Computers and hardware

Google Buzz essentials

Google Buzz took the world by storm with its Twitter meets FriendFeed meets your e-mail inbox sort of behavior. It also caused a storm of concern over how it behaves and what information it reveals to the world.

Here's how to protect your privacy, remove Buzz notes from your Gmail inbox, and turn Buzz off altogether.

If you've never had a Google Profile before, you're in the best position to protect yourself. You can say no to Buzz altogether. Of course, you can also say yes to Buzz, but make sure your profile is private.

But let'… Read more

HP earnings rise 25 percent to $2.3 billion

Hewlett-Packard has beaten expectations for its first fiscal quarter of 2010.

The company reported on Wednesday net revenue of $31.2 billion and earnings of $2.32 billion, or 96 cents per share. That's an 8 percent boost from revenue of $28.8 billion and a 25 percent boost from earnings of $1.86 billion, or 75 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Wall Street was expecting earnings of $1.06 per share and revenue of $30.01 billion. Analysts who track HP had been anticipating strong gains in the PC and server businesses, which … Read more

Seven essential, free Mac apps

Make your desktop shortcuts work for you, not against you

I once worked with a woman whose office looked like a hoarder's attic. Apart from very narrow passageways, every inch of space was piled ceiling-high with paper of every sort. The desktop of her Windows PC was similarly strewn with more icons than would fit on a single screen.

She claimed to be able to find exactly what she was looking for with little hunting, both in her office and on her desktop. The woman obviously had found a system that worked for her. If you find yourself struggling to manage the shortcuts and other items on your desktop, … Read more

How to set up iTunes Home Sharing

Editor's note: This guide was written about an older version of iTunes. For details on linking your iOS devices with newer versions of iTunes, see our story here: How to use home sharing on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod.

I have no idea how many MP3s I own. It's not that I'm too lazy to look--the problem is that my collection is scattered between all the computers in my life. I have a few albums on my personal laptop, a few more on my work laptop, and the bulk of my collection on an ancient Apple G4 … Read more

How to sync iTunes on multiple computers

How to disable Flash on your Web browser

Dig deeper to find the cause of Windows start-up delays

Who doesn't want their PC to start faster? Even if you've trimmed the list of Windows' start-up apps, as described here in October 2008, you may still find your PC starts too slowly.

A year ago, I wrote about the free Startup Delayer from R2 Studios that lets you adjust how Windows loads your start-up programs. Two useful free tools for trimming your PC's roster of start-up apps are Pirisoft's CCleaner and Microsoft's (formerly SysInternals') AutoRuns. The problem is, you can do massive damage with such registry-editing programs--to the point of making your machine unbootable.… Read more

Customize Outlook's archive settings

You never know when you're going to need an Outlook message that was archived long ago. In a comment on a previous post about moving Outlook mail to local folders, Cliff Brandt asked how to move a file from the archive to one of his main Outlook folders.

Doing so is a breeze, but keep in mind, an archive relocates only Outlook data of a specific age and is intended primarily to keep your Outlook.pst file a manageable size. A backup copies all your Outlook data and allows you to restore all your messages, contacts, tasks, and calendar … Read more