SAN FRANCISCO – When you’re selling items on shopping sites such as eBay and Etsy, presentation and marketing are just as important as producing a high-quality product. Customers are bombarded with images of goods of all shapes and sizes. Since they can’t try things on or test them out, it’s important for you to provide a clear, accurate, and appealing representation. Even if the cashmere scarf you knitted is beautiful in person, no one will want it if it appears out of focus, looks poorly lit, or sits wrapped around your unshaven friend’s neck.

Luckily, you don’t need to hire a photographer or use a professional studio to take great product shots. Simply follow these steps to cast your product in the best light and please the eye of would-be buyers.

Choose Your Equipment

When you’re on a shoestring budget, the best camera for product photography is the one you have. The cameras on modern smartphones are of extremely high quality–the Droid Razr and iPhone 4S, for instance, each pack an 8-megapixel camera. You can find many options for camera accessories, too, such as external lenses and tripods for smartphones–especially for iPhones. (For details, check out our list of must-have iPhone camera accessories.)
If you can afford new equipment, an interchangeable-lens camera or a digital single-lens reflex camera is the best choice for high-quality shooting and easy manual focusing. Both camera types usually come with a kit lens designed for zoom versatility; for the best results, however, a dedicated macro lens or wide-aperture portrait lens might be worth the extra cash. (See the “Choose Your Lens” section on the next page for more information.)
Between those two extremes are your standard point-and-shoot cameras, which are much more affordable than the average DSLR or interchangeable-lens model. Most basic snapshot cameras cost around $200, but at that price they usually don’t offer significantly better quality or controls than a high-end smartphone camera. For about $300 to $500, you can buy a higher-end point-and-shoot camera with a wider aperture, manual controls for focusing, and a zoom range that provides ideal focal lengths for both wide-angle (24mm) and macro photography (50mm and up).

No matter what kind of camera you use, a tripod is essential if you lack steady hands and want a consistent angle on the product while you change the lighting. Miniature tripods, such as the bendy Gorillapod, are handy and affordable. At the very least, find a solid, flat surface to rest your camera on while snapping each shot.

Understand Your Camera

Some external lenses can make your photos look as if you captured them with a more expensive camera, but other lenses are suitable only for novelty effects. For product photography, stick to the macro lens attachments. If you encounter any distortion, blurriness, or trouble focusing, ditch the attachment and stay with your original lens.

You have no need to shoot in full-manual mode for basic product photography, but you should understand how to focus your camera manually and turn off its automatic flash. Check out PCWorld’s guide to camera basics for guidance.
If you are using a smartphone, try an app that lets you manually focus and edit easily. The Camera+ app for iOS and the Camera 360 app for Android, for instance, let you take and edit your photos right on your phone.
Be careful to avoid using distracting effects. A tilt-shift, blurring effect can make your product stand out in the frame, but a retro or comic book effect won’t provide an accurate representation of your product. If you’re using the default iOS camera app on the iPhone, make sure that HDR is off.

Once you have turned off the flash, choose a focus mode that allows you to select a single point in the frame–called “Single-Point” on Nikon cameras and “Manual AF Point” on Canon cameras. This mode is extremely common in DSLRs, and it’s available in many higher-end point-and-shoots as well. In this mode, the camera automatically focuses on a point in the frame that you’ve chosen; an empty square marks this exposure and focusing point in the viewfinder or on the live-view screen. On iOS and Android phones, you can simply touch the on-screen objects to adjust focus and exposure automatically.

Choose Your Lens: Wide vs. Standard

With a point-and-shoot, extend your lens as far as it can go optically for the basic shot of a stand-alone product. Be careful not to zoom in digitally, as that will do nothing but compromise the quality of your photo. Many point-and-shoots have a “macro” mode in-camera that can be great for capturing details and shrinking the depth of field so that your product stands out in the frame.

If you have a DSLR or a camera with an interchangeable-lens, you may have different lenses to choose from. The classic approach to product photography is to use a longer lens (50mm or over) to avoid any distortion of the product’s appearance, but online entrepreneurs are becoming more creative. Long lenses are ideal for product photography because they can provide a thinner plane of focus and cause very little distortion–perfect when you’re taking the basic shot of a product.
But you’ll also want to take secondary photos showing the product in a setting that suggests how it can be used. For these shots, a wide-angle lens can provide context since it allows more room for background objects and scenes. Be careful not to go too wide, though: Below about 24mm, you start to enter fish-eye territory.

If you have some cash to spare, you may want to splurge on a macro lens for your DSLR or interchangeable-lens camera. They’re top-notch for getting in extremely close to show the intricate details of your handiwork.

Choose Your Background: Natural vs. Studio

Aim to show your product in an environment in which it would be used, or on its own against a simple, blank backdrop. For my examples, I wanted to show off my cousin Lexie Fisher’s handmade dinosaur mugs.

Natural Lighting

For a naturally lit photo, push a table up against a window on a cloudy day, or cover the direct sunlight with sheer curtains. You want the light coming through the window to create a bright, natural, blank background. The curtain will create diffused light that won’t cast harsh shadows or cause glare. Place your product on a surface with an interesting texture, such as natural wood for a rustic, handmade item.

One popular technique used in tech-product photography is to capture the product as well as a bit of its reflection in the surface it’s sitting on. This is an easy trick to pull off: Putting the product on any dull, reflective surface, such as a dark, glossy piece of paper, will work for this effect.

Turn off all the light fixtures in the room to prevent color contamination from lights, which normally cast a different color temperature than daylight does. Then, set up some mirrors and a large, white surface to shine the window light back onto your product. You could spend hundreds of dollars on professional reflectors; for most purposes, however, a white posterboard and some makeup mirrors are perfect. Light your product so that it appears slightly darker than the light coming through the window. Then, set the exposure for a medium-to-dark spot on the product, and shoot away.

For secondary photos, use a wider lens (between 24mm and 50mm) and pair your product with items that match the aesthetic you’re trying to convey. For example, to shoot a handmade mug for sale, I placed a shiny red teapot out of focus in the background, and a crossword puzzle in the foreground. I poured hot water in the mug to create steam, and I made sure that the angles of my props led the viewer’s eye toward the product.

Studio Lighting

To create a studio situation, you can make a backdrop out of any large, thick piece of paper and some duct tape. Place the paper so that it makes a soft angle, to avoid showing the hard edges of the paper in your shot. To create dynamic lighting, turn off all unwanted lights and black out your windows. Use two lamps with the same type of bulb, set at alternating angles. (I used two 20-watt fluorescent bulbs from my desk lamps.) You can use any bulbs available, just as long as they both give off the same color so that your camera can automatically adjust and portray your product in its true color. Therefore, don’t have more than one type of bulbs, such as incandescent, fluorescent, or LED, in one shot.

To prevent glare and harsh shadows, you can diffuse the lights by placing a piece of 8.5-by-11-inch printer paper between the bulb and the product. Don’t attach the paper directly to the bulb, which poses a fire hazard. Instead, ask an assistant to hold it, or prop it up with clamps between the bulb and your product. You can also “bounce” the light to make it appear softer: Simply direct the light toward a large, white, reflective surface, such as the posterboard I used in the natural-light example, and angle the reflection toward your product.

A long lens is best for studio situations because it will keep the shot tight enough to exclude the edges of the backdrop. If you have a large backdrop, you can include contextual objects for secondary photos.

Go Easy on the Editing

Any basic photo-editing software, such as the free Windows Live Photo Gallery or the $99 Photoshop Elements, can help you level out and color-correct your photos manually. Though it’s fine to run your product images through Photoshop, keep your editing simple. Be careful with Auto-Fix, HDR, and retro filters that might manipulate the color of your product or darken the clean white background that you rearranged your furniture to create. And resist the temptation to cut and paste your product image into a celebrity’s hands. ]]> http://pcworld.com.ph/take-great-product-photos-for-your-online-store/feed/ 0 http://pcworld.com.ph/when-new-apps-and-old-ios-devices-dont-mix/ http://pcworld.com.ph/when-new-apps-and-old-ios-devices-dont-mix/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:00:45 +0000 Fei http://pcworld.com.ph/?p=13600

SAN FRANCISCO – Reader Steve Paulson finds that old and new iOS devices don’t always mix in pleasing ways. He writes:

I have a second-generation iPod touch. Several others in my home have 4G iPod touches. When apps are updated, my iPod is often obsolete–an app that once worked fine on my iPod is replaced by a version that now only works with the new iPods. Is there a way I can access the older files I know are still on my computer to add to my iPod and leave the newer ones for them?

I don’t know that I’ve ever read a more compelling case for creating another iTunes library. Your ointment is so fly-ridden because you’re trying to manage too many devices from a single library. As you’ve noticed, when you update your and others’ apps via iTunes, never versions that aren’t compatible with your iPod replace the older versions that are. And when someone else using the library with a newer iPod updates their apps on the iPod and then syncs it back to iTunes, iTunes transfers those newer versions from the updated iPod and the older versions are biffed into the trash.

So, clumsy though it may be, you need to create an iTunes library that is just yours. You can do this by quitting iTunes, launching it again while holding down the Option key, and then choosing to create a new library.

When you do this you’ll begin with an empty iTunes library. You’ll then need to add to that library any files that you want to sync with your iPod touch–this includes not only apps but also media files. You can do that by dragging the files into the media area of iTunes’ Source list. If you don’t want to create a second copy of these items, open iTunes’ preferences, click the Advanced tab, and disable the Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder When Adding to Library option.

As for updating your apps, I’d suggest doing it from the iPod touch as it won’t download incompatible updates. If you do choose to do it via iTunes, I’d suggest taking a long look at my Automator work-around for saving copies of old apps.
When others in your household need to use the original iTunes library, simply quit iTunes, relaunch it while holding down the Option key, click the Choose Library button, and navigate to the old library. ]]> http://pcworld.com.ph/when-new-apps-and-old-ios-devices-dont-mix/feed/ 0 http://pcworld.com.ph/how-to-embed-tweets-on-your-website-or-blog/ http://pcworld.com.ph/how-to-embed-tweets-on-your-website-or-blog/#comments Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:00:48 +0000 Fei http://pcworld.com.ph/?p=13553

SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter has had a busy past three months, launching a redesign, an open-source Android security tech, and Tweetdeck as a Web application. Now it’s offering a way to make your website or blog more interactive with easy-to-embed tweets that require using just one line of code or a link to add.

This new method will let your visitors to your website interact with embedded tweets, and view details such as replies and retweets. This can improve your website while requiring a minimal amount of coding. Here’s how to how to embed the new code and get started.

What Embedded Tweets Look Like

In the example at right, the new embedded tweets appear on a senator’s website. Note that you’ll have to click on the date/time stamp in the lower left corner of that module to get information on the tweet, and you’ll need to have access to the redesign of Twitter to see favorites, retweets and replies. Otherwise, you’ll just get the usual permalink.

One really cool feature is that any tweets with a photo will embed that photo within any text in the tweet, as in the example below. The catch: The tweet that you’re embedding needs to have the picture uploaded to pic.twitter.com in order to show up in an embedded tweet. Photos uploaded to any other service won’t work. If you want to make your photo tweets easier to share in light of this, you may want to start uploading your pictures to Twitter’s own service.

First, the New Twitter

Icons for Home, Connect, and Discover should be at the top left of your profile if you have the new design. If your account isn’t yet active on the new Twitter design, you won’t be able to get the code to embed tweets. If your Twitter profile doesn’t have the features announced here, you’re not on the new design yet. If you’ve downloaded the new version for Android or iPhone, you’ll get earlier access to the new Twitter when logging in on your PC’s browser. A Twitter representative confirmed that the new version of Twitter.com is still in progress.
Get the Embed Code and Find the Permalink

If your account already appears with the new Twitter design, then you’re in business. To get the embed code, you’ll have to go to your tweet’s permalink page. There is no obvious spot on a tweet, even in the new redesign, to get your permalink. Instead, the permalink is hidden within the timestamp on the tweet. Click the timestamp (see the image below), and you’re there. From your tweet’s permalink page, click on “Embed This Tweet”. Copy and paste the code you’re given into your website or blog where you want the tweet to show up, and that’s it.

Embeddable Tweets Make Your Content Permanent

Now, more than ever, you’ll need to think before you tweet. While people can still take a screenshot of your incriminating tweet (ahem, Kenneth Cole?) and post it to a website, now they have the option of embedding tweets as well. Deleting a tweet does not make the content of the tweet go away if it’s been embedded in a website or blog. If your business has been posting tweets live without any vetting process, you may want to change your habits. Although a screenshot takes extra effort to create, an embedded tweet could now easily end up anywhere on the Web. ]]> http://pcworld.com.ph/how-to-embed-tweets-on-your-website-or-blog/feed/ 0 http://pcworld.com.ph/configuring-mails-rules/ http://pcworld.com.ph/configuring-mails-rules/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:59:14 +0000 Fei http://pcworld.com.ph/?p=13511

SAN FRANCISCO – Many of us live and die by email, and because we do it makes sense to organize that email so that you can quickly find the messages you need. One way to organize email is to create filters or rules to automatically file it as it’s received. In this week’s Macworld Video I show you how to do just that.

Download Macworld Video #163

• Format: MPEG-4/H.264

• Resolution: 480 x 272 (iPhone & iPod compatible)

• Size: 7 MB

• Length: 5 minutes, 52 seconds

Show Notes

In this video I specifically addressed Apple’s Mail email client, but all email clients have some kind of rule or filter capability built in. Of course if you have an account that lives largely on the Web–a Gmail account, for example–you can create filters within the Web client rather than in the email client on your Mac. (Though there’s no harm in doing both.)

Transcript (approximate):

Today I’m going to show you a couple of ways to create useful filters for Mail. With these filters–or Rules, as Mail calls them–your Mac will automatically sort your email as it’s received.

We’ll start by creating a new local mailbox. Click on the Plus button at the bottom of the window and in the New Mailbox sheet select On My Mac. We’ll name this one From Chris.

Now we’ll create a simple rule by opening Mail’s Preferences, clicking on Rules, and then clicking Add Rule. We’ll call the rule From Chris and configure it to read If Any From Contains Christopher Breen, move message to mailbox, From Chris.

Click OK and you’ll be offered the opportunity to apply the rule. Let’s click Apply to see what happens. Sure enough, messages from me are moved to this person’s From Chris mailbox. If I send a message to this account the message will be automatically filed in the From Chris mailbox.

Wonderful as it might be to have a mailbox set up for just mail from a specific individual, you can of course do this more broadly. For instance, you might create a rule that looks for messages from a particular organization–I might use From Contains macworld.com, for instance, to file all the mail I receive from my colleagues.

Rules needn’t contain just one condition. You can add more. For example, let’s add another rule that takes any really important messages addressed from me, moves them to another mailbox, and colors them red.

Let’s look at one more way you can broadly filter email–through the creation of a white list. To do that create a folder called “Unknown to me” and configure a rule that reads Sender Is Not in my Address Book. Any incoming messages from people who aren’t in your address book will be diverted to this folder. Of course if you want some of these messages to appear in your inbox, just add the sender to your address book.

To subscribe to the Macworld Video stream via iTunes, click here.

You can also see a complete archive of all our videos on Macworld’s YouTube channel. Subscribe to that channels and you will be notified whenever we post a new video.

Or just point your favorite podcast-savvy RSS reader to: http://feeds.macworld.com/macworld/video/ ]]> http://pcworld.com.ph/configuring-mails-rules/feed/ 0 http://pcworld.com.ph/new-pc-get-setup-help-make-your-own-desktop-theme/ http://pcworld.com.ph/new-pc-get-setup-help-make-your-own-desktop-theme/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:00:28 +0000 Fei http://pcworld.com.ph/?p=13508

SAN FRANCISCO – Did Santa (or Hanu-claus) bring you a new PC? Wow, you must have been good this year!
Of course, with a new computer comes new questions–and maybe even new problems. This is especially true for users who aren’t particularly tech-savvy (sorry, Mom and Dad, but I’m looking at you).

What these folks need is a helper, someone who can help install software, set up printers, remove viruses, and help with everyday computing issues. And not just for new computers, but for existing ones as well.

I’m flattered that you thought of me first, but I was actually thinking of Comodo’s GeekBuddy, a remote tech-support service that can connect to your PC for all your help and troubleshooting needs. GeekBuddy provides live, real-time help from a remote support tech, and does so 24/7. Among the services offered: virus diagnosis and removal, PC tune-ups, software and printer setup, printer and PC troubleshooting, ID-theft protection, and even help setting up e-mail accounts.
All support sessions are chat-based, which I think is highly preferable to getting on the phone with someone who might be hard to understand (or hard of understanding). Chat may be slower overall, but ultimately I find it more productive.

The only wrinkle, of course, is if you’re having a problem with your Internet connection, or the virus/malware you need to have eradicated somehow blocks the chat session. Both would prevent your “buddy” from establishing contact. In that instance, there’s toll-free support available by phone.

Overall, GeekBuddy sounds like a winning proposition to me, especially for those users who don’t have a friend or family member they can call on for help. The service costs $50 per year, which to my thinking is very reasonable. You can also subscribe for $5 per month, and there are price breaks for 2- and 3-year subscriptions.

Unfortunately (and perhaps understandably), the company no longer offers a 60-day free trial–or, in fact, any trial at all. I’d start with a one-month subscription, then decide if you think it’s worth re-upping for a year or more.

Create Customized Desktop Backgrounds in Windows 7

Reader Edwin wants to know how to change the themes in Windows 7. Specifically, he has multiple photos he wants to use for his desktop background, but can’t find a way to add more than one.

If you’ve ever right-clicked your Windows 7 desktop and then clicked Personalize, you’ve no doubt encountered the themes that Microsoft bundles with the OS. These include collections of desktop backgrounds–snazzy photos that appear behind your icons.

It may not be immediately obvious, but it’s possible to add your own collection of photos, and even mix them in with the current desktop theme (which consists of not just photos, but also icons, sounds, window colors, and screen savers). Here’s how:

Collect all the photos you want to use into a single folder. The name and location don’t matter, so long as you remember both. Right-click any open space on your Windows desktop, then choose Personalize. Click Desktop Background. Next to Picture Location, click Browse. Navigate to the folder containing your desired desktop photos, click it, and then click OK. By default, Windows will select all of the photos in that folder. If there are some you want to remove, clear their check boxes. Modify any other slideshow settings you want, like Picture Position and the change frequency. When you’re done, click Save changes. 8. You’ll see a new Unsaved Theme. Click it to apply it immediately, then click Save theme and give the new theme a name.

SAN FRANCISCO – With clients for every mobile and desktop operating system and tons of great functionality, Dropbox makes it easy to share files from basically any device.

However, there is one major gap with using Dropbox as a mobile collaboration tool: Since it’s just meant as a way to store your files, there’s no way to edit text within a file uploaded to Dropbox when using your mobile phone. Luckily, there are a number of apps that work within Dropbox that let you edit on the go, and then return the file to Dropbox so the rest of your colleagues accessing that folder can use it.

We’ll take a look at two great text editors for mobile that will sync with your Dropbox account: PlainText for iOS and Epistle for Android. There are any number of mobile apps that can be used with Dropbox to replicate this kind of functionality, but Epistle and PlainText are both simple and easy to use–and, even better, they’re both free (though PlainText does have ads that you can remove for $1.99).

SAN FRANCISCO – With the immense popularity of digital cameras, smartphones, and tablets for taking pictures and capturing video, and the wide availability of affordable digital music and movies, many people have amassed enormous collections of digital media. Much of that media typically finds its way onto a PC or mass-storage device of some sort–and, unfortunately, it can sometimes go unused for ages. Flipping through pictures or videos and relaxing with some good tunes is always appealing, but sitting in front of a PC isn’t the ideal way to enjoy such content.

You may be surprised to learn that sharing digital media across different devices and platforms is quite easy. Windows 7 with Windows Media Player has built-in tools and DLNA/UPnP support for easily sharing digital media libraries with compatible devices. And allowing access to the media across a network or the Web requires minimal configuration.

You do have to consider a few prerequisites, though, and get familiar with the different sharing options available within Windows Media Player. First, the PC that is hosting the media library must be connected to a network (for internal sharing) and to the Web (for sharing files across the Internet). You must enable a couple of options in Windows Media Player, as well. And if the host machine connects to the Web from behind a router or firewall, you need to open and forward a few ports to the PC to allow incoming connections.

Getting Started

The very first step to sharing the digital media on your Windows 7 PC is to set up and organize your media libraries in Windows Media Player. If you’ve already organized your files into your My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos folders, WMP should find them automatically. If you keep your media on a different drive or on a network-attached storage device, however, you should import those files into WMP. To do so, open WMP and switch to Libraries view if necessary. Then click the Organize drop-down menu, select Manage Libraries, and choose Music, Pictures, or Videos. A Library Locations window will open, in which you can add other folders simply by clicking the Add button and browsing to the folders.
This probably goes without saying, but the PC hosting the digital media library must be powered on and connected to a network. Internet access is also necessary for sharing across the Web to another PC. With all of those requirements met, it’s time to enable sharing. Launch Windows Media Player (switch to Libraries view if necessary), click the Stream drop-down menu at the top, and select the option Automatically allow devices to play my media. Enabling this option essentially turns the PC into a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)-compatible Digital Media Server. The remote systems or devices accessing the files operate as Digital Media Players. Multiple Digital Media Servers can run on a single network, and machines or devices acting as Digital Media Players (as defined by the DLNA device classes) can also host Digital Media Servers.

Next, click the Stream drop-down menu again, and select More streaming options. On the resulting screen you can name the media library. The screen will also show a list of devices on the network that are capable of accessing the library. If you see a particular device in the list that you wish to allow or block, you can configure that option here.

At this point, you’re ready to start streaming media across your network to another device. If you’d like to take things a step further and share media across the Web, you have one more option to enable. Select the Allow Internet access to home media option in the Stream drop-down menu in WMP, and the program will prompt you to allow Internet connections and to link an online ID (i.e. a Windows Live account) to the libraries; take care of both steps by following the on-screen prompts. Then, once the account is linked, you can use that same account to link other PCs and access the libraries across the Web.

Accessing a PC remotely from across the Web will likely require some tweaks to a router or firewall, however. We’ve explained how to open ports before, but you’ll need to know exactly which ones to forward for the shares to work properly. To find them, click the Allow Internet access to home media option again in WMP’s Stream drop-down menu, and in the subsequent window, click Diagnose connections. The Internet Streaming Diagnostic Tool will open and run some quick tests. At the bottom of the window, click the Port forwarding information link to see a list of the ports that need to be forwarded. Forward those ports to the IP address of the host PC/DMS, and you’re ready to go.
On the next page, I’ll show you how to stream media to various devices.

Stream Media to Another PC on Your Network

Microsoft made accessing the digital media libraries on systems connected on the same network or in the same homegroup very easy. If you’ve followed the steps outlined on the previous page to allow devices to play media automatically, the shared libraries will be listed in Windows Media Player’s main interface.

If your PCs are all properly connected to the network and your host system is turned on and available, open Windows Media Player and give it a moment to scan the network. In the Library pane on the left, toward the bottom of the list, the host PC’s media library should appear under Other Libraries. Click the library, and its Music, Videos, Pictures, Recorded TV, and Playlists will be available.

Stream Media to Another PC Over the Internet

Microsoft made the process of sharing a digital media library across the Web relatively simple too. First, provided that you’ve followed my earlier instructions, you should see Allow Internet access to home media checked in Windows Media Player’s Stream drop-down menu, and you should have an online ID linked to the library.

Essentially you need to follow the same steps on the remote PC as were necessary to enable sharing on the host PC serving the libraries. On the remote system, open Windows Media Player and select the Allow Internet access to home media option. A new window, labeled Internet Home Media Access, will open. Click the Link an online ID button, and link this computer to the same online ID you used to configure the host system/DMS. If the host PC is on and connected to the Web (and if you’ve opened and forwarded the proper ports to the machine), its media library should show up in the Other Libraries category, just as it would if the computers were connected to same network.

Stream Media to a Game Console

Streaming digital media to a game console, such as an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3, is extremely straightforward, provided that the device is connected to the same network as the host PC/Digital Media Server.

On both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, accessing the digital media stored on a Windows 7 PC is as easy as powering up the console and navigating through its dashboard to the Video, Music, or Photo library. If the DMS and the console are on the same network, the libraries available on the server should be listed, and the files within should be available for playback on the console.

Accessing a Windows 7 machine from an Xbox 360 is quick and easy, and requires nothing more than enabling streaming in WMP. Some users, however, have reported issues with PlayStation 3 consoles’ attempts to access PC files if Windows’ File and Printer Sharing is disabled. Should you need to turn on File and Printer Sharing in Windows 7, click the Start button; in the Search field, type Advanced Sharing Settings and press Enter. In the control panel window that opens, ensure that Turn on file and printer sharing is checked, and that media streaming is turned on.

As a last resort, PlayStation 3 users can try running a third-party DLNA/UPnP media server, such as Ps3mediaserver, on their PC.
Stream Media to a DLNA-Enabled TV or Set-Top Box

A large number of current-generation HDTV and set-top devices–such as Blu-ray players, for example–are network-attached “smart” devices with DLNA support and built-in digital media playback tools. These devices can access the media stored on a Windows 7 PC just as easily as any other, if you’ve connected them to the same network and properly enabled the streaming/sharing options on the host PC.
We used both a Samsung HDTV and a Samsung Blu-ray player to access the media stored on a desktop PC. While the process for both was virtually identical in our tests due to the devices’ interface similarities, it will be different from device manufacturer to device manufacturer. That said, the same general steps will likely be necessary for any similar DLNA-compatible device.

First we powered up the Samsung Blu-ray player without a disc inserted, which brought up its main interface, where settings and apps are available. We confirmed that the player was connected to the network (in this case wirelessly), and that it had an IP address assigned to it in the network settings menu. We then accessed the Devices menu, at which point the player scanned the network looking for a DLNA Digital Media Server. Afterward it was simply a matter of selecting the PC/DMS from the Devices menu and navigating through the Music, Photos, and Video folders to find the files we wanted to play.

Stream Media to an Android-Based Tablet or Smartphone

Although I focus on Android-based devices here, I should point out that numerous apps for iOS perform similar functions. Windows Phone-based devices also have many of these capabilities, either built in or available via third-party apps. Most of the applications work in a similar manner, however, and are relatively easy to use provided that you’ve configured the host PC properly.

For the purposes of this article, we tested a handful of Digital Media Players on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Tablet and a Galaxy S II Skyrocket smartphone. Ultimately we ended up using an app called BubbleUPnP; this free DLNA control point and media player/renderer can access photos, music, and video files from a DLNA media server.
To access the media on your PC, download and install BubbleUPnP from the Android market. Once it’s installed, enable Wi-Fi on your device, connect to your network, and launch the app. When it opens, tap the Devices tab at the bottom of the main interface. Assuming that your PC is on and connected to the network, and that streaming is enabled in WMP, your PC should show up in the Select Library list in the bottom half of the Devices menu. Select your PC in the list, and tap the Library tab at the bottom; you’ll then be able to choose from the Music, Videos, Pictures, and Playlists folders available on the PC. It’s that easy. ]]> http://pcworld.com.ph/how-to-stream-digital-media-from-your-windows-7-pc/feed/ 0 http://pcworld.com.ph/fix-your-windows-7-network/ http://pcworld.com.ph/fix-your-windows-7-network/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:00:34 +0000 Fei http://pcworld.com.ph/?p=13401

SAN FRANCISCO – Setting up and maintaining your home PC network is easier than ever before with Windows 7–but that’s not saying much. Many networking issues still aren’t easily fixed from Windows 7′s control panels. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of common networking problems and their quick fixes.
Reset Your IP Address

If your system’s connection to a network is unreliable, or you’re getting IP address conflict error messages, try renewing your IP address. First, click on the Start button, navigate to the Command Prompt (Start Menu, Applications, Accessories, Command Prompt), right-click it, and select Run as Administrator from the menu. Then type ipconfig /renew, and press Enter. That should do it.

Flush Your DNS Cache

Whenever you type a URL into a Web browser, your PC asks your domain name service server (DNS server) to translate that URL into an IP address, and caches that information. That cache can occasionally become outdated or corrupt, which can cause Internet connection problems. To clear your DNS cache, open the Command Prompt with Run as Administrator, type ipconfig /flushdns, and press Enter.

Restarting a Windows 7 system will also flush its DNS cache, but if any applications (malware, perhaps) are altering the cache, flushing manually could help.

Reset Your Broadband Modem and Router

Your broadband modem’s connection to the Internet will occasionally become unreliable, and restarting it can fix that. The same trick also occasionally works for the connection between a router and a broadband modem.

To reset your broadband modem and router, disconnect their power cables and leave the modem and router off for 30 seconds. Don’t just press the power buttons–that can occasionally put modems or routers into standby mode rather than totally killing the power. Next, reconnect the modem’s power cable to restore its power. Wait a few moments for the modem to renegotiate its connection to the Internet and establish a solid link; then plug in the router. Once the router has completely booted up, follow the steps outlined earlier to renew your system’s IP address. You should then be good to go.

Configure Wireless Security

The vast majority of wireless broadband routers available today ship with their wireless security features disabled. This makes it easy for novice users to set up a wireless network in their homes or offices, but it also leaves your network vulnerable to prying eyes.
Although the exact procedure necessary to enable wireless security will vary from router to router, in general the steps required to access the pertinent options will be similar.

Assuming your router/gateway’s IP address is 192.168.1.1 and you’re connected to the network, open a Web browser on a system that is phsyically wired to your network and type 192.168.1.1 into the address field. You’ll then be prompted to enter the necessary credentials to access your router’s configuration menus (consult the manual for your router’s default username and password if you didn’t set them yourself. And if you didn’t set them yourself, change them right away to prevent unwanted tampering).

Once logged into the router, you’ll see a number of tabs or links to various control panels. Click on the Wireless tab or Wireless Security tab. On the resulting screen, you should see an area where you can set the Security Mode, with options like WEP, WPA, WPA2, and others listed. If you have relatively current wireless devices that support the standard, we recommend enabling WPA2 Personal on your home network because it offers stronger encryption that other methods. If your devices don’t support WPA2, try WPA, or as a last resort WEP (the weakest available encryption method). You’ll then have to set the encryption type (TKIP or AES; either one is fine) and then define a wireless password or key. Make the password/key something that would be difficult to guess and include letters, numbers, and special characters. Save the settings and reboot the router; at least a basic level of Wi-Fi security should now be in place.
Open and Forward Ports

Some applications require that certain network ports be opened and forwarded to the correct PC for some of their functions to operate across the Web. Game servers are a great example: If the correct network ports aren’t opened and requests on those ports aren’t forwarded to the correct PC, inbound traffic on them will never make it through your firewall.

As always, though the exact process necessary to forward ports will vary, the steps required to access the pertinent options within any router will be similar. Check out our guide to port forwarding for more information.

Connect your PC to the network, open a Web browser and type your router’s IP address (usually 192.168.1.1; check your manual to be sure) into the address field. Log in with your name and password, then find the NAT (Network Address Translation), Firewall, or Port Forwarding menu.

You’ll need to create a ruleset that tells your router which protocol to use (UDP, TCP, or both), defines the port range you want to forward, and specify to which IP address the traffic on those ports should be forwarded to. For example, if the machine running the application you are troubleshooting has an IP address of 192.168.1.115, put that string into the IP address field. Save the settings to enable the rule, then reboot the router to finish the job.

Put a System in a DMZ

Sometimes port forwarding isn’t enough and you’ll have to give a system unfettered access to the Internet. In those cases, the machine can be placed in a network DMZ, or demilitarized zone. Putting a system in a DMZ means all of its ports will be accessible from the Internet; such a situation is very dangerous, so don’t take that step unless it is absolutely necessary.

Let’s assume that your router IP address is indeed 192.168.1.1 and that you’re connected to the network. Open a Web browser and type 192.168.1.1 into the address field. Log in to your router and find the NAT (Network Address Translation), Firewall, or DMZ menu (the DMZ options will be under a menu with one of those names).

When you’re on the DMZ configuration menu, you’ll need to enable the DMZ and specify the IP address of the system you’d like to place in the DMZ. Enter the IP address, save the settings, and reboot the router; that system should now be in the DMZ.

Update Network Drivers

Like any other peripheral in a Windows PC, the network controller requires drivers to operate. Those drivers tell the operating system how to use a device and occasionally need to be updated to resolve issues or add new features and capabilities.

Updating network drivers in Windows is usually done in one of three ways: through the Windows Update software, by downloading and running an executable installer, or by manually choosing a driver through Device Manager. When possible, use the first method: Updating a driver through Windows Update is easy and automatic. Unfortunately, manually installing a driver through Device Manager is a bit more complex.

If you’ve downloaded a driver for your network interface card from the manufacturer’s website and the file contains nothing but some .inf or other nonexecutable files, you’ll need to manually install it using Windows Device Manager. To do so, click on the Start button and type Device Manager in the search field. Press Enter to open the Device Mananger, find Network Adapters in the list of devices in the system, right-click on your network controller, and select Update Driver Software from the menu.

In the new window that opens, click on the Browse my computer for driver software button; then click on the Browse button and navigate to the folder where you placed the newer driver you downloaded. Click the Next button, and the driver should install automatically.

Disable or Add Exclusions to Windows Firewall

Windows 7′s built-in firewall constantly asks you to allow or deny an application’s access to your network. If you’ve mistakenly blocked an application and want to unblock it (or the other way around) you’ll have to manually change some settings in the Windows Firewall control panel.

Click on your Start button, type Allowed Applications in to the search field, and press Enter. In the resulting window, all of the applications installed on the system that were flagged by Windows Firewall will be listed. If there is an application communicating through the Firewall that you now want to block, click the Change Settings button at the top of the screen, then scroll through the list of programs until you find the application, and disable it from accessing the Internet over Home/Work or Public networks. Conversely, if you’d like to allow a program that was previously blocked, find it on the list, and select the appropriate boxes next to the entry.

Scan Your Network for Attached Devices

With so many connected devices now on the market, there may come a time when you want to scan your entire network to see exactly what devices have obtained IP addresses and are consuming resources. Your router may be able to check the status of connected clients, or you could use a third-party application that will more comprehensively scan an entire range of IP addresses to find and obtain information on the connected devices.

Many free utilities are available that will scan a network, but we’re partial to one called Angry IP Scanner. Simply download and run the executable–the program doesn’t even need to be installed. Enter the IP range you’d like to scan, click the Start button, and a few minutes later you’ll have a list of every active IP, what the ping time was for the device, its hostname, and which ports it has open. Right-clicking on an active device in the list will reveal more details; it will also allow you to ping the IP address and connect through a Web browser or FTP client.
Diagnose Internet Connection Issues

Finally, one problem that may be beyond your immediate network: Is your Internet connection unstable–and you can’t figure out why? A couple of utilities built into Windows 7 may help. Ping and tracert (traceroute) can help you find out if your Internet issues are with your home network or with your ISP–or somewhere in between.

Performing a continuous ping on a known good website (we like to use google.com) will allow you to constantly monitor a connection and see if packets are being lost or the connection is dropping. Open a Command Prompt window (Start, All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt), type ping google.com –t, and press Enter. Your system will then start continually pinging the Google website. If the connection is stable and reliable, you shouldn’t see any errors, just replies from the IP address with ping times and other data. If, however, if the connection between your PC and Google is broken for whatever reason, ping will report that there was no response from the server.

Tracert is another useful tool that will list the route and measure transit delays of packets across a network. To use Tracert, open a Command Prompt window and type tracert google.com. This will essentially map out the path from your PC to a Google server, listing the IP addresses of the servers and switches in between. Usually your packet’s first few hops will start in your home network, then go through your ISP’s network, and then eventually find their way to google.com. If the packet doesn’t make it out of your network, the problem is inside your network; if it doesn’t get past your ISP’s network hubs, your ISP probably has a network outage or equipment failure (yes, a busted Internet connection isn’t always your fault).

SAN FRANCISCO – I am not a neat person. You need only to see my desk to realize that. However, when it comes to my PC case, I keep the cables organized.

There are some good reasons to do that–and they have nothing to do with neatness. If you buy a new computer, especially an expensive powerhouse PC built for gaming or heavy-duty editing, one thing you notice is how neatly the interior is organized. Often, PC builders carefully route the cables along the case edges in tight bundles, making them almost invisible.
When you’re tinkering with a PC, organizing the cables is a good habit to get into, for plenty of practical reasons.

• • You’re ensuring that stray wires or cables don’t touch the fans, which would produce teeth-clenching noise and increase the heat around critical components. (Fans can also burn out this way.)
  • You can improve airflow throughout the case, so that the entire system remains cool and stable.
  • Good cable organization allows you to find the wire or cable you need when you have to unwind them to change out a component.

So here are some guidelines for organizing the cable clutter inside your PC. Rather than give abstract rules of thumb, I’ll walk through an example, and offer ideas and suggestions along the way.

Taking Inventory of Your Components

For this cable-routing project, I’ll start with a fairly modern PC case. This is the Fractal Designs Define R3, a midsize-tower chassis designed to house a quiet high-performance PC.

Although this case offers modern amenities such as a cutout behind the motherboard CPU socket to make mounting exotic coolers easier, it isn’t excessively wide or deep. I’m going to build in a high-end graphics card, but with a case like this I can’t fit one of those foot-long Radeon HD 6990 cards. The interior space is only a little roomier than that of the typical midsize-tower case, which affords me the opportunity to show you how to declutter cables inside an average case.
Most new performance-PC cases, such as this one, allow the routing of cables behind the motherboard tray. That’s your key to cable-clutter happiness, and you should take full advantage of it. On the other hand, the R3 doesn’t have the extra width of something like the Coolermaster HAF 932 or Corsair 600T, so you can’t just run bulky cable sets behind your motherboard willy-nilly–you’d never get the case side back on.

Of course, building a PC requires collecting a set of PC components. I’m going to transplant an existing system based on an Intel DX58SO2 motherboard and a Core i7-970 processor. Just so no one accuses me of cheating, I won’t use a modular power supply. The Corsair TX850w unit has all its cables permanently connected, including two full runs of SATA power and four PCI Express power cables. As you can see, everything makes for quite a pile of parts.

The CPU cooler is a Corsair H70, which is a sealed liquid cooler with two 120mm fans. While it moves clutter away from the CPU socket, it adds clutter to the back of the case, which creates challenges of its own.

Now that I’ve defined the project, let’s go over some rules of thumb.

Check Your Connectors

Before installing components, spend some time doing a connector inventory. That way, you’ll have a better idea of how many cables and wires need to be routed. My particular system has the following pieces.

• • One nonmodular power supply (with several excess power connectors)
  • One high-end graphics card, requiring two PCI Express power connectors
  • Three hard drives, for a total of three SATA power connectors and three SATA data cables
  • The motherboard, with associated power, reset, power LED, audio, eSATA, and USB connections; also needs a main power connection from the power supply as well as the eight-pin ATX12V auxiliary power connection
  • One optical drive, with a SATA data cable and power connector
  • The sealed liquid cooler, which needs two fan connections on the motherboard for power
  • One front case fan, which also requires a motherboard case fan connector

At this point, you should take stock and figure out what you need to install first. Typically you’ll want to install the power supply, storage devices, and motherboard right away. After that, it’s time to stop adding components and route power cables to the motherboard. That advice particularly holds for the eight-pin ATX12V connector I’m using; if you make the mistake of installing the liquid cooler radiator first, it will be impossible to install the ATX12V connection.

Now that I understand what needs to be routed, it’s time to string some cables. But wait–since I’m going to organize the cables, I need some gizmos to tie the cables back. Thankfully, plenty of good options are available for tying down cables.

Personally, I use everything from rubber bands to twist ties to Velcro straps to nylon buckle ties. But I do not use zip ties–ever. A few years ago, I unpacked a system in which the builder had obsessively dressed the interior cables with zip ties, every 3 or 4 inches. Tracing any individual cable or wire required half an hour of carefully cutting zip ties to avoid slicing actual power or data cable. As cautious as I was trying to be, I accidentally cut a wire connected to a four-pin Molex power plug.

Luckily, the power supply had a few spares. But it was still annoying, and that’s why I recommend you avoid zip ties for organizing your cables. In any system where you might change components out at will, using something as permanent and hard to remove as zip ties is simply not practical. You can find a host of other, more ergonomic and user-friendly tie-down methods. After all, you’re not handcuffing your PC for transport to jail–you’re working inside the machine.

Find Your Route

After installing the motherboard, hard drives, power supply, and optical drive, I decided to look at the back side of the Define.

Note the various wires that the case needs, including those for the power switch, the power LED, and so on. I’ll get to those in a bit. Right now I’ll run the two power cables behind the motherboard, like so.

Not all cases have neat cutouts for routing cables, but it would have been almost as easy to run the cables along the side of the motherboard tray and then across to where they’re needed. If I’d had to do that, I might have needed an extension cable for the ATX12V connector.

Now that the power is connected, I can install the CPU cooler. After doing that, I run the two sets of wires around the edge of the fan, and affix them to one of the fan screws with a twist tie.

Next up are the internal case connectors. I route these around the back of the case and through appropriate cutouts. Note that audio cables typically come with two connectors–and you’ll need only one. I recommend tying the excess connector off, like so.

The wires for front-panel connections are very long. I recommend taking a nylon buckle strap with an adhesive pad and tying down the excess front-panel cable length. This arrangement makes the case side easier to close, and keeps the small wires from getting in the way.

Next up are the SATA power cables. Once that’s done, I dress the excess length of the power connections. It’s worthwhile to look over the whole affair at this point.

Okay, now it’s time to connect the SATA data cables. Note that I route the data cables to minimize the potential of blocking airflow, but I don’t tie them down. I find that SATA cables are the ones I’m most frequently detaching and reattaching, so I like keeping them easy to access.

Note that I’ve also routed the PCI Express power cables behind the motherboard so that they emerge at the back end of the graphics card. The only time I’ve ever had a graphics card fry on me is when a PCI Express power cable blocked the fan completely. I heard no noise, and the GPU died from overheating before I knew what was happening.

That area under the motherboard may offend some neatniks. But you never really see it. Instead, below is what you see, once the system is fully assembled.

Now that I’ve routed all the power connections, a number of extra power cables are left. I use a Velcro strap to tie off the excess in as small and compact a bundle as I can create.

With the cables routed, bundled, and tied down, I need to assess whether I’ve met the main goals of cable organization: maximizing airflow and minimizing the chance that a stray cable can damage a fan or other component. Let’s check the inside of the system.

It looks like the system has unobstructed airflow, and no stray wires are floating around, just waiting to create problems. The underside of the motherboard may not look all that neat; but despite the relatively tight quarters, I was able to attach the side panel with no problems or unsightly bulges.

Of course, if you are obsessed with neatness, you can do even more, by employing a few wire extenders and some more-judicious tie-downs. If you prefer a really clean routing of wires and cables, go for it. Just remember: Don’t use zip ties! When you upgrade or rebuild your system, you’ll be much happier.

FRAMINGHAM – I love reading, and I love books. I don’t care much about the medium–paper or digital, it’s all the same to me, for the most part.

But one thing I really miss about books and stories printed on paper is the ability to share a good book with a friend or colleague by simply handing over my copy when I’m finished with it.

When it comes to ebooks, Amazon’s Kindle Store is my favorite online destination to obtain new reading material, mainly because it’s so easy to access Kindle books on all of my various ereaders, smartphones, tablets, PCs and other gadgets–Amazon offers mobile apps for most mobile platforms including iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone, and the Web-based “Cloud Reader” lets you access your Kindle library via most popular browsers, so you can don’t need a Kindle ereader to read Kindle books.

And, thankfully, Amazon offers a method of instantly sharing certain ebooks with other Kindle users, even if they don’t own Kindles. The process is a bit tedious, only select ebooks can be shared and there are many constraints associated with Kindle ebook sharing. But it’s certainly worth the time it takes to learn the ins and outs of Kindle loaning. Keep moving for specifics on how to share Kindle books, how to determine if your Kindle books can be shared, constraints and restrictions, and more.

How to Determine if Kindle Books Can be Shared or Loaned

Only certain Kindle ebooks can be shared; Kindle publishers and authors must enable the sharing features for Kindle ebooks to be eligible for sharing or loaning. And, unfortunately, more Kindle books cannot be shared than ebooks that are sharing eligible. But it’s fairly simple to determine if Kindle books can be shared, before and after you purchase them.

If you want to know whether or not a specific Kindle book can be shared before you buy it, simply surf over to the book’s webpage in the Kindle Store, navigate down to the “Product Details” section of the page, and if the book can be shared you’ll see the words “Lending: Enabled.” If the book is not eligible for sharing, you won’t see any “Lending” option.

To determine whether or not a Kindle book can be shared after you’ve purchased it, sign into your Amazon account on Amazon’s site, navigate to the Kindle Store and then click the “Manage Your Kindle” tab in the top right of the main store navigation bar at the top of the page. On the following page, you’ll see a list of all your purchased Kindle content. On the far right side of the page is a button marked “Actions.” Click on the Actions button, and if that particular book can be shared, you’ll see a “Loan this Title” option that you can click to initiate the sharing process.

How to Share or Loan Eligible Amazon Kindle Ebooks

A few methods exist for sharing eligible Kindle books. The most simple of which is surf to an individual book’s page in within the Kindle Store, where you’ll see a yellow bar on top of the page, indicating that you’ve already purchased the book and with a link labeled “Loan this book.” Click that link and you’re brought to another page that requests information on the person you intend to share the book with, including his or her e-mail address–make sure the email address you enter is the one the recipient associated with his or her Amazon.com account–and name. You can also enter a personal message to go along with the shared book.

You can also share eligible Kindle books directly from the Manage Your Kindle page mentioned above. To access the Manage Your Kindle page, navigate to the Kindle Store and then click the “Manage Your Kindle” tab in the top right of the main store navigation bar at the top of the page. Click the Actions button on the right side of the following page, then click the “Loan this Title” option from the drop- down menu. You’ll then be brought to the page that requests information on the person to which you wish to lend the book. Enter in the appropriate data and click the “Send Now” button. You’re now on your way to sharing your Kindle book; an e-mail will be sent to the recipient informing him or her that you’re sharing an ebook.

Amazon Kindle Sharing and Loaning Restrictions

Unfortunately, Amazon and its digital publisher partners have tied a number of sharing restrictions and loan constraints to Kindle ebooks. And those rules and regulations vary depending on the specific publishers and books. But what follows is a quick list of high-level restrictions that apply to most load-eligible Kindle ebooks.

• Kindle ebooks can be shared or loaned out for only a specific amount of time. Most books can be shared for 14 days, or two weeks. During the loan period, the book owner cannot access the shared book. Only after the loan period has expired can the ebook owner access the previously shared book.
• Your Amazon Kindle sharing invite must be accepted by the recipient within seven days, or one week, of receiving it or it will “expire” and you’ll need to send another invite.
• Many loan-eligible Kindle ebooks can be shared only a certain number of times and many of them can be shared only a single time.
• Only Amazon customers located within the United States can initiate Kindle loans, though U.S. customers may be able to share ebooks with users outside of the country if the specific book is available in digital format in the recipient’s locale.

Find more details on Kindle e-book sharing on Amazon’s website. ]]> http://pcworld.com.ph/how-to-share-amazon-kindle-ebooks/feed/ 0