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So you've set up an awesome home theater, but you're still using outdated DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. If you're tired of hearing all the talk about PC-based media centers, take some time this weekend and set one up for yourself—you won't be disappointed with the results.
While you could always just grab something like the Boxee Box (or wait for Google's upcoming media center), there's nothing quite like putting together one for yourself. Whether you build a new computer from scratch, buying a cheap nettop or customize a jailbroken Apple TV, it's easy to see why a DIY HTPC won most popular set-top box in our Hive Five—heck, even two of our writers said they'd rather spend money on an HTPC than a new iPad. We've run down the pros and cons of each set up before, so check out out Ask Lifehacker on the subject for more information.
Once you've got the basic hardware down, you have a few add-ons you can build in to beef it up even more. If you want live TV on your media center, you can get an internal or external TV tuner that will work with your cable or antenna. You can also get a remote that works out of the box with your media center software of choice (see below), or get any remote you want and use something like LIRC to link the two together. Your iPhone or Android device makes a handy remote, too.
As you're perusing your hardware options, it's a good idea to keep in mind what software you'll use as well. We're pretty partial to XBMC around here: it has a huge community, tons of great add-ons that expand its functionality, and you can customize it to the nines. Plus it's open source, which means there are a lot of neat variations out there, like OpenELEC, that offer other features. Of course, you could also try something like Plex, which has great streaming features, or Windows Media Center, which is especially easy to use for non-geeks. Most of this software is free, too, so you can try a few things out before you settle down on one.
Next, it's time to decide how you'll get your media (and where you'll store it). Obviously, you can rip those DVDs and Blu-Ray discs yourself, which gives you complete control over the process—but takes a long time. Alternatively, you can set your computer to automatically download new TV shows as soon as they've aired, essentially turning it into an internet DVR. Couple this with a self-built NAS and you've got a nice streaming setup going. Alternatively, you could stream those videos over UPnP from any computer in the house, or, if you want to get really traditional on is, just stick a really big hard drive in your HTPC and store your videos there instead.
Okay, so now you have a box that looks awesome and plays all your digital movies. But if you really want to go the distance, we've covered a few ways to really power up your HTPC. If you want to enable Blu-Ray playback for those discs you haven't ripped, you can do so with a simple XBMC add-on. You can also turn your media center into a video game console so you have all your media in one place. And, if you have more than one HTPC in the house, you can synchronize them all together so you can pause a movie in one room and resume it from that same spot in another. Lastly, don't forget to add streaming capabilities to everything so you can get your media anywhere you want, and make everything wireless for a truly clean setup.
We've talked a lot about DIY media centers over the years, and while it can feel like we've exhausted the topic, we know there's so much more out there you can do. If you've built a media center for yourself and have any tips we didn't mention, be sure to share them in the comments below.
One of summer's favorite tastes is homemade freshly squeezed lemonade. You can make an easy and quick lemonade by cutting a lemon into eight slices, removing the seeds, and then add the lemon slices, some water, and the sweetener of your choice and blend on high for one minute. You'll get a simple fresh lemonade that only requires one lemon.
The source of this tip, culinary video weblog Chow.com, also recommends adding ginger juice, mint leaves, or berries if you want to jazz up the blender lemonade.
I already have an older iPad and even though the Retina display is tempting, I don't feel like I can justify dropping another $500 on a new iPad. Any recommendations to scratch my retail itch that would be more useful than another iPad?
Sincerely, Pockets on Fire
Dear PF,
Good question. A lot of us at Lifehacker are in the same position. We enjoy our iPads, we're tempted by the new one, but we don't think it's really worth it if you already own one of the first two iPads. Obviously, you can always practice a little self control and not buy anything, but as we know, Apple has a knack for fabricating that retail itch. With that in mind, here's what we'd spend that money on instead.
I know, I know, I'm suggesting that you simply buy a different Apple product. Kind of lame, right? Still, the Apple TV is a great piece of equipment that, frankly, you could end up getting a lot more mileage out of than a new iPad. The last generation Apple TV, once jailbroken, is easy to install XBMC on, and it works like a charm, making it one of the least expensive, most capable media center front ends around. While the Apple TV 2 could play 1080p files on XBMC, the old Apple TV could only output at 720p. Not so of the new Apple TV, which supports 1080p, has a snazzy new look (that continues to hint at but not deliver an App Store), and will in all likelihood be jailbreak-able in a few weeks time. Mine's already on pre-order, and may likely replace my current media center box. (If you want to go even cheaper and don't mind waiting in long virtual lines, I'm also still eagerly awaiting a $35 Raspberry Pi.)
I totally dig my iPad, and while I don't know if I would have paid $500 for it in the first place (it was a gift), I definitely don't need to be buying a new generation anytime soon. How quickly people forget that the first gen is still a really, really awesome device. I have more tech than any one person needs, but if I had to pick an alternative to the iPad, I'd lean toward getting an e-reader like the Nook Simple Touch.
It doesn't have to be that exact model; the main point is that I'd get an e-reader. I just like the look of the Nook more than the Kindle. Plus I like the Simple Touch for its ability to run Android with a bit of hacking—which means I can get things like Read It Later, Reddit, or whatever else I want on it (since I don't read a ton of books). I don't use my iPad for all that much besides comic books and Instapaper, but it bugs me that I have to use a backlit screen to read things like Instapaper. Instead of getting the device I already have with a retina display, I'd rather get a second, slightly different device that's nicer on my eyes for the occasions when I'm just reading plain text.
Before the new iPad was released, I traded in my original iPad for a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus because I wanted a smaller Android tablet that I could root and use to play emulated retro games with a Sony Sixaxis controller (The Sixaxis app — requires root.). That is, literally, what I did with my iPad money in the past. But if I had $500 lying around now and wasn't going to put it towards another tablet, I'd use the money to make my apartment look a little nicer. After writing this post about home design I thought that it's probably time to start putting more stuff on the walls. On my free time I draw or create digital art, so the $500 could go to printing and framing. That way I'd have something personal to put up on the walls of my home.
My alternative to buying a new iPad is a low-tech bicycle. I've been meaning to buy one for so long and think it will pay off in so many ways, from saving me from having to drive just to pick up something from the pharmacy to sneaking in more exercise to spending more quality family time together with rides around the park.
Although a good bike would probably run more than $500, a reader suggested in a previous bike-buying post to look up non-profit organizations that fix up and resell good old bikes and also do the bike fitting, so I might go that route. I'm also not sure what kind of bike I want—a Dutch-style city bike like the one shown here, a road bicycle, or a mountain bike. Either way, I think this purchase would be a very worthwhile investment.
Normally, I would tell someone that has some spare cash burning a hole in their pocket to save it, put it into something interest bearing, and make it work for them, but if you have to scratch that retail itch, a DIY home theater PC is where it's at. For about the same price as an iPad, you can build your own home theater PC running any OS you like, for around the same price—or less. I walked through the process a bit here and while the components have likely changed, you can probably do better with the same budget.
In the end, you'll get a box that you have total control over, the fun of choosing and ordering the parts you want, and a system that can run whatever front-end software you choose to manage your media. It will probably be useful long after this year's iPad is obsolete and you get the benefits of building your own computer from scratch, something everyone should do at least once. Photo by Bill Bradford.
If you love the taste of lattes but don't have a milk steamer or the time to sit and whisk milk in a pot until it's aerated and frothy, this simple trick from the folks at America's Test Kitchen will give you a pretty close approximation in a fraction of the time. All you need is some coffee, some milk, your microwave, and a cheap milk frother you can get at any department store.
It's pretty straight forward—just put the milk (and any sugar you might want) in the microwave to heat it up (but not boil it,) and then use the frother on the milk to get it nice and foamy. Then just top off your mug with hot coffee, and you have yourself a tasty hot drink. Granted, the milk frother is the weak part of this tip—not everyone just has one lying around—but if you do, it's a great way to make a fancy drink at home in just a couple of seconds. If you keep one at the office, you never know, it might even turn that push-pot coffee into something palatable.
What do you think? Worthwhile idea, or just another gadget cluttering up your kitchen? Share your coffee prep tips in the comments below.
Many thicker canned soups such as tomato or cream of whatever soup have a tendency to stick to the inside of the can and must usually be scraped out with a spoon. Vimeo user Wes Kennedy found that once you remove the lid you can have these soups pour easily by puncturing the back of the can with a knife or other sharp object.
This allows air to release the vacuum between the can and the soup and results in a clean pour with no residue left in the can. Check out the video above for a demonstration.
My friends and I suck at picking places to eat when we go out. You could always browse Yelp, but that can be overwhelming—plus, you've probably already had tons of recommendations from friends. Google's collaborative maps are the answer: They essentially let you create your own little personalized Yelp that you can access from anywhere.
If you haven't created a custom map in Google Maps before, it's quite simple. Just click the "My Places" button, then click Create Map. Name it, give it a description, and start adding places. To add a new place, just find it on Google Maps (by searching), then click on it and choose "Save to Map". Choose your newly created map from the list, and you'll see it show up as a blue peg.
Click on it in the sidebar to give it a description. I usually like to add a link to the Yelp page and the menu, if it's available online, so we have easy access (you'll have to edit using Rich Text, not the default Plain Text, to do this). You can also add other notes about the place, including your favorite dishes or secret menu items your friends might not know about. You can also invite others to help you out by clicking the Collaborate link in the sidebar.
What's really cool about this is that you can use it on Android and iOS, too (though iOS users will need to use the Google Maps webapp, not the Maps app that came with your phone). Just open up Maps, go to My Places, and view your food map—you'll instantly get a list of everything that's nearby, so when you're out and about, you can just pick a closeby place for dinner, drinks, dessert, or whatever it is you're looking for. The more people you invite to collaborate, the bigger your map will become, and you can get personalized recommendations from your friends—that is, people you actually trust. Check out the video above to see a step-by-step of how its done, and please share your thoughts in the comments below. This is a really versatile system, and there are all sorts of cool things you could do with it.
Ever have one of those cans of tomato soup or cranberry sauce that don't seem to want to come out of the can? Reddit user drmario422 found that if you puncture the bottom of the can, the soup falls straight out every time.
This is essentially shotgunning a can of soup. When you puncture the can, it creates an extra hole for the air to flow through and canned soups can fall straight out of the can. Since you're shoving a sharp object into a tin can, we'd recommend you try this with caution, but if you ever really need to get all of the tomato soup this might be your best bet.
LPT: Get EVERY little bit of soups/spaghettios out of the can, every time | Reddit
Mac: Pausing and restarting music isn't exactly the hardest thing to do, but if you find yourself away from your chair you have to move to the keyboard or mouse to stop playback. Flutter is a Mac app that allows you to pause and restart your music in Spotify or iTunes with a hand gesture.
Flutter uses your webcam to track your hand gestures. The same gesture starts and stops your music, so if you put up the palm of your hand, Flutter recognizes it and pauses the music as long as you're within about six feet of the camera. This does mean your webcam is on all day long and staring at you, but Flutter insists it doesn't collect or store that information. Flutter is still in its early stages and the pause and start gesture is the only one currently available, but it is a free download if you want to check it out for yourself.
With each update, Facebook has gotten incrementally more cluttered, perplexing, and ornery—and I'm not even talking about all your annoying acquaintances flooding it with inane status updates. Yet, at the same time, it's become a tool few of us can live without. If Facebook has you on your last nerve, here's how to fix some of its biggest annoyances in a matter of minutes—and with only one new addition to your browser.
We've talked about Social Fixer before, back when it was called Better Facebook—heck, it was even our readers' favorite Facebook customizer. If you've ever installed it though, you probably got overwhelmed pretty quickly, and dropped it for something else (or just continued to deal with Facebook's ever-inflating annoyances). After sifting through all of its options though, we discovered it's actually very simple for Social Fixer to make Facebook a ton better, without turning it into a more confusing beast. Whether you want to make the font more readable, get rid of that pesky ticker, see who's unfriended you, and much more, here's how to make Facebook infinitely better with just one browser extension..
To get started, head over to Social Fixer's homepage and install it for your browser. It's available for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, or as a Greasemonkey userscript. Once it's installed, open up Facebook, and you should notice a few different things right off the bat.
Social Fixer looks pretty cluttered at first glance, adding tabs to your news feed, extra columns to the side of the page, and more. These features can be pretty cool, but it's a lot to deal with at first, and a lot of these features aren't things you need, so to start out, we're going to disable everything and start with a clean slate. Then we'll walk through fixing Facebook's biggest annoyances, enabling one feature at a time as we need it. I do recommend browsing these extra features later on, but for now, we're going to keep it simple.
If you're greeted with the setup wizard after installing the extension, choose the Minimalist Installation. If you don't see the setup wizard (I personally could never get it to display), click on the new Wrench icon in Facebook's blue bar, go to Social Fixer Options, and start unchecking boxes. It's better to start off with a clean slate than with the default options, so I recommend unchecking everything and saving before continuing.
Now that you've got a minimal installation of Social Fixer, it's time to fix some of those Facebook annoyances you've come to know and hate. Again, I recommend looking through all of the options Social Fixer has to offer at some point, but to kickstart your efforts, here's a rundown of our favorite tweaks that improve Facebook's interface and functionality. We'll go through the settings in order of the tab they appear under in Social Fixer's options, so just navigate through using the tabs on the left hand side to follow along.
Disable Lightbox: This disable's Facebook's new photo viewer that overlays itself over the page you were viewing. We actually think this is a pretty great feature, but if you'd rather have the old school image viewer that displayed each image on a new page, you can check this option to get it back.
Change Font Size: Facebook made its font size smaller awhile back, and if it's still barely readable to you, this option can help. You can change the font size of posts and comments separately, to help distinguish between them. Facebook's default font size for each is 11. Note also that you can increase the readability of any page by using your browser's zoom feature (Ctrl+Plus Sign and Ctrl+Minus Sign), though this gives you a bit more control.
Force the News Feed to switch to "Recent Stories First": By default, Facebook only shows you the top stories rather than every post made by your friends. If you prefer seeing all your friends' posts, this option will make your News Feed default to Recent instead of Top Stories.
Hide the Ticker: If that new ticker annoys the crap out of you, you can turn it off with this option. You can technically hide it already with Facebook, but that will still leave the bar at the top of the page. This will remove that entire section of your home page altogether and just make it a bit cleaner.
Auto-Expand Left Panel Sections: This will automatically show the sub-sections of your Messages, Events, Photos, Apps, and more. I highly recommend auto-expanding the Messages section to avoid the whole second inbox problem—that way, no messages will ever go unnoticed.
Friend Tracker: This adds a handy little box in the right hand sidebar that lets you know who has unfriended you on Facebook. It won't show you who's unfriended you in the past, only who's unfriended you since you installed Social Fixer, but still—it's pretty handy to have there just in case.
Fix the Missing Cursor Problem and Fix the Line Wrap Problem: These are just a few tiny bugs in Facebook's interface when you make posts. If you've noticed them before, check these boxes, otherwise there's no harm in leaving them blank.
Disable Facebook's Auto-Loading of Posts: As you scroll down, Facebook automatically loads more posts for you. Some find this useful, others find it annoying. I have no problem with clicking "Show Posts" to see more, so I've checked this box to avoid unnecessary page loading.
When Clicking a Link in an Application Post, Open in a New Browser Tab/Window: Does exactly what it sounds like. This makes sure links don't lead you away from Facebook; instead, they open up in a new tab or window, whatever you have your browser set to do.
Auto-Expand "See More" Links in Posts: When people write particularly long posts, Facebook will condense it to the first few lines of text and add a "See More" box so you can expand it. It also does this with long strings of comments. This option automatically expands long posts, which I like since it doesn't make my News Feed that much longer. You can click the auto-expand collapsed comment threads on posts by pages above, but I don't recommend this, since it'll make your News Feed very, very long.
There isn't a ton here that I like to tweak, though it's worth looking through. If you have a problem with that "Please update your email address" box, you can hide it with an option here, as well as avoid that somewhat annoying popup box that shows up when you hover over a person's username.
If you can't stand Facebook's new Timeline interface, this tab provides a few options that clean it up. We've talked about this once before, so I won't go into too much detail here, but the options do exactly what they sound like they do. They wont' get rid of timeline altogether, and it won't change how other people see your profile, but it'll at least give the timeline a nicer, one-column view for you when you view it from your Social Fixer-enabled browser.
From the main Facebook interface, you can hide certain sections by clicking the "x" that appears in the upper right hand corner of the box. There doesn't seem to be a lot of sections that allow for this anymore, but you can hide Facebook's ads, which is nice if you aren't using an ad blocker already. This section of Social Fixer's options will show you which sections you've hidden, and let you un-hide them.
Whether you use Facebook Chat religiously or sparingly, this section is a good one to visit. You can:
Turn off the chat bar: This gets rid of that unsightly chat bar that shows up when the page is maximized, and brings back the chat popup at the bottom of the window.
Show all online friends in chat list: If you want to see all of your online friends, and not just the one Facebook has deemed chat-worthy, check this box.
Group friends by status: This puts available people together at the top of the list, and idle people together at the bottom, just to keep it all better organized.
Use compact chat list: This is nice if you're showing all your online friends and don't want the chat box to get unweildy.
Hide the chat dock entirely: This won't log you out of chat, but it's great if you use Facebook chat in an external IM program and don't want the chat dock cluttering up your Facebook.
This seems to be deprecated, as it doesn't load for me—but that's okay, because this tab was essentially for turning Facebook into MySpace with themes.
This is where things get really interesting. One of Facebook's biggest annoyances isn't, sadly, Facebook itself—it's all the annoying things people say. Even your closest friends occasionally stand on a soapbox that can get on your nerves. Whether your friends are too annoyingly political, overly emo, or just a little too in love with their cats, Social Fixer's filters can help you filter those posts out. Of course you could always hide those people from your news feed (or unfriend them, if you're really fed up), but sometimes you still want to hear from your friends—you just don't want to hear them rant about [insert political figure here] again.
To create a new filter, go through the 5 columns and choose the filter's characteristics. Let's start with a very simple example. I'm pretty nervous about hearing Mass Effect 3 spoilers, since I play video games pretty slowly, so I want to hide any posts containing the words "Mass Effect" or "Mass Effect 3"—no matter who they're from or what type of post they are. All you'd need to do to create this filter is head to the "Other" column, add the words "Mass Effect" (without quotes) to the text box, and then check "Hide" under the Action column. This will automatically hide any post in which someone mentions Mass Effect. For extra security, you can use regular expressions to search for multiple strings of text—for example, adding /Mass Effect|ME3/ to that box will hide posts containing either "Mass Effect" or "ME3". If you don't know regular expressions, though, you can always just create multiple filters instead. When you're done, click the "Add New Filter at the Top" buttton above the filter columns to add the filter.
Now let's try something a bit more complicated. Say you have one or two friends who get a little too political on Facebook from time to time, and like to rant about presidental candidate Abe Froman. You don't want to block all posts about Abe Froman, just ones from your uber conservative/liberal/whatever friends that like to rag on him. Select those friends from the "Author" column, using the Ctrl key to select multiple people. Leave the Type field blank to include all post types in the filter, then add "Abe Froman" (without quotes) to the Other column (alternatively, use /Abe Froman|Froman/ to include posts which mention just his last name), and check the Hide box under Action. Then, click the Add New Filter button again to finalize everything.
You can do a lot more with filters, like hide specific post types, posts from applications, or apply advanced CSS to highlight certain posts, but we won't go too deeply into that here. Check out Social Fixer's Filter Documentation for more on how to use the Filter feature. And be sure to check the regular Facebook interface before you run to Social Fixer—it can already do a lot to hide specific post types and applications all on its own. Just click the arrow that shows up when you hover over a post in the news feed.
This section mostly provides preferences for Social Fixer itself. From here, you can turn off many of Social Fixer's popups, warnings, and help messages, plus change how often it checks for updates, and more. There isn't anything here that I'd recommend turning off immediately, but if you find that Social Fixer is affecting your page in a negative way, this is the first place I'd head to troubleshoot it.
That's actually all it takes. A few checkboxes here, a few there, and you've got yourself a much better Facebook. If you use Social Fixer on multiple computers, you can head to the User Prefereces section of its options and export your options for importing on another machine, which is nice. Other than that, just keep Social Fixer installed and keep on using Facebook. The developer is pretty good about updating it when Facebook's layout changes, so you shouldn't have too many compatibility issues down the road—and he's sure to fix any new annoyances that are introduced.
If you've been a longtime user of Social Fixer and you have a favorite preference we didn't mention, share it with us in the comments.
Driving at night is always a bit difficult, but now that Daylight Savings Time has kicked in, it's also a pain to drive in the morning. Even if you're not tired, the road starts playing tricks on you and after a couple of hours you might start seeing a mirage in the brake lights of the semi truck you've been following for 100 miles. Thankfully, with a few slight modifications to your car and some old driving tricks you can make driving at night a more enjoyable experience.
Not a whole lot of advancements have been made to make night driving any less cumbersome. Those yellow night driving glasses you've likely heard about? According to at least one study in the book Forensic Aspects of Vision and Highway Safety, they don't enhance your ability to see at night. However, you can do a few routine things to your car to make the night driving experience far better than a pair of sunglasses can.
If you do a lot of night driving or you're gearing up for a big road trip, taking a few preventative measure before you hit the road will ensure your trip is a good one. Here's a few ways to fix your car up to make night driving better.
Over time your headlights get a little out of whack and you need to adjust them so they're pointing the correct way. Badly aimed headlights can blind oncoming drivers, cause reflections to distort your vision of the road, and make it harder to see in rain or snow. It's a pretty simple process to adjust your headlight aim (detailed in the video to the left) and once you do it can make driving at night significantly easier. You only need to check your headlight aim about once a year, but it's worth it.
Over the years your headlights start to get a yellowish fog or haze around them. As you'd expect, cleaning your headlights increases the amount of light that gets through and makes it easier to see at night. You can pay about $15 for a cleaning and polishing kit from any auto parts store or you can use sandpaper and polish or toothpaste. On severely fogged up headlights the difference in the light that gets through after a good cleaning is pretty incredible.
You also want to make sure your windshield is clean. It might seem like common sense, but having a clean windshield makes a huge difference in night driving. It's not just the outside of the windshield. Clean the inside as well. Chances are, you've touched the windshield with your hand when wiping away condensation in the winter or a little water has just pooled up. When the windshield is a bit smeared, it creates a halo-effect around lights and makes it difficult to see (if you wear eyeglasses you've likely noticed the same thing when they're covered in fingerprints).
Most of us know you can flip your interior mirror to reduce the glare from headlights behind you, but you can do the same for your side mirrors as well. We've shown you how to properly adjust your mirrors before, but if you're doing a lot of night driving with cars behind you, it doesn't hurt to angle your driver side mirror slightly down. This means you have to lean forward a bit to get a good view when changing lanes, but it also makes it so the car behind you isn't blinding you as you drive.
Once your car is set up properly for a night time drive you still have to actually drive the car. Everyone has a decreased vision capacity at night, but it's possible to correct for common night driving problems by remembering a few simple tips.
This is an old tip that's seemingly been around since cars first had headlights, but it's still a notable one. Just like you're not supposed to stare at the sun, do not stare at oncoming traffic. If you're on a wide open road, it's easy to keep your eyes straight ahead, but if you're on a winding mountain path, look down and to the right at the white line on the side of the road. This keeps you driving on the road and prevents your eyes from getting flashed by the oncoming traffic. It's a life saver when the oncoming traffic doesn't turn their brights off in time. Photo by peter castleton.
After driving for a while, it's easy to get locked into that nearly zen-like state of staring blankly at the road. This is probably what causes those little illusions where it seems like the road is moving. While it's not easy to find other things to look at when you're driving through, say, the heart of Kansas, most roads have other things you can look at along the way. Keep your eyes moving and look at as many other things as you can in the dark while still keeping them on the road. This prevents your eyes from getting fatigued. It's the same basic idea as the 20-20-20 rule for computer eye strain.
If your car has a dimmer for the console lights, lower the light level as low as it can go with you still being able to see your speed. This decreases the glare off your windshield and makes it easier for your eyes to maintain focus on the road. If all else fails, crack open the window a bit. If you're staring too long your eyes will start to water and force you to move them around.
Just because you're now an awesome night time driver doesn't mean everyone else is. Pull back from your usual following distance to create a little extra room when you're driving behind someone. Not only does this help ensure you don't go crashing into them if they slam on their brakes, it also means you won't be blinding them with your headlights as you drive. If you're driving down a mountain, pull back even further because your headlights are essentially at eye level and directly in the car in front's rear view mirror.
Driving at night is never particularly fun, but you can make it a better experience pretty easily. Have any tips of your own for avoiding the glare of oncoming headlights or forcing your brain into comprehending the road better? Share them in the comments.
If your doorbell is too loud, inaudible, or just boring, the Swann Wireless DJ Doorbell lets you customize it with any MP3 file. Even better, it rings wirelessly so you can put the receiver in any location you want (up to 330 feet away).
The device works with a doorbell that you can stick on to any doorframe (or wherever—technically it'll stick to your face, too) and a receiver that's actually an MP3 player. The receiver comes with 32 built-in tones, but to add your own you'll need to provide it with an SD/SDHC card. Although I'm not sure why you'd want to store up to 32GB of music in your doorbell, you can! If 600 songs will do, you can get a 2GB SD card for under a dollar. You really only need a single tone to customize, but if you want a little variety you've got the option. Both the doorbell and the receive run off AA batteries, so you'll need to change them out once in awhile. It also won't wire into your existing doorbell system, so it's clearly for people who want a no-hassle setup. If you've got a problematic doorbell or just want one you can customize, check it out.
MP3 DJ Doorbell - Customizable Wireless Music Doorbell | Swann via Apartment Therapy Tech
Apple has started filling the iTunes Store with higher quality, 1080p versions of movies, and despite the fact that they're nearly 1/10th the size of their Blu-Ray counterparts, Ars Technica found that the quality is almost as good. Sharpness and color reproduction were just about on par, though iTunes lost a bit of detail in grainy shots and had lots of issues with dark gradients (at least in the one movie they tested). Still, for 1/10th the size, that's not bad at all—plus you don't have to do the work of ripping it yourself. The one other big difference is that Blu-Ray discs contain a channel of DTS-HD audio, which is higher quality than iTunes' Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo AAC tracks, so if you're an audiophile, Blu-Ray gets another point in that category as well. Hit the link to see the full rundown, complete with many more comparison shots. [Ars Technica]
In the above photo, iTunes is on the left, while Blu-Ray is on the right. You can see that a very tiny amount of detail is missing in the iTunes version, particularly in the lighter areas of the face—hard to notice as it may be.
You've been able to tether your iPhone's data connection to another computer for awhile now, but it would cost you $20 per month for the convenience or you'd need to be jailbroken to get the service to work. Tether.com just figured out a way to circumvent the problem using HTML5, so you can use their new web app to tether your iPhone wirelessly without any fancy hacking necessary.
The video above will walk you through the whole process, but it essentially involves downloading the Tether app for your computer and visiting tether.com/web on your iPhone. On your computer, you'll first create an ad hoc network using the Tether app. This is a mostly automated process, but you'll need to choose a very specific password (or opt to have none at all). You'll then head into your iPhone's Settings app, choose the ad hoc network from your Wi-Fi options (it'll be called tether.com:YourComputerName), and then visit tether.com/web in Safari. From there you just log into your Tether account and everything should connect in a few seconds. Assuming everything goes to plan, you'll be able to use your iPhone's data connection right away. Sweet!
If you don't have a Tether account already, you should know that it costs $15 for the first year and $30 for subsequent years. This is already less than the monthly fee you'll have to pay your carrier. While jailbreak apps and your carrier's tethering option will be a bit easier and offer more features, if you're looking for an inexpensive way to tether your iPhone without jailbreaking this is definitely the way to go.
Note: When testing, things didn't work as planned the very first time but I had no problems after starting over and trying it again. If you have difficulty, just start over from scratch (which only takes a few seconds) and you should be good to go!
Getting Things Done (GTD) is one of the most popular productivity methods and Evernote the most popular note-taking tool among Lifehacker readers. The Secret Weapon merges these two into one system so you can achieve your goals.
More specifically, The Secret Weapon offers a GTD structure and workflow for your Evernote notebooks. The requirements for using TSW, are installing Evernote on all your devices (obviously) and reading David Allen's Getting Things Done.
Reading The Secret Weapon Manifesto introduction page you'll get an overview of why this system exists—like the video above—but productivity-seeking Lifehackers may want to just jump to the Setting Up The Secret Weapon section, where you'll find details on the suggested notebooks to set up—Cabinet, Action Pending, Completed—and initial tags.
From there, the site will tell you how to process your to-dos and other power user productivity tips.
If you've been searching for a new productivity system or want to make better use of Evernote, give The Secret Weapon a try. Be sure to come back and let us know what you think.
This week on Ask Lifehacker we're talking about the new iPad and Apple TV, Google's rebranding, a creative new Android keyboard, and an awesome iPhone camera app. We'll also be showing off an incredible charging cable and answering questions from you.
You can watch the episode by clicking the play button above, but there are plenty of other ways to get it:
Here's what you'll get:
00:37 The News00:47 Google Play06:24 The New iPad15:49 Apple TV 320:32 iOS 5.1: Does It Actually Do Anything?22:57 Questions and Answers23:02 Question #1: What Can I Do with an Old Smartphone (Besides Sell It)?26:03 Question #2: How Can I Get a Summary of Lots of Information in the Morning?29:21 Question #3: Should I Lie on a Job Interview if I Have No Experience?31:10 Question #4: How Can I Copy Data from a Dying Laptop to a New Drive?34:34 Question #5: Should I Buy a DSLR Camera for Video or Stick with a Traditional Camcorder?39:15 Show and Tell: The Dexim Visible Green Charger41:34 Downloads of the Week41:44 OSX: Wake Up Light43:04 Android: Siine45:46 iOS: Camera Awesome
For more detail and links, read on!
This week we discussed Google's rebranding of the Android Marketplace and other media services to the new name Google Play. For the most part, nothing has changed but some Android devices might have some problems with the latest update.
This week's news was certainly dominated by Apple, however, with the release of the new iPad. It features the retina display most Apple fans have been waiting for, but there has been some controversy over the quad-core processor claims as the CPU is actually dual-core and only the graphics processor is quad-core. Apple also announced the third-generation Apple TV with 1080p and a more iOS-like interface. iOS was also updated to version 5.1, but with little information about what it actually does. The update brings a few minor features to general users and supposed fixes for iPhone 4S problems, but overall the update only really matters if you're in Japan and are looking forward to getting Siri on your iPhone 4S.
In an aside, we also discussed how you can add handy multitouch and button shortcuts to your jailbroken iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using Activator. Here's our Activator how-to guide so you can start adding some of your own.
Each week we answer five questions from readers and listeners. Here's an overview of this week's problems and solutions:
What can I do with an old smartphone (besides sell it)? Turn it into a retro game arcade, use it as a music/media remote (iPhone / Android), keep it as a backup phone in case your phone breaks, load it up with media and keep it in your car, use it as a recipe book in the kitchen, try these iPhone repurposing options, or get some advice from your fellow readers.How can I get a summary of lots of information in the morning? Sounds like a good start page is in order. iGoogle is still a popular one for many people. You can put a lot of helpful information on your desktop using Rainmeter (Windows), GeekTool (OS X), or Conky (Linux). Whitson loves NetVibes. Pash thinks Flipboard, although not necessarily a single-page information hub, would actually work pretty well. Dachis wrote an Adobe AIR application to do this, but it's limited in its functionality.Should I lie on a job interview if I have no experience? No. Just pull from work experience you have that wasn't necessarily an official job. Some tips from this post may help.How can I copy data from a dying laptop to a new drive? Remove the drive, then get yourself a drive dock or SATA to USB cable like this one and copy the data over manually. You can use CloneZilla to do this, but if you're on a Mac you may prefer Carbon Copy Cloner.Should I buy a DSLR camera for video or stick with a traditional camcorder? If you've already got a traditional camcorder, mixing its video with video from a DSLR may look a little weird. It'll also cost you a bit more to record with the DSLR, because you'll need to get accessories (like this Beachtek audio adapter and a microphone). The video you'll get from the DSLR will look a lot better than a standard consumer camera, it'll operate better in lower light, and you'll have greater control over depth of field, but it's a bit more work and a bit more expensive. It's worth getting the DSLR if you're up for putting in the extra work. We use one for the podcast, but we'd be using a standard camcorder if the option were available. DSLRs are really a lot better for shorter clips and narratives. If you decide to go the DSLR route, however, be sure to read our guide on getting great video with you HDSLR.
To learn how to ask a question yourself, just scroll down to the bottom of the page for instructions.
Each week we talk about our favorite downloads. Here are our picks for this week:
Wake Up Light ($4) - An app for OS X that simulates a sunrise to wake you up in the morning so you can do so gradually. Just in case the light doesn't cut it, standard alarm features are included as a backup.Siine (Free) - A new type of keyboard for Android that aims to make typing easier by reducing certain words, phrases, and notations to one tap.Camera Awesome (Free) - A great camera app replacement for your iPhone. It adds several new composition and photo editing tools plus neat effects like vintage coloring and frames.
Occasionally we have a cool new gadget or tool to show off. This week it was the Dexim Green Visible Charger ($20-30). It's a device charger that comes in iPhone/iPod/iPad and standard USB varieties and provides two awesome features. First, it lights up to show you its currently charging and you see the lights move quickly, simulating a flow of electricity, during the charge. The flow slows down as the device's battery is almost finished and the lights shut off when charging is complete. Second, the charger only draws power from your power source (computer or the wall) when necessary. When your device is charged, it won't sip any energy it doesn't actually need.
There are three ways to send in your question:
Please keep your questions as brief as possible. This means about 3-5 sentences for emails and 30-60 seconds for calls and videos. Your questions can be specific, but broader questions are generally better because they'll apply to more people. For example, "how can I breathe new life into my old PDA?" is much better than "what can I do with an old HP iPAQ 210?" Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!
Ever wished your house would greet you when you opened the front door, which unlocked automatically when you approached? Or your kitchen kept an inventory of everything inside it? The Jetsons may seem like they've got it all, but with a little patience and the right DIYs, the Jetson'll have nothing on you.
The dream of the house of the future relies on automated systems that ensure you'll never have to get up to do anything or remember to turn anything off. You can pay someone to install a fully integrated system in your home for a few thousand dollars, or you can piece together the elements you want and build your own version of the house of the future. We'll break down some of the more interesting (and ridiculous) ideas room by room that you can implement on your own. Let's get started with the entryway.
You home's entryway is the first thing you see after a long day at work. If you're looking for a little pick me up to enhance your routine, here's a couple clever ways to make your comings (and goings) a more enjoyable experience.
When you come home you want a greeting to remind you that you're truly the king (or queen) of the house. What better way to do that than a custom introduction? DIY blog Dynamic boost "You're the Best Around"). If you don't want your own theme music you can also record a custom greeting.
Parts needed: Arduino ($29.95), MP3 Player Shield ($39.95), ProtoScrewShield ($14.95).
Difficulty: Moderate, requires some knowledge of Arduino.
One of the trademark scenes in any science fiction film is the door automatically unlocking for the person who has keys. Sure, on most occasions unlocking your own door isn't hard, but with a handful of groceries it's a difficult task. You can piece together your own RFID lock that unlocks with a wireless key and locks itself automatically. It's not the most exciting thing you can do to your door, but it's probably one of the handiest.
Parts needed: It's a long list but totals under $100.
Difficulty: Moderate, but the video shows you everything you need to do.
Your living room is likely your central entertainment hub and if you want to rig it up with futuristic-style, it's not hard to do. Not only can you automate your media delivery and accent it with a wide variety of control types, you can even add an instant party button.
The days of heading off to the video store to physically pick up and bring back a movie are long gone, but unless you can survive entirely on streaming video you need to set up a system to automate your downloads. That means using your computer as a media center.
We've shown you how to set up a fully automated media center before and also shown you how to turn that same idea into a torrent seeding machine. This automates your downloads and places them in the correct folders on your computer so you can share them over Wi-Fi with your television or set up a media computer next to your television. The benefit is that once they're set up all of your media is downloaded and delivered automatically to your computer. If you want to add an additional futuristic element, you can throw in voice commands for a true Star Trek flavor.
Parts needed: Computer, a bunch of free software.
Difficulty: Easy. It takes some time to set it up, but once it's done you don't have to touch it again. Photo by amirmeiri.
If cheesy '70s science fiction movies have taught us anything, it's that every room should have a party button. With just a tap of said button, a room is converted into a playground of awesome flashing lights and killer music. One such party button is shown off on the website Plasma2002 and it dims the lights, starts playing music, turns on blacklights, and closes the blinds at the push of a button. Overkill? Probably, but no future-house should be without a party button, even if this one costs a lot to build.
Parts needed: Too many to list totalling $634.
Difficulty: High, but probably worth it.
Unfortunately, we haven't reached the point where we can simply ask the kitchen to make dinner (yet), but that doesn't mean you can't trick out your cooking area with a few futuristic ideas.
Since you can't feasibly create a robot to cook for you, the next best thing is a computer that can track your food inventory, work as a kitchen timer, and do everything else a computer can do. If you have an old PC laying around gathering dust you can convert that into a fully functioning kitchen computer complete with a kitchen database. Hacker Ryan of the blog Studio Lights created the iKitchen with a handy iPhone-like interface that can track a kitchen database with a barcode scanner, manage to-do lists, recipes, and plenty more. Of course, if you have an iPad, you can also rig up a cabinet mount like this in your kitchen and get the same effect.
Parts needed: Old PC capable of running Windows XP, Touch Screen LCD ($350, but you can usually find older models for way cheaper), OPOS Barcode Scanner ($90+ but you can find them cheap used as well).
Difficulty: Moderate, the cabinet installation is is the toughest part.
One of the key features in most homes of the future is the idea that you can stuff storage into tiny places and access the storage with the push of a button. This means creating hidden systems like the fruit rack in Back to the Future so you can make better use of a small space.
This automated pop-up kitchen rack is one pretty simple and easy way to tuck away your appliances or shelves. With a push of a button, the shelf raises and you have access to anything you want. This example has a spice rack, but you could feasibly expand the idea to anything you'd like in your kitchen (or anywhere else in your home), including a coffee maker, wine rack, or even a microwave.
Parts needed: Linear actuator ($129.99), tools to cut into your counter top.
Difficulty: Easy. The installation of the lift (the actuator) is dead simple. The most difficult part is cutting the kitchen counters down.
You probably don't spend a lot of time in the bathroom on most days, but that doesn't mean you can't install a few simple hacks to make things a bit easier.
If you're a little groggy in the morning it's easy to accidentally spend a lot of time in the shower waiting to wake up. If your water bill is always high because of this then tracking your usage is the most logical step. DIY blogger Mike Newell decided to create a system to track his shower time and toilet flushes so he can better estimate his water usage. The system works by using an Arduino and a motion sensor to track how long you stand in the shower. It also tracks the number of flushes on the toilet. It's a remarkably simple tool that can not only help you cut down on your water usage, but also help you see how much time you spend in the shower.
Parts needed: Arduino ($29.95), IR Sensor ($2.95), ultrasonic range finder ($25.95).
Difficulty: Moderate. If you're familiar with Arduino it's relatively simple.
Sometimes the key to home automation is not only usefulness, but also simplicity. Case in point, this pee-light that detects motion and triggers a very dim light when you need to run to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The nice thing about this hack is that it doesn't turn on the overhead light and blind you.
Tools needed: PIR Movement Sensor ($9.95), Texas Instruments MSP430 USB Stick ($20), 12v LED Light ($9.99).
Difficulty: Easy if you have a basic understanding of electronics.
Room by room solutions are great, but if you want to really build yourself the house of the future you're going to need to go for a full-blown home automation setup. The basic elements of a off-the-shelf home automation system are pretty simple: remote light control, power usage monitoring, and home security. Let's take a look how you can build these systems on your own for a fraction of the cost.
The central purpose of most commercial home automation systems is power control. While those systems require a technician to install and set everything up, Instructables user mrx23dot shows you how to do it with a cheap router. With this setup you can control your lights remotely from your computer or smartphone.
This system uses commercially available power outlets that can run your lights or electronics through a network. The network is created with a cheap OpenWRT like one of these and creates a webapp for controlling any of your electronics from anywhere. It's especially handy if you're renting an apartment or your simply don't want to cut into the electrical system in your walls.
Parts needed: Open WRT router ($20-$40, see list of compatible routers above), Arduino ($29.95), Wireless Remote Controls (3-pack $21).
Difficulty: Hard, but the Instructables guides you through the process pretty slowly.
As we've seen before, monitoring your power usage is a great way to cut the bills, but it's also incredibly expensive. The cheapest way to monitor your power is to create a system that watches for a blinking light on your power meter, but if you want to actually use that data, you have to send it somewhere. Blogger Antibore's solution integrates that data into a cheap digital photo frame using a custom network setup. The small receiver attached to power meter outside sends data to a server and then displays the current power usage on a small monitor. It's a handy way to track all your power consumption without totally breaking the bank.
Parts needed: Samsung Photo Frame ($65 used), Beagleboard ($89), Xbee to wireless send data ($22.95), ATtiny 2313 ($2.88).
Difficulty: High, but at around 1/5th of the cost of most commercial monitors it's not a bad time investment. You can always skip the digital display and just use the simple monitor tool to track on your computer.
The final essential part in a home automation system is security. The benefit you get from going through commercial service is that the system is installed by someone else, but hacking together your own system is dead simple.
The easiest way to do it is to set up a motion detection camera on your home computer. We've broken down our two favorite options before and both are easy to set up and will notify you on your phone if anything moves in the house. If you're looking for a solution that tracks multiple cameras, Vitamin D allows for several wireless cameras so you can monitor multiple areas of the house at once.
Parts needed: Computer with a webcam, software ($5, $50, or $60 depending on what you need).
Difficulty: Easy. A couple clicks and you're done.
The house of the future isn't going to build itself and with the above hacks you'll be well on your way to a Jetsons style fully automated home minus the robotic maid. You can always pick and choose which elements you'd like, but most of the above projects are accomplished in an afternoon at the most. The above ideas are just a handful of some of our favorites that are out there. Have you made any amazing upgrades to your home to make it more futuristic? Share your ideas in the comments.
Laundry is easily my least favorite chore out of all of them—mostly because it always takes so long to sort, wash, fold, and iron all of my clothes. Here are a few clever tips that take little work, but can speed up your laundry doing exponentially.
The biggest thing I've learned is this: If I'm rushing to get laundry done when I could be doing other, more important/fun things, I'll hate it even more. So, now I plan ahead and do my laundry when I know I'll be doing something like relaxing in front of the TV—that way, when it comes time to fold, I don't feel like I'm taking time out of my day to do it. I've even programmed it into my Google Calendar so I remember. No amount of laundry tips can make it more fun when you'd rather be doing something else.
A bonus to this is that, by planning ahead, I can fold laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer. That way, my clothes have fewer wrinkles and I don't have to do quite as much ironing—which is by far the biggest time suck in the process.
I have two laundry baskets: one white, one blue. It occurred to me that I could just throw whites into the white one and colors into the blue one as I take off my clothes at the end of the day, and I'd never have to pre-sort my laundry ever again. Apparently this is a somewhat common practice, but the thought had never crossed my mind before. If you don't like laundry baskets or stationary hampers, our own Alan Henry recommends this standing laundry bag from IKEA, which makes it easy to transport clothes between your closet and the washing machine.
Another good way to speed things up is to save those heavy fabrics and wash them all together. One heavy fabric item can be the weak link in a load of laundry that makes your dryer take longer than usual to finish a cycle. If you can keep them out of your regular loads, they should go a little faster.
Lastly, if you have certain fabrics that can't go in the dryer or require other special care, weblog Home Made Simple has a good way to keep track of them:
If you have clothes that need to be washed in cold water or can't go in the dryer, mark the tags with a permanent marker. You'll make them easier to identify and save yourself from having to decipher the small print on the tag.
If you have a lot of clothes that require special care, you could even use different colors to differentiate what kind of care they need. Then you can just glance at the tags as you're throwing everything in.
If Laundry is hell, then socks are the devil. Whether they're disappearing in your laundry or they just take an hour to sort, they decide how much your laundry will suck on any given day. Sure, a lost sock basket can help sort it a little, and if you have multiple people in your household, a mesh laundry bag can help keep them all together. You can even use a binder clip to keep each pair together in the wash.
However, I've found that the best thing you can do is declare "sock bankruptcy", throw away all your white socks, and buy a two or three week supply in bulk. A 6 pack of regular white socks is rarely more than $12, and if you only have one type of sock, you never have to fold them. Just take them out of that mesh bag and throw them in your drawer. From then on, each day, you just reach in and grab any two socks—if all you have is one brand, you have a 100% chance of them matching.
Folding is the most coma-inducing part of laundry, but if you've done your job and planned ahead, you should be doing this during your relaxation time. However, there are a few things you can do to make the process go by super quickly. For regular shirts and sweaters, you can fold them in two seconds flat using this Japanese method, or hang them using this speed hanging method. It won't work for your button-downs and other outerwear, but you can speed through your t-shirts, polos, camisoles, and other shirts in no time.
Lastly, I've found that because I'm always behind on laundry there are certain items of clothing that just never get washed. When paring down a load of laundry, I pick out the things I'm least likely to wear and put them back in the hamper. I now have a new rule that if they've been in the hamper for more than a few months, they migrate to the trash instead. Not only does it keep my laundry from piling up, but I don't have to go through my hamper and pick which things I want to wash—each load is much more manageable. We've discussed a similar tip using clothes hangers, but I've found that I'm much more likely to just leave things dirty than leave them hanging up, so this has made my life much easier.
Some of these tips you may have done your whole life, while others are completely new to you. We all grew up being taught different things, so if you've discovered a great laundry tip I haven't mentioned, by all means, share it in the comments.
Candles are great. They smell good, they provide a romantic mood and...they get messy really, really quickly. To keep melted candle wax from sticking to your glass candle holders, just add a bit of water.
Weblog Curbly originally recommended cooking spray, which we thought was clever—until many of you brought up the good point that fire and canola oil don't exactly mix! A commenter over at Curbly though made a suggestion—which the internet confirms—that adding some water to the candle holder before putting the candle in will accomplish the same thing.
Of course, if it goes awry, there are some easy ways to get it out—but this is a nice preventative measure. Check out the video above to see more.
How to Remove Candle Wax From a Glass Container | Howcast
Cheat codes aren't just for cruising past bosses in video games; there are cheat codes for a lot of cars, too, that can get you past the annoying ping of a seat belt chime, access diagnostic info only your mechanic can usually see, or give you control over features like traction control and GPS lockout. On recent and higher-end cars with in-dash computer consoles, turning off or re-configuring some of these features is just a matter of getting to the right menu. Others require some odd combinations of key turns, pedal pumping and seat-belt latching that can feel like an interpretive dance version of the Konami code. Here's how it works.
We've covered how to handle your Check Engine light, how to hot-wire your car, and how to escape your car in some bad situations. The tricks below dig a little deeper into shutting off everyday annoyances and unlocking hidden options in your car. Proceed with caution; even if they bug you, a lot of these features were intended to keep you and other drivers safe, so give it some thought before you turn them off.
Many vehicles have safety features you would just as soon do without, like traction control that gives you zero traction in some conditions, or persistent chimes to remind you of things you can remember on your own. These features can usually be turned off, either for good or just when they're getting in the way, but it's not always simple. Automakers' unlock codes are often odd rituals of shifting or toggling while keying the ignition off and on, and pumping or holding pedals just so many times. There's nothing intuitive about these unlock codes, but they can free you of annoyances and outright hazards.
Disable Traction Control in Toyota Hybrids: The Prius, Camry Hybrid, and possibly other models have some issues with snow, ice and other slick conditions. Electronic Stability Control is designed to individually brake wheels that are slipping, but if all four wheels are on a slick surface, the result can be no wheel motion at all even with the accelerator pressed to the floor. To turn off traction control until the next time you start the car:
Without holding the brake, press the power button twice to ON mode.Push the gas pedal all the way to the floor, twice (make sure you're in Park).With the parking brake set, shift into Neutral and, again, pump the gas twice, all the way to the floor.Shift back to Park and, again, pump the gas twice, all the way to the floor. You should see some response on the LCD, varying by model.Hold the brake pedal and start the car.
The video above demonstrates this method in a 2009 Camry Hybrid. It's possible that driving without traction control increases wear and tear, and you probably don't want to do this dance every time you start the car, anyway, but it might get you out of a tough spot.
Turn Off Seat Belt Alerts and Reverse Alerts: The infernal ding is the bane of many a driver's existence, but it can almost always be disabled and this code you'll usually find in the owner's manual. The specifics vary, but for most vehicles it's a matter of rapidly buckling and unbuckling for anywhere from one to three sets of one to twenty repetitions, sometimes in combination with flashing the headlights or toggling smart controls. The video demonstrates the mid-2000s Subaru method.
The Prius is worth mentioning, because the same method with a slight variation will disable another common peeve, the reverse alert chime.
Turn on the car, cylce ODO/TRIP to ODO, then turn the car off.Power on, then press and hold ODO for at least 10 seconds.Still holding ODO, buckle then unbuckle the seat belt.If the speedometer displays "b-on," use ODO to cycle to "b-off"
To turn off the reverse beep, replace step three with shifting into Reverse and then back into Park.
Turn Off Automatic Door Locks:
Automatic locks are very similar, but instead of buckling and unbuckling, you're locking and unlocking. Again, your car's method should be in the owners manual, or you can likely find it more quickly by typing "disable seat belt" or "disable automatic locks" and your car's brand in a search box and finding what works for your model or year. All or nearly all of these methods can be reversed by repeating them. For temporary relief from a seat belt chime, quickly buckling, unbuckling, and re-buckling your seat belt will often silence it until the next time you get in.
Unjam Your Ignition:
Sometimes people, especially Honda Civic owners, get into their car and try to turn the key, but it won't budge. It can be baffling and panic-inducing, but the cause is simple; you parked with the wheels cut too far to the side. Part of the steering mechanism inside the column is physically blocking the ignition switch. To free it, hold the brake to the floor and work the wheel side-to-side, continuing to try the key as you go.
Cars have relied on increasingly complex electronics for decades, but more and more now feature a touchscreen right on the dash. As with a lot of smart products, though, end-users are often shut out of some higher functions. In most cases, getting access to the menus intended for factory QA and dealership mechanics just gets you more information on how your car's performing, and lots of cryptic settings you probably don't want to touch. Sometimes there's a gem or two in there, though.
Disable Motion Lock in Older Lexus and Toyota Navigation Systems:
If you have a Lexus or Prius older than 2006 with in-dash navigation, you can access the service menu by hitting the Menu button, then DVD, then tapping the corners of the screen in this sequence: upper left, lower left, upper left, lower left, lower right. You should see an Override button in the Service Menu, which will allow you to enter GPS information while the car is in motion until the next time you shut off the car. This menu was removed in more recent models, upsetting a lot of Lexus owners over at lexusoverride.com.
Turn on Prius Back-Up Camera Any Time: YouTuber Chazz8Tube demonstrates how to access the Service Menu in his Prius v5 and activate the back-up camera.
Access BMW Diagnostics and Alert Settings:
Chris Parente breaks down the menu options in his BMW E39 M5 on his Work, Wine and Wheels blog. These options will likely apply to any recent Bimmer, and along with turning off chimes and seeing detailed GPS information, Parente used the voltage information to determine that he needed a new battery.
Lexus owners aren't the only ones upset about being locked out of their GPS when the vehicle is moving, and some drivers have taken the matter in their own hands by pulling apart the console and digging into the wiring. Obviously we don't want people plinking away at their GPS while they're driving any more than we want them texting, but the solution to that problem is the same as it was for paper maps - hand it to whomever's riding shotgun.
To get that option back, Corvette owner Ray Kawal spliced a $3 switch into the wire leading from his navigation unit to the wheel motion sensor, so he (or his passenger) can cut the feature off at will. Other drivers have adapted his method to the GMC Acadia and from there to the Buick Enclave, so if you're facing the same annoyance you can probably work out how to apply it to your own model.
On the beater end of the spectrum, some of you driving older models are still afflicted with automatic safety belts, risking strangulation every time you get in the car. The simplest answer to disabling attack belts appears to be unplugging them. You'll need to remove either the interior door panels or the pillar trim and locate the wires leading to the belt motor. There should be a connector you can just squeeze to disconnect. Instructables user TimAnderson breaks down step by step how he got it done in his 1996 Ford Escort.
Even if you don't drive any of the cars we mentioned, you might have a better idea of what's possible and where to find it. Your owners manual is one place to look; if you don't have it, search out a PDF online. If you can track down a service manual for your model range, it will probably have even more tweaks and hacks hidden between the engine diagrams. As with many products, forums are another great resource; you'll find enthusiasts even for models you might not expect to inspire enthusiasm, and often they've discovered or invented tweaks of their own.
Do you know any cheat codes, or can confirm more models for the ones we covered? Let us know in the comments. Title image remixed from travis manley
Grubwithus is a social network that centers around finding great food and meeting new people in real life. If you're new to a city and need to meet new people and find great restaurants, or you're simply looking to get out more, it's a fun and easy way to explore.
You can either visit the Grubwithus site or use the iPhone app to find upcoming events in your area. Some center around specific topics (e.g. technology, nature enthusiasts, etc.) and others focus on the food you're going to eat (e.g. events for brunch lovers, vegetarians, etc.). Either way, each event offers a specific fixed menu and a limited number of seats. The first seat is always the least expensive, so the earlier you sign up the better deal you get. Seats go up by one dollar as they're purchased, so if the first seat cost $15 then the fifth seat would cost $20. Once you have your seat, you just show up on time, eat your food, and meet some cool new people.
Grubwithus creates their own events in several major cities, such as Los Angeles, New York, Austin, Boston, Atlanta, Tokyo, London, Vancouver, and many more. If there isn't an event already scheduled in your area, you can create your own, too. Grubwithus will then find a great restaurant in the area and work with them to create a menu for that meal. If you want to meet new people and find some great food, go check it out.
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