There have been dozens of stories on the news about how a laptop or computer camera has been left on and snapped photographs of a robbery taking place – and how these photos have been used to identify the thieves. Of course this is usually not an easy task – local police districts are too strapped to supply resources to solve these crimes. However, citizens have been able to employ technology along with social media streams to get the help they need. The most recent story is about Joshua Kaufman’s mission to retrieve his laptop after it was stolen out of his apartment during a break-in. Luckily, Kaufman had been pro-active in protecting his laptop and installed a security application called Hidden.

Lexar, a company specializing in memory storage, is first in line to introduce the largest capacity thumbdrive on the market. The Lexar Echo MX Backup Drive can store up to 128GB of files and data on a thumbdrive that can easily be carried on a keychain or in your wallet. This amount of storage is huge – the data from an entire laptop could fit on this drive. In addition to its large storage capacity this thumbdrive has some neat features. Additionally, the price has been dramatically reduced to around $200 from its initial debut earlier this year at $400.

Manufacturers are coming up with more ways to be “green” – this can include anything from the production of energy-efficient products to incorporating easily recyclable materials in the product and tweaking manufacturing processes to emit less waste and use less energy. Depending on your priorities when choosing a product there are a lot of choices on the market and the field is growing as companies adopt greener corporate practices.

As cell phone companies look to the future there will be fewer customers with unlimited data plans. The days of $30 unlimited plans will eventually disappear and somehow we will have to track how many megabytes and gigabytes of data have been transferred to watch videos, send emails, etc. This is not quite as easy and clear cut as tracking minutes and could result in some pretty big cell phone bills. Lucky for us – our government representatives are paying attention to this issue and as a result Senator Udall (D. – N.M.) has introduced the Cell Phone Bill Shock Act of 2011.

Sendoid is a new peer-to-peer file sharing service launched March 22, which claims to be a private and easy way to share files. Highlights to this service include a browser-based system, which eliminates the need to download software, and a 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) pipeline between the sending and receiving machines. Both of these features contribute to fast and secure sharing.

Comcast announced March 1 that an Xfinity Mobile App is available free of charge on the Android marketplace, which will enable Xfinity customers with Android-powered devices to control and customize their TV viewing experience remotely. Specifically, customers will be able to “change channels, program their DVRs, search and browse TV listings or On Demand content and search by various filters — including genres, networks, and titles, all from their mobile device.” As of last year Comcast had already developed an Xfinity Mobile App for iPhone and iPad devices. Version 3.0 released in February, which repaired stability and performance issues, has received good reviews on the iTunes stores. Apple customers seemed particularly happy that the latest update had fixed the crashing issue.

In Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address he spoke of many goals on his agenda – one of these goals: within the next five years bring high-speed wireless coverage to 98 percent of all Americans. On February 10 Obama recanted his intent to bring high-speed wireless internet to the majority of Americans during his visit to the college town of Marquette, Michigan which has experienced great success from accessibility to wireless internet. Obama’s plan to increase access to high speed wireless internet is part of a wider initiative to spark innovation and investment in America’s future. The benefits of widespread wireless internet are intended to benefit commerce, public safety, education, and health care.

As the economy begins to show signs of improvement we can look forward to expansion in various job sectors, such as the tech industry. Jennifer LeClaire highlights three areas of the tech industry that will be in demand for 2011 in her newsfactor.com article. The first field indicated is business analytics. Companies are striving to take collected data and make decisions that will improve efficiency, profitability, and increase customer satisfaction. Tim Powers, spokesperson for IBM’s business analytics division, says “Data unanalyzed is data wasted. Therefore, businesses and governments need two very important things to make this happen: the right technology, and employees with the right expertise and skill sets.” In fact, Gartner Inc., a leading global IT research and advisory company, reports that business analytics will be a top 10 priority for companies in 2011.

As we experience the arrival of a new year there’s one thing that won’t change, which is the need to remain vigilant over our personal security. With our increasing dependence on smartphones it’s helpful to be reminded of the potential security pitfalls of our trusty devices. Lookout Mobile Security reported December 29 in their blog that a new Trojan virus has been detected in China affecting Android devices.

How would you like to be able to pop whatever you’re viewing on your smartphone onto your tv with the flick of your wrist? Snapstick is a new software platform that enables you to “snap” your wrist at your tv and whatever video or video site you are viewing will be transported to your tv. The software will enable your smartphone, tablet, or laptop to communicate with your HDTV, Blue-ray player, set-top box, or gaming console through a WiFi connection. The software is currently in private beta stage and for this purpose Snapstick has created their own set-top box for demos. Snapstick plans to work with hardware manufacturers to build the software within your home entertainment devices. Additionally, Snapstick plans to license its software to existing set-top box manufacturers.