PC_Tech_Authority_July_2017

DO MORE, WORK LESS FEATURE
MONITOR THE
EBAY AUCTIONS
4 applets
You’ve got your eye on a Canon 1D, or a
vintage ZX Spectrum, or a rare B-side by
Squeeze. Whatever it is, it will likely end up
on eBay, but trying to keep abreast of all
the latest listings is a tricky manual job. Let
IFTTT take the strain.
The following applet lets you specify a
search term, a maximum price and then
saves all of the new listings to a Google
spreadsheet: tinyurl.com/lkcu2bv. If
you’re desperately seeking a rare item,
IFTTT’s mobile app will ping an optional
notification every time the applet is
triggered, so you should be alerted to any
new listings in short order.
Google Sheets is only one of the many
destinations that can log results for eBay
searches. Check out the eBay channel (ifttt.
com/ebay) and you’ll see options to ping
results into OneNote, Slack, Pushbullet,
and all manner of different services.
What about if you’re selling gear? This
applet automatically shares your new
listings on Twitter, handy for power sellers
who want to attract attention to listings on
social media: tinyurl.com/lut2apa.
There’s also a
straightforward applet for
people who want to keep all
of their eBay orders, both
incoming and outgoing,
in one place: tinyurl.com/
lkla8no. It scans your Gmail
inbox for emails from eBay
that contain the subject line
shipped” or “order” and then
automatically logs them in
a Google spreadsheet. It’s a
useful tool if you’re juggling
multiple eBay transactions
every week.
MASTER
YOUR MUSIC
COLLECTION
3 applets
Spotify subscribers will be
familiar with the often brilliant
Discover Weekly playlist, an
automatically generated two
hours of new tracks every
week that’s personalised
to your music tastes. The
problem is that every
Monday that list regenerates,
meaning it’s easy to lose
that great track you
listened to in the car last
week. The following applet
automatically creates a
Discover Weekly archive
playlist, meaning that all
the tracks curated by Spotify
are retained for future
listening: tinyurl.com/
ml9so6h.
There’s a
similar service for
the Release Radar
playlist, too: tinyurl.
com/ltsylfc.
Do you have
Spotify playing in
the office? Want
to alert colleagues
every time you’ve
found a banging
new tune? This
is a very clever
applet that sends
a message to a
specific Slack
channel every
time you add a
song to a specified Spotify playlist.
So you could have an #OfficeTunes
Slack channel that’s updated with
everyone’s recommendations, for
instance. The applet can be found
here: tinyurl.com/lejv8u4.
STOP THE PIPES
FREEZING!
5 applets
Anyone who uses a garden office or works
from the conservatory will know that, no
matter how good the insulation, the office
will take a good hour or more to warm up on
a cold winter’s morning. IFTTT can help you
avoid an unwanted morning chill.
The Weather Underground channel
lets you set alerts based on the current
temperature in your region. Consequently,
if the mercury dips below, say 5°C, you can
set IFTTT to switch on the heater connected
to your WeMo smart plug or even your Nest
thermostat. You’ll need to create the applets
yourself, using the Weather Underground
channel (ifttt.com/weather) and whatever
smart plug/thermostat device you use.
There are several from which you can
choose.If you want something a little more
low-tech, you can set Weather Underground
to email you in advance if it’s going to rain
tomorrow, or to automatically add a weather
forecast to your Google Calendar at 6am
every day (tinyurl.com/labj7p2). At the
other extreme, you can get mobile alerts if
the pollen count forecast is high (tinyurl.
com/mn6e2uu), or the forecast UV index
carries a high risk of sunburn, giving you
time to slap some suncream on the kids
before school (tinyurl.com/kyc2y8j).