The best way to remember what's important to you

reQall is a voice-enabled memory aid that seamlessly integrates your mobile phone, email, text messaging and IM into a powerful organizer, reminder system and productivity assistant. reQall lets you capture your ideas, tasks and commitments before you forget, and it proactively keeps you well-prepared and memory-strong. Explore the pages below to see what you can do with reQall and learn how it integrates with the devices and programs you’re already using. See our comparison chart to learn about the two versions of reQall, Standard and Pro.

• Capture ideas
• Organize for me
• Remember where I am
• Jog my memory
• Remind myself
• reQall with friends
• Sync my calendars
• Shopping lists
• Touch to act

Google to Offer Free Public DNS

Google today launched a new, free DNS service—called Google Public DNS—aimed at making your web browsing experience even faster. Here's how it works:

For those of you who are unfamiliar with DNS (and it's cool if you are—as long as DNS is working, most people never need to know what's going on), Google offers an explanation:

Most of us aren't familiar with DNS because it's often handled automatically by our Internet Service Provider (ISP), but it provides an essential function for the web. You could think of it as the switchboard of the Internet, converting easy-to-remember domain names - e.g., www.google.com - into the unique Internet Protocol (IP) numbers - e.g., 74.125.45.100 - that computers use to communicate with one another.

Google Public DNS, then, aims to replace your ISP's default DNS with a (hopefully) faster, safer, and more reliable alternative. Google Public DNS isn't the first freely available alternate DNS we've seen. Previously mentioned OpenDNS is an excellent DNS alternative (it boasts keyboard shortcuts, parental filters, and more), but—for better or worse—we're guessing that even more people may be interested in Google's offering.

To set up your computer or router to use Google Public DNS, hit up Google's instructions (they've got specific instructions for Windows, Mac, Linux, or your router).

I swapped my DNS to Google's service earlier today and so far my page loading seems to have a spring it its step, but you know how these things go. If you give it a try, let's hear whether things are feeling snappier for you in the comments.

Read Article Here

Google Wave: The Future of Email?

Email is antiquated. We need a better way to get things done online than hitting “reply all” to long message chains and sending constantly updated attachments.

Google aims to make waves in email. Image: Google.

Google (GOOG) is attempting to solve this program with a new service called Google Wave. Announced at a developers’ conference last May, the software application and computing platform blends email, instant messaging and online collaboration. If it gains traction, it could be disruptive, particularly in the enterprise market—but the chances for that may be slim.

Here's how Google says Wave works: You create a wave and add people to it. Wave members can add their own text, photos and feeds. They can also edit the wave. Everyone on the wave can view changes being made in real time. Through a playback feature, you can also rewind the wave and look at how it has evolved.

If you’re having trouble wrapping your mind around what exactly Google Wave is, you’re not alone. Google opened the service to a limited number of users in September. I am not in this group, which includes a sampling of software developers and early technology adopters, but I spoke to a half-dozen folks who are trying it, and all report that it’s a little hard to understand.

That may be Google's largest hurdle with this service as it will be more useful with more users.

Google Wave is inherently a social program. For it to succeed, it will need to gain critical mass among users. And to do this, the service must attract mainstream developers willing to sink resources into building out software programs that link into the system. The company has plans to launch an app store at some point. Several prominent businesses are already experimenting with it. Novell (NOVL) has an upcoming product called Novel Pulse that makes real-time collaboration more suitable for corporate users by providing companies the tools to limit groups and visibility and structure the type of collaboration that is possible. SAP (SAP) also has an application for Google Wave called Gravity in the works.

Masters of search but not social stuff

But Google has a few strikes against it.Though YouTube is beginning to see some success, the company hasn’t mastered anything social yet. Remember Orkut, it’s early social network? Now even the Brazilian audience that once kept it going is migrating over to Facebook. OpenSocial, Google’s attempt to create common standards for development on social networks, has had a quiet evolution, in part because the most popular social network, Facebook, didn’t embrace it.

Recently Google’s Joe Kraus, who has led the efforts, moved over to become a partner in Google Ventures. Also, the company hasn’t impressed large enterprise customers recently with its “Word-killer,” Google Docs. There have been several lengthy outages in recent months during high usage times. And Google tries new things often; many are eventually left for dead. (Remember Notebook? Dodgeball? Jaiku?)

Perhaps Google’s biggest problem is that new communication platforms are rarely imposed from the top down. Rather, they evolve with users’ demands. Facebook is a great example. In 2005, when college kids first started logging on, the idea of posting anything to a “wall” or a moving public stream of information struck mainstream Internet users as absurd. But Facebook evolved as users joined and asked for new services. Now only troglodytes refrain from creating a profile, and about half of Facebook’s 300 million users log on every day to view their stream of status updates, photos and links.

Google understands the need for this type of organic innovation, and that’s why the company has launched Google Wave to a select few to experiment with before the service goes live. But users report it may be too different from anything they’ve seen before to catch on. And Google isn’t the only company trying to replace email, either. From small start-ups like Drop.io, which lets users communicate with each other and share documents in real time, to Facebook itself, plenty of companies are experimenting with better ways to get things done. It's not yet clear whether Google will be able to ride this wave.

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Is Now Available

The next version of the best-selling software of all time, Microsoft Office 2010, is finally available in beta today. Get used to the new Office: We're all going to use this stuff at some point or another.

There's a lot new about Office 2010: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook all come with evolved UIs, taking cues from Office 2007's "ribbon" UI by using tabs instead of traditional menus. Word offers the new "backstage view," which replaces the old File menu with a sort of visual representation of it: You'll get a sidebar with live previews, which could come in handy for things like print preview. Besides that, Word (along with PowerPoint and Excel) also adds minor photo and video editing tools like color adjustment, cropping and trimming. PowerPoint brings the new "broadcast slideshow" feature, allowing you to beam a presentation to any connected PC with a one-click interface; and Excel adds some smart enhancements like automatically shading the highest numbers in a given chart, and Sparklines, which are word-sized graphs that can be added inside charts.

There are a boatload of minor changes in Office 2010, and we won't go into them all. The biggest change, and the one that's most exciting to us, has been around for awhile in some form or another: SkyDrive, Microsoft's online storage, now includes what's essentially the Office take on Google Docs. With any version of Office 2010, you get 25GB of storage space. That storage gives you the ability to create and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on the fly, with simultaneous group editing, just like in Google Docs.

There are two main versions of Office 2010: The full version, the price of which has not yet been announced, and the Starter version, which offers limited-feature (we might say crippled) versions of the three main programs in the suite, and will come free with many new PCs. With either option, you'll get the 25GB of storage space and access to SkyDrive. Office 2010 will be released sometime in the first half of 2010.

Right now, it's just technically available for Technet and MSDN subscribers, but you should be able to get a copy in another way, if you know what we mean.

Read Article Here

Watch TV online through Comcast

Last June, the cable/sat industry announced plans for TV Everywhere, a way to bridge your subscription television content to your internet-connected devices. Comcast has just announced that their version of TV Everywhere, called On Demand Online, arrives next month.

Currently in beta with 5,000 subscribers, here's what we know:

• It's free with a subscription
• You authenticate up to 3 devices through Comcast.net or Fancast.com
• Video playback on Move Networks player
• Video on Demand content, though no word on HD content
• Streaming will count against Comcast's 250GB monthly bandwidth caps

Google's gift: Free WiFi in 47 airports

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Google is planning to foot the bill for WiFi at 47 of the nation's airports for the rest of the year, beginning Tuesday.

With some travelers spending more time on the ground in airports than on planes during the busy flying season, now seemed an especially fitting time to offer up the perk, Google said.

The list includes the international airports in Miami and Orlando, which are among the world's 30 busiest airports, as well as five others in Florida. Travelers through smaller airports, such as Montana's Billings and Bozeman, will also benefit.

"This is one of our holiday gifts to our users, and when you connect, we also hope you'll take the opportunity to try some of the latest Google products," the company said in a statement.

Upon signing in, users will be asked if they want to set Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) as their homepage or try the Google Chrome browser.

The company is also running a charity campaign to raise money for three nonprofit groups: Engineers without Borders, One Economy Corporation and Climate Savers Computing Initiative. When Google WiFi users first log on, the landing page will offer them the option of donating to the organizations. Google will match donations of up to $250,000 per airport.
Google to buy mobile ad provider

Google has inked other free WiFi deals. It already offers free wireless Internet to its hometown of Mountain View, Calif., and last month it partnered with Virgin America to give the airline's customers free access to Gogo's Inflight Internet.

Both the airport WiFi deal and the Virgin America arrangement will end Jan. 15, after the holiday rush subsides.

While Google's move to offer free wireless in airports is an original twist, several companies are already running similar sponsorship campaigns on domestic flights.

E-commerce giant eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) said it will provide free WiFi through Gogo on more than 250 domestic Delta Airline flights during the busiest travel week of the year, over the Thanksgiving holiday. From Nov. 24-30, flyers who log in will be taken to eBay's holiday-themed homepage and invited to "complete your holiday shopping while still en-route to your Thanksgiving destination."

Car maker Lexus wrapped up one week of complimentary Internet on American Airlines flights on Friday. The promotion coincided with the introduction of the 2010 Lexus LS line.

Google Wave Complete Guide

Got an interest in Google Wave but have absolutely no idea where to get started? Try out The Complete Guide to Google Wave, a new (free) book written and edited by my pal and Lifehacker cohort Gina Trapani and yours truly.

Google Wave may not be available to everyone just yet, but there's still a lot to learn about it and not that many places to do that learning. That's where The Complete Guide to Google Wave steps in.

Wave is a young, complex, and frankly incomplete web application and technology. It's also an ambitious project that has the potential to change how we work, collaborate, and communicate on the web. That's why Gina and I decided to pour our time and attention into Google Wave and pull it all together into this book.

We're calling it a book, even though right now its content is only available on the web at completewaveguide.com. It features eight chapters and two appendices, but we're going to expand the book as Google continues to grow and expand Wave. (In fact, anyone can help us do just that by contributing to the guide.)

If you'd like a more permanent or convenient copy of the book, its first preview edition will be available for purchase as a PDF later this month, and the first edition print version will be available in January of 2010. Gina and I are planning to release four editions of the book throughout 2010 to keep up with the changing face of Wave, but the latest version of the book will always be available and free at completewaveguide.com.

Check out the book's About page for more details on our adventure in publishing (including why we're self-publishing), or just head to the home page to get started with your Wave education. For updates on book releases and various Wave tips, follow @gwaveguide on Twitter.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave

The Interface Message Processor

This is Dr. Leonard Kleinrock pinching the nipples of the Interface Message Processor, a ruggerized Honeywell DDP-516 Minicomputer. This box is responsible for what you are reading now, which either makes her my mom or the internet's mom or both.

The Interface Message Processor was The Original Router. Two of these machines connected in October 29 1969: One was at the laboratory of Dr. Kleinrock—who established the mathematical theory of packet networks, which made the internet possible—at the University of California-Los Angeles. The other was in the laboratory of Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute. Engelbart, who later became famous as the creator of the mouse, was working on online collaboration and human interfaces for Darpa during that time.

That day, the first internet backbone—then known as ARPANET—was born with the exchange of the first data packets. Before, only a few meaningless bits were exchanged. Two months later, a four-node backbone was completed. Today, forty years later, there are 1,668,870,408 users.

Oh, and right now, 5% of the packets are getting lost in North America. [Wikipedia via Daily Mail]

Read More HERE.

Project Dark is a Go

After all the speculating, “Project Dark” is officially a go. The pricing is up on the T-Mobile website and it is exactly what we hoped feared. At first glance I’m not seeing any changes whatsoever from all the leaks, which may be a good thing or a bad thing, I don’t know if anyone can really make that determination yet. Marketing is of course going to be the key factor here and we look forward to whatever T-Mobile brings to the table as they ramp up advertisements to the rumored tune of 40% this holiday season. Regardless of whatever marketing may come, we’re still super happy to see a new standard in the wireless industry with a no contract offering. It’s about time that the European style way of doing business made it over to US shores. Love it or hate it, it works quite well everywhere else in the world. So without further ado, we present to you, Project Dark. Time will tell today, as it’s just barely 9am in South Florida, if there are any more surprises in store–handsets, 3G, 4G or otherwise. We aren’t holding out hope for anything but we do love surprises!

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T-Mobile Project Dark

We've heard plenty about Project Dark lately, including new unlimited plans, 21Mbps HSPA, and new handsets. The newest rumors, courtesy of Boy Genius Report, are whispers of Rent-A-Center style, contract-free unsubsidized phone purchasing and tiered unlimited plans. Updated.

Obviously T-mobile is attempting to expand their customer base through Project Dark, and part of the approach is to entice customers who would normally be forced to prepay monthly dues as well as full retail for a device:

"Even More Plus" will give those who would otherwise qualify for FlexPay the option to finance a phone. [...] Our sources tell us that the phones will not be subsidized and so there won't be contracts for the devices, which means you pay the full retail price over the course of a set amount of time (up to 20 months is what we're told). Not bad - for a $500 device over that time is just $25/month, as an example.

The next step is offering the "Most Affordable Unlimited Rate Plans" in three flavors:

[U]nlimited voice, unlimited voice and text, and unlimited voice/text/data all priced at $40, $50 and $60, respectively.

All unconfirmed rumors, of course, but moves like this could definitely help T-mobile leap up from fourth place in the Great Battle of the Carriers.

Google Wave Update

9/29/2009 08:46:00 AM

Starting Wednesday, September 30 we'll be sending out more than 100,000 invitations to preview Google Wave to:

• Developers who have been active in the developer preview we started back in June
• The first users who signed up and offered to give feedback on wave.google.com
• Select business and university customers of Google Apps

We'll ask some of these early users to nominate people they know also to receive early invitations — Google Wave is a lot more useful if your friends, family and colleagues have it too. This, of course, will just be the beginning. If all goes well we will soon be inviting many more to try out Google Wave.

Some of you have asked what we mean by preview. This just means that Google Wave isn't quite ready for prime time. Not yet, anyway. Since first unveiling the project back in May, we've focused almost exclusively on scalability, stability, speed and usability. Yet, you will still experience the occasional downtime, a crash every now and then, part of the system being a bit sluggish and some of the user interface being, well, quirky.

There are also still key features of Google Wave that we have yet to fully implement. For example, you can't yet remove a participant from a wave or define groups of users, draft mode is still missing and you can't configure the permissions of users on a wave. We'll be rolling out these and other features as soon as they are ready — over the next few months.

Despite all this, we believe you will find that Google Wave has the potential for making you more productive when communicating and collaborating. Even when you're just having fun! We use it ourselves everyday for everything from planning pub crawls to sharing photos, managing release processes and debating features to writing design documents. In fact, we collaborated on this very blog post with several colleagues in Google Wave.

Speaking of ways you could potentially use Google Wave, we're intrigued by the many detailed ones people have taken the time to describe. To mention just a few: journalist Andy Ihnatko on producing his Chicago Sun-Times column, filmmaker Jonathan Poritsky on streamlining the movie-making process, scientist Cameron Neylon on academic papers and lab work, Alexander Dreiling and his SAP research team on collaborative business process modelling, and ZDNet's Dion Hincliffe on a host of enterprise use cases.

The Wave team's most fun day since May? We invited a group of students to come spend a day with us at Google's Sydney office. Among other things, we asked them to collaboratively write stories in Google Wave about an imaginary trip around the world. They had a ball! As did we...

Finally, a big shoutout to the thousands of developers who have patiently taken part in our ongoing developer preview. It has been great fun to see the cool extensions already built or being planned and incredibly instructive to get their help planning the future of our APIs. To get a taste for what some of these creative developers have been working on, and to learn more about the ways we hope to make it even easier for developers to build new extensions, check out this post on our developer blog.

Happy waving!

Microsoft's Free Security Essentials Antivirus Goes Final

The free Security Essentials app from Microsoft just escaped beta, meaning they fixed all the showstopper bugs that would cause users to be irreparably pissed.

Lifehacker says there aren't a lot of new features since their first look at the software, but it is a free antivirus app, albeit one that might not be great enough to get you to switch from your current app. After all, AVG is still free for individuals, but for small businesses that need to install one on every machine, this might free up a good deal more budget for a fancy Xmas party. [Microsoft via Lifehacker]

Early Info Release on Pink Phone (Microsoft)

These phones are going to be made by Sharp, who'll get to share branding with Microsoft. Sharp produced the Sidekick hardware for Danger, who was bought by Microsoft almost two years ago. Pink will be primarily aimed at the same market as the Sidekick, and the branding and identity for it is highly developed, pointing toward a later stage in the development cycle.

The prior relationship between Danger and Sharp is the only reason we can think of why Microsoft stuck with Sharp for the new phones, and perhaps why they look so much like remixed Sidekicks. (Kind of yucky, that is.) The youth bent is somewhat surprising, if Pink is going to be their big consumer phone play, building off the expertise of Danger and members of the Zune team.

The hardware design has a definite younger feeling: Turtle looks like a chunky child's version of a Palm Pre, while Pure seems like a standard slider, and both are clearly plastic, with an overall sense of roundedness, thanks to lots of soft angles and circular keys.

It's been reported elsewhere that Pink phones will include Zune services, and have its own app store, making it as close to the Zune phone as we may get. We'll see if it's close enough in the coming months, though these are the only facts our source will let us safely publish for now.

Back to the Future with Phones

Imagine sharing one phone with up to 11 other students on your dorm floor. Penn State students who lived in the residence halls through 1977 don’t need to imagine it; they lived it. Now, with current students’ near-universal use of cell phones, Penn State’s residence halls will once again feature shared hallway phones. That’s just the latest change in campus phone service since the first telephone was installed in the 1880s.

The decision to pull “landlines” (the undoubtedly Gen X-coined term that refers to what those over age 30 tend to call “telephones”) from Penn State’s residence halls turned out to be a no-brainer. As Penn State Housing Director Conal Carr explained to The Daily Collegian in July, some quick research revealed nearly all students carry cell phones, and during the 2007-08 school year, almost three-quarters of them used their room landlines less than 20 times. That hardly justifies the $800,000 Housing was paying to keep the lines active in nearly 50 residence halls.

Replacing the individual room landlines will be courtesy phones in the hallways that will work for local calls and for calling 911 in case of an emergency. “In a way, it’s going back to the way our students’ parents had it,” Carr told The Collegian. The story of phones on campus and in the residence halls has many twists since the first telephone was installed in 1883.

“An Indispensable Nuisance”
A local newspaper, The Bellefonte Democrat Watchman, reported on June 23, 1883, “The State College (as Penn State was then know) now is connected by telephone to the outside world.” President George Atherton was responsible for Penn State’s first telephone, which was located in his office. But Atherton’s daughter, Helen Govier, recalled later that he considered the new form of communication “an indispensable nuisance.” It wasn’t long before the business office, Engineering Building, Agriculture Building, and registrar’s office also had telephones.

Those early telephones were connected to Bellefonte, then the population center of the county. Within five years, Penn State was also connected to Lemont. At the same time, eight of the houses in what would become the town of State College had telephones “from which one may have instant communication with any one of 166 other telephones of the Bellefonte exchange and with 1,800 others through the Central Pennsylvania Telephone Company.” A century before faxes and e-mails, ringing the operator, giving her a name or number, and waiting while she connected your call through her switchboard was considered “instant communication.”

Continue reading story here.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager - Built in Tethering

Good news for BlackBerry owners who tether their phones—RIM has made the process easier by including a bulit-in version in the leaked 5.0.1. Desktop Manager update.

The pre-release version is available now in English and multilingual versions for those anxious to give it a spin. As always, make sure you have a plan that supports tethering so you don't accidentally run up an outrageous data bill. [The BlackBerry Ninja via IntoMobile]

New iPods With Cameras, Microphones

Apple’s September events have traditionally revolved around iPods and iTunes, so it’s obvious this will be the theme of the event. But what, exactly, about the iPod? There’s a pile of evidence suggesting Apple will release new iPod Touch and iPod Nanos with cameras.

Wired.com in July received an inside tip from a well-connected source claiming Apple would soon add a camera and a microphone to the iPod Touch, which would bring it closer in line with the iPhone. Additionally, several other publications reported similar rumors about the Touch and the Nano getting cameras. And the latest iPod-related rumor comes from Taiwanese publication DigiTimes, which claims that not only will the Nano and Touch receive cameras, the iPod Classic will, too.

We’re confident the Nano and Touch will be upgraded with cameras (and, of course, increased storage). Cult of Mac’s Leander Kahney had us convinced when he published a gallery of third-party Touch and Nano cases, which feature holes presumably meant for cameras. (See photo above)

However, we’re doubting the iPod Classic will gain a camera. It’s unlikely Apple would want to invest much more in this product, because its sales have shrunk considerably, thanks to the success of the iPhone. Last quarter, the iPod accounted for 18 percent of Apple’s overall revenue, compared to 55.5 percent in 2006. Also, the iPod Classic is the only hard-drive-based iPod remaining in the iPod family, and flash-memory prices are plummeting. Would a camera really boost this device’s appeal and make it worth the investment? We don’t think so.

One more thing: Because the iPod Touch is basically a phoneless iPhone that many use as a gaming device, the next logical step would be for the iPod Touch to get a performance boost to bring it up to speed with the new iPhone 3GS. We’re so confident in this prediction that we’re willing to bet a Chevy Chevelle on it.

Read More Here.

BlackBerry's App World Webportal

You can now get BlackBerry's application storefront through a webportal. It lets you browse applications on your computer and then email yourself the link to purchase or download the app on your phone.

Definitely a nice shopping alternative to having to browse on your Berry, but I kinda wish you could purchase through the site and then sideload. [BlackBerry via CrackBerry]

Read More Here

Vintage Culture on the Line: Novelty Phones Recall the Past

The saddest thing about the extinction of landlines and corded phones is the death of brilliant novelty phones: Here, Kermit, kicked back so he looks remiss without a cigarette dangling from his mouth, cradles the handset over his legs. (Courtesy of [Wired])

Read More Here
More Pictures Here

Chevy Volt 230MPG City!!!

Sources tell us GM CEO Fritz Henderson will announce today the Chevy Volt extended-range electric vehicle will receive a city fuel economy rating of 230 MPG from the EPA when it hits showroom floors later next year. Holy game-changer, Batman!

This story's still developing, but if our sources are correct, it would blow the Toyota Prius out of the water. Heck, it'd blow every other vehicle currently on the market out of the water with the exception of the Tesla roadster — and that's no four-door mid-size sedan. So for GM this represents a huge marketing coup — the ability to claim the most fuel efficient vehicle in the world and a big blow to detractors who claim the big, sweaty 'merican manufacturer can't build quality products.

We'll have more out of GM's Warren Technical Center as the General holds their big product showcase event throughout the day.

Read More Here

Windows 7 Review

Could Windows 7 accomplish everything that's expected of it? Probably not, but it makes a damn good attempt. We've tested the gold master, the final version going out on October 22. Upgrade without trepidation, people. With excitement, even.

Windows 7 is not quite a "Vista service pack." It does share a lot of the core tech, and was clearly designed to fix nearly every bad thing anyone said about Vista. Which ironically puts the demon that it was trying to exorcise at its heart. What that means is that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been in the public eye—a solid OS with plenty of modern eye candy that mostly succeeds in taking Windows usability into the 21st century—but it doesn't daringly innovate or push boundaries or smash down walls or whatever verb meets solid object metaphor you want to use, because it had a specific set of obligations to meet, courtesy of its forebear.

That said, if you're coming from Windows XP, Windows 7 will totally feel like a revelation from the glossy future. If you're coming from Vista, you'll definitely go "Hey, this is much better!" the first time you touch Aero Peek. If you're coming from a Mac, you'll—-hahahahaha. But seriously, even the Mactards will have to tone down their nasal David Spadian snide, at least a little bit.

Read More Here.

How to Keep Your Lunch Yours at the Office

If you've ever walked over to your office fridge anticipating the lunchtime meal that awaits you only to discover that someone else has nabbed your meal, foodie weblog Chow details how to avoid being left empty-handed.

We're big fans of the anti-theft lunch bag, but if your sandwich is already gone, Chow's "Table Manners" Q&A column has addressed the problem that is the office kitchen thief. Reader Hungry for Justice wrote in when his chicken sandwich was eaten by a co-worker. "I wrote a mean note and taped it on the fridge, but I felt totally impotent. I'm still really angry about it. What's the best way to keep people from stealing your stuff, and chastise them when they do?" inquired Hungry.

Chow suggested that rather than criticize someone or use devious tactics to get at them, it's better to air your situation to whomever will listen with the aim that it will get back to the thief-in-question. If that's too passive aggressive or time-consuming, then pen an explicit note and tape it to the fridge. How explicit? They suggest using "concrete terms" and "plaintive, rather than aggressive, language." Need an example?

"To whomever ate my eggplant sandwich yesterday, I got up a half hour early so I could make a healthy lunch. When I discovered it missing, I had to spend half my lunch hour going to the deli for a $7 sandwich I couldn't afford. I don't mean to be a jerk, but times are tough right now, and I don't have much to spread around. Sincerely …"

As a last resort, the article says to keep your food nearby, like in your desk drawer. Have any office food nightmares and coping mechanisms to share? If so, detail yours below. And if you're not concerned by would-be lunch thieves, then check out our guide to making your brown bag lunch more appealing.

If office gremlins are making off with your daily meal, innovative designer Sherwood Forlee has a clever solution: the Anti-Theft Lunch Bag. Simply put, Anti-Theft Lunch Bags "are regular sandwich bags that have green splotches printed on both sides." With your sandwich inside, the bag simulates mold and makes the contents look disgusting. These bags aren't available for purchase, but the idea shouldn't be difficult to replicate if you need more sandwich security at your workplace. Read More.

USB 3.0 Enabled PCs

Most of the news about USB 3.0—the finalization of the spec, the first drivers, the first controller—doesn't tell us much about when we'll actually get to see a product hit stores. The answer? According to Nikkei, before 2010.

Their contacts in the Tawianese PC industry predict the first machines to include the hardware will start rolling off the line by the end of the year, citing rapid development in integrated circuits and the shipment of compliant controllers to PC manufacturers. The date is a bit earlier than the "early 2010" prediction that's been bandied around recently, and inline with initial predictions of a 2009 release.

A quick reminder of what this means:

With transfer speeds of 4.8Gbps, it'll dump a 25GB HD file in about 70 seconds, and the architecture has been beefed up with extra data lanes to make for more sustained, rather than bursty transfer speeds, making it better for camcorders and the like. Even though it delivers more power than USB 2.0 to charge gadgets faster (and it'll revive a completely dead one too), its new polling architecture makes it more efficient.

Unfortunately, full 5Gbps speeds won't be reached for some time.

Read More Here

GCFLearnFree.org

GCFLearnFree.org® is supported by the Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. (GCF®) whose mission is "to create and provide education, employment, and life enrichment opportunities for people who desire to improve the quality of their lives".

GCFLearnFree.org exists to serve the educational part of the GCF mission. We create and provide quality, innovative online learning opportunities to anyone who wants to improve the technology, literacy, and math skills necessary for them to be successful in both work and life. We believe there's freedom in the ability to learn what you want, when you want, regardless of your circumstances. That's why we're 'GCFLearnFree.org.'

Over 700,000 learners from around the world have taken advantage of our free learning opportunities. Read their testimonials to see what they're saying or take a look at our interactive maps to see how far-reaching our program is today!

GCFLearnFree.org, formerly GCF Global Learning®, is operated on behalf of GCF by Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina, Inc. (GIENC).

Outstanding Service Earns National Award

TOP TEN

MedCom Professional Services, Inc. Wins ATSI Award of Excellence

MedCom Professional Services, Inc. of Levittown, PA has been honored with the exclusive 2009 Award of Excellence for twelve consecutive years, earning a combined score of 96.9%. The award is presented annually by the Association of TeleServices International (ATSI), the industry’s trade association for providers of telecommunications and call center services including telephone answering and message delivery. MedCom Professional Services, Inc. was presented with the award at ATSI’s 2009 Annual Convention held at the Westin Convention Center Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA.

After six months of intensive testing, an independent panel of judges scored call-handling skills such as courtesy, response time, accuracy and overall service to their clients, the cornerstones of the call management industry. If a company scores 80% or better in ALL categories, they are presented with the coveted Award of Excellence.

“The ATSI Award of Excellence offers the industry the kind of quality testing and benchmarking that is essential to help us establish the service levels demanded by our customers. We congratulate MedCom Professional Services, not only for their TOP TEN achievement in 2008 but also for following up this year with another TOP TEN placement in 2009 from a field of 136 participating telephone answering services,” stated ATSI President Dennis O’Hara.

Now a twelve-time winner, MedCom Professional Services, Inc. has earned the Diamond Award for twelve consecutive years. ATSI congratulates the staff of MedCom Professional Services, Inc. on their proven quality service to their customers.

About ATSI
The Association of TeleServices International was founded in 1942 as a national trade association representing live answering services. ATSI now encompasses companies across the United States offering specialized and enhanced operator based services including: call centers, contact centers, inbound telemarketing, paging, voice messaging, emergency dispatch, fax, and internet services among others.

Multi-Device Wireless Broadband from Sprint MiFi

It's a MiFi, Sprint's new wireless broadband device, and it's geek gadget magic that'll realistically fit in your wallet. Disclosure! Sprint gave us a MiFi device to test. We tested it for a couple weeks and sent it back. We were sad to see it go.

We first tested the device with three laptops at a Facebook Vanity URL-Grabbing party. The host's WiFi connection was getting bogged down with traffic from about 20 other devices, so three of us picked a spot and huddled around the warmth of our own connection.

Sweetly simple and functional, the device easily accommodated the three users' surfing around. Multimedia uploads were as zippy as on a normal connection during the time we were test-driving the device.

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Today is the Digital TV Switch

Are you ready for the transition to the digiterized picture-box? We certainly hope so: Today, June 12th, we'll all be moving over to digital television and discarding the rabbit ears forever. Well, the few of us who need to, anyway.

It's been a long road, paved with delays, misunderstandings, and altercations with the rare Hawaiian dark-rumped petrel. We'd love to hear your experiences: Has anybody actually tried it out? Good experiences? Bad? Let us know in the comments. [DTV]

iPhone 3G S announced: $199 16GB, $299 32GB, June 19

As endlessly predicted, Apple's unveiled a new iPhone today at WWDC, the iPhone 3G S -- the "s" stands for speed. Although it looks almost exactly like the 3G, it's much, much faster -- some tasks are almost four times faster. Data speeds are upped to 7.2Mbps HSDPA, and the camera is now a 3 megapixel unit with tap-to-autofocus and auto white balance -- and just as expected, it now supports 30fps VGA video recording with editing features. You're also getting a built-in compass, Nike+ support, and a new battery that offers 5 hours of 3G talk time and 9 hours of WiFi internet use. There are some surprises, too -- holding down the home button now enables a new voice control interface that lets you do everything from make calls to control iTunes, and Apple's touting a new "fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating." New and end-of-contract pricing is set at $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB when it goes on sale June 18th Stateside and in 80 more countries in August -- and the current 8GB 3G will remain on sale for $99, effective immediately. You'll have to pay a bit more if you're mid-contract, though -- $299 for the 3G and $399/$499 for the 3G S.

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10 cool tools in Windows 7

The changes to the Windows 7 interface have gotten a lot of play, but some of the new built-in tools are just as compelling. Deb Shinder runs through some of the most impressive enhancements, from the ISO burner to the Biometric Framework to PowerShell v2.

read more | digg story

First Look at the BlackBerry Storm 2

CrackBerry's got the first photos of the BlackBerry Storm 2, the phone that hopes to set right what once went wrong. It looks thinner than the original Storm, and has a 3.2-megapixel cam on the back. It doesn't seem like there's any other info. More pics if you head over to the site.

Clickfree Traveler External SSD is Credit-Card Sized For Convenience

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Clickfree's new external SSD comes in 16GB ($80), 32GB ($150), and 64GB ($250) capacities. Roughly the size of a credit card, the Traveler is a compact but pricey drive.

Clickfree has also released the DVD Transformer ($40), which plugs in like a standard USB drive, but automatically scans your computer for personal files and other important data then backs it up on CD or DVD. [Clickfree via CNET and Slashgear]

Selgas Cano Capsule Office Looks Great in the Forest, Would Look Better on the Moon

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Ever wonder what kind of office a cutting-edge architect actually works in? If you're employed at the Selgas Cano architectural firm near Madrid, it looks something like this.

One edge of this long, tubular office is made entirely of glass, simultaneously helping workers feel closer to nature and a bit like they're slaving away in a hermetically sealed research station on a faraway dystopian planet. A unique experience, to be sure.

Though it's not apparent in the first picture, most of the office is underground, zoo-exhibit-style. This apparently helps save on heating and cooling bills, but to try to make a practical defense of such a proudly overdesigned structure is kind of missing the point. Check out Iwan Baan's full gallery here. [Archdaily via BoingBoing Gadgets]

Deposit Checks via Cell Phone

NCR is now allowing customers to deposit checks anywhere they get reception on their data-enabled mobile phones.

Assuming you don't already direct deposit all your checks, NCR's APTRA Passport checking software could be great news. Your phone's camera, which must be at least 2-megapixels, acts as a scanner that captures an image of the check. APTRA then uses Mitek Systems' advanced recognition and image quality technologies to validate all data before transmitting those images directly to your financial institution or online banking web site. Presto! You're done.

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Microsoft Vine To Connect Family, Friends When Crisis Hits

"Microsoft is launching a new product into private beta on Tuesday morning with the aim of keeping friends and family in touch during emergencies. The idea for product, called Microsoft Vine, came to Microsoft GM Public Safety Initiatives Tammy Savage four and half years ago during Hurricane Katrina. Development started a year and a half ago.Vine is designed to keep family and friends in touch when other communication methods are either broken or not particularly efficient. Times of crisis usually involve a breakdown in mobile phone or other key communication infrastructures, and Vine is designed to be as hardy as possible to keep people connected. Vine can be accessed via a desktop client (Windows only for now), text message or email.So what is it? Vine is a tool keep people connected during a crisis, but it’s also used to for more mundane, everyday tasks."

read more | digg story

Folks losing homes dial 1-800; no one answers

• Many homeowners facing foreclosure say getting through to banks is nightmare.
• "After being on the phone with them, they send you to an automated lady."
• Lenders say they're overwhelmed by the amount of calls, doing all they can.
• Lawyer: "In the meantime, lenders are continuing to move forward with foreclosure."

The entire ordeal has been draining, especially trying to reach somebody at the bank. "You call them. After being on the phone with them, they send you to an automated lady. [Then] they send you to a Web site after you've been on the phone for an hour." Banks and lenders say that they have been overwhelmed with calls and that they're doing all they can to help ease the situation for Americans in distress.

Megan Cavallari waits on hold for more than an hour with her bank as she tries to save her home from foreclosure. Then she gets the "automated lady" -- again. It's happening to Americans time and again, with some put on hold for 2 ½ hours. "The waiting time is ridiculous," one attorney said. "They called 800 numbers that went into a black hole."

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PIN Number Scams / Malware

Instead of using mechanical means to steal from debit cardholders, some thieves are using malware to swipe huge numbers of encrypted and unencrypted PINs. It's not yet widespread, but it'll take serious work to prevent.

Basically, when you type your PIN into an ATM, the PIN is encrypted by the bank, only to be decrypted by your own bank, who (hopefully) approves the transaction. That leaves two ways for these thieves to get access to swathes of PINs. First, they can install malware to copy the PINs in the brief time they're decrypted, while they're sitting in a bank's memory cache waiting to be authorized. Banks typically rely on anti-virus software to catch this kind of attack, and resourceful hackers have taken advantage of this inattention. The second way involves a piece of software that tricks the bank's security software into providing the decryption key for the PINs.

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The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity

Thanks to its extensibility, Firefox quickly became the favorite browser for most power users. But while extensions are a great way to make Firefox more functional, Mozilla's designers are also currently thinking about a complete redesign of the way the browser looks and feels, in order to keep up with changing usage patterns. The most radical proposal we have seen so far would do away with the standard browser tabs, and replace them with an interface that looks more like iTunes.

read more | digg story

Desk jobs making more people obese, study finds

Desk jobs are increasing obesity, with many employees and employers ignorant of the risks of sitting down all day. A link between obesity and conditions in the workplace was growing. As the workplace becomes our second home, our traditional diets have been swapped for fast food that is high in saturates.

"A basic cause of obesity related to the workplace is a lack of awareness of how serious this issue is among employers and employees," said Athena Linos, an epidemiology lecturer at Athens University. "Factors include work-related stress, overtime and desk-bound jobs."

read more | digg story

BlackBerry App World Has Officially Launched

BlackBerry App World™ lets you personalize your BlackBerry® smartphone with tons of great apps that let you do more with your time while you’re on the go. You can download BlackBerry App World from your desktop computer or your BlackBerry smartphone at no cost. Purchasing apps from BlackBerry App World requires a PayPal® account.

The current categories include:

- Entertainment
- Games
- Maps and Navigation
- Music and Video
- News and Weather
- Personal Finance and Banking
- Personal Health and Wellness
- Productivity and Utilities
- Professional and Business
- Reference and eBooks
- Social Networking and Sharing
- Sports and Recreation
- Travel

T-Mobile webConnect 3G/Wi-Fi USB Stick Hands-On

T-Mobile's 3G laptop USB sticks are finally here. First off is the speed test. 952kbps down and 318kbps up isn't too bad when you consider that T-Mobile's network is fairly new, and I was connecting from inside my house. The device itself is an L-shaped swivel that can hit up EDGE, 3G (HSDPA/UMTS), or Wi-Fi, if you're on a T-Mobile Hotspot. There's a slot for 8GB of microSD/SDHC memory, and comes with a male to female USB extension cable in order to avoid USB crowding. The only downside now is that it's Windows-only, with OS X support "available in the coming months." It's always good when someone releases a 3G dongle, especially T-Mobile, who can definitely use more.

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AT&T Source Spills Details on New iPhone Coming in June?

* New iPhone announcement around mid-June (duh)
* New iPhone will be faster and have a more seamless experience unmatched by any device (could be just talking about 3.0, but we think it’s also a new iPhone)
* U-Verse iPhone application; will allow control of your home DVR (play, pause, rewind, etc.)
* The annual iPhone launch is “becoming a tradition.”
* Nothing official is being confirmed, but they said that people should prep for an exciting time this summer.
* AT&T is said to be working with Apple to create a unified product with an unparalleled experience across all their products and services.
* Apple’s 3.0 software should tell us where the iPhone platform is going… uh, k?
* They said customers shouldn’t need to choose from AT&T’s high-end devices because of features, they should choose based on preferences. The gap in capability should be filled with the new iPhone. Ok, bets on slide out QWERTY, autofocus camera, video sharing, blah blah?
* Seems like the higher speed HSDPA (7.2Mbps) is being hinted at too which should confirm the earlier rumors of the new Infineon chipset.
* The $99 3G netbook will start selling this summer, and the first one won’t be a Windows OS.

read more | digg story

Grand Central Evolution to Google Voice

We've just started to release a preview of Google Voice, an application that helps you better manage your voice communications. Google Voice will be available initially to existing users of GrandCentral, a service we acquired in July of 2007. The new application improves the way you use your phone. You can get transcripts of your voicemail (see the video below) and archive and search all of the SMS text messages you send and receive.

You can also use the service to make low-priced international calls and easily access Goog-411 directory assistance. As you may know, GrandCentral offers many great features, including a single number to ring your home, work, and mobile phones, a central voicemail inbox that you could access on the web, and the ability to screen calls by listening in live as callers leave a voicemail. You'll find these features, and more, in the Google Voice preview. Check out the features page for videos and more information on how these features work.

If you're already using GrandCentral, over the next couple days, you will receive instructions in your GrandCentral inbox on how to start using Google Voice. We'll be opening it up to others soon, so if you'd like to be notified when that happens, please send us your email address.

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