Voice Brief Gives You a Quick Audible Information Update, Even When You're Offline [IPhone Downloads]

iOS: Voice Brief is a handy little app that pulls news, weather, and other information from the web and stores it on your iPhone (or other iDevice). When you want an update, just ask the app and it'll provide one in audio format. It's a nice way to get started in the morning.

We've actually mentioned Voice Brief before in our Daily App Deals but never highlighted it as a featured download—which it is. The concept is very straightforward: it can be tedious to aggregate a quick update of what's going on in the world—both locally and beyond—and you don't always have the time to read it. While Voice Brief will provide you with a quick list of information (similar to your built-in Notification Center, but with a little more detail), you can tap a play button to have it read aloud to you. Voice Brief offers a selection of voices plus a number of items you can add for updates. Email, calendar items, the weather, and news feeds are just a few of the available items. It's free to download, so hit up the iTunes App Store to give it a try.

Spring forward and tackle a few quick chores

In the wee early hours of this coming Sunday morning, most of the US will spring forward an hour to begin Daylight Savings Time. This change in the clock is also a great time to take on a few quick spring chores.

Check your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. In addition to replacing their batteries and testing their alarms, be sure to also check the units’ expiration dates. For the safety of you and your family, you want to make sure all of these devices are functioning at their best. If you can’t find expiration dates on your alarms and detectors, replace them every 10 years.Recycle batteries. Since you’ll be removing old batteries from all your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors and replacing them with new ones, now is a terrific time to recycle all the old batteries you’ve collected over the past six months, too. If your regular recycling program doesn’t accept batteries, remember that every Best Buy in the US does. They also accept all kinds of old electronics and some appliances, so check out what services your local store offers and recycle some other clutter while you’re at it.Turn on the water. If you shut off the water to all your exterior water faucets in the fall, now is a great time to turn those faucets back on for the spring. Now, if you live in the far north where you’re likely to have another hard freeze before spring finally sets in, you may want to wait on this one. For those of us who already have blooming flowers and budding trees, however, it’s a lot less risky to turn them on now. If you need to bring out water hoses, pull them out of storage, too.

What other chores do you like to do when the clocks spring forward an hour? Share your suggestions in the comments.