Xiaomi Mi 9 and Mi Mix 4 tipped for triple cameras, Snapdragon 855 SoCs

Xiaomi Mi Mix 3

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 3.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 will be Xiaomi’s first phone to feature a triple rear camera setup, according to recent speculation from ITHome. The Chinese language tech site reported on Dec. 28 that both the Mi 9 and Mi Mix 4 would feature the camera configuration, citing a report from Hong Kong trading group GF Securities.

ITHome suggests the phones would feature this camera setup in addition to Snapdragon 855 SoCs. This seems likely, seeing as the Mi and Mix series’ phones typically pack the latest flagship chipsets from Qualcomm.

Editor’s Pick

The triple camera smartphone trend is expected to be in full swing next year after being seen on several Android phones in 2018. Global number one smartphone manufacturer Samsung is said to be using this approach on at least one device in its Galaxy S10 series.

However, ITHome also suggests the Mi Mix 4 will make use of a periscope lens — something which is still uncommon in the Android world. A periscope lens is said to offer superior optical zoom capabilities compared to other smartphone camera lenses while being a similar size.

Current rumors suggest the Xiaomi Mi 9 will come with a 6.4-inch display, 3,700mAh battery, and as much as 10GB of RAM.

We haven’t encountered much speculation regarding the Mi Mix 4 and it seems fairly early for rumors — Xiaomi only recently introduced a new phone in the Mi Mix series, the sliding Mi Mix 3. It’s possible the fourth generation device is on the horizon, but it seems more likely that an upgraded Mi Mix 3S variant would arrive in the near future, perhaps in the Spring (the Mi Mix 2S was released last April).

Regardless, I’ve high expectations for the upcoming Xiaomi flagships given the Chinese OEM’s recent track record. Are you excited for the new Xiaomi phones? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Up next: Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro review: Pro ambitions, amateur mistakes

Source: Android Zone

The post Xiaomi Mi 9 and Mi Mix 4 tipped for triple cameras, Snapdragon 855 SoCs appeared first on TuneMaster.ml.

Last minute deal: Produce stunning presentations with Slideshop

Slideshop

If you regularly produce presentations in your line of work, you’ll know that the content is only half the story. The rest of the time you spend trying to make it look professional and impressive. The problem is that this can be a painstaking process.

Let Slideshop do the heavy lifting for you. This popular library of slide templates has over 15,000 designs for you to choose from. For a one off-fee today you can get lifetime access to the lot, and ensure every presentation you make looks super slick and professional.

Slideshop is used by Used by Siemens, Samsung, Deloitte, Nike, L’Oreal, and more.

These slide templates are compatible with all the big software packages such as PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides. They feature modern designs and are easy to edit. You can download as many as you like.

The library is categorized for your convenience and features categories such as business, planning, infographics, and so on. It’s used by some of the biggest businesses out there, such as Samsung, Deloitte, Nike, AT&T, and more.

Slideshop at a glance

  • Build presentations faster with access to Slideshop’s core library of over 15,000 template slides.
  • Capture your audience with modern designs and stunning charts and infographics.
  • Tailor each template to your presentation with simple editing tools.
  • Find just the right templates with categories for business, planning, charts, and more.

Slideshop is usually at least $49 per year, but right now you can sign up for under $25. That’s lifetime access too, so it’s quite a savings. Just head to Tech Deals and add Slideshop to your cart. When you’re ready to pay, use the promo code NEWYEAR2019 at the checkout. The total you’ll pay is just $24.30.

The deal expires very soon, so hopefully you’re not too late. Hit the button below to find the deal.

The AAPicks team writes about things we think you’ll like, and we may see a share of revenue from any purchases made through affiliate links. To see all our hottest deals, head over to the AAPICKS HUB.


Looking for a new phone or plan? Start here with the Android Authority Plan Tool:

This smart tool lets you filter plans by phone, price, data tiers, and regional availability. Stop overpaying for cell service you hate and a phone that you’re tired of. Use our Compare Phones & Plans tool to fully customize your mobile experience and painlessly transition from one carrier to another!

Source: Android Zone

The post Last minute deal: Produce stunning presentations with Slideshop appeared first on TuneMaster.ml.

HTC in 2019: Last chance saloon

HTC in 2019: HTC U12 Plus

Remember those awful Robert Downey Jr.-starring ads HTC spent millions on that joked HTC was an acronym for ‘hilariously’ random phrases like “Hipster Troll Car wash?”

I know, I tried to forget too.

After yet another rough year of layoffs, free-falling sales numbers, and a further drift into obscurity in the smartphone market, HTC in 2018 could quite easily have stood for “Hard Times Continued.”

2018 marked the tenth anniversary of the first ever Android smartphone — the HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1 — but unfortunately for HTC, there was very little else worth celebrating.

Let’s review HTC’s 2018 and look ahead to see we can expect from the fallen Android giant in 2019.

Another 12 months of turmoil

Rewind back to the start of 2018 and HTC found itself in a bit of a transitional phase. Fresh off an atrocious 12 months where revenues plummeted to a 13-year low, the firm received a much-needed injection of cash after selling its “Powered by HTC” R&D division to Google for $1.1 billion.

Despite the reduced workforce and talent pool, Google’s money meant HTC had the time and funds to design and develop new phones to try to turn its fortunes around. Unfortunately, fortune wasn’t ready to turn in HTC’s favor.

A fresh round of layoffs hit the company’s North American wing in February as part of a restructuring plan to bring together the smartphone and VR teams. This was followed by a much wider cull in July when 1,500 employees were cut at HTC’s HQ in Taiwan.

Read more: Here are the best HTC phones you can buy right now

The latter represented a whopping 22 percent of the company’s global workforce and was justified by HTC as being an essential move to ensure “more effective and flexible resource management going forward.”

Some of HTC’s most high profile figureheads also abandoned their stations. Smartphone president Chialin Chang departed in February after a six year tenure, while Mo Versi — a.k.a. the HTC updates guy — exited in March.

The overall picture gets even bleaker when you delve into HTC’s 2018 financials.

HTC’s final revenue figures for 2018 will make for dire reading.

HTC registered its lowest revenue total in 13 years at NTD 62.12 billion ($2.1 billion) in 2017. As of Q3 2018, the company’s overall revenue for the year sat at a paltry NTD 19.6 billion (~$636 million).

Save for an incredibly unlikely miraculous turnaround in Q4, HTC’s final revenue figures for 2018 will make for some dire reading when they are eventually released to investors and the public in the coming weeks.

Amidst all of the speculation surrounding HTC’s uncertain future, rumors that the brand was considering pulling of out India completely, and getting slapped by U.K. advertising standards over a “misleading” ad, the phones that HTC actually released in 2018 more or less got lost in the wider discourse.

On the flagship front, HTC eschewed recent tradition and released the HTC U12 Plus — a follow-up to the U11 series that didn’t enjoy a non-Plus version, instead adopting the moniker due to its large size and top-tier specs.

Yet despite its all-round impressive performance and gorgeous Liquid Surface design, the HTC U12 Plus was a hard phone for many to recommend.

In our HTC U12 Plus review, Jimmy Westenberg bemoaned HTC’s neglected software suite, its innovative-yet-awkward pressure sensitive buttons, the higher price tag compared to the U11, and the lack of any tangible reason to recommend the phone over rival devices from Samsung, Google, or even LG.

HTC in 2019: HTC U12 Life

The U12 series was later bolstered by the arrival of the U12 Life — a capable mid-ranger with a severe identity crisis that seemed to echo its creator’s own lack of direction.

Aside from three entries in the affordable Desire 12 series, HTC’s only other notable contribution to the Android market in 2018 was the company’s first blockchain phone, the HTC Exodus 1, which went up for pre-order exclusively in bitcoin or ethereum tokens in late October.

With the value of major cryptocurrencies dropping throughout the year, it’s hard to imagine that HTC’s ultra-niche blockchain phone will have delivered the kind of sales numbers the company desperately needs.

New horizons

HTC in 2019: HTC Vive

Without that $1.1 billion windfall from Google, there’s every chance HTC’s smartphone division (and perhaps even the company as a whole) wouldn’t have made it to 2019.

HTC said it would invest in virtual reality and Internet of Things technologies at the time of the big-money sale. The latter has yet to really materialize, but HTC’s support of the Vive brand remains resolute.

Related: VR headset buyer’s guide – what are your options?

HTC went on the offensive singling out critics of forecasts showing evidence of the VR market shrinking in a bullish blog post in mid-2018. It also talked up demand for the wireless Vive Pro headset and high interest in China for the enterprise-focused, standalone Vive Focus, which launched worldwide in November.

One encouraging development for HTC’s wider ambitions in both the smartphone and VR sectors is the imminent dawn of 5G.

Editor’s Pick

The next-generation networks, which are due to start turning on in the U.S. throughout 2019, could potentially shake up the status quo and open up new opportunities for struggling Android OEMs.

Likewise, virtual reality experiences are set to benefit greatly from 5G’s lower latency, increased fidelity, and a potentially lower entry price for consumers and businesses as computational work shifts away from expensive PC hardware toward cloud-based solutions.

Of course, each new investment will eat further into HTC’s coffers and if revenue continues to fall, something will have to give. There’s no doubt that HTC absolutely can’t afford another year of dwindling sales if it wants to remain in the smartphone market long-term.

The beginning of the end, or the start of something new?

HTC in 2019

So, how can HTC save its smartphone business?

Android Authority’s C. Scott Brown has already shared a few ideas that could help stop the slump, but HTC has mostly stuck to the same “strategic investments” line we also heard back in 2012 and 2017.

The only real indication of HTC’s plans for 2019 and beyond came in an interview with HTC president Darren Chen in December. Chen said the company will “continue to extend its high-end U12 Plus lineup in 2019,” which sparked speculation that HTC wouldn’t be released a ‘new’ flagship in the first half of the year.

HTC later clarified this won’t be the case, although I’m left wondering whether it’ll have been better off being true come the end of 2019. A vague commitment to deliver a new flagship and a few mid-range devices doesn’t sound like the drastic rethink HTC could well need to claw back much needed market share.

HTC’s glory years fade further from memory with each passing year.

Perhaps the next elite HTC smartphone will be a Galaxy S10 killer. HTC’s Desire series — including the mega-affordable, entry-level Desire 12s launched in December — could finally become a true contender in the ultra-competitive emergent markets currently dominated by Chinese OEMs. Maybe the Exodus 1 will be the go-to phone for crypto fans all across the world. 2019 could even be the year where virtual reality and Vive enters the mainstream powered by 5G.

All of these things are possible, but the company’s scattershot strategies and limp statements of intent will do little to convince the growing number of doubters inside the smartphone industry, or the buyers whose memories of HTC’s glory years fade further with each passing year.

Ten years ago HTC changed the game with the G1. A decade later it finds itself in the last chance saloon. How the mighty have fallen.


Do you think HTC can right the ship in 2019? Let us know in the comments and be sure to look out for our other posts in this series for the rest of Android’s leading OEMs.

Source: Android Zone

The post HTC in 2019: Last chance saloon appeared first on TuneMaster.ml.

Oura Ring 2 review: The early adopter catches the worm

The Oura Ring 2 is an exciting ring-shaped health tracking device that measures something a little different from all the other calorie-focused trackers out there. In theory it can help you to feel better, perform better, and make smarter decisions regarding health and training.

This is the second iteration of a relatively-underground product that launched on Kickstarter a couple of years ago. The company is still small, but it has begun generating quite a buzz in the biohacking community.

In this Oura Ring 2 review, let’s see if this really is the game changing piece of kit that the health tracking industry sorely needs.

The concept

To my mind, fitness trackers have huge untapped potential to help us measure our daily activities, mental performance, and physiology in actionable ways. Unfortunately, most trackers amount to little more than fancy pedometers with not-so-accurate heart rate monitors.

For all I love the idea of tracking my fitness, I go through long stretches of not wearing these devices because, quite simply, the data they provide is not quite worth the inconvenience of wearing them.

fitbit charge 3 black band display

If you’re want to lose weight, a Fitbit or similar alternative can be a useful tool for tracking calories, but as I’ve explained on the site before, those measurements are imperfect and the entire strategy has its issues.

The Oura Ring 2 places its focus elsewhere: on providing deeper, more actionable data around sleep, stress, and recovery. This isn’t just about losing weight; it’s about performing your best and feeling better. That the video on the original Kickstarter campaign featured people playing the piano and conducting business is telling. This isn’t just for running and weightlifting. Oura calls it “living ready.”

Oura calls it ‘living ready.’

Can a ring really help you to overcome the chronic fatigue and stress endemic to the 21st century?

Hardware: Put a ring on it

The ring is packed with the usual sensors: an infrared heart rate monitor measuring slight changes in the color of your skin, a gyroscope, accelerometer, and three temperature sensors. Using that, it can autodetect when you fall asleep, identify how long you spent in each sleep stage, count how many times you wake up in the night, and measure your heart rate. Likewise, it counts steps during the day and lets you manually add activities. All this information is then visible through the app, divided into days.

Oura Ring 2 Heart Rate Monitor

I have no complaints with the design and comfort of the ring. The original Oura was rather large and ostentatious looking, and drew a lot of attention to itself. The new ring is much subtler and can easily pass for a regular piece of jewelry. It comes in matte black, glossy black, rose gold, or chrome, and looks like a perfectly round wedding band apart from a slight point indicating which way is supposed to face up.

The device has no blinking lights or other readouts (even the IR sensor remains dark), and a welcome feature for many is the option to put it into airplane mode. That’s handy for airplanes (this could be a useful tool for combating jet lag), but also for people who are funny about wearing technologies that emit any kind of signal.

It’s very easy to forget it’s there. If you’re used to wearing any other kind of ring, this is no different.

Most importantly, I found wearing the device during my Oura Ring 2 review very comfortable. It’s very easy to forget it’s there. In fact if you’re used to wearing any other kind of ring, then this is no different. Because it’s so subtle, you can easily wear this along with a watch and not look ridiculous — which is another benefit of a finger-bound device.

Oura Ring 2 Jewellery

The Oura Ring 2 is not that different from a wedding band

There are practical advantages to wearing a fitness tracker on your finger too. It’s much easier to obtain a heart rate from the thin flesh here, and your extremities are the first to show a change in body temperature. More on this later.

Related

When I reviewed the Motiv Ring a few months back, one complaint I had was that it got scratched very easily during training and wasn’t comfortable when weight lifting or boxing. While this is still true to a degree with the Oura Ring 2, the titanium with scratch-resistant DLC construction is certainly superior to the ceramic Motiv ring. I’ve only picked up a few light scratches on the underside so far. However, seeing as this is more of a health tracker than a fitness tracker, it actually matters a whole lot less.

Motiv Ring vs Oura Ring

The slightly less durable Motiv Ring

The ring can store six weeks of data without syncing, and you’ll be able to get six days of use between charges. It charges pretty quickly, so you can just place it on the stand during your morning shower when prompted (though it is water resistant if you wish to keep it on).

Overall, the design and attention to detail is excellent here.

Overall, the design and attention to detail is excellent here — especially for a small startup. The entirely white, cube-shaped box makes a strong first impression, and the charging stand looks good and is easy to use as well (which bucks the trend for fitness trackers that normally come with fiddly and unusual charging methods). The app does need some work in a few key areas, but we’ll discuss that more in a moment.

Oura Ring 2 review: The best sleep tracking in town

Don’t miss

The Oura Ring 2 is probably the best sleep tracker I have ever used. On the face of it, like the best Fitbit devices, it will give you a detailed breakdown of your time in light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep. This tells you not only how long you have slept, but how restorative that sleep was likely to have been. Sleep detection is also incredibly accurate, with the reports being spot on 99 percent of the time. I had one night that didn’t seem to correlate with what I’d experienced, but it wasn’t major difference and it was a one off — something any device on the market will occasionally experience.

The Oura Ring 2 is probably the best sleep tracker I have ever used.

The only big omission I noticed, is that it doesn’t seem able to detect day-time naps. I know that’s something Bailey will be disappointed to hear. Similarly, while my wife was in labor the other week (woop!) I actually went one entire night without sleeping and rather than registering that for what it was, the ring acted as though I had not been wearing it (even though it would have been able to detect waking movement the entire time). Rather than saying “oh no, you haven’t slept like… at all,” it instead treated the data as missing.

Oura Ring Sleep Tracking

This is what sleep looks like when you’re a new dad

So, there are a couple of drawbacks, but what’s impressive is all the additional data the Oura Ring 2 tracks during sleep.

Resting heart rate is an excellent indicator of recovery, and of overall physical fitness, for example. A post on the Oura blog explains how a U-shaped curve demonstrates your body has fully recovered from the day before, whereas as a downward slope might indicate you could have benefited from a little extra nap time — explaining why you perhaps wake up feeling groggy and what to do about it next time.

Resting heart rate is an excellent indicator of recovery, and of overall physical fitness.

You’ll also be able to see how long it took you to fall asleep (sleep latency), how optimal your sleep timing was with regards to external cues, how efficient your sleep was, how many times you woke up, and more. Tapping on any of these points will then provide more detail — often a graph or chart accompanied by some explanation by Oura and perhaps a link to an external blog post. All this is great and it is by far the most detailed sleep tracking I’ve ever encountered.

Oura Ring 2 side view

A Biohacker’s dream: Readiness and heart rate variability

But wait, there’s more.

Digging deeper, there’s a whole lot more data you don’t typically see in these kinds of apps. To name a few: body temperature, a recovery index, and heart rate variability.

Oura ring body temperature

Body temperature of course tells you just how hot or cold you were during the night. This very useful inclusion could bring to light some interesting patterns and trends. For instance: does being cooler at night help you sleep better?

It can also indicate that something might be wrong, like if you have the start of a fever. Not many other trackers provide users with this data and the Oura has an edge here, seeing as it’s easier to measure temperature changes from the fingers and toes.

Oura Ring 2 on Hand

Resting heart rate data is meanwhile taken and used to generate a “recovery index.” This shows you how long it takes for your resting heart rate to stabilize once you hit the sack. Tapping that item in the app tells us this should happen in the first half hour after you hit the hay. There’s so much to dig into here and explore, you can spend a long time each morning reading your stats.

Heart rate variability is an even more interesting stat a lot of people won’t be familiar with. This basically tells you about your sympathetic tone, and whether you are sympathetic or parasympathetic dominant (fight or flight, or rest and digest).

There’s a lot of fascinating heart rate variability research being conducted at the moment, and it could also be linked to optimal mental states for performance and other cool stuff.

While many of us assume our heart rate takes on a steady rhythm, the truth is it changes as you breathe in and out. When you breathe in, your heart rate should increase slightly, and when you breathe out, it should decrease. If you are highly stressed, your heart rate will be constantly elevated and your breathing will have less of an impact on it. This essentially suggests you are either chronically stressed or overtraining and need more time to recover.

There’s a lot of fascinating heart rate variability research being conducted at the moment. It could be linked to optimal mental states for performance and other cool stuff. Other fitness trackers simply aren’t accurate enough to provide this data, but the 250Hz infrared lights here are more than capable (the pulse strength in the finger is also greater than on the wrist — 50-100 times greater in fact!).

Oura then takes all of this data and uses it to provide a “readiness score.” This intended to advise your training schedule. If your readiness is low, then you should avoid intensive training that day, maybe reschedule a hectic meeting, and perhaps reflect a little on what you could change about your current lifestyle. In short, it aggregates all that complex data and turns it into a single number you can act on.

Oura Ring 2 Readiness Score

I will never be ‘ready’ again

A couple of miss-steps

I’m singing the Oura Ring 2’s praises a lot here because it is the device I’ve been waiting for a long time. This fitness tracker doesn’t just measure the same old tired data, and it provides some actually useful and actionable advice. It’s a glimpse at how technology can help us perform better.

That’s not to say it’s perfect.

Oura Ring 2 Design

One area of concern for me was with the step counting. I noticed the app often reported I had completed thousands more steps than my other tracking methods. I spoke to a rep from Oura about this and they explained that the “steps” counted are actually a measure of overall movement and energy expenditure, translated to steps (the metabolic equivalent to steps). This is actually a more useful method on the whole than strictly tracking steps, though it is a little confusing given the app reports the score simply as “steps.”

It’s a shame there isn’t also a simple step count shown. It would be useful if this was a pedometer, too. I’m also not 100 percent convinced — how can the motion sensors pick up enough movement from a single finger to recognize such a broad scope of movement?

The app was often reporting that I had completed thousands more steps than my other tracking methods

Activity tracking could also use a little smoothing out. It detects activities like walks and runs automatically, but it won’t recognize every type of training. That included my own workouts, which was probably fair enough. I was mainly doing a lot of pull ups and push ups, which don’t provide much movement in the hands.

It is reasonable to expect it might at least notice the elevated heart rate and register that as a period of heightened activity. No such luck.

Training wearing the Oura Ring 2

This triceps workout will need to be added manually to the app

Another shortcoming is with compatibility. Apple users can connect the app to Apple’s Health Kit without an issue, but Android users have no such option. There’s no support for Google Fit for instance, so you can’t register workouts with a second tracker and have the data sync up automatically. There’s no way to connect to MyFitnessPal either, which means you can’t really use this as a tool for losing weight, as you might a Fitbit.

This is coming to the product very soon (sometime in 2019) so it’s not totally fair to mark it down on that basis. However, as it stands, don’t expect the kind of deep integration with third party offerings that you’ve maybe come to expect.

There’s no way to retroactively add a workout for a previous day

For now, any workouts you do will need to be added manually. Unfortunately, if you should forget to do this one day, you’ll miss the opportunity. There’s no way to retroactively add a workout for a previous day. That’s down to the complexity of the algorithms used and understandable, but it’s still a shame that my data will be incomplete (and corresponding advice wrong) if I forget to log my training — something I often do. I wouldn’t mind seeing my readiness score change when I update my data — in fact it would be encouraging.

The app’s UI also needs work. It’s quite fiddly to find what you’re looking for and syncing with Bluetooth occasionally takes a little longer than it should. Still, the app is being actively updated all the time and I’ve already seen improvements. In fact, they just recently added an on-boarding process to the iOS version for orienting new users. Presumably the Android version will get the same treatment soon.

Oura Ring App

Some of those might sound like big problems, but Oura assures us more updates are coming. This is still a product in its infancy (despite this being the second hardware iteration) and apparently a lot of cool stuff is planned.

In future, I’d really like to see some graphs and charts showing relationships between the data. For instance, I’d love to see how my body temperature correlates with how soundly I slept. As it is, it’s great to be able to see trends over time and a baseline though.

Oura Ring Review

Perhaps the best way to think of this is as a health tracker first and a fitness tracker second. It’s actually ideal for wearing in conjunction with a traditional wrist-worn tracker, and once integration with other apps is introduced, it will become even more potent in that regard. Although the data it offers is slightly imperfect due to the shortcomings I’ve identified, it’s still more than enough to be actionable and it’s the only device doing anything like this right now. I’m really excited to see where this goes in future.

What to do with all this data?

Ultimately, the amount and quality of the data here is better than any device I’ve used before. It truly makes it possible to make positive lifestyle changes and see them reflected in my sleep and the way I feel. This is the promise of every sleep tracker, but very few provide enough detail or explanation to be practical in that regard. None of them offer insights like body temperature and heart rate variance.

For instance, I was feeling a little rough a few weeks ago and when I looked at the app, I could see my “recovery index” was low. Tapping the icon explained this could be a result of a late-night workout — which I did that night — and my resting heart rate was exactly what you might expect it to be as a result of this.

I read a user review stating they used the Oura Ring to predict the onset of a cold before it hit. Personally, I’ve been using it to track how well I’m coping with the extreme sleep deprivation that comes from fatherhood. Suffice it to say, not well! However, at least I now know how bad the damage is and whether or not to consider training as a result.

One user used the Oura ring in order to predict the onset of a cold before it hit

In some ways the Oura Ring 2 still finding its footing, but it is pretty awesome already and there’s a lot more awesome coming. For the price (around $350), it might be worth hanging on a little while longer if you’re a casual user (perhaps until the Google Fit integration next year). If you love this stuff as much as I do and consider yourself an enthusiast, you’ll have no regrets becoming an early adopter. Whoever you are, the ring can certainly help you understand more about yourself and why you feel rough some days and great on others.

This is an excellent device for any biohacker and has the potential to become essential for a much larger audience soon.

Source: Android Zone

The post Oura Ring 2 review: The early adopter catches the worm appeared first on TuneMaster.ml.

How to Install WordPress on your Windows Computer Using WAMP

Do you want to install WordPress on your Windows computer locally? Working with WordPress on your computer allows you to test new WordPress features, learn how to develop with WordPress, and make websites before migrating them to the live server. In this article, we will show you how to properly install WordPress on Windows using WAMP.

Install WordPress on WAMP

Why You Should Install WordPress on Windows?

Installing WordPress locally on your computer gives you a testing environment that doesn’t affect your live website or blog. A WordPress install on your computer is also referred to as local server or localhost.

Normally WordPress developers use local WordPress install to develop their plugins and themes. Beginner users can also install WordPress on their computers to learn WordPress, test new WordPress theme and plugins, and experiment without affecting a live website.

Note: If you install WordPress locally on Windows, then the only person who can see that site is you. If you want to make a website that is available to the public, then you need to have a domain name and web hosting. We recommend that you follow this guide on how to start a WordPress blog.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to properly install WordPress on Windows using WAMP.

What is WAMP?

WAMP, is a compilation of Apache web server, PHP and MySQL bundled for Windows computers.

All of them are separate open source software. However, installing them separately is not quite easy even for experienced users. Software like WAMP allow you to easily install them and have a working local environment within minutes.

Step 1. Installing WAMP on Windows Computer

First, you need to download the WAMP software and install it on your computer. Simply go to the WampServer website and click on the ‘Start Using WampServer’ button.

Start using wampserver

It will take you to the downloads section. You’ll see two versions here: WampServer 32 bits and WampServer 64 bits. You need to select the WampServer version that matches the operating system type of your Windows computer.

Download wampserver

To find out whether you are using 32 or 64-bit operating system, go to Control Panel » System and Security » System in your computer. There you will be able to see your operating system type.

Finding operating system type in Windows 10

Once downloaded, you can click on the wampserver execution file to run the installation. Make sure that you carefully follow the instructions on the installation screen.

Install WAMP

During the installation process, you need to define the location for the web browser. By default, it will be Internet Explorer. You can change that to Google Chrome or any other web browser by locating it in the Program Files of your computer.

Once installed, you can launch the WampServer to continue.

Step 2. Setting Up a Database for Local WordPress Setup

Next thing you need to do is to create a blank MySQL database. On launching WAMP, you’ll see a green WampServer icon at the bottom right corner of your screen along with other icons. Simply click on it and then click on phpMyAdmin (a web based application to manage MySQL databases).

Note: If the WampServer icon is red or yellow, then it means the services (Apache, MySQL, PHP) are not running. You need to start the services by clicking on the icon before setting up the database.

phpMyAdmin

It will take you to the phpMyAdmin login screen on your web browser. Simply enter the username: root and leave the password field blank. These are the default credentials to login into your localhost phpMyAdmin.

Login phpMyAdmin

Click on the ‘Go’ button to continue.

Once logged in, you need to click on Databases in phpmMyAdmin to create a new database for WordPress. It will ask you to choose a name for your new database (we named ours test_db). After that click on the ‘Create’ button.

Create a database

Your database is ready which means you can now install WordPress on localhost.

Step 3. Installing WordPress on Windows Using WAMP

The next thing you need to do is download the latest version of WordPress from the WordPress.org website. It will download as a zip file.

Download WordPress

You need to extract the zip file and copy the ‘wordpress’ folder.

Extract WordPress

Now you need to navigate to the folder where you installed WAMP.

In this tutorial, we installed WAMP in C:wamp64, so we’ll refer to that folder going forward. But keep in mind, it may be different for you depending on where you installed the program.

Paste the ‘wordpress’ folder into the C:wamp64www folder.

Paste WordPress folder to www

You can rename the ‘wordpress’ folder to anything you want, such as mysite, testsite, etc. This will be the URL of your local WordPress site, so be sure to choose something you’ll remember easily.

For the sake of this tutorial, we renamed the folder from wordpress to mysite.

Next, you can open the web browser and go to http://localhost/mysite/

First, it’ll ask you to select a language and then show you the database setup information. Once you have read it carefully, go ahead and click on the ‘Let’s go’ button to continue.

Database information

After that, you need to enter your database details like database name, username, password, host, and table prefix.

The database name will be the one that you entered in the previous step. In our case, we called it ‘test_db’. The username will be ‘root’, and you can leave the password field blank. You can also leave the database host and table prefix as-is.

Enter database details

Next, click on the ‘Submit’ button and WordPress will create a configuration file for you in the backend.

On the next screen, you will see a success message stating that WordPress is connected to your database, and you can proceed with the installation.

Go ahead and click on the ‘Run the installation’ button to continue.

Run the installation

It will take you to the welcome screen for WordPress. You need to add a title for your new WordPress website, choose an admin username, enter a strong password, and provide an admin email address.

Once you’re ready, click on the ‘Install WordPress’ button.

Welcome screen for WordPress

After the installation process is complete, you’ll see a success message. In the background, WordPress has created new tables in your database and it’s ready to use.

You can then proceed to your WordPress dashboard by clicking on the ‘Log In’ button.

Log in button

Congratulations, you have successfully installed WordPress on a Windows computer using WAMP.

Step 4. Enabling Pretty Permalinks in WAMP

The new version of WordPress doesn’t break your local site on changing the permalinks setting.

However if you still see the ‘page not found’ error on your pages after changing the permalinks from Settings » Permalinks in WordPress, then simply follow our guide on how to enable custom permalinks in WAMP.

Step 5. Troubleshooting WAMP Issues

WAMP is quite easy to use even for beginners. However, if you are unable to get it running, then the following troubleshooting tips would help.

Fixing the WAMP Skype Conflict

If you have Skype installed and running, then WampServer may not be able to work properly due to a conflict with Skype. The conflict is caused by both Apache and Skype using the same port 80. There is a simple fix for this problem.

Open Skype and go to Tools » Options. This will bring up a dialog box, from here you need to click on Advanced and then Connections.

Fixing the WAMP Skype conflict

Uncheck the box that says Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections. Save options and restart Skype.

Install Visual C++ Redistributable

WAMP needs Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 to run. If you don’t have it installed on your computer, then you can download and install it from the Microsoft website.

Bonus: Migrating from WAMP to Live

We’ve also written a separate guide on how to move WordPress from WAMP local server to a live site. Hopefully, you’ll find it helpful when you are ready to deploy your local site to production.

Having a local server environment is great for learning and testing purposes. But remember, if you want to start a WordPress blog for other people to see, then you do not need to install WordPress on your computer. You need to install WordPress on a WordPress hosting provider.

We hope this article helped you learn how to install WordPress on Windows using WAMP. You may also want to see our guide on 18 most important things you need to do after installing WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Install WordPress on your Windows Computer Using WAMP appeared first on WPBeginner.

Source: Wordpres

The post How to Install WordPress on your Windows Computer Using WAMP appeared first on TuneMaster.ml.

How to Start Your Own Podcast (Step by Step)

Are you looking to start a podcast? Want to know what does a perfect podcasting setup look like? In this guide, we will show you how to start your own podcast with WordPress – step by step. You will learn about how podcasts work, the best podcast equipment, the podcast WordPress plugin that you absolutely need, and more.

Step by step guide to start your own podcast

No matter your age or technical skill set, you can easily start your own podcast by following the step by step process outlined in this article.

Here is an outline of everything that we will cover:

  • What is podcasting & how podcasts work?
  • Finding a niche and topic for your podcast
  • Things you need to setup your podcast
  • Choosing the best web hosting and domain name
  • Setting up a media hosting service
  • Choosing the proper podcasting equipment
  • Planning your first few podcast episodes
  • Recording your first podcast
  • Publishing your podcast with WordPress
  • Uploading your media files to Blubrry
  • Setting up Smart Podcast Player Plugin
  • Adding your first podcast in WordPress
  • Previewing your podcast with iTunes
  • Submitting your podcast to iTunes
  • Podcasting resources to help you grow
  • Making money from your podcast

Ready? Let’s get started.

What is Podcasting & How Podcasts Work?

A podcast is an episodic series of audio files which users can subscribe to download and listen.

In order for your podcast to work, you need to have an audio file and a RSS Feed that users can subscribe to stay updated and download new episodes when they come out.

Because WordPress comes with a built-in RSS feed system for blogs, many podcasters choose to use WordPress as their podcast website platform.

You can connect your podcast website with podcasting apps like iTunes to make it easier for millions of users to listen and subscribe. We will cover this later in the article.

Now that you know what is a podcast and how it works, let’s take a look at how to find ideas to make a successful podcast.

Finding a Niche and Topics for Your Podcast

Podcasts are quite popular and there are dozens of podcasts on many different topics out there. In order to compete, you need to find your niche and select the topics you will be covering in your podcast.

You also need to know your audience and think about what they would find more interesting. This simple exercise will give you a clear idea about your podcast and what you want to say. Don’t forget to write it down.

You can now narrow it down to very specific topics. For example, if your podcast is about music then you can narrow it down to a particular genre, era, region, or artists.

Now, there might be some very popular podcasts covering similar topics. You may be wondering how could you compete with them?

You can compete with the big guys, by just being you. Your podcast will have your unique insights, perspective, style, and voice to it. It will be a different experience for your audience and many of them would love to listen.

Thinking about your niche and narrowing down your topics will later help you plan your podcast episodes and win subscribers by sticking to a well-planned content strategy.

Now, that you have made up your mind about what you want to say, let’s take a look at the things you will need to make all this happen.

Things You Need to Setup Your Podcast

For a professional podcasting setup, there are a few things that you will need to get started.

The first thing is a website or blog where people can learn more about you and your podcast.

The second thing is the equipment to record your podcast.

Lastly, you need to have the right tools to publish your podcast on the internet, so you can get maximum subscribers and reach.

We will walk you through the whole process step-by-step.

Step 1. Website Setup: WordPress Hosting and Domain Name

The most important step in building a website is to choose the right platform. Thankfully you’re here, so you won’t be making any rookie mistakes.

We recommend using WordPress.org also known as self-hosted WordPress for setting up your podcasting website.

WordPress is free to use, you can install plugins, customize your site design, and most importantly make money from your site without any restrictions (see the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

We have already explained why WordPress is free? in our previous article.

There’s no catch. It’s free because you have to do the setup and host it yourself.

In other words, you need a domain name and web hosting.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. This is what people type to get to your website. For example, google.com or wpbeginner.com.

Web hosting is your website’s house on the internet. This is where all your files and images are stored. Every website needs web hosting.

The typical cost of web hosting is $7.99 per month and a domain name usually cost around $14.99 per year.

This is a lot for someone just starting out. Thankfully, Bluehost, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting.

In real numbers, this means you can start your podcasting website for $2.75 per month.

→ Click here to Claim this Exclusive Bluehost offer ←

We recommend using Bluehost because they are one of the official WordPress recommended hosting providers, and one of the largest web hosting service in the world.

After signing up with Bluehost, please refer to our step by step guide on how to start a WordPress blog. You will be up and running in no time.

For more hosting recommendations, see our guide on how to choose the best WordPress hosting.

If you choose a different hosting company than Bluehost, then you can follow the instructions in our complete step by step WordPress installation tutorial to get started.

Step 2. Setting up a Media Hosting Service

The next thing you will need is a good media hosting service.

Your podcasts are large audio files. Serving them from your web host will consume a lot of server resources, which will make your website slow and often unresponsive.

For best user experience, we recommend that you use a podcast specific media hosting platform like Blubrry.

Most smart podcasters use a separate podcast hosting service to serve their podcast files. It is the smartest and most efficient way to run a podcast.

Here are few reasons why we recommend Blubrry:

  • Blubrry is optimized for podcasting using WordPress. They offer a powerful plugin called Blubrry PowerPress which makes it easy to manage your podcast from WordPress site.
  • It comes with the a large user community consisting many successful podcasters behind it. If you need help, then join the forums to learn from others who are podcasting for a long time.
  • Blubrry comes with great tools like ID3 tagging, iTunes optimization, automatic media artwork management, etc.
  • They have a top-tier content delivery network which makes your content delivery faster and more reliable.

Step 3. Choosing Proper Podcasting Equipment

As your podcast grows, you will learn about new tools that you can use to produce higher quality podcasts. However as a beginner, the most important tool that you need is a good microphone.

Please do not use your computer’s built-in microphone to record your podcast. Your users will instantly notice the terrible sound quality.

There are 3 popular mic choices among podcasters.

Buying a professional microphone for podcasting

Samson C01U (USB) – Entry level Microphone

Rode Podcaster (USB) – Best USB mic that we found. We use it for our WPBeginner videos as well as our List25 Youtube videos.

Heil PR-40 (XLR connection, not USB) – This is what the Pro’s use. You will need to buy an audio mixer as well.

Other equipment that you probably want to purchase: mic arm, shock mount, and a pop filter. We purchased the Rode Podcaster kit that came with a Mic Arm and shock mount.

You would also need a decent headphone. We’re using Sony MDR7506.

Once you have the right podcasting equipment, you will be ready for the next step: planning and recording the podcast episode.

Step 4. Planning Your First Few Podcast Episodes

You need to plan your podcast episodes before you sit down to record them. There are several important decicions that you need to make.

1. Episode content

What will be the topics for your first few episodes? You can plan your content in an orderly fashion, work on the content by creating an outline and then digging into the details.

2. Length of Episodes

Podcasts can be between 20 minutes to over an hour long. The duration of your episodes depends on your content and audience. There are no strict rules about what the ideal length should be for a good podcast episode.

If you have good content, then don’t cut it down just so it can fit the specific length. Similarly, don’t drag content too much just so you can fill the desired episode length.

3. Supporting Media

You will also want to work on an intro music, background music, or other sounds you may want to add to your podcast for a dramatic effect.

Following are a few places where you can find license-free music and soundtracks to use in your podcast episodes or as your theme music. Carefully review the licensing terms before using any track in your podcast.

4. Storyboarding and Scripting

You can certainly just sit down and record by just looking at a simple outline of your ideas. However, this will give your users the impression that you didn’t do your homework.

You need to actually sit down and write down the script. This helps you stay focused and makes you able to sound more professional and prepared.

You can still go on and speak off the script during the recording, but having an actual script keeps you on track and results in better quality content.

After spending some time on planning your episodes and giving more thought to your content, it is time to record your first podcast.

Step 5. Recording Your First Podcast

To record your podcast, you will need an audio recording software. This software will help you record and edit your audio files.

The best podcast recording software which is used by most podcasters is Audacity. It is a free, cross-platform, and open source software capable of recording studio-quality professional podcasts.

After installing Audacity, you need to open it up and create a new project from the File menu.

To record your voice, simply click on the record button.

Now feel free to record your podcast. Don’t worry about awkward pauses, breaks, coughing, or any glitches you might make while narrating.

You can edit the recording as many times as you want.

Audacity

You can also import music files from File » Import and set them as background music.

Audacity is a very powerful tool, and it is not possible for us to even cover its basic features in this article. However, TeamAudacity has an extensive Wiki with detailed tutorials specifically written for new podcasters.

We will recommend you to go through these tutorials. It will take you some time to become familiar with the software, but it’s totally worth your time and effort.

Once you have recorded your podcast, you need to export it.

Most podcasters export their audio files in the MP3 format because it creates smaller file sizes with good quality.

You also need to be smart about naming your podcast files. Remember podcasts are episodic series, so it would be best to use a naming practice that uses episode or serial number in the file name.

Some suggestions would be WPB001.mp3 or WPBep001.mp3.

Save the final version of your podcast file to a separate folder on your computer.

Step 6. Publishing Your Podcast with WordPress

After you have created a few episodes, and you are satisfied with their quality, it’s time to learn how to publish your podcast with WordPress.

You will need to login to the admin area of your WordPress site.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Blubrry PowerPress Podcasting plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you will see a PowerPress menu item in WordPress admin menu. Clicking on it will take you to plugin’s settings page.

Setup Blubrry in Powerpress plugin

If you are using Blubrry to host your podcasting files, then you need to click on the button to configure Blubrry statistics and hosting services.

Clicking on the button will bring up a popup where you need to enter your Blubrry hosting account email and password.

Connect Blubrry hosting

Next, you will need to fill out rest of the information on the settings page. Provide a title for your podcast and fill out iTunes fields.

These iTunes fields for description, category, subtitle, artwork, etc will be used in your podcast’s RSS feed, and iTunes will use them to place your podcast in their directory (more on this later).

Podcast settings

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Your WordPress site is now ready to publish your podcast.

Step 7. Upload Media Files to Blubrry

Before you publish a podcast episode with WordPress, you first need to upload the podcast file to your media hosting service, Blubrry.

You need to login to your Blubrry hosting account and then click on Podcaster dashboard.

Next, you need to click on ‘Upload New Media Files’ link under the podcast hosting section.

Upload your podcasting files

This will bring you to another page where you need to click on the Upload New Media button and start uploading your podcast files.

Uploading your podcast files to Blubrry

After you have uploaded your podcast media files, you will be able to use them on your WordPress site.

Step 8. Setting Up Smart Podcast Player

Most podcasters use WordPress plugins to display a podcast player on their website. This player allows users to listen to a podcast directly from your website.

The problem with most WordPress podcast player plugins is the terrible user experience for your subscribers and listeners.

Patt Flynn, one of the well-known podcaster, realized the problem and decided to solve it by creating a solution for his website. That’s how Smart Podcast Player came to life.

Smart Podcast Player adds a beautifully built podcast player which allows users to play, share, and download podcast episodes from the player itself.

Smart Podcast Player preview

It is mobile-ready out of the box which means your podcast player looks and works great on all devices.

It is a paid WordPress plugin and pricing starts from $8 per month. This price entitles you to premium support and access to tutorials and videos.

First, you will need to install and activate the Smart Podcast Player plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Smart Podcast Player page and enter your license key.

Smart Podcast Player settings

You can get this license key from your account on Smart Podcast Player website.

Next, you need to click on the ‘Player Defaults’ tab to setup plugin settings.

Player defaults for Smart Podcast Player

You will need to provide your podcast feed URL. Since you are using PowerPress, your podcast feed URL will be like this:

http://example.com/feed/podcast/

Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.

Next, you need to provide your iTunes subscription link. Since you haven’t submitted your podcast to iTunes yet, you will need to come back here and fill this when your podcast is available on iTunes.

After that, you need to enter your show name and artist name.

Smart Podcast Player comes with beautiful design options and allows you to match your podcast player with your WordPress theme. Under player design settings, you can choose theme and color for your podcast player.

Choose podcast player design and colors

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Now that Smart Podcast Player is ready, you need to disable the podcast player that comes with PowerPress.

Since you are using Smart Podcast Player, you don’t need PowerPress to add a media player into your posts.

You can do this by visiting PowerPress » Settings page and scroll down to the ‘Blog posts and pages’ section. Click on ‘Disable’ under ‘Display Media & Links’ option.

Disable PowerPress player

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Step 9. Adding Your First Podcast in WordPress

Everything is now in order, and you are ready to add your first podcast in WordPress.

To publish your first podcast, you need to go to Posts » Add New page.

It is highly recommended that you create a separate category for your podcast episodes. This will allow you to keep your podcast episodes separate from rest of your content. You will also be able to easily publicize your podcast feed later on.

After that, you need scroll down to the bottom of the page, and there you will see ‘Podcast Episode’ box.

Adding a new podcast episode

Blubrry hosting users need to click on the folder icon and select the file they uploaded to Blubrry media.

Other users need to paste their media file URL in here. Click the verify button to make sure that you have pasted the correct URL.

Now you need to scroll back up to the post editor section. Give your blog post a suitable title and add a description of this podcast episode in the visual editor.

You will notice two buttons in the visual editor labeled SPP and STP. These buttons are added by Smart Podcast Player plugin.

Insert smart podcast player in your post

The SPP button allows you to add the full Smart Podcast Player which contains all your podcast episodes. Users can play them one by one.

However, since you are creating a blog post for a specific podcast episode, you need to click on the STP or Smart Track Player button.

Shortcode Generator

Select ‘Play a specific episode of your podcast’ and then provide the URL of the Media file you want to be played.

You can get the URL of the media file from ‘Podcast Episode’ meta box where you just added the episode.

Media file URL

After adding the media file URL, click on the build shortcode button.

You will see a shortcode appear in the post editor area.

That’s all, you can now publish and preview your blog post and you will see your podcast episode live with a beautiful player.

Podcast player in WordPress

Congratulations, your WordPress podcasting site is ready to go live.

Step 10. Previewing Your Podcast with iTunes

Now that you have set up your podcast website with WordPress, it is time to submit it to iTunes and getting more subscribers.

Before submitting it to iTunes, you might want to check how your podcast will look in iTunes. To do this, launch iTunes and go to File » Subscribe to Podcast and enter your feed URL. Your feed url will look like:

http://www.example.com/feed/podcast

Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.

Once you enter the URL in iTunes, it will fetch the feed and display it. As you can see in the screenshot below, it fetched the artwork, description, subtitle, etc.

Preview your podcast in iTunes

If everything looks good, this means you are ready to submit your podcast to iTunes.

Step 11. Submitting your Podcast to iTunes

To submit your podcast to iTunes, you need to download and install the latest version of iTunes on your computer. Next, Launch the iTunes and click on the iTunes Store button on the top right corner of the screen.

iTunes will now access iTunes Store. Click on the Podcasts menu, and then scroll a little to find the Podcasts Quick Links section. There you will see a link to Submit a podcast.

Submit your podcast to iTunes

This will open the Podcast submit process. You will need an Apple ID to submit your podcast to iTunes directory. If you are not already signed in, iTunes will prompt you to login.

The first thing you will need is your podcast feed URL. Your podcast feed URL will be like this:

http://example.com/feed/podcast

Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.

Since you are using PowerPress, your feed will already include tags required by iTunes Store for podcasts.

Upon submission, your podcast feed will be submitted to iTunes review queue. After approval by iTunes review staff, it will be added to iTunes directory, and you will be notified via email.

Podcasting Resources to Help You Grow

Congratulations on starting your podcast with WordPress. If you want to make your Podcast successful, then we recommend you join:

Podcaster’s Paradise by John Lee Dumas

John is a good friend of ours, and he is an inspiration for most new podcasters. In just a few years, he has taken his podcast from $0 to 7 figure annual income. If you’re thinking of starting a podcast, then you want to learn from him.

Your podcast’s website is built with WordPress. Here are some actionable tips to drive traffic to your new WordPress site.

Making Money from Your Podcast

It will take a lot of your time and solid commitment to make your podcast successful. To make it all sustainable in the long run you will need to find ways to monetize your podcast.

We have a detailed guide on how to make money online using your WordPress blog. All the items listed there can also be used on your podcasting website.

Following are some of the top ways to make money from a podcast.

  • Direct sponsorships. If you think a business would benefit from sponsoring your podcast, feel free to reach out to them to be a sponsor. You’d be surprised how often this would work out for you.
  • Use affiliate marketing to recommend third-party products and services to your audience.
  • Sell your own products and services by adding an online store to your website.
  • Ask subscribers to support your podcast with donations. You can simply add a payment form on your website where subscribers can make a small donation.
  • Make older episodes available only for members. See our guide on how to make a membership website with WordPress.

We hope this article helped you start a podcast with WordPress. You may also want to see our list of 24 must have WordPress plugins for business websites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Start Your Own Podcast (Step by Step) appeared first on WPBeginner.

Source: Wordpres

The post How to Start Your Own Podcast (Step by Step) appeared first on TuneMaster.ml.