May 12 - 11:25pm EDT   Not every computer has a built-in microphone or speakers, and to fix this problem, you typically have to connect your own peripherals through multiple cables. Worse may be that if the cables aren’t long enough, you’ll still be tied to the computer if you want to make use of the hardware. To avoid these two problems, Logitech offers its ClearChat Wireless headset. [full story]

May 12 - 2:20pm EDT   For anyone who needs a low-cost smartphone that still offers advanced features, take a look at the Samsung BlackJack II smartphone. The BlackJack II may lack fancy features found in more expensive smartphones, such as a touchscreen, but its still more than functional. Since the BlackJack II uses Windows Mobile, it’s especially handy for synchronizing data with a Windows PC (but less desirable for Mac users). [full story]

May 9 - 8:15pm EDT   Since switching over to Intel processors, the Mac is now capable of running practically any operating system. The simplest option is to use Boot Camp to create a dual-boot system that can run Mac OS X or Windows XP/Vista. A more flexible solution is to run Mac OS X and one or more additional operating systems at the same time. To run another operating system within Mac OS X, you’ll need a special virtualization program like Fusion. Although the program has been available for over a year, the company has recently released a version 2 beta to give you a glimpse of its upcoming features. [full story]

May 7 - 8:10am EDT   If you’ve always wanted an iPhone but couldn’t afford the minimum $399 price, consider the LG Vu for AT&T for $299. This iPhone lookalike offers the same mix of a largely touchscreen-driven interface, media playback, and a camera along with the unique ability to watch TV shows thanks to a built-in MediaFLO TV tuner. Included with the phone is a recharging cable as well as earbuds for listening to music on your LG Vu in private. [full story]

May 6 - 4:50pm EDT   You should always backup your data so you never lose any of your files. While you can always backup your files to a USB flash drive or a DVD, those solutions may not be able to store enough data, forcing you to copy your data to multiple devices or discs. For most people the simplest solution is to backup data using an external hard disk, plugged into a Mac through a USB or FireWire cable. You can buy dedicated external hard disks, or connect an old external hard disk using a drive enclosure. If you want an external hard disk with a stylish exterior, however, you might want to consider LaCie’s Hard Disk by Neil Poulton. [full story]

May 5 - 6:30pm EDT   Every Mac with a Superdrive can burn your iTunes music files to a CD, your iMovie video files to a DVD, and your digital photographs (or any files and folders) to both a CD/DVD. However, if you want to do more than ordinary CD/DVD burning, you may want to look at Roxio’s latest version of Toast Titanium 9, a multi-purpose optical media authoring application that can burn CDs/DVDs and do a whole lot more. [full story]

May 1 - 4:50pm EDT   Everyone knows the importance of passwords. The problem is that the more websites you use, the more separate passwords you may need for each site, such as one for your Amazon.com account, and another for your Yahoo e-mail. Remembering a single password is easy, but the more you need to remember, the harder it becomes. What most people do is choose a single, easy-to-remember password, and use that on every website, which drastically lowers their security. A better solution is to create difficult passwords that are unique for each page; to make this task easy, consider using a program like 1Password. [full story]

April 28 - 4:45pm EDT   Everyone’s time is valuable, but for people such as consultants or lawyers, who bill by the hour, time can literally be money. To insure that you track time accurately, you could carry a stopwatch and slavishly write down every time you start and stop working on a particular project. While this method may work, an easier solution is to let your Mac keep track of time and billing by using OfficeTime. [full story]

April 25 - 4:30pm EDT   Almost every computer can play movies and TV shows stored on DVD, and with an Internet connection, every computer can download and play digital video files as well. However, what’s missing is the ability to watch live TV on your computer and record your favorite shows. In the past, watching and recording TV shows meant buying a digital video recorder (DVR) and connecting it to your TV, ignoring your computer altogether. Nowadays, you can turn your computer into a TV and digital recorder by using Pinnacle’s TV for Mac HD Stick instead. [full story]

April 24 - 3:45pm EDT   An iPod can store your entire music collection, and keep it with you wherever you want to go. While the iPod is great for listening to music through ear buds by yourself, it’s not so handy when you want to play your music so others can hear it too. If you want to broadcast your music throughout a room, consider plugging your iPod into a device such as the iH12 alarm clock. [full story]

April 21 - 1:25pm EDT   Designing webpages is often a compromise. Hardcore enthusiasts may prefer hand-coding entire pages, which allows precise control in exchange for complexity; novices often prefer simplified programs, with templates that do most of the work for you, but this often comes at the cost of customization. Even professional programs like Adobe’s Dreamweaver requires designers to learn the complexities of HTML coding in order to create the results they want. If you’d rather spend your time designing the appearance of pages rather than learning the complexities of HTML or Javascript coding, you may prefer Freeway 5, which feels more like a desktop publishing program that lets ... [full story]

April 18 - 11:30am EDT   There’s no shortage of reading material on the Internet. While many organizations, such as Project Gutenberg, offer free books that are no longer copyrighted (such as the plays of William Shakespeare or religious works such as the Bible), most of these e-books consist of plain ASCII text files. Finding these free e-books can take time and reading them through a word processor can be clumsy since you can’t always save bookmarks or change formatting easily. To solve these two problems of finding and reading free e-books, try Voluminous. [full story]

April 16 - 5:30pm EDT   Transferring data from one computer to another can be cumbersome without special file transferring programs, especially if you’re trying to move data from an old Windows hard disk to a Macintosh. For an easier solution, just yank a hard drive out of one computer and connect it to a second computer as an external hard disk. Of course, this requires buying an external hard disk case and making sure the external hard disk case works with the particular interface of your hard disk. In case you don't want to worry about learning different hard disk interfaces, Newer Technology offers the Universal Drive Adapter, a product that connects to any hard drive no matter what type ... [full story]

April 15 - 12:50am EDT   No matter how careful or experienced you may be, you will lose files eventually, either by accident or through a hard disk failure. When you lose files through an accident, such as deleting a file by mistake, you can often retrieve that file by dragging it out of the Trash. However, if you lose a file through a hard disk failure, your files are usually gone for good unless you have a special data recovery program like Data Rescue II from Prosoft Engineering. [full story]

April 14 - 5:25pm EDT   The most common way to access the Internet with a laptop computer is through a Wi-Fi network. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi access isn’t always available. If you can’t find a free hotspot, the next best option is to use a wireless modem for accessing the Internet through a cellular network. Not only are cellular networks more readily accessible than Wi-Fi networks (especially when you’re riding in a car, bus, or train), but cellular networks are still often fast enough for basic web browsing and e-mail access. With a cellular wireless modem (also called a mobile broadband device), a laptop, and a program like Sprint’s Connection Manager software, you can access the Internet ... [full story]