OS X Lion is finally here with many new features and a fresh new OS X experience. The new version of OS X is available in the Mac App store for $29.99, but if you purchased a Mac since June 6th, 2011 you can get a free upgrade to OS X by submitting some purchase information to Apple.

The OS X Lion Up-To-Date program is easy the official name of the Free OS X Lion upgrade program. If you purchased a qualifying system, essentially any MacBook, Mac Pro, Mac Mini or iMac since June 6th you can fill out an online form to get the latest Apple OS.

To participate in the OS X Lion update program you will need to know the following;

• System Type
• Date of Purchase
• Serial Number
• Place of Purchase (Name, City and State)

The offer is good for systems purchased at Apple Stores, the Online Apple Store, or Authorized Apple Resellers  including Campus stores.

This deal is designed mainly for Apple purchases made before Lion was released, but if you have purchased a Mac without Lion after July 21st, you can get an upgrade for free as well. You just need to complete a different form.

Both of these free OS X Lion upgrade offers are also compatible with Apple Certified Refurbished systems, like the $749 MacBook Air 11.6 October 2010 model, which is on sale at the online Apple Refurb Store right now.

After filling out the appropriate form you will get a code to use in the Mac App Store to download OS X Lion. Learn what you need to do to be ready to download in our OS X Lion preparation post.

Purchased a Mac Recently? Find Out How To Upgrade to OS X Lion for Free! is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Great news for Time Warner Cable customers that want a free antivirus and security tool. Time Warner includes a free subscription to CA Internet Security Suite with the cost of your Time Warner internet connection.

The free CA Internet Security Suite 2010 is normally a $35 cost per year, but Time Warner customers can download the antivirus and security software for free by logging into their Road Runner Account.

The Free Antivirus Software for Time Warner customers includes:

• Anti-Virus
• Firewall
• Anti-Spyware
• Anti-Spam
• Parental Controls

In order to download the free Antivirus software from Time Warner and CA, you will need to login to the Road Runner self help application with your Time Warner email address and password.

If, like many users, you don’t know your email address or password, you can look up your email address by entering your billing phone number and the MAC address on your cable modem(this is a long number on the side of your modem). Alternately, you can call your local support line and ask for help over the phone.

If you don’t have Time Warner Cable, or just want to get access to a free Antivirus solution that doesn’t require you to sign in, check out Microsoft Security Essentials. This tool is available for free direct from Microsoft and is one of our favorite security apps for Windows.

We recommend users have some form of antivirus protection on their Windows computers to prevent virus and malware installations which can compromise your system and cause you to lose files or compromise your personal information.

If you are switching from one anti virus to another, be sure to remove the old antivirus software. Running multiple applications will not protect your computer more and will likely result in lower performance.

Free CA Internet Security Suite for Time Warner Cable Customers [Free Antivirus] is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Cloud Storage is the new big thing. With literally hundreds of gigabytes of free storage available for free, it’s no wonder that users can find an insane amount of free cloud storage to keep their files and devices all in sync.

We’ve rounded up a collection of our favorite cloud storage services, that combined, will deliver 117GB of free cloud storage.

Most fo these services not only allow you to use tons of free cloud storage, but will also make it easy to keep your files in sync and accessible form any location via a web browser or special apps.

How to Get 117GB of Free Cloud Storage

To take advantage of all of these offers, you will need to use multiple accounts, but if you have a plan for how you want to use the storage, you can easily grab a large chunk of cloud storage for free.

ADrive – 50GB

ADrive offers 50GB of free online storage, yes that’s 50GB of free online storage. You can upload folders and directories, which makes it easy to upload a large music collection or photo archive.

Microsoft Live SkyDrive – 25GB

SkyDrive will give you 25GB of storage or free with a few limitations. First off, you can’t store files over 50MB in size, but for most users looking to stash a collection of digital photographs and important documents this will deliver more than enough.

Amazon Cloud Drive 5GB (20GB w/ MP3 purchase)

Amazon has just launched Amazon Cloud Drive storage which offers 5GB of online storage for free, and bumps the limit up to 20GB with a $9.99 MP3 album purchase. The Amazon Cloud Drive lets you store music and all types of files. The music files can be accessed on your Android smart phone with the Cloud Drive Player or your browser for music playback on the go.

SugarSync – 5GB

SugarSync offers 5GB of online storage for free and allows you to keep multiple computers in sync. The base account comes with 5GB of free storage, but you can earn up to 10GB in free storage by referring friends and family.

Box.net – 5GB

Box.net is well known in the business world, but not a lot of end users know about it. Box.net offers 5GB of free online storage and also has third party add ons and access form third party sites which extend the use of storage.

iDrive – 5GB

iDrive also offers 5GB of free cloud storage for personal users with the ability to upload photos, documents and other items. iDrive will identify important files and automatically include them in the backup so that you don’t forget a critical file that is stored in an odd location.

MemoPal – 3GB

MemoPal offers 3GB of free online cloud storage which allows you to place your files online for safekeeping and includes software for syncing across multiple computers. You can earn more space be referring friends.

Dropbox – 2GB

Dropbox has been our go to syncing and cloud storage tool for years now and while it only offers 2GB of online storage for free, you can earn more storage by referring others and by playing along in promotions from time to time. Dropbox will keep your files synced across multiple computers and accessible online and on your mobile devices.

SpiderOak – 2GB

SpiderOak offers a free 2GB of cloud storage for online backup and file storage. The service allows for syncing and sharing of files like many of the other offerings. SpiderOak is compatible with Mac, Windows and many flavors of Linux when it comes to syncing.

How to Keep Track of your Files

If you need help keeping track of these numerous options, check out this Lifehacker post which includes a collection of file types and tips for organizing your media across multiple cloud storage tools.

While you can buy online storage pretty cheap these days, 117GB of free storage is nothing to laugh at. Many of these services allow you to connect the storage to Windows Explorer as a mapped drive, simplifying your access. Gladinet can do this for Amazon Cloud storage and many others, but requires a purchase for heavy use.

If you search for “how to map service name as a network drive”, you’ll get a good number of results for how to map many of these services to your Windows or Mac notebook.

Photo Via Peter Kaminski

Cloud Storage Roundup: How to Get 117GB of Free Cloud Storage is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

If you need to copy a table or text from a PDF document you’ll appreciate NitroPDF’s PDF to Word and PDF to Excel tools which, as their name implies, will turn your PDF file into a Word document or Excel File so that you can edit a PDF or copy to another document.

The NitroPDF services are online tools that are free to use and can be accessed from any computer. The tools will work on Windows, Mac or Linux. Even better, you don’t need to have a copy of Word or Excel to convert. Just upload the file from your MacBook or notebook and you will be sent the file.

• To Convert a PDF to Word, visit PDFtoWord.com
• To Convert PDF to Excel visit PDFtoExcelOnline.com

If you need to turn a Word document into a PDF and don’t have a newer version of Word that supports it, or a PDF printer, you can also upload a file to Word to PDF to get a PDF of your document sent to you.

Once you have the converted document you can open it up in Word or Excel on your computer, or you can use Google Docs to open it up and edit the document in your browser.

NitroPDF has just announced an update to the PDF to Word and PDF to Excel tools, which increase the speed of conversions and the reliability of conversions meaning that you are less likely to run into any issues if you use the service.

Normally a PDF to Word or PDF to Excel tool would run on your desktop and could cost as much as $100 to $200 for a program like Adobe Acrobat X Pro. These free online tools offer an incredible value to users who don’t need the extras found in Acrobat X or who only need to convert files occasionally.

We recommend testing out the conversion tool and proofing the document before using this tool full time to convert and send documents, just to be sure that the conversion happened as you would expect it too.

Convert PDFs to Word and Excel For Free With NitroPDF is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

In case you missed the news Gmail had a failure this weekend for a small number of users who found their contacts and emails gone. As in poof, vanished. Goodbye. For users who backup via IMAP or another method this was an inconvenience, but if you leave your only copy of data in the cloud, it’s a reminder that you should backup your Gmail account.

Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to sign up for a free year of Backupify which will backup your Gmail data after a quick signup process. The service will backup your contacts and emails, protecting them from the issues of backing up to a single system.

From now through midnight eastern on March 1st Backupify is giving away a free one year subscription to Backupify Pro 100 which backs up

• Gmail
• Google Docs
• Google Sites
• Google Calendar
• Google Contacts,
• Google Apps
• Twitter
• Flickr
• Facebook
• Zoho
• Picasa

To get a free year of Backupify Pro 100 simply sign up for the free trial and enter the coupon code savegmail when checking out. Backupify will convert you from a free trial to a one year membership within 48 hours.

Via Lifehacker

Backup Gmail Free with Backupify: Save Your Gmail Data is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

We’ve been reviewing the OnLive gaming service which delivers cloud based gaming to your computer or to your HDTV with the OnLive Microconsole gaming system and so far are enjoying the streaming gaming experience. The service isn’t without its issues, mainly the need for a speedy and reliable data connection, but it’s hard to pass up free.

Right now OnLive is offering a free OnLive gaming console to users who preorder Homefront, and is including the instant delivery of Metro 2033, a FPS that you can start playing on your Mac or PC right now. When Homefront ships on March 15th, OnLive will send you a Microconsole for shipping and taxes so that you can play on your HDTV.

Homefront description

Set in a future where a foreign invader has broken the U.S. military, occupied America and beaten its citizens into submission, Homefront paints a picture so frightening and riveting that it makes you want to join the Resistance and fight back.

The experience so far is good, but keep in mind you do need a fast Internet connection and we have had a few times where gaming was not available due to a slow network. Still, it’s hard to pass up a deal like this.

OnLive Offering Free MicroConsole with Homefront Preorder is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

If you are on a Windows notebook and need an excellent free antivirus solution, check out Avast Free Antivirus 6.0 which just launched with a collection of new features to make the web a safer place. Avast Free Antivirus 6.0 is, as the name suggests, free for users to download and install. Avast offers an impressive level of protection and can replace the paid antivirus applications for many home users.

Avast summarizes the main features of the new Avast 6.0 antivirus software in a press release highlighting six reasons to switch to Avast.

1. AutoSandbox - The first automatic virtualization feature in a major antivirus package.

AutoSandbox identifies suspicious applications and automatically prompts users to run them in a safe virtual environment. “If the item is dangerous, the virtual computer is shut down and the user’s real machine remains safe.  And, if the item is safe, there is no hassle from a false positive,” stated Ondrej Vlcek, CTO of AVAST Software.

2. WebRep – The first reputation guide for malware and website content incorporated into a free antivirus application.

“WebRep interfaces directly with search engine results, combining CommunityIQ data on infected websites with user-submitted information on the content and reputation of individual sites,” added Mr. Vlcek. “Thanks to our more than 120 million active users, our WebRep has the deepest support of any web reputation option on the market.”

3. More internet protection - Additional internet security options have been added to the new avast! 6.0 Free Antivirus.

“As 85 percent of malware is now transmitted through the internet, we’ve extended our protective features to all avast! users,” remarked Mr. Steckler. Avast! Free Antivirus now includes both Web and Script Shields, protecting users at both the http level and the browser level. Site Blocking, another new feature in avast! Free Antivirus, allows users to block selected websites.

4. Knows what’s bad – Recognizes and stops malware attacks in the billions, thanks to CommunityIQ sensors.

avast! stopped 1.2 billion viruses in January of this year, a significant increase from the over 900 million viruses stopped in the previous January. avast! also prevented over 32 million users from visiting infected sites in the past 30 days. “We get over 12,000 unique samples sent daily to the Virus Lab – which then enables us to fine-tune our detection abilities,” said Mr. Vlcek. Thanks to its massive CommunityIQ network of user-sensors, avast! keeps the largest – and freshest – list of infected websites in the security industry.

5. Great ratings – Consistent high ratings in independent product reports.

Avast! Free Antivirus is a regular top performer, placing at or near the top for its malware detection, fast scanning speed, and its performance – even when competing against the leading paid-for products.  New avast! 6.0 features are set to continue this trend. “It looks like avast! 6 will land far closer to the high end of the spectrum thanks to its new WebRep browser add-on and sandbox environment, unique in the free antivirus marketplace,” wrote Seth Rosenblatt, senior associate editor at Download.com in his review.

6. It’s free – Light on computers, even lighter on the wallet.

avast! Free has a well-deserved reputation for its light demands on computer resources. As a free application, it has an even lighter impact on users’ financial resources. With avast! Free Antivirus, users pay less and can get more protection.

We really like the Web Reputation and Sandboxing features which normally only come in paid anti virus software packages, but can be worth it for users who may inadvertently arrive on a webpage that tries to install or download malware.

Avast Free Antivirus 6.0 Launches with Sandboxing, Web Reputation and More is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

If you are an AT&T customer, as a reward for not jumping ship to Verizon for an iPhone 4, you can get 1,000 free rollover minutes credited to your account just by sending a text message.

Our friends at sister site Gottabemobile shared this earlier. The offer has been sent out to customers via text this week. It is similar to an offer we received regarding a free MicroCell last week.

To reward loyal customers AT&T is giving away these offers hoping to keep us from jumping over to the competition. If you plan to stay here is how you too can take advantage of the offer of free rollover minutes.

Getting the offer is as simple as sending a text message to 11113020 by March 31, 2011. The content of the message should simply be the word YES.

Rollover minutes are those leftover minutes that went unused and are forwarded to your next month’s tally. for example if your family has 700 minutes to use on its plan and you only 400, you can rollover the balance – 300 minutes – to the next month. That way if you get chatty and use 900 minutes you can tap into that 300 minute reserve instead of paying for over-the-limit minutes which can be costly.

How To Get 1000 Free Rollover Minutes from AT&T via Text is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

You know what’s fun? Games. You know what’s even more fun? Games that you don’t have to pay for! We’ve compiled a list of excellent and free games that are definitely worth the download. If you’ve been looking for a little spice in your iPhone life, check out our list below for some guilt-free gaming! These games are perfect for new Verizon iPhone owners, as well as anyone with an iPhone or iPod Touch.

1. Words with Friends Free – Words with Friends is a fun multiplayer scrabble game. It’s recently gone cross-platform to Android so you can play with even more friends than ever before. The best part is that it’s turn based, so you don’t need to be constantly playing. Just make your move, close the app, and you’ll be notified when your opponent moves. Games commonly occur over a few days, so it’s perfect for playing when you’ve got a few idle minutes to make a move, without having to pay constant attention to your phone. There’s also a pass-and-play option if you just want to play with a friend in the same room.

2. Cube Runner – This ancient game pre-dates the App Store itself but is still a joy to play. Cube Runner was originally a game for hacked devices only, back before Apple even created the App Store. Since then it’s been made officially available through the App Store but still maintains it’s ease of use. You are a simple triangular ship in a world of cubes. Tilt left and right to dodge cubes and rack up points for as long as you can stay alive. Better yet, find a friend with an iPhone and compete for high scores. Cube Runner also has two surprisingly great tracks if you enjoy yourself some techno.

3. Papi Jump – A classic Papi game where you try to set the high score by jumping higher and higher.

Platforms become more sparse as you ascend, making it more difficult to continue onward.

Don’t forget that you can teleport from one side to the other, Pac Man style, to reach a platform. Also has online leaderboards to rank you with the best of the best. Easy to pick up, surprisingly hard to put down.

4. Space Deadbeef – The name will never make sense to us, but the gameplay is great. This is a sidescroller where you’re flying a ship that can fire 10x it’s own mass in missiles.

Targeting is intuitive: just slide your finger over targets to fire chains of missiles. This game came out ages ago and has been begging for more content ever since.

Unfortunately we haven’t seen any additional content, but what’s there is absolutely fun to play. Levels get harder as you repeat them.

5. Paper Toss – Another ultra simple but super fun game. Paper Toss emulates a classic boring work environment in which you’ve got nothing to do but toss a ball of paper into the trash can.

Depending upon how you swipe the screen, the ball of paper will curve to one side or the other. A fan is introduced to change the wind speed and how hard you need to fling it to either side. Score is kept by how many continuous shots you can make. This is another game where you can pick up and play for just 5 minutes, but you’ll have plenty of fun in that short amount of time.

6. Shotgun Free – Surprisingly more of a game than you’d think. Shotgun Free tasks you with moving your iPhone or iPod as if you are cocking a pump-action shotgun, then quickly pulling it back like a recoiling gun. Satisfying cocking and firing sounds ensue, but it’s there’s actually more to it. If you want to unlock different sounding weapons you’ve got to accomplish some sort of task. Perhaps that’s 100 fires, or 10 in-game achievements, such as a particularly fast firing time, or firing 10 shots in a short period of time. It’s actually rather addicting to try to get the motion just right for a split-second shot!

7. Jelly Car – This great game looks like it was drawn with crayons and has completely human made sound effects that will make you smile even if you don’t want to.

Drive your Jelly car around the jelly world and try to complete stages in as little time as possible. Need to cross a big gap? Tab your car to grow to several times it’s normal size, but be quick, this ability only lasts for a short time!

Jelly Car is a favorite for iPhone owners of all ages.

8. MazeFinger – This is one of those games that feels like it was meant to be played on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The goal is to simply guide your finger through the maze as quickly as possible, but it gets harder.

You’ll have to avoid skulls that will take one of your lives, and have to time the blockers just right to get through. You get rated at the end of each level and each set of levels. You have a set amount of time to complete a level set, so if you do poorly on the first level of the set, you’re going to pay for it in the subsequent levels!This is a fast paced game with great feedback.

9. rRootage Online – If you’re a fan of the “shmup” or “bullet hell” genre of top down arcade game, you’ll love rRootage. It might not have the fancy art of some of the established titles, but it’s free and has four game modes which all play somewhat differently.

Definitely read the help menu to understand the different modes if you’re a newbie, or jump right in to the wireframe gameplay and play through 160 stages of increasing difficulty.

Good luck, you’ll need it!

10. Lightsaber Unleashed – And I have to leave you with this one for number ten. Who hasn’t wanted a Lightsaber at some point in their life? Well, this is about as close as your going to get. If you’re not too embarrassed to wave your iPhone around like you’re crazy, or have a suitably private place to pretend that you’re a Jedi, then you’ll love this app. Better yet, find a friend and duel them, it’ll bring you’re childhood back in a rush of lightsabery glory. Be an ultra-nerd and customize your own lightsaber by choosing the color and hilt.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these ten free iphone gaming gems. If you’re looking to drop a bucks on some premium content, check out Kevin’s guide to 12 great paid iphone games.

10 Excellent Free Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.

The free office suite, OpenOffice, is newly updated to version 3.3 and ready for free download now. This suite has modules for word processing, number crunching, presentations, database creation/editing, and drawings — which allows many users to choose it over Microsoft Office for use at home.

There are plenty of new features that make OpenOffice 3.3 a worthy upgrade. Given the fact that it is free, there is no reason not to try it if you are looking for a powerful yet free office productivity tool for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Solaris.

The included modules are;

• Write for word processing
• Calc for spreadsheets
• Impress for presentations
• Draw for making graphics
• Base which is a database module.

It has all you would need to replace Microsoft Office or iWork.

Some of the new features, which you can learn about from the web site, are as follows: For Calc users, it is now possible to have up to a million rows of data. Also there is improved CSV (comma separated value) import. Drawing objects can be inserted into Calc spreadsheets. In Impress, there is an improvement to slide layouts. The Thesaurus tool is also totally redesigned and the print dialogue is improved as well.

Here is the download page for all platforms.

OpenOffice 3.3 Update Now Available for Free Download is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.