The Internet companies that power your online life know that data equals money, and they're becoming bolder about using that data to track you. If they get their way, your every online step would be not only irrevocable, but traceable back to you. Fortunately, there are some positive steps you can take to reclaim your online history for yourself.

The online privacy software company Abine, which makes Do Not Track Plus, also offers a service called DeleteMe, which removes your data from numerous tracking sites and keeps it from coming back. In an unusual gesture, though, they've made public how to do for yourself everything that DeleteMe does. Here's my take on their advice.

Be warned, though. The following are not easy instructions, and it's not because they're technically complex. They require a tenacity and wherewithal that is likely to either exhaust you, drive you borderline bonkers, or both. (And no, I haven't followed the instructions to remove myself because it's essential to my job that I can be found by strangers.)

Step 1: Prepare yourself: You're going to have to be polite. These instructions require patience for the antics of others and determination to get the job done. It's not a bad idea to get something inanimate to take y... [Read more]

Looking for the best place to get a specific dish in your area? Foodspotting for Android can help.

Say you're looking for the best snickerdoodle cookie in San Francisco. You could run a search on Yelp, which would pull up a list of all the bakeries and restaurants in the area that make them. But then you'd have to look at each profile, one by one, and click through to see pictures of each restaurant's cookies...if there are pictures of its cookies. If that sounds too tedious, then try Foodspotting for Android.

Searching on Foodspotting is all about looking at pictures of specific dishes. So, in the case of the cookies, all you'd have to do is search for "snickerdoodle" to pull up a gallery of snickerdoodle pictures from bakeries and restaurants nearby. With a single tap, you can immediately hide the pictures you like or bookmark the ones that catch your eye.

Once you find a cookie picture that's up to snuff (fat and gooey, please), then you can easily tap through to see where such a perfect cinnamon treat can be had. After that, you can even see pictures of other dishes served at that particular place. Sounds convenient, right?

If you decide to sign up for a Foodspotting account, you get even more functionality. For one... [Read more]

A visualization of AT&T's Watson

AT&T has been involved in the speech recognition space for years. And now, the company wants to share with others what it's achieved.

The company announced today that it will make several AT&T Watson Speech application programming interfaces (APIs) available to developers in June. With the help of those APIs, developers will be able to create new apps and services that rely upon AT&T's Watson speech recognition technology.

The first set of APIs that AT&T plans to release will focus on Web search, question-and-answer, SMS, and dictation, among other areas, the company said. In addition, it will offer up a software development kit (SDK) for those developers who want to "capture a user's spoken words and send them into the network for transcription." AT&T says that the SDK should make it easy to integrate Watson into existing apps.

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(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET)

SparkNotes started out as a Web site called The Spark in 1999, and was developed by a group of students trying to make it easier to understand literature. Known today as SparkNotes, the site features hundreds of guides to help aid students, teachers, and those wishing to brush up on a subject.

According to SparkNotes, its intent was not to have students skip out on their reading assignments and just read the SparkNotes instead. Instead, it wanted to create a fun and educational Web site that helps give further explanations on topics.

So far just the literature guides are available on Android, but SparkNotes does offer standardized test study aids and materials for many other subjects on its site and in book form.

Here are some of the app's highlights:

- Access 50 preinstalled Sparknotes study guides in your library

- Hundreds of Sparknotes study guides available for viewing online

- Share what you're studying and where you are by checking in with a customized post to Facebook

Step 1: Download a copy of SparkNotes for Android

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET)

Step 2: Open... [Read more]

Posterity: The Family Quote Book preserves your kids' verbal musings for... well, you know.

As every parent knows, kids say the funniest things.

Like my daughter, who used to call hamburgers "hangabers." And loves to say, "You're very sweeticle, dad."

Take it from someone who knows: it's all too easy to forget these little bon mots. That's why I'm delighted by Posterity: The Family Quote Book for iOS, a simple but clever app that lets you capture all the funny things your kids say.

Posterity creates individual "books" for each kid, then lets you fill them with quotes. For each quote you can assign a date and, if desired, photo. You can also share quotes via Facebook or e-mail, and export the data if you want a backup outside the app.

As you add quotes, the app builds a timeline that makes it easier to revisit the family history. There's also a search option in case you enter so many quotes that it gets hard to find the one(s) you're looking for.

And that's really all there is to it. Posterity performs a simple function and performs it well. Sure, you could easily accomplish the same thing with an app like Evernote, but someti... [Read more]

A look at Spotify's new application.

Spotify users with Android devices are being treated to a new and improved app.

The streaming-music service announced today that it has completely overhauled its Android application, delivering an entirely new design and slide-out navigation designed to improve usability. The application comes with a black-and-white design and includes high-resolution artist imagery to add some color. According to Spotify, the app also includes more social features than its predecessor, letting users check out friends' profile pages and playlists.

The new Spotify Android app includes full Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) support. In addition, related-artists viewing is available for the first time on the company's mobile platform.

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