iPad - Best Apps and Tips

Just got an iPad? The best apps, accessories, and tips

By Paul Miller  posted Dec 27th 2010 6:18PM

Feature

So, Santa stuffed an iPad into your stocking on Christmas (insert mythical figure / appropriate receptacle / holiday of choice), and you're wondering what to do with the thing? First of all, congratulations! The iPad can be a wonderful, loyal companion and friend, but it can also take a while to warm up to. As we always say, a device is only as good as its apps, both literally and figuratively: it'll take some time to figure out what you want to get from the iTunes Store that will flesh out your experience, but it will also take some time to see which nooks and crannies of your life the iPad can fill, and what roles you'll want it to take over from your laptop and phone. Follow along after the break as we show you how to wring the most out of your shiny new tablet. 

iPad apps

Entertainment

Netflix (free). We've probably spent more time watching Netflix than doing anything else on the iPad. The app is free, the service is cheap, and the content is plentiful. The UI isn't as elegant as some of the other apps, but it's what's on the queue that counts.

Hulu+ (free). Another free app, another paid service. Unlike Netflix, Hulu+ has some ads, and it's tough to swallow paying for stuff you might get for free in your web browser, but that doesn't seem to be stopping anybody -- video and the iPad were just meant to be.

Kindle (free). There are plenty of e-book services, all of them with competent iPad apps, but Kindle is our favorite. It syncs beautifully between iPhone, Kindle, iPad, and any other device you might think of, and has a very simple, fast UI.

Zinio (free). Zinio is to magazines what Kindle is to books. Instead of trying something ultra fancy and "magazine 2.0"-ey, Zinio just takes the original magazine layouts and presents them in a simple iPad view. There are free preview articles to get your feet wet, and the magazines themselves cost about the same as print subscriptions and off-the-rack copies will cost you.

Engadget (free). It's free, and it's Engadget. What more do you need to know?

Productivity

Pages ($9.99). This is the MS Word of the iPad. We wish it was a bit smarter about accessing your files (Google Docs sync, anyone?), but the great UI and surprisingly deep feature set makes it the de facto document editor for the tablet.

GoodReader ($2.99). GoodReader works as the bridge between your iPad and wherever you might've stashed your documents online. You can set it up to sync from Google Docs, MobileMe, Dropbox and more, and it has great formatting and annotating abilities for reading and marking up your PDFs or .docs.

Dropbox (free). Dropbox builds its own app for getting files on and off the cloud, and it's very good as well. You lose a bit in functionality, in comparison to GoodReader, but you gain a vastly simpler interface.

Twitter (free). This shouldn't need any explanation, but kudos to Twitter for creating a beautiful and functional #iPadapp.

Adobe Ideas (free). There are plenty of great drawing apps for the iPad (Brushes, Art Studio, and SketchBook come to mind), but Adobe Ideas is free, simple, and very pretty to look at.

Music

Beatwave (free). There are lots of ways to create beats and loops on the iPad, but Beatwave is just fun. It's free as well, though you can pay to unlock further functionality.

Virtuoso (free). Another free gem, Virtuoso is a piano. You get two rows of keys, and you can either use them both yourself (one set as the bass octaves, one for the treble, for instance), or you can flip one row around for use by a friend. "Heart and Soul," here you come!

KORG iMS-20 ($15.99). Want to make some serious music? This synth studio isn't cheap, but it's chock full of "real" equipment to truly go wild with noise and beat creation.

StudioTrack ($39.99). There are plenty of ways to make music with the iPad, but you can record music as well. StudioTrack is a full-on multitrack recorder with a price to match, complete with effects chains and in-depth mixing. It's perfect for "sketching" out song ideas -- with instruments you play on your iPhone, naturally.

Games

Rage HD ($1.99). It's a tough match between Epic's Infinity Blade and id's Rage HD when it comes to best iOS graphics, but Rage HD is the clear winner when it comes to playability on the iPad. It's an on-rails shooter, but has the frantic movement and shooting of a full-on FPS, and on the iPad's large screen it's easy to get immersed.

Solipskier ($0.99). Don't play this game. It will consume you. Your family will never see you again, and you will dream only in ski-slope rainbows.

Zombie Infection HD ($0.99). This is a straight-up ripoff of Resident Evil, but Gameloft creates great ripoffs, and this game is no exception.

Flight Control HD ($4.99). Looking for something a bit more relaxing? Flight Control HD is the Pina Colada of iPad games, with a simple mechanic of drawing lines and landing planes. You can go head to head against a friend on your iPad, or play iPad vs. iPad over WiFi.

Real Racing HD ($9.99). Real Racing HD was one of our favorite games when the iPad was first launched, and it's still great. There's something about the fact that the iPad is about the size of a steering wheel that makes racing games just feel great on the iPad, and this one's the king. However, Real Racing 2just hit the iPhone, complete with licensed cars and better graphics, so if you're patient you might wait for that version to show up on the iPad as well.

Scrabble ($0.99). If you've got an iPhone and all your friends do too, there's only one thing left to do: play Scrabble. You get a "Tile Rack" app for each phone, and the actual Scrabble app for the iPad, and proceed to play the world's most decadent game of Scrabble.

iPad cases and accessories

Dodocase ($59.95). There are two main categories of iPad cases, and the one you'll choose depends on how you see the device: is it a reading tablet, or is it an everything else tablet? The Dodocase is the perfect example of the former, ensconching your iPad in a handcrafted Moleskine-style book.

Incase Convertible Magazine Jacket ($49.95). This case is more of the latter, taking cues from Apple's own iPad case but adding extra flexibility. It's perfect for propping the iPad up into a typing position, or protecting it from the elements. Just don't expect to impress any of your fellow hipster coffee shop campers.

Apple Keyboard Dock ($69). If you're using the iPad for writing, this dock is pretty much a must. It obviously only allows your iPad to stand vertically, but that makes the most sense for typing anyway. If you want a bit more flexibility, you can buy the iPad dock alone ($29), sans keyboard, and provide your own Bluetooth keyboard.

Pogo Stylus ($14.95). Don't expect this to turn you into Rembrandt, but if you find yourself spending a lot of time in the iPad's myriad quality drawing applications, it can't hurt.

Camera Connection Kit ($29). The iPad can't completely replace your computer (yet), but it can get pretty close with Apple's Camera Connection Kit. The two adapters let you plug in your camera's USB cable or SD card, respectively, allowing you to offload your pictures and upload them to Flickr or Facebook or wherever your heart takes you. New, unofficial kits are also emerging that combine both functions into one adapter.

Tips and tricks:

How to lock / unlock the screen rotation: In the beginning there was the orientation lock switch. And it was good. Now Apple has turned that switch into a mute switch and moved to a software lock. It's not the worst hassle, but it can be a major pain if you don't know where to find the software lock. Here's what you do: double tap the home button. That should pull up a list of recently used application (this is for fast switching between apps). You can swipe left to see even older apps, or swipe right to get a little control panel. On the left is the orientation lock / unlock button you were looking for, and there's also easy access to brightness and iPod controls.

Put Gmail on your iPad: Wait is there actually a Gmail app for the iPad? Yes and no. There's no native application, sadly, but Google has built a beautiful web UI for using Gmail on the iPad, and we recommend putting a bookmark on your home screen pronto. To add Gmail (or any website) to your homescreen, simply go to your Gmail in Safari, then tap the button directly to the left of your address bar (it's a box with an arrow coming out of it), then select the "Add to Home Screen" option. You'll get an option to name the application (we stuck with "Gmail), and then you just tap the "add" button and Safari will place the shortcut in with the rest of your iPad apps.

Getting files on and off: Sadly, one of the hardest things to do with the iPad is to put files on it. Then, once they're on, it's just as difficult to get them off. There's no file browser, like on a regular computer, and if you plug the iPad into your computer it doesn't show up as a hard drive, it just shows up in iTunes. No solution is one-size-fits-all, but here are a few of the ways we deal with this major shortcoming.

• Email: Yeah, you probably thought of this already, but it's still one of the best ways to get stuff on the iPad. Just email an attached document to yourself, then open it up on the Mail app. You should get a nice thumbnail of the document, and then when you tap it, Mail will open its own preview of that document if it can. If you just wanted to view the file, that should be fine, but if you want to work on it, tap the button in the top right corner (the box with the arrow coming out of it) and you should get an option to open the file in the default application for that file type, along with an "open in..." button that lets you pick from any other applications you might have that will work with that file. After that it will be up to your application of choice how it deals with the file. If you get stuck you can always go back to the Mail app, where the original document will be waiting for you, untouched.
• iTunes: It's surprisingly easy to miss, but Apple actual built some minor file management features into iTunes. Once you plug your iPad into your computer and open iTunes, you get all sorts of tabs for managing your music and movies and everything else on your device. The "apps" tab allows you to arrange applications and remove them from your device, but if you scroll down you get a "file sharing" list of applications that can give and receive documents. You simply click on the application you'd like to share a file with, tap "add," and upload a file from your computer. Similarly you can select files already on your iPad and save them to your computer from this interface.
• GoodReader: There are other applications that sync files to the "cloud," but GoodReader is our favorite. You simply set it up with your Google Docs, Dropbox, MobileMe or even email account, and you can download files straight to your device and view them from within GoodReader. GoodReader also has an "Open in..." functionality for viewing and editing your files in other applications. You can sort your files into folders, download files off of websites, and connect to local servers over WiFi if you're really desperate for the digital good stuff.
• Dropbox: If you're a Dropbox user, this is by far the simplest solution, providing a simple view of your online files, a lightweight viewer, and an quick shortcut to opening files in other applications.If you're not a Dropbox user, this won't do you much good.

Motivational Posters - Dec 2010

Amplify’d from bank.imgdumpr.com

See more at bank.imgdumpr.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/fDWQrk

Amplify’d from downloadsquad.switched.com

20+ essential programs for your new Windows computer

Our regular readers can probably rattle off a list of their 20 favorite apps without breaking a sweat -- as the comments on this post will no doubt prove. But for our less in-the-know friends, family, and co-workers, it can be challenging to figure out where to download high quality programs that actually do what they need them to do. We've put together an assortment that will help you hit the ground running with your new Windows PC. If you've got your own suggestions to add, feel free to post them in the comments. Now let's take the jump and check out the apps! Antivirus and antimalware It's always best to get your protection in place before you do anything else. Microsoft's Security Essentials is an exceptionally good program and provides excellent, always-on defense against all kinds of malicious software. Version 2.0 is even better than the original, and it's ready for download onto your shiny new system. For added protection, we also like to keep Malwarebytes on hand. It's a dependable program for times when we want to perform a more intensive checkup on our system and has proven itself to be a malware-removing powerhouse. Download Microsoft Security Essentials Download Malwarebytes (from Filehippo) Backup and sync With security out of the way, it's time to look at protecting your future data. By setting up a good quality backup or sync app (or both), you can ensure that you're never going to lose those precious photos or important scholarly articles you saved in your Documents folder. SugarSync gets the nod for sync services, thanks to its 5GB of free space (more than double what most providers give for free) -- and mobile apps for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry. For straight-up backup duties, Mozy is tough to beat. A free account gets you 2GB of backup space, and a paid account will only run you $4.95 per month for unlimited storage. Mozy can also simultaneously backup to an external hard drive, giving you a second layer of disaster preparedness. Download Sugarsync Download Mozy Web browsing We certainly recommend installing an alternative Web browser, but because Google Chrome, Firefox, and Opera all have unique features, it's very hard to pick a 'best' browser. All three browsers are fast, secure, customizable, and offer synchronization -- which is very useful if you browse on more than one computer. Spend some time seeing what makes each one special, or download 'em all and go for a few test drives. You can always uninstall them later! If you're the adventurous type and you like Internet Explorer just fine, you may even want to download the Internet Explorer 9 beta version. It's not fully complete, but it's a big improvement over its predecessors. Download Firefox Download Google Chrome Download Opera Watching, converting, and burning videos For viewing just about any kind of video file, VLC is ready to rock. From MP4 to AVI to VOB, it plays them all -- and without making you hunt for codecs (which is especially handy if you're not sure what a codec is in the first place). When it comes time to burn those videos to a disc or make them play nice with your new smartphone, Freemake Video Converter is up to the task. It'll even burn your videos to a DVD or Blu-ray disc. Download VLC Download Freemake Video Converter Listening to, transferring, and buying music Just about everyone who's touched a keyboard knows about iTunes. It's a good enough program, but you have other options available. DoubleTwist is a very good alternative, and it can even synchronize songs to your iPhone, iPod, or iPad -- something most other apps can't do. It's also got built-in access to the Amazon MP3 Store, which offers very good pricing on music downloads -- as long as you're in the U.S. and U.K. If you don't own an Apple device, Songbird is another nice choice. One big reason to consider Songbird is that it integrates 7digital for music purchases -- and 7digital is available darn near everywhere. Download Doubletwist Download Songbird Communication and instant messaging/chat Skype now handles a mind-boggling number of voice and video calls every single day, and it's one of the best programs around at adapting to your Internet connection's speed. That's important when you're trying to make sure the person on the other end isn't seeing a pixelated version of you which stutters and freezes constantly. As for instant messaging, we've got two picks. Windows Live Messenger is a good way to go if you're primarily going to chat with Windows Live contacts (obviously) and Facebook friends. For those of you who really need to chat with friends on ICQ, Yahoo, Google, Live, and ICQ all at once, do yourself a favor and check out Pidgin. It's a much better idea than installing three or four different chat apps. Download Skype Download Windows Live Messenger 2011 Download Pidgin Photo management, editing, and sharing Both Microsoft and Google make terrific photo apps for home users. Picasa and Live Photo Gallery offer plenty of quick-fix tools for adjusting colors, removing redeye, cropping, and otherwise tweaking your pics. Both programs make it easy to generate slideshows for sharing online or on disc. Photo Gallery also works well with Facebook and Flickr -- so it's a better choice if you plan on posting a lot of photos to either site. It also comes bundled with Movie Maker, which is a nice way to bundle your pictures and videos. Download Picasa Download Windows Live Photo Gallery / Movie Maker 2011 Games At this stage in the game, Steam is a must-have application (or at least very, very nearly one). There are so many good games available in their extensive catalog that everyone can find something enjoyable to purchase and play. From first person shooters to racing sims to addictive (and typically cheap!) casual games, Steam has become a bit like the iTunes for games. Download Steam Office and student work If you plan on getting productive with your new computer -- and you probably will at some point in the new year -- you may as well install the apps you'll need now. For general note-taking and research, Evernote is a champion and it's made even better by the availability of mobile apps for virtually all smartphones. For straight-up word processing and spreadsheet chores, both OpenOffice and Lotus Symphony offer Microsoft Office-like functionality for free. They're not 100% Office compatible, though, so if you're worried about documents formatting properly you may want to check into Microsoft's free Office Web Apps. They run in your browser, so you won't even need to install anything extra -- all you need is a Facebook account! Download Evernote Download Lotus Symphony (from Softpedia) Download OpenOffice Visit Microsoft Office Web Apps Password management The more Web sites you sign up for, the more important a good password manager becomes. KeePass is easy to learn, can store everything you throw at it, and it will even generate hard-to-crack passwords which you can use to replace your current ones. All you've got to do is remember the master password to open your KeePass vault, and you're good to go! Download KeePass Unzipping, extracting and managing file archives 7-Zip is the name to know. Unlike the more well-known WinZip and WinRAR, 7-Zip is completely free and will never nag you about how many files you've opened with it or why you should buy a copy. Using 7-Zip is dead simple: just click any compressed file you download and choose the 7-Zip menu from the pop-up, and then extract your files. Download 7-Zip for 64-bit or 32-bit Windows Tune-ups and Maintenance Windows 7 doesn't really need to be defragmented, and any new system you buy at this point will be running the OS. A 'tidy up' tool like CCleaner is a better choice. It provides an easy way to remove temporary files that are eating up valuable drive space, and cleans your registry. Run it regularly to keep your system spic-and-span, and don't forget to add CCleaner Enhancer to clean out files from more than 200 additional programs. Download CCleaner Read more at downloadsquad.switched.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/h10C4g

Set Up & Get to KNow Your New Mac

Amplify’d from lifehacker.com

Set Up and Get to Know Your New Mac You've taken your requisite Apple product unboxing video and boasted about your brand new Mac on Facebook, but now it's time to get down to business. Whether you're new to the Mac or not, here's how to set up and get started. Before you dive right into your new Mac, there are a few things you ought to do first: Run Software Update - Chances are your new Mac isn't as new as it could be. Since OS X was probably pre-installed on it quite awhile back, you're probably due for an update. To get things started, head on over to the Apple menu and choose Software Update. This will launch—you guessed it—Software Update and it will check for new updates. When it's done, install everything available. After you restart, repeat this process again to see if there are new updates. Some updates can't install until others have already been installed, so keep checking until Software Update reports that there are no new updates available Get to Know System Preferences - If you're new to the Mac, you should probably take a leisurely stroll through System Preferences (which you can access through the Apple menu and likely find in your dock). Take a look at each of the preference panels so you can become acquainted with your options. You'll eventually find yourself spending a fair amount of time in here so it helps to know where things are. Set Up Your Sharing Preferences - In System Preferences, there's a panel called Sharing. Open that up and you'll be presented with a long list of sharing services. Many of these services are very helpful if you need to share with another computer (whether it's your own or someone else's). Take a look at them all and enable the ones you'd find useful—just make sure to only allow your user or any future users created on the machine may end up with access to the enabled services. Repair Disk Permissions - Once you're all done, it's always good form to repair your disk permissions so nothing gets out of whack. To do this, go into your Hard Drive —> Applications —> Utilities and open Disk Utility. Choose your hard drive from the list on the left, select the First Aid tab, and click the Repair Permissions button. This will take a few minutes and may not end up repairing anything at all, but it's always good to run it on a regular basis and after you've made significant changes to your machine. Tips for First-Timers If this is your first time with a Mac, we've got you covered with switching guides, a look at the latest version of Mac OS X (Snow Leopard), and a look at what's to come in Mac OS X Lion this Summer. Hack Attack: A guide for switching to a Mac: If you're new to the Mac platform—fresh off the Windows world—this guide to switching explains how to make sense out of all the differences between Windows and OS X, highlighting how to accomplish the same things in OS X you're already completely familiar with doing in Windows. Snow Leopard's Four Best Improvements (for Civilians): Most of Mac OS 10.6's changes are deep in its underpinnings for developers to put to good use. But what do the rest of us get out of Snow Leopard? Modest, but nice, improvements to the everyday Mac workflow. What to Expect in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion - Apple didn't reveal too much about the next iteration of their operating system, but here's a sneak peak at what you can expect when Mac OS X Lion is released in Summer of 2011. Install Some Killer Apps Now that you've got a handle on your new machine, let's take a look at some great software just waiting to be downloaded. Lifehacker Pack for Mac: Our List of the Best Free Mac Downloads - Looking to beef up your Mac with a few great-and free-apps that cover a whole lot of your productivity and computing needs? Our annual Lifehacker Pack for Mac rounds up the best free downloads for OS X. Most Popular Free Mac Downloads of 2010 - Despite the high prices associated with Macs, some of the best Mac software costs you absolutely nothing. Here's a look at the most popular, free Mac downloads for 2010. 50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For - This Thanksgiving you voted on the best free apps you're most thankful for. We tallied the votes and here are the top 50. While not every item on this list are for the Mac, many are and they're all great. Adjust Settings and Tweak Your System Got a grasp on OS X? Check. Installed some great software? Check. Now all you need to do is customize your machine to your liking. Here are some resources to help you out: Secrets Updates for Snow Leopard, Still Tweaks Every Dark Corner of OS X: If you're not a big fan of using the Terminal but love hidden features in OS X, Secrets is the preference pane for you. Secrets provides a list of hidden features (and descriptions of each) that can be easily toggled on and off with a simple click of a checkbox. Automate Just About Anything on Your Mac, No Coding Required - Even if you're not a programmer, you can easily create tiny, time-saving applications that breeze through repetitive tasks-renaming large groups of files, executing terminal commands, and much more-with the simple, code-free, drag-and-drop interface of OS X's built-in tool, Automator. Customize Your Desktop - If you use a computer and read Lifehacker, it's probably safe to assume you've customized your desktop. But if you haven't, or you're looking for a fresh new look, here are some great options to explore this weekend. Simple Desktops Is a Hub for Attractive, Distraction-Free Wallpaper - There are plenty of great wallpaper resources, but it's hard to find a great image for your desktop that's both beautiful and distraction-free. Simple Desktops aims to do just that by collecting the best, simple wallpapers on the web. Master and Customize Column Widths in OS X Finder - Snow Leopard's Column view is often the smarter way to look at your files, but having to drag around your columns constantly to see long file names is a pain. Macworld offers a handy, tucked-away option for fixing Finder's widths. Disable Mac OS X's "Downloaded from Internet" Warnings - Macs try to be good and warn you about opening program files that just came off the internet. For those who download a lot, or for files that get stuck with the warning, here's how to disable that warning, per-item or permanently. Drop Thumbnails Onto One Another to Combine PDFs in Snow Leopard - Mac OS X 10.5, or Leopard, gave the Preview app some serious productivity powers, but at least one feature, PDF combining, works a bit differently in Snow Leopard (10.6). PC World explains the subtle but significant change. Permanently Disable the OS X Bouncing Dock Icon Effect - Have you ever been busy getting work done when a random Dock icon starts bouncing up and down, begging for your attention? The Switching To Mac blog writes up how to completely disable the often distracting effect. How to Clean Up Your Mac's "Open With" Contextual Menu - If you've made good use of your Mac's "Open With" contextual menu, you've probably noticed it can get a bit cluttered with duplicates. Fortunately, there's an easy trick to tidy things up. Read more at lifehacker.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/hwdwtq

WikiLeaks Promise

No Congress Since 1960s Has Impact on Public as 111th

No Congress Since 1960s Has Impact on Public as 111th

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- However history judges the 535 men and women in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate the past two years, one thing is certain: The 111th Congress made more law affecting more Americans since the "Great Society" legislation of the 1960s.

For the first time since President Theodore Roosevelt began the quest for a national health-care system more than 100 years ago, the Democrat-led House and Senate took the biggest step toward achieving that goal by giving 32 million Americans access to insurance. Congress rewrote the rules for Wall Street in the most comprehensive way since the Great Depression. It spent more than $1.67 trillion to revive an economy on the verge of a depression, including tax cuts for most Americans, jobs for more than 3 million, construction of roads and bridges and investment in alternative energy; ended an almost two-decade ban against openly gay men and women serving in the military, and today ratified a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia.

For all of its ambitious achievement, the 111th Congress, which may adjourn this week, also witnessed a voter-backlash driven by a 9.6 percent unemployment rate that cost Democrats control of the House and diminished their Senate majority.

"This is probably the most productive session of Congress since at least the '60s," said Alan Brinkley, a historian at New York's Columbia University. "It's all the more impressive given how polarized the Congress has been."

Revenue Gains

As lawmakers wrap up the session, Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are positioned to complete their best two years in revenue, General Motors Co. has emerged from bankruptcy with more than $23 billion repaid to the U.S. Treasury, and American International Group Inc. was able to sell $2 billion of bonds in its first offering since the company's 2008 bailout.

The S&P 500 Index has gained 38.9 percent since Congress convened in January 2009, the biggest increase for a two-year congressional session since 1997-1998, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The S&P 500 Index reached 1254.60 yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average 11533.16.

Stimulus Spending

Stimulus money created and saved jobs across the country, helping strapped state governments retain their workforces, according to government analyses. President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers said that in Ohio, for instance, the legislation created 122,000 jobs for teachers, police officers and construction workers.

"These policies carried the economy along during a period when the private sector was not engaged,' said Ethan Harris, head of developed-markets economic research in New York at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research.

The careers of many lawmakers didn't fare so well. Fiscally conservative Tea Party activists channeled their frustration with government spending and debt into political campaigns, most often to the benefit of Republicans challenging Democratic incumbents. In the Nov. 2 elections, Democrats lost 63 House seats, costing their party control of the chamber in next year's Congress. In the Senate, the Democratic majority was shaved by six seats; the party will have 53 votes in next year's session, Republicans 47.

"What we did was work, and our reward was, 'Get out of here,'" said Representative Louise Slaughter, a New York Democrat and outgoing chairwoman of the House Rules Committee. While Slaughter won re-election, five of her New York colleagues were among Democrats defeated.

Partisan Divide

Party-line votes on most of the major measures engendered ill will among Republicans and helped stall in the Senate initiatives requiring significant bipartisan support. Blocked legislation included limits on greenhouse-gas emissions that scientists blame for global warming, a bill the House passed in June 2009, a measure offering undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship and the administration's attempts to curb growing income inequality with tax increases for higher earners.

Those are unlikely to be tackled next year, when the House's Republican majority will turn its attention to dismantling the health-care law and cutting domestic government spending by $100 billion.

Congress this year was also unable to approve a single one of the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund the government.

'Disaster'

"I think it was a disaster," said Senator Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, of the congressional session.

Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the chamber's No. 2 Democratic leader, saw it differently: "This whole two-year session has been dramatic in terms of its achievement and the changes that it's brought about."

Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the accomplishments of Congress in remarks to reporters today. "We're very, very proud of the work that was done by this Congress," the California Democrat said. "We came here to do a job and we got much of it done."

The policies embraced by the 111th Congress suggested the end of an era in Washington, as Democrats pushed to reverse three decades of deregulation that began under President Ronald Reagan, say economists.

"We've been in a trend toward an attempt to deregulate the economy," said Harris. "You're turning back the clock to an earlier period."

The scope of regulations approved since Obama took office has made business hesitant to expand and hire new workers, he said. "Business is overwhelmed," said Harris.

3.3 Million Jobs

Congress scored its first big accomplishment weeks after Obama's inauguration with passage in late February 2009 of a $814 billion stimulus bill. It has created or saved 3.3 million jobs, according to the Congressional Budget Office, while also steering more funds to road construction, broadband technologies and renewable energy ventures.

The health-care legislation approved last March provided insurers including WellPoint Inc. of Indianapolis and drug-makers such as Pfizer Inc. of New York millions of new customers by requiring that all Americans have health insurance. These industries, as well as medical device-makers, will also face billions of dollars in new fees, and hospitals face a host of new standards designed to help curb soaring costs.

The health-care law is facing legal challenges, with the insurance provision a key dispute.

An overhaul of the rules governing the financial services industry, approved in July, aims to prevent a repeat of an economic collapse that led to the failures of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Washington Mutual Inc. It included $4 billion in aid to help thousands of unemployed property owners avoid foreclosure, while the program has fallen short of its goals.

Pay Equity

Congress also passed laws to help ensure pay equity by enabling women to pursue lawsuits claiming they were underpaid, and to empower the federal Food and Drug Administration to regulate the tobacco industry, which includes restrictions on cigarette marketing.

Additionally, lawmakers expanded state programs for health insurance for children, and they confirmed two Supreme Court justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Sotomayor became the first Latino to serve on the court, and the pair increased to three the number of women among the nine justices.

Following the November elections in which voters handed Democrats what Obama termed a "shellacking," Congress in a lame-duck session made significant additions to its accomplishment list. Lawmakers approved an $858 billion measure that continues for two years Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels, extends aid for 13 months to the long-term unemployed, provides estate tax relief and cuts by two percentage points worker payroll taxes during 2011.

Arms Treaty

Congress in its last days also voted to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on military service by openly gay men and women. Yesterday it cleared the biggest food-safety overhaul in more than 70 years, giving the FDA more enforcement power. And the Senate ratification today, 71-26, of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty gives Obama a key foreign-policy victory.

"What we've been able to do in the lame duck has been not just bipartisan by a fingernail, but bipartisan on a broad basis," said Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat.

From a market perspective, Congress's biggest accomplishment was probably the tax cuts, with the estate tax breaks the "whipped cream, fudge and cherry on top," said Ethan Siegal, president of the Washington Exchange.

'Gone Nuts'

Investors responded to the health-care and financial- services measures largely negatively, with health care viewed as "big government gone nuts," he said.

Democrats say it will take years before the public recognizes their achievements. Many of the measures that passed were designed to forestall a bleaker recession, an argument that's little comfort to many Americans as the nation's unemployment rate has remained at 9.5 percent or higher for more than a year.

"It was hard to tell people that we accomplished anything important when their lives are so difficult," said Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and outgoing chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee.

The Tea Party movement, which worked to elect lawmakers advocating a new era of fiscal authority, has already begun to shift the direction of Congress.

Shortly after the election, Senate and House Republicans announced a voluntary ban on earmarks, the funding for pet projects added to bills by lawmakers. The incoming House Republican leadership has promised to turn the focus of the Appropriations Committee from funding government to identifying spending cuts.

Many of those efforts will likely fail in the Democrat- controlled Senate. And the party split between the two chambers is likely to bring the record of congressional productivity to an abrupt end in January.

"There's just nothing that's going to be accomplished," said Brinkley. "What really is disturbing is that this is a period in which there is a lot to be done."

Amplify’d from www.wisebread.com

How Will the Obama Tax-Cut Deal Affect You?

On December 17th, 2010, President Obama signed a $858-billion tax-cut package into law. Here are the important points in this package that may affect your personal finances.

Bush Tax Cuts Extended First of all, the tax cuts put into place by President Bush in 2001 and 2003 are extended for all income levels for two years, until the end of 2012. This means that the lower tax brackets we have enjoyed for the past decade will not change very much. Capital gains and dividends will still be taxed at the current rates, so there is no need to sell all your investments at the end of this year in anticipation of higher capital gains rates. The $1,000-per-child refundable tax credit is also staying for at least two more years instead of reverting to $500 per child. Another important consequence of the Bush tax cuts is that the marriage penalty was lessened for couples where the husband and wife have similar incomes. Since Obama extended these tax cuts, this means that the marriage penalty will not increase. Payroll Taxes Reduced The Social Security taxes paid on wages will be reduced 2% for 2011 only. Basically, workers will pay 4.2% of their wages instead of 6.2% in 2011. The wage ceiling for Social Security taxes is $106,800, so this means that the maximum amount a person could save is $2,136. This is a good opportunity for everyone to contribute the 2% savings to a retirement account since you are given a reprieve from funding someone else's retirement. Inheritance Tax Comes Back with a Smaller Bite In 2010 the inheritance tax actually didn't exist due to Bush's tax package. In 2011 it is coming back, but it is much less harsh than the inheritance tax rates in the Clinton era. The Obama plan approved a 35% tax rate on estates worth over $5 million. Basically, estates under $5 million will pay no taxes, and that exempts most estates. If Obama did nothing, then the estate tax rate would have reverted back to 55% for estates over $1 million. Alternative Minimum Tax Patched Again The alternative minimum tax is a parallel tax system established in 1982 to guarantee that everyone pays at least some taxes, regardless of deductions. However, the problem with this tax system is that the exemption is not indexed for inflation, so if Congress does not change the law every year, more and more people are affected by the AMT. In this package, the alternative minimum tax patch is continuing into 2011, so millions of middle class families will not have to pay more taxes. The exemption is now $74,450 for married joint filers and $48,450 for single filers. Unemployment Benefits Extended The current levels of unemployment benefits will be intact for another 13 months. This doesn't mean that everybody is getting 13 more months of unemployment checks. What this means is that if the federal government decided not to pass this law, then unemployment benefits would stop at 26 weeks. Now that this law has passed, those who have not exhausted all their unemployment benefits will be able to collect the maximum amount of unemployment benefits allowed in their state for another 13 months. However, those who have already collected the maximum 99 weeks of benefits will not get any extension. In summary, this package was passed so that Americans will not feel a huge change in their finances. If Congress and President Obama did nothing, then the Bush tax cuts would have expired by law and everyone would have had to pay more taxes. However, the package pretty much guarantees that taxes will have to be raised in the future because this is basically more deficit spending. It's in the spirit of "consume now and pay the consequences later," and it seems to be the American way. Read more at www.wisebread.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/eSZx0H

FCC Ruling On Net Neutrality Is A Big Compromise

Amplify’d from consumerist.com via Google Reader

FCC Ruling On Net Neutrality Is A Big Compromise

The FCC has ruled on net neutrality and offered up a compromise solution: ISPs can't throttle fixed line computer users based on what kind of content they're accessing, but wireless providers can.

The measure, approved by a 3-2 vote, will force all providers to detail how they are managing traffic. Wireless providers will not be able to block simple websites or apps that compete with their business, a coup for services like Skype.

"The FCC is moving the ball forward to protect consumers who access the Internet through wireline connections," said Parul P. Desai, policy counsel for Consumers Union, publishers of Consumerist. But, CU "would prefer that the Commission provide stronger protections for wireless Internet users...as more Americans use smartphones and other wireless devices to surf the web." Read more at consumerist.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/eTAd8H

Amplify’d from lifehacker.com

Give the Gift of No-Fuss Backup and Synchronicity to Your Less Tech-Savvy Loved Ones

Looking for a great last-minute gift? This holiday season, set up your less tech-inclined acquaintances with the gift of synchronized and backed-up data—including their most important files, bookmarks, and passwords (which we'll also help them improve).

The gift of synchronicity is free, low-hassle, and it's a gift to yourself in fewer tech support questions. It may not sound like not much of a gift—just installing some stuff, right? But what might seem like second nature to you is going to be astounding to those who are used to clicking "Yes" about four dozen times while setting up their computer, only to find all those "protection" and "safeguard" packages don't do much at all. When you give this gift, the recipient doesn't need to head home at lunch time to retrieve a file, doesn't forget the password to an online store they shopped at years ago, and can always find that spreadsheet with their holiday card addresses.

Access to the giftee's computer Not necessarily in-person, though. You can use an app like TeamViewer—an easy-to-use remote desktop app—to install a few apps on that person's system, configure what's needed, and give them occasional support if necessary. You might be able to have the person pre-install the apps themselves, leaving you to step in and do the configuration. Software They Can Install Here's what we're recommending for our sync and backup tools: • Dropbox: It's 2 GB of free space, it keeps previous versions of files, and it's just quietly, constantly working in the background. By default, it works as a kind of "magic folder," into which you can consciously drop files for syncing between systems. But with a little configuration, it can also sync other folders, including the Desktop where so many users stash important stuff that's easily lost, or substitute as the My Documents folder. • Mozy: Dropbox is great for the immediate stuff—the things people are working on at the moment. For backing up deeper files outside of the "magic folder," Mozy offers another 2 GB of free space that can selectively back up files across an entire computer—Microsoft Office documents, image files, whatever is needed. If 2 GB isn't enough, the unlimited Home plans are fairly cheap for the peace of mind they provide. What's more, Mozy can also work (for free) with an external USB drive to back up their entire hard drive. • TeamViewer: A VNC client that makes it pretty easy for any computer user to let another person control their system—just share the access code. If you're fixing up a Windows system, you can grab an all-in-one installer for these first three apps from Ninite—just download this all-in-one installer, which has all three apps ready to roll. Software You Set Up • LastPass: This is the any-browser password manager that we're huge fans of at Lifehacker. If you're not quite sure which browser someone uses on their system, you could download the Universal Windows Installer, which installs extensions for Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer. There's a Safari extension for single-platform Mac users, and individual extensions for every browser—be sure to grab the "binary" version whenever possible, as this makes it easier to import passwords. • Xmarks: This is the any-browser bookmark syncing tool. Versions of Xmarks are available for Internet Explorer on Windows, Safari on Mac, and Firefox and Chrome on both Windows and Mac. • Optional—Mobile Apps for Dropbox, LastPass, Xmarks: LastPass and Xmarks each require a Premium subscription to use their Android or iOS apps for more than a trial period; you can bundle them together for $20. Dropbox has a free mobile app for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. Note: To get the full benefit, you may be setting these apps up on both your gift recipient's laptop and desktop; after all, that's what' synchronicity is all about. Dropbox Install Dropbox as you normally would—let it create a My Dropbox folder in the Documents/My Documents folder. The tricky part comes in lowering the barrier in getting your user's documents into Dropbox on the regular. A few ways to do that, in ascending order of hack-iness: Sync Your iTunes Library: With a little help, Dropbox is extremely skilled at syncing your iTunes library across computers. Chances are your loved one will need a paid Dropbox account to enjoy this luxury. Add a Start Menu Link: Explained at The How-To Geek's emporium—basically, it's adding the "Recorded TV" to your Start Menu options, then renaming and re-targeting the link. Use Dropbox as the My Documents folder: In Windows Vista or 7, right-click on the Documents folder (in a file window or the Start menu), select Properties, then select the Location tab. In that tab, you can add in the location of the Dropbox folder, then click the Move button. It's a similar process in XP. Taskbar Link: In Windows 7, you can't actually pin the Dropbox folder to the taskbar—try, and you just end up pinning the general file explorer there, with Dropbox listed in the right-click "jumplist." Use this trick for pinning individual folders, which, in short, involves creating an empty Dropbox.exe file using Notepad, then changing that fake executable file to point to something like C:Users[username]DocumentsMy Dropbox. Automatic Desktop Syncing: It's not quite what we had in mind when we detailed syncing folders outside My Dropbox, but it's what I used with one relative's MacBook. It's a different command for Windows (and might require downloading a separate app, as explained here), but to sync up a MacBook's desktop with Dropbox, I created a folder in the Dropbox folder named, say, Desktop Backup, then ran this command: ln -s ~/Desktop ~/Dropbox/Desktop Backup That creates a "hard link" between the Deskop and a Dropbox folder, so that everything on the Desktop is instantaneously backed up to Dropbox. Add the Dropbox site to their bookmarks, and add their password to LastPass, and now they've got backup copies, un-delete, and multiple versions of everything they do on the most common file dump. Note: If there's a huge folder or two on the desktop that your giftee just can't seem to get rid of, you can prevent that folder from hogging all the Dropbox space with the new selective sync. Mozy Mozy will walk you through its initial setup, and its tabbed interface is fairly easy to get a handle on, but our guide to setting up a foolproof and fireproof automatic backup plan with Mozy can help you with the full setup. If you're using a free 2 GB account, the tricky part is trying to figure out exactly which files you want backed up. You'll need to do some Q&A with your recipient, or someone who knows them, to figure out which file types are the most important to always have backed up to the cloud. Once that's settled (or you convince them that $40/year is worth it), you can set up Mozy to keep tabs on the hard drive at all times, checking in and uploading matching files whenever it has a chance. The tax shouldn't be too much on most computers, as Mozy has made a lot of strides in reducing bandwidth and resource usage. LastPass Make sure you've got the "binary" version of LastPass installed on your browsers, if offered. While setting up LastPass for a new user, the software should ask you to import passwords from that browser's standard password pile. You'll want to install and import passwords from any and all browsers the user may have them stashed inside. If there's another password system in place, LastPass can likely grab from it—press the extension button, choose Tools, then select "Import from ..." You'll arrive at a secure web page with a big list of services to import from, along with detailed instructions. Dig into LastPass a bit, and you'll find tools for auditing and updating weak passwords. You can also dig into our beginner and intermediate guides for tips on creating bookmarklets, one-time passwords, and other extra security features. One thing you'll want to do is make LastPass less noisy. By default, it notifies the user about everything it does—filling forms, saving passwords, detecting password changes or new passwords being entered, etc. Head to the extension's preferences, choose the Notifications category, and set up notifications akin to what I've entered in the screenshot above: check only "Show notifications," "Show Save Site Notifications," "Show certain notifications only after click," and "Show Change Password Notification Bar." This keeps LastPass from popping up on every page where an empty box exists, and only spins its icon when a new password can be saved. You could keep the "Save Site Notification Bar" in place if you'd like, to make LastPass more apparent to a new user. Xmarks This one's fairly straightforward. Once Xmarks is installed and the browser is restarted, you should see a pop-out window asking you to set it up. Do so, and import the bookmarks from each browser that your giftee regularly uses. Don't bother asking Xmarks to sync passwords—that's what we've got LastPass for. TeamViewer During setup, you can run TeamViewer as just a one-time app for this setup, which is fairly convenient, but you can also set it up so the recipients' computer is accessible from anywhere, with the proper password. You'll have to decide whether you want to keep regular remote support as an option. If you're creating a permanent option to connect, you'll also have to create a TeamViewer account and confirm it in an email. Generally, though, you can have your recipient simply launch TeamViewer and share their user ID and password with you—over phone, email, IM, SMS, what have you. It's then easy to connect and configure, fix, and update. Add Helpful Bookmarks All this setup is very handy, but only if the person being helped knows how to get at the files, bookmarks, and passwords when they're at their computer or anywhere else in the world. They all tie in together, luckily. Set up these links on a browser's main bookmarks bar, or in a folder named something like "Handy Backup Links." Because you're syncing bookmarks with Xmarks, you only have to set up on one browser. That's how at least one Lifehacker editor has set up his friends, family, and others with vigilant, no-worry backups. There are, of course, alternatives to all these apps, but these are Lifehacker favorites that also happen to have versions available for the widest array of operating systems and browsers. Tell us what you think of this holiday tech support package in the comments. Read more at lifehacker.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/ianBC7