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:: Featured Articles
Wild about Wi-Fi? Learn the risks, solutions
What you need to know about wireless security.
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More Articles from
Marc Saltzman
:: Microsoft Home Magazine Tips
Kids in the kitchen
From shopping to finding recipes online, get your kids involved with the cooking.
Card tricks: Turn plain paper into superb salutations
Use your computer to create unique holiday greeting cards.
Seasonal stress busters
From getting more organized to having more fun, let your PC help you out over the holidays.
See More Advice & Projects
:: Latest Product Reviews
2010 Nissan Altima Coupe 2.5 S
A sporty looking coupe, the 2010 Nissan Altima Coupe 2.5 S proves reasonably fun to drive, while offering a smattering of good cabin tech for entertainment and navigation.
Samsung LN26B360
Although not as feature-heavy as some models in its class, Samsung's LNB360 series takes the picture quality cake among entry-level LCDs.
HP Pavilion dv4-1555dx
As a midsize entertainment laptop, the 14-inch HP Pavilion dv4-1555dx hits some right notes, but its poor battery life sours the deal.
See More Reviews
:: From The Blog...
Lenovo ThinkPad X100e details get leaked
The ThinkPad "netbook" actually isn't a netbook at all - and now we know what powers it.
Use your iPhone to kill yourself (virtually, speaking)
You'll do just about anything to get out of another long and tedious boardroom meeting – and if you're Stan, a lowly cubicle dweller who just can't take it anymore, this even includes taking your own life in a number of creative ways.
Protect yourself when shopping online this holiday season
If you’re planning to do some online shopping for your kids this Christmas, there are some things you can do to protect yourself from scams.
Productivity via GPS: how to load to-do lists based on your Android phone’s location
Using popular apps Astrid and Locale, users can automatically load to-do lists based on location or time of day.
Study: Nearly one-third of laptops fail within first 3 years
So you're dropping big bucks on a new laptop and are expecting it to last a long while, right? Well, according to the findings of a new study on computer reliability, you might not get what you bargained for.
Read More and Discuss
:: Computers & Software
Sending E-Mail from Your BlackBerry
Send an e-mail from your BlackBerry to everyone who needs to know that you now have a BlackBerry. Here's how to share your notable news:
Recording a New Task on Your BlackBerry
Recording a task on your BlackBerry is the first step to take when building a to-do list. Don't groan and roll your eyes, dreading how long this will take. Recording a task on a BlackBerry is easy, so just relax and you'll be finished in a snap.
Navigating Web Pages with a BlackBerry
Using the Browser on a BlackBerry to navigate a Web page is easy. Note that hyperlinks are highlighted on-screen. To jump to a particular hyperlink, scroll to the highlighted link on your BlackBerry and press the trackball.
How to participate in on-line surveys without any risk
When you take part in on-line surveys, you often have to provide some personal information which may be stored by the polling firm and which is sometimes used for other purposes, specifically by marketing agencies to better target their efforts.
How to buy and sell items on eBay
As the Web continues to grow in popularity, a number of businesses now use it to offer a variety of easy-to-use and highly accessible on-line services. It is now possible to shop for, and to buy and sell items without leaving the comfort of your home. However, you must exercise caution and respect certain rules to avoid potential scams.
How to configure Outlook Express 6 for use with a Sympatico e-mail account
After you've installed your modem and configured your Sympatico Internet settings, Outlook Express is still unable to retrieve your e-mail. Here's how to configure your Outlook Express account manually to receive your Sympatico mail.
See all Computers & Software Articles
:: Handhelds
Beaming Items with Your Palm Device
Beaming
is a Palm Computing feature that enables you to send information from one Palm device to another by directly pointing the two units at each other. As long as the units are no more than about three feet apart with no obstacles between them, the process is quick and simple. Informal tests show that two Palm devices lose sight of each other when they're four feet apart, and they also have some trouble communicating if they're closer than three inches or so. However, at a typical conference table, you should have no trouble beaming information to a Palm device across from you.
Backing Up Your BlackBerry Data
Backing up your data provides tremendous peace of mind, and the folks at RIM made backing up your information quite easy. You can back up your data manually or set it to autopilot.
Archiving Your Palm Data
Your Palm device can hold only a fraction of the information your desktop computer can. To save space on the Palm device, clearing things out regularly is a good idea. The Palm device has a Purge function in the Date Book and To Do List that automatically gets rid of unneeded items and moves them to an archive file, if you want.
How to view DivX files on a Palm device
Normally, it's impossible to view DivX video files on a Palm device, but now you can, thanks to an open source application you can download called TCPMP, which is free, uses few system resources and can easily be installed on most current Palm devices.
How to update a PocketPC
Updating your PocketPC can add new functionalities and provide drivers for new accessories. Updates are easy to do and don't require any special equipment.
How to add GPS to a PDA
At the time that this article is being written, only high end PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants or Pocket PC's) come with an integrated GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver upon purchase. However, you can always add this function to lower-end PDAs in the form of a compact receiver, which you can use anywhere, including in your car.
See all Handhelds Articles
:: Home Entertainment
Choosing a Digital Camcorder
When you go shopping for a new digital camcorder, you'll be presented with myriad specifications and features. Your challenge is to sort through all the hoopla and figure out whether the camera will meet your specific needs. When reviewing the spec sheet for any new camcorder, pay special attention to these items:
Getting to Know Aspect Ratios in Digital Video
Different moving picture displays have different shapes. The screens in movie theaters, for example, look like long rectangles; most TV screens and computer monitors are almost square. The shape of a video display is called the
aspect ratio.
The following two sections look at how aspect ratios affect your video work.
Choosing a Digital Video Format
Many different video formats are available for the movies that you edit on your computer. Each format uses a different codec. (A
codec,
short for
compressor/decompressor,
is a software tool that is used to make multimedia files smaller.) Common video file formats include MPEG and AVI, but these two formats are usually not suitable for movies that you plan to share online because they have big file sizes. Three other popular formats, however, are perfectly suited to the online world. These formats are as follows:
How to connect a digital camera to a television and view the photographs it contains
Did you know that you can connect your digital camera to any television with a simple cable and view your pictures? Here's how to do it.
How to clean the heads on a VCR
A properly cleaned VCR will last longer and continue to provide excellent sound and image quality for years to come. Head-cleaning cassettes do exist but after a lot of use, your VCR's heads will require a more intense cleaning. Here's how to thoroughly clean the heads on your VCR.
How to clean and maintain plasma and projector televisions
A plasma or projector television is a major purchase. Protect your investment and ensure outstanding image quality through proper maintenance.
See all Home Entertainment Articles
:: Photography
Balancing and Framing an Image
If you place every element of interest in a photograph on one side or another, leaving little or nothing to look at on the opposite side, the picture is unbalanced, like a seesaw with a child at one end and no one on the other. The best pictures have an inherent balance that makes them look graceful. Photos are frequently put in frames for a good reason: A border around a picture defines the picture's shape and concentrates attention on the image within the frame.
Using a Scanner to Make a Digital Photo
Scanning existing photographic prints is a popular use for digital imaging. By scanning existing digital images, you can preserve vintage photographs on CD-Rs and CD-RWs, repair and retouch your family album, and share images with friends and family without losing control of your valuable negatives or original prints. You can email or post your images on a Web site, even when they were not shot with your digital camera. In order to take advantage of these opportunities to use and share your existing photos in a digital format, you need to scan them into digital images.
Understanding Photography's Rule of Thirds
The position of your subject matter within a picture is one of the most important decisions you make. Whether you can move the subject or objects around, change your position, or wait until everything moves to the right spot, you should constantly be aware of how your subject matter is arranged. Photographers often consciously or unconsciously follow a guideline called the
Rule of Thirds.
It's simply a way of dividing your picture horizontally and vertically into thirds (see Figure 1). The best place to position important subject matter is often at one of the points located one-third of the way from the top or bottom and sides of the frame.
How to store digital photographs when on vacation
When you're on vacation you may run out of space on your camera's memory card and won't be able to take any more pictures. Fortunately, there are several easy ways to fix this.
How to file digital photographs on a computer
One of the great things about digital photography is that you can take lots of pictures and not worry about the cost of developing them. It's also one of its major drawbacks as you can end up with thousands of pictures on your hard drive, making your collection of photographs hard to manage. You may want to use an image management program to organize your photographs, but you can also do it quickly and easily with Windows Explorer.
How to develop digital photographs from home
Printing your digital photographs using an online photofinishing service is a great way to get traditional prints from the comfort of your own home.
See all Photography Articles
:: Portable Devices
Using Smart Playlists in iTunes
At the top of the Source list in iTunes, indicated by a gear icon, you can find what Apple (and everyone else) calls a
smart
playlist. iTunes comes with a few sample smart playlists, such as the My Top Rated playlist, and you can create your own. Smart playlists add songs to themselves based on prearranged criteria. For example, as you rate your songs, My Top Rated changes to reflect your new ratings. You don't have to set anything up — My Top Rated is already defined for you.
Updating Your iPod Manually
With manual updating, you can add music to your iPod directly using iTunes, and you can delete music from your iPod as well. The iPod name appears in the iTunes Source list, and you can double click to open it, displaying the iPod playlists.
Transferring Photos from a Photo Library to Your iPod
If you store photos in an iPhoto library on a Mac, or in a photo library managed by Adobe Photoshop Album or Photoshop Elements on a Windows PC, you can transfer photos to your color-display iPod automatically, and synchronize your iPod to your library so that any changes you make to the library are copied to your iPod. You can also limit the transfer and synchronization to albums or collections rather than the entire library.
How to convert video files for use with an MP3 player
There are many programs that allow you to convert your video files for viewing on an MP3 player with video capabilities. However, the resulting image quality following compression varies from one program to another, including software that is included with MP3 players. For the purposes of this article we tested VirtualDub, which is freeware. VrirtualDub is very easy to use and features fast encoding, however the resulting video quality is somewhat inferior to that offered by the best solutions.
How to optimize a laptop computer's battery life
It's easy to maximize your laptop's battery life. All you have to do is reduce its energy consumption. Here are some easy tips to help you get the most from your battery.
How to upgrade the hard drive on a laptop
Upgrading a hard drive on a laptop is not a very complicated operation but, before you attempt to do so, make sure you purchase a hard drive that is compatible with your computer. Also, have your Windows Installation CD close at hand.
See all Portable Devices Articles
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