Introducing Video Slides

With Video Slides, you can quickly create a beautiful slideshow from one or more videos pulled from Youtube and Vimeo. Just past the raw video URLs in any format and the tool will bundle them into a presentation.

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This story, Introducing Video Slides, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 30/04/2013 under Embed, YouTube, Internet.

Using Paint.NET? Make It Even Better With These Great Plugins

Have you ever needed to do computer artwork that involved more than simple crops and resizes? For a long time, your only real options were Paintshop Pro and Adobe Photoshop, although the rise of GIMP has provided users with a powerful free alternative. But in some cases, those tools are too powerful. What if you want something in the middle?

That’s where Paint.NET comes in. Don’t make the same mistake that I made in thinking that Paint.NET is the new version of Paint that comes with Windows 7. It’s not. Created by a guy named Rick Brewster, Paint.NET has become the best solution on Windows for when Paint is too barebones but Photoshop is too much.

It’s entirely free to use and the best part of Paint.NET is its community of plugin developers. Through the Paint.net plugin interface, you can extend the functionality of Paint.NET to be just as powerful as GIMP or Photoshop without all of the bloat and extra features that you’d never use. If you want a more in-depth overview, check out Aaron’s Paint.NET review.

How To Install Paint.NET Plugins

There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of plugins that you can install for Paint.NET. The process isn’t as simple as the plugin interface on something like Firefox or Chrome (where all you really need to do is click on a link), but it’s still relatively easy.

Paint.NET plugins fit into two general categories: FileTypes and Effects. The installation process is the same for both of them because they all come in the form of DLL downloads. Sometimes after you download a plugin, it’ll be a ZIP or RAR file. Just unpack them and there should be a DLL inside. That’s what you want.

Once you have your plugin DLL, locate your Paint.NET installation directory. For me it was C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\ and yours should be the same if you didn’t set a custom destination when you installed it. Make sure your Paint.NET program is CLOSED before you proceed to the next step.

Inside that directory, you’ll see two subdirectories: Effects and FileTypes. Depending on the type of plugin you downloaded, you’ll want to drag-and-drop the DLL into the appropriate place. Relaunch Paint.NET and it should have the added functionality now. If not, you probably placed it in the wrong directory so move it from the one directory to the other.

Photoshop PSD (FileType)

This plugin allows you to both open PSD files and save your projects in the PSD format. I don’t expect the conversions to work 100% perfectly, but it’s almost there. For most PSD projects, anyway, you’ll be able to open and save them without a hitch, which makes it convenient when you want to fiddle around with it without having to open Photoshop.

Color Balance+ (Effect)

This plugin is similar to Photoshop’s own color balancing effect. There are three types of balancing that you can do – Highlights, Shadows, and Midtones. If you aren’t sure what color balancing is, then you can perform a quick Google search and learn within minutes because it’s a common technique in graphics work.

Color Balance+ comes as part of dpy’s plugin pack.

Text+ (Effect)

Though Paint.NET has a default function for placing text in your image, Text+ is a plugin that takes it to the next level. If you need precise levels of line spacing, draw positioning, and font pitch, then Text+ will work wonders for you.

Text+ comes as part of dpy’s plugin pack.

Circle / Rotate / Spiral / Wave Text (Effect)

These four plugins are separate and independent but they all manipulate text, so I’m bunching them together. The Circle plugin lets you write a line of text that gets drawn in a perfect circle. The Rotate plugin lets you skew a block of text so that it becomes angled. The Spiral plugin is like the Circle plugin, except it spirals in towards the center. And the Wave plugin makes the text all wavy.

These text effects are all part of dpy’s plugin pack.

Film (Effect)

This plugin takes an image and alters it in such a way that it looks like it was taken with a true film camera. It adds a touch of motion blur, some color correction, some balancing, and a few tweaks to hue and saturation, resulting in an image that appears genuine.

Film comes as part of pyrochild’s plugin pack.

Smudge Tool (Effect)

If you need to smudge your illustrations a bit, this smudging plugin will do that for you. It may not look like anything special in the image above, but it’s really useful for softening edges in illustrations or blurring out parts of pictures that you don’t want discernible.

Smudge Tool comes as part of pyrochild’s plugin pack.

Conclusion

There are so many other plugins that deserve a mention but I can’t possibly list all of them here. Moral of the story? Paint.NET is extremely powerful thanks to the massive library of plugins that you can install and use. Combine that with the large, active community surrounding this great program and you’ll see why Paint.NET is so great.

Check out the Paint.NET plugin database if you want to browse through some more.

So what do you think? Do you use Paint.NET? After learning about all of these plugins, I think Paint.NET is going to become my main image editor from here on out. Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

The post Using Paint.NET? Make It Even Better With These Great Plugins appeared first on MakeUseOf.

5 Android Music Recognition Apps Compared: Which Got The Most Songs Right?

Things are not the way they used to be in the music-recognition department. Several years ago, identifying an anonymous song you heard on the radio required some serious work. The easiest way was to catch some of the lyrics and Google them, hoping you’ll find the right song. If you had no lyrics, you were pretty much doomed with that song in your head, until someone could recognize it from your own singing (musical talent permitting).

Today, there are better ways to do this which you can use the very minute you hear the song. These solutions are available for all platforms, from Tunatic and Audiggle for desktop, and Shazam and SoundHound for iOS, to a Google-powered widget/feature available for newer versions of Android. Many apps claim to identify songs quickly and accurately, but which actually do it?

I put five music-recognition apps for Android to the test, pitting them all against seven songs of varying difficulty, and one humming test, in which I tried humming a well-known song to each app to see if it could recognize it. Which app came put on top? Which app should you use next time you must know what song is playing? Read on to find out.

The Apps

The apps I chose for this test are the most popular and highly-rated ones I could find on Google Play. They are:

1. Shazam

2. SoundHound

3. TrackID

4. mobion music global

5. musiXmatch Lyrics Player

Some of these music recognition app are more than just music-recognition apps, but for the purposes of this review, I ignored all other features and focused only on each app’s ability to recognize songs. If you’re looking for other features in your app, take a look at the apps’ pages on Google Play to see what other features they offer.

It’s worth noting, however, that mobion music is the only one in the bunch that requires an account in order to identify songs. Not only that, you must provide a full name, gender and date of birth when creating an account. If this is a problem for you, feel free to skip it entirely.

Walk Off The Earth – Somebody That I Used To Know

A little while back, this song was playing in my head while I slept. You couldn’t get away from it no matter where you were. The excitement may have died down a little, but this is still a fine specimen for a song I expect every app to easily recognize. It’s also a cover version, but in this case, the cover is arguably more famous than the original. So how did the apps fare?

Shazam: Recognized the song immediately, and displayed full song information along with album cover, Amazon download link and YouTube video link.

SoundHound: Recognized the song immediately, displayed full information including album name and cover, release date, lyrics lookup, and automatic YouTube search.

TrackID: Recognized the song, displayed correct name of song and artist, but a wrong album cover from “The Voice”. Included a download link for an actual local online music store (and in a country where there’s no iTunes, Amazon, or Google Music, that’s impressive), although the song wasn’t available there.

mobion music: Recognized the song quickly with right names, but presented the “The Voice” album cover. The cluttered interface included links to relevant YouTube videos, including the actual one I was listening to, and the original song my Gotye. Also included was an Amazon download link.

musiXmatch Lyrics Player: Recognized the song easily, and presented the right names, but with the “The Voice” album cover again. It also presented the song’s lyrics in a sing-along fashion.

Lucky by Radiohead – Six Feet Under Soundtrack

This song is yet another very famous one, but in a setting that’s a little harder to recognize. I used the video above, which is a scene from the TV show Six Feet Under, and let the apps listen to the part where the song is played. There are background noises of fire crackling, people talking, etc., which makes the song harder to hear.

Shazam: At first, the app had trouble with this one. After turning up the volume on my computer, it managed to recognize it, but not every time. When it did, it displayed the OK Computer album cover, as expected.

SoundHound: Recognized the song easily and quickly, with correct information and album cover.

TrackID: Recognized the song quickly, and displayed all the correct information about it.

mobion music: Took several seconds, but identified the song correctly. Its YouTube video links were not as spot on this time, though, leading to Lucky by Britney Spears and another song called Lucky by Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat.

musiXmatch Lyrics Player: Identified the song, and displayed the correct information and sing-along lyrics.

Pomplamoose – Single Ladies (Beyonce Cover)

We’re getting into tougher territory now. While Single Ladies by Beyonce is a very famous song, the Pomplamoose cover is not at all as famous. To compare, the official Beyonce video for Single Ladies has over 200 million views, while the Pomplamoose version has around 9 million. Still respectable, but just not as well-known. Was it a match for any of the apps?

Shazam: Recognized the exact version of the song immediately, and included a cover to Pomplamoose’s album.

SoundHound: Took a little longer to identify the song, but managed to do so beautifully. It displayed the right names, but stated a wrong release date in 2013 (the video was uploaded in 2009). It also displayed an album cover I couldn’t recognize.

TrackID: Failed to identify this song, despite multiple tries.

mobion music: Failed to identify this song, despite multiple tries.

musiXmatch Lyrics Player: Failed to identify this song, despite multiple tries.

Roslin and Adama by Bear McCreary – Battlestar Galactica Soundtrack

Taking things up a notch, I pitched this instrumental piece from Battlestar Galactica to the apps, curious what they’ll make of it. To be honest, I didn’t expect any of the apps to identify this track successfully, so it was sort of my “sure to fail” test for this post.

Shazam: The app could not identify the piece, but it wouldn’t admit failure. It suggested three completely different tracks every time I tried it, including one Beethoven symphony.

SoundHound: Did slightly better, and recognized Bear McCreary as the artist and Battlestar Galactica as the source of the sountrack, but it still failed to recognize the actual piece, returning a different track called “Elegy” which is not very similar to the one I was listening to. Still, nice effort.

TrackID: After failing to recognize the Pomplamoose song, TrackID completely surprised me by identifying this track quickly and correctly. This included the right track name, artist, and even album and album cover.

mobion music: Again, a surprise. The app identified the track quickly, complete with album and album cover, and the right YouTube links to go with it.

musiXmatch Lyrics Player: By this point, I was no longer surprised when musiXmatch too managed to quickly identify the track and presented the correct names and album cover.

Don Omar – Hasta Que Salga El Sol

I must admit that I’ve never heard of this song prior to writing this post, but I was looking for a famous Spanish song to try the apps with, and this seemed to be it. In fact, it must be so famous, that all five apps recognized it immediately and all displayed right information about it, including album cover.

This showed me that the apps were indeed capable of identifying non-English songs, but this test was obviously too easy.

Sharon Haziz and Ivri Leader – Panasim (Flashlights)

I decided to make the test much harder. This is a song in Hebrew that was pretty successful when it came out, which was in 2001, a full 12 years ago. An app that can recognize this song correctly would probably do pretty well with non-English songs in general.

Shazam: Recognized the song immediately, displayed the correct song and artist names in English, and on my second try, even came up with an album cover. The links to YouTube were surprisingly relevant too.

SoundHound: Failed to recognize the song on multiple tries.

Track ID: The app managed to get me a song name in Hebrew, which was pretty impressive, but that’s all it managed to get. The artist field showed simply says “collection”, and none of the links it provided helped me along either. Were I using TrackID without knowing the song, just knowing the name might not have been enough.

The exact same thing happened with both mobion music and musiXmatch Lyrics Player. Both presented the correct song name in Hebrew, but no further information.

Humming test: Cryin’ by Aerosmith

Why Cryin’? I don’t know, it’s the first thing that came into my head. It’s famous enough and distinctive enough to be recognized by humming, though, and I can definitely keep a tune, if I may say so myself.

It’s worth noting that none of the apps except SoundHound even claim to work this way, so it’s not surprising that SoundHound was the only one that actually worked. I hummed the tune to all apps as best as I could, giving each of them multiple tries. The only one the returned any result was SoundHound, which gave me six options to choose from. One of them was indeed the right song.

Google Voice Recognition

You may be wondering why I haven’t tested Google’s own music-recognition abilities. Available as a widget for Android 4.0+ devices, and as a built-in Google Search feature in Android 4.2 devices, Google’s music recognition abilities are probably pretty good. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t think this feature is important enough to be available worldwide, so I wasn’t able to test it.

And The Winner Is…

When looking at overall performance, all five music recognition app performed pretty similarly. Some identified songs other failed to, but none of the apps identified every song on the list. When it comes to interface and usability, my favorite ones were Shazam, TrackID, and musiXmatch Lyrics Player. SoundHound, however, can help you even when the song is not playing, which is a big plus. So to sum it all up:

Overall best pick: Shazam

If you need humming recognition: SoundHound

For more obscure pieces, instrumentals and soundtracks: TrackID

For easiest access to lyrics: musiXmatch Lyrics Player

What’s your favorite app for identifying songs? Is there a really good one that should have been included but wasn’t? Tell us in the comments!

The post 5 Android Music Recognition Apps Compared: Which Got The Most Songs Right? appeared first on MakeUseOf.

PayPal, Payment Method in Google Play?

There are multiple payment options in Google Play, from credit and debit cards to carrier billing and gift cards, but PayPal isn't one of them. Google Wallet competes with PayPal and this could be one of the reasons why you can't use PayPal in Google Play.



Despite this, some Google Wallet JavaScript files that are used in Google Play include many references to PayPal. For example, PayPal is placed next to Maestro, Automated Clearing House (ACH), proxy cards and carriers like Sprint, Softbank and Vodafone. Google's code also mentions PayPal UUIDs, which are used by the PayPal Merchant API, and there's a function named "onRedirectToPayPalPopup". There's also an error message: "PAYPAL_INSTRUMENT_ERROR" next to messages like "GIFT_CARD_ALREADY_REDEEMED" and "INVALID_CREDIT_CARD".

Google Now for iOS

Google Now is finally available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It's not a standalone application, it's just a new feature of the Google Search app.

Google Now for iOS has most of the features from Google's Android app and plenty of customization options that aren't available in the Android app. There aren't many missing cards: research topics, activity summary and events nearby.

I was surprised to see that Google added a lot of settings that let you tweak each card. For example, you can customize the traffic card and decide when it appears and the transportation mode for commutes and other trips.

Since most Google Now cards use location data, it's obvious that Google wants to update your location even when you're not using the app. "Location Reporting helps Google Now show you cards related to traffic alerts, directions, and more. Turning on Location Reporting allows Google to periodically access your location data, even when an app is not in use. If you have Location History enabled, reported locations are stored in your Location History. (...) Since Location Reporting has been optimized to use GPS as infrequently as possible, there should be minimal impact on your battery life." Location Reporting can be disabled from the app's settings section, while Location History can be disabled from the Google Latitude site.



It's interesting to notice that Google Now for iOS is placed less prominently, at the bottom of the screen. You need to swipe up to see the cards. Google Search for iOS doesn't show notifications yet, so you need to constantly open the application to see the new information.

What Do You Think Of Sponsored Posts On Social Networks? [MakeUseOf Poll]

Last week we asked you how many apps you have installed on your phone. As a former graduate student, I must say I expected the results to form a nice bell curve, with the mid numbers getting the highest number of votes, with the very low and very high numbers getting the least amount of votes. Boy, was I wrong!

Out of 427 votes in total, the breakdown was as follows: 1% have no apps installed, 6% have 1-10 apps, 10% have 11-20 apps, another 10% have 21-30 apps, 6% have 31-40 apps, 9% have 41-50 apps, a full 20% of the voters have 51-100 to apps, and, incredibly, 39% have over 100 apps. Seems like I underestimated out readers!

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

Don’t forget to check out last week’s best comment by David R, who impressed us all with his efficient use of apps, even at 77, and won 150 reward points for his comment!

This week’s poll question is: What Do You Think Of Sponsored Posts On Social Networks?

Want to make some extra MakeUseOf reward points? The most useful comment on the poll will be awarded 150 points!

Do you remember when Facebook was free of ads? At the beginning of the social-network boom, the companies who run them were still looking for the right way to make money. Today it’s pretty clear: ads. But on most networks, these are not regular ads like you see on many websites, or even on Facebook’s right sidebar, but rather sponsored or promoted posts. You can see these on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and many other platforms, where companies pay to have their content appear in a prominent place on our feed. Granted, it’s not the only way to place ads, but it’s a good way to make sure we see them. What do you think of this trend? Do you mind these posts? Do you use them? Would you rather see regular ads or pay to prevent them from appearing?

Mind that this poll is not about ads on websites in general, but specifically about sponsored posts on social networks. We already had a great discussion about general ads in the past.

Don’t forget to tell us why you mind or don’t mind these sponsored posts, and how you deal with them. Add your opinion below!

The post What Do You Think Of Sponsored Posts On Social Networks? [MakeUseOf Poll] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

One Of The Most Important Tools In Linux – Understanding Chmod

There are plenty of features that make Linux special, but one of them that makes it so secure is its permissions system. You can have fine-grain control over all the files in your system and assign permissions to users, groups, and everyone else. The terminal utility “chmod” helps you control all the permissions on your system, so it’s vital to know how chmod works in order to get the most use out of this feature, especially if you’re planning on building your own Linux server.

There’s plenty of information that you’ll need to know in order to understand the mechanics of the permissions system and control it as you please, so get ready to take some notes. Additionally, for starters, it’s best to take a look at 40 terminal commands that you should be familiar with before diving in.

Components Of Permissions

The Linux permissions system is configured in such a way that you can assign file and directory permissions to three different categories – the user, the group, and everyone else. Each file or directory is owned by a user and group, and these fields cannot be empty. If only the user should own the file, then the group name is often the same as the username of the owner.

You can assign specific permissions to the owner, different permissions to the group, and even other permissions to every other user. The different permissions which you can assign to any of these three categories are:

• read – 4 – ‘r’


• write – 2 – ‘w’


• execute – 1 – ‘x’

The numbers 4, 2, and 1 as well as the letters r, w, and x are different ways in which you can assign permissions to a category. I’ll get to why these numbers and letters important later on.

Permissions are important because, as you might assume, they allow certain people to do certain things with the file. Read permissions allow the person or group to read the contents of the file, and copy it if they wish. Write permissions allows the person or group to write new information into the file, or overwrite it completely. In some cases this can also control who is allowed to delete the file; otherwise a sticky bit must be used that won’t be covered here. Finally, execute permissions allow the person or group to run the file as an executable, whether it’s a binary file, an .sh file, or anything else.

Understanding Assigned Permissions

Let’s go in your terminal to any folder on your system – say your Home folder. Go ahead and type in the command ls -l and hit enter. This command lists out all of the files and directories found in whatever folder you’re currently in.

Each line represents a file or directory, and it begins with something that might look like -rw-rw-r–. This shows you the permissions of the file or directory. In this case, the first dash shows us that you’re looking at a file. If it were a directory, there would be a “d” in this spot. The next three spots, rw-, shows us that the user who owns the file has read and write permissions (rw), but no executable permissions as there’s a dash instead of an “x”. The same is repeated for the next three spots, which represents the permissions of the group that owns the file.

Finally, the last three spots are r–, which means that everybody else can only read the file. As a reference, the possible permissions are drwxrwxrwx. It’s also important to note the “dmaxel dmaxel” that you see after the permissions. This shows that the user owner of the file is dmaxel and the group owner is dmaxel. For files that really are only supposed to belong to one user, this is default behavior, but if you’re sharing with a group that has multiple members, then you’ll be able to see that.

Assigning New Permissions

Remember the numbers and letters I mentioned earlier? Here’s where you’ll need them. Let’s say you have a file called “important_stuff” that’s located at the path /shared/Team1/important_stuff. As the team leader, you’ll want to be able to read and write to the file, your group members should only be allowed to read the file, and everyone else shouldn’t have any permissions at all.

In order to make sure that you and your group own the file, you’ll need to run the command chown. An appropriate command for this situation would be chown me:Team1 /shared/Team1/important_stuff. That command runs chown, and tells it that the file at path /shared/Team1/important_stuff should belong to the user “me” and the group “Team1″.

It’s assumed that the desired group has been created and that members have the group added as a secondary group in the system (also not covered here). Now that you have set the owner and group, you can set the permissions. Here, you can use the command chmod 640 /shared/Team1/important_stuff. This starts chmod, and assigns the permissions 640 to the file at path /shared/Team1/important_stuff.

Where did 640 come from? You look at the numbers represented by the different commands – for read and write permissions, you have 4 + 2 = 6. The 6 represents the permissions for the user. The 4 comes from just the read permissions for the group, and the 0 comes from no permissions for everyone else. Therefore, you have 640. The number system is very good because you can have a number for all possible combinations: none (0), x (1), w (2), r (4), rx (5), rw (6), and rwx (7).

As an example, full permissions for everyone would be 777. However, if you have security in mind, its best to assign only the permissions that you absolutely need – 777 should be used rarely, if at all.

Alternative Method

While I prefer the number method of assigning permissions, you can increase your flexibility and also add or remove permissions using the representative letters. For the above situation, the command used could also be chmod u=rw,g=r,o= /shared/Team1/important_stuff. Here, u=rw assigns read and write permissions to the user, g=r assigns read permissions to the group, and o= assigns no permissions to everyone else. There’s also ‘a’ which can assign the same permissions for all categories.

You can also combine different combinations for varying permissions, as well as + or – signs instead of =, which would simply add or remove permissions if they haven’t already been added/removed instead of completely overwriting the permissions that you’re changing.

So, different examples can include:

• chmod a+x /shared/Team1/important_stuff assigns execute permissions to everyone if they don’t have it already


• chmod ug=rw o-w /shared/Team1/important_stuff forces the user and group to just have read and write permissions, and takes away writing permissions for everyone else in case they had it.

Applying Permissions To Multiple Files

Additionally, you can add the -R flag to the command in order to recursively apply the same permissions to multiple files and directories within a directory. If you wanted to change the permissions of the Team1 folder and all files and folders within, you can run the command chmod 640 -R /shared/Team1.

Applying the same permissions to multiple, but individually picked files can be done with a command such as chmod 640 /shared/Team1/important_stuff /shared/Team1/presentation.odp.

Conclusion

Hopefully, these tips have helped you improve your knowledge of the permissions system found in Linux. Security is an important matter to consider, especially on mission-critical machines, and using chmod is one of the best ways to keep security tight. While this is a fairly in-depth look at using chmod, there’s still a bit more that you can do with it, and there are plenty of other utilities that complement chmod. If you need a place to start, I would suggest doing more research on all of the things you can do with chown.

If you’re just getting started with Linux, have a look at our Getting Started Guide to Linux.

Are file permissions important for you? What permissions tips do you have for others? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: Eduardo Amorim

The post One Of The Most Important Tools In Linux – Understanding Chmod appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Google Removes Instant Previews From Search Results, Adds New Dropdown Menu For Each Page [Updates]

Google launched Instant Previews in 2010 to make searching easier, but the instant graphic preview of a website in the results page may not have taken off as Google intended. A slightly altered version of the Google Search page appeared recently, and this one doesn’t include the Instant Preview feature. Instead, a tiny green colored arrow drops down to reveal a menu with three options – Cached, Similar and Share. While this seems to still be in an experiment phase, chances are you’ll see the change if you head over to google.com right now.

It might be difficult to spot the green arrow at first, as it resides right next to the green URL of a each website, but you’ll see it once you know what you’re looking for. Clicking on the Similar option in the new dropdown menu activates the ‘related’ operator, returning websites that are similar to this one. The Share option, which isn’t always available, opens a Google+ sharing dialog for the URL.

Instant Preview was a useful feature for quickly scanning through the search results and picking a page that best matched your query, such as a website with clear layouts and minimal advertising, for example. Instant Previews helped because we do gravitate to pages that visually look professional. It’s difficult to say if doing away with Instant Previews is a temporary move or a permanent one, but TechCrunch cites a Google spokesperson as saying: “We’re constantly making changes to the layout and features of the search results page.” As TechCrunch points out, the wording of this response suggests it is a permanent update and not an experimental one.

Google’s reason for the move aside, it does make for a cleaner page, grouping three seemingly unrelated options under one roof. In one fell swoop, Google made the page less cluttered on one hand, and managed to bring Google+ sharing one step closer on the other.

Will you miss Instant Previews if they never come back? What do you think of the new menu?

Source: Techcrunch

The post Google Removes Instant Previews From Search Results, Adds New Dropdown Menu For Each Page [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Step Off The Treadmill – 8 Reasons Not To Upgrade Your OS

We all seem obsessed with having the latest and greatest technology. Some people buy every new and upgraded smartphone or iPad that comes out, even if they don’t need the upgrade. It’s become a given – of course we’ll upgrade to the latest operating system and any other software that’s offered to us. Why wouldn’t we?

In reality, there are lots of good reasons to be skeptical of operating system upgrades. Ask anyone who installed Microsoft’s Windows ME over their Windows 98 systems and was unable to use Windows ME’s shiny new features because their computer started blue-screening all the time (this happened to me!), This is an example of why upgrading for the sake of upgrading isn’t a good idea.

This doesn’t apply to security updates such as the ones available via Windows Update, of course. You should always install security updates as soon as possible.

Missing Features

New versions of operating systems and other software may remove features you depend on in your current operating system. One of the most recent and significant examples was Apple’s iOS 6. iOS 6 removed Google Maps, which many users depended on, and introduced Apple’s “most powerful mapping service ever,” which offered much less coverage throughout most of the world and no public transit directions.

iOS users who upgraded immediately and found Apple Maps wasn’t good enough were left scrambling for a decent mapping app, with James temporarily switching to an Android phone just so he could use Google Maps.

iOS users who hung back and stuck with iOS 5 because it suited their needs could continue using Google Maps. Google eventually released a Google Maps app for iOS 6. At this point, iOS users could upgrade to the latest version without ever losing access to Google Maps.

When upgrading, be sure you’re not giving up a feature you depend on – there’s no point in getting a shiny new OS that doesn’t do what you need it to do. You may want to wait until the new operating system suits you, as people held onto iOS 5 until Google Maps was ready.

If you love Windows Media Center and upgrade to the standard edition of Windows 8, you’ll have to upgrade to the Pro version and then buy the Windows Media Center software separately, which will cost you over $100 in total to keep using the feature you depend on. If you use Windows XP Mode on Windows 7 Pro, you’ll have to migrate to another virtual machine solution on Windows 8. New operating systems don’t just add features, they also take them away.

Price

Upgrading to the latest version of Windows can be rather pricy. Buying an upgrade edition of Windows 8 will currently cost you $120. Windows 8 may be faster to boot and a bit snappier than the previous versions of Windows, but if you’re upgrading just for that speed improvement, you’d be a lot better off using that $120 for a hardware upgrade – a solid-state drive or some more RAM will offer more speed improvements.

This doesn’t apply to all operating systems, as some upgrades are available for free, but the cost of upgrading should be taken into account. You’ll probably get the new operating system when you buy a new computer anyway, so why shell out additional money for an expensive software upgrade now?

This also applies to other software, like Microsoft Office. We’ve advised you not to buy Office 2013 if you already have Office 2010. It isn’t a big enough upgrade, and you can do most things on Office 2010. In truth, many home users would be fine with the ten-year-old Office 2003, cloud-based Google Docs, or free LibreOffice. The upgrade probably isn’t worth the price.

Instability

Some new operating systems are half-baked. Witness Microsoft’s Windows ME, notorious for its blue-screens, bugs, and crashes. Also consider Windows Vista, which was unstable in its initial release. Vista may have been unstable because hardware manufacturers hadn’t yet polished their hardware drivers to a stable enough state, but that’s all the more reason to hang back and wait until the new OS stabilizes.

Businesses often wait for the first service pack to fix problems before upgrading to a new version of Windows, and you may want to do so, too. Windows 8 doesn’t appear as unstable as past releases of Windows, but you should bear in mind that new operating systems can be less stable than old ones and act accordingly when the next buggy operating system is inevitably released.

Performance

Performance is becoming less of a concern, as new Windows versions are lighter and better-performing than previous ones. However, devices that could run the previous versions of software may not have the hardware to run the most recent versions at a reasonable enough speed.

For example, many Windows XP systems could never have been upgraded to the heavier Windows Vista without dramatic performance decreases. Users of old iPhones often claim new versions of Apple’s iOS makes the older iPhone hardware progressively slower, even as they add new features.

Software Incompatibilities

Some software won’t work on new operating systems. In iPhone land, a jailbreak was unavailable for iOS 6 for quite a while. If you depended on jailbreak software, you should have waited until a jailbreak for iOS 6 was ready before upgrading from iOS 5. This cycle will likely repeat itself with iOS 7.

On Windows, some businesses may have business-critical software that doesn’t work on new versions of Windows. Businesses with large computer deployments generally test their software to make sure it runs properly on new versions of Windows before upgrading, and you should exercise similar caution with your important software.

Hardware Incompatibilities

New operating systems may be incompatible with hardware you still use. For example, Windows 8 includes a revamped printing system that requires printer-driver upgrades. Your existing printer may not work properly on Windows 8. Is it really worth upgrading if you have to throw out a perfectly good printer and buy a new one? You’ll likely have to upgrade eventually as you buy new hardware, but it may be time to buy a new printer by then, anyway.

Your Current OS is Supported

In the case of Windows, Microsoft supports old versions of Windows for quite a long time. Windows XP is still currently “supported” — it will receive security updates from Microsoft until April 8, 2014. Windows 7 will be supported with security updates until 2020.

When it comes to Windows, there’s no need to rush along to the latest version when Microsoft supports each version of Windows with security fixes for a decade.

Training Costs

Businesses will run into training costs if they attempt to upgrade to a new operating system. Windows 7, which wasn’t hugely different from Windows XP, still required businesses to train their employees in the way it worked. Windows 8 has a radically different interface and will require businesses to train their employees about its new “Modern” interface and lack of a Start menu.

You’re probably not in charge of a business network, but you’ll have to train yourself (and possibly your family members) in the way a new operating system works if you upgrade to it. If you’re a tech geek, this may sound like fun, but if you’re just trying to get work done on your computer, this may just waste your time.

You May Still Want to Upgrade

We’re not advising you never to upgrade your operating system. Instead, we’re trying to get you to slow down and examine operating system upgrades rationally. Is there a significant benefit to upgrading? What are the downsides? What will it cost you, in addition to the time needed to perform the upgrade and set up your system again? Can you use all your software after you’re done, or will you need to hunt down replacements? What about your hardware? Is the new operating system worth the upgrade, or is it missing critical features, unstable, or slow?

Exercise some thought and you won’t end up with an unstable computer, a smartphone that can’t use Google Maps, or a desktop computer with a “touch-first” interface designed for tablets that you don’t want.

Thanks to our readers for their interesting discussion over at MakeUseOf Answers, which inspired this article. Feel free to chime in in the comments with your own opinions!

Image Credit: David Pursehouse on Flickr

The post Step Off The Treadmill – 8 Reasons Not To Upgrade Your OS appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Wunderlist Updates With New Features, Introduces Pro Version For Groups [Updates]

Wunderlist is working towards a monetization system for its cross-platform to-do list application, rolling out a Pro version with some interesting new features. If you’d rather stay a free user, that’s still possible, and you too can enjoy an update and some new Wunderlist features.

Many Wunderlist users were asking to assign tasks to other users. Wunderlist Pro adds this ability, meaning users will now be able to use the application to manage a team, which could be helpful for business users. You can also have the Pro version keep track of unlimited sub-tasks, helping you keep track and manage a large number of complicated items.

In addition, Pro users will get access to some visual tweaks in the form of eight different backgrounds that free users will not have access to. While this is not as major as new features, it’s still a way to make Wunderlist a more enjoyable place to manage those important tasks.

Aside from these new features and backgrounds, not much else is added for Wunderlist Pro users. However, the company does promise that additional functionality will be added in the future. The cost for the new service is quite affordable: $4.99 per month or $49.99 for a full year.

Not going for the Pro version? All Wunderlist users, free ones included, will notice a big interface change starting today. The to-do list platform now has a new Action Bar that grants quick access to several key functions such as sharing, sorting, and printing.

Wunderlist is available on almost every major platform under the sun including Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and the Web. Wunderlist Pro is only available for iOS, Mac and the Web to start with, but should expand to other platforms in the future. Head over to Wunderlist’s website to download the app for your favorite platform.

Will you upgrade to Wunderlist Pro, or are you happy with the free version?

Source: Wunderlist Blog via TheNextWeb

The post Wunderlist Updates With New Features, Introduces Pro Version For Groups [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.