15 New Articles on MakeUseOf

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• Cool Websites & Tools – Scheduled Report Emails, Free Credit Tools, & Easy Mortgages
• Run Through This Checklist Before Calling IT Support
• Learn The Basics Of Any Instrument With YouTube [Stuff to Watch]
• Immunicity Has Been Shut Down: Here’s What You Need To Know.
• Get A Chrome OS Look With The Budgie Desktop For Linux
• The Promises and Dangers of Ambient Intelligence in Your Life
• How To Avoid The Dangers Of Online Advertisements Targeted At Kids
• Is Hitbox The Twitch Alternative For You?
• How To Maximize Your Productivity Anywhere
• Are The Super Mario Bros. Copycat Games On Android Any Good?
• Future Communication Devices Everyone Will Want to Own
• Apple TV Review and Giveaway
• Seven Laptop Components That Can Improve Your Battery Life
• Facebook Messenger Steals Your Soul, Snipp3t Stalks Celebrities, And More… [Tech News Digest]
• 6 Tips For Taking Better Selfies

Cool Websites & Tools – Scheduled Report Emails, Free Credit Tools, & Easy Mortgages Posted: 11 Aug 2014 09:31 PM PDT Fastly – is an Android app which enables you to search and launch local apps quickly. Use your native keyboard to search for apps. Uninstall an app by long pressing it. More features are apparently coming soon. With a score of 4.2, this is a very popular app. Teamreporter – kills your status meetings by replacing them with scheduled report mails. It will ping your team members with scheduled emails and ask for the day's progress, problems and most important events. Based on the replies Teamreporter will send an overview of the team's status to your team the next day.... Read the full article: Cool Websites & Tools – Scheduled Report Emails, Free Credit Tools, & Easy Mortgages

Run Through This Checklist Before Calling IT Support Posted: 11 Aug 2014 07:30 PM PDT Being the IT support person sucks. Everyone lays their issues on you, and blame everything but themselves for whatever’s going on with their computer. No, there was nothing wrong with the keyboard prior to you spilling coffee all over it. The IT support team is there to help and work with you — so do them a favour by learning a few basic troubleshooting methods before ringing them. Here’s one that will solve 99% of all computer problems. Click to enlarge. via Conosco Read the full article: Run Through This Checklist Before Calling IT Support

Learn The Basics Of Any Instrument With YouTube [Stuff to Watch] Posted: 11 Aug 2014 06:30 PM PDT Music is creative, enjoyable and an excellent means of expressing oneself. Even better: playing an instrument is one of the best workouts you can give your brain. Even if you don’t intend on pursuing a career in music or starting a band, you only need to know the basics of an instrument to enjoy it. YouTube can teach you to do just about anything, and that includes playing an instrument. Today we’ll focus on piano, guitar, bass guitar and drums, but if you look hard enough you’ll find crash courses in everything from the bassoon to the melodica. Why? TEDed has created a video... Read the full article: Learn The Basics Of Any Instrument With YouTube [Stuff to Watch]

Immunicity Has Been Shut Down: Here’s What You Need To Know. Posted: 11 Aug 2014 02:00 PM PDT Police in England have arrested a Nottingham man accused of running a proxy server that provides access to sites subject to court-mandated blocks. The man – who has since been released on bail – was accused of running the Immunicity proxy service, which has been taken down by the authorities. This was designed to unblock torrent sites by sending traffic through various different proxies, depending on the URL you were looking for. The arrest was made after police – in conjunction with the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) – found evidence that Immunicity was providing access to 36 websites that... Read the full article: Immunicity Has Been Shut Down: Here’s What You Need To Know.

Get A Chrome OS Look With The Budgie Desktop For Linux Posted: 11 Aug 2014 11:00 AM PDT You can’t ever have enough desktop environments for Linux systems! For each new desktop environment, there’s another choice for users that may suit their needs and preferences better than any other solution. The relatively new Budgie desktop environment has recently appeared and is finally easy to install under Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. Let’s take a look at its design and features. About Budgie Desktop If you think Budgie desktop looks a lot like Chrome OS, the operating system found on Chromebooks, it’s not just you. This is completely intentional — the Linux distribution that this desktop environment is being developed... Read the full article: Get A Chrome OS Look With The Budgie Desktop For Linux

The Promises and Dangers of Ambient Intelligence in Your Life Posted: 11 Aug 2014 10:00 AM PDT Have you ever wondered about much machine intelligence is impacting your life today?  If not, don’t be surprised: if “ambient intelligence” is done right, you really shouldn’t have a clue – that’s the point. Ambient Intelligence (stylized as AmI) is a new way of thinking about human-computer interactions, characterized by embedded devices, wearables, and passive adaptation of technology to your needs.  The goal of AmI is for technology to maximize its usefulness while minimizing its footprint on your attention.  In other words, AmI tries to be invisible, pulling data from the environment to make intelligent, helpful decisions for you, without you... Read the full article: The Promises and Dangers of Ambient Intelligence in Your Life

How To Avoid The Dangers Of Online Advertisements Targeted At Kids Posted: 11 Aug 2014 09:00 AM PDT You might think you’re smart enough to dodge manipulative advertisements – and maybe you are smart enough – but what about children? With hundreds of banner ads, popup ads, and interstitial ads all over the place from website to website, it’s a wonder that we haven’t all been brainwashed already. Or maybe we have. Online ads are increasingly targeting younger and younger folks. This is a growing problem for both children, whose lives are profoundly impacted by the ads, and parents who don’t want their kids’ lives being dictated by the media. But why? How? What can we do to alleviate the... Read the full article: How To Avoid The Dangers Of Online Advertisements Targeted At Kids

Is Hitbox The Twitch Alternative For You? Posted: 11 Aug 2014 08:30 AM PDT Video game streaming hub Twitch has seen incredible growth over the past several years as a destination for live, interactive gaming entertainment. From ubiquitous League of Legends streams to broadcasts of games you might not expect to see played live, there’s a staggering variety of content, and tens of millions of video game fans watch their favorite broadcasters there every month. Recently news surfaced that Google was in talks to purchase Twitch, and though neither company is commenting on the rumors, it’s not hard to believe in the wake of this week’s YouTube-like sweeping changes to how Twitch is treating... Read the full article: Is Hitbox The Twitch Alternative For You?

How To Maximize Your Productivity Anywhere Posted: 11 Aug 2014 08:00 AM PDT Are you in the habit of working on the move? There are ways to do it better. With freelance and entrepreneurial lifestyles taking off in a big way, work is not limited by hours or locations. It’s great if you have the liberty to work anytime, from anywhere. But this can result in a skewed work-life balance unless you optimize your workflow. If you stay highly productive on the go, when you get back home you can afford to set work aside and focus on other important aspects of your life. Here are a few pointers to help you make the best of... Read the full article: How To Maximize Your Productivity Anywhere

Are The Super Mario Bros. Copycat Games On Android Any Good? Posted: 11 Aug 2014 07:00 AM PDT When it comes to platform games, you won’t find a more classic, well-loved title than Super Mario Bros. It’s a game that changed the world, and it still holds up today. Of course, you can only officially play Nintendo games on Nintendo consoles, so if you don’t have a compatible system and you’re hankering for some Mario, you’re out of luck. Sure, you could play them online, but that’s not ideal for when you’re on-the-go. Plenty of copycat games have popped up on Android that try to give you your Mario fix, but are they any good? Stick around until the... Read the full article: Are The Super Mario Bros. Copycat Games On Android Any Good?

Future Communication Devices Everyone Will Want to Own Posted: 11 Aug 2014 06:00 AM PDT It’s no secret that digital communication rules our lives—from the hours we spend on Facebook to the number of times we check our phones for text messages, we spend a significant portion of our day using technology to stay in touch with our friends, families, and co-workers. But what does the future hold for communication technology? Network-Based Telepathy Telepathic communication has been in sci-fi movies for years, but have you ever thought about what it would be like to actually use it? Dave Evans has. The former chief futurist at Cisco, Evans stated in a 2011 interview that “we will create Internet-based... Read the full article: Future Communication Devices Everyone Will Want to Own

Apple TV Review and Giveaway Posted: 11 Aug 2014 05:30 AM PDT Apple introduced its set-top digital media player in 2007, and it’s currently on its third generation of hardware. Not a lot seem to have changed since the svelte streaming box was first introduced – so can we really recommend purchasing it in 2014? The Apple TV costs $99 and goes head to head with the likes of similarly priced products like the Roku 3 ($99), the slightly more interactive Amazon Fire TV ($99) and in many ways Google’s far cheaper Chromecast ($35). In addition to delivering online and networked content from your PC or Mac, the Apple TV is the company’s flagship AirPlay receiver. Wireless streaming, movies... Read the full article: Apple TV Review and Giveaway

Seven Laptop Components That Can Improve Your Battery Life Posted: 11 Aug 2014 05:00 AM PDT Articles on laptop battery life focus on software tips. Those help, but the surest battery life improvements come from battery efficient hardware, not software tweaks. Unfortunately, finding laptops with awesome battery life can prove tedious. Most manufacturers lie about battery performance. Some advertise times for idle battery life – or how long the laptop runs while not in use. Many don’t even bother listing how long the battery will last. Fortunately, smart buyers can gauge battery life if they know exactly which parts sip power and which absolutely drain it. Seven components enable longer battery life: Hard drive technology, the CPU,... Read the full article: Seven Laptop Components That Can Improve Your Battery Life

Facebook Messenger Steals Your Soul, Snipp3t Stalks Celebrities, And More… [Tech News Digest] Posted: 11 Aug 2014 04:30 AM PDT Also, Windows Phone hits 300,000 apps milestone, YouTube stars are insanely popular among teenagers, Microsoft creates hyperlapse videos, Facebook bans begging for Likes, and Big Brother is listening via your bag of chips. Facebook Messenger Causes Privacy Panic Facebook is currently on a mission to strip messaging from the main Facebook app, forcing users to install Facebook Messenger instead. This effort began in April, and is now being rolled out worldwide. Not only is this annoying users who rightly regard having to use two apps instead of one as stupid, the permissions the app requires before installation are causing controversy.... Read the full article: Facebook Messenger Steals Your Soul, Snipp3t Stalks Celebrities, And More… [Tech News Digest]

6 Tips For Taking Better Selfies Posted: 10 Aug 2014 07:30 PM PDT Admit it, you’re already taking lots of selfies. So why not make them better? Yes, ‘selfie’ is a real word. And the world has seen some really weird ones. There are five things to avoid when taking selfies, and specialised apps you can use. But if you don’t know where to start, then study this infograph. via Adorama Read the full article: 6 Tips For Taking Better Selfies

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