Lifehacker

Diagnose and Protect Your iPhone from Worms [Security]

Whitson Gordon — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

There's been a lot of talk about malicious software on jailbroken iPhones lately, but if you haven't been paying close attention, tech site Network World has a breakdown of the worms running wild and how to eradicate them from your device.

As of right now, there are a total of three known iPhone worms, some more harmful than others. You're only vulnerable if you've jailbroken your iPhone and enabled SSH without changing the default password, though, so if you're still running on factory settings, fear not. If you do fall into the jailbreaker crowd, though, read on to make sure you're not infected, and then scroll to the bottom for steps on how to re-secure your device.

The first worm is the Ikee worm, which merely changes your wallpaper to a picture of Rick Astley (of Rickroll-meme fame). If you're familiar with Rickrolling, you may proceed to feel embarrassed. It's pretty easy to tell if you have this worm, unless your wallpaper was already a picture of Rick Astley, in which case check the top of the wallpaper, which, if installed by the worm, says "Ikee is never going to give you up."

The other two worms (the first called iPhone/Privacy.A and the second being unnamed at the moment) are more dangerous, as they collect personal information from your iPhone. If you have the second, unnamed worm, it will direct Dutch bank customers to a fake phishing site in hopes of collecting your bank information. An infection of the unnamed worm exhibits low battery life as a symptom, as it's running a background process to spread itself to other iPhones via WiFi. It also changes your default SSH password to keep you from easily deleting it.

The iPhone/Privacy.A worm is harder to detect, as it doesn't leave anything on the iPhone itself—it uses computers to steal information from iPhones connected to nearby wireless networks. You should, however, have no problem identifying if it's made its way to your computer as long as you have antivirus software (and yes, you're vulnerable even if you're running OS X or Linux, so pick up some antivirus software to make sure you aren't spreading this stuff around!).

If you think you may be infected, hit the link to get directions on how to remove them from your device. Also, whether you have a worm or not, make sure you protect yourself by changing your iPhone's default root password. It also might be a good idea to install SBSettings from Cydia so you can turn SSH off when you don't need it—no sense in having your iPhone more vulnerable than it needs to be.

Remains of the Day: The Declaration of Google Wave Edition [For What It's Worth]

Adam Pash — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

The Declaration of Independence hits Google Wave, Firefox CPU problems are causing some laptops heating issues, and a brilliant little application may someday turn your webcam into an impressive 3D scanner.

Declaration of Independence on Google Wave
Folks may or may not ever catch onto Google Wave for productive purposes, but it's been gangbusters for fun ideas like this Declaration of Independence wave. (You'll need a Wave account.) [Google Wave]
Thanksgiving themes for Firefox
Weblog Mozilla Links rounds up a few fun Thanksgiving-themed Firefox personas for your one-click skinning enjoyment. [Mozilla Links]
Firefox: Heat and the CPU usage problem
Firefox CPU usage problems are apparently causing some problems on laptops, particularly of the ultraportable variety. [CNET]
Amazing Software Turns Cheap Webcam Into Instant 3D Scanner
A very cool 3D-scanning software turns your regular old webcam into a saucy 3D scanner. [Wired]

iTiVo Downloads Shows to Your Mac for On-the-Go Viewing [Downloads]

Lisa Hoover — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

Mac OS X: If you like to watch shows from your TiVo with a handheld device—like an iPhone or PSP—when you're on the go, free, open-source application iTiVo converts them to a portable format with a few simple clicks.

iTiVo connects over your wireless network to your Series 2, Series, 3, or TiVoHD DVR and collects information on shows stored on the device's hard drive. iTiVo will let you know what non-copyrighted shows can be transferred to your Mac, along with episode and files-size information. Queue up the items you want to transfer, and iTiVo takes care of the rest.

This free, open source application converts shows to MPEG-2, MPEG-1, H.264, or decrypt-only, so you can play them right on your iPhone, iPod, or PSP. You can even plunk the files onto your Apple TV, Xbox 360, or Playstation 3.

You can schedule iTiVo to perform regular downloads, and likewise schedule it to perform an iTunes sync with a connected device. The tool also has optional commercial removal and supports subtitles for closed captioning data, so if you're a Mac user with a TiVo, downloading this one is a no-brainer.

iTiVo is a free download, Mac OS X only. What tools or apps do use with your TiVo DVR? Let us know in the comments.

Best Screencasting Tool: CamStudio [Hive Five Followup]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:30:00 -0800

It was a tight race in last week's Hive Five with a mere 0.001% of the vote separating the first and second place winners.

Earlier last week we asked you to share your favorite screen casting tools. You responded with your favorite app for recording the action in your virtual workspace and we rounded up the five most popular options for a vote. The top two contenders were neck in neck. Both CamStudio and Camtasia Studio took in 28% of the vote, CamStudio coming out ahead by a mere 3 votes. While they might be close together when it comes to votes, they're miles apart when it comes to price—CamStudio is free and open-source and Camtasia Studio is $299.

Following behind CamStudio and Camtasia Studio, Screenflow and ScreenToaster with 12% and 11% of the vote respectively—not only do they share half their names like the first and second place winners but they too were separated by mere votes. Finishing off the Hive Five was Jing with 9% of the vote.

For more information about the contenders and reader comments on the race, check out the full Hive Five.

How to Safely Fry a Turkey, Avoid a Trip to the Emergency Room [Food]

Sarah Rae Trover — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0800

Deep frying your Thanksgiving bird is all the rage, and for good reason: The results are delicious. Although that extra crispy skin is oh so tasty, frying without a little know-how is a recipe for trouble.

Instructables user Lextone looks like he's heeded the words of Alton Brown (see video below) when it comes to frying up the perfect turkey for his Thanksgiving feast. He has detailed each step of the process to keep things super safe keeping everyone free from harm or injury.

To get started you'll need the following: a fryer and its accessories, a metal or fiberglass ladder, a two-foot piece of dimensional lumber (1x2 or 2x4), a pulley, and a length of 3/8" rope. The extra gear is intended to let you start your turkey fry without injuring yourself using a simple pulley system, and that's the focus of the guide, but it's littered with other safety tips, as well.

If you haven't tried frying a turkey, it's worth the time—just make sure to keep things on a level, nonflammable surface and heed Lextone's advice and step-by-step instructions—which can be found in detail over at Instructables.

Have you tried your hand frying a turkey? Share your experience in the comments.

Amazon Offers Three Free MP3s of Your Choosing [Dealhacker]

Adam Pash — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:45:00 -0800

Amazon is running a brief promotion (ends November 30th) offering $3 worth of MP3s from Amazon MP3 for free. Just head to this page, follow the directions, and enjoy your free credit. Jason mentioned this in today's deals of the day, but we all know how important music can be to getting work done, so take advantage. [Amazon via UneasySilence]

Device Doctor is a Free Driver Update Scanner with Promise [Downloads]

The How-To Geek — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

Windows only: Driver update utility Device Doctor finds outdated drivers on your PC, and helps you download the latest version—without charging you a dime.

Using the utility, which can be installed or used as a portable application, is about as easy as it gets—just click the Begin Scan button, wait a couple of seconds, and you will be shown a list of drivers that can be updated. The download button for each driver will take you to their web site, where you can download the drivers for free, without signing up for anything at all. Most of the drivers come with setup programs, but some of them are nothing more than zip files, and would need to be installed manually—hopefully something they can improve on in the future.

During our testing, we used the application on half a dozen PCs, and had varied results—on our XP test system, Device Doctor worked well and accurately found new drivers, but for Windows 7 we didn't have as much luck, with a few incorrect drivers being thrown at us. That said, Windows 7 was only released recently, so expect that support to improve in the future.

Device Doctor isn't perfect yet, but as a completely free, portable application that you can toss on your thumb drive, it's well worth a look. It might even save you some time searching for new drivers while you are fixing mom's PC.

Device Doctor is a free download for Windows only. Be sure to check out the full How-To Geek review for a more in-depth look, as well as instructions on installing drivers manually.

BitTorrent’s Future: DHT, PEX, and Magnet Links Explained [BitTorrent]

Ernesto — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:30:00 -0800

Last week The Pirate Bay confirmed it would shut down its tracker permanently, instead encouraging the use of DHT, PEX, and magnet links. This move confounded many BitTorrent enthusiasts, who were confronted with confusing new terminology and technology. Time for some explaining.

The Pirate Bay's recent confirmation that they had closed down their tracker since DHT and Peer Exchange have matured enough to take over, was coupled with the news that they had added Magnet links to the site. This news has achieved its aim of stimulating discussion, but has also revealed that there is much confusion over how these technologies work.

The key thing to understand is that nobody is being forced to use Magnet links or trackerless torrents. While these long-standing technologies may prove to be the future, they will co-exist with tracker-enabled torrenting for quite some time. For now, nobody will be forced to immediately change their existing downloading habits, although it may be wise to switch to a BitTorrent client that is compatible with these technologies.

In an attempt to clear some of the mystique surrounding DHT, PEX and Magnet links we will walk through all three briefly, hoping to assure those who've become confused earlier this week.

DHT and PEX in action

DHT

Using DHT instead of trackers is one of the things The Pirate Bay is now trying to encourage, and torrent downloads that rely solely on this technology are often referred to as "trackerless torrents." DHT is used to find the IP addresses of peers, mostly in addition to a tracker. It is enabled by default in clients such as uTorrent and Vuze and millions of people are already using it without knowing.

DHT's function is to find peers who are downloading the same files, but without communicating with a central BitTorrent tracker such as that previously operated by The Pirate Bay.

DHT is by no means a new technology. A version debuted in the BitTorrent client Azureus in May 2005 and an alternative but incompatible version was added to Mainline BitTorrent a month later. There is, however, a plugin available for Azureus Vuze which allows it access to the Mainline DHT network used by uTorrent and other clients.

Peer Exchange ("PEX")

Peer Exchange is yet another means of finding IP addresses. Rather than acting like a tracker, it leverages the knowledge of peers you are connected to, by asking them in turn for the addresses of peers they are connected to. Although it requires a "kick start", PEX will often uncover more genuine peers than DHT or a tracker.

Magnet links

Traditionally, .torrent files are downloaded from torrent sites. A torrent client then calculates a torrent hash (a kind of fingerprint) based on the files it relates to, and seeks the addresses of peers from a tracker (or the DHT network) before connecting to those peers and downloading the desired content.

Sites can save on bandwidth by calculating torrent hashes themselves and allowing them to be downloaded instead of .torrent files. Given the torrent hash – passed as a parameter within a Magnet link – clients immediately seek the addresses of peers and connect to them to download first the torrent file, and then the desired content.

It is worth noting that BitTorrent can not ditch the .torrent format entirely and rely solely on Magnet links. The .torrent files hold crucial information that is needed to start the downloading process, and this information has to be available in the swarm.

Pirate Bay links cf. Mininova links: When the Magnet link specification first came out, in January last year it called for a particular format ("base32 encoded"). The links that EZTV, Mininova and ShareReactor have displayed for some time all conform to that original specification. In May of last year the specification was changed, in favor of "hex encoding", and that is the format of the links being displayed by The Pirate Bay. Torrent clients should accept either format.

Compatible Clients

All the main torrent clients: uTorrent 1.8.5, Vuze 4.3.0.2, BitTorrent 6.3, BitComet 1.16, and Transmission 1.76 (and others) support Peer Exchange and DHT (via a plugin in the case of Vuze). Neither BitComet nor Transmission yet support Magnet links but Transmission is planning to include Magnet link support in the upcoming 1.8 release. Bearing in mind that no site, including The Pirate Bay, has yet abandoned support for traditional torrent files, there is plenty of time for support to be added.

We hope that this article has cleared some of the smoke that was generated by The Pirate Bay's announcements earlier this week. There is no need to panic, cry or be angry, and it's not a problem if you're still confused after reading this article. Torrents will still be available and aside from some extra downloading options thanks to sites that add Magnet links, nothing drastic will change in the near future.

TorrentFreak is a weblog devoted to all-things BitTorrent and file sharing. To get all of the latest from TorrentFreak, be sure to subscribe to the TorrentFreak RSS feed.

The Lightsaber and LEDs Workspace [Featured Workspace]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

What has three screens, a couple test servers, and a lightsaber? Possibly a remote rebel-sponsored code farm, but also today's featured workspace.

Lifehacker reader cGarst has put together a simple and uncluttered workspace for himself. A combination of dark colors—green on the walls and black for the work surface, chair, and file cabinet—combined with downlighting provided by some inexpensive IKEA LED pucks makes for a dramatic workspace.

You can click on the photo above or this one below to get a closer look. If you want additional information about things in the picture check out the photo notes on his Flickr stream at the link below.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker.

Daisy Chain Knots Resize or Store Spare Cords Without Clutter [Cable Management]

Adam Pash — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:30:00 -0800

Whether you've got a 10-foot cord that only needs to stretch one foot or you simply want to store your cords without worrying about opening your closet to a knotted mess, daisy-chaining your cords solves your problems with aplomb.

Productivity weblog Silver Clipboard details how to daisy chain your computer cords and demonstrates how doing so can be extremely handy for decluttering your cords. Apart from tangle-free storage, daisy chaining your cords is, as mentioned above, a great way to use a long cord in a short space without worrying about eight feet of extra cord cluttering up the space behind your desk. This isn't quite the first time we've seen this idea, but it's a slightly different application, and certainly worth revisiting.

Google Reader Adds Favicon Support [Updates]

Adam Pash — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:25:00 -0800

Users of our very own Better GReader Firefox extension have been able to turn on favicon support for their feeds in the Reader sidebar for a while now (a favicon is, for example, the little 'lh' that displays next to the address bar when you're visiting Lifehacker); now the folks on the Reader team have caught up, adding favicon support for your subscriptions. It's not enabled by default, so you'll need to head to your Reader Settings page and tick the Show favicons for subscriptions checkbox to get it up and running. Good times. [Google Reader Blog]

Deals.Woot is a User-Run Bargain Site [Deals]

Whitson Gordon — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

Popular one-deal-a-day bargain finder website Woot has just launched a new section, deals.Woot, which instead of featuring one good deal chosen by Woot staffers, features a list of great deals found and voted on by Woot users.

TechCrunch's Jason Kincaid affectionately (and rather accurately) calls the portal the "Digg for bargains." The site features a list of user-submitted and voted-on deals from around the web, and, like the regular Woot site, is very tech- and gadget-heavy in its list of deals. There are still a few other things hiding inside the site, like coffee, t-shirts, and even bacon salt, but old fans of Woot and all technophiles will be happy with the plethora of deals available.

While most of the site is user-run, the deals on the top part of the page are all sponsored—that is, they are still deals, but they were submitted by retailers or manufacturers, not by users. The deals still need to be deemed worthy by Woot's staffers, but just keep in mind that they do not follow the Digg-style process that the rest of the site does.

Deals.Woot [via TechCrunch]

Gmail Now Lets You Add and Send Attachments Offline [Gmail Tip]

Sarah Rae Trover — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:30:00 -0800

Writing emails while offline can help keep you on top of things, especially while on the go. As of today, Offline Gmail allows you to add attachments to an email while you're offline, bringing essentially the full offline experience to Gmail.

No one likes sending out the "Oops! I forgot my attachment!" email following an incomplete draft. If you work offline with regularity, Offline Gmail's new offline attachment feature means less chance of forgetting. For those who have held off using offline access, here's how to get things started:

If you haven't tried offline access yet, visit the Labs tab and follow these instructions to get started:

Select Enable next to Offline Gmail.

Click Save Changes.

After your browser reloads, you'll see a new "Offline" link in the upper righthand corner of the Gmail page, next to your username. Click this link to start the offline set up process and download Gears if you don't already have it.

If you aren't using Offline Gmail just yet, take a closer look at what else it gets you.

Gadget and Gear Deals of the Day [Dealhacker]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0800

Heavily discounted noise-canceling headphones, HDTVs, hard drives, and even a NAS storage-unit with a built in Blu-ray burner are but a few of the things you'll find in today's deal roundup. Broke? Grab some free holiday tunes.

Hands-On Look at What's New in Office 2010 [Screenshot Tour]

Kevin Purdy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0800

Now that we've had some time to play with the Office 2010 Professional Beta, we thought we'd share what's new and useful inside Microsoft's big suite. Take a gander at the pictorial evidence below.

Overall, Office 2010 is not the kind of leap forward that Windows 7 was from Vista (or, for most PC upgraders, from XP). It adds a lot of stuff that's previously been available only through plug-ins, makes performing the basic tasks of opening, printing, and sharing documents a good deal more convenient, and throws in a few new features that will expand the repertoire of those who really know their Office.

The free Office 2010 Professional Beta doesn't include access to Office's online component (ReadWriteWeb has taken a quick peek at them), and we'll mostly be sticking to Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint components on this tour. OneNote fans, you'll get your own peek soon enough! In the meantime, you can check out Microsoft's own video preview (Silverlight is, unfortunately, required).

For even more Office 2010 preview, with those new-fangled moving pictures, head over to Office 2010 in Videos, helpfully compiled into one place from YouTube by Adam.

On to the photos. Click any of them for a bigger (usually much bigger) view

Office as a whole

Many of Office 2010's best new features are present in every application across the suite.

In Windows 7, each app gets a taskbar integration that includes the very helpful "jump lists." Outlook makes the most use of jump lists, offering message templates and common actions. Other apps can have frequently-accessed documents pinned to their taskbar icons.

Backstage View: Hit the left-most tab ("File," usually) in any application, and you get the same sort of functionality as was available when you clicked the Office logo in Office 2007—just five times as helpful. The actions under each heading are broken up into clearly explained items with buttons that are easy to click—no more playing mouse cursor maze with sub-menus.

Under the "Share" tab is one of Office's most helpful features, an option to save to a SkyDrive account. That account, if you'll recall, offers 25GB of space in a nice web package. Saving to the SkyDrive does take a notable bit of time more than making a local save, and should be more automatic and integrated than hidden in the "Share" tab. Still, it's a nice security blanket for very important files.

There's also a "Publish as Blog Post" option in the "Backstage View" that works for most blogs that support remote publishing, although it's not quite a polished setup.

More useful to most users will be the fairly polished and customizable print options:

Editing and pasting text and images: "Paste Preview" gives you options right as you hit Ctrl+V, rather than making you root through menus to fix the garbled text you've just dropped in. From a tiny cursor menu, you can choose to keep or strip formatting and images, and see how it looks instantly:

Once the text is entered, you can apply some neat effects to it while keeping it able to be edited, and similarly see your changes in real time.

Office 2010's photo editing panel is much more powerful than its predecessors. A huge range of image effects can be instantly applied. Heck, if you want to give your images that Apple-like reflected-on-a-white-background look, that's one click. Alignment, re-sizing, cropping, and other tools are no longer sidebar-type actions, but front and center as tools.

Got an image stuck in the middle of a wonky background? Office 2010 can pull it out—sometimes auto-magically, sometimes after asking you to help define where that image actually is.

In Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote, there's a built-in screenshot tool that can grab the screen behind the Office window you currently have open, or allow you to switch to the window you're grabbing and then grab just a section of it. That's a nice option for putting together presentations with break-neck deadlines.

Excel

This editor is not an Excel wizard. In fact, he may or may not still be struggling with a COUNTIF() function to mark how many times he took a GPS-tracked walk in October.

Still, the Sparklines feature is instantly recognizable as a really helpful little widget. It turns single cells into mini-charts, which automatically update to reflect changes to the data they're tracking in whatever cells set you select:

Outlook

When you first start Outlook, you don't have to steel yourself for an intensive session with IMAP servers and SSL port numbers. In most cases, you can just point Outlook at your email address and password, and—even with a Gmail account—the app just reaches out and hooks into your email. This didn't work quite so well with our Google Apps-hosted Lifehacker mail, but likely would have worked fine with some manual configuration tweaks.

Here's the big view of Outlook's main screen:

Most intriguing of all is the inclusion of a "Quick Steps" toolbar. It's a killer feature that already caught our eyes, and it allows you to perform one-click, multi-step automated actions on any message:

PowerPoint

The most eye-opening feature in PowerPoint 2010 is its broadcasting capabilities. At the moment, it only works with Microsoft's own sharing service, but future plug-ins are promised for other screencasting services. Open the Slide Show tab, hit Broadcast Slide Show, and you'll get a link you can IM, email, or otherwise pass onto anybody with a web browser, and they can see your slide show, slide by slide, as you move through it.

Your guests are, of course, prompted to install SilverLight for a "better" viewing experience, but, as we noted, other services will be integrated for future slide show sharing.

The "Smart Art" clip art isn't exclusive to PowerPoint, but makes the most sense here, as it's meant to help you organize your thoughts visually, rather than find cute illustrations of cowboys and smiley faces:

Streaming video embedding, once a semi-tricky prospect, is now as easy as embedding on a web page. Paste in the embed code you get from just about any Flash-based video site, and it'll play in PowerPoint:

We're not professional-level Office users, but we did find a whole lot new and intriguing in Office 2010. The folks at I'm Just Being Manan and PC World have done their own digging and screen sharing, too.

What's your favorite feature from the Office 2010 beta? Share your finds, and paste screenshots, in the comments.

A Holiday Emergency Kit Keeps You Prepared for Anything [Emergency]

Sarah Rae Trover — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0800

The holidays mean food, fun, and family—but they can also mean stress and frustration. Avoid small disasters by throwing together a holiday emergency kit to aid in rescuing your carpet, meal, or toilets from any unpleasant surprises.

Photo by xybermatthew

In holiday times such as Thanksgiving, the pressure and stress is on to create the best experience possible. It's also true that any problem that could arise often does, and being caught off guard can make it feel like the world is coming down around you. Home guru Bob Vila's weblog advises assembling a few household items that can save the day, or at least your sanity, when a few common holiday emergencies arrive. For example:

Hydrogen Peroxide. For wine stains on rugs or dresses. (It's Thanksgiving. Spills happen. Accept it and just be prepared to deal.) And this removal tip gets a five-star rating from readers.

CLR toilet and sink de-clogger. Let's face it, a mid-dinner toilet clog is worse than burning the turkey.

Check out the full list from BobVila.com which includes a few saviors when it comes to dull social interactions and alcohol. Do you have anything to add to the items above? What do you keep on hand—just in case? Sound off in the comments.

Chrome Extensions Gallery Open to Developers [Google Chrome]

Kevin Purdy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0800

The coming of Chrome's extension system has been teased in the browser's development releases, and their future web home now invites developers to submit their code for review and approval. If you're a developer, you can read up on the official Chrome Gallery policies. If you're a downloader like the rest of us, you can, well, hope your favorite add-on makers answer the call. [via Download Squad]

Hulu Adds Public Video Tagging [Hulu]

Kevin Purdy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:00:00 -0800

You're always pulling up that episode for friends—the one with the one-armed man, teaching lessons—and need to get to it quickly. With Hulu's new tagging, you can add up to 30 tags to a video for identification.

At the moment, the tags aren't working as part of Hulu's universal search bar, but we're presuming they'll get there eventually. In the meantime, the tags—which anyone can add to any video, and have "voted up" by other users—work as a kind of public catalog of what's happening in each video. Wondering if this is that Family Guy with the ridiculously long chicken suit fight sequence? It's safe to assume someone will have tagged it as such, and clicking the tag should bring up other videos with that same gag as well.

Windows 7 Migration Tool Transfers Profiles, Personalizations, Settings, and More [Downloads]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:30:00 -0800

Windows XP: If you're thinking about moving to Windows 7 but dreading the migration, Windows 7 Migration Tool takes some of the hassle out of the process.

If you're upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 you don't need the Windows 7 Migration Tool, the built-in migration tool is fine and a Vista to Windows 7 upgrade doesn't require a wipe of the previous operating system. Moving from XP to Windows 7 is a little trickier thanks to the full system wipe that precedes the install of Windows 7.

Windows 7 Migration Tool comes in several flavors including a free basic edition. The free edition will check for compatibility issues, scan your XP installation for applications and save application settings as well as generate a list of applications you need to download—the basic edition doesn't automate the reinstall process for you unfortunately. It also transfers your desktop personalizations and the contents of My Documents.

Windows 7 Migration Tool Basic Edition is freeware, Windows only. Know of a tool for easy migration to Windows 7? Let's hear about it in the comments.

National Geographic Offers Stunning Natural Wallpaper [Wallpaper]

Kevin Purdy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0800

If you're a wallpaper junkie and nature lover, National Geographic's International Photography Contest is a great source for well-shot, fresh, decently high-resolution images to adorn your desktop with.

The long-running magazine has an extensive wallpaper-focused photography section, but as Web Worker Daily points out, those shots max out at 1280 pixels wide. That's fine for some monitors, but on most modern laptops and widescreen displays, that's pixel-stretching territory.

Over in National Geographic's photography contest section, however, the submitted shots can be downloaded at 1600 pixels wide, making for some fairly nice desktop wallpaper. Better still, the shots are numbered and formatted in fairly algorithmic fashion, so using the auto-download features of John's Background Switcher or another automatic wallpaper changer makes it very easy to get a fresh look on every boot-up.

Recipes for Brining a Better Thanksgiving Turkey [Thanksgiving]

Kevin Purdy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:30:00 -0800

We've previously posted the "why" of brining your Thanksgiving turkey, with delicious scientific evidence. Looking for the "how"? Serious Eats offers up food science savant Alton Brown's brining recipe. Slashfood has also posted a choose your own spices brine mix, and L.A. Times food writer Russ Parsons previously shared a dry turkey brining technique that he claims gives the final result a less "sponge-y" texture than traditional salt solutions. Feel free to drop your own brine mixture in the comments, of course.

MediaMonkey 3.2 Syncs with More Devices, Adds Auto Folder Watching [Updates]

Kevin Purdy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:30:00 -0800

Windows: We dig MediaMonkey for its album art and tag-fixing powers, but the free jukebox software can do so much more—like sync to nearly any smartphone or MP3 player, and automatically manage your music library.

The marquee feature in MediaMonkey 3.2 is expanded device support, including WebOS devices like the Palm Pre and Pixi, the latest iPods and iPhones, Android phones (as general USB storage devices), and many more. MediaMonkey's also added automatic folder watching to the free version, something previously available only in its paid Gold edition. And MediaMonkey also added in support for Windows 7's right-click taskbar feature, jump lists, showing recently played tracks, playlists, and other controls.

If you're toting a Palm, iPhone, Android, or other phone, MediaMonkey's worth checking out as an alternative to iTunes, and as its own seriously full-featured media player—and a spot to buy and manage MP3s from online stores like Amazon. MediaMonkey 3.2 is a free download for Windows systems only.

What Free Apps Are You Thankful For? [Ask The Readers]

Adam Pash — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

We're a cheap lot around Lifehacker HQ, which is why we have a serious love affair with free software. As Americans get ready to give thanks over a big fat turkey dinner, we also want to remember the apps we're thankful for.

Photo by stevevoght.

In the spirit of the season, we want to hear about the free applications you're most thankful for on your computer. List a handful of your must-have freebies in the comments, and as we've done in the past, we'll round them up for Thursday in a cornucopia of downloading deliciousness.

From the Tips Box: Chrome Tabs, Email Bookmarklets, and Cheap Coffee [From The Tips Box]

Whitson Gordon — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:30:00 -0800

Readers offer their best tips for permanently pinning Chrome tabs, pasting your email address with a quick-access bookmarklet, and using less expensive coffee with Starbucks' fancy VIA cup.

Don't like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page.

About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or email it to tips at lifehacker.com.

Permanent Pinned Tabs in Chrome

Randald shows us how to keep tabs permanently pinned in Chrome:

Awhile back I read your post about pinned tabs in Chrome. Ever since, I've been looking for a way to permanently pin them. I came across a away to do it. Add the following to command line to Chrome:

\chrome.exe --pinned-tab-count=3 http://www.google.com http://gmail.com http://wave.google.com

Save Time with Email Bookmarklets in Chrome

billbaggins tells us how he keeps writing out his email address all the time:

Just kinda noticed this, but in Chrome, if you create a bookmarklet holding your email address as the target URL, you can easily drag and drop it wherever you would need to type it.

The only thing is that if you type just the email address in the target URL box, Chrome prefixes it with [.] If you put a ':' in front of it, it cancels this out, but you still have to remove the ':' in the text box.

Use Twitter's Mobile Site with Slow Connections

Erin tells us an easy fix for slow loading times on Twitter:

Sometimes I'll be somewhere with a really slow internet connection and the "more" feature of Twitter isn't updating the page. In order to view tweets by pages like you used to be able to do, I use the mobile site for Twitter: http://m.twitter.com. This way I can refresh the page without loosing my place in my Twitter stream. You can't favorite or reply to tweets, but it's a really simple way to just catch up on tweets.

Using Non-Starbucks Coffee with Starbucks VIA Cups

Troy shares how he gets around Starbucks Instant Coffee's $10 price tag with their VIA cups:

My Favorite thing about Starbuck's VIA coffee is the $16 mug they created that allows you to store their instant coffee packets inside the cup. However, at $9.95 per box of 10, it's too expensive...and there is no decaf option. I've found the perfect solution, though. Nescafe offers several instant flavors (including decaf) and the cost is about $1 per six pack. They still fit in the fancy cup. And, (sorry Starbucks) they taste good.

Remains of the Day: Aol. Is the New AOL Edition [For What It's Worth]

Adam Pash — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

The creator of Gmail hasn't tried Google Wave, Android and Chrome OS will likely become one at some point in the future, and AOL loses two capital letters and gains a period.

Brin: Google's OSes likely to converge
Chrome OS and Android may become one at some point down the road. [CNET]
Mint Upselling To "Free"CreditReport.com
We've been big fans of personal finance webapp Mint for quite some time, but Consumerist notes some shady credit report upselling on the recently sold-to-Quicken service. Blah. [Consumerist]
Microsoft Offers To Pay News Corp To "De-List" Itself From Google
Bing's big opportunity to take over search from Google: Index important content that Google doesn't have. Or at least that's the idea. [Silicon Alley Insider]
Ubuntu 10.10 LTS Lycid may include a backup tool by default
The next release of Ubuntu could come with a built-in backup tool. [The Linux Tutorial]
Gmail Creator Thinks Email Will Last Forever. And Hasn't Tried Google Wave.
Paul Buchheit created Gmail, then founded Friendfeed, and now works at Facebook, and he's pretty comfortable with the future of email. [TechCrunch]
Meet the New AOL Logo: "Aol."
Internet dinosaur AOL changes its look, logo, and capitalization. Aol. it is. [AllThingsD]
Apple's Schiller Defends iPhone App Approval Process
Apple's iTunes App Store approval process has received all kinds of bad press for its mistakes, but Apple's senior vice president still doesn't think it's so bad. [BusinessWeek]

Docky Separates from GNOME Do, Still a Clever Linux App Dock [Downloads]

Kevin Purdy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:30:00 -0800

Linux: Application launcher GNOME Do has a "theme" called Docky that we dubbed an intelligent Linux interface. Now Docky is its own (alpha-level) application, bringing many of its best features over and setting the stage for many more.

Docky was a clever app for GNOME Do to integrate with, offering application launching and an OS X-like Dock from a single screen space. It was, however, not quite a perfect pairing, as it tied together a lot of of processes, and was somewhat inconsistent and slightly buggy in how it operated. As its own separate software project and app, it's free to develop. It's only in the first alpha of a 2.0 release, so skip it if you can't stand the idea of things working wonky or breaking, but it's worth checking out as a desktop power tool.

The "docklets" and plug-ins that were present in GNOME Do, like battery, CPU, and weather monitors are still around, while smart items like a Gmail notifier and recent documents icon have been added. The interface is also more functional, allowing for dragging-and-dropping files from the desktop to dock folder icons, and opening files in certain apps by dragging files on them. You can run multiple docks, change each of their themes, icon sizes, and zoom levels, and run Docky in "Panel Mode," taking up the whole of a window edge.

Docky is a free download for Linux systems only; an easily installed Ubuntu repository and source code are available at the link.

How to Run Google Chrome OS from a Thumb Drive [Chrome Os]

Adam Pash — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

Last week we pointed you toward a virtual machine build of Chrome OS for anyone eager to play around with (the still incomplete) Chrome OS, but if you'd rather try running it from a thumb drive, weblog MakeUseOf has you covered.

Tech blogger Jorge Sierra details how to install Chrome OS on a bootable thumb drive so you can run it like any other live OS—like a Linux Live CD, for example. Keep in mind, however, that the build is still very young (and technically it's still Chromium OS), and even if you follow all of the directions perfectly, you may still run into some problems. For example:

Chromium OS may or may not work on your computer hardware. I did successfully run it on two home-built frankenstein computers (with ASUS motherboards), but it did not successfully recognize the network adapter on my Dell laptop. All of this work may be for nothing, if it ends up that Chromium OS does not like your network adapter.

Still, it's a fun little afternoon project, especially if you're eager to try Chrome OS. If you've played with a build since last week's preview, let's hear how it worked out for you in the comments.

Google Maps Navigation Now Available for Older Android Devices [Android]

Lisa Hoover — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:30:00 -0800

Previously, users wanting to run Google Maps Navigation on their Android phones either needed a 2.0 device (like the Droid) or resorted to this workaround. Today, Google announced the application is now available for pretty much every Android device.

Google Maps Navigation is a GPS system with automatic rerouting and voice guidance. It uses your phone's data connection to get you where you need to be, and even churns out geographical information like nearby transit lines and popular locations, thanks to its new Layers feature.

To get the app on your phone (U.S. users only), just grab the updated version of Google Maps from the Android Market. A few features exclusive to Android 2.0 are missing, like the "navigate to" voice command, but the Google Maps forum is filled with great tips on cool ways to tweak the app.

Have you been using Google Maps Navigation on your Android 2.0 device (or your special G1)? Share your tips with Android 1.6 users in the comments.

Backupify Makes Regular Backups of Your Online Data [Backups]

Lisa Hoover — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0800

Think about how much of your important data is stuck in the cloud. Web service Backupify backs up all your online accounts (including Wordpress, Facebook, Gmail, and Flickr) so if a service you rely on suddenly goes poof!, your data won't.

Backupify is a spiffy service that automatically performs scheduled backups at one of the 10 online services they support. Supply the login credentials of the sites you want backed up, and Backupify takes care of the rest. Once you're up and running, if your Gmail, Google Docs, or FriendFeed account flakes out, you won't have to freak out because all your important stuff is stored safely somewhere else.

Backupify offers Twitter backups for free and three additional premium plans that range from $3.95 to $14.95 per month, depending on how much storage you need. Seems like a reasonable price to pay for the comfort of knowing the data you store in the cloud won't disappear into the ether some day.

Upcoming Lets You Know When Your Favorite Artists Are in Town [Music]

Sarah Rae Trover — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:30:00 -0800

Upcoming has been a rather neglected web application since it was acquired by Yahoo, but this week they've announced a new feature that lets you know when bands you like are in town based on Pandora, Last.fm, or iTunes.

Back in the day, before extra ads and a painful interface, Pollstar used to be the go to place to check a concert listing in your area. You still can, but other sites like Upcoming are trying to make the happenings in your town a little more user friendly. Once Upcoming loads your favorites, it stores the names and sends you an email notification when a band you like has a tour date in your area.

As long as you use iTunes, Last.fm, or Pandora, Upcoming's new feature could prove to be pretty useful. If you're only an iTunes user, on the other hand, we do love previously mentioned iConcertCal.

Google Puts Coupons on Your Phone so You Can Forget the Scissors [Saving Money]

Adam Pash — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

With their new mobile coupons feature, Google wants to make it easier for you to access coupons on the go when you're too busy to sit down with the paper and clip coupons.

Just in time for the holidays, we've made it easier to find discounts when you're on the go. If a business adds a mobile coupon to its Google Local Business Center listing, you'll be able to access it from your mobile device. Just go to google.com on your phone and search for a local business. When you land on its Place Page, you'll see any coupons or discounts that might be available. Then simply show the participating business the coupon, right from your phone, to redeem the offer.

It's a great idea in theory (though not entirely new), but the main stumbling block is adoption—that is, after a lot of searching, I had a tough time finding many local businesses in my area that had any coupons to begin with. That's because it's all dependent on businesses taking advantage of their Place Page—the result Google provides when it recognizes a local business. Place pages display photos, reviews, and more (like this one). It's possible I'm just having a lot of bad luck in my searches, though, so if you give the new mobile coupons a try and have better luck, share it with us in the comments.

Speak Clipboard Reads Your Clipboard's Content Out Loud [Downloads]

Lisa Hoover — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:30:00 -0800

Windows only: Professional writers often read their work out loud to make sure it flows well and sounds coherent. If you want to kick back and have the reading done for you, then give Speak Clipboard a try.

This lightweight, free, open-source app is designed for Windows XP, but we were able to get it up and running on Vista (and presumably Windows 7) too—just had to install the .NET 1.1 framework. To make Speak Clipboard talk to you, simply copy text into your clipboard via Right-click -> Copy or Ctrl+C, then fire up the app. You can pause and resume Speak Clipboard or change the reading direction from right to left, all with a single click.

This cool tool appeals to more than just writers. It's a great app to help people with a visual impairment, and a neat way for kids to practice their reading and writing skills. How else would you use Speak Clipboard? Let us know in the comments.

Use Food Coloring to Diagnose a Leaking Toilet [Bathrooms]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

If you have a heavy leak in your toilet, it's easy to diagnose—the faint sound of the toilet tank constantly replenishing is a dead give away. What about a slow leak? Diagnose it with food coloring.

If you have a slow leak in your toilet tank, hundreds of gallons are just slowly and silently cascading down the side of your toilet bowl every month. Fortunately you can easily detect if the uptick in your water bill is from a slow leak or not.

Over at wikiHow they share a simple test for toilet water leaks, place a half dozen or so drops of food coloring in the toilet tank. Leave the toilet alone for a half hour or more. Come back and check to see if the water in the bowl of the toilet has become tinted with the food-coloring dye from the tank. If it has, you've got a leak between the tank and the bowl.

Check out the full guide at wikiHow for more details and how to fix the leak if you find it. Have a cheap way to test for problems around the house? Let's hear about it in the comments.

My Movies 3 Is a Beautiful Movie Add-on for Windows Media Center [Downloads]

Adam Pash — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:30:00 -0800

Windows only: My Movies is a free plug-in for Windows Media Center designed to manage and play all of your movies within Windows Media Center, pulling in rich metadata for your movie collection, including cast, trailers, DVD art, and more.

Whether you rip your DVDs to your hard drive or you still prefer using the discs each time you watch a movie, My Movies 3 is a must-have. We mentioned the previous version, My Movies 2, in our roundup of eight killer Windows Media Center plug-ins, but My Movies has grown steadily since then, and with the release of My Movies 3 it also supports Windows 7. Once installed, the tool automatically indexes and downloads metadata for your movies whenever you insert a DVD.

Keep in mind that while My Movies 3 is designed specifically for Windows Media Center, other applications available from the My Movies people, like Collection Management, can work to supply great metadata to other applications, including XBMC.

My Movies 3 is a free download, Windows only. It is donation-supported, however, and you can unlock more features with your donations. Without spending a dollar, though, My Movies 3 is still a must for your Windows Media Center box.

Unclutter Your Workdays to Free Up Your Weekends [Clutter]

Sarah Rae Trover — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

Weekends are a combination of playing catch up from things not accomplished in the previous 5 days, interjected with bits of free time and family obligations. Unclutter one thing a day to leave your weekends wide open for anything you please.

Photo by Mr. Toaster

Money-wise weblog The Simple Dollar shares a few specifics from the book Unclutter Your Life in One Week, which suggests steps you should take each day of the week to tackle your sanity, clutter, and daily organizational-frustrations that can leave your weekends full of anything but fun. Each day brings a new element of your daily routine to the forefront, allowing you to identify and trim down the excess baggage. For example, here's what the author suggests for a Monday:

Monday is the best day of the week to begin establishing new routines. It's also a good day to tackle the "firsts" — the elements of clutter you face first throughout your day.

For example, many of us face a cluttered closet in the morning when we wake up, so a good first step is to get your clothes in order. If you have more clothes than you can adequately fit in your dresser and closet, you need to eliminate some.

At work, the first thing we often see is our desk or workspace. Figure out a place for all of the stuff that you see – and don't be surprised if the space for many of those things is the trash can.

The author suggests tackling different things for Tuesday-Friday, all of which should leave your weekend for other things besides work, or procrastinated obligations. Hit up The Simple Dollar for the rest of the daily tasks and see if it helps keep your holiday busy season a little more organized.

What Do You Think About Google Chrome OS [Snap Judgment]

Adam Pash — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:30:00 -0800

Last week Google unveiled a first glimpse at Chrome OS, their web-only operating system slated for wide release in 2010. So now that you've had time to sit with the idea, we want to know what you think of it.

We've seen plenty of "this will never work" press since the Chrome OS event last week, but we actually like a lot of the ideas behind Chrome OS, and if nothing else, we love seeing more variety and competition in viable consumer operating systems. But hey, that's us. How about you:

I went pretty broad with the poll options above for a very simple measurement of how our readers feel about Chrome OS, but let's hear more specifics fueling your thoughts in the comments.

Imfy.us Generates Shortened, Secure, and Non-Indexable URLS [Url Shorteners]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0800

Imfy.us is a URL shortening service for people who want to ensure the users clicking through their shortened URLs are actually people and not web-indexing search engine crawlers.

Submit a URL to Imfy.us and the resultant shortened URL will direct to a landing page at Imfy.us. On the landing page you'll find a preview of the site and a CAPTCHA system—the source of Imfy's anti-crawler abilities.

Want to take the CAPTCHA idea one step further and actually secure your shortened URL with a password and not just against crawlers? Check out previously reviewed dwarfURL and HideLinks for two URL shortening services that allow you to add a password requirement to your shortened URL.

Have a favorite URL shortener? Know of a URL shortener with a trick or two up its sleeve? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Protect Yourself from Drive-By Browser Malware Attacks [Security]

The How-To Geek — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0800

We explained that you don't need to pay for Windows security last week, but today we're taking a closer look at how to protect yourself from drive-by malware that can infect your computer by simply visiting the wrong web site.

Naturally, everything in the last article still applies (you should definitely give it a read through if you haven't already). Most importantly, make sure you always keep your PC updated; it's the biggest key to protecting yourself against drive-by malware. If you're already good on that front, here are some of the finer adjustments you can make to keep yourself safe.

What Is Drive-By Malware?

Drive-by malware infects your computer by exploiting a vulnerability in your browser, browser plug-ins, or by opening a file in a hidden frame and exploiting a security hole in an application, like Adobe Reader. Think you only browse safe sites? They've also been known to hijack advertisements on popular sites. We'll take a quick tour through some of the best ways to protect yourself.

Readers should note that we're assuming you're already using an antivirus application—if you aren't, check out the five most popular antivirus applications among Lifehacker readers.

Disable, Kill, or Uninstall Adobe Reader

Adobe Reader is a security hole waiting to happen. Even if you try your best to keep the software updated, you're still at risk for the latest vulnerabilities if you allow it to open PDFs in your web browser. Your best bet is to get rid of Adobe Reader entirely and switch to a better alternative, but if you prefer Reader you should force Firefox to download all PDF files and open them separately (i.e., outside your browser). Head into the Preferences and find Internet on the left-hand menu, then uncheck the "Display PDF in browser" option on the right. This should prevent Reader from automatically opening in the browser without your consent.

Next you'll need to head into Firefox Options -> Applications, and look for the PDF file item in the list—if it doesn't exist, that's fine. If it does, change the value to Always ask or Save File instead.
If you're using Internet Explorer, you might want to head into Tools -> Manage Addons and disable the Adobe PDF Link helper as well.

FlashBlock Disables Annoying Animations, Protects You

Not only does the excellent FlashBlock extension help get rid of the web's biggest annoyances, but it also prevents you from being immediately vulnerable to the many security holes repeatedly found in Adobe Flash. In my experience, this extension helps Firefox run more smoothly and take longer before it reaches the "reboot needed" point—it's a must-have. Google Chrome users can also block Flash with a user script, and IE users can use Toggle Flash to turn the extension on or off.

Disable ALL Unnecessary Plug-ins

On my Firefox installation, the only plug-in that I have enabled is Adobe Flash, and I'm using Flashblock to make sure that it only runs when I tell it to. Why? The vast majority of the web sites that I visit use Flash, but very few of them use Java, Silverlight, and none of them need the .NET Framework Assistant—there's no reason to keep all of these plug-ins enabled when what we really want is a nice trim Firefox install. Just head into Tools -> Add-ons, head to the Plugins tab, and start disabling everything else that you don't use.
If you are using Internet Explorer instead, you can open up Tools -> Manage Add-ons and start disabling toolbars and plugins that you really don't need running.
Just make sure to change the Show drop-down to "Add add-ons" so you can see everything that is enabled, rather than just the add-ons that are currently loaded. This will let you find a lot of extra stuff that you didn't realize was there.

Keep Your System Updated

We already mentioned in our last rant on keeping your system secure, but we're going to tell you again: Keeping your system updated is the most important factor in protecting yourself against drive-by malware that exploits unpatched security holes. Make sure to use Windows Update to keep your base system patched, and then use one of the best software update tools to make sure that your applications are also updated.

Serious Security: Use a Virtual Machine

If you spend a lot of time browsing questionable web sites and downloading files on P2P networks, you should consider using a virtual machine like VirtualBox to do your dirty work in. If your virtual machine goes up in smoke, your primary PC will stay nice and safe. This is also a great way to test out software that you really aren't sure about, and it's the way that we do our testing over at How-To Geek HQ for applications we're writing about. If a virtual machine isn't your style, you can also virtualize just your applications and safely test new software with an application like Sandboxie, which will run your applications in a "sandbox" to protect the rest of your PC from a questionable application.

How do you protect yourself from drive-by malware attacks and keep your system secure? Share your methods in the comments.

The How-To Geek loves some Flashblock with his Firefox. His geeky articles can be found daily here on Lifehacker, How-To Geek, and Twitter.

GrandCentral Shutting Down in December [Telephony]

Adam Pash — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0800

If you've been using GrandCentral to consolidate your phones since before Google bought the service and turned it into Google Voice, you could still log into your GC account to listen to old messages even after you were upgraded to Voice. If you want to save those old messages for posterity, you'd better do it soon: GrandCentral's web site is officially closing its doors on December 31.