There's an app for that...

Starting today, it is now illegal in Massachusetts to use a cell phone's texting, email, and other "non phone" features while driving.

Well, for those that need to keep up, there's an app (or two) for that. Hiawatha Bray from the Boston Globe samples a couple.

I will take a look at the free Android ones for this week's App Corner.

RIM, Hewlett-Packard, May Slash Prices to Chase Apple's IPad, Analysts Say - Bloomberg

RIM this week joined HP, Acer Inc., LG Electronics Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and Dell Inc. in announcing plans to sell tablets. The new rivals will probably grapple for sales by appealing to consumers’ pocketbooks, said Rhoda

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 09-26-10

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 09-26-10. You can listen live every Sunday from 11AM to 12PM Pacific that's 2PM to 3PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat.

Links from the Gregg Zone

1) First link up a TED video on sustainability and how much can be done by motivating the world’s biggest companies. The numbers are pretty alarming presented the way they are here, meaning by that by some very qualified people studying in a very in depth manner. This might just work, I was pretty impressed with the fact they are making progress on some very big problems. http://www.ted.com/talks

2) An old story back in the news… the red rain in India is coming back around, I had totally forgot about looking for a follow up on this story. In case you missed it this was about 9-10 years ago when a red rain fell on an area of India, trying to determine why it was red they discovered it was full of some very strange cells. Some are saying it is proof of panspermia theory, that being that life is everywhere in space. The article was not as informative as I hoped but still interesting. http://www.technologyreview.com/

3) I have been using both Chrome and Firefox browsers for a while now. I prefer Firefox in general, but Chrome does a better job when watching my T.V. news shows. I have been wondering if Chrome just handles my low bandwidth situation better, anyway an interesting comparison article here http://blog.internetnews.com

4) This business of a new physics every few months is getting interesting. We are just getting a grip on just how much we don’t know. All I can say about this article is if you can read it and understand what they are getting at you are way ahead of me. I just keep trying but I am not sure why. http://news.yahoo.com/

5) Last up an article about how much Apple has changed in just one short decade, this is a perfect illustration of how fast technology is advancing. It really is getting a little scary in a weird way, I am sure anyone my age has noticed this anomaly totally distorting time perception. http://gizmodo.com

Earl's Cyber Steals and Deals

Mwave has the OCZ OCZUSBDSL16G 16GB Diesel Flash Drive

for $30 - $10 rebate [Exp 9/30] + $0 shipping = $20 shipped with free "M" club membership. Rated for up to 28MB/s (read), 15MB/s (write) and lifetime warranty



SuperBiiz has the AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor for $62 - 15% off with coupon code FALL15 [Exp 9/26] = $53 with free shipping. Features 2x1MB L2 cache, 65W thermal power, virtualization technology and 64-bit support. Heatsink and fan included. Excellent reviews at Newegg.



Mwave has the OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model OCZ3OB1600LV4GK for $85 - $15 rebate [Exp 9/30] + $0 shipping = $70 shipped



Tiger Direct has the refu Draft Wireless-N Gigabit Router for $40 + $5 shipping = $45 shippedrbished Linksys WRT310N IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g, IEEE802.11n. MWave has it for a couple cents more with free "M" Club membership



MWave has the Sabrent WCM-6LNV 6-LED Infrared Night-Vision 1.3 MP USB 2.0 Webcam with Audio Microphone for $10 + $0 shipping = $10 shipped with free "M" Club membership. Features 1/3" sensor, 6mm lens, 640x480 video, metal body, manual focus ring.



Newegg has the Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS 2TB 5900 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive (Bare Drive) for $110 - $10 off with coupon code EMCYXNR36 [Exp 9/25] = $100 with free shipping. From Seagate's line of low-power "green" drives.





Newegg has the Optical Quantum 25GB 4X BD-R 10 Pack Blu-ray Discs (OQBDR04LT-10) for $9 with free shipping. Can store over 2 hours of 1080p high-definition video or 5 times more of standard DVD quality video



Frys has the CyberPower CP1350AVRLCD 1350VA 810W UPS for $95 - $15 rebate [Exp 9/30] = $80 with free in-store pickup or $11 shipping. Features dynamic line conditioning and a LCD diagnostic display. Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR) ensures that all your electronics are receiving clean power. Frys ad.





Super Media Store has the PQI 32GB U262 Traveling Disk USB Flash Drive for $50 - $3 off with coupon code ADFAA37C [Exp 9/27] = $47 with free shipping. Features a 360 degree swivel lidless design made of hairline treated aluminum.

Twitter bug spreading, users urged to stay off website :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Nation

"A new way to cause mischief quickly spread through short-messaging service Twitter on Tuesday morning before the site could fix the problem, as mysterious 'tweets' of blocked-out text propagated themselves and caused popup windows to open.

This was from Rob_Bako in our chat, Thanks Rob

AlaskaJoe

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 09-19-10

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 09-19-10. You can listen live every Sunday from 11AM to 12PM Pacific that's 2PM to 3PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat.

Today's App Corner

This week we have a new app appropriate to the start of the NFL season. It is CBS Sports Pro Football. There are versions for iOS and for Android and they are all free.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cbs-sports-pro-football/id328953606?mt=8 (iPhone, iPod)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cbs-sports-pro-football-for/id391150826?mt=8 (iPad)

http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-july-cbssports-activity-zBxm.aspx (Android)

Links from the Gregg Zone

1) Well it should not be to tough to guess my first link this week, yea the link is just to their main page, but there are lots of story links there. The other thing I did was to go to Youtube used the search term X-prize and watched them all drive around. Of the top three I could see myself in the Li-ion. http://www.progressiveautoxprize.org/

2) If you live in the big city and always wondered what the big was with watching the stars, check out the work of this photographer. She does some really nice work with night sky time lapse, sites in Spanish, but pictures are universal. http://www.astrosurf.com

3) I saw this a couple weeks back, forgot about it until I got my Netflix disk today. When I saw this site I thought I would watch some of the old Star Trek T.V. series season one came today. This site tracks the evolution of the different warp drive effects used in the shows and movies. It was an interesting trip down memory lane. http://gizmodo.com

4) Not to sure what to think of this new product coming out soon. Spray clothes in a can, it seems to me that most of the people is see, I just don’t want to see wearing this. However there are most likely a lot of uses not mentioned or thought of yet. http://www.telegraph.co.

5) Last with a geek tinted link, listening to this show it should come as no surprise that in a survey one out of ten people say they would rather have a colonoscopy than clean up their computer. Several other interesting answers about computer habits surveyed http://www.theregister.co

Earl's Cyber Steals and Deals

Black / Silver / Blue 2.5" USB External Hard Drive Enclosure for 2.5" SATA HDD Storage with HD Case $3.99 w/Code: MLCK192496091731NL1 (1000 Orders)

Meritline.com Daily Deals

$1 newsletter subscribers only, EverydaySource.com offers the USB Flash Memory Card Reader in Smoke for $5.99. Coupon code "S9SDMC" cuts it to 99 cents. With free shipping, This reader is compatible with SDHC, SD, and MMC cards.

newegg.com offers the ASUS 23.6" 1080p Widescreen LCD Monitor, model no. MS246H, for $144.99 with free shipping via the directions below. Features include an ultra-slim 16.5mm thickness, native resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p), 50,000:1 contrast ratio, 2ms response time, HDMI input, and both DVI and VGA inputs. Deal ends September 19. To get this deal: 1.Click here and add it to your cart for $189.99 2.add coupon code "ASUSPROMO" to your cart to cut it to $164.99 3.redeem this $20 mail-in rebate to further cut it to $144.99

newegg.com offers the OEM LG 10x Internal SATA Blu-ray Burner no. WH10LS30K, with the Verbatim 25GB 4x BD-R Media 10-Pack, Verbatim 25GB 2x BD-R Single Jewel Case Disc, LG 3D glasses, and LG CyberLink PowerDVD 9 for $114.99 with free shipping. Add coupon code "EMCYXZV28" to your cart to cut it to $110.19. Reads and writes Blu-ray discs, DVDs, and CDs. It burns BD-R at 10x, BD-RE at 2x, DVD+/-R at 16x, DVD+RW at 8x, DVD-RW at 6x, dual layer DVD-R at 4x, and more. Deal ends September 30.

Buy.com offers the Kingston 8GB DataTraveler Locker USB 2.0 Flash Drive, model no. DTL/8GB, for $24.95. This $15 mail-in rebate cuts it to $9.95. It includes DT Encryptor encryption software for Windows and a 5-year warranty. Rebate ends September 27. Also available is the the Kingston 4GB DataTraveler Generation 3 USB 2.0 Flash Drive, model no. DTIG3/4GB, for $6.95 plus free shipping ($1.74/GB).

Kingston 16GB DataTraveler 101 Generation 2
(G2) USB Flash Drive (Black) Buy.com price: $22.95 FREE BUDGET SHIPPING

Kingston USB 2.0 Hi-Speed 19-in-1 Media Reader
FREE BUDGET SHIPPING Buy.com price: $10.95

eCost has the refurbished HP Pavilion p6367c Quad Core Desktop PC for $420 + $28 shipping = $448 shipped. Intel Core 2 Quad 8300 2.5GHz, 8GB DDR3, 1TB SATA HDD Intel GMA X4500, SuperMulti DVD±R/RW DL, Windows 7 HP x64

TradePub has the The GNU/Linux Advanced Administration eBook for Free. Features instructions to install and configure several computer services and information about managing Linux networks, server and data administration, security, clustering, and coexistence with non-Linux systems.

MWave has the for $20 + $0 shipping = $20 shipped

PQI 16GB U262 Traveling Disk USB Flash Drive

with free "M" Club membership. Features a 360 degree swivel lidless design made of hairline treated aluminum.

Newegg has the Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive + Western Digital Elements 120GB External Hard Drive WDBAAR1200ABK-NESN for $110 - $10 off with coupon code EMCYXZV25 [Exp 9/22] = $100 with free shipping. [Compare]

Thousands of Free Computer (and other) Videos on YouTube

There are thousands of Tutorial videos on YouTube offering advice, tricks, and tips on learning about your computer. How do you figure which are worth watching?

10 Fantastic Photoshop Tutorials on YouTube

Below are CDROM and/or Video providers that you can usually buy but are free on YouTube:

Learnkey
Train Signal
CBT Nuggets

Also - Piano tutorials on YouTube

How to Download Videos from Websites Like Google Video, YouTube, MySpace, and Others

Free 145MB Video Tutorial on SharePoint for you to Download | SharePoint-Videos.com

Click the link on this article's title to download the video article package on Introduction to SharePoint 2010. The download zip file is about 145 MB and has a total of 5 videos, each about 10 minutes in length. Once downloaded, unzip the package and click on the default.htm file to begin.

Steep price drop for T-Mobile's new G2 Android - t-mobile, RadioShack, Phones, Google, consumer electronics, Cell Phones, Best Buy - Good Gear Guide

Strange to see Best Buy announce a $199.99 price on pre-orders beginning last Friday, followed by a tweet from Radio Shack over the weekend indicating that it would sell the handset for just $149.99 with an instant rebate.

Browsers Get a Face-Lift - MS releases IE9 Beta Sept 15th

Microsoft, Google Inc. and Mozilla Corp. are focusing on a capability called "hardware acceleration," in which the browsers harness modern computers' graphics processors to deliver pages with richer, more fluid animations and video. MS to release IE9 Beta 10 AM PST on Wednesday, Sept 15.

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 09-12-10

We are starting the show 1 hour later and will only be live for 1 hour. We will only have an MP3 feed , We will no longer have a WMV, or WMA, or Ogg Vorbis feeds. The Podcast will be for 1 hour only also.

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 09-12-10. You can listen live every Sunday from 11AM to 12PM Pacific that's 2PM to 3PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat.

We are working on improving the audio for this feed, Please bear with us.

India's $35 Android 7-inch Tablet to Hit in January

Buzz found this and posted it in the chat Sunday morning........
The tablet device will have web browsing, including the ability to access YouTube. Official specs have yet to be confirmed, but it's said to have WiFi, come in a variety of sizes, and pack 2GB of storage

Links from the Gregg Zone

1) One of the most intriguing subjects these days is the need to deal with trash in an effective way. There are a lot of people on this planet, and we are all producing something in the way of trash. So it was very nice to read this article about the new industry direction described here http://www.green-energy-news.com
2) I find it interesting the way technology has this interesting way of occasionally advancing by discovering older technologies that can be used in new ways, due to the advancement of new technologies. This is an example of that; in the computer world electronically produced heat is an issue that can be difficult to deal with. The problem may be resolved by reverting to mechanical computers concepts from the past http://www.newscientist.com
3) The subject of religion and science merging their views of our existence is interesting to me. There seems to have been a struggle between these two segments of our society going on forever, watching the interplay is an interesting pastime, more on that here http://articles.sfgate.com
4) Every now and then I read something that throws everything known by science up in the air again, and then comes all kinds of back and forth arguing over the details, then a new paradigm is formed, and everyone wonders how we missed it. It may be happening again http://www.newscientist.com
5) For my geek link this week a little something to contemplate. http://www.theregister.co.uk

Earl's Cyber Steals and Deals

Today only, MidnightBox.com offers the refurbished D-Link Express EtherNetwork DI-604 4-Port Cable/DSL Router for $6.95 plus $3.99 for shipping. Note that this is not a wireless router.

Verizon Wireless has the Verizon VZ7501ROUT 802.11g Wireless Router for $10 with free overnight shipping. Your standard wireless G router except for the fact that its made from Verizon

Buy.com has the SanDisk 16GB microSDHC Memory Card for $24 + $6 shipping = $30 shipped. A Class 2 card with a data transfer rate of up to 2MB per secord.

Newegg has the OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 PC2 8500 Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory (OCZ2P10664GK) + MSI R4350-MD512H Radeon HD 4350 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card Combo for $105 - $20 rebate [Exp 9/17] - $20 rebate [Exp 9/16] = $65 with free shipping.

Dell Business has the Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (Bare Drive) for $55 with free shipping. Uses less power and operates at lower temperatures and acoustics than standard desktop drives.

Newegg has the Seagate Momentus 640GB 2.5" 5400RPM ST9640320AS Hard Drive for Notebooks for $65 with free shipping. A good upgrade to tide you over to the days of SSD affordability.

Mwave has the Microsoft Basic Optical PS2/USB Mouse for $4 - $1 off with coupon code MSMICE01 [1000 uses] + $0 shipping = $3 shipped with free "M" Club membership. This 3 button optical mouse will get the job done for less and features an ambidextrous design

Mwave has the Asus VH232H 23" Widescreen LCD Monitor for $160 - $15 rebate [Exp 9/30] + $0 shipping = $145 shipped with free "M" Club membership. Sports a 1080p resoluion, 300cd/m2 brightness, 20,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 5ms response time, and built-in speakers.


Dell Business has the Sharp AQUOS LC-40D68UT 40" 1080p 60Hz LCD HDTV for $800 - $300 off with coupon code CMCJ3$47L00X4G [Exp 9/13] = $500 with free shipping
1920 x 1080, 50000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 2 x 8W speakers
450 cd/m2 brightness, 176 H/V viewing angles, 3 x HDMI inputs


Circuit City has the refurbished Magellan RoadMate 1440 4.3" Auto GPS Navigator for $60 + $5 shipping = $65 shipped. This Features a 4.3" touchscreen with turn-by-turn spoken directions, traffic alert, text-to-speech capability, and pre-loaded maps for United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Dell has the Dell Inspiron 580 Core i3 Desktop PC for $470 + $19 shipping = $489 shipped. Intel Core i3-540 3.06GHz, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, Windows 7 HP x64 512MB NVIDIA GeForce G310, 16X DVD+/-RW Drive, 7.1-ch audio

Meritline has the Chewing Gum Spycam DVR on sale for $14 with free shipping. Features 720x480, 30 frames/sec video capture, 1.3MP photo capture, micro SD card slot, and a 260mAh lithium ion battery. Just slip it inside an empty chewing gum package for complete Solid Snake-like concealment

Newegg has the Caviar Green Western Digital WD20EARS 2TB SATA Hard Drive on sale for $120 - $20 off with coupon code HARDOCP98B = $100 with free shipping. Features 64 MB cache and SATA 3.0 interface


Buy.com has the Viewsonic VA2431wm 1080p 24" LCD Monitor for $179 with free shipping. 1920x1080, 100000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio, 5ms Response Time 300 cd/m2 Brightness, Integrated Stereo Speakers, DVI-D, VGA Inputs

Newegg has the Seagate ST320005LSA10G-RK 2TB BlackArmor NAS 220 2TB server for $230 with free shipping. Features RAID 1 mirroring, full-system backup, SafetyDrill+ bare metal recovery software and powerful hardware-based encryption. [

Intel to Make Processor With Built-in Graphics, Challenging AMD -

Intel Corp., the world’s largest semiconductor maker, will show off its first chip design that has graphics capabilities built into the processor, stepping up a threat to Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Nvidia Corp

Exclusive: Windows Live Essentials 2011 RC to touch down September 9 | GeekSmack

The Windows Live Essentials 2011 software, announced earlier this year is slated to bring an array of new features to the software lineup. Some prominent examples of this are the Ribbon UI, now present in Windows Live Writer, Mail, and Photo Gallery. Another example is tabbed chatting in Windows Live Messenger; a feature that has been long requested by beta testers