My personal opinion is that if you’re going to buy a computer running Windows 7 in the near future, and you want a name brand, stick with the Dell Business class of computers. That’s the Optiplex (desktop) and Latitude (laptop) categories. I recommend the business class to everyone, as the consumer line is mostly rubbish, as are most consumer laptops sold in stores. The hardware is the cheapest that can be found, and the case (this matters more on laptops than desktops) is very cheap plastic. On the other hand, the business class computers are sold with corporate clients in mind, those who pay more, have service contracts, and control more of Dell’s bottom line. Those computers have to be held to a higher standard than the usual consumer brand.

If you’re in the market right now for a new desktop computer, a great deal is on the Dell small business website, for a Dell Optiplex 790 with dual 22″ monitors. I would recommend this setup for anyone in a small or medium sized business that needs a computer to last a long while, with quality parts and a 3 year warranty on the hardware. The processor will last for a long time and not slow, it includes the base amount of RAM for Windows 7 64 (4gb) and has a decent sized hard drive. Here’s the link to this deal: Dell Small Business Optiplex 790.

I’ll post more in the next few days about other machines to look into when you’re looking for a new computer, but this is a start.

TripCubby & GasCubby – I use Tripcubby to keep track of the trips that I take back and forth between clients, as well as my rental property in midtown. This is great for tax purposes, and it’s a great interface. You can store multiple cars in it as well.

I use Gascubby for keeping up with my gas mileage; to make sure I get the most I can out of my tank. It’s also useful to enter all the maintenance that goes into the car, when they take place, the mileage on the car, and how much is spent. It also has a feature to remind you when to service your car next. Both of these programs can export to an easy to read excel file.

Amazon – The Amazon app is used at almost any store I come to. If I see a product that I’m interested in, and I want to know more about it, I scan the ISBN barcode with the Amazon app, and Amazon pulls up the product (as long as they sell it). I can then see the reviews people have given it, as well as how much it’s selling for. Sometimes, the store I’m in will even match the price!

Line2 – Line2 is great for my business. I pay $10 a month, and the phone number I purchased to be used for my business rings in this app, so I have two phone lines on one phone. The app rings on my phone just like it rings normally, though it displays as a Line 2 call, so I know it’s not to my personal number, and I can either send the call to voicemail (stored on Line2′s servers) or answer it. The voicemail is smart as well, displaying a visual call log just like the iPhone does. I can also use the app when there’s no cell signal in range, as long as there’s a Wi-Fi access point available to me. Line2 also includes SMS service.

Remember the Milk – I chose Remember the Milk out of all the task management software because of its built in synchronization feature, specifically that it doesn’t rely on any other service to sync with my computer, but it still gets backed up and is accessible anywhere. Remember the Milk makes it easy to enter new tasks,

which is a huge plus because I don’t want to spend too much time on just a note. If I have anything to add to my note, I can easily do that later. Their website is also very simple to use, as I can edit, delete and create new tasks there.

Another app that I’m testing is Evernote. Evernote differs from Remember the Milk because it stores the data on your desktop as well as a website and your smartphone. I’d use this over Remember the Milk because I can view and update notes on my computer offline. I’m torn between the two because I really like the interface of Remember the Milk more than Evernote, and because it’s just a simple note taker, whereas Evernote is a bit more cluttered for my needs.

Dropbox – I’ve talked about this before, and I think a few of my customers are using it. This is a great service that allows you to put up to 2 GBs worth of data (for the free service, you can pay for additional space) into a folder on your computer, and it automatically synchronizes to Dropbox’s servers automatically. I then have access to that data anywhere, be it on their easy to use webpage, my smart phone, or another computer that has the Dropbox client installed. I save web pages that I’m working on in Dropbox so I can edit them from my iPad, my work computer and my laptop, and all the edits get synchronized automatically. So whatever computer I’m at, the files are all up to date.

I’ve also used Dropbox for note taking, and it worked for a little while, but eventually, the notes started duplicating themselves and made it too hard to work with, which is why I went with Remember the Milk.

1Password – I’ve talked about 1Password before as well, and I can’t stop promoting this software. It does just what it says, it’s a password vault. You can store all your passwords for your bank, your websites, and your bill pay sites, anything you can think of. Mine stores that, plus serial numbers for software that I’ve purchased, logins for accounts, as well as my banking information. Their security is top-notch, and I’ve never worried about storing any sensitive data there.

Part 2 will be published tomorrow. I hope this helps you in your technology usage. Thanks for reading!

At first, I tried the regular bluetooth headset that hooks to your ear, and attaches to another headphone, and that didn’t work because that’s just one more thing to lose. Then I decided to look for something a little more sturdy.

Enter the S10-HD Stereo Bluetooth Headset from Motorola. This is exactly what I was looking for. As the name suggests, this is a stereo bluetooth headset that goes behind your head. The headset comes with a charger that’s compatible with a standard Mini-USB port, as well as 4 sets of ear buds to fit your ears.

The headphones include a built-in microphone so you can talk, just like a normal bluetooth headset. From all my use of the headset, I’ve found that people on the other end can hear me just fine, with a minimum of background noise. It has controls for playing music on one ear, and controls for handling a phone call on the other ear.

On to the main focus of the device, the music. To my ears, this device sounds just like the headphones I plug in to the phone. It sounds great! I listen to a mixture of rock and audiobooks, so the sound is fine for my ears.

The battery lasts for around 6-8 hours of continuous use, which is the cause of one of my complaints, as I always forget to plug it in. My other complaint is that, while the advertising says that it’s sweat proof, the cushions that are supposed to come between the headphones and your head are trying to fall off, due to the moisture that they end up absorbing. I solved that by taping them back on, which isn’t very elegant, but it works.

Those complaints out of the way, I think this is a great solution for someone that needs cordless headphones but wants to listen to audio all day. I’ve included a link to Amazon below, and if you purchase through it, I’ll get a commission from your purchase.

Thanks for reading! Please post if you have any questions.

Did you know that Amazon donates a portion of their proceeds to specific entities when you shop through a specific link? For instance, Gwinnett County Public Library has a Donate link that allows you to shop through Amazon, and when you check out, a small commission on the items you buy is donated to the Gwinnett County Public Library system.

This isn’t just for libraries. There are many non-profits that can use the affiliate money that Amazon can donate to them just by shopping. Click here for a list of non-profits that you can help. Amazon screens each non-profit and verifies they are a legal operation before allowing them to partake of the commissions.

Affiliates for Charity.org

Gwinnett County Public Library Support Page

Our friend had gone into the phones settings and clicked the Reset All Settings option in the reset menu, but didn’t tap “Erase All Content and Settings”, and the phone was still getting the text messages (in this case, iMessages). Enter Wipe my phone, a free utility from Apple that’s included in the Find My iPhone app. We used that to remotely wipe the phone and we are no longer seeing anything weird with text messages or anything else.

Just a heads up when you’re selling your old electronic devices that may have some personal data on them. If I can help in any way, please let me know.

A new site has come up, The Conficker Eye Chart, which lets consumers and computer technicians know if a computer is infected with the Conficker worm. It was put together by the Conficker working group, and is essentially a web page linking to various security websites, websites you wouldn’t be able to access if you had the Conficker worm on your computer. Conficker stops access to these websites so the infected user won’t be able to download software to fix the problems it creates.

The page describes what would happen if you did have the Conficker worm installed on your computer, or if you didn’t have it installed and just wanted to check. I think this is a great idea and would be applicable for many other viruses and malicious software detection in the future.

I like that it takes the metadata from iTunes (my default player) and uploads it, along with the mp3. Play count as well as the rating (in the form of thumbs up or thumbs down).

I wish I was able to tell it what music I wanted it to upload, as it stands, it only uploads the entire iTunes library (I haven’t found any way to adjust what to upload). I know I don’t want to upload my audiobooks or pdf files that are stored in books (I wonder if those go up by default).

It’s quite generous with it’s free songs, I only selected 4 out of the 12+ categories of music that I like, but Google Music supplied me with at least 50 songs. Nice.

But it doesn’t work. This is in Chrome 11.something and the following error comes up:

It works fine in Safari. Interesting irony is interesting. It seems that I’m not alone: according to this link.

edit: I’ve been uploading now for about 10 hours, and it’s gotten 110 songs. That’s with a 2 mb upload stream. I hope that Apple’s cloud solution won’t require an upload of music, but that it scans the library and shares that.

That said, the google solution isn’t a bad one, just missing some important features, and is a bit buggy. We’ll see how it matures.

Dear Gmail User ,

your two incoming mails were placed on pending status due to the recent upgrade to our database,

In order to receive the messages Click here.to login and wait for responds from Gmail.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.

Regards, Gmail Team.

You haven’t been hacked, this is actually an attempt to phish (according to Wiki: “is a way of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”) your information. If you click the link, it will take you to a somewhat official looking Google web page, where it asks for your authentication information, including your password. If you have already done that, PLEASE CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD, and report the problem to Google (via this page: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1074268)

I send this out now, because I received this phishing attempt over the weekend on my iPhone, and it looked almost legitimate. If I wasn’t already skeptical about the content of the message, I might have clicked the link. If you receive the email, report it to Google via the link given above, and if you haven’t received it, watch out, and be aware. As always, I’m available to help if you have problems with your computer.

On the iPad, tap settings and tap Safari, and turn off Javascript.

Open Safari, and navigate to m.google.com.

Tap the sync icon/button, and tap “Sign in with your Google Account”.

Enter your google information, sign in, and tap, under Manage Devices, your iPad.

Check the Shared Calendar that you need access to, and tap save.

True, it’s not very intuitive, but it’s there. I hope this helps.