A number of select partners now have the ability to offer paid subscriptions to its users. This announcement isn’t likely to come as any significant surprise for those of you with your hand on the pulse of YouTube monetization. People have been trumpeting for quite some time that YouTube’s partnership program makes the production and distribution of high-quality content a herculean effort at best.

The new program means that paid channels will start appearing on YouTube, each one with a 14-day trial and each one with adjustable fees starting at $0.99 per month to $6.99 per month. Presumably, partners will be able to set and adjust the subscription fees (within reason) as they see fit. Subscribing to a channel will allow a user to watch that channel from any of their devices, including their phone, tablet, PC, or TV. More devices have been promised in the future, as well.

Though only a small collection of channels is going to be running the subscription program at first, Google plans to roll things out on a much broader basis in the near future. As they do this, they’ll be taking feedback from both content creators and users, working to tailor the service to provide a better experience to all.

The categories of the currently enrolled channels are fairly broad and extensive, ranging from Comedy, film, & Entertainment to Music. For creators, the impact this initiative will have on them is clear. A new method of monetization means more money, more money means better content, and better content means more users.

That’s the theory, anyway.

I’m actually not so certain the new initiative is going to pan out all that well. For one, YouTube has traditionally been an entirely free platform. Ad-supported, maybe, but ultimately entirely cost-less to browse, peruse, and upload. To me, it almost feels as though Google may well be trying to make new media fit an old business model.

Just look at the new channels. Few, if any, contain any user-generated content. They’re almost entirely comprised of television shows. This could, it seems, end up as YouTube trying to be something it’s not.

After all, we already have a whole host of subscription TV services available to us. Netflix and Hulu together host pretty much all of the videos most of us will ever need, while many television networks have begun offering their own shows, free of charge, for online streaming. In such an environment, can YouTube’s new offering really survive?

That’s not the only reason I find myself experiencing doubts about the new service. In the current YouTube landscape, it’s common – almost distressingly so – for videos to be downloaded and re-uploaded. Given this fact, is a subscription service really the most viable option? What’s to stop people from simply getting the videos elsewhere, or subscribing then downloading to provide them at another source?

On the one hand, the YouTube subscription model means that we’re going to be seeing some really cool stuff coming out of some of our favorite YouTube channels. Unfortunately, we may with the advent of this model begin seeing pay-walls for some of the best content. Truth be told, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see video piracy services start to spring up if this ends up being the case. That, or people might just start going elsewhere for their video needs.

What do you folks think of the new model? Will it prove viable, or ultimately fall fat? Moreover, will any of you be willing to pay for YouTube videos?

If you’re looking to enrich your play experience -if you’re not quite done with a game, and want to see what else can be done with an engine – it’s definitely worth browsing through the vast library of mods and add-ons floating about the net. That’s where I come in: what follows is a list of the best, most common places to search in order to meet all your gaming needs.

Steam Workshop

Valve has done a great many amazing things with their digital distribution platform. Perhaps their most impressive step was the creation of the Steam Workshop, a huge collection of player-created assets easily navigable from within the platform.

Initially created for Team Fortress 2, the workshop has since expanded to include a huge array of developers and titles. Virtually anything can be found alongside  in the Workshop: new avatars and skins, new scenarios, new weapons…you get the idea.

At this point, it’s probably one of the best, most comprehensive libraries online. Plus, most of you who game on the PC are already using Steam, right?

Reddit

Given that it bills itself as “the front page of the Internet,” most of you probably aren’t terribly surprised to see Reddit make the list. When a particularly awesome mod hits the web, there’s a very good chance it will eventually make its way to the front page (or at the very least, to r/games or r/gaming).

In addition, there’s an entire sub-reddit devoted to the development, discussion, and advertisement of player-made content: r/GameMods. Have a look around, it’s definitely worth the effort. Plus, if you’re a budding modder yourself, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to develop your craft and seek help from those more experienced than you.

Mod DB

Steam aside, I’d say that ModDB is the world’s largest library of third-party add-ons. It’s a thriving community for both modders and gamers, with a robust ratings/review system, job postings, game engines, modding tutorials, and an extensive forum where people can go to discuss game development, ask for help, or simply hang out and chat. It’s definitely worth a look, as some of the best mods ever developed were either posted here initially, or found their way here in short order.

In-Game

Sometimes, you don’t really need to do a whole lot of searching. If you’re playing a title where custom games are common, you can probably find a great deal of mods, add-ons, and custom maps floating around in the lobby.

Take Warcraft III as a (slightly dated) example: Dota, perhaps one of the most popular mods in history, got its start as a custom map created with the title’s built-in modding tools. As such, before you start looking elsewhere, it might well be worth first booting up multiplayer and seeing what it has to offer.

Gaming Blogs

Last, but certainly not least, keep your ear to the ground in the games industry. A great many gaming publications- Kotaku, IGN, and Giantbomb among them – will often feature the best made, most enjoyable, and most popular mods in amongst their news-feeds, and some (such as Gamefront) even include a section entirely dedicated to player-made content.

Twitter, too, is a good website to watch.  Basically, just pay attention to the news, follow the top blogs on Twitter, and you’re bound to come across something good eventually.

Any other sources you folks can call to mind that I’ve missed? Give me a shout in the comments!

Given that many of us are likely planning to stick with Windows 7 for the foreseeable future, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to take a bit of time and learn about all these secret goodies and hidden gems, no? Today, we’re going to have a quick look at 11 different features, utilities, and apps built-in to the operating system.

Now, I’ll admit that some of these are more obscure than others, just as I’ll acknowledge that many of the more hardcore Windows fanatics out there have probably discovered the majority of these gadgets on their own. Still, that doesn’t make them any less useful, although some are most certainly more obscure than others. Many of the items on this list actually serve functions that most users download secondary utilities to accomplish.

Snipping(Screenshots)

This one actually surprised me a bit: Windows 7 actually comes with its own screenshot utility. Simply type “snipping” into Windows Search, and you’ll be brought to the “snipping tool.”

The utility allows you to take four different kinds of screenshots: full-screen, window, rectangular, or free-form. Further, the tool comes with its own built-in image editor, allowing you to highlight, mark, and color the shot, as well as save it as an HTML, JPG, PNG, or GIF file.

Sticky Notes

Here’s a rather niche app for all of you: sticky notes allows you to create small, digital reminders that you can plop down all over your desktop.

You can create as many of these notes as you want, and select from a variety of different colors as you do so (though the default is yellow). Additionally, you can use the full array of Microsoft Word keyboard shortcuts while typing out your notes.

Could be useful if you don’t have an actual sticky note to paste to your screen, I suppose.

Magnifier

The Magnifier tool can be found on the Control Panel, under the “Ease of Access Center.” Simply navigate there and turn the magnifier on. Once activated, it can be set to either full-screen, lens, or docked mode.

Lens will change your mouse to a magnifying glass, zooming in to whatever you place it over. Full Screen will fill the whole screen with the magnified image, while Docked Mode will replace the upper half of your screen with the magnified bottom half.

Remote Assistance

Remote Assistance can be a useful tool for troubleshooting computer problems. Let’s say you’re having an issue with something on your system, but your tech-savvy friend can’t come over to help you. Simply navigate to the control panel, and look under “System.” From there, you can see a few options relating to Remote Assistance: one will be related to actually providing the assistance, while the other sends the invite.

“Problem Steps”

You can also use the “Problem Steps Recorder” (type psr in Windows Search) to record a play-by-play of everything you’re doing on your system. Once you’ve started recording, it’ll start compiling an MHT file with screenshots of all your monitors along with a description of what you’re doing. Once you’ve recorded whatever it is you’re having trouble with, turn off the recorder, save the file, and send it to whoever’s helping you.

Sound Recorder

Windows 7 also features a very rudimentary sound recording utility. It’s not good for much aside from making voice memos (or perhaps recording a meeting), but it’s handy in a pinch if you don’t have any alternatives.

The only file-type it’s capable of recording is WMA. You’ll need to use an audio converter if you want a different format.

Malicious Software Removal Tool

Though it’s most definitely not an ideal solution, Windows 7 comes prepackaged with a simple malicious software removal tool. Type “mrt” into Windows Search.

Given that the definitions list is quite limited, I would highly recommend against using this as your primary antivirus program. It’s more of a failsafe, in the event that your regular AV misses something.

Disc Burner

This one’s pretty straightforward (and not really hidden, either). If you’re trying to burn an ISO file to a disc, the Disc Burner tool will pop up (assuming you don’t have any other utilities installed). It’s fairly rudimentary, like many of the tools here, but it nevertheless serves its purpose quite well.

Power Efficiency Report

This rather nifty application gives you a run down of how energy-efficient your system is, and gives details on what applications, processes, and potential system errors are running it into the ground.

To access it, run CMD (Command prompt) as an administrator. Once you’re in, simply type “powercfg /energy. There’ll be a 60-second check, and then you’ll be notified where the log file has been stored.

System Health Utility

Computers aren’t indestructible. The hardware within them tends to age and break down over time, while the software starts to develop bugs and glitches as it putters away at whatever you’ve set it to do. In order to keep your system in top shape, it may be worthwhile to run a tool known as the “System Diagnostics Report.”

In order to access this application, simply run “perfmon.msc.” You’ll have a 60 second lag, after which you’ll be given a report on what’s wrong with your computer (and possibly how it can be fixed).

Screen Calibration

Last, but not least, if you’re having some issues with the colors on your desktop, you can use Windows 7′s built in screen calibration utility to fix the problem. Simply run “dccw,” and you’ll be able to calibrate brightness, sharpness, contrast, and color.

That’s it for today. A fairly long list, but by no means a comprehensive one. I’m aware there are plenty more hidden goodies where these ones came from. With that said, do you know of any secret tools or cool features that I missed? Drop me a line in the comments!

Via Make Use Of, Tune-Up

Twitter has, I’ve noticed, undergone something of an evolution since I started using it.

It’s much more than 140-character thought-fragments now. Users frequently share articles, images, long-form musings (through applications such as TweetLonger), and even music and videos. In a sense, the platform has evolved beyond its micro-blogging roots. Unfortunately, the interface has remained relatively constant since Twitter’s inception. While this isn’t necessarily a problem on the PC, this can be something of a pain on a mobile device. This is particularly true if you’re following a large number of people. Sorting through all that content can often seem like more trouble than it’s worth.

Not surprisingly, there’s an app for that.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Tweetbot. Developed for the iPhone, iPod, and iPad by the folks at Tapbots, Tweetbot bills itself as “a Twitter client with personality.” At first glance, it’s definitely an impressive sight. A recent update has given Tweetbot a rich-media timeline view. Vine, Instagram, and YouTube videos are all displayed right in the stream, with the tweets themselves serving as captions for the content, which can be accessed without having to navigate to another page. The trade-off is that Tweetbot by default omits tweets that don’t include any content outside of text. This feed can be easily toggled on and off at the top of the timeline.

The media-rich newsfeed of Tweetbot isn’t the only thing that’s impressive about it. It also features a function which works in tandem with Twitter’s “lists” feature, allowing for the creation of multiple timelines which can be swapped between at your leisure. If, for example, you’re lounging about at home and you don’t really care to see anything related to work, you can look at your Family or Friends timeline instead of your Co-Workers timeline.

All the basic functionality of Twitter is there, as well, translated masterfully into a mobile format. Swiping to the right, for example, will display the context of whatever tweet you happen to be viewing, while different tap gestures can be set to expand, re-tweet, favorite, reply, or translate a tweet between languages.

Tweetbot is also highly customizable, and the menu bar at the bottom of your feed can be tweaked to your heart’s content. Even better, management of multiple accounts is a breeze. Each account can be custom-tooled with its own personalized settings, and tweeting/re-tweeting from a different account requires nothing more than a simple tap. Admittedly, this is something you should be careful with: the ease with which you can swap between twitter profiles means you could well find yourself sharing something with your colleagues which was meant for your friends.

Tweetbot also includes URL shortening and the ability to seamlessly upload images, links, and videos, in addition to working with several of iOS’s prominent browsing and content consumption apps.

To be honest, there’s only one real problem I can think of with Tweetbot at the moment (though I’ll be spending a bit more time with the application over the coming weeks): it’s not available for Android. Sorry, folks. Unless you have iOS, you’ll have to sit this one out. If you do happen to be using an iPhone, iPad, or iPod to look through your tweets, Tweetbot’s probably one of the best solutions out there. Download it here for iPad, and here for iPhone/iPod.

Like so many other problems, the answer is in an app.

Nextly is one of a growing breed of platforms designed for the easy and efficient exploration and consumption of content online – platforms which, as the amount of information online steadily increases, are becoming more and more desperately required by the end user. Using an exquisite yet simple interface, Nextly makes it possible to browse through posts and updates from a whole array of sources; including Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter coupled with a whole array of other content sources.

Nextly equips you with the ability to organize your content based on source or topic, at which point you can easily skip from one article to the next through the interface. Ironically enough, this leads to an experience which feels somewhat reminiscent of channel surfing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course: it most definitely streamlines the process of content consumption. Even better, Nextly allows you to instantly share anything you find interesting or relevant through Facebook, Twitter, or Email.

If you find a particularly interesting piece of content and you either want to revisit it later or don’t have time to examine it right away, you can bookmark it within the application. This will make the page accessible from the application’s main menu, allowing you to go back whenever you see fit. Lastly, navigation is streamlined even further by the ability to use the arrow keys on your keyboard to jump from article to article.

The app, though incredibly useful, isn’t necessarily perfect. Sadly, there’s no option quite yet to post something on Reddit, even though the site exists as a content source, and it also doesn’t allow users to add any websites of their own choosing to the content streams. In that way, it falls short of many of the other content platforms currently circulating the net. Given all of its merits, this is a definite shame, and hopefully a minor issue that the developers fix in the very near future.

Still, in spite of its (relatively inconsequential) flaws, Nextly is a powerful, lightweight, and easy-to-use means of sorting through content on the Internet. While plenty of alternatives exist, you could certainly do worse.

Those of you who are interested in giving it a try can check out Nextly here. Signing up is as simple as linking it to your Twitter or Facebook account.

Set it to vibrate. That way, we’ll still know when it’s ringing – we’ll still know when someone is trying to get in touch with us – and no one who’s with us will know. That’s the theory, anyway. I’ve found that a lot of modern phones tend to make as much noise (if not a bit more) when they vibrate as opposed to when they simply ring. They’re certainly more disruptive – but that’s neither here nor there.

The main downside to setting a phone on vibrate is that, for those of us who have custom ringtones set for our contacts, there’s no real way of telling who’s who. Someone we desperately want to talk to has the same vibration as someone we’d rather ignore. What’s a savvy user to do?

There’s always a way.

Custom Vibrations On iOS

Setting up a custom vibration alert is actually extremely easy in iOS, but the process varies slightly depending on what version happens to be installed on your particular device. Assuming you’ve upgraded to iOS 6, setting vibrations to your contacts involves going to each individual contact to which you want to assign a vibration. Tap the contact you wish to change, hit “Edit” and then scroll down to the vibration section. You should receive a prompt asking you if you want a standard vibration or a custom vibration.

Rinse and repeat for every contact you feel is important enough to warrant the effort.

For versions of iOS below 6 (I believe 4 is the lowest version which includes this feature), you’ll need to navigate to Settings->Accessibility->Custom Vibrations. From there, you can set and customize your personalized vibration patterns, at which point you can assign each pattern to a contact (or several). Pretty simple, right?

Custom Vibrations On Android

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, Android doesn’t actually have a custom vibration pattern feature built-in to the OS, and most droid phones haven’t bothered with the feature, either. As such, if you’re looking to set up some sort of solution, you’re going to need to use a third-party application.

For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll assume you’ve settled on a handy little app known as Vybe. You can grab it from the Google Play store for free. Once you’ve downloaded and installed it (the process shouldn’t take terribly long), you can set to work customizing your vibration alerts. The interface is smart, sharp, and crisp, in addition to being quite simple to use.

To set up an alert, all you need to do is tap the “record” button, then tap in the sequence. Once you’re done, hit “save” and the alert will be committed to the application’s memory, at which point it can be assigned to any number of contacts of your choice. Unfortunately, Vybe has one rather glaring weakness – there’s no way to name any of the vibration alerts, nor is it possible to tell which contact has been set to which alert. This is, hopefully, something which will be fixed in future releases. In spite of this weakness, Vybe is definitely one of the best choices for setting up custom Android vibration patterns.

While I’d certainly love to say my cell phone provider is one hundred percent to blame for this (I’ve never been a fan of big Telecom in Canada), realistically this isn’t a problem that is unique to me or my service provider. At my old place, only one of my roommates could ever use his cell phone. The rest of us were completely out of luck.  My room – along with the basement – were both absolute dead zones. Even when I could get a signal, my phone would swap between networks with such frequency that maintaining it was an exercise in futility.

I’m sure most (if not all) of you have had a similar experience at one point or another. No matter how hard you try, it seems as though your phone simply doesn’t want to function as…well, a phone. This is problematic for several reasons. First and foremost, you’re completely disconnected from all the people you might ordinarily be talking to through the device. The more pressing reason is that having your phone constantly trying to connect and continually searching for a signal, your battery is going to drain with remarkable quickness.

Suffice it to say, you want to do everything you can to improve your signal.

Option One: A Simple Solution

Before we get into anything too complex, let’s go over a few simple fixes. First and foremost, try removing it from its case, if you’ve got one. Believe it or not, your cell phone’s protective covering, depending on what material it’s composed of, can actually cause a great deal of interference as far as the signal is concerned. In many cases, removing the phone from this case might actually result in a marked improvement in signal quality.

Next, consider how you’re holding your phone. Don’t laugh – the way you hold your phone can cause interference from either the position of the antenna or the position of your hand. Unfortunately, the optimum angle differs with the model of phone – you’re going to have to experiment a bit. Try adjusting how you hold it to see if you can bring about any improvements in quality, or use a headset/hands-free array.

If you want to attempt a solution that’s really out there; try placing your phone in a glass tumbler or other piece of glassware (thanks to Make Use of User barstep for this tip). The material could potentially improve your signal, though there’s really no explanation as to why.

Last, but certainly not least, try updating the firmware/operating system on your phone. There’s a chance – albeit an extremely small one – that part of your problem is related to a software glitch or an outdated operating system. If that’s the case, a software upgrade could very well be the solution you’re looking for.

Option Two: Location, Location, Location

There are some spots that are going to be a dead zone for your cell phone no matter what you do.

Consider where you are geographically, and where you might be relative to any nearby cell phone towers(in other words, if you’re out camping, there’s a good chance you’re not going to get a signal no matter what you do).

Terrain can also cause a certain degree of interference (such as hills, mountains, trees, et-cetera) as can structures like skyscrapers or office towers.

Further, look at the material of the room you’re in, as well. If it’s composed of concrete or metal – particularly if the roof is made of these materials – your best bet is to step outside for a few minutes.

Option Three: Signal Boosters

If you’re really starting to get frustrated with your phone, and none of the previous options seem to be doing the trick,  it might be worth looking into a signal booster, and see if that solves your problem. What this peripheral will look like depends both on your phone’s model, your carrier, and what band your phone is on (2G, 3G, 4G, or LTE).  If purchasing a peripheral isn’t really your style, you might want to look into a few of the DIY signal boosting projects floating around the net. Do note that creating such devices might well void your warranty, so do this with caution.

A Femtocell is another possibility. These are essentially personal cell phone towers designed to emit a signal to all wireless devices in range. If all else fails, this is the solution you’re going to want to settle on.

In Closing

So…there you have it. A few quick, easy ways to improve your cell phone reception. If you’ve tried everything on this list, and nothing seems to work, I’m not sure what to tell you. It might be time to purchase a new phone, or look into signing up with a new provider.

It’s thus not terribly surprising, then, that so many third party developers have come forth with alternatives. There exists a huge array of platforms and applications designed to overhaul the rather cumbersome management system with which Windows users are saddled by default.

The primary problem with most of these tools? They require a hard installation to use. For some of you, this might not be much of a problem – after all, you’re trying to do away with Explorer, and it’s up to you what you install on your system, right?

Sometimes, however, installing an app is neither feasible nor advisable. If you’re using a system that doesn’t actually belong to you (such as at work, in a library, or at an Internet cafe), you’re not likely to be either willing or able to boot up one of the more common file explorers. For all intents and purposes, you’re stuck with what you’ve got, right?

Not necessarily. I’d like to introduce you to Just Manager: a free, lightweight, and portable alternative to Windows Explorer.

Installation

Under the Downloads heading on the Just Manager Website, you’ll see two different versions of the application: standard and portable; each one with a 32 bit and 64 bit installation (note that using the installer will allow you to select between portable and standard, as well). The primary difference between the two is that the ‘portable’ option comes packaged in a .zip file, and doesn’t actually require any installation. Just extract it onto a USB drive, and you’re good to go: you’ve a file management system you can bring with you pretty much anywhere.

That’s one of the ways Just Manager defines itself from all the other third-party file systems: it doesn’t force you to jump through hoops to use it. It’s literally just “plug in and go.”

But how does it stack up in terms of features?

How Does It Work?

The first thing you’ll probably notice about Just Manager is that it’s really not much to look at. The interface is clean, simple, and perhaps even a little ugly. That’s honestly not much of a problem, truth be told:  the spartan nature of how the application is laid out means it’s incredibly easy to use, with no garish bells and whistles to distract you while you’re looking through your files and folders.

By default, you start with two panes in which you can view files, though you can up this number to as many as 16(in order to do this, simply change the Column or Rows count under Settings->View).  Each of these panes can also support a virtually infinite number of tabs.

At the top of each panel, you’ll see information disc space and size, while at the bottom you’ll see information on the folder you’re currently viewing. Further, each panel can be visually customized in a wide variety of ways, including changing how the files are viewed. The view options in this case are identical to the options you’d find in the standard Windows Explorer: List, Tiles, Icons, Small Icons, or Details. A bar across the bottom of the application provides easy actions to functions like folder creation and deletion, while a whole list of (configurable) keyboard shortcuts can be perused and modified in the “settings” tab.

It’s here that we come to another one of Just Manager’s useful – and rather impressive- features: file highlighting. The application is set up so that users can select files of a particular type to be displayed with a different font color than other files. By default, the files that are set to be displayed in such a fashion are Executables, Hidden and System Files, Compressed Files and Reparse Point Files. Any other file types that you wish to highlight can be added to the list with ease.

That’s as good a segway to bring up one of Just Manager’s most powerful advantages: the staggering degree to which it can be customized. I’m not going to go fully into detail on just how deep this customization goes, but I feel it’s safe to say that it’s flexible enough that virtually anyone using it will be able to tweak it to their liking.  This also includes visual themes and layouts, as well: if you don’t particularly care for the somewhat ugly, old-school skin of Just Manager, you can change it.

Lastly, Just Manager includes full support for FTP, online documents and network drives.

Closing Thoughts

Just Manager is fully featured, portable, and powerful. It’s both efficient and stable, and incredibly easy to use.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have its weaknesses:  it seems to have a few issues with the recognition of tablets and other, similar devices, and it may not be as versatile as some of the better-known, paid alternatives.

Still, if you’re looking for a free, easy to use, and quick to install file manager to address your Windows Explorer woes, you could do a lot worse than Just Manager.

While Apple won the battle on U.S. shores, it lost in several other nations all around the world, including South Korea, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Commentary on the sorry state of American patent law aside, the echoes of that lawsuit have lately gotten me wondering…what exactly is the difference between iPads and Android tablets? Obviously, if Apple brought such a cumbersome lawsuit to bear against a former hardware partner, it thought there were enough similarities between the two products.

So…with that in mind, how exactly does one differentiate between the two?

Note that I’m going to be carrying out an objective comparison. I’m not going to favor one device over the other. We’re interested in the difference between the two, not which one is ‘better.’

Android vs. iOS

Well, the most obvious distinction between the two different breeds of tablet is that they use different operating systems. Android tablets run on Google’s java-based Android operating system, while iPads run on the C++/Objective C-coded iOS.

Believe it or not, that in and of itself isn’t actually as much of a distinction as one might expect: you might be surprised to hear this, but interface-wise, the two operating systems are actually  close to identical. While the two interfaces are noticeably different from one another, in terms of usability, they more often than not tend to be virtually identical (at least in the top devices).

The chief difference actually lies with the apps available on each platform. iOS tends to function more easily with Apple software such as iTunes, while Android is more closely tied to Google’s various services than its rival OS. While a few variations on the interface do exist within Android based on device, as a whole there’s not a lot of difference.

Obviously, we’re going to have to dig a little deeper.

Openness vs. Control; Unification vs. Fragmentation

Honestly, this is the penultimate difference between Android Tablets and iPads. Every other difference is secondary: the whole debate between Android vs. iOS often tends to come down to a single argument: openness versus control. Apple’s operating system is closed and proprietary, Google’s system is free and open-source.

Consequently, Google doesn’t exert a great deal of control over Android, allowing users to freely and readily ‘root’ their devices and customize them in ways beyond what might have originally been allowed. It’s also free for developers to use and tweak as they see fit. The fact that Android isn’t a proprietary system means also that there’s a considerable degree of platform fragmentation where Android tablets are concerned. Just about anyone can make a ‘droid tablet, while iPads are one-of-a-kind. While this does mean you have a great deal more variety when it comes to hardware choice, it also makes the lives of application developers considerably more difficult. On Android, you have no guarantee your app is going to work on every tablet on the market.

Plus, you’re bound to wind up with a few lemons.

Contrast this with iOS, which is a closed, proprietary system – one over which Apple holds a considerable degree of influence.  This may sound like a rather unattractive way of doing business, rather than Google’s apparent “do what you like” policy, but it actually does have a few advantages of its own (these will become clear as we move forward). The unified infrastructure of the iPad means that Apple can more readily offer support for technical issues and exert more control over its brand, while app developers can sleep secure with the knowledge that if they develop an application, it’s going to work on every iPad that goes to market.

The iTunes Store vs. The Android Marketplace

Interface-wise, the differences between the iTunes Store and the Android Marketplace are mostly aesthetic. As with the hardware, the primary difference between the two hearkens back to the “openness vs. control” dichotomy.

Much like iOS itself, the iTunes Store is a tightly-controlled, highly-regulated environment. Apple dictates which apps actually make it to market, determining on a case-by-case basis whether or not a developer is violating their application store’s terms and conditions. While this does make it somewhat more difficult to put out apps for the platform (the approval process can take a while, particularly if your app gets rejected for some reason), it also means the iTunes Store is virtually virus free. Sure, a few pieces of malware might slip through the cracks here and there, but as a whole, it’s safe.

The Android Marketplace, meanwhile, doesn’t have an approval process, nor is it the only means of obtaining apps on Android.  While this does mean that you have a larger variety of applications, it also means that you’re going to need to exercise a great deal more care in what you download. Malware is much more prominent on the Android Marketplace, simply by its open nature, while third-party app stores can hide a whole host of nasty surprises behind their digital shelves.

Flash Support

Last, but certainly not least, iOS doesn’t actually offer native flash support, while Android offers both Flash and HTML5.

Steve Jobs back in 2010 gave a fairly detailed explanation for his decision not to allow Flash on iOS, including differences in philosophy, security and stability concerns, interference with application development, and a lack of touch-screen support. What this means for iPad users is that a wide range of content will be unavailable to them, while Android users will suffer from no such difficulties (though, as Jobs pointed out, most of this Flash content is readily available in a new, more modern format).

Conclusion

So at the end of the day, the main difference between Android and iOS lies in the fact that one’s open-source, the other isn’t. Every other difference: from the various hardware variants of Android Tablets, to the store, and arguably even Flash support can be linked to this.

As such, it ultimately doesn’t really matter which of the two you use – it’s just a matter of preference, truth be told. Neither is really all that superior, as both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses.

That’s where Priveazy comes in.

Priveazy is a Chrome Extension which is made up of three separate components: a Chrome extension known as Priveazy Lockdown, a web application, and something known as the “Priveazy Classroom.”

The Chrome extension offers a simple, intuitive means of protecting your privacy online. Every time you log in to a website which the extension supports, a red lock will appear in your address bar. Click on it, and it’ll list a few basic steps you need to complete in order to keep yourself protected.

Clicking on any one of the steps will load up the precise page or setting which you need to change in order to ensure your information is protected. As an added bonus, Priveazy actually goes out of its way to avoid violating your privacy itself. it won’t scan your settings when installed, nor will it access any of your information. The trade-off there is that it doesn’t know what settings you’ve already changed or updated, which could be a minor sticking point for some.

The web app, meanwhile, is a little more in-depth than the Chrome extension. It offers a step-by-step guide for each website you’ve got an account on, with a selection of information pertaining to why each setting is important. For each task, you can label it as completed, instruct the app to remind you about it, state that you chose not to do it, or click on “This Didn’t Work.” In the case of the latter, the site will prompt you to explain what happened, and why your efforts failed. Presumably, the app developers will then use this information to improve upon the instructions.

Lastly, the Priveazy Classroom features a series of quizzes to test your knowledge of online privacy, as well as classes which will teach you more about protecting your personal information online.

Essentially, this solution will walk you through ensuring the best privacy online, in a way which anybody can understand.

As privacy solutions go, you could do a lot worse. You can get Priveazy here.