auto

Less weight means more mpgs at the 2012 Paris Motor Show (roundup)

PARIS--One of the easiest ways to increase fuel efficiency without sacrificing drivability is to shave weight. Lose a gram here, save an ounce there, and before you know it, you could be looking at sizable weight reduction and a complementary reduction in fuel consumption and particulate emissions.

On the first day here at the 2012 Paris Motor Show, we heard this theme repeated over and over from automakers as they put their vehicles on a diet, shaving hundreds of pounds off of their newest models.… Read more

Get ActiveWords Plus for $29.95

I'm a big fan of any program that saves me time. And because I spend most of my day in front of a PC, the best time-savers are those that cut down on keystrokes and mouse clicks.

ActiveWords Plus cuts them down considerably. This insanely handy Windows utility performs a variety of time-saving functions, including substituting text, opening files and programs, loading favorite Web sites, and more.

It normally sells for $49.95 (which should tell you something about how robust this tool is), but for a limited time, as part of a Cheapskate exclusive, you can get ActiveWords Plus for $29.95.… Read more

Dear Apple, please will you let me say s***?

They are odd ducks at Apple. They proclaim revolutions, yet they are curiously controlling.

They want to be cool, yet they are curiously ubiquitous.

At times, one just wishes the company could be a little more consistent and a little more, well, liberal.

It is well known that the majority of humanity uses curse words. Not necessarily in public, but I suspect even nuns and bishops sometimes offer a little f-ing and blinding.

Yet every time I try to text a curse word on my iPhone 4, teacher interjects to tell me it is verboten.

I understand that curse words … Read more

Grand Theft Auto goes 'Back to the Future' with DeLorean mod

A fan had a dream. He dreamed he would some day roll around Vice City in a souped-up DeLorean, dressed as Marty Mcfly, packing heat, and terrorizing the town. Then he made it happen.

The creator of the Back to the Future Grand Theft Auto mod (SeedyROM34 on YouTube), spent months working on the elaborate creation with many hours of file editing thrown into the bargain. This is quite a bit more than just a skin. There's time travel, an excellent-looking Marty McFly character, and a detailed DeLorean complete with flux capacitor.… Read more

Automate mouse clicks with Auto Clicker by Shocker

The first auto clicker appeared not long after the first mouse, and since then they've evolved alongside mice. Some auto clickers have stayed simple, though. Like primitive but successful organisms that have found their niche, the most basic form of auto clicker lives on, emulating mouse clicks on demand. Auto Clicker by Shocker is as good a specimen as any. This simple freeware can simulate single or double clicks by your left, middle, or right mouse buttons at intervals you select, including pauses, freezing the cursor, and stopping automatically after a predetermined number of clicks. You can also set … Read more

Kia sketches sleek new Forte

Kia has radically restyled its model lineup over the last five years, coming up with a consistent look for everything from SUVs to compact hatches. Renderings of the next-generation Forte (to be called the K3 in Korea) show further evolution of Kia's design language, which should point the way for other Kia models.

With its lack of door handles and side mirrors, the front and rear renderings show a model that greatly resembles a concept car. These necessities will surely be added by the time the new Forte makes a public appearance. Current Kia design traits, such as the tiger nose grille, are present in this design.… Read more

Become a hip-hop superstar with AutoRap (not really)

Right when you launch AutoRap, you can get started by tapping your screen and speaking. The app immediately records your speech until you tap the screen again to stop it. After a few seconds of "rappification" (AutoRap's proprietary syllable-mapping technology), the app will replay your recording, autotuned, timing-adjusted, and laid over one of its generic rap beats.

Off the bat, you get two free beats to play with: Turkey Burgers and OneOneOne (I've never heard of them either). You can use these as many times and as often as you like. If you want more beats, … Read more

How to stop Android from adding new apps to the home screen

Have you ever noticed after installing an app on your Android device, the icon for that app is already on your home screen? Sure it can come in handy, but it also can be pretty annoying. Nicole Cozma showed us how to disable this annoying feature on Honeycomb tablets a while back, and now I'm going to show you how to disable it on other Android devices.

Disabling the auto-add widgets (or shortcuts) feature is easy.

Launch the Google Play Store on your Android device. Tap on Menu and then Settings. Uncheck the box next to "auto-add widgets.&… Read more

How to turn off Auto-Renew for iTunes Match

I happily plunked down $25 when iTunes Match was released last November. I loved the idea of accessing my iTunes music library from my iPhone and iPad. Since then, however, I ponied up for Spotify Premium, which I greatly prefer to iTunes Match. Between Spotify and Pandora, I rarely find myself firing up iTunes, and I can't remember the last time I used iTunes Match to tunnel into my iTunes library from my iPhone or iPad.

I suspected that my iTunes Match subscription would auto-renew after a year, and it turns out my suspicions were correct. If you do nothing, you'll drop another $25 for another year of iTunes Match. It's easy to turn off auto-renew for iTunes Match, if you know where to look.… Read more

Click repeatedly and automatically with Super Mouse Auto Clicker

If you find yourself needing to click repeatedly on the same object, whether you're refreshing a page or performing some other monotonous task, there are plenty of programs that can take this job off your hands. Super Mouse Auto Clicker is an easy-to-use and flexible program that can be set to click specific locations on the screen and much more.

The program has a plain and intuitive interface, with a list view that displays all of the mouse commands you've created and saved. Making a new one is as easy as clicking New and then navigating through a … Read more