11 things you need to know in tech for Monday, Feb. 4

Here’s your daily tech digest, by way of the DGiT Daily newsletter, for Monday, Feb. 4, 2019.

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Digital in 2019: Humanity is online more than ever, and for longer

Each year, a large data-backed report is released on humankind’s usage of the internet, led by Hootsuite and We Are Social.

The insights are always “more”: more people online, more users, more time spent online, more on social media.

That’s still the case from January 2018 to January 2019, although down to single-digit growth in many areas:

Smartphone sales:

• The number of unique people using a smartphone rose just two percent across 2018.
• While that absolute number is still 100 million more people with phones, multiple data points are telling us that just about everyone who needs a smartphone has one.
• Upgrade-cycles are now longer. A recent Android Authority poll of more than 55,000 votes suggests that holding onto a device for more than two years is almost the most common option.
• 20 percent just say they buy a new one when it breaks, not sticking with any calendar.
• In short, smartphones are conclusively being sold to smartphone owners, not first-timers, which means manufacturers have to keep hunting for new reasons to prompt a purchase: foldables, which we’ll see this month, will be hoped to represent a massive temptation for those who like new devices.

We’re hooked:

• Stats on how much time we spend online are extensive and show just how much we like to be connected.
• Interestingly, Southeast Asia and South America are hooked on far more than average.

• The Philippines topped the global list with an average 10 hours and 2 minutes of screen time every day, followed by Brazil, Thailand, Colombia, and Indonesia.
• The U.S. sits at 6 hours 38 minutes, just below the world average.
• The correlation between time online and most amount of time on social media is about the same too — Filipinos spend four hours on social media, mostly Facebook, each day.
• The report notes that humanity will spend a collective total of more than 1.2 billion years online in 2019.
• 11 new users are joining the internet for the first time, every second of the day, or one million people per day.
• Still only 57 percent of the world is connected, while 52 percent of the world’s population are mobile internet users.

Stats for days from 221 slides of intrigue (Slideshare), via HootSuite, and a summary from We Are Social.

Here’s everything else happening:

1. All the tech Super Bowl ads (TechCrunch), from Google to Amazon Alexa to Microsoft and more. Microsoft’s was pretty darn touching.

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2. And these were all the movie trailers: Avengers, Captain Marvel, Toy Story 4 (CNET).

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3. “We ranked 50 failed Google products from best to worst” (Android Authority).

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4. iPhone XS Max camera review: An easy-to-use camera that won’t fail (or amaze) (Android Authority). Never the best, but always simple to use for the average consumer.

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5. The Pixel 3’s Night Sight is pretty great with moving subjects too (The Verge).

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6. Microsoft wants to bring Xbox Live cross-platform gaming to Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, and more (Android Authority). Note this isn’t about playing Halo on Android, but adding Xbox live functions like bringing your profile and chatting with friends on all platforms. Except PlayStation, because, well, Sony.

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7. Fortnite held a live concert: A gig by DJ and producer Marshmello, with an astounding 10 million concurrent players joining in (The Verge). While virtual concerts aren’t new, Fortnite is a giant platform for feeling like you’re part of something, rather than just listening in.

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8. Snopes says nope to Facebook’s money and leaves fact-checking program (The Verge).

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9. Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality (TechCrunch).

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10. The infrastructural humiliation of America (TechCrunch). “The USA is nine times wealthier than Thailand, per capita, but I’d far rather ride Bangkok’s SkyTrain than deal with NYC’s subway nowadays.”

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11. World record-breaking Instagram egg cracks open to reveal message about mental health (ABC News).

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Source: Android Zone

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We asked, you told us: Slider phones aren’t for you

In the quest to get rid of bezels, smartphone companies have made countless attempts to redesign smartphones. While most companies are now moving towards hole-punch displays, some are experimenting with sliding phones.

This design concept separates the screen portion of the phone from the rest of the handset. By doing this, the screen can include minimal amounts of bezel as the front-facing camera and other sensors are located behind the display on the main part of the device.

The primary issue with this design is that there are moving pieces. Whether the sliding mechanism is done automatically with a motor or the user has to slide the two pieces apart physically, something could break or get damaged. If that happens, you lose access to the camera and any other sensor hidden behind the display.

So with phones like the OnePlus 7 rumored to be using a slider mechanism, we decided if you would buy a slider phone. Here are your answers.

Would you buy a slider phone?

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Results

Surprisingly, the results are almost split down the middle. While a majority of the 1,800+ voters who voiced their opinion on the website stated that they would buy a slider phone, the polls from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube all skewed to “no.”

As outlined above, it appears that most people are against the slider form factor because there’s a chance that something might break. But on the other side, a lot of people said they were all for the change in style since it would stop companies from introducing phones with notches and hole-punch cameras.

Noteworthy comments

Here are some of the best comments from last week’s poll explaining why they voted the way that they did:

• I’d prefer a simple bezel, instead of making the phone more complex, fragile and expensive.
• I prefer the slider option over a notch or a punch hole in the display, and it could work as way to protect the front camera.
• i would rather to not have front camera and no slider
• Yeah why not, i rarely use the front camera anyway
• Pros : • you can play with your slider • possible jack revival ( or sacrificed again for extra something ) • no notch, so full screen ( perhaps with small chin )
  Cons : • No IP Rating • possible broken slider cuz’ u playin it a lot

That’s it for this week, everyone. As always, thanks for voting, thanks for the comments, and don’t forget to let us know what you thought of the results below.

Source: Android Zone

The post We asked, you told us: Slider phones aren’t for you appeared first on TuneMaster.ml.

Verizon and Amazon reportedly working on their own mobile game streaming services

The Verge

Two more major tech players, Verizon and Amazon, may be entering into the already crowded list of companies that plan to launch mobile game streaming services. According to The Verge, Verizon Wireless is already testing its own game streaming service with a small number of customers. The people who are selected reportedly get an NVIDIA Shield Android TV set-top box for the test, but The Verge says Verizon plans to eventually expand this streaming service to Android smartphones.

The story also includes screenshots from the service, which has the rather unimaginative name: Verizon Gaming. The images show a list of impressive PC and console games, but the screenshots are most likely placeholders. Based on emails sent to testers, it sounds like Verizon is more concerned with basic game streaming performance at first with this test. The service is currently is using Wi-Fi, but it’s more than likely that Verizon will roll out this service on its wireless network when it gets its 5G hardware fully up and running. The Verge reports that this small test version with the Shield TV box will conclude by the end of January.

Related

Google’s Project Stream beta to end Jan. 15, AMD Radeon GPUs used for gaming service

AMD

Google launched a public best test of Project Stream, its PC game streaming service, back in October 2018. It allowed people to stream and play the full version of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey …

Meanwhile, The Information reports Amazon is also working on its own game streaming service. There’s not much information on this service in the report, other than Amazon has reached out to game publishers to see if they would be interested in offering their titles for this venture. Amazon is certainly well positioned to launch such a project, as its cloud-based Amazon Web Services already has a ton of experience streaming content for companies like Netflix. It also owns Twitch, the gamer-centric live video streaming service. The report does say Amazon is not looking to launch its game streaming service until 2020 at the earliest.

Verizon and Amazon will be entering a field that is full of competitors who have already revealed their plans for streaming games with cloud-based set-ups. Both Microsoft and EA announced at E3 2018 that they have separate plans to stream games to smartphones. Microsoft later revealed that its service, with its codename Project xCloud, would begin public trials sometime in 2019.

In October, Google announced and launched a public test of Project Stream, which allowed people to stream and play the full version of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on a PC, Mac, Linux, and even a low-end Chromebook via the Chrome browser. That tech test is scheduled to end on January 15. So far, Google has not yet revealed what it plans to do with Project Stream.

Of course, Sony already has its own game streaming service, PlayStation Now, which allows PlayStation 4 and Windows PC owners to stream and play hundreds of classic and current PS4 games for a monthly fee. Sony has never revealed how many subscribers it has for PlayStation Now. NVIDIA also has its GeForce Now service, which lets people purchase PC games on Steam and other services, and then lets them play those games remotely on their PC, Mac and their Shield TV box. That service is still in a closed beta test.

Source: Android Zone

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6 Best Drag and Drop WordPress Page Builders Compared (2019)

Looking for an easy way to build and customize your WordPress site? That’s where drag and drop WordPress page builder plugins come in handy.

WordPress page builders allow you to create, edit, and customize your website layout without writing any code. In this article, we will compare the 6 best drag and drop page builders for WordPress.

Why Use a Drag and Drop Page Builder for WordPress?

When starting a blog, many beginners find it difficult to customize their WordPress page layouts.

While a lot of premium WordPress themes come with different page layouts, most of them are extremely hard to customize for anyone who does not know code (HTML / CSS).

This is why users often ask us questions like: “how can we make WordPress drag and drop?” or “is there an easy drag and drop page builder for WordPress?”

When we talk with people who switch from Weebly to WordPress or from Wix to WordPress, their most common response is: “I wish WordPress had a drag and drop website builder”.

Well, there are several great drag and drop page builder plugins available for WordPress. They allow you to create completely custom website designs in WordPress without writing a single line of code.

Since there are so many different WordPress page builder plugins in the market, we decided to compare and rank the top WordPress page builders, so you can choose the right solution for your need.

Our criteria for comparing these WordPress page builders are: ease of use, flexibility, and the design output.

Having said that, let’s take a look at the best page builders for WordPress in the market.

1. Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is a premium drag and drop page builder plugin for WordPress. In our opinion, it is by far the best WordPress page builder in the market.

It is extremely fast and comes with a built in onboarding tour to help you quickly familiarize with their interface.

Beaver Builder comes with a live drag and drop interface. You get to see all your changes as you add them by simply dragging elements from the right sidebar and dropping them on your page. You can click on any element on a page to edit its properties.

There are modules that let you add almost everything you may want including sliders, carousel, backgrounds, content blocks, buttons, and more.

It also comes with over 30 finely designed templates for landing pages that makes it super-easy and super-fast to create stunning website layouts.

We find Beaver Builder to be very beginner friendly. Check out our tutorial on how to create custom WordPress layouts with Beaver Builder.

Wondering if it’s compatible with the new WordPress version? Yes, it is.

Beaver Builder has been updated well along the Gutenberg project. So, it works fine with your new Gutenberg editor.

Pricing: Starting from $99 for Unlimited Sites.

Our Grade: A+

Review: Beaver Builder is the easiest page builder option in the market. It comes with pre-made templates to help you get started. The ability to customize every little detail makes it the perfect solution for WordPress users.

2. Divi

Divi is a drag and drop theme and WordPress page builder plugin. It is extremely easy to use and comes with 20+ layouts/templates for different kind of websites.

Just like the Beaver Builder, the Divi Builder is a visual drag and drop page builder, a true WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get).

You can directly click on your page and start editing with the real-time preview of all changes. You don’t need to save and click preview to see your new design.

Divi comes with 46 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere in your layout. You can arrange them in 3 section types, 20 row types, and customize each element using its advanced design settings.

With Divi, you can create any type of custom page layout that you want within minutes. You can then save these Divi layouts for future use on your site. You can also export a layout from one Divi installation into another.

The Divi Builder plugin is the backbone of the Divi theme, yet it works well with any other WordPress theme.

Best of all, Divi has the best pricing out of all options in this. For a single price, you’ll get the Divi theme, the Divi page builder plugin, and all other Elegant Themes products.

This means you can use the Divi theme or install the Divi Builder plugin on any other theme.

Pricing: Starting from $89 per year

Our Grade: A

Review: Divi is a great Beaver Builder alternative. It has a powerful page builder with limitless design possibilities. Their large number of content modules allow you to create literally any type of website that you really want.

3. Visual Composer Website Builder

Visual Composer Website Builder is a user-friendly WordPress website editor that helps you create custom website layouts, fast.

It comes with a simple drag and drop builder, out of box content elements, professional templates, and a host of powerful features to make a website.

Similar to Beaver Builder and Divi, it also provides real frontend editing experience for designing a website. But there’s a lot more you can do with this plugin. Unlike other plugins in the list, Visual Composer Website Builder allows you to edit your logo, menus, headers, footers, sidebars, etc.

That’s why the team decides to call it a website builder, instead of just a page builder.

The plugin features powerful design options to customize the appearance of any element on your page. You have easy options to add stylish backgrounds including parallax, gradient, slideshow, carousel, zoom in/out, video, etc. It also comes with flexible rows and columns for creating grid layouts on your site.

Visual Composer works well with all WordPress themes. This allows you to switch your themes without losing custom layouts that you created with Visual Composer.

It also includes support for the new Gutenberg editor, Google Fonts, and Yoast SEO.

Visual Composer is designed for professionals, and it’s evident by their attention to details such as remembering your color choices, which allows you to easily use the same color palette for consistency throughout your design.

Pricing: $59 For One Site License

Our Grade: A

Review: Visual Composer is a great plugin for beginners to start a website. It provides powerful features for website making in a simple manner. Website editing is made super simple with the real frontend drag and drop editor.

4. Themify Builder

Themify is a popular WordPress theme shop that offer a built-in Themify builder with all of their WordPress themes. For other non-Themify WordPress themes, you can get the Themify Page Builder plugin.

This simple and highly intuitive page builder comes with several ready to use modules that you can add to your pages or posts. Many of these modules usually require you to install separate WordPress plugins.

The plugin includes 40+ pre-designed layouts for different industries like gym, restaurant, portfolio, music, photography as well as online shops.

You can import a layout with one click, change its content, and build an awesome landing page within minutes.

Themify Builder allows you to edit your pages from the admin area as well as from your live site. With live editing, you get to see exactly how your changes will appear on the site.

Apart from that, Themify Builder comes with ready-to-use layouts that you can quickly apply to your page.

Pricing: $39 For the Builder Addon Bundle (The core plugin is free)

Our Grade: B

Review: Themify Builder is a reliable page builder plugin for WordPress. While the builder comes with promising features, there is a learning curve that can leave a new user frustrated.

5. Elementor

Elementor is another powerful drag and drop WordPress page builder plugin.

It is a live page builder plugin which means you get to see your changes live as you edit it with Elementor. Simply start by creating sections and select the number of columns for each section.

You can then drag and drop widgets from the left panel to your section. Elementor comes with tons of widgets including most commonly used website elements.

From basic image and text widgets to advanced accordions, sliders, testimonials, icons, social media, tabs, etc. Each widget comes with its own settings.

Elementor will also let you add widgets created by other WordPress plugins.

Don’t want to build your own layout?

Elementor comes with many ready-to-use templates that you can easily insert into your pages. You can simply point and click to edit any item on the page, replace the content, and you’re done.

Pricing: Starting from $49 for single site license.

Our Grade: B

Review: Elementor is a popular page builder plugin for WordPress. It is fast, easy to use, and comes with tons of modules / templates.

The biggest thing that we don’t like about Elementor is that their license is very restrictive. If you’re a freelancer or agency looking to use Elementor on client websites, please know that their Pro version is not GPL.

You’re better off using Beaver Builder, Divi, or Visual Composer because they respect the WordPress standards and freedoms.

6. Page Builder by SiteOrigin

With more than one million active installs, Site Origin’s Page Builder is a popular free WordPress page builder on the market. One of the primary reason for its popularity is the price (free). It is available as a fully functional free plugin.

Site Origin Page Builder is a little complicated to use, and new users often struggle to get familiar with it. However we had to include in our list because of it’s popularity.

For components, Site Origin Page Builder allows you to use WordPress widgets. It comes with several widgets of its own, and you can download and install any widget.

See our list of the 25 most useful WordPress widgets because you can use all of them with this page builder.

It also comes with a history tool which allows you to switch back and forth to undo/redo changes that you made. This is a huge time saver, and it gives you a peace of mind knowing that you can revert and undo changes.

The SiteOrigin plugin and all its widgets are fully Gutenberg compatible. There’s also a new SiteOrigin layout block that you can use as a Gutenberg block.

Pricing: Free

Our Grade: C

Review: Site Origin Page Builder is a good free plugin with a drag-and-drop interface to create and customize layouts. Although the live editing is not comparable to other solutions mentioned in this comparison.

Final Thoughts: Best WordPress Page Builder Plugin

As we compared different drag and drop WordPress page builders, one thing became very clear. Beaver Builder and Divi are clearly the top choice.

Visual Composer is a close third option that offer a complete drag & drop WordPress page builder.

If you don’t mind spending a little bit money to get the best solution in the market along with guaranteed support, then go for any of these three, and you won’t regret it.

Do I still Need a Page Builder if I am Using the New WordPress Block Editor?

Recently we’re getting a lot of users asking us this question.

WordPress block editor also known as Gutenberg was officially launched as the new default WordPress editor. The new editor uses blocks which are content elements for creating pages and posts.

Superficially, the block editor looks similar to some of the WordPress page builders above.

Hence there’re hot discussions going on in WordPress about Gutenberg and page builders.

Is Gutenberg a page builder? Does the Gutenberg block editor replace the WordPress page builders? And, do I still need a page builder if I am using the new WordPress block editor?

Well, the answer to the first two questions is ‘No, not quite yet.’

And, Yes, you will need a page builder if you want an easy way to create completely custom WordPress designs.

Gutenberg in its current form is no match to the powerful features these “true” WordPress page builder plugins offer.

Having that said, you can use a plugin like CSS Hero with Gutenberg and probably get away without using a true page builder, but it entirely depends on your needs.

A lot of our readers love using CSS Hero for quick and easy website customization. Read our full CSS Hero review to see if it’s a suitable solution for your needs.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress drag and drop page builder plugins for your site. You may also want to see our comparison to find the best WordPress contact form plugins.

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 6 Best Drag and Drop WordPress Page Builders Compared (2019) appeared first on WPBeginner.

Source: Wordpres

The post 6 Best Drag and Drop WordPress Page Builders Compared (2019) appeared first on TuneMaster.ml.

How to Test Your Site for Updating to Gutenberg (WordPress 5.0)

Are you excited to use the new WordPress Gutenberg editor? Officially launched with WordPress 5.0, Gutenberg is the new default content editor for WordPress that allows you create visually stunning content using blocks.

The challenge is that some themes and plugins may not properly support Gutenberg, so updating your website can cause unexpected issues.

In this article, we’ll show you how to test your WordPress site for updating to Gutenberg and WordPress 5.0.

Why Test Your WordPress Site Before Updating to Gutenberg?

WordPress 5.0 brings a totally new way of creating content with a brand new editor called The Block Editor or Gutenberg. It uses blocks which are content elements that you can move around the editor.

WordPress 5.0 with Gutenberg editor is indeed a revolutionary improvement to the WordPress platform.

However due to this massive change, some users are reluctant to update their sites right away, fearing that something would not work, or it may break their website.

Gutenberg was developed over a long period with enough time for theme and plugin developers to make their products Gutenberg compatible. All top WordPress plugins are already fully compatible with Gutenberg and most themes would work without a hiccup.

However, to avoid any conflicts you may want to test your site with Gutenberg and WordPress 5.0. This would allow you to find if any of your plugins or theme are incompatible. You can also catch unexpected errors and fix them before updating your live site.

That being said, now let’s go ahead and check how to test your website for updating to Gutenberg or WordPress 5.0 step-by-step.

Step 1: Create a Complete Backup of Your Website

You must always create a complete back of your WordPress website before any major update. Backups protect you against any unfortunate damage that can happen during the update process.

Keeping regular website backups is important even if you aren’t updating your site because they can save you in catastrophic situations like malware attack, hacking, etc.

There are plenty of WordPress backup plugins that you can choose from. We recommend using UpdraftPlus because it allows you to setup automatic backups and store them on a remote location.

Step 2: Test Your Site on Local Server or Staging Site

After you’ve created a complete backup of your website, you are now ready to test your website with WordPress 5.0 and the new Gutenberg editor.

There are two common methods to test new updates without actually affecting your live site.

1. Test your website on a local server installed on your computer
2. Test your website on a staging server

Both options allow you to test WordPress 5.0 with the new Gutenberg editor with your existing content, plugin, and themes.

1. Test Your Website on Local Server

Using a local server simply means installing your WordPress site on your personal computer with a software like WAMP or MAMP (for Mac).

In this method, you’ll first move a copy of your live WordPress site to local server using a migration plugin like Duplicator.

Then on the local site, you can update to WordPress 5.0 and test out all your plugins / themes for compatibility with the new editor.

You can also make changes on the local site and upload it to your live site when you are done.

If you didn’t need to make any changes to the local site, and everything seemed ok, then you can go ahead and update your live site to WordPress 5.0.

2. Test Your Website on Staging Environment

A staging site is a separate development version of your website where you can try out new features.

It’s usually a sub-domain of your site that’s restricted from public access. It’s where you can test new updates, themes, plugins, or use it for all your development. Once you’ve tested everything necessary, you can then upload it to your live site.

Most top WordPress hosting companies offer 1-click staging site installation from your hosting account.

If your site is hosted with Bluehost, then you’ll find an option to create a staging site under the Bluehost menu in your WordPress admin dashboard.

You can also create 1-click staging sites on WPEngine and SiteGround. If you are not using any of these hosting companies, then you should ask your host because they may offer this feature.

If your hosting service doesn’t have staging site installation feature, then you can still do it manually on your own. Here’s our step by step tutorial on how to create a staging environment in WordPress.

Step 3: Install the Classic Editor Plugin

The most significant change in WordPress 5.0 is the new Gutenberg editor.

This means that if you were to run into any issues, then it’ll likely be caused by a plugin or theme’s incompatibility with the new editor.

It is also possible that you may not like the new editor.

Luckily, you can update to WordPress 5.0 and still keep the classic WordPress editor.

You can simply disable Gutenberg by installing the Classic Editor plugin on your WordPress site. Doing this will allow you to safely update to WordPress 5.0, while still keeping the classic editor that you’re familiar with.

Classic Editor is an official WordPress plugin from WordPress core contributors to allow you to switch back to the classic editor. With this plugin, you can hide the Gutenberg editor and create content the same way as before.

If you had to install Classic Editor because a theme or plugin wasn’t working after updating to WordPress 5.0, then you still have work to do.

You need to reach out to the theme or plugin developer and request them to make it compatible with the latest WordPress release.

If you don’t get a positive response, then you need to find an alternative theme or plugin to replace incompatible ones.

Step 4. Things to Do After Updating to Gutenberg in WordPress 5.0+

If you are just starting your first WordPress blog, then you are in luck. You’ll quickly get used to the awesome new block editor which is faster, modern, and incredibly powerful.

On the other hand, if you have been using WordPress for a while, then the new editor is an exciting new experience for you.

Most of us are used to working with the old editor and have setup our workflows around it.

Good news is that you can still do all the things you did in the old editor with Gutenberg, and then some more.

To help you learn new features, we have created a complete Gutenberg tutorial it shows how to use new block editor and create visually stunning content for your site.

We hope this article helped you to learn how to test your WordPress site for updating to Gutenberg or WordPress 5.0. For troubleshooting common errors you may encounter, check out our guide on most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.

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 Test Your Site for Updating to Gutenberg (WordPress 5.0) appeared first on WPBeginner.

Source: Wordpres

The post How to Test Your Site for Updating to Gutenberg (WordPress 5.0) appeared first on TuneMaster.ml.