Archive for July 2011
DEAL: Lenovo 15.6” Laptop for $329
Fry’s has the Lenovo G560 laptop for only $329 – this is the lowest price I’ve ever seen this laptop at. It comes with a dual-core Pentium cpu, 4GB of memory, 320GB hard drive, flash memory card reader, web-cam, DVD burner and numeric keypad. For email and web surfing, watching online video this is a great inexpensive laptop. Fry’s has them online and in the stores. Here’s the link to their site, you can check to see if they have it in the store close to you: http://bit.ly/TekChic0377
Ready to Jailbreak Your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch?
It’s not what is sounds like, it’s not illegal. The idea of jailbreaking your iOS device is to “free” you from the Apple “jail” where you can only install the apps that Apple lets into their App Store. There are other app stores, then best known is Cydia that you can only access if you jailbreak your device.
For example, if you want to use the 3G connection of your iPhone to provide Internet access for you laptop (called tethering) you would have to pay extra to get this feature from AT&T or Verizon. Your cell phone provider doesn’t care that you are already paying for a certain number of bits (data) each month. From your phone – data is data, but for some reason if those bits originated from a laptop connected to your iPhone, they want to charge you more. PDANet is an app you can get from Cydia that will let you connect your laptop to your phone and access the Internet. Why would you want to do that? If you travel, this is very handy. It’s also much more secure than using the free wi-fi in a Starbucks or a hotel. If you’re in sales and not always sure you’ll have Internet access at your next call, this is a handy feature.
Another app call SBSettings makes it VERY quick and easy to change common settings on your device, put it into “airplane mode”, control the brightness of your screen, turn on/off your bluetooth and wi-fi and data as you need to from a single screen.
How do you jailbreak your device, there’s a new site that makes is soooo easy. Just go to www.jailbreakme.com on your device, tap the “Free” button and then tap the “Install” button. That’s it, the site will do the rest and shortly your phone will be FREE. Your device will LOOK the same, but you’ll notice a new app for Cydia and you are now FREE! When you’re done you should then install the “PDF Patcher” that actually fixes the flaw that made it possible to jailbreak in the first place.
You can always revert back if you don’t like your device after using it with the jailbreak, just be sure to do a backup with iTunes BEFORE you jailbreak it. If you’re intrigued by the idea but not sure, then just click here for a Google search on the best reasons to jailbreak your iOS device.
This method will work if you have an iTouch 3G or newer, an iPhone 3GS or newer and iPad (both versions.) QuickPWN always has the best info on jailbreaking and go to their site to see exacty which versions of which device are ready for jailbreaking with this method (chances are you are), go to their site here and then you’ll know you’re ready: http://bit.ly/TekChic0376
DEAL: Dell 14” Laptop with Core i3 for $399
Dell has this 14” Inspiron laptop on sale for $399. It comes with Windows 7, Microsoft Office Starter Edition (basic versions of Word and Excel), 2GB of memory, 720p video resolution, a 250GB hard drive, built-in Bluetooth, DVD burner, wireless-n and webcam. I wouldn’t upgrade the memory on the web site. If you want more memory later, for $35 you can get 4GB of memory for the laptop. This is a basic laptop but if what you do is primarily surfing the web and email, then this is a capable machine at a really hard to beat price Here’s the deal on their site: http://bit.ly/TekChic0374
Before You Post on Facebook – THINK!
Recently on my personal Facebook news feed I saw that a friend of mine had “commented” on a post of one of her friends. It was an interesting comment so I followed it to her friend’s home page. While on her friend’s page, I noticed that there was a post made by on of her friends asking her to text her and she included her phone number! Now, this 2nd girl who posted her phone number actually has her security settings set fairly restrictive, as I wasn’t able to see too much on her page.
What she didn’t know is that her friend’s page (where she posted her phone number) had virtually NO security set on it – that’s how I was able to see her phone number. And if I was able to see it, then the whole world is able to see it. This girl didn’t post her area code, but she didn’t need to since her friend had ALL of her own information public, it was easy to assume they probably live in the same town, and sure enough I was right. How did I know? After a quick Google search to look up the area code for this particular town, I called her and left a message on her phone (her greeting confirmed I had the right person.) So now I know her full name, the area she lives in (if not the exact town) and her cell phone number. If I was a bad guy or some weird stalker (I guess that’s a bad guy too) then I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard with another 30 minutes of work to find out where she lives and with a little more time where she works or who she hangs out with. This isn’t information a 19-20 year old woman may want total strangers to have access to.
So what’s the point of my little story here (which is true by the way)? If you’re going to post on Facebook, ASSUME that it will be public and can be seen by anyone and everyone. Facebook is NOT the place to post ANYTHING that you would like to keep between you and your friends. You might have your security settings locked down, but it you post to a friend’s page, you don’t know what their security settings are like, and for all you know the whole world can see what you posted. In addition, even if you believe your friends have their security settings properly set, they in all likelihood are using a weak and easy to crack password – so if their account get’s hacked, everything you once thought was private is now in the hands of a bad guy, including any of your personal information you only share with “Friends”.
So THINK before posting on Facebook, or for that matter anywhere on the web. No one will protect your privacy if you don’t do it yourself.
Photo Apps for Your Phone
Taking pictures with your phone on the 4th of July can be a challenge, especially if you want to try to capture the fireworks displays, but there are apps for your Android phone or iPhone. Apps like Camera+ and ProCamera can make your iPhone both easier to use as a camera and the capabilities of a high-end digital SLR. For your Android phone
If you have an iPhone, check out ThePhotoArgus’ article on the 10 best iPhone camera apps here: http://bit.ly/TekChic0372. Android phone users can check out apps like Camera 360, Adobe Photoshop Express and AndroPan to add features and effects not possible with the software that came with your camera. Lifehacker has a review of their favorite Android camera apps at http://lifehac.kr/TekChic0373.
Most of the apps have a free version, and if you like it enough and want additional features you can upgrade to the “pro” version for a couple of dollars, so give them a try and start having more fun with the camera you have with you all the time.
Posted in Apps/Tools, Smartphones/Tablets | Tags: Android camera apps, iPhone camera apps | 
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Great Deal: 24” Viewsonic Monitor for $165
Here’s a great deal on a 24” monitor by Viewsonic. J and R Computer World has this monitor on sale for $180, but when you add the coupon code JULY4 at checkout, you save another $15 AND you get free shipping also.
It has a full HD 1920×1080 resolution with both analog and digital inputs. Here’s the link to J and R’s site: http://bit.ly/TekChic0371