You might want to try out Yosemite but not modify your primary Mac. You can install Yosemite on an external drive (at least 8GB, but 16GB is better). For the best experience, you should install Yosemite on the fastest external drive you can, otherwise it might be very slow. Other than the thumb drive, all you need is a Yosemite compatible Mac (2007 iMac, 2008/9 MacBook, 2007 MacBook Pro, 2008 MacBook Air, 2009 Mac Mini, or 2008 Mac Pro or later models).
1. Download a copy of Yosemite from Apple. Prior to launch you can get it here, and post launch it will be available in the App Store.
2. Reformat your USB drive using Disk Utility. Choose format “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” and name it “Yosemite” and then click “Erase.”
3. Select the drive and switch to the Partition tab. Choose “1 Partition” and make the format “Mac OS Extended (Journaled).”
MORE: How to Find Downloaded Files in Mac OS X
4. Click on the “Options” button and Choose “GUID Partition Table.” Click OK and then Apply. This will make the USB drive bootable.
5. Start the install of Yosemite and agree to the user agreement. Then click “Show All Disks…”.
6. Select your thumb drive and click “Install.” You will be prompted for your admin password. Your computer will reboot, and Yosemite will then install on your thumb drive. Once it’s installed, you can choose to boot to that disk by holding down the Option key as your computer restarts.
Apple has released a new operating system in beta called Yosemite and anyone with a Mac can try it out. All you need to get started with this operating system is a Mac running OS X Mavericks, 2GB of memory, 8GB of disk space, and an Apple ID. Of course, you’ll also want to back up your system before performing the install, just in case something happens. Then follow these instructions to install Yosemite on your Mac.
1. Register on the OS X Beta Program website by clicking Sign Up then signing in with your Apple ID and agreeing to some terms. Be sure to do this on the machine you want to install Yosemite. When you read and agree to the terms, you will get a redemption code that allows you to download and install Yosemite.
3. Once Yosemite has downloaded, you’ll be asked to sign in with your Apple ID.
MORE: Apple OS X Yosemite: Top 7 Features
4. Agree to the terms and conditions.
5. Select ”Turn on FileVault disk encryption” to secure your data. For more security, uncheck “Alow my iCloud account to unlock my disk.”
6. If you are using iCloud on any non-Yosemite device, choose “Not Now”when asked if you want to upgrade to iCloud drive. If you don’t do this, you may lose files that were stored on iCloud.
7. Note any incompatible software so that you can check for updates later.
8. Use the Feedback Assistant to report any errors or problems you may find with Yosemite.
While Microsoft may have thought that it had overcome the negative reactions that accompanied Windows 8, the world's top PC manufacturer isn’t necessarily convinced. Lenovo said Thursday that it will ship Sweetlabs’ Pokki, a utility that adds a replacement Start button plus a number of apps and discovery tools, on a number of Lenovo machines. Those will include IdeaPad laptops, ThinkPad laptops, and IdeaCentre desktops, within multiple regions across the world, the company said. Acer made Pokki available on its own PCs in June, meaning that two of the top five OEMs will ship with the Pokki software preinstalled. Lenovo’s choice to include Pokki on its machines doesn’t necessarily mean that users will be forced into using Sweetlabs’ Start Page alternative. But the Pokki Start button has a look and feel reminiscent of Microsoft’s earlier Windows OSes, which still appeal to a vast number of users. Microsoft reworked Windows 8.1—which is available in preview, and in final form in October—to allow more customization in the Start Screen, and to allow users to boot into the desktop if they so choose. Microsoft did not imediately respond to requests for comment. Lenovo could not be reached for comment. While Lenovo’s decision represents a vote of no confidence in Microsoft’s Windows 8 UI, the more interesting consequence is that Lenovo is now adding an alternative to the Windows Store. Although Microsoft recently topped 100,000 Windows 8 apps, it retooled its app store in the Windows 8.1 preview to make them more discoverable. Pokki’s store provides traditional Windows apps like Dropbox, and Windows Store apps like Skype. But it also has customized apps like a version of Instagram, dubbed Instagrille, which can provide its own revenue stream with in-app ads. (We’ve picked five Pokki apps that bring the best of the mobile environment to your desktop.) SweetLabsPokki’s alternative to Windows 8 places apps in a familiar context. “We started SweetLabs to create the world’s largest app distribution platform for developers, and today’s announcement with the #1 PC maker on the planet, Lenovo, is a massive step in the right direction,” said Darrius Thompson, co-founder and chief executive at SweetLabs, in a statement. “We’re proud that Lenovo has chosen to enhance the out-of-box Windows 8 experience with Pokki, complementing Lenovo’s innovative devices with a better way for users to access and discover apps.” One could argue, actually, that the addition of Pokki is a plus overall; though it cuts into an incremental source of revenue for Microosft, it boosts the Windows platform as a whole. Simply increasing the number of apps available to the platform, and making them more easily discoverable, should be a goal Microsoft can get behind. At this point, Microsoft should shrug off third-party Start alternatives—which will continue to thrive, even in the wake of Windows 8.1—and simply focus on selling more Windows licenses.
Expatriate Scotsman now living in Wurzburg, Germany, freelance writer, frustrated future bestselling author, obsessed bibliophile. Other interests include trying to understand The Architect in the Matrix movies, decrypting codes and ciphers, and trying to persuade my landlord and my wife to let me have a Highland Cow for a pet. More by Mark O'Neill
There used to be a time when Microsoft Windows ruled the operating system world. But in recent years, the free and open source Linux operating system has taken a big bite out of Windows' dominance. But Linux has always had an image problem of seeming too difficult and unwieldy to install and learn, with a steep learning curve attached.
Linux Live USB Creator (LiLi for short) aims to take the sting out of a newcomer's introduction to the operating system by making it as easy as possible to get started. All you need is a USB stick with enough space—a minimum 2GB should do the trick—and five minutes of your time to install it. No user manual required.
After downloading and installing the software (developer Thibaut Lauziere also offers a portable version), open it up and you will see a simple straightforward user interface, showing the various steps needing to be completed. Once each step has been successfully carried out, the traffic light icon on the right hand side will turn green.
One option, after installation, is to run Linux inside Virtualbox which has the added benefit of being able to run two OS's at the same time (Windows & Linux)
First, you need to point the app towards the location of your USB stick in the computer. Secondly, you need to choose the source of the Linux installation file. For example, you may have it already downloaded onto your computer. If so, point it towards that file.
If not, you can click "download" and a big drop-down menu of various Linux distros (and some non-Linux options) will be presented as possibilities. Just choose the one you want to download. For newcomers, it's probably easiest to choose Ubuntu as it's an easy Linux distro to get started with.
Once you've done this, the "persistence" level should be automatically at green. "Persistence" means that you can keep your preferences and data on your USB stick, after rebooting (normally this information is discarded).
Next come LiLi's personal options, which you must decide yourself. I enabled all three options but you need to decide for yourself what you prefer.
Finally, if everything looks OK, click the yellow lightning flash to begin the installation of your chosen Linux distro to your USB stick. In my case, it took only a few minutes and it was immediately ready to go.
There are two possibilities to run your new Linux distro. The first one is to reboot your computer and let Windows boot from the USB stick. However, this means you are running only Linux with no access to Windows. The second (and preferable) option is to go to the stick and choose "Virtualize This Key," which will launch the excellent VirtualBox software.
This is the software equivalent of a sandbox where you can run software programs inside, independent of the operating system you are currently using. In other words, you can be running Windows and at the same time, have Linux running inside the VirtualBox window.
The only downside to this option is that a huge amount of CPU is going to be required to run both OS's simultaneously. So you may notice things slowing down slightly as a result. If it gets too bad, try closing some non-essential programs.
In a word, Linux Live USB Creator should be on everyone's PC, as it is essential for everyone to learn that there is a world beyond what Microsoft has to offer. With it being portable, you can easily carry it about on a USB stick and introduce Linux to everyone you know.
Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.
To access the Micro App Store, users simply log in to wimm.com and click on the Micro App Store Beta link in the left nav. The current app store homepage loads containing a complete list of all the micro apps — 25 as of this writing — sorted into categories such as gaming, productivity and travel. For each app, there’s a thumbnail which matches its shortcut icon and a gray “Add” button next to it that’s clickable only if the app has not already been installed on your device.
If you hover over the thumbnail for a given app, a small description of it will appear. If you want to install one of the apps, you can click the Add button next to it and then wait until the next time your watch syncs with WIMM’s servers. You can set your watches to sync as frequently as once per hour or as infrequently as once a day, but you can also manually force an immediate sync by tapping the sync button in the settings menu on the device itself.
At present, all of the Micro Apps are available for free, but in the future, the Micro App Store will likely also be able to accept payments. If you want to remove an app from your device you can go to the Micro Apps control panel page on wimm.com which shows a list of all the apps on your device and lets you reorder their shortcuts or get rid of them by toggling the “visible” checkbox. After unchecking the visible box next to an app, that app’s shortcut will disappear from your watch at the next sync, though we’re not sure whether that means it is truly erased or just hidden.
To test out the app store, we installed a few of the available apps, including TwitUpdate, News Reader, Searchlight, and aFlashlight.
One of our favorite micro apps, TwitUpdate allows you to follow up to five users and / or search strings on twitter. The app shows five different screens, one for each Twitter feed.
You configure the feed by tapping on the blue title bar at the top of the screen and then entering either a user to follow, text to search for, or both. If you enter only the username, you see the latest three updates from that user on that screen. If you enter only a search string such as “laptops” or “#ces2012? that screen shows the latest three tweets from all of Twitter that contain that text. Of course, if you enter both “@laptopmag” and “smartphone” you can see the latest three tweets from the @laptopmag twitter account that contain the word “smartphone.”
Useful as it is, TwitUpdate has its share of limitations. First, you must use WIMM’s slow-moving on-screen keyboard, which makes you swipe through the whole alphabet to select each letter, to change TwitUpdate’s query stings. Second, it is limited to only the latest three tweets per screen and only five screens in total. Finally, there’s no way to view pictures or click on links that appear in the tweets. Still, it’s great to be able to see a friend’s latest tweets at a glance and we hope to see the functionality expand on this app as it evolves.
News Reader sets the gold standard for what is possible on a WIMM One watch. Using a Google Reader account, you can set the app to receive RSS news updates from all your favorite sites. If you’re too lazy to set up a Google Reader account, the app has built-in feeds from leading tech news sites like Engadget, Tech Crunch and Boy Genius Report.
Within the app, each screen contains a list of the latest headlines from a different news source. You can scroll side to side between screens to switch news sources or tap on an individual headline to read that article. The articles even have lead images that appear in full color. We used an earlier version of this app before the app store launched, but the latest version has improved formatting within the articles (paragraph breaks work now) and seems smoother than before.
As its name suggests, aFlashlight lights up the screen so you can use the watch to light your way in a dark room. The only neat feature here is that you can select the color of the light using a color wheel so, if you want a pink flashlight, you’ve got one.
Inferior to aFlashlight, Searchlight just shows a white circle on the screen to emulate a flashlight.
Long-time WIMM users will notice a small, but important change to the application menu which appears when you slide upward on the watch’s face. Where the old menu had an image of a large neverending cube behind the shortcut icons, the new menu has a simple but tasteful royal blue wallpaper and what appear to be larger shortcut icons.
With the update, the screen also appears to have become a bit more responsive, sometimes seemingly too responsive. When shooting a video demo of the new UI and apps, we found ourselves accidentally pulling down the watch face when we were trying to rotate through shortcuts. However, when we put the watch on our wrist — rather than holding it in it in our hands — and were careful not to swipe upward — we had no trouble moving side to side in the apps menu or between screens within apps.
As you scroll between the icons, you’ll notice a small white bar at the top of the screen which shows you where you are in the row of apps. If you’re on the first shortcut, the white bar is all the way on the left and it moves further left or right as you swipe through the apps. If you want to swipe through apps more quickly, you can press and hold on left or right side of the blue wallpaper and the system will quickly scroll through the apps until you lift your finger.
WIMM says another key feature of the version 1.03 firmware update is improved Bluetooth power efficiency. We haven’t had a chance to test this feature out yet, but we’re hopeful that battery life with Bluetooth enabled will improve as our watch was dead after just 8 or 9 hours when we tethered it to our phone in the past.
Recently I've heard from a number of users who are looking for a way to cut that pricey cable-TV cord, but don't want to give up on watching and recording their favorite network shows. Turns out there's an easy and very affordable solution, one that eliminates cable (cable-TV, anyway) service entirely and frees you from monthly fees. It's called Windows 7.
This may come as a surprise, but Windows packs a very powerful TiVo-like DVR system called Windows Media Center. When paired with an inexpensive TV tuner and a decent antenna, it lets you watch and record broadcast television--in high-def!
The PC part is up to you. It can be a laptop or desktop, as long as it runs Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate. (Windows 7 Starter doesn't come with Windows Media Center, nor does Windows 7 Enterprise.)
You'll also need a reasonably large hard drive with a decent chunk of free space. A one-hour recorded TV show can easily consume 7-8GB, so if you're envisioning recording multiple episodes of multiple shows, make sure you have ample storage to spare.
Before we talk tuners, make sure you live in an area that gets decent over-the-air (OTA) reception of local channels. A site called AntennaWeb.org can answer that question for you and tell you what kind of antenna you might need to get. (If you're already watching OTA shows on your TV, just without a PC in the mix, you're all set.)
Your antenna will screw into the tuner, which in turn will plug into one of your PC's USB ports. Then you'll run Windows Media Center and walk through the TV setup process.
So, what kind of tuner should you get? I recommend sticking with a well-known brand like Hauppauge, just to ensure proper compatibility with Windows Media Center. I've had good luck with the WinTV-HVR-950Q, which has a list price of $99 but routinely sells online for around $75. The tuner enables the PC to display and record broadcast TV shows.
Recently I became the mostly happy owner of an HP Pavilion dm1z. I say "mostly happy" because I wasn’t thrilled with its performance. To give the system a boost, I decided to swap the pokey 5,200-rpm hard drive with a speedy solid state drive.
The Samsung SSD upgrade kit I bought came with Norton Ghost 15--a utility that would copy the entire contents of my existing hard drive to the new drive--on CD. But the Pavilion, like so many ultrabooks, ultraportables, and other ultra-compact laptops, has no CD drive. How was I supposed to install Ghost?
A friend of mine had a similar problem with some new drive-less systems he’d purchased. He wanted to install his licensed, disc-based copies of Microsoft Office, but couldn’t.
This begs the question: If your PC lacks an optical drive, how can you install software that’s stored on a CD or DVD?
You have two options. First, you can buy or borrow an external drive. A quick check of Ebay reveals tons of USB DVD burners selling for $20-40. Might be a handy item to have on hand.
Second, try downloading your software instead. When I checked Samsung’s support page for my SSD kit, I found not only manuals and drivers, but also Norton Ghost 15.
I downloaded it, installed it, then activated it using the license key that came with the actual disc.
You can do likewise with Microsoft Office: just download the trial version that matches the version you already own, then activate it using your product key. (This gets a little trickier with older versions of Office, as Microsoft currently offers only the 2010 edition for download. You might need to hit up some torrent sites to find older trials.)
This method should work for the vast majority of other software as well. Usually you can download a trial or demo version and then unlock it with your license key. And the added bonus is you’ll have the latest updates right from the get-go.
If you've got a hassle that needs solving, send it my way. I can't promise a response, but I'll definitely read every e-mail I get--and do my best to address at least some of them in the PCWorld Hassle-Free PC blog. My 411: hasslefree@pcworld.com. You can also sign up to have the Hassle-Free PC newsletter e-mailed to you each week.
SweetLabsPokki’s alternative to Windows 8 places apps in a familiar context. “We started SweetLabs to create the world’s largest app distribution platform for developers, and today’s announcement with the #1 PC maker on the planet, Lenovo, is a massive step in the right direction,” said Darrius Thompson, co-founder and chief executive at SweetLabs, in a statement. “We’re proud that Lenovo has chosen to enhance the out-of-box Windows 8 experience with Pokki, complementing Lenovo’s innovative devices with a better way for users to access and discover apps.” One could argue, actually, that the addition of Pokki is a plus overall; though it cuts into an incremental source of revenue for Microosft, it boosts the Windows platform as a whole. Simply increasing the number of apps available to the platform, and making them more easily discoverable, should be a goal Microsoft can get behind. At this point, Microsoft should shrug off third-party Start alternatives—which will continue to thrive, even in the wake of Windows 8.1—and simply focus on selling more Windows licenses. 
One option, after installation, is to run Linux inside Virtualbox which has the added benefit of being able to run two OS's at the same time (Windows & Linux) 
Your antenna will screw into the tuner, which in turn will plug into one of your PC's USB ports. Then you'll run Windows Media Center and walk through the TV setup process.