restriction

If your kid is using an iPhone, iPod, or iPad to blast music at unsafe levels, you should consider setting a limit on their maximum volume. I mean, they'll hate you for it -- but they'll also hate having tinnitus in their 20s, right?

In the above video, I'll walk you through the steps of lowering the maximum volume limit on any iOS device, as well as locking that setting in place using a password of your choosing.

If the video doesn't appear above, try going directly to the video on CNET TV or pay a … Read more

Apple's newly-minted top executives will have good reason to stick around in the form of a hefty stock bonus that finishes vesting in four years.

New filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering, and Dan Riccio, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, were both given 75,000 shares of company stock as part of their promotions last week.

Those grants, currently worth $50.62 million, vest at three separate points over the next four years. The first batch of 25,000 vests … Read more

Last month it was blog users, this month it's blog owners. The Chinese government announced today that it will tighten restrictions on all Internet service providers for blogs, microblogs, and online forums -- forcing them to act as Web police, according to the Associated Press.

This is just the latest in a long list of restrictions that the government is enforcing on its citizens. According to the Associated Press, China began requiring real-name registration on all microblogs in December. However, people still seem to be sneaking under the radar.

The new restrictions entail making the Internet providers act as … Read more

Google announced today that it's aiming to help users control their settings to more easily avoid answering those pesky anonymous callers on Google Voice. Be it an unknown, restricted, or blocked number, the Web giant says users can now fit those callers into one specified group.

"Many users have asked us for controls aimed at people who are NOT in their address book," Google software engineer Tom Ford wrote in a blog post. "So today, we're adding two groups of callers for Google Voice users."

Besides grouping anonymous callers into one group so users … Read more

Microsoft aims to give parents more control over their children's computer use on Windows 8 with a new feature announced this week.

"With Windows 8, you can monitor what your kids are doing, no matter where they use their PC," Microsoft's senior program manager for Family Safety Phil Sohn wrote in a blog post. "All you have to do is create a Windows user account for each child, check the box to turn on Family Safety, and then review weekly reports that describe your children's PC use."

With these controls and weekly reports, … Read more

Siri Dictation on the new iPad, as well as the iPhone 4S, is fairly accurate a majority of the time. But, as with anything software-based (let alone in beta), sometimes mistakes are made. However, when those mistakes throw out some choice four-letter words, especially when kids are present, it's not going to make people happy.

Yesterday I was asked by a reader if it was possible to disable explicit language for Siri Dictation on the new iPad. So, I decided to make a video showing how easy it is to disable explicit language for Siri on both the iPad, … Read more

Despite the overwhelming appeal of being able to tether your iPhone to your laptop via the Personal Hotspot feature included in iOS, the cost of doing so keeps many iPhone owners from getting the most out of their device. Tether, however, has a solution.

Back in November, Tether was able to briefly get an app approved on Apple's App Store. The $14.99 app allowed users to bypass the Personal Hotspot method of setting up a tether for their laptops and instead use a USB cable and Tether's software. The app, iTether, was quickly pulled.… Read more

Golden Filter Premium v3.0 Safe Internet browsing filter is categorized as Parental Control freeware, and its installer and setup wizard depict shocked children viewing a computer screen. But its developer, Gsi Egypt, points out companies, universities, coffee shops, and other places can use it "for controlling computers and Internet from preventing adults from watching inappropriate content." It's designed to be hidden from users in daily operation, and it can't be uninstalled except from inside the software.

Despite an army of red flags, we downloaded and installed Golden Filter Premium. We're glad we found out … Read more

It's bonus season at Apple.

A flurry of new filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show Apple's top executives getting bonuses with big payouts that hinge on them staying with the company through the end of 2016.

The company on Wednesday doled out 150,000 shares each to most of its senior vice presidents, short of recently-minted SVP Eddy Cue, who received a slightly smaller 100,000-share bonus, and design guru Jonathan Ive, who is an SVP, but does not fall under the SEC's section for directors, officers, and principal stockholders. That works out to just … Read more