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Computing

Microsoft Surface Pro Review: Too Much Future?

The Microsoft Surface was the biggest new tech of 2012. Its first iteration — Surface RT, a confusingly named and marketed tablet-with-a-keyboard — bombed. Pretty hard. So why believe in the full-powered Surface Pro? Simple. It’s a braver and more divergent take on the laptop-tablet convergence than anyone else has risked so far.

Science

What Caffeine Actually Does To Your Brain

For all of its wild popularity, caffeine is one seriously misunderstood substance. It’s not a simple upper, and it works differently on different people with different tolerances — even in different menstrual cycles. But you can make it work better for you.

Online

Access Consumer Reports Entire Reviews Archive Free Today

Sometimes you don’t want “advice” on buying appliances – you want actual product recommendations, based on real testing. That’s what Consumer Reports provides, and, for today only, you can register for a free day of full online access.

Software

Run Simplenote As A Clean And Simple Stand-Alone Browser

Mac only: We like Simplenote for its simplicity, and the head honcho here considers it the Holy Grail of text capture. But not everyone loves the desktop options, or the website design. Split the difference with a single-site Fluid app for Simplenote and a deliciously cleaned-up style.

Software

The Intermediate Guide To Living Entirely Inside Chrome

Chrome OS is still in the works, and even when it launches, you might not need one of the specialty netbooks that run it. Make the Chrome browser you already have productive enough to do whatever you need instead—and hit Full Screen if you need less distraction.

Software

Grooveshark Returns To Android With Non-Market App

Grooveshark, the streaming music and subscription service that was unceremoniously booted from the Android Market, has returned in the form of an unofficial app download. Once installed, premium Grooveshark subscribers can access their music and store tracks for offline listening. Newcomers and non-premium users get a two-week trial of premium services. [Grooveshark]

Software

Celsius Puts The Current Temperature On Your iOS Home Screen

iOS: Apple doesn’t allow apps to keep their home screen icons regularly updated with data — just notification badges for alerts and the like. Clever weather app Celsius (which does, indeed, have a “Fahrenheit” cousin) uses that notification badget to give you the temperature in degrees, no extra click needed.

Online

Run Your Home Network Like A Coffee Shop For Easy Guest Access

Want to open up your Wi-Fi network to easier access for visitors, block the web’s nasty stuff from young eyes, and maybe regain some bandwidth, too? Go ahead and unleash your inner coffee shop owner. With free software and no extra hardware, you can manage content and bandwidth on your home network, or even manage a semi-public “hotspot”, without feeling like a despot.

Software

Opera 11.10 Makes Compressed Turbo Browsing Even Faster

Windows/Mac/Linux: The Opera browser has always had its “Turbo” mode in its back pocket, and it’s a powerful feature. Now the browser runs even faster on the slowest connections, using Google’s WebP technology to downsize images further and pump them through their servers to your browser.

Online

Gmail Can Now Stop Auto-Saving Contacts, Fixes Other Small-But-Crucial Things

By default, Gmail automatically saves the details of people you reach out to. That’s handy when looking up an old friend, not so handy when trying to tame your unruly Google Contacts. Now Gmail offers an option to get out of contact auto-saving, along with some other little-but-gratifying fixes.

Online

DropTunes Is A Web Jukebox For Your Dropbox Music Stash

You can play music tracks through Dropbox’s web interface, but only one at a time, in a very minimalist player. DropTunes provides a great web front-end for your Dropbox-synced tunes, offering Flash or HTML5-based streaming and continual playback. It’s pretty darned handy.

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