Cranking out news for the geeks, music buffs and gossip junkies, my way. -Greg

Nothing worse than wasted space, especially on a newly upgraded computer. Well the guys at “How To Geek” have found a little over 1GB that you can safely recover after upgrading to Windows 7 from Vista. There are a couple folders that don’t get removed after the upgrade and here’s the easy and safest way to remove them. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! -Greg

These two folders are leftover folders created by Windows during the upgrade process, but unfortunately they don’t get deleted at the end of the setup process. You’ll only see them if you’ve got the option to show hidden files enabled under Organize –> Folder and Search Options.

The good news is that you can definitely get rid of them. Keep reading.

Use Disk Cleanup

The easiest way to remove them is to just run Disk Cleanup (type it into the start menu search box), and then click the button to “Clean up system files”, which will re-launch Disk Cleanup as administrator.

Why is this the easiest way instead of the delete key? Because the folders are normally system protected, and you should also use Disk Cleanup regularly, so stop whining and get to it!

Now that you’ve done that, find the option for “Files discarded by Windows upgrade” and make sure it’s checked, then click the OK button. We’d recommend using Disk Cleanup on a regular basis, of course, and checking most of the rest of the boxes.

Once you’re done, it’ll clean up the files.

And now, those folders will be gone.

So China Mobile has put out specs for the new Dell Mini 3i Android phone. This will be a first for not only Dell creating a cell phone, but in the near future the first for AT&T to have an Android phone on their network, that is when it finally comes to the US. I think the phone looks very slick and has a lot of nice features. My 2 complaints is that it doesn’t have a slide-out keyboard and the camera is only 3megapixel. I have read that the new Sony Ericsson Xperia™ X10 could end up on AT&T, but at about $500 Ericsson can kiss my butt. Here are the specs on the Dell Mini 3i as listed on China Mobile. Where do they get all those wonderful toys? -Greg

The Mini 3i, in Red Passion and Oiled Bronze colors, will begin arriving across China later this month.

Popular Mini 3i Features:

• Entertainment:Access to China Mobile’s Mobile Market suite of services, games, productivity tools, wallpapers, ringtones and applications. Discover China’s popular Internet sites including 51.com, Kaixin and Renren.
• Customization: Personalize MP3 ring tones, icons and shortcuts. Run widgets on the home screen: sports, stocks, news and weather tickers.
• Navigation: GPS navigation.
• Search: Search contacts, appointments and e-mail from the home screen.
• Camera:3 megapixel camera with zoom, auto-focus, flash, video capture and photo-editing capabilities. A 3.5 inch, widescreen (16:9), 640 x 360 display that’s ideal for viewing photos and videos.
• Popular Messaging: Support for the wide range of messaging platforms and services, including e-mail, IM, MMS and SMS.

Dell Mini 3i OPhone Specifications:

• Form Factor: Tablet/PDA
• Dimensions: 58.35 x 122 x 11.7
• Display: 3.5” nHD, 640×360
• Bands/Modes: Quadband GSM/EDGE
• Weight: <105g (grams)
• Bluetooth
• GPS
• Micro SD (up to 32GB)
• Connector: Mini USB

I came across this collection of magnificent, I would like to say art, panorama and vertorama photos on Noupe.com. Some are more than the average wide panoramic, like 360 degree’s, or vertical panoramas. Most of them are multiple images shopped together. The I’ve done some of my own, but never this wonderful. So, I wanted to share them with everyone, so here ya go. -Greg

Panorama And Vertorama Photos

HDR-Vertorama: ~.High Hopes.~
Palm Beach, Florida.

The Kometik
“This monster is an oil tanker docked in Halifax. It appears to be elevated at the bow while they are working on it (probably wouldn’t fit in our dry-dock!). Look at how small the guy who is working on it looks in comparison! I was trying to get a full profile shot of it, but it is too big for my wide-angle lens. I took a couple of shots and will try to stitch them into a panorama later.”

Read more

Visit Micro Center, www.microcenter.com

Micro Center has just opened it’s first store in Missouri, in Brentwood. I got an ad in the mail yesterday for it and I have to say at first glance I was nothing short of excited! Looks like a NewEgg.com or TigerDirect.com, but in a store! It’s huge with more than just a computer junkie’s dream of over 5000 available parts, but also  includes thousands of books, and software titles. They have big name pre-built PC, Macs, and notebooks and they even have a huge knowledge bar where your able to talk face to face with experienced tech and figure out whats best for you new PC or how to fix your existing one. I did a bit of price comparison this morning and found that the price difference is unbelievable!  

Intel Core i7-920:         Newegg – $288.99           Micro Center – $199.99

OCZ DDR3 1600 6GB:       Newegg – $114.99 (after rebate)           Micro Center – $79.99 (after rebate)

Seagate Barracuda  2TB (ST320005N4A1AS-RK):   Newegg – $199.99       Micro Center – $179.99

You do the math, that’s a savings of $144, an average savings of $48,  just on those 3 items alone. I’ve built several machines from scratch, bought a ton of parts and accessories, and I always use TigerDirect or Newegg. Sorry guys, but there’s no question here where I will be shopping from now on. Not too mention where I may be spending my weekends, lol -Greg

Make sure you visit Micro Center for your next purchase!!

Well it looks like Taylor is taking her ability to write to a different level. Taylor Swift and American Greetings are getting together to create a line of greeting cards, stationery, online greeting cards and more. Now, I know there is a joke in here somewhere, just give me a minute. Taylor says “My idea of a great song is a song that says how I feel better than I could. I feel the same way about greeting cards,” there it is, my idea of a great Taylor Swift song is one that she doesn’t sing, enter the greeting card, lol. She goes on to say “I’ve always been fascinated by feelings and how we express them to each other. Getting to write and design these cards is a wonderful experience.” Good for Taylor I like the idea of her using her talents for writing rather than performing. -Greg

So here is the first (English) video showing off the soon to be released Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. Looks very sleek and fast, if you read my early post you’ll know its because of that 1GHz processor. These phone are moving to faster and sleeker looks with each new Android running phone. The X10 is running Android 2.0 (Eclair) and seems to be making good use of it with the stock config. I’m pretty stoked about them and look forward to getting my hand on one. -Greg

So there’s a new bad boy entering the Android market. The Sony Ericsson Xperia™ X10 and it could blow away Motorola’s Droid. Starting with 1GB internal memory, a 1GHz processor, and 8 mega pixel camera this thing is sure to be the next champion in this ever growing list of challengers of the iPhone. Sony Ericsson’s website is pre-registering for the phone and says they are releasing the phone in the UK first, sometime in February. Haven’t seen anything about the US just yet or what network it maybe on, but something tells me it won’t be AT&T. I’ve been noticing a continual drop in quality on my AT&T phone which is only helping me to make that jump off of AT&T’s network elsewhere. Android 2.0, here I come! – Greg