From the Tips Box: Smartphone Signal, iTunes Mini-Player, and Gaming Mousepads [From The Tips Box]
Readers offer their best tips for phones that keep searching for signal, a new iTunes mini-player, and cheap gaming mousepad solutions.
Don't like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page.
About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments, share it here, or email it to tips at lifehacker.com.
Switch in and Out of Airplane Mode to "Reset" Smartphone Network Searches
Envador lets us know a quick way to solve smartphone signal problems:
Sometimes the iPhone falls into "Searching..." mode for a cell signal and NEVER finds it, forcing you to restart your iPhone. If you don't want to wait for a reboot, you can also go into Settings and turn Airplane Mode on, then off. That's always fixed the problem for me.
Of course, if you really don't have reception, this isn't going to solve anything, but if you're driving down I-5 and KNOW you should be getting signal to make that quick call, this can be a real time saver.
Use iTunes 10's Album Art Viewer as an Alternate Mini-Player
In iTunes 10, you can control your tunes from the previously useless artwork windows, and after a few moments the window's chrome will disappear and only sports the artwork. Cool but kinda redundant, cause it duplicates the function of mini-player. But I love this better than the mini-player.
I went to the store today to look for gaming mouse pads. I found one by rocket fish for $20, but it didn't have any special features or secrets, just a plain black mouse pad. The front of the package had a place where you could feel it, so I did, and it instantly reminded me of a matte 3 ring binder (the ones without the glossy, clear cover sheet protector on the front).
Knowing that this rocket fish surface was supposed to be good for laser mice, I grabbed a binder from my supplies, and taped one flap down to my desk so it wouldn't move. Using this for my mouse pad has been the best experience I have had with the mouse, and I plan on taking the cover off the binder so I can preeminently affix it to my desk (and use the other cover as a travel gaming mouse pad!). Just something that I found today, and wanted to share! Made my life easier while gaming and I hope other people looking for high mouse control can try this out!
Use Department Store Samples as Travel-Friendly Toiletries
On a recent weekend trip, instead of using the hotel's low quality soap and shampoo, my wife packed the samples of the good stuff she get's while shopping. The samples took practically no space to pack, and all fit in a Ziploc bag.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:00:00 PDT
This Week's Most Popular Posts [Highlights]
This week we made the most of your external hard drives, cleaned out our laptops before turning them in to IT, put together the ultimate exercise playlist, and more.
Top 10 External Hard Drive Tricks So you've been computing for quite a few years now, and you've built a nice collection of hard drives, internal or external, collecting dust in the corner. Here's how to put them to good use.
Use a Dab of Vaseline to Take Vintage-Style Photos The low-quality lenses and loose tolerances of vintage consumer cameras often gave photos a slightly distorted and dream-like quality. Capture that vintage-feel with little more than a dab of Vaseline.
Repurpose an Old Computer for Any Room in the House Most of us have our computers on our desks or our laps, but there are so many other places in and out of our homes that can make a great spot for an old PC.
What Should I Do to My Work Laptop Before I Leave My Job? Dear Lifehacker, I'll be leaving my job soon and will have to turn in my work laptop. How can I get my laptop sparkling clean so I can preserve my privacy and avoid running afoul of IT or any corporate policies?
How to Create the Ultimate Exercise Playlist Studies show that the rhythmic speed of your music influences your athletic performance. Here's how to use that information to create the ultimate playlist for your workout.
How to Remember People's Names (and Deal with Unusual Names) Accurately remembering names is one of the simplest yet most important components of interacting with people, no matter in what capacity. This article presents some tips I've acquired over the years with regards to remembering and using people's names.
The Best iPhone Apps for Your Car Whether it's your daily commute or a random road trip, your iPhone can help you drive, park, and stave off passenger boredom. Here are our picks for the best iPhone apps for when you're on the move.
The Best Android Apps for Your Car Having an Android along for your daily commute or occasional car trips can make the ride a lot easier, safer, and simply more fun. Here are our favorite Android apps to have on hand when it's time to hit the road.
Stretching Before Running Doesn't Help, But Don't Stop Right Away Stretching, especially the static reach-and-hold kind we've previously suggested was all wrong, had virtually no effect on injury prevention in a study of 1,400 runners, ages 13 to over 60. Not only that, but stretching could actually hurt your workout.
How to Run Windows, Mac, and Linux Side by Side and Pain-Free with VirtualBox Running multiple operating systems side-by-side gives you the chance to test applications, run platform-specific software, and tons more without ever rebooting. It's also extremely cool. Here's how to run Windows, Mac, and Linux simultaneously and pain-free as possible.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:00:00 PDT
How Many Vacation Days Do You Get Every Year? [Reader Poll]
Netflix lets its staff take as many vacation days as they want, and they can take them whenever they want, and according to news site The Telegraph, it works. Now we're wondering: How much vacation time do you get every year?
With a long weekend ahead here in the States, everybody's gearing up for a little government-sanctioned R&R. But how about the rest of the year, when it's not a government holiday?
JayCut Is a Great Web-Based Video Editor [Video Editing]
If you need to edit some video away from your home, free web-based video editor JayCut will likely get your project going, whether you need simple cutting and pasting or text, transitions, and impromptu audio recording.
Click on the image for a closer look.
JayCut is a remarkably full-featured video editor for the web, comparable to something like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker (as opposed to the more advanced Adobe Premiere or Apple Final Cut). You have two tracks, to which you can upload and add video clips, audio, and add text and transitions. You can also record audio straight from the webapp with your microphone, as well as video from a webcam. After you're done, you can publish your video to YouTube or export it to your computer as H.264 Flash video, H.264 MPEG-4, or an Xvid AVI.
There are definitely a few quirks that threw me off at first—for example, transitions need to be placed between videos on separate tracks overlapping one another, and you can only preview your movie from the beginning instead of placing the playhead somewhere—but overall, it's pretty incredible for something that runs in your browser. If you want to save projects and come back to them later, you need to create a free account, but for one-shot video edits you just need to fire up the demo. Also note that I had some weird issues in Firefox trying to export my video—it wouldn't let me input my information—so you might want to run a quick test in your browser of choice before editing a 3-hour masterpiece. Hit the link to check it out.
This Altoids Tin BBQ Grill Can Still Cook Dogs and Burgers [DIY]
OK, maybe not "dogs" plural, but the (regular size) creator of this tiny grill, made from an Altoids Sours tin, says it can cook a small hamburger or a single hot dog, cut down to size, with ease. Awwww.
According to Instructables user vmspionage, here's what you'll need to make your own:
1 Altoids sours tin
4x 1.5" sheet metal screws with wide heads (or 4x washers to match)
8x nuts to thread on screws
70mm metal computer fan guard (similar style to the one shown)
92mm metal computer fan guard (similar style to the one shown)
The BBQ is powered by a single charcoal briquette—isn't that just adorable?—though the creator says a propane version(!) is coming soon. Sliders all around! [Instructables via Laughing Squid]
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:00:00 PDT
iPhone 3G Speed Test: iOS 4.0 versus iOS 4.1 [IPhone]
In the video above, the iPhone 3G battles itself in an epic speed test to find out if Apple's claims are true: Is iOS 4.1 faster than 4.0, or is it just a wash?
Note: This is far from a scientific examination of both versions of iOS 4. We only had one iPhone 3G to work with and couldn't run through the trials at the exact same time. As a result, some of the actions are not perfect, but they nonetheless demonstrate some performance differences between iOS 4.0 and iOS 4.1.
Double note: To clarify, iOS 4.1 isn't yet available through iTunes; what you see, however, is the final 4.1 release running on our iPhone 3G.
The video demonstrates the results, but here they are in all their glory:
Messages: iOS 4.1 Wins (By a Little)
Maps: iOS 4.1 Wins (By a Lot)
Photos: iOS 4.1 Wins (Just Barely)
Safari: iOS 4.1 Wins (Just Barely)
While the speed advantages ranged from marginal to significant, iOS 4.1 clearly outperformed iOS 4.0. It's still significantly slower performance than you'll get from a 3GS or iPhone 4, and we're still not sure it's a big enough improvement that 3G owners will want to ditch iOS 3. The most obvious difference was UI responsiveness. The UI didn't get stuck nearly as much on an interface element or when trying to enter text. If you are set on using iOS 4, the upgrade is worthwhile for that alone.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:00:00 PDT
Taskos Is a Voice-Powered Mobile To-Do List for Android [Downloads]
Android: If you prefer to use your Android as hands-free as possible, Taskos is a voice-driven to-do list manager that supports contexts, alarms, dialer integration and more.
Taskos supports easy task creation via voice input. Tap the mic button and throw your tasks at it, Taskos transcribes them without a hitch. In addition to voice-to-list transcription you can tag tasks with contexts like calls, home, work, errands, and more. You can also set priorities, reminder alarms, and add notes as well as rank by priority and context. If your task needs the assistance or input of someone else you can share your task via email, text message, Facebook, or Twitter.
Taskos is a free Android application. Download it by searching in the Android Marketplace for Taskos or by scanning the QR code at the right.
Without a Trace: Turn Your Flash Drive into a Portable Privacy Toolkit [Privacy]
Whether you're trying to increase your security at an internet café, tunnel your way to your home computer from your cubicle, or leave no trace on your friend's borrowed computer, a flash drive turned portable privacy toolkit is invaluable.
Flash drives are enormously handy for carting around files, taking portable applications with you, and serving as a mobile computing base when you're away from home. They're also excellent tools for increasing your privacy when you're away from your home computer. Below I'll point you toward methods of setting up secure connections with SSH and round up a few of your best options for SSH-friendly applications; then we'll look into encrypting data, permanently erasing data, and otherwise covering your tracks on any machine you're using.
Before we begin, a big fat disclaimer is in order. Working from a flash drive privacy toolkit, in most situations, is rife with compromises. There is no way to, for example, set up a totally bulletproof system for browsing privately and anonymously from work. You can dodge IT, you can encrypt and tunnel, you can worm your way around security measures, and you might even be able to do it without getting caught. Doing so is grounds for termination at many company, however, and the IT admins frown heavily on users who punch holes in the firewall. If you absolutely must alleviate the boredom of your workday by streaming music from your home PC or browsing "off record" from your office, your best bet is to bring a netbook and tether it to your cellphone so all your activity occurs completely off the company networks and remains undetectable by your corporate overlords.
All of that said, the following tricks and applications push the limits of what the humble flash drive and non-administrative rights can do. We know you'll find more than a few tricks that will make life from your flash drive toolkit more secure and your computer activities more private.
Down the Rabbit Hole We Go: Everything via SSH
Whether you're trying to get around a pesky firewall or you're trying to secure your laptop's wireless connection against sniffing at the local coffee shop, Secure Shell (SSH) tunneling is your friend. If you're unfamiliar with SSH tunneling, it's largely what it sounds like: A secure "tunnel" is formed from the client machine (the remote terminal you're working at) to the host machine (your server) and everything that passes through that tunnel is hush-hush to observers on the surrounding network. Observers with proper access to the network can see the tunnel, they can see that data is being transferred, but they can't get at the contents. Whether you're streaming high quality audio, high quality video, or just performing a remote disk backup, the specifics of your activity remains unknown to anyone watching the transfer. Photo by vkramer.
We're not going to rehash setting up a personal SSH server and how to encrypt your web browsing session with an SSH SOCKS proxy in this guide because we have two excellent prior guides on the topic. Check out how to set up a personal, home SSH server to get started, then take a stab at encrypting your web browsing session with an SSH SOCKS proxy. Those two guides will get your home server setup and show you the basics of setting up Firefox to use a SOCKS proxy server. That knowledge will come in handy for configuring the proxy servers in some of the later apps we'll be looking at.
Once you have a server setup, you'll need some way to connect into it remotely. Our prior guide discusses clients, but we're going to highlight some flash-drive-friendly examples here.
KiTTY: Kitty is a feature-packed branch of the well-known PuTTY line of SSH clients. It's portable, supports drag-and-drop file transfer using SCP, and supports scripting. PortaPuTTY was our previously recommended portable PuTTY client of choice, but KiTTY supercedes it with more features and easier setup.
Web Browsers: Once you have your SSH tunnel set up, picking your portable browser is largely a matter of preference. Always, always, configure your portable browser ahead of time so that things are running smoothly by the time you need to securely browse from your remote location. As we noted in our guide to setting up encrypted web browsing sessions, you must configure your web browser to send DNS requests to your proxy server to bypass the local DNS server. Not only does sending DNS requests to the DNS server used by the local machine often lead to errors that render your proxy-driven-browsing impossible to use, but it defeats the whole purpose of setting up a SSH tunnel if you're broadcasting all your DNS requests to the local host and network. You can find portable versions of your favorite web browsers here: Firefox, Chrome, and Opera.
Thunderbird: If you conduct all your email and contact management through a web-based email service like Gmail, then your browser+SOCKS proxy setup takes care of your email needs. If you require a desktop client to access your email, however, you'll need a proxy-friendly client on your flash drive. Mozilla Thunderbird is an open-source and feature-rich email client you can take with you, set to use your proxy server, and enjoy robust and secure email management away from home. You can read more about Thunderbird in our previous guides to making Thunderbird your ultimate messaging hub and upgrading it with extensions.
Pidgin: Pidgin is a lightweight, open-source, and proxy-friendly IM client. At this point you've already set up your SSH proxy, so to IM with a little extra privacy, you can hook any proxy-friendly application into it—including Pidgin. Even if Pidgin isn't your first choice for a desktop IM client, it supports 15 chat protocols, packs light on your flash drive, and is easy to set up for proxy routing and encrypted chat.
Selecting Additional Communication Apps: Regardless of what kind of applications you're adding to your flash drive tool kit, if they need to communicate with the outside world, they need to be proxy-friendly. If you can't configure the application you need to use your proxy then you'll have to accept that its transmissions will be occurring outside your secure tunnel. Thankfully SOCKS proxies are an old—but dependable!—and incorporated in many applications.
Encrypt, Erase, and Cover Your Tracks
Encyption on portable media is tricky. The most comprehensive encryption tools require administrative access, which is rare when you're using a computer at work or away from home. This rules out powerful tools like Truecrypt out for inclusion in a portable toolkit—yes, Truecrypt has a traveler-mode, but it's a poor compromise given what Truecrypt can do with full administrative powers. With the restrictions of portable drives and non-administrator privileges in mind, we've put together a grouping of applications that are still functional even if you're sitting on a guest account. (If you're still interested, here's how to encrypt your thumb drive with Truecrypt—you'll just require admin access to get to the data, which most of the time isn't an option.)
FreeOTFE Explorer: FreeOTFE (on-the-fly-encryption) Explorer is a free and portable application that allows you to create encrypted containers with on-the-fly-encryption for easy drag and drop file management. It has limitations—for example, you can't run portable applications from within the container without extracting them first—but it offers a huge number of encryption techniques and it's a great way to keep your data locked up tight until you need it.
LockNote: If you're primarily concerned with locking down notes and not as concerned with running an encrypted volume, LockNote is a lightweight and open-source text-encryption tool. LockNote is great because the application and the text are bundled together—negating the need to run the app and mount an encrypted file—just click on the portable app, enter your password, and work on your notes.
KeePass: KeePass is one of the most popular password managers around. Choosing strong passwords is critical to good security and having a solid keyring tool like KeePass makes it all the easier to generate, store, and use long and complex passwords. If you're not using some sort of password manager you're really missing out on some great features and increased security. Check out eight great KeePass plugins here to supercharge your password keyring. On the flip side, if most of your password management is web-related, you can also install LastPass with your portable, SSH-proxied browser for one of our other favorite password-management solutions.
Neo's SafeKeys: Neo's SafeKeys is a secure on-screen keyboard that provides protection against hardware and software key loggers, including protection against screen logging, key logging, clipboard logging, and more. You can read about the technical aspects of how SafeKeys protects you in their extensive FAQ file here. Ideally you'll never be on a machine where you feel the need to resort to spy-vs-spy virtual keyboard tools, but it's lightweight and worth adding to your toolkit if you need it.
Eraser: Encryption is great, secure browsing is awesome, but sometimes you just need to nuke a file or two to ensure anyone that comes after you won't be snooping around in them. Eraser Portable is the portable version of the popular Eraser tool. Eraser is extremely simple to use, but don't let the simple interface fool you; its ease of use conceals a comprehensive overwrite tool that ensures nary a trace nor write-cached version of your file remains when the erasure is completed.
At this point you've got a solid privacy toolkit that will help you encrypt files, tunnel your traffic securely from the remote machine, and securely erase files. Have a favorite tool you think should be included in this kit? Let's hear about it in the comments. Don't forget to highlight the benefits and compromises that come with using your favorite privacy tool.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:30:00 PDT
We All Scream for Ice Cream in This Week's Open Thread [Open Thread]
Still hotter than you'd like this late in the summer? We're serving out scoops of your favorite productivity ice cream in this week's open thread.
Same drill as always, open-threaders: You can chat and ask questions with your fellow readers all week long at the #openthread hashtag page, but our weekly open thread post is your opportunity to reach the most people. Ask questions, offer advice, discuss productivity tips, or just chat about whatever's on your mind. You'll need a commenter account to participate, then you're ready to roll.
One extra reminder this week: If you're not quite satisfied with the interaction in the weekly open thread or in #tips, remember that you can also share your expertise every day on our Expert Pages. Happy Friday! Photo by glacial23.
Dushare Is a Peer-to-Peer One Click File Sharing Solution [File Sharing]
You want to transfer a file to a friend but IM transfer has failed, it's too big for email, or somebody is behind a firewall. Head over to Dushare where you can transfer peer-to-peer via browser, as fast as you can upload.
Dushare makes it dead simple to take a file on your computer and share it with a friend. Visit the site, pick your file, decide if you want to password protect the download, and then share the short URL with your friend. If they can visit a website and download a file they can grab the file you're sharing. Dushare also includes a chat function so you can talk to the person you're transferring the file to while the transfer is in progress.
Dushare is a free service and requires no registration. Have a favorite tool for transferring files to your friends? Let's hear about it in the comments. Thanks gizread!
Remember Your Mail by Clipping it to Your Front Door [Reminders]
Lifehacker reader HeadsetChatter was tired of forgetting mail that needed to go out, so he turned some cheap office supples into highly visible front-door reminder.
I used to have a lot of trouble remembering to leave the house with envelopes to mail (like my rent!). I got a cheap clip with adhesive on the back from some office supply store and affixed it right next to my front door. When there are envelopes in it, it makes it nearly impossible to open the door without removing them (and if you really want to be sure, put the envelopes horizontally!)
If you live in a newer home or apartment there is a good chance you have a metal fire-door and can skip having to adhere anything to the wall by using a magnetic clip right on the door above the handle. Have your own hack for making sure you never leave the house without mailing our your bills? Let's hear about it in the comments. Thanks HeadsetChatter!
Google has announced that despite Wave's demise as a Google App, its open source code will continue to be developed into a fully-functional application available to anyone with the desire to host it.
Although the application won't retain its Gmail integration, users of "Wave in a Box" will be able to import data from the eventually defunct wave.google.com and still feature threaded conversations. Developers will be able to build on Wave in a Box or use the open source code to repurpose Wave's technology for new, exciting applications.
WaitList Reports Wait Times at Popular Restaurants, Bars, and More [Downloads]
iOS: If you want to know how long you'll be waiting for your next table or how long it'll take to gain access to a club, just search for your destination on WaitList and find out.
Thank The Onion's A.V. Club for this one. If your iOS device has a GPS signal you can find all sorts of places near you. If not, you can always search for what you're looking for or just navigate to the area on the map. When you find one, if it's reporting a wait time you'll see a number in it's little map pin/bubble. If not and you head there anyway, WaitList lets you report wait times.
Clicking on a location gives you a little more information, see the wait times people are reporting, and report a wait time of your own. Probably because WaitList is pretty new (or because I checked after most places were closed), I wasn't able to find any reported wait times (at least in Los Angeles and New York). At the moment the app is more useful in theory than it is in practice. It's also the sort of app that's made useful by its users, so until restaurants and bars start reporting their own wait times through WaitList you can help make it more functional by contributing.
WaitList is a free iOS app available now in the iTunes App Store.
Decrease Tax Burden by Donating Your Decluttering Purges [Charity]
If you're doing some major overhauling of your space, be it decluttering your closet or remodeling your office, it pays to skip the dumpster and donate as much as you can.
Financial and frugality blog Free Money Finance highlights the incremental benefit of donating your decluttering and remodeling castoffs. When they upgraded a front door they donated the old one to a local charity:
My wife asked for and they gave us a tax receipt for the contribution. She then asked our door person what he estimated as the value of our door since we had no clue. He said $400.
If we were, say, in the 28% tax bracket, the simple act of finding a charity that wanted, needed, and would take the door saved us $112 in federal income taxes. Not a fortune, of course, but it's $112 we didn't have before and that we earned for little effort. I'll take it!
Whether you're replacing your office windows or swapping out your office furniture for something new, always check to see if there is a charity that needs your stuff. Not only do you get the satisfaction of knowing it's not just rotting away in the dump, it's going to help local charities repair homes, furnish non-profit offices, and other tasks. Have a tip or trick about donating to share? Know of a little known thing that makes a great donation? Let's hear about it in the comments.
Move iTunes' Close/Minimize/Zoom Buttons Back on Top [ITunes Tip]
Mac only: Unhappy with the way iTunes 10 moved your window controls around? Make iTunes look like your other windows again with a one-shot Terminal command.
CNET's MacFixIt details all the tiny visual changes that took place between iTunes 9 and 10—far more than most initially noticed. But they also provide this Terminal command to type in if you'd like to move the Close/Minimize/Zoom button set back to horizontal layout in the upper-left corner:
An early look at the next release of Ubuntu's Linux desktop hit the web late yesterday. What's in 10.10, or "Maverick Meerkat," for desktop users? Besides app updates, there's a new photo manager, improved multimedia controls, better Ubuntu One syncing, and more.
The full list of changes and new things is listed at the beta page, but what strikes us in a quick look at a live-booting beta (for which we recommend Unetbootin and a USB thumb drive) are the changes to Ubuntu One, the Dropbox-like syncing service that ties in Music Store purchases, personal files, settings, and other user data. There's now a single, easier sign-on for Ubuntu One, and the look and feel are much improved. Same with the Ubuntu Software Center, which makes it easier to see the apps you've installed from the Center, as well as peek at popular and recommended apps.
As expected, Shotwell has replaced Fspot as the default photo manager, and it's a step forward, if not exactly Picasa for Linux. The volume control in the system panel now has music player controls, too, and Rhythmbox and all the other default apps have seen their normal version upgrades and bug fixes.
Ubuntu 10.10 Beta is a free download that should install on most any system, though Macs require a bit of extra work. Tell us what you think of the early-stage Maverick Meerkat in the comments.
Notifo Sends Push Notifications from Popular Services or the Command Line to Your iPhone [Downloads]
iOS/Windows/Mac/Linux: Free service Notifo is a kitchen sink of push notifications for your iPhone or desktop, pushing Twitter updates, your favorite RSS feeds, Google Voice alerts, and more straight to your iPhone or desktop notification utility. And it's extremely hackable.
Notifo is pretty similar to previously mentionedBoxcar (inasmuch as it makes it simple to set up push notifications for a lot of popular services), but the big difference is that it's very hackable. So in addition to supporting the popular services mentioned above, Notifo can also send notifications from your desktop to your iPhone (supporting Growl and Growl for Windows), from the command line to your iPhone (great for command line scripters), from Chrome to your iPhone (see the Chrome to Notifo extension), and a whole lot more.
On top of all of that, Notifo also has a built-in messaging app that allows you to chat back and forth with other users who've installed Notifo—with lightning-fast push notifications between devices.
In short, Notifo is a great little app with all sorts of potential. My only criticism is that it's a a touch amorphous; I'm not quite sure if it's a powerful notification app or a messaging tool (it's both, but the connection between the two is a little tenuous). Still, the app's developed by a very smart friend of Lifehacker, Paul Stamatiou, and we can only expect that it'll get better and better.
The Best Things to Buy in September [Buying Guide]
Lots of stores are looking to make space for their big fall inventory push, and everything left over from summer is going cheap. Time to look into cars, appliances, holiday airfare, and other good buys in September.
Every month, we sneak a peek back at our big post on the best times to buy anything and when, extracting the items for each month for a closer look. Our own Jason also revamps his timeline for that month, and here's the full-size cut-out of a few items that are cheap this month (click for a larger view):
Per usual, we're not asking you to empty your checking account because you'd be stupid not too. It's a much more subtle reminder that, if you happen to need a new, say, stove, car, or tickets to visit your parents in Iowa soon enough, now's the time to be looking for deals. On to the savings and explanations:
Big appliances: Stoves, washing machines, and other gear that's way too big to fit into your car starts appearing in showrooms right about now, according to Bankrate.com. But you're not buying that stuff—you're wisely watching the stuff that's still new, but just slightly older, get real markdowns to make room for the new stuff.
Cars: Now is the sweet spot between last year's inventory needing to move quicker off the lot and all that inventory being gone. Go in on a weekday morning if you can to get the sales staff's full attention, and try to keep track of cars you like, then watch how long they sit on the lot. If you've got a favorite that isn't moving, that's the time to sweep in for the much better deal.
Wines: Somewhat obvious, sure, but you can also lock down some hard-to-find, small-run wines in the early fall harvest season, according to SmartMoney.com.
Holiday airfare: As we've suggested, the cheapest time to buy a ticket is eight weeks before a flight. Guess what's just about eight weeks from now? Start buying your airfare for Thanksgiving, then wait a bit and grab any tickets you need for the longer December holidays.
Laptops: Just because you don't happen to re-enrolling in undergraduate studies, or (thank your lucky stars) heading back to high school, doesn't mean you can't pick up a sweet back to school laptop deal. If you are in school, hey, we admire your ability to manage free blog reading time and your studies.
Grills and Lawn Mowers: As you might imagine, the people are looking one way (toward fall and winter indoor things), while retailers are looking back at the grills and lawn maintenance stuff they didn't sell. Meet an outdoor store halfway and pick up a deal, as AOL Shopping suggests.
Shrubs, Bushes, and Other Landscaping Plants: If you've got a warm area to keep plants, or you live in an area where growing happens all year, now's the time to jump in, Kiplinger says, and help your local greenhouses clear out the stuff that people didn't get ambitious enough to plant this summer.
We're going to peek back at this and other installments in our "Best Things to Buy" series later this year, so we can update and improve our buying guide for 2011. So if you've got something we missed this month, tell us why it's cheap in the comments, and we'll check it out.
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:00:00 PDT
Use Google Storage as a One-Time Cost, Lifetime Backup Solution [Online Storage]
You have read and write access to your storage for an entire year after paying, but if you choose not to renew, you still have access to your data for as long as you want—you just can't add more stuff. From Google's policy:
No matter when you cancel your storage subscription, your extra storage will be available for the entire year you've purchased. After your plan expires, your storage will be limited to each individual product's free storage quota. Under our current policy, any content over the free storage quota will still be accessible, however you will not be able to add new content until your storage balance falls below the free storage limit.
It won't work as a continuous backup solution, but it works great as a one-time data dump. So, while you wouldn't want to necessarily store important data there (since most important data gets outdated quickly), I could see it being useful for, say, TV seasons that you bought on iTunes but already watched, or other similar space hogs—essentially, things that you don't want to delete but don't have the hard drive space to let them sit around and collect dust.
Best Mobile To-Do List Manager? [Hive Five Call For Contenders]
Computers have made to-do list management radically easier, but a to-do list that is anchored to your desk isn't a particularly effective one. This week we want to hear about your favorite mobile to-do list manager.
We want to hear about your favorite mobile to-do list manager and what makes it so awesome. We're interested in applications you can actually use on-the-go, so save your favorite flash drive tools for another time—your favorite app can have a companion desktop application but you must be able to use it away from a traditional computer.
Hive Five nominations take place in the comments, where you post your favorite tool for the job. We get hundreds of comments, so to make your nomination clear, please include it at the top of your comment like so: VOTE: Best Mobile To-Do List Manager. Please don't include your vote in a reply to another commenter. Instead, make your vote and reply separate comments. If you don't follow this format, we may not count your vote. To prevent tampering with the results, votes from first-time commenters may not be counted. After you've made your nomination, let us know what makes it stand out from the competition.
About the Hive Five: The Hive Five feature series asks readers to answer the most frequently asked question we get: "Which tool is the best?" Once a week we'll put out a call for contenders looking for the best solution to a certain problem, then YOU tell us your favorite tools to get the job done. Every weekend, we'll report back with the top five recommendations and give you a chance to vote on which is best. For an example, check out last week's Five Best Text Recognition Tools.
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:00:00 PDT
Remains of the Day: Spotting Android Scams and Malware [For What Its Worth]
A look at how to weed out crapware in the Android Market, losing the ugly stickers on laptops, and Spotify joins the Sonos ranks.
Samsung Galaxy Tab Samsung announced the release of their Galaxy Tablet with 7-inch screen, running Froyo 2.2, front and rear facing cameras for release in Europe this month and in the US in "coming months". [Uncrate]
Laptops Look Like Racecars - and Not in a Good Way Sick of the stickers that come with your PCs and Laptops? A.M.D. is planning to use stickers that peel off easy and may opt out all together. [Pogue]
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:00:00 PDT
True Time Tracker Lets You Know How You're Spending Your Time With Minimal Setup [Downloads]
Windows: Free app True Time Tracker is extremely simple: Just start it up, let it run in the background, and it will create numerous charts detailing what programs you run, what sites you visit and how much time you spend idle.
We've featured numerous time tracking applications before, but True Time Tracker offers more simplicity than most. You just start it up and let it sit in your system tray, and it will track a number of statistics about how you're spending your time.
If you want to, you can organize your usage by project or subject. Thus, you can use it to categorize your time for the purpose of billing clients (and create invoices straight from the program), or just to see how much time you're wasting (i.e., you can set work websites and programs as "work" and Facebook and Twitter as "time wasters"). If not, though, you can have it print out pie charts of your time management to PDF at any time. If you've found other time tracking applications a bit too complicated, True Time Tracker is worth a look.
True Time Tracker is a free download, Windows only.
Skype 5.0 Beta 2 for Windows Brings 10-Way Video Calls [Updated with Video] [Updates]
Windows: Popular video chat client Skype released an update to its version 5 beta today, bringing a new interface and the long-awaited ability to participate in video chats with more than two people.
The new interface is much more streamlined than the current version 4, splitting the main window much less confusingly into two simple panes: a buddy list and the Skype Home window, from which you can edit your profile and give feedback as well. And, as always, you can bring Skype back down to a compact view if you prefer to just see your contact list.
More interesting, though, is the addition of 10-way video calling, which is an even further step up from the previous five-way calling added earlier this Spring. It still looks like it's going to be a premium feature in the long run—which is disappointing and sure to make Skype users continually jealous of iChat—but for now, you can download it and chat it up with nine of your friends. Note that everyone involved needs the new beta for multi-person chatting to work.
Update: We took the beta for a test run, to see if we could get more than five people running in a video chat. Once we got past about three of us, most everyone stopped outputting video, and the audio got pretty choppy. Overall, it wasn't the best...if everyone in the group has a powerful computer and a fast connection, you might be able to get it to work—as always, your mileage may vary, and it is still in beta—but it doesn't look like this is going to work very well for everyone. Check out the video above to see how it went for us.
Skype 5.0 beta 2 is a free download for Windows only.
How Do You Manage Your Browser Tabs? [Ask The Readers]
With so many web sites to see and pages to visit, it's easy to have an unmanageable number of tabs open in your web browser. So how do you keep that number down and your tabs under control?
Tabbed browsing is great, but it starts to get unwieldy when you have too many pages open at once. Regardless of how fast your browser may be, it'll slow down your machine and, even more so, your browsing experience. One thing I've started to do is create a bookmark backlog for sites I leave open for too long or funnel pages into ReadItLater (alternate: Instapaper), but that hasn't stopped my dock from filling up with numerous Chrome windows waiting to be viewed or shoved into one of those places.
So, readers, what do you do? How do you manage all your tabs and get them under control? Is it software? Is it mental prowess? Let us know in the comments.
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:30:00 PDT
KoHive is a Shared Virtual Workspace for Brainstorming, Filesharing, and More [Collaboration]
KoHive is a virtual workspace you access through your web browser. It's easy to create multiple "hives" for different projects, share files, communicate in real time, and aggregate content from across the web.
The biggest thing KoHive has going for it is a butter-smooth interface. It's easy to navigate within and between multiple hives, talk to other hive members, and share files. KoHive has a modular app system for plugging in the tools you need to get the projects you're working on organized and completed. You can manage tasks, share files and notes, upload images or import them from Flickr, message, and import videos from YouTube and Vimeo. KoHive also sports shared bookmarking, social network-style status updates, and a group drawing application.
Check out the video above to see it in action or visit KoHive at the link below to sign up for a free account. Thanks Sobert!
The Basic Guide to Troubleshooting Common Windows PC Problems [Troubleshooting]
Your Windows PC might be designed to make your life easier, but they often have a non-stop list of problems. Today we'll walk through some of the more common problems and how to troubleshoot them.
Try Safe Mode First
When your PC just won't boot into Windows at all, you'll probably want to start off with Safe Mode—use the F8 key right when the system starts up to access the menu and see if Windows will boot into Safe Mode. If you're able to get into Windows, the problem is likely something that would load only when you boot normally—graphics card drivers, junk applications, or perhaps some spyware applications.
Even Safe Mode Doesn't Work
If you can't even get into Safe Mode, you should use the Startup Repair tools, which can be accessed from the Advanced options in the Safe Mode menu; you can pull out your system repair disc, or your Windows installation disc and use the Repair option. If you're having a bootloader problem that says "bootmgr is missing", you can use the command prompt from an installation CD and use the bootrec /fixboot command.
Use System Restore
System Restore in Windows XP might not have been the greatest tool, but since Windows Vista came around, it's been an excellent choice for fixing up all sorts of problems, including issues that cause your system to not boot anymore. While testing, I once deleted a bunch of files in system32 to purposely cause a blue screen of death, and then used System Restore to get the system up and running again in minutes. If you're unfamiliar with the process, you can follow this step-by-step guide to restoring your PC with System Restore.
Try Booting Off an Ubuntu CD
Whenever I'm having issues with a PC not booting up properly, one of the first things I do is grab an Ubuntu Live CD and try and boot from that, and see how well the system is working. If everything is working in Linux, then you know the problem is likely just your Windows installation, and not hardware related.
PC Crashing or Blue Screening When your PC is crashing with the blue screen of death at random intervals, you should make sure that you first disable the automatic reboot after the blue screen, and then write down the error message so you can Google it later. If you're able to get back into Windows, you can try using the previously mentionedBlueScreenView tool to give you some extra information about the error message, but your best bet is usually to do a search.
If you're using Windows 7 or later and you're getting a blue screen of death, chances are very high that the problem is either driver or hardware related—contrary to legend, Windows just doesn't crash like that very much unless the problem is tied to hardware somehow.
Once you've identified the driver causing the problem, try and head into Safe Mode and uninstall or upgrade the driver causing the problem—sometimes the driver won't be visible, so you'll need to use a command-line trick to show hidden devices in Device Manager. If you're doing a bunch of work in Safe Mode, sometimes it's helpful to force Windows to load into Safe Mode without using the F8 key every time.
Check Task Manager
The first thing that every geek is going to do when a computer is running slowly is open up Task Manager, or Process Explorer (if you've already got it installed) to see what process is taking up the most CPU or memory—that's generally the culprit. While you're in there, it's a good idea to look for other resource-wasting apps that we can kill.
Uninstall Crapware
Now that we've killed the application that's currently killing the CPU, it's time to start getting rid of applications that we don't need. You can use Revo Uninstaller and the PC Decrapifier to clean up applications without leaving extra traces.
Clean Up the PC
Cleaning up your PC is really quite easy. You can start by running Disk Cleanup, but if you really want to get the job done, grab yourself a copy of CCleaner and run through a cleaning session. While you're at it, you can set up CCleaner to run on a schedule to keep the PC clean on a regular basis.
Use the Reliability Monitor
This under-utilized tool is an excellent way to diagnose problems and figure out what might have caused your system problems—it will show you a full history of system crashes, application problems, and even Windows Updates, so you can track down what changed on your system right before your system started running slow. Just type in reliability into the Start Menu search box, and you'll be able to see everything, and even drill down into specific errors to see more details.
Use the Advanced Tools in Windows 7
Windows 7 has quite a number of useful tools to troubleshoot performance problems, but they're buried in Control Panel where you might not think to look. Just head to Performance Information and Tools –> Advanced tools and you'll see a list of performance issues along with suggested fixes for the problems.
Trim Down Startup Apps to Speed Up Boot Times
This applies both when your PC takes forever to boot and when you've got a glut of applications running away in your system tray that you don't need; it's time to trim down your startup applications. You can use the built-in MS Config utility or any number of tweaking applications, but you might want to take a look at Soluto, which not only helps you disable startup applications, but it shows you exactly which ones are affecting your boot times the most.
Internet Is Slow or Not Loading
Pull Out the Ping Command
If you're having problems connecting to the internet, you should first make sure that you are really connected—most of the time you can pull out a command prompt (hit the Windows key, type cmd, hit Enter) and type in a ping command like ping yahoo.com to see if you're getting any response.
Disable and Re-Enable Your Connection
If you're not getting a response, you can try disabling and re-enabling your wireless connection, which solves more problems than it really should. If that doesn't work, use the Windows network troubleshooter by right-clicking your wireless icon, and follow through the steps. Windows will disable and re-enable the adapter again, and wipe the DNS caches as well. If you're still having problems, there's a good chance your internet connection is just down.
Web Site Not Loading
If the problem is a specific web site not loading, you can check downforeveryoneorjustme.com to see if you're the only one having the issue with the web site—or you can often do a quick search on Twitter to see if other people are complaining as well.
While forgetting a password might not technically be a troubleshooting problem, it's a common problem that needs to be solved. Your best best is to try and recover your passwords using free tools to crack your existing passwords.
If you're having problems loading up Windows Explorer and browsing your file system, the problem is almost always a shell extension that shouldn't be installed, or some shell extensions that are conflicting with each other. For example, the shell extensions for Dropbox and TortoiseSVN tend to cause problems when you put your code into your Dropbox folder, causing hanging and generally slow file browsing.
Your best bet is to grab a copy of ShellExView and start disabling third-party shell extensions, or uninstalling Windows Explorer plug-ins that you don't actually need. You can also use this tool in combination with ShellMenuView to clean up your messy Explorer context menu.
Computer Is Overrun with Viruses or Spyware
PC Still Boots into Windows
Running a virus scan on your PC is never a bad idea, and when you're dealing with an infected PC you're definitely going to want to start the cleaning process. Your best bet is to reboot your PC into Safe Mode—and then run your antivirus utility of choice.
PC Won't Boot
If your PC won't even boot because of an infection, your antivirus provider might have their own boot disk that will let you clean the PC without booting into Windows, or if you have an Ubuntu Live CD laying around, you can use that to scan your PC for viruses.
What problems do you encounter the most? What steps do you take to solve those problems? Share your advice with your fellow readers in the comments.
The How-To Geek generally uses Linux to troubleshoot Windows boot problems. His geeky articles can be found daily here on Lifehacker, How-To Geek, and Twitter.
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:30:00 PDT
Merge Firefox's Bookmark and Navigation Toolbars to Save Space [Firefox Tip]
We already know Firefox isn't the most pixel-friendly browser, and bookmark bars make it even worse. Reader Marand shows us an easy way to save space without losing quick acess to your bookmarks.
We've already shown you how to save space in your bookmarks bar by deleting the bookmark labels and leaving only the favicons (the small icons that show up next to the URL in the address bar). However, this doesn't help the issue of vertical space, which on certain screens (like netbooks) can be very important.
If you don't want to lose access to your bookmarks, you can actually set them up as favicon-only bookmarks, then move them to the navigation bar. Just go to View > Toolbars and hit Customize. Then drag the bookmarks toolbar up to the navigation bar. Go back to View > Toolbars and uncheck Bookmarks Toolbar, and you'll see you get a few more pixels of vertical space, but you can still get to your bookmarks easily. Check out the video for a demonstration. Note also that Mac users will have to do a bit of tweaking to get favicons in their bookmark bar.
Got any of your own pixel-saving tips? Share them in the comments.
An Office in the Forest: The Workspaces of SelgasCano [Featured Workspace]
If you've ever dreamed of a woodland view out your window the offices of Spanish architecture firm SelgasCano might just be your dream office—complete with open styling, copious sunlight, and the best view this side of a tree house.
Everything about the design of SelgasCano's offices is open and airy. The desks are open backed, the shelving is open air, the entire office is open from one end to the other, and half the ceiling is a massive window that lets sunlight and the colors of the woodland backdrop pour in. Take a closer look in the photos below.
If you have a workspace of your own to show off, throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker.
How to Always Get to the Airport On Time [Travel Tip]
While there are better places to be than sitting at your gate, running from the clutches of airport security to make your flight is no fun either. Here's a guide for showing up at your gate with James Bond timing.
Hipmunk is a simple and fantastic travel search (our take), but they also have some great travel advice. Today Hipmunk's sharing tips on getting to the airport on time.
The Easy Stuff
Google for "Airline Name Checkin Cutoff"
This'll find the minimum amount of time the airline will allow between checking in and the plane departing (e.g., Continental.com's guidelines).
Rather not search? Go to SeatGuru.com, select the airline you want, and then click the "Check-in" tab at the top.
If You're Going Global, Go Early
This often-repeated advice has some truth to it: arrive earlier for international travel. It's not just because you have to deal with more shenanigans (e.g., passport checks), but also because the airlines require it. You'll notice in the Continental.com page above, for example, that flying out of Micronesia has a cutoff of 90 minutes before departure (if you're checking bags), as compared to much lower in the US.
Avoid Checking Bags if You Can
You won't have to check in as far in advance, as evidenced by the cutoff times above.
Online Instead of In Line
If at all possible, check-in online and print your boarding pass at home (or have it on your smartphone). That'll give you the freedom to arrive even after the check-in cutoff.
Hipmunk Pro Tips
Delayed Flights Don't Mean You Can Delay
Airlines may not look kindly on you arriving after the check-in time for the flight had it not been delayed. There's a reason for this: delayed flights sometimes get their issues taken care of and end up leaving on time. So suck it up and arrive on time even for delayed flights.
Public Transit Isn't Perfect
Subways, buses, and the like can break down, or have construction, or strike, etc. This is particularly a problem in cities that have good public transit links to their airports—like Boston and San Francisco—because you can come to rely on them and then they fail.
Sometimes public transit isn't running early enough or late enough to get you to your flight. Example: You can't realistically catch a 6:00 AM flight from Logan Airport and take the T to get there.
Be Wary of the Roads, Too
Granted, driving/cabbing can suck too due to construction, accidents, traffic, or just bad timing. Try getting a cab in downtown New York around 4:00 PM (when shifts change) for a flight out of JFK.
Check-in Agents Can Save Your Butt
Even if you miss the check-in cutoff, some agents may be receptive to checking you in anyway if a) the flight still has room, b) you can plausibly make it through security in time and c) you're not checking bags. It especially helps if you have "status" with the airline for frequent flying with them or their partners a lot in the past year.
It's tempting to be in a foul mood, but if you can put on a smile you'll often be surprised with how receptive people can be—especially given what they're typically subjected to.
Know Your Options
In advance of your flight, see what other flights are available so you know how badly you're screwed if things don't work out. Be extra conservative if you're on the last (or only) flight of the day to where you're going. Here are some mobile apps to help.
Sign Up to Test Full Google Service Integration with Google Apps [Google Apps]
In May Google announced that Apps users will get all Google Services; this week, certain Google Apps users (including some of us at Lifehacker) have been receiving invitations to test full-featured Google services with their Google Apps account. Want to take the plunge? You can find the signup form here. [Wired]
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:00:00 PDT
Act Like You're Teaching to Avoid Sloppy Work [Mind Hacks]
If you find that you tend to rush certain jobs to the point of sloppiness, reader Tanner Bush has an easy solution: pretend like you're teaching someone else, and you'll slow down.
Do stuff more efficiently and make fewer mistakes by acting like you are teaching someone how to do it. For example, if I'm painting my living room, I imagine I'm showing someone else the right and wrong things to: preventing drips and bubbles, how to prepare the room, etc. This helps me to be less sloppy when I'm doing things because when you teach someone how to do something you want them to do it right (and you tend to move a bit slower). If you pretend, in your mind, that you're teaching someone then you, too, will be more likely to do it right and make fewer mistakes.
Steam Mover Relocates Applications to Free Up Space on Your Primary Drive [Downloads]
Windows only: If your primary hard drive just isn't large enough to hold all the software you need on a day-to-day basis, then Steam Mover is the perfect tool for the job—assuming you have another storage drive handy.
Steam Mover was originally designed to help hardcore gamers move their downloaded games to other drives, in order to free up space on their primary hard drive. Cheap, huge drives came along and made this less necessary. With the more recent emerging popularity of Solid State Drives (SSDs), this need becomes commonplace again.
Steam Mover works amazingly well on games downloaded through the Steam client (which it was designed for), but as it turns out, it works well with other applications, too. The program's target directory defaults to the applications folder for Steam, but simply change this to the folder containing the applications you wish to move. Once the folder is selected, all of the associated programs will be listed. Steam Mover works by moving all the data in the associated folder to your secondary drive; it then simply makes a link to the new folder you designate for the alternative folder. This means it should work on most applications.
Once you've got the target and destination folder selected, simply select the program(s) you would like to move. Click the right arrow at the bottom of the application, and soon the selected applications will be on the other drive. You can always move the application back to the original drive by clicking the left arrow.
It is important to note that this software is an initial release. The developer makes no guarantee that it will work flawlessly outside of transporting Steam games. In my testing, however, it worked very well, except for a small hiccup when transferring Illustrator and Flash Builder. The issue was easily resolved by copying everything in my new folder back into the original folder, however.
Steam Mover is a free download for Windows 7 and Vista. XP is not supported.
Whether it's your daily commute or a random road trip, your iPhone can help you drive, park, and stave off passenger boredom. Here are our picks for the best iPhone apps for when you're on the move.
Your built-in iPhone Maps application can be hard to beat. It's free, it's simple, and it gets the job done. Through Maps you can get driving, walking, and public transit directions. You have access to map, satellite, and street view. While it's not the same turn-by-turn phenomenon that's packed into Android, it gets you where you need to go and also works pretty well as a replacement for the (figurative) yellow pages. Despite having tested several different turn-by-turn navigation apps, I always find myself coming back to Maps. It's just easy to use and it works. [Pre-installed]
MapQuest 4 Mobile
If you do need some vocal assistance in your navigation, you can pay a lot for great GPS apps. (We've always had an affinity for Navigon on the premium side.) If you don't want to pony up, though, MapQuest 4 Mobile is free and does a pretty nice job. Of course you could opt to pay for a slightly more refined option, such as the $.99 MotionX GPS Drive, or something more social, like Waze, but MapQuest 4 Mobile is a great solution for turn-by-turn navigation on your iPhone. It's straightforward and simple, but isn't without features. The app will let you discover points of interest and nearby places to go as well as save destinations for later reuse. [iTunes App Store]
Gas Buddy
Gas Buddy will help you find the cheapest, closest gas station based on a set of criteria you provide. While it's very much a unitasker, Gas Buddy is very good at what it does. If you're looking for a particular grade or even need to find a diesel station, Gas Buddy will help you sort through your options and round them up based what's more important to you—cost or proximity. When you find a gas station you want, Gas Buddy can map out the directions for you. Gas Buddy will set you back $2.99, but it can pay for itself after one or two trips to fill up your tank. [iTunes App Store]
Beat The Traffic
Every time I make the trip out to Los Angeles there's at least one accident on the way. This makes for bad traffic and that's where Beat The Traffic comes in. Beat The Traffic scopes out all kinds of traffic issues and lets you discover the best route to take. It's saved me from ending up in a highway-turned-parking lot several times, and it's completely free. [iTunes App Store]
G-Park
Parking lots and structures might as well be mazes. If you've ever been subjected to either, chances are you've lost track of your car. G-Park doesn't rely on just one method to help you remember. First, it lets you mark your GPS position. Second, you can take a picture of where you parked to provide a visual memory. Third, you can specify the level and parking spot code so you can be absolutely sure where you left your car before heading out. For 99 cents it can help keep you sane after your next trip to Disneyland. [iTunes App Store]
Pandora Radio
A long drive gets boring pretty quickly without some music, and your tired old playlists can't always cut it. The popular Pandora Radio helps you discover new music based on music you already like, runs in the background (for iOS 4 users) so as not to interrupt your turn-by-turn navigation, and is free to use (although you can pay for extra features). If you're looking for something new to listen to during your drive, Pandora's a good way to find some alternatives. [iTunes App Store]
Got an app you rely on for getting you where you're going or otherwise making your automobile life easier? Let's hear it in the comments.
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:00:00 PDT
The Best Android Apps for Your Car [Android]
Having an Android along for your daily commute or occasional car trips can make the ride a lot easier, safer, and simply more fun. Here are our favorite Android apps to have on hand when it's time to hit the road.
Note: We've included links to each apps' homepage, which usually include a QR code for easy installing or Market search directions. We've also included a link to each app's page on AppBrain, where signed-in AppBrain users can easily beam the applications to their Android phone.
Maps, Navigation, and Car Mode all come with your Android (version 2.0 and higher), and they're all crucial to the Android-in-the-car experience. Maps is less useful when you have your hands on the wheel, but the ability to "Star" locations from your desktop or laptop browser, then quickly pull them up for directions on your phone, is very nice. Navigation, as we've previously detailed, is an entire turn-by-turn GPS navigation package, as long as you're not driving too far away from a data signal. The Car Mode makes pulling off Voice Actions and getting Navigation directions safer while your hands are occupied, and Maps' break-out app, Places, gives you a chance to see a simple list of nearby restaurants, gas, ATMs, or other spots. [Free on Android phones, but check Market for updates]
Vlingo or Voice Actions
If your phone's running Android 2.2, you can upgrade your phone's built-in Voice Search to the Google-built Voice Actions. And if you're double lucky, Voice Actions won't frequently crash on you, as it does currently on at least a few of the Lifehacker editors' phones. With Voice Actions, you can write texts or emails with your voice, search Google, activate directions or Navigation, find or call businesses—all after only touching the screen once, making it a very helpful and safe car tool.
If you're not on 2.2, or can't get Voice Actions to play nice, you want Vlingo. Actually, you might want Vlingo anyways, if only for the SafeReader function.
Vlingo's a third-party app that does pretty much everything that Voice Actions can do, but uses its own server to pass your voice commands along. It even offers its own keyboard with a dedicated Vlingo button for entering your voice in any text field (great for those stuck on much older firmware), and can take over the default action for holding down your Search button. Even if you like Google's own Voice Actions better, you can install Vlingo and use its SafeReader function. Set up the app with your email accounts, and it can read your incoming email, and text messages, out loud for you, whenever you've activated SafeReader from a home screen widget. Pretty amazing functionality, really, for a free app. [Homepage: Voice Actions, Vlingo] [AppBrain:Voice Search (Voice Actions), Vlingo]
Waze
Google's Maps & Navigation wants to get you where you're going through search, data points, calculations and voice recognition. Waze, too, gets you there with turn-by-turn directions, but it also wants you to run over cupcakes, share interesting spots and details about your trip, and help you avoid traffic jams, accident scenes, speed traps, and find good stuff through the power of social reporting. Anyone who's running Waze on their BlackBerry, Android, iOS device, or other phone while driving is feeding into Waze's maps and traffic data, and those who really dig Waze can compete on picking up power-ups, share traffic tips, point out free parking, and otherwise lend to the community spirit. [Homepage] [Waze]
Listen, Pandora, and NPR News
Your car is probably the one spot where you can really enjoy new tunes, get in-depth with your podcasts, and listen to the news uninterrupted. For Android owners with time to listen, Pandora, NPR News, and Listen are the best. Listen is Google's own podcast app, with great search capabilities, subscription syncing to Google Reader, and a pretty smart setup for deciding when to refresh and download your audio. Pandora is, of course, the very nifty streaming service that creates "stations" based on artists and songs you like, and it works just fine wherever you can get an internet signal. NPR's own app for Android can stream your local station and download entire show episodes, but also has a very handy ability to cherry-pick segments of shows like Morning Edition or All Things Considered, then queue them up in a playlist. [Homepages: Listen, Pandora, NPR News] [AppBrain: Listen, Pandora, NPR News]
GasBuddy
GasBuddy does one thing and one thing well—points out the places where you can fill up your car for less. On an Android, GasBuddy can map out or list nearby stations using your location, or search out spots where you're heading to. You also get details about the station, including an address you can navigate to. [Homepage] [AppBrain]
ParkDroid
In cities, at stadiums, and other places where you walk a long way from where you park your car, you might have once said, "Boy, I should draw a map!" Now you just open ParkDroid, tag your location with your GPS powers, then go about your day until you're ready to head back home. ParkDroid is more than just tagging, though. It pulls up paid and free parking locations from the web and maps them out, then also takes in free and paid parking finds from its users (unless you opt for "Private" when tagging). If you're parked at a meter, or need a time limitation, you can set that up in ParkDroid, too. [AppBrain]
That's our handful of really helpful picks for Android owners who also own one of those fancy horseless carriages. What Android apps are crucial to your own driving experience? Share your list, and links, in the comments.
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:55:00 PDT
Chrome Stable Updates to Version 6 with Extension Syncing and Form Autofill [Downloads]
Windows/Mac/Linux: Two years after its inception, web browser Google Chrome reaches version 6 in its stable release today, bringing with it the much sought-after extension syncing, form autofill and autofill syncing, and an even more streamlined UI.
We talked about extension syncing back when it first appeared in the Dev channel, but today the holy grail of browser syncing comes to users of the stable builds. It also brings form autofill, and the ability to sync autofill data along with your extensions, bookmarks, preferences, and themes.
The newest version also sports a slightly updated UI, the most notable change of which is the replacement of the wrench and page icon with one, single drop down menu. They've also moved the "bookmark this page" button from the left side of the address bar to an icon inside the address bar, on the right side. And, as always, it's the fastest and most stable version of Chrome to date, so if your copy of Chrome hasn't updated itself already (the Mac builds don't seem to be auto-updating), head on over and do it now.
Google Chrome is a free download for all platforms.
Use the Power of a Positive No to Focus on What Really Matters [Negotiation]
Most people find it far too easy to say yes and struggle with saying no. The key to a successfully saying no is to use a positive no to guide your work projects or personal life towards a more agreeable outcome.
A List Apart, a blog for webmasters and site designers, takes a look at the power of no and the importance of saying no not just to stand against something but to stand for the things that really matter to you. They highlight the work of William Ury, the author of The Power of a Positive No.
Ury proposes a methodology for saying no "while getting to Yes." He argues that our desire to say no is not to be contradictory, but rather to stand up for a deeper yes-what we believe to be true, right, virtuous, and necessary. And that instead of making our defense a negative one, we can frame it in a positive light that is more likely to lead to a favorable outcome.
The following may sound really corny, but bear with me. It has completely transformed how I handle conflict and decision-making.
The structure of a positive no is a "Yes! No. Yes? statement." In Ury's words: The first Yes! expresses your interest; the No asserts your power; and the second Yes? furthers your relationship. For example, you might say "I, too, want prospective customers to see our company as current and approachable, but I don't feel that a dozen social media badges at the top of the page will help us achieve that. What if we came up with a few alternative approaches and chose the most effective one together?"
Check out the full article for more information including real-world examples of designers using the positive no to guide the projects they are working on. Have experience with using the positive no in your work or personal life? Let's hear about it in the comments.
TabRocket Sends Tabs Between Remote Chrome Sessions [Downloads]
Chrome: TabRocket is a small Chrome extension that allows you to shuttle open tabs between remote Chrome sessions. If you've ever wanted to send a tab to your home computer or your laptop across the room, TabRocket can help.
Install TabRocket on all the copies of Chrome you want to enable tab-swapping on, enable bookmark syncing, and then name the machines—WinDesktop, OSXVMware, etc.—to identify where the tabs are going. We found TabRocket to be quite speedy. It shuttled tabs to the new machine in a matter of seconds, as fast as we could have cut and paste between two browsers. TabRocket is a free extension and works wherever Chrome does. Have a favorite extension or application for working across machines? Let's hear about it in the comments. Thanks zhanginator!
AirDropper Now Allows Multiple Uploads for Dropbox-Synced File Requests [Updates]
AirDropper is a very nifty way to request a file: send an email with a special link, and the person you need the files from can upload them right into your synchronized Dropbox account. The webapp just got a little cooler recently with the addition of multiple file uploads, so your recipient can fling you as many files as you need at once. That's much easier than explaining how to ZIP up files to clients and friends. [AirDropper]
