The Top 20 Social Media Apps and Sites in 2019

Do you want to make sure you’re using the best social media apps? After all, there are now so many vying for your attention, it can be difficult choosing between them all. To help you out, we have compiled a list of the top social media sites in 2019.

1. Facebook

Let’s start with the obvious choices. For all its faults (and there are a lot of them), Facebook is still comfortably the most popular social media network in the world.

With more than 2 billion users, it’s the place to go if you want to easily connect with most of the people from your current or former life.

2. Instagram

If you’re more interested in looking at images and short video clips, Instagram might be the best social network for you. 35 percent of American adults have an account.

Perhaps unfairly, the network has developed a reputation for being superficial and full of selfies. If you dig past the junk, you can find stunning photography, incredible artwork, and plenty more.

3. Twitter

Twitter is another network that’s received a considerable amount of negative coverage. The 280-character limit (formerly 140 characters) doesn’t exactly promote reasoned debate, and the presence of millions of fake bots only serves to erode the experience further.

However, if you want breaking news, instant reactions, and access to your favorite sports stars, celebrities, and journalists, Twitter is an unrivaled resource.

4. LinkedIn

LinkedIn provides social networking for professionals. As the site has grown, it’s become one of the best ways to build your CV, find a new job, and network within your professional circles.

5. Snapchat

Snapchat is almost exclusively a young person’s hangout; you’re unlikely to find your grandma with an account. The site revolves around sharing self-destructing images and videos, though there’s also a messaging feature and lots of gamification features.

6. Tumblr

Tumblr is what happens when the worlds of social networking and blogging collide. You can post text, photos, videos, and other media content onto your blog page, which other users can then follow.

The network also supports HTML editing; if you’re skilled enough, you can completely customize the look and layout of your page. You can even use your own custom domain name.

Tumblr is now (supposedly) safe for minors. Prior to an outright ban in December 2018, estimates suggested up to 22 percent of the site’s traffic was pornographic in nature.

7. Pinterest

Pinterest is best described as an image bookmarking site (though it also supports GIFs and videos). You can add images to your own public or private boards, follow other users and boards, and comment on pins.

The site is excellent if you’re looking for inspiration for a DIY project or you need something to spark a creative idea in your head.

8. Sina Weibo

Sina Weibo is China’s answer to Twitter. With more than 400 million users, it is one of the most popular social networks in the world.

The Chinese government heavily censors the site, but if you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the Far East, it is worth signing up.

9. Reddit

Billed as the front page of the internet, Reddit is part discussion forum, part content submission site. Users can upvote and downvote posts to help influence what is popular at any given moment.

The site is divided into subreddits. They cover almost every subject matter you can think of. If you have a niche hobby, Reddit is a great place to find like-minded people.

For a good insight into Reddit, check out our list of fascinating subreddits guaranteed to blow your mind.

10. TikTok

TikTok is one of the world’s newest social media apps. It is trying to fill the space that Vine left behind after its shutdown.

There’s clearly a significant demand for short-form video; TikTok was the world’s most-downloaded app in the first quarter of 2018.

11. Ask.fm

Ask.fm is a question-and-answer site. Users submit queries and anyone can jump in and offer their thoughts.

The site used to be anonymous, but the suicides of two British teenagers after they were allegedly cyberbullied forced a much-needed rethink.

12. VKontakte

VKontakte is the Russian equivalent of Facebook; it is the most popular site in the country.

The network shares many of the same features as its American counterpart, including groups, pages, private messaging, event management, image tagging, and in-app games.

13. Flickr

Flickr is primarily a photo-hosting site. There are free and paid options. The free option used to provide 1TB of space, but at the start of 2019, the company reduced it to 1,000 images.

Users can comment, share, and like photos the photos that they appreciate.

14. Meetup

Meetup straddles the divide between an online social network and a real-life social network. You can use the online tools to find groups and events that match your interests, then turn up to the group’s next meetup.

If you live in a big city, the available meetups can be as diverse as sports teams to language learning groups. In more rural areas, the choices can be more limited.

15. InterNations

If you’re an expat, you should have an account on InterNations. The site lets you find other people in your city who match your language, interests, or line of work.

Like Meetup, there are plenty of physical events you can attend. Alternatively, you can just use the site to ask questions and gain insights about your adopted home.

16. XING

XING is a popular alternative to LinkedIn in mainland Europe. The site offers profiles, groups, events, discussion forums, and community features.

If you want to use the advanced search feature, you will need to pay a monthly fee.

17. Nextdoor

Nextdoor is a neighborhood-based social network. It has strict privacy controls, meaning only people who live in your area can join your neighborhood’s specific group.

If you’re looking for a way to manage neighborhood watch schemes, organize local bring-and-buys, or just keep everyone abreast of the local community’s news, you need Nextdoor in your life.

18. Tinder

Are you looking for love? Then Tinder is an app worth exploring. The social media platform is full of single users looking to meet up and spend a few hours together. And who knows what could happen next.

19. Foursquare

Foursquare is a location-based social media app. You can use it to find places of interest, restaurants, events, and other nearby locations when you’re out and about.

Of course, the location-based aspect means the app faces lots of privacy questions. This means it might not be right for you.

20. Myspace

Yes, Myspace is still alive. Today, Myspace is a music-themed social network. In many ways, it’s filled the void left by Spotify after the Swedish company stripped away the app’s best social features.

Myspace lets you both listen to music and chat about it with other users.

Even More Social Networks to Explore

There are thousands of social media apps in the world. There are so many that this list has barely scratched the surface.

If you’d like to learn about even more social networks, here are the niche social networks to use instead of Facebook and a list of the best Twitter alternatives.

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The 5 Best Spotlight Alternatives for Searching Mac Files and More

Spotlight search has been a trusty and reliable assistant to Mac users for years. You can look up files, perform basic calculations, keep tabs on the weather, and search a whole lot more by simply hitting the iconic Cmd + Space shortcut. And while Apple has consistently updated it, Spotlight still has a few features missing.

Thankfully, the competition has caught up. If you’ve found Spotlight lacking or want to try a new universal search for your Mac, here are the best alternatives.

1. Alfred

Think of Alfred as Spotlight on steroids. It retains the efficiency of macOS’s native tool, but comes with a vastly superior set of capabilities. The draw of Alfred lies in its customizability. You can tweak nearly every aspect of it and search your computer or the web however you want. That includes overhauling the appearance with themes, create custom phrases for searching specific files, and more.

If you spend enough time learning its core functionalities, Alfred can be an incredibly powerful utility. You can build workflows to perform repetitive tasks through a single command without having to code anything. The app has an active community and marketplace from where you can download and integrate new extensions.

For instance, installing the Slack add-on will allow you to search your conversations and files right from Alfred. Similarly, you can browse through your passwords on 1Password and LastPass.

For people who are heavily dependent on their browser, Alfred can be a sophisticated web searching tool as well. While the essentials are free to use, you’ll have to pay to unlock most of Alfred’s advanced features.

Download: Alfred (Free, premium version available)

2. Find Any File

Spotlight’s ability to scour your computer for a file is sufficient for the majority of users. But if you’re someone looking for a more comprehensive platform, try Find Any File.

Find Any File comes with a multitude of filters you can employ to search your drives. So for instance, you can specify a keyword the file name should end with. It lets you combine multiple fragments like this as well to narrow down the criteria even further.

In addition, Find Any File takes advantage of your machine’s file system drivers to execute queries more quickly. The app can even extract results from inside packages and bundles, which is entirely absent from Spotlight.

Find Any File also gives you a file management window so you can manually browse the directory, unlike Spotlight which directly opens the file. The one feature where Spotlight takes the lead is that Find Any File cannot fetch results from a file’s content.

Find Any File, of course, is not a Spotlight replacement. But if you are hunting down lost files more often than not, it’s the way to go.

Download: Find Any File (Free, premium version available)

3. LaunchBar

While the rest of these apps guide you to the right location, LaunchBar wants you to carry out your task entirely at the search bar. It does so through intelligent links and sub-interfaces.

So for instance, say you’d like to copy a file to another folder. All you need to do is fire up LaunchBar and locate the file. Once LaunchBar has pulled it up, you can press the Tab key and begin typing the destination folder’s name. Finally, hit Enter. Just like that, you can go through folders or view a file’s details, right from LaunchBar itself.

LaunchBar has a ton of other handy tools you won’t find on Spotlight. There’s also a clipboard manager, emoji search, and like Alfred, third-party extensions. LaunchBar has a free trial, after which you will have to pay a one-time fee.

Download: LaunchBar (Free trial, $29)

4. Ueli

If you only want a little more control and personalization options over Spotlight, Ueli is for you.

Ueli is largely identical to Spotlight both in looks and functionality. But it builds on top of the default option with a bunch of supplementary features such as custom abbreviations, themes, terminal integration, and more.

With Ueli, you can also execute system commands (like restarting) from the search bar. And of course, it provides access to all the standard trappings like web search, file lookup, and similar.

Unlike Spotlight, Ueli easily lets you search through different engines too. To use DuckDuckGo, you can type d before the query to automatically grab results from DuckDuckGo instead of Google. Ueli is also completely open source and free of charge.

Download: Ueli (Free)

5. Butler

Butler is for those who value flexibility and a large amount of options more than anything else. It doesn’t have any attractive themes or even a modern design. Butler excels in its extensive array of services.

You have a dense dashboard where all your configured triggers and actions are laid out. You can personalize each of them and set up new ones exactly as you like them. What’s more, you’ll find a series of other nifty tools like a clipboard manager, a Mac menu bar navigation shortcut, and custom phrases.

Butler has nearly every feature you can think of, so there’s a steep learning curve if you’d like to master it. Like most on this list, Butler is not free. After getting started with a free trial, the app charges a $20 fee.

Download: Butler (Free trial, $20)

Do More With Spotlight on Mac

There’s clearly no shortage of Spotlight alternatives for Mac. And while the majority of them offer a ton of extra features, native tools are always more reliable.

If you tried any of the aforementioned apps and they ended up hampering your computer’s performance, you can fall back to Spotlight. To ensure you get the best experience, supercharge your Spotlight experience with some tips and tricks.

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7 Unity Game Development Languages to Learn: Which Is Best?

Developing games has never been easier. Game development platforms like Unity make it possible to create everything from simple 2D platformers to fully detailed 3D first-person shooters. Unity is free to small developers, and there is a wealth of tutorials on how best to use the editor to prototype your ideas.

Learning how to use the Unity program will only get you so far. The real core of your game will be the code that determines its behavior. Working out which language to learn for game development can be hard—but in the case of Unity, it’s simple.

1. The Best Choice: C#

For anyone starting with Unity, or anyone with previous knowledge of object-oriented programming, C# is the right language to learn for Unity. In fact, C# is the only language worth learning for the platform, and with good reason.

Unity uses Mono, which is a cross-platform implementation of Microsoft’s .NET framework. C# is the primary language of .NET, and all of Unity’s libraries are built using C# code. To say that C# is the language of Unity would not be an exaggeration. Unity has made it clear that they consider C# to be the only language for use with the engine going forward.

This is good news, as C# is a powerful language and easy to learn. Unity is just one of many good reasons to learn C#, and if you are a beginner, you may even find it more accessible. Developing games gives structure to learning, and project-based goals lead to greater understanding of new subjects.

With the introduction of the C# job system and ECS, Unity is pushing what can be done with C# further and further, and the new Burst compiler make it faster than ever before.

2. The Current Alternative: JavaScript

Unity also supports JavaScript—known as UnityScript. Since release, JavaScript has sat side-by-side with C# as a fully featured Unity development language. The Unity scripting reference had example code in both C# and JavaScript for most elements of the library.

This was useful for developers coming from a JavaScript background as despite differences in the way code was structured they could use familiar syntax. There was, however, a problem.

While UnityScript seems similar to JavaScript—it’s not. UnityScript has classes, something which JavaScript doesn’t. Features of JavaScript like multiple variable declaration and optional semi-colons are not available in UnityScript.

Perhaps crucially, searching for JavaScript help on Unity projects has always caused confusion as most people referred to it as JavaScript rather than UnityScript. Results for both web design and game development blurred together, and the difference between the languages was a point of contention to pure JavaScript developers.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Unity announced they were going to withdraw support for UnityScript, and there is now a timeline in place to decommission it. You can still use JavaScript with Unity, but knowing it’s going to come to an end, why would you?

3. The Old Third Choice: Boo

In the early days of Unity, there was the option of using Boo—a Python-like language. This is perhaps unsurprising as Rodrigo B. De Oliveira, Boo’s designer, worked for Unity. The language is compatible with .NET and Mono and would be fully implemented with the game engine. What went wrong?

Not enough people used it, likely assuming it was merely trying to imitate Python. Over time, Unity dropped support for Boo, and the upcoming changes to UnityScript will render all old Boo scripts useless in Unity. Some might see this as a missed opportunity, as Boo was a great attempt at Python-like syntax for .NET programming.

Lovers of Python do have another option, however.

4. The Odd Choice: IronPython

If you want to develop games, Python is probably not the language for you, but it is possible. In his Microsoft Developer Community blog, Charlie Calvert outlines how to run Python from C#— but it’s not for the faint-hearted. Almost ten years later, IronPython is still in active development.

In short, you will need to download the IronPython libraries from GitHub and reference them in your C# project. This will allow you to call Python scripts from C# scripts much like you would any other library. IronPython also allows for calling .NET libraries from Python. As useful as this sounds, since Unity relies on C# this functionality doesn’t help.

IronPython—and IronRuby, it’s sister project linking C# with the Ruby programming language—are fantastic projects, but they aren’t practical for use with Unity.

5. The Interesting Choice: Lua

One of the better implementations of an external language for Unity is MoonSharp—a Lua interpreter. This project isn’t designed to replace C# as a language, more act as a bridge. The perfect use case for MoonSharp would be to add in a way for players of your game to create game mods in the Lua language.

You could also use it to describe objects and design levels separately from your core game code.

If you are already coding in C# and looking for an interesting way to interface with your code, MoonSharp is worth consideration. Since it is available for free on Unity’s Asset store, you can import it directly into your projects.

6. Best Language for Plugins: C/C++

Despite the robust Unity library and all the available tools C# gives, sometimes you may want your own plugins. The main reasons people opt for plugins include speed, or access to a codebase already written in another language. Building these scripts into DLL plugins saves remaking code and can improve performance in some cases.

In most cases, C++ will be the language used for plugin creation, but C would work equally well. So long as the code builds into a DLL, it can be placed in Unity’s plugin folder and referenced in code. The likelihood is, however, if you are already comfortable coding in C/C++, that learning C# would be a relatively simple task!

7. New Language for Plugins: Rust

Rust is a language with a lot of buzz around it. Experienced programmers love it for the incredible amount of control it gives while avoiding the pitfalls of writing in less safe languages like C++. Rust was created by Mozilla in 2009, as a way for developers to develop high-performance software quickly.

While it isn’t possible to write Rust in Unity directly, you can access functions and methods written in Rust from your Unity code. Jim Fleming covers how to do it in detail in his post on Medium.

If this seems familiar, it’s because this is another way to create Native Plugins. By leveraging Rust’s ability to interface with other languages, you can call Rust functions directly from C# code using Unity’s DllImport attribute. Naturally, there are several steps in between, and reading Jim’s follow up post along with gaining a good understanding of FFIs (foreign function interfaces) is advised!

A Simple Choice

Unity’s attitude to any language that isn’t C# is clear, and the constant improvements to Unity rely on this single-mindedness. Couple this with Microsoft’s continued improvement of C# as a language, and learning C# for Unity game development is a no-brainer.

This isn’t your only option though, Unity is only one engine, and there are plenty of game development software options to choose from.

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How to Manage Your Photos on Linux Like a Pro

Linux photo management isn’t nearly as difficult as it used to be. Still, with smartphones in nearly everyone’s pocket, we’re all taking more photos than ever. That means you need a strategy for managing your photos effectively.

How you can manage your photos best depends on whether you’re mainly using a smartphone or an actual camera for the bulk of your photos. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered in either case.

Importing Your Photos

How you import your photos is going to depend heavily on how you store them in the first place. If you’re using a standard camera, the best way to import is directly from your SD card. Simply pop the SD card out of your camera and mount it as you would any other drive.

Rather than copying and pasting, you might want to use a photo downloader. Rapid Photo Downloader not only copies your photos but also generates file and folder names for you. Developed by photographer Damon Lynch, Rapid Photo Downloader is free and runs on Gnome, KDE, Unity, and other desktops.

If you’re using a smartphone to take your photos, your best bet is likely to use a cloud storage service (see below). If your phone uses a microSD card, you can also use Rapid Photo Downloader as mentioned above. Alternatively, connect it to your PC via USB.

Editing Your Photos

Once you’ve got your photos imported, chances are you’ll have to make some edits at some point. This could something as simple as cropping out a stranger from a vacation photo, or something more in-depth like retouching elements to remove red-eye.

The type of software you use will depend on the kind of edits you need to make. If all you need to do is crop or resize a photo, that’s a simple process. If you’re looking for more information on how to do this, we already have a guide on how to easily crop and resize images on Linux.

Looking to do more advanced edits? Don’t worry, you have plenty of options. GIMP is the go-to image editing tool for many Linux users, but it’s not the only option.

Krita is one GIMP alternative that we’ve looked at before. If you’re a KDE user, you should definitely check this one out, but it’s worth a look regardless of what desktop you use.

Similar to importing photos, many larger photo management apps also include built-in editing tools. Don’t worry, we’ll be moving on to this very subject in the next part of this article.

Managing and Organizing Your Photo Library

There are a lot of photo management apps available for Linux. There are so many, in fact, that we’ve got an entire article dedicated to software for managing your photos on Linux. We’ll be going over a few of the more popular options here.

Shotwell is one of the more popular options, especially among Gnome users. This app lets you organize your photos by tags, folders, time and date, and other options. The app is also incredibly full-featured, with built-in functionality for importing your photos as well as editing them.

Darktable is another great option. Created by photographers for photographers, Darktable focuses on providing tools for those who shoot their photos in the RAW format. The app features non-destructive editing, meaning you can make as many changes as you want while retaining the ability to go back to the original if you make a mistake.

Of course, you don’t necessarily need a full-featured app to manage your photo library. You don’t even need an app at all if you don’t want to use one.

Instead, you can just keep your images organized on your hard drive the way you typically organize files. This has the benefit of simplicity, and you can always keep your images synced with a cloud service. We’ll explore this in the next section.

If you’re looking to move in the other direction, you could try Lychee. This app lets you set up a photo server of your own, either on your own computer or on the internet. If you’re wary of cloud storage after seeing too many cloud services shut down over the years, this option could be perfect for you.

Storing and Syncing Your Photos

Once you’ve got your photos imported, edited, and organized, it’s time to think about storage. While you can just keep them on your hard drive, that doesn’t exactly make them easy to share.

While you could try Lychee, you might just want to opt for cloud storage. Dropbox is ubiquitous and works well on Linux. Google Photos is a popular choice as well, especially among Android users.

If you want to use Google Photos, you can even access your photos on your computer via Google Drive. If you’re wondering how to do this, our guide on how to access Google Drive on Ubuntu can be applied to other distributions.

Not a fan of cloud storage? You’ll still want to keep a copy of your photos somewhere else to keep them safe. Simply copying them to an external hard drive every now and then works, but it’s not fool-proof. If you’re taking this route, you’ll want to back up often, using more than one drive.

It All Starts With Great Photos

The above strategies should at least be a good start to get you effortless managing your photos on Linux. That said, managing your photos like a pro doesn’t do you any good if none of your photos actually look good.

A good subject and a decent camera help, but that’s not all you need for fantastic photos. Take a look at our guide for an idea of mistakes to avoid when taking photos to make sure yours turn out great.

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Who Invented the First Computer and When? We Investigate

The Best Free Audio Editing Software

Editing audio can be a challenging task. Seemingly simple tasks may hide behind layers of abstraction, and with some audio editing software costing upwards of $1,000, it’s easy to get flustered.

Luckily, there are different kinds of audio editor to suit each user. Not only that, but so many of them are free that there is likely a wallet-saving solution out there for you. This article covers the best free audio editing software available right now.

1. The Best Simple Online Audio Editor: HYA-WAVE

HYA-WAVE is a stripped down sound editor designed for recording and editing short samples in your web browser. Once imported into the HYA-WAVE editor, audio can be cut and reordered before export. Many effects are also available for changing your sound.

This bare-bones editor is perfect for boosting or compressing quick voice recordings, or for adding a special effect to a previously recorded sample. Since HYA-WAVE works through HTML5, no account is needed—simply type in the address and start working!

2. The Best Multitrack Online Editor: Soundation

Soundation pushes the definition of a browser-based audio editor. It fits into the territory of a fully functional Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Multi-track audio editing is non-destructive, and a selection of effects and MIDI instruments are available for full-scale music production.

This DAW isn’t just for tunes though. Dynamic mixing and EQ across multiple tracks makes it perfect for podcasting, sound effects, and general purpose sound work. Soundation’s free version limits the export audio quality and doesn’t feature automation. The full version is available via monthly subscription. However, for most audio editing the free version will be sufficient.

3. The Best All Round Audio Editor: Audacity

Audacity commands huge respect as a piece of free audio software. Used by beginners and professionals alike, there is little it cannot do. It is a firm favorite in the podcasting community, due to its free price tag and quick workflow. Almost every file format imaginable works with Audacity, and simple tasks like cutting and pasting audio clips or recordings are easy to do.

More complicated manipulation is available by using multiple tracks and effects. Audacity has an extensive built-in library of effects ranging from simple reverb to the alien sounding Paulstretch. Alongside high-level audio editing, Audacity can even import images and place effects on them to create crazy glitch art!

Download: Audacity (Windows, Mac, and Linux)

4. The Best Simple Audio Editor: Ashampoo Music Studio 2018

Ashampoo Music Studio 2018 is simple to use, and perfect for no-nonsense editing. Aimed more at people honing their digital music collection than typical audio editor users, it offers simple cutting and conversion of most file formats.

Recording Audio in a variety of formats is also made easy with a simple user interface, and no hard-to-navigate settings menus. Ashampoo also has a Video-2-Music setting designed to strip the audio from your favorite movies, along with a Playlist and Mixtape generator for making collections of your favorite tunes.

Download: Ashampoo (Windows)

5. The Best Audio Editor for Mac: Garageband

A surprisingly powerful audio processor might be right under your nose—or more accurately in your dock. If you are a macOS user, you likely have heard of Garageband. It’s easy to see it as a musician’s tool, but the same ideas which go into mixing instruments and vocals can also work for advanced audio editing.

Garageband’s design is to be a user-friendly equivalent of a professional DAW. Features like fading in and out, normalizing audio to make it all the same volume, and cutting and pasting blocks of audio are all simple to achieve.

Using an editor like Garageband may seem like overkill for simple audio editing. It is a skill worth learning, however, and there are YouTube tutorials for every level of experience.

Download: Garageband (Mac)

6. The Best Cross Platform Editor: Ocenaudio

Ocenaudio is a research project from the Federal University of Santa Catarina. Why is this important? It means that this audio editor is made for efficient-yet-straightforward tasks by design. Powerful enough to deal with large audio files, detailed enough to produce accurate spectrographs of recordings, and solid whether installed on Windows, macOS, or Linux.

What does this mean for you? An easy-to-use, cross-platform audio editor. Whether you need to do some quick touch up work on an audio recording, or deep frequency analysis, Ocenaudio is flexible and free to use. As a bonus, the software supports Virtual Studio Technology (VST) effects, and there are some great free VST effects you should try out.

Download: Ocenaudio (Windows, Mac, and Linux)

7. The Best Audio Editor for Musicians: Reaper

Reaper is well respected by everyone in digital music. Throughout its years of development, it has kept pace with huge commercial editors and retained its small price tag. Free to try, with a trial period that never ends, many consider Reaper free software.

Reaper is typically used to create music which mixes audio with MIDI and other digital production. Musicians will be at home with the software, but songwriting or music production ability is not a prerequisite as there are many beginner tutorials available.

From a purely audio editing point of view, Reaper is capable of anything from podcasting to fully fledged movie and video game soundtracks. Alongside a robust non-destructive timeline, Reaper has its own VST library with professional grade effects to help create a polished sound.

Download: Reaper (Windows, Mac, and Linux)

Tips to Help You Record Better Audio

The right audio editor for you depends on what you want to edit, and any of the audio editing software listed here could be right for the job. Your audio must be of a high quality to begin with, however, and learning some tips to help you record better audio will help your finished product sound more polished.

Years of open source development have given us more choice than ever in terms of fully featured creative software. And as a result, as well as audio, there are some fantastic free video editors for Windows worth checking out as well.

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Linux Software for Kids: 8 Fun and Educational Linux Software

Kids love a bit of tech, especially if it lets them play games or watch their favorite YouTubers safely. Getting them to enjoy the kind of tech that helps them to learn, however, is a whole tougher challenge, but who said educational software had to be boring?

Thanks to the kind of fun, free and educational software you can find on Linux, it doesn’t have to be. Let’s run through eight of the best examples.

1. TuxMath

Not every child in the world has a natural interest or ability in mathematics, but TuxMath helps to overcome this. It’s designed to help children learn math in the style of a space-themed arcade game, practicing their skills in short gaming sessions.

TuxMath is actually part of a wider suite of games and programs aimed at kids, and while it doesn’t win awards in 2019 for its outdated interface, it’s a very effective tool in the battle to help kids learn (and learn to love) math, especially if traditional learning doesn’t suit them. It’s fast-paced, so kids won’t have time to worry about wrong answers.

The style of the game is simple—the player is faced with math questions which, if they answer correctly, allows them to shoot down asteroids. As the game moves forward, the questions get harder and more difficult to help test their math knowledge and boost their confidence.

TuxMath is great for visual learners looking to improve their math skills outside of a textbook.

Download: TuxMath

2. Childsplay

Childsplay isn’t one game for kids—it’s actually 14 activities for younger children to help teach and reinforce basic skills, from learning the alphabet and basic numbers to training digital skills like typing and using a mouse.

There’s plenty of variety in Childsplay. An educational version of Pac-Man teaches kids how to spell and pronounce certain words, while a memory matching game helps to improve recall while teaching numbers.

Thanks to reporting software and integration with SQL databases, you can also integrate Childsplay into a school environment and track the progress of multiple children, making it a great tool for pre-school teachers.

Download: Childsplay

3. KStars

The stars are wonderous, so why not teach children about them? KStars teaches the stars to children for free. It simulates the night sky from anywhere on the planet, showing no less than 100 million stars in the night sky to astronomy-loving kids.

You can also see up close different constellations, planets, comets, and other bodies (well known and obscure). It’s not just a simulation tool, however. You can also use it for real-life astronomy, with a planning tool for observing different stars in real life.

KStars also includes Ekos, a tool for controlling telescopes and digital cameras for automatic photography to help you create your own home observatory of the stars.

Download: KStars

4. Scratch

It’s never too early to get a child interested in coding. Learning the basics early helps provide a solid foundation for more advanced programming languages later, which is why Scratch is the perfect tool for kids who want to learn how to code.

Rather than trying to teach using text, Scratch uses colorful graphics to create basic programming routines and animations; you can even create your own Mario game if you want to.

There’s also a massive community of ideas and projects for budding coders looking for inspiration.

Download: Scratch

5. Minuet

Not every child has a love for technical subjects like math or science, so what about the arts? Minuet appeals to children with musical talent.

It’s a full suite of musical training activities designed to help kids improve their musical skills. Learners listen to music samples to help them learn chords, scales, and musical intervals. For educators, Minuet is extendible with your own pre-tailored exercises for learners, making it a good tool for the classroom.

Minuet isn’t just aimed at beginners. It’s got exercises and settings that are customizable for any skill set, and if you’re a visual learner, the on-screen piano helps learners visualize the music as it’s performed.

Download: Minuet

6. GCompris

Aimed at younger children, GCompris is another set of games and activities rolled into one complete package. The active development team is regularly updating GCompris with new games and challenges for children on every topic imaginable, including games that focus on history, math, science, geography, and digital skills.

There are over 100 games and challenges for kids to work through, in 15 different languages. The games are colorful and well thought out for younger children, with helpful tips to explain some of the tougher challenges.

GCompris is perfect for parents looking to boost the skills and confidence of a younger child at home.

Download: GCompris

7. Sugar

Sugar isn’t just a set of activities; it’s an interactive learning environment for kids. Everything is based around the Sugar interface—it’s designed to run on a USB memory stick (thanks to the Sugar on a Stick distro), or as part of a standard installation of Fedora or Ubuntu.

Children working on Sugar are able to look back on their progress using the portfolio and journal sections. It’s got activities to teach typing, basic coding, painting, math, and geography, to name but a few. Everything a child does when they’re using Sugar gets saved into the journal and portfolio sections, making it easy to review a child’s progress over time.

It’s a great Linux distro to install for kids, especially if you’re looking to install it on a Raspberry Pi.

Download: Sugar

8. Kano

Kano isn’t just a Linux operating system for kids. It’s actually part of a coding kit for young programmers to learn how to code while building their own projects. They even get to build the computer they use before they start learning.

Kano is definitely one of the most refined packages for teaching any kind of tech to kids that I’ve ever seen. Children get to learn about the basics of what makes a computer work, using a Raspberry Pi as a base. The bespoke Kano OS Linux distro is colorful and easy to use, regardless of ability.

You get apps like Scratch pre-installed, along with other apps for making games or art. If you want to take Kano further, there are hundreds of other games and apps available to install. You can also buy add ons for motion sensing and Harry Potter-style wand waving.

If you want your child to really embrace the experience, Kano’s Story Mode turns the entire OS into a game, with different areas representing different apps to teach them programming skills, or in the case of the Terminal Quest app, basic Linux skills.

Download: Kano (Third-party kit required)

Linux: Fun for Kids, Safe for Learning

These Linux educational tools allow kids to enjoy learning safely, without the worry of cost for parents or educators. Free learning doesn’t discriminate, either—children of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities can use these tools to make a difference in their lives.

If you’re not sure which program to try first, decide which is best, based on their purpose:

1. TuxMath, for improving math skills
2. Childsplay, for younger children
3. KStars, for budding astronomers
4. Scratch, for basic programming
5. Minuet, for young musicians
6. GCompris, for younger children
7. Sugar, for a complete educational experience
8. Kano, for coders and project builders

Once children catch the learning bug, the sky’s the limit. These educational games for Chrome can help support a child’s learning even further, whichever platform you prefer.

Read the full article: Linux Software for Kids: 8 Fun and Educational Linux Software

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7 Must-Have Chrome Extensions for Web Designers

As a web designer, what’s the software you absolutely must have on your computer? The chances are it’s Photoshop and Illustrator. And while those are the essentials of your design workflow, there are smaller tools you probably don’t know you need.

The best thing is, you don’t even have to download them—just install these Chrome extensions and away you go. From identifying fonts on pages to measuring distances between web elements, these web design Chrome extensions will make your life easier.

1. Dropbox for Gmail

Dropbox started out as a file hosting service, but it soon discovered its major audience is designers, who use the service to share their work with colleagues. Because design files are often too big for email attachments, it’s easier to send a Dropbox link to the file.

Dropbox for Gmail makes the process even more convenient. When you link to your file using a Dropbox button at the bottom of the new email window, the recipient gets a sneak peek of what you’re sending. Links to image files will upload the images right to the email, and links to other types of files will generate a handy preview.

Install: Dropbox for Gmail

2. FontFace Ninja

With thousands of fonts available, your typography possibilities are endless. Especially if you can identify a beautiful font you see somewhere and borrow it for your own project.

FontFace Ninja is a Chrome extension that helps you do just that. Much like the tools that find fonts from images it helps you identify the fonts you see online. The only difference is that FontFace Ninja reads the fonts coded into the page’s CSS, like the typeface of headings and body text.

When you launch FontFace Ninja, it will show you the information on the font you direct it to—and not only the typeface, but also the weight, size, height, width, and color. To bookmark that font, you’ll need an account at the sister service, FontFace Dojo.

Install: FontFace Ninja

3. ColorPick Eyedropper

No matter how good an eye for color you have, it’s hard to recreate a particular shade you saw online unless you know its RGB or HTML values. Luckily, you don’t have to guess if you have ColorPick Eyedropper.

Like the best color picker apps for Mac, ColorPick Eyedropper will show you the values for any color you point at. The difference being that it’s always there in your browser and you don’t have to upload anything—just click on the icon and move the target to the right spot.

The extension reads colors from text, images, and pretty much anything you might see on a web page (even the ads). Once you capture a color, it shows you the HTML, RGB, and HSL values for it.

Install: ColorPick Eyedropper

4. Dimensions

This open-source extension is a find for web designers, especially if you do one-time gigs for small businesses. When a client hands you down a website without any previous files or documentation and asks you to design “a page like this, but with different text and images,” figuring out the layout is a pain.

Dimensions lets you easily measure the height and width of any element on the page, as well as the margins between them. That makes it easy to recreate existing pages and double-check your own designs after they go into production.

Install: Dimensions

5. Visual Inspector

Visual Inspector is a powerful feedback and collaboration tool for design teams, combining the features of the previous three extensions and adding even more.

In the Inspect tab, you can pick any element on the page to get full information about it, from dimensions to the file name. The Colors and Typography subtabs let you see the color palette and all fonts at a glance, while Assets gathers all images on the page in one place.

The Collaborate tab is where you can give feedback and have discussions with your team, and it’s easy to leave a comment by clicking on any element on the page.

Like most advanced tools, Visual Inspector comes with a price tag: you’ll need to pay from $9/user/month to add comments and sync changes. However, its basic features such as inspecting colors, fonts, and images, are free to use.

Install: Visual Inspector

6. Easy Screen Capture

A screen capture extension may seem redundant, since taking a screenshot on Mac is a breeze, and capturing your screen on Windows is just a little more hassle. But Easy Screen Capture has quite a few selling points.

Most importantly, it lets you capture the entire web page, not just the area you see on your screen. That’s priceless when you need to report several issues on a long page, and capturing them all would take three to four screenshots.

Another neat trick is being able to copy the screenshot to clipboard and paste it right into a chat or an email, rather than hoard useless image files on your computer.

Install: Easy Screen Capture

7. Muzli 2

Finally, there’s one crucial task you have to deal with every morning: shaking off the remains of sleep and getting into the groove. Muzli 2 by InVision will serve as your morning newspaper with curated articles on art, design, UX, and technology.

Muzli replaces your default Chrome tab and allows you to customize what you see there. Depending on your interests, Muzli will pick feeds for you, with websites ranging from Dribble and Behance to 99designs and Creative Bloq. Plenty of inspiration to scroll through while you’re sipping your first coffee!

If you think an entire browser tab packed with design content is too intense, Muzli also has a Lite version. It won’t override your default tab, and you’ll be able to access the feed whenever you like just by clicking the extension icon.

Install: Muzli 2

Get Chrome Extensions for All Your Design Tasks

The Chrome extensions on this list are no match for your design software, but they cover all the little things that come with being a designer—be it typography intel or collaborating with your colleagues.

Once you realize that the Chrome Web Store is brimming with tools, it can be hard to stop adding new ones. So learn how to manage your Chrome extensions before they get out of hand.

Read the full article: 7 Must-Have Chrome Extensions for Web Designers

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Save Online Content For Later With Offcloud — Now 92% off

Downloading files from the web is never a quick process. On slower connections, you may be waiting hours just to save a movie. Offcloud provides a better solution — this online platform essentially gives you a downloads folder in the cloud. From this personal locker, you can then stream your media on any device. Right now, you can get lifetime service for only $49.99 at MakeUseOf Deals.

Save the Web

Normally speaking, we use the cloud to backup local files. But what about all the content that is stored online? You might want to backup your Instagram snaps or grab your favorite YouTube video before someone takes it down.

That’s what Offcloud is all about. This online platform lets you download songs from SoundCloud, movies from Vimeo, and torrents from your favorite source. In fact, Offcloud is compatible with hundreds of top file sharing sites, along with magnet links and Usenet group data.

Using Offcloud is just like downloading files onto your computer — simply enter the direct link and hit “start”. You get unlimited bandwidth and 50GB of cloud space to play with.

Everything you download, from HTML files to MP4 movies, is easy to access on desktop and mobile devices. You can even grab full web pages, or save blog posts as PDF files for later reading.

Lifetime Service for $49.99

Order now for just $49.99 to get lifetime service with Offcloud, worth $699.99.

Read the full article: Save Online Content For Later With Offcloud — Now 92% off

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YouTube under pressure to ban UK Far Right activist after livestreamed intimidation

The continued presence of a UK Far Right activist on YouTube’s platform has been raised by the deputy leader of the official opposition during ministerial questions in the House of Commons today.

Labour’s Tom Watson put questions to the secretary of state for digital, Jeremy Wright, regarding Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s use of social media for targeted harassment of journalists.

This follows an incident on Monday night when Yaxley-Lennon used social media tools to livestream himself banging on the doors and windows of a journalist’s home in the middle of the night.

“Every major social media platform other than YouTube has taken down Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s profile because of his hateful conduct,” said Watson, before recounting how the co-founder of the Far Right English Defence League — who goes by the made-up name ‘Tommy Robinson’ on social media — used social media livestreaming tools to harass journalist Mike Stuchbery on Monday night.

Stuchbery has since written about the incident for the Independent newspaper.

A journalist intimidated at home at 5am, live streamed. Women colleagues facing rape and death threats installing panic buttons. The torrent of online abuse undermines democracy and free speech. We must act to stop the online world turning into a cesspit of hate. pic.twitter.com/6G4fSjEue7

— Tom Watson (@tom_watson) March 7, 2019

As we reported on Monday, Facebook removed the livestream for violating its policies after it was reported but not before Stuchbery had received a flood of abusive messages from other Facebook users who were watching the stream online.

Yaxley-Lennon appears to have been able to circumvent Facebook’s ban on his own account to livestream his intimidation of Stuchbery via Facebook Live by using another Facebook account with a fake name (which the company appears to have since suspended).

Following the incident Stuchbery has reported receiving physical hate mail to his home address, which Yaxley-Lennon gave out during the livestream (an intimidation tactic that’s known as doxxing). He has also said he’s received further abuse online.

“Does the secretary of state think that it is right that YouTube, and the parent company Alphabet, continues to give this man a platform?” asked Watson, after highlighting another vlog Yaxley-Lennon has since uploaded to YouTube in which he warns other journalists “to expect a knock at the door”.

Wright responded by saying that “all Internet companies, all platforms for this kind of speech need to take their responsibilities seriously”.

“I hope that YouTube will consider this very carefully,” he told the House of Commons. “Consider what [Yaxley-Lennon] has said. What I have said, and reconsider their judgement.”

“We all believe in freedom of speech. But we all believe too that that freedom of speech has limits,” Wright added. “And we believe that those who seek to intimidate others, to potentially of course break the law… that is unacceptable. That is beyond the reach of the type of freedom of speech that we believe should be protected.”

We’ve reached out to YouTube for comment.

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon was banned by Facebook last month for repeat violations of its policies on hate speech. While Twitter banned Yaxley-Lennon a full year ago.

But he remains active on YouTube — where his channel has more than 350,000 subscribers.

The company has resisted calls to shutter his account, claiming the content Yaxley-Lennon posts to its platform is different to content he has posted elsewhere and thus that he has not broken any of its rules. (Though YouTube did demonetize videos on his channel in January saying they violated its ad policies.)

In a follow up question, Watson raised the issue of online harassment more widely — asking whether the government would be including measures “to prevent hate figures, extremists and their followers from turning the online world into a cesspit of hate” in its forthcoming White Paper on social media and safety, which it’s due to publish this winter — and thereby tackle a culture of hate and harassment online that he said is undermining democracy.

Wright said he would “consider” Watson’s suggestion though he stress the government must protect the ability for people to carry out robust debate online — and “to discuss issues that are sometimes uncomfortable and certainly controversial”.

But he went on to reiterate his earlier point that “no freedom of speech can survive in this country if we do not protect… people’s ability to feel free to say what they think, free of intimidation, free of the threat of violence”.

“Those who engage in intimidation or threats of violence should not find succour either online or anywhere else,” the minister added.

YouTube’s own community guidelines prohibit “harassment and cyberbullying”. So its continued silence on Yaxley-Lennon’s misuse of its tools does look inconsistent. (YouTube previously banned the InfoWars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for violating its policies, for example, and there’s more than a passing resemblance between the two ‘hate preachers’).

Moreover, as Watson noted in parliament, Yaxley-Lennon’s most recent video contains a direct threat to doorstep and doxx journalists who covered his harassment of Stuchbery. The video also contains verbal abuse targeted at Stuchbery.

In one of the livestreams recorded outside Stuchbery’s home Yaxley-Lennon can also be heard making allegations about Stuchbery’s sexual interests that the journalist has described as defamatory.

YouTube previously declined to make a statement about Yaxley-Lennon’s continued presence on its platform. It has not responded to our repeat requests for follow up comment about the issue since Monday.

We’ll update this post if it does provide a statement following the government’s call to rethink its position on giving Yaxley-Lennon a platform.

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Hooch moves beyond subscription drinks, with rewards for travel, dining and more

When we first wrote about Hooch, it offered a fun, straightforward deal — for $9.99 per month, you could claim one free drink per day from participating bars and restaurants.

Since then, the company launched Hooch Black, a pricier subscription that includes perks like hotel discounts and concierge service. But even then, co-founder and CEO Lin Dai was hinting at plans to use blockchain technology to create what he called “a decentralized model for consumer rewards.”

Now Hooch is delivering on what Dai promised, with a relaunched app that rewards users for their purchases.

“We were super excited about the feedback and response [to Hooch Black] that we saw from our members,” Dai said. “What we decided to do is just completely update the app with rewards for consumers across four different categories — travel, dining, entertainment and e-commerce.”

He noted that while most loyalty programs reward you for using a specific card or for shopping with a specific company, Hooch has partnered with more than 250,000 merchants (including Marriott hotels, TAO restaurants, Starbucks, Uber, and Amazon). The company can actually scan the purchases made on any linked debit or credit card, and you’ll be rewarded whenever you spend money with those partners.

The rewards take the form of what Hooch is calling TAP rewards dollars — the exact reward will vary depending on the merchant, but the company says it could be as high as 10 percent of your spending.

Lin Dai, CEO of Hooch

Dai said TAP dollars are actually a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, but he emphasized that you don’t need to understand the backend to use the rewards. For most users, TAP dollars will simply be a digital currency that they can redeem for hotel bookings, restaurants credits and gift cards.

“Security is our top concern,” Dai added. The idea is to access your transaction history to verify your purchases (Hooch makes money by driving purchases for merchants), but without storing or sharing identifying information. “When we capture the consumer purchase information, we actually don’t capture any of their names or credit card numbers … We don’t store any identity.”

The program also comes with a big perk for enlisting your friends. There is an upfront reward of five TAP dollars, the real selling point is the fact that you’ll get 20 percent of their rewards — not just on their initial purchases, but for the entire time they use the app.

If you like the Hooch Black plan, you’ll still be able to sign up and pay for it. But the company’s emphasis has shifted to the broader rewards program, which you can join for free.

Drink-a-day startup Hooch adds a perk-filled premium membership plan

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Podcasts, smart speakers soar as social media stalls, based on new survey

The 2019 edition of a popular annual survey shows usage of social media by Americans is stalling while ownership of smart speakers and tablets has soared over the last year, as has consumer engagement with podcasts. The results are promising for Amazon and Spotify in particular.

Earlier today, Edison Research and Triton Digital presented their Infinite Dial report with findings from a phone survey of 1,500 Americans (age 12+) during January and February. Since 1998, the report has tracked the adoption of mobile devices, social media services, and online audio.

Here are my key takeaways from it:

1. Social Media: Consistent with the trend from last year, the market for social media users appears to be saturated. The percent of Americans who say they have ever used social media is 79%, up from 78% last year but down from the 80% peak in 2017.

Among Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Twitter, only Instagram saw an increase in the percent of the population who say they use it (39% compared to 36% in 2018). Facebook lost roughly 15 million users since 2017 based on this survey data. While the majority of people age 55+ now say they use Facebook, that doesn’t make up for the drop in usage among those age 12-34 from 79% in 2017 to 67% in 2018 to 62% now.

Pinterest, which recently filed to go public, also appears to be losing popularity among that key demographic. Now only 31% of Americans in the 12-34 age group say they use the social pinning platform, compared to 36% last year, and only 1% say Pinterest is their most used social app (compared to 3% in 2015). In this context, potential competition from Instagram looks especially threatening.

2. Smart Speakers: 23% of Americans now own a smart speaker, with 16% of them owning an Amazon Alexa device (that’s more than twice the percent who own a Google Home device). Just two years ago, only 7% reported owning a smart speaker. The percent of those owners who have 3 or more devices has more than doubled from 11% last year to 26% this year as well. Many consumers are crossing a threshold from testing these speakers to making them a ubiquitous presence throughout their home.

3. Tablets: While ownership of smartphones is flat, there was a 12% year-over-year increase in the population of tablet owners from 50% of the population to 56%. According to Triton president John Rosso’s commentary, Amazon’s Fire tablet led the pack with 23% year-over-year growth.

4. Online Audio: 24% of respondents said they used Spotify and 12% said they used Amazon Music in the last month. That compares to 20% and 9%, respectively, last year and places Amazon Music on equal footing with Apple Music.

5. Podcasts: 32% of Americans are monthly podcast listeners compared to 26% in 2018, representing the largest year-over-year growth in that statistic since Infinite Dial began. The format saw a 33% surge in popularity among young people (age 12-24) from 30% listening monthly to 40% doing so.

A full 22% of Americans are weekly podcast listeners and those people consume an average of seven episodes per week. Also, in a notable symbolic shift, the majority (51%) of Americans now say they have listened to a podcast at least once.

Amazon’s gains: The explosion in smart speaker ownership is disproportionately benefiting Amazon with its Alexa devices and the same scenario is occurring in tablets with the Amazon Fire. The company is the most immediate winner in the growth of these markets.

Moreover, people who own a smart speaker are dramatically more likely to use Amazon Music as their primary music streaming service (16% vs. 9% for the general population of people who have used online audio).

This could be a mere correlation that Amazon Music has an older demographic (according to this data, it does) and smart speakers are bought by an older demographic; on the other hand, it may suggest causation that people who buy smart speakers often adopt the default Amazon Music streaming service. If the latter is true to a substantial degree, it suggests Amazon Music’s momentum against Apple Music (and other streaming services) is likely to only pick up.

Spotify’s podcast push is working: Spotify is making a big play into podcasting. Its market share is growing substantially, it surpassed Apple’s podcast app in popularity in several countries, and just announced a major commitment to the format that included acquiring Anchor and Gimlet.

According to the Infinite Dial survey, the percent of Spotify users aged 12-24 who listen to podcasts monthly jumped from 32% last year to 54% this year. That’s 69% year-over-year growth. This shows Spotify’s users are buying into its new promotion of podcast content. It also lends credibility to the argument that Spotify is expanding the market of podcast listeners, not just poaching users from other podcast apps.

As I argued in my analysis about the entry of music streaming services and Hollywood into podcasting, Spotify has the ability to rapidly ingrain podcast listening among its 207 million monthly active users and to make premium (subscriber-only) podcasts mainstream by bundling them into a music subscription that 96 million people already pay for.

You can review the the full Infinite Dial deck here.

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Podcasts, smart speakers soar as social media stalls, based on new survey

The 2019 edition of a popular annual survey shows usage of social media by Americans is stalling while ownership of smart speakers and tablets has soared over the last year, as has consumer engagement with podcasts. The results are promising for Amazon and Spotify in particular.

Earlier today, Edison Research and Triton Digital presented their Infinite Dial report with findings from a phone survey of 1,500 Americans (age 12+) during January and February. Since 1998, the report has tracked the adoption of mobile devices, social media services, and online audio.

Here are my key takeaways from it:

1. Social Media: Consistent with the trend from last year, the market for social media users appears to be saturated. The percent of Americans who say they have ever used social media is 79%, up from 78% last year but down from the 80% peak in 2017.

Among Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Twitter, only Instagram saw an increase in the percent of the population who say they use it (39% compared to 36% in 2018). Facebook lost roughly 15 million users since 2017 based on this survey data. While the majority of people age 55+ now say they use Facebook, that doesn’t make up for the drop in usage among those age 12-34 from 79% in 2017 to 67% in 2018 to 62% now.

Pinterest, which recently filed to go public, also appears to be losing popularity among that key demographic. Now only 31% of Americans in the 12-34 age group say they use the social pinning platform, compared to 36% last year, and only 1% say Pinterest is their most used social app (compared to 3% in 2015). In this context, potential competition from Instagram looks especially threatening.

2. Smart Speakers: 23% of Americans now own a smart speaker, with 16% of them owning an Amazon Alexa device (that’s more than twice the percent who own a Google Home device). Just two years ago, only 7% reported owning a smart speaker. The percent of those owners who have 3 or more devices has more than doubled from 11% last year to 26% this year as well. Many consumers are crossing a threshold from testing these speakers to making them a ubiquitous presence throughout their home.

3. Tablets: While ownership of smartphones is flat, there was a 12% year-over-year increase in the population of tablet owners from 50% of the population to 56%. According to Triton president John Rosso’s commentary, Amazon’s Fire tablet led the pack with 23% year-over-year growth.

4. Online Audio: 24% of respondents said they used Spotify and 12% said they used Amazon Music in the last month. That compares to 20% and 9%, respectively, last year and places Amazon Music on equal footing with Apple Music.

5. Podcasts: 32% of Americans are monthly podcast listeners compared to 26% in 2018, representing the largest year-over-year growth in that statistic since Infinite Dial began. The format saw a 33% surge in popularity among young people (age 12-24) from 30% listening monthly to 40% doing so.

A full 22% of Americans are weekly podcast listeners and those people consume an average of seven episodes per week. Also, in a notable symbolic shift, the majority (51%) of Americans now say they have listened to a podcast at least once.

Amazon’s gains: The explosion in smart speaker ownership is disproportionately benefiting Amazon with its Alexa devices and the same scenario is occurring in tablets with the Amazon Fire. The company is the most immediate winner in the growth of these markets.

Moreover, people who own a smart speaker are dramatically more likely to use Amazon Music as their primary music streaming service (16% vs. 9% for the general population of people who have used online audio).

This could be a mere correlation that Amazon Music has an older demographic (according to this data, it does) and smart speakers are bought by an older demographic; on the other hand, it may suggest causation that people who buy smart speakers often adopt the default Amazon Music streaming service. If the latter is true to a substantial degree, it suggests Amazon Music’s momentum against Apple Music (and other streaming services) is likely to only pick up.

Spotify’s podcast push is working: Spotify is making a big play into podcasting. Its market share is growing substantially, it surpassed Apple’s podcast app in popularity in several countries, and just announced a major commitment to the format that included acquiring Anchor and Gimlet.

According to the Infinite Dial survey, the percent of Spotify users aged 12-24 who listen to podcasts monthly jumped from 32% last year to 54% this year. That’s 69% year-over-year growth. This shows Spotify’s users are buying into its new promotion of podcast content. It also lends credibility to the argument that Spotify is expanding the market of podcast listeners, not just poaching users from other podcast apps.

As I argued in my analysis about the entry of music streaming services and Hollywood into podcasting, Spotify has the ability to rapidly ingrain podcast listening among its 207 million monthly active users and to make premium (subscriber-only) podcasts mainstream by bundling them into a music subscription that 96 million people already pay for.

You can review the the full Infinite Dial deck here.

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SoundCloud Offers a Discount for Students

SoundCloud has launched SoundCloud Go+ for Students. This is the standard SoundCloud Go+ offering, but with a 50 percent discount applied just for students. With so many streaming music services to choose from, this is SoundCloud trying to entice subscribers while they’re young.

Introducing SoundCloud Go+ for Students

SoundCloud Go+ is SoundCloud’s premium offering. It offers subscribers hundreds of millions of tracks from both new and established artists. SoundCloud Go+ also removes the ads, offers high-quality audio, and adds the option to download music for offline listening.

Now, as announced on The SoundCloud Blog, SoundCloud is offering a discount to eligible students. Being eligible means attending a “state-accredited, post-secondary educational institution located in [the] USA, Canada, [the] UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Australia, [and] New Zealand”.

Keep all of the benefits while paying half the price. With SoundCloud Go+ for Students, you can stream lo-fi beats for studying or find a playlist for next Friday night ? Ready to get more music with no limits for less? https://t.co/5jv9PzB1tt pic.twitter.com/Bkh1Qmnk91

— SoundCloud (@SoundCloud) March 5, 2019

SoundCloud will verify your claim to be a student using SheerID. Once approved, you’ll be awarded the discount for 12 months. After which you will have to verify your student status again for another 12 months. You can do this a maximum of four times.

In the United States, this 50 percent discount drops the price from $9.99/month to $4.99/month. However, SoundCloud offers localized pricing, so be sure to visit this link to see both the regular and discounted price of SoundCloud Go+ in your country.

Choosing the Best Music Streaming Service

Student discounts make a lot of sense. With so many music streaming services to choose from, the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, and the rest are all fighting to grab subscribers while they’re young. Because, like banks, once they’ve got you, you’re unlikely to switch.

SoundCloud is quite late to the party on this one, as most of the major music streaming services already offer discounts for students. However, this parity in pricing and discounts makes it easier to choose the best streaming service for you, as you can focus entirely on features.

Read the full article: SoundCloud Offers a Discount for Students

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Fitbit Announces Surprisingly Cheap Versa Lite Edition Smartwatch

Fitbit is always looking to make some changes to its fitness tracking and smartwatch lineup, and the company has just announced a surprisingly cheap smartwatch called the Versa Lite Edition, which will sell for only $160.

Along with the Versa Lite, the company announced new versions of the Inspire and Inspire HR, which will sell for $70 and $100 respectively. The company also revealed the kid-friendly Ace 2 that’ll go for only $70.

Fitbit Versa Lite Edition

The most exciting device announced by Fitbit today is definitely the Versa Lite, as there aren’t many smartwatches from major companies available for only $130.

While it’s called the Versa Lite, it’s actually the exact same size as the original Versa. The Lite name comes from some of the features that are missing compared to the original. However, the features it is missing are Wi-Fi, NFC, music playback, or swim laps/floor counts, which shouldn’t be a deal-breaker for most users.

The only real hardware change is the missing volume buttons on the right side of the watch because of the lack of music playback.

Here are some of the key features the Versa Lite Edition retains from its more expensive sibling:

• 24/7 heart rate and sleep tracking
• 15+ exercise modes
• GPS
• Smartphone notification and apps
• 4+ day battery life

Fitbit Inspire, Inspire HR, and Ace 2

Outside of the exciting smartwatch, Fitbit announced updates to its line of budget fitness trackers. Replacing the Alta is the Inspire and Inspire HR. Fitbit also announced that it is getting rid of the Zip and Flex 2 devices from its product lineup.

Starting with the Inspire fitness trackers, they’re on the cheaper side for the company, but they have all the standard features including a touchscreen and heart rate monitoring on the Inspire HR model. As mentioned, the Inspire will sell for $70 and the Inspire HR will sell for $100, which is quite a solid price point for a fitness tracker with a screen. Both are scheduled to release at some point in March.

As for the Ace 2, it’ll ship in the summer, and it’ll be on the same platform as the Inspire, so kids can actually upgrade the software to turn it into an “adult” fitness tracker when they’re ready. Like the Inspire, it’ll be available for $70.

While these new devices are exciting, we still believe that the Apple Watch is the king of smartwatches. Here’s why.

Read the full article: Fitbit Announces Surprisingly Cheap Versa Lite Edition Smartwatch

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