31 March 2014

How To Spend And Store Bitcoins Safely, Easily, and for Free



shutupandtakemybitcoin

Bitcoin has seen its share of controversy lately, with a lot of people losing a lot of money in various thefts, and most recently the widely-publicized collapse of Mt. Gox. This is unfortunate, because (with a little care) Bitcoins can be made so secure that theft is functionally impossible. We’ve covered getting started with Bitcoin before, but the software and security available have improved a lot since then. In this article, we’ll show you how to set up a hot and cold wallet, and teach you to use both. It takes ten minutes, requires no special software, and provides quite...


Read the full article: How To Spend And Store Bitcoins Safely, Easily, and for Free



How To Spend And Store Bitcoins Safely, Easily, and for Free



shutupandtakemybitcoin

Bitcoin has seen its share of controversy lately, with a lot of people losing a lot of money in various thefts, and most recently the widely-publicized collapse of Mt. Gox. This is unfortunate, because (with a little care) Bitcoins can be made so secure that theft is functionally impossible. We’ve covered getting started with Bitcoin before, but the software and security available have improved a lot since then. In this article, we’ll show you how to set up a hot and cold wallet, and teach you to use both. It takes ten minutes, requires no special software, and provides quite...


Read the full article: How To Spend And Store Bitcoins Safely, Easily, and for Free



7 April Fool’s Day Pranks To Play On Your Friends’ PC



fools-day-pranks

It’s this time of year again when you can make your tech illiterate coevals regret they’re friends with a geek. Or if you’re smart, use the occasion to remind that they know someone who can solve anything. Up to you. Either way, have fun! Mess With Desktop Icons If you’re looking for a super easy and 100% harmless way to trick someone, play with their desktop icons. First, take a screenshot of the current desktop. Next, hide all desktop icons: right-click the desktop, go to View and unselect Show desktop icons. If you want to make this slightly more frustrating,...


Read the full article: 7 April Fool’s Day Pranks To Play On Your Friends’ PC



Transfer Files Quickly Across Your Devices Using Feem



cross-platform

Android users love AirDroid, while Apple users swear by AirDrop for fast, hassle-free file transfers. So how would you transfer files if you had a Windows PC, an iPad and an Android phone? Try Feem, an ad-supported cross-platform app that is available for Android, iOS, Linux, Mac and Windows. Cloud storage apps are one way to send files across, but they aren’t the best if you simply want to send files to colleague who’s sitting three terminals across. However, if your work isn’t wedded to one ecosystem, transferring files between devices can be a bit of a headache. Feem is...


Read the full article: Transfer Files Quickly Across Your Devices Using Feem



Transfer Files Quickly Across Your Devices Using Feem



cross-platform

Android users love AirDroid, while Apple users swear by AirDrop for fast, hassle-free file transfers. So how would you transfer files if you had a Windows PC, an iPad and an Android phone? Try Feem, an ad-supported cross-platform app that is available for Android, iOS, Linux, Mac and Windows. Cloud storage apps are one way to send files across, but they aren’t the best if you simply want to send files to colleague who’s sitting three terminals across. However, if your work isn’t wedded to one ecosystem, transferring files between devices can be a bit of a headache. Feem is...


Read the full article: Transfer Files Quickly Across Your Devices Using Feem



Just a Single Page Website: 3 Reasons Why It Can Work For Your Idea



singlepage-featured

One thing I love about the Internet is how it perennially exists in a state of evolution, adopting new ideas and discarding ones which have ceased to work. Take Flash, for example. From the mid-90s to the mid-2000s, it was the dominant tool used to add interactivity and panache to websites. Countless security vulnerabilities and the mass adoption of touch-screen mobile devices later, Flash has faded into irrelevance, declining both on the desktop and being a non-player in the mobile field. Another concept which is being heavily challenged by the rise of the touch-screen device is traditional menu and multiple-page...


Read the full article: Just a Single Page Website: 3 Reasons Why It Can Work For Your Idea



Dropbox DMCA, HTC One Benchmarks, BlackBerry Typo, Eat24 Facebook [Tech News Digest]



copyright-button

Today in Tech News Digest, Dropbox denies DMCA disaster, HTC One M8 benchmarks, BlackBerry blocks sales of Typo, Microsoft stops snooping, Avast launches Grimefighter, and Eat24 breaks up with Facebook. The Dropbox DMCA Copyright Conundrum wow. @dropbox DMCA takedown in personal folders… this is new to me. http://ift.tt/1k8Oz1p — darrell whitelaw (@darrellwhitelaw) March 30, 2014 One simple tweet (embedded above) was all it took for users of Dropbox to raise concerns over the company’s policy towards the storing and sharing of copyrighted files. However, it turns out this isn’t a new revelation and not an example of the company changing...


Read the full article: Dropbox DMCA, HTC One Benchmarks, BlackBerry Typo, Eat24 Facebook [Tech News Digest]



Dropbox DMCA, HTC One Benchmarks, BlackBerry Typo, Eat24 Facebook [Tech News Digest]



copyright-button

Today in Tech News Digest, Dropbox denies DMCA disaster, HTC One M8 benchmarks, BlackBerry blocks sales of Typo, Microsoft stops snooping, Avast launches Grimefighter, and Eat24 breaks up with Facebook. The Dropbox DMCA Copyright Conundrum wow. @dropbox DMCA takedown in personal folders… this is new to me. http://ift.tt/1k8Oz1p — darrell whitelaw (@darrellwhitelaw) March 30, 2014 One simple tweet (embedded above) was all it took for users of Dropbox to raise concerns over the company’s policy towards the storing and sharing of copyrighted files. However, it turns out this isn’t a new revelation and not an example of the company changing...


Read the full article: Dropbox DMCA, HTC One Benchmarks, BlackBerry Typo, Eat24 Facebook [Tech News Digest]



Can You Play Games On A Windows 8 Tablet?



play-games-windows-tablet

The introduction of Windows 8 made it possible for PC manufacturers to start building full-blown tablet PCs. These run Windows and have the same kind of hardware you’d usually find in a laptop. Some are on par with an ultrabook, and gaming peripheral company Razer sells a gaming tablet called the Edge. This has made users curious about how far they can push the limits of a tablet PC. Can the system run games? And if it can, what are the common limitations? Here’s everything you need to know about gaming on a Windows tablet. The Hardware Question Before delving...


Read the full article: Can You Play Games On A Windows 8 Tablet?



30 March 2014

Which Browser Is Most Secure On Your Old Windows XP System?



5393470920_e6917506ce_o

You should be upgrading from Windows XP, but we have to face facts — many people won’t upgrade before the end-of-support date. If you’re still using one of those XP computers, the best thing you can do is ditch Internet Explorer for a more modern browser. This is the main thing you can do to make your Windows XP system more secure. Stop Using Internet Explorer Now The most recent version of Internet Explorer available on Windows XP is Internet Explorer 8. This version is already several major versions old — modern versions of IE like Internet Explorer 11 are...


Read the full article: Which Browser Is Most Secure On Your Old Windows XP System?



Google Pal?



If you go to www.google.com/pal, Google redirects the page to: http://ift.tt/1fz0MJv and shows a 404 error message. The redirect suggests that this could be an actual Google page, but it's not yet launched.






Google has many landing pages with information about Google services at google.com/landing: Image Search, Google Now, Cloud Print, India, Thailand, Japan, Chinese New Year, Ramadan and more. Last year's main April Fools' Day joke, Google Nose BETA, was hosted at: http://ift.tt/XRUT1I.



{ Thanks, Florian. }

How Advertisements On Your Website Could Make Or Break You



annoying-ads

The Internet as we know it would not exist without advertisements. Ads are necessary for generating revenue from free content and an Internet without ads would be an Internet smothered in subscriptions and paywalls. You don’t have to feel guilty for running ads on your website, but make sure you do it right. Want to know the fastest way to kill your website? Implement ads that are annoying to readers. Indeed, aggressive ads will push readers to install an adblocker and we all know that adblockers kill websites. If you’re going to monetize your site with ads, here are a...


Read the full article: How Advertisements On Your Website Could Make Or Break You



29 March 2014

Does The Fall Of Mt. Gox Mark The Beginning Of The End For Bitcoin? [MUO Debates]



financial-billboard

Does 2014 mark the beginning of the end for Bitcoin? Is this the end of the road for electronic currency? Why the melodrama? Well, Mt. Gox, the Bitcoin exchange, was allegedly hit with a series the of thefts totaling an astonishing 745,000 Bitcoins. It was probably just a matter of time, as hackers had been working diligently at breaking into Mt. Gox servers for years and grabbing the loot. Other exchanges claimed that the issues were isolated only to Mt. Gox servers, but that didn’t prevent investors around the world feeling a bit on edge about the security of this...


Read the full article: Does The Fall Of Mt. Gox Mark The Beginning Of The End For Bitcoin? [MUO Debates]



Find The Best Animal Healthcare Advice Online



animal-health-care

Do you own a pet? Well, MakeUseOf has a number of articles with advice on how to access human medical advice online. A few examples include articles on HealthTap and Doctors on Demand. However, a recent article on how to find reliable medical advice online got a reader asking for information on where to find the same kind of reliable health advice for animals. This article will, hopefully, fill the void. Animal healthcare advice is broadly categorized into two; medical advice for pets and advice for farm animals. There are dozens of online pet healthcare websites but the following are...


Read the full article: Find The Best Animal Healthcare Advice Online



28 March 2014

Rank With Your Images: 4 Ways To Make Your Images SEO Friendly



image-seo-optimization

Search engine optimization, typically called SEO, can make or break your site. SEO is the process of increasing your website’s visibility to search engines. It’s a popular topic but there’s one SEO-related issue that tends to be overlooked: image optimization. How much traffic are you losing due to poor image SEO? Yes, it’s true. Image searches can drive a lot of traffic to your website if you know what you’re doing. The trick is to understand how search engines work and format your images accordingly. Here are a few fundamental tips that will get you started. Image SEO Tip #1:...


Read the full article: Rank With Your Images: 4 Ways To Make Your Images SEO Friendly



Facebook Favorite For Chrome Is A Private Way To Save Posts For Later



facebook-favorites-chrome

Facebook itself only has “Like” and “Share” buttons, both of which publicly tell people what you think. But what if you want to save a post for later without broadcasting or endorsing it? Meet Facebook Favorite for Chrome. Solving A Facebook Problem One of the biggest problems I face on Facebook is that there is no easy mechanism to save a post privately. Sometimes, I come across articles and posts that I don’t like but I want to store them for later reference—there’s no way to do that on Facebook directly. What you Like on Facebook can tell a lot...


Read the full article: Facebook Favorite For Chrome Is A Private Way To Save Posts For Later



Office For iPad, NSA Database, Twitter Billboard, Google Naps [Tech News Digest]



office-for-ipad

Today in Tech News Digest, Microsoft Office for iPad, NSA phone databases, Twitter’s partnership with Billboard, Facebook’s minor legal victory, Twitter photo tagging and sharing, and grabbing 40 winks with Google Naps. Microsoft Releases Office for iPad Microsoft has released Office for iPad, proving several years of rumors to be true. Office for iPad brings Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to Apple tablets for the first time, following on from Office landing on the iPhone in 2013. Office for iPad is free to download and certain features are available at no extra charge. However, if you want to edit documents rather...


Read the full article: Office For iPad, NSA Database, Twitter Billboard, Google Naps [Tech News Digest]



Google Latitude and Knowledge Graph



Google Latitude was the name of a Google product. When you search for [google latitude], Google now shows the physical coordinates of its headquarters.






This is powered by Knowledge Graph and it's no limited to the Googleplex. It also works for [pentagon latitude], [tour eiffel coordinates] and more.

Google Docs Adds-Ons For Students: These 5 Will Help You Write A Paper



google-docs-addon

Word-processing for students has long been the domain of Microsoft Word. The recent release of add-ons is making Google Docs an appealing free option. The five add-ons we are about to meet have the potential to become quick favorites for people working on research papers, essays, and collaborative projects. But, are they good enough to make Google Docs the go-to option? Google Docs won’t be toppling Word from the top of the heavy-duty text-editing list anytime soon, but add-ons like these will help keep it in the list of best alternatives to Office. It will make it more attractive for...


Read the full article: Google Docs Adds-Ons For Students: These 5 Will Help You Write A Paper



Rearrange Apps in Google's Navigation Menu



Google's navigation menu now lets you rearrange apps using drag and drop. You can now personalize the app launcher, just like you can drag and drop apps in Chrome's app launcher. Unfortunately, you can't add other Google services.





Google Contextual Search



Chrome Beta for Android has a flag called "Enable contextual search". You can find it by opening a new tab, pasting this in the address bar: chrome://flags/#contextual-search and pressing Enter. If you click "Enable" and "Relaunch now" at the bottom of the page, you'll enable this strange feature.






What happens after enabling the feature? Tap a word from a page and Google will display it at the bottom of the page next to other surrounding words and a Google logo. Tap the logo and Chrome sends you to an internal Google page you can't access. The URL starts with: http://ift.tt/1foDdTD and includes the word you've tapped, the context and the URL of the page.



It's not clear what's the goal of this feature, but I assume that Google might show some search results related to the words you've selected and the context.



{ Thanks, Jérôme Flipo. }

The Best of Gmail



Gmail shows an interesting ad for the mobile Gmail app. I spotted the promotional message in the Gmail sidebar: "The official Gmail app. The best of Gmail is only available in the official app. Try it now".






When clicking "Try it now", Gmail shows this inline box with 3 options to get the right Gmail app for your device: sending a link by SMS, scanning a QR code or visiting gmail.com/app on your mobile device.








Facing Writer’s Block? Get The Ideas Flowing With These 3 Daily Rituals



idea-maze

With just a few regular activities, writers can reduce their constant struggle for ideas. Writing is as much about coming up with a good idea as it is about articulating it. But we all know how elusive such ideas can be. Their hide-and-seek tactics have left us with the pesky writer’s block. Some writers live in fear of it, while some others dismiss it as a myth. The bottom line is that the lack of good ideas is one issue many writers face in common. Thankfully, you can overcome it with something as simple as a daily ritual. Here are...


Read the full article: Facing Writer’s Block? Get The Ideas Flowing With These 3 Daily Rituals



27 March 2014

Google Play Music Match



How to tell if a song from Google Play Music was uploaded from your computer or it was simply matched with a copy from Google's servers? Click the 3-dot icon next to the song's name in the desktop interface and see if you can find a menu item called "fix incorrect match". If so, you'll listen to Google's version of the song.






"In order to upload your music quickly, Google Play matches your music files with copies on our server. Occassionally we might match with the wrong song. Report the problem here and the song will be corrected to use your copy instead of the matched copy," mentions Google's dialog.






If you click "fix match", you'll get this message: "Please make sure that the computer where you keep this song is running Music Manager and is connected to the internet. The song will be uploaded again within the next day."






Google's copies have a bit rate of 320kbps, so many of your songs will be "upgraded". You can check this by clicking "edit info".





Google Play Music Mini Player and Browser Upload



There's a new experimental feature in Google Play Music Labs: it's called Google Play Music for Chrome and it lets you "control music playback with a new mini player, add your existing music collection, and download free and purchased songs without installing Music Manager."






The Labs feature only works in Chrome and it uses Native Client to bring many of the features of the Music Manager app to the browser (great news for Chrome OS users). It also lets you install a Play Music app that shows a mini player that lets you control your music.









The mini player doesn't work if you close the Play Music tab, so you still have to keep it open.






You can also upload your music directly from Chrome. You can pick your folders or use the iTunes library. By default, Google will continue to monitor your folders and upload new music.






This is the "media file permissions" dialog:






I've picked my Music folder.









You can continue to use Play Music while the files are uploaded. You can check the progress at the bottom of the window, in the left sidebar.






If you don't have a lot of files to upload, you can use drag and drop. Just drag the files the Play Music tab.






When you downloaded multiple files, for example when downloading an album, Google used to create a ZIP archive. Now you can set a download folder and all the files are automatically downloaded to that folder.









{ via Google Play }

Top 7 TV News Outlets That Accept Your Newsworthy Pictures And Videos



photography

7th July 2005 saw four bombs going off in London. It was one of the worst terror attacks on English soil. A year later, an anonymous Londoner received a citizen journalist award for his timely click of the aftermath. Broadcasters like the BBC featured his photo. The photo wasn’t a professional snap by media standards but Vicky Taylor, BBC News Interactivity editor and one of the judges in the prize jury said, I went with the pictures which were taken by people almost by chance. They did not set out to photograph an event, it just happened in front of...


Read the full article: Top 7 TV News Outlets That Accept Your Newsworthy Pictures And Videos



Turkey Twitter War, Gmail Snooping, BlackBerry Leaks, MS-DOS Secrets [Tech News Digest]



twitter-typography

Today in Tech News Digest, Twitter at war with Turkey, Google reading your Gmail, BlackBerry attacking leakers, Sony revealing Project Morpheus, Google comparing foodstuffs, MS-DOS giving up its secrets. Twitter At War With Turkish Government The best responses to Turkey’s Twitter ban: http://t.co/YeQqs4HxoM http://ift.tt/1p3Dimf — HootSuite (@hootsuite) March 26, 2014 Turkey recently banned Twitter, with the Turkish government deciding the social media site was a disruptive influence on the country’s citizens. Twitter isn’t giving up without a fight, however, and is taking decisive action to try and get the ban overturned. In an official blog post, Twitter spells out what...


Read the full article: Turkey Twitter War, Gmail Snooping, BlackBerry Leaks, MS-DOS Secrets [Tech News Digest]