We’re in the throes of summer, and so Canadians are rightfully determined to spend as much time outside as humanly possible. But how does one enjoy their tunes while hanging out on a backyard deck, with spatula in hand? Let us count the ways.

If scratching your CD, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs or video games is a concern – and anyone with small kids should be nodding right now – then you might want to consider the clever “d_skin” products that protect these discs like a, er, condom, of sorts.

You probably know the Amazon Kindle e-book reader can download books wirelessly using 3G connectivity, but here I demonstrate how to get the Kindle to read the words back to you.

Last week, the world’s biggest chip maker demonstrated its new “WiDi” (”Wireless Display”) technology, allowing you to stream audio/video from your laptop to your TV over a WiFi connection. In this clip, you’ll see how supported 2010 laptops work with a device (like Netgear’s $99 Push2TV box), which is connected via HDMI to a television.

Create a simple shortcut to gain access to the “Master Control Panel” in Windows Vista & Windows 7, allowing you to tweak hundreds of different settings.

Two Sync readers in the same week asked me how to create a free ringtone for their iPhone — instead of paying a couple of bucks to their cell carrier. No problem. It’s a pretty easy process if you follow the step-by-step instructions.