If you are running a WordPress self hosted site, you’ll have probably come across Jetpack. Whilst it has some great features such as lazy loading and a free CDN, it can be slow. I eventually moved off of it onto Cloudflare as a CDN of sorts, as the plugin, is to put it bluntly, quite bloated. However, it’s pretty easy to trim Jetpack down to just the parts you want.
Newspaper is one of the the most popular themes out there, but out of the box it can be pretty slow. In this guide, I’ll take you through hosting, caching, optimisation on both the server and front end, and finally a few more advanced options. All of the included tips are free, and you won’t need to spend any money on extra plugins.
I’ll be assuming you have self hosted WordPress with the ability to access files via FTP.
Every half a year or so I like to post a new update on my home screen. I’ve done a few of these posts before, however my home screen does change quite a bit over time. So, in this post, I’ll take you through my new home screen and what I use the various apps for. I’ll also link my wallpaper for those who want to use it too.
If you’ve ever been in the market for a used PC, or want to keep up to date on news or hobbies, you’ll know that Reddit is a great resource. Alerts for Reddit allows you to get alerts from a certain subreddit, user, or thread – you can also customise the frequency of these alerts.
For those looking to snap up parts on /r/hardwareswaps, or just keep up to date with your favourite thread, user, or hobbies, Alerts for Reddit is a great app for those who use Reddit.
Infuse is for people with large local media libraries. For those who use Plex, have shows on USB sticks or cloud storage, Infuse is perfect for. With the ability to get content from FTP to cloud storage, Infuse is the perfect media for solution for people who want to watch their local library on the go.
Simply start of by pointing the app to your sources, and it’ll take nearly everything, from a USB plugged in a router, to a WebDAV server.
The Xiaomi Mi Band 3 is the best budget fitness tracker you’ll find online. With the ability to track exercise, heart rate and sleep, the Mi Band 3 has nearly all the features of the Fitbit Charge 3, but for under a quarter of the price.
At £26.99, the Mi Band 3 is a great choice for those who want fitness tracking at an affordable price, but still get all the features they need, including a OLED screen and app notifications.
I’ve been using the BlitzWolf BW-FYE1 as my daily drivers since I received them, and was delighted to be able to review the FYE5, a different version of them.
These come in a small pill shaped charging case, with small circle shaped earphones. With 1.5 hours of continuous listening, and the ability to be charged 3 times by the case, the BW-FYE5 are a nice set of budget, truly wireless earphones.
I’ve began using my local library to listen to music, moving away from streaming services such as Spotify. However, I’ve never really been a fan of the Apple Music interface, and that’s where Marvis comes in. Marvis offers a better interface for Music.app. With support for Apple Music or your library, Marvis lets you have a greatly customisable interface and other powerful features.
I’ve been using mechanical pencils for years – mainly an orange Parker Jotter style one. However, one thing I disliked about the pencil was that the lead wear down and become smooth on one side, and you’d often have to rotate the pencil in order to keep on the sharp side of the lead. The pencil in this review, the Uni-Ball Kuru Toga, does this automatically. Each time the lead hits paper, the lead is rotated, ensuring that your lead is always sharp.
The VPN market is a crowded space, with thousands of different apps offering different pricing structures, features, security levels and speeds.
If you know of ProtonMail, chances are you know of ProtonVPN, by the same developers. Privacy is now a big thing, with many people becoming more aware of the dangers of the internet, and more and more people wanting to have more privacy when they are online.
Offered for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS, you can use ProtonVPN on all your devices. ProtonVPN is a great free, and paid, VPN service. It’s secure, reliable, has good terms and conditions, and is made by a trusted company. However, there are also drawbacks, which will be looked at in this review.
