Let’s face it – geeks make for a better relationship than any of those alpha-male types. Exactly why is that though? Are you prepared to shun good looks for reliability and utility? What can you expect when you exchange your old boyfriend for a new geek version?

I’m going to assume here a geek boyfriend case type, though of course geek girlfriends have also been known to exist in the wild. Unfortunately, data on these rare creatures is still quite scarce, so we will not discuss them today. It’s tragic that I have to say this, but please don’t take this as 100% serious dating advice, and take a deep breath before posting vile comments about how shockingly generalised and stereotypical this portrayal of geeks is.

Free Tech Support

A standard issue geek is, by default, able to stop both your microwave oven and the TiVo, from flashing incessantly at you 00:00. His tech-savviness will ensure you stay atop of HDMI, HTML, HTTP and HDTVs with attached HDDs. He’ll certify that your virus definitions and various operating systems are all up to do date, managed via a central house server while-u-wait.

Don’t test his patience though – while the geek boyfriend will be more than happy to tutor you in Java and PHP, he will not appreciate questions about Windows XP. You have an expert at your disposal here, not a replacement search engine. Girls not willing to learn for themselves need not apply for a geek boyfriend – your Facebook will be checked, and you will be Googled!

Logic-Based Functionality

All geeks are pre-supplied with a Logic Interpreter, though they lack the typical Emotional Response Decision Determiner. While they may not be of much use in emotionally troubled times, you can depend on them to make logical decisions when the water level climbs. When the floods come, who would you rather be with? Someone to offer a shoulder to cry on, or a geek who can seek out the nearest high ground, upon which to set up an ad-hoc wifi communications protocol?

They won’t leave you

In terms of “going to cheat on you” and related factors, geeks are far less likely than their jock detractors. A geek is eternally grateful that you chose to merge with his interface, and won’t be in a hurry to seek out an alternative base.

They will however, have an unhealthy obsession with one or more of the following mythical beings:

• Rei from Evangelion
• 7 of 9
• Princess Leia
• Starbuck

Since he’s never going to get laid with any of them though, you should regard these as harmless fantasies, and they may even lead to…

More Fun in the Bedroom

Your geek has probably spent hours on the internet exploring every possible facet of his sexuality watching a lot of pR0n, so if you have a geek that’s open about it then you can always be sure to find something to guarantee fun. You might want to be open to the naughty side yourself though, or be in for a shock when things go down below.

At the very least embrace his kinky side, and keep a healthy collection of sci-fi costumes supplied. Slip into one of these anytime you need to a send an intra-person control message (ICPM) of “I want sex now”, and I guarantee a 100% error-free transmission rate, (wow)!

You-Time

It’s likely that at numerous times in your relationship, your geek will become 100% absorbed in a new video game, surrounding himself with chips and dip. Don’t worry about leaving him alone sometime, geeks are expert hunter gatherers - in their prime. They use the power of logic, Google maps, and PayPal, to find and locate daily essentials within their locale. Unlike your typical man who drives around for hours yet ends up buying beer, the geek knows exactly what he needs and what it is near. Don’t feel guilty about using this time to get out more – your geek is simply being hardcore.

Is It Worth it?

Dating a geek will require you to have a wild side, but it’s a dependable and fulfilling ride. You’ll end up understanding an unhealthy number of four letter acronyms, and may even develop a keen interest in programming the next Sims. As long as you can handle long periods of hardcore gaming and more or less no social contact ever, your geek will ultimately serve you well, and leave you never. So what are you waiting for? Upgrade now!

Image Credit: ShutterStock 1, ShutterStock 2

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class="align-right"src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/duckduckgo_logo.jpg?323f2c" alt="duck duck go"/>If you’ve been following my latest articles, you might have noticed that I mentioned Duck Duck Go a couple times. It seems that there are a couple of services and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/service/linux">Linux distributions (such as Linux Mint) that are switching over to Duck Duck Go as their default search engine.

So why the heck are they doing this? Isn’t href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google">Google a mile ahead of every other search engine? Well, not exactly.

About Duck Duck Go

href="https://duckduckgo.com">Duck Duck Go puts a lot of emphasis on a few goals that Google simply cannot. Duck Duck Go’s primary reasons for existing is to be a free, open source search engine that is privacy aware by not tracking you. This way, websites cannot identify you, and you get true search results that aren’t modified to fit your personality and searching habits.

Additionally, Duck Duck Go presents those search results in a very unique way that I find to be more intuitive than how Google shows results. Pack in some handy extras, and you got yourself a winner.

The Site

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/duckduckgo_main.jpg?323f2c" alt="duck duck go" width="580" height="332" /> /> When you first reach the site, you’ll see a logo, the search box, and a few helpful links. That’s it. No bar running across the top of the page, nothing. In other words, it feels very clean and uncluttered, even when compared to Google which is relatively uncluttered already.

Search Results

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/duckduckgo_makeuseof.jpg?323f2c" alt="duck duck go search" width="580" height="416" /> /> When you go ahead and actually enter in a search term, you’ll be greeted by an even cleaner search results page. Depending on the search term, you’ll see a few things displayed that aren’t shown on Google, such as a definition or general information about whatever you searched from href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/wikipedia/">Wikipedia, links labeled as the official site, and more. On the right you can also get a few search ideas where, if you click on one, it’ll add that term to what you were searching for and shows you the new results. Oh, and I must say, I’m pretty happy with the results that come back, unlike other search engines.

Settings

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/duckduckgo_settings.jpg?323f2c" alt="duck duck go search" width="580" height="557" /> /> Great, so your privacy is protected and you get back some interesting search results. Plenty of people would be happy with that and call it a day, but the creators behind Duck Duck Go didn’t. If you ever go to the settings page, you’ll see exactly why. There are plenty of result settings, privacy settings, color settings, look and feel settings, and interface settings. Simply put, you can change just about anything you want to, which is quite impressive.

Alternative Pages

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/duckduckgo_lite.jpg?323f2c" alt="duck duck go search" width="580" height="232" /> /> Duck Duck Go’s primary page uses href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/javascript/">JavaScript to run, but the site also offers a version that uses href="https://duckduckgo.com/html">only HTML as well as a “ href="https://duckduckgo.com/lite">lite” version. The “lite” version is pretty self-explanatory, while the 100% href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/html">HTML page is most useful to those who decided to disable JavaScript in their browser for whatever reason.

Useful Keywords

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/duckduckgo_keyword.jpg?323f2c" alt="duck duck go" width="580" height="153" /> /> Last but not least, there are a few tricks that you can use in your search query to get certain results. Duck Duck Go allows the use of certain keywords and “!bang syntax” to get specific results. For example, if you type in “weather new york city”, you’ll get the current weather conditions and forecast for New York City at the very top of your results page. If you type in “!youtube linux”, Duck Duck Go will automatically redirect you to the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/youtube">YouTube results page for the term Linux. You can also do much more such as calculations, search for time-sensitive items, and more. You can find a full list of possible keywords href="https://duckduckgo.com/goodies.html">here.

Conclusion

Duck Duck Go is the result of a great idea that seems to be getting some momentum. I do hope that this project can become a player in the search engine market and give us a little freedom from Google. However, Duck Duck Go is well developed as it is right now, and I’ll surely be using it in the near future.

What do you think about Duck Duck Go? Which search engine do you prefer now (or still prefer)? Let us know in the comments!

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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/bringing-command-lines-to-the-web-yubnub-and-more/" rel="bookmark"> width="125" height="125" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/yubnub1-150x150.png?323f2c" class="with-border wp-post-image" alt="yubnub1" title="yubnub1" style="width:125px;height:125px;" /> class="title">Bringing Command Lines to The Web: Yubnub and More!

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-web-tools-sentiment-search-feel-pulse/" rel="bookmark"> width="125" height="125" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Thumbs-Up-150x150.png?323f2c" class="with-border wp-post-image" alt="Thumbs-Up" title="Thumbs-Up" style="width:125px;height:125px;" /> class="title">10 Web Tools To Try Out Sentiment Search & Feel the Pulse

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/drag-drop-search-manage-search-engines-drag-dropzones-firefox/" rel="bookmark"> width="125" height="125" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/firefox-logo-150x150.jpg?323f2c" class="with-border wp-post-image" alt="firefox-logo.jpg" title="firefox-logo.jpg" style="width:125px;height:125px;" /> class="title">Just Drag And Drop To Search & Manage Your Search Engines Better With Drag & DropZones [Firefox]

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image64.png" alt="chrome addons" /> href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-chrome">Google Chrome has been my browser of choice for a while now. I like it because it’s fast, and it feels lean (at least until I look at its memory footprint). Unlike most of my applications, Chrome doesn’t make me feel like I need to customize the heck out of it to make it usable.

Still, a recent stroll through the Chrome href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/home">Web Store revealed an interesting trend. There are more than a few add-ons that don’t add new functionality to Chrome, but instead replace parts of the browser with substitutes that are supposed to be better. Are they really better than the default? Let’s examine three and find out.

Speed Dial 2

Chrome’s default New Tab page keeps getting better; it recently got a selector along the bottom, for switching between apps and most visited. The default looks like this (for me):

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image65.png" alt="chrome addons" width="561" height="438" border="0" />

Pretty fetching, I think. Still, href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jpfpebmajhhopeonhlcgidhclcccjcik">Speed Dial 2 claims it can do much better. Let’s see what it looks like, once installed:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image66.png" alt="google chrome addons" width="580" height="350" border="0" />

This is a close-up; the whole new tab page looks like this:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image67.png" alt="google chrome addons" width="580" height="287" border="0" />

The section you see on the right (bookmarks and recently closed tabs) only appears when you mouse over it. One thing that’s really striking about Speed Dial 2 is the sheer amount of options you get:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image68.png" alt="google chrome addons" width="580" height="466" border="0" />

This is just an example out of a single tab in the options page. There are dozens of different settings; it can even follow your habits and highlight the sites you’re most likely to visit according to time of day (i.e, open a New Tab page in the afternoon, and it highlights MakeUseOf because you usually go there in the afternoon). That’s a tad on the creepy side, perhaps, but it’s off by default.

Another cool thing  about Speed Dial 2 is that it lets you view the Chrome Apps you’ve got installed alongside your most frequently visited sites, and it’s quite slick about it, too:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image69.png" alt="addons for chrome" width="580" height="368" border="0" />

So, at the top you see my Apps, and at the bottom you see a bookmark. You can also change the sizes, if you prefer the App icons to be larger.

Last but not least, Speed Dial 2 exposes some very cool browsing statistics, as pie charts of the sites you visit the most, and those you visit the most via speed dial.

Final verdict: If you like to fiddle, href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jpfpebmajhhopeonhlcgidhclcccjcik">Speed Dial 2 certainly offers a huge number of options, definitely far more than what Chrome offers by default. With a bit of patience, you can make it into a truly unique and inviting start page.

Better History

Chrome’s default history tab looks like this:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image70.png" alt="addons for chrome" width="428" height="405" border="0" />

And it also lets you do a full-text on pages you’ve visited:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image71.png" alt="image" width="579" height="250" border="0" />

Quite nice, on its own. What can href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/obciceimmggglbmelaidpjlmodcebijb">Better History offer that would actually be better?

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/chrome.png" alt="chrome" width="580" height="339" border="0" />

Ooh, now that’s pretty slick. It does look better, and ironically, it meshes better with the style used for Chrome’s settings page:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/chrome4.png" alt="addons for chrome" width="580" height="277" border="0" />

That’s Chrome’s built-in settings, just for comparison. I love how the developer took the UI and made it his own – Better History feels more integrated with Chrome than Chrome’s own history view, quite an achievement.

Now, in terms of options, it doesn’t offer quite so many tweaks:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/chrome6.png" alt="chrome[6]" width="580" height="272" border="0" />

So you get to clear the history, control how visits are grouped, or leave feedback. Not very exciting. but I’m not sure what else you would need. Visit grouping is handy, and looks like this:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/chrome8.png" alt="chrome[8]" width="343" height="289" border="0" />

So if you know you visited some website around 8pm yesterday, you can quickly zoom in on the time and look just at that slice. Also, note the handy Expand button. If you visited more than one page on a given website, all pages are grouped together, so you get the larger view of where you visited, and can drill down to specific pages as you need.

Search is the only part where Better History actually seems worse than Chrome’s own built-in history viewer. You can only search page titles, URLs, and dates. So searching for “Chrome” brought up completely different results than the search I’ve shown above:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/chrome10.png" alt="chrome[10]" width="580" height="246" border="0" />

Final verdict: Better History is not entirely better (search is actually a bit worse), but for most things, it is actually better. Nicer visual integration, and great grouping functionality. Definitely something the Chrome developers could learn from.

Sexy Undo Close Tab

“Seriously now?” – that was my first thought when I glimpsed the name href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bcennaiejdjpomgmmohhpgnjlmpcjmbg">Sexy Undo Close Tab. By default, re-opening a tab you just closed takes only a quick tap of Ctrl+Shift+T. I do it almost reflexively, I don’t even have to think about it. What could possibly be made better here?

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/chrome12.png" alt="chrome[12]" width="527" height="121" border="0" />

Sexy Undo Close Tab comes as a button, along with a live search feature. As could be expected, it also has an options page bursting with settings:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/chrome14.png" alt="chrome addons" width="409" height="533" border="0" />

While not all options are eloquently named (“amount of closed tabs number thing“?), they are quite plentiful. The most useful ones are the new keyboard shortcut (off by default): Ctrl+Z. That’s a traditional Undo keystroke, and it actually makes a lot of sense in the context of re-opening a closed tab. It handles text editing areas intelligently – when you hit Ctrl+Z while editing a Gmail message, it still undoes your typing (rather than reopen a closed tab).

Another thing I like about Sexy Undo Close Tab is that it remembers closed tabs between sessions, and thus serves as a sort of a history viewer. Handy.

Final Verdict: Not necessarily better than the default, but certainly different! I wish it had a keyboard shortcut for popping open the list of recently closed tabs – that would definitely make it better than the default.

Your Turn

So what add-ons did I miss? Remember, I am looking for ones that replace default Chrome functionality with something that is better (or at least, is supposed to be better). Let me know in the comments!

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image91.png" alt="amsn" />MSN Messenger has been rising in popularity ever since it stole ICQ’s thunder back in the day. I used to be an ICQ fan and never really managed to like anything that came out under the Messenger name. Having said that, I was using it for a couple of years before finding a better solution in Miranda IM.

But multi-protocol IM clients are not everyone’s cup of tea, and some people simply want the MSN experience, without the annoyance of what has now become Windows Live Messenger. Those people should definitely try href="http://www.amsn-project.net/">aMSN.

Download & Installation

When looking for an IM program, I don’t expect to have to spend 20 minutes just installing it. This is the case these days when trying to get href="http://explore.live.com/windows-live-messenger">Windows Live Messenger.

Let’s start with the fact that I first have to opt out of installing numerous other programs that I don’t need, continue with the fact that it forces me to update programs that I don’t wish to, and finish with the appalling installation time of ~10 minutes, plus a required restart. All this for a simple IM client!

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2011-09-18-15h03_07.png" alt="amsn" width="419" height="264" border="0" />

aMSN, on the other hand, is a very quick download and installation. 3 minutes after thinking about it, I already had the thing up and running on my computer. The only downside was that it tried to install one third party program as part of the installation. It was easy enough to opt out, though.

Compatibility

Aside from being open source (which is a big plus, if only in principle), aMSN is also multi-platform, and can run on Linux, Windows, Mac, FreeBSD and Nokia N900. If you really wanted it to run on more platforms you could just do it yourself, or find someone who could do it for you.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2011-09-18-14h32_49.png" alt="amsn clone download" width="543" height="315" border="0" />

True, there is an official version of Live Messenger for Mac, but no such thing for Linux as far as I know, and even the Mac version is downloadable from a totally different page. It’s like it’s not even the same program. With aMSN, it’s all there on the same page, you just need to choose your OS and off you go.

Ease Of Use

It was ICQ’s downfall, and now it’s happening to MSN Messenger (and Skype too, to be honest). IM clients shouldn’t be heavy, slow and complicated. Every time I download a new version of Live Messenger, it’s even more bloated, slow and hard to understand. It seems that the simplest things become harder and harder to find.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2011-09-18-16h59_04.png" alt="amsn clone download" width="580" height="464" border="0" />

aMSN is keeping it simple. It’s the same feel (and also look, if you so desire) as MSN Messenger, but everything is quick, responsive, lighter and easy to find. A simple look-around through the menus is all you need. No hidden buttons that you can’t see through a picture-heavy interface (“switch to compact view” anyone?), no hidden menus where you least expect them.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2011-09-18-17h04_25.png" alt="amsn clone download" width="580" height="382" border="0" />

Another thing I found especially appealing in aMSN is the ability to easily choose what simple actions, such as clicking on the “X”, will do. The first time you click on it, you get to choose whether it should quit or minimize. You can choose to remember your choice or choose not to, in which case you can use the “X” button to do something different every time you click on it. This dialogue pops up for other actions as well.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2011-09-18-15h36_25.png" alt="amsn download" width="506" height="218" border="0" />

Appearance

Yes, Live Messenger has themes and badges, and you might even like some of them, but I find most of them offensive. For different themes you have to go to third-party websites and download questionable things.

In aMSN, there are numerous skins that are fairly easy to install (it’s not just clicking as in the regular MSN, but then again, the program is much lighter for it – simply download the skins you want). All the skins are available right there on href="http://www.amsn-project.net/skins.php">aMSN’s homepage.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2011-09-18-15h47_12.png" alt="amsn download" width="518" height="411" border="0" />

There are some really beautiful skins, including one that gives the whole thing a pretty realistic Live Messenger look (if that’s your thing). If you’re into dark, simple themes, you’re sure to find your fancy as well.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2011-09-18-17h10_25.png" alt="amsn download" width="302" height="370" border="0" />

I did encounter some bugginess in some themes where the menus stopped working properly, but I guess that’s part of the deal with open source sometimes.

Plugins

Aside from the many features that already come with aMSN, there’s a nice list of plugins available for download that can enhance your aMSN experience. You can find all sorts of plugins for Live Messenger as well, but they’re not something Microsoft created, and therefore you have to go searching for them. Nothing is official.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2011-09-18-17h12_51.png" alt="2011-09-18 17h12_51" width="528" height="211" border="0" />

You can also create plugins for features you want to see (if you’re into that sort of thing), or get someone to do it for you. The magic of open source!

Multiple Logins

As it is, aMSN supports multiple logins from different accounts. You don’t need to install anything additional. Simply open a new instance of aMSN and sign in using a different user and password.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2011-09-18-16h34_33.png" alt="amsn" width="523" height="451" border="0" />

Try to do that with a clean Live Messenger version.

Bottom Line

Don’t get me wrong, I thing Microsoft have been doing some awesome things lately, but the bloated IM client syndrome has not passed them untouched. To me, Live Messenger has become almost unusable, and aMSN provides a very similar experience, in a much lighter and friendlier package.

What do you think of aMSN? Do you know of any other good clones out there? Share in the comments.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image154.png" alt="" />A while ago I wrote a post about href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-4-websites-find-free-ipad-books/">places to find free books for the  href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ipad/">iPad. In that post, I compared the iPad to designated eReaders and expressed the opinion that it’s not a worthy substitute. Following some comments on the matter I tested the iPad again as a regular vessel for eBooks and was surprised – it does provide quite a good experience.

In my quest I found myself debating which platform I should use for books – Apple’s own href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8">iBooks, or Amazon’s href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kindle/id302584613?mt=8">Kindle for iPad. True, there are other readers such as href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stanza/id284956128?mt=8">Stanza, but for the purposes of this review I will focus on the former two. So which one is better, iBooks or Kindle for iPad?

iBooks

iBooks is free to download from the app store and is probably one of the first apps one downloads when getting a new iDevice.

This is the basic library view of iBooks. Very graphic and library-like. You really feel like you have books.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-20h21_29.png" alt="2011-08-29 20h21_29" width="479" height="440" border="0" />

Your library can be searched and the search is live, so the results are updated as you type. You can easily sort your books and delete them to customize your library. It’s all very immediate and convenient.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-20h26_53.png" alt="2011-08-29 20h26_53" width="580" height="392" border="0" />

If you want to read, you need books. In iBooks, you can simply access a store from the app itself and download loads of free (and paid) books. You can also download ePub and PDF files and upload them via iTunes or even e-mail them to yourself and open them using iBooks.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image155.png" alt="image" width="580" height="773" border="0" />

Being able to add PDFs is a nice feature (see href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-ipad-tricks/">here how to do it), and you can also sort your library by collection (books, PDFs, whatever else you want).

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-20h30_04.png" alt="2011-08-29 20h30_04" width="337" height="267" border="0" />

As for the reading experience, iBooks tries to imitate a real book – “pages” and all. You turn pages by tapping the appropriate side, but you have to endure a turning page animation every time you do so. Page turning is rather responsive, but it tends to be a bit slow when you just load the app.

These are the default settings iBook comes with. I didn’t find this very appealing:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-20h23_37.png" alt="2011-08-29 20h23_37" width="579" height="451" border="0" />

After tweaking it a little bit, I got something I could enjoy reading. You can choose between several fonts, two font sizes, turn Sepia on and off and control the brightness. The menu icons are there unless you tap the page in a specific way to make them go away. Generally, I found myself reading with them there more often than not.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-20h24_14.png" alt="2011-08-29 20h24_14" width="580" height="467" border="0" />

You can easily search within a book (only the one you’re reading) and the results you get are very focused. You don’t get a lot of context with them. You can tap a result to go to that page, and the result will be highlighted.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-20h24_56.png" alt="2011-08-29 20h24_56" width="559" height="556" border="0" />

While reading, you can long tap on any word. You can then copy it, search for it in a dictionary, highlight it, write a note about it or search for it in the book. The highlight looks very real, almost like a real marker!

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-20h51_40.png" alt="2011-08-29 20h51_40" width="510" height="221" border="0" />

You can also bookmark pages and then access them by tapping the table of contents button and then looking at bookmarks. You will also see your highlights and notes here.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-20h52_07.png" alt="2011-08-29 20h52_07" width="496" height="283" border="0" />

Kindle For iPad

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kindle/id302584613?mt=8">Kindle for iPad is a free download from the app store. You can use it in addition to a regular Kindle or as a substitute.

The main library is dark and pleasant. It feels very eBookish.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image156.png" alt="image" width="580" height="773" border="0" />

If you want books, you’d need to register the Kindle with a Kindle account. It will then be synchronized and you’ll get all your books.

You can get more books on Amazon, or download .mobi files. The simplest way to upload these is to e-mail them to yourself. From the Kindle app you can also access your archived items and easily download them to your iPad. I couldn’t find a way to search for books in the library.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-21h04_14.png" alt="2011-08-29 21h04_14" width="339" height="374" border="0" />

This is the default reading experience. Minimalistic. I love it. As you can see there are no menu icons in sight (they disappear automatically) and no “pages”. Turn pages by tapping the screen lightly. If you want, you can even cancel the annoying page-turn animation. It’s just a white screen with words.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image157.png" alt="image" width="580" height="773" border="0" />

To make it even better you can play with the settings. You can choose from three types of backgrounds, 6 font sizes and also change the brightness. You can’t change the font, though, so whatever comes, you’re stuck with it.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image158.png" alt="image" width="580" height="773" border="0" />

Searching within a book is easy and quick and you get a full context for every query. Again, tapping a result will take you to the appropriate page.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-20h59_11.png" alt="2011-08-29 20h59_11" width="442" height="539" border="0" />

A long tap on a word will give you the option to highlight it, add a note or share on Twitter or Facebook. You will also get an automatic dictionary definition at the bottom of the page.

I wondered what sharing meant, but when I tried it I got a “Sharing not supported” error message. So when is sharing supported?

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-21h01_04.png" alt="2011-08-29 21h01_04" width="537" height="290" border="0" />

If you make a bookmark, highlight or note, you can access them easily by tapping the book icon and going to My Notes & Marks.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-21h01_27.png" alt="2011-08-29 21h01_27" width="331" height="374" border="0" />

One of the best features in Kindle for iPad: you can read white on black. You can also make the font pretty darn big. This means you can easily read at night in bed without having the light on and disturbing whoever’s sharing your bedroom. Awesome! (check out  href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-ipad-tricks-2/">this post to find out how to do this for iBooks).

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-21h00_39.png" alt="2011-08-29 21h00_39" width="515" height="364" border="0" />

Bottom Line

For getting new books, iBooks has a small advantage – you don’t need an extra account. It’s also slick and easy to use and the library and annotations tools are great. But when it comes to the reading experience, I choose the Kindle hands down. For me, nothing beats the minimalistic feel of seeing nothing but words. And the night reading – the future really is here!

Which do you prefer? Or do you enjoy another reader? Share in the comments!

Image credit: href="http://thumb15.shutterstock.com/thumb_small/59068/59068,1312047506,1/stock-photo-group-of-books-and-teblet-computer-d-model-isolated-on-white-digital-library-concept-81933127.jpg">Shutterstock

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/00a_group_chat.jpg?54167" alt="" />One of the most popular methods of direct mobile communication is  class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/sms/">SMS. It’s short, cheaper than a direct phone call, non-intrusive, and most importantly, multi-platform. To overcome the text-only limitation of SMS, MMS also appears. But both services have one main disadvantage – they are a lot more expensive than Internet class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/instant-messaging/">instant messaging systems and email, which are virtually free.

But instant messaging systems and email on mobile devices also have their own weakness. They lack the practicality of SMS and MMS. You have to log in (and often re-log in) to the system before you can send messages, and you have to manually add your buddies to the contact list. Not to mention that you have to join several IM systems and install many IM clients to be able to contact all of your buddies. Even with multi-network instant messenger clients like class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/imoim-possibly-multinetwork-instant-messenger-dreams/">imo.im and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/digsby-receives-major-update-features-enhanced-stability-news/">Digsby, you still have to register and log into all of your accounts.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.whatsapp.com/">WhatsApp is the multi-platform messaging system which features the best of both worlds – the simplicity of SMS/MMS, and the power of IM.

Manage Your Contacts

Before we go any further, let’s disclose the fact that Whatsapp is not completely free. Even though it’s free under Blackberry, WhatsApp is $0.99 (one time payment) for the iPhone, and $1.99/year (with free first-year usage) for the Android and Nokia. However, the price is a drop in a bucket compared to potential savings on SMS/MMS costs. Similar to other IM systems, WhatsApp will use your mobile Internet data connection to send messages.

To get the client, go to the class="vt-p" href="http://www.whatsapp.com">WhatsApp website and click the download button. Please note that not all Nokia models are supported. A compatibility list is on the WhatsApp Nokia download page.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/00b_whatsapp_web.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="00b whatsapp web" width="580" height="346" />

The screenshots I’m using in this article were taken from WhatsApp for the iPhone. There may be some slight differences with other platforms.

After installation, the client will scan your address book to find people who already use WhatsApp and then add them to your Favorites list. The list is highly editable. Tap the “Edit” button, and you can see the delete button on the left. You can rearrange the list by tapping and dragging the bars on the right.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/01a_Fav.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="01a Fav" width="580" height="415" />

WhatsApp allows you to attach a status to your name. You can type your own status, or use one of the quick templates. The status is visible on your friends’ device, so your friend will know when it’s safe to call you or when you don’t want to be disturbed.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/02a_Status.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="02a Status" width="580" height="415" />

The “Contacts” tab mirrors your address book. You can search for a name and then send them messages, or invite the person to get the WhatsApp client if they don’t have it.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/03a_Contacts.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="03a Contacts" width="580" height="277" />

The Chits & The Chats

One of the best features of WhatsApp is the ability to create group chats. This feature is ‘hidden’ at the top of the “Chats” tab, along with the “Broadcast Message” feature.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/04a_Chats.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="04a Chats" width="580" height="415" />

The “Broadcast Message” feature allows you to send one message to many people. This feature is very useful if you have to inform a lot of people about something. To broadcast your message, choose the relevant contacts from the list, tap “Done“, write the message, and send.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/04b_Broadcast.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="04b Broadcast" width="320" height="459" />

Creating a “Group Chat” is also easy. Write the subject, add participants (up to 10 people), and tap “Next” to create the group.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/04c_group_chat.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="04c group chat" width="580" height="415" />

Then you can write messages, and all the group members will receive the messages. Every member will also be able to send messages to everybody.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/04d_group_chat2.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="04d group chat2" width="580" height="415" />

Text is not the only thing that WhatsApp is good at. You can also send photos, videos, and audio as well as sharing contacts and locations. Tap the small up arrow button on the left of the message field to choose the item. There’s a small bar next to the item that will tell you the sending progress.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/05a_sending_files.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="05a sending files" width="580" height="415" />

If you scroll to the top of a chat, you will see several more options – calling the person, editing the messages, and seeing more information about the person (from the address book). You can also load earlier and older messages if you want to trace the history of your chats.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/05c_contact_options.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="05c contact options" width="320" height="459" />

The call feature is an ordinary phone to phone call and not VOIP like Skype.

Other Little Things

If you want to know whether the price you paid for WhatsApp is worth the money, you can go to “Settings – Usage“. Here, you can see all the statistics. How much does one SMS cost? Multiply that figure with the number of messages you’ve sent and you will get your answer.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/05b_savings.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="05b savings" width="580" height="415" />

Another thing you can do with WhatsApp is customize the chat background. Go to “Settings – Chat Settings – Chat Wallpaper” to choose your preferred image as the background.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/06a_chat_settings.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="06a chat settings" width="580" height="415" />

You can choose a photo from your Camera Roll or Photo Library as the background. WhatsApp also comes with sets of background images in its Wallpaper Library.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/06b_chat_wallppr.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="06b chat wallppr" width="580" height="415" />

Even though background customization might not be the main selling point for WhatsApp, it’s nice to have the option to change the chat environment.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/06f_different_wallppr.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="06f different wallppr" width="320" height="460" />

Have you tried WhatsApp? What do you think about it? Do you know of other similar applications? If so, please share them using the comments below.

Image credit: class="vt-p" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/11600215@N02/3064342072/">cooljinny />
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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/multiplatform-multimedia-group-messaging-whatsapp/">Get Better Multi-Platform Multimedia Group Messaging With WhatsApp is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/musichacks-icon.png?54167" alt="google music script" />Add new features to Google Music. Whether you want to download songs from anywhere, view lyrics for currently playing songs, scrobble your songs to Last.FM or just remove the stripes from the interface, userscripts from around the web have you covered.

The new class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-music-puts-tunes-online/">Google Music Beta puts your tunes online, meaning you can stream them from any web browser. class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/greasemonkey/">Greasemonkey allows creative hackers to add new features to online services. So it’s only natural that there are already some great userscripts out there for Google Music. I’ve found four and compiled them below. All of them work on Firefox with Greasemonkey; Chrome users can install these scripts too, but results will vary.

class="vt-p" href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/105972">Download Songs From Google Music

It’s perhaps the first question I hear when I explain Google Music – can I download songs from it? Officially, the answer is no. Unofficially, yes. A script makes this possible. Once you’ve installed this script, and start playing a song, you’ll see a down arrow to the left of the other buttons:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/music-downloadbutton.png?54167" alt="google music script" width="435" height="107" />

Don’t see it? Refresh your Google music page; it will show up. Press the button to start the download:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/music-download.png?54167" alt="userscripts music" width="580" height="221" />

As you can see, the currently playing track can be downloaded. The file will be called “stream.mp3″, but you’ll find that the ID3 tag is still in place. This would be a stressful way to move a large quantity around but works wonderfully with individual tracks.

class="vt-p" href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/105238">View Lyrics In Google Music

Whether you listen to music from languages you don’t speak natively or you just never got the hang of comprehending Bob Dylan, sometimes lyrics can be helpful. Google Music doesn’t come with lyric support, but there’s a script for the job:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/music-lyrics.png?54167" alt="userscripts music" width="580" height="268" />

Using this one couldn’t be easier; simply install the userscript and lyrics will start showing up every time you open a song. This one does take up some screen real estate, so netbook users might not like it, but it does what it says on the box.

class="vt-p" href="http://rethinkthought.com/how-to-scrobble-last-fm-from-google-music-bet/">Use Last.FM With Google Music

Are you a fan of both class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/lastfm/">Last.FM and Google Music? Good news – you can now “scrobble” songs played on Google Music. A simple script does the job, and does it well. Install the script and you’ll see this option:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/music-lastfm.png?54167" alt="userscripts music" width="409" height="98" />

Click it, sign in with your account and you’ll be able to continue recording which songs you like best.

Want to learn more? Find a full walk-through on class="vt-p" href="http://rethinkthought.com/how-to-scrobble-last-fm-from-google-music-bet/">the script’s official page.

Remove The Stripes From Google Music

This one’s probably less “useful” than the others, but it’s worth pointing out. Google Music looks completely different than other Google services, sporting a orange and grey colour scheme and a lot of diagonal stripes. If you don’t dig the stripes however, you can remove them.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/music-nostripes.png?54167" alt="google music script" width="580" height="261" />

There’s pretty much nothing else to this script, but if getting rid of stripes is a dream of yours, consider yourself lucky. class="vt-p" href="http://userstyles.org/styles/48666/google-music-stripes-be-gone">Find the script here. It can be installed in a variety of ways, including with class="vt-p" href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/stylish/">Stylish or with Greasemonkey.

Conclusion

Google Music is great, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be better. As always, enthusiasts have stepped up and offered ways to change this service for the better. I’m sure more will pop up in the months to come, so please, add them in the comments below. />
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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-browser-userscripts-google-music/">4 Browser Userscripts That Make Google Music Even Better is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image34.png?54167" alt="" />Few things online can be as fun as YouTube. I can lose myself for hours watching videos. But the basic YouTube experience could use some improvement. Wouldn’t it be nice if videos could buffer as soon as a tab opened, and did so at exactly the quality I liked (or which worked with my connection)?

And wouldn’t it be refreshing if YouTube was a tad less cluttered with widgets, doodads, comments, related videos and other bits of text?

A Cleaner YouTube

class="vt-p" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gpmpangiimbdkhbhmbbhkplffgkiomkh#">A Cleaner YouTube is an add-on available for Chrome, Firefox and Safari. In fact, we’ve covered the class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/handy-extensions-safari-50-mac/">Safari version before. It may not be for everyone; but if you’re a minimalist at heart, this is one add-on you’re going to like. Here’s what YouTube looks like with this add-on installed:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image35.png?54167" border="0" alt="image" width="580" height="326" />

I intentionally captured my entire browser window, so you would see just how uncluttered it is. A Cleaner YouTube somehow manages to distill YouTube down to just the bare essentials, while still leaving everything you need in reach.

The top bar contains a search bar, Browse and Upload buttons, your user menu (if you’re logged on) and a Sign Out link. Under the video you can see this:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image36.png?54167" border="0" alt="image" width="580" height="243" />

So you can easily access comments and other information. Here’s what happens when you click that link:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image37.png?54167" border="0" alt="image" width="580" height="350" />

The comments open up instantly and seamlessly, and you can do all of the “social” things Google so very much wants you to do.  But if you’re more of an “I just want to watch this video and move on with life” kind of person, you may appreciate how the comments stay out of the way.

As an added bonus, A Cleaner YouTube also cleans out Amazon. Here’s what Amazon looks like after the Cleaner treatment:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image38.png?54167" border="0" alt="image" width="580" height="529" />

Okay, that stripped-down Amazon is just a bit too 1990′s for me, but for YouTube, A Cleaner YouTube is almost perfect. The only feature I would like them to add is a dark background. Being able to “turn off the lights” on YouTube with this add-on would make it a perfect ten in my book.

But now that we’ve got everything around the video taken care of, what can we do about the video itself?

SmartVideo For YouTube

class="vt-p" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lnkdbjbjpnpjeciipoaflmpcddinpjjp">SmartVideo For YouTube is a great deal more complex than A Cleaner YouTube, but it lets you exert uncompromising control over every aspect of your video experience. Check out the options panel:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image39.png?54167" border="0" alt="image" width="580" height="393" />

Just a little bit scary, right? Who knew there could be so many options for just one video?

The configuration you see above is the one I use day to day. SmartVideo buffers the video for me as soon as the page loads. Once it’s ready to play, it pops up a Chrome desktop notification, so even if I’m in another tab or another application. I know the video is ready to play. When I watch videos on YouTube itself, SmartVideo makes sure I get the highest quality possible (see Video Quality on the left pane). When I watch embedded videos in other websites, SmartVideo stays out of the way and lets Google decide what quality I should be watching.

This way, embedded videos stay fast and don’t slow me down on other websites. When I want to really enjoy a video, I just click it to go to its YouTube page and enjoy it in maximum quality (and minimalist, see above).

By default, SmartVideo also shows a pop-up interface below every video, which looks like this:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image40.png?54167" border="0" alt="image" width="580" height="148" />

To me, this is a fairly annoying feature. The pop-up often gets in the way and overlays other things I’m trying to click, and generally feels messy. Fortunately, it can easily be disabled within SmartVideo’s preferences (“Hide player settings popup“).

Bottom Line

These two lovely add-ons can make your life on YouTube much simpler. I’ve been using SmartVideo for over a month now, and have been loving it. I’ve only just found A Cleaner YouTube, but it looks like a keeper.

What are your must-have YouTube add-ons and tricks?

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/intro2.jpg" alt="time lapse movies" />Quality, free and above all useful camera apps are often hard to come by on the class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ios">iOS platform. Both class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/share-life-photos-free-instagram-app-iphone/">Instagram and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/snapbucket-fun-mobile-photo-styling-sharing-app-photobucket-ios-android-smartphones/">Snapbucket are great for quickly sharing stylised snaps, but they don’t add any genuinely useful features for everyday shots or video.

class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/canopy-camera-tools/id417407454?mt=8">Canopy Camera Tools is an app designed to help you get the most out of your mobile photography, and much like class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/frame-frame-free-photography-app-ios-stopmotion-antishake/">Joby’s Frame X Frame it has been created with a specific attachment in mind – the Kapok Canopy Case, with tripod mount. You don’t need a tripod to benefit from this one, as there are plenty of features you can use in your hand. You could always fashion something to hold your device steady (I find Blu-Tack works well without leaving a mess) if you fancy creating a class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/chronolapse-desktop-client-create-timelapse-screencasts-ease/">time-lapse sequence.

Getting The Basics Right

The iPhone (or any iOS device) camera isn’t the be-all and end-all of mobile photography. Whilst the iPhone is the most popular and oft-used “camera phone” solution; Apple’s in-built app leaves you wanting a bit more control and a few extra features.

Without being overly complicated, Canopy places 6 main buttons on your viewfinder, which can be toggled on and off with a tap. These are persistent in both Camera and Video modes, which are selected at the bottom of the screen, along with quick access to existing photos and app settings.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1.jpg" alt="time lapse movies" width="580" height="387" />

The left hand side of the screen allows you to choose between front and rear facing cameras, toggle time-lapse mode and the camera timer which is perfect for group shots and also works with video. On the right hand side of the screen there are buttons for controlling flash behaviour, toggling exposure lock and white balance lock.

The lock buttons are especially useful, and add some genuinely useful functionality to your phone. For example, whilst taking a video by default the camera will adjust exposure as light changes. Should you want to maintain exposure throughout the video, exposure lock allows you to do this and your camera won’t re-balance every time you move.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/settingslocked.jpg" alt="iphone camera apps" width="580" height="387" />

This also goes for white balance, and if you’re really serious you could use a piece of white or grey card to take a perfect white balance reading and lock this for the duration of your video or photo session.

Advanced Features, Better Results

Of course Canopy also includes the aforementioned time-lapse mode, which automatically stitches your photos into a video. It works, though as the handy notification I received pointed out – phone calls will interrupt any sequences you’re working on. The best way around this is to activate Airplane Mode from your device’s Settings.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/timelapse.jpg" alt="iphone camera apps" width="580" height="387" />

Time-lapse photography takes up a decent wedge of battery (I’ve yet to use an app which is “light” on power for this task) so make sure you’ve got enough battery to complete the sequence and find your way home afterwards. It works well, and doesn’t fill your camera roll with hundreds of images – great news.

The Settings menu afoot the viewfinder is also full of goodies. Much like Frame X Frame there is a spirit level (for that perfectly straight horizon) which – unlike Frame X Frame – does work in landscape mode. There’s also a grid that can be activated for aiding composition.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/settings.jpg" alt="iphone camera apps" width="580" height="387" />

Saving the best till last, it is also possible to use touch gestures to control the camera and this can be customized in the Settings area. As you can see from the screenshot below, the default configuration is pretty intuitive.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/tap_gestures.jpg" alt="time lapse movies" width="580" height="387" />

Conclusion

Canopy Camera Tools is probably the best free camera app I have used on the iOS platform. Features like time-lapse, exposure and white balance lock along with well-implemented touch gestures make it a joy to use, and provide some excellent results. You really don’t need a tripod, Kapok case or Gorillamobile to enjoy Canopy. Grab it now and start taking better pictures!

Have you found any similar great tools we’ve yet to feature? Do you like Canopy Camera Tools? Do you own a tripod/mount for your device? Let us know how you shoot on the go in the comments below. />
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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/iphonecamera.png" border="0" alt="iphone camera apps" />Right behind the Nikon D90, Apple’s iPhone 4 is the most popular camera in terms of pictures taken and uploaded to the photo sharing site, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/flickr">Flickr. While this little camera in your pocket has its limitations, there are hundreds of apps that provide it with some truly professional features and enhancements.

There are hundreds of paid apps built for the iPhone camera, but there are also some really useful free options. I selected free apps that are both good demos of their counterpart full versions and/or just useful apps for the serious iPhone photo hobbyist. If you know of other good free options, please let us know about them.

Cropping Apps

The iPhone camera doesn’t have a post-shot crop tool, and if you’re serious about iPhone photography, you should have an app that enables you to crop photos. Many paid advanced photo editor apps include a cropping feature, but I found two iPhone camera apps that are devoted to just cropping and resizing images.

The aptly named app, class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crop/id405666696?mt=8">Crop [iTunes Store link], enables you to crop and rotate your images without losing quality to your cropped images. It’s simple to use, and you don’t have to tap several buttons to get what you need.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot492.jpg" border="0" alt="iphone camera apps" width="580" height="419" />

class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-rotate-crop/id438891150?mt=8">Rotate and Crop [iTunes Store link] includes the same features Crop, but it also allows you to make some exposure image adjustments, as well as share and export your edited images to Evernote, Dropbox, and a few other applications.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot493.jpg" border="0" alt="best iphone camera apps" width="580" height="382" />

Photo Album

The iPhone includes a photo library application for storing photos you import from your computer via iTunes, as well as the Camera Roll of images you snap with iPhone itself. But you should have one or more photo album apps that allow you to create folders of images that you import from your existing camera roll, your photo library, or images you download from the Internet on your iPhone.

class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ipic-manager/id427523435?mt=8">iPic Manager [iTunes Store Link] is a good free option. You can quickly add multiple photos from your existing iPhone library as well take a photo and have them instantly added to your selected folder. You can also password protect your images.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot494.jpg" border="0" alt="best iphone camera apps" width="580" height="406" />

You might also want to have a photo album app that is completely devoted to safeguarding selected photos on your iPhone. class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/private-photo-vault/id417571834?mt=8">Private Photo Vault [iTunes Store Link] is another such option. This app also allows you to password protect individual albums, run a slide show, take photos from within the app, and much more.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot495.jpg" border="0" alt="best iphone camera apps" width="580" height="423" />

Photo Mashups

If you want to do something fun and creative with your iPhone photos, there are a couple of free options. class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/realcoverlite/id411889666?mt=8">RealCoverLite [iTunes Store Link] allows you to place a photo inside a magazine cover without having to mess around with layering and masking. The Lite version offers only 6 covers (the full version includes 90), but it’s great for seeing what this app can do.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot496.jpg" border="0" alt="best camera apps iphone" width="580" height="438" />

Your cover images can be emailed and shared with others. You can also include additional text on template covers.

Creating photo collages is another cool way to show off photos. class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photomashup/id398870403?mt=8">PhotoMashup [iTunes Store Link] allows you to copy and paste several photos from your iPhone photo library, and save or email them as a collection in one file. The default background for a collage project is gray, but you can double-tap on the background and shoot a new background from within the app, or you can choose an existing photo from your library. From there you can layer photos on top of one another. They can be moved around and rotated.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot497.jpg" border="0" alt="best camera apps iphone" width="580" height="421" />

Timer Apps

It’s also good to try out one or more time shutter apps on your iPhone. These iPhone camera apps are useful for shooting self-portraits, group and close-up shots. class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-timer/id304581144?mt=8">Photo Timer is one of the best options, and it’s free for a limited time. It not only enables you to set a timer for the shutter release, but it also includes a photo composition guide, burst mode, and photo sharing to Facebook, Twitter, MobileMe, Tumblr, and email.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot498.jpg" border="0" alt="best camera apps iphone" width="580" height="426" />

If and when Photo Timer is no longer free, class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/auto-shutter/id380995955?mt=8">Auto Shutter is another option, which does exactly what it’s named for.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot499.jpg" border="0" alt="Muoscreenshot499" width="580" height="423" />

Photo Enhancers

The iTunes App store includes hundreds of iPhone camera apps for editing and enhancing your photos. We have published reviews about few good free options, including class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/photoshop-express/">Adobe’s Photo Express and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-sites-enhance-instagram-experience/">Instagram, but here are a few more.

The free version of class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/100-cameras-in-1-free-version/id428596902?mt=8">100 Cameras in 1 is a popular photo editor that includes 20+ photo effects for hardlighting and overlaying photos with various textures and filters. The paid version includes 100 more effects, but this free version is a good demo of what the app can do. You only have to tap once to apply an effect and see the applied effect.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot500.jpg" border="0" alt="iphone camera apps" width="580" height="396" />

class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iquikdof-depth-field-creator/id423204960?mt=8">iQuikDof – Depth of Field Creator is an advanced photo editor that enables you to create a depth of field effect of a selected image. It contains auto presets feature for the DOF effects, or you can manually select an area in which you want to mask and keep in focus, while the unselected area is blurred. This is also a good demo app for the pro version which includes more presets and customizable blur.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot501.jpg" border="0" alt="iPhone camera apps" width="580" height="427" />

Let us know what you think of these apps and if you find one or more of them useful.

For more about how to use your iPhone camera to take better photos, check out  class="l vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pictures-free-camera-iphone-3g-3gs/" target="_top">Take Better Pictures With Free Camera Plus and  class="l vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-exposure-settings-free-iphone-apps/" target="_top">Learn Digital class="l vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-exposure-settings-free-iphone-apps/" target="_top">Camera class="l vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-exposure-settings-free-iphone-apps/" target="_top"> Exposure Settings Using Your class="l vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-exposure-settings-free-iphone-apps/" target="_top">iPhone. />
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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/iphonecamera.png" border="0" alt="" />Right behind the Nikon D90, Apple’s iPhone 4 is the most popular camera in terms of pictures taken and uploaded to the photo sharing site, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/flickr">Flickr. While this little camera in your pocket has its limitations, there are hundreds of apps that provide it with some truly professional features and enhancements.

There are hundreds of paid apps built for the iPhone camera, but there are also some really useful free options. I selected free apps that are both good demos of their counterpart full versions and/or just useful apps for the serious iPhone photo hobbyist. If you know of other good free options, please let us know about them.

Cropping Apps

The iPhone camera doesn’t have a post-shot crop tool, and if you’re serious about iPhone photography, you should have an app that enables you to crop photos. Many paid advanced photo editor apps include a cropping feature, but I found two apps that are devoted to just cropping and resizing images.

The aptly named app, class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crop/id405666696?mt=8">Crop [iTunes Store link], enables you to crop and rotate your images without losing quality to your cropped images. It’s simple to use, and you don’t have to tap several buttons to get what you need.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot492.jpg" border="0" alt="Muoscreenshot492" width="580" height="419" />

class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-rotate-crop/id438891150?mt=8">Rotate and Crop [iTunes Store link] includes the same features Crop, but it also allows you to make some exposure image adjustments, as well as share and export your edited images to Evernote, Dropbox, and a few other applications.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot493.jpg" border="0" alt="Muoscreenshot493" width="580" height="382" />

Photo Album

The iPhone includes a photo library application for storing photos you import from your computer via iTunes, as well as the Camera Roll of images you snap with iPhone itself. But you should have one or more photo album apps that allow you to create folders of images that you import from your existing camera roll, your photo library, or images you download from the Internet on your iPhone.

class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ipic-manager/id427523435?mt=8">iPic Manager [iTunes Store Link] is a good free option. You can quickly add multiple photos from your existing iPhone library as well take a photo and have them instantly added to your selected folder. You can also password protect your images.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot494.jpg" border="0" alt="Muoscreenshot494" width="580" height="406" />

You might also want to have a photo album app that is completely devoted to safeguarding selected photos on your iPhone. class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/private-photo-vault/id417571834?mt=8">Private Photo Vault [iTunes Store Link] is another such option. This app also allows you to password protect individual albums, run a slide show, take photos from within the app, and much more.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot495.jpg" border="0" alt="Muoscreenshot495" width="580" height="423" />

Photo Mashups

If you want to do something fun and creative with your iPhone photos, there are a couple of free options. class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/realcoverlite/id411889666?mt=8">RealCoverLite [iTunes Store Link] allows you to place a photo inside a magazine cover without having to mess around with layering and masking. The Lite version offers only 6 covers (the full version includes 90), but it’s great for seeing what this app can do.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot496.jpg" border="0" alt="Muoscreenshot496" width="580" height="438" />

Your cover images can be emailed and shared with others. You can also include additional text on template covers.

Creating photo collages is another cool way to show off photos. class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photomashup/id398870403?mt=8">PhotoMashup [iTunes Store Link] allows you to copy and paste several photos from your iPhone photo library, and save or email them as a collection in one file. The default background for a collage project is gray, but you can double-tap on the background and shoot a new background from within the app, or you can choose an existing photo from your library. From there you can layer photos on top of one another. They can be moved around and rotated.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot497.jpg" border="0" alt="Muoscreenshot497" width="580" height="421" />

Timer Apps

It’s also good to try out one or more time shutter apps on your iPhone. These apps are useful for shooting self-portraits, group and close-up shots. class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-timer/id304581144?mt=8">Photo Timer is one of the best options, and it’s free for a limited time. It not only enables you to set a timer for the shutter release, but it also includes a photo composition guide, burst mode, and photo sharing to Facebook, Twitter, MobileMe, Tumblr, and email.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot498.jpg" border="0" alt="Muoscreenshot498" width="580" height="426" />

If and when Photo Timer is no longer free, class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/auto-shutter/id380995955?mt=8">Auto Shutter is another option, which does exactly what it’s named for.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot499.jpg" border="0" alt="Muoscreenshot499" width="580" height="423" />

Photo Enhancers

The iTunes App store includes hundreds of iPhone camera apps for editing and enhancing your photos. We have published reviews about few good free options, including class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/photoshop-express/">Adobe’s Photo Express and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-sites-enhance-instagram-experience/">Instagram, but here are a few more.

The free version of class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/100-cameras-in-1-free-version/id428596902?mt=8">100 Cameras in 1 is a popular photo editor that includes 20+ photo effects for hardlighting and overlaying photos with various textures and filters. The paid version includes 100 more effects, but this free version is a good demo of what the app can do. You only have to tap once to apply an effect and see the applied effect.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot500.jpg" border="0" alt="Muoscreenshot500" width="580" height="396" />

class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iquikdof-depth-field-creator/id423204960?mt=8">iQuikDof – Depth of Field Creator is an advanced photo editor that enables you to create a depth of field effect of a selected image. It contains auto presets feature for the DOF effects, or you can manually select an area in which you want to mask and keep in focus, while the unselected area is blurred. This is also a good demo app for the pro version which includes more presets and customizable blur.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/muoscreenshot501.jpg" border="0" alt="Muoscreenshot501" width="580" height="427" />

Let us know what you think of these apps and if you find one or more of them useful.

For more about how to use your iPhone camera to take better photos, check out  class="l vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pictures-free-camera-iphone-3g-3gs/" target="_top">Take Better Pictures With Free Camera Plus and  class="l vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-exposure-settings-free-iphone-apps/" target="_top">Learn Digital class="l vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-exposure-settings-free-iphone-apps/" target="_top">Camera class="l vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-exposure-settings-free-iphone-apps/" target="_top"> Exposure Settings Using Your class="l vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-exposure-settings-free-iphone-apps/" target="_top">iPhone. />
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Last week we asked how many backups you make of your important data. Most of you answered that you think 1-2 backups of your important data is plenty enough.

From the 297 votes collected, the breakdown was: 52% people make 1-2 backups; 34% people make 3-5 backups; 9% make no backups at all; 3% make 6-10 backups and fewer than 1% make either 10-19 or 20+ backups.

So, you can see 1-2 backups is the most popular amount for important data, followed by 3-5 backups.

This week’s poll question is: Which Operating System is Better? Linux Vs Mac?

We know full well that Mac is based on Unix and that there’s dozens of other amazing Unix flavours, Windows operating systems and numerous other operating systems out there to choose from. But if your choice were narrowed down to your favourite Linux or Mac OS, would you pick Linux or Mac?

Obviously, your answers could vary when considering the purpose of the computer – and some of you might really prefer neither. Have a rant in the comments and let us know what your choice is based on!

More articles about: operating system, os x, Reader Polls

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/00-Reading.jpg" border="0" alt="new readability" />The Internet might be a great source of information, but it’s not always a great place to read that information. Some web owners try too hard to monetize their site that all of the advertisements prevent visitors from having a nice reading experience. Then there are also the other factors that make the situation worse, such as bad page layouts and poor combinations of fonts and background colors. That’s why web reading tools like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/make-that-web-pages-text-easier-on-the-eyes-with-readable-any-platform/">Readable, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/readability/">Readability, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/instapaper-bookmark-posts-read/">Instapaper, and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/print-create-pdf-from-webpages-pdf-files-webpages-joliprint/#comments">Joliprint have become indispensable partners for many Internet users.

To give general web users a better reading and writing environment, Readability – one of the pioneers in web reading technology – has rolled out its href="https://www.readability.com/">new version. This new Readability focuses not only on the readers, but also on web publishers.

id="more-67925">

From Bookmarklets To Add-Ons

Basically, web services like Readability will convert any webpage into a more read-friendly format. To know more about the concept, let’s watch this short introduction video.

classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="580" height="430" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"> name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> name="src" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=19267888&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" /> type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580" height="430" src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=19267888&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

The old version of Readability relied on a Javascript bookmarklet for the conversion. Users would install the bookmarklet on their browser’s bookmark bar, and every time they wanted to have a more read-friendly version of a webpage, they would have pressed the bookmarklet.

Even though the bookmarklet is still functional, the New Readability utilizes browser add-ons to carry out the conversion task. To get the add on for your browser, click the “Get the Add-On” button on Readability’s href="https://www.readability.com">main page.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/07a-Readability-Get-Add-On.png" border="0" alt="new readability" width="580" height="160" />

The site will detect what browser you use and give you the download link accordingly.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/08a-Readability-Install-Add-On.jpg" border="0" alt="make website readable" width="350" height="420" />

After the download is finished, install the add-on. In my experiment, the Safari version of the Readability add-on required a manual installation.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/08b-Readability-Install.jpg" border="0" alt="make website readable" width="530" height="250" />

After a quick installation, the Readability add-on button will appear next to the URL field.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/08c-Readability-Add-On-Installed-2.jpg" border="0" alt="make website readable" width="450" height="100" />

You can enable or disable the add-on from the Preferences window.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/08c-Readability-Extensions-Settings.jpg" border="0" alt="making websites readable" width="580" height="436" />

Using The Add-On

To see the differences between the old and new version of Readability, I opened a MakeUseOf page and pressed the Readability button. The article page was quickly converted into a clean, easy-to-read page. But so far, it’s more or less similar to the old version.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/08z-Readability-Result.jpg" border="0" alt="making websites readable" width="580" height="392" />

The big difference is in the tool sidebar. Along with the familiar “Reload” and “Print” buttons, the new version also gives users tools to quickly change the page layout according to their preferences. Click one of the boxes under “Font & Color” and the layout will change into a pre-defined layout.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/08g-Readability-Appearance.jpg" border="0" alt="making websites readable" width="580" height="420" />

The tool will also let users quickly change the width of the text area and also the font size, which is useful if you have sight problems.

If you prefer clean text for your articles, Readability lets you “convert links to footnotes“. No more blue-underlined text as every link will now go to the end of the article. You can also hide the images within the article if you want to.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/08i-Readability-Links-2-Footnotes.jpg" border="0" alt="08i Readability Links 2 Footnotes" width="580" height="280" />

Another additional feature on the sidebar is the sharing button. Now you can easily share the article that you are currently reading via Twitter, Email and Facebook. Readability goes one step further by providing you with a shortened URL of the article.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/08j-Readability-Share-Article.jpg" border="0" alt="08j Readability Share Article" width="580" height="280" />

More Publisher Friendly

The problem with most services like Readability is that they are not publisher friendly. Stripping down a webpage into the clean, easy-to-read format also means stripping out all of the publisher’s income.

To solve this problem, Readability offers a paid subscription model to its users. Subscribers can choose how much money they are willing to pay every month (with the minimum amount being US$ 5.00). Readability will then give 70% of the money to writers and publishers, while keeping the remaining 30% to maintain and improve the service.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/09a-Readability-Subscribe.jpg" border="0" alt="09a Readability Subscribe" width="580" height="386" />

To make the offer more compelling, paid subscribers will get more features compared to free users, such as the ability to save articles to read later and also mobile access to the saved articles.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/09b-Readability-Feature-Comparison.jpg" border="0" alt="09b Readability Feature Comparison" width="380" height="210" />

If you are a writer or publisher and you want to participate in the program, you can add the “Reading Buttons” on your website(s). Adding the buttons is as easy as embedding the provided script.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/09c-Readability-Reading-Button.jpg" border="0" alt="09c Readability Reading Button" width="580" height="280" />

Also don’t forget to register your site to join the “Readability movement“.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/09e-Register-Your-Site.jpg" border="0" alt="new readability" width="580" height="300" />

As a reader, I think the New Readibility is way better than the old one. Especially with the addition of quick layout and sharing tools. As a writer, I think the paid subscription model offered by Readibility might be one of the solutions to provide readers with a more comfortable reading environment while keeping that environment publisher friendly.

What do you think about the New Readability? Share your thoughts and opinions using the comments below.

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class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/smlogo.jpg" alt="manage multiple twitter accounts" width="150" height="150" />When it comes to using Twitter, I’ve always stuck to either using the Twitter website or using an IM client that happens to be Twitter-enabled. I’ve tried a few of the Twitter clients that were reviewed here at MUO, like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/seesmic-look-a-new-free-twitter-tool-for-the-non-geek-windows/">Seesmic or href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/send-longer-tweets-tweetdeck-deckly-news/">Tweetdeck and even some of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-cool-web-based-alternatives-to-tweetdeck-and-seesmic-desktop/">the alternatives that Mahendra covered further back.

In every case I found that the desktop client fell short in some feature that I needed. This was especially true once I started managing several Twitter accounts, and logging in and out of accounts in order to send individual tweets just wasn’t an option. I needed something light on resources, fast, efficient and very easy to switch between accounts. After testing a bunch of different clients, I’ve finally settled on an interesting client you may or may not have heard about called href="http://bsix12.com/smd/">SharedMinds Desktop.

id="more-66072">

Set Up Your Accounts & Get Started

Getting started on SharedMinds took about 20 to 30 seconds, literally. There was no online account sign-up and no painful account setup procedures. I just installed the software, launched it, typed in my multiple Twitter account credentials and that was it. SharedMinds was plugged into everything I do on Twitter.