From The Tips Box: Data Plans, Drive Space, New Facebook Chat

Readers offer their best tips for preparing for a limited data plan, checking drive space on your computer, and getting the old Facebook Chat bar back.

About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons — maybe they’re a bit too niche, maybe we couldn’t find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn’t fit it in — the tip didn’t make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Email it to tips at lifehacker.com.au.

Monitor Your Data to Prepare for Limited Data Plans

KamWrex shares another use for data-monitoring apps on your smartphone:

Lifehacker has already talked about the virtues of the Android app My Data Manager (and My Data Usage for iPhone).

But for an alternate use, if you are getting close to the end of your contract and considering moving to a different phone plan you can use the app to also gauge your average data usage a month. For instance, in some prepaid plans the difference between 200mb of data a month and unlimited is quite a difference, so if you know how much data you normally use, you may be able to save some cash buy choosing a future plan that best fits your needs.

Monitor Your System Drive’s Space with a Keyboard Shortcut

PrairieMoon shares another AutoHotkey script from his vault, that helps keep an eye on your main hard drive:

ALT key with the letter G gives you the Properties sheet for your system drive, so you can see how big it is, etc. Just add this to an AutoHotkey script:

!g::

EnvGet A_SystemDrive, SystemDrive

Run, properties %A_SystemDrive%

Return

Use Pop-Out Mode to Avoid Facebook’s New Chat Bar

Flasher lets us know how we can still access Facebook’s old chat bar:

If you, like me, think Facebook’s new chat is horrible, then go here to pop it out.

Put Extra Garbage Bags in the Bottom of the Can for Easy Access

Photo by Seth W.

Reed shares a simple household tip that makes trash seem like less of a chore:

My mum shared this tip with me yesterday: When you refill the garbage can, stick a few empty bags in the bottom of the can. That way, when it fills up again and you have to take it out, you don’t have to rummage around for a new bag. You can just grab it out of the bottom of the can, slap it on, and be done.

This is a pretty popular practice, but something that a few of you out there might not know.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

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