I’ve been a Livescribe Pen fan for a couple of years now and use one myself all the time. I’ve recommended them to friends and acquaintances as they make note taking extremely simple and effective.

A quick note to let you know that I’ve received a new Livescribe Echo Pen for evaluation from them. I’ll let you know about the new features, and we’ll probably have them on the radio show.  I’m really looking forward to this one.

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• Livescribe Echo Smart Pen Even Cleverer than Predecessor (fastcompany.com)

From this week’s review and comment on the news.  Here’s some free software that can make a big difference on the security for your computer:

- http://www.slimwareutilities.com/

• SlimComputer – to turn off the unneeded programs, toolbars and promotions that come pre-installed on a new PC
• SlimClearner -  is the world’s first software that lets you clean and optimize Windows systems using a crowd-sourced approach. SlimCleaner uses aggregated-cloud feedback to recommend optimal settings for programs, start-ups and services.
• SlimDrivers – uses crowd-sourcing to spider and aggregate millions of devices to keep the device drivers up-to-date. Using a cloud-based system, SlimDrivers not only detects when a driver needs updating, but also identifies the proper executable for your system and initiates the driver install automatically.

- https://browsercheck.qualys.com/

• Checks and identifies security issues in your browser.  Very nice software.  It detected some plugins on my machine that were out-of-rev.

- http://www.cloudmarkdesktop.com/

• Protects your inbox from spam, phishing and viruses.
• Filtering for IMAP, POP, Exchange and Web mail accounts

You’ve probably got enough information already, but if you’d like to read more:

Free software tools can add to your anti-virus protection

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• Anti-Virus firms engaged in Fraud (warintel.blogspot.com)

You can get 10% off and free shipping on orders over $50 by using the Coupon Code: POWERUP

Their products are great and it doesn’t get any more convenient…

Now, developers are looking at including biometrics and cameras to monitor us even more.  This will let these devices provide us with what we need, when we need it — kind of like a butler of years past.

But, what does it mean to our privacy?  Do we really want a machine that can be monitored by who-knows-who to keep track of every part of our lives?

For more, read Smart gadgets may one day anticipate our needs.

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If you’ve got Verizon, here’s the inside scoop on the hardware from Tom’s Guide.  This device specifically provides a signal for your Verizon Wireless cell phone when there’s no signal at all.

Sprint/Nextel has a similar device with a different payment plan (what else is new?).  If you’ve got one or more Sprint phones and little or no signal, you can buy the Sprint Home Booster (Airwave) and plug it into your Internet connection.  It does a pretty decent signal for your phones.

When there’s a big storm, such as what we’ve recently seen in Haiti and in Indonesia, and the cell phone networks go down most people are out of luck.  Same problem when you’re in a remote area of any country, but if there’s Wifi available there’s a new cell phone being designed that provides the connectivity you need: Scientists develop mobile phone that doesn’t need reception.

If you’ve got a signal from your wireless provider, but it just isn’t strong enough there’s a generic solution you can use at your home.  There are quite a few of them out there, and here’s one that we found on Amazon.com that seems pretty good.

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• zBoost: The Cell Phone Necessity for Everyone on Your Holiday List (eon.businesswire.com) (I’ve had these guys on my radio show.)

We’ve been watching the popular iPhone 4′s technical problems over the past few weeks with its antenna design.  The iPhone 4′s DeathGrip is so common that anyone who owns and uses an iPhone on the road has experienced its propensity to dropping calls.

As a radio technician (Advanced-Class HAM license), I have to say that it’s impossible that competent design engineers missed this potential problem.  I truly doubt that Apple’s being hiring idiots to do its hardware designs, so it only left me with one possible answer: they knew about the problem in advance and that the problem was a design trade-off.  Turns out I was right again.

Steve Jobs admitted today that there is a real problem with the design, but gave the “but everybody else has a similar problem” excuse.  Sheesh!

It looks like we’ve got the evidence we need: Apple has finally become too arrogant to be responsive to even its greatest fans.  The fall is on the way…

Apple, I knew thee when.

Apple knew about iPhone 4 antenna problems long before its release.

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We wern’t getting bills from the utility companies, bounce notifications from the bank or SPAM from thousands of Nigerian Princess who can’t get their jiggy on.

And it’s still become worse.

Harris Interactive‘s study of eMail stress levels shows that almost everyone thinks that 50 eMails per day is their limit — at the office, home or now on-the-road with our great new smartphones.  (Expect to see suits filed by lawyers for their clients whose work stress of having to deal with eMails is going to kill them all…)

I have to agree that 50 eMails a day is a little much.  My SPAM filters block an average of 3,000 messages per day and a couple of hundred get through.  Uggh.

Maybe my stress isn’t caused by the Wife and Kids after all?

Survey warns of e-mail stress

Well, I’ve found a great reference, photos included, as to what is actually happening and why.  Bottom-line?  You know that cool stainless-steel band that goes around the outside of the phone?  Turns out Apple placed two different antennas on the outside of the phone and didn’t protect them from your hands!  (Why bother, after all, who would hold a cell phone with their hands?)

When you hold the phone around the lower left side you’re actually shorting out (RF-wise) the two antennas and causing a measured 24dB drop in signal strength.  Ouch!

Read on for a great explanation, photos and tests:  Apple’s iPhone 4: Thoroughly Reviewed

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Apple, long known for having a near perfect security record gets nailed by its partner’s AT&T security problems.  Turns out that if you own an iPad with AT&T service (which has only been on sale for about a month) your email address and AT&T cellular data has been stolen — at least by researchers.

The list of those whose personal iPad information has been stolen goes all the way from the average user through military officials and all the way to the white house.  Bad news, but not horrific…

However, it further damages an already strained relationship between Apple and AT&T.  Expect a bit of a shakeout in the future.

Apple’s Worst Security Breach: 114,000 iPad Owners Exposed.

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• AT&T Responds To The iPad Privacy Breach (AAPL, T) (businessinsider.com)

Now Congress has decided that they’ll rewrite the Telecommunications law again saying that it’s necessary because the current legislation barely mentions the Internet.

Stand-by for sweeping changes to the Internet as we’ve known it.  Looks like Government in the US is going to start looking more like China with big changes to how the FCC and another new agency regulate content, etc.

Congress to Review Telecommunications Law