Finding parking in NYC requires loads of patience and savvy particularity because parking signs are notoriously difficult to decipher.  The people at PrimoSpot.com have created a site rich with tools to help you land a spot that meets your location, time, and price needs.  Their map clues the user into street parking signs, meter availability, parking garages, street-side images,  places to avoid, premium spots and more.  You can use their site to strategize your parking plan or utilize their smartphone app in the moment as you approach your destination.

This is an indispensable tool for drivers in the NY Metropolis.  Anyone whose experienced the nightmare of having their car towed, which happens all too fast in this city, knows to be extra extra cautious about parking.  PrimoSpot takes some of the pressure off.

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The phone frenzy is palpable once again.  Out with the old, in with the new.  Have you upgraded your OS yet, that is if you didn’t get the new phone?  Download it here. You might as well familiarize yourself with all the perks, tricks, and added functionality now available with iOS4.  It’s bound to make your iDevice more fun.

New iOS4 shortcuts, features, and settings you need to know for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

image from apple.com

I’ve recommended a couple of really useful bookmarklets (they add one-click functionality to a browser) before and here are a few more I feel are truly worth knowing about that I’ve discovered thus far.   With so much available at our finger tips and internet “bling” vying for our attention, here are some convenient tools to capture the moment all the while making said capture easily available for future reference:

Read It Later

This bookmarklet enables you to compile articles and other content or pages for, you guessed it,  reading later.  You can use it on your computer or phone.  What’s great is the compilation can be accessed when you are offline, so commuters on planes, trains or subways can get caught up on reading without internet connection.  Get it or discover more of it’s functionality here.

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Dear Rovio,

I really wanted to love you, I did.  Your wifi enabled webcam, your omni-directional steering, your programmable web interface.  You were going to be my little remote sentry to keep an eye on my lair and keep me company on a long winter’s night.  Alas, it just wasn’t meant to be…

(hit “read more” for the rest of the story)

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How great is it to be in New York City, or the surrounding densely populated areas, and use Google Maps on your mobile to determine where you are in relation to a sought-after destination?   If you aren’t using it yet, here’s where to get it.

With that said, there are more unique ways to utilize Google Maps than just searching for locations, directions, and satellite views. Boost your use in these ways:

• Lifehacker’s fantastic tip list in Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know Google Maps Could Do.
• Business exposure – find out how to list your business on Google Maps
• Recession creativity inspired a newfangled kind of  resume listing.

Happy mapping.

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If you have grown accustom to downloading free books in PDF format, or if you have other kinds of documents that you would like to read on your iPad or e-book, Calibre is an application that will serve you well. Calibre is a free e-book library management application that converts PDFs to ePub format (among others), the format used by iPad’s iBooks. In fact, Calibre can do a whole lot more for your e-book collection; from library management, to syncing, to conversion and more. Calibre works on Windows, OSX and Linux, download and find out more here.

And, for a detailed how-to on converting PDFs to ePub, complete with screenshots, check out this post by Simple Help.

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Sooner or later disaster strikes, it is inevitable. If you work on computers, at some point you will lose data. The best way to get around this is to have backups. I’m a bit more paranoid about certain things ( like my pictures) that I can not replace. Those aforementioned things are backed up in 3 places, and one of the places also has redundancy built in. Recovery of data off of drives in not cheap, we are talking $1000 just to start. The prices can easily double.

So how do I get started backing up my stuff? Here are 3 programs that I recommend.

Bonkey
JaBackup
NasBackup

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Congrats!  You joined in the fun of Apple’s latest and greatest.  Most of the iPad’s interface should be intuitive and user friendly, but tips and tricks are always useful for leveraging your use.

These guys have put together a very comprehensive tutorial outside of Apple’s guided tour.  I couldn’t resist sharing it with you.

Enjoy!

Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials

image from apple.com

Security is always a huge concern in the IT community.  We make huge efforts to maintain firewalls, encryption via SSL, VPNs, encrypted wifi signals, program and operating system updates but the biggest security vulnerability time and time again are the passwords that people choose.

There is an article that I recently came across written from the perspective someone trying to break into a secure system.  The top 10 most used passwords list reads like a list of lazy choices from people that just don’t want to think about security:

1. Your partner, child, or pet’s name, possibly followed by a 0 or 1 (because they’re always making you use a number, aren’t they?)
2. The last 4 digits of your social security number.
3. 123 or 1234 or 123456.
4. “password”
5. Your city, or college, football team name.
6. Date of birth – yours, your partner’s or your child’s.
7. “god”
8. “letmein”
9. “money”
10. “love”

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If Verizon Wireless is your cell phone provider, you can now get Skype on your Smartphone!

This means you can use Skype on your cell phone to make unlimited Skype to Skype calls anywhere on the planet, IM your contacts, or get low rates on calls to International landlines.  How?  It is super easy; simply go to Verizon Wireless’ site here http://phones.verizonwireless.com/skypemobile/and type in your phone number.  They will send the download right to your phone.  Download and click through the agreements and you are ready to Skype on your mobile.

image from skype.com

Droid vs. iPhone, is there a winner, can there be a winner? I have the luxury of both phones, which I use daily both for personal things and for work. This will not be a whose carrier is better comparison. If I was to do that I would just say AT&T is the worst provider I have ever had to use in Manhattan and that would be the end of it, oh look I did I said it anyway.

Getting back to the heart of the matter: what is bad about the Droid and what is bad about the iPhone. You may be asking yourself why just the bad stuff? I think if you want fanboys to fawn over either device you have a lot of sites extolling their values all over the internet. So lets start.

iPhone: No removable battery Battery life Closed source architecture No tethering * Single carrier Lack of Google Voice

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The Apple site has a great reference for keeping the lithium-based batteries running your iPhone and iPod devices in tip top shape.  I’ll give you the Cliff Notes here for best practices:

#1.  Temperature
Keep your device cool – don’t leave it in a hot car, sunny window, or in its case when charging.

#2.  Use the Lock button
If you lock your device before you put it in your pocket or handbag, it won’t accidentally wake up and run.

#3.  Use your device until the charge runs down
Generally speaking, it is a good practice to let your device run through complete charge cycles.  This means, when your device is fully charged let it run until the charge is almost totally used up before recharging again.  Apple recommends this at least once a month.

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Become an iPhone  super-user with these 20+ handy, but not necessarily well known tips.    They may enhance your user experience or make you an even more savvy pro.

I complied these tricks from iSmashphone.com.  A big thanks to them for spelling these out.  I’m sure at least a few will be invaluable tools for beginners and experts.

1. Scroll to Top of Page

In any application, Safari included, you can automatically scroll to the top of the page by tapping on the “top bar”, which has the time, service bars, and battery. In Safari, this not only brings you to the top of the page, but also brings up the URL bar.

2.  Domain Resolution

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There’s been a lot of talk about Windows 7 since it’s launch, most everything has been positive (which certainly wasn’t the case after Windows Vista launched).  In this tough economic client people are asking themselves, “Why should I upgrade and what benefits will I see if you do?”  I’ve been running Windows 7 since August with their Release Candidate and installed the full version as soon as Technet offered it and I’ve found many improvements over previous versions.

(Be warned, this is a long post.  I wanted to get as much information in as possible.  The short story is if you’re getting a new computer definitely get it with Windows 7, if your computer is less than 2 or 3 years old I would recommend the upgrade).

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The other day I came across a site that I haven’t visited in quite some time. I’m actually very grateful for the site since some one took the time and effort to write out guides for default services settings in different windows programs.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/registry.htm

Generally if you like to tweak with your services and/or registry , you can sometimes forget to set them back. Or if things really go off kilter , you can just set them right back. Of course you are making backups of anything you change first …right? Generally I have used it when a computer has been hit by a Trojan. The new ones will disable as much as possible , creating havoc  for any administrator to get the system back up and running. I am also of the mindset that formatting is not necessary …..most of the time.

What is the registry-

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