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News and Top Posts
How to Stop Verizon From Selling Your App Usage and Browsing Habits to Advertisers
Last year, Verizon began tracking everything you do with your phone: the apps you use, the web sites you visit, and even where you are. Now they've started selling that info to advertisers. If you'd rather not share all that information, you don't have to. Just read this post to learn how to opt out.
Xbox Music Brings Spotify-Style Streaming Music to Xbox 360 Today, Coming Soon to Windows 8, iOS, and Android
Microsoft is releasing its new music streaming service, Xbox Music, on the Xbox 360 today. The Windows 8 version will be packaged in with the operating system when it launches on October 26. Thorin gives us the rundown in the podcast, but you can read more here.
The Best Ways to Invade Someone's Privacy
Whether you want to invade someone's privacy digitally or via their dumpster, we've got you covered. As part of evil week we take a look at the dark side of things. In this case, professional creepers. While the posts are geared at helping the creepers out in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, they're really about how you can protect yourself.
The Best Productivity Tricks Used By Evil Dictators
They may have been evil, but dictators knew how to get things done. In this post, Thorin runs through some of the best evil was to earn the productivity of your underlings.
How to Get Free Out-of-Warranty Repairs
Broke your gadget and voided your warranty (or no longer have one)? Whitson found several strategies to getting free repairs nonetheless.
Get a Free Mobile Hotspot from Freedompop
I swear this isn't an ad! Last week I ordered a free mobile hotspot from Freedompop and it's pretty great. You get 500MB of free 4G service (via Sprint's WiMax network) for free every month, and you can earn more free data by completing offers. (You can also pay them some very reasonable monthly fees for up to 10GB of transfer each month.) You have to put down a deposit for the device, but you get your money back when you cancel your service. There are no contracts and the actual hotspot is really tiny. If you need an emergency internet device free of charge (or just very reasonably-priced 4G data access), check it out.
Questions and Answers
What's the best way to buy music if you want the artist to get most of the money?
Some sites like Beatport offer a better share to the artist, but the best way to give them the most money is to buy from them directly. If they don't offer that option, subscribe to their newsletter or visit their site and either option is likely to tell you how they want you to buy their stuff. Whitson also noted that buying in the first two weeks is great for the artists because those initial sales help to determine the budget for their touring schedule. Bands make the most money off of live shows, so going to live shows is really the best way to support them. (And buying merchandise, too.)
How do I turn an external hard drive into a wireless hard drive?
To get a hard drive on your local network, all you need is a router that supports USB drives. From there you just plug it into the router, set it up in the admin panel, and you'll be good to go. If you don't have one of these routers (or don't want to buy one), just buy a Pogoplug. The older models only cost about $25 and you can hook up several drives. On top of that, you can access all your files remotely and not just on the local network.
Josh wrote in with three woes of $1 microwave pizzas made by Celeste (see the pizza to your right for a visual). Basically, they don't come with enough cheese, they don't cook evenly in the microwave, and the box always collapses under the pizza during the microwaving process.
Josh fixed the first issue by just buying some extra cheese and sprinkling it on the pizza, so that was easy. Microwaving the pizza evenly, however, is a bit more difficult. We find that microwaving on the side of the carousel helps, but the only way to find the best spot to cook it is to first microwave a plate of marshmallows. This sounds pretty weird, but doing so will reveal the hotter spots in the microwave. The marshmallows that heat up more will tell you where most of the heat is going and that's where you want to put your pizza.
To fix the box from collapsing, we recommended tearing in half and not raising the pizza up so it can't collapse. Alternatively, just rip off one of the box flaps and role it into a spiral, then shove it inside the box. This should provide a little more support during the cooking process.
Can I convert USB headphones into regular headphones?
Not really. We looked for converters and couldn't find any. That said, if you wanted to make a permanent adjustment you could slice off the USB adapter and splice your headphones with the standard TRS cable from another pair. Of course, there's no going back if you decide to do this so it's not a great solution.
Lifehacker and Gizmodo RSS feeds just show an article blurb. How can I view the entire article in my RSS feeds?
Use http://lifehacker.com/vip.xml and http://gizmodo.com/vip.xml and your RSS reader will give you the entire article instead of just a snippet.
Tips of the Week
Thorin's Tip: Before You Upgrade, Remember What You're Going to Lose
Thorin's favorite tip comes from former Gizmodo editor Brian Lam. He said that the best way to avoid a premature upgrade is to remember what you might be giving up: a trip to a tropical getaway, a new suit or perhaps a down payment on a new bed that will help you sleep better.
Read more
Whitson's Pick: More Free Dropbox Space for Students
Dropbox is holding a promotion for students in which you can gain 3GB of extra Dropbox space for two years, plus more depending on how many people in your school sign up.
Learn how this works
Dachis' Pick: Use Your iPhone as a Webcam
Whether your webcam is broken or you just don't have one, you can still video chat with the aid of your iDevice. While not an explicit tip and more of a download, a clever app called iWebcam allows you to use your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch as a webcam for your Windows PC or Mac.
Learn more
Downloads of the Week
Thorin's Pick: Readtime (iOS)
Readtime is an app that scans the articles you have saved in Readability, analyzes their length, and dishes you stories based on how much time you have available to read them.
Download Readtime
Whitson's Pick: OpenELEC
If you're looking to get a kickass XBMC media center up and running quickly, OpenELEC is a fast-booting, all-in-one build of XBMC that now includes full support for recording your favorite shows, directly from a TV tuner card.
Download OpenELEC
Dachis' Pick: Desktop Groups (OS X)
Like Fences for Windows, Desktop Groups creates categorized sections of files and folders on your desktop. If you've got a messy desk, this app can help you regain control.
Download Desktop Groups
How Do I Submit a Question?
Please keep your questions as brief as possible. This means about 3-5 sentences for emails and 30-60 seconds for calls and videos. Your questions can be specific, but broader questions are generally better because they'll apply to more people. For example, "how can I breathe new life into my old PDA?" is much better than "what can I do with an old HP iPAQ 210?" Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!
Newspaper, Computer, and Clock (by Brandon Hopkins) provided by the Noun Project.
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