restore

A seemingly minor user interface change in iTunes 11 is sure to drive some users crazy.

Apple has removed the the traditional sidebar view from this latest version of iTunes. Previously, if you wanted to switch between your music and movie libraries, you did so in the sidebar. The same went for playlists, the iTunes Store, and connected iOS devices -- all of which were found in the sidebar.

To access the same features in iTunes 11, you'll need to click on buttons along the top of iTunes. The Library and iTunes Store buttons are always present, but the … Read more

How many awesome photos have been ruined by a telephone pole appearing to stick out of someone's head, or people walking into the background at the last second?

Anyone adept with Photoshop can remove such unwanted elements, but it takes some doing. You need time, expertise, and, well, Photoshop (which ain't cheap).

Today only, Giveaway of the Day has Inpaint 4.7 for Windows free of charge. Normally $19.99, this clever utility can quickly and easily remove date stamps, power lines, people, scratches, and other undesirable elements from your photos.

Update: Make sure you click the "Download Inpaint 4.7 now" … Read more

Oh, Internet! Is nothing, not even a prized fresco of Jesus, safe from your creative but snarky clutches?

Amateur art restorers the world over have taken to Twitter to share their digital restorations of "Ecce Home" (Behold the Man), a painting by Elias Garcia Martinez that's more than a century old. They have given the image googly eyes, bow ties, and sunglasses, and bestowed upon it the visage of a cat, a bear, Big Bird, Batman, and Susan Boyle, among others.

But which of these restorations will win the coveted Cecilia Prize? It's named after Cecilia Gimenez, who became famous (and infamous) when news broke recently that she took it upon herself to restore the deteriorating painting in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church in Borja, Spain. … Read more

Windows 8 is said to be arriving sometime in October, but that hasn't stopped Slimware Utilities from releasing its brand-new W8-specific PC-imaging program today.

RecImg Manager is a free program that's designed to back up and restore your entire Windows 8 Operating System and other installed software, without affecting your personal files. Whether your system has been corrupted by malware or you're dealing with other kinds of system errors, the ability to "refresh" your computer is one that shouldn't be overlooked.

Many backup and recovery utilities for PC work by backing up your entire … Read more

Every now and then we get tools we can't really review because they're only for fixing problems our test system (thankfully) doesn't have. Case in point: the dreaded 80070005 family of errors, which can appear when you're trying to install software, update a driver, or do something else that ought to be totally easy but for some reason has become the focus, and thus the bane, of your existence. That's where Security Restore enters the scene. This free tool from Rizonesoft simply attempts to restore your PC's default security settings when something happens to … Read more

After Apple's iOS 5.1.1 update was released last week, several users began reporting that their iOS devices had taken a significant battery life hit.

While the issues are not common to most users, it appears as though some iPhone and iPad owners found that the battery life they had come to expect was not apparent after updating to iOS 5.1.1 using Apple's over-the-air updating.

If you find your device is not getting the battery life it once was, a few troubleshooting tips provided by Apple Support Communities user sbaily4 could be of help.

First, … Read more

It's good to be reminded sometimes that automated technology solutions can't fix everything. That reminder came recently with the announcement of the impending big-screen return of The Beatles' trippy 1968 animated film, "Yellow Submarine."

A team of specialists at Triage Motion Picture Services and Eque is responsible for the restoration effort. Sure, it's a digital restoration, but that's not all that was involved with bringing it back to life. The team couldn't just load the film into a powerhouse computer, press go, and wait for the remaster to spit itself out.… Read more

Facebook is bringing back the chronological setting for News Feed.

Users can now once again see the "most recent" stories first atop their News Feeds, Facebook noted in a blog post this afternoon.

As of late September, the chronological option was removed as Facebook moved to fully automate the News Feed with stories the company's algorithms deemed "most important." Facebook said the tweaks were designed to "help you see more of what you care about, and less of what you don't."

Clearly, Facebook's loyal user base wasn't thrilled by Facebook'… Read more

In the last few major OS X releases, Apple has automated a number of key routines that deal with user data security.

First the company added automatic backups with Time Machine in OS X 10.5 Leopard, followed by a rudimentary malware scanner for downloaded files in Snow Leopard. In Lion, Apple has added a couple of others: Auto Save and Resume, which respectively will save file versions and preserve the window state of applications so they can be restored if a program crashes or is quit with windows open.

Both of these new options can be exceptionally useful in … Read more