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Photos app view orientation lock: David's iPhone tip of the week

The iPhone accelerometer is, for all practical purposes, a good addition to a handheld device. However, sometimes it can be annoying, especially when trying to show off your favorite picture. The picture can flip between portrait and landscape modes over and over again as you move the phone or hand it off to a friend. The orientation change is enough to make you dizzy, but not if you use this tip.

Go to the Photos app and select a picture and while it is displayed, in either landscape or portrait mode, just tap and hold onto the picture with one … Read more

Five hot Google search tricks

Google is always adding nifty ways to get information faster, like typing define before a word to bring up a dictionary definition or doing multiplication for you.

To help you stay a search master, here are five of the hottest search tricks to bust out of the Google labs.

Need to know the hours of the museum you want to visit? Type the word "hours" as part of your search, like "San Francisco museum of modern art hours," and you get the hours it's open right there in the results, without having to click through … Read more

Winter driving tips: Acceleration and traction control

I figured since I'm acting like your grumpy old driver's ed instructor this week regarding how to pioneer your vehicle safely in rough winter weather, today I will present the second installment of the Michelin Tires' series on this subject. Whereas yesterday's video concerned braking techniques when driving in winter weather, today's clip is all about accelerating safely and efficiently on snowy and icy roadways.

Yes, I know a lot of what's covered here may seem like common knowledge to most viewers, the main reason I wanted to post this video is because of its … Read more

Control incoming calls: David's iPhone tip of the week

You cannot always answer your phone every time it rings, right? You might be in a meeting, paying for merchandise, pumping gas, or engaged in a conversation over coffee with a friend. Of course, all of these are just a short list of the many excuses you might have for not answering your phone. This week's tip will teach you two ways to control the way you answer incoming calls on your iPhone.

Send callers directly to voice mail

Press the power button, on the top of your iPhone, twice during an incoming call and the caller is sent … Read more

Winter driving tips, tricks from 'The Early Show'

I was on the phone with my parents who live in Ohio earlier today and they commented on how they've accumulated roughly two feet of snowfall in February alone--and the month isn't even over yet! Based on what I've heard, the snow is just going keep on coming, and all of my east coast buddies are ready for a break already. With the snow being a fact of life in the immediate future for many Americans, I thought it timely to present some video about how to deal with driving your car in snowy and icy conditions. … Read more

Caps lock--David's iPhone tip of the week

Here's a little known keyboard trick on the iPhone or iPod Touch that will activate Caps Lock mode for typing in all capital letters. Unfortunately it isn't available by default--you have to turn it on.

Here's how:

1. Open the Settings app 2. Tap General 3. Tap Keyboard 4. Flip the Enable Caps Lock switch to ON

Now, when the keyboard is open and you want to type more than one capital letter, quickly double-tap the shift key to enable Caps Lock. The Shift key will turn blue. Type the word you want in all caps, i.… Read more

Don't tap that shutter button--David's iPhone tip of the week

We've heard a few people complain that taking photos initially with their iPhone took a while to get used to because of the awkward placement of the Camera app's shutter button and the shape of the phone. Tapping the shutter button resulted in blurred or out-of-focus photos. So forget about tapping that button; we've got a better solution!

We noted that when taking photos with the iPhone it will not actually take the photo until you release the shutter button. So the key to better photography on the iPhone is to press and hold the button while … Read more

Turn off camera notifications--David's iPhone tip of the week

It doesn't matter if you are a Mac or PC user; the iPhone and iPod Touch behave similarly when plugged into a computer using the USB sync cable that Apple provides. They both cause iTunes to launch for syncing media and they initiate photo and video syncing by recognizing both devices as a digital camera. This week's tip is is about disabling the digital camera notification in Windows and Mac OS X.

Steps for Windows Vista and Windows 7

1. Connect your iPhone or iPod touch to your computer. 2. Open the Windows Control Panel. 3. Choose Hardware … Read more

iPhone backups--David's iPhone tip of the week

If you've had an iPhone for a long time and you have grown to depend on it then you should know that iPhone backups are important. This week I'll focus on some good tips about the automatic backups created in iTunes each time you sync your iPhone or iPod Touch. All of the tips apply, whether you are using Mac OS X or Windows.

Speed up your backups

If you own an iPhone, you probably enjoy the convenience of using the built-in camera for both still and video photography. I know I do, but my over enthusiastic use … Read more