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What happens when an industry gouges its customers for years, and then technology comes along that allows consumers to circumvent the gouger? Customers leave in droves is what happens, and it's WhatsApp and its ilk that are enabling the exodus. If you're unfamiliar with WhatsApp Messenger and its br...

At first glance, French Mozillux may look a lot like LXDE-based Lubuntu Linux. Don't be fooled. This year-old Linux distro, which targets both beginners and intermediate users, offers a surprisingly comprehensive selection of installed software for users with a wide range of interests. It's easily a...

My first question to the desk clerk at a hotel in a strange country is no longer, "What time does the restaurant close?" It's more often, "Where I can get a SIM card?" $2-a-minute voice and $10-a-megabyte Internet roaming in many parts of the world make acquiring a local card a must. I recently had ...

To buy a flashy new ultra-thin framed 3D TV or not: Like many consumers over the holiday buying hustle, I struggled with that question. I finally gave in and decided to buy one. That decision was not an impulse-only submission, however. I was toying for a while with replacing my aging 42-inch plasma...

The Calligra Suite is an unusual compilation of office tools with much potential -- but it has a good deal of maturing to do before it can advance beyond its mediocre performance following a debut almost three years ago. Calligra is a fork of KDE's KOffice that grew out of unresolved disputes among ...

I've been looking for an alternative to Google's Google Voice product that provides one number for all my phones -- mobiles and landline -- and includes online voicemail and discounted calling. Google Voice is a fine product, and I've had exemplary use out of it, but it has a couple of failings rela...

We've been seeing applications that allow you to remotely access desktop PCs for years. They have tended to function on a PC-to-PC connection basis over the Internet -- like Symantec's pcAnywhere software, which is often used for remote PC troubleshooting. More recently, we've been seeing tools that...

A slew of free texting apps are out there right now, and they have the potential to cut your phone bill by enabling you to bypass your phone carrier's SMS functions. These third-party solutions take advantage of data networks, including the Internet, to send and receive texts, and they let you text ...

One of the most essential computer maintenance tasks is pruning outdated and orphaned files from the deep, dark dungeons within the Linux filing system. These disconnected scraps and bits are endemic to the file structure in any operating system, Linux included. Weeding the Linux software garden is ...

Skype's code has been hacked and its innards published on the Web by Efim Bushmanov, a self-described freelance researcher in the tiny Komi Republic, about 870 miles from Moscow. His aim, he said, was to make Skype open source. Another goal: to find "friends who can spend many hours for completely r...

Remember the holographic message Princess Leia sent asking Obi Wan Kenobi for help in the movie "Star Wars"" That's apparently what Android 3.0, code-named "Honeycomb," will make mobile communications seem like. "There will be heavy use of 3D-like interfaces throughout to create the impression of a ...

Google released Android 2.3, or Gingerbread, on Monday -- a new version of its open source mobile platform. Gingerbread made its debut on the Samsung Nexus S smartphone. The new platform comes with enhancements such as a more refined touchscreen keyboard for faster typing and greater accuracy. There...

One of the best productivity tools I had when I used Microsoft Windows was a collection of portable applications. I missed those tools when I migrated to Linux. Now several open source projects could make portable apps available to mainstream Linux users. Three websites are trying to create that fun...

Verizon Wireless unveiled the much-anticipated Motorola Droid X on Wednesday. The device, which Motorola variously describes as a touch tablet and a pocket-sized home theater, runs Android version 2.1. It will be updated over the air to run on Android 2.2 later in the year. When that happens, the Dr...

Rhythmbox, an integrated music management application, was originally inspired by Apple's iTunes. This open source app works on the Gnome Desktop and is based on the powerful GStreamer media framework. If you have read recent Linux Picks columns, you know that the Linux world of apps gives you sever...

Nokia on Thursday announced the N900 smartphone, a mobile device running the Linux-based Maemo operating system that the company typically uses for its tablets. The device runs a Mozilla-based browser and offers still and video photography, an FM radio and 3.5G and WLAN connectivity. Maemo is the op...

Crowdsourcing may be killing a lot of jobs. True, it's still a nascent business strategy that works well only in certain scenarios, and it can't be lumped in with outsourcing as the cause of mass layoffs. As is the case with outsourcing, though, it can be particularly difficult to quantify crowdsour...

In our age of instant gratification, no one likes waiting for anything. That's why the sluggish launch time of a typical personal computer can make a consumer irritable. It's also why instant-on computing has become a sort of Holy Grail for hardware and software makers in the industry. The pursuit o...

The Open Solutions Alliance, a federated community of open source business and developer communities, opened in early December a community portal built upon technology from one of its newest member organizations, Essentia. The company develops software platforms and solutions for online communities ...

The Open Solutions Alliance, a federated community of open source business and developer communities, opened in early December a community portal built upon technology from one of its newest member organizations, Essentia. The company develops software platforms and solutions for online communities ...