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Lifehacker
Lifehacker (lifehacker.com) has great Apple iPod news, photos, videos and more
Today
First Glimpse at Google Chrome OS
When, on what, and how much? Google released Chrome OS' source code today, but one of Chrome's lead engineers, Idan Avraham, said a finished Chrome OS arrives "about a year from today." They took pains to note that Google itself won't be offering Chrome OS as a download to install on any syst...
Monday, Nov 16
Remains of the Day: Breaking EULAs Is Surprisingly Illegal Edition [For What It's Worth]
Apple Scores Massive Win in Psystar Case California judge hands down a fairly complete victory for Apple against a noted hackintosh maker. Summation: Apple has every right to limit where and how OS X gets installed. [OS News]Why You Can't Use Personal Technology at the Office
You're Backing Up Your Data the Wrong Way [Backup]
What Should You Backup? When you're backing up your files, there's no reason to make a backup of every single thing on your hard drive-in fact, it would be a huge waste of space to backup your Windows folder if you have to reinstall the whole system in order to restore the backups again. Here's...
Sunday, Nov 15
Replace Your Mac Mini's IR Receiver for Non-Apple Remotes [Remote Control]
If you're using a Mac Mini as a media center and want to use a non-Apple remote control with it, this tutorial can help you keep your Mini's sleek form factor and avoid ugly IR receiver dongles. Replace the IR Unit on a Mac Mini [via Hack a Day]
Five Best Online Backup Tools
CrashPlan takes an interesting approach with their backup software. You can download the software for free and use it to perform local backups on your computer and home network as well as back up data to a friend's computer if they are also running CrashPlan (so it's sort of off-site if a fri...
Thursday, Nov 12
Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony
Windows 7 probably put two partitions on your hard drive: one, about 100 MB in size, holding system restoration data. We don't want to touch it. Right-click on the bigger partition to the right, and choose Shrink Partition. After a little bit of hard drive activity and a "Please wait" window,...
Wednesday, Nov 11
Remains of the Day: SafeSearch Update Makes Your Kids Hate You Edition [For What It's Worth]
If you like data, you'll love some Wolfram Alpha integration anywhere you can get it. [TechCrunch]Vimeo's videos get iPhone, Android-friendly YouTube isn't the only iPhone-friendly video site on the market. Popular video sharing site Vimeo now supports iPhone-friendly formats for s...
Tuesday, Nov 10
Remains of the Day: AT&T Still Stalls on iPhone Tethering Edition [For What It's Worth]
Google Maps adds Street View for Hawaii for the full 50 state Street View experience. Aloha! [Google Mobile Blog]AT&T: iPhone tethering still coming, but no date set More news of nothing on the tethering front for iPhone users. "It's still coming. No idea when." It's why we went ahead and...
Stop Paying for Windows Security; Microsoft's Security Tools Are Good Enough
Keep Windows Updated When it comes to protecting yourself, it's laughable how many people install multiple antivirus applications but don't keep their system updated with the latest operating system patches. Last April, the Conficker worm was exploiting and spreading on millions of...
Monday, Nov 9
Apple TV Update Stops Your Media from Disappearing [Updates]
If you've got an Apple TV and you updated to Apple TV 3.0 a couple weeks back, it's time to update yet again to 3.0.1—if you'd prefer your content not temporarily disappear until it's re-synced, that is. It's a pretty big bug, and presumably pretty annoying, so grab the update for the fix. For our p...
Friday, Nov 6
From the Tips Box: Multiple Dropbox Accounts, Twitter Notes, and Cloud Billing [From The Tips Box]
Readers offer their best tips for running multiple instances of Dropbox at once, using Twitter to jot down notes and ideas for yourself, and using Google Docs to manage money between friends. Don't like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page. About the Tips Box: Every...
Change Your iPhone's Root Password After Jailbreaking It [Security]
From the files of the Worth Mentioning Again Dept.: If you're jailbreaking your iPhone to get tethering up and running, be sure to change the root access password once you do. Besides hacker ransom attempts, it's just good security sense.
Wednesday, Nov 4
Remains of the Day: Comcast's New Internet Throttling Plans Edition [For What It's Worth]
Mozilla's browser sync extension, Weave, continues pushing toward a 1.0 release. There's not a ton of major changes in this release beyond bug fixes and a better interface, but if you're a Weave user, you'll certainly want to update. [Mozilla Labs]100,000 Apps Now Available for the iPhone...
Enable Tethering on Your iPhone 3G or 3GS Running 3.1.2 [IPhone]
Jailbreak your iPhone with blackra1n (available for Windows and Mac).Unlock your phone with blacksn0w—which you can do through the blackra1n icon on your iPhone post-jailbreak.Install a custom IPCC file via mobile Safari.Turn on tethering in your iPhone settings. The MobileCrunch pos...
Tuesday, Nov 3
Remains of the Day: iPhone Carrier Unlocking Edition [For What It's Worth]
Blackra1n jailbreaks your iPhone 3.1.2 on Windows or Mac, and now there's blacksn0w, a tool to unlock your 3.1.2 iPhone 3G or 3GS for other carriers with ease. [via Gizmodo]60 Minutes Puts Forth Laughable, Factually Incorrect MPAA Propaganda On Movie Piracy
Brush Your iPhone's Bezel to Hide Scuffs and Scratches [IPhone]
Hit the link for closer looks at what the finished product looks like, and drop your own iPhone (or other smartphone) physical fixes in the comments. 10 minute project: giving your iPhone bezel a brushed look [Just Another iPhone Blog]
Monday, Nov 2
Remains of the Day: $30 a Month for TV from iTunes Edition [For What It's Worth]
uTorrent 2.0 wants to eliminate the need for network throttling (without hurting your download speeds), social games (Farmville, anyone?) are shady, the Google Wave Federation Protocol is ready for adventurous developers, and Apple wants iTunes to replace your cable bill.
Saturday, Oct 31
Top 10 Apps that Boost Your Media Center
6. Plug Hulu into Windows Media Center It's not an officially supported streaming site, like Netflix or CBS, but Hulu's own Hulu Desktop can be worked into Windows Media Center with a clever little back-and-forth plug-in. Install Hulu Desktop Integration, and you'll get an icon for Hulu a...
Wednesday, Oct 28
Set Up Windows Home Server to Automate Your Backups and Corral Your Media [Winter Upgrades]
Taking Advantage of Windows Home Server Once you've got Windows Home Server hooked up to your network, you'll want to make sure to take full advantage of the available features. Install the Home Server Connector Software on every machine you want to backup—you can backup a maximum of 10 ma...
Tuesday, Oct 13
Opinion: Gist Brings Inbox Aggregation and Sorting to iPhone [Downloads]
iPhone/iPod touch: Gist, an inbox aggregation webapp that sorts your email, RSS, and other feeds based on the frequency and importance of contacts, has released a free iPhone app that brings the same powers to the small screen. Gist iPhone Application Now Available [Gist]
Monday, Sep 28
Turn Your Windows 7 PC Into a Wireless Hotspot
Everybody's got a wireless network at home, but if you've ever wanted to get your iPod touch, iPhone, or other wireless device connected but all you've got is a wired network at work, school, or elsewhere, Windows 7 makes this process trivial.
Wednesday, Sep 23
Nine DIY Docks for Your Non-iPhone
The business card stand Originally built for an iPhone, but given its basic support structure and width, this cheap and fast phone dock would work with any flat-screen phone that's not too much heavier than an iPhone. When someone hands you an over-designed, high-falutin' business card...
Tuesday, Sep 15
DIY Print-and-Fold iPhone and iPod touch Dock Looks Great
Design site Dessine moi un objet (Google translates that to "Draw me something") has shared an impressively attractive and simple iPhone and iPod touch dock. Oh yeah, and they've included an excellent printable template. You can see the printable PDF below:
Saturday, Aug 8
Top 10 Tricks for Making Your Playlists Rock
6. Share music with friends and coworkers If you hear someone with a killer tune playing from their own hard drive, they can usually be cajoled into sending a copy your way. But what if they've brought that track in on their MP3 player? Grab a copy of DoubleTwist for Mac or PC, hook up their phone...
Wednesday, May 6
How To: DIY Solar-Powered iPhone or iPod Charger
CA We've already shown you MintyBoost, a battery-powered USB charger built from an Altoids tin; now feast your eyes on MightyMintyBoost, a rechargeable, solar-powered MintyBoost charger. Instructables user Honus's DIY MightyMintyBoost tutorial is a bit ...
Friday, May 1
Top 10 Battery Hacks, Tips, And Tricks
8. Get serious rechargeable batteries (and a charger) It's a help to the environment, and your checking account, to use rechargeable batteries instead of letting your Wii remotes and other gadgets eat through AAs. But the grocery store brands and accessories often don't seem worth the ha...
Thursday, Mar 5
Opinion: A Year of the App Store: Successes and Failures [App Store]
One year ago, Apple opened the doors to the iTunes App Store. We've been wowed with some of the apps, left longing for others, and we've got a (relatively) small wish list. Note: For the rest of this feature, we'll be using the term iPhone, but all apps, unless otherwise noted, also work on iPod...
Thursday, Jan 29
Patch: QuickPWN 2.2.1 Jailbreaks Your Updated iPhone, iPod touch [IPhone]
iPhone jailbreaking tool QuickPWN has been updated to jailbreak your iPhone running version 2.2.1, the latest software update from Apple.
Tuesday, Jan 27
Patch: iPhone and iPod touch 2.2.1 Update Available, Fixes Bugs [IPhone]
The update applies to all versions (iPhone and iPhone 3G) and most likely to both generations of the iPod touch. (Just plug in your device and hit Update to find out for sure.) It's not a terribly exciting update, so don't expect any cool new features. (Sorry to all you unreasonable folks wanti...
Saturday, Dec 27
Opinion: Top 10 Ways to Repurpose Your Old iPod [Lifehacker Top 10]
If you live in a world of Windows systems and you're sick of being tied down to iTunes and its memory-hogging tendencies, you don't have to live with it. Back in 2006, Adam showed us how to make a self-sustaining iPod using the free vPod software. vPod's author notes that the tool for directly a...
Thursday, Dec 11
Opinion: Most Popular How-To Features of 2008 [Best Of 2008]
When the iPhone and iPod touch 2.0 software update hit devices this summer, users were thrilled that they could enjoy Apple-approved third-party apps on their hardware—but that doesn't mean they don't want to have their cake and eat it, too. Our guide to jailbreaking your iPhone running 2....
Copy and Paste Coming to Your iPhone via the Web
With a little Javascript ingenuity, a new service called Pastebud aims to bring the long awaited copy-and-paste functionality to the iPhone and iPod touch.
Saturday, Nov 8
Sharepod Frees Your iPod From iTunes
Windows only: You don't have administrative rights or iTunes at work, but you want to be sure you can beat box along to your favorite Kenny G album blasting from the Dell OEM speakers in your cubicle? Sharepod has you covered: it's a lightweight iTunes alternative you can launch directly f...
Thursday, Oct 23
Gmail Mobile Hits 2.0, Adds Offline Access
Gmail Mobile 2.0 adds basic offline email capability, performance improvements, and improved keyboard shortcuts for BlackBerry and J2ME-supported cellphones. This is a huge update, especially considering offline access is something that everyone is waiting for from a Google-buil...
Wednesday, Oct 8
Block Ads on Your Jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch [Step By Step]
If you haven't done so already, you'll need to jailbreak your iPhone or iPod touch. We've previously posted guides for doing so in Windows with WinPwn, and with the PwnageTool on a Mac.Click the Cydia icon on your jailbroken device. Choose the "Search" function from the bottom, and type in "O...
Tuesday, Sep 30
IBM iNotes Ultralite Brings Lotus Access to iPhones
iPhone/iPod touch users whose offices rely on Lotus Notes for email, calendar, and contacts can now access their information through a customized Safari Mobile interface created by IBM. CNET reports that IBM and Apple are working on a full-fledged Lotus Notes Traveler app or interface...
Friday, Sep 19
This Week's Best Posts
The popular open-source VLC media player has released a significant update with an interface refresh for Windows, Linux, and Unix, improved playlist and media library tools, and a whole lot more."Make Your Linux Desktop More Productive
Friday, Sep 12
Make Your Linux Desktop More Productive
If you're dual-booting with Windows, there's no reason to build a wall between the two systems. Most modern Linux distributions can read and write to hard drive spaces created for Windows, free Windows apps can grab files from Linux, and many free programs can even share configuration se...
Thursday, Sep 11
Five Best Calendar Applications [Hive Five]
iCal comes standard with Mac OS X, and this simple but increasingly powerful calendar application proves to be all many Mac users ever need. iCal integrates smoothly with the rest of the your Mac apps, supports MobileMe syncing to the cloud (as long as MobileMe is working, that is), and the...
Wednesday, Sep 10
Pitch Anywhere with a Cell Phone Portfolio
The post focuses on the iPhone or iPod touch, but any smart phone with a big enough screen and email capabilities would do. As Arnold points out, it's an incredibly simple idea, but it's the kind of preparedness that could be the perfect supplement to your already killer elevator pitch. Life...
Tuesday, Sep 2
Back to School Power Tools for the Savvy Student [Back To School]
If you don't have a laptop—or just don't feel like hauling it all over campus—opt for setting up a "desktop on a stick" on your USB drive or iPod. You can install either MojoPac (portable Windows) or DSL (Damn Small Linux) on a flash drive and set up your favorite software and save your most imp...
Friday, Aug 15
This Week's Best Posts [Highlights]
Several Linux users in the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Flickr group are showing off their Ubuntu Hardy Heron desktops—dressed up as a Mac."Pwnage Tool 2.0.2 Jailbreaks iPhone 2.0.1 Software Mac only: The iPhone 2.0 jailbreak utility for Mac, PwnageTool, has just been updated to accommo...
Tuesday, Aug 12
Opinion: Turn Your iPhone or iPod Touch Into a Multi-Room Wireless Music Remote
Enable AirTunes in iTunes The next to last thing you need to do is open up the iTunes preferences and tell your computer to look for remote speakers with iTunes. You'll find this checkbox in the Advanced tab of the iTunes preferences. Finally, it's time to set up our iPhone or iPod touch as remo...
Friday, Aug 1
Opinion: Forget the iPhone--The iPod Touch is Good Enough
At the moment, there are about 1020 App Store applications for the iPhone, and roughly 970 of them, or 95 percent, work with the iPod touch. Developers, obviously, don't consider speech and speaker functions crucial to good software, nor always-on net connections.
Friday, Jul 18
Tap and Hold an Image to Save It to Your iPhone
iPhone owner Jason Kottke offers a handy tip for getting images onto your phone (or iPod touch): On any page in Mobile Safari, tap and hold an image to save it to your device. As Kottke points out, this is very useful for assigning images to your contacts or getting new wallpaper (as useful as t...
Thursday, May 29
Senuti Copies Music from Your iPhone or iPod Touch to Your Mac
Mac only: The newest beta release of previously mentioned Senuti—a utility that copies music from your iPod to your computer—now supports the iPhone and iPod touch. Just install Senuti on your Mac, hook up your iPhone or iPod touch, and the Senuti beta will list all the songs on the device a...
Thursday, May 15
Rip DVDs for an iPhone in Linux [How To]
The Tombuntu blog points out that the latest Hardy Heron release of Ubuntu Linux doesn't play nice with multi-platform video/DVD converter HandBrake—at least not the version with a nice graphical interface. For those syncing their iPhone or iPod touch with Linux, or just wanting to get...
Friday, May 9
Sync Your iPhone Wirelessly in Linux
Apple may open up its iPhone and iPod touch devices to third-party apps next month, but the chances that Linux users will get invited to the party are slim at best. That hasn't stopped some intrepid hackers from coming up with a better music-syncing solution than the one Mac and Windows user...
Tuesday, Apr 15
Opinion: Turn Your iPod Touch into an iPhone
2.) iPhone headphones with mics don't work with the iPod touch, so if you're using an iPod touch you'll need a Touchmod mic. The Touchmod mics come in a variety of flavors, from the simple dongle that plugs into the syncing port to the headphone-and-mic combo that works much like the iPhone he...
Wednesday, Apr 2
Install Mail, Notes, Maps and other iPhone Apps on Your iPod Touch
The Simplehelp weblog details how to save $20 and roll a DIY install of the once iPhone-only applications Mail, Google Maps, Stocks, Weather, and Notes on your iPod touch. The method itself is completely painless. First, you'll need a jailbroken iPod touch (don't worry, it'll only take 45...
Friday, Mar 7
How to Copy a DVD
Wired magazine's How-To Wiki covers the step-by-step for duplicating a video DVD using free and pay-for software. They recommend using Mac The Ripper to rip the DVD (sans copy protection) to your hard drive. (We also like Drive-in.) From there, you've got to purchase something like Roxio P...
Wednesday, Feb 27
Top 10 DIY Car Hacks
Take a look at all the devices in your life, and which one seems the most resistant to DIY improvements, repairs and useful tweaking? The answer, most likely, is that four-wheeled gadget resting just outside. But while many of us lifehack fans aren't as comfortable in our driveways as our d...
Wednesday, Jan 9
Get Kind-Of Copy and Paste on your iPhone/iPod Touch
One of the first things that stood out about my new iPod touch's browser interface was the lack of a copy/paste function—and it really stuck out when sending email or filling out forms. Quasi Clipboard, a bookmarklet for the iPhone and iPod touch, isn't a true copy/paste add-on, but it's a d...
Thursday, Jan 3
The 20 Best iPhone and iPod touch Applications [Feature]
Last week we showed you how to install third party apps on your iPhone or iPod touch, and since then a new firmware preview has leaked its way to the 'nets with saucy new features that—once released—may tempt you to abandon your jailbreak for the newly introduced features. Fact is, until the...
Thursday, Dec 20
The 23 Best iTunes Add-ons [Feature]
MP3 to iPod Audio Book Converter (Windows): Turn your MP3 audiobooks into the iTunes standard M4B audiobook format easily with MP3 to iPod Audio Book Converter. (Download) (Read more) iTunes Sync (Windows): Love iTunes but haven't shelled out for an iPod? iTunes Sync syncs your iTunes l...
Tuesday, Sep 11
Easily Install iPodLinux [Linux Tip]
sudo ./installer.shI installed iPodLinux on my iPod, and besides an occasional freeze up (and a decent drain on the battery), iPodLinux has been running very well. After installing iPodLinux you'll still be able to sync your iPod just as you normally would in addition to doing other fun thi...
Thursday, Aug 30
DIY iPod Car Mount On the Cheap
Build a DIY car mount for your MP3 player with web site Cloudcraft.com's step-by-step guide. The guide uses a simple fifty cent hardware mount that the author inserts in his Volkswagen and then clips his iPod to with his existing belt clip whenever he's ready for some iPod time in the car (the...
Monday, Jul 9
Bunking The Status Quo:
Weblog Simplehelp runs through 10 alternatives to iTunes for managing your iPod, from Amarok to YamiPod. If you're not a fan of iTunes but you need a good management software for your iPod, the list of strong alternatives has never been better.
Sunday, Jul 8
How To: Manage your music with Winamp
It's a relatively straightforward process, great for anyone who (for whatever reason) is not happy with iTunes as the default music management system. I was able to test it out within about five minutes; your mileage may vary depending on how many songs you have on your iPod. How to use Winam...
Tuesday, Mar 6
How to fix a non-booting iPod
The first two steps are pretty standard fair - namely resetting or restoring your iPod. Steps 3-5,on the other hand, involve cracking open your little white pillar of music and attempting to fix hardware problems yourself. The first step in the hardware fix, which they claim works 6/7 time...
Tuesday, Feb 20
How To: Hack Attack: Add music and movies to your iPod from any computer ...
This week I'll show you how to free yourself from the one computer, one music library shackles of iTunes using alternative software for managing the iPod. When you're done here, you'll be able to add music and movies to your iPod from ...
Thursday, Dec 7
Ask Lifehacker: The gift of a pre-loaded iPod
Actually, you could easily accomplish something like this with any number of programs designed to copy tunes from the iPod to your computer. If you're not set on using iTunes, you could load the music on the iPod and let your sister manage everything using the method described in my self-su...
Thursday, Apr 27
How To: One-click video conversion for iPod
If you've been struggling to find a simple solution for converting AVI, MPEG, and DiVX videos to the iPod compatible format, this simple step-by-step should have you up and converting in no time. How to convert videos to iPod format for free (avi, mpeg, divx to ipod conversion) [Geek Feed]
Friday, Mar 31
Illustrated iPod commands
Command-Tab has some nice illustrations of lesser known iPod commands. I grew tired of Googling each time I needed the correct button sequence to put iPods into their various modes, so I've put together this little interactive display. Click on one of the three darkened buttons above to di...
