By way of Dell Computer, we have just received notice that Microsoft will no longer be making Windows XP available after 10/22/2010. No matter when a system is ordered, if it is not shipped by Oct 22nd, Dell reports that the order will be canceled and the OS replaced with Windows 7. 

Many businesses have been relying on Windows XP for the continued support of their legacy applications. For these businesses, this will likely be a major cause for concern. Microsoft has announced phase-out’s of Windows XP in the past, but they have been forced to keep extending its life due to a strong reluctance by IT managers to embrace Windows Vista. However with Windows 7 outperforming Vista's opening sales by a wide margin, it appears that Microsoft has finally decided to let the venerable Windows XP sail into the sunset.

We would not be surprised if this announcement produces a short term surge in demand for PC’s, which in turn could cause a rise in PC prices temporarily, or even shortages of certain PC components.  

Kukui.com hopes to make searching for real estate easier than ever with the launch of KauaiRealE.com,  a state-of-the-art website created for the Kauai Real Estate Market.  

Developed for Sleeping Giant Sotheby’s International Realty, the new website offers an array of powerful and easy to use features, including expanded listing details, real time market statistics, Kauai real estate news, sales history, expert advice, and much more. 

The centerpiece of the new website is a next generation, interactive map based search. The new search interface, which Kukui.com refers to as IDX², gives real estate buyers a commanding birds-eye view of all the listings in their search, along with each listings price and exact location on a large interactive Google map. The new site is further enhanced with a ground breaking detail view that presents buyers with complete property details for every listing on Kauai, a slideshow, recent sales history, lot outlines, previous pricing, and much more.

1) Download the amazing 'Hope For Haiti Now' album from iTunes. Its only $7.99 and 100% of proceeds go to help Haiti through the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, The Red Cross, UNICEF, The United Nations Food Programme, and many others. The album includes 20 songs from artists like Madonna, Sting, Dave Matthews, Cold Play, Shakira, Jay-Z, Christina Aguilera, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Key's, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and more.

2) Text "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross. 91% of money donated to the Red Cross goes to help people in need.

3) Donate via the web. Food For The Poor is a great organization that has been on the ground in Haiti helping some of the poorest people in the world there since well before the current crises.  97.7% of the money donated to Food For The Poor goes to helping people in need, making them one of the most efficient charities. Royal Caribbean is currently dropping off enormous amounts of food & supplies to be delivered by Food For The Poor as their ships cruise by Haiti. They've already delivered 120 palettes of food, water and supplies so far.  So we believe monetary donations will go particularly far with them.  Because of that, we have decided to commit a portion of our profits over the next year to support our brothers and sisters in Haiti through Food For the Poor. Please Click Here to donate via their website.

If you have any suggestions,  please add a comment below. 

Finding a great, free anti–virus program for Windows has been a challenge in the past, especially for a new version of Windows.  This time however, Google and PC Tools have come to our rescue with 'Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus', bundled as part of the new Google Pack. Google Pack is a bundle of popular, free apps provided by Google and its partners. It includes Adobe Acrobat, Firefox, Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus, Picasa and several other apps.   If you are just looking to protect your new home PC or laptop from viruses, then you’ll probably just want to download Firefox and Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus. These two apps together with the new and improved security built into Windows 7 will go a long way to help keep your PC safe on the net.
 
In our testing, we’ve found that Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus does a good job of protecting your PC from new viruses. However, if your PC is already infected with a virus, then you’ll probably want to pay for the full version which offers more powerful removal tools. Aside from the fact it’s free, Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus has also recently received the prestigious PC Magazine Editors Choice award.

So this is our top pick for the Best Free Anti Virus Program currently available: http://pack.google.com/ 

Note: Don't have Windows 7? The Google Pack also supports Windows XP and Vista.

Just in time for Christmas, Dragon Dictation for the iPhone has arrived. And not only is it free, it actually works!

After using it for a day, it appears even more powerful than the PC version. For starters, It doesn't require a bulky headset. Dragon Dictation simply uses the iPhone's built in microphone. But even more impressive, the accuracy appears to be near 100% with absolutely no training.

To use it you open the Dragon Dictation app, press the red button to record, and then click the stop button when you are finished. Within a few seconds your speech will be magically converted into text and displayed on your screen. From there you can copy and paste the text into any iPhone app.

The only drawback appears to be the fault of Apple's iPhone OS. The iPhone only allows one third-party app to be running at a time. So you'll have to open the Dragon Dictation app each time you want to dictate something which can really slow you down, especially if you're trying to chat using a program like Skype.

To get it, just pull up the app store on your iPhone and search for "dragon dictation".

The best free way to speed up your computer has to be by removing unnecessary startup items using System Configuration Utility. When you log into windows, many programs can start themselves automatically. Some of these are helpful while others just take up precious computer resources. You can easily see a list of these programs using the System Configuration Utility.

The quickest way to access this valuable tool is by going to the Start Menu and clicking Run. In the Run box, type in “msconfig” (without the quotes) and press OK. If you are using Windows Vista, you may not see Run listed on the Start Menu. Instead, type “msconfig” in the search bar at the bottom of the Start Menu and press enter.

Once you have the System Configuration window open, click the Startup tab. All of the items listed here are small programs or helper applications that are set to run as soon as you log into Windows. It may be hard to decipher what some of these programs are, but a quick Google search should provide more than enough information.

Each item has a checkbox on the left which determines whether or not it will run when the computer is logged on. Go through the list and clear the checkbox for any unnecessary programs. Be careful not to disable anything that may be related to anti-virus software or the computer hardware. Click OK and restart the computer.

After restarting, a pop up window will appear with the message “You have used the System Configuration Utility to make changes to the way Windows starts.” Put a check in the box at the bottom next to “Don’t show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows starts” and click OK.

If you were able to remove a lot of programs form the startup list, you may immediately notice a dramatic improvement in your computer’s performance.

Digg is a website that allows people to share interesting content found on other websites. Unlike a typical blog or news site, you won’t find any original content on Digg. Instead, you’ll see links to articles on other sites along with brief descriptions about those articles.

So Digg is just a bunch of links with no actual content? What’s the big deal? The wonderful thing about Digg is that thousands of users rate the submitted links. The end result is a high quality list of interesting websites.

There are several ways to submit a link to Digg. Many websites have Digg icons built in.

If you click the Digg icon and the story has not yet been submitted to Digg, you will arrive at the “Submit a New Link” page.

Enter a title for your Digg and add a brief description about the article. Next, choose which topic best describes your story and make sure everything looks okay in the preview.

Finally, enter the text from the image into the space to the left and click “Submit Story”.

If you are not the first person to submit the link to Digg, all you have to do is click “digg” and your vote will be counted.

Most people would agree that records and cassette tapes are a little out dated. Some would also say that CD’s are old fashioned too, thanks to computers, MP3’s, and iTunes. But digital media is still relevant right? I don’t think so, at least not for long. I would even go so far as to say that the whole concept of “owning” music is on its way out.

Why do people buy music anyway? My best guess is that it’s so they can listen to it as they please with no commercial interruptions. In the past, the only way to control the music was to own it yourself on plastic disks or on your computer hard drive. What you are essentially paying for is a way to get the music from the artist to your ears.

Buying music does give your control, but it’s not very effeciant. CD’s can be cracked, scratched, broken, lost or stolen. MP3’s can disappear if a computer dies and they are not properly backed up. Even if no disasters occur, the songs are still trapped in their physical container. You may be at work while your music is stuck in mp3’s or CD’s at your house.

Lately, several websites have popped up that are changing the way people listen to music. My two favorite are Pandora Radio (http://www.pandora.com) and Slacker Radio (http://www.slacker.com). Both of these websites give you access to an enormous music library where you can create custom internet radio stations. You can pause, skip and ban songs too.  Both sites also allow you to rate the music and will give you recommendations based on those ratings. You can even listen to them in your car from a phone with a data plan.

There are many other great features to these websites, but I expect that this is the beginning of a new trend that will expand well beyond music. Why buy something when you have it available anywhere at any time. You can already watch TV shows and movies for free online on Hulu (http://www.hulu.com). What’s next? Computer programs? Check out Google Docs (http://docs.google.com).  The computers themselves? Take a look at Windows Live SkyDrive (http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive). Maybe early technology adopters will soon be identified by how little technology they own.                                                                                                         

If you just got a new computer, you may have noticed that Microsoft Office 2007 looks quite a bit different from the 2003 version. Luckily, Microsoft has created interactive websites to ease your transition.Click on the links below and then click Start the Guide.

Interactive Excel 2003 to Excel 2007 command reference guide

Interactive Word 2003 to Word 2007 command reference guide

Just wondering where the "File" menu went along with all the important commands like "Save As..." and "Print"? Click the Office logo in the top left corner.

1)     Switch to Firefox 3 for browsing the web. IE has two major problems. The first is it's popularity. IE is the most widely used browser by far, which makes it the #1 target for virus writers. The second is it's close integration with Windows. Often times a corrupted IE means a corrupted Windows. By switching to Firefox you can sidestep both of those problems.

2)     Check your Antivirus:  Make sure it's up-to-date. If you don't have an antivirus program, or if your current antivirus program is out of date,  then download AVG free edition from here: AVG . Note there are a slew of paid Anti-Virus options available as well that offer even better protection. For the best paid option we recommend Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 .

3)     Update Your Software: Finally, make sure your computer is up-to-date by going to Microsoft update. The link provided below is for Microsoft update which is slightly different from Windows update. Microsoft update will update all of your Microsoft programs, not just Windows: http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/. In addition its very important that you update your other programs as well. Especially programs that interact with the internet, such as: Adobe Flash, Adobe Acrobat , Firefox & Sun Java.

4)  Avoid file sharing: Programs such as Bit-Torrent, Lime-Wire and their associated pirate websites are laced with viruses and malware. Avoid these sites if you value your data!

5)  Protect your E-mail: For business email, consider a managed email service like the one we offer. Or if you just need a personal account, Gmail and Yahoo both offer well protected email accounts for free. The catch is that you have to either check your mail via their website.