Tips - iPad 3 Replacement Parts

News - Google, Amazon & Apple Discount Albums For A Limited Time [News]

It looks like competition among digital music stores is heating up. Google, Amazon and Apple, three of the biggest names in the business, all have their own entries going toe-to-toe with each other. To attract more business, each is offering discounted digital albums.

Google Music is leading the pack with its $4.99 “Blowout Sale.” Over half a million albums are available at the discounted price and over ten million single tracks are available for just $0.49. In fact, it’s hard to find content on Google’s store thatisn’t discounted right now, though Sony has apparently opted out of the sale.

Amazon comes in second with its “Fuel Your Kindle Fire” promotion. Despite the name, you don’t need to own a Kindle Fire to enjoy the 1,077 albums that are being sold for an even $5.  The selection seems to tilt towards indie hits, though some pop albums are available.

Bringing up the rear we have iTunes, which is running a “Great Albums, Great Prices” promotion that focuses on bestsellers of 2011 as well as some classics from the last few decades. The selection of titles is good – these are top hits, after all – but you’ll have to pay $7.99 for each.

None of the sales offer a specific end date, although Amazon’s sale is slated to stay active until January of 2012. You’ll have to buy sooner rather than later if you’re salivating over these prices.

News - Enjoy The Best In Linux With Linux Mint 12

Linux Mint has been quite a revolutionary distribution, gaining plenty of popularity. In fact,DistroWatch statistics suggest the Linux Mint is now the second most popular distribution in the world, behind Ubuntu (upon which it’s based) and in front of Fedora.

Linux Mint first began as a project to “fix” some usability issues in Ubuntu that were small but ended up being quite noticeable. Since then, Linux Mint has grown into one of the more popular distributions, and has branched out to include many other desktop environments.

They’ve even gone so far as to experiment with using Debian as a base instead of Ubuntu. Linux Mint released version 12 not long ago with plenty of improvements that aren’t found in other distributions. Let’s take a look.

Updated Software

Linux Mint 12 includes a lot of updated software, such as Linux kernel 3.0, GNOME 3.2, and other base

Tips - Listen To Your Music In Spotify For Free Without Wine [Linux]

Do you love Spotify’s free version, but tired of needing Wine just to listen to the music? Good news – Spotify now offers a free version specifically for Linux users. Or at least, users of Debian, Ubuntu and their variants. Sorry Fedora fans.

Spotify gives you access to millions of songs, for free. Unlike Pandora or Last FM though, you can listen to entire albums on demand. Be warned, there are some obnoxiously genre-defying ads involved. It’s totally worth it overall, though – you’ll discover new music and generally be a happier person.

The Linux version of Spotify used to only work with paid accounts. That’s why I showed you back in July, how to get Spotify’s free version working in Linux using PlayOn, a tool that makes using Wine simple. That worked, but it wasn’t perfect. Neither is the new, official version of Spotify. There are some interface bugs, and local playback can be tricky. If you just want to stream on Linux though, Spotify’s developers just did you a big favor – the official version runs much better than Wine could ever deliver, and it integrates well into Ubuntu’s Unity as well.

Native Is Better

Spotify’s native Linux version starts up quickly, meaning it won’t take you long to realize how much better this is than Wine.

You’ll need to register for an account at Spotify.com before you can do anything, and sadly registering requires a Facebook account (unless you were lucky enough to register before that became mandatory).

News - Facebook To Show Sponsored Ads In News Feeds

Facebook is looking to ramp up their advertising efforts. Starting next month, they will be displaying sponsored news stories in your regular news feed. These ads are based on things you and your friends have liked. These ads generally show the product and display the name of the friend who liked it. Previously, these ads have appeared on the right side of the screen where they are easy to ignore. With this change, they will be more in your face, and harder to miss.

Facebook promises that any stories that appear in your news feed will be something you or a friend like. You will never see stories from random companies that are not in some way affiliated with your network. That’s all well and good, but my friends like some pretty dumb things, and I would certainly prefer to keep them out of my newsfeed (or maybe I should find better friends).

Facebook also promises to clearly label the sponsored stories and try to show users no more than one sponsored story per day. This doesn’t sound terribly intrusive, but I think we can agree that we would prefer to keep the ads relegated to the side of the screen.

News - Amazon Adds ‘Best Of’ Store To Recommend The Best Digital Items

If you are a last-minute Christmas shopper then this is the story for you. It’s now obviously too late to get anything shipped which is why Amazon has created their best of store, specifically to recommend the best items that can be purchased digitally. With a digital purchase there is no shipping, so you can still buy something on Christmas Day.

This store ranks the top items from categories such as books, movies, games, music, apps, and magazines. If you are looking for digital gifts, chances are great that Amazon has a ranking for it. Amazon claims that in the time between Christmas Eve and December 30th, they see digital items sales increase by three times their normal weekly average.

If you are not sure what to buy, the editorial team at Amazon has made some great choices. There are some deals on hot items, so not only can you get your last-minute shopping done, but you can save a little money too.

News - Is Amazon Killing The High Street? [Opinion]

While online retailers such as Amazon go from strength to strength, a damning new report in the UK has stated the high street is facing a crisis – in towns and cities, 1 in 7 high street locations lie empty.

Is the report justified? Are online retailers like Amazon responsible for this, and why? What can revitalise the high-street?

Is it that bad?

First off, referring to it as a ‘crisis’ is perhaps a little dramatic and mostly just a headline grabber. Even Amazon admits that it needs brick and mortar stores to drive sales for devices like it’s new Kindle Fire. Though many will be sold online, the majority of consumers will heading out to the shops to get a little hands-on time when deciding on a tablet purchase this Christmas – and that’s where Amazon needs to reel them in.

Though we don’t have the new Fire in the UK yet, the Kindle line has a strong presence even in supermarket retailers such as Tesco – alongside the iPad – while other tablet devices remain noticeably absent.

We also need to bear in mind that a large proportion of the population is still very far from what most of us would define as “tech savvy”, and many remain distrustful of online retailers in general. There is simply too large of a “digital divide” for the high street to be in that much trouble in the foreseeable future.

If my own purchasing habits can be considered a good indicator though, I can tell you now that I’ve

News - Rift Hacked, Accounts Compromised But Credit Cards (Mostly) Safe

Hacking the servers of a major online video game seems to have become a popular pastime for online scoundrels, perhaps because they’re guaranteed to find a great deal of information about users on file. Trion, developer of the popular MMO Rift, has now joined the ranks of companies forced to send an apologetic email out to subscribers.

According to Trion, unauthorized intruders gained access to a database that includes every important tidbit of information imaginable. Usernames,passwords, email addresses, billing addresses and more have been hijacked. Trion has not stated when the attack took place, so it’s unclear if the attack recently occurred or was only recently discovered.

The good news is that full credit card information was not stolen, and while password data was hijacked, Trion had enough sense to make sure it was encrypted. However, the first fourand last four digits of credit cards, along with expiration dates, were taken.

Trion recommends the usual protections, like changing the passwords of any other non-Rift related accounts that use the same password as your account with the company.

In hopes of smoothing over the matter with players, three days of complimentary game time has been granted to everyone and a new item called Moneybag’s Purse, which provides a bonus to looted coin, is available. You’ll only receive this compensation if you update your password and security questions.

Trion has not finished their investigation, however, so it’s possible more issues could be discovered. In the meantime, watch your credit card for unauthorized transactions and be sure to reset your passwords.

Tips - Get A Better Search Experience With Duck Duck Go

If you’ve been following my latest articles, you might have noticed that I mentioned Duck Duck Go a couple times. It seems that there are a couple of services and Linux distributions (such as Linux Mint) that are switching over to Duck Duck Go as their default search engine.

So why the heck are they doing this? Isn’t Google a mile ahead of every other search engine? Well, not exactly.

About Duck Duck Go

Duck Duck Go puts a lot of emphasis on a few goals that Google simply cannot. Duck Duck Go’s primary reasons for existing is to be a free, open source search engine that is privacy aware by not tracking you. This way, websites cannot identify you, and you get true search results that aren’t modified to fit your personality and searching habits.

Additionally, Duck Duck Go presents those search results in a very unique way that I find to be more intuitive than how Google shows results. Pack in some handy extras, and you got yourself a winner.

The Site

When you first reach the site, you’ll see a logo, the search box, and a few helpful links. That’s it. No bar

Tips - Select Specific Cookies & Keep Them In A Whitelist While Deleting Others In Chrome

Browser cookies are plain and staid text files that are quite like messages given by a website (i.e. a web server) to the browser. This message is used to identify the user when he logs on to the site. We have explained it in detail when we explained the technology behind How Do Websites Use Cookies.

As explained in the post, keeping cookies indefinitely in your browser has some privacy concerns. All browsers have cookie management functions. You can easily delete all cookies or specific cookies. You can even configure certain cookies to be blocked while allowing others. But sometimes I like to retain a few cookies – for e.g. those from social forums, banking site, extension preferences – while deleting the rest across browsing sessions.

Firefox lets me create a whitelist and save cookie information. Chrome still does not give you that fine-tuned control. So, let’s look at a quick way to create a whitelist to save specific cookies in Chrome and a more global solution using a great freeware.

Vanilla for Google Chrome

Vanilla for Google Chrome is a very useful and a simple to use cookie management extension. Vanilla for Google Chrome allows you to add domain names to your whitelist. You can add top-level domain names (like www.google.com) or use wildcards (*.google.com) to bring all sub-domains (like docs.google.com, mail.google.com) within the scope of the whitelist. You can add domains to the whitelist manually from the

Tips - 10 Timers And Clocks For iDevices You Can Download [iPhone, iPad, iPod]

All versions of the iOS for the iPhone include Apple’s default clock app that features alarm settings, a timer, a world clock, and a stop watch. The clock app works well, but there are several pages of other free and inexpensive timer apps in the iTunes Store for both the iPhone and the iPad, the latter of which does not include a timer by default.

These timer and clock apps range from the very simple timer displays to more unique functions, such as interval timers, a few apps for timing meetings and presentations, and even a couple for clocking labor contractions.

I went through the pickings and selected ten representative apps, but you will find many more that might fit your needs. If you have a favorite timer app, please let us know about it in the comment section.

Interval Timer

The ad-based version of Interval Timer is a nifty fitness and workout app in which you can keep track of your work and rest periods during workouts.

The customizable sets for high/low intensity intervals is easy to configure, and it comes with a variety of alarm sounds (Bell, Boing, HipHop, Tiger, etc.) The app integrates with the iTunes library in your iPhone

Tips - How To Find Out Who Recently Unfriended You On Facebook

Facebook lets you do many, many things. Whether you love it or hate it, you can’t deny the fact that it has opened doors to things we previously couldn’t do. But despite its shady reputation regarding anything to do with privacy, there are still some things you can’t do with Facebook.

One of these things, is seeing who deleted you from their friend list. Facebook doesn’t and will probably never let you do that officially. It’s probably true that people deserve the right to unfriend people in privacy, but turning it into such a secret makes the whole thing seem illegitimate. So what if I unfriended someone? People have the right to use Facebook as they see fit, and if someone is hurt because someone else unfriended him, well, that’s tough.

With that in mind, here are two ways to find out who unfriended you on Facebook. Use them wisely. If you don’t think you can handle it, perhaps you are better off not knowing.

Unfriend Finder

Unfriend Finder is a user script that adds some simple functionalities to Facebook. Namely, seeing who unfriended you, and seeing a list of your pending friend requests – another thing Facebook doesn’t officially let you see.

The installation process depends on the browser you’re using (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and IE are supported). Visit the help section for specific instructions for your browser. For Chrome, you will only have to install an extension. For Firefox, you will have to first installGreasemonkey, and then install the script. After installation, you will see a new menu called “Unfriends”.

When someone unfriends you, a small number will appear next to the menu. You will also get a

Tips - Secure Your Files: 3 Encrypted Dropbox Alternatives

Dropbox brought cloud-based file synchronization and storage to the masses, but it’s been hindered by high-profile security problems. While Dropbox once claimed that its employees were unable to access your files, they now claim only thatemployees aren’t allowed to view your files. In June 2011, Dropbox left the door wide open and anyone could log into any account without knowing its password for nearly four hours.

Sure, if you only use Dropbox to share the latestlolcat pictures with your friends, security doesn’t matter. But you’re taking a risk by storing sensitive data in Dropbox. Fortunately, you have another option — an alternative service that secures your files with local encryption and decryption. The encryption keeps your files private, outwitting hackers and preventing rogue employees from snooping around.

Most services, including Dropbox, claim to offer some form of encryption. These services transfer your files over an encrypted connection and store them in an encrypted form. Some services even advertise this as “military-grade encryption.” The problem is that the service itself can decrypt your files without your help. Alternatives like SpiderOak, Wuala and TeamDrive encrypt your files on your own computer before sending them over the Internet; the service only gets a blob of unreadable, encrypted data.

SpiderOak

SpiderOak brands itself as a secure online backup service. It generates encryption keys from the password you provide; your SpiderOak password never even leaves your computer. Even SpiderOak’s employees can’t access your files.

Unlike Dropbox, SpiderOak doesn’t have its own sync folder — instead, you can customize the folders

Tips - 7 Explosive Action Movie Shoot-Outs [Stuff to Watch]

A thrilling and well-filmed shootout can define a film, and a film chock full of thrilling, quality shootouts can define a genre. Every year a new flurry of action movies make it into cinemas, but how many make it into the hall of fame?

Today’s Stuff to Watch takes a look at the action movie genre and features a few of the juiciest shootout scenes ever captured on film. Of course there’s no way I can include every quality shootout, so be sure to add your own in the comments underneath this article. Let’s lock and load!

Heat (1995) [IMDB]

Every time I think of this movie I can’t help but remember how gripped I was the first time I watched this scene. Of course the whole film is a quality production – but this particular scene sticks in your mind, has spawned countless references and even inspired a virtually identical mission in Rockstar Games’ GTA4.

Without a doubt a “must-see” action film, Heat stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro but doesn’t rely on high profile actors to sell the movie. Take a look at the clip below; it sells itself.

Watch: Heat Downtown Shootout Scene @ YouTube (Embedding disabled on all uploaded videos of this scene, sorry!)

Hard Boiled (1992) [IMDB]

It should come as no surprise that John Woo knows how to make a good action film, and with Chow Yun-Fat in a lead roll then you know the body count will be high. The plot’s as loose as it needs to be, but

Nwes - Read-Only Extension Clearly Comes to Firefox

The popular digital notebook development company Evernote, released last week a handy little browser extension called Clearly for Firefox. The extension was first released for Google Chrome users back in November. Similar to the Reader feature in Apple’s Safari, Clearly, when enabled, strips away webpage ads and other obtrusive content that surrounds downloaded articles. This read-only feature is also great for saving articles as PDFs.

Since this is an Evernote extension, Clearly includes additional features for copying selected articles to your Evernote account, as well as three types of reading formats, including small, medium and large font sizes, and a Night Owl view that changes the background of the page to black, and the font color to white.

You can access Clearly in the Firefox menu bar (Tools > Clearly) or its extension button in the browser’s toolbar.

When you use Clearly to clip an article to your Evernote account, it sends the read-only version to your default notebook. This means you no longer have to manually strip away clutter from clippings in your Evernote account and notebook. To use the Clearly clipping feature, you will of course need a free Evernote account.

Tips - 4 Things You Should Stop Joking About Online [Opinion]

No longer must we use smoke signals to communicate. Long gone are the days in which we used cave walls to document events. It’s an age of technology, a time in which we are supposed to be advanced. However, even in such an advanced age, it seems as though Internet society has become incredibly lenient about a variety of very important social issues.

I’m not a fan of making light of stuff that actually hurts people, and it’s not even a matter of being offended – I’m not. However, I do worry about how desensitized we have become to these issues.

Pedophilia

I really don’t know when pedophilia became funny. Why is it okay to casually reference participation in sexual acts with children? Sure, I get it. You know that pedophilia is wrong, and for some odd reason, this is why you joke about it – a possible way of coping. However, I believe that the more we joke about it, the more laid-back we will become around it. We don’t take it as seriously anymore.

Do I think this joking will lead to common acceptance of pedophilia? Nah. I’m not a conspiracist like that.