Category Archives: News & Opinion

How to remove the iPhone’s new “tamper-resistant” screw

By William Chinda | Published: January 23, 2011

If you’ve taken your iPhone 4 in for service at the Apple store, you may have gotten it back with 2 new pieces of hardware that were changed unbeknownst to you. Though the iPhone 4 originally shipped with standard Phillips #00 screws, they’ll replace them with an obscure type called a pentolobular screw if you [...]

Also posted in Tutorials | Tagged apple, budget, diy, hardware, howto, iFixit, iphone, mobile, pentobular, repair, screws, smart phones, smartphones, tips and tricks, tutorial | 1 Comment

Hulu on Boxee

By William Chinda | Published: November 14, 2010

The news has been active in recent weeks in the streaming set-top box market, with the release of both the Google TV enabled Logitech Revue and the Boxee Box. Unfortunately, the fanfare that should be accompanying these products has been overshadowed by news that the major networks have managed to block nearly all of their [...]

Also posted in Tutorials | Tagged applications, Boxee, Boxee Box, digital video, entertainment, Fancast, Google TV, howto, Hulu, Logitech, media center, movies, streaming, streaming video, television, web services | 1 Comment

All about iOS 4.1

By William Chinda | Published: September 8, 2010

Hot on the heels of Apple’s Fall announcements is the release of iOS 4.1. For most users, there’s mainly incremental changes that fold in the new Ping and TV show rental features of iTunes 10. The biggest change (only for owners of the iPhone 4 and the newest iPod Touch) is the addition of the [...]

Also posted in Tutorials | Tagged apple, cell phones, howto, iOS 4, iOS 4.1, iphone, ipod touch, Lifehacker, mobile, operating systems, photography, photos, technology, TiPB, tips & tricks, tips and tricks, tutorial, video | Leave a comment

Boxee adds a Movie Library

By William Chinda | Published: August 26, 2010

When I was planning out the Boxee tutorial video that I put out earlier this month, one of things that really bugged me was the inconsistent menus – how come there’s a “Library” option in the TV and Apps section, but nothing like it in the Movies section? If I wanted to do any browsing, [...]

Posted in News & Opinion | Tagged applications, Boxee, boxee beta, digital video, entertainment, media center, movies, software, streaming video, technology, video | Leave a comment

How to Turn Off Facebook Places

By William Chinda | Published: August 19, 2010

As it has been much rumored to do, Facebook has just introduced a new feature called Facebook Places. Based on my reading of their blog post, it works pretty much just like their competitors at Gowalla and Foursquare – when you go somewhere you can “check in” so people in your network will know where [...]

Also posted in Tutorials | Tagged Adam Dachin, cell phones, facebook, facebook places, Foursquare, geolocation, geotagging, Gowalla, howto, iphone, Lifehacker, mobile, privacy, smart phones, smartphones, social media, technology, tutorial, web, web 2.0, web services | Leave a comment

The piece of Africa in your pocket

By William Chinda | Published: August 15, 2010

Since 1998, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been embroiled in Civil War and the number of people who have died numbers more than 5 million. In the Eastern part of the country, sexual violence has spiraled out of control, and has earned the region the dubious honor of being the rape capital of the [...]

Posted in News & Opinion | Tagged activism, cell phones, computers, conflict minerals, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, electronics, Enough Project, human rights, technology | Leave a comment

Boxee not playing well with CBS

By William Chinda | Published: August 8, 2010

I’ve got a couple updates on the How to use Boxee tutorial I posted last week. First off, the people at Boxee mentioned it on their Facebook fan page. A big welcome to all the new readers/viewers who’ve found their way from that post. One thing that was pointed out to me in the comments [...]

Also posted in Tutorials | Tagged Boxee, boxee beta, CBS, CBS.com, digital video, entertainment, media center, streaming video, technology, television, tutorial, updates | Leave a comment

How to not make phone calls with a mobile phone (huh?)

By William Chinda | Published: August 3, 2010

In this month’s Wired, Clive Thompson has a very interesting take on the changing nature of cell phone use. Rather than making voice calls, most people are using a variety of asynchronous forms of communication to get in touch with one another. Social networking tools, texting, and instant messaging allow us to remain in “constant, [...]

Also posted in Product Guides | Tagged budget, buying guide, cell phones, clear, cost, data, Google Voice, iphone, ipod touch, ispot, mifi, mobile, mobile hotspot, peek, peek pronto, saving money, Skype, smart phones, smartphones, sms, T-Mobile, technology, texting, Verizon, Virgin Mobile, voice, VOIP | 1 Comment

Installing non-Android Market Apps on an HTC Aria

By William Chinda | Published: July 11, 2010

If you only followed major media outlets, you’d be forgiven for thinking that only worthwhile smartphone available to AT&T Wireless subscribers in the US is the iPhone. With the release of the HTC Aria running Google’s Android OS, AT&T does offer up a worthwhile alternative. The phone’s biggest drawback, however, is it’s inability to install [...]

Also posted in Tutorials | Tagged alternative, android, android market, apps, at&t, cell phones, engadget, htc, htc aria, iphone, mobile, operating systems, smartphones, technology, tutorials | Leave a comment

A guide to iOS 4 (not mine)

By William Chinda | Published: June 29, 2010

Remember that iOS 4 guide that I was planning on finishing last week? As you can see, it hasn’t materialized, thanks in equal parts to some Final Cut issues and the realization that there are already about a million other videos on the same topic. This 10 minute guide by TiPB is one of the [...]