Indian government's policy think tank, the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) has tied up with Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Intel to set up a new experience studio that will be a hub for collaboration and experimentation at the NITI Aayog Frontier Technologies Cloud Innovation Center (CIC).
The studio, situated in New Delhi, will enable problem solving and innovation between government stakeholders, startups, enterprises, and industry domain experts.
The studio will help in use of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/ VR), blockchain, and robotics in public sector enterprises and institutions.
The studio will be the hub for government, healthcare, education, and nonprofit startups from India to showcase their solutions.
The experience studio at the NITI Aayog Frontier Technologies CIC will adopt a hybrid model enabling physical and virtual workspaces to collaborate seamlessly. The studio’s digital workspace will enable state-of-the-art collaborative environments to invite experts from various verticals, government departments, research institutions, and not-for-profit organisations for hands-on workshops.
Startups will be encouraged to participate actively
NITI Aayog will use the studio to demonstrate the application of geospatial, AR/VR, drone, and IoT solutions in verticals such as healthcare, agriculture, and smart infrastructure.
Major homegrown industry leaders like MapMyIndia in geospatial solutions, Raphe mPhibr in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and the Centre for Advanced Research in Imaging, Neuroscience and Genomics (CARING), which delivers AI in healthcare – and global leaders like Dassault Systems, and startups like Vizara Technologies and Agatsa Software are demonstrating their solutions at the studio, according to a press release from Amazon India.
Startups will be encouraged to participate actively in the studio through hackathons, grand challenges, and other capacity building initiatives, in collaboration with the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Atal Incubation Centres (AIC).
Will help solve public sector challenges
“The new experience studio with AWS and Intel will further support our mission to identify and deploy leading edge technologies to drive continuous innovation in delivering citizen services,” said Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog.
“The new experience studio at the NITI Aayog Frontier Technologies CIC, based on the AWS Cloud Innovation Centers program, aims to quickly solve public sector challenges through collaboration and actualize innovations from experimentation and prototypes,” said Rahul Sharma, President, Public Sector – AISPL, AWS India and South Asia.
“Intel is committed to expanding access to technology resources and knowledge through our collaboration with NITI Aayog and AWS to develop, build, and support cloud services that can enrich the lives of people in India and around the world,” said Prakash Mallya, VP & MD – Sales, Marketing & Communications Group, Intel India.
The NITI Aayog Frontier Technologies CIC was established in October 2020 as part of the AWS Cloud Innovation Centers Global Program. AWS Public Sector CICs are also present across Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, South Korea, and United States.
As organizations around the world begin implementing hybrid work policies, Microsoft is making it even easier for workers to visually share their ideas in Microsoft Teams with a series of new updates for Microsoft Whiteboard.
When users open the new Whiteboard, they'll be greeted with a brand new user interface that combines a clean, modern look and feel with improved functionality. As part of this new visual refresh, the app's features are also easier to access and find.
On desktop, laptops and tablets, all of the app's inking tools and content creation menus are separated to reduce cognitive load while an app bar at the top of the canvas provides access to all of Whiteboard's collaboration features and board-specific properties. However, on mobile, the creation panel and board controls are hidden to optimize screen real estate. The addition of large, colorful icons also makes Microsoft Whiteboard easy to use for mouse, touch and pen users alike.
Templates, sticky notes, reactions and new inking tools
As part of Microsoft's new updates to Whiteboard, the company has added more than 40 new, fully customizable templates to help users get started faster. There are templates for a number of common scenarios including brainstorming, problem solving, group projects and more.
To help Whiteboard become more colorful and organized, Microsoft has also added new sticky notes with 12 colorful shades to choose from. While these new colors can be used to create a color code system for projects, users can also assign one color per person to make it easier to see who came up with which ideas. In order to further facilitate collaboration, Microsoft has also added lightweight contextual feedback with a set of fun and engaging reactions.
Images and shapes can also be added to projects in Microsoft Whiteboard to grab attention as well as to convey abstract and complex concepts. Shapes can even be used to create flowcharts and diagrams.
As digital ink is an important part of Whiteboard, Microsoft has also added 15 new pen and highlighter color options and a range of thicknesses to help users visualize content and bring their ideas to life. Microsoft Whiteboard users can now ink straight lines, arrows, and shapes with ink to shape recognition. Meanwhile, keyboard shortcuts for ink tools make it easier to switch between tools so that users can stay focused on their content without having to change focus to the toolbar.
Whether you're using Microsoft's all new Surface Studio Laptop, the Surface Go 2, the Surface Duo 2 or even your smartphone, creating and collaborating with colleagues in Teams will now be even easier thanks to these latest updates to Microsoft Whiteboard.
Read on for our detailed analysis of each website builder for portfolios
Creating a new website is a lot easier than it used to be – rather than learning HTML and CSS, you can just click and drag with your mouse and have something very professional-looking on the internet in minutes, and portfolio website builders are no different.
The increased use of this software online means you've got a selection of the website builders for portfolios to choose from. However, with so many great selection of tools to choose from, it can be difficult to pick out the best portfolio website builders from a crowd of so many.
To help you narrow down your choice, we've picked five portfolio website builders that offer a good balance of price points and features.
All of these website builders for portfolios offer simple ways of customizing your pages once they're online, so you can regularly change the look of your work, and make sure your talents are always being well promoted on the web.
Here then are what we think are the best portfolio website builders.
Top 3 website builder services
1.Wix - a top-notch website builder that's great value Wix is top dog when it comes to free website builders, but it also offers some powerful paid plans. These start from as little as $8.50 per month for the Combo plan (over three years) which removes the adverts from your site, as well as giving you 3GB of storage space, a free domain and free SSL certificate.
2.Gator is a great website builder service Gator Site Builder from Hostgator has a superbly cheap Starter package which comes with free hosting and a domain name included, plus a free SSL certificate. You get constantly available customer support, too, and the benefit of website analytics to boot: all with 50% off meaning you pay just $3.84 per month.
3.Zyro - a serious, high-quality site builder Hostinger-owned Zyro offers a website builder that is very easy-to-use and ideal for novices, allowing anyone to get their site up swiftly. You’ll pay very little for the privilege too and even the premium "Unleashed" plan costs just $3.90 monthly.
Weebly was first set up with the intention of making it easy to set up a portfolio of work online, and those origins stand it in good stead today, even as it has broadened its horizons to become more of a general website builder. If you don't mind a Weebly subdomain, some ads on your site, and a limit of 500MB storage, you can actually use it for free.
While the choice of themes is relatively small, they're all fully customizable, and they all work on any size of screen, automatically reformatting to suit the display dimensions. Weebly has one of the most elegant and user-friendly website editor interfaces we've seen, so you can tweak your portfolio in exactly the way you want.
One of the many areas where Weebly excels is in the way it calmly handles a lot of technical stuff quietly in the background: it gives you enhanced SSL security by default, and (on the paid options) advanced analytics for your website, plus the option to transfer over a domain name.
If you want to get up and running quickly, would like to spend some – but not a lot – of time customizing your site, and need something that's going to be reliable and comprehensive, Weebly fits the bill. The fact that you can get started for free to see if you like it is an added bonus.
There's a lot that appeals to us about the website builder Cargo: the unconventional and varied choice of templates, the intuitive page tweaking interface you can edit them with, and the way that you can build up an entire site without paying a penny (you won't be charged until the site goes live).
It's certainly got more of an edge than other comparable website builders, which might be good or bad depending on what you're looking for. The templates available are all eye-catching and bold, and will work best for people wanting to stand out from the crowd, whether that's with photography or writing.
Every template is responsive and works on a variety of screens, while Cargo also offers some cool animated image effects you can play around with too. On top of that, the site builder is to be commended for its wide choice of fonts as well, plus, even more fonts are being added from time to time.
Besides all of the features on the surface – including an online template editor that hits a nice balance between simplicity and customization – you get 6GB of image cloud storage, unlimited pages, unlimited bandwidth, the option to transfer over a domain name if you need to, and a ton of help and support (including tutorial videos).
Built on the latest HTML5 technology and with useful extras like e-commerce and domain name support included, IM Creator is going to be too advanced and in-depth for some, but will suit other portfolio builders perfectly. That's not to say it's difficult to use – there's just more going on.
You don't need to know a shred of code to get started, there are plenty of different themes and looks to choose from, and we like the way the themes are already pre-populated with content. That means you can just edit the sample material that's already there rather than starting from scratch, which can be more daunting.
If you want to go deeper into your website building and customizations, then IM Creator makes this possible. The site editor includes a variety of gallery and slideshow options, plus image effects to drop over your uploaded pictures, and the option to change everything from the fonts used to the page margins.
We'd recommend IM Creator if you're looking to stand out from the pack – it has a wide choice of templates and some detailed editing options too. On the other hand, it does need a bit more of a time and effort investment than other site builders.
Krop is a creative jobs site and a portfolio builder rolled into one, so you know that its services are trusted by people in the same industry as you (or the same industry that you're trying to break into). What's more, its template options are some of the most well-designed that we've seen.
The website builder ticks all of the boxes that you should be looking for. Setting a site up is quick and easy, you can register a custom domain if you want to, and making tweaks to the design and layout of your pages is very straightforward too. On top of that, you get neat extras like Dropbox and Instagram syncing, and Google Analytics integration.
If you do know some CSS, then you can take more control over the way your site is designed. If not, you can just use the simple site editor instead – picking colors and fonts is as easy as clicking on a side panel.
Those of you who are looking to get a gig at the same time as building your website can of course switch straight over to the job section of the Krop site to find work – there are some big-name employers on the portal. You can try out the service with a free 14-day trial.
Considering Adobe makes some of the best creative software in the business, you would hope it knows what it's doing in terms of displaying portfolios on the web – and we're glad to report that is indeed the case.
This is slightly different to the other services we've mentioned here, because it's a free add-on to the Creative Cloud suite developed by Adobe. If you don't already pay for the programs then Portfolio is unlikely to tempt you to part with your cash, but if you are a CC subscriber, it's worth looking at this before venturing anywhere else. Worth noting that college graduates can get Adobe Portfolio free for 1 year.
While it doesn't offer as many customization and layout options as some of the other site builders we've mentioned here (although, the popular feature request - video backgrounds, has been added), Adobe Portfolio does make the process of getting your work online simple and fun. Of course there's also the tight integration with Adobe's apps, so you can easily share your work straight from Lightroom to the web. You can also purchase and connect a domain if you wish.
Pages are optimized for any device and certain ones can be password-protected if needed, and there's also the option to bring over a domain name you already own. For a simple portfolio maker that plugs right into the apps you already use (assuming that's the case), it's ideal.
Read on for our detailed analysis of each website builder for portfolios
Creating a new website is a lot easier than it used to be – rather than learning HTML and CSS, you can just click and drag with your mouse and have something very professional-looking on the internet in minutes, and portfolio website builders are no different.
The increased use of this software online means you've got a selection of the website builders for portfolios to choose from. However, with so many great selection of tools to choose from, it can be difficult to pick out the best portfolio website builders from a crowd of so many.
To help you narrow down your choice, we've picked five portfolio website builders that offer a good balance of price points and features.
All of these website builders for portfolios offer simple ways of customizing your pages once they're online, so you can regularly change the look of your work, and make sure your talents are always being well promoted on the web.
Here then are what we think are the best portfolio website builders.
Top 3 website builder services
1.Wix - a top-notch website builder that's great value Wix is top dog when it comes to free website builders, but it also offers some powerful paid plans. These start from as little as $8.50 per month for the Combo plan (over three years) which removes the adverts from your site, as well as giving you 3GB of storage space, a free domain and free SSL certificate.
2.Gator is a great website builder service Gator Site Builder from Hostgator has a superbly cheap Starter package which comes with free hosting and a domain name included, plus a free SSL certificate. You get constantly available customer support, too, and the benefit of website analytics to boot: all with 50% off meaning you pay just $3.84 per month.
3.Zyro - a serious, high-quality site builder Hostinger-owned Zyro offers a website builder that is very easy-to-use and ideal for novices, allowing anyone to get their site up swiftly. You’ll pay very little for the privilege too and even the premium "Unleashed" plan costs just $3.90 monthly.
Weebly was first set up with the intention of making it easy to set up a portfolio of work online, and those origins stand it in good stead today, even as it has broadened its horizons to become more of a general website builder. If you don't mind a Weebly subdomain, some ads on your site, and a limit of 500MB storage, you can actually use it for free.
While the choice of themes is relatively small, they're all fully customizable, and they all work on any size of screen, automatically reformatting to suit the display dimensions. Weebly has one of the most elegant and user-friendly website editor interfaces we've seen, so you can tweak your portfolio in exactly the way you want.
One of the many areas where Weebly excels is in the way it calmly handles a lot of technical stuff quietly in the background: it gives you enhanced SSL security by default, and (on the paid options) advanced analytics for your website, plus the option to transfer over a domain name.
If you want to get up and running quickly, would like to spend some – but not a lot – of time customizing your site, and need something that's going to be reliable and comprehensive, Weebly fits the bill. The fact that you can get started for free to see if you like it is an added bonus.
There's a lot that appeals to us about the website builder Cargo: the unconventional and varied choice of templates, the intuitive page tweaking interface you can edit them with, and the way that you can build up an entire site without paying a penny (you won't be charged until the site goes live).
It's certainly got more of an edge than other comparable website builders, which might be good or bad depending on what you're looking for. The templates available are all eye-catching and bold, and will work best for people wanting to stand out from the crowd, whether that's with photography or writing.
Every template is responsive and works on a variety of screens, while Cargo also offers some cool animated image effects you can play around with too. On top of that, the site builder is to be commended for its wide choice of fonts as well, plus, even more fonts are being added from time to time.
Besides all of the features on the surface – including an online template editor that hits a nice balance between simplicity and customization – you get 6GB of image cloud storage, unlimited pages, unlimited bandwidth, the option to transfer over a domain name if you need to, and a ton of help and support (including tutorial videos).
Built on the latest HTML5 technology and with useful extras like e-commerce and domain name support included, IM Creator is going to be too advanced and in-depth for some, but will suit other portfolio builders perfectly. That's not to say it's difficult to use – there's just more going on.
You don't need to know a shred of code to get started, there are plenty of different themes and looks to choose from, and we like the way the themes are already pre-populated with content. That means you can just edit the sample material that's already there rather than starting from scratch, which can be more daunting.
If you want to go deeper into your website building and customizations, then IM Creator makes this possible. The site editor includes a variety of gallery and slideshow options, plus image effects to drop over your uploaded pictures, and the option to change everything from the fonts used to the page margins.
We'd recommend IM Creator if you're looking to stand out from the pack – it has a wide choice of templates and some detailed editing options too. On the other hand, it does need a bit more of a time and effort investment than other site builders.
Krop is a creative jobs site and a portfolio builder rolled into one, so you know that its services are trusted by people in the same industry as you (or the same industry that you're trying to break into). What's more, its template options are some of the most well-designed that we've seen.
The website builder ticks all of the boxes that you should be looking for. Setting a site up is quick and easy, you can register a custom domain if you want to, and making tweaks to the design and layout of your pages is very straightforward too. On top of that, you get neat extras like Dropbox and Instagram syncing, and Google Analytics integration.
If you do know some CSS, then you can take more control over the way your site is designed. If not, you can just use the simple site editor instead – picking colors and fonts is as easy as clicking on a side panel.
Those of you who are looking to get a gig at the same time as building your website can of course switch straight over to the job section of the Krop site to find work – there are some big-name employers on the portal. You can try out the service with a free 14-day trial.
Considering Adobe makes some of the best creative software in the business, you would hope it knows what it's doing in terms of displaying portfolios on the web – and we're glad to report that is indeed the case.
This is slightly different to the other services we've mentioned here, because it's a free add-on to the Creative Cloud suite developed by Adobe. If you don't already pay for the programs then Portfolio is unlikely to tempt you to part with your cash, but if you are a CC subscriber, it's worth looking at this before venturing anywhere else. Worth noting that college graduates can get Adobe Portfolio free for 1 year.
While it doesn't offer as many customization and layout options as some of the other site builders we've mentioned here (although, the popular feature request - video backgrounds, has been added), Adobe Portfolio does make the process of getting your work online simple and fun. Of course there's also the tight integration with Adobe's apps, so you can easily share your work straight from Lightroom to the web. You can also purchase and connect a domain if you wish.
Pages are optimized for any device and certain ones can be password-protected if needed, and there's also the option to bring over a domain name you already own. For a simple portfolio maker that plugs right into the apps you already use (assuming that's the case), it's ideal.
A host of different services will now let you put a website online, quickly and easily, no coding skills required – but if you're looking for something to show off your talents as a musician then you need a more specific set of features.
Primarily, a way of uploading and sharing your tunes in a simple and secure way, even if it's just snippets of songs rather than whole tracks or indeed albums.
If you're a musician for hire then it can be useful to have some kind of booking system in place as well, or at least a contact form. On top of that, there are all the extras you might be interested in, like support for your own domain name or gallery pages to show just how many people came to your last gig.
Here are our picks for the best website builder for musicians to create a presence online.
Top 3 website builder services
1.Wix - a top-notch website builder that's great value Wix is top dog when it comes to free website builders, but it also offers some powerful paid plans. These start from as little as $8.50 per month for the Combo plan (over three years) which removes the adverts from your site, as well as giving you 3GB of storage space, a free domain and free SSL certificate.
2.Gator is a great website builder service Gator Site Builder from Hostgator has a superbly cheap Starter package which comes with free hosting and a domain name included, plus a free SSL certificate. You get constantly available customer support, too, and the benefit of website analytics to boot: all with 55% off meaning you pay just $3.46 per month.
3.Zyro - a serious, high-quality site builder Hostinger-owned Zyro offers a website builder that is very easy-to-use and ideal for novices, allowing anyone to get their site up swiftly. You’ll pay very little for the privilege too and even the premium "Unleashed" plan costs just $3.90 monthly.
Website builder designed specifically for musicians
Sell music, tickets and merch
Plug in all your social accounts
Not the most flexible theme editor
You won't find too many website builder services aimed specifically at musicians, but Bandzoogle gleefully jumps in to provide a bespoke service specifically for bands and artists. While it lacks some of the polish of the big names, because it focuses on the musician niche in particular, it has everything you should need.
That includes, of course, the ability to upload your own tracks and let visitors stream them from your website. You can get tracks organized into entire albums if you really want to go to town, or just share (or even sell) single tracks. And then, as well as that, you've got simple ways to post gig dates, blog updates, and so on.
Whether you need to build a contact form or a video diary, Bandzoogle makes it easy, no coding required – you can really make a site that's as simple or as complex as you like, and the end result is something that looks like you hired a specialist.
You've got over 100 themes to choose from (there is even one for crowdfunding), they're all straightforward to edit and tweak, and connecting up social accounts (including the likes of SoundCloud and Bandcamp) only takes a few clicks as well. As an added bonus, you can sell fan subscription, merchandise and tickets right through Bandzoogle as well.
This all makes, in our opinion, Bandzoogle the best overall website builder for musicians.
Check out any list of website builders for any purpose and Wix is likely to feature on it, but not only does this service earn that high reputation, it also has some useful tools for musicians – not least the ability to upload your own tracks so visitors to your website can listen to them without any extra software or browser extensions.
Platforms that you're probably already using, like Bandsintown and Songkick, can plug directly into your Wix site: you can set up integrations like these in just a few clicks. What's more, you can add on an e-commerce portal to your site, for the purposes of shifting albums, T-shirts, or whatever else you need to sell.
Wix has a very solid selection of templates, with more than 500 to choose from, and if you delve into the music section you'll see there are options for solo artists, bands, DJs, producers, or anyone else connected to the industry. Have a click around these templates to see the kind of sites it's possible to create.
After that you've got all the features Wix has become known for: a site editor that's a breeze to use whether or not you know what CSS stands for, custom domain name support, easy blogging and simple social media support, and a free tier that lets you work out whether Wix is for you before you part with any cash.
Overall, Wix offers a great website builder, and especially a website builder for musicians.
Music Glue is a little different to the other website builder services we've featured here: it focuses first and foremost on the merchandise and ticketing aspects of the music business, and indeed powers the online stores for some of the biggest names in the industry. Its pricing system is unusual too, taking a 10% cut of whatever you sell rather than a flat fee.
That does at least mean you won't be out of pocket if your online marketplace doesn't attract much attention to begin with. There are no additional fees for payment processing, and customers can rock up with debit or credit cards, or PayPal.
Music Glue is less impressive on the website building side, although you do get the basics – a choice of themes for the site attached to your online shop, the option to bring over your own custom domain name, tools for tweaking the code and layout of your site, and so on. It's possible to plug in social media accounts and even set up a mailing list.
If your priority is the mechanics of selling music and tickets to your audience, then Music Glue is a good bet, and has some very famous clients on its books, as we mentioned. If you don't really have anything to sell right now and want to spend more time fiddling with a site design and layout, then maybe look elsewhere.
French website Difyd2c isn't the most well-known website builder for musicians out there, and it doesn't have the same breadth of tools and features as some of the big names – but where it really comes into its own is in getting your music online quickly and easily.
If you'd rather just get your stuff up quickly with a few pictures and links, rather than spend ages choosing a theme and editing HTML, Difymusic could be for you. It relies on plug-ins – like Spotify or SoundCloud for getting your music up, for example – but it supports an awful lot of them, so you're bound to find something that works.
If you want to sell merch and tickets, then you can pay to add that on your main site, with a one-time €9.99 setup fee (about £9 or $12) and then 5% commission based on sales, but the basics are free. Connect up your Facebook page and your YouTube channel and you're good to go in just a few minutes.
Admittedly the choice of templates and editing options aren't very strong, but the designs you can play around with are decent enough, and certainly won't put anyone off your music. Difyd2c lets you get started quickly, and scale up as required.
Tumblr isn't a website builder in the conventional sense – it's more of a half blogging, half social media platform – but if you take a longer look at what Tumblr has to offer, it's actual very appealing for musicians. For one thing, it's completely free to use, plus it already attracts a busy community of creatives.
You can post up to one 10MB MP3 file every day, as well as links, text posts, videos, photos and more. Those MP3s appear as streamable files for visitors to your site – they can listen to the tunes in their browser, no plug-ins or extra software required, so it's a great way of showcasing your talents without paying anything.
If Tumblr was simply a blogging platform and that was it, we probably wouldn't recommend the service, but it also supports pages alongside your blog (for a gallery or a contact form), custom domain names (so you can pay extra for whatever URL name you like), and posting from mobile apps too.
On top of all that there are a host of themes to choose from, some of which cost money, but many are free, and a lot of them would suit a musician's portfolio. If the theme isn't exactly to your liking, you can tweak it with the integrated options or your own CSS, and switching between themes whenever you like is simple, too.
Over the past year and a half, consumers have started shopping online more than ever before and many of their searches begin on Google which is why the search giant has announced that it's adding new ways to find shopping inspiration across its products.
Since inspiration can strike at any time from an image you see online to a photo saved on your smartphone or even from something in the real world that catches your eye, the company is adding new features to Google Lens that make products users see instantly shoppable.
Beginning soon, iOS users will see a new button in the Google app that makes all of the images on a page searchable through Google Lens. This will make finding a product you see online in a picture, just a tap away.
Google is also making it easier to shop for products from photos on your computer by bringing Lens to Chrome on your desktop. Users will soon be able to select images, video and text content on a website with Lens to quickly see search results in the same tab without having to leave the page they're currently on.
Window shopping and in-store inventory
Beginning today, Google is making it easier to browse for clothing, shoes and accessories on mobile right from its search results.
Now when a user searches for “jean jackets”, the company's search engine will show a visual feed of jackets in various colors and styles alongside other helpful information such as local shops, style guides and videos. Users will also be able to filter their search by style, department, brand and more and when they find something they like, they can check out ratings, reviews and even compare prices to get the best deal. This new experience is powered by Google's Shopping Graph which is a comprehensive, real-time dataset of products, inventory and merchants with more than 24bn listings.
As shoppers are increasingly beginning their in-person shopping experiences online, Google is also adding a new feature that allows them to find local stores that carry the products they want right from Google Search. Beginning today, when users look for products online even from a specific brand, they can select the “in stock” filter to see only the nearby stores that have them on their shelves. This feature will likely benefit small businesses as it can help them attract new local customers.
Google's new shopping features will make it even easier for users to find what they're looking for both online and in-person ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Read on for our detailed analysis of each platform
The popularity of blogging (which originally derives from ‘personal web log’) continues, whether for profit, or just to have a voice on the web, since over a decade ago when it first captured the internet as the ‘next big thing’. Some blogs are standalone sites, but others are a more personal section that fits into a larger, corporate website.
In order to blog, a blogging platform is required, which takes care of formatting the content in the form of text and images, and provides a framework for getting it onto a website. The blogging platform also makes it easier for a search engine to categorize the blog entries, and to be able to take advantage of marketing and advertising opportunities.
So before you start cranking out posts, and welcoming your virtual visitors from around the world, you need to choose the best blogging platform to suit your needs. Check out these great options.
Ask any old-time blogger about what platform they started their blog with, and chances are they'll answer that it was Blogger. To this day, Google’s offering in the blogging space still retains several advantages, including that your existing Google account already means you have a Blogger account.
A broke startup blog will appreciate that it is free to use, and it will even provide the blogspot.com domain name, as well as the option for a custom domain name. It is also one of the easier platforms to use, and provides a choice of templates that can be flexibly modified.
As it is a Google offering, it easily integrates with other Google products, including Google Analytics that can provide information about your website’s visitors that should be used to help grow traffic. Also, your blog can be integrated with Google’s Adsense, that will analyze your content, and display relevant ads to monetize your blog, so you can pay for the coffee as you sit in Starbucks and blog into the night.
With all that going for it, is there any reason not to use Blogger? Well, the problem is that as your blog grows, its simplicity means that you may outgrow Blogger at some point. In addition, it can be difficult to transition from Blogger to another platform.
WordPress is a popular blogging platform which is used on a claimed 41% of web sites, that offers an excellent balance between ease of use, and more powerful options.
They can handle all the details, and take care of the domain name, the security and the hosting for a one stop shopping option. WordPress offers hundreds of themes, with flexibility in fonts and options for a custom look. They also offer expert support, and credit card payments can be accepted via an available plugin.
Pricing starts at the Personal plan for $4 (€3.6, £3.1) monthly billed annually, which removes all WordPress advertising. There is also a free tier available, which is suitable for a non-commercial blog as there is WordPress advertising and no way you can monetize it.
The Ruby-based blog generator with tons of advanced features
Free cost
Advanced feature set
Not user friendly
Requires knowledge of Ruby
The latest version of Jekyll (4.2.1) is a “simple, blog-aware, static site generator.” Content gets created in TXT files, which get placed into folders. Then you build your site via Liquid language templates. Jekyll then merges the content and the template together, and voila, a website is generated that can be uploaded to a server. For those that need a host, there is integration with Jekyll to host the website for free on GitHub.
While there is a comprehensive ‘quick-start guide’ on the Jekyll website, it hardly offers the simplicity of some competing blogging platforms that can do this all from a web interface. However, the benefits that Jekyll offers are the advanced features, which include options for paginating posts, available plugins, excerpt rendering, templates, and community maintained themes. It also supports blog migration from other platforms.
The plus here is that there is no cost to the platform, but the downside is that there is only community support, and the work takes place in the Ruby development environment, so many newbies will be put off.
While some blogs are well developed, and blur the line between a blog, and a full fledged website, at the other end of things we have Tumblr. It seems to be doing something right as it claims a staggering 500+ million different blogs.
It focuses on the more concise end of the spectrum, with an emphasis on shorter content, like just an image, or link, that can appear as more of an alternate social media platform. Content is definitely more short-form, with posts consisting of a variety of material, for example, pics, jokes, quips, Spotify tracks, and video (just remember that adult content is no longer welcome). Like a social media platform, you can also follow other blogs, and republish posts you like to your own blog.
The pro is that Tumblr is quite simple to use, costs nothing, and is ideal for use on a mobile device. However, this is not ideal for a more developed blog, as the content remains in the Tumblr ecosystem, and there is no way to monetize it.
Typepad is a fully developed blogging platform, designed for the professional blogger. It offers a ton of flexibility, including the ability to publish from email, a web browser, or mobile. It also easily integrates with Google Analytics, and has its own affiliate plan.
Typepad supports design customization with a Theme Builder for a custom look, and the option for creating your own custom template or modifying a theme with custom CSS. Typepad is also fully hosted, and has support available.
After the initial 14-day trial, plans start at $8.95 (£8) per month for up to four blogs with unlimited storage.
Currently, Typepad is not accepting new users. Instead the company refers new users toBluehost.
What is 8K resolution? This advanced picture technology, offering four times as many pixels (and therefore detail) as a standard 4K screen, is increasingly in the spotlight. You'll find premium 8K TV ranges from the likes of TCL, Samsung and LG pushing the technology – but is it really worth all the hype these manufacturers are rustling up?
Throughout 2021 so far, we’ve seen more 8K resolution screens than ever. 8K models have tripled in number over the past year, and there are even 8K projectors starting to enter the fray.
You'll usually see 8K resolution paired with other premium formats and technologies, too. It's commonly found with QLED panels in new Samsung TVs, or even in a few cases with OLED panels. However, the day will soon come when 8K will be more of a mid-tier proposition than it is right now – this is clear from the fact prices are dropping all the time.
For those who are interested in the high-resolution tech of tomorrow, what does 8K really mean? And does it offer a significant upgrade over existing TV screens that we’d all notice? Read on to find out everything you need.
What is 8K resolution?
8K is nothing short of the clearest picture you’re ever likely to see. It’s got four times more pixels than 4K images, measuring 7680x4320 pixels, which equates to a total of 33,177,600 pixels.
In a 65-inch screen they are so small you won't even be able to make out the pixel structure – though many 8K TVs are much, much larger. 85-inch TVs, anyone?
(Image credit: Samsung)
Why is it called 8K?
It’s called 8K because the images are roughly 8,000 pixels wide, give or take a few hundred, but the specification also comes under the umbrella term Ultra HD, so some people use the term Ultra HD 8K. Others still call it 8K Super Hi-Vision, such as NHK – Japan's largest public broadcaster – which invented it back in the year 2000 and branded it in 2012.
LG has released a range of 8K TVs a year after they were first announced (we'll cover those later), but the interesting thing is LG claims competitors don't offer the same experience as LG's real 8K.
So what's this argument about "real 8K"? Well, LG is citing the Information Display Measurements Standard (IDMS) for pixel differentiation, arguing that 8K TVs shouldn't just be defined by the number of pixels they have (7,680 x 4,320), but also how well the TV panel can distinguish / contrast between those pixels. If those tiny self-emissive dots start to merge the brightness or colors of their output, then there's little point in having so many.
LG claims its new 8K TVs achieve this Contrast Modulation (CM) "in the 90 percent range", leading to what it calls "real 8K". (The IDMS standard only requires 25 percent for images, or 50 percent for text.)
These claims came only a day after the 8K Association, an organization for encouraging the adoption and development of 8K, with members including Samsung, Panasonic, Hisense, and TCL – though notably not LG – set out its own standard for 8K TVs. Its mainly sensible stuff, such as HDMI 2.1 ports, high enough frame rates, 8K resolution, and a minimum 600 nits peak brightness, but no mention of the Contrast Modulation measurement used by LG.
There are some great-looking 8K TVs already on the market(Image credit: Samsung)
So what 8K TVs are on the market?
2021 really saw 8K TV makers get into gear. Alongside the usual trio of 8K resolution screens from Samsung (QN900A, QN800A, QN700A), LG has also brought out a number of 8K-capable models featuring their Mini LED tech. But other brands are in on the action too, with TCL's 6-Series 8K QLED proving the cheapest 8K TV out there in the US, and Hisense getting its own piece of the pie.
8K OLED TVs are the priciest at around $29,999 / £29,999 for an 88-inch size, with a small discount for a 77-inch model – but most of the other screens listed here sit at around the $1,000 / £1,000 to $5,000 / £5,000 mark, depending on the screen size and quality of the processor.
You can check out the top tier sets in our best 8K TV guide.
Does an 8K TV need HDMI 2.1?
Yes, if you're hoping to passthrough 8K content from a Blu-ray player or games console at a max 60Hz.
However, with no 8K games around yet, or 8K Blu-rays, the HDMI 2.1 standard is still waiting to be useful for 8K sets, beyond allowing for 4K resolution at 120Hz from source devices.
Are there 8K projectors?
Yes! 8K projection is nowhere near as common in home cinemas – though it is often used in actual cinemas – but some players are looking to release them to market.
In mid-2021, JVC teased a next-gen laser projector with 8K resolution and HDR support; while we don't have a name or release date yet, you can take a sneak peek in the teaser trailer below.
What about 8K gaming?
The arrival of the PS5 and Xbox Series X will have many asking whether 8K games are on the horizon, given the consoles' HDMI 2.1 ports technically allow for 8K/60Hz passthrough.
We're not holding our breath, given that native 4K gaming is still something of a rarity, and will likely take a few more years to become the norm for home console games. (The Xbox Series S still makes do with upscaled 4K, while the Nintendo Switch doesn't get anywhere near it.)
8K isn't necessarily the end goal for gaming either. Many would argue that a fast refresh rate (120Hz) is more important, ensuring that gameplay feels smooth and the picture isn't clipped or torn during busy visuals.
One of the main criticisms levelled at 8K is that there's little-to-no 8K content, meaning 8K hardware relies on upscaling HD or 4K sources.
However, there are a few places native 8K content is starting to stem from. The first is Hollywood, whose directors have begun to use the new RED Weapon 8K camera (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has already been filmed this way in 8K).
And with the advent of truly commercial 8K TVs, there's sure to be a growing market of 8K content from all sorts of traditional TV production studios.
Samsung has partnered with a number of streaming services across Europe – including CHILI, MEGAGOGO, and The Explorers – to start displaying 8K HDR10+ content.
Lastly – and perhaps most tellingly – 8K content will come from all of us. 8K capture from 360-degree video cameras is already offered by the GoPro Omni VR and Insta360 Pro.
"Talk to the VR guys and they're tell you that the higher the resolution and frames rates, the better," says Jeff Park, Director of Marketing at HDMI Licensing, whose new HDMI 2.1 permits 8K image transfer. "VR today looks good but it lacks fidelity … if it was affordable and practical, they would do 8K now," he says. 8K-per-eye VR headsets, anybody? They're surely in the pipeline alongside a wider field of view.
But, in the interim, it'll be advanced upscaling processors that will take full HD and 4K content and make them ready for the 8K big time, redefining the sharpness possible from existing sources.
8K TVs aren't likely to feel like necessary purchases for a while yet, but there's already enough content on the horizon for us to expect a bright future for the high-def technology.
Check out our guide to 4K Ultra HD if you want to catch up on a more current resolution
