Author: Nixplay Team

In this day and age, everything deserves a post on your social media feed, along with a corresponding hashtag—from your beach vacation (#VitaminSea), shoes (#Shoefie), to your food (#Foodstagram). Especially the food.

Browsing Instagram for even a few minutes should lead you to at least one photo of a meal, and there are several accounts dedicated to all kinds of dishes and cuisine. And as if to prove a point, a photo of a lowly egg recently became the most-liked photo on the social media platform, beating the likes of Selena Gomez and Kylie Jenner.

And you won’t hear any complaints from us: We’re very passionate about food, and we don’t mind seeing our social media feeds overridden by pictures of cake, pizza, or steak—plus points if they’re homemade! If your culinary repertoire isn’t as extensive as you’d like, fear not: Being inexperienced in the kitchen shouldn’t deter you from trying your hand at cooking. Start by trying these easy recipes. Don’t forget to take photos of your dishes after, and display them on your Nixplay frame!

Caprese Salad

This Italian salad evokes images of lazy sun-drenched summer holidays in the Isle of Capri. It’s impossibly simple to create and photographs well too.

Ingredients
3 medium vine-ripened tomatoes
1/2 pound mozzarella cheese (or more, if you’re like us and cannot get enough of cheese)
20 fresh basil leaves
Extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Slice tomatoes and mozzarella into 1/4″ thick pieces. Arrange them in an alternating pattern on a platter, adding a basil leaf between each. Drizzle it with extra-virgin olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.

Avocado Toast

The Internet’s love affair with avocados doesn’t seem to be fading away any time soon. Take advantage of the obsession with this healthy fruit with this yummy breakfast.

Ingredients
1 8-ounce ripe avocado
Fine salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 slices whole wheat bread
Unsalted butter, softened
Crushed red pepper flakes and sea salt (optional)

Mash the avocado until chunky, then season with salt and pepper. Set aside. Toast the bread then lightly spread butter on each slice. Put the mashed avocado on top of the bread, and season with sea salt and red pepper flakes if desired.

Steak

There’s no such thing as a wrong time for steak. If you’re buying steak to cook at home, look for meat with excellent marbling (that’s the term for the streaks of fat on the meat), and consider its grade (USDA Prime is the best, but Choice or Select are also okay). When you’re lucky enough to have a gorgeous slab of prime meat in your pantry, you should be able to cook it properly to get more bang for your buck (or should we say beef?).

Ingredients
1 steak (Fillet or sirloin are the best, but you can’t go wrong with a well-marbled ribeye or porterhouse)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tbsp. canola oil
Herbs, to taste

Season the steak generously with salt and pepper before cooking. Drizzle canola oil into a very hot (but not smoking) frying pan, wait for a bit, then place the steak. Add the butter and the herbs. Sear evenly on each side, taking into consideration the steak’s thickness and your preferred doneness. Place the steak on a warm plate or board and let it rest for around five minutes. Serve it with your chosen side dish—you can’t go wrong with potatoes or mushrooms!

4 New Skills You Should Learn This 2019

By Nixplay Team

On January 18, 2019

In Lifestyle

Learning shouldn’t stop the moment you get your diploma. It’s a lifelong process, and there are many ways to improve your skill set outside the classroom. Whether your goal is a promotion, a career change, or simply self-improvement, these four invaluable skills should serve you well in your professional life.

UX Design

UX (User Experience) Design is a tricky undertaking that seeks to find the perfect balance between aesthetics and function. It entails mapping out a customer’s journey through a website, app, or product in order to achieve everyone’s goals in the most efficient and enjoyable way possible. As the world rushes at the speed of light into the digital age, the demand for effective UX Design for apps, websites, and operating systems will only increase.

Photography and video production

People’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, and we all need to adjust accordingly. This goes hand in hand with the ever-increasing usage of social media, as well as the never-ending shift to mobile devices for media consumption. As the boundaries of photo and video are kept being pushed, content creators—a term that encompasses anyone who puts something out on the ‘net—should strive to enhance their skills as well.

This year, take your content creation skills to the next level by improving your photography and video skills. Dig our your camera, shoot videos daily with your phone, try a photo challenge, attend a seminar—whatever works for you! Don’t forget to display your hard work on a Nixplay Frame!

Machine Learning

Data is the backbone of the world we live in, affecting almost every aspect of our lives. If you’re fascinated by the process of analyzing and interpreting data, machine learning—the process of training a machine to learn—is a field you should definitely get into.

Machine learning makes use of algorithms to make sense of big data (that’s what you call all the data received by a business), adapting from previous computations to churn out more reliable results. Because of machine learning, Netflix is able to recommend which shows you should watch next, and Amazon can show you stuff you might be interested to purchase. It’s not new science—machine learning has been around for quite a while—but it’s never been more relevant and necessary.

Language Translation

While English is the universal language, knowing another tongue will always be an invaluable asset. People who know more than one language are usually seen as a bigger asset to their companies, as they can communicate with foreigners, making more sales and securing more contracts. If you want to study or be assigned abroad, knowing another language should increase your chances.

If you’re traveling, even a rudimentary grasp of your destination’s language can make your trip easier. And if you want to impress someone, speaking in another tongue should do the trick! Sure, it takes a lot of time and willpower, but the additional knowledge (and the inevitable self-esteem boost) worth the sacrifice, don’t you think?

5 Great Smart Home Additions For 2019

By Nixplay Team

On January 16, 2019

In Lifestyle

Our home appliances and gadgets are becoming more and more high-tech. While there’s no harm in doing your household chores manually, being able to reallocate the time you’ll spend doing these tasks into more meaningful pursuits make the purchase of smart appliances worth it. These gadgets and gizmos will make an excellent addition to your smart home.

Lutron Serena Smart Shades (starts at $350)

Window shades aren’t really something you pay a lot of attention to, but when your bedroom is outfitted with blinds that listen to Siri and automatically roll up or down, you’ll be very grateful for this simple luxury. That’s the promise of Serena Shades, which you can integrate with other smart home gadgets like lights and thermostats for an overall experience. It’s especially useful for windows in tricky, hard-to-reach places, as well as homes with elderly or disabled residents. Setup can be a little tricky, but worth enduring for the comfort you’ll get.

Husqvarna Automower 315X ($1999.95)

Remember when you’d mow your neighbor’s lawn as a kid to augment your allowance? Well, we’re sorry to say that your former job can now be done by a robot. The Husqvarna Automower 315X is perfect for folks with medium to large lawns. It features GPS navigation, a patented weather timer, LED headlights, theft tracking, and Amazon Alexa connectivity, and it has no problem mowing in the rain. If you hate your noisy old lawnmower and have an extra $2000 lying around, this would make a nice addition to your home.

Nixplay Seed Wave 13 inch Widescreen Digital Smart Frame ($249.99)

The Nixplay Seed Wave takes your usual digital frame to a newer, smarter level. Its high-definition screen is paired with two powerful five-watt speakers for a unique auditory experience. Just link the Seed Wave to your phone, tablet, or laptop via Bluetooth, and start streaming music on your smart frame. Your favorite memories will now be accompanied by the soundtrack of your life.

Toto Aquia IV Washlet ($2154)

Much has been said about Japanese smart toilets: They’re not just perfunctory objects intended for the relief of your excretory system. Boasting multitudes of buttons for heated seats, built-in bidets, air-purifying functions, and noisemakers to cover up the squelchy sound of your pooping, they’re definitely worthy of the moniker “porcelain throne” (they do a splendid job of flushing, too). And while America still has a long way to go before welcoming smart toilets into their homes as easily as they embraced the invention of automatic litter boxes, Japanese toilet company Toto aims to change this with their Washlets: Water-efficient, high-tech toilets you can have installed in your house. If you’re thinking of investing in one of these, consider the Aquia IV Washlet, a remote-controlled toilet guaranteed to revolutionize your bathroom breaks. Trust us, you’ll never want to use an ordinary toilet again.

SimpliSafe Home Security System (starts at around $230)

One of the worst things about going on a vacation with your family is that niggling fear of your subsequently empty house getting broken into. SimpliSafe’s revolutionary home security system should help assuage your fears, giving homeowners the chance to monitor their homes remotely in an easy and affordable way. Their range of proprietary wireless equipment includes smoke detectors, sirens, panic buttons, and sensors for everything you can think of—entry sensors, water sensors, glass break sensors. Use the equipment with SimpliSafe’s 24/7 monitoring plans, which will alert the authorities in case of accidents or emergencies.

5 Destinations You Should Visit In 2019

By Nixplay Team

On January 15, 2019

In Lifestyle

Even the most well-traveled among us will agree: There will never be a shortage of interesting places to discover. If you haven’t booked your vacation leaves yet for the year, we’ve lined up some picturesque locales to suit every kind of traveler. Whether you’re on the lookout for a cosmopolitan hotspot or an idyllic tropical paradise, there should be a destination here that’s perfect for you. Don’t forget to display your travel photos on your Nixplay frame!

1. Singapore

Still feeling the Crazy Rich Asians fever? Same here—we can’t wait for the sequel, China Rich Girlfriend! And if we had our way, we’d be jetting off to Singapore, the movie’s spectacular location, to live out our crazy rich dreams. And if you’re flying there in 2019, you’re in luck: The small nation-state has a lot to celebrate this year, starting from the bicentennial of its founding to the completion of the iconic Raffles Singapore’s renovation. There’s never been a better time to hunt for your own Nick Young or Astrid Leong!

2. The Peloponnese, Greece

Need a break from the crowds at Mykonos and Santorini? Head to the Peloponnese, a laidback region in the south of Greece known for having more wineries and grape varieties than any other place in the country. Its west coast is lined with beautiful beaches, and its spas and retreats promise a tranquil time. If relaxation is your utmost priority, this is the place to be.

3. Matera, Italy

There’s more to Italy than the history of Rome, the fashion of Milan, the art of Florence, the gondolas of Venice, and the food of, well, the whole country. The prehistoric city of Matera, located in the southern region of Basilicata, is known for its sassi: clusters of cave dwellings thought to be among the first human settlements in Italy. The city was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, slowly transforming into a cultural hotspot with charming hotels, galleries, and restaurants. Matera was declared the European Capital of Culture in 2019, kicking off the year on January 19 with a music-filled street celebration.

4. Siargao, Philippines

White sand beaches and pastel sunsets. Crystal-clear turquoise waters teeming with vivid corals. Waves for surfers of all levels, and unspoiled islands located a short boat ride away. The teardrop-shaped island of Siargao, located in the south of the Philippines, offers all these, and more. This island, perfectly situated to embrace the Pacific Ocean, is a legendary surf spot, and beginners can try the sport at one of the many surf schools lining the shore. Siargao was voted the world’s top island in 2018 by Conde Nast Traveler despite its lack of international flights: A testament to its sheer beauty.

5. Vevey, Switzerland

Every 20 years, the lakeside town of Vevey holds the Fête des Vignerons, a UNESCO-recognized festival that pays homage to the region’s vineyard traditions. First held in 1797, what was formerly a grape harvest celebration has since turned into a three-week spectacle punctuated by lavish performances. Interested in going? Mark your calendars: This year’s Fête des Vignerons will be held from July 18 to August 11.

nixplay blog-photography challenges-main

5 Photography Challenges You Can Try In 2019

By Nixplay Team

On January 14, 2019

In Photography

If you’ve always wanted to improve your photography skills, 2019 is the best time to work on it. You’ve got a whole year ahead of you to seize every opportunity to take better photos, so don’t waste any time! Start by taking on these challenges.

1. The 52-Week Photo Challenge

The annual Dogwood 52-Week Photography Challenge dares photographers to stick to a specific prompt every week. You’ll start by taking a self-portrait—a deceptively easy task, until you keep reading the prompt and realize that the prompt prohibits you from showing your face. When you’ve accomplished that task, you move on to showing motion in photos using the Rule of Thirds, then Black and White photography, and so on. The challenge ends with another self-portrait, one that illustrates how others see you. You can also join a Facebook group where you can talk with others who are also taking on the challenge. See all the prompts here.

2. The 365-Photo Challenge

Think the 52-Week Challenge is too easy? Try the 365-Day Challenge. Taking one photo a day looks easy on paper, but when you’ve got a million things going on in your awesome life, you might find it nearly impossible to stop and shoot. No photography prompts required—you don’t have to go out of your way to find a great subject to take pictures of. The real challenge here lies in making the mundane beautiful.
Tip: Create a folder on Google Photos for your images and sync it with your Nixplay Frame so you can view all your photos easily!

3. Go Analog

Film photography isn’t dead. It’s just lying dormant, yet ready to embrace those who discover it. One key takeaway from shooting with film is that you’re forced to be more selective with your subjects. You don’t have the privilege of taking photos of everything because you can only shoot a limited number of images, and you don’t know how the shot will turn out until much later. On the bright side, the thrill of waiting for your film to develop is incomparable, and there’s nothing like a hard copy of your photos. This year, dust off your film camera (or get a disposable one), load it up with film, and shoot away!

4. Portraits of Strangers

Humans Of New York is one of the most inspiring Instagram accounts anyone can follow. Founder Brandon Stanton’s photographs, combined with the moving stories of the people he features, make for a riveting read. This year, take a page from HONY and try taking photos of the people you encounter! It’s also a great opportunity to get out of your shell and meet interesting folks. Who knows, you might just meet someone cool!

5. Recreate Famous Photos

There are some photographs that anyone can recognize instantly. Take the 1965 photograph of Muhammad Ali towering over a fallen Sonny Liston, taken by renowned sports photographer Neil Leifer. Or, the nude portrait of a pregnant Demi Moore, taken in 1991 by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. Let these photos inspire you to make your own mark in the photography world, one frame at a time!