Microsoft 365 vs. Office 2019: What Are the Differences? Compared

While Microsoft still offers a standalone version of Office, the company definitely pushes you towards signing up for Microsoft 365 instead. While Microsoft 365 provides more than just Office, is it really a better value than buying Office 2019 on its own?

Let’s compare Microsoft 365 to Office 2019 to find out. We’ll help you decide which offering is more cost-effective for your needs.

The Differences Between Microsoft 365 and Office 2019

The two available varieties of Microsoft Office differ in what you’re buying, who can use the apps, and how long you get to keep access. Let’s look at what they offer before we move on to comparing prices.

What Does Microsoft 365 Offer?

Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) is a per-user subscription. It lets you install the full suite of Microsoft Office apps on as many devices as you want and sign in on up to five devices at a time.

When you install an Office app, you’ll need to sign in with your Microsoft account to tie it to your subscription. Microsoft 365 includes the following Office apps for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS:

• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• OneNote
• Outlook
• Access (Windows only)
• Publisher (Windows only)

Your apps all get the latest updates as long as your subscription remains active. This is significant, as Microsoft regularly adds new features and enhancements into the Microsoft 365 versions of Office apps. See our overview of what’s new in Microsoft 365 for details.

A Microsoft 365 subscription plan also comes with a few extra perks. The biggest benefits are 1TB of OneDrive storage and 60 minutes of Skype credit each month. You also get some special offers from Microsoft partners and access to technical support.

The service is available in two flavors: Personal and Family.

Personal is for one user, while Family is a group plan for up to six users. With Microsoft 365 Family, each person gets the full benefits, meaning they can install Office apps on all their devices and get their own 1TB of OneDrive storage.

What Does Office 2019 Include?

Office 2019 is a one-time purchase of a suite of Office apps for a single Windows PC or Mac. The installation is not tied to your Microsoft account; you activate it with a license key provided at the time of purchase. Anyone who has access to that computer can use the Microsoft Office apps.

The included apps depend on which version of Office 2019 you buy, which we’ll look at in a moment.

Office 2019 apps don’t receive ongoing improvements like their Microsoft 365 counterparts; they only receive security patches. If you want future updates to Microsoft Office, you’ll need to buy the new version when it releases.

Buying Office 2019 does not provide access to the full versions of the Android and iOS Office apps. The standalone version also lacks some of the modern features found in the Microsoft 365 Office apps.

Finally, Office 2019 will only work for so long. Microsoft will offer mainstream support until October 2023 and extended support through October 2025. After 2025, you’ll have to upgrade to avoid using an unsupported version of Office.

This is one of the reasons we think Office 2019 isn’t a good deal for most people. But how do the prices compare?

Microsoft 365 vs. Office 2019: A Value Comparison

Microsoft 365 is available two tiers:

• Microsoft 365 Personal: $70 per year
• Microsoft 365 Family: $100 per year

As discussed, Personal is for one user, while Family provides the same benefits for up to six people. While you can also purchase these plans monthly ($7 per month for Personal or $10 per month for Family), we’ll use the cheaper annual prices here. Chances are that you aren’t interested in subscribing to Office for just a month.

Meanwhile, Office 2019 offers three versions, which are all one-time purchases:

• Office Home & Student 2019: $150 for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Office Home & Business 2019: $250 for the above, plus Outlook
• Office Professional 2019: $440 for the above, plus Publisher and Access (on Windows only)

If you wanted to match Office 2019 with Microsoft 365, you’d need to purchase Office 2019 Professional, as well as a OneDrive plan and Skype credits. Outside of Microsoft 365, however, OneDrive’s only available upgrade is 100GB of storage for $2 per month. We’ll use this as an add-on.

It’s also not possible to purchase 60 minutes of Skype credit; the smallest increment you can buy is $5, which is about 217 minutes of calls to several major countries. $1 of Skype credit thus provides about 47 calling minutes, meaning that Microsoft 365’s 12 hours of Skype credit would cost roughly $15.

However, if you’re considering Office 2019, you might not care about the OneDrive storage or Skype credits. Most people also don’t need Access and Publisher. To reflect both real-world scenarios and total value, we’ll thus compare the following setups below:

1. Microsoft 365 Personal
2. Microsoft 365 Family
3. Office Home & Student 2019
4. Office Home & Student 2019 with 60 minutes of Skype credit and 100GB of OneDrive storage per month
5. Office Home & Business 2019
6. Office Home & Business 2019 with 60 minutes of Skype credit and 100GB of OneDrive storage per month
7. Office Professional 2019

Microsoft 365 vs. Office 2019: One-Year Cost

What do Office 2019 and Microsoft 365 look like in their first year?

Microsoft 365 Personal costs $70, while Microsoft 365 Home costs $100. Office 2019 Home & Student costs $150 upfront.

For the extras we discussed, 100GB of space in OneDrive costs $24 for one year. 12 hours of Skype credit will run you about $15. The total cost is $150 for just Home & Student, or $189 if you opt for the extras.

Office 2019 Home & Business costs $250 for one PC with the same annual costs for OneDrive and Skype. Its total one-year cost is $250, or $289 with the extras.

Finally, if you opt for Office 2019 Professional, you’ll pay $440 as a one-time purchase.

Microsoft 365 vs. Office 2019: Over Five Years

How do these purchases compare when examined over a span of five years?

The $70 for Microsoft 365 Personal adds up to $350 total for five years. Meanwhile, Microsoft 365 Home’s $100 per year results in a cost of $500 for five years.

Office 2019 Home & Student’s only cost was the initial $150 for one PC. 100GB of OneDrive space is $120 for five years; the Skype credit costs about $75 for 60 hours. The total cost is $150 if you don’t opt for those extras, and $345 if you do.

Next, Office 2019 Home & Business was $250 five years ago. It has the same five-year costs for OneDrive and Skype. Thus, its total cost is $250 for Office only or $445 with OneDrive and Skype.

Last, Office 2019 Professional is still the $440 one-time charge.

Note that since Office 2019 will be out of support five years from the time of writing, using it past this point is not recommended. At that time, you’d need to upgrade to the latest version of Office to avoid using an insecure version. We’ll assume that you do this going forward.

Microsoft 365 vs. Office 2019: Value After 10 Years

Say you stick with your chosen Office setup for an entire decade. What will this cost you?

Microsoft’s 365 Personal subscription comes to $700 total for 10 years. And Microsoft 365 Family equals $1,000 over the decade.

In addition to the initial $150 purchase for Office 2019 Home & Student, you upgraded in 2025 for another $150. Subscribing to the 100GB OneDrive plan costs $240 for 10 years. In addition, the Skype credit comes to about $150 for 120 hours.

If you don’t purchase any extras, your initial purchase and upgrade totals $300. With OneDrive and Skype, the total cost over 10 years is $690.

Next, consider Office 2019 Home & Business. The initial cost of $250 still stands, plus another $250 to upgrade at the end of support. The 10-year costs are the same for OneDrive and Skype. This brings us to $500 for Office alone, or $890 with Skype and OneDrive.

Finally, Office 2019 Pro without any extras would cost you the initial $440, plus an upgrade for the same price in 2025. This is a total of $880.

Microsoft 365 vs. Office 2019: Which Is a Better Deal?

Of course, we’ve made some assumptions in these calculations. There’s no guarantee that Microsoft will offer another standalone version of Office to replace Office 2019. Prices may change, and Microsoft could add or remove benefits to Microsoft 365 in the meantime.

We also didn’t cover buying Office apps individually. You can purchase standalone versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, or Publisher for $140 each. However, this only makes sense if you’re sure you need just one app. Otherwise, buying one of the Office packages is much more cost-effective.

Now that we’ve looked at the cost across one, five, and 10 years, does Office 2019 or Microsoft 365 provide a better value? That depends on your needs.

If you only need Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on one device:

• Microsoft 365 Personal is the best value for one year.
• Office 2019 Home & Student is the best value for five or 10 years.

If you also need Outlook, but only on one device:

• Microsoft 365 Personal is the best value for one year.
• Office 2019 Home & Business is the best value for five or 10 years.

If you need Publisher or Access:

• Microsoft 365 Personal is the best value at every time interval.
• After five years, $350 for Microsoft 365 Personal is still cheaper than $440 for Office 2019 Professional. And after 10 years, $700 for 10 years of Microsoft 365 Personal beats $880 to buy Office Professional twice.

If you add on OneDrive storage and Skype credit:

• Microsoft 365 is the best value for one year.
• Without Outlook, Office 2019 is only $5 cheaper than Microsoft 365 for five years. With Outlook, Microsoft 365 Personal is the better value for five years.
• Office 2019 is just $10 cheaper than Microsoft 365 Personal at 10 years. However, if you need Outlook, Microsoft 365 is a better value than Office 2019 Home & Business at 10 years.

Keep in mind, though, that the added OneDrive storage is only 100GB if you buy Office 2019. With Microsoft 365, you get 1TB, which is 10 times that amount.

If you need 1TB of OneDrive storage, access on mobile devices, or are buying for multiple people:

• Microsoft 365 offers the best value.
• Remember that Office 2019 is only good for one PC or Mac. To get it for multiple devices, you’d have to pay at least $150 per computer, plus that amount again after five years to upgrade.
• Meanwhile, Microsoft 365 Personal lets you install Office on all your devices, and Family lets up to six people install it on all their devices.

Microsoft 365 Is a Compelling Office Package

From the above, we’ve learned that Microsoft 365 is always a better deal if you’re only buying for a year. If you’re interested in maximum OneDrive space, Microsoft 365 is worth it for that alone: $7/month for 1TB is a steal compared to $2/month for 100GB. And the value is much higher when you bring multiple people into a Family plan.

On the flip side, even with an upgrade after five years, buying Office 2019 can save you some money in the long run if you don’t need any of Microsoft 365’s extras. But we’d only recommend it for people who don’t need Office on multiple devices. It’s best for one computer that you plan to use for a long time.

Did you know that you might not need to pay for Office at all? Check out the best free alternatives to Microsoft Office for other options before you buy it.

Image Credit: Nor Gal/Shutterstock

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What Was Vine? How to Find and Watch Old Vines

After Twitter shuttered Vine in January 2017, the question over what happened to all those six-second videos has been a source of confusion. Twitter released the Vine Archive shortly after closing Vine, but, as of 2019, the Vine Archive is no longer supported.

If you were as heartbroken as we were when Vine closed, you’re probably wondering how to find and watch old Vines. Thankfully, all hope is not lost, as you can still watch your favorite Vines online. It’s just that you might have to put in a little work to do so…

What Was Vine?

In 2013, Twitter released Vine: a short-form video-sharing platform. Each Vine, or video, only lasted for six seconds and then replayed in a continuous loop. The brevity of the videos meant that the user had to get extra creative, which made for some amazing (and hilarious) content.

Despite Vine raking in tons of users and views, Vine just couldn’t compete with the other big names in social media. More people started turning to Instagram and Snapchat to create fun videos. And features such as Snapchat’s wide array of filters and lenses attracted a ton of users.

So, in 2017, Twitter killed Vine. Vine’s shutdown left its community feeling abandoned, as much of it was still active. As some sort of consolation, Vine briefly remained active as Vine Camera, and also kept every Vine in the Vine Archive. Unfortunately, both the Vine Camera and the Vine Archive have since been discontinued.

At the beginning of 2020, Vine’s creators released a replacement for Vine. This platform, called Byte, allows users to create and share looping six-second videos. However, despite its relationship to Vine, there’s no way to view old Vines on Byte.

How to Watch Old Vines

So, how do you watch old Vines now? When you head to the Vine website, you won’t see any Vine videos. Instead, you’re met with a depressing page that says goodbye to Vine and its users. However, there are other ways to find and watch old Vines.

While you can still access old Vines, it’s not as easy as it used to be. The following methods will teach you how to find old Vines and rediscover your favorite Viners in the most painless ways possible.

1. Use a Direct Link to the Viner’s Page

Do you still remember your favorite Viner’s username? If you do, you’re in luck—you can use their username to locate their videos in the Vine Archive.

To watch old Vine videos this way, type the Vine URL followed by the Viner’s username in this format: vine.co/username. Simply replace “username” with the specific username you’re looking for.

For example, I added the username “nickcolletti” at the end of Vine’s URL: vine.co/nickcolletti/.

As you can see in the above photo, you can then browse through that user’s entire library of Vines. It still displays how many revines, loops, and likes each video got. Not only that, but you can also see the date the Vine was posted, as well as the Vine’s original caption.

2. Find Vine Links on Twitter

If you happen to come across a Vine link on an old Twitter post, you can still click on it. This link will lead you to the video’s page on the Vine Archive.

You can find Vine links rather quickly by navigating to a Twitter profile and clicking the Media tab. This tab compiles all of the photos and videos shared by a Twitter user, which includes Vines. If you decided not to delete all of your old Tweets when everyone else was doing so, you can also locate your own Vines using this method.

Scroll all the way down to the user’s posts from 2016 (this might take a while), and locate any Vines they posted. Simply click the bottom half of the video, where the “vine.co” link is, and you’ll get redirected to the Vine Archive.

From here, you can click on the Viner’s username in the caption of the Vine. This lets you browse the rest of the Viner’s videos.

Looking at a Viner’s page might also help you find other usernames you can’t remember. Since Viners often featured or tagged each other in Vines, you just might find links to another Viner’s page.

3. Watch Vines on YouTube

YouTube has become a life-saver when it comes to watching old Vines. Quite a few users have taken the time to save and compile old Vine videos.

You can start your search by typing “best Vines” or “Vines compilation” into YouTube’s search bar. Using these keywords (or something similar) will yield hundreds of results featuring the most popular Vines.

These Vines may not replay on loop, but it’s still a viable way of finding and watching old videos. Plus, the YouTubers that put together these Vine compilations often include the usernames of the Viners. This gives you yet another way of finding the usernames of forgotten Viners.

4. Use the Wayback Machine

In case you want to relive the full Vine experience, you can access it using the Wayback Machine on the Internet Archive. This tool lets you go back in time to visit websites that no longer exist, or to see the previous forms of existing sites.

When you type “vine.co” into the Wayback Machine’s search bar, it’ll display Vine’s entire timeline from 2012 to the present day. The desktop browser version of Vine was introduced in June 2014, so you’ll want to narrow down your search from June 2014 to Vine’s shutdown date in January 2017.

As you view the calendar of snapshots on the Wayback Machine, you can click on a series of dates and times. Each date and time shows what Vine looked like at that exact moment. It might take several tries to find a working version of the old site, but it’s worth the effort.

When you find a snapshot that actually works, you can see what’s on the front page of Vine for that time period. All of the videos are fully playable, and you can even use the search function.

How to Find and Watch Old Vines in 2020

When it comes to figuring out how to see old Vines, Twitter doesn’t make it easy. Which means you’ll have to do some digging to find forgotten usernames and old links. However, despite the legwork you might have to put in to find old Vines and Viners, it’s worth doing.

Since Twitter killed Vine, other short video platforms like TikTok have taken its place. And if you’ve already switched to using TikTok, here’s how to get more TikTok fans and followers.

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How to Make Your Own Wireless Printer With a Raspberry Pi

Wireless technology is perhaps the best improvement to home printing for years. Fewer cables, flexibility about where you can put your printer—it’s win-win. Unless you have an older printer.

While new printers are affordable, you might have spent enough on your last one that it’s not worth the outlay. Additionally, your old printer might have a special function, that replacing it might be too expensive.

The solution? Make your old printer wireless. Many solutions are available, but one popular choice is to use your Raspberry Pi as a wireless print server.

Benefits of Wireless Printing

If you haven’t already enjoyed the benefits of wireless printing, then this project is definitely the place to start. But why bother with wireless printing?

• Your printer is no longer tied to your computer
• Any device can print to it (laptop, smartphone or tablet)
• No more endless cables
• Wireless functionality on your existing wireless printer is faulty

Wireless printing really is about making printing flexible—an ideal project for the Raspberry Pi. The beauty of this solution is that it will work for Windows, macOS, and other Linux computers.

Preparing for Wireless Printing With the Raspberry Pi

To enable wireless printer on an old, wired device, you’ll need a Raspberry Pi with built-in Wi-Fi.

Wireless-enabled models are:

• Raspberry Pi 3 B/B+
• Raspberry Pi 4 B
• Raspberry Pi Zero W

Raspberry Pi Zero W Raspberry Pi Zero W Buy Now On Amazon $24.99

With older devices, ensure you have connected a wireless USB dongle for your Raspberry Pi and connected the device to your network. The Pi should be running the latest version of Raspbian installed to the SD card.

You will also need:

• A USB printer (a parallel printer coupled to a parallel-to-USB adaptor can work)
• Printer’s power supply and USB cable
• Credentials for your wireless network

Boot and Update Your Raspberry Pi for Printing

Start by connecting everything. Your printer should be connected to the Raspberry Pi and powered on. Access your Raspberry Pi either using a keyboard and display, or a remote connection using SSH, VNC, or RDP.

To update, open a terminal and enter:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

This checks for software updates, and upgrades as required. Follow the prompts on screen until this is completed.

Configuring Your Raspberry Pi as a Print Server With Cups

With the equipment connected and setup, the first thing to do is ensure that your USB printer is detected.

Open a command line (either on your Raspberry Pi directly or over SSH) and enter:

lsusb

A list of attached USB devices should appear. Check it and identify your printer.

Following this, you’ll need to install Samba, the open source file sharing software. This can be done by entering the command.

sudo apt install samba

Follow any instructions that are displayed. Next, it’s time to install CUPS, the Common Unix Printing System (note that you must install Samba first).

sudo apt install cups

CUPS provides drivers for your printer. Many manufacturers provide Linux drivers, but in the event one isn’t available, use this.

You’re now ready to add the default user to the printer admin group.

sudo usermod -a -G lpadmin pi

By default, CUPS will not enable access from another device. To fix this, configure CUPS to accept connections from, say, your PC browser and restart the service:

sudo cupsctl --remote-any
sudo /etc/init.d/cups restart

Adding Your Printer

Next, you’ll need to setup your printer with your Raspberry Pi. Switch to the Raspberry Pi desktop, launch your browser and go to 127.0.0.1:631 and switch to the Administration tab. Alternatively, browser direct to 127.0.0.1:631/admin/

Select Add new printer, input your Raspbian credentials when requested and then select your printer from the list. Proceed to the next screen, selecting the correct device from the list.

Next, confirm the details and assign a name, then check Share This Printer and click Continue.

Depending upon your device manufacturer, the next page may take a while to load as device driver names are loaded. Select the correct printer driver (which should be selected by default) and continue.

Alternatively, click Select Another Make/Manufacturer and select Raw. This means that the device you’re printing from will handle the driver.

Click Add Printer, then Set Default Options. A few moments later the printer will be ready to start accepting jobs. To ensure it is working, click Maintenance and select Print Test Page.

Connecting to Your Raspberry Pi Print Server

With that all done, you need to ensure access to your Raspberry Pi is enabled. For macOS, this is by default, but for Windows, some extra configuration is required. Once this is done, you can start printing.

Edit the samba config file in /etc/samba/smb.conf. There are two ways to do this:

• Open the file on the desktop and make the changes in a text editor
• Use sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf to edit the file in the terminal

The following should be added:

# CUPS printing.  See also the cupsaddsmb(8) manpage in the

# cupsys-client package.

printing = cups

printcap name = cups

[printers]

comment = All Printers

browseable = no

path = /var/spool/samba

printable = yes

guest ok = yes

read only = yes

create mask = 0700


# Windows clients look for this share name as a source of downloadable

# printer drivers

[print$]

comment = Printer Drivers

path = /usr/share/cups/drivers

browseable = yes

read only = yes

guest ok = no

workgroup = your_workgroup_name

wins support = yes

You’ll need to input the Windows “workgroup” name  replacing your_workgroup_name—this is usually Workgroup):

Press Ctrl + X to save and exit, then restart samba:

sudo systemctl restart smbd

Start Printing From Windows & macOS

Samba will take a few seconds to restart. You can now switch to your PC and add a new printer. First check that the Raspberry Pi is visible by opening Windows Explorer > Network.

Go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers > Advanced printer setup and wait for the system to scan.

A quicker option is to expand your Raspberry Pi’s entry in Windows Explorer’s Network view. Simply right-click on the printer, select Connect, select your Windows printer driver, and start printing.

Mac users, meanwhile, can add a new printer in the usual way.

Any administration of the print server that needs to be performed can be done by opening http://[RPI.IP.ADDRESS.HERE]:631. This displays the CUPS printer admin web interface on any device on your network.

You Made a DIY Print Server With Raspberry Pi

If you’ve made it this far, your Raspberry Pi-powered print server should be up and running. You’ve just brought a non-wireless printer online, enabling wireless printing to it from any device.

This is just one of many awesome projects you can build with a Raspberry Pi computer.

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Google Earth Tour Guide: 14 Virtual Tours You’ll Want to Check Out

For ages, Google Earth has remained the go-to service for browsing our globe. You can use this app to visit all corners of the planet from the comfort of your living room. In 2017, Google Earth was also completely overhauled to add more features. This overhaul included additional Google virtual tours to the world’s most remote and amazing places.

Here are the best Google Maps tours that are available on Google Earth.

1. Life in the Ocean Deep

With Life in the Ocean Deep, you can discover mysterious sea creatures with the help of renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough. This Google tour takes you on a journey through the many quirky yet breathtaking creatures that inhabit our oceans, like glow-in-the-dark jellyfish and giant crabs.

Assisting this Google Earth tour are a series of videos and underwater maps.

2. UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Looking to dive into the past? Follow this Google Maps virtual tour as it briefs you on thirty historic landmarks that were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The tour includes but is not limited to, India’s Taj Mahal, Cambodia’s Towers of Angkor Wat, and Spain’s Catedral de Sevilla.

If you’re dreaming of traveling, don’t forget to plan your itineraries with these smart travel planning apps.

3. This is Home

Sometimes home is where the heart is, even if that home is very far away. With This is Home, Google lets you visit traditional homes from around the world. You’ll even get to know about the history behind each of these places and get a glimpse inside the unique structures with Google Street View.

For instance, Jordan’s House of Hair is a string of tents constructed from the hair of camels and other animals. It’s located in the middle of the desert, but some of the other houses on this tour are located in even more far-flung regions than that.

4. Stop and Smell the Flowers

Stop and Smell the Flowers is a Google virtual tour that takes you on a journey through some of the most breathtaking botanical gardens and arboretums around the world. This tour highlights a total of eleven places, ranging from countries like Russia, Sweden, and Canada, to the Netherlands.

If you’re into gardening, then this one is for you.

5. Pilgrimage to Mecca

Every year, many thousands of Muslims embark on a pilgrimage to Mecca, a holy city for practitioners of the Islamic faith. Google’s virtual tour lets you learn about this practice, from landing at the Hajj Terminal Jeddah Airport to the final destination of Masjid al-Haram.

6. Global Flea Markets

Have you ever had an interest in bustling flea markets? Experience them yourself with this Google Maps virtual tour. This tour walks you through nine of the most iconic markets worldwide, such as France’s Les Puces de Saint-Ouen, India’s Anjuna Flea Market, and London’s Portobello Market.

While we’re still on the subject: If you want to plan a dream vacation, here are some easy ways that you can travel more cheaply.

7. Colorful Street Fests & Carnivals

Being a land of diverse cultures and societies, the world is laden with numerous festivals. The most vibrant of them are covered in a Google Maps tour.

This tour features eight of the biggest celebrations from around the globe. These celebrations include the large-scale food fight La Tomatina in Spain, Holi in India, and Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

8. Comic Geek Destinations

Unleash your inner geek with this virtual tour that takes you on a trip through a bunch of iconic comic book spots. Comic Geek Destinations curates a total of ten locations known for appearing in various fictional universes. One of these locations is the Parkwood Estate. It was a mansion used by X-Men’s Professor Xavier for his school of “Gifted Youngsters.”

If you feel like doing some light reading after this tour, here are the best ways to read comics online for free.

9. Iconic Film Locations in the Mediterranean

Are you more of a movie buff than a comic book aficionado? Try out this tour featuring iconic film locations in the Mediterranean.

In this tour, you can travel to each selected landmark where a movie scene has been shot. If you don’t want to use Google Earth to find these spots, however, here’s how to track down your favorite film locations using websites.

10. International Year of the Reef

Coral reefs have been in peril for many decades now due to the threat of global warming. To raise awareness on this issue, a Google Maps virtual tour was set up to help familiarize the public with the basics.

With the International Year of the Reef, you can see how these marvelous underwater colonies are formed over millions of years. Each chapter in the tour also discusses fundamental topics like coral reef diversity. Additionally, it includes video highlights and subaqueous street view images.

11. In Mandela’s Footsteps

Sometimes you can take a virtual walk through history. In Mandela’s Footsteps lets you follow the journey of the legendary political leader and former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.

This tour highlights the places that played a critical role in Mandela’s life. For example, there’s a page devoted to the University of Fort Hare. It was one of the first institutions in the region that allowed non-white people to study for a post-secondary degree.

12. Reading the ABCs from Space

Perhaps one of the most intriguing virtual tours available on Google Earth is Reading the ABCs from Space. Developed by NASA, this tour consists of twenty-six chapters that reveal locations on the planet that form an alphabet from space.

Our personal favorite is the letter “J” off the coast of Australia, which is made up of a coral reef.

13. The Beautiful Game

If you’re in a World Cup spirit, you might want to check out The Beautiful Game. This Google Earth tour takes you on a trip through some of the planet’s most unforgettable soccer destinations. The destinations include the Allianz Arena in Munich, Barcelona’s Camp Nou, and Old Trafford in England.

14. National Parks of the United States

Looking for natural wonders closer to home? Especially ones that will help you appreciate the great outdoors?

If so, then you need to check out the National Parks of the United States. It’s a virtual tour that will take you on a journey through the most pristine areas of wilderness from coast to coast, ranging from Acadia National Park to Denali.

Use a Google Tour to Visit the World

While all of these virtual tours are absolutely amazing, we’ve barely scratched the surface in just how many there are. If you go deep-diving through the archives, you’ll also find that the tours are divided into subcategories like nature, culture, education, and street view. The best thing about the tours is that they’re entirely free. A reliable, high-bandwidth connection to view them is a must, however.

For those that want to dig deeper into this app, it might surprise you to learn that Google Earth is an offshoot of Google Maps. With that in mind, take some time to understand how Google Maps works.

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The 5 Best Video Game Emulators to Install on Your iPhone or iPad

Modern mobile games are fine, but most of them can’t come close to classic games like Pokémon, Crash Bandicoot, Super Mario 64, or The Legend of Zelda. Thankfully, it’s possible to play all these classic video games and more on your iPhone using the best emulators below.

An emulator is a software imitation of a video games console. You can install emulators on your iPhone—without jailbreaking it—to play some of the most popular video games ever made. Here are all the best emulators to use on your iPhone or iPad.

About Emulators and ROMs

Apple doesn’t allow video game emulators on the App Store, but it’s still possible to install them on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch without jailbreaking your device. That does mean the emulators are sometimes a little bit unstable, but that’s a small price to pay for access to the best classic video games on your iPhone.

Most of the emulators in this list are available to download for free from websites like iEmulators or the AppMarket. But you can get better reliability if you pay for a BuildStore subscription. Otherwise, you may need to compile the apps on your iPhone using a computer.

For more information, check out our detailed guide about installing emulators on your iPhone.

After you install a video game emulator on your iPhone, you still need to get some ROMs to use with it. A ROM is the software version of a video game cartridge or disk. While you’ll need a ROM for each game you want to play, the same game ROM will work on every emulator that supports the console. For example, the same N64 ROM will work with any of the N64 emulators below.

Emulators are legal, but downloading ROMs for games that you don’t own is considered piracy. Some companies don’t mind if you create a “backup copy” of games you already own, but this isn’t always allowed either. While ROMs are freely available online, we don’t condone downloading them.

1. Delta (Game Boy, N64, SNES)

Delta is the best iPhone emulator for Nintendo enthusiasts. It’s the successor to the hugely popular GBA4iOS emulator; you can download an incredibly stable version of Delta using the Alt Store.

Delta supports a huge range of Nintendo consoles:

• Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance
• NES and SNES
• N64
• Nintendo DS (with a Patreon subscription)

With Delta, you can save your games in any state, take advantage of Quick Saves if you have an external controller, and sync all your data to Google Drive or Dropbox for safekeeping. You can even add cheat codes to your games to add some flair, or lock your favorite saves to make sure they don’t get overwritten.

If you’re looking to play Pokemon on your iPhone, this is the best emulator to use.

Delta lets you connect wireless PS4, Xbox One, and MFi game controllers, as well as Bluetooth or wired keyboards. You can customize the button mapping however you like, even saving presets on a per-system or per-controller basis.

Without an external controller, you can still customize the emulator skins that appear on your iPhone screen and choose buttons for Delta to hold down so you don’t need to keep pressing certain buttons as you play.

All this detail only scratches the surface of Delta. The developer is still working to improve it, with plenty more updates yet to come.

Download: Delta (Free)

2. Provenance (Nintendo, Sony, Sega, Atari)

You need to install Provenance by compiling it from a computer, but it’s well worth doing. Provenance is one of the oldest and most popular multi-platform emulators for iPhone. It’s especially good if you’re looking to play original PlayStation games on your iPhone.

Provenance emulates 30 systems, including major consoles from:

• Nintendo
• Sega
• Sony
• Atari
• and more

You can save your games at any point, or record footage of you playing and sync all that data to iCloud. You can even choose to auto-load a particular save every time you open Provenance to start playing as quickly as possible.

Connect a wireless MFi, iCade, or Steam controller for better comfort while playing on a small screen.

Unfortunately, the developers of Provenance recently removed it from the most popular emulator websites. But you can still install it using an Apple developer account following the instructions on the Provenance Wiki.

3. iNDS (Nintendo DS)

We previously mentioned Delta as the best Nintendo emulator for iPhone. But to unlock Nintendo DS emulation on Delta, you need to pay for a Patreon subscription. That’s where iNDS comes in; this emulator lets you play Nintendo DS games on your iPhone for free.

Derived from the once-popular NDS4iOS emulator, iNDS is available for non-jailbroken devices through iEmulators and the BuildStore. As with all iOS emulators, Apple sometimes revokes the license for this app, which means you may need to wait for the developers to renew it before you can install it on your iPhone.

But once it’s working, iNDS will let you play Nintendo DS games at nearly full speed on iPhone 5 and newer, at up to 60FPS on newer iPhones.

Take advantage of save states and auto-save options to sync your game data over Dropbox so you never need to worry about losing your progress, even if the emulator does get revoked. iNDS also includes 100,000 game cheats for adding a new layer of fun to your favorite DS games.

Because the Nintendo DS features two screens, one above the other, you can use iNDS in portrait or landscape mode with both screens appearing in the center of your iPhone display. You can also customize the controller size and style, and even disable touchscreen on the second screen to avoid accidental taps.

Download: iNDS (Free)

4. PPSSPP (Sony PSP)

PPSSPP is dedicated to emulating PlayStation Portable (PSP) games on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. While it should be able to run any PSP game on your device, older iPhones might not run the games at full speed.

Like all the other emulators on this list, you can create save states for your games, so you don’t need to worry about reaching a save point before exiting the emulator. You can also add cheats to your games for extra fun.

Perhaps one of the best features of PPSSPP is that it gives you the ability to transfer existing saves from your real PSP. So you can pick up in GTA: Vice City exactly where you left off.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have a built-in way to sync your games to the cloud. However, that might be best considering most PSP ROMs are extremely large files.

The PSP controls appear transparently over the game screen while you’re playing games, which means PPSSPP presents the largest screen possible on your device.

Download: PPSSPP (Free)

5. RetroArch (Atari, DOS, Genesis, PC Engine)

RetroArch brings together emulators for a long list of different consoles, offering a single slick interface to play all the best classic games on almost any device. You can install RetroArch on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, making it one of the most versatile emulators available.

Alongside Game Boy, SNES, and PlayStation emulators, RetroArch also supports older platforms, such as:

• Atari
• DOS
• MSX
• Neo Geo Pocket
• PC Engine
• Sega Genesis (Mega Drive)
• and more

RetroArch uses the same gamepad for all the different emulators included. This makes it easy to get comfortable with the touchscreen layout no matter which game you’re playing, which could be one of many thanks to RetroArch’s wide support.

You can create custom save states and set your favorites to auto-load when you boot up the app. You can also lock the most previous saves to avoid overwriting them.

With RetroArch’s Netplay feature, you can connect to other players for multiplayer sessions. This works across multiple platforms, so you can even play with Android or PC users as well.

Other iPhone Gaming Options

Though they’re a bit of work to set up, emulators offer a ton of great classic games once you have them running. And these choices let you play a ton of games on any platforms you like.

If you find the emulators too much work to install, check out other great gaming options for your iPhone. You can also play many classic Sega games on iOS without bothering with emulators.

Read the full article: The 5 Best Video Game Emulators to Install on Your iPhone or iPad

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What Is Google Meet and How Does It Work?

Google Meet is a video conferencing service from Google. It’s a great solution for both individuals and businesses to meet on audio and video calls. It was born from Google Hangouts, but boasts some unique features.

In this article, we take a look at Google Meet, explaining what Google Meet is, and how it emerged from Google Hangouts. We also explore the best Google Meet features, and explain how to create or join a Google Meet meeting.

What Is Google Meet?

Google Meet is a video conferencing service from Google. It was originally only available to enterprise customers, but everyone can now use Google Meet for free.

Google Meet is available on the web, and phones and tablets for Android and iOS.

Google Meet is primarily designed as a way to host video meetings. However, you can enable the camera and microphone independently, so you can just use it for audio calls if you wish.

You can create ad hoc calls and invite your friends and family. They can join by typing your meeting code or you can send them a link that they click on.

One of the best things about Google Meet is that you don’t need to install any software on desktop. Everyone in the call (the organizer and the attendees) simply has to be using a modern web browser.

Google Meet vs. Google Hangouts vs. Google Chat

Google is known for having multiple chat services that all seem to do the same thing. It often changes the name of services or retires them, which leads to even more confusion.

Google Hangouts is a video and messaging platform. Google Hangouts split into Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat, which were then rebranded to Google Meet and Google Chat respectively.

All three of these services—Google Hangouts, Google Meet, and Google Chat—are separate and still exist. There’s also Google Duo (our guide to Duo and Allo). However, Google will likely retire Google Hangouts at some point, though the exact date is unknown.

If you want to host a video meeting for multiple people, use Google Meet. If you want to have a one-on-one conversation with someone, either in a video call or via text, use Google Hangouts or Google Chat. Check out our list of Google Hangouts tips and tricks.

You can find out more information regarding the differences between the chat apps on Google’s FAQ page.

What Are the Best Features of Google Meet?

On the free plan, Google Meet supports meetings of up to one hour, though this has been extended to 24 hours until September 30, 2020.

You can create and join as many meetings as you like, so there’s nothing to stop you hosting a second meeting if you hit the hour limit.

Up to 100 participants can be in the same meeting. As a meeting organizer, you can mute other people, which you might want to do if your meetings reach that size.

Google Meet does its best to filter out any background noise that isn’t speech. It also has a live caption feature, which automatically captions what people say—it’s pretty reliable and great for accessibility.

You can also share your screen to everyone on the call. This can either be a specific window or the entire desktop, and it works on mobile too.

Finally, Google claims that “video conferences are encrypted in transit” and that “our array of safety measures are continuously updated for added protection”. Business users get enterprise-grade security, but for the average user the privacy settings are fine.

How Much Does Google Meet Cost?

Google Meet is free for everybody to create and join calls. All you need is a Google account (which you’ll have if you use Gmail), but that’s also free.

However, some features of Google Meet are only available via a paid G Suite subscription. This costs $10/active user/month. G Suite is targeted at enterprise users and is Google’s suite of collaboration and productivity apps.

Some additional features that G Suite gives Google Meet are:

• 300 hours meeting length
• 250 meeting participants
• US or international dial-in phone numbers
• Meeting recordings saved to Google Drive
• 24/7 online support

More information can be found on the Google Meet plans and pricing page.

How to Start a Google Meet Call

To start a Google Meet call on desktop, go to the Google Meet website. Click Start new meeting. You will be prompted to log in to your Google account, if you’re not already signed in.

You will see a waiting area. Your browser will likely ask if you want to grant meet.google.com access to your microphone and webcam, so Allow both of these. Use the preview area to ready yourself, then click Join now to begin.

A window will pop-up with a link to share with others so that they can join the call. You can bring this up again at any time by clicking Meeting details in the bottom-left.

To start a Google Meet call on mobile or tablet, open the Google Meet app and tap New meeting. A pop-up will show you the meeting invitation details—tap Share to send this directly to someone in another app.

How to Join a Google Meet Call

There are two ways to join a Google Meet call:

1. Use a Google Meet Invite Link

The first is to ask the meeting host to send you the invite link. This will be formatted like meet.google.com/xxx-xxxx-xxx. (The characters at the end of this URL are also the meeting code, used in the second method below.)

On desktop, click the link and you will automatically join the meeting. You will need to log in to your Google account if you’re not already signed in, though if the host is using G Suite this step isn’t required.

On mobile or tablet, providing you have the Google Meet app installed, tap the link to launch the app and join the meeting.

2. Use a Google Meet Meeting Code

The second method is to ask the meeting host to give you the meeting code. You can then enter this to join the meeting.

On desktop, go to the Google Meet website and input the code in the Enter meeting code field, then click Join.

On mobile and tablet, launch the Google Meet app, tap Meeting code, input it in the field, then tap Join meeting.

Other Free Video Conferencing Apps

That’s everything you need to know about Google Meet and how to create and join video calls. However, if Google Meet doesn’t do it for you, take a look at our comparison pitting Zoom vs. Houseparty, two of the biggest video chat apps around right now.

Read the full article: What Is Google Meet and How Does It Work?

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Google Earth Tour Guide: 14 Virtual Tours You’ll Want to Check Out

For ages, Google Earth has remained the go-to service for browsing our globe. You can use this app to visit all corners of the planet from the comfort of your living room. In 2017, Google Earth was also completely overhauled to add more features. This overhaul included additional Google virtual tours to the world’s most remote and amazing places.

Here are the best Google Maps tours that are available on Google Earth.

1. Life in the Ocean Deep

With Life in the Ocean Deep, you can discover mysterious sea creatures with the help of renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough. This Google tour takes you on a journey through the many quirky yet breathtaking creatures that inhabit our oceans, like glow-in-the-dark jellyfish and giant crabs.

Assisting this Google Earth tour are a series of videos and underwater maps.

2. UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Looking to dive into the past? Follow this Google Maps virtual tour as it briefs you on thirty historic landmarks that were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The tour includes but is not limited to, India’s Taj Mahal, Cambodia’s Towers of Angkor Wat, and Spain’s Catedral de Sevilla.

If you’re dreaming of traveling, don’t forget to plan your itineraries with these smart travel planning apps.

3. This is Home

Sometimes home is where the heart is, even if that home is very far away. With This is Home, Google lets you visit traditional homes from around the world. You’ll even get to know about the history behind each of these places and get a glimpse inside the unique structures with Google Street View.

For instance, Jordan’s House of Hair is a string of tents constructed from the hair of camels and other animals. It’s located in the middle of the desert, but some of the other houses on this tour are located in even more far-flung regions than that.

4. Stop and Smell the Flowers

Stop and Smell the Flowers is a Google virtual tour that takes you on a journey through some of the most breathtaking botanical gardens and arboretums around the world. This tour highlights a total of eleven places, ranging from countries like Russia, Sweden, and Canada, to the Netherlands.

If you’re into gardening, then this one is for you.

5. Pilgrimage to Mecca

Every year, many thousands of Muslims embark on a pilgrimage to Mecca, a holy city for practitioners of the Islamic faith. Google’s virtual tour lets you learn about this practice, from landing at the Hajj Terminal Jeddah Airport to the final destination of Masjid al-Haram.

6. Global Flea Markets

Have you ever had an interest in bustling flea markets? Experience them yourself with this Google Maps virtual tour. This tour walks you through nine of the most iconic markets worldwide, such as France’s Les Puces de Saint-Ouen, India’s Anjuna Flea Market, and London’s Portobello Market.

While we’re still on the subject: If you want to plan a dream vacation, here are some easy ways that you can travel more cheaply.

7. Colorful Street Fests & Carnivals

Being a land of diverse cultures and societies, the world is laden with numerous festivals. The most vibrant of them are covered in a Google Maps tour.

This tour features eight of the biggest celebrations from around the globe. These celebrations include the large-scale food fight La Tomatina in Spain, Holi in India, and Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

8. Comic Geek Destinations

Unleash your inner geek with this virtual tour that takes you on a trip through a bunch of iconic comic book spots. Comic Geek Destinations curates a total of ten locations known for appearing in various fictional universes. One of these locations is the Parkwood Estate. It was a mansion used by X-Men’s Professor Xavier for his school of “Gifted Youngsters.”

If you feel like doing some light reading after this tour, here are the best ways to read comics online for free.

9. Iconic Film Locations in the Mediterranean

Are you more of a movie buff than a comic book aficionado? Try out this tour featuring iconic film locations in the Mediterranean.

In this tour, you can travel to each selected landmark where a movie scene has been shot. If you don’t want to use Google Earth to find these spots, however, here’s how to track down your favorite film locations using websites.

10. International Year of the Reef

Coral reefs have been in peril for many decades now due to the threat of global warming. To raise awareness on this issue, a Google Maps virtual tour was set up to help familiarize the public with the basics.

With the International Year of the Reef, you can see how these marvelous underwater colonies are formed over millions of years. Each chapter in the tour also discusses fundamental topics like coral reef diversity. Additionally, it includes video highlights and subaqueous street view images.

11. In Mandela’s Footsteps

Sometimes you can take a virtual walk through history. In Mandela’s Footsteps lets you follow the journey of the legendary political leader and former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.

This tour highlights the places that played a critical role in Mandela’s life. For example, there’s a page devoted to the University of Fort Hare. It was one of the first institutions in the region that allowed non-white people to study for a post-secondary degree.

12. Reading the ABCs from Space

Perhaps one of the most intriguing virtual tours available on Google Earth is Reading the ABCs from Space. Developed by NASA, this tour consists of twenty-six chapters that reveal locations on the planet that form an alphabet from space.

Our personal favorite is the letter “J” off the coast of Australia, which is made up of a coral reef.

13. The Beautiful Game

If you’re in a World Cup spirit, you might want to check out The Beautiful Game. This Google Earth tour takes you on a trip through some of the planet’s most unforgettable soccer destinations. The destinations include the Allianz Arena in Munich, Barcelona’s Camp Nou, and Old Trafford in England.

14. National Parks of the United States

Looking for natural wonders closer to home? Especially ones that will help you appreciate the great outdoors?

If so, then you need to check out the National Parks of the United States. It’s a virtual tour that will take you on a journey through the most pristine areas of wilderness from coast to coast, ranging from Acadia National Park to Denali.

Use a Google Tour to Visit the World

While all of these virtual tours are absolutely amazing, we’ve barely scratched the surface in just how many there are. If you go deep-diving through the archives, you’ll also find that the tours are divided into subcategories like nature, culture, education, and street view. The best thing about the tours is that they’re entirely free. A reliable, high-bandwidth connection to view them is a must, however.

For those that want to dig deeper into this app, it might surprise you to learn that Google Earth is an offshoot of Google Maps. With that in mind, take some time to understand how Google Maps works.

Read the full article: Google Earth Tour Guide: 14 Virtual Tours You’ll Want to Check Out