How To

Receive alerts for incoming FedEx deliveries

One of the most nerve-wracking things about ordering a product from an online retailer is waiting for the tracking number to appear in your inbox. Sometimes the e-mail ends up in your spam folder or, even worse, it's never sent by the vendor.

Thanks to a free service from FedEx called FedEx Delivery Manager, you can keep track of incoming packages and get alerted the moment the shipping label is created. That's right, you no longer need to wait for a tracking number to be sent to you before you start monitoring it. Going even further, you can … Read more

Never get a bad seat on a Southwest flight again

One of the most anxiety-inducing moments you'll hear a Southwest customer talk about is the process of checking in as close to 24 hours before a flight, hoping to see a boarding priority number prefaced with an A. The lower the number, the sooner you get to board the plane and pick a seat of your choosing.

A new service, originally covered by Lifehacker, will automatically check you in at exactly the right time, ensuring that you are on the elusive A-list. The name of the service: Southwest A-List, of course.

Here's how it works:

After booking your … Read more

How to enable two-step verification for LinkedIn

A lot of companies on the Web are providing support for secondary authentication. Some do this with apps like Google Authenticator, while others just use SMS. Essentially, both methods provide you with a security code that you need to enter in order to log in.

LinkedIn has joined the two-step verification trend, using SMS as the delivery method for codes. Here's how you set it up:

Step 1: Log in to your LinkedIn profile. Click your user picture/avatar in the upper-right-hand corner and select Settings.

Step 2: On the tabs along the bottom-left-hand side, click Account. Then, click … Read more

How to point people to a particular spot in a Google Doc

Let's say you have a rambling manifesto scrawled out in a Google Doc and you'd like to share a particularly illuminating passage with your friends or followers. You could share the entire document and add a message in which you explain where to find the crux of your argument. Or you could add a Bookmark and share a link that takes someone to a specific point in your document.

To add a bookmark, first move your cursor to the spot in your Google Doc where you'd to place the bookmark. Next, from the Insert menu, choose Bookmark. … Read more

Deter phishing attacks by consolidating your contacts

Once or twice a week a phishing scam eludes my mail services' filters and lands in one of my inboxes. Usually a familiar name appears in the From field and something like "Take a look" or "What do you think of this?" is in the Subject line. In the body of the message is a strange link. (Don't click it!)

In one of the phishing messages I received recently, my sister's name is listed in the From and "Reply to" fields, but when I hover over the name, two unknown addresses appear.… Read more

Add an automatic pause feature for YouTube videos in Firefox

When watching a YouTube video in Firefox, you may want to switch to another tab in your Web browser to research something you just saw or heard, or maybe to a word processing application to take notes. If keeping your eyes on the video isn't a priority, then you don't need to worry about finding the pause button before doing either of these things. However, if you want to pause, there's a browser extension called YouTube Smart Pause that can do it for you automatically.

YouTube Smart Pause offers options to pause YouTube videos when … Read more

Avoid seeing spoilers on Facebook and Twitter with Chrome extension

I have two kids with active schedules, and a wife who likes to unwind at the end of the day with a procedural crime drama. As a result, I DVR a lot of sports. Attempting to avoid the final score of a game I have recorded is a regular occurrence and a feat made more difficult with the presence of Facebook and Twitter. With Chrome extension Silencer, I can filter Facebook and Twitter to remove posts that may give away the result of a game. Or a TV drama I am behind on. Or suggested posts on Facebook or promoted … Read more

Getting started with the new Gmail tabs

Google on Wednesday made a big announcement regarding Gmail's overall look and feel. Gmail will be taking a new tabbed approach to helping users organize e-mail -- something I'm sure we all struggle with. Over the next few weeks a new tab workflow will be slowly introduced to the Web, iOS, and Android versions of Gmail.

While iOS and Android users have to wait for app updates to hit the respective stores to get the new Gmail, there's a chance your Gmail account on the Web already has access to the feature. It's a quick process … Read more

Use AlbumShare on your iPhone to create, share photo albums

There's no shortage of methods to share photos and photo albums using our smartphones. Whether you prefer Photo Stream, or Dropbox, or Facebook, or Google+, or -- well, you get the point -- there is always room for another photo-sharing service. Or is there? We'll save that debate for another post.

For now, you have to leave room for one more app. With the free iOS app called AlbumShare you can create and share a photo album through a text message, with no account required to create or view an album. Creating an album is as simple as … Read more