The Open University is a world renowned British institution of higher education offering people all over the world the chance to earn a first-class degree without ever stepping foot in a lecture theater. Thanks to the Internet, the Open University is now able to offer more courses to more people than ever before, and their YouTube channel helps market their wares.

The best camera you can possibly lay your hands on is the one that you currently have on you, or so the saying goes. Ever since hardware manufacturers started putting bigger and better cameras on our devices, we’re always in the presence of a capable camera – so what about video? If you have a recent smartphone capable of shooting 1080p full-HD video, you might be surprised at the potential you have in your pocket. With the right apps, techniques and a few inexpensive accessories you could turn your iPhone or similar into a highly capable video capture device.

The web is awash with talk of Apple’s new mobile operating system in the wake of WWDC 2013. As with all new iterations of iOS, Apple developers get access before the rest of us who will have to wait till “fall” for the official build. While having your own developer account is one way to secure early access to the iOS 7 beta, it’s not the only way of doing so. There are a couple of other things you can try, so if you lack patience and absolutely need to get your mitts on iOS 7 – read on.

One thing that has always annoyed me about YouTube is a lack of proper channels. A typical “YouTube channel” is merely one user’s collection of videos. Not so on Vimeo; a channel is a user-created collection of videos from any of the service’s content producers. Channels revolve around themes and interests.

This week, I’m taking a look at Web Hosting Hub and their $5.99 per month service, which includes free domain name registration, unlimited disk space and bandwidth and a whole lot of other features you can read about here. Web Hosting Hub is one of the many recommended web hosts listed on our Best Web Hosting Services page. We’re going to be giving away 10 accounts that include year’s worth of free hosting plus domain name (valued at $720), so if you could use the webspace be sure to enter at the end of this article for a chance to win!

Do you spend half your life inside the OS X Terminal? Is a plain text editor your second home? Whatever you do with Terminal or TextEdit there’s no denying they’re each a bit boring and basic, and certainly not retro enough for my liking. Cathode ($10) and Blinky ($5) are two very stylish replacements that bring a touch of old-school jitter and grime to your pristine OS X desktop. If you’re a sucker for classic computers, blinking green command prompts and magnetic interference you’ve just hit the jackpot.

The aim of the game is simple: you must infiltrate the human race, spread your disease and try to wipe-out humanity. It’s a game of strategy and vengeance! I was immediately hooked, and over the last decade or so have played as many variations on the pandemic simulation as possible. I’ve collected the best of the best, from old browser games to cross-platform mobile versions.

In addition to being a must-have childhood toy, computer-case building material and online building sim , LEGO lends itself to the art of stop-motion particularly well. By gradually moving figures and objects over a course of several frames, LEGO can be brought to life with painstaking time and precision.

The hosts file is used by your computer to map hostnames to IP addresses. By adding or removing lines to your hosts file you can change where certain domains will point when you access them in a browser or using other software. This is an important file so you will need an account with full privileges to make any changes. The Mac OS X process is a little more complicated than simply editing a text file, but it’s still easy enough for even complete newbies to do with little trouble.

I have two ageing digital SLR cameras, my first originally purchased Nikon D50 from 2005 and a Canon EOS-5D which I came across second-hand a few years ago. Despite being an entry-level camera that’s getting close to its tenth birthday, the D50 is still very close to my heart being the first digital SLR I owned and learned on, as well as being the first camera with which I was able to make some money out of my photography.

Most of my past Stuff to Watch columns involve embedded video, free films you can download and the odd audio piece but this week it’s time for something a little different. The Electric Sheep project is a collaborative art experiment that you can take part in by downloading and installing a program on your PC, Mac, Android device or iPad. Thanks to the Internet Archive many of these “flocks” of sheep have been recorded.

A slight trip, a clutch at thin air and a sickening “pop”. Bits of glass fall to the ground as you drop to your knees. A single bolt of lightning illuminates the sky and the rain that begins to fall masks your tears and shattered pride. You’ve broken your screen, you idiot. It’s a simple accident, and one that many others make on a daily basis. It also has the potential to be quite an expensive accident, particularly if you’re the owner of an iPhone 5. Read on to find out what you can do.

Smartphones and tablets have changed the way we live life. No longer can we wake up and lull around in bed without checking our email or Twitter mentions. Nobody worries about getting lost any more unless they’re low on battery, the smartphone user’s achilles heel in a world of do-everything devices. Our gadgets have also replaced a significant amount of physical objects, to the point where many of us wouldn’t consider buying a product when there is an equivalent piece of software that is up to the task.

Visualisations (or visualizations if you’re American or absolutely love your Zs) transform whole sets of arbitrary data into beautiful, visual learning tools. From basic graphs and charts to complex animations, visualisations take an infographic-like approach to helping us understand the world around us. Today’s Stuff to Watch features nothing but the most interesting visualisations I could find.

Google I/O has brought a flurry of news from the search giant including the announcement of a new cross-platform messaging service called Hangouts. Integrating with a fresh-looking Google+, the new application for iPhone and Android works seamlessly with the Web version of the messaging app found in Google+ to connect users in real-time. The platform is billed as a replacement for Google Talk and Voice, allowing one-on-one and group chats via text, along with media messaging and video calling.