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Verizon Wireless To Charge $2 Fee For Processing Some Payments [News]

admin — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:47:06 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/verizonmoneythumb.jpg?323f2c" alt="" />What’s the only thing worse than having to class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/forget-pay-bill-billq/">pay a bill? Paying a bill to pay your bill.

This will be the dilemma facing some Verizon customers beginning on January 15th. Apparently concerned that the company had yet to find enough ways to squeeze customers, Verizon will be tacking a laughably named $2 “convenience fee” to the bills of people who pay by making one-time payments online or by class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/smartphones-awesome-case-checking-email-time/">phone.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/verizonbillpayfee.jpg?323f2c" alt="" width="560" height="424" />

It’s at least not an under-the-radar charge, as Verizon will be making customers aware of the fee when they pay by either method. Those who decide to pay via the company’s automated online auto-pay feature (which is re-occurring each month), in store, electronic check, physical check or class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/giftly-buy-gift-cards-online-avail-smartphone/">gift card will not have to part ways with any additional cash.

The charge isn’t going to wipe anyone out, of course – it’s less than the price of a latte. Still, $24 a year may seem like a lot considering that most companies offer similar payment options for free. Customers who don’t want to plan their spending around an auto-pay withdrawal or deal with writing a check each month are sure to be a bit miffed about having to now spend even more for the privilege.

Source: href="http://phandroid.com/2011/12/28/verizon-wireless-to-begin-charging-2-convenience-fee-for-online-and-phone-payments/" rel="nofollow">Phandroi /> Image Credit: href="http://www.droid-life.com/2011/12/28/verizon-to-charge-customers-2-fee-when-paying-bills-online-starting-january-15/" rel="nofollow">Droid Life

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Why Reddit Isn’t As Bad As Some People Would Make You Believe [Opinion]

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:47:06 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/icon.png?323f2c" alt="why reddit is awesome" />In recent times, title="5 Ways To Find The Best Obscure Subreddits On Reddit" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-find-obscure-subreddits-reddit/">Reddit has been labeled as a kind of Internet cesspool – a place where only the most vile and disgusting individuals go. Granted, this may come from a general misunderstanding of how the website works, and with that being said, I can understand the confusion.

Today, I’d like to give just a general overview of how Reddit works. I’m not making excuses for the title="3 Types Of Reddit Commenters That Drive Me Nuts" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-types-reddit-commenters-drive-nuts/">bad parts of Reddit – of course not – but I do want to keep you informed. The more you know, right? Oh and don’t forget to read href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/download-best-of-the-web-delivered-the-reddit-manual">Dave’s informative manual on Reddit too.

What’s Bad About Reddit?

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Reddit.png?323f2c" alt="why reddit is awesome" width="580" height="250" />

Contrary to popular belief, Reddit is not a site devoted to child porn and degradation of women. That would be title="9 Hilarious Websites To Visit When You Need To Kill Time" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/9-hilarious-websites-to-visit-when-you-need-to-kill-time/">4Chan, and if this was the case, I wouldn’t be using it. I’m not at all a proponent for things such as these, but I’ll admit that there are a lot of ugly things on Reddit that are pretty close to the items mentioned, such as:

GoneWild: A subreddit where users post fairly-sexualized nude pictures of themselves, desensitizing the human race to the beauty of sex and giving those who post misdirected praise.

Obnoxious Religious Debate: Militant believers and militant nonbelievers tend to duke it out on the main page of Reddit – something that should be relatively unbiased, methinks.

Exploitation of Teens: There are a few subreddits that depict teenagers in a rather sexualized way – not pornographically, but close. There is the possibility that the pictures found on these subreddits are routed through Facebook, but I will explain how these sections of Reddit are completely within themselves later on in this post.

These are just a few of the bad things about Reddit, and there are quite a few others. I’m not kidding. However, you have to understand how Reddit works before you form an opinion of it.

How Does Reddit Work?

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/RedditWorks1.png?323f2c" alt="reddit is fun" width="580" height="228" />

Let’s imagine a place where the entire world is connected through computers. People are able to create pages that can be read on a screen, and other people can read them and even write on them to the people that have created them. These pages eventually become large communities of people reading and writing, and they range from title="A Brief Overview of Internet Memes & How You Can Quickly Create Your Own" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/overview-internet-memes-quickly-create/">discussion about cats to ramblings about faith all the way to videos of pornography. However, each person chooses to go to the page that interests them the most, so the people that go to the page about cats do not go to the page with pornography.

You may say, “Josh, we already have that – it’s the Internet!”

I say, “No, sir. It’s not the Internet that I’m describing. I’m describing Reddit.”

What amazes me is that the people who bash Reddit are actually users of the Internet – a place that is full of discussion about cats, ramblings about faith, and even videos of pornography. With that being said, Reddit is divided into communities – called subreddits – just like the Internet, so at the core, Reddit is like a miniature version of the Internet itself!

Basically, here’s what I say to a person that bashes Reddit – you wouldn’t automatically say someone looks at jailbait just because they get on the Internet, right?

Should Reddit Censor Itself?

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/RES.png?323f2c" alt="why reddit is awesome" width="580" height="250" />

In my opinion, Reddit should censor itself to some degree. It’s technically a private website created by individuals looking for profit, so it’s fine with me if they choose to censor items. However, the question always arises, “What kind of stuff should they censor?”

Well, for me, that’s anything to do with jailbait, and yes, there are Reddit communities devoted to this (by all technical means, they are not pornographic, but they are still disgusting). So most importantly, young children and even young teenagers do not deserve to be viewed in a sexual manner whatsoever. Furthermore, it puts a bad mark on the other users of Reddit, for other people do not understand that the site is divided up into communities, and typically, those communities do not ever see each other except for when an individual chooses to go to them.

When it comes to trivial things such as porn and religion (bet you never thought you’d see those two in the same sentence), I don’t think they should be censored. However, as someone who is adamantly against pornography in general (but prefers to use discussion rather than force to get his point across), I’d rather not see it at all.

Fortunately, there are methods to censor Reddit on your own, such as the title="Use Reddit Like A Boss With This Combo Package" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/reddit-boss-combo-package/">Reddit Enhancement Suite. I use it to block anything NSFW, and I also block out keywords that float around the site. Pretty useful tool, and I recommend it to anyone.

Conclusion

Maybe I didn’t make a good case for Reddit, and that’s kind of hard to do when writing just a blog post. In that case, I’ll just leave this other href="http://blog.reddit.com/2011/12/3-year-old-lucas-inspires-reddit.html">blog post here.

What other support can you give for Reddit? What are the things about Reddit that you don’t like? What can it do to improve?

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Check Out These 6 Sci-Fi Wikis To Kill Some Time On

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:47:05 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/stormtrooper.png" alt="sci fi wiki" />In my spare time, I read a lot of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/host-full-feature-wiki-site-tiki-wiki/">wikis (I really need a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-tools-to-track-how-you-spend-time-online/">more interesting life). Typically, what happens is that I’ll hear of a subject, find a wiki that covers that subject, and then I’ll end up reading the entire collection of articles for a long time.

Granted, I’m sure that at least some of you do it too, so I thought I’d share some sci-fi wikis with you. You may have heard of a few of these, but if you haven’t, they are worth checking out.

href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page">Wookieepedia

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wookieepedia.png" alt="sci fi wiki" width="580" height="155" />

With all the intricate details (and changes that George Lucas makes) to the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-prepare-star-wars-mmo-gaming/">Star Wars universe, it can be a little hard to keep up with who was the Padawan of who and which planet was home to which Jedi. Fortunately, with Wookieepedia – a rather well-known wiki – you can get all the nitty-gritty details that exist from here to Tatooine.

Unlike the aim of most rebel blasters, Wookieepedia seems to hit spot-on with every bit of information about Lucas’ space opera. As a note, Wookieepedia doesn’t cover just the movies – it goes into the Expanded Universe too.

href="http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Portal:Main">Memory Alpha

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/memoryalpha.png" alt="science fiction wiki" width="580" height="155" />

Trekkies, I was going to write something clever utilizing the phrase, “Beam me up, Scotty,” but then I realized the phrase isn’t actually canon. Speaking of canon, Memory Alpha is a comprehensive wiki of all things true to the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watch-full-length-star-trek-episodes-on-youtube/">Star Trek story arc.

With at least 33,494 articles held in the servers of Memory Alpha, you could spend forever reading up on the history and details of Star Trek. It also might be good to mention that the wiki includes data (pun intended) from all the TV shows, the films, and yes, the animated series.

href="http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page">The Firefly & Serenity Database

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/firefly.png" alt="science fiction wiki" width="580" height="155" />

Albeit not being an actual Firefly fan, I understand the importance of this show’s wiki being found on the list. Before you cry out accusations of blasphemy, I just haven’t got around to watching it. However, Justin says it’s the greatest science fiction series ever made, and you can actually href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-great-tv-shows-completely-watch-online/">watch it (among other shows) on Hulu. Granted, I need to as well when I get the time to sit and watch it!

Packed with information concerning the Firefly series, the Serenity film, and even the fairly recent Firefly Darkhorse comics, you’ll have a quite a bit of information packaged for you in the Firefly and Serenity Database. This wiki has about 789 articles, so you’ve got a lot of reading to do.

href="http://www.bladerunner.wikia.com">Off-World: The Blade Runner Wiki

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/bladerunner.png" alt="science fiction wiki" width="580" height="155" />

As a fan of Blade Runner, I was pleased when I discovered that there is an actual Blade Runner Wiki. Unfortunately, it’s really small – 81 articles exist for the entire thing. However, it’s worth reading, and maybe you can help add onto it.

What I liked about this Sci-Fi wiki (and granted, mostly every wiki has it) is the information about the actual production of the film. With most wikis, you get a lot of information all about the characters, settings, and technology. However, this one goes into a lot of the behind-the-scenes aspects.

href="http://www.tardis.wikia.com">The Tardis Index File

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/tardis.png" alt="sci fi site" width="580" height="155" />

For all you href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watch-5-cool-fan-films-online-track-upcoming-fan-productions/">Dr. Who fans, the Tardis Index File compiles (mostly) all the knowledge you need of the show’s universe. However, it doesn’t just stick with Dr. Who. It actually dives into its spin-off series – Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and K-9.

Founded in November 2004, the wiki has gathered about 26,570 articles generated entirely by the users. It’s definitely worth checking out, but with that many articles, you may find yourself constantly reading articles in a manner similar to TV Tropes.

href="http://x-files.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page">The X-Files Wiki

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/xfiles.png" alt="sci fi wiki" width="580" height="155" />

I really miss the X-Files and all of its supernatural/extraterrestrial/terrifying wonder. It was a genuinely cool show, and although the movies are also cool, I’d love to see it back on the air. With that being said, about the closest I’ve been able to get to the show as of late is the X-Files Wiki.

This wiki packages all the characters and stories from the X-Files (such as the Smoking Man and of course, the Lone Gunmen). Furthermore, it is a source reference for the show tie-in shows Millenium and… well… The Lone Gunmen.

Conclusion

What are the purpose of wikis? Well, they are technically used for reference and research. However, with these, it just seems like they are purely fun to read.

What kind of cool stuff did you find on these wikis? Do you know of any other awesome sci-fi wikis that we should check out?

Image Credit: href="http://morguefile.com/archive/display/219910" rel="nofollow">dmscs

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Amazon Beware: The New Nook Tablet Is Out With Some Impressive Specs [News]

admin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:47:07 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-08-10h34_27.png" alt="" />Barnes & Noble have officially announced the release of their new tablet reader, named simply the href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/nook-tablet-barnes-noble/1104687969">Nook tablet. It is designed to offer direct competition to Amazon’s Kindle Fire, and the two devices are in fact quite similar.

The Nook tablet will sell for $249, which is $50 more than the Kindle Fire, but will also come equipped with double the storage (16GB) and double the RAM (1GB). The device itself is also quite similar to the Nook Color, but the tablet’s specs will make it possible to use it for HD video content, as well as books and magazines.

The device is equipped with a modified version of Android, and will come with apps like Hulu, Netflix and Pandora, which is something else it has over the Kindle Fire. The access to apps, however, will be more limited, and there is no access to the Android Market at all.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-08-10h22_54.png" alt="2011-11-08 10h22_54" width="282" height="410" border="0" />

Like the Kindle Fire, the Nook tablet is Wi-Fi only (no 3G option), and the cloud storage options are not as strong as Amazon’s. Coinciding with the launch, Barnes & Noble announced a significant price-drop for the Nook Color and the Nook Simple Touch, which will now sell for $199 and $99 respectively. Even if you’re not a tablet fan, the general move to tablets is definitely making the simple eReaders more accessible.

So will you rush out to get the Nook tablet? Do you think it is superior or inferior to the Kindle Fire?

Source: href="http://www.androidcentral.com/barnes-noble-nook-tablet-officially-announced" rel="nofollow">AndroidCentral

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Get Rid Of Some Annoying Facebook Features With These 4 Add-Ons [Chrome]

admin — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:47:08 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/image162.png" alt="" /> href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/facebook/">Facebook keeps changing and changing. Every month or so, users enjoy (or deal with) a new change in Facebook’s interface. While some people are really excited about the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/facebook-timeline-starts-rolling-user-profiles-today-news/">recent Timeline profiles, others are still ticked off at things like the news ticker and the chat sidebar.

Another thing Facebook keep changing is the way we view images. While Photo Theater keeps improving and is no longer a major source of agitation to Facebook users, and while thumbnails keep growing, some people are still looking for an easy and quick way to view images in full size.

If one or more of these things are bothering you, I’ve rounded up some href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-chrome/">Chrome extensions that are sure to make you a happier Facebook user.

Facebook Classic

href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ffdodpcdalagnkbkojidmmcehlnhniad?hl=en-US">Facebook Classic is a Chrome add-on for people who dislike the new ticker, but want to be able to easily toggle it on again. It also gets rid of the new top stories and arranges the newsfeed in chronological order again.

After you install the add-on and refresh Facebook, the news ticker will disappear completely, leaving only the bottom half of the sidebar with the chat. You’ll also see the “Latest Stories” header instead of the “New Top Story” and “Recent Stories“. The change is not only to the titles – the small triangle to the left of each newsfeed item will also disappear. This triangle is usually used to mark a story as a “top story”.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-11-12h37_32.png" alt="2011-10-11 12h37_32" width="580" height="429" border="0" />

If you want to turn on the ticker, find the “Show Ticker” link on the right side. This will toggle the news ticker on. You can toggle it back off whenever you want using the “Hide Ticker” link.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-11-12h41_10.png" alt="2011-10-11 12h41_10" width="346" height="193" border="0" />

Facebook–

href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fecghihpjcmbdaicliecdpofhhianacj?hl=en&hc=search&hcp=main">Facebook– is another Chrome add-on which deals with similar issues. Once you download Facebook–, the news ticker will be gone. Use this add-on if you really don’t want to see the news ticker, because there’s no easy way to toggle it on and off.

As opposed to Facebook Classic, it also doesn’t leave you with half a sidebar for the chat, but expands the chat so it takes up the entire sidebar, the way it used to be before the news ticker joined the party.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-11-13h04_51.png" alt="2011-10-11 13h04_51" width="504" height="441" border="0" />

Another thing Facebook– does is restore the title bar to the way it used to be. You get your Settings button back, and you lose your name and thumbnail in the title bar. Nice if you miss Facebook’s older look.

Sidebar Disabler

href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bfipfkeoidmndggnnpobeenlamiclald?hl=en&hc=search&hcp=main">Sidebar Disabler is a Chrome, href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fb-chat-sidebar-disabler/">Firefox and href="https://addons.opera.com/en/addons/extensions/details/facebook-chat-sidebar-disabler/1.9.6/?display=en">Opera add-on which leaves your news ticker alone in its non-sidebar position, and turns the sidebar into the good old Facebook chat.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-11-13h30_30.png" alt="2011-10-11 13h30_30" width="393" height="563" border="0" />

If the news ticker is not your problem, but you’re just sick of the sidebar as a concept, you’ll be able to forget about it with this add-on. The old chat returns in full glory, along with the old options and friend lists. You also get to see only your online friends again, which is one of the most sorely missed features in the new chat sidebar.

FB Photo Zoom

Moving on to quite a different subject, href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/elioihkkcdgakfbahdoddophfngopipi?hl=en&hc=search&hcp=ext">FB Photo Zoom has nothing to do with news tickers and sidebars, but has a lot to do with the way you view images. Some people still don’t like Facebook’s Photo Theater, and others (like me), are just too lazy to click the thumbnail every time they want to view a full-size image.

With FB Photo Zoom, hovering over a thumbnail with your mouse cursor will automatically open a preview of the full size image. This preview even moves along as you move your mouse, but disappears immediately if your cursor leaves the thumbnail.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-11-13h21_58.png" alt="2011-10-11 13h21_58" width="580" height="408" border="0" />

FB Photo Zoom also comes with some configurable settings. You can use it to disable Photo Theater if you still hate it. You can create a keyboard shortcut to toggle the zooming effect on and off, and another shortcut to force-enable it even when it’s off. You can even control the delays of the fade in and fade out of images.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-11-13h28_13.png" alt="2011-10-11 13h28_13" width="562" height="391" border="0" />

This also works with the tiny “Friends on Chat” thumbnails, which are so small they’re often unrecognizable. Quite an upgrade to your casual Facebook image viewing experience.

Bottom Line

The more changes Facebook makes, the more add-ons like these we’re going to find. I think it’s awesome that so many different ones exist – this way we can each create a user experience that suits us best, and make the most of Facebook without the things that annoy us.

If none of these add-ons hit the spot for you, you can find some more of them in href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/remove-facebook-news-ticker-fixed-header-chrome/">this post by Steve. If there are even better Facebook add-ons, or if you think people should stop complaining and enjoy the changes, do tell us about it in the comments!

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/rid-annoying-facebook-features-4-addons-chrome/">Get Rid Of Some Annoying Facebook Features With These 4 Add-Ons [Chrome] is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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YouTube Makes Some Changes To Improve User Experience [News]

admin — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:47:13 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/YouTubeSquareLogo.png" alt="" />The worlds most popular way to share and watch videos has received a small update that brings a few improvements. href="http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube has quietly rolled out these new features, and while they won’t necessarily revolutionize the way you watch and create videos on href="http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube, they are some very nice changes that keep them ahead of the pack in terms of creating and watching videos on the web.

The first change this new update brings is with the screen that comes up when you finish watching a video. The new end of video screen is more like a mosaic, making it easier to find exactly what you want to watch next. It’s a small change, but it is one that makes finding more content similar to what you just watched a little easier, plus it looks a lot nicer than the old one.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/end_of_video-e1319226004459.png" alt="" width="580" height="352" />

The next change comes in the playlist bar. The video images are larger now, making it easier to see what the video looks like, and decide if it is something that is worth your time. They also improve the placement of the next and previous buttons for easier navigation between videos.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/playlist.png" alt="" width="455" height="44" />

href="http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube also improved their charts feature. Charts is the feature that allows you to see what videos are the most popular, and they streamlined it to make it easier to find exactly what you’re looking for.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/charts1-e1319226088870.png" alt="" width="580" height="539" />

They also added localization for more countries such as Kenya, Singapore and the Philippines, bringing their total to 35 countries.

The last change is a partnership with cloud-based video editing service WeVideo for creators.

Source: href="http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/10/youtube-release-notes-updated-video-end.html" rel="nofollow">YouTube Official Blog

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/youtube-improve-user-experience-news/">YouTube Makes Some Changes To Improve User Experience [News] is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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Microsoft Releases A Hotmail Android App & Some More Hotmail Upgrades [News]

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:47:15 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/image36.png" alt="" />Microsoft has announced that we should all “ href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/anotherlookathotmail/">give Hotmail another look“. This does not mean that Hotmail’s whole interface is changed forever, but there are certainly some new additions that are mainly aimed at e-mail organization and war against “greymail”.

The most exciting part of this announcement is the release of an official Hotmail Android app. Microsoft has finally decided to jump on the Android train, and Hotmail and Android users finally have an official app with two-way sync for e-mails, contacts and calendar.

The changes in Hotmail include new and better ways to control greymail, which is basically newsletters you’ve signed up to and forgot or changed your mind about. Hotmail now puts all these newsletters into a Newsletter category, and offers a one-click unsubscribe button which is supposed to do the dirty work for you.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-04-20h59_12.png" alt="2011-10-04 20h59_12" width="474" height="565" border="0" />

Among the changes is also Scheduled Cleanup, which helps you keep just the most relevant e-mails. Using this feature you can select a sender (like a newsletter provider) and then choose to keep only the latest e-mail from that sender and delete or move all the old ones. “Flags done right” is another feature which moves all flagged messages to the top of your inbox and also allows you to automatically flag e-mails from a certain sender or with a specific subject line.

Microsoft has also finally seen the need for custom categories, and you can now create your own categories and quickly apply them to an entire group of e-mails.

As mentioned above, you can now download the official href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.hotmail.Z7">Hotmail app for Android, which is certainly an upgrade for some users.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/image37.png" alt="image" width="302" height="384" border="0" />

What do you think? Are these changes to Hotmail worthy or should Microsoft consider a much more prominent facelift? Let us know in the comments.

Source: href="http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/10/03/hotmail-declares-war-on-graymail.aspx" rel="nofollow">The Windows Blog

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Supercharge iTunes With Some More Of Doug’s AppleScripts [Mac]

admin — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 11:47:27 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/ituneslogo.png" alt="" />If you’re a heavy iTunes users with a significant size music collection, you definitely should know about Doug’s class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/">AppleScripts for iTunes. Doug Adams has been writing scripts for iTunes ever since Apple’s inception of its popular jukebox. As far as I can tell, iTunes seems to be the most scriptable of all the default Mac applications. Last year I talked about class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/boost-itunes-player-applescript-hacks-mac">some of Doug’s scripts and now I want to cover some more useful ones.

If you’re not familiar with AppleScripts don’t let the techie name scare you off. Doug‘s site has scripts for managing your music tracks, playlists, album covers, controlling iTunes, networking, managing files and lots more. Instructions for downloading and installing scripts are very clear and if you become interested in creating your own iTunes scripts, Doug’s class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/itinfo/info01.php">how-to guides get you started in that direction as well.

class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/apps/smartsapp.php">Smarts

Doug has created several self-contained AppleScript class="vt-p" href="http://http://dougscripts.com/apps/">apps, each for $5 or less. But his free offering, class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/apps/smartsapp.php">Smarts, will be very useful to iTunes users who like to use class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-5-smart-itunes-playlists-ipad-iphone-ipod">smart playlists, which are the best way to create smart collections and manage a large selection of music tracks.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot950.png" alt="Screenshot950" width="518" height="291" border="0" />

With Smarts, you can load and save your existing smart playlists as templates for creating similar smart playlists. So for a very simple example, you might have a smart playlist for recently added tracks to your iTunes library. It might be set up like this:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot962.png" alt="Screenshot962" width="580" height="232" border="0" />

With Smarts, you can load and save that smart list as a template to create new ones that use some similar rules. Using a template saves you the trouble of starting from scratch.

You can also use Smarts to access and manage all your smart playlists. This little tool is great for iTunes users just getting started with iTunes and for those of you who would like to create more smart collections.

If you’re new to smart technology in Mac, check out my free class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/download-the-awesome-automation-guide-for-mac-users">MUO Automation Guide for all you need to know to get started using it.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot963.jpg" alt="Screenshot963" width="334" height="406" border="0" />

class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=quickconvert">Quick Convert

Advanced iTunes users and music aficionados know that MP3 files can be encoded into different formats for better quality. The default format for most iTunes tracks is AAC.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot956.png" alt="Screenshot956" width="279" height="247" border="0" />

If you want to encode and export tracks into a different format, you have to make the change in General Preferences of iTunes. That’s not a big problem, but if you’re encoding lots of different files, you might want to use class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=quickconvert">Doug’s Quick Convert AppleScript.

The step-by-step instructions for downloading and installing this and other Doug apps are very easy to follow.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot955.png" alt="Screenshot955" width="577" height="381" border="0" />

After you install scripts, you can easily access them from within the menu bar of iTunes. Your menu list will reflect the scripts you have installed in the Scripts folder of iTunes, similar to this one:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot957.png" alt="Screenshot957" width="264" height="484" border="0" />

class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=removedeadtracks">Remove Dead Tracks

If your iTunes library has grown a little unwieldy with “dead” tracks and playlists, Doug’s class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=removedeadtracks">Remove Dead Tracks will locate those files that are “no longer in your local drive (“!” appears next to their names) and asks to delete them from the playlist“.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot959.png" alt="Screenshot959" width="358" height="110" border="0" />

If your iTunes library is quite large, the scanning process will take some time. And as Doug notes, use this script “thoughtfully and cautiously”.

class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=gatheruptheonehits">Gather Up The One Hits

If you‘re like me, you’ve probably collected lots of single music files, such as the free single offering posted in the iTunes Music Store every Tuesday.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot961.png" alt="Screenshot961" width="361" height="196" border="0" />

If those singles are scattered throughout your library, you can use Doug’s class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=gatheruptheonehits">Gather Up the One Hits script to have them collected and put into a single new playlist. The only drawback to this script is that if you have album collections featuring a compilation of artists, it will read those tracks as singles. So you will need to go through the new playlist, sort it by Album, and delete the tracks you don’t want in the “one hit” playlist.

class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=tracksalbumtoplaylist">Track’s Album To Playlist

If you haven’t been very good about putting music files in playlists, this class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=tracksalbumtoplaylist">Track’s Album to Playlist can help you manage those files. You can quickly find out if a selected song is in a playlist by right-clicking on it and seeing which playlists, if any, it is located in.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/not-in-a-playlist.jpg" alt="Not in a playlist" width="385" height="479" border="0" />

In the example above, the selected track is found in a few smart playlists, but there’s no playlist for the album of songs that track belongs to. So I can select the single track and run the script to have it create a new playlist that includes all the tracks for that CD.

class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=changehiddenprefs">Change Hidden Preferences

iTunes, now in its 10th version, constantly grows and improves, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be customized and tweaked. Doug’s class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=changehiddenprefs">Change Hidden Preferences script allows you to make a number of preference changes, including hiding the “Ping” buttons, automatically creating playlists for purchased song collections and adding a “Library” playlist for your collection.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot964.png" alt="Screenshot964" width="426" height="402" border="0" />

I have not scratched the surface of all the class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/index.php#whatsnew">scripts available for free on Doug’s iTunes site. He and other developers have hundreds of iTunes scripts —some old, for older versions of iTunes, and a few that might not quite work as described.

If you’re a dedicated iTunes user, you owe it to yourself to spend some time browsing and downloading scripts. If you find his scripts useful, drop Doug a line at dougscripts at Mac doc com.

If you have currently use iTunes AppleScripts, let us know about your favorite ones.

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Google Adds Some Sunshine To Its Weather Maps [News]

admin — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 02:48:29 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot1014.png" alt="" />Come rain or sunshine, Google has brought a little more visual clarity to its online weather app. With class="vt-p" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?lci=weather%20">Google Maps you can now instantly see weather conditions on top of the map. Whether you’re traveling across the state, the country or the world, Google Maps will let you know if you need an umbrella, summer dress attire, or snow boots for your final destination.

When you visit the Google Maps page, hover your cursor over the widget in the upper right corner of Google Maps and select the weather layer from the list of options. When zoomed out, you’ll see a map with current weather conditions from class="vt-p" href="http://www.weather.com">weather.com for various locations, with icons to denote sun, clouds, rain and so on.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot997.png" alt="Screenshot997" width="580" height="311" border="0" />

Tapping on a particular location, such as “Denver Colorado” will provide a pop-up window of the weather forecast for the entire week, with detailed data like current humidity and wind conditions. There are links to get hourly and 10-day forecasts, as well as traffic and transit information.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot996.png" alt="Screenshot996" width="435" height="279" border="0" />

Also in the left-hand panel, you can change the units of wind speed and temperature and enable or disable the clouds.

The navigation widget is interesting to use, but I find simply searching for a particular location is more precise. You can also click on “My Places” to create and save a map or to review a recent history of your searches. In addition, map information can be printed out, e-mailed, and linked to.

Source: class="vt-p" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?lci=weather%20" rel="nofollow">The Official Google Blog

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Some Advanced Tips For Those Starting Out Building A Tumblr Blog

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:47:06 +0000

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/tumblrlogo_11.png"/>About a week after I wrote my href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-tumblr-tips-users/" alt="tumblr blogs">first list of Tumblr tips, the site made changes to its all pervasive Dashboard. The re-design was a welcome facelift for many members, while others lodged some major complaints. Nevertheless, the features of the Dashboard remain basically the same with a few enhancements.

If you’re hopping onto the Tumblr bandwagon—I recommend you do—here are some additional—perhaps advanced—tips you might be interested in after having set up your Tumblr blog and built a following. And don’t worry, none of these tips require that you get your hands dirty with code.

Oh, and by the way, if you haven’t set up your Tumblr blog yet, this href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-use-tumblr-to-easily-create-a-rich-media-blog/">article will show you how.

Pages and Tags

Let’s return to Tumblr’s Dashboard Preferences, for there are other little tools you might want to enable in there to enhance your blog. I covered few other Preferences features in the previous article.

Pages:

Similar to the WordPress.com, you can add stagnate pages in your Tumblr site. You’re not limited to just your home page. On the Dashboard page, click on the Customize button and select Pages > Add a page. You can add three types of pages: Standard, Custom Layout, and Redirect.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/customizepages21.png" alt="tumblr blogs" width="500" height="288" />

You can pretty much add anything you like to these pages. Here’s one idea you might find useful.

Tagged Post:

If you get in the habit in tagging your Tumblr blog posts, as discussed in the last article, you can create a page that will show all your posts with a specified tag. So for instance, you might want to highlight all your posts that are mini “essays.” Here’s how to set it up.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/redirectpage.png" alt="tumblr personal blogs" width="500" height="489" />

Select the “Redirect” page. Now copy and paste the URL for one of the tagged posts that you want inserted into your new page. It should look this—with the name of your blog, followed by “tagged,” and ending with exact name of the tagged posts you want filtered on the page.

style="text-align: center;">http://sampleblog.tumblr.com/tagged/essay

Finally, be sure to select “Show a link to this page,” and type a name for it, which will show up in the menu bar of your homepage. When the page is clicked, it will show all your posts with that designated tag.

More Appearances

While we’re in Tumblr Preferences, let’s click on the Appearance tab and see a few other features that are not turned on by default.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/appearance.png" alt="tumblr personal blogs" width="297" height="323" />

Show Streampad

If you want to add some musical ambiance to your Tumblr homepage, click the Streampad box, and essentially the plug-in will play songs that have been uploaded to your Dashboard.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/screenshot640.png" alt="tumblr blog ideas" width="293" height="83" />

Depending on your Tumblr theme, the player should show up at the end of your homepage. If you want to further customize the player, click over to this href="http://www.streampad.com/getit#">Streampad page and follow the directions for making changes and adding the code.

Fixed Sidebar

If keeping visitors and readers focused on the sidebar content of your homepage is important to you, then check this box. It will keep the sidebar in a fixed position, even when readers scroll further down your page to browse all your awesome Tumblr posts.

Small Follow Box

When the “People I Follow” icons get long and unwieldy, clicking this box will put them into a smaller scrolling box for you.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/smallfollowbox.png" alt="tumblr blog ideas" width="169" height="204" />

Ask Me Widget

If you’re fairly new to Tumblr, you might often see the people you’re following posting a question to others on their Dashboard—in the form of a text box for responding to the question. It’s a great little feature, but it’s not quite obvious how to set it up.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/askaquestion.png" alt="tumblr blog ideas" width="580" height="294" />

To do so, simply create a Text post, and then type the question you want to ask. Be sure that the question ends in a “? “mark. When you do this, a little box, “Let people answer this”, will appear on the right side of the Dashboard. Click it and add your post like you normally would. The responses will show up in your Inbox. The checkbox will not appear until you put the question mark at the end of your question.

Mobile App

If you’re an iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry user, and a Tumblr addict, you will no doubt want to download the Tumblr app for your mobile device. I find the href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tumblr/id305343404?mt=8">iPhone version (iTunes Store link) super easy to use. It allows you to both browse your Dashboard as well post Tumblr blogs.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/screenshot641.jpg" alt="tumblr personal blogs" width="580" height="405" />

Other third-party apps like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/instagram-photo-editing-and-sharing/">Instagram include Tumblr support as well.

Well, that’s it for these round of tips. Tumblr is taking the lead as the fastest growing microblogging site, so many more features and upgrades are sure to be arrive in the coming months.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/tumblr_july_09_stats2.jpg" alt="tumblr blogs" width="306" height="425" />

Let us know about other Tumblr tips that new bloggers should know about.

Read comments: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/advanced-tumblr-tips/#disqus_thread">Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here …

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Supercharge iTunes With Some More Of Doug’s AppleScripts [Mac]

class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/apps/smartsapp.php">Smarts

class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=quickconvert">Quick Convert

class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=removedeadtracks">Remove Dead Tracks

class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=gatheruptheonehits">Gather Up The One Hits

class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=tracksalbumtoplaylist">Track’s Album To Playlist

class="vt-p" href="http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=changehiddenprefs">Change Hidden Preferences

Google Adds Some Sunshine To Its Weather Maps [News]

Some Advanced Tips For Those Starting Out Building A Tumblr Blog

Pages and Tags

Pages:

Tagged Post:

More Appearances

Show Streampad

Fixed Sidebar

Small Follow Box

Ask Me Widget

Mobile App

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