15 New Articles on MakeUseOf |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [May 9th 2013]
- Hipstamatic Launches Oggl: An iOS Social Networking App To Share Your Best Photos [Updates]
- Free Storm Tracking Software To Get Warned Before Everyone Else
- DJ App Crossfader for iPhone Uses Movement To Mix Music [iOS]
- What Are the Fastest Tools for Windows Desktop Search?
- PhoneClean 2 Promises To Free Up Space on Your iOS Device, But Does It Work?
- 7 Sticky Notes – The Most Full-Featured Sticky Notes Program [Windows]
- How To Root The Samsung Galaxy S4 (I9500 International Version)
- Rethinking The Business Card
- Energy Saving Tips For Buying & Using Electronics
- Voice Messaging – A Secret Weapon On Windows Phone 8
- Google+ Hangouts On Air Adds Faster Start Times, Instant Recordings, Broadcast Rewinding, & Mobile Improvements [Updates]
- Cleanr Video – Make YouTube Less Of a Time Sink
- Perform Amazing Feats With These Useful Google Spreadsheet Functions
- Switching from iPhone to Android? Here’s How to Move All Your Stuff
| Cool Websites and Tools [May 9th 2013] Posted: 09 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 9th 2013] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hipstamatic Launches Oggl: An iOS Social Networking App To Share Your Best Photos [Updates] Posted: 09 May 2013 08:30 PM PDT
Oggl is a way for users to share their very best creative photos with the world, and upon closer inspection, it’s the natural evolution of Hipstamatic. In addition to serving as a social networking platform, the app allows users to capture images and add interesting filters just like its predecessor. However, the price tag for the app is better than the company’s maiden voyage — it’s free. As expected, Oggl does things a bit differently than the original. For instance, the developers have rebranded its filters as “situational filters”. That is, they believe every situation in life calls for its own type of filter. Rather than flipping through different image treatments to find the coolest one, Oggl’s developers encourage users to apply filters based on the circumstances that the snapshot was taken in. These include landscapes, portraits, nightlife, food, and sunsets.
Also carried over from Hipstamatic are lenses, and users can even transfer their lenses from the original app to the new one. Included with the free download are five lenses and different types of filters. However, for $0.99 a month, users can have access to all of Oggl’s lenses and filters. As a note, Oggl also offers the ability to modify all filters before and after an image is taken, and photos can be uploaded instantly for others to see. The app’s developers have also included a Curated Editorial Feed that displays the best pictures shared using the app. Oggl is starting as an invitation-only service, but you can request an invite on the website. Will you install Oggl on your iPhone? Do you think it stands a chance against Instagram? Source: TheNextWeb The post Hipstamatic Launches Oggl: An iOS Social Networking App To Share Your Best Photos [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Free Storm Tracking Software To Get Warned Before Everyone Else Posted: 09 May 2013 08:01 PM PDT
I don’t want to be gloomy like that and I choose to focus on the “WOOHOO! Grab the beer and put the kids in the cellar, there’s a tornado comin’ Ma!” aspect of amateur storm watching. To do that, I will employ high tech storm tracking software in true High-Tech Redneck™ fashion – it must be free. There is one caveat (that’s ‘warning’ for my redneck brethren and sistren) – there haven’t been any really good storms this season, so I haven’t been able to test this out as much as I’d like. HurricaneSoftware.comOf course, the software is free, and they also provide versions for just about every platform – PC, iPad/iPhone, Android, and even Windows Phone 7. So you can have it on the big screen when you’re at work, or at home wishing you had a job. You can have it on your phone for your drive home from work, or to the unemployment office. No sense job huntin’ if there’s beer clouds in the air. Being a lot more serious, this application has some very advanced features that are part of the free package. You can download historical storm data, such as I’ve done below for Sandy. There are many overlays that you can apply as well, such as the Geostationary Satellite’s (GOES) Infrared and Visible Spectrum images. The amount of detail available is really impressive. You can also ‘play’ the data as an animation and see the storm develop and track to its final destination. The data provided comes from the NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, so that’s about as reliable as one can get.
In the Satellite Images tab, you can also view the most recent, as well as historical, images of GOES IR, Visible (Vis) and Water Vapor, for either a specific region or for a more global perspective known as ‘disk’. This means the part of the planet that would be visible to you if you picked a point on a globe and just looked at it from one side. The Interactive Radar Map option shows you a Bing-generated satellite view with the different radar stations highlighted as little round icons. Mouse over the icon and you get an overlay of what the radar station is picking up right now. Seriously, how cool is that?
Other tabs such as Recon Flight Plan, Tropical Weather Outlook, Tropical Weather Discussion, Summary, Forecast Advisory, Storm Discussions and Public Advisories give you text-based fresh-off-the-wire information for the region that you’ve chosen, either Atlantic or Eastern Pacific.
The software was definitely designed with helping the average Joe and Bobby-Jo out as well. There are three tools that are available in this application that can help you to prepare for the coming storm. Under Preparedness > Check List is a tool to help you track what items you have on hand to help you in an emergency storm situation. I don’t know why they have books on there and not beer, but I guess they have to think of the kids too. Of course, the list can be edited, so maybe I’ll have to add my Alexander Keith’s IPA on there and Appleton’s Rum for the wife. We’re fancy rednecks. The Hurricane FAQ’s go over a bit of the technical details of different types of storms and what you might expect from any of them. You could probably get this information from Wikipedia, but if your Internet is out, then you have something to read. Again, for the kids. If your Internet isn’t down yet, you can e-mail a copy of the current storm map to all of your friends and family.
But wait! There’s more! There is also a desktop gadget that you can install as well. It will act sort of like a ticker to give you the most recent storm activity for the region that you have chosen. The Android AppAs one might expect in the Android App version of the software, it’s really scaled down. However, once you’ve used the desktop application, the Android application becomes very familiar. Nonetheless, you can get all the information you need right here as well. In the image below, from left to right, you’ll see the Home screen. Right now, there are no storms to track and it states that clearly. Using the pinch and stretch maneuver you can zoom in and out of the map. Second to left, you can see a satellite image of the weather for a specific weather station. The number of stations available is limited on the Android, however the radar covers a pretty broad area. Third from the left, you can read all the latest wire talk from weather traffic stations. This is where you’re likely to see information about a storm before anyone else. In the final screen, you can sign up for e-mail alerts.
Now, about the e-mail alerts on the phone…when I signed up, nothing came up telling me I had to be registered or anything like that. Unfortunately, there is no storm activity right now, so I don’t know if I’m going to get the alerts or not. What’s The Downside?Well, if you want the Email and Phone Alerts you need to register the software for about $15 a year. Cheap insurance in a way, especially if you live an an area prone to mayhem, which seems to be the only places I ever live. Also, the information is very much US-centric. Living in Canada fairly close to the border, the software still works for me, but not so much for our friends on the rest of the planet. The other downside is perhaps that there is SO much information! If you want to extract all of the meaning you can from this software, you’ll need to be Googling a few terms and maybe visiting a few weather-related forums. What Are My Other Options?For free, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of storm tracking software out there. At least not like this. Now, I haven’t seen every website on the planet or downloaded and tested every piece of supposedly-free storm tracking software. Note I said supposedly-free. I did download some other storm tracking software that claimed to be free. In reality it was only free for download, which gets me right mad. Sure, download it for free, but if you want it to be usable at all it’s going to cost you $40. One of them is StormPredator, which looks gimmicky, even more so than the very poor website design. Another is WeatherDefender, which appears to be a pretty full featured package with a decent interface, however I can’t even find out how much it costs without downloading the evaluation version. Traditional Storm Tracking MethodsSome of these methods are newer traditions, like Twitter and Google, however the mainstream media and local, regional and federal government agencies are still some of the best sources for storm news. Search out your country’s national weather service and there’s a good chance they have some sort of program to get news from them. If not, your local news station very well might. Failing all those, look to Twitter and Google’s impressive storm tracking capabilities. Twitter is breaking more news stories than Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, and Bill Clinton on a tag-team bender these days. Having TweetDeck set up to track storm tweets on your smartphone can help you be in the know before anyone else. After all, Tweeters will tweet about darn near anything – why not the weather? Keepers of the world’s data, Google has the Google Crisis Map, which is pretty good at letting you know what’s going on with flooding, rainfall, air quality and other crises. One of the best features of it is that it shows where Red Cross stations are set up. This particular screenshot shows that there is heavy flooding in the area in red.
If you’re looking more specifically for your mobile devices, and that makes good horse sense, we’ve published several articles about several applications for all platforms that ought to help you find what you’re looking for. From native Texan, Danny, there’s a review of Radar Now! for Android. Texans know their storms! If you happen to be Apple kind of folk, Tim has you covered with The 7 Best Storm Tracking Apps. Tim’s been kind enough to point you to some first aid and other emergency apps too. The Take AwayWith all the free methods to track storms, you might not get to be warned before everyone else, but you may get better quality information than everyone else. That can be the deciding factor between whether you hit the storm cellar or start filling sandbags. The best thing to do is to develop a sense of situational awareness and learn what nature can tell you about the weather. Remember, we had the Weather Channel when we were kids. It was called a window. If you’ve used any of these storm tracking software, I would really love to read your opinions or get tips on how to better use them, I’m sure the other MUO’ers out there would like to know as well. If you know of a great piece of software, by all means pop it in the comments! Remember, we’re all in this together. Image Credit: Hurricane Igor by NASA Goddard Photo and Video via Flickr. The post Free Storm Tracking Software To Get Warned Before Everyone Else appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DJ App Crossfader for iPhone Uses Movement To Mix Music [iOS] Posted: 09 May 2013 07:30 PM PDT
One such app that produces fantastic results with relatively little skill is Crossfader, an app from DJZ that launched on the App Store at the beginning of April and has been “free for a limited time” ever since. If you’re a fan of the Kinect, Wii and natural interfaces in general then Crossfader it bound to put a silly grin on your face. You’ll also look very silly, but that’s all part of the fun. Twist & MixThe first time I saw Crossfader in the App Store I completely overlooked it. At the time (and still to this day) I was besotted with iOS music apps, having discovered gems like NanoStudio and the expansive AudioBus with which I can compose music using nothing more than an iPhone and some earphones. Crossfader markets itself to everyone – not just DJs, or those with an interest in music apps. For that reason I discounted it as a toy and figured it would be full of in-app purchases for terrible music I didn’t like. That was a mistake, and I’m glad I gave the app another go. This was cemented by the fact that I played with it for a straight hour on first launch, plugged it into my stereo amp and turned the volume up to levels that surely made me unfavourable with the neighbours. When my girlfriend arrived home from work, I was none the wiser until she was stood behind me wondering what I was doing and why I looked like I’d developed a physical disability in an afternoon.
After reassuring her I was simply blossoming into the musical prodigy I’d promised all along, I took a step back and reassessed my initial thoughts about Crossfader. To put it bluntly: it’s bloody brilliant. Why? Because it relies on your movement for nearly every control you have over the resultant music. Tilting left and right controls the main crossfader, as you’d see on any mixer or other DJ app. Tilting forwards and backwards applies effects (upwards being a beat-splicing gate and downwards adding a touch of high-pass). The further you go with either of these tilts, the more radical the effect and sudden the change. Jerking your phone left and right will also play a sample while simultaneously switching tracks.
The only thing you’ll need your fingers for is flicking the red or blue tiles – which are essentially your “decks” – to change tracks. A quick double-tap brings up a complete list of included music, which you can re-order if you do so wish. There’s a pause button in the top left, and a record button in the top right for exporting your mix which can then be uploaded to SoundCloud. Oh, and it helps to have a good latency-free AirPlay connection, though I’ve been using a stereo cable with enough slack not to damage anything which also does the trick. Superstar DJs… Here We Go!The music is a mix of modern dance, commercial, dubstep and other club hits with the odd a capella and breaks tracks in there for good measure. At present (and I counted) there are 48 tracks included, of roughly 30 seconds each. Most contain a break and a drop, though as mentioned others are simply vocals or drum accompaniments, in particular the Amen Break has been included which spruces up any tired old club hit.
Some of the music left me disappointed, but this is subjective. I’m not a massive fan of club hits or commercial dubstep from the likes of Skrillex, of which there is plenty in the app. That said, there is enough music to placate most crowds, and adding more really shouldn’t be a problem for the developers thanks to the rather clever implementation.
By providing only short 30-second clips akin to an iTunes preview, DJZ have potentially solved the issue of requiring in-app purchase packs. They’ve also made this music very easy to mix by sorting out tempo, pitch and beat looping for you. Music builds and drops as it’s meant to, and the results are limited but professional-sounding transitions. Limited for the lack of musical variation and two sole effects, professional because it only requires a small amount of practice before you can produce seamless transitions and start to look very silly indeed.
There’s something about controlling music with physical movement that makes me want to move the rest of me as well. This isn’t a new thing, in fact there are apps like the rather expensive multi-touch synth TC-11 ($29.99) which uses movement to modify parameters, but nothing that provides such a user-friendly implementation. That said, the app is definitely best for creating mini-mixes in its current state. A Few Final ThoughtsAfter playing with Crossfader I soon realised that I’d seen this sort of thing before in the MIDI Fighter 3D, a MIDI controller for DJs and live electronic music performers. The MIDI Fighter range takes the robustness of arcade controllers and applies it to MIDI music-making, allowing you to trigger samples, effects and tracks with a punch of a button. The MIDI Fighter 3D builds on this with accelerometers and the like to build a controller you can twist and tilt. Crossfader takes this use of natural movement and puts it into an app (with admittedly far less scope) that anyone can enjoy. The app has still not had an update beyond its initial release. In fact at the time of writing, it’s never even had a price. With that in mind there is plenty of room for improvement here, including the possibility of adding your own loops, changing which effects and samples are triggered and even adding a tilt-reactive video output for sending to a TV or projector. Above you will find a quick mix I threw together for the purpose of this review – it’s not exactly tight but it shows off the various functions and loops. In its current state it’s a fun toy that tires slightly sooner than it should do. The developers are pushing the “DJ your own party” angle, and for that it needs to be updated with more music and customisation options. Grab it! Download: Crossfader for iPhone & iPod Touch (Free) Have you played with Crossfader? Are there any other similar apps you enjoy? Let us know what you think in the comments, below. The post DJ App Crossfader for iPhone Uses Movement To Mix Music [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What Are the Fastest Tools for Windows Desktop Search? Posted: 09 May 2013 07:01 PM PDT
On top of the default search feature, there are a number of third-party tools that claim to be better and faster at searching your computer for relevant files and folders, and that raises a few questions. Is Windows desktop search slow? And if so, how much faster are the alternatives? I took a look at the best known Windows search tools and compared them – the results were surprising. Note: I'm on a Windows 7 desktop so I'm testing these tools against the default search on that operating system. You can safely assume that Windows XP search speeds would be slower than Windows 7, but I don't know how much more the Windows 8 search improves. So if you use Windows 8, just keep that in mind. Windows Search
Interface: The Windows search integrates nicely into the actual operating system, so you'll feel right at home using it. Open up any explorer window (basically, any folder) and the search bar will be up in the top right. You can also search Windows in the Start Menu if you prefer it that way. Search Time: Average 3m 30s for unindexed search; average <1s for indexed search. If you enable Windows search indexing, your computer will constantly keep an index of all files and folders, which helps to improve search speeds. Features: I don't know about you, but I've always viewed the Windows search as a primitive function. That might be because I had some poor experiences as a child on Windows 98, ME, and even XP. However, rest assured that the latest iterations of the desktop search aren't so bad. There are a few tricks to improve Windows 7 search that you can use. Everything
Interface: Everything's interface is as simplistic as they come. It's just an empty window with a small search bar across the top. As you type, the search results show up in the list below. There really isn't much else to say. Minimal and to the point – just how I like my tools to be. Search Time: Instantaneous real-time. Everything is an impressive bit of windows desktop search technology due to how fast and responsive it is. Like Windows search, Everything works by indexing your entire computer's file structure, which allows it to present immediate search results as you type your search query. Everything can index a fresh install of Windows 7 in just a few seconds. Features: You'd think that such a fast search tool would come with a downside. Well, as far as I can tell, there are no downsides to Everything. It barely uses any resources – less than 5MB RAM and less than 1MB of hard drive space. It also monitors file system changes live, so your index is always up to date. Listary
Interface: The Listary interface is fantastic in my opinion, but I can see how it might be cumbersome or annoying for some users. Essentially, Listary doesn't have an interface of its own. As you browse around on your computer, all you have to do is start typing and Listary will know based on context whether you want to search or not. Search Time: Average <1s for computer-wide search. Features: Listary's search is extremely flexible. The query matching isn't verbatim, so you can just type multiple terms until you get the match that you were looking for. The search only performs in the current directory, though you can easily manipulate the search query to search in other locations if you want. Pro Version: Though the Free version is feature complete and available forever, you can upgrade to the Pro version for $19.95 USD, which unlocks a few advanced features. ConclusionThe absolute search times listed above have a lot of factors going into them, such as the size of my hard drives, how many files and folders I have, other programs running in the background that take up CPU resources, etc. However, just focus on the relative search speeds between each program and you'll see that all of them are quite good at fast searches. My winner? I prefer Everything. Listary offers the same "find as you type" instantaneous search results but the interface can sometimes be intrusive, especially when you accidentally bring it up. I like how Everything is both fast and compact and only shows up when I open it myself. I tested out a few other Windows desktop search tools that didn't make it onto this list. With indexing, Windows search is quite fast already. Everything and Listary were the only ones that could offer the same (or better) speed while adding extra features on top. Know of any other Windows search tools that are just as fast? Share them with us in the comments. Image Credit: Magnifier Via Shutterstock The post What Are the Fastest Tools for Windows Desktop Search? appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PhoneClean 2 Promises To Free Up Space on Your iOS Device, But Does It Work? Posted: 09 May 2013 06:30 PM PDT
As you may remember, I own an old, first generation iPad. Being an old device, it’s pretty set in its ways, and did not really take to me trying to shuffle things around. It decided to completely die on me, forcing me to restore it and start from scratch. This was not exactly according to plan that night, and I ended up working very late to make up for it. It was at that point that I desperately wanted something that could clean up my iPad for me, preferably without me having to actually delete or uninstall any of my precious apps or photos. Unfortunately, such options are usually kind of sketchy, and while I do want to free up some room, I definitely don’t want to lose content or for my device to stop working. It is in the line of duty that I’ve decided to subject my iPad to one of these programs, namely, iMobie’s PhoneClean 2. PhoneClean is a free program that claims to free space on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch by deleting files that should be useless to you, such as temporary files, cached and offline files, cookies, script files, and media files that failed to sync properly. On paper, this should be quite useful, especially if you own a 8GB or 16GB iDevice. But does it really work? Setting Up A PhoneClean ScanDespite this somewhat bombastic headline, there’s really not much to getting PhoneClean to scan your iDevice. Assuming you already have iTunes installed (it must be installed on your computer for PhoneClean to work), all that’s left to do is head over to iMobie and download PhoneClean 2.
PhoneClean is available for Windows XP and later or for Mac OS X 10.6 and later. Despite what you might expect, the program does not try to force you into installing any junk toolbars or third-party programs — installation is quick and straightforward. Once done, it’s time to plug in your iDevice and submit it to a PhoneClean scan. Only slightly worried, this is exactly what I did.
Scanning With PhoneClean: Did My iPad Survive?As you can see from the screenshot above, my iPad is no longer completely full. After that night mentioned in the intro, I never re-installed all my apps and synced back all my media files. This was almost a year ago, so I didn’t expect my iPad to have a lot of junk on it, although I have to admit that I’m not in the habit of taking very good care of it. Before you start the scan, you get to choose what you want to scan for. I chose to scan for everything, but if you’re worried about losing log-in information and such, you could exclude cookies and script files. When I started the experiment, my iPad had 5.86 GB of free space according to PhoneClean, and 5.65 GB of free space according to iTunes. It was time to see how much space was taken by “junk”.
Right off the bat, I noticed that PhoneClean did not feel like a scam. It didn’t try to push anything on me, and the interface is actually quite fetching. Scanning my iPad’s 9 GB of data took around 7 minutes, during which I could still use my iPad to watch videos or play games (you have to keep entertained while the scan goes on, after all). After 7 minutes, PhoneClean informed me that I could save 1.02 GB by deleting all kinds of files it had found.
Note that most, if not all of PhoneClean’s findings on my device came from cache and offline files, but this will change from device to device, naturally. PhoneClean 2 lets you bore down into its findings, and exclude any files you don’t want erased, or more accurately, exclude apps you don’t want it to touch.
I chose to exclude nothing, as I wanted to see exactly what would happen to my apps after cleaning them up with PhoneClean. It’s time to clean up! Did my iPad survive? The ResultsClean-up was surprisingly quick, and after less than 5 minutes, PhoneClean was done and presented the following screen.
This was the only time PhoneClean asked anything in return, and it was done in a pretty agreeable way. It did not feel spammy or seedy. But what happened to my iPad? Surprisingly, not much. Aside from having 1 GB extra of free space, that is, which is quite significant in a 16GB device.
My Kindle books stayed synced to the same pages, apps such as Pulse, Skype, Pinterest, and Dropbox were still logged in, and even my Safari and Dolphin tabs and browsing history remained untouched. A Solitaire game I was playing while PhoneClean was scanning was saved exactly where I left off before the clean. All this remained even after restarting my iPad. These results may differ from device to device and from app to app, so if some of your apps do get logged out after the clean up, don’t be too surprised. I’ll remind you again that my iPad runs iOS 5.1 (it’s not supported by iOS 6), and PhoneClean still worked without a hitch. All in all, I couldn’t find anything really negative to say about this program, despite viewing it with a pretty critical eye. The only option I would like to see added is a way to back up your files just in case the program deletes something that does cause damage. You can, however, do this easily using iTunes, so it’s not a big deal. Don’t own an iDevice? No worries, here are some useful tips on how to free up space on your Android device. Are you convinced, or will you still be wary when trying out PhoneClean? Perhaps you’re still too scared to subject your iDevice to a clean? Share your thoughts in the comments! The post PhoneClean 2 Promises To Free Up Space on Your iOS Device, But Does It Work? appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 Sticky Notes – The Most Full-Featured Sticky Notes Program [Windows] Posted: 09 May 2013 05:31 PM PDT
After using a handful of these kinds of software, I’ve come to realize that a lot of them really fall short. Sticky notes are a pretty big deal to me and have almost completely replaced my need for an application like Evernote. That’s only because I’ve recently come across one of the most feature-packed solutions to desktop sticky notes – 7 Sticky Notes. 7 Sticky Notes7 Sticky Notes currently sits as my favorite sticky notes manager, and there are a lot of reasons why for us to go over.The current version, 1.9, is only a 5.86 MB download and is compatible with 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows 2000, XP, Server, 7, and 8.
This application does what every software should do today, and that’s offer you to install the application completely portably. You can install it straight to your desktop, a Dropbox folder, or a removable drive. It’ll work perfectly all the same. Should you choose to install the application portably, there are a few additional steps you may have to take.
Depending on your User Account Control settings, you may receive the above error when first attempting to run the application. If you do, run the application again with administrative privileges, and 7 Sticky Notes should be able to automatically register the DLLs for you.
You may also be told that 7 Sticky Notes is unable to find your database file after your first run. Should this happen, just select the option to create a new database as is shown in the screenshot above. After a successful run, your first note will be automatically created, conveniently giving you a quick tutorial on how to best use the application.
I advise that you read over this note, as it answers the most basic questions that many new users would have, and it also introduces some of the most important shortcuts for controlling 7 Sticky Notes. When you’re familiar with the basics, right-click the note. You’ll now see a list of options, and from here you can simply delete the note. Don’t worry about possibly needing it again at a later date, because deleted notes are stored in the in-application Recycle Bin rather than permanently deleted.
As you can see, there’s a lot of functionality that is offered per note. You can roll up or resize a note, set it to remain on top of all other windows, lock the note, duplicate it, export it, change the theme, and more. Keep this in mind.
Right-clicking the tray icon offers your next set of options, where you can then pull up the Notes Manager, which really acts as a log and agenda for all of the notes you’ve ever made or had deleted. If you check the Recycle Bin here, you can immediately catch previously-deleted posts. Clicking on a section’s heading will activate the “plus” sign, thus allowing you to create your own notes from this screen. I personally choose to make all of my notes from the Notes Manager screen because the agenda-style approach is just better overall. Remember that notes can be created by hotkey or just right-clicking the tray icon and selecting that action.
The notes themselves are very stylish and completely configurable. You can choose font styles, transparency levels, themes, create drop shadows, add image attachments, set your notes to snap to a grid, add clickable URLs and hyperlinks, and more. Not only do they look very nice, but these features make them more useful than any other alternative application that I’ve tried out. Advanced settings and configurations of 7 Sticky Notes are very deep.
Shown here, you can see some of the general settings. These include automated sizing, URL detection, enabling or disabling confirmation dialogs, and all-important keyboard shortcuts that you can tinker with.
7 Sticky Notes’ backup and synchronization options are definitely to be appreciated. The application comes with automated ways to periodically backup your notes database and keep your notes synchronized. For me, this is incredibly important. Additional features within the options include adding and modifying themes, setting up alarms for your notes, protecting your notes and the Notes Manager by password, and more. Again, 7 Sticky Notes doesn’t look to just slap notes to your desktop and call it a day. This is an extremely complete solution that, if used correctly, can be a replacement for any note-taking software. What do you think of 7 Sticky Notes? Is there another alternative software out there that you think handles such notes in a better way? Let me know in the comments! The post 7 Sticky Notes – The Most Full-Featured Sticky Notes Program [Windows] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To Root The Samsung Galaxy S4 (I9500 International Version) Posted: 09 May 2013 04:30 PM PDT
So, the brand-new Galaxy S4 has just started retailing! And as most early adopters, one of the first things I wanted to do with my new Galaxy S4 was of course to root it. This post shows exactly how I’ve done it. The root exploit I used was released by XDA developer cofface in this thread. It is not a foolproof procedure, and it does involve some trial and error. The exploit itself offers two rooting methods, only one of which actually worked for me. So, caveat emptor! The good news is that I did end up with a rooted phone, and so can you. Initial Requirements and CaveatsFirst things first: As I write this, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a very recent arrival. This procedure should be regarded as experimental, and we are in no way responsible if you somehow mess up your phone trying to root it. That said, I did test this on my own Galaxy S4 and can confirm the procedure worked for me. This procedure requires some familiarity with Android and rooting. It’s not as easy as SuperOneClick, but it is possible. If you’re looking for a more general introduction to rooting, check out 3 Cool Things You Can Do With A Rooted Android Phone. This procedure works with the Galaxy S4 international version (I9500), with a build number that ends with XXUAMDE, Android version 4.2.2. To see if your device qualifies, go to Settings > More > About device:
Note Android version and Build number above. If you see the same thing on your device, you can proceed. Setting Up USB Debugging ModeTo make this work, you may need to switch on USB Debugging Mode on your Galaxy S4. Note the “may”: It might work if you skip this step. But at any rate, USB debugging is useful for tinkering with the device, so we might as well go ahead and enable it. Samsung made this trickier than necessary. Here’s how: 1. Go to Settings > More > About device (you should already be there if you did the previous step). 2. Scroll down to Build number, and tap it seven times. Yup, just tap-tap-tap, seven times. I know there’s no button there. Keep tapping. 3. You will eventually get a toast (notification) saying “Developer mode has been enabled”. 4. You will now have a Developer options menu (before-last in this screeenshot):
5. Tap into Developer options, and enable USB debugging. Getting The Files You NeedWe’re going to need the Samsung USB driver, Odin (the tool we’ll use to flash the device), and of course, the actual binary we’re going to use to flash the phone. 1. Download the Samsung USB driver from here, and install it. Be sure you have an up-to-date antivirus installed (such as MS Security Essentials) since this is not an official Samsung download. 2. Download the latest cofface root file. Here’s a direct link to the file at the time of this writing (filename is SamsungI9500_cwm_Recovery_by cofface_0503.zip, and yes, the site is in Chinese). Ideally, take a moment to dig through the original thread and get the latest binary (it may well change after this post is published). This zip already contains both the binary we will flash and Odin. Flashing The File: This Is The Risky BitSo we now have all of our basic ingredients. 1. Extract the file from Cofface somewhere. The folder should look like this:
2. Turn your phone off. 3. Press and hold the volume down and Home buttons together or a few seconds, then press the Power button. A screen would now show asking if you want to proceed. Press volume up to confirm. Congratulations, you’re in Download Mode. 4. Plug in your phone. This should trigger a driver install:
5. Start Odin:
Note the text under ID:COM above, and the Added message. 4. Click the PDA button on Odin, and browse for cofface_samsungI9500_recovery_en_0503.tar. Note the en in the filename – that stands for English, so you really do want that file and not the one with cn (Chinese) in the filename.
5. Now’s the scary part: Time to flash the file. Click Start, and wait. Do not disconnect the phone, obviously. This will take just a moment, and will then show:
Booting To Recovery and RootingYou thought we were done, right? Not so. When Odin completed flashing the device, it should have restarted it. Let it finish booting, then shut it off again. Now: 1. Turn the device back on, this time in Recovery mode. To do this, hold volume up + Home, and press the power button. 2. You should find yourself in CWM recovery after a moment. (It does take a moment, don’t worry.) 3. Navigate to “root your phone.” 4. Pick “Root your phone (Old method)”. Yes, we’re using the so-called old method (this is for a phone less than a month old, mind you). The new method didn’t work. 5. CWM will now show “Root Done, Please Reboot.” 6. Reboot the phone. 7. You will get a brief prompt saying “Android is upgrading”. And you should have a new app, SuperSU:
VerifyingTo make sure the phone is indeed rooted, install Titanium Backup. Once it starts, it should prompt for root access. When you grant it, you should get this:
(Very) Limited Tech SupportI will finish this post as I’ve started it, with a disclaimer and a warning: This method worked for me. These are my own screenshots, on my own phone. So it did work. But I cannot guarantee it is going to work for you. It’s finicky and tricky. While I welcome any and all comments, I will not be able to provide tech support and help you troubleshoot issues with rooting your Galaxy S4 — there are just too many variables involved. That said, good luck! Rooting your Galaxy S4 is definitely doable. The post How To Root The Samsung Galaxy S4 (I9500 International Version) appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 09 May 2013 03:31 PM PDT
The business card is a ubiquitous sight in any business meeting. The first documented use of them can be tracked to Japan in the 15th Century. These formal royal announcements, known as ‘meishi’, were distributed amongst the local community as a sign of a potential visit. The use of cards as formal announcements was later adopted by aristocrats in 17th Century France. However, the formality behind these announcement cards was dropped when tradesmen of London used them amongst their clients as multipurpose advertising. Some were used as pocket maps showing the location of their stores. Others were used as personalized invoices for their trade.
These practices have differed little in the 21st Century although there’s a lot more to the modern business card than just text and pictures. Although a great card design can capture the attention of others, your business card can be so much more – it can be the key into your business and its unique personality. Here at MOO.COM, we adore the business card and the endless potential they have, from colour, to texture, and shape. With this in mind, here are a few of our ideas to help create the ideal business card for your business. The Pocket PortfolioIf you are an artist, a photographer, or even have innovative products to sell, grabbing your customers’ attention is key. Rather than simply sharing your name and contact details, your business cards can become an ideal portable portfolio or showroom. This approach can guarantee that your intended audience sees your work in its best light and see what makes you stand out from the crowd.
Making a Game Of It“Gamifying” your business cards can be a great approach to your marketing strategy, especially if you run a small shop or restaurant. This approach instantly taps into your customer’s natural curiosity. A common practice is to turn your business cards into a loyalty card – encouraging customers’ regular purchases with stamps. A completed card can be traded in to receive a reward, be it a special offer or discount on one of your products. A Tracking ToolTechnology company Perch offer discounts for their CMS platforms by using multiple fronts on their business cards. They can distribute them at various technology events. Using multiple fronts to your own business cards in this way also makes them track able – by giving your potential customers a different card you can keep track of which codes have (or haven't) been reclaimed, and match them to the event at which you gave these cards out. It's real-world ROI tracking in action!
Adding a New DimensionIt can sometimes be challenging to communicate on paper, especially if your business works in sound, animation, or video. For example, if you are a freelance filmmaker, your business card should be able to communicate your camera skills and have a show reel of your past projects. If you think creatively, you can add a whole new dimension to your business card by making use of QR codes and augmented reality. These technologies bring a completely new functionality to your business card and can communicate considerably more than just paper and ink. However, these technologies can offer the best of both the real world and the virtual world for your business, and show how your business is stepping into the future.
A simple and quick way to add interactivity to your business card is by adding a QR code. These little black and white marks are infamous now in the modern business environment but can be used in thousands of creative ways. Why not add a little mystery by having it as the only thing on your business card? Your potential clients will have no other choice but to scan the code. This could lead to more content that one humble business card could ever hope to display! It could lead to a secret VIP area with discounts and offers for customers, a competition page, or simply the ‘contact me’ page of your website. Here’s an innovative idea from French designer Victor Petit; after scanning in his QR code, a YouTube video of himself is loaded up explaining his skills and his interests, really demonstrating a passion for his profession. Augmented reality (or AR) blurs the line between the real world and the virtual world by allowing users to interact with computer-generated graphics and content in real time. This relatively young technology has made some incredible leaps already and is a great platform for communicating your ideas. However, the best thing about this technology is that you can achieve something impressive with little or no technology background! The easiest and quickest way to add AR interactivity is with external software. The free mobile app Aurasma (available on iOS and Google Play) can automatically assign video content to the front of your business card. This is achieved by teaching the software to recognize the front of your card and assign the content to it directly. A phone with the software can then scan the image with its camera and display that content almost immediately. You could use this technology to conduct a presentation to your potential clients with an interactive video, something that is practically impossible when your clients may only have a few minutes to spare. Here's a great example of this thinking from British design agency The District, showing that a simple piece of paper can have just the same impact in today's tech-orientated world. The mobile game development company Bouncing Ball turned their business card into a game using AR technology. When their card is presented in front of the camera on either an iPhone or an iPad, a maze is loaded with a small ball inside. The ball can be moved to the final goal when the card is tilted. What could be more perfect for a mobile game developer? Also, if you have an amazing future product, why not allow your potential clients to see an interactive 3D model of it through your business card? The possibilities are endless! Inside OutAlong with the use of interactive imagery, new technology is being used in everything from toys to identification cards. These innovative objects are based around the use of a chip located inside. One example of these interactive chips are paper-thin NFC tags. These can be inserted into nearly anything, including a business card. These tiny tags can store nearly any information that is revealed to a user simply by using their mobile phone. For example, on scanning a film poster, a tag can tell a customer’s phone to open its video player and play the trailer for that film. Businesses are already using these tags to store information about their business, providing links to their websites, social networks, and even a direct link to their online shop. We believe the business card is here to stay, and with the use of these innovative new technologies and clever creative thinking, the print-based business card will stay and evolve for futures to come. No other object can support the communication between business people more and with these new tools, the business card can become an even better communication tool than it is today. Image Credits: Smiling woman holding a loyalty card against a white background via Shutterstock, Construction worker holding a QR code business card via Shutterstock The post Rethinking The Business Card appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Energy Saving Tips For Buying & Using Electronics Posted: 09 May 2013 03:00 PM PDT
At the same time energy prices are rising. There are a number of energy saving tips you can do to control your energy bill and none of them cost you any money. Once you understand how electricity gets wasted and where you can step in, you can cut your bill and save money. Turn It Off When You Don’t Use ItDevices consume electricity for as long as they are turned on. Hence, turning them off will save energy. So far so obvious. But here’s the catch: many devices continue to suck energy even when you think they are turned off! Up to 75% of electronics’ total electricity use is due to so-called phantom or vampire loads.
Almost all home electronics and kitchen appliances are guilty of using electricity when turned off. Some of the biggest offenders are chargers that continuously draw power, even while not in use. A good sign that your charger is wasting your money is if it is warm, although it is not charging anything. Even worse are devices that go into Standby, rather than turning off. There is a simple trick to completely turn off these devices and cut out phantom loads: unplug them.
Most households have over a dozen electronic devices. Unplugging all of them separately can be a bit tedious. However, if you have a power strip, you can group devices that you want to turn off collectively, for example your PC, monitor, and printer. Then simply switch off or unplug the entire strip after you have shut down the computer and kiss vampire loads goodbye. You can do the same with your TV setup and kitchen appliances and plug electronics you need to be always on, such as the fridge or your WiFi router, into a separate power outlet. Switching off power strips will cost you a few seconds each day and, depending on your current bill, can save you hundreds of Dollars a year. To me that’s worth it. Customize Windows Power OptionsEvery Windows computer comes with power options. You can customize the power plan to change the time after which the display is dimmed, turned off, or when the computer goes to sleep. You can even control the default display brightness. There is great potential for saving energy in these settings. Remember that a computer running in low-power mode not only uses less energy, it also runs cooler and will thus last longer. For more details, refer to the following article: Windows 7 Power Options And Sleep Modes Explained
And when you know you will be out of the house for a while, shut down your computer or at least hibernate it. Note that screen savers do not reduce your monitor’s energy use! Moreover, it is generally not true that equipment lasts longer if it is never turned off. This may theoretically be true for single components like the hard drive, but in reality other factors like heat and actual use cause a lot more damage than turning devices on and off. Besides, you will probably want to buy a new device before your old one breaks naturally. This brings us to… What You Need to Know When Buying ElectronicsBuying new and energy efficient devices can save a lot of energy and significantly cut your electricity bill. However, replacing a perfectly functional device just because it uses a little more electricity is neither a good economic nor a good ecologic decision. First, the bulk of the ecological cost of an electronic device arises during its production and recycling, i.e. all the material and energy resources needed to produce, transport, and physically or chemically break it up into usable components during the recycling process. Second, you have to spend a big amount money before you start saving small amounts or energy and money. So please think twice before you go ahead and buy something new. When you do buy a new electronic device, look for energy labels, like the ENERGY STAR for office equipment or the EU Energy Label for household appliances. ENERGY STAR labelled products for example use around half the electricity of standard equipment. Moreover, these devices must offer a low-power mode in which they use 15 Watts or less. Get informed about equivalent labels in your area. A little more money paid for an energy saving device can save you many times the investment in the long run.
When you buy a new computer, consider buying a laptop. Laptop battery life is a significant factor for consumers and thus manufacturers have optimized the energy use of hardware components. Consequently, laptops are much more energy efficient than desktop PCs and use considerably less electricity. Likewise, ink-jet printers consume up to 90% less energy than laser printers and TFTs require only 25% of the energy an old CRT monitor needs. Whatever computer you buy, don’t buy a stronger hardware than you really need. High resolution screens draw high amounts of energy, as do strong processors and graphics cards. Finally, watch out for 80 PLUS certified power supplies and manufacturers. Find Out How Much You Can SaveBut you don’t have to rely on a label alone, you can also compare yourself. Check the wattage of devices on their data sheets and compare several models. For example you could compare your current TV with various models you are interested in. The website energy.gov has a list of typical wattage of household appliances and explains how you can calculate the yearly energy use and cost yourself.
ConclusionYou can save a significant amount of money every year by turning off devices that are not in use and preventing phantom loads. Additional energy can be saved by adjusting your computer’s power options and turning it off wisely. Finally, when buying new devices, a bit of research and upfront investments in energy efficient devices can save a lot of electricity and money in the long run. Do you know how much electricity your household uses and what your potential for saving is? Share and discuss your own energy saving tips and numbers in the comments and maybe I will reveal my numbers, too. Information resources: Blackle, Energy.gov, Energy Star The post Energy Saving Tips For Buying & Using Electronics appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Voice Messaging – A Secret Weapon On Windows Phone 8 Posted: 09 May 2013 02:31 PM PDT
These might be SMS/MMS messages, emails or even a social network. The important thing, of course, is that you are able to get in touch with the other person as easily and efficiently as possible. Certain mobile phone platforms prevent this. For instance, my main memory of a six month experience with BlackBerry is one of scrolling a wheel to find the right menu option and a physical keyboard that is too small for my thumbs to cope with – clumsy and inefficient. Such issues are not found on smartphones these days, and in the case of Windows Phone 8 there are many improvements over competitors and predecessor versions that messaging has become as effortless as making a phonecall. SMS & MMS MessagingSMS or text messaging is easily launched and used in Windows Phone 8. The native app handles SMS and MMS formats (that is, standard messages and those including multimedia such as video, pictures or audio, which can be added with the Attachment button).
Threads can be deleted by opening them, tapping the menu button and choosing the Delete thread option, while the menu on the main messaging screen opens the messaging Settings screen which will toggle various options. Here you can configure backups of text messages, decide whether you want notification alerts of successful message delivery and even toggle the integration of Facebook chat. Yes, you heard that right. Facebook Messaging IntegrationAsk any Windows Phone user and they will tell you that one of the reasons that they love using the platform is the integration of social networks with the standard contacts. This is something that was introduced in Windows Phone 7, and has been expanded upon with Windows Phone 8. If you have configured your phone to integrate your Facebook account into your contacts (the People Hub will display updates from social networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) you can also decide whether or not you want Facebook chat integrated too.
As described above, this can be setup via Messaging > Settings > Use Facebook Chat. Your Facebook account can be added via Settings > Email+accounts > Add an account, where you will need to input your Facebook username and password. When your Facebook account is added, you can easily message your contacts through that network. Better still, you can switch between SMS/MMS messaging and Facebook chat within the same threaded conversation (note that unless your contact is also on Windows Phone, this might prove confusing for them. It will make perfect sense to you, however). Send a Text Message With Your VoiceSince Windows Phone was released in 2010, I've been rather impressed with its voice control options, and this is another feature that has been revised in Windows Phone 8. This time around, voice control has been extended to messaging.
I can, for instance, hold the Start button and instruct the phone to “text Ceri” in order to send a text message to my wife. Once this is done, you can either instruct the phone to “send”, “add more” or “try again.” After letting go of the Start button (the gesture that launches the voice texting) the system is completely hands free, and a great way to effortlessly get in touch with people. You can also dictate messages within a threaded conversation by tapping the microphone button. Note that when using voice controls on Windows Phone, your device will need to be connected to the Internet in order for the speech detection to work. Third Party Messaging AppsIf you need a wider selection of messaging services on your Windows Phone, the following are available:
Many other messaging tools can be used with Windows Phone, and those listed above are all free. Conclusion – Windows Phone Has Messaging Sewn UpI've never known a mobile platform that offers so many options for messaging. What is particular impressive is how seemingly separate elements have been integrated into Windows Phone's messaging system, from Facebook chat to voice dictation.
The integration is seamless, and while other platforms also offer similar functionality, I reckon Windows Phone edges it by keeping things nicely wrapped up and easily accessed without hitting a menu button or requiring a third party app. The once- tedious and at-times complicated matter of texting has been magnificently streamlined by Microsoft in Windows Phone 8. All in all, messaging is fast and efficient – what more could you ask for? The post Voice Messaging – A Secret Weapon On Windows Phone 8 appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 09 May 2013 02:00 PM PDT
As part of the update, users will now be able to start a live broadcast immediately without having to refresh, access recordings on YouTube right after a Hangout On Air session, and rewind live broadcasts. Another perk of the update is that mobile devices will now support higher quality video with a noticeably improved appearance. When you visit a page with a Hangout On Air — be it Events or YouTube — the broadcast will begin as soon as the show starts. In the past, users had to refresh the page, so this will make the whole process much more convenient. Creators will also be able to access these broadcasts on YouTube immediately after a broadcast, saving considerable time and hassle. The most beneficial update is likely the ability to rewind live broadcasts. If you’ve missed some of an On Air session, you’ll be able to rewind the entire program to go back and watch whatever you have missed. As for the mobile improvements, Google has not specified exactly how the image is improved on the technical side, but apparently there will be a much clearer picture. As a note, users may experience a delay in starting a Hangout On Air now that these features have been added. This is merely so that Google can load all of the necessities to make these features available. Do you like the new improvements to Hangout On Air? Sources: Google via TheNextWeb The post Google+ Hangouts On Air Adds Faster Start Times, Instant Recordings, Broadcast Rewinding, & Mobile Improvements [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cleanr Video – Make YouTube Less Of a Time Sink Posted: 09 May 2013 01:01 PM PDT
Google loves – and I mean loves – changing the YouTube layout. Over the last couple of years it’s gone from focusing on helping everyone discover the same videos, to helping everyone see the latest videos from their subscriptions, to the current incarnation – showing you videos it thinks you’ll appreciate for reasons mere mortals cannot discern. If you’re sick of the cycle – or just want to avoid the rabbit hole of recommended videos and comments – Cleanr Video can help clean up YouTube for you. From Minimalist for Everything to services that de-clutter the web for readers, we’ve outlined more than a few ways to make the web a less busy place. Cleanr Video is just one more. How Cleanr Video WorksSo, just how much does Cleanr Video strip down? Rather than tell you, I’ll show you. Here’s how the page for a YouTube video looks normally.
…and here’s how it looks with Cleanr Videos installed:
As you can see, everything but the video itself is stripped away, leaving you with a video to watch and nothing more. When you’re done watching, you’ll simply get to whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing – no clicking related videos and no scrolling through comments. This could help you stay focused. The home page for YouTube is similarly cleaned up. Instead of seeing this hot mess…
…you’ll see this…
Click the “See More” button to show the videos that usually show up on the YouTube home page – and nothing else. If you’re looking for simplicity, you found it. One Problem…If you’re like me, you love your YouTube subscriptions. You found the YouTube homepage useful, until recent changes stopped showing the latest videos from your subscriptions and started showing…something. I’m still not sure what this seemingly random assortment of videos is supposed to be, but I know I’m not a fan. It’s why I’ve been habitually clicking the “My Subscriptions” link every time I open YouTube. Which brings me to my problem – Cleanr Videos hides the “My Subscriptions” link. At first I was panicking, but then I did what I should have done a long time ago – I added a link to the Subscriptions page on my browser toolbar. The link, in case you didn’t know, is:
Why YouTube doesn’t offer a setting for making that page the default I’ll never know. Maybe Cleanr Videos should redirect users, though, because I don’t think anyone actually wants to use YouTube’s default homepage. Download Cleanr VideoSick of reading about Cleanr Video, and ready to download it? Head to Clea.nr. The process should be simple for Firefox and Safari users. Chrome users, however, have to do some extra work. This video explains how to install the extension: For those who hate video tutorials – you need to download the .CRX file from Clea.nr. Then, head to the “Extensions” menu in Chrome (hit the settings icon to the right of your extension icons, then Tools > Extensions). Open the folder to which you downloaded the CRX file using your operating system’s file browser, then drag the CRX to the Chrome window where the Extensions menu is open. The extension is now installed. This used to be a simpler process, but a (relatively) recent update to Chrome made it harder to install extensions not from the Chrome Web Store. ConclusionThis app not only makes YouTube look great – it can also help you to be productive. YouTube can be a huge time sink. Watching videos online when you’re supposed to be working is bad enough, but a quick video viewing can quickly turn into a spree if you follow a long enough line of “Recommended Videos“. Removing this temptation just might be Cleanr Video’s best feature, but blocking comments isn’t a bad thing either. Do you have any other cool minimalist browser extensions to share? Please, do so in the comments below. Those of us who haven’t blocked all online comments will be happy to read them. The post Cleanr Video – Make YouTube Less Of a Time Sink appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Perform Amazing Feats With These Useful Google Spreadsheet Functions Posted: 09 May 2013 12:00 PM PDT
I am ashamed to admit that I’ve only recently decided to start experimenting with Google Spreadsheets, and what I’ve discovered is that whatever allure or power Excel had over me due to the amazing things you could do with VBA scripting, is completely overshadowed by the awesomeness of the sorts of things you can do inside of Google Spreadsheets. After playing around with Google Spreadsheets for just a few weeks, I can barely contain my excitement. Many of the things I’ve discovered one can do, I plan to cover in future articles. However, as a quick preview let me say — since Google Spreadsheets is an online application — it is far easier to integrate it with many of the online tools and services that you already use, like data from websites, information from other Google Spreadsheets, information from (or to) emails, and a whole lot more. Honestly, I feel like a kid in a candy store here. 6 Amazing Things You Can Do With Google Spreadsheet FunctionsIn Spreadsheets, there’s an entire library of Google Spreadsheet functions that you can use in intricate ways to perform impressive feats of data manipulation the likes of which you’ve never seen before. If you thought the power of Excel functions were cool, you really haven’t seen anything yet. You can treat the functions in Google Spreadsheets almost like mini-scripts in themselves, nesting one function within another as many times as you like in order to produce some really cool output information. I’ll cover how to do that in this article, as well as creating intelligent conditional formatting rules, creating output charts and in-sheet bar graphs, and much more. Fun With Google Spreadsheet FunctionsA good majority of functions that are used in Excel, can also be used in Google Spreadsheet. However, there are some neat little functions that are entirely Google specific, and one of those was actually mentioned by Ann Smarty years ago – adding current time to the sheet. You can do this using the usual Text(Now()) function, but the problem there is that it only updates the displayed time when you edit the sheet, not whenever someone views the sheet. The better alternative is actually the GoogleClock() function.
The example spreadsheet I’m going to use in my examples in this article is one where I’ve imported data from Google Adsense. This was done simply by exporting an Adsense report into CSV and importing that into this Google Spreadsheet. If you’ve never used conditional formatting, it’s a really useful method to quickly highlight important information at a glance. You can get to the conditional formatting feature by right clicking on a value or a column, and clicking on “Conditional Formatting”. The “IF” function lets you perform a logical comparison. In this case, I want to check whether the number of ads clicked is low, and the eCPM is high. I use the average in each column as a baseline. You can do multiple calculations like this, and “AND” multiple comparisons like this: =IF(AND(C3<AVERAGE($C$3:$C$502);E3>AVERAGE($E$3:$E$502)),”TRUE”,”FALSE”) This basically embeds an “AND” function inside of an “IF” function, with two “AVERAGE” functions embedded inside of the AND function. The last two parts of the “IF” function let you define what to fill into the field if the conditions are true or false. In this case, I just use “TRUE” or “FALSE”. So, here’s the function in action. As you can see, when there are just a few ads clicked, and a high payout, I’m alerted to that line with a “TRUE” result. Well now, let’s move on to the other cool things you can do with Google Spreadsheets. Playing With TextIn my opinion, the power of spreadsheets comes out when you start dealing with text. If you’re accustomed to programming, then you know that you can use functions like “Left”, “Right” or “Mid” to extract sections of strings in order to manipulate them and build them into new strings. Well, Google Spreadsheets gives you the same ability to do these kind of things with functions by the same name – although they perform a little differently. Here’s an example. My spreadsheet includes a list of my topic URLs straight out of Google Adwords, but it’s only a section of the URL that starts with the date. If I want to create a new field that provides just the title, I need to remove the date section. To clean up strings like this, you need to find a common pattern to identify the area you want to strip out. In my case I noticed that the dates all have three slashes “/” in it. =find(find text, text, position) So, in my case, I have three levels of embedding to get to the last “/” before I can extract the right part of that long string. This is going to get funky, so follow along. To extract the strong after the first slash, you can use the RIGHT, the LEN and the FIND functions. =Right(A3,len(A3)-(Find(“/”,A3))) This Google Spreadsheet function returns all of the text starting from the right end of the text, all the way to the position of the first slash. This leaves you with part of the date including two slashes, and the title. To remove the sections with two more slashes, you can embed that RIGHT function into itself two more times. Here’s what such a crazy function looks like. =Right((Right((Right(A5,len(A5)-(Find(“/”,A5)))),len((Right(A5,len(A5)-(Find(“/”,A5)))))-(Find(“/”,(Right(A5,len(A5)-(Find(“/”,A5)))))))),len((Right((Right(A5,len(A5)-(Find(“/”,A5)))),len((Right(A5,len(A5)-(Find(“/”,A5)))))-(Find(“/”,(Right(A5,len(A5)-(Find(“/”,A5)))))))))-(Find(“/”,(Right((Right(A5,len(A5)-(Find(“/”,A5)))),len((Right(A5,len(A5)-(Find(“/”,A5)))))-(Find(“/”,(Right(A5,len(A5)-(Find(“/”,A5))))))))))) If you try to follow that function all the way through, you’re almost guaranteed to get a headache. But check it out – it works (see column I). =CONCAT(“http://www.topsecretwriters.com”,A3) Easy peasy. Importing Feeds From the InternetAnother very useful function that could potentially be used for some pretty cool uses inside of Google Spreadsheets is the IMPORTFEED function. If you consider the sheer volume of information throughout the Internet that are offered by feeds, just think of what you can do with this versatile function. How it works is pretty straightforward. Simply fill in the feed details into the function itself, surrounded by quotes.
The possibilities are unlimited – and much faster and easier than if you were trying to do the same kind of thing in Excel. Have you dreamed up your own creative uses for Google Spreadsheet? What kind of info do you import off the Internet? What else would you like to see us do with Google Spreadsheets here at MUO? Share your thoughts and input in the comments section below! Image Credit:Pen and Magnifying Glass Via Shutterstock The post Perform Amazing Feats With These Useful Google Spreadsheet Functions appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Switching from iPhone to Android? Here’s How to Move All Your Stuff Posted: 09 May 2013 11:00 AM PDT
Contacts
How do you go about enabling Google Contacts sync on your iPhone? Go into your Settings app, choose Mail, Contacts, Calendars, then tap on Add Account. In there, choose Other, followed by Add CardDAV Account. You’ll then need to enter “google.com” for the server field (minus the quotes), and your full email address in the user name field, followed by the Google account’s password in the password field and a useful description in the description field. Tap on Next and then make sure that the Contacts option is turned on. Google should now be receiving your complete contacts! Calendars and Mail
Finally, you should be able to use your regular email addresses after setting them up on your Android phone, no matter with which service it is as long as they support POP or IMAP. Music
Photos
AppsIf you’re looking to transfer apps, you’re out of luck. As iOS and Android are two entirely different platforms that are built in completely different ways, you cannot take an iOS app and move it over to Android. For this, you’ll need to go app by app and download the identical version for Android or a similar replacement if the app is an iOS exclusive. However, if you’ve paid for a lot of apps on iOS, the good news is that a lot of the same apps are available for free (although they will instead be ad-supported). Once you’ve downloaded all the apps you’d like, you won’t have to worry any more. If you ever have to switch to a different Android device, it will automatically check your Google account to see which apps it should reinstall for you. ConclusionHopefully these tips have provided you with some guidance on how to switch over to Android. I absolutely love my phone and I see people switching over every day. If you’re one of these people, give Android a try and tell us how the switch went! If you need additional information on getting started with Android, check out our Android Guide! Image Credit: Nathan O’Nions The post Switching from iPhone to Android? Here’s How to Move All Your Stuff appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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