If you interact with your phone every day, chances are, your daily routine doesn’t involve many changes. If so, why not automate the process and make life easier for yourself? With the following free apps, you definitely can.

Silence Your Phone On A Weekly Schedule With Silent Time [Android 2.2+]

If you have a set schedule every week and know exactly when you need to silence your phone, Silent Time might fit your needs. It is a small and simple app that lets you assign blocks of time to specific events when you’ll need your phone to be silenced.

For each event, you can select the start and end times, the days of the week, and whether or not to enable vibration. When an event in Silent Time is activated, you will see an indicator in the ongoing section of the notification bar.

You can also enable exceptions for specific or all events so that if you need to receive calls from a specific contact, they will be able to bypass silent mode and make your phone ring or vibrate. There is also a Quick Quiet mode in the Menu Options that enables you to set your phone on silent mode for a number of minutes, which could be handy for one-time events. In the Settings screen for Silent Time, you can also select whether to enable notifications, sounds, set the clock on 24-hour mode, and whether your week starts on Monday.

Temporarily Set Your Phone On Silent Mode For A Number Of Minutes With Phone Silencer

Phone Silencer is a very simple, but functional app if you usually forget to re-enable your phone’s ringer from silent mode and finding out you missed a bunch of calls or text messages. Sound familiar? Phone Silencer can help relieve your pain with no almost no learning curve.

Once you install this app, you will only get an instruction screen with lots of text. The way this app shows its functionality is when you use the volume up and down buttons to set your phone to vibrate or silent mode. Once you’ve set it, a popup will appear asking you to set a time when you want your phone’s ringer to turn back on. If you mistakenly set it to the wrong time and wish to cancel that, you can simply set your phone to another mode instead of the one you just set your phone to.

These are simple apps that focus on silencing your phone and restoring it to ringer mode without fuss. There are many other profile-saving apps that can perform these apps’ functionalities, but include many other features that you may not need. If you want some dedicated apps that can simply do the job, definitely try the aforementioned apps as the Android system doesn’t include a way for you to restore your phone to ringer mode automatically. That’s definitely one of its annoyances.

Do you know other simple apps that can silence your phone on a schedule? I’ve seen some that try to set your phone on silent mode according to events on your Google Calendar, but I haven’t found one with high enough ratings to recommend to our readers. If you know of any, please let us know in the comments!

Image credit: No Mobile Phone Sign via Shutterstock

The post How To Automatically Silence & Restore Your Phone To Ringer Mode [Android] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Even though I still haven’t explored every single option that this featured-packed editor has, within a few weeks of daily use, I have already found more than a few handy features, some of which I’m listing here, that I had not found in Eclipse or Vim (or maybe I just didn’t explore hard enough).

The neat part is also that these features from Notepad++ aren’t even plugins, though you can get them (see some recommended plugins here). The features are built-in so you (as a newly converted user) can just download Notepad++ and start making use of them!

Search Like A Detective: Find In Files/Find In All Opened Documents/Count

Notepad++’s Find features are plentiful and thus, come in very handy in multiple cases.  For example, if you’re working with multiple inter-dependent files, chances are, you need to find where one variable is used and how it’s affected in another file, you can use Notepad++’s Find in Files feature, under Search in the menu bar.

This will allow you to specify a path or folder location where Notepad++ will search for a keyword in all of its files, even when they’re not text files (but this will usually show up in Notepad++ as garbled text of course).

This tip was actually mentioned a while back, but it is still incredibly useful. So is another similar feature that lets you search in all your currently opened files, which you can find when you search regularly with Ctrl + F.  Just click on “Find All in All Opened Documents” instead of “Find Next”and that will probably save you some time if the directory you want to search in has too many files.

Another feature I have come to adore is the ability to “Count” how many times a keyword is present in the currently opened file. This comes in handy, especially before you start searching so you will know you’re not looking at the same line of code and that the search did advance to the next place where it found the keyword. It may sound like common sense, but a lot of times, the keyword will be in a block of code that may be present several times in the file so when you press “Count”, the search is performed so quickly, you don’t even know if the search took place since the code looks very similar. That’s how fast Notepad++ works.

Move Text Files To Other View For Split-Screen Productivity

If you’re coding on, say, a laptop, and don’t count with another monitor, Notepad++ allows you to split your files so you have your screen divided for productivity.

This is similar to Windows and Ubuntu’s window-snapping features, with a few differences. In Notepad++, you can apply the same zoom settings to both files in this split-screen view, snap windows to take up different widescreen proportions, and more, without having to manually adjust everything for each of the windows, like you would have to in Windows or Ubuntu. This is handy for the next feature I’m going to discuss.

Synchronize Vertical/Horizontal Scrolling

There is a Compare plugin that was discussed in the recommended Notepad++ plugins article, but when you want to be your own detective and find out differences in that snippet of code, a split-screen setting and synchronized scrolling will feel like one of the better inventions of all time.

Not only can you synchronize vertical scrolling but also horizontally, I’m guessing for those longer, more descriptive comments or maybe even very long ‘if’ statements (*shudders). If you assign a keyboard shortcut for either scrolling feature, comparing can go a tad faster as well!

Notepad++ is a powerhouse when it comes to features so this is not an exhaustive list of course. What features do you absolutely love about Notepad++? Or if vouch for an alternative text editor, why do you prefer that one specifically? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

The post 3 Handy Built-In Notepad++ Features For Beginners [Windows] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Don’t want to drain your wallet from buying textbooks? One thing you have to do is start early. Like if you’re about to start your semester, I’d say, do it right after reading this article! Purchasing them early prevents troubles later on, like not finding an affordable version, missing early assignments, having to find someone to borrow the book from, or worst case, having to succumb to ridiculous college bookstore prices.

What additional steps can you follow to get reasonably-priced textbooks? Read on to find out!

Use A Comparative Textbook Search Engine (Like Big Words)

You have Amazon, Google Play, Ebay, and a bunch of other book stores online that you can choose from. That means there might be different prices for that textbook you’re after. What better than a search engine that also compares the item for you? Big Words is one such engine that also chooses the single best store price for you, but it also lets you see the entire list of prices that it drew its conclusion from. Here is a screenshot of an actual search for a textbook that I’ll need in a few weeks.

As you can see, BigWords is a pretty sophisticated search engine with plenty of features. You can choose whether to include a specific type of book, like rental items, international editions, when you need your book by (so it can filter out stores that don’t offer express delivery), the textbook quality you will tolerate, etc. You won’t find those in regular bookstores, even if they’re veteran marketplaces like Amazon’s since their search engines are not built exclusively for textbooks like Big Words’ is.

If your university or college has a site to buy textbooks from, chances are, it offers a comparison feature. My school, in fact, has such a thing, which is great because it automates what I already do (shop around).

As you can see in the screenshot, if I buy the textbook from the official store, it might be around forty bucks, whereas on Amazon and Half (my favorite textbook store), it could be about $4. The condition of the textbook might differ but you can seriously appreciate the price difference. I emphasize this observation because if you do what I said at the beginning (shop early and not wait till the week that classes begin), you’ll probably have to pony up the full amount at the physical bookstore in order to use the textbook for a very early-assigned project.

Rent! Here’s Why

So I used to believe that if you’re going to pay for something, you might as well own it. In other words, I thought renting was a rip-off in the long term, except for housing since that’s usually extremely expensive. But if you’re talking about textbooks, renting is not a bad deal because when you finish the semester and try to sell the book, you usually get an absurd buyback offer from your local bookstore. Even if you try to sell it online on Half, you’ll have a hard time selling your book at full (or close to full) price. Trust me, I have been only able to sell my textbooks when I price them very low, which means I lose a lot and the book, in the end, cost me about as much as the renting price.

Another good reason to rent is that you don’t have to experience the headache that is trying to sell that textbook of yours. When you rent, the return policy makes it very straightforward to simply drop the book off either at the post office or at the physical bookstore. I have rented from my local college bookstore, which means that all I have to do to return my rentals is walk over.

Get Alternative Versions If You Must: Older Editions, E-Textbook, International

If you truly want to save some money, older editions, international editions and electronic versions might be options to consider. I have had at least one older edition of a textbook, many international versions, as well as e-books. After buying so many, I now only recommend the e-book format IF you have a tablet because otherwise, you’ll need to lug around your heavy laptop everywhere, and honestly, when you have your laptop connected to the Internet, how productive can you get?

I also only recommend older editions as viable options IF your professor actually says you can get either the old or current edition and that the two are fairly similar. I would also love to get international versions of textbooks since their contents are usually identical to the US versions, if it weren’t for the fact that the buyback prices for these versions are considerably lower than the US versions. This makes sense since you got it at an extremely good deal to begin with.

What tried-and-true tips do you have that you want to share for college students and textbook-buying? Are there any places with very cheap textbooks? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: Woman Holding A Pile Of Books Image Via Shutterstock, Wesley Fryer, Paul Stainthorp

The post 3 Tried-And-True Tips For Buying Cheap Textbooks appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Jewelry-Making

If you’re the creative type, why not channel that creativity into making things you can wear? There are many wonderful channels on Youtube dedicated to crafty things like jewelry-making. You can create them for yourself or as gifts! Youtubers have jewelry-making pretty well-covered with many thorough tutorials. Here are some starting points for you to explore jewelry-making:

• how to tie basic knots,
• how to make resin charms for kiddie bracelets or keychains,
• how to make earrings,
• how to make your own beads for necklaces or bracelets from polymer clay canes (which is shown in the next video), and more.

There are many more tutorials on Youtube from which you can draw a lot of inspiration. Plus, another neat thing about jewelry-making is that craft stores (and even chain super centers) will likely have lots of materials for you to work with, whether those are additional charms, jewelry wire, etc.

Sewing

Like jewelry-making, sewing is another activity where you can thoroughly use your creativity to create unique pieces. It’s also a pretty popular hobby on Youtube as there is a multitude of video tutorials. To start, you could learn:

• how to sew by hand (and by machine),
• the different types of stitches,
• how to make a laptop sleeve,
• making a handbag,
• sewing a dress,
• creating a quilt, and more.

This hobby isn’t just money-saving, but also potentially a lucrative hobby as there are many sellers on Etsy, the handmade marketplace, that have incredibly cute and unique laptop sleeve designs, backpacks, etc.

Here is one of my favorite videos on sewing, where the author makes a cute ruffle tunic:

Cocktails/Drinks

Drinks are expensive but addictive nonetheless, so if you feel guilty for having too many of those sweet coffee drinks, maybe making them yourself will be a bit more guilt-free. You will know what ingredients went into that drink and you can control the amounts of substances used in your drink.

Fancy an adult beverage? Here a few popular cocktails you can learn to make yourself thanks to Youtube:

• Cosmopolitan,
• Bloody Mary,
• Mint mojito,
• Chocolate martini, etc.

As for some coffee drinks, there are some Youtubers that have revealed how to make some of the following:

• Java chip frappuccino,
• Green tea frappuccino,
• Peppermint white chocolate mocha latte,
• Irish crème latte, and more from pinkmacprincess.

Here is a video for one of my favorite drinks, caramel frappuccino. The video actually shows a lighter version (made with skim milk), so I will probably try it as soon as I’m done typing!

http://youtu.be/ZPrOO9zxd4I

There are plenty of other hobbies I haven’t begun to decipher that are very easy to pick up from the popular video-sharing platform. What crafty things have you learned from Youtube?

Image Credit: Fabrizio Van Marciano

The post 3 Money-Saving Activities You Can Learn From YouTube appeared first on MakeUseOf.

General

Betty’s Kitchen

Betty’s Kitchen is a cool cooking channel featuring retired Mathematics professor, Betty, in more than 1000 cooking videos. She makes lots of entrees, desserts and even features a few vlogs about her family, including bloopers, which are always appreciated. She’s even been featured on ABC. Here is one of her more popular videos, a recipe for buttercream frosting.

Food Wishes

Chef John has quite a following, and with good reason: He has over 700 recipes on lots of different dishes, something which is apparent in his large and varied collection of playlists. One of the things I admire from this channel is the chef’s voice, which is very radio-friendly, so it makes trying and cooking his recipes sound kind of pleasant. I’ve actually tried (and loved!) one of his recipes (simple Spaghetti Aglio e Olio) so I absolutely recommend his channel. Here is his version of crispy onion rings.

Fast Food

Robjnixon

Robjnixon has plenty of videos (419 to be exact as of the writing of this article) on various types of cuisines and styles, but one of the things that this channel is known for is its weekly Fast Food Friday segment, where the chef shows viewers his take on a popular chain restaurant item, such as the Big Mac, Krispy Kreme donuts and more. Here is one video where he makes some fantastic-looking chocolate cake.

OnePotChefShow

I love, love, love this channel because the host has a great personality, the recipes are simple and the channel name represents what I dream of when I’m cooking (who likes washing a multitude of dishes anyway?). His style of cooking doesn’t really belong in fast food category in the sense that he makes burgers and fries (because he doesn’t), but it does in the sense that his recipes are meant to be made quickly (awesome!) Plus, he has some blooper videos that are always entertaining to watch and a cookbook released by popular demand. Here is a video of his where he makes some oven-baked chicken nuggets.

Italian

LauraVitalesKitchen

LauraVitalesKitchen’s collection of YouTube videos has gotten over 33 million views so if you haven’t seen this channel, you’ve been missing out! LauraVitalesKitchen has almost 500 videos on lots of topics, including pasta, desserts from scratch, etc. The chef used to live in Italy and work in her parent’s Italian restaurant (I know this from watching a lot of her videos!) so if you want Italian, you’ve reached the right channel. Here is a video of her cupcake recipe, which has reached 2 million views.

Healthy

LeanBodyLifestyle

LeanBodyLifestyle has a large collection of video recipes for people that might be interested in bodybuilding or getting some low-fat versions of popular recipes. I’ve even shared some of these recipes with my own friends as the channel owner has a few great recipes on healthy, oven-fried chicken. Here is a video where he makes some protein peanut butter cups.

Vegetarian-Friendly/Indian

Vahchef

I’m sort of cheating here since Vahchef isn’t strictly a vegetarian cooking channel, but it is certainly vegetarian-friendly. This channel contains over 400 videos, a lot of them clearly vegetarian with an Indian kick. There are also some non-vegetarian items for those that simply want to learn about Indian cuisine as well. Here is a recipe for onion samosa.

Chinese

Wantanmien

Wantanmien has over 100 videos on lots of Chinese (mainly Cantonese) dishes, some of which you can only find in restaurants. The channel also has some Western desserts (like German nut wedges or Nussecke) since the chef has lived in Germany. The videos are in Cantonese but there are English annotations in all videos. Here is a one on a popular Chinese breakfast item (my favorite!), ha gao or shrimp dumpling.

Korean

Maangchi

Maangchi has videos dating to 1997 so her Korean cooking show has been going on a while. That means you’ll find all kinds of recipe videos on Korean dishes, including updated videos on making kimchi, japchae and a lot of other Korean goodies. Here is a video of the Korean-style, twice-fried chicken.

Japanese

Runnyrunny999

I know Joshua listed a Japanese cooking channel (CookingWithDog) in his article, but Runnyrunny999 is another great channel with a large collection of Japanese video recipes. I’ve actually made his version of gyudon (thin beef slices with onions over white rice) so I encourage you to try his dishes as well. Here is the gyudon recipe for those interested.

So this is definitely an incomplete round-up of YouTube cooking channels. What channels would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below!

Photo credit: Woman Cooking Vegetables Image Via Shutterstock

The post 10 Mega-Popular YouTube Cooking Channels By Cuisine appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Today, however, we’re reviewing mobile games for Android that will also help you exercise your grey cells during this lazy summertime. Simon has already discussed 3 brain teaser games in the past, so I bring you a few more games to add to your collection up next. The ones I’m listing here address different skills.

Who Becomes Rich (Trivia Quiz) [Android 1.6+]

Who is it for? For those that want to learn random facts and/or test their knowledge of random facts.

Interesting fact: This app has complaint buttons in case you are dissatisfied with the difficulty (or lack thereof) of the questions, the content or the spelling of the words. You can even submit your own questions for developer review, after which they could be added to the question database.

Catch: Ad-supported (unobtrusive banner at the bottom of the screen), but honestly, you barely notice it’s there.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars, averaged from 80,000+ reviews

Size: 3.3M

If you are a frequent MakeUseOf reader, you are probably knowledgeable on a lot of tech subjects (or are at least an enthusiastic learner). Do you want to test your knowledge on other subjects or do you wish to learn more general knowledge facts? This app will be a fun game for you and a pal to try to test which of you can answer the most questions on random facts, or can guess the highest number of correct answers.

If you don’t get the question right, you can submit your name for a score table. The lowest amount of money you can “win” is $100, which you should be able to since the questions in the beginning are very elementary. I have made it to $3 million, a level which of course contains some very obscure questions.

One Touch Drawing [Android 2.2+]

Who is it for? For those that are up for some visual and logic challenges/riddles.

Interesting fact: The app has a survival mode which means you cannot make mistakes. If you do make just one mistake, it’s game over for you. Survival mode could be fun for challenges with friends, or if you’re confident enough of your skills.

Catch: Like Who Becomes Rich, this app is ad-supported, with an unobtrusive banner at the top of the screen, which really is not that big of a deal at all.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars, averaged from 18,000+ reviews

Size: 2.7M

If you like riddles and to figure out problems, you might like this game. You basically need to figure out how to draw the shape shown in the screen without lifting your finger. Sounds simple, right? If only it was in practice. There are 160 levels for you to truly give your grey cells a workout. With that many levels, you might be either extremely excited or somewhat intimidated, but it’s definitely a great game to try.

There are hints after 10 missed attempts at each drawing so even if you’re stuck in any single level, there is hope! I have gotten to level 7, which is not high considering there are 100 in the blue world. I’m guessing the rest of the levels are in the green world while the developers are still working on the levels of the next world (red).

Brain Age Game [Android 1.5+]

Who is it for? For those that want to test or improve their visual memory skills.

Interesting fact: The app notes that if you’re not happy with your initial brain age results, you can notice improvements in your brain memory age if you continue using the app for 10 minutes every day. Also, it allows you to choose an audio track to play while you complete the games.

Catch: There are some ads in the app, but you can remove them by downloading sponsoring apps and earning rewards.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars, averaged from 73,000+ reviews

Size: 2.1M

Do you think you got a pretty good memory or can memorize strings of numbers well? You can find out for sure with this app. This has one type of game where you are shown a few numbers scrambled all over the screen for a few seconds, after which you’re supposed to tap the parts of the screen where the numbers were shown in the right order from memory. After you have completed some levels, you can get a report based on your performance of how old your brain is. Even though this game doesn’t sound that hard, in reality, the challenges get significantly harder quickly.

What other logic, memory or strategy games do you recommend for Android users? Let us know in the comments!

Image credit: Brain Image Via Shutterstock

The post 3 More Free Games To Boost Your Brain Fitness [Android] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

To meet these two goals, we have tried to bring you many different roundups of wallpapers, even a theme collection. Here is another set of beautiful themes that also might just break the monotony of your daily browsing session in Google Chrome.

Space Planet

I don’t know about you but space images always take possession of my eyes for a few seconds when I see them for the first time as they’re difficult not to admire. The New Tab background image in this theme is no exception with its indigo planet and its glowing rings.

You might not see the image that often since it only shows up when you open a new tab, but the parts you do see often (tab and navigation bars) have an equally beautiful and slightly enigmatic blue that fades to black in the left corner.

Beautiful landscape

This theme features golden accents that I assume are meant to resemble wooden surfaces, while the tabs are a metallic green, which again I imagine represents vegetation. The background image from the New Tab page is quite majestic if you ask me, so this theme’s title is not misleading at all.

Raindrops (Aero, Non-Aero, Lite)

So here is a theme with an actual photograph, which looks quite serene by the way, in the background of the New Tab page. The bits you see in the tab and navigation bars are part of that same photograph, which comes in different sizes. The full HD photograph is not included in the Lite version. Otherwise, the only other difference is the Aero support.

As you can see in my screenshot, my browser is wearing the non-Aero one since I’m using Ubuntu as my OS.

Autumn (1024×768, 1680×1050, 1280×1024)

Is it too early to put on autumn-related themes? This writer, who prefers wintery wallpapers all year long, wholeheartedly says no. So here is an illustrated theme that comes with an artistic background image for the New Tab page, also in different sizes as you might have noticed with the sizes in the section header.

This theme paints the tab and navigation bars in different colors, including orange, baby blue, indigo, etc. which make quite a dramatic set of colors.

Designing Your Own Theme

A couple of years ago, we published an article on designing your own theme, which you can find here. The aforementioned post involved downloading the Chrome CRX Theme Creator, assigning colors to elements, packaging and uploading the theme. Definitely check out the article if you want to play around or have an idea for a theme. There is also Chrome The Maker, which is a user-friendly website that also allows you to create and customize Chrome themes.

What themes do you prefer on your Chrome browser? Let us know of your gorgeous selections in the comments section below.

The post 5 Gorgeous Themes To Brighten Your Google Chrome Browser appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Because of the popularity of this launcher, there many, many themes (some sexy, some iPhone-esque) available for this launcher, and luckily, theme developers have also released some themes that resemble Jelly Bean’s look. Are they worth a look? Let’s find out.

Before you go download these launcher theme apps, please realize you need to have Go Launcher EX installed, a free, wildly popular launcher for Android 2.0+. Once you have this installed, you can then install any of these laucher themes and select them from Home > Menu > Themes.

Jelly Bean Go Launcher EX by BlueFrog [Android 1.6+]

Pros:

• Ratings: Fourteen users have given this theme a 4.5 star out of 5.
• Size: This launcher barely takes 1 MB of your SD card space at 942 kB.
• No ads

Cons:

• The wallpaper quality is OK. You can see some pixelated parts in the yellow portion of the wallpaper, but then again, this is a truly lightweight launcher theme.
• In my test device (HTC EVO 4G), the home icon in the app drawer was cut off, while in the Google Play product page, the screenshots from the developer show no such incomplete icon. There are also two additional icons from the screenshots that I’m missing (RSS and menu) from the same app drawer. I’m thinking this issue might be just with my phone.
• For some reason, I also didn’t find any wallpapers when I tapped on the GO Wallpaper option (besides the one you see in my screenshot), while the product page also states that one of the features of this theme is its wallpapers. Perhaps you will have better luck on your phone and be able to see the wallpapers.

Jelly Bean Go Theme by NitroX-developers [Android 2.0+]

Pros:

• This developers have made at least four other Go Themes so it’s probably safe to say that the developers know what they’re doing.
• Icons are shinier than regular Android 4.0 icons.
• Size: This one is also barely 1MB at 920 kB.
• No ads

Cons:

• Some more wallpapers would be nice. The one wallpaper you see on my screenshot has a visible watermark on the lower right corner.

Jelly Bean Theme GoLauncherEX by ADDesigns [Android 2.0+]

Pros:

• Like the previous app, this theme comes from a developer that has made a bunch of themes for different launcher apps, including ADW, LauncherPro and Go Launcher EX.
• Comes with 10 beautiful Jelly Bean wallpapers.
• Some redesigned icons like Gmail, Adobe Reader, etc.
• No ads.

Cons:

• Size: Considerably bigger in size compared to the previous two apps, at 5.4 MB, but this is probably due to the all the graphics (icons and wallpaper pack).
• You can see some loss of quality in the first wallpaper.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the third app simply because I love the wallpaper galore, but honestly, all three do a pretty nice job of bringing you the looks of Jelly Bean for free. What about you? Are you planning on getting some new eye candy for your phone?

Let us know what themes you use on your Android device in the comments below.

Photo credit: Mauricio Lima

The post 3 Free Jelly Bean Themes For Go Launcher EX [Android] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

With 4 different machines all throughout my apartment, I know I definitely try to categorize them for better organization, but between Chrome, Firefox and Xmarks syncs, I encounter duplicate bookmarks from time to time. How do I get rid of these, you ask? I use a splendid little extension on Chrome called SuperSorter that helps me make my bookmark collection neater.

I imagine more people nowadays use Pinterest and Facebook to share interesting findings on the web or even use online services to store bookmarks, but I find that physically having them on the bookmark bar reminds of something I’m waiting to read again, complete, etc. If you’re like me and have quite a few bookmarks, you’ll be pleased to know about the SuperSorter extension.

There were quite a few bookmark-related extensions when I scoured the Chrome Web Store but SuperSorter stood out for the ratings (4.5 stars from 153 reviewers). When you download the extension, click on its icon next to the address bar and select Options, you can see some of the things SuperSorter can do.

You have a few options here of course. You can have SuperSorter work its magic every time without needing you to invoke the extension every time (“Sort automatically”), which is among one of the top features. Deleting empty folders is another feature that might be handy and can help you get a more organized collection.

Right now, there are some duplicate bookmarks in my collection as you can see in the following screenshot.

When you click on SuperSorter’s Find all duplicates now, you will get a list of the culprits.

You can choose which of the duplicate bookmarks to manage by selecting the first or last. In my case, I’m selecting all but the last bookmarks of the duplicate sets to delete.

There is no undo for the deletion, so you might want to scroll and check that you’re going to delete the right things.

Now any time you click on the SuperSorter icon, SuperSorter will perform the same actions with the options you selected and saved. The icon notifies of SuperSorter’s completion but it’s usually finished within seconds.

After SuperSorter’s cleanup, I usually click on Xmarks for it to sync the right amount of bookmarks. You know that beautiful, soothing feeling you get when you cleaned up your entire house or apartment? That’s sort of what I get every time after I use SuperSorter and see no more annoying, duplicate bookmarks.

Want to give your bookmark collection a good shakeup to clear the unnecessary clutter created by duplicates? With SuperSorter, you might just get that and an awesome, soothing feeling afterwards.

Speaking of soothing, here are some inspirational websites we think you should bookmark, geek or not.

What about you? Do you know of other bookmark-worthy sites? Or deal with duplicate bookmarks another way? Let us know in the comments below.

Image Credit: Rubber Stamp Marked With Original and Duplicated Image via Shutterstock

The post SuperSorter Clears Duplicate Bookmarks So You Don’t Have To [Chrome] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

You will probably not get the full experience of Twitter, which includes building a follower base, responding to users who mention you, making lists, and all that jazz, but it may be good to go this route if you don’t consider the noise to be very appealing.

Apps For Posting Tweets Only: TweetMeep & Robot Bird For ICS

There are widgets from full Android clients that let you post tweets only but if you want to skip downloading a probably bloated client, you can download something like TweetMeep. At 713k, TweetMeep for Android 1.5 and up, is a an app that consists of a simple widget. That means launching the app from your app list will only show you a notice that you have to add the widget to your homescreen in order to use this.

Once you add it, choose a theme (either Éclair or classic), and authorize TweetMeep. You can tap on the widget’s larger panel on the left to bring about the little TweetMeep editor for your new text-based tweet. You can see how many characters you have left on the editor. If you tap on the “t” part of the widget, you’ll be led to the mobile site of Twitter on your web browser, in case you want to view your own profile or visit someone else’s, or whatever you can do on the mobile Twitter web app.

If you don’t want a widget, but an actual app that you can launch and use without excessive features, there is also Robot Bird [Android 4.0+] is definite a candidate app for your needs. It allows you to create a new tweet, post a picture and even view your past tweets. It will also notify you of mentions. That’s about all the features it offers.

One thing I wish it did though is use OAuth to authenticate my login information. Overall, Robot Bird is still a great, minimalistic client for Ice Cream Sandwich devices.

Widget Apps For Seeing Follower Count: Tweet Followers & Followers Widget For Twitter

Perhaps you don’t want to receive the notification emails that Twitter sends to you when you have a new follower or maybe you want to track the number of followers more closely. There are two widget apps that are available for this purpose. Neither of these apps require you to enter your account password so you can basically keep track of your favorite celebrity’s follower count or just your own.

The first one I’ll be reviewing is Tweet Followers. It is a simple widget app that you can add to your homescreen, type in the user to see the follower count for and maybe select the refresh interval. The resulting widget is 1×1, occupying very little space and simply displaying the number of followers and the account name. You can add more of the same widget to track the follower count of other users.

For more statistics, you might want to check out Followers Widget For Twitter, which is another widget app for devices with Android 1.6 and up. You simply add its widget to a homescreen, type the username to track and that’s pretty much it. You can add as many of these widgets as you want. The widget displays the number of people that the username you picked is following as well as the information of the last sync.

With the huge number of full Twitter clients, sometimes you might just need a minimalistic app that can fulfill a specific need. The ones on this list do just that, in widget forms or simple-looking apps.

Do you know other single-purpose Twitter apps for Android? Let us know in the comments below!

Image credit: Twitter

The post 4 Great Time-Saving Twitter Apps for Your Smartphone [Android] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Not only do we have some great recommendations, we also have a great resource to assist those who are unsure of where to get digital comic books. If that’s what you are also wondering, guess what? MUO has a thorough guide for you in the form of a free PDF manual, BAM! Your Guide To Digital Comic Books by Lachlan Roy.

For tablet-owning users, we have further goodies: recommendations to highly rated comic viewers, which you can use to read the great comics you encounter in the aforementioned articles, as well the online stores that we also briefly discuss.

Komik Reader, Free & $1.99 (Android 3.0+)

There are many comic viewer apps for Android-powered smartphones, but how about a few for tablets? Komik Reader is a tablet-optimized app that lets you view your downloaded comics and manga. It might sound simple, but Komik Reader also includes lots of features that will make your comic-reading experience a lot smoother.

From multi-touch features to dual-spread pages, this app is obviously the work of someone who has used it and thus, improved it upon knowing potential and handy extras (probably from reader suggestions or the like) without the need for addons. At 779k, it’s a seriously lightweight application that still displays images (in my case, the screenshots are showing Flashback Universe) in crisp condition. This free, ad-supported viewer supports comic book compressed files like CBR and CBZ, and image directories. Find ads annoying or want to support the developer? The $1.99 version will delight you with no ads and basically let you send virtual hugs to the app’s creators.

For more tablet-optimized Android comic viewers, check out ComiQ and the open-source A Comic Viewer. For comics that are released straight from the publishers, check out the apps for Marvel Comics, ComiXology Comics (and the related DC Comics), and Archie Comics.

ComicBookLover for iPad, Free

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert in iPad comic book-viewing apps because I don’t own an iPad, so I will rely on our trusty Simon, who reviewed ComicBookLover for Mac, iPhone and iPad .

Simon highlights this app specifically because it doesn’t just work on both Mac and iDevices. It actually works like iTunes (without the sluggishness) in that you can synchronize the content on your desktop ComicBookLover library with that of your iDevice. The desktop client also has some extremely useful tagging features to more easily organize your comics wherever you are. For the full review, check out the original ComicBookLover article on both the desktop client and the iPad app.

You can also check out this review of 8 (talk about comic book galore!) apps released by comic publishers. Each of these apps feature stores, like Marvel, where you can obtain the store’s official comics. Many of them have a few comics that are completely free. The 8 apps reviewed by Steve include:

• Comics By comiXology, which comes with 80 free comics,
• Marvel Comics, you know, the publishers of popular characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man (pictured above),
• iVerse Comics, with over 40 free comics,
• IDW Comics, with 10 free books,
• Transformers Comics, with 3 free books,
• Star Trek Comics, with 3 free titles (pictured above),
• G.I. Joe Comics, with 3 free titles as well, and
• Archie Comics, with 4 free books.

Make sure to check out the original article with details on these 8 comic-viewing apps for the iPad.

For additional reader apps that can let you view comics, there’s the Kindle App for Android and iPad that recently made headlines for being updated to better support graphic-heavy books, and the Nook app for Android and iPad that also has comics and graphic novels for purchase (though there are some for free). Both are one-stop shops for many of your reading needs, whether it be for books, magazines, newspapers, and you guessed it, graphic-oriented books, like comic books.

Got any recommendations for tablet-friendly comic readers? We are all ears.

Image Credit: Screenshot from Flashback Universe Web Comics

The post 2+ Excellent Apps For Reading Comics On Your Tablet [Android & iPad] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

If you would rather not sift through lots of outdated material to teach yourself Android application development, you’re in luck today. I have scoured the web for some reliable online resources that have at least recent material for beginner or aspiring Android developers. Some of the best resources I have found for beginners will be presented up next.

TheNewBoston’s Android App Development Video Series

TheNewBoston is one of my favorite channels on YouTube ever. It is a dedicated company that has, as of the writing of this article, released over 2,500 videos on a variety of topics including programming in a dozen different languages, game development, web design software, DIY projects (like building a go kart, which just sounds epic) and most recently, academic subjects, like Physics and Chemistry.

The playlist I’m highlighting is a series of 200 videos (yes, 200) that give you plenty of detail on how to install the software you’ll need (Eclipse, the Android SDK, etc), build an app, submit it to the market and everything in between. The playlist was just released in August of last year so it still has a lot of relevant information.

Videos in this playlist are usually around 5 minutes so they are easily digestible if you are planning to consume them throughout the summer. I have watched till video number 88 at the moment so of course I have learned a lot about what to put in the Android manifest, what views are, etc.

From what I have seen in the videos so far, the series helps you build a simple app that can keep a counter, with a few buttons that can increase and decrease that same counter, which is definitely manageable if you are a beginner Android developer, preferably with some exposure to Java. If you don’t want to sift through lots of uninviting text tutorials but do want good training videos made by non-hobbyists, I cannot recommend this channel enough.

Official Android Developer Site

I definitely cannot skip the official Android Developer site when talking about resources on Android app development. One of the best things about the official site is that it is definitely updated no matter what year or month you’re checking it out, unlike books. This means the exact steps to follow to get all the required software in the right versions will be listed on this site without fail.

The official site also has a more structured approach to presenting the information as it lists the specific steps you will be going through in its outline. If you want to get to know the basics of Android app development in one sitting, this site is probably your best bet.

Android App Inventor

This project, originally called Google App Inventor and now maintained by MIT, is probably the best way to visually learn about Android programming. If you have little or no programming experience but are heavily interested in uncovering the mysteriousness of getting an app up and running, this web-based App Inventor is also for you.

You get to visualize the programming so you logically build statements from smaller blocks consisting of if-statements and the like, which is similar to MIT’s Scratch software, aimed to help younger individuals reach an understanding of programming. App Inventor has more advanced tutorials for people that have done Hello World and are ready to build some simple games.

There is also another way to make an app for Android (and iOS) with no programming experience that seems to be highly rated - BuzzTouch. Do you know any other resources that are great for beginner or aspiring Android developers?

Image credit: Android Developer Site

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Today, I will take a look at another extremely useful Android app by the name of AirDroid, which was featured in Chris’ 6 Ways To Take Screenshots On Android and can do many of the things I have previously mentioned, plus a few more. Not only is it capable of many functions that could be achieved with additional third-party apps, but it also looks extremely slick. I say this because the website and the Android app itself, the “desktop” interface with which you manage your phone, all look like they were made by an Apple web designer or something.

No Desktop Programs To Download – Just Visit One Website

One of the cooler parts of using AirDroid is the way you hook up your computer to your phone. When you launch the app in your Android device, you are given an IP address and a URL (web.airdroid.com) which you will then visit on your computer (which must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network that your phone is on).

Once you are at either the IP address or web.airdroid.com on your computer, you will see two tabs, Express and Secure on the right.

If you are at home or at your office, you can use the Express tab, while the Secure tab can be for settings such as a coffee shop, the airport, etc. You can now type in the passcode that is displayed on your Android phone’s screen, though you can also make up your own passcode in the AirDroid Android app settings if you typed the IP address. Or you can tap on the camera icon in the same screen of the phone app to scan the QR code on your computer screen.

I definitely recommend the latter method as it makes the connection much faster of course. Once you scan the QR code, it will take a few seconds to show you the beautiful “desktop” where you can see your phone’s memory and free space, manage your phone’s files, share URLs and more.

Send Text Messages, URLs & Files From Your Computer

One of the other features I definitely enjoy is AirDroid’s messaging feature. Just click the Messages icon or the New Message icon in the top Google Play search bar that has AirDroid’s logo. You can read, delete and even send text messages, all from your computer and with the comfort of a full-size keyboard.

If you are away on other web browser tabs but keep AirDroid’s web app open, the AirDroid tab will even flash notifications when you receive new text messages.

Transferring files is another feature I absolutely keep coming back to AirDroid for.

It is seamless – just open the Files icon on the desktop interface and upload files from your computer. Or better yet, drag and drop files to the Files window.

You can also explore, download (in .apk) and uninstall your phone apps from the web interface.

There is also a clipboard widget where you can see the text that you copied on your Android phone, and a URL widget where you can paste links to open up in your Android phone’s browser.

The AirDroid web app also has four desktops (with calendar and weather widgets) so you can easily organize and separate your tasks.

Take Screenshots Wirelessly

If your phone is rooted (it’s really not that difficult – it just takes some time to read all the guides), you can even take screenshots of your phone and potentially record screencasts as well, though these are experimental features. Back when I didn’t dare to root my phone for fear of bricking it, I had relied on the Android SDK’s Dalvik Debug Monitor tool as well as AShot to take screenshots, both of which worked well, but involved finding and plugging a USB cable between the computer and the phone.

Now that I have the AirDroid app, I can take screenshots wirelessly and effortlessly. Just click on the Screenshot widget on the AirDroid web app, accept the root permission prompt on your phone that asks you to authorize AirDroid and screencapture away.

New screens on your Android phone will update in real-time on the Screenshot widget on the website with virtually no delay, which is a delight to work with if you frequently blog about Android apps.

Manage Phone Memory, Kill Tasks & More

In the Tools tab of its Android app, AirDroid has a few more utilities that you may find handy.

You can open up Tasks to view a list of currently running processes, which you can even stop or kill.

With the Device tool, you can see a detailed view of your phone’s stats, including read-only memory, SD card space, and battery temperature.

Basically, You Won’t Regret Downloading AirDroid One Bit

The AirDroid’s web app is fast becoming one of my most visited sites on my computer for many reasons. AirDroid allows me to take screenshots easily, transfer and organize my files, uninstall apps, use my keyboard to type SMS’s instead of having to reach my phone for every new message, and more. If you have an Android phone, you will find AirDroid indispensable.

Download the app from Google Play or scan the QR code, which you can also find on AirDroid’s website.

How do you manage your phone? What do you recommend to wirelessly manage your Android phone? We would love to read your comments and suggestions below.

The post AirDroid – Send SMS, Share Links, Transfer Files & More [Android 2.1+] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

For more formal online meeting where you might want to share screens and moderate conversations over a conference call, AnyMeeting might be the new and painless way to organize online meetings. Why? It requires no downloads (unless you don’t have Java installed, which is needed to share screens only), you can have up to 200 people in your meeting, and more.

You can register to use AnyMeeting to host an ad-supported online meeting with 200 users for free, though you can also pay $17.99 a month for ad-free meetings with 25 attendees and $69.99 for 200.

If you simply want to try AnyMeeting without registering, AnyMeeting Now lets you host a web conference without the hassles of creating an account. Of course, you will get full features if you sign up, even if it is for the free, ad-supported account.

When you visit AnyMeeting Now, you will be notified about the requirement of Java for screen-sharing purposes. If you don’t need to share your screen during your meeting, you can still start your meeting.

From there, you’ll be connected to the meeting interface, where you will be given a phone number you can dial to join the conference call, with notes on what to dial to count the number of callers, mute everyone for lecture mode, etc.

At this point, you will also be provided a URL which you can email or copy to your clipboard to share with and invite your attendees.

Once those screens are gone, you can see the beautiful interface adorned by panes on the left to see the attendee list and chat, with controls on a toolbar at the top for options like sharing your screen, webcam, and more.

Some interesting and useful options from the top bar include the ability to allow (or block) attendees’ sharing of their screens (webcams and microphones, too), as well as the option to record the meeting, conduct a poll and lock the meeting to prevent attendees from logging in to the meeting which I suppose is meant to enforce punctuality or to not go over the attendee limit.

You as a presenter and the person that started the conference meeting have control over a lot of attendee permissions. For instance, when you conduct a poll, you can choose to let attendees view the poll results in full, in part, or not at all.

Another example of your power as the presenter is that you can allow (or disallow) private chats between attendees and show the attendee list to everyone.

These aren’t the full features of AnyMeeting as I only reviewed the conference call options of the account-less AnyMeeting Now, but even for the latter, the options are plentiful and useful for a free service that requires no downloads and no fees. Be sure to sign up to see the full features (for the free account) and no ads (for the paid versions).

Overall, AnyMeeting is quite an impressive and easy-to-use online meeting tool with no complications.

For similar services, see our posts on Join.me, ooVoo, etc. What do you recommend?

The post Set Up A Multi-Party Online Meeting The Easy Way With AnyMeeting appeared first on MakeUseOf.

There are alternatives to Instapaper, like emailing yourself articles with toread and Pistashio. However, if you are a loyal Instapaper user who happens to sport a trusty Android device, look no further than these highly rated apps that will surely help you enjoy Instapaper on Android.

Official Instapaper Android App [$2.99 for Android 2.1+]

Instapaper took a bit while to make an Android version while its iOS app was flourishing, but cook it up its developer did, surprising users. This version for Android-powered phones and tablets/e-reader combos (e.g. Kindle Fire, Nook Color) is maintained by Mobelux, so you can visit the official app info page at Mobelux’s site or download the app from Google Play.

This app lets you download bookmarked articles when you have a Wi-Fi or data connection. Not only that, the app displays the article text in a clean, readable form that is optimized for mobile or tablet view. That means you don’t need to zoom in and out, and can get text-only versions without all the distracting desktop view elements, like site ads.

This app has support for folders to better organize your article collections, which you can download in batches of 500 articles at a time.

As you can see in the screenshot, there are font type and size options, as well as brightness settings and a night mode option. One of the cooler features that is not quite obvious in the screenshot is that this app also syncs where in an article you last read across different Android-powered devices.

Papermill [$0.99 for Android 2.2+]

Do you have a paid Instapaper subscription? If yes, this app is for you. Papermill lets you access your unread articles from Instapaper while providing the clean, text-optimized reading experience that Instapaper (and Readability) is known for. This app even has a widget for mobile handsets and tablets that have Android 3.0+.

Over a hundred users on Google Play have rated this app an average of 4.4 out of 5 so if you have an Instapaper subscription, you will probably find this app “well-designed” as a review points out.

There are other apps that claim to be able to display articles saved for offline reading from Instapaper, but at least three of these apps didn’t work in my tests. If you know of other promising Instapaper apps, feel free to share them in the comments below.

Android Apps That Send URLs To Instapaper

There aren’t many apps that can access your bookmarked articles from Instapaper aside from the previous two that had good ratings, but there is a good number of apps that can send URLs of that interesting article you want to read later to Instapaper. Here are a few:

• Taptu, a newsreader and curator that is available for Android and iOS,
• Pulse News, a cross-platform (Android, iOS, Windows Phone) newsreader that optimizes reading articles on tablets,
• gReader, a tablet-friendly app that is my go-to newsreader,
• Send to Instapaper, an app for Android 1.6+ that has gotten high (4.4/5) ratings from 99 customers,
• TLDR, also available for Android 1.6+ with high (4.2/5) ratings from over 200 customers.

Do you know of another Instapaper-servicing app? Let us know in the comments below!

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