I made mention last week that if you were running XP illegally, you could still get Windows 7 by buying Vista, then buying the Windows 7 Upgrade and the total cost would be around $138. NewEgg now offers free Windows 7 coupons with certain Vista license purchases. The cost now? $109.99. With free shipping. This is something that wasn’t available last week,...

New software from Microsoft, Hohm, is a free web-based tool that you can use calculate how to save on energy costs in your own home. Defined: Microsoft Hohm is a free web based application (running on the Windows Azure platform) that enables consumers to better understand their energy usage by utilizing advanced analytics licensed from the Lawrence Berkeley...

Microsoft has just announced some beta anti-virus/spyware/malware protection software called Microsoft Essentials. It’s free and free is good. This software is only available to people running a legal copy of Windows. This is fine. My copies of XP are all legal as is my Windows 7. After jumping thru several hoops trying to download this thing, I sign in...

What exactly does "doesn’t need a PC" mean? It means this printer doesn’t need a PC at all. It’s web-connected on its own. This is called the HP Photosmart Premium and yes, it has its own 4.33-inch touch screen. When I say it doesn’t need the PC at all, I meant it. According to this article, this will be introduced in the fall...

I don’t know how this one slipped by me, so apologies that I’m late to the party on reporting this one, but better late than never. The Xcore86 is an amazing little board because the entire computer is embedded within it. And one of the best features it’s that since it only uses 1.2 watts, it can run without fans. Even better is that a netbook...

If you have cable or satellite television, this doesn’t concern you. But if you receive television over-the-air via a DTV box, it does. Today is the day where analog television transmissions cease and they’re all supposed to be available via your DTV box now. (In case you don’t have a box, one can be purchased from your local department store...

If you hadn’t heard, Facebook will allow you to choose a username as of Saturday, June 13 at 12:01am EDT. You can read up the details at www.facebook.com/username, which OF COURSE requires a Facebook account to even see it (and that’s lame). If you can’t see it, don’t worry because you’re not missing much. It just has a countdown...

Someone was fortunate enough to recover a 300 baud modem manufactured by Livermore Data Systems, manufactured circa 1964. It is a true acoustic modem with the large transducers and all. And, the best part, it still works as the video below will show. This is as old-school as you can get concerning modems. Bear in mind this is pre-Hayes era. In the demo below,...

It’s not just a keyboard, it’s the whole computer. A keyboard with the computer built in and an 800×480 touchscreen display/trackpad on the right. I had two initial thoughts when I saw this thing on Engadget. First, there’s going to be a lot of strained necks. This is absolutely not ergo-friendly whatsoever. Cool, yes, but not...

Google claims with its Street Views that there’s absolutely nothing to worry about concerning your privacy because license plates/tags and human faces are blurred in order to protect privacy. But obviously it’s not a perfect technology and some stuff doesn’t get blurred out periodically. And some people just don’t want Street Views of...

Two quad core QX9775 processors, 800MHz FBDIMM 4GB RAM.. doesn’t sound like anything out of your grasp, right? But how about if you put in 24 SSDs totaling 6TB in a RAID setup? Yep, that’s a bit extreme. The crazy thing is that it worked. It could break a speed of 2GB per second. It could open the entire MS Office Suite – all programs –...

Flickr, the ever popular photo sharing service, has had video available for some time but only for Pro (i.e. paid) members. I’ve used it a few times and it’s pretty decent. Granted, they only allow 90-second videos, but for many people that’s just about right. Recently it was announced that anyone – including the free members – can...

Three Mac computers from Apple’s line have been refreshed recently, that being the mini, iMac and Mac Pro. Odds  are you’re probably not interested in the Mac Pro because it’s out of the range of what most people can afford these days ($2,499), however you might have been interested in the other two. The new Macs don’t bring any...

Happy Monday, everyone. If you live on the eastern part of the United States, you most likely woke up to a crapload of nature’s white goodness this morning and make have been forced to stay home from school or work. Your only thought is probably, "Oh, great. (sarcasm..) When will this be over?" Here’s a few links to help you out. If you...

Yes, this is a netbook 9-inch screen model that I’m talking about. The computer industry is hurting right now so most of the larger OEMs are slashing prices left and right and Dell is no exception. The Inspiron Mini 9 is selling well, but evidently not well enough so the price has been dropped significantly. With Ubuntu Linux installed, the price is $249....

Wireless phone chargers come in all shapes and sizes. And that’s annoying. What works for one phone probably won’t work for the other. Granted, there are many phones that can be charged via USB – but – some require "special" mini-USB chargers to be used (Motorola springs to mind) so the universal nature of USB is out the window...

I learned about Google Latitude the day it was introduced but didn’t see it as particularly a news-worthy item primarily because other companies have already done this before, that being to "see where your friends are in real time". What is news-worthy is that privacy advocates have already stated (yelled would actually be more appropriate) that...

Next month the Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds is coming. It’s a 17-inch screened, Intel Core 2 Quad’ed, 980GB hard drive’d beast. But what makes it worth $3,600? See that thing sticking out from the right? You guessed it, that’s another screen. You may asking yourself “Is that a dual-screen laptop?” You are correct. Also note the...

When someone posts on Twitter, the popular microblogging service, they are said to be "tweeting". Possibly the best tweet to date is one that came across that said, I wasbjust in a plane crash!Typo aside, yes, that really happened. I mean, seriously, how can you top that. Not possible. The rest of the story is nothing short of pure awesome. Internets...

As we come to the end of another year (and come to grips with how fast the last one went by), it is that time of year where talking heads and bloggers come out of the woodwork with their 2009 predictions. But, guess what? They’re all going to be wrong. We simply don’t know, ok? So, what I’m going to do is, BRIEFLY, throw out my own thoughts on what we...