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When surfing the Web, it's easy to forget an idea that springs to mind about an item you need to include on your to-do list. This is likely because it's located on your mobile device and it's easy to get distracted from remembering to add it.

In a sea of task apps, Any.DO has managed to make a name for itself. With a clean and simple user interface, it's easy to just get started with managing what you need to do, who you need to call, or what you need to buy. And with the … Read more

Skype lets you pick between text, voice or even video to communicate. When using the text option, your message history is saved to the client forever, by default. This means that every single message you've sent to someone is being stored on your computer -- until you take action to delete it.

If your computer is only accessed by you, then the message history may not be an issue. However, if you are sharing a computer, or you're just worried that private data could fall into the wrong hands, then check out these quick steps to delete all … Read more

Soon there will be more than just one way to contact 911.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced today that the four largest wireless carriers in the U.S. have agreed to fast track a service that will let people text the emergency 911 line.

AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile have all signed on and major deployments are planned to roll out in 2013 and the service should be fully available nationwide by May 15, 2014.

"Access to 911 must catch up with how consumers communicate in the 21st century -- and today, we are … Read more

Pho.to Lab is an app that lets you add effects, frames, and text to a photo. A free app (with some optional paid additional libraries), Pho.to Lab is available from iTunes and installs quickly.

You can use Pho.to Lab to do quite a bit to an existing photo. Add a frame from one of many, apply a filter to change the effect, or choose a special effect from a library of almost 500 different effects. You can use the Pho.to Lab interface to find the category of effect you want, then edit the image and apply … Read more

Editors' note: This post is part of an ongoing series, for the other parts, check out the related stories. This post was updated on March 29, 2013, to add more information on backing up.

One of a storage device's most important roles, if not the most important, is to keep the information stored on it safe, especially from hardware failure. Redundancy and backup are the two popular types of data protection. They are not the same, however, and it's important to understand the differences between the two.

In a nutshell, redundancy in consumer-grade digital storage means using … Read more

Popular Web sites that sell e-books like Amazon and Barnes & Noble allow you to preorder titles with your credit card. Google Play Books now offers the ability to do the same, from the Web or your Android device.

To allow preordering of titles, you'll need to make sure you have a payment option available in Google Play, like Google Wallet or carrier billing.

Step 1: Open Google Play Books in your Web browser or on your Android device. When using an Android device, just open the Google Play Store and tap on Books.

Step 2: Search for the … Read more

VLC is an extremely useful application for watching, recording, and streaming audio and video. And if you didn't know, you can also use it to watch your favorite YouTube videos.

As the Digital Inspiration blog points out, there are lots of benefits to watching YouTube videos in VLC.  For starters, you can skip any ads that might play before videos without needing to use a browser extension. Second, you can change the playback speed of videos, which can help if you're trying to learn something new, like a dance. Third, you can watch the video in … Read more

If you're sharing a lot of video content on the Web, YouTube is probably one of your primary hosting spots. Adding extra information to a video can help other people find your content, which means it's easier for you to reach a larger audience. When you have a copyright notice, or other lengthy information to tack on to your video, filling it out each time can become tiring.

Instead of spending your time filling out the form every time you want to upload a video, why not just adjust the default settings ahead of time? You may not … Read more

Generally the addition of "Express" to the name of any program means that it is a light or less feature-packed version of the original. However, in the case of Pixlr Express, the amount of options packed into the app doesn't make it feel like a light version at all.

The company behind this app is Autodesk, which also makes Pixlr-o-Matic and AutoCAD. Think of Pixlr Express as a beefed-up version of Pixlr-o-Matic; not only do you get all of the vintage filters, but another 600+ effects can be applied in the new app.

Get started by grabbing&… Read more