Data Recovery

Is your hard drive “clicking” or running slow? Friendly Computers: 281-554-5500

Have you lost access to precious photographs or important documents on your computer?

OVER 22,500 CLEAR LAKE AREA COMPUTERS, LAPTOPS AND NETWORKS REPAIRED!!

Friendly Computers provides in-house data recovery of hard drive failures.  With our advanced diagnostic and recovery tools, we can recover data from laptops, PCs, servers, digital cameras, and even cell phones. We can also transfer your data from an old system to a new system.

We are in the Clear Lake Center at I-45 and Nasa Pkwy in the same center as Burlington Coat Factory in Webster. 

Our state-of-the-art facility includes eight technologically advanced workstations designed to efficiently and effectively diagnose and repair a wide variety of computer hardware and software issues.  Each station is equipped with multiple proprietary tools and equipment.  In addition, all of our technicians are equipped with the same advanced tools to perform efficient and effective onsite service in your home or office.

Call today at 281-554-5500 or visit www.friendlycomputers.com/southhouston to schedule an appointment.

Proudly serving the Southeast Houston/Clear Lake area including Friendswood, Alvin, Pearland, Kemah, Webster, Seabrook, League City, and surrounding areas.

Technology at your fingertips

By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28

Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment.

AVG 2014 Version now available! We can install it for you!

On Wednesday, AVG released the 2014 versions of its antivirus and Internet security programs. Available for immediate download, the programs range from the no-cost AVG AntiVirus FREE 2014 to higher-end paid software such as AVG Premium Security 2014 and AVG PC TuneUp 2014.

The most notable new addition is PrivacyFix, an online privacy tool offered by PrivacyChoice (which AVG acquired in May). Branching out from its Web-only beginnings, PrivacyFix is now offered via Android and iOS apps as well.

PrivacyFix analyzes your account settings and alerts you of possible intrusions on your privacy. For major sites like Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, it points out privacy settings or features that could impact you. It lists the settings, gives you some details about them, and when you click to fix a particular one, it takes you directly to that site's settings page. The Crowd Control function is updated to help you analyze your large list of Facebook friends and weed out those who’ve fallen off your real-life list of friends. If anyone objects, you can blame the software.

For thousands of other sites, PrivacyFix analyzes the tracking and privacy policies and alerts you of potential issues, like sharing your data with third-party organizations. A notable improvement here is that PrivacyFix will now notify you of sites that have had known data breaches.

Another new feature available in all the AVG editions is File Shredder. File Shredder lets you destroy files completely so they aren't recoverable by thieves or those who might inherit your PC in the future. In the premium AVG editions, Data Safe lets you encrypt sensitive files in virtual drives to protect against prying eyes or data thieves.

AVG also updated its mobile antivirus app. It now supports camera tracking, taking a photo of anyone who seems to be messing with your phone. It also adds SIM card protection, so a thief can’t replace your SIM and take over your device.

The paid PC Tuneup utility is offered as trial-ware in the free products. Among its updates, it now looks for duplicate files on your PC, helping free up disk space and reduce clutter. Additionally, the live optimization functionality includes better application definitions to enhance system speed.

AVG is keeping up with the times with its iOS and Android apps and its new raft of privacy settings. While you’ll enjoy the most benefits in its paid products, the free antivirus and security product is a well-regarded package as well.

Written by:

Eric Geier@eric_geier

Original Article Link: Here

By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment.

Next version of Android will be called KitKat!

ANDROID

• google

Google surprises Android users with Kit Kat

Florence Ion@Ohthatflo

• Sep 3, 2013 10:47 AM
• print

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. That's a robot-shaped Kit Kat bar, and Google's head of Android and Chrome, Sundar Pichai, has confirmed in a Google+ post that the next version of Android will be dubbed Android 4.4 Kit Kat.

Pichai posted a photo of the official Kit Kat-shaped Android guy on the Google lawn, adding that he "can’t wait to release the next version of the platform that is as sweet as the candy bar that’s one of our team’s favorites."

Google buried the official announcement on the new name inside a clever marketingcampaign illustrating a "sweet new treat," along with the news that Android had just recently passed 1 billion device activations. The page depicts a timeline that carousels through the different versions of Android, including the new Android 4.4 Kit Kat. You can also enter in the code from any specially marked Kit Kat wrapped onto the site to check and see if you've won a Nexus 7 or Google Play store credit.

This is the first time that Google has partnered up with a company to name its operating system. Many Android faithful were expecting that the company with stick with a dessert like Key Lime Pie for the next iteration of Android, but Google may have made a smarter move by sticking with a well-known global brand name. There are no details on when the new operating system will surface or what it will feature, but today's announcement will likely kickstart the rumor mill.

Original Article:http://www.techhive.com/article/2048054/google-surprises-android-users-with-kit-kat.html

By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment.

Patriots deploy free stadium-wide Wi-Fi to compete with the comforts of home

Nothing can replace watching a sports game at the local stadium—except for HD TVs, warm living rooms and nearby snacks. A recent ESPN poll found that 41 percent of fans would rather watch a game at home than at a stadium.

“You have your own bathroom, the fridge is 10 feet away and the cost of a big-screen TV is less than it ever was,” says Fred Kirsch, publisher and VP of content at the New England Patriots football franchise. “Those are really hard to compete with.”

But the Patriots are hoping to do just that by rolling out free Wi-Fi at Gillette Stadium this season to give fans a more connected experience at the team’s eight home games. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell endorsed this idea in May, saying every NFL stadium should have high-speed Wi-Fi for its fans.

Too many stadium selfies for cellular networks

The Patriots’ stadium used to rely on cellphone networks for mobile traffic, but that approach couldn’t handle the large number of photo uploads and status updates fans transmitted during games.

After piloting Wi-Fi in 2012, the team and networking vendor Enterasys are rolling it out in full for the upcoming 2013-14 football season. The network will have 360 access points and enough bandwidth to handle at least 16,000 concurrent users.

The app will include live play-by-play, bathroom wait times, a tool for ordering concessions from your seat, and access to NFL RedZone.

Along with the Wi-Fi network, the Patriots developed a mobile app called Patriots Game Day Live, available to anyone attending a game at Gillette Stadium. The team tested a version of the app last season with fans in luxury club seats and although only 10 percent of those fans used it, Kirsch says the team hopes to see that number increase by offering content that’s only available through the app.

“We are trying to give things here that you can’t get in your living room,” he says.

The app will include live play-by-play, bathroom wait times, a tool for ordering concessions from your seat, and access to NFL RedZone, a live compilation of all the scoring plays from games around the league.

The Wi-Fi network is expected to allow 40 percent of the 70,000 fans in the stadium to connect simultaneously. Kirsch says that, down the line, the team hopes to add unique content such as audio from players wearing microphones and video from the sidelines or locker room.

Written By:

By Lauren Brousell, CIO

Original Article: Found here

By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28

Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment.

Linus Torvalds celebrates 22 years of Linux with nostalgic message

IDG News Service - It was 22 years ago on Sunday that Linus Torvalds announced in a newsgroup posting that he was creating a free operating system, a message he echoed in his announcement Sunday of the latest Linux kernel release candidate.

"Hello everybody out there using minix - I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones," Torvalds wrote on August 26, 1991, asking people to send in feature requests.

[TRASHED: Old electronics don't die, they just pile up]

On Sunday, Torvalds announced the Linux 3.11-rc7 kernel release in similar fashion.

"Hello everybody out there using Linux -- I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, even if it's big and professional) for 486+ AT clones and just about anything else out there under the sun.A This has been brewing since april 1991, and is still not ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in Linux 3.11-rc7," he wrote on Google+.

"I originally ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), but others have taken over user space and things still seem to work. This implies that I'll get the final 3.11 release within a week, and I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)," he added.

Torvalds was also quick to add, in a comment on his post, that any feature requests would be a bit late. "Yeah, I don't really want to get feature requests this late in the rc series... But itA isA 22 years today since that email, and IA wouldA like people to try the current 3.11-rc7 kernel I just cut and uploaded to the usual places," he wrote.

Version 3.11 of the Linux kernel has been given the codename Linux for Workgroups, a reference to Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, released by Microsoft a little over 20 years ago.

One of the bigger changes from version 3.10 of the kernel is improved power management in AMD Radeon graphic chips.

Loek is Amsterdam Correspondent and covers online privacy, intellectual property, open-source and online payment issues for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at@loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

Full Article Here

By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment.

The PC monitor is dead. Meet the new smart monitor

We worry far too much about the desktop PC becoming a relic of a bygone age. Our focus, instead, should be on the monitor that the PC connects to. Indeed, as we use more and more mobile devices with integrated screens—notebooks, tablets, and smartphones—we pay much less attention to the aging, dumb monitors sitting on our desks.

But monitor makers know the score—and now they’re fighting back. Meet the monitor of the future: It's smart, connected, and in some cases portable. Inside isn’t just an LCD panel, a backlight, and some logic tying it all together. Instead, it’s looking more and more like a tablet, complete with a CPU, a touchscreen, storage, and a full-fledged Android operating system.

Wait-wait-wait, you say. What’s the difference between a smart monitor and an all-in-one PC? Or a portable display and a tablet? Today, not much. And doesn’t connecting a keyboard to a smart monitor reproduce the functionality of a docked notebook? Yes, absolutely. But as computing components shrink in size and become more modular, manufacturers of all stripes (and this includes monitor manufactuers) gain the flexibility to try out new concepts.

Here’s what it means for you: Over time, manufacturers hope the smart monitor will replace the traditional family desktop PC. By itself, the smart monitor will serve as an inexpensive, casual computing environment for Web browsing and simple games. Connected to a laptop or tablet, however, the smart monitor becomes “dumb” at the touch of a button, letting the laptop or tablet's CPU and OS run the show.

And over time, as embedded CPUs become cheaper and more prevalent, smart monitors will simply push older, “dumb” monitors aside.

Read Full Article Here.

Written By: 

Mark Hachman@markhachman

By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment.