Latest Articles
Shazam Player - A Free Replacement Music App With Lyrics [iOS]
Shazam - the guys who brought you the awesome app that tells you what music is playing - have launched a new, free player app for iOS designed to replace your regular iPod app. Its greatest feature is the unique lyric display option, but it also comes complete with some playlist building and social functions.
Arduino Programming - Playing With Shift Registers (a.k.a Even More LEDs)
Today I’ll attempt to teach you a little bit about Shift Registers. These are a fairly important part of Arduino programming, basically because they expand the number of outputs you can use, in exchange for only 3 control pins. You can also daisy-chain shift registers together in order to get even more outputs. This is a significant jump in difficulty from previous tutorials.
3 Tactics To Really Make Your New Year's Resolutions Stick
New Years Resolutions are generally well intentioned attempts to kickstart ourselves into learning something new, losing weight, or saving money. Realistically though, they’re exceptional if they aren’t forgotten by February. But seriously now, let’s make this year the one where we really stick to our well made plans and finally achieve something worthwhile.
Think Your WPA-Protected Wifi Is Secure? Think Again - Here Comes The Reaver
By now, we should all be aware of the dangers of securing networks with WEP, which I demonstrated before how you could hack in 5 minutes. The advice has always been to use WPA or WPA2 to secure your network, with a long password that couldn't be hacked by brute force. Well, it turns out there's a significant backdoor in most routers that can be exploited - in the form of a technology called WPS.
What's New In WordPress 3.3 ?
If you haven’t logged into your dashboard lately, you probably should. Wordpress 3.3 was released about a few weeks ago, and as a major release it brings some fairly significant changes which I’ll outline today. The underlying theme is accessibility for new users.
5 Ways To Get 3D Content For Your New 3DTV
So, lucky you - you got a new 3DTV for Christmas, eh? May I be the first to say, congratulations - you obviously understand that 3D is most certainly not a passing fad, and at the end of this article will be armed with the know-how to suitably impress your friends with all the 3D content you'll have. So, where does one actually go about getting 3D content then? Read on!
How to Set Up iTunes Match for the First Time: The Definitive Guide
Our definitive guide to what iTunes Match is and how to upgrade all your matched songs to high-quality versions.
Building A PC For Christmas: A Visual Diary Of The Build Process
Having recently heard the woes of some family who are getting by with a tiny netbook and some kind of obscure Linux, I decided to build them a real computer for Christmas using components I have left over after various upgrades. I thought it would make for an interesting article to document the build process with photos, so here it is.
An Arduino Project: How To Make Flashy Christmas Lights Ornaments
This is the next part in our learning Arduino series, and this time we’ll be learning about and using Arrays to make a little Christmas tree ornament with various flashing sequences. This would be an ideal project to keep the kids occupied if you'd like to teach them basic soldering - just mount the LEDs on a piece of card, and you can get power from a standard 9v battery.
The Top 5 iPad Designer Board Games You Can Gift This Christmas
Giving apps as gifts can be great little stocking fillers for your loved ones, and if you know someone who loves both boardgames and their iPad, then I have the perfect list for you right here.
A Guide To Setting Up Your Own Podcast Website & Feed Using Wordpress & Podpress
I recently had the opportunity to become part of a podcast which I’m sure you’ll hear about soon enough - and it's all fairly new ground for me. As the only one with enough bandwidth to host, and clearly the most experienced of the group in Wordpress ninja-ship, I also took it upon myself to setup the necessary protocols that make an actual podcast, as opposed to being just audio files posted on a blog.
Getting Started With Your Arduino Starter Kit - Installing Drivers & Setting Up The Board & Port
So, you’ve bought yourself an Arduino starter kit, and possibly some other random cool components - now what? How do you actually get started with programming this Arduino thing? How do you set it up and upload some code? Read on and I'll explain all. I’m going to assume you have an Arduino Uno board.
8 More Cool Components For Your Arduino Projects
So, you're thinking about getting an Arduino starter kit, but wondering if some basic LEDs and resistors is going to be enough to keep you busy for the weekend? Probably not. Here are another 8 cool electronic components you might want to just add to your basket, along with some great ideas for what you could do with them.
What’s Included In An Arduino Starter Kit? [MakeUseOf Explains]
I have previously introduced the Arduino open-source hardware here on MakeUseOf, but you’re going need more than just the actual Arduino to build something out of it and actually get started. Arduino "starter kits" are bundles of common but useful electronic components you can use to make a good number of beginner projects, but what exactly does a starter kit usually consist of?
Which Programming Language Should You Learn For Software Development?
When starting on the path of programming, it’s important you invest your time wisely in choosing to learn something that will both benefit you in the immediate future with visible results on your platform of choice, as well as getting you set up for any future languages. Your choice will depend upon a number of factors, so let’s take a look at their characteristics, ease of learning, and likelihood of earning you a living.
4 Technologies That Could Change the World
Right now is such an exciting time to be alive, as science and technology hurtles humanity forward at such incredible rates. Who would've thought ten years ago that we'd have one touch access to all the information in the world, on our phones!? At this rate, what are we going to see in another ten years? With any luck, it'll be one or more of these four incredible technologies.
Windows 8 Branded PCs Could Prevent Other Operating Systems From Being Installed
"Secure Boot" is a new Windows 8 technology that’s required of OEM computers if they are to feature the Windows 8 Compatibility Logo. It's designed to protect against malware at the boot level by preventing ‘unauthorised’ code from launching during system boot. However it’s been revealed that it may also prevent non Windows 8 operating systems - such as Linux - from being able to install or run.
10 Essential First Steps When Starting A Wordpress Blog
Having created quite a few blogs, I'd like to think that I have a good system down for those essential first steps, and I hope it can be of use to you too. By following these you'll get a good head start in the world of blogging and hopefully an influx of traffic to give you the motivation to carry on. If you've already started, think of this as a checklist as I'm sure there's a few you haven't done yet.
The Basics Of Computer Programming 101 - Variables And DataTypes
Having introduced and talked a little about Object Oriented Programming before and where its namesake comes from, I thought it's time we go through the absolute basics of programming in a non-language specific way. This is the kind of stuff computer science majors learn in the first term, and I’m aiming this at people with absolutely zero experience in programming.
The OnLive Cloud Gaming Revolution - A Faster, Easier Way To Game
OnLive is a cloud gaming service that presents a truly unique way to access your favorite games. No longer are you forced to constantly upgrade - instead, you run the games in the cloud, and stream them to your PC, Mac, iPad, Android or TV. It’s truly incredible technology, and well worth a download and giving it a go.