“How To” collection
Simplify your digital life with comprehensive step-by-step tutorials and instructional guides for modern technology. Learn how to optimize your software configurations, manage cloud services, and master new devices with these easy-to-follow technical walkthroughs.
HTD Tech Briefs
View all →August 13, 2010
How To Get Your iPhone Out of a Recovery or Restore Mode Loop
I recently got my iPhone 4 and consequently wanted to prepare my iPhone 3GS for my children to use as an "iPod Touch" – iPhone but without the cell service. I have already done this with my original iPhone. Honestly, it is a great way to extend the life of your "retired" iPhones. As I was going through the prep…
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July 26, 2010
How To Install a Replacement Battery into an Apple iPhone 3GS
My iPhone 3GS has been showing signs of a dying battery for a month or so now. The symptoms included the battery depleting faster than normal, charging very quickly (because there wasn't much to "charge"), and the iPhone simply crashing when the battery was at 75-90% FULL. It would simply crash as I was doing some tasks, not even showing…
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July 13, 2010
Laptop Got Stolen? Send PREY Out to Find It, for Free!
I'm sure that many of you have heard of the Find My iPhone service for MobileMe that helps you locate missing iPhones or iPads. Or the equivalent on Windows Mobile phones called My Phone. And I'm sure you know about LoJack that helps you locate stolen cars. LoJack also offers a service for computers as well, for a price. There…
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July 1, 2010
Do You Know About iTunes U? For Me, It’s Personal!
I received an interesting piece of news this week from Apple. No it wasn't about the iPhone 4 nor the iPad. It wasn't a software or hardware release even. It had to do with iTunes U and it was about passing a milestone. Have you heard of iTunes U? It's a section within iTunes that is devoted to Education and…
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June 22, 2010
How To Get 48 Applications in the iPhone Dock using iOS4
Quite possibly my favorite new feature coming out of Apple's iOS4 iPhone software update is that of folders. I had maxed out the number of screens on my iPhone and every time I added new applications, I either had to delete one that I didn't use much or had to use the Search functionality to launch it. It was a…
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April 2, 2010
Video & How-To Install a Hard Drive on a MacBook Pro (non-unibody): Clone & Boot Camp too!
For all of those people who are interested in breathing a little bit of life into an older MacBook Pro, this post is for you. My non-unibody 15" beaten and worn MacBook Pro had about 3 GB of free hard drive space on it. And this is even after I had upgraded it about 2 years ago with a 320…
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March 29, 2010
SchlageLINK Gives You Security & Access, Even When You Aren’t Home
Keys are a pain! I have so many keys on my keychain that I feel like a locksmith and I'm not even sure what keys go to what lock. But you can't just throw them away, right? And, keys get lost. To top it off, they are simply and completely low tech. Also, the more people you have in the…
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March 10, 2010
Who Lays Down the Law in YOUR Family? – Cast of Dads Podcast #12
Discipline in the family is never an easy topic to talk about, especially when setting the rules or enforcing them. And it seems that every family has a different approach to implementing these rules. This was the main topic that we discussed in the Cast of Dads Podcast #12 titled "Discipline". One thing that we all did have in agreement…
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March 8, 2010
My Paint & Your Brand Are Eroding – An Open Letter to Honda Motors
Below is a letter to Honda Motors that has been a long time in the making. Please read it and share as you see fit. Thank you for reading! -HTD Dear Honda Motors, I'm writing this open and public letter to hopefully get your attention…again. I will bet that you feel that you have dodged a bullet with the entire…
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March 1, 2010
Locked Out of your Twitter Account? This Trick Might Get You Back In Fast!
Have you ever inadvertently locked yourself out of Twitter because of too many simultaneous logins? Perhaps one of your Twitter clients like TweetDeck or Seesmic is having some issues and repeatedly trying to log you in and out of your account. Or perhaps your internet connection is flakey and you are dropping connections causing your logins to happen over and…
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February 5, 2010
How To Upgrade an iMac G5’s Hard Drive – iFixit.com to the Rescue!
A few weeks ago, my daughter's (hand-me-down) 20" iMac G5 started acting up. It was showing the infamous "spinning beachball", was locking up, the fan was running a lot and loud and the machine was having kernel panics. I did a quick S.M.A.R.T. scan on it which is usually a good indication of the health (or lack there of) of…
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February 3, 2010
How to Fix Login & Authentication Issues on TweetDeck after Changing your Password on Twitter
Yesterday, I received a very vague email from Twitter saying that they had reset my password because of some sort of a phishing scam or attack that had taken place off of Twitter. Below is the text of the email that I received. (Do note, before clicking through links like this, please be sure to hold your mouse over the…
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