Inflatable seat belts. At a glance, that doesn’t seem like such a bad idea after all, particularly for those rear seat passengers who aren’t blessed with two huge bags or air right in front of their chest. We’re guessing the top brass at Ford feel pretty much the same way, as the outfit has just announced that these very devices will be making their debut in the next-generation Ford Explorer before rolling out across the fleet. Of course, Lexus is also planning to shove these into its ultra-luxurious LFA (which will probably make a grand total of 14 wealthy owners feel really, really safe), but it’s tough to tell which vehicle will hit the showroom first. Jump past the break for a vid.

Continue reading Ford’s inflatable seat belts headed to Explorer in 2010, other whips in due time (video)

Filed under: Transportation

Ford’s inflatable seat belts headed to Explorer in 2010, other whips in due time (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Lifehacker readers remind us to take care of the skeletons lurking in our passwords, highlight some lesser known Quick Look functionality for OS X users, and demonstrate some clever methods to track torrents.

Don’t like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page.

About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox (tips at lifehacker.com), 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.

Quicker Full Screens with Quick Look

Claudio has a quick tip for Mac OS users:

I found out something about Quick Look that I hadn’t read about anywhere before and I thought was cool. If you hold down alt/option when you press the space bar, the Quick Look goes straight to a full screen. I find it useful when opening many paged PDFs, or videos in Quick Look.

Keep Track of the Skeletons in Your Passwords

Photo by llamnudds

Daniel wrote in with some advice for those who use skeleton passwords (i.e., single passwords that get you into multiple accounts) or base passwords:

A lot of people can’t help but have skeleton key passwords. There are lots of reasons for it, and everyone knows it’s a bad idea. Still, though, some, maybe even most people use skeleton key passwords. Skeleton key passwords can be very hard to guess (i.e. kc923kja92l), but it can be very easy to compromise someone’s entire online identity – maybe even a bank account or two.

For those that must use the same passwords for multiple things, it’s a good idea to split them up into two categories: Big websites and small websites.

Instead of having to remember which password goes to which account, for those skeleton-key fanatics, just use two passwords. One for big websites, such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc., and another for small websites, which have a higher chance of revealing your password, whether you want to or not. I.e. sites that aren’t mainstream, aren’t as big or accountable, etc. Examples would be local e-shops for your area, a local website, or something of the sort.

Another derivative of this method is adding another password for IM Clients, which are also popularly revealed from files kept on your computer. However, this isn’t part of the main method, just an option.

Do you have a global method for selecting passwords—or do you generate unique, secure passwords for every site you register with? Does it differ between large, “trusted” sites and smaller ones?

Keep Track of Torrents for Later Download

Adam Rekerdres tells us how he keeps track of the torrents we find while browsing at work:

We all know that sites like Mininova have a bookmarking feature that lets you choose torrents to download. But you are out of luck if you are on a tracker that doesn’t have this feature. What if you are browsing along at work and find a torrent that you want?

We know about web.ui, but I couldn’t get it to work, and I think you have to have an open port, so that nixes using it at work.

The hack I came up with uses the application Read It Later.

All you do is set your torrent program to download from your personal Read It Later RSS feed. Then, when you find a torrent, you right click on the torrent file, and click “Read It Later”. Done.

Obviously, your torrent program won’t download the web pages and articles that you also have tagged on Read It Later.

This also works on the iPhone with the Read It Later Pro application ($2.99). The pro app has a “tap to save” feature where you can tap on links and save them to your Read It Later feed. Now you are remote controlling torrents with the iPhone!

Pretty simple! Works like a charm.

Keeping Tattoos Covered at Work

Photo by daphonque

Brianna told us about how she deals with her work dress code:

My job doesn’t allow for visible tattoos and while most of mine are easy to cover, I’ve got one on the back of my neck that shows whenever my hair is up. I used to be stuck either keeping my hair down or trying to cover everything up with make up. But then a friend gave me the stupidest, yet best suggestion ever: wear a scarf. It’s easy to pull off even in a professional environment and it keeps my tattoo covered. I still don’t have a good solution for the one on my upper arm..other than longer sleeves.

Does anyone have any solutions for Brianna’s other tattoo? How do you cover your own? Do you even need to cover them up or does your job allow for visible body art?

Pillowcases are one thing, toss them in with the rest of the linens and be done with it. Pillows on the other hand require special care to save them from a fate of mildewed lumpiness.

You can do some things to extend the time between laundering like changing your pillow case frequently and keeping a pillow protector on the actual pillow, but eventually anything that spends as much time close to your body as a pillow will need to be properly laundered. How frequently? They weigh in on pillow care at the home-centric blog Re-Nest:

It’s a good idea to wash a pillow every year or so. Mom used to take them to the dry cleaner, where the stuffing would be taken out, bathed in chemicals, and then put in a fresh, new case. But we try to avoid dry cleaning in general and it seems like an especially bad idea to put all those chemicals right next to your head every night. So, how do you wash a pillow if you’re not going to dry clean it?

They go on to share a simple process involving the hottest water your washer can provide, to kill off dust mites, and a gentle detergent like Woolite. Check out the full article for a point by point run down on how to launder your pillow and, most importantly, how to properly dry it.

Contest: Win The Ultimate iPhone Application Package
File transfers via soundwave
LEGO! Flash Drives!
Good idea, bad idea: Updating old games’ textures for great justice?
Exclusive: Sit down with Rob Spence aka Eyeborg [Update]

It’s not as good as gold, but according to Microsoft’s Partner Program website, Windows 7‘s release candidate is due out to the masses on May 5, a bit earlier than the BBC report had previously noted. MSDN and TechNet subscribers can apparently download the new build now, although Ars Technica is reporting it may not be up just yet. There’s always the chance that this date was posted in error or will be pushed back, so in the meantime, perhaps marking your calendar with pencil or erasable pen isn’t such a bad idea.

[Via Ars Technica; thanks, John]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablet PCs

Windows 7 RC coming May 5 for public consumption, out now for MSDN / TechNet subscribers originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments