Latest Articles
Windows Phone 8: The Complete Review
Question: how do you improve on perfection? Answer: you wait for someone else to have a go. A quick look around the smartphone market reveals that Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems are top dog, while Nokia’s Symbian, RIM’s BlackBerry and Microsoft’s Windows Phone are eager for scraps thrown from the table.
The Top 5 Cool Hidden Features In Windows 8
It’s very square, Windows 8, don’t you think? Those tiles have such defined lines – edges you could almost cut yourself on – and impressions of the whole user experience seem to change from person to person. Depending on your needs and requirements, Windows 8 is either a white elephant or a superb piece of finger-focused modern UI design. However, it remains as tweakable as previous versions of Windows, just in other ways.
Killing the Man: Making A Living As an Artist Online [Feature]
Can you really "kill the man" and make a living on the Internet as a creative professional? I spoke to a quartet of creatives recently, each proudly working for themselves in different ways. Read on to find out more about a freelance writer forced into his dream career through redundancy, a photographer who stumbled upon a means of making money through her ability with Photoshop, an artist who followed her dream instead of processing card payments and a journalist who found himself offered a six book deal by a major publisher!
Word 2013: An In-Depth Review Of What You Should Expect
It’s been three years since Microsoft launched Office 2010. Released alongside online versions (Microsoft Office Web Apps) of its popular applications, the jewel in the crown of the suite was, of course, Microsoft Word. Offering some minor improvements to the user interface following the introduction of the ribbon menu in Word 2007, the 2010 release looks very much like its predecessor. With Word 2013, however, things are slightly different.
Setting Up Your Raspberry Pi For Headless Use With SSH
The Raspberry Pi can accept SSH commands when connected to a local network (either by Ethernet or Wi-Fi), enabling you to easily set it up. The benefits of SSH go beyond upsetting the daily screening of The Simpsons or the latest celebrity news – using your Raspberry Pi without a dedicated display (also known as “headless”) can allow you to leave the device set up in a particular configuration without the worry about anyone disrupting things.
Winter Is Coming: Using A Smartphone Or Tablet In Extreme Weather Conditions
From time to time I have to venture outside and this can mean using my phone, tablet or even (in rare cases) a laptop to get work done while in transit. Extremes of weather can wreak havoc on digital hardware, so it pays to be aware of just what you need to do to keep using your smartphone on extremely hot days, heavy rain and freezing cold weather.
How To Read Magazines On Your Android Phone Or Tablet
I love reading. Given the amount of research I find myself doing here at MakeUseOf that’s not a bad thing, but recently I’ve found my office space becoming encroached with more and more magazines. The obvious solution is to bin them, but then I lose a potentially valuable resource. So it’s time to think outside of the box and choose the second most obvious solution - digital alternatives.
Are Your USB Ports Too Close Together? Here's How to Fix It!
If you’re like me, you probably make good use of USB on your PC, from connecting keyboards and printers to smartphones, USB flash memory, Bluetooth, 3G or Wi-Fi dongles, headsets, game controllers and more. USB is a versatile and easy-to-use connection format, but there is one thing that bugs many people (including me) about it.
Can't Stand The Slowness? The Top 10 Reasons for Poor PC Performance
Has your computer loaded this webpage yet? If it has, you’ll be halfway toward working out just why it seems to be running so slowly. There are many reasons for desktop and laptops to chug along at their own, slow pace, defying the system specs and performing more like a relic from the 1990s. Where you’re browsing the web, word processing or gaming, poor performance will cause problems.
Not Enough Juice? Squeeze Your Raspberry Pi By Overclocking
If there’s any hardware released in 2012 that you’re likely to fall in love with, it’s the sweet-as-sugar Raspberry Pi, a mini computer designed and built in the UK that has shipped all around the world. Equipped with an ARM processor and capable of running various operating systems, the Raspberry Pi is small enough to fit into a cigarette box and powerful enough to run a home server, media centre and much more.
The Windows 8 Guide
This Windows 8 guide outlines everything new about Windows 8, from the tablet-like start screen to the new "app" concept to the familiar desktop mode.
Optimize The Power Of Your Raspberry Pi With Raspbian
As befits a man with too much tech on his hands, I’ve been playing with my Raspberry Pi recently, configuring the device so that it works to its fullest potential. It continues to run as a media center, although I have no doubt that this use will be added to it in the very near future. However, installing an OS and adding XBMC is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to using the RPi.
How To Install More Operating Systems On Your HP TouchPad
Several months ago I turned my very nice tablet, the HP TouchPad, from a pleasant-to-use device into a handheld computing god thanks to the Android CM9 port of Ice Cream Sandwich. Since then, the device has gone from strength to strength, enabling me to enjoy movies and TV with Netflix, listen to the radio and of course play games and even do some work while I spent a week in the south west of England.
How To Convert, Rotate & Edit Mobile Phone Videos
I was recently searching my hard disk drive looking for a specific video clip recorded at a Christmas party a few years ago. While browsing the resulting clips, I noticed that some wouldn’t play back; others were at the wrong orientation for viewing on a computer, while others needed some serious editing. Fortunately there are many tools available online that can help overcome these problems
Some Crazy Ideas for Homemade Cases For The Raspberry Pi
As the owner of a Raspberry Pi, I’ve spent a bit of time looking for a suitable case for my versatile miniature computer. For a time I settled on the popular “punnet” design that other RaspPi users can download, print out and construct from card, but this wasn’t the most ideal solution. While useful, the punnet case wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Instead, I hit the web.
9 Ways to Speed Up Steam and Download Games Faster
Get the feeling that PC gaming with Steam is slow? Wonder why Steam downloads are throttled? Here's how to make Steam run faster.
The Car Of Tomorrow - Today: Top Tools To Put a Computer In Your Car
It is becoming an increasingly popular pastime to add a new element to cars, a new hub for entertainment, GPS and communications. The carputer seems to have been inspired partly by TV shows such as Knight Rider and movies from the James Bond series as well as the progress of technology in the modern age. But now, anyone can build a car computer!
How To Make Sure Windows 7 Will Boot After Changing The Motherboard
How many times have you installed copies of Windows on a computer following a major hardware change? A case in point is probably Windows XP – although flexible, popular and easy to use, the operating system wasn’t great at dealing with hardware changes, in particular new motherboards. This shouldn’t come as any surprise, really.