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Joining a carrier Wi-Fi hot spot on your smartphone or tablet will soon be as simple as turning on your device. That means no more scrolling through lists of available Wi-Fi networks, and no more typing passwords to join networks.

Wireless carriers all over the world have been turning to Wi-Fi to alleviate network congestion, but the onus of actually getting on those networks has been on individual subscribers. A set of new standards being developed will soon change that.

The IEEE technical standards body is developing 802.11u and the Wi-Fi Alliance has developed its Hotspot 2.0 initiative … Read more

System information utilities are freeware favorites around here, with multiple PCs to monitor. Hardware Freak is a new one to us, but it's a lot like the others, extracting and displaying a lot of useful information about your computer and software in a centralized, easy-to-use interface. Also like the others, it's portable freeware, which makes it a useful addition to your USB drive's portable toolkit.

While system info tools tend to display the same data, that's what they're supposed to do. Where they differ greatly is in layout and look, and Hardware Freak's Main … Read more

The bottom line: McAfee Mobile Security 2.0 gives your Android a fairly robust guard dog, but its steep cost may be too much for some.

Review: Like many Android security apps, McAfee Mobile Security 2.0 realizes that while malware exists on Android, securing a mobile device must include features that combat theft and protect your data.

Note that this review is based on using McAfee Mobile Security on a Samsung Captivate Glide running Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread.

Installation Although all security apps require some kind of registration process before you can use even their trial versions, we … Read more

Textbooks aren't a terribly sexy topic, but give it to Apple for trying to make it sexy.

Yes, today Apple officially rolled out an upgraded 2.0 version of its iBooks app that now supports interactive textbooks while also releasing a free Mac application, iBook Author, that lets people create electronic textbooks on their computers.

Seems clear enough, right? Apple jumps headlong into an entrenched, inefficient industry, threatening it with "digital destruction," or, to put it another way, textbook go boom.

But the truth is, the announcements stirred up more questions than they answered. So with that … Read more

Duplicate files can take up a lot of valuable space on your hard drive, but it's not easy to find and get rid of them without a specialized tool. AllDup Portable is exactly that kind of tool, and it can be kept on a USB drive for on-the-go use. The program is packed with features, doing a thorough job of locating duplicate files and giving plenty of options for dealing with them.

The program opens with a screen where you can select which drives you want to scan for duplicates. There are plenty of options for customizing the search, … Read more

File managers come in many varieties. Elyse from Silkwood Software is a free file browser and manager that can access and manage files and folders free from their default file structure. It uses tags to track and manage your stuff; the program's tag nodes replace the conventional Explorer directory structure for items Elyse tracks. It also features built-in duplicate file management. To manage your stuff, you don't need to choose a destination or file path; you simply tag the item and let Elyse keep track of it.

Elyse opened with a Quick Start Guide that serves for setting … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Griffin's Twenty goes to 20--amps per channel, that is.

This funky Apple AirPort Express accessory basically turns any set of speakers into AirPlay-enabled speakers, or, as Griffin puts it:

"Twenty boasts a zero-configuration audio setup that streams Apple Lossless sound from iTunes or any other AirPlay-enabled app (Pandora, Spotify, etc.) to the user's speakers via a low-profile amplifier."

It's also worth noting that the Twenty comes equipped with a power connection and is wall mountable. It features a 2.1-channel sound system with 20 watts output per channel and also supports a powered subwoofer … Read more

The built-in Windows screen capture tool is pretty basic, and for that reason there is a plethora of programs that let users customize the way they take screenshots and what they do with the resulting images. CrossGL SnapDraw is one of the more comprehensive options we've seen. Casual users of screen capture tools will likely find the program to be a little much, but users who need options to annotate and edit their screenshots will appreciate the program's many features.

The first thing that CrossGL SnapDraw wanted us to do was configure the keyboard shortcut that we wanted … Read more

A bucket-load of community data, Facebook-styled "like" and "dislike" of user comments, and a pile of interface tweaks that make the program easier to use capstone SlimCleaner 2.0 (download), available exclusively today from Download.com.

The update to its sophomore version makes some big changes from version 1.6's collection of robust tools. There's a registry cleaner, for sweeping up all the detritus left by unruly programs after you uninstall them, a faster scanning engine, and recommendations for similar programs. The recommendation engine appears to be accurate, so if you're looking at … Read more