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Most Popular Lifehacker How to Videos of 2010 [Video]

Category : Entertainment, Music, Video

Most Popular Lifehacker How to Videos of 2010We've worked hard this year to bring you lots of great original video content, covering a range of subjects from building a Hackintosh to slowing down Justin Bieber. Here are the most popular original videos from 2010.

Photo remixed from an original by Matt Katzenberger

How to Downgrade Your iPhone 3G[S] from iOS 4 to iOS 3.1.3


Evidently a lot of you weren't happy with the performance of your previous generation iPhone once you upgrade to iOS 4 as downgrading your iPhone 3G easily won first place as our most popular original how-to video. In fact, it was one of the most popular posts of the year overall. While Apple's made many improvements to iOS 4 to improve performance on older iPhones, if you're still not happy you can use this simple method to downgrade. Be sure to check out the full post for everything you'll need.

How to Build a Hackintosh Mac and Install OS X in Eight Easy Steps


Unsurprisingly, our Hackintosh video was one of the most popular Lifehacker original how-to video of the year. We put more work into this video than any other so it's great to see it near the top of the list. If you want a new Mac but don't want to sink thousands of dollars into it, we'll walk you through the entire process on video. Visiting the post itself will give you the video broken up into each step as well to make it easier to handle this project over time. If you've never built or hacked your own Mac before, it's a lot of fun and a great way to learn the ins and outs of the operating system.

How to Disable Facebook Places


Facebook Places wasn't exactly at the height of popularity when it first came out as several aspects of the new feature caused a privacy scare. Since Facebook's privacy options aren't exactly the easiest to navigate, we thought we'd offer our assistance in helping you disable Facebook Places if you decided it just wasn't for you. While it's been pointed out that the feature technically cannot be disabled, this video points out how to render it essentially useless. If you love Facebook Places, keep enjoying it. If you don't, we've got you covered.

How to Get Started with Usenet in Three Simple Steps


I didn't make a lot of friends by breaking what some call the "first rule of Usenet" (which, like in Fight Club, is "you don't talk about Usenet" — you can read my argument against this in the full post if you're curious). Nonetheless, it wound up being one of our more popular video how-tos. Usenet is a really wonderful way to find and download content online. While the video above explains how to set up your Usenet client, the full post provides instructions on finding a provider and finding content as well. If you're tired of BitTorrent and want something a bit more reliable, you ought to give Usenet a try.

How to Install Android on an iPhone in Six Easy Steps


Although Android hardware has greatly improved over the past year, Apple hardware generally has a lust-worthy quality that few manufacturers can match. For that reason, it isn't a surprise that there's an interest on running a more open operating system like Android on a beautiful device like the iPhone. While there are several drawbacks to running Android on Apple hardware at the moment, it looks promising. If you've got an old iPhone lying around and want to give it a try, watch the video above to learn how.

A Guide to Organizing Your Android Home Screen


Android offers a wealth of organization options so once you have a bunch of apps installed, organization can get a little bit overwhelming. This video demonstrates great organization tips, tricks, and strategies to make navigating your Android more pleasant.

How to Play SNES on Your iPad in Four Easy Steps


As a long-time SNES devotee, I jailbroke my iPad for the sole purpose of playing Super Nintendo games on the go. Being able to use a Bluetooth Wiimote provided the physical buttons needed to make this worthwhile, plus the iPad's large screen didn't hurt either. While this process is very specific to SNES, there are plenty of other emulators available to the jailbreak community. If you jailbreak and install SNES on your iPad, you'll have no problem doing the same for additional emulators. Note: the video demonstrates an outdated jailbreaking process. Make sure you research the correct jailbreaking process for the version of iOS that your device is running.

How to Run Windows, Mac, and Linux Side by Side and Pain-Free with VirtualBox


Triple booting is great, but the need to restart when you frequently want to move between operating systems can be a pain. Instead, using VirtualBox, you can run Windows, Mac, and Linux, side by side, simultaneously. Check out the video above for an overview, and the full post for a step by step guide.

How to Silence Vuvuzela Horns in World Cup Broadcasts


It's been awhile, but remember the vuvuzela craze during the World Cup this year? Yeah, it's hard to get the annoying sounds of those horns out of your head. Fortunately, you can at least get them out of your videos, and—depending on your television—right out of your television. This video demonstrates how to use a few EQ filters to virtually eliminate the vuvuzela from the World Cup broadcasts this year, or any you encounter in the future.

How to Create Your Own Slowed-Down Ambient Epics


Who knew that Justin Bieber sounded so good when slowed down by 800%? What was originally believed to be a hoax turned out to be real: you can truly create some great ambient tracks by slowing down songs by incredible amounts. Want to give it a shot? Check out the video above.

Make and Host Your Own Customized, Personal Landing Page in a Few Minutes


Flavors.me and About.me both over some very cool services, but if you want full control and portability over the personal landing page you create with either tool you just can't have it. We thought it would be great to have an open source, portable alternative that you could host virtually anywhere—so we made one. Check out the video above to see how it works and the full post to see how to implement it.

De-Grease Your Laptop with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser


One of the most annoying problems connected to laptop ownership is keeping your body oils off of the keyboard and trackpad. While we received several great reader suggestions, one of the best and simplest was using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to solve the problem. It worked so well we decided to document the process and show you how it works in this video.

How to Make Your Own Touchscreen Heads Up Display


When the iPad was just a rumor waiting to be hatched, I got impatient and decided I wanted to make a touchscreen tablet of my own. I hackintoshed an old HP Mini 1000 I had lying around, removed the keyboard, and installed a cheap touchscreen overlay. To make it a bit more tablet-like, I wrote some software in Adobe AIR to create a heads up display (HUD). If you want to see how it works, watch the video above. If you want to make one yourself and use/improve upon the software I made, check out the full post.

How to Take Wireless Photos with Your DSLR and iOS Device


Your iPhone can make an excellent remote shutter, live view screen, and photo viewer for your DSLR. Setting it up can be a bit of work, however. This video shows you how to tackle the problem and turn your iOS device into an amazing digital photography tool.

How to Make All Your Video AirPlay-Compatible


As usual, Apple has some pretty strict specifications for the video you can play on their hardware. The release of AirPlay—Apple's new video streaming technology—certainly didn't change this. So, if you want to make all your video AirPlay-compatible, here's how to do it.


That's all for this year! If you want more original Lifehacker video, check out all of it, plus our very first Ask Lifehacker Live for lots of quick original video tips we created in response to your questions.


You can contact Adam Dachis, the author of this post, at adachis@lifehacker.com. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Most Popular Explainers of 2010 [Best Of 2010]

Category : Entertainment, Music

Most Popular Explainers of 2010We move fast at Lifehacker, but sometimes we like to take the time to answer a question, explain something in the news, or get just plain geeky on a topic. Here are some of our best explainer posts from 2010.

Photo remixed from an original by Matt Katzenberger

This is our first year rounding up "explainers," mainly because this is the first year in which we all started contributing them. We're glad we did, though—some of our explanatory posts rank as our finest work, and it's more than a little gratifying to take out the time and words to really tackle a topic that's been chewing at our brains. But enough of that—on with the details:

What Caffeine Actually Does to Your Brain

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
Caffeine and productivity are inseparably married in the minds of many, but it's far from a simple pick-me-up. We dug into what caffeine really does to your brain, the limits of its effects, how you can work off a tolerance, use it as an optimal pick-me-up, and fend off headaches. Image via rbrwr.

What Alcohol Actually Does to Your Brain and Body

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
It's not as wise to try and "use" alcohol like you would caffeine—its effects are wide-reaching and not as obvious as the tales you've heard. We dispelled some myths, offered a few tips, and explained how it causes all those stadium fights, doesn't really help you sleep, and likely extends your life, but not the way you think. Image via TheDeliciousLife.

How and Why Chrome Is Overtaking Firefox Among Power Users

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
Since our founding, we've been fans of Firefox, and still are today. But using Chrome for more than a year, the majority of Lifehacker editors have made the switch, and Adam sought to explain why. It's about little things, near-total syncing, Google integration, and no-restart-needed extensions—but mostly, it's about speed, and the perception of speed.

What "Free Public WiFi" Is and Why You Should Avoid It

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
It's everywhere, it doesn't work, and it's not going away until Windows XP dies off. It's "Free Public WiFi," and it's almost like an in-joke among veteran Wi-Fi searchers—except the joke's not all that funny. With some help from NPR, we told the tale of the zombie network that lives on and on.

Why You Should Never Pay More Than $10 For HDMI Cables

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
Back when analog cables were kind, cables with gold connectors, gas injections, and all kinds of interference ploys could be sold to audio-video nerds with a semi-straight face. But today's HDMI cables are digital—they work, or they don't. Financial site Mint.com, along with chart helpers WallStats and TheRip, explained in images and pointed words why you should never shell out for expensive HDMI cables—ever.

You Don't Need to Regularly Reinstall Windows; Here's Why

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
It seems obvious that Windows slows down over time, and that a brand-new, freshly installed Windows is faster. But A doesn't always have to lead to B, as the How-To Geek explained for us. Certain kinds of regular maintenance and occasional batches of cleaning can restore your system to nearly just-installed status.

Why You Shouldn't Switch Your Email to Facebook

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
We took both sides of Facebook's declaration of a new kind of messaging service: one suggesting a warm embrace of the "new email,", the other (more popular) advocating that Facebook is not a place you should do your typing and sending—it's walled off, not in your control (or at least less so than IMAP-based email), and, more practically, banned at a lot of workplaces.

Why Is Wi-Fi Coverage So Bad in My House, and How Can I Fix It?

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
Wi-Fi signal seems like downright voodoo sometimes. Sometimes you can grab a signal from the neighbor two houses down, but most of the time, your living room router might not reach your upstairs bedroom. We walked through all the issues that could affect your coverage, and even came up with a spiffy VOICE acronym for troubleshooting. Also: chicken wire. Image via blmurch.

What's the Best Way to Block a Number from Calling My Cellphone?

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
You don't need an advanced, feature-packed, mini-computer phone to block numbers from being able to bother you—though apps for Android and iOS are certainly one easy way to go. Google Voice, and carrier options, can work for anyone.

Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn't Use Them

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
When Android first came out, the multi-tasking, anything-goes app system seemed in need of a firm hand to hold wayward programs in check. But these days, nobody should be opening a task killer as often as their email, and Whitson explained why.

Is Hiding Your Wireless SSID Really More Secure?

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
The How-To Geek explained for us all the many, many ways that a "hidden" wireless broadcast name, or SSID, can be discovered, worked around, and otherwise made to seem silly. If hoping nobody finds your router is your only defense, keep working at it.

What's the Easiest Way to Share Large Files and Media with Friends?

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
I know, I know—you're thinking, "I bet Lifehacker said Dropbox." But we didn't! It's actually another program, one with the advantage of allowing files larger than 2 GB, and which can start sharing files instantly, rather than waiting for them to upload to a remote server.

What's the Registry, Should I Clean It, and What's the Point?

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
The short version of the How-To Geek's run-down: cleaning and fixing your registry will never leave you with a desire to phone up your friends and relatives and extoll the virtues of this amazing Windows tip you just discovered, and explain just how radically it has changed your life.

What Should I Do to My Work Laptop Before I Leave My Job?

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
Whether you're working for a large company that's likely to wipe and re-image each and every hard drive before re-assigning it, or a small firm that likely hands out the HR department's secrets unwittingly, it's a good idea to think about what you might have left sitting around on the hard drive. Jason offers tips on searching down and securely wiping out your stuff.

Why We Hack: The Benefits of Disobedience

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
"How do you relate to a serial killer like Dexter? You do it because he murders other serial killers-read: bad people. He does something wrong because good behavior won't accomplish what needs to be done. (See also: Batman.) It's this same mentality, this same brand of unrest, that fuels all kinds of disobedience. In particular, it's why we hack."

What's the Best Way to Share Files with a Nearby Computer?

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
Rather than trade files over a USB key, and wait for the file copies to happen two times, here are the ways you can set up two computer to quickly trade files between one another at speeds much faster than you're used to on the internet. When all else fails, there's always a direct cable connection between the two systems.

Nine Common Myths and Misconceptions About Viruses, Examined and Debunked

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
The bad news is that firewalls won't protect you. The good news? Viruses can't cause your hardware to die—or infect alien spacecraft, for that matter. Step back from the standard stuff you hear about viruses and get a gimpse of the truth. Image via TedRheingold.

How Do You Know If Your Download Really Has a Virus?

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
In which we detail the sad number of false positives that pop up across most major commercial virus detection apps—especially as it applies to Lifehacker-created software, or anything utilizing the awesome automation software AutoHotKey. The How-To Geek recommends running VirusTotal to get a bigger picture of any file that supposedly contains malware, as well as doing crazy things like asking the developer if he's seen that kind of warning before. Image via Daquella manera.

Google Buzz Explained

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
It seems so long ago that Buzz just suddenly jumped into all our Gmail inboxes, ready to connect us to our friends (even if the people we email aren't always friends) and eager to get us talking. We took an early view of Buzz and explained where it was coming from, what it was trying to do, and some of the issues we had right up front.

What You Need to Know About the New TSA Screenings (and Gropings)

Most Popular Explainers of 2010
Just a reasonably quick explanation of what those scanners are, what your alternatives are, and what happens when you refuse both the full scan and the pat-down in a U.S. airport.


There you have it—20 posts in which we offered a hopefully more explanatory look at something new, or so often taken for granted. If you have a favorite explainer from the past year, or would like us to target something for 2011, tell us so in the comments.

AirVideo: One of the Best iOS Apps

Category : Featured, iPhone, iTunes, Mac, Software, Video, Web/Tech, Windows

watch video on iphone

I started using this app during the first version, and if you don’t know what it is, I’ll explain that now.

AirVideo comes in two flavors, the free version and the $2.99 paid version. The main difference between the two is that the free version limits the number of items displayed in each folder.

AirVideo: Air

AirVideo Free: Air

Here’s the lowdown:

  • Video Streaming: Watch videos from your computer, over the air via WiFi or 3G, on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. No need to sync with iTunes or transfer files.
  • Live Conversion: Convert video from a non-iPhone friendly container like AVI or MKV, or codecs like XviD or DivX while you’re watching. No need to convert first, watch later.

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iPhone 101: Save space on your iPhone without removing a thing

Category : Featured, iPhone, iTunes

iPhone 101: Save space on your iPhone without removing a thing: ”

Filed under:

A little-heralded feature of iTunes 9.1 is the ability to convert higher bitrate songs to 128kpbs AAC files for iPhone or iPod touch sync with iTunes. How do you do it? It’s a simple check box option in the Summary tab when your iPhone appears in the iTunes source list. When the box is checked, on the next sync, all your songs on your iPhone that are not 128kpbs AAC files will be removed and then re-added, being converted on the fly.

The first time I did it, about 400 songs on my iPhone needed to be converted. It took about ten minutes to do the conversion. Once the first large conversion is done, the iPhone syncs your music as fast (or slow) as it ever did (unless you’re refreshing your iPhone’s library every time you sync). If you keep ‘convert higher bitrate songs to 128kpbs AAC files’ checked, any new songs added to your iPhone will automatically be converted.

It’s important to note that this on-the-fly conversion does not alter your original files inside your iTunes library — those will remain at whatever bitrate and in whatever file format you had them in.

How well does this work? I saved a whopping 1.5GBs of space on my 8GB iPhone. Others here at TUAW saved between 2-5GBs. Of course, how much space you save will be dependent on what bitrate and file type your songs are now. The guys here who saved 5GB said their conversions took a few hours initially. As for audio quality. I didn’t notice a bit of difference on my $20 headphones. However, I’m not an audiophile. If you’ve got an ear for music and are using the latest Shures, you might notice some quality degradation.

TUAWiPhone 101: Save space on your iPhone without removing a thing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

iTunes 9: The Best New Feature You May Not Know About

Category : Featured, iTunes, Software

B9A76002-5F8C-41F4-99D3-E4F71D020B49.jpgI downloaded iTunes 9 as soon as it was released, and am truly enjoying all the changes. I don’t care that it’s not a true cocoa app, or 64 bit, I am enjoying the new syncing options, and the little changes that Apple finally gave us.

I keep my iTunes library on an external drive because of the size, and I have always had iTunes keep it somewhat organized, however, when looking through the folder, it was a  mess of artist folders. iTunes 9 solves this problem by keeping your music folder neatly organized with a more logical folder structure. To get this new organization, you have to upgrade to the new style by going to the menu under library and organize.

This makes it much easier to find things, and the best change is that you’ll notice a folder names Automatically add to iTunes, if you drag files into that folder they will get added automatically into your library, and for those of you who torrent, most clients will move completed downloads, so if you move music and video files to that folder, they will then be added to your library as well.

Let me know in the comments what you like or dislike about the new iTunes.

Help Finding the App You Want

Category : iPhone, iTunes, Software

The iTunes App Store now has 56,081 different apps available, but how do you find the right one, the search in iTunes is good, but if you type something in, you usually get too many choices that really don’t contain what you want, there are a few sites out there that might help:

  • Appshopper.com is a great site for finding out what’s new, free or updated, as well as price changes. The newest feature is that if you create an account you can check if you own the app or want the app, and it will notify you via email if the app is updated, I currently use this site via RSS.
  • 148apps.com lists what’s new and free, but they also release their favorite 148 apps, and have other lists as well.
  • Freeappalert.com updates daily with a list of apps that have gone from paid to free, I haven’t used this one yet, but I will start using it right away.
  • Macworld’s App Guide is very well organized and is the most functional site out there, it’s search is great, and it also notes price changes and groups popular apps.
  • Iviewer.com is a reader submitted site that looks for undiscovered apps from readers, it’s pretty basic.

This is just a basic list, and if you have a site or tip you like better feel free to let me know in the comments.

iTunes 8.1 Drops

Category : Software

iTunes 8.1 is now official, they released it to be compatible with the new iPod Shuffle, but it also adds some other cool new features. Here is the official list.

  • Supports syncing with iPod shuffle (3rd generation).
  • Allows friends to request songs for iTunes DJ.
  • Adds Genius sidebar for your Movies and TV Shows.
  • Improves performance when downloading iTunes Plus songs.
  • Provides AutoFill for manually managed iPods.
  • Allows CDs to be imported at the same sound quality as iTunes Plus.
  • Includes many accessibility improvements.
  • Allows iTunes U and the iTunes Store to be disabled separately using Parental Controls

image I personally like the change from Party Shuffle to iTunes DJ, as I played around with it and it could be quite useful at parties, or at various organizations that play music through iTunes. I have heard that it has caused some people to have crashing issues, but I haven’t experienced any of those troubles, so go ahead and update at your leisure. I have also noticed that Genius is missing from movies and TV, so we’ll wait and see what happens there.

iPhone Apps

Category : iPhone, Software

moz-screenshotI just looked at the count of Apps I have in iTunes, and it’s 904, so I thought I would share the list of downloaded apps I have. I am thinking about reviewing some of the apps I use on a daily basis, so here is a head start.

I watch Appshopper.com’s feeds to watch when new apps come out, when paid apps go free or when there is a price change. This site has saved me a lot of money in the app store, and it’s a very helpful site.

Brian’s iTunes App List

Appshopper’s Feeds

New Apps (Free)

New Apps (Paid)

Price Changes (Free)

Price Changes (Paid)

Version Changes

iTunes 8 is Officially Available

Category : Software

Read this Lifehacker post for more information on iTunes 8.

Tunes 8 is officially available for download from Apple’s servers.

iTunes 8 First Look