In the second half of last year, I stopped blogging about technology on a regular basis and spent more time focusing on other writing projects. I know it was hard on all of you. Computers and the Internet are scary things, and you probably feel lost right now.

To help get you back on track, here are five tips geared towards embracing technology in the new year. And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter to catch all of my mini-rants on the latest tech news and developments.

1. Give streaming music a shot

I gave up iTunes for Lent last year and haven’t looked back since signing up for an Rdio subscription. I pay $9.99 per month and stream albums to my Mac and iPhone all day long.

The only hiccup in the growth of streaming music services has been the recent trend of bands (Coldplay, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Black Keys) withholding their new releases from Rdio and Spotify. It’s a messy situation, because these artists feel like streaming music is killing their industry, and meanwhile, Rdio and Spotify have almost no hope of becoming profitable thanks to the demands of the music labels.

My advice is this: if you are near a computer for most of your day, use Rdio or Spotify as your personal jukebox and as a way to explore new artists and albums. If you feel guilty about shortchanging your favorite bands and singers, then pay for the album on iTunes or, even better, pick up a copy from your local music seller.

2. Move your documents to Dropbox

I always thought of Dropbox as nothing more than a flash drive in the sky. Sure, it would let me store up to 2 GB of data online and give me access to it from anywhere – but I could already do that with Apple’s iDisk service or even just by emailing files to myself.

Then iCloud launched, essentially killing iDisk, and I took that as a sign to give Dropbox a try. I quickly discovered that the service is much more than just an online flash drive. Because of its desktop client for Macs and PCs, Dropbox can replace the need for storing files on your local computer. The magic of Dropbox is that your files are available whether or not you are connected to the Internet - and the syncing to your cloud storage is done entirely in the background.

As I mentioned before, Dropbox gives you 2 GB of storage space for free and offers paid plans for more gigabytes. I suggest you start with the free package and use it for your text documents, spreadsheets and presentations (music, video and pictures take up too much space). Dropbox will sync your data across all of your devices so that you never have to worry about manually transferring files or accidentally editing the wrong version of a document.

3. Get your Twitter life under control

The first step to getting your Twitter life under control is to comb through your timeline and unfollow all the accounts that you do not consider essential. Obviously everyone tweets at different rates, but I estimate that following any more than 100 accounts is dangerous (and yes, I’m currently breaking my own rule).

Then take all those people who you considered non-essential but are still interested in and filter them into Twitter lists based on their category, profession or whatever the hell you want. I currently have five Twitter lists set up to complement my main timeline: News, Tech, Sports, Local and Companies. Also, consider migrating any RSS feeds that you still check into Twitter lists.

Treat your lists as news tickers that you quickly scroll through when you have a free minute. But be careful about adding too many news sites and blogs to your Twitter lists, since their nonstop tweeting can quickly become overwhelming. And no matter what, DO NOT attempt to read every tweet from your main timeline and all of your Twitter lists. Trust me, I’ve tried it – and the journey back from Internet Addiction Disorder is a long one.

4. Cleanse your devices

Take a look at the icons on your smartphone. Do you still use or need all of those apps? What about the downloads folder on your laptop? Are you saving those dancing cat GIFs for a special occasion?

It’s easy for your digital devices to get cluttered. Why not try to reverse that trend in 2012?

Go through your phone and delete the apps, messages and contacts you don’t need anymore. Then sift through the folders on your computer, removing unnecessary files and transferring stuff that can be archived to an external hard drive.

If you are feeling really adventurous, format your computer or mobile device and force yourself to start from scratch. (Just make sure you back up all your data beforehand.) You’ll feel more organized, and your gadgets will probably run faster too.

5. Pick a new password right now

Look, I know changing passwords is a pain in the butt. I picked a password for my first AOL screen name in sixth grade, used it for just about every site and service I signed up for over the next decade, and didn’t come up with a new one until I graduated from college.

To be extra careful with your online security, you should really use a different password for each site or application and change them up every few months. But that’s a lot to ask, so I suggest starting with my approach: choose a new password at the beginning of every January and then devote a few hours to updating the credentials for all your online accounts. As the year goes on, keep a running list of every site that you create an account on, and that will help make the annual password change a little bit easier.

At its developer conference on Tuesday, Google launched a service called Music Beta to compete directly with Apple and Amazon in the digital music market. Music Beta gives every user a locker in the cloud, where you can store your entire music collection and listen to it from any computer or Android device.

Music Beta’s interface is a pretty one (which is shocking for a Google product), and it’s operating as a free service for now. But don’t let yourself get blinded by the hype – because overall, Music Beta is a very underwhelming product. Here are the three big reasons why.

1. The Name

Really, “Music Beta” was the best name Google could come up with? I would have even preferred just plain “Google Music.” Calling it Music Beta makes it sound like Google knows the service is not ready for primetime and somehow feels compelled to brag about it.

A lot of people found it funny how Gmail was still considered “in beta” for years after its release – despite the fact that millions had made it their primary email service. Is Google going down that road again with Music Beta just for kicks? Music Beta is a dumb name now, but it’ll be a much dumber one in five years.

2. The Apps

Music Beta will have solid integration with Android tablets and smartphones. No surprise there. Elsewhere, however, Google has failed to recognize the importance of the app culture. When you want to listen to a song from your library on a non-Android device or computer, the only way is through a web browser. No desktop apps, no iOS apps (and to make it worse, Music Beta requires a browser with Adobe Flash – so it will be completely useless for iPhone and iPad users).

The part that really frustrates me is that Google actually did build a Windows app and a Mac app in conjunction with this new service. It’s called Music Manager, but it’s only intended to help users upload songs and albums from their existing iTunes libraries, and it has no playback functionality at all. I just don’t see the logic in limiting the Music Manager app and forcing people to leave a web browser open whenever they want to listen to music.

3. The Approach

Like Amazon, Google went ahead and launched its cloud-based music service without reaching any agreements with the record labels. It’s not really a big deal though, because just like Amazon, Google is doing nothing more than giving you an external hard drive in the sky where you can play music from. Leading up to yesterday’s announcement, Google had a real chance to seize control of the digital music world by taking the next step and developing a subscription-based service that could attract the masses. Instead, Google played it safe and did just enough to stay competitive with Amazon without taking any significant risk.

Frankly, the whole subscription streaming discussion baffles me at this point. Why are a few companies like Rdio, Rhapsody and MOG able to negotiate licenses for subscription services, while others like Apple, Google, Amazon and Spotify struggle to do the same basic thing? Are record labels afraid to give big companies the rights to stream music without per-song purchases? Or are those big companies not willing to accept the same terms that the little guys have?

Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of Google’s Music Beta is the lack of a revenue plan. Google essentially tackled the digital music situation the same way Amazon did, with one exception – Google doesn’t sell any songs or albums with its new service. Amazon’s plan for launching its Cloud Player was to inspire more people to ditch iTunes and buy MP3s from Amazon. Google’s Music Beta, on the other hand, requires users to continue getting their music from other sources. So iTunes and Amazon will keep making money from music sales, while Google volunteers their servers for hosting those files. It’s a no-win situation for Google. The company won’t make any money from Music Beta until it charges a fee for the service, and once it does that, people will simply jump to one of the other available options.

According to the Apple rumor mill, you should expect to see an iTunes-based music streaming service in the very near future. The only problem is that this service has been rumored to be in the “very near future” for a very long time (at least in tech years, which are capable of taking your new smartphone and making it old before you even get it out of the box).

Well, Apple might need to speed up its plans thanks to the bomb dropped by Spotify yesterday. Spotify is the streaming music company that emerged as a huge hit in Europe but has so far struggled to secure licensing agreements with the record labels in the United States. It uses a subscription model (similar to my beloved Rdio) that lets you listen to any song from your computer or smartphone for a flat monthly fee.

And now, as Spotify revealed on its website, subscribers can get that same giant library of tunes on their iPod Classic, Nano or Shuffle – even though those devices are not Internet enabled. When you connect a traditional iPod to your computer, the new version of Spotify will recognize it and let you sync your playlists in the MP3 format.

This is a big development because it marks the first opportunity to get music on an iPod without ever having to open iTunes. If Spotify is able to bring its service and this type of functionality to the U.S. before Apple launches its own cloud model, the iTunes brand could find itself in real danger of losing dominance in the digital music market.

The race has begun.

Amazon has won the first leg of the race to the cloud, but they need to do more to ensure a total victory. Remember – the cloud race is like the steeplechase: very long and challenging, with hurdles along the way and even the occasional puddle.

Yesterday, the company announced Cloud Drive and Cloud Player - a couple of services that will let people store their music on Amazon’s servers and listen to them from any web browser or Android device.

Thanks to its existing web architecture, Amazon was in a great position to deploy this so-called “digital locker” (please don’t try to store your gym clothes in it), and Android integration was logical given the company’s recent move into the Android app business. Apple and Google are both rumored to be developing similar systems, and now they find themselves playing catchup to Jeff Bezos and his gang.

But the truth is, Amazon can’t claim victory until the Cloud Player shows up on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Because right now, people who are deeply invested in the Apple ecosystem do not have any good reason to jump ship to Amazon. If they were able to access Cloud Player from iOS devices, however, everything would change.

Then suddenly Amazon is in the driving seat in the digital music market just as they are with ebooks. Right now, people could rely on Apple and the iBooks platform for reading on their iPhones and iPads, but instead, most opt for the Kindle app because of Amazon’s versatility, functionality and catalog size. There’s no reason why Amazon can’t grab control of music in the same way.

Well, hold on, there’s actually one very big reason: iOS is a closed system, and if Apple doesn’t want Cloud Player in the App Store, Amazon is out of luck.

I came across a tweet yesterday that really baffled me. It was posted by the iTunes Music Store account on Twitter and said the following:

“Heartless Empire” by @Broken_Bells is available for full stream on Ping. Their new EP comes out tomorrow.

When I saw the words “full stream” mentioned in an official tweet by Apple employees, an alarm went off in my head – specifically the alarm that goes off when something sounds so crazy that you assume it must be a mistake because otherwise it means you’re the crazy one.

Didn’t the last reports say Apple was definitely not considering the idea of music streaming? Wasn’t that the whole reason I gave up iTunes for Lent and adopted a brand new baby called Rdio? Could one meaningless tweet actually drive me to the brink of insanity?

My mental state has calmed a bit since then, although I still think there is a story buried somewhere in that tweet. The post was referring to the fact that iTunes users could temporarily listen to a single Broken Bells song on Ping until the band’s EP was officially released. The announcement should have been insignificant for two reasons:

1. Ping already lets artists share videos and pictures with their fans. A single song should be no different.

2. No one uses Ping anyways.

But I’m still left confused. The Broken Bells situation proves that not only is Apple capable of building a music streaming service, they sort of already have it in place. So then why wouldn’t Apple want to pursue an iTunes subscription plan? It seems like a no-brainer, and Apple’s resistance is especially odd now that companies like Rdio have proven that the big record labels are willing to license music for those kinds of services.