The Internet is the single most liberating force today where knowledge spread and ideas flourish. Such freedom, however, comes with a price. While there are practically no boundaries when one is online, the very same power is granted to the 2 billion people who are connected as well. It only means that you will likely meet opposing views that could even be beyond your comprehension.

There are bound to be opinions that divide netizens, as evident from the numerous heated debates on forums, social networking sites and many other online channels. Aside from politics, technology-related arguments are quite commonly thrown about on the Web these days.

Recommended Reading: 20 Awesome “Battle Of The Browsers” Artworks

Here is a summary of 10 of the biggest tech battles you will find on the Internet:

1. Windows vs. Mac

Are you a Mac person or a Windows PC person? This has been one of the biggest questions that have plagued computer buyers since the launch of the first Macintosh (1984) and Windows PC (1985) in the mid-80s. Choosing one system over another says something about how you believe the computer experience ought to be.

It speaks volume about your preferences, attitudes and values as a person. Hunch.com had collected and analysed data from 700,000 computer users and found some amazing differences between these two groups.

Read Also: Mac Vs. PC: Myth-Busting Guide For Consumers

What Makes A Mac User?

Generally speaking, Mac’s angle has always been about design, originality and breaking away from the norms. The legendary ‘1984‘ Macintosh TV ad and the many unorthodox informal keynote address by its founder – in his trademark black turtleneck and jeans, no less – bear testimony to Apple‘s conviction to such ideology.

It was also Macintosh that first broke away from the old command-line interface in personal computers, winning users over with the more intuitive mouse and graphical user interface (GUI) which we all use today. Watching Apple fans pay premium for their products has never sat well with opinionated Apple haters, even when the wallet that is being emptied out, isn’t theirs to begin with.

Fatal Attraction

As for Windows, it has always had the majority of the market share and was never an underdog like Mac. This also means that most software (as well as viruses) are made for Windows. It will pose some compatibility issues if one were to use a less-purchased system like Mac to link up with most other users who use Windows as well.

For this reason, people see Windows as the default choice when purchasing a computer since it will be easier to work with people who utilize the same system. A Windows person sticks to practicality and is more concerned about the features a system offers rather than the design or ‘feel’ of a personal computer.

2. Facebook Gamers vs. Non-Gamers

Ah, this is one common rift I see between Facebook users who play games and those who don’t. A status update from one of my friends on Facebook will go along the line of ‘stop sending me game requests’ and I would know exactly how he or she feels.

No, You’re Not A Gamer

I, for one don’t play games on Facebook and I know how annoying it can get to receive a notification on my smartphone or my desktop from a friend requesting for help in ‘bubbles’ and farms and candy-crushing. And it is assuring to know that I’m not alone.

Pages are set up on Facebook with titles such as ‘Stop sending me game requests’, people desperately seeking help on forums to ‘block stupid game requests’ and tons and tons of YouTube tutorial videos are posted about the same thing.

Read Also: 20 Things Savvy Facebookers Should Know (By Now)

Facebook gamers aren’t to be completely blamed for this though because the ‘select all’ checkbox is so conveniently ticked for you. If anything, it’s the undesirable side effect of joining a social networking site. It does raise a pertinent question of privacy preferences for users: should a social network be allowed to interfere with user’s privacy by means of notifications?

In the worst-case scenario, all such features drive a wedge between people who play games and people who don’t. It may not fall into a factional situation like iOS vs. Android users, but it sure as hell irritates the other party. If you’re one of those ‘hardcore’ Facebook gamers, be sure to pick out friends (and only send requests to) whom are already playing the game!

3. E-books vs. Printed Books

When it comes to books, many avid readers would argue that the experience of holding a physical, printed book in their hands, turning the pages and reading from the paper is vastly different (and much more satisfying) from that of reading an e-book.

Book lovers declare that there is something special about touching or smelling the paper, and hearing the sounds when one flips through the pages of a fresh book. In comparison, e-book readers are met with the cold, unfeeling, metallic (sometimes plastic) surface of electronics.

Read Also: 40+ Inspiring Book & Paper Sculptures

Still, e-book readers do have their list of perks. The idea of walking down the street with an entire library of your favorite books stored in your electronic devices is far more attractive than the thought of exposing their printed version to wear and tear in an open bookshelf.

Purchasing and downloading e-books can be done with clicks and taps, without the need for a trip to the bookstore or library, or the suspense of having to wait for it to be delivered into your hands.

Read Also: 20 (More) Websites To Download Free EBooks

Competition or Substitution?

Back when emails and instant messaging came to be, they were thought to be the eventual substitution to face-to-face or telephone conversations. In a similar fashion, they were also deemed to be inferior to the more traditional modes of communication, said to invoke deeper levels of communication.

These debates began in the 1990s and two decades have gone by. Today, most people seem to believe that emailing and messaging should serve mostly as a collateral (second-best) tool for communication. Does this spell a future that books will lead to, or will printed books reign supreme for more generations to come?

4. Android OS vs. iOS

More than 90% of smartphones in the U.S. use either Android or iOS as their mobile operating system right now. The two ‘tribes’ are also most likely to wage a shouting war in the comments section regardless of time, place or topic of interest.

Different Pastures, Different Shades Of Green

On the one side, Android users assert that iOS supporters are just hardcore Apple fans who often disregard the quality of their products – a mindset resembling sheep that follow their shepherd blindly. On the other, iOS users defended their ground by praising the more intuitive and user-friendly interface of iOS.

They swear by the stability of the iOS platform and slams Android devices for ‘crashing’ more frequently than iPhones. The two tech tribes existed within the smartphone industry because both iOS and Android OS cater to distinctive groups of users with different personalities.

Read Also: The History Of iOS And Its Features

It can be seen that supporters of iOS value the user-friendliness of the interface, demonstrating their preference for predictability and familiarity, and thus favors the product that gives them that sense of security. The fact that Apple users often stick to Apple products and are less likely to switch to other brands only proves the point further.

Read Also: Android Evolution [Cupcake - Jelly Bean]

Android users, on the contrary, often chastise Apple users for their blind faith, revealing that people who prefer Android hold practicality in high regard and thus exercise more objectivity when it comes to choosing technology. This infographic shows that Android and iOS users are indeed substantially different from each other.

5. Xbox vs. PlayStation

As a proud owner of an Xbox 360 console, some of my friends who own the PlayStation 3 love to make comments and comparisons between our consoles. Basically those comments revolve around how I have to pay for online multiplayer services while they get to play games online for free, or about how they have exclusive games like Uncharted and Metal Gear Solid series while I don’t.

Blast From The Past

The funny thing, before this, I actually had a PlayStation 2 instead of an Xbox, and a similar thing occurred to me where Xbox owners would brag about how they have one of the top-selling games, Halo and spoke to me in jest about any features they find superior in their Xbox. In fact, this also happened when I had my very first video game console, the long-extinct Sega Saturn which was then badly lambasted by my fellow PlayStation 1 friends!

Honestly speaking, video game consoles have varying technical specifications that probably determine how successful they are in the industry. When it comes to comparisons, people normally pit similar consoles that belong to the same generation against each other because this makes for a fair competition.

Read Also: Evolution of Home Video Game Consoles: 1967 – 2011

Bigger Battles

Notice however that the battle is especially intense between Microsoft Xbox 360 and PS3 and not with Nintendo Wii even though all are from the same generation. Why is this so? My take on this is that Wii, with its relatively lower tech specs, is a very different console altogether because it focuses more on gameplay and playability (e.g. Wii remote motion controllers) than simply visuals or performance.

In other words, Xbox and PlayStation are comparable because they are pretty much on the same level, and this is precisely why fans of both consoles love to jab at each other on the Internet.

Read Also: Evolution of Video Games User Interface (UI)

But guess what? If one is to compare and contrast the two consoles holistically, the number and magnitude of the similarities definitely outshine all the little differences each have. It’s more like a draw between the two.

6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare vs. Battlefield series

As far as I could remember, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) made a great leap forward in the visual realism aspect of first-person war shooters. Due to the realistic graphics and physics of the game, the awesome plotline, voice acting and multiplayer mode, it was (and still is) one of the best games in its genre. Unsurprisingly, the well-received game led to a sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) which again achieved abundant success.

Read Also: Evolution of Home Video Game Consoles: 1967 – 2011

Proliferation Of War Games

Soon after, several other competing titles such as the rebooted Medal of Honor (2010) and Battlefield 3 (2011) which feature similar lifelike visuals and physics followed suit. Sadly, the Medal of Honor series eventually fell out of favor with players after its sequel, Medal of Honor: Warfighter (2012) received pretty negative reviews.

The latest fight was just between Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011) and Battlefield 3 (2011). Understandably, with both games receiving a high average review score of 9 out of 10 from major games review sites, the competition is sure as hell, tight. Generally speaking, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series have been praised for its high frame-rate and fun multiplayer while Battlefield 3′s lighting and graphics are practically unrivalled.

Read Also: Future Of Gaming: 5 Exciting Emerging Trends

Lock And Loaded

Go to any website, forum or YouTube page featuring articles, topics or videos about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series or Battlefield 3 and its upcoming sequels and you’re certain to see some pretty nasty comments from fans of either camp. They thrash fans from the other faction (i.e. their mortal enemies) who dare bad-mouth their favorite game, yet no fan could resist declaring how the next sequel of their series is going to kick the other side’s ass.

In a scenario when it’s really hard to determine a winner, people get even more motivated and united to step up and taunt their opponents, partially to convince themselves that they’ll win the battle. If you think about it, such phenomena are not unlike in warfare where it is inevitable to hate your enemies. It just happens to be so that these two intensive shooters series present players with realistic warlike scenarios.

It’s not too far-fetched to think that this could possibly explain why fans from each side are getting worked up over whether Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 or Battlefield 4 will come out victorious. The contempt for the enemies of this ‘war’ seems a little too apparent to ignore on the Internet.

7. Facebook vs. Google+

Once upon a time, Friendster was the default choice for online social networking. That was before MySpace took over as the favorite between 2007 and 2008. Then Facebook came, saw and conquered the industry. The throne has remained in Facebook’s house even till today with subjects over 51% of the entire Internet population (for Q1, 2013). There just doesn’t seem to be any sign of it being usurped by other existing social networks.

Trailing behind by a far 26% is Google+, automatically earning it the label of ‘underdog’ – and we all love to root for the underdog, don’t we? Fans of Google+ seem battle-ready to fight Facebook head on. Its rapid rise to second place in power and popularity at a global scale in just over a year and a half is no mean feat, serving as a morale booster for fans. After all, the greater the number of people using Google+, the stronger and more powerful the network is.

With a quarter of the Internet population signed up, fans believe that they are set to outshine Facebook (and all its privacy issues) in the arena of online social networking. An intense combat is already taking place; it’s David and Goliath all over again. Who will win? Time will tell.

8. Internet Explorer vs. the Rest

IE triumphed against Netscape Navigator during the first browser war in the late 90′s. This was before we were bombarded with a list of alternative browsers to adopt. Most of us by now have developed our personal preferences when we surf the Net: more customizability with plug-ins, better surfing security, tabbed browsing, speedy load times, reopening of closed tabs and more.

Read Also: 40 Useful Google Chrome Extensions For Web Designers

All these unique demands led to the development of new and alternative browsers such as Safari (2003), Mozilla Firefox (2004) and Google Chrome (2008). The struggle eventually becomes that of IE versus all the alternative browsers.

StatCounter showed that IE eventually clung on to less than 50% market share for the first time in 2010. In the following year, Microsoft released the 9th version of IE and it fought back with its HTML5 support and enhanced detection and prevention against malwares and malicious sites. However, it was a little too late.

Read Also: WordPress Tip: How To Detect Visitor Browser Type

As a whole, alternative web browsers have been pulling the crowd away from IE since they came into the radar. The fierce pursuit to gain a competitive edge over their opponents, helped boost the standards for all Internet browsers. The battle between fans of IE and fans of other browsers is thus over the difference in mindset: whether to use the ‘standard’ browser that seems much more convenient and universal,  or the ‘non-standard’ ones which often offer innovative features that cater to specific surfing needs.

9. PC Gaming vs. Console Gaming

The video gaming industry has much evolved is the past couple of decades and along with it came the inevitable categorization of gamers. Today, there are different types of gamers ranging from casual, mid-core gamers to hardcore gamers and distinct breakdowns even exist within them.

One significant divide pertains to the mode of playing games: through PC or through game consoles. Mid-core and hard-core gamers are better able to relate to the separation because the (more) complex games they play tend to result in different experiences and outcomes, depending on whether they play on PC or on consoles.

Device-Catered Experience

Needless to say, the keyboard and mouse for PCs allow for more complex control mappings for games and hence afford for more functions. The problems with console controllers are that their layout only comprises of directional buttons, analog sticks and probably less than ten buttons on it.

It makes for more simplistic controls which PC gamers tend to shun while console gamers fend that argument off by asserting that they make for intuitive control and deliver enhanced playability. Nevertheless, the fact is that some game genres are exclusive for PCs because the controls aren’t suitable for consoles.

You just seldom see games like Sim City (city-building) or Total War (strategy) series on consoles. Fans of first-person shooters are also more likely to be PC gamers because these shooters work better with mouse than an analogue control.

Playing Like A Boss

Apart than that, there’s also the contention over the practicality of PC’s ability to upgrade hardware and augment the visual qualities or frame-rates of the games over time. This may be the ultimatum for supporters of PC gaming but some console gamers prefers to avoid the hassle of periodically upgrading hardware to keep up with game requirements.

After all, dedicated gaming consoles are made for the sake of convenience and stability. It is still hard to argue against the luxury of a widescreen TV and a comfortable couch, made possible by console gaming.

10. Steve Jobs and Apple: Fans vs. Haters

As the man behind one of the most, if not the most innovative and influential IT brand in history, there’s hardly anyone in the developed world who hasn’t heard of the late Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011). The creator of Macintosh computer, iMac and iPhone may have already left us, but his reputation and legacy is likely to linger for a long time.

Most people would probably agree that his ideas have revolutionized the computer and music industry and for this, he has indeed earned the respect and admiration of many. Still, the undeniable truth about fame is that as one gets more popular and well-liked, the number of haters he has increases exponentially at the same time.

No Grey Area

Steve Jobs appears to be one of those icons that certain people could only love or hate. On the one hand you have cult-like Apple fandom where devotees adore their dear leader and his latest creations in blind faith, purchasing products after products without in-depth practical consideration of the tech specs or features.

On the other, you see Apple haters challenging the supposed superiority of Apple products and ridiculing naive fan-boys and fan-girls who are seemingly exploited by Steve Job and Apple’s shrewd marketing strategies. Although worlds apart these two groups may seem, but in actuality, they’re more similar than one would’ve imagined – both are extreme with their own beliefs, intolerant to any other views and tend to overreact to criticisms and rebuttals from the opposing party.

Fence Sitters

The only people that are distinct from them may very well be those who are neutral with their stand. They’re the objective and practical ones who don’t simply subscribe or unsubscribe to a particular brand without first evaluating the overall quality of a product. Brands are after all created and maintained by the marketing wizards and advertisements play with our emotions. If there’s one thing that history has shown us, emotions do get in the way of sound judgement.

Well, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. It really has a lot to do with tolerating another person’s ideas and thoughts, and respecting opinions which differ from ours.

Editor’s note: This is a contributed post by Kurt Birkenhagen, who is Vice President of Marketing with conferencecalling.com from Vast Conference, based in Los Angeles, CA. He is focused on web design, user experience, inbound marketing and conversion optimization.

There’s no two ways about it: freelancing is a business. But it’s a business that can be started on a shoe string budget. Because freelancing is so easy to start, we often forget that like any business, we need to invest in the right tools for our freelance business to grow.

In this post, we will see 17 of these tools which provide a wide variety of assistance to make it easier for you to focus on your tasks rather than meddle with repetitive ones that can be easily automated.

Whether you are going at your freelance business solo or with a small group of collaborators, these tools (and some suggestions of similar apps) are going to fit right at home with the rest of the team and ensure you have all the help you need to propel your freelance business to success.

Recommended Reading: Diving Into E-Commerce: Do You Have What It Takes?

Wave Accounting – Small business accounting

Wave is a Cloud-based invoicing, accounting, payroll, payments and personal finance app for freelancers, contractors and entrepreneurs. Specifically, it’s for people running businesses with 9 employees or less.

They explain it best themselves:

Most "small business software" isn’t actually built for small businesses. It’s really meant for medium-sized businesses with dozens and sometimes hundreds of employees. (Just look at how complicated and expensive they are…!) But there’s a world of difference between the needs of a 5-person company and a 55-person company. So we build Wave for businesses with 9 employees or less, including all those one-person shops out there. And that makes for a much better fit between our products and your needs.

Similar Apps: Quickbooks, Freshbooks

Read Also: Top Invoice & Accounting Services For Freelance Designers

Manilla App – Personal Finance App

Before you can start putting your business in order, you need to get your personal life organized. The Manilla App saves all your financial accounts, bills, loyalty programs and coupons in one place. The security of their app is as good as any bank (according to their claim) and they have a mobile app too.

A service like Manilla helps you save money, keep your life on track and frees up precious time you can invest in your business.

Similar Apps: Mint, Lemon Wallet

Read Also: Digital Wallets – 10 Mobile Payment Systems To Take You There

CX – Cloud Storage

As a freelancer, your livelihood depends on the backup and storage of your work. Chances are you’re using great services like Dropbox to store and share files with your clients already. Unfortunately, the amount of free space allotted in most popular file sharing services isn’t a lot. And if you want more space, you have to pay.

CX fills this gap and has had every cash strapped freelancer who’s discovered them grateful for having a free plan that offers 10GB of space.

Similar Apps: DropBox, SugarSync

Read Also: Cloud Storage Face-Off: Dropbox vs Google Drive vs SkyDrive

Mozy – Backup Solution

If there’s one mantra freelancers need to have, it’s: backup, backup and backup. Mozy offers Cloud backup solutions for individuals, small businesses and large corporations. Once you sign up with Mozy and set it up, you can well… forget about it. Mozy automatically backs up your data, offers web-based access to your files and has mobile apps too.

Most freelancers would be covered under the MozyHome package but they also have bigger packages for those with more storage and backup needs.

Similar Apps: Carbonite

Read Also: 17 Online Data Backup & Synchronization Tools

Wunderlist – Beautiful and simple online to-do list

As much as I love Google Tasks, and use it for my daily workload, it simply isn’t powerful enough to handle large client projects. That’s where Wunderlist comes in. The beauty of Wunderlist lies in its ability to adapt to your needs. You can even invite or add people and assign them tasks.

The best part? It syncs across all platforms.

Similar Apps: Toodledo

Read Also: Top 10 Free Note-Taking Apps For Smartphones

Google Tasks – Task management

If you just did a double take, let me assure you that Google Tasks was meant to be included in this list. As freelancers, most of our communication happen through email. And with Google Tasks, you can easily turn an email into a task. All you have to do is click on the more tab and choose “Add to tasks”. Once that’s done you can easily assign a date to the task and never miss a task again.

The best part is that Google Tasks syncs with your Google Calendar. So if you believe in keeping your to-do list simple and organized, Google Tasks is ideal.

Similar Apps: Remember the Milk, Keep

Read Also: Manage Your To-Do Lists Across Multiple Devices With Any.DO

Trello – Online Collaboration

Trello is a free, online collaboration tool that’s organized by boards, lists and cards. Think of a Trello board as a whiteboard with the name of your project as its title. A ‘card’ is an item on your lits and every entry is treated as a “card” that you can drag around and do a bunch of cool stuff with. These cards can be organized under any list like ‘to-do’, ‘doing’ and ‘done’.

You can also attach files, images etc. to each card and add as many people as you want on board for collaboration. Changes appear in real time. So if your team’s working on a project together at the same time, the changes will appear without you having to refresh your page.

Similar Apps: Asana, Teambox

Read Also: Top 10 Project Management Software For Remote Teams

SlideShare – Upload and share presentations online

Freelancers need to show what they do and how they can help their clients achieve the results they want. The better a freelancer can explain how he can help his clients; the easier it is to find work. Presentations are a great way to do that.

Also, SlideShare gets 60 million unique visitors a month. Even a small fraction of those visitors equal to a lot of eyeballs on your work. You can even embed the presentation on your website and include it in your online marketing efforts.

Similar Apps: Prezi

Read Also: 10 Presentation Tools To Win Over Your Audience

Falcon – In-Depth contact profiles

In business, the more you know about your customer or client, the better and more personal your service is. Falcon helps you find out those small details that make a difference when closing a deal.

Falcon is a browser app that gets you contact profiles right inside your email or social networks by hovering over the person’s name.

Similar App: Rapportive

Contactually – Better relationship management

For freelancers, client relationships are everything. Contactually helps you keep those relationships alive. It is by far the most meaningful contact management tool that I’ve come across. It manages your contacts and prompts you to take action and tracks your progress. It also provides context like social media updates and your previous interactions with them to help you personalize your contact with them.

And even though it’s not a free tool, it’s worth every penny if you’re serious about growing your business.

Similar App: Nimble, Insightly

Mailstrom – Clean up your email inbox

Email – it’s the bane of every webpreneur’s online existence. Mailstrom helps you clean up your Inbox in just a few clicks. Not only does it help you unsubscribe from unnecessary email newsletters, but it also shows you whose emails you ignore the most. It also shows you what time you get your most emails, which social networks clutter your Inbox the most etc.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re struggling with email, try it out. It’s free.

Similar Apps: Sanebox

Read Also: Manage Newsletter Subscriptions Smarter With Unroll.Me

EchoSign – Digital Signature

As a freelancer who rarely meets clients’ face-to-face, signing contracts is a hassle. It can often require printing, couriering or scanning back the signed documents to get the paperwork in order. EchoSign is a service by Adobe that lets you digitally sign documents without having to download, print or courier anything.

It’s as simple as sending an email. All you have to do is attach your document to EchoSign and email it to the person concerned. There’s no download or software of any kind involved.

Similar Apps: DocuSign

Read Also: How To Place Digital Signatures On Any Document / Device With DocuSign

Hootsuite – Social media management

Hootsuite lets you connect every major social network under a single account. You can send status updates to more than one social network at a time and even schedule them to automatically post at a scheduled date and time.

Their free plan is great for beginners so don’t hesitate to try it out!

Similar Apps: Tweetdeck

Toggl – Insanely simple time tracking

If you charge by the hour or often wonder how long it takes you to do a certain task, Toggl will help you keep track. With one click, you can start tracking your time and find out which tasks take up the most time. It’s particularly helpful in tracking hours spent on client work.

Toggl works offline too so if you’re the kind of freelancer who disconnects to get work done, you can still use Toggl to track your time. It’ll sync itself once you connect to the Internet again.

Similar Apps: Rescue Time, Freckle

Read Also: Time-Tracking Mac Apps For Freelancers – Best Of

MailChimp – Send better email

Email newsletter marketing is one of the best ways to get the word out about your business. It helps keep your clients and customers updated about news related to your business, gives you a platform to reach out to them whenever you want and gives you an opportunity to show them your expertise.

Mailchimp is one of the best newsletter services out there. Not only does it have an awesome free plan, it also has a friendly user interface.

Similar Apps: Aweber, Constant Contact

Read Also: 9 Tricks To Design The Perfect HTML Newsletter

Bidsketch – Create project proposal in minutes

Sending project proposals is one of the core activities of any freelance business. Creating one can take up a lot of time though – time you aren’t paid for. BidSketch helps you create beautiful, well organized project proposals in half the time it usually takes you. They offer pre-built templates and landing pages, electronic signatures and personal branding.

While BidSketch isn’t a free tool, it is reasonably priced for the freelancer who sends out a lot of project proposal to clients.

Similar Apps: Proposable

Dashlane – Password manager

Using the above services mean that at any given time, you’ll have 16 usernames and passwords to keep track of – at least. Dashlane is a password manager, autofill and e-wallet all rolled into one. What makes them so unique is that they don’t store your master password. You’re the only one who has the password to their account.

Of course, it also means that if you lose your Dashlane password, there’s no way they can recover it for you. Eek!

Read Also: 25 Online Tools To Generate Pronounceable / Random Passwords

Conclusion

No matter how good the tools you use are, they won’t do you much good unless you utilize them properly. Take the time to research the tools you use before you pay for them or start using them. Take advantage of the free trial most tools offer to find out if the tool will be a good fit.

And once you start using them, stick to them and create a system that’ll help you save time and impress clients at the same time.

Which tools have helped you propel your freelance business to success?

Ever stumbled upon a cool boot animation on a friend’s Android device or a presentation on the Web? It isn’t hard to make your own. In fact, we are going to show you in this post, two ways to create a custom boot animation for your own device.

(Image Source: PHAndroid)

There is the hard way – thorough, but which could work on all devices; and the easy way – where you can just change your boot animation through an app. Both required a rooted device. Before you start, it is advisable to create a full NANDroid backup.

Recommended Reading: 30 Must-Try Apps For Rooted Android Phones

#1 – Android File Manager (Manual)

To use this method, you will need a file manager app with Root access. In this quicktip, we will be using the Root Browser app.

1. Download a custom boot animation you want to use by choosing the animation you want to use and downloading the associated bootanimation.zip file. (Here is another place to find custom animations to use.)

2. Open Root Browser (or your file manager) app and once inside, locate your original boot animation file (bootanimation.zip) in /system/media.

3. Long-press the file, choose Rename and name it to bootanimation.zip1.

4. Next, browse to the custom boot animation that you want to switch to, copy the zip file to /system/media. Long-press, choose Permission.

5. Tick the boxes as shown in the screenshot below, and press OK. After that, rename the file to bootanimation.zip, if the zip file name is different.

Note: You have to make sure that the file name is correct (bootanimation.zip) for the system to recognize your boot animation, and boot properly.

6. Now you should be able to see two zip files, one, bootanimation.zip (new file) and the other is bootanimation.zip1 (original).

Note: If you ever want to switch back to your original boot animation, delete the current bootanimation.zip and rename the original file back to bootanimation.zip (from bootanimation.zip1).

7. Reboot the device and you will be able to see your new custom boot animation!

#2 – Through Boot Animations (Root) App

1. Like the first step in Method #1, download the custom boot animation you want.

2. Grab the Boot animations root app here.

3. Open the app then choose Backup/Restore through the menu options. Backup your original boot animation by tapping Backup. (You can restore your original boot animation from here too with the Restore option.)

4. Locate your custom boot animation file (in this case, ‘bootanimation.zip’). Long-press the zip file then choose Install.

Note: File names such as ‘Flying-fox-animation.zip’ should be renamed to ‘bootanimation.zip’ before installing it.

5. After you have done installing, reboot your device to see your new custom boot animation.

And that’s it. You now know how to customize your boot animation.

With the event of Google Reader being shut down, many who are let down by the shut down are still testing the grounds for alternatives. Today I want to introduce to you a better, feature-rich, clean and fresh alternative to Google Reader: Taptu.

Taptu offers a great looking, customizable homepage with other cool features like the ability to add sources and feeds from Facebook, Twitter and other online content providers.

It allows for users to graphically add feeds and content easily with the StreamStore, has amazing sharing options and more. Let’s check it out.

Recommended Reading: ReadAir – Google Reader In Adobe AIR Application

Getting Started with Taptu

Getting started with Taptu is super simple, you can either sign up using your Google account, Facebook account, LinkedIn account or your Twitter account. After signing up Taptu will prompt you to add your interests and will automatically add feeds from various websites of the topics you chose alternatively, you can add your custom websites and feeds later on.

After you have setup your interests and added all of your other content sources you will now have a full Taptu homepage filled with all your topics and interests with content under them available for your enjoyment.

Streamstore

To add streams, topics and interests Taptu came up with a cool little feature called the Streamstore. Through the Streamstore you can search for a stream for example, if I wanted to add Hongkiat.com to my stream and tech interest I can search for Hongkiat and add the appropriate stream.

With the Streamstore you can also add your interests, topics, streams and content through neatly organized categories, with topics and also with other RSS and feed reader services.

Reading Your Content With Taptu

Once you have set up and received all the content you want to access with the Taptu client, you can now start enjoying one of the most important parts of Taptu, reading your content.

Your Taptu homepage will present to you every single one of your topics and the most recent content in each interest. If you want to view the content solely of a single interest, click the interest on the menu to the right.

You can also bookmark the articles and content that you have the most interest in and save it for reading later.

Sharing

After browsing through your feed and finding that article worth sharing with friends or family you can easily share it with a press of a button. Send and share content with Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and also with your email.

Another great feature is the ability to share articles to your account by bookmarking an article or other type of content to read, share or interact with it later.

Customization

Taptu allows you to customize your homepage and feed lists with easy-to-customize backgrounds, colors, fonts, names and custom topics.

Other Taptu customizations include customizing the layout of your homepage by dragging elements and topics around the page. You can also customize the logos and sources of the content in a certain topic, which is a small but pretty neat feature.

Advantages

• Clean and fresh design
• Multiple sharing options
• Use Taptu on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac
• Use the Streamstore to add interests, topics, links and other content
• Import content and feeds from other services
• Connect your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google and Yahoo accounts
• Customize the looks of Taptu with customizable colors, backgrounds, fonts and topics

Disadvantages

• No list style or individual feed layouts. For example, like a blog layout.
• Feed and Content tags are a bit too un-functional.
• Merged Streams are lacking the good design that Taptu offers.

Conclusion

Taptu is a great alternative to Google Reader, and offers some great and useful features with a fresh and clean design. I believe Taptu is a great and solid alternative especially due to the wide range of support for all your devices. But if you do try it out, let us know in the comments.