New Technology : Will Windows 10 Succeed or Fail? [MakeUseOf Poll]

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Crunch time has arrived, with Microsoft releasing Windows 10 to the world on July 29th. Over the next few weeks many of us will get our hands on this operating system, and know what kind of gem/mess Microsoft has gifted/inflicted on the world. The question is, will Windows 10 succeed or fail? Adobe Flash in the Pan 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, “Does Adobe Flash Need to Die?” Out of a...

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New Technology : Is Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 worth Buying, or Is It Just More of the Same?

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FNAFfeat

Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 has made a surprise appearance on Steam. If I know anything about trends, I’d say you’re going to be seeing lots of videos concerning this game for the next week on YouTube’s gaming section. So is it actually any good? Let’s find out! Here We Go Again The Five Nights at Freddy’s series has always been a bit of an odd beast. It’s hard to believe that this game series has been around for less than a year. With just a few still backgrounds and primitive animations, series progenitor Scott Cawthon has carved an unassailable...

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New Technology : The Best Alternatives to Google News That Help You Stay Current

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In the age of an Edward Snowden-influenced Internet, it would appear that users are becoming far more conscious of their online activity, and how it’s being tracked. Alternatives to Google have gained ground in the wake of the revelations by Snowden about how the government tracks online activity, and the role companies like Google play tracking your activity. Most often, you’ll find suggestions for alternatives to Google search, but we thought it was time for a list of Google News alternatives. Privacy concerns aside, there are a lot of sites out there that are doing a great job of aggregating the news and doing it...

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New Technology : Make An Auto-Locking Office Door with Smartphone Proximity Sensor

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auto-lock-door

Pssst – want some high tech protection for your home office, or a secret lock for your “workshop” (ok, you got me, it’s actually a dungeon/gaming room) that the kids won’t be able to figure out? We’ve got you covered. Let’s build a DIY smart lock that automatically detects when you’re there, and locks when you’re not. How does it work? NOBODY KNOWS! Or more specifically, Bluetooth. The Concept Your smartphone is a powerful device that’s constantly revealing information about itself to the outside world; one way it does this is Bluetooth. In discovery mode, it broadcasts a unique identification number –...

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New Technology : Learn the Science of Joy: Find the Best Happiness Advice Online

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happiness

There are two schools of thought when it comes to being happy. The first revolves around the idea that happiness is like a butterfly and cannot be caught, only courted. The second points out that happiness has much to do with our genetics. While such ideologies are grounded in the nature versus nurture debate, new research is coming to light each and every day in support of the pursuit of happiness. Yes, you can learn to be happy but it’s going to take some determination. It may be obvious that to achieve anything substantial in life — learn a profession,...

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New Technology : Twitter Safety Center: How to Protect Yourself and Your Family While Tweeting

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Twitter is pretty awesome and everyone needs it in their lives. But like with any technology, there are safety concerns, privacy concerns, kids’ security concerns, and so on. Twitter has launched a new initiative to address all these matters. Twitter Safety Center is a comprehensive resource built by the social network to address all of the ways its users are protected, as well as how teens, parents and teachers can use the tools better. You can access the Safety Center at any time by visiting safety.twitter.com. Tools Twitter has introduced several tools over the years which have made it a...

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New Technology : How to Upgrade to Windows 10 & Take Settings and Apps with You

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Windows 10 is coming and you have a choice to make. Either you upgrade your existing Windows installation, or you can install Windows 10 from scratch. Here’s how to get Windows 10 without losing your favorite software and settings. Don’t Lose Anything: The Straight Upgrade If you’re running Windows 7 or Windows 8, the easiest way to upgrade while keeping all your programs and settings is to use Windows Update to get Windows 10. You’ve probably seen a little notification icon in your system tray, begging you to sign up for an auto-upgrade once Windows 10 releases. Don’t worry, it’s...

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New Technology : 9 of the Weirdest Weapons in Video Games

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dubstep-gun

Video games are weird. Allow me to clarify: Video games seem to have an even greater capacity for weirdness than any other kind of media. They laugh in the face of logic, reason, and physics regularly. Thanks to the beloved tradition of putting in Easter Eggs, even the most vanilla games can have bizarre non-sequiturs. One of the most common places to find strange stuff is our in-game arsenal of weapons. If you think about it, we’ve long used strange things to attack our enemies in video games. We think nothing of knocking a turtle shell at a rival car...

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New Technology : What’s The Best Free OCR or ICR Program For Manuscript Transcription?

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Javier Asks: I’m a writer of short stories and tales. I’m looking for a free Optical Character Recognition (OCR) or Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) program to scan my old manuscripts from images or photographs so I can convert them into Microsoft Word files. Are there any free and accurate programs able to do this? Unfortunately, I don’t have a scanner, but I do have access to a digital camera with a 20 megapixel resolution. Kannon’s Reply: As you’ve already mentioned, there’s several kinds of character recognition technologies that can automatically convert handwritten or typed writing into digital characters. The level of accuracy of...

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