MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [April 19th]” plus 10 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [April 19th]
- Top 10 Most Downloaded Utilities [Movers & Shakers]
- 2 Interesting Ways to Track Your Weight Loss Using Twitter
- 4 Key Safari’s Features For New iPad Users
- How To Save A Complete Webpage For Offline Reading
- Hot Tech Deals [April 19th]
- The 7 Best Free Remote Control Apps for the iPhone
- 4 Awesome Chrome Extensions for Instant Productivity
- How to Visualize Disk Usage in Windows with Scanner
- Top 7 Windows Search Tricks Used by Pro Users
- 5 Annual Subscriptions for MozyHome Up For Grabs [MakeUseOf Giveaway]
| Cool Websites and Tools [April 19th] Posted: 19 Apr 2010 08:31 PM PDT
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Do share our articles with others! It’s really important to us. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 10 Most Downloaded Utilities [Movers & Shakers] Posted: 19 Apr 2010 07:30 PM PDT
This week, we are looking at system utilities. These are the apps that can be used to help manage your Windows system. We will see utilities that help us defragment, fix and speed up our computers.
You can also check out our very own Varun's post on Glary Utilities here. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 Interesting Ways to Track Your Weight Loss Using Twitter Posted: 19 Apr 2010 06:30 PM PDT
Started merely as a “What are you doing now?” concept, the service has now such an overwhelming number of alternative uses that you could never believe it! You can use Twitter as a poll or a survey tool, as a money management tool and now also as a way to track weight loss. But why use Twitter to track your weight?
And secondly, you are on Twitter anyway! Why not use it to get reminded of your weight loss stats? It can be an easy way to record and track your weight, so give it a try! Now let’s take a look at the tools I managed to find: 1. Track Weight Loss With TwackitTwackit is a fun tool I found through this post listing some cool Twitter apps for fitness. It allows you to use your Twitter account to track any metric (like your weight!) and watch trends over time with help of a Google-driven chart. The good thing is that it needs no registration. Just tweet a numeric value and a hashtag to @twackit:
The bad thing is that the process is totally public. Everyone sees your weight and aside from that, everyone can go to the site to see your weight loss chart (just in case you are one of those who, quite understandably, thinks that this data should be private). Once you’ve started twacking, view your report at http://www.twackit.com/your-username/your-hashtag
Another similar tool that tracks various metrics you Tweet and requires no registration is gtFtr but it mostly focus on workouts and supports a limited number of hashtags/commands:
2. Weight Loss ChartsWeight Loss Charts is another interesting Twitter-based tool which my friend, Eric of buildmuscle.org found for me. I don’t think I would be able to find it myself as it appears to be quite new. It does require registration which went quite smoothly. On signing up, you are offered to add Twitter and Gtalk bots to your buddy list. After waiting a while, the bots add you as their friends. You will also need to set your preferred unit of measuring (I am using kilogram). Now all you need to do is to send any of the bots your daily weight and the info will be recorded on the site. One of the most useful features of the tool is its reminder because it is really not easy to remember to record your weight on a daily basis. If you forget to tweet your weight, the Twitter bot will remind you to.
You can access your weight loss (hopefully) chart any time after logging in:
Let me know if you would use any of those tools to track weight loss! Also, if you're not already following MakeUseOf on Twitter, you really should. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 Key Safari’s Features For New iPad Users Posted: 19 Apr 2010 04:30 PM PDT
Most of these features and tips will not be useful to veteran Safari, iPhone and iPod touch users, but for you newbies out there, these are key features of Safari that you need to know about. Most notable new features are the ability to tab the multiple pages button in the menu bar which will display up to nine currently open pages that you can tap on and re-open. If there's less than nine, you will also get a New Page selection.
Bookmarks Bar FeatureThe other useful navigation feature is the Bookmarks bar, similar to what's in the regular Mac version of Safari. Adding bookmarks in iPad version of Safari is similar to how you add bookmarks in the iPhone and iPod touch, but adding URLs to Bookmarks bar may not initially obvious. So here's how it's done:
You can also create folders within folders for the Bookmarks Bar, just as you do with the desktop version of Safari. When you tap to edit the bookmarks bar, there is a ‘New Folder’ button on the left side of the panel. Create a sub-folder which will appear in the bar where you can add URLs as described above. Web ClipsIf there's a web page or site that you like to visit on the regular basis, such as MakeUseOf, you can create what is called a Web Clip that will appear like other application icons on one of the Home screen of your iPad. Web clips are a faster way of directly launching web pages on your device. They save you a couple of clicks. Here's how to do it:
AutoFillIf you're new to Safari in the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, you may not know about the AutoFill feature which is off by default. The AutoFill is useful for when you're want the iPad to automatically fill in text fields with your personal contact information, usernames, and passwords of websites you have previously visited and saved such information. This feature doesn't successfully work on all websites, but it's convenient when it does. Here's how to set it up:
That's it. There's not much else different about Safari in the iPad. But if I overlooked something, please let me know. What is your favourite new feature on the iPad? NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To Save A Complete Webpage For Offline Reading Posted: 19 Apr 2010 02:31 PM PDT
Then there are some webpages which have snippets of information that's like gold dust. With the web as it is, the important content could go down tomorrow with the website shutting down or just having a server catastrophe. Call me paranoid, but when I come across a nugget of web information, there are times when I like to save the entire webpage in its exact glory. Copy-pasting it into MS Word would of course, be a simpler way.
Saving Complete Webpages With Save AsI am probably wasting a few lines here but all browsers have the feature to save complete webpages. They have had it since the early days. It's a simple one click saving job and here's how it's done in three of our popular browsers. FirefoxFrom the menu, click on File – Save Page As… (Or alternatively, press Ctrl+S).
The Save As dialog window appears. Select Web Page, complete in the Save as type dropdown.
The webpage is saved as a set of HTML file and a folder that holds the other elements of the page.
Firefox's page saving command can be further improved using the Save Complete Firefox add-on. Though, I didn't notice much of a functional difference between the default and the add-on aided saves. ChromeChrome also has a Save as option. You can access it from the Page icon that's next to the address bar. You can also load the webpage and right click anywhere on the page to get to the context menu. Or do the quick keyboard thing with a press on Ctrl+S.
The same kind of Save As dialog window appears and lets you save the page as Web Page, complete in a location of your choice. Internet ExplorerInternet Explorer also follows the conventional File – Save As routine. But just when you start to ho and hum, you will notice that Internet Explorer gives you another option in the Save as type dropdown. It reads – Web Archive, single file (*.mht).
This is exactly the kind of convenience you were looking for. Instead of a complete folder that tags along with each saved single HTML page, we now just have a single file. MHT or MHTML (MIME HTML) is a standard for saving a webpage as a single file. It was introduced by Microsoft as a way to tie together all webpage elements like images and HTML together into a single file. Not all browsers are pally with this format. Opera is the only other popular browser that has the MHT save. Firefox users though can call upon two add-ons to handle this file standard, Mozilla Archive Format & UnMHT. Both these add-ons can be installed and used to open and save complete webpages. The MHTML file format is one of the ways to save complete webpages as single files. But it is definitely not the best way because webpages get displayed differently across browsers. Also, MHTML is not so good when it comes to handling Javascript code that's a usual part of webpage code. Saving Complete Webpages With Firefox Add-OnsScrapbook Plus
Scrapbook Plus claims to be an improvement over the better known and similarly named Scrapbook. Tina did a very early review of Scrapbook in her two part series on Offline Browsing Anywhere Anytime (Part One & Part Two). Scrapbook Plus is similar but aims to bring faster handling of all your saved pages. You can set options for what you want to retain from a webpage and the level of pages you want to link down to and save. You can capture all tabs and sort them in specified folders. Both Scrapbook and its Plus avatar come with the Combine feature. Read It Later
We have written about Read It Later before. Read It Later is a browser plug-in that comes with absolute ease of use. With a single click you can save the currently displayed webpage. For offline use, just download your saved pages to the local machine and read it when you are away from the net.
You can click through links (instead of opening the pages) and save them for later reading using the 'Click to Save' mode. All open tabs can be concurrently saved too. The best part of Read It Later is its inter-operability between many browsers and mobile devices. Read It Later has a lot of official applications and a few user created ones that makes it one of the more recommended tools to have in your browser. Saving Complete Webpages As PDFSaving webpages as PDF files sounds like taking a few steps back. Especially after we have seen the ease add-ons bring to the task. But consider a tool like PDF Download. PDF Download can be installed as an add-on or a bookmarklet on most of the browsers (Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, Firefox, Flock and Internet Explorer).
With a single click, PDF Download’s Web-to-PDF feature lets you quickly and accurately convert any (unsecured) webpage into a high-quality PDF file. The PDF file can be printed, shared or just kept in a folder for later viewing. Or just merge them all into one combined bundle using the free PDFHammer from the same developers. Do you archive webpages for offline reading? What's your favored method? Image Credit: kirk lau Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| Posted: 19 Apr 2010 01:30 PM PDT
For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.
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| The 7 Best Free Remote Control Apps for the iPhone Posted: 19 Apr 2010 12:30 PM PDT
This is a list of the top free 7 iPhone remote control apps used to control your computer from your iPhone – from every aspect of iTunes, to running through a PowerPoint presentation on your iPhone – there are endless ways to put your phone to good use as a remote. Most of these applications require that you install a small server of some sort on your Mac or PC, although some will work simply by logging onto the same wireless network.
Control VLC with VLC Remote ControlVLC is one of the most popular multi-platform video players around and can play almost any kind of video without having to mess around with codecs. VLC Remote Control Free is the ideal way to sit back and enjoy the latest TV show or movie you’re going to watch on your computer from the comfort of your couch. VLC Remote Free [iTunes link] couldn’t be easier to set up to configure your iPhone remote control. First, download the VLC Remote Helper from their website and install it on your computer. Once you launch it, make sure that VLC itself is not open, and click on ‘Setup VLC’.
Next, open VLC on your computer, and launch VLC Remote Free on your iPhone. Thanks to Bonjour, your iPhone will automatically detect VLC running on your computer, without having to enter any credentials. Just make sure that you have the latest version of VLC, and of course, that you are connected to the same network as your computer. Using the free version of the app, you can pause, stop, skip forward, toggle full screen and adjust the volume while watching a video, but you do have to launch the video on your computer first before sitting back and using your iPhone to control the rest of the show. Although the free version does not give you the ability to control your playlist from your iPhone, if you create a playlist at your computer, you can navigate from one file to the next using VLC Remote Free.
VLC Remote Free is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7, Mac OS 10.4+ and Linux. Control iTunes with RemoteIt needs no introduction, but couldn’t possibly be left out of a list of the best free iPhone remote control apps. Apple’s very own app, Remote [iTunes link] turns your iPhone into the ultimate iTunes remote control. No installation on your computer is necessary – simply launch iTunes on your computer, and then open the Remote app on your iPhone, making sure that you are connected to the same wireless network. All iTunes libraries available on the network will appear on your iPhone. To add, simply click on the library of your choice, and pair your phone and computer using the passcode that is provided.
Once it is set up, you can use your iPhone to control all aspects of iTunes — from accessing and editing your playlists, to controlling playback and volume. If you use iTunes for more than just music – you’ll be happy to know that the remote allows you to control the playback of podcasts, videos and audiobooks as well.
Control PowerPoint with i-Clickr Powerpoint Remote LiteIf you want a fancy way to control a PowerPoint presentation, i-Clickr PowerPoint Remote Lite [iTunes link] will come in handy. Download the Mac or Windows server to your computer. Once it is setup, and the server is running, launch the app on your iPhone, and it will automatically detect your computer. Connecting to the computer will automatically launch PowerPoint – but rather than open the presentation the traditional way, open it using the i-Clickr server. The server will perform a quick conversion, and then you can run through the slides on your iPhone.
You can customize the application, toggling the sound on and off, or choosing to show the current or next slide on your iPhone screen. The free version does have one major limitation – you can only display a presentation of a maximum of 15 pages.
i-Clickr is compatible with OS X and Windows XP, Vista and 7. Use Your iPhone as a Track Pad or Keyboard with HippoRemote LiteHippoRemote Lite is a Mac, Windows and Linux compatible app that allows you to turn your iPhone into a remote keyboard or trackpad. HippoRemote Lite can be displayed in one of three ways – either as a track pad only, a keyboard only, or the screen can be split between a keyboard and trackpad. Setting up Hippo Remote Lite on a Mac couldn’t be easier – with no extra software necessary. Go into System Preferences, choose Sharing, and enable Screen Sharing. Under ‘Computer Settings,’ add a password and your Mac is ready for remote access.
The Windows process takes a bit more effort, but that isn’t to say it isn’t easy. Download the HippoVNC server, and install. While HippoVNC should automatically be detected by your iPhone, that doesn’t always happen. In that case, you can manually connect by clicking ‘Add connection,’ enter your computer’s IP address and enter the password that you set in the HippoVNC server. You should then be able to connect to your Windows machine.
Linux users can use Hippo Remote Lite by accessing their Remote Desktop Preferences. Make sure the following are checked:
Make sure the following is unchecked:
Save your settings, and then you should be able to connect to your Linux machine. Out of all of the trackpad apps that were tested, HippoRemote Lite certainly was one of the best. The trackpad is extremely responsive, and the scrolling and tracking speeds are customizable. It was also one of the only free apps that allows you to use the keyboard in landscape mode.
Air Mouse FreeA similar free iPhone remote control app that is worth mentioning is Air Mouse Free [iTunes link]. Compatible with Mac and Windows, the free version of the app can also be used as a remote trackpad and keyboard. Download the server to your computer, and launch. Open the app on your iPhone, and your computer will be automatically detected.
While Air Mouse Free is a well put together app, and the trackpad is incredibly responsive. The fact that the free version only features a portrait keyboard, definitely puts it one step behind Hippo Remote Lite. The app can be used in one of two ways, either in portrait mode with the screen split between a trackpad and keyboard, or in landscape, where the entire screen becomes a trackpad.
Air Mouse Free is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7, and Mac OS 10.4+. Turn Your Computer Off with Off Remote FreeWith Off Remote Free [iTunes link], you can switch your computer off, put it in standby, log off, lock it or restart it. The free application is identical to the paid, with the only limitation being that there is a slight delay before each preference is enabled.
Install the server on your computer, and Off Remote Free becomes integrated with your system preferences. You also have the option to password-protect the app.
Once you choose the command, a small window will appear on your screen and you will have a few seconds to cancel the command before it is executed. The app comes from the same developers of VLC Remote Control.
Off Remote Free is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7 and Mac 10.5+. Control Boxee with the Free Boxee iPhone AppWe already know how great Boxee is but their free iPhone app [iTunes link] makes this application all that much better. Watching TV shows or movies on your computer has become commonplace, but Boxee enhances the experience. With the iPhone app, you can sit back on your couch and control every aspect of Boxee from your iPhone. With the remote, you can do absolutely anything you could when you’re sitting in front of your computer, navigate to any part of Boxee that you want, including your personal files, control playback and volume, exit, and put your computer on standby. Simply install the app on your iPhone, launch Boxee, and you can control it out of the box.
This app will turn your computer into the ultimate enterainment centre that you can sit back and control from your phone. What are your favourite free remote control apps for the iPhone? Let us know in the comments. Image credit: mjw Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Do share our articles with others! It’s really important to us. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 Awesome Chrome Extensions for Instant Productivity Posted: 19 Apr 2010 11:30 AM PDT
And why not? With communication expanding the way it is, it’s only natural for people to expect more work, more quickly. Everyone wants to have that coveted “25-hour” day. We’ve previously covered productivity apps such as GTDInbox to help you get through your work day. Today, we’ll take a look at 4 amazing Google Chrome extensions for productivity, which will help you get your work done much quicker.
New Tab RedirectNew Tab Redirect is pretty powerful when it comes to giving you flexibility to customise your new tab. It’s one of those Google Chrome extensions that you simply fall in love with right from the first use itself. It redirects you to a whatever website you specify in its options. So, what you could do is use this extension to go straight to your email, or maybe your favorite GTD app. However, that’s not even half of its usefulness. What you can also do is redirect to a file on your local disk and that file will be fired up each time you open a new tab. Therefore, say you use a file “todo.txt” as an offline task list, then all you’d need to do is set its path in the extension settings and get it in front of you whenever you open a new tab. The first screenshot below shows you the extension in action. Although it’s difficult to show you the entire redirect, you can make out how the extension works.
New Tab To TasksThis little beauty simply takes your new tab page and redirects it to Google Tasks. A must-have if you are a Gmail user (and most of you MUO-lovers are!), this small extension helps you get all your work done very quickly simply because it puts your Gmail Tasks in front of you each time you fire up a new tab. After all, it’s tough to not do any work if you see it pending in front of you every now and then.
New Tab FavoritesNew Tab Favorites lists some of the most popular sites on the Internet so that you can quickly switch to them and get going with what you need to do. There’s also an Edit Mode in which you can add custom URLs to the new tab page and get your own custom favorites page. The only downer with this extension is that it doesn’t directly pick up stuff from your bookmarks bar (or menu) to show you those entries.
Things To DoEver had the need to write down something you desperately needed to do later but couldn’t find a page to put it down on? Things To Do makes such a situation a thing of the past by providing you with a neat To Do list in your New Tab page. Just put in what you need done and every time you head over to a new tab, you’d get a glaring reminder telling you what you need to do? Sure, it doesn’t have the universal convenience of Google Tasks that you get by using New Tab To Tasks (read above), but the ease of access it gives you is something unmatched by any online service. This extension also has a few customization options and allows you to change the font size, item width, and colors amongst other things.
If, like yours truly, you are one of those who keeps losing track of time and forgetting what needs to be done, you’ll be dying to get these Google Chrome extensions up and running on your copy of Chrome. Go ahead and take them for a spin and let us know how they helped you raise your productivity bar. The only gripe that one might have with these extensions is that you cannot use more than one of them at a time. Hence, you are always stuck with any one of the four mentioned here. What do you do when you need to increase your productivity? Are there any browser enhancements which I left out? Share them in the comments. NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How to Visualize Disk Usage in Windows with Scanner Posted: 19 Apr 2010 10:30 AM PDT
Windows doesn't make that terribly easy, though. While you can get a decent view of the clutter in a single folder, expanding the view to cover more ground isn't easy. It's not a new problem though, and there are plenty of tools around that will help you to visualize disk usage so that you can get organized.
For a long time my favourite tool for finding more room on a drive has been Scanner, by Steffen Gerlach. It hasn't been updated in a while, but it works just fine. Just download the .zip file, and run the scanner.exe that you will find inside it. No install needed, so you can also run it from a memory stick or external drive. You can use the other files in the folder to integrate Scanner with your right-click menu if you are so inclined. When you start Scanner, the first thing it wants to do is to scan your whole PC and get a picture of what is stored where. It's quite happy to scan external, removable and mapped drives.
Thankfully, you can stop that sometimes lengthy process by clicking on a specific drive icon on the left if you feel the need. Whether it's scanning the machine or a specific drive, you'll be presented with a complex sort of pie chart indicating what you've got. I'm a photographer, so my concern is usually with space for photos, which are mostly on my I: drive, so let's take a look there.
First things first. The interface is a little… well, peculiar. I like it, but it takes some getting used to. We can walk through how it works. The chart itself shows what is stored in the drive. Indications are that it's about 90% full, worse luck. As you move the mouse around, the boxes in the top left of the display show the size and number of files for that location. Mouse over the central grey area, and you'll see a number matching the large label, but as you move out from the centre, you're working your way down the folder hierarchy. In the example above, it's showing that I:\_modified\7D (and all its subfolders) contain a total of 111GB spread over 7,109 files. That's staggering, given that I've only had my EOS 7D camera for a few weeks. If you click on the section of the chart rather than just mousing over it, the screen is redrawn to drill down to that folder.
I store my photos on the basis of the date they were taken, so mousing over one of the large folders shows that I have 36GB of images for 19 March. Hot air balloons. It's tough to resist. There are a couple of buttons in the interface to reverse your journey. The left-pointing arrow takes you back where you were (in this case to the root of the drive), and the arrow with an elbow takes you back up one level at a time.
You can use some of the tools in the interface to delete files and clean things up if you wish, but I much prefer to just use this tool to visualize disk usage, and then go back to Windows Explorer to commit the necessary crimes. If you do hop out and undertake any housekeeping elsewhere, Scanner won't know what you've done until it gets a chance to rescan. There's a button for that, as well.
You might well find when you start Scanner that its default size is a little small on a modern monitor. And you'd be reasonable in thinking that you could drag the corner of the window to adjust the size. You would also be wrong. You need to use the small (+) and (-) buttons to resize instead.
It's not the most comprehensive tool out there, even amongst the free options, but I like it a lot. After all, to a photographer, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? So if you tried it out, how did you like Scanner? Do you have a disk space tool of choice? Let me know in the comments below. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 7 Windows Search Tricks Used by Pro Users Posted: 19 Apr 2010 09:30 AM PDT
What this means is that more often than not, one will have a hard time finding the file when it’s needed the most. You can make use of some of the tips to keep your files and folders organized, or perhaps you can get really good at doing a Windows search. If you opt for the latter, here are some Windows search tips and trick that you should know about.
Use boolean operators to fine-tune your Windows searchYou can use the three common boolean operators namely: AND, OR, NOT within your search queries. All you have to keep in mind is to use them in uppercase whenever you are planning to use them as boolean operators or else they will be considered as a search term too. For example, make or use would return items which have all the three terms make or and use where as make OR use would return items with make, use or both make and use. Use Wildcards
Wildcards are pretty much a regular feature when it comes to doing a Windows search. Yes I am referring to the stars and the question marks. However, did you know that you can combine wildcard searches with other search operators and queries to narrow your search? Let’s view an example: Suppose you have an MP3 file and a Word document both named “vocabulary” and suppose you need to find the MP3. You can then use the query “*.mp3 vocabulary” to get to your file. Search by file kind
The above can be useful when looking for specific file types. What if you want to search within all documents that is doc, docx, xls, pdf and the like? Well you use the kind: operator. Use kind:doc to search within documents, kind:contacts to search for contacts and kind:E-mail to search within emails. You can find the complete list by typing kind: in the search box. Use quotes for exact matchesAs you would do with a Google query, you enclose your query within quotes to find an exact match. As an example, if you search for make use of, the search will return items that contain make, use and of anywhere in any order. On the other hand, if you enclose these terms within quotes then search will return items having the exact phrase make use of. Use the size operator to impose a condition on file size
You can use size: > 50 to search for files larger than size 50 KB, append a unit and you can search for file larger than 50 MB like so – size: >50MB. In addition to this, you can also use size: medium, size: large and other such operators to fine tune your search. As always, you can combine other criterias with size operator to narrow down the Windows search results. Launch files using search
You most likely know and use the Start menu’s search to good effect. However, a lot of people use the arrow keys or the mouse after typing in a keyword. If you observe carefully, Windows automatically highlights the first entry in the search results, so if you hit enter at the point the first item is invoked. The key lies in coming up with clever queries that would allow you to launch applications or perform required actions. For example, if you want to launch Photoshop, you will do a lot better if you start with photo.. rather than Adobe.. So simply typing something like photo and hitting Enter would launch Photoshop. Same would be true for media – to launch Windows Media Player. The results would of course vary depending upon what programs you have installed Search by file propertiesYou can also search by file properties like author, title, date, status, keywords, etc. from within the search box. Then there are special properties that are available for certain file types like the birthday: operator available for contacts, hasattachment: available for emails. You can find a complete list here. Many of the above features work only with Windows Search 4.0. That shouldn’t be a problem if you are running a recent version of Windows. XP users would for sure need to get the deskbar search. Here is a piece on how you can get and customize Windows search. Do you use ay particular software for file searching and are you a fan of search operators like the above? Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| 5 Annual Subscriptions for MozyHome Up For Grabs [MakeUseOf Giveaway] Posted: 19 Apr 2010 08:30 AM PDT
This week, we’ll be giving away 5 one-year subscriptions for MozyHome worth, well it’s invaluable — that’s peace of mind for an entire year. How do you win one? Click to find out.
PreppingMozy makes it easy to back up your data. Sign up for an account (free accounts come with 2GB of online storage space) and download the desktop client, which supports Windows and Mac. You can select the folders that you wish to backup. Mozy groups related folders in Backup Sets so you can, say, backup all your irreplaceable photos (if you have images on your Desktop that you want to save in addition to those in your Pictures folder) in the Photos and Images folder.
You can also edit the Backup Sets so for instance, the Word Processing Documents backup set/folder includes or excludes files depending on file type, size, date of creation, etc.
Of course, if you would like to select specific folders with content that doesn’t fall in these categories, you can always check those folders on the next tab, File System.
Backing upMozy lets you choose when and how to back up so you can sit back and relax. You can configure Mozy to run at specific times or when your computer is idle.
You can also choose whether you prefer your computer to be relatively unintemrrupted while the backup process is running (Faster Computer) which means your backup will take longer or whether you want Quicker Backups. Either way, the entire process will be quick because Mozy’s incremental backup system is smart enough to automatically detect and back up only new and/or changed files.
Restoring your backupsMozy lets you retrieve your backed-up files in several convenient ways. You can right-click on backed-up files in Windows Explorer to restore them to previous versions.
Alternatively, you can go to the Mozy virtual drive and restore from there.
The desktop client also has a Restore section in case you already have it open.
You can also head to the website to retrieve your files (select the version from up to 30 days in the past) or place an order for a CD of your Mozy-backed-up files.
Mozy works well for people who want to back up their computer data automatically to the cloud and don’t have time or can’t remember to manually backup to CDs or external drives. Mozy allows you to schedule backups only when it’s convenient for you. Also, rest assured that your files are properly secured and safe with Mozy. Sure, it sounds really good, so how do you actually win a subscription? How do I win a copy?It’s simple. Just follow the steps.
This giveaway begins now and will end on Friday at 2100hrs PST. The winners will be selected at random and announced the following day. In addition, we also have a 15% discount coupon in case you were contemplating on starting a subscription. Enter MAKEUSEOF as the promotional code while signing up. Don’t jeopardise the safety of your files. Sign up now, save and be safe!
Spread the word to your friends and have fun! MakeUseOf would like to thank Devin and Mozy for their generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interesting in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via email. NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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There are a few added features in the iPad version of Safari, the default web browsing application.
Save a complete page so that I can read it later? Why would I need to do that? After all, don't we have those things called bookmarks? That's fine as long as the web connection holds. Even a simple thing as a journey from Point A to Point B could take us away from our 24 hour plugged in lives. We have got so used to the web, that the information so readily available is taken almost for granted.
If you’re in the market for a new computer, laptop, mobile phone, games and other accessories; don’t waste your time searching online. We’ve taken the liberty of locating the best deals tech deals and unifying them into a single post for your convenience.
With its large multi-touch screen, the iPhone is the ideal device that can be used as a remote control — whether for your computer, entertainment centre, or even for your car; revolutionising the way that people use their phones.
Productivity. That’s the one word that’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days. Everyone wants to get more things done in less time.
There's an old adage that you cannot have enough disk space. It's true, but a much cheaper option to purchasing more is to make more sense of the space you already have.
With terabytes of space within easy reach these days, one tends to become a hoarder — accumulating lots of files, slowly getting a little complacent in organizing file and folders; and failing to get rid of unneeded files.
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