Turn your tablet into a phone

My 10 yr old son asked me for a cell phone.  His girlfriend has one.  Damn her parents.  As a cheap solution I converted his Nexus 7 tablet (Cost $200) into a large phone for Free.

He already had an email address associated with Gmail so I set him up with a Google Voice account and got a free phone number in our area.  Next step install a way to utilize that number so I found a cool free app called Groove IP.  Now he can use it exactly like a phone receiving phone calls and calling out.  He also can use Google Voice for free texting and check his voicemails. 

This solution is 100% free, if you have a tablet, and works perfect.  The small catch is he needs WIFI to use it.  The other issue is he can only use speaker phone on his tablet.  I am going to experiment with head phones with a mic or get him a Bluetooth headset for $20.  

Dell Latitude E6420

I always blow away the Factory Installed OS.  I noticed when installing Windows 7 64-bit I had to change the hard drive configuration in BIOS from RAID to AHCI just to get Windows 7 64-bit to install.

Have you ever wanted your own custom email address?

Tired of having an AOL, Gmail, Hotmail extension on your email? Create a custom one for your family.  It's as easy as purchasing a domain name from Godaddy for as little as $8 per year and setting up a free Google Apps account. 

• On GoDaddy's website search for anything you want and choose an extension.  For Example: search for yourlastname.me or yourlastname.com. If available purchase.  Don't purchase any extras.  
• Next go to http://www.google.com/apps.  You will want to sign up for Google Apps Free.  It's not listed on the home page but it is under their solutions menu. 

On your Google Apps setup it will require you to do some technical things to verify you own your domain name.  You will have to login to your Godaddy account to create TXT record in your DNS settings.  It sounds difficult but it is well Documented on Google and only takes a few minutes to do.  

When your domain is verified you have to point your domain to Google's mail servers.  Again this is more on the technical side but only takes a few minutes.  Google has tons of documentation that should help out.  You also have GoDaddy technical support one call away to help assist you making your changes.  To make these changes you will add MX records to your domain name.  These changes generally take about 24 hours to complete.  

Now login to your Google Apps account and setup your users.  With each user you have First Name, Last Name, Email (name@yourdoman.com), and Password.  With Google Apps free account there are some limitations such as a limit for up to 10 users.

Once your users are created and the MX record changes are in place you can begin checking your email at http://www.gmail.com.  Login with your email address (example name@yourdomain.com) and password.  

Enjoy the use of Google's mail server with your own personal email address.  Also take advantage of other Google services such as Google Docs. 

Disable Microsoft Office Validation

The truth is many of us still come across old office documents.  Microsoft has started pushing out Microsoft Office Validation Tool which blocks you from viewing your documents.  There is great reason for doing this but the tool is flawed and can cause network performance issues while opening advanced excel documents.


To prevent Office File Validation from validating files you must
create the following DWORD registry key and assign it a value of “0”
for the specified application in Office 2003, Office 2007, Office 2010:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\<11.0, 12.0, or 14.0>
\<application>\Security\FileValidation\EnableOnLoad

What Happened to Google Plus?

I am a huge fan of it but not many of my contacts are on there.  The App, the layout, and the structure all seem to flow beautifully into a work of Social Networking Art.  It's everything and more that I wish the rival Facebook was.

GOOGLE Plus has over estimated 26,000,000 users and growing at an alarming rate and even setting records on how fast it is growing compared to Facebook and Twitter.

My favorite part about it is the Circles.  A place where Family, Friends, Business, etc can be connected but separated. This takes the worries about what you can and can't post to offend Business clients, Friends, or family.

It's going to take a lot to win over the hearts of Facebook fans but so far it is doing it.

Samsung Galaxy S2 Release

Samsung has done a great job on letting us know of release dates.  The cell carriers approval of carrying this phone is my interest.  It turns out that Verizon chose not to carry this phone.  Verizon claims they already have an extensive lineup of smart phones.  I would honestly switch from Verizon just to get this phone.

Sprint has been the first to release a date of September 16th while AT&T will fall just behind on September 18th.  Both will carry different variations of the phone.  AT&T will call it the Samsung Galaxy SII while Sprint will call it the Epic 4G. T-Mobile will also offer their own flavor but there has been no official name associated with it yet.

How will these phones compete with Apple?  Well the 4G internet speeds are expected to b3 4 times that of Apple's Iphone 5. Better yet, it will be released before the iPhone 5 hits the market giving Samsung a head start.

HP Touchpad! What's the big deal?

Here we have a device that was designed with a Custom Web OS (Operating System) by HP. HP is clearly trying to get itself into a new niche with this device. The problem is they are competing with Android Tablets and IPAD. Can HP really compete? Well the answer is: No they can't.

It seems that HP will be giving up on the Web OS development and sell their computer line. With this being said who will support this HP Touchpad? Surely HP didn't make this thing perfect and there is no need for Updates.

The technical specs make it a competing product especially with this product being clearanced at $100! Why not buy one? Well it sounds good but you may be buying a dead device with no product or software support unless HP sells off the Web OS to a company that wishes to keep development.

My advice: Put Linux on it or possibly Android.