How to Lock Down Your Android Tablet or Smartphone for Kids

Google has added more and more parental control-style features to Android over the years. You can give a kid his or her own restricted user account, lock access to a specific app, or restrict what websites kids are allowed to use.

Depending on the version of Android you have and your device manufacturer, you may not have some of these options — or they may look a little different.

Restrict Access to a Single App

If your device has Android 5.0 Lollipop or newer, you can “pin” a specific app to your phone or tablet’s screen. You can then hand your Android tablet or phone to a kid and that kid won’t be able to leave the specific app until you enter a PIN.

This means you could launch a game and pin it, handing it over and knowing a kid won’t go through your email or look up any inappropriate content. Or, if you want your kids using a specific educational app, you can ensure they’ll stay in that app.

To use this feature, you’ll need to open the Settings screen, select Security, and activate “Screen pinning” under “Advanced.” Tell Android to ask for your PIN or unlock pattern before unpinning the app. Next, open the app you can to pin, tap the “Overview” button to show the list of open applications as cards, and swipe up. Tap the pin on the bottom-right corner of an app’s card.

To leave a pinned app, hold the “Overview” button. You’ll be asked for your PIN or pattern if you configured that option.

Set Up a Restricted Profile on a Tablet

Android Lollipop offers restricted profiles, a feature that arrived in Android 4.3.  Restricted profiles are only available on tablets — not smartphones. With a restricted profile, you can create a special user account that only has access to specific apps and content you allow.

Google added multiple user accounts to Android in Android 4.2, but only for tablets. With Android 5.0 Lollipop, multiple user accounts are now available on phones as well as tablets. However, restricted profiles are still only available on tablets.)

To create a restricted profile, head to the Settings screen, tap Users, tap Add User, and tap Restricted Profile. You can then lock down the profile and switch between the restricted profile and main user account from the lock screen. (Switching back to the main user account will require your PIN or whatever other unlock method you use.)

Theoretically, restricted profiles allow you to restrict access to specific content in some apps. In practice, app developers have to implement this. You’ll mostly be able to choose which of the apps installed on your device the child’s profile has access to.

Set Up Web Filtering

Unfortunately, Android’s restricted profile feature doesn’t provide a way to restrict adult content from being accessed through Google Chrome or other web browsers.

If you want to do this, you have two options. You could visit Google Play on your Android device and install a parental-control or web-filtering app. Or, if the Android device will just be using your Wi-Fi network to access the web, you could configure parental controls on your router. if your router doesn’t offer such built-in parental control features, you could switch your DNS server to OpenDNS and use its parental controls.

We’d encourage you to use OpenDNS and its well-regarded parental controls if possible, as many of the Android web-filtering apps seem to not work too well. They may also require paid subscriptions.

Google Play Parental Controls

The Google Play Store has its own parental control features. To access them, open Google Play on a device, tap the Menu button, tap Settings, and tap Parental Controls. Enter a special parental control PIN here and you can set age restrictions for what types of apps, movies, videos, music, and books a device can download. Anyone using the device won’t be able to download or purchase this type of content without the PIN. However, these restrictions only apply to the Google Play Store — uncensored content is still available through the web browser.

You can also further lock down Google Play to block expensive in-app purchases.

Other Parental Control Apps

Due to Android’s flexibility, the Google Play Store is full of “parental control” apps that provide some amount of lock-down features. These will allow you to set up a special application launcher that can only launch approved apps for a child, for example. These shouldn’t be quite as necessary if you have access to the “restricted profiles” feature. If you do have access to the built-in Android parental control features above, the main reason to install a separate app is torestrict access to websites.

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You could also use the guest account built into Android Lollipop for this, or create a separate user account (on tablets with Android 4.2 or later, or phones with Android 5.0 or later). These accounts can’t be “locked down” with parental controls, but they will ensure your kid is kept out of your main user account so they can’t go through your email or tamper with other sensitive data.

The guest user account is different because it can be wiped in between uses, while Android will preserve a standard user account or restricted profile’s data and settings.

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4:16 AM 0

Windows 10 has seven editions – here’s how to tell which is for you .

After announcing seven different versions of Windows 10, some Internet users took to the comments with their disdain of Microsoft’s often profuse release system while others argued that its extensive offerings are necessary for businesses seeking advanced customization options. In any case, it’s irrefutably important that our readers understand the intended purpose of each edition — from Home all the way to Mobile Enterprise.

Windows 10 Home

Meant for the everyday consumer, Windows 10 Home brings all of the essential features expected of the OS to laptops, desktops, and 2-in-1 computers, ideal for at-home personal use.

In a seemingly endless lists of firsts for the upcoming operating system, Windows 10 will pioneer the successor to Internet Explorer, named Microsoft Edge (previously dubbed Project Spartan). Although Windows 10 Home will serve as the base option for users looking to surf the net, the new upcoming Internet browser will accompany every edition of the forthcoming OS. For touch-capable devices, Windows 10 Home will be compatible with Continuum, which allows users to navigate desktop functionalities with the simplistic look and feel of a mobile platform.

Along with the expected general purpose apps like Photos, Maps, Mail, Calendar,Music, and Video, the entry-level Windows 10 Home will even add Xbox One integration, allowing gamers like myself the ability to access our game libraries from the comfort of any preferred Windows 10-powered device. All of these features will also be available in other versions of Windows.

In short: This is the version most consumers will want for their PC.

Windows 10 Mobile

Opting to omit the Windows Phone brand, Microsoft announced Windows 10 Mobile back in January as a means of universalizing the Windows operating system. In contrast to Windows Phone, which offered a distinctly different app library than its desktop correspondent, Windows 10 Mobile promises to deliver parity in its software offerings. Assuming the replete product matches the company’s promises, Windows 10 Mobile could finally serve as Microsoft’s answer to the much more ubiquitous iOS and Android platforms.

Every install of Windows 10 Mobile presents a new and allegedly improved version of Microsoft Office. Described by corporate VP Joe Belfiore as a “nearly no compromise experience,” Office for mobile promises the same customary features you’re used to on your PC. Familiar programs such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will be ready for use right out of the box, though some Windows Phone users may find it necessary to upgrade their devices before they’re able to take advantage of these tools.

Essentially, prospective adopters of Windows 10 Mobile can, in the best case scenario, look forward to everything they love about the Windows desktop experience, optimized for portability. Everything from Outlook to the Photo app will be integrated with the desktop OS, employing a greater dependency on cloud storage services like OneDrive than ever before.

In short: This is the version of choice for Windows Mobile phones and tablets

Windows 10 Pro

Expanding upon features found in Windows 10 Home, Pro comes packed with a few additional workings that Microsoft claims will “meet the needs of small businesses,” according to a statement published on the company’s official blog. Like with Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro is intended for use on PCs, tablets, and 2-in-1s.

Windows 10 Pro will institute Windows Update for Business, a forthcoming Microsoft initiative designed to help businesses reduce costs by presenting more efficient controls over security improvements while simultaneously permitting real-time software updates.

Supplying device and app management tools like Secure Bootand Device Guard, Windows Update for Business will also ensure that only trusted applications can be initiated when the device is powered on and thereafter. Lastly, it provides cloud technology support required by organizations endorsing CYOD (Choose Your Own Device) programs.

In short: PC enthusiasts and small businesses will want this edition

Windows 10 Enterprise

Expanding upon features addressed in Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise is being constructed with medium to large sized corporations in mind. Demonstrating its ideas of quintessential protection from security breaches, Microsoft assures that Windows 10 Enterprise “[will provide] advanced capabilities to help protect against the ever-growing range of modern security threats targeted at devices, identities, applications and sensitive information.”

Like with Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Enterprise will be packaged with Windows Update for Business while also adding Long Term Servicing Branches, allowing businesses to refuse functionality-centric software updates while accepting only security-related amendments.

This version of the operating system will be only distributed through the Volume Licensing program, meaning Windows 10 Enterprise will be intended for purchase in bulk. Consumers typically aren’t allowed to order the operating system through this program.

In short: Established businesses and other large organizations should go for this; consumers can’t easily purchase it

Windows 10 Education

To those complaining about an over saturation of Windows variations this time around, you may want to consider that most of these won’t even be intended for public use. Akin to its predecessors, Microsoft invites educators to secure a version of Windows 10 contrived explicitly for academic purposes.

While it’s unclear how it differs specifically from the alternatives, Microsoft has revealed that, like Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education will be distributed through its Volume Licensing program, and that both schools and students will be equipped to upgrade from the vanilla Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro edition using designated procedures scheduled to be announced in the near future.

In short: It’s not entirely clear how this will different from Enterprise, this presumably will be the edition of choice for schools and universities

Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise

Similar to Windows 10 Enterprise on the desktop, Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise is being developed for users of Windows-enabled smartphones in the workplace. Likewise, most of its features bear resemblance to the standard Windows 10 Mobile OS.

Once again available only to Volume Licensing customers, Mobile Enterprise aims to offer a Windows 10 Mobile facsimile with the consent of corporate regulation. It lets organizations administer software updates and control system modifications by users. Meanwhile, features related to security and innovation will be added automatically, ensuring real-time protection of users while abstaining from the hindrance of organizational oversight.

What’s more, variants of Windows 10 Enterprise and its mobile counterpart will be installed in industry technologies such as ATMs, retail POS devices, handheld terminals, and robots found around the globe.

In short: This is for organizations that want to roll out a standardized device policy for employee phones and tablets

Windows 10 IoT Core

Perhaps the most unusual, and interesting, rendition of the new operating system arrives in the form of Windows 10 IoT Core. This new version of Microsoft’s historically consumer-focused operating system will, interestingly enough, runcustomizable versions of Windows 10 on household appliances like smart thermostats, factory machinery, and yes, even toasters.

Instead of using your thermostat to play Hearthstone, like one might surmise at first glance, the IoT version of Windows 10 will instead emphasize the connection between communication devices and household appliances. For instance, with the help of IoT core, the day might be looming when preheating your oven with the assistance of a smartphone becomes commonplace.

Still, Windows 10 IoT won’t be restricted to utilities of the everyday. Steve Teixeira from Microsoft’s IoT group expressed the flexibility of IoT Core at this year’s Build developer’s conference when he said, “Whether it’s Hololens or Raspberry Pi or Windows desktop or phone [it’s all one platform]. You can extend that to the IoT editions … It’s the same platform … and it’s Windows, so you know it can go into enterprise.”

In short: This will be of interest to companies building IoT devices and enthusiasts looking to experiment with Windows-compatible gadgets

It’s a cluster, but that’s OK

Moving forward, it’s only a matter of months (maybe even less) before the imminent release of Windows 10. If you were previously overwhelmed by the number of differing versions of the operating system, I trust that I’ve cleared up at least some of the confusion.

Ultimately, it’s a negligible concern. Coming in contact with with more than two of these editions in your day-to-day routine is unlikely and, based on what Microsoft has declared so far, we can infer that little thought will be invested when you do decide to upgrade.

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4:06 AM 1

17 Biggest Academic Inspirations

A career in academics might not earn you a lot of accolades or fame but it does guarantee one thing: respect. Most scholars attract respect, awe and admiration of the masses and have a commanding presence wherever they go. Some of them make discoveries and reveal some unknown secrets that change our perception of the world and even the universe that we live in. Let’s look at a few pioneers from the world of academics who are an inspiration to people like you and me.

1. Stephen Hawking:

This English theoretical physicist is also known as the ‘Master of the Universe’. He is considered one of the geniuses of our times. Prof Hawking’s primary fields of study are quantum gravity and general relativity. Along with Roger Penrose, he postulated that black holes emit radiation. In a special feature by Discovery Channel titled ‘Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking’, he mentioned that he believed in the existence of aliens and also gave us an analysis of what they might look like. He is the author of the well known book A Brief History of Time.    

2. Amartya Sen:

Amartya Sen is an Indian economist and philosopher. Also called ‘the Mother Teresa of Economics’, Sen was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1998 for his achievements in welfare economics. He did his most notable work on famine, human development theory, gender equality and political liberalism.

3. Karl Marx:

Marx was a German philosopher, sociologist and economist. His most notable books are Das Capital and The Communist Manifesto. His work in economics laid the basis for all later work and aided the understanding of distribution of labour and capital.

4. Aryabhatta:

Aryabhatta is considered one of the most notable figures in the fields of mathematics and astronomy. He developed the concept of zero and postulated the approximation of π (pi) in the Gupta Era (sometime around 500 AD). His other notable work in mathematics revolved around trigonometry and algebra, while in astronomy his research was mainly on the solar system, eclipses, sidereal periods, etc. The first Indian satellite was named after him in his honour.

5. Marie Curie:

Madam Curie was the first female Nobel laureate who received the Nobel Prize for her work on radioactivity. She was a physicist as well as a chemist, and won the Nobel Prize twice: once in 1903 with her husband, Pierre Curie, for her achievements in Physics, and then again in 1911 for outstanding discoveries in Chemistry! Her most notable discoveries were the elements polonium and radium.

6. C.V Raman:

Sir Chandrasekhar Venkat Raman was an Indian physicist who received the Nobel Prize in the year 1930. He made outstanding discoveries in the field of light scattering, and the phenomenon that earned him the Nobel is also named after him (Raman Effect).

7. Isaac Newton:

This man needs no introduction. We are all familiar with his third law which states that: “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” He was a physicist, mathematician as well as an astronomer. Considered one of the most influential scientists of all time, his work on gravity, optics, calculus, force and motion laid the foundation for multiple groundbreaking discoveries. He was honoured with a Knighthood in 1705.

8. Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar:

Not only was he a scholar and an important figure in the Bengal Renaissance, Vidyasagar was also a social activist and reformer who played an important role in the passing of the Widow Remarriage Act. Born as Iswar Chandra Bandyopadhyay, he earned the nickname Vidyasagar (“ocean of knowledge”) due to his huge contribution to Bengali literature and extensive knowledge of Sanskrit.

9. Xuanzang:

Xuanzang was a Chinese scholar, translator and traveller who was responsible for all the Indo-Chinese interactions in the days of the Tang Dynasty.

10. Amrita Shergil:

Amrita Shergil was an Indian painter who is also known as “the Indian Frida Kahlo”. She developed a style of her own at a very young age, and went on to become one of the most eminent Indian painters. She was only 28 years old when she passed away in 1941.

11. Friedrich Nietzsche:

Vastly popular among contemporary philosophers, authors, poets and critics, Nietzsche’s key concepts include life affirmation, the death of god, perspectivism and eternal recurrence. This German philosopher and poet was also a composer and philologist. His concept of Nietzschean affirmation has inspired a lot of theories and ideas among notable philosophers in recent years.

12. J.C Bose:

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was an Indian physicist, botanist and biologist. He is known for his work in botany and for providing the hypothesis and proof of the fact that plants have life. He also did some groundbreaking work in the field of wireless communication and was knighted in the year 1917.

13. Albert Einstein:

One of the most notable figures in physics, Alert Einstein is considered a genius whose research and theories are the basis of most of the notable work done by his successors. His work and postulates on space, time and light earned him the Nobel Prize in the year 1921.

14. S. Ramanujan:

Srinivasa Ramanujan was an Indian mathematician who did extraordinary work in his field with little or no formal education on the subject. He did most of his research on mathematical analysis, infinite series, number theory, etc. His methods and theories were highly unconventional and his results have led to a lot of further research. A potentially illustrious career was cut short by repeated illness, and he passed away at the age of 32.

15. Homi Jahangir Bhabha:

This Indian nuclear physicist is known as the father of the Indian Nuclear Programme. His most notable works were the cascade process of cosmic radiation and the phenomenon known as Bhabha Scattering. He died in a plane crash in the year 1966.

16. Aristotle:

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist who believed that all the knowledge of every individual was based on their perception. His main interests were in biology, zoology, physics and ethics.

17. APJ Abdul Kalam:

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam is an Indian scientist who also served as the President of India from 2002 to 2007. The “Missile Man of India” gained his nicknamed due to his unparalleled contribution to India’s ballistic missile projects and launch vehicle technology.

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6:17 AM 0

11 AdSense Tips And Tricks to Maximize Your Earning Potential

AdSense is a great tool for monetizing your website. Unfortunately, a large number of users fall prey to some common mistakes and never even realize that they’re functioning way below their maximum earning potential.
Here are a few AdSense tips that will help you optimize your website for both higher revenue and an enhanced user experience.

1. A/B test your ad units

Experimenting allows you to pit one variation of ad settings against another variation and select the one that performs the best. You can compare the performance of text-only ad units to ad units that have both text and display enabled, or analyze the effect of changing the color of ad text on ad performance, or determine the impact on your revenue by serving ads in the sensitive and/or general categories.
Although you need a little tech-savvy to navigate your way through the entire process of preparing your experiment, creating your experiment, monitoring your experiment, and finally choosing your winner—it’s all well worth the effort.
(Note: If you’re looking for a smarter, automated solution for this, you could try out our advanced A/B testing software, which automatically creates ad multiple variations for you and then selects the combination that performs the best.)

2. Use multiple ad units to maximize conversion

A simple way to bump up your AdSense click rate and revenue is to place ad units of more than one type (AdSense for content, link, and search) and in different sizes on your pages. This way, your users are served more ads from Google’s large ad inventory, increasing the probability that they will end up clicking on one of them.
Make sure that the best-located ad on your web page shows up first in your HTML code. This will ensure that your most visible ad real-estate is taken by ads that place the highest in the auction—increasing your revenue.
And remember to adhere to the AdSense maximum ad policy, which is up to three AdSense for content units, up to three link units, and up to two search units on each page, to avoid having your account banned.

3. Limit the number of ads above the fold

In web design terminology, “above the fold” refers to the portions of a web page that are visible without scrolling. When too many ad units are placed above the fold, users get turned off because finding the content that they came in for, gets difficult, and the tendency to exit the page increases. As a result of this, Google now penalizes such pages. Here’s an excerpt from the Google Webmaster Central blog:

“As we’ve mentioned previously, we’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s difficult to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don’t have much content “above-the-fold” can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.

We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites that place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page. This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads.“

4. Optimize the color impact of text ad units

Experimenting with the color of text ad units is essential to increasing their visibility. An ad style that work on a light website theme may look too bright and distracting on a darker one, turning users away not only from the ad but from the web page.
For the most unobtrusive user experience, match the background and border color of the ad unit to the background of the page where the ad will be placed.
For a more distinct ad, match background and border colors to your website, but don’t match them exactly to where the ads are placed. Try out different styles and measure ad performance over time to settle on the best performing format.

5. Create and implement responsive ads

This ties into a larger point of implementing a responsive design on your website (which is something you really need to do if you’re running a website in 2015). Wikipedia explains responsive design as follows:

“Responsive web design (RWD) is an approach to web design aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, mobile phones).”

Last year, Comscore reported that mobile platforms — smartphones and tablets — combined account for 60% of total digital media time spent, up from 50% a year ago. If your website is not optimized for these devices, you’re missing out on a big opportunity to capture this audience.
So what does this have to do with AdSense, you ask? Well, AdSense plays well with responsive design, and allows you to generate codes for responsive ad units, which automatically resize themselves to offer the best viewing experience to the mobile audience. Do this now because that 60% is a number that’s only going to go north.

6. Link your AdSense and Analytics accounts

Linking your AdSense and Google Analytics accounts gives you access to AdSense metrics such as revenue, clicks, and impressions which you can add to your favorite analytics reports to get a better understanding of how well your pages or content is monetizing.
This data can assist in optimizing your site such as the optimal ad load or what type of content to focus on.
Once you’ve linked your properties, you can use insights from Analytics to refine and optimize your AdSense ad units, improving the overall performance of your website.

7. Keep your design and content user-focused

In the mad race to increase ad revenues, it’s easy to lose sight of the real goal of why your website or business exists in the first place—to provide value to users.
Use a judicial mix of ads and content so that users are not overwhelmed by the former. Sometimes ads are placed haphazardly on the web page and in between content without any thought to usability or aesthetics.
Even Google says that to get the most of your account, you should first consider the user and then think about anything else. Doing it the other way around is like putting the horse before the cart, it’s never going to work.

8. Publish high-quality content on a regular basis

This really is the big one, the other points are all just tweaks in one way or another—but when it comes to AdSense earnings, content really is the king.
Simply put: No traffic, no money; more traffic, more money.
But this is always easier said than done. It helps to publish content about a topic that you’re both interested in and have some level of expertise in, as people will then be more likely to view you as an influencer on your topic.
Google’s algorithm rewards websites that publish content on a regular basis with a higher ranking, and consequently, higher traffic—so make sure your publishing is more predictable than erratic.
Finally, going the extra mile to optimize your content for search engines can yield great results in terms of organic traffic, especially, in the long run.

9. Build an audience before setting up AdSense

Though it may be tempting to set up AdSense on your website right after you’ve published the first piece of content—the temptation is best avoided.
Cluttering your website with ads before anybody really knows about it will likely put visitors off, and consequently, they’ll be less likely to share or link to it. This limits your ability to emerge as an authority in your niche.
Focus instead, on winning a sizable audience in terms of email subscribers, RSS readers, and monthly visitors before you start displaying ads.

10. Go easy with the blocking and filtering

Each ad that you block by URL will be one more ad that won’t be bidding for space on your website in the auction—effectively reducing the earning potential of that ad space.
Furthermore, advertisers whose ads you block may decide that they don’t want to advertize with you in the future. The same thing happens when you filter out entire categories, but on a larger scale. Don’t block ads unless it’s absolutely necessary.

11. Keep yourself updated

Subscribe to the official Google Inside AdSense blog, so that you’re always up-to-date with the latest news about the platform from the creators themselves.
Apart from this, the Google help center has this brilliant AdSense optimization overview that you could look at and take ideas from to get more mileage out of your AdSense account.
There’s also a free online course that Google runs, which aims help publishers earn more money from their website.
If you just follow the links mentioned here and treat them as your guide to AdSense, you’d do better than 90% of the people using the system.
What are some of the things you do to optimize your earnings from AdSense? Share in the comments and let us know.

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6:10 AM 0

Introduction to Pixelmator for Mac and iPad

Pixelmator is an amazingly powerful photo editing software that is only available on Mac computers or iPads. With a price tag of only $29.99 for the OS X version and $9.99 for the iOS version, Pixelmator's value can't be beaten.
In this first-of-two-parts series, I’ll show you how to use Pixelmator to transform an average vacation photo into something beautiful that you will be proud to share with friends and family.
You will learn how to:

• Remove imperfections or unwanted people from photographs
• Crop photographs
• Add text to photographs

Better yet, I’ll teach you how to do all of the above on both the iPad and Mac versions of Pixelmator.

Screencast

Removing Imperfections or Unwanted People 

In OS X on the Mac

When you come across pictures that need something removed, the repair tool is the perfect solution.

• Click on the bandage icon to select the repair tool. 
• Click the gear icon on the top left to select between Quick, Standard, and Advanced mode. 

Quick mode should be used when the object being removed sits on a plain or simple background.
Standard mode will work best in slightly more complex backgrounds.
And Advanced mode does incredibly well against complex background.

Using the repair tool in Pixelmator

Once you have the correct mode selected, click and drag around the imperfect area. Upon release the repair tool will use the pixels around the affected area to remove the imperfections with similar background shades and colors.
While highlighting the area, be sure not to go too far out of the affected area, or the repair tool may pull in extraneous colors or shades. Use the [ or ] keys to adjust the size of your brush as needed. If you need to zoom in to perfect your accuracy, you can use the Command + and Command - keys to adjust the zoom.

In iOS on the iPad

Pinch and zoom in on the area that you would like to modify. Click the brush icon at the top, then choose retouch. Tap Repair. Use your finger to highlight the part of the picture you want Pixelmator to remove.

Using Pixelmator's repair tool on the iPad

Upon removing your finger a progress bar will appear across the bottom to indicate that it is processing. Once done, the person or object will have been removed.

Cropping

In OS X on the Mac

In many situations it makes more sense to just remove a section of the picture entirely. In other words, you don’t want to resize the picture, you want to cut a portion of it out. This is what the crop tool was designed for.

Using the crop tool in Pixelmator

Select the crop tool from the toolbar, then click and drag around the area of the picture you would like to keep. On release, Pixelmator will highlight the section of the picture and put a fade over the section that will be removed. Press Return to confirm and the picture will be cropped.
Play around with different crops using Command-Z to undo any that don’t turn out perfect the first time.

In iOS on the iPad

Click the brush icon, then choose Crop. Use the corner holds to drag the white outline around the area you would like to keep. When you are satisfied with the selected area, click Apply. If you aren't satisfied with the result, click Undo and try again.

Using the crop tool in Pixelmator for iPad

Adding Text

In OS X on the Mac

From the Tools Menu, click the T icon. Move your cursor over the main window and click to insert text.

Selecting the text tool in Pixelmator

Click inside the text box that appears and start typing. When you are satisfied with the text, click outside the text box. The will be reset back to the hand tool.
Use the hand tool to drag and resize the text box as needed. Pixelmator will automatically add suggestions or breaks for centering the text or placing it in equidistant sections.

In iOS on the iPad

Click the + icon, then choose the T icon from the top tabs. Select the font you would like to use. The text box will appear. Click into it and type the words you would like to add. Click out of the box and click/drag it to a chosen location on the picture.

Styling text in Pixelmator for the iPad

To change the color, font size, alignment, or line spacing, click the text box to ensure it is selected, then click on the paintbrush to make any modifications.

Conclusion

In this tutorial I showed you how to take a simple vacation photo and transform it into a beautiful postcard using the repair tool, crop tool, and text tool. In future tutorials I will show you how to do non-destructive editing with masks, add color enhancements, and use filters to really make your pictures pop.

If you haven't already done so, go to the App Store and download Pixelmator—one of the most value-packed applications in the store today. Try out some of these features and share links to your creations in the comments below.

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6:03 AM 0

Practical Tips For Taking Care of Your Mac's Battery

Rechargeable batteries are in all our electronic equipment, yet we know very little about them. In this tutorial we’ll discuss the best methods of keeping your battery at its best and what to do when your battery is showing signs of age.

Apple’s Batteries

Apple uses Lithium-Polymer batteries in all their battery-powered products. Whether it’s an iPod shuffle or a MacBook Pro, the battery technology is the same. Not only does that mean Apple only has to source and use one type of battery, but it means our usage and ways to charge work across all of their product lines. We’ll be focusing on the Mac and how you can best maintain and charge your portable’s battery.

We’ll focus on the portable Macs

Power Adapters

Each portable Mac comes with a power adapter. Depending on the model, its power adapter may be different. For example, here’s a quick run down on the chargers that ship with each Mac:

• MacBook Air - 45w
• MacBook Pro 13” - 60w
• MacBook Pro 15” - 85w

Apple’s power adapters currently all use the newer MagSafe 2 connector

So, what’s the difference? The larger the portable, the bigger the battery. The bigger the battery, the more power it needs to charge. Each power adapter has a power rating in watts.
What you might not realize is that the above power adapters will work with each Mac, but depending on the combination, they might not work as well.

Metaphor Time!

Imagine you have two buckets of varying size (small and large) and each bucket has a hole that’s proportional to its size. This means the small bucket has a small hole, the large bucket has a larger hole.
Now, we can fill each bucket with water from a small tap. Filling the small bucket is easy, we can fill it faster than the water runs out. Now, if we tried to fill the large bucket with the small tap, the water is just rushing out almost as fast as we can fill it. At this rate, we’d never get it full! So, we need a bigger tap.
That’s better, we can now fill the large bucket. But the large tap is just a tap - we can still fill the small bucket with it, it just doesn’t need to be turned on all the way.
This is pretty much how charging works. Each power adapter provides a certain amount of power. The 45w power adapter will charge the MacBook Air with no problems. It will charge the MacBook Pro 13” as well but it will be much slower to do so. It probably won’t charge the MacBook Pro 15” or just about power it.

One Power Adapter to Rule Them All

Now, if we use the 85w power adapter, we can charge all three portable Macs. You can’t overpower a battery from a power adapter as the battery draws power from the adapter, it doesn’t push the power onto the battery.
So why does Apple ship different power adapters with their Macs? Simple: size and cost. The 45w power adapter is much smaller than the 60w or the 85w and is cheaper to manufacture.

Tip: If you ever need to buy a new power adapter, get an 85w power adapter. They’re usually the same price or very slightly more expensive, but if you upgrade your Mac to will still have a spare!

How Batteries Charge

Don’t worry, we’re not going to discuss the finer points on how battery cells store an electrical charge! We’re actually going to talk about how Apple’s products manage charging.
You may have heard terms such as fast charge or trickle charge. When you start charging a portable Mac, the power adapter is used at almost 100%. This means that (roughly) within the first 2 hours of charging, up to 80% of the battery will be charged. This is the fast charge.

Battery charge graph details how your battery charges over time (graph courtesy of Apple)

After that, the Mac will reduce it’s power consumption more and more until it develops a trickle charge. If we were charging a MacBook Air, it’s power consumption would drop from 45w to 10w and below. Once it gets to above 95%, the battery is stopped charging and the power consumption is reduced to only powering the Mac, keeping the battery at a constant level.

Battery Lifespan

This is something that takes people by surprise: All batteries will stop working. No ifs and buts or candy and nuts. Unlike your Mac, which will have an indeterminate lifespan, a battery has a ticking clock. After enough time and use it will need to be replaced. They’re like tires on a car - eventually they just wear out. So how long do they last?

Cycles

Apple describes their lifespan of batteries in charge cycles. A charge cycle is using a total of 100% of the battery’s power. Apple’s official explanation from their Support page on cycles:

A charge cycle means using all of the battery’s power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could use your notebook for an hour or more one day, using half its power, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so it may take several days to complete a cycle.

So, if you use 50% of your battery one day, that’s half a cycle. If you charge it up to 100%, it’s still half a cycle. Once you’ve used it down to 50%, that’s one cycle.
After you reach your cycle count, your Mac won’t suddenly stop working. Apple describes the maximum cycle count as the maximum number of cycles before you’ll notice a huge decrease in the battery’s performance. Your battery may stop working before it reaches the cycle count, it may last a long time after.

Quick Tip: See How Many Cycles Your Mac Has Used

To check your cycle count, you can quickly and easily do the following:

1. Click the Apple logo (top left of your screen), then hold down the Option key. You’ll see About This Mac change to System Information. Select this option.
2. On the left-side column, select Power.
3. You’ll then see Cycle Count under Health Information.
4. In addition, your Mac will also display the general health of your battery. The expected results are Normal, Poor, or Replace.

System Profiler provides detailed information about your Mac and its battery

So what’s the cycle count lifespan for your Mac? This depends on which Mac you have. If you have a Unibody MacBook Pro (including Retina) or MacBook Air then it’s a staggering 1,000. Before these, it’s between 300–500, depending on your model.

Tip: You can view a full list of all cycle counts over at Apple Support.

Prolonging Battery Life

If you’re finding that your battery life is not as good as it should be, there are a number of things we can look at to resolve this.

Runaway Apps

Chances are there’s an app running that’s using a lot of processor power. You might even notice your portable Mac getting hotter than usual. This isn’t the battery, this will be your Mac using a lot of processing (CPU) power, which generates heat. The more CPU usage and heat generated, the less battery life you’ll get. So, how do we see what is running?

1. Open Activity Monitor located in Applications > Utilities
2. Make sure All Processes is selected in the drop down menu
3. Sort the columns by % CPU from highest to lowest

Activity Monitor helps track down rogue apps using all your power

If you notice anything running exceptionally high (usually 40% or more is a cause for concern) then this will have a big impact on battery life. You’ll most likely notice it’s an app you use daily such as Adobe Photoshop or Final Cut Pro X. If so, then it’s just what you’re using.
However, if you can’t identify the app, this might be what is causing your poor battery life. Google the process name if you can’t identify it to determine what it is - sometimes it’s temporary. Restart your Mac and see if it still remains. If you are sure it shouldn’t be running, you can force it to quit.

1. Select the process in Activity Monitor
2. Select Quit Process and choose the option to Quit.
3. If it still runs, repeat the above process but choose the option to Force Quit.

Activity Monitor can stop an app or process in it’s tracks

Customizing Energy Saver

If you’re like me and often leave your Mac idling on your desk whilst you go and do other things, you could be losing a lot of battery life. To manage how your portable Mac operates while you’re away from it, you can use the Energy Saver preferences in System Preferences.

Energy Saver controls how our Mac operates when left alone

Energy Saver allows you to control how long your Mac waits idling before it goes to sleep. Within this preference, you have options for when the Mac is running from battery or when it’s plugged in. Under each power type, there are two options for timing - Computer sleep and Display sleep.
Computer sleep refers to how long the Mac waits before it goes into sleep mode. Display sleep is how long it waits before the display turns off. The display is the largest power drain on your Mac so just changing this to go to sleep quickly is enough to increase your battery life tremendously.
Put hard drives to sleep if possible

In addition to sleep timing, we can also ask the Mac to put hard drives to sleep if possible. Spinning hard drives found in non-SSD Macs (so exclude the Retina portable Macs and MacBook Air) generate heat and require a fair bit of power. Having them slow down and stop spinning is a way of saving power. You may notice after a few minutes your Mac makes a whirring noise and there’s a delay of a few seconds when opening an app - this is the hard drive spinning back up again.
Slightly dim the display while on battery power

When unplugging the main adapter, the display dims slightly. Not by much but enough that the power draw is less. You can override this by changing the brightness.
Power Nap

Power Nap (available on SSD portable Macs) allows your Mac to run Time Machine backups, check email and download updates while in sleep mode. It’s great - but should only be used when your Mac is plugged in. You can enable this for battery power as well but it does require slightly more power even when its in sleep mode. If your Mac is going to be doing backups, it should always be plugged in anyway.

Energy Saver can manage both battery and mains power features independently

Disable Features

Certain features such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and the backlit keyboard are a drain to the battery. If you’re out and about and are using neither one, disable it to save on battery life.

Unplug Unused Devices

If you’re often travelling and use a portable hard drive or USB stick, don’t leave it plugged in. Unmount and disconnect it to save power - your portable storage can decrease your battery life by half!

Keeping Your Battery at Its Best

Before we continue, which method of charging your battery do you think is best?

1. Always run the battery down before charging it.
2. Always keep the battery topped up.

Calibrating Your Battery

For rechargeable batteries such as AAs that are NiMH or Lithium-Ion, each manufacturer recommends ways to keep them charged. NiMH batteries that are commonly used in AA and AAA batteries recommend to use them fully before charging them to avoid symptoms such as memory effect (a fancy name for the battery losing it’s capacity).

Rechargeable batteries often require certain methods of use - thankfully Apple portables don’t!

As with other areas of Apple design, Apple designed their batteries so users don’t need to maintain them. If you’ve got a Unibody portable Mac, there is no right or wrong way to charge it. Keep it plugged in, keep it run down and recharged - it’s all the same. Some people swear by draining the battery every month or two if you don’t already. This is more likely to be a placebo effect, there really is no method to keep your battery healthy!
If you own a portable Mac that does have a removable battery, you do need to occasionally calibrate it. This is to ensure the Mac always knows what the capacity of the battery is so it can ensure 100% really means 100%. From Apple’s support document on calibrating batteries:

1. Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook’s battery until the light ring or LED on the power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
2. Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
3. Disconnect the power adapter while the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, the low battery warning dialog appears on the screen.
4. At this point, save your work. Continue to use your computer; when the battery gets very low, the computer will automatically go to sleep.
5. Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
6. Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

Yep, it says PowerBook! This is because the batteries Apple have used since the days of the PowerBook didn’t change until they went Unibody.
Now, there are ways to ensure you get the best battery life during the day.

When the Inevitable Happens: Servicing Batteries

Once your battery is getting towards the end of its lifespan, your Mac’s battery icon will change from the default black to red. Clicking on it will display the message Service Battery.

Service Battery will require you to arrange for your battery to be checked by Apple.

On older Macs, you can simply buy a replacement battery and fit it yourself. On Macs manufactured before 2009, most of them had a removable battery you can buy from Apple or any Apple service provider or retailer. But what about Unibody machines? Those batteries are non-removable!

All batteries will stop working. No ifs and buts or candy and nuts!

Well, actually no. They’re non-serviceable by users. This doesn’t mean they can’t be removed or serviced, just not by an average user. You can visit an Apple Store or contact AppleCare to have the battery serviced.

Tip: It’s highly recommended not to attempt to change the battery yourself and to let an Apple repair technician or Genius do it for you. Because the batteries are no longer user replaceable, they have far less protection in their casings (since the Unibody casing protects it) so one slip of the screwdriver with your portable Mac opened up and you could puncture the battery, causing a very nasty mess and potentially injury to yourself.

Battery Servicing

All Apple Stores have diagnostic tools to quickly test the battery. Batteries nowadays are extremely smart. They contain all kinds of information such as their charge times, usage and more. The cycle count and all these times are stored within the battery’s own circuitry.

Apple’s Unibody portable Macs are serviceable by Apple technicians

When the battery is tested, the Genius at the Apple Store will get an instant notification as to whether the battery is faulty or not. If it is, they’ll service it under warranty or AppleCare. If it’s above its maximum cycle count, then it’ll be a paid-for service since the battery isn’t faulty, it’s just worn out.

Tip: A battery is classed as a consumable, just like printer ink. If your battery is just worn out (has exceeded the maximum cycle count), it’s not eligible for any warranty repair or under AppleCare in the same way worn tyres on a car aren’t covered under the manufacturer’s warranty.

If you find your battery needs to be replaced and it’s out of warranty, Apple offers a flat-rate replacement fee. Pricing ranges from $129-$199 depending on which portable Mac you have. For more information, view the Apple Support document which contains all the current pricing for their products.

Tip: Apple offers battery replacements on all their products that contain a non-removable battery. This includes the iPhone, iPod and iPad.

Wrapping Up

We’ve detailed plenty of ways to keep your battery in great shape as well as what to do when the battery shows its age. Servicing the battery is a quick and simple option if it needs it and making sure your Mac is sleeping properly will help get you the best battery life possible.

If you’ve got any more advice or tips to save battery life - post them in the comments!

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