Taking notes while on the go is not easy.  It’s tough to find a pen and piece of paper all the time.  And after you jot down the note, its easy to misplace where you put it.  Microsoft had a post-it note program that worked well for a while where you would simply hit a shortcut key and then you can write the post-it note.  Then, it would appear on a yellow sticky note square on your screen or you can minimize it.  Now, with so many mobile devices and work and home computers, the electronic post-it note seemed to lose its luster due its inability to be available at all times.

Now, Evernote has transcended the electronic post-it note by allowing e-notes to be available to all electronic devices, such as PCs, macs, iPhones, and Blackberries.  All you do is jot down your note; then it syncs your info across your computers and phones for you to look at later.  You can try Evernote for free for up to 40MB per month or pay only $5 per month for up to 500MB.  A cool feature is being able to take pictures from your phone and then later having Evernote decode it for text in instances of business cards or magazine pages.  Best of all, you don’t have to be a computer support specialist to know how to work it.

Data recovery is a tenuous subject. If you don’t have a data backup and your hard drive fails physically, you are not in a good situation. You’ll need to perform data recovery which is replacing failed parts of the hard drive in order extract files. There are tedious stages of data recovery that need to occur in order to attempt file recovery. The best way to approach data recovery is to contact a data recovery specialist.

Here’s what not to do, otherwise known as the top 3 data recovery myths:

1. Throw your hard drive in the freezer.  This will cause your drive to fluctuate in temperature to the point where the drive will have a small probability of recovery.
2. Take the head of the drive and pop it into another hard drive.  It’s a good theory, but you’ll need to make sure the replacement hard drive is identical in specifications.  Plus, you’ll need a clean room that ensures a dust-free environment.
3. Bang it a few times to loosen up the bad sectors.  This will cause further damage. 

Skype has been very busy lately.  It recently programmed the software so it may be used in iPhones.  Now, a new version has been released, although still at the beta level, that allows you to share your screen.  Specifically, you may share your whole screen or part of it to your Skype contacts.  All you have to do is initiate a phone call with your contact and then authorize your screen to be shared.

The downfall with the screen sharing is that you cannot share your screen by an instant message.  Also, you cannot collaborate by sharing with more than one contact.  The good part about this is that this sharing is pretty much allowing someone who is tech savvy to come onto your screen to provide tech support for viruses, spyware, or other computer issues.  So, you can turn this sharing aspect of Skype into a remote tech support function which would be a free way to have someone help you out with tech problems.

Cell phones can be tricky devices to figure out.  That is if you don’t know if your cell phone is set to bluetooth device, headset, or the standard phone-on-ear setup.  If you have a cell phone that you’ve paired up with your bluetooth car setup, this can work well.  However, sometimes cell phones forget how to work when they’re not in the car.  They might still be set to bluetooth or headset and you might not be able to make or receive calls.

Here are the steps to take to get your phone out of bluetooth pairing mode:

1. Go to your bluetooth option on your phone and remove your bluetooth pairing device and make sure your phone is not set to bluetooth.
2. Turn off and on your phone.
3. Turn off your phone and remove your battery.  Then, turn on your phone.
4. If steps 1 - 3 don’t work, stop in to your local phone provider’s store.  They might have to upgrade your cell phone software or reset the phone.

Bluetooth setups on phones in the car is a great convenience.  And well, it’s the law to be hands-free so this is a crucial necessity when using your cell phone in the car.  However, you might need to perform some tech support on your phone if your phone is not operational outside of your car.

When you’re done with your computer, or your computer is done with you, don’t throw it out with the normal trash.  It is important to recycle your laptops and desktops, or distribute them to someone else to re-use.  These machines have so many different types of electronics that are not safe for the environment when thrown out with the normal trash.  Plus, re-using these potentially hazardous materials is the best way for several reasons: less emissions, less production, and less land fills.

How do you go about recycling or re-using?

1. When you buy a new computer, ask your manufacturer, i.e. Dell, HP, Sony, if they’ll take back your old computer.  Many companies are doing this now to re-use your parts in a green fashion.
2. Bring your computer to a local recycling event.  Bryant Park and Bowling Green Parks are experienced venues for this activity in NYC
3. Go to Freecycle.org to pass along your equipment to another local person. 
4. Contact your tech support company for recycle pick-up options or ask them if they’ll take your recyclables.

We’re living in a greener environment so having environmental consciousness with our computers is also very important to this goal.

We have wireless routers, hotspots, national and international broadband, and now we have the MiFi!  The Verizon MiFi 2200 has catapulted 2009 as the year where computer users will experience a whole new convenience with the Internet.  This little contraption is the size of a credit card and instantly give you a wireless hotspot wherever you are.  All you have to do is power it on and you can connect up to 5 devices, including: Macs, PCs, iPhones, Blackberries, and other systems that may use WiFi (wireless). 

Essentially, the MiFi 2200 acts as a wireless router by providing 5 connections, and it doubles as a modem or broadband connection by passing along an Internet connection.  The best advantage of this network device is that you don’t have to physically connect it like you would a broadband card.  It is a stand-alone device that may be connected to by simply finding its network, punching it the encrypted password found on the back of it, and voila, you’re on the Internet.  No software or advanced tech support experience is needed.

This pocketable device is truly wireless.  When you connect to it, there are absolutely no wires or power cables.  It has up to 4 hours usage for 1 device and 40 hours standby.  It takes 2.5 hours to charge the device by power outlet or 8 hours to charge via USB cable.  The only downfall is this device has not fully reached today’s wireless potential since it only provides wireless G speeds and not the faster wireless N speed we have today.

After a $50 rebate, you pay $99.99 for the equipment and may pay either $39.99/month for 250MB or $59.99/month for 5GB.  Or you may pay $269.99 for the equipment and just pay $15 for “day passes.” 

Overall, the MiFi 2200 gets 2 thumbs up for innovation, portability, and meeting our overall wireless demands.  It can, however, be improved upon by increasing its speed to wireless N and increasing its battery usage.

It is difficult to pick a good backup software for Windows.  Why?  Because there are so many of them!  The key is find a good backup software that will first back up all of your files, and then automatically back up any changes made to your files over time.  Also, you’ll need another computer or preferably an external hard drive to copy you files over to.  This backup process allows your files to be recovered in advance in case your computer crashes.  This is a much better alternative than paying for possibly costly data recovery services.

The top backup software for Windows is Second Copy.  This software does exactly what you’d want.  It backs up your files and also backs up any changes.  The cool factor is it allows you to set up the schedule you’d like for it to look to back up changes.  So, if you’re a Windows user that doesn’t use the computer so often, you can decide to back up any changes every week or month.  If you’re an avid computer user, then you may set it up to back up nightly. 

The back up process happens in the background so once you set up the automated back up schedule, you can forget about it!  Second Copy only costs $30 and works on all Windows workstations.  It can be backed up from a computer or across the network.  It is very robust and is a steal for its low price.

Ubuntu, the anti-Windows and anti-mac operating system, will offer automatic file syncing between computers in its new release, Ubuntu 9.04, a.k.a Jaunty Jackalope.  For those computers users looking for an easy way to share files from computers, or to just be at the same updated levels in terms of information, this file synchronization feature is a huge step.

Basically, when you make changes to any of the files stored in a folder, the modifications are automatically uploaded to a web service and then back to the other computers in your computer network or home network.  You can get up to 2GB for free or pay $10 / month for 10GB.  In the future, Ubuntu might also offer syncing for application data and preferences and software.  For now, the file saving feature to other computers is just for files. 

This feature has not yet been offered in other operating systems which makes the free Ubuntu operating system a more appealing option.  But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  PCs and Macs are still more robust and just more comfortable to use at this time.  We feel Ubuntu will have to allow Mac and PC software to be compatible with its system before computer users start pushing the trend more to Ubuntu.

The Netbook industry is very popular nowadays.  You can get a very mobile laptop for as low as $200.  Yes, you won’t get the heavy specifications of big hard drive space and lots of fast RAM, but you’ll get a cheap laptop that’s new and gets on the Internet fast.  With all of these netbooks being able to be so portable, the question becomes: How do you access the Internet if you’re not home?  You can pop into an Internet cafe, hotel, airport, park, or another place that offers free Wi-Fi access, aka hotspot.  Wi-Fi access is similar to having a wireless router at home, but the wireless router is in the public and does not have a password to enter. 

But, what do you do if you are not home and cannot access a free hotspot?  That’s where Verizon comes in.  The Verizon Netbook’s HP Mini 1151NR will be hitting stores this weekend, listing at $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate.  The catch here is that Verizon is forcing customers to sign a 2-year agreement for wireless broadband service.  This means you’ll be able to access the Internet with an internal wireless broadband chip anywhere.  That’s great news, but this service does cost $40-$60 / month depending on your data plan.  If you don’t want this broadband service, tough luck!  Verizon requires it. 

Obviously, Verizon is pushing its broadband service here, but does it really have to be a 2-year commitment?  That seems pretty unreasonable.  The only good part that comes with this is you can input your wireless broadband internally so you won’t have one of those goofy broadband cards sticking out of your laptop just waiting to be damaged.  Plus, you won’t have to have a tech support person install it for you since it will already come installed.  So, if you’d like a compact laptop with internal broadband wireless, this is a good bet.  Otherwise, you can just purchase another netbook without the extra broadband commitment.

Viruses and spyware can be slithery little pests.  Not all typical anti-virus and anti-spyware software may remove them.  Nowadays, there are trojans, bug, rootkits, and other infections that may be considered both spyware and viruses.  So, with different variants of infections running into the gray area of what it actually is, the security software to remove them has been trickier.

We’ve seen as of late a new trojan that infects the Windows\System32 folder.  This trojan will cripple the Windows Installer so you cannot run some programs, such as itunes, as well as not being be able to run Windows updates.  Many programs will not remove this trojan, including: Norton Anti-virus, Malware bytes, Spybot Search and Destroy, Hijack This, and AVG Anti-virus. 

Combofix has been able to remove this tough-to-kill trojan.  Combofix is a DOS program that runs within Windows and removes infections that may be found in the Windows\System32 folder.  Combofix is effective since it will actually delete these infections that cannot be manually removed. 

New trojans cannot be removed manually as they are write-protected and are just too smart to be simply deleted.  So, Combofix has come as a savior for removing trojans.  You’ll need to make sure to disable all current anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewalls while you’re running it to prevent startup problems afterwards.