Thứ Bảy, 30 tháng 7, 2016
Just because you and your friends have moved to different corners of the globe doesn’t mean you have to stop watching shows and movies together. Trying to all hit play at the same moment — as well as juggling between Netflix and Skype, a Facebook chat, Slack, Discord or any other online chat program — isn't exactly the most convenient thing in the world. Luckily, there is another way. There are several great apps, extensions and websites with the goal of syncing up Netflix streams across the Internet, but they all have their ups and downs. Some are exclusive to Chrome, some have top-notch chat features and some don’t go full screen. Here are the pros and cons of the best ways to watch Netflix with your friends online. Netflix Party is a Google Chrome-exclusive extension that only requires one person to install it, making it the easiest of the three to set up. Once you install it, choose a movie or show, pause it, and then click the red “NP” button at the top right of your browser to get a link to a shared session. The extension allows you to chat with everyone in the viewing session, but doesn’t allow you to put in a name, so you’ll have to remember your friends’ random symbols. Image: Netflix Party Netflix Party allows for full-screen viewing and anybody in the session can hit pause, play or scrub through the timeline. The stream adjusts seamlessly. The biggest downside to Netflix Party is that if you want to watch a few episodes of something or another movie, you’ll have to create a new session every time. Even if Netflix autoplays to the next episode, it will kick everyone out of the session and you’ll have to send out a new link to everyone. Rabbit is one of the most well-rounded stream-sharing services available, partially because it can be used with any browser and partially because you can share all your favorite streaming services including Netflix, Hulu, Crackle and more. Image: Rabbit Rabbit requires you to have an account and add the people you want to share a stream with as your friends. It works by having one person in control of the stream, which is shared via a proxy browser right on the Rabbit website. This means you're essentially sharing the view of a full browser with everyone in your party, and you can go anywhere on the web that you like. While this is a great feature, it doesn't give the best stream quality. Even when watching something in a Rabbit room alone, the Netflix stream is pretty pixelated. It also cannot be put in full-screen mode or resized, relegating your viewing area to a small portion of your actual screen. If you're watching on a laptop or tablet that's 13 inches or less, good luck seeing much of what's happening. The shared stream in Rabbit takes up less than half the screen space. Image: rabbit The chat options on Rabbit are great, though. The chat window on the right shows everyone's username and picture, and you can even do voice and video chat. The Chrome-exclusive extension Showgoers is pretty similar to Netflix Party but requires everyone to have the extension. It will drop the sharing party if you decide to go to a different movie or episode, but it has an improved chat feature that allows you to pick your own name. This is definitely the best Netflix-sharing service as long as everyone has a Netflix account and uses Chrome. Just send the syncing link to anyone you want after you start playing a show or movie and anyone can pause, play or scrub through the stream. Showgoers also has a public viewing party section of their website which allows you to join strangers' viewing parties. These three services have their upsides and downsides but they are the best Netflix-sharing services available, at least for now. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.Netflix Party
Rabbit
Showgoers
Thứ Năm, 5 tháng 5, 2016
PowerPoint presentations can be a huge bummer — rambling bullet points, lame themes and boring visuals can put your audience to sleep, or at least make their minds wander away from you and to their much more fun smartphone screens. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Microsoft PowerPoint presentations have the ability to be exciting, stunning and captivating when done right. Just browse LinkedIn’s SlideShare page to see what PowerPoints can do in the hands of people who know what they're doing. We curated a list of the absolute best presentations on SlideShare you can find, starting with how to make your own killer PowerPoint presentation. This presentation by Damon Nofar takes you through eight different steps on how to make a good PowerPoint that keeps people’s attention and stands out, while doing the same itself. It starts off with an example of what not to do — a standard theme with bullet points. The slides move through the reasons why color, font choices, spacing, image use and more can make a big difference in your presentations. As a first-place winner of the World’s Best Presentation Contest, this presentation by Empowered Presentations packs in a ton of information without the need for bulleted lists. By sticking to a mostly black background and short sentences, the presentation maintains a serious yet entertaining vibe. Some facts are split between two slides, building anticipation and keeping the presentation moving at a fast pace. By using simplistic drawings and simple words, Dan Roam created a unique, explainer-style presentation that breaks down the American healthcare system. The presentation isn’t flashy or visual appealing at a visceral level, but by keeping it simple Roam was able to describe how a very confusing industry works without getting too bogged down in details or not giving enough information. This presentation by Empowered Presentations uses a ton of images and graphics to grab attention and make exciting slides. The contrast of colors give the two subjects their own unique themes, making them very easy to differentiate. Big bold fonts stand out against the graphics so information doesn’t get lost amongst all the colors. Here is an example of how to use PowerPoint to tell a story and give your audience tips based on past experiences. Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle of Google created this presentation using simple illustrations and clear, short bits of text to tell the story of how Google started while giving tips for how to start your own business. It reads almost like a comic book. This is another example of a great presentation that also teaches you how to be a better presenter. Made by State of the Art Presentations, it’s an example of how to effectively make additions to slides and really grab attention with graphics and flat colors. The graphics are cool but not too distracting, and the way each slide fills itself in is very satisfying. This presentation is an interesting example, because its grayscale theme isn’t inherently exciting, but the way the text jumps around from slide to slide is an extremely effective way of grabbing and holding attention. User coolstuff has over 150 slides about business strategy and design but they go by quickly with their own use of design and occasional infographics. Put together by Gavin McMahon, this presentation is short, sweet and to the point, using simple but visually varied graphics to keep things interesting behind the important text entries. Mixing up fonts, styles and size of text highlights important words and phrases, while the changing backgrounds gives each entry its own unique personality and feel. This is a good example of how to take a simple list and make it engaging. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.1. 8 Tips for an Awesome PowerPoint Presentation
2. Smoke — The Convenient Truth
3. American Healthcare
4. #TeamClinton vs. #TeamTrump
5. How Google Works
6. 10 Powerful Body Language Tips
7. The Brand Gap
8. Pixar’s 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling
Thứ Sáu, 29 tháng 4, 2016
Google Chrome notifications aren’t always the easiest thing to master. Some websites like Facebook will ask if you want to turn on notifications in Chrome, but it’s an easy window to miss or ignore if you aren’t sure what it is. See also: The 10 Chrome extensions you need most But there are other times when you turn on notifications for a site like Facebook only to regret the decision either because they're too much or you're already getting notifications in another way (via your computer's OS, your phone, your smartwatch, etc.). Here's how to take control of your Chrome notifications whether you're using a PC, Mac or mobile: The first thing you need to know is how to get to your notification settings in the browser, which are a bit hidden. Click on the "hamburger" menu in the top right of your Chrome window and click Settings. Find your Chrome settings in the browser's drop down menu. Scroll down the settings screen and click the link at the very bottom that says Show advanced settings… and then click the Content settings… button directly under the Privacy heading. Scroll down to the Notifications section to see your basic notification settings, which look like this: If you don’t want to see any notifications while browsing Chrome, the easiest thing to do is select the option Do not allow any site to show notifications. But if you want to be more selective, you can turn individual website notifications off when you click on the Manage exceptions… button. The "Manage exceptions..." button brings up a menu with every website that has asked your permission to send notifications. This section will show you which websites have asked for your permission to show notifications and whether or not you allowed it. With the exception of Google sites and apps like Mail, Docs and Drive, you can turn any website notifications on and off from here. In the bottom box, you can also block notifications from entire domains or specific IP addresses. To block entire domains, put [*.] before the web address and select block. For example, to block all Google domains from sending notifications, type [*.]google.com into the area to cover all Google sites. With this knowledge at your fingertips, you now have complete control over your Chrome notifications. Go forth and browse. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.Find your notification settings
Turning notifications off or on
BONUS: Inside Liam, Apple's super-secret, 29-armed robot that tears down your iPhone
