What If Apple Had Started Making iPhones in 1984 [video]

Biggest and Best Tech Stories of 2017

MakeUseOf presents the top technology news stories of 2017. Spoiler alert – it’s not all Apple.

Go to the article.

Master Microfixer Teaching the World to Fix iPhones [video]

XnRetro – FreeFile Review

XnRetro is a quirky little image editor, that I must admit I enjoy using. It seems to be a smart phone filter app that also has a desktop version. On mobile, it is available on Android and iPhone; on the desktop, it is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. I’m reviewing the Windows desktop version. It required no installation, just unzip, open folder, and click XnRetro.exe to launch the program.

The Good – Clean, simple interface. The interface is pleasant enough, and organized with basic color control sliders on the right side, and filters on the bottom. Filters include Retro color presets, Light effects (think lens flare), Vignette, and Frames. Personally, I don’t care for the Retro color filters; I found the Vignette and Frames very useful.

The Bad – The color adjustments seem to be rather slow – move a slider and wait to see the results – not a long wait, but noticeable. Quirks. Quirks aren’t necessarily bugs, but merely unexpected ways of doing things. The program will open with all of the adjustments that were applied to the last image saved. Many users may find this useful, I don’t. The Reset button on the right side only resets the color adjustment sliders; the Reset button on the top tool bar resets everything. The strength of the Light effects is controlled by a slider on the right. If the slider gets adjusted to zero, the Light effects seem to do nothing. Through experimentation, I found that it could open and edit JPG, PNG, and GIF files, but save only as JPG or PNG. Saving JPG quality is a relatively low 75%. This is fine for mobile, but it should be adjustable on the desktop. A Help file would have helped, but I couldn’t find one.

— — — — The Bottom Line — — — —

XnRetro has a number of quirks, probably due to its mobile origins. I found no real issues, and once you get used to it, XnRetro is a very nice, very useful image editor. Try it just for the Vignettes and Frames.

Download XnRetro for desktop HERE

Get XnRetro for mobile HERE

Read more FreeFile Reviews at DanKostecki.com

NoPhone Will Help With Your Smart Phone Addiction

If you can’t keep your hands off of your smart phone, NoPhone may help ween you from your addiction. NoPhone is a slim slab of plastic that has no electronics inside, it is a slab of plastic, nothing more. It is available for $12 from Amazon.

When You Really Need A Quick Charger [comic]

original source

Ziggy’s Unlimited Phone Plan [comic]

original source

30 Weird Apps [video]

Cheer Up! Now There’s An App That Tells You If Your Plane Will Crash

Gizmodo reported –

More than just being a $0.99 novelty, though, ‘Am I Going Down’ is a good case study in human irrationality. Most nervous flyers are probably dimly aware that they’re at far greater risk driving or walking or shovelling snow, but there’s something emotionally terrifying about plane crashes that captures our imagination.

Read about the ‘Am I Going Down’ app HERE.

 

 

Your iPhone Is Haunted [comic]

original source

 

Can A Ziploc Bag Protect A Gadget As Well As A Waterproof Case? [video]

Best Vacation Ever? [comic]

original source