To help you use your iPad as you would a notebook, we’ve rounded up 7 essential accessories to help you get the most out of your iPad. Some of these apps and accessories will be handy at home, while others will be needed on the road, wherever you use Apple’s latest tablet, we have you covered. Don’t forget the apps you need to complete the transition from iPad to notebook.

iPad and iPad 2 Accessories to Turn your iPad into a Notebook:

Dock: If you are going to use your iPad to replace a notebook, you need a dock or stand to keep it at a more ergonomic angle. We suggest looking at the official iPad Dock, iPad 2 Dock or an aftermarket one like the PadDock10 which gives you a stand.

HDMI Adapter: Next up, we recommend getting the HDMI adapter which will mirror your iPad’s display on an HDTV or monitor. This is a must for longer work sessions, where a bigger screen would be helpful. The new iPad HDMI adapter works with the iPad 2 and the original iPad and can be used to charge your iPad while you are using it.

Monitor: If you’re going to work for a longer period, use the HDMI adapter to connect to a monitor that accepts HDMI input and you can make the magic happen faster thanks to a larger works space and a more ergonomic position.

Bluetooth Keyboard: Of course, if you are going to hook up to a monitor and dock your iPad, you’ll need a Bluetooth keyboard to allow you to type. We suggest getting the Apple Bluetooth keyboard because it has shortcuts that can control some of the iPad functions, but you can also use pretty much any Bluetooth keyboard. We also like the Microsoft Comfort Curve Bluetooth keyboard.

Speakers: A set of external speakers is a must if you listen to music or watch many videos on the iPad. You can get by with a cheap $20-40 pair, but we really like the Logitech Z 623 2.1 speakers which sound amazing.

iPad Keyboard Case: You may have a Bluetooth keyboard, but you don’t want to always be carrying a larger keyboard around so we suggest an iPad case with a built in keyboard. Popular choices include the ZAGGmate iPad Keyboard Case and a collection of other iPad keyboard cases.

iPad Folio Case: You might be able to get by without it, but we also suggest that you have a folio style case, like the inCase Convertible Magazine Jacket, on hand to allow for a slimmer and lighter traveling solution that will allow you to watch or read on the iPad in landscape mode or flip it over to type at a very comfortable angle. The stand portion also protects the face of the iPad. If you have the iPad 2, we suggest getting the Apple Smart Cover which provides similar functionality.

In the end you’ll have a great office and mobile office setup that could pass for a notebook replacement for users with light demands. Here is our collection of Apps you need to complete the experience of using your iPad like a notebook.

7 Accessories to Turn Your iPad or iPad 2 into a Notebook is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Minimizing and Maximizing Windows

Windows users are able to manage windows quite simply. One of the most frustrating things to get used in Mac OS X is the way windows are manipulated. In Windows there are three buttons in the upper right which maximize, minimize or close windows. First, in Mac OS X the comparable buttons are in the upper right and they are not really the same.

The Red Button:

The red button closes the window as the X does in Windows. But it doesn’t close the program. You can tell that the program is still running because on the Dock (the Mac OS X version of the Windows Taskbar across the bottom of the screen) the program’s icon has a little glowing blue dot below it. Programs that are not running do not. Looking at the image, the Google Chrome icon has the glowing dot. It is open even if the Window isn’t showing. The Pages icon next to it does not because it is not running, nor is Microsoft Word.

The Orange Button:

The orange button on the upper right is like the minimize button in Windows. It hides the window but does not close the app. The difference between the two in Mac OS X is that the window is closed with the red button but it is only minimized with the orange button. If you were viewing a web page in Chrome or editing a document in Word and hit the red button it close that tab in Chrome or that document in Word. But if you just hit the orange button the tab or document would remain open but the window would be hidden.

The Green Button:

The most confusing thing is the green button. It has a plus so it makes you think that it maximizes the windows, like the plus button does in Windows. Not so. It is better seen as a zoom toggle. A window will fill the screen vertically but not horizontally. The green button will toggle between filling the screen vertically (see below) or not filling it (see above). This might be the most annoying feature of Mac OS X for people switching from Windows.

Tiling Windows

In Windows 7 tiling windows on screen is a simple right click of the task bar away. An even faster way to do it is to drag the title bar to the left or right side of the screen to cover half the screen or to the top to go full screen. And simple keystrokes also make this easy, like Windows + D to see  the desktop.

In Mac OS X this window management is not as straight forward. There is not a way to automatically tile windows so two windows show on each half of the screen. However there is a way to see the desktop using the Expose’. Go into System Preferences and open Expose’and Spaces. Using Active Screen Corners you can select one of the corners to serve as a hotspot to show the desktop. Click on the drop down box of one of the hotspots and choose Desktop. Now, whenever you put the mouse into that hotspot region the desktop will be shown. Play around with these settings as they offer other helpful tools for viewing what is open on your system (see image below).

For example I have the lower right corner sent to show all the open windows and the upper right to show the desktop. You will have to get used to avoiding these locations on the screen with the mouse cursor if you don’t want to activate it.

To be able to tile windows you will need an add-on. We use one called Cinch. It is a $7 application that runs in the background when you start your Mac. With it running you can drag a window to the left to have it fill the left side of the screen. Drag it to the right and does the same on the right side. Drag it to the top and it fills the whole screen. The video below demonstrates how Cinch works.

Another piece of software from the same company is called Size Up. It also helps with window management by using hotkeys or keystrokes. Send a window to one of the four quadrants of the screen or to the left or right side, just like you would in Windows using the Window plus left or right arrow keys. It costs $13.

Resizing Windows

The last problem for Windows to Mac switchers is resizing windows. In Windows it is as easy as grabbing the edge, any edge, and dragging to get it the right size. Grabbing a corner, any corner, will resize two sides at once. But for some strange reason on a Mac only the lower right corner can be used to resize the window. So the solution is position the Window where you want the the upper and left borders to be and then grab the lower right to resize the window to the right position. You will know what to grab because it has little lines at a 45 degree angle in the corner (see image).

Closing Programs

We already talked about minimizing windows versus closing windows. But how do I close application so they are not running at all? You already know that hitting the red X button doesn’t work. There are three ways to close programs and fully shut them down in Mac OS X.

1. Command+Q keyboard shortcut closes programs. If you have open and unsaved work, the program will usually ask you to save it first.
2. Use the menu by clicking the name of the application and choosing Quit Application Name. (see image left below)
3. Right click the application’s icon on the Dock (across the bottom of the screen) and choose Quit from the menu. (see image right below)

Technically there is a forth way, but should only be used when a program freezes. And yes, despite what we Windows users were led to believe, Mac programs do crash and freeze. This method is called Force Quit and is accessed by clicking on the Apple menu in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Choose the little Apple icon and the Force Quite. Pick your application from the list and click the Force Quit button.

Finder Won’t Close

As we said previously the little blue glowing circle under an application icon on the dock indicates that it is running, even if you cannot see the application. You will notice that the Finder application is always running and will not shot down. There is no Quit Finder item in the Finder menu across the top of the screen. And when you right click Finder there is not Quit option listed. This does not mean your Mac is broken. It is comparable to the Explorer.exe program that always runs on a Windows PC. Finder is always running on a Mac. You cannot close it.

OS X 101 – Tips for New Mac Users Part One is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

The Better Business Bureau has compiled a list of 10 tips to stay safe while you go looking for deals on Black Friday 2010 and during Cyber Monday as well.

Ten Tips to Stay Safe While Shopping Online

1. Protect your computer – A computer should always have the most recent updates installed for spam filters, anti-virus and anti-spyware software and a secure firewall.

2. Shop on trustworthy websites – Shoppers should start with BBB to check on the seller’s reputation and record for customer satisfaction. Always look for the BBB seal and other widely-recognized “trustmarks” on retailer websites and click on the seals to confirm that they are valid.

3. Protect your personal information – BBB recommends taking the time to read the site’s privacy policy and understand what personal information is being requested and how it will be used. If there isn’t one posted, it should be taken as a red flag that personal information may be sold to others without permission.

4. Beware of deals that sound too good to be true – Offers on websites and in unsolicited e-mails can often sound too good to be true, especially extremely low prices on hard-to-get items. Consumers should always go with their instincts and not be afraid to pass up a “deal” that might cost them dearly in the end.

5. Beware of phishing – Legitimate businesses do not send e-mails claiming problems with an order or an account to lure the “buyer” into revealing financial information. If a consumer receives such an e-mail, BBB recommends picking up the phone and calling the contact number on the website where the purchase was made to confirm that there really is a problem with the transaction.

6. Confirm your online purchase is secure – Shoppers should always look in the address box for the “s” in https:// and in the lower-right corner for the “lock” symbol before paying. If there are any doubts about a site, BBB recommends right-clicking anywhere on the page and select “Properties.” This will let you see the real URL (website address) and the dialog box will reveal if the site is not encrypted.

7. Pay with a credit card – It’s best to use a credit card, because under federal law, the shopper can dispute the charges if he or she doesn’t receive the item. Shoppers also have dispute rights if there are unauthorized charges on their credit card, and many card issuers have “zero liability” policies under which the card holder pays nothing if someone steals the credit card number and uses it. Never wire money and only shop locally on sites like Craigslist.

8. Keep documentation of your order - After completing the online order process, there may be a final confirmation page or the shopper might receive confirmation by e-mail – BBB recommends saving a copy of the Web page and any e-mails for future reference and as a record of the purchase.

9. Check your credit card statements often – Don’t wait for paper statements; BBB recommends consumers check their credit card statements for suspicious activity by either calling credit card companies or by checking statements online regularly.

10. Know your rights – Federal law requires that orders made by mail, phone or online be shipped by the date promised or, if no delivery time was stated, within 30 days. If the goods aren’t shipped on time, the shopper can cancel and demand a refund. There is no general three-day cancellation right, but consumers do have the right to reject merchandise if it’s defective or was misrepresented. Otherwise, it’s the company’s policies that determine if the shopper can cancel the purchase and receive a refund or credit.

For the best Black Friday deals, check out our Black Friday 2010 coverage.

Black Friday Guide: Ten Tips to Shop Safe on Cyber Monday is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Google has a habit of quickly iterating on their web services. Sometimes Google rolls these changes out to all users, but other times they let users who want certain features (that might not be ready for prime-time) opt-in to them.

These bonus-features are kept in a section that Google calls “Labs”. Google describes Gmail Labs as “a testing ground for experimental features that aren’t quite ready for primetime. They may change, break or disappear at any time.” So it’s sort of like the Nevada Test Site… except in your inbox… and with email instead of bombs.

We’ve cooked up a little guide to show you how to enable some of the most useful Gmail Lab features.

First we’ll show you how to find Gmail Labs, and what to do if something goes wrong (just in case):

Locating Google Labs

Finding Google Labs is easy. Just login to Gmail like you normally would and then click the green beaker at the top right of the page next:

Also before we begin, here’s what to do just in case enabling a Google Labs feature somehow renders you unable to access your inbox or certain parts of it. Simply access your email by using this special link which will disable all Labs Features: https://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0

And now you’re prepared to turn on some of the Gmail Labs features and give them a try. Here’s our 5 favorite Google Labs, but they’re plenty more to check out!

Top 5 Google Labs Features:

1. Authentication icon for verified senders

This feature is very useful for anyone who uses Ebay or Paypal. If you use these two services, you’ve certainly seen your fair share of fake emails that purport to be from Ebay or Payapl, but are actually just trying to steal your info (these are called Phishing emails). Phishing emails are hard to identify because they can look nearly identical to the email that they are trying to impersonate. By enabling this feature, you’ll see a key icon next to any email in your inbox that is officially from Ebay or Paypal and thus be better protected against phishing scams.

2. Superstars

You might be familiar with Gmail’s “star” feature. It acts as a quick way to mark important emails and is useful for sorting them out or saving them for later. The Superstars feature expands this idea from a single star up to 12 icons that you can assign to any email. To toggle through them, simply click multiple times on the star icon. To decide which ones to use (I only use four, so I’ve disabled the rest to prevent myself from having to cycle through them all), click “Settings” at the top right of your inbox, and check out the “Superstars” section on the “General” tab. You can drag and drop which one’s you’d like to use and which you wouldn’t. You can even search for specific icons using the “has:” operator (ie: “has:star”). Learn the names of each icon (for searching) by rolling your mouse over it in the aforementioned Superstars section.

3. Undo Send

This one has surely saved me a number of time from making embarrassing mistakes (accidentally replying to all instead of just one person, etcetera). The Undo Send feature causes your email hang out with Gmail for about 5 seconds after you hit the send button. If you remembered something you forgot to include just as you hit the send button (as I always seem to do), you’ll find an “Undo” button at the top of your inbox for a few seconds which you can click to recall the email.

4. Multiple Inboxes

The Multiple Inbox feature allows you to split up your inbox into additional inboxes (up to 5). Each additional inbox can contain any emails you’d like. You can, for instance, have one for all of your starred emails, all emails from a particular important sender, or maybe all emails with attachments. To configure this, you simply need to enable the feature through Gmail Labs, then go to “Settings” (at the top right of your inbox), then find the “Multiple Inboxes” tab.  Messages go into each inbox based on search terms that you provide (such as, “has:attachment”). You’ll want to familiarize yourself with Gmail search operators in order to get the most out of this feature.

5. Multi Contact Suggestions

This feature is officially called “Don’t forget Bob”, so be sure to look for that when you are searching through the Gmail Labs list if you’d like to enable this feature. “Don’t forget Bob” automatically suggests additional recipients based on the groups you contact most often. This is particularly useful if you regularly use email to communicate with groups on various project, or frequently send a funny video to the same group of friends.

But Wait, There’s More!

These five that we’ve shared are only the tip of the Gmail Labs iceberg. At the time of writing, there are 56 Labs features that you might find useful. So go forth and check them out! You can also send feedback for each individual lab if you’d like to share some recommendation or issue by using the “Send Feedback” button next to the corresponding feature on the Labs page.

A Guide to Gmail Labs is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.

This guide is part of a week-long series we’re calling Google Voice University, which will take you from a beginning Google Voice user all the way up to a Pro in a series of short guides.

This Google Voice 201 level guide will teach you how to be a Google Voice Power user with groups, rules, screening and blocking callers.

How to Use Groups in Google Voice:

To get the most out of Google Voice you’ll need to take a few minutes to organize your Google Contacts. The easiest way to find this is to log into Google Voice and click on Contacts. Remember that these are the same contacts that you see in Gmail and that will sync to your smartphone if you connect it to Google.

This image shows you the groups you already have. If you don’t have any groups you can click on the small icon at the top showing a + and two people or create one in the next step. These groups will allow you to automatically handle calls from specific groups of people so think of groups you want to be screened or that you all want to get the same voicemail.

Step 1: Choose a contact by checking the box next to their name. If you want to add numerous contacts to the same group, you can check more than one at a time. Then click Groups.

Step 2: After clicking on groups, select the group you want to add the contact(s) to with a left click. That’s it, just make sure you unselect all before going to the next group.

If you don’t see a contact listed that should be, they may be in the “All Contacts” group instead of “My Contacts”. From the home Contacts screen you can get a group of suggested contacts and add a contact to “My Contacts” by selecting them and then clicking “Move to my Contacts”, from which you will be able to put them into groups.

How to Screen Calls with Google Voice:

Another handy Google Voice feature is call screening. This allows you to listen in on a call and can even be configured to ask unknown callers for their name. From there you can decide to answer the call or send it to voicemail. Turning on call screening for everyone is as simple as visiting the Google Voice settings page and clicking on the “Calls” tab.

Make sure you click save to make your changes active. If you have trouble with one of your forwarding phones picking up your Google Voice calls, essentially stealing it, because your ring time is to short this is a good setting to turn on to avoid call stealing.

How to set Voicemail and Screening Rules with Google Voice:

Now that you’ve had a chance to set up your groups, you can start using them to streamline your communications. Google Voice allows you to set specific rules for each group including what phones to ring for a specific group, what message they hear and whether or not their calls are screened.

To adjust these rules, visit the “Groups” tab in Google Voice settings where you can get an at-a-glance look at your Groups and their rules.

From here setting up rules for a particular group is as easy as clicking the Edit button and changing the checkmarks to match what you want to happen for each group.

The first setting allows you to have specific groups ring specific phones, no matter what your normal settings are. The next setting let’s you choose a voicemail greeting based on who is calling and finally you can turn call screening on or off. When you are done click save and your calls will start to come in as you want.

How to Block Callers in Google Voice:

Another really useful Google Voice feature is the ability to block callers. If you keep getting calls from a business or caller you don’t want to reach you, just log into Google Voice, click on History and in the ”more” drop down choose “block caller”.

Now they’ll hear a number is not in service message and you’ll never hear from them again.

This is part of Google Voice University, a week-long look at how to use Google Voice. This third lesson is a look at the more advanced settings and tomorrow we will cover how to use Google Voice with your smartphone — by the end of the week you’ll graduate with a masters in using Google Voice.

Google Voice 201: How To Be A Google Voice Power User Groups and Rules is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Basic Uses:

The most basic use of Google Voice is to ring more than one phone at a time, receive voicemail as an email or listen to it on your computer and setting do a do not disturb time.

Set Up Google Voice to Control your Cell Phone’s Voicemail:

If you aren’t switching every contact over to your Google Voice number right away, you can still enjoy the benefits of having Google handle your voicemail by connecting your cell phone’s voice mail to your Google Voice account.  You cannot do this with landline phones, only those Google recognizes as a mobile phone number.

Step 1: Go to your Google Voice Settings page by clicking on settings and choosing “Voice settings” in the upper right hand corner of your Google Voice home screen.

Step 2: On the Phones tab look for a link that says, “Activate Google voicemail on this phone”. Click it.

Step 3: If Google identifies your cell phone company correctly, you just need to dial the number it shows and you will begin sending your missed calls to Google Voice instead of the clunky system used by AT&T, Verizon and others.

Add a New Phone:

If you want Google Voice to ring all your phones you’ll need to add another phone. You can do this from the same Phones tab by looking for the “Add another phone” link at the bottom of the page.

Step 1: Give your phone a name and enter the phone number.

Step 2: Choose your basic settings such as phone type and whether it should get text messages. You can then “Show advanced settings” to control access to voicemail and configure this phone to ring on weekends or weekdays. This is great for configuring a phone not to ring when you are relaxing.

Step 3: Verify the phone with Google Voice, just like you did the first time you added a phone during sign up. You can repeat the following steps until you have added all of your phones; then we will look at how to choose which phones to ring.

Choose which Phone(s) to ring:

Next up we want to show you how to choose which phones to ring. While you can have all phones ring all the time, you may want to not have your hoe phone ring while you are away from home since a spouse or kid could answer the phone and you wouldn’t be reached. This happens on the same phone screen as before, and is accomplished with a single check mark.

In this case you can see that my cell phone is the only phone that will ring if you were to call my Google Voice number. If I want it to ring my office phone or hoe phone all I need to do is click on the box and it is instantly turned on.

How to turn on Do Not Disturb:

Another cool feature is the ability to set a Do not disturb option that will send all of your calls and text messages to voicemail so that you can get work done or enjoy a day without any phone calls from anyone.

Step 1: From the same Settings page click on the Calls tab at the top. The second to last option is to Enable “Do Not Disturb. Check the box.

Step 2: Now that you have checked the box you are on Do Not Disturb until you make a change. You can also set the do not disturb time to end in a set number of minutes, hours or days by changing the settings.

How to Change your Voicemail Greeting:

The easiest way to record your voicemail greeting is to use go to the Google Voice settings page and click on the”Voicemail & Text” tab. Here’ you will be presented with several options to record your name and your voicemail.

Step 1: Click Record New, name the greeting and leave the box checked to make it your default.

Step 2: Choose a phone for Google Voice to call so that you can record your message.

Step 3: Record your message and listen to it.

Voicemail Notification:

Now that you have Google Voice controlling your voicemail, you may want to receive email alerts or text message alerts when you have a new message. You can control this by clicking on the “Voicemail & Text” tab and looking for the options shown below. When you have the check boxes where you want to make sure you click save at the bottom of the page.

Text Message Forwarding:

When you add a phone you can choose to have text messages forwarded to that phone, but if you prefer to have your Google Voice text messages sent via email you can choose to do that as well. In the same Settings page we have been using click on the ”Voicemail & Text” tab. All you need to do is click the checkbox next to “Text Forwarding” and your texts will be sent to your email for easy responding. Make sure you click save at the bottom of the page.

Learn More:

This is part of Google Voice University, a week-long look at how to use Google Voice. This second lesson is a look at the basic settings and tomorrow we will cover how to use Google Voice rules — by the end of the week you’ll graduate with a masters in using Google Voice.

Google Voice 101: How To Get Started With Google Voice is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Sure, the users want, “A big screen, hard drive for all my stuff and a computer fast enough so that I don’t have to wait for it.”, but in the end, — it’s all about the Benjamins baby!

With such a focus on price it can be hard to figure out if the notebooks you are looking at are really a good deal, or are just a cheap laptop. Thankfully Avram Piltch from Laptop Mag has compiled a list of 10 Ways to Make a Notebook Look Cheap which can be used by consumers as a checklist for weeding out the cheap notebooks from those that are a great deal.

Piltch picks the following 10 attributes to tell you if a laptop is “Cheap”. While some of them may seem minor at first glance I can attest to the dissatisfaction that you’ll have long-term if you buy a notebook with more than a few of these issues.

1. Flexing Keyboards
2. Shoddy Build Quality
3. Springless Memory Card Readers
4. Faux Metal Materials
5. Substandard Webcams
6. Empty Space Between the Base and the Lid
7. Pop-Up CrapWare Ads
8. No Multi-touch Gesture Support
9. Glassy Bezels on Glossy Screens
10. Wallwarts instead of AC adapters

Sure, you can uninstall crapware, but it’s presence indicates a computer that was built with a more importance on selling your eyeballs to an advertiser than on creating a good user experience and odds are if your new computer still ships with crapware today it’s not the only item on this list that you’ll find.

Don’t forget to take a look at the actual specs after you’ve weeded out the cheap on the outside notebooks, to make sure you do have a modern dual core processor, big enough hard drive and plenty of RAM, but this list will help you find the 2 really good deals out of an aisle of duds.

If you’re in the market for a notebook that’s affordable, but not cheap, then you would be well served to read more about each of these items at Laptop Mag where Piltch goes into detail about why the problem makes for a cheap notebook.

How to Tell if a Laptop is Good Deal, Or Just Cheap is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

RocketBoom just launched RocketBoomTech, a new YouTube channel dedicated to technology and shows us in the video below how to buy and install a wireless router.

Adding WiFi to your home is a very straightforward process even for those who aren’t tech savvy. One other piece of advice regarding strong passwords is to , in this case only, write the security key on a small piece of paper and tape it to your router so that you can easily share with trusted friends. Don’t do this in a public or work setting but at home you’ll save yourself frustration later.

There are often deals to be found on wireless routers at your local office supply store and online. Here are a selection of wireless routers from Belkin, Linksys and NetGear to start your search.

How To Setup a Wireless Router (video) is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

There are two methods, the first involves a registry change and is the best way to disable automatic updates on a Windows 7 Home computer. The second involves changing the group policy on your computer and works on all versions of Windows 7. If you have a version of Windows 7 that supports the second method, try that as it is easier.

For either of these solutions to work you will need to have administrative privileges which most home users will have. Your work PC is another matter, and it may not allow you to make these changes without help from IT.

If you do turn off automatic restarting after updates, you should take care to restart your computer regularly in order to install important fixes and keep your computer up to date.

How to stop Windows 7 Home from Automatically restarting after updates:

Step 1. Click on Start and type “regedit” in the textbox.

Step 2. Press Enter and if prompted, click Yes.

Step 3. In the registry editor find the following folder: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPolicesMicrosoftWindows”

Step 4. Right click on Windows and choose New, then Key.

Step 5. Name the new key “WindowsUpdate” without the quote.

Step 6. Right click on WindowsUpdate and choose New, then Key.

Step 7. Name the new key “AU” without the quotes.

Step 8. In the right section of the Registry Editor, right click and choose New, then “DWORD (32-bit) Value”

Step 9. In the new value area, type or paste the following, “NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers“. Then press Enter.

Step 10. Right click on the NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers entry you just created and choose modify.

Step 11. Type “1″ without the quotes in the Value data: field.

Step 12. Click OK, close the Registry Editor and Restart your computer. You should no longer experience automatic restarts after installing Windows Updates.

How to stop Windows 7 from Automatically restarting after updates with a Group Policy change:

Step 1. Click Start and type “gpedit.msc” without the quotes. Press Enter.

Step 2. Navigate to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update

Step 3. Open “No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Update installation” by double clicking.

Step 4. When the window opens, click enable and then Apply.

Step 5. Click OK to close the window and then restart your computer.

How to stop Windows from Restarting after Installing Updates is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

While this solution is particularly has the iPhone 4′s HD video content in mind, you should see an increase in quality if you use this method with older iPhone’s, such as the iPhone 3GS. This is because the iPhone’s default YouTube upload process compresses all video (even standard definition video).

Before you begin, two caveats.

1. The Pixelpipe iPhone app can be a bit buggy when signing in, though I’d expect this to be fixed eventually.
2. Pixelpipe says it only supports uploads up to 200MB (I’m currently testing this to verify).

Sign up With Pixelpipe

1. Go to http://pixelpipe.com/signup.
2. If you already have a Twitter or Ovi Share account, you can use those to sign-up with Pixelpipe. If not, go to the next step.
3. If you need a new Pixelpipe account, enter your name (username), a valid email address, and create a password. Also check the box next to I agree to the Terms of Service”, then click the Sign Up button at the bottom right.

Add a YouTube Pipe”

In the world of Pixelpipe, pipes” represent the various services that Pixelpipe can send your content to. I’ll show you how to add a YouTube pipe, but you can feel free to add others as you see fit.

1. Click on the Add Pipes button on the right side of the page.
2. Type YouTube” into the Search By Name box, then click on the YouTube icon.
3. YouTube will ask you to sign in (if you aren’t already), then ask you to give Pixelpipe access to upload videos to your account. Click Allow Access to give Pixelpipe the necessary permissions to upload videos to your YouTube account.
4. Ensure that you see the confirmation page (pictured below). You don’t need to do anything on this page, other than confirm that the pipe has been added (you can change the settings at a later time if you’d like).

Install the Pixelpipe iPhone App

1. If you are reading this guide on your iPhone, this link should take you directly to the app in the app store. If not, continue reading.
2. On your iPhone, launch the App Store (you can swipe all the way to the left on your homescreen to pull up Spotlight search to find it quickly).
3. Click on Search at the bottom of the App Store and search for Pixelpipe”.
4. Click on the Pixelpipe app in the results list, then click the Free button, which will then turn into an Install button.  You’ll be prompted for your iTunes password. Enter it and the app will be installed.

Sign-in to the Pixelpipe App and Upload Your Video

1. Launch the Pixelpipe app.
2. You will be prompted to allow the Pixelpipe app to access your location, which can be used to geo-tag photos and videos. Pixelpipe appears to require that you give it access in order to function correctly.
3. Sign in using the Pixelpipe account that you made earlier.
4. After receiving confirmation that you’ve signed in, click the return button.
5. Go to the Media tab that you made at the bottom of the page. This page will list all of your photos and videos. Click on each photo or video that you’d like to upload to check it off, then press the Upload X Item(s) button.
6. You’ll see a number pop up on the Queue tab. Click it to watch the progress of your upload. (Note: Pixelpipe says it supports background uploads, but in my use, I haven’t found this to be true. Make sure you stay in the app until the uploads are finished.)

Verify That Your Video Has Been Uploaded

1. To verify that the upload has gone through correctly, go to http://pixelpipe.com/ and sign in. Your most recently uploaded media should be posted in the Home section.
2. Then go to http://www.youtube.com/my_videos to see that the video made it to YouTube.

The video will have a default name such as M1000000.mov, you can change the name and video details as you would normally on YouTube. The HD tag will not show up immediately, but will once the video has finished processing.

How To Upload HD and Full Quality Video, For Free, Directly From Your iPhone with PixelPipe is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.