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5 Pieces of Innovative Technology for Your Computer

Do you find it hard to sift through the newest tech releases just to find the best of the best? Frankly, we don’t blame you.

One estimate suggests that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced in one day alone! With that much new data created every single day, finding the best tech can be a tricky endeavor. But we’re here to help!

Keep reading, as we’re breaking down the top 5 trends in innovative technology for your computer.

5 Pieces of Innovative Technology for Your Computer

  1. Binaural Podcasts

Okay, so binaural audio isn’t necessarily “new” per say, but it has seen a resurgence in the last few years. Podcasts are more prolific than ever thanks to properties like Lore and Serial.

And if you’re a headphones addict, you’ll want to be sure to grab your nicest headphones and stream a binaural podcast. Think of it as surround sound without the hassle. There’s no need for an expensive system — just use headphones!

Whether you’re looking to unwind a bit or want some chills, binaural podcasts will practically put you in your favorite stories.

  1. FRAPS

This one is for the gamers out there. FRAPS is a fantastic resource for measuring your PC’s efficiency and frame rate.

A high FPS is an absolute must for streamers, so make sure to give FRAPS a free download. The only downside is that it takes up a bit of space on your PC.

If you’re a video editor, FRAPS is a fantastic recording resource. It records HD videos in either DirectX or OpenGL tech.

  1. Voice Assistants

Whether you’ve got an Android or an iPhone, a Windows PC or a Mac, voice assistants are taking the market by storm. But these fun, robotic friends are no longer confined to your phone.

Voice assisted technology is now available on almost every computer on the market.  Apple owners can use Siri with the click of a button, while Windows users get the high-powered Cortana.

These voice assistants can do everything from schedule an event for you to do a quick Google search. It’s innovative technology at its most helpful!

  1. Virtual Reality (VR)

Perhaps the biggest tech trend of 2016 was the VR boom. The Facebook-backed Oculus Rift launched onto the market to middling success, while the HTC Vive found an audience immediately.

Then there were more price-friendly options like Sony’s PSVR and the Samsung Gear VR.

Now, a year later, the tech is already improving. Oculus released touch controllers to make gaming easier and more immersive. Conversely, HTC lowered its price, making it easier than ever to get into the world of VR.

If 2017 is any indication, VR isn’t going anywhere. In a few months, Microsoft is releasing their own headset, the Hololens. The Hololens is targeted at business owners, so expect to create spreadsheets in VR in no time.

  1. Screen Dimming

With all of this new technology, your electric bill may jump a bit. But you can make things easier for your self with the right screen dimming app.

Whether you’re looking to dim an entire screen or just want to make reading easier, it’s a smarter, easier way to browse the web.

Wrap-Up

It’s amazing to think about how far tech has come in the last few years alone. And the future seems like it’s going to be every bit as exciting!

Don’t forget to give Turn Off the Lights an install. Whether you’re looking for mobile or desktop dimming, we’ve got the free solution for you.

About The Author

Stefan Van Damme

Finalist of The Lovie Awards 2017! We need your Love!

The Lovie Award announced that Turn Off the Lights Browser extension for YouTube and Beyond named finalist for best Websites, Web Services & Applications in the 7th annual Lovie Awards.

This is a major achievement for as a Europe developer. It shows that Turn Off the Lights Browser extension ranks of the European Internet’s best and brightest.
But we need your help to get there. We encourage you, your partner, your friends, your friends at work, family and neighbors to vote for Turn Off the Lights. Your support means a lot to us!
Vote Now for Turn Off the Lights – The Lovie Awards

This is a Major Achievement: What Does It Mean to Be a Lovie Awards Finalist?

This is an unparalleled honour! This was The Lovie Awards most competitive season yet, with nearly 1,500 entries from 33 countries. As a Finalist, our work has been selected as among the best in its category and is in the top 20% of all work entered and now competes for Europe’s two most coveted awards: the Gold, Silver and Bronze Lovie Award, as chosen by the Academy in each category, and the People’s Lovie Award, voted on by the online public. These Awards are a mark of distinction for European Internet excellence.

Voting for People’s Lovie is open from today, 19 September to Thursday, 5 October at 11:59 BST:
Vote Now for Turn Off the Lights – The Lovie Awards

About The Author

Stefan Van Damme

The Biggest Turn Off the Lights Update to Safari App Extension

Today we got exciting news for Safari 10 users (for macOS Sierra and High Sierra)! The Turn Off the Lights Safari extension is now available in the Apple App Store:
Download Now Turn Off the Lights for Safari

Apple asks indirect to his Safari extension developers to transits to his own macOS platform. We quoted the message from on the ‘Safari Extensions Development Guide’ page:

Important: As of Safari 10.0 on macOS 10.11.5, Safari extensions are created as app extensions in Xcode. New extensions are wrapped in a containing macOS app and are distributed and sold on the App Store. If you have created an extension with the methods described in this document, consider transitioning to the new extensions model. To start developing Safari app extensions, see Safari App Extension Programming Guide.

Safari App Extension Development

We converted everything within 2 months to the Safari App Extension platform. And still keeping our main JavaScript files and HTML options page. It was a hard work to get same great experience in the Safari web browser. There are some good benefits in this platform, but there also some bad ones. Here the comparison for users and developers:

+ In the Apple Store you can see the screenshots of what our extension can do in your Safari web browser. And the App Store installs automatically the latest version.
+ You get a better performance in the Safari web browser.
+ You as user know that Apple as reviewed our Safari extension, before publishing it on the App Store. And that there is no security or privacy issues.

+ As developers, we can write our code in the Swift language, that is almost the same style as JavaScript.
– As developers, we lost many times on how to convert the “background.js” to the Swift app extension handler. And many existing functions must be reengineered, so the Safari extension can communicate well from the Options page to the background and to lamp button.

Vimeo video with Turn Off the Lights Safari App Extension
Vimeo video with the Atmosphere Lighting feature

In the new Turn Off the Lights Safari App Extension you get the same Options page as in the regular browser extension version. And to access the Turn Off the Lights Options page is by opening the ‘Turn Off the Lights for Safari’ app from your Launchpad.

Browser Extension Standard

However, we believe in a standard for developing a browser extension. Google Chrome, Opera, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge got this standard. As we hope that other companies will follow later also this standard.

If you are just reading this new blog post and you like our project. Please do not forget to donate us. Whether it is $1 or $100, your support is immensely appreciated!

About The Author

Stefan Van Damme