Rise of Glory is a Windows Phone game with a similar premise. Complete with tutorials and missions to shoot up the enemy in long-winded dogfights, this Xbox Live game evokes the spirit of Wings (just as it does those brave heroes who took to the skies in machines made of wood and steel). But can it replace that old 16-bit game in my affections?

The Setting For Rise Of Glory

For the younger among you, from 1914-1918 there was a devastating war in Europe. Known at the time as The Great War but now alternatively as the First World War or World War I, the full, horrific details of the conflict (including cause, outcome and tactics used) can be found on Wikipedia. What is notable about the conflict is that several new types of warfare were borne out of it.

On the ground, tanks, heavy artillery and machine guns were employed for the first time, while the recent invention of the aeroplane by the Wright Brothers was adopted by a new division of the British Army, the Royal Flying Corp. Similarly, Britain’s enemy in this war, Germany, was equipped with its own aircraft, and while the gun battles and artillery bombardments raged across the fields of France and Belgium, one-on-one combat ensued in the air.

You Are an Airman

We look back on these airmen – on both sides – with some romance. One of Germany’s most successful pilots was The Red Baron, and in the majority of cases these were daring, officer-class recruits who signed up to their respective fledgling air forces out of patriotism and reckless derring-do.

This spirit isn’t present when you first open Rise of Glory. The game forces you into a rather dull tutorial, forcing you to learn to fly and reach way points successfully before giving you the chance to destroy some sheds and barrage balloons in your rickety airplane before progressing to real action.

To this end, all you have is an accelerator and decelerator, a gun and a rudder control – along with the gyroscopic capabilities of your Windows Phone 8 device. Don’t worry about sensitivity, as this can be adjusted in the game settings.

Fly Into Battle

Different planes are available as you proceed through the game, usually locked to specific levels, so you should check the details of the craft before engaging so you can alter your tactics accordingly. Some craft have better armour than others, for instance.

Gameplay is fun and engaging, especially when the enemy attacks! This is the moment that you need to take full advantage of the plane’s strengths, which usually involves a lot of spins and weaving while firing your gun whenever the enemy is in your sights – but not before! Overuse of your single mounted machine gun can cause the weapon to overheat and lock up (a genuine challenge faced by those pilots nearly 100 years ago) so this should be used sparingly.

Beyond the gun, the only other real challenges are avoiding crashing (it’s easy to hit the ground in the middle of intense combat) and the increasing difficulty of the missions. A huge selection of achievements are available (the credit for doing so added to your Xbox Live Gamerscore) but you’ll need to put in a heck of a lot of game time to complete them all…

Graphics & Sound

From propeller sounds when starting the biplane in the training mission to the sounds of bullets in combat, Rise of Glory is also accompanied by a music soundtrack with typically triumphant military overtones. Audio levels can be adjusted in the settings, while the theme tune can also be set as your ringtone.

Other than the gameplay, however, the real pleasure in Rise of Glory is work put into the graphics. The aircraft are detailed, while the landscape moves in such a way as to create the sort of motion you would expect. Acceleration is impressive too (the plane moves away from the camera in the main third person view) and all of these elements are the icing on the cake of an impressive game.

Flight of Fantasy!

Easily one of the best Windows Phone games I’ve played, Rise of Glory marries the bravery of the era in which it is set with the solitude, the lack of communication and exposure to the elements that would have been experienced by pilots in the First World War. A good selection of different achievements can be earned (excellent for your Xbox Live Gamerscore!) from Rookie (three kills while surviving battle) to 10,000 kills throughout the game, with plenty in between (Flawless, Ace, Clean Match, etc.).

The difficulty level is well-balanced, the graphics evocative and the user interface perfect.

If you own a Windows Phone, Rise of Glory should be installed already – if it’s not, make it a game that you plan to buy. To give you an idea of its quality, we’ve added Rise of Glory to our Best of Windows Phone Apps page.

Rise of Glory can be purchased from the Windows Phone Store for $2.99 (£2.29 in the UK).

The post World War I Aircraft Action In Rise Of Glory for Windows Phone appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Actions enables you to set up commands to control your Mac or Windows PC from your iPad. It works in similar fashion to Keyboard Maestro, an automator application I recently reviewed. Actions is like having a personalised menu on your iPad which can be used to access a variety of individual commands, like opening and closing windows, zooming in and out on a webpage, controlling media playback, navigating via web browsers, or when creating new documents — basically any menu bar item for an application can be executed in Actions.

The User Interface

Though Actions for iPad does require some setup to get started, its user interface is very well designed, especially for an automation application. Actions is sort of like Automator, but it’s ten times more attractive. The main palette of Actions consists of multicolor buttons with professionally designed icons that send assigned commands to your computer.

Tapping on an action is like clicking on a menu bar item or issuing a keyboard shortcut command. You can divide the Actions palette into different presets, one for each of your most used applications, including the Finder. When you switch to a preset application in Actions, that application will automatically come to the forefront on your Mac or PC. Likewise, when you switch to a different preset application on your computer, it will automatically switch to the corresponding preset on Actions, so you can start using the preset commands.

Actions also includes universal finger gestures on the iPad for copying and pasting text and images, and for undoing and redoing actions on your computer.

Setting Up Actions

I must admit I didn’t find Actions easy to set up at first. To get started, you will need to download and install the Mac or PC client for Actions. Next open Actions on your iPad and the client on your computer, and pair them over your network. This part of the setup is easy enough and the app walks you through the process.

I believe the Actions app for iPad comes installed with a preset application for controlling iTunes, but you still will need to take some time to set up personalized presets for your own computer. If you overlook the tutorial when first opening Actions, you can re-open it by tapping on the tiny “i” icon on the top-left of Actions, accessed by swiping down on the palette with three fingers.

The resulting page will explain the four main buttons to create or load presets, and edit actions in the app.

Fortunately, Actions comes installed with presets for a wide variety of applications including Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, Chrome and Safari, iMovie, Word, Windows Vista and XP, and Garageband. Tap the pencil icon in the top-right to create a new preset or load the preset application.

When the Create new preset button is tapped Actions will load all of the supporting applications on your computer. You can then scroll and select the one you want to load – iPhoto for instance.

Type a label for the set and then tap on the tick confirmation icon on the top-right side. After the new set or application is created, tap on the confirmation button again, and then tap the Load button, which presents all the applications that include default preset commands in Actions.

So if you tap on the iPhoto application presets, you can select the actions that you want to load in the palette for controlling that application on your Mac. You probably should only select the actions you perform the most in iPhoto, such as Copy Adjustments, Paste Adjustments, Full Screen View, Batch Change, Flag Photo, Move to Trash or Rate 5 Stars for example

Next, tap the confirmation button, and Actions will load your selection of actions for iPhoto. You can re-arrange the actions on the palette, and when you’re done, tap the confirmation button to save those actions. Notice that you can always edit or load more actions for the application set by tapping on the edit icon.

You can also tap the edit button, and then tap on an individual action to edit and change the color of a button, or add or change its icon or name.

Create an Action

Though Actions has over 900 pre-installed actions and commands, there will be applications in which you will have to create actions from scratch. So for instance, since Actions doesn’t have preset actions for the text editor, MarsEdit, they will need to be manually created. To do this, tap on the Edit button, followed by the Create button.

Actions are created based on keyboard shortcuts. To create a Paste Link action, for example, I tap on the key command buttons in Actions that match the keyboard shortcut for that menu item in MarsEdit. You can apply a color and icon to represent that action and after tapping the confirmation button, it’s good to go.

With Actions open and setting next to my keyboard, I can tap on actions as I write articles in MarsEdit.

Bottom Line

The above instructions I’ve given for Actions cover just its basic features. You will have to spend some time to learn all that the app has to offer. The developers probably should create a set of video tutorials for those who are new to automation applications like this.

Is Actions for iPad a highly productive app? Well, it depends on your workflow and whether or not you think it would be faster to issue commands from your iPad’s screen rather than using lots of keyboard shortcuts. I think you do get a lot of functionality for the small price of the app, but as ever let us know what you think of Actions in the comments, below.

Download: Actions for iPad ($3.99) / Actions Host For Mac & PC (Free)

The post Control Any Application On Your Mac Or PC Using Actions for iPad [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Modern hard drives are big, but sometimes we all need just a little more space on our primary drive. Whether you’ve installed a solid state drive in your Mac or simply filled up your primary one, sometimes a little extra space can help a lot.

Mac OS X includes hundreds of languages, most of which you don’t need. You might well need Spanish, Chinese or even Hebrew on your computer, but do you really need Yiddish? Or Welsh? Or for that matter, invented languages like Esperanto and Klingon, or dead languages like Latin or Sanskrit? All these and more are taking up space on your Mac, right now.

Which languages you need obviously depends on who are – I’m sure at least one person reading this has set Klingon to be their default. More power to you. But next to none of us need every language Apple offers – which isn’t a problem, unless you’re running out of space on your hard drive.

Monolingual removes these languages, and also frees up space by removing PPC-specific files from “Universal” applications.

Removing Languages from Mac

Open this program and you’ll see a complete list of languages included, by default, in OS X. Uncheck any language you want to keep.

Make sure you’re absolutely certain you’re not deleting any languages you need – there’s no real way to get those languages back. The program even warns you:

Again – make certain before going forward. Once you have the removal will begin:

If you’re expecting to save gigs and gigs of space you’ll be disappointed – the languages don’t take up that much. Still, I was able to shed over 100 MB.

You could say it’s not much, but I kept quite a few languages – and any space I can free up on my SSD gives me more room for installing games and apps (not to mention dual-booting).

Removing Architecture-Specific Stuff

Languages aren’t the only trick up this app’s sleeve – it can also delete excess files intended to allow apps to run on multiple architectures.

Confused? Maybe you shouldn’t mess with this, then, but I’ll provide some background. Macs switched from the PowerPC (PPC) processor to Intel back in 2005 – since then a number of apps have been designed to run on both PPC and Intel systems. Such apps are called “Universal”, and were an important part of why Apple’s transition from PPC to Intel was so seamless. In 2013, however, the PPC parts of these Universal apps just take up space on Intel Macs.

So Monolingual can remove the PPC parts of Universal apps. Running this is a bad idea if you plan on using Rosetta to run PPC software, but probably not a problem if you’re using Lion or later – Apple dropped all support for Rosetta with Lion.

Pick which architectures you’re willing to remove from your system:

Monolingual will clean up “Universal” apps, turning them into Intel-only ones. How much space this frees up will obviously depend on how many apps you have installed – and whether they’re Universal – but for me this ended up freeing up more space than the language removal:

Okay, so I probably have more software installed than most – I test software for a living. But again, freeing up 200 MB could be useful for many.

Download Monolingual

Ready to try out Monolingual? Go ahead and download Monolingual from Sourceforge. You’ll need to install it the old fashioned way – dragging an icon. Stop complaining, it’s fun.

Other Ways To Save Space

Do you want to save even more space on your Mac? I highly recommend check out CCleaner for Mac, which cleans up the crap left behind by a wide variety of apps. Mackeeper is also worth looking into, if you’re willing to pay for it. You can also find and delete duplicate files to save space, using Dupe Guru. You might be surprised how many redundant files you have.

Do you have any other space saving tips for Mac users? Please share them in the comments below – your comments could help us build our best of Mac apps page. Or, if you prefer, just share your thoughts about Monolingual.

The post Monolingual – Remove Languages You Don’t Use From Your Mac appeared first on MakeUseOf.

If you are starting out, how about some quick Google+ tips…or maybe you can download Get Into Google+: A Guide for Everyone, our free, in-depth guide to Google+. You just might find the present look to be totally different because Google+ got a bit of nip and tuck with a slew of new features. Facebook has become a chaotic mess for me personally. The relative freshness of Google+ and how closely I can tie it in with Google Search and Gmail is making me turn to it for some productivity perks.

Going Full Circles with Google+

Google+ Hangouts may be the standout feature here, but the organizational backbone lies with Google+ Circles. The Circles have got a bit of color now, but the tips Tina put forth in her post on 7 Must-Know Tips About Managing Your Google+ Circles still hold true. Google+ Circles are just that – a circle of friends organized around the way you want to share with them. Think of them as special and specific “drop zones” for stuff. The great thing about Circles is that you can use them in a variety of flexible ways. Another post from Tina showed you some all-purpose uses of Google+ Circles. But the common thread is that you are sharing your activities with groups of people. What if you want to keep the Circles to yourself and use it for your personal productivity?

The ideas for using Google+ Circles for personal productivity aren’t new by any means. Many people have dropped tips as to how they use Circles in offbeat ways. Thanks to them, I am amalgamating some of the tips here.

Using Google+ Circle for Bookmarking Links

Thanks to a commentator (Dave) on the last linked post. An empty Google+ Circle can be used to bookmark and archive read worthy links and web pages you might come across.

1. Create an empty article and give it a descriptive name.

2. Click on the Share button and select your specially created empty Circle. The favorite link or webpage is shared privately with this circle.

3. To retrieve and read your bookmarked pages, go to the Home tab and select the circle. The stream of “shared” posts is displayed.

You can create specific empty circles for specific saving needs. For instance, I have created one for all eye-catching photographs I find on the web and in my Google+ stream. It serves as a nice and easy stepping stone for learning photography through the works of others.

Creating a Private Diary for Personal Thoughts

An empty Circle can be used similarly to jot down notes and keep a personal journal of one’s thoughts (You can also use it as a scratchpad, as an exercise log, a recipe book etc.). What’s better is that you can attach photos, videos, and links to enrich your personal diary. Your entries are timestamped and unlike other journal services, you can be sure Google+ is going to last a lot longer. The new Google+ Pinterest styled card layout also makes for attractive reading. Remember: you can use simple markup to format your posts.

One of the other advantages is that I can enter my thoughts while I am on the go from my mobile device. You can even add photos, an emoticon for your mood and check-in data to specify location. When it comes to photos, you can later selectively share them with other Circles. Also, as Arun Shroff explains, you can even use it to store voice memos.

Yes, before you say it, let me put it out in front that you obviously cannot read your personal diary when offline. So, that’s one of the drawbacks.

Using Circles for Collaborative Projects

An empty Circle is fine to keep your thoughts private. But what’s more interesting is if you can share it with a few others and create a collaborative Circle. Small project teams can use Circles for collaborative interactions. Combining Circles with Google+ Hangouts helps with live interactions. As Google+ is open to everyone with an email ID, you can literally turn a Circle into an instant brainstorming session and enhance group productivity.

Using Google+ Circles as a Blogging Platform

Twitter is just 140 characters. The words fall short when you want to say more. Google+ Circles allow you to segment your audience and address them directly. You can extend your shareable posts to blog like entries and share it with your special Circles. Travel blogging seems like a good idea with Google+ Circles. Sharing original content could help to build up relationships and an audience for your main blog. I follow motivational author Steve Pavlina (among others) and quite often his Google updates are well chalked out, rather than a one line missive.

Save Google+ Content Automatically Into Evernote

If you use Evernote as your primary note taking tool, then rest assured all valuable links can be automatically saved into Evernote. The steps are:

1. Go to Evernote – Tools – Account Info. Copy your Evernote email ID.

2. In Google+, create an empty Circle. Give it a descriptive name (e.g. Evernote Notes) which you can remember while sharing from Google+.

3. Click “Add a new person” and paste your unique Evernote email address into the text field.

A new Circle is created with “one” person represented by the Evernote email ID.

Google+ Circles can be creatively stretched. From creating your own YouTube video playlists to storing photos for recalling something you want to buy, there can be multifarious uses. Remember a Circle can be thought of as an empty container. With imagination, you can fill it any way you want. What creative uses of Google+ Circles can you think of? Fire away in the comments.

The post Stretching A Circle: 5 Ways To Use Google+ Circles For Personal Productivity appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The Xbox One runs a x86, 8-core CPU with 8 GB RAM, and 500 GB internal storage. The key thing to mention about the RAM is that Microsoft did not explicitly mention whether the system would include GDDR5 or GDDR3 RAM. The lack of mention leads us the believe that it will be using the slower GDDR3 RAM, but time will tell.

The Kinect has been completely revamped, and will now feature a 1080p HD RGB camera and a 250,000-pixel infrared depth sensor. It will also come with every Xbox release and will be a required component for the Xbox One to function.

A big part of Microsoft’s announcement was the new, heavy TV integration. The demo showed using Kinect to change the TV channel, search for specific content, and more. Microsoft is clearly hoping to make the console more than a gaming machine, instead trying to build a living0room system from scratch.

Microsoft also announced Skype integration into the system, as well as a snap feature that allows users to run programs on the side of the screen while playing games or watching TV.

The Xbox One will not have any backwards compatibility. Not only are disc-based games not supported, neither are those downloaded from the Xbox Live Arcade.

The controller has been given a small revamp, but the overall design looks incredibly similar to the Xbox 360′s. The D-Pad will receive an overhaul, which is a welcome change.

While much of the announcement was focused on non-gaming items, Microsoft did show a suite of EA Sports games, Forza 5, Quantum Break, and Call of Duty: Ghosts.

It’s clear that Microsoft is holding back plenty of information for E3. It did not announce a final release date, only saying that the console will arrive “later this year.” It also did not reveal a price for the console, which will obviously be a deciding factor for most gamers in whether they purchase the console or not. Still, at least they showed what the console looks like, which is more than Sony did at its event.

What do you think of the new Xbox One?

Source: Microsoft

The post Microsoft Announces Its Next Generation Console – The Xbox One [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

With this revamp, Flickr has practically rebooted the photo sharing application which was starting to lose eyeballs thanks to younger arrivals like Google+ Photos, 500px, and Instagram. Even Facebook cut off a large slice from the photo-sharing pie. The new design has deftly put photographs front and center, with the new photo stream now a seamless scrolling gallery. There is less white space to be seen, with photos taking up almost the entire space on the screen. A full-screen slideshow in a lightbox completes the picture.

The free account carries an ad, but to my eyes, it doesn’t mar the viewing experience in any way. The Flickr redesign follows the path laid down by the iOS app which was revamped last year. The Android app has followed up with a similar look.

The best thing about this update is that you don’t have to worry about space ?in the  least. A bar graphic on top shows the extent of an account’s space usage, but with 1 TB, you’re not likely to exhaust it very soon. You can upgrade ($499.99) to double the space, if 1 TB is not enough, for some reason.

Check out the new Flickr and tell us what you think about it.

Source: Yahoo

The post Yahoo! Overhauls Flickr, Now Offers 1 TB Of Free Storage For All Users [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Add Your Website Here!

Done Not Done – Because we are so occupied with the tasks that we want to do, we often forget about all the fun tasks that we actually want to do. There are many books, movies, and music artists that your friends might have recommended for you to check out but you simply did not have the time to do so. Here to help is Done Not Done. Read more: Done Not Done: A To-Do List For All The Fun Tasks You Want To Do

		Sitegeist – You might have lived in your city for years without knowing some of the most significant facts about it. These details might seem trivial but they can help you out in unexpected ways. Thus knowing them will only add to your overall knowledge and potentially benefit you in the future. Here to easily provide this information to you is a smartphone app called Sitegeist. Read more: Sitegeist: Find Out Various Interesting Details About Your Location
		Grambacker – There are even Facebook apps and other services that connect with people’s Instagram accounts to better share their photos. What iOS device owners usually not pay attention to though, is creating a backup for their Instagram images. Here to help out in this department is Grambacker. Read more: Grambacker: Make a Backup Of Your Instagram Photos To Your iPhone Or Dropbox [iOS]
		Video Resumer – Unfortunately sometimes you need to leave your computer to complete a task in the middle of a YouTube video. Turning the computer back on, heading on to YouTube, and finding where you had stopped watching the video can be difficult for long videos. Here to help out Google Chrome users in this department is the excellent Video Resumer. Read more: Video Resumer: Resume YouTube Videos From Where You Left Them [Chrome]
		Professor Word – Modern aptitude exams have a special focus on English vocabulary and your knowledge of the meanings of many words is tested. There are various techniques developed to help students learn but if most of your time is spent online, then computer tools will suit your exam preparation best. Read more: Professor Word: A Bookmarklet That Helps You Prepare Vocabulary For SAT, ACT & GRE

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 21st 2013] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

A couple of months ago, we introduced you to Cloudy, a Chrome extension that allows you to upload files to your Gmail account directly from your cloud-based storage accounts like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box and more.  Kloudless is a new Chrome extension that offers the same feature – removing that unnecessary extra step of downloading a file from the cloud only to upload it as an attachment – but takes things one step further, by also allowing you to save files directly from your Gmail account to your cloud storage accounts.

Kloudless closes the gap between email and cloud-storage, creating a link that makes perfect sense, is incredibly convenient, and is one of those features that you won’t know how to live without once you get it set up. Kloudless serves several functions – one of which is to automatically back up your email attachments to cloud-based storage accounts.

When you first install Kloudless you’ll be walked through a series of simple steps to set up your accounts. You’ll first be prompted to connect Kloudless to your email account. At the moment it only works with Gmail, but support for Outlook is also available, but you do have to sign up to get an invite for access.

If you’re logged into more than one Gmail/Google Apps account, you’ll be prompted to select the account you want to use.

The good news is that if you want to use Kloudless simultaneously with more than one Gmail/Google Apps account – you can. Just simply go through the setup process individually for each account, by logging into that account and clicking on the Kloudless Beta link at the top-right hand corner of the page.

The permissions you are granting Kloudless when it comes to your email address include viewing your email address, viewing and managing your mail, and knowing who you are on Google. That may seem like a lot of data to entrust Kloudless with, not to mention data that you have saved in your cloud storage accounts, but all of your files are encrypted while being transferred using Kloudless, and the service has an extensive Privacy Policy worth reading.

Once your Gmail account is connected, you can then connect your cloud storage account. Currently, Kloudless supports Dropbox, Google Drive and Box.

At this point, Kloudless is fully set up and can be used. But there is one final step that brings an interesting and much welcomed-feature that isn’t available in Cloudy. Since Kloudless allows you to save attachments directly to your cloud storage, the service also offers automation features. You can create rules for how to handle certain attachments. So for example, if you want to save all of the attachments sent to you by a specific person, you can create a rule to copy all of those attachments to a specific Dropbox folder. Rules include copying or moving attachments, based on who they were sent from, who they were sent to, or even based on keywords, and more.

While the automation feature is really cool, it does have its limits. Unfortunately, you can only create up to 10 rules.

If you’d rather not automate the process of saving attachments to your cloud-based storage accounts, you can still access this feature manually when opening individual attachments. When you open an email with an attachment, you’ll find a new option alongside ‘Download.’ Hitting the ‘Copy/Move’ link will open up a pop-up window which gives you access to folders in whichever cloud storage account you’ve connected to.

 You can then copy or move individual files, one at a time, directly from your email account to your cloud storage account. If for any reason, space is becoming an issue in your Gmail account, this is a great way to quickly free up space in Gmail by moving large attachments. Even better, if you don’t want to keep the attachments at all but want a record of the email itself, you can also delete individual attachments from your Gmail inbox using Kloudless.

Kloudless is a convenient, handy Chrome extension which will be appreciated by anyone who finds themselves spending more time in the cloud than they do on their desktop. While Cloudy was a step in the right direction, Kloudless  completes the equation by providing two-way access to your files saved in the cloud and to attachments in your email account.

What do you think of Kloudless? Let us know in the comments.

The post Kloudless: Two Way Access To Files In Gmail, Dropbox, Google Drive And More appeared first on MakeUseOf.

However, how young is too young for kids to be exposed to technology? It’s a question all parents have to answer during their children’s early years, deciding when they should allow their offspring to embrace the future with gadgets such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones. And it’s a question that formed the basis for last week’s ‘We Ask You‘ discussion.

The Results

We asked you, At What Age Should Kids Be Exposed To Technology? We had a great response from the MakeUseOf readership, with a good number of you airing your views on the subject. The range of opinions was huge, with some people declaring that there should be no minimum age restrictions, and others having definite ages in mind for particular gadgets.

There were extreme views on both sides, but the majority of people take a common sense approach to this quandary. They let each child choose their own interests, and that goes for technology as much as anything else. However, some level of control is usually put in place.

This means that kids will be exposed to technology slowly, and then have that exposure moderated by their parents and/or guardians. As the comment of the week demonstrates, a big thing is ensuring your kids have a rounded set of hobbies, which may include technology but not be wholly reliant on it.

Some thought that the question posed ought to have been slightly different, and that it’s more important to ask how kids are exposed to technology rather than at what age they are exposed. We’ve covered this issue in the past by asking, “What steps do you take to protect your children online?”

Comment Of The Week

We had great input from the likes of Alexander Mackenzie, Mel Johnson, and null, to name just a few. Comment Of The Week goes to Schvenn, who, as well as the respect of myself and hopefully everybody reading this, receives 150 points to use for MakeUseOf Rewards.

My son watched me use the computer his entire life.
When he was 30 months old I sat him on my lap and went to Bear In The Big Blue House’s website.
I clicked on a jigsaw puzzle they had there and was about to tell him what it was when, to my surprise, he took the mouse from my hand and without looking, started moving it over the pieces, clicking, dragging and dropping and putting the puzzle together.
Up until this point, he had never touched a computer before.
He had only seen his mother and I use them, but never had the opportunity himself.
We quickly grabbed our video camera and started capturing the moment on film.
He had his own computer at four.
We let him online at twelve, albeit with great supervision.
We gave him a smartphone at 14.
We weren’t going to do so that early, but he’s proven himself very responsible, so we have rewarded him with that trust.
He also knows that with my level of technical knowledge and ability to monitor, I can at any point, determine whether or not that trust has been ill-conceived.
Yes, he’s a gamer and loves to play inside more than we did as kids.
However, he is also a member of our local YMCA, works out every Saturday and volunteers every Saturday evening.
He has just been accepted as a member of our city council’s youth advisory board, is joining the local volunteer ambulance service, is a member of a youth engagement squad (involving the city, school board and YMCA) and he has a couple strong possibilities for his first summer job.
He’s now in his second year of highschool, an honor roll student and wants to become an architectural engineer.
I like to think that his constant exposure to technology has had something to do with his successes.
He has excellent communication skills, more opportunities available to him than we had as children and a better CV under his belt already than many people I’ve hired in the many years I’ve spent in management.
While it may seem like our son is an over-achiever, he’s really not.
He has all the challenges a typical teenager does and we are not the type of parents to push, just to encourage.
However, without technology opening up his opportunities to communicate and learn, I doubt he would be doing as well as he is now.
So, once again, there is no minimum age.
Our children absorb more than we think and we should never underestimate them.
We need to trust, encourage and reward them.
Technology can be a fantastic tool for parents and children, if we use it responsibly, as well.

We liked this comment because it takes us through a personal experience, with a father recounting how his son got to grips with technology. It also shows how technology isn’t harmful to a child’s education in socializing and being an active member of society when it’s experienced in moderation.

We will be asking a new question tomorrow, so please join us then. We Ask You is a weekly column dedicated to finding out the opinions of MakeUseOf readers. We ask you a question and you tell us what you think. The question is open-ended and is usually open to debate. Some questions will be purely opinion-based, while others will see you sharing tips and advice, or advocating tools and apps for your fellow MakeUseOf readers. This column is nothing without your input, all of which is valued.

Image Credit: Paul Inkles

The post At What Age Should Kids Be Exposed To Technology? [You Told Us] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

However, is it so wrong to graze in the green pastures of social networking? Perhaps not. I’d even go as far to say that, in actuality, the Facebook-to-user system is a symbiotic relationship that strays a bit from our initial livestock analogy. The social network provides us with a means to communicate with our friends and loved ones, and we provide the social network with real, in-depth, accurate market samples that they can sell as a product.

Even still, some businesses will go beyond Facebook’s usual advertising methods in an effort to target their desired market. They use a variety of tactics, and while they are not illegal or against Facebook’s terms and agreements, they might be worth knowing about.

Open Wall Popularity

Facebook presents itself as being all about community, and for us end-users, it is. On the other hand, to businesses, it’s simply a way to put the entire target market under one roof and address it all at once. With that said, businesses are now forgoing traditional customer service routes and using their Facebook walls as their public representatives. By presenting themselves as members of the community, businesses are able to communicate more effectively with consumers.

To be honest, this isn’t a bad idea. However, this offers just one more way for consumers to get sucked into loads of advertised promises. Once they know that a company is personal, they are more inclined to trust this company. In short, it’s the modern day equivalent to the old mom and pop stores where the owner knows everyone’s name. Besides that, certain posts and comments addressing issues by the business are more likely to be shared.

Representation Through Images

Images are a serious tool for getting things done in the Facebook marketing world. In fact, you could consider them to be a bit like billboards on your news feed. However, Facebook has a few guidelines for certain images that businesses post – else, they can get in a bit of trouble. For instance, cover photos on pages can’t feature price or discount information, a call to action, or a request for users to Like and Share (which inherently is a call to action). In other areas, it’s not much of an issue. However, do you really want an advertisement on your news feed when there are already enough on your sidebar?

With that said, non-advert images play a heavy role when it comes to Facebook marketing. How many times have you seen your friends share images of athletes, humorous photos, or classic memes that they didn’t upload? Upon further inspection, you may see who the image was originally posted by, and in many cases, a watermark from a company’s logo may be added. This allows for the company to get the attention of its market and then let its presence be known without using annoying ad-like images.

A Call To Action

Whenever you look at business pages for Facebook (including MakeUseOf), you’ll see loads of “LIKE OR SHARE THIS TO…” posts. This is known as a a “call to action” seeing that it requests that users do something. Typically speaking, traditional calls to action are something along the lines of “Call for more information” or “Shoot us an email” so they can make a connection with you. In this case, the company is connecting with you and using you as a means for free advertising.

Sometimes, as with the case of the images, there may be no call to action. The company may simply share an inspiring status update or a hilarious image, knowing that for some reason some users will feel the need to like or share it. You see, Facebook has already established the call to action for them. It’s right there under every post: Share or Like.

Conclusion

Facebook has changed the face of business, advertising, and marketing forever while also changing how we communicate. It’s a bit peculiar though. While you and I interact using Facebook, there are tons of businesses out there doing the exact same thing, trying to be like us. They are trying to fit into the community – trying to be our friends. In fact, they might even be a bit like other Facebook stalkers.

What other methods have you seen businesses use to target consumers on Facebook? Have you seen these methods yourself?

(By the way, don’t forget to Like and Share this post on Facebook.)

Image Credits: *0ne*, zole-studio, LarimdaME

The post Like And Share Carefully: How Marketers Target You On Facebook appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Google Maps was already amazing, and then a few years after its launch Google Street View was added to the mix. At which point the opportunity to take a virtual trip around real towns and cities revealed itself. Google Street View coverage now includes more than 60 countries, with ground-level panoramic views (often containing strange sights) for huge swathes of those locales available to view online.

However, Google Maps, and in particular Google Street View, isn’t only good for planning routes. There have been some fantastic Google Street View mashups created over the years, and there are also websites which use Google Street View to help you do some virtual globetrotting.

And then there are games built on top of Google Maps and Google Street View, five of which are listed here for you to enjoy when you’re bored at work.

Real World Racer

Real World Racer is a simple Google street view game that offers exactly what the title implies it should. While most racing games rely on either completely imaginary routes or rough approximations of real-world locations, Real World Racer lets you race on real roads around the world.

OK, so the visuals aren’t going to win any awards, and the controls are rather limited, but for those people who miss the days when top-down racers were as good as it got, Real World Racer should hit the (nostalgic) spot.

You choose a route — either a pre-existing one from the eight on offer or one chosen by yourself by simply inputting a start and finish point — and then race your car against the computer-controlled opponents. The first to cross the finishing line wins, obviously, though you win nothing more than the satisfaction wrangled from besting poor AI.

Street View Quiz

Street View Quiz is another Google street view game whose title says it all. This is a website full of quiz questions based on Google Maps and Google Street View. Some of the questions make more sense than others, though they can all conceivably be solved by using nothing other than the image presented to you.

Rather than answering any from the homepage you’re better served clicking on individual entries and tackling them one at a time. If you get stuck trying to use the image alone then a simple Google search should suffice in helping you to answer any question posed.

GeoGuessr

GeoGuessr presents you with an image from Google Street View and asks you to locate it on a map of the world. It sounds easy, but it’s actually maddenly difficult. Thankfully it’s also very entertaining and more addictive than it has any right to be.

Each round consists of five destinations. At the end you’re presented with a chart showing how far out your guesses were each time, and the total score acquired. You can then start the process all over again to see if you can improve.

It’s a lot harder than you may imagine to guess which country you’re in just from a single image. Road signs, the terrain, and the weather can all give clues, but you’ll be amazed how far away some of your guesses will be. Or perhaps I’m just geographically dumb.

Pursued

Pursued is very similar to GeoGuessr, with the same basic principles applying. However, rather than dropping you somewhere completely at random and asking you to vaguely point to it on a map, Pursued features pre-approved levels and asks you to name the city or landmark you’re seeing.

This is also more of a complete game, with a plot of sorts — you have been abducted and need to tell your friend where to find you — and level packs, achievements etc. Which all helps add to the intrigue and innate playability of Pursued.

The whole thing comes across as very professional, with the only annoying aspect being the need to jump through social networking hoops in order to play more levels. Still, there are user-submitted levels aplenty for those who aren’t willing to participate.

Streetview Zombie Apocalypse

Streetview Zombie Apocalypse is a clever little Google street view game that works despite its obvious flaws. Especially as the street cred of zombies has never been so clear thanks to The Walking Dead and other zombie-focused fayre.

The premise is simple… you choose a location where you want to get dropped, and as soon as you pitch up in said location the undead hordes start to chase you in order to eat your brains. Which would be a whole lot scarier if the zombies in question weren’t tiny little sprites you could flick away with one finger.

The aim of Streetview Zombie Apocalypse is to stay alive for as long as possible. To do so you need to run from your starting point, avoiding the undead as you go. Choose your location with care, as some will lead you to a premature death thanks to featuring a rat run of narrow alleyways and dead-ends.

Conclusions

These games are not only entertaining they’re also educational, revealing parts of the world perhaps previously unknown to you. Google Maps is a powerful tool in this regard, in the same way Wikipedia is a powerful tool for learning about new people or uncovering previously unsolved mysteries that can actually be easily explained.

What do you think of the Google Street View games on this list? Do you have a favorite? Perhaps you know of another game which utilizes Google Maps; if so, we’d love you to share it with us in the comments section below along with your thoughts on the subject at hand. All comments are read, and most are afforded a reply.

The post Gaming Google Maps With Street View Games appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Google’s Photovine died over a year ago, but it seems the brand is not dead. A new iPhone app called Photovine has recently emerged, and while this one doesn’t really have anything to do with Google’s old vines or Twitter’s new Vine, it brings an innovative way to view your Instagram and Facebook photos which involves music, slideshows, and an unusual interface.

Curious? Keep reading for a full hands-on with Photovine.

Photovine Unchained

Photos have been around forever, but the Instagram era brought them to the front and center of our online and social lives. Accordingly, many of today’s apps strip social networks of their “boring” text, and bring us what we really want to see: photos. Twizgrid, a visual Twitter browser I adore, is a great example, and if you haven’t tried it out yet, I highly recommend it.

Photovine, unfortunately, can access only your Facebook and Instagram photos, but it nonetheless offers a pretty unique viewing experience.

Photovine revolves around a photo wheel, where you can choose which photos you wish to view. Your options are your Instagram photos, your friends’ Instagram photos, your Facebook photos (photos you’re tagged in), your friends Facebook photos, popular photos, and all your photos, which is these four options combined.

The photos of your choosing are presented in a dynamic collage, which you can animate and move around by shaking your device. You can also view your photos individually, by tapping on the photos and sliding left and right. An icon on the top shows you which network the photo comes from. You can like and comment on photos from the app, and share them via Facebook, Twitter, email, or text message.

Up until now, Photovine is a pretty standard photo app, but this is where the fun begins. Above your main photo collage, you’ll find several additional buttons. The “play” icon activates slideshow mode, letting you set your preferred transition time, choose which music to play (if at all), and decide whether you’d like a photo-only slideshow, or one with titles and timestamps.

Slideshow mode is not the only way to combine music with your photos. The next button lets you enable background music for the app, and if you prefer to play different music for this occasion, that’s possible too. The right-most button is the refresh button, to refresh your feed — an action that can also be done by pulling the photo-collage down.

Taking, Editing & Posting Photos

Photovine is not only a browser, it’s also a great way to edit and upload photos to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, as well as share them with your phone’s contacts. To add a photo, tap the camera button at the bottom. You can take a photo with your phone’s camera or use an existing photo from your library.

Photovine comes with a built-in photo editor powered by Aviary, which includes some automatic enhancements, 11 filters and effects, orientation and cropping options, and even a drawing tool.

Once your photo is done, give it a title and choose where you want to upload it to. For some reason, both Twitter and Contacts options have LinkedIn’s logo next to them, but don’t mind that.

Bottom Line

To me, Photovine is a strange bird. On one hand, it brings together an innovative photo browser and a photo editor/uploader, and combines them under a pretty unique interface. On the other hand, this interface, while being interesting and easy to use, is not half as nice to look at as I would have expected from such an app. To be blunt, it’s a bit on the ugly side, and reminds me of Android apps from two years ago.

That being said, Photovine is a fun way to discover and browse your photos and photo streams, and combined with the music and slideshow options, can make a great screensaver for your phone while its idle; one you can always glance it, and see something interesting. It’s ability to take, edit, and upload photos to all three major social networks can be a huge timesaver, and Aviary’s filters and tools could help you stand out from the regular Instagram stock.

Download: Photovine on the App Store (Free)

If you don’t own an iOS device there are plenty of other great ways to view your Facebook, Instagram and Flickr photos under one roof and on the Web.

Did you get a chance to try Photovine? Do you have a similar app you like better Let us know in the comments.

The post Photovine: A Unique Photo Browser, Editor & Slideshow Viewer For Instagram & Facebook [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The latest iteration of online communication may indeed be social media, but it seems that the most popular avenue is still the old-fashioned internet forum. It remains today as an excellent way to structure a community on the web. While social media can be somewhat amorphous at times, forums provide order and a sense of home.

I believe that forums will never die out, but forums will evolve and adapt to advancements in web technology. Please join me as I take a look at a few forum software systems that are so innovative that they’ll transform the concept of the forum forever.

Moot

Moot (Beta) is a very interesting project in my eyes because there’s a bit of tension in its design philosophy: it wants to take a step back into the past and recover the lost relevance of meaningful discussion (which they claim have died with social media) while incorporating features of the future (clean and responsive interface).

But more importantly, Moot is entirely embeddable, meaning you don’t need to download a package and upload it to your own web host. Instead, all of the data and control is done through your Moot account and your forum theme; forum content are embedded directly into your site wherever you want it to go. It has been designed from the ground up for complete and easy integration.

Other notable features that Moot is pushing:

• Both forums and comments. Moot is a full-fledged forum embed system AND a comment embed system. Unlike other forum systems where comments are just normal forum threads with their post data molded and displayed differently, Moot lets you embed unique comment threads onto pages using one line of HTML. Each comment thread is unique, dynamic, and separate from your forums.
• No content deletion. Moot is taking a hard stance: deleting posts and comments disrupts the natural progression of a discussion, resulting in an incomplete thread that’s harder to follow. Therefore, once content is older than 2.7 minutes, it cannot be deleted. Also, if a post or comment has received any replies or likes, it can’t be deleted.
• Complete control. Even though Moot is a third-party service that you have to embed onto your site, you will have full control over it. You can alter the design using CSS. You can also alter the behavior and extend Moot functionality using an API that will be released in the near future.

Discourse

The mentality spurring the Discourse team is the desire to “raise the standard of discussion on the web through better forum software.” Core to their actions is the belief that forums are an integral aspect of proper web communities, yet most forum designs are stuck in the 1990s. With Discourse, they want to make forum hosting easy, flexible, and appealing to the 21st Century.

The Discourse interface takes a lot of inspiration from social media: just-in-time loading of content, flat and sleek aesthetics that are indicative of social media design, @replying to users, logging in with social media accounts, real-time stream updates, and more. But unlike Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and the others, Discourse remains faithful to big blocks of text for deeper, more meaningful conversation.

Other notable features that Discourse is pushing:

• Notifications. One big problem with legacy forum systems is the lack of convenient notifications. Up until a few years ago, the best we ever got was clunky email notifications, then we had RSS subscriptions, but both of those had their limits. Discourse will regularly notify you on the site when someone mentions you, replies to you, quotes you, or anything else that involves you.
• Forked conversations. Instead of having a linear thread where users reply to multiple users in a single post (often using ugly blocks of quotes to establish context), Discourse allows discussions to fork by letting you reply to individual posts and branch off.
• Smart interactions. One awesome feature of Discourse is that you can begin writing your reply even before you’ve finished reading the thread. The reply box will follow you no matter where you are on the page, which means you can reply while you read. Also, when you prematurely leave a thread (maybe you had to go somewhere), Discourse will remember your place and start you there the next time you come back.
• Dynamic moderation. As users participate on your Discourse forum, they gain something called trust. Users that have trust can help with forum moderation by culling spammers, flamers, and trolls before they get too big.

We took a detailed look at Discourse when it emerged on the scene.

Vanilla

Moot and Discourse are relative newcomers to the forum scene, but Vanilla has been innovating the forum concept for years already. Honestly, ask anyone (who has forum experience, obviously) which forum software is the most non-traditional and I’m willing to bet that most would say Vanilla.

Vanilla has gained a lot of traction over the years. Big name sites, like Penny Arcade, are starting to turn to it for their discussion needs because of its cutting edge design. This is a free, open source project that really is revolutionizing the forum landscape.

Other notable features that Vanilla is pushing:

• Scalability. One major issue in many free forum systems – and some paid systems too – is that they buckle under too much traffic. When it takes over 10 seconds for a thread to load, users are too frustrated to continue a discussion. Vanilla is built for speed and can handle millions of users right out of the box.
• User reactions. With Vanilla, you can set various “reactions” that users can have to content: like, dislike, spam, off topic, insightful, funny, or whatever else you can come up with. These reactions have actions associated with them (e.g. add score to the post). The result of the user reactions system is that users can decide on and promote valuable content.
• Built-in gamification. Gamification describes the addition of game elements in a non-game context for the purpose of engaging users. By participating, users can earn badges (achievements) and reputation (score) which lead to user promotions and access to more features if you choose to set it up that way.

Conclusion

On paper, these systems may not seem like a huge deviation from the usual forum platforms that we typically see. However, paper can be deceiving. Take one look at each of the solutions above and you’ll notice a landslide difference in the end user experience. And in my humble opinion, all three systems are doing a heck of a job in refreshing the boring realm of forums.

Do you use forums? Know of any other forum systems that are revolutionizing the field? Please share with us in the comments!

Image Credits: Chat Bubbles Via Shutterstock

The post Internet Forums Reimagined: The Future Of Online Discussions appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Photographers aren’t in any way left out. In fact, they seem to be the most proactive lot when it comes to contests. Bakari showed us some awesome free photography contests. So, let’s launch into some more popular photo contests and pit ourselves against the best of the rest.

National Geographic – Your Shot

Calendar Date: Always Open

The National Geographic photo contest can either make you go “wow”, or make you feel inferior if you are starting out with your DSLR. National Geographic is one of the more preeminent places to take your photos to. If any of your photos get selected, then it is the best badge to say that you have finally arrived. Your Shot is the magazine’s photo community which invites regular submissions from photographers of all hues.  Whether a hobbyist or a pro, you can participate fearlessly. National Geographic editors review each submission carefully and the best 12 get picked in the popular Daily Dozen category.

The best thing is that the editors also offer professional tips which are an invaluable learning experience. The publication of photos in the magazine or the website is reward enough for any photography enthusiast. The guidelines are explained here in more detail.

The Smithsonian Phototography Contest

Calendar Date: Annual (open till November 29, 2013)

Another renowned name, but one you may not immediately associate with photography. But you will be surprised to know that the Smithsonian magazine’s photography contest has its own place. Standards are of course, very high. You can enter any of the five categories — the American Experience, the Natural World, People, Travel and Altered Images – to win cash prizes. The grand prize winner gets $2500. Read the complete FAQs here.

Wiki Loves Monuments

Calendar Date: September (expected)

It’s printed in large letters — The world’s largest photo contest. It is also certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest photo contest in the world. Not really surprising because it was organized by the Wikipedia community. The contest started off in 2010 in The Netherlands. By 2012, it was held across 35 countries and garnered 350,000 photo submissions. The international photo contest is meant to showcase the cultural heritage through monuments of each participating country.

Though the contest for this year is yet to be announced, you can still see the latest uploads coming into the site. The photos are all freely licensed under Wikimedia Commons.

Pixoto

Calendar Date: Weekly

Pixoto is a photography contest of a different kind, and one which makes it the easiest to participate. The photo service uses an algorithm called ImageDuel to submit each photo to a comparison and voting process. The photo with the best positive feedback (an image score) wins. There are dozens of categories and each top photo can win $150 every week. Others among the top 20% can get badges to display alongside their profiles and photos on the site.

ViewBug

Calendar Date: Always open

ViewBug is a photography community with a few contests of its own. There are premium (paid) and free contests to go along with the free and premium plans the site has for you to join. The free membership allows you to participate in the free contests. There were about 16 contests going on at the time of writing this article. Awards include photography kits, pro-memberships, and exposure. Some of the categories are unique – from photographing subjects floating on water to capturing scenes by looking up.

World In Focus

Calendar Date: Annual (to be announced for 2013)

PDN’s World in Focus is a travel photography contest which is awarded separately to amateurs and professionals. There is an entry fee for this contest – amateurs ($22) and professionals ($45). The contest is open internationally. The submission date for this year’s announcements has passed, but it could be worthwhile to wait and prepare for next year. The contest closed in October last year, and the winners photos were published in March 2013. Winning entries are featured on the website and in the magazine.

No Man’s Art Gallery

Calendar Date: Annual (to be announced for 2013)

The No Man’s Art Slum Photography Contest is an annual photography contest held exclusively for kids in an underprivileged neighborhood in the world. The winning photo is exhibited in the art gallery of the organization. Children are taught how to use a camera in a workshop and then given a free rein to express themselves and their lives with photos. The site says that Plans for 2013 are to give the children in the slums of Capetown the opportunity to experiment with photography. Though this is not a usual photography contest, I decided to mention this for its novelty, and also to show how photography can be used for the charitable good. You can also sponsor a participant with your contribution.

World Press Photo

Calendar Date: Annual (February)

This is the definitive site for photo journalists to come and win an award for their profession. The World Press Photo Awards are the world’s largest and most celebrated annual press photography contest. The non-profit organization holds the contest annually. The 2013 awards were announced in February. Photos are submitted across a wide range of categories that also include arts and entertainment, portraits and nature. The awards have been held for 55 years and are meant to showcase the often dangerous, often invaluable work of photo journalists.

The Best Way to Be In The Know: Photo Contest Directories

The best way to be completely aware of the next photo contest around the turn of the calendar is through photo contest tracking websites. Subscribe to their RSS feeds or Twitter updates. But do keep them bookmarked. Here are three of the more comprehensive ones I found.

• The Photo Contest
• The Photo Contest Directory
• Photography Competitions

You have to enter to win. That’s the slight trouble you have to take with contests. I have tried to mix this article up with some high-brow contests, and a couple which you can enter more easily if you are an amateur photographer. But there are photography contests all around us, some local, some national, and international like the ones above.

Photography contests aren’t about winning prizes alone. They are also about being part of the wider photography community and taking our photography learning to a new level. Have you taken your best snaps and put them to the test on a photo contest? Tell us about the best photo contests out there; because there are so many.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

The post Photo Finish With The Best: 8 Photography Contests You Can Win With Your Best Snap appeared first on MakeUseOf.

I have absolutely no musical training or background. Give me an instrument, and I’m hopeless. But give me a simple sequencer, and I can make some music. Sequencers are brilliant because they abstract away much of the “hard stuff”: You don’t have to keep a beat, because the sequencer does it for you. You don’t have to try and pick notes that go well together, because they all go well together. If you’re a real musician, you may lament losing all of these nuances and fine-grained elements that combine to make a high-quality composition (in which case, you may want to try one of these music creation tools). But if you’re just looking to have some fun, a good sequencer is all you need. And Rolling Tones for Android is a great one. No, it’s not Holo, and I wouldn’t say it’s a gorgeous app, but it’s well-made, simple to use, and yes — free. It’ll have you making music before you know it.

First Steps

The Rolling Tones Google Play page says the app is based on ToneMatrix, a simple Flash-based music sequencer that we’ve looked at in 2009. Yes, they’re both sequencers, but while ToneMatrix lets you compose single segments, Rolling Tones lets you record entire songs and offers a much more complete experience. I would say GrooveMixer is actually a bit more similar to ToneMatrix than Rolling Tones.

When you first launch Rolling Tones, you’ll see a blank screen with lots of space for your music:

Tap anywhere on the screen, and you’ll make a note. The sequence keeps playing over and over (at 120 beats per minute, by default), so you will soon hear your note. Tap anywhere else on the screen, and you’ve made another note. A beat is formed. Pretty soon, your screen may look like this:

This is a complex sequence that’s actually a part of the demo song that ships with Rolling Tones. The different colors denote different instruments: You can see the eight available instruments lined up along the bottom of the screen.

The matrix itself is easy and intuitive to read: The vertical axis denotes pitch, while the horizontal one marks a note’s position in the sequence. This sounds clunky when explained, but as soon as you start messing around with it, you’ll get it.

From Sequence To Song

One thing I often find frustrating about simple sequencers is that they’re built like toys: You can make a basic sequence, but you can’t make a song. Any sequence you made will just repeat over and over until you change it, but there is often no way to save a sequence and move to the next one, assembling a song. Tone Matrix does let you do this. Let’s look at the relevant bit of the screen a bit closer up:

Ins and Add let you add a new segment to your song; Del lets you remove it. The << and >> buttons let you scroll through your song, and in between you can see the sequence of segments that go to make up the current song (just a five-segment portion of it — the full song can be much longer).

In the next row, the Song button lets you switch between working on the whole song or playing the current segment. Z lets you zoom in on the sequencer matrix for “precision work” — something I’ve found unnecessary on my own device, but may come in handy if you have a smaller screen. The |< and >| buttons let you change the sequence number for the current spot in the song. The Copy and Paste buttons let you quickly take a segment’s contents and paste it into a new segment, while Clear wipes the current segment clean.

This sounds like a lot to take in, but in practice, it’s quite simple. My own workflow goes something like this: I first start messing with a single segment, working up a simple beat I like. I then hit Add three or four times to duplicate the sequence. Then it’s time to change it up, so I hit Copy, hit >| to create a new sequence number in that spot in the song, and hit Paste. I then make one or two changes in the sequence (not too much though, because it still has to sound like it belongs in the same song). I then duplicate that several times, then make another tweak, and so on. Pretty soon, I have a basic melody. It may not be a hit, but it sounds like a song, and it’s fun to make.

Documentation

Rolling Tones is easy to pick up, but it also comes with a simple help page:

This is not obvious, and it does help when you’re trying to figure out what each button does. The included sample song helps, too.

Final Thoughts

Rolling Tones doesn’t win in the looks department, but it definitely has the right functionality, coupled with an intuitive interface and an attractive price tag.

Do you know of a better sequencer for Android that’s still simple enough for non-musicians to use? Let me know in the comments! And if you make anything fun with Rolling Tones, feel free to share a SoundCloud link or two, as well.

The post Create Fun Melodies On The Go With Free Rolling Tones for Android appeared first on MakeUseOf.