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

Thank you for all of the emails over the last couple of weeks regarding the past year in review.  Keep in mind you can find all the articles online at DNRonline.com and my site, DoubleClicks.info if you want to catch up.

Many emails asked about the Android Market link (market.android.com).  Before starting you should note that I work for Ntelos Communications, Waynesboro, VA, USA (that should make disclosure folks happy).  I have used Windows, Blackberry, iPhone (not as much) and now Android phones.  Android phones are currently my preferred flavor.  Keep in mind Android is the name of the operating system (created by Google) not the actual phone manufacturer, etc.  Again, that is opinion and I am sure there are a bazillion people out there who would argue with that statement.  But, I write the column…

The above mentioned site is the default Google site for apps available for this type of phone.  You can get free apps and some that can cost from less that one dollar to several dollars.  Of course, there are also free apps which are missing the enhanced features you pay for if you get the "Pro" version.  For instance, a game may have two adventure levels for free but if you purchase it you will get all 30 game levels.  There are games, business, utilities, entertainment, education and any other type of applications/programs you can imagine.

According to Distimo (bit.ly/ygIsBD), a company that watches of the stats of mobile apps, as of December, 2011, there were 400,000 Android apps in the marketplace.  Of those applications over 270,000 were free. 

In addition to the Android Market there are many other places to get apps.  You can search for apps online or go to specific sites.  Here are the other two sites I frequent. 

My number two favorite after the default market is the Amazon "Appstore for Android" (amzn.to/x2w2F5).  Many of the apps in the market at Amazon and everywhere else are repeated in each site online; however, prices may vary and some are only available at specific sites. 

Why is Amazon my #2?  If you log into the Amazon site you can get one free app every day.  I check the site most every day and have 250+ apps; however, I have only installed about ten of them.  I have the rest in reserve for future use, testing or forgetting about them.  If you buy one (for $0) you do not have to install it on your phone or tablet at that time; or ever.  Some of them are junk but some of them are excellent.  One that currently costs $9.99, "OfficeSuite Pro 5" I got free several months ago.  This application is basically an office program that will allow you to view, create and edit Microsoft Office files, i.e., Word, Excel and PowerPoint files with your smartphone. 

The final site I like is called 101 Best Android Apps (101bestandroidapps.com).  This is where new apps are released by developers before they are officially approved by Google for the Android Market. 

Wikipedia says that the approval process for apps is that Google, "…places some restrictions on the types of apps that can be published, in particular not allowing ‘sexually explicit material’, ‘Violence and Bullying’, ‘Hate Speech’, ‘Impersonation or Deceptive Behavior’, copyrighted material (without permission)…"

The 101 Best Android Apps site mentioned above allows many of the unapproved ones to be downloaded to your phone as an .apk file (similar to .exe for Windows).  Warning, be very careful when loading an .apk file as it could contain harmful code…check out the reputation of the developer first! 

Tags: android, apps, Blackberry, disclosure, free apps, google, iphone, microsoft, operating system, phone manufacturer, preferred flavor, smartphone, windows, year in review

As I stated last week, I annually provide links to all of the sites we have visited throughout the previous year at DoubleClicks.info.

Remember, if the site addresses are too long to type I have shortened them with bit.ly.  Here they are in their order of appearance with short descriptions of each.

• Ccleaner use this application to keep your computer clean and running more smoothly.
• Barnes and Noble the book store for paperbacks, hardbacks, Nooks, e-books and e-magazine plus. 
• RocketDock an attractive and fun program launcher for Windows.
• DropBox free cloud storage with auto-syncing, for your files and yes, use this link and I get some extra space, thanks in advance!
• Windows Live cloud storage, email and many more applications for your online use.
• e-Sword downloadable Bible for study, reading with commentaries and much more.
• YouVersion an app that allows you to read, search and study the Bible via your smart phone or online.
• Stumble Upon shows you categories you are interested in and gives you new sites every time you log on to read and learn about.
• About.com use this site (among many others) to verify the truth about the Nigerian prince who needs your help and many other online scams.
• Calorie King go to this site and find out more than you may have wanted to know about all the food you eat…including fast foods.
• Endomondo Sports Tracker this is installed on your smartphone and then you can track many "workout" things such as your average speed, altitude, length of workout, distance, and other related numbers. Use it with Google maps and see the path you have taken.
• Fix My Phone check out one way you may be able to resuscitate your drowned cell/smartphone. 
• Craigslist a site for buying or selling things online; however, I am not at all fond of it. Read the original article at DoubleClicks.info and see why.
• Help, I’ve Been Scammed check out why I am not fond of Craigslist.
• WorldLingo Service free professional language translation online. They work in conjunction with Microsoft Office translations.
• Toshiba Thrive in my opinion the best tablet C currently on the market…yes, including the fruit pads.
• Netflix watch many movie and TV shows online. You can also order DVDs but you already knew this didn’t you?
• Swype a smartphone and tablet PC typing program.
• Skype allows you to call phones and other computers via the internet with the capability to have video along with your audio.  It is a free computer-computer and smartphone-smartphone service but for phone calls check out the rules on their site.
• Android Market one of the several software sites for your Android phone.
• Twitter.com, Facebook.com you already know what these are and if not, do not be concerned Google for them and read forever.    B-}
• Connectify lets you set up your own Wi-Fi Hotspot.
• PC Decrapifier will scan your system and suggest software you can remove which you most likely do not need. 
• Ninite is where you can pick most of your favorite applications that you want installed on any computer you own.  Download a file to run on a computer and it will add those programs you picked. Quick and easy installs.

Please do not forget to go to DoubleClicks.info (oh, wait you are reading this here already) for the complete stories, along with many others.  This week and last only contained links I used during last year.  There are many other articles on the site and at DNROnline.com that had no links but some great information.

That’s all for 2011!  I look forward to seeing you in the paper and online in 2012.

Tags: average speed, barnes and noble, bible study, calorie king, commentaries, ebooks, emagazine, free cloud, fun program, google, google maps, nigerian prince, nook, original article, program launcher, reading, smart phone, smartphone, study, stumble upon

Here you go, the news, links and sites we mentioned today on the show.  And don’t forget you can listen to the podcast of the show here.

Have a great month and I hope you hear from me then!

Ron

Let Me Google That For You
http://lmgtfy.com/
People ask you a question about something that you know would be easy to Google; just send them a link from this site.

Type in the search and it creates a link you can email them and then they just click it and get the search.

Try these –> http://tinyurl.com/3jg5b8r and http://tinyurl.com/3okt63q 

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Who Calls Me?
http://whocallsme.com/
This is a user supplied database of phone numbers of telemarketers, non-profit organizations, charities, political surveyors, SCAM artists, and other companies that don’t leave messages, disconnect once you answer, and simply interrupt your day.

If you received a strange call, unwanted SMS message, or just came across a number you don’t recognize and want more information about, most likely you are not the only one. Search for this phone number to see the reports of others. If there are no reports yet, leave your comment to start a conversation.

If the number you searched for isn’t in their database, you can add it to the list and see if someone else knows about it. Other users will post to your listing over time.

Also, they have a look up on the site where you can pay to find more information on many numbers.

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Facecrooks
http://facecrooks.com
A site that lists many of the Facebook scams running around from time-to-time. Also, a blog about them with some "Funny Pages" thrown in for fun.

It actually appears as though it could be a quite beneficial site over time.

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Have a great month and I will be talking to you next month on November 21, 2011 from 10am to 11am.

Tags: car maker, car technology, cell phone, cnn, facebook, find on google, ford, ford vehicles, foxnews, google, hands off the wheel, innovative projects, November, phone numbers, scams, sergey brin, technology innovations, texting, wrong number

I was talking to my friend and realtor, Chris Rooker of Kline May Realty, about security of documents in the "Cloud".  I presented him with a thought that I voice often and that is, at this point in time, I do not put anything confidential online; including in my emails and online storage.  Never do I have my social security number, debit card number, bank usernames or passwords online anywhere.

A very basic definition of the cloud is (when talking computers and technology) the place where companies deliver many services online..  In other words the service is on a server somewhere in cyberspace and not on your local hard drive.  You can access these services from your computer. 

Some of the services include fully developed applications like Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo mail and even fun things like Pandora.  There are also many cloud storage services, for instance, DropBox (my favorite http://bit.ly/use-DropBox), Windows Life Mesh, Amazon S3, etc. 

There are a tremendous number of cloud services to choose from.  The list grows daily – probably by the minute.  Some of these services are free while others are not.  

One concern I have is where your information stored. I mean where geographically, as in what country?  What if your important data is stored on a junk (not one of the best available) server somewhere in a war-torn country where the costs are much less expensive?  Then what if that country has a military coup or is destroyed by some other country?  How do you get your data and/or what are the new guys doing with your information?

Next, what if the company that has your information goes bankrupt or is sold to someone else?  You would hope that proper provision has been made for continuous service, but what if it hasn’t?

Here is one last thought for you to lay awake at night and consider.  Where is one of the weakest links in any security?  It would be people, plain and simple.  More than likely your password is safe and won’t be compromised by people in the company servicing your online data but that isn’t my people concern.  Think about the "uncrackable safe" scenario for a bank.  Banks want to advertise their vault as one that no one, not even the locksmith can get into.  This gives their customers a great feeling of security.  But think about this…if even a locksmith can’t get into it, what happens during an emergency or some foul-up?   How can they get their money out?   It could be locked up forever.  So there has to be someone with the ability to get into that safe through a "back door".

The same thing is true for cloud storage.  Even though it may be ultimately and inscrutably secure, someone has to be able to get to the data on the servers in case of an emergency. This could quite possibly be their most dissatisfied and disgruntled employee.  Think about that for a minute.

Tags: amazon, cloud, cloud security, cyberspace, fun things, google, hotmail, mail, mesh, microsoft office, military coup, pandora, point in time, realtor, security, social security number, ssn, storage services, talking computers, usernames

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

Here are the sites/news mentioned this morning on the show.  As always your comments are appreciated.See you next month! Ron Tech NewsLulzSec Hackers Gone, but not without a parting shot Jim and Ron’s discussion, Last month we talked about them hitting the Senate, game and FBI sites…this month they are gone."A LulzSec member told the Associated Press that the group was “bored” and denied that it was stopping its public attacks because of pressure from law enforcement. He did, however, say that some of the chat logs and information about hackers’ identities was correct." They did pop data into the world at the end which included documents from the game Battlefield Heroes, plus internal documents from AOL and AT&T. According to the Next Web site, the release also has evidence that the group hacked the U.S. Navy, the NATO online bookshop and the FBI’s Web site. The files also include a hodgepodge of corporate and other IP addresses, usernames, passwords and other log-ins from Hackforums.net and other, unnamed sites. Google’s self-driving car gets a green light from Nevada The New York Times did some digging last month and discovered that the company had been lobbying the Nevada state legislature to allow for autonomous cars to be driven on public streets. The proposal was slated to be introduced as two separate bills that would not only make them street legal, but also exempt the vehicles from a law prohibiting texting while driving.Nevada passed a bill for the Department of Motor Vehicles to create guidelines for “autonomous vehicles” that rely on artificial intelligence to get around on state roads. Come March of next year, state officials will start to iron out car certification standards, insurance requirements and other regulations for robotic cars. Nevada’s Department of Motor Vehicles will also determine which areas the cars can be driven. It most likely will not occur next year or so, but not far off. Airline Pilots Ditch Paper for iPads and Save Millions in Fuel Doling out gadgets may seem more like a recruiting perk than a sustainability decision, but pilots have to carry up to 35 pounds of paper with them in the cockpit on each flight. Swapping out those manuals, maps, and other documents to lighten the load could add up to $1.2 million in fuel savings, according to American Airlines. So far American Airlines and Alaska Airlines are the only ones doing this. Ron’s current favorite game – 8 Ball Pool Multiplayer  http://www.miniclip.com/games/8-ball-pool-multiplayer/en/ The name says it all. You can compete against real-living-breathing humans online. You play one game or join different tournament. It has fairly accurate play and no one can scream at you, etc. You can only respond with safe messages to each other, i.e. Nice shot, Well played, Oops, Good Game, etc. And beside all of that it is just fun! Text4Baby http://text4baby.org Get FREE messages each week on your cell phone to help you through your pregnancy and your baby’s first year.Text4baby is an educational program of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition. Microsoft Fix It http://support.microsoft.com/fixit/ Sometimes something just doesn’t work correctly on your MS computer. MS Fix it will help you find many issues and then offer a fix for them. I ran a couple of them and they don’t install anything on your system so when you are done just delete the original file you downloaded.

Tags: airline, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, autonomous vehicles, babies, driving car, fbi, fix it, games, google, Google cars, hackers, hacking, help, hodgepodge, internal documents, iPad, Jim Britt, microsoft, mulitplayer, nato, navy, nevada state legislature, online, online bookshop, parting shot, pilot, pool, pregnant, sites news, u s navy

Listen to the podcast online if you weren’t able to listen live this morning.

1)  Soluto http://soluto.com
Frustrated by your sluggish and unresponsive PC?

Soluto is bringing an end to PC user frustration with transparency, killer technology, and your help.

Find things that slow your system down from the minute you start it up until it is ready to run.  Many of the applications that start with your computer really are not needed until you need them. 

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I also spoke off the air to someone who wanted free/inexpensive anti-virus software.  As always I recommended Microsoft’s Security Essentials…which as you know if you have listened to the show before, is free.

Have a great month and I will be on WSVA (550 AM) next month, Monday, July 18, 2011.

Tags: background color, bottom color, computer network, configuration data, fbi, first impression, forbes, google, hacker group, hacking group, infragard, internal configuration, lulz, outset, padding, porn site, senate website, target, top style, u s senate

I have spent a couple of weeks testing out Motorola’s entrance into the Tablet PC market with the “Xoom”.  I have to say that I am impressed.  These are slick devices.  If you are looking into the tablets, this could well be the one to get.

First of all it uses the Android (created by Google) operating system.  As an Android phone owner I am already partial to that particular system so that works for me.  It is using the latest Android system named “Honeycomb”.  With Google’s strange sense of humor they name all of the Android systems after desserts.  As an aside, they name them in alphabetical order with Cupcake (their first) followed by Donut, Eclair, FroYo (stands for Frozen Yogurt), Gingerbread and Honeycomb which is the most recent version.  “A” and “B” were prototypes which were never released.  Next comes either, “Ice Cream” or “Ice Cream Sandwich” depending on what you read.   

First off the battery life is excellent.  My own experiment took place like this.  I ran it for about three solid hours.  Then I handed it off to a friend.  He played, “Angry Birds Rio” for over six hours.  That was pretty good in my opinion.  I then took it back and messed with it for another hour or so.  Final battery charge remaining was over 50%.  That is a good battery life as far as today’s standards go.

The 10.1 inch screen is very clear and sharp, which is another good thing.  With its 1280 x 800 pixel resolution you can see most websites at full size.  It weighs about 1.5 pounds which is very easy to handle when surfing and reading books.  Yes, it is very similar to an ebook reader only it has many more capabilities. My biggest complaint is since it has a slick, shiny surface, like all tablets so far, the finger prints need to be cleaned off pretty regularly…and I believe I have fairly clean fingers.

The new Honeycomb OS is good; however, I needed some time to get used to it.  I am already using the latest OS, Gingerbread on my phone so it was familiar to me.

It is set up with two cameras.  “Two cameras?” you may ask.  Yes, one of the front for taking still pictures and videos and one on the other side, or “input” screen, to take videos of my “mug” when chatting with someone on Skype.   There are many programs available for the Xoom with more on the way.  They run the gamut from business to games, so you can get most anything you may be interested in.

Would I like to own a Motorola Xoom?  You betcha!  But for now I will wait.  The reason I will wait is that I spend much of my online time writing.  While online, I do a lot of typing.  The Xoom does have a keyboard that pops up when needed but you basically need to type with two fingers.  Since I type a lot, I type fast and it limits me.  Will I seriously consider buying one when they get a program working on it allowing faster typing…you betcha!

Tags: battery life, desserts, froyo, gingerbread, google, iPad, kindle, nook, operating system, prototypes, sense of humor, strange sense, tablet, tablet PC, xoom

So you have just gotten your brand new Windows computer and want to clean up your old one and give it away.  That is a nice thing to do for someone who may need a computer but isn’t able to afford a new one.  But you are concerned about your personal information on that old computer.

Not that the new owner would actually look for your bank account numbers, but…  Then you think about other information on your hard drive like social security numbers, usernames, passwords, etc.  You still want to be smart in protecting your private information.

There are a couple of options.  You could just give the computer away and tell the new owner to stay away from your personal "stuff."  Not smart.

Next, you could select all of your personal information and delete the files.  Hopefully you have placed all of your documents in your "My Documents" folder so you don’t miss any of them.  Oh wait, what about your usernames and passwords recorded in your browser?  Yes, you could also clear your browser’s cache to resolve that but have you missed anything?  Also, not smart.

Some of you more "techie" readers may think, "Well, I will just reformat the hard drive to wipe everything or maybe fdisk it."  Yes, fdisk is a real geek word; check it online if you wish.  Nope, both of those will leave most of your data in a recoverable condition so for someone a little "techier" than you it would not present a problem.

What are you to do?

I suggest people use a program like "Active @ Kill Disk".  KillDisk is free, powerful, easy to use software that allows you to completely destroy all data on your hard drive.  The free version is good and will take care of most of your worries.  That is unless you are going up against an IT person.  The free version thoroughly deletes all of the data on the drive.

That sounds good; however, if the information wasn’t destroyed and written over by other data it could be "undeleted" by professionals.  There is a pro version of KillDisk which offers many other options.  It will allow the data to be deleted multiple times, i.e. rearrange the ones and zeros many times and writing "junk" data over it.  If a deleted file has other files written over it numerous times it makes it much harder if not impossible to recover.  You can even tell it to rewrite over the old drive up to 99 times to secure the deletions.  The US government suggests seven overwrites is sufficient and the world authorities say that 35 times makes it impossible to retrieve, so 99 should be sufficient.

The program will run from a thumb drive or a CD.  Since you will be deleting everything on your hard drive it cannot run from your computer.  There is a "wipe" portion of the program which will totally destroy all of the deleted files on your computer and leave the rest of the data alone.  You can run that portion from your hard drive.

The pro version of KillDisk costs about $50.  If you don’t want any secret government organizations to retrieve your personal information it may well be worth the price.

This eliminates any possibility of future retrieval of deleted files by anyone else.

Tags: active killdisk, bank account numbers, clean, clear, defragment, delete, destroy, documents folder, fdisk, google, hard drive, nice thing, old computer, personal stuff, slick, social security numbers, totally, usernames and passwords, usernames passwords, windows computer, wipe, word check