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Most of us spend a large part of our day reading and writing e-mails. If you're a Hotmail (now Outlook.com), Yahoo! Mail, or Gmail user, you may already be familiar with using Webmail keyboard shortcuts. They can save you time by not having to constantly take your hands off of the keyboard to reach for a mouse. But how many of those shortcuts have you actually learned?

KeyRocket for Gmail is a Chrome extension that can help you learn Gmail keyboard shortcuts, while you're using Gmail. All you have to do is install the Chrome extension, make … Read more

The temperature inside your car can get insanely hot on sunny days, regardless of the temperature outside. When you get to your car and it's boiling hot, what's the first thing you do? You lower the windows and blast the air conditioner, right?

A convenient feature that's been around for years, but remains unknown to many car owners, is the ability to lower the windows with the key remote. This allows you to begin cooling your car without having to get in first. Unless the car dealership told you about this trick or you happen to read … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- The journey to the heart of the operation reminded me of the late '60s TV show "Get Smart," where one heavily fortified door leads to another locked entryway followed by more complicated defenses in a seemingly never ending series of entry points requiring PINs, badges, and irises or fingers scans. I balked at the DNA test. Joking. Actually, I was just along for the exclusive tour, flanked by a group of engineers and executives with high-level security clearances.

This is the belly of Symantec's Certificate Authority operations, where the company creates digital certificates … Read more

MetroPCS Wireless stands alongside T-Mobile USA as one of the two carriers on the outside looking in when it comes to offering the iPhone.

When the prepaid carriers -- from Leap Wireless (aka Cricket) to Sprint Nextel's Virgin Mobile prepaid arm -- began offering the once-exclusive iPhone, a notable exception was MetroPCS.

Turns out the company never got serious in its discussions with Apple, MetroPCS President Thomas Keys told CNET. The major stumbling block was technology. Similar to the issue T-Mobile has had, the iPhone didn't run on the band of spectrum on which MetroPCS was operating. More … Read more

CCPlayer from Rambeau Christophe is another addition to the growing number of free media players out there. As media players go, it is certainly not one of those flashy apps with all the lights and trimmings. The publishers opted to present a rather simple interface with just the basic controls: Play, Stop, Next, Back, Playlist. If you're looking for fancy skins, this is not the media player for you.

CCPlayer will play most types of media: MP3, DIVX, MPEG, WAV. The interface itself is simple, unassuming, and easy to understand. Right-clicking on it will present additional options such as … Read more

Hot keys can make your life easier, at least while you're at your computer. For instance, they can enter strings of text like your e-mail or street address, saving you time and reducing your typing effort. Moose-Tech's Speed Keys is a simple tool for automating typing tasks via hot keys. You can create Groups to manage your hot key combos, which can be log-in credentials, passwords, credit card data, phone numbers, or even instant-message phrases. Speed Keys is freeware, but the free version is limited to five items and 25 characters. However, the full version costs about what … Read more

One of my favorite convenience features for cars is smart keyless entry and start. This transponder-based system lets you unlock your doors by simply approaching the car, touching the door, and pushing the starter button -- no fumbling with the key fob required thanks to RFID technology.

Ford thinks that if this sort of walk up and unlock technology is good for your car, it should also be good for your laptop, which is why it's announced its Ford Keyfree Login software. After downloading and installing the Chrome extension onto a laptop or desktop computer that features Bluetooth connectivity, … Read more

One area the iPhone has held its own against Android phones I've used is the responsiveness of the touch-screen keyboard. But one area where I think Android has shown more innovation better predictive typing. Which is why I was happy to see the release of SwiftKey 3 today.

The software one-ups the predictive typing abilities of Android's built-in keyboard, learning from your own typing to offer not just the next letters in a word, but also the next word, too. Hitting the spacebar completes the action. (When you start typing, the first word it suggests is "I,&… Read more

We're big fans of portable freeware. These tiny tools perform a huge range of tasks, and often they're the only option to do the job. But many times you'll find lots of tools available for the asking; keeping track of them all gets to be a problem. That's where LiberKey can help. This free application serves as a central access point for a whole bunch of free tools. It downloads them for you, arranges and groups them so you can find what you need when you need it, and launches them. It tracks your favorites and … Read more