Why am I writing this series of articles?  Well, due to an article I wrote a couple of weeks ago and the number of emails I received about it would be my reason.  The article, “More Android Apps” covered where to get some of the best, latest and also worst applications around for your Android devices.

From the emails I received questioning me about what I had on my tablet (Toshiba Thrive) here is my personal list of Thrive apps that I am currently running, with links to each app.  I will not discuss what each app does here because you can easily click them and read all you want on the Android Market.

I am breaking them down how I have them grouped using the first app I will mention, ADW Launcher EX.  The list right now if from my “Reading Folder”.

• B&N Nook
• Barcode Scanner
• Bible
• Evernote
• Facebook
• Fox News
• Moon+ Reader Pro
• Office Talk Free
• OfficeSuite Pro
• Google Reader
• Sportacular
• StumbleUpon
• USA Today
• Wikipedia
• WordPress

More next timer about my, “Media Folder”.

Tags: android, barcode, barcode scanner, bible, books, e-reader, ereader, Evernote, facebook, Fox, fox news, google, launcher, moon, news, nook, office, pro, Sportacular, toshiba, WordPress, yahoo

Take a look at the Spam Test provided by OpenDNS.  See if you can pass by identify real websites compared to spammed sites.

I missed one and I have excuses but see how well you can do and post it here.

http://www.opendns.com/phishing-quiz/

Tags: opendns, phish, phishing, spam, spammed, spammers, test

On my Gmail page I first noticed the Scroll Bars on the left (in yellow, shown at bottom of page).  With this feature you don’t have to check which labels you want to see, you have all of them with a simple scroll up or down.  Neat addition.  These are now defaults so if you don’t like them (I can’t imagine why) you cannot set them back to the old GUI.

Another new default change with Gmail. Notice when you scroll down an email page, especially with Vertical/Horizontal view off, the command/control bar scrolls with your view so they are available anywhere while viewing your email. Another great long overdue innovation again by Google.

Next, you can now show your emails to the right of the selected email (Vertical) or below it (Horizontal).  However, unlike the scroll bars this must be added through the Labs part of Gmail. To add this feature:

1. Click the gear in the upper right of the window.
2. Choose Mail Settings.
3. Next, Labs.
4. In the search box type Preview Pane.
5. Enable it.
6. Save Changes.
7. You are done.

Back in Gmail it will be set up Vertically like mine below and sorry for the blurring but hey, its my stuff.

To change it to Horizontal click the down arrow above your email and to the right (orange arrow in graphic) and choose the way you want to view your email.  You can also reset it to the old way by clicking the button or using the arrow again.  Now when you click an email from the list it will open where you want it.

Have fun and thanks Google!

Tags: cloud, Email, free apps, Gmail, gmail settings, google, horizontal view, innovation, labels, online email, personal, preview pane, scroll bars, search box

This is something that bothered me, ever so slightly for a while, but still I wanted to find a “fix” to, so today here it is.  I have successfully tested this with Windows Vista and 7.

Here is what your explorer view looks like with the default settings.

To display drive-letters first, followed by the drive description, use these steps.

You will need to “perform” a REGEDIT on your system.  If you are not familiar with a Regedit be careful!  If done wrong it could be detrimental to the life of your computer.  Read here if you want more info about Regedits from Microsoft.

1. On your computer
2. First click the Start button
3. Type Regedit.
4. Navigate to the following location
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
5. If it doesn’t already exist, create a REG_DWORD value named ShowDriveLettersFirst.  If it does exist just double click it and go to the next step.
   1. Double-click ShowDriveLettersFirst and set its Value data to 4
   2. See the screenshot below to see what it should look like

Close the Registry Editor by clicking the “X” in the upper right corner.  Whatever you have entered will be automatically saved.

Next, open “My Computer” to see your drives.  If they do not show the letter in front of the name of the drive press the “F5” key to refresh the window and there you go.

If it doesn’t work you mistyped something of didn’t follow the directions correctly.  And DO NOT email me as you were warned earlier (above in red) that you could hose your system with Regedit.

Here are the other possible edits for ShowDriveLettersFirst registry value.

Good luck and let me know it worked for you.

Tags: Double Click, Drive letters, dword value, ff0000, machine software, microsoft windows, order, png, reg dword, regedit, support microsoft, vista, windows 7

If you know me or read my articles and columns you know that I am a Google Lover and so I have to share another one with you.

Read their blog but basically now Microsoft Office (at least Word, Excel and PowerPoint) all work in conjunction with Google Docs.  You can create, store, edit and share them all on Google Docs directly from inside the MS apps.

Give it a try.  I have and so far it has worked great, if that opinion changes either the good or the bad I will let you know here.

Tags: blog spot, cloud, Cloud Connect, computing, docs, google, google.com, googledocs, launch, microsoft, microsoft html, microsoft office, ms apps

I say, “Not”!  And this article from TechRepublic writer, Debra Littlejohn Shinder gives my reasoning exactly.  I am especially in agreement with the even numbered items in the list.

I would add an 11th reason to the mix and that is I never want the first version of anything.  That includes tech stuff, cars, phones, etc.

The engineers and developers never consider every option and everything you and I can do with the device.  I have found that the 1st of anything is usually the poorest of the versions with more issues.

I would like to add that even though I have been reading the TechRepublic site for years to great techie benefit, I will have one of my articles appearing there within the next month or so.  It does require a membership to read all of the information and articles there.  However, it is free and I have never gotten spammed from them.

They send me updates on the specific parts of the site that I want to receive them for.

Tags: Apple, computer, desktop, iPad, iPod, Mac, not ready for prime time, storage, zune