Phones have gone through an incredible evolution over the past few years. Besides serving as mobile phone and a tiny window into the world wide web, the modern smartphone accommodates a multitude of tools. The things you can do with a smartphone are limited only by the imagination. Admittedly, fantasies typically aren’t realistic, but there are a lot of devices you can really replace with your Android smartphone.

Almost nothing that you buy is a one time investment. Most things have follow-up costs for maintenance or just for plain being used. With computers these costs are small and easily neglected, but depending on your needs they can add up to substantial amounts nevertheless. Since you can’t manage what you don’t measure, let us [...]

While there are several ways to find stuff on Facebook, they are all but comprehensive or reliable. This situation also forces you to spend even more time on Facebook, increasing the likelihood that you will get distracted. One way to increase your chances of finding something and thus waste less time, is to enable Facebook email notifications. As I explore the benefits of email notifications, I will also show you other ways to search Facebook.

Don’t be surprised if this week’s Sound Sunday sounds slightly Spanish. You may also detect some Russian, Croatian, Latvian, and Japanese. This edition is entirely dedicated to foreign languages and a broad mix of genres. Note that name your price albums can be downloaded for free by entering 0 in the price field. That said, we strongly recommend you to donate a few dollars for music you enjoy!

It only takes Google’s thousands of servers half a second to query approximately 50 billion indexed pages, it takes you significantly longer to scan only the first page of search results. On top of that, you are likely to digress and open irrelevant sites. Why don’t you do your constantly distracted and easily overwhelmed brain a huge favor and learn how to properly construct a search?

It happens all the time. People forget their password, accounts get hacked, or Facebook decides they have violated the Terms of Service and bans them. And when they try to recover their account, they realize that phone numbers or email addresses they once provided for a potential security check are long out of date. So what can they do to recover their Facebook account?

Last week I invited you to a MakeUseOf Hangout. This past Friday, six loyal readers joined me and contributed to a great conversation around MakeUseOf and technology in general. We received a lot of valuable feedback from this chat. Moreover, participants seemed to really enjoy to talk tech with fellow-minded people, which was also reflected in their comments after the Hangout was finished.

Your typical edition of Sound Sunday lulls you in with easy to digest albums and gradually eases you into more challenging and unconventional material. This week we turn the order upside down and start close to where we left last week; with metal and hard rock. A great edition to let off some steam and then drift into calmer rock genres; with alternative, indie rock and post rock.

Electronics make up a significant portion of your household energy costs. Computers, printers, and WiFi routers alone account for around 25% of your electricity bill. While electronics are becoming more efficient, their increased use offsets the gains. At the same time energy prices are rising. There are a number of things you can do to control your energy bill and none of them cost you any money.

Over the past couple of years I have traveled a lot and took my work with me wherever I went. I worked from the most ridiculous and beautiful places all over North America and Europe. My office was wherever I set up my computer. And for a while my desktop felt like home. And then I broke my laptop screen. Disaster! What do you do when you depend on your laptop; to look up information, submit work, and meet deadlines?

Have you already noticed the latest features of Facebook chat on iOS and Facebook Messenger on Android? Prior to the release of Facebook Home, Facebook’s chat app received an update which included Chat Heads and stickers. Chat Heads are floating avatars of Facebook friends you’re chatting with. Chat Heads appear on top of Facebook pages (iOS) and other applications (Android only), meaning you don’t have to move back and forth.

MakeUseOf wants to hear from you! We poll you, we ask you, we anticipate your comments, we encourage conversations on Twitter and Facebook, we let you peek behind the scenes on Pinterest, we appreciate your questions, and now we even want to hang out with you. We at MakeUseOf want to get up close and personal with our readers and 9 of you will get the chance to meet me virtually. Sound interesting?

This week Sound Sunday explores the dark, loud, and aggressive side of music with a special edition dedicated to metal and hardcore. Mixed with punk and rock, these genres produce explosive as well as surprisingly melodic tunes which are unmistakably loud, yet deep and emotional, revealing massive artistic skill. Note that name your price albums [...]

Gmail is a powerful webmail client. You can manage multiple email accounts using a single Gmail account, easily set up advanced filters to manage incoming email, or quickly find archived emails using Google’s advanced search options. There is no end to Gmail’s awesomeness for everyday use, hence most users don’t even scratch the surface of [...]

Facebook Home is the social network’s home screen replacement for Android phones, currently only available on select HTC and Samsung devices. By acting as a launcher, the app takes over a central position on the phone and provides instant access to Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg expects Home to change the relationship people have with their mobile devices. Not surprisingly, the app is highly controversial.