Best Of 2012: How-To Guides

The core of Lifehacker is how to do stuff better, and nothing conveys that better than today’s Best Of 2012 post, rounding up our most popular how-to guides.

The Complete Guide To Creating A Seamless, Play-Everything Media Centre

DVD players are so 1999. In this day and age, a custom media centre running XBMC is the only thing you really need hooked up to your TV — whether you’re watching movies you’ve ripped, streaming your favourite TV shows, listening to podcasts, or even playing video games. This guide will tell you everything you need to know to create an awesome, customised, do-anything media centre with XBMC
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How To Build Your Own VPN

Even if you have no idea what a VPN is (it’s a Virtual Private Network), the acronym alone conjures visions of corporate firewalls and other relatively boring things, right? While a VPN is a common corporate security tool, it’s also one of the coolest things you can set up for personal use that you have probably never tried.
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How To Be An Audiophile On The Cheap

You love music, but even if you consider yourself a true audiophile, the cost of high-end sound can be, frankly, a little absurd. We talked with a handful of audio experts to find out how to get audiophile-calibre sound without emptying your savings account. Here’s what they had to say.
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How To Get Apple To Replace A Defective Out-Of-Warranty iPhone In Australia

Lifehacker’s Consumer Power Week continues with a handy guide to exercising your consumer rights if you have an out-of-warranty iPhone that’s developed a fault. Despite Apple’s frequent posturing, there’s plenty you can do, as Jason Discount explains.
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How To Watch The 2012 Grand Finals From Anywhere

It’s a weekend packed with football as both the AFL and NRL Grand Finals hit our screens — but what happens if you want to see them in HD or you’re overseas? We’ve rounded up the available options for footy viewers across the country (and the globe).
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How To Easily Create A Custom WordPress Theme

You want to start your own blog but you don’t want to look tacky by using an existing design. Creating your own theme can be daunting, but with some assistance you can have a unique design for your blog in no time. This post will help you put it all together using WordPress, the most popular (and free) blogging software available.
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How To Design Your Own Book With iBooks Author

Apple announced its new education-focused apps last week and with a new version of iBooks it has also released a free tool for making ebooks, iBooks Author. Is this just a niche tool for creating textbooks or is there something useful you can do with it?
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How To Make Your Entire Home AirPlay-Compatible

Apple’s media-streaming technology, AirPlay, is a great way to stream devices across your home, but it only works on Apple-approved destinations out of the box. Here’s how to make your entire home AirPlay-compatible, so that whether you’re using Windows or Mac, Android or iOS, XBMC or another media centre, you can stream media seamlessly between each.
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How To Use iTunes 11′s Awesome New Features

Apple released its newest version of iTunes yesterday, and it’s a complete overhaul to the entire program. As you would expect, that means there’s a few cool (somewhat) hidden features. Here are a few we’ve found especially helpful.
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How To Prepare For A Move Overseas

So you’ve decided to move overseas for the long term. You’ve got your visa sorted, you’ve booked your plane tickets, and now you need to get ready for a new life in a new country. It’s easy to lose yourself in the excitement, but you’ll need to tie up loose ends and prepare yourself for one what will be one of the most stressful experiences you’ll ever have in life.
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