What to do if your keyboard on the screen. And if there are dozens of screens: At CES, the Russian design Art Lebedev, the company shows upcoming Optimus Aux Optimus popularis keyboard with a mini and a series of six unique keyboard for data input devices on the key to the home screen.
The cloud is great if you need access to files on multiple devices, locations, or operating systems, and you want it synced and backed up. However, not all cloud storage is alike. We asked you which you thought were the best, highlighted the five best cloud storage providers, and now we're back to feature the winner.It shouldn't surprise anyone that Dropbox took the crown here. It's the juggernaut in the category, and clearly the most popular among Lifehacker readers—it brought home over 53% of the votes cast. It's not just about popularity though—many of you praised Dropbox for working across platforms and operating systems seamlessly, and fostering a broad development community and tons of third party apps thanks to open APIs.In second place with over 22% of the overall vote was a relative newcomer to the world of cloud storage but still a huge name: Google Drive, which offers you both storage for your files as well as productivity tools like Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets, and tight integration with Google's own services. With over 14% of the vote in third place was Microsoft SkyDrive, which offers similar integration for Microsoft Office and Windows 8 users, and made a great name for itself with an impressive overhaul last year. With 6% of the vote, Bitcasa Infinite Drive took fourth place, offering a modest amount of storage for free, but virtually unlimited storage if you're willing to pay a monthly fee—and when we say unlimited, many of you reported you store terabytes with Bitcasa because of this. Bringing up the rear in fifth place is SugarSync, one of the oldest and well loved by oft-overlooked cloud storage services by comparison, with just shy of 5% of the vote. The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!
I suppose I'm old enough to simply like the feel of a good book in my hand. But I also love reading on my iPad mini and decided to make a hollow book to hold it. This project applies some common bandsaw box techniques to hollowing books. All the cuts are made using a bandsaw, however a scrollsaw could be used as well. It's a fun project!
List of materials: A hardback book Glues - Elmer's glue, superglue, kid's push-up stick glue. You don't need all 3 but I found it easier to use different types in different places. Glue brush Wax paper Rubberband or masking tape Rare earth magnet and a 1/4" bolt washer (optional) Straightedge, pencil, ruler Exacto knife Bandsaw or scrollsaw 3/16 bandsaw blade A nail or staple gun Shellac Flocking kit including mini-flocker, adhesive & flocking felt The selection of your book is a personal one and the options are virtually limitless. Ideally it should be a hard cover book to protect your iPad screen and provide longer service. I chose a thicker book because I wanted storage for my glasses, ear buds, cords, etc. This book also fit nicely in my hand and is a comfortable size to carry. WIthout the covers, the pages measure about an inch. (This is not thick enough to store the white plug end for charging your iPad which is about an inch square. If you want to include the plug you'll need a 1.25-1.5" book.)
To fasten the book shut you can bury a magnet and metal washer prior to doing any gluing. On the corner of the cover, peel back the liner and mark the location for the washer. Make sure this will not interfere with your cut line as your magnet will be in the same spot within the books pages. The center of the washer is roughly 1/2" from both edges. Use an exacto knife to cut into the cardboard cover and glue the washer in place and then the liner.
For the rare earth magnet, start cutting your holes on approximately the 8th page. A 1/8x1/2" magnet is enough. Since the pages are smaller than the cover, the center of the magnet is 3/8" from both edges. In my case, the book was so close to the size of the iPad that the magnet is quite close to the edge. As long as the magnet is not in the way of the saw blade the magnet can be placed anywhere. With the magnet in place, glue the corners of 3-4 pages over the top of the magnet to secure. The sides of the book will be glued in the next step.
Free cloud storage is easy to come by these days—anyone can give it out, and anyone can give out lots of it. However, the best cloud storage providers give you more than just storage. They offer availability, multi-platform support, security, app integration, and more. This week we're going to look at five of the best cloud storage providers on the market, thanks to your nominations.Earlier in the week we asked you to nominate the cloud storage providers you thought were the best. You came in with tons of great nominees—way more than we could highlight here. Regardless, some definitely stood higher than the others, especially considering the last time we asked you about cloud storage services. Here's what you said:If you're reading this, you probably already know what Dropbox is. We've covered Dropbox and services that support it extensively, and most of you here have followed along with our tricks to get as much space as you possibly can. Many people bemoan Dropbox's position at the top of the pack as being a matter of popularity and the fact that they were one of the first to really popularize cloud storage (referral links and storage bonuses didn't hurt), but it's not just popularity that makes Dropbox special. Support for virtually every operating system, both desktop and mobile, experimental and beta builds that add tons of useful features, and a vast third-party developer community taking advantage of its open APIs to build applications on top of it make Dropbox a great cloud storage service, whether you use it for your files and just sync with the desktop clients, or you have another favorite app that uses Dropbox to keep your files synced across devices. Dropbox has its woes (especially with regard to security), but it's a stellar option—if it weren't, people wouldn't keep using it. Plans start with 2GB, but you can get way more than that via referrals, mobile app use, photo and video uploads, or by using an EDU address. You can check out their plans here.Google Drive's inclusion in the top five came as a bit of surprise, especially considering some of the older contenders that fell off due to lack of votes. Drive has only been around for about a year, but the fact that it combines the tools that formerly known as Google Docs (Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and Drawing), all of your files created with those tools, and 15GB of storage for anything else you want makes it a strong contender. After all, if you're using those tools in your day to day work, it makes sense to use Google Drive for file storage as well. Plus, the fact that it's available in OS X, Windows, iOS, and Android makes it useful at your desk or on the go. Plus, with the right plugins, it can be even more powerful than other services you may also use. Those of you who nominated Google Drive almost unanimously praised its tight integration with the Google services you already use, and of course its pricing. 15GB for free, and you can go here to check out their other plans (as well as see your current utilization) or go here to read more about Drive.SkyDrive used to be pretty clunky and difficult to use, but Microsoft's cloud storage service has come a long way since those days. It's tightly integrated with Windows now, especially Windows 8 for desktops and tablets, and if you use Office 2013 at all—either on the desktop or on the web—using SkyDrive as cloud storage for all of your files is quick and seamless. SkyDrive also has mobile apps for Windows Phone, iOS, and Android, so you can stay up to date on changes to your files and access them on the go, anywhere you have an internet connection. Desktop clients for Windows and Mac make working with your saved documents and syncing them easy too. If you got in while the latest iteration of the service was still in beta, you probably have a cool 25GB of storage, but even if you signed up today, you'd still walk away with 7GB of storage, 10GB if you're a student, with the option to buy more storage if you need it or run out. SkyDrive also has a third-party app ecosystem and open APIs, and a number of tools that tie nicely into it. Those of you who nominated Skydrive praised it for its Microsoft integration, especially with Office and Windows, and its third party app support.SugarSync has been around for a long time, and it's incredibly richly featured. It's not as widely used as some of the other big names, but in some ways, it really should be. SugarSync has insanely detailed syncing options, and can back up or sync any files or folders you choose on your system, not just a single folder and all of its contents. SugarSync can work like a backup client, automatically backing up your files as you change them, or you can use it like a traditional syncing cloud service, complete with a drive on your system you drop files in. The service keeps an impressive revision history for each of your files, lets you share, lock down, or password protect individual files on the web or on the desktop, and even makes streaming media to your mobile devices easy. While they don't really put their free plan up front, you can get 5GB for free, and make use of the service's wealth of features, along with their desktop apps for OS X and Windows and their mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. If you need more storage, their pricing plans are pretty attractive.Bitcasa was surprising contender, considering some of the names that fell short of the nominations, but it's a great service to mention. Aside from having virtually unlimited storage options—we mean in the terabytes, easily, Bitcasa has syncing clients for Windows and OS X, and mobile apps for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone (including tablet versions of all three). Bitcasa knows that you'll probably use that wealth of space for photos, music, and movies, and makes it easy to stream that content to your mobile devices when you're on the go, or to your desktop when you want to use it. They even have a Chrome extension that lets you use Bitcasa as your downloads folder. Bitcasa is free for 10GB, but if you're willing to pay, you can get infinite storage for $99/yr. Seriously—just keep uploading files and they'll be there. If storage is what you really need—not extra bells and whistles—and you're willing to pay for it, Bitcasa is worth a look.Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to put them to a final vote to determine the community favorite:We have to give an honorable mention this week to everyone who suggested you Do It Yourself, essentially using a NAS or other storage device at home packed with disks and any free software that lets you access them anywhere you go from any computer whether you're on your home network or off of it. It's super easy to roll your own cloud storage solution with tools like OwnCloud, or just by giving your NAS locked down access to the internet so you can get to your files when you're away. Either way, hats off to those of you who choose to just do your own thing. Besides, someone has to keep the NSA on their toes, right?Another honorable mention this week goes out to Box (formerly Box.net), which barely missed the top five, and earned high praise from many of you for shoveling out up to 50GB of free space to new users in some cases, and you can still pretty easily find services and promotions offering tons of free space with Box just for signing up and downloading the client. It's not new—it's been around for ages (and was a contender the last time we asked you about cloud storage services), and walks the line between being a consumer-friendly storage and syncing solution and an enterprise-level document management service.Speaking of referral links, one contender that also missed the top five (but wouldn't, if its supporters had voted correctly instead of just pimping referral links) was Copy, a relative newcomer who's only distinguishing feature, as far as we can tell, is really just that you get 15GB to start, and there's no real cap on how much more you can earn if you get the world to click on your referrals—you get 5GB for each person you get to sign up. Note: Please don't spam the discussions with your referral links. Comments with referral links will be dismissed.Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!
You are probably already familiar with the classic "Secret Book Compartment" project. On Instructables alone, you can find over 20 different variations of this project. The basic concept is simple. You hollow out a large book and you use the cutout space to hide stuff. Unfortunately, most versions of this project have one major problem. You can only hide objects that are smaller than your book. However it is possible to hide larger objects by combining multiple books into one large multi-book container.There is no specific kind of book that you need to use for this project. Just about any book can work. But here are some guidelines that may help.
1. The height and depth of the books are the important dimensions of the book. The size of the cover is what limits storage space. Since you are using multiple books, the thickness of each one doesn't matter. 2. The books do not need to be the same size, but it is convenient if they are. Sets of reference books like encyclopedias work well because they are all the same and it is a reasonable excuse to have a bunch of large books all in one spot on the book shelf. 3. Hardback books hold their shape better than paperbacks do after being cut up. 4. The secret compartment only remains a secret as long as no one tries to read any of the books. So it helps if the book are relatively uninteresting while still looking like something that you would have on your shelf. 5. A good source for cheap books is community book sales. Many public libraries will have a large book sale once a year. On the last day of these sales the remaining books are typically sold at a huge discount. You can often get a whole bag full of books for just a few dollars. 6. Get more books than you think that you will need. You must have one unaltered book on each side of your compartment, but I recommend having two or three so that if someone is messing with books on the shelf and a few fall over, it doesn't reveal your hidden compartment.
Properly preparing your motorcycle for winter storage can save time, headaches, and money when nice weather rolls around. Since each motorcycle has different designs and specifications, these instructions are designed to provide an overview of the process -- refer to your motorcycle's owner's manual and repair manual for additional information.
For this set of instructions, I'll be showing you how I prepare my 1997 Honda Magna VF750C2 for a few months inside the garage.
Required equipment: A bucket Car washing soap A sponge A hose and running water Motorcycle oil Oil filter Oil funnel Oil pan Gasoline container with enough gasoline to fill your tank Gasoline stabilizer (e.g. Sta-Bil) Screwdrivers and socket wrench set Plastic bags and rubber bands OR motorcycle exhaust plugs (recommended) Battery trickle charger Motorcycle cover (recommended) Your motorcycle's owners manual AND a repair manual After your last ride of the season, change the oil in your bike. That way, when spring rolls around, you know in advance your bike is ready to ride.
Each motorcycle is different, so be sure to consult with your owner's manual and repair manual for the specifics (particularly the type of oil, size of the oil filter, amount of oil, etc.) for your particular model.
Needed for this step: Oil filter Motor oil Socket wrench Oil pan Oil funnel Owner's manual and repair manual Instructions: Typically, each oil change will require these basic steps: Remove the oil drain plug using a socket wrench, and allow the oil to completely drain from the engine into the oil pan. Unscrew the old oil filter from the engine. Take your finger and dip it in the old oil, then rub some oil around the O-ring on the new oil filter. (Doing this will help it seal properly against the engine.) Screw the new oil filter on, tightening as much as you can with your hand. Replace the oil drain plug, tightening it with the socket wrench. Remove the oil cap (see owner's manual for the specific location on your bike) and, using the oil funnel, pour the proper amount of oil into the engine. Put the oil cap back on, tightening it with your hand. Note: A friend of mine highly recommends cleaning the carburetors as well, so they don't get gunky over the course of the winter. If you plan on storing your bike for more than 3 months, this idea makes a lot of sense.
For additional information about cleaning your carburetors, visit thickneckarts' Instructable. If you don't plan on storing your bike for more than three months, take a look at the note at the end of this Instructable.
Mac: Minbox is a new file sharing service that's fast, free, and lets you upload files of any size and any type so you can send them to friends. Best of all, it does it all without forcing you to wait for the upload to finish before you can share the file and get back to work.The video above (mildly nsfw lyrics, btw) highlights Minbox's major benefit: speed. Dropbox and other cloud storage services require you wait until the file you want to share has uploaded and finished syncing before you can grab a link and send it to someone to download or view. Minbox on the other hand lets you drag and drop the file right on the menubar app, enter an email address, and fire your download link to a friend while the file finishes uploading in the background. They promise upload speeds twice as fast as Dropbox, thanks to their own compression and conversion technology.The other big feature Minbox brings to the table is the ability to upload any file of any size that you want to share. Upload whatever you want, and the file is hosted on their servers for 30 days before it's automatically deleted. It's less of a cloud storage service with dedicated space for just your files, and more of a fast, easy-to-use file sharing service. It's available now for OS X as a menubar utility from the Mac app store.Beyond that, the service supports multiple concurrent uploads, scheduled sharing, supports RAW photo files, and if you do upload photos, the service can make beautiful web galleries so your recipient can browse them before downloading. Eventually Minbox will offer premium plans with dedicated storage like Dropbox or other cloud storage lockers, but right now they're fast, free, and just want to help you send large files quickly.Minbox
When it comes to external portable hard drives one of the most recognized product lines is most certainly the My Passport series that was first introduced by WD in 2004. These little portable hard drive enclosures and the included WD SmartWare software that automatically and continuously backs up your critical data has saved God only knows how much digital data over the years. For example in 2008 the flagship My Passport featured a 320GB hard drive, used the USB 2.0 interface, measured 126.2 x 79.5 x 15 mm (LxWxH) and cost a cool $199.99. WD has kept the My Passport brand alive over the years by continually refreshing it and offering new models like Essential, Elite, Edge, Enterprise, Studio and so on. Today, WD announced the My Passport Ultra, which is the latest refresh for this popular brand line and it includes 500GB ($99.99) and 1TB ($129.99) models now and a 2TB model that comes out in Q3 2013. So, the flagship My Passport Ultra is a 1TB hard drive costs $129.99, uses the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface and measures just 110.5 x 82 x 15.4 mm (LxWxH). Not bad considering where the My Passport line started from!
Besides the rather impressive hardware specifications, most of the magic happens with the software. When it comes to software you get WD Drive Utilities and WDSmartWare Pro backup software. These programs allow you to choose when and where you backup your files, but it also allows you to password protect and hardware encrypt the files on the drive, run diagnostics and more. You can also now use your Dropbox account, if you have one, to back up your files to the cloud. The WD My Passport allows you to back everything up locally on traditional media and then to the cloud if you want it, which is a nice touch. The WD My Passport Ultra comes backed by a 3-year warranty that covers both parts and labor. It is nice to see WD increase the warranty period on the My Passport series as it was previously just 2-years.
Inside the retail box you'll find the portable hard drive, 1.5-foot USB 3.0 cable, soft pouch, warranty card and the Quick Install Guide. WD lists that the WD SmartWare software, WD Security and WD Drive Utilities are included in the box, but you won't be getting a disc or flash drive with the bundle as the software is already on the portable hard drive. This is the first My Passport drive to come with a carrying pouch to protect the drive from scratches on the go.
Western Digital went with a grey plastic casing on the My Passport Ultra series that is adorned with a circular pattern and the WD logo and product name. This is the same exact pattern that was used on the My Passport Edge (soon to be phased out), so if it looks familiar that is why. The finish on the My Passport appears to be semi-gloss and it does not show finger prints and smudges. The size of the WD My Passport depends on which capacity that you get.
The WD My Passport Ultra 1TB drive that we are looking at today measures in at 110.5mm x 82mm x 15.4mm with a weight of 5.44 ounces. Western Digital is using a 5400 RPM hard drive with two platters and a 7mm Z-height on this particular drive.
Flipping the My Passport Ultra over we see that WD placed four rubber pads on the bottom to keep the portable hard drive from sliding around the surface that you place it on. The designers of this enclosure obviously know that, and made indentations in the housing for the feet to sit down into. The back also lists the part number, serial number, where it was produced (Malaysia) and a whole bunch of logos that don't mean much to the general public.
Looking down the end of the WD My Passport Ultra we can see the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port and off to the right of that there is a very small white LED activity indicator light. Even if you don't have USB 3.0 today you can use this drive and then down the road when you invest in a PC that has USB 3.0 it will work and actually be faster. Pretty much every new Desktop PC or laptop feature at least two USB 3.0 ports. Since the WD My Passport Ultra uses a derivative of a notebook hard drive it gets it power from the USB 3.0 port, so no power adapter needs to be plugged into the wall. This means the only cable that you need to bring with you when traveling is the USB 3.0 data cable that comes with the drive.
Let's fire this drive up and take a look at the backup software as that is the main reason you are likely looking into buying this drive.
The cloud is great if you need access to files on multiple devices, locations, or operating systems, and you want it synced and backed up. However, not all cloud storage is alike. We asked you which you thought were the best, highlighted the five best cloud storage providers, and now we're back to feature the winner.
It shouldn't surprise anyone that Dropbox took the crown here. It's the juggernaut in the category, and clearly the most popular among Lifehacker readers—it brought home over 53% of the votes cast. It's not just about popularity though—many of you praised Dropbox for working across platforms and operating systems seamlessly, and fostering a broad development community and tons of third party apps thanks to open APIs.In second place with over 22% of the overall vote was a relative newcomer to the world of cloud storage but still a huge name: Google Drive, which offers you both storage for your files as well as productivity tools like Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets, and tight integration with Google's own services. With over 14% of the vote in third place was Microsoft SkyDrive, which offers similar integration for Microsoft Office and Windows 8 users, and made a great name for itself with an impressive overhaul last year. With 6% of the vote, Bitcasa Infinite Drive took fourth place, offering a modest amount of storage for free, but virtually unlimited storage if you're willing to pay a monthly fee—and when we say unlimited, many of you reported you store terabytes with Bitcasa because of this. Bringing up the rear in fifth place is SugarSync, one of the oldest and well loved by oft-overlooked cloud storage services by comparison, with just shy of 5% of the vote. The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!
I suppose I'm old enough to simply like the feel of a good book in my hand. But I also love reading on my iPad mini and decided to make a hollow book to hold it. This project applies some common bandsaw box techniques to hollowing books. All the cuts are made using a bandsaw, however a scrollsaw could be used as well. It's a fun project! 
The selection of your book is a personal one and the options are virtually limitless. Ideally it should be a hard cover book to protect your iPad screen and provide longer service. I chose a thicker book because I wanted storage for my glasses, ear buds, cords, etc. This book also fit nicely in my hand and is a comfortable size to carry. WIthout the covers, the pages measure about an inch. (This is not thick enough to store the white plug end for charging your iPad which is about an inch square. If you want to include the plug you'll need a 1.25-1.5" book.) 
There is no specific kind of book that you need to use for this project. Just about any book can work. But here are some guidelines that may help. 
Properly preparing your motorcycle for winter storage can save time, headaches, and money when nice weather rolls around. Since each motorcycle has different designs and specifications, these instructions are designed to provide an overview of the process -- refer to your motorcycle's owner's manual and repair manual for additional information. 
After your last ride of the season, change the oil in your bike. That way, when spring rolls around, you know in advance your bike is ready to ride. 
