Brandon Dimmel

For the first time in almost a year, the price of a share of Apple Inc. has slipped below $500. The reason: the Cupertino, California-based firm recently cut back on its orders for components of its latest iPhone. Apple recently reduced the number ... of liquid crystal display (LCD) screens it wants manufactured for its iPhone 5 smartphone, which launched in September, 2012 . iPhone Suppliers to Cut Production in Half Originally, Apple had requested its suppliers provide approximately 65 million of the iPhone screens. Now, it appears the firm requires only half that many. These manufacturing ... (view more)

NeoSearch 2.4 NeoSearch is designed to perform a thorough search of your Windows computer system for any and all files stored there. It's very similar to other search programs, but this one has been specially designed to increase search speeds and ... reduce the impact it has on overall system performance. www.koshyjohn.com Battery Monitor 5.2 Battery Monitor shows you vital information related to the activity of your Windows laptop computer's battery pack. In addition, it allows you to change the ways in which your notebook computer uses its battery power, thereby giving you controls so you can ... (view more)

Last week, Infopackets reported a story about California cat burglars stealing only Apple iPads from a Microsoft office in Silicon Valley. Left behind, according to reports, were many Microsoft-brand smartphones and tablet devices. Now here's more ... bad publicity for Microsoft: Samsung says it has decided to cancel plans to build a tablet computer running Microsoft's Windows RT operating system. Samsung first announced plans for its 10.1-inch ATIV Tab tablet computer last year. The firm said it would build the device around an ARM-based processor and Microsoft's Windows RT operating system, ... (view more)

Comodo IceDragon 18.0.1 If you love Mozilla's Firefox Internet browser but want something just a little more secure, take a moment to check out Comodo's IceDragon. This free browswer for Windows computers allows you to scan suspect web pages for ... malware infections directly from within your Internet browser. Note: Comodo IceDragon is fully compatible with Firefox plug-ins. http://www.comodo.com mp3DirectCut 2.18 This is a fast but comprehensive and easy-to-use audio editor for a Windows-based computer. It allows you to adjust the computer's audio settings without having to decompress audio ... (view more)

We've been asked about this issue several times by different subscribers: "Hi Infopackets team, I have been using Windows 8 and, for the most part, I like it. But one feature I really dislike is the lock screen. Talk about a time waster. Can you ... help me get rid of it once and for all? Thanks for your great information over the years, Gerald H." My Response: Gerald, I completely understand why you would get annoyed with Windows 8's lock screen. Meet Windows 8's Lock Screen If you're not familiar with it, the lock screen is enabled after a Windows 8 PC is awoken from sleep mode. The lock screen ... (view more)

It appears that one of the technology industry's most troubled companies may soon be staging a comeback. BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM) has just announced that its newest mobile operating system, BlackBerry 10, will begin to ship to ... consumers by late January, 2013. The news has led to a remarkable spike in RIM's recently languishing stock price. 2012/2013: Years RIM Would Like to Forget The last two years have represented a tough period for Canadian firm Research in Motion, which produces the BlackBerry smartphone. The formerly-innovative firm has struggled to prevent its customers ... (view more)

CinemaDrape 2.0.0.235 If you're feeling like you're not getting enough work done, try CinemaDrape. This is a free software tool for Windows, designed to help improve your productivity by dimming or completely blacking out areas of your screen that ... contain visual distractions. It's easy to move or resize these blacked-out areas to suit your productivity needs. www.aurelify.com MyEventViewer 1.87 Keep track of your Windows computer system with the free software: MyEventViewer. It provides you with a detailed list of all system events within your computer. If you want to learn more about a ... (view more)

Hacktivist group Anonymous is reportedly seeking approval from the United States government for its politically-motivated hacking activities. The shadowy organization recently submitted a petition to U.S. President Barack Obama seeking his 'thumbs ... up' for the group's future distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Specifically, Anonymous wants President Obama to recognize DDoS attacks as a legal form of protest. Anonymous: Nothing Illegal About DDoS Anonymous claims that such attacks should not be considered illegal hacking. Instead, the group believes that kind of behavior should be ... (view more)

Simple Internet Meter Lite 2.3 This program allows you to track your Windows computer's bandwidth usage. This is a handy utility to have in an age when people stream lots of video and download especially large files. Simple Internet Meter Lite ... tracks all activity over your network and displays useful information about that activity in a colorful and easy-to-read graph. http://www.pcwintech.com Skitch 1.0.1.16 Skitch is designed to allow users of Windows computers to quickly and easily customize their digital images. You can add arrows, circles, and other shapes to your images, which are good ... (view more)

Internet users are now being warned about a new zero-day security vulnerability in Java software that could allow a hacker to gain unauthorized access to their computers. The vulnerability is related to a recently-discovered flaw in the popular Java ... software system, which is used all over the web to create a great many applications and associated plug-ins. Security experts say even fully-updated installations of Java are vulnerable to this new round of attacks. Only by completely disabling the Java browser plug-in can Internet users be sure their computers are safe from hackers attempting to ... (view more)