RepairPal Auto Repair Expert is a free iPhone app that will give you an accurate estimate of how much a car repair job should cost, for comparison with what you're actually quoted at the dealership or at an independent shop. With internet access, it will even give you a list of nearby repair shops complete with address, contact details and service ratings. Designed as an iPhone equivalent of the free online service at RepairPal.com, accuracy is reportedly quite good, although users should note that it is US-oriented, so repair shop listings are US only, figures are in US dollars, and costs may be different in Canada, UK, and elsewhere. But still worth it as a ballpark figure.
(CanWest News Service) | Cost: Free | Requires: iPhone, iPod Touch | For further info...

Macworld provides basic tips on practising safe computing. Although oriented for Mac OS X, many of the tips are applicable for PC users as well, as they cover issues such as choosing a good password; securing your home network; what to do when you're on a public network; strategies for minimising the risk of infection by trojan horses or spyware when online; backup strategies; and using single-site browsers (SSBs).
(Macworld) | Requires: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux\Unix | For further info...

In a bid to give a definitive answer as to the scientific advice as to what is the best physical exercise for health, New Scientist gives Nine Facts About Fitness, based on a distillation of the decades of scientific studies. Questions answered include: What counts as exercise?; How much exercise and how often?; How do you know if you're getting fit?; Is pumping iron good for you?: Can jogging kill you?; and Do you need to 'push fluids'?
(New Scientist) | For further info...

IXL.com offers math practice for grade levels K-6. First-time visitors can practice any of our more than 1,000 math skills for free, but paid membership also offers detailed individual student assessment (incl. in relation to state standards in the US), progress tracking, goal-setting and awards for students as they master skills.
(ROMS) | Cost: USD $9.95/month, or $79 per annum | Requires: Internet connection | For further info...

When you no longer want a particular application or any of its preference files and other ancillary files, AppZapper will delete them all for you. CleanApp does the same, but AppZapper also offers you a convenient place to store all the purchase information for each app (date of purchase, the company's website, the licensee's name, and registration key). It also offers a "Hit List", where you can scan your list of applications and delete the ones you don't want.
(Ars Technica) | Cost: US$12.95 | Requires: Mac OS X 10.4+ (10.6+ for v.2.x) | For further info...

Sceptics about electric cars cite many arguments why they are impractical or not a good idea. Plug in America examines twelve of them, and shows why they are untrue. These include: "EVs don’t have enough range"; "They are good for short city trips only; "They only replace the tailpipe with a smokestack"; "The charging infrastructure must be built before people will adopt them; "The grid will crash if millions of plug-ins charge at once"; and "There isn’t enough lithium in the world to make all the new batteries."
(Care2.com) | For further info...

A diet of chicken, fish and protein shakes helps heals a brain damaged by injury, according to a study at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The researchers believe that three particular branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) which are found in protein-rich food and are known to help build muscle, are involved: levels of these were much lower in the brain-damaged mice compared with a control group of non-brain-damaged mice. However, brain-damaged mice who were given water enriched with BCAAs for five days had normal levels and performed better at learning tasks.
The study complements the findings of an Italian study at the University of Pavia last year, which found found that BCAAs improved the "feeding, grooming and toileting" abilities of minimally conscious patients.
(New Scientist) | For further info...

TranslateIt! is a multilingual dictionary for Mac OS X which translates words on the fly by merely hovering with the cursor over them. The translation appears in a pop-up window, and draws from "most widely known online dictionary/translation services". It offers other methods, too: translation from clipboard, drag-and-drop translation, manual input of queries in the main window, double-click translation of words in dictionary entries displayed in the main window. It also offers a built-in utility for easy creation of custom dictionaries; a Words Quiz (a game for easy learning of new words); and a multilingual user interface (Russian, English, French, German). A companiion iPhone/iPod Touch version is also available. Pricing is licence-based, from $25 for one year through $100 for a lifetime licence.
(MacMegaSite) | Cost: 1 year ($25), 2 years ($35), 5 years ($50) and lifetime license ($100) | For further info...

SlideShare allows you to share a Powerpoint presentation with someone who doesn't have the program, or who would rather not have such a large file emailed to them. Once uploaded (which doesn't require opening an account), you send your recipients a web address, where visitors can flip through the slides in a scaled-down view, or in full screen mode as they would in PowerPoint. Alternatively, you can embed the presentation within your own website.
For new presentations, or the ability to edit online, consider Google Docs Presentation module.
(Macworld) | Cost: | Requires: Powerpoint or compatible software | For further info...

Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, near Seattle, offers books while you wait, using a new Espresso Book Machine and one of the million titles available through Google Books, Project Gutenberg, and other online storehouses of out-of-print books. Total time, from inception to completion: 15 minutes. Like all the other public-domain Google Books, the cover price is $8. The store is working on creating a widget for its website in the next few weeks that will enable customers to browse and order books. Authors who want to self-publish can also approach Third Place Books with digital copies of their books and basically treat the bookstore as a publisher.
(the Stranger) | Cost: $8.00 | For further info... and here

Hailed by its inventor, Ray Kurzweil, as the future of e-publishing, Blio is a new software platform specifically for e-books designed to run on any computing device, which unlike current e-book readers, replicates the appearance of the pages of original printed book as is, including colour and typography (unlike the E-Ink technology behind most ebook readers, which is black-and-white), while preserving the information as searchable text. In addition, it offers text-to-speech, ability to synchronize bookmarks, highlights, last page read) across different devices.
(Wired) | Cost: Free | Requires: Windows, iPhone or iPod Touch | For further info...