Google Voice Gmail Calling Now Free Through 2011 – Google Dec. 20 said it will continue to make its Gmail calling capability free through 2011, a sign that the company wants to make sure more of its Webmail users embrace the technology.
The 10 hottest checklists, forms, and templates of 2010 – TechRepublic published nearly 400 original downloads in 2010 — from cost calculators to cheat sheets to logs, templates, and PowerShell scripts. Here’s a rundown of some of the most popular items of the year
Sandboxing: Welcome to the dawn of the two-exploit era – Visit a single infected Web page, open a malicious PDF or Word document, and bang — game over. Too close for comfort if you ask me. Firewalls, IDS, anti-malware, and other products aren’t much help. Fortunately, after two decades, I think the answer is finally upon us.
Smartphone Apps Are Betraying Us, Report Says – More than half of iPhone and Android apps routinely share the personal data of their users with outside companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.
Lifehacker: How Do I Put Together a Tech Survival Kit? – We’ve actually looked at the problem of creating a tech essentials backup kit briefly, but never tackled the subject head-on. What goes into your survival kit is going to depend a lot on your needs, but we’ve got a few suggestions on how to figure it out and a great way to organize it.
Linux rules the Clouds – Color me surprised. I knew that Linux, while still only a niche player on the desktop, was continuing to do well on the server and was doing even better than ever on the cloud. What I hadn’t realized was just how much better Linux, and in particular, Canonical’s Ubuntu, was doing on in the market place.
Wikileaks Attacks Prove the Cloud Is Reliable – Wikileaks hackers tried but failed to knock Amazon offline in retaliation for dropping the Wikileak hosting. Ironically, this only proves the reliability of Amazon Web Services.
Weird Windows Woes: Fix Random Freezes, Test Mode – Learn how to stop Windows 7 from freezing at will, remove a mysterious “test mode” watermark, and find out exactly what version of Windows you’re running.
FBI Accused of Planting OpenBSD Backdoors 10 Years Ago – An e-mail touched off a bit of a firestorm when a former government contractor alleged the FBI put backdoors and side-channel key leak mechanisms in the OpenBSD Cryptographic Framework some 10 years ago.
What Will You Build With Google App Inventor For Android? – By enabling anyone to make their own apps, Google bests the iPhone again while creating new opportunities for businesses.
Company News:
Microsoft: More than 1.5 million Windows Phone 7s sold to date – Microsoft is finally ready to talk about numbers for its Windows Phone 7 platform. But the numbers they’ve released need a bit more parsing than usual.
Google Chrome: Open for Business – Google Chrome is a slick browser, to be sure. But until now it’s hasn’t been truly business-ready, so most companies have held off on supporting it, opting for the more IT-friendly options from Mozilla and Microsoft. Thanks to some long-overdue new admin features, however, Chrome is now open for business. Is it time for your company to make the switch?
Encrypt Stick 5.0 – Encrypt Stick 5.0 brings a fistful of security features to any USB drive, providing not only secure storage on the drive, but turn the drive into an encryption key for local encrypted files, a password manager, and a stealthy private browser that lets you browse without leaving a trace behind. If security is on your mind, Encrypt Stick should be on your drive.
Cloud Computing: Top 10 Google Goofs, Black Eyes of 2010 – Perhaps more than in any other year in its 12-year existence, Google has seen its share of ups and downs in 2010. The company launched a number of new search features and its Android mobile operating system blasted off with a vengeance. But Google also endured some real clunkers. We rounded up some of Google’s blunders, bizarre occurrences and even some less-than-stellar product launches of the year.
Off Topic (Sort of):
The top 5 best PC-only games of 2010 (photos) – The rumors of PC gaming’s death have been greatly exaggerated as it enjoys one of its best years in recent memory.
The Current US Debt Situation Makes The Great Depression Look Like A Joke – While the U.S. economy may be in deleveraging mode right now, it’s always good to recognize just how far we’ve come as a debtor nation. This chart from Jeffrey Gundlach at DoubleLine makes that abundantly clear. (submitted by Dar)
Lifehacker: Give the Gift of No-Fuss Backup and Synchronicity to Your Less Tech-Savvy Loved Ones – This holiday season, set up your less tech-inclined acquaintances with the gift of synchronized and backed-up data—including their most important files, bookmarks, and passwords (which we’ll also help them improve).
A Reminder That Many Gift Cards Go Unused – States are supposed to track down the card owners and get them their money back, but often that’s impossible. Many gift cards are purchased with cash and are totally untraceable. If that’s the situation, the state generally collects the money. New York, for instance, collected $9.6 million in unused gift cards in 2008. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg: About $65 billion is spent on gift cards in the U.S. Annually, and $6.8 billion of that is never redeemed. (submitted by Dar)
Today’s Quote:
“Quit now, you’ll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you’ll be halfway there.”
– David Zucker
Today’s Free Downloads:
Netflix Queue – Netflix Queue is a Chrome extension that lets you view the DVDs in your Netflix queue. You can see what you have at home, search for DVDs and add them to your queue, read movie synopses, and more–without getting sucked into the Netflix site.
Chrome to Phone – Chome to Phone is a Chrome extension that sends any URL to your Android device. Install it on your PC, then install the free app on your Android device–then just click the Chrome to Phone link when you’re on a page you want to send.
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