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Yes, Apple shouted, "me too! Me too!" Android has had Edwin for over a year now.

There is a Swype clone available for cydia, and it mostly sucks http://lifehacker.com/5819207/swype-beta-now-available-for-jailbroken-iphones. It is fun to begin with as a novelty, but dragging your finger around that small screen obscures most of the letters making it hard to actually form words, and it is not that accurate.

If you have more than a handful of tabs, they belong on the side of the browser anyway. Chrome allows this. Yeah, it doesn't change the fact that they're dicks, but it might help some people.

root phone and install LBE privacy guard. Works well it seems. http://lifehacker.com/5807797/lbe-privacy-guard-monitors-and-controls-what-permissions-your-android-apps-have

> Chrome seems to be faster and more responsive.

You are out of date. Chrome has lately gone to the back of the pack.

Opera and Firefox are currently the fastest browsers. Opera is slightly faster, but Firefox now uses the least memory. Chrome is slower nowadays even than IE9.

http://lifehacker.com/5844150/browser-speed-tests-firefox-7-chrome-14-internet-explorer-9-and-more

(is mozilla listening?)

Trust me, we're listening.

I recommend you try Firefox 7. It comes in ahead of Chrome in Lifehacker's memory benchmarks (for whatever that's worth). Keep in mind that a lot of extensions are low-quality and cause memory leaks or hog the CPU. This is something we're working on too, although it's hard, since we know how upset people get when we break their extensions...

http://lifehacker.com/5844150/browser-speed-tests-firefox-7-chrome-14-internet-explorer-9-and-more

There are a lot of different benchmarks on the internet. I know that Lifehacker had one recently and other websites did some too. Google's your friend in this case.

as of 7 that's null and void.

Would that be the 7 that only came out a few days ago?

The same 7 that still doesn't have an MSI installer?
(yeah, I hate it too.. but Microsoft has made things such that only MSIs work smoothly with the system, the rest require odd kludges. As much as cursing Microsoft is a stress-reliever, practical thought dictates that an MSI should be written. Yes, I'm familiar with the 3rd party solution that even allows us to wrap the standard installer into an MSI, thanks. )

The same 7 that wasn't (and still isn't) offered to me as an update? (apparently due to phased rollouts)

The same 7 that suddenly was no longer offered because it mysteriously hid addons?
( Thankfully, there's an Add-On Recovery Tool. *groan* http://lifehacker.com/5845069/add+on-recovery-tool-restores-missing-add+ons-in-firefox-7 )

The same 7 which, when it was offered at random (I guess that uses a different path from the About screen one), told me 3 Add-ons were not yet compatible (they are now) even though none of the changes in FireFox 7 were likely to have affected them?
( yes, blame the add-on developers... no, wait, blame checking for a version number tag... no, blame needing add-ons at all. )

No, I couldn't imagine at all why people would have tried Chrome years ago and stuck around with it while the team behind FireFox sort of, almost, got its act together... but then decided to be more like Chrome (yes, I read the denial write-up that was covered on Slashdot.) and alienated a chunk of their existing userbase as a result because they took some of the perceived worst aspects of Chrome rather than the good ones.

Example: They removed the 'http://' in front of addresses in the address bar. All good and well - apparently this makes it look less cluttered and people who have never used the internet before won't be scared off by the "ache tee tee pee colon slash slash" thing. ( But then FF scares the bejeebus out of them when they visit a 'secure' site by still leaving the 'https://' in front. )

A common knee-jerk reaction was "zomg how am I supposed to copy/paste a link now?"
To which the defendants said "it will still add the 'http://' when you copy the URL".

And sure enough, click in the address field, copy it (ctrl+c, ctrl+insert, right-click and choose Copy) and voila... 'http://' is magically inserted in front.

Now, accidentally press ctrl+v or shift+insert or right-click and mis-click on Paste.
Not to worry, ctrl+z (undo) restores the URL.
Select it, copy it, paste somewhere.
Whoops - now where did my http:/// go?

Now, yes, obviously that's a bug in a completely different section of FireFox that has nothing to do with the 'http://' insertion code. But back when 'http://' wasn't removed, this was a non-issue. The bug may have been there, but you wouldn't have hit it.

I guess it's a good thing that new features expose old bugs... but a typical end-user is just going to be annoyed.

I still use FireFox for the add-ons, but they're pushing their luck with a lot of people.

Leave it to InfoWeek to be both completely confused and 5 years behind the times.

To wit, this article with the same premise from Lifehacker in 2006. And that was before DD-WRT sucked.

First, the author's router is not "an old router". In fact, it ships with DD-WRT. Take an old WRT-54G 1.0 and stick DD-WRT and that would be breathing life into an old router. All you're doing here is using a Buffalo-preconfigured (and encrypted, closed-source) version of DD-WRT.

But more to the point...DD-WRT? Ick. If you want QoS (as the author seems to), you need pay for the commercial version. The QoS in the free version is known broken and has been for quite a while, and there is little motivation to fix it. Also, old routers cannot use the QoS, because you need 4MB or bigger flash. Maybe it works in newer routers but who cares - there are plenty of better alternatives to DD-WRT.

Finally, for Slashdotters, let me say two words that will have you running screaming from DD-WRT: software activation.

Tomato is a fine, free (in all senses) alternative, and I personally love the Tomato-USB version.

[_] If they're so clever, they can durn well manage themselves!

Regarding them managing themselves: Why not? http://lifehacker.com/5646277/manage-cables-with-an-old-coiled-phone-cord

I cannot take credit for this one, but a cheap cable tray is a plastic rain gutter you can purchase in 10 foot lengths at any hardware store => http://lifehacker.com/5299994/rain-gutters-as-cable-management-tools

I use toilet paper tubes for organizing small cables, it makes it very easy to find that cable to that old phone you just gave to that friend. The most important thing is to keep all the connectors on the same side of the roll, so you really get the right connector on both ends of the cable.

It's like you're willfully ignorant.

Here you go. Magic erasing.

Or you could just click on the "Transfer Purchases from "Narcc's iPhone" menu item in iTunes.

Yeah, then why there so many tutorials explaining in great detail how to copy music from your ipod to your computer? Did you think I pulled those steps out of my ass?

With every other mp3 player, it's as simple as copying a file. With apple, it's a whole production.

While I have you, I thought I'd educated you about that erasing thing you don't seem to understand: Get a clue here: http://lifehacker.com/105256/how-to-copy-songs-from-your-ipod-to-your-pc

Pay particular attention to this line

Connect the iPod to your PC. If iTunes starts syncing (ie erasing) your music automatically, hit the X in the upper right hand corner of iTunes display, to the left of the search box, to stop it.

You need Better Paste

Ctrl-Shift-V does a paste-without-formatting anywhere in Windows. It's an amazing timesaver. Before using Better Paste I always used to have a notepad document open to strip formatting (paste then re-copy.)

Enjoy!

Googling pdf to epub turns up this: http://lifehacker.com/5509965/how-can-i-convert-pdfs-and-other-ebooks-to-the-epub-format It talks about an open source program called Calibre which can apparently convert pdfs to epub (and many others). So presumably pdflatex followed by this would give exactly what you needed.

Apple doesn't litigate against folks who install OS X on non-Apple hardware, unless you're trying to make a business out of it and sell the resulting machines:

http://www.hackintosh.com/

http://www.osx86project.org/

http://lifehacker.com/321913/build-a-hackintosh-mac-for-under-800

The fact that this ever had to be an *add-on* is just shameful. The fact that IE and Safari still don't have it (or something very similar) is close to criminal. Okay, Chrome has NotScripts, but that apparently requires some weird hacking to use securely.

And, no, the non-default ability to turn *all* scripts on or off isn't even close to the same thing. As the great Jules would say--it's not the same ballpark, not the same league, not even the same sport.

I wonder how many of them are Free Public WiFi.

This seems totally bogus to me. How could someone possibly crack WEP in two weeks? I suppose if you didn't read the instructions you might be able to stretch it to a few hours, but two weeks? What was he doing all that time?

There's already a browser extension that allows you to manage your FB lists a la Google+ circles.

http://lifehacker.com/5817472/circle-hack-displays-your-facebook-friends-in-circles-like-google%252B

Up to Firefox 3.6, Firefox used less memory than other browsers. I'm sure Firefox has had memory issues, but then again, other browsers seem to have worse memory issues. All browsers also experience crashes and security vulnerabilities. The question is one of how severe the problems are, not whether or not they exist. If you read the linked articles closely, you'll note they are about issues new to Firefox 4. The memory issues have become more severe in the latest version. That's what the new MemShrink team will work on.

hahaha. they refuse third party apps is more like what they do. How's that firefox/chrome doing on iOS?

Also, how's all those apps that are arbitrarily refused and/or apps that clearly were not vetted. You think they vet every google app that comes across or can actually control what is used?? Hello HTML5 on that.

I searched for an answer to this question and this is the best like I could find:
    http://lifehacker.com/5708613/the-five-best-chrome-webapps-that-arent-just-bookmarks

After reading this, I still don't see anything that differentiates a web app from the store from a web app accessible from a bookmark. It seems like an arbitrary distinction.

still carries the 300-75 TV Transformers to build my own HDTV Antenna. http://lifehacker.com/5138746/build-your-own-dtv-antenna

Didn't have the 10uF Caps i needed to build this darn serial cable though. Bummer.

You are SO stuck in the 20th century. Haven't you heard? "Money" is completely obsolete. I heard about it on all the Gawker Media websites yesterday -- BitCoin is here!

Nah, there's no new dotcom bubble. Everything's fine! I'm going to go spend some Flooz on a stock option or two.

Besides, iOS already has numerous streaming home media apps. http://lifehacker.com/5716359/the-best-media-streaming-apps-for-your-iphone

I wouldn't be too alarmed. I'm sure an iOS App will be forthcoming to replace any lost Flash functionality. If not they risk losing the entire block of iOS users when Apple releases its own cloud service.

Not needed for iOS with apps like Zumocast, AudioGalaxy, OrbLive, http://lifehacker.com/5716359/the-best-media-streaming-apps-for-your-iphone an others that stream from your home PC (even over 3G) all your media, not just music, and give you virtually unlimited space on your mobile device (as long as you have a connection).

IMHO, it's better to never write them down and just generate them algorithmically based on the site's domain or a memorable keyword. Several years ago I just kept a tabula recta in my wallet. Nowadays, you can use something like SuperGenPass.

Personally, I wrote my own equivalent of SuperGenPass that addresses some of the security concerns. That said, I use PassPack with a tediously strong password to keep a backup in case I inadvertantly break compatibility, and a copy of the generator on my website.

Either of those, and a Linksys WRT54GL router, dirt simple to set up. More info here.

There are tons of more extensive tests than simply leaving the browser running all day, and Firefox uses the least memory in nearly all of them. Perhaps Firefox leaks on your computer, but not on mine and nearly all other users. If its trivial to trigger the memory leak you're seeing, then it should be trivial to make your own test that we can run that demonstrates this memory leak we don't seem to be able to see.

I just saw this post come up on lifehacker.com. I've been planning on doing it at my new place. http://lifehacker.com/#!5791208/run-your-home-network-like-a-coffee-shop

While true for some essential apps, your comment is not germane to Skype. Once killed, it stays killed.
Other than that, I agree with you, get rid of offending apps.

But be sure they are REALLY offending.
Skype goes dormant when you log out of skype (not the easiest option to find in the Android version).
It will drop all data connections when you do this.
But it still leaves about 29meg in memory.
That too will be paged out as memory need demands. So it really does not need to be killed, you just need to log out. They should make this easier to find.

Far too many people try to micro-manage Android's memory usage. Far too many cell companies install task killers. Android is not windows. It knows how to manage memory far better than the user does, and far better than task killers.
There is absolutely no reason to run a task killer on Android.

If you have a misbehaving app, get rid of it. Don't add more troublesome software to compensate.

"The frequency with which average consumers use the same username/password combination across multiple sites is such that such information could lead to accessing other potentially-existing accounts on high-profile social networks."

Sure, they might manage to get credentials via phishing. This would be far less of a problem if people used a good password scheme for keeping unique passwords on all websites, like I've done for a long time now.
http://lifehacker.com/#!184773/geek-to-live--choose-and-remember-great-passwords

Since you obviously have forgotten your Slashdot password, your scheme cannot work too well. ;-)

<fightclub>SABnzbd and Usen...Umm, certain channels of the intertubes...</fightclub>

...to find the TV shows you're looking for, and will send the info to XBMC and update the library. Very user friendly, and simple. A definite lifesaver for keeping the wife happy.

Lifehacker had an article on it a month or so ago, and that's what got me on to it.

You can remap all the text field/text editor/text view responder actions if you wish, but it's really just a question of what you're the most used to.

All the other browsers run on Windows XP, the world's most popular operating system. Not IE 9. IE 9 scores worst on the HTML 5 tests compared to other browsers. IE 9 comes dead last compared to speed and memory use against other browsers. You'll have to point me out to where they're catching up with the other browsers.

Question: What EXACTLY is the point of this ever faster JavaScript race for anyway?

While I agree with you on privacy (Using Comodo Dragon which is based on Chromium 8) I'm just not getting the "Warp JavaScript" thing since Chromium already loads as fast as my cable will go so is this some "blacker than black" kind of thing or what? Seriously the thing loads as fast as I can click at this point I don't think most of us are gonna notice the 1/50th of a millisecond faster page loading, are we?

Maybe I'm just weird or something but instead of faster I'd like BETTER. Better memory management, less CPU usage, While I give them credit for being better at it than FF (FF 3.6.15 is now unusable on my nettop because of all the memory suckage after a couple of hours of browsing) if they want to improve the browser that would seem like the place to start and not trying to squeeze a few tenths of a second.When I compare the memory usage its just...wow. Try the about:memory trick in Chrome/Chromium to run tests yourself. With just 5 /. pages open and NO ADS we are talking over 200Mb of memory! For 5 pages of just text?

Maybe it is just me, but I'd personally rather have the pages use less memory than load 1/10 of a second faster. I don't want to fall into the "When I was your age" bit but c'mon! 40Mb a page of text with no ads? Am i the only one that thinks that's a little steep?

Sometimes its just better to post the truth in something like this as an AC. If you don't, you'll be modded into the ground. I've done the same before. And I've noticed the quality issues of Apple products myself (one of the reasons I don't buy them).

I've owned 2 iPods, and both died in just under a year and I'm not alone there. Its quite rare I can find someone who's had a iPlayer(Pod, Touch, Shuffle) that has had one live for more then a year and a half. Does this mean there is none? No, but I find them to be quite rare with people who use them. I've had friends had other failing parts in MacBooks (HDs the most common). They just don't live any longer then a good built laptop from other companies. Granted this seems to be were many Mac users get annoying to me when comparing build quality. They will want to compare a $1200+ MacBook to a sub $400-$500 HP or Dell. Thats not a good comparison in any manor. HP and Dell are known to be subpar quality companies. Compare the Mac to something like a Asus, Sony or Toshiba. Do these companies have no failures? No, but they aren't shoddy built either. These are better build quality companies. An suddenly you'll see a more equal in quality build in all these companies. This was even highlighted by Squaretrades review of their records. Thing is, the price tag to the Apple laptops are much higher for the same specs and the review shows that the build quality isn't higher, its just higher priced to make you think your paying for something of higher quality. This is normal in designer products like clothes and perfumes/make-ups because people like to equate "higher price = higher quality" when in many situations, it isn't true but is to make you believe that it is.

Now, is Apple normally a shoddy build quality company? No, but they aren't the top build quality either. They just know how to give the impression that they are.

Now does this mean you shouldn't ever buy an Apple product? Not really. You should buy what you enjoy but should approach it knowing the facts and not have false impressions about the product either. In short, if you enjoy the Apple product, then all the power to you, but don't be surprised that not everyone will agree with you that they are the best. Its why there is more then one product out there. Everyone is different.

I'm not sure what you're saying. I use handbrake to rip DVDs to a playable MP4 format for my Xbox. There's a preset that says iPad, and I'm sure it can encode videos for the ipads capabilities just fine. http://lifehacker.com/#!5572037/handbrake-presets-for-your-new-ipad-or-iphone-4

I've used it elsewhere but integrated into a client like hotmail is a good idea. Besides, I already use hotmail for my spam address. Now Google, steal this please.

Gmail already has had this feature for a long time. it's called plus-addressing. You take your e-mail address, put a plus sign at the end of it and then add a phrase. For example:

foobar@google.com foobar+slashdot@google.com foobar+amazon@google.com

All of these will get sent to foobar@google.com and you can create a filter on each term (eg: filter on +slashdot) to send them into their own mailbox.

This is not the same at all. You still reveal your real email adress, while Hotmail give you a completely separate and anonymous alias. And you will keep getting the Google mail, even though you can filter it, while on Hotmail it will completely stop when you disable the alias. Much better solution.

I've used it elsewhere but integrated into a client like hotmail is a good idea. Besides, I already use hotmail for my spam address. Now Google, steal this please.

Gmail already has had this feature for a long time. it's called plus-addressing. You take your e-mail address, put a plus sign at the end of it and then add a phrase. For example:

foobar@google.com
foobar+slashdot@google.com
foobar+amazon@google.com

All of these will get sent to foobar@google.com and you can create a filter on each term (eg: filter on +slashdot) to send them into their own mailbox.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11573666 via http://lifehacker.com/5672301/hard-to-read-fonts-can-make-text-easier-to-remember via http://lifehacker.com/5733692/harder-to-read-fonts-may-improve-learning via http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1950904&cid=34880154

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11573666 via http://lifehacker.com/5672301/hard-to-read-fonts-can-make-text-easier-to-remember via http://lifehacker.com/5733692/harder-to-read-fonts-may-improve-learning via http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1950904&cid=34880154

As a coincidence I just read post on lifehacker on same topic. It contains more insight into problem. They say that different parts of brain are involved when reading harder to read text and thus resulting in better understanding or remembering of written. http://lifehacker.com/5733692/harder-to-read-fonts-may-improve-learning

http://lifehacker.com/5693309/how-to-install-android-on-an-iphone-in-six-easy-steps

There's a saying... it's better to keep quiet to seem like a fool than speak and remove all doubt.

Then you probably should've kept your mouth shut, you certainly look the fool with that post. Replacing iOS with Android is not the same thing as modifying iOS.

http://lifehacker.com/5693309/how-to-install-android-on-an-iphone-in-six-easy-steps

There's a saying... it's better to keep quiet to seem like a fool than speak and remove all doubt.

FWIW:

Over 77 Percent of Lifehacker Readers Say Google's Search Results are Less Useful Lately

your experience is atypical. task killers are well known to reduce battery life, degrade performance, cause instability, and to just generally be a silly thing to do. Everyone from the Android development team to ROM hackers to multiple "experts" say the same thing: Don't run a task killler. Don't take my word for it...

http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/

http://www.droid-den.com/android-guides/android-guide-should-i-use-a-task-killer

http://androinica.com/2010/05/07/google-and-cyanogen-comments-imply-task-killermanager-apps-are-pointless/

http://lifehacker.com/5650894/android-task-killers-explained-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them

http://androidspin.com/2010/05/25/why-you-dont-need-a-task-killer-app-with-android/

etc...

If their claims to be consulting an "independent security firm" are true, then it appears they also realize they're incompetent and are bringing in outside help to school them on proper security.

We've learned many lessons from this experience, both as a tech team, as a company, and as individuals. If there's one lesson nearly all of us learned, it's that we can and must be smarter with passwords. Lifehacker is a great resource for password advice (and there are many others). I suggest you start here: http://lifehacker.com/184773/geek-to-live-choose-and-remember-great-passwords.

It seems they're at least beginning to learn, though.

They also mention that they're going to let users use OAuth to log in. It's not clear if they'll be moving all accounts to OAuth, or if they're going to keep using unsalted crypt() for users who want to keep their account local.