In these kinds of situations, sending a fax for free as quickly as possible would certainly be useful. In this article, we’re taking a look at 4 websites that let you send fax online and come with a free or trial version.

1. faxZERO

The first one on our list is faxZERO. faxZERO allows you to send two free faxes a day, to the United States or Canada, as long as they don’t contain more than three pages each. Plus there is an ad on the cover page. Out of all the services we tested, faxZERO is the easiest to use and the only one that didn’t require creating an account.

faxZERO also has a premium service that charges 1.99$ for each fax and limits the number of pages per fax at fifteen. If you need to send more than two faxes a day and you don’t want to pay for the premium service, you could consider deleting your browser cache and cookies and using another IP address, either through the TOR network, proxies or simply by resetting your router.

2. Qipit

Qipit is a more comprehensive service when compared to faxZERO. Instead of being just an online faxing service, Qipit helps you upload photos of documents, business cards or receipts from a mobile phone or digital camera, and improves the image quality through a patented technology called Realeyes3D. Next images can be emailed or faxed.

The images you upload are stored online on Qipit’s servers and are also accessible online via the website.

You can upload photos via MMS, email or directly from your computer using the web interface.

Once your document is on Qipit, you can choose to either view a PDF version of it, email the document or fax it. Qipit’s image optimization technology proved to be quite powerful. I never expected that a photo taken with a mobile phone camera could actually be put to use.

The great thing about Qipit is that it’s free:

Qipit is a free service; this includes sending domestic and international faxes. The costs that you have to bare are related to what your wireless carrier charges you if you are using Qipit with your mobile device. –Qipit FAQ.

3. ScanR

ScanR, a service similar to Qipit. The trial subscription gives you only one upload and fax, but the premium account is only 4,99$/month or 29,99$/year. ScanR features OCR (optical character recognition), a slightly better designed interface and sharing capability.

An interesting quote from their help pages suggest that some fax numbers are restricted:

scanR currently sends fax to most phone numbers in East Asia, North America and Western Europe. scanR may block certain premium phone numbers and countries[…] –ScanR Help

You get the same uploading capabilities, via email, MMS or web interface.

Another cool feature of Scanr is that you can use is to convert document pictures that were obtained using you cell phone camera to a properly formatted document. Very useful for things like page captures from library books and lecture notes.

eFax

Another faxing service is eFax. With eFax, you can also receive faxes, but unfortunately it requires you sign up for a 30 day trial using a credit card.

Know about other free tool to send fax online? Let us know in the comments.

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• Snapter – Scan Your Documents Without A Scanner (48)
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What Evernote actually does is offer you essentially a blank slate of information capture and management tools, that allows you to use their product for a huge number of interesting and different things.

Some people use it as their GTD system, some as a way of storing business cards, and any number of things you could think of.

Me? I’ve found seven great ways that Evernote can help my life, and make it simpler and more efficient. Here they are, in no particular order:

Bookmark Manager

One of the best features about Evernote is the Web clipper. Using the desktop version, or a Firefox extension, you can add selections of pages, or even entire Web pages, into Evernote with only a couple of clicks. This, for all intents and purposes, has completely replaced my need for a bookmarking service. Any page I want just gets clipped into my Evernote inbox, and then I can deal with it there.

Evernote actually has most of the features of a good bookmarking service: you can tag bookmarks, search them, and even send them to someone else. Also, you can edit the text of them, so your bookmark contains only the bit you want, along with the URL. Simple, easy, and one less application for me to install.

File Backup

This is the only use of Evernote that differs whether or not you pay for an Evernote Premium Account ($5/month or $40/year, and well worth it). If you’re using the free version, you can use Evernote as a place to store all your pictures, audio, and PDFs. In itself, that’s pretty great, and a nice way to back things up (especially if you’re a fan of backing up your Word Documents to the universally-recognized PDFs, which I am). If you upgrade to Premium, you’ll be able to sync literally any kind of file you can think of (up to 25MB per file, so no movies) to all your computers and desktops.

This is yet another application – online backup – that Evernote does really well. All your files are in sync at all times, and can be accessed from anywhere. Make a change to a file in Evernote, and the changes are automatically saved in the Evernote note. You can email files, view or edit them from anywhere, and always be sure that your precious files are safe.

Photo Library

This is one of the things Evernote did from the beginning that sold me. You can take a picture (cell phone, camera, whatever), and send or upload it to Evernote. Evernote then does a bunch of cool things with your photos: it displays them in an attractive and easy-to-see way, and even recognizes text in your images through its high-powered recognition technology. You can organize and tag your pictures, share them with friends, and have them accessible from anywhere.

This is perfect for family outings and office parties, when everyone wants a copy of that great picture you took. Just add it into Evernote, share the note with everyone, and let them go nuts!

Student Organizer

As a student myself, Evernote’s usefulness exploded when I figured out how to use it for my school work. Now, all my notes and handouts go into Evernote, where I can organize them, tag them, edit them, and view them any time I want. Now, wherever I am, I can be reading or studying my notes, or getting ahead on class reading.

Also, if I need a great quote or need to remember a name of some Aztec ruler, I can search easily through my notes to find exactly what I’m looking for, instead of flipping through a massive pile of papers to try and get what I’m looking for. I can even take pictures of whiteboards or drawings, and Evernote makes them searchable for me.

“Mind Like Water”

Evernote’s most basic use is this one: easily and quickly getting everything out of your head. Evernote has versions for the Web, Windows, Mac, iPhone, Windows Mobile, and even a portable version to go on a thumb drive. You can add voice notes, image notes, or text notes through any of these clients, and organize them as you wish. It’s about as ubiquitous as a capture tool can be, and makes getting things out of your head a lot easier.

If you want to, Evernote can become a full-blown productivity system (a quick Google search will give you ways other people do it). Personally, I use it in conjunction with Remember the Milk, and it’s a great way to get everything in my head out of it, and into my trusted productivity system.

Shopping Helper

Do you buy things? Evernote can help. Next time you’re out, and see something you want, snap a picture of it. Or, when you run out of orange juice, either add it to your Evernote grocery list, or take a picture. You’ll have a constantly-updated, easy to access list of things you want and need.

Evernote is perfect for keeping Birthday and Christmas lists, ideas for things to get, price lists, grocery lists, and any manner of other things. When you’re out, all you need is Evernote, and you’ll never forget anything you need. Ever.

Paperless Life

I’ve recently started taking pictures or scanning all of my receipts. It’s a great way to keep track of where my money goes. I’m also starting to put magazine clippings into Evernote, as well as personal notes, bills, and the like. They all become searchable and organized, and are much more useful in Evernote than just sitting around in piles in my room. My life is becoming increasingly paperless, and all the stuff I accumulate is increasingly easy to manage, thanks to Evernote.

How do you use Evernote? Share it with us!

Photo Credit: MattGrommes

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Snapter is software that lets you use a digital camera as a mobile scanner. With the shots that you have taken, the software automatically crops, stretches, flattens images of documents into portable images and make them seem as though they have been scanned on a flatbed scanner.

Some of you may be wondering: since you already have a digital camera to take snapshots, why do you still need a software to do the conversion? Well, there are several advantages in Snapter. First of all, it comes with a perspective correction that can take a slanted/disoriented image and rotate it to the right orientation.

Secondly, if you are taking snapshots of pages of a book, it can be really difficult to read the text from the raw images. Snapter has the ability to split the pages into two different images and correct the curvature distortion.

Thirdly, Snapter enhances the images and make them easier to read.

Snapter supports images of different forms. You can use it to convert snapshots of documents, notes written on a whiteboard, namecards or pages from a book. The following screenshots show the tests that I have done with different materials and the results are very satisfying.

Here I printed out a copy of one of my articles that I wrote for MakeUseOf. I took a horizontal snapshot of the printout and input it to Snapter. It successfully rotated the image to the correct orientation, cropped the side and sharpen the image for easy reading.

Next, I took a snapshot of two pages of a book and input them to Snapter. It detects the curvature of the book and splits the pages into the left and right page. Similarly, it crops and sharpen the images for easy reading.

There are both free and paid versions of Snapter. You can download the free version and enjoy the full functionality for the first 14 days. After that, the software is still functional, but it will add a tagline and light watermark on your images. If all you need is to convert the images to a portable version so you can read while on the move, the free version is good enough for you.

If you want to use the result for your commercial project and you don’t want to have the watermark, you will have to get the paid version which cost $20 (Lite version) or $49 (Full version).

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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• How To Scan and Fax Documents Online for Free (15)
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What are QR Codes?

You’re probably already familiar with the bar code. It’s a series of differently widthed and spaced lines that confers a numerical value to the item it is attached to. While it appears to be a 2D object, it’s actually one dimensional, since the scanner picks up all the information it needs by taking a cross-section of the image.

QR, or “Quick Response,” Codes are different because the entire image is part of the code. While I’m not an expert in the layout of these codes, here is some general info about how they are constructed.

The three prominent boxes in the corners of each code indicate the location of the image (so it can be centered by the image parser). Another smaller box in the lower-right aligns the image. The rest of the blocks indicate the information specific to the international standards (which were approved in 2000) and finally the identifying data contained within the code.

“How are these codes read?” you might be asking. Cameraphones are the answer. While the US has been slow to adopt cameraphones, their use became ubiquitous many years ago in Japan and other Asian nations. They subsequently began developing technologies that make the best use of all those cameras. One of them is QR Code. Any object or advertisement can be labeled with one of these bad boys and automatically any cameraphone user can immediately summon up the underlying message.

QR Code Generator

Now that you understand the premise of QR Codes, I’ll bet you’re hankering to try some out. First of all, you can make your own easily online. Semapedia has a QR Code generator, as do these similarly named sites at Winksite and Kaywa. The Semapedia one has an option to make several in a batch. Winksite is my favorite generator because it gives you the most options in terms of how you want your data to read out. Here’s a sample below:

After you generate these codes, what can you do with them? Well they have an enormous number of different uses. One of their first applications, industrial cataloging, can be used domestically as well. Simply place QR Codes on items like books or sealed boxes so you can quickly find out what’s in them. Alternately, you can post them in public places in hopes that other QR initiates will pick up on the trend and contact you.

While these may seem strange and foreign, the QR Code has already become a staple of Japanese culture. I asked my friend who recently visited Japan for several months if she was familiar with QR Codes. At first she didn’t recognized the term, but once I showed her one, she told me that they are on absolutely everything (known locally as “barcodes”). They display nutritional information on foods, coupons for products, and replace the “see our website” moniker found on most advertisements in America.

Want to try it out for yourself? Go to Semapedia and scroll to the bottom. You’ll see an area for selecting your type of phone. After that the instructions should guide you the rest of the way. If you’re an iPhone user, you’re in luck. There is a very nice App for the iPhone, called 2D Sense, already up on the App Store.

If you want to learn more about QR Codes, here are some resources for you:

• QR Code article on Wikipedia
• QR Code Library at SourceForge
• 2D Sense Website

Have you ever seen these out in the wild? I think I’ve seen them on the odd package sent through a shipping service, but that’s about it. Maybe now that I know about them, I’ll notice them more often (and snag a look with my iPhone).

[Images from YouSay, Wikipedia, and 2D Sense, respectively]

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The basic premise behind Hitman Pro is that a single anti-spyware tool is often insufficient to detect the sheer variety of malicious code in the form of spyware and /or trojans. It is not an anti-spyware by itself but it downloads some of the popular anti-spyware scanning engines to scan your computer.

Therefore Hitman Pro is more of an umbrella for the rest of the scanning engines to work under. The scanning engines include names like – Prevx CSI Free, Trend Micro, Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE, Spybot Search&Destroy, Webroot SpySweeper, Ewido AntiSpyware, PC Tools Spyware Doctor and Sunbelt Counterspy. It also bundles in two trial anti-virus scanning engines (not real time protection) Trend Micro Sysclean and McAfee VirusScan.

The anti-spyware programs include trial versions of paid software like the Webroot SpySweeper and PC Tools Spyware Doctor. When the trial period is over, you will have to disable them or alternatively if you have the paid component then Hitman Pro recognizes and accepts them.

The interface gives the user control over which spyware engines to install and once the setup commences, the process is pretty much automatic. It’s as if the program switches on its auto-pilot. Each program is downloaded and installed in sequence along with the updates. The interface is vanilla simple and this obviously is a double-sided feature. The simple interface offers ease of understanding and use but it also takes away control over individual engines. The only option that’s available is to select the scanning engines.

Along with automatic scanning, Hitman Pro offers some extra features like a behavioral scan, browser protection and an expert mode.

The “behavioral scan” looks at suspicious registry entries and collates all orphaned links with related information. The users can then go over the results and remove the displayed files.

The “browser security” features (called ‘SurfRight’) allow for a safe surfing environment protected from trojan attacks.

The “expert mode” gives some control to the user to deal with the threats detected. The expert mode also retains a record of the earlier detections so that the user does not have to do a full scan again. At the end of it all, the program generates a single report file for your perusal.

After using the software for some time, I’ve discovered both its good and bad sides. Here’s a small rundown…

The good…

• An integrated all in one solution to take care of your ‘defense’ shield.
• It’s a great free solution for those who don’t like to be saddled with the individual complexities of an anti-spyware program.
• Simple basic control with a single click operation.
• Updates and patches are downloaded automatically.
• Uses the better known free anti-spyware software. Also has support for the paid ones.

The bad…

• Lack of individual control over the scanning engines.
• Multiple engines take up time and slows down the system. It’s best to run the engines when the system is idle. (An auto shutdown checkmark is a thoughtful help)
• As the individual engines bloat with repeated versions, downloads over slow connections could become a problem.

Hitman Pro’s appeal lies in its one-icon solution for multiple anti-spywares. Hitman Pro and its quiver of engines could just help us circle our wagons against the attack of the trojans.

Hitman Pro 2 (2.7.6.0) runs on Windows 2000, XP and Vista.

Note: As of date, Hitman Pro 3 is in beta phase and available for public download. However it offers a different flavored solution to its earlier version. It does not use third party software but relies on its own new sophisticated heuristic technique.

Why don’t you download it, give it a go and then let us know what you think of it? Did it manage to find extra spyware that was hiding in your computer?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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During my day to day Admin duties I get a lot of people pulling me over to the side to ask me “home networking” or “personal” questions. A normal one I get quite frequently is “how can I find out the IP address of a device on my network?” or “What is my TiVo’s IP?”

These end users always make it seem like they are trying to sell me Drugs a kidney on the black market…

“Pssst… Karl. Umm I have a… Ummm”

“What’s going on random end user dude?”

“Well I have a question… But it’s… “personal” Is that OK??”

I usually chuckle and say no.

I pause and go back over to the lost individual and ask them what their deal is.

My recommendation to them is download AngryIPScanner and figure it out for themselves. After the usual deer-caught-in-the-headlights-stare they usually say :

“Huh?”

I tell them to go to download.com and download the newest version of Angry IpScanner. It is a free open source….wait for it….

IP Scanner!

It will allow you to scan a internal or external network for live hosts and even check open ports and some other geeky goodness that will come in handy when you least expect it. The best part of all, this tiny app can be run off of a memory stick as it does not need to be installed.

Here is a shot of the options and what information you can “fetch” and have displayed on the above grid.

For the novices, all they need to do is open the program up and their IP address is already pre-populated on the start of the IP range line. Just change the last number of the IP address to be .1 and in the end make the last number .255. So if the IP address that shows up is 192.168.0.45 I would make the start IP 192.168.0.1 and the end address 192.168.0.255. This will scan my whole subnet for machines or devices.

It is very straight forward and can come in VERY handy. I recommend this guy being added to your USB tool kit immediately! I have been using it for almost 5 years and they recently released the newest version in BETA which is SUPER fast. Give it a go and let us know what you think. Do you use something else? Think you got a better solution?

Well smart guy that’s what the comments are for!

By: Karl L. Gechlik, A superhero of the IT industry. He runs a global WAN, cracks the whip at his consulting company and gets the whip cracked at him by his beautiful wife and daughter! To follow more of his geeky antics check out his site www.askTheAdmin.com today!

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(1) PDF@koolwire.com

Koolwire is a simple, no-login required PDF conversion service. Simply send the document (DOC, PPT, XLS, JPEG, GIF, RTF, and TXT.) to ‘PDF@koolwire.com’ and shortly after get it back as PDF.

(2) WHATEVER@drop.io

Drop.io lets you create so called drops and use them as private file storage boxes. Drops can be shared with others on a variety of access levels (viewer, contributor, etc.). Best of all, each drop gets its own email address, so everything emailed to that email will be added to the drop.

(3) DOC@scanr.com / WB@scanr.com

If you sign-up with Scanr you will be able to use your mobile or digicam as a scanner. You can send it a blurry capture of your notes and you will get back a cleaned up, decrapified and even OCRed PDF version of your image. (Register before)

(4) GO@9cays.com

9cays is a very cool service that allows you start group email conversations by emailing your thread to GO@9cays.com. Add participants by adding them to ‘Cc:’ field. Best part about it, all exchanged messages (and attachments) will be nicely embedded on a custom webpage. (Register before)

(5) DUTEOUS@your_username.iwantsandy.com

An invisible personal assistant that sits in your email program. You can ask it to remind you about something, or even help you organize meetings with friends. (Register before)

• Schedule Reminders: Hey Sandy, remind me to do my laundry on Sunday. or Sandy, remember my haircut on 11/4 3-4pm.
• Group Reminders: Just add others to ‘Cc:’ and reminders will be sent to everyone on the list.
• Daily Digest: Morning email with everything you’ve got going for the day.
• and more.

Got any another useful email contact? Share it in comments

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1 UnwiredBuyer – Receive last minute eBay notifications and place bids directly from your mobile. Definitely a must-have for every eBay junkie. (US and Canada). Video Demo.

2. Soonr – Need to access your PC directly from the handset? Enter Soonr, a free mobile client that brings remote PC access to your phone: search files, view documents, check emails, run programs and more. US only. Video Demo.

3. Mosio – How old is Yoda? What was Einstein’s IQ? … and for all other questions simply send SMS to Mosio and get a quick reply shortly after. Screenshot. US only.

4. Plusmo – Super-fast mobile feedreader with lots of cool features. Video Demo. Another similar app is Viigo.

5. Fring – Really cool mobile app that lets you place free calls or chat with anyone from your Skype, ICQ, Google Talk, MSN, Twitter, or SIP contacts. Video Demo. You can also get same stuff with Nimbuzz.

6. Mobical – Over-the-air mobile data backup and restore service. Store and backup your contacts, synchronize data between multiple handsets and more.

7. Jajah – Dirt-cheap international call from your handset. Video Demo.

8. AllFreeCalls – Not just dirt-cheap but totally free international calls to over 50 countries. Available in US, UK, and Ireland.

9. Emoze – This one lets you push emails to your mobile. Works both with web-based emails (Gmail) and desktop clients (Outlook). I have covered a bunch of email to mobile apps here.

10. Directory Services - These services offer everything from the nearest Dominos and Movie theater schedules to the driving directions and maps to any address of your choice. There are plenty of good ones: Free411, Goog411, TellMe, and DialDirections. Although i have to warn you in advance, all of them are for the US only. European? See below.

11. Google SMS – Via SMS directory service with lots of extra features: dictionary lookup, currency converter, translations, flight schedules, stock quotes, etc. . Europeans can try Google SMS.

12. Foonz – Handy service to make group calls and send group SMS messages for free.

13. Nutsie – This ingenious app brings your iTunes music library to your mobile. Video Demo. Also check out MunduRadio to access hundreds of digital internet radio stations from any web-enabled mobile phone. Video Demo.

14. Podlinez – Any podcast any time from your handset. Completely FREE. Sorry folks, again US Only.

15. mShopper – Lookup prices and deals for any product right from phone. Quite handy for price lookups while window shopping Video Demo.. US only.

16. Trumpia – Send message to friends and get it delivered to their email, instant messenger, and mobile phone. Recipients can send replies from email, IM program or as a text message. Video Demo.

17. SoLow – Addictive auction service where the winning bidder is the one who has the lowest unique bid. Today’s auctioned items: 250$ cash, Vail Ski Holiday, and Necklace by Laura Shape. US only.

18. BooksInMyPhone – The best mobile book service out there. Comes with an excellent book reader app that makes mobile reading quite convenient. Also see DialyLit.

19. Jott – Voice-to-text transcriber with a bunch of cool features. Dial toll-free number and “Jott” yourself memo notes, Or “Jott” messages to a group of friends. Jott will transcribe your messages and send it to indicated emails.Video Demo. US only.

20. Qipit – Use phone camera to capture documents and convert them to well-formatted PDFs. Forward ready PDFs to your email or even send fax it anywhere you want. Video Demo.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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How does it work?

• Step 1: Use your mobile phone or digital camera to photograph documents, whiteboards and even business cards.
• Step 2: Send all images to scanR (send to doc@scanR.com for documents and to wb@scanR.com for whiteboards)
• Step 3: scanr will send you back nicely formatted PDF versions of documents.

If it’s your first time with Scanr you will need to register for an account. Registration process is simple and won’t take you more then 2 minutes. All you need to do is to provide your email and verify it by entering the activation code. Afterwards you can start using the service by emailing it whatever images you want to get converted to PDF. You can also use your moblie phone to send images and get back PDF versions.

Ooh, I almost forgot to mention that Scanr works on your image to make it look much better. That’s to say, not only it will convert your file but also make them look better. Check out snapshots below, showing scanr in action

Important thing to remember is that the camera you plan to use should have at least 1 mega pixel lens.

Some more things you can do with Scanr

• Get properly formatted PDF versions for captured files
• Save all documents, whiteboards and even business cards in your account
• Easily search through documents, whiteboards and business cards
• Download data to your computer if needed
• Transfer data from the business cards (that you have created from taking snapshots of paper business cards) to preferred contact management application (i.e., Jigsaw, Plaxo, Salesforce.com)

I was impressed by the performance of this service. It actually does what it shows and much more. It is not completely free to use but whatever comes with basic service is more then an enough for an amateur Joe. With basic service you get following:

• Option to scan business cards and convert them into searchable PDF files
• Convert photos of whiteboards or documents into legible PDF files for use in the future

Scanr promises more features, but my guess it will be mainly available for premium members. There you go, here we had another web based service that offers free features and does not require any installation. Try it out and add it to your bookmarks, I am sure one day you will need it.

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