It's always family that makes you work the hardest for free

Mom is on to her third computer in three years.  All because she buys and plays games she gets online.  I never imagined that she would install and play so many games that she would fill up the hard drive.  That 80GB drive went to 320GB and now on to 1.5TB Hard drive.  Why the 1.5TB drive?  Because everytime I upgraded the computer, she complained bitterly on having to re-install everything all over again.  I tried to give her a new outlook, "Mom, think of it as weeding a garden, you only have to re-install the games you actually do play"  Of course that is what I said when I went from 80GB to 320GB, so it didnt help.  Not much weeding of games happened then.  At least with the 1.5TB drive, I get a couple of years of peace before I have to move on to a 3TB drive or whatever is available at that time.  Of course, it's all free, it's mom....

Do you own a touchscreen laptop?...yeah, didn't think so...

Microsoft's bet that touch would propel Windows 8 has run into a major snag, an industry analyst said Friday: Consumers see little reason to pay premium prices for touch-enabled laptops. 

According to IDC, touch-ready laptop shipments are significantly lower than optimistic forecasts by computer makers such as Acer, whose president, Jim Wong, said in May that by the end of the year 30% to 35% of his company's notebooks would sport touchscreens.

"We forecast that 17% to 18% of all notebooks would have touch this year," Bob O'Donnell, an analyst with IDC, said in an interview Friday, referring to the research firm's own estimates earlier this year. "But that now looks to be too high, to be honest." He said IDC would probably drop its touch estimates to between 10% and 15% of all laptops.

Others have already pegged touch to that range for the year. In April, NPD DisplaySearch said that about 12% of notebooks sold in 2013 would be equipped with touch.

Those numbers bode ill for Microsoft, which has tied Windows 8 to touch on all platforms, not just tablets. It bet that buyers would find Windows 8 attractive because it was designed as a touch OS, repeatedly describing the radical overhaul as "touch-first." The Redmond, Wash. developer assumed that once customers tried Windows 8 on touch-equipped traditional form factors, like clamshell-style notebooks, they would love the operating system.  Apparently not....for the rest of the article, click here

Some helpful tips on how to hide from the NSA...if you can

With the NSA spying on everyone on the planet (not really), Apple tracking your every move (not really) and hackers constantly running amok (really), online privacy is one of the hottest topics around right now. Of course, some concerns might be just a tad overblown, but it’s still not a bad idea to know what your options are when it comes to hiding your online activity. As such, Co.Labs writer Abram Handler recently put together a quick little guide that will help worried Web users protect their digital communications, including instructions on how to encrypt chats and emails sent from your computer. And for those concerned about mobile spying, BGR.com already has you covered with a piece on which mobile chat apps will best protect you from the NSA’s watchful eye.  Happy Hiding...again, if you can

And what you should do when your iPhone is stolen..

Hot on the heels of Google finally providing remote wiping capabilities to Android phones, here is some sage advice on what to do if your iPhone is the phone that is stolen.  Big thanks to PCMag for the article.  Click here and good luck

Finally Google will allow you to remote wipe your lost Android Phone

Apple users have long been able to use iOS’s built-in device locator and remote wiping features, but Android users had to resort to third-party applications. That’s changing soon. Google today announced that it’ll launch a new Android Device Manager later this month that will allow you to locate and ring your misplaced (or stolen) device and perform a remote wipe so your data doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.

The service, Google says, will be available on devices running Android 2.2 or up and judging from today’s announcement, the Android Device Manager site will feature a dedicated area for pinging your lost device. It’s not clear what else users will be able to do on the new Device Manager site, however.

Overall, of course, this new service looks a lot like Apple’s Find My iPhone feature. You’ll be able to make your phone ring at maximum volume (just in case it’s stuck between your couch cushions), for example. The locator feature will highlight your phone’s location on a map (no surprise there) and remote wiping just takes a few clicks. Unlike on Apple’s platform, though, it doesn’t look like users will be able to send messages to their lost phones or use something akin to Apple’s remote lock tool.

There is nothing really new here, of course, and some OEMs already offered some of these features on their Android phone, but Android users will sure be happy to hear that Google is finally making its own tool available to its users.

Coming soon...A DVR that records everything, everywhere

What if TV aired on your schedule, all day, every day? This is the reality Intel will reportedly try to create with its upcoming pay TV service. Add-ons like on-demand content and local DVR services from current pay TV providers are a nice convenience, but Intel will reportedly look to take things to the next level by providing a cloud-based DVR service that records everything, all the time. According to The Wall Street Journal, the killer feature of Intel’s forthcoming pay TV service will ”include a server farm to record every piece of programming aired—local, national and international—and store it for at least three days in the ‘cloud.’ ” The paper noted that by using Intel’s set-top box, TV subscribers will not have to manually schedule recordings or even own a DVR. According to an earlier report, Intel’s service will also utilize a video camera and other technology to monitor people’s viewing habits and serve targeted advertisements.