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How to lock down and find Android and Windows phones

Thieves love smartphones. They're easy to snatch, easy to conceal, and most importantly, easy to resell.

If you're the victim of a smartphone robbery, you have more to lose than the phone itself. The thief may attempt to use or sell the personal data stored on the device to make fraudulent purchases or otherwise steal your identity -- and maybe empty your bank account.

There are two things every smartphone user should do to minimize the damage resulting from loss of the device: lock the screen and activate a remote-location and remote-wipe service.

In a post from earlier this month … Read more

iPhone, iPad thefts jump 40 percent in NYC

The Big Apple is seeing a surge in stolen Apple devices.

The latest data from the New York City Police Department shows that iPhone and iPad thefts have soared 40 percent this year so far, compared with the same period last year.

Between January 1 and September 23 of this year, a total of 11,447 cases of stolen iDevices were reported to the New York City police, a rise of 3,280 over 2011, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said in a report sent to CNET.

"As if to mirror the market place, thefts of Apple products increased this … Read more

A revamped MySpace will stay 'true to roots'

MySpace's new owners, which includes actor/recording star Justin Timberlake, are teasing the coming of a revamped service.

A video found at New.myspace.com features a slick video touting a service flush with photos, video, and music from young and beautiful people. Yep -- as expected, MySpace appears to be coming back as a media-centric social networking service. The Financial Times spotted the new teaser clip first.

Managers posted a note that says, in part: "We're staying true to our roots."

Before Facebook began stomping all over MySpace in 2008, the then No. 1 social … Read more

Keep it clean

CleanMyDrive goes beyond being a simple cleaning app: it combines all the features Finder lacks in drive management. Helped by its nice design and clever user interface, the free app feels like native OS X, providing information about the available space on all mounted drives; users can also eject all drives with just one click.

After installation, CleanMyDrive takes its place in the Menu bar and pops up its sleek user interface showing all mounted drives, and even disk images. The app provides information about the storage capability of each drive, as well as monitoring free space and junk on … Read more

Protect a folder from prying eyes with My Lockbox Free

My Lockbox takes the built-in ability to hide folders in Windows a huge step further by adding password protection, drag-and-drop capability, hot keys, trusted apps list, notifications, skins, and more. My Lockbox Free protects one folder per system, and it has a banner ad. A premium upgrade protects an unlimited number of folders and eliminates the banner ads. We tried the free version.

During setup, My Lockbox prompts you to create a username and password, though you can click OK to run the program without a password since it's very easy to set one up later on. You'll … Read more

How to set up Find My Friends notifications

Find My Friends, an iOS app aimed at helping friends and family members keep tabs on one another, was updated with the release of iOS 6. Other than some simple user interface changes, there wasn't a whole lot added to the app, with one exception -- notifications.

You can now set notifications to get alerted when a contact in your Find My Friends app arrives at or leaves a location you set.

To set up a notification for a friend, view their current location. In the upper-left corner of your screen, you'll see a button titled "Notify … Read more

Less is more with the new-generation Chevrolet MyLink system

You may already be familiar with the maxim, "Less is more." Clearly the infotainment engineers over at General Motors are, because it seems that they've taken this approach to designing the dashboard of the 2013 Chevrolet Spark LT.

There are only four buttons for volume up and down, power, and home below the 7-inch touch screen. There are only three knobs for the basic climate control system. There isn't even a CD player -- GM's betting that you probably won't even notice that last bit, because its target market carries music around on phones … Read more

Help Perry in his mission

A friend in need is a friend indeed, they say. And this is 249 times as true as Perry the platypus will become your friend as soon as you start playing Where's My Perry?, an iOS game signed by Disney. We were impressed by the great design, wonderful scenario, and easy-to-use interface that glues you to your iPhone.

Where's My Perry? follows the same format as another Disney game, Where's My Water? This time, however, the protagonist is Perry the platypus, a secret agent who, instead of being able to save the world, gets stuck in transportation … Read more

Be up-to-date with birthdays

My Calendar Mobile is an iOS app with a single aim: to help you remember your friends' birthdays. Its nice design and uncluttered interface won't make it addictive, though -- not even for those who have plenty of birthdays to keep track of.

The app is the iOS version of the very popular Facebook application that reminds its users about their friends' birthdays. While the Facebook interface isn't visible, My Calendar Mobile needs to have access to your friends' birthday information. It can do this by syncing with Facebook or with your Contacts, or you can add birthdays … Read more

MyPrivacyAudit wants to keep your tweets from leaking

Hopefully, we all know that we should be careful what we tweet, especially after hearing stories about people who mention being on vacation and come back to find their home burglarized. But slips can happen in the fast-paced Twitterverse.

To see if you may have been careless with your tweets, you can use new service at MyPrivacyAudit.com and find out exactly where you went wrong. Though my quick testing of the service suggests that while it may be better than nothing, its privacy checks are far from infallible.

From the Web site:

Initially, the focus of MyPrivacyAudit is understanding … Read more