Laptops once used to be the domain of word-processing programs, file databases, and light gaming, but more often than not most people currently use their laptops as makeshift do-it-all interactive televisions. With the abundance of streaming video sites and TV/movie content available, they're often the most versatile entertainment products on the market, pound for pound.

Unfortunately, you're locked in to a screen that often has limited viewing angles and a resolution that's often less than 1080p. There's good news, though: connecting to an HDTV is a lot easier than most people think--provided you have an … Read more

This hint requires a Mac using the latest version of iTunes and an iOS 4-compatible device with iBooks 1.1 installed. Once you've completed each step, you will be able to save Web sites, documents, or any other data that any Mac OS X application allows to be printed to PDF directly into iTunes for … Read more

Are you still having trouble trying to upgrade your iPhone or iPod Touch to Apple's new iOS 4? If so, here's a workaround that could help.

After Apple released iOS 4 on June 21, a small but significant number of folks anxious to upgrade started reporting various issues from long download times to error messages to backups that never seemed to finish. In my corner, I tried several times to update my iPod Touch 2G by following the standard steps, but without any success.

Each time I triggered the update, the software would start to back up my … Read more

In the nearly two years that Apple has been selling apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, I've accumulated pages and pages of them. I try to keep them organized, grouping games and similar apps together on separate pages--but it still involves a lot of flipping and searching to get where I want to go.

Apple's new Folders feature in iOS 4 offers a new approach to managing an ever-growing collection of apps, allowing you to group apps together under custom headings. Not only do folders cut down on the number of icons sprawling across your home screens, … Read more

Apple's iOS4 is spreading out to iPhone and iPod Touch owners today. Upgrading the firmware on your iPhone or iPod may be old hat for some of you, but if this is your first time around, here's the iOS 4 upgrade process in five easy steps.

The iOS 4 upgrade is free for both iPhone and iPod Touch, but excludes first-gen models.

Apple's iBooks app includes a storefront of thousands of titles, many of which are free, public domain books. But if you really have a thing for free books, online repositories, such as Project Gutenberg and Google Books offer a vast selection of e-book titles that users can download to their computers.

These same files are also compatible with Apple's iBooks app, but it isn't exactly obvious how to load them onto your device.

The following CNET How To walks you though the process of downloading an online EPUB book file, loading it into iTunes, giving it cover … Read more

LOS ANGELES--When Apple first released the iPad tablet, there was an instant burst of debate over whether it could or would replace Netbooks as the portable computing platform of choice. After all, both classes of devices have similar smalls screens and use low-power parts to provide long battery life, far beyond the average 15-inch laptop.

My initial view was that the iPad was not a Netbook killer. Despite its strengths, it lacked the software flexibility, and the traditional keyboard/touch pad input scheme, that most productivity tasks require. At the same time, figuring out how to substitute a small, lightweight iPad in situations where one would normally carry a laptop seemed like appealing challenge. … Read more

A GPS device is only as good as its maps, so you want to make sure that you have the newest, most accurate map data available before you hit the road. This week, we're taking a look at the process of updating the map data on Garmin's Nuvi line of portable navigation devices. In the weeks that follow, we'll be covering how to update devices from TomTom and Magellan, among others.

Updating the maps on your GPS device used to be a complete pain in the butt. You'd have to order your update on CD, DVD, … Read more

Two of the best new and improved features in Photoshop CS5 are the new content-aware fill feature and the overhauled high-dynamic range tools. Available in both Photoshop CS5 basic (Windows | Mac) and Photoshop CS5 Extended (Windows | Mac), the two tools enhance features that Photoshop has already had in ways that make them more useful and easier to use.

In the first video, we cover how to use the content-aware feature to remove both small objects, such as telephone wires, and large objects, such as an entire person.

In the second video, we go over the massive changes made to the … Read more