13 New Articles on MakeUseOf |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [May 3rd 2013]
- Twiterature – The Art Of Literature On Twitter
- 4 Must-Have iPhone Apps For Cyclists [iOS]
- Mail Pilot Turns Your Inbox Into a To-Do Manager [iOS]
- You Are The Law: Dredd vs Zombies For Windows Phone
- Tired Of Buffering? 3 Ways To Speed Up YouTube
- Connect Your Xbox 360 Controller To Your Linux Gaming Rig
- Want to Rid Yourself of the Android Play Store? Kiss Google Goodbye and Try F-Droid
- 3 Plugins For Easily Migrating A WordPress Site, Tried & Tested
- How To Use Remote Desktop Connections Like An IT Pro
- Find Your Next Solid State Drive With SSDBoss
- Tag Friends On Instagram Photos With The New ‘Photos Of You’ Feature [Updates]
- Introducing Our Best Of Linux Games Page!
| Cool Websites and Tools [May 3rd 2013] Posted: 03 May 2013 09:31 PM PDT
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. The post Cool Websites and Tools [May 3rd 2013] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Twiterature – The Art Of Literature On Twitter Posted: 03 May 2013 08:00 PM PDT
You can find Twitter users sharing their poetry, short stories, and even the work of famous writers, all in little bite-sized 140-character updates. If you’re not sure where to start your literary journey on Twitter, we’ve got a few tips to get you going – from who to follow, what hashtags to keep an eye on, and even how to get your Twitterary works out to a wider audience. Haikus & Micro-PoemsTwitter’s format – limited to 140 characters – lends itself perfectly to short forms of poetry, none more popular than the haiku. Twitter pushes you to be even more creative with your poetry because you know you’re limited to a certain amount of space to convey an idea or emotion – even more so if you want to add a hashtag to make your poem easily searchable. That said, there’s quite the active poetry community on Twitter, sharing their 140-creations on a daily basis. A search of any of the hashtags used by poets (listed below) will show you just how much poetry is being shared on Twitter. Find other poets to follow, interact with, and you’ll find yourself inspired in no time. And you don’t have to stop there. There are even projects which make it possible to get your Twitter poetry published. One example is Seven Twenty (currently on a short hiatus while transitioning editors, but still accepting submissions. In their own words, Seven Twenty is ”an online magazine using Twitter as its publishing platform, for readers at home and on mobile devices.” To find out more on how to submit your work to them, check out their guidelines here. Short Stories
Believe it or not, poetry is not the only literary form being shared on Twitter, with short stories making an appearance too. You might ask yourself how can a short story be written in just 140 characters, but the concept is inspired by what is believed to be a short story written by Earnest Hemingway, challenged to write it in just 6 words. The resulting story "For sale: baby shoes, never worn," is proof that an entire story, from beginning to end can be conveyed in just a few words. There are quite a few successful short story writers on Twitter, some of whom have even gone on to publish their work. Very Short Story is a great example of a writer, Sean Hill, who not only shares his work on Twitter, but even crowdsources his creativity from his followers. He explains on his blog:
With over 150,000 followers, Hill had his work published in a book with the same title as his username.. Literary Masterpieces
While Twitter is a great place to discover new writers who are just getting started, or who are promoting their new work, you can also use Twitter to keep up with some of your favorite classics. There are quite a few carefully curated Twitter accounts featuring excerpts, quotes and more from famous writers work. Just a few of the writers you can find on Twitter are listed below: Hashtags to FollowAside from following Twitter accounts curating the work of famous writers, along with talented upcoming writers, you can also follow specific hashtags to make sure you discover more interesting writers to follow. Below is a list of hashtags, one that is by no means exhaustive, but is a great place to start for finding poetry on Twitter: Can you think of any other literary uses for Twitter? Let us know about them in the comments. The post Twiterature – The Art Of Literature On Twitter appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 Must-Have iPhone Apps For Cyclists [iOS] Posted: 03 May 2013 06:30 PM PDT
If you love riding your bike, this list of applications will be incredibly helpful for you. We’ve found four of the best applications for cyclists of all kinds, whether street, mountain, or beyond. Download the following applications to your iPhone and you will be ready to make the most of your cycling experience. Strava Cycling (Free)This is the best cycling application available on the App Store. It is sitting on a 5-star rating on the US App Store with over 7000 reviews, so it’s clear that the cycling community has responded very well to the features offered in the application. So what are those awesome features? The better question is: what features doesn’t it have?
The app comes with all the GPS tracking you could ever want for keeping track of your rides. It also has the ability to upload your rides so you can share them with friends. You can earn achievements for your runs, which could help motivate some riders to push harder on future excursions. Strava Cycling also has a social aspect where you can follow your friends to keep up on their performance. Did I mention that this app is free? Download it, and you will be glad to have it installed on your iOS device. Map My Ride (Free)This is the GPS application every hardcore biker should have installed on their iOS device. It gives you a ton of features right in your pocket, which will allow you to make the most of your trips, at least in terms of statistics. It allows you to track your route, speed, distance, calories burned, and time. It makes it easy for hardcore bike riders to be able to go back and see how they did on their last run, and whether they’ve made any improvements.
Map My Ride has an easy to use interface, so jumping in and using it to keep track of stats is a breeze. It has so many features that it would take a whole article for me to get them all out. The app is free but comes with a paid option which removes adverts, adds a GPS camera, and offers built-in iPod controls. Download this one on your phone and you will be one happy cyclist. Bike Repair ($3.99)While this app is a little more expensive than the others on the list, the features it offers are critical for anyone who plans to bike fairly great distances. It comes with 64 detailed guides designed to help you through the process of fixing anything that goes wrong with your bike. Each guide has plenty of photos so you can get a visual representation of what you need to do to fix your ride.
In addition to repair guides, Bike Repair also comes with features that to help track replaced parts and a maintenance history for your bike. This will come in handy if you ever want to sell your bicycle, or if you just want to go back see what you have done. The app is potentially very useful in preventing you from getting stranded with a bike problem, and it might even save you some money when you don’t have to pay someone to do the repairs for you. Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal (Free)
If you really want to take your cycling to the next level, you are going to want to be in the best shape possible. This means dieting and exercising. If you cycle enough, that should be your exercise, but you might still want to keep track of what you are eating to make sure your diet is optimized. MyFitnessPal is the perfect application for keeping track of your diet and exercise, which is necessary for any cyclist. Have a look at our full review of MyFitnessPal to see why we like it so much. ConclusionWith these four applications you will be ready to take your cycling game to the next level. Each one offers some powerful features to track performance, perform maintenance and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Serious cyclists should have these installed on their device without question, so grab them now – you won’t regret it. Have you tried these applications? Do you have another app for cyclists that you recommend? Hit the comments section below and let us know! Images: Cyclist driving through a curve (Shutterstock) The post 4 Must-Have iPhone Apps For Cyclists [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mail Pilot Turns Your Inbox Into a To-Do Manager [iOS] Posted: 03 May 2013 05:30 PM PDT
Two recently released iOS mail clients, Mailbox (free, reviewed here), and now Mail Pilot ($14.99) make great use of the iPhone and iPad’s gesture navigation features to help you turn your inbox into a to-do manager for the email you receive. Mail Pilot is not just about checking and reading email, it’s about performing actions with those messages so you can get things done. Mail Pilot’s Basic SetupMail Pilot does include the basic features (inbox, sent messages, compose) you will find in all mail clients, but unlike Mailbox it’s not limited to handling only Gmail. Mail Pilot is also compatible with iCloud, Yahoo Mail, and other custom IMAP and SMTP servers.
Adding accounts is as easy as inputting your username and password, and if you add multiple accounts Mail Pilot puts all your messages into a single inbox. It also syncs and updates messages, folders, and Gmail labels with your computer and web-based counterpart mail clients. Innovative FeaturesWith Mail Pilot you get several choices for handling emails beyond the traditional reply and forwarding of messages. Though the bulk of the messages we receive consists of newsletters and advertisements, family and job-related messages typically require some type of action. In traditional mail clients, you have to save messages to folders for later review. In Mail Pilot you can scrub your finger to the right on a message and choose to Set Aside or set it to appear back in your inbox for review in one to five days. This feature is useful for when you need to respond to or review messages when you have more time, but you don’t want to leave your inbox cluttered with messages you’ve already opened.
Scrubbing your finger to the left on a message provides additional options for assigning the message for review on a specific date in the future, adding it to a custom folder or list, or simply archiving and deleting it. You can also access the same features by tapping on the little red triangle at the bottom-right of a message and tap on the calendar icon to assign a specific date to review a message. Mail Pilot will push messages to the top of your inbox list on the date you assign to them.
Mail Pilot also allows you to move selected messages to your existing mail client folders and labels, and you can also create lists (which are like folders) in Mail Pilot for saving related messages from multiple mail accounts.
You might create lists for collecting messages related to future purchases you’re considering, for compiling email for an upcoming meeting, or simply saving messages you want to review later at some unspecified day and time. On the left menu bar of Mail Pilot, tap on the Set Aside and Dates and Lists buttons to manually view lists and saved messages. Under Dates and Lists you also get the dates you have assigned to messages, in case you want to review them before they arrive back in your inbox.
Messages marked for review can be found in your webmail or computer web client in the folders matching the naming convention in Mail Pilot.
Messages in Mail Pilot can also be acted upon in bulk, which I find is the best and quickest way to get my inbox to zero. To deal with messages in bulk, you first need to scrub a message to the left where all your recent messages will be listed.
It is possible to tap and select individual messages and then choose a particular action listed in the menu bar at the top, such as choosing to delete or archive all selected messages. In Mail Pilot, archived messages are called “Completed” messages. You can tap on the Completed icon in the left menu bar to review those messages. Bulk message handling is not quite as fast in Mail Pilot as it is in Mailbox, where you can archive messages in bulk without first tapping on them individually.
Minor IssuesFor the most part I’m quite pleased with Mail Pilot, especially when assigning dates to messages. But in the case of replying to messages, the app doesn’t include the original message in the reply. The developer got back to me and said that bug will be fixed in the next update. Some users may also find the reply box too small for replying to a message, but personally I find it okay, especially for replying to messages on my mobile devices where I tend to write shorter replies. The price tag for Mail Pilot is also a little steep at $14.99, but if your inbox stays as full as mine, and you’re searching for a better way to manage and review messages, this is one iOS mail client that may be worth the price. The developers clearly have invested a lot of time and thought into creating a clean, well-designed interface with advance features not found in Apple’s own Mail client. Download: Mail Pilot at the App Store ($14.99) Let us know what you think of Mail Pilot. If you already use it, are the features you would like to see added? Leave a comment below. The post Mail Pilot Turns Your Inbox Into a To-Do Manager [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You Are The Law: Dredd vs Zombies For Windows Phone Posted: 03 May 2013 03:30 PM PDT
…it's something else entirely! As a Brit who grew up reading the 2000AD comic, when I first heard about a new Judge Dredd game I was naturally reluctant to try it. As with the character's second movie adventure, I was concerned that it might be a failure, like the last. Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death back in 2003 was embarrassing, while the old platform game of Judge Dredd wasn't much better. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by Dredd vs Zombies, a game with two main game modes (with a third, passive challenge), wave after wave of zombie hordes to kill and in-game purchases. Best of all, however, is the price – Dredd vs Zombies for Windows Phone is free! You Are The Law!Once you launch the game, there are three options open to you: Story mode and the arcade-style Arenas where endless hordes of zombies will attack you (good for earning rewards) and the passive Psi mode, where future crimes can be intercepted and credits earned while you're off doing other things.
Within these game modes are episodes, which are further broken down into levels. Episodes must be completed in order to progress to the next (unless your wallet says otherwise – see below). The story and arcade modes are pretty similar, beginning with a chance to win credits before heading into action – after choosing your weapon. If you have enough credits to upgrade your shooter, you should, but don't use them all up as you also get the chance to equip three types of gear, from armour to extra ammo. There are items to collect during missions, such as shields, health and ammo, all of which affect your final credit score. In-game achievements are available in Dredd vs Zombies, but as this is not an Xbox Live title, success here will not affect your Gamerscore. Control in the game is simple – a joypad on the left of the screen, fire and reload buttons on the right. You can rely on auto-targeting or select a target by tapping – useful for targeting exploding barrels! In-Game Credits & Upgrade OptionUnusually for a free title, Dredd vs Zombies doesn't have a paid "full" version – this is all you get. However, the developers have offered an in-game upgrade option which unlocks later levels in the game for just $1.59 (£1.29), purchased with the credit card you have associated with your Microsoft or Windows Phone account.
This enables you to play all episodes and levels without having previously achieved the ability to do so. Whereas in normal circumstances you would play level A to reach level B, here you make a small payment and head straight into level C, D, Z or B. Similarly, the game offers credit packs for you to purchase with the credit card you have associated with your Microsoft or Windows Phone account. These can be bought in packs of 20,000 through to 550,000, with prices starting at $1.59 all the way up to $30. Whether you opt to use credit packs or if you prefer to play the game normally is up to you, but be aware of what the business model is for this game… Graphics & SoundAs graphics go, this is perhaps one of the most impressive Windows Phone games currently available (which makes its zero price particularly pleasing). Yes, it's cartoony, but then Judge Dredd is a comic book character, isn't he?
Animation of the main and zombie characters is good, as is the bullet time/zoom effect when Dredd scores a significant kill. Graphical glitches are virtually non-existent, and the level design is as strong as the realisation of the main character. Meanwhile, the inter-level artwork is striking, suiting the style of the character and the Mega-City world. The soundtrack is largely adequate, with useful sound effects and the occasional bit of voice artistry for Dredd to utter phrases including the legendary “I am the Law”.
Be the Law!You will find Dredd vs Zombies in the Windows Phone Store, where it is listed free.
If the price doesn't entice you, perhaps the great graphics, atmospheric audios, shoot-em-up gameplay or the option to unlock the game to get an advantage will. Although I've played and enjoyed games such as Rocket Riot and Ilomilo, Dredd vs Zombies is quite possibly the finest game on the Windows Phone platform. If you have a compatible phone and like shooting zombies, you really shouldn’t miss this. The post You Are The Law: Dredd vs Zombies For Windows Phone appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tired Of Buffering? 3 Ways To Speed Up YouTube Posted: 03 May 2013 02:31 PM PDT
Buffering isn’t just a problem for YouTube; services like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO GO all have to buffer their on-demand content. But YouTube is, without a doubt, the largest video streaming site in the world – it's hard to imagine a person who has Internet access yet hasn’t ever heard of it – which means there are a lot of people out there who complain about slow YouTube buffers. The following tips may help you out if your YouTube experience has slowed down so much as to become an inconvenience. Warning: These suggestions should only be pursued at your own discretion. I would never suggest something so dangerous or risky that I would never do it, but MakeUseOf claims no responsibility if you mess up your computer or Internet connection in any way after reading this article. Join YouTube Feather BetaEven though I’ve been an avid YouTube user for many years, I was surprised to learn about a hidden program called YouTube Feather. As far as I know, it was never really pushed to users in a public way; instead, it's an “opt-in” feature that claims that it might be able to speed up your YouTube buffering. It's an official YouTube program so there's some real promise in it.
How does it work? By stripping away nearly every extraneous feature and implementing some advanced web techniques, YouTube reduces the amount of information being sent to you every time you view a video. This means that there's more bandwidth allocated for actual video buffering. It's basically a lightweight version of the service, hence the name YouTube Feather. When you enable YouTube Feather, you: lose the ability to view and write comments; lose the ability to like or dislike videos; only see five related videos per page. I think that's a pretty good trade for faster buffering. However, be aware that YouTube Feather is a work-in-progress so it may not work for all videos. Bypass ISP ThrottlingA few months ago, a guy named Mitch Ribar posted an interesting network tweak for Windows that makes some esoteric changes to the firewall which blocks a big range of IP addresses. I’ve seen this tip circulating around the Internet so I took a deeper look at it and, from what I can see, it should work for most users. The technology behind it works like this. In an effort to preserve bandwidth, some ISPs will throttle bandwidth and download speeds on connections to servers that deliver cached video content, e.g., YouTube. The following command blocks IP addresses on this content delivering network, which forces YouTube to push the actual video straight to you (not the cached version) without any ISP throttling.
If you ever want to remove this alteration from your network, do the same thing except use this command instead:
Since this trick blocks a wide range of IP addresses, you may run into a site every once in a while that's blocked by this trick. Use at your own discretion! Routing Through a Different DNSYou may be able to speed up your YouTube downloads by hooking up your Internet connection to a different DNS, like OpenDNS or Google Public DNS. There's a lot that can be said on DNS optimization – far more than would fit in this article – so just know that it's possible (not guaranteed) that changing DNS could improve your YouTube buffering speed.
Google claims that using its Public DNS service can actually enhance your Internet browsing speed by optimizing the traffic routes between you and your destination servers. But, they offer this caveat:
The bottom line: this trick may or may not work for you. There's no real way to know without going ahead and giving it a try. ConclusionAt the end of the day, one truth remains: your YouTube buffering speed will always be capped by your actual Internet speed. If you have a lousy Basic Package from your ISP and your download rate is limited to snail speeds, you won't be able to buffer faster than that. In other words, the only surefire way to improve your YouTube buffering speed is to upgrade your Internet plan. But assuming you have a fast Internet connection already yet still suffer from poor buffering, you may be able to gain something from the tricks outlined above. Give them a try and report back to us to share your experience! Image Credit: Network Routes Via Shutterstock The post Tired Of Buffering? 3 Ways To Speed Up YouTube appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Connect Your Xbox 360 Controller To Your Linux Gaming Rig Posted: 03 May 2013 02:00 PM PDT
Of course, a controller isn't just useful for playing games on your television. Some types of games — 2D platformers, for example — cry out to be played with a controller. One of the PC’s strengths — whether it’s running Linux or Windows — is offering a variety of options for controlling games. Connecting an Xbox 360 ControllerThe Xbox 360 controller has a USB connection, so you can plug it into your Linux PC's USB port, just as you would on Windows. On most Linux distributions — including the latest versions of Ubuntu — the Xbox 360 controller should work without any more tweaking required. You can test if the Xbox 360 controller is working by opening a terminal and running the following command:
If you see information saying the xpad driver was registered, you’ll know that the controller has been recognized by your Linux system.
The Xbox 360 controller is recognized using the "xpad" kernel driver. You may want to Google the name of your Linux distribution and "xpad" for instructions on making it work if it doesn't. Assuming the controller is working, you can now fire up games that support it and play them. For example, you can launch Steam, click the Big Picture icon in the top-right corner, and use the controller to navigate through Steam's Big Picture mode and launch games. Whether a game supports the controller will depend on that game's developers. Some games will respond to the controller immediately — for example, it works fine with Valve's free-to-play Team Fortress 2. Some games will have configuration screens where you can configure them to acknowledge your controller. Some games disappoint by ignoring the controller and providing no configuration options. The controller should work particularly well with the wide variety of emulators available for Linux. They'll all allow you to customize the input controls you use. Emulators have always been one of the highlights of gaming on Linux.
Connecting a Wireless Xbox 360 ControllerUnfortunately, a wireless Xbox 360 controller doesn't communicate over standard Bluetooth, so you can't pair it directly with your Linux PC. (You can't pair it directly with a Windows PC, either.) To connect a wireless Xbox 360 controller to your Linux PC, you'll need the same Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver adapter you'd need for a Windows PC. Just plug the adapter into your computer's USB port and you should be able to use the wireless controller normally. The wired controller is better-supported by Linux’s drivers, so you may run into a few issues with the wireless controller — but it should work. Playing Unsupported Games, Using Other Xbox 360 Controllers, and MoreLet’s say you want to use your Xbox 360 controller with a game that doesn't support it. On Windows, you'd use joy2key to remap the controller's inputs to key presses, allowing it work in games that only respond to key presses. On Linux, you can do this by installing the xboxdrv driver. This driver provides many more configuration options as well as support for other Xbox 360 controller, such as ones made by Logitech and other companies. You can easily install it on Ubuntu by running the commands on its web page. xboxdrv provides an extreme amount of options, including the ability to tweak everything about the controller’s input, create startup scripts that launch games with special options that allow you to create per-game controller button-to-key remappings, and more. You'll find a huge amount of information on the xboxdrv manual page.
The Xbox 360 controller is probably the most compatible controller out there at the moment, so it's one of the best choices for playing games on Linux. When Valve finally releases their own dedicated controller for their Steambox consoles, this may change — but the Xbox 360 controller is where it's at for now, whether you're gaming on Windows, Linux, or even Android. Have you ever set up an Xbox 360 controller on Linux? Do you have any other tips, or do you prefer another controller? Leave a comment and share your experience! The post Connect Your Xbox 360 Controller To Your Linux Gaming Rig appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Want to Rid Yourself of the Android Play Store? Kiss Google Goodbye and Try F-Droid Posted: 03 May 2013 12:00 PM PDT
In light of recent malware outbreaks in the Play Store, all of us should seek more secure download locations. Security, Transparency and Open SourceWhile the Play Store frequently removes malicious apps, it’s oftentimes after users install them—this clearly causes security issues. F-Droid doesn’t have that same weakness. As mentioned above, the apps downloadable through F-Droid are both free and open-source. F-Droid requires that all developers upload their source-code to the F-Droid site. This allows F-Droid to audit the code before compiling it, making sure it performs as indicated.In addition, F-Droid itself is an open-source app, meaning it also underwent auditing by developers. For those of you concerned with Android security software, I suggest reading Matt’s article on Android anti-virus apps. However, at present, Android antivirus products provide better utility by scanning apps from shady corners of the internet. The vast majority of Play Store programs are clean of malware. Getting Started with F-DroidTo get started with F-Droid, simply download and install the app. After starting F-Droid, at the title screen you’ll be presented with several of the newest apps to hit its depository. To see a complete list of available apps, click on the “What’s New” menu button. The context box that drops down will filter the apps by category.
Unfortunately, F-Droid hasn’t yet made accommodations for a review system, so it’s hard to tell what’s worth installing and what’s not worth your time. Although out of the many apps I’ve tried, none have disappointed. Installation: To download an app, simply click on it from the app manifest and then go to the menu button in the upper-right hand side of the screen, indicated by the tri-dot. From the content menu choose “install“. After that, the app should download and install itself.
Just Five of F-Droid’s Awesome AppsThere’s a tremendous number of great apps contained over at F-Droid. I suggest trying out at least these five: AFWall+: AFWall+ gives you complete control over what data resources your apps access. For example, AFWall+ can configure to permit or deny access to Wi-Fi, 3G or mobile data, on an app-by-app basis. This app ranks among some of the most amazing software in the app store for those seeking to control run-away privacy and battery drain issues caused by Google’s software. If you use a limited data plan, like I do, you’ll want your apps to prefer Wi-Fi over other connections. For other kinds of apps, you may want to completely restrict Internet access. You can also However, apps like Google Maps often require priority access to 3G—fortunately, you may specify how that app accesses the Internet, allowing it either 3G or 4G access. CSipSimple: Yes, it’s true—there’s an open source VOIP app available for free on Android. CSipSimple provides a variety of features that paid VOIP programs don’t. It includes features such as call recording, a large list of codecs and an easy-to-use configuration wizard. After playing around with a variety of VOIP apps, it’s my impression that CSipSimple offers the most features for the least amount of configuration hassle.
Sudoku Free: For those of you who enjoy games, F-Droid comes equipped with a very large library of titles, ranging from Tetris clones to RPGs. My favorite game, Sudoku, provides me with hours of entertainment while trying to kill time.
Just kidding, I’ve never even completed a single game of Sudoku due to rage-quitting and being semi-illiterate. On the other hand, the game has given me a new appreciation for extremely difficult games. If you’ve never played Sudoku, I highly recommend checking it out. Ghost Commander: Ever since Solid Explorer left beta and went paid, I’ve been looking for a great dual-pane file explorer—that’s a tall order to fill, since Solid Explorer was the best of its kind that I had ever seen. Fortunately, MakeUseOf user Joe Botha recently introduced me to Ghost Commander, which eclipses Solid Explorer in many ways: First, it offers the same dual-pane interface. Second, it includes a great deal more on-screen information such as a dedicated exit button and direct link to local storage, such as an SD card. If you’ve ever interacted with read/write permissions in Android, a dual pane navigator is a must.
RedReader Beta: Out of the half dozen Reddit apps I’ve tried, RedReader comes out on top. If you log in, it offers direct access to your subscribed subreddits. It also includes long-press upvoting and other context options. Overall, it’s one of the best (if not the actual best) Reddit reading apps out there.
ConclusionF-Droid is an amazing place to find free, open-souce apps. Its greatest advantage: Superior security and transparency when compared to the Google Play app store. As an added bonus, anyone can safely install anything within its walls and rest comfortably knowing that all its apps come ad free. For those of you on the fence about contributing to open source projects, check out Erez’s article on why you should. Even if you lack coding skills, there’s still ways to pitch in. Image Credits: Supermarket Aisle via MorgueFile.com; Robot via MorgueFile.com The post Want to Rid Yourself of the Android Play Store? Kiss Google Goodbye and Try F-Droid appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 Plugins For Easily Migrating A WordPress Site, Tried & Tested Posted: 03 May 2013 11:00 AM PDT
So today, I’m going to try out 3 plugins which can semi-automate this entire process for you. I’ll be migrating data from an old domain of mine, to a new site, both running on a virtual private server. Duplicator (Free)Duplicator promises a three-step migration process. After installing the plugin, you’ll find a quick link to the manage page from the plugins list.
It’s probably best to start to checking your servers compatibility with the plugin. Here’s what I ended up with.
Though, I’m fairly certain the Open Base dir restriction isn’t relevant due to the version of PHP I run on this server, so perhaps they need to update. Nevertheless, I will go ahead and create my first package. Packages are the contents of your database and files, all wrapped up in one. Click the create button in the top right, or if your package set is currently blank there should be a link in the center of the screen for you. My test site is fairly small, with only 30 posts and little else – this gave me a pre-zip size of 50mb. After clicking create, it’ll go to work. You can view the log if you’re curious, but mine was completed within seconds. You’re then presented with two buttons for file downloads, and instructed to grab both the “installer” and the “package”.
There are some advanced options too under the settings panel; you can email when the package is complete, if it’s taking too long. You can exclude directories or certain file extensions; and pre-populate the installer fields (though this is not required). I kept all the defaults. Upload both to your new site, via FTP. Duplicator aims to replicate the entire setup for you, from databases to core WordPress files, which is clever – I was expecting to have to set up a basic functional WordPress, but apparently not. On with the testing then, I uploaded the package and installer.php file. Now the fun begins. Launch the installer.php – on the new domain now – from your browser, and you see something like this:
The only details you’ll need to add are the DB access details; while Duplicator can create the individual tables, you’ll still need a mysql user and database set up for it to use. Check the database connection, accept the disclaimer, and proceed with the install.
You’ll even be given the option of re-activating plugins, which is pretty nifty.
Finally, there’s a list of steps you need to click manually. These involve re-writing the permalinks file, deleting the installer, and finally testing the site. I’m happy to report that everything was 100% working and fine; the site was exactly as it had been before, but with a new domain and title. Fantastic! Total time to migrate: less than 10 minutes (though this will vary upon the size of the site in question). WordPress Move (Free)Once installed, WordPress Move adds a Migration Assistant link under the Tools sub-menu. It present 3 options:
Before using migrate, you will need to configure the plugin from the settings sub-menu so I proceeded to do that. this involves adding FTP access details for the new site. The only complicated bit here is the relative path; in my case this was: httpdocs/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-move/backup You also need to have WordPress and the wpmove plugin installed at the other end. This was quite a disappointment considering Duplicator could operate without that, and it added a good 30 minutes onto the process. Sigh.
With a fresh WordPress installed, and the WordPress Move plugin also added, I headed back to begin the transfer process from the old site. Type the ftp password, the new domain name, and hit start migration. …Error. I try changing the port number, remember that I usually connect using secure FTP (typically port 22) rather than the unsecure regular FTP protocol. Even though both should work. Again, connection error. At this point, I’m calling it quits on this particular plugin. Maybe your luck would be better, but honestly why would you even try with this when the Duplicator plugin works so well?
Backup Buddy (Premium, from $50)(Hint: a quick Google search will reveal a 33% discount coupon, but I don’t think it would be fair to republish that here) The process of backing up and restoring a site is much the same as migrating, so it’s no surprise that a premium and well respected backup plugin such as this has added “magic migrate” functionality to its already extensive feature list. The only setup needed here is to first create a restoration password from the settings pages.
Before migration can occur, an initial backup must be taken. Choose the “complete backup” type, and begin. Then head over to the restore/migrate area, and select automated restore/migration. Hover over the latest backup and an option to “migrate this backup” should appear.
You’ll need to setup a new target for the backup to be sent to. I added the FTP details for the new site and confirmed they were working, but unfortunately it ran into errors along the way when it was trying to access newdomain.com/httpdocs (this was the subdirectory for public HTML files that I had to set, but it shouldn’t be in the URL); I eventually figured out how to get this working by creating a new FTP user which defaulted to the HTTPDOCS directory.
At this point, the process is basically identical to Duplicator; you can choose the manual mode which will actually give you a similar “importbuddy.php” and backup file to download then upload to the new site over FTP, or if you managed to make the FTP work it can all be done from within the old WordPress install. During the process, you enter database information, and everything else is done for you. As a final step, the install files are deleted and some common problems and their solutions are presented.
Essentially then, the migration portion of Backup Buddy is almost identical to Duplicator, just with FTP upload step removed, if you can correctly configure the access details. Of course, Backup Buddy’s real power lies in the backups, but it’s difficult to recommend it purely as a migration tool, especially considering the premium price tag. Total time to migrate: about 30 minutes, though this was particular to my FTP accounts setup. Don’t forget to 301 the old domainIt’s almost certain that you’ll want to redirect all traffic and search engine “love” to the new domain – use a 301 redirect for this. Simply replace the current .htaccess file with the following, replacing newdomain.com. Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteRule (.*) http://newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L] If you’re using webmaster tools to inform of the site re-location, you’ll need to add an exception for the Google confirmation file. Replace the googleXXXX.html in the following code with your particular verification URL. Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/googleXXXX.html/?$ RewriteRule (.*) http://newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L] That’s it, site migrated, traffic redirected and no search engine love lost. Verdict: Duplicator winsI had expected the premium tool to be the superior product in all aspects, but in this case I actually want to give the prize to Duplicator – and it’s 100% free. It lacks the fully automated aspect of BackupBuddy – assuming you get the settings right, that is – but anyone running self-hosted WordPress should be able to download and upload a few files to FTP, so I’m not sure that’s to such a great detriment to Duplicator. The fact that it presents clear advice and instructions at every step is also really appreciated; I was never in doubt as to do what to do next with Duplicator. Stay well away from WordPress Move at all costs though – it’s just far too fiddly. Do you know of any better solutions? Let me know in the comments, and in the meantime be sure to check out our Best WordPress Plugins page, to which Duplicator will surely be added soon. The post 3 Plugins For Easily Migrating A WordPress Site, Tried & Tested appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To Use Remote Desktop Connections Like An IT Pro Posted: 03 May 2013 10:00 AM PDT
Here at MakeUseOf, we’ve covered a number of ways to make use of remote access tools. Aaron put together a very comprehensive list of remote access tools. A few years ago, I showed readers how to offer tech support to family and friends using Netviewer, and Justin exercised some creativity and showed you how you could use a remote tool to manage Torrents. Whatever the flavor of remote apps we’ve covered, the meat and potatoes of the corporate IT remote management is still the good old Remote Desktop Connection built right into the Windows operating system. So long as the person using the tool has rights on the remote PC to access it using remote desktop, then it’s one of the easiest ways to manage that remote system or server. There’s always going to be a place for remote control apps like VNC servers and clients, because those tools typically let the user see you log into the computer and watch what you are doing while you’re connected. With a remote desktop connection however, you are creating an actual session on that machine through the RDP. It’ll actually lock the computer out while you’re actively connected. Remote Desktop Connections – Tips & TricksSo, the process of “remoting” into a PC demands Remote Desktop when you want to use a remote computer without any local users interfering or seeing what you’re working on. When you connect, the PC screen will show a status that the system is in use and locked out. Saving Your Connection DetailsIf you’ve ever used remote desktop, then you’re more than familiar with the main screen where you type in the name of the remote system and click the “Connect” button. This is where much of the knowledge out there on remote desktop begins and ends. This is really all a majority of people use it for. However, if you really want to customize the remote desktop connection to suit your style of computer use and how you like to view screens, then click the “Options” button and enter into a whole new world of RDP.
In the general tab in the window above, under the Connection Settings box, you can click the Save As button to actually save the server and user name details to a file on your local computer.
Saving these connection details to file lets you organize all of them into folders (for each site, for example), and all you have to do is double click the file to open up the remote desktop utility with the server connection details already filled in for you. Making the Display Look How You LikeThe biggest complaint that I’ve heard about RDP is the fact that it often defaults to opening a non-maximized window. This is especially true on an oversized monitor, where the strange smaller RDP window docks to one corner of the screen and maybe only fills about a quarter to a half of the screen. This can be really frustrating, especially when you want to open up a bunch of windows on the same screen, rather than having just one window up and not having really much of desktop space to work with at all.
Selecting to display the connection bar with that bottom checkbox will show the info bar at the top of the screen – useful if you want to switch back and forth between full-screen and single window mode.
Local System Resources and ScriptingAnother complaint that a lot of people have when using RDP is that when you’re connected to the remote system, certain Windows key combinations like alt-tab and control-alt-delete don’t work. To fix this, go to the “Local Resources” tab, and make sure the Keyboard setting for Windows key combinations is set to the display mode you typically use when using remote desktop. Like magic – your local keyboard will act just like you’re sitting right at that remote computer. In this new window, you’ll see a whole collection of other devices that you can use during your remote session. If it’s the USB memory stick you’re hoping to use, just check off the check box next to the local drive for it. It my case, it’s the Cruzerdrive mapped as the E drive.
As you can see, there’s a whole lot more to RDP than just connecting to a remote system. You can really customize everything about each individual connection – your credential, full-screen settings, local resources, remote scripts and more. Save those connection settings to files – and you never have to worry about customizing that connection again. These are the sort of tips and tricks that make the difference between an IT person that wastes all kinds of time hunting down connection details, and one that has everything created, automated, and ready to go at a moments notice. Do you need to use RDP a lot? What are your own little tips and tricks that you’ve learned over the years? Share your thoughts and insights in the comments section below. Image Credit: Cloud computing concept (Shutterstock) The post How To Use Remote Desktop Connections Like An IT Pro appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Find Your Next Solid State Drive With SSDBoss Posted: 03 May 2013 09:31 AM PDT
Hard drives may not seem like an obvious extension of the Boss mission, but I think it makes sense. Solid state drives, unlike their mechanical predecessors, are not mature and stagnant. The performance gap between two different models can be massive. To make matters more complicated, drives don't always perform well in the same way; one might be better at writing data, another better at reading, and yet another better at both, but only with small files. Let's see if SSDBoss can successfully simplify all this data. The Basics
SSDBoss is built to provide useful information as quickly as possible. The front page has no introductions, news or other distractions; it starts straight away with a comparison carousel followed by a ranking of the best solid state drives and then a listing of recent reviews. At the bottom is a slider than lets you sort SSDs based on price. This minimalist approach is meant to place you straight in the decision-making mindset. You can approach the site from any of these four options, or you can use the search function at the top to find a specific solid state drive. Personally, I recommend starting with the price slider unless you already have a drive in mind. Why bother looking at hardware you can't afford? The Review Format
Beneath the front page SSDBoss is fundamentally based on reviews. Every review starts with the conclusion, which is unusual but reinforces the site's no-nonsense approach. Each conclusion provides a selection relevant data including read performance, write performance, real world benchmarks and synthetic benchmarks. All of these contribute to the final score. As with other 'Boss sites, the weight each section gives to the final score isn’t clear, so I encourage readers to look at the entire conclusion. Below the conclusion is the analysis section, which provides more detailed information about a specific drive's pros and cons. The information here can be extremely useful because it provides more perspective about a drive's overall package. You may find that a solid state drive drive scores extremely well, yet also performs poorly in a specific area that is important to you. A new section, called Editions, has been added for SSDBoss. This small section lists other variants of the drive being reviewed, which is useful, because most drives come in several different capacities with similar features and performance. You may find that smaller drive suites your needs, or that a larger drive offers better capacity-per-dollar. I have a hard time finding any notable flaw in these summary reviews. Solid state drives have a specific mission (transfer data quickly) which is lends itself to simplification, and issues like power draw and size – often a concern with graphics cards – aren't as relevant here. Comparisons
Head-to-head comparisons are an important part of SSDBoss. They are formatted like reviews and include most of the same information, but the conclusion is tweaked to pit the two solid state drives you selected head-to-head and the Analysis section is replaced by a Differences section. The highlighted differences include random write and read scores, a few important benchmarks and power consumption. More can be investigated by entering the full specifications comparison, but the basic view is more than sufficient for most buyers. My only complaint about comparisons is the lack of an Editions section. SSDBoss could include that section and use it to compare different capacities of the two drives selected; instead, no other variants are shown. Perhaps they'll add this feature in the future. Detailed Performance & Features
At the bottom of each individual drive review there is a "keep reading" link that provides more information about performance and features. Clicking this link will provide you with a more detailed look at the benchmarks the drive's score is based on. A selection of user review comments are shown, as well, to provide some context for the drive's strengths. Detailed features are listed, as well, though they're a bit less useful. For example, capacity is listed as a feature, but this isn't of much use; after all, there are many variants of each individual solid state drive. Other features include weight and "mean time between failures" as quoted by the manufacturer – none of which is particularly interesting. I can understand the problem, because SSDs don't have much in the way of "features," but perhaps this section should have been cut entirely. Can SSDBoss Really Stand Up To Professional Reviews?The other 'Boss websites are a great place to start looking for your next processor or graphics card, but not the only source you need. Both of those components have physical properties and additional features that a summary can't easily cover. Solid state drives also offer performance that can be complex to dissect, but they have far fewer features and all have similar physical properties. Sure, one might be a few grams lighter than the next, or consumer an extra watt of power – but none of this is worth losing sleep over. What's important is performance, and performance lends itself to being quantified and summarized. This makes SSDBoss a great site. Though I always hesitate to recommend using just one site when making a purchase (personally, I read four or five reviews, at least) this could indeed be your one site. It covers everything you need to know and nothing you don't. The post Find Your Next Solid State Drive With SSDBoss appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tag Friends On Instagram Photos With The New ‘Photos Of You’ Feature [Updates] Posted: 03 May 2013 08:30 AM PDT
When you upload a photo to your Instagram account, the app will give you the option to tag the photo with the usernames of your friends. The Photos of You section will appear in your profile and a notification will tell you when someone else has tagged you in a photo. You can adjust your settings so nothing appears on your profile until you approve it. The idea is to thread together all your memories, some in photos taken by you and some taken by friends. It should also make it easier to share and discover photos around specific tags and people. Earlier, you had to trawl your activity feed to search for mentions of your username. You can play around privately with the Photos of You feature until May 16th, after which the Photos of You section would go public on all profiles. Read the specific how-to on Instagram’s Help Center. Source: Instagram Blog The post Tag Friends On Instagram Photos With The New ‘Photos Of You’ Feature [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Introducing Our Best Of Linux Games Page! Posted: 03 May 2013 05:30 AM PDT
There are plenty of great games in the market today, but our Best Linux Games page focuses on titles that are popular in the Linux world. Most of them are cross-platform, so you’ll be able to enjoy them on Windows and Mac PCs as well. And yes, we’ll curate similar specialised lists for Windows and Mac games as well — so that’s something that you can look forward to in the coming months.
In the meantime, I hope that you’ll appreciate our Best Linux Games page. We’ll update it constantly and your suggestions are most definitely welcome! So please, fire away in the comments section. And remember, please share the page with your friends using the social networking buttons on our Best Linux Games page. The post Introducing Our Best Of Linux Games Page! appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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