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How to stream Amazon Cloud Player music on iOS devices

iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users can now access Amazon's new Cloud Player on their mobile gadgets, bypassing the initial lack of support for Apple iDevices. It doesn't work flawlessly, but if you follow the instructions detailed below, you'll be streaming cloud music to your iPhone in no time.

Unveiled late March, Amazon's cloud-based music player lets you play music purchased and downloaded from Amazon or uploaded from your own local music collection, providing a way to retrieve your various music libraries online.

Technically speaking, the Cloud Player is geared toward PC and Mac users as … Read more

How to send pictures directly from Android camera to Dropbox

Dropbox is one great way to share pictures, video clips, and other files across devices and between people. Its Android app has a sneaky feature that lets it take over your camera, camcorder, voice recorder, or text editor to create a file that is saved directly to the appropriate Dropbox folder. It's terrific for sharing media quickly with groups or just for making life easier when it's time to edit or send your files. Here's how to do it:

If you haven't already done so, pick up a free 2GB Dropbox account and install the Dropbox app … Read more

Spotting faked photos on the Internet

In 2009, computer programmer Adam Gurno was looking at photos from The New York Times Magazine online and thought one of the shots just didn't look right. The image of a room under construction seemed too symmetrical. Using graphics-editing program Macromedia Fireworks, Gurno created a mirror reflection of one half of the image and discovered that it matched the online photo perfectly. He notified the newspaper and the images were quickly removed.

Gurno told CNET that he just "got lucky" in managing to spot something more-trained eyes had missed. And while it's assumed that models are routinely Photoshopped in fashion magazines, in general it's not always easy to tell when an object or person has been removed from or inserted into a photo or when an image has otherwise been manipulated.

The ability to scrutinize images has become a topic of conversation since President Obama refused earlier this week to release any postmortem photos of Osama bin Laden, despite calls for him to provide them as evidence that the Al Qaeda leader is really dead. Meanwhile, online scammers wasted no time in distributing fake images of bin Laden with a bullet hole in his head in order to dupe people into clicking on malicious links.

The discovery of the original, unmodified photos of bin Laden on which the faked images were based provided immediate proof of the trickery. And though the shots might have fooled naive Web surfers, they were fairly transparent to experts. … Read more

How to use Google Chrome to Phone extension

Chrome to Phone is a Chrome browser extension that allows PC users to send links to their Android phones. It works in conjunction with the Android app of the same name and is simple to set up. CNET associate editor Seth Rosenblatt, recently provided an overview of Chrome to Phone. We'll show you how to set it up, step by step.

Install Chrome browser extension

Step 1: Using the Chrome browser, go to the Chrome Web store and search for "Chrome to Phone" or go to it directly. Once you've found the extension, click on the … Read more

Five lazy ways to find great live music

It always seems like the best concerts are the ones you hear about too late. But who has time to scour the show listings in the local paper or habitually check a band's Web site for tour dates?

There's a better way. In fact, there are so many sites out there promising personalized concert recommendations, I figured a roundup was in order. So here you are, five sites that will put you in tune with the best live music in your area, using data from your favorite music sites and services:

Pandora apps put comedy in your pocket

Recently I finished a three-month trial of SiriusXM Radio. And despite a relentless onslaught of calls and e-mails from the company, I elected not to continue my subscription. The only channels I really wanted were the comedy ones, which, frankly, weren't that great.

Pandora to the rescue! Yesterday, the incomparably awesome Internet-radio service introduced comedy stations. My first thought: "Please let them be available in the mobile apps. Please let them be available in the mobile apps." Because I figured that such an incomparably awesome addition to the service must come with a catch.

Huzzah! Turns out I can enjoy the likes of Daniel Tosh, Bill Cosby, Steven Wright, and Mitch Hedberg on my iPad, iPhone, Android phone, and so on--wherever there's a Pandora app. And make no mistake: Pandora's comedy stations are infinitely better than the ones on SiriusXM, if only because the mix caters directly to my tastes.… Read more

How to change Firefox channels

Just a few weeks after the first release of Firefox Aurora, Mozilla's "developer's" build of Firefox, the browser maker debuted a switch that lets users switch on the fly among Aurora, Beta, and Release versions of the browser.

Released in today's Aurora update (download for Windows | Mac | Linux), the benefit of the built-in channel changer is that users who want to see what's coming in future versions of Firefox can now do so without having to download a separate installer. Change the channel and restart the browser, and the version that opens ought to … Read more

5 Google search tips for more relevant results

You shouldn't need to wade through pages of Google search results to find what you want. Here are five Google search tips to yield more relevant results:

Tip #1: Search within a single Web site (site:) To perform a search within a Web site, use "site:" within the search. For example, if you want to search for a review of the Asus Transformer tablet at CNET.com, type, "asus transformer review site:cnet.com."

Tip #2: Use a wildcard for words (*) You can use the "*" wildcard to search for whole words within a … Read more

How to enable Google Sync for a Google Apps account

If you or your employer use Google Apps as your e-mail provider, and you are experiencing issues setting up Google Sync on your mobile device, make sure that the account admin has Google Sync enabled. This short guide will walk you through enabling Google Sync (ActiveSync), which will allow members of the Google Apps account to access their e-mail, contacts, and even calendar as if they were on an Exchange server. … Read more

How to avoid sharing personal info online

Honesty is the best policy--unless you're dealing with someone you can't trust.

The sad fact is, you can't trust anyone on the Web. Just ask the millions of people who signed up for Sony's PlayStation Network and who now must protect against possible hack attacks on their bank accounts and other private data lost due the recent data breach. CNET News reporter Erica Ogg explains the company's response to its customers in her Circuit Breaker blog.

Sony claims the credit card information was encrypted and did not include the cards' security codes; the company also … Read more