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You may be surprised to learn this, but I used to be a crate-digger -- someone who frequented record-stores searching for vinyl. I may not look it, but I was massively into hip-hop vinyl collecting in the 90s and early 2000s. Many of my weekends were spent in Fat Beats or Beat Street in New York, just digging through boxes and crates searching for hidden gems or good deals. Sadly, the internet ruined this hobby for me and most record stores have closed. Instead of digging through crates, I now dig through Google Play Music All Access for streaming tunes.

One of my favorite record companies back in the day was Stones Throw. Besides putting out great hip-hop albums like Peanut Butter Wolf's "My Vinyl Weighs a Ton" and J Dilla's "Donuts", it also released obscure music on 7-inch. If you aren't familiar, most records nowadays are 12-inch, so the smaller 7-inch variants stood out and were fun. To celebrate an upcoming documentary on the record label, Rdio is hosting an exclusive playlist.

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Getting around on public transit can sometimes be a chore. Changing buses and trains and subways can prove a task for the unsavvy commuter. There have long been apps that attempt to help people with this, including many mobile mapping services.

Now Google Maps is adding a plethora of new transit routes. The search giant announces  the addition of all routes covering Great Britain, claiming it can get travelers from "Land's End to John O'Groats" -- not quite the Orkney Islands, but you'll be close.

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If you have a decent computer and you are interested in dabbling in Linux, KDE is where you might want to start. You see, there are many desktop environments for Linux, but Windows users would probably feel most comfortable in KDE -- it resembles what they are used to, with things like a start button and menu.

Beginners aside, advanced Linux geeks use KDE too -- it is powerful, beautiful and well designed. Today, KDE releases the first beta of Plasma Next and is looking for testers and feedback.

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The first legal battle against the UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has begun, as a suit was brought against the spy agency by privacy pressure groups.

The suit, brought against the GCHQ by UK-based NGO Privacy International, accuses GCHQ of infecting "potentially millions" of computers and smartphones around the world with malicious software, that could be used to do anything from extracting photos and text messages, switching on the phone's microphone or camera, or tracking locations or listening in to calls.

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Vinyl Software has announced the release of Winyl 3.0, an extremely major update to its popular music player. A new Radios menu gives easy access to nine internet radio stations, and you can add more as required.

Lyrics now appear automatically whenever you play a recognized song. Well, usually -- they’re not yet visible in all skins (try iTunes if you have problems).

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Removing the traditional Start button and menu from Windows 8 was a bold move for Microsoft. Unfortunately the tech giant underestimated just how attached to it users were. Rather than embracing the (slightly clumsy) full screen Modern UI, vast numbers of early adopters simply opted to install one of the many Start menus made available by third-party developers.

While most of these programs are straight copies of the Windows 7 Start menu, ReviverSoft has chosen to go down a different route with its product. Start Menu Reviver is a Modern-UI styled touchscreen-friendly Start menu that’s been designed to look as if it’s part of Microsoft’s OS. The recently released Start Menu Reviver 2 improves on the first edition by offering a sleeker design, greater customization, and a Windows 7 mode. I spoke to Davide De Vellis, co-founder of ReviverSoft, about Start Menu Reviver and what he thinks about Microsoft’s plans to introduce a Start menu of its own in a future Windows 8.x.update.

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Aesthetics in technology matters. Historically, with the exception of Apple, many technology manufacturers have shipped functional, yet ugly products. While Windows-based desktops are more modern-looking nowadays, we aren't far removed from the days of beige boxes.

In my house, I have an Apple Airport Extreme router. Now, maybe it's insane to spend $200 on a router, but I had my reasons. First of all, it has great speeds and is reliable. The other reason? It's pretty! Yes, that matters as I keep it in my living room. Today, D-Link releases a new line of routers that can match your outfits or your living-room furniture.

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Apple iPhone owners have a new lock screen bypass to combat after a security researcher discovered a flaw in the newest version of iOS.

It’s reported that the latest exploit, which is inside iOS 7.1.1, allows someone to reach the iPhone’s Contacts screen without unlocking the device and works across all iPhones that have the Siri personal assistant.

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BurnAware Technologies has released BurnAware 7.0 Free, BurnAware 7.0 Premium and BurnAware 7.0 Professional, the latest builds of its free and paid-for disc burning products for Windows.

Version 7 adds a new user interface to all of its tools, plus adds a multi-erase tool for wiping discs simultaneously. It also replaces the built-in file browser with an external file manager.

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Every time you use your PC, files are being created, modified or deleted in the background. For the most part you won’t care, but if you’re worried about malware, or wondering what someone else is doing on your system, then it might be interesting to find out exactly what’s being changed.

Enter Whirlpool File Checker, an open source file integrity checker which can scan a set of files and highlight any which are new, or have been changed.

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ADW.Launcher developer Ander Webbs has taken to Google+ to share his surprise after finding out his Android app was available in the Nokia Store -- the app store for Nokia X -- seemingly without his permission and without him ever launching the offering there. At first glance it appears Opera, which operates Nokia Store, has jumped the gun by creating an account and uploading the app on his behalf.

Without knowing the context, a number of vocal Google+ users have begun to accuse Nokia of unprofessionalism (bordering on wrongdoing). Fueled by a desire to bring the matter to the public's attention, it has quickly escalated. But, as it turns out, in 2010, Webbs agreed to have ADW.Launcher offered through Handster, which was later purchased by Opera.

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Opera has unveiled Opera Developer 23.0, a brand new version of the alpha build of its web browser. Version 23.0 contains little in the way of eye-catching headlines, but has been used to showcase the browser’s new flexibility with regards to web standards.

Its headline feature is support for "unprefixed CSS Transforms", which accompanies another update to the underlying rendering engine.

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It is hardly a secret that LG is working on the successor of its G2 flagship, as the South Korean maker has officially announced that the upcoming G3 Android smartphone will be unveiled at a press event later this month. It says so in the description of one of its YouTube videos, a teaser of, you guessed it, the G3, as well as on its Facebook page (and, most likely, every other social media page LG has).

We do not need to speculate on the name (G3, obviously), the day of its presentation (May 27) or even the hour (18:00 GMT, 1 pm EST, 10 am PST). But, not to reveal all its cards before the big night, LG is (for now, at least) still keeping the actual smartphone under wraps. Go figure. We can, however, get a pretty good idea on how the G3 looks and what it offers, as the teaser does reveal plenty of details.

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Transferring files between an iPhone and iPad is easy. If you’re running iOS 7 on both devices you can use the AirDrop feature. Transferring files from an Apple device to a PC (and vice versa) is trickier though, and often involves emailing them, or using a cloud drive.

iStick is a clever solution that functions as a USB flash drive, but comes with a Lightning connector on the opposite end, allowing it to be used with iPhones, iPads and iPod touches. As well as transferring files between devices, you can play music or watch movies directly from the iStick.

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Microsoft Azure is adding a number of new features to its public cloud offering that provide customers with extra security protection and disaster recovery improvements.

The firm told attendees at its TechEd conference in Houston that a glut of new features will include enhanced malware protection, performance protection for virtual machines as well as various parts of the product being refreshed, according to Cloud Pro.

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