Dropbox may very well transform how you use all of your computers on a daily basis. Seriously, it's that cool.
Let's look at an example. You're at work and start working on a project, perhaps you are organizing the Office Christmas Party this year. You have spreadsheets, documents, notes, all kinds of files. Then you get home and would like to make some changes to your plans, but the files are at work! Or, your coworker Janet has been assigned to help you with the party planning, and she needs to be able to view and edit all of the files. How on earth do you keep all of the files current? Probably by emailing each version back and forth and back and forth...
Endless emailing no longer! Enter Dropbox! It's a program that you download to your computer that automatically syncs files to any other computers of your choosing. You can could have a Personal folder that you sync between your work and home computers. You can have a Party folder that you sync between yours and Janet's computers. You can have a Recipes folder that you sync between yours and your sister's computer. The possibilities are endless! And the syncing happens immediately when you close the file on your computer, no other work needed!
Even more, your files are synced across PCs, Macs, the Dropbox website, and your smart phone! Check out the Dropbox tour for more details.
Seriously, this is life-changing! Or as life changing as a computer application can be.
Happy Dropbox-ing!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
iPhone App: Pano
Pano does one thing and does it very well. It quickly pieces together a panoramic shot from several pictures taken in succession on your iPhone. The app has on-screen steps to guide you in creating a clean shot and even allows you to switch from landscape to portrait, depending on what you are shooting.
You can find it in the App Store on your iPhone for $2.99.
You can find it in the App Store on your iPhone for $2.99.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Read Kindle books without a Kindle
I love the idea of e-books, but I haven't always been so thrilled. I was definitely a feel-the-pages-and-hold-the-book kinda girl until I was forced to make the switch. My graduate program studies made use of electronic textbooks for our classes, so I had to either read electronically or pay double for print textbooks. I decided it was time for me to make the ecologically and financially responsible choice, and it was tough...at first. It took longer to read, and I fumbled through several different methods for taking notes, but that's another post. Eventually, I came around! It was like training myself in how to play a new sport or complete a new kind of a puzzle. After some initial practice, I was ready for more!
For today, let's talk about personal, non-textbook reading. I still enjoy reading print books, but I also like the portability of having a book with me at all times, as long as I have my phone. That's right! I don't need a Kindle device to read a Kindle book.
Amazon has developed several free apps that allow readers of Kindle e-books to read, even if they don't have a Kindle. There's a version for the PC, Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch, iPad, Android, Blackberry, and more!
What's more, Amazon and others offer free books, mostly classics but a few are current, so that you can take the e-book reader for a free trial. Download a reader app for your device, grab a classic novel for free, and you're set! If you love the Kindle look and feel, you can purchase new releases for about $10.
One final great feature: if you are using two or more readers (like iPhone and iPad) among all of your devices, your books and page locations will all be synced automatically.
If you were thinking about trying out e-books but didn't want to invest in a Kindle, there's a way, and it's free!
For today, let's talk about personal, non-textbook reading. I still enjoy reading print books, but I also like the portability of having a book with me at all times, as long as I have my phone. That's right! I don't need a Kindle device to read a Kindle book.
Amazon has developed several free apps that allow readers of Kindle e-books to read, even if they don't have a Kindle. There's a version for the PC, Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch, iPad, Android, Blackberry, and more!
What's more, Amazon and others offer free books, mostly classics but a few are current, so that you can take the e-book reader for a free trial. Download a reader app for your device, grab a classic novel for free, and you're set! If you love the Kindle look and feel, you can purchase new releases for about $10.
One final great feature: if you are using two or more readers (like iPhone and iPad) among all of your devices, your books and page locations will all be synced automatically.
If you were thinking about trying out e-books but didn't want to invest in a Kindle, there's a way, and it's free!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
iPhone App: Photoshop
The Adobe Photoshop app for the iPhone is a clean and easy way to jazz up your phone photos in a hurry. If you don't have the time (or patience, for that matter) to upload your pictures to a full-size photo editor, you will find that this app will do all the basics!
You can...
Find Adobe Photoshop in the App Store on your phone for FREE!
You can...
- Crop, Straighten, Rotate, Flip
- Adjust the Exposure, Saturation, Tint, Black & White, Contrast
- Switch to Sketch, Soft Focus, Sharpen
- Add Effects and Borders
- Undo and Redo your changes
- Save photos back to your phone
- Upload photos to Facebook and TwitPic (for Twitter)
Find Adobe Photoshop in the App Store on your phone for FREE!
Secrets on a Post Card
PostSecret began several years ago when Frank Warren released several postcards into the wild of his hometown and asked people to write their deepest, darkest secret on the card and mail it back to him. Today, his blog is an Internet phenomenon!
His site counter measure more than 350 million visitors and has a very simple layout. Followers of his site from around the world send him postcards with secrets from their lives. Every Sunday morning, Mr. Warren posts a new group of postcards -- often following themes -- from among the thousands of post cards he receives each week.
Some secrets are funny and light-hearted, others poignant and heart-wrenching. This site is worth adding to your blog reader!
I like to check it out on Sunday, lingering on those where I find a personal connection and considering what my secret might be.
http://www.postsecret.com/
His site counter measure more than 350 million visitors and has a very simple layout. Followers of his site from around the world send him postcards with secrets from their lives. Every Sunday morning, Mr. Warren posts a new group of postcards -- often following themes -- from among the thousands of post cards he receives each week.
Some secrets are funny and light-hearted, others poignant and heart-wrenching. This site is worth adding to your blog reader!
I like to check it out on Sunday, lingering on those where I find a personal connection and considering what my secret might be.
http://www.postsecret.com/
Friday, August 13, 2010
Gmaps Pedometer
I have a route that I enjoy walking in my neighborhood. It takes me through my apartment complex, down the street, through a nearby park that has a playground and a soccer field and back home again. Since I'm walking through a park and on small trails and sidewalks, I can't measure the distance of my walk by driving it with my car. I would love to know how far I'm walking currently and would also like to map out distances on other longer routes that would take me to nearby neighborhoods.
A great site exists called Gmaps Pedometer that will you calculate those walking, running and biking distances, and you will find that it's very exact, to the hundredth of a mile!
When you arrive at the site, type in your starting point next to the "Jump to:" box and click "go." Zoom in to find your starting place. You may want to switch the map to Hybrid view so that you can see streets, trails and other landmarks.
Click "Start recording" to begin. Double click on your starting place, and a red marker will show up. Then continue to double click along your walking/running/biking path. As you double click, you will notice that your total distance will increase.
The site offers great options like saving, printing and exporting routes, displaying elevation, showing mile markers and calorie counts. Both miles and kilometers are available.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/
A great site exists called Gmaps Pedometer that will you calculate those walking, running and biking distances, and you will find that it's very exact, to the hundredth of a mile!
When you arrive at the site, type in your starting point next to the "Jump to:" box and click "go." Zoom in to find your starting place. You may want to switch the map to Hybrid view so that you can see streets, trails and other landmarks.
Click "Start recording" to begin. Double click on your starting place, and a red marker will show up. Then continue to double click along your walking/running/biking path. As you double click, you will notice that your total distance will increase.
The site offers great options like saving, printing and exporting routes, displaying elevation, showing mile markers and calorie counts. Both miles and kilometers are available.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/
Sunday, August 8, 2010
TV Thoughts, As of Late
I’ve been watching a little extra TV lately, kinda as a last hurrah before school starts. My observations follow…
1. The Pottery episode of Community is awesome! Pottery class (no Ghost references!) and Sailing class (no Titanic references!) and guest star Tony Hale…all in one episode!
2. My “Me Time” has never had and will never have any connection to McDonalds.
3. Royal Pains is the only medical show that I enjoy watching.
4. You should not tell your husband that you are pregnant via video chat, even if you have an iPhone 4.
5. I’m just now getting around to watching the last few episodes of Modern Family. I don’t keep up with the awards circuit, so I don’t know…but I really hope this show is winning some awards! Brilliant, I tell you! Brilliant!
1. The Pottery episode of Community is awesome! Pottery class (no Ghost references!) and Sailing class (no Titanic references!) and guest star Tony Hale…all in one episode!
2. My “Me Time” has never had and will never have any connection to McDonalds.
3. Royal Pains is the only medical show that I enjoy watching.
4. You should not tell your husband that you are pregnant via video chat, even if you have an iPhone 4.
5. I’m just now getting around to watching the last few episodes of Modern Family. I don’t keep up with the awards circuit, so I don’t know…but I really hope this show is winning some awards! Brilliant, I tell you! Brilliant!
Friday, August 6, 2010
How to Take an Inexpensive and Fun Road Trip
My husband and I recently took a 12-day road trip through the southeast USA without making any prior reservations! We both have iPhones and decided to book hotels and decide on attractions along the way. We had a wonderful time and loved the freedom of being able to change our plans if we loved a certain city. I have compiled a list of tips that we used to make our trip awesome and still save a little money along the way.
From the beginning, we know that our trip would be expensive, so we tried to save money where we could without making the trip a drag or having to stay in seedy motels. I'll share my tips on how we saved money
Food
We saved money on food by bringing along a full-size ice chest on the trip. We brought enough drinks to last us the entire trip and brought all of the components for sandwiches so that we could have sandwiches for lunch on the days we were driving all day. On our 12-day trip, we ate sandwiches about 6 times. We also brought other snacks with us to munch on throughout the trip. To keep our food cold, we brought several ice packs and made sure to book hotels with refrigerators in them. The ice chest also allowed us to take leftovers from our restaurant meals and eat those the following day for lunch if we wanted. Once we arrived in a city, we used our phones to find restaurants within our price range and with great reviews! We used Google, Urbanspoon and Yelp for restaurant recommendations.
Attractions
Our main tool for finding great prices on attractions in the cites we were visiting was to use group coupon sites. This was the only part of the trip where we did some advance planning. First, I subscribed to the coupons for the cities where I was are vacationing several weeks before the trip began. I watched everyday for deals that we could use on our vacation. Before we the trip, we bought two coupons: one coupon for a half-price zip line tour and one coupon for half-price tickets to a Shakespeare play. We also found some of our attractions through the brochure racks in hotel lobbies where we stayed. We made sure to pick up brochures when we checked in at each new city and used those to help us find events in case we found ourselves with some extra time.
Hotels
Hotels were a big chunk of our budget. While on the trip, we used three different methods for booking hotels, all via our iPhones. We booked two nights via priceline.com. Using this site, you don't get to choose the hotel, so sometimes you end up with a crappy hotel or a seedy neighborhood. We had one good experience and one bad experience with Priceline. Another drawback with Priceline is that you forfeit any hotel points that you might have received if you had booked directly with the hotel chain. We also used hotels.com to book one night on the trip. I have used this site before and was once again pleased with the results. We found cheap prices, a wide selection of hotels, and I was able to choose the exact hotel…no wishing and praying like with Priceline. Our favorite way to book for this trip was to go directly through the hotel chain that we prefer. We decided that Best Western would be the best choice since they are currently offering a summer promotion, have multiple hotels in every city where we vacationed and offer good rewards for continued hotels stays. We used bestwestern.com to book several of our hotel stays. Toward the end of the trip, we wished that we would have booked all of our stays on this one site so that we could accumulate points for future vacations.
Gas
We didn't use one of those gas price sites on our trip because we were frequently in a hurry to arrive at our next destination and didn't want to spend extra time searching around town for cheap gas. However, if you have several people in the car with smartphones, you can task one person with finding the cheapest gas on the route you are taking! (Perhaps another person book hotels...and another for investigating attractions. It might be a great way to get your teens involved on the road trip if they are carrying a web-enabled phone with them on the trip!)
Tracking Expenses
Finally, we brought along a laptop with us and kept a spreadsheet of all of our expenses. We updated it in the car as we were driving. The spreadsheet helped us to decide if we needed to cut back on our spending to make sure that we stayed within our overall budget for the trip.
If you have good tips for budget-friendly travel, please leave a comment below!
From the beginning, we know that our trip would be expensive, so we tried to save money where we could without making the trip a drag or having to stay in seedy motels. I'll share my tips on how we saved money
Food
We saved money on food by bringing along a full-size ice chest on the trip. We brought enough drinks to last us the entire trip and brought all of the components for sandwiches so that we could have sandwiches for lunch on the days we were driving all day. On our 12-day trip, we ate sandwiches about 6 times. We also brought other snacks with us to munch on throughout the trip. To keep our food cold, we brought several ice packs and made sure to book hotels with refrigerators in them. The ice chest also allowed us to take leftovers from our restaurant meals and eat those the following day for lunch if we wanted. Once we arrived in a city, we used our phones to find restaurants within our price range and with great reviews! We used Google, Urbanspoon and Yelp for restaurant recommendations.
Attractions
Our main tool for finding great prices on attractions in the cites we were visiting was to use group coupon sites. This was the only part of the trip where we did some advance planning. First, I subscribed to the coupons for the cities where I was are vacationing several weeks before the trip began. I watched everyday for deals that we could use on our vacation. Before we the trip, we bought two coupons: one coupon for a half-price zip line tour and one coupon for half-price tickets to a Shakespeare play. We also found some of our attractions through the brochure racks in hotel lobbies where we stayed. We made sure to pick up brochures when we checked in at each new city and used those to help us find events in case we found ourselves with some extra time.
Hotels
Hotels were a big chunk of our budget. While on the trip, we used three different methods for booking hotels, all via our iPhones. We booked two nights via priceline.com. Using this site, you don't get to choose the hotel, so sometimes you end up with a crappy hotel or a seedy neighborhood. We had one good experience and one bad experience with Priceline. Another drawback with Priceline is that you forfeit any hotel points that you might have received if you had booked directly with the hotel chain. We also used hotels.com to book one night on the trip. I have used this site before and was once again pleased with the results. We found cheap prices, a wide selection of hotels, and I was able to choose the exact hotel…no wishing and praying like with Priceline. Our favorite way to book for this trip was to go directly through the hotel chain that we prefer. We decided that Best Western would be the best choice since they are currently offering a summer promotion, have multiple hotels in every city where we vacationed and offer good rewards for continued hotels stays. We used bestwestern.com to book several of our hotel stays. Toward the end of the trip, we wished that we would have booked all of our stays on this one site so that we could accumulate points for future vacations.
Gas
We didn't use one of those gas price sites on our trip because we were frequently in a hurry to arrive at our next destination and didn't want to spend extra time searching around town for cheap gas. However, if you have several people in the car with smartphones, you can task one person with finding the cheapest gas on the route you are taking! (Perhaps another person book hotels...and another for investigating attractions. It might be a great way to get your teens involved on the road trip if they are carrying a web-enabled phone with them on the trip!)
Tracking Expenses
Finally, we brought along a laptop with us and kept a spreadsheet of all of our expenses. We updated it in the car as we were driving. The spreadsheet helped us to decide if we needed to cut back on our spending to make sure that we stayed within our overall budget for the trip.
If you have good tips for budget-friendly travel, please leave a comment below!
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