Springpad’s User Interface Makes It an Awesome iPhone Cross-Platform Notebook

Every user of iOS devices would do well to have at least one dedicated advanced notebook or journal on their device. Springpad, as well as Evernote, is one such notebook that I recommend.

I’ve already written about the advantages of the visual orientation of Springpad, and if you’re looking to use the service on your iPhone or iPad, Springpad‘s iOS cross-platform is well designed and straightforward to use. For the most part, it mirrors the user interface of its popular web browser platform.

Basic Layout

Springpad is highly useful for saving recipes, scanning barcodes to create wishlists of products, bookmarking articles and documents for reading later, developing personal to-do lists, collaborating with coworkers on a project with notes, planning your vacation, and much more.

It’s best to get started with Springpad using its online platform. All of your content of course will sync to the Springpad app on your iPhone or other iOS device. Springpad’s mobile app has a simple two column interface, with the left side listing all of your notebooks, and the right sliding column displays the content of selected notebooks.

You can view content as a List or a Gallery. I personally think the Gallery listing has always been the advantage of Springpad’s user interface. Most people are visual readers, and the Gallery listing typically helps you to locate specific content faster.

Adding Content

The nice size circled + button at the bottom of an opened notebook is what you tap to add new content to a selected notebook. In addition to regular text notes, Springpad can handle photos, audio files, task lists and checklists, bar scans, and event and contact listings.

Springpad also has special listings for movies, TV shows, music, books, products, wine, recipes, and of course bookmarks. For example, tapping on the Movies icon will get you a listing of the most recent popular movies released. You can select a movie and “Spring It!” to a new or existing notebook, as well as post that listing to Facebook and/or Twitter.

The Place icon will show you a list of nearby restaurants, and you can also do custom searches. The Contact listing is useful for adding contacts that you don’t want to go into your default iOS contact list. And Springpad’s Reminder feature also includes an alarm.

Other Features

From within the Springpad app you can share links to individual notebooks, as well as items within. And like Evernote you can share entire notebooks with other Springpad users.

The Explore feature allows you to view spotlighted Springpad notebooks, new “Springs” (new content added to Springpad), as well as the ability to search for particular topics. All of the public content added to Springpad can in turn be added to your own notebooks. You can also subscribe to the notebooks of other users, similar to how it is done in Pinterest.

The advantage of Springpad over Evernote is that Springpad offers a way to share notebooks publicly so they can easily be found and followed.

The Settings in Springpad includes a way for you to add the Safari Web Clipper that allows you to save things to Springpad directly from websites in the Safari browser of your iPhone. You can also install a Quick Add Shortcut that places a button on your device’s homescreen so you can quickly add new items to Springpad.

The settings for each notebook allows you to customize the color, theme, and accent of each notebook, as well as select privacy settings, and category and tags.

I use both Springpad and Evernote, and personally I find the user interface of Springpad easier to navigate. However, Springpad does not have the popular third-party support given to Evernote. In other words, you can directly share selected content from many other iOS apps, as well as the web, to your Evernote account. Such direct sharing is not widely available to Springpad.

Let us know what you think of Springpad and how you’re using it.

The post Springpad’s User Interface Makes It an Awesome iPhone Cross-Platform Notebook appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Anonymous Group threatens UK Government

The hacking group, Anonymous threatens UK government to changed current systems. They warned government to assist their requests another they have declared war.

Greetings citizens of the world, we are anonymous.

Government of the United Kingdom, It has come to our attention, that despite our continued warnings, you have decided to disregard our requests to assist the people of this country, and have persisted in running a system which only benefits yourselves and the giant corporate bodies operating here.

We have asked politely on many occasions that you change your attitude towards leadership, that you serve the country rather than control it, that you maintain the rights and freedoms of citizens. Instead, you have decided to impose worsening austerity measures upon the people of the UK, increasing taxes for citizens and small businesses, making cuts to our National Health Service, education system, pensions and police force.

You have told the people that the only option out of the financial crisis is to make cuts and have made this humours joke of “we are all in this together”, while simultaneously giving tax breaks to the wealthy corporations, enormous bonuses to the bankers who are responsible for the financial crisis in our country, and increasing your own wages.

You have created to system which ensures the poor remain poor, and the wealthy remain wealthy. You continue to infringe on the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people, attempting to gain access to our private and confidential information. It is now very clear to us that you have no intention of running the country for our people, but you will continue to run it to benefit yourselves.

This system has failed us. We now have homeless people dying on the streets this winter, people unable to support their families. People can no longer afford their education; you keep the elderly in work for much longer, keeping jobs and opportunities for younger people out of reach. The number of unemployed has skyrocketed. In response, you force those on benefits into unpaid labour, doing more hours unpaid than those who are properly employed. You add insult to injury, we say enough is enough.

To the UK government, you have made an enemy of Anonymous, you have angered us considerably and we pose a significant threat to you. You disregard the requests of the people and continue to operate for your own selfish gain. Anonymous is not a small group of powerless people to ignore, we are an organised , globally active, collective of like-minded individuals and our message is clear, we declare war on this current system you have imposed on us. Your worst enemy is now your own people. The revolution has begun.

We are anonymous,

We are legion,

We do not forgive,

We do not forget,

Expect us and respect us

Check Out Anonymous Youtube Video:

The post Anonymous Group threatens UK Government appeared first on Hack Illusion.

Related posts:

1. Anonymous hacked 3000+ Israel donators names, home addresses and phone numbers


2. Anonymous Hacker Group released own operating system Anonymous OS 0.1 Live


3. Anonymous leaked 1GB of internal government emails from the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Faking It: 8 Of The Best Spoof News Websites

Keeping up with the news of the day, whether it be local, national, or international, is important. It’s never good to bury your head in the sand, unaware of what is happening around you. However, sometimes the news is too damn depressing, to the point that taking too much of it to heart could potentially leave you with little hope for the future of humanity.

It’s at this point that an injection of humor is needed, preferably straight into your brain. But as doctors are unable to prescribe laughter, despite it being the best medicine, you need to find other sources to get your fix. Amazingly there isn’t even a need to travel far from the news, you just need to choose news websites with less of a handle on reality.

What follows are 8 of the best spoof news websites that should lighten your mood and give you fodder with with which you can catch out your less intelligent friends.

The Onion

The Onion is the daddy of all fake news sites, and with good reason. It’s always well-written, always topical, and, most importantly, always funny. It works so well mainly because it’s run like a proper news organization, with a front page full of the headlines, sections dedicated to different subjects, and even video clips with high production values. All in all, The Onion is an absolute gem that deserves to be bookmarked by all those who like to laugh.

The Spoof

The Spoof may not be as professional as The Onion but it’s still home to some insanely funny fake news stories. A staggering number of writers have contributed to the site throughout its life, creating topical articles with eye-catching headlines. All of which are completely and utterly made up, obviously.

As well as newspaper-like sections dedicated to different subjects, there are jokes, caption competitions, and celebrity diaries, all of which add to the parody.

The Daily Mash

The Daily Mash is for Brits or those from sunnier climes with a penchant for all things British. Even the weather. International news is featured, alongside sports and politics to name just a handful of the various topics. But the website is British and so most of the stories included on it have a British bent.

The Daily Mash even has its own dedicated agony aunt, and astrological horoscopes from Psychic Bob. Strangely these are often more accurate than those featured in real newspapers.

The Daily Currant

The Daily Currant may not be as popular as others on this list, and it also suffers from a serious dearth of articles, but it’s still a must-see fake news website. The content is always topical and often cutting, covering subjects that other, more serious publications, won’t touch for fear of upsetting their readership.

There are sections devoted to both science and technology, two subjects of particular interest to our own readership here at MakeUseOf.

The UnReal Times

The UnReal Times is the Indian version of The Onion, and is therefore likely to appeal most to those from India and the countries that border it. With over 100,000 people following the site on Facebook it’s clearly a big deal.

The UnReal Times is updated multiple times a day, with major headlines vying for your attention alongside Indian-centric topics such as cricket and Bollywood. There are also columnists and comics, as well as the fantastically named Fikileaks.

Borowitz Report

The Borowitz Report is a little different than the rest of the entries on this list, being a column for The New Yorker written by comedian and author Andy Borowitz. This means it isn’t updated as often as the likes of The Onion, but the content that does appear is always comedy gold, being exceptionally well-written and researched.

Almost all of the articles are focused on the United States, but anyone interested in current affairs should be able to figure out the source being parodied.

Faux News

Faux News isn’t Fox News… thankfully. Fox News is, well, Fox News. Without besmirching anyone’s particular political affiliations, Fox News is for people of a certain persuasion, with sensationalist headlines and certain biases. Faux News takes that model but turns it on its head, with spoof news stories presented in a headline-grabbing manner with little substance to back up the “facts.”

A clever feature is the addition of a link to the real news story that prompted the parody.

Derf Magazine

Derf Magazine offers another spin on the genre, with a weekly format in the style of a lifestyle publication. Derf is based in Cincinatti, so there is lots of local content focused on that city, but most of the articles that appear in print and on the Web will also make sense to the rest of the U.S. and beyond. There are a host of different sections, such as sports, politics, and entertainment, as well as some extremely funny horoscopes and obituaries for pets… even goldfish.

Conclusions

There’s one crucial thing to remember when reading any and all of the spoof news sites listed above… the news isn’t real. I know, it’s pretty obvious to the likes of you and I, but there are some particularly gullible people out there who are willing to show off their stupidity by believing fake news stories to the point they share them on social networking sites. Which is where Literally Unbelievable (the perfect site to read when bored at work) comes in.

Do you have a favorite fake/spoof/satirical news site? Whether it made the list or not please let us know your thoughts on this subject in the comments section below. Or you could link to the best fake news story you’ve ever read… just don’t admit it had you fooled, even if it was just for a moment.

The post Faking It: 8 Of The Best Spoof News Websites appeared first on MakeUseOf.