Over the last month we've learned all about the basics of music production, posting new lessons on a weekly basics. With the lessons finished, now you can get the complete guide and find out how you can learn more.

Want all of these lessons as a PDF? Download one here. Just be sure to visit the online lessons as well to watch the videos or you'll miss out on a lot!

Lesson 1: Setting Up Your Home Studio

Further Resources

These lessons serve as a basic introduction to music production, not a complete course. You’ll need to learn more through practice, but additional resources can help as well. Here are a few we recommend:

• Lynda.com: Lynda offers plenty of in-depth lessons on all kinds of software. If you're looking to learn more about Cubase or any other DAW, they'll likely have you covered. While it costs a minimum of $25 per month, that's a low price to pay if you're only going to subscribe for a month or two and get a few lessons. I've learned a lot through Lynda and consider it one of the best video lesson sites online.
• Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio: Regardless of the software you use, the most important skill you can have is the ability to mix. This book will help you learn a solid mixing skill set.
• Gearslutz: When you have a question during the learning process, this message board is the place to go. Even if you don't have a question, you can learn a lot from reading what others have asked in the past.

Thanks for learning with us! If you follow these lessons and make some great music, share it in the discussions bellow.

OS X and Linux: Need to quickly check calendar dates and don't have an app at the ready? You can generate calendar data for any month in an instant with a quick terminal command.

Just type this:

cal 10 2013

In fact, you only need to type cal to generate a calendar for the current month. If you want a different month, however, just type cal and then the number of the month. If you want to specify a year other than the current year, type cal then the number of the month and then the year, all separated by a space. The result? A nicely formatted text-based calendar like the one you see pictured above.

5 Most Useful Terminal Command Utilities | Using Mac

A friend on social media is often more of a friendly acquaintance, but you can use that to your benefit when seeking out a new job. CareerSonar uses your connections to others to help you find work at companies where your contacts can assist.

To start, you log into a social media account or five to connect them to CareerSonar. The webapp then searches through those connections for relevant job information and then finds job listings at those companies. You'll get a dashboard with not only a bunch of available jobs, but also who you know that might help you actually get that job. You can then apply and ask a friend for an introduction to help improve your chances.

You get more than a list, of course. If you want to narrow down your listings you can filter by search terms and location. You can also add missing friends and companies that you know have certain connections in the event CareerSonar can't find them through available social media data.

Overall, it works well as a job search site but it's really nice having that added bonus of knowing someone at a company you might like. Thanks to the vague relationships on social media, you might actually know a few people who can help you that you haven't though of. CareerSonar helps you identify those people and use their help to find better employment.

CareerSonar

Sincerely,
Troubled About Titles

Dear TAT,
Job titles cause a lot of trouble and they rarely matter that much in the moment. They can make people feel important at a job but rarely do more than establish a hierarchy. Your title only makes a significant difference when distinguishing a regular employee from a manager and when you leave your job and have to stick it on your resume. If you plan on staying at your job for awhile, a lack of a new title shouldn't have a major impact on you. Nevertheless, you don't want to ask for something from your company if you plan on walking out the door in the near future and want to leave on good terms. If you want a title bump, or at least want to know why you didn't get one, you just have to ask—in the right way, of course.

Why Companies Hold Off on Title Promotions

They're Reserving the Title for Later
Some companies can't afford pay raises for the same employees year after year—or, at least, not much of one—so they upgrade job titles instead. Your company may want to reserve a title boost for you later on so they can pay you less but still give you value. If this is the case, asking for your new title right now means you might get less later if they give it to you.

Publicly Promoting You Causes Trouble with Other Employees
Office politics can play a role as well. Sometimes giving you a greater title may make another employee feel stilted or want a promotion as well. Companies may want to keep your promotion relatively unknown, and as a result they won't provide you with a new title. If this happens, you should see that title bump in the near future (or at least have cause to ask again at a later time).

This Is a Test
Your company may also want to see how you perform in your new responsibilities before officially giving you a new title. If you've worked hard for them and earned a raise, they'll have no trouble paying you more for your continued effort. They may add new responsibilities as a test to see if you can handle them, then provide the title promotion on its own if you pass.

You Don't Deserve One Yet, or They Just Forgot
New responsibilities may seem like a lot to you and much less to your employer. If they haven't put you in charge of managing a large project or other people, they probably don't see your new position as a new position. Your company wants to pay you more because they've asked you to do more, but nothing that couldn't fall under your existing job title. While some companies will add a junior/senior distinction when providing new responsibilities, they may for some departments in the company but not others. For example, developers may get this distinction but customer support representatives will not. Look at your department and find a precedent. If it seems like you should have a title upgrade, you can ask for one. Sometimes companies don't think about it as closely as you might, so if it seems like they overlooked this aspect of your promotion you should bring it up.

How to Ask for a Title Promotion

When you ask for a title promotion after getting a raise you may come across as greedy. Also, because title promotions prove most useful on your resume, rather than at the company (in most cases), you also give the impression that you don't plan to stick around too long. You don't want that kind of brand at the company, as it can hurt you in the future whether or not you leave, so you should tread carefully.

If you work in a traditional company with different departments, you probably got a promotion because your manager recommended you for one and the company decided what to give you. This puts you in a better situation because you can talk to your direct manager about your title first, potentially minimizing the number of people who know you asked for it. If you need to go directly to your boss, don't worry—you still want to make the same approach. Tell your boss or manager something like the following:

I really appreciate the raise and new responsibilities, but I feel like I'm now doing the level of work associated with a(n) [INSERT JOB TITLE HERE]. I don't want to ask for too much because I'm very happy here, but do you think that's an accurate title for the work I'm doing?

When you broach the subject, you want to make a few things clear: 1) you appreciate what you have, 2) you're happy at your job (i.e. you don't plan to leave), and 3) you only want the appropriate title for the level of work required of you. You also want to leave them with a question at the end of your request to ensure they think about what you said rather than see it as a point of argument. When you ask a question you become less imposing and you don't want to overstep when making a request like this.

After you ask, your boss or manager will explain the situation and that explanation will likely fall under one of the previously described scenarios. If they provide you with the new title, great! If they want to wait, turn this denial into an opportunity. Ask them what the company would like to see from you in order to earn this title. Show them that you want it and that you want to work for it. As a result, if you don't get the title when the company traditionally promotes people you can ask why you didn't receive it while demonstrating how you met the criteria they laid out for you.

You Should Care About Your Job Title

Job titles are silly little things that make us feel like we've made progress when we receive them. For the most part, they just don't really matter that much and you shouldn't put too much stock in them. Titles shouldn't affect how you feel about your role in the company and the (hopefully) good work that you do. You don't want your ego to get in your way.

That said, job title promotions show that the company recognizes that work. If they don't show that in other ways—like a pay raise—you should ask. Job titles have value once you leave the company. Even if you don't plan to do that anytime soon, things could change. You may get laid off if the company needs to downsize. You may find you hate your new responsibilities or the company hires a manager you just can't work with well. You need to care about your job title because it can get you a better job later on. Let go of the egotistical reasons that might make you want something like "Senior Manager" and aim for the title that'll get you better work later. You may not need it now, but planning ahead can mean avoiding unemployment later.

Love,
Lifehacker

Photos by Kzenon (Shutterstock), zimmytws (Shutterstock), and The Office.

When you think of a humidifier, you probably picture a fairly large device filled with water that you plug in and keep in a corner. Those traditional options don't work so well when you need to move them around and require a bit of effort to clean. The Satechi Portable USB Humidifier just attaches to any water bottle and gets power from any USB port of charger.

If you need to add humidity to a large space, you'll need something a little more powerful than a portable option. If you just need a little humidity in your part of the room, however, you can set a water bottle by your bedside or wherever you are. If you move, you can take it with you. If you can't be tethered to an outlet or a computer's USB port, get a portable battery. (Ideally, we'd like to see a version of this device that contains its own battery to operate on the go for a few hours, but generally speaking you won't need that.) Most humidifiers cost at least $30, but this portable version only runs you $23. While it might not provide as much power, it gains versatility and convenience. If you need a simple humidifier—especially if you travel often—give this one a look.

Satechi Portable USB Humidifier ($23) | Amazon

When we want to get things done, and our ideas sit at the core of those tasks, we think and do a lot to make our dreams a reality. When we loop other people into our projects, however, they don't sit thinking about our ideas every day and how badly they want to complete them. You may sometimes find similar passion in others, but you'll always find more in yourself. As entrepreneur Derek Sivers points out, you need a plan that accounts for the nature of working with people.

He suggests any good plan involving other workers should include the following:

1. Don’t expect anyone to care as much as you.
2. Don’t require them to think as hard about this as you have.
3. Do expect them to change their mind and disappear.
4. Make a robust plan that includes #1-3.

If you make a specific and detailed plan while accounting for the above, you'll have an easier time working with other people. Life happens a lot, so you have to hold people to realistic expectations. When you've worked on another's idea, you've likely missed a deadline, made mistakes, and failed to act perfectly on every occasion. You'll find less disappointment when people help you if you expect the problems we all regularly face.

Fragile Plan vs Robust Plan | Derek Sivers

Photo by Stella Caraman (Shutterstock).

Thanks to Apple's restrictions you can't get a perfect video player that handles all formats and performs with the same processor and battery efficiency as Apple's built-in Videos app. Nevertheless, PlayerXtreme HD does just about everything you could ask for within the confines of iOS' walled garden.

PlayerXtreme HD

Platform: iPhone and iPad
Price: Free ($3 for Pro)
Download Page

Features

• Supports plenty of formats: 3gp, asf, avi, divx, dv, dat, flv, gxf, m2p, m2ts, m2v, m4v, mkv, moov, mov, mp4, mpeg, mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4, mpg, mpv, mt2s, mts, mxf, ogm, ogv, ps, qt, rm, rmvb, ts, vob, webm, wm, wmv
• Simple, familiar folder-based interface that feels a lot like a desktop environment (which you may or may not like)
• Search through your media
• Supports streaming over SMB, UPNP, and Wi-Fi
• Download files to the app over your local network
• Open files from directly from email attachments
• Great control over the look of subtitles
• Boost the volume of soft audio by up to 12 times
• Password-protect your library
• Hide folders that guest users of the app can't see but you can

Where It Excels

PlayerXtreme HD tries to do a lot and succeeds in most areas. In addition to playing just about every type of video file under the sun, it makes getting those files to your iPhone much easier. You can transfer them the traditional way—via iTunes, over USB—or you can just do it via Wi-Fi over your network. If you'd rather just stream the media, PlayerXtreme HD will detect media shares. For example, if you run Plex Media Server on any computer then PlayerXtreme HD will see its UPNP share and have access to your entire library. This makes it really easy to watch on the fly without the need to wait for a transfer to complete. Navigating the app also works wonderfully. The folder interface should feel familiar to most users who've at least seen a desktop computing environment, and you can switch between various sections of the app by just swiping in from the left side of the screen. Overall, everything works easily and intuitively.

Where It Falls Short

PlayerXtreme HD operates on an add-on model. While great in some ways, if you want access to a lot of the described features (notably network streaming) you have to pay for the pro version via in-app purchase. It only costs $3, so it isn't like you're breaking the bank, and you can get individual features for $1 a piece. That said, it's a little annoying to jump into the app and try things out, only to find that you can't actually use certain features because they've been locked down. Other than that, you'll find little to complain about in PlayerXtreme HD. The interface may not be everyone's cup of tea, but offers practically no learning curve so you won't find yourself fumbling around, trying to figure out how to get the app to work.

The Competition

GoodPlayer ($3), our previous top pick, offers essentially the same feature set as PlayerXtreme HD. That said, we think PlayerXtreme HD puts it in a nicer package. It also doesn't cost you anything if you don't need every single feature. GoodPlayer still works as a solid alternative, so you won't go wrong if you want to use it instead.

The built-in video player on your iPhone is worth mentioning because it really is a great player—at least for the formats it supports. You do have to sync with iTunes to get files in it, unless you buy all your video directly from the iTunes Store, but it's a good way to handle podcasts or anything else you don't mind putting in iTunes. Sure, it's far from perfect, but it does what it does pretty well.

While StreamToMe and AirVideo are technically not video players, but rather video converters and streamers, it's hard to ignore them when they are one of the best solutions for video playback on your iPhone. If you have a server available to stream files, either of these apps are really handy. You may want to supplement them with a local video player (you know, like GoodPlayer), but they do an excellent job for all those files you can't play back smoothly.

Of course there are tons of other video player apps for iPhone that aren't mentioned here, as many of them are pretty much the same thing. If you have a favorite that was left in the dust, however, let's hear about it in the comments.

Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.

When you can do just about anything with an office, nothing should stop you from adding awesome art, open spaces, and (obviously) a Street Fighter arcade cabinet. The folks over at Bigcommerce, intent on avoiding a dull and stuffy environment, created a workspace with personality.

Their Austin headquarters features all sorts of welcoming murals, but also includes swings, laptop stations, neon signs, clear wipe-off boards, ping-pong tables, and—of course—desks. While a large company can pull together something of this magnitude a bit more easily, as they have the space and the resources, you can still bring this kind of open playfulness to your home office. If you can't paint your own wall mural, or can't have a permanent option, vinyl decals can serve the same purpose. If you can paint, you can just make a wall a whiteboard. An iCade isn't a full arcade cabinet, but it's a smaller option that fits better in a smaller office. You don't have to replicate what you see at Bigcommerce, of course. Think about what's fun for you and bring that into your workspace. Ultimately you have to work, but you should find that easier to do when you create a happy, fun, open environment.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, share them with us by posting it to your personal Kinja blog using the tag featured workspace or adding it to our Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Flickr pool. Photos must be at least at least 640x360 and please include information about what you used, how you came up with the design, and any other relevant details. If your awesome workspace catches our eye, you might get featured!

Dear Lifehacker,
I keep seeing new “smartwatches” show up on gadget sites, but they all seem pretty different. What is a smartwatch, exactly, and should I consider buying one?

Sincerely,
Watching Watches

Dear WW,

Just as a smartphone did with the telephone, a smartwatch provides live access to certain kinds of information and intelligent features to try and add more convenience to your life. While most smartwatches take a similar app-based approach, they’re all a little different. However, you’ll find that most provide you with notifications and all of them tell you the time. To try and answer this question through experience, I tested out a few popular smartwatches currently on the market. First we’ll take a look at your primary options right now and what they can do, then discuss why you may or may not want a smartwatch now or in the future.

Should You Get a Smartwatch?

Like with all bleeding-edge technology, smartwatches currently exist for early adopters. That said, even the minimally tech-savvy can use them and benefit. Through my experience, I found people who want the following will enjoy a smartwatch now:

• You want notifications but you don’t want to spend tons of time on your phone. Smartwatches sit on your wrist and tell you what’s up. You can peek to see if you just received an important message or if you can ignore it. Over everything else, this offers the greatest advantage because you can stay informed while out and about without rudely interrupting activities with real, live people. You won’t look bored in meetings, you won’t look disinterested on a date, and you won’t distract other viewers in a movie theater with your excessively bright smartphone screen to see who just sent you a text. A smartwatch allows you to stay connected and informed without constantly interrupting your life.

• You want a timepiece that actually does something without paying much more for it. Watches don’t seem too relevant anymore because they just tell the time—something a cellphone can do without occupying space on your wrist. While some prefer to check the time more easily and/or prefer the aesthetic of a wristwatch (to nothing at all), you get a lot more out of a smartwatch and don’t really pay much of an additional cost. That may seem like a strange statement when you look at the $120-300 price tags on the smartwatches in this post, but if you purchase a nice timepiece for its aesthetic value you’ll pay about the same amount (if not more, in some cases). If you want a cheaper watch, this obviously doesn’t apply. You can buy inexpensive timepieces that look nice, but many premium options fall into the exact same price range.

• You want a watch you can upgrade and customize. While not all smartwatches offer ways to add tons of new features, most pair with smartphone apps and have user/developer communities that improve functionality on a regular basis. Pebble, for example, was designed around developers and people create cool, new stuff every day. While most apps still need some work before you can install them on your watch, browsing through the developer community will show you everything from live weather updates to playable versions of Space Invaders. You can’t do everything with your smartwatch now, but you will have the opportunity to do a lot more later without buying new hardware.

Despite these benefits, you may not want to jump on board just yet. Over the next couple of years, wearable technology will evolve significantly. Big players like Google and Apple may step into the ring. Sony may create a product that actually works (or someone else will fix it for them). Take the plunge if a smartwatch seems like something you’d enjoy and benefit from. Otherwise, give it some time. The future will (quickly) bring new ideas and choices, plus far more experiences from early adopters, so you can better decide whether you want intelligence on your wrist or not. If you want in, read on to learn about some of the best options available right now.

Your Smartwatch Options

To get a good idea of the different offerings, I tested a Pebble, Martian Victory, and MetaWatch FRAME. I wasn’t able to test the Sony SmartWatch, but our sister site Gizmodo hated it so much that we all may be better off for it. (That said, Sony just opened up their platform to allow for custom firmware so their offering may prove useful someday.) Each model offers a different approach to providing you with the time, notifications, special features, and other useful information, and some work better than others.

The Pebble smartwatch ($150) offers a simple look and an easy-to-read e-paper screen with a backlight you can activate by wagging your wrist. It comes with a few different watch faces, but you can download others. You can also download apps to provide additional functionality, but that requires a less than straightforward process.

Nevertheless, you only need one smartphone app and a quick Bluetooth pairing before you can start sending notifications from your phone to your watch. Decide what you want to see and what you want to ignore, and you can stay abreast of various happenings with a quick glance at your wrist. When a notification comes in, the Pebble vibrates and displays the initial text. With a few somewhat stiff button presses you can scroll through more of the message for additional information. When a call comes in, you’ll see it on your watch and can choose to ignore it without reaching for your phone. Outside of notifications, the Pebble can set alarms, control your phone’s music apps, and track your biking and running. Android users can also download a number of helpful apps to enhance their experience further.

The Martian Victory ($299) looks like a standard watch, albeit a bit bulky, but hides a little LED window at the bottom to provide you with notifications. A smartphone app, available for Android and iOS, pushes almost any notification over to your watch. The Martian also allows you to set quiet hours so notifications don’t come through while you sleep. That said, calendar notifications ignore these settings (because it expects you to set alarms with your calendar).

Martian smartwatches differ from their competition in one specific way: you can talk to them. They sync up with your smartphone like a Bluetooth speaker and utilize voice command services. Android users can connect with Google Now and iPhone users with Siri. You can answer and place calls directly from the watch. While this may seem impractical, or just make you feel like Dick Tracy, once you realize you don’t have to talk directly into the watch to communicate you may find it useful. I answered many calls in the car and had a perfectly normal conversation even with both hands on the wheel. The Victory, specifically, has a fancier metal watch face with an oddly paired silicone band. If you prefer something a little more traditional, however, Martian offers a variety of models and some come leather bands instead.

The MetaWatch FRAME ($200) focuses primarily on notifying you of all kinds of information. The main screen gives you the time plus a number of other widgets you can customize to your liking. That includes unread email messages, calendar events, stock updates, weather, and more (somehow you can actually fit all of this information on a single screen). You can also visit other screens for more and have notifications pushed directly to your MetaWatch via a smartphone app. The official MetaWatch app doesn’t worked quite as well as you might hope, unfortunately. Many Android reviewers complain it doesn’t function at all, but I found it just keeps sending certain notifications repeatedly, and ignores others altogether. Fortunately, Android users can grab third party options (like MetaWatch Community Edition or Noah Edition) that work a whole lot better. For whatever reason, the official iPhone app comes with fewer issues and works better for more people.

Regardless of software issues, the MetaWatch requires quite a bit of work to set up. On top of that, the screen of the FRAME model reflects so much light that you can’t even read the screen in certain conditions (including indoors). The cheaper STRATA ($120) model may or may not solve this problem.

Which smartwatch is the best for you? In some cases it’ll depend on your preferences. Overall, I found the MetaWatch frustrating to use and hard to see. If you really like the idea of talking to your watch or just want a very comprehensive set of mostly static features, a Martian model is the obvious choice. I felt that the Pebble offered the most comfort, the right features, a pleasant and simple look, and just worked most reliably. While it needs a do not disturb feature so it knows not to vibrate at night and unified app installation process, that should come with time. Pebble just started shipping recently so we should see improvements over the next year. All tested smartwatches managed the same amount of battery life (5-7 days) while only minimally draining the connected smartphone battery with Bluetooth activity. Each came with a proprietary charging cable of some kind, so expect an added cost if you want more than one.

What you choose will depend on what you need. The initial offerings function well and don’t suffer from many serious drawbacks, so you shouldn’t find yourself frustrated by the usual early adopter bugs (in most cases). That said, you don’t have a ton of smartwatches to choose from at the moment. If no option looks close enough to perfect for you, give it a year or two and you’ll have a much wider selection.

Love,
Lifehacker

We love a good go bag with everything we need at the ready. Many of you already have some great ones. If you need to put together a better system, or a new one entirely, these posts can help you make it happen this weekend.

Make (or Buy) a Bag

Making a bag may seem daunting, but the process doesn't take too much work if you know he basics of a sewing machine. If you want a one-of-a-kind go bag, try making a sling pack or messenger with custom fabric of your choosing. If you'd rather buy one, however, you have plenty of awesome options. In the past we've featured these great ones:

• The UNDFIND One Bag can change colors and styles, accessory flags, and transform from a camera bag to a laptop bag and back again.
• The UNIT Portables have modular storage options so you can swap them in and out at will.
• The FLUX Backpack lights up at night to keep you safe while biking.

If none of those suit you, check out the Wirecutter's Bag Database for plenty of options.

Put the Good Stuff Inside

You probably have a computer, a few gadgets, and some other stray items to put in your go bag but you might be missing a few things like a high-capacity external battery, mobile hotspot, or a mini surge protector and USB gadget charger. A few simple and inexpensive tools can make your go bag ready for just about anything. Check out our 10 favorites here, and consider creating a MacGyver kit to save the day in a pinch.

Organize Your Bag

No bag does its job adequately if you don't keep things organized. For that, a few tools can help. We love the GRID-IT for organizing just about anything, but if you have a bunch of cables you can wrangle them on the cheap with a toiletly bag. Binder clips work great when you need to wrap certain cables. Apple Cores also do a great job. These are just a few ideas and tools for basic organization, but it really helps to make a modular go bag system so you can move certain sets of items around if you need to. To learn how, read our complete guide.

Make Your Bag More Versatile

Perhaps you prefer a messenger bag in most situations but sometimes want to switch to a backpack. No problem—just twist the straps to convert it in under a minute. Maybe you need to take your bag somewhere wet. No problem, just waterproof it with wax. Need to bike with a bag you can't strap on your back? Strap it to your bike instead. If you really want a specific function or look, do what reader Alex Walker did and customize it to your heart's content.

Ultimately, the best bag is one that has everything you need and that you can take with you comfortable in most situations. When you choose what to make or buy and how to fill it up, keep that in mind and you'll be good to go.

Have a great weekend!

We all love a handy little aesthetically-pleasing notebook, but most just give you lined paper and call it a day. Word Notebooks take their job a little more seriously and come with a simple but effective task management system.

It works like this:

• Make a bullet point for a to-do item
• Circle it if you want to mark it as important
• Put one diagonal line through it to mark the task as in progress
• Put another diagonal line to make an X and mark the task as complete

Every line comes with a gray circle in the margin to guide through the above steps and the front flap includes these instructions so you don't forget. The notebooks come in a variety of styles and only cost $10 for a three pack.

Word Notebooks ($10 for three)

OS X: Previously mentioned iBoostUp, the powerful system cleanup utility, is on sale at 50% off today only. While we initially review the free version, you can get the $10 premium version with its extra features for only $5.

While the free version cleans your system, iBoostUp's premium offering does a more thorough job. It can clear out your memory, find duplicate files, remove unnecessary code from your apps that make them take up extra disk space, locate files you aren't using, and much more. You can get these options through the free version through in-app purchases, but iBoostUp Premium automatically includes everything now and in the future. This way you won't have to pay for upgrades you want as time goes on. A couple of in-app purchases add up to $5 already, so if you like a few features you might as well just get them all. Discount or not, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than competitor CleanMyMac (which is also a very nice option that winds up in app discount bundles frequently).

iBoostUp Premium ($5) | Mac App Store

Plenty of sites exist to find restaurants and activities, but generally speaking you get a list of options and sort through them. Weotta takes your current situation into account, as well as your interests, to find you the best thing to do when you want to do it.

On top of information and events Weotta curates automatically in about 400 U.S. cities, you get more if you sign in via Facebook. Weotta will pay attention to what your friends do if they also use the app and make suggestions based on their interests, too. You can quickly provide tips about a place or event you liked, too, by quickly rating the activity.

If you don't want suggestions, but rather want to find something specific, you can search from it and Weotta will provide you with options based on your query. For example, if you wanted a good restaurant near a concert open late, when the show is over, you can search for just that. Results never get limited to the big and obvious—smaller, lesser-known yet great activities and restaurants show up in your suggestions as well. In some cases, like with movies, you can even buy tickets directly from the app. If you're looking for new stuff to try, fire up Weotta and follow a suggestions. It might just help cure your boredom this weekend.

Weotta (Free) | iTunes App Store

This week on the podcast we're talking about all of Apple's big announcements, the unseen beauty of voice commands, and government spies. We're also answering your questions about downgrading an iPhone, calling a coworker out on his or her BS, and common MacBook Wi-Fi issues.

How to Listen to This Week's Episode

Here's how you can listen to our episode:

• Download the MP3 directly.
• Subscribe on iTunes.
• Subscribe to the RSS feed.
• Just listen to it in the Souncloud player below.

News and Top Stories

• What the NSA Spying Scandal Means for You: The internet is aflame with the news that the National Security Agency may be spying on phone calls and internet access of American citizens, and the possibility that they've partnered with some of the biggest tech companies in the world—Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Skype, and others—to request and access data directly whenever they want it. Let's take a look at what exactly is going on, how long it's been happening, and what—if anything—you can do about it.

• Apple Announces OS X Mavericks, iOS 7, and iTunes Radio: Apple announced the new features in the upcoming versions of their operating systems and plus some new hardware. For the most part, we got a lot of what we wanted. Among them, iTunes Radio! Will it be any good? Hopefully!

• Google Acquires Waze: Google just announced that it has acquired Waze, the company that utilizes a large swath of crowd-sourced data to refine maps and traffic routes. Read more here.

• Get the Best Features of OS X Mavericks Now: Apple won't release OS X 10.9 Mavericks until fall, but you can get many of the best features announced in the next version of the desktop operating system through third party apps and plug-ins.

• Get the Best Features of iOS 7 Now: iOS 7 won't be coming to your iPhone and iPad until this fall, but a lot of its best features are available through third-party apps and jailbreak hacks right now. If you want to get in on the action early, here a few ways to add some of the new functionality right now.

• When Does It Make Sense to Buy Apple? People who buy Macs generally make the purchase not just for the hardware but for the Apple ecosystem. When you buy a Mac, Apple expects (or, at least, wants) you to partake in their grand lifestyle design. In some ways, they lock you into this. In others, you can buy a Mac and use it as a Windows PC instead. Apple hardware sometimes offers distinct advantages over its PC counterparts and its worth the cost.

• Everything You Didn’t Know You Could Do with Google’s Voice Commands: Voice search is one of those features that seems silly, but is awesome once you start using it. Not convinced? Here are a few ways to turn voice search from a silly gimmick into a useful productivity tool.

Questions and Answers

• My MacBook Air has a ton of Wi-Fi issues, even with multiple routers. What’s the deal? Oh, so many things could be the deal. You might need to clean up keychain permissions, reset network settings, re-install the entire OS, or go to the Genius Bar and get it fixed. Like most OS X updates, 10.8.4 is supposed to fix Wi-Fi issues. If you haven't updated yet, give that a try as well.

• How do I call out a coworker on his or her BS? Like this. (Also this.)
• Can I downgrade my iPhone back to iOS 6 if I install the iOS 7 beta and don't like it? The short answer: no. The long answer: in some very specific cases but you still shouldn't do it because it's pretty freakin' risky. But you can read this for more info (but you shouldn't—just give up).
• What things can I safely have CCleaner remove when I run it? Pretty much everything, but you might want to avoid the registry. In fact, yes, do avoid cleaning the registry.

Tips of the Week

• Thorin’s Tip: Know What Drowning Really Looks Like

• Whitson’s Tip: Customize Gmail’s Confusing New Interface

• Dachis’ Tip: Use an Acorn Cap to Whistle for Help if You Get Lost in the Woods

Downloads of the Week

• Thorin’s Pick: Slicereader (Mac)

• Whitson’s Pick: Android Lost (Android)

• Dachis’ Pick: Backupify Migrator Migrates Your Gmail Data to Another Account (Web)

How Do I Submit a Question?

There are two ways to send in your question:

• Call (347) 687-8109 and record a question. Calls are awesome! We like them!
• Email your question to tips+asklhshow@lifehacker.com.

Please keep your questions as brief as possible. This means about 3-5 sentences for emails and 30-60 seconds for calls and videos. Your questions can be specific, but broader questions are generally better because they'll apply to more people. For example, "how can I breathe new life into my old PDA?" is much better than "what can I do with an old HP iPAQ 210?" Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!