How-Tos

Apple's AirPlay feature is a convenient technology for sending audio to various devices. If you are on the same wireless network as the device then it will be available to your Mac, iPhone, or iPad to play music via iTunes, or even be used as a general audio appliance for system sounds.

In general, AirPlay devices are hardware accessories like routers such as Apple's AirPort, or media appliances like the AppleTV. However, if you are not willing to shell out about $100 or more for a new AirPlay and you have an old Mac lying around (especially a … Read more

Tabbed browsing is one of the more useful features to make it to Web browsers. However, as with using single windows you might inadvertently close one and need to restore it. While you can create a new tab and then peruse the browser history to find a link to the content it contained, an easier option is to use the built-in tab restoration options in your browser.

To do this, there are two hotkeys to keep in mind. The first is the classic Command-Z for undoing an action, which in Safari will undo a recently closed tab in a specific … Read more

In Mountain Lion, Apple split off its reminder options from the provided calendar program and put them into a separate program similar to the Reminders app in iOS. This program lets you keep track of your projects, routines, or what have you, with to-do lists for each. As you make progress, you just mark each reminder as completed, and it drops off of its respective list.

But if, say, you inadvertently mark the wrong reminder as completed, don't worry, you can still get it back.

The Reminders program does have a Completed section that you can click to see … Read more

The OS X Terminal is a very powerful tool for configuring and using a Mac, and can be used to script and program a number of aspects of the computer's operations; however, its text-based interface can be a bit of a cryptic environment to first-timers, especially when it comes to finding out what you can use it for.

There are thousands of Terminal commands available, but when you first launch it you might not have a clue where to look for them. Of course there are basic commands like "ls" for listing directory contents or "cd&… Read more

If you've been waiting to jailbreak your iPhone 5, or any device running iOS 6 and higher, today is your lucky day. A new tool called evasi0n was released just this morning.

The new tool is very simple to use -- in fact, it's easier to use than the iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak tool I covered last year. Taking far less time, and only a few steps, if you're comfortable clicking a few buttons on your computer and tapping an icon on your iOS device, you're more than prepared to use evasi0n.

A required warning, … Read more

I'm a magazine junkie. And these days I tend to read a lot of mags on my iPad, especially now that I can get most of my favorite periodicals (Men's Health, Entertainment Weekly, Wired, etc.) in tablet form.

Just one problem: Few, if any, magazine apps let you print. What's the big deal about that? Well, suppose you're perusing the digital pages of Bon Appetit and want a hard copy of one of the recipes? Or you've found a cool project in Family Handyman and need a shopping list to take to the hardware store? … Read more

I have always been a big fan of the Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. In the show, Guy Fieri travels around the U.S. looking for small restaurants with a flavorful menu. After getting hooked on the show, each time I travel I try to look up local spots featured on the show, but navigating the Food Network site can be a chore (especially on a mobile device).

Over the weekend the Fan App for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives for iOS was brought to my attention. This app is exactly what I have always wanted. At one point … Read more

Are you the new owner of an LG Optimus G on AT&T? Now that you've taken your toy home, it's time to hook it up to Wi-Fi and start customizing. But wait, the Wi-Fi keeps disconnecting randomly when you enter the information for your home network. Or worse, it won't even let you save your home network to try reconnecting.

Luckily, there's an easy fix that will let you stay connected and keep information for Wi-Fi networks of your choosing. Here's how to fix it:

First you'll want to open the app … Read more

If you need to adjust network settings on your Mac, the quickest route is to do so through the OS X system preferences and menu extras. However, you can also make these changes -- adding and removing ports, creating new locations, switching to DHCP from manual configurations, changing MTU sizes, and managing 802.1x profiles, among others -- via the command line.

The utility for doing this is the command "networksetup," which can be used to quickly apply a change to a specific network property. This tool covers every aspect of the Mac's network setup and you … Read more