time

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

This week readers wrote in with questions about whether or not the Maps app from iOS 5 could be installed and used on iOS 6, how best to use an Apple ID for business purchases, if you can back up multiple internal hard drives to Time Machine, and how to tackle PDF files appearing black in Web browsers. We welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Using Maps from … Read more

iOS 6 is here and with it is the capability to make FaceTime calls over a 3G (or 4G) connection. Finally! Up until now, iOS users were limited to using FaceTime over a Wi-Fi connection. No more.

FaceTime over 3G does have a couple of limitations. First, you'll need to be running iOS 6 on an iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, or the new iPad (third generation). Second, your carrier has to allow for FaceTime to be used over its network. So far, only AT&T has announced any type of restriction or requirement for FaceTime to work using … Read more

A trio public interest groups intend to file a formal complaint against telecom giant AT&T over a decision to require a specific wireless data plan to use Apple's FaceTime video chat over its 3G network.

In a notice today, Free Press, Public Knowledge, and the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute said they intended to file a complaint against the carrier with the Federal Communications Commission asserting that AT&T has violated Net Neutrality with a policy that requires users to be on a specific data plan in order to use Apple's FaceTime video … Read more

Keeping careful track of your time is critical if you're paid by the hour -- even more so if you're both the boss and the workforce. WorkTime 5 is a robust time-tracking tool that's easy to use, especially when it's time to create reports for billing clients. It monitors and reports your time and activities while you're at your computer, so anyone who needs to keep track of time spent on the computer can use it. WorkTime is shareware that's free to try for 30 days.

When WorkTime's installer finished, a pop-up nag … Read more

TimeLeft is a big improvement on the Windows system clock, but it's more than that; it includes a countdown, stopwatch, alarm clock, timer, and time synchronizer. It comes in several versions, including a Free edition that leaves out some features and limits users to one of each feature at a time, and a Deluxe version that has lifetime support and upgrades and unlimited features. But the Deluxe version is free to try for 30 days, which is plenty of time to see if this timekeeper is a keeper. We tried TimeLeft Deluxe in both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. We … Read more

NEW YORK -- Google is the big cheese in online advertisement, but offline, the search company still has a few things to learn.

Last night, Google took to one of the many jumbo screens in Times Square to promote the upcoming biopic "Lincoln," as well as Google+ Hangout, the video-chat service.

Sadly for Google, not even Steven Spielberg, the director of "Lincoln" and America's premier storyteller, could get passers-by to take notice. After the trailer for "Lincoln" made its debut on Google+ online, Spielberg and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt took part in a video … Read more

Apple's iOS 6 will allow iPhone users to make FaceTime calls over a cellular network, and Verizon Wireless doesn't want to limit the video-calling feature.

The nation's largest carrier confirmed this evening that will make the data-intensive app available on all its data plans at no additional charge, including those still on unlimited data plans. The move was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Previously operational only on Wi-Fi networks, the app will work on cellular networks when the update to Apple's operating system is released on September 19.

The offering stands in contrast to … Read more

The Cool Timer is free alarm clock software that allows you to set up a countdown timer on your desktop down to the minute and second you want. It is an easy and cool way to keep track of your tasks and scheduling.

The interface is very easy to understand and definitely user friendly. There are only a few feature buttons like Start Timer, Pause Timer and Stop Timer, which are all you really need to get started. There doesn't seem to be any limit on how many hours you can set the timer for. Our testing didn't … Read more

Twitter today announced the launch of a real-time tool that allows Web site operators to embed interactive Twitter timelines on their Web pages.

"Today we're bringing Twitter and the Web closer together by launching new real-time tools for Web site developers," Twitter developer advocate Sylvain Carle wrote in a blog post today. "With our new embedded timelines, you can place any public timeline on your Web site, connecting your readers with the Tweets that you and others create on Twitter."

The way the tool works is that it lets users embed a stream of tweets … Read more