Issue 498- April 30, 2008
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2008
==== 1342 Subscribers in 44 Countries ====
Welcome to the 498th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists mainly
of news highlights and tips. There is something for everyone, and if this is
your first issue, I'm sure there will be something for you. If you give me
two or three issues, I know that you will come back for more!
You can reach me at editor@pcin.net with
any suggestions or comments.
Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.php
Contents
Opening Thoughts
There has been a bug going around and it seems like a lot of people I know
have sore throats and runny noses. I haven't been feeling too bad, but with
the kids and Lisa feeling sick, I'm bound to catch something.
Only 2 more weeks until I turn 500. I'm almost as old as Papa
Smurf!
Graham editor@pcin.net and
Chris chris@pcin.net
News Highlights
Lights. Camera. Cellphone Action.
Who says cellphones are good only for talking? Today they are bringing together
two unlikely brand names: Nokia and Spike Lee.
Mr. Lee, the director, is teaming up with Nokia, the cellphone maker, to
direct a short film comprising YouTube-style videos created by teenagers
and adults using their mobile phones.
Read the New York Times
article...
Leave a comment...
It's a small, small tech world
I don't have kids. But I'm still enough of one inside that I get a certain
amount of glee from seeing what's out there for today's generation. That,
and I tend to spoil my friends' kids silly, but so far it's been real young
kid/toddler stuff. I'm ready to step it up.
When I was a little one, there was no baby laptop, no cutesy MP3 player,
no big-button, child-friendly play cell phone. Is it me, or does it seem
like some toys encourage kids to prep for adulthood way too soon?
Read the MSNBC article...
Leave a comment...
BlackBerry's Quest: Fend Off the iPhone
Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive and field general, has Napoleonic dreams
of global conquest for his 10-month-old wonder gadget, the iPhone. So it
may be fitting that he's encountering his most serious resistance in a city
called Waterloo.
That is where, 70 miles west of Toronto in Ontario, 19 nondescript, low-rise
office buildings comprise the headquarters of Research In Motion, maker of
the BlackBerry.
R.I.M. is the North American leader in building smartphones, those versatile
handsets that operate more like computers than phones. But R.I.M. may have
trouble dominating the market's next phase. Once the exclusive domain of
e-mail-obsessed professionals, smartphones are now prized by consumers who
want easy access to the Web, digital music and video even more than an omnipresent
connection to their in-boxes.
Since the iPhone went on sale last summer, amid long lines of shoppers and
media adulation, the contours of the smartphone market have begun to shift
rapidly toward consumers.
Read the New York Times
article...
Leave a comment...
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PCIN.net Site Update
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
Paragon Software Group Hard Disk Manager 2008
http://PCIN.net/help/software/paragonhdm2008.php
Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 and Adobe Premier Elements 3.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/photoshopEL5_Premiere3.php
ExpoDisc White Balance Filter Review
http://PCIN.net/help/hardware/expodisc.php
Paragon Software Group Partition Manager 8.0 Professional Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/ppm8.php
Update PCIN.net home page with "Top 10 Most Popular..." features
http://PCIN.net/
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Tips and Other Stuff
RightMark CPU Clock
In an article about extending battery
life, Dennis O'Reilly mentions the RightMark
CPU Clock utility he uses. Not only does it show information about
your CPU, but it also lets you control several different power settings.
RightMark CPU Clock Utility (RMClock) is a small GUI application designed
for real-time CPU frequency, throttling and load level monitoring and on-the-fly
adjustment of the CPU performance level on supported CPU models via processor's
power management model-specific registers (MSRs). In automatic management
mode it continuously monitors the CPU usage level and dynamically adjusts
the CPU frequency, throttle and/or voltage level as needed, realizing the "Performance
on Demand" concept.
I downloaded the RAR package, extracted it and ran the program (it appears
that there is nothing to install). If you like to see the basic information
about your CPU and other hardware, along with those power settings I mentioned,
then check it out.
Leave a comment...
529 Computing Tips
PC Magazine has a huge collection of tips:
Crafted by our analysts and editors and tested in PC Labs, our vast list
of tips starts with the fundamentals of computing and then moves on to
multimedia, mobility, business, and online solutions for maximizing your
digital life.
Leave a comment...
Nine must-have freeware apps rise to the top
I've linked to various Windows Secrets
newsletter items in the past. It is an excellent newsletter and I highly
recommend it. The issue I received today has a link to nine
freeware apps that have been regularly centred out/chosen in "best
of" lists.
The "best freeware" lists published by Web sites and
magazines frequently trumpet dozens of programs, but the results reflect
the subjective opinions of just one or two testers.
To find the best of the best, I compared roundups of "great" freeware
conducted recently by four reputable publications to find the programs
that were endorsed by at least three of the reviews.
Out of the lists he looked at, only 9 programs were on 3 of the lists, and
only 1 was on all 4. It's a good read with links to each of the 9 programs.
Leave a comment...
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PCIN.net Affiliated
Sites
Both of us have other sites other than PCIN.net. These are all sites that
we are actively involved in (they aren't client sites). Don't forget to check
them out from time to time for updates:
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Disclaimer
and Other Stuff
PCIN is brought to you by Graham Wing. The opinions expressed are those of
the Editor, Graham Wing and the Assistant Editor, Chris Empey. Graham Wing
and Chris Empey accept no responsibility for the results obtained from trying
the tips in this newsletter.
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Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net
Chris Empey can be reached at chris@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2008, Graham Wing. All rights reserved.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the author
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