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Include 3D objects in your documents with ShapeOnYou for Mac

Communicating with the help of images is powerful, but it often requires additional work, and that can be discouraging. ShapeOnYou for Mac can fulfill your need to add simple 3D shapes as support materials for your work. It is designed to be quick and easy to use and won't require any modeling to achieve satisfying but simple results.

ShapeOnYou for Mac consists of a 3D vector shape library that allows easy export to images. Those images can then be used in your text document as illustrations. The program itself already contains basic shapes and other examples that are of … Read more

Rollie Eggmaster makes eggs on a stick

Food comes in all shapes and sizes. However, despite the cornucopia of options that populate supermarket shelves, there is always room for more variety. Sometimes a change does a food product good; just think about how many ways there are to eat something seemingly simple as eggs. Not only can they can be scrambled, fried, or poached, but they also happen to be a vital ingredient in millions of recipes. But when it comes right down to it, all of that pales in comparison to their one true, previously unknown purpose: being served on a stick.

Since the invention of … Read more

View lyrics for YouTube videos without looking them up

Sometimes the person or company responsible for uploading a music video on YouTube is kind enough to include the lyrics in the video information. If not, you probably end up opening another browser tab to find the lyrics so you can sing along (when no one else is listening). As a convenience for future song learning, there's a Web browser add-on that works with Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, which will allow you to see the lyrics while a video is playing. Here's how to get started:

For Chrome: Install a copy of YouTube Lyrics by Rob W from … Read more

Episode 30: A Chromebook Pixel drinking game!

I feel like I might be the only person in the world who loves the poor Chromebook Pixel. It's just so misunderstood, with its ridiculously high price, its tiny 32GB hard drive, and its odd 3:2 screen resolution. But the design is just so gorgeous (drink), and the touch screen is so exciting, and the Chrome OS is so simple and Web-based! Perhaps you'll fall in love like I did ... or be wildly skeptical like Jeff Cannata. Check out this week's Unboxing, and find out.

On the other hand, Jeff is delighted by the idea of … Read more

Vimeo delves into paid, on-demand videos

New York-based video-hosting site Vimeo today added a way for its paying users to sell their works online as part of a new program.

At South by Southwest, the company announced Vimeo On Demand, which lets its paying Pro users (a $199 a year service) sell access to their videos to other users.

Video creators can set their own price for the video, and then get 90 percent of the revenue, the company says. Other features include the option for video makers to select where exactly they want their video to be available, as well as the design of the … Read more

Check memory usage for Firefox add-ons

Using many Firefox add-ons at once can cause the application to dramatically slow down. This is because for each add-on, you're using a piece of your computer's memory. The most obvious solution is to uninstall some of them, but perhaps that's not a good option for you.

As an alternative, try checking out how much memory each add-on is using. Firefox provides information on memory allocation (about:memory), but it isn't in the most user-friendly format. The next best option is to install yet another add-on. However, this particular add-on will report its own memory usage … Read more

Episode 29: Hot phones in cold Barcelona

Barcelona is the place to be, and not just for the cafe con leche, the jamon iberico, or the incredible melted-stone facades of such Gaudi creations as the Sagrada Familia or the Casa Mila. Forget all that nonsense. It's all about the phones.

Mobile World Congress just wrapped in Barcelona, and with it came a bevy of new product announcements, ranging from Ubuntu and Firefox operating systems to new Samsung tablets, new phablets from LG and ZTE, a new Wi-Fi coffee-maker from Qualcomm, and...well, no, no Samsung Galaxy S4. That's next week. But this week's episode … Read more

How to identify nameless music tracks in your iTunes library

Commercial MP3s and other digital music files provide a wealth of information about the songs in addition to the audio-playback itself. This metadata makes it easy to display the track name, artist, album, and other facts about the songs in your playback device or program.

When you use an application such as the free Audacity audio-editing utility to convert music from LPs, cassettes, or another analog source, the only metadata accompanying the tracks is whatever information you provide when you create the digital file. There's the rub.

In July 2011 I described how to use Audacity to convert LPs and audio cassettes to digital. … Read more

How the Copyright Alert System works

It's legal to share CNET Update:

If you use a peer-to-peer network like BitTorrent, then pay attention to today's Update video. I offer a quick explanation of what Internet service providers will be doing to discourage customers from sharing copyright-protected music, movies and television shows.

Also in Tuesday's tech roundup:

- Apps and websites are now letting users sign in with a Google+ account, as well as share activity with circles.

- Get ready to be annoyed by hundreds of new Internet domain extensions, like .cadillac, .vegas and .app.

- The Guardian reports that all games on … Read more

LivesOn: Twitter ghost keeps tweeting when you're dead

Death is never popular, even in social media: the poor guy behind @death on Twitter has zero followers.

You might think your online fans will lose interest when you kick the bucket, but an upcoming app says it will let you keep tweeting from beyond the grave.

LivesOn will host Twitter accounts that continue to post updates when users shed this mortal coil. … Read more