Category: Guides

  • Inside Apple’s USB Power Adapters

    If you own an iPhone, you most likely are in possession of Apple’s 5W USB power adapter, a great little contraption that charges your iPhone via a wall outlet using your normal USB cable. From the face of it, it’s a fairly elementary device. It simply takes alternating current from the wall and turns it…

  • Counter-argument: There WILL be a future for smart watches

    A few weeks ago, we published a great piece about smart watches and the passing fad they may ignite. This article points out that you’re essentially paying upwards of $150 to avoid having to remove your phone from your pocket, and that smart watches are just a stopgap before the next big thing comes out…

  • Ask The Readers: What Are Your Favorite iOS Apps and Games?

    We know “Top 10 Apps” lists have been done to death, but their proliferation in tech-based media doesn’t dilute their usefulness, especially in a frequently changing market like mobile apps. We had planned to exclusively poll the writers and editors of Techerator for an upcoming article series, but realized we’d be cutting out a hugely knowledgeable…

  • Windows 8 Boots Too Quickly to Be Interrupted

    We previously told you that Windows 8 could manage a cold boot in eight seconds flat, and that still holds true, but now there are reports that an SSD-equipped PC can manage it in under seven seconds. It’s not a huge difference in boot time, but it does create a minor and rather curious problem.…

  • Why I Won’t be Buying a New MacBook Pro

    I’ve never denied being a bit of an Apple fanboy, and I waited eagerly for the announcement of the new MacBook Pro range. When the announcement came yesterday and I read about my much-hoped-for retina display, it was all I could do not to reach immediately for my credit card. I’m glad I didn’t. I’ve…

  • Need a Taxi? There’s an App for That

    Forgive me for sounding like a fanboy, but my iPhone is one gadget that has continued to wow me long beyond the initial honeymoon period. I have come to take many features for granted – reliable email synchronization, decent Facebook and Twitter apps and a really good camera being just three. It’s the new apps…

  • Windows 8 ‘Release Preview’ Brings New Apps and Updates the Old Ones

    Windows 8 ‘Release Preview’ Brings New Apps and Updates the Old Ones

    As we assumed when various apps in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview were marked with an “App Preview” tag, the core Metro apps have been updated in the Windows 8 Release Preview. The updated applications feature some improvements to the user interface (there were some apps that really needed it), a unified app settings bar,…

  • How to find out if your Mac is infected with malware

    How to find out if your Mac is infected with malware

    One of the favorite Mac vs. PC myths is “PCs are slow, they always crash, and get viruses!” The corollary to that would be “Macs never get viruses.” That’s getting harder to say with a straight face. In April, research firm Sophos released a study that found one in five Macs was infected with malware.…

  • Is using Apple’s Cards app too impersonal?

    Apple recently came out with Cards, an iOS app that allows you to create and customize real greeting cards and send them out to your loved ones for only $2.99 per card, all of which happens through the app. Apple completely takes care of the postage, prints the cards out, and then snail-mails them for…

  • Easel.ly lets you create HTML5 infographics for free

    Infographics have become an incredibly popular way to convey statistics and information nowadays — almost too popular it seems, but there’s really no better way to display such statistics in a visually appealing way. If you’ve always wanted to create your own, but never wanted to bother to make one entirely from scratch, Easel.ly is…