Join The Computer Guys & Gal for spring cleaning. Get tips on backing up your backups — while eliminating tech clutter. And how to decide if you need another gadget? We bring an iPad into the studio, to see if the frenzy is on target or overblown. And, dust off your questions, we’ve got some answers for you.

Guests

  • John Gilroy WAMU Computer Guy; and Director of Business Development at SolutionsDevelopers
  • Allison Druin WAMU Computer Gal; and Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland
  • Bill Harlow WAMU Computer Guy; and Hardware & Software Technician for MACs & PCs at Mid-Atlantic Consulting, Inc.

Tip of the Month###

John Gilroy flags a cheap on-line backup service for document storage. He says you should use a three-tier storage system: Hard drive, external hard drive, and then the cloud.

Scam of the Month###

Poisoned URLs on Facebook: According to InfoWorld’s Bill Snyder, this past February saw a 200 percent increase in malware attached to social networking sites.

Spring Cleaning (Your Computer)###

  1. iPhone App Help
    Released last year, GoodGuide is an iPhone App that lets you scan in barcodes, and it will tell you if the product is environmentally friendly, if it’ll kill your health using it, or if it’s been made by the mafia 😉

  2. Apple iTunes Store
    With 1,000 iPad products now in the store – along with music, movies, iPhone apps, etc. It’s getting awful crowded on those shelves! There’s no way to evaluate several products at the same time. It’s hard to make a short list of things to go back to. And there’s a lot of junk not
    supported anymore – just screaming for spring cleaning.

  3. Cleaning Out Old Gadgets With Gazelle
    Ready to do some spring cleaning getting rid of old tech gadgets. Now really, how many old cell phones, mp3 players, or laptops do you have? Just go to Gazelle and tell them what you have. Then they’ll price the resell value for you and if it sounds good to you – they’ll send you a postage-paid box to ship it to them – they’ll pay you by check, paypal or you could decide to donate the money to charity.

Items Heard on Today’s Show

Social Networking

  1. Your New Facebook Friend – the FBI?

  2. Facebook Beats Google in Number of Web Visits

April Fool’s

  1. Most Irritating April Fool’s Gadget – The Annoy-a-tron

  2. Most Disgusting April Fool’s Gadget

Gaming

  1. AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – (By Dejobaan games of Boston)

  2. PAX East: Penny Arcade Expo

YouTube

  1. YouTube Broadcasts in ASCII

iPad####

Reviews

  1. New York Times

  2. P.C. World

  3. Time

  4. WSJ – All Things Digital

  5. Chicago Sun-Times

iPad Apps

  1. Children’s Library – ICDL for iPad

  2. NPR iPad App

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