If you need rescuing from the clutches of your bookmarks, this article is for you. With such great content available online, you get into the habit of saving every nice thing you come across, usually with the intention of reading or viewing it later. Somehow, you never get around to doing that because you’re busy bookmarking the next interesting article or cool video or quirky website that has caught your fancy. You often spend precious time sorting, tagging, and sharing links, many of which you’re are unlikely to revisit. Decluttering those links from time to time does not stop the...
Read the full article: 3 Simple And Elegant Tricks To Stop Drowning In Your Own Bookmarks
Want to make voice and video calls on your Windows 8 computer? A touchscreen version of Skype is available from Microsoft, but how does it compare to the desktop version? Skype for Windows 8 Modern: Why? One of the most surprising things about Windows 8 is that Skype isn’t pre-installed. Perhaps wary of previous decisions against them concerning the installation of browsers, Microsoft instead makes the touchscreen-friendly version of Skype available via the Windows Store. Interestingly, the Modern interface version of Skype can be installed on the same system as the “classic” desktop version. This can lead to problems; more...
Read the full article: Why The Classic Desktop Version Trumps Skype For Windows 8
Read the full article: Holiday Shopping List: For The Techy Outdoorsman
We’ve had quite the year here at MakeUseOf, with thousands of articles published, dozens of hardware giveaways, a burgeoning collection of rewards for readers, a controversial makeover, new writers joining the team, and new columns increasing the range of content covered. We’re giving ourselves a pat on the back for a job well done, and were hoping you would do the same. We thought we’d had a big enough year that, when prompted to recommend an article from 2013 to a friend, the readers would respond in droves. We were wrong. OK, So We Suck, What Of It?! We asked...
Read the full article: MakeUseOf Fails In 2013 [We Ask You Results]
You can now use Wunderlist to create specially curated lists for things like Christmas wishlists and gift lists. The holidays is a bit of a stressful time for all of us, especially when it comes to buying gifts, and planning social events. So a lot of people view the approaching holiday period with a certain amount of dread, knowing that it will be tough to get through it all (especially if you have young excitable kids). But the free to-do list app, Wunderlist, is offering to help a bit by giving us specially curated lists that we can work from....
Read the full article: Stuck For Holiday Ideas? Let Wunderlist Help With Their Curated Lists
Read the full article: The Undiscovered Country: Getting To Grips With Tumblr Etiquette
Google AdSense, since its inception in 2003, has supported a dozen-odd ad units – from the 300×250 Rectangle to the 160×600 Skyscraper – that abide by the IAB guidelines. Premium AdSense publishers do have the flexibility of customizing the layout of text-only ads but not the image or rich-media ads.
Last week Google introduced custom-sized ad units in AdSense that blurs the line between Premium and regular publishers. Now all AdSense publishers are given an opportunity to create ad units of custom dimensions, tailor made for their own website. Let me explain.
Say your website has a sidebar that is 250 pixels wide. Previously, you could only choose between the regular skyscraper formats – 120×600 or 160×600 – even though none of these units would perfectly fit inside your sidebar. With custom-sized units now available in AdSense, you can create an ad unit that is exactly 250×600 in size thus taking all the available screen estate. Or if the sidebar is long, you can even choose to have a 250×1200 unit.
An obvious advantage with custom-sized units is that they better fit the layout of your website. That said, Google algorithms may sometimes override your choice.
For instance, if you have created an ad unit that is 500×300 pixels, AdSense can still serve display ads in standard formats like the 300×250 or 336×280 for that unit. The smaller ad will be center-aligned and the remaining area is filled with whitespace.
Google may serve display ads of lesser dimensions inside custom-sized ad units.
Since Google is likely to display the highest performing ad – which could either be a custom-sized unit (that you’ve requested) or a regular unit – it may be a good idea to use custom-sized units in place of regular units as, with the former, you get the best of both worlds.
Google recommends that you create a new ad unit in your AdSense dashboard and choose the option “Custom Ad Size” for creating a new custom-sized ad unit. You can however use your existing Ad units and convert them into a custom sized units.
All you have to do is adjust the width and height values in your existing ad code and regular unit will be automatically converted into a custom sized unit. Just make sure that both height and width values are less than 1200 pixels and that only one of these values is greater than 300 pixels.
Earlier this year, Google introduced Responsive AdSense ads where the size (read width) of the ad is dynamically specified based on the screen size of the device where that ad is being served. With responsive ads, you can serve a 336×280 large rectangle on the desktop and the same ad slot may serve a 320×100 ad when the page is viewed on a mobile device.
Now that custom-sized ad units are available, should you make the switch to these new units or continue to use the Responsive Ad units.
Google’s official recommendation is:
Custom-sized ad units are fixed sized ad units, i.e., they don’t dynamically change their size or respond to changes in screen orientation. If your site uses responsive design, we recommend that you use a responsive ad unit instead.
You can however still make your custom-sized ad units responsive such that their suggested size changes based on the device size or orientation. In Responsive Ads, you serve ads of a fixed width based on the screen size while in custom-sized ads you specify the maximum width that the ad can occupy. If you can dynamically specify this “maximum” width, your custom-sized ad unit will be responsive as well.
The AdSense ad units on this website are custom-sized units but they are responsive too. Here’s how you can implement such a thing on your own website or blog:
<div id="google-ads-1"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
/* Replace ca-pub-XXX with your AdSense Publisher ID */
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-XXX";
/* Replace YYY with the AdSense Ad Slot ID */
google_ad_slot = "YYY";
/* Replace ZZZ with the custom height of your Ad Unit */
google_ad_height = ZZZ;
ad = document.getElementById('google-ads-1');
if (ad.getBoundingClientRect().width) {
google_ad_width = ad.getBoundingClientRect().width;
} else {
google_ad_width = ad.offsetWidth; // for old IE
}
/* The width of an Ad unit should be between 120-1200 pixels */
if (google_ad_width>1200) {
google_ad_width = 1200;
} else if (google_ad_width<120) {
google_ad_width = 120;
}
/* The height of an Ad unit should be between 50-1200 pixels */
if (google_ad_height>1200) {
google_ad_height = 1200;
} else if (google_ad_height<50) {
google_ad_height = 50;
}
/* Both height or width cannot be more than 300 pixels */
if ((google_ad_width>300) && (google_ad_height>300)) {
google_ad_height = 300;
}
document.write (
'<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:'
+ google_ad_width + 'px;height:'
+ google_ad_height + 'px" data-ad-client="'
+ google_ad_client + '" data-ad-slot="'
+ google_ad_slot + '"></ins>'
);
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script>
<script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
Go to your AdSense dashboard and create a new Ad unit with the type as “Custom Ad Unit.” You can specify the dimensions as, say, 300×1200 pixels (either the height or width should be 300 pixels or less) and choose a default color and font scheme for the ad unit. Click the “Save and Get code” button to generate the ad code.
Note your AdSense publisher ID, Ad Slot ID and replace those values in the above block of code (line #6 & #9). You should also change the default height (line #12) of your custom sized unit (the width is automatically determined by JavaScript). Copy-paste the modified code anywhere in your web template and the custom-sized ads will fill the available width while being responsive.
The technique will work on both responsive and regular (non-responsive) websites.
Srsly, did you really just twerk while taking a selfie? OMG what a n00b. Epic Fail. What’s crazy about the sentences above is that they are no longer just strange artifacts of the Internet. Sure, the “selfie”, as Dave Parrack described, is forever a part of the Oxford Dictionary. Quite honestly though, there are many words that have crossed over from the community of the Internet into everyday life. James even took some time to explain what a bunch of those odd Internet words mean. It didn’t start with the selfie for sure. There were different areas of technology that...
Read the full article: Don’t Poke Me! How Internet Slang Words Have Transformed Language
Amazon is now offering payment plans for its Kindle Fire HDX 7-inch tablets and 8.9-inch tablets. These plans allow you to pay 25% of the price of the tablet upfront, plus shipping and tax, and then pay the rest of it in three more payments each 90 days apart, giving you a total of 270 days before you have to pay it off completely. There is no credit check and no interest or finance fees, making this a pretty good deal for those who would like to spread out the payment for their tablet. The deal runs until 11:59PM December...
Read the full article: Amazon Launches Payment Plans For Kindle Fire HDX Tablets
Who doesn’t love free apps? If for some reason you absolutely hate free apps, feel free to leave this article now. Still here? I’m not surprised. Finding an app on offer for free, especially the kind that usually costs money, is a universal favorite. Getting your hands on a app that usually costs $3.99 without paying a dime gives you this warm fuzzy feeling inside, and this gets even better when the app is actually good. There are many ways to find discounted iPhone and iPad apps — from following your favorite websites for alerts, to apps such as AppsFire...
Read the full article: Tekiki Helps You Find The Best Deals For Good iOS Apps Every Day
You probably know that Microsoft killed the Start button in Windows 8. With the Windows 8.1 update, they restored it, turning it into a shortcut button for the Start screen or desktop. Thing is, some users aren’t happy – they don’t like the Start button, and want to remove it. You Can’t Please Everyone Windows users. You’ve got to hand it to us, we know how to complain. Following the introduction of Windows 8, we complained at the lack of a Start button. At first, Microsoft held its nerve, but eventually relented in the face of users installing third party...
Read the full article: Have It Your Way: Hide The Windows 8.1 Start Button
Watching TV has never been easier, with apps for smartphones and tablets streaming live pictures to your handheld device. It’s been tougher for desktop users, but with the release of Windows 8 several apps have come along that make enjoying TV on your computer much easier. Desktop and notebook owners have long had the advantage of TV cards and USB signal converters that enable the capture, display and recording of TV signals from terrestrial, satellite and cable providers. However, setting up these devices can be tricky, and in the case of the USB solutions, a drain on your system resources....
Read the full article: 6 Ways to Watch Live TV on Windows 8
The holiday season is upon us and just like every year you need to get gifts for family and friends. While the holidays are usually fun and relaxing, the days leading up to them are usually quite hectic. To be honest, remembering what your nephew wanted for Christmas and dealing with the hectic pre-season activities is a tough task. This is exactly why you need some tools to help you select the best gifts for everyone. In this article, I will show you some great tools you can use to come up with gift ideas, refine them, and materialize them...
Read the full article: Take The Guesswork Out Of Buying Gifts With These Cools Tools
Christmas is a celebration. Thankfully, it is also a state of mind. When Yuletide comes around every year, we put love into our actions. We put thoughts into our gifts. We also place charity in our hearts. The Web makes it so much easier. Charity organizations have taken readily to the Web, and with a few innovations they make giving as easy as a click. Last year, we took a look at some tech savvy charities and the year before that we took Angela’s advice on how to charitable throughout the year and not simply wait for a special season....
Read the full article: 6 Really Easy Ways To Make Charity A Happiness Gift For Your Christmas
Kickstarter projects are a great way to spend your hard-earned money on something truly fun and innovative. Some projects go super nova, at which point everyone writes about them, but most projects aren’t so lucky. There are several ways to find good Kickstarter projects to back, but most require some diligence and a bit of research. The simplest way to find those Kickstarter gems is to integrate your search with something you already do daily — namely, your social networks! With these feeds, you’ll always know what to back, who to back, and when. Twitter @CrowdFundingBB 5 Hottest New CrowdFunding...
Read the full article: What To Back? Use Social Networks To Find Great Kickstarter Projects
There were a couple of pending notifications sitting in the status bar of your Android phone and you have just tapped the “Dismiss” icon to clear them all. And then it occurred that you may have dismissed certain important notifications. Where did they go? Can you retrieve the old notifications even if they have have removed from the notifications bar?
Well if your phone is running a more recent version of Android, Jelly Bean or later you can get a log of notifications that have pushed by various apps. Here’s how.
Go to your Android home screen and tap the apps icon. Switch to the Widgets tab, tap and hold the 1×1 Settings Shortcut and place it on your your home screen. Now select “Notifications” from the available choices.
Tap the settings icon that you have placed on the home screen and it will display the notification history in reverse chronological order. You will know the name of the app that pushed the notification, the title of the notification and the time when that message was pushed.
You may also use the notifications shortcut to prevent certain apps from sending notifications to your phone. Just tap the name of an app and deselect the option that says “Show Notifications” from the App info page.
Credit: Stack Overflow
Today in Tech News Digest, Google buys Boston Dynamics (bringing Skynet closer to reality), Amazon starts selling its Kindle Fire tablets in installments, SteamOS arrives, Twitter experiments with location-based tweets, Microsoft Photosynth gets updated, Doctor On Demand debuts, and Winklevii (the Winklevoss twins) make a shocking prediction about Bitcoin. Google Buys Boston Dynamics Do not be alarmed: News broadcasts about Google acquiring Boston Dynamics are a fictional dramatization. Plz return 2 your homes immediately — Marshall Kirkpatrick (@marshallk) December 14, 2013 Google has acquired Boston Dynamics, an engineering firm with a slew of robots under its command. We only recently...
Read the full article: Skynet Edges Closer, Twitter Experiments, 40k Bitcoin Valuation [Tech News Digest]
