Microsoft Makes Office 365 Cloud Secure With Multi-Factor Authentication

Microsoft has finally given users some peace of mind by introducing optional multi-factor authentication in Office 365. In the same announcement, the company said the feature will arrive in Office 2013 this year. The feature is a no-cost “update” and covers all Office 365 variants and subscriptions — Office 365 to Office 365 Midsize Business, Enterprise plans, Academic plans, Nonprofit plans, and standalone Office 365 plans. Multi-factor authentication adds another layer of security to the login by requiring a second validation after the initial password. It establishes the user is genuine with a phone call, text message, or an app...

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Apple Introduces iTunes Radio To Their Australian Customers

With the launch of iOS 7 last year came iTunes Radio, but at that time, there was one major hiccup – it was only available in the United States, due to licensing issues. But now iTunes Radio has gone down under to the land of kangaroos and hats with corks. Yes, that’s right. The many Bruce’s of Australia can now use iTunes Radio. The service runs on iPads, iPhones, iPods running iOS 7, the Apple TV, and on iTunes 11 on the Mac or PC. You can choose from over 100 stations, and music from the iTunes store. It takes...

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Here’s A Quick Way To Jazz Up Your Android Home Screen

Getting a custom home screen for your Android device is a great idea. But if you don’t have enough time to spend on that right now, you can give the existing home screen a mini makeover with a fresh wallpaper and a new icon set to match. We recently posted an in-depth tutorial on how to create a gorgeous Android home screen for yourself. If you want to save that process for another day, but still want to brighten up your home screen, the following method can work as an excellent stopgap solution. What’s more, it’s quick and easy. All...

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Streamus Is The Easiest, Coolest Way To Play Music From YouTube In Chrome

More teens listen to music through YouTube than any other source, a Nielsen study found. So it only makes sense that there should be ways to make it easier to listen to YouTube through your browser. And that’s what Streamus does for Google Chrome. Chrome already has YouTube Options to make your overall YouTube experience better, but Streamus is solely about the music. It has one mission: a mini music player based on YouTube, sitting pretty in your Chrome toolbar. Seek And You Shall Find Tap the Streamus icon and you get a dropdown tooltip which has two panes: the...

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Test Bootable ISO File Without Burning Using QEMU Simple Boot

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There are times when you may need to test a bootable USB drive or an ISO file. Maybe you have just downloaded Windows ISO file from Microsoft and want to test it before burning it to a DVD; or maybe you have created a bootable USB drive and want to test if it works perfectly, […]

Long Live Windows XP! [We Ask You Results]

Microsoft wants Windows XP to die, but the general public clearly doesn’t. With XP enjoying a 30 percent market share for all versions of Windows, this outdated operating system released in 2001 isn’t going to go away quietly. We assumed the MakeUseOf readership would be geeks determined to look to the future rather than the past, but we were wrong. Because luddites. We Love You, Windows XP We asked you, Do You Agree That Windows XP Needs To Die? The majority of people who commented rejected the statement, electing instead to argue why Windows XP should stick around for the...

Read the full article: Long Live Windows XP! [We Ask You Results]

Fake Copyright Complaints on Facebook

Earlier this month, I created a video slideshow using some family photographs and some music and uploaded it to my Facebook profile.

The next day that video suddenly disappeared from my Facebook account and there was a message from the Facebook DMCA department saying that my video was removed since it contained copyrighted material.

We have removed your video entitled (title) uploaded at (date). This video may include copyrighted material (such as a clip or audio) that you do not have the right to share.

If you think your video should not have been removed.. you may visit the link below to video an appeal requesting that it be reinstated.

If you do not want to appeal, there is no need to take any action. Please be careful about videos you upload in the future. If they are identified as possibly containing copyright infringing material, they may also be removed. This could result in us temporarily or permanently blocking your ability to upload videos, or permanently disabling your account.

The takedown notice even included a warning saying that in case of more violations in future, my Facebook account could be permanently disabled.

I found the complaint strange as there was absolutely no copyright infringement at all. I had captured all the pictures that were used in the video and the background songs were used from Apple’s iMovie software. I checked the software license and it allows the use of bundled sound clips even for commercial video projects.

The Apple Software contains sample content including but not limited to graphics, audio clips, video clips and/or templates (“Sample Content”)… Except as otherwise provided, all Sample Content included in the Apple Software may be used on a royalty-free basis in your own video projects but may not be distributed on a standalone basis.

I submitted a counter notification and, to my surprise, that video reappeared on the Facebook account the very next minute.

It’s been a week now and that video is still available on the profile. I have no clue why the DMCA complaint was filed in the first place, who made that complaint (DMCA notices are supposed to have the name and address of the complainant) and did Facebook take any action against the complainant after a counter-complaint was filed.

In any case, if such a thing ever happens to your own videos that you have uploaded on Facebook or YouTube, don’t get bogged down because that DMCA notice could just be a fake one.

Our Facebook Page touched 150k likes today!

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This story, Fake Copyright Complaints on Facebook, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 11/02/2014 under DMCA, Facebook, Internet

Your Chromebook As The Ultimate Travel Device

If you’re trying to decide what sort of lightweight device to get for your next big trip, you may consider checking out Chromebooks. But why choose a Chromebook for travel specifically? Because, when it comes to travel, they are spot on. No Data On Your Device Since Chromebooks are designed to be used mostly online, you’re not lugging around a device full of applications and files. This means you’re not likely to lose all your coveted photos if someone steals your laptop. It also means no-one at border security will be able to arrest you for pirating software or entertainment...

Read the full article: Your Chromebook As The Ultimate Travel Device

Play YouTube Videos in Slow (or Fast) Motion

The YouTube video player lets you easily change* the playback speed of videos. You can watch a YouTube video in slow motion and see the frames in more detail or, if the video is boring, you can switch to fast motion mode and skim through the video by doubling the playback speed.

You can play YouTube videos in slow motion or speed them up

[*] If you do not see the option to adjust the playback speed in your YouTube player, you are probably using the default Flash based video player. Go to youtube.com/html5 and opt into the HTML5 YouTube player.

Watch YouTube in Slow-Motion or Fast-Motion

If the option to control the playback speed is still not available in YouTube for a particular video, or if you wish to have finer control over the speed, you can always use the good old VLC Player to watch any video on YouTube (or Vimeo) in either slow motion or fast motion.

Here’s how.

Launch the VLC player and choose File -> Open Stream. Now paste the full URL of any YouTube video in the URL box and click the Open button. The video will begin to stream on your desktop inside the VLC player.

Now go to the VLC Menu bar, choose Playback and here you’ll se an option to adjust the playback speed of that video.

The VLC Advantage over YouTube

Unlike the YouTube player where you can only change the speed by a factor or .25x, .5x, 1.5x or 2x, VLC Player offers finer control. You can drag the slide to choose any speed between .25x to 4x of the original speed.

Related tip: Watch YouTube Playlists with VLC

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This story, Play YouTube Videos in Slow (or Fast) Motion, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 11/02/2014 under YouTube, Internet

4 Ways To Make Smart Use Of Technology And Power Up Your Willpower

Digital willpower is an idea that crops up from time to time and it describes our current tech-saturated culture rather well. We all have enough motivation to want to do things but not enough motivation to actually do them. As a result, we turn to technology to bridge the gap of that motivational purgatory. In the past, we’ve covered inspirational YouTube videos, motivational TED Talks, and encouraging websites to give you that much-needed kick in the butt. How else can technology help you to sharpen your resolve? Where can you get some of this digital willpower for yourself? Keep reading...

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A Traveler’s Tales: How To Save Money On Your Next Trip With AirBnB

Travel is one of the most rewarding things you can do. It opens your eyes to the world around you, and allows you to experience new things. It’s something I find incredibly rewarding, and I’m always eager to cut costs, and where better to look than travel accommodation? Hotels are expensive. Ludicrously so. You don’t get a lot for your money with basic necessities like breakfast, coffee, and WiFi often being optional (and pricey) extras. So, what does the budget traveler do? Until recently, the answer to that question was a loud and resounding ‘no’, unless you fancied pitching a...

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How to Password Protect a Google Form

When you create a form using Google Forms, the form is public by default meaning it can be filled out by anyone on the Internet as long as they know the web URL of that form. If you are a Google Apps user, you can put the form behind a login screen such that only members of your domain /organization can access and fill out that form but this feature is not available to other users who have regular Google accounts.

Now there can be a scenario where you may want to password-protect your Google Forms and restrict access to certain users who have been provided the password. This feature is obviously not available in Google Forms but we can use a simple workaround that will prevent users from entering data into that form if they do not know the password.

This Google Form is password protected

Create a Password Protected Form

Before we get into the implementation details, let’s go on a test drive. Open this Google Form and you’ll notice that it has a password field. You’ll have to enter the correct password* to see the actual form else it won’t let you move past the first screen.

[*] The form’s password is www.labnol.org (case sensitive, no spaces please)

What we have done here is split the actual form into two pages. The first page of the form has the password input field and only when the user enters the correct password are they taken to the second page that contains the actual form. Here’s a step by step guide:

1. Go to the Google Forms editor and add a text field. Call it “Password” and make it a required question as shown in the illustration below.


2. Expand the Data Validation section and choose Regular Expression -> Matches from the dropdown.


3. In the input field enter the password that you would like the user to enter and enclose this string between ^$. For instance, if you are setting the form password as HelloWorld, enter ^HelloWorld$ in the validation input field.


4. Next click the Inert menu and choose Page Break. This is the second page where you can add your regular form fields. Save the form.

Password Protect your public Google Forms

We are essentially using regular expressions to validate user input in the Google Form and proceed only if it matches a custom value.

The validation happens in the client’s browser and therefore this approach is more of a workaround and not a bullet-proof solution. Anyone with fair understanding of HTML can figure out the form’s password by either looking at the HTML source of the form or through Chrome Dev Tools.

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This story, How to Password Protect a Google Form, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 11/02/2014 under Google Forms, Internet

Nokia Android, XP Help, Gates AMA, Netflix Cards [Tech News Digest]

Today in Tech News Digest, Nokia looks set to reveal an Android handset, Microsoft really wants Windows XP to die, Bill Gates reveals all in a Reddit AMA, Mark Zuckerberg is a surprisingly generous philanthropist, Justin.tv becomes Twitch Interactive, Bing has the Oscars covered, and Netflix is good at promotions. Nokia Goes Android All these ppl saying ‘Nokia should make an Android phone, it’ll be amazing’… You’re gonna rush out and buy it… Right?? — Matthew Ashworth (@Macca_Chief) February 10, 2014 There have been rumors for a long time that Nokia is developing a handset based on the Android operating...

Read the full article: Nokia Android, XP Help, Gates AMA, Netflix Cards [Tech News Digest]

Running Linux from USB: Are You Doing It Right?

You’ve probably heard about live Linux environments on USB drives, but did you know that you can also keep data persistent or even do a full install on the USB drive? Here are your three options for carrying Linux in your pocket. Find out which method is best for you. Write a Live ISO to USB It’s been talked about many times before, but it’s become really easy to take an ISO image of your favorite Linux distribution and write it to any appropriately sized USB drive. From there, you can boot up a Linux system on any computer that...

Read the full article: Running Linux from USB: Are You Doing It Right?

Bing Partners With The Hollywood Reporter For The Ultimate Oscars Guide

Before you watch the night of razzmatazz, it might be entertaining to go and visit Bing’s dedicated website for the upcoming Academy Awards. Now, Bing has shaken hands with The Hollywood Reporter to create the ultimate “Oscars resource guide“. The Bing powered website showcases the nominees for the 2014 Academy Awards with celebrity bios, photos,and news. All categories are covered with a dropdown. Each nominee is covered with a trailer from their movie, a brief description, links to the film page on The Hollywood Reporter and its review page. Dive into all the Web has to offer with a bright...

Read the full article: Bing Partners With The Hollywood Reporter For The Ultimate Oscars Guide

Flappy Bird Disappears, Snowden Web Crawler, Dungeon Keeper Ratings [Tech News Digest]

Today in Tech News Digest, Flappy Bird is no more, Edward Snowden’s methods are revealed, the Moon may be mined, EA’s decidedly dodgy Dungeon Keeper ratings system is exposed, Pinterest updates its mobile website, and Shingy the Digital Prophet is a hit. Flappy Bird Flies The Coop Installed Flappy Bird last week. Died repeatedly. Deleted same day. Now feeling remarkably prescient AND smug. #nailedit — dwight silverman (@dsilverman) February 10, 2014 Flappy Bird is no longer available to download, with the game’s creator Dong Nguyen deciding to pull the game from the iOS and Android app stores. Flappy Bird was...

Read the full article: Flappy Bird Disappears, Snowden Web Crawler, Dungeon Keeper Ratings [Tech News Digest]

Forgotify Helps You Discover Unloved Music On Spotify

While some people make a special effort to discover new music and expand their horizons, many of us stick to what we know, playing the same songs by the same artists in the same genres over and over again. Which is madness when you consider Spotify has 20 million tracks just sitting there waiting to be found and loved. Which is where Forgotify enters into the equation. Unloved & Unplayed Forgotify is a Web app dedicated to delivering the unloved and undiscovered tracks no one has yet played on Spotify. There are — or at least were before people started...

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Chromebooks — Yes Or No? [MakeUseOf Poll]

Last week we asked if you plan on buying Google Glass one day. Google Glass is a pretty controversial device, with strong voices on each side telling us how useless/useful it is. So how do these opinions reflect on you, our readers? 467 readers voted, and all in all, it does seem like Google Glass has a chance with you. 6% of the voters will buy Google Glass as soon as it’s available, 12% will buy it only if its price drops under $800, 17% will never ever buy it no matter what, 24% don’t plan on it but might...

Read the full article: Chromebooks — Yes Or No? [MakeUseOf Poll]

Google Search Debug Info

Sometimes Google's files reveal internal information. Here's some debug info for Google Search: it looks like many search features are actually server-side plugins and Google measures the time taken to load them. There are plugins for social posts, knowledge panels, rich snippets, product ads, forum clusters, Gmail results, health results, hacked sites, hashtags, empty results, science links, Korea features and more. Click the image to see a bigger version.

{ Thanks, Florian K. }

YouTube Tests New Mobile Site UI

YouTube tests a new interface of the mobile site. It's closer to the mobile app UI, it shows the description and the number of likes and dislikes, a red "subscribe" button and action buttons are placed below the video.

There are other changes: the new YouTube logo, the "hamburger" menu, bigger thumbnails, new font, gray background.

{ Thanks, Nedas. }