TV & Music TechnoGeek

September 4, 2016

Free Streaming Music Online: The Top 15 Websites

Music is the universal language, and with the amazing convenience of the World Wide Web, more music is available to us than from ever before in human history. From classical rock to alternative to baroque instrumentals, it's possible to find free streaming music on the Web that will cater to virtually any musical taste. In this article, we'll look at the top fifteen sites for free streaming music, sports, news, talk shows, and much more. Wherever your taste may lie, you're sure to find something to meet your needs in one of these offerings, and all of these are available to listen to via your computer or mobile device.

1. Google Play

Google Play gives listeners the chance to upload and store thousands of songs from their own collections for free, create playlists, and listen to hundreds of thousands of songs in a huge variety of genres. You can listen for free to the Google Play radio offerings; users have the ability to subscribe which makes the experience ad-free. More »

2. Hype Machine

If you're looking for something to expand your musical tastes, Hype Machine is a great choice. This innovative site gives listeners the ability to find new music via people who are writing about the music that they love - all in one place, rather than skipping from site to site. More »

3. Shoutcast

Shoutcast gives listeners the ability to listen to over 70,000 stations in a huge variety of genres, from Alternative to Talk to Holiday. However, that's not the only thing you can do with Shoutcast - if you want to start your own radio station here, you can, with free broadcasting tools made available by the Shoutcast service. More »

4. Accuradio

Accuradio makes listening to music online simply fun. They offer the standard genres of music, but they also offer enjoyable "channels" that change every so often and are a great way to discover new music. More »

5. Slacker Radio

Slacker Radio gives users the ability to search by artist or song and stations will be suggested, with the ability to craft that station into exactly how you'd like it to be. There are different payment levels available here, but most of the features are absolutely free and listeners can take advantage of hundreds of stations. More »

6. iHeart Radio

Think of the sort of music you like, and iHeart Radio will suggest stations for you based on your preferences. You can also use iHeart Radio to listen to local stations all over the United States and Mexico, create stations based on popular artists, or discover top podcasts on a wide variety of subjects. More »

7. TuneIn

TuneIn gives users the option to listen to radio stations, talk shows, podcasts, and much more. Over 100,000 radio stations, live shows, and lots of other content are available here for free, including sports, news radio, and talk shows. More »

8. 977Music

977music.com is 100% free for listeners, and you can listen to as much music for as long as you would like. There are hundreds of channels here programmed by listeners, and they are available wherever you might have Internet access - both home and work. More »

9. RadioTunes

RadioTunes is one of the most popular streaming music sites on the Web. You can filter your musical tastes by Style (Smooth Jazz, Easy Listening, Top Hits, etc.), and Channels (80's, Mostly Classical, Oldies, etc). There are seemingly unlimited stations to listen to here, and listening is free (must sign up for a free account). More »

10. Radio.net

Radio.net is a great service; you can access all sorts of global broadcasts here, from the BBC World Service to Radio Swiss Classic to CBS Dallas. More than 30,000 radio stations, online radios and podcasts are available here to listen to within the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, and more. More »

11. Last.fm

Last.fm offers listeners the ability to not only listen to and discover music, but also visualize the listening habits and musical trends that the Last.FM musical community is listening to. It's an interesting way to see what other people are listening to. More »

12. Soma.fm

You can listen to Soma.fm's stations right within your Web browser, just like all the other streaming music websites on this list. There are only a limited amount of stations here, within highly specialized genres - jazz, chill, indie folks, etc - all featuring a very California-like vibe. Soma is especially popular with people looking for background music for tasks that require concentration. More »

13. PublicRadioFan.com

PublicRadioFan is a massive collection of stations around the globe. You can search by schedules, time zones, station call letters, and more. More »

14. Pandora

Pandora lets you create your own radio station, from music that you choose, and then you can continue to improve upon the service's selections as it plays for you. Thumbs up for something you like, thumbs down for something you don't. More »

15. Spotify

Spotify is somewhat similar to Pandora, at least in concept. Spotify functions more of a platform on which you can install and use different musical applications, such as Billboard's Top Picks, Rolling Stone Music, Share My Playlists, and Digster. You can listen to entire albums without paying for them (with only limited commercial interruption), create playlists, share your favorites with others, and more. Radio stations are also available on Spotify, but you create them yourself from songs you already like. More »

Source: http://websearch.about.com/od/musicsearc1/tp/Free-Streaming-Music-Online-The-Top-15-Websites.htm

Honorable Mention:

Internet-Radio.com

With thousands of radio stations around the world, there is something here for everyone.

July 4, 2016

Free Streaming Music Online: The Top 15 Websites

1. Google Play

2. Hype Machine

3. Shoutcast

4. Accuradio

5. Slacker Radio

6. iHeart Radio

7. TuneIn

8. 977Music

9. RadioTunes

10. Radio.net

11. Last.fm

12. Soma.fm

13. PublicRadioFan.com

PublicRadioFan is a massive collection of stations around the globe. You can search by schedules, time zones, station call letters, and more. More »

14. Pandora

15. Spotify

May 14, 2016

Intel Core i3 vs. i5 vs. i7: Which One Do You Really Need?

Written by Mihir Patkar. The processor is the brain of a computer — but understanding the difference between processors requires a lot of brainpower of your own!

Intel hasn’t made it any easier for customers with their strange naming schemes, and the question we get asked most often is: What’s the difference between an i3, i5, or i7 processor? Which one should I buy?

It’s time to demystify that. In this article, we won’t be touching on Intel’s other processors like the Pentium series or the new laptop-centric Core M series. They’re good in their own right, but the Core series is the most popular and confusing, so let’s just focus on that.

Understanding the Model Numbers

Purely speaking, it’s very simple. An Intel Core i7 is better than a Core i5, which in turn is better than a Core i3. The trouble is knowing what to expect within each tier. Things go a little deeper.

First, i7 does not mean a seven-core processor! These are just names to indicate relative performance.

Typically, the Core i3 series has only dual-core processors, while the Core i5 and Core i7 series have both dual-core and quad-core processors. Quad-cores are usually better than dual-cores, but don’t worry about that just yet.

Intel releases “families” of chipsets, like the new 6th generation Skylake family or the older 5th generation Haswell family. Each family, in turn, has its own line of Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 series of processors.

You can spot which generation a processor belongs to by the first digit in its four-digit model name. For example, the Intel Core i3-5200 belongs to the 5thgeneration. Remember, Intel’s new generations won’t support Windows 7, but since Windows 10 is a free upgrade anyway, go for the latest generation possible.

Pro Tip: Here’s a useful rule of thumb. The other three digits are Intel’s assessment of how the processor compares to others in its own line. For example, an Intel Core i3-5350 is superior to the Core i3-5200 because 350 is higher than 200.

End Letters: U vs. Q. vs. H vs. K

Things have changed since we last looked at Intel’s processor list. The model number will typically be followed by one or a combination of the following letters: U, Y, T, Q, H, and K. Here’s what they mean:

U: Ultra Low Power. The U rating is only for laptop processors. These draw less power and are better for the battery.

Y: Low Power. Typically found on older generation laptop and mobile processors.

T: Power Optimized for desktop processors.

Q: Quad-Core. The Q rating is only for processors with four physical cores.

H: High-Performance Graphics. The chipset has one of Intel’s better graphics units in it.

K: Unlocked. This means you can overclock the processor above its rating.

Understanding these letters and the numbering system above will help you know what a processor offers just by looking at the model number, without needing to read the actual specifications. Of course, before making a buying decision, it’s advisable to check the details at ark.intel.com.

You can find the meaning of other suffixes at Intel’s guidelines on processor numbers.

Hyper-Threading: i7 > i3 > i5

As you can see above, Intel specifically writes U and Q for the number of physical cores. Well, what other kinds of cores are there, you ask? The answer is virtual cores, activated through a technology called Hyper-Threading.

In layman’s terms, hyper-threading allows a single physical core to act as two virtual cores, thus performing multiple tasks simultaneously without activating the second physical core (which would require more power from the system).

If both processors are active and using hyper-threading, those four virtual cores will compute faster. However, do note that physical cores are faster than virtual cores. A quad-core CPU will perform much better than a dual-core CPU with hyper-threading!

The Intel Core i3 series has hyper-threading. The Intel Core i7 series supports hyper-threading, too. The Intel Core i5 series does not support it.

Turbo Boost: i7 > i5 > i3

On the other hand, the Intel Core i3 series does not support Turbo Boost. The Core i5 series uses Turbo Boost to speed up your tasks, as does the Core i7 series.

Turbo Boost is Intel’s proprietary technology to intelligently increase a processor’s clock speed if the application demands it. For example, if you are playing a game and your system requires some extra horsepower, Turbo Boost will kick in to compensate.

Turbo Boost is useful for those who run resource-intensive software like video editors or video games, but it doesn’t have much of an effect if you’re just going to be browsing the web and using Microsoft Office.

Cache Size: i7 > i5 > i3

Apart from Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost, the one other major difference in the Core line-up is Cache Size. Cache is the processor’s own memory and acts like its private RAM — and it’s one of the little-known specs that slows down your PC.

Just like with RAM, more cache size is better. So if the processor is performing one task over and over, it will keep that task in its cache. If a processor can store more tasks in its private memory, it can do them faster if they come up again.

The Core i3 series typically has up to 3 MB of cache. The Core i5 series has between 3 MB and 6 MB of cache. The Core i7 series has between 4 MB and 8 MB of cache.

Graphics: HD, Iris, Iris Pro

Ever since graphics were integrated on the processor chip, it’s become an important decision point in buying CPUs. But like with everything else, Intel has made the system a little confusing.

There are now typically three levels of graphics units: Intel HD, Intel Iris, andIntel Iris Pro. You’ll see a model name like Intel HD 520 or Intel Iris Pro 580… and that’s where the confusion begins.

Here’s a brief example of how mind-boggling it can be. Intel HD 520 is a basic graphics chipset. Intel Iris 550 is better than Intel HD 520, but also basic. But Intel HD 530 is a high-performance graphics unit and is better than Intel Iris 550. However, Intel Iris Pro 580 is also a high-performance graphics unit and better than Intel HD 530.

The best advice for how to interpret these? Just don’t. Instead, rely on Intel’s naming system. If the processor’s model ends with an H, you know it’s a high-performance unit.

Comparing Cores i3, i5, i7

Generally speaking, here’s who each processor type is best for:

Core i3: Basic users. Economic choice. Good for browsing the web, using Microsoft office, making video calls, and social networking. Not for gamers or professionals.

Core i5: Intermediate users. Those who want balance between performance and price. Good for gaming if you buy an HQ processor or a Q processor with a dedicated graphics processor.

Core i7: Professionals. This is the best Intel can do right now.

How Did You Choose?

This article provides a basic guide for anyone looking to buy a new Intel processor but is confused between Core i3, i5, and i7. But even after understanding all this, when it’s time to make a decision, you might need to choose between two processors from different generations because they’re priced the same.

When you’re comparing, my best tip is to head to CPU Boss where you cancompare both processors and get a detailed analysis, as well as ratings. If you don’t understand the jargon, just go with the rating and the basic advice. If you understand jargon, CPU Boss has all the details you’ll need.

What other advice do you have for someone who is similarly stuck while buying a PCU and needs to make a choice?

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/intel-core-i3-vs-i5-vs-i7-one-really-need/

April 12, 2016

How to Use Handbrake to Convert Any Video File to Any Format

If you’ve ever wanted to convert a video file, but weren’t sure what to use, then Handbrake might be the program for you. Today we’ll show you how to use it to convert video files into different formats.
There are a lot of applications out there that purport to convert video files. They’ll advertise themselves as free and sport a flashy interface, but as we’re all too well aware, most of these programs are just plain crap. Moreover, they often come packaged with toolbars or malware so what started off as an innocent attempt to simply convert a video turns into a trip to the computer store to get your laptop fixed.

Handbrake?

Handbrake has been around around for over ten years and remains one of the best applications out there for transcoding video files from one format to another. Handbrake is open source and completely free of any attached strings or shady offers; you only get what you download, nothing else.
Finally, it’s available for Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu with a GUI interface or as a command line tool. In this article, we’ll be using the Windows GUI version.

A Quick Look at the Program

Handbrake is without a doubt, one of the easiest video converter programs around.

Along the top row are six buttons where you can manipulate essential functions, such as opening your source file, adding a job to the queue, and a simple “Start” button, which says it all.

Below these buttons are your Source and Destination features. Destination, of course, allows you to choose where your converted file is saved and what it is called. Source displays basic information about your source file: titles in the file, angles, and dropdown buttons that will allow you to convert your file by chapter, time (seconds), or frames.

Finally, there are your Output settings. There’s a ton of stuff here. You can adjust your video and audio quality, add subtitles, and much more.

We’re not going to even bother with any of these though. Today, we’re just going to show you the simplest way to convert one video file format to another.

Converting Made Easy

Here’s the situation, we really want to play a file in a Google Chrome tab so we can then cast it to our TV. The problem is, the file won’t play because it’s in a format Chrome doesn’t support. What do we do?
In this example, the format of our source file is .MKV or Matroska file format. This type of file is very popular with purveyors of anime and foreign films because it allows them to be distributed with extra features such as subtitles and multiple languages. That said, .MKV may play perfectly in an all-in-one solution like VLC, but it often meets resistance from other players like Windows Media Player and Chrome.
So, we want to convert our .MKV file to an .MP4 file, which is compatible with just about anything you play it on. If you have an .MP4 file, chances are you’ll be able to watch it with no problem.
The first thing we do then is select our source. Click the “Source” button and choose “Open File” from the dropdown choices.

Browse your file system to where the troublesome file is located, select it, and click “Open.”

Now you see the file we’re converting listed under the Source heading.
For this operation, we’re making no adjustments to anything in the Output Settings. This is a straight conversion from .MKV to .MP4, so we’ll leave the container setting as is. The only other thing to do is tell Handbrake where to put our new file, and what to call it.

We click “Browse” for our file Destination, choose a location for our new file, as well as give it a fitting name. We’ll go ahead and save the file in the same location as our source and click “Save.”

Back on Handbrake’s main window, we give our transcoding job one more look and click “Start.”

Depending now upon your computer’s speed and the size of the file, this operation could take a few minutes or a few hours. You can note Handbrake’s progress at the bottom of the application window. Here you see our file is almost six-percent complete, and has almost nineteen minutes remaining (estimated).

When our file is done, we should be able to play it in Chrome. And, success, we can now easily play this file on virtually any video player, phone, tablet, and, of course, cast it to our big screen TV in the living room!

Handbrake is easy to use, risk free, and we are able to achieve very desirable results, simply using the default settings. It goes without saying, we recommend you use it, rather than playing download roulette and possibly installing a terrible piece of software on your system.

Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/199618/how-to-use-handbrake-to-convert-any-video-file-to-any-format/

April 5, 2016

Best Free Burning Software: Top Programs for Copying, Ripping, and Burning

Keep your MP3s and other media files safe by backing up to disc.

By Mark Harri

Even though software media players such as iTunes, Winamp, and Windows Media Player are able to burn music to CD, you will have probably discovered that most are very limited on what they can do. Using a dedicated burning program gives you the flexibility to burn music, video, and other types of files to CD, DVD, and even Blu-ray; this can open up a lot more possibilities on the way you use and store your digital media. The software listed below has been selected specifically for its usefulness and ease-of-use when dealing with digital media.

1. CDBurnerXP Pro 4

CDBurnerXP has very good support for burning to several types of optical media discs including: DVD, CD, and Blur-ray. You can burn music to CD as either an audio CD, or a data CD (MP3, AAC, OGG, etc.). If can be installed on Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7 and offers a user-friendly interface. You can create audio CDs using MP3, OGG, FLAC, WMA, and WAV files. A neat feature of CDBurnerXP is the facility to directly add tracks to your compilation from audio CDs without having to rip the tracks first. Finally, this free burning software program also comes with a convenient integrated audio player in order to play your music.

More Info

2. Ashampoo Burning Studio Free

Even though Burning Studio Free only supports MP3 and WMA formats, it more than makes up for this shortfall by its sizable feature set. This free burning program supports CD, DVD, and Blu-ray drives giving you flexible storage options. It’s intuitive interface gives you access to tasks such as ripping and burning audio/data CDs, backup files and folders, burn movies, create ISO/BIN images, and a copier for duplicating CDs,DVDs, and Blu-ray discs.

More Info

3. BurnAware Free

Available for the Windows operating systems (7 / Vista / XP / 2000 / NT), BurnAware Free is an optical disc authoring program that supports CD, DVD, and Blu-ray -- it can handle a wide array of audio formats too. This light-weight, but functional program supports MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC, WAV, OGG, and M4a. If you've got files in the ISO format, then this program also supports disk image burning to DVD, CD, etc. The program is also capable of creating video DVDs which can then be played on a standard DVD player or games console (Xbox 360, PS3, etc.)for example.

More Info

4. FinalBurner Free

FinalBurner Free enables you to create data/audio CDs, video DVDs, and make ISO images. There’s also a built-in CD ripper that is capable of encoding MP3 and WMA files in varying bitrates. FinalBurner has good file format support when creating audio CDs. You can import MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC, along with less popular formats like MID, and music modules (XM, MOD) that are used in music sequencers (trackers). As with all the burning programs in this article, FinalBurner has enough options to be a good substitute for expensive products such as Nero, etc.

More Info

5. Free Audio CD Burner

If you just want a simple program to create audio CDs then you won’t go far wrong with Free Audio CD Burner. Even though it only supports the writing of CDs, it can decode MP3 and WMA files in realtime, thus saving time and hard drive space.

More Info

6. ImgBurn

ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!
It has several 'Modes', each one for performing a different task:

Read - Read a disc to an image file
Build - Create an image file from files on your computer or network - or you can write the files directly to a disc
Write - Write an image file to a disc
Verify - Check a disc is 100% readable. Optionally, you can also have ImgBurn compare it against a given image file to ensure the actual data is correct
Discovery - Put your drive / media to the test! Used in combination with DVDInfoPro, you can check the quality of the burns your drive is producing

You can download it here:
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download

September 4, 2016

July 4, 2016

May 14, 2016

April 12, 2016

Handbrake?

A Quick Look at the Program

Converting Made Easy

April 5, 2016

Keep your MP3s and other media files safe by backing up to disc.

1. CDBurnerXP Pro 4

2. Ashampoo Burning Studio Free

3. BurnAware Free

4. FinalBurner Free

5. Free Audio CD Burner

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