Last Week’s Top Ten Posts

Carbon tax impacts, challenges with Telstra’s Next G, new app pricing from Apple and the best IKEA products were all high on the agenda. Kick off your Monday by checking out the ten most popular posts from Lifehacker Australia last week:

1. Household Assistance Estimator Calculates Impact Of Carbon Tax On Your Wallet
   Curious about how the much-discussed and finally announced carbon tax for major polluters will impact on your household? The government’s official Household Assistance Estimator will give you a rough idea.
2. Ultimate Hotspot Shows Telstra Next G Is Feeling The Strain
   Telstra’s Next G network is generally held to be the fastest mobile option in Australia. However, my recent testing on the Ultimate high-speed option confirms what many people have been suspecting: as more people sign on, its performance is declining.
3. 10 Most Useful Sub-$10 Buys From IKEA
   We’re very fond of hacking IKEA gear around here, but some of the items the Swedish furniture giant sells are far more versatile than others. Here are the 10 handiest items you can pick up for repurposing the next time you make an IKEA pilgrimage — and every single one is priced under $10.
4. Real-World Easter Eggs To Save You Money And Hassle
   In the software world, easter eggs are unexpected bonus features that you can activate with sneaky keyboard shortcuts or other tricks. In the real world, there are also hidden tricks you can use to make life easier and save yourself money. Here’s a quick selection of our favourites.
5. Apple’s New Australian App Store Pricing Structure Fully Explained
   Apple is now offering effective parity on US pricing for the cheapest iOS apps, but the pricing differences change for more expensive apps. Here’s what you need to know.
6. What Qualifies As Getting Up Early?
   Different people have different sleep cycles, but getting started in the morning remains a challenge for many of us. But just what waking-up time falls clearly into the “early riser” category?
7. Make Self-Service Checkouts Work Faster
   Back in May we ran a post discussing tactics for making self-service checkouts work better, which stirred up a fair bit of debate. Gizmodo has a similarly-themed guest post from a Woolworths staffer, offering tips on how to make your self-service journey speedier
8. Top 10 Ways To Speed Up Windows’ Boot Time
   If there’s one thing everyone dreads, it’s rebooting their computer. It may only take a minute or two, but it can seem like forever. Here are our top 10 tweaks that will make your computer boot a little faster.
9. Ask LH: Why Don’t We See More Android Apps?
   Dear Lifehacker, Why is it that so many large companies are tripping over themselves to make iPhone apps, but leave Android users out in the cold? For example, ANZ has a fantastic app for iPhones, but the Android app is merely a wrapper for their website.
10. Is Our Perspective On Carbon Tax Increases Sometimes Warped?
    One of the main points of contention about the proposed carbon tax is the amount of money it will cost individuals once those big-business expenses are passed on to consumers. Few people are enthusiastic about paying even a cent more in tax, but the reactions to this week’s announcement do sometimes seem out of proportion to the amounts involved.