Video: Let's Install Xfce in Ubuntu 11.10

In this video we will cover how to install yet another alternate Window Manager using Ubuntu 11.10.  We will be installing Xfce.  Xfce can also be installed directly from a fresh install by using the Xubuntu release of Ubuntu 11.10.  But for those who maybe upgraded directly from a previous version of Ubuntu only to find out we were being force fed the Unity Desktop than you may not want to take the time to wipe and do a clean install of your operating system. Why choose the Xfce...

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Video: Let's Install KDE using Ubuntu 11.10

If you have used or upgraded to the latest release of Ubuntu (being 11.10); then you are aware that aside from installing GNOME Shell 3 you are limited to only using the Unity desktop environment.  They did included Unity 2D for older machines.  But what if you aren't a big fan of Unity?  What can you do to make it less painful? Easy!  Install a different Window Manager/Desktop Environment!  It's easy to do.  It does require a little bit of time but isn't very intrusive....

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Android Coming To A Gamestop Near You

Seriously?  Yep, sounds that way.  Looks like taking a bite out of a rather popular fruit/device maker wasn't all that Gamestop had planned.  Just the other month Gamestop announced they would be taking trades and selling Apple's iDevices.  And now it looks as if they are actually branding their own Android based tablet as well. I for one, fear that they may be too late to this show for anybody to care.  Especially with the controversy surrounding them the last several...

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Facebook Poll Is Up!

Trying something a little different.  I just posted a poll on our Facebook Page!  I want to get some feedback from our readers/watchers here on the site and on our YouTube Channel as well.  So swing by our Facebook Page and vote on which Linux Distribution you'd like to see reviewed! Be sure to 'Like' our FB Page while your there! Click here: http://on.fb.me/qwp...

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Netflix Shares and User Base Drops

Since we're on the topic of big brand companies going crazy, we might as well chat about Netflix.  Remember a few months ago when they announced the changes to their service pricing?  And remember a lot of people got pretty upset about the matter.  Then after their current customer's were already rocked by the pricing change; they almost immediately announced that they would be moving their DVD Rental Service from under the Netflix brand to the new Qwikster brand name.  Which...

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HP Changes Their Mind & Staying in PC Market

I'm seriously starting to wonder what kind of water some of the bigger companies are drinking these days.  With Netflix throwing their DVD Rental Service under the Qwikster brand only to withdraw almost immediately and leave things alone.  And then with HP deciding to leave the PC market.  As announced back in August, HP decided to look at selling off their PSG Group; which handles the home PC services and product lines.  In order to align themselves more into the business...

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Review: Shadowgun for Android

Yesterday, MadFinger Games released the much anticipated shooter entitled 'Shadowgun' to the Android Market.  The game itself is powered by the Unity Game Engine and it is indeed very sweet.  For those who aren't familiar with MadFinger Games; they are the team behind games such as Samurai II: Vengeance (and previous 'Samurai' titles), 'Bloody Xmas', and a couple others.  To be completely upfront about it, the game is currently going for $4.99 from the Android Market.  And...

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Tablet Owners Not Paying for News, Surprised?

It goes without saying that the way the world consumes content has changed.  Ten years ago, it was very common for people to come home from work and sit down and watch the evening news and read the Sunday paper.  Fast forward to 2011 and how many people do you see sitting in their office at lunch reading the paper.  How many of us actually sit down and watch that television show they call the 'Evening News'? The vast majority of us access our news via online means.  Whether...

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Apple's New Award: Patented Slide to Unlock

No doubt there are advantages to being first to the game when it comes to a big company making a product.  We all see it every day (and have encountered it for years).  When it comes to Apple, they are currently one of the leading, trend setting companies out there.  They make a design and it takes off with the general public and they make money (lots and lots of money).  So naturally another company comes along and uses a competitors product for inspiration.  That has been...

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GNOME Classic Panel in Ubuntu 11.10

It's no big secret that I'm not the biggest fan of the Unity Desktop Environment being included in the latest Ubuntu releases.  Call me 'old school' or maybe just set in my ways.  But I like the look of what now has been dubbed the 'Classic Ubuntu' look and feel.  Naturally, after Ubuntu 11.04 was released; one of the first tasks at hand was to figure out how to ditch Unity and jump back into good, old Ubuntu as I've always known it.  It was simple, just pick the option at log...

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MC Hammer Launches Search Engine

In his attempts at becoming relevant to the general public once again, the one time 'floppy-pants-rapper' is starting his own web project.  And it is a search engine by the name of WireDoo.  He revealed in San Fransisco's Web 2.0 Summit this week.  So what is his goal? The goal of WireDoo is to create a search engine that bases it's results not only on keywords but relationships between these keywords. In the example given, searching for the word 'home' would return info and results...

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Review: Ubuntu 11.10 'Oneiric Ocelot'

This past week Canonical rolled out the latest version of Ubuntu with version 11.10 'Oneiric Ocelot'.  Right off the bat, you'll notice some really nice changes to the system.  I absolutely love the new login screen.  It looks really sharp.  For fans of Unity, you'll love this release because by default (and short of using the GNOME 3 Shell) Unity is all we get as far as a desktop environment is concerned.  This time around they have stripped out the 'Ubuntu Classic' desktop...

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How To: Upgrade Ubuntu 11.04 to Ubuntu 11.10

In our latest video we will discuss one of the easiest ways to upgrade an existing Ubuntu installation to the latest Ubuntu release.  Whenever Canonical rolls out a new Ubuntu release many people flock over to the Ubuntu site or other sites (like DistroWatch) to download the latest ISO and rip a Live CD to use for installation.  Unless you are absolutely sold on reinstalling from scratch everytime a new release hits the web, you may be wasting some time. You can actually use...

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LibreOffice is Growing! Coming to Android & iOS!

Ever heard of LibreOffice?  If not, it is a free and open-source office suite that rivals the Microsoft Office Suite.  It has many comparable components and makes a great office solution for those who lack the pocket money to purchase MS Office, or those who just like using open-source software (I fall into both categories lol).  LibreOffice originated as a fork of the OpenOffice.org project and is simply outstanding.  Not to mention it is cross platform meaning you can use it...

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Ubuntu 11.10 Video Review Coming Soon!

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for my Ubuntu 11.10 video review!  Hopefully incoming soon!  I'm downloading the ISO now and should have a decent review in a couple of days once I've used it for a little bit.  So look for it coming so...

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Star Legends Chrome Store

A while back I did a review of an awesome MMO for Android and iOS devices.  The app reviewed was that of 'Star Legends: The BlackStar Chronicles' link.  It is an awesome game and it's free in the Android Market. It was announced this past week that this game will be making it's way to the Chrome App Store.  Meaning, if you run Google's Chrome Web Browser; then you're in for a treat.  This is a great game for the casual gamer.  And yet it is still an MMO.  As MMO...

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Batman Arkham City's Official Launch Trailer!

If there is one game that has been highly anticipated, than this has to be it.  Batman Arkham City is due for release in just a few days.  And it looks like this title will definitely trump it's already awesome precursor: Batman: Arkham Asylum.  In the first game from the Arkham series gamer's were treated to a version of 'game Batman' that we had never seen before.  Rocksteady managed to blend the detective Batman with the action Batman almost to perfection.  And it made...

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Google+ Games: Do You Play?

Honestly, I've been a little behind in my exploration of Google+ the last few weeks.  This afternoon I had some time to kill and noticed a button on Google+ I hadn't previously noticed.  And when clicking it, I found it threw me right into their 'Games' section. Looks like they have definitely gotten the clue from Facebook that people want to play games.  I have played around with some of the games on Facebook and I haven't found anything there that warrants special attention from...

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Tablets Owners Do Play Games!

If you own a tablet, do you also play games on it?  My answer is definitely yes!  Why would you carry around a device with an awesome display, and plenty of horse power to play games.  And then not play them?  That sounds crazy to me!  And with mobile gaming becoming more competent as weeks go on; making them attractive to more than just the casual puzzle gamer.  Why not? Well, apparently a study was conducted for the month of September that concluded that 23%...

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Motorola Targets Families With Xoom Tablet

Motorola announced yesterday that they will be selling a Xoom tablet that will be geared towards families.  It will go on sale starting Sunday and will be exclusive to Best Buy.  It will retail for $379 and is basically the same hardware that the Xoom has been sporting all along with one exception.  It will only be available in a 16GB model (instead of 32GB's).  Motorola also said the tablet will come preloaded with some family friendly apps as well.  Apparently, this isn't...

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Microsoft Completes Skype BuyOut

Back in May, Microsoft announced that it would be working with Skype in attempt to complete an acquisition of the VOIP software company.  I remember the day when you had a bunch of different companies all offering the products and software to their users and customers.  Nowadays it seems like the better concepts/business a company has going for it; there is always a much bigger company ready to snatch it up and either close it down or integrate it into their existing offerings. I...

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Ubuntu 11.10 Now Available!

Yesterday marked the release of Ubuntu 11.10 'Oneiric Ocelot'.  So what is the big deal?  What's been changed?  For starters Unity has been updated, and GNOME 3.2 shows up too.  Mozilla's Thunderbird is now the default mail app as opposed to Evolution (from previous released).  The Ubuntu Software Center received a makeover along with Gwibber.  And Firefox 7.01 is the default web browser. For those of you fellow 'Ubuntuers' (haha, I just made up a word); swing by the...

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The Buzzkiller: Google

As part of the reorganization of Google products that started several months ago when they killed off Google Labs; they have now killed Buzz.  Not a big deal to me as I never used it.  But it just goes to show that Google definitely seems to be reorienting themselves since the launch of Google+.  It's a good sign to see a company being progressive.  But it also makes you wonder how they decide which projects to close. Anyways, Bradley Horowitz (Google's VP or Product) commented...

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Run Android Apps In Windows

Don't mind if I do!  I recently signed up for BlueStacks; which is a project that allows you to run Android apps from within a Windows Operating System.  I'm not so sure how well this will work out.  But figured it could be a fun little project.  I'm currently downloading the client now, so look back for a report in the next couple of days to see how it went! For more info on BlueStacks visit: http://www.bluestacks....

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The Avengers Official Trailer!

So today Marvel decided to throw the world a bone and let us see what we've been building up the last couple of summer's to see; a first look at none other than: The Avengers!  In what equates to nearly a 2 minute trailer we get a great trailer for the upcoming flick.  In it you will see the team of superheroes in all their glory.  From Captain America, Iron Man, HawkEye, Black Widow, Thor, and of course Mr. Nick Fury.  And we finally get to see some shots of Banner transforming...

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New Roku Streaming Set Top Box Revealed

Today, Roku has revealed it's newest product.  For those who aren't familiar with Roku, they make a sweet little set-top box that is basically like a cable box for your internet streaming needs.  There are currently several Roku devices on the market, some just stream video from different streaming services like Netflix and Hulu (and a whole bunch more).  While some of their newer offerings can also handle apps like Angry Birds. The new Roku LT is a slightly smaller version of the...

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Search Box is Fixed!

For those who have noticed, thank you for the notes.  The search box towards the top of the website has been fixed.  It now works.  Thanks again for the heads ...

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Netflix Scraps Qwikster Plans

Announced today that Netflix has already killed Qwikster.  Yep, you read that right.  Apparently, they listened to their customers (about freakin' time). That managing two websites with two different movie queues would be too much of a hassle.  So, Netflix decided to pull the plug on moving the DVD Rental portion of their business over to their new brand: Qwikster. This has got to be one of the quickest company deaths in history (aside from children's lemonade stands), lol Anyways,...

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Lord of the Rings Online: Mithril Edition!

For fans for the Free to Play MMO: Lord of the Rings Online, hold on to your hats!  There is a new retail edition heading your way.  You heard that right, it's a retail version of a free to play game.  It will retail at $29.99 for the Mithril Edition of LoTRO. So what does it include to be worth retailing at a healthy chunk of change at $29.99? -Game Disk's -Starter Guide -Keyboard Map -Bonus Quests -Exclusive Mount -2,000 Turbine Points for the LOTRO Store That's a pretty healthy...

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Minecraft Now On Android Market!

For those of you who just can't get enough Minecraft and are running an Android device; you should be thrilled! Minecraft has been released on the Android Market as: Minecraft-Pocket Edition!  Honestly, I haven't tried this app yet out of sheer fear that I will get hooked. Minecraft took the world by storm earlier this year as a game with extremely simple graphics but extremely addictive gameplay.  Essentially providing an outlet for gamer's to build their own worlds and environments...

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Playstation Long Live Play!-Michael Trailer

Over the last several weeks Sony has been ramping up to a big announcement for this past week.  With the news of Steve Job's passing; some things were slid on down the headlines, as was to be expected.  One of these headlines concerned Playstation's 'Long Live Play' campaign.  This wasn't anything more than a commercial; but I have to go on record and say that Playstation serves up some pretty good commercials. Sure, a lot of people were somewhat disappointed that the announcement...

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US Drone's Infected by Spyware

It was reported on Friday that some of the U.S. Air Force's Predator and Reaper Drones have been affected by spyware.  The drone's hardware isn't directly infected; however, the controlling computers are.  The virus has been identified as a keylogger. For those who aren't familiar with virus/malware/spyware terminology, a keylogger is a nasty little program that sits quietly in the background of your computer and records every keystroke that is made on your keyboard.  Usually this...

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Sinestro Corps Batman is PS3 Only

If you have been keeping up with news concerning the upcoming 'Batman: Arkham City' game, then you have probably seen all of the different character skins available via preordering.  Well, looks like people who buy the Extended Blu-Ray edition of this summer's 'Green Lantern' flick will get a PSN download code to get access to the Sinestro Corps Batman skin. Yep, a yellow and black take on Batman's character skin.  I'm all about options and love the fact that we will see skins from...

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What Is Your Single Favorite Android App?

Earlier I sent out a tweet across my twitter feed at:  http://www.twitter.com/techiesmarts asking what is your favorite Android app?  And I would like to open the discussion to our blog readers.  Leave a comment below or tweet us a message with hashtag #techiesmarts via Twitter and let me know! Only one condition, you have to pick only one app from your collection to suggest and whether it is for a smartphone or tablet device.  I will pick up to 5 of the suggested apps...

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Fiverr: What Can $5 Buy You?

I know this doesn't have much of anything to do with technology but this was too good to pass up mentioning.  I recently heard about a site where you can literally get about anything you want done for $5.  I had to check it out.  And to be completely honest I haven't used the sites' services yet, so I have no clue how the actual experience is.  But from an entertainment point of view it looks like a lot of fun. So what will $5 bucks buy you?  Seems like just about anything...

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Netflix + Iconia A500 Hands On!

Now that I have had my hands on a working Netflix app on my Acer Iconia a500 for a couple of days I figured it would be good to post a follow up to see how things are going with it.  And I am happy to report that it is working just fine.  The Netflix Browser Interface resembles that of any other mobile device's Netflix app.  Once the streaming has started I have experienced some fuzzy video for the first few seconds of the flick I'm watching and then it clears right up. I can only...

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How fast will Ice Cream Sandwhich be Adopted?

This is a common question I keep seeing pop up across the web over the last couple of days.  So here is my small opinion on the matter.  Like every other Android release for any device already on the market, user's are forced to wait for the update to rollout to their devices.  Some manufacturers are better at this than others.  So obviously the adoption rate of Ice Cream Sandwhich; at least as far as existing devices out into the wild are concerned, will solely rely upon how...

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Google and Samsung Cancels Unveiling

Google and Samsung cancelled their unveiling scheduled for October 11th.  It is speculated that they would be announcing the release of Android's latest iteration: Ice Cream Sandwhich.  As well as Samsung's latest smartphone.  It was initially unclear why the unveiling was cancelled.  However, in an announcement made earlier today it was stated that both Google and Samsung felt with 'current events' it wasn't a good time to announce a new product.  Now whether this is...

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Help Ubuntu!: Speed Up Ubuntu

The latest video in our 'Help Ubuntu!' video series has gone live!  In this video we will cover a few basic tips that will help us speed up our Ubuntu 11.04 installation.  And we will not have to uninstall any software packages or even touch the Terminal! Who would need to do this?  Anyone running older hardware that seems to have issues keeping up with the new Unity desktop environment or the speed demon who is constantly trying to get their computer to boot as fast as it possibly...

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The Walking Dead stalks Netflix!

Beginning today a deal was made between AMC and Netflix that grants Netflix the exclusive rights to streaming 'The Walking Dead Season 1'.  That's awesome!  Especially with Season 2 fixing to fire up with more zombie goodness. I was a huge fan of the first season and will probably go back and rewatch the first season prior to the Season 2 premiere.  This is a multi-year deal signed between AMC Networks and Netflix directly.  This opens up the door for all future seasons of 'The...

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