guide

Find a laptop to match your lifestyle

One of the biggest challenges when you're in the market for a new laptop can be translating hard specs into something that's meaningful to your life. Should you buy a 13.3-inch screen or a 15.4-inch screen? Do you want a 2.4GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, or would it be better to have a 2.0GHz processor with 2GB of RAM?

The answer to these questions, of course, is that it depends. It depends on your budget, to be sure, but also on how you want to use your laptop. With that in mind, we'… Read more

Upload Facebook photos from your iPhone

pxPipe.com is a new photo uploading service for the iPhone with the primary purpose of allowing users to upload photos directly from the device to their Facebook accounts -- a functionality omission in Facbook's otherwise superb iPhone-optimized site, detailed last week.

We gave the service a quick test run, and it work fairly well if a bit awkwardly at first. After signing up at pxPipe.com, you're prompted to login to your Facebook account. After that, a special email adddress (@pxpipe.com) will be created. Any photos emailed to this account will show up in your Facebook … Read more

Install third-party iPhone applications â?? directly from your iPhone

Last week we published a tutorial that explained a method for moving third-party iPhone application binaries from your Mac to your iPhone -- a 5-step process that involves a number of Terminal commands and requires several pieces of software. Thanks to the efforts of some hard working hackers, there is now an iPhone application that will download and install other applications directly from/on the device itself.

We put the application -- appropriately enough, dubbed Installer.app -- on an in-house phone using our previously published method (if your iPhone is already set up using our tutorial, all you need … Read more

Disabling the iPhone's EDGE/GPRS data access

For various reasons, you may want to disable the iPhone's EDGE/GPRS data network access on a temporary basis. For instance, if you have an international data plan and are traveling overseas but only want to use WiFi instead of paying international data charges, or if you are on a prepaid plan and don't want to incur data charges.An iPhone Atlas reader with the username "amztselos" found out exactly how to do this, and here are his steps, slightly modified: Call the International Group at ATT (800) 335-4685: amztselos says "They may tell you … Read more

Dealing with a cracked iPhone screen: Repair, other options

The iPhone's screen is durable, but not invincible. An awkward fall, too much pressure and other unnatural impact can cause cracks in the optical glass that render the device unusable. When you're done cursing your buttery fingers and have traversed the stages of guilt, denial and acceptance, here are some productive means for dealing with a broken touchscreen:

Repair/replacement from Apple: $200-$250 The iPhone is covered under a standard limited one-year Apple warranty for manufacturer's defects, but is not eligible for AT&T's wireless phone insurance, which (for a $5 monthly fee) will … Read more

Video playlists for the iPhone: So close, yet so far away

Unfortunately, the iPhone lacks a good, conspicuous method for creating video playlists for items that have been downloaded from other sources or converted by the user. We've found a method that almost works. It gives you a fully customizable playlist for all stored videos, but the video portion doesn't actually play. You get a static image from the video, and playback of the audio. Nonetheless, we're publishing the steps in the hopes that one of our readers can find a working solution. If you've found a way, please let us know.

Add the desired videos to … Read more

Getting the "Send to Web Gallery" button on the iPhone work

The "Send to Web Gallery" function added to iPhones over the past several days has caused some confusion. The button links with new .Mac iPhone integration functionality that allows photos to be sent directly from the iPhone to the new "Web Gallery" function (which offers an app-like interface to photos stored online). The same Web Gallery can be directly accessed in an iPhone-optimized fashion.

For some, the button didn't appear, despite having a valid .Mac account enabled on their phone per Apple's instruction. For the users who did start to see the button, it … Read more

Selecting a carrier when in another country, other iPhone settings

Apple has posted three new Knowledge Base articles of interest to iPhone users.

iPhone: About Network Settings explains how to:

select a carrier for phone calls: "Any international roaming charges will be billed by the carrier of the selected network through AT&T [...] Carrier menu only appears when you have more than one carrier available" See your usage statistics and more...

iPhone: About General Settings explains how to:

Adjust screen brightness Set whether the iPhone adjusts screen brightness automatically Set Wallpaper Set whether the iPhone shows 24-hour time or 12-hour time Turn on Calendar time zone support … Read more

iPhone international data charge warning: Data access can occur involuntarily

Taking your iPhone overseas can be a costly proposition, and you may not even know that you're racking up a huge data transfer cost until you get your AT&T bill. The problem is a combination of the following two facts:

1. The iPhone is capable of using international data roaming, which is billed at $5/MB in select countries ("DataConnect Global" countries), and nearly $20/MB in other countries (you must activate a per-use international roaming data plan) 2. The iPhone will automatically download data over available data networks without notifying the user for applications … Read more