highlights

This Week's Best Posts

Too busy for Lifehacker this week? We forgive you. Have a recap of this week's most popular posts:

  • Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera
    "If you're using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you've got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box."
  • Make Windows More Productive Without Installing a Thing
    "The most common complaint we get from Lifehacker readers in Windows IT lockdown is that the majority of our tips require installing third-party applications—which you can't do if you don't have the right permissions on your PC."
  • Best Online File Sharing Services
    "Whether you're trying to share megabytes worth of music with a friend or send an important document to a coworker, nothing outshines a fast, easy-to-use file-sharing service."
  • Determine If Your ISP is Throttling Your BitTorrent Traffic
    "Web application Glasnost simulates BitTorrent downloads on your computer to determine whether or not your internet service provider (ISP) is throttling your BitTorrent transfers."
  • Top 10 Tools to Get Blogging Done
    "Writing your blog should be a fun way to stretch your mind and stay connected to trends, friends, and the greater world, not another computer task that takes far too long to get done."
  • How Wil Wheaton Gets Things Done
    "In 1988, if you'd told my Star Trek-loving 12-year-old self that someday I'd get to meet Wil Wheaton—and that he'd know my name—my preteen head would have exploded."
  • How to Buy a Digital Camera and Ignore Expensive Hype
    "Wired's How-To Wiki takes a group-edited look at the digital camera market and how a newcomer (or, more likely at this point, a buyer replacing their first, outdated model) can parse all the features and statistics to come out with a reasonable bargain."
  • Creative Ways to Reuse "Disposable" Items
    "We asked earlier this week what disposable items you had found clever re-uses for, and the answers are in. Not surprisingly, some of you have some pretty crafty uses for household goods that usually end up at the curb."
  • Get 91% Off Microsoft Office Ultimate
    "A Microsoft student promotion that slashes 91% off a copy of Office Ultimate applies to anyone with a .edu email address—and most universities offer .edu addresses to their alumni for free."
  • Slipstream Service Pack 3 into Your Windows XP Installation CD
    "Next time you wipe your PC's hard drive clean and reinstall Windows with that old installation disc, you don't want to connect your fresh, unpatched and vulnerable system to the internet only to download 176 new updates from Microsoft."


10:00 AM on Sat May 10 2008
by Lifehacker US Edition

comment


apple iphone

View and Edit iPhone Notes in Your Browser with RemoteNote

iPhone/iPod touch only: The lamest omission in the whole of iPhone development is the lack of sync for Notes. Let's be honest—the iPhone keyboard is nice, but you don't want to have to use it for all your notes. That's where RemoteNote comes in, a donationware iPhone application available through Installer.app. Whenever you run it, you can view, edit, create, delete, back up, and even print your notes through your web browser. Similar shareware tools have been available, but RemoteNote is the first no-cost option I've seen. RemoteNote works with both the iPhone and iPod touch, requires installation of the Jiggy Runtime (also from Installer) and a jailbroken iPhone. Thanks Lee!


9:00 AM on Sat May 10 2008
by Adam Pash

5 comments


in brief  

Web-based image editor Photoshop Express adds Flickr to its list of importable sources. Now you can grab images from your Flickr account, edit them in PS Express, and put them back all prettified without downloading a thing. It's not full-on Photoshop, but still a great web-based editor for your Flickr photos.

8:55 AM on Sat May 10 2008
by Gina Trapani

1 comment


itunes

Convert Any Text to an iTunes-Compatible Audiobook

Web site Mac OS X Hints details how to create an iTunes audiobook (i.e., an M4B audio file) from any text in just a couple of clicks. The process involves installing a new service to your Services menu, then selecting your to-be-audiobooked text and choosing AppName -> Services -> Speak to iTunes Audiobook. When the conversion is complete, the resulting audio file is automatically imported to iTunes in the Audiobooks section. The service uses the new Alex voice in Leopard, and the results are actually very listenable.


8:00 AM on Sat May 10 2008
by Adam Pash

4 comments



featured download

Tobu Organises Notes and Lists Like Nobody's Business


Windows/Linux only: Freeware application Tobu is a tag-based note-taking tool with an emphasis on efficiency and keyboard shortcuts. Like most capture applications of this kind, Tobu may take some time to fully understand and integrate into your workflow, but you'll likely be rewarded once you do. I haven't spent enough of that time with Tobu, but after FreewareGenius' rave review, it looks like a strong alternative to shareware-only, previously mentioned Evernote (though it's lacking the multimedia element). Tobu is freeware, currently in beta, Windows and Linux only.


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7:00 AM on Sat May 10 2008
by Adam Pash

7 comments


featured iphone download

OrbLive Streams Live TV to Your iPhone or iPod Touch

iPhone/iPod touch only: You may be familiar with Orb for its music or TV-streaming abilities (it can even turn your Wii into a media center), but now the folks at Orb have taken on the iPhone and iPod touch with a new application called OrbLive. You can now stream live television to your device, in addition to music, videos, photos, and everything else Orb is known for. Hit the jump for a look at Orb's live streaming in action and a guide for installing OrbLive on your iPhone or iPod touch.


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6:00 AM on Sat May 10 2008
by Adam Pash

13 comments


stuff we like

The Pilot's Pen Lights and Writes

Whether you're flying a jumbo jet at night or working on a crossword puzzle in the dark, the Pilot's Pen is a nifty solution. The LED-powered penlight illuminates the page while you write, or you can retract the ink and just use it as a mini flashlight—useful for checking a map or locating something in the night driver's glove compartment. The Pilot's Pen will set you back 20 bucks, and it's available at Amazon.


5:00 AM on Sat May 10 2008
by Gina Trapani

9 comments


featured firefox extension

YouTube Comment Snob Filters Stupid Comments

Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension YouTube Comment Snob filters comments on YouTube videos that don't meet your snobbish standards. It does so using a combination of criteria, like a user-defined threshold of spelling errors (using Firefox's spell-checker), excessive punctuation, and excessive capitalisation. You can enable or disable any of the filter options if you don't mind capital letters, for example, and you can view any hidden comment by simply clicking Show. It's a pretty saucy little extension, but now it's hard not to want a full-on Internet Comment Snob.


4:00 AM on Sat May 10 2008
by Adam Pash

28 comments


apple iphone

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 users have—a two-way wireless transfer, from almost any music organising app you like, no wait for iTunes or USB cable required. Linux users, let's take a look at how to set up your iPhone or iPod touch for any-time wireless access after the jump.


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2:00 AM on Sat May 10 2008
by Kevin Purdy

11 comments


ask the readers

Your Gmail Feature Wishlist?

Once upon a time, gigabytes of storage space and message labels and IMAP access in web-based email was unheard of—until Gmail raised the industry bar and user expectations of what you get with your free webmail account. But now that we're all used to Gmail's goodness, it's time to cast a critical eye at the little niggly things that are missing from Gmail's web client. This week I spent two hours wrestling two Gmail accounts to the ground trying to hack together a filtered auto-response that only goes to certain annoying senders. (The approach worked for Adam back in the day, but it was a no-go for me.) The futile exercise made me think of just a few features I wish Gmail had built-in, but doesn't. Namely:


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1:30 AM on Sat May 10 2008
by Gina Trapani

185 comments