dashboard

Tumblr makes blog post creation faster and easier

Tumblr is making it easier for bloggers to blog. The site began rolling out its revamped Dashboard today, which lets users create entire posts without leaving the page.

"It's a step toward making the Dashboard a smaller and more streamlined experience," a Tumblr spokesperson told The Verge. " With this new way to create a post, the Dashboard has become a single experience. Now you're making posts the same way you're reading them."

Before the revamp, users often had to go to new pages when creating blog posts. Now, users can pop in text, … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in with questions on hiding specific file types in the Finder, managing a program opening numerous documents when launched, dealing with "file in use" warnings in the Finder, resetting a Mac to factory default settings, and concerns about memory leaks in Apple's Dashboard feature. I welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Hiding files of a specific type in the Finder MacFixIt … Read more

Crave giveaway: Cowon Auto Capsule AC1 dashboard camera

Congrats to Jean F. of Gainesville, Fla., for scoring a Crux360 iPad case with Bluetooth keyboard in last week's giveaway.

Do a lot of driving? You and your car (and your insurance company) will love this week's freebie, a Cowon Auto Capsule AC1 dashboard camera.

The 2-megapixel cam with a 16:9 wide screen records and stores high-resolution 1,280x720-pixel high-definition footage in real time at 30 frames per second. When the device's internal accelerometer detects a shock, it automatically captures a video clip ("see, a Tasmanian devil really did dash in front of me!"). … Read more

Get a universal smartphone dashboard mount for $12.95

Recently I asked if it still made sense to buy a GPS, what with smartphones more than capable of navigating folks from point A to point B.

Many readers commented that, yep, their phone gets the job done. Of course, there's one small challenge to using it for this purpose: smartphones don't come with car mounts. You need a way to position it at eye level so you can see your maps.

There are countless universal-mount options out there, many of which use suction cups to adhere to your windshield and gooseneck arms to hold the phone. Not … Read more

Save time with Dashboard for Chrome

All too often, programs and extensions that are meant to be helpful end up being more trouble than they're worth. We are pleased to report that this is not the case with Dashboard for Chrome. This extension is so practical and easy to use that we're already having trouble imagining Chrome without it.

Like most Chrome extensions, Dashboard for Chrome installed without issues, appearing as a small icon to the right of the browser's address bar. Clicking the icon opened a small window with a notepad on the left, a calculator on the right, and a search … Read more

DailyRoads Voyager watches your back, er, front while you drive

Dashboard cameras and black-box technology are great ways to cover your tush in the event of a fender bender. Whether an honest mistake or an intentional insurance scam, video evidence that an accident wasn't your fault can save you big bucks.

While the technology is fairly cheap, odds are that you've already got a GPS-enabled camera suction cupped to your windshield or dashboard on the back of your smartphone. Why not work with what you've got and take advantage of this hardware with a dashboard-DVR app like DailyRoads Voyager for Android?

Essentially, what this free Android app does is continuously record video of the road ahead using your phone's camera while also tracking vehicle speed, location, and G-forces using the onboard GPS receiver and accelerometer.… Read more

The 404 959: Where we lower our carrier IQ (podcast)

Today's 404 podcast topics include who to blame for the Carrier IQ bug, a digital rape whistle for shaming street harassers, a preview of tomorrow's Xbox Live update, and a quick game of "guess-the-Apple-iOS-dev-code-names!"

We're also running a contest all week, so send in your creative 404-related video voice mails to the404(at)cnet(dot)com for a chance to win an 16GB Apple iPad 2 or an 4GB Xbox 360/Kinect bundle! Thanks to Target.com for the prizes.

Video submissions should be thirty seconds or less, with you declaring lifelong loyalty to The 404. Or whatever.

Leaked from 404 Podcast 959:

Facebook increases status update character limit to 63,206. iHollaback is the new rape whistle: Shaming street harassers with cellphone pics. Here are a few funny code names Apple used for iOS version updates. Xbox Live update comes with 40 entertainment services and Live TV.… Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions about enabling screen zooming in accounts on OS X, bookmarks being duplicated by iCloud, CAC card readers not authenticating properly in Lion, and iCal showing up behind Dashboard widgets. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

NOTE: The "contact us" box on the MacFixIt page for e-mailing us your questions will hopefully be back … Read more

Fix Movies Dashboard widget in OS X

If you use Apple's Movies widget for the Dashboard you may have found that recently it stopped providing results and instead gives a "no movie data available" warning when you enter your location information.

Yesterday I covered some details of the Movie widget problem, and found that it is rooted in Apple's use of the server "wu.apple.com" to provide the movie data, which apparently is not working properly and gives a "Service Unavailable" error when accessed. This results in no data being sent to the widget.

The wu.apple.com … Read more