13 New Articles on MakeUseOf

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• Cool Websites and Tools [May 21st 2013]
• Kloudless: Two Way Access To Files In Gmail, Dropbox, Google Drive And More
• At What Age Should Kids Be Exposed To Technology? [You Told Us]
• Like And Share Carefully: How Marketers Target You On Facebook
• Gaming Google Maps With Street View Games
• Photovine: A Unique Photo Browser, Editor & Slideshow Viewer For Instagram & Facebook [iOS]
• Internet Forums Reimagined: The Future Of Online Discussions
• Photo Finish With The Best: 8 Photography Contests You Can Win With Your Best Snap
• Create Fun Melodies On The Go With Free Rolling Tones for Android
• 5 Websites For All The Latest Happenings In Dota 2 [MUO Gaming]
• Facebook Search Sucks – Use Facebook Email Notifications As A Workaround [Weekly Facebook Tips]
• 8 Awesome Kerbal Space Program Mods
• Roku 3 Review and Giveaway

Cool Websites and Tools [May 21st 2013] Posted: 21 May 2013 09:31 PM PDT Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. Most of the listed websites are FREE or come with a decent free account option. If you want to have similar cool website round-ups delivered to your daily email, subscribe here. Add Your Website Here!   Done Not Done – Because we are so occupied with the tasks that we want to do, we often forget about all the fun tasks that we actually want to do. There are many books, movies, and music artists that your friends might have recommended for you to check out but you simply did not have the time to do so. Here to help is Done Not Done. Read more: Done Not Done: A To-Do List For All The Fun Tasks You Want To Do   Sitegeist – You might have lived in your city for years without knowing some of the most significant facts about it. These details might seem trivial but they can help you out in unexpected ways. Thus knowing them will only add to your overall knowledge and potentially benefit you in the future. Here to easily provide this information to you is a smartphone app called Sitegeist. Read more: Sitegeist: Find Out Various Interesting Details About Your Location     Grambacker – There are even Facebook apps and other services that connect with people’s Instagram accounts to better share their photos. What iOS device owners usually not pay attention to though, is creating a backup for their Instagram images. Here to help out in this department is Grambacker. Read more: Grambacker: Make a Backup Of Your Instagram Photos To Your iPhone Or Dropbox [iOS]     Video Resumer – Unfortunately sometimes you need to leave your computer to complete a task in the middle of a YouTube video. Turning the computer back on, heading on to YouTube, and finding where you had stopped watching the video can be difficult for long videos. Here to help out Google Chrome users in this department is the excellent Video Resumer. Read more: Video Resumer: Resume YouTube Videos From Where You Left Them [Chrome]     Professor Word – Modern aptitude exams have a special focus on English vocabulary and your knowledge of the meanings of many words is tested. There are various techniques developed to help students learn but if most of your time is spent online, then computer tools will suit your exam preparation best. Read more: Professor Word: A Bookmarklet That Helps You Prepare Vocabulary For SAT, ACT & GRE   Add Your Website Here! 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 21st 2013] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Kloudless: Two Way Access To Files In Gmail, Dropbox, Google Drive And More Posted: 21 May 2013 08:30 PM PDT With Google introducing its Chrome OS, an entirely cloud-based system that leaves nothing on your hard drive, it would seem that one direction today’s gadgets are heading in is a purely cloud-based one. We’re spending less time on our desktops and more time in the cloud – and file storage is certainly no stranger to that concept. A couple of months ago, we introduced you to Cloudy, a Chrome extension that allows you to upload files to your Gmail account directly from your cloud-based storage accounts like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box and more.  Kloudless is a new Chrome extension that offers the same feature – removing that unnecessary extra step of downloading a file from the cloud only to upload it as an attachment – but takes things one step further, by also allowing you to save files directly from your Gmail account to your cloud storage accounts. Kloudless closes the gap between email and cloud-storage, creating a link that makes perfect sense, is incredibly convenient, and is one of those features that you won’t know how to live without once you get it set up. Kloudless serves several functions – one of which is to automatically back up your email attachments to cloud-based storage accounts. When you first install Kloudless you’ll be walked through a series of simple steps to set up your accounts. You’ll first be prompted to connect Kloudless to your email account. At the moment it only works with Gmail, but support for Outlook is also available, but you do have to sign up to get an invite for access. If you’re logged into more than one Gmail/Google Apps account, you’ll be prompted to select the account you want to use. The good news is that if you want to use Kloudless simultaneously with more than one Gmail/Google Apps account – you can. Just simply go through the setup process individually for each account, by logging into that account and clicking on the Kloudless Beta link at the top-right hand corner of the page.   The permissions you are granting Kloudless when it comes to your email address include viewing your email address, viewing and managing your mail, and knowing who you are on Google. That may seem like a lot of data to entrust Kloudless with, not to mention data that you have saved in your cloud storage accounts, but all of your files are encrypted while being transferred using Kloudless, and the service has an extensive Privacy Policy worth reading. Once your Gmail account is connected, you can then connect your cloud storage account. Currently, Kloudless supports Dropbox, Google Drive and Box. At this point, Kloudless is fully set up and can be used. But there is one final step that brings an interesting and much welcomed-feature that isn’t available in Cloudy. Since Kloudless allows you to save attachments directly to your cloud storage, the service also offers automation features. You can create rules for how to handle certain attachments. So for example, if you want to save all of the attachments sent to you by a specific person, you can create a rule to copy all of those attachments to a specific Dropbox folder. Rules include copying or moving attachments, based on who they were sent from, who they were sent to, or even based on keywords, and more. While the automation feature is really cool, it does have its limits. Unfortunately, you can only create up to 10 rules. If you’d rather not automate the process of saving attachments to your cloud-based storage accounts, you can still access this feature manually when opening individual attachments. When you open an email with an attachment, you’ll find a new option alongside ‘Download.’ Hitting the ‘Copy/Move’ link will open up a pop-up window which gives you access to folders in whichever cloud storage account you’ve connected to.  You can then copy or move individual files, one at a time, directly from your email account to your cloud storage account. If for any reason, space is becoming an issue in your Gmail account, this is a great way to quickly free up space in Gmail by moving large attachments. Even better, if you don’t want to keep the attachments at all but want a record of the email itself, you can also delete individual attachments from your Gmail inbox using Kloudless. Kloudless is a convenient, handy Chrome extension which will be appreciated by anyone who finds themselves spending more time in the cloud than they do on their desktop. While Cloudy was a step in the right direction, Kloudless  completes the equation by providing two-way access to your files saved in the cloud and to attachments in your email account. What do you think of Kloudless? Let us know in the comments. The post Kloudless: Two Way Access To Files In Gmail, Dropbox, Google Drive And More appeared first on MakeUseOf.

At What Age Should Kids Be Exposed To Technology? [You Told Us] Posted: 21 May 2013 07:31 PM PDT New and emerging technology has always been associated with the younger generations. Older people tend to be set in their ways, leaving those under a certain age to discover gadgets and gizmos as they arrive on the scene. Younger people learn more quickly, and that goes for technology in the same way it goes for everything else. However, how young is too young for kids to be exposed to technology? It’s a question all parents have to answer during their children’s early years, deciding when they should allow their offspring to embrace the future with gadgets such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones. And it’s a question that formed the basis for last week’s ‘We Ask You‘ discussion. The Results We asked you, At What Age Should Kids Be Exposed To Technology? We had a great response from the MakeUseOf readership, with a good number of you airing your views on the subject. The range of opinions was huge, with some people declaring that there should be no minimum age restrictions, and others having definite ages in mind for particular gadgets. There were extreme views on both sides, but the majority of people take a common sense approach to this quandary. They let each child choose their own interests, and that goes for technology as much as anything else. However, some level of control is usually put in place. This means that kids will be exposed to technology slowly, and then have that exposure moderated by their parents and/or guardians. As the comment of the week demonstrates, a big thing is ensuring your kids have a rounded set of hobbies, which may include technology but not be wholly reliant on it. Some thought that the question posed ought to have been slightly different, and that it’s more important to ask how kids are exposed to technology rather than at what age they are exposed. We’ve covered this issue in the past by asking, “What steps do you take to protect your children online?” Comment Of The Week We had great input from the likes of Alexander Mackenzie, Mel Johnson, and null, to name just a few. Comment Of The Week goes to Schvenn, who, as well as the respect of myself and hopefully everybody reading this, receives 150 points to use for MakeUseOf Rewards. My son watched me use the computer his entire life. When he was 30 months old I sat him on my lap and went to Bear In The Big Blue House's website. I clicked on a jigsaw puzzle they had there and was about to tell him what it was when, to my surprise, he took the mouse from my hand and without looking, started moving it over the pieces, clicking, dragging and dropping and putting the puzzle together. Up until this point, he had never touched a computer before. He had only seen his mother and I use them, but never had the opportunity himself. We quickly grabbed our video camera and started capturing the moment on film. He had his own computer at four. We let him online at twelve, albeit with great supervision. We gave him a smartphone at 14. We weren’t going to do so that early, but he's proven himself very responsible, so we have rewarded him with that trust. He also knows that with my level of technical knowledge and ability to monitor, I can at any point, determine whether or not that trust has been ill-conceived. Yes, he's a gamer and loves to play inside more than we did as kids. However, he is also a member of our local YMCA, works out every Saturday and volunteers every Saturday evening. He has just been accepted as a member of our city council's youth advisory board, is joining the local volunteer ambulance service, is a member of a youth engagement squad (involving the city, school board and YMCA) and he has a couple strong possibilities for his first summer job. He's now in his second year of highschool, an honor roll student and wants to become an architectural engineer. I like to think that his constant exposure to technology has had something to do with his successes. He has excellent communication skills, more opportunities available to him than we had as children and a better CV under his belt already than many people I've hired in the many years I've spent in management. While it may seem like our son is an over-achiever, he's really not. He has all the challenges a typical teenager does and we are not the type of parents to push, just to encourage. However, without technology opening up his opportunities to communicate and learn, I doubt he would be doing as well as he is now. So, once again, there is no minimum age. Our children absorb more than we think and we should never underestimate them. We need to trust, encourage and reward them. Technology can be a fantastic tool for parents and children, if we use it responsibly, as well. We liked this comment because it takes us through a personal experience, with a father recounting how his son got to grips with technology. It also shows how technology isn’t harmful to a child’s education in socializing and being an active member of society when it’s experienced in moderation. We will be asking a new question tomorrow, so please join us then. We Ask You is a weekly column dedicated to finding out the opinions of MakeUseOf readers. We ask you a question and you tell us what you think. The question is open-ended and is usually open to debate. Some questions will be purely opinion-based, while others will see you sharing tips and advice, or advocating tools and apps for your fellow MakeUseOf readers. This column is nothing without your input, all of which is valued. Image Credit: Paul Inkles The post At What Age Should Kids Be Exposed To Technology? [You Told Us] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Like And Share Carefully: How Marketers Target You On Facebook Posted: 21 May 2013 06:30 PM PDT So let’s get this out of the way: if you’re a Facebook user, you’re like cattle. To the website, you are not a unique individual. Instead, you’re part of a collective. You are just one of many consumers that other companies want access to in bulk. However, is it so wrong to graze in the green pastures of social networking? Perhaps not. I’d even go as far to say that, in actuality, the Facebook-to-user system is a symbiotic relationship that strays a bit from our initial livestock analogy. The social network provides us with a means to communicate with our friends and loved ones, and we provide the social network with real, in-depth, accurate market samples that they can sell as a product. Even still, some businesses will go beyond Facebook’s usual advertising methods in an effort to target their desired market. They use a variety of tactics, and while they are not illegal or against Facebook’s terms and agreements, they might be worth knowing about. Open Wall Popularity Facebook presents itself as being all about community, and for us end-users, it is. On the other hand, to businesses, it’s simply a way to put the entire target market under one roof and address it all at once. With that said, businesses are now forgoing traditional customer service routes and using their Facebook walls as their public representatives. By presenting themselves as members of the community, businesses are able to communicate more effectively with consumers. To be honest, this isn’t a bad idea. However, this offers just one more way for consumers to get sucked into loads of advertised promises. Once they know that a company is personal, they are more inclined to trust this company. In short, it’s the modern day equivalent to the old mom and pop stores where the owner knows everyone’s name. Besides that, certain posts and comments addressing issues by the business are more likely to be shared. Representation Through Images Images are a serious tool for getting things done in the Facebook marketing world. In fact, you could consider them to be a bit like billboards on your news feed. However, Facebook has a few guidelines for certain images that businesses post – else, they can get in a bit of trouble. For instance, cover photos on pages can’t feature price or discount information, a call to action, or a request for users to Like and Share (which inherently is a call to action). In other areas, it’s not much of an issue. However, do you really want an advertisement on your news feed when there are already enough on your sidebar? With that said, non-advert images play a heavy role when it comes to Facebook marketing. How many times have you seen your friends share images of athletes, humorous photos, or classic memes that they didn’t upload? Upon further inspection, you may see who the image was originally posted by, and in many cases, a watermark from a company’s logo may be added. This allows for the company to get the attention of its market and then let its presence be known without using annoying ad-like images. A Call To Action Whenever you look at business pages for Facebook (including MakeUseOf), you’ll see loads of “LIKE OR SHARE THIS TO…” posts. This is known as a a “call to action” seeing that it requests that users do something. Typically speaking, traditional calls to action are something along the lines of “Call for more information” or “Shoot us an email” so they can make a connection with you. In this case, the company is connecting with you and using you as a means for free advertising. Sometimes, as with the case of the images, there may be no call to action. The company may simply share an inspiring status update or a hilarious image, knowing that for some reason some users will feel the need to like or share it. You see, Facebook has already established the call to action for them. It’s right there under every post: Share or Like. Conclusion Facebook has changed the face of business, advertising, and marketing forever while also changing how we communicate. It’s a bit peculiar though. While you and I interact using Facebook, there are tons of businesses out there doing the exact same thing, trying to be like us. They are trying to fit into the community – trying to be our friends. In fact, they might even be a bit like other Facebook stalkers. What other methods have you seen businesses use to target consumers on Facebook? Have you seen these methods yourself? (By the way, don’t forget to Like and Share this post on Facebook.) Image Credits: *0ne*, zole-studio, LarimdaME The post Like And Share Carefully: How Marketers Target You On Facebook appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Gaming Google Maps With Street View Games Posted: 21 May 2013 05:31 PM PDT Google Maps is an essential tool for anyone planning a day trip or holiday, providing a clear yet detailed overview of locations and how to reach them. More than that it provides a simple way for all of us to find our literal place in the world, though it cannot help with the more figurative notion of belonging. Google Maps was already amazing, and then a few years after its launch Google Street View was added to the mix. At which point the opportunity to take a virtual trip around real towns and cities revealed itself. Google Street View coverage now includes more than 60 countries, with ground-level panoramic views (often containing strange sights) for huge swathes of those locales available to view online. However, Google Maps, and in particular Google Street View, isn’t only good for planning routes. There have been some fantastic Google Street View mashups created over the years, and there are also websites which use Google Street View to help you do some virtual globetrotting. And then there are games built on top of Google Maps and Google Street View, five of which are listed here for you to enjoy when you’re bored at work. Real World Racer Real World Racer is a simple Google street view game that offers exactly what the title implies it should. While most racing games rely on either completely imaginary routes or rough approximations of real-world locations, Real World Racer lets you race on real roads around the world. OK, so the visuals aren’t going to win any awards, and the controls are rather limited, but for those people who miss the days when top-down racers were as good as it got, Real World Racer should hit the (nostalgic) spot. You choose a route — either a pre-existing one from the eight on offer or one chosen by yourself by simply inputting a start and finish point — and then race your car against the computer-controlled opponents. The first to cross the finishing line wins, obviously, though you win nothing more than the satisfaction wrangled from besting poor AI. Street View Quiz Street View Quiz is another Google street view game whose title says it all. This is a website full of quiz questions based on Google Maps and Google Street View. Some of the questions make more sense than others, though they can all conceivably be solved by using nothing other than the image presented to you. Rather than answering any from the homepage you’re better served clicking on individual entries and tackling them one at a time. If you get stuck trying to use the image alone then a simple Google search should suffice in helping you to answer any question posed. GeoGuessr GeoGuessr presents you with an image from Google Street View and asks you to locate it on a map of the world. It sounds easy, but it’s actually maddenly difficult. Thankfully it’s also very entertaining and more addictive than it has any right to be. Each round consists of five destinations. At the end you’re presented with a chart showing how far out your guesses were each time, and the total score acquired. You can then start the process all over again to see if you can improve. It’s a lot harder than you may imagine to guess which country you’re in just from a single image. Road signs, the terrain, and the weather can all give clues, but you’ll be amazed how far away some of your guesses will be. Or perhaps I’m just geographically dumb. Pursued Pursued is very similar to GeoGuessr, with the same basic principles applying. However, rather than dropping you somewhere completely at random and asking you to vaguely point to it on a map, Pursued features pre-approved levels and asks you to name the city or landmark you’re seeing. This is also more of a complete game, with a plot of sorts — you have been abducted and need to tell your friend where to find you — and level packs, achievements etc. Which all helps add to the intrigue and innate playability of Pursued. The whole thing comes across as very professional, with the only annoying aspect being the need to jump through social networking hoops in order to play more levels. Still, there are user-submitted levels aplenty for those who aren’t willing to participate. Streetview Zombie Apocalypse Streetview Zombie Apocalypse is a clever little Google street view game that works despite its obvious flaws. Especially as the street cred of zombies has never been so clear thanks to The Walking Dead and other zombie-focused fayre. The premise is simple… you choose a location where you want to get dropped, and as soon as you pitch up in said location the undead hordes start to chase you in order to eat your brains. Which would be a whole lot scarier if the zombies in question weren’t tiny little sprites you could flick away with one finger. The aim of Streetview Zombie Apocalypse is to stay alive for as long as possible. To do so you need to run from your starting point, avoiding the undead as you go. Choose your location with care, as some will lead you to a premature death thanks to featuring a rat run of narrow alleyways and dead-ends. Conclusions These games are not only entertaining they’re also educational, revealing parts of the world perhaps previously unknown to you. Google Maps is a powerful tool in this regard, in the same way Wikipedia is a powerful tool for learning about new people or uncovering previously unsolved mysteries that can actually be easily explained. What do you think of the Google Street View games on this list? Do you have a favorite? Perhaps you know of another game which utilizes Google Maps; if so, we’d love you to share it with us in the comments section below along with your thoughts on the subject at hand. All comments are read, and most are afforded a reply. The post Gaming Google Maps With Street View Games appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Photovine: A Unique Photo Browser, Editor & Slideshow Viewer For Instagram & Facebook [iOS] Posted: 21 May 2013 04:30 PM PDT Remember Google’s Photovine? No? Well, that’s OK. You’re not expected to remember every single one of Google’s whims, especially not those that lived for less than a year. To refresh your memories, Photovine was a photo-sharing app that launched following Google’s acquisition of a company called Slide, and revolved around photo vines, which are not unlike tags on Instagram or Flickr. Google’s Photovine died over a year ago, but it seems the brand is not dead. A new iPhone app called Photovine has recently emerged, and while this one doesn’t really have anything to do with Google’s old vines or Twitter’s new Vine, it brings an innovative way to view your Instagram and Facebook photos which involves music, slideshows, and an unusual interface. Curious? Keep reading for a full hands-on with Photovine. Photovine Unchained Photos have been around forever, but the Instagram era brought them to the front and center of our online and social lives. Accordingly, many of today’s apps strip social networks of their “boring” text, and bring us what we really want to see: photos. Twizgrid, a visual Twitter browser I adore, is a great example, and if you haven’t tried it out yet, I highly recommend it. Photovine, unfortunately, can access only your Facebook and Instagram photos, but it nonetheless offers a pretty unique viewing experience. Photovine revolves around a photo wheel, where you can choose which photos you wish to view. Your options are your Instagram photos, your friends’ Instagram photos, your Facebook photos (photos you’re tagged in), your friends Facebook photos, popular photos, and all your photos, which is these four options combined. The photos of your choosing are presented in a dynamic collage, which you can animate and move around by shaking your device. You can also view your photos individually, by tapping on the photos and sliding left and right. An icon on the top shows you which network the photo comes from. You can like and comment on photos from the app, and share them via Facebook, Twitter, email, or text message. Up until now, Photovine is a pretty standard photo app, but this is where the fun begins. Above your main photo collage, you’ll find several additional buttons. The “play” icon activates slideshow mode, letting you set your preferred transition time, choose which music to play (if at all), and decide whether you’d like a photo-only slideshow, or one with titles and timestamps. Slideshow mode is not the only way to combine music with your photos. The next button lets you enable background music for the app, and if you prefer to play different music for this occasion, that’s possible too. The right-most button is the refresh button, to refresh your feed — an action that can also be done by pulling the photo-collage down. Taking, Editing & Posting Photos Photovine is not only a browser, it’s also a great way to edit and upload photos to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, as well as share them with your phone’s contacts. To add a photo, tap the camera button at the bottom. You can take a photo with your phone’s camera or use an existing photo from your library. Photovine comes with a built-in photo editor powered by Aviary, which includes some automatic enhancements, 11 filters and effects, orientation and cropping options, and even a drawing tool. Once your photo is done, give it a title and choose where you want to upload it to. For some reason, both Twitter and Contacts options have LinkedIn’s logo next to them, but don’t mind that. Bottom Line To me, Photovine is a strange bird. On one hand, it brings together an innovative photo browser and a photo editor/uploader, and combines them under a pretty unique interface. On the other hand, this interface, while being interesting and easy to use, is not half as nice to look at as I would have expected from such an app. To be blunt, it’s a bit on the ugly side, and reminds me of Android apps from two years ago. That being said, Photovine is a fun way to discover and browse your photos and photo streams, and combined with the music and slideshow options, can make a great screensaver for your phone while its idle; one you can always glance it, and see something interesting. It’s ability to take, edit, and upload photos to all three major social networks can be a huge timesaver, and Aviary’s filters and tools could help you stand out from the regular Instagram stock. Download: Photovine on the App Store (Free) If you don’t own an iOS device there are plenty of other great ways to view your Facebook, Instagram and Flickr photos under one roof and on the Web. Did you get a chance to try Photovine? Do you have a similar app you like better Let us know in the comments. The post Photovine: A Unique Photo Browser, Editor & Slideshow Viewer For Instagram & Facebook [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Internet Forums Reimagined: The Future Of Online Discussions Posted: 21 May 2013 02:30 PM PDT Last year, I wrote about the history of online communication and how it has evolved all the way from online bulletin board systems to social media. But what does the future have in store for us in terms of communicating online? The latest iteration of online communication may indeed be social media, but it seems that the most popular avenue is still the old-fashioned internet forum. It remains today as an excellent way to structure a community on the web. While social media can be somewhat amorphous at times, forums provide order and a sense of home. I believe that forums will never die out, but forums will evolve and adapt to advancements in web technology. Please join me as I take a look at a few forum software systems that are so innovative that they’ll transform the concept of the forum forever. Moot Moot (Beta) is a very interesting project in my eyes because there's a bit of tension in its design philosophy: it wants to take a step back into the past and recover the lost relevance of meaningful discussion (which they claim have died with social media) while incorporating features of the future (clean and responsive interface). But more importantly, Moot is entirely embeddable, meaning you don't need to download a package and upload it to your own web host. Instead, all of the data and control is done through your Moot account and your forum theme; forum content are embedded directly into your site wherever you want it to go. It has been designed from the ground up for complete and easy integration. Other notable features that Moot is pushing: Both forums and comments. Moot is a full-fledged forum embed system AND a comment embed system. Unlike other forum systems where comments are just normal forum threads with their post data molded and displayed differently, Moot lets you embed unique comment threads onto pages using one line of HTML. Each comment thread is unique, dynamic, and separate from your forums. No content deletion. Moot is taking a hard stance: deleting posts and comments disrupts the natural progression of a discussion, resulting in an incomplete thread that's harder to follow. Therefore, once content is older than 2.7 minutes, it cannot be deleted. Also, if a post or comment has received any replies or likes, it can't be deleted. Complete control. Even though Moot is a third-party service that you have to embed onto your site, you will have full control over it. You can alter the design using CSS. You can also alter the behavior and extend Moot functionality using an API that will be released in the near future. Discourse The mentality spurring the Discourse team is the desire to "raise the standard of discussion on the web through better forum software." Core to their actions is the belief that forums are an integral aspect of proper web communities, yet most forum designs are stuck in the 1990s. With Discourse, they want to make forum hosting easy, flexible, and appealing to the 21st Century. The Discourse interface takes a lot of inspiration from social media: just-in-time loading of content, flat and sleek aesthetics that are indicative of social media design, @replying to users, logging in with social media accounts, real-time stream updates, and more. But unlike Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and the others, Discourse remains faithful to big blocks of text for deeper, more meaningful conversation. Other notable features that Discourse is pushing: Notifications. One big problem with legacy forum systems is the lack of convenient notifications. Up until a few years ago, the best we ever got was clunky email notifications, then we had RSS subscriptions, but both of those had their limits. Discourse will regularly notify you on the site when someone mentions you, replies to you, quotes you, or anything else that involves you. Forked conversations. Instead of having a linear thread where users reply to multiple users in a single post (often using ugly blocks of quotes to establish context), Discourse allows discussions to fork by letting you reply to individual posts and branch off. Smart interactions. One awesome feature of Discourse is that you can begin writing your reply even before you've finished reading the thread. The reply box will follow you no matter where you are on the page, which means you can reply while you read. Also, when you prematurely leave a thread (maybe you had to go somewhere), Discourse will remember your place and start you there the next time you come back. Dynamic moderation. As users participate on your Discourse forum, they gain something called trust. Users that have trust can help with forum moderation by culling spammers, flamers, and trolls before they get too big. We took a detailed look at Discourse when it emerged on the scene. Vanilla Moot and Discourse are relative newcomers to the forum scene, but Vanilla has been innovating the forum concept for years already. Honestly, ask anyone (who has forum experience, obviously) which forum software is the most non-traditional and I'm willing to bet that most would say Vanilla. Vanilla has gained a lot of traction over the years. Big name sites, like Penny Arcade, are starting to turn to it for their discussion needs because of its cutting edge design. This is a free, open source project that really is revolutionizing the forum landscape. Other notable features that Vanilla is pushing: Scalability. One major issue in many free forum systems – and some paid systems too – is that they buckle under too much traffic. When it takes over 10 seconds for a thread to load, users are too frustrated to continue a discussion. Vanilla is built for speed and can handle millions of users right out of the box. User reactions. With Vanilla, you can set various "reactions" that users can have to content: like, dislike, spam, off topic, insightful, funny, or whatever else you can come up with. These reactions have actions associated with them (e.g. add score to the post). The result of the user reactions system is that users can decide on and promote valuable content. Built-in gamification. Gamification describes the addition of game elements in a non-game context for the purpose of engaging users. By participating, users can earn badges (achievements) and reputation (score) which lead to user promotions and access to more features if you choose to set it up that way. Conclusion On paper, these systems may not seem like a huge deviation from the usual forum platforms that we typically see. However, paper can be deceiving. Take one look at each of the solutions above and you'll notice a landslide difference in the end user experience. And in my humble opinion, all three systems are doing a heck of a job in refreshing the boring realm of forums. Do you use forums? Know of any other forum systems that are revolutionizing the field? Please share with us in the comments! Image Credits: Chat Bubbles Via Shutterstock The post Internet Forums Reimagined: The Future Of Online Discussions appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Photo Finish With The Best: 8 Photography Contests You Can Win With Your Best Snap Posted: 21 May 2013 01:00 PM PDT Contest. That word has a charm of its own. Ever since the days of the cavemen right till today’s Olympics, the brave and the meek have gone up against each other. A contest has a simple pull – all of us want to know and show if we are the best. Even on the comparatively egalitarian World Wide Web, it is a barometer for a self-pat on the back. We have online photography contests of all kinds; from the recent best body and fitness contests to regular programming contests. Google contests are used by a big company as part of their promotion strategy. Graphic lovers have their Photoshop contests. Photographers aren’t in any way left out. In fact, they seem to be the most proactive lot when it comes to contests. Bakari showed us some awesome free photography contests. So, let’s launch into some more popular photo contests and pit ourselves against the best of the rest. National Geographic – Your Shot Calendar Date: Always Open The National Geographic photo contest can either make you go “wow”, or make you feel inferior if you are starting out with your DSLR. National Geographic is one of the more preeminent places to take your photos to. If any of your photos get selected, then it is the best badge to say that you have finally arrived. Your Shot is the magazine’s photo community which invites regular submissions from photographers of all hues.  Whether a hobbyist or a pro, you can participate fearlessly. National Geographic editors review each submission carefully and the best 12 get picked in the popular Daily Dozen category. The best thing is that the editors also offer professional tips which are an invaluable learning experience. The publication of photos in the magazine or the website is reward enough for any photography enthusiast. The guidelines are explained here in more detail. The Smithsonian Phototography Contest Calendar Date: Annual (open till November 29, 2013) Another renowned name, but one you may not immediately associate with photography. But you will be surprised to know that the Smithsonian magazine's photography contest has its own place. Standards are of course, very high. You can enter any of the five categories — the American Experience, the Natural World, People, Travel and Altered Images – to win cash prizes. The grand prize winner gets $2500. Read the complete FAQs here. Wiki Loves Monuments Calendar Date: September (expected) It’s printed in large letters — The world’s largest photo contest. It is also certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest photo contest in the world. Not really surprising because it was organized by the Wikipedia community. The contest started off in 2010 in The Netherlands. By 2012, it was held across 35 countries and garnered 350,000 photo submissions. The international photo contest is meant to showcase the cultural heritage through monuments of each participating country. Though the contest for this year is yet to be announced, you can still see the latest uploads coming into the site. The photos are all freely licensed under Wikimedia Commons. Pixoto Calendar Date: Weekly Pixoto is a photography contest of a different kind, and one which makes it the easiest to participate. The photo service uses an algorithm called ImageDuel to submit each photo to a comparison and voting process. The photo with the best positive feedback (an image score) wins. There are dozens of categories and each top photo can win $150 every week. Others among the top 20% can get badges to display alongside their profiles and photos on the site. ViewBug Calendar Date: Always open ViewBug is a photography community with a few contests of its own. There are premium (paid) and free contests to go along with the free and premium plans the site has for you to join. The free membership allows you to participate in the free contests. There were about 16 contests going on at the time of writing this article. Awards include photography kits, pro-memberships, and exposure. Some of the categories are unique – from photographing subjects floating on water to capturing scenes by looking up. World In Focus Calendar Date: Annual (to be announced for 2013) PDN’s World in Focus is a travel photography contest which is awarded separately to amateurs and professionals. There is an entry fee for this contest – amateurs ($22) and professionals ($45). The contest is open internationally. The submission date for this year’s announcements has passed, but it could be worthwhile to wait and prepare for next year. The contest closed in October last year, and the winners photos were published in March 2013. Winning entries are featured on the website and in the magazine. No Man’s Art Gallery Calendar Date: Annual (to be announced for 2013) The No Man’s Art Slum Photography Contest is an annual photography contest held exclusively for kids in an underprivileged neighborhood in the world. The winning photo is exhibited in the art gallery of the organization. Children are taught how to use a camera in a workshop and then given a free rein to express themselves and their lives with photos. The site says that Plans for 2013 are to give the children in the slums of Capetown the opportunity to experiment with photography. Though this is not a usual photography contest, I decided to mention this for its novelty, and also to show how photography can be used for the charitable good. You can also sponsor a participant with your contribution. World Press Photo Calendar Date: Annual (February) This is the definitive site for photo journalists to come and win an award for their profession. The World Press Photo Awards are the world’s largest and most celebrated annual press photography contest. The non-profit organization holds the contest annually. The 2013 awards were announced in February. Photos are submitted across a wide range of categories that also include arts and entertainment, portraits and nature. The awards have been held for 55 years and are meant to showcase the often dangerous, often invaluable work of photo journalists. The Best Way to Be In The Know: Photo Contest Directories The best way to be completely aware of the next photo contest around the turn of the calendar is through photo contest tracking websites. Subscribe to their RSS feeds or Twitter updates. But do keep them bookmarked. Here are three of the more comprehensive ones I found. The Photo Contest The Photo Contest Directory Photography Competitions You have to enter to win. That’s the slight trouble you have to take with contests. I have tried to mix this article up with some high-brow contests, and a couple which you can enter more easily if you are an amateur photographer. But there are photography contests all around us, some local, some national, and international like the ones above. Photography contests aren't about winning prizes alone. They are also about being part of the wider photography community and taking our photography learning to a new level. Have you taken your best snaps and put them to the test on a photo contest? Tell us about the best photo contests out there; because there are so many. Image Credit: Shutterstock The post Photo Finish With The Best: 8 Photography Contests You Can Win With Your Best Snap appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Create Fun Melodies On The Go With Free Rolling Tones for Android Posted: 21 May 2013 12:00 PM PDT I have absolutely no musical training or background. Give me an instrument, and I’m hopeless. But give me a simple sequencer, and I can make some music. Sequencers are brilliant because they abstract away much of the “hard stuff”: You don’t have to keep a beat, because the sequencer does it for you. You don’t have to try and pick notes that go well together, because they all go well together. If you’re a real musician, you may lament losing all of these nuances and fine-grained elements that combine to make a high-quality composition (in which case, you may want to try one of these music creation tools). But if you’re just looking to have some fun, a good sequencer is all you need. And Rolling Tones for Android is a great one. No, it’s not Holo, and I wouldn’t say it’s a gorgeous app, but it’s well-made, simple to use, and yes — free. It’ll have you making music before you know it. First Steps The Rolling Tones Google Play page says the app is based on ToneMatrix, a simple Flash-based music sequencer that we’ve looked at in 2009. Yes, they’re both sequencers, but while ToneMatrix lets you compose single segments, Rolling Tones lets you record entire songs and offers a much more complete experience. I would say GrooveMixer is actually a bit more similar to ToneMatrix than Rolling Tones. When you first launch Rolling Tones, you’ll see a blank screen with lots of space for your music: Tap anywhere on the screen, and you’ll make a note. The sequence keeps playing over and over (at 120 beats per minute, by default), so you will soon hear your note. Tap anywhere else on the screen, and you’ve made another note. A beat is formed. Pretty soon, your screen may look like this: This is a complex sequence that’s actually a part of the demo song that ships with Rolling Tones. The different colors denote different instruments: You can see the eight available instruments lined up along the bottom of the screen. The matrix itself is easy and intuitive to read: The vertical axis denotes pitch, while the horizontal one marks a note’s position in the sequence. This sounds clunky when explained, but as soon as you start messing around with it, you’ll get it. From Sequence To Song One thing I often find frustrating about simple sequencers is that they’re built like toys: You can make a basic sequence, but you can’t make a song. Any sequence you made will just repeat over and over until you change it, but there is often no way to save a sequence and move to the next one, assembling a song. Tone Matrix does let you do this. Let’s look at the relevant bit of the screen a bit closer up: Ins and Add let you add a new segment to your song; Del lets you remove it. The << and >> buttons let you scroll through your song, and in between you can see the sequence of segments that go to make up the current song (just a five-segment portion of it — the full song can be much longer). In the next row, the Song button lets you switch between working on the whole song or playing the current segment. Z lets you zoom in on the sequencer matrix for “precision work” — something I’ve found unnecessary on my own device, but may come in handy if you have a smaller screen. The |< and >| buttons let you change the sequence number for the current spot in the song. The Copy and Paste buttons let you quickly take a segment’s contents and paste it into a new segment, while Clear wipes the current segment clean. This sounds like a lot to take in, but in practice, it’s quite simple. My own workflow goes something like this: I first start messing with a single segment, working up a simple beat I like. I then hit Add three or four times to duplicate the sequence. Then it’s time to change it up, so I hit Copy, hit >| to create a new sequence number in that spot in the song, and hit Paste. I then make one or two changes in the sequence (not too much though, because it still has to sound like it belongs in the same song). I then duplicate that several times, then make another tweak, and so on. Pretty soon, I have a basic melody. It may not be a hit, but it sounds like a song, and it’s fun to make. Documentation Rolling Tones is easy to pick up, but it also comes with a simple help page: This is not obvious, and it does help when you’re trying to figure out what each button does. The included sample song helps, too. Final Thoughts Rolling Tones doesn’t win in the looks department, but it definitely has the right functionality, coupled with an intuitive interface and an attractive price tag. Do you know of a better sequencer for Android that’s still simple enough for non-musicians to use? Let me know in the comments! And if you make anything fun with Rolling Tones, feel free to share a SoundCloud link or two, as well. The post Create Fun Melodies On The Go With Free Rolling Tones for Android appeared first on MakeUseOf.

5 Websites For All The Latest Happenings In Dota 2 [MUO Gaming] Posted: 21 May 2013 11:01 AM PDT Dota 2 is a huge game right now, and while it may not be as popular as League of Legends, it is hot on its heels with an ever rising player base. As a whole, the MOBA genre is growing by leaps and bounds every single day, with new players discovering it and deciding to take the time to learn what these games bring to the table. With all of that being said, Dota 2 and League of Legends are hard games to learn. The skill required to master each of the heroes is great, and it’s not the kind of game you are just going to pick up and play without getting your butt handed to you on many occasions. As I mentioned previously, watching Dota 2 streamers is a great way to learn, but if you want to go even further, there are tons of websites designed to help new players progress in the game. In addition to learning, there are many Dota 2 websites out there designed to help keep up with the competitive scene. The rise of the MOBA has had a direct impact on the popularity of so called esports, and Dota 2 has a lively competitive scene that can be hard to keep up with. Some of the sites on this list will let you know who are the teams to watch out for, and when the next great tournament is taking place. PurgeGamers.com I’ve talked about Purges stream before, but his Dota 2 website is also a fantastic resource for Dota 2 information. I am especially fond of his giant article called “Welcome to Dota, You Suck.” This epic article covers almost every aspect of the game and is something I suggest all new players take the time to read. It’s not a short article by any stretch, but the knowledge contained within makes it well worth the time to sit down and plow through. In addition to his articles, Purge also pulls some select games from his streams and posts them to the site. He even does commentary over replays of games, which offers more detailed learning, because he is focused more on teaching and less on playing. The News section even covers the competitive scene, so this site really has it all. Dota2.com The official Dota 2 website is a shockingly good resource. It comes equipped with a “Heropedia” designed to introduce games to the massive list of heroes, and the Steam Guides, which are also available in the game itself. These guides, written by players, offer an incredible amount of depth and knowledge for specific heroes and general gameplay tactics. The official site does not go too deep into the competitive scene, but it covers the big tournaments like The International. Any Dota 2 fan should spend a good deal of time on this site. PlayDota.com This is, without question, one of the most content-packed Dota 2 websites around. It is considered an official site, and as such, all the information contained within it is accurate. In terms of news, it’s not the most active website, but it does cover much of what is happening in the biggest professional tournaments. The bread and butter of PlayDota is the forum. It is a massive community of players covering everything from the competitive scene to tips for new players. It even continues to deal with the original Warcraft 3 Dota mod, so old school players can still get their fix there. Besides the forums, there is tons of articles and other key information to help you expand your knowledge of everything Dota. For the hardcore player, it’s easy to lose many hours hanging out on PlayDota. Reddit.com/r/Dota2 The Dota2 Reddit is always growing, and with it, the amount of content posted expands. As you would expect from Reddit, plenty of photos are posted, but there is also a great deal of strategy discussion and players talking about the competitive scene. If you want a place to come discuss Dota 2 with other serious players, this Reddit is a great option. Dota Insight Dota Insight has a website, but there is not much on there other than a few hero guides. The reason this makes the list is because of their fantastic Dota 2 podcast. It’s very active, with new episodes airing weekly. Each episode covers fun games the hosts played in the last week, tips for heros, the latest patches, and the biggest happenings from the professional Dota 2 scene. If you want to consume your Dota information in audio form, this is the Dota 2 website for you. Your Turn What Dota 2 websites do you visit? Hit the comments section below and let us know! The post 5 Websites For All The Latest Happenings In Dota 2 [MUO Gaming] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Facebook Search Sucks – Use Facebook Email Notifications As A Workaround [Weekly Facebook Tips] Posted: 21 May 2013 10:00 AM PDT Facebook is more than just a tool to stay in touch with friends or waste time. Sometimes people post valuable information that you may want to refer to later. So how do you find an old post on Facebook, if you barely remember the content, let alone who posted it or where? Facebook doesn’t exactly make this convenient. While there are several ways to find stuff on Facebook, they are all but comprehensive or reliable. This situation also forces you to spend even more time on Facebook, increasing the likelihood that you will get distracted. One way to increase your chances of finding something and thus waste less time, is to enable Facebook email notifications. As I explore the benefits of email notifications, I will also show you other ways to search Facebook. Why Would I Need Facebook Email Notifications? Facebook Email Notifications are useful for two main reasons. First, you can read updates without visiting Facebook. Second, you are creating a searchable archive of those posts. Facebook is an incredible time sink. It’s tough not to scroll down your News Feed or view the notifications that have accumulated since your last visit. The best thing you can do to escape this drift is to visit Facebook less. Email notifications allow you to do that and at least partially fight your FOMO (fear of missing out) because you will receive notifications of important posts and events. At some point in the past Facebook retired its old Wall and Timeline search option. Recently, Graph Search was introduced, but it doesn’t really search posts on your Timeline or News Feed. So when you want to find a post or a comment in which you were mentioned, you have to manually search Facebook, for example by expanding the relevant time frame in your News Feed and using your browser’s search feature. If you have Facebook email notifications enabled, however, you can simply use your email client’s search tool. With Gmail’s filter and search features, this is super convenient. Alternatively, you could download your Facebook expanded archive and search it. However, it can take several hours before your archive is ready for download. It also gets outdated the next day, and it doesn’t contain group posts. Presently, it’s possible to search within groups. However, it’s unpredictable which features Facebook will remove or otherwise alter. So if you rely on the group search option, it’s better to be on the safe side and also collect group posts via Facebook email notifications. How Can I Enable Facebook Email Notifications? Facebook offers a range of ways to receive Notifications in the respective section under Account Settings. Besides email notifications, you can enable visual and audio notifications on Facebook, push notifications, and text messages. For email notifications you have two options: All notifications, except the ones you unsubscribe from Only notifications about your account, security and privacy You can unsubscribe from: Pokes Friend confirmations Friend suggestions Friends added based on your suggestions Once you have enabled email notifications and made a choice what to unsubscribe from, note that you can further customize email notifications under the What You Get Notified About header. Particularly interesting are notifications that concern activities of close friends and groups you are a member of. Note that you cannot opt out of activities that involve you, for example when someone comments on a post of yours. Won’t These Notifications Clog Up My Inbox? No, because you know that they are coming and you will take care of them in advance. What you need to do is set up an email filter. Your email client should allow you to automatically mark the notifications as read, make them bypass your inbox, and sort them to a separate label or folder. We have previously outlined how to set up email filters in Gmail, Yahoo, and Thunderbird. Conclusion Facebook email notifications can be set up in a way that doesn’t bother you, and generally can be very useful. They can serve as a partial archive, become a valuable resource when searching for information, and by allowing you to avoid Facebook they might even save you time. If you are still not finding what you are looking for, you can try external services like SocialSearching. From my own experience I must report that they are slow and unreliable, but maybe you are more lucky. Do you know of a better way to find things on Facebook? Please share! The post Facebook Search Sucks – Use Facebook Email Notifications As A Workaround [Weekly Facebook Tips] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

8 Awesome Kerbal Space Program Mods Posted: 21 May 2013 09:31 AM PDT Have you ever wanted to design your own rockets, launch them into space, and send astronauts to the moon (or beyond)? Now you can with Kerbal Space Program, a unique game and digital toy that focuses on the space-faring adventures of little green dudes called Kerbals. The game, developed by a small studio called Squad, has been developed with the Minecraft approach. It is totally playable, and a lot of fun, but there are many planned features still in development. Fortunately, the game's developers have allowed impatient gamers to go crazy with mods, and have even created a website called the Kerbal SpacePort that give modders a place to share their creations. The only problem is the site's huge selection; there are hundreds of Kerbal space program mods to choose from. So, to save you time, I’ve picked out ten of the best. B9 Aerospace Pack Besides rockets, Kerbal Space Program also includes space planes. These are much more complex and harder to design, but allow for the creation of spaceships that can sail to the stars but also re-enter the atmosphere and navigate on their own power. What's great about the B9 pack, and makes it among the best component packs available, is its attention to detail. The parts use quality textures and are based on concept designs shown by NASA, DARPA, and militaries across the globe. And while most useful for planes and shuttles, the parts can be used in rockets, too – so don't count this mod you just because you haven’t started building space planes yet. Impossible Innovations Originally developed as a “cheat pack”, Impossible Innovations has turned into a fully-fledged component mod for people who want to take their space program a step beyond what's possible with today's technology. That means a wide variety of wonderful components like fusion engines, high-capacity batteries, advanced command pods, super-charged solar panels and more. These allow for ships that are larger, faster and more durable that anything normally possible. KW Rocketry Designing your first rocket can feel overwhelming. After some successful missions, however, you may discover an itch for even more components. That's what KW Rocketry provides. In this pack you'll find more nose-cones, decouplers, fuel tanks, fairings, a new engine numerous new engines, more solid fuel boosters, and more. These extras vastly expand the rockets you can build and allow for designs that aren’t possible with stock components. Yet they’re also relatively simple, making this mod digestible for new players. MechJeb Piloting can be one of the game's more frustrating challenges. At times it is difficult, and if you're no good at it, even the best rockets will crash and burn. MechJeb is the solution. Once the mod is installed you'll have access to MechJeb components which, when placed on a spacecraft, provide a wide range of auto-pilot features. This mod can handle almost everything; docking, takeoff, landing, orbital flight, and more. It can mess up from time to time but, in 90% of situations, it works perfectly. SpaceJunk Cargo Bay There's one part that is conspicuously missing from Kerbal Space Program – a cargo bay. Since it isn’t present, rockets have to put satellites into orbit by just attaching to them to the top. Which tends to work fairly well, but isn’t ideal or realistic. SpaceJunk fixes the problem with a cargo bay. Simple! The bay comes in several different sizes and allow for the deployment of small satellites. RemoteTech Currently the game includes the parts to make satellites, but they don't do much. RemoteTech gives them a purpose by introducing new remote control options and a communications system. With this mod it's possible to remotely operate unmanned craft, but only if they're within communications range of mission control. That range is rather short, and blocked by the terrain of Kerbin (your home planet), so you'll need to send up relay satellites. Eventually you'll create a network that spans the solar system, making this mod perfect for anyone who wants to try their hand at inter-planetary communication. Telemachus Kerbal Space Program is as much a toy as it is a game, which means for many players the goal is far less important than the journey. And so we have Telemachus, a mod that lets you use web browsers to create a virtual mission control. Does this make the game easier? Not really. But it does better simulate hands-off command of spacecraft from a control center rather than the cockpit itself. The mod even includes nifty telemetry data, perfect for graph-lovers and data-mongers. Quantum Struts One of the limitations which can become annoying in Kerbal Space Program is the inability to add components after construction. That's annoying because space stations are almost always multiple-part structures built by docking different pieces. Quantum struts provide a fix by adding “energy” struts that can connect different docked spacecraft, which make space stations less likely to suffer from wobble. And that in turn allows for the construction of much larger stations. Conclusion All of these Kerbal space program mods are free to download through the Kerbal SpacePort website, which also provides install instructions. Generally, the folders found in a mod's zip file can be drag-and-dropped into the game's installation folder, and that's that. Mods compatibility doesn’t seem to be an issue (I’ve not run into it, at least). As for the game itself, you can buy it off Steam for $22.99 or directly from Squad for $23 even. The post 8 Awesome Kerbal Space Program Mods appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Roku 3 Review and Giveaway Posted: 21 May 2013 05:20 AM PDT As more content becomes available online, the need for a traditional television subscription may not be enough anymore to justify the costs. Instead, if all the content you care about is available online, there's little reason to keep your TV service going. If you're already subscribed to services like Netflix or Hulu Plus, now may be the time to make the switch. You will still need a computer or system that can access all of that content for you — more commonly, it’s called a media streamer or a home theatre PC. While you can build your own HTPC, it might be easier to just buy something like the Roku 3. We purchased a unit to review and give away to a lucky reader, so let's see whether it lives up to the hype! About the Roku 3 The Roku 3 is, logically, the successor to the Roku and Roku 2. It is an online media delivery system, which means that it’s a dedicated media center box which you connect to your television as well as the Internet via some form of Internet connection such as Wi-Fi or ethernet. It specializes in retrieving content from multiple online sources, such as Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, and much more. The unit has increasingly become smaller, but also more powerful as it delivers on consumer demands for high-definition video streaming. The product line has also shrunk down from multiple different models to just one, but this one model should be enough to satisfy the needs of all consumers. Some competitors to the Roku 3 include the Apple TV at $99, which offers much of the same functionality such as on-demand movies and TV shows, but is more integrated into the Apple ecosystem; and requires one computer to be the dedicated iTunes server in order to watch local video files. Next, the Boxee Box at around $180, offers more or less the same features, but isn’t quite as complete. Boxee is also known to erratically drop support on existing customers and phase out products really quickly. Judging from what’s happening in Boxee’s support forum, the Boxee Box could have very well reached the end of its life. Packaging The Roku 3 comes in a relatively small box, but this is also because the Roku 3 isn’t very big. After taking off the top, you'll see a "Let's get started" guide, where underneath lies the Roku 3 unit as well as the remote. If you pull out the cardboard, you'll find a power supply for the unit as well as batteries for the remote and earphones on the left and right sides of the cardboard. At the very bottom of the box is a product information pamphlet. About the unit As I said, the Roku 3 unit is very small. It measures at just 3.5 inches x 3.5 inches by 1 inch, and weighs in at only 5 ounces. The case is made from a hard plastic which should protect it from bumps and scratches. The glossy surface is also nice, especially with the "3" created by a non-glossy border, but it definitely shows off the fingerprints that it collects. The Roku 3 comes with decent connectivity as it includes a USB port, an HDMI port, and an ethernet port. The USB port allows you to connect additional storage to play content from. Supported formats include MP4, MKV, MP3, AAC, JPG, and PNG; and plays 720p and 1080p HD video. As the Roku 3 only has an HDMI port, it is only compatible with TVs or monitors with an HDMI input. The Roku 3 also doesn't have a separate audio port, so remember that both audio and video will be transmitted via the HDMI cable. The Roku 3 has internal storage for saving your added channels and games, although Roku doesn’t state how much internal storage the device has. However, underneath the HDMI port is a microSD card reader which can provide additional storage space for more channels when the internal storage runs out. While the Roku 3 offers a 10/100 ethernet port, it is also dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi compatible with support for WEP, WPA, and WPA2 encryption. The power plug is rather small, as the Roku 3 is advertised to use only 3.5 watts while streaming HD video. This number is rather impressive, considering that the Roku 3 packs a processor that is "5 times faster" than that found in the previous generation. That's some serious muscle power to stream HD video as smoothly as possible. The Remote The included remote is interesting to say the least. The first thing you'll notice is that neither the remote nor the Roku 3 have an IR receiver — instead, they communicate with each other using Wi-Fi Direct. This simply means that the two devices create an ad-hoc wireless network with which they can communicate. Previous generations used either an IR receiver or Bluetooth. The remote also comes with rather minimal buttons, which makes the Roku 3 quite simple (but sometimes tedious) to use. Surprisingly enough though, the remote also comes with motion control which is used for some games that are available on the Roku 3. One of the biggest advantages to the Wi-Fi Direct method of communication is that the remote is able to receive a lot more data from the main unit. Why in the world would the remote be receiving data from the Roku 3? If you look on the left side of the remote, you'll see that you can plug in any headphones so that you're able to move around and enjoy your content without having to disturb others. While the idea of plugging headphones into a remote may be strange at first, I am absolutely enthusiastic about this idea simply because the remote is extremely mobile. You can enjoy your videos quite wherever you’re not alone are in the room. Setting Up With hardware out of the way, let's take a look at the actual experience with the Roku 3. When you plug it in for the first time, you'll have to go through a setup process in which you choose your language, wireless network if you don't have an ethernet cable plugged in, and a linking process where you have to link the Roku 3 with your Roku account. If you don't have an account, you'll need to make one in order to use your Roku 3. While I don't have an issue with making an account, I do not like that it forces you to enter your payment information, even if you don't plan on making any Roku purchases. However, the account creation process will also ask you whether you want to enter a PIN for making a purchase, so you're still protected from accidentally spending money. With a Roku account, you can also add private channels, manage your subscriptions, check your purchase history, and deactivate your account. Channels Once you have everything set up, you can add different "channels", which are your different content providers. There are channels for every big name in content, from Hulu Plus and Netflix to Pandora, Disney, Fox News Channel. However, the library of channels is huge and includes so much more than just those. You can also find interesting channels such as Dailymotion, cnet, NASA, TED Talks, and even MIT OpenCourseware. Although most channels are freely available, some require a paid subscription to really use them; and then there are some which require you to pay in order to add the channel to your Roku 3. There are also private channels which you can add via your account online using a code. A good place to start looking for private channels would be StreamFree.TV. There aren’t any credible channel repositories — just the available private channels. Experience The general experience across all apps is pleasing. The user interfaces are easy to navigate, and best of all they are pretty predictable after you've looked at one or two channels. For example, if you want to watch a TV show or movie on Netflix, it’s really easy provided you already have your Internet connection set up. Just navigate to the Netflix channel and hit OK. Then, after it loads a little more, you can scroll around for your TV show or movie, and then hit OK again. Then just hit Play on the screen, and it should load. Pandora works similarly, where you navigate to the Pandora channel, choose the station you’d like to listen to, and you’re already done. As everything is channel-based, you won’t find a web browser or file explorer that you can use. The Roku 3 is also supposed to be able to connect to other PCs on the network and stream from them, but I haven’t been able to get it to work because of the network scenario where I live. Games Interestingly enough, you can also play a handful of games on the Roku 3 after adding them to your device. One of the most popular games is Angry Birds Space, and I'd have to say that it's pretty fun to play on. The graphics are very good, and playing with the remote is pretty cool. You can point with the remote to move the on-screen pointer around, and in the case of Angry Birds you can also pull back by moving the remote to the left. I’m not sure how it recognizes the motion, but it works reasonably well. You don’t even have to point it at the Roku unit — it works even when pointing the remote in the complete opposite direction. I still prefer using a smartphone or tablet when playing Angry Birds, however. Downsides Besides plenty of available channels and games, there isn't a whole lot more to the Roku 3. It's fantastic at what it's meant to do — streaming online content. However, there are a few downsides to the Roku 3. First, if you haven't noticed yet, there is no official YouTube channel despite the number of channels that are available for the device. As a college student, I do enjoy any content that is available for free, and YouTube is my go-to source for that. As the Roku 3 doesn't offer YouTube, that's a huge turn off in my eyes. After doing a bit of research, I've discovered that this is Google's fault for trying to make a YouTube app exclusive to Google and Apple TV devices, and not Roku's. I just hope that YouTube comes to the device in the near future, no matter whose fault it really is. Next, I dislike the fact that I have to make an account for the Roku 3, but I see the reasons why I would want to do so. However, I definitely didn't like that I was forced to enter in my payment information — maybe I'm asking a bit too much in that area. Finally, I think that the power cable is too short at just 5 feet, as I wasn't able to place the Roku 3 exactly where I would have preferred it to be. Conclusion Overall, this is a fantastic streaming solution that makes the switch to online TV content a whole lot easier. Despite some of my gripes, the device has barely any downsides, although I'm still highly disappointed about the lack of an official YouTube channel. As most of my viewed content comes from YouTube, it makes the Roku 3 a lot less useful for me. Also, if you're invested in the Apple ecosystem, you may have a better time getting an Apple TV instead. While it doesn't have quite as many channels as the Roku 3, it does connect to most major content providers (including YouTube) as well as your iCloud purchases and content. MakeUseOf Recommends: Buy, unless you use Apple ecosystem or highly desire YouTube. How do I win a Roku 3? We have a new giveaway procedure in place, which will hopefully make participating much easier. You may enter using your Facebook credentials (which will require you to sign into Facebook) or by submitting your name and email address. You’ll receive one entry simply by doing so. After that, you’ll also be offered various methods to earn additional entries. They range from sharing a link to this giveaway on social networks; to commenting or visiting a specific page. The more you participate, the higher your chances of winning! This giveaway begins now and ends Friday, May 31st. The winner will be selected at random and informed via email. Submit your apps and software to be reviewed. Contact Jackson Chung for further details. The post Roku 3 Review and Giveaway appeared first on MakeUseOf.

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