How to

Make game consoles safe to sell

Let's say you're getting rid of your game console. Maybe you think you're too grown up. Maybe you bought a better one. Or maybe you just need to make rent. Whatever the case, you need to wipe your data off of it. Game consoles these days carry sensitive information like addresses, passwords, and even credit card information.

Here's how to secure each of the three major game consoles before you sell them.

Let's start with the Xbox 360. If you're upgrading to a new Xbox 360, you'll need to get the Hard Drive Transfer Kit, which is included with some newer Xboxes or available for around $50. Using it is an involved process of moving your data, then moving your data licenses. In the end, though, you will erase all the data on the original drive.

If you don't care about transferring content, it's much easier. Go to the 360 dashboard, go to system settings, choose memory, press Y for device options. Select format the drive. And confirm it with yes. The drive will reformat, and you'll see the default setup screen.

On to the Nintendo Wii.… Read more

Skip annoying DVD trailers and commercials

You know how it goes--before your movie, there are 10 or 12 previews, commercials, ads for Blu-ray, and FBI warnings that can take forever to get through. And some DVDs even prevent you from skipping the previews, even if you press the Menu button.

Here's a remote-control trick to skip past those annoying ads: simply press the Stop button twice, and then Play. So, Stop, Stop, Play.

This trick should work on any DVD player, and hopefully it will keep you from wasting your time watching previews you don't wish to watch.

Five hot Google search tricks

Google is always adding nifty ways to get information faster, like typing define before a word to bring up a dictionary definition or doing multiplication for you.

To help you stay a search master, here are five of the hottest search tricks to bust out of the Google labs.

Need to know the hours of the museum you want to visit? Type the word "hours" as part of your search, like "San Francisco museum of modern art hours," and you get the hours it's open right there in the results, without having to click through … Read more

Google Buzz essentials

Google Buzz took the world by storm with its Twitter meets FriendFeed meets your e-mail inbox sort of behavior. It also caused a storm of concern over how it behaves and what information it reveals to the world.

Here's how to protect your privacy, remove Buzz notes from your Gmail inbox, and turn Buzz off altogether.

If you've never had a Google Profile before, you're in the best position to protect yourself. You can say no to Buzz altogether. Of course, you can also say yes to Buzz, but make sure your profile is private.

But let'… Read more

Speed up your Logitech Harmony Remote

I was mentioning on The Real Deal show the other day that my Logitech Harmony Remote takes a long time to turn on all my devices, meaning that sometimes some people in my family complain that it doesn't work right.

Laurence wrote in to point out you can change the latency settings on the Harmony and it should work better. Thanks, Laurence! Here's what's going on.

When you choose an action in the Harmony remote it plods through everything in the order you've told it, sending the commands by infrared with pauses in between each command. Turn on the TV, pause, turn on the speakers, pause, turn on the DVD player, pause, turn the TV to the DVD input, etc.

There's a default latency setting that defines how long that pause is. It's meant to make sure your device gets every command and runs it. Laurence shaved a few hundred milliseconds off his latency without issue, leading to much snappier performance.

Here's how to do it.… Read more

How to set up iTunes Home Sharing

Editor's note: This guide was written about an older version of iTunes. For details on linking your iOS devices with newer versions of iTunes, see our story here: How to use home sharing on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod.

I have no idea how many MP3s I own. It's not that I'm too lazy to look--the problem is that my collection is scattered between all the computers in my life. I have a few albums on my personal laptop, a few more on my work laptop, and the bulk of my collection on an ancient Apple G4 … Read more

Migrate your Web site

A lot of people run their Web sites by paying a Web host for server space. The Web host handles the maintenance of the servers, the actual machines, while you handle the operation of your Web site.You want to pick the right host, because moving a Web site is a hassle. And even if you pick wisely, sometimes Web hosts change their terms, lose their quality of service, or even go out of business.

Here are some pointers for moving your Web site to a new Web host.

We're going to assume you already run a Web site … Read more