How-Tos

The Preview application in OS X has an excellent option for capturing handwritten signatures and inserting them into PDF documents. This is great for signing forms, letters, and other items that require a signature. The process for doing so simply involves capturing a written signature with a Web cam, after which you can append them to any PDF document open in Preview.

Signatures that you associate with Preview in this manner are stored in an encrypted form, which is great for security but also means that Preview is the only program that can access them. Even though an inserted signature … Read more

There are Android apps that come with many features, possibly more features than you need. Or perhaps it's not fully-featured apps you're trying to avoid, but the battery power they require. The more apps you have running in the background, the less battery life you'll see. Here's a trick you can use to skip out on apps that have Chrome bookmarklet counterparts.

This example uses Pocket (formerly Read It Later) to show you how it's done. The Pocket app is actually fantastic -- provided you want access to any queued content on-the-go. If you're … Read more

Apple's Pages word processor for OS X is great for document creation, and is an excellent alternative to Microsoft Word for many needs; however, because Word is the de facto standard for word processors you may often find yourself needing to send someone a document or two in a compatible format.

While you can choose "Print to PDF" or another option from the PDF menu in the print dialog box in OS X to quickly create a static version of the document to send to someone as a PDF, this isn't the best approach if you … Read more

For as long as I can remember, my iPhone 4S has had trouble connecting to certain Wi-Fi hotspots.

When I go to Panera Bread, for example, I can connect to their network on my laptop without a problem. But it requires visiting a landing page in my browser and clicking a button to agree to the terms of service.

When I try to make that same connection on my iPhone, a log-in screen immediately pops up -- but stays blank. For some reason, it fails to load that landing page, meaning I can't tap "I agree" and … Read more

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