How To

Five lazy ways to find great live music

It always seems like the best concerts are the ones you hear about too late. But who has time to scour the show listings in the local paper or habitually check a band's Web site for tour dates?

There's a better way. In fact, there are so many sites out there promising personalized concert recommendations, I figured a roundup was in order. So here you are, five sites that will put you in tune with the best live music in your area, using data from your favorite music sites and services:

… Read more

Pandora apps put comedy in your pocket

Recently I finished a three-month trial of SiriusXM Radio. And despite a relentless onslaught of calls and e-mails from the company, I elected not to continue my subscription. The only channels I really wanted were the comedy ones, which, frankly, weren't that great.

Pandora to the rescue! Yesterday, the incomparably awesome Internet-radio service introduced comedy stations. My first thought: "Please let them be available in the mobile apps. Please let them be available in the mobile apps." Because I figured that such an incomparably awesome addition to the service must come with a catch.

Huzzah! Turns out I can enjoy the likes of Daniel Tosh, Bill Cosby, Steven Wright, and Mitch Hedberg on my iPad, iPhone, Android phone, and so on--wherever there's a Pandora app. And make no mistake: Pandora's comedy stations are infinitely better than the ones on SiriusXM, if only because the mix caters directly to my tastes.… Read more

How to change Firefox channels

Just a few weeks after the first release of Firefox Aurora, Mozilla's "developer's" build of Firefox, the browser maker debuted a switch that lets users switch on the fly among Aurora, Beta, and Release versions of the browser.

Released in today's Aurora update (download for Windows | Mac | Linux), the benefit of the built-in channel changer is that users who want to see what's coming in future versions of Firefox can now do so without having to download a separate installer. Change the channel and restart the browser, and the version that opens ought to … Read more

5 Google search tips for more relevant results

You shouldn't need to wade through pages of Google search results to find what you want. Here are five Google search tips to yield more relevant results:

Tip #1: Search within a single Web site (site:) To perform a search within a Web site, use "site:" within the search. For example, if you want to search for a review of the Asus Transformer tablet at CNET.com, type, "asus transformer review site:cnet.com."

Tip #2: Use a wildcard for words (*) You can use the "*" wildcard to search for whole words within a … Read more

How to enable Google Sync for a Google Apps account

If you or your employer use Google Apps as your e-mail provider, and you are experiencing issues setting up Google Sync on your mobile device, make sure that the account admin has Google Sync enabled. This short guide will walk you through enabling Google Sync (ActiveSync), which will allow members of the Google Apps account to access their e-mail, contacts, and even calendar as if they were on an Exchange server. … Read more

How to avoid sharing personal info online

Honesty is the best policy--unless you're dealing with someone you can't trust.

The sad fact is, you can't trust anyone on the Web. Just ask the millions of people who signed up for Sony's PlayStation Network and who now must protect against possible hack attacks on their bank accounts and other private data lost due the recent data breach. CNET News reporter Erica Ogg explains the company's response to its customers in her Circuit Breaker blog.

Sony claims the credit card information was encrypted and did not include the cards' security codes; the company also … Read more

How to get Speed Dial in Firefox

While it's got Sync, tabs on top, and a menu button, Firefox still lacks one feature that all the other major browsers have in one form or another: the "speed dial." Originally from Opera, the feature is the visual implementation of your most recently or most frequently visited Web sites on the new tab page. Firefox add-ons have stepped up to fill the dial void, but implementation in each is uneven.

Speed Dial 0.9.5.8 (download) is the most robust of the four add-ons we're looking at today. It's highly customizable, offering the … Read more

How to set a favicon for a WordPress blog

A favicon (short for "favorites icon") is the little graphic that Web browsers show next to the URL, bookmarks, and other places that help personalize and visually identify a Web site or blog. WordPress is a widely used blogging application that is available either as a service from WordPress.com or as an application you install and host, using your own hosting provider. I'll go over how to set a favicon for both types of WordPress blogs below.

Set favicon for WordPress blog service (WordPress.com)

WordPress.com users have the WordPress "W" logo as … Read more

How to use Chrome's speech-to-text

Google has introduced a way that you can talk to your browser, as long as that browser is Chrome. It won't talk back, but it will do your bidding. These instructions cover the basics of the new speech-to-text feature, which is functional but has yet to be implemented widely.

First off, be sure that you're using Google Chrome 11 (download for Windows | Mac | Linux)or later, and that you've got a microphone. Next, you have to navigate to a site that supports the new speech API. Currently, that's limited to Google Translate, which itself is limited … Read more