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.

In light of this here are a list of things many of you might not consider purchasing ever again.

Calculator

The humble calculator is an item that many occasionally come across when looking through untouched cupboards, dust-laden desktops and that drawer in the kitchen where you put things like rubber bands and blu-tack. The death of the dedicated calculator isn’t a particularly new thing, in school I remember debates over whether calculators on chunky Nokia and Motorola feature phones were suitable for classroom use (most teachers were wise to this).

These days you don’t even need me to suggest a replacement apps, the iPhone’s in-built Calculator performs a variety of scientific tasks just by using it in landscape mode. For those of you who need graphing try Quick Graph, or if you’d rather input sums using your handwriting then the free MyScript Calculator will do the job. If you’re just bored of the plain-looking calculator app then check out RetroCalc ($1.99) for some of the world’s most memorable math machines.

Scanner

Unless you’re an artist, photographer or busy digitising rolls of 35mm film, you have no reason to buy a scanner ever again. They’re big, clunky, space-consuming and too loud – why not use an app on your phone, instead?

Seeing as you’re probably going to want those documents in digital form anyway, an app like TurboScan ($1.99) uses your device’s camera to make black and white or colour scans at varying contrasts before saving them as PDFs. CamScanner is a free alternative, though TurboScan remains a personal favourite of mine. If you’re really serious about this method you might want to build the ultimate document scanner to accompany your favourite app.

The Diary

This one is pretty easy – just about any app that lets you take notes could be used as a diary, though that’s not entirely practical. Instead there exist some great dedicated journaling apps, and most of these do way more than a boring old dog-eared paper diary could.

Simon recently put DayOne ($4.99) through its paces, a diary solution that syncs with your Mac (the total cost for both apps is less than most Moleskine notebooks, at $15). Another big-name alternative here is Everyday.me, and you could also check out another four other alternatives we’ve tried out.

If you really want to push the limits of what a diary should be and take full advantage of social networking (you forward thinker!) then you could sign up for Path and document your life with a select few other individuals. Hey, it works for Britney and it could work for you.

Remote Controls

Remember those all-in-one replacement remote controls? People still buy them! Idiots, right? Clearly they’ve not seen the light and replaced their remote control with a smartphone app. That, or they don’t have a compatible TV (fair enough). If you own a modern TV that you’ve purchased in the last few years from a named manufacturer then there’s a good chance you can control it from your tablet or smartphone.

I have an LG TV that, when paired with the LG TV Remote app lets me use my phone as a touchpad and general remote control, provides access to useless smart TV apps and even takes screenshots (way more useful that I ever imagined). Samsung owner? Grab Samsung SmartView. Sony? Media Remote for iPhone is your friend. Other TV? Search for “<manufacturer> iPhone remote” and see what comes up, you might be surprised.

There are also other apps that use accessories to turn your phone into a true universal remote, but they involve additional hardware and that’s against the ethos of this article so I’m leaving them out.

Radio

Remember radios? They were once found on kitchen counters, in garages and on bedroom floors. No longer do you need to rely on the airwaves (though in the event of a zombie apocalypse you might) for music and information – use your phone and spend that money you saved on some cheap speakers instead.

I’m not referring to home audio setups here, particularly hi-fi sound, but a cheaper means of getting music or news to your earholes. Spotify and Rdio both provide compelling music solutions (and can now be paired with Twitter #music), while TuneIn Radio can’t be beaten for listening to actual live broadcasts the world over – take that, FM.

Trackpad & Mouse

Ok, so it’s unlikely you’re going to completely replace your mouse or trackpad with your iPhone or iPad, but in the event of peripheral failure you can always use your iOS device as a stop-gap before your replacement arrives. They’re also great for bedroom and living room use, or anywhere else you’re feeling too lazy to move.

There are two strong competitors here, a free option called Remote Mouse which features in-app purchases to unlock additional features and remove adverts, or the completely ad-free and unrestricted app TouchPad ($4.99).

Alarm Clock

We’ve been using small personal devices as alarm clocks for as long as we’ve had small personal devices. Digital organisers, watches and dumb phones all did the job amicably, but now we’ve got an endless sea of software to choose from, not least the stock Alarms app.

Apple’s alarm app is ok, it works, but it’s a little fiddly. If you prefer a minimalist approach then try Rise ($1.99), or if statistics and sleep patterns are of interest there’s always Sleep Cycle.

The Landline

Technically your iPhone already replaces the landline by performing its function as a phone, but mobile charges can be expensive. There was once a time when we’d resort to landlines to avoid carrier charges or steep international rates, but that’s all changed thanks to always-on-us VoIP.

Skype is the first place to start and then there’s fring too. Both these solutions allow you to call landlines, mobiles and international numbers for cheap. If you’d like a different approach (and live in the US) then give Google Voice a go, it routes your outgoing calls through an access number which charges you the standard (inclusive) rate for any number dialled, national or international. Cheapo!

Notebooks & Scrap Paper

Scrap paper gets lost, covered in coffee and crushed in pockets. Handwritten notes aren’t digital, and in this era of accessing all your documents from anywhere with a data connection this is often a problem.

There are so many note-taking apps for iOS I don’t know where to start. The big services all have their own apps: Evernote, Pocket, Remember the Milk and even the stock Notes app which is made a lot more useful thanks to iCloud. Bakari featured a few time-saving apps in his recent communication app round-up or you could use a document hosted in Google Drive.

iPad users who appreciate a handwritten approach can try Paper for free, though this might not be the most practical of solutions.

Magazines

Last of all while it’s still very much a period of transition for the print industry, more magazines than ever are turning to tablets and smartphones to deliver their content. Instead of physically spending money on a piece of paper which you’ll only forget to recycle, why not grab yourself a subscription to Next Issue and read all you can for a set price per month?

Next Issue provides access to over 80 different magazines from a variety of publishers, but you could also check out Zinio too. Apple’s own Newsstand platform continues to grow, adding more publications all the time. Even if you’re feeling cheap there are a huge number of free iPad magazines to choose from.

What else can you replace with an iPhone and a few apps? What will the future bring? Let me know what you think in the comments, below.

Images: HP-35 Calculator (Seth Morabito), Cat Scan (Fingle), Old Journal (Bev Sykes), Remote Control (sm3287), Old Radio (Daniel Mies), Broken Mouse (Peter Renshaw), Alarm Clock (H is for Home), Old Telephones (Dan Brady), Post-It Note (John Haydon), Magazine (Sean Winters).

The post There’s An App For That: 10 Household Items Replaced By Software [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Today’s Stuff to Watch features nothing but the most interesting visualisations I could find. As a species we’re suckers for statistics and numbers, but it’s amazing how little we can deduce from raw data without visual intervention.

From the size of the universe to birth and death rates, visualisations help us understand everything.

US Births & Deaths in Realtime

Fancy something to make you feel a little more mortal? Here’s a slightly unnerving realtime simulation of births and deaths in the US split by county. It’s important to remember that this is only a simulation, and so the frequency and locations of deaths and births are calculated from birth and death rates as well as random data.

This simulation is the work of Brad Lyon, who just wanted to “get a feel for the qualitative rhythm of births and deaths in the U.S”. You can mouse over each county to get more information or click it to perform a Google search of that location. This would make a great screensaver to remind your colleagues of the fragile nature of life and the (frequent) miracle of birth.

Perpetual Ocean

When it comes to cool-looking scientific things, NASA are on the whole are pretty good. In addition to a huge range of downloadable space apps and weeks worth of Stuff to Watch content, their Goddard Space Flight Centre are pretty good at visualising data, as seen in this Perpetual Ocean visualisation in 2011.

The short video presents a three-minute long look at the planet’s tidal patterns, in a stylised and rather beautiful manner. In addition to the YouTube embed above you can download the video in a variety of formats as well as some select huge screen grabs here.

US Wind Patterns

On a similar note to the NASA video above, two artists have created a stylised visual representation of wind patterns across the USA. Working under the joint name of Hint.FM, Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg created the tool to pull in fresh data every hour and display it on an interactive map.

You can view the realtime results or simply watch the video above, but the creators stress this is not an accurate scientific tool for flying planes, sailing boats or putting out fires. It’s quite pretty, though.

Every Documented Incoming Meteorite

Visualizing.org is a site that specialises in showcasing visualisations, unsurprisingly. In addition to infographics full of graphs and charts, video visualisations offer a highly accessible window into science, such as this visualisation of Earth meteorite strikes.

Since 2500BC 34,513 meteorites have been recorded as hitting Earth, though only 1,042 were witnessed. This video provides a clear overview of that history.

Stephen Hawking’s Lectures, Visualised

How do you visualise the words and thought patterns of an individual on a chart, graph or via a map? When it came to the work of Stephen Hawking, all Jared Ficklin could see was stars and so he turned the great physicist’s voice recordings into a visual representation of the night sky.

A little outlandish, a little interpretive but incredibly fitting; Jared provides a nice dry explanation at the start of the video, so click play and enjoy.

100,000 Stars

A great use of WebGL if ever I saw one, 100,000 stars is Google’s attempt at visualising the universe through the wonders of in-browser 3D rendering. If ever you needed a reminder of how tiny and insignificant we all are, this is it.

No really, keep zooming. And zooming. Eventually you will find our Earth, a tiny speck in a sea of nothing. These are the 100,000 nearest stars to our tiny patch of space; for reference there are 200-400 billion in the Milky Way alone.

Hans Rosling’s Visualisations

Hans is a professor of global health at the Korolinska Institute in Sweden, and he’s got a certain way with words.

Watch Hans Rosling as he takes us through the history of the developing world, and the progress made since 1963. Hans shows us how child mortality rates fall dramatically, global education standards improve and just how recent some of these developments really are.

The above video is actually a TED talk from 2010, and involves Hans using Ikea props to visualise global population growth and trends. There’s a certain charm about the mannerisms, wit and method behind this video, making it a personal favorite TED talk of mine.

Finally there’s the above video, titled “200 Countries, 200 Years in 4 Minutes” which uses 120,000 data points to map the health of 200 nations in two centuries. This video was in fact an outtake from a BBC show called The Joy of Stats, which you might enjoy if this sort of thing appeals to you.

Mapping Fame: Bruce Springsteen

Before the Internet and “going viral”, the only way to measure fame involved sales and event attendance. The more records and artist sold and the more people who came to the shows, the more popular the artist was perceived to be.

Here we have 40 years worth of Bruce Springsteen performances on a map of the USA along with album launches and performance attendances. It’s an interesting look at the performer’s career using the only data available, and it’s much nicer than finishing on a visualisation about how we’re all doomed.

If you have any favorite visualisations either in video or infographic form be sure to share them in the comments below!

The post Visualisations: Helping You Put Meaningless Data Into Perspective [Stuff to Watch] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

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. For the moment the service only works on Apple and Google’s mobile platforms and via a Web browser, either by logging in to Google+ and clicking on Hangouts or by downloading the Chrome extension.

The service is aimed at creating long-standing “conversations that last” according to Google, so chats are always kept up to date across devices, with chat histories stored unless you specify otherwise. That means you’ll have to turn off logging for each and every conversation you want to take off the record, as these logs are always enabled by default.

This launch sees Hangouts detach itself somewhat from Google+, the company’s social layer, though users will still need a Google+ enabled account. The new Hangouts has its own standalone apps and icon, but still relies on Google+ to connect with friends in circles and for use on a desktop PC.

The service joins an already busy marketplace for cross-platform messaging clients, with iOS devices connected for free over iMessage, Facebook chat more useful than ever thanks to “chat heads” and WhatsApp messenger continuing its domination of the SMS-replacements that bridge Android and iOS users.

Download: Google Hangouts for iPhone / Google Hangouts for Android / Google Hangouts for Chrome

Have you used the new service? Do you plan to?

Source: Official Google Blog

The post Google Launches Hangouts, A New Cross-Platform IM System for iOS, Android & Web [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The buzz behind AR seems to have died down somewhat but with Google’s Project Glass looming in the distance, the technology is bound to see a resurgence in popularity. How this will relate to gaming remains to be seen, but there are already a large variety of AR games to choose from regardless of your mobile OS.

I’ve spent some serious time over the past week putting some of the most popular implementations through their paces on my iPhone in the hope to find out if AR really is the future or not.

Probably Not

AR is exciting the first time you use it. The novelty factor takes a short while to wear off, even when you factor in the technology at work here. Take apps like Star Chart or Layar which take a live camera image and GPS information which the device then arranges using data from on-board sensors. It’s very impressive tech, but the concept is simple enough for almost anyone to understand.

How this translates to usefulness within standard apps varies. Finding a tube station in London is a heck of a lot easier thanks to Nearest Tube, but the aforementioned Layar never made much of an impression on me, particularly after it was updated to push interactive advertising. I don’t doubt that it’s an impressive feat of technology to have a magazine come to life on a small screen, it just doesn’t strike me as useful. How can reality really be augmented if those augmentations don’t improve upon what is already there in usable ways?

And just how useful are these apps? Why is waving my phone around trying to find something on-screen more useful to me than seeing everything in the nearby area with a simple pinch in my favourite Maps app? And then there’s gaming, and gamers themselves.

Gamers always seem to be heavily targeted when it comes to new technology. Take 3D for example; while many failed to be impressed by passive cinema 3D, marketers talked up the possibilities for 3D gaming. From personal experience I can say that interactive 3D is distracting enough to detract from the enjoyability of the game itself, and where possible I’ll turn it off. So are AR games destined for the same, lukewarm fate?

Possibly

From what I can see after tireless searching for the best and most unique AR games, there are a couple of catch-all categories under which most titles can easily be classified. There are those which I  will call “marker games” which require you to print a marker. These apps can identify and translate these print-outs into in-game objects which appear on your desk or floor. There are also the “accessory freemium” titles which rely on an accessory to properly work, though the apps themselves are free.

Finally there’s a slew of games which require neither a marker nor an accessory but instead rely on your real-world geographic location. I’m not sure these quite qualify as augmented reality, but they take the characteristics of your physical surroundings and do something a bit different with them. There are always exceptions of course, but the limitations of the technology are fairly visible without looking too hard.

Marker Games

Two of the most popular marker games on the App Store are AR Basketball and AR Defender 2, both of which use a marker which must be printed prior to playing. AR Basketball is the only game that requires a marker to play, with AR Defender 2 still functioning as a simple tower defence game if you’re not bothered about using your device’s camera. Both are also free to download, so you can grab them right now and (provided you have access to a printer) try out AR for free.

AR Basketball is probably the most accessible, and unsurprisingly the aim is to sink as many baskets as you can in the various game modes. While there are a couple of different modes (training, arcade action and classic), the only discernible difference I could see were optional power-ups, scoring rules and a timer. The app is faithful to its name, and will probably keep you busy for about 10 minutes.

That might sound scathing but it’s exactly what happened to me. If you’ve ever had a small indoor basketball hoop on your wall, you’ll probably be used to occasionally picking the ball up and throwing it across your room. It might be something you do with some degree of regularity, but you’re unlikely to sit there fixated for an hour on your own obsessively shooting hoops. AR Basketball is just like that.

It’s a fun initial experience, and the novelty of having a 3D virtual basketball hoop on your desk or the floor is pretty cool. Unfortunately if you’ve got a shaky grip from holding your arm out in mid-air to aim, small fluctuations in movement will spoil shots. It’s not a huge deal, but it does highlight one of the flaws of AR gaming (and one also experienced by devices like Microsoft’s Kinect) in that it’s not particularly forgiving. This can also partly be said for the technology itself. I appreciate there’s a lot going on here but regardless of how much light I bestow upon the marker, my basketball hoop still occasionally glitches out, flickers or disappears entirely. Things are a lot better than initial AR implementations, but it’s still not perfect and perfection is a way off yet.

The second title I’ve spent much of my week playing is AR Defender 2, a series so popular that developers clearly saw room for a sequel. Far more interesting than that, the original AR Defender was not free-to-play, did not come with in-app purchases and absolutely required the AR marker be printed in order to play.

AR Defender 2 turns virtually everything on its head: no marker is required, the app is loaded with in-app purchases and the game is free to download and play. What’s more, despite AR appearing in the name, this is an entirely optional AR experience. In fact, you will have to turn AR on rather than disabling it. This either means that AR is tough to market, or that developers simply don’t see the technology as being strong enough to carry a title alone. Maybe they asked themselves the question: who wants to buy a game where they then have to print something in order to play with no guarantee of how well the technology works in the first place?

I’d ask a similar question to the many app developers currently trying to sell their AR-powered wares in the App Store. The technology can vary wildly between “unique and refreshing” and “dull and buggy”, and I’m not sure I want to spend my own money finding out which apps are worth it.

AR Defender 2 is a truly fun game, and the AR implementation is the best I have ever seen. It’s not as glitchy as past examples, and for the few moments when I initially started playing I was really enjoying watching a battle unfold on my living room floor. The fact that you don’t have to play with AR means it’s still a title you can play on the train, though the developers include a small foldable marker in the PDF which is designed to fit inside your wallet for playing virtually anywhere.

One thing strikes me about AR Defender 2 though, and that’s how gimmicky the augmented reality option really is. It virtually adds nothing to the game, aside from drawing more power and requiring you move your phone around a bit. It’s nice to be able to do, but once you’ve done it a few times there’s not much reason to launch straight into AR mode when you can just play the game using traditional methods.

Accessory Freemiums

Apps that require accessories, or the dubiously named “appcessories” (shoot me if I ever use that term ever again) have long been a personal gripe. Augmented reality appears to have given accessory manufacturers a reason to go bonkers, releasing their apps for free but charging for the flimsy bits of plastic required to actually use them.

Two good examples are Foam Fighters and Doctor Who: Cleric Wars. Both are free to download and both are designed to be used with separate accessories. Each game allows you to play for free before actually spending money, though there’s little else to suggest that the idea here is to sell overpriced accessories.

Doctor Who: Cleric Wars is a simple first-person shooter that’s designed with a gun attachment in mind. As with any first person shooter that uses AR, the iPhone has no way to detect solid objects or distances. This means you will have daleks coming at you from inside your walls and other nearby solid objects, and unless you’re playing in the middle of a field or park things start to look a bit silly. It’s somewhat fun pointing your phone around like a gun, but it’s not exactly immersive.

The initial “demo level” as the game so elegantly flashes in the top right corner is just a wave of daleks that expire in one shot, approaching from all sides. This means the game is impossible to play sitting down without twisting around annoyingly, and instead requires you get up and move around a bit. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s not necessarily going to win over the lazy. The fact that you only get one level that lasts less than 10 minutes for free is fairly disappointing and the gameplay experience is unlikely to make you run out and buy the required accessory. It’s lukewarm, and the gun attachment doesn’t seem to add any discernible functionality whatsoever to the iPhone. It’s basically a piece of plastic with a 3.5mm jack that costs around £20 ($30). Ouch.

Foam Fighters takes a slightly different approach in that you don’t have to buy the accessories in order to play. The accessories in question are planes which stick on to the rear of your device and provide additional levels, as well as animating digital effects like gunfire and damage on top of the models. Yep, it looks ridiculous as you can see in the video below.

Foam Fighters allows you to play with a virtual plane, though you won’t get any extra levels or AR goodness. From my experience, the AR angle here is a bit stretched – the game is at its best when it drops you into a level rather than having you “fly around” your living room. The only indicator of movement in this instance are a few clouds to denote which directions you’re actually travelling in while the rest of the arena (read: your living room) stays as stationary as you do.

At its best Foam Fighters is a flight simulator that uses movement for controls, and there are plenty of those available on the App Store already. In fact you could probably buy 4 or 5 flight sims of that ilk for the price of one Foam Fighters accessory pack, and you’d probably get the option of which control method to use there too.

Tilting your arms and holding your phone in front of you is all well and good but within about 15 minutes I had a niggling ache from the unnatural position I was forced into holding the device. Would I buy an accessory to get more life out of the game? Not for Foam Fighters, and certainly not for Cleric Wars – there’s enough plastic rubbish filling up landfills already.

Everything Else

There are a plenty of other titles that label themselves as AR games, though that definition seems to vary considerably. There’s the popular AR Soccer which doesn’t need a marker or an accessory, instead using basic object tracking to play a game of keepy-uppy. There are games like GhostBusters Paranormal Blast which is a first person shooter similar to Cleric Wars except it costs $1.99 and does not require any accessories. These are fairly straight-forward games that are cheap and enjoyable.

Then there are location-based games, many of which are ongoing titles with more depth than any of the others mentioned thus far. I tried out one of the most popular offerings called Parallel Kingdom, a cross-platform MMO which uses your geographical location as a backdrop for a top-down RPG. The idea with many of these is to dominate your neck of the woods, but more often than not Parallel Kingdoms seemed lacking and gimmicky.

The map in the background is flat and lifeless, and uses no aerial photography. You can’t pinch to zoom, so finding your character can be tough. Aside from the familiarity of the street names and bend in the river, there’s virtually no “reality” in this augmented reality game. You can even walk right through rivers and oceans if they’re in the vicinity, making the map nothing more than a static canvas. I’m not sure this even qualifies as AR any more. Parallel Kingdoms is a satisfying little grind ‘em up for RPG fans and those interested in owning their real-world location. The depth here ticks all of the MMO boxes, but it’s not really augmented reality.

Similarly the previously quite successful Shadow Cities also uses this principle on a less-complicated scale. There are two teams to choose from before you are dropped into your own virtual locale where you must capture spirits with spells by scrawling on the screen. I found Shadow Cities to be a lot more satisfying with its simpler gameplay model, but was also left wondering where the A in AR had gone. These titles probably fall under their own category of location-based gaming, and at that they’re good examples.

So, Is AR The Future?

I don’t see it myself. I’m not writing off the genre, but the best implementation of AR I’ve seen in a game has been as an added optional extra. AR Defender 2 does it perfectly, providing the gimmicks when you want them and the core gameplay when you don’t. AR Soccer demonstrates another solid but simple implementation at the right price point, but don’t buy it if you don’t want to kick a virtual football around (obviously).

I don’t understand the market for apps that require accessories to use. It seems overly limiting in an age of “I want it now!” entertainment, and for the price of most accessories you could purchase 5, 10 or 20 other high quality games that will keep you happy for months. AR gaming is a gimmick, but one that is redeemable in the right context. Real-world usage in apps like Star Chart and Theodolite makes the technology shine and seem very useful indeed, and it’s here where the market is currently at its strongest.

To put it bluntly: if you want to be wowed by AR you should probably steer clear of all but a few AR games.

Do you have any AR favourites? What do you think of AR gaming in general? Give us your opinions in the comments, below.

The post AR Games: Is This The Future of Gaming? appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The best tool for the job has been freely available on the web since 2006. It’s so old that it requires Flash to use, but it has thousands of active users who comment, favorite and contribute color schemes every day. This tool is called Kuler, and it’s probably the best free product Adobe has ever released.

Read on to find out how you can use this tool in your next project, publication, or DIY escapade.

Kuler Shaker

In order to get the most out of Kuler, you’ll want to sign in with your Adobe ID. You might be surprised to learn you have an Adobe ID (I was); but if you’ve downloaded a recent trial or pre-release version of Photoshop or one of the other Creative Suite components then you will already have an account you can use. Once you’re logged in, you can save, contribute and add your thoughts on the various color schemes found therein.

Kuler uses themes comprising of five colors  Depending on the type of color scheme you would like, different rules govern which colors appear in each theme. These rules have not been created by Adobe, and instead fallback on a set of design principles that specifically relate to color. They are:

• Analogous: Create themes from similar colors which are adjacent on the color wheel.
• Monochromatic: Use one color as a base with additional colors suggested based on variation in the intensity and lightness of the base hue.
• Triad: Create a contrasting theme using a three-point color wheel selector.
• Complementary: Use two opposing colors on the color wheel to create a theme with complementary colors.
• Compound: Uses multiple hues to come up with fairly unexpected combinations.
• Shades: For a very subtle theme with small variations in the base hue’s shade.

It is also possible to throw the rules of color completely out of the window and choose Custom, which lets you add swatches in whichever order you want.

To create a theme hit the Create button and choose whether to create from an existing color or from an image. Image upload will basically reduce your image to its 5 most dominant colors. The uses for this are endless, and you can either choose to import directly from Flickr or upload from your PC. Once you’ve got your image uploaded, drag the various highlighted points around the image to isolate separate colors.

Creating a theme from a color is a fairly self explanatory affair, and also offers somewhat of a visual learning experience when it comes to the rules of color. First choose a base color and then a rule. You can drag individual points around on the color wheel and watch how each hue relates to the other. To save the theme, enter a title and a few tags then choose whether you’d like to share it publicly or keep it private. You can then make further changes without losing your original. Saved themes can be retrieved under the Mykuler menu entry.

Kuler makes it easy to get your colors out of the service too, and below each and every swatch are the HSV, RGB, CMYK, LAB and HEX values for each color. Whatever software you’re using – whether it’s Adobe branded or not – you’ll be able to put your themes to good use. If you are using Adobe software then there’s the option to download the Adobe Swatch Exchange file for importing into the software of your choice.

Color Me Surprised

In addition to creating your own color schemes with a helping hand from the various rules, you can also browse a huge range of color schemes contributed by the rest of the Kuler community. Under the Themes menu entry it is possible to sort through the best, most popular and newest submissions. You can add to your favorites with a click, or download the swatch file in a click. Another option next to each theme allows you to open and modify the theme to your liking. There’s a search option there for searching by tag, though this relies on the community’s ability to tag their creations.

It’s possible to rate, comment and favorite themes you come across, as well as subscribing to each category’s individual RSS feeds if you’re so inclined. The Community and Pulse sections are also worth exploring, with the former offering a spotlight on community members and their contributions.

Pulse is a little more advanced, providing a global overview of color usage on the Kuler service, though it could do with an update.

One thing worth mentioning here is that Kuler has started to feel a little neglected by Adobe. This is not to say that there aren’t active community members (there are) or new submissions (plenty every day), but that the free service could do with an update. While Adobe is bound to integrate Kuler into the newly announced Creative Cloud replacement for Creative Suite, the free tool is currently one big advert for the company’s services and I personally believe keeping the free version of Kuler running smoothly is not only good marketing but a great way for the company to offer something to the rest of us for free.

Visit: Adobe Kuler @ kuler.adobe.com

Conclusion

It’s clear that Kuler is a killer tool that will help you make sense of color schemes and learn more about how complementary, contrasting and other similar hues relate to each other on the color wheel. If you’re a bit hopeless when it comes to these decisions then Adobe Kuler will make life much easier. Despite being a bit old and rusty (and a reliance on Flash) the service is just as useful as it was from day one. I just hope that Adobe doesn’t make it a premium product in the future, update or not.

Have you used Kuler? What for? Are there any other great color pickers you use? Let us know what you think in the comments, below.

The post Find The Perfect Color Scheme Every Time With Adobe Kuler appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The culture and prevalence of tea and coffee throughout the world is an interesting topic and so is the history and science behind the beverages. We make no secret of our love for caffeine fixes here at MakeUseOf, and we’ve even gone as far as giving away a Bosch coffee machine, and that’s why today’s Stuff to Watch is best enjoyed with a hot drink of your choice.

I’ve managed to find 8 of the best tea and coffee themed videos on the web, so stick the kettle on and have a well-earned break while working through this list.

Tea Making Tips

In 1941 the British (and much of the world) was at war with Nazi Germany, but somehow they still managed to find time to make this public service announcement called “Tea Making Tips”. And who else but the British would create such a film? At just under 10 minutes long it’s a crash-course in making the perfect cup of tea.

The film has one main message – there’s no secret to making the perfect cup of tea, just a few pointers. At a time of war, massive loss and heavily rationed supplies making the most of what you had was an important part of life. If your tea-making skills leave little to be desired, watch this and become enlightened, 1940s-style.

Documentary: Tea and Coffee Society (Iran)

It would be wrong to assume it’s only the Commonwealth countries that drink tea on an almost religious scale, and another society that takes its tea very seriously is Iran. The film traces the route of coffee from the empire Iran once held to the first coffee plant exported to Brazil. The film isn’t heavy on dialogue, in fact there is no narration whatsoever.

Instead the film skips from one teahouse to the next, and offers an interesting glimpse into another culture’s love affair with hot beverages.

Epic Tea Time with Alan Rickman

As part of a series called Portraits in Dramatic Time by David Michalek, Alan Rickman of blockbuster fame (come on, Snape and the bad guy from the original Die Hard) is seen making a cup of tea and subsequently destroying it in dramatic slow motion.

The video series was initially created as part of a festival in 2011 and each was projected onto the Lincoln Center in New York City, though the whole series has yet to make it online. Come on David, let’s see the rest!

Coffee: The Greatest Addiction Ever

Believe it or not, coffee powers much of the Internet including this and many of your other favourite sites. While tea is the lubricant that keeps many of us working into the afternoon, without coffee mornings would probably be a write-off. I’m speaking for myself here, of course, but I’d like to drag a few others down with me.

If you’re also a coffee-lover by design, you’ll enjoy getting your fix in video form with this 3-minute long film that should teach you everything you need to know about nature’s best caffeinated beverage.

This is Coffee!

It was the English who made many of the first tea-themed public service films and who better to pay homage to coffee in similar form but America. This film was not just created by any old organisation – this is the work of the US Coffee Brewing Institute.

Released in 1961, this sepia-toned PSA is a celebration of the strong stuff. Best of all it’s free to download, keep or remix into your own projects as part of the Prelinger Archives, so grab it here.

How To Drink Tea or Coffee In Space

Remember Don Pettit? He was the astronaut who spent around 6 months on the International Space Station, filming various zero-gravity experiments and documenting the life of an astronaut in general. His footage was so good I put together a Don Pettit-themed Stuff to Watch, featuring a video which I’m going to show again – drinking coffee in space.

This method would work for both tea and coffee, though only coffee is shown here. Your coffee addiction looks a little more pedestrian if NASA’s not prepared to send its astronauts into space without some fresh ground inspiration.

Coffee Science

An incredibly sweet and entertaining look at the job of a barista, from deciding what a coffee should taste like to what to charge and how to best brew the coffee. If you weren’t aware of the incredible detail that goes into a fine cup of coffee, this 5-minute documentary is for you.

Tealand, A Tea Documentary

With a few simple tips you can brew the perfect cup of tea at home, so why would you want to go to a tearoom? This documentary takes a look at the revival of the tea house in Britain, exploring old pre-Victorian buildings to businesses who try to keep as much to the original ethos of a tearoom as possible.

Also featured is Manchester’s monthly music night run by DJ and producre Mr Scruff, an evening that plays trip hop, funk and breakbeat while selling tea to revellers and raising some money for charity at the same time.

Alt titles:

Team & Coffee Lovers Unite: 8 Videos For Caffeine-Addicts [Stuff to Watch]
Keep Calm and Make A Brew: 8 Videos Celebrating Tea & Coffee [Stuff to Watch]
Celebrate Your Tea & Coffee Addictions With These 8 Videos [Stuff to Watch]
Put The Kettle On & Celebrate Your Tea or Coffee Addiction With These Videos [Stuff to Watch]

The post Stick The Kettle On! 8 Videos That Celebrate Tea & Coffee [Stuff to Watch] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

One such app that produces fantastic results with relatively little skill is Crossfader, an app from DJZ that launched on the App Store at the beginning of April and has been “free for a limited time” ever since. If you’re a fan of the Kinect, Wii and natural interfaces in general then Crossfader it bound to put a silly grin on your face.

You’ll also look very silly, but that’s all part of the fun.

Twist & Mix

The first time I saw Crossfader in the App Store I completely overlooked it. At the time (and still to this day) I was besotted with iOS music apps, having discovered gems like NanoStudio and the expansive AudioBus with which I can compose music using nothing more than an iPhone and some earphones. Crossfader markets itself to everyone – not just DJs, or those with an interest in music apps. For that reason I discounted it as a toy and figured it would be full of in-app purchases for terrible music I didn’t like.

That was a mistake, and I’m glad I gave the app another go. This was cemented by the fact that I played with it for a straight hour on first launch, plugged it into my stereo amp and turned the volume up to levels that surely made me unfavourable with the neighbours. When my girlfriend arrived home from work, I was none the wiser until she was stood behind me wondering what I was doing and why I looked like I’d developed a physical disability in an afternoon.

After reassuring her I was simply blossoming into the musical prodigy I’d promised all along, I took a step back and reassessed my initial thoughts about Crossfader. To put it bluntly: it’s bloody brilliant. Why? Because it relies on your movement for nearly every control you have over the resultant music.

Tilting left and right controls the main crossfader, as you’d see on any mixer or other DJ app. Tilting forwards and backwards applies effects (upwards being a beat-splicing gate and downwards adding a touch of high-pass). The further you go with either of these tilts, the more radical the effect and sudden the change. Jerking your phone left and right will also play a sample while simultaneously switching tracks.

The only thing you’ll need your fingers for is flicking the red or blue tiles – which are essentially your “decks” – to change tracks. A quick double-tap brings up a complete list of included music, which you can re-order if you do so wish. There’s a pause button in the top left, and a record button in the top right for exporting your mix which can then be uploaded to SoundCloud. Oh, and it helps to have a good latency-free AirPlay connection, though I’ve been using a stereo cable with enough slack not to damage anything which also does the trick.

Superstar DJs… Here We Go!

The music is a mix of modern dance, commercial, dubstep and other club hits with the odd a capella and breaks tracks in there for good measure. At present (and I counted) there are 48 tracks included, of roughly 30 seconds each. Most contain a break and a drop, though as mentioned others are simply vocals or drum accompaniments, in particular the Amen Break has been included which spruces up any tired old club hit.

Some of the music left me disappointed, but this is subjective. I’m not a massive fan of club hits or commercial dubstep from the likes of Skrillex, of which there is plenty in the app. That said, there is enough music to placate most crowds, and adding more really shouldn’t be a problem for the developers thanks to the rather clever implementation.

By providing only short 30-second clips akin to an iTunes preview, DJZ have potentially solved the issue of requiring in-app purchase packs. They’ve also made this music very easy to mix by sorting out tempo, pitch and beat looping for you. Music builds and drops as it’s meant to, and the results are limited but professional-sounding transitions. Limited for the lack of musical variation and two sole effects, professional because it only requires a small amount of practice before you can produce seamless transitions and start to look very silly indeed.

There’s something about controlling music with physical movement that makes me want to move the rest of me as well. This isn’t a new thing, in fact there are apps like the rather expensive multi-touch synth TC-11 ($29.99) which uses movement to modify parameters, but nothing that provides such a user-friendly implementation. That said, the app is definitely best for creating mini-mixes in its current state.

A Few Final Thoughts 

After playing with Crossfader I soon realised that I’d seen this sort of thing before in the MIDI Fighter 3D, a MIDI controller for DJs and live electronic music performers. The MIDI Fighter range takes the robustness of arcade controllers and applies it to MIDI music-making, allowing you to trigger samples, effects and tracks with a punch of a button. The MIDI Fighter 3D builds on this with accelerometers and the like to build a controller you can twist and tilt. Crossfader takes this use of natural movement and puts it into an app (with admittedly far less scope) that anyone can enjoy.

The app has still not had an update beyond its initial release. In fact at the time of writing, it’s never even had a price. With that in mind there is plenty of room for improvement here, including the possibility of adding your own loops, changing which effects and samples are triggered and even adding a tilt-reactive video output for sending to a TV or projector. Above you will find a quick mix I threw together for the purpose of this review – it’s not exactly tight but it shows off the various functions and loops.

In its current state it’s a fun toy that tires slightly sooner than it should do. The developers are pushing the “DJ your own party” angle, and for that it needs to be updated with more music and customisation options. Grab it!

Download: Crossfader for iPhone & iPod Touch (Free)

Have you played with Crossfader? Are there any other similar apps you enjoy? Let us know what you think in the comments, below.

The post DJ App Crossfader for iPhone Uses Movement To Mix Music [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

It’s a rather simple operation, but one that requires a bit of testing to see how your content will look on a different platform. It doesn’t help that these are two remarkably different platforms, with WordPress making heavy use of categories which are replaced completely with tags in Blogger.

In order to see what will happen, I’ve put the import and export functions of both hosted blog services to the test. Read on to find out what I discovered.

Note: This procedure is for blogs specifically hosted on WordPress.com. While this might work for “normal” self-hosted WordPress.org blogs, it has not been tested (though if WordPress have got it right, both export and import functions should be identical).

In The Name Of Blogging

Due to the fact that I don’t currently have a blog of any length on either service, I chose to use the same two accounts I established for my recent comparison article. I realised I didn’t have much content, and so decided to create two separate posts on each platform (to accompany my Hello World entry) each with formatted, justified and bulleted text and the other with a remotely-hosted image and an image hosted on the service. I know the screenshot below specifically mentions videos, but they’re absent largely due to the fact that WordPress charges you for the privilege.

This should provide a good overview of the results, albeit on a much smaller scale than a busy blog that’s been worked on for years. On the WordPress side of things I created two categories, and left one post in the “Uncategorized” placeholder that WordPress creates when you sign up. For my Blogger posts I simply tagged them appropriately, and both sets of posts are identical on either service.

My plan was to export then nuke both blogs so that they are blank canvases, then import the counterpart backup and assess the results. Before exporting, my Blogger posts looked like this:

And WordPress, like this:

Exporting each blog is rather easy. Within Blogger’s main control panel, access the blog of your choice and head over to the Settings menu option, followed by the Other sub-menu. At the very top of the page you will see options to import, export or delete your blog. On clicking Export Blog, Blogger told me that it would create a file in the Blogger Atom export format and that I could use this to move to another service or simply have a backup on my local hard drive.

In WordPress this is a similar affair – head to the Tools menu and click Export. This is another point of sale for WordPress.com, who offer to help you move your blog to a self-hosted WordPress install for $129. You can also just click Export to grab your own local backup then choose whether you want all content, just posts, just pages or just feedback. According to WordPress this will work with another WordPress blog, but there is no mention of other platforms. We’ll see about that!

Blogger left me with a 133 KB .XML file, and WordPress.com produced an .XML file of 12 KB. According to WordPress, the file is not intended to be a full backup of my site. Frustratingly, WordPress.com doesn’t offer a clear backup solution that I could see from a good look around the admin menu. Does the $129 cover this?

Erase & Rewind

Both Blogger and WordPress.com have options for deletion, but as expected these involve the entire deletion of the blog including the domain and personal settings. WordPress advised me to contact support to clear my content, but seeing as I only had three posts anyway I chose to do it manually. This might be a problem for you if you have hundreds of posts across a couple of categories.

On each service I deleted all posts, all categories (on WordPress) and tags (on both) and left only the barebones – my blog’s name, a few settings I hadn’t changed and my domains remained in tact. This is essentially the same as registering and having a crisp new blog at your disposal. I then tried to import Blogger’s backup into WordPress.com and the WordPress backup into Blogger.

Blogger to WordPress.com

WordPress actually has an import from Blogger option which you can choose when you visit the Import menu under Tools. There are two ways of making the jump, either by authorising WordPress.com to access your Blogger account and migrate the content across for you, or by using the method I had prepared for in the form of an exported .XML database. There’s a maximum file size of 15 MB while using this upload method, so larger blogs will need to pair accounts.

I chose the 133 KB Blogger export file and clicked upload. The import happened instantly, and everything was in place by the time I clicked on Posts.

WordPress.com to Blogger

Blogger asked me for my Blogger export file, into which I fed it a WordPress.com export. After about five minutes watching a spinning GIF, I decided that things weren’t happening and tried again. Once again Blogger just sat there, telling me it was “writing blog posts” but each subsequent visit to my blog in a new tab showed no content. At no point was I given an error message, I just had to stare at the screen until I became too impatient to bother any more.

So I did a bit of searching and discovered WordPress2Blogger, a simple tool for converting the WordPress export file into a format that Blogger could understand. The only catch is that you can only use it for files that are less than a megabyte (in my case, I was fine). I fed it the WordPress file of 12 KB and it spat out a 5 KB .HTML file. I then gave this to Blogger, which imported my posts in a matter of seconds. Success!

The Results

Here is what Blogger did with my tiny converted WordPress file:

As you can see, it’s pretty much perfect. Categories, which do not exist in Blogger, have instead been added as labels (tags) which is somewhat useful.

This is what my formatted text post looks like, note the odd spacing:

And my image post, with only the remote image shown:

Both images work fine, though the hosted image is pointed at its location on the WordPress servers. Text resulted in some odd line breaks, though timestamps are all intact.

Here is what WordPress.com did with my 133 KB Blogger export file:

Not quite so good – tags are completely missing, instead they’ve been added as categories. I’d rather this be the opposite as mass categorising content is easier than mass-tagging. It will also create individual categories for every tag.

This is what a formatted text post looks like:

And the media post:

Again the hosted image is pointed at Blogger’s servers and hasn’t been locally imported. Timestamps are present and correct and text looks perfect.

Conclusions

To conclude, Blogger to WordPress results in perfectly formatted posts but tags are imported as categories and will require quite the cleanup if you have a lot of content. This is surprising considering WordPress.com has a dedicated tool for making the jump, and you’d expect it to know the difference between a tag and a category.

WordPress to Blogger seems to add some odd spacing in text posts, though images and timestamps survive in tact. This could have been because of the converter I used, but without that converter I wouldn’t have been able to import anything at all. If Google were to add a proper tool for importing from other platforms then they would probably have a lot of happy WordPress refugees who have reached the limits of their free account.

Neither solution is perfect. If you’re considering changing from one to the other I’d recommend you try it and see how your own content looks after the transfer. You won’t lose anything so long as you don’t delete your old blog until you’re happy with the new one, though you might find that you’ve got a lot of formatting to tidy and categories to delete, as well as tags to reapply in some instances.

Have you switched from one to the other? Did it go smoothly? What could WordPress or Google do to make you change your mind? Have your say in the comments below!

The post Blogger To WordPress, WordPress To Blogger – Switching Blogs Tested appeared first on MakeUseOf.

FEWDIO is a small studio that specialises in the horror genre. In this instance short horror films are a specialty, with more than 40 finished products viewable on their YouTube channel. By putting their hard work online, horror junkies like you and I can fill our pants as much as we like, for free!

Don’t look behind you while watching this shortlist of FEWDIO’s warped catalogue!

Bedfellows

At 2 minutes 47 seconds total including titles and credits, Bedfellows is the very definition of a short horror film. The concept could have been lifted right out of the “oh shi-” moment in a bid budget production for its incredibly tense reveal moment. Really, this is a spark of absolute genius that will make your skin crawl using visuals rather than atmosphere alone.

Bedfellows is the perfect FEWDIO film to watch first to get a taste for their unique brand of horror.

The Prey

When a wannabe gangster sees an old man headed to a pawn shop with a bag of gold jewellery, he has to tell his equally gang-affiliated friends. However when the three decide to take the old man for everything he’s got, things take a remarkably different turn to how they had imagined.

Conviction

Lovecraft fans rejoice, this is FEWDIO’s own tribute to the horror novelist. The production team have based the short on H. P. Lovecraft’s personal religious philosophy and a staple of horror films for years (and years to come): fear of the dark.

Ninja Clown Monster

With a name like Ninja Clown Monster, how can this short not be included? A must for anyone who read the Goosebumps series of books as a child or who fondly remembers Chucky’s murderous tendencies, this is one Childs Play-inspired short scene you probably won’t want to show your kids.

Show Me

Is there anything more terrifying than a lifeless doll? Probably, but dolls carry that lifeless, glassy-eyed look that has been celebrated by horror filmmakers for years now. Show Me is considerably longer than FEWDIO’s past films at nearly 13 minutes long, though that’s not to say it departs from the unsettling feeling so many of their videos generate.

Road Rage

Another slightly longer short at just under 10 minutes total, Road Rage might make you think twice about losing your temper while behind the wheel. As you’d expect from a film that uses anger as its catalyst there is liberal use of hand gestures and strong language. This is one incredibly effective short that gets the blood pumping in bright sunshine in a busy city.

Neighbours

Not the Australian TV series but another (seemingly normal at first) short from the scare factory themselves. There’s a very light sense of humour with a touch of menace here, generating a burning curiosity in the viewer which is in turn extinguished by the rather clever ending

O.C.D.

A girl who suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder decides to give Internet dating a go. The results are, as expected, unexpected. The film treads very carefully around the subject of O.C.D. before culminating in a suitably mind-blowing finale. Really… I’m just… what?

Cleansed

A short that wallows in the horror film staple that is blood. Lots and lots of blood. Probably best avoid this one if you don’t like (you guessed it) blood. The film takes the resulting mess of most thrillers and chillers – the crime scene – and turns it into a horror film of its own with some excellent special effects (and blood).

Meet the FEWDIO Team

If you’ve read this far and have become somewhat of a fan of the team who brought you these short movies then the video above, shot at Comic Con 2009, shines some light on the warped imaginations behind the horror. Seeing as it’s a few years old there’s no reference to the newer films like Road Rage or Show Me, but it’s an interesting chat nonetheless.

The Rest

You can check out even more short horror at the FEWDIO YouTube channel where you can subscribe to be kept in the loop about new uploads and trailers for upcoming releases. The team also has an official website, though at the time of writing it’s scheduled to be completely overhauled.

Let’s hope this promising young production company continues to make some of the best indie short horror on the web, Personally, I can’t wait for the next upload.

Have you seen any FEWDIO films? Any other similar studios specialising in chilling short horror? Leave a comment below this post and let us know what you think.

The post Void Your Bowels With Terror Thanks To FEWDIO’s Short Horror [Stuff to Watch] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The tool is available in the form of a free iPhone app and as a web app that works in a standard desktop browser. Both the web and mobile versions feature the same functionality, so it’s time to find out whether the service is the powerful discovery tool that many of us have been hoping for.

Hashtag Music

The new #music service splits its expertise into four main sections on both the iOS and browser version – Popular, Emerging, Suggested and an area called #NowPlaying. On the iOS app, swiping left and right will move between these sections and in the web app users can simply hover the menu button in the top left corner – this should work a treat on touchscreens.

Popular artists are taken from Twitter activity site-wide, and it’s there you will find an overwhelming amount of commercial music. If you’re into more obscure sounds then you probably won’t spend too long here, but it’s still nice to get an up-to-date picture of what the micro-blogging community is currently listening to.

The Emerging section is designed to showcase so-called “hidden” talent, somehow extrapolated from Tweets. From what I’ve read on Twitter’s side, this list is mostly assembled from the #NowPlaying hashtag, something I’ll be getting to a little later in the review. It works fairly well, though some of the suggestions on this list aren’t as new as I’d perhaps like: established artists like The Gaslight Anthem appear next to truly obscure, non-verified accounts each time I have used the service.

The Suggested section takes artists you are following on Twitter and finds other similar artists based on these findings. It works, but you’ll need to follow enough artists to get a decent amount of suggestions. As someone who hasn’t really used Twitter to keep up with musicians, I found the few artists I was following when I started using the service produced some truly random results.

#NowPlaying is essentially a method of sharing music across the service. On both mobile and browser apps this features songs in Tweets tagged with the #NowPlaying hashtag from your feed, but its site-wide usage runs a little deeper. For artists the #NowPlaying hashtag is more than just a way to share your music, it’s how Twitter decides whether your band appears on the service or not. Artists wondering why they’re not recognised clearly need to Tweet more (and I’m sure Twitter would love that).

Unsurprisingly, Twitter #music requires you have a Twitter account, just like recent video venture Vine. Much like Twitter itself, #music also has an area for your personal profile. Here you can see recognised artists you follow and jump straight to their profiles. I found it slightly disappointing to only have the big artists I follow appear on this page, but that’s where the #NowPlaying tag comes in. It’s a clever way for Twitter to get artists sending out updates and music as the social network tries to make itself the new go-to for socially-inclined music fans.

Tapping an artist will take you to their profile and give you the opportunity to follow them on Twitter as well as seeing who they follow. This is billed as a great way to discover similar music, but it does rather depend on the artists ability to follow relevant artists. Some don’t, and this throws #music off the scent a little but it’s a nice way of passing on recommendations (in theory).

Streaming via Spotify & Rdio

In addition to 30-second previews of tracks that are pulled from iTunes, along with a link to buy, #music integrates streaming from both Spotify and Rdio. Connecting my Spotify account was a painless affair, and on the mobile side of things allowed me to play music from Spotify within the #music app. On the desktop there is no web streaming, and (for Spotify at least) users must have the desktop app open on their desktop. The play link will then trigger the loading of a song on Spotify in the background.

This is an ideal solution for using Twitter’s vast number of Tweets and baked-in discovery tools to listen to full-tracks on a service many users actually pay for. Occasionally something will go wrong when the song isn’t available on Spotify, and in this instance the 30-second iTunes clip won’t play either. This results in an error message about the song not being available which is a small bug, but one that the developers should probably fix soon.

I can’t vouch for Rdio but Spotify integration left me wanting more, particularly on the mobile side of things. When you listen to a song, and it plays in the #music app, there’s actually no way of saving that track with out exiting the app, opening Spotify, searching for it, and adding it to a playlist. The quickest way of “saving” a track is to actually Tweet it, a solution I didn’t find ideal. On the desktop this was less of an issue due to Spotify’s reliance on a desktop client. If #music created a playlist called “Liked from #music” in Spotify then I could sort out my saved tracks at a later point and I’d be quite happy.

In Conclusion

Twitter’s new #music experiment is a bold leap forward into territory that’s already familiar to the social network. Many fans follow their favourite bands and artists on Twitter to get up-to-date information, remixes and tour details. Twitter also provides a way for fans to connect on a slightly more personal level with their favourite musicians.

#music rolls this into one neat, discovery package and once more artists start using the #NowPlaying tag then the already bustling service will feel a lot busier. Spotify and Rdio integration makes it the perfect accompaniment for users of these services, though a method of saving songs required to make it a truly useful partnership.

Twitter has done well to launch the service with so much momentum and it’s well worth checking out, particularly if you use Spotify or Rdio. Android users look out for an app “soon”, according to Twitter.

Download/Visit: Twitter #music for iPhone at the App Store / Twitter Music Desktop

Have you tried Twitter #music? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Discover New Music With Twitter #music for Desktop & iPhone [Web & iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

I had to change a few ingredients out of necessity and others out of sheer curiosity. What I ended up with is a slightly easier to use yet still ultimately hobbyist toy for iPhone photographers with nimble fingers and patience. Total cost? $4.50 for a magnifying glass and some duct tape – things you might already have around the house.

Intrigued? Let’s begin!

Things You Will Need for Your Phone Projector

In order to make an iPhone (or any smartphone) projector you will need the following items:

• Two boxes, one slightly smaller than the other.
• A magnifying glass.
• A method of standing your phone upright.
• Black (or dark) duct tape, pencil and a craft knife or other sharp cutting object.
• A copy of the Yellow Pages (or foam mat, or other cutting surface).
• Patience.

The original brief only used one box. What I did differently was to use two – two tissue boxes to be exact – with one slightly smaller than the other, so that it can fit inside. Seeing as tissue boxes are usually very similar in depth, you should be able to find two competing brands with slightly differing widths. This works for any box, as long as it’s a fairly snug fit you will be fine.

My reasoning? The original shoebox projector has a rather dismal minimum focusing distance, which means you can’t use it effectively over a short range. Projectors aren’t necessarily designed to be used in such a manner, so this might not seem like a problem at first. However: the further the projector is from a surface, the wider the spread of light becomes. This means that big projections will be very dark in anything other than pitch darkness. Another drawback is that focusing is done by moving the iPhone itself, a fairly fiddly procedure that involves opening up the box. So in order to get more “depth” out of my projector I decided to use two boxes, so that I could move the lens toward and away from the iPhone in order to focus.

By doing this I actually gained a couple of meters in usability. The resulting projector is longer than most shoeboxes, and while it was a more fiddly construction I think the end results are better given the time invested. Again, you might not have all the materials but ideally are willing to experiment and make-do with what you have around the house. The idea here is to be thrifty and spend as little as possible for the simple fact that spending more money on such a crude construction is not going to yield much of an improvement in the results.

In fact, the results aren’t that great but I still had fun making and using it. If you’re impatient or just want to know how things went you can skip to the end for the finished product. Otherwise, let’s begin!

Method/Madness

The first thing I did was take the smaller box and mark out the circumference of the magnifying glass on it using a pencil. I could only find a huge magnifying glass at my local “mostly $2″ store, and the handle isn’t removable without force so I left it on and made it fit as best I could. This actually helps focus the finish product too.

To ensure that the smaller box would continue to fit I made sure the bottom of the magnifying glass was flush with the bottom of the box.

Next I cut out the circle I had marked roughly with a craft knife. Take care here, you want to score inside the circle so that the magnifying glass squeezes into the hole evenly, rather than being too loose.

Once I’d cut the hole I put a few loose pieces of duct tape on the magnifying glass to make fixing easier. Duct tape has the benefit of being very stretchy, which makes it very easy to manipulate.

Magnifying glass loosely in place I taped the remaining edges to seal any holes that light might escape through.

Next I took the big box and unfolded the flaps from one end. I did the same to the small box, except I completely removed the flaps rather than just undoing them. Leaving them in place on the larger box until the end is definitely a good idea.

At this stage I decided it was time to make the inside of the box dark so that light wouldn’t bounce around and detract from the image on the wall. The initial plan was to use black tissue paper (as per the ingredients above), but I soon realised what a mistake I had made and gave up. A matte spray paint would work great here, but they’re at least $4 and I spent $2 on 25 metres of duct tape so I decided to use that instead.

Laying the duct tape in strips was fairly easy, if a little time-consuming. I did this to the entirety of the smaller box and the rear section of the larger box. The result was a very sturdy end product with added friction from the duct tape making a welcome addition to my focusing mechanism, though it wasn’t quite as matte as it could have been for my liking.

Finally it was time to put the phone in place for a quick test. You could use anything from a makeshift paper stand to a paperclip or even blue tack here, but I was lucky enough to have a box ever so slightly smaller than the width of my iPhone 5. This meant I could improve even further on the original projector with a slot into which I could easily slide the phone.

I put everything in place and tested the projector, and then marked where the phone sat best using pencil. I drew a line across the top of the box and made sure it lined up on both sides (so the phone didn’t sit at an angle). I then cut two thin strips slightly thinner than my phone in its case, and popped them out. At this stage the duct tape inside the box helped steady the cut.

I was left with a near-perfect fit that allows me to slide the phone in and out, with easy access to power and headphone connectors.

The iPhone will always correct the perspective when placed “upside down” but in order to project an image you will need your source image to be inverted. This is because the lens on the magnifying glass will invert the image.

There’s a fix for that – Settings > General > Accessibility and turn Assistive Touch on. Now you’ll get a little white dot you can move around the screen. Tap it, choose Device then Rotate Screen and rotate the screen so that it is upside when you place it in your projector. Finally head over to Settings > Brightness & Wallpaper and turn off Auto-Brightness while jacking the brightness of your screen up to the maximum setting.

I put the two boxes together, and folded the flaps on the larger box inwards to create a tight seal. The hole at the top can be covered with card or similar if you want, though you will need some way of using the phone while it is in position.

Results

Unsurprisingly the image quality isn’t great. There are no sophisticated optics or powerful lamps at play here, and while my phone’s screen seems incredibly bright at maximum brightness it only makes a small dent in a dimly-lit room. I have slightly off-white walls which didn’t do wonders for the image, though in pitch darkness visibility was good.

The best results came in the form of a white sheet, as you can see above. I absolutely had to head over to Archive.org and find some black and white stock footage – it felt right. I also tried some safari images from a recent trip to South Africa, but video gave me the best results.

It’s not as if the image quality of a moving image is any better than a still image, but it’s the novelty of being able to project a moving image onto something that got me. This is the way amateur and professional filmmakers of years gone by would review reels of film, in dark rooms with flickering images. The ability to project a moving image onto my wall somehow made the whole procedure and any disappointment involved worth it, and the grain only added to the novelty.

Would I recommend you create your own phone projector? Probably, yes. If you want a cheap projector you can only use at night that produces grainy, slightly out of focus images then this is the perfect project for you. It was never going to be perfect, but there’s a certain amount of charm involved here. I’ve had a longstanding goal of filming something professional-looking on my iPhone and now I know exactly what I’m going to watch it on when the time comes.

Massive props to Photojojo for the original concept.

Have you made anything similar? Are you going to give this one a try? Let us know what you thought of this in the comments, below.

The post How I Built A Projector For My Phone appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Google Now makes use of users’ search history, as well as other criteria like location, to deliver relevant information such as traffic conditions, weather and favorite sports team results. In order to use the smarter “passive” suggestions from Google Now, users must enable search history on their accounts, something many will have turned off last year due to privacy concerns regarding the storage of such data.

Information on Google Now is displayed in the form of cards, accessed by swiping up from the app’s main search interface. Dismiss a card by swiping left or right and Now will start to learn what information you value and what you’d like to see less of. Location information is gathered in order to show weather conditions but also quick access to Google Translate, currency conversion and time differences while abroad.

For users who have search history enabled, Google Now will serve up some interesting suggestions. It can help you find your way home according to traffic conditions, check the status of your upcoming flight or get news updates for stories you’ve already read — all without requiring any action on your part. According to Google, the more you use Now the better it gets, and from experience, if you don’t have search history enabled, the feature is far less useful.

Some users are reporting that due to a reliance on GPS, the app is causing excessive battery drain on iOS devices, though turning off Location Reporting under the app’s settings (accessed via the cog icon) apparently solves this by restricting GPS usage to only when the app is active.

The update unifies Google’s iOS Search line-up which already includes Goggles for searching using your device’s camera, voice searching similar to Siri, and quick access to some of Google’s most oft-used services in a couple of taps. It’s already live on the App Store, so update or download the app now.

Download: Google Search for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch @ App Store (Free)

Source: Official Google Blog

The post Google Search For iOS Updates, Brings Google Now To Your iPhone, iPad, Or iPod Touch [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

With recent political tensions reaching levels not seen since the end of the Korean War, it’s once again time to turn the Stuff to Watch lens toward a country many people still know relatively little about. This week’s video post has documentaries, undercover filming and even some footage propagated by North Korea itself.

DPRK: Land of Whispers

Just short of an hour long and posted on YouTube as recently as March 2013, this is another film created by a visitor to North Korea. It’s very much a one-man documentary, and unsurprisingly contains footage of all the usual monuments, museums and mass-games known as Arirang. One thing that does make it a little different to usual though is the footage of some less-documented parts of the country including Chongjin and Wonson.

At times I feel filmmaker oversteps the mark a little when it comes to repeatedly filming when asked not to, but only because it’s often reported that the guides and security members are punished for allowing such activity. The film does a good job of showing off some very human aspects, such as the train journey at the start of the film, while constantly reminding you what makes North Korea so isolationist in its foreign policy.

Al Jazeera: What’s behind the North Korean crisis?

Al Jazeera is a reliable source of news and insightful discussion, with one such current affairs program called The Stream recently turning its attention toward the North Korean situation. This documentary asks questions regarding the recent flaring up of tensions between North Korea and the US-backed south.

There’s little in the way of “exclusive footage” but there’s plenty of discussion and insight into what makes the country tick. Most interesting are the accounts of North Korean refugees who have fled the country when asked whether or not they believe the threat of war, which is used as a tool against the population on an almost daily basis.

Danny From North Korea

Absolute must-watch stuff for DPRK nerds and non-nerds alike, Danny From North Korea tells the story of one refugee who fled the country in 2005. Not only is this one of the most interesting videos on the whole of YouTube but it’s also incredibly well-executed.

The film is the work of on aid organisation called Liberty in North Korea who gain access and offer support to refugees like Danny. You’re already wasting time reading this when you can click the play button above. You won’t regret it.

Voice of North Korea Radio

I’m bending the rules here a little, but this is simply too good to leave out of a North Korea article. The Voice of North Korea is the country’s English-language shortwave radio station, with this particular recording made as recently as April 2013. Yes, it’s just radio, there’s no image and the quality is poor – but it’s still very interesting.

The broadcast was recorded in Melbourne, Australia on the 13650kHz frequency. This was originally a full hour-long broadcast but the music has been edited out for length – it’s still interesting, though. The uploader appears to be following the situation as a radio enthusiast and you can find more recordings like this on the AusRadioHistorian channel.=

Footage of North Korea from 2012

Here are two short 15-minute films shot in 2012 showing some of the conditions inside the country. Don’t expect covert filming from a team of undercover journalists though, each of these videos was shot with guides present and aware. That means that most of what you see is what you are meant to see, and that’s relatively normal looking towns and villages.

It is quite difficult to disguise poverty, a food shortage and political crisis though, and even from these short rushes it’s evident life is far from normal in the country.

Alleged North Korean Propaganda

From the same YouTube user who uploaded the videos above comes some very interesting propaganda, apparently originating from North Korea. I only say apparently because there’s technically no evidence these are definitely North Korean in origin, but I wouldn’t be surprised considering the contents, language and accent.

Frustratingly I found myself agreeing with the video about the culture surrounding reality TV above. Very little North Korea has to say about such culture is hard to refute, something many commenters found too. Other docs include a two-minute condemnation of video games and WWE wrestling as well as the use of children in western advertising (below).

Check out even more at the stiofandebrun channel.

North Korea’s Markets

Hidden video footage from within North Korea of the apparently non-existent free markets that supply much of the population with food. This video was originally taken in the mid-2000s and so is not necessarily representative of the current situation, but for markets that (according to the government) do not exist they seem pretty popular.

VICE: North Korea Film Madness

Not a new documentary, or a recent one for that matter. This three-parter from VICE was shot on their past (and probably last) trip to North Korea in which they bribed officials to gain access to the country. This time they’re focusing on one of Kim Jong Il’s most favoured hobbies: film-making.

By some incredible feat (paying a respectful tribute to the Great Leader Kim Il Sung) VICE founder Shane Smith manages to get some limited access to Pyongyang’s only film studio. There’s definitely some repetition in here if you’ve seen VICE’s other coverage, but it’s still worth watching – as are many VICE documentaries.

That’s it for this round of North Korea documentaries. As the political situation continues to stew and the people continue to starve it’s a sure-thing that more films will emerge and hopefully in a few months there will be even more films and possibly even a glimpse at a resolve for the cold war raging on the Korean peninsula.

Do you have any favourite DPRK documentaries or videos? Share your thought and favourites in the comments, below.

The post Praise The Supreme Leader! More North Korea Documentaries & Videos [Stuff to Watch] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Also included in the update are a set of new icons and support for 14 new languages. The new version is already live in the Mac App Store and finally looks the part on Apple’s latest line of MacBook Pros with Retina displays. The update comes only a month after Twitter brought its TweetDeck app for Mac and Windows into line with the popular Web version.

Here is what the app looks like now, compared to the previous, 2-years-old version:

The update might seem barely noticeable, but makes a world of difference on a Retina display, finally replacing blurry text with crisp Retina font rendering. Unfortunately, Twitter has still not implemented support for Mountain Lion’s Notification Center, a feature which itself includes a Tweet button once paired with a Twitter account.

The New Tweet box, where you can compose new tweets, can be opened multiple times and also includes a dedicated button for attaching images, rather than the drag and drop approach it previously used.

The update is very much welcome and is hopefully indicative of Twitter’s intentions to better maintain its official clients, particularly since introducing API limits for third-party applications which have hindered app development on all operating systems.

Download: Twitter for Mac @ Mac App Store

Do you use Twitter for Mac or does the website suffice?

Source: Twitter Blog

The post Twitter’s Official Mac Client Gets Its First Update Since 2011 [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Installing such software on Android or BlackBerry devices is morally reprehensible but not quite as damaging as doing so on an iPhone. This is due to the walled garden approach that Apple takes, something the majority of iPhone users take at face value.

Installing iPhone spy software requires you breach this fortress-like security – and that’s just the start of the problems.

A Legitimate Use?

Spy software, by its very nature, is designed to snoop on people. It is for this reason that anyone reading this who is contemplating installing such software probably doesn’t care what I have to say about any aspect of doing so. Clearly if you’re thinking of doing this, morals are not your strongpoint and you’ve probably already ethically justified it in your head. I’d urge you to reconsider this standpoint, but it’s probably a battle I’m going to lose.

Much of this software is marketed in a very broad way. Not only is it advertised to snoopers who want to track the location of an individual or spy on someone’s smartphone usage but it’s also marketed as a legitimate security tool. This is complete rubbish, and will form the backbone of this article. If I can’t change the minds of those who deem such a practice necessary in the first place then I can try to redress the balance for those drawn in by dishonest marketers.

Parents – do not use this software to trace your children. There are free and safe ways of doing this which I will come to at the end of the article. Some marketers even try to target employers and so I must say employers – do not use this software to spy on your workforce. If you’re an employer who feels they need to be concerned about smartphone security then you shouldn’t be allowing non-company devices in the workplace. Period.

Warranty, We Hardly Knew Ye

There is no spy software on the market that will be able to do all it promises – i.e. spy on any activity, trace any location or upload any camera images – without voiding the device’s warranty. Parents installing such software will be voiding their children’s warranty on that device. Paranoid other-halves will be voiding their spouse’s warranties also, and this goes for employers too. Why? Jailbreaking.

Apple takes a hardline approach to security. The iPhone is not designed to run non-App Store software, this is seen as a security violation by Apple, as a restriction by some users and a safety net by others. Android does things differently – unchecking a box in settings allows the installation of non-Google Play apps, and it’s just as easily reversible.

Not so for iOS devices. These devices must go through what is known as a jailbreak, which involves loading custom firmware onto the device which provides greater freedom, allowing users to run all sorts of unsigned software on the device. Spy software is always unsigned for two reasons – it would never be able to perform its spying duties as a standard app due to iOS permissions and Apple would never allow it in the App Store in the first place. Many people don’t realise it but with some preparation a jailbreak can take a matter of minutes to complete.

When you choose to jailbreak an iPhone you are voiding your warranty by running modified firmware on the device. It will also void any AppleCare after-sales packages you have taken on. This is fine if it’s your own iPhone, and you understand the risks involved in doing so. Jailbreaking your device is generally a very safe operation, and even a jailbreak gone wrong is unlikely to “brick” your iPhone. It’s the jailbroken firmware you’re left with that poses the biggest security risk.

Jailbroken phones are able to run unsigned apps and this includes potential malware. If the root SSH password remains unchanged once the jailbreak is complete, malware could run riot on your phone and with no Apple guardians to oversee software, you have to rely on third-party developers to be the judge and jury. If you think about it, spy software is malware by design but marketed as valid software.

iPhones and other iOS devices that have been jailbroken are also often unable to run some genuine App Store apps. Developers have ways of detecting a jailbreak and can now prevent jailbroken devices from using their services. One example would be DIRECTV which delivers streaming video and another reported app is Skype for iOS. Many banking apps are also restricted for obvious reasons, two examples being CommBank and Kaching from Australia’s Commonwealth Bank. Getting these apps working again involves playing a game of cat and mouse between developers and the jailbreak community.

For the unsuspecting jailbroken victim, apps like these will flatly refuse to run as they won’t be installing the latest exploits to circumvent the restriction.

Detecting Spy Software

There’s actually no guarantee you’ll be able to find evidence of the spy software itself, as such software is designed to be hidden from view. Instead there may be a few left over telltale signs of a jailbreak, and if you find them and but have not performed a jailbreak yourself then you can pretty much guarantee someone’s designated you as a mark. If your partner or parent has jailbroken your device for you then it doesn’t mean you’re being spied upon, but it will be difficult to prove otherwise without reverting to stock firmware.

One sign of a jailbreak is the Cydia app. Even if this app has been hidden from the home screen, searching for it (swipe left-to-right on your first home screen) should still find it. First go to Settings > General > Spotlight and ensure that Applications is ticked. Then search for Cydia from your homescreen and if the application is there, your phone is jailbroken.

There is no guarantee of finding Cydia, and the careful snooper will probably try all they can to hide any signs of a jailbreak. Other apps to search for that might suggest a jailbreak include “Installer”, “Icy”, “SBSettings” and “Installous”. Similarly, installing an app like those mentioned above might reveal something is up if they refuse to run.

Removing The Software

Because jailbreaking is a game of cat and mouse played between Apple and those who choose to jailbreak, the latest and greatest iOS firmware won’t always be jailbreak compatible. Keeping your phone up to date and performing all iOS updates as and when your iPhone notifies you about them is the best way to remain secure. Eventually iOS versions will be jailbroken and at this stage removal is surprisingly easy.

According to many jailbreaking communities, reverting your phone back to stock Apple firmware does the trick. Myself I’m not so sure Apple isn’t noting down the unique identification numbers (UDIDs) of jailbroken devices via the App Store, but it would seem restoring your phone “as new” will remove all traces of a jailbreak.

For those of you convinced you’re being traced this is as simple as plugging your phone into iTunes and choosing Restore. If you choose to revert to a backup, there’s a chance some evidence of the jailbreak will be retained and if your phone needs attention from Apple (either as part of a 12-month warranty or the extended AppleCare package) then you will be denied service. For this reason, be sure to back up everything you want separately and transfer purchases within iTunes.

Parents Listen Up

There is a free alternative to spy software for parents who are concerned about the whereabouts of their children. Find My Friends works across Apple devices and uses Apple IDs to connect friends and family. By authorising a friend or family member to view your location in Find My Friends, they will be able to see where you are whenever they like. Creepy? You bet.

Find My Friends can be customised to prevent the location being displayed on the transmitting device. This is due to the fact that it is not spy software, but a tool for staying in touch. It gives the user a choice over whether to reveal their location at all times and it does none of the snooping on text messages, phone calls or camera photos. Using Find My Friends doesn’t teach your children that spying on people is the right thing to do, and instead pressures you to enforce basic smartphone safety and talk to your children about why you want to use such a service.

If you’re worried about your children’s uncanny ability to lose things then remember to enable Find My iPhone, a similar service accessible via iCloud. For as long as the phone is left in the same state it was when it was lost it will be traceable using Apple’s own plan B.

This isn’t a lesson in parenting, but a lesson in ethics and trust. It’s also a lesson in not being ripped-off by marketers trying to sell you a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Take a close look at the FAQs and you’ll see the requirement for a jailbreak quietly mentioned, behind advertising phrases like “completely undetectable”.

Finally

All software that promises to spy on an iPhone requires a jailbreak. Some do not mention it in their marketing speak, but it’s a requirement and for as long as Apple maintains its iron grip it always will be. Many of these packages are not one-off payments but subscription models that require a minimum term, which quickly adds up.

Be smart, be safe, be honest and don’t get ripped off. If you have any questions about your iPhone’s safety, spy software or alternative apps for other platforms then don’t forget to ask MakeUseOf Answers.

Have you had any experience with such iPhone spy software? Have you been on the receiving end? Have you ever installed or trialled a service? Is Find My Friends good enough? Get out the soapbox and have your say in the comments, below.

Intro image: Man in Hat Vector (Shutterstock)

The post The Dangers of iPhone Spy Software & How To Detect It [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.