Latest Articles
Tools & Techniques For When You Must Leave Your Laptop Alone In Public
Ideally we would never leave our laptops from our sight, especially in public. And there are definitely areas like airports and public transit where you should never consider it an option. But since becoming a tech writer, I've found that public areas, specifically coffee shops, are great for working. And because I’m in coffee shops 400% (yes, I did the math…) more than I used to be, I've noticed the need to occasionally leave my spot to go somewhere.
Double The Cloud Power: How To Sync Files Across Storage Services
Being able to sync from our many devices to the Cloud is an awesome benefit of modern computing. We’re able to take our files with us on mobile devices, access them from other computers without the need of a device like a flash drive or SD card, and it’s an excellent solution for backing up that data that we can’t live without. Speaking of backing up that data, one of the best, but seldom used, ways to use cloud storage services is to create a redundancy backup system.
How Do You Know When You're Overdosing On Social Networks?
Just like anything, there are different levels of social media use. Some things are more severe than others. And, of course, something else that plays into it is how frequent these things occur and when they occur. Using social media isn’t bad – it is an incredible tool, but it can be easily overused. Here are some things that might indicate you are addicted and overusing social media.
5 Ways to Easily Access Social Networks From a Single App
Nowadays, we’re spread pretty thin on all the social network accounts that we have: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Tumblr, etc. so managing them can either take a considerable amount of time, or they just don’t get managed like some of them should. Many of these social networks are much more enjoyable to use with an all-in-one type interface.
Fotografix: Edit On The Go With This Portable & Lightweight Photo Editor [Windows]
Great software can be hard to come by. That is why there are a select few that stand out and become increasingly popular. What defines "great software"? Typically a program should be practical and useful, lightweight - even portable, feature-packed, and to top it all off, free. Fotografix is all of those and that is why it landed a spot in the Image Editors and Viewers category on our Best Of Portable Apps page.
Secrets Of The Amazon: 7 Useful Amazon Tips & Tricks
Amazon is, without a doubt, one of the best and most popular places to shop online. It’s got there due to awesome features like Amazon Prime, Super Saver Shipping, the Wish List browser extension, the Kindle reader app for the web, desktop and mobile, and great mp3 prices. But there is a lot more to Amazon than just that. Below are seven Amazon "diamonds in the rough" that you probably don't know a lot about.
7 Ways to Keep a Personal Journal
Journaling is an exercise for the mind and it has several proven benefits, but it can also seem difficult to do. This is primarily due to the overwhelming feeling of having to journal – it shouldn’t be like that. Instead, it should be something you look forward to doing every day. It should be a task that inspires you for the day ahead and/or relieves you of the day you have just had.
How You Can Use Technology To Spice Up Your Relationship
Being in an relationship is exciting, isn’t it? There is so much to enjoy about being with that special person in your life. However, there might be times (more for some than others) where you are apart – it could be just a week or even several months. It’s not something we like to think about, nor is it very enjoyable. But there are things that you can do during the time to help keep your relationship exciting and help the time pass easier.
Spybot - Search & Destroy: The Simple, Yet Effective Route For Cleaning Your PC Of Malware
With the ever-growing list of threats out there, one can never be too cautious. Sure you can watch what websites you visit and what you download, but even with those precautions, you should have some additional protection to back you up. You might feel that having an antivirus program is enough, but it is often recommended to have an additional program dedicated to scanning for malware.
Click&Clean: Extend Your Browser Beyond The Privacy & Security Defaults
Security and privacy are becoming more and more important to understand, yet it seems that the methods of understanding them hasn’t really followed. In addition, neither has the ability to easily manage your computer in a way to make it more secure and private. We have a lot of articles here on MakeUseOf that help you with that, however there is also a tool that makes this process much easier to do too.
Absolute Uninstaller: Don't Settle For The Default, A Better Solution For Software Removal [Windows]
When was the last time you wanted to uninstall something from your computer? Was it easy to do? Could you find the program to uninstall in the Windows default uninstall tool? Could you even find where the uninstall tool in Windows is? I don’t mean that to insult your intelligence. But the fact is, finding it isn’t the easiest thing to do if you don’t know where to start. And even if you know how to uninstall a program with the native Windows tool, it isn’t always the best way.
Send To Google Docs - Convert HTML To PDF & Save It In A Single Click [Chrome]
One thing we all use the Internet for is information, and it’s great when we can access it easily. But what happens when you need to access the information again after closing the webpage? Or perhaps you don’t have access to the Internet when you need to read the information again? Maybe you just want to save your "to read" or "read again" articles to Google Drive for access on the go and offline?
IObit Smart Defrag: A Superb Hard Drive Defragmentation & Optimization Tool [Windows]
Do you defrag your hard drive? If not, you should and you must understand the importance before you read on. There are some excellent articles on MakeUseOf which discuss defragmenting, but perhaps the best and most recent article is 3 Excellent Defrag Utilities & Why You Still Need to Defragment In 2012 by Tina. Smart Defrag wasn’t included in the "3 excellent defrag utilities" in her article, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t excellent.
Send To Kindle By Klip.me: Take All Your "To Read" Articles On The Go Without An Internet Connection [Chrome]
Before the time of Kindles, we usually read everything solely on our computers. And perhaps you still do this. However, if you own a Kindle, such as the Kindle Touch which doesn’t have the best web interface (and that’s only when you’re around a Wi-Fi connection) you might still be disappointed in it’s reading capabilities. If so, you should consider Send To Kindle by Klip.me.
Reload All Tabs For Chrome: Refreshing All Your Browser Tabs Has Never Been Easier [Chrome]
At one time or another, we’ve all had to refresh a page, whether it was because it crashed, or we needed to update it, etc. And often at times, there is a need to refresh all the pages (or tabs) that are open. And whenever that has to be done, it becomes a cumbersome task of opening each page and clicking the refresh button in Chrome.
How The Pros Do It: Avoiding Embarrassment & Delivering Perfect Presentations
Ah! The presentation. Some of us love them. Some of us hate them. But no matter what, we all usually have to give them at one point or another, whether in school, work or even just for enjoyment. Some even choose public speaking as a career. Public speaking and presentations is an art though – have you ever sat through a horrendous talk? I know I have. So what makes the perfect presentation?
Creating A Professional Online Presence Is Crucial For Today's Job Market: Here's How
Let’s face it, the job market is becoming more and more competitive. No matter where you live, getting noticed is becoming more and more difficult. Employers are now going towards the online application process, limiting the amount of face-to-face contact. It’s one of the shortfalls of the Internet, but how can you use the Internet and technology to your advantage to stand out instead of being looked over and forgotten?
Top Tips & Tools to Help With Printing Webpages
No matter how hard you try to go paperless, sometimes you just need to print that webpage. It might be for directions, an article for class, a handout for a meeting at work, etc. As much as we’d like to go as digital as possible with our smartphones, laptops and tablets, occasionally we need to go back to the "old fashioned" method of printing. That said, printing is expensive and you shouldn’t just print the webpage with all the ads and flash media.
Mysteries Of The Windows 7 Task Manager: Why You Don't Need an Alternative
This might seem contrary to what you read about throughout the Internet, but the Windows Task Manager is fine as it is – it doesn’t need a replacement. You could interpret that as a simple opinion, but keep in mind that I also felt that you needed to replace it with a “better” program, which I shared in an article not too long ago from writing this one. I decided to do an experiment and put Windows Task Manager to the test once more and was quite impressed with my findings.
Greater Than Google: The Best Bits Of Bing
When we think of searching the Internet, we without a doubt think “Google”. And why not? It’s a fantastic search engine and has some great features. But even before the idea of writing this article, I started Bing again and I was quite surprised. Then, the more I used it, the more fascinating things I discovered on it.