MakeUseOf.com: “Flipboard 1.5 Rolls Out LinkedIn Integration & Other Features [News]” plus 13 more

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• Flipboard 1.5 Rolls Out LinkedIn Integration & Other Features [News]
• Cool Websites and Tools [July 5th]
• The 9 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers]
• Store Your Clipboard Items In The Cloud With ClipCloud [Mac]
• 5 Ways To Reduce Menu Bar Clutter [Mac]
• Suggest Romantic Date Ideas & Find Compatible Partners With HowAboutWe
• Hot Tech Deals – Garmin nuvi 265WT GPS Navigation for $99.99+ more
• 10 Websites For Daily Tips & Time Saving Nuggets Of Information
• How To Read Great Long-Form Articles On Your Kindle With Delivereads
• 3 Methods To Host Your WordPress Blog Images On An External Server
• 7 Websites For The Music Lover To Find, Discover & Learn About Music
• We’re Giving Away A Nikon D3000 To A MakeUseOf Reader
• 3 Apps To Benchmark Your Smartphone [Android]
• Google Calendar & Gmail’s New Look: How You Can Preview [News]

Flipboard 1.5 Rolls Out LinkedIn Integration & Other Features [News] Posted: 06 Jul 2011 07:31 AM PDT RSS feed apps for the iPad are almost a dime a dozen, but only a few top ranking ones have the magazine style quality and features of Flipboard, the first in its category. Last week Flipboard rolled out a slew of upgrade features, a few not found in the RSS apps of its three top competitors - Pulse, Feedly, and Zite. Flipboard CEO, Mike McCue said on TechCrunchTV that the upgraded Flipboard has been downloaded by over 2.5 million users. New Features The 1.5 version of Flipboard includes faster red ribbon access to all your social networks, favorite sections, and a wide range of pre-selected feeds to choose among, from news and business to sports and science. You can actually now view the content of feeds without adding them to your own list. You can do a search for people, publications, websites, or topics such as National Geographic, Design or Ashton Kutcher. You can add MakeUseOf simply by tapping on the red ribbon in the upper-right side of the screen and typing, “makeuseof.com” in the search field.  Select the MUO feed and if you like, add it to your Flipboard. A few long awaited features of the new Flipboard include the ability to favor open articles, as well the ability to save articles to your Instapaper account. Since the debut of Flipboard last year, the 1.5 update is faster and more streamlined, but with the same magazine style feel of flipping pages and reading content. Plus now you can use Flipboard to connect with your contacts on Twitter and Facebook, including LinkendIn integration for additional social sharing and updating. Mike McCue told TechCrunch that the iPhone version of Flipboard is also in the works and will be coming out soon. Source: TechCrunch Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already! Flipboard 1.5 Rolls Out LinkedIn Integration & Other Features [News] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: ipad apps, LinkedIn, news, RSS Similar articles: Pulse Is Now Free: A Visual Display RSS News Reader [iPad] (5 comments ...) Zite- Personalized Magazine & News Reader For Your iPad (55 comments ...) Ways to Stay on Top of The News (15 comments ...) VLC Media Player Is Now Available On All iOS Devices (17 comments ...) Top 10 RSS Feeds For Medical News & Alerts (182 comments ...)

Cool Websites and Tools [July 5th] Posted: 05 Jul 2011 08:31 PM PDT Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. Most of the listed websites are FREE or come with a decent free account option. If you want to have similar cool website round-ups delivered to your daily email, subscribe here. Add Your Website Here!   VintageJS – Old pictures have a unique look to them that modern photographs do not. If you want to add vintage look to your current digital photos, all you need to do is pay a visit to VintageJS, a simple and free to use web service that adds a vintage effect to your digital images. You start by providing the site with an image stored on your computer. Read more: VintageJS: Easily Add A Vintage Look To Photos   Movie Monkey – If you download movies every day, you will quickly find yourself stuck with so many unorganized files with no way of knowing which is which. While media centers like Boxxee do a good job of organizing movies, sometimes you just need a tool that is lightweight and gets the job done, such as Movie Monkey. Read more: Movie Monkey: Organize Movie Files On Your Desktop     CampaignCog – When site owners roll out emails to subscribers, they are not aware of how many subscribers actually opened their email and read it. Here to help find out these stats is a web service called CampaignCog, a free to use web service that helps you track your emails and various stats about them. Read more: CampaignCog: Track Your Emails Campaigns & Find Out What Your Subscribers Are Doing     DownTweet – Twitter's native interface has a lot of room for improvement. Thankfully there are various Twitter clients with better interfaces which make it easier to follow friends, stay updated with celebrities, and read news. One such site that offers Twitter users an alternative, better interface is DownTweet. Read more: DownTweet: Create Multiple Custom Twitter Feeds & View Them All On A Single Webpage     360 Web Browser – iOS device owners would still like to have an excellent browser that lets them view streaming videos on various websites. The problem in doing this is that most videos require Flash – something that iOS does not support. Offering a workaround and letting your iOS device play Flash videos on most popular websites is an app called 360 Web Browser. Read more: 360 Web Browser: Feature Rich iOS Device Browser With Firefox Sync & Flash Support   Add Your Website Here! These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on MakeUseOf Answers! Cool Websites and Tools [July 5th] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: cool web apps Similar articles: [ANNOUNCEMENT] 107 Best Websites On The Web (5 comments ...) makeuseof extra #27 (171 comments ...) Finally Stick To Your Resolutions With StickK (107 comments ...) Cool Websites and Tools [September 9] (51 comments ...) Cool Websites and Tools [September 9th] (2 comments ...)

The 9 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers] Posted: 05 Jul 2011 06:31 PM PDT MakeUseOf Answers can help you solve your tough tech questions. Often, we need more information in order to help. If you submitted a question, please make sure you answer any questions we may have in order to clarify the problem. Every Friday, the Best Answer of the Week is rewarded with $50 and two runners-up win $30 and $20, respectively. Every answer automatically enters the contest. Just make sure we can contact you in case you win. Please help us out with these questions: How can I unblock my Hotmail account? Why am I seeing dozens of copies of this photo when opening Organizer in Photoshop Elements 9? Why do I see a DNS failure when running Torrent software and using the WiFi? How can I automatically have a post added to the Slider on my blog? Where can I download Java for my HTC Pro2? How can I recover deleted voice recordings on my Nokia phone memory card? How can I get a free Blueware BT software for my LG KP 500? How do I replace my uploader web page with my processed results? How do I make UC Browser the homepage on my Sony Ericsson Vivaz? For regular updates subscribe to the Answers RSS Feed. Need help? Ask A Question at MakeUseOf Answers. The 9 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: answers, Q&A websites, tech support, troubleshoot Similar articles: The 9 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers] (0 comments ...) The 9 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers] (0 comments ...) The 9 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers] (0 comments ...) The 9 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers] (8 comments ...) The 9 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers] (0 comments ...)

Store Your Clipboard Items In The Cloud With ClipCloud [Mac] Posted: 05 Jul 2011 04:31 PM PDT How often do you copy and paste various pieces of text throughout a given day? If you’re like me, probably somewhere between 3-5 million times, give or take a few. I copy and paste items to and from instant messages and emails, from articles and documents, into social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and everywhere in between. It’s not always really important things that get copied and pasted, but occasionally it is, and sometimes I think it would be nice to be able to go back and find that information later on rather than doing things like saving it to text documents that get lost amongst the pile of files and folders I have. Do you know where the best place is to keep something you’d like to easily find later? The answer is “the cloud“. ClipCloud is a service capable of handling all of this for you. Prepare to have your copy/paste habits altered. What Is ClipCloud? ClipCloud is a simple web service that allows you to seamlessly store your clipboard in the cloud. The app remembers everything for you and you can easily search your clipboard history to locate items later on. With ClipCloud, you can use the local clipboard buffer to quickly access recent clippings, enabling you to work faster. The app will privately (and securely!) store your clipboard history in the cloud, allowing you to access it anywhere and from any device. While storing your history in the cloud is a nice feature, it doesn’t necessarily differentiate ClipCloud from the other applications that are out there. What does differentiate it is its powerful search feature. ClipCloud indexes all of your clippings so you can easily find them later on. Have you ever copied a piece of text, then another one, then decided that you would really like to paste the first item you copied? After installing ClipCloud, you’ll have quick access to your 40 most recent clippings. You can even use hot keys to instantly pull up the buffer and navigate to your clipping without having to leave the keyboard. How Do I Get Started Using ClipCloud? To start using ClipCloud to manage all of your clippings, head on over to the app’s homepage and click Download the App. You can also opt to sign up with an email and password. You will have to sign up if you want to access your information in the cloud. From there, start the app and begin copying and pasting things like normal to see ClipCloud in action. Conclusion While ClipCloud is only available for Mac OSX, developers who would like to build a Windows, Linux, or AIR client can “grab an API key and start hacking!” If this is something that interests you, you can apply for an API key here. ClipCloud is another one of those simple yet useful tools I’ve come across since owning a Mac. I’m curious to hear what you all think of it. Do you have any cool apps like ClipCloud that you like to use? Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on MakeUseOf Answers! Store Your Clipboard Items In The Cloud With ClipCloud [Mac] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: clipboard, cloud, cloud computing, online storage Similar articles: What iCloud Is & Why It Changes Everything [Mac] (9 comments ...) Otixo: Access All Of Your Cloud Accounts & Files From One Place (43 comments ...) 4 Great Uses For Amazon’s S3 Web Services (50 comments ...) ZumoDrive – Cloud Storage Service With A Twist (13 comments ...) Transfer Web Files Directly To Your Dropbox Folder With URL Droplet (3 comments ...)

5 Ways To Reduce Menu Bar Clutter [Mac] Posted: 05 Jul 2011 03:31 PM PDT We’ve covered some Great Tips and Tools For a Clean and Minimalist Mac Desktop before. This time, I’ll be focusing on specifically the menu bar. Due to my small 13″ MacBook Pro screen, which has even less resolution than the 13″ Air, I am forced to look for any way to clear the screen, such as making elements smaller in browsers, so I can fit two applications side by side. Safari, Firefox and Mail all have quite a lot of menu items, especially since I added the Debug menu in Safari. I looked at the application with the most menu bar items and cut down all the icons on my menu bar, so they will not overlap this specific app. In my case, this happened to be Firefox, which cuts me down considerably more than, for instance, Chrome does. So I looked at some solutions to cut down on the clutter up there, while still retaining all of the functionality.  This was what I got. 1. Hide Menu Bar Items Hiding menu bar items can seem trivial, but there are lots of apps you don’t really interact with and they don’t share any statuses, so why do you need to see them in the menu bar? You may want to use them all the time but not close them down.  So this makes some apps a great candidate for hiding. On my system, I hid ScrollReverser and a myriad of other background apps I want always on, such as Alfred, QuickSilver, TotalFinder and others. Just right click the icon, or click it if that brings up the contextual menu, then find the option to hide it. Sometimes, this may be in the application’s preferences instead. Just find this for each application you want to hide. It may seem tedious, but at the end, you’ll find a lot of space cleared, which you can enjoy or use for applications that do demand interaction. 2. Remove The Spotlight Icon This may seem drastic, but like I said, no functionality is ever lost. If you don’t need this, you can also turn it off, but for those that do need it, remove the icon by entering this in the Terminal if you’re on Leopard: sudo chmod 0 /System/Library/CoreServices/Spotlight.app If you’re on Snow Leopard, you can use this: sudo chmod 600 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search Then enter this to see the changes: killall SystemUIServer So how do we replace this functionality? Well, apps like Alfred and QuickSilver can replace it if you want, and are much better than Spotlight, but if you want exactly the same functionality as Spotlight and don’t mind paying, Launchbar (€24 / $35) is very popular for going way beyond Spotlight, but also has an integrated Spotlight function. Don’t turn off Spotlight if you want to use this though, just hide the icon. 3. GeekTool One thing that takes up a lot of space is the clock. Clear this and you could fit several more apps in there. I have found one way to do this. Just download the free GeekTool app and open it in System Preferences. Now drag a shell to the desktop and where it says, “Command” enter this: date '+%A, %B %d, %Y, %I:%M:%S %p' Set it to refresh every 1 second. You can remove the :%S and set it to refresh every 60 seconds to get a minute clock, which is less processor-intensive. This will create a Geeklet on your desktop that tells the time and date. Hide the menu bar clock, and pin the Dock to the left of the screen, using this Terminal command: defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string start To return to the middle or pin to the right, replace start with middle and end, respectively. An alternative way is to use a Dashboard widget to tell the time. One disadvantage to the GeekTool approach is that when watching movies full-screen, you cannot put your mouse to the top to check the time. But if you have a Mac laptop sold at or after October 2008, there’s a simple solution. Just swipe upwards with four fingers to see the GeekTool shell on the desktop. Otherwise, you can set up a screen corner to activate Exposé. For more on GeekTool, check out Jeffry’s brilliant article. 4. SlimBatteryMonitor What can be said about the default Apple battery indicator? Well, it takes up a lot of space, especially when it’s “calculating” the time remaining to run out of juice. To remedy this, just download and install the free tool, SlimBatteryMonitor. Set the icon shape to horizontal in the preferences and that’s it. Now, remove the default battery indicator by dragging it off the menu bar. You now have a much smaller battery indicator. We’ve covered this before. AppleDisplayScaleFactor This is a rather volatile solution, but if you want to use it, you can make all text in the OS smaller, including the application menu bars, using this Terminal command: defaults write -g AppleDisplayScaleFactor 0.9 This will make all text 90% of normal size. Changes will take effect on all apps launched after the command issued. Restart Finder by typing in: killall Finder Or you can Force Quit it, by bringing up the Force Quit window, using ?+?+esc. Now just click Finder and click Relaunch. You cannot arrange Desktop icons in View Options if you decide to use this method. The icons on the far right will go even more to the right, until they are hidden. Conclusion Now that you’re done, fill up that empty space with these menulets. Has this finally helped you with all those out-of-control menu bar items? Have you found that you don’t use a lot of the items and quit them? Do you have any other solutions? What apps are you adding in the menu bar, now you have the space? We appreciate any comments below. Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on MakeUseOf Answers! 5 Ways To Reduce Menu Bar Clutter [Mac] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: desktop enhancements, menubar, minimalist, optimize, organization Similar articles: 5 Great Tips and Tools For a Clean and Minimalist Mac Desktop (20 comments ...) Too Many Tabs? Firefox Add-ons to manage a TAB JAM (80 comments ...) Three Quick Registry Tweaks to Customize Windows Like a Pro (13 comments ...) Speed up file Copy’n Paste with Piky Basket (9 comments ...) Some non-Registry Windows tweaks (7 comments ...)

Suggest Romantic Date Ideas & Find Compatible Partners With HowAboutWe Posted: 05 Jul 2011 02:31 PM PDT If you’ve ever spent any time dabbling in the online dating scene, you’ve probably realised that it has some huge limitations. Mostly, that it can be really hard to find someone who you’re actually going to like in real life. It’s simply not enough to be able to say you’re looking for a blonde 30-year-old. What you really need to know is whether your idea of a good time is in any way compatible. This is where HowAboutWe comes in. It’s a dating site which revolves around the actual dates. In essence, you get to choose someone to date by whether or not you both like the same idea for a date. Plus, it’s a really neat way to get romantic date ideas! Get On To HowAboutWe The sign-up process for HowAboutWe is straight-forward and quick. Really, you’re just giving them a few important bits of information to ensure they never suggest that you date someone with completely incompatible ideals. The deal-breaker topics are about faith, politics and how important those ideals are to you. You also add the usual stuff about your general details, where you live and what basic sort of person you’re looking for. Photos are required to be found in search, but you can get by without them if you really wish. Once the basic details are filled, you can add more information to your profile if you like, or just get into browsing the dates. Finding Great Dates It’s easy to find great dates in HowAboutWe. That’s the whole point! Search date ideas by keyword, see popular dates or check out the trending romantic date ideas. When you see a date idea you like, repost it (much like retweeting tweets). The idea will be added to your profile page and you’ll be listed as one of the many people who think that date idea is a good one. The more dates you repost, the more likely it is that someone interesting will find you and ask you out on that date. Also, you’re opening yourself up to more excellent dates! By building your profile with a selection of great dates you like, you’re also letting potential suitors know a bit about what you really like to get up to. It’s a win-win. Coming Up With Great Date Ideas You can also list your own date ideas and see who else likes them. Some users are broad with their date ideas, which can result in them being quite popular, while others make them more specific by adding the city into the date idea. This limits the exposure, but could also work in your favour. Try a few different tactics and see how it goes. Finding Great People The best way to meet like-minded people is to browse the date ideas. When you find a date you like, see who else has liked it. Then you can ask one of those people out on this date – and you don’t even have to come up with a great date idea, either! Obviously, you can also browse the user database for people who match your taste and live nearby. This might help narrow down your options if it turns out your town isn’t yet bustling with users. In the meantime, you can still populate your profile with great romantic date ideas. If nothing else, you’ve got a handy list to refer to when you need inspiration later! More Dating Ideas For those of you who are keen for more great dating ideas, read on: 4 Effective Tips To Ask a Girl Out On Facebook 3 Polite Ways To End Online Relationships Without Getting Stalked How To Conduct A Free Criminal Background Check Online 3 Coolest Ways A Geek Can Get Girls To Notice Him On Facebook What are your thoughts on HowAboutWe? Will you give it a go? Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on MakeUseOf Answers! Suggest Romantic Date Ideas & Find Compatible Partners With HowAboutWe is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: dating, friends, Interesting, offbeat, relationship, social networks Similar articles: How Do Social Networks Make Money? [In Case You Were Wondering] (29 comments ...) 5 Geeky Ways To Ask Someone To Marry You On The Internet (45 comments ...) 4 Effective Tips To Ask a Girl Out On Facebook (35 comments ...) 3 Polite Ways To End Online Relationships Without Getting Stalked (21 comments ...) 2 Cool Ways To Poke Someone On Facebook (9 comments ...)

Hot Tech Deals – Garmin nuvi 265WT GPS Navigation for $99.99+ more Posted: 05 Jul 2011 01:30 PM PDT Today’s featured deal is the Garmin nuvi 265WT. The nuvi 265WT features a 4.3″ touchscreen display, NAVTEQ maps of North America, Text To Speech, bluetooth for hands-free calling, traffic receiver w/ FREE Lifetime Traffic Updates, and MicroSD input. All for $99.99. For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated. Garmin nuvi 265WT GPS Navigation (4.3in, Bluetooth, Lifetime Traffic Updates) $99.99 Free Shipping via code EMCKCKE48 >TomTom XXL 550M GPS (5in, Text To Speech, Lifetime Maps) $98 Free Shipping Energy CF70 3-Way 300W Floor Standing Loud Speaker (Single) $250 via code EMCKCKE74 (Exp 7/6) Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB Internal SATA Hard Drive $74.99 Free Shipping via code EMCKCKE46 (Exp 7/11) Asus VW224U Black 22in Widescreen LCD Monitor (2ms; 1680×1050) $109.99AR Free Shipping via code EMCKCKE67 (Exp 7/6) Polk Audio RM510 5.1ch High Performance Surround Sound Speakers $249.99 Free Ship via code EMCKCKE75 (Exp 7/6) IOCell Networks Traveler 251U 2.5in USB External Hard Drive Enclosure FREE AR via rebate Netgear WNDR3700 RangeMax 802.11n Dual-Band Wireless N Gigabit Router $109.99 via code EMCKCKE66 (Exp 7/11) Hot Tech Deals – Garmin nuvi 265WT GPS Navigation for $99.99+ more is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: deals Similar articles: Watch Online Products for Price Drops with ShoppingNotes (11 comments ...) Top Deals of the Day [April 9th] (74 comments ...) Top Deals of the Day [April 8th] (59 comments ...) Top Deals of the Day [April 7th] (34 comments ...) Top Deals of the Day [April 6th] (29 comments ...)

10 Websites For Daily Tips & Time Saving Nuggets Of Information Posted: 05 Jul 2011 12:31 PM PDT Tip (noun) – A small piece of useful advice or information. Knowledge (noun) – Everything that is known. Going by their meanings, the two words are quite similar. But the way we interpret them is sometimes different. Knowledge conveys a larger body of useful information. A tip is something that seems almost inconsequential in comparison. Till you make use of it of course. Daily tips are almost like 'inside information' or even recommendations that can help us take shortcuts through whatever we are attempting. It could be dicing potatoes or creating a startup. Tips are always welcome; in fact we are always in search of them. Perhaps, that's why these ten websites can help us out with their collection of tips. TipNut The site is a free reservoir of tips you can dip into and come out with a few gems. The focus is mainly on homemaking tips ranging from crafts to household DIY tips. Enter your email address and let your missus get something useful to ponder over every Wednesday. The site has been online since 2006, so you can expect a rich variety of tips to choose from. Thrifty Fun This tip collection website gives you great ideas and solutions to everyday problems. The site which has been there for quite a while has a community behind it. You can subscribe to their Thrifty Fun Newsletter and stay updated with the latest tips from around the web. To add a dash of fun there is also the ThriftyFun weekly contest where $25 dollar prizes are up for grabs for the tips that receive the most “Thumbs Up” ratings. You can browse through the 80,000 strong assortment of tips by date or topic. You can also put in your questions too. TipWriter Did you know that there's a difference between the terms 'organic' and 'natural'? Call this a tip exchange and you won't be off the mark. TipWriter welcomes you with a large tag cloud of tip topics. Some tips are brief, some are detailed enough to be linked to external content. But most are good enough to remember and use. You can log-in with your Facebook account and share your own tips. LifeTips Nobody has all the answers but the web at least provides a way to get to some of them. The site has 'Gurus' or guides catering to the topics on the site and there are lots of them – from accounting to yoga. Across the topics, you can access more than 100,000 tips every day. New tips are added daily. You can subscribe to the tip of the day feed or the newsletter. Tipstrs Tipstrs is geek centric with tips collated from the world of computers and technology; though the site also has collections on other topics too. How to hack a locked iPhone and how to access private Facebook photos are sure to garner eyeballs. You will find tips like these in the Hot Categories. DayTipper You can submit your own tips here, but the site seemed to have been quite choosy about publishing them because the stats show that only 9000 tips had been Okayed. DayTipper is dormant now, but the tips should remain handy for all time to come. DayTipper has interesting sections like a Hall of Fame and a Hall of Shame that can be read alongside the sections called Staff Picks and Undervalued. (Read Directory mention) TipsBase This site is more current and it is also in beta. TipsBase is an online community where you can find and share tips, tricks and advice on any subject ranging from autos to video games. The site also has a revenue sharing program generated from the AdSense revenue on the site. As I haven't tried it, I really can't say more on it. (Read Directory mention) TipBin This tip based site has completely gone green. It covers tips on living a green, eco-conscious life with a simple layout and a minimal fuss interface. You can add your own tips or read the ones that have been submitted so far. TipJar Perhaps the only thing that's more important than saving the planet is saving money. This site gives you 6,804 ways to do it. Take your pick from the tips submitted by the online community. (See Directory mention) 5min We have featured this neat video site many times before. It deserves a mention here because the 5 min duration long instructional videos are perfect as tips. The videos are regularly updated and they are quick to load, view, and understand. There are a few more websites on tips around the web. But these seem to be the pick of the lot. Of course, when it comes to technology, you shouldn't go far from the blog (and our own collection) you are reading right now. Pausing the shameless self-promotion, which other site have you bookmarked for a daily dose of tips? Let us know. Image Credit: Shutterstock Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on MakeUseOf Answers! 10 Websites For Daily Tips & Time Saving Nuggets Of Information is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: Advice, information, recommendations Similar articles: 3 Sites to Get Your Medical Questions Answered by Experts for Free (9 comments ...) What Movie Should I Watch Next? (36 comments ...) View Only The Best YouTube Videos with Devour (18 comments ...) Use Qype To Find Cool New Places To Party (8 comments ...) Use Polyvore To Create Or Find A New Fashion Style For Yourself (3 comments ...)

How To Read Great Long-Form Articles On Your Kindle With Delivereads Posted: 05 Jul 2011 11:31 AM PDT I love my Kindle. For a tech writer, I don't actually have many gadgets – but the Kindle is one I would never trade. Being able to read an endless variety of books on one slim device with a paper-like display makes me feel like I'm actually living in the future. But sometimes, a book isn't what I need. Sometimes I just want to read a lengthy, well-written magazine article that would make me feel smarter or better informed. Another good reason to read long-form articles is that you can finish them in one sitting; that always gives me that satisfying “Saturday morning with the paper” feel, if you know what I mean. Delivereads is one lovely way to get your long-form fix on the Kindle. First, here's what the site itself looks like: It says that the first step is to “let your Kindle know” they're coming. Your Kindle has an email address, but only those addresses you enter into Amazon’s “white list” can use it. So go to Amazon's Manage My Kindle page and add Deliverads to the list of allowed addresses. The address, as you can see, is dave@delivereads.com. “Dave” is Dave Pell, the guy behind Delivereads, who curates the articles sent out using Delivereads. Now that you've added Dave to your white list, you need to find your own Kindle's email address, to tell Delivereads where to send content to. That address is on the same page, under Your Kindle Devices: Now let's take this address and paste it into the Delivereads page (yes, that's my Kindle's email. To each his own!). Note that you don't paste the whole address in, but just the beginning, and then use the drop-down to select the correct suffix. Then just click Subscribe, and get the following message: That's it! As simple as could be, really. A welcome message should appear on your Kindle within an hour, and then you'll get long-form articles every now and then for your reading pleasure. The Content You may be curious to know what you're subscribing to, what sort of articles you'd be getting every week. Here is the current crop, as of this writing: Atlantic: The Brain on Trial Atlantic: How to Land Your Kid in Therapy Faster Times: An AOL Content Slave Speaks Out NYT: Roger Federer as Religious Experience HuffPo: Facebooking Frank I read the piece about AOL, and it was very good. I used to write for Download Squad (an AOL property), and working there wasn't like that at all. It was still interesting to see what other parts of AOL looked like. It took me about 5-10 minutes to read the article – just enough time for a relaxed cup of coffee. Alternatives While Delivereads is very well executed, the idea of delivering long-form articles for the Kindle is not groundbreaking. Send Me A Story were there first, but I haven't received anything from them for months now. Here's hoping Delivereads proves more consistent and persistent. Do you know of similar services, maybe ones not curated by a single person? Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on MakeUseOf Answers! How To Read Great Long-Form Articles On Your Kindle With Delivereads is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: ereader, kindle, reading Similar articles: Which Is The Better Reader – Kindle Vs iPad [Geeks Weigh In] (19 comments ...) The Kindle Reader For Mac Has Arrived [Mac] (8 comments ...) How To Manage Book Annotations While Reading On The Kindle (2 comments ...) How To Loan Your Kindle E-Books To Other Amazon Members (78 comments ...) How To Convert Scanned Pages Into eReader eBook Format (14 comments ...)

3 Methods To Host Your WordPress Blog Images On An External Server Posted: 05 Jul 2011 10:31 AM PDT One of the biggest burdens of any website are the images. So it’s only logical that you can lighten the load of your sites – and make them faster – by hosting the images on a speedier external server. These servers are known as CDN’s (Content Delivery Network) and usually come at a price. Today, we are going to look at some free image hosting alternatives to host your WordPress blog images on external servers. These solutions might not be as top notch as dedicated CDN’s, but I think they are good enough for the regular everyday blogger. The First Alternative - Loadtr The easiest alternative I can find is Loadtr because all you have to do is add a WordPress plugin. The problem is, not everybody feels comfortable hosting their images on an unknown image hosting service. To be honest, I’ve never heard of Loadtr before, so I can’t tell you whether or not this service is good or bad. Even though a quick web search told me that Loadtr is a well-known service in Turkey, the name is not a familiar one in the rest of the world. Anyway, if you think you can trust Loadtr enough to use the service to host your blog images, you can start by going to the “Plugins – Add New” side menu in your WordPress installation. Then search for and install the Loadtr WordPress plugin. You’ll then find an additional upload menu in the post editing mode. It’s the colorful small icon next to the other upload icons above the writing field. Clicking on the icon will bring out Loadtr’s Image Upload tool. You can choose the image file you want to upload, pick a language, give a short description, and select the size you want. After the image is uploaded to Loadtr’s server, you can insert it into your post by clicking the “Send to Post” button. Then you can publish the post, and the image will be displayed without a problem in your blog post. The Second Alternative - Dropbox Another place you can use to host your images is Dropbox. There are several plugins which will help you connect your WordPress blog with your Dropbox account, but I think the best one is Pressbox. After installation, go to the “Settings” sidebar and choose Pressbox. You will see a set of instructions to get a Dropbox API. Both the “Key” and “Secret” codes are needed to connect your blog to Dropbox. This step is needed to prevent unauthorized access to your Dropbox account. Follow the instructions to the letter and you’ll be just fine. After acquiring the codes, press the “Connect your Blog to Dropbox” button and you can start using images in your Dropbox folder for your blog posts. But why go through all that trouble if using images from the Dropbox public folder is as easy as copying and pasting the public URLs (as discussed in this article)?  Well, first, Pressbox allows users to use images from any folder within your Dropbox account. Second, users don’t have to go back and forth between their blog and Dropbox account to fetch the image’s URL. Instead, you can easily add images using Pressbox’s code. Pressbox also allows users to set their default path for a file list and favorite folders. You can use the “/Photos” folder as the default, but I’d suggest you go one folder deeper. Create another folder inside Photos and use it as the default. If everything is set, you can easily put your blog images inside your chosen folder and add them using “[pressbox path=/Folder/imagename.extension]“. So if you want to add sunset.jpg inside the Pictures folder, you will write [pressbox path=/Pictures/sunset.jpg]. You can also browse and insert the pictures you want via the new “From Dropbox” menu in the “Add an Image” pop-up window. The only thing you should consider if you choose to use Dropbox is the storage limit. With a 2GB storage limit for free accounts and an average 100KB image size, you can store up to 20,000 images. It’s a good idea to create a new Dropbox account specifically for this purpose. The Third Alternative – Hotlinking If you prefer neither Loadtr nor Dropbox, then you can choose the more traditional (and manual) approach – store your images in one of the available image hosting services – such as Photobucket and Flickr – and hotlink the images in your blog posts. To do that, you have to make sure that the image hosting services that you use allow hotlinking. Then acquire the image link, and insert the link via the “From URL” tab in the “Add an Image” window. This third alternative might not be as convenient as the previous two, but you get peace of mind from a trusted and reliable free image hosting service that you love. Will you host your blog images externally? Which one is your preferred alternative? Do you know any other alternatives? Share your thoughts and opinions using the comments below. Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on MakeUseOf Answers! 3 Methods To Host Your WordPress Blog Images On An External Server is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: blogging, blogging tips, blogging tools, dropbox, hosting, images, server, wordpress Similar articles: Save $87 By Making A Free ‘Thesis’ WordPress Theme Clone (25 comments ...) People Love You? Show It Off On WordPress With Collision Testimonials (37 comments ...) Make Your WordPress Blog iPad Friendly with Onswipe (61 comments ...) How To Set Up Jetpack To Supercharge Your Self Hosted WordPress Blog (4 comments ...) How To Move Your WordPress Blog To Another Host (24 comments ...)

7 Websites For The Music Lover To Find, Discover & Learn About Music Posted: 05 Jul 2011 09:31 AM PDT Music is an essential ingredient of human culture. Everyone enjoys some kind of music or a related activity. Whether we enjoy passive listening, humming along, singing, playing an instrument, or dancing, music is always there. Even when there is no music, we sometimes seem to recognize a rhythm or musical sounds because the human brain, and thus its sensory extensions, such as the eyes and ears, are trained to recognize patterns, no matter how remote they are. In this article I will show you music websites to find songs you like, discover new music, and gain a deeper understanding of music as a whole. MTV Music Meter The MTV Music Meter ranks over a million artists and allows you discover what is hot in the music scene right now. The ranking is not only based on album sales, but also on how many times they are mentioned on the social networks, in blog posts, news articles, and streams. Click on the little pull-down button to expand more information for the respective artist. MTV Music Meter apps are available for the iPad, iPhone, and Google Android. The MakeUseOf Directory has previously profiled MTV Music Meter. TuneCrank Maybe you’re totally not into mainstream and the radio stations generally just bore you. If you are always on the lookout for new talent and the latest independent trends, you should check out TuneCrank! It finds, ranks, and streams the best independent music, including touring bands, buskers, and anyone else who is frank enough to upload their music to the site. You can vote for songs and share your favorites with your friends. We have previously profiled TuneCrank in the MakeUseOf Directory. Jog.fm Music can be a great motivator for your workout. Not only will it be more fun, chances are you will actually work out longer and do better. On Jog.fm you can get a fresh mix for your exercises, whether you’re running or lifting weights. You can either enter the time of your workout or browse for popular music Jog.fm also is available for the iPhone. We have previously profiled Jog.fm on the MakeUseOf Directory. 8bitcollective 8bitcollective is a repository and file sharing community for chiptune-related media. Chiptune is synthesized electronic music that is typically produced with sound chips of old computers and video game consoles. All media released on 8bitcollective is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 license and can be downloaded, shared, and remixed legally for non-commercial purposes. We have previously profiled 8bitCollective on the MakeUseOf Directory, and in the Sound Sunday edition of February 6th this year I featured a sampler album from them. HeardOnTV There are some great apps out there that let you find music by simply humming a bit of the melody. However, if you’re entirely unable to get the melody right, here is an alternative to find tunes played on popular TV shows. You can find songs that appeared on shows like Grey’s Anatomy, One Tree Hill, or Cold Case. The site can be browsed by show, artist, and some movies are included, too. We have previously profiled HeardOnTV on the MakeUseOf Directory. MapOfMetal If you’re interested in finding out how different styles of Metal and associated genres, such as Hard Rock or Punk Rock are connected, check out MapOfMetal. The site provides an interactive tour through the sub-genres and their history, also exploring the musical characteristics of the genres. While you’re reading the little summaries, you can listen to sample tunes for each genre. Also check out the MapOfMetal profile on the MakeUseOf Directory. Theta Music Trainer Do you have a good ear for music and/or would you like to improve it? When you go through the ‘training’ provided at the Theta Music Trainer, you will gain a better understanding of the music you hear every day. Through games you can sharpen your sense of pitch and tone, unlock hidden patterns in music, and strengthen your music theory skills. Theta Music Trainer was profiled on the MakeUseOf Directory. The site was also mentioned in Saikat’s article 10 Interactive Learning Websites For Some Fun & Games With Music. If you liked this article, you should also look into the following: MakeUseOf’s Sound Sunday: 10 Free MP3 Albums Top 10 Free Ways To Discover New Music Online 3 Web Apps For Staying On Top Of The Music Scene 4 Easy Ways Fix Music Tags & Organize Music Library The Top 5 Free Tools To Split Or Merge Music Files Top 5 Free Linux Music Creation Tools For The Artist On A Budget 3 Tools To Write Your Own Sheet Music Online Where do you get your music kick online? Image credits: Ladyann Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on MakeUseOf Answers! 7 Websites For The Music Lover To Find, Discover & Learn About Music is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: artists, discover, indie music, listen, music, songs, streaming music Similar articles: Top 10 Free Ways To Discover New Music Online (172 comments ...) Find, Listen To, Or Promote New Music With Amazing Tunes (18 comments ...) The 14+ Hottest Music Streaming & Discovery Sites (21 comments ...) Soundtrckr – Personalised Radio & Location-Based Music Discovery From Your PC or Smartphone (0 comments ...) Shuffler – A Free Internet Radio Powered By Music Blogs (11 comments ...)

We’re Giving Away A Nikon D3000 To A MakeUseOf Reader Posted: 05 Jul 2011 08:37 AM PDT How awesome is this? If you’ve always wanted to get your hands on a decent digital SLR, now’s the time to really get excited. We’re giving away a Nikon D3000 dSLR to a lucky MakeUseOf reader. This is a great beginner’s digital SLR to get you started with photography. There’s just one to give away, so what are you waiting for? Join now! The D300 is Nikon’s entry level dSLR which comes equipped with a 10.2 MP sensor, a crisp 3″ rear LCD display, amazing 11-point autofocus system, 3 frames-per-second burst image capture and it comes bundled with an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR Nikon lens which is an okay everyday lens. Not a bad start indeed. The Nikon D3000 supports image capture in both JPEG and RAW formats and accepts SD cards. It’s also capable of minor in-camera editing. Even though the D3000 may look barebones compare to the rest of the Nikon line, using a digital SLR trumps a compact digital camera any day of the week. So if you’re even the slightest bit excited about owning a new dSLR, here’s how to join the giveaway. How do I win it? It’s simple, just follow the instructions. Step 1: Fill in the giveaway form Please fill in the form with your real name and email address so that we can get in touch if you are chosen as a winner. Click here if you can’t view the form. Step 2: Share! You’re almost done. Now, all that’s left to do is to share the post. There are 2 options to choose from or you can do both! Like it on Facebook Or share it on Twitter Tweet This giveaway begins now and ends Friday, July 15th at 2100hrs PDT. The winners will be selected at random and informed via email. Spread the word to your friends and have fun! We’re Giving Away A Nikon D3000 To A MakeUseOf Reader is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: camera, giveaway Similar articles: Wipe Your Mac of Sensitive Information with Washing Machine [Giveaway] (5 comments ...) WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe: All-In-One Tool for Video Conversion [Giveaway] (19 comments ...) WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe Giveaway Winners (4 comments ...) WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Giveaway Winners (2 comments ...) WinX DVD Ripper Platinum â€" Backup Your DVD in 5 Mins [Giveaway] (11 comments ...)

3 Apps To Benchmark Your Smartphone [Android] Posted: 05 Jul 2011 08:31 AM PDT Benchmarking has long been the best way to objectively explore the performance of a device. By using a standard test, it's possible to throw mere opinion to the wayside and obtain reliable results that can be reproduced by others. PCs have been benchmarked by reviewers for years, and it's not hard to find free benchmark software for Windows. Smartphones, however, are different. As they are relatively new, virtually all the software is early in its lifecycle, and that includes benchmarks. Still, there are some free apps that can be used to have a look at the performance of your new Android. Quadrant I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Quadrant is the most widely recognized and used benchmark currently available for Android smartphones. Once you start to use Quadrant, it's easy to see why. This benchmark has everything you'd want. It doesn't take very long to run, so you don't have to spend time babying your phone just to judge its performance. The benchmark also consists of various different tests that focus on different parts of a phone's hardware, such as the memory, the processor and the GPU. Finally, there's a results browser, so you can see how your phone stacks up against others. For basic use, the free Standard version is excellent. If you're looking for more control you can pay $2.99 for the Advanced version, which provides a detailed list of sub-scores and lets you change some of the benchmark's settings. NenaMark Although Quadrant does perform a number of different tests and compiles them into a file score, in my experience it's a bit tilted towards CPU performance. If you're interested in isolating the GPU, NenaMark is a great choice. NenaMark puts your phone through its paces by asking it to render a pre-determined scene. The camera flies through 3D terrain along a predetermined path and records the number of frames rendered each second. This is then averaged to provide a final result. There's actually two NenaMarks  - 1 and 2. The second is a more complex scene that's designed to task some of the new high-end phones now available, as many of these will zip through the original NenaMark with ease. Rightware Browsermark As the name implies, Browsermark is meant to benchmark browsers. It's not an app, but a webpage you can visit on your mobile device. However, since the benchmark is standardized and relies on hardware performance, you can use this to benchmark various Android phones if you use the same browser on each. Browsermark only takes a few minutes to run, and it provides a good overall glimpse at how quickly a phone might perform during web browsing. Since there's no app to download or install, it's an easy benchmark to run on a phone you don't own – for example, you could very easily run this on a store's demo unit for comparison against the Android you already own. This benchmark will also run on PCs, although you'll end up with absurdly high scores. While my HTC Thunderbolt usually obtains a score of around 37,000 in Browsermark, my PC scores around 650,000! Peacekeeper is the browser benchmark of choice for desktops and laptops. A Word About Battery Benchmarks Currently, there's not a free app that provides battery benchmarks for Android phones. To attempt this, you'll need to be a little creative. One easy way to benchmark battery life is to have your phone play a video that's extremely long. YouTube, for example, has many videos on it that span for 10 hours or more. Since your phone can be set so that it will not sleep or turn off the display while playing video, you can use this as a means of benchmarking the battery. If you want a less intense usage cycle, media players and looped MP3 files can do the trick. Of course, you may want to keep the display on but not hear the music, so be sure to turn the volume down or off. You can also, of course, simply use your phone normally. This isn't a standardized test so it's not a great benchmark, but it will help you peg your personal real-world usage. Whatever method you use, be sure to download the Battery Graph app. This will keep track of your battery use so you can see just how long it lasted. Conclusion While there aren't as many free tools available for benchmarking Android phones as there are for benchmarking PCs, the apps available are decent. If you're interested in gaining a clear, objective perspective on your phone's performance, these apps are the way to do it. Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on MakeUseOf Answers! 3 Apps To Benchmark Your Smartphone [Android] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: benchmarking, google android, Mobile Apps, optimize, smartphones Similar articles: What’s The Fastest Android Browser? [Geeks Weigh In] (248 comments ...) Two Apps To Disable Auto-Rotation & Save You Neck Pain [Android] (91 comments ...) Three Great 3D Launchers To Revamp Your Android Phone Homescreen (523 comments ...) The 4 Best Recipe Apps For Android Phones (2 comments ...) Tasker For Android: A Mobile App That Caters to Your Every Whim (6 comments ...)

Google Calendar & Gmail’s New Look: How You Can Preview [News] Posted: 05 Jul 2011 07:31 AM PDT Google have recently been rolling out a new design for Google Calendar and Gmail, sporting a minimalist theme. The new look of the Google services is designed to match the recently released Google+. The Google+ design is reported by Techcrunch to have been created by original Macintosh designer, Andy Hertzfeld. The Gmail blog says that this is “part of a Google-wide effort to bring you an experience that's more focused, elastic, and effortless across all of our products” and that changes are intentionally being rolled out slowly in order to incorporate user feedback on the design. For many users, the new look in Google Calendar is already available. Users have the option to use the new look or revert to the classic look (by clicking on the settings icon and choosing “Use Classic Look“). For Gmail users, the new look can be enabled by using the “Preview” or “Preview (Dense)” theme from the themes tab in Gmail settings. The new looks are a very minimalist design, to match with Google+, featuring plenty of whitespace and simple Google colours. What do you think of the new design? Will you be rushing to use the new themes? Why or why not? Source: Gmail Blog Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras. Google Calendar & Gmail’s New Look: How You Can Preview [News] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: Gmail, google calendar, google plus, minimalist, news, themes Similar articles: The Minimalist Suite: Your Favorite Web Apps, Simplified (5 comments ...) 12 Google Services with Mobile Access (17 comments ...) UnGoogled: A Week of Discovering Alternatives For Google’s Services (34 comments ...) Tools, Apps and Bots to Improve your Twitter Experience (32 comments ...) Run Web Apps on your Desktop with Prism (9 comments ...)

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