PomodoroPro is pretty simple to use. Press the play button to start or pause, and the clock will display how many minutes are left in the work session. You’ll be able to see how much time is left, but you can also glance at the circle indicator around the play/pause button and the color it changes as time runs out to see how far you have to go. When you finish a session, an alarm will sound and you’ll get a gold star, shown under the clock. The more sessions you finish, the more stars you get, offering a little motivation to keep you moving.

The app even keeps track of how many Pomodoro sessions you complete each day, and you can look back over your history to see how productive you’ve been over the past day, week, or month and try to beat your previous scores. Android users can check out previously mentioned Pomodroido for a similar tool.

PomodoroPro | iTunes App Store

Article source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/mGpaGtVGUZk/pomodoropro-for-iphone-keeps-you-on+task-and-productive

It seems like an obvious tip, but considering how much ritual there is around seasoning cast iron cookware and how often people set aside time to do it, the idea of seasoning your cookware while you bake a loaf of bread or a casserole on a different rack is one worth considering. It saves time, saves energy overall, and gets the job done nicely. Then, when you take out your food, you can turn the oven off and just leave the pan in the oven to cool.

Any other time-saving ways to season your cast-iron cookware? Let’s hear them in the comments below.

Thanks to emannths for sharing the tip!

Photo by Jessica Spengler.

Article source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/Cga3DSv_lus/season-cast-iron-pans-by-putting-them-in-the-oven-while-baking

Using a couple strips of EL wire, a power supply, and a motion sensor, tamberg was able to create a simple walkway that illuminates when you step out of bed. The build is a little on the expensive side at $90, but the bulk of the cost comes from the motion sensor and the power supply, two items you might have in your house already. The benefit is that you will never get lost on your way to the bathroom again. You can find the full details on how to build this yourself over on Instructables.

Motion Triggered Bed-to-Bathroom Floor Illumination | Instructables

Article source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/XQLTU1_hOnQ/make-your-own-motion-triggered-bed-to-bathroom-illuminated-walkway

Photo remixed from sjgh (Shutterstock).

• Leaked Windows Phone 8 Vid: Windows 8 Kernel and Integration, Multiple Cores: An internal video highlighting Windows Phone 8 has leaked. Even so, the phone seems as if it will boast a wide array of useful features. [Ars Technica]
• Google Gets a Bouncer to Patrol Malware in the Android Market: Fed up with malware attacks via the Android Marketplace, Google has designed a “Bouncer” to get rid of apps containing malware. [ReadWriteWeb]
• Mint App for Android Updated with a Tablet-Optimized Interface, Lets You See How Broke You are On a Bigger Screen: The Android tablet version of Mint has received a facelift, making viewing your finances quickly on the big-screen a snap. [Android Police]
• HTC Acknowledges Some of its Android Devices May Leak Wi-Fi Passwords: Your wi-fi network’s biggest flaw may in fact be your HTC Android device, as HTC has admitted that some of its Android devices have the potential to leak wireless passwords. [The Next Web]
• iTunes Match is Ruining the Lives of Customers and Rappers by Censoring Explicit Tracks: iTunes Match is censoring some explicit lyrics without the user’s permission by replacing songs with clean versions instead. [Cult of Mac]

Article source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/Py8x9jk8vq4/remains-of-the-day-microsofts-windows-8-phone-is-leaked

I used Rosetta Stone briefly and got about halfway through part 2 of the series but it quickly fell to the back burner once I started following Benny Lewis’ Language Hacking Guide on his site Speak from Day One. Not to oversimplify his approach but basically, he says to just talk. Just use the language, even if you only know a couple words and use it every chance you get. I’m lucky because I have a Mexican girlfriend and although we’re more used to speaking English with each other, she’s been an invaluable resource. Speaking really is the most important thing you can do to learn a language and should be your first priority. Think about it, why would I read about pole vaulting and just expect to be able to pole vault via book knowledge alone. Imagine if I tried that with MMA…just read a couple books and got in the ring…to learn to fight you should probably practice, not read. Why should it be different with language? You want to learn to talk, you have to talk. The books (even the Language Hacking Guide) supplement this, not replace it.

Another extremely valuable resource to supplement speaking is movies. This is not a new idea- movies in your target language can help you hear it as it is more commonly spoken. I remember when I first started, my girlfriend told me I sounded like a radio announcer or some kind of narrator (i.e. like a square). My accent was good, she said, but I sounded like I had no personality (which brings me to another point: make sure the people you practice with are patient and understanding but also that they will correct you when you’re wrong and tell you if you sound like an idiot). I knew my square-bear accent was just because I’d been imitating the perfectly clear native speakers on Rosetta Stone. I started netflixing movies in Spanish (dear Netflix, please show some more love to the streaming Spanish language films) and found a couple that I really enjoyed. This is key- you must enjoy the movie enough to watch it a million times, even if it is to make fun of the movie.

Here’s the breakdown of what I did (feel free to adjust it to your learning speed). First, watch the movie a couple times with the English subtitles. Don’t memorize the subtitles but watch it enough times so that you know the plot and can get into the movie. After a while, leave the subtitles on for comfort but start trying to follow the target language, only looking down to the subtitles every now and then. After you’re relatively comfortable with the plot of the movie, as if you could watch it with the sound off and still get a basic idea of what’s going on, switch to subtitles in your target language.

Spend a lot of time watching this movie with the subtitles in your target language. Watch it a billion times. A billion trillion times. Watch it with your language buddies with whom you should be in regular contact and practicing with anyway. Watch it until you can pretty much say the lines along with the actors, even if you have to read along with the subtitles. Watch it until you say to yourself “Man, I don’t even need subtitles!” Turn the subtitles off. You should now be able to watch the movie and understand it without subtitles and for the most part, understand exactly what they are saying. Watch it again with your language buddies (if they want to watch the movie again for the trillionth time) so they can tell you what some of the idioms really mean, and clarify any cultural context or references, etc. Watch it until you know the lines, just like you know the lines to Toy Story or Cool Runnings (both movies I know by heart).

Now you can watch a movie in another language! That’s pretty cool in itself. Here’s what else happened in the meantime:

• Conversational Language: You now should not only have command of a lot of new conversational phrases and idioms, but you know the exact context in which they can be used. If you talk to yourself in your target language in your car and have a propensity for repeating movie lines like I do, you can practice these and sound extremely convincing after a while.
• Grammar: Along the way, you’ve undoubtedly learned new grammar, or at least better understood some of the stuff that’s been confusing you. I can’t count how many times I’ve said to myself “Ohhh ok, now I know when/how you would use that.” I’ve been able to correctly and confidently use grammar that I wouldn’t have even seen for a long time if I was studying the conventional way.
• Vocabulary: You’re listening to the same set of a few thousand words a billion times. Before this, you may have learned one word for “lunch” but it may not be the commonly used word, which they might conveniently use repeatedly throughout the movie.
• Image Association: You now have built in situational images to associate with your newly learned phrases, words, and grammar. It’s easier to know that barretta means crowbar if you immediately remember the scene in the movie where they’re trying to get someone out of a trunk and someone says Pásame la barretta!. Also, what book or computer program has the word for crowbar anyway?

When you use all of this newly-learned ammunition in your next conversation, you will sound confident and more natural than if you’d spent all that time listening to some guy saying Me llamo Edgar, como esta usted? You’ve heard it as it would naturally be said, at a natural speed. You’ve had a chance to hear a more diverse set of voices saying the same things, and all the while it is reinforcing the basics of the language, the bread and butter phrases that are used the most. The stuff you learn by this method will probably be used more often than when you learned how to ask if there was an English-speaking hospital nearby.

The whole point of it is to be able to study a series of natural conversations at any speed you want, as many times as you need. Remember though, once you pick this stuff up, you have to go out and use it!! You’ll be so excited when you’re in your next conversation, and you nonchalantly throw in a line that you learned from the tragically hip protagonist in the movie you’ve got on repeat at home. No one has to know your clever retort was something you heard a guy in a white-on-white tux yell from his helicopter during the climax of a low-budget foreign heist film! Once you get a better grasp on the language, you can start taking these things apart and making your own sentences (::gasp::…actually speaking the language organically).

I hope this little tidbit helps you out if you are trying to learn a language. The first priority is speaking but a movie is a goldmine of resources to help you round out what you know.

Also, if you’re learning Spanish like me, I can recommend a couple titles:

• Ladron Que Roba a Ladron
• Matando Cabos
• Nicotina
• Sin Nombre

Happy Language Learning!

This post republished with permission from The Modern Raven. Want to see your work here? Send an email to submissions@lifehacker.com!

Article source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/FqimucKqS64/how-actively-watching-movies-helped-me-learn-spanish

One of the best sites to help you watch sporting events in real time when you’re away from home, First Row Sports, was recently caught up in the Department of Homeland Security’s domain name seizures. If that used to be your place to turn, it’s time to find a new one. Leave us a comment below with the method you choose to watch the big game—or any live TV—when you’re away from your living room.

Hive Five nominations take place in the comments, where you post your favorite tool for the job. We get hundreds of comments, so to make your nomination clear, please include it at the top of your comment like so: VOTE: BEST LIVE TV STREAMING METHOD. Please don’t include your vote in a reply to another commenter. Instead, make your vote and reply separate comments. If you don’t follow this format, we may not count your vote. To prevent tampering with the results, votes from first-time commenters may not be counted. After you’ve made your nomination, let us know what makes it stand out from the competition.

About the Hive Five: The Hive Five feature series asks readers to answer the most frequently asked question we get: “Which tool is the best?” Once a week we’ll put out a call for contenders looking for the best solution to a certain problem, then YOU tell us your favorite tools to get the job done. Every weekend, we’ll report back with the top five recommendations and give you a chance to vote on which is best. For an example, check out last week’s five best tax preparation tools.

Photo by Pittaya Sroilong.

Article source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/bznIFKHO3Y0/best-way-to-stream-live-television

Caffeine can be supremely useful, but it’s also one of the finer things in life and, of course, a drug. Overindulgence or poorly managed tolerances take a lot of the fun and the usefulness out of it. There are also a lot of options; while the US runs mostly on drip coffee, more of us are cranking it up with espresso and energy drinks, or taking it down a notch with black or green tea.

We’ve covered how caffeine affects your brain and how you can use it for workout motivation or even the ultimate power nap, as well as how to get a better cup of joe. What are your personal limits, and how do you get the best experience out of your beverage of choice? Where do you run into trouble? Ask and answer questions about using caffeine effectively in the comments.

Article source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/7ub42s69Ikk/ask-and-answer-questions-about-using-caffeine-effectively-and-enjoying-it

OS X Lion Update 10.7.3 (Client) | Apple

Article source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/KFGhsLh96io/apple-updates-mac-os-x-lion-to-1073-resolves-a-few-minor-compatibility-issues

Bearers of bad news have a bad reputation. Nobody likes to hear what they have to say, so it’s unsurprising that the messenger approaches the situation with some level of anxiety. The phrase “don’t shoot the messenger” dates back to 1598 in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part II. Even earlier, “no one loves the messenger who brings bad news” was Antigone by Sophocles (written in or before 442 BC). We’ve been giving the messenger a hard time for many years, and that’s likely lead to consistent poor form when delivering bad news. It’s time to forget all of that, drop the anxiety, and just get to the point when you have something difficult to say.

Get to the Point

Prefacing bad news with a lot of information is almost always a bad idea. While there may be a few exceptions here and there, providing all the facts before you get to the point creates an enormous amount of suspense and anxiety in the listener. If you relay the information chronologically, you may think you’re explaining how your brother injured his foot. The person hearing this story, however, will likely be worried about where your story is going and imagine the worst. If you were writing fiction you’d be on the right track, but when you’re sharing some bad news you need to get to the point as quickly as possible. Taking your time really only serves to make you feel better, not the listener.

Of course, what “the point” is can vary in levels of extremity. An injured foot is, of course, far less of a problem than death. Saying, “Hi Jill, Brian broke his foot and is in the hospital but he’s fine now” works a lot better than “Hi Jill, Brian’s dead.” Sometimes the bad news you’re bearing will require your delivery to be a tiny bit more gradual. You definitely do not want to waste time and beat around the bush, but in extreme cases you may want to start with something as simple as “I have some bad news.” After that you can move right to the point. The primary reason this is useful is because you sometimes need to indicate that you’re serious. If you say “Hi Jill, I just saw your husband Fred kissing another woman in the supermarket,” this might lead Jill to confusion. (On the other hand, in our examples Jill just lost her brother to a deadly foot accident so she may already be primed for bad news.)

It all comes down to this: Figure out the most important information, fit it into one sentence, and say exactly that without hesitation. When relevant, preface the news with a short statement such as “I have some bad news.” It’s that simple.

What You Said

I posed this situation to those of you out there in the world of social media to find out how you handle being the bearers of bad news. For the most part, you agree that it’s best to be quick and to the point. Some of you also had a few helpful (and sometimes entertaining) suggestions.

Tami suggests offering some good—or at least helpful—news afterwards to lessen the blow, when possible:

Maybe there’s a way to lessen the blow. [I]f you have to fire someone you like, let them know of other job openings you hear of and give a good reference, for example.

Cee Bee Cee reminds us not to start treating the bad-news recipient like a child:

Avoiding being patronizing is a good way to go too. Treat them like a grown-up without being overly harsh about it.

And, as William points out, you can just hire two cute little girls to do the job for you.

This post was illustrated by Dana Zemack. Check out more of her stick figure comics and follow her on Twitter. Title image from the movie Aladdin.

Social GPS is a regular post about navigating the awkward and uncomfortable moments in life. If you’ve got a difficult social issue you’d like us to address, let us know!

Article source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/PD4CIgh4mLY/how-to-be-the-bearer-of-bad-news

• The Pirate Bay Moves to .SE Domain To Prevent Domain Seizure: With the Pirate Bay founders’ prison sentences set in stone, The Pirate Bay moves to a .SE domain to reduce the likelihood of a domain seizure. [TorrentFreak]
• Apple Loses Bid to Ban Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N, Nexus Phone: Apple’s attempt to ban the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N tablet and Nexus phone in Germany has failed, with Judge Andreas Mueller stating that Samsung already had “…Technology that was already on the market before the intellectual property had been filed for protection.” [Bloomberg]
• Deadpool Alert: Google Wave Goes Read-Only: Google Wave is now read-only. Users have until April 30 to export their data to a PDF or HTML file. [TechCrunch]
• Amazon Pulls Plug on PayPhrase Service: Amazon decides to end its PayPhrase service; details as to why are still unclear. [Mashable]
• Beware of ‘Remove Timeline’ Facebook scams: Due to Facebook’s ‘Timeline’ feature gaining steam, the number of ‘Remove Timeline’ scams has risen. What’s worse, it appears as if many Facebook users are falling for these scams. [Macworld]
• Symantec Recants Android Malware Claims: Last week, Symantec labeled approximately thirteen apps with the “Android.Counterclank” code as “malicious.” Now, the company is backtracking this statement and stating they are safe. [Computerworld]

Article source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/SyOpkaqljKI/remains-of-the-day-the-pirate-bay-moves-to-a-se-domain

Android tablets started off with a cost problem: they were way too expensive. Even more expensive than the iPad (who would have thought?) Now, though, as tablets are becoming more popular, a lot of manufacturers are trying to cash in on the trend with Android devices costing $100 or less. $100 is pretty tempting, but tech blog Tested notes that these devices probably aren’t worth the money. Some will have resistive instead of capacitive screens, which require you to press hard and don’t support multitouch. Others might not even have a full version of Android:

The software is going to be rough around the edges on the cheap tablet. There might be Market access, but there might not be. If the manufacturer decided to put Gingerbread on the device, the interface is going to be poor. If the tablet runs the browser effectively, though, that might be enough to justify the purchase in some cases.

Watch out for resistive screens, and know that even if you get a capacitive panel, [mediocre] WVGA resolution is where you’re likely to be stuck. Assuming some small amount of optimization was done, even the older SoCs in these tablets should be able to run Android well enough, but don’t expect great gaming performance.

They note that even though $100 is pretty darn cheap—especially if you’re just reading and browsing the web—other cheap tablets are on the way. They might be closer to $250, but they’ll have Ice Cream Sandwich, better hardware, and other perks. Heck, for $200, you can even buy a Kindle Fire and flash CyanogenMod. Hit the link to read more, and if you’ve ever tried out one of these budget Android tablets, let us know your experience in the comments.

Does it Make Sense to Buy a $100 Off-Brand Android Tablet? | Tested

Article source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/NvOQY6zu4gU/why-sub+100-android-tablets-arent-worth-the-trouble

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Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they’re a bit too niche, maybe we couldn’t find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn’t fit it in—the tip didn’t make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments, email it to tips at lifehacker.com, or share it on our tips and expert pages.

Article source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/_sEC1MFFOS0/