Computer accessories and peripheral reviews

:: Hardware Help & How-To

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.
Choosing a Calendar View on Your BlackBerry
To open your BlackBerry Calendar, go to the Home screen, press the menu key, and then select Calendar. The first time you open Calendar, you'll likely see the Day view, which is a default setting, as shown in Figure 1. However, you can change the Calendar view to one that works better for your needs:
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.
Troubleshooting a "Broken" Laptop
There aren't enough words in the dictionary to describe all the possible combinations of mechanical failures, human errors, and software issues that result in a "broken" laptop. However, there are several likely sources — some are easy to fix and some are extremely bad news. But before you declare your laptop as dead as a Monty Python parrot ("stiff, bereft of life, resting in peace, off the twig, kicked the bucket, shuffled off its mortal coil, and a member of the choir invisible"), consider some of these possible sources of problems.
Getting Your Laptop's IP Address
Every computer that's part of a network is assigned its own ID number, known as an IP address. (IP is short for Internet protocol.) You don't need to memorize or post the number on the wall, but if you run into problems with your machine, you may be asked to provide the IP address to a technician for troubleshooting. You may also need to know the IP address when you install and configure certain external devices for the network, such as firewalls or broadband modems.
Conserving Your Laptop's Power
You can do certain things to help your laptop's battery last a bit longer. On the short list, you have computer components that consume a lot of power:
Befriending the Mighty Printer Control Panel
Every printer has a control panel somewhere on its body. The fancy models have LCD screens that display lots of text: "Printer jammed," "I'm out of paper," or "You're plagiarizing," for example. Less fancy printers may have only a couple of buttons. Either way, two important buttons to find or features to access on the control panel are as follows:
Analog to Digital: Exploring External Video Converters
You have a computer with a FireWire port, and you want to capture some analog video. What are you going to do? You have many solutions, of course. You can install a video-capture card, but a good one costs a pretty penny and you have to tear apart your computer to install it. If you're lucky, you may be able to connect an analog video source to the analog inputs on your digital camcorder and then connect the camcorder to the FireWire port. This method is clumsy, however, and it simply doesn't work with some camcorders.
Adjusting Your Mouse with the Windows XP Control Panel
The settings that you see when you choose Control Panel --> Mouse will vary according to the manufacturer of your mouse. For example, the Logitech trackball displays a completely different Mouse Properties dialog box (see Figure 1) than does a Microsoft mouse because Logitech supplies its own mouse driver.
Adjusting Your Monitor's Display
In the early days, you were lucky if your PC's monitor had contrast and brightness knobs. The adjustments you can make to your monitor now are endless. Sometimes, you make adjustments using a row of buttons that adorn the front of your monitor and look almost like a second keyboard. At other times, you use a combination of generic buttons, similar to the annoying way digital clocks are set.
Adding Wireless to Your Older Laptop
Almost every new laptop now includes a wireless transceiver built in to the motherboard or attached to it through a special port in the case. However, if your older laptop doesn't include wireless facilities, you can easily upgrade and update.
Figuring Out What You Can Do with Different Breeds of Scanners
Scanners are interesting beasts — and man, you get a lot of bang for your buck! In fact, a perfectly serviceable USB scanner (as shown in Figure 1) is waiting for you at your local Maze O' Wires store for under $100, and it can do all the following things:
Exploring HDMI Digital Video Connections for Your Home Theater
The latest and greatest in digital-video and -audio connections is the HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) cable. HDMI is being included in a variety of devices these days, including HDTVs, DVD players — both the current generation of DVD players and the forthcoming high-definition Blu-ray and HD-DVD players; cable and satellite set-top boxes; Media Center Edition PCs; and the Sony PlayStation 3 gaming console.
Eliminating the Preinstalled Stuff on Your New Computer
Most computers sold today come with prepackaged stuff. Sometimes, the stuff is useful; for example, you get a new computer and a brand-new version of Microsoft Office. Or, maybe you have your choice of Office versus a home package (including Quicken and maybe Word) or a gamers' package with a ton of nifty games. That's fine.
Digitizing Existing Pictures with Scanners
Scanning existing photographic prints, drawings, slides, and negatives is a popular use for digital imaging. By scanning existing 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 e-mail 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.
Deciphering Ten Dumb PC Error Messages
If only computers had just ten dumb error messages. Back in the early days of DOS (in 1991), Microsoft maintained a list of all possible error messages in DOS Version 5 — all 20,000 of them. And that was only DOS! By now, that list has probably grown to several hundred thousand error messages. This article covers just the ones that are considered to be the most frequent, annoying, and frustrating dumb error messages.
Deciding How Much RAM Is Enough
Every motherboard has a maximum amount of memory that it can support. You can install the maximum amount by filling up all the motherboard's memory banks (sockets) with modules of the right type. RAM is easy to install, requiring only that you remove your PC's case and plug in the modules. Your PC should recognize additional RAM immediately, with no silly drivers required. Also, additional RAM will make everything run faster in Windows . . . both the applications that you run and the operating system itself.
Connecting a Laptop to a Wireless Network in Windows Vista
A laptop equipped with a wireless networking card can connect to any compatible wireless network. The first step is to find any available networks. The second step is to connect. The final step is to use the network and the goodies it provides

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