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Whatever You Want, Miro Finds It, Gets It, Plays It May 16, 2012 
The Internet is a hub for acquiring music, video and a just about any
other form of content. Miro is one of the most capable player apps that
I have seen for all of this media. Keeping up with the various forms
of content the Web has to offer can be a daunting task.
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Google Drive for Android: Just About as Good as the Rest May 11, 2012 
Keep Everything. Share Anything. When a company like Google uses a tagline that includes the words "share anything" for a Dropbox-like cloud file storage system, my immediate reaction is "with whom?" Google, after-all, is a company that's made its money delivering ads based on what it learns about our habits. There's been debate about this very question since Drive launched.
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Precise Pangolin: Ubuntu Grows Up May 09, 2012 
The latest edition of Canonical's Ubuntu 12.04 desktop operating system shows considerable maturity. Precise Pangolin is built around the default Unity interface with an optional Heads Up Display designed to keep hands on the keys rather than constantly interrupting the work flow by grabbing the mouse.
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Shazam Encore Pretty Much Nails 'Name That Tune' May 04, 2012 
I think I may have asked Shazam Encore to do the impossible. I had downloaded the app just before a planned lunch that included a sojourn to my neighborhood car wash -- which conveniently features a simple Mexican eatery. Sitting on the bench in the shade after the nosh, I detected the faint yet unmistakable tinkling sound of elevator music above the roar of the blowing drier. "Aha," I thought, wits about me, "Shazam reckons it can identify songs instantly?"
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LMMS Is a Fearsome Music-Making Machine May 02, 2012 
Music lovers have numerous strong choices for organizing and playing
their collections of songs on the Linux desktop. But music creators have
far fewer professional-strength options among Linux applications. With
Linux MultiMedia Studio, or LMMS, though, one option may be all you
really need. LMMS does it all and does it all well.
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Instagram: Fun but No Threat to the Art World April 27, 2012 
Instagram, the popular photography and social networking app for the iPhone, with a whopping 27 million iOS users, recently became available for Android. Around 5 million Android users reportedly signed up for the app in the first few days of the Android release. Then social network Facebook offered $1 billion for the company. What's going on?
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Advanced Easy Editor Goes Bare Bones, Then Breaks Out the Sandpaper April 25, 2012 
Sometimes too much of a good thing in free software can create bad impressions. For instance, some of the free stuff so easily available in Linux distro package managers is so archaic that newcomers to the OS might understandably shriek in horror. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely am a big fan of FOSS applications.
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Linux Admin Manual Is a Great Reference Tool That's Not for Dummies April 24, 2012 
Linux Administration: A Beginner's Guide by Wale Soyinka is a hands-on manual for IT staffers who must dance with Windows and Linux. It is a practical guide for network admins who deploy and maintain Linux and other free and open source software. In this Sixth Edition opus, Soyinka provides an extensive update on the latest Linux distros.
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Look Before You Make the Leap to Hulu Plus for Android April 20, 2012 
The 5-year-old subscription streaming video service known as "Hulu Plus" has doubled its subscriber numbers in the last seven months to more than 2 million, according to numbers bandied about by the company. Hulu is a joint venture between investors and television operators: Comcast's NBCUniversal, Fox Entertainment and the Walt Disney Company. Competitors include Netflix and cable providers like Time Warner Cable.
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Xournal Makes Short Work Out of Longhand April 18, 2012 
Regardless of how good they are, some Linux applications have very little appeal to all but users with specialized needs. That is not the case with Xournal. Even if you do not use a tablet for inputing notes, this app still lets you create with style. If you are looking for a very handy note-taking application, check out Xournal.
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Phonedeck: This Manager's Half Asleep at the Dashboard April 13, 2012 
If there's been a common thread to some of the recent "How To" articles I've written for Technewsworld and my Android app reviews for LinuxInsider, it might be the taming of the ever-proliferating devices that are taking over my living space. I'm collecting things at an alarming rate. I had to make a run to IKEA recently to buy a bigger coffee table, as the infestation of black plastic objects was starting to take over the sofa too.
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qOrganizer Squares Away Everything but Its Own Interface April 11, 2012 
One of my biggest problems in managing appointments, to-do tasks, notes and reminders is that I work on a variety of desktop and laptop computers in multiple locations. To bridge the access gaps, I rely on a tablet computer and a smartphone tapped into cloud storage.
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Smart Diagram Effortlessly Produces Professional-Looking Results April 06, 2012 
The much talked about demise of the laptop in favor of tablet device, it could be argued, will be dependent on the tablet offering much of the functionality of the laptop. Gaping holes in tablet function will likely perpetuate the laptop as a tool. A number of work-type Android applications have successfully migrated to the tablet form: Microsoft Office-like apps; printer-sharing apps; document-scanning apps.
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Recoll Looks High, Looks Low, Finds Your File With Ease April 04, 2012 
Not all search tools are the same. Just like users have a variety of Linux distros that appeal to a wide range of needs, search apps do different tasks for different users. One of the best search tools I have found is a clever app called "Recoll."
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PDF to Speech Stumbles a Bit but Sounds Nicer Than Android March 30, 2012 
I've been looking at ways to optimize the time I spend sitting in traffic. The old days when listening to the radio constituted the sum extent of productivity achieved while staring at someone else's tailgate are long gone, thanks to the smartphone. I've already written about in-car Internet, including extending audio media like podcasts and TV audio streams to the driver's seat.
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Fork Skewers Photoshop Skin GimpShop March 28, 2012 
I thought I had found image-manipulating Nirvana with GimpShop. But the wide world of open source software and the Linux community failed me this week. My quest for a better GIMP tool to give me a Photoshop-like Windows experience turned into a fool's folly. Actually, my faith in the Linux OS is still intact.
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