If you need at a minimum, weekly dose of tech news and commentary, please tune in to KFI am 640 talk radio on the weekends from 11 am to 2 pm for Leo Laporte The Tech Guy. If you cant tune in your radio, you get the stream from KFI at KFI640.com, or twit.tv/live which will soon be twitlive.tv.

Leo is amazing at helping people learn and solve everyday technical problems an average user might have. The show may sometimes get geeky, but is made for an audience that may or may not know anything about tech. Leo has been a source of inspiration for me and I hope for you too.

Leo also creates too many to count, podcasts that release just about every day. Check out twit.tv for getting any of his shows delivered to you via RSS or iTunes.

MacRumors.com reported, then engadget.com followed… And now I! Yes you read it correct, it seems Apple accidentally let some future plans slip out the door. 06/10/08 is the day for iTunes 8 (which was pretty obvious), an aluminum MacBook (which I cant wait for), updates to the MacBook Pro, and a 32GB iPhone (which was only a matter of time). I really hope for the the 3G in an iPhone when the next update comes around but no mention of that. I really want higher speeds for when exchange comes out with iPhone version 2.0.

Of coarse you cannot really trust any of this but I would like to see all of this happen and Apple usually delivers what their customers want.

As far as I know, the original blog to report on this was MacRumors: http://www.macrumors.com/2008/04/16/aluminum-multitouch-macbook-new-macbook-pro-and-more/ 

I take no credit for any of the info here… I am just repeating what I read.

I can’t believe it is here but we are seeing 1 TB hard drives sold for under $200! This price may be a limited time offer but since it is out there, I would not buy any 1 TB hard drive for any more than $200.

The link for this one is the "eco" friendly drive that has variable speeds from 5400-7200 rpm.

Some advice about high capacity drives: At first I was not sure about the investment in a drive that would operate at 5400 rpm because of slower speeds but I have heard from some people that this may actually be better for drives with really high capacities. It seems that because the densities in these drives are so compact, little movements from case fans or even the fast 7200 rpm cause the drive to error and it spends more time correcting errors than an average drive does. So although these new 1 TB drives may run slower than regular drives, a 5400 drive may be quicker than a 7200 rpm.

Psystar is a company claiming to have cloned a Mac computer but they are selling it cheaper than Apple. Called the "OpenMac," you get a 2.2 GHZ Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of memory, 250 GB Hard disk, and a DVD burner to name a few for $400. Apparently there is software they have created that will allow OSX Leopard to install right on the computer. Psystar’s web site is already down which means they are scared sick or it all was a rouse to get Apple to pay them some money.

Im torn here, competition would drive the price of Apple’s goods down however if they became more of a software company with concern to the computer world, they might sell a heck of a lot more copies of Leopard. Don’t know what is going on but I cant wait to see what happens.

There are many reasons that your tech guy might need to reformat your computer but it is important to know what is going to happen to your computer after he or she does it. Some argue to reformat once a year, your computer may have had files deleted, wont start, or infested with spyware but when it comes time to do it, you need to be ready.

The main thing to remember when reformatting your computer is that it is going to put back into the same state as when you bought your computer. It will work fast and new but every single peace of software you installed and every file you created will be gone. It is extremely important to backup your data and be prepared to install software that you added after your computer was purchased. If you no longer have the software, you will have to buy it again or steal it again if you are a creep with no morals. You will have to reset your settings, like bookmarks, desktop background etc. Basically, anything that has changed since you purchased your computer will be gone. So be prepared! The last and very important issue is the fact that your computer will be behind in critical security patches from both either Microsoft or Apple if you are using a Mac and they need to be downloaded and installed before you do anything. Again! Backup data! Re-Install Software! Update Security Patches!

If you have been waiting to buy a wireless Internet card from Sprint, wait no more. I just purchased the Sprint Novatel Wireless Ovation U727 for use with many of my computers and my new Personal Hotspot Router from Cradlepoint.

This card uses your USB connection of any computer you have, a USB card reader for mini SD up to 4 GB, and has a mini version of the connection software.

Configuring of the card is relatively easy for people who buy the card brand new. I however, purchased the card used at a discount price which makes setup a little harder. For some reason, I could not install the light software on a Vista Ultimate 32 bit machine but was able to install the full version.  Previously owning a Sprint card, I am familiar with their connection software and how to re-program an Internet card. For some reason nothing worked and I had to manually re-program the card with the help of Sprint Customer care. Sadly, it took me about an hour with typical reps who know nothing while reading a script till I got someone who transferred me to their tier 3 tech support. Tier 3 took 5 minutes with a rep who actually knew what she was doing. Once I finished, the card worked perfect and worked like a dream with my Cradlepoint Personal Hotspot Router.

In conclusion, buying a Novatel U727 brand new should be easy enough for anyone to setup and it works like a dream. If you buy a used card, prepare to do a little work to get it working. This card works with Windows and Mac operating systems.

I just picked up my CradlePoint PHS300 (Personal Hotspot 300) which is a very small battery operated router that works with my Sprint EVDO Novatel Wireless Ovation U727 USB Mobile Broadband card. The USB card allows me to get wireless Internet to my computer via Sprint’s cell network. Traditionally, you could only use a wireless card with one computer until mobile routers started appearing. A router’s basic function allows you to share your Internet connection with other devices. There are many other uses for routers including big security protection but most people use them to share their Internet connection with other computers.

I have had different connection cards and wireless routers before but I have to admit, this is the best I have come across. In the past, I have spent days trying to get things that don’t work with each other to work with each other but today that did not happen. Programming the Cradlepoint with my Internet card was as simple as plugging it in and creating a password. Yes of coarse I did a little more things for security of the network but someone could literally plug in their Internet card, create a password, and surf the net. The Cradlepoint PHS300 allows a wireless connection for up to 16 devices but that is not the amazing part. The router works plugged in or via a battery that boasts around 2 hours of operation. This now means I can tuck this wallet sized router with absolutely no wires in my truck and everyone with WiFi enabled phones or computers can surf the net while we a driving down the road.  This means that when I go over to friends or customers houses, we can use the net if needed very easily.

I am so happy with this practically zero config device and I urge anyone with a USB compatible Internet card to look into getting this device. Be sure to make sure you have a compatible connection card!

If you own a MacBook or MacBook Pro with an Intel Processor, you know how hot it gets. Seriously, sometimes I think I could fry an egg on my MacBook Pro. I could hold my hand over the keyboard and feel the heat without even touching the laptop!

I really hate carrying around extra equipment but the other day I decided to get a dual fan notebook cooler from Coolmax. I have always known a notebook cooler would help but I literally keep checking and felt very little heat after using this device.

If you own a MacBook or MacBook Pro, I suggest you get one of these because unfortunately MacBooks get too hot. That thin form factor has it’s price. I hope the new 45nm processors found in the new notebooks are cooler. You can buy the Coolmax cooler I bought here.

Have you ever burned a CD only to find it does not work or part of it is missing? If so, the fact that the CD does not work is generally not your fault. The problem is with Buffer! Most burning software these days like Nero and Roxio automatically set to burn full speed which may be spitting data too fast at either the disc or filling up the buffer and causing errors. One problem this could be is using CD’s rated at a lower speed than your burner is burning at.

To fix this, don’t go out and buy new DVD’s or CD’s just set the setting to burn slower. Generally, you can set the speed just before you hit the burn button in most programs.

If you are like me, you cant live without email, you could do without it because it takes up too much time but you are too invested in it.

Sometimes I find myself looking for email I accidentally deleted and until a few months ago, I was not able to do anything about it. With Google offering tons more storage for email than my current provider and given the fact that Google email storage keeps getting bigger, I had one of those light bulb moments. To fix this accidental deletion issue, I decided to forward every email I get to a Gmail account from Google. My current email service provider allows me to receive email, delete it, or do whatever I normally want but they also allow me to send a copy to another address. So in a nutshell, whenever I get an email at my current address, I get another copy at this Gmail account. If one day my my email service provider deletes my email by accident, I can get all my copies in my Gmail account.