Leah Yamshon, Rachel Sadon

Source: GreenSmartGreenSmart's $55 Kea Laptop Daypack, a medium-sized backpack with a built-in laptop sleeve and plenty of smaller pockets, is so comfortable to wear that it's difficult to believe the bag is made from recycled plastic bottles.

GreenSmart proudly constructs all of the company's bags out of materials made from recycled plastic bottles--every inch of the Kea was once a bottle that's been ground up, spun into yarn, woven into fabric, and then sewn into the bag. The end result is a flexible material that feels like a soft canvas or nylon. The Kea is available in Ocean Blue (blue and grey exterior with an orange interior) or Mocha (two shades of brown with a grey interior).

The dust has yet to settle from last week’s $1 billion purchase of Instagram by Facebook, with many users still wondering what’s in store for the photo-sharing service now that it’s owned by the social networking giant. Facebook says it plans to keep Instagram as an independent service—“Our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week—but that doesn’t mean changes aren’t a possibility. Just the notion of Instagram adopting a Facebook-style privacy policy has some users wondering if they should take their photo sharing elsewhere.

Fortunately, Instagram users unsure about a Facebook future have plenty of options, especially on the iOS platform. Several iOS apps promised mobility, social features, and filters and effects of their own. Consider these apps as possible ways to fill the Instagram void.

The dust has yet to settle from last week’s $1 billion purchase of Instagram by Facebook, with many users still wondering what’s in store for the photo-sharing service now that it’s owned by the social networking giant. Facebook says it plans to keep Instagram as an independent service—“Our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week—but that doesn’t mean changes aren’t a possibility. Just the notion of Instagram adopting a Facebook-style privacy policy has some users wondering if they should take their photo sharing elsewhere.

[RELATED: Nine Great Android Alternatives to Facebook's Instagram Photo App]

Now that you've been using Time Machine regularly to back up your computer, you should be fully prepared if your Mac crashes or if you need to move data from one Mac to another. Restoring data from Time Machine is just as easy as backing things up in the first place.

Apple recently released a Supplementary Update for OS X Lion users that fixes a Time Machine restore bug, so make sure your system is up-to-date with OS X Lion 10.7.3.

www.apple.comOne of the most important things to stay on top of is a regular system backup. If you're new to Mac usage-or just never bothered to backup before-you'll want to get familiar with a built-in Mac program called Time Machine. Time Machine works with your Mac and an external drive to regularly save important documents, photos, and even important system files. Apart from keeping spares of every file, Time Machine also keeps a record of how your system looked on any given day, making it easy for a full system restore if something goes wrong.

Before you get started, make sure your external drive is Mac compatible. This is done by formatting it using the Mac file format. Time Machine is found on Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) and above. When selecting the proper hard drive to use, you'll want one with plenty of space for repeated backups.

We bought an LCD TV from a company called TCL last year. It came with a standard two-year manufacturer’s warranty. Five months in, vertical black and purple lines appeared in the center of the display, and got worse as time went on. We sent the TCL repair center the broken TV, but they sent back a refurbished RCA TV with the same specs. The remote accompanying the new TV was damaged and had corroded batteries; there was no power cord for the TV, and no paperwork whatsoever. A few weeks have passed since we called TCL asking for a power cord, remote, and paperwork. I know warranties may allow companies to send refurbished units as a replacement, but the repair center sent a totally different brand with nothing else in the box. I’m not sure what to do!
­—Andrea Glass, Beachwood, New Jersey

On Your Side responds: Glass received the missing power cable, remote, and manual for the refurbished RCA shortly after we began working on this case. But would the warranty apply to this RCA model?

A communications rep from TCL (which owns and operates RCA’s TV division) told us that technicians deemed Glass’s original TV unfixable, so the repair center sent her the refurbished RCA because it had the same specs. He stressed that her two-year manufacturer’s warranty is valid for the refurbished set.

In December, PCWorld posted a major story about the tech amenities available to travelers in America's airports ("20 Best U.S. Airports for Tech Travelers"). In it we focused on the airports themselves, but often airlines are responsible for driving the installation of new tech amenities in gate areas. The airlines know that electrical outlets, work desks, and zippy Wi-Fi can influence passengers' decisions to fly with Airline A or with Airline B.

As a result, some airlines have become deeply involved in making their gate areas a more welcoming place for laptop and smartphone users. Others have focused on developing apps and mobile websites, and offering in-flight Wi-Fi service in their planes. Not surprisingly, some airlines are more progressive than others when it comes to techy stuff. Here's how the U.S. airlines stack up. (See a ranked chart of the top 10 U.S. airlines, comparing their features.)

Since iOS devices top many gift wish lists, a new holiday tradition can be added to your annual routine: family get-togethers, unwrapping presents, and hitting the App Store.

Post-holiday app downloads skyrocket as new iOS and Android devices are activated, according to data calculated by Web metrics company Flurry. In past years, Flurry found Christmas Day to be the busiest day for app downloads, and 2011 is proving to be no different.

Make Santa sing and dance with Singing Santa HD, a new holiday app from Khush. Available in both iPhone and iPad versions, this app showcases the Khush (now part of Smule) voice recording and auto-tuning technology already on display in apps like Songify and LaDiDa. In Singing Santa's case, you can create holiday videos and postcards to send to your friends and family. Although the app has crisp animation (Santa's belly actually jiggles like a bowl full of jelly), and solid voice playback, it's a little on the kitschy side and will mostly appeal to kids.

Singing Santa HD stars--you guessed it--an animated tricked-out Santa Claus, outfitted in shutter-shades and a Khush ball cap. Tap the Record button, and Santa holds out his microphone to capture a voice recording. Say or sing whatever you want, presumably a holiday greeting or song lyric, and the app will auto-tune your voice and set it to music. Santa then sings the recording back to you, complete with disco-ball effects and dance moves.

Bay Area Rapid Transit's August shutdown of wireless service to squelch a demonstration in San Francisco raised anew questions about the use of tech in the face of authority. In this first installment in a series of FAQs, we discuss your rights when photographing police.

Virgin America's new in-flight entertainment system will help passengers multitask. (Photo: Virgin America)Gone are the days when a cross-country flight meant being stuck for hours without a way to contact the outside world. In-flight connectivity is going mainstream. Virgin America--one of the most tech-embracing airlines in the nation--announced substantial tech upgrades to its in-flight entertainment system at the Airline Passenger Experience Association Expo in Seattle today.

The revamp of “RED” (Virgin America’s proprietary in-flight entertainment system) aims to improve seat-back entertainment for each passenger by offering larger, Internet-capable, touchscreen HD monitors, as well as Wi-Fi for passengers to connect their own devices to the Internet for the duration of their voyage. Passengers will be able to surf the Web on their seat-back monitor and connect multiple devices to the Wi-Fi at once. Virgin calls it a “hybrid” system across multiple platforms; in a press release issued late this morning, David Cush, president and CEO of Virgin America, said his airline wants passengers to multitask across tech platforms with this new system.

By now you’ve probably encountered an ad for Angie’s List, the website that lets consumers view ratings and reviews of businesses and service professionals in their area.

Angie’s List ads are everywhere, including on television, radio, websites, and billboards. And although the ads make the site sound appealing, they sometimes hide one crucial point: Angie’s List has a yearly $29 base subscription.