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!

WhichDoc – We put a lot of faith in a doctor which makes our choice of doctor that much more important and serious. WhichDoc is a tool that helps you choose a good doctor by showing you ones that your friends recommend. To start with, the website offers basic search for doctors based on specialty and location. Read more: WhichDoc: Search For Doctors That Your Facebook Friends Recommend

		Who Did I Forget – Organizing an event isn’t easy, especially if you have a lot of friends and you want to ensure that you don’t miss inviting any of them. Who Did I Forget is an app developed keeping this in mind. It provides friend suggestions based on your guest list of an event and other factors. Read more: Who Did I Forget: Facebook App To Ensure That You Don’t Forget Inviting Someone
		Poggled – You know about Groupon, the daily deals site, right? Well, Poggled is like that, except that it only caters to the party and club hopping crowd. Yes, it’s a daily discounts site for nightlife events (read clubs). It’s currently limited to 4 US cities – Chicago, Denver, New York and Milwaukee. Read more: Poggled: Daily Deals For Nightlife Events
		MyTopTweet – If you are an active user on Twitter with thousands of tweets, it is difficult to find out your most famous tweet; especially on Twitter where there are millions of people and any of your tweets could have been retweeted. To solve this problem, you should give a handy online utility called My Top Tweet a try. Read more: MyTopTweet: Find Your Most Retweeted Tweet
		Beeminder – Do you make many goals that you need to work towards, such as studying 2 hours a day, helping with in-house chores and other stuff? If so, Beeminder is a great website for people like you to keep a track on the progress of your goals. The website, unlike other websites, makes sure people keep a more positive attitude towards their goals. Read more: Beeminder: Web App For Easily Keeping A Track Of Your Goals

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.

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Windows Phone users can now officially enjoy the LinkedIn experience using the new LinkedIn mobile app for Windows Phone devices. The new Windows Phone app is heavily inspired by Microsoft’s Metro design, and includes all the features you can expect from an official LinkedIn app.

Using the Windows Phone app, you can connect with professionals from all over the world, read a real-time stream of updates and news from your connections, your industry and the companies you follow, send and receive messages and invitations and, of course, get suggestions for available jobs that are suitable for you.

According to LinkedIn, some features of the Windows Phone app even surpass those of the iOS and Android LinkedIn apps, and they specifically point at the ‘companies’ and ‘jobs’ features as the best examples of this. The LinkedIn team is open to ideas and feature suggestions, which you can send by joining the Windows Phone group right here. Through this group you can also receive updates on the app’s development, etc.

Download the new Windows Phone app for LinkedIn for free here.

Did you get to try the new Windows Phone app? What do you think of it?

Source: LinkedIn Blog

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Recently the British Council, an organization that focuses on educational and cultural importance, released a bounty of historical films produced during the Second World War for viewing online. These reels were produced to counter Nazi propaganda and convince the world that Britain was doing “just fine” despite the devastating effects of war.

In them we see a country at war, an army stretched to its limits and some prime examples of national pride and the “stiff upper lip” attitude that is uniformly recognised around the world as being quintessentially British.

There’s not enough room for 80 films here, so here are 6 of my favourites. You can check out the rest on the British Council’s website.

British News

This is the first of five films produced under the “British News” name. This one is particularly interesting as it covers the rescue at Dunkirk, one of the most important and defining events of the war.

Also seen is a visit by King George VI to an arms factory where workers used lathes and volatile raw materials to produce munitions for the war effort, and naval servicemen being given a hero’s welcome after the Battle of River Plate in South Africa.

London 1942

Much of the country was devastated by bombing during the war, and London was no exception. This video takes a look at a capital city scarred by air raids, while at the same time retaining a business-as-usual attitude.

The film also shows non-British allies “settling in”, including the first American troops to arrive and be welcomed. In one scene, there are more than 20 different nationalities present around Nelson’s Column.

Women in War

The damaging view of a woman’s place in society that was upheld before the war was soon forgotten once much of the country’s men were sent to the front line. In this film we see women being inducted into military duty, shedding the “diversity of fashion” for khaki uniforms instead.

Women performed many important roles on the home front during the war. Much of the remaining fire service was run by women, and women were often called to care for returning soldiers and to evacuate children from dangerous areas.

The Great Game

Football is, has and always will be bordering on religion in Britain. The FA Cup is the world’s most prestigious club trophy, but in 1945 it was substituted for the Football League War Cup as seen in this video.

Sport was one of the few respites for a country torn apart by war. This film shows a group of then-famous footballers teaching schoolboys a thing or two, as well as footage from the 1945 War Cup.

Morning Paper

These days, the traditional printed press is on the decline but at the time of the war the opposite was true. Even though the war meant that the papers were never short of news, the blitz experienced by London complicated the process of creating and distributing the news.

This film takes a look at the work involved in producing an issue of The Times – to quote the film’s original description: “Bombs may fall, but the newspaper comes out on time.”

City Bound

A look at London’s public transport system during the blitz, though this film does show the sunnier side of the situation. In particular the London Undergound was home to more than 150,000 people by 1940 as it provided safety and shelter from bombs and gas attacks.

The Underground became such an important residence for many of the capital’s residents that 22,000 bunk beds were installed along with washroom facilities, food trains and even entertainment in the form of films, music and libraries in some stations.

Conclusion

There are another 74 films in the recently released archive that I haven’t featured here, so if you’ve enjoyed these then you’ll undoubtedly enjoy digging through the historical collection which is diverse in its contents. These are largely propaganda films that don’t dwell on the wounds opened by the blitz and massive loss of life incurred.

In fact there’s very little front-line footage contained within, and cities that were virtually razed like Coventry aren’t mentioned at all. That doesn’t make the archive any less historically important however, so dig deep and enjoy.

If you’ve enjoyed these films, why not check out these related Stuff to Watch articles:

• 6 Historical Wartime Propaganda Films
• 6 Classic Disney Animated Wartime Propaganda Cartoons

Did you enjoy these films? Do you have any favourites of your own from the British Council collection? Let us know what you think in the comments, below!

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Last week our poll joined the recent add-on discussion, and we wanted to know how many add-ons you have installed on your browser. Perhaps the most interesting result is that no one at all voted that their browser doesn’t support add-ons. Just another proof that MakeUseOf’s readers know how to choose their browsers!

Out of 292 votes, 4% have 0 add-ons installed, 27% have 1-5 add-ons, 28% have 6-10 add-ons, 25% have 11-20 add-ons, 13% have 20-50 add-ons, and 4% have more than 50 add-ons. Whoa.

Full results and this week’s poll after the jump.

If you’ve learned some stats, you can see the results form a perfect normal distribution. Most people have an average amount of add-ons, and few people have a weird number of add-ons, such as 0 or over 50.

This week’s poll question is: What Do You Think Of Google Drive?

Since Google Drive launched less than a month ago, we’ve been debating, discussing and thinking about this new addition to the cloud storage world. Is there a real need for another service? Does Google Drive offer something that Dropbox, Skydrive and kin don’t? With it’s 5GB free storage and it’s seamless Google integration, Google Drive does seem to have something to offer, but will you desert your current service for it? What do you think of this new contender?

What makes Google Drive better or worse than others? What do you like or don’t like about it? Explain your vote below.

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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!

TabSplit – is a cool service that is designed to allow you to split up a tab or a bill with a group of friends and keep track of how much each person has paid, and how much each owes. A service like this would be incredibly useful for roommates who need to keep track of rent and the various other expenses that come with having a place to live. Read more: TabSplit: Split The Tab & Bills With Friends Quickly & Easily

		The Daily Gentleman – One of the frequent complaints that women have with men is that they tend to forget important dates like birthdays, anniversaries etc. The Daily Gentleman is a web-based service that ensures that they are always reminded on time about dates that matter. Read more: The Daily Gentleman: Reminder Service For The Forgetful Gentlemen
		Vision Objects Demo – Tablets are all the rage now. It seems like everyone has tablet iOS, Android or some other OS available to them. With that comes all kinds of cool new uses for them. Vision Objects is a product that specializes in taking advantage of HTML5 for use with tablets and handwriting recognition. Read more: Vision Objects Demo: Play Around With Some Cool Handwriting Recognition Technology
		StatMyWeb – is an awesome way to find out any information that is publicly available about a website. They have lots of tools that can be useful for website owners or curious individuals who want to learn about how popular their favorite website really is. By just typing the URL of a website into the box, you will be able to see all kinds of information. Read more: StatMyWeb: Find Out Everything You Want To Know About A Website
		GIF Pal – There is no dearth of tools online that can generate a GIF from an image, but GIFPal stands apart due to its ease of use. To start, capture images from your webcam or upload images from your local drive. Then add each image to a separate frame as it is, or edit it with the drawing tool to add shapes, colors and change opacity. Read more: GIFPal: Probably The Easiest Tool To Create GIFs Online

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.

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It’s easy to get branded as a Mac fanboy. I’m not. I just happen to love brilliant tech products, which led me to the Mac. It’s also what led me to purchasing one of those new Windows Phones. If you’re reading this article, I guess you did too, or are considering to.

Let me tell you, it’s not the most obvious path to take. Microsoft is not exactly notorious for playing nice with Mac OS X. When I purchased my first Zune, Microsoft seemed blissfully unaware of the existence of other operating systems. The only way to sync that lovely media player was by leaving behind your trusted old Mac and finding a Windows computer to sync with.

Luckily, Microsoft seems to have embraced the future and cross-platform goodness that comes in the wake of it. Working with a Windows Phone from a Windows or Mac homebase still has its differences, differences that do come to show, but Microsoft has done a good job with Mac support this time around.

Windows Phone 7 Connector

Wrought in Microsoft’s own forges and available for free on the Mac App Store, Microsoft’s little helper comes in the form of Windows Phone 7 Connector. A lengthy title for a relatively simple application.

Its role is twofold. First, to integrate with Mac OS X and run to and fro to keep your precious media synchronized. Second, to search for new updates, and push them to your Windows Phone when spotted.

Media Synchronization

For most people, the most important of these features will be media synchronization. You’ll be pleased to know that Windows Phone 7 Connector makes friends with your native Mac OS X applications. No, it does not offer another bulky iTunes alternative. Rather, it let’s you manage your media in iTunes and iPhoto, and employ Windows Phone 7 Connector solely as a synchronization agent. A good move in my eyes.

Hence, you’ll find your media in as good a shape as you left your original collection. You can select playlists, artists, or genres to sync your music; albums, events, titles to sync TV series and movies that were purchased through iTunes, and even Faces to sync your pictures and self-made videos. Note how you can select all items from one of these categories to keep these continually up to date on your Windows Phone.

Selecting Browse Device in the sidebar shows you the media content present on your device. Here you can preview these files and clear the clutter away. The Import Selected Items button is an especially refreshing sight; these files will not be locked on your device.

Ringtones

A lovely feature is the Ringtones pane. Not a major highlight so much as a fun and interesting addition. While Windows Phone 7 Connector is in the process of rummaging through your music, it will set aside certain tunes that it deems especially fit to serve as ringtones.

Ringtone-compatible, according to Windows Phone 7 Connector, means the file is not much larger than 1MB, has a duration of less than 40 seconds, and is not protected by any digital rights management.

Not a Zune Alternative

Windows Phone 7 Connector is a charm of an application and a wonderful addition to Mac OS X, but does it serve as a fully fledged alternative to Zune — the Windows go-to software? The short answer is no, it does not. On Windows, Zune does all the things described above, and more. Apart from synchronization, it’s a strong looking media player, albeit a bit on the heavy side.

However, the feature that’s missing most is an integrated App MarketPlace, a way to download applications on your computer and push them to your phone. App management is limited to what you can do on every internet-enabled computer. Windows Phone 7 Connector refers you to the online App MarketPlace by opening it in your browser. You can then browse the catalog on your computer, and send a link to your Windows Phone by email or text message to download the application over there.

What features do you think should be added to Windows Phone 7 Connector to provide better Mac OS X integration? Or do you think the application is fine as is, and would only become too bloated otherwise? Have your say in the comments!

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Sound Sunday is a weekly feature promoting free album downloads. Every edition invites you to explore various genres and artists from around the world. This edition contains several samplers and a remix album, embedded in a selection of full length albums and EPs. Dig in and pick what you like.

Note that name your price albums can be downloaded for free by entering 0 in the price field. That said, we strongly recommend you to donate a few dollars for music you enjoy!

We welcome you to submit your music, send suggestions with free albums you have discovered, or request genres we haven’t covered in a while. For all Sound Sunday related inquiries, please contact Tina [tina at makeuseof dot com].

One Minute Millionaires – Drunkards and Fools

Genre: indie, rock, americana, alt-country, roots

One Minute Millionaires is an indie rock band from Gilbert, Arizona. Mark, Pete, Wayne, and Mike formed the band in 2008 and released their debut EP Drunkards and Fools in 2011. Their influences range from guitar oriented classic rock to hard rock. Subsequently, their sounds has been described as a mix of musicians like the Gin Blossoms, Spin Doctors, Credence Clearwater Revival, and Tom Petty.

Drunkards and Fools is a free download from SoundCloud (one song at a time). Alternatively, you can download a ZIP archive of the entire album, which was provided by the band via MediaFire: MP3 or WAV

Debeli Precjednik / Fat Prezident – Bruto Slavo / VBK

Genre: alternative, indie, hardcore, punk, rock

From their Facebook page: “DEBELI PRECJEDNIK / FAT PREZIDENT formed in 1993 as a four piece. The band’s first official release was 1996′s self titled 7″ on Dirty Old Town Records, followed by Rat (Her) Burnt His Record, a debut full length released through the same label. DEBELI PRECJEDNIK / FAT PREZIDENT then hit the road, and hailed through the Europe as a meteor shower outshining the moon. The release of the next EP titled Tribute To Zli Farmeri was a solid bridge that led the band to the sophomore album titled Fist From The East. Fist From The East was released in 2003 through Double Penetration Records.”

Bruto Slavo / VBK is a name your price download from Bandcamp.

Talk To Angels – Enemies Closer EP

Genre: alternative, pop, rock

From their Facebook page: “Mickey and Craig met at a house party, and once everyone else had gone home, they sat up all night, talking about a mutual love of certain bands and figured out they should start a band, write some songs together, and make use of the recording equipment Mickey had laying around his basement.
The band were invited to play CMJ in NYC in 2008, and since then they have concentrated on completing their debut album This Broken Home, as well as gigging extensively.”

Enemies Closer EP is a free download from Bandcamp.

Scottish Fiction – April 2012 EP

Genre: alternative, indie,

From the blog: “As anyone will tell you those who cannot do, teach. Well in my case the saying should go, ‘those who cannot do, preach’. Scottish Fiction, aside from being an Idlewild reference, is my attempt at just that. Not content with the bland and money grabbing dross that fills our radio waves, and without the necessary musical ability to do anything about it, Scottish Fiction is one man’s attempt to promote, discover, and introduce new (and old) music. I attempt this through this blog which you are reading, and also via the means of community radio, where you can hear my ramblings on Pulse 98.4 FM (or online at www.pulseonair.co.uk).”

April 2012 EP is a free download from Bandcamp.

Riverview Studios – HarpoonFest 2012 Music Sampler

Genre: alternative, country, americana, pop, rock sampler

HarpoonFest is a music festival held by Boston based Harpoon Brewery. This year’s HarpoonFest is held on May 18th and 19th. From the album page: “While HarpoonFest 2012 will have stellar cover acts like Timberfakes, The New Originals and Dueling Pianos to name a few – here is an exclusive sampling of our outstanding original acts including 5 Boston Music Award winners. Take a second to share this free compilation on Twitter and Facebook. HarpoonFest is May 18th & 19th at Harpoon Brewery in Boston.”

HarpoonFest 2012 Music Sampler is a free download from Bandcamp.

Independent Music News – Alternative / Metal Artists 2012

Genre: independent, local music, unsigned, pop, rock

From their Facebook page: “IMN is independent and created with objectivity, whatever artist/band. We cut out the alliances ideologically created by mainstream magazines. If you’re sick of reviews that don’t transcend impartiality, read our music website.”
Their Bandcamp discography includes samplers from rock, folk, and indie artists.

Alternative / Metal Artists 2012 is a free download from Bandcamp.

Melody Sunrise Studio – Melody Sunrise Comp 2011

Genre: alternative, indie, acoustic, electronic, folk, jazz, reggae, rock, hip hop

From their MySpace page: “Melody Sunrise is less like traditional recording studio and more like a creative center to make those epic tracks you hear in your head. Many of the songs created here have been used on a number of different mediums including national/international television, major radio stations and independent movies.”
From the album page: “2011 was another great year for creativity. A lot of amazing songs finished and everyone really pushed themselves to be the very best they could be. As always it has been an honor to produce all these talented people. Please click on each song to find out more about the groups and their projects.”

Melody Sunrise Comp 2011 is a free download from Bandcamp.

Kotow – Escape Plan

Genre: electronic, rock, hard rock

Kotow is a music side project by British drummer and guitarist David Oakes. Escape Plan was released in 2008.

Escape Plan is a free download from SoundCloud.

Manny X – Songs About H.E.R.

Genre: acoustic, dance, pop, soul, rhythm’n’blues

From the album page: “In this life we seek, we find and along the way we experience that which defines us. For the past 2 yrs I’ve worked diligently to create audible accounts of the events that have occurred and the experiences they entailed. The culmination of this journey results in an album titled “Songs About H.E.R.”
H.E.R. = Having Experienced Relationships.”

Songs About H.E.R. is a free download from Bandcamp.

Tiara Wiles – RE:Dux

Genre: electronic, experimental, dance, electro pop, soul, rhythm’n’blues, hip hop

Tiara Wiles is a singer, songwriter from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Follow here on Twitter.

RE:Dux is a free download from Bandcamp.

Eddy J. Free – REMIXES VOL. 1

Genre: electronic, remix, soul, pop, hip hop, dubstep

From his Facebook page: “Eddy J. Free’s background in classical and church music, as well as his love for hip-hop, R&B and jazz, has paved the way for many opportunities: he’s composed music for MTV, worked with a variety of artists and co-produced with multi-platinum producer Kayo (LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, TLC). He’s had the opportunity to work with legendary jazz bassist Charlie Haden and be in the studio with bassist/award-winning producer Andrew Gouche (Mary Mary, Warren G, The Winans and Chaka Khan) among others.”

REMIXES VOL. 1 is a free download from Bandcamp.

New to Sound Sunday? Past editions of Sound Sunday are available here.

Feel free to get in touch with me [tina at makeuseof dot com] to share free material, suggestions, and feedback or simply add your comments below.

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The fact that Apple is rolling in mountains of cash is hardly a newsflash. Just weeks away from bankruptcy15 years ago, it is now the most valuable company in the world with revenues that could sustain small nations or help to wipe out the US national debt. But you may be shocked to learn the extent to which Apple is rolling in the Benjamins.  Even I did a double-take when this infographic claimed that Apple’s profits in the last 6 months were close to $30 billion.  I had to double-check the figure with Apple’s Press Office on their website and indeed the figure is correct.  That is just stunning.

Figures like that put them ahead of Google and Microsoft, and it’s all down to 2 devices – the iPhone and the iPad.  These two babies sell like the proverbial hotcakes and they are literally banknote printing machines for Cupertino. However, can they keep up this relentless pace? Will iPhones and iPads continue to fly out of shop doors or will demand eventually dry up?  That is our question to you today for the comments.  Is the flow of money unstoppable for Apple or will the well eventually run dry?

Created by: BusinessDegree.net

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I jumped on Svpply about a week ago, and every day since then I’ve spent about an hour on this website. Picture blogging has really taken off online. Websites like Tumblr and Pinterest are huge, especially for those of us in our late teens and early 20s. Svpply takes reblogging elements of Tumblr, mixes them with the feed of Facebook, and keeps relevant backlinks intact the way Pinterest would, all in one stylish experience.

You can sign up for Svpply by linking directly to your Facebook account. Doing so will connect the Facebook app to your account and allow Svpply to interact with your Timeline. It won’t spam your Facebook, as it only shows on the Activity section of your Timeline, and on the feed on your Home page.

The way Svpply works is really simple. If you’re a user who regularly browses the web and drools over clothing or accessories that you can’t buy for yourself or your home, you can help contribute to Svpply by using their bookmarklet to essentially “pin” an item, as you would on Pinterest. If you’re more interested in simply browsing the more-than-a-million products that already exist on Svpply, clicking on “Shop” in the header will allow you to do just that.

As you can see here, Svpply indexes not only clothing, but artwork, books, music, movies, accessories (like watches and headphones), stylish home appliances, and more.

There are three ways to categorize your findings on Svpply: you can “want” the item (the equivalent of a Like on Facebook), “collect” the item (which is adding the item to a specific list of items you’re keeping for collaboration with other users), or “mark as owned”.

Any item that you perform an action on can be found in your own personal profile, which shows everything you’ve liked, collected, or own. As it stands, there is no way to have a private profile on the network, so if you’re a guy who happens to love Hello Kitty and you don’t want everyone in the world knowing about it then take heed.

Within your own profile (which can be accessed by the “You” link across the top navigation), you’re also able to sort your items by category, gender, and price.

That functionality really transforms your profile into a wishlist for yourself. Clicking on a product, from your profile or any other page, will bring up a zoomed-in view of the item and will also show you what store it’s from, the statistics on the network for that product (total wants, etc), a comment box, and it’ll also offer a link to where you can go to buy the product.

Let me be the first to warn you that the majority of Svpply is higher-end, pricey material. I wouldn’t be browsing with a full pocket on any given day.

As your lists grow, Svpply seems to do a really good job of matching your interests to other items and users. When you’ve put your tastes out there, you can use the Find People feature to put yourself on to users with similar interests. From there, maybe you can steal some swag from other members. It’s a full social networking site.

Another useful feature is being able to individually follow certain stores. Upon doing so, you’ll know right when new items hit Svpply. Features like this really give Svpply the potential to take off as a huge earner when it comes to affiliate-based commissions, and when a website is making money it tends to lead to great success. The future looks pretty bright for Svpply.

As well as being one of the hottest new sites to dig into clothing and other gear, Svpply is also a good way to daydream and spend some spare time. The web has gone social and Svpply puts a great spin on social shopping.

Make sure you check out these related articles, too:

• Do You Have A Photo Of A Great Fashion Item? Here Is How To Find Out Where To Get It!
• 5 Places To Find Free Clothes Online So You Don’t Have To Go Naked
• Find Rare And Unique Clothing With Wanelo

If you’re a big shopper or browser, Svpply is a site you’ve got to look into. Let me know what you think of the network in the comments!

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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!

Urban Dictionary TV – For those of you who have already visited Urban Dictionary to find out the meaning of some senseless word – UrbanDictionary TV is just another website based on that, but now combined with videos to show you what they are trying to say. For example, the word “Dog” – which means “not a cat” – has a video of a dog skateboarding around a local park. Read more: UrbanDictionary TV: Learn Word Definitions With Help of Videos

		MetaTrader 4 – n today’s fast age, everything is high speed – even business. This is particularly true when it comes to Forex trading. Currency rates vary in real time and a good Forex trader will stay updated with the varying currency rates as frequently as they can. Additionally they will opt for the quickest way to buy and sell currencies. Both of these actions are facilitated by an app called MetaTrader 4. Read more: MetaTrader 4: A Highly Powerful App That Brings Trading Forex To Your Smartphone
		Swole – Health conscious individuals will always have the urge to diet, but it can also be a gruelling process especially if you do not have a set plan. What we need is a tool to tell us what to eat exactly and not think about having a meal plan everyday. This is where Swole comes into play. Swole generates a diet plan for you based on your calorie targets and set meals in a day. Read more: Swole: Free Tool To Generate Daily Diet Plans
		DailyPages – We spend a lot of time online. Sites like Facebook and YouTube kill our productivity and dumb our brain. Here to refresh the Internet experience by providing you with a dose of smartness is a web service called Daily Pages, a free to use web service that will email you a chapter of a book every so often. Read more: DailyPag.es: Get A Chapter Of A Book Emailed To You Every So Often
		Unsubscribr – Many of us have idle email boxes that we don’t check that frequently and as a result they get spammed by lots of mailing lists. Somebody has realized that unsubscribing from lots of bulk lists manually is a pain and has therefore invented a great tool called Unsubscribr. Read more: Unsubscribr: Automatically Scans Your Inbox & Let You Unsubscribe From Mailing Lists In Bulk

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.

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The staff at Spotify have been busy as of late. To go along with their long-awaited iPad app, they just launched a brand new version of their desktop applications for Mac and Windows with some great new features. The first feature, long-awaited by many users, is the ability to create a radio station from a playlist or an album. All you need to do is click on the playlist or album and then click the giant “Start Playlist Radio” button.

The next improvement comes in the form of instant search. When you search for something in Spotify, it shows a bunch of suggestions in a drop-down menu. Now, when you mouse over one of those suggested results, it will populate the result in the main screen automatically. This makes it quicker than ever to find what you are looking for and start listening.

The rest of the update pertains to sharing music with Spotify. It adds a feature that allows you to get an embed code for Spotify’s play button that can be used anywhere. All you need to do is right-click on an album, playlist or track and click the “Copy Embed Code” button.

You can also share your music on Spotify through Tumblr with this update. In addition, you can get a short link to anything on Spotify to facilitate sharing your music through Twitter.

Spotify has always been a social music experience, and this update expands on those concepts even further. Check out Spotify and their new update here.

Source: Spotify Blog

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FBI actions mean 350,000 computers – all infected with the “DNSchanger” malware – will be cut off from the Internet on July 9, 2012. Does this sound like science fiction at best or a scam at worst? Well, it’s neither. Keep reading to hear the crazy story behind the FBI and the DNSChanger trojan, and what you can do to make sure your Internet will keep working.

Once upon a time, a particularly nasty trojan, known as DNS Changer, began spreading around the Internet. This trojan didn’t just infect computers and spread itself: it changed the very way these computers connect to the Internet. This trojan forcibly changed the DNS settings on computers, re-directing certain domains to fraudulent sites.

Wait a Second…What Is DNS?

Good question. To answer this, I’ve got an unusual request to make of you. Open a new tab, and type these numbers where you’d usually type the address: “74.125.224.72″. Hit enter and you’ll see the Google homepage.

There’s no foul play here – 74.125.224.72 is one of Google’s many IP addresses. An IP address is a number assigned to a server; every website you visit has one. Every time you type a web address, like “Google.com”, and hit enter, a computer somewhere is translating that address into an IP address. These computers are called DNS servers, and they’re the reason the Internet works the way you expect it to.

Your Internet provider connects you with certain DNS servers by default. Some geeks like to use custom DNS servers, such as OpenDNS or Google DNS. There’s nothing wrong with using these services, and – depending on your Internet provider – they may even speed up your Internet connection.

Computer viruses can change these settings too, though obviously speeding up your Internet connection isn’t their priority.

What DNSchanger Did

DNSchanger, as its name implies, changed the DNS servers used by infected computers. It affects both Windows and Mac computers, and is even known to change the settings on routers (if the default administrator password is unchanged).

Why do criminals bother with this? The FBI explains:

“Criminals have learned that if they can control a user’s DNS servers, they can control what sites the user connects to on the Internet. By controlling DNS, a criminal can get an
unsuspecting user to connect to a fraudulent website or to interfere with that user’s online web browsing.”

Basically, criminals were using evil DNS servers to redirect people from the sites they want to fraudulent sites, all in the name of making a couple bucks.

But don’t panic. The FBI got involved, and ultimately shut down the evil DNS servers. One problem though was that every infected computer depended on the evil DNS servers to connect to the Internet, meaning that completely shutting down these servers would cut off the then millions of infected computers from the Internet.

Instead of doing that, the FBI hired contractors to run friendly DNS servers. This meant the evil DNS servers could be shut down without cutting people off from the Internet, but it also left the FBI paying to run a DNS server for millions of people. This isn’t cheap.

The number of people still infected has since gone down – the official estimate is around 350,000 people. Even so, the FBI cannot afford to run these friendly DNS servers forever – so they’re stopping on July 9, 2012. That is why those with the trojan will find their Internet no longer working in July.

Am I Infected?

Naturally, after reading that, you’re curious to find out whether or not you’re infected. The quickest way to see if your computer is infected with the DNS Changer trojan is to visit this site. If you see red, you’ve got the virus. If you see green, you’re (probably) okay.

There are more things you can do to check; the FBI can help with that. Follow the instructions provided there to figure out whether your DNS servers are good or evil.

How Can I Remove The Trojan?

Did you find out you’ve got a trojan? Don’t panic! This malware is relatively old, and we’ve outlined more than a few free anti-virus programs that can help.

If you don’t have anti-malware software, I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials. It also doesn’t hurt to have the free version of Malwarebytes around for the occasional scan. Run scans with both programs and you should be fine, so run the above test again.

If neither of these programs will update, you might consider trying the BitDefender Live CD. It runs from its own operating system, and can usually get around DNS issues in your operating system.

Conclusion

I’d like to thank the great community at MakeUseOf Answers for pointing this story out to me, and helping to gather relevant information. Do you want more information? Be sure to read this official FBI release on the virus, which contains instructions for removing the DNS Changer virus and the history of it. If all else fails, that document can guide you through the removal process.

Of course, I also recommend checking out the comments below, because I’m sure the MakeUseOf community will pitch in with a few more tips.

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With all the hoopla surrounding Google Drive, and everyone going nuts over Dropbox, I think one other service is being sorely neglected – Evernote.  Our Evernote coverage has been rather sketchy of late, and I think that’s a shame because in my opinion, Evernote is one of the best services out there on the Internet.  It deserves to be appreciated more.

So to get our coverage going again (and as a buildup to an Evernote manual which I am about to begin writing for MakeUseOf Guides), here are some handy tips that I have picked up over the past 6 months or so, as I have become more and more addicted to the service. Especially because of its desktop software and web clipper which allows you to construct your own private scrapbook of links, images and files, all searchable and taggable. I don’t normally pay for premium services but I opened my wallet and upgraded my Evernote account (which is a big deal for a tight Scotsman like me).  The moths hiding inside my wallet were startled to see daylight.

Email Everything To Your Evernote Email Address

As we start to own multiple devices, things like maintaining an orderly list of articles you want to read or maintaining an organised set of bookmarks or photos you want to keep, becomes a bit more of a challenge. Sure, you could use Instapaper for your article list (which I also do. I am also a huge Instapaper fan) and you can use bookmark syncing services such as Xmarks for the bookmarks, but I am finding these days that it is just as easy to send it all directly to the Evernote account, tagged and categorised in its own notebook.  I have never been a big fan of Xmarks, especially when browser synchronising involves installing plugins. Like Erez, I prefer bookmarklets over plugins.

If you own a smartphone or a tablet, a lot of apps offer you the chance to send their files and photos directly to your email.  But instead of having it sent to your normal email, have it sent directly to your Evernote email instead.  Have email newsletters sent to your Evernote account too.  When someone emails you photos, automatically forward them to Evernote.

When emailing something to your Evernote account, the subject line is where you specify the title of the note, the notebook the note should go to, as well as any tags you want to apply (in that order).  Just put the notebook name in front of a @ (so @makeuseof for anything to go into the MakeUseOf notebook, for example) and all tags need to have the hashtag before it (so #makeuseof ).  Note that the notebook needs to already exist in your Evernote account.  Evernote won’t create it for you automatically when the email arrives.

You will find your Evernote email address in the account settings, under usage.  If you start getting spam with it, you can click a “reset” button in your account, and you will get a new email address instantly. Obviously, to minimise the amount of potential spam you might get, don’t broadcast your Evernote email address far and wide. Keep it to yourself as much as possible.

Simultaneous Search – Improve Your Google Search

When you are searching for that elusive weblink on Google, the one you last saw several months previously, you may not be aware that the link is actually buried deep inside your Evernote account, because you put it there for safekeeping.  With Simultaneous Search, when searching Google for something, your Evernote account will also be searched, with the results shown at the top.

For this feature to be enabled, you need to have the Evernote Web Clipper installed for either Firefox or Chrome (one of the very few browser plugins I am willing to tolerate). Then go into the extension’s preferences and enable “simultaneous search“.  A browser restart will probably then be required.

Let Evernote Guide You To A Paperless Life

The fact is that these days, we get too much paper, and there’s really no need for it.  If only companies would solely embrace email and PDF files, and drastically cut back on paper correspondence to customers, we would all be better off – environmentally, financially and from a productivity point of view.  One classic example is my bank which charges me 3 Euros a month to have my bank statements printed out and posted to me – even though those same statements are available online as PDF files.

Until companies finally learn, you can use Evernote to have all of your important printed correspondence filed, indexed and searchable, to cut down on the mountain of paper threatening to topple down on top of you.  If you have a smartphone, use a scanning app (iPhone users can use the excellent TurboScan, which was recently profiled by Tim) to take a picture of the document and then send it directly to Evernote via email.

But the best part is that Evernote has OCR scanning capabilities which means that every word on the scanned document is identified and made searchable.  So when finding that important tax document in the future, just enter relevant keywords into the Evernote search engine and up the letter pops.

You can also use the scanning principle to scan business cards and important receipts. Then shred the originals.  Again, the OCR technology kicks into play here and indexes every word on these scans for later easy searching.

Create Note Links For Easy Access Later

As well as the search engine and the OCR capabilities, there is another easy way to ensure that important notes can be easily found later.  In fact there are two ways to do it.  The first is to drag the note with your mouse up to the desktop software’s bar like so :

The second is to create a “table of contents” in a new note. To do this, right-click on the note you want to link to and choose “copy note link“.  Then go to a new note and do CTRL-V (or right-click and “paste”).  The hyperlink to the note will then appear.

Here is a little MakeUseOf table of contents I made with some editorial notes I need for my job every day, which are stored in my Evernote account.

What is great about note links is that they are not confined to Evernote. Paste them into sticky notes and Microsoft Word for example, and when clicked, the note in your Evernote account will pop up. Note links are perfect for projects where lots of research materials need to be used and you need some way to organise it all. Just drag it all into Evernote and then make a clickable table of contents.

Index Your Innermost Thoughts With Audio Notes

I hate hearing my voice as a recorded message but even so, I am gradually starting to like the idea of leaving audio notes.  Often when I am out and about, ideas strike but I don’t have pen and paper.  So the Evernote smartphone app (iOS | Android) is great because I can use the audio function to record a note with my phone and it will be sent straight to my Evernote account for indexing.  Since I am speaking it into a phone, I can also make it look like a phone call and people don’t look at me all weird because I am talking to myself.

When the audio message arrives in your Evernote account, there is a small integrated audio player which enables you to listen to your message without having to download it to your computer first. It’s a basic player (stop and start) but it gets the job done.

So these are 5 features off the top of my head which I think makes Evernote stand out from the rest of the pack.  Obviously there are a lot more but I will be saving those for the Evernote manual that I will begin writing anytime now (schedule permitting!).  Let us know in the comments if you use Evernote, and if so, which features you love (or hate, if any).

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Every Friday MakeUseOf Answers honors the Best Answer of the Week to reward the skills and time required to solve tough questions. Every single comment made on Answers is reviewed for the contest and positive feedback can help decide the winners! So whether you have an answer or received free support, please contribute!

This week our winners in the Best Answer of the Week contest are:

Best Answer of the Week – Richard Carpenter

1st Runner Up – Ann Stilatus

2nd Runner Up – John Rehbein

Congratulations to all of you!

Some of the best answers can be found in reply to the best questions. Have a look and learn something today:

• How can I speed up the shutdown time of my PC?
• What are the advantages of increasing my RAM?
• Is a very strong password enough to protect my Facebook account from being hacked?
• Which are the best apps for Android ICS 4.0?
• How can I backup my Gmail account to my hard drive?
• What’s the best media player for Android 2.2?
• What will happen to registered software if Windows gets corrupted?
• What is the best software to create a professional video intro for YouTube videos?
• What’s the best lightweight OS that can share files with Windows and run a web browser?
• Can I install iTunes on Ubuntu?
• How can I install Windows XP or Linux on a pen drive?

Did you know you can earn points for solving questions? Register with MakeUseOf, be logged in, respond to a question, and earn 10 points per answer. Points are added to your overall score at the end of the day, limits apply.

For regular updates of new questions subscribe to the Answers RSS Feed.

Need help? Ask A Question at MakeUseOf Answers.

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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!

Select & Speak – is a handy extension for Google Chrome that allows users to listen to text from almost any website. The extension has a list of voices (accents) to choose from; you can choose any of the voices that you recognize the clearest and the easiest. To get started, simply install the extension and visit any website. Read more: Select & Speak: An Easy To Use Text To Speech Extension [Chrome]

		PDF to Excel Converter – PDFs are awesome. They make documents look beautiful with full color graphics and crystal clear text that can easily be zoomed in or out, depending on the preferences of the reader. They can be printed or viewed right on the computer. The one thing that PDFs are not is editable. Read more: PDF To Excel Converter: Easily Convert PDFs To Excel For Easier Editing
		32 Reviews – If you are developing a website for a brand or product, then you need to make sure your website is presenting its information in the clearest and most appealing way. For example, you need to ensure that site visitors are finding it easy to locate the products they want and ordering them. You could ask your friends and family to test the site for you but their feedback might be biased. Here to offer you an unbiased site testing solution from real users is a service called 32 Reviews. Read more: 32 Reviews: Get Your Site Tested By An Audience & Get Feedback [10 Free Accounts]
		Quirk Wires – Wireframes are a great way to lay out a schematic of what you want a website to look like. They make it easy for web developers to make a plan for how a website should look and how it should function. Quirk Wires makes creating wireframes as easy as possible and it allows you to create them right from your browser without having to download anything to your computer. Read more: Quirk Wires: Easily Build Web Page Wireframes In Your Browser
		Zoolz – is a simple tool that backs up your data on the cloud automatically. While setting up your free Zoolz account, you specify what kind of content you want Zoolz to grab from your desktop. Then after Zoolz is installed on your desktop, it automatically grabs specified files and upload them to your free 4GB storage on Zoolz.com. Read more: Zoolz: Automatically Back Up Your Files Online

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.

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Welcome to the May edition of Free Font Friday! For this month’s edition, I’ve scoured the well-regarded Behance network showcasing works of art from all over the world, and unearthed five beautiful free fonts, each with its own story, and one with a video showing how beautiful it can be in the hands of a skilled designer.

Slick and Shiny: Chrome

Our first free font of the day is entitled Chrome, and brings to mind images of shiny cars, glass-clad urban buildings, and industrial countertops polished to a high sheen. Then again, its rounded lines and general chubbiness also evoke a softer image – some of the letterforms almost look like they were sculpted out of bubblegum. Check out the capital J above to see what I mean.

If you like Chrome’s general look but aren’t a fan of the shiny look, Chrome’s creator, Artem Sukhinin, offers Chrome Black (on the same page as Chrome). This is a version that maintains the letterforms and rounded, blocky look, but does away with the reflections:

The resulting look is less dramatic, but I can see it working as a title font, or even for signage or t-shirts.

Edgy and European: Nougatine

Fabien Laborie, creator of the free Nougatine font, claims that the font was “inspired by the smell of freshly baked cookies.” To be perfectly honest, I don’t see it. To me, Nougatine’s angular, truncated letterforms come off as more technological than anything else – it inspires images of printed circuit boards, tiny components, and etched pathways:

Note the vertically truncated letterforms – the word “cookies” almost reads like “caaries” above. But as the specimen above says, this is a titling font, and it does get extra points for creativity and for providing a comprehensive glyph set (380 glyphs).

Urban and Luminescent: Kabel

Kabel, a free font by Mathias Nösel, brings one word to mind: Neon. Mathias tells us Kabel is inspired by Pablo Alfieri’s work; this is a font begging for modification, Photoshopping, and typographical effects. Don’t get me wrong, the letterforms are strikingly modern and fluid on their own:

But Kabel truly shines when it gets some Photoshop love, as you can see here:

If you are curious to learn how this striking image was created, you’re in luck: Mathias created a time-lapse video showing the entire creative process leading up to this finished product, executed purely in Photoshop.

Sedate and Elegant: Valentina

Valentina is a free font by designer Pedro Arilla, named after the creator’s grandmother. A comprehensive font, it comes with 457 glyphs, which include 125 alternative lower-case letterforms, and 46 ligatures. The specimen below does a lot to demonstrate the typeface’s flair and flourish:

Absolutely striking. Note the alternative form for the lowercase O used in the word Colutorio above, and for the lowercase a in Queseria. I would not necessarily use Valentina as a body font, but as a titling font is lends a classic, educated look to just about any text. Impressive work indeed.

Fun and Familiar: Sketchetik and Sketch Rockwell

Recognize this screenshot? It’s out of a recent Spotify video announcing their new iPad app. If you ever feel like giving your titles the Spotify treatment, you can do so with either Sketchetik Light or Sketch Rockwell, both free. Let’s start with Sketchetik Light first:

Note the prices on the top-left of each weight shown above. Only the Light weight is free font, but the other weights are not outrageously priced. Do you see the resemblance to Spotify’s font? It is not the exact same font, but it’s not very different, either.

If you’re looking for a medium weight and don’t want to spend $19 on Sketchetik, you should check out Sketch Rockwell:

Sketch Rockwell is a blocky, chunky serif, more full-bodied than Spotify’s font. But again, it uses the same sketched-out look, with diagonal pen strokes for shading.

Speaking of Spotify…

If you enjoy typography and liked this month’s Free Font Friday, here’s a challenge for you: Can you find out what is the exact font Spotify uses on their ads? It’s fairly easy to find the Spotify logo typeface, but I couldn’t find a conclusive ID for the hand-drawn font used in the ads. Do you know the answer? Let me know below!

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