How to Make the Perfect YouTube Video Thumbnail

Your YouTube thumbnail is much more important than you might think. Here's how to make a video thumbnail that will get you more viewers.

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How to Make and Play DVDs in Ubuntu

You’ve switched from Windows, and you’re using your first Linux operating system. Ubuntu was your choice, and now you want to play a DVD or Blu-ray movie. Or perhaps copy some data to an optical disc. But there’s something wrong. Why can’t you play DVDs in Ubuntu? What about other Linux distros? What’s going on here, and what can you do to fix it? Can You Burn CDs and DVDs With Linux Ubuntu? Yes you can, but it’s not as straightforward as it should be. There is no native tool, so you’ll need to find and install one. For the...

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3 Places to Find Excellent Royalty-Free Music

There are quite a few sites where you can find completely free music to use in your YouTube videos, indie films, and more. And just because they’re free doesn’t mean they’re terrible! You’ll just have to dig through large catalogs of music to find what works for you. 1. Mobygratis Mobygratis is a site created by the recording artist himself, Moby. With over 150 of Moby’s tracks available for noncommercial projects by “independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short,” there’s a lot to choose from. You can...

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How to Force Close Unresponsive Apps on Android

Have an app that’s not responding on Android? It can be frustrating when you’re stuck on an app that’s frozen and doesn’t seem to register your taps or swipes. Thankfully, closing such frozen apps is surprisingly easy! The next time this happens to you, keep these simple steps in mind: Press the Recent Apps button on your device to open the Multitasking menu. On many phones, this is the square button on the right side of the on-screen navigation bar. If your phone doesn’t have one, try holding the Home button for the same effect. Swipe the app you’d like...

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How to Reorder Wi-Fi Network Priorities in Windows 10

Do you remember the good old days when Windows let you drag Wi-Fi networks in your desired order of preference? Well, it’s not so simple anymore. For all the improvements that Windows 10 has brought, there are a few areas where the operating system seems to have taken step backs, and this is one of them. After all, even Macs allow you to change network order like this! But don’t worry, all is not lost. There is still a way — it’s just not very user-friendly. Keep reading to learn how to change the order in which your machine auto-connects to...

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How to Turn Off Annoying Sounds in Microsoft Office 2016

Alerts and notifications can be useful, but too many and you eventually enter annoying territory. Productivity-boosting sounds include new email tones and upcoming event chimes in Outlook. Most everything else falls into the unwanted category. Sound cues are an Ease of Access feature in Microsoft Office 2016, which means you can turn them off if you deem them unnecessary. This is true for Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint 2016. Here’s how you can quickly turn the sound cues on or off in these programs. How to Toggle Sounds in Microsoft Office Note that if you are a Microsoft Office 365 subscriber, then the update with...

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How to Extract Images From PDF Files & Save Them for Other Uses

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is almost like a plastic laminated paper. You can see what’s inside but you can’t get to the content. It’s bit of a problem when one of the content types embedded in a PDF document are images. And, you want them for your own. For instance, I am a voracious user of SlideShare, and sometimes I like to save a neat illustration or graphic for my personal use. Then there are some professional reports which come packaged as a PDF and you might want to use a graphic or an embedded chart from there in a...

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7 Simple Tips to Improve Your Linux Laptop’s Battery Life

You love your Linux laptop, but there is one thing that niggles: the battery life. Running with Windows, the laptop has hours of battery life, but under Linux, it’s a different story. So, how can you squeeze more time from your battery, and enjoy a truly portable Linux computing experience? There are several settings, and even a useful app, that can be used to increase your Linux battery life. Did you know that brightness, wireless connectivity, and removable media all contribute to faster battery drain? Tweaking these settings can make all the difference — here’s what you need to do!...

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5 Things You Need To Know In Order To Buy The Right UPS

Power is unpredictable. A car crashing into a pole or a small flaw in a transformer can cause a blackout or a surge strong enough to destroy most electronics in your home. Although rare, these events can knock your computer out when you need it most. It can even cause thousands of dollars of damage. The solution is not any mere surge protector but instead an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). These big, beefy units combine a high-quality surge protector with a backup battery that will keep electronics running through a blackout (for a short time, at least). Here’s what you...

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5 New Productivity Apps Based on Classic Productivity Principles

Productivity is a tricky thing. Your job and your goals evolve with time, so the same app might not work as well as it once did. If you’re in a rut, it helps to check out new productivity tools. Who knows, you might find the right app for the right time. There have been a few new apps in the recent past that caught our eye. None of these is a radical reimagination of basic productivity principles. These apps only implement those principles in a new way, which is all the boost you sometimes need. 1. Zask (Web): Make a...

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KFC Is Training Staff Using Virtual Reality

If you land a job in Kentucky Fried Chicken over the next few years you could find yourself being trained using VR. This is thanks to the fast-food company developing a virtual training escape room designed to teach its employees how to prepare that greasy but oh-so-good chicken. After failing to make virtual reality a thing several times, it seems VR actually has a future. Mainly because the technology has caught up to the ambition of the manufacturers and developers who think The Lawnmower Man is a documentary. Hell, even KFC are jumping on the bandwagon. Frying Chicken The Hard...

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How To Motion Track Text In Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects is one of the premier pieces of software for editing videos. But before you can learn to edit video like a professional, you need to learn some basic skills. One of those skills is motion tracking. You’ve probably seen the effects of motion tracking — smoothly floating text, perfectly placed graphics — in professional videos. Today, we’re going to learn how to use After Effects (AE) to do it ourselves. The Basics of Motion Tracking Let’s start at the beginning: what is motion tracking? Motion tracking is what makes text, graphics, or masks move with an object in a video....

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Why You Need a PS4 VPN — And How to Set One Up

If you’re a regular MakeUseOf reader, you already know we recommend virtual private networks (VPNs) all the time. It makes your internet traffic more secure. Prevents specific types of monitoring and targeting. Helps you bypass georestrictions. And it can even improve your online gaming speed. The same is true of using a VPN for your PS4. You might not think your game console needs a VPN, but there are lots of advantages to doing so. Let’s take a look at those advantages and then get into how to set up a VPN on a PS4. Why Your PS4 Needs a VPN...

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Grab Yourself All Kinds Of Goodies With Today’s Best Deals

Today, you can get deals on every episode of Battlestar Galactica on Blu-ray, small kitchen appliances, video games, and much more! Rather than just list the deals (Amazon already does that), we analyze the value of the discount and the quality of the product. Here’s how we rate the deals to make it quick and easy for you to decide if they’re worth getting: Must-Buy: The lowest price ever and a deal that hasn’t been seen often. Good: At or close to the all-time low, but has been available at that price other times. Decent: If you need one, it’s...

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Manage Your File Versioning Like a Programmer With Git

If you’ve ever worked with colleagues on a document, you know this pain: someone takes the first pass (document.doc), then emails it to everyone. The next person does the same, as does the third, each tacking a revision (document_rev3.doc) to the file’s name. The manager likes what she sees and tags it as complete (document_final.doc)… until last-minute changes come along (document_final_Aaron’s changes_reviewed_by_Bob_now_really_final.doc). Now imagine changes like this in dozens of source code files. Programmers created version control systems (VCS) to solve this problem. They’re a bit technical in nature, but can be useful for power users as well. Let’s look...

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Facebook Adds More Memories to On This Day

Facebook is making its Timehop-style feature, On This Day, bigger and better. This means that Facebook will show you more memories than ever, filter out bad memories likely to upset or annoy, and show you friendship milestones. All of which will be great for fans of nostalgia. On This Day is a nice feature that adds a touch of nostalgia to Facebook. On This Day basically reminds you what you were doing one, two, or even 10 years ago, based on what you posted on Facebook. And now Facebook is expanding its reach, and improving how the feature works. Memories,...

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Turn Your Raspberry Pi Into a Retro PC With RISC OS

The Raspberry Pi is probably the biggest success in British computing, at least since the 1980s. Back then, Sir Clive Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum computers ruled the roost, before being bought up by Sir Alan Sugar’s Amstrad. But beyond the headlines of silicon-based power struggles and overpriced electronics, the U.K. had another big hitter in the computer industry. Acorn Computers Ltd produced several computers — most notably the BBC Micro, whose graphics featured in 1980s episodes of Doctor Who — and developed their own operating system. First released in 1987, RISC OS (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) powered Archimedes computers, and later...

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How to Back Up Your Windows Computer to the Cloud

If you aren’t backing up your data, you need to start right now. With data loss horror stories as common as they are, the no-data-backups lifestyle just isn’t worth the risk. Don’t wait until you lose an entire thesis paper or promotion-worthy work presentation — start backing up today. There are many ways to back up your computer and several data backup tools that can make the process as easy as clicking one button. Whatever works for you. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how you make backups as long as you are making backups. In this...

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How Binge-Watching Is Damaging Your Health

Are you feeling proud about watching a whole season of House of Cards or Ozark in record time? Seeing who can get through an entire season of the newest hit show the quickest is almost a contest these days. Binge-watching has become a very popular activity. Unfortunately, a British study has revealed that binge-watching has led 10 million participants to missing sleep. That is, people are so into the shows they’re binge-watching that they literally can’t stop themselves from turning off their TV or smartphone and going to bed. And as unhealthy as that is, this is just one of...

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Never Forget to Check These Excel Document Settings

Are you using spreadsheets that someone else created? Here’s what you must know. When you create an Excel spreadsheet from scratch, you can control every single aspect. That’s not the case when someone else passes it on to you. Especially at work, it’s not uncommon to inherit an Excel file from someone else. If you’re not careful, this could cause some major headaches down the line. Fortunately, a little foresight will go a long way toward ensuring that you can get along well with the spreadsheet in question. Consider these five points, and you should avoid most of the common...

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