How To

Now that the iPad 2 has video capabilities, storage on the device is more important than ever. According to commenter "nigelgoodman" at Mac OS X Hints, you can create a workaround using SD cards and the iPad's Camera Connection Kit to get extra storage for your media.

Videos stored on an SD card can be imported with the Camera Connection Kit when formatted properly.

Formatting your SD card First, you must set up your SD card. In order for the iPad to recognize your media files, it has to think that the card you store your media … Read more

OK, so you just replaced your antiquated, not-even-a-year-old iPad with a brand new iPad 2.

To complete the succession, you have one last task to complete: to transfer all your apps, music, movies, and settings from that archaic piece of "technology" (that was never good enough for you, anyway) to your new honey, who's going to love you forever.

I don't state it in the video, but make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed on your PC. Also, just to be completely safe, go ahead and upgrade your current iPad to the latest … Read more

Before you tweet a photo of your delicious, homemade dish, check your settings--your phone might be embedding coordinates in your photos, leaving your location open to prying eyes.

Using the built-in GPS, phone camera applications can embed the latitude and longitude of a location in photos. Coordinates aren't shown in your photo library, but if you post a geotagged pic online, someone with an evil motive can easily extract the photo's EXIF data and find out where you live, eat, or hang out.

Creepy, right? This is a big security risk, especially for parents who post photos of … Read more

Google points to a software update error that caused thousands of Gmail users to lose e-mail, contacts, and folders last Sunday, but for the unfortunates who were affected by the glitch, any explanation for an emptier inbox is cold comfort.

Thankfully, there are ways to save the contents of your e-mail account online and on your desktop, and I show you three of them in the video above. While I focus on Gmail specifically this time around, the principles are the same for any Web mail service that supports POP forwarding, as most of them do.

If you have a … Read more

Places like Starbucks, neighborhood cafes, Barnes&Noble, and universities are all jumping on the "free Wi-Fi" bandwagon--hey, it's trendy. As a result, more of us are connecting to these networks without realizing the security risks.

But did you read the fine print? Wi-Fi hot spots are unsecured networks that hackers like to take advantage of. Everything--including your data, account information and passwords, Google searches, and finances--can become available to the hacker who wants it badly enough.

So before you pay your bills or write your genius business plan at the local cafe, get to know these … Read more

Data brokers, data harvesters, people finders: whatever you call them, they roll up a huge amount of real and deduced information about you to create a dossier on your life that anyone can buy or even browse for free. While the nuggets of information about you are already out there, the way these sites aggregate it makes a lot of people feel very invaded. Watch this video to see how you can opt out, to a degree, then use the links below to start taking back your privacy.

Opt-out tools:

Spokeo PeopleSmart Pipl Peek You (e-mail link): Include the PeekYou.… Read more

Selecting text, particularly entire paragraphs in Notes and other text-heavy apps can be tricky, if not somewhat difficult.

If you need to select an entire paragraph, the first intuition most iPhone and iPad users have is to double-tap a word and drag the text selection handles to cover the entire paragraph.

Though this is an effective method of getting all your text selected, there's an easier way.

Next time you have to select a paragraph to copy and paste somewhere else, try using two fingers and swiping across the paragraph you wish to copy. The text will be selected … Read more

Because Apple computers are so intuitive, you may be overlooking some simple but helpful settings. A few tweaks to your security settings, dock, Finder, and keyboard are really all it takes to make your MacBook even easier to use than it already is.

If you're a first-time MacBook owner, this how-to will introduce you to your computer's security settings and help you enable a few of your Mac's most useful features.

So before you say, "Hey, there's no right-click on MacBooks?!" walk through the following tips:

Rev up security settings. Go to System Preferences &… Read more

This tip is easy, but extremely useful for users wanting to get the most out of their iOS device. Interestingly, there are tens, if not hundreds, of calendar, to-do, and organization Apps for your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch that you can use to remember things.

But the best way may be a functionality that iOS offers already. The screen most people see the most is the lock screen. It stands to reason then that the lock screen would be the perfect place for a constant reminder.

There are any number of ways to accomplish this. One, provided by a … Read more