Computers and hardware

How to get Android notifications in Windows

If you work at a computer for any length of time, the odds are good that you'll be interrupted by your mobile device. It's fairly easy to just mute it, but sometimes you need to act on a text or call that comes your way. DeskNotifier sends notifications from your Android device to your Windows computer. Here's how to use it: 

Download the  Windows app here and the  Android app here and install them both. The first time you run the Android app, you will be directed to turn it on … Read more

How to monitor hard-drive health with DiskCheckup for Windows

Even if you happen to have a good backup solution, a hard-drive failure can be a major inconvenience. If you don't have a good backup solution, then a drive failure can be catastrophic. There are clues, however, that can help you predict problems with your hard drive.

DiskCheckup for Windows uses your drive's S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) info to monitor its health and help you notice problems before you experience a complete failure.

In order to use DiskCheckup, you have to have at least one drive that supports S.M.A.R.… Read more

How to share files via e-mail in OS X

One common method of sharing files is to e-mail them as attachments. This can be done in OS X Mail by clicking the Attach toolbar button (or by pressing Shift-Command-A) in a new message and then selecting the files to attach. However, as OS X has developed, Apple has added options that have made this far more convenient, though each has its benefits and drawbacks.

Drag and drop There is a basic drag-and-drop attachment-handling option, where you can select a file or group of files in the Finder and drag them to an e-mail message you are composing. This option … Read more

Six tips for managing your iTunes library

About the time my iTunes music library reached 5,000 tracks I knew it was time for a cleanup. While I was at it, I adjusted the volume on some tracks that I had converted from audio cassettes, made sure joined tracks play in sequence, set iTunes to fill my iPod automatically, and learned some handy playback-control keyboard shortcuts.

Now I'm spending more time listening to the tracks in my iTunes library and less time skipping, scrolling, and searching.

The semi-automatic way to remove duplicate media files iTunes provides two options for identifying duplicate files: one based on the … Read more

How to use multiple disks with Time Machine in Mountain Lion

Having a full system backup solution for any PC is a highly recommended setup, but a preferred setup is to have redundant backups either in the same location or better yet, in multiple locations. While Apple has offered its Time Machine service as a fairly robust backup solution for OS X users, the service has been limited to a single backup drive and did not support any redundancy options. In Mountain Lion this has changed and you can now use multiple drives with Time Machine for the same system.

In prior versions of OS X, users had to either use … Read more

Mac tip: SendRail makes it dead simple to share files

Granted, e-mailing someone an attachment is not difficult. Neither is sharing files via Dropbox, Google Drive, or another online repository. If you use a Mac and are on Facebook, however, there is an easier way. Free app SendRail makes sending a file to your Facebook contacts just a right-click or keyboard shortcut away.

After installing SendRail and hooking it into Facebook, you will hardly know it's there. It adds a small icon to the menu bar, along with a line to your right-click menu. To send a file via SendRail, right-click on the file and choose "Send To … Read more

This week in awesome: Twelve 4-star gadgets and apps

I'd call this week the calm before the brewing Motorola/iPhone/rumored smaller iPad/Kindle update/Surface storm, but in truth, fall gadget winds are already whipping up. This week's Microsoft Release to Manufacturing of Windows 8 signals the company's final few weeks before a hurricane of Windows 8 machines blow into the market.

Storm metaphor too heavy-handed? I'll just cut to the chase: Seth Rosenblatt took a very close look at this final version of Windows (it's the code that ships to partners installing the OS on new computers) and made a call: It'… Read more

Home networking explained, Part 2: Optimizing your Wi-Fi network

Editors' note: This post is part of an ongoing series. For the other parts, check out the related stories.

Since my last post on the basics of home networking, which is Part 1 of this series, I've been flooded with even more e-mails than I had been before (which explains why some of you haven't heard back from me). The good news is that nobody is asking about what a router is anymore. I guess I did an OK job explaining that in my previous post.

Most of the e-mails this time asked about how to have the … Read more

How to set a due date for Mountain Lion Reminders

Apple's new Reminders application in Mountain Lion can be used to make a quick to-do list for various projects. One feature in previous implementations of reminders in iCal was a due date option where you could set when a specific task was to be completed. While this option is a bit redundant with the new notification options in the Reminders application, it can be implemented for tasks if needed.

When you create a reminder in the Reminders application, you can double-click it, select it and press Command-I, or click the "i" character to the right of the … Read more