Best of all – you don’t need to sign up for anything or download/install any software! Using the free service TuneMyMusic, you can copy the playlists you’ve created in Spotify over to the Apple Music app (and/or iTunes). Here’s how –

Please note: even though the screenshots used in this guide are from a Mac, the entire process is identical whether you’re using Windows, Linux or macOS.

1. Head over to the TuneMyMusic home page (link opens in a new tab/window) and click the big Let’s Start button.



2. Select Spotify as the source.



3. You’ll be prompted to sign into Spotify (if you aren’t already) and then click the large AGREE button so that TuneMyMusic can access your playlists.



4. Click the Load from your Spotify account button.



5. A window will appear with a list of all of the playlists you’ve created on Spotify. Place a check in box next to each of the playlists that you want to export to Apple Music and then click the Next: Select Destination button.



6. Click the Apple Music button to select the destination.



7. A small window will appear – click the Login to your Apple account button in that window.



8. Enter your Apple ID and password in the spaces provided.







9. Depending on your settings, you may be prompted to authenticate with 2 factor authorization. If you are, enter the auth code after you receive it.



10. Now click the Allow button so that TuneMyMusic can create new playlists in Apple Music.



11. Finally! Click the Start Moving My Music >> button. Note: your playlists aren’t “moved” – they’re copied. They will still exist and be accessible in Spotify, they’ll just also exist in Apple Music.



12. The process is actually pretty quick. It only took a minute to export 12 of my playlists (659 songs in total).



13. Once it’s done, you may notice messages about missing files (see screenshot below). If you do see a message about x missing files, click the Show list link next to that playlist.



14. Scroll through the playlist until you find the missing song(s). These tracks either aren’t available on Apple Music or TuneMyMusic wasn’t able to locate/identify them.



15. Open the Music app on your Mac, iTunes on your Windows PC, or the Apple Music app on your iPhone or iPad. Ta-da! All of your Spotify playlists are now accessible in your Apple Music collection. That’s it – you’re all done.

The post How to Transfer Your Spotify Playlists to Apple Music (or iTunes) appeared first on Simple Help.

Please note: the steps and screenshots in this guide are from HandBrake running in Windows. The steps are similar enough (though not identical) for the macOS and Linux versions of HandBrake that you should have no trouble at all following along, even if you’re not using Windows.

1. Get started by downloading HandBrake and installing it. The app itself isn’t very big and doesn’t take long to download or install. Once the installation has completed, launch HandBrake.
2. Now you’ll need to load the video that you want to resize. To do so, click the File – Open a single video file. link.



3. Select the video and then click the Open button.



4. Once the video has been loaded into HandBrake, select the Dimensions tab.



5. Locate the Size section – this is where you set the dimensions you want the video to have. Make your changes to both the Width: and Height: numbers by using the up/down arrows next to each item. Make sure to maintain the same aspect ratio or the resulting video will looked ‘squished’.



6. Confirm that the Output: lists the Display size with your newly set dimensions.



7. Feel free to review the other encoding options that HandBrake offers, if you’d like. They have great documentation, and the app itself has a lot of features. This step is not mandatory, and the default settings will probably suit your needs. Plus, you can always make changes and try again if you’re not happy with the result the first time.
8. Finally, give your new video a name and choose a location to save the file in the Save As: field at the bottom of the window. Click the Start Encode button when you’re ready.






9. The status of your encode will be displayed at the bottom of the HandBrake app window. The larger (file size) and longer the video is, the longer this process will take. You may want to go grab yourself a cup of coffee. Of course, you can continue to use your computer while HandBrake does its thing – it’ll just be a bit slower.



10. Once HandBrake is done resizing the video, open up a File Explorer and locate the newly created file. Select it and then click the Properties button in the ribbon or right-click the file and choose Properties from the context menu.



11. Click the Details tab and locate the Video section on that screen. Confirm that the Frame width and Frame height are set to the correct, new dimensions.



12. Open the file in your favorite video player and confirm it looks the way it should etc.



13. That’s it! You’re all done.

HandBrake is a super helpful tool you can use for much more than just resizing videos, like converting videos to play on your iPhone or iPad and copying DVDs to play on your phone, tablet or computer.

The post How to Resize a Video in Windows, macOS and Linux appeared first on Simple Help.

Ubuntu has gone back and forth (no pun intended) regarding the location of the “Close”, “Maximize” and “Minimize” buttons that appear in the window bar of every app/screen in Ubuntu. Sometimes they’re on the right side, sometimes the left. Here are the steps to set those buttons to the left or right side of the window bar.

1. The first thing to do is install the dconf Editor. Open a terminal and enter the command:

sudo apt install dconf-editor



2. Once it’s been installed, open your App list and select dconf Editor



3. Click the I’ll be careful button when the warning screen appears.



4. Once dconf Editor has opened, click the Search button (the one that looks like a magnifying glass).



5. Enter the word button in the search field. After a moment a bunch of search results will appear. Scroll down until you find the section titled org.gnome.desktop.wp.preferences

   
   

   Inside of that section locate the line with the text ‘:minimize,maximize,close’ and double-click it.



6. Toggle the Use default value switch to the OFF position.







7. Once the Use default value switch is OFF, look for the Custom value field. This is where the magic happens. The location of the colon ( : ) determines the location of the Minimize, Maximize and Close buttons. If the colon is at the beginning of the minimize,maximize,close string, the buttons will be on the left side of the window bar. If the colon is at the end of the minimize,maximize,close string, the buttons will be on the right side of the window bar. Once you’ve made the change, click the green “check mark” button (see screenshot below) to apply the new setting right away.



8. Ta-da! The buttons will have moved to the other side of the dconf Editor app …



9. and all of your other apps!



10. If you ever want to revert your change, just open the dconf Editor again and turn the Use default value switch back ON. That’s it!

If you want to customize your Ubuntu desktop even more, check out our guide on installing Ubuntu themes!

The post How to Move the Close, Maximize and Minimize Buttons in Ubuntu appeared first on Simple Help.

At one point in time this was a bit more straightforward. It’s a little more complicated now, but mostly due to the sheer number of ways that you can install a theme in Ubuntu. We’ll cover a few of the most common methods using some of the most popular themes.

Table of Contents

1. Install Gnome Tweaks
2. Install New Themes in Ubuntu
   – the Pop!_gtk Theme
   – the Qogir Theme
   – the Arc Theme
3. Additional Ubuntu Theme Resources

Install Gnome Tweaks

Switching between installed themes is always done the same way, and it requires you to download and install the Gnome Tweaks tool. To do so, open a Terminal and enter the command:

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

Once Gnome Tweaks has been installed you can close the Terminal. Click the Show Applications button (the one in the bottom left corner of the screen) and then search for tweaks. Click the app icon to open Gnome Tweaks.

Select Appearance from the list of options in the left column. From here you can change the theme that Ubuntu is using. Ubuntu doesn’t ship with very many themes, but it does include Adwaita (in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and above) and it’s quite popular (it’s the default theme for Fedora Desktop). Click the menu next to Applications – which is probably set to Yaru, the default theme for Ubuntu.

Select Adwaita from the list.

After a brief moment the Adwaita theme will be applied and the style of your applications in Ubuntu will change.

The Adwaita GTK Theme in Ubuntu (click to enlarge)

Switch the Icons to Adwaita as well to apply even more changes.

Install New Themes in Ubuntu

Now that you know how to switch between themes, let’s install a few.

First we’ll need to find some themes to download and try out. OMGUbuntu! has a list of 11 of the best looking GTK themes so let’s install a few of those.

1. Pop!_gtk is usually mentioned when the subject of Ubuntu themes comes up so let’s give it a try. This theme is installed via a Terminal, so open one up and run the following commands:
   

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:system76/pop
   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install pop-theme



2. Once all of the files and their prerequisites have been downloaded and installed, close out of the Terminal window. Launch the Gnome Tweaks app again.



3. Select the Appearance item from the column on the left side of the window and then choose Pop from the Applications menu (and the Cursor, Icons and Sound menus if you want to go “full Pop” :)



4. Now choose Fonts from the column on the left side of the window and change the them to the Pop recommended ones, which are:

Window Titles: Fira Sans SemiBold (10)
Interface: Fira Sans Book (10)
Documents: Roboto Slab Regular (11)
Monospace: Fira Mono Regular (11)



5. The Pop developer suggestions you restart your shell to make sure all of the changes are applied – so click Alt + F2 on your keyboard, then r and hit enter.


The Pop!_gtk Theme in Ubuntu (click to enlarge)

1. Qogir is installed a bit differently. Start by downloading the zip file from the Qogir github page file and then extract its contents to your Downloads folder. Open a Terminal and navigate to the newly created Qogir-theme-master folder and run the install script by entering the following command:

./install.sh



2. This will copy all of the required files to the /home/your_username/.themes/ folder. Launch the Gnome Tweaks app again, select the Appearance tab and this time and choose Qogir from the Applications menu.


The Qogir Theme in Ubuntu (click to enlarge)

1. Some themes can be installed from directly within the Ubuntu Software app, and there’s even a way to link to them from the web. Open the page 11 Best GTK Themes for Ubuntu (2020 Edition) and scroll down to the Arc section (it’s #6 in the list). Click the Install the Arc GTK Theme from Ubuntu Software button.



2. You’ll be prompted to choose an application to open these types of links in. Click the Choose Application button.



3. Select Ubuntu Software from the list of app and then click the Open Link button.



4. This will launch the Ubuntu Software app on your computer and load the Arc theme installation page. Click the Install button.



5. Once the installation has completed, open Gnome Tweaks again and enable the Arc theme inside of the Appearance panel.


The Arc Theme in Ubuntu (click to enlarge)

Additional Ubuntu Theme Resources

My personal favorite Ubuntu/GTK/Gnome theme is WhiteSur. What can I say I’m a sucker for the macOS interface. WhiteSur still gets regular updates in 2021 and has a lot of customization options. In the screenshot below you’ll see the WhiteSur theme and WhiteSur icons with the WhiteSur wallpaper and Firefox and Dash to Dock have both been tweaked.

The WhiteSur Theme in Ubuntu (click to enlarge)

You may notice a number of themes have a different dock. Of course you should check with the theme documentation to see which one they recommend, but you’ll find a lot of the time it’s Dash to Dock – which happens to be my favorite and the one I use no matter which theme I’ve got loaded.

Dash Dock in Ubuntu (click to enlarge)

Gnome Look is the unofficial home to Gnome interface tweaks and eye-candy. They have themes, icons, wallpapers – all neatly organized with ratings and plenty of screenshots.

You can also use the Gnome Tweaks app to change your lock and login screen backgrounds.

The post How to Install Ubuntu Themes (With Examples) appeared first on Simple Help.

Background

VLC is widely consider the best-in-class multimedia player across all popular operating systems – including Linux. Here’s how you can install it in Ubuntu –

Install VLC in Ubuntu

There are a few ways to accomplish this, but we’ll go with the “snap” method, as it’s the best way to ensure VLC stays up to date when new versions are released. Here goes –

1. Click the Show Applications button in the bottom left corner of the screen.



2. In the Type to search box enter the word terminal and then click the Terminal app when it’s displayed.



3. Enter the command:
   

   sudo snap install vlc



4. Ubuntu will prompt you to enter your password and after you do it will download and install VLC. Once that has successfully completed, exit out of the Terminal



5. Click the Show Applications button again and scroll down to the bottom – there’s VLC! Launch it by clicking on it once.



6. The first time it runs you’ll need to grant it permission to use the Internet to find info about the files you’re playing (cover art etc) – click the Continue button.



7. There’s the VLC we all know and love :)

Set VLC as the Default Media Player in Ubuntu

1. To set VLC as your default media player, click one of the buttons at the end of your menu bar (see screenshot below) and then select Settings from the list of options.



2. Scroll down the list of settings in the column on the left side of the window and select Default Applications. Now in the main part of that same window select the pull-down menu next to Video and choose VLC media player. If you want VLC to handle your audio files too, make sure to select VLC media player from the Music pull-down menu.



3. Now when you double-click a video file it will open up in VLC instead of the default “Videos” App.



4. That’s it!

While you’re here, did you know you can use an iPhone to control VLC? It’s true :)

The post How to Install the VLC Media Player in Ubuntu appeared first on Simple Help.

Using the steps in this tutorial you’ll be able to install and use Ubuntu right from within Windows itself. You won’t need to setup a dual-boot system or restart your PC each time you want to switch from one operating system to the other. Another major benefit is that you can try out Ubuntu and if you don’t like it, very easily get rid of it. Plus, it will not affect the other files on your computer at all. None of the data on on your PC is at risk of being deleted or altered. As if that wasn’t enough, all of the software used in this guide is completely free and open-source.

We also have a macOS version of this guide, which can be found here.

1. Start by downloading the VirtualBox App for Windows. While you’re installing VirtualBox, start downloading Ubuntu – which comes packaged as an .iso file. Once you’ve got VirtualBox installed and Ubuntu downloaded, open VirtualBox and click the New button.



2. In the Name: field enter Ubuntu (or something similarly descriptive). The Type: and Version: fields should auto-populate to Linux and Ubuntu (64-bit) respectively, but if they don’t, make sure that’s how they’re set. Then click the Next button to continue.



3. On the Memory size window make sure that you’ve allocated at least 1024 MB of RAM to the virtual machine (Ubuntu). The more memory your PC has the more you can assign to Ubuntu – but make sure to leave at least half for Windows. Click Next when you’re ready.



4. Select Create a virtual hard disk now on the Hard disk screen and then click the Next button to continue.



5. Choose VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) as the Hard disk file type and then click the Next button.



6. Select Dynamically allocated and click Next.



7. On the File location and size screen use the ‘slider’ to decide the size of the virtual hard drive that Ubuntu will use. Make sure it’s at least 10GB – if you plan to install a lot of Apps in Ubuntu you’ll want it to be much larger than that. Remember that since you choose Dynamically allocated in the previous section it won’t instantly be the size you configure, it will only be as large as it needs to be – up to the limit you set here. So don’t be concerned about making it larger than you think you may need, it won’t actually grow to that size unless you install lots and lots of software etc. Click the Create button to continue.



8. Now that you’ve setup VirtualBox, it’s time to start installing Ubuntu. Select your newly created Ubuntu VirtualBox from the column on the left side of the window and then click the Start button located in the top panel.



9. You’ll be asked to pick a start-up disk. Click the “folder” button next to the pull-down menu (see screenshot below)



10. Click the Add button.



11. Navigate to the Ubuntu .iso file, select it by clicking on it once, and then click the Open button.



12. Make sure the Ubuntu .iso file is selected and then click the Choose button.



13. Finally, click Start.



14. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate to the language you want to use in Ubuntu and hit the Enter/Return key to select it.



15. At some point a pop-up window will appear explaining how your cursor/mouse and keyboard interact with the virtual machine (Ubuntu) and Windows. In all likelihood you’ll be able to just switch back and forth between the two without having to use it, but the Control key on the right side of the keyboard will act as your host key. That means if you’re using Ubuntu and you want to switch your keyboard and mouse back to Windows, hit the right Control key.



16. Back in VirtualBox, use the arrow key to move down to Install Ubuntu and select it by hitting the Enter or Return key on your keyboard.



17. After a few moments (can be several minutes or longer depending on the speed of your PC), a graphical interface will appear. Once again select your language and then click the Continue button.



18. Select the keyboard layout you want to use while Ubuntu is running and then click the Continue button.



19. On the Install screen, make sure that Normal installation, Download updates while installing Ubuntu and Install third-party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware and additional media formats are all selected, and then – you guessed it – click Continue.



20. Make sure that Erase disk and install Ubuntu is selected and then click the Install Now button. Note: nothing will actually be erased. You’re creating a “virtual hard drive” and that’s what Ubuntu thinks it’s erasing. Again, all of your Windows files and folders are completely safe and won’t be touched.



21. Click Continue on the confirmation screen.



22. Select your Time Zone by clicking your location on the map, then click Continue.



23. Enter the required info in each of the provided fields. Click Continue.



24. At this point you may want to go grab yourself a cup of tea or coffee. The installation process will take at least a few minutes and up to half an hour – depending on the overall speed of your PC (hard drive, amount of memory, CPU speed etc).



25. Once the installation has completed, click the Restart button to reboot Ubuntu. Again, this won’t reboot your PC, just Ubuntu running inside of VirtualBox.



26. You don’t need to remove anything – just press Enter.



27. Once Ubuntu reboots, sign in with the username and password you created back in step #23.



28. Ta-da! You now have a fresh install of Ubuntu on your Windows computer! You’ll probably have a couple of updates to install, and Ubuntu will notify you when it’s ready to install them.



29. Have fun! Going forward, each time you want to use Ubuntu, just open VirtualBox, select Ubuntu from the list of virtual machines, and click the Start button. That’s it!

The post How to Install Ubuntu on Your Windows PC appeared first on Simple Help.

Thanks to the good folks at Bitnami, the entire process is remarkably easy and straight forward. The final result will be a completely functional WordPress installation that you can use as a development and testing environment. As a huge added bonus, it doesn’t even take very long to set up.

Let’s jump right in!

1. The screenshots used in this guide are from a Mac, however, Windows users will have absolutely no trouble following along as the software is the same on both platforms.
2. If it’s not already installed on your Mac or PC, download and install VirtualBox. VirtualBox is an app that lets you run other operating systems on your computer, in a virtual environment. That means you can have a second and completely different operating system (like Linux) running on your computer without having to reboot or alter your existing operating system at all. The installation is super straight-forward, mostly you’ll just click “Next” a bunch of times.
3. With VirtualBox now installed, download the .OVA file from here. The file is approximately 730MB so the download may take a few minutes depending on your Internet connection speed.
4. Launch VirtualBox and select File and then Import Appliance…



5. Navigate to the Bitnami .ova file that you downloaded back in step #3. Select that file and then click the Open button.



6. Back on the Appliance to import screen, click the Continue button.



7. Click the Import button on the Appliance settings screen.



8. Wait a few moments for the import to finish.



9. Now you’ll be taken back to the main VirtualBox window. Select your newly added bitnami-wordpress entry from the list in the left column of the window, and then click the Start button.



10. Your virtual device will start up for the first time.



11. You’ll be presented with a screen that says to wait a few minutes – so do exactly that, just wait a few minutes. It may seem like nothing is happening but your device is being setup in the background.


click to enlarge

12. Then screen will update and just as promised, you’re now able to view your login credentials etc. Even better – you’re done setting up VirtualBox. Yep, it was that easy. On this screen you’ll find a URL – likely something along the lines of http://192.168.x.x – enter that URL into a web browser on your Mac or PC.


click to enlarge

13. Ta-da, there’s WordPress! You now have WordPress up and running inside of a virtual machine on your computer. You can interact with WordPress exactly as if it were being hosted on a server somewhere else on the Internet. For example, add /wp-admin/ to the end of the URL you were provided in the previous step.


click to enlarge

14. Enter the username and password that were also provided back in step #13 to sign into your new install of WordPress on your Mac or Windows PC.


click to enlarge

15. At this point you can run updates, install themes and plugins – everything you’d be able to do with a “normal” WordPress installation. A good starting point might be to take a look at 7 “Must-Have” plugins for WordPress.


click to enlarge

16. When you’re done working in WordPress, close the VirtualBox machine. When you want to work in WordPress again, just launch VirtualBox and start the bitnami-wordpress entry again. That’s all there is to it.

The post How to Install WordPress on Your Mac or Windows PC appeared first on Simple Help.

The screenshots in this guide are from a Windows 10 PC. However, the software used in this guide is available to Windows, macOS and Linux users – so even if you’re not using Windows you’ll have no trouble at all following along as the steps and images are nearly identical.

1. Start by downloading and installing Audacity. Audacity is a well known, highly regarded, free and open source audio editor for Windows, macOS and Linux.
2. Once the installation has completed, launch Audacity and select File and then Open…



3. Navigate to the MP3 files you want to combine. Select both files by clicking each one while holding down the CTRL key (macOS users hold the Apple key), and then click the Open button.

   

4. Each file will now be imported into Audacity.



5. Once the importing has finished, you’ll have two Audacity windows open – one for each file.


click to enlarge

6. Choose the track you want to be first in the final, combined file. Click Select and then All

   

7. Now click Edit and then Copy



8. Bring the other Audacity window to the foreground, select Edit and then Paste



9. You should now have a screen similar to the image below. Use the horizontal slider to scroll through the “timeline” of your newly created file. In all likelihood you’ll be able to tell where to two files are joined.


click to enlarge

10. You can use the Play button to hear how the entire ‘combined’ MP3 will sound.



11. Now it’s time to save the combined files into one. Select File, then Export and finally Export As MP3



12. Give your new MP3 a name and choose a location to save it.



13. In the Format Options section, select the Quality pull-down menu. Choose from one of the available presets – the Insane option will provide you with the highest audio quality, and the largest file size. The Medium option will encode the file at the lowest audio quality and the smallest file size (although it’s still completely listenable, this one is best suited for spoken word audio tracks). When you’ve made your selection, click the Save button.



14. Now you can enter the metadata for your file, if you wish. Click OK when you’re done.

    

15. Audacity will now join the MP3 files and encode them together into one MP3, which probably won’t take very long.



16. That’s it! Give your newly created MP3 file a listen to make sure it all went smoothly. You’re done :)

Tip: What to Do When MP4 File Won’t Play on Windows Media Player

Should the need arise, we also have a guide on how to split an MP3 into two or more parts.

The post How to Join (Combine) Multiple MP3 Files into One appeared first on Simple Help.

Each of these wallpapers has an aspect ratio of 21:9, so they’ll fit your UltraWide Monitor perfectly.

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click to enlarge Rosemary by by gabmzzn (5999 × 2531)

The post 20 Wallpapers for Dark Mode on Ultra Wide Screen Monitors appeared first on Simple Help.

Animal Crossing

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Download the rest of the Animal Crossing desktop wallpapers here.

The Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild

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Download the rest of the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild desktop wallpapers here.

Fortnite

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Download the rest of the Fortnite wallpapers here.

Super Mario Brothers U Deluxe

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Download the rest of the Super Mario Brothers U Deluxe wallpapers here.

Super Mario Party

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Download the rest of the Super Mario Party desktop wallpapers here.

Mario Kart Deluxe 8

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Download the rest of the Mario Kart 8 wallpapers here.

Super Smash Brothers

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Download the rest of the Super Smash brothers wallpapers here.

Minecraft

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Download the rest of the Minecraft wallpapers here.

Luigi’s Mansion 3

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Download the rest of the Luigi’s Mansion 3 wallpapers here.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

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Download the rest of the Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening desktop wallpapers here.

Find desktop wallpapers for almost all Nintendo Switch games here – just click on the game you want to find wallpapers for and scroll down a bit on the game page.

The post Download Nintendo Switch Game Wallpapers appeared first on Simple Help.

FYI – this guide could just as easily be called “how to install Linux Apps in macOS” – as there are a slew of *nix programs that have been ported to work via Homebrew.

With Homebrew, the “missing package manager for macOS” (more info here), you can easily install wget in macOS with just a few Terminal commands. Even better, Homebrew itself is just as easy to install. Here goes –

Install Homebrew

1. Go to Applications -> Utilities and double-click Terminal. Then copy and paste the following command into Terminal and hit return (Enter) on your keyboard:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

2. In all likelihood you’ll see the line The Xcode Command Line Tools will be installed. Hit the return key on your keyboard to continue.



3. Enter your macOS password when prompted.



4. Sit back and wait. Don’t worry if nothing seems to be happening while the software installs, just give it a bit of time.



5. Once the installation has completed you’ll be back at the Terminal prompt. Keep it open, we’ll be using it in the next section too.

Install wget in macOS

1. Now that you have Homebrew installed, it’s time to install wget. To do so, enter the command:

   brew install wget



2. Once again just sit back and wait. Installing wget will take less time than it did to install Homebrew, so don’t go too far away.



3. Once again you’ll be back at the macOS Terminal prompt.



4. Now type wget to make sure everything went smoothly.



5. If you need a refresher on using wget, we’ve got you covered with a guide on using wget. You can also read the manual for wget by entering the command man wget



6. Enjoy!

The post How to Install wget in macOS appeared first on Simple Help.

Please note: the steps and screenshots in this guide are specific to Windows. With that said, if you’re using macOS or Linux you’ll have absolutely no trouble following along, those versions are nearly identical to the Windows version.

1. Start out by heading over to the download page for MKVToolNix and download the version for your platform. If you’re using Windows and are unsure if you should choose the 32 or 64-bit version, check out this short guide to figure out the correct one.
2. After the download has completed, install the app (unless you opted to use the portable version, which doesn’t require an installation). Once that’s done, launch the program.
3. To begin, click the New button in the middle of the window.



4. Locate the Add source files button towards the bottom of the window and give it a click.



5. Navigate to the .mkv file you want to split, select it, and then click the Open button.



6. Give MKVToolNix a moment to process the file and then select the Output tab.



7. Now you’ll need to figure out exactly where you want to cut the file. If you’re unsure how long your video file is, just open it up in a video player like VLC. From there you should have no trouble locating the length of the video file. As illustrated in the screenshot below, the video file I’m using as an example is 18 minutes and 48 seconds long. Split in half, that’s 9 minutes and 24 seconds per file.



8. Locate the Splitting panel within MKVToolNix and select After output duration from the Split mode: menu. Enter the point in time you want the video to be split in the Duration: box, which in my example is at 9 minutes and 24 seconds. Obviously you don’t have to cut the file exactly in the middle – it can be any length of time. Finally, enter 2 in the Maximum number of files: box. That will ensure the resulting ‘split’ will only create 2 files. Note: one file may be a second or two longer than the other. MKVToolNix does a fantastic job at cutting files in half, but there are times when it’s forced to make one file slightly longer than the other.



9. After you’ve configured the options in the Splitting panel, click the Start multiplexing button which is found towards the bottom of the window.



10. Once completed, you’ll be able to find the two newly created video files in the same folder where the source file is located.



11. Open each one to confirm everything went smoothly. All done!

The post How to Split an MKV File appeared first on Simple Help.

Yes you can download Firefox from the Google Play Store and use it on your Chromebook. However, you’d be using the Android version, which has been designed to work best on a phone. To get the ‘full’ version of Firefox on your Chromebook you’ll want to use the version for Linux. Here’s how –

1. Head over to the Firefox for Linux download page and click the big green Download Now button. Copy the file from your Downloads folder to your Linux files folder.



2. Double-check to make sure it copied.



3. Open a Terminal from your Linux apps folder.



4. Enter the command: tar xjf firefox-xx.x.x.tar.bz2 (where xx.x.x is the version of Firefox that you downloaded).



5. Now enter the command: sudo apt-get install libdbus-glib-1-2



6. Finally, enter the command: sudo ln -s ~/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox



7. Now type firefox to launch the app. Ta-da!


click to enlarge

8. In the future when you want to use Firefox, open a Terminal and type firefox

The post How to Install Firefox for Linux on a Chromebook appeared first on Simple Help.

If you don’t have a VPN service yet, or you’re unhappy with your current one, I strongly recommend and endorse the VPN service provided by Private Internet Access (it’s the service I use), which works seamlessly with Chrome OS.

There are a few different ways to connect to your VPN using a Chromebook and we’ll cover the two big ones, setting up the connection manually or using an Android App.

1. Click the time in the bottom-right corner of your Chrome OS screen (see screenshot below) and then click the Settings button (looks like a ‘cog’)



2. Select Network from the Settings column on the left.



3. Click Add connection from inside the Network section.



4. Select the + (plus sign) next to Add OpenVPN / L2TP…



5. Fill out each of the fields according to your VPN providers settings – they’ll provide you with all of the information, with the exception of the Service name field, which can be anything you’d like (a descriptive name is probably best). Toggle the Save identity and password to ON if you don’t want to enter your VPN username and password each time you connect and then click the Connect button.



6. You can confirm the connection by selecting the newly created VPN profile from the Network section…



7. and make sure the status is set to Connected



8. The Wifi icon in the system tray will also have a tiny little ‘key’ next to it, indicating that you’re currently connected to a VPN.



9. Open your browser and navigate to a site like whatsmyip.com – it should display the IP info of your VPN and not your wifi network info.



10. Going forward you can connect to and view the settings of your VPN via the ‘control panel’ part of the notification section.

This method involves using an App from the Google Play Store. Almost all popular VPN providers offer an Android App – and you should be able to use that App on your Chromebook. In this example I’m using the Android App for Private Internet Access.

1. While on your Chromebook head over to the Google Play Store page for the Private Internet Access Android App. Click the large green Install button.



2. Once the installation has completed, click the Open button.



3. Click Next a bunch of times.



4. Click Login



5. Enter your PIA username and password and then click the Login button again.



6. Click OK



7. Click OK to allow PIA to a VPN profile on your Chromebook.



8. Finally, the main connection window will appear. Click the big yellow button.



9. Once connected that yellow button will become green and your IP info will be displayed towards the bottom of the App.



10. You can confirm the connection is working by opening your browser and visiting a site like whatsmyip.com – it should display the IP info of your VPN and not your wifi network info.



11. You can get information on your VPN connection via the Notification section of Chrome OS, including the ability to disconnect.

The post How to Connect to a VPN on a Chromebook appeared first on Simple Help.

Using the Chrome Extension “Google Tone” you can broadcast a sound from one computer to others that will share the URL of whatever web page you have opened. Follow this brief guide to get started –

1. Head over to the Google Tone extension page and click the large Add to Chrome button. Make sure to do this on each of the computers you want to be able to send and receive URLs to and from.



2. When prompted click the Add extension button.



3. Once it’s installed a small blue ‘horn’ icon will appear in your Toolbar. Give it a click.



4. You should hear a short series of tones and then the page will refresh to let you know the test was successful.



5. Now let’s test it with another computer listening – make sure Google Tone is enabled on the other computer, navigate to a page you want to send to the other computer – and click the blue horn icon again. A notification should appear on the other computer and when you click it, the shared page will open.



6. You can send URLs back and forth. You can even send them over the phone/Skype etc.

The post How to Share URLs With Any Nearby Computer appeared first on Simple Help.