After a few folds and cuts you'll have a set of shelves you can keep adding to at any point. They're not exactly the most beautiful shelves in the world, but they'll certainly do the trick if you're just storing stuff in your closet. Whether you're sick of your college dorm room having junk scattered all over it, or you just have no interest in spending money on shelving, head over to Instructables for the full guide.

Ask an Expert: All About Online Dating Etiquette

Say hi to Adam Huie, CEO of the free dating app Let's Date. Described as "the Instagram of dating," Let's Date allows you to make a "dater card" that describes a bit about your personality and interests. Users browse cards and click "Let's Date" if they're interested, which opens up the ability to message one another. Prior to Let's Date, Adam was part of the team that developed Tinder, another uber popular dating app. Adam is hanging out for the next hour, lending his expertise on online dating etiquette. Ask away!

Make a Slight Change in Perspective to Minimize Painful Memories

We tend to remember events from an immersive, first-person perspective. This causes us to get lost in that moment and conjure up emotions we may not enjoy. The solution? Think about things from a third-person perspective and you won't have that problem. Guy Winch, psychologist and author of Emotional First Aid, cites a study that demonstrates how a shift in perspective makes a profound difference: [Ozlem Ayduk from the University of California and Ethan Kross from the University of Michigan] had participants replay emotionally painful memories from a third-person perspective—which involves visualizing ourselves within the scene as if we were watching it from the perspective of an outside observer. The difference between the two types of perspectives was profound. Participants reported feeling significantly less emotional pain when they envisioned the memory using a third-person perspective than when using a first-person perspective. Further, utilizing a psychologically distant vantage point also allowed them to reconstruct their understanding of their experiences and reach new insights and feelings of closure. To achieve this new perspective, Winch suggests a little practice. Start by lying down and making yourself comfortable, then think of a potentially painful memory. Take a moment to "zoom out" from that recollection and watch it as an onlooker. This may feel awkward at first but with a little practice you can get used to remembering in the third-person and downplaying an excessive pain from a traumatic memory.

How One Late Student Loan Payment Affects You

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you made one late student loan payment? Not being late every month, or every few months, but just one time? Perhaps you envision being scolded by some Sallie Mae rep, incurring devastating fees, or taking an immediate hit on your already fragile credit score. While these late payment scenarios may be exaggerated in your mind, there are nuggets of truth to each of them. Understand the Difference Between Loan Delinquency and Loan Default Fortunately for those with student loans, lenders understand that people make mistakes. Missing one payment and missing several payments are two different issues in the eyes of lenders, and are treated differently as well. Loan Delinquency: A loan becomes delinquent the day after the missed due date. The loan remains in delinquent status until the borrower takes an action such as payment, deferment, or forbearance. Loan Default: A loan goes into default when a person fails to repay according to the terms of the agreed promissory note. True, by being late on a payment, you are not adhering to the promissory note. However, there is a time lapse lenders and the federal government will allow before the loan is officially considered to be in default status. For example, most federal student loans will not be moved into default status until after the person has gone 270 days without making any payments. Consequences of One Late Payment For now, let’s assume that your loan is delinquent, and that you have only one missed payment at this time. The possible consequences of a delinquent loan include the following: Ding on Your Credit Report: For Federal student loans, delinquency is typically reported to the three major credit bureaus (TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian) after 90 days has passed. The length of time afforded before reporting to a credit bureau is different for private loans and for each lender; for example, Sallie Mae usually reports delinquent private loans after 45 days. Usually if you are not 45 days late, you won’t incur a bad mark on your credit report—at least, not yet. Late Fees: There is typically a grace period on delinquent loans before a late fee is assessed, though it varies by lender. Sallie Mae, for example, issues a late fee of 6% of your minimum payment after one late payment that is at least 15 days past your due date. In order to find this information, I actually had to call Sallie Mae and ask—they don’t always make it easy to find. So be sure to call your own lender and ask the same questions so that you understand the consequences of a delinquent federal student loan versus a delinquent private student loan. To Avoid Late Penalties, Be Proactive in Dealing with Loans No one wants to miss a payment on their student loans, most of all because of the possible consequences that will occur. One of the best ways to prevent doing so in the future is by setting up automatic bill payment on your student loans that will debit your account before the due date. If you do this, be sure to understand whether or not your bank account will push a payment through or not in the event that you do not have enough funds to cover the debit (and if they do push the payment through, understand that you will incur overdraft fees from your bank with the upside being that you will not be late on your student loan payment). Another way to be proactive when dealing with your loans is by keeping the lines of communication open with your lender throughout the repayment process. Instead of sticking your head in the sand and hoping for the storm to blow over, get in touch with your lender as soon as you know that you will need to make one late student loan payment. Hopefully you have had on-time and consistent payments up until now, as this could help you in making sure your delinquency is not reported to the credit bureaus or even to take off a late fee. Just like when you are late on a credit card payment, the consequences of being late on student loan payments can be both financial as well as non-financial. Fortunately, there are grace periods for each of the consequences discussed.

The Best Web Browser for iPhone

While mobile Safari does most of what you'd need from a smartphone web browser, and there are many alternatives that fill in the gaps, we prefer Chrome. Google's browser offers excellent features, synchronization, and simplicity at no cost. Google Chrome Platform: iPhone (and iPad) Price: Free Download Page Features Unlimited browser "tabs" Syncs with your Google account to provide you with Chrome data from other browsers, including passwords, bookmarks, and more Saves sessions so you can access sites on your mobile on the desktop, and vice-versa Instant search Easily navigate with helpful gestures Private browsing mode Where It Excels Google Chrome for iPhone inherits the goodness of its desktop counterpart. Chrome's syncing abilities truly make it wonderful, allowing you to take pretty much any data associated with Chrome and your Google account and have it on every single device the browser supports. That means you always have your bookmarks, passwords, history, search shortcuts, and so on. Google really does sync well, and that's where Chrome shines beyond Apple's Safari. That said, its other features pretty much stack up evenly. You might prefer its user interface or that of any other browser. Its feature set doesn't set it above a variety of other third-party options. When you want to know why Chrome is the best, just look at its syncing abilities. That's where it wins. Where It Falls Short Chrome doesn't have a lot of features. It doesn't beat out mobile Safari in a variety of areas for this reason. As mentioned in the previous section, we like Chrome because it syncs so well. No other browser—including Safari—does such a great job. If you use Chrome on the desktop, you'll probably want it on your mobile. If you don't, however, you lose its main advantage. When it comes to a mobile browser, you generally want to match yours with your choice on the desktop to keep data in sync. We think Chrome does the best job on the desktop so naturally we feel you ought to make it your browser of choice on your iPhone as well. The Competition Atomic, our previous top pick, has just about every feature you could possibly want in a mobile web browser (or a desktop web browser for that matter). You can clear history, cookies, and all sorts of other crap you don't want lying around on your mobile. In fact, Atomic will do it for you on quit so you don't even have to remember. You get proper tabbed browsing, which can be extended into kiosk mode (full screen) to make more room for the web page. Atomic even has advanced features like a download manager that can decompress zip archives, an ad blocker, and the ability to save web pages locally. It's easy to use, endlessly customizable, stable, and only costs $1 for the full version. It's really a fantastic browser with a great balance of all the things you'd really need, but might feel cumbersome to those who don't want a desktop-like experience. Perfect Web Browser is a common alternative to Atomic, offering many of the same features and a fairly similar interface. It attempts to provide a desktop experience on your iPhone, but it definitely achieves that better on the iPad thanks to the extra screen real estate. It costs the same as Atomic (unless you want the iPad version, too, in which case Perfect will cost you an extra $4) and there's very little different, but we've used both for some time and just prefer Atomic. You may disagree, and at $1 each there's little risk in trying them both out. 360 Browser has an interesting user interface with lots of navigation shortcuts and adds support for Flash. Yes, Flash—that thing Apple basically banned from your iDevice. It also has support for Firefox sync so you can easily grab all your bookmarks, tabs, and passwords. Like the others, it'll only cost you $1.