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Family by Sygic – Knowing where your family members are at all times gives you a sense of security and safety that everybody wants. A parent who does not know where their children are and cannot find out can quickly get very frustrated and worried. Here to help you find out the location of family members is the smart device application Family by Sygic. Read more: Family by Sygic: Know Where Your Family Members Are At All Times [iOS & Android]

		PushBullet – Modern smartphones offer numerous features that includes noting down lists and reminders for future tasks. But creating such lists or setting up notifications is inconvenient, when compared to the ease with which with you can do this on a computer. Fortunately for Android owners, this is possible by a useful application called PushBullet. Read more: PushBullet: Send Notifications To Your Phone From Your Desktop Web Browser [Android 4.0+]
		FontPro – Do you work in design, or any field where you need to download fonts for use on your project? If so, you know that finding top quality fonts is often easier said than done. Plenty of websites offer free fonts, but many of them are filled with ads, and a lot of the fonts are just not of the best quality. That’s where the website FontPro comes into play. It offers a clean interface, and all the free fonts you could ever want to download. Read more: FontPro: Find & Download Lots Of Free Fonts
		Cappuccino – Are you looking for a more elegant way to check your favorite feeds besides going to the browser and going to the Google Reader website? There are plenty of applications available for the Mac that lets you access your Google Reader, and it all comes down to the features and design in terms of which one is going to work best for your needs. Read more: Cappuccino: A Slick Google Reader Client [Mac]
		Clapmera – With a proper digital camera, you can get remotes for taking photos with you in the shot, or you can use the timer, but there is actually a better way. The iPhone comes with a microphone, so why not use that to take photos? With an application called Clapmera, you can clap your hands and have the app take a photo with you in the picture. Read more: Clapmera: Take Photos By Clapping Your Hands [iOS]

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.

The post Cool Websites and Tools [May 18th 2013] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

I’ve never been a fan of Microsoft Word or its alternatives. They often feel bulky and packed with more than what I need. However, there are a lot of basic features that an editor like Notepad could easily add support for. How about line numbering? URL detection? It’s extremely likely that Notepad will never show support for these features, but third-party developers have taken it into their own hands. In this post, let’s look at two relatively unknown Notepad alternatives.

Xint

Xint is a rather advanced spin on the Windows Notepad and adds dozens of additional features without sacrificing disk space or memory usage. It still feels incredibly lightweight and simple.

Xint makes nearly all of its features accessible through hotkeys or buttons in the application’s toolbar. Others can be accessed by right-clicking anywhere within your document. Another great perk is that Xint is completely open source, so it can be trusted. Third-party applications are often riddled with toolbar installation paths and other annoyances, but Xint isn’t. As they offer the source code openly, you can feel free to check through the coding and ensure that there’s absolutely no bloat or unwanted snags.

Shown in the above screenshot, you can already see a number of features that Xint supports over Notepad: line numbering, line and column counters, a saved or unsaved status notifier, and more.

Shown above, there are plenty more features that can be viewed and accessed through the many menus. This includes:

• A “most recent documents” list
• Encryption and decryption using Twofish
• View clipboard
• Fast replacement features using the Boyer Moore algorithm
• Instant access to the character map
• Activate in-file URLs in your default browser
• Conversion options to turn spaces or tabs into commas and other delimiters
• HTML stripping
• A-Z sorting

While Xint’s preferences are a bit limited, you’re able to change many aesthetic preferences like text colors, edge colors, tab widths, foreground and background colors, and more.

Also noteworthy is that Xint allows you to assign hotkeys to practically every function that the application offers, including access to the character map, word count, inserting today’s date, and more. It’s good to have such common functions right at your fingertips and free from a reach to your mouse. All of these hotkeys can be accessed and modified under the ? menu above the main toolbar. As there are so many, some may conflict with hotkeys you have assigned to other running applications (such as a media player), so keep that in mind.

Overall, Xint pumps some much-appreciated and useful features into an interface that is practically the same as Notepad’s.

Subpad

Subpad gets an immediate stamp of approval from me as it introduces itself as a portable application. There’s no bloat or toolbars and getting rid of Subpad is as simple as deleting the folder you’ve extracted it to. If you like it, you can always toss it on a flash drive or in a Dropbox folder to keep with you wherever you go.

Glancing from screenshots of Subpad to Xint, they look a lot like the same application. Subpad’s main toolbar is a bit more refined and has some smoother icons. Other than that, they are extremely similar in appearance. Subpad can actually be described as a slimmed-down version of Xint (which is a souped-up version of Notepad). This is one of my favorite text editors ever.

Subpad includes some of the most core functionalities that Xint does, like word count, URL detection, roll-up forms, word wrap, unlimited undo/redo (which is huge), a list of recently-opened documents, and the ability to run external tools (such as FTP).

The application’s preferences show a window that is exactly the same as what Xint offers, being mostly aesthetic changes that will allow you to change colors, texts, and various sizes of window elements and borders.

If you try Xint and it’s a little too much for you, but Notepad still isn’t enough, Subpad is an awesome balance between the two.

Which of these two alternatives to Notepad do you prefer? Do you like the more extensive solution of Xint or the slimmed-down version of Subpad? Are either of them a better alternative to Notepad? If you’d like to check out some similar applications, you can give AkelPad or ResophNotes a quick look. Both have some interesting features that these two (and Notepad) don’t include. Otherwise, let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Notepad Not Doing The Trick? Try Out The Lightweight Alternatives Xint & Subpad appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Google Play for Education will contain apps organized by subject and grade level, so when looking for a specific app (e.g. a Math app) for a specific grade level, it will be easily discoverable. The apps will come with recommendations from teachers to ensure quality. App purchases by schools will also be streamlined with app purchases charged to a common school credit card which Google will have on its files. The most interesting feature, however, is that the new Play Store will allow schools to simultaneously download the same app to multiple devices — Google’s cloud infrastructure will push the apps across the board and help schools scale up rapidly.

Large scale distribution could enable Google to gain traction in the trending area of educational technology. An it won’t end with Android apps, as Google will surely follow this move up with videos and books as well. With Android devices like Nexus 7 on hand, Google could easily cut into Apple’s pie in the education sector. Could it be a win-win situation for schools that can avail of cheaper teaching aids thanks to Google’s push? This remains to be seen.

What do you think of this new initiative? Will you use it?

Source: The Next Web

The post Google Play For Education Set To Enter Classrooms With A Play Store For Educational Apps [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The web is full of great media content – if you live in the right country. Otherwise, it’s blocked for most of the world. James told you that VPNs are old, and showed you better ways to access region-blocked video. Chris showed you how to beat region blocked media sites on Android, and Hola was one of the apps listed.

Hola Unblocker is among the easiest tools for the job. Even better, it can seriously speed up the wireless web, if you’re an Android user. By default it supports a (very) limited number of sites, but with a little tweaking you can add more.

Getting Started With Hola

Head to Hola.org to get started. You’ll be presented with the various versions of Hola Unblocker.

Android users should download the app. Windows users can download a system-wide app (Windows 8 not supported). Everyone else can use the browser extensions.

Most of the sites this service allows you to access are US-based, but that doesn’t mean those of us living in America can’t also benefit. For example, we could use it to watch Downton Abbey months ahead of the PBS broadcast.

Spoil every plot twist! Ruin the show for everyone! Prevent your friends from talking to you! You can also create your own scripts to access other region blocked content – more on that later.

The Android app is similar to the Windows one – simply download the app and it will run in the background. You can configure which services are on and off:

You can also pick which sites you’d like to bypass region restrictions on:

As you can see, Facebook and Twitter are included in the list. This is useful if your corporate firewall blocks the sites, so office drones rejoice! Both of these sites are also blocked in certain countries –notably China – so Hola can help you access them while traveling. Note: breaking the law in a foreign country is generally a bad idea, and we’re not responsible for anything you do.

Creating Your Own Unblocker Script

The number of sites unblocked is currently quite limited, but advanced users can add more. Just click the “I’m Smart” link in the Hola settings, and check out this GitHub page for instructions. Be warned: this is mainly ideal for advanced users. Don’t be too nervous, however: it’s not as bad as it sounds. I’m a hockey nerd, and I was able to quickly make a script for bypassing NHL Gamecenter blackouts based on code I found on GitHub:

Add my NHL script to Hola here, if you’re interested. Subscription required, of course, and you’ll need Hola installed in order to use the link. It basically routes all NHL.com traffic through Spain; tweak a little and you’ll get the hang of making your own. Currently you can only route requests through three countries: the US, the UK and Spain.

Android users probably don’t want to type code on their device. Don’t worry, just create the script on your computer, then send the link to your Android device using the provided share link. It works, regardless of what browser you use on Android. Note that you may need to turn off location services for this to work on Android – certain apps check your location via the device settings before checking GeoIP.

The flexibility to create your own unblockers really gives Hola an edge over the alternatives – there’s no need to wait for someone else to unblock a site you love. That said, there are limitations: I would like to create another script for CBC.ca, but sadly there is no Canadian server to route traffic through at the moment. Someday, hopefully.

Hola As A Web Accelerator

Bypassing blocks isn’t all Hola is good for – it also promotes itself as a website accelerator on Windows and Android. Here’s their demonstration, on an Android phone:

I can’t so I noticed much of a different personally, but my connection is relatively fast to begin with. Let us know if this improves your speed in the comments below.

Download Hola Unblocker

Ready to get started? Just head to Hola.org. You’ll find multiple versions there for most platforms (though nothing for iOS – Apple presumably won’t allow them into the App Store).

What are you using Hola to unblock? Let us know in the comments below, along with any custom scripts you maybe have written. Seriously,share your scripts. There don’t seem to be many floating around the web at the moment, which is too bad.

The post Hola Unblocker – Easily Access Region-Blocked Content appeared first on MakeUseOf.

While some of you might just use Microsoft OneNote in very simple ways, note that there are a few scenarios which can greatly increase OneNote’s effectiveness for you. Here are five tips that can help you get more out of OneNote so you can reduce your stress, become more organized, and find time for other things in life.

Get OneNote for Free!

If you use Windows 8, Android, iOS, or Windows Phone, did you know that you can use OneNote absolutely free? While it won’t be as fully functional as the version found in the Microsoft Office suite, there are official OneNote apps available for Windows 8, Android, iOS, and Windows Phone absolutely free from the respective app stores. You can even use the OneNote Web App.

These apps allow you to use the main features of OneNote that make it so great. The only limitation are the number of notes you can have, which won’t hurt you if you do some routine cleaning. So anyone can get their lives organized with OneNote without having to pay anything.

Sync Your Notebooks

Synchronization of OneNote’s notebooks is key if you have multiple devices. Being able to access and modify your notebooks from any of your devices can help save you time and possible frustration. Recent versions of OneNote can automatically sync via your Skydrive, which makes it easy to access the current versions of your notebooks from any computer or mobile device.

If you’d rather not use Skydrive, but instead use a different cloud sync service like Dropbox, you can simply save your notebooks in your Dropbox folder instead. It may help to enable sharing on the notebook, however, so that you won’t encounter any issues if you have the notebook open on more than one device at a time.

Organize and Use Often!

OneNote can be used for a lot more than simple note-taking — it can be used to store everything important in your life. This can include anything from keeping up with a simple to-do list to organizing client info for a business to organizing research when planning out a trip. If you come across anything that may be important in both the short-term as well as long-term, put it in OneNote!

Just remember that there is a difference between keeping random daily notes and keeping organized notes. With organized notes, it’ll be a lot easier to find things you’ve saved, making OneNote a lot more useful for you.

Busy Student Lives

If you’re a student who hasn’t used OneNote before, then you seriously need to take a look at it. OneNote’s organizational structure for notes makes it perfect for students to organize their notes by class and topic or lecture. OneNote also offers a great template which students can start off with and then modify to meet their own needs. Microsoft OneNote is simply fantastic for a student’s every need — homework lists, quick notes, lecture notes, reviews, and more.

Additionally, as a student, it’s even more important to have a system set up for synchronization, so that you are able to access your class notes wherever you are, even on the go.

Do Math in Your Notes

Besides being great for a number of different usage scenarios, OneNote also has a few features that aren’t very well known. One of them is OneNote’s ability to take care of mathematical problems right in your notes. You can give this feature a try right now: open up any random note and type out a simple math equation like “25/5=” but without the quotes. As soon as you hit enter or return after the equals sign, OneNote will automatically calculate the value for you. This helps combine notes and actual math work at the same time.

Microsoft OneNote’s math capabilities reach much farther than that, however. OneNote can also calculate trigonometric functions, logarithms, radians, derivatives, integrals, and a few other common math functions. Please note, however, that some of the advanced math functions can only be found in the paid version of OneNote, so your experience may vary if you are using a free app.

Conclusion

Hopefully these five tips have convinced you that Microsoft OneNote is definitely worth a try, or worth diving further into if you’re just a casual user. You can also check out some other great OneNote tips, or check out this comparison between OneNote and the infamous Evernote.

What OneNote tips do you have? What note-taking solution do you use if not OneNote? Let us know in the comments!

The post 5 Ways to Take Advantage of Microsoft OneNote appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The most notable of these changes is the redesigned layout for the Google+’s Stream. Revealed by Google’s Vic Gundotra at the conference, the redesign features new animations and cards that closely resemble Google Now, although a better comparison would be to Pinterest’s pinboard-like layout.

With that said, the new stream features multiple columns for viewing content. You can click photos to flip them over and view related photos under the same hashtag, but for those of you who worry about privacy, there’s the a way to exclude your photos from being attached to the hashtag.

Interestingly enough, the new layout is responsive to various devices, so it will adjust to varying screen sizes. But rather than automatically adjusting the three-column layout to a single-column layout for mobile devices, the three-column layout will remain usable. If you aren’t partial to this design, then you have the option to switch to a single-column layout.

If you’d like to check out the Google+ redesign, you should be happy to know that it was released on Wednesday. Give it a look and see what you think. Also, while you’re there, check out the other features that Google has announced.

Do you like the new Google+ Stream layout? What do you think of the other new features?

Source: TheNextWeb

The post Google Updates Google+ Stream Layout, Adds 41 New Features To Streams, Hangouts, & Photos [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Add Your Website Here!

Special Key – Thanks to the Internet, you can easily get your message to any part of the world after a few keystrokes and mouse clicks. While normal online communication methods are all fine for general discussions, you will require a stronger and more secure online communication method for sensitive information. In that case, check out Special Key. Read more: Special Key: Create Secure Messages Online With Encrypted URLs

		Nights Keeper – Does your phone tend to ring late at night? This can be a great way to mess up your sleep cycle, as text messages and phone calls can often wait until the morning, but the ringtone will definitely wake you up. That being said, there are some calls you may want to receive late at night, even if you are sleeping. The Android application called Nights Keeper is the perfect way to manage the way your phone works at night. Read more: Nights Keeper: Control The Way Your Phone Rings At Night [Android]
		FormulaSheet – Students, business owners, mathematicians and even home users will often need to resort to formulae for their work, study or home needs. FormulaSheet is a service designed to help facilitate working with and remembering formulas, and is one of the first sites of its kind aimed at this specific use. Read more: FormulaSheet: Search, Render & Keep Track Of Formulas From One Place
		Chogger – Are you a fan of online comics? If you are, then surely you will have wanted to make one of those yourself sometime. You might have thought that the work seems simple enough and tried to create the comic in a native app such as Paint. If you are really interested in making comics and then sharing them with others, you should check out Chogger. Read more: Chogger: A Web Service That Helps You Easily Create Comics
		YouTube Couch Mode – While laptop owners might be able to simply lie down in bed and take their laptop with them to enjoy YouTube videos, computer owners with large displays are not able to do the same. They need a way to relax on their couch and still be able to control the playback of their YouTube videos. Here to offer people exactly that is YouTube Couch Mode. Read more: YouTube Couch Mode: View YouTube Videos In Full Screen By Default & Control Playback With Your Smartphone

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.

The post Cool Websites and Tools [May 17th 2013] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Apps and services are bought, companies develop their strategy, and a lot of times, that means moving away from the one service or feature that you love the most. Google Reader’s popularity, and a pretty vociferous outcry following Google’s decision to pull the plug, has done little to convince the tech giant to go back on its decision, forcing people to look for alternatives. And Google is certainly not alone. Blogging platform Posterous similarly announced its shutdown last February, having been acquired by Twitter, and gave users two months to look for alternatives.

The old saying goes, if you’re not paying for it, you’re the product, has never rung more true than at these times when a company decides it no longer needs you, or has been acquired by a bigger outfit. Here are a few ways you can at least prepare yourself for the inevitable.

Only Choose Services That Provide a Backup Feature

This is the golden rule of protecting yourself from an ultimate shutdown. Always choose services that provide a backup feature. Better yet, if you can, choose a service that allows you to backup your data to a common format that will likely be compatible with other services such as XML or CSV files. This way you can be sure your content can easily end up somewhere else.

If you can also backup your content from the service to a readable format on your computer, that’s always great too. Either way, if a free cloud-based service doesn’t give its users the basic courtesy of exporting their own content, it’s difficult to trust them with your data.

Perform Regular Backups

Now that you know the service can provide you with backups, to stay on the safe side, perform regular backups, even if there’s been no talk from the service itself of an impending shutdown. With the finicky and unreliable of the Internet, you simply never know what could happen, so you might as well run a backup at least once a month, particularly if you’re extremely active on that service.

Do you tend to be forgetful when it comes to backups? Set up a reminder on your calendar, phone or computer.

Always Keep An Eye Out For Alternatives

While you might love the service you’re using, it’s always good to keep an eye out for alternatives. You never know when you might have to make the switch, and rather than scramble to find an alternative that you might end up not liking, always be aware of the competition and their features so if you need to make a quick switch, you can do so while well informed of what to expect.

Monitor Social Media Accounts Or Blogs For Announcements

The chances are that if a site or service is shutting down, they’ll send you an email telling you as much, and doing so at least a few months in advance to give you a chance to find an alternative. At least that is what they should give you the courtesy of doing.  Just in case you’ve got filters set up in your email inbox, or you just happen to not check your email too often, it might also be a good idea to monitor any available Twitter, Facebook or Google+ accounts, or alternatively an official blog, where you can expect to find announcements.

This way you’ll always know about any worrying downtime, will get a better sense of how often the service is affected by glitches, or in the worst case scenario, when it is shutting down.

Find Out More About The Developers

If possible, try to find out more about the developers behind the app or service. Do they have a track record for launching services and abandoning them or shutting them down? It’s always good to know who you’re dealing with, and knowing a developer or company’s history can be a great way to get a bit of peace of mind.

Crunchbase is a great resource for finding out everything you need to know about the companies you’re trusting with your data.

Choose Services With Offline Features

Services like Evernote offer you offline or desktop access to your content. Even Google, awful track record aside, provides Google Drive which you can access using a desktop app. Choosing services that come with desktop features or automatic sync are a great way to not have to worry about the very first rule – remembering to backup your content – since it’s all automated for you anyway.

Choose a Paid Service

If you’re really worried about losing access to your content, a paid service is another route to consider. With the Posterous shutdown, Posthaven came to the forefront as a viable alternative, promising it would never shut down, but offering users the service at the cost of $5 a month.

Stay Off The Cloud

At the end of the day, if you’re really worried about your content, there’s no better tip than staying off the cloud. The minute you choose to use a third party cloud-based service, you’re putting your trust in someone else’s hands and that’s something you simply have to come to terms with.

We certainly don’t recommend staying off the cloud – there’s a lot of convenience and handy features that come with cloud-based services, but if you really want to protect yourself – as the old adage goes – nothing beats abstinence.

Do you have any tips on protect yourself from a service shutdown? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Shutterstock

The post How To Protect Yourself From Online Services Shutting Down appeared first on MakeUseOf.

In the Flight Control game, you play as an air traffic controller trying to guide your planes to safety. The gameplay is incredibly addictive, starting out simple and relaxing and soon becoming downright frantic as you progress. We’ve had it on our Best iPhone Games list for as long as we’ve had such a list.

Since the initial release back in the relatively early days of the App Store, the developers have continued to support the game with new content. Even if you’ve played it before it is definitely worth another look if you’ve not gone back in a while.

Gameplay

The objective of Flight Control is to safely guide your planes from where they enter the map to the matching color runway. As you land your fleet, additional planes start spawning and this is where it becomes incredibly hectic. You will often draw a path that looks safe, but as more planes come into view, you’ll have to adjust the path to avoid a collision. To make things crazier, different craft move at different speeds, so taking this into consideration is critical as you work through the levels.

The controls in Flight Control are simple but effective. You simply touch the aircraft you want to move and draw a path to the runway with your finger. You can a draw straight line if the lane is open, or you can get creative and make a zigzag path to stall the plane’s arrival to the runway.

There are plenty of levels in Flight Control, and each one changes the flow a great deal. Some levels only feature two kinds of runways, others feature more. As you might expect, more runways make things more challenging. There are even levels with extra elements such as lighting and planes that you cannot control.

Flight Control requires a large amount of strategy and thought to be successful, and the fact that most levels only take a minute or two makes it perfect for quick sessions. The better you are the longer the games will be, but even if you are incredibly skilled most runs do not last more than a few minutes.

Audio & Visuals

The graphics in Flight Control have a cartoonish style, visuals that work incredibly well for a game of this type. Everything is sharp, whether playing on an older iOS device or a new iPhone or iPad with a Retina display. While not as stunning as Real Racing, it’s clear that Firemint took the time to make this game easy on the eyes.

The music is enjoyable, and it fits well with the theme of the game. If the developers were aiming to create an old-school flight experience, the music goes a long way to solidifying the theme. The sound effects actually add to the experience by providing an audible warning when the planes are facing a possible midair collision. Playing without sound in Flight Control puts you at a serious disadvantage, so I would highly recommend listening as you play.

Game Life

There are a total of six levels in Flight Control, and each is quite different, so there is plenty of enjoyment to be had. In addition, the gameplay lends itself well to playing for a long time, as coming back and trying to beat your best score is quite addictive.

Achievements will keep you coming back for more as will the stats screen which keeps you updated with exactly how you are doing in the game. Social features go even further to extending the life, as you can compete with your friends for the best scores over Twitter and Facebook.

Conclusion

Flight Control has been on the App Store for a long time now, and it’s still one of my favorite games. It’s perfectly suited to quick sessions when you want to jump in and have some fun and move on with your day. That being said, the addictive gameplay will keep you playing for some time so even if quick sessions are not your thing, the Flight Control game has you covered.

Download: Flight Control for iPhone & iPod Touch ($0.99) / Flight Control HD for iPad ($5.49)

The post Flight Control Is A Classic Game That Is Worth Going Back To [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Drafts is not just for taking and saving notes, it is also for sharing notes to dozens of other apps and services. The app is optimized for both the iPhone ($2.99) and iPad ($3.99), and for what it does, the price tag is very reasonable. I’m pretty much a sucker for notes apps, and Drafts pretty much does all I need for writing and exporting notes from my iOS devices.

How It Works

I first wrote about Drafts as part of an article about alternative apps for Apple’s default iOS Notes, but since posting that article, several useful features have been added to Drafts that users may find convenient. What makes Drafts different is that right after you launch it, you can begin writing a note. There’s no additional tapping needed to get started. It’s like grabbing a scrap of paper and writing a quick note.

Once you’ve written your note it’s automatically saved and added to your list of notes. When you open Drafts again, it starts you off with a blank page for more note writing. Drafts also allows you to tap the share button and export the note to one or more apps or services. You can, for example:

• Email the note to yourself. Drafts allows you to set up an email template with your or someone else’s email address, along with a default subject line. The note you just wrote will be attached to the email.
• Export the note to the clipboard, to Evernote, a new SMS Message, Twitter or Facebook.
• Export or append a note to a text file in your Dropbox account.
• Copy notes to other third-party apps like the journal app Day One, the text editor Simplenote, or the mobile calendar app Fantastical. You can also use the default iOS calendar app.
• Use Drafts to run a keyword search of an item in search engines like Google, Bing or GoodReads.

Other Features

When I first started using Drafts, I was satisfied with its ability to let me quickly email notes to myself since Apple still hasn’t provided a better way to gets notes out of iOS devices. But if you spend a little time in the Settings area of Drafts, you can set it up even better for your particular needs.

Because Drafts includes dozens of export actions, you can manage and customize them into one of five different panels. So when you tap on an action in Settings, you might organize all your most used actions in the first panel, and hide actions you think you will never use. Another panel can be used for your social network related actions.

The settings also allows you to set what you would like to happen to a note when a particular action is applied to it. An example would be when you use the email action, you might set that action to automatically archive or delete that note once it’s sent. You can also have Drafts post a confirmation pop-up for what to do with a note after an action is applied.

The iPad and iPhone versions of Drafts are basically the same, but the iPad version also includes an extended keyboard toolbar of features, including undo and redo buttons, cursor arrows, hashtag and quotation marks, and other punctuation symbols.

There are extra features for email, Messages, Evernote and URL actions. For example, the Email action enables you to set up email templates with default email addresses, subject line, and boilerplate text.

The Dropbox and Evernote actions allow you to create text files in your account so that notes can be appended to a specified file or a new text file can be created for each new note. Drafts also includes markdown and TextExpander support, landscape typing, and live word and character counts.

I use Drafts on my iPhone and iPad for both quick notes and extended pieces of writing. I find it easier sometimes to launch and use Drafts rather than haul out Evernote or Day One. But there are also similar quick note apps including Catch Notes, and more extended notes apps for brainstorming ideas, plots and characters.

Download: Drafts for iPhone & iPod Touch ($2.99) / Drafts for iPad ($3.99)

Let us know what you think of Drafts, and how you’re using it in the comments below!

The post Drafts: The Ultimate Notes App For The iPhone and iPad [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

However, there is a problem. Windows Phone itself doesn’t seem to be a particularly popular choice for video upload and broadcast streaming websites at this stage. The result is that it can be tough to upload your videos and share them.

As things stand at the time of writing there are rumours that Ustream are planning to release a Windows Phone app. There is no word, however, from Qik, which means that broadcast streaming options are non-existent. Fortunately over the past few months more and more apps have come along that will enable you to upload videos.

SkyDrive

One of the first options you should consider for sharing videos from Windows Phone is SkyDrive. In order to enable this, you can activate SkyDrive auto-upload via Settings > Applications > Photos+camera. This option will automatically upload all photos and videos when your phone is connected to Wi-Fi (uploading photos can be done via a 3G/4G connection, however).

You can either share your video clip manually later, or use the save to SkyDrive option when viewing the video to upload it as a publicly shared item. Of course, if you’re not using Windows Live as a social network, not many people will see this unless you share it with another social network.

Videos saved to SkyDrive can be shared, however, either by email or through Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Facebook

One of the drawbacks of the above method is that Silverlight (Microsoft’s short-lived “answer” to Adobe Flash) is required to view the clips – so it is much better to share your videos from Windows Phone to Facebook.

This is done by choosing Share… > Facebook from the camera view or from the clip itself, adding in the necessary description and then tapping the Upload button. Note that uploading might take a while depending on the resolution of the video, and of course the length, both of which will impact on the file size.

Of all the upload methods available, sharing to Facebook is probably the best for Windows Phone users. While it is as simple as the SkyDrive method, an uploaded video is also easier to view as there is no requirement for Microsoft Silverlight.

YouTube

It would be really unfair to say that Google has actively attempted to disrupt Windows Phone apps using its service – if it were untrue. The fact that a team at Microsoft has been working very hard to bring a competent YouTube app to users (most of whom have been using third party apps in place of the Microsoft’s original, clunky app) is evidence enough. Windows Phone has been around for nearly three years. Thanks a bunch, Google.

As polished as the new Windows Phone YouTube app is it isn’t capable of uploading videos. Crazy, isn’t it? As such, you will need to rely on the manual “done-by-email” method of video uploading.

In order to set this up you will need a unique email address for uploading videos to your account. Do this by signing into YouTube and opening your account screen. Against the Mobile Uploads section you will see a unique, generated email address that you should add to your phone’s contacts (perhaps as “YouTube”).

To upload, open the Pictures hub, select the video and from the menu tap Share…. Select an email account and then the YouTube contact. Remember to add a subject line as this will be assigned as your video title, while any body text will be added as the video description.

Once the email is uploaded, you will receive an email confirming this, and the clip will be available to view on your YouTube account.

Vimeo

One of the most popular alternatives to YouTube is Vimeo, and unlike Google they’ve released an app for Windows Phone that does offer video upload.

To upload videos to your Vimeo account, first sign in after launching the app and then tap the Record button to launch the camera. Front and back cameras can be used where available, and you can also switch to standard definition – useful if you’re uploading over mobile Internet. There is no facility to upload videos already recorded and stored on your phone, only those made with the Vimeo app.

Available free from the Windows Phone Store, I was happy to discover that as a Windows Phone 8 user, I get three free months of Vimeo Plus.

DailyMotion

You can find the DailyMotion app in the Windows Phone Store, also free. Like Vimeo, this app offers upload capability, but it is the first Windows Phone app I’ve come across that restarted my Nokia Lumia 920 – not a good sign!

There seems to be various issues with the app, which was first released in April 2013, although you would expect them to be soon resolved with a couple of updates. DailyMotion allows you to sign in with your Facebook account, and like Vimeo uploading is only something that you can do with a new video created within the app.

Conclusion – The State of Windows Phone Video Sharing

As you can see, there are some good options for uploading videos with Windows Phone, and perhaps the Facebook sharing is best for most purposes.

However, the YouTube email method is surprisingly good given that Google doesn’t appear to want Windows Phone users (the numbers of which are growing in Europe thanks to Nokia’s aggressive marketing), while Vimeo offers a very good alternative with a great app experience.

What remains missing is the video broadcast apps. I can’t accept that this is down to the platform. I keep hearing people complain that Windows Phone doesn’t have as many apps as iPhone and Android, but given that it is a younger platform and has reached milestones in its app store faster than either of the big players, this simply doesn’t make sense.

For fast uploading of videos from your Windows Phone to a sharing service, I would recommend Facebook first, although the YouTube email and DailyMotion are both very good alternatives.

The post Facebook, SkyDrive Or YouTube – The Best Way To Share Videos In Windows Phone 8 appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Even Google’s major competitor, Apple, which still doesn’t have a streaming music service, may see its iTunes market share challenged by All Access. All Access is part of the Google Play platform which allows users to browse and purchase music, magazines, books, movies, television programs, and applications published through Google.

All Access costs $9.99 per month, with a 30-day free trial, but customers signing up before June 30th will pay a reduced monthly fee of $7.99. All Access provides unlimited access to Google’s entire online streaming music library, which is based on licensing agreements with music companies such as Universal Music and Sony Music Entertainment.

The subscription service can be used through the Google Play Web client and on Android devices. Subscribers can also add songs from the library to their devices for offline access. In addition, the monthly subscription includes a custom radio feature based on the songs, artists, and albums you select. All songs can be managed in playlists, purchased for download, and shared on Google+.

Included in the service for both subscribers and non-subscribers, is free access to the Google Play music storage locker which lets you upload up to 20,000 of your own songs and albums from your computer using the cross-platform Google Play Music Manager. The manager scans your iTunes library and any music folder on your computer and matches it with the same songs from the Google Play library. Copies of your songs not found in the Google library will be uploaded to your account.

All Access is currently US only, but if successful, might expand to other parts of the world in the future.

So what do you think of Google new music streaming service? Will you try it out or switch from your existing online music subscription?

Source: MercuryNews.com

The post Google Unveils Google Play Music All Access For Unlimited Music Streaming [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

A few months ago, I wrote about Firefox encryption addons aimed to keep your outgoing browser data as safe from prying eyes as possible. Encryption is great but there are other considerations you need to make if you want to be as safe as you can be. The Internet can be an annoying – or even dangerous – place if you don’t watch yourself.

BetterPrivacy

A few years ago, something known as the “Flash cookie” came onto the scene (AKA “super cookie” or “long-term cookie” or “local shared object”) and still exists today. Basically, it’s a Flash-based cookie that never expires and can’t be deleted through conventional means, which allows the advertising industry to track you pretty much anywhere you go.

Browsers aren’t yet fully aware of these Flash cookies so they can’t do much against them. That’s why BetterPrivacy exists. It allows you to manage Flash cookies on your system with ease. You can even set it to automatically delete Flash cookies on startup, shutdown, or on a schedule.

Note: Not all Flash cookies are bad. Some browser-based games use them to store game settings, some interactive sites use them to store login data, etc. If you automatically delete your Flash cookies, make sure to set important Flash cookies as exempt.

Ghostery

Ghostery is a comprehensive web privacy addon for Firefox that lets you see who’s trying to track you and subsequently block them if you don’t trust them. Ghostery can detect much of the invisible web activity going on behind the scenes – especially the trackers deployed by ad agencies and web publishers.

When you have trackers on you, Ghostery presents you with the tracking company’s privacy policy and any opt-out actions you can take. If you don’t trust the company at all, you can flat-out block them – scripts, Flash cookies, and even images.

NoScript

NoScript is a strict security addon that only allows whitelisted sites from running scripts and executable content on your browser – Java, JavaScript, etc. It’s a preemptive safety method that minimizes the threat of accidentally stumbling upon a malicious website and having them do something shady on your computer.

With NoScript, you’ll be guarded against cross-site scripting vulnerabilities (XSS), cross-zone DNS rebinding and CSRF attacks (router hacking), and clickjacking attempts.

Keylogger Beater

Keyloggers can be a big problem. They’re a form of malware that sits quietly on your computer and traces every key you press and every click you make, then sends that data to whoever created the keylogger allowing them to read what you type and maybe even steal a few account name + password combinations. There are a few ways to guard against keyloggers - Keylogger Beater is one.

Keylogger Beater brings up a scrambled text inputter that randomly reassigns your keys. There are pairs of “real keys” and “shadow keys” where pressing the shadow key will input the real key. This will jumble up any key output in case you have a hidden keylogger on your system. If you don’t want to press keys at all, you can just hover over a key with your mouse for one second and Keylogger Beater will read that as an input.

Flashblock

Flash-based content is some of the most prolific content in the world. There are Flash games, Flash ads, Flash video players, and more. Unfortunately, while Flash is powerful, it is also slow and can be used for nefarious purposes. Flashblock assumes that all Flash content is malicious and preemptively blocks them from loading.

With Flashblock, when you load up a page, every instance of Flash will be replaced with a placeholder element. If you click on that element, that particular Flash content will be downloaded and viewed. For your convenience, you can set certain sites and domains to be whitelisted.

Note: Flashblock does not work if you have JavaScript disabled OR if you have NoScript enabled.

ShareMeNot

You know those Facebook “Like” buttons and Twitter “Tweet This” buttons that you see all across the Internet? They may be intrusive and distracting when poorly implemented, but they’re ultimately harmless, right? You may want to guess again. Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites that have embedded buttons can actually track you through those buttons even if you never click them.

One way to prevent button tracking is to prevent them from loading in the first place. ShareMeNot is an experimental Firefox addon that offers a different solution: it disables the tracking aspect of the button while loading it. If this is something that worries you, you should give ShareMeNot a run.

Conclusion

Security and privacy are important if you’re going to be involved in the Internet realm. You can stay safe with proper browsing habits and helpful web tools like Web of Trust, but once in a while you’re going to slip. When that happens, you’re going to wish you had a browser addon or two as a secondary layer of protection.

For maximum protection, use more than one of these addons simultaneously – as long as they are compatible, of course. If you know of any other great security and privacy addons for Firefox, please share them with us in the comments!

Image Credit: Social Media Signs Via Shutterstock

The post Everything You Need to Make Firefox Private & Secure appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Steam has gradually added features you once needed third-party programs for. You can now choose an install location every time you install a game, see the games you and another person both own (perfect for deciding a game to play together), and get email notifications when games on your wishlist go on sale.

Steam Mover – Move Installed Games

Steam now allows you to select an installation location when you install your games, which is particularly useful if you have limited storage space — perhaps you have a small solid-state drive and a larger drive where you want to install your games.

However, if you want to change the installation location of a Steam game after installing it, you’ll normally need to remove the game and then install it again, downloading all the game’s data again in the process. This could take a while and could be a problem if you have a slow Internet connection or one with a bandwidth cap.

Steam Mover is a simply utility that can quickly move a game’s files, creating a “junction point” so Steam will see them at the normal location – but they’ll be stored on another hard drive.

Depressurizer – Easily Manage Steam Game Categories

If you’ve ever tried to categorize your games in Steam, you’ll know that it can be an exercise in frustration. You can only assign a category to one game at a time, and you have to do it by opening a context menu, opening a dialog box, and assigning the category. You can’t easily categorize multiple games at once. If you want to rename a category, you can’t – you can only create a new category and slowly reassign each individual game to the new category one-by-one. Worse yet, Steam can sometimes forget these categories when you log in from another PC, forcing you to start over and do the whole tedious process from scratch.

Depressurizer is a tool designed to make using Steam categories much more easily. The application allows you to automatically assign games to categories like “Action” and “Adventure” based on their categories in the Steam store, quickly assign a category to multiple games at once, rename categories, and even create a backup file containing all your Steam game category information. You can quickly reimport this file with Depressurizer if Steam ever forgets your categories again.

Wasted on Steam – See How Much Your Library Is Worth & More

Just how much is your Steam library worth? Wasted on Steam will tell you. This utility won’t actually tell you how much you’ve spent on games – if you acquired games on sale or via bundles like the Humble Bundle, Wasted On Steam will show them at full price. Likewise, if you purchased a game at $60 but it’s now being sold for $20, the game will appear to be worth less now.

Nevertheless, this utility will show you just how much you’d have to spend to buy your entire Steam library again today. Just enter your Steam ID and it will do the work. It will also display how many hours you’ve played games in total, display sales, and more.

How Long To Beat, Backloggery – Track Your Backlog

If you’re one of the people with Steam game libraries composed of hundreds of games – many of them purchased in cheap bundles during sales – you may have quite a backlog of games you haven’t played yet.

You can track this backlog with a website like How Long to Beat. Enter the Steam games you want to play and How Long to Beat will show them all in a list, displaying the time it took for other users to complete the game. It will even add them all up, telling you just how long you’ll have to play your games to catch up. How Long to Beat can also be used without an account — you can quickly search for a game and see how long it will take you to finish it.

Backloggery is another similar service. There’s even a steam2backloggery program you can run, which will automatically import all the games you own into your Backloggery library.

Both of these programs aren’t Steam or even PC-specific – they can be used with games from every platform.

TikiOne-Steam-Cleaner – Free Up Space

Steam games often need to install “redistributable” packages like DirectX updates, Games For Windows Live, and so on. Games include these installer files and automatically install them the first time you launch the game.

After you’ve run them, they stick around on your hard drive, using up space. Worse yet, every game comes with its own unique copy of these files. If you have a large amount of games installed, it’s likely much space is being used by unnecessary duplicates of these installers, which may be as large as 100MB each.

TikiOne-Steam-Cleaner will scan your Steam folder for such installers and allow you to quickly remove them, freeing up space. It’s a good idea that can help free up space, but there’s a problem – if the game ever updates or if you run the “verify game cache” option on the game, Steam will notice that some of the game’s files are missing and re-download them.

GameSave Manager – Back Up & Restore Game Saves

Many – or even most – new games include Steam Cloud support for game saves. They’ll automatically upload your game saves to the cloud, syncing them across all your devices and allowing you to recover them if you ever reformat your hard drive or get a new computer.

However, some games don’t include Steam Cloud support for game saves. You might also want to have local backup copies of saves for games you’ve played, just in case Steam makes a mistake and messes them up. This is even useful if you’re migrating Steam to a new hard drive – not all game saves will come with you.

GameSave Manager is a program that scans your hard drive for Steam game saves and allows you to create a backup file containing them. You can then use GameSave Manager to quickly restore all your game saves from this single file on a new computer. GameSave Manager also allows you to link save folders to cloud folders, so you could link a game’s save folder to your Dropbox or Google Drive folder and automatically sync its saves with your cloud storage.

Have you used any other useful utilities or websites that improve your Steam experience? Leave a comment and share them below!

The post 6 Useful Tools For Getting More Out Of Steam Games appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Here’s the secret: You don’t have to renew with Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon. There are alternatives called MVNOs who lease spectrum wholesale from the big players and resell to the consumer at a much lower rate. If you want to save money, there are two choices: Purchase a new, unlocked iPhone and add it to an MVNO carrier or buy a locked iPhone from an MVNO.

This article explains the five best MVNO carriers for iPhone users and the issues faced when migrating from a major network. However, if you simply want tips on how to evaluate the best iPhone prepaid plans, check out this article.

How Do I Get An iPhone onto a Prepaid MVNO?

As stated previously, you can either purchase a new or used unlocked iPhone or you may purchase a locked phone from an MVNO carrier. However, caveats exist:

1. You cannot move a used Sprint iPhone onto any MVNO carriers. Sprint has given little explanation for this decision, unfortunately. The likely reason is that they don’t want their biggest cash cows to graze in other fields. If I’m wrong, please correct me.
2. If you’re under a contract, leaving will require a very hefty early termination fee.
3. If you move a phone across networks, even on GSM, you may experience data speed issues. For example, if you switch an AT&T iPhone 5 onto the T-Mobile network, you may only be able to reach 2G or 3G speeds.
4. The iPhone 4S comes with dual GSM and CDMA technology, meaning that if unlocked they function on any network (except Sprint), making them highly prized among Apple products.
5. GSM phones use different sized SIM cards. The iPhone 4 uses a micro SIM whereas the iPhone 5 uses a nano SIM. However, wrong sized SIM can easily be converted into the right size.

T-Mobile Prepaid Plans

For heavy data users, T-Mobile’s $30 a month plan for 100 voice minutes and unlimited SMS and data ranks among the best. However, if you require additional voice minutes, T-Mo offers $60 and $70 plans for which include unlimited everything, although data gets throttled after 2GB and 5GB, respectively.

They don’t advertise their best plans, though. You have to go to the bottom of their prepaid page to find their “Pay by the day” plans.

What’s good? In terms of total value, the $30 T-Mobile plan provides the best bang for your buck. However, if you scale up, you get better value, and network connectivity, from the MVNOs.

What’s bad? Unfortunately, the T-Mobile network trails behind the other three big carriers in data connectivity. Its 4G network focuses on providing HSPA+ data, which doesn’t reach the speeds of LTE. T-Mobile plans on rolling out its actual LTE network throughout this year, although any phone without an LTE chip won’t be able to reach LTE speeds.

What’s ugly? In many markets, all iPhones except the iPhone 5 are limited to 2G data speeds because of 3G compatibility issues with the 1700-MHz band. You will want to check with T-Mobile to see if your area is one of the effected regions.

Phone cost: A brand new iPhone 5 will run about $649.99 from the Apple Store.

Extra costs: The T-Mo SIM card runs about $10 from their website.

PagePlus Wireless Prepaid Plans

PagePlus Wireless currently holds the honor of being the only MVNO with full functionality with the Verizon iPhone 5. While Verizon officially disallows its iPhones from leaving its service, it’s been reported that users have been activating Verizon iPhones on the PagePlus Cellular service. Keep in mind that Verizon is legally obligated to provide service to any phone on its network – if it attempts to block service, that’s grounds for a class action lawsuit.

PagePlus offers three main plans:

• $29.95 for 1,200 minutes of talk, 3,000 SMS/MMS and 250 MB of data.
• $39.95 for unlimited talk and text and 200 MB of data.
• $69.95 for unlimited talk and text and 5 GB of data.

What’s good? PagePlus uses the Verizon network, meaning that it receives excellent data speeds and coverage.

What’s bad? The PagePlus plans rank among the most expensive.

What’s ugly? The fact that Verizon may decide to block iPhones from operating on their network is criminal.

Phone cost: You can’t buy an unlocked Verizon iPhone 5 outside of eBay. The Verizon iPhone is sold “unlocked” and it includes a SIM card slot. However, Verizon can relock the phone if the terms of the contract are not met. However, you can still buy an iPhone 4S from the Apple Store for $549.

Extra costs: None.

Straight Talk Prepaid Plans

Straight Talk operates on both AT&T and T-Mobile networks, which use different SIM cards for each network. Finding an AT&T SIM might be difficult, however. For heavy data users, the $45 a month, unlimited everything plan for Straight Talk offers great value. Also, it appears that Straight Talk may start offering codes for Verizon-CDMA phones (although, probably not iPhones).

I personally regard Straight Talk plans as the best suited for all GSM iPhones.

What’s good? You get a lot of juice out of this bargain, if you use a lot of data, voice minutes and SMS. Another great option is that you can pay up-front and receive a discount. For example, if you pay a full year in advance, it only costs $41.50 per month.

What’s bad? It’s hard to find AT&T Straight Talk SIM cards anywhere. Walmart sometimes carries them. Another place is eBay and Craigslist. Otherwise, you are forced to use the T-Mobile network SIMs.

What’s ugly? Nothing! I consider the Straight Talk plan to be the prettiest of the MVNOs.

Phone cost: A brand-new, unlocked iPhone 5 will run about $649.99, or more, from the Apple Store.

Extra costs: Finding a Straight Talk SIM card is not easy. Walmart sometimes carries them.

Virgin Mobile Prepaid Plans

Virgin Mobile operates on the Sprint network, so, depending on your region, could be very good or very bad – or something between.

Here’s some of the V-Mo plans that you can sign up for:

• $35/month with 300 minutes of voice and unlimited  SMS and LTE data.
• $45/month with 1,200 minutes of voice and unlimited SMS and LTE data.
• $55/month with unlimited everything.

What’s good? Virgin Mobile plans rank among the best. For those who want Sprint coverage combined with great customer service and an awesome replacement program, you can’t do better than Virgin. Additionally, you get LTE speeds.

What’s bad? V-Mo only offers the iPhone 4 and 4S. Also, after buying, you cannot move your phone onto another network, nor can you ever unlock your iPhone from the V-Mo network (which is Sprint). All V-Mo phones, by default, are locked to the carrier without the possibility of ever changing that.

What’s ugly? Not much.

Phone cost: A brand new 16GB iPhone 4S will run about $449.99 from Virgin Mobile and the iPhone 4 8GB costs $349.99.

Extra costs: None.

Cricket Prepaid Plans

Cricket operates on the Sprint CDMA network. It also has a single $45 a month, unlimited everything plan, which is on par with the competition.

What’s good? For a completely unlimited plan, Cricket ties with Straight Talk. However, it uses the Sprint network – it has been reported that CDMA phones function better from within buildings.

What’s bad? Cricket, like most CDMA carriers, doesn’t allow their phones to be used on other networks. Nor does it allow other CDMA phones on their network. I have read about third parties that modify CDMA phones to work with Cricket. However, I would not advise that.

What’s ugly? The Cricket iPhone is not available in many major markets.

Phone cost: A brand new iPhone 4S will run about $400-500 from Cricket’s website. An iPhone 5 likely runs about $650. However, Cricket does not show prices if you aren’t within an eligible market (and I am not).

Extra costs: No additional costs.

Ptel Prepaid Plans

Ptel operates on the T-Mobile network.  They’re known for their barebones PAYG (pay as you go) plans and for not rounding up on voice and data usage. Essentially, if you barely use your phone and don’t mind the T-Mo network, Ptel will likely suit your needs. Its plans all work with all models of GSM-capable iPhone.

Pay-Go Plans:

• $10 for 60 days of service, with your balance expiring after a year.
• $20 for 90 days of service, with your balance expiring after a year.
• $30 for 120 days of service, with your balance expiring after a year.
• $40 for 150 days of service, with your balance expiring after a year.
• $50 for 180 days of service, with your balance expiring after a year.
• $100 for a full year of service, with the balance never expiring.

Full disclosure: I am a happy Ptel user.

What’s good? Ptel offers no-nonsense BYOD pay-as-you-go and unlimited plans. However, their unlimited plans aren’t entirely comparable to similar plans from Straight Talk or Cricket. On the other hand, their pay-go ranks among the best around.

What’s bad? Ptel doesn’t have a data roaming agreement with AT&T, so data coverage can be poor when traveling.

What’s ugly? Ptel ranks among my favorite BYOD prepaid MVNO carriers. Nothing is ugly about them, unless you use a lot of data – in which case you’d pay $100 a gigabyte on their most expensive pay-go plan.

Phone cost: A brand new iPhone 4 costs $449.99 from their website, but you can bring aboard any GSM iPhone for the cost of a SIM card.

Extra costs: A microSIM card costs $4.99 from the Ptel site.

Conclusion

There’s a lot of great plans out there for people who want an iPhone, but don’t want to get ripped off. In my experience, as long as you avoid signing a contract and pay up front for the phone, you won’t get taken to the cleaners.

Remember that each person’s individual usage and location will strongly influence which MVNO carrier provides the best deal. For most iPhone users, if you can find an AT&T Straight Talk SIM, Straight Talk provides the best value.

Also, keep in mind that if you already have an iPhone, you can migrate to a cheaper MVNO by simply swapping out the SIM card.

However, for those of you sick of the Android walled garden, consider some of the alternative absolute best iPhone prepaid plans that you can buy in the US.

Image Credits: iPhone via MorgueFile.com; Apple Logo via Shutterstock; Logos via their respective websites.

The post Which US Carrier Offers the Best iPhone Prepaid Plan? appeared first on MakeUseOf.