A Different View of Windows 7 and a Google Chrome Tour

Windows 7 restores balance to the universe

No longer will software outpace hardware, thanks to Windows 7's respect for The Great Moore's Law Compensator. It's a term I coined more than a year ago to describe the process whereby each successive Windows release effectively gobbles up the latest gains in PC hardware performance. The net result is an environment that performs roughly on par with the one you're upgrading from.

Adding Up Six Years of Microsoft Patch Tuesdays

Six years = about 745 vulnerabilities across almost every Microsoft product. About 230, or more than half, of the bulletins addressed security vulnerabilities that were described by Microsoft as "critical."

Snow Leopard bug deletes all user data

Several posts on the Apple Support forums (1, 2) dating back to 12 September indicate that some users have been losing all their data due to a nasty bug in Snow Leopard, a.k.a. Mac OS 10.6.

RIAA and MPAA Can’t Stop BitTorrent, Study Finds

For years RIAA and MPAA members have hired companies to attack popular BitTorrent swarms in an attempt to interfere with their downloads. According to a recently published paper by New York University researchers, these attacks are highly ineffective. At best, they slow downloads for a few minutes, something most users don’t even notice.

Google Chrome Blog: A guided tour for new Google Chrome users

Did you, or someone you know, recently switch to Google Chrome and wonder, "Where's the file menu?" "What happened to the search box?" "How do I bookmark a page?" To address these initial questions and help people settle into the browser, we created the "New to Google Chrome?" guide.  Editor’s Note: I have been using Google Chrome for a few months now as a second browser and am impressed.

A Sad Story for Sidekick Cell Phone Users

Sidekick Users See Their Data Vanish Into a Cloud

A server meltdown over the weekend wiped out the master copies of personal data -- including address books, calendars, to-do lists and photos -- accumulated by users of T-Mobile's formerly popular Sidekick smartphone.

Apple versus Microsoft: The top 20 stolen ideas of the OS wars

Steve Jobs once said that Microsoft stole Windows from Apple, but both sides have snatched plenty of ideas over the years.

Hate Twitter spam? Now you can report it with one click

The head honchos at Twitter have decided to take action against the site's growing problem with spam accounts by giving users some new options to file spam reports. You'll see a new "Report as spam" link on the sidebar of each user's Twitter page, and a "Report as spam" action available from your followers and following lists.

Growth of Facebook leaves MySpace in dust

Social networking is definitely seeing a reshuffling of its top players. Facebook and Twitter are in, MySpace is out, according to Experian Hitwise.

Quicken 2010: Smoother money management?

With Quicken 2010, Intuit strives to make its classic money management application easier to navigate and simpler to understand in less time, thanks to spruced-up visuals. Although a solid balance-keeper and financial assistant, Quicken needs every boost it can get.

Patch Tuesday and Office Suite News

Monster Patch Tuesday on tap: 13 bulletins, 34 vulnerabilities

Microsoft is planning a bumper Patch Tuesday next week — 13 bulletins covering 34 security vulnerabilities in a wide range of products. Eight of the 13 bulletins will be rated “critical,” Microsoft’s highest severity rating.

Adobe exploit puts backdoor on computers

A new zero-day exploit targeting Adobe Reader, as well as 9.1.3 and earlier versions of Adobe Systems' Acrobat, drops a backdoor onto computers using JavaScript. The best solution is replace Reader with Foxit Reader.

Microsoft to put stripped-down Office on new PCs

Microsoft will abandon its Works entry-level suite and instead offer for free Office Starter 2010, which includes Word and Excel but drops PowerPoint and OneNote.

Office suites in the cloud: Microsoft Office Web Apps versus Google Docs and Zoho

A spreadsheet in your browser? A word processor on the Web? These days, SaaS (software as a service) is all the rage, and the success of Web-based upstarts like Salesforce.com has sent vendors searching for ever more categories of software to bring online. This multi-page article gives you a critical comparative look at the Big 3 on-line office suites.

What Is Twittering - Twitter Explained (Free e-book)

What is Twitter? Well, where have you been? Twitter would have to be one of the fastest growing sites on the web today. It is taking the internet by storm and there are around 10,000 new users per day signing up to articipate in this internet revolution.

Weekend Lightweight Edition

Ridiculous hardware hacks

Sometimes high-tech problems require low-tech solutions. Not all of these hacks are useful or even safe, but they all exhibit a certain creativity and can-do spirit. Funny stuff.

14 Extremely Useful Firefox Add-ons

My affinity for Firefox comes as much from the fantastic community of addon developers as it does from the program itself. Now, I'm sure you will have heard of some of these before: good Firefox addons tend to spread like wildfire. I hope I've managed to include some that you might have missed.

Ralph Lauren admits it needs Photoshop lessons

A recently produced Ralph Lauren ad seemed to feature a model who last ate in 2004 and clearly enjoyed the attention of a plastic surgeon whose diet consisted entirely of mushrooms from the magic department of his local supermarket.

How To Choose and Use Strong Passwords

The recent password compromises of Hotmail, GMail and (from other reports I've read) Yahoo! Mail make this a good time to revisit the issue of passwords.

How to Buy a Printer

The first order of business in shopping for a printer is figuring out what type of printer and what features best meet your needs. We walk you through some key questions to consider.

Microsoft Releases Security Essentials

Hello, everybody.  I’m back in Tucson after my six state adventure that lasted almost four weeks.  It was a great time with lots of new wilderness adventures, photographs and great memories.  Some of those photos will be showing up shortly on my “Postcards” blog. But, I must admit, I am delighted to be back in Tucson.

Frankly, I didn’t think about technology very much on this trip as I had no Wi-Fi access much of the time.  But, when I got back to civilization in the SF Bay Area, I found Microsoft had released its much anticipated FREE anti-malware software, appropriately named “Security Essentials.”

During its beta testing period, the software received excellent pre-release notices. The final version was much-anticipated and was released at the end of Sept. All the post-release reviews I read are also excellent and according to them, its malware detection rate during laboratory tests were terrific. 

But, the one review I really wanted to hear is from the security expert I rely on the most…Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation.  As I’ve mentioned here before, he discovered “spyware” and gave it its name. He is into computer security big time and is a fanatic on details.

Steve gave a semi-quick review on his “Security Now” podcast with Leo LaPorte (an in-depth review is coming in a few weeks). He also gave it a rave review saying it is now the one security software he now recommends. He pointed out it has a smaller footprint on your system than most other programs and uses less system resources. That is good. 

He did point out one thing that was interesting…the scan time is slower than other security packages. But, that is intentional as the method Microsoft chose to use pretty much eliminates any false-positive results that have plagued other programs. Personally I would prefer that method, even if it is slower.

I installed it on my XP laptop while on the road as I wanted to try it out right away. It’s clean and easy to install (make sure you remove your current anti-virus/spyware software first). It automatically gets the latest definitions then does a quick scan.  I did not notice the slower scan times that Steve Gibson mentioned. On my laptop, it found two Trojans that AVG missed.

Yesterday, my first day back, I installed it on Windows 7. It installed even easier than my XP laptop. The quick-scan revealed no issues, but I ran an in-depth scan overnight and it found one questionable item.  This weekend, I will install it on my desktop’s Windows XP partition.

Bottom line…I also give it a good review and it is now my security software of choice. Be sure to remove your old anti-virus/spyware software before installing Security Essentials…and be sure to run an in-depth scan ASAP (have it run overnight).

This is a major software release by Microsoft and should have other anti-virus/spyware software companies worrying about their future. Remember, it is free and is available on the Microsoft Web site.

Disk Defragmenters and Great New Hubble Photos

Editor’s Note: This will be my last blog for approximately a month as I head out tomorrow for more photographic adventures in the Arizona/Utah wilderness, eventually winding up in CA to do a close friend’s wedding.  If I can find a free Wi-Fi connection someplace, I will do a blog, if possible.  You can follow my further adventures on Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook (all jcorkrum); or on a special page on my Website. I can send updates with my Blackberry (and even some photos) when I have signal. This should be a fun trip as I am seeing mostly new territory. Take care. - JRC

Bing 2.0 could be around the corner

Microsoft is getting ready to launch the next iteration of Bing, according to some wayward tweets.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Malware

There are probably several new malware variants out per hour somewhere around the world, but only a small fraction have impact.What distinguishes the truly effective malware from the great unwashed malware masses?

Butterfly Nebula image - Photos: Hubble's newest visions of space

The Hubble Space Telescope got back to business this summer after an intensive repair and upgrade mission in May by a crew aboard the space shuttle. NASA released a series of photos that offer fresh and spectacular glimpses of the interstellar realm.

Five Best Disk Defragmenters

Your computer's a busy beaver, rapidly accessing and utilizing files all in the name of bringing you what you want, when you want it. Sometimes it needs a little help tidying up, and that's where these five disk defragmenters come in.

MaxMem 1.01 (Windows), Free Download

AnalogX MaxMem is a realtime physical memory management program that automatically ensures that you always have as much physical memory available as possible.

Find and Remove Those Duplicate Files

Google Voice and Gmail are sort of merging

Two new little Google Voice features just made their way into Gmail. A new option lets text messages sent to Google Voice show up as e-mail messages in Gmail.

Seven Easy Ways to Integrate Your Google Apps

The information you keep in Google apps like Gmail, GCal, Reader, and Voice doesn't just live in one place. Check out a few easy but non-obvious ways to plug different Google apps together and share their data and features.

Prevent keyloggers from grabbing your passwords

Strong passwords are important, but even the best password won't keep you safe from keyloggers — hardware and software that's designed to secretly record your keystrokes.

09/09/09 - The Day the Record Industry Died - Anil Dash

Today brings two announcements of great import to music fans, but they're most notable for who's not involved: The major record labels.

Auslogics Duplicate File Finder 1.5.2.55 (Free)

Most people are unaware of how many duplicate files there are cluttering their hard disks. All those songs that have been downloaded twice, holiday photos uploaded multiple times, documents copied and pasted, so that you have them in two folders at once. All that wasted disk space can be reclaimed by simply deleting duplicate files. Version 1.5.2.55 has improved Duplicate File Finder support of removable and CD disk drives.

Apple’s Big Day

Steve Jobs at the Apple Event Today.

Here is a 2.5 minute video of Steve's "surprise" appearance at the big Apple event. As you know he had a liver transplant just five months ago and this is his first public appearance since then.

Apple announces new iPod touch, nano, shuffle, classic; iTunes 9

Here is a quick rundown of all the new Apple products announced at today's big Apple Event.

Make XP and Vista boot as fast as Windows 7

Have to have at least one Windows story to offset all the Apple stuff.  After all the complaints about Vista's slow startup times, Microsoft paid attention and addressed the issue in Windows 7, which in the experience of beta testers and RTM reviewers can be faster than XP. But if you aren't ready to trade up to the new OS when it comes out next month, there are things you can do to tweak your current operating systems and make it boot faster.

First Take: iTunes 9

iTunes 9 has been cleaned up for easier navigation, redesigned with a new layout and a new black tabbed-menu system across the top of the iTunes Store interface. These new tabs replace the old left-side navigation to choose between categories like music, apps, movies, and podcasts. The layout for new content in the iTunes Store has been improved as well, with more browsable content in every category.

Apple - iTunes - Download iTunes Now

Here is where to go to download the new iTunes V.9. It is a good upgrade. I managed to get on today finally and get my copy. I think it is a definite improvement over V.8 iTunes gets a lot of flack from some folks, but frankly I have not found anything better and use it on a daily basis.

Its Patch Tuesday!

Microsoft patches gaping Windows worm holes

Microsoft today released a peck of patches to cover at least seven documented worm holes in the Windows operating system. The most serious of the vulnerabilities addresses could lead to remote code execution complete system takeover attacks.

Microsoft granted stay of Word injunction

Microsoft has been granted a stay of a landmark injunction in a patent-infringement case that would have required the software giant to stop selling Word in its current form by next month. No surprise here.

Intel's new Core i7, Core i5 desktop chips bring faster CPUs to the mainstream

Monday's announcement of Intel's new, more affordable Core i7 800 series chips, as well as an even cheaper Core i5 CPU, will likely lead to Intel's most advanced chip penetrating the mainstream retail market. Fast, overclockable, and power efficient, the new Core i7 CPU meets Intel's goal of enabling system builders to sell fast PCs at lower prices.

Yahoo intros new iPhone and BlackBerry apps | Signal Strength - CNET News

Yahoo announced three new mobile applications Tuesday as the company continues to focus more on developing specific applications for the iPhone and other select smartphones like the BlackBerry. They are not dead yet.

Wallpaper Randomizer - Free

Wallpaper Randomizer is a small system tray wallpaper changer. It lets you: see a different wallpaper whenever you start Windows; change wallpaper on regular intervals; change wallpaper using a hotkey.

It’s Freebie Friday

Paint.NET - Free Software for Digital Photo Editing

Paint.NET is an Open-Source freeware image and photo manipulation editor with all the essentials, including tools to crop, rotate, resize images, adjust colors, and create collages. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

Process Hacker: A Simple, Powerful Task Manager Replacement

Task Manager, the built-in Windows app to manage running services and applications, is good and always there when you need it, but it's missing information that could help you determine exactly what application is behind an app or service, how long the service has been running, and whether or not the app behind it has crashed.

eLibrary 2.0.1 (Windows)

eLibrary is a free electronic books library organizer. Catalog, tag and search your books database with ease.

Mahjongg Solitaire

Mahjongg Solitaire is an online fast-loading web version of the classical Chinese board game, nothing to install - just click and play. The objective is to remove all 144 tiles from the board, for each pair of tiles removed you will get two points. The rules are simple: Starting from the sides, or from the central tile at the top of the pile, remove tiles by clicking on two equal symbols. If the tiles are identical, they will disappear, and your score will rise. Removeable tiles always must be free on their left or right side. If a tile sits between two tiles on the same level, it cannot be selected. Have fun!

Find the User Manual for Almost Any Gadget at Manuals Online

With Manuals Online, you can search for the product, find a downloadable PDF of the manual you need, and store it digitally so you never have to look for it again. If you still can't find the answer, you can engage the community at Manuals Online for help with your device as well.

3D TV’s Coming to Your Home Soon?

Sony plans to put 3D televisions in homes by the end of next year

Sony's decision to throw its weight behind the technology will be an important boost for the 3D industry, which has so far focused mainly on cinemas.

Is lower power consumption Windows 7's killer feature?

It’s no secret that I’ve been left struggling to come up with a Windows 7 killer feature. I think I might have found it, and it comes in the form of lower power consumption.

Are passengers safe from terrorists?

The TSA wastes a lot of time and money on an inefficient fight against the wrong enemy

Add Sports Team Schedules, Birthday Reminders, And More To Google Calendars

Want to keep track of Yankees games, Bristol Rugby matches, or the schedule of the Taiwan Beer team (for all of you fans of the Taiwanese Super Basketball League out there)? Now you can subscribe to the schedules of your favorite professional sports teams on Google Calendar. Just click on “Add other calendars” in the left-hand column and browse “interesting calendars.”

Fun and games with Opera 10 widgets

If you've just started using Opera for the first time with the release of Opera 10 (see yesterday's blog), you're probably looking to add some widgets to your browser. But finding exactly what you need might take some time. That's why it's best to start with Opera's "Fun and Games" widgets.

IE Users Continue to Switch to Other Browsers

Internet Explorer posts largest loss since '08; Firefox, Chrome, Safari gain

Internet Explorer dropped 1.1 percentage points last month, to 66.6 percent. The slide was the browser’s steepest since last November, when it dropped by 2 percentage points, according to Net Applications.

Gmail outage caused by overloaded servers

A worldwide outage of Google's Gmail online e-mail system on Tuesday was caused by a traffic jam on its servers, according to Google's official Gmail blog. The problem was that some recent changes designed to improve traffic flow on request routers, servers designed to direct Web queries to the appropriate Gmail server, overloaded the system after workers took some Gmail servers offline to perform routine upgrades.

Sold! eBay jettisons Skype in $2 billion deal

With the sale, eBay acknowledged that things hadn't worked out as planned with Skype, which it acquired for $2.6 billion in 2005 with the plans to offer customers the ability to discuss their transactions in real time. Over the course of the four years since then, eBay found that its acquisition failed to provide what it sought.

NFL bans tweeting before, during, after games

The NFL said that it will let players, coaches, and other team personnel engage in social networking during the season. However, they will be prohibited from using Twitter and from updating profiles on Facebook and other social-networking sites during games. In addition, they will not be allowed to tweet or update social-networking profiles 90 minutes before a game and until post-game interviews are completed.

Opera 10 browser is here

If you've been keeping up with the beta updates, the final build of the cross-platform browser shouldn't surprise you. Opera Turbo, the browser's much-publicized compression engine for slow-poke connections, remains a feature highlight. Opera claims that Opera Turbo runs the browser up to eight times faster on suffering connections than do competing browsers.

Google Reader – A Second Look

A couple of weeks ago here, I did a comparison of My Yahoo vs iGoogle.  In it , I mentioned Google Reader as a place to collect various blogs and news stories that might be of interest to you.  At that time, I said why have both Google Reader and iGoogle when My Yahoo could do them both?

Well, based upon an idea I got from Leo LaPorte, I might not have given Google Reader a fair look.  So I decided to go back and look at it again…and in doing so, am now a fan and use it on a daily basis.  Let me explain.

First, I use My Yahoo to collect info on everything I am interested in…from news to the NFL, computers, TV, astronomy, tech, and much much more. It is wonderful and I still use it on a daily basis. Lots of interesting stuff to read.

But, Leo uses Google Reader to collect technology news from all over the Net and read it to prepare for his shows…all collected in one place.  Since I write a tech blog, I decided that might be smart for me to do also.

So, following Google instructions, I set up a Google Reader account and started setting up RSS feeds for sites I use.  Before long, I had a nice list of different sources to look at.  And even better, instead of just headlines like I see in My Yahoo, I got a synopsis of each story.  That makes looking for blog topics much easier.  And I am not limited to six stories at a time…no, I see all the latest stories and it keeps track of the ones I have already read.

But wait, it gets better.  Google recently added Google Bundles to Google Reader.  With Bundles, I can now look at what other people’s subscriptions and add them to my own.  So now, I have Leo LaPorte’s list as part of mine.

And it works for just about any subject or persons you are interested in.  You can search for reader lists by subject and by people.  It is quite an excellent, well rounded program…free, of course.

Summing up, I used My Yahoo for a broad look at lots of different subjects…and Google Reader for specialized RSS feeds.  Give it a try.    

Could the Internet become ObamaNet?

Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

The new version of previously introduced federal legislation would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat.

Get Windows 7 Professional Free

Microsoft is launching Windows 7 by hosting free events in major cities in the USA. Sign up for an event in a city near you, attend the event, and receive Windows 7 Professional for free.

This Twitter look-alike requires 1,400 characters

Sometimes it's hard to know why people do things. But it's easy to see why some creative minds have come up with Woofer.

Free Antivirus Software Review by PC World

You can find lots of free software made to stop worms, viruses, and other malware. We tested several such programs to find the free antivirus you can depend on.

Make Firefox Faster by Vacuuming Your Database

Firefox tip: Firefox 3.0's Awesome Bar added all kinds of features to the 'fox, but unfortunately it's also created some performance issues—for example, by upping the default history time, leading to larger, fragmented databases. This quick hack speeds things up.

Cybercrime and Laptop Searches

Editor’s Note: There was no blog yesterday because Google scanning software identified me as a possible spammer and my blog was temporarily locked out. What? Thought it was a joke at first but it was true. I immediately appealed and the lock doesn’t appear anymore on the blogger main page now, but I have not been officially notified that I am innocent. Remember friends, and indictment is not a conviction and I have spent no time in spammer jail.  Have a good weekend! - JRC

We're losing the war on cybercrime

While we chase after two-bit malicious hackers, cybercrime syndicates remain untouchable

Homeland Security says laptop border searches will continue

When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced last summer that it could seize anyone's laptop, mobile phone, or camera at the border to analyze them for an indefinite period, the criticism was immediate. Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat, called the move "alarming," and the ACLU denounced it as "surrendering your Fourth Amendment rights at the border."

Best free Online backup sites

Do you want to back up your data ? I can help you with that. if you have some important data in your computer like documents, photos, music and videos etc.. you should back up these data regularly to avoid data loss due to hardware failure and system failure.

Twitter Is the New CB Radio - John C Dvorak

How will the popular social network meet its end? We can look to the rapid rise and fall of CB radio for some clues.

Photology Freeware

Photology is a unique photo manager that allows you to quickly find images from your collections that match your criteria, without the need to add any tags or organize them into categories. Download for free.

Buying Your First Netbook Computer

 

55,000 Web sites hacked to serve up malware cocktail

Security researchers are raising an alarm for a potent malware cocktail — backdoor Trojans and password stealers — being pushed to Windows users from about 55,000 hacked Web sites.

Free Software Foundation throwing a hissy fit over Windows 7

The open source zealots over at the Free Software Foundation have left us slightly speechless over a press release dropped in our never-ending pile of random crap from around the Internet. It would appear the FSF is pulling out all the stops in their new campaign (read: crusade) entitled Windows 7 Sins.

File sharers hold vigil for Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay--the BitTorrent tracker revered by file sharers across the globe and reviled by some of the world's biggest entertainment companies--is under siege like never before.

How to Buy a Netbook

If you're not thinking about buying a Netbook, you should be—they're powerful, portable, and even more inexpensive than a year ago. Here's what you need to know before you buy.

Photology Freeware

Photology is a unique photo manager that allows you to quickly find images from your collections that match your criteria, without the need to add any tags or organize them into categories. Download for free.

U.S. Internet Speed Sucks

U.S. lags other nations in Internet speed

The average Internet download speed in the U.S. is slower than that in 27 other countries, according to a new report by the Communications Workers of America.

Google patches severe Chrome vulnerabilities

With one attack on Google's V8 JavaScript engine, malicious JavaScript on a Web site could let an attacker gain access to sensitive data or run arbitrary code on the computer. BTW: If you haven’t tried Chrome you should.  It is pretty darn fast.

Sony adds wireless e-reader as Kindle rival by Reuters

Sony Corp on Tuesday unveiled its first wireless electronic reader, a move to challenge Amazon.com Inc's momentum in the growing digital book market. At $399, the "Daily Edition," features a 7-inch touch screen, and an aluminum body, and will go on sale in December. AT&T will provide its 3G wireless Internet service. Sony previously introduced the "Pocket Edition" for $199 and the "Touch Edition" for $299

The 10 Audio Commandments

Simple rules to make your iPod, MP3s, earphones, and PC speakers work for you.

Hellcarrier - Free Game

Pilot your top class helicopter in a set of varying missions. Take out hostile forces, rescue POWs and make sure you upgrade your helicopter to stand a chance in the final fight against the terrorists.

AT&T is Going to Make Some People Angry

Report: AT&T to require smartphone data plans

AT&T customers buying or upgrading to a smartphone must subscribe to a data plan starting September 6, according to reports. Most who buy a smartphone do subscribe, but now you have no choice.

Wal-Mart recalls fiery DVD players

If you have a Durabran DVD player, you should get a fire extinguisher--or head to your local Wal-Mart and return it for a full refund.

OS X: Apple to Set Snow Leopard Loose Friday

Though Apple said at its WWDC conference in June that its next operating system upgrade to OS X, called "Snow Leopard", would come around in September, it looks as though Cupertino's set to spring the software a little early. By pouncing on the market sooner rather than later, Apple could catch extra back-to-school sales and get a leg up on Microsoft, which is set to launch Windows 7 in October.

Twitter getting location data

Biz Stone from Twitter has announced that the service will soon get a new feature in its API: the capability to optionally put geolocation data into tweets. Currently, geo-focused apps like Foursquare must hack location data into updates by linking them to Web pages. Once Twitter lets developers embed geo into tweets themselves, a new and interesting world for developers will likely open up.

Hands On: Windows Live Movie Maker

Microsoft's entry-level consumer video editing software, Windows Live Movie Maker, finally exited beta today. Here's a look at what you can expect from this powerful free download.

Microsoft Making More Customers Angry

Xbox 360 failure rate is 54.2 percent

If this is true, Microsoft has some explaining yet to do. Actually, I'm surprised it's not higher.

Microsoft Hotmail users angry over pulled photo feature

Windows Live Hotmail users have been venting their frustration at Microsoft for the past month since the software maker suddenly removed a popular feature because it created a security hole. The "Attach Photo" feature allowed users to directly add photos, images or graphics into e-mails. Users are allowed to quickly edit and add captions to the photos, which are automatically compressed by Hotmail, enabling users to attach more images per e-mail.

Price drops in ultrathin laptops may squeeze netbooks

The dominance of low-cost netbooks could be threatened by an emerging category of ultrathin laptops, which could compete on features and price, analysts said. Ultrathin laptops are a new category of lightweight laptops that are as portable as netbooks and provide adequate performance to run most applications such as high-definition multimedia or casual gaming.

Google Wave (Developer Preview) - At A Glance - Reviews by PC Magazine

Perhaps one of the most talked about web apps/services in years, Google Wave could be the most innovative communication and collaboration tool we've ever seen. Or it could all be one big crazy mess. PCMag took it for a test drive and has some answers.

TweakNow PowerPack 2009 - Free

TweakNow PowerPack is a fully-integrated suite of utilities that let you fine-tune every aspect of your computer's operating system and Web browser. The Registry Cleaner module provides you with a safe and simple way to clean Windows Registry. To keep your computer always at top performance, we recommend to clean your registry at least once a month. For Windows tweaking lovers, the suite provides more than 100 hidden Windows settings in the Windows Secret section.

A Cornucopia of Tech News

Symantec identifies 'Dirtiest Web Sites of Summer'

Symantec is out with its "Dirtiest Web Sites of Summer 2009," which it's calling "the worst of the worst" when it comes to malware threats. The security vendor says that "48 percent of the Dirtiest Web Sites are, well, dirty--sites that feature adult content." That means that more than half the sites cover a wide range of other categories including legal services, catering, figure skating, and electronics shopping, according to the report.

Use any version of Windows 7 free for 120 days

There's an easy way to stretch Windows 7's 30-day free-trial period to 120 days so you can determine whether Microsoft's new operating system meets your needs.

Vonage makes free international calls standard

Vonage will include unlimited calls to more than 60 countries in a new standard plan that costs $25 per month, replacing a plan of the same price that included unlimited calls to just six countries.

How to Buy an MP3 Player

Which MP3 player is the best to handle the soundtrack of your life? Here's how to find the perfect portable audio device at the right price.

Tabbloid makes printable PDFs from your RSS subscriptions

HP has a site called Tabbloid that will allow you to enter RSS feeds for sites you'd like to follow, and it will automatically format and send you PDF files on a schedule populated with the contents of the feeds you entered.