15 New Articles on MakeUseOf

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• Cool Websites and Tools [May 14th 2013]
• New To Instagram? Top Tips For Newbies
• Does The Internet Need A ‘Delete’ Button? [You Told Us]
• Blackberry Announces Summer Release Of BlackBerry Messenger For iPhone & Android [Updates]
• How Should You Deal With Twitter Spammers?
• Stay Safe Online: Follow 10 Computer Security Experts On Twitter
• 5 Free YouTube Downloaders & Converters Compared: Which One Is Right For You?
• n7player: An Android Music Player That’s Worth Every Cent
• Google Introduces Unified Cloud Storage: 15GB For Google Drive, Gmail, & Google+ Photos [Updates]
• Looking For A Good Markdown Editor On Chrome? Try Your Writing On Textdown
• Evernote Food: A Beautiful Way to Keep Track Of Your Favorite Meals, Recipes, and Restaurants [Android]
• Licensed Video Games That Were Actually Good [MUO Gaming]
• Making Your Own Website: Your Career Will Thank You Later
• MakeUseOf Hangouts: When Geeks Talk Turkey
• The Gadgets And Games Of Kickstarter – May 14th 2013 Edition

Cool Websites and Tools [May 14th 2013] Posted: 14 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!   PDFNut – Ideally, a computer user's eBook application should be able to list the available eBooks and open them up for reading. Imagine an app that lets you do that along with letting you access multiple eBooks with ease simultaneously. Here to be that very tool is the desktop app called PDFNut, that lets you read eBooks stored locally on your computer. Read more: PDFNut: A User-Friendly Tabbed Styled PDF Reader [Mac]   Selfstarter – is an open source tool built using Ruby on Rails. This website offers you a framework for collecting funds for your projects and products. The site is ideal for ideas that are unable to secure crowdfunding on other websites. In fact, the site came into being by the people behind the highly successful Lockitron after their idea had been rejected by Kickstarter. Read more: Selfstarter: An Open-Source Ad-Hoc Crowdfunding Website     Chaperone – Many of us use our computers to write a paper, complete a spreadsheet, or conduct some online research. But there are numerous distractions that often steer a user away from the task at hand. Such distractions produce an undesired dent in one's productivity. Fortunately for Mac computer users, there is a tool called Chaperone. Read more: Chaperone: Focus On Your Tasks By Associating Apps With Them     Reeddit – Reddit is the best place to find all kinds of interesting online material – cute animal photos, funny videos, scientific breakthroughs, and more. Unfortunately, Reddit's interface leaves a lot to be desired. Here to help deliver Reddit's amazing content in a visually appealing and user friendly interface is Reeddit. Read more: Reeddit: A Cool Web Application To Browse Reddit     Color Shining for iPhone – Without a doubt, the iOS camera is good quality and produces great results. Sometimes however, digital filters and effects are needed to make the picture more visually appealing. One of the most used effects is the "color shine" effect. If you would like to apply this effect to your iPhone images, then check out Color Shining. Read more: Color Shining For iPhone: Add Color Shine Effect To Your iPhone Images   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 14th 2013] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

New To Instagram? Top Tips For Newbies Posted: 14 May 2013 08:30 PM PDT When you’re getting started on Instagram, there are a few tips and tricks to bear in mind to make sure that you hit the ground running. The popular app is part photo-sharing site and part social network, and finding the right balance on how to use it, and following certain rules of etiquette can make you a popular, and engaging user. Once you’ve got the basics, following the Instagram tips below, on how to get the most out of the site and to fit right in, there are a few more tips that you can follow that will get you more likes and followers. Check out our tried and true Instagram tips for getting tons of likes. And don’t forget, Instagram isn’t just a photography app, it’s a community. It goes far beyond just posting your photos – it involves engagement and interaction, and these tips will help you find your way right into the community. Space out your posts One of the first Instagram tips goes for any social network, blogging platform, or content curation service: space out your posts. Intentionally or unintentionally, don’t forget posting for weeks at a time and then suddenly flood your followers with ten photos a day. Depending on how many followers you already have, you probably shouldn’t post more than twice a day, otherwise your followers might get sick of seeing you in their feed, no matter how great your photos might be. Use hashtags carefully There is nothing more annoying on Instagram than looking up a hashtag and finding it spammed with photos that don’t relate to the topic. This is particularly frustrating when it’s a hashtag that is used to curate and recommend content. So while you should never use hashtags that are not relevant to your photo, you should definitely select a few hashtags to get your photo more exposure. Using hashtags is a great way to get noticed on Instagram, and if you stay true to the content of your photo, it will definitely earn you more likes, follows and comments. Use the 1-2-3 rule A popular rule among Instagram old-timers is the 1-2-3 rule. The 1-2-3 rule means that for every 1 photo you post, you should comment on 2 others and like 3. This is often used by users who are curating submissions by other Instagram users, like Josh Johnson’s popular forum, and the Instagram account, Monoart. Avoid too many self-portraits While there’s nothing wrong with posting a few self-portraits, don’t let that dominate your Instagram feed. And if you are going to post photos of yourself (or your friends), for the love of god, avoid the duckface pout that has become a staple of all teenage photos on every social network known to man. Don’t ask for a shout-out Don’t ask for attention. This is a basic rule of any social network and it’s one that should definitely be followed on Instagram as well. Asking for attention, or asking users with a lot of followers for a ‘shout-out’ only makes users look desperate. If you want to be noticed on Instagram, let it be for your photos, and not because you asked someone to notice you. Don’t always expect reciprocation, but give it when you can Any social network involves a delicate balance of not expecting reciprocation but also reciprocating when you can. Don’t follow a user and unfollow them days later if they don’t return the favour. You also should not feel obliged to follow other users back. How you can reciprocate, however, is that if someone leaves a thoughtful comment on your photo – try to do the same. If someone likes a photo or two of yours, find a photo or two of theirs that you can add to your favourites. But, as is the case with following users back, only add photos to your favourites if you genuinely like them. You can always use Instagram’s web-based interface to make that task of reciprocation a little bit easier. If you’re looking for an even more robust desktop experience for Instagram, check out 6 sites that can enhance your Instagram experience and 9 more tools that help you get more out of the Instagram experience. Don’t flood other users with likes Many Instagram users have the habit of checking out your feed and then giving you 10 or 20 likes in a row. While this can come across as flattering at first, it can also be a little frustrating, especially if you have notifications on your phone turned on. Rather than flood a user with a ton of likes, pick two or three photos that really stand out and like them. Otherwise it can come across as an effort to get likes back, rather than a genuine compliment. Post your best Instagram doesn’t allow users to create albums or organize their photos in any way. Since all of your content is viewable from one single feed – be sure to always post only your best. With any social network or photo sharing site you want to put your best foot forward, and Instagram should not be any different. When you take several photos at one location or of one subject, pick one or two that you feel really stand out and post those. After a while, as you scroll through your Instagram feed, you’ll be greeted with a beautiful representation of your work. What Instagram tips would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments. The post New To Instagram? Top Tips For Newbies appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Does The Internet Need A ‘Delete’ Button? [You Told Us] Posted: 14 May 2013 07:30 PM PDT The Internet isn’t perfect. In fact, it’s far from it. For various reasons we may explore in a future We Ask You column, for every part of the Web we’re thankful for there is an annoyance we have to put up in order to be good netizens. The biggest of these is arguably the lack of privacy which is a truly unfortunate part of the way we share information about ourselves and others online for all the world to see. However careful you may be about what you share on the Web, there is always a chance you’re leaking information. Websites collect data about you, which is then used to present you with relevant adverts. Social networks store updates and comments you make, any of which could come back to haunt you later in life. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Which is why we decided to ask you for your views on this issue. The Results We asked you, Does The Internet Need A 'Delete' Button? The question was prompted by comments made by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, who, while defending his company’s policies, declared we needed to have a debate about the lack of a ‘Delete’ button on the Internet now rather than later. The MakeUseOf readership delivered. We received a healthy number of comments, and although this isn’t a discussion that can be neatly summed up in a few words, we can try to reach a consensus of sorts. Most commenters accepted that while a ‘Delete’ button would be nice, it’s not feasible. The best we can ever hope for may be “something like a simple dashboard which shows all websites and services I am active on and lets me delete my identity and traces from selected web services,” as suggested by Harshit J. Even that may be wishful thinking. A couple of people mentioned the usefulness of the Internet for future historians, who will need to see the data intact in order to make sense of how civilization looked at the start of the 21st century. But that wasn’t enough to convince people that we shouldn’t be the sole arbiters over the fate of our own personal data. Comment Of The Week We had great input from the likes of Rob H, BiG eViL, and Lisa Santika Onggrid, to name just a few. Comment Of The Week goes to dragonmouth, who, as well as the respect of myself and hopefully everybody reading this, receives 150 points to use for MakeUseOf Rewards. While it might be nice to have, it is much too late for a "Delete" button. Pandora's box has been opened and cannot be closed. There are too many entities in possesion of our data to even contemplate its complete deletion. Besides, each and every entity will argue very strongly for their right/need to retain the data. By saying "there are times when erasure [of data] is the right thing … and there are times when it is inappropriate." Mr.Schmidt is already positioning himself to argue Google case for retention of any data in their possession. "How do we decide?" WE don't decide. The owner of the data decides. Mr. Schmidt and his employers DO NOT have a say in the matter. Unless they are following the maxim that possession is 9/10ths of the law. " We have to have that debate now." There is no debate, there is no "WE". If, as the owner of the data, I decide to expunge it from the Internet, not Mr.Schmidt, not his employers, not the government have any say in it. Privacy is like being pregnant, either you are or you're not, either we have privacy or we don't. There is no partial privacy just as there is no partial pregnancy. Of course, in the real world everybody wants to know everything about everybody. Whether it is vital for business interests, as in the case of Google, Amazon, etc., or for "national interests" as is the case with governments, we will never be allowed to expunge traces of ourselves from the Internet. We liked this comment because it strongly argues the case for why a ‘Delete’ button is improbable (likely impossible) at this stage of the game. It also addresses Schmidt’s points directly, cutting through the notion that he might be working on our behalf rather than on the behalf of his company. 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: Matt McGee The post Does The Internet Need A 'Delete' Button? [You Told Us] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Blackberry Announces Summer Release Of BlackBerry Messenger For iPhone & Android [Updates] Posted: 14 May 2013 07:00 PM PDT BlackBerry announced on Monday at its 2013 BlackBerry Live keynote address that it will finally be releasing it Blackberry Messenger (BBM) for iPhone and Android over the summer. Up until now, the popular BBM service has been exclusively available only on BlackBerry-branded phones. The existing app allows users to bypass calling, text-message and data charges by communicating using text, photos, videos, and voice on WiFi, similar to other popular apps such as iMessage and WhatsApp. By offering this app as a cross-platform service, users of almost all types of smartphones will be able to seamlessly communicate with each other. “We're committed to making the BBM experience on other platforms as fully featured as we can,” said BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins. “We'll start with messaging and groups, but we'll add voice and screen share later on. … BB10 is such a strong platform that we are confident it can become an independent messaging solution.” With that said, the app will only allow for messaging functions for iPhone and Android. Heins has obviously alluded to potential updates, but since the app is targeted at the current iOS 6 and Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0), it’s possible that the company is going to wait for phone OS upgrades. Some say that Blackberry is behind the curve when it comes to this release. Other WiFi-oriented messaging apps exist, and services like Viber already allow for VoIP calls. However, it’s possible that the name “Blackberry” alone will reel in users. Will you use BlackBerry Messenger for your iPhone or Android smartphone? Do you think the company was late to the game? Source: All Things D The post Blackberry Announces Summer Release Of BlackBerry Messenger For iPhone & Android [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

How Should You Deal With Twitter Spammers? Posted: 14 May 2013 06:30 PM PDT Twitter spammers are annoying entities that are an unfortunate part of the service, and it doesn’t look like that they will be going away anytime soon. Until Twitter finds a way to automatically get rid of them, it will take some participation from its user base to keep the site clean and free from fake accounts, phishing scams, and nasty viruses. Below are the three main methods that Twitter spammers  use to try and infiltrate the lives of innocent users, and then we look at their most current solutions. All of these are officially suggested by Twitter, so you should know that this is the most efficient way to deal with things as of right now. Are these solutions perfect? Of course not, but they are the best that we have right now. “Official” Twitter Emails You’ve likely received email from an address like “email@tvviter.com” before, and the message probably looked exactly like official Twitter correspondence. As obviously fake as it is, it’s a growing problem, but it’s also an issue that has existed across multiple services for a while now. In most cases, it’s a simple phishing attempt to coerce you into typing your information into a fake login page. In others, it could lead to even more headache-inducing situations. If you ever get in a situation such as this, just forward the email to spoof@twitter.com. After that, delete the email from your inbox, and do not download any attachments. Twitter should eventually be able to take care of it. Peculiar DMs From Friends It may be just me, but I’ve always thought direct messages (DMs) are one of Twitter’s lesser-used features. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t use it, and neither do my friends. That’s one reason that I always find it to be very strange if I receive a DM from someone. I’m even more on my guard if the message contains a link to a site that I don’t know about. If you receive an odd DM from a friend or one that is obviously spammy, do your buddy a favor and let them know that they have been hijacked. Also, remind them that this could have been a result of them giving access to their account to a bad app. A little research on all of their apps could go a long way, and a simple password change could help as well. Tweets From People You Don’t Know Ever gotten a Tweet from someone that you absolutely do not know? Yep, it happens. If you check the user’s profile and see that it is plastered with similar-looking Tweets and each one contains a link to an unknown website, there’s a 99% chance it’s a spammer. These links will likely take you to malicious material or yet another phishing attempt, so do yourself a favor and don’t click them. You can easily report and stop Twitter spammers by visiting their profile, clicking the person icon, and then selecting report @username for spam. It’s needless to say, please use this feature responsibly, so don’t report someone just because you don’t like them. This will send a Bat-signal to Twitter’s caped crusaders, and in the meantime, the user will not be able to follow or reply to you. It doesn’t mean that there will be an immediate suspension, but at least you won’t have to deal with them. Conclusion Above are the three main methods of Twitter’s notorious spammers, and yes, it seems like we are just going to have to deal with them for now. A while back I wrote about some possible methods that Twitter could use to fight spammers, but alas, they haven’t used any of them. (I would expect some compensation if they did, though.) If you’d like to target spammers, TidyTweet is a service that sifts through your followers and finds out which ones are known for spam, and it even includes profanity filters as well as integration with WordPress. On the other hand, you could look at StatusPeople which scans for fake accounts or ChumpDump which cleans up your followers in the form of a game. In the meantime, I guess we’ll just have to cope. Thankfully, there are some basic steps we can follow to create a walled fortress to stay safe and not get hacked on Twitter. How do you stop Twitter spammers in their tracks? Do you think that there is a better way than what Twitter has already provided? The post How Should You Deal With Twitter Spammers? appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Stay Safe Online: Follow 10 Computer Security Experts On Twitter Posted: 14 May 2013 05:30 PM PDT The Web is a place of extremes. For every piece of information relayed there is a piece of misinformation, for every educational site there is a glut of seedy sites, for every knowledgeable geek there is a troublesome troll. And in a bigger sense, for every normal user mindlessly clicking around the tubes there is a cyber-criminal, hacker, or malware creator lurking in the dark recesses waiting to pounce. There are simple steps you can take to protect yourself online. Using a firewall and antivirus software, creating secure passwords, not leaving your devices unattended; these are all absolute musts. Beyond that it comes down to keeping up with the latest news about spam, scams, phishing attempts, hacks, and malware. This is where the following list of security experts on Twitter comes into play. They’re all dedicated to delivering updates, news, blog posts, and opinion pieces designed to keep you, the average Web user, informed about the latest online security threats. AVG Free @AVGFree Never Mind The Kids – Watch out for the Sexting Boomers! avgclick.me/12TNgMd #freeantivirus — AVGFree (@AVGFree) May 1, 2013   This is the official Twitter account for AVG Free, a high-ranking piece of antivirus software that is free to download and available for Windows. The feed links to highlighted posts from AVG blogs, which includes regular updates regarding current threats. Eugene Kaspersky @e_kaspersky Dutch police would be able to hack into computers, install spyware, read emails and destroy files bbc.co.uk/news/world-eur… — Eugene Kaspersky (@e_kaspersky) May 3, 2013   This is the Twitter account of Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and Chairman of the Kaspersky Lab, the developer of various security products, including Kaspersky Internet Security. Eugene is considered an expert in the field, and his Twitter feed is full of links to security news from around the world, sometimes with added commentary. Avast! Antivirus @avast_antivirus E! Online Twitterhackers claim Justin Bieber is Gay. Teenage girls cry with disbelief.sbks.co/pmldg4/ @eonline has been fixed. — avast! Antivirus (@avast_antivirus) May 7, 2013   This is the official Twitter account for Avast!, an award-winning and immensely popular piece of antivirus software that is completely free and available on Windows from XP all the way up to Windows 8. The feed focuses on the latest security news, as well as updates regarding the Avast! software. Graham Cluley @gcluley The Onion is Twitter hacked by Syrian Electronic Army. Hardly anyone notices wp.me/p3qRGV-W3Q — Graham Cluley (@gcluley) May 6, 2013   This is the Twitter account of Graham Cluley, the editor of Naked Security at Sophos, a company responsible for a mix of free and paid security software. Naked Security is the newsroom at Sophos, delivering updates and advice on the latest happenings. Cluley also tweets other security-related links. McAfee Inc. @McAfee Heard about the @ap Twitter account hack? @garyjdavis shares the phony news and tips to keep your account secure: bit.ly/13d8jdD — McAfee Inc. (@McAfee) May 6, 2013   This is the official Twitter account for McAfee Security, a company dedicated to security solutions for computer users, both on a personal level and in the business world. The feed focuses on up-to-date security news, as well as updates directly related to McAfee products. Mikko Hypponen @mikko Play a game of Asteroids and disclose a list of websites you’ve visited:lcamtuf.blogspot.it/2013/05/some-h…Nice idea and a proof-of-concept by @lcamtuf — Mikko Hypponen ? (@mikko) May 5, 2013   This is the Twitter account of Mikko Hypponen, the Chief Research Officer for F-Secure, a computer security company based in Finland. F-Secure offers a huge range of security products and services, and Hypponen has worked for the firm since 1991. His tweets flit between addressing security issues and personal news. Symantec @symantec Join Symantec & small business expert Rieva Lesonsky to learn how to protect and secure your business's valuable data bit.ly/ZGGnxw — Symantec (@symantec) May 2, 2013   This is the official Twitter account for Symantec, a company with a full complement of products designed to protect individual users and businesses when they connect to the Internet. The feed keeps followers updated on the latest happenings in the world of online security, as well as news related to Symantec products. Jeremiah Grossman @jeremiahg During 2012, 86% of all websites tested had at least 1 serious* vuln. serious = vulns leading to system breach, data loss. #WebsiteVulnStats — Jeremiah Grossman (@jeremiahg) May 2, 2013   This is the Twitter account of Jeremiah Grossman, who is the Founder & CTO of WhiteHat Security, an Internet security expert, and public speaker on the subject. He tweets links to news updates about security issues, and personal views on the things happening in this space. SANS ISC @sans_isc [Diary] Report Fake Tech Support Calls submission form reminder, (Mon, Apr 29th): Previously we det… bit.ly/14JGsor #sansisc — SANS ISC (@sans_isc) April 29, 2013   This is the official Twitter account for SANS ISC, which is the Internet Storm Center at the SANS Institute. Their job is to monitor the levels of malicious activity taking place on the InterWebs, and the feed links to the daily updates reporting on these levels as well as other news we should all be aware of. Schneier Blog @schneierblog Honeywords: Here is a simple but clever idea. Seed password files with dummy entries that will trigger an alar… bit.ly/18M4a00 — Schneier Blog (@schneierblog) May 6, 2013   This is the Twitter account of Bruce Schneier, an Internet security guru who has written several bestselling books on the subject. This feed auto-posts all of the blog content written by Schneier, which, as a whole, gives a detailed overview of the security issues the world faces. Conclusions My advice to those of you on Twitter — and you really should be using Twitter by now — is to follow these 10 accounts immediately and to start paying attention to what they’re tweeting. The trends, tips, and tricks they report could save you from suffering a security nightmare in the future, or help you recover from one you have already suffered. Are there any other Twitter users you’d recommend everybody followed in order to keep on top of online security threats? Do you find any of those on this list particularly useful? What do you think of the need to stay secure online overall? Are the threats overplayed or is it a problem that is only going to get worse? As always we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Image Credit: Surian Soosay The post Stay Safe Online: Follow 10 Computer Security Experts On Twitter appeared first on MakeUseOf.

5 Free YouTube Downloaders & Converters Compared: Which One Is Right For You? Posted: 14 May 2013 04:30 PM PDT Two years ago, I told you about 5 easy ways to download and convert online videos. Recently, we also told you about ways to download YouTube videos to your Mac, and some ways you can download all videos from a YouTube playlist. All the tools we recommend are good ones, and we usually give you more than one option, so how do you go about choosing one? Which one is really the best? To answer this question, I decided to do more than just tell you about YouTube downloaders — I’m going to analyze them for you. By the time you finish reading this post, you’ll know all about the 5 options tested, and get a clear idea of which one you should be using. ClipConverter [Web] Interface & usability: ClipConverter is an easy-to-use Web service for downloading and converting YouTube videos by pasting a URL. ClipConverter’s interface is nice to look at, and offers only the options you need to use at any given moment, a fact which makes it pleasantly uncluttered. After pasting your YouTube URL, choose a download quality, name your file, and choose which format you want to have it in. ClipConverter makes it very clear what the final file size is going to be. After conversion is done, ClipConverter will provide a download link for the video or audio. Features: For most formats, ClipConverter gives you full control over quality of both audio and video, as well as the volume of your output, its aspect ratio, and its length. It’s very easy to download and convert only a section of the video. If you don’t know much about bitrates, you can leave these at default, or let ClipConverter detect the best settings automatically. Available formats: FLV, MP4, MP3, M4A, AAC, WMA, OGG, 3GP, AVI, MPG, WMV, MOV. Speed: A high-definition (720p) MP4 video was ready to download after 1 minute 25 seconds. A 215 kbps AVI version of the same video was ready to download after an average of 4 minutes. Annoyances: My AVI download kept downloading without sound, no matter what I did. This was not a problem with other formats. Clicking the “convert another video” after downloading one opens a pop-up ad in the background. Extras: Also supports Dailymotion, Vimeo, Metacafe, Sevenload, SoundCloud, Veoh, MySpace, and MyVideo. Also available as an ad-free browser add-on for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. Can also convert video files uploaded from your computer. Ease of use: A+ Overall rating: A KeepVid [Web] Interface & usability: KeepVid is a Web service that lets you easily download YouTube videos in a number of formats. There’s not much to KeepVid aside from pasting a URL and clicking on “Download”. KeepVid recognizes the video and presents a thumbnail, the video’s title, and the video’s length. You can’t change file name or adjust quality on KeepVid; all you can do is choose the format you want, right click the relevant link and choose “Save As..”. Note that KeepVid comes in two modes, Beta Off and Beta On. If Beta is off, you may need to enable Java in order to use the service. If you’d rather not, switch Beta to On, but be prepared for some slight bugs. Features: Not many to speak of. The bookmarklet is an easy way to start a video download/conversion straight from YouTube, but other than that, there are no special features worth mentioning. This might be a plus if you’re looking for something really simple. Available formats: FLV, MP4, 3GP, WEBM. Speed: Download links for all formats are available immediately. Annoyances: Default file name is a random number. Background pop-up ads open up on several occasion, and the ads in general are of the kind meant to confuse you into clicking them. Extras: Supports a multitude of other services other than YouTube, including Dailymotion, CollegeHumor, eHow, Facebook, Metacafe, TED, TwitVid, and Vimeo, to name only a few. See a full list of formats here. Also available as a bookmarklet. Ease of use: B- Overall rating: B Xenra [Web] Interface & usability: Xenra sports a simple interface that nonetheless gives you much control over your final video or audio output. Simply paste your video URL in the box, and click Download to reveal more options. You will not get the option to choose your format, quality, and other settings, before you hit the “Start Conversion” button. The process is very easy, and pretty much anyone can follow it. The interface is clean, and surprisingly, doesn’t even include ads. Features: Xenra is geared at creating audio files from YouTube videos, and as such, provides fine control over ID3 tags such as title, artist and album. You also get full control over volume and bitrate for both audio and video. Available formats: MP3, AVI, FLV, MOV, MP4, 3GP, MPG, MPEG, WAV, WMA, WMV. Speed: A high definition (720p) MP4 video was available after a little over 4 minutes. An AVI with the same settings took 3:30 minutes. Annoyances: You can download one video per day without logging in. If you want more, you’ll have to create an account and log in. You need to beware of downloading your file using the Xenra Download Manager, which is the default setting. After you uncheck it once, the option disappears for future downloads. The first time you use Xenra you’re going to have to wait on a 20-seconds long nag screen, asking you to like Xenra on Facebook. While preparing your video, Xenra sometimes gets stuck on “Cleaning up”, and never really gets to the part where you download a video. My MP4 video never worked. My AVI video wasn’t of very good quality, despite the settings I chose. Despite these annoyances, Xenra’s interface is one of the best available for such Web apps, and would be a good choice if you want to convert YouTube videos into audio files. Extras: Xenra is also available as a browser add-on for Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Ease of use: A Overall: C+ Any Video Converter [Windows, Mac] Interface & usability: Moving on from Web apps, Any Video Converter (AVC) is a desktop app for Windows or Mac that can handle all your YouTube downloading and converting needs. To download a YouTube video, copy the URL to your clipboard, and click the Download button in AVC. The program automatically pulls the URL from your clipboard, presenting a thumbnail, title and length for the video. You can then choose between several formats for download, and start downloading immediately. The interface is much richer than your average Web app, but it still easy enough to use without getting into too much trouble. Features: AVC features a huge list of mobile devices for conversion purposes, so you can get the maximum possible video quality for your specific device. After downloading a video, you can also use the clip tool to create video segments, crop the video to your exact needs, and control colors and add effects. For every conversion, you can fine tune your video and audio quality, or simply use one the dozens of preset output options. AVC comes with a built-in video player to watch your videos, and you can watch videos while downloading and/or converting others. Available formats: WEBM, MP4, 3GB for download, but can convert it to pretty much any video and audio format on Earth after download. For some reason, initial download for MP4 is only available in low quality, despite the video being available in 720p. Speed: Can start downloading video immediately, but any format other than WEBM, MP4 and 3GP requires extra conversion. Annoyances: When installing Any Video Converter, it will try to get you to install TuneUp Utilities. This will install by default, so make sure you uncheck this option if you’re not interested. The program will also nag you about the full version — Any Video Converter Ultimate — quite often. Extras: As this is a desktop program, conversions of any kind will also work offline. AVC can also convert pretty much any video format you have on your computer. Ease of use: A- Overall: A Freemake [Windows] Interface & usability: For some reason, YouTube downloaders and video converters have a tendency to be ugly and/or cluttered. Not so with Freemake. This slick piece of software is such a joy to use and look at, looks alone are a great reason to give it a try. To get started, copy a video URL to your clipboard and click the shiny blue “Paste URL” button. This will automatically detect the video, and open the format dialog. Once you choose your format and quality, videos will start downloading to the path of your choosing. Features: When downloading or converting with Freemake, you can pause the process in the middle and resume it at a later time. You can also restrict the download speed, if you’re trying to save bandwidth. By logging into your social accounts via Freemake, it’s possible to download private videos people shared with you and that are not available publicly online. It’s also possible to enable “one-click download mode”, which saves you from having to set up quality and format every time. Available formats: WEBM, MP4, FLV, 3GP, AVI, MKV, MP3, WMV. Devices: iPod/iPhone, iPad, Android, PSP. Speed: After pasting a URL and choosing your settings, videos start downloading immediately. A high definition MP4 video took around 3 minutes to be available on my computer. An AVI took around 7 minutes to be available on my computer. Of course, this depends on your connection speed. Annoyances: On installation, Freemake tries to push two third-party programs on you. The first one is Instagrille, which is indeed one of my favorite Instagram clients, but not when it comes with unrelated programs, and the second one is TuneUp Utilities yet again. Make sure you uncheck these if you’re not interested. Extras: Freemake supports almost every video website out there, including Facebook, Flickr, Dailymotion, MyVideo, Vimeo, and LiveLeak. It also supports a large number of adult websites, and has special settings for videos from such sites, if that’s your thing. East of use: A+ Overall: A+ Bottom Line To sum things up, I’ll order the reviewed services from best to worst, and give you my final thoughts: Freemake (the best) ClipConvertr Any Video Converter KeepVid Xenra (the worst) If you download online videos and convert them on a daily or even weekly basis, your choice is crystal clear: you can’t really do any better than Freemake. If you only need to download a video once in a blue moon, and you don’t feel like cluttering your computer with yet another program, go for ClipConverter, or if you need WEBM, for KeepVid. What is your favorite YouTube downloader out there? Should it have been included on this list? Tell us about it in the comments! Image credit: MeBaze The post 5 Free YouTube Downloaders & Converters Compared: Which One Is Right For You? appeared first on MakeUseOf.

n7player: An Android Music Player That’s Worth Every Cent Posted: 14 May 2013 02:30 PM PDT There are plenty of high quality Android music players without paying a single cent. In fact, just a few weeks ago I wrote about Rocket Player, which is currently my favorite free music player available. But, you know, sometimes you have to pay a bit of cash in order to get something truly extraordinary – like n7player. Prior to writing this article, I’d never heard of n7player. MakeUseOf reader, Nevzat, recommended it to me and, to my great pleasure, it surpassed all of my expectations. I’m the kind of guy who will put up with good-but-not-great free apps, but n7player has entered into my list of paid apps that I think are worth the purchase. When you first open up n7player, the app lets you know immediately that this is a free trial version of a paid app. It’s not the first app to do this sort of thing but I find it tactful and considerate so I can close it and uninstall it right away if I don’t intend to spend any money. Thankfully for me, I stuck with it because the n7player Android music player is awesome. As you tap the Next button, n7player takes you on an introductory tour of five slides that explains how to use the app to its fullest potential. Having to learn a new app’s interface – even if it’s something as generic as a music player – can be frustrating, so mini-tutorials like this are always great. And at the end of the tour, n7player offers to search and download album art for all of the songs/albums that are currently on your device. Personally, I don’t really care about album art too much, but the option was so convenient that I went with it anyway. n7player is a local music player that’s made up of all of the songs on your Android device. But unlike most music players, the interface uses a tag cloud layout instead of the traditional list after list after list. What does this mean? Yes, the artists are ordered alphabetically, but the size of their names is proportional to how many songs you have for that artist. The music library also implements a pinch-and-zoom feature that causes the tag cloud interface to change into an album grid if you zoom in close enough. The grid view is nice but it’s really only useful if you can identify albums at a glance – a skill that I haven’t fully developed since I rarely bother with album art. I love the way that n7player handles the actual music playback interface. Other Android music players have utilized drawer-based players in the past, but n7player is the first music app where I’ve felt that there is a high quality mixture of performance, aesthetics, and practicality. First of all, the design of it all looks modern. The icons and buttons share a sort of minimalism that alleviates much of the potential for clutter. There’s just enough three-dimensionality to it so that it doesn’t fall flat but not so much that it becomes an eyesore. n7player’s interface is the best one I’ve seen yet. n7player comes with a built-in equalizer that works exceptionally well. There are a dozen different presets that each produce a unique sound and you can even create some of your own presets if you’d like. As for options and customization, n7player offers just enough settings so that I don’t feel like I’m stuck with an out-of-the-box setup and no means of personalization. However, most of the customization options are simple toggles, so there’s no real way to change themes, fonts, layouts, etc. Not a big deal to me but just something to keep in mind. Other features that may entice you to give this bad boy a try: Built-in tag editor so you can organize your library with ease. Search your library and file system for songs. Lock screen interface with direct unlock support. Sleep timer that will automatically close n7player after a set period. Last.FM scrobbling. I mentioned before that this was a free trial for the paid version of n7player. The free trial lasts 14 days from the time of installation and the full version costs $3.49 USD. There is a separate version of this android music player called n7player 1.0 that is fully free but hasn’t been updated since December 2012. Feel free to check that out if you don’t want to pay. The post n7player: An Android Music Player That's Worth Every Cent appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Google Introduces Unified Cloud Storage: 15GB For Google Drive, Gmail, & Google+ Photos [Updates] Posted: 14 May 2013 02:00 PM PDT It’s becoming apparent that cloud storage is the new standard these days, and Google recently recognized a need to help users keep their files in a unified space. with that in mind, Google announced on Monday that it is now offering 15GB of free storage across three of its most-used services: Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos. Google Apps users will receive 30GB across the three services. Google’s new move merges the existing 10GB of storage for Gmail and 5GB for Google Drive and Google+ Photos, so users can file things away across the board. Although it appears unchanged for now, Google will soon update the Google Drive storage page so users can see how they are using their space with a pie chart. Users will get 15GB free, but can upgrade with plans starting at $4.99 a month for 100GB. Google also made note that users will no longer be limited to a 25GB upgrade in Gmail – any storage upgrades will serve as an upgrade for Gmail as well. These changes will roll out over the next couple of weeks. There’s been no mention of a staged plan or phasing system, but it appears that users will not have much trouble adjusting. It’s expected that this change will help users who don’t necessarily use all their storage for certain services. For instance, you may only be using 2GB on your Gmail account, but might be struggling for space for your photos. The change should help in situations such as this. Do you think this is a good move by Google? Will you make use of the unified storage? Sources: Official Gmail Blog, Official Google Enterprise Blog The post Google Introduces Unified Cloud Storage: 15GB For Google Drive, Gmail, & Google+ Photos [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Looking For A Good Markdown Editor On Chrome? Try Your Writing On Textdown Posted: 14 May 2013 01:00 PM PDT If you do any form of writing on the web – as a developer, or as an author – it’s about time you became familiar with one of the more lightweight languages out there. Markdown is a simple markup language that’s easier than HTML. In fact, you can think of it as a big brother to plain text writing. Developers know all about it. It’s time, we simple writers became familiar with it. It could really change the way you take notes online or even on your smartphone with apps like LightPaper which are built around markdown support. The breed of Markdown editors is large. Notable ones include: Draft,  Dillinger.io, and WriteMonkey. I could go on but it’s about time we got around to looking at Textdown. Textdown is a Markdown writing app on Chrome that lets you work offline too. It could serve as your first chalkboard for learning the simple syntax of this language. An Introduction to Markdown Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML). ~ Daring Fireball (John Gruber) The YouTube video is a nice primer. Here’s the creator’s own page that takes you through the basics of the Markdown syntax. You can find many other resources, video tutorials, and cheatsheets on Markdown with a web search. Benefits of learning Markdown Just like the simplicity of the language, the benefits can also be stated simply. It is minimal; a key for productive writing. It is easy to type and easier to read without any clutter. It has all the attributes of plain text writing with the bonus of HTML’s formatting control. Its simplicity also eliminates any errors that are common with HTML tags. Do Markdown with Textdown   You can look at Textdown simply as a note taking app on Chrome. But that would be like relegating the décor to the cellar. The first thing that attracted me to Textdown was that you could work on it even without an Internet connection. The second thing of course, was that it runs within Chrome and not as a separate installation. If that sounds good to you as well, let’s install Textdown from Chrome’s Web Store and launch it. Access the application icon from the Chrome New Tab page. Give your first document a name (you can switch this off from Options if it’s irritating or press Enter). Textdown opens up to display a Help page with all the instructions you will really need. Just select and delete all that to wipe the slate clean for a blank document on Textdown. All the writing and edit tools on Textdown are a keyboard shortcut away. There are two keyboard shortcuts you should commit to memory right off the blocks: CTRL + D for displaying the complete shortcuts page. (CMD + D for Mac) CTRL + < for displaying the Options page which allows you to configure Textdown. Here’s a cut-out of the shortcuts page. They become intuitive after a while, and even if you forget them, they are just another shortcut away. If you have grasped the basics of writing in Markdown, you can simply start writing your first document. There are two things you can do straightaway to make your writing in Textdown a more productive experience. You can opt to go full-screen on Chrome (with CTRL+SHIFT+F or F11). You can go to Textdown’s Options and choose the look of the Editor. The Simple Business of Writing on Textdown Textdown gives you a slew of writing shortcuts to make the whole process swifter. There’s also the nice touch of Textdown closing paired elements like brackets and braces so there’s less chance of missing a markdown and spoiling the formatting. As mentioned before, you can go into the Options and personalize the editor with your own font choices, size, and line spacing. To push your productivity a notch higher, Textdown also allows you to use word shortcuts. Word shortcuts function just like text expanders; use a few characters to substitute regularly used expressions in your documents. You can also install the Textdown Utilities extension to bring in an online file into your document, copy links and images into Textdown with Markdown formatting, and open files on Chrome OS using its file manager. Preview your work by hitting CTRL+P which opens another window on your browser. Textdown has a Live Preview feature which auto-updates changes in the Preview window. One missing feature is that Textdown does not have auto-save functionality; so you have to remember to save your documents with a CTRL+S. You can save your files as Markdown, as text, and also in HTML. On the Options page, you can configure the default extension for saving the files. End Credits Yes, Textdown is a very creditable effort. There are quite a few touches like the Word Expander and an in-built calculator (which I haven’t been able to find a use for so far). There are also a few irritants like the fact that Textdown saves each new change in a new file and not the original file one you opened in it. I couldn’t find a way to override this feature in the Options. It also does not auto-save files. So, remember to set the Confirm tab close option lest you close the Textdown tab by mistake. But in the end, Textdown remains a neat little app that allows me to create nicely formatted lists and hyperlinked documents even when I am not online — in the simplest way possible. Hit us with the truth. Pit it against any other Markdown editor you might have used. The post Looking For A Good Markdown Editor On Chrome? Try Your Writing On Textdown appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Evernote Food: A Beautiful Way to Keep Track Of Your Favorite Meals, Recipes, and Restaurants [Android] Posted: 14 May 2013 12:00 PM PDT What’d you have for breakfast this morning? How about two weeks ago? And hey, remember that time you and your friends went to that really fancy Japanese restaurant? If you’re a bit fuzzy on the last two questions (or even on the first), Evernote Food is a great way to answer them. I covered Evernote Food for Android before, when all it could do was log your meals. Now it’s time to give it another look, thanks to an all-new version that adds fun ways to track down new recipes and restaurants, as well as a fresh new look. We’re big fans of Evernote here at MakeUseOf: We’ve previously shown you why you should be using it to remember everything, five uses for its desktop clients, as well as ten unique uses for Evernote itself. But even if you’re not so big on the core Evernote service, Evernote Food can be used on its own, and you don’t even have to have Evernote installed on your device. Getting Started and Exploring Recipes Evernote Food does a good job laying out its main features as you launch it: Right off the bat, two things become obvious: It’s a beautiful app, and it lets you work with recipes, restaurants, and meals. Let’s dig into the Explore Recipes screen: This mouth-watering screen pulls in recipes from a selection of food blogs (preconfigured with Evernote Food — those are some lucky food bloggers). The “huge thumbnail” aesthetic shown here carries through the rest of the app, as you will see later in the meal log. Tapping into a recipe, however, yields a disappointing result: Evernote Food simply serves up the original website, making no attempt to summarize it or even apply a phone-friendly layout (like Pocket does so well). Reading the recipe off a phone screen will involve lots of zooming and panning, and is really not that great of an experience. Zoomed in, the text becomes a scosh more readable, at the expense of cropped graphics: Tiny indeed. So yes, you can find new recipes using Evernote Food, but you’d be better off reading them off a tablet or a computer monitor. Fortunately, this is easy to do, because Evernote Food lets you clip those recipes to your own cookbook. Tap the familiar elephant icon in the top-right corner, and Evernote Food shows the clipping screen: By clipping the recipe, you will be able to access it from any other Evernote client (not just Evernote Food). Finding and Clipping Restaurants Evernote Food also includes a new screen for searching and clipping restaurants you’d like to eat in. Powered by Foursquare, you can use the feature both for searching nearby restaurants, and to prepare for an upcoming trip. Here’s a search for restaurants around London: An individual restaurant’s screen looks like this: It has pretty much everything you’d expect: The name, a Foursquare rating, a map and an address, a phone number, and sometimes even a few tiny images (which cannot be resized). Notably missing are reviews, but that’s understandable: Evernote is very much an individual experience, and by including crowdsourced social reviews the company would risk muddling its focus. Still, this limits the restaurant’s screen usefulness: If you’re serious about finding some good eating, you may have to use Evernote Food in combination with a tool like Urbanspoon or one of these other helpful apps for deciding where to eat. The Heart of The App: Logging Meals New features notwithstanding, Evernote Food’s raison d’être is logging meals. Whether you enjoy logging only special meals with friends or, like me, you use it as a diet log to record all of your meals, Evernote’s meal logging feature is the most mature part of the app, and remains pleasantly polished in this new release. This is what an individual meal looks like: You get plenty of fields to fill in, as well as automatic location tagging (which you can toggle off if you wish). New to this version, you can now pull down a gripper below the image to reveal a full-size photo: Evernote’s meal browser uses the same layout as the recipe browser, and the wide, generous thumbnails are just as effective: These are all photos I took with my own phone during routine use, and I can’t help but admire how nice Evernote Food makes my food look. Yes, I like chocolate — who doesn’t, really? Making The Most Of Your Free Space Quota I’d like to end off with one important trick. As a free Evernote user, you get a monthly storage quota of 60MB. If you use Evernote Food several times every day, this can fill up very quickly: A full-resolution 8MP image can easily take over half a megabyte. Fortunately, Evernote Food lets you pick what resolution you want the built-in camera to use: If you go to the Settings screen and then pick Image Options, you’ll be able to set Image Size to Small (640×640). This is a completely adequate resolution for documenting your meals, and even for sharing particularly nice photos. If you intend to print photos of your food you might want to go for a higher resolution — but for most other use cases, 640×640 would be plenty. And photos at this resolution take up just a fraction of the space they’d otherwise take, stretching your 60MB monthly quota that much farther (in about a year of using Evernote Food, I have yet to hit my monthly quota even once). Is Newer Always Better? I can’t say I love all of the new additions in this version of Evernote Food. The new features are of limited use: One lets you browse recipes but doesn’t make it easy to actually read them, while the other lets you browse restaurants but doesn’t include diner reviews.  So, in the feature department, I’d have to say Evernote Food now suffers from a bit of bloat. On the plus side, the new look works very well, and Evernote Food is a pleasure to use and browse. It remains my food log of choice on Android. Do you log your meals? Do you use Evernote Food, or another app? Let me know below. The post Evernote Food: A Beautiful Way to Keep Track Of Your Favorite Meals, Recipes, and Restaurants [Android] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Licensed Video Games That Were Actually Good [MUO Gaming] Posted: 14 May 2013 11:01 AM PDT If there is one thing licensed games are not typically known for, it’s quality. More often than not, licensed games are rushed to market to coincide with a movie or other major media release, and the developers are not given adequate time to create a game of any real quality. It’s not the developers fault, but sometimes the business side of gaming gets ahead of actually delivering quality games. However, there are some licensed games that are really good – that actually break the mold and bring a shocking level of quality. Whether the quality of these games was just a stroke of luck, or the company responsible for them actually gave the team enough time to make a game worthy of the license, I can’t say. What I can say is that the games that follow are just good games, whether licensed or not. If you skipped these because you saw a license attached to them, you should go back and give them a try, because they are really worth it. DuckTales We are going to start this off right with some old school NES goodness. Back in the ’80s, DuckTales was a really well made cartoon, and the game followed suit perfectly. The best game to compare DuckTales to is MegaMan, in that it’s a platformer that allows the player to tackle each level in any order they choose. Every detail of this game is fantastic, from the gameplay to the music, and it’s one every gamer should experience at one point or another. The original NES game is actually pretty hard to find, but fear not, because Capcom just announced a high-definition remake of the game called DuckTales: Remastered, so gamers the world over will get to enjoy this classic on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U sometime this summer. Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City Moving from the old to the new, we jump to the Arkham series, which is one of the best uses of a superhero in the history of gaming. Personally, I like the first game a little better, but there is also something very enjoyable about the open world nature of Arkham City as well. Either way, these games are fantastic, and well worth playing for all gamers. Whether you are a hardcore Batman fan, or just a gamer looking for something awesome to play, you need to try both of these games. The combat is incredibly fun, the game has a good feel, and Mark Hamill even plays the Joker, which is just amazing. I could go on and on about why you need to play these games, but I will just leave it with this – these are not only among the best licensed games ever, they are some of the best games of the modern era. Goldeneye 007 Goldeneye 007 is a game tied into a movie that is really, really good. In fact, Goldeneye is one of the games primarily responsible for figuring out how to make first person shooters work on the console, which means without it, we may not have games like Call of Duty and Halo, and a life without those games is just not a very good one. Playing split-screen Goldeneye on the N64 is one of the most fun experiences I can recall in terms of multiplayer. Even all these years later with the Wii release, the game is still really good, and well worth playing for any gamer who fancies themselves a fan of first-person shooters. While the visuals may not hold up the best, the gameplay itself still works just fine. Spider-Man 2 Another movie game? As hard to believe as it is, Spider-Man 2 for PS2, GameCube and Xbox was just grand. It kept some of the interesting story elements from the movie, and did a great job of making them work in a game. For the time, the visuals were top of the heap, and it’s a game that other developers making movie-based games should strive to be as good as. The thing that really made Spider-Man 2 so awesome is the open gameplay. Swinging around the city as Spider-Man just felt great. The best mental picture I can paint to describe Spider-Man 2 is to call it Grand Theft Auto as a good guy with webs. As Spidey is swinging around the city doing his main missions, side quests pop up, which go a long way to extend the life of the game. I can honestly say that I have yet to see a movie game reach the high mark set by Spider-Man 2, and I doubt I ever will. Honorable Mention Of course, there are more than just these four games that deserve mention, but I just can’t list them all. However, here are some that I think deserve notice, even if they are not quite as good as these four: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES) Batman (NES) Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (Xbox, PC) Aladdin (SNES, Genesis) The Warriors (Xbox, PS2, PSP) Your Turn Obviously, I know there are more, so I turn to you – what licensed games do you think deserve a mention? Hit the comments section below and let us know! The post Licensed Video Games That Were Actually Good [MUO Gaming] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Making Your Own Website: Your Career Will Thank You Later Posted: 14 May 2013 10:30 AM PDT Previously, we beat to death every single excuse/myth/misconception that there is about creating a personal website. You no have no reason not to have one. However, you may still be wondering how making your own website could really benefit you. In January, I wrote an article about why it’s crucial to have a professional online presence and how to do it, where I mentioned the importance of having a personal website. A personal website is probably one of the biggest aspects of your online presence. Sure other areas such as social networks and blogs are important, but your website is like a home base – a hub that everything branches off from.Let’s now explore some reasons how just such a website will benefit you tremendously. Your Website Is Like a Living Resume, But More Dynamic Comparing your website to your resume, is almost insulting to your website. Although you can create an awesome resume, a website is so much more than that. First, it can be whatever you want it to be. Where a resume is typically supposed to be in a certain format, except for creative types, a website can be in any format, have any theme, and contain any content. You can use it to display your hobbies and interests; your professional success and goals; a portfolio of your photography, projects or other work; and many other interesting things such as The Impossible List, a complete life bio, or simply share your outlook on life. Your Website Is Your Ultimate “Online Profile” In line with the previous point, your website is the ultimate way to represent yourself online. Sure there are your social networks, or even your blog, but your own website, especially a self-hosted site, is far more effective in communicating to potential employers, customers, and business partners about who you are. However, self-hosted websites certainly aren’t the only way to go. Previously we mentioned some online tools that you can use to easily create a website without the need for tinkering with WordPress. Websites like About.me  allow you to design your own landing page with ease. Other websites like Weebly allow you to create a whole website. In addition, you could still purchase a domain name so you can have a nice clean URL like example.com instead of example.weebly.com or about.me/example. Again, I encourage you to look into using WordPress – it’s not difficult (which I used to think so), but if you are set on other options, here’s a list of websites that you might want to consider: Wix Weebly About.me Flavors.me Enthuse.me Striking.ly Spinto Sidengo Breezi Your Website Helps You Become More Discoverable More and more people are using the Internet to find people, and more about them than what they may have already known. The number of people who have personal websites in lieu of other social profiles is quite low. What’s my point? My point is that if someone searches your name in Google, you have a much higher chance of being discovered. Plus, it also decreases the chances that someone else with your same name could misrepresent you in some way and potentially hurt your integrity. In the image above, you can see that my website is number two in the search results – in between a Twitter account and a website of two different people, my online namesakes. In fact, all three of us are on Twitter and do some sort of writing or blogging. So there’s a possibility that someone could mix us up. This is why it’s important to ensure you “claim your name” online and represent yourself professionally. Your Website Improves Your Credibility and Helps You Stand Out To expand on what I was saying in the previous section, a website also makes you more credible and allows you to stand out amongst the crowd and competition. Have you ever asked your friends, classmates, or colleagues about how many of them have their own personal website? It’s likely that your having a website will make you a rarity among them. This is likely to change in the coming years, but for now, you should take advantage of the fact that not everyone represents themselves online as well as they could. Now, does this mean that by having a website you’re guaranteed to beat out those who don’t? Of course not, it also depends on your skill set,  experiences, education and so on. But it will certainly give you an edge by showing your dedication and career focus, which is my next point. Your Website Shows Your Dedication and Career Focus As you sculpt your career, you add experience after experience under your belt. A website is the perfect place to share those experiences through both text and pictures. You can use this as a tool to show people in the same line of work what you do. It’s one thing to have it on a resume, or even talk about it in person, but for them to read about it and see photos or videos of your accomplishments, that’s where you can really benefit from the power of a resume. It enables people whom you may have never even met to connect with you in a way that they’ve never been able to before. Conclusion We have not only disproved the myths of not having a website, but also provided you five solid reasons for having one. You can see now how not having a website can really set you back professionally. In the midst of all the competitiveness these days, no matter which career path you choose, it’s crucial that you set yourself apart from the rest. Now, a website certainly isn’t the only thing you need — you need good references, some solid experience, potentially an education, and proficient skills in your area of expertise. But how do you communicate that? Through a website of course! Now that you have the motivation and reason to start working on making your own website, all you need to do is to make a get rolling. When you’re finished, feel free to share your website development journey with us. We also welcome any of your thoughts on how to create a personal website effectively. Have you created one prior to this series of articles? If so, what moved you to do so? If you’re still on the fence or have any questions concerning a website, I’m more than happy to help — shoot us your comments below! Image Credits: red businessman character in a magnifying glass; Determined businessman aiming at target with bow and arrow via Shutterstock The post Making Your Own Website: Your Career Will Thank You Later appeared first on MakeUseOf.

MakeUseOf Hangouts: When Geeks Talk Turkey Posted: 14 May 2013 10:00 AM PDT Last week I invited you to a MakeUseOf Hangout. This past Friday, six loyal readers joined me and contributed to a great conversation around MakeUseOf and technology in general. We received a lot of valuable feedback from this chat. Moreover, participants seemed to really enjoy to talk tech with fellow-minded people, which was also reflected in their comments after the Hangout was finished. This actually wasn’t our first meet & greet with readers on Google Hangouts. Several months ago Jackson ran a spontaneous and open-to-all Hangout on which James and I joined him. It was a very good learning experience and really helped me in preparing this second attempt. The Invitation Process My public invitation contained a brief form, based on which I chose participants. Given the short notice and the specific time zone, the response was not overwhelming, but I still couldn’t invite everyone who responded to the form. I picked nine readers who seemed enthusiastic to join and most of whom I had seen commenting on MakeUseOf before. In my personal invitation to the Hangout, I was very clear about expectations. My intention was to avoid people talking over each other, being rude, or trying to control the conversation. The trick with these expectations is that you should never mention what you don’t want people to do because you risk planting an idea in their head, which might have an undesired impact. Just try not to think of pink elephants for a moment. So instead of making a list of rules, I shared with them how I envisioned our get together. Now I have to admit that I don’t know whether this actually worked or whether we just have the most awesome readers on this planet; I will leave that up to your own judgement. The Participants Unfortunately, not everyone could make it in the end. However, the smaller size of the group allowed everyone to participate more and we could cover a broader range of topics. The readers who joined me were (left to right in image below): Alex from the US, college student majoring in web design. Kay from Germany, working in the test department of a European mobile operator. Nazim from France, high school student, music composer, and writer for the French website Fandroid. Paul from the US, retired Marine and self-employed in IT support. Rajaa from India, freelance IT consultant. Siddhant from Singapore, middle school student. We had quite a range in terms of age, origin, and professions, which made for interesting conversations. When & How Did You Discover MakeUseOf? One of the things I am really interested in is how people discover MakeUseOf. With five loyal readers being my guests, I made this my kick-off question. Kay was the first one to take the chance and share his story. Kay’s employer was looking to do more innovative stuff and while looking for resources online, Kay found MakeUseOf. With time, it became his first stop for inspiration. If you surround yourself with innovative stuff – software, hardware, whatever – you will be much better in creating your stuff, it’s very inspiring. – Kay Nazim found MakeUseOf two years ago while searching for Windows application reviews. He read a few articles and found the website so attractive that he subscribed to our RSS feed. Actually I’m now reading [the feed] every day. In the two years, I read every article of MakeUseOf. – Nazim Nazim appreciates the diversity of articles and the comprehensive nature of each of our articles. Alex discovered MakeUseOf in 2008 and has been visiting it on a daily basis since. Rajaa doesn’t remember how he came across MakeUseOf, but probably through Facebook about a year and a half ago. What attracted him was the variety, ranging from Windows to mobile environment. What really got him hooked was the Q&A section, where he has been an active volunteer in answering questions. It gives a lot of satisfaction if you can help someone. – Rajaa When I ask them what they feel is missing, Rajaa brings up MakeUseOf’s lack of a mobile app, a question that has come up occasionally on MakeUseOf Answers. Rajaa recommends us to look into this environment to make it easier for people to follow feeds. Alternatively, he says we could plug our feeds into Pulse. What Gadgets Do You Have? Alex, Nazim, and Kay show off their gadget collection. Alex uses one of the first Nook eReaders and Nazim recommends the Nexus 4 as one of the best Android phones. Kay loves his Samsung Galaxy Note II phablet because his hands are quite big. Rajaa has an entry level Android with a QWERTY keyboard, which he prefers over touch input. Kay and Alex chime in that they prefer keyboards too, and Kay wishes that a new Android with a keyboard would come out. Alex says his last two phones had a QWERTY keyboard and points out that if you really need a keyboard, you can just attach a Bluetooth keyboard. He refers to one of his favorite MakeUseOf articles, which was about turning your smartphone into a desktop replacement. Who Are Your Favorite Writers? Since we are on the topic of writers, I wonder whether they like anyone in particular. Alex is careful to say that he is not paying attention to the writers (obviously he isn’t!) and immediately adds that everyone has good articles, so nobody stands out. Rajaa on the other hand openly confesses that he is biased towards Saikat because he is from India. He has also been enjoying articles from Kannon and, as he says, obviously James. Rajaa feels that James is our most technically sound writer, which is of course reflected in his articles. Being our resident über geek and a routine podcast host, I asked James to stand by for emergency support in case things go awry. So I have him on GTalk and the moment Rajaa’s statement is aired, I receive a very happy comment from him. Rajaa continues that he really enjoys the opinion polls and the We Ask You section hosted by Yaara and Dave Parrack. He bemoans that it has become harder to find those articles since we removed their dedicated URLs (category or tag). Like Alex, Kay admits that he doesn’t follow authors, even though he has written articles himself for several magazines. Nazim explains his impression that everyone on the team has their niche. So I ask them whether there is something that unites our writing and makes our articles recognizable as MakeUseOf articles. I think it’s the whole group combined that gives [MakeUseOf] the power. I even think it’s better if no one stands out. – Kay Like Nazim, Kay thinks everyone has their specialty. He compares it to his work of reviewing mobile phone features and says it would be awful if he started writing about topics he isn’t comfortable with. On Gadgets & Technology After receiving so much MakeUseOf related feedback, I switch to more general topics that I hope are close to our geeks’ hearts. Last year Ryan wrote an article on Why You Never Forget Your First Computer, which received a flood of engaged comments, so I ask them about their first computer and their favorite gadget. We also discuss the challenges of IT support. I have to learn what [my customers] want and learn to get them what they want with their equipment, if it’s possible. – Paul Paul recommends Soluto and we learn that he is an alpha tester for them, helping with developing the application. Erez has reviewed Soluto for MakeUseOf. From IT support, we move on to discussing the future of operating systems, Cloud security, software licensing and subscription models, innovation at Apple, and much more. If you would like to see the whole conversation, you have the chance to watch it on YouTube. Just a small note: Matt Smith, who manages our Rewards section, confirmed that hardware rewards are in fact available for all countries. We changed back our policy for both Rewards and Giveaway contests, to be open to participants worldwide again. Conclusion It was incredibly rewarding and inspiring to host such a knowledgeable and geeky group of people. In review it would have been nice to have a co-host to take care of the chat and some technical details. Sometimes it was hard for me to focus on the conversation. For next time, I’m hoping our YouTube channel will be properly set up, that we will give readers more of a heads-up for participating. We will promote the event more beforehand and maybe take in live feedback from a bigger audience. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to Alex, Kay, Nazim, Paul, Rajaa, and Siddhant for joining me. It was a pleasure to have all of you in this hangout! I very much appreciate your patience while I was prototyping what will hopefully become a regular event at MakeUseOf. Thank you very much! The post MakeUseOf Hangouts: When Geeks Talk Turkey appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The Gadgets And Games Of Kickstarter – May 14th 2013 Edition Posted: 14 May 2013 09:31 AM PDT Perhaps you haven't heard, but there is a nifty website called Kickstarter where people can pledge to support projects that they're interested in. Little things – like Android game consoles, eInk watches, and high-budget video games. Each Kickstarter is its own drama representing the hopes and dreams of at least one person. Will it succeed? Will it fail? Will it become a media sensation? It's impossible to know before the money starts flooding in – or doesn't  So pop some popcorn and grab your mouse. We've got some Kickstarters to watch. The Up-And-Comers Brck The Internet is built to be redundant yet it can, at times, be fragile – particularly on a local level. Even a minor natural disaster can cause serious connectivity issues if equipment is damaged or the power goes out. Brck promises a solution to this fragility by combing numerous connection methods, including GSM mobile data, into a single box. If equipment breaks, or the power goes out, Brck will still be able to connect so long as at least one connection remains operable. It even has a built-in battery! The project was launched a week ago but has already made half its $125,000 goal. Casetop What if your phone could be your laptop? Many have asked this question, and a few devices have tried to answer it, but those built so far haven't caught on. Casetop hopes to change that by taking a kitchen-sink approach to design. This doesn’t just give your smartphone a keyboard; it also adds a huge battery, an 11-inch 720p display and numerous additional ports. You'll have to pledge at least $220 to grab the Casetop, which seems rather pricey, but the project has already made over $60,000 of its $300,000 goal. Pixel Press Have you ever wanted to design a video game level? Most people who play games probably have, at some point, but learning the particulars of coding isn’t easy. Pixel Press wants to harness this untapped creative power by giving people the opportunity to create 2D platformer levels by simply drawing them. Yes, with a pen and a sheet of paper. Once drawn, the level can be uploaded by taking a photo of it, and a simple editor can be used to flesh out the details and add more color. It's a cool concept looking for $100,000 in funding. TUG The elevator pitch for TUG is simple; Minecraft 2.0. Like that titan of indie gaming, TUG aims to create a procedurally generate world players can explore and then exploit to create structure and tools. However, TUG promises to offer a much more advanced game engine and a narrative element that is expressed through the player character who, unlike other games, is not static; instead your character will grow and change visually over time. I think this project might be a tad too ambitious, but it'll be awesome if developer Nerd Kingdom can pull it off. The Contenders Drive With Lynk This project aims to create a smartphone app that can communicate with the computer built into your car, giving you access to a wide variety of data that normally can only be read by the diagnostics station at a local dealership. Having this data would help owners pinpoint problems and improve driving habits. The project looks slick, but the goal of $750,000 is steep, and about $75,000 has come in thus far. There's three weeks left to find the remaining 90%. Infinity Cell Kinetic Charger What if you could charge your phone with the power of your body? That's what Infinity Cell wants to do with its unique design which converts kinetic energy, such as that generated while walking, into power for mobile phones. The idea could make dead batteries a thing of the past and be life-saving in an emergency situation. However, the project has made just less than $15,000 of its $155,000 goal so far. There's still well over three weeks left, though, so this one is far from over. The Losers Flowstorm Poor Flowstorm. Despite a great concept, a playable free demo and good reception from the gaming press, this project didn’t even make $5,000 of its $50,000 goal. That's really, absurdly low; even simple iPad apps have exceeded the pledges given to this game by tens of thousands of dollars. What went wrong? Frankly, I can't identify any major flaw in the project, so I fear the idea may be too niche for Kickstarter. We'll know in a few weeks, as the developers plan to launch a second campaign after they’ve analyzed why they first failed. The Winners Camelot Unchained After a lull in funding that saw this project's pledge-per-hour numbers fall into the hundreds of dollars, Camelot Unchained came roaring back in its last day  to exceed its two million dollar goal by over $200,000. That's enough to get City State Entertainment started on this fresh new realm-vs-realm MMO. Development is still early, however, and the game won't even enter beta until at least 2015. Lightpack This nifty gadget uses ambient content-driven lighting to increase a display's perceived contract and size, a feat accomplished by projecting light behind a display placed in a dark room. Electronics maker Phillips already offers this feature in some HDTVs, but Lightpack wants to bring it to everyone with an add-on box. The project was actually put up less than two weeks ago, but it's already earned over $340,000, well beyond its $261,000 goal. Backers are expected to receive their LightPack between July and September, depending on pledge level. Skydog After a crazy initial blitz, Skydog's rate of funding has slowed. But no matter – the goal of $75,000 has been met and exceed by another $26,000 with a couple days left to earn more. The project, which aims to build a router controlled via an intuitive mobile app, hopes to ship the finished SkyDog router by August of this year. What cool Kickstarter projects have you seen succeed and fail recently? The post The Gadgets And Games Of Kickstarter – May 14th 2013 Edition appeared first on MakeUseOf.

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