Computers and hardware

A seemingly minor user interface change in iTunes 11 is sure to drive some users crazy.

Apple has removed the the traditional sidebar view from this latest version of iTunes. Previously, if you wanted to switch between your music and movie libraries, you did so in the sidebar. The same went for playlists, the iTunes Store, and connected iOS devices -- all of which were found in the sidebar.

To access the same features in iTunes 11, you'll need to click on buttons along the top of iTunes. The Library and iTunes Store buttons are always present, but the … Read more

After delaying the release of iTunes 11 by a month, Apple has released the much-anticipated update for both Windows and Mac users. The new iTunes is redesigned from the ground up, with a completely new look and feel. Along with the new look comes some new features: deeper iCloud integration, a new MiniPlayer, and a feature called "Up Next."

Up Next is more or less a living playlist within iTunes. You're able to add, rearrange, edit, and delete songs from the Up Next queue at any time.

To get started with Up Next, update to iTunes 11 … Read more

This Chrome extension is particularly useful for Chromebook users and anyone who uses Google Drive to store their files more so than their hard drive. If either of these profiles describes you, then I would urge you to give Save to Drive a try. It's dead simple to use and provides useful functionality for storing any image you stumble across in Chrome, along with HTML5 video and audio files.

When you spot such a file you'd like to keep, right-click it. With Save to Drive installed, you'll see a line -- Save image to Google Drive -- … Read more

I was probably one of the last people in our great land who regularly purchased CDs. After Spotify landed on our shores, however, I finally stopped the practice of buying them, instead relying on Spotify and Pandora for my listening pleasure. I enjoy both services, and now with a Chrome extension called Pandora to Spotify Playlist Converter, I can get the two talking to one another, to a degree.

The conversation is one-sided. That is, the extension helps you move tracks from Pandora to Spotify. Specifically, it lets you copy links for tracks you've liked on Pandora and paste … Read more

Need a cheap and easy way to add a watermark to your photos or perform other batch edits? If you use a Mac, then I would urge you to check out PhotoBulk.

PhotoBulk is a simple photo editor that lets you perform three types of batch edits: Watermark, Bulk Resize, and Optimization. To get started, drag a group of photos to the small PhotoBulk window. It shows you how many photos you've added, and you can preview your photos by clicking on the eye-icon button on the right. To the left are three buttons for PhotoBulk's three editing … Read more

Regardless of your feelings for iPhoto on OS X, having to launch and wait for it to load your photo library only to access a screenshot or a single photo in your Photo Stream can be annoying. The good news is, after following the steps laid out below, you'll be able to access your Photo Stream at any time, without even having iPhoto running. The process comes courtesy of a post by Ben Ward (which originated from a Mac OSX Hints thread) earlier this year. It looks more complicated than it really is, but as always, proceed at your … Read more

VLC is an extremely useful application for watching, recording, and streaming audio and video. And if you didn't know, you can also use it to watch your favorite YouTube videos.

As the Digital Inspiration blog points out, there are lots of benefits to watching YouTube videos in VLC.  For starters, you can skip any ads that might play before videos without needing to use a browser extension. Second, you can change the playback speed of videos, which can help if you're trying to learn something new, like a dance. Third, you can watch the video in … Read more

It's Cyber Monday, and while you're busy shopping online, chances are you'll see lots of user reviews on various products. While the majority of those reviews do come from real users like yourself, who are passionate enough to share their opinions on a product, many of them could be fake, left by the vendors themselves to either promote their product or, in some cases, smear competitors.

While it's exceedingly difficult to absolutely prove that a review is faked, here are a few tips on spotting those that aren't from real users. These will come in … Read more

We recently showed you how to pin your favorite Web sites to the Windows 8 Start screen. By default, the tile may use the site's favicon.ico file or just display the generic Internet Explorer icon. If you operate a Web site, that may not be good enough for you. Here's how to give your site visitors a high quality tile to pin on their Windows 8 Start screens:

Step 1: Go to the Microsoft site, http://www.buildmypinnedsite.com, then under the "See your site in Windows 8" section, enter the URL of your Web … Read more