If you've been using GrandCentral to consolidate your phones since before Google bought the service and turned it into Google Voice, you could still log into your GC account to listen to old messages even after you were upgraded to Voice. If you want to save those old messages for posterity, you'd better do it soon: GrandCentral's web site is officially closing its doors on December 31.
Mac OS X: If you like to watch shows from your TiVo with a handheld device—like an iPhone or PSP—when you're on the go, free, open-source application iTiVo converts them to a portable format with a few simple clicks.
iTiVo connects over your wireless network to your Series 2, Series, 3, or TiVoHD DVR and collects information on shows stored on the device's hard drive. iTiVo will let you know what non-copyrighted shows can be transferred to your Mac, along with episode and files-size information. Queue up the items you want to transfer, and iTiVo takes care of the rest.
This free, open source application converts shows to MPEG-2, MPEG-1, H.264, or decrypt-only, so you can play them right on your iPhone, iPod, or PSP. You can even plunk the files onto your Apple TV, Xbox 360, or Playstation 3.
You can schedule iTiVo to perform regular downloads, and likewise schedule it to perform an iTunes sync with a connected device. The tool also has optional commercial removal and supports subtitles for closed captioning data, so if you're a Mac user with a TiVo, downloading this one is a no-brainer.
iTiVo is a free download, Mac OS X only. What tools or apps do use with your TiVo DVR? Let us know in the comments.
It was a tight race in last week's Hive Five with a mere 0.001% of the vote separating the first and second place winners.
Earlier last week we asked you to share your favorite screen casting tools. You responded with your favorite app for recording the action in your virtual workspace and we rounded up the five most popular options for a vote. The top two contenders were neck in neck. Both CamStudio and Camtasia Studio took in 28% of the vote, CamStudio coming out ahead by a mere 3 votes. While they might be close together when it comes to votes, they're miles apart when it comes to price—CamStudio is free and open-source and Camtasia Studio is $299.
Following behind CamStudio and Camtasia Studio, Screenflow and ScreenToaster with 12% and 11% of the vote respectively—not only do they share half their names like the first and second place winners but they too were separated by mere votes. Finishing off the Hive Five was Jing with 9% of the vote.
For more information about the contenders and reader comments on the race, check out the full Hive Five.
The Declaration of Independence hits Google Wave, Firefox CPU problems are causing some laptops heating issues, and a brilliant little application may someday turn your webcam into an impressive 3D scanner.
Declaration of Independence on Google Wave Folks may or may not ever catch onto Google Wave for productive purposes, but it's been gangbusters for fun ideas like this Declaration of Independence wave. (You'll need a Wave account.) [Google Wave]
Thanksgiving themes for Firefox Weblog Mozilla Links rounds up a few fun Thanksgiving-themed Firefox personas for your one-click skinning enjoyment. [Mozilla Links]
Firefox: Heat and the CPU usage problem Firefox CPU usage problems are apparently causing some problems on laptops, particularly of the ultraportable variety. [CNET]
There's been a lot of talk about malicious software on jailbroken iPhones lately, but if you haven't been paying close attention, tech site Network World has a breakdown of the worms running wild and how to eradicate them from your device.
As of right now, there are a total of three known iPhone worms, some more harmful than others. You're only vulnerable if you've jailbroken your iPhone and enabled SSH without changing the default password, though, so if you're still running on factory settings, fear not. If you do fall into the jailbreaker crowd, though, read on to make sure you're not infected, and then scroll to the bottom for steps on how to re-secure your device.
The first worm is the Ikee worm, which merely changes your wallpaper to a picture of Rick Astley (of Rickroll-meme fame). If you're familiar with Rickrolling, you may proceed to feel embarrassed. It's pretty easy to tell if you have this worm, unless your wallpaper was already a picture of Rick Astley, in which case check the top of the wallpaper, which, if installed by the worm, says "Ikee is never going to give you up."
Deep frying your Thanksgiving bird is all the rage, and for good reason: The results are delicious. Although that extra crispy skin is oh so tasty, frying without a little know-how is a recipe for trouble.
Instructables user Lextone looks like he's heeded the words of Alton Brown (see video below) when it comes to frying up the perfect turkey for his Thanksgiving feast. He has detailed each step of the process to keep things super safe keeping everyone free from harm or injury.
To get started you'll need the following: a fryer and its accessories, a metal or fiberglass ladder, a two-foot piece of dimensional lumber (1x2 or 2x4), a pulley, and a length of 3/8" rope. The extra gear is intended to let you start your turkey fry without injuring yourself using a simple pulley system, and that's the focus of the guide, but it's littered with other safety tips, as well.
If you haven't tried frying a turkey, it's worth the time—just make sure to keep things on a level, nonflammable surface and heed Lextone's advice and step-by-step instructions—which can be found in detail over at Instructables.
Have you tried your hand frying a turkey? Share your experience in the comments.
Amazon is running a brief promotion (ends November 30th) offering $3 worth of MP3s from Amazon MP3 for free. Just head to this page, follow the directions, and enjoy your free credit. Jason mentioned this in today's deals of the day, but we all know how important music can be to getting work done, so take advantage. [Amazon via UneasySilence]
Windows only: Driver update utility Device Doctor finds outdated drivers on your PC, and helps you download the latest version—without charging you a dime.
Using the utility, which can be installed or used as a portable application, is about as easy as it gets—just click the Begin Scan button, wait a couple of seconds, and you will be shown a list of drivers that can be updated. The download button for each driver will take you to their web site, where you can download the drivers for free, without signing up for anything at all. Most of the drivers come with setup programs, but some of them are nothing more than zip files, and would need to be installed manually—hopefully something they can improve on in the future.
During our testing, we used the application on half a dozen PCs, and had varied results—on our XP test system, Device Doctor worked well and accurately found new drivers, but for Windows 7 we didn't have as much luck, with a few incorrect drivers being thrown at us. That said, Windows 7 was only released recently, so expect that support to improve in the future.
Device Doctor isn't perfect yet, but as a completely free, portable application that you can toss on your thumb drive, it's well worth a look. It might even save you some time searching for new drivers while you are fixing mom's PC.
Device Doctor is a free download for Windows only. Be sure to check out the full How-To Geek review for a more in-depth look, as well as instructions on installing drivers manually.
If you've been using 
It was a tight race in last week's Hive Five with a mere 0.001% of the vote separating the first and second place winners.
There's been a lot of talk about malicious software on jailbroken iPhones lately, but if you haven't been paying close attention, tech site Network World has a breakdown of the worms running wild and how to eradicate them from your device.
Deep frying your Thanksgiving bird is all the rage, and for good reason: The results are delicious. Although that extra crispy skin is oh so tasty, frying without a little know-how is a recipe for trouble.
Amazon is running a brief promotion (ends November 30th) offering $3 worth of MP3s from Amazon MP3 for free. Just head to 
