There is a common stereotype that techie types are not romantic, especially in the gift department. While this is rooted in a lot of truth, it doesn’t have to be so. Follow these simple recommendations and you are Guaranteed to Get You Some High-Tech Lovin’.

Ratings System

Good vs. Bad Partner Scale = You are a thoughtless cad who will be roundly criticized at your partner’s work tomorrow. = Typical lame thoughtless partner. Nobody will remember your “effort”. = You’re a hero. You will be talked about at your partner’s work tomorrow. = You’ll be calling in sore sick tomorrow.

NOTE: For the sake of simplicity, I will use the term “partner” for Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Husband, Wife, Life Partner, etc. Please substitute your title where appropriate.

Separating the Romeos from the Rejects

The little touches are what sets you apart. For starters, if their present has batteries, open it and charge them. If it uses memory, buy it and put it in the device. If the device stores personal information, load in some of their data/files. If there is a complicated set up process, do it for them. This is why their with you. You’re their personal I.T. department.
Think back to being a child and getting an awesome toy. Then, you had to wait for your parents to get around to setting it up for you. That just ruined it. Well imagine if you opened your gift, took it out and started playing with it on the spot. Now that’s what I’m talking about!

Without Further Ado, Let’s Bring on the Gifts

iPhone – Ah the Cadillac of gadget gifts. ($200) This is a slam dunk, right? Not so fast Romeo. Here’s how it breaks down:
Get your own iPhone and show it to your partner over pizza dinner. Don’t forget to taunt their ugly old phone.
Get a gift certificate for an iPhone and don’t include a sincere and touching personal note in the card.
Buy them an iPhone, then, get it engraved with something sweet, funny, romantic, or sexy. Last I checked, engraving is still free.
Buy them an iPhone and do the following:

1. Unwrap it and Charge it (Nobody wants to take out their new toy and wait four hours for it to charge.)
2. Load in all of their phone numbers and addresses (You’ll have to go into stealth mode for this, but that’s what makes it so romantic.)
3. Make the home screen a romantic picture of the two of you
4. Have it set to play their favorite song when they turn it on

Let the geek lovin’ begin!

iPod Touch

Get them an off-brand “iPod killer” that they’ve never heard of, forcing them return it in a week when they realize that it sucks.
Give them an iPod still in the box and make them struggle through the setup process alone. Oooooh, sexy.
Unwrap it and Charge it – Load in a bunch of their favorite songs and make a playlist – Another nice idea is to make a few “themed” playlists like Work Out, Party, Sexy, you get the idea. Combine the previous step with this:

1. Take and load pictures of you holding up hand written signs with romantic notes on them
2. Load in a bunch of pictures of the two of you and anything else sentimental
3. Now, here’s the clincher: Have it set to play their playlist and slide show when they turn it on

You’re not getting any sleep tonight.

Nintendo Wii ($400 +/-)
Tell them that you can’t go out for Valentine’s Day because you’re going to a Lan Party at your friends house.
Buy them a Nintendo Wii. It’s good, but on its own, still just a video game.
Set up the Wii by building your partner’s Mii to look just like them. Buy them a game that matches something unique about their personality. Write the connection in your card.
Make them play the game with you and let them win, especially if they’re the world’s worst gamer. Then tell them that they won the rights to their “itinerary” for the rest of the night.

Easy to Use Digital Camera ($150 – $300)
Take a picture of them on Valetine’s Day morning (preshower) and put it on their MySpace page.
Buy them a new camera, unwrap and Charge it, Put in the Memory, Learn how to use some of the key features.
Then, keep it in your pocket so that you can take a picture of them unwrapping the empty box. Now, that magical moment is captured forever. (Use it against them the next time they say that you’re not romantic.)
Combine with the previous step: Take and load pictures of you holding up hand written signs with romantic notes on them.

*Nice extra touch*
Get them a Flickr or even a Flickr Pro account and set up everything on their computer so that they can instantly start loading up their pictures. ($25)

Digital Picture Frame to show off their favorite pictures ($50 – $150)
Give them a plain old picture frame with the picture from the store.
Buy them a digital picture frame that neither of you can figure out how to use.
Buy them a cool picture frame, put in the Memory, Learn how to use some of the key features.
Then, keep it in your pocket so that you can take a picture of them unwrapping the empty box. Now, that magical moment is captured forever. (Use it against them the next time they say that you’re not romantic.)
Combine with the previous step: Take and load pictures of you holding up hand written signs with romantic notes on them

Make a Romantic Memories Calendar ($25)
Tell them that the time that you have spent together feels like it has aged you in dog years.
Buy them one of those calendars from the middle of the mall with something that they like (Dogs, Cats, mountains, etc.) Boring!
Make them a calendar with pictures of yourselves, your friends, and families.
Make them a calendar at XXXXX using photos of things that you did together. Put the pictures on the month that they occurred. Then, write a hand written memo on days in each month with things that you did together on those days. Don’t forget to add the years in. Now, your partner will have a year’s worth of memories to revisit. Yes, this is a ton of work, but that’s the whole point. I did this for my wife for our first anniversary (paper) and she loved it.
Cost – $25.00
Time – 18 hours
Value – Priceless

Exernal USB Hard Drive $100 – $200

Install Linux on their machine and format their whole drive, because Linux is way better than Windows.
Buy them a backup drive and tell them that they should backup once a week. Then, don’t help them do it.
Set up the drive on their computer. You’re not done yet. Now, set up a dead-simple backup program to protect their valuable data.
Pretend that you didn’t find all of their porn while you were poking around.

Tickets to an Event that THEY Would Like (The sky is the limit)
Tell your partner that you’re going to see your college basketball team play on Valentine’s Day. (And they like the ballet.)
Take them to dinner and a movie.
Buy tickets to an event that they like and you typically don’t. Then, go with them. Do your homework before the event. If it’s a play, then find out what the play is about and read some reviews of the play. Then, on the way to the play talk about why you’re excited to go. It’s a great feeling when your partner gets excited about your stuff. Tell them how much you enjoyed sharing it with them.
Get some screen savers, ring tones, or what ever for their phone. Score some limited access perks for the event. You know, backstage passes, a meet and greet with key people, get their name put on the scoreboard – anything that gives them an “it’s all about me” moment.

What, You don’t think I have any low priced ideas on this list? Cheap Bastards need lovin’ too!

Get them their favorite books ($10 and up)
Tell them that, “Reading books is stupid, because they’ll just make it into a movie any way.”
Buy them a subscription to the Book of the Month club.
Buy them a book on a topic of interest (Sports, Poetry, Theater, History, whatever). If you can find some way to get it signed, that’s a huge bonus. If not, write a personal note in the inside cover. Give them a gift certificate for one undisturbed hour a night for the next two weeks to let them read it.
Tell them that you are going to read the book when they’re finished and discuss it with them. Then, actually do it. Pays off now, Pays off later. That’s two for the price of one.

E-Book reader and load it with a few books. $400

Have a Romantic Movie Night

Make them watch your Pulp Fiction DVD after dinner on Valentine’s Day.
Get them a Netflix account.
Buy them a few of their favorite movies, or movies that they have been dying to see.
Get movies that you would never go to with them and make a special date to watch them together. Don’t complain, and try to actually enjoy the show. Then, you can discuss it with them afterwards. Believe me.

Geeky T-Shirts ($15 – $25) ThinkGeek and Jinx.com both have a huge selection of great T-shirts for geeks and their lovers Use their favorite T-shirt to clean up a sloppy mess that you made. Buy them a T-shirt for their favorite band, team, school, etc. Get them an I heart My Geek shirt and tell them that you love them for putting up with all of your techno-obsessive flights of fancy. Give them the shirt wrapped around you. No other clothing is required. (Probably not as sexy if you’re a dude.)

Other Gift Ideas

If you don’t like any of theses gadgets, try my Electronics Gadgets Christmas Gift Buying Guide article. There are a bunch of other cool suggestions.

For the Road Warriors

Who couldn’t use a new computer? How about an additional inexpensive one for the household? What if your gift recipient already has a computer? Then you can grab them the perfect accessory or upgrade to help them get the most out of it.

Pink Tranquility Laptop Bag Just because they’re carrying computers doesn’t mean that women want their laptop bag to look ugly. Pick up a stylish, feminine laptop bag for the lady geek.

Price: $25

Targus Netbook Case Wrap up that new netbook in style. Let a fancy new bag add some sheik to that geek.

Price: $25

Overview: You will learn how to use Instapaper.com’s service to quickly clean, reformat, and save articles on the web to a convenient location for you to read later.

What is Instapaper?

When you are on the internet, you probably find important, interesting, or useful information. The problem is that just don’t have time to read it at that moment. With just one click, Instapaper reads, cleans, and stores the information for you to read at your convenience.

Allows you to easily save information from the web into a central location to be read later on in a clean, simple format.

Advantages of Using Instapaper

Here are some of the main advantages to using Instapaper:

• Clean formatting for efficient reading experience (plain text and simple images)
• Stores the URLs to the source material
• Easily share your saved material
• Great third party integration

When you have a busy page (like the one below) that may have Headers, Footer, Sidebars, Ads, lot’s of media, and other distractions. It is not the optimum reading experience. This can be exacerbated by being on a mobile device or in a hurry.

Just click the Read Later bookmarklet and save a copy for later reading. Check this article to see how bookmarklets improve your browsing experience.

This is what the Instapaper version looks like. A little easier to read, don’t you think?

If you want to see the original page, just click the View Original button at the top of the page.

See How it Works

Here is the whole process:

1. Create an account at Instapaper.com
2. Add the Instapaper bookmarklet to our browser’s toolbar
3. Enter your Instapaper credentials
4. Click the bookmarklet when you find a page that you want to read later
5. Go to Instapaper and read your stuff

See Instapaper in Action in the Video Tutorial Below

Where you can Use Instapaper?

You can use the Read Later bookmarklet in any desktop or mobile browser that supports bookmarks.

Many Twitter clients for iPhone have it built right in.

RSS Readers like Google Reader and some desktop readers.

See the full list of places where you can use Instapaper on their website.

Instapaper Alternatives

There are a few other services that offer similar features out there.

ReaditLater uses a Firefox plugin to save pages to a location where they can be read at your leisure. They have an iPhone app too.

Readability is another tool that works through a bookmarklet to strip out distractions and give you a cleanly formatted page to read.

For the old school types out there, you can try the PrintWhatYouLIke bookmarklet and send a stripped down, clean page to your printer that you can read later.

PrintLiminator does a similar trick and works really nicely.

What’s Your Favorite Tip?

If you have any other tips for cleaning and saving content from the web for reading later, I would love to hear them. Shout it out in the Comments below.

Making Life a Little Nicer

Sometimes I find myself complaining about things that frustrate me. Well, it’s actually pretty easy to find things that suck, but I decided to take some time to talk about a few things that have been making me particularly happy lately.

Instaper – This is a simple tool to save web pages for reading later. If you see a page, article, story, or whatever that you don’t have time to read now, you can tuck it away to be read later. You can go back and read your saved stuff later on either your computer, iPhone, Kindle, or even good old fashioned paper. Plus, you can send pages to Instapaper from your browser, RSS reader, Twitter apps, and a bunch of other places.

Netflix Streaming for PS3 – You can instantly stream movies from Netflix to your TV via your PlayStation 3. The best part about it is that the movie starts instantly. That’s right, no stupid credits. I spent two straight days home sick from work recently. I don’t’ think I would have made it without the dozen movies that I watched.

PixelPipe – When I create videos for my tutorials/podcast, I need to upload them to multiple places on the web. PixelPipe allows me to load my videos, images, and updates to accounts on dozens of sites. (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Vimeo, and many, many more.) If you have a lot of videos, images, or updates to make, this service will save you more time than you can imagine.

My New Moleskine Notebook – I got this notebook from the team at Automattic for volunteering at the WordCampNYC conference. It’s just the right size for me to carry it everywhere. It has a nice little pocket in the back to hold business cards, scraps of paper, and other stuff. I use it to plan projects, articles, and other tasks.

Get your own awesome Moleskine Notebook.

Windows 7 – I decided that I needed to upgrade to WIndows 7 so that my tutorials were more up-to-date. I started off by installing a new Parallels Virtual Machine on my Mac. First of all, this is easily the best OS that Microsoft has put out. It’s prettier than Vista and as light as XP. My wife needs a new laptop and I can’t wait to set up a full-fledged machine running Windows 7. Nice job Microsoft!

Applications that run on Windows, Mac, and Linux – Being that I’m constantly switching between Operating Systems and it is really helpful to have a few applications that are supported on each. This really eases the transitions. Some of my favorite are: Firefox, Filezilla, Picasa, VLC, and any Adobe AIR apps.

Google Voice – I love the new Voicemail text transcription feature. Isn’t that enough?

Movies in 2D – Because 3D is just retarded! I’m looking at you Avatar. (and Coraline, and the upcoming Alice in Wonderland travesty.)

5min.com Video of the Day

OVERVIEW: You will learn how to perform some essential steps on a new computer that will provide a more secure, problem free computing environment.

Protect and Care for Your New Baby

When you take a new computer out of the box, it’s like a new-born baby that needs to be protected and handled with care. There are some essential things that you should do before you bring your new baby out into the world. This article will show you how to dramatically increase the health and safety of your new computer.

The tutorial focuses on three main areas:

1. Updating your WIndows Software
2. Security Software
3. Routine Maintenance

Updating your Windows Software

Run Windows Automatic Updates before you do anything else on your new computer. This will go out to Microsoft and install any Windows updates that affect system security and stability.

Click the Windows (Start) button, then select Control Panel from the menu.

This will open the Control Panel. There will be several options accessible from the Control Panel that will allow you to view and modify settings on your computer.

Select Turn automatic updating on and off and make sure that Automatic Updates are ON.

Then, click Check for updates to download and install all of the appropriate updates. This may take a while, depending on how many are available. After this is done, your computer will restart and updates will happen automatically. (That’s one less thing to worry about.)

Security Software

There are many things that you can do to secure your computer, but I’m going to stick with some of the most basic and effective ones. You will need to set up the following:

• Firewall – Prevent people from getting into your computer.
• AntiVirus – Detect, Prevent, and Remove Viruses that can harm your computer.
• Spyware Detection and Removal – Detect and Remove Spyware that can harm your computer.
• Malware Detection and Removal – Detect and Remove Malware that can harm your computer.

Turning on the Windows Firewall

Windows XP, Vista, and 7 all come with a pretty good firewall already built in. The only thing you need to do is make sure that it is turned on. Go to the Control Panel again.

Click System and Security.

You will see a list of options. Select Check Firewall status under the Windows Firewall heading.

Make sure the the firewall is turned on.

Installing Antivirus Software

The most important security software on your computer is Antivirus protection. My favorite Antivirus software is AVG Antivirus, which happens to be free, light, and very good.

The first thing you should do after you install and launch your antivirus software is update the virus definitions. This is the latest list of bad stuff that it will look for. Click the Update Now tab and then the Update button.

Once you get the first batch of updates, it will get them automatically from now on. Click the Computer Scan tab to check your computer.

Installing Spyware Detection Software

Spyware is another threat to both your security and performance. Spybot Search & Destroy is an excellent, free spyware removal tool.

This is just like the antivirus setup. Search for the Updates and then Scan your computer.

Installing Malware Detection Software

Malware is yet another lovely type of crap that screws up your computer. MalwareBytes is a great free tool that will help you find and remove this scurge.

Yup, you guessed it! Install, Update, Scan, just like the last two tools.

Routine Maintenance

Just because your computer is protected from the evil doers out there, doesn’t mean that it’s protected from itself. The longer your computer runs, the more junk, gunk, and funk will creep into the works. I use two excellent tools to perform routine maintenance on my computer: CCleaner  and Defraggler.

Keeping your computer Clean and Lean

CCleaner is one of my favorite system utilities of all time. Small, simple, effictive, and free. Is that enough for you? CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner.

Use the three panels on the left side to:

1. Clean junk files from your computer and browser
2. Diagnose and Repair Registry problems (This is a HUGE help.)
3. Uninstall Software (The right way.)
4. Control which programs run when Windows starts (You’ll be amazed at what junk is chewing up your power.)

You should probably perform these steps every week or two.

Defragment Your Hard Drive to Speed Things Up

After you start using your computer for a while your hard drive starts to get fragmented. This slows down your computer’s performance. Windows has defragmentation software build right in, but the free Defraggler works better and faster.

Just select your hard drive and click the Defrag button. (This will run for a while, so kick it off when you’re not busy.)

You should run disk defragmentation about once per month.

See the Video Tutorial

If you’re not quite sure about any of the steps that are covered here, watch the following video tutorial to see and here how they work.

Getting All of That Software in One Shot

I just covered several applications that you will need to download and install on your computer. See How to Create a Bulk Software Installer in this tutorial. You will see just how easy it is to install tons of great free software on your new computer in just a few clicks.

What are Your New Computer Security and Maintenance Tips?

If you have any other good tips on what to do to a new computer, I’m all ears. Enter your best tips in the comments below.

OVERVIEW: You will learn how to install dozens of awesome, free applications on your computer in 5 simple steps. No money, 200 Point IQ, or Back-Breaking Labor required!

Once you get past the excitement of getting a new computer, then the aggravation sets in. You have to download and install all of the software that you need. This can take hours and hours even if you’re organized.

You can spare yourself so much of the pain involved with this process by using a bulk software installation tool. I recently found a tool that creates an installer that automates the process of installing multiple applications.

Ninite.com gives you a selection of close to 100 free or open source applications that can be added to a 1-click installer. Some of these are my absolute favorite apps of all time. (Firefox, Skype, Digsby, Notepad++, DropBox, Evernote, and many more.)

Follow the steps below to create and run a Bulk Software Installer.

Creating the Installer

Open your browser and go to http://ninite.com.

You will be able to select from a large collection of free/open source applications that are grouped into several categories.

Select the checkbox next to all of the applications that you want to include in your installer.

After you select all of the applications that you want to include in your installer, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the button.

You will see the Download page. This page will display all the icons for all of the applications that you selected for inclusion in the installer. The click here to change apps link will return you to the previous page, where you can add or remove applications.

Your download should begin automatically. Use the click here to retry the download link if your download does not begin right away.

You can use the permanent link to get a link to the installer download page. This is convenient if you want to share this collection of apps with other users or computers.

Installing Your Collection of Applications

You can either save the installer file to your computer and launch it, or let it run automatically from your browser.

Saving the Installer to Your Computer

The installer’s file name will include the applications that you selected.

Double click the installer file when it has finished downloading.

Automatically Running the Installer When it Finishes Downloading

If you elected to automatically run the installer when the download finishes, you will see the following window.

Click the button to launch the installer.

This is actually the last action that you are absolutely required to take. Everything else runs on its own.

Monitoring the Installation Process

The installer file does not actually contain each applications installation files. It downloads them when it is run.

Click the Show details link to monitor the progress of your installation process.

You will see the list of applications that you included in the installer. You will be able to follow along and see which applications have been downloaded and installed.

When all of your applications have been installed, you will see the following confirmation.

Click the button to exit the installer.

That’s it, all of your applications are installed and working as if they were each installed manually.

Printable Instrucitons

Click to Download a Printable Version of these Instructions.

See How it’s Done

The following video tutorial shows how to Install Multiple Applications using a Bulk Software Installer.

What Applications Do I Bundle?

I put a huge list of applications by category at the bottom of this article. (I didn’t want to break up the flow with a huge list.) You can also check out one of my lists of my favorite free applications:

22 Most Useful Free Applications for your PC (2009)

26 Best Free Mac Applications (2009)

32 Free Applications that I Could Not Live Without (2008)

What Applications Would You Put in your Installer Bundle?

I would love to hear what you think. Let me know what applications would you include in a Bulk Software Installer in the comments below. (List OS, then Apps.)

List of Suggested Applications to Include

Here is a list of some of the availabe applications that I highly reccomend:

Web Browsers

Google Chrome

Opera

Firefox

Messaging

Skype

Pidgin IM

Digsby

Mozilla Thunderbird

Media

iTunes

Songbird

Hulu Desktop

VLC

Winamp Lite

Audacity

Spotify

Imaging

Paint.NET

Google Picasa

GIMP

IrfanView

Inkscape

Documents

OpenOffice

Foxit Reader

CutePDF Writer

Security

Microsoft Security Essentials

Avast

AVG Free Anti-Virus

Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware

Spybot – Search & Destroy

Runtimes

Flash

Flash Player 10 for other browsers

Flash Player 10 for Internet Explorer

Java JRE

Microsoft .NET

Microsoft Silverlight

File Sharing

uTorrent

eMule

Utilities

ImgBurn

CCleaner

Launchy

Revo Uninstaller

Defraggler

RealVNC

TeraCopy?

CDBurnerXP

7-Zip

Dropbox

Evernote

Google Earth

Steam?

Developer Tools

FileZilla

Notepad++

OVERVIEW: You will learn how to do several basic and advanced tasks with a mobile phone running Google’s Android Operating System.

I Got My New Android Phone, Now What?

If you’re one of the millions of people who have a mobile phone with Google’s Android operating system, congratulations. There are so many things that you can do with your new phone that you might be a little intimidated. Don’t worry, I have a bunch of resources that will help you get up and running with your cool new gadget. Not to mention a few that will teach you some advanced tricks.

Here are some of the things that you will learn:

• Surfing the Web with Andriod’s Browser
• Finding Applications to Download from the Android Market Place
• How to Change the Wallpaper an Android Phone
• Create Custom Ring Tones for Your Android Phone
• Use Your Android Phone on an Airplane Without Getting into Trouble
• Plus more cool and useful tricks

Surfing the Web with Andriod’s Browser

Learn how to browse and surf the internet/web using your Google G1 T-Mobile Android smart phone. Adjust your Internet settings.The following video shows How to Surf the Web Using a Google Android Phone.

Finding Applications to Download from the Android Market Place

Search the Android Market from Your Android Phone – The Android Market has thousands of applications that you can downloaded for your device. You can search for applications, sort out those that are free from those that cost, and more.

The following video shows how to search through the Android Market Place to find the applications that you want to install on your phone.

How to Change the Wallpaper an Android Phone

When you first turn on your new phone, it can be a little boring. Learn how to personalize your Android phone by changing the Wallpaper across your Home screens. This will also allow you to configure your application launchers in a way that is most efficient for your tastes.

Create Custom Ring Tones for Your Android Phone

One of the cool things about Android phones is that you can create custome ringtones out of just about music. (Why my iPhone can’t do that puzzles me.) This video will show you how to create a custom Android ringtone from just about any audio file you have on your Android phone or your computer.

Use Your Android Phone on an Airplane Without Getting into Trouble

Airlines have rules about using electronic gadgets while flying. You also aren’t allowed to use cell phones while in the air. If you turn on airplane mode, however, you can still access applications on your phone but turn all wireless communications off. Perfect for if you want to compose an email, play a game or watch a movie while in flight.

Other Android Phone Tutorials

Here are some other good places to learn cool tricks for using an Android phone.

• HelloAndroid.com has lots of good tutorials and news on the Android Operating System.
• WhyAndroid.com has several good turoials on doing things with and Android phone.
• This article from Droidie.com has 8 very useful tutorials with videos.
• AndroidForums.com has a good tutorial on Syncing an Android Phone with Microsoft Outlook.

What Do You Think?

What other cool or helpful tips do you know of for using the Android Operating System do you have? Please write any suggestions in the comments below.

OVERVIEW: This article will show you how to take a regular mobile phone and give it many of the capabilities of a much more expensive SmartPhone.

Be Jealous No More

Just because you don’t have a SmartPhone, you don’t have to go without all of the cool, useful, and fun stuff that they can do. As long as you have a phone that can take pictures, send MMS, and access the internet (just about all phones made in the last 3 years), you can do a lot more than you think.

Let’s look as some of the key capabilities that make SmartPhones what they are:

• Personal Information Management (PIM)
• • (Calendar, Contacts, Notes & Memos)
• News
• • (Sports, Finance, Weather, etc.)
• Web Browsing
• Social Networking
  
• Instant Messaging

Let’s take a look at how you can approximate many of these features on any phone.

*Some of these options are not free. I know that’s a major departure from how I usually roll, but if you want all of these features for free, you’ll have to pay for a SmartPhone any way.

Personal Information Management (PIM)

Calendar, Contacts, and Notes syncing have always been the main features of SmartPhones. If you’re willing to fork over $15 – $30 you can get those features on your phone. Here are two excellent applications for syncing your computer’s PIM data to just about any phone.

Susteen’s DataPilot – You can sync information between your computer and all sorts of phones.

Mobile Action’s Handset Manager – Pretty similar to DataPilot in that you can sync between your computer and phone.

Just install their software on your computer, configure the settings, and plug your phone in using the provided cable. That’s it! All of your PIM data is synced to your phone.

Get Your News on the Go

The ability to keep up with some key pieces of news is a great capability. There are tons of services that have mobile versions of their pages or will even send news alerts to your phone. Here are a few that you can try.

Headline News – CBS Mobile News, CNN Mobile, Google News Mobile, MSNBC Mobile   

Sports – ESPN Mobile, Yahoo Sports Mobile, Sports Illustrated Mobile

Weather – Weather Channel Mobile, Wunderground Mobile

Finance – CNBC Mobile, Yahoo Finance Mobile, CNNMoney Mobile

Browse the Web with Style

One of the great things about SmartPhones is their ability to browse the web. Let’s face it, the standard browser loaded on a typical non-smartphone is just about unusable. There is an option that makes the internet much more usable on a mobile phone. Opera Mini is a JAVA based browser that can be installed on most regular mobile phones. This is about as close as you’re going to get to a real browsing experience on your phone.

Just point your phone’s crappy browser at: “m.opera.com” and follow the installation prompts. Now you can see all of that cool stuff you’ve been missing.

Social Networking

Do you want to be able to update your Social Networking sites from your phone? Well, there are a bunch of ways that you can do this. If you have instant messenger on your phone, you can use an IMbot to update any of your networks.

Ping.fm is a simple and FREE service that makes updating your social networks a snap! You can post to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and over 40 others just by sending a simple Instant Message. Here is a full list of networks that you can post to.

Here are the ways that you can update your services through Ping.fm

Do you want to post your pictures and videos to services like Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter? Well, you can use PixelPipe.com to post media and messages to over 70 of your favorite social media sites. (Yes there are actually over 70!) Pixelpipe supports photo, video, audio, file, and text posts.

Upload your media from MMS & Email to your private upload address.

To use: Attach your file(s) to a new message and send the message to your personal upload address. Your personal upload address is boulder77banners@upload.pixelpipe.com

Tip: Add ‘Routing Tags’ (denoted by @service) to the body of the message to send to specific destinations or groups. For example, to make a post only on your Facebook and Twitter, type this into your message: “This is a post @facebook @twitter”  

HelloTXT will also let you post updates to many of your favorite social networking sites via a simple text message, email, or Instant Message.

One of the methods that HelloTXT supports is a service called Dial2Do.com . This service allows you to call in and speak commands and information to a virtual secretary. Dial2Do will then carry out your tasks. You can also create and/or hear emails, calendar appointments, to-do’s, texts, and more. That’s way cooler than a SmartPhone.

The following video shows you some of the amazing things that you can do with this service.

See a complete tutorial on using Dial2Do.com as a personal secretary.

How Do You Make Your Phone Smarter?

If you have any tips on making your phone smarter, I would love to hear them in the comments below.

OVERVIEW: This article links to several resources that will help your new computer go from the box to maximum usefulness as fast as possible.

So You Got a New Computer for the Holidays, Now What?

Just getting a new computer is only half the battle. Once you get that thing out of the box, that’s where the real fun begins. Here are a few guides and resources that will help you do all of the painful things necessary for making a mass-produced box of electronics into your very own PERSONAL computer.

Configuring Your New Computer

After you get your new machine up an running, you will need to perform a few vital configuration steps. Whether it’s a Windows, Mac, or Linux machine, these resources will get you going.

Set Up and Get to Know Your New Windows, Mac, or Linux Computer – The folks over at LifeHacker.com have a bunch of great tips on setting up a new computer. The didn’t cut any corners either; Windows, Mac, and Linux are all thoroughly covered.

Download Squad Guide to Making Your New Holiday PC More Kick-Ass! - DownloadSquad.com has lots of great tips on making your new Windows computer better. A lot of the tips center around getting the garbage software that the manufacturers are paid to install gone and replacing it with much better options.

Setting Up Your New Mac: The First 25 Things You Need To Do – If you got a new Mac, the team at MacLife.com take you through a series of steps to make it a workhorse in no time at all.

The Best Free Software for Your New Computer

After you configure your new computer, you need to install the right software to help you get things done. Here are some of my favorite free applications for WIndows and Mac.

22 Most Useful Free Applications for your Windows PC – These are some of the best Windows applications at any price, but when you consider that they’re free, how can you go wrong.

26 Best Free Mac Applications – Macs come loaded with a decent set of software, but here are some additions to put you over the top.

100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications – UbuntuLinuxHelp.com has a massive list of useful Linux applications in every category imaginable.

A Computer is Not All Function, I Can Look Pretty Too

After you have your new computer set up to work like a team of mules, you may want to make it look like a sexy supermodel. Check out a few of these resources.

Five Best Wallpaper Sites – LifeHaker.com has some great places to go get beautiful wallpapers to put your own style on that new machine. I’m going there myself, as soon as I’m done with this article.

Don’t Forget Your Other New Gadgets

Even if you didn’t get a shiny new computer for the holidays, you might have another fancy gadget that you want to set up the right way. Here are a few guides to help you out.

5 Sites to Help You Set Up Your New Gadgets – ReadWriteWeb.com has a few resources you can use to help set up your new gadgets. They are mostly sites that have video tutorials or Q&A message boards that are helpful.

Setting Up Your New iPod: The First 25 Things You Need To Do – Those helpful guys at MacLife have another good set of tips for you to get your new iPod or iPhone running like a champ.

What are your New Computer Setup Secrets?

Dont’ forget to leave any good new computer setup tips in the comments below.

5min.com Video of the Day

2009 Was OK, But Things Can Get ALOT Better

2009 is almost over and I’m making my technology wish list for 2010. Being that it’s a “WISH” list, I decided to shoot for the stars. in order fro 2010 to be the best year ever in tech, here’s what I want.

iPhone – My Biggest Joy and Disappointment

The iPhone plays a huge role in my IT infrastructure. It bridge the gap between the VitaminCM global headquarters and the vast wastelands that lie outside my door. Sometimes I actually have to go out and mingle with the great unwashed hordes. Gasp! While there are so many things to love about my trusty companion, here is what I desperately wish for:

• AT&T to get a decent network
• Verizon to get the iPhone
• Flash and JAVA support – It’s flippin’ 2010 already!
• Support for a Bluetooth Keyboard (No, I don’t want to Jailbreak my phone.)
• Front and back Video Cameras so I can gitz my Skype video conference on.

Windows Applications that Need to be On My Mac

I switched to a Mac this year and for the most part I like it. My biggest problem is finding suitable replacements for some of my old favorite Windows applications.

• Windows Live Writer – How can I be forced to blog with this overpriced collection of crapware.
• Digsby Multi-protocol Instant Messenger (plus twitter, facebook, myspace, etc.) – Adium is marginally acceptable.
• Microsoft Office (The real thing, not that hideous crap with the crooked yellow logo.)
• A Delete key that Deletes, not Backspacing. (Yeah, I really feel like pressing the Function button.)

Software and Services that Can Be ALOT Better

There are a lot of great applications and services out there, but this is what it takes to go from good to great.

• FireFox – please stop crapping out every 3 minutes.
• Evernote to integrate RememberTheMilk into their tool. Two great tastes that taste great together.
• Google Earth to go live with “real-time” images. Yeah, it’s creeptacular but you know you want it too.
• Good VIdeo Production Software for Linux so I can build my $600 Super Computer out of two clustered PS3s.
• FaceBook to disable Mafia Wars, Farmville, Fish Tank, Movie Quiz, and Family Finder.
• Linux to do what you want it to, on the first attempt.
• DropBox – give a brotha more disk space.

Gadgets that I want

Who doesn’t love a shiny new gadget. Well, I want a little more than a fancy box and a high price tag.

• An E-Book Reader that is actually cool.
• Roll UP LCD screens (in stores, not labs)
• Laptop Batteries that work for more than five minutes
• Solid State Hard Drives (that I can afford)

Jerks

The tech world doesn’t just happen in a vacuum, it’s run by people. Some of them kind of suck. Here are a few people that I would like to see come off the naughty list in 2010.

• Apple to get the litigious stick out of their litigious butts.
• Sony, please stop hassling people for making your products more useful.
• Verizon – stop hating customers. Don’t cripple our phones, rip us off, and provide poor customer service.
• BestBuy – just go away already.
• While I’m at it, could the RIAA and MPAA just commit hari-kari.

Television

Now that I have a 1080p TV and a BluRay player I wish that someone would erase the memory of my 100 favorite movies and add them to the top of my NetFlix queue.

Crazy Town

How about a few off the wall things:

• Robots! Lots of robots.
• Monkeys that can be trained to be my butler.
• An automatically organizing desk.
• A koi pond stocked with teany-tiny Great White Sharks and even tinier seals.

Last but certainly not least…

I wish that my wife would just understand that I NEEEEEEEED all of these things and so many others. They are all critically important to my survival as a human being. Kind of like the dry cleaner, house keeper, 4 hour trips to the salon, and karaoke all keep her alive.

What Would You Like to See in 2010?

5min.com Video of the Day

What’s a Year End Without a Countdown?

As 2009 draws to a close I decided to do a quick look back on the top posts of 2009. The list is based solely on the amount of visits that each article received, however I threw in a few of my less appreciated favorites. Without further ado, here’s the list.

10 – You can Create the Web Operating System Today (My Personal Favorite)

This post shows how to cobble together a complete Web-Based operating system from a bunch of common, free web apps. The main tools used are iGoogle, and Zoho apps. This was a fun article to put together.

9 – iPhone Photoshop Application Review

One of my favorite iPhone apps is Photoshop. You can do quick, simple edits to your pictures right on your phone. There are just enough features to make your photos go from blah to good.

8 – Never Forget Another Idea – Capture Everything with Evernote

Evernote is one of my very favorite productivity tools. This tutorial shows you how to use it on Windows, Mac, iPhone, Windows Mobile, and Linux (via the web). If you need a great note taking system that goes anywhere, take a look at this article.

7 – How to Upgrade the Memory in your Netbook

If you have a netbook computer, one of the biggest drawbacks is the performance. If you max out the RAM, you will get a noticeable boost. This video shows you how to replace the existing memory with a new stick.

6 – Add Magical Powers to Your Browser with Bookmarklets

Bookmarklets are like regular browser bookmarks on steroids. They have javascript commands that add extra functionality to your favorite web sites. Bookmarklets can do things like open a url in an email, subscribe in Google Reader, send a link to Twitter, and many other things in one click. See how to make it happen in this article.

5 – Remote Control Your Computer From The Internet

Did you ever wish you could log onto your home computer from work, a friend’s house, or even your iPhone? Well, this tutorial shows how to use VNC and your router’s Port Forwarding to do just that. You will be able to access your computer from anywhere in the world.

4 – Sync Files on Multiple Computers Using DropBox

If you work on multiple computers (work, home, etc.) then you know what it’s like to not have the files you need. DropBox will cure this problem for good. This tutorial shows you how to set up and use DropBox on all of your machines.

3 – 36 Ways to Work Seamlessly on Two Computers

If you use more than one computer with some combination of Windows, Mac, and Linux and a Smartphone than you know how difficult it is to have all of your stuff when and where you need it. I’m going to show you a variety of tools and strategies to help you have everything you need, when and where you need it.

2 – 26 Best Free Mac Applications

This year I switched from exclusively using Windows to spending most of my time on a Mac. I cover a collection of very useful free applications that you can use on the Mac. If buy a Mac and have no money left to spend on apps, take a look at this article.

Drum Roll Please…

This was far and away the most popular post of the year. It actually had 10 times more visits than the second place finisher.

1 – 22 Most Useful Free Applications for your PC

List of the most useful free applications for your Windows computer. Firefox, Digsby, filezilla, Picasa, Cute PDF Writer, rocket dock, windows live writer, etc. If you’re looking for some great free apps for your PC, this is the article for you.

What Was Your Favorite?

I would love to hear what your favorite article was. Also, if there is something that you would like to see covered I REALLY want to hear that. So jump into those comments and let your voice be heard.

And Thanks for another great year!!!