Don’t believe me? Think about it: Abba. Ikea. Dynamite. GPS. Green-living communities. Lord of the Rings-inspired metal music. Statuesque blond ski instructors.

And Spotify.

Way back in 2008, a software development company in Sweden kicked back and thought about how great it would be to offer DRM-free, streaming music to the masses. Granted, lots of people have had this thought. I’m sure you’ve all spent some time on websites like Pandora, last.fm, and maybe even Grooveshark. But you probably don’t have an iTunes-like desktop client that will do what those sites will do. That’s what Spotify is all about.

Spotify lets you pick and choose what music you want to hear from their seemingly bottomless catalog, track by track, album by album, or artist by artist. It will also automatically import any existing audio files on your computer into its directory, so can play those songs along with stuff from Spotify. You can drag things directly into your play queue or create custom playlists. The stuff you make is saved to your account, so you can access the same playlists and history from any computer. You can also link your Spotify account to your Facebook, so you can share playlists with your friends and subscribe to their playlists in turn. Lists are also provided from time to time by the Spotify staff, and other commercial interests like Rolling Stone magazine and various record labels.

All for free.

That’s right. Free. You’ll get an ad or two for every 15 minutes of playback, but even those are easily muted with free apps like Blockify (Windows) or Smutefy (Mac), or you can shell out for an unlimited or premium membership ($5-10 a month) that will get rid of the ads. It will also allow you to stream that same music to your smartphone or mobile device, play music even when offline, and more.

And up until last month, Spotify was only available in a few select countries in Europe. But now, it’s our turn. Spotify has finally come to the US. And I highly recommend you give it a shot as a means of welcome. It’s still on an invite-only basis right now, but it only takes a day or two for your invite to arrive. You can sign up for one here. And once you’re all set, check out their automated playlist site suggestions to get yourself started with some great lists, or use Spotiseek to create some of your own using artist seeds like you would on Pandora or iTunes Genius.

And if you come up with any good ones, let us know! We’re looking for summer party music!

If you have a mobile device running Google’s Android software, the time has come to rejoice. The internet giant recently launched the online version of their app store, Android Market.

While you could always access the market from your Android device to download tons of free and paid applications, you can now check out the same selection from your computer’s internet browser. Having the mobile store to browse on the go is certainly a great convenience, but there’s something to be said for shopping for apps with more screen real estate at hand.  Considering every app’s page has screenshots, reviews, thumbnails of other apps by the same developer, and sometimes even videos of the app in action, it can be a lot to absorb on the 3.5-4″ display most touch-based smartphones sport.

The online market makes it easier to view all the information on an app’s page at once, so you may find your stamina for browsing greatly increased. But the best part? Once you’ve logged in to the market, you can install any app you like directly from the site—without connecting your device to your computer.  Android Market will automatically stream the content from server to smartphone, making the download process just as easy as if you were using the mobile market.

But don’t take our word for it. Go forth and download!

Thanks to Android Community for the image

Macs are well-known for their user-friendliness and relatively low-maintenance operating systems, and it’s true: as long as you’re conscientious about keeping your software up-to-date and don’t drop it off a cliff, you’ll likely never have a problem with your trusty Mac.  But that said, there are some things that remain veiled behind the curtain of mystery—like keyboard shortcuts. Or Flash. So it is in the spirit of discovery that we present this list of apps that can make your iLife (HA! See what we did there?) that much easier.

Automator – How-to & Training

Automator is, hands-down, the most awesome piece of Apple software that’s already on your computer that you’ve probably never touched. It’s exactly what its name (and logo) implies: a little engine to perform repetitive tasks and actions for you. You can save your workflows as services or plugins to be accessed from the specific applications to which they apply, or just drag and drop the files you want to process onto the workflow itself.  Its interface reads like an a la carte menu of potential actions and processes, and (like lots of Mac apps) constructing a workflow is as simple as dragging and dropping. The link above will take you to a site with a wonderfully comprehensive intro video, and even some step-by-step instructions to create workflows and scripts for some commonly automated tasks.

Apple Hardware Test – How-to

We’re sure you were so overcome with joy when you first got your Mac that you couldn’t be bothered to look through all the other stuff that came in the box (a cleaning cloth? SCORE!), but you might want to fish out those gray and white “system disks” and put them in a very, very safe place. Not only do they hold the operating system your computer shipped with and all the bundled software (like iLife), they have the particular version of AHT, or Apple Hardware Test, that goes with your computer’s model. AHT is a diagnostic tool that can tell you if all the major hardware components of your machine are doing their jobs, and the test results appear with a simple pass/fail. If your machine is acting funny, it’s always a good idea to run the test before spending a day waiting around at the Genius Bar or otherwise bringing out the big guns.

AppleJack - download

One thing about Macs: when they do fail, they tend to fail pretty catastrophically. Often the crashes or weird behavior that play harbinger to full-on system failure can be fixed through terminal actions, and therefore avoid the explosion every user dreads. But if you’re like a lot of computer users, you haven’t had to run a command line script since, you know, ever. AppleJack can help you with that. It’s a simple utility you can install that will create “shortcuts” in Terminal to some of those magical restorative processes that will fix your corrupt OS woes. All you have to do is boot into single user mode (not scary, just holding down buttons), and type the word “applejack” before hitting the return key. The app will walk you through the rest. With luck, you may never need it. But the day you do, you’ll be really, really glad it’s there.

Onyx - download

Onyx is like one of those crazy Swiss Army knives with the butane lighters that they don’t sell in the US… that’s how many random tools are packed into it. It will do almost anything, from repairing your directory to cleaning up registry or plist errors, to showing you some of the hidden preferences for your system or applications you might not have known you wanted changed. Rather like AppleJack, it’s sort of hard to pin down exactly why you’d want to download Onyx, just because its uses are so varied. But in any case, it’s free. So do yourself a favor and install it, and figure out how awesome it can be for yourself.

GrandPerspective – download

Remember last week, when we talked about the PC Program Sequoia View that displayed the various items taking up space on your hard drive in a graphical, color-coded, and scaled representation? Yeah, GrandPerspective does the same thing for your Mac. It’s a great tool to have when you’re pruning your files, since you can see what’s taking up the most space without having to navigate through every folder one at a time. It’s also just interesting to look at.

Secrets – download

This app is meant to lift that veil of mystery we mentioned in the intro. It’s a Preference Pane plugin (so after installing, it shows up in the System Preference application), and it short cuts you to some of the most sought-after but well-hidden Mac user preferences and shortcuts. It not only has shortcuts for your OS, but also for a handful of popular third-party apps you might be using. If you don’t have the patience to sort through every single preference menu to customize everything your liking, Secrets is the app for you.

Thanks to Appstorm for the image

Your Windows system may come with software to tell you all about your hardware or play video, and nearly everyone has a PDF reader program on their computers these days. But we’ve selected this handful of programs because they truly go above and beyond—either by improving upon the standard performance of other “utilities,” or by outright changing the game in how you interact with your computer.  We hope that you’ll find at least a couple of them (if not all!) useful in your everyday computing.

System Information for Windows – download

SIW is a portable freeware program you can use to obtain, among other things, a complete software and hardware inventory of your computer system.  It will detail all the components of your machine, from brand to speed to size, and every program you have installed, whether good or bad.  It’s also got some handy tools for recovering lost passwords and optimizing your network connections. It will even export the data it collects to easy-to-share formats like CSV and Excel. If you have multiple computers, or tend to inherit machines with suspect pedigrees, you might get a lot of use from this nifty utility.

Speccy - download

Speccy is another system inventory tool, but unlike SIW, it focuses on a more concise presentation of your hardware specifications.  The interface is a little more user-friendly and easy to read, and it will also export to other text-based formats like CSV or HTML for sharing or taking to-go. Unless you really want the software and license inventory that comes along with SIW, Speccy is the softer, nicer inventory software for the slightly less technically inclined among us.

SequoiaView – download

Even if your middle school Biology days are far behind you, you’ll probably remember that the cross-section of a cut tree shows rings of varying widths that correlate to years of the tree’s life.  SequoiaView does something similar for your computer’s hard drive.  It scans all the files and folders in your system and then arranges them in a color-coded and scaled graphical representation, so you can see exactly how much space your collection of funny LolCats images takes up.

Recuva - download

Don’t lie, it’s happened to you. You get to your computer to open up that super-important file that you were working on before you decided to clean up your desktop in a fit of good intentions, and—oh no. It’s gone. You’ve deleted the super-important file, and now life as you know it is effectively over.  Of course it’s happened to you. It’s happened to me three times already today. Luckily, I use Recuva. It’s a nifty little program that will search the depths of your directory for those files that “accidentally” got erased. You can use it on your computer’s hard drive, but also on any external drives, cameras, memory cards, or even your iPod. It’s also got a “secure erase” feature to make sure the files you really and truly want to delete will get gone for good.

DriverEasy – download

Anyone who’s used a Windows system with new hardware before knows what a pain it can be.  Even so-called “plug and play” accessories require a minute or two of setup to begin working, and the worst ones might never work at all if you don’t have the proper device drivers or know where to get them. Enter Driver Easy. This program will scan your system to get a gander at all your hardware peripherals, search the web for the most up-to-date or applicable drivers, and present them for your convenience. What could be better? Your stuff will work better with the most current software and bug fixes, and you won’t have to worry about a thing!

VLC – download

VLC is the do-it-all video player. This fabulous open-source software runs without ads or junk, and will play pretty much anything you can throw at it without the need to download endless codecs. It’s famously virus-safe, fast, and powerful.  You can say goodbye to skipping video, or opening six different programs for all  your different media filetypes.

Foxit Reader - download

While Adobe might have developed the PDF filetype, most people these days will agree that their program for reading these useful files is bloated, buggy, and not very functional (unless, of course, you shell out the big bucks for Acrobat Pro).  That’s where Foxit Reader comes in.  It’s a lightweight PDF reader that starts and loads in a flash, but not before making sure the file you’re trying to open isn’t carrying some extra baggage in the form of unwanted malware. It will print without crashing Print Spooler, and opens multiple documents in handy tabs to keep your desktop clear. It’s compatible with interactive forms, and allows you to comment, bookmark, and even validate digital signatures on your PDF documents.

Sumatra PDF - download

Sumatra is another alternative to Acrobat that deserves a recommendation. I admit its desktop view before you open a file is maybe more yellow than anything ever should be. But viewing actual files is an elegant and minimalist experience. Sumatra is a great option for big multi-page files, since its presentation view just fades into the background and lets you focus on the content without distraction. While it does not have as many security or comment features as Foxit, you can view and print your documents speedily and with no crashes.

FileHippo Update Checker - download

If you run a lot of third-party software on your computer, you’re either constantly annoyed by alerts to update, or are running significantly out-of-date versions of most of those programs.  If you’d rather download and install those third-party updates in one fell swoop, then FileHippo’s Update Checker is the program for you. It will scan your installed software in a flash (as little as a second or two!) and contact the FileHippo website to check for any available updates. It then presents them to you in an easy-to-access list, and you can pick and choose the updates you want to run. Quick, simple, and ever so convenient.

Thanks to Income Insiders for the image. And yeah, we know it’s a MacBook Pro. But it looked cool.

Viruses, worms, malware, and spyware all pose a very real threat to your computer’s security.  And even if you’re very careful, you’ll probably suffer an infection at some point. At best, these troublesome bits of programming will make it hard for you to use your computer without their interference. At worst, your personal information might become compromised.  It’s important to take the proper precautions to avoid infection when you use your computer (like keeping all your software up-to-date, only opening email attachments that come from trusted sources, and avoiding risk-taking behavior and downloads online). But on top of all that, you need a good antivirus. Here are our top picks for the various places you might be computing.

Best overall: eSet NOD32

Whether for your home or business, NOD32 is the best antivirus software out there. It’s lightweight, so you won’t notice it running or slowing down other operations on your computer. It’s fast, so full scans take a fraction of the time that they take with other softwares using older engines. And the best part? NOD32 uses traditional virus “definitions” to keep your computer safe, but it also uses what’s called heuristics, which means it proactively watches for certain types of behaviors that can be classified as malware rather than waiting around on a string of code it can match to a potential threat.  It’s got built-in protections to keep bugs from disabling its processes, and it even searches “secure” encrypted channels that tricky viruses sometimes use to enter your system. If you opt to use NOD32 for your business, the license even includes server-side monitoring and maintenance so your IT professional (ahem) can keep an eye on your system’s health for you. And the real kicker? It’s very reasonably priced, including discounts on multiple licenses and renewals.

Best for the whole family: Kaspersky PURE Total Security

Computers are a big part of life these days, and lots of households have more than one.  In some cases, there might be one for mom, one for dad, and one or two for the kids. If that’s the case in your house, you might want to consider PURE Total Security. It bundles its antivirus software with a two-way personal firewall and excellent spam protection to keep your computers safe on all fronts. It has a password manager, automatic backup and restore functions, and a “file shredder” so you can delete sensitive files with confidence.  It’s also built for your home network, so you can manage the scans and settings of all the computers you’re covering from one machine. There are built-in, customizable parental controls, so you can check up on your kids’ activity from the comfort of your own PC.  It’s also got lots of options to customize your safety profiles, like running suspect programs in a “Safe Run” mode, as well as “Gamer Mode” for when you need to optimize system performance without compromising your protection. The box version covers 3 PCs, but if you choose to download, you can get coverage for 3 or 5 PCs. And like NOD32, you get a lot of bang for your buck.

Best for Mac: eSet Cybersecurity for Mac

Macs have a great reputation for safety.  Since the company was such a small share of the personal computer market for so long, not many people bothered to write malevolent programming for them. But eventually the bad guys will catch up with Macs, and even the excellent security features built into OS X may not be enough to deflect their attacks.  That’s where Cybersecurity comes in. It’s specifically tailored for OS X, so it runs quietly in the background of your normal tasks without slowing everything to a crawl like a lot of antivirus programs do. Like NOD32, it uses both conventional virus definitions and the heuristic method to trap threats to your Mac, but it also eradicates PC viruses that may not be affecting your computer that you could inadvertently pass on to your PC-owning brethren.  It will even scan virtual machines, so if you have Windows installed on your Mac though Fusion or Parallels, it can keep that safe for you too! And again like NOD32, the pricing structure is excellent for covering multiple machines at a discount.

Best for on-the-go: VirusTotal.com

Every once in awhile, you may find yourself on an unprotected computer: you’re staying with relatives, or you just got a new machine and haven’t installed your antivirus solution yet.  Whatever the reason, it’s nice to know there’s a place you can go to perform a quick check for safety on individual files or URLs.  Simply upload the file or copy and paste the site address, and Virus Total will tell you if there’s anything there to worry about.  It’s a handy little tool even if you already have an antivirus installed and just need to verify something right this second, since it saves you from scanning a whole folder or drive. And best of all, it’s free!  Just bookmark the site and you’re good to go.

Thanks to allGeektv for the image

The internet is everywhere. Literally. It’s in coffee shops, city parks, and likely every room in your home. If you have a smartphone, you’ve even got it in your pocket. It’s probably safe to say that you, like all the rest of us, take this constant connectivity for granted. But this ubiquitous access aside, you might not be getting the best browsing experience. Here are a few recommendations to help you remedy that!

Google Chrome (Windows, Mac, & Linux)

This browser is our top pick for a reason—it really does have it all. It’s super fast, easy to use, and has tons of features like tabbed browsing and thumbnailed site images to help you get what you need from the ‘Net. It’s got a neat mode called Incognito that allows you to open a browsing window free of your regular cookies and autofill information whose history won’t be saved, which is both secure and handy if someone else wants to check their email on your computer. It also opens each Incognito window in isolation, without affecting or requiring you close your other open windows. But the real feather in its cap is its stability: Chrome runs each open window as its own process thread, which means if the massive Flash game you’re playing in one window crashes, it won’t take any other windows down with it (like that important email you’re drafting). Other perks include synchronizable bookmarks, built-in reader view, and bundled Flash (so you don’t have to deal with those annoying Adobe update panes). The downsides? While Google has opened up the season for extensions, the options are still a bit less expansive than the competition. And you are, of course, giving a larger share of your internet presence (and info) to Google.

Mozilla Firefox (Windows, Mac, & Linux)

Firefox is the original alternative: a fast, open-source solution with more downloadable tools and add-ons than you can shake a stick at.  It has the full complement of convenience features like tabbed browsing, space for bookmarks on the toolbar, built-in reader view and customizable search bar, and synchronizable bookmarks. While it also has a private browsing feature, enabling it will force all other windows to close. And though it is easier to update than, say, Internet Explorer, it prompts you to update when you open the program and forces a restart (whereas Chrome downloads updates as you browse and applies them after you close). The biggest pain? It’s kind of a memory hog and can really slow things down if you browse for long periods without restarting the program or your computer.

Apple Safari (Windows & Mac)

Apple has quite a reputation for the sleek look of their interfaces, and their internet browser is no different. You can browse your site history and bookmarks with big, colorful Cover Flow thumbnails, use the reader view to strip ads and extraneous formatting from articles on the web, and even enjoy super-sharp text thanks to the font-smoothing on every page.  And while the aesthetic components of Safari are (of course) on lockdown, the rendering aspect is, like Firefox, open source. That means geeks of all colors can submit bug fixes and improvements as they find them, which helps build a more stable platform. The problems? Most of the really good, innovative stuff is reserved for Mac owners (check out Apple’s site to see how Safari interacts with Mail, Address Book, iPhoto, and the Dashboard). And remember how Steve Jobs hates Flash? Yeah. Though lots of non-Apple technologies can be accessed through “extensions,” some of them (cough, FLASH!) really slow the browser down. Also, the automatic update window is irritating in the PC environment. In OS X, you get all your system updates at once, so it’s no big deal. In Windows, it’s yet another popup demanding your attention.  And who wants that?

Opera (Windows, Mac, & Linux)

In a word? FAST.  Opera is blazing fast. Opera will load even the heaviest of pages, like CNN.com or Yahoo!, in the blink of an eye.  This super-speed is thanks to the fact that Opera multithreads every download, which is the technological equivalent of creating a widemouth bottle. Unfortunately, thanks to an ill-conceived attempt at creating a for-pay browser in its early days, Opera doesn’t have nearly the user base of Firefox or Chrome; so a lot of sites don’t bother to check for compatibility with it. There are also no add-ons or extensions available, so what you see is what you get.  Though we confess, those side-anchored tabs are pretty cool.

Internet Explorer (Windows only)

There is really nothing to recommend this browser.  If you’re still using it, please stop reading this article immediately and go download either Firefox or Chrome. Internet Explorer is full of security holes, slow as molasses, and its version of the new browsing standards (tabs, bookmarks on the toolbar) are clunky and unintuitive.  Internet Explorer is like a gaudy tie or a tacky sweater—you got it as a gift and you have to keep it, because there are those rare instances where you absolutely have to bring it out into the light. Like when Aunt Mildred’s visiting from out of town. Or you’re trying to fill in an “interactive” form on a shoddy government website. There are some times when, we confess, you will need Internet Explorer. But for all those other times, have something better at the ready.

For a more humorous (albeit more cynical) take on the five browsers we higlighted, check out CollegeHumor.com

Thanks to InternetBrowserSoftware.net for the image

In spite of all the wonderful things computers have added to modern life, they’ve given us some pretty rotten things too: sentient AI along the lines of HAL and SkyNet, diminished capacity for social interaction, FarmVille. But of all these modern inconveniences, repetitive strain injuries have to be the most prevalent, persistent, and downright annoying. From headaches to hand cramps, there are myriad ailments you can blame on your PC.

Including sleeping poorly.

Ever since computers stopped using interfaces made up of neon green fixed-width type on an empty black screen, the light emitted by your PC’s display was meant to mimic daylight. Specifically, the color temperature of most displays is set to around 6000K by default.  And if you leave your display’s brightness setting at the higher end of its range, it means your eyes are getting bombarded with an awful lot of photons.  Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to stare into the sun?

And burning holes into your retinas aside, staring long and hard at your computer screen after dark can actually affect your circadian rhythms—the biological clockwork that tells you when it’s time to eat, time to wake up, and time to sleep.  Since your body interprets the cooler temperature light coming from your display as sunlight, it thinks computer time equals party time, even if it’s actually nighttime and you want to retire shortly after that last round of Spider Solitaire.

So what’s a self-respecting technophile to do? Luckily, the kind folks who designed F.lux made it just for you.

F.lux is a simple, free application (for Mac, Windows, and Linux) designed to run in the background on your computer and create a gradually changing color overlay for your display to affect the temperature of the light it emits. It’s tailored to your geographic location and the kind of indoor lighting you already have to make its changes in time with the sun’s movements and to create overlays that look like the artificial lighting you already have. You can make the transitions a quick 20-second flip, or an hour-long fade. There’s even an option to disable the whole program for an hour at a time when you need to do color-sensitive work like photo editing or graphic design.

While F.lux doesn’t affect your display’s brightness settings, the less intense contrast from the overlays helps reduce eye strain in addition to helping your body clock remember what time it is.  It’s a sneaky utility.  You will barely notice it’s there, but take stock a week or so after installing it.  If you’re anything like me, you’ll notice you haven’t had nearly as many headaches as usual and your eyes don’t feel like they’re made of sand after hours in front of the computer.

And hey, maybe you’ll even sleep better!

Thanks to IRPC on Flickr for the image!

If you have seen a billboard, read a magazine, or even turned on your TV in the past year or so, you’ve probably caught a glimpse of these: strange, square designs that mean nothing to the naked eye. But given the proper technology, a wealth of information is there for the scanning.

This little box is what is known as a QR, or “quick response,” code. Originally developed in Japan by a subsidiary of the Toyota corporation, the codes can hold a massive amount of information in a relatively small space—over 4,000 alphanumeric characters.

Because QR codes can be used to create an action rather than just spitting out a string of data, they’re ideal for storing links to online content. Lots of advertisers make use of this feature in billboards and other outdoor marketing, where it’s called “hardlinking.” People can capture the QR code and be redirected to a website with special promotions or information relating to the advertising content.

But big corporate marketing teams aren’t the only ones adopting QR codes for easy transfer of information. The codes can store information in vCard format, so some tech-savvy users have replaced or supplemented traditional business cards with a printed QR code to make it easier for the reader to add them to their digital contacts list. Since the information cannot be read without first capturing the code, you can use it for any information you want to have a degree of privacy, such as your address on your luggage tags.

There are myriad ways to use these handy little boxes, and since they’re license-free, it’s free and easy to get started!  If you’ve got a smartphone, there are tons of apps to choose from that will scan and interpret codes in the wild with the touch of a button (we like Barcode Scanner for Android and Qrafter for iPhone, both free).  If you want to create your own codes, Delivr.com has an easy-to-use generator that will let you save the image as a PNG or EPS file.  And if you’re not convinced yet that QR codes have any viable use in your life, check out this article on Mashable for some more inventive ways you can put them to work.

Happy coding!

Anyone who works or has worked in an office environment has come up against this problem at some point or another.  You create a document in a feverish frenzy, send it to the printer with a flourish, and go stand by the industrial monolith to await the hard copy of your genius.

And wait.

There’s no telling how many times you’ll try to reprint before you finally realize that you neglected to change back to your “usual” printer after some other anomalous print job.  And while the worst case scenario is having to rescue a hapless coworker from the pile of copies you sent to the “wrong” printer next to his desk, it’s still a time-consuming and frustrating error.  As such, I’m sure you’ll be thrilled to hear there’s a free program that will render this irritating gaffe obsolete.

Enter Automatic Printer Switcher from Computed Synergy! This program runs in the background of Windows to redirect print jobs according to your every whim.  You simply download and run the program, open the other programs whose print jobs you wish to control, and use the handy interface to pair program with printer.  With a few clicks of a mouse, Word documents will print in your office, Excel spreadsheets will become PDFs, and that funny email forward from Aunt Mabel or your plane tickets to Maui will emerge from that printer in the corner that your boss can’t see.

I encourage you to give it a try.  If nothing else, the poor guy who gets buried in the avalanche of mistaken reprints will thank you.

For more control over how you print, check out this entry about a bookmarklet that lets you print selections from your web browser!

Like many people, you may have received a new computer for the holidays.  If you’re already an avid user you know how to set it up, install your favorite apps and get to work/play.  But if you’ve just moved to a new operating system (Windows 7, OS X or even Linux) you may be a little lost as to the new functionality in your new toy.  Luckily lifehacker has put together a great list of tips and tools for whatever system you’re baffled over.  Take a look at this list and let me know if you have another cool trick you’d like to share.

image from bolti22 on flickr