ups

It's no secret Apple's desktop tower is long overdue for an update, and perhaps one of the best signs that a Mac Pro refresh is just around the corner has come from Apple's online store.

MacRumors notes today that those in the market for one of the towers -- which haven't received a hardware update since July 2010 -- are facing unusually long wait times if they want to pick one up in store.

While Apple lists three of the four models as in stock on its online store (with the 12-core model shipping in 2-4 … Read more

Groupon shares dropped nearly 9 percent Friday as insiders took their first opportunity to cash in on their stock.

Groupon shares fell 8.7 percent to $9.72 in early trading on Friday. The company went public in November at $20.

The decline is largely attributed to the expiration of the insider lockup agreement, or the period after an initial public offering when insiders are unable to sell their stock. That expired on Friday, allowing insiders to freely cash out, the Chicago Tribune pointed out.

Today's sell-off represents a cautionary tale for Facebook, which just went public last month … Read more

Stupid Andy helps us round out the week before the three-day holiday, and our favorite way to pay tribute to the soldiers is by getting choked up at YouTube videos of soldiers reuniting with their dogs. The ones with their families are pretty good, too.… Read more

commentary Research In Motion is in need of a drastic change. But its most recent viral-marketing campaign, "Wake Up," hasn't exactly helped it achieve that goal.

The company has updated its "Wake Up" Web page with a short speech telling the corporate world that it should wake up and realize that "it's time to mean business."

"Now before you go looking for your suit and briefcase, we're not talking about that kind of business," a narrator is heard saying as the text scrolls up the page. "Business is … Read more

Tidy Up is tool that can help you reduce hard-drive clutter by identifying duplicate files on any mounted disk. This utility's multipane interface has a bit of a learning curve, despite its new "Basic Mode," and the app's comprehensive search criteria and system of smart and manual "baskets" may not be immediately intuitive to casual users.

Anyone who spends time getting familiar with Tidy Up and its three- step approach, however, will find that it's a powerful tool for identifying and dealing with duplicate files, whether you want to delete them, move them, … Read more

The campaign has seen screaming protestors being dumped outside of the Sydney Apple store and traipsing through the streets. Cryptic messages have also popped up all over Sydney and Melbourne. Black-and-white signs bearing the message "Wake Up" have been spotted all over the two cities, including on the bottom of a pool at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

RIM today took ownership of the controversial campaign.

We can confirm that the Australian "Wake Up" campaign, which involves a series of experiential activities taking place across Sydney and Melbourne, was created by RIM Australia. A reveal will take … Read more

Some sites are well known for their excellent comments section, but many more are filled with trolls, spam, and worse. Shut Up is a great Chrome extension that hides the comments sections of most Web sites by default, but makes it simple to view comments when needed. Here's how to use it:

Install Shut Up here.

That's it! Most sites should now be blissfully comment-free. If you're visiting a site you'd like to see comments on (like, say, CNET), just click the dark speech balloon icon in the upper right. By default, Shut Up remembers the … Read more

A critical part of any storage solution is having reliable backups. Dropbox keeps backups of all the files you store on your Dropbox account, but having a local backup can often make it easier to recover your files. You'll also want to back up your files if you're considering switching to another provider, like Google Drive or one of the many other cloud-storage services.

To back up everything from your Dropbox account, log in to your account via the Dropbox Web site, then hit Ctrl+A to highlight all your files and folders. Click the Download button that … Read more

TuneUp Utilities 2012 presents a wide range of useful system maintenance and optimization tools in one interface. Some tools you'll use to regularly clean your system, while others only need to be run only once in a while or if you have a specific Windows problem. The 2012 version of TuneUp Utilities also includes the Program Deactivator, which disables unused programs until you need them, and Economy Mode, which can help laptop users improve battery life. TuneUp Utilities is free to try for 15 days. A nag screen tracks the trial period.

TuneUp Utilities keeps things simple with its … Read more