Last Week’s 10 Biggest Posts

Money talks! You wanted to know what you shouldn’t pay full price for, what Spotify costs and how much IT contractors get paid. Kick off your Monday by checking out the ten most popular posts from Lifehacker Australia last week:

1. Stuff You Should Never Pay Full Price For
   Some items go on “special” so often that paying full price for them makes no sense. This is our definitive guide to technologies and other goods that you should always be able to score at a discount, no bargaining required.
2. Spotify Australia Launches, Here’s What It Costs
   We’ve been promised it for a while, but Spotify has finally launched in Australia today. The basic ad-supported service is free, dropping ads will cost you $6.99 a month, and the full premium version is $11.99 a month.
3. Microsoft Worried Windows 8 Will Boot Too Quickly
   Yes, that headline says exactly what you think. We know faster boot times are one of the key goals for Windows 8 (and early testing suggests that goal is being met). So much so that, as Microsoft puts it: “Windows 8 has a problem – it really can boot up too quickly.”
4. Spotify And Its Rivals: Subscription Music Services In Australia Compared
   Spotify is getting lots of attention for its launch today, but it is far from the only streaming music service in Australia looking for your listening dollars. We’ve rounded up all the contenders in an easy-to-compare chart.
5. What Are The Hourly Rates For IT Contractors?
   Looking for a high-paying career in IT? The best contractor rates are for business intelligence consultants, project managers and accounting systems developers. However, there’s a shift towards more full-time employees in some areas, so it might not be the path to riches you anticipate.
6. Make Your Pockets Virtually Theft-Proof
   Whether you’re in an unfamiliar city or just paranoid, worrying about your wallet being stolen by a sneaky pickpocket isn’t uncommon.Even if the chances are slim, getting stranded in a foreign place can be scary and troublesome. How-to illustrator Yumi Sakugawa offers up an info-comic with plenty of helpful suggestions to make your pockets essentially theft-proof.
7. Ask LH: How Often Should I Charge My Gadget’s Battery To Prolong Lifespan?
   Dear Lifehacker, What is the deal with lithium-ion batteries (the kind found in smartphones and laptops)? I’ve heard lots of different things about how to take care of them, like that they need to be kept charged between 40 per cent and 80 percent, or that they should be drained completely and charged to 100 per cent. What is the ideal configuration to maintain a good battery life to battery health ratio?
8. Five Best Web Hosting Companies
   When you’re ready to take your data into your own hands and run your own blog, own your own photos, and host your own apps, it’s time to find a good web host that can put it all on the web for you, give you the tools, bandwidth, and storage you need, and support you when you need help. Thankfully, there are dozens of great companies looking for your business, and this week we’re going to look at five of the best.
9. Multiple Monitors Are Not That Common
   People with more than one monitor love how it improves their productivity and cringe at the thought of working on a single screen. While support for using multiple monitors has steadily improved in mainstream operating systems, it turns out it’s not a very common choice.
10. Why Being Too Private On Facebook Is Actually A Bad Thing
    There are plenty of stupid things you can do on Facebook, but you perhaps wouldn’t expect being too private to be one of them. Think again. There are actually real downsides to locking down your Facebook profile. It can hurt you in a job search and affect the quality of the search results for your name. Here’s why.