by David Strom
One of the more useful utilities that come with the Mac OS is the aptly named Disk Utility. You can use it to create ISO images to quickly copy CDs and DVDs, as well as convert ISO formats to ordinary collections of files.
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March 13, 2009
How to Copy CDs and DVDs from Your Mac
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March 10, 2009
How to Play Windows Media Files on Your Mac
by David Strom
Yes, it is a Windows world out there, as those of us that use Macs on a daily basis know. And while the Internet has leveled the playing field somewhat, it can be annoying to come across the occasional Windows Media audio or video file that you would like to view on your Mac. There is a simple solution: download Telestream’s Flip4Mac and you won’t ever have to worry again.
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March 8, 2009
How Do I Convert MP4 and M4P to MP3?
by Tina Gasperson
You may have downloaded a file with an MP4 extension and found that your audio player wouldn’t recognize the file. MP4 is a file format that can contain audio, video, or even still photos, but by default most audio players will not work with MP4. You’ll need a program that is specifically designed to convert your MP4 file to the MP3 format. Note that this only works for MP4 audio files, not those that contain video or other visual formats. MP3 is an audio-only file format. Look for a shareware or freeware program to convert your files, and follow the instructions.
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March 7, 2009
How to Convert PowerPoint to Video to Post to YouTube
by Tina Gasperson
Q: How can I convert my PowerPoint productions to video so I can post to YouTube? — Marie
Converting the PowerPoint file format (.ppt) to a video format such as .avi or .wmv is possible, but it will probably cost you money and getting good results can be tricky whenever you’re making such a drastic change to the way a file is encoded. I recommend that instead of converting the file format, you download and install a free program called CamStudio.
CamStudio is a freeware screen recorder. It records all activity on your computer screen for the length of time you want, and saves it as an .avi file, suitable for replay and for uploading to a service such as Youtube.com. To use CamStudio, download and install it. Double-click the shortcut for CamStudio that was saved on your desktop.
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How to Copy Data Files From Your Mac to Your iPhone
by Davis Strom
If you have an iPhone, one of your frustrations is that you don’t easily have any way to make copies of your files from your Mac desktop and view them. You can use iTunes to move videos, photos and music files, but anything else is an issue.
It is an odd omission: Any iPod since the very early days has the ability to act as an USB-connected hard drive and you can drag and drop files to it—as long as you have enough room on your iPod, that is. Luckily, there is a solution – actually, several solutions. You’ll need to download an app for your iPhone, and we found many of them that claim to offer this feature. Sadly, none of them allows this simple configuration of being able to plug your iPhone into your computer via USB. But since the iPhone is chock full of connectivity, there are several ways to skin the file transfer cat. We tested a variety of apps that can connect in between your desktop and iPhone in some interesting, and perhaps too clever, ways.
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March 4, 2009
Why Won’t My Computer Recognize My SD Card?
by Tina Gasperson
SD cards are standard equipment for anyone who owns a digital camera. These tiny memory packages have become digital film, and for years, desktop computers and laptops alike have come with an SD card reader installed by default. So what’s the problem if you insert your new SD card and your computer doesn’t recognize it?
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March 2, 2009
How to Get the Codecs You Need to Play Video and Music Files
by David Hakala
When you try to play a music or video file you may get an error message saying that a “codec” is needed but not found. Well, a codec is a method of compressing a large multimedia file to save disk space and speed downloading (smaller file, less download time). There are many different codecs such as MP3, WMV, AVI, and so on. They are implemented in software packages that plug into your media player software as needed.
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February 25, 2009
How to Burn MP3 Music Files to CD Using Windows Media Player
by David Hakala
To make a data or Audio CD, a laser beam literally burns tiny dimples into the surface of a disc. That is why making a CD is calling “burning.” Windows Media Player supports burning of CDs in both data (ISO) format and CD-Audio (CDA) format.
CDA is the format in which commercial audio CDs are burned at the factory. A CDA disc can hold 70 to 80 minutes’ worth of music, regardless of the size of the original music files. CDA is a lossless format, so CDA files are faithful to the quality of the original file. CDA is needed if one plans to play the CD on an older CD player that does not support other file formats.
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February 24, 2009
Maximize Bittorrent P2P Download Speed
by David Hakala
Bittorrent P2P (peer-to-peer) networks are delightful when downloads are fast. They are especially irritating when they are slower than direct-connection downloading. These tips can help you squeeze the most speed out of your Bittorrent sessions.
Optimize your maximum number of half-open TCP connections. Those are the connections you make to different peers on a P2P network. In Windows XP SP2 and SP3, the maximum number of connections is set at 10 by default. This arbitrary ceiling limits your exposure to potential virus sources, but it slows down your downloading. Better to have 50 peers each dishing parts of a file at 10 Kbps than just 10.
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February 22, 2009
How to Rip an Audio CD Using Windows Media Player
by David Hakala
Converting Audio CD music to other file formats and saving them on your computer is called “ripping” the CD. Windows Media Player allows you to rip files from CD and save them in a variety of formats.
The most commonly used formats are MP3 and WAV. The WAV format is uncompressed so it provides the highest fidelity to the original music. But WAV files can be megabytes large. An MP3 file is up to 10 times smaller than a WAV file but loses some fidelity due to compression. Many users save WAV files for use on their local computers and make MP3 files when they plan to transfer files over the Internet.
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February 17, 2009
How to Make Playlists of Music in Windows Media Player
by David Hakala
For some baffling and extremely frustrating reason, Windows Media Player is the only major Windows application that does not have a “Help” button or any clue how to get help. You have to search Google or subscribe to Tiplet’s RSS feed to learn that help is available simply by pressing the F1 key.
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