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Have an iPad and Carbonite online backup service from Geek Choice? Now you can access the files you’ve backed up from your desktop on your iPad with the free Carbonite app.

Carbonite keeps secure copies of your files on their servers in case of hardware failure or other data loss. It’s completely automated and secure, and could save you thousands in data recovery costs. The new iPad app adds the ability to access your backed up files from anywhere in the world with your iPad. Your Geek Choice tech can help you purchase and configure Carbonite service for your laptop or desktop computer to make sure all of your files are protected and available on the go.

Junk mail is the bane of any household, particularly catalogs from companies hawking products for which you have zero interest. Many of us, when arriving home from work, hate the daily ritual of filtering unwanted junk from the mail that we’re actually interested in reading.

Initially unveiled as just a beta, Catalog Choice is now an official registry that allows you to cut down on the clutter filling up your mailbox.

It’s completely free and easy to use, supported by more than 1,000 merchants complying with the requests made through this service.

After the registration process has been completed, you can browse their directory for any catalogs that have found their way to your mailbox. You can either put a halt to their delivery altogether or make it so the frequency with which they’re sent to your residence diminishes considerably. Once your choices have been made, Catalog Choice will contact the companies and inform them of your preference.

Be forewarned: It can take up to 12 weeks before you notice your changes.

If you’re like me, you look forward to a mailbox containing only that which is relevant, absent the unnecessary solicitations. For those of you who tire of finding your mailbox invaded by catalogs you almost immediately toss in the garbage bin, this service is a perfect means of putting an end to the unwanted junk.

Visit Catalog Choice here

If you’re a frequent patron of Amazon’s awesome online market, you’re probably aware that free basic shipping is available after spending $25 or more.  With the plentiful bounty to be gained from using Amazon, it’s likely that you’re someone who frequently makes small purchases that see your total just missing that $25 threshold, resulting in you incurring an additional $5 to $10 for shipping (depending on size and weight of what you’ve purchased).

FillerItemFinder is helpful tool that takes the remaining balance before you reach $25 and offers suggestions to fill that quota. The list it provides is impressively long, from cheap books to discounted DVDs. It allows you to filter the list, giving you the option of choosing just entertainment, even paring that down to a specific type of entertainment.

Once you’ve settled on an item, you can simply add it to your cart and check out.

You can visit FilterItemFinder here. Happy shopping!

It’s 2010 and the Winter Olympics have arrived, giving spectators an opportunity to watch countries compete in a wide range of winter-based events, from cross country skiing to bobsledding.

Not all of us are able to catch the events from the comfort of our couches, leaving some of us to make do with the streaming services available on the internet. For those of you looking to catch specific events on the internet, there are a number of options giving you the opportunity to stay on top of the festivities.

Before deciding which service you’ll use to track the events, you’ll want to settle on those competitions you’re looking to watch. A variety of events are occurring concurrently throughout each day of the Olympics.   For a schedule listing the start times of those events you’re looking to follow, visit the official website, where you’ll also find the results as they filter in.

After determining those events you want to watch, your next order of business is deciding on the service that’ll stream it to you. Most of the events are streamed right on the same site on which you reviewed the schedule. From there, you’re directed to televised broadcasts streaming from a number of countries.

If your sole interest is participation in these games by American athletes, NBC has a great resource that provides not only live streaming but a listing of all local stations that deliver coverage of the events. Entering your zipcode and the name of your cable/satellite provider will result in a list of local stations televising the games. Looking at the list of television stations, you can also check on those that are offering live streams on the internet.

While those are the official sites from which to get your Winter Olympics fix, you can also take a look at the two options below, both of which compiling an assortment of sites that are covering the events.

• Vancouver Olympics
• Olympics Online

There are other resources available, which a quick Google inquiry will point you towards, but these are the best ones I’ve been able to unearth.  No matter who you’re rooting for, enjoy the games and celebrate the spirit of friendly competition!

That quintessential streaming service, Youtube, has just launched a music delivery system called Youtube Disco. Something of an addendum to their already impressive catalog of music videos, this service is still in its infancy, which becomes obvious when you notice its lack of more advanced options available elsewhere.

Still, it serves its fundamental purpose — which is to stream music.

Easy to use, you’re given two options for your music search: You can search for an artist and all of the songs they’ve crafted, or you can find music that’s in the same vein of the music you originally ran a search for.

Barebones but simple in its execution, this is a great means of discovering new music and finding songs from some of your favorite artists.

Visit Youtube Disco here.

Users of Facebook know that it has a chat client which allows them to instantly message their Facebook friends when logged in. Until recently, that service was limited to just Facebook, preventing users from communicating with their Facebook friends when using other instant messaging clients (AIM, etc.) — unless those friends were already included in the user’s buddy list.

Some time ago, Facebook announced plans to link Facebook chat’s compatibility with XMPP-Jabber, the chat protocol implemented for Google Talk. Doing so would make Facebook Chat available for use with any IM client. After those plans were announced, Google never elaborated upon its development, leaving many to suspect the plans were scuttled.

However, just yesterday, Facebook announced the development of the chat client had been completed. With this available, users now have the option of using Facebook chat with any instant messaging client of their choice.

For those already using a multi-protocol client, configuration for use of this new feature is simple. All you need do is add a new Jabber or XMPP account, with the username following the username@chat.facebook.com model. Your password will be the same one you use for Facebook. For those who have not yet created a Facebook username, you’ll have to visit your settings page to create one.

After setup is complete, your Facebook friends will appear in your buddy list, becoming immediately available for chat sessions. Initially, it might prove a little confusing, as those Facebook friends who aren’t included on a friends list will appear in your instant messaging client’s buddy list. Without being automatically sorted, you’ll have to organize your friends by creating separate buddy lists. Though this might seem somewhat aggravating, it’s merely an additional step for those of you who absolutely need your friends organized in distinct groups.

This new service includes everything from your Facebook chat client, including profile thumbs and the ability to set your status as idle. Being new, the discovery of glitches are inevitable. Feel free to share them with us.

Social networking is all the craze, and this is just another means of staying tuned in to what your friends are up to.

You can read about the new Facebook Chat feature here.

With the internet occupying much of our time when using the computer, a number of services have become integral parts of our online routine, from twitter to flickr. Juggling the use of these services can become involving to some, requiring multiple keywords and applets to manage their use.

Quix is an astoundingly cool helper that consolidates commands for each service in one utility, significantly cutting down the time it takes to use these services. It works for both desktop and mobile browsers, giving you the ability to assign just a few keystrokes to the execution of popular features you make use of while using the internet.

Using just a simple window, you can send email, capture pages and clip them, run searches, update your twitter account and more. The list of available commands is impressive, sparing you the task of using multiple bookmarklets.

Pulling up just one window, enter your command and see the desired task completed.

Essentially, when using Quix, you’ll see a considerable diminishment in the time you spend configuring your browser for the use of these services. Once Quix is up and running, the benefits of its use will become immediately noticeable — it’ll almost become second nature after a few uses.

Along with a full list of available commands Quix offers, this overview helps you with the installation process.

You can grab Quix here.

Last week, I told you about a neat tool that adds certain features to your right-click Windows context menu. Well, here’s another helper of sorts, with an even more impressive array of features that render the right-click context menu an immediately available – and quite powerful – tool you can use to manage files and folders on your computer.

Lammer Context Menu updates your right-click context menu with several useful additions that many of you might find handy.

With this tool, you can:

• Mount a virtual drive
• Copy paths
• Select specific file types within a folder
• Search within a folder
• Register DLL files
• Open a command prompt

As you can see, some of the features are a good deal more powerful than your basic commands. Additionally, it offers even more advanced options, allowing you to access the path operations screen where you can manage files based on wildcards.

This is a free utility available for use on Windows (working with both 32bit and 64bit versions).

You can grab it here.

If you’re a user of Twitter, that social networking phenomenon that depends upon succinct bursts of information from its community of members, you might be at risk of having your password compromised.

Twitter has begun issuing alerts to certain users, notifying them of the need to change their password. It reads as follows:

“Due to concern that your account may have been compromised in a phishing attack that took place off-Twitter, your password was reset.”

This is in response to phishing attempts that have resulted in users unwittingly surrendering their login information to hackers.

Phishing refers to a process where unscrupulous sorts set up a bogus login screen that dupes unsuspecting users into giving their user name and password away. The phishers then use that compromised account to send messages to other users, using the same scheme.

Aiming to thwart a recent series of phishing scams, Twitter has been informing users that they should change their password if they happen to be following an account by the name of @THCx. It’s suspected that this account may have been created for the purpose of phishing for passwords.

Geek Choice advises you to be very mindful of who you share information with. When logging into ANY account, always make sure to look at the url located in the address bar. Should there be anything that looks peculiar, it’s possible that it’s not the actual site you wish to log into.

Stay vigilant and protect yourself.

Want to maintain strict control over what’s running on your computer, keeping an eye on the use of your resources and restricting the operations of any process all the way to the farthest depths of your system?

WinPatrol Plus is a popular and extremely powerful tool that allows Windows users to monitor every aspect of their system, taking the core features of your Task Manager and amplifying them considerably. From controlling what launches at your startup to alerting you of any sudden change in your system, this is for the you users who always exercise vigilance when operating your system.

Normally retailing for $40, the developers of WinPatrol Plus have announced a special promotional offer, making it available for just 99 cents!

Good for ONLY today, this is an offer you might find difficult to ignore.

You can read about what this tool does at the developer’s site.

If you’re interested in owning this, visit either their site or purchase it off the Yahoo! Store.