I continue suggesting to everyone that running Ad-Aware is a good idea. It doesn’t necessarily have to be run exclusively as the only anti-virus software, but I’ve found that the Ad-Aware team has done a fantastic job identifying the adware that exists out there, and it’s always Ad-Aware that spots it, when the standard AV software remains silent.

Transferring data between a computer and a smartphone has not always been quite as fast and easy as it is today. I remember as recently as 2009, when I was writing articles here about how to sync up a Windows Mobile phone to a laptop so you could not only transfer files, but also share mobile Internet. Things were a little bit more complex then, where you needed to install ActiveSync first, before you could really transfer anything at all.

When the Internet was small and young, file formats were pretty much limited to image types and media file types that the browsers of the time could handle. At the very beginning, text was almost exclusively meant to be presented on the Internet in HTML format, or provided as a file download via FTP protocol. Pictures were JPG or GIF across the board, and sound files were these strangely embedded WAV files and those pathetic electronic MIDI files.

I have to admit that Paypal has become my own vehicle of choice for conducting business online. It has become the most common vehicle that clients prefer for sending in payments for work. This makes Paypal the vehicle of choice for running an online business and it has been for a very long time. However, what you may not realize is how much Paypal has grown, and how many new options are now available these days for paying for things with your Paypal account.

I’m sure many of you have thought about whether you’re doing the right things every day, whether you’re getting anywhere, and whether you’re headed in the right direction. To-Do lists and organizational apps will help you keep all of those daily tasks and projects well-organized, but they don’t really help as much with future planning.

A large number of FTP clients of old had hiccups when it came to large file transfers. The apps experienced the usual timeouts that you would expect when the computer sits there for 15 to 30 minutes, transferring massive files. More recently, noticing so many positive reviews around the web for FileZila, I decided to take a closer look at what the latest iteration of the software had to offer. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised.

For years now, PayPal has solidified itself as the payment system of choice for anyone doing business on the Internet. When people first started doing business over the Internet, you would have thought that some sort of convenient credit-card payment system would have been the system of choice. However, the collective greediness of the major credit card processors created a gap online, where businesses without a lot of available cash flow needed an inexpensive way to offer potential online customers with a fast and convenient way to pay for things online.

There was always some amount of lag in the game, especially when there were lots of players logged in. That’s an experience you can have only so often before you realize that it’s either time to optimize your PC to reduce lag as much as possible, or don’t even bother playing at all. To really optimize for gaming, you’ll need to take a very focused approach to fine-tune the areas of performance that really matter.

By this point, most people know about the nifty tricks you can use in your Gmail address called aliases, that allow you to give people different email addresses that all arrive at the same inbox. Aibek first covered this cool Gmail feature back in 2007, describing how you can place both periods and plus signs inside of your Gmail address and those emails will still be delivered like normal.

Everyone knows that these days, it’s pretty difficult to survive or to manage your affairs without email. In fact, most people have two or three emails to manage, so without a good handle on email management, that busy inbox can get out of control pretty fast. I know, you’re asking yourself do we really need another article about email management? Aren’t we done yet. Well….no.

It’s a little more “instant” than e-mail but not as intrusive as a phone call. It’s convenient, but it’s not annoying if managed right. And most of all, it’s one of the most highly addictive forms of communication in the world. It’s for all of these reasons that I went out in search of a way to continue sending text messages with my phone even when my phone is nowhere near me, and that’s when I stumbled across the MightyText extension for Chrome.

During the holidays last year, my kids all wanted music players. I actually dislike the whole concept of a music player like an MP3 or an iPod; after all isn’t that the whole point of having a smartphone? If smartphones now come loaded with all sorts of amazing gadgetry and awesome features, like the ability to trace your location or locate cool restaurants around you, then why on Earth wouldn’t it be your first choice to listen to music?

A little while after Groupon first got started, I signed up and followed the daily deals for my area religiously. I waited patiently for the perfect deal to roll in, and in a few cases I actually took advantage of the deals. But after about a year or so, the type of deals seemed to start repeating themselves. Recently, I stumbled across Google Offers. Is there any real differences between the two?

Little did I know that there’s a virtual smorgasbord of foods when it comes to vegetables, grains, beans and nuts. I really wish I’d explored these websites before, and I’m pleased to offer them as a resource to anyone else out there that might be getting started in this strange new world called vegetarianism (or veganism…if that’s your flavor).

In all honesty, Windows 7 came with a pretty decent file explorer. You’ve got an easy navigation pane on the left, with file and folder listings in the center, and a useful preview pane on the right. You can completely change how files and folders are displayed, map new drive, quickly create new folders and much more. However, even in its latest form, the Windows file explorer leaves something to be desired.