Posts Tagged apple
Most Popular How-To Features of 2009 [Best Of 2009]
Posted by vosduholov in Articles, Google, Twitter, apple on December 10th, 2009
We cover a lot of tips every day on Lifehacker, but we get our greatest pleasure from putting together in-depth, step-by-step guides. From Windows 7 to Hackintoshes and beyond, here’s a look back at our most popular how-to features of ‘09.
How to Do Everything with Windows 7
Windows 7 was a huge part of 2009, and the Lifehacker crowd was eager to try it out early on—but not necessarily ready to ditch XP or Vista outright to do so. This guide got you up and running with a Windows 7 and Vista/XP dual-boot system. Once you got it up and running, our complete guide to Windows 7 got you started with the most important parts of tackling your new operating system. We toured Windows 7’s best, most underhyped features, schooled you on its impressive list of cool new shortcuts, and detailed how to pull a little XP mode in Windows 7. It was a pretty good year for Windows users.
How to Build a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, Start to Finish
The Apple tax is always a little higher than a lot of people are willing to pay, so this year’s guide to building a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, start to finish, followed up by the simplified guide to install Snow Leopard on your Hackintosh PC, no hacking required made a pretty big splash.
How to Crack a Wi-Fi Network’s WEP Password
Whether you’re verifying the security of your own network or up to something a little more dubious in nature, this guide to cracking a Wi-Fi network’s WEP password with BackTrack—followed by this WEP cracking redux post that took WEP cracking out of the command line realm proved popular.
Google Wave First Look
Google Wave made a serious splash this year, and while a lot of people still aren’t sure how to best put it to use, there’s no doubt that there’s a lot of interesting technology going on there. We did our best to help you understand how you might use it yourself, starting with our Google Wave first look, moving onto a few best use cases for Wave, and rounding it out with a guide to Wave keyboard shortcuts, filters, searches, and more with our Google Wave 101 guide.
Clean Up and Revive Your Bloated, Sluggish Mac
Feel like your Mac isn’t the speedy little box it used to be? Our guide to cleaning up and reviving your bloated, sluggish Mac will get your machine back to running like a champ. (PC users, we’ve got you covered here.)
Prep Your Mac for Snow Leopard
Windows users had the Windows 7 release, Mac users had the Snow Leopard upgrade, and this guide detailed how to prep your Mac for Snow Leopard for a painless transition.
Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap
The future of home entertainment isn't in your cable box as you know it today—it's in powerful home theater PCs. There was a time when you'd need a big, noisy box next to your computer if you wanted to impress with your HTPC, but this guide to building a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap turns an inexpensive, tiny nettop computer into a standalone XBMC set-top box.
The First-Timer’s Guide to Building a Computer from Scratch
Ever been interested in building your own PC from the bottom up but always been a little scared of rolling up your sleeves with computer hardware? Building a computer from scratch is easier than you think, and it’s also one of the most satisfying projects a tech enthusiast can tackle.
Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code
Whether you just want to do some simple scripting or you want to start down the road to an entirely new skill set, our 101 guide for teaching yourself how to code is a great place to get started.
How to Fix Your Relatives’ Terrible Computer
If you didn't already fix every one of your relatives' computers over Thanksgiving, don't worry—the holidays are quickly approaching, and you know your the resident IT person for your friends and family. Our guide to fixing your relatives’ terrible computer can help.Photo by Justin Marty.
Cut the Cable For Good with Boxee and Apple TV
If our above guide to building a silent, standalone XBMC media center wasn’t quite your bag of chips, consider our step-by-step guide to cutting the cable for good with Boxee and Apple TV. You remember Boxee, right? They’re the killer media center folks who had to fight it out with Hulu all year, and they just updated with an impressive new look and feel. Photo by philcampbell.
Six Ways You Should Be Using Twitter (that Don’t Involve Breakfast)
Twitter may be taking the world by storm, but it’s often- and much-maligned by many of our readers. (47 percent of you say you’d never even use it.) Say what you will about tweeting, but if you’re not using Twitter for at least search, we think you’re missing out.
Properly Erase Your Physical Media
A whopping 40% of the used hard drives on eBay contain easily recoverable personal data. This guide details how to properly erase your physical media when you get rid of anything containing a hard drive so your personal data doesn’t end up in someone else’s hands. Photo by Robert Scoble.
The Definitive Guide to Finding Free Wi-Fi
Spend a lot of time on the road and out of the comfort of your home or office? Our definitive guide to finding free Wi-Fi can help you find some fast internet while you’re out of your home territory. Photo by °Florian.
The Beginner’s Guide to Creating Virtual Machines with VirtualBox
We play around a lot with various pieces of new software and even entire operating systems around these parts. Play it safe or just play around with our beginner’s guide to creating virtual machines with VirtualBox, a free, open-source virtualization tool.
Use Firefox to Fix the Web’s Biggest Annoyances
The web is an amazing place. It can also be an extremely annoying place. Skip the annoying flashing ads, turn off auto-playing movies and sounds, skip the auto-refreshing pages, and more with our guide to fixing the web’s biggest annoyances with Firefox.
How to Build a Web Site from Scratch with No Experience
Ever wanted to try your hand at building a web site you've been dreaming about—but have no experience with web development? We've been there (I was proud to release MixTape.me earlier this year), and this guide for building a web site from scratch with no experience will point you in the right direction.
You’re Backing Up Your Data the Wrong Way
Your data is the most important thing you've got on your computer—in fact, it's everything. If you aren't backing it up correctly, one bad move and all that information—and all those memories—goes the way of the dodo. If you're not sure if you're backing up the right way, this how-to will steer you in the right direction.
Ten Must-Have Gmail Filters Available for Download
If your inbox is overflowing and you feel like you’ve lost control, these 10 must-have Gmail filters will get you started slicing and dicing your inbox into a more manageable place.
An Exhaustive Guide to Saving Your Smartphone’s Battery
If you spend a lot of time outside your home or office, your smartphone is likely your lifeline to the rest of the world. Problem is, your pesky battery can die pretty quickly if you’re not mindful of how you’re using it. Follow our exhaustive guide to saving your smartphone’s battery and you may be able to squeeze a few more hours out of that gadget of yours. Photo by [177].
Make Free VoIP Calls from Google Voice
Soon free-calling functionality may be built into Google Voice (now that Google’s bought Gizmo5), but in the meantime, here’s how you can make free phone calls using Google Voice.
Hack Your Wii for Homebrew without Twilight Princess
If you’ve got a Wii and want to undertake a little homebrew fun, the Twilight Princess hack used to be the only way to go. Not so anymore, and our guide to hacking your Wii for homebrew without Twilight Princess walks you through how to go from zero to homebrew step by step.
Which Is Your Favorite Lifehacker How-To Feature of 2008?(polls)
Got a favorite Lifehacker guide on or off this list that we covered in ‘09? Let’s hear about it in the comments. If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can also gander back at the most popular how-to features of 2008.
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Most Popular How-To Features of 2009 [Best Of 2009]
VMWare Fusion 3 Makes Running Windows on Mac Almost Fun
Posted by howlPholveled in Articles, Google, apple, microsoft on October 6th, 2009
As we pointed out yesterday, more and more Americans are buying Macs, but going to the iSide doesn’t always mean you can leave Windows behind. Since 2006, every Mac that Apple sells has also had the ability to run Windows using Boot Camp.
However, for most users, the best way of using Windows on a Mac is using a virtualization program like VMWare Fusion, Parallels, or Virtual Box. These programs let you run Windows alongside Mac OS X all on the same machine. Read the rest of this entry »
Snow Leopard shipping August 28th for $29, order now
Well, it’s not September, but we’re not going to hold an early launch of its performance-focused Snow Leopard OS against Apple. The Apple store has come back online bearing an order page for OS X version 10.6 in Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Pro… oh wait, it’s just $29, as an upgrade from 10.5. August 28th, that’s when, now go ‘n get it. Read the rest of this entry »
Get a Mac vs. Laptop Hunters: Which Are the Better Ads?
Posted by Hassan Alsheikh in Articles on July 16th, 2009
It seems that Microsoft’s been turning up the heat on almost all of its big rivals – Microsoft’s new search engine Bing had a strong first month and is giving Google a run for its money with Microsoft Office on the web. And earlier today, we learned that Microsoft’s building retail stores this fall right next to Apple stores.
The icing on the cake for Microsoft this week? It looks like the company’s new “Laptop Hunters” ad campaign struck a nerve with Apple, so much so that it apparently called Microsoft and asked them to stop the ads. So with this new ad campaign gaining traction, we started to wonder which company has the better ads: Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads or Microsoft’s “Laptop Hunters” campaign? We want your vote on the matter.
Read the rest of this entry »
Microsoft: Apple Told Us to Cancel the Laptop Hunter Ads
Posted by Hassan Alsheikh in Articles on July 16th, 2009
By this point, 99% of you have probably seen the “Get a Mac” ads where the Mac (Justin Long) proves in 30 seconds how he’s clearly superior to the PC (John Hodgman) in every way. The result: an advertising hit.
For years, Microsoft either never responded or put together ads that didn’t resonate with the public (do you remember those Seinfeld-Gates ads from last year? Yeah, I’ve tried to block those out too). However, its most recent ad campaign, “Laptop Hunters,” has been gaining traction.
In fact, it’s been so effective that apparently Apple’s legal department called Microsoft and asked them to stop running the ads.
Read the rest of this entry »
Apple Tablet Coming in October?
Posted by Hassan Alsheikh in Articles on July 13th, 2009
The Apple tablet is much like the Loch ness Monster, frequently talked about with no real proof of its existence.
Well, The China Times is now reporting that the oft-rumored Apple tablet isn’t just coming out someday – but it’ll be released this October… and it’ll set you back a cool $800.
Would you buy an $800 Apple tablet? Tell us.
The myth of the Apple tablet has been one of wild speculation and trumped up gossip from day one. Even though this news comes from a reputable newspaper, you can still color me suspicious. Below are a few snippets from the article, translation via MacRumors forums…
“Taiwan’s high-tech supply chain companies said Apple will debut its first netbook in October; Apple will pose itself to tackle the Christmas shopping season. Three corporations – Foxconn, Wintek, Dynapack have received direct orders from Apple. (Wintek will be producing touch screens and providing relevant technologies for Apple.)”
This isn’t the first time that Wintek’s name has been associated with the Apple tablet. Earlier this year a rumor began floating around that they had supplied Apple with a slew of touchscreen panels… but the rumor eventually died away when nothing was confirmed.
The rumored $800 price tag seems to be distinctly Apple and I would have no trouble believing that price…
“Because Apple will adopt touch screen technology on its netbooks, Apple will not target low-end consumers, avoiding direct competition with Acer, Asus, as well as their less-than-500-dollars netbooks. Apple’s netbook (or a “tablet” as many call it,) will probably be sold at around $800 USD each.”
So what do you think about this latest Apple tablet rumor? Is there any validity to it?
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Apple Tablet Coming in October?
Dazzboard, An Open iTunes For Just About Any Portable Media File (500 Invites)
Posted by Hassan Alsheikh in Articles on July 12th, 2009
Finnish startup Linkotec is close to debuting the public beta version of dazzboard, a browser-based media manager that it says has all the goodness of iTunes but without the disadvantages of Apple’s closed environment.
Granted, we hear that a lot, but I’ve been invited to take an early peek at what they’ve been cooking and came away fairly impressed.
Dazzboard is currently invitation-only but is shooting for a Wednesday release of the public beta version. TechCrunch readers with limited patience (yes, you there) can already sign up to take it for a spin before that: 500 of you can register for an account right here. Note that the web application currently requires Windows – a Mac-compatible version is in the works – and works best when you’re using the latest Internet Explorer or Firefox browser.
With dazzboard, you can plug a wide range of mobile devices into your computer and easily transfer multimedia content like photos, videos and music to the web-based management interface, after which you can organize all your files and seamlessly share them through a variety of social networking services. It goes both ways: with the use of the ‘Dazz me’ bookmarklet you can download content from the Web to the media manager and distribute it to your favorite social network or your mobile device once it’s transferred to your account.
Dazzboard supports any portable device that can be used in mass storage or media transfer mode. The company divides the range of portable media players and mobile phones it supports into two groups: full supported devices (supported and maintained by the Dazzboard database, meaning no specific user action is required) and so-called generic devices (not fully supported by Dazzboard so handled as a generic media hub). In the latter case, it’s possible not all functionality of the media manager will work without any glitches.
All in all, dazzboard worked as advertised with the few portable devices I used to test it, and it does a great job syncing media content from and to social networks like YouTube, Flickr, etc. Of course, supporting ‘thousands of devices’ means that the company risks getting flooded with just as many device-specific support questions on a daily basis if it takes off. There’s a reason why closed platforms sometimes win.
Give it a whirl yourself and tell us what you think.
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Dazzboard, An Open iTunes For Just About Any Portable Media File (500 Invites)
App Store Is One Year Old and Revenues Are Still Secret
Posted by Hassan Alsheikh in Articles on July 10th, 2009
Apple’s App Store has reached its one-year milestone. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company one year ago launched the online store for its iPhone and iPod touch and has had great success offering users applications that do everything from calculate nutritional information to games that shoot cartoons out of volcanoes.
The question on many peoples’ minds remains how to gauge the App Store’s success.
“I can confirm more than 50,000 apps are available for download on the App Store and that over one billion apps have been downloaded since launch,” said Simon Pope, an Apple spokesperson.
While the number of apps downloaded isn’t something to ignore, Apple, which receives 30 percent of revenue from each app sold, has never revealed what the profits are from the popular store. Because Apple has remained tight-lipped about profits and the cost to maintain the App Store, it’s not clear if it has been a financial success for Apple.
Apple’s Bruises
Not all has been perfect in the 12 months since the store’s launch. Developers have complained that Apple doesn’t like competition and has blocked any app that might compete with its own iPhone programs.
They have also criticized Apple for being too rigid when it comes to deciding what is offensive. Developers have further complained about the app-approval process, which is often described as controlling, confusing and slow.
As a result, some developers have accepted Apple’s terms in order to continue to develop for the store, while others have boycotted Apple’s gatekeeper ways by developing for others.
“About 90 percent of apps are low-quality and unacceptable, and apps have been free as opposed to having fees,” said Robert Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group.
In the year since its launch, the App Store has had to face competition from others.
“The Apple app store has been the property to set…
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App Store Is One Year Old and Revenues Are Still Secret
Switched On: With Google, this is not your father’s OS war
Posted by Hassan Alsheikh in Articles on July 8th, 2009
Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
Google’s incursions into software — particularly in strategic markets for Microsoft, are like an Earth-bound asteroid. Observers see it coming for a long time, and fear its impact will be devastating when it finally arrives. So far, though, Google’s major software forays have been anything but cataclysmic, and Microsoft hasn’t even had to send Bruce Willis into space to stop them.
On one hand — as I discussed in a recent Switched On column that argued why Android was not the right choice for netbooks — the mobile operating system continues to have a lot of potential to reshape the smartphone OS competitive landscape. On the other hand, while Chrome is a fine browser, Microsoft, Apple and Mozilla all have their counterparts, and certainly Firefox and Safari at least give Google’s browser a run for its money in terms of speed, privacy and user interface. Chrome’s impact has been blunted because the PC is already an open platform.
Enter Chrome OS, which will be available on ARM and Intel processors. For the high-volume Intel PC market, Chrome OS will have to take on Windows, but Chrome OS is very different than other Windows competitors such as the Mac OS, Ubuntu or the OS/2 of yore, in that Google does not seem focused on creating platform-exclusive applications. In some ways, Chrome is more of a competitor to Silverlight than to Windows, as Silverlight is Microsoft’s cross-platform application foundation. Of course, Windows is Microsoft’s home field, and Chrome OS will be Google’s.
Continue reading Switched On: With Google, this is not your father’s OS war
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Switched On: With Google, this is not your father’s OS war originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Switched On: With Google, this is not your father’s OS war