Geek Picks (Tech & Internet News Portal)

"By learning how to research, you can quickly and fairly easily become knowledgeable about just about anything. And with the Internet, almost anything you could ever want to know is at your fingertips. ...

"Since the year is winding down, we thought it would be helpful to go back and pick out the best Illustrator tutorials that were published in 2009. The year was full of great tutorials, and 50 of the best are featured here."[via vandelay design]

"2009 was the “year of the app,” especially for the iPhone, whose App Store is overflowing with more than 100,000 offerings. While it’s easy to make fun of the more ridiculous apps, some ...

"The Apple tablet is almost here. We hear. Actually, we're hearing a whole lot lately. With this exhaustive guide to every tablet rumor, we've got the clearest picture of the Apple tablet yet."[via gizmodo]

"Visuals are an important part of advertising, so it’s not surprising that so many companies have jumped on the augmented reality bandwagon, offering tools that visualize their products in a magical and memorable way."[via mashable]

"This past year felt like a rebuilding year for Firefox add-ons, with two new frameworks implemented to help guide the future of extensions. Personas gave Firefox on-the-fly theme-switching, and users can expect it to be part of the stable version of Firefox 3.6 when that gets released. ...

"As I’ve been doing PC repair for quite a while now (see my guide to doing local pc repair), the most common repetitive action I do is cleaning up someone’s PC. Over the years, I’ve found the most efficient way is to do a complete re-install (obviously). ...

"The moment you unpackage a new smartphone is a magical one. Don't let the moment right after that, when you realize that it's practically useless out of the box, cancel that out"[via gizmodo]

"With rumors of the Apple tablet reaching new highs, MacRumors has found evidence that Apple acquired the domain name iSlate.com presumably in preparation for the new device. "[via mac rumors]

"It’s hard to argue that 2009 wasn’t the year of Twitter. Yes, the questions about monetization loomed over the young web company as soon as it started gaining popularity, and they’re still largely unanswered. ...

"You got a new Mac for Christmas? Awesome. But don't let Justin Long's smarmy face fool you, it doesn't just give you a warm hug and set itself up."[via gizmodo]

"The Windows ecosystem is filled with more programs than we will ever need. But while you know to install essential programs like Firefox and Steam onto every new PC, there are plenty of core utilities you should install before downloading any application software."[via maximum pc]

"2009 has been a very prolific year for WordPress hacks. In this article, I’ll show you the most useful hacks I came across during the whole year. Enjoy!"[via cats who code]

"On the last day, they gathered for a group photo. They were videogame programmers, artists, level builders, artificial-intelligence experts. Their team was — finally — giving up, declaring defeat, and disbanding. ...