New Technology : Which of These Free Email Services Do You Use? [MakeUseOf Poll]

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There are a number of free email services available for all to use, including Google’s insanely popular Gmail and Microsoft’s insanely popular Outlook. These two, as well as the other less popular options, offer fantastic tools for us to communicate with each other for free. But which do you use? And what made you choose that particular service over the competition? Smartphones Are a Mixed Bag To answer this week’s question please scroll down the page until you see the poll staring back at you. But first, we need to look at the results from last week, when we asked,...

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New Technology : Is an Octa-Core Better than a Quad-Core? Not Always! Android Processors Explained

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Buying an Android phone can be overwhelming. As if the sheer variety of choices on offer wasn’t difficult enough, manufacturers use jargon that confuses the buyer. You might think an octa-core processor is better than a quad-core, because eight cores is better than four cores. But that’s not always the case. Technology is complicated. The job of a marketer is to simplify it for buying decisions, but often at the cost of full honesty. “More is better” is an easy formula for this. But just like more megapixels don’t necessarily mean better image quality, more cores don’t necessarily mean a faster...

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New Technology : How Facebook is Killing the Open Web

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The way we use the web is changing. The rise of social networks and apps have created closed silos where people are spending increasing amounts of time, at the expense of the open web. There are a couple of ways for you to be reading this article: you could have entered MakeUseOf.com into your browser and come here directly, you could have searched for something online and followed a link to this page. What’s most likely, though, is that you could have followed a link on a social media site or app. How Popular Are Social Networks? Facebook has more...

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New Technology : Wi-Fi vs Ethernet: Which Should You Use and Why?

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The world is going wireless. The lack of clutter and the convenience of being able to connect to the Internet almost anywhere means Wi-Fi is the first choice for anyone who is looking to go online. The emergence of the Internet of Things means that soon we’ll have dozens of devices in our homes all connected to the iIternet, and all wirelessly. Does that mean it’s all over for Ethernet? Or does the good old-fashioned cabled connection still have a place in the modern tech world? Let’s take a look. Ethernet versus Wi-Fi: The Key Differences Up until a few...

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New Technology : 15 Can’t-Miss Chrome Extensions for Productivity

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More Google gold for you! You listed some of your favorite Chrome extensions in one of our recent polls and Dave turned them into a handy list. Today we bring you a few more essential extensions geared toward helping you work better online. For Keeping To-do Lists Install: Dayboard When you first sit down to work, use Dayboard to list your 5 Most Important Tasks or MITs for the day. Dayboard displays this to-do list every time you open a new tab. Nothing like a constant visual reminder to keep you focused on work! Momentum is another start screen that doubles up as a to-do list....

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New Technology : 5 Affordable Websites for Printing Digital Photos Online

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Not long ago, one-hour photo shops were declared to be the “disappearingest” business in America. Think about it: when was the last time you went to get a roll of film printed? In fact, there are only 190 of these shops left in the country. Why? Because everything is digital now. Nobody seems to print their photos any more. Instead, we throw them up on social media and call it a day. Who needs printed photos taking up drawer space when you have unlimited online photo storage? Not to mention that online photo galleries are just more convenient for everyone...

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New Technology : Adblock Plus Releases a Standalone Android Browser, We Put It to the Test

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It’s much easier to avoid clicking ads on a desktop than it is on mobile. Accidental taps on ads are a big problem, and some mobile pages get aggressive with ad overlays that only have a tiny little “X” in one corner to close. AdBlock Plus wants to fight back with a new browser made for Android. Of course, AdBlock Plus has been around for some time now. We’ve talked about its virtues, we’ve written about how it’s killing journalism, and we’re done with that debate. Ad-blocking is not going anywhere, and it seems to be the need of the...

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New Technology : 3+ Myths Told about Windows that Aren’t True (Anymore)

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While the authors at MakeUseOf carry diverse preferences on computer OSes, we’ve written in defense of Windows, explaining why it’s still a viable option in the world of Mac OS X and Chromebooks. Of course, people continue to hate things they don’t prefer using and so stereotypes about Windows persist. Today, let’s take a closer look at some Windows myths that have lingered throughout the ages. Not all of them will turn out to be false, but by examining the facts instead of just shouting angrily about “the other people,” maybe we can reach an understanding that Windows isn’t the buggy,...

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New Technology : Free Gift Cards, Games & Design Tools: 5 Sites with Great Giveaways

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Free’s always good, right? If you’re willing to spend some time online, you can find all sorts of things for free. And we love pointing this out. We’ve shown you some obscure tips over the years, like using IFTTT to be notified of freebies or how to get free stuff from Amazon. Today, Cool Websites and Apps is going to show you few more great sources for free stuff. There’s an app with contests, and four sites that offer everything from free indie games to design and audio files. Let’s get started! ClaimIt (iOS, Android coming soon): Contests and Giveaways, Every...

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New Technology : What You Need to Know to Make Your Brand Stand Out on Social Media

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So you’re starting your own business. That’s awesome! It can be a scary journey, but should you make the right moves and perhaps get a little bit lucky, it could be the most rewarding thing you’ve ever done. Now you need to get word about your brand out there. How should you do it? Jumping on social media is a great place to begin. But for that to work, you need to make sure you understand each of the different social networks. What works on Facebook won’t work on Twitter. Strategies used on LinkedIn are different from those on Pinterest....

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