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

FoxFi Software has just released their free app with allows the creation of a Wi-Fi Hotspot without the need of rooting your Android phone. FoxFi does point out it currently works on only large handful of phones and does not work on any HTC.

Currently works on most Samsung phones, some Motorola phones (Razr/Bionic/DroidX), LG Optimus/Vortex/Ally, ZTE N762, HuaWei Comet. Does NOT work on HTC phones or Motorola Droid.

It’s still in beta form which has a few minor bugs, so they have a few tips on dealing with those. They did include WPA2 availability for more secured connections. So far FoxFi works flawlessly on my Samsung GS2. I connected my Motorola Xoom to the hotspot created on my GS2 with FoxFi and was getting over 5Mb down on a speed test. Combined with the unlimited data plan I still have on AT&T makes this guy one happy camper. –Greg

Download FoxFi from the Google Market

Speck gave us free beer!

BillGuard is an INCREDIBLE new service that helps you keep from getting charged for things you weren’t aware of. BillGuard is advertised as “Antivirus for our bills”. I think this is an easy label to understand for most, but doesn’t do it justice. Imagine you’re at a ball game and send a text message to say hello on the big scoreboard. Now imagine a month later you notice on your phone bill that there is some $2.99 a month service that is reoccurring and you find out that by sending that text to the scoreboard you had automatically signed up for a some text a month service. Well BillGuard is basically a service that would find things like this on your credit cards and more. The data this service collects, references, and analyzes is amazing. They also allow users input to help validate the fees and errors even further. The service is free for your first card and then you can upgrade the service to $4 a month for unlimited cards. The question I asked myself as I watched the video from was “How worried about security is BillGuard with regard to my financial information I’m going to give them?” Well, watch the video because they answered it! Overall I think this idea if awesome, especially for those who don’t comb their statements meticulously. I think the video below from the recent TechCrunch Disrupt will explain in much greater detail how the service works and what they provide. –Greg

Check out BillGuard

Video Link

Imagine if MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) opened its doors and allowed everyone to learn from them, with out registration or previous education. Imagine if anyone could sign up for a class, get lecture notes, videos, and even take the exams. Imagine if you could do all of this, on your own, on your own time and at your own speed. Sound unrealistic? What if I told you that it’s already possible, that MIT is not the only university, college, or school that’s offering this? What if I told you, it’s FREE!  Open Courseware Consortium is making it more than possible; it’s available now to anyone, anywhere. Knowledge from the some of the most recognized professors, scientist, doctors, and education institutions from around the world! I stumbled across this while reading about the latest Windows exploit and feel as if I have found a pot of gold! Please take the time to look at it and at the very least, tell someone about it! Tell everyone about it, make a phone call, send a text, send an email, just share this pot of gold with everyone you see today! –Greg

OPEN COURSEWARE CONSORTIUM

MIT – OPEN COURSEWARE

Windows Live offers a service called SkyDrive, basically its online storage. They give you 25GB of free space to do with as you please, which is a pretty good size thumbdrive. Its not something I would use as a back-up solution, that is unless your running a 25GB hard drive, but its a great way to store files online that could be accessed from anywhere that has an internet connection by opening your browser and logging in with a Windows Live ID. Now, SkyDrive Explorer has come up with an application that you can install for free. It turns your 25GB SkyDrive account into a folder or virtual drive on you PC that can be accessed like any other drive or folder you have on your local hard drive. Pretty neat if you ask me, I can think of several reasons to use this and I already have it in use as we speak! -Greg

Get your FREE 25GB Windows SkyDrive here.
and
Download your FREE SkyDrive Explorer here.