This week on the podcast we're talking about phantom vibrations in your pocket, free Wi-Fi for everyone (with cable internet), and life at your local hackerspace. Also, we're solving Apple TV jailbreak problems, speeding up slow Windows boot times, and getting Chrome to keep your activity a secret.

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News and Discussion

Phantom Cellphone Vibration Syndrome
Phantom cellphone vibration syndrome describes that moment when you think your phone is vibrating but you've just imagined it. It's easy to develop a habit that encourages to check our phones often when there are constant notifications. The trick to eliminating—or at least minimizing—this effect is limiting your notifications.

Google Chrome Becomes the Number One Web Browser
Google Chrome has displaced Internet Explorer as the most popular browser on the web. This is pretty big, considering Microsoft held the majority long after Internet Explorer became pretty widely hated. Although IE9 is definitely an improvement over past versions, it's still not that great. Another browser's assumption of the number one title has been long overdue. As mostly Chrome users here at Lifehacker, we're happy to see it take the top spot.

Cable Companies Are Bringing Free Wi-Fi "Everywhere"
Want Wi-Fi virtually anywhere you go? Major cable providers are banding together to offer free Wi-Fi for their collective customers. That means if you subscribe to any of the participating cable providers for internet access, you'll receive access to any of their Wi-Fi hotspots around town. This is really great if you use Wi-Fi on the go, and at least a nice bonus if you don't. It also serves to demonstrate how uncompetitive the cable companies are, which has always been a problem. At least this time around we're reaping a benefit of it.

How to Get Involved with a Local Hackerspace
Last week Alan took a look at Hackerspaces and showed us how to get involved. What's a Hackerspace? It's a place you can go in your local community to complete projects with other DIYers. It's a good place to get help from others plus share tools.

Questions and Answers

Each week we answer a few questions from readers and listeners. Here's what we tackled this week.

How can I speed up my sluggish Windows boot time?
Whitson offers up a bunch of solutions. For a rundown, check out our Top 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer's Boot Time.

How can I automatically delete my web history and cache when closing Chrome?
Go to chrome://settings/content and check the box next to "Clear cookies and other site and plug-in data when I quit my browser." We offer a couple of alternatives in the podcast, but that's the specific answer to the question.

Can I jailbreak an Apple TV 3? If not, is there any disadvantage to buying the Apple TV 2?
There is no jailbreak for the Apple TV 3 yet, and the most recent 5.1.1 jailbreak doesn't include one. On the plus side, the latest jailbreak includes a method for iOS 5.1.1 on the Apple TV 2. Additionally, Seas0nPass, the primary jailbreak for the Apple TV 2, now supports iOS 5. Learn how to install it and install XBMC—the main reason to jailbreak in the first place.

Because the Apple TV 3 has yet to be jailbroken, Apple TV 2s are currently fetching a high price on the resale market. If you're really set on a jailbroken Apple TV 2 you might want to consider waiting around. That said, there are plenty of other awesome set top boxes. The Verge offers an in-depth comparison of most of them. If you're looking for an XBMC-like experience, Google TV can run Plex and it's basically the same thing (and, in some ways, better). You can also just build an XBMC box on the cheap.

Downloads of the Week

Each week we talk about our favorite downloads. Here are our picks for this week.

Lifehacker Mini Apps
We've been working together to create some posts with built-in mini apps to help you learn if it's legal to use headphones in your state, get a good workout in just 20 minutes, and customize your function keys. Be sure to check them out.

MailStore (Windows)
MailStore is a single-purpose app that connects to your email, backs it up, and doesn't bother you otherwise. It's just about perfect.

Download MailStore

Windownaut (OS X)
Windownaut overhauls window management on your Mac so you can arrange your windows in a multitude of ways, customize the functions of its title bar buttons, and lots more.

Download Windownaut

Sworkit (Web/iOS/Android)
Sworkit generates random workouts that focus on various parts of the body (or all of it) that can last anywhere from five minutes to an hour. It's a lot like our 20 minute workout mini-app, but it works for variable timeframes and you can take it with you on your mobile device.

Download Sworkit

ReadyForZero (iOS)
Previously mentioned debt-management webapp ReadyForZero has come to the iPhone to help you stay on top of your financial obligations anywhere you take your mobile device. It assists by tracking payment due dates, showing you an overall look at your current debt situation, and reminding you when it's time for a payment so you can ensure you don't miss it.

How Do I Submit a Question?

There are three ways to send in your question:

• Record a video, upload it somewhere, and send a link to tips+asklhshow@lifehacker.com
• 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!

This podcast was edited by Kyle J. Norris.

Newspaper, Computer, and Clock (by Brandon Hopkins) provided by the Noun Project.

Flickr user eddybelluci labored over this desktop, making it just right for his needs, and perfectly suited to his widescreen display. The end result looks great—feeds, weather, and notifications on the left, time, date, music controls, and quick access to apps on the right, and work in the center. We like.

It's definitely a little busy, but if you have a large, wide display, there's plenty of room for everything. Want the same look for your Windows desktop? Here's how to make it happen:

• The wood-paneled wallpaper from Wallbase
• The Rainmeter system management and configuration tool for Windows
• The Enigma skin for Rainmeter to create the sidebar on the left
• The xClock add-on for Rainmeter to create the large system clock on the right
• The All-in-One Player for Rainmeter to control the music from the desktop
• The Gnometer skin for Rainmeter to create the Wi-Fi, battery, gmail, µTorrent, and Word of the Day status widgets on the right side of the screen
• The Omnimo skin for Rainmeter for the sleep/restart/lock/hibernate buttons in the lower right
• The Google Bar for Rainmeter for the search bar in the upper right
• RocketDock for the application launcher at the bottom of the screen
• The Cupo skin for Rocketdock to customize and center the dock
• The Variations icon packs and Flurry icon sets to replace the default system icons
• The Leaf visual style for Windows 7 to darken Aero a bit and give the glass a smoky, tinted look
• The Red Ribbon Start Orb to replace the Windows Start button

There are a lot of components, but thankfully you can pick and choose among them to create as much or as little of the overall look as you like. Eddybelluci mentioned that he did have to tweak the fonts in most of the plugins to make sure the look was the same across all of them, but aside from that most of it was easy to install. Still need a little help? Check out our guide to setting up Rainmeter or drop by eddybelluci's Flickr page to ask a question, or to just let him know how much you like his desktop!

Mac users can get some (but obviously not all) of this action with GeekTool and our getting started guide to using it. If you're a Linux user, the Conky system utility and some shell themes can get you most, if not all of the way there.

Do you have a gorgeous, productive, informative desktop you'd like to see featured at Lifehacker? Post it to the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Flickr Group, and please include a description of how you made it. You never know, it may be the next featured desktop!

Red Ribbons and Wood Desktop | Flickr

Dear Lifehacker,
I recently updated my video drivers and discovered that a lot of my other drivers were out of date. Do I really need to keep them updated all the time? Will I notice any improvements in speed or features if I have the latest versions?

Sincerely,
Disorganized Drivers

Dear Disorganized,
Drivers can be pretty confusing, and while we've talked about them a bit before, there are a few things everyone should know about how to manage their drivers and when to update them. Here's the most important stuff.

The Golden Rule of Drivers: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

Before you go obsessing about up-to-date drivers, you should note that, while we always recommend you keep your software updated for security and stability, drivers are another matter. While you should keep an eye on any security updates that pop up, different driver versions can introduce stability problems, so if your hardware is working as expected, you're better off not updating, since you never know when it might cause problems. You'll rarely get big speed or feature boosts from a driver update, so unless you see in the release notes that there's something big, you're usually okay to just ignore it.

Instead, only update your drivers if you're having a problem with your hardware. Say your ethernet connection drops occasionally, or your printer isn't printing properly. In this case, one of the first troubleshooting steps you should take is to update the driver, since these issues may be fixed in a new update.

The main exception to this rule is video drivers. Unlike other drivers, video drivers are updated often and usually with big performance increases, especially in new games. Heck, a recent Nvidia update increased Skyrim performance by 45%, and the driver after that increased its performance by another 20%. If you're a Skyrim player, that's a huge boost. So, when you see that your video card has a new driver available, see what improvements the driver offers—if it offers system-wide performance improvements or improvements in a game you're currently playing, you'll definitely want to update. If it doesn't, stick with the current driver.

Where to Get Your Drivers

So you need to install or update a driver, but you often have a few choices in where you get it from. When you first plug in a device, Windows will often install its own generic version of the driver itself, and your device will get basic functionality right away. For some things this is fine, but oftentimes you'll find that downloading the driver from the manufacturer's web site gives you lots of extra features. Sound drivers may give you things like virtual surround or room correction, while video drivers will usually give you a whole control panel of options that let you customize your graphics performance, features like Nvidia's PhysX, and more. In general, there are three different places you'll find drivers, and here's how they differ:

• From the chipset manufacturer's web site: This is the first place you'll usually want to look. The chipset manufacturer is the company that designed the original video or sound chip, e.g. Nvidia or Realtek. These companies often have the very latest drivers available before anyone else. Some drivers (like Nvidias) will come with extra features, while others (like Realtek) will only offer the latest generic drivers.
• From the hardware manufacturer's web site: If you find that you have problems with the chipset manufacturer's drivers, or that they only offer generic drivers with no extra features, your next stop should be the hardware manufacturer. This is the person who made the actual hardware, like EVGA or XFX for video cards, and companies like Gigabyte or MSI for motherboards (which often include things like sound and ethernet). If you have a laptop, you'll want to go to your laptop manufacturer's site instead, e.g. Asus or Lenovo.
• Directly from Windows: Windows' generic drivers are usually the bare minimum of what you need for something to work. It isn't ideal for most things, but in some cases—like printers—that's exactly what you want. If you visit your printer's web site, they'll only offer you a driver that includes a bunch of software that may include other features, but not necessarily ones you'll use. Regular printing and scanning is already built right into Windows, and you don't need photo editors, cloud services, and other junk bloating up your machine. So instead of getting drivers from the manufacturer, just get them right from Windows as described below.
• From the CD that came with your device: You'll almost never want to do this. These drivers are probably outdated by the time you get the computer up and running, so you should download the drivers from one of the above sources instead. The only exception: ethernet drivers, if Windows doesn't have them built-in. Obviously if you start up your computer and can't access the internet, you can't download drivers. So install the ethernet drivers from the CD, connect to the internet, and download all your other drivers online.

How to Update Your Drivers

When it comes time to update, the process is very simple. Just open up Device Manager (by clicking on the Start orb and typing "device manager" into the search box) and right-clicking on the hardware you want to update. Click Properties and go to the Driver tab. Here, you can see your current driver version. If you're updating through Windows, click "Update Driver" to update it. If not, check the driver's version number and head to the manufacturer's web site. If their driver number is newer than the one you have, an update is available and you can read up on it, if necessary. Then, just download the installer from there and run it like you would any other program. When you're done, you should have shiny new drivers ready to help you get the best out of your hardware.

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

P.S. Got any extra driver-related tips to share? Favorite features you found in another version of a driver? Share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments.

Photo remixed from boroboro , tele52, DVARG, and Diagon (Shutterstock).

If you don't like the alert sounds that came with that new app you just downloaded, they're actually pretty easy to change—and you don't even need to jailbreak your phone. Here's how to do it.

Note that unfortunately, this only works with non-Apple apps that use their own alert tones. If the app is using a tone that came with the iPhone (like Google Voice's app does), you'll need to be jailbroken to change it. Jailbreaking isn't that hard though, so if you haven't given it a shot, try it out and download previously mentioned PushTone to make the entire process super simple. If you don't want to jailbreak, here's how to change an alert tone.

1. Download and install iExplorer. This program will let you browse your iPhone's file system and change the files contained within, including the custom alert tones that come bundled within each app.
2. Plug your iOS device into your computer and start up iExplorer. It may take a second to start up, so just let it sit while it loads.
3. Find the app whose notification you want to change in the left sidebar and double-click on it. Head into the sub-folder with the app's name. For example, if we're looking to change Sparrow's notification sound, you'd go into com.sparrowmailapp.iphoneapp/Sparrow.app.
4. Scroll through the list of files until you find the file you want with a .caf file extension. These are going to be the notification sounds the app uses. Find the one you want to change, and note its filename.
5. Next, find the file you want to use as the tone for that app. You can either get these online, take them from another app, or make your own using software like Audacity. Whatever you do, make sure its in the same format as the tone you're replacing. If the tone you're replacing is in .aif format, just convert your new tone to .aif using your audio converter of choice. If it's in .caf, convert your tone to .aif and change the file extension to .caf.
6. Rename your desired tone so its filename matches the one you want to replace. Then, just drag it into iExplorer to replace the app's default tone. You should get a prompt asking if you want to delete the original. Click OK to confirm.
7. Lastly, remove your device and close iExplorer. You should find that your app now uses your new tone!

You'll want to keep your customized tones on your computer somewhere for safekeeping, since the app will replace them with the defaults whenever it updates. It isn't the easiest solution, but it's pretty nice to have the option if you don't want to jailbreak. Check out the video above to see the tutorial step-by-step.

Photo remixed from VikaSuh.