15 New Articles on MakeUseOf |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [May 15th 2013]
- At What Age Should Kids Be Exposed To Technology? [We Ask You]
- Are Chat Rooms Dead? 3 Web Apps For Chat Room Renaissance
- 10 Puppy Finding Services To Find Your Next Best Friend
- Trillian Is Still One Of The Best Chat Clients Around, Even On The iPad [iOS]
- Find The Perfect Color Scheme Every Time With Adobe Kuler
- Add Facebook Trusted Contacts To Ensure You Can Recover Your Account
- Tired Of Big & Bloated Music Players? Try GOM Audio For Free!
- Facebook Ads vs Google Adwords: Which One Got Me The Most Clicks?
- Buffer Adds Retweet Scheduling From Web, iOS & Android [Updates]
- The Clean Droid: How To Bulk Uninstall Android Apps You Don’t Use
- Discover New Music By Mapping Musical Genres & Artists
- Those Crazy Web Words And Phrases Explained
- Everything You Need To Know About Emails & Windows Phone 8
- Automate Everything On Your Mac with Keyboard Maestro [Mac]
| Cool Websites and Tools [May 15th 2013] Posted: 15 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 15th 2013] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| At What Age Should Kids Be Exposed To Technology? [We Ask You] Posted: 15 May 2013 08:30 PM PDT
Seeing kids using cutting-edge technology is certainly a relatively recent development. But I guess it isn’t a surprising one. After all, the technology exists, parents own it and (over)use it, and so kids are likely to want to follow suit prematurely. Should this be something we embrace? Or should kids be encouraged to leave technology alone until they’re old enough to fully embrace it? This Week’s Question…We want to know, At What Age Should Kids Be Exposed To Technology? We’re using “technology” as a catch-all term, but we’re really talking about new technology. Television sets have been around for a long time, so they don’t count. But smartphones and tablets are relatively new innovations, so seeing young children using them as though they’ve been around for forever is more surprising.
How young is too young for a child to be handed a smartphone? Would you let your child use a laptop or desktop computer? If so, are they trusted to go online without supervision or is their use heavily guarded to ensure the seedier parts of the Internet are avoided? Do you encourage your children to play outside or are you happy for them to stay in and play video games all day? If so, do you worry about them playing online and meeting unsavory individuals? Tell us your story, or recount a story from a family member of friend. If you don’t have a story to tell, just tell us at what age you think kids should be exposed to technology. If indeed you think there even should be a minimum age limit. Drawing ConclusionsAll comments will be digested to form conclusions in a follow-up post next week where we will detail what You Told Us. One reader will be chosen for the coveted Comment Of The Week, getting their name up in lights, the respect of other readers, and 150 MakeUseOf points to use for MakeUseOf Rewards. What more motivation than that do you need to respond? We Ask You is a weekly column dedicated to finding out the opinions of MakeUseOf readers. The questions asked are usually open-ended and likely to necessitate a discussion. Some are opinion-based, while others see you sharing tips and advice, or advocating tools and apps to fellow MakeUseOf Readers. This column is nothing without you, as MakeUseOf is nothing without you. Image Credit: Paul Inkles The post At What Age Should Kids Be Exposed To Technology? [We Ask You] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Are Chat Rooms Dead? 3 Web Apps For Chat Room Renaissance Posted: 15 May 2013 07:30 PM PDT
At least chat rooms are still around. You probably know that they aren’t necessarily dead – they just aren’t the public channel of text-form conversation. I’d liken the modern chat room to that of a sophisticated club where only a specific group of clientele patronize (and no, I’m not referring to those that exhibit a certain type of entertainment). If you’re still interested in the wonderful world of chat rooms (or perhaps you just have a hankering to return to the days of IRC), then you might like these web apps that bring chat back to your desktop. These apps are targeted primarily at those of you who set up websites, but they may be interesting to those of you who don’t, as well. phpFreeChat
If you’re familiar with the PHP interface, then phpFreeChat may be of some interest to you. In short, it’s an open-source, AJAX-based chat server that can be implemented in your own website. Of course, it will take some technical know-how to get things properly installed, but it’s also a good step to generating a real-time communication method for your own online community. For those of you who bask in the pleasure of coding, phpFreeChat is supposedly relatively easy to install, and it doesn’t even require you to set up a database. Furthermore, it includes a nice assortment of styles and themes to choose from. Balloons.io
For those of you who want a cleaner, free option for chatting, there’s always Balloons.io. The app requires you to sign in using Facebook or Twitter, and although this may seem to be a bit of nuisance for some, it’s nice that it incorporates social media. Based on what I saw, the web app allows for all rooms to be public, and you can create one anytime. The good side is that all of this is for free and is quite easy to use. The bad side is that you can’t create private rooms using the website itself, and you also can’t embed rooms within your own website. Beyond that, it works, and I could see where people could make use of it. As a note, the code for Balloons.io is entirely open source, so you may be able to modify things a bit. addonChat
So maybe social networking isn’t your thing, and you might want something a bit beefier than what phpFreeChat has to offer. Well, there’s always addonChat, a Java-based chat applet that incorporates quite a few features that take us back to the golden days of online chat rooms. This app is relatively easy to install since it integrates seamlessly with your website, but its features are primarily for those of you who are out to start a thriving community. With four packages to choose from and features such as profanity filters and custom avatars, addonChat is designed to function as your website’s primary source of communication. Bear in mind that the free option has advertising and the inability to add your own logo, and the paid versions (with more features) start at $80. ConclusionLet’s be real for just a second, though. Generally speaking, people aren’t communicating on a regular basis with chat rooms anymore. Open conversations are held on Facebook walls, and Tweets connect you directly to a product or a community. The conversations may not necessarily be in real time, but at least we have IM for more personal conversations. With that said, are chat rooms dead? No. The above three web apps are blatant evidence that this isn’t the case. However, I’d say that they are definitely on life support. But hey… then again, we have Google Hangouts. What do you think, “Interneteers”? Do you use chat rooms on a regular basis? Have you ever made use of the above web chat apps? Am I completely and totally wrong about chat rooms nearing the end of their lives? Will there in fact be a chat room renaissance? Let’s see what you have to say in the comments. The post Are Chat Rooms Dead? 3 Web Apps For Chat Room Renaissance appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 Puppy Finding Services To Find Your Next Best Friend Posted: 15 May 2013 07:00 PM PDT
But where do you go to find your next best friend? There are a lot of places locally, but some are difficult to discover. Also, if you do not have an idea of what kind you want, it may be difficult to find that perfect dog. That’s where websites come in handy. They help you sift through the Internet looking for the perfect puppy and where you can get it. In this article we will cover ten different websites, and I’ll also offer some advice that you should follow when looking for a new puppy. PuppyFind.com (International)
PuppyFind.com is one of the more popular places to go to find a dog and is one of the first to show up in the search results. The interface and ease of navigation around the site is decent, although not great – in other words, it could use an upgrade. Upon visiting the website, you have the option to search by clicking the Find a Puppy tab, or using the PuppySearch panel on the left side. The Find a Puppy page alphabetizes the breeds and provides rankings on size, grooming, exercise requirements, watchdog ability, and how good they are with other dogs. CAUTION: There have been some complaints and mention that PuppyFind.com has a lot of dogs from what are called puppy mills. I’ll touch upon this more in the Advice and Precautions section of this article. You might be wondering how PuppyFind works. Like many of the websites in this article, PuppyFind simply helps you narrow down by breed and location, and provides the contact information for the breeder of the dog you’re looking for. It plays no role in any purchase. Despite the chance of a few bad breeders on the website (there will always be some of those), it’s a reputable website. They even offer tips for puppy buyers and provide a contact link if you come across a scam. Adopt-a-Pet.com (United States)
Adopt-a-Pet.com is an excellent website, backed by well-known companies like Purina and Bayer. We’ve actually mentioned it before on Joel’s article about some of the best animal rescue sites you can use to find your next pet (which has a couple of other great recommendations not included in this article).
Adopt-a-Pet is actually not just for dogs either – you can search for cats and other animals like birds, herps, and even horses. The interface is clean and easy to use. In addition to searching for puppies, you can also look for a local shelter if you prefer to see all that is on offer instead of looking for a specific breed.
American Kennel Club (AKC) (United States)
The AKC is an organization that’ has been around since the late 1800′s, so you know it’s reputable. Also, they play a major role in registered breeds. The adoption page on their site is only a very small part of their focus, but if you’re interested in learning about an organization you know you can trust, it might be an option for you to consider. Keep in mind that the results won’t likely be as plentiful as other sites – and for good reason. Only breeders who are AKC-licensed, or member clubs who have AKC-registered puppies available will be shown. These aren’t going to be average breeders, and especially not people who’s dog had an unplanned litter of pups. In addition, you’re going to be paying a lot more for a dog who’s registered by the AKC. With them, you’re looking for a dog who can compete in shows and trials. NextDayPets (International)
Looking at the interface alone makes me have a bias for NextDayPets above other websites – perhaps that’s the tech guy in me. That said, interface and ease of use is crucial, and NextDayPets certainly provides a nice way to navigate through their website. Upon clicking the big, blue Find a puppy button, you can search by breed.
You are then able to refine your results by gender, location, price range and other factors using the panel to the left of the results. Each result displays breed, age, nearest region, price and icons for the following breeder verifications: identity, PayPal, Facebook and phone number (shown below).
Also, kudos to NextDayPets for having the cutest logo.
Petfinder (United States & Canada)
Petfinder is another very well-known source for finding puppies, as well as many other pets. In fact, its search results are used by many other websites and it also allows breeders and rescue organizations to host their own website directly within Petfinder. On the main page you have the ability to easily search for the type of puppy (or any animal for that matter) that you want. You must enter your postal code. There are other options such as age, breed and gender.
Once you get the results, you can then refine them even further by distance, size, or other variables such as housetrained, special needs, and whether they’re good around cats, dogs and young children. You can search by pet name. And if you want to search for pet-adoption groups by name or location, you have that option as well. eBay Classifieds – Dogs & Puppies (United States)
eBay Classifieds certainly aren’t only for finding pets, but if you live in a major city in the U.S., they can be a helpful way to find your soon-to-be best friend. You might notice the option to search by breed, like you see in the photo above. However, if you scroll down to the bottom you can browse by city as well.
Still not satisfied? Perhaps your city isn’t listed? Have no fear. By going back to the home page, type the appropriate keywords in the search boxes to find them this way.
It’s unfortunate that this search function is not on every page, but that’s the way it is at this point. ASPCA (United States)
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, otherwise known as the ASPCA, is another very reputable source for finding nearby animal shelters. The functions are straightforward – search and then sift through the results. You can click on the results to get more information about the dog and see the contact information.
RescueMe.Org (International)Rescue Me! is an animal rehabilitation center that offers adoption services through their website. Their website isn’t the nicest in comparison to others, but it’s fairly easy to navigate through.
What’s really awesome is they have a whole page of links for not only all of the States, but an impressive amount of countries in the world too. I’m not guaranteeing that you will find as much in other countries as you might within the different States, but it’s worth a try and I did have some success upon looking through some of the country links. Hearts United for Animals (United States & Canada)
Hearts United for Animals (HUA) is a national shelter for animals of all kinds and they provide a way for you to adopt dogs and cats through their website. You can enter specifics such as breed, age, size and gender, or just search all dogs. The HUA does a great job at providing a unique story behind each animal, as well as lots of photos to touch your heart. If you want the adoption info and application, just click the brown button under the pet’s photo.
The Shelter Pet Project (United States)
The Shelter Pet Project is a public service ad campaign focused on encouraging potential pet owners to consider rescuing a pet from a shelter as their first option. They are backed by The Humane Society of the United States and Maddie’s Fund. To begin looking for your new best friend, just enter your postal code, select either the cat or dog and click the yellow Search button. The results are magnificent and are easy to scan through. If you want to narrow down your search, you can click the Advanced Search button and choose breed, gender, size and age.
In addition, you can also search for nearby shelters. Bonus: Maddie’s Fund (United States)
Maddie’s Fund was actually an organization that I hadn’t heard of prior to researching and writing this article. It has become known for Maddie’s Pet Adoptions Days, an annual, nationwide event that offers the opportunity to potential pet owners to adopt for free. This only goes on once a year, in the United States, in a limited amount of cities and only for a couple of days (this year it is June 1st & 2nd).
What’s really neat is the man behind it all, David Duffield, is actually a very wealthy business man who specializes in cloud-based management software and has donated thousands upon thousands to help rescue these dogs. You can learn more about Maddie’s Fund in the video below. Advice And Precautions
Puppy MillsOne of the biggest things you should be aware of is puppy mills, I’ve already mentioned it briefly and if this Wikipedia link doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will. They are bad. They put profit and capital over the well-being of the animals. Unfortunately, some websites, like PuppyFind.com, can’t catch every single one, so they rely on users to help. Many of the websites I mentioned in here provide more information about them, including the ASPCA. Buying Puppies OnlineThe ASPCA heavily discourages against this. It’s best to see the puppy in person. And to support your local shelters whenever possible. As far as puppy-raising advice goes, I could put a whole other article into that. So instead I’ll offer this. If you want advice in that area, I’m happy to help offer some which I’ve gained in my experience as a Vet Assistant. Feel free to ask me in the comments. Have you ever used any websites to help you find your best friend? We’d love to hear about them or any experiences that you had along the way. Image Credits: A Little Dog Licking A Boy’s Nose and A Basset Hound With His Ears Flying Away via Shutterstock; NextDayPets Logo via NextDayPets Facebook Page The post 10 Puppy Finding Services To Find Your Next Best Friend appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Trillian Is Still One Of The Best Chat Clients Around, Even On The iPad [iOS] Posted: 15 May 2013 06:30 PM PDT
As you would expect, Trillian works with all kinds of different chat services, so you can use it to talk to your friends no matter which client they call home. The iPad app is packed with features, and it’s one that all chatters should definitely try. Trilliant is featured on our Best iPad Apps page, so you know it’s a quality app. Using the App
When you first launch the application, it will ask you to enable push notifications. I highly recommend saying yes to this, as it will come in handy if you run the app in the background as you partake in other activities on your iPad. With notifications on, you will never miss a message from your friends, which is obviously a good thing.
If you don’t have one already, you will need to set up a Trillian account. This process is quick, but it does require a valid email address. After that, the app will ask you for permission to access to your contacts. It’s up to you to decide if you want to grant access, but doing so does make it easy to find other friends currently using Trillian.
Once you have your account up and running, you are probably going to want to add your favorite chat protocols to the app. Trillian supports AIM, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MySpace, and Yahoo Messenger. You can add as few or as many of these accounts as you like, depending on which services you use most for chatting. Once you’ve linked your accounts you can then choose certain contacts to be featured on the dashboard for quick access. This is optional, as you will be able to get access to them either way. If there are certain people you know you are going to chat with regularly, adding them here will come in handy.
The app features a very simple layout, where everything is featured right on the main page. The contacts you choose on the last step will be featured on the front page for quick access. To chat with one of them, simply click the icon and begin typing as you would with any other chat program. This layout might feel a little weird at first, because it is unlike most chat clients, but once you grow accustomed to it, it actually feels quite comfortable. If you want to find a new contact to chat with, you can use the icon on the top right of the screen. A search box will open, and you simply type in the name of the person with which you wish to chat.
The gear icon on the top right of the screen is filled with all of the options you will need to make the most of the app. You can manage your favorite contacts from here, add new accounts and so much more. Essentially, this little icon is the main hub of the application. Looking for a more traditional list of who is and isn’t online? Under the main menu, you will see a Manage Contacts button. In here, you can see all of the people currently online. If you don’t have a specific person in mind, but feel chatty, this is where you will want to come.
At the bottom of the aforementioned menu is a button labeled Settings. Here you can customize everything you like about the application. You can change the way it sorts contacts, whether it shows offline contacts, and plenty of other options to tweak Trillian to just the way you like it. ConclusionIf you are looking for a chat client that does some new and interesting things, look no further than Trillian. It has a very different user interface that prioritizes the people with which you actually want to talk. The app is slick, fast, and easy to use, so I have no problem recommending it for anyone looking for a new way to chat on their iPad. Download: Trillian at the App Store (Free) Have you tried Trillian on iPad? What do you think? Are there better IM clients out there? Hit the comments section and let us know! The post Trillian Is Still One Of The Best Chat Clients Around, Even On The iPad [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Find The Perfect Color Scheme Every Time With Adobe Kuler Posted: 15 May 2013 05:30 PM PDT
The best tool for the job has been freely available on the web since 2006. It’s so old that it requires Flash to use, but it has thousands of active users who comment, favorite and contribute color schemes every day. This tool is called Kuler, and it’s probably the best free product Adobe has ever released. Read on to find out how you can use this tool in your next project, publication, or DIY escapade. Kuler ShakerIn order to get the most out of Kuler, you’ll want to sign in with your Adobe ID. You might be surprised to learn you have an Adobe ID (I was); but if you’ve downloaded a recent trial or pre-release version of Photoshop or one of the other Creative Suite components then you will already have an account you can use. Once you’re logged in, you can save, contribute and add your thoughts on the various color schemes found therein.
Kuler uses themes comprising of five colors Depending on the type of color scheme you would like, different rules govern which colors appear in each theme. These rules have not been created by Adobe, and instead fallback on a set of design principles that specifically relate to color. They are:
It is also possible to throw the rules of color completely out of the window and choose Custom, which lets you add swatches in whichever order you want.
To create a theme hit the Create button and choose whether to create from an existing color or from an image. Image upload will basically reduce your image to its 5 most dominant colors. The uses for this are endless, and you can either choose to import directly from Flickr or upload from your PC. Once you’ve got your image uploaded, drag the various highlighted points around the image to isolate separate colors. Creating a theme from a color is a fairly self explanatory affair, and also offers somewhat of a visual learning experience when it comes to the rules of color. First choose a base color and then a rule. You can drag individual points around on the color wheel and watch how each hue relates to the other. To save the theme, enter a title and a few tags then choose whether you’d like to share it publicly or keep it private. You can then make further changes without losing your original. Saved themes can be retrieved under the Mykuler menu entry.
Kuler makes it easy to get your colors out of the service too, and below each and every swatch are the HSV, RGB, CMYK, LAB and HEX values for each color. Whatever software you’re using – whether it’s Adobe branded or not – you’ll be able to put your themes to good use. If you are using Adobe software then there’s the option to download the Adobe Swatch Exchange file for importing into the software of your choice. Color Me SurprisedIn addition to creating your own color schemes with a helping hand from the various rules, you can also browse a huge range of color schemes contributed by the rest of the Kuler community. Under the Themes menu entry it is possible to sort through the best, most popular and newest submissions. You can add to your favorites with a click, or download the swatch file in a click. Another option next to each theme allows you to open and modify the theme to your liking. There’s a search option there for searching by tag, though this relies on the community’s ability to tag their creations.
It’s possible to rate, comment and favorite themes you come across, as well as subscribing to each category’s individual RSS feeds if you’re so inclined. The Community and Pulse sections are also worth exploring, with the former offering a spotlight on community members and their contributions. Pulse is a little more advanced, providing a global overview of color usage on the Kuler service, though it could do with an update.
One thing worth mentioning here is that Kuler has started to feel a little neglected by Adobe. This is not to say that there aren’t active community members (there are) or new submissions (plenty every day), but that the free service could do with an update. While Adobe is bound to integrate Kuler into the newly announced Creative Cloud replacement for Creative Suite, the free tool is currently one big advert for the company’s services and I personally believe keeping the free version of Kuler running smoothly is not only good marketing but a great way for the company to offer something to the rest of us for free. Visit: Adobe Kuler @ kuler.adobe.com ConclusionIt’s clear that Kuler is a killer tool that will help you make sense of color schemes and learn more about how complementary, contrasting and other similar hues relate to each other on the color wheel. If you’re a bit hopeless when it comes to these decisions then Adobe Kuler will make life much easier. Despite being a bit old and rusty (and a reliance on Flash) the service is just as useful as it was from day one. I just hope that Adobe doesn’t make it a premium product in the future, update or not. Have you used Kuler? What for? Are there any other great color pickers you use? Let us know what you think in the comments, below. The post Find The Perfect Color Scheme Every Time With Adobe Kuler appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Add Facebook Trusted Contacts To Ensure You Can Recover Your Account Posted: 15 May 2013 04:30 PM PDT
It happens all the time. People forget their password, accounts get hacked, or Facebook decides they have violated the Terms of Service and bans them. And when they try to recover their account, they realize that phone numbers or email addresses they once provided for a potential security check are long out of date. So what can they do to recover their Facebook account? The ProblemFacebook is notorious for its impersonal customer support. Instead of offering a human to talk to, they prop their online Help Center with admittedly excellent instructions on how to recover your account – in theory. Unfortunately, many cases are special and can not be solved with an automated system. Consequently, Facebook must have been overwhelmed with people trying to contact them in person and cases that required proof of identity. Users have been frustrated with the lack of human assistance and report that it took Facebook weeks to process documents and unlock their accounts.
To address this dilemma, Facebook has now introduced a security feature that let’s your close friends help you recover your account. Facebook previously announced a featured called Trusted Friends, which was available during an initial testing period from October 2011 until early 2012. What they have released now is an overhauled version, which lets you designate friends as Facebook trusted contacts ahead of time, rather than selecting them only when you can no longer access your account. Making your friends confirm your identity is a smart move on Facebook’s part! How To Add Facebook Trusted ContactsTrusted Contacts can be added and changed anytime via Security Settings. Click Edit next to Trusted Contacts and click Choose Trusted Contacts.
Then type in the names of friends you trust. For example I have added my sister and friends I am regularly in touch with through Facebook or otherwise.
Next you need to enter your password to confirm the changes.
When you have successfully completed this step, your Facebook trusted contacts will show up under Security Settings. You can edit or remove them anytime.
How To Recover Your Account with Trusted ContactsFrom the Facebook Homepage, click Forgot your password? on the top right. Then find your account via your email address, phone number, username or full name. When using your own full name, you may also have to enter a friend’s full name, so Facebook can find the right account. Once it does, Facebook will offer to send a link to reset your password to your email address(es). Since I found my account using my Gmail address, it also offered me the use of the Google account to reset my password.
Click No longer have access to these? if you cannot access your email. You will then be asked to confirm an email address you can access, although that won’t be necessary to recover your account.
In the next step you can reveal your trusted contacts. You need to personally contact three of them, ask them to visit https://www.facebook.com/recover so they receive your recovery codes, collect these codes, and enter them in the form to recover access to your account.
Words Of CautionChoose your trusted friends wisely. In some places hacking a person’s account is a kind of sport. If you have three close friends who know each other and could potentially team up to play a mischievous trick on you, reconsider. Who can you really trust? Ask yourself…
The above are your minimum requirements. If you know three or more people who qualify and don’t know each other or would never play a mean trick on you, you have found the perfect candidates to be added as Facebook trusted contacts. ConclusionTrusted Contacts are a last resort to recovering your account and probably the most dicey one. And just like any other recovery option, you have to keep them current. What if your friendship ends, your friend stops using Facebook, or cannot be reached for a significant amount of time? Frankly, I think it’s easier to enable Facebook Two Factor Authentication and make sure your backup email addresses and phone numbers are up to date. However, having yet another extra security net doesn’t hurt, but I wouldn’t rely only on Trusted Contacts. Other Ways To Secure Your Facebook AccountDon’t forget the other basic ways of securing your Facebook account: Double-check your General Account Settings. Make sure your primary email address is current and add secondary email addresses. Set a secure password. Check your Mobile Settings and add another mobile phone number. Set up Facebook Login Approvals and install the Code Generator on your Android. And finally add Trusted Contacts. Has your Facebook account ever been hacked and how did you recover it? How do you make sure this never happens (again)? The post Add Facebook Trusted Contacts To Ensure You Can Recover Your Account appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tired Of Big & Bloated Music Players? Try GOM Audio For Free! Posted: 15 May 2013 04:00 PM PDT
GOM Audio is from the makers of GOM Video, a Windows media player that seems to have more clout over in Korea than in the West. Personally, the only reason I know GOM Video exists is because it has ties to competitive Starcraft 2 video streaming – or something like that – and GOM Video always felt clunky to me. But GOM Audio? Boy, they’ve done something right because this is a music player that could really catch on. GOM Music Player Interface
After installing GOM Audio, this is the welcoming interface that you'll see: the main player on the left and an introductory panel on the right. If you're still wondering what GOM Audio does exactly, it tells you right there: a lightweight audio player designed to make it easy to listen to music on your computer. I can dig it. A cursory glance at the GOM Audio welcome screen evokes in me one feeling: this audio player is clean. The interface design is minimal in the sense that it doesn't use flashy gradients or rounded edges. Everything is a straight line, all of the colors are evenly toned, and the contrast is pleasant on the eyes. This is an interface that has been designed well because I find myself wanting to look at it. Sure, the layout may be reminiscent of something like Winamp, but GOM Audio has captured an element that takes it to the next level. Controls
Speaking of layouts, GOM Audio's way of positioning interface elements is easy and intuitive. Things that immediately stick out to me: icons are extremely good at conveying their meaning, consistent interface design, and clear demarcation between sections. All of these things make for enjoyable music listening. GOM Audio has a few tiny details that may not seem like big deals, but really improve on convenience. First, the playlist switching buttons – simple but effective. Second, the total playlist time length displayed at the bottom. Third, a mode changer for the top player portion so you can customize the way it looks. As you might have guessed by now, GOM Audio is not a music library. It's a music player. If you're looking for something like iTunes, then you'll need to look elsewhere. GOM Audio is more of a playlist manager. Skinning
GOM Audio comes with three prepackaged skins: the brown-and-orange skin in the prior screenshots, this rounded white skin above, and a third compact skin that gets rid of everything but the actual player buttons. It's not the greatest variety, but I really love the default one, so I don't have much room to complain. Though you can add new GOM Audio skins, and even though the skinning system is powerful, the problem is finding them. It's not the most popular music player and it doesn't have a central community, so skins are sprawled across the Internet in hard to reach places. The best I've found were in random blog posts and DeviantArt accounts. Other Features
I'm not sure how many people still use software-based Internet streams, especially with the popularity of services like Pandora and Songza, but GOM Audio has a list of streaming radios in case your own playlists have grown stale or you want to discover some new music. Feel free to add your own Internet radio URLs if you have a few that aren't included in the default list. Other features of the GOM music player that you may like:
VerdictAs I near the end of this review, I'm struck by one truth: GOM Audio isn't very distinctive from any other music player, but it just feels good. If you were to ask me why I like GOM Audio, I couldn't give you any technical reasons – it doesn't have any standout features – because I just like it. It melds into the background and never interferes. It plays your music for you and lets you do your own thing without being a distraction. So if you've been like me, on the prowl for a clean music player that feels both fast and complete, then you should really give GOM Audio a try. It definitely gives other lightweight music players (e.g., Foobar2000, AIMP3, etc.) a run for their money. The post Tired Of Big & Bloated Music Players? Try GOM Audio For Free! appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Ads vs Google Adwords: Which One Got Me The Most Clicks? Posted: 15 May 2013 03:30 PM PDT
This is the question that I set out to answer at the beginning of this year. My goal was to start out small – only investing $8 per day. Not like the big advertising entities that Justin wrote about not long ago. The goal of my advertising campaign would be only to gain traffic at my site, not to sell anything or funnel traffic to a single “conversion” page. My hope was that the “seeding” of incoming traffic from the dozens of clicks on the ad would gradually build up a snowballing collection of loyal readers. That was the plan. In this article, I’m going to share the results of my tests. The tests involved individually running a Facebook advertising campaign costing approximately $8 per day for a couple of months. I discussed how to set this up in a previous article about Facebook advertising. Next, I initiated a Google Adwords campaign for $8 per day for a couple of months. I’ll show you how I set up each advertising campaign, and reveal the final results – comparing Facebook advertising head-to-head against Google Adwords advertising. You can be the judge as to which investment is better for a small-scale blogger. Facebook Ads vs. Google AdwordsI should disclose up front that I am by no means an advertising or marketing expert. My expertise in the domain of drawing in traffic is focused on SEO techniques, and the world of online advertising was relatively foreign to me up until January of this year. Testing Facebook AdvertisingDiving into Facebook Ads was only frustrating at the very start, because it took the Facebook team an annoyingly long time to approve my ads. I started out trying to create a static ad for my site, until I stumbled upon an interesting advertising option Facebook offers where they will dynamically create a new ad every time you publish a new post update on your Facebook page.
Also, Facebook has nice performance feedback reports. I’ve seen some big numbers here – with hundreds of thousands of impressions reported and thousands of clicks, but it’s really hard to verify these numbers, because those clicks go to your Facebook page, not your website.
As far as accumulating Facebook page “likes” go, Facebook ads are the single-most effective ways to build an audience on Facebook. It is remarkable how quickly I was able to accumulate fans on the Facebook page – starting from just a few days after starting the advertising campaign. 133 likes on just one day that first month, and that was after getting only 2 or 3 likes per day before advertising.
Google Adwords AdvertisingGoogle Adwords was an entirely different beast. I’d been receiving $100 coupons for quite a while from Google as encouragement to launch my first advertising campaign. Of course, once I went to start using Adwords, I couldn’t find a single one of those coupons. Figures. There’s a little bit more of a learning curve with Adwords than there is with Facebook. There are actually people out there that specialize in creating and running Adwords campaigns, so this is by no means a full-blown, professional test. The goal here was to create a very simple 1-ad campaign with a small budget and see how it performed compared to Facebook using the same budget. It turned out creating an ad wasn’t all that hard, and the steps are laid out in the tabs that you find in Adwords.
Just as in the case of Facebook, I saw almost instant results. Also similar to Facebook, the claimed impressions were quite high, but in the case of Google Adwords, the clickthrough rates weren’t quite as impressive. While Facebook had ad-clicks of 40 to 150 per day, the Google ad averaged a steady 35 to 50 per day with no real spikes to speak of.
However, as a way to drive traffic and grow site readership, a low investment at Adwords just doesn’t have the same impact as a small investment at Facebook. Even better, the impact to page likes has been tremendous. It took nearly two years to hit 1,000 likes on the blog Facebook page. After just a few months of Facebook advertising, that skyrocketed to over 11,000 fans – and the growth isn’t slowing at all.
That growth means a significant audience on Facebook, which will most certainly convert to very nice traffic spikes when particularly viral posts are published. That is the real beauty of Facebook advertising – it may not have a huge, direct impact on site traffic right away, but it grows your Facebook following quickly. That alone provides for a very strong foundation for your website growth. It should be obvious by now that my selection of a winner between Facebook ads vs Google Adwords is Facebook. However, that’s for traffic growth. If this were a campaign to sell an item online, that could change the entire game, and it’s definitely worth a future experiment. Do you use either Facebook Ads or Google Adwords? What has been your experience with the services? Did you find great success with one or the other? Share your experiences and tips in the comments section below! Image Credit: Advertising Megaphone Via Shutterstock The post Facebook Ads vs Google Adwords: Which One Got Me The Most Clicks? appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Buffer Adds Retweet Scheduling From Web, iOS & Android [Updates] Posted: 15 May 2013 03:00 PM PDT
If you’re new to Buffer, you’re going to want to download and install Buffer’s browser extension which is available for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari, and create a Buffer account. You can then link it with your Twitter accounts to start scheduling retweets (among other things) from your various Twitter users. To schedule a retweet using the Web interface, hit the Buffer button under the tweet you want to share and choose which method of retweet (old or new) you prefer. Buffer sends out your posts according to a fixed schedule, which is aimed at getting the most eyeballs on your posts as possible, according to time zone. This schedule can be changed manually in Buffer’s dashboard. After scheduling retweets, you can change their set time or delete them from the dashboard as well.
Scheduling a retweet from iOS and Android is a little more complicated, and involves emailing the tweet to Buffer using your secret Buffer email address. This is a unique address you can add to your phone’s contact book for easy access, and use whenever you find a tweet you want to retweet. no matter which app you’re on. Simply email the tweet you want to share to your Buffer address either by using the built-in “email tweet” option available in some apps, or manually.
This will add the retweet to your Buffer schedule automatically, and again, you can head over to your Buffer dashboard to change things around. Buffer is already available as a built-in option on many services such as Feedly, Instapaper, TweetCaster, Pocket, Reeder, and IFTTT. Hopefully, this retweet option will become easier to use on mobile as Buffer reaches even more apps. Are you happy to see retweets coming to Buffer? Source: Buffer Blog The post Buffer Adds Retweet Scheduling From Web, iOS & Android [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Clean Droid: How To Bulk Uninstall Android Apps You Don’t Use Posted: 15 May 2013 02:30 PM PDT
To do this, you’ll need the popular Titanium Backup. You don’t need the paid version, the free version will do — but you do need to have a rooted device to do this. If you’re not rooted, we have another app that will dramatically speed up your app-uninstalling process anyway. Use Titanium Backup to Batch Uninstall AppsTitanium Backup has a way to uninstall multiple Android apps at once — no tapping a confirmation dialog over and over — but it’s well-hidden in Titanium Backup’s confusing interface. To do this, you’ll need to be using a rooted device. If you are, you can install the free Titanium Backup app from Google Play — the paid, pro version isn’t necessary. Launch Titanium Backup and grant it root privileges. Once you have, tap the Menu button in its interface.
On the menu screen, locate the General category and tap Batch actions under it. This screen contains a wide variety of actions you can perform on multiple apps at once — everything from backing them up to restoring them, freezing them, and clearing their caches.
Scroll down to the Un-install section on the Batch actions screen and tap the Run button to the left of Un-install all user apps. Don’t worry — this won’t automatically uninstall all your apps. The option is just confusingly named.
You’ll now see a list of all your installed users apps (this doesn’t include system apps). All of the apps you’ve installed are selected by default. if you want to get rid of them all, great — you can have a completely default device and start over from scratch. You probably don’t want to do that, so tap the Deselect all button to uncheck all the apps.
Scroll through the list and select all the apps you’ve like to uninstall by selecting their checkboxes. When you’re done, tap the green checkmark button at the top-right corner of the app to uninstall all the apps you’ve selected.
Titanium Backup will now automatically uninstall all the apps you’ve selected without any additional confirmation. It uses its root access to do this — apps can’t normally do this sort of thing because of Android’s security model.
Batch Uninstall Apps Without RootIf you don’t have a rooted Android smartphone or tablet, this isn’t as easy. You can’t actually skip the confirmation messages without root access. However, you can still speed things up. To more quickly uninstall apps if you’re not rooted, use the Easy Uninstaller app. It will display a list of your installed apps and allow you to check off individual apps you want to uninstall. The apps are sorted by their size, so you can see which apps you should uninstall to regain the most storage space.
Select the apps you want to uninstall and then tap the Batch Uninstall button. Easy Uninstaller will pop up a confirmation box for each app you want to uninstall. You’ll still have to tap OK to each confirmation box, but this is much faster than uninstalling multiple apps the normal way — no additional screens and waiting.
Of course, if you’re a real pro, you could use the adb utility to uninstall multiple apps after connecting your Android device to your computer and enabling USB debugging. The exact command you’ll need is “adb uninstall.” This method isn’t for casual users, but it wouldn’t require root and could be useful if you wanted to batch uninstall apps from multiple phones — you’d just have to run the same command after plugging in each individual phone. If you’re looking to free up more storage space on our phone, be sure to check out our guide to freeing storage space on your Android device. Do you have any other tips for quickly installing multiple Android apps without the confirmation screens and annoying delays? Leave a comment below and share them! The post The Clean Droid: How To Bulk Uninstall Android Apps You Don’t Use appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discover New Music By Mapping Musical Genres & Artists Posted: 15 May 2013 02:00 PM PDT
It’s far better to discover new music for yourself, but where do you begin? You could listen to online radio and pick and choose the songs that resonate. Or you could use Spotify apps to be recommended new music based on what you already listen to. Then again, you could delve into music mapping apps created using The Echo Nest platform (also responsible for Infinite Gangnam Style). Mapping music isn’t as bizarre as it may at first sound. In the same way locations can be mapped out, so can music genres and artists, with one style feeding into the next, one band being connected to another. What follows are three methods for mapping genres and artists that should lead to you to discover new music. Hopefully, all without having to offend a friend or loved one. The Music Maze
The Music Maze is surprisingly simple but effortlessly efficient. Rather than throw a whole map of genres at you — which is what the two other apps on this list do — it guides you by the hand through the music maze, hitting different, interconnected artists as you go. You can enter the maze at a point of your choosing. Just type the name of an artist into the space provided and hit ‘Enter‘. A song by that artist will start to play, and a number of other artists will pop up alongside your chosen act. You can then choose either one you already know or one you’ve never heard of. You navigate the maze by clicking on one of the artists, repeating the process ad nauseum. There is no exit to find, this is merely a way of presenting similar artists to those you already like. The grouping means you’re only ever presented with artists that share something in common with those you have already indicated you enjoy. Don’t Forget To: Click the ‘Random‘ button in order to land on a random artist in the maze. Map Of Music Styles
Map Of Music Styles, or MOMS for short, is a visual representation of the various genres that exist in music. There are over 1,000 listed, pared down from more than 2,000, and each is grouped together to sit alongside genres that they have things in common with. Each genre is listed in terms of importance; the names appearing larger or smaller based on the number of artists contained within. There are lines between each genre, sometimes connecting multiple different genres. The end result is a kind of Google Maps for music, with genres grouped into continents and countries. You can zoom in and out of the Map Of Music Styles, discovering smaller, more niche, genres as you do. Clicking on a genre will play a random song from that genre. In this way you can get a feel for which genres you would like to explore further and which you would rather leave well alone. Don’t Forget To: Try charting a continuous line through all of the genres you like. Every Noise At Once
Every Noise At Once is the most epic of the apps on this list. Not only does it list all of the genres you’ve likely ever heard of (as well as a few more you haven’t), it has another layer dedicated to artists, all grouped within the genre they belong to. The genres are clustered according to data, so there is a discernible pattern present. However, as no attempt has been made to add a visual element to the raw data (by design) the list can at first seem overwhelming. Focus on the kinds of genres you gravitate towards, however, and all becomes clearer. Clicking on the small double arrows at the end of each genre’s name leads you further down the rabbit-hole, with artists in that genre revealed. Clicking on a name will start a random song by the artist. Clicking ‘Scan‘ within a genre plays a snippet from each artist located within it. Don’t Forget To: Click ‘Scan‘ to have the app play through the genres at random. ConclusionsI found all three of these music mapping apps to be both fun and fascinating. I’ve discovered genres I never knew existed, links between genres I could never have visualized for myself, and connections between artists that now seem rather obvious but which I was previously unaware of. Most importantly I discovered a host of new music to explore further on Spotify and beyond. Which of these music mapping apps did you find the most useful? Did any of them help you to discover new music genres or artists? What kind of music map would you like to see created? Are you aware of any other musical mapping apps that deserve a wider audience? As always we’re keen to hear your thoughts on the subject at hand in the comments section below. Image Credit: Dennis Tang
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| Those Crazy Web Words And Phrases Explained Posted: 15 May 2013 01:00 PM PDT
Whether it’s on your child’s chat messages or some inexplicably popular item on Reddit, this new language increasingly pervades the meat space of real life. Let me put you a little at ease ease though, as I explain some key terms. MemeA term coined by Professor Richard Dawkins in the 70s to describe the way culture spreads, now used in common parlance to describe viral videos and pictures that go on to generate thousands of variants. A classic example is keyboard cat – a cute YouTube video of Carlie Schmidt’s cat playing an electronic keyboard – which later came to be added on the end of bad videos as a way of saving them: play him off keyboard cat! LOL, Lulz, and LolzAll variants of the original acronym for Laughing Out Loud, an abbreviated way of exclaiming ones amusement. A more extreme form is ROFL; or rolling on the floor, laughing; and LMAO, laughing my ass off. Lulz, as a plural of LOL, is often used as a reason for doing something – “doing it for the lulz” – and inspired the name of Lulzsec hacking group, responsible for exposing some incredibly lax security protocols in use by major governments and corporations around the globe. Lolled, lolling and lollage are all grammatically correct forms of usage. lolwut is a type of bemused lolling, for example:
Of course, nothing on the Internet is immune to the influence of our feline mistresses (see the cute cat theory of digital activism); and so it came to pass that some bright spark combined the concept of “lol” with “cat”, to create the lolcat – amusing images of cats, captioned with often grammatically incorrect short sayings. Though by no means the original lolcat, perhaps the most iconic is icanhazcheezburger
… which went on to spawn a network of LOL sites. Some say the humble lolcat has dumbed down an entire generation so much that it only communicates in captioned photos. I blame Twitter.
TrollAs the Greater Internet F******* Theory states (aka online disinhibition), any normal person when provided both an audience and the anonymity of an internet forum, may undergo a negative personality change – they may turn into a troll. A troll takes many forms, but most commonly posts a deliberate inflammatory comment in order to elicit a response (baiting).
Trollface has become a meme of its own, originating in a webcomic found on Deviant Art. It represents the expression made while trolling.
One particular tactic trolls have successfully employed in the past is to pose the question:
which results in either 2 or 288, depending on the order of operations you apply (FYI, the answer is 288, stupid). Even calculators will give differing results, but that’s not the point: the argument will almost always divulge into personal insults, and thus the trolling objective is complete. By playing the game, you have already lost. Flaming is closely related to the concept of trolling, but now refers to more personal attacks; one can troll quite effectively without resorting to flaming. RickRolledRick Astley, an 80′s legend that gave us Never Gonna Give Up, recieved Internet notoriety when the music video for the aforementioned masterpiece became a class Bait and Switch bit of trolling. It goes like this: a nefarious prankster posts an obfuscated URL, which when clicked takes the hapless victim to the Never Gonna Give You Up music video on YouTube. The user is said to have been rickrolled. Fun fact: during the 2008 Macy’s Day Parade, Rick Astley live-rickrolled onlookers in a surprise appearance. Even Obama got in on the act.. #hashtagA hashtag is a keyword denoted by the hash # symbol, used on the Twitter social network to group posts about a single topic. Media events will often establish their own #hashtag, in hopes of trending globally. Trending hashtags are shown on the main Twitter site to all users, and show which are currently the most popular things being talked about, so they’re a highly coveted accolade. According to dailydot, the 10 most popular hashtags from August 2011-2012 were:
Some people also use hashtags in Facebook updates, which is pointless, because it doesn’t actually do anything and just makes you look silly. Don’t make the same mistake. While we’re on the topic of Twitter, retweet deserves a mention too; referring to the act of copying someone else’s amazing Twitter messages, and republishing them to your own followers. Credit is given, and RT is added to let readers know they’re not your own words. LiveStream and LiveBlogA live video broadcast of an event or gaming session. Yes, watching someone play video games is a legitimate past time now, and you can have a go at livestreaming or watching too. A LiveBlog is predominantly text-based live broadcast using a blog page that automatically refreshes to show the latest additions – used at events where filming would be difficult, though photos are also posted to the stream.
Further readingI can’t possibly cover all the new words of the web – I have my own cat pictures that need captioning with mildly amusing phrases – but if you’d like to read more, check out these great resources:
I hope you’ve at least enjoyed if not learned something from this, otherwise you’ve probably just wasted 5 minutes of your life. #fail. Know an essential term you think everyone should know? Add it in the comments! Image Credit: “The Internet”, CollegeHumor The post Those Crazy Web Words And Phrases Explained appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Everything You Need To Know About Emails & Windows Phone 8 Posted: 15 May 2013 12:01 PM PDT
Then there are also those of us who take advantage of the various productivity tools. Email is of course one of these (along with the mobile Microsoft Office) and Windows Phone offers a wide selection of account support. Whether you use your phone with a corporate email system or you merely need to check your Hotmail/Windows Live/Outlook.com account, Windows Phone (and in particular Windows Phone 8) offers all the tools that you need to connect to your account and to sync any satellite data such as calendars, contacts and tasks. Setting Up An Email AccountMost email accounts can be setup easily in Windows Phone. Head to Settings > Email+accounts > Add an account and add your email address and password. Note that you can use the Show password check box to ensure that you have entered it correctly. Tap Next to continue – depending on the account type, you will have a choice of syncing Email only or Email, contacts and calendar. In most cases the account will be set up automatically (the phone communicates with a remote server to check the incoming and outgoing mail server names), but if this doesn’t happen, don't worry. Advanced tools are available to help you.
Email accounts for Outlook.com, Exchange, Office 365, Hotmail, Google Mail, POP and IMAP can all be set up. Once you have your account added, you should send it to the Start screen. This is done by visiting the Apps list, long-tapping and selecting Pin to start. The tile will then update you when new messages have been received. Advanced Settings For Email In Windows PhoneIf you find that you cannot automatically add your email account, you will need to enter settings manually.
The way to do this is to scroll to the bottom of the Email+accounts > Add an account screen and select Advanced setup. You will then be able to add your email address and password as before, but can then choose between Exchange ActiveSync and Internet Email. Both options enable you to manually enter the data. Exchange ActiveSync allows you to specify domain name, server name and choice of content to sync, while Internet Email (for specifying IMAP and POP account details) requires incoming and outgoing server names, SSL options and sync times/intervals. Note that Sync settings can be edited via the individual inbox's account settings as and when required. The Google Mail ProblemWith the initial release of Windows Phone 8 it was possible to connect to a Gmail account using Exchange ActiveSync. However, thanks to changes made by Google, from July 31st 2013 this will no longer be possible (an issue that extends to Windows 8). The reasoning is that Google wants to drop its reliance on EAS in favour of IMAP, using CalDAV and CardDAV frameworks for syncing contacts and calendar data. Fortunately this particular issue (which was originally set to detonate in January 2013) should be overcome, with Microsoft given plenty of time to add these protocols to Windows Phone.
There is, however, another problem with using Gmail. Windows Phone supports threaded conversations, but the way in which these are presented seems to conflict with Gmail. The result when replying to a group email (and my MakeUseOf colleagues can attest to this!) is a mess, with email conversations broken by header code that should remain unseen and barely a word of a reply. Disabling Conversations in the email settings (Inbox > Settings) should stop this from happening. Linking Inboxes Keeps Windows Phone TidyI'm a big fan of the implementation of Metro on Windows Phone 8 (an improvement on the previous version) but there is one thing that is obvious, and true of any mobile platform – having multiple email accounts can be tricky if there are tiles for them all. The way to deal with this on Windows Phone is to use the Linked inboxes feature, which can be accessed via the menu in any inbox.
By tapping one of the list of other inboxes you can create a group, all of which can be checked from a single inbox “view”. These linked inboxes can be renamed too (scroll to the bottom of the screen) or unlinked as required (tap > unlink). Linked Inboxes enables you to reduce the number of inbox tiles on your Start screen, keeping things tidy. Sending Attachments & Setting SignaturesSending a new email message is as simple as you might expect – open the inbox, tap + and enter the recipient and the message (you can also send a message via People > [CONTACT NAME] and tapping any listed email address). When sending an email message you might want to add an attachment – this can be done by tapping the paperclip icon. Note that attachments are limited to images – to share a saved document on your phone, open it in Microsoft Office, tap the menu and select Share…
You can also dictate your email message using the Speak button, while priority flags and Cc/Bcc can be set by tapping the menu button. One last note for any Windows Phone owner using email – set a custom signature! This can be configured in the Settings screen, in the lower half of the screen. All you need to do is tap the field and enter your new signature. Note that you might have trouble replicating your usual desktop or browser-based email signature, so keep it as simple and effective as possible. Conclusion: Windows Phone 8 and EmailsI wouldn't advocate anyone relying on a Windows Phone as a complete productivity solution for daily office use, but the email application is particularly impressive. Support for different email account types, syncing calendar and contact data and functional tools for adding attachments, setting signatures and linking inboxes (a feature that was available in the previous version of Windows Phone) makes sending an email a quick, enjoyable task that doesn't leave you caught up in the drudge of emailing reply after reply that can often cloud the desktop experience. The post Everything You Need To Know About Emails & Windows Phone 8 appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Automate Everything On Your Mac with Keyboard Maestro [Mac] Posted: 15 May 2013 11:01 AM PDT
For what it does, Keyboard Maestro for Mac is modestly priced, and in my experience very reliable. Keyboard Maestro is similar to Automator in which you set up macros to perform tasks and steps that you perform manually. For example, almost any steps you take – to launch, hide, or quit applications; open folders and files; download webpages; input copied text; rate iTunes songs; email a family member; copy or paste a URL – can be done faster by Keyboard Maestro. What It Can DoIf you’re new to Mac automation, Keyboard Maestro (KM) is made for you. You don’t have to know coding in order to build automations. You just need to take a little time to set up automations that mirror what you do manually, and from there Keyboard Maestro will perform the steps for you.
Don’t let KM’s user interface scare you off. Granted, the UI looks very techie and a little complicated, but after you create a few simple workflows, you will see how easy it is to use. The following is just a partial list of automatons I have KM perform:
The above are some of the basic automation workflows KM can perform (see a list of more features on its website.) Depending upon your needs, it can do even more advanced or complex automations, especially when you use it with applications like the mouse and trackpad program, BetterTouchTool, or with the keyboard navigation application, Shortcat. Sample WorkflowsThough Keyboard Maestro includes a manual, a more user friendly guide could also be written for the program. The following is a simple single-step workflow for an action performed manually by all computer users. Download the fully functional trial version of KM and follow the steps in this 5 minute demo that shows you how to have KM launch and/or quit an assigned application(s) at a specified time and day. Other FeaturesThe key to using KM is to open and explore its list of several hundred Actions to see which ones fit your needs. Notice it includes actions for copying and pasting text, launching its built-in application switcher, displaying text, hiding a specific application, playing a specific iTunes track or playlist, searching a particular website, pressing a button, etc.
KM’s Record Quick Macro can record a set of actions you perform on your Mac, and you can use the results as a macro. Also, you can assign and group macros to perform only in specified applications. I have macros that only work when Safari is in the forefront. For example :
Note, with string triggers, the typed letters automatically activate the assigned macro and then disappear from where you typed them – all within a fraction of a second.
If you download and try out Keyboard Maestro for Mac, let us know what you think of it. You can also visit my Google+ Community page on Mac Automation tips for additional ideas about using Keyboard Maestro. The post Automate Everything On Your Mac with Keyboard Maestro [Mac] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Those of us over a certain age will likely have been shocked at least once over the past few years from seeing someone very young using technology that didn’t even exist when we were their age. It’s surely a startling sight to see a 6-year-old using a computer, or a 10-year-old tapping away on a smartphone. Or perhaps I’m just old and liable to being startled easily.
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