While the iPhone is hailed as one of the coolest gadgets in recent memory, enthusiasm for the device was significantly dampened by the fact that in order to use it, you were forced to go with AT&T Wireless as your cell provider.  This was a problem because AT&T is notorious for poor customer support, limited coverage in many regions, and a very slow data network with the EDGE system.  Even those who were willing to overlook AT&Ts problems were kept from making the switch since other c...

Vint Cerf is a bit of a heavyweight in engineering circles, having created the TCP/IP protocols that power the modern Internet along with fellow engineer Bob Kahn.  He also co-founded the Internet Society, and spent time on the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, of which he is currently the Chair.  Nowadays he's Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google.  So there's little question that when it comes to tech, and specifically the Intern...

In any office, there is a power structure.  A hierarchy of influence that when properly navigated can make your work life and career a heck of a lot easier.  There are key people in any work environment that if you befriend, will provide support and assistance in getting critical tasks accomplished.  The thing is, these key people are almost definitely NOT the layer of management above you.  They're the support folks who make the world function. Support, maintenance, mail...

In our ongoing efforts to improve WinCustomize and make participating and contributing more fun and fulfilling for our skinners, we're looking at changing around how certain systems related to user reward work.  The first one is the Medals system. Currently automatically award Medals to users for hitting any number of milestones here on WinCustomize.  We track who's the top skinner across the entire site, who is the best in any particular gallery, how many downloads are achiev...

Welcome back skinners to yet another week and yet another poll.  Previously we asked everyone how they felt about the new SkinStudio 6 beta.  On the whole, the response was very positive and we're glad everyone has received the new version so well.  Here's the quick breakdown: Moving on now, we'd like to know what your favorite skinning application is.  Is it WindowBlinds?  IconPackager?  RightClick?  Tell us in the weekly poll, and if your favorite isn'...

Over the weekend users who went to update their Microsoft products via the Windows Update service saw an interesting note saying their software wasn't genuine.  Essentially, Microsoft was calling every user a software pirate. The issue?  It seems the service suffered a major outage that impacted consumers globally.  Microsoft was immediately aware of the issue and simply told users to "try again later" Of course this got a lot of anti-WGA folks in an uproar, lending some credi...

It's no secret that Gateway has been struggling in recent months as it tries to overtake rivals Dell and HP in the consumer PC market with little success.  Acer has been in an equally dismal situation in the US market, with a market share just slightly lower than Gateway's. This morning, Acer announced that it would be buying Gateway for the princely sum of $710 million.  This will make Acer/Gateway the #3 PC manufacturer with a combined market share of 10.8% in the US.  They ...

Ok, we can do it with Word 2007, will it also work with Windows Live Writer?

It's that time of year again.  Time for students all across the country to start stocking their backpacks, sort out their class schedules and jump back into the frenzy of school.  While it's still very summer-like outside, it's already time to head back to school. Now, every student likely has the standard compliment of tools (notepads, pencils, folders etc.) but do they have the software to make their academic life easier? Beyond obvious items like Microsoft Office, there are a...

The web is a wonderful tool to help you get work done.  Massive amounts of knowledge are at your fingertips, and countless sites exist for the sole purpose of making your working life easier in one way or another.  Then there's the "dark side" of the web, and I'm not talking "adult" content. For every site focused on helping you work smarter, there are another handful whose goal is to distract you as much as possible.  The folks at Freelance Switch have a round-up of their 15 ...

It's pretty frequent, a website getting hacked to redirect traffic to another site, or to boost someone else's Google search ranking.  It's especially popular among personal blog sites which often are not properly secured by the user, or kept up as up to date as they should be.  Unfortunately, the attackers are usually never found as individuals rarely have the resources to tract the hacker down.  But sometimes, the hackers mess with someone who actually knows what they're doing ...

WHS, possibly the only Windows release in recent memory to have *positive* buzz surrounding it has had a bit of a breach in secrecy.  Today Ars Technica is reporting that details surrounding the soon-to-be-released OS were leaked to the 'net.  Namely, specs and prices on the HP MediaSmart Home Server. Set for release on September 15th, the HP MediaSmart Home Server will come in two flavors; a 500GB unit for $596 and a 1TB unit for $745.  Both systems will have the 64-bit 1.8GH...

Last week, Google shut down their video marketplace service.  The kicker was that any videos you purchased through it would no longer be viewable once the servers were turned off, leaving some users with hefty video collections that they could no longer access.  Users were understandably upset over this turn of events, and made even more unhappy when Google said they wouldn't be issuing an actual refund, but a credit on their Google Checkout account, to be used obviously for buying mo...

If you ever watched the Transformers cartoon in the late 80s/early 90s you'll remember Soundwave, the transformer that turned into a tape recorder.  Well, some enterprising gadget makers have gone the distance and merged an old-school transformer toy with a modern MP3 audio player.  It plays music, looks cool and even transforms!  This little gadget comes in at about $150, and can be purchased in either blue (Frenzy) or white (Rumble).  It uses SD cards for storage. You c...

Ads that make us laugh are usually a heck of a lot more effective, and much better received by the viewer than ones that bore us or get in the way.  Superbowl ads are a perfect example as they're usually talked about for days or even weeks after the game is over. Google, current advertising mega-giant on the web, realized this and has signed a deal with Seth MacFarlane, creator of the popular Fox animated series "Family Guy" to do a series of video shorts for the AdSense network that wi...