Update the Google+ Notification Counter

Google updates the Google+ notification counter automatically, but there's a simple way to force a refresh: mouse over the bell icon. This works for Google+ and all Google services that show the notification icon in the navigation bar.

You can also click the bell icon to refresh the counter and see the latest notifications, but this should be obvious. Most likely, Google anticipates your actions and assumes that you are about to click the bell icon when you mouse over it and that's why it updates the counter.



Another tip: drag the bell icon to the address bar or right-click it and select "open link in new tab" to read the Google+ notifications in a new page.

The Updates Chart for Android Phones

I was trying to find if there's an Android phone that was officially updated for more than 2 years and came up with this list, mostly based on data from Wikipedia articles. Some of the phones have multiple versions and not all of them were updated, while some of the updates were delayed by carriers. I only included the date when the last update was released. Recent phones like Galaxy S3/S4, HTC One X, HTC One, Nexus 4 aren't included, but One S is included because it will no longer be updated.



For now, Nexus S and HTC Thunderbolt are the champions, with 22 months of updates. Most phones from the list got 2 major updates and were supported for less than a year and a half, but these are the flagship devices. If Galaxy Nexus is updated to Android 4.3, it will probably be the first Android phone with more than 2 years of official updates.







Note: Dates are in the dd/mm/yyyy format and dd is always 01. It's a workaround for Google Sheets, which doesn't support the mm/yyyy format.

Know What Software To Uninstall With Should I Remove It?

Here at MakeUseOf, we've put out many articles reviewing and highlighting software that allows you to completely and cleanly uninstall applications from your system. One issue many of you run into is not knowing which of your installed programs are essential. When you buy a new PC, it's going to come with at least one or two pre-installed programs that you will want to remove immediately. You need a way to tell apart bloatware from useful software. Should I Remove It? will tell you just that.

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4 Things You Didn’t Know About BitTorrent

What do you think of when you hear the word “BitTorrent”? It probably depends on who you are. If you're an average Internet user, you think of free stuff. If you’re the president of a large multimedia corporation you think of pirates, grabbing your goodies without paying. And if you’re not technically inclined, you think of the magical way in which your tech-savvy friends find all that great stuff they didn’t pay for.

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Mute All Google+ Posts From a Person or Page

If you follow some people or pages that clutter your Google+ stream or if you'd like to read their posts when you click their circle, there's a very easy way to mute them.



1. Create a new circle. You can call it Muted.



2. Add the people and pages you want to mute.

3. Go to your Google+ stream, click "More" below the search box and select the circle you've created.



4. Click the wheel icon from the "In this circle" box and uncheck "Show posts in Home stream".

5. You can add other people later to the Muted circle. You can also mute other circles or just pick "Amount: Fewer" from the settings menu instead of hiding all the posts.

Don’t Want To Pay For Red Hat Linux? Try CentOS Instead

In case you don't know already, most of the web is powered by Linux -- Facebook, Twitter, Google, and a vast majority of other major Internet sites use Linux for their servers. While server administrators can choose between multiple distributions for their enterprise or server setups, the primary leader of these distributions is Red Hat. However, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or RHEL for short, costs a lot of money in support fees. If RHEL interests you but money is an issue, then it's almost a given to try CentOS.

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