Hunter's Haven

Facebook Scam Offers A Free Amazon Gift Card, Don’t Fall For It! [News]

2012-01-24T16:07:00.001-06:00

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

Facebook Scam Offers A Free Amazon Gift Card, Don’t Fall For It! [News]

via MakeUseOf by Yaara Lancet on 1/24/12

Yet another Facebook scam has been revealed this weekend, and this one is a really tempting one. According to this scam, Amazon is offering a $500 gift card if you only click a few links and share them on Facebook. Please don't. These links are false and you will not get an Amazon gift card if you share it.

As you can see in the screenshot from Sophos, this specific scam advertises "One Free Amazon.com Gift Card (limited time only)". The link comes with one of several Amazon icons, one of which implies that the offered gift card is for the outrageous amount of $500. If this is not suspicious enough, the link also states that "Amazon is currently giving away gift cards to all Facebook users" and urges you to click it to get yours.

According to Sophos, if you do click the link, you will be asked to first share it with all your friends, and then be redirected to another webpage where you will be tempted with some premium rates mobile phone service, and will also be asked to complete a service. All of this will serve the people behind this scam nicely, as it will bring hits to various webpages, and may cause some people to part with some money. But there will not be a gift card in sight.

$500 from Amazon sure is tempting, so if you've fallen for this or if you've seen this post on a friend's wall, be sure to erase, unlike and evoke any permission from apps you don't know. To remove apps from your Facebook account, go to Privacy Settings, scroll all the way down to Apps and Websites and click on Edit Settings. You can then remove apps from Apps you use by clicking Edit Settings again.

What do you think about scams like this? Should it be Facebook's responsibility to get rid of them, or should people simply be more alert?

Source: Sophos Naked Security

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SOPA And PIPA Abandoned After Day Of Internet Activism [News] The Internet Wins!

2012-01-23T08:50:00.001-06:00

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SOPA And PIPA Abandoned After Day Of Internet Activism [News]

via MakeUseOf by Matt Smith on 1/22/12

Good job, Internet. You win.

As the day of online activism opposing SOPA and PIPA continued, supporters quickly began to have second thoughts. Now, the final blows have been struck. Senator Harry Reid has decided to put the Protect IP Act on permanent hiatus, and Representative Lamar Smith pulled his support for the Stop Online Piracy Act. In doing so, the bills have been effectively killed.

There was amusement to be had from watching those who formerly backed the bill scatter as the wave of anti-SOPA/PIPA press swept the Internet on January the 18^th. Sites regularly used by nearly everyone with Internet access, such as Google and Craigslist, placed public denouncements of the bills on their sites. Over 4.5 million people signed Google's online petition against the bills.

Other sites, such as Wikipedia, Reddit and Wired, restricted access to their content as a warning about what could happen if the bills became law. An estimated 162 million people visited Wikipedia during its 24-hour blackout, no doubt helping to spread the word.

Today's news that the bills will not be moving forward was met with celebration that – this being the Internet – manifested itself in images like the one above. It is unlikely that we'll ever see these particular bills come to a vote now that they've been so thoroughly tarnished.

But don't be surprised if we see the ideas resurface later. Even while removing support for SOPA, Representative Lamar Smith stated "The Committee will continue work with copyright owners, Internet companies, financial institutions to develop proposals that combat online piracy and protect America's intellectual property." Translation? This isn't over.

Source: Ars Technica

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This is how you see more of the web and get the results you need!

2012-01-21T17:35:00.001-06:00

How To Turn Off Google's Personal Search Results & Get Back To Enjoying Life

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How To Turn Off Google’s Personal Search Results & Get Back To Enjoying Life

via MakeUseOf by Justin Pot on 1/21/12

Has your entire life become a frustrating chore since last week, when Google added "Personal Search"? Have you been taking your rage out on innocent squirrels and kittens, most of whom had nothing to do with Google's decision to integrate a social network most people aren't using with the search engine everyone is? Stop kicking cuddly creatures. There's a simple way to stem the tide of nonsense pouring into your search results and we're happy to share it with you.

Have you ever looked through your Facebook feed and thought to yourself "It would be really awesome if all of this useless crap came up when I was searching for something?" Me neither! Google seems to think differently though, so last week they started flooding everyone's search results with a bunch of nonsense. Happily they're not complete idiots – they did provide a way to turn this crap off. Let's get right to that.

The Fix

Are you ready to restore sanity to your search results? Pull up a Google search. See the personalized results at top, then swear (loudly if you're at home or quietly if you're at work). When you're done swearing, click the gear in the top-right corner. Click "Search Settings", and you'll find this amazing option:

Click the "Do not use personal results" button with the enthusiasm of a kid stealing candy. Make sure you click "Save" before leaving this page, or the frustration during your next search will be immense.

That's it! Google is back to not sucking, and you can go back to being a well-adjusted person (if you were well-adjusted before, of course).

Some Background

What was Google thinking? Well, here's the story so far. Google fears Facebook, because Facebook is the only company on earth with comparable amounts of your personal information to exploit. Which brings us to Google Plus, the latest of Google's many freaking attempts to create a ~~repository of your personal preferences, friendships and interactions~~ social network.

Plus is different than previous attempts, though, in that Google is pushing it, hard. Sure, Buzz was integrated with Gmail, but Plus goes way beyond that – we're talking about TV ads, integration with Android, and even a big freaking arrow on the Google homepage:

And then, last week, Google decided they really wanted to piss off their user base. Now Google Plus posts are now integrated with Google search itself. That's right – the totality of human knowledge, filtered through your friends and family.

No offense to the people I know; most of you guys are perfectly acceptable human beings. I just don't want your input on the hundreds of searches I run each day. It clutters my search for information, and puts me inside a social bubble instead of helping me engage with the wider world.

Conclusion

Did you turn this off? Did it somewhat improve the quality of your life? Let us know in the comments below. Also feel free to rant about this being a bad decision on Google's part, because that's totally what I just did.

Did you not turn this off? Then, please add us on Google Plus to ~~clutter your search results with our articles~~ get awesome updates from us!

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Ever wondered how much you should charge your phones' battery? Look here>

2012-01-11T16:41:00.001-06:00

How Often Should I Charge My Gadget's Battery to Prolong Its Lifespan?

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How Often Should I Charge My Gadget's Battery to Prolong Its Lifespan? [Ask Lifehacker]

via Lifehacker by Whitson Gordon on 1/11/12

Dear Lifehacker,
What is the deal with lithium-ion batteries (the kind found in smartphones and laptops)? I've heard lots of different things about how to take care of them, like that they need to be kept charged between 40% and 80%, or that they should be drained completely and charged to 100%. What is the ideal approach to maintaining a good battery-life-to-battery-health ratio?

Sincerely,
Befuddled About Batteries

Dear Befuddled,
There is a lot of confusion surrounding this issue, mostly because lithium-ion batteries are different from older, nickel-based batteries (which suffered from a nasty memory effect not present in lithium-ion batteries). You're right, though—charging them incorrectly can decrease their lifespan. Most lithium batteries should last you a few years, but improper care can decrease that lifespan, meaning that your battery will be unable to hold a charge—or unable to hold as big a charge as it used to—quicker. So, to clear things up, here's how to actually extend your battery's health as much as possible.

Perform shallow discharges. Instead of discharging to 0% all the time, lithium-ion batteries do best when you discharge them for a little bit, then charge them for a little bit. The table at the right, from Battery University, shows that discharges to 50% are better for your battery's long-term life than, say, small discharges to 90% or large discharges to 0% (since the 50% discharges provide the best number of cycles-to-usage ratio).
Don't leave it fully charged. Similarly, lithium-ion batteries don't need to be charged all the way to 100%. In fact, they'd prefer not to be—so the 40%-80% rule you heard is a good guideline. When possible, keep it in that range to prolong its life as long as you can. And, if you do charge it to 100%, don't leave it plugged in. This is something most of us do, but it's another thing that will degrade your battery's health. If you need to charge it overnight, use something like the Belkin Conserve Socket to stop it from charging after it's full.
Fully discharge it once a month. This may seem contradictory, but hear us out. While lithium-ion batteries shouldn't be discharged regularly, most modern batteries are what's known as "smart batteries", which means that they can tell you how long you have until your battery dies (e.g. "2 hours, 15 minutes remaining"). This feature can get miscalibrated after a lot of shallow discharges. So, manufacturers recommend fully discharging your battery once a month to make sure this stays accurate.
Keep it cool. Most people overlook this one. Excess heat is not only bad for your processor (and your lap), but your battery as well. Once again, see the table from Battery University at the right—which you can click on for a closer view—a hot battery will degrade in health much quicker than a cool one. As such, we highly recommend using a laptop stand, like one of the many DIY options we've featured here at Lifehacker. When it comes to your phone, check out our previous Ask Lifehacker on keeping your phone temperature down.

Keep these things in mind and your battery will last longer. That said, remember that you don't need to be super strict about these things. Don't sacrifice practicality just to keep your battery alive—if you're in a situation where you don't have a charger, it's okay to discharge it to 0%, or charge it up to 100% if you want to do so for a long plane ride. Remember that your battery is going to die in a few years, no matter what you do—even if you just let it sit on a shelf. So don't go overboard: use your battery as you need it. But, if you're just sitting at home or in a coffee shop, these guidelines will help you keep it healthy for as long as possible (and when it's dead, check out what do to when your battery doesn't last as long as it used to).

If you want a more detailed look at how lithium batteries work and how to take care of them, check out the links below from Battery University.

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

P.S. Got any of your own tips for extending the life of your gadgets' batteries? Share them with us in the comments.

Photo by Nicemonkey/Shutterstock.

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This is too funny! The Top 10 Photoshop Blunders Of All Time

2012-01-10T15:40:00.001-06:00

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

The Top 10 Photoshop Blunders Of All Time

via MakeUseOf by Joel Lee on 1/10/12

Over the past decade or two, Adobe's Photoshop image editing software has become a staple in the world of graphics and media. The program's primary function is to take an image and alter it in such a way that the final image is cleaner, crisper, and – for lack of a better word – better. In fact, Photoshop's popularity and usage is so widespread that the word "photoshop" has become a colloquial verb meaning to edit and touch up an image, not unlike how the word "google" can now be used interchangeably with the term "search".

Unfortunately, not every image that is put through Photoshop turns out well. Mistakes are made, errors are overlooked, and the final product can be catastrophically bad. Here are some of the absolute worst Photoshop blunders of all time.

#10 – Color Confused Cereal

Let me start off by saying that I don't have anything against breakfast cereal. In fact, a tasty bowl of healthy morning goodness is a fantastic way to start the day. But there's something about race-changing cereal that I just can't make myself endorse…

#9 – Missing Belly Button

Playboy ran this ad sometime in the past and instantly knocked many readers back to the genesis of humankind. Where is this woman's belly button? One explanation is that a careless photo artist accidentally airbrushed it away. Personally, I think we've found Eve of Eden.

#8 – Wrong Reflection

There's a tiny chance that this was intentional, but even then it would be terrible. Creating a text reflection is one of the most basic image editing procedures to perform. So basic, in fact, that there are websites that will automatically generate image reflections for you. There's no excuse for this one.

#7 – Lazy Stock Image

The designer for this video game decided to save a few bucks on the cover, essentially ripping the image from iStockphoto without paying for it. Unfortunately, he was too inattentive to notice the watermarks. That, or just really ballsy.

#6 – Headless Athlete

It's amazing how a print publication as large and prolific as Sports Illustrated managed to let a mistake like this pass under their radar. It's hard to tell what exactly they were trying to photoshop, but they forgot to put this guy's head back on.

#5 – Mismatched Reflection

It's hard to put any trust into a company that fails this badly. Were they deliberately trying to fool the consumer? Or was it simply human error? Either way, Lexar comes out bottom as dishonest or incompetent.

#4 – Fake Cheque

Speaking of dishonesty, how about an image that blatantly lies to your face? This guy has two massive Photoshop mistakes in this picture. For one, the image quality of the fake cheque is abysmal – it might fool someone who is computer illiterate, but that's about it. For another, the cheque appears to be a vampire cheque. Vampires don't have shadows, right?

#3 – Copy & Pasted Audience

Not really sure what to say here. Did the image editor really think nobody would notice?

#2 – Really Smart Redhead

Alright, so here's the thing: in order to achieve this effect, the image artist had to voluntarily and consciously slice this poor woman's forehead and manually move it up a few hundred pixels… and during that entire process, it never crossed the artist's mind that the result of such an operation would be unnatural, to say the least. It boggles the mind.

#1 – Legless Beauty

Here we have the absolute worst Photoshop mistake of all time. Now, I am by no means a Photoshop expert, but at what point does a woman's leg disappear? And even afterwards, how is it that nobody on staff noticed an entire thigh missing?

Have you seen any Photoshop blunders of your own? Share them in the comments!

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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Stay On Top of the Fight Against SOPA/PIPA with These Tools [Sopa]

2012-01-09T08:40:00.001-06:00

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

Stay On Top of the Fight Against SOPA/PIPA with These Tools [Sopa]

via Lifehacker by Adam Dachis on 1/6/12

By now you've probably heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), the bills that want to cripple your internet. Perhaps you want to do something about it. Here are some tools that can help you keep track of SOPA and PIPA as well as prepare for problems in case they pass.

Photo by Leigh Prather (Shutterstock).

Discover SOPA Supporters

Not sure if your congressperson supports SOPA/PIPA? SOPA Track is a web site that can help you find out and keep track of their activity regarding the bills. It can use location tracking to provide the information automatically, or you can look them up by state or search using your address. Doing so will provide you with the names of your representatives, their stance on SOPA/PIPA, how much money they've raised from relevant groups, and several ways you can call them to voice your opinion on the matter. Even if they share your views, it's worth making a call or sending a message to thank them as it's always possible for their mind to change.

Google Chrome users can pick up the No SOPA, which reveals which sites support SOPA when visiting them. If you're interested in writing a letter to supporters, boycotting their sites, or simply be aware of their support, this extension can help with identification.

Protect Yourself in Advance

SOPA intends to block the domain names of sites that violate its terms. That means if Lifehacker was in violation, you couldn't go to lifehacker.com to reach our site. Instead, you'd have to go to our numeric IP address instead. In the event Lifehacker or any other site were to be blocked, however, you could easily undo the effects with a browser extension.

Google Chrome users should check out MAFIAAFire Redirector, which will intercept any domain names typed into your address bar and load via the site's numeric IP address instead. Firefox users have the choice of two extensions, DeSOPA and MAFIAAFire ThePirateBay Dancing, which do the same thing.

Additionally, Reddit users are creating a SOPA emergency list that hold the IP addresses of various sites. In the event these extensions don't work out or there isn't one for your browser, you'll be able to make edits to the hosts file on your computer to override any blocked sites. For now there's no sense in doing anything because there is no problem yet, but it's good to be prepared for the worst.

Know of any other helpful SOPA/PIPA tools? Share 'em in the comments!

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Want to get Netflix for free indefinitely? Here you go ->

2012-01-03T21:13:00.001-06:00

Extend Free Trials Indefinitely to Try Out Services for as Long as You Need ...

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Extend Free Trials Indefinitely to Try Out Services for as Long as You Need [Dark Side]

via Lifehacker by Adam Dachis on 1/3/12

Many services, such as Netflix, are generous enough to provide you with a few weeks or a month free of charge so you can try things out and see how they work for you. In most cases this should be enough time to decide if you want to pay, but if you need more time to make up your mind here's a trick that'll help you extend your trail period indefinitely.

Hacking and security blog Null Byte has figured out a way to essentially extend the Netflix trial period forever. It's pretty simple and can be applied to virtually any service that offers a trial but requires a credit card. Here's how it works:

Get a pre-paid debit card
Create a fake email account with one of the many free email offerings online
Sign up for a free trial using the prepaid card and email address
Use the amount on the pre-paid card so it isn't depleted when the trial expires and the card gets charged
Abandon the trial account and repeat this process with a new card and new email address

Obviously this is a bit of work if you were to do it forever, plus that would technically be stealing. But if you want to try something out for a little longer than the offered period, this is one way to do it.

How to Get Free Netflix for Life | Null Byte

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Something my wife asks me about ALL the time!!

2011-12-30T01:04:00.001-06:00

How Do I Give Better Massages? [Video]

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

How Do I Give Better Massages? [Video]

via Lifehacker by Melanie Pinola on 12/29/11

Dear Lifehacker,
Every time I give my girlfriend a back massage, I kind of give up early because my arms get tired and I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. I'd like to get better at it, though, and I also have my own tension (especially in my shoulders) I'd like to massage out. Do you have any massage tips I can use?

Thanks,
Amateur Masseuse

Dear AM,
It's an interesting predicament, isn't it: Few of us are born with innate massaging skills, yet virtually all of us love to give and receive good massages. Because of the many benefits of massage—relieving pain and reducing stress—learning to give a better massage to yourself or your partner can be profound, and everyone can do it. I spoke with expert masseuse and founder of Elements Therapeutic Massage, Michele Merhib, to gather some tips for increasing your massage-fu.

Giving a Better Partner Massage

Use your body weight so you don't get tired. One of the biggest complaints Michele says she hears from clients is that their partners only massage them for a few minutes and stop because their hands or arms hurt—that's that fatigue you mentioned, and it most likely has to do with your positioning. Good massage is less about your grip and more about your stance and the use of gravity.

So rather than trying to massage your partner when she's standing next to you or sitting beside you on the couch, have her sit on the floor on a pillow while you sit on the couch or in a chair while you stand behind her. She could also lie on the floor on some blankets or a mat, but when sitting she can get some extra stretching in by leaning forward as you massage her back.

Don't forget the oil. To prevent uncomfortable friction and help your hands glide easily, use some lotion or a little bit of olive oil when massaging. Don't just pour it on her back, though, like she's a salad. Use the oil on your own hands and warm them up.

Do no harm. Avoid pinching or grabbing muscles. You can prevent this by keeping your fingers together and using your whole hand in the massage. Michele likens massaging to sculpting: When working with clay, you need to spend some time softening it at first. Likewise with a massage, use soft strokes to warm up the muscles before you try to knead them.

At the start, ask if the pressure is enough. She should feel pressure, but not pain. Adjust as needed: If she wants a deeper massage, lean in further, using your body weight. You can also use your knuckles to target really stiff muscles.

The Massage for Dummies book has a cheat sheet for giving a massage, including vulnerable areas of the body you should stay away from, which include the front of the neck, upper inner arm, and abdomen.

How to massage the neck and shoulders: Make a soft (loose) fist and use the base of your hand to apply pressure on her left shoulder, running your hand up the side of her neck until you get to the base of her skull, then go back down. Without breaking contact, repeat on the other side. Do this a couple of times.

Here's a video demonstration from Educating Hands School of Massage on giving a shoulder and neck massage using a squeezing technique.

How to massage the back: With the base of your hand and the pads of your thumbs, rub circles up and down along her spine to warm up the muscles. Be careful not to press on the spine itself.

She can lean forward as you move down. Press your hands into her back and lean in slowly to apply pressure with your body weight.

Finally, use a kneading motion—using your whole hand to gently squeeze and knead the muscles along the spine.

Here's a video for a full back and neck sitting massage (a bit long, but relaxing to watch too).

Giving a Better Self Massage

Michele offered several tricks for getting rid of tension and massaging your own muscles.

Shoulders: Use the hand opposite the shoulder you want to work on (e.g., your right hand to massage your left shoulder) and bring it across to your shoulder. Gently press into the shoulder and run your thumb up against the neck. Repeat on the other side. Go ahead and try this now. Ahhhh...

Hands: Okay, now go get a pencil with an eraser. With your palm turned up, press the eraser into the fleshy parts of your hand (especially the thumb pad), moving in circles and going deeper as needed. The reason why the soft pencil eraser is better than just using your hand, by the way, is because your brain can confuse the signals when it feels sensations in both hands, Michele said.

One technique for relieving wrist pain is to push your hand back towards your elbow. You should do this several times a day and also stretch out your hand and fingers on your massage breaks.

Back: Those therapy balls or exercise balls are great for massaging your back. Lie on one and just roll around; this is great for aligning the spine. If you don't have an exercise ball, this BodyBack Buddy is an awesome tool for deep tissue massage on hard-to-reach muscles.

Feet: Athletes are familiar with this trick: Roll your foot on a tennis ball or golf ball, moving side to side and from toes to heel. Spend more time in the sensitive foot arch area.

Just one massage session might do wonders for your health, and at the very least you and your partner should feel more relaxed and refreshed thanks to your new and improved massage skills. You can keep learning massage techniques with these free videos at MassageFree.com.

Enjoy!

Love,
Lifehacker

P.S. Do you know how to give a killer massage? Share your tips with us in the comments.

Photo remixed from an original by Adam Gregor.

Michele Merhib is the founder of Elements Therapeutic Massage, one of the fastest-growing massage therapy franchises in America. She is working closely with massage schools across the country to ensure the successful employment of massage school graduates. As a massage therapist herself, Merhib has contributed greatly to Elements' mission to be the Employer of Choice for massage professionals.

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To his friend...

2011-12-29T23:52:00.001-06:00

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

To his friend...

via OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS by MRTIM on 12/29/11

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There's a debit card scam out there using your cell phone!

2011-12-20T23:57:00.001-06:00

Watch Out for This "Unlock Your Debit Card" Text Message [Scams]

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Watch Out for This "Unlock Your Debit Card" Text Message [Scams]

via Lifehacker by Adam Dachis on 12/20/11

It's that time of year—you know, not the time for holiday cheer but for people to try to scam you out of your hard-earned money. One of the latest tricks, according to CBS Chicago, is a text message claiming your debit card is locked and you need to call a specific number to unlock it. Hint: don't do it.

The text message looks something like this:

FW:|Fifth Third B. Message. Your card has been locked. Call 519-555-9910 to unlock it.

In the event you get one of these messages, it's best to call your bank and confirm there's nothing wrong. My bank sends me lock notices like this via email and I have the option of receiving them via text, so it's best not to ignore it if you think there may actually be a problem. Just don't call the number in the message. Instead, call the number on the back of your debit card and ask to be connected to fraud prevention services (or whatever your bank calls that department) and make sure everything is alright. And while you're on hold, brush up on these debit card and ATM security tips.

'Locked Debit Card' Text Alerts Are Fake | CBS Chicago via the Consumerist

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The 5 Most Common Tactics Used To Hack Passwords

2011-12-20T15:34:00.001-06:00

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The 5 Most Common Tactics Used To Hack Passwords

via MakeUseOf by Matt Smith on 12/20/11

When you think of a serious security threat, you may think of some clever malicious program that steals your data or takes over computer. In reality, you're just as (if not more) likely to be hit by a much simpler breach – a hacked password.

Once someone has your password for an online account, they can use it however they like. There are a number of methods commonly used to obtain a password, and knowing them can help you protect yourself.

Trying Common Passwords

Any hacker trying to break through a password will first try the most common passwords in the book. Silly though it may seem, a disturbingly large number of people rely on passwords that consist of just a few common numbers of letters. Even the word "password" is commonly used as a password.

Hackers know this, and can reference common passwords to try and gain entry. Though it won't work on most passwords, it works frequently enough to be worth a try. If successful, the hacker can lean back and sip his Mountain Dew.

How to Protect Yourself: This one is simple. Don't use common passwords. This includes single words, popular phrases, and simple combinations of a particular character type (like numbers). Even passwords like "superman" and "dragon" are common enough to earn mention in some studies of commonly used passwords.

Social Engineering

If commonly used passwords don't work, and a hacker knows the owner of the password they're trying to bypass, social networking can be used to try and figure out what the password might be.

Hackers know that people who don't use common passwords are still likely to use passwords that have some personal significance. The password might be the name of a pet or a favorite TV show. Such information is often included on social networking profile.

Should trying this tactic still not work, the information available on a social network can be used to construct phishing attacks. Perhaps the target lists that they play a popular online game. A fake email could then be sent asking for password information or linking to a site where password information must be entered.

How to Protect Yourself: There are two steps you can take here. One is to make your social network private to people who are not your friends, and the second is to make sure that you don't use information about your personal life to form a password.

The Weakest Link

Should a hacker still fail to guess a password, they'll have to start breaking out some true hacking skill – but perhaps not much. Most people use the same password on multiple sites, and many use just one password for everything. Hackers know this, and they also know that many sites have weak security.

Using the information found while reviewing your social networking profiles, a hacker may be able to identify sites you visit. Some are sure to be heavily guarded. Others, however, probably aren't. They may be vulnerable to simple exploits that allow for the retrieval of stored passwords, and the owners may never even realize they were hacked. Alternatively, a brute force attack might be used.

How to Protect Yourself: Don't use a single password for every website. Ideally you should use a different password for every site, but that can be difficult. A compromise you might find effective is to use the same password for low security risks, like a blog you visit and comment on, but use unique passwords to protect more important accounts, like your web mail. Yet another option is to use a password manager.

Sniffing Wi-Fi Packets

Open wireless networks can be a nasty security issue because they are – well – open. Information transmitted on them can be picked up by anyone within range of the network, and that includes passwords.

Wi-Fi sniffing can be utilized either personally or impersonally. If someone is trying to hack your passwords specifically, they might see if you frequently visit a place with open Wi-Fi, like a coffee shop. Or a hacker might just set up an operation in such a location and pick up as many passwords as possible.

How to Protect Yourself: One answer is to just not use open Wi-Fi, but that's not a realistic expectation for everyone. If you do use open Wi-Fi, make sure that you do not log in to sensitive accounts. If you have varied your passwords, you'll be safe if a hacker obtains your less sensitive passwords. Also use HTTPS whenever possible. Many sites can use it, but some offer it only as an option.

Keylogging

Like sniffing Wi-Fi, keylogging can be used personally or impersonally. Using information gained about you while attempting to guess your password, a hacker might find a way to send you a file that you think is legitimate but actually contains a keylogger. Once installed, it can detect your passwords as you enter them.

A keylogger can also be installed as a part of any piece of malware to hack passwords. The information can then be transmitted to a location where it is compiled and passwords found. Such wide-scale keylogging attacks don't focus on any particular person, but can be just as damaging.

How to Protect Yourself: Security software can help detect keyloggers and prevent them from being installed on your system. You can find effective solutions for free, so there's no reason to skip it.

Conclusion

Do you have any tips that can help beef up password security? Let us know in the comments. Makeuseof readers are likely to be a bit more security-aware than the average, but nobody is perfect. Sharing information can help us keep our passwords as strong as possible.

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How To Break Out Of A Car's Trunk [How To]

2011-12-20T15:31:00.001-06:00

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

How To Break Out Of A Car's Trunk [How To]

via Lifehacker by Jason Torchinsky on 12/20/11

Let's face it: sooner or later, you're going to get abducted. It's a down economy, there's lots of increasingly desperate unemployed folks, and it's a more dignified way to meet new people than, say, Craigslist personals. So, yes, you'll probably get abducted, but that doesn't mean you have to like it.

One of the most tried-and-true methods of grabbing and kidnapping someone is the classic throw-them-into-the-car-trunk method. It's fast, cheap, and disorients, restrains, and secures for transport all in one stroke. As a kidnapper, why wouldn't you do it that way?

Now, in cars built after 2002, there is a nice, glowing handle inside the trunk, so exit is easy, but you can be sure anyone in the abducting business won't be using a car so equipped. This guide will show you how to get out of most car trunks you may find yourself crammed into. I've done this on a variety of cars, and shown many folks how to do it, as well, adults and kids. You can do it, and, I suggest you actually try it, with a pal around to let you out, just in case. Or, if you have folding rear seats, lower those so you have an escape route. It's fun!

The first thing to keep in mind when you're flung into a trunk is that you're not going to suffocate in there. No cars are built tight enough for that. Next, you'll want to orient yourself so your face and hands are facing the rear of the car. It's okay if you can't see, or have a burlap sack over your head— you mostly need to be able to do a bit of grabbing. It's also good to remember that car trunks are made to be secure from the outside in— no car company is wasting money making a Houdini-proof trunk lid, especially from the inside.

How Trunk Locks Work

Most cars have an internal trunk release, and this is the key to a rapid exit. Almost all of these systems work the same, since there's no real advantage for a car maker to have a totally proprietary trunk latch system. That kind of detail just doesn't sell cars. The locks work on a simple hook-and-post principle. There's a post or rod on the on the trunk lid, and a hook mechanism on the body catches it to keep the lid shut (the post or latch may be on the body or lid — either way works the same). When the trunk release is pulled, or the key is rotated in the lock, what happens is the hook is rotated so it is no longer engaging the post, and the trunk lid can be raised. The inside trunk release simply pulls a long cable connected to the hook so it's free from the post — power systems do basically the same thing, but with a solenoid.

Get Your Bearings and Get Out

What you'll want to do is feel around the inside of the trunk — by the rear hinges is a good place to start — for a stiff cable. This is actually a sheath for the inner cable, but very often tugging the whole thing back to the front of the car will pop the release. You may have to move carpet or pop off cardboard panels, but that release cable will be there, snaking from the hinge area, along the sides the trunk on the driver's side, to the lock mechanism at the center of the rear face of the trunk lid. You may be able to get a better grip on it near the center of the lid where it connects to the lock assembly. It'll be inside the trunk lid itself, between the outer skin and the inner metal structure. If you can grab it here, pull towards the driver side. In most cases, this will pop the release, then you can simply push up on the lid (after the release pops — otherwise, it'll stick) and open the trunk.

Or, try this way out

If, somehow, this doesn't work, or the kidnappers are such cheapskates they found a car with no internal release, you can still open the latch by finding the lock cylinder. It will be on the rear face of the trunk lid, on either side or in the center. The lock cylinder (again, it should be accessible through open areas of the sheet metal lid) will have a rod or similar connecting device to the latch mechanism. Grab this and pull side to side to see which way the lock pulls the rod to pop the latch.

Free at last!

That's really all there is to it. Since many cars have a dash light to indicate an open trunk, I suggest feeling out the various parts first, and actually doing the deed only when you feel the car has stopped. Once the trunk is open, just get the hell out. Run, get off the road. If you're quick and quiet, you can close the trunk and maybe even sneak away before they get to the organ farm or sex dungeon or wherever and realize you're gone.

So there you go — now that you can get out of a car trunk, you're that much closer to making your city's kidnappers your own personal cab service. Enjoy.

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"No. I don't want to talk!" Thinking of a few coworkers with this one...

2011-12-19T22:17:00.001-06:00

How Do I Stop Coworkers From Distracting Me While I'm Trying to Work?

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

How Do I Stop Coworkers From Distracting Me While I’m Trying to Work? [Ask Lifehacker]

via Lifehacker by Alan Henry on 12/19/11

Dear Lifehacker,
I have a few coworkers that always seem to be at my desk talking to me. Whether I'm in the middle of a task and obviously working or I'm trying to talk on the phone or I'm having lunch or a snack at my desk, these folks keep coming up to socialize. I like them, and our office environment is pretty casual, so I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but how can I make them stop bothering me when I'm trying to work or eat at my desk?
Signed,
Not-So-Chatty Kathy

Photo remixed from originals by AVAVA/Shutterstock and lineartestpilot/Shutterstock.

Dear Not-So-Chatty Kathy,
I can't begin to explain how much I understand where you're coming from. In my last office job, I had to deal with the same thing—coworkers coming up and hanging over your desk and socializing endlessly, even if you clearly were in the middle of working on something, or had your lunch out, visible, and getting cold on your desk. Thankfully, there are a few ways to drive them off without being a jerk, or psyche them into leaving you alone. Here are a few of them.

Wear Headphones or a Headset While Working

One surefire way to make your colleagues think you're busy or focusing is to wear headphones—preferably a good noise-cancelling pair. When I worked in an office, I couldn't really focus without music, so wearing a set of earbuds or headphones was always in order. Some of my colleagues preferred wearing noise-canceling headphones while they worked, even if they just turned on the noise cancellation but didn't listen to music. Either way, I found that more people will pass your desk and leave you alone without bothering you so you can work or eat if you're wearing a full set of headphones instead of a pair of tiny earbuds. It's likely wearing headphones just makes it more obvious you're busy, while someone might not notice a pair of earbuds until they're already up to the side of your desk trying to get your attention. If you need help choosing a good set of headphones we have a guide to help you pick a good set for you based on form-factor, style, and audio quality.

Similarly, if your company offers headsets for your desk phones, consider getting one and wearing it, even if you're not on the phone. Your chatty coworkers should know what the phone headset looks like, and as soon as they approach and see you wearing it, they'll assume you're on the phone. They may still come up and motion to you, asking if you're on the phone, but a quick nod in their direction will send them packing so you can get back to work.

If you are wearing headphones or a headset and your chatty colleague wants your attention anyway, take off one ear, or pull out one earbud, not both. It makes it clear that you're not going to stop listening to your music entirely to speak with them, and sends the message that you expect the conversation to be short. If you do listen to music through your headphones or headset, leave it playing while you speak. If they hear sound coming out of the other earbud or earcup, it's another sign you expect them to be brief.

Photo by John Manoogian III.

Use Trigger Phrases and Conversation Traps to Get Your Point Across

If headphones don't do the trick, it's time to do a little social engineering. Here are a few conversation tricks and phrases you can use to make people either leave you be, or think twice about bothering you again in the future.

Make sure chatty colleagues leave with something to do for you. If you're busy working on a report that's due in an hour and your coworker demands you give them the time to tell you about X Factor last night, tell them you're glad they stopped by, and ask them to pick up the slack on something you won't be able to do until after the report is finished. It's like being in two places at once. If they leave with work, they'll think twice about coming back again to chitchat, especially when you're swamped.
Exploit their weakness. This is an old conversation hack, but a good one. Talk about the things you know they know little about, or don't enjoy discussing. It's a difficult balance because you said you don't want to make any enemies, but if your colleague is going on about reality television, talk to them about a documentary you saw. If they go on about their favorite team, talk to them about the team they hate. They'll still be happy for the conversation, but odds are they'll cut it short.
Be uninteresting. This is a spin on exploiting their weakness. If your coworker wants to talk sports, make sure to tell them you're not really intereested in them. If they ask if you saw the game last night, let them know that you didn't, even if you did. They likely will still give you the highlights, but they won't go over the play-by-play if it's clear you're uninterested in what they're talking about. The same applies for other topics of conversation as well. Eventually your chatty coworker won't want to explain why everything they like is cool to you, and just go find someone they can have a two-sided conversation with.

A little verbal trickery and body language can go a long way towards making your chatty coworker understand that your cubicle isn't the social haven they thought it would be, and leave you alone.

Move Your Seat

Sometimes there's little you can do to prevent a colleague from bothering you even if you say all the right things or keep a pair of headphones on your head. In those situations, it might be worth letting your manager know that you have a colleague who keeps bothering you while you're trying to focus and they're getting to be a distraction. They'll probably let you move your desk or cubicle to a new location that hopefully will be less of a problem.

Granted, this only works in offices where you don't have to be in a specific place, like close to your boss, or near a specific team. In some cases, the chatty coworker will just find you in your new location and come bother you there. If you have the opportunity to move across a floor, up or down a floor, or somewhere really out of the way for that coworker, or if your problem isn't so much a single person but that your desk is in a high-traffic area and everyone wants to talk to you, this could be a good option.

In one of my last jobs, my desk was right outside of the only conference room on our floor, and on the walkway to our CIO's office. That meant that everyone coming in to our area would walk past my desk, and they'd usually stop to say hello. If the conference room was occupied with a late-running meeting when another was supposed to start, the attendees for the late-starting meeting would congregate around my desk until the room was free, and of course they would want to talk. People leaving meetings to answer their phones or chat after a meeting would stand near my desk to talk. It was all distracting, and while I liked talking to people, I eventually had to move my desk because it was getting too distracting. If you're in a similar situation, your manager should understand—after all, they need you to be productive, and if you can make the case that they wouldn't be productive there either, it shouldn't be difficult to convince them to let you find a new seat in a more secluded space.

Photo by Brett Lider.

Start Eating Anyway, or Find Another Place for Lunch

If the trouble is that your coworkers are bothering you while you're trying to eat, one great way to make them go away is to start eating anyway. If you need to heat up your food, pick it up and stand up, and just go heat it up. If they follow you, they follow, but they likely won't follow you all the way to the microwave, talk while you're heating your food, and then follow you back while you sit and enjoy it. If you have a sandwich, just start to open it and set up your meal while they yammer away at you. When you're finished, stop for a bit, and look at them. Most people at this point will get the drift that you've set out your meal, and you're waiting for them to leave so you can eat it. If your coworker catches you while you're eating, don't stop—after a couple of bites or forkfuls while they're standing there, they should pick up that you're busy and leave you alone.

Still, if your colleagues were most people, you wouldn't have this problem, so it might be worth just telling them that you're eating, and you'd like to get back to them when you're finished your meal. Alternatively, it might be time to find another place to eat—maybe somewhere in the building with Wi-Fi so you can take your laptop with you, or your smartphone, and relax while you eat, or even work while you eat if you prefer, just not at your desk. We're not huge fans of working through lunch anyway—you need the time to relax and recharge—but if you must work or eat at your desk, send your coworker all the right non-verbals that they're intruding, and if they still don't get the point, let them know it. Gently, of course.

Be Up-Front and Ask

Of course, all of these options are a bit passive-aggressive, and try to get the point across to your coworker without expressly telling them to go away because you're busy or eating lunch and want some privacy. You're relying on non-confrontational methods to get the job done, and while they may work, they're always less effective than just telling your coworker "Do you mind if I stop by and catch up with you later? I want to finish my lunch," or "I'm really buried right now. Mind if we chat another time?" If nothing else works, or if everything else here makes you cringe and you just want to deal with it head on, go this route.

Remember, being assertive is not the same as being aggressive, and thinking the two are the same will get paralyze you from drawing the boundaries you need in the office to get your work done and stay productive without distractions. You don't have to be mean or rude to tactfully tell a colleague who just has to tell you how their fantasy football league is doing or what their kid did last night or what they saw on TV the night before to leave you alone while you hunker down on a report that's due in an hour.

Just smile, get it out in the open, and let them know you don't mean any offense, but they really should leave you alone so you can focus. You'll be surprised how many people completely understand—or how many were expecting you to say something, because that's what they would do if you were at their desk and the situation were reversed. Just be polite and direct, and your coworker will get the message immediately. There's no guarantee they'll like it, but you'll have quiet so you can work or finish your sandwich in peace. Good luck!

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

Photo by imageegami/Shutterstock.

Do you have any other tips for dealing with chatty, annoying coworkers who just hang out by your cube talking about things you're not interested in at all? Share your suggestions for Not-So-Chatty Kathy in the comments below.

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Kids won't take their meds? Make the meds popsicles!!

2011-12-19T22:13:00.001-06:00

Make a Frozen Medicine Lollipop for Kids or Big Children [Clever Uses]

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

Make a Frozen Medicine Lollipop for Kids or Big Children [Clever Uses]

via Lifehacker by Jason Chen on 12/19/11

Kids don't always (pretty much never) like the taste of medicine, but they love popsicles, so Swiss Miss came up with the genius idea of making liquid medicine into an ice lollipop. The cold dulls the taste buds, so bitter-tasting medicine will go down easier.

Another alternative is mixing in a little bit of sugar or other sweeter-tasting liquid to dilute the medicine a bit, but if you were going to do that, you probably don't even need to go to the trouble of freezing it.

Medicine Ice Lollipop | Swiss Miss

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An actual alternative to transferring media without iTunes?

2011-12-19T22:11:00.001-06:00

CopyTransManager: Drag & Drop Files & Apps To iPhone Without iTunes

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

CopyTransManager: Drag & Drop Files & Apps To iPhone Without iTunes

via MakeUseOf Directory by TehseenBaweja on 12/19/11

iPhone and iPad devices are great but the restriction of importing everything via iTunes can be a hassle for a lot of people. CopyTransManager is free software that helps you solve this problem by letting you copy files to your iPhone or iPads by simply dragging and dropping them, without ever needing iTunes on your computer.

Using this software, you can drag files from any folder on your computer to your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad devices. But music and movies are not the only files you can copy this way – you can also move applications from your PC to your iOS device.

Similar to iTunes, it also lets you create, edit and manage playlists, edit track information and even search tracks by artists, album or any other criteria. Similarly, you can also listen to all the songs on your iOS device right from your PC and also delete any songs you want.

With CopyTransManager, you can specify if you want your device to be synchronized instantly after every change or if you want it to be done manually.

It supports almost all iOS devices and works on Windows XP, Vista and 7. All you have to do is make sure you have the iOS driver for your device.

Features:

Copy files to your iPod/iPhone.iPad without the iTunes software.
Move music, movies and even apps by just dragging files to the device.
Create, edit and manage playlists just like iTunes.
Search, delete or play tracks and even import artwork for albums.
Compatible with almost all iOS devices having up to iOS 5.
Many customize settings available.

Download CopyTransManager @ www.copytrans.net/copytransmanager.php [Via webtricks]

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4 Ways The Mobile Phone Culture Has Ruined The World [Opinion]

2011-12-19T22:08:00.001-06:00

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

4 Ways The Mobile Phone Culture Has Ruined The World [Opinion]

via (title unknown) by Joshua Lockhart on 12/19/11

The mobile phone is amazing, and I can't really bash it. How cool is it that we live in an age where almost everyone has a Star Trek communicator in their hip pocket? (Now if only we could have phasers.)

However, sometimes even the coolest inventions in the world bring negative impacts, and although it doesn't take away from how great these inventions are, it is our irresponsibility that puts a bad mark on them. So let's take a look at how mobile phone culture has ruined the world.

We Have Gotten Lazy

It's true, isn't it? The mobile phone isn't just a way to communicate to people. Oh no. It's your go-to device for everything. You can shop online stores, map out trips, and read the news all from one device. Heck, with the right armchair that's near an electrical outlet, you would never have to even leave your seat.

What I am getting at is that we tend to become very dependent on our phones. When's the last time that you actually mapped out a trip? How often do you use your mobile phone as a calculator. Have you ever tried figuring out the time using only the sun? Don't get too defensive, for it's true that we should use technology to make our lives easier, and I recognize that. However, we mustn't forget our roots in the event that technology ever fails us.

We Have Given Up Privacy

No longer can you have a moment to yourself in this day and age. If you ignore a phone call and post something on Facebook from your phone right after, the person who called is going to see it, and said person could quite likely become offended (which is kind of silly when you think about it). I am curious as to when we decided it was okay to let everyone know exactly where we are. Technically, there's nothing wrong with it, but I would consider it to be a faux pas in the category of societal evolution.

Using apps such as Foursquare, Facebook, and Twitter, we have successfully made the world our mother, letting it know where we are going, who we are going with, and what exactly we are doing while we are there. I've been told by a reader that I have missed the point of social networking, but wouldn't sharing valuable information such as worldwide, local, and even personal news be a more proper way to utilize social networking? By constantly sharing our location (keyword is "constantly"), we set ourselves up for an invasion of privacy.

We Have Also Become Too Private

Ironically, in this supposedly open source world, it seems as though that as soon as we get away from the computer, we become a privacy-hungry individual. Granted, I do not have a solid foundation for this argument – it's merely an opinion and currently based upon experience – but how often do you find yourself avoiding face-to-face interaction these days? Surely there will be one of you who comments on here, "Joshua, I don't have a problem at all with talking to people face-to-face," and to that, I say good for you.

However, there are people who do struggle with this due to mobile phone culture, and you must recognize that I do not believe all my points apply to everyone. I do ask this – how many people do you know that would rather send a text message than make a phone call? There is something troublesome about a human being more open to an electronic device than a fellow human being.

We Have Forgotten Social Skills

Moving on along with this privacy nonsense, I believe that we can assume that all the former rules of privacy have been turned around into something totally unrecognizable. We don't mind Tweeting that we're about to use the toilet, but we refuse to say much more than "hello" to a friend on the street.

Furthermore, we tend to make the world our place for private conversations, venturing out into public and having loud discussions that would have made my grandmother blush – alas, the death of the phone booth. The street, dear people, is not a place to have conversations about your sexual frustrations, your diarrhea, or your most recent hit-and-run victim. Save that for at home. Or the car. Somewhere else. Anywhere, really.

Conclusion

It's very easy to communicate using only text on a screen, and even though actual voice conversations are more closely related to face-to-face interaction, it's just not the same as two people connecting with each other.

I don't think we should stop using mobile phones, and with that being said, I don't think we should stop using social networking or fancy apps that let us order a pizza online. We're residing in the future, and we should live it up as much as possible! However, there's something that we need to retain in this mobile phone culture – our humanity.

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"The Trouble With Not Having a Goal..." [Quotables]

2011-12-16T17:41:00.001-06:00

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

"The Trouble With Not Having a Goal..." [Quotables]

via Lifehacker by Whitson Gordon on 12/16/11

"...is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score." Or, no matter how much you work, it won't mean anything if you weren't heading toward something.

This quote, from Cricket umpire Bill Copeland, shows how important it is to create good goals for yourself. You can work and work for your entire life, and you might even gain a few yards—but if you aren't visualizing something concrete that you want to accomplish, you'll never have that feeling of success that comes with achieving your goals, nor will you build up that momentum that helps you accomplish even more. You don't even have to make those goals public, if you don't want to—just make sure you have one in your sights if you want to actually get some satisfaction out of your work.

Photo by Josh McGinn.

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Read this comic about SOPA now!

2011-12-15T12:59:00.001-06:00

Chris,

Congress is boring. The Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on SOPA as we write. (You can watch it over here if that sort of thing gets you going.)

But if you'd rather have a smile on your face this afternoon, check out these new comics by the creator of Get Your War On -- and make a phone call to Congress.

David Rees walks us through the tragic-comedy that would come to pass if Hollywood and the big media conglomerates succeed at taking over the Internet. Check it out:

There's a good chance this committee hearing will run through tomorrow -- and some members have made it clear that they're still on the fence about SOPA.

You don't need to watch the hearing, but if you don't want the rest of life to be as boring as Congressional debates can be, you'd better check out our comics, make a call, and save the Internet.

Keep 'em coming.

-Demand Progress

PS. And please ask your friends to check them out and make a call too:

Paid for by Demand Progress (DemandProgress.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

One last thing -- Demand Progress's small, dedicated, under-paid staff relies exclusively on the generosity of members like you to support our work. Will you click here to chip in $5 or $10? Or you can become a Demand Progress monthly sustainer by clicking here. Thank you!

--
Chris Hunter

Need help with Chrome? Here's your complete guide!

2011-12-13T15:55:00.001-06:00

The Always Up-to-Date Power User's Guide to Chrome [Video]

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

The Always Up-to-Date Power User's Guide to Chrome [Video]

via Lifehacker by Adam Dachis on 12/13/11

Chrome is overtaking Firefox among power users, and for good reason. It's an incredibly powerful, extensible web browser with tons of excellent features. Today, we're covering it all—from longtime shortcuts to the latest features in one of our favorite web browsers.

Title image remixed from an original by Lok Yek Mang (Shutterstock).

Google Chrome updates automatically, and those updates come around even faster on the Chromium developers channel. With such frequent updates it can be hard to keep track of all the great new stuff coming your way. So, just like our other always up-to-date guides, we've created this power user's guide to Chrome. It features our favorite advanced features, updated with every new version.

Interface Tips and Tricks

Chrome benefits from one of the more attractive, compact, and configurable interfaces you'll find among modern web browsers. Here are some great ways to customize its interface.

Pin Tabs You Always Keep Open: With much of what we do on our computers migrating to the web, you probably visit a lot of the same web sites frequently, quickly cluttering up the top of your browser window. Pinning tabs saves those often-visited sites so you don't have to constantly reopen them while making that tab extra compact so it doesn't take up too much room. To pin a tab, just right-click on it and choose "Pin Tab". It'll shuffle over to the left side of the window and stay put until you decide to close it.

Decorate Your Browser Windows with Themes: Google created 15 simple themes to let you add a little personalization to Chrome, but other artists have created many, many more. I'm partial to the way Chrome looks by default, but if you're looking for personalization or just a change of style, just visit the Chrome Theme Gallery and pick out something that you love.

The Most Time-Saving Shortcuts

Chrome is full of useful shortcuts to help make your browsing experience better and faster. There are too many to include here, so we've whittled down the list to the ones we find most useful.

Note: If you're a Mac user, just substitute the "Control" key for the "Command" key (and know that the "Alt" and "Option" keys are the same) when performing these shortcuts, unless a specific alternative is noted.

Navigate Back and Forward Through Web Pages: If you want to go back to the previous page, instead of clicking the back button just press Backspace (Delete on a Mac). To go forward in your history, press Shift+Backspace (Shift+Delete on a Mac) instead. Windows users can also use the Alt+Left Arrow to go back and Alt+Right Arrow to go forward as well.

Reload a Page: Although many web apps refresh themselves nowadays, many sites (like this one) require the reload button to check for new content. You can reload faster from your keyboard, however, by pressing Control+R on your keyboard. Additionally, if you're reloading the page for new content but it isn't showing up, Control+Shift+R will perform a hard refresh. This means Chrome will ignore the cached copy of the page and reload everything from scratch so you know you're getting the latest version. (Alternatively, Windows users can use Control+F5 and Control+Shift+F5 to perform these same actions, respectively.)

Navigate Through Your Tabs: Navigating through your browser tabs is really easy via the keyboard. Just press Control+Tab to move to the right, and Control+Alt+Tab to move to the left. (On a Mac use Command+Option+Right Arrow and Command+Option+Left Arrow instead.) This will let you cycle through your tabs quickly.

Jump to the Top or Bottom of a Page: Web pages can get pretty long (like this one). If you want to quickly jump to the top of a page, press the Home key on your keyboard. If you want to go straight to the bottom, press the End key.

Find Text on a Page: If you want to search for text within a page, just press Control+F on your keyboard and start typing your search term. Chrome will search as you type, but pressing the Enter key will begin cycling through the results in chronological order. Conversely, pressing Shift+Enter will cycle backwards through the results.

Open a New Tab or Window: To create a new tab in Chrome, just press Control+T on your keyboard. If you want a new Window, press Control+N instead. Either way you'll be presented with a blank window and can start typing in the URL to any site your wish. Alternatively you can enter a URL in the address bar and press Alt+Enter (Command+Return on the Mac) to create a new tab with that page.

Close a Tab or Window: To close a tab, press Control+W on your keyboard. To close an entire window and all its tabs, press Control+Shift+W. (Windows users can also use Control+F4 and Control+Shift+F4 to perform the same actions, respectively, as well.)

Reopen a Closed Tab or Window: Sometimes you close a window or tab by accident and want it back. This is when you realize that Control+Shift+T is the most useful combination of keys your web browser can provide. In Chrome, this shortcut will reopen the last tab or window you closed and load the page again. (Note: This does not work with private browsing sessions because your history isn't recorded.)

Start a Private Browsing Session: When you're, uh, not looking at porn and are using private browsing for another useful purpose, you can create a new incognito window via the keyboard by pressing Control+Shift+N.

Access the Omnibar: When you need to get to the omnibar (the address + search bar) in Chrome, you can do so easily by just pressing Control+L on your keyboard. In an instant you'll be magically transported to the omnibar and can start typing your URL or search term.

Open a Link in a New Tab: If you want to open a link in a new tab, hold down the control key and click on it. You can also get the same result by click on the link with your middle mouse button (if you've got one). Adding the shift key to either of these shortcuts will open the new tab and select it immediately, rather than opening it in the background.

Bookmark the Current Page: When you want to save the current page to your bookmarks, pressing Control+D on your keyboard will do the trick. Chrome will then present you with a little window asking you to name your bookmark and select a location where it can live. In the event you want to bookmark every tab in the current window, just press Control+Shift+D instead.

Autocomplete a URL Ending in .COM: If you're typing in a URL and you want to save yourself some time, don't bother with the www. or the .com (e.g www.lifehacker.com would just be lifehacker). When you're finished, press Control+Enter (it's also Control+Enter on the Mac) and Chrome will take care of the extra work for you.

This is just a sampling of Chrome's handy shortcuts. If you want more, check out the full list for Windows and Mac OS X.

Customize Chrome's Settings

Chrome works pretty well by default, but there is so much you can customize if you dig into its settings pages. Windows users can quickly access Chrome's settings by clicking on the wrench icon in the tool bar and choosing Options. Mac users can do the same by clicking on the wrench icon and choosing Preferences (or pressing Command+, on the keyboard). Either platform can also access the settings pages by simply typing chrome://settings into the omnibar. However you get there, you'll be presented with four sections to choose from. Let's go over each individually and look at the neat things you can do in each.

Basics

To get started, open the Basic settings panel in Chrome.

Change Chrome's Startup Behavior: The startup section allows you to define what happens when Chrome starts up. You can have Chrome load your default home page, reopen everything you had open when you last closed Chrome, or open a specific set of pages you want to view every time you start up. This is really handy if you open and close your browser every day and want it to get you started with your favorite sites every time you start up.

Customize Your Search Engines: The Search section is where you set your default search engine. When you launched Chrome for the first time, it probably asked you if you'd like to use Google, Yahoo!, or Bing every time you type in a search term in the omnibar. If you have Google set as your default, this is also where you can check a box to enable Google Instant search.

This is also where you can manage your search engines, which is a very cool feature. By default, Chrome tries to recognize search functionality on sites every time you use it. So, for example, if you searched 123people.com then Chrome would record it as one of your search engines. The benefit of this is when you type in 123people.com in the omnibar and press the tab key on your keyboard, you'll then be able to type in a search term and press enter to search 123people.com without first visiting the site. Sometimes Chrome won't pick up on these search engines, however, so you can add new ones manually in this panel. Just go down to the bottom of the page to find a space to enter a new option. First add a name of your choosing, the keyword you need to type to start the search (e.g. yahoo.com for Yahoo), and then a special search string. A sample search string for Yahoo looks like this:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=crmas&p=lifehacker

If you look at the URL you can see I searched for the term "lifehacker", but Chrome's asking us to replace our query with %s instead. So we need to change lifehacker to %s like this:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=crmas&p=%s

Once you do that just press enter to add your new, custom search engine. If you want to access this panel faster, without the need to go into the settings panel, just right click on the omnibar in any window and choose Edit Search Engines.

Personal Stuff

To get started, open the Personal Stuff settings panel in Chrome.

Save Passwords and Automatically Fill Out Forms: By default, Chrome will offer to save any password you enter when browsing the web. If you don't want this functionality, you can tell Chrome to "Never save passwords" instead in the Passwords section. This is also where you can manage your saved passwords in case you want to alter or delete any you've previously saved.

Chrome is also capable of storing address and credit card data so you can use it to automatically fill out forms. You can set this up in the Autofill section by checking the "Enable Autofill to fill out web forms in a single click" checkbox and then the "Manage Autofill Settings..." button to start filling in your addresses and credit cards.

Import Data from Another Browser: Perhaps you're new to Chrome and you want to import data from your previous web browser. In the Browsing Data section, just click the "Import Data from Another Browser..." button and you'll be presented with a Window with a few options. Select the browser you want, then check off the data you want to import and Chrome will do the rest.

Sync All Your Data: Chrome is great at synchronizing the majority of your browser data, including bookmarks, extensions, apps, passwords, autofill information, preferences, and themes. The Sync section is where you set it up. Just click the "Set up sync..." button and log in with your Google Account. That's all you'll really have to do to get started with syncing everything, but you can click on "Advanced Settings" if you want to select individual items and change encryption settings.

Under the Hood

To get started, open the Under the Hood settings panel in Chrome.

Manage Your Privacy: Chrome's default privacy settings aren't necessarily as private as you might, so if you want to change them the Privacy section is the place to do it. For example, you might want to uncheck the box labeled "Automatically send usage statistics and crash reports to Google" if you don't want to share that information, even anonymously. More important, however, are the settings you can access by clicking the "Content Settings..." button. These settings will allow you to enable cookie restrictions, manage the cookies you've already acquired, and blocks tons of different kinds of content like images, JavaScript, plug-in based content, and more.

If you want to take things a bit further and prevent yourself from being tracked, you can install Google's official Keep My Opt-Outs extension. This will, essentially, block any cookies. Of course, you can also do this manually from Chromes Content and Data Exceptions settings page.

Set Up Google Cloud Print: If you want to use Google Cloud print, the aptly named Google Cloud Print section at the bottom of the page is where you do it. Just click the "Sign in to Google Cloud Print" button to start the process. This will open a new page and you'll be asked to log in to your Google account if you aren't already. Once you're logged in (or if you already are), you'll be able to start adding standard or cloud-enabled printers. If you're not sure how to add your printers, just follow these instructions.

Extensions

The Extensions settings panel in Chrome, or the standard extensions page, is where you can enable, disable, and uninstall extensions. You can also access their options, check for updates, and enable developer mode. There isn't anything too special to see here, but if you want to learn more about extensions in Chrome just continue on to the next section.

Enhance Chrome's Functionality with Extensions

Although Chrome began without support for extensions at all, the quantity and quality available may have surpassed even Firefox. If there isn't something you like, you can always build your own, too. In this section we're going to take a look at a few extensions you can use to enhance Chrome's functionality.

Pin Your Favorite Sites to Your New Tab/Window Page: When you make a new tab or window, you see Chrome's default page that lets you open recent pages and access any web apps you installed via the Chrome Web Store. What it doesn't let you do is pin any favorite sites to that page for quick access. Speed Dial is an extension that lets you do just that. It also lets you customize the look of the page, reopen closed tabs, and more.

Download Speed Dial

Easily Access Chrome's Settings: Chrome's settings can be access quickly with a variety of chrome:// prefixed URLs, as evidenced in the previous section, but that either requires a bit of typing or digging through menus. Mega Button is a Chrome extension that provides quick links to the most common settings pages directly from the toolbar so you don't have to spend much time bringing up the exact page that you want.

Download Mega Button

Send Web Pages to Your Phone: If you've got an Android or iPhone and want to easily transfer a page to either, you need one of two extensions. Google's official Chrome to Phone extension will send any web page to your Android smartphone or tablet. Site to Phone is a third-party equivalent originally developed for Apple mobile devices, but it has since been expanded to support Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, and webOS as well.

Download Chrome to Phone or Site to Phone

Send Web Pages to Other Instances of Chrome: Perhaps you have a separate computer at work, or even multiple computers in your home. If you're looking at a page on one machine and want to quickly transport it over to another, SendTab is a Chrome extension that can do it in a single click. Just register with SendTab on both computers, click the extension icon, and the page will automatically open on the paired machine.

Download SendTab

Make Pages Easier to Read: Most web pages have complex designs and often advertisements that distract from your reading experience. Readability is an extension that attempts to solve that problem. Just click the extension icon on any page you'd like to see in a more readable format and Readability will reformat it for you.

Download Readability

These are just a few extensions that enhance Chrome's abilities and add some missing functionality. We've highlighted several more extensions we love, plus you can always find just about everything on the Chrome Extension Gallery.

Master Chrome's Secret Features

Chrome has a few features you probably wouldn't know about unless you dug pretty deep or someone told you they exist. That's what this section is for—to let you in on a few of Chrome's handy little secrets.

Perform Simple Mathematical Calculations from the Omnibar: This neat little feature doesn't require much explanation. Just press Control/Command+L on your keyboard to access the omnibar and type in an equation. Chrome will add, subtract, multiply and divide for you and place the answer at the top of its suggested search results.

Control Your Plug-ins: Sometimes plug-ins can get a little out of hand. Chrome's good at wrangling them and cutting them off when they're not behaving so it they don't bring down the entire browser, but sometimes you need to go in and manually shut them off. To do that, just visit chrome://plugins to see a list of your plug-ins, plenty of "Disable" buttons, and version information.

Find Out Which Tabs Are Eating Up Your Memory: Chrome isolates each tab you create so if one crashes, it doesn't take down the entire browser with it. This is a good thing, but it doesn't prevent any particular tab from getting a little out of control. If you want to check which tabs are using the most resources, head on over to chrome://memory-redirect for a look. The resulting page will provide you with a full look at all usage so you can close any offending tabs.

Save Yourself a Few Clicks of the Back Button: If you want to get to a page you accessed further back in your browsing history, you might find yourself clicking the Back button (or pressing Backspace) incessantly until you get there. A better way to solve this problem is to click and hold the Back button. Doing so will provide you with the history for that specific tab so you can select the page you want, load it, and get on with your life.

Add New Functionality with Switches: If you're running Chromium, the developer channel build of Chrome, you can enable some additional functionality by settings specific switches. They aren't all terribly exciting, but these switches will allow you to disable functionality you don't want, test out experimental interfaces, and even some handy features. For example, --enable-click-to-play allows you to click to temporarily enable embedded content requiring a blocked plug-in, which is great if you prefer to keep Flash disabled but occasionally want to enable it. For more, check out this full list of switches and how to set them up on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Inspect Any Part of a Web Page's Code: Curious about a certain element on a web page and want to snoop around in the code? Just right-click on it and choose "Inspect Element" from the result contextual menu. This will bring up Chrome's built-in Inspector and plenty of information about part of the page you're interested in. This is a very handy tool for learning to code by example and for debugging your own code, too.

As long as this guide may be, there's still plenty more you can do with Google Chrome. If you've got any favorite tips or tricks you'd like to share, post them in the comments.

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Need help with Firefox? Here's the total and complete guide!

2011-12-13T15:54:00.001-06:00

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

The Always Up-to-Date Power User's Guide to Firefox [Video]

via Lifehacker by Whitson Gordon on 12/13/11

Now that Firefox is on a rapid release cycle, we're getting a new version of Firefox every three months—and each time, it becomes more tricked out than ever with new customization options, shortcuts, and convenient features hidden away in its menus. Today, we're covering it all—from longtime shortcuts to hidden features from the latest version of Firefox. Even if you're already a Firefox fanboy, there's bound to be something in here you haven't noticed before.

Title image remixed from an original by Lok Yek Mang (Shutterstock).

The problem with such frequent, incremental updates (that, by default, happen automatically without you realizing it), is that it's hard to keep up with all the new features that pop up in Firefox every few months. So, just like our other always up-to-date guides, we've created this power user's guide to Firefox, featuring all of our favorite advanced features, and which we'll keep updated every time a new version of Firefox comes out.

Interface Tips and Tricks

Whether or not you think Firefox is the prettiest browser on the block, it's without a doubt the most configurable. Here are some great tricks to customizing and navigating Firefox's UI.

Customize the Toolbar: Between the separate search box, add-on buttons, and other additions, your Firefox toolbar and add-on bar can get cluttered quickly. To add or remove any items, just right-click anywhere on the toolbar (except on the bookmarks bar). From there, you can show and hide the menu bar (which contains things like File, Edit, Tools, and so on), the navigation bar, the bookmarks bar, and the add-on bar. You can also put Firefox's tabs back on the bottom of the toolbar, like it was in the old days.

Those are just basic tweaks, however. For more advanced customization, right-click anywhere on the toolbar and click Customize. From there you can move around the back, forward, and reload buttons, move the bookmarks toolbar, add and remove add-on buttons, or even add buttons to other functions like full screen, history, and more. Note that you can also move these buttons to the add-on bar at the bottom of the window, if you'd like quick access to them but don't want them wasting space in your toolbar. You can also choose to use smaller icons if you're starved for screen real estate.

Separate Tabs Into Groups: Your tab bar quickly grows unwieldy once you open more than a few tabs. If your tab bar is overflowing, you can hit the Tab Groups button in the upper-right hand corner of Firefox's window. This will bring you to a new screen where you can drag tabs into separate groups and name those groups. Whether you're organizing them by topic or just saving some tabs for later, it's a great way to free up room in your tab bar without closing tabs you still need.

Pin Tabs You Always Keep Open: Gmail, Grooveshark, and other tabs you keep open all the time can waste a ton of space in your tab bar. You can condense them by right-clicking on them and clicking "Pin as App Tab". This will move the tab to the left end of your tab bar and resize it to just the favicon, so you can have quick access to it without it taking up a ton of space. These pinned tabs will show up in all your tab groups, too, whether you manually put them there or not. To unpin a tab, just right click on it and hit "Unpin Tab".

Decorate Your Browser with Themes: If you'd like to give your Firefox window a little more zazz, you can check out Mozilla's extensive Personas library, which will let you preview and install different themes for Firefox.

Tweak Every Pixel of Firefox's Window with CSS: Whether you want to save a bit of vertical space or give Firefox a more transparent look, you can do so with a bit of advanced CSS editing. You can add code to Firefox's userChrome.css file or, if you want something easier, use an extension like Stylish to install any UI tweaks you want (see the add-ons section for more information about Stylish).

The Most Time-Saving Shortcuts

Navigating Firefox via its many menus can be slow and cumbersome, but fret not: Firefox has a ton of built-in shortcuts for both your mouse and keyboard. Rather than overwhelm you with the full list, but here are some of the shortcuts we find most useful.

Navigate Back and Forward: Unless you have specialized back and forward buttons on your mouse, you probably click on the back and forward buttons in Firefox's window to navigate between pages. If you're more of a keyboard maestro, though, you can press Alt+Left Arrow or Alt+Right Arrow to move back and forward, respectively. Alternatively, you can hit Backspace to move back and Shift+Backspace to move forward.

Reload and Stop a Page: Whether you're trying to access a web site that's down or meticulously following a live blog, you can quickly refresh the page by pressing either Ctrl+R or F5 on your keyboard. If you're having trouble with a specific page and reloading doesn't help, you can try pressing Ctrl+Shift+R or Ctrl+F5 to do a "hard" refresh, where your browser ignores the cache when it reloads the entire page—handy when you need to fix formatting or other problems often caused by bum files in your cache.

Jump to the Top and Bottom of a Page: If you finish reading a page and want to jump back up to the top without scrolling your wheel endlessly, just hit the Home button on your keyboard. Similarly, you can hit End to jump to the bottom of a page as well. If you don't want to jump all the way to the top or bottom, you can also use Spacebar and Shift+Spacebar to page down and up, respectively.

Find Text on a Page: As with many other programs, you can search for text within a page by hitting Ctrl+F on your keyboard, typing in the phrase you want to find, and hitting Enter.

Open a New Tab or Window: To quickly open a new tab, just hit Ctrl+T on your keyboard. It'll open a new blank tab and you can just start typing the URL you want to visit and hit enter. Alternatively, to open an entire new window, just hit Ctrl+N instead.

Close a Tab or Window: To close the current tab, press Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4. To close an entire window (all tabs in tow), press Ctrl+Shift+W or Ctrl+Shift+F4.

Undo Closing a Tab or Window: Say you've closed a tab or window and realize you actually need it back. You can undo that action with Ctrl+Shift+T, which opens your last closed tab, or Ctrl+Shift+N, which opens your last closed window (again, all of its original tabs in tow). You can keep hitting this shortcut to bring back even older tabs, too.

Open a Link in a New Tab: As you browse the web, you may find a link you want to open without leaving the page you're on. In that case, you can hold Ctrl and click the link to open it in a new tab. You can also click the link using your middle mouse button, if your mouse has one.

Open the Tab Groups Window: If you like the new Tab Groups feature described above, you can jump straight to the Tab Groups window by pressing Ctrl+Shift+E.

Bookmark the Current Page: Instead of clicking the Star icon in the navigation bar to bookmark a page, you can just press Ctrl+D to bookmark the current page. This will bring up the bookmark dropdown where you give it a name and assign it a folder. If you want to bookmark all your currently open tabs, you can hti Ctrl+Shift+D instead.

Complete a URL with .com, .net or .org: As you type URLs in the navigation bar, you can save yourself a bit of time by appending .com to the end of the address with Ctrl+Enter. This will add .com and go straight to the page. You can similarly append .net with Shift+Enter and .org with Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

Jump to the Address Bar or Search Box: If you're on a page and want to head somewhere new, you don't need to click on the address bar to type in a new URL. Just press Ctrl+L on your keyboard, and Firefox will focus (and select) the address bar, so you can just start typing. Ctrl+K will select the search bar, if you use that instead.

These are our favorite mouse and keyboard shortcuts, but if you want to see the full list, check out Mozilla's Keyboard and Mouse Shortcut pages. Also be sure to check out our feature on going mouseless in Firefox, if you're really serious about making the best of keyboard shortcuts.

Customize Firefox's Settings

Firefox is the most customizable browser out there. Most of this customization takes place in its preferences, so head on over to Tools > Options (or Firefox > Preferences on a Mac) to get at the really good stuff. Here are some of our favorite must-tweak options.

Session and Tab Management

Under the General and Tabs panes, you'll find some handy settings for managing what Firefox loads when it starts, and how it manages multiple tabs. Settings to check out include:

Load Tabs when Firefox Starts: By default, Firefox will load your home page when you start it up. If you'd prefer it show a blank page, or all the tabs you had open when you last closed it, you can go to the General tab and choose "Show My Windows and Tabs from Last Time" next to "When Firefox Starts". You can also change your home page from the text box below it.

Don't Load Tabs Until Selected: Under the Startup section of the general tab, you'll see a checkbox with this label. This is useful if you choose the "Show My Windows and Tabs from Last Time" option, as described above. It essentially helps Firefox avoid crashes and slowdowns by loading tabs one at a time, as you select them—not all at once when you first start up the browser. That means you'll have to wait for each individual tab to load when you click on it, but you won't have to wait for them all to load when you first start the browser up (nor will it be as slow as molasses when you first start it up).

Choose How Firefox Handles New Tabs: Under the Tabs pane of Firefox's options, you'll find a number of checkboxes that configure how you open and close new tabs. For example, you can open all new windows in a new tab, have Firefox warn you when closing multiple tabs, focus all links opened in a new tab, and even show tab previews in the Windows taskbar.

Choose How Firefox Handles Certain File Types

Firefox can handle certain links internally, like links to email addresses, PDF files, or other media. To edit how it handles these, just head to the Applications panel of Firefox's options. You'll see a list of the content types its recognized before. So, for example, to tell all mailto: links to use Gmail, find "mailto" on the left side of the list and click the dropdown under the "Action" column. Choose "Use Gmail" from the list to direct all mailto links in Firefox to Gmail (note that this won't work for mailto links in other applications, like a Twitter client—just links in Firefox). Similarly, you can tell Firefox to open up MP3s using a QuickTime plugin, JPG files with the GIMP, and so on.

If you don't see a file type in the list, it's probably because you haven't encountered a direct link to one on the net yet. You can't add content types manually, but any content type you want to add should pop up in that list the first time you come upon it in your browsing.

Sync Bookmarks, Passwords, and More with Firefox Sync

If you use Firefox on your other computers and mobile devices, you can sync your bookmarks, saved passwords (which you can access from the Security panel in Firefox's options), preferences, history, and open tabs to those devices with Firefox Sync. To set it up, just head to the Sync tab of Firefox's preferences and click "Set Up Firefox Sync". If you haven't created an account, do so. Then, on your other computers, head back to that same area of Firefox's preferences and it will give you three 4-digit codes. Head back to your original computer and hit "Pair a Device" from the Firefox Sync window, and type in your codes. Firefox will now sync whatever you want back and forth between those machines.

Note that I only use Firefox Sync to sync my preferences. For passwords, we recommend using the more feature-filled LastPass, and for bookmarks, history, and tabs, we recommend Xmarks. Both are also advantageous because they work with other browsers like Chrome, but if you only ever use Firefox you can do it straight from Firefox Sync.

Advanced Options

Lastly, there are a few miscellaneous features littered around Firefox's preferences we definitely recommend checking out. They include:

Do Not Track: Many web sites track your behavior on their site, usually for advertising or other purposes. If you'd rather keep your behavior hidden, you can head to Options > Privacy and check the "Tell Websites I do Not Want to Be Tracked" box. It won't stop every site from tracking you—since Firefox can't require that—but any sites that have given you the option to avoid tracking should honor your request if you check this box.

Automatic Updates: Firefox now updates automatically whenever a new version is out. If you'd rather not do this, for whatever reason, head to the Update tab of the Advanced panel and choose one of the other options ("Check for updates, but let me choose" or "Never check for updates"). You can also tell Firefox to warn you if it will disable any of your add-ons, though we recommend checking out the Add-On Compatibility Checker to fix this problem instead (see the "Using Add-Ons" section below for more information).

Smooth Out Firefox's UI: If you head to Advanced > General in Firefox's options, you can turn on a few settings that should smooth out Firefox a bit—most notably Smooth Scrolling and Hardware Acceleration, both available under the Browsing section of this pane. Hardware acceleration should be on by default, giving graphics-intense web sites a bit of a speed boost. However, some users find it makes their fonts blurry and difficult to see, so if you'd like to turn it off, you can do so here.

Enhance Firefox's Functionality with Add-Ons

One of Firefox's greatest features has always been its extensibility. Mozilla has a massive add-on library that, with a few clicks of your mouse, can add tons of new features to Firefox. We've already shared tenof our must-install extensions, but here are a few more that we think everyone should check out.

Make Old Extensions Compatible with New Versions of Firefox: Whether an extension has been abandoned or whether it just hasn't been updated to include compatibility for the newest version of Firefox—since it updates so often now—you can try to make those extensions compatible with Firefox's Add-On Compatibility Reporter. Not only will it disable version checking for all your add-ons, but it will also let you report an extension's incompatibility to the developer with one click, making it especially handy for those using the development channels of Firefox.

Download the Add-On Compatibility Reporter

Pin Your Favorite Sites to Your New Tab/Window Page: When you make a new tab, Firefox just gives you a blank page. If you'd rather see a page with a list of your favorite sites on it for quick access, you can install something like Fast Dial, which lets you customize your own new tab page with a cool background, thumbnails for your favorite sites, and more.

Download Fast Dial

Send Web Pages to Your Phone: If you've got an Android phone and want to easily transfer a page from your desktop to your phone, you can use the Fox to Phone extension in combination with the Chrome to Phone app for Android. Alternatively, you could use Firefox Sync to sync open tabs to Firefox Mobile, or use something like Xmarks Premium to sync it to any mobile device you want. If you have an iOS device, you can use the similar Site to Phone to send web pages to your phone.

Download Fox to Phone and Site to Phone

Save Form Text in Case of Crashes or Accidental Tab Closures: Have you ever spent a painstaking hour filling out a form on a page, only to accidentally close that tab or have Firefox crash on you? The Lazarus extension solves this problem by automatically saving your work as you go, so you can recover it in case of an accident. Install it now, or you'll be sorry the next time it happens to you.

Download Lazarus Form Recovery

Make Pages Easier to Read: Most web pages have complex designs, advertisements, or other things that make it difficult to read the content you went there for. The Readability extension solves this problem by stripping the page of all ads and other formatting so you can get straight to the good stuff.

Download Readability

In addition to traditional add-ons, you also have the option to install userscripts and userstyles to Firefox. Userscripts and userstyles both change, add, or alter functionality on a given site, though userstyles can also change the UI of Firefox's window. We've talked about them before, so we won't go into too much detail here—just know that if you want to install userscripts, you'll need the Greasemonkey extension, and to install userstyles, you'll want the Stylish extension. You can find good userscripts at userscripts.org and cool userstyles at userstyles.org.

Master Firefox's Other Features

Firefox has a few other features that are a bit less advertised than others, but can seriously power up your browser. Here are a few of our favorites.

Access Bookmarks and Search Engines with a Keyword: Clicking on bookmarks is slow, and if you want to search an engine other than Firefox's default, it takes a lot of typing. Firefox has a great feature called keyword bookmarks that lets you access sites and refine Google searches with just a few keystrokes in your address bar.

To give a bookmark a keyword, just enter your Bookmarks Library, click on a bookmark, and press the "More" button at the bottom of the window. You should see a box labeled "Keyword". Type in a letter or two (for example, I use the keyword "l" for Lifehacker), then exit the bookmarks library. By typing in that keyword and hitting Enter in the address bar, you can head to that site quickly, without having to type out the whole URL or wait for autocomplete to get it right.

If you want to perform custom searches with a keyword, just create a new bookmark with the URL of the type of search you want to perform. To get this URL, make a search on your favorite engine—say, Yahoo—and copy the resulting URL in your menu bar. It should look something like this:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=crmas&p=lifehacker

If you look at the URL you can see I searched for the term "lifehacker". You can replace that word with any modifiers you want and the %s value to symbolize search terms:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=crmas&p=%s

Now, add that link as a new bookmark in Firefox, with the keyword "y" (or whatever you want). Now, when you type something like y lifehacker firefox tweaks in Firefox's address bar, Firefox will understand you want to search for "lifehacker firefox tweaks" on Yahoo instead of your default engine. You can also use this trick to search specific sites via Google, which can be very helpful.

about:config: For every option that isn't in Firefox's options menu, there exists an about:config entry. About:config is almost like the Windows Registry, but for Firefox—you can tweak nearly any setting in existence as long as you know where it is. Whether you want to stop Firefox from greying out text in the address bar, make spellcheck more recognizable, or even enable hidden tab management features, there are bound to be a few about:config options that suit you. If you want to see what different about:config options do, you can check out the MozillaZine Wiki page for some descriptions, and keep an eye out here at Lifehacker—whenever we find a cool about:config tweak, we'll usually post it.

Development Channels: Lastly, if you're a power user, you're probably itching to get the latest Firefox features as soon as possible. With Firefox's new development channels, you can. Instead of using the public release of Firefox, you can try out the beta or Aurora channels, which are up-and-coming versions of Firefox still being tested. They're often quite stable, though, and give you a chance to try out Firefox's newest features before they're released to the rest of the world. For more information, check out our rundown of each channel, and head to Firefox's Future Versions page to try one out.

As long as this guide may be, there's still plenty more you can do with Firefox. If you've got any favorite tips or tricks you'd like to share, post them in the comments below.

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If you're concerned that someone at home is looking at porn, go here ->

2011-12-09T13:29:00.001-06:00

FindHisPorn: Find Out If Your Significant Other Is Looking At Porn

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

FindHisPorn: Find Out If Your Significant Other Is Looking At Porn

via MakeUseOf Directory by Dave LeClair on 12/9/11

Are you curious about whether or not your significant other is using their computer browse porn? Well you should probably give them some privacy, but if that isn't an option and you really need to know if he or she is browsing adult material, than Find His Porn might be the service for you. With Find His Porn, you pay a one time fee of 20 dollars, and they will scan through your computer for any instances of porn.

In addition to checking the hard drive, it will also scan the history file for any known pornographic websites. It makes it difficult to hide your web browsing practices (incognito browsing might gain a new importance).

The one time fee of $20 is per report, so make sure to print or take a screenshot of your results because they do not keep the results on their servers. Once they are gone, they are gone. The program uses Java, so you don't need to download anything to use it.

Features:

Scans hard drive for any adult material.
Checks history folder for porn websites.
One time use for $20.
No download required, just a javascript.

Find His Porn @ www.findhisporn.com

FindHisPorn: Find Out If Your Significant Other Is Looking At Porn is a post from: MakeUseOf Directory

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What do you do when Batman's everywhere you are?

2011-12-05T17:11:00.001-06:00

Commissioner Gordon can't shake Batman in SNL short

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

Commissioner Gordon can’t shake Batman in SNL short

via Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources - Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment by Kevin Melrose on 12/5/11

Emmy nominee Steve Buscemi has played a corrupt politician on Boardwalk Empire, a small-time crook in Fargo, a naive bowler in The Big Lebowski, and an offbeat private investigator on 30 Rock. Now add to that Gotham City police commissioner.

Hosting Saturday Night Live over the weekend, Buscemi starred as James Gordon opposite Andy Samberg's Batman in a digital short about a lurky Caped Crusader with serious boundary issues. Check out the video, complete with a cameo by Aquaman, below.

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The future is here! Watch flying robots build a wall...FOR REAL!

2011-12-05T16:47:00.000-06:00

Flying Robots Used to Build Structures (Not Hunt Us Down)

I predict that we'll see this in full form in the nest 10 years.

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Flying Robots Used to Build Structures (Not Hunt Us Down)

via How-To Geek by Jason Fitzpatrick on 12/5/11

We've shared various Quadrotor robot videos with you but we never expected to share one of the robots peacefully building a structure.

If you watch one of the previous videos we shared, it's not too much of a stretch to envision a dystopian future with streets patrolled by flying robots. In the video above, however, European scientists demonstrate how the autonomous robots can be used to assemble a structure. Perhaps in a utopian future our robot overlords will be LEGO obsessed builders who construct elaborate luxury palaces for us.

Flying Robots, Builders of Tomorrow [via Geeks Are Sexy]

The How-To Geek Guide to Buying an HDTV

Email: What's the Difference Between POP3, IMAP, and Exchange?

HTG Explains: Understanding Routers, Switches, and Network Hardware

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This is for all of the folks that need me to fix their computers regularly...

2011-11-28T17:26:00.001-06:00

What Can I Do To Protect My PC Without Anti-Virus Software?

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What Can I Do To Protect My PC Without Anti-Virus Software?

via MakeUseOf by Danny Stieben on 11/28/11

For plenty of users, getting and using anti-virus software can be a hassle for lots of different reasons. Not only can they be expensive (and then renewed every couple of years), but they can be slow, difficult to control, and a major eyesore if the product happens to display its name everywhere you look.

Whatever the reason may be, you might prefer to not have any antivirus software installed at all. In case you choose to go this route, here are some tips on keeping your computer virus-free without the protective software.

Safe Browsing Habits

The most important tip, no matter if you have anti-virus software or not, is to try to maintain safe browsing habits. It is impossible to get a virus without being on the Internet or reading data from some other source. This means to only visit websites directly instead of clicking on links (especially in emails), not downloading any files unless you're 100% sure the source is safe, not surfing around for prolonged periods of time on sketchy websites, and so on.

If you're not very good at determining what's good or not, this might help. If it looks different from what you're used to or get offered something that seems too good to be true, you're probably a click away from getting a virus. These tips should be followed even if you do have anti-virus software as such products aren't perfect, and some viruses, especially zero-day threats, can pass right through the anti-virus software without so much as a warning.

Updated Software

The next step is to make sure that all your software, especially your browser, is up to date. Newer versions will fix security bugs that may be present in older versions, and updates could also bring support for new security technologies. That way, it will be much harder for a hacker or virus to exploit a security hole to compromise your system.

In Windows, go to Windows Update in your Start menu to check for essential updates. With a lot of software, there is normally a "check for updates" option in one of the menus. Just click through the menus until you find it.

Online Tools

Another option you have is to use online tools to check if a file contains a virus. There are plenty of anti-virus websites that will check files for you. I recommend using this site as it automatically sends it to a much larger collection of sites and compiles the results of each test. This way, you'll have a higher chance of finding a hidden threat or determining if you have a false positive.

Use Web Interface Security Features

Additionally, email providers such as Gmail and Yahoo scan any attachments in an email when you open it, so you should be able to trust the results of those scans. Note that the email providers only scan the attachments when you open the email in their web interface. Therefore, this feature won't be of much help to you if you use an email client.

Security-Focused Browser Extensions

Another great idea is to use browser extensions, where possible, that have a focus on security. A top extension for Firefox would be NoScript. This extension helps block any website scripts that could potentially cause problems on your system. While it takes a while to tell it what's good and what's bad, it will help block any scripts that might break into a security hole. You can find more Firefox security extensions here. For Chrome, you could try SaferChrome.

Use Linux

Last but not least, it might be helpful to run Linux instead of Windows if you don't depend on certain software. While the above tips are definitely worth your time, you can dramatically reduce your risk of getting infected by a virus if you use Linux over Windows. This is because roughly 90% of viruses are for Windows, and 9.95% of the remainder are made for Mac OS X. In combination with the above tips, you can virtually eliminate the threat of viruses and enjoy a safe computing experiences without worries.

Conclusion

While I do recommend using some kind of anti-virus software if you're using Windows (as there are plenty of decent free alternatives), these tips should definitely help to reduce your overall chances of getting infected. Just be smart with what you're doing, and you should be doing just fine.

What tips can you add? Is anti-virus software even really necessary? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: AJC1

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This is how you get your family to use a better browser...

2011-11-23T16:48:00.001-06:00

How to Switch Your Parents' Web Browser Without Them Knowing [Dark Side]

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How to Switch Your Parents' Web Browser Without Them Knowing [Dark Side]

via Lifehacker by Whitson Gordon on 11/23/11

If your relatives are still using Internet Explorer 6 despite your advice, maybe it's time to take matters into your own hands. Here's a slightly evil way of switching their default browser without them knowing.

You'll probably be doing a lot of family tech support this weekend, but The Atlantic notes that if you're going to do one thing, update their browser for them. While they recommend sticking with whatever browser they have, we thought of something better: move them over to a self-updating browser, like Firefox or Chrome, without them knowing. Since it always updates itself, that's one less problem you'll ever have to deal with. Here are some ways to sneak the change past them.

Firefox or Chrome?

The first question is whether to install Chrome or Firefox. Chrome's updates are more sneaky (you never even see that it's updating), while Firefox's UI is a bit more similar to IE and other old browsers—what with the square tabs, dedicated search box, and customizability that lets you trick them even more. It's up to you, and while I personally think Firefox is the better choice, you can probably sneak either past them.

Change the Shortcut's Icon

First, just install Firefox or Chrome, put a shortcut on the desktop, and change its name and icon. Call it "Internet", or if you're feeling like a true identity thief, "Internet Explorer". Then right-click on it, head to Properties, go to the Shortcut tab, and hit Change Icon. Choose Browse and navigate to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer and grab an icon from there. Child's play.

Import Their Bookmarks

Next, if they have any favorites, you'll want to import them from their old browser. In Firefox, just head to Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks, then go to Import > Import from Another Browser. In Chrome, click the wrench icon, go to Bookmarks > Import Bookmarks and Settings.

Make the UI Look a Little More Like Internet Explorer

If you're using Firefox, now's your chance to really pull the wool over their eyes. Make sure you keep the dedicated Google box in Firefox's toolbar (by right-clicking on the toolbar, choosing Customize, and dragging the Google box to the toolbar), and while you're in the customize window move the reload button back to the left of the address bar. Get rid of the add-on bar at the bottom, if it's showing. I'd also recommend ditching the big orange "Firefox" button, lest they wise up to your ploy. Just hit the orange button and go to Options > Menu Bar to show the menu bar at all times. Show the bookmarks bar (they'll like the quick access), install a theme like BlueSky or Neofox, and hand them their shiny new version of Internet Explorer.

If they notice anything different, just tell them that their software updated itself while you were freeing up hard drive space, and that due to "the cloud", software updates are now out of their control. Ease their mind by telling them it'll help them watch the latest and greatest YouTube videos, or guard them from identity theft, or one of any other half-truths you can tell them. They'll probably get used to it pretty quickly, and if you update their IE to IE9, they probably wouldn't go back even if they could (because that UI is a much bigger change than IE6 to Firefox).

Got any other evil tips for parental tech support? Share them in the comments.

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.

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Dip Your Dried Out Turkey in Warm Chicken Stock Before Serving for Moist Meat

2011-11-23T08:09:00.001-06:00

Yummmmm!!

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Dip Your Dried Out Turkey in Warm Chicken Stock Before Serving for Moist Meat Your Guests Will Love [Video]

via Lifehacker by Alan Henry on 11/23/11

If you thought you'd timed everything perfectly but found yourself with an overcooked and dried out turkey anyway, this tip from the folks at CHOW can help. All you need is a pot of warm chicken stock standing by to rescue your bird. Your guests will never know the difference.

Everyone knows to add some gravy to moisten up a dried out turkey breast, but the chicken stock is the key to this tip. After cutting the breast into small pieces, dredge them in a pot of warm chicken broth to give them some liquid to soak up. Then arrange them on their serving platter and add a little gravy. You miss out on being able to carve the turkey at the table, but your family and guests will thank you.

Do you have a secret method to salvage a dried out turkey? Share your Thanksgiving tips in the comments below.

How to Fix a Dried Out Thanksgiving Turkey Breast | CHOW

You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.

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30 Great Photoshop Tips and Tricks to Help Your Computer Graphic Skills

2011-11-20T01:07:00.000-06:00

http://www.howtogeek.com/98103/30-of-the-best-photoshop-tips-and-tricks/

Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G Touch

Fight SOPA and don't let Hollywood determine what you do online!! Go>

2011-11-17T00:02:00.001-06:00

All About SOPA, the Bill That Wants to Cripple Your Internet [Video]

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All About SOPA, the Bill That Wants to Cripple Your Internet [Video]

via Lifehacker by Adam Dachis on 11/16/11

SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is another one of those bills that sounds like it's going to do something mildly positive but, in reality, has serious potential to negatively change the internet as we know it. It puts power in the hands of the entertainment industry to censor sites that allegedly "engage in, enable or facilitate" copyright infringement. This language vague enough to encompass sites you use every day, like Twitter and Facebook, making SOPA a serious problem. Here's how it works and what you can do about it.

How Does SOPA Work, and Why Should I Care?

The idea behind SOPA sounds reasonable. It came about in order to try to snuff out piracy online, as the entertainment industry is obviously not excited about the many people downloading their product without their permission. The issue is, however, that it doesn't really matter whether you're in support of piracy, against it, or just don't care. SOPA makes it possible for companies to block the domain names of web sites that are simple capable of, or seem to encourage copyright infringement.

This means that if Lifehacker happened to have an article or two that could be interpreted as piracy-friendly, our domain could be blocked so it's unaccessible by visiting lifehacker.com. What the bill can't do is block numeric IP addresses, so you could still access Lifehacker, or any other site that could be censored, if you knew that address. This is important because it means this bill can't do much to stop downloaders of pirated content. If a domain name is blocked, everything will still work via the numeric IP address. Basically, the bill will be no good at stopping piracy—what it was apparently designed to do—but excellent at censoring any web site capable of providing its users with the means of promoting pirated content or allowing the process. This includes sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, and many more. If it's possible to post pirated content on the site, or information that could further online piracy, a claim can be brought against it. This can be something as minor as you posting a copyrighted image to your Facebook page, or piracy-friendly information in the comments of a post such as this one. The vague, sweeping language in this bill is what makes it so troubling.

In the event of SOPA-based censorship, any site can submit an appeal so long as they do so within five days. This isn't a lot of time to handle a legal matter, and if you've ever dealt with a copyright infringement takedown notice you know how ineffective an appeal can be. When a threat of legal action is posed, a company is generally going to prefer to err on the side of caution and remove infringing content indefinitely. It's far cheaper to run the risk of removing perfectly legal content than to battle the issue in court. If your web host censors your site because of a SOPA-based claim, you can expect the same sorts of problems.

If you want to learn more about how SOPA works, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) posted a great overview. You can also view the exact contents of SOPA. For a quick overview, be sure to watch the video at the top of this post.

What Can I Do About SOPA?

Currently Twitter, Google, Reddit, Kickstarter, Tumblr, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, eBay, Zynga, Facebook, and several other sites have spoken out in opposition of SOPA. If you'd like to as well, there are a couple of things you can do.

First, call your congressperson on the phone. This is especially important if you live in Texas, Michigan, Vermont, or Iowa. You can also send a letter to your congressperson by visiting the American Censorship Day web site. To activate the contact widget, you have to click the "Try it out" link that's wedged between two screenshots of a censored logo and the "Website Blocked" widget you're trying to open. This will provide you with a form and allow you to send a letter.

Second, get the word out. Post this article, the American Censorship Day web site, or any other information about SOPA on your social media accounts. Send emails to friends and family. If you oppose the bill, help others to understand why they should oppose it as well.

SOPA is on the fast track, so if you want to fight it you need to do so today. We do, however, recommend you get to know the bill so you you can make an informed decision regarding how you feel about it.

You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. Twitter's the best way to contact him, too.

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Your FB page flooded with porn spam? Here's how to fix that...

2011-11-16T13:13:00.001-06:00

How to Avoid the Flood of Unwanted Porn on Facebook [Emailable Tech Support]

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How to Avoid the Flood of Unwanted Porn on Facebook [Emailable Tech Support]

via Lifehacker by Adam Dachis on 11/16/11

You've likely heard that Facebook was hit with a seemingly endless storm of pornographic and violent images, from Justin Bieber blow jobs to mangled dogs. What you may not have heard is how you can avoid it. Here's how you, your friends, and your grandparents can avoid the storm of Facebook filth by basically doing nothing.

How to Avoid the Problem

Facebook has been proactively removing the unpleasant images from user feeds and profiles, but they aren't gone entirely. You'll have to take a proactive approach if you want to avoid the array of erect penises currently lurking in the shadows. Fortunately, this is pretty simple: don't click on links if you're not sure you know what they do. The regular Facebook interface is safe, of course, and so are any Facebook apps you've already installed.

What you want to avoid are links that read "check out how many people viewed your profile" and promise to show you something that you just won't believe. (Having seen some of the images, I can assure you they are actually rather believable, or even beliebable in a few cases.) Basically, if you're reasonably paranoid about the links you click you should be safe.

What To Do If You've Fallen Victim

In the event you make the mistake of clicking a bum link, or think you may have clicked a bad link in the past, change your password right away. While you're at it, be sure to make it a secure password like a multi-word phrase, a password based on a system you design, a password based on word association, or one you simply can't remember.

You'll also want to check the apps you currently have installed. You can do this by clicking on the little down-facing arrow in the upper right corner of the page, clicking on Account Settings, and then choosing the Apps section. If you see an app that doesn't belong or you simply don't recognize, click the x across from its name to delete it.

If you do all of this, you should be nice and safe. Happy Facebooking, and enjoy your freedom from porn!

You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. Twitter's the best way to contact him, too.

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These reasons may be why your iDevice is draining battery power...

2011-11-09T22:37:00.001-06:00

iOS 5 Battery Drain: Save Some Juice With These Top Tips [iPhone, iPad & iPod

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iOS 5 Battery Drain: Save Some Juice With These Top Tips [iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch]

via MakeUseOf by Tim Brookes on 11/9/11

By now you're either in love with iOS 5, Notification Centre and vastly improved page rendering times – or you're banging your head against a brick wall wondering why your device no longer lasts a day without a charge. Apple has acknowledged that some (particularly iPhone 4S owners) are experiencing issues, and for severe battery drain you might want to try re-installing iOS 5 again. However, as with each new update your device is now doing more than ever and that's bound to suck up more juice than ever before.

After much tinkering, scouring and charging we've come up with a plan for those with unforgivable battery drain.

Disable GPS-Based Time Zone Detection & Others

This is a very useful feature for those who travel, or are thinking of travelling and don't want to miss that all-important connecting flight. For anyone else who doesn't regularly switch timezones it's a fairly useless feature that (according to iOS 5's settings) regularly queries for a location fix.

Use of GPS on any device is going to drain the battery, that's why if you're using navigation software in your car it's always best to keep your phone charging via an in-car adapter. If you don't do this you might find that when you reach your destination you're going to have a fairly flat battery.

You can disable this setting in Settings, Location Services and then System Services. In this menu you will notice a few other services that you might like to disable, such as Location-Based iAds (oh Apple!) and Traffic data. The less your phone, tablet or media device uses GPS, the more battery you'll have at the end of the day.

Keep A Lid On Notifications

With each new update, Apple have added more and more notifications and options to their mobile OS. These are great for keeping track of your oft-used services, but some are simply unnecessary. The more pings you receive on your device, the more battery is being eaten up.

Notification Centre is by far one of the best new features of iOS, and whilst it's lovely to swipe from the top of the screen to see the weather, each time you do so engages GPS and then pulls weather data to your phone. Similarly the default stocks app also pulls data with each swipe of Notification Centre, so if you don't really use these two do yourself a favour and turn them off.

For those experiencing abhorrent battery drain, one user on Apple's support forums reckons that Calendar alerts in Notification Centre are causing some serious problems. If you'd like to test this theory you can disable Calendar notifications via Settings, Notifications then Calendar.

Steer Clear Of Location-Based Reminders & Ditch Your Friends

One new feature that sounds great in theory is the ability to set reminders based on your location, for example "Get milk" when you're near the supermarket. Handy, right? The only problem with these reminders is that your phone is doing a lot of work checking whether you're near the supermarket or not before notifying you accordingly.

For those who have yet to set a location reminder the option will not appear in the Location Services menu under Settings. If you have been making use of the new feature then you'll probably want to turn it off and opt for regular time-based reminders instead.

Similarly, Find My Friends is a great app for those who like to stalk their nearest and dearest, but each time someone queries your location your device must receive the push notification, acquire a GPS fix and then send the results back to the server. iMessage is a credible alternative considering it is completely free, built for iOS and far more social. You can even share your location directly from Maps.

Get Rid Of Push

This one will be a last resort for many, hence its inclusion at the end of this article. Interestingly enough, it's one of the few "battery saving tips" to come straight from Apple too. Mail push caused some serious problems for users upgrading to iOS 3 many moons ago – now it seems to be linked to battery drain in iOS 5.

Configuring iOS 5 to manually receive email can be done via Settings, Mail… then Fetch New Data. Disabling Push and choosing a regular "fetch" time will minimize background activity. Disabling other notifications must be done manually for each service in Settings then Notifications.

Conclusion

Hopefully these tips will help save some juice, though if you're going to be away from a charger for a while you might want to consider turning virtually everything "off" – including 3G, mobile data, location services (except Find My Phone, which is essential should your device go walkies), wireless, Bluetooth and anything else that eats up battery.

Hopefully a quick fix from Apple will resolve some problems experienced by customers. For more tips on saving Android or iPhone battery life, check out our other article.

Have you had battery drain issues since updating to iOS 5? Do you own an iPhone 4S? Anything else you can think to save battery? Rant, advise and share your woes in the comments below.

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Could a salad a day keep the doc away? Hmmm...

2011-11-08T14:37:00.001-06:00

Make Salad in a Jar for an Easy Grab-and-Go Lunch That Stays Fresh for Days ...

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Make Salad in a Jar for an Easy Grab-and-Go Lunch That Stays Fresh for Days [Food]

via Lifehacker by Melanie Pinola on 11/8/11

Here's an ingenious way to make sure you eat salad everyday: Make jars of salad on Sunday night that you can just grab to bring to work. If you layer the ingredients correctly, the salad stays fresh for up to four days.

Julia writes on the Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body blog that the most important part of the layering is keeping the dressing and the salad leaves from touching. She layers her ingredients with the dressing on the bottom, then onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, quinoa, and spinach. Naturally, you would adapt her salad recipe to your own tastes.

Adding to the convenience of this Secret Recipe Club recipe: When you're ready to eat your salad, just shake the jar up.

Salad in a Jar - SRC | via The Daily Buzz

You can follow or contact Melanie Pinola, the author of this post, on Twitter or Google+.

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Unlimited calls, text, & data for only $19/month? Insane!

2011-11-08T14:29:00.001-06:00

Republic Wireless Offers Unlimited Calls, Text, and Data for a Rock-Bottom $19 a Month

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Republic Wireless Offers Unlimited Calls, Text, and Data for a Rock-Bottom $19 a Month [Cellphone Service]

via Lifehacker by Melanie Pinola on 11/8/11

Unlimited everything cellular service. No contracts. No overages...All for $19 a month. Sound too good to be true? If you're ok with using hybrid Wi-Fi/cell technology from Republic Wireless, then there's no other catch. You even get a LG Optimus One.

The "hybrid calling" Republic Wireless offers leverages Wi-Fi networks to handle most calls, and when you're out of Wi-Fi range, uses Sprint's network. To keep that crazy cheap $19/month pricing, users are required to have a Wi-Fi network at home and use it whenever possible, staying within a fair use threshold:

How much cellular usage is too much?
It depends. Even assuming 0% wifi usage, for example, you could consume 550 minutes, send 150 texts, and download 300 megabytes of data without crossing the community's fair use threshold. Everyone's usage patterns will be different, but we're confident you'll be amazed at how little cellular you actually use when you have a phone that makes it easy to leverage the power of your Wi-Fi networks.

The service looks very attractive if you want to save money on your cellphone bill.

The first phone this new network is offering is also a pretty decent: the LG Optimus One running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). Republic Wireless is asking $199 for the phone and the first month (plus tax).

Currently in beta right now, you can sign up for the service here or learn more about it at the link below.

Republic Wireless | via Phandroid

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Is Apple that great when everyone wants to replace its default apps?

2011-11-07T17:58:00.001-06:00

Enqueue Is the First Music Player That Could Actually Replace iTunes on the Mac

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Enqueue Is the First Music Player That Could Actually Replace iTunes on the Mac [Mac Downloads]

via Lifehacker by Whitson Gordon on 11/7/11

Mac OS X: Music junkies looking for a full-featured, local-library program other than iTunes can rejoice. Enqueue is an attractive, lightweight player with a configurable interface, an "on-the-go" playlist mode, and lots more.

If you're jealous of Windows' playlist-based players like Winamp or Windows Media Player, Enqueue is exactly what you've always longed for on the Mac. It's a full music library program that supports tons of music types—including types iTunes doesn't support like FLAC and OGG—as well as global keyboard shortcuts, Last.fm scrobbling, an equalizer, and multiple library views so you can configure it to your taste. Plus, it can import libraries from iTunes and monitor your music folder for changes, so you can still use iTunes to manage your library if you have iOS devices. And, if you free your media keys from iTunes' grasp, you can even use them to control Enqueue instead.

Enqueue is currently in beta, and will be free until the final version is released. No word on price yet, except that it will be "reasonable". The developer is also still working on more features, like smart playlists, so if you find it too feature-light compared to iTunes right now, check back periodically and you may find it suits your needs better.

Enqueue | via Hacker News

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.

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Fan of Tintin comics? Check out these sites for Tintin awesomeness!

2011-11-07T17:06:00.001-06:00

6 Must Read Websites To Go To If You Are A Childhood Fan Of Tintin Comic Books

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6 Must Read Websites To Go To If You Are A Childhood Fan Of Tintin Comic Books

via MakeUseOf by Saikat Basu on 11/7/11

Many in the United States would do a double take. The adventures of Tintin aren't really popular over there as it is in the rest of the world. Tintin, the boy reporter is an identifiably European hero. But then, if you count Steven Spielberg and The Simpsons among his fans, you can conquer the American continent. For sure, after 21^st December of this year (the movie has been released in Europe), the reporter-turned-detective and his trusty dog Snowy will surely gather a larger following.

Tintin doesn't need publicizing because he is right up there in comic book folklore. Probably right next to Superman. Am I coming out like an unapologetic Tintin fan? Can't help it…I am.

This blog post takes a look at six of the best Tintin related websites and is also a tribute to the wondrous world of Herge and his Tintin.

Tintin.com

This is the official site leading up to the release of the movie and the one where you can read up on Tintin and his adventures. If you are a first-timer or your child is, point them to this page. With full character sketches on Tintin, Captain Haddock, Thomson & Thompson, Professor Calculus, and of even Snowy, this site is the jumping point before Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's movie hits the halls. Check out the video page for trailers and other snippets.

Tintinologist

This is probably the most exhaustive English language resource on Tintin. It is definitely the oldest and largest English language Tintin fan site on the Internet. From news to articles, from guides and lists to full-fledged forums, no fan love has been spared to capture the essence of Tintin. It's also the place to try out your own Tintin I.Q. For instance, take a shot at the Tintin Book Covers Quiz if you have read all his globetrotting adventures.

If you are a Tintin buff and a traveler, the Tintin Gallery could give you a few spots to check out like shops and Tintin themed sites. Don't forget to read the Tintin Related Links page for some history and trivia.

Tintin Movie News

This is where I found the link that took me to the online Tintin Movie Game (screenshot above). It's not a part of the site though…just a mention.

This small blog has an interesting collection of Tintin related articles. I wouldn't put it as one of the best or the most informative, but whatever little it carries offers an entertaining read. Whether this sort-of-fan site will stay on post November 11^th remains to be seen. I hope it does.

Tintinblog

This blog is another fan site covering news, views, and pictures on Tintin and his merry pals. You can read up some interesting blog posts like a list of famous people who love Tintin. You have tennis stars like Roger Federer and Andy Murray, celebrities like Hugh Grant and Dustin Hoffman.

But the name which leaps out from the page is Charles de Gaulle who says – "Tintin is my only international rival. Nobody notices, because of my height. We are both little fellows who won't be got at by big fellows."

Tintinology

This is another interesting blog packed with opinionated views and news on Tintin. Loads of posts dedicatedly collected from all sources make up the site. A few of the latest posts cover the movie. Be on the lookout for spoiler warnings. One of the interesting pages I found via this site was this collection of cars that appear in the Tintin albums.

Facebook

Nearly 700,000 followers don't reflect the global fan following for anything that's Tintin. But then whatever Mark Zuckerberg might say, the whole world is not on Facebook. But the Facebook fan page is a nice place to interact with the followers of Tintin who are. Check out the The Film in BRUSSELS – Tintin born in Brussels photo album that probably was published as the movie came along.

Just six websites on Tintin? That seems like a small figure when you are talking about a 'world explorer'. There are a large number of sites, but fan following takes it beyond English as you have it in multiple languages (even Esperanto). There are theme parks and a well-known museum too, definitely one to visit if you are travelling to Belgium.

Are you a 'Tintinologist'? Which is your favorite Tintin comic book of all time? Did you catch the movie yet? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: gordasm (Flickr)

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When I get an Android phone, I may add this to make it look like an iPhone!

2011-11-07T17:03:00.001-06:00

Make Your Android Device Look Exactly Like An iPhone With Espier Launcher [A...

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

Make Your Android Device Look Exactly Like An iPhone With Espier Launcher [Android 2.1+]

via MakeUseOf by Yaara Lancet on 11/7/11

The world is divided into two sections – Phone lovers and Android enthusiasts. Or so it seems sometimes. But in reality, things are not as black and white as all that. I, for example, own an iPad and an Android device, and actually wish I could own a Nokia. So it doesn't come as a surprise that some Android owners are looking for ways to turn their device into something more iPhone-ish. After all, Android is not only about looks, and having Android's flexibility along with iOS's good looks can be a win-win situation.

For these purposes, Espier Launcher (or Espier Launcher 2.1 if you're running Android 2.1) is perfect. It emulates the iOS Springboard almost perfectly, and is really a must-have launcher for anyone with an Android device who wishes, even if temporarily, to pass it as an iPhone.

General Looks & Folders

After installation, this is what your screen will look like:

The app comes complete with this default wallpaper, which you can change as you would always change a wallpaper on your device. As you can see, my browser icon has turned into Safari, and all my other apps have arranged themselves in an iOS-ish way. With Espier Launcher, you bid goodbye to the regular app drawer, and have to make do with having your apps scattered on the device's desktop. You can, however, arrange them in true iOS folders and decide which apps reside in the dock.

Long-tap an icon to make them all jiggle (exactly like iOS!) and then place one app on top of the other to create a folder. You have to be rather precise or the folder will not formulate.

You can then change the name of the folder (as long as everything is jiggling). Espier Launcher is very true to the original, and opening and browsing folders looks exactly like the real thing, split screen and everything.

Another thing you're going to lose with Espier are homescreen widgets. You can place shortcut icons of various types, such as contacts, bookmarks etc., but not widgets. But that's OK – you wanted an iPhone anyway!

App Switcher Tray

What you won't lose is the App Switcher tray. It's even a little bit better than the original. To access it, you need to swipe up with one finger. You can then see all your recently used apps. Long-tap any of them to make them jiggle, and then tap the red icon to remove any of them from the tray.

Swiping left will show you more recent apps, while swiping right will reveal a power-control widget. From here you can easily control things like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, brightness and so on. It's very much like the regular power-control widget in Android.

Spotlight Search

True to an iOS clone, Espier Launcher comes with a true-to-form Spotlight Search. It's accessed the same way as in iOS – by swiping all the way to the right until you reach it. It searches your apps, contacts, media and so on, and the search is live, so simply start typing to get results. You also get some suggestions, which seem to be aimed at web searches.

Settings & Further Options

There are several things you can control in Espier. One being the sensor, which I have yet to mention. If the sensor is turned on, you can tilt the phone to move jiggling icons between screens. This is not a very helpful feature in my opinion, but if you want to try it, tap and hold an icon until everything jiggles, and while you're still holding the icon, tilt the device right and left. The icon you're holding will be moved between screens.

You can also turn off the auto-arrange icon, and access a handy launcher switcher to switch to a different launcher.

Espier ran smoothly on my Acer Liquid E with Android 2.2. This is not a very powerful device, so I believe it should run well on almost any device. If you run into problems, you can access the app's preferences and turn off Animations Effects. If this still doesn't help, try turning off the Spotlight Search.

Bottom Line

Espier Launcher does an incredible job copying the iOS look and feel. If you're a fan of Android but secretly (or not so secretly) adore the iOS look, be sure to give it a try. The illusion disappears as soon as you actually tap something, of course, but hey, looks are only skin deep anyway, right?

If Espier Launcher is a bit over the top for you, check out these other 6 cool iPhone themes for your Android phone.

What do you think of this mixing of both worlds? Should people just learn to choose or is it OK to enjoy some of each world? And what do you think of Espier Launcher? Share your opinions in the comments!

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iDevice lost or stolen? This is how you find it!

2011-11-07T08:24:00.001-06:00

How To Use Find My iPhone To Get Your Stolen iPhone Back

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How To Use Find My iPhone To Get Your Stolen iPhone Back

via MakeUseOf by James Bruce on 11/6/11

Long story short: my wife had her iPhone stolen when she misplaced it at work the other day. I was instantly able to log into her iCloud account and follow the device all the way back to a residential address, saving her the trouble of searching around the warehouse. We locked the phone and sent a polite message asking the 'culprits' to return it for a (very small) reward, but failing that we had their address to cross-reference on the employee database.

The next day we saw the phone travelling back to her workplace in the early morning, and when she arrived she found the phone had been anonymously returned with no reward asked for.

This story has a happy ending of course, but Apple's free Find My iPhone service is also able to deal with the less happy outcomes in a way that minimizes your risk for greater losses. Let's look into the app and see how you can 'MakeUseOf' it when your phone is lost or stolen.

So What is Find My iPhone?

Find My iPhone has been a part of Apple's Mobile.Me service for a while now, and is now upgraded and included in the standard, free iCloud account. You can read all about iCloud here. The most recent update means that Mac computers can also be tracked. Here's my wife's iPhone, in the process of being stolen (this isn't their home address, this was on the way).

I must have it! How do I enable It?

1. Make sure you've signed up and enabled iCloud on your device. From Settings > iCloud you can sign up for, or if you've already got an account connected, scroll down and ensure Find My iPhone is enabled (by default it isn't enabled).

2. Location service must also be enabled – from Settings > Location Services > On

3. Scroll down on the same screen to Find my iPhone at the bottom of the list and click through to enable it specifically there.

To set it up on your Mac, you need to have the latest OSX, iTunes and iCloud specific updates installed. There should then be a new iCloud control panel icon in your preferences screen.

What Can I do When My Phone Is Stolen:

Open up the Find my iPhone app from either any other iOS device (you need to download it from the app store first), or log on to icloud.com from a computer.

You should see a list of devices registered to your account, and location discovery will begin. Click on the device once it's been located correctly.

You should now see it on a map, but clicking on the device, then the small blue "i" will open up the menu of actions you can take. There are 3 choices:

Play Sound or Send Message: This allows you to send a quick "this message is lost/stolen" type message as well as sound an alarm which works even if the phone is in silent mode. Note, this is also a great way to find your phone at home!
Remote Lock: This places the device into a locked mode exactly as if you had setup a regular lock screen before it was stolen. You choose the 4 digit code now, so make sure you don't forget it.
Remote Wipe: This is final and more drastic option – it will initiate a low level format of all your data, leaving it like a fresh iPhone straight from the factory. Be very careful when using this, as you will no longer be able to track, lock, or message this device if you use this option.

Your first move should be to lock the device and prevent any calls from being made. This isn't going to stop anyone from reformatting the phone, but it will stop most thieves from getting at your data for now or making random expensive calls.

Second, follow the device via the GPS signal. If you're the daring type, you could try chasing it down. It is probably best not to try anything crazy until you know it's been stolen though, at which point calling the police with a residential address is definitely an option.

Next, send a message offering a reward and contact details.

At this point, you're going to have to gamble. If it was indeed stolen, and the thief knows what they're doing then your personal data is definitely at risk. Use remote wipe as a last option only if you're confident you won't get the device back.

Lastly, be sure to phone your mobile provider and lock out the SIM. This will prevent them making calls/texts and prevent any further expenses, but it's not going to get your phone back.

It goes without saying that you should also call the police and get an incident or report number – you'll need this to claim on insurance. Most contents insurance usually comes with the option to cover devices while they're out of the house, so if you're lucky then you can get a new phone.

A Solution for Android Users

Not wishing to exclude those inclined to the other mobile OS – Prey is a free service able to track up to 3 devices, and even has the ability to take photos of the thief using the laptop webcam or front camera. Sadly, Find My iPhone doesn't let you do this, and I'm unable to find a similar app that does. The Prey page states they're currently working on an iPhone version, but it's been saying that for years. Looks like Android users have a one-up on us here!

I do recommend you enable some kind of service now as a precaution as you'll never be able to do it when you'll really need it. Find My iPhone is free, and if it saves you the $400 on a new phone, it's more than worth it. Do you have any experience using Find My iPhone to get your phone back, or even a computer? Let us know in the comments, I'd love to hear how it worked out for you.

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Facebook account hacked? Here's what to do...

2011-11-01T11:14:00.001-05:00

4 Things To Do Immediately When Your Facebook Account Is Hacked

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4 Things To Do Immediately When Your Facebook Account Is Hacked

via MakeUseOf by Tina Sieber on 11/1/11

For most people, having their Facebook account hacked is a nightmare. Imagine if someone had access to all your private messages, could contact your friends, abuse your Facebook page, and delete your personal information. To avoid this, you should regularly update your password and keep other security settings tight.

Once it's too late, however, you must act fast. The most important thing is – don't panic! You can regain access to your account.

How Do You Know Your Facebook Account Was Hacked?

First of all, how do you know your Facebook account was hacked if nothing obvious was changed…yet? If a hacker managed to get into your account, they will leave a trace. While their session is active, it will be listed under > Home (top right corner) > Account Settings > Security > Active Sessions (click edit). Here you can end the activity of suspicious sessions.

More information about How To Check If Someone Else Is Accessing Your Facebook Account or How To Find Out If Your Facebook Account Has Been Hacked can be found in the respective articles.

It is recommended that you enable Login Approvals for logging in from unrecognized devices. For increased security, you should also set app passwords.

Change Your Password

In case your password was not changed you got lucky! This is the time to update your password! Be sure to end any suspicious active sessions first (see above), then go to > Home > Account Settings > General and click > Password to confirm your current password and then enter a new password.

When you're done, review our articles regarding Facebook security (see resources below) and see what other measures you can take to secure your account.

From here, proceed to step 3 if you think that your account was abused.

Reset Your Password

If your password was changed, act quick! Try to regain access. There is a > Forgot your password? link underneath the Facebook login.

It will let you retrieve your password in several different ways. You can either enter the email address you registered to Facebook with or any other secondary email address you added, as well as your phone number and username.

If you're not sure whether the person that hacked your account was smart enough to change your profile information, you should go with the last option and enter your name and that of a friend. This will give you an idea of which information is currently added to your account.

If you don't have access to any of the email accounts or to the phone number associated with your account, click the > No longer have access to these? URL. This will take you to a page where you can enter a new email address, which Facebook will then use to assist you in recovering your account.

This is not all. If you believe that your account was abused by the person who has access to it, proceed to step 2.

Report Compromised Account

If your account wasn't simply hacked, but is sending out ads and spam to your friends, you must report it as compromised.

From here, immediately proceed to step 2.

2. Do Damage Control

After doing everything you could to regain control over your hacked Facebook account, inform your friends about what is going on, just in case the hacker has abused or currently is abusing your account. If you presently can't access your account, contact your Facebook friends through other social networks, by email, or have a mutual friend inform them via Facebook. Once you can log in again, proceed to step 3.

3. Remove Suspicious Applications

Oftentimes, it's not an evil person that randomly hacked into your account. More likely than not you granted access to a malicious application which subsequently hijacked your account. To remove suspicious applications, go to > Home > Account Settings > Apps and go through the list. Click the > X next to any application you wish to remove or click > Edit to change what the app can do.

4. Improve Your Facebook Privacy and Security Settings

Once you're back in control, review the following resources and close the security gaps in your Facebook account. Note that some of these articles are over a year old and hence the information may not be 100% accurate.

Was your Facebook account ever hacked and how did you regain access?

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Grate cheese a lot? Make it easier with non-stick cooking spray!

2011-11-01T09:45:00.001-05:00

Spray Your Cheese Grater with Non-Stick Cooking Spray for Easier Grating and Clean Up

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

Spray Your Cheese Grater with Non-Stick Cooking Spray for Easier Grating and Quick Clean-Up [Cleaning]

via Lifehacker by Alan Henry on 11/1/11

If you've ever had to grate a semi-soft cheese, you know it can be difficult to clean the grater afterward, and you know you lose a lot of cheese because it breaks up when you're trying to press it through the grater. Spray your cheese grater down with a little non-stick cooking spray before you get started to make both the grating and the cleanup easier.

Old kitchen pros may know this trick already as a way to make cleaning the grater easier when you're finished grating, but the non-stick spray also makes grating the cheese a little less of a pain in the elbow. You'll wind up with more cheese through the grater and less crumbled up on the outside, and when you're all finished, most of the residue will come right off with warm tap water and a little soap. If you still have cheese stuck to the grater, soak it in warm water before cleaning or dishwashing. Do you have any other cheese-grating tips? Share them in the comments below. Photo by dvortygirl.

Cheese Grater Cleaning Tips | TipNut

You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.

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Take pills regularly? Have an iPhone! Get RxmindMe!

2011-10-24T18:00:00.001-05:00

RxmindMe: An App That Reminds You When To Take Your Pills [iPhone]

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RxmindMe: An App That Reminds You When To Take Your Pills [iPhone]

via MakeUseOf Directory by TehseenBaweja on 10/22/11

If you take a lot of pills, chances are you often forget taking them on time. RxmindMe is a great iPhone app that can help you by sending a reminder when it is time to take your pills. You can set 9 different types of reminders including daily, hourly, weekly, specific dates, specific hours and more.

As you click on the 'Taken' button, your prescription quantity will automatically be updated so you can view at anytime how many pills you have left. You can view historical records of your prescriptions, take pictures of actual prescriptions, email prescription history or simply export it as a data file. You can search a huge FDA drug database to find the medication you are taking and add it to your schedule.

Features:

Create specific reminders for taking your medicaiton.
Nine different types of reminders.
Track your prescription quantity and see historical views.
Email or export your prescription activity.

Get RxmindMe from iTunes

RxmindMe: An App That Reminds You When To Take Your Pills [iPhone] is a post from: MakeUseOf Directory

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Annoyed by Facebook like me @ times? These add-ons will help!

2011-10-24T17:59:00.001-05:00

Get Rid Of Some Annoying Facebook Features With These 4 Add-Ons [Chrome]

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

Get Rid Of Some Annoying Facebook Features With These 4 Add-Ons [Chrome]

via MakeUseOf by Yaara Lancet on 10/24/11

Facebook keeps changing and changing. Every month or so, users enjoy (or deal with) a new change in Facebook's interface. While some people are really excited about the recent Timeline profiles, others are still ticked off at things like the news ticker and the chat sidebar.

Another thing Facebook keep changing is the way we view images. While Photo Theater keeps improving and is no longer a major source of agitation to Facebook users, and while thumbnails keep growing, some people are still looking for an easy and quick way to view images in full size.

If one or more of these things are bothering you, I've rounded up some Chrome extensions that are sure to make you a happier Facebook user.

Facebook Classic

Facebook Classic is a Chrome add-on for people who dislike the new ticker, but want to be able to easily toggle it on again. It also gets rid of the new top stories and arranges the newsfeed in chronological order again.

After you install the add-on and refresh Facebook, the news ticker will disappear completely, leaving only the bottom half of the sidebar with the chat. You'll also see the "Latest Stories" header instead of the "New Top Story" and "Recent Stories". The change is not only to the titles – the small triangle to the left of each newsfeed item will also disappear. This triangle is usually used to mark a story as a "top story".

If you want to turn on the ticker, find the "Show Ticker" link on the right side. This will toggle the news ticker on. You can toggle it back off whenever you want using the "Hide Ticker" link.

Facebook–

Facebook– is another Chrome add-on which deals with similar issues. Once you download Facebook–, the news ticker will be gone. Use this add-on if you really don't want to see the news ticker, because there's no easy way to toggle it on and off.

As opposed to Facebook Classic, it also doesn't leave you with half a sidebar for the chat, but expands the chat so it takes up the entire sidebar, the way it used to be before the news ticker joined the party.

Another thing Facebook– does is restore the title bar to the way it used to be. You get your Settings button back, and you lose your name and thumbnail in the title bar. Nice if you miss Facebook's older look.

Sidebar Disabler

Sidebar Disabler is a Chrome, Firefox and Opera add-on which leaves your news ticker alone in its non-sidebar position, and turns the sidebar into the good old Facebook chat.

If the news ticker is not your problem, but you're just sick of the sidebar as a concept, you'll be able to forget about it with this add-on. The old chat returns in full glory, along with the old options and friend lists. You also get to see only your online friends again, which is one of the most sorely missed features in the new chat sidebar.

FB Photo Zoom

Moving on to quite a different subject, FB Photo Zoom has nothing to do with news tickers and sidebars, but has a lot to do with the way you view images. Some people still don't like Facebook's Photo Theater, and others (like me), are just too lazy to click the thumbnail every time they want to view a full-size image.

With FB Photo Zoom, hovering over a thumbnail with your mouse cursor will automatically open a preview of the full size image. This preview even moves along as you move your mouse, but disappears immediately if your cursor leaves the thumbnail.

FB Photo Zoom also comes with some configurable settings. You can use it to disable Photo Theater if you still hate it. You can create a keyboard shortcut to toggle the zooming effect on and off, and another shortcut to force-enable it even when it's off. You can even control the delays of the fade in and fade out of images.

This also works with the tiny "Friends on Chat" thumbnails, which are so small they're often unrecognizable. Quite an upgrade to your casual Facebook image viewing experience.

Bottom Line

The more changes Facebook makes, the more add-ons like these we're going to find. I think it's awesome that so many different ones exist – this way we can each create a user experience that suits us best, and make the most of Facebook without the things that annoy us.

If none of these add-ons hit the spot for you, you can find some more of them in this post by Steve. If there are even better Facebook add-ons, or if you think people should stop complaining and enjoy the changes, do tell us about it in the comments!

Get Rid Of Some Annoying Facebook Features With These 4 Add-Ons [Chrome] is a post from: MakeUseOf

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Instablogg now lets you say what you want to say w/o repercussions!!

2011-10-24T17:58:00.001-05:00

Write Anonymous Blog Posts To Protect Your Identity Using Instablogg

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

Write Anonymous Blog Posts To Protect Your Identity Using Instablogg

via MakeUseOf by Bakari Chavanu on 10/24/11

It's easy for anyone to create a blog site these days, but you may not have the time to maintain one on a regular basis, or there may be occasions when you might want to post content anonymously. This is where Instablogg comes in. This blogging service allows you to write anything you like and post it as a traditional looking blog entry. Each blog post is published individually with a unique URL, so you never have to maintain a dedicated site in order to blog.

Why Use It?

There are several reasons you might want to use anonymous blogging. I started a list of ideas for anonymous blogging using Instablogg. My list includes:

Post a blog to get something off your chest.
Criticize a public figure without using your personal blog.
Post a secret love letter.
Start a chain letter/blog.
Write an extended Twitter post.
Make a public confession.
Expose a wrongdoing at your job.
Organize a secret party (you can make a private post and send it to your friends for comments).
Turn an email message into a blog post.
Try out new marketing content and reactions to it.

As I will explain in the next section, Instablogg provides you with a way to edit your post, or allow others to contribute again, anonymously (click here to add to my post of ideas). If however you want to make an eponymous post, all you need to do is add contact information in your post.

How To Use It

Instablogg requires absolutely no sign-up or even sign-in to post content. It uses a familiar online WYSIWYG text editing client similar to WordPress or Microsoft Word. It allows you to not only write content, but also add photos (linked from a photo sharing site like ImageShack), videos, and links from other sites.

Remember though, what you're writing is a one-time-only blog post. Your published post will receive a unique URL which you can share on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else you like. You also will receive an address which allows you to come back and edit your post at any time. If you prefer, you can share this address with others so they can add content to the post, or you can create a link to the address inside the post so others can open the post in the editor. However, anyone at any time can delete the post altogether if they have the editing address.

When you are done writing, you have the option to publish the blog entry publicly so anyone can view it, or privately (in which case the share link is removed and is not part of Instablogg's Explorer). You can also enable or disable comments, as well as coming back and deleting the post altogether.

Who Reads It?

Since Instablogg is not a part of a large blogging community like WordPress or Tumblr, your post will only be read by people you send the link to, or randomly by anyone browsing the Instablogg site.

You probably shouldn't expect to gain a significant audience using Instablogg and anonymous posts. However, if you have a large following on say Facebook, Twitter, or an online forum, you can easily post the link to your social networking stream and get readership that way.

In fact, Instablogg works great for writing quick and longer content that you start on Twitter. I can't count how many times I've wanted to write an opinion piece about a current news issue (that would be out of place on my existing blog sites) and link it to my Twitter stream. Instablogg is the best solution for this.

If you're planning on using Instablogg to write truly anonymous blogs you need to be very careful about protecting your anonymity. In this case you would not want to share the link on your social networking account, or through your personal e-mail account. You'll need to find a way to get your blog post out without it being traced back to you.

Let us know what you think of Instablogg and how it might be useful. For other ideas about blogging, check out these MUO articles.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Write Anonymous Blog Posts To Protect Your Identity Using Instablogg is a post from: MakeUseOf

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Cake mix = cookies?! Nom, nom, nom!!

2011-10-22T15:39:00.001-05:00

Make Cookies from Cake Mix [Kitchen Hacks]

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

Make Cookies from Cake Mix [Kitchen Hacks]

via Lifehacker by David Galloway on 10/22/11

If you've had an unused box cake mix in your pantry for a while, you can turn it into a batch of cookie dough by adding two eggs, half a cup of melted butter, and any additions (chocolate chips, raisins, etc.) you'd like.

This tip comes from the blog Secret Tips from the Yumiverse, and is a great way to use up cake mix you've had since the Bush administration. Simply preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, combine the above ingredients with your packaged cake mix while stirring thoroughly, spoon the cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake for 8-10 minutes.

The cookies turn out as a cookie-brownie cross. By getting creative with extra ingredients you can turn plain yellow cake mix into a variety of cookie types. Personally, I want to try this out with chocolate cake mix and frost the finished cookies with German Chocolate frosting. Photo by Carissa Rogers.

Your Guide to Lazy Baking, Part 5: How to Bake Cookies Using Cake Mix | Secret Tips from the Yumiverse

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iOS 5 explained in seven minutes by video! This is for me...

2011-10-12T07:48:00.001-05:00

Everything You Need to Know About iOS 5 in Seven Minutes [Video]

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Everything You Need to Know About iOS 5 in Seven Minutes [Video]

via Lifehacker by Adam Dachis on 10/12/11

Apple's finalized the next version of its operating system, iOS 5, and it's a pretty big upgrade. Here's a look at all the new stuff you can expect when you install it on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Be sure to watch the video for a demonstration of practically everything here.

Notification Center

Notifications in iOS have always been obtrusive pop-ups and one of the biggest annoyances to users. Finally, in iOS 5, Apple's created Notification Center to solve that problem. Much like in Android, most notifications now pop up in the status bar. You can pull down the status bar to view any notifications you might have missed, see a little preview, and interact with them. You can still get notifications the old way if you'd like, and you can set what type of notifications you'll get in your system preferences.

iCloud and iTunes Match

In an attempt to untether your iDevice, Apple has created iCloud and iTunes Match. iCloud is basically a revamped MobileMe that syncs more types of data across your many devices as quickly as it can manage. (So far it looks like it actually works, too.) It doesn't just sync contacts and appointments, but photos and other media as well. This goes for pretty much any purchase you make through iTunes. Additionally, if you subscribe to iTunes Match (for $25/year for up to 20,000 songs), you get your music synced everywhere. You won't even need to upload songs already in the iTunes Store as Apple will see you have a copy of that song and allow you to download a copy from their store for free—even songs you ripped from a CD or acquired from other locations. If iTunes doesn't has the song, it'll send a copy to Apple and sync that copy with your devices manually. For $25 per year, it's a pretty decent deal. The only downside is you're always downloading a copy and you currently cannot stream your music from, say, a web browser.

Note: The release of iTunes match was postponed until later in October, so although it's supported in iOS 5 you won't be able to use it until iTunes 10.5.1 is released.

Wi-Fi Sync

Wi-Fi sync is a pretty awesome but also imperfect feature. It allows you to sync your device over Wi-Fi, just like you have it connected to iTunes. The downside is that you can't sync without connecting to power, so essentially you're still tethered to a cord. In a lot of ways this defeats the purpose, but if you plug in your iPhone in another room and want it to sync overnight it's still useful for that type of scenario.

Siri (iPhone 4S Only)

Siri is a pretty killer feature in iOS 5 that Apple kept under wraps until the final weeks before its announcement. If you're familiar with Android's voice command features, Siri is a step above. Not only can it do things like control your phone, compose and send text messages, and play music in your library, but also look up information and perform complex calculations (via Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha, and other sources) to help you find practically anything you're looking for. It works in the same fashion as its predecessor, Voice Control, by activating when you press and hold the home button. After that, all you have to do is speak and wait for Siri to obey your command. For more on how Siri works, here's a detailed description of its functionality and some of the many things you can say to it.

iMessage

iMessage is essentially the exact same thing as the iPhone's SMS text messaging app, only it's now part of all iDevices. This means that iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users can all communicate with each other via text message regardless of whether they have cellular service or not. It also means all your messages are push-synced to your other devices so you can pick up where you left off when you're juggling Apple products. For some this is very exciting, as it opens up the lines of communications further. Others find this unpleasantly reminiscent of Blackberry Messenger and are dreading the closed, Apple-only messaging service.

Newsstand

If you like the idea of reading magazines on your iDevice, you can subscribe to participating content providers and wind up with a fancy folder to hold your casual reading material. Newsstand is basically a means of creating quick little shortcuts to your digital issues rather than create an app to manage them separately. Strangely, Newsstand does actually run as an app and may make an appearance in your multitasking bar.

Reminders

Reminder tries to remain simply by looking and acting like a to-do list. It's an Apple-made, mandatory app that lets you add a new task by typing it in on each line. You can set a date and an alert, much like you could with your calendar, and sync all your reminders via iTunes or iCloud. There's not much to this app, but if you've been missing a syncing to-do manager from Apple themselves, now you've got one.

Twitter

It's always interesting to see which services Apple decides to integrate into their operating system, and it looks like this time Twitter made the cut. You can now save your Twitter login information in your iOS settings for direct integration with the official Twitter app (downloaded separately). This isn't hugely important in and of itself, but makes it possible for developers to have tighter Twitter integration. If you're a fan of the social network, third-party apps should start to get a little more appealing.

Camera Grid and Photo Editing

The Camera app on the iPhone is supposed to launch and operate a little bit faster, although it seems about the same from where we're standing. As for features, it now has an overlaid grid that you can use for composition. The real additions are found in the Photos app, which is becoming a little more like iPhoto. You can now edit your photos to reduce red eye, enhance, and crop.

Safari Reader and Tabbed Browsing

Reader was a new feature that came to Safari in Mac OS X Lion, but now it's available for iOS. Clicking the Reader button next to any URL in Safari creates a more text-oriented version of any web page. You can then adjust the type to reduce eye strain, much like you would in an eBook reading app like Kindle or iBooks. If you're running iOS 5 on an iPad, you'll not only get Reader but another long-desired feature: tabbed browsing. It would be nice to have the option on the iPhone and iPod touch as well, but at least this is a start.

Email Styles and Enhancements

Mail has received some neat updates as well. Now you can style your messages with bold, italic, and underlined type by simply selecting it, tapping the more arrow, and choosing what you want to do. In addition to adding style, you can also look up a word in the dictionary and adjust the message quote indentation level.

Calendar Views

On the iPhone and iPod touch, you can now view your calendar in a weekly view. On the iPad, you get a yearly view as well. In addition to these new display options, you can now add, rename, and delete calendars from your device as well.

AirPlay Mirroring (A5-Based Devices Only)

If you have an iPad 2, or other iDevice with an A5 processor, you can utilize an awesome new feature called AirPlay Mirroring. This will let you mirror your device's screen on any AirPlay-compatible device (e.g. the Apple TV 2). This is great for demonstrations, but especially cool if you want to play a game (so we assume).

New Multitouch Gestures (iPads Only)

Apple has added a few new multitouch gestures for iPads. Using four or five fingers, you can now swipe up to access the multitasking bar, pinch inwards to return to the home screen, and swipe from side to side to switch between apps.

You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. Twitter's the best way to contact him, too.

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Oh no they di-int say this about Macs! LIARS! Who do they think they are??

2011-10-12T07:46:00.001-05:00

Online Safety: Who Says Macs Don't Get Viruses?

Sent to you by Chris Hunter via Google Reader:

Online Safety: Who Says Macs Don’t Get Viruses?

via the How-To Geek by Eric Z Goodnight on 10/12/11

Lots of people say " Don't worry about viruses, just get a Mac." Is this advice on the level? Let's take a look at the history of Macintosh security, and see learn what we can computer sercurity from the Mac.

Today we'll be talking about a lot of the myths and realities of security and viruses on the Mac platform. We'll also be discussing why people so commonly think "Macs don't get viruses" as well as why Macs may (or may not be) safer computers than Windows machines. And as usual, if you have any computing horror stories relating to Macs, viruses, and malware, feel free to share them with us in the comments.


Online Safety: Who Says Macs Don't Get Viruses?	How To Anonymize and Encrypt Your BitTorrent Traffic	3 Easy Tips to Fix Ugly Edges When Removing Backgrounds

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"If you spend 9 mins of ur time to save $1, ur working for less than min wage"

2011-10-07T06:18:00.001-05:00

Remember to Value Your Time

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Remember to Value Your Time

via Get Rich Slowly - Personal Finance That Makes Sense. by J.D. Roth on 10/7/11

I can't believe that Get Rich Slowly is going to link to two different xkcd comics within a single month, but it's true. Genevieve dropped a line to point out this recent gem about one of the problems with penny pinching: Sometimes people forget to value their time.

"This made me think a bit about my deal-hunting habits and what I'm really spending and saving," Genevieve wrote. But I think this concept applies to more than just shopping. It's taken me a long time to realize this, but as the income I earn from writing has increased, the more it makes sense for me to outsource routine chores.

It was you folks, for instance, who finally convinced me that I should pay to have somebody else do yardwork. I can more than break even by using my time on business-related activities. It still seems wrong on some fundamental level, but the truth is I have more free time to get the work done, and that makes me more money. (If I were paying somebody to do the yardwork but wasting my time by playing World of Warcraft, that'd be a different story. That'd be foolish.)

Frugality is an important part of personal finance, but it's not the only part. Cut your costs whenever you can, but don't forget to make more money — and remember to value your time!

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Please read this because, yes, sometimes you bore me...

2011-10-06T13:50:00.001-05:00

Listen for Repeated Phrases to Tell if You're Boring Someone [Conversation]

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Listen for Repeated Phrases to Tell if You're Boring Someone [Conversation]

via Lifehacker by Thorin Klosowski on 10/6/11

Sometimes it's difficult to gauge if the person you're talking to is interested in what you're saying, which is why Psychology Today recommends listening for repeated phrases from your listener to tell if they've grown bored.

Two common comments they recognize as signs of boredom are, "Oh really? That's interesting," and "That's hilarious." Neither of those are by a rule signs of boredom, but if they're being repeated a lot they might showcase your listeners disinterest. Any repeated responses are likely a warning sign, unless you happen to be blowing them away so much they can't respond with words. Find a few more tips to keep from boring your audience on Psychology Today. Photo by: Dave Gilbert.

7 Tips to Know If You're Boring Someone | Psychology Today

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