I first tackled this subject a few years ago, then updated it back in 2011. Given the recent batch of incomplete, incomprehensible, and/or inappropriate e-mail I've received, this seems like a good time for another update. See, every month I get loads of letters from users seeking help with a computer problem. Time doesn't permit me to answer them all (and I'll admit I don't always have an answer), but I do my best. Consequently, I need you to do your best as well. That means asking the right questions, supplying the right information, and, most of all, being courteous. A couple days ago, for example, a reader sent me an email so long and rambling that I simply couldn't take the time to read the whole thing. I skimmed it to see if I could ferret out a question, but the closest I came was this:
Songbird installs quickly and easily, but getting your music into the program is entirely up to you. You have to add files manually, by pointing Songbird in the direction of your media collection. Once your songs and videos are added to Songbird, you can take advantage of its basic media playback functions. You can play songs, rip CDs (but not burn them), create playlists, and more. Songbird does play videos, but you may have to download some video codecs to play back all files, as Songbird doesn't include some that would require it to pay a royalty. In fact, Songbird's extensive library of add-ons is just one of the factors that make this application so interesting. In there, you can find add-ons that will do everything from adding lyrics to songs as they play to displaying album art from Last.fm. If you're willing to spend some time poking around the add-on collection, you can find plenty of tools for customizing everything from the look of Songbird to the experience of using its Web browser, which displays right in the main window of the application. This allows you to find out more about your favorite artists. It also allows you to connect with other users, and lets you connect via Facebook to find out what artists your friends like, too. And that's not all: Songbird also works as a media server, streaming your media collection to UPnP or DLNA devices on the same local network. It's also available as a Web app and an Android app that sync with the desktop version. In short, there's not a lot Songbird can't do. It may all be too much for the casual user who simply wants to listen to a few tunes, and if you want to sync them to your iPhone, you're out of luck. But adventurous music fans looking for a player that they can customize will find a lot to sing about in Songbird. The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software appropriate to your system.
Mobile malware and narrowly-targeted attacks are steadily rising, according to a McAfee report released earlier this month. These ticking time bombs and other security threats should concern your small business. In many ways we've achieved a sort of equilibrium with regard to malware since the days of Internet-crippling cyber attacks like Code Red and SQL Slammer. The flood of malware hasn't stopped, but as long as you have security software in place and keep it up to date you're relatively safe from most threats. You still can't let your guard down, though. McAfee's research indicates that threats are rapidly proliferating as criminals' goals and techniques evolve. (PDF)." In this report, the security provider found that spam volume spiked initially, then declined by the end of the year. It also found a similar pattern with botnet infections—a dramatic increase that tapered off, then dropped to reach lower than previous levels. for a while. It’s true that McAfee has a vested interest in raising concerns over potential security threats because it sells security software, but as the saying goes, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
As someone who already owns and loves a Chromebook, I've been trying to wrap my head around why Google dedicated R&D, manufacturing and marketing effort to the . The Pixel is clearly not a cheap, simple portal to the Web in the mold of other Chromebooks. It has frilly features like a touch screen with a Retina display-matching 2560-by-1700 resolution, an anodized aluminum chassis, and a trio of noise-canceling microphones. The glamor doesn't stop there, though. The Pixel's outer beauty is matched by some beastly (for a Chromebook) hardware specs. It boasts an Intel Core i5 processor that thoroughly out-muscles the low-end Celeron chips found in most other Chromebooks, and 32GB of storage that's far more than what's necessary for Chrome OS. That's a lot of polish and performance for an operating system that revolves around a web browser.
as well. And it brings some much-needed new features to the table, while retaining (for the moment, anyway) the best possible price: It's free. If you've used the app in the past (on another device), you'll be glad to know that version 4.0 supports both portrait and landscape views, the latter a very welcome (and overdue) addition.
Once access has been granted, CloudMagic then begins indexing your accounts, which can take some time if your accounts are sizable. It took several hours to index a Gmail account containing thousands of messages, but only a few minutes to index a newer Twitter account. You can begin searching right away, but waiting until the indexing process is complete will deliver more accurate results. While all users will appreciate CloudMagic's new search tools, some may not appreciate the new price tag that comes along with using them too frequently. CloudMagic is still offering a free version, but it's not unlimited, as it was in the past. The free version of CloudMagic is for users who need less than 50 "previews" a month; anyone needing more will have to pay $5 a month for its Pro account. CloudMagic considers a preview the action you take after getting the search result, in which you click the result that seems relevant and you're shown a quick preview of the content it returned. In all of the time that I've been using CloudMagic, I've never used more than 50 previews per month, but if I needed to search more often, I'd be willing to pay for CloudMagic Pro. $5 a month is a small price to pay for one of the best search services around. The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.
service on Thursday, when a security breach at Zendesk spilled over to affect Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest users. that hackers downloaded the email addresses of users who contacted the three social networks for support help, along with the subject lines of said support emails. The company claims that no other critical data has been accessed. Zendesk discovered the breach earlier this week, then patched the vulnerability and closed off the hacker's access in short order. The company has more than 25,000 clients, but it said no other Zendesk customers were affected by the breach, which was apparently highly targeted.
Hewlett-Packard's CEO has dismissed persistent rumors that the company might break itself up in a move that could create more value for shareholders. "We have no plans to break up the company. I feel quite strongly that we are better and stronger together," Whitman said on HP's quarterly earnings call Thursday, responding to a question from an analyst about the company's plans. Rumors that HP might break itself up have HP later replaced Apotheker and said it would keep the division. One rationale for a break-up is that HP's shareholders would get more value if more profitable parts of the business, such as the printer and services divisions, are separated from other divisions.
The once mighty Finnish company is set to release a number of cheap feature phones and smartphones at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.
There's an excellent chance the PlayStation 4 will be the last videogame console ever, at least as we understand the term.
Of all the things that irritate us about pay TV, bundled packages that make us buy 80 lousy channels just to get the premium stuff tops the list. Intel and Dish realize this, and are leading the way to à la carte programming where we'll buy only the channels we want.Although we're still a long ...
There was a time when skateboarding and snowboarding were counter-cultural activities, but today Shaun White is a gold medalist, and Jason Naumoff is one of the big reasons why. Now, this former X-Games marketer is trying to turn "making" into a competitive sport with a project called "The Deconstruction" ? a 48-hour DIY competition/telecast happening this weekend.
For the fourth time in just over two years, the military has grounded its new stealth fighter.
Omar Hammami wasn't just an American jihadist. He was a fake emcee, using a ghostwriter for his embarrassingly bad jihadi rap career.
In the U.S., we love innovation: Sometimes we're just not good at knowing it when we see it.
With the Academy Awards coming up this Sunday, here are a few talking points to help you win friends and influence people at the Oscars party of your choice.
The prosecution of Aaron Swartz was motivated, in part, by the 2008 "Guerilla Open Access Manifesto" the internet activist had penned advocating for civil disobedience against copyright law, Swartz's attorney said Friday. The revelation underscores that the hacking charges against the former director of Demand Progress were based partly on the 26-year-old's philosophy of a world without copyright law, a world in which he said it was a "moral imperative" to unshackle the "privatization of knowledge."
Ready your enchanted browser tabs and equip your clicking hand with your sturdiest gauntlets,
When you need health care, you enter not a market but a con game in which you're first a guarantor and source of profit, and second a patient. Wired Science blogger David Dobbs explains why the government needs to step up.
The other strap-it-on-and-get-rad cameras out there are all pretty sick in their own right. But for ease of use, no POV camera is sicker than Drift Action's HD Ghost cam.
For the first time ever, NASA is hosting a live Google+ hangout with astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The hour-long event starts at 7:30 a.m. PDT/10:30 a.m. EDT.
Laser cutters were invented almost 50 years ago, but only became part of the home workshop in the past few years. In that short time, however, the maker community has embraced the machines with creative enthusiasm.
For EV drivers in need of a quick charge, a Turkish designer has created a novel concept that blankets your car in solar cells, providing juice on the go and protection from the elements.
What if you could accurately predict which patients show up for doctor's appointments and which ones don't based on past behavior? You could put an end to long waits at the doctor's office.
There is a famous question often asked online: Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses? For Wired Science blogger Rhett Allain, the answer is the horse-sized duck. Here, Rhett tells you how physics helped him select his adversary.
The next time you recoil in fear as a 3-D tiger swipes at our hero, take a moment to consider the exquisite nonlinear elasticity behind the cat's lifelike movements. Wired Science blogger Jeffrey Marlow reports on the mathematical research that makes cinematic graphics so awesome.
The NBA has released its deepest set of statistics ever, a trove of data that will let you, among other things, settle once and for all such pressing questions as whether the 1992 Chicago Bulls were better than the '96 Bulls.
The folks at security tools company Pwnie Express have built a tablet that can bash the heck out of corporate networks. Called the Pwn Pad, it's a full-fledged hacking toolkit built atop Google's Android operating system.
Our work is being re-quantified -- in a big way -- and Chris Dancy, a director in the office of the chief technology officer at BMC Software, thinks it's time for employees to take these metrics into their own hands. "If you can measure it, someone will," he says, "and that somebody should be you."
At least one person on the team behind Google?s new Chromebook Pixel is a big-time videogame nerd. That?s because the laptop has an easter egg that?s unlocked after you type in the Konami Code.
This Sunday night at the Academy Awards, Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal's Zero Dark Thirty appears poised to lose the Best Picture race to Ben Affleck and Chris Terrio's Argo, and as much as awards shows ever actually matter, it'll be a shame.
The U.S. government, automakers and safety institutions have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into getting cars talking to each other through an ad hoc Wi-Fi network. It's a large piece of a puzzle that could nearly eliminate car crashes, but an initiative from the FCC could put it in jeopardy.
Like any serious hobby, model trains offer the enthusiast any number of rabbit holes to travel down. There are dozens of scales and hundreds (if not thousands) of worthy trains that you could recreate. Historically, however, it hasn't been economically viable for a company to meet all those needs. If this sounds like the kind of situation that would benefit from rapid fabrication, Thorpe is way ahead of you.
[HTML1]This week on the Gadget Lab Show, the gang goes hands-on with the just-announced Chromebook Pixel from Google.Reviews editor Michael Calore and staff writer Nathan Olivarez-Giles both got their hands on the new Chromebook Pixel, a $1,300 premium notebook with a high-resolution touchscreen display. It runs Chrome OS like its cheaper sub-$300 brethren, but it ...
In the wake of Earth's largest meteor strike in more than a century, the world?s attention has turned skyward. The 17-meter bolide exploded in the air over the Chelyabinsk region of Russia on Feb. 15, shattering windows and injuring around 1,000 people. More money is already flowing towards future asteroid detection and mitigation strategies, but we may never be able to fully protect ourselves. But we're working on it.
Mark Laita?is not a snake owner or enthusiast but his admiration of snakes' textures and formal qualities rivals that of any?herpetologist. An admiration that is on display in his new book,
The military doesn't always pick prime real estate for its bases. Often, it prefers strange, far-flung and obscure parts of the world ? particularly when it comes to its geekiest endeavors. Here are seven.
Customer service software provider Zendesk announced a security breach that allowed attackers into its system, where they could access data from three customers this week. Wired learned those three clients were Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr.The San Francisco-based company announced the breach in a blog post published early Thursday night. Tumblr notified affected users in an ...