Although Clear clearly wants buyers to sign up for monthly service, they also have “secret” on-demand 2-hour, daily, and weekly plans. Here’s how to get online cheap!
Cheap, No-Contract 4G Data: Clear’s Undocumented Daily- and Weekly-Pass Plans
January 23, 2012 By 7 Comments
The Case of the Missing Letters: Another Obnoxious Bug in Dragon Dictate
January 16, 2012 By 1 Comment
Any time OS X corrects your spelling or (more likely) inserts appropriate accent marks, Dictate loses its mind and can no longer correctly enter some random letter. There are two ways to fix this problem (apart from just restarting Dictate all the time).
What’s the Point of a Warranty, Anyway?
December 22, 2011 By 3 Comments
The idea of a product warranty is fairly simple: a company “warrants” that, should their product fail in a specified period of time and circumstances, they will repair or replace it, telling the consumer what level of reliability they should expect. In short, a warranty is all about confidence. But when does a warranty become a confidence game?
The Myths of Standardization
December 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I certainly benefit from standardization of the world around me, and I welcome interoperability and interchangeability as well as the price and product selection advantages. But I am not blithely focused on standardization above all else. I will happily use a proprietary solution if the alternative is inelegant, ineffective, or insufficient.
In Search of the Perfect USB Cable
December 14, 2011 By 4 Comments
You wouldn’t know it from hefting my backpack, but I’m always looking to lighten my load with clever, compact, versatile cables. With so many devices now using USB for both data and power, I’m always on the lookout for nifty new cables. Here’s a quick overview of a few cables that I found useful recently.
How Software Update 2.23 Killed My Verizon MiFi 4510L (And How I Brought It Back to Life Again)
December 13, 2011 By 4 Comments
Although I love Verizon’s super-fast LTE service, I’ve had no end of trouble with my Novatel 4510L MiFi device. After installing a software update, the thing stopped working entirely. Happily, I found a solution online and I’m now back up and running.
A Nerve-Racking Revolution at the Apple Store
December 13, 2011 By 1 Comment
A guy walks to the back of the second floor, pulls a brand-new iPhone bumper off the shelf, fiddles with his iPhone, opens the package at one of the yellow wood tables, fits the bumper to his phone, and walks out of the store. This is the new retail experience preferred by Apple, but it’s pretty terrifying to a regular shopper like me!
iTunes Match Does Not Like VBR MP3 Files: Here’s How to Fix It
November 17, 2011 By 2 Comments
iTunes Match often stumbles over music files, marking some as “Not Eligible” and seemingly not recognizing others. Here’s my solution to the former problem, and perhaps the latter as well.
How to Legitimize and Upgrade Your Music Library Using iTunes Match
November 16, 2011 By 1 Comment
Although delivered a month late, Apple has finally shipped the complete cloud integrated version of iTunes. This includes iTunes Match, a much awaited feature allowing both online streaming of music and “upgrading” library content from the iTunes Store. Here’s how to upgrade your old low bit rate MP3 files with high quality 256 bit AAC replacements from Apple’s server.
How To Update iPhone and iPad iOS Software Without a Computer
November 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Among the many new features in Apple’s iOS version 5 is the ability to update the operating system “over the air” without attaching it to a computer. An added bonus of updating in this manner is a smaller (and thus much quicker) differential or delta download. Today, Apple released the first over the air update to iOS, 5.0.1. Here’s how to trigger an automatic over the air update.
