15 Essential Chrome Extensions For Google Drive | Dramel Notes

Google Drive is pretty amazing as it is, but how can it be improved? With certain apps and extensions for Google Drive that integrate it with other services, you can make better use of the cloud storage service and do even more with it.

If you’re immersed in the Google/Chrome/Android system, you’ve probably got a bunch of files on Google Drive and you use Google Docs whenever possible. And if that’s the case, you’re going to love these extensions and apps to make better use of your Drive space and the files you keep there.

Note that some of these are really web apps with a Chrome app link, just as the official Google Drive and Google Sheets and Google Docs apps are, but they’re still worth installing (and bookmarking) to keep all the best tools at your fingertips in the Chrome App Launcher — especially if you’re using a Chromebook!

Kami (AKA Notable PDF)

Kami is one of many amazing PDF tools for Google Drive, but it also works with DOCX documents, PowerPoint files and popular image formats. It lets you annotate these documents and share them with Google Drive collaborators. It’s perfect for group research projects or researching personal projects, like weddings or renovations.

Music Player For Google Drive

If you keep audio files in your Google Drive storage (as opposed to in Google Play Music), you still want to be able to play them easily. There is an official Audio Player tool for playing your audio files, but it’s not for everyone. This extension lets you take those files and create a quick playlist you can save in a lightweight browser player.

Drive Template Gallery

Drive templates are a great way to get a particular type of document up and running quickly, and despite having a fantastic directory of templates, Google seems determined to obfuscate them from view so you forget they’re even there. This extension puts the template gallery back into the “Create” menu, so you’ll remember to check the template gallery before recreating the wheel.

DriveTunes

DriveTunes is yet another way to play your Google Drive audio files, but it’s a little more comprehensive. It loads up all of your available files (or whichever folders you want loaded) so you can browse them and play them really easily. As a Google Drive user, it’s an essential addition to the best music extensions for Chrome.

JoliCloud

JoliCloud is for people who use Google Drive along with a number of other cloud storage services. It lets you connect all of your accounts and search for files across them all at once. This is a neat service, but it’s just one of many ways you can manage multiple cloud storage spaces.

For instance, if you’re using a Chromebook you could always add these cloud storage services to your file system, then use your Chrome app launcher to search through them all.

Drive Notepad

This is mostly for Chromebook users, as they find there is a real need for an app that just lets you quickly add a few notes into a simple document. This is that app — plus, it syncs to Google Drive. It could be useful for anyone who wants synced notes.

Drive Migrator

If you’re setting up a new Google Apps account, you’ll note that you can’t change the owner of your old files to a new account. Instead, if you want to copy all your files to the new account, this tool is exactly what you need.

Drive Files To Dropbox

If you need to back up your Google Drive, the Drive Files to Dropbox extension will get you there. It downloads the files to your local hard drive and moves them to Dropbox, so you may find you need a lot of local drive space and bandwidth.

Translate For Drive

If you work with people on the other side of the world or have some other reason for needing to translate documents all the time, this is going to become your favorite tool. All you do is find your document on Google Drive and get a full translation immediately. Yes, you could cut-and-paste text into Google Translate, but this just makes things so much easier. Seriously, it’s the best thing for workplace translation since Gmail auto-translate.

DocuSign

DocuSign is the essential signing tool for Google Drive documents. If someone sends you any file that requires your signature, you can immediately add it and send the signed file right back to them — all within Google Drive.

It works the other way around too, in that if you want to ask for a signature on a Google document you can guide participants through the signing process using DocuSign. Use this for your banking, insurance, work, legal documents or whatever else life throws at you.

Gantter For Google Drive

Have you ever used Microsoft Project? Well, Gantter is a free cloud-based alternative that works almost exactly the same way and integrates seamlessly with Google Drive. You can easily attach Google Drive docs to your Gantt charts and save your Gantter files to Google Drive.

Besides being a solid project manager, Gantter also includes iCal export, easy Google-style collaboration and a collaborator chat, which makes it incredibly useful for group projects.

Simple Invoicing

Do you need a quick template to bill someone for a few hours of work? Would you want that invoice to appear in your Gmail ready to send? How about automatically logging the invoice in a Google Sheet? Simple Invoicing is a freelancer’s dream app. The only bad reviews this app gets is for the invoice itself being too simple, but it is absolutely perfect for simple invoicing, as it says.

LucidPress

If you’re a fan of InDesign, or just need a program to do the same things, LucidPress is your ideal Google Drive extension alternative, as it uses Google Drive seamlessly. Use it to make magazines, flyers, company reports or any other design work you’ve got planned. It’s entirely cloud-based and perfect for Chromebook usage.

Envelopes For Google Drive

If you ever need to do real-world posting of paper, you probably need a way to print up professional envelopes. This is basically the perfect envelope template maker for Google Docs, so you can get all the right information in the right places.

PDF Compressor – Small PDF

Of all the PDF converting tools out there, this is by far the most comprehensive and slick. Small PDF (AKA PDF Compressor) lets you grab files from your local drive, Google Drive or Dropbox, then manipulate them in all sorts of ways.

With Small PDF, you can convert Word documents, PowerPoint documents, Excel spreadsheets, and JPG images to PDF — or vice versa to convert PDFs to these file types. You can also make PDFs smaller, split them into multiple PDFs, merge them into one PDF, rotate PDFs, and protect or unlock PDFs.

What Else Should Google Drive Do in Chrome?

What more would you need Google Drive to do? Is there an app or Google Drive function that you really wish someone would emulate in a Chrome extension or app? Tell us!

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12 Essential Windows Apps to Make Your Life Simpler in 2016 | Dramel Notes

Many of us spend far too much time in front of our screens, whether for work or entertainment.

To help you start 2016 off on the right note, we’ve put together this list of the 12 must-have apps for Windows. Our list includes apps to make your work life easier, as well as ones to help you wind down after a hard day. We’ve also added a few apps to help you stay on top of the day’s news and weather. Welcome to 2016.

Making Your Workday Easier

f.lux: Eye Care

Working on your computer late at night shouldn’t ruin your eyes. Long popular on Macs, f.lux makes the color of your computer’s display adapt to the time of day for a more comfortable and engaging experience.

Best of all, tell f.lux what kind of lighting you have, and where you live, and then forget about it. The app will do the rest.

Download: f.lux for Windows desktop (free)

Microsoft OneNote: Notes & Data Collection

If you’re a Windows user, you’re probably already using Microsoft OneNote, a collaboration tool that seems to get better with each new product release.

With Microsoft OneNote, you can keep track of information through notes (handwritten or typed), drawings, screen clippings, and audio commentaries. Best of all, the application works across multiple platforms, so your lists can sync and be available wherever you need them.

Download: Microsoft OneNote for Windows desktop, from the Windows Store, and more (free)

Skype: Conference Calls

One of Microsoft’s most popular applications, Skype for Windows, features instant messaging, voice calls, and one-on-one as well as group videos calls for up to 25 participants.

Skype-to-Skype calls are free, while calls to mobile devices and landlines are available by buying Skype credits or signing up for a monthly subscription plan. Don’t like Skype? Choose from one of plenty alternative VoIP services, like Google Hangouts.

Download: Skype for Windows desktop and from the Windows Store (free)

Wunderlist: To-Do List & Tasks

Redesigned for Windows 10, this modern cloud-based task management application was acquired by Microsoft in 2015.

Now offering Microsoft Cortana support, Wunderlist features impressive backgrounds and themes. We expect big things from Wunderlist in 2016, courtesy of Microsoft.

Download: Wunderlist for Windows desktop, from the Windows Store, and more (free)

Drawboard PDF: PDF Viewer

This PDF viewer offers integrated annotation capabilities that let you read and create free-form markups, making it an excellent tool for those who are tired of printing out paper copies of documents.

Download: Drawboard PDF from the Windows Store ($5)

Stardock Fences: Desktop Organization

The start of a new year is a great time to get organized. With Stardock Fences, you can tame your cluttered desktop by separating app icons and files into shaded groups. Other features include the ability to swipe between multiple pages of fences, creating a desktop portal from any folder, and double clicking to hide or show icons.

One of the most important features is the ability to change the style and color of Fence backgrounds. This includes the capacity to tweak its transparency, color intensity, tint, and saturation.

Download: Fences for the Windows desktop (30-day free trial, then $10)

Sticky Notes Pro: Quick Notes

Sometimes, all it takes to remember things is a sticky note. However, instead of using a paper one, we suggest Sticky Notes Pro. Much better than the native Windows Sticky Notes tool, Sticky Notes Pro allows you to choose the color of each note, change its size and font, and much more.

If being better organized tops your New Year’s resolutions, you can’t go wrong with Sticky Notes Pro.

Download: Sticky Notes from the Windows Store ($8)

Catching Up on News and Weather

Flipboard: Digital Newspaper

Searching for news doesn’t have to be a chore thanks to Flipboard. Offering curated news and information, according to your personal interests, Flipboard features a beautiful and intuitive design for easy navigation.

With Flipboard, the latest news on the 2016 U.S. presidential election is just a few clicks away, as are the most recent scores from your favorite sports teams. More concerned with how your portfolio is doing? Flipboard has that covered, too.

Download: Flipboard in your browser or from the Windows Store (free)

StumbleUpon: Random Entertainment

With StumbleUpon, you can “discover the best of the web, one click at a time.” Enjoy videos, photos, and web pages personalized for you.

Don’t like a recommendation? Rate content giving it a thumbs up or thumbs down. The recommendations get better the more you rate a video, photos, or website.

Download: Stumble Upon in your browser or from the Windows Store (free)

The Weather Channel: Forecasts & Alerts

Don’t be caught off-guard on what’s happening on the outside. The Weather Channel application offers current conditions and forecasts, videos, weather maps, news, and special alerts.

When the weather forecast calls for higher-than-normal temperatures and sunny skies, or lots of snow, The Weather Channel has you covered.

Download: The Weather Channel in your browser or from the Windows Store (free)

When It’s Time to Relax

iHeartRadio: Custom & Broadcast Stations

Yes, you can still listen to free music from the Internet. With iHeartRadio, you have access to hundreds of broadcast and custom radio stations. You can also create a station to call your own, based on your favorite artist or song.

Currently, iHeartRadio is available to anyone in the United States, Australia, or New Zealand. The music streaming service is offered on dozens of platforms, including mobile, the web, and home entertainment. Did we mention that it’s free?

Download: iHeartRadio in your browser or from the Windows Store (free)

Netflix: Movies & TV Shows

An official Netflix Windows 10 application finally arrived at the end of 2015. Taking full advantage of Microsoft’s universal apps platform, Netflix for Windows 10 offers full integration with Cortana, making it easy to find your favorite movies and TV shows.

Netflix is available on multiple platforms and features some of the biggest movies and TV shows produced in the past 50 years. It’s also the home for original programs such as Daredevil, Orange is the New Black, and House of Cards.

Download: Netflix in your browser or from the Windows Store (free, service fees apply)

What Are Your Favorites?

My favorite app for Windows continues to be Wunderlist, which I tend to use every day to help me keep my work on track. Netflix is also something that I access a few times a week, but strictly to relax after a crazy day in the trenches. You can’t go wrong with any of the ones listed above.

Now you tell us: which are your favorite applications? Share them in the comments below!

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The Best New iOS Apps of 2015 (And Our Favorite Updates) | Dramel Notes

Every year brings a new version of iOS and a host of new apps and updates that take advantage of Apple’s latest features. 2015 has been an awesome year for iPhone and iPad owners, with the arrival iOS 9, Force Touch and proper multi-tasking. Apple has also unleashed some of the most exciting hardware we have seen for years.

We’ve sorted through the stream of new apps that arrived in 2015 and devised a list of our favourites just for you. Here are ten apps that we think were some of the best from the past year, and five great updates that transformed older apps.

New Apps for 2015

Live GIF ($1.99)

One of the new features of the latest iPhones is Live Photos. When you take a photo, the camera also records the action from a few seconds before and a few seconds after you push the shutter. It’s essentially a GIF with sound.

Live Photos, however, have no where near the level of support enjoyed by GIFs. That’s why Live GIF is one of our favorite apps of the year. It takes your Live Photos and converts them into regular GIFs, which you can share anywhere. It may sound like a gimmick but since getting my iPhone 6s I’ve used it a lot more than I thought I would.

Tweetbot 4 ($9.99)

Tweetbot has consistently been one of the best iOS Twitter apps you can buy. The latest version, Tweetbot 4, is the greatest yet.

Tweetbot 4 was one of the first apps to embrace the new features of the latest iOS devices like 3D Touch on the 6s and split-screen multitasking on the iPad Pro. It’s a great example of what a small team of dedicated developers who understand the platform they’re working with can do. If you like Twitter and have an iDevice, this is the app you should be using.

Lara Croft GO ($4.99)

More than any other mobile game released this year, Lara Croft GO has caught our imagination here at MakeUseOf. It’s an amazing twist on the traditional Tomb Raider concept. Rather than trying to force you to play a 3D action platformer using a touch screen, Tomb Raider GO takes the spirit of the original games and turns it into a beautiful series of puzzles.

This is a game that deserves to be on every iPhone.

Workflow ($2.99)

As Apple has gradually opened up the iOS platform to developers, new apps have sprung up to offer previously impossible features. One of the breakouts this year was Workflow, which allows you to create your own powerful extensions. If you want to create shortcuts that can create a GIF from a series of photos or turn a Markdown document into a PDF file, Workflow can do that and a whole lot more.

For iOS power users, it’s opened up a whole new realm of possibilities on iDevices.

Periscope (Free)

Meerkat may have beaten Periscope to the punch but it was the latter, with the support of Twitter, which has become the clear winner in the live streaming app space.

It’s hard to believe that Periscope only launched this year given how fast it has been embraced by celebrities and media figures, and it looks set to be even more popular next year. It’s incredibly rare for an a brand new app to come out and make such a dent in social networking which is why it’s earned its spot on this list.

VHS Camcorder ($3.99)

Sometimes someone hits on an idea that makes you go “why did no one do that before?” VHS Camcorder is one of those ideas.

The app’s premise is simple: it records videos and processes them to look like 80s style home VHS. It’s the video equivalent of all those retro photo apps. If you’ve ever wanted to recapture the blurry, shaky, discolored magic of early camcorder footage, this is the app to do it with. It’s shockingly good fun.

Apple Music ($9.99/month)

While technically not a dedicated app but a replacement for Apple’s default iOS Music app, Apple Music launched to much fanfare this summer and by and large it was deserved. While I’m still a fan of Spotify, I have to acknowledge that Apple’s new Music app is a lot prettier and has some great exclusive content. Apple’s success with cloud-based services hasn’t been stellar so it was good to see that Apple Music launched without any major issues.

If you want to stay entirely contained in Apple’s ecosystem then Apple Music is for you.

Layout from Instagram (Free)

https://www.instagram.com/p/4wiRvnTQsT/

Instagram has changed a lot since they were purchased by Facebook — in many ways for the better. They’ve developed new filters, stopped forcing a square crop on all images, and generally listened to their users. Photo collages have always been popular on Instagram, and now the service supports them directly with the new Layout app.

It would have been simple for Instagram to push out a simple offering, but instead they developed a powerful app for combining multiple images into a single post. You get a huge amount of flexibility about how each image is positioned and cropped. If you’re a regular poster on Instagram, Layout needs to be on your phone.

The Robot Factory ($3.99)

Robots are awesome. Creating your own robots is even more awesome. Robot Factory is the awesomest.

This gorgeous app lets children create and design their own robots from 100s of parts. Their robots can be put to the test in real world physics based situations so they can see how different parts have different effects. It’s the perfect game for young engineers and tech geeks. It even picked up Apple’s much coveted iPad App of the Year so how could we not include it here?

Prune ($3.99)

The imaginative Prune was the worthy winner of Apple’s iPad Game of the Year. In this beautiful, minimalist game, you prune a tree so that it grows towards the sun all the while avoiding the dangers of the world around it. It’s simple and, in a strange way, incredibly relaxing.

It’s the closest I’ve ever seen a game come to meditation, so much so that we’d say it’s part-game and part relaxation tool. If you haven’t played it yet, you need to.

Updates for 2015

LinkedIn (Free)

LinkedIn is the Justin Bieber of social networks. Its fans absolutely adore it, while those who don’t like it can’t see the point in it at all. The latest iOS update might not win the social network any more Beliebers, but for existing fans it’s a welcome change. It brings some much needed functionality and makes the app a whole lot more pleasant to use.

If you’re one of LinkedIn’s fans, then this update probably made you smile.

Pixelmator ($4.99)

Pixelmator is one of the best Mac apps to come out in years. The iOS version is just as good and the latest update makes it even better. It now works on everything from an iPhone to the iPad Pro with full support for features like 3D Touch and the Apple Pencil. Not only is the Mac app a legitimate Photoshop contender, now the iOS version is too.

Microsoft Outlook (Free)

A year ago I would have been laughed at for suggesting that in 2015 Microsoft would release the best iOS email client. With the latest version of Outlook, that crazy event has come to pass. The latest releases of Microsoft Outlook for iOS have embraced the minimalist trend driven by apps like (the now defunct) Mailbox while still offering all the features you’d expect from Outlook. It’s both one of the simplest and most powerful email clients on iOS.

Snapseed (Free)

When Google bought Snapseed I thought I was going to see one of my favorite photo editing apps abandoned. Instead, this year they released an amazing update. While the most obvious change is the interface refresh, there are some big changes under the hood. New tools, effects, and filters give mobile photographers more options than ever before.

Overcast (Free)

Overcast was already one of the best iOS podcast apps available but the latest update has pushed it to the top of the list. Overcast had many innovative features like Smart Speed and Voice Boost that were kept behind a pay wall; the latest update has removed the in-app purchase adding all the features to the free version. Even better, Overcast has also added much requested features like streaming support and smart playlists. All in all, it’s one of the best updates of the year.

What Are Your Best Apps of 2015?

As a tech publication we try to keep on top of new apps and updates, but some things always slip through the cracks. If you think we’ve missed any apps or updates please let us know in the comments.

What’s your favorite app of 2015? Any big updates you absolutely loved?

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Track Santa – NORAD and Google Santa Tracker Apps Go Live for Christmas Eve by @mattsouthern | Dramel Notes

Merry Christmas Eve! Or the night before Christmas, however you choose to call it. The time has come again to follow Santa Claus on his journey as he brings presents to the good girls and boys around the world.

Thanks to this year’s Santa Tracker apps from Google and NORAD, you can see when he will be near your home. Here are the online tools you need.

Official NORAD Santa Tracker

Now in it’s 60th year, NORAD continues its tradition of tracking Santa’s whereabouts — especially on Christmas Eve. Read more about why NORAD tracks Santa as well as the spirit of voluntarism during this event.

In addition to tracking Santa, NORAD’s Santa Tracker offers games, movies, music, and more interactive fun. See NORAD’s Santa Tracker.

Official Google Santa Tracker

For many years Google powered NORAD’s Santa Tracker, but recently the search giant decided to go rogue and launch its own tracker.

How does one choose between the traditional Santa Tracker by NORAD, and the relatively new version offered by Google? Let’s take a look at what Google’s tracker has to offer.

In addition to games and videos, Google’s Santa Tracker can even teach you a bit of basic coding. Every day leading up to December 24 has opened up new games and other interactive features within Santa’s Village.

There’s a whole month’s worth of interactive content available now, plus the Santa Tracker itself. See Google’s Santa Tracker.

The History of Santa Tracking

For those wondering how this whole phenomenon of tracking Santa all begin, the SEJ team has done its research. Here is a brief history.

In 1955, a mistake lead to the Sears department store publishing the number of the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center as the number people could use to contact Santa.

Instead of dismissing the calls, staff were instructed to give Santa’s “current location” to anyone that called. When the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) replaced CONAD in 1958, the tradition remained.

If you’re a more visual person, here is the history illustrated as an infographic:

Source: Norad Santa Tracker : The History of NORAD, Google & Santa [Infographic]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the SEJ Team! 

 

Featured Image Credit: Stokkete / Shutterstock.com
Screenshots taken on 23/12/2015 by Author

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5 Apps With Realtime Notifications About Almost Anything | Dramel Notes

Find out the moment when anything happens. Whether it’s a package showing up at your door or the start of your favorite TV show. Whether it’s a website you love publishing a new story or some site making changes you need to keep up with, there are apps for keeping you up-to-date.

We’ve talked a lot about notifications over the years, from interesting ways to use Google News to stay on top of certain topics to adding basically anything to your Mac’s notification center. Today we’re looking at five apps that let you set up even more notifications, so let’s dive right in.

Hooks (Android): Notifications for Everything

We’ll start with a simple Android app that lets you set up all kinds of notifications. You can set up entertainment items, like when your favorite sports team is playing or your favorite TV show is about to start. You can set up tracking for any package you’re waiting on. You can find out when it’s going to rain, or when any site you love posts a new article. There’s a lot of flexibility.

It’s not the only app that lets you create custom notifications: Pushbullet lets you subscribe to channels for notifications and with IFTTT you can create recipes for anything you want to be regularly notified about. Both of those apps, however, serve some primary function other than notifications and as such take a while to set up. If you want notifications, and only notifications, Hooks is what you’ve been looking for.

Blog Trottr: Get Email Newsletters from Sites That Don’t Offer Them

We’ve shown you how RSS works more than once, and really recommend you use an RSS reader to keep up with your favorite websites. But if you’d rather your favorite websites’ articles come to you, Blog Trottr is a free service that turns any RSS feed into an email newsletter.

Paste in the RSS feed, enter your email address, and choose how often you’d like to get updates. The free plan gives you a lot of flexibility, but if you want to remove ads and customize the look of the emails you need to opt for a paid subscription.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this for sites like ours, with over ten updates a day (subscribe to our newsletter instead). But for sites that update occasionally and irregularly, this could be a great way to make sure you keep up.

Change Detection: Find Out When Any Website Changes

Maybe there’s a site you’d like notifications for that doesn’t offer an RSS feed. In that case, ChangeDetection is a good site to know about. This free service lets you monitor when any static page is changed, and will email you to notify you of changes.

This is a pretty old-school tool: it’s meant to monitor text files. Using it on many modern websites is going to give you problems. But if there’s a basic text page you want to monitor for changes – a terms of service, for example – it’s a good service to know about.

Desktop Notifications for Android (Android, Firefox, Chrome): A Free Pushbullet Alternative

You can set up all sorts of notifications on your phone, many of which aren’t offered on the desktop. Pushbullet, the beloved service for syncing your notifications between platforms for just this reason, has gone freemium. Many users are disappointed with the pricing, and with previously-free features becoming paid. We outlined free alternatives to Pushbullet, but if you’re mostly interested in notifications, this combination of an Android app and browser extension is worth looking into.

I gave this a spin and it worked perfectly — notifications from my phone showed up in Chrome and Firefox without issue. If you want a simple free alternative to Pushbullet, this might be it, just know that advanced features like SMS syncing aren’t offered.

Horntell (Chrome): All of Your Web Notifications in One Place

Lots of sites offer browser notifications, but you need to keep them open in order to see them. Horntell is a Chrome extension, and eventually mobile service, that lets you receive all of your notifications in one place so you can stay on top of them.

Currently it doesn’t support many apps, but if you’re an avid user of tools like Trello and Basecamp it won’t take long to find a use for the service. You’ll need a Facebook account to sign in.

What Other Notifications Services Are Out There?

These are the best notification apps I could find, but I sometimes miss the very best ones. So I want to know what you’ve found. Please fill me in using the comments below – I’m looking forward to the conversation!

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Change swipe gesture from archive to delete in Apple's Mail apps | Dramel Notes

In my experience, the Mail apps for iOS and OS X defaulted to different actions for swiping to delete or archive email messages. A swipe to the left on my iPhone brings up the archive button, and a swipe to the left on my Mac brings up the trash button. Time to get these two actions in sync.

Since I feel no need for an email archive, I just want a simple delete command on all Mail fronts. So, I need to change the setting on my iPhone from archive to delete. I will also show you how to change the setting on a Mac, however, while we are on the topic.

On iOS, head to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars and select one of the email accounts you have set up in Mail. Next, go to Account > Advanced and in the Move Discarded Messages Into area, select either Deleted Mailbox or Archive Mailbox.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

On OS X, open the Mail app and go to Mail > Preferences. On the Viewing tab, you can choose either Trash or Archive for Swipe Left To.

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How to Rearrange the App Icons on Apple Watch | Dramel Notes

As you install apps on your iPhone that have Apple Watch companion apps, the Home screen on your Apple Watch may get a bit disorganized, making it hard to find your apps. It’s easy to rearrange the app icons on your watch’s Home screen.

However, you need to use your phone to rearrange the app icons on your watch. So, tap the “Watch” icon on the phone’s Home screen.

Make sure the “My Watch” screen is active. If not, tap the “My Watch” icon at the bottom of the screen.

Tap “App Layout” on the “My Watch” screen.

All the icons for the apps installed on your watch display on the “Layout” screen. Tap and hold an icon and move it to another location. Drag the icons around into whatever pattern you want.

NOTE: You can move all the icons except for the Watch face, which must stay in the center of the layout.

Here we have a neater diamond-shaped layout. You can arrange your icons into whatever shape you want to make it easier for you to find your apps and open them.

By the way, if you don’t like how the app icons on the Apple Watch Home screen change size as you move around the screen, you can make all the app icons the same size.

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How to Find out Which Apps are Using Up Storage on Your Apple Watch | Dramel Notes

Your Apple Watch has a total of 8 GB of storage on it, with about 5.6 GB of usable space for apps, music, and photos. If you start running out of room, you can easily check which apps are taking up the most space.

To check storage space usage, make sure the Home screen on your phone is active and tap the “Watch” app.

Make sure the “My Watch” screen is active. If not, tap the “My Watch” icon at the bottom of the screen.

On the “My Watch” screen, tap “General”.

Tap “Usage” on the “General” screen.

The amount of storage “Available” and “Used” displays above a list of apps installed on the watch, with the amount of space each app takes up displaying to the right of each app name.

At the bottom of the list of apps, is the amount of “Usage” time and “Standby” time since the last full charge. Also, the amount of “Power Reserve” displays.

Notice that Music takes up 1.6 GB on our watch. That’s because we synced a large playlist to our watch so we can listen to music without our phone.

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How to Add Website Shortcuts to Your Windows 10 Start Menu | Dramel Notes

Whether you love it or hate it, it’s undeniable that the Windows 10 Start Menu is versatile. It can be expanded to suit your individual needs, and of course, it houses the apps and programs that you want to get access to the most.

It does more, though, as you can store your favorite websites right on the Start Menu. And while most people know you can store websites from Internet Explorer or Edge, you can also do it from Chrome and Firefox. The process takes a couple of extra steps, but it’s not too bad.

First thing’s first, you’ll need to open the website you want to store. Presumably, you want to store MakeUseOf.com, because, well, we’re awesome. Next to the address bar you’ll see a little symbol, and depending on the site, it will be a little lock, piece of paper, or a globe. Click this and drag it to your desktop to create a shortcut.

Now, right-click the shortcut you just made and select Copy from the context menu.

Launch a Run box by typing Run into the Cortana search field, and then type shell:programs in said Run box. Right click the background of the Explorer window that opens, taking care not to right click an icon, and click Paste.

Now, the website you just added will be buried in the All Apps section. Simply scroll to it and drag it to the tile section on the right of the menu. You can delete the shortcut from your desktop once it’s done. That’s it!

What websites are you going to store in your Windows 10 Start Menu now that you can do it without Edge or IE? Share in the comments!

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The Best Offline Android Apps for Living Without Data | Dramel Notes

You don’t need Internet access for your phone to be useful. With the right amount of planning, you’ll have something to read, something to listen to, tools for getting around, and even access to Wikipedia and Twitter. All without a data plan.

Don’t believe me? Check out these apps.

We’ve talked about how you can ditch your mobile data plan to save money, but even if you’re not planning to do that, there’s a chance you’ll end up away from a connection at some point. Fear not — with the right apps installed, you’ll be able to get all sorts of use out of your phone without Internet access.

I didn’t have a smartphone until this year, and even now that I’ve got one, I’ve yet to pay for a data plan. The motivation is partially economic: I don’t like adding ongoing expensese to my life. But the other reason is most of the things I use my phone for work perfectly well offline.

Here are the apps that let me do that. They might not cover all of your uses, but hopefully it’ll be a starting point to get you thinking about whether you really need a data plan or not.

Read The News Offline: FeedMe

I spend a lot of time reading about tech and the world, and I’ve built up a massive collection of RSS feeds to let me do that. It’s basically my morning paper, just pulled in from a wide variety of sources. You should set one up too, if you haven’t.

My preferred way to read is on my Macbook, with a cup of coffee, at my kitchen table. When I’m on the road, though, I turn to the amazing FeedMe app.

This is a streamlined version of the official Feedly app, with one key additional feature I like best: full offline syncing. Set this up to sync, and you won’t even have to think about it: all text and images are synced to your phone, meaning you can go through your feeds without Internet access.

The app syncs with Feedly, InoReader, Bazqux, and The Old Reader, so if you have an account at any of those sites, you should grab this app.

Listening To Podcasts Offline: PlayerFM

There’s no better way to make a long trip short than to turn on a podcast you love, but way too many podcast players for Android require an active Internet connection to play back your shows. PlayerFM is an attractive free podcast app with no ads and an extensive catalogue of shows to browse.

Even better: it gives you online access to the latest episode of all your subscriptions, and you can optionally configure it to download even more.

We’ve talk about the best Android podcast managers before, but to me, none of them worked quite as well as this one. Give it a spin.

Travel Offline: Google Maps

It’s maybe the single biggest change smartphones have made in our lives: we’re never lost anymore. You might think living without a data plan would change things, but it really doesn’t if you’ve prepped enough. I’ve shown you how to download offline maps in Google Maps for Android, and you should absolutely use this feature.

Things have only gotten better since that article, with support for looking up locations within your offline maps and support for directions. There are some kinks to work out, and many prefer other apps for just that reason, but to me, this is all the offline map functionality I need. It might be for you too.

Bus and Train Schedules: Transit App

Of course, if you’re trying to get around in the city, directions aren’t enough: you need to know when the bus or train is going to come. Offline Google Maps won’t give that to you, but Transit App will. We’ve explained why this app is aweome before, and a big part of that is ease of use — just open the app, and you’ll see when public transit will arrive at stops near you.

A big part of the appeal is the live tracking, which requires an Internet connection. But if you’re not online at the moment, Transit is still a useful way to see the official schedules of transit lines near you, since it still shows you these when you’re offline. It’s even better if you’ve already set Google Maps to download your current city — Transit uses Google’s service for its built-in map, and offline content is supported.

I live near Portland, Oregon and use this every time I head into the city for work. If this app supports the transit system near you, you can expect the same functionality without anything in the way of setup.

Read Wikipedia Offline: Kiwix

Ever since The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, it’s been every geek’s dream: a handheld guide to all human knowledge. Internet access gives you that, but when you’re away from a tower, Kiwix is the next best thing. It downloads all of Wikipedia for you.

We’ve talked about tools for downloading Wikipedia before, but none that fit in the palm of your hand. Give this one a shot.

Internet via Text Messages: SMSmart

Imagine if you could check out recent tweets or even read current headlines, all without a data connection. SMSmart makes this possible by using text messages to request and receive data. If you have an unlimited texting plan but no data, this app is perfect for you.

I suggest setting this up while online, and only using it when all else fails. But it’s a great way to access just a few pieces of the web while on the road without a data plan. You’ll have quick access to directions, Wikipedia excerpts, Yelp, and even Twitter.

We talked about a few other tools while exploring ways to use the Internet without a data plan, but this was by far the most complete option. It’s probably not a good idea to use outside the US, though, unless you have an unlimited texting plan for contacting that country.

How Do You Use Your Phone Offline?

We’ve outlined more than a few clever ways to reduce mobile data usage over the years, but we always love to learn more. What apps do you use to make your Android phone more useful offline? Let’s talk about more such apps and tips in the comments below.

Oh, and remember: when all else fails, try to find free WiFi. I personally like to stand outside a Starbucks for a while as all my offline apps refresh — let me know any other tips you might have.

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The 10 Best Ways to Use Force Touch on Your Apple Watch | Dramel Notes

The Force Touch feature on Apple Watch is similar to a right mouse click in Windows. It allows you to quickly access contextually-specific options on the watch. We’ll show you 10 useful ways you can use Force Touch in different apps on your watch.

Change and Customize Watch Faces

This is probably the most common use for Force Touch. Press firmly on the watch face to access the interface that allows you to change to a different watch face and customize the different watch faces.

NOTE: You can also use a single photo or photo album to create a custom watch face and make the Modular watch face multi-colored.

Change the View in the Weather App

When you open the “Weather” app on your Apple Watch, it displays the weather conditions by default. However, you can use Force Touch to change the view.

Press firmly on the watch face to access the three options for viewing the weather in the app. Tap on one of the options to change the view.

NOTE: You can also tap on the current view to cycle through the three different views.

Change the View in the Calendar App

By default, when you first open the Calendar app on your watch, the “Day” view displays. After that, the last view used is the one that displays when you open the app. Use Force Touch to quickly change the Calendar view. In the current view, press firmly on the watch screen.

Tap “List” to view the events for “Today” in list form.

NOTE: Tap the “Today” link in the upper-left corner of the watch screen to view the whole month at a glance. Tap the monthly calendar to return to the “Today” view (“Day” or “List”, whichever format was last being viewed).

Pressing firmly again allows you to go back to the “Day” view.

Flag and Delete Email, Mark Email as Unread, and Reply to Email in the Mail App

The “Mail” app on Apple Watch allows you not only to view your email messages, but also take action on them using Force Touch. When you open the mail app, tap on the email you want to flag, delete, mark as unread, or reply to.

Once the desired email message is open, press firmly on the watch screen to access the options for dealing with the current email message.

Clear All Notifications

This is handy if you get a lot of notifications at once. Rather than dismissing each separate notification, you can quickly and easily clear all notifications. When you get notifications, open the main list of notifications and press firmly on the watch screen. Tap the “Clear All” button to dismiss, or clear, all the notifications.

Create a New Text Message

One nice feature of the Apple Watch is the ability to create and send a text message using the watch. It still gets delivered through your iPhone, but you don’t have to take out the phone to create it. Simply use Force Touch in the “Messages” app to create a new message.

Open the “Messages” app and press firmly on the main “Messages” screen.

Tap the “New Message” button that displays and use the “New Message” screen to add a contact and create your message.

When creating your message, you can either choose from the list of default messages, speak your message, or send an emoji.

NOTE: You can create custom messages for use when sending new messages or replying to messages you receive.

Send Your Location in the Messages App

If your meeting someone, instead of trying to describe where you are, send them your location in a text message. They can use the location they receive to get directions to where you are. This is easily accomplished using Force Touch in the “Messages” app.

We’ve already covered how to quickly share your location using “Messages” on your Apple Watch.

Add a New Alarm

Just like multi-function watches such as Casio, your Apple Watch also has an Alarm function. When you open the “Alarms” app, all alarms you have added display in a list and slider buttons indicate whether they are on (green) or off (gray). Alarms that are off also display in gray text rather than white.

The Force Touch feature is used to create new alarms in the app. Press firmly on the main “Alarms” screen.

Tap the “Add Alarm” button that displays and set the options for the alarm.

Shuffle, Repeat, and AirPlay Controls and Change Source in the Music App

Your Apple Watch allows you to control music on your iPhone as well as music directly on watch itself. The Force Touch feature provides access to the different options on the different screens in the app.

Open the “Music” app and press firmly on the main “Music” screen.

Tap the “Source” button to specify whether you want to play music on your iPhone or on the watch.

NOTE: You can transfer up to 2GB of music to your watch and play it directly from there using Bluetooth headphones or speakers. See our article to find out how.

Additional options are available when you go to the “Now Playing” screen and use Force Touch. Press firmly on the “Now Playing” screen.

The “Shuffle”, “Repeat”, and “AirPlay” options display. You can also change the “Source” of the music from this screen.

Search for Locations in the Apple Maps App

You can use your Apple Watch to search for locations in the “Maps” app, rather than taking out your phone, using Force Touch. When you open the “Maps” app, your current location displays. Press firmly on the watch screen.

Tap the “Search” button to search for a specific location. You can speak the address you want to find using the “Dictation” button or you can select a location from the “Recents” list.

NOTE: You can also get the location of any contact for which you have an address, using the “Contacts” button and get maps for and directions to transit systems using the “Transit” button.

There are other ways to use the Force Touch feature on the Apple Watch, such as changing the stopwatch and timer modes, changing the move goal in the “Activity” app, and even changing the color of the emojis in the “Messages” app. You can also try Force Touch in third-party apps to discover additional options, if any are available.

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One Data-Saving Reason to Use Chrome on Android & iOS | Dramel Notes

Back in November, the Chrome apps for Android and iOS received a big update — and a new feature — that will surely bring joy to those who have trouble staying within data limits due to their Web browsing habit.

The new feature is called Data Saver Mode and Google claims that it can reduce data usage by to 70%. When the feature is enabled, websites will be loaded without any of their images, thus reducing the amount of data downloaded per page.

Here’s how to enable it: In the Chrome app, pull down the three-dot menu and select Settings. Navigate down to the Data Saver option and toggle it on. Return to this option page in the future to see how much data the new mode has saved you.

The process is similar for iOS devices.

It’s really as simple as that. The lack of images may bother you at first, but if your data plan is really tight, then cutting your Web browsing data usage in half is definitely worth the inconvenience. Plus, Chrome is the fastest browser in overall usage.

Is this enough of a reason to get you switched over to Chrome? If not, what browser do you prefer and why? Tell us about it in the comments!

Image Credit: Chrome on Android by N Azlin Sha via Shutterstock

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What Are The Biggest Trends In Design For 2016? Get Ahead Of The Curve | Dramel Notes

Attention designers: you need to be aware of the latest trends in the field if you want to stay ahead.

For the rest of us, looking at where design is going in 2016 is fascinating because it lets us see what kind of look and feel we’ll get from our devices and apps in the very near future.

So where is design going in 2016? What are the hot trends that we need to keep an eye on? How will 2016’s design trends differ from those of last year? Check out the infographic below for a fascinating look.

Via CoastalCreative

Click To Enlarge

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5 Diet and Nutrition Apps You’ll Actually Use | Dramel Notes

There is a lot of conflicting information out there about diet, but if there’s one consensus it’s that self-control matters.

If you’re the kind of geek who loves reading about how to get things done, you know that it’s easy to get lost in the planning stage: researching to-do list apps, reading about optimizations, tweaking software. It can all help, but it can also distract you from what needs doing.

Diet is similar: it’s really easy to get lost in books and apps without ever creating an actionable plan. With this in mind, here are five apps we think might help you stop thinking about improving your diet and start actually doing it. Let’s get started.

7 Second Diet (iOS): Dead Simple Tracking For Diet and Exercise

Far too many diet apps and programs bog you down in numbers, charts, and other abstractions. Keeping track of calories can be really helpful, but you’ll never get anywhere if the thought of doing that stops you from even trying in the first place.

7 Second Diet is an iPhone app that tries to help with this. Every meal, you quickly record whether it’s healthy or not by choosing between “Good”, “Meh”, or “Bad”. That’s it.

Most of the time you know when a meal is bad for you, and you know when it’s good for you. Overall the goal needs to be to eat fewer meals that are bad. If nothing else, this app serves as a reminder of that fact. For $5 you can unlock your complete history, helping to keep track of your history so you can see if you’re doing better.

This approach reminds me of the don’t break the chain style of productivity, where you simply try to develop a habit. Give it a shot if you’re not

DietBet (Android, iOS): Eat Better or Pay Up

Put your money where your mouth is. If you can’t muster up internal motivation to lose weight, Diet Bet gives you external motivation. You’ll join “games” of people trying to lose a percentage of their current weight – meet the target, and you get a cash prize. Miss the target, and your money is gone.

The money is part of the appeal, but maybe even more important is the social aspect: you’re committing to a goal with a bunch of other people, meaning you know that you’re not alone in what you’re trying to do. And even if you don’t care about the money, winning feels good, right?

This site can be combined with any of the other apps here, and can give you just a little bit more motivation to follow through on your goals.

Eat This Much (Web): Simple Diet Assistant That Crunches Numbers for You

If you already have a diet set up, you still might struggle to find decent meals that fit it. Eat This Much is a web app you can use for that. Just head to the site, say how many calories you’d like to limit yourself to over a number of meals, and you’ll get a few recipes. You’ll end up with a meal plan.

Sign up for an account, however, and you’ll get access to all sorts of other features, from calorie tracking to shopping list management. If you want an all-encompassing approach, dive in and see if it helps you.

The Flexible Diet (Web): Another Way to Think About Food

Want another perspective? This site is worth a quick read, and offers some tools to experiment with too. The idea is that there’s no such thing as “clean” or “junk” foods – just foods made up of particular macronutrients.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll get access to a tool for calculating your daily body expenditure, which you’ll use to determine how many calories you need. Fill everything in and you’ll learn about the systems for setting and keeping goals.

Diet Point (Android, iOS): Plan Healthier Meals

Still looking for a diet plan that works? Diet Point is a single smartphone app that gives you access to 130 different plans. Pick one, and a combination of meal plans, notifications and shopping lists will help you stay on target.

Jumping between diets regularly probably isn’t going to help you much, so have an idea of your goals before diving into an app like this. But once you’ve got that worked out, Diet Point could help you quite a bit.

What Are Your Dieting Tips?

A lot has been written about diet, and I won’t claim to be an expert. Personally, though, I’m a fan of author Michael Pollan’s simple advice:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

But reasonable people can disagree. What are your diet tips, and are there any apps out there that help you stick to them? Let’s talk in the comments below.

I’ll get us started: here are some weight tracking apps for Android, some health apps for iPhone, and some dieting web apps we didn’t include in the column today. What else can you recommend?

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12 Surprising Things All Snapchat Users Should Know | Dramel Notes

Snapchat has quickly become one of the most beloved apps out there – it’s hilarious, it’s convenient, and it’s also incredibly mysterious.

Honestly, from cryptic smiley faces to the elusive replay feature my enjoyment of Snapchat is always tempered by the sneaking suspicion that I’m missing out on something.

Thankfully, no matter what updates Snapchat does its basic functionality remains simple enough to use. A single tap and you can send your friends quick, impermanent photos of you as you go about your day, make an especially ugly face, or see something hilarious in a crowd.

Snapchat’s basic purpose is great on its own, but the app can do so much more than that! We want to make sure you know about all of its fantastic features, so we’ve answered twelve of the most common questions asked by perplexed Snapchat users.

1. What do the Snapchat Emojis Mean?

If you use Snapchat regularly, you may have noticed that some of your friends have different emojis next to them. The Emoji language is a complicated one, but Snapchat’s is especially so – the emojis change daily and don’t seem to make any sense.

Snapchat does actually have a method behind the emoji madness (even if it’s impossible to figure out without help)

Smiley Face – You are Best Friends with this person, but not #1 Best Friends (apparently the distinction is important)

Yellow Heart – “#1 Best Friends”- You send this person more snaps than anyone else, and they send more snaps to you than anyone else

Red Heart – You have been #1 Best Friends with this person for two weeks or more

Pink Hearts – You have been #1 Best Friends with this person for two months or more

Sunglasses Face – One of your best friends is also one of their best friends

Smirking Face – They send you a lot of snaps, but you don’t send very many back

Grimace Face – Your #1 best friend is also this person’s #1 best friend

Baby – You and this person are new Snapchat friends

Fire – You are on a ‘Snap Streak’ with this person – you have sent them a snap for several consecutive days and they snap you back every time (the number next to your fire emoji will increase with every day you add to the Snap Streak!)

Hundred – You have kept a Snap Streak going for 100 days straight!

2. What Do the Stars in Snapchat Mean?

The gold stars have been causing confusion since their release in October. They appear next to any other emojis a person may have, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to their appearance. Basically, what they means is that someone has replayed this person’s snap in the last 24 hours (it could have been you, or it could have been any of their other friends).

The best way to interpret this?  Your friend probably has something pretty good to show you and you should definitely check it out!

3. What are the Filters I Can Add on Snapchat?

They may not be as fancy as Instagram’s new filters, but the Snapchat filters can still go a long way towards making your selfies a little more artistic.

Take your photo the way you would normally, then swipe left or right to add filters – three basic colour photos can up your contrast, brighten your photo, or turn it black and white, while other filters allow you to feature your current speed, the temperature outside, or the time. If you are in a popular location (including most cities!) you may also see a geolocation filter specific to your area.

4. What Editing Can You Do on Snapchat?

If filters just aren’t personalized enough for you, never fear – Snapchat’s got you covered!

Three buttons in the top right corner of your photo allow you to place re-sizeable emoji stickers, add stylized text, or draw freestyle on your image. These features are a great way to add your own spin to the images you send – I’m sure your selfie in front of the Eiffel tower is great, but wouldn’t it be even better with a hand-drawn Godzilla and a couple of running man emojis in the background?

5. What is a Snapchat Story?

A Snapchat story is a collection of snaps that you’ve taken over the course of a day or event. The snaps are displayed in the order they were taken for 24 hours and can be viewed an unlimited number of times by any of your friends. This can be a great way to curate memories over the course of a day-trip or to set up elaborate tales or running gags (like in the video above!).

Add snaps (either videos or pictures!) to your story by pressing the square button at the centre-left of your screen and selecting “add”.

6. What are Snapchat Discover and Snapchat Live?

Snapchat isn’t just for chatting your friends! Under the ‘Stories’ screen, you can see ‘Discover’ and ‘Live’ sections, which are both fantastic features that allow Snapchat to extend its reach beyond your circle of friends.

Discover allows you to look at curated stories from sources like the Food Network, CNN, MTV, National Geographic, and the Daily Mail. These stories generally feature short video headlines and a text article (if you swipe up). Each of these stories is updated once every 24 hours, making the Discover feature the Snapchat equivalent of a daily magazine!

Live serves a similar purpose, but instead of being carefully curated content, it hosts fun news stories from around the world.

These stories are curated using Snapchat’s geolocation feature – if you are from the area Snapchat is featuring, you will see an ‘Our Story’ option where you would normally post to your own personal story. If you choose to submit your snap to the Our Story feature it will be reviewed by Snapchat staff and then added to the 24-hour story if it is relevant to the event. If it’s available, you may want to add the location filter to your snap and send it to the teamsnapchat account to increase your chances of being featured!

7. Can You Chat in Real Time with Snapchat?

Snapchat is wonderful for sending your friends updates the moment something happens, but communicating back and forth can be frustrating if your conversation is chopped into ten-second segments!

Thankfully, Snapchat supports real-time text and video chatting. If both you and your friend are using the app at the same time, flip to the chat screen (swipe right on their name) and then press the blue dot to start video chatting, or send an old-fashioned instant message if you would prefer!

8. What are Snapchat Lenses?

One of Snapchat’s new updates this fall was the release of ‘Lenses’– new filters that scan your face and then animate the space around (or on!) it. These filters are ridiculous and highly amusing – one artificially ages you, another turns you into a lizard, and a third turns your eyes into laser beams.

Accessing these filters can be tricky at first. While using snapchat, turn your front-facing camera on and hold your phone so that it frames your face. Then, press and hold on your face until an outline of your face appears on the screen. Use these filters with caution in public spaces – they might leave you making sillier faces than usual!

9. What are Snapchat Trophies?

Most of Snapchat’s features make sense, but this one doesn’t really. Nevertheless, it’s worth knowing that Snapchat offers trophies to its users for completing various tasks around the app such as “sending a video snap” or reaching different set snapchat scores.

You can see your trophy case by swiping down on the camera screen to access your user profile, then tap the trophy above your icon to view any trophies that you may have received thus far!

10. What are Snapchat’s Paid Features?

Snapchat has recently begun charging for certain features, but they aren’t ones that will necessarily impact your use of the app. While five of the aforementioned lenses are free, several other lenses cost a one-time fee of $1.19 to access (after which they can be used an unlimited number of times).

As well, users currently have one free replay every 24 hours (just tap and hold on an already viewed snap to see it again), but can also choose to pay $0.99 for each additional replay they want.

11. Who Can See my Snaps?

Since its launch there have been concerns about Snapchat user privacy and safety. It is important to be aware that snaps have been retrieved before and that other users can take screenshots or photos of snaps you send them.

While there is reason for overall caution when using the app, it’s also possible to change your settings to increase some security. The settings button can be accessed on the top right of your user profile screen (swipe down on the main screen) and allows you to set your username (use something other than your full name!) and who can send you snaps (set to “friends” or “custom” for the most privacy), who can view your story (again, set to “friends” or “custom for increased security).

As well, know that you can block users who are spam (or unfriendly) so that they cannot send you snaps or see any of yours.

12. Who should I add on Snapchat?

Most people use Snapchat to communicate with their real-life friends, but it can also be a great way to be aware of what interesting people are doing all over the world. Most YouTube stars, musicians and celebrities now have Snapchat and should advertise their username pretty freely. In addition, some brands are getting in on the action and are using Snapchat as a way to advertise promotions and sales.

It’s also good to know that many famous users will have a custom emoji after their name that indicates that their account has been verified – it’s a good idea to be skeptical of any non-verified account promising to be a celebrity!

What has Surprised You About Snapchat?

Despite its mysterious features and often unclear updates, Snapchat is an incredibly popular social media site with over 6 billion photos and videos being sent every day and an infatuated teenage userbase who often prefers snaps to texting or other messaging apps.

Are you a regular Snapchat user? Do you have any remaining unanswered questions about Snapchat and how it works? Let me know in the comments and I’ll be happy to answer them for you!

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How to Change the Default City for the Weather Complication on Apple Watch | Dramel Notes

Complications on the Apple Watch allow you to display various types of information and quickly access apps on the watch. The Weather app on your iPhone provides a complication for watch faces that can be customized, such as the Modular, Utility, and Simple watch faces.

The Weather complication displays the weather for one default city, but you can change which city is the default city using your phone. To do this, tap the “Watch” app on the Home screen.

Make sure the “My Watch” screen is active. If not, tap the “My Watch” icon at the bottom of the screen.

On the “My Watch” screen, tap “Weather”.

Tap “Default City” on the “Weather” screen.

NOTE: The city currently displaying as the default city on the Weather complication is listed next to “Default City”.

Scroll through the list on the “Default City” screen and tap the city you want to make the default. If you don’t see the city you want, you can add cities to the Weather app on your phone. We’ll explain how to do this.

Tap the “Weather” app icon on your phone’s Home screen.

In the “Weather” app, tap the list button in the lower-right corner of the screen.

A list of all cities available in the app displays. Tap the plus icon in the lower-right corner of the screen.

Start typing the name of the city you want to add in the edit box. Cities that match what you’re typing start displaying in a list below the edit box. When you see the city you want in the list, tap on it.

The city is added to the list.

The city you added is now available to choose as the default city for the “Weather” complication.

Even though you can only view the weather for one city at a time on your Apple Watch, you can easily view the weather for all the cities you’ve added in the Weather app simply by swiping right and left. The row of dots at the bottom of the screen indicate the cities you’ve added as well as the arrow indicating your current location.

You can also add third-party complications from other weather apps you can find through the “Watch” app.

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12 Best Free and Open Source Android Apps | Dramel Notes

Android is an open source operating system, but most of the apps and services aren’t available. What’s a free and open source software-loving person to do?

Well, it turns out there are a wide range of apps out there available to you. You won’t be able to do all the things you could with the Play Store, but you can still get a good amount of use out of your phone and use software that embraces material design.

Here are a dozen of the best open source Android apps to choose from, in no particular order. All are available in F-Droid, and most are also in the Play Store if you’re not concerned about using your device Google-free.

1) DuckDuckGo

Want to look for something online without handing over your interests to advertisers? Meet your Google replacement. DuckDuckGo is a search engine that cares about your privacy. The Android app doesn’t just look pretty, it lets you read articles inside its own internal browser, and the home page provides you with a look at current events happening across the web.

I enjoy this app so much more than I did the default Google Search app.

Download: DuckDuckGo for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

2) AntennaPod

Listening to podcasts is a solid chunk of what I do with my phone, and fortunately, there’s a great open source option out there. AntennaPod isn’t quite as feature-rich as BeyondPod (my favorite Play Store option), but it has a modern look and gives me enough control to make sure feeds don’t auto-update over mobile data. That’s good enough for me.

Download: AntennaPod for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

3) OsmAnd~

Part of buying a smartphone means you don’t have to lug around a dedicated GPS unit anymore. The thing is, most of the well-known options are all proprietary. Going open source means giving up access to Google Maps, Nokia Here, Sygic, and just about any other alternative you can think of.

Well, except for one. OsmAnd~ lets you download maps from OpenStreetMaps.org and save them to your device. You can save any number you want… from the entire world… for free. Searching for addresses can be a challenge, but if you pair the app with Address to GPS, then you should be good to go.

Download: OsmAnd~ for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

4) Muzei

Muzei is one of the best live wallpapers around. The app blurs the background, only bringing the image into focus when you hold down on the screen. The settings let you adjust the amount of blur, and there is something satisfying about how the end result really highlights your app icons.

By default Muzei chooses a different painting for your wallpaper every day or so, but there are many other sources available, and you’re welcome to use your own photos.

Download: Muzei for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

5) DashClock

DashClock is the solution to a dull home or lock screen. Use it to read email, check the weather, and keep track of alarms out of the box. When that is no longer enough, install any number of plug-ins to view content from third-party apps like Hangouts on the front of your locked phone.

Check your WiFi network, monitor battery life, and knock yourself out.

Download: DashClock for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

6) Clip Stack

Copy. Paste. Cut. Paste. Copy. No, cut. Then paste. Paste again. Wait, no, I wanted something before that. Ugh, why did I cut? Where did I get that from?

Forget it. Open Clip Stack, browse through the history of clipboard items, and copy from there. Done.

Download: Clip Stack for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

7) QKSMS

QKSMS is one of the many alternative SMS apps for folks who consider their default text messaging app too basic. Thing is, this one happens to be open source. The app was one of the early adopters of material design, and it’s highly theme-able.

There’s a night mode, plenty of customization options, and features to speed up your texting like QK reply — letting you respond without leaving the app you’re in.

Download: QKSMS for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

8) Swiftnotes

Swiftnotes is a simplistic note-taking app like Google Keep without the online component. You give notes a name, body text, and a color, as if you were creating sticky notes. That’s it.

There are no tags or notifications or other forms of added complexity. If you just want to jot things down for later, this app is one to take note of.

Download: Swiftnotes for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

9) Mirakel

Android has a ton of to-do list apps, but most aren’t open source. Fortunately, Mirakel is a capable and beautiful option. The app is feature-rich enough to provide filters and tags, set reminders, and rank each job’s priority.

There’s also a DashClock extension to put your to-dos on your lockscreen.

Download: Mirakel for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

Download: Mirakel DashClock for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

10) KISS Launcher

KISS Launcher takes all the distractions away from your home screen and replaces them with a single search bar that does everything. It launches apps. It dials numbers. It accesses settings. The memory requirements are low, and it does a good job of keeping it simple.

Download: KISS Launcher for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

11) Material Audiobook Player

Material Audiobook Player provides a particularly pretty way to look at audiobooks on a modern Android device. It isn’t the most complete experience, but considering how visually unappealing many audiobook players are, this one feels like a breath of fresh air. Just make sure your collection of eBooks is DRM-free.

Download: Material Audiobook Player for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

12) Amaze File Manager

Looking for a file manager? Amaze might just amaze you. It has the basics covered, and it comes with a few advanced features like samba support and root browsing. Also, it’s quite the looker.

Download: Amaze File Manager for Android (F-Droid | Google Play)

What Are Your Favorites?

Under the surface, Android remains an open source operating system. Proprietary software may clutter the ecosystem, but there are many good options out there for people looking for good free and open source apps.

Does proprietary code make you uncomfortable? What about being dependent on cloud services? Have you spent years waiting for a viable free and open source phone or tablet? Share your thoughts with us, and if one of your favorite apps is open source, give it a shout out!

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8 Effective Evernote Apps for Painless Productivity | Dramel Notes

Evernote helps you increase your productivity with only a little effort.

One of the best things about Evernote is being able to integrate it with other web apps. So apart from it being an excellent note-taking app, Evernote can do an IFTTT manoeuvre and sync up with your favorite web app (assuming it is supported).

Bear in mind though that these apps obviously do need you to grant them access to your Evernote account.

 

You do not need to fall back on IFTTT always. After taking a wander through the Web Apps section of the Evernote App Center, I have found 8 good useful apps which integrate well with Evernote.

Go forth and be amazed.

MapClipper

If you are taking a trip somewhere, you may not have continual access to WiFi (I know, scary thought). This means that if you need Google Maps to navigate, then you are a wee bit stuck.

MapClipper aims to help solve that problem by enabling you to choose a certain area of a Google Map within a fixed size of square. When you have this, then click the “Save to Evernote” button, and the clipped portion of the map will be sent to your Evernote account.

Blinkist

Blinkist is an interesting service which takes works of non-fiction, and distills the main facts of each book into 15 minutes. This saves you the time of reading the entire book which could take hours, days, or even weeks, depending on your schedule.

Blinkist decides what the most important facts are in the book and presents them to you so you can learn them. You can highlight important passages, and send them to your Twitter or Facebook account.

The only downside to the service is that it is mostly not free. After only 3 days paid trial, if you want to get the most out of the service, the prices start at 50 Euros a year. The free plan gives you only one pre-selected book per day.

With each 15 minute distilled summary, you can have them sent to your Evernote account. However to do this, you need to have a paid plan.

Voice2Note

One of the great things about Evernote is that you can speak to the service to leave voice notes. This is great for those spontaneous thoughts of genius, the ones that will ultimately shake the world to its foundations.

But the big snag is that voice notes are not searchable (yet). Evernote boasts of its OCR technology which reads written text, and the search engine takes care of digital text. So how do we search the voice notes?

Voice2Note takes your voice notes and transcribes them into searchable text. But, it will only transcribe the first 30 seconds, so this is only suitable for short snappy notes. Not the next audiobook adaptation of “War and Peace”.

The free plan will give you up to 5 notes per month, and according to Voice2Note, the “transcription frequency is low”. The paid plan is $29.99 a year or $2.99 a month. This unleashes all the bells and whistles – unlimited notes, tagging and a “high transcription frequency”.

Sush.io

Running a busy business is a hectic affair. You have so much to think about, and forgetting just one thing has the potential to put a spanner in the works.

Sush.io gives you a chance to automate some of those essential tasks. It collects your recurring bills and statements, and all of your other online bills. It then also sends them all to an Evernote notebook (you can also choose from a huge amount of other cloud services. This page showcases just a small sample of them.

The first 100 transactions are free but you must pay a minimum of $25 a month for the service. But there are two things to consider here – the amount of billable time this app saves you, and the fact you can offset the charges against your tax bill.

StudyBlue

StudyBlue touts itself as “the leading crowdsourced learning app providing intelligent learning tools“. What does that mean in simple English? It means that everyone’s notes for a particular class are uploaded and made available for everyone to read and use. StudyBlue claims that they have more than 250 million pieces of user-generated content available.

Any class notes that you make in Evernote can be imported into StudyBlue and automatically turned into flashcards. So you can make your notes in Evernote, and later you can lie in bed and learn that day’s course content via the newly made flashcards. The flashcards are also sent back to the Evernote account so you have a copy of everything.

StartUp Tracker

Another day, another startup. Keeping up with which 15 year old entrepreneur has started what in their bedroom can perhaps be an overwhelming affair. That’s why I have totally fallen in love with StartUp Tracker.

StartUp Tracker is a browser extension for either Chrome or Safari (one for Firefox is apparently in the works). Once installed, if you see a name of a new startup, just highlight it and click the browser button. Alternatively, StartUp Tracker has embedded itself in the right-click menu.

A box will then appear on the screen with all pertinent information, and if you scroll all the way to the bottom, you will see a “Save To Evernote” button. Clicking on that will send the startup information to your Evernote account.

Using the app is completely free, but the one snag is that you cannot assign these notes to a specific notebook. It will just send it to your Evernote account, without putting it in a notebook for you. On the plus side, it DOES automatically tag each note for you.

Cronofy

If you are a knowledgeable Evernote user, you will know all about reminders. These can be added to a note to remind you to give it some attention on a particular day and time. Extremely useful if you deal with a lot of notes containing time-sensitive information.

Cronofy links up with the calendar of your choice (iCloud, Google, Office 365, Exchange, and Outlook.com). Then when a reminder is posted on Evernote, it posts the reminder on your calendar as well. This not only gives you a backup alert, but it also gives you a very good overview of all your different reminders coming up in the future.

NYT Cooking

Finally, one of my favorite destinations on the web. The cooking section of the New York Times! Whenever I want to fantasy cook, or find something to ask my wife to make, I head over to the New York Times. They have 17,000 recipes, and one visit to the page is enough to make me extremely hungry.

Now Evernote has partnered up with the Times to enable you to save recipes in your account. When you see something you like in the recipes, just click the Save button. That will save it in your NYT account, but it will also send a copy to your Evernote account. No tagging, but well, that’s a minor gripe.

It also goes the other way. Save recipes from other websites in Evernote, and scan any handwritten recipes you have. Then you can send those straight to your NYT recipes list.

Which Apps Do YOU Integrate Into Your Evernote Account?

Evernote is becoming more robust and useful as time goes on. As more and more apps become integrated, Evernote truly will become your second brain, as it scoops up all the information it can get its hands on.

Let us know what apps you use in conjunction with Evernote. Do you have a must-have that I missed out? Do you wish there was a web app integration someone would build?

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Clean Up Spotlight Search by Getting Rid of Siri Suggestions | Dramel Notes

Have you noticed that Spotlight Search is back, front and center in iOS 9? You simply swipe to the left when you’re on the first page of apps, or pull down for the top for a smaller version, and you’re presented with a convenient box in which you can type whatever you’re seeking.

But wait, what’s all that other stuff? News stories you didn’t ask for? Stuff that’s nearby? Apps and contacts? Why is this stuff cluttering up your nice, clean search area? Don’t worry, disgruntled iOS user, because we’re here to show you how to get rid of those suggestions and get a slick, empty search area once more!

As you can probably guess, you’ll need to start by launching Settings. From there, click on the General section. The fourth one from the top is Spotlight Search. Click that, and then right at the top is Siri Suggestions. Tick that slider into the “off” position, and you’ll be good to go!

If you don’t believe me, feel free to head back to your Spotlight Search and take in just how empty it is. It’s so peaceful and tranquil now. News stories, what news stories?

Do you prefer to have Siri Suggestions on or off on your device? Share you thoughts on the feature in general in the comments below.

Image Credit: pikcha via ShutterStock

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5 Online Radios That Travel Through Space and Time | Dramel Notes

Want to find back that one song?

Or get the feeling of listening to the radio like it was when you were a kid?

Today, Cool Websites and Apps brings you five sites that let radio listeners travel through time and space.

I grew up on a farm in rural Ontario, and one of the only ways to make physical labor interesting was to turn on the radio. I’ve got so many vivid memories of specific songs, and specific segments, from the early 2000s, mostly related to cold weather and moving hay around – but good memories nonetheless. Can I find some of those back?

It turns out yes, and I can do a lot more. We’ve shown you where to find unlimited online radio; here’s how to travel in time through that free radio and find exactly what you’re looking for. Let’s get started.

OnRad.io: Some Station Somewhere Is Playing Your Song

Somewhere on this planet, one of any hundreds of thousands of radio stations is playing your favorite song. It might be in Alabama, it might be in Zimbabwe, but odds are it’s playing somewhere. OnRadio lets you find out where that station is, and start listening right now.

A few years back we featured Radio Search Engine. OnRadio is the latest incarnation of that same service, this time with a refined interface that works well on mobile.

The idea is simple: search for a song, hear it instantly from some radio station somewhere. You won’t hear that track from the beginning, but you’ll typically hear most of it. You can leave the station on, if you’d like – odds are you’ll hear something you like and learn a little about the world while you’re at it. Or you can just search for another song, if you prefer.

You can copy any song’s URL and share it, if you’d like, or set up notifications so you can find out when a particular song is playing somewhere.

Radiooooo: Music from Any Decade/Nation Combination

Instantly travelling to where your favorite song is playing is cool and all, but you were promised time travel. Let’s start delivering on that, shall we?

Radiooooo gives you a map and a panel for selecting a decade. Just click a decade, then click a country, to hear a song from that particular place and time.

There is a wide world of music to explore here, so go ahead and dive in. I recommend pre-revolutionary Cuba as a place to start, but I’d love to know which gems you discover – and where. Leave some tips in the comments below, okay?

Rewind Radio: Travel to Radio Stations from Past Decades

Radio sucks these days – kids listening to their rap/pop/whatever-it-is-you-don’t-like just don’t realize what they’re missing. Back in the 90’s/80’s/whenever-you-grew-up, everything was way better.

If you feel that way, congratulations: you’re old! It’s okay, it happens to all of us eventually (and it is better than the alternative). Just know that there’s a remedy for your radio problem: Rewind Radio. This service uses Spotify’s catalog of songs to re-create radio playlists from any year – and even season.

Just find the exact time you last found radio to be appealing, then turn the volume up.

Remember: you’re not out of touch. It’s the children who are wrong.

Magic Transistor Radio: Open and Enjoy Some Early Rock

Magic Transistor is a podcast that looks into the early history of what we today call rock and roll. They also offer an interactive online radio, and it’s totally worth checking out if you want some great music you’ve never heard before.

Just open the site and start listening – you can change the station if something you don’t love comes on. There are some really great deep cuts here, so fire it up and enjoy.

Old Radio World: Archive of Old Radio Shows and Broadcasts

Radio wasn’t always all about music and news: it used to be full of dramas, comedies, and all sorts of things we now use TV for (or did use TV for, until we started replacing that with the web, but that’s another article entirely). Old Radio World is a great archive for finding out what some of that sounded like.

For the MakeUseOf crowd, I recommend diving into the science fiction stories. It’s amazing how far that genre has come, but there’s still something charming about its early broadcast roots (Flash Gordon!). History buffs shouldn’t miss the WWII archive.

There are lots of ways to find amazing free audio dramas, but this site offers a great starting point. Dive into the early days of radio!

What Radio Era Would You Like to Travel to?

Do you have any fond radio memories? Let’s talk about those in the comments below, along with any resources for bringing them back.

Or, if nothing here satisfies you, why not start your own online radio station and create something that does? I’d love to hear from you, should you get something going. Let’s chat below!

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