From my writer’s point of view, crafting science fiction is as exciting as – and so much even more challenging than – reading it . The science behind every great science fiction is always based on the real science that really exists in our real world. That’s why making the story believable requires an extensive amount of research.

But science fiction is not the only genre that requires research. Any kind of writing involves some process of data gathering. That’s why research tools  are  an indispensable part of every writer’s life.

Scrap everything to Scrapbook

One of the best research tools that I’ve come across so far is a Firefox extension called Scrapbook. Basically, this tool acts as a filing cabinet for all of your digital research data. Whenever you find something interesting on the net, you could add it to your scrapbook, either by dragging and dropping, right clicking or using shortcut keys.

We’ve discussed Scrapbook before. If want to get familiar with it, you could read Tina’s “Offline Browsing Anywhere Anytime – Part One” and my “7 Writing Addons for Turning Firefox into the Ultimate Writer’s Suite“.

One reader suggested Scrapbook+, a modification of Scrapbook with some improvements here and there. But with the exception of the highly visible 6 highlighters, I personally couldn’t spot the differences between these two. I use the plus version based on the developer’s claim that it’s faster.

As much as I love Scrapbook+ and Scrapbook to aid my research, they both have one similar major drawback: my data is only available on one computer. If you are a person who works with more than one computer (home, office, mobile, library, and any other possible variation), you’d wish that you could share your data from every one of your working points.

Well, my dear friends, with some modification and a little help from another tool, your wish could come true.

Access your Scrapbook data everywhere

My other indispensable tool is a data backup/synchronization service called Dropbox (which, again, has been mentioned previously here and here).

After installing the client (available for Windows, Mac and Linux), this service will create a Dropbox folder and everything inside this folder will be synchronized to your online account and to other Dropbox folders in other computers which installed under your account. It’s also possible to share folders with other Dropbox users.

As time has gone by, I found other uses of Dropbox aside from being a mere backup tool. One of them is using it to remote trigger file and torrent downloads. While trying to find a solution to have my research data available on other computers, I suddenly realized that I could use Dropbox to achieve that goal.

The first thing to do is to create a folder inside the Dropbox folder to put your Scrapbook data. Mine’s called “Scrapbook” but you could name it anything you want.

If you install the Dropbox client on several computers under one account, you can continue on to the Scrapbook setting up process. However, if this is not the case and you still want to be able to access your Scrapbook data from another computer, right click on the Scrapbook folder and choose “Dropbox –> Share this folder” from the pop up menu.

You will be taken to the Dropbox site under your account. Write down the email addresses of the Dropbox accounts to whom you want to share this folder with. These accounts would be the accounts of computers where you want to access your Scrapbook data.

This arrangement opens up another possibility: you could collaborate with others on data collecting.

Configuring Sharing on Scrapbook

The next step is configuring Scrapbook. Open Scrapbook using the key combination Alt + K and click the little arrow button next to Tools. Choose “Options” from the po up menu.

Choose the “Organize” tab and click the “Save data to” option. Click “Browse” to determine where Scrapbook should put your data. Choose the “Scrapbook” folder inside the Dropbox folder.

Please note that from my experiment, the above method is working with a fresh install of Scrapbook but not with an already built database. Alternatively, you could choose “Enable Multi-ScrapBook” to have several sets of data collections. This way, you could put your private data on one local location and share non-private data through the Dropbox folder.

Click the little arrow next to the “Multi Scrapbook” icon on the left of Tools and choose manage.

On the next Scrapbook management window, you could Add, Edit and Remove a scrapbook. Click Add.

Give a name to the new scrapbook and choose a location to save the data. Since our goal is to make the data available on other computers, choose the Scrapbook folder inside the Dropbox folder that we’ve created earlier.

Do the same thing on the other computers: accept the Dropbox shared folder if it’s installed under a different account, and set Scrapbook (either using “Save data to” or “Multiple Scrapbook“) to store its data in the shared Dropbox folder.

Another solution for sharing partial Scrapbook data is using the “Export – Import” feature from the Tools menu.

The combination of Scrapbook and Dropbox will enable us to work using the same data on multiple computers under different OS’s as both Firefox and Dropbox are available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Just remember to pay attention to your Dropbox quota and the size of your Scrapbook library.

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Reviewing Dropbox For iPhone – Is It Up To Expectations? (9)
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For digital-age music lovers, the biggest advantage that iTunes has is the ability to play well with large-scale music collections. Add-sort-search and other library management tasks could be done easily and flawlessly.

But to some people, two of those great features become iTunes major limitations. First, iTunes only manages and synchronizes to Apple music players i.e. iPods. And second, the only store accessible from iTunes is (obviously) Apple’s iTunes Store.

A DoubleTwist Mac Review – Considering the alternative

Not everybody have iPods and/or iPhones. And for those who own one, it’s very likely that they also have other gadgets. To be able to synchronize our music collection to these non-Apple gadgets, we need help from other sources.

There are several alternatives that available for Windows, but the option is more limited for Mac users. So I did some searching and one of the few tools that I managed to find is doubleTwist. We’ve covered it once before.

This app is available for Mac and Windows and promises to give users the ability to synchronize their collection to other multimedia-capable devices. It also provide alternatives to iTunes Store to purchase and download music: Amazon MP3 Store.

Being the opposite of a shopaholic (especially everything related to digital online shopping), I don’t think that I would use the store feature. But I surely could use some help in synchronizing my music and movie collections to my mobile devices.

The first impression

The first time you open doubleTwist, a log-in window will appear. If you already have an account, just fill in your email address and password and click “Log In”.

Or else, click “Create Account” to open the registration window, fill in the needed information and click “Sign Up”.

The first thing that I wanted to check after the main window open is how much of my system memory used by doubleTwist. Users from Windows version reported that this app is not memory-friendly. Sadly, the same thing goes for Mac version that I’ve tried.

It consumes a major portion of the memory, even when it’s idle. I tried to compare it with the idle iTunes and the result is a bit shocking.

But memory-hog aside, let’s see how useful this app really is.

Connecting the devices

I have to admit that I’ve prepared myself to do some copying from my collections into doubleTwist library. At the very least, there should be some folder synchronization process that I must go through. But I was wrong.

You’ll notice that doubleTwist automatically uses the Music folder plus the existing iTunes Music Library and playlists as its own “Music” Library. This really is a nice time saver because no effort is necessary from user’s side.

The same thing goes for doubleTwist’s “Photos” library – it uses your Mac’s Photos folder and iPhoto library;

and “Movies” library that uses your Mac’s Movies folder and iTunes Movie Library.

The developer claims that this app is compatible with hundreds of devices – Blackberries, Androids and Palm Pre are among them – and there is the complete list on their website.

My Windows Mobile phone hasn’t been supported by doubleTwist Mac version yet, but I tried it anyway because many users reported successful media synchronization to unsupported device. But no such luck.

Then I plugged in my MP3 players one by one, and they all appeared on the device list and I could drag and drop my music to them easily. Unfortunately, doubleTwist doesn’t support folders so all the items from every folder are there in one list.

One easy way to manage the transferring process is by creating one playlist for each device that you have, and put your selected songs there. This way, you’ll only need to select the playlist and move the songs to your device in one go.

Wish list and wrap up

This app still has a lot of things to fix and is too far behind in terms of features to be in the same level as iTunes. One feature that I really love to see is the ability to automatically synchronizes a playlist to a specific device. I also hope that the memory hog could be trimmed down to minimum.

So to wrap everything up, I have to say that despite all the negatives, I still think this app would be useful for Mac users who want to make their music collection available to non-Apple devices.

Have you tried doubleTwist? Do you know other alternatives to synchronize your multimedia collection to non-Apple devices? Share using the comment below.

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

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• Sync iTunes Library to iPod and your Music Folder (Windows) (10)
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Which are your two favorite calendar apps? I hope its Microsoft Outlook on the desktop and Google Calendar on the web; because this is what the post is all about. Both are full blown calendar utilities and adopting any one decidedly makes our life a whole lot easier.

But what if you decide to use both, like I do? One reason is that both have their own features and also I like to store my my plans in two places (offline and online) for all time access. As I said before, maintaining one is a chore…two could be a headache. Thankfully no, because there are some ways we can sync Outlook with Google Calendar.

The Little But Handy Outlook/Google Calendar Sync

A 684KB tool from Google takes away the pain of keeping both calendars updated. Google Calendar Sync works with Outlook 2003/2007 on Windows XP and Windows Vista. The utility not only allows us to sync Microsoft Outlook calendar events with Google Calendar, it also allows us to set the direction of flow (1-way or 2-way). Also we can specify the sync frequency by giving a time interval.

Google recommends deciding on the calendar which will act as the source and the one that will be the sink. The source will be the main calendar and contain most of the information. It’s better to clear the other calendar of all events and start with a clean slate.

Now, let’s install and sync. Close Outlook if it’s running. Installation is clear cut and simple.

1. The Google Calendar Sync window looks like this –



2. The first part covers the log-in details of your calendar account. The second part is about how you plan to sync between Outlook and Google Calendar. You have three options to choose from which are pretty self explanatory.
   • 2 – Way: The data flows both ways. Change any detail in one calendar and it gets updated in the other too.
   • 1 – Way (Google Calendar to Outlook): Information flows from Google Calendar to the default Outlook Calendar. Any changes in the Outlook calendar will not be shown in the Google Calendar automatically.
   • 1-Way (Outlook to Google Calendar): Information goes from Outlook to Google Calendar. Any changes in Google Calendar will not get updated Outlook automatically.



3. All that’s left is to set the update/sync interval. The bare minimum is 10 minutes while the default is 120 minutes.
4. Google Calendar Sync runs from the system tray and you can access the settings with a right click. For instance, a manual sync is right click and Sync.

When the syncing operation is on, you will notice swirling arrows in the system icon. It’s a simple solution and probably the only thing that would make it more complete would be a date range selection feature.

Did You Know You Can Subscribe To Your Google Calendar In Outlook?

Outlook offers an easy way to add internet calendars like Google. Google Calendar obliges by giving us a private URL to use. Using this private URL we can view updated Google Calendars within Outlook. This is just one way as any changes in our Outlook Calendar will not get reflected in Google Calendar.

But here’s how you can view your updated Google Calendar in Outlook –

1. Log-in to your Google Calendar account.
2. On the left-hand side, click on Settings for the calendar you want to use under My calendars.



3. On the Calendars tab, click on the (account name) of your calendar.



4. The Calendar Details tab opens up. Go down to Private Address and click ICAL. Select the Internet Web address that appears, and then press CTRL+C to copy the selected text. This private link is intended for your use only.



5. Open Outlook. Go to Tools – Account Settings. On the Internet Calendars tab, click New.



6. Paste the Internet Web address copied from Google Calendar and click Add.



7. Give a name to the calendar in the Folder Name field. Now, any changes made in Google Calendar will show up in Outlook.

A little utility called Google Calendar Sync does the synchronizing job for us. That’s the easy part…the difficult part is keeping to the calendar (as the multi-million dollar time management industry always tells us).

There are a few other tools which do the job. We have briefly covered OggSync before which also allows you to do a two-way sync between Outlook (and Microsoft Exchange) and Google Calendar(s). You can also try out SyncMyCal Lite which comes with all basic calendar synchronization features.

Do you use both calendars? How do you keep them concurrent? Let us know.

Download: Google Calendar Sync.

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Calgoo Connect & Hub – Calendar Syncing And Sharing Made Easy (3)
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• How To: Integrate Google Calendar Into Thunderbird (22)

Dropbox for iPhone was finally released at the end of September 2009. How does it fair? Is it as powerful as its desktop sibling?

I installed it on my iPhone and took it on a test drive. Truthfully, I’m a little disappointed. Here’s why.

No Edit Function

Dropbox for the iPhone is nothing more than a glorified file browser. It will only allow you to view the files stored in your Dropbox account. There is no edit function. Sure, the app will allow you to retrieve your documents from wherever you are as long there is an internet connection but then again, isn’t that also possible with Safari?

Without the ability to edit documents, Dropbox for the iPhone is no longer a file synchronization app. It is merely a viewer.

“Previous Versions” Unavailable

One of the many great things I admire about the desktop version of Dropbox is the ability to view previous versions of a file. Dropbox saves past renditions of your documents by recording changes and edits hence, providing you with the chance to retrieve previous versions of the same document. Sadly, that is also not available in the iPhone app.

No Upload Function

Yup, you read correctly. You can’t upload anything besides the odd photo or video from your camera roll. This completely cripples the application because so much potential has just gone to waste. I can easily think of a hundred things that I can do if I’m able to sync files from my iPhone to my MacBook back home.

In all fairness, I have a suspicion that Apple is preventing the developers of Dropbox from implementing this feature. Nevertheless, as the end-user, I’m allowed to have expectations and I want to be able to upload files!

iPhone-Formatted Videos Only

The iPhone can only play h.264 video. Now, here’s a question: if the only accepted media is h.264, wouldn’t it be better to just sync the video over using iTunes? Think about it, in order to have the file appear in Dropbox, I must first have access to my desktop. I may as well have transferred the video file over, rather than to share it online just so that I can retrieve it on my iPhone.

Here’s a tip to the Dropbox developers: why don’t you guys add the ability to automatically convert any video files in a certain folder into h.264? Say, if I were to drop a video encoded in AVI into a dedicated folder in my Dropbox, it would automatically be converted into an iPhone-friendly format. I’m sure many users will enjoy that.

Alright, it seems as though I’m painting a terribly bleak picture here. But like I said earlier, I’m a little disappointed because the wait does not justify the miserable handful of features that Dropbox for iPhone provides. I expected the whole shebang.

If I push the curtain of dissatisfaction aside for a minute, it’s actually a wonderful beginning. Dropbox is still in its very first version and already providing its users with a chance to retrieve their files quickly and easily, not to mention saving them for offline viewing and sharing with friends.

I’d love to see where they’re heading next. I vote for editing functions! What about you? What are your expectations for the next version of Dropbox?

Dropbox runs only on iPhone OS 3.1. As a prerequisite, you must have the desktop version installed. Click here to download it.

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• 10 Sync Tools every Office Worker Should Know About (39)
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• Sync Yourself with Syncplicity… With a Gift For MakeUseOf Readers! (8)
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But the iTunes Store is not the only web-based product from Apple that integrates well with Apple’s other popular products. There’s also MobileMe.

This is a service that provides its users with the ability to keep their email, contacts, and calendar up-to-date on all their devices automatically. MobileMe also provides a suite of web applications that let users access their information using a web browser, share photos and movies, host a website, and use an iDisk for online file storage.

The Price Is NOT Right

Considering the great ideas behind it, I can’t help but wonder why MobileMe receives far less attention than it should. Even from Mac users.

Maybe the main reason for this not-so-successful marketing attempt is the fact that MobileMe is not a free service. After the 60 days free trial, users should spare US$ 99 for a yearly subscription fee.

Actually, there’s nothing wrong about offering a paid service. The problem is, with everything that is available today online (and offline), you could assemble your own MobileMe-like features for free. And free is hard to beat.

Here are some options that you could use to have the similar features of MobileMe without having to open your wallet.

Matching the offers

Let’s break down MobileMe’s offers and then look at ways to match them.

1. Sync your contacts and calendars

With the help of GoogleSync, you could sync your Mac’s contacts and calendars to your smartphone.

The first thing you should do is to enable Address Book’s and iCal’s ability to synchronize with Google Mail and Google Calendar. Open Address Book and go to its Preferences (Command + Comma). Click Accounts, and give a checkbox to the “Synchronize with Google” option box and click “Configure”

Fill in your Google Account’s data and click OK.

Do the same with your calendar(s). Open iCal and go to the Preferences. Click Account and click Add.

Choose Google on the Account Type, fill in your Google account data and click “Create“.

Your Google account will appear and you could edit the information if you want to.

The next step would be to configure your smartphone to synchronize to your Google account using Google Sync. The supported devices are iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile.

You can find the complete instructions on how to do this on the Google Sync page. Just choose the type of smartphone you have and click on the respective instructions.

Don’t forget to backup your data before and after the process. You can’t be too careful.

2. Access information online

If you set everything up right in the previous step, your information will automatically be available online through Google Mail and Google Calendar. So, no problem here.

3. Share photos and movies

You could use various online services like Flickr or Picasa Web Albums to share your photos and many other video sharing services like YouTube for movies. Alternatively, you could build your own Wordpress photo gallery for this purpose.

4. Website hosting

This is also something that you could build yourself. We’ve discussed about several places where you could host your site for free, a method to create your own self-hosted Wordpress blog, and create and publish your iWeb sites.

5. Online Storage

MobileMe provide its users with 20GB worth of online storage, but there are already many free online storage providers out there that offer even bigger (or nearly as much) storage space.

Unmatched offers

There are of course features of MobileMe that are irreplaceable, such as the ability to find a lost iPhone and secure it. The integration between all of the features is also a plus point for MobileMe.

After listening to a free audiobook entitled “Free” by Chris Anderson, I think Apple should change its marketing tactics for MobileMe to make the service more successful. Maybe the basic features of MobileMe should be available for free while users are given options to upgrade the services for a fee. But that is just my personal opinion.

Have you tried MobileMe? Do you know other free (and maybe better) alternatives?  Please share using the comments below.

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Read on for just a few of them!

1. Switch Between Computers With Ease

One of the primary reasons students need laptops at school is for the sake of portability. However, with Dropbox, you could be stuck with a desktop and still be able to access your work from anywhere. I own a laptop and a netbook, so anytime I’m working on a project or an article, I drop the associated files into my Dropbox, and after it syncs, it’ll be online and ready for me to use at any other computer.

One of the most convenient features of Dropbox is that you can access your files not only from the Dropboxes synced with your account, but also from Dropbox’s website. That means you can access your files from any computer, even rental laptops at school. You won’t have to remember to bring along an USB stick ever again.

For even more convenience, you can use a syncing utility like SyncBackSE, and schedule it to run every night, syncing Dropbox with any folder on the computer containing your homework. Then, you can be sure that you’ll always have the most updated version of your essays and notes the next morning.

2. Keep Your Parents Up To Date

Maybe you don’t have release forms to sign anymore, but for (previously) underage teenagers like me, there are release forms for everything. In addition to those, I had Chinese assignments that I always had my parents spell check for me. For parents who are as technology-impaired as mine, it was always easier for me to tell them to pull a file out of a designated folder.

If you’re the type who likes writing home, now you can save money on paper and stamps by just typing out your letter and dropping it into your Dropbox. Or, you can leave your parents lists of things you need mailed to you, or nicely phrased requests for money.

3. Be Smarter About Collaborating On Projects

Until now, Google Docs was one of the go-to tools for collaborating on projects. Unfortunately though, you need to have a Gmail account in order to utilize the sharing and editing prowesses of Google Docs to their full potential. Nowadays, that might not be too hefty of a requirement, but it does mean that the adamant Yahoo and Hotmail users are out of luck, unless they wanted a completely new email account.

Luckily for them, Dropbox doesn’t require so extensive a commitment to use its features. Although those who you want to share folders with will have to sign up for an account before they can access the files, the sign up process is quick and relatively painless. If you really don’t want to deal with sign ups though, each file in the Public folder has a link associated with it that you can share with anyone you’d like.

The best part about Dropbox as a collaborative tool, is that two people can edit the same file simultaneously. In that situation, Dropbox saves two distinct copies of the same files, each with a person’s edits to ensure that both edits are preserved. Further, there is no need to have endless email chains back and forth in order to keep each other updated on the latest going-ons of the project. With Dropbox, all that your collaborators need to do is just open up the Dropbox folder, and pull out the most recent version of the file.

So today, I’ve given you a few more (hopefully) compelling reasons to use Dropbox. Personally, Dropbox has made switching between my laptop and netbook a lot less painful than it otherwise would have been. Perhaps you’ll find it will do the same for you.

Do you have any other ways of keeping your files with you on the move? Let us know by leaving a comment!

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Studeous – Collaboration Suite for Teachers and Students (19)
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Synchronizing your Gmail email messages with Thunderbird is a breeze by using IMAP.   Every change you make in Thunderbird is more or less instantly reflected in your online email account.

But what about your Gmail contact book, your Google calendar and Google Reader RSS feeds?    Although Thunderbird offers their own versions, I wanted it instead to synchronize with my Google accounts and keep everything updated as I made changes.    The thought of having two versions, one in Thunderbird and one online, was not very appealing.

Here’s how I finally managed to do it.

Synchronize Your Google Contacts With Thunderbird :

This can be achieved by using an extension called Zindus.   Just install the extension and after restarting Thunderbird, go into the options :

It’s very easy to set up. Just insert your Google account name and password.   Then click the “test connection” button and it will connect to your Google account.    Your contact book will then be downloaded and any further changes in Thunderbird will also be synchronized with your online account.

Synchronize Your Google Calendar With Thunderbird

This one has already been covered by Tina (which is the guide I used) but here’s still a quick summary.   You need two extensions – Lightning and Provider For Google Calendar.   When you install them and restart, you’ll then see your calendar on the right hand side.

To start the synchronization, find the XML link of your Google Calendar (found under the settings on your GCal page), insert it into the Thunderbird calendar settings, and bingo, your events are downloaded and synchronized.

To get the full, in-depth process, read Tina’s excellent how-to.

Synchronize Your Google Reader With Thunderbird

This was the biggie as far as I was concerned.   With over 2000 unread RSS messages, I wanted to be able to browse through the feeds and have it instantly updated online.   I didn’t want to read them in Thunderbird but for them still to be sitting unread online.   That would have led to chaos.    Finally I discovered one possible solution.

Basically what the following method does is install a mini browser in your Thunderbird.   So technically you are still reading them online but inside your Thunderbird client instead.   So it’s not an offline synchronization solution which is what I am really looking for.   But for the moment this will do until I find a better method.

• First download Thunderbrowse and CSLite and install them in Thunderbird.
• Now go into your Thunderbird options and on the ‘General‘ tab, make sure the box labelled When Thunderbird launches, show the Start Page in the message area is checked, and in the location field, enter the URL http://www.google.com/reader/i/.



• Now go into your Thunderbrowse options. On the ‘Content‘ tab, check the option Enable SmartJavascript?, and click OK.
• Open the preferences for the CS Lite extension, and on the ‘Global‘ tab, select Allow cookies globally from the drop-down box.
• Now restart Thunderbird.   You should now see Google Reader in the main browser pane.   Log in and your feeds will appear.



• One piece of advice – place the Thunderbrowse button on your Thunderbird toolbar.  Then when you need to navigate away from the window to read your emails, you can click the Thunderbrowse button to go back again.

Do you have any better solutions to synchronize your Google accounts with Thunderbird? If so, I would love to hear about them. Let everyone know in the comments.

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To: Integrate Google Calendar Into Thunderbird (22)
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I’ve been using both Vista and the Windows 7 RC, and the official recommendation for those platforms for raw copy tools is to use Robocopy, rather than the rather dated XCopy.

Robocopy has a GUI that leaves a lot to be desired, and Microsoft have been quietly pushing a free tool called RichCopy, so you would think there were plenty of options, but I’ve had an awful time with everything except for the barbaric option of running Robocopy from the command line, so I was really on the hunt for something less official.

FreeFileSync (FFS) takes the sting out of synchronising local backups. I’d still go some other places for Internet backups, and this isn’t the tool for scripted synchronisation either, if you’re headed down that path. Robocopy is great for that.

There isn’t much information available about FFS, so it’s just as well that it largely seems not to need it. Download, install, start, and get things done. It’s that easy.

I have an ongoing need to ensure that I have my photographs saved in at least two places. I have another copy that leaves the building with me as well, but we’re just looking at the locations I can see on the network for this.

When FFS is started, you can see a fairly straightforward interface.

The idea is to put the source location in the left column, and the destination in the right, but the terms are less than distinct, because at least by default, FFS is going synchronise the files in both locations, and will happily update both ways.

In my case I have files in M:\pics that I would like to backup to K:\backups\pic. Just browse to both of those locations, as shown above.

The big compare button does exactly what you might think. It doesn’t move anything anywhere, just takes a look and reports back.

FFS lists the folders and files that need to be copied across,and would also list any that needed to go the other way. This set is pretty straightforward though.

Click the options button to sort out the way you want the synchronisation to happen. You’ll be presented with a list of options which are mostly self-explanatory.

Warning! Take some care in here. If you get these, or the folders you’ve listed in FFS the wrong way around, you could end up deleting files by mistake. Measure twice, cut once!

You can select a main option from the left, and then make minor (but important) adjustments to it on the right.

For instance, if you choose Mirror on the left, you’ll get this list on the right.

What this says is that if you have files that exist only on the left, they will be copied to the right. If you have files only on the right, they will be deleted. If you have newer files on the left they will be copied. If you have newer files on the right, they will be overwritten.

You can also adjust each of these actions, by clicking the green buttons, if none of the major options is what you want.

Spend some time and get familiar with this. Really.

Mostly, though, the requirement is to mirror folders, as in the larger image above.

Once you’ve chosen the option you want, click the Apply button to return to the main screen.

The settings you’ve chosen for this session are displayed above the Synchronize button. Check things are as you want them to be, and then click the button.

You’ll get one last chance… A preview screen is displayed that shows you what is going to happen.

At about this point I’m getting tired of symbols, and wish the application would just put things in English.

The star is the number of files that will be created. The bin shows the number to be deleted. The arrow shows the number to be overwritten, and the pie chart shows the total amount of data that is going to be transferred.

Click Start.

Depending on the amount of data involved, you may or may not see much happen before you are eventually presented with a completion screen.

Click OK to return to the main screen. You’re all finished. Congratulations!

Most folk would like to perform the same sync activity over and over, and FFS has the ability to save and open setups so you can run them again any time.

Click the button with the red arrow to save the config you’ve just been working with, and you’ll be prompted to supply a (would you believe) .ffs_gui file name. Take the offered name or change it to something more useful, and then click Save.

Opening a session is just the same in reverse. Click the button with the green arrow, etc.

That’s it. Now you have one less excuse for not doing backups…

I’d be most interested in any experiences you’ve had with this or other similar products. Do you use any sort of sync tools? let me know in the comments.

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Pure Sync: Free Backup and File Synchronization Tool (16)
• Windows Live Mesh: Get your Data on any PC from any Device (16)
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• Sync Yourself with Syncplicity… With a Gift For MakeUseOf Readers! (8)
• Sugarsync vs Dropbox: The Battle Of The Cloud Storage Titans (60)

As busy as we all are, and as much as we are always on the move, it ends up being a real pain trying to carry our laptops around with us. With our laptops, we need to make sure to bring our peripherals, including our power supplies, mouses, and possibly even our printers and such.

Today I want to share 4 methods of using a USB drive or an external hard drive to make your computing portable so that you can leave your laptop at home for once. This way, you can use any local computer you want, taking advantage of the convenience of just carrying your portable hard drive with you.

For each one of these methods, there have been previous posts written (both by myself and here on MakeUseOf) so I will link to them as I go.

(1)  File Syncing:

The first option is possibly the easiest option and is done with the least effort. The basic idea is to have a copy of your most needed files saved on a portable external hard drive. This is handy because any computer you end up using these days will have USB ports so you can gain access to your files.

You also want to make sure that all of the most recent changes to those files are with you. You can do this by “syncing” (or synchronizing) them.  Here on MakeUseOf, Shankar has written an article showing how easy the process can be. Just make sure that when you return to your computer, you sync the USB files and the originals on the computer. With all of your files a portable hard drive away, your important functions will be as portable as your portable drive is.

BUT, what about those programs you leave behind on your own PC?

(2) Portable Applications:

Portable applications (aka portable apps) are programs that you can install on an external hard drive to be run on almost any computer with a USB port. All parts of the program are typically located in one folder and therefore it is portable. This is very handy because you can find many useful programs (Aibek lists 100 Portable Apps in this post) that you can carry with you, feeling confident that all of your settings are staying the same. Now, any computer you come in contact with will have your favorite programs right there for your use.

Portable applications, along with your personal files synced, will make your computing experience virtually portable.  Check out a review of a cool suite containing many portable applications, including a standalone programs menu, called PortableApps Suite.

BUT, what if you enjoy having a consistent Operating System experience?

(3) Virtual Operating System:

Mojopac offers a solution you may like. It’s almost like Windows XP installed on your external hard drive.  This means that you can have your OS settings, programs, and files just the way you like running on any computer that has an external hard drive (and that runs XP but most if not many still do so it shouldn’t be much of an issue).

The programs installed in the Mojopac installation are all located on your portable hard drive so it enables true portability. I did a review but if you want cool screen shots and a video, check out the 4 Ways to Carry your PC on iPod or USB Thumbdrive that was published earlier on MakeUseOf.

What if a “virtual” OS isn’t good enough?  What if you want the safety and flexibility of actually booting from your portable hard drive?

(4) Operating Systems Which Are Boot-able From An External Hard Drive:

Another solution for making your computing portable is to install an operating system that can be booted straight from your thumb drive. There are several operating systems that you can use in such a case, one of which being Windows XP!

Basically if you can get a bootable live CD version, you can use an external portable hard drive instead of a CD!  Check out some of these links showing how: How to make your own Windows Live CD (check out this added help from Lifehacker), UNetbootin Creates USB-Bootable Linux the Easy Way.

There you have it, four methods for making your computing portable! Which of these do you typically use? Can you think of another method that doesn’t fit in these four categories? Let us know!

Image credit: Wheels00

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Well not anymore, thanks to Offisync which allows you to use, update and synchronize your Google Docs onto Microsoft Office – as well as offering the ability to search on Google from the Office interface and insert images into your Office documents from Google Images.

This is one of those services that will prove to be insanely useful if you are in the habit of switching between them both all the time.   For it to work though, you need :

• Either Office 2003 or Office 2007
• Windows XP / Vista or Windows 7.
• Microsoft’s .net framework version 3.5, which will automatically be installed on your computer if you don’t already have it.
• A Google account to be able to use Docs (that one is a bit obvious!)

You first have to install a small toolbar which sits in your Office documents.   It looks like this :

To open a document from Google Docs, just press the small yellow folder icon on the far left and a box will appear asking you to enter your Google account name and password.   I was initially a bit concerned about entering my Google account password so I emailed OffiSync and asked them if they store the account details on their servers.   Their answer is an emphatic no.

User Names and Passwords are stored in the Windows Credentials Manager (CredMan) service on your computer. OffiSync does not store any credentials on our servers or on the Google servers.

That reassured me somewhat so I proceeded with entering my password.   When your details have been accepted, your list of Google Docs files will come up (I don’t normally use Google Docs so I created a test document for this article).

Just double-click on the Google Docs file that you want to work on in Microsoft Office and it will immediately open in Word.  If you have lots of documents and you can’t find the one you want, just click the black binoculars in the Offisync toolbar and you can filter out the file you want by entering keywords.

Now this is the file that I created with a simple short sentence.   All you basically need to do now is just work on your document and periodically save the changes using the Offisync toolbar.

Say, I want to add “Now I’m updating it” to the document -

When you’re finished with the document and you want to synchronize your changes with the copy in your Google Docs account — all you need to do is click the black disk icon on your Offisync toolbar and you will see this -

After a few seconds, that box will disappear and the updated version of the document will now be in your Google Docs account. Let’s check on that.

Yup, there it is!

There are other features to Offisync too. Basically the app gives you all the power of Google Docs but inside Microsoft Office instead.   Offisync allows you to do the following :

• Add or remove collaborators to the online Google document



• Email the online Google document to someone



• Paste the link to the Google Docs copy of the file in your Word copy.

But the best part of Offisync (in my opinion) is the ability to insert images from Google Images into your Word document.   Everything opens in Offisync’s custom-made mini browser.

Since I’ve just been to see Transformers 2 at the cinema, let’s see what pictures there are of Optimus Prime on Google Images.

As you can see, you can filter the images down to size, type and also by creative commons.  When you have found one you want to use, click “Insert” and you will receive a box notifying you where it has come from :

If you accept it, click “Accept” and the image will then be embedded into the Word document.

Offisync doesn’t only support Word though.   You can also use the feature in Microsoft’s Excel and Powerpoint to keep those documents synchronized as well.

And that’s it!   This one is going into my “keeper” pile of software apps as it has already motivated me to use Google Docs more and so far I haven’t found any bugs or really irritating features.  I really hope Offisync continues to be developed and I can’t wait to see what other features they come up with next.

Let us know what you think.   Is this something you would use?  What features do you like the best and what new features would you like Offisync to introduce?

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• 5 Great Alternatives To Google Docs You Should Consider (28)
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• How to Freeze a Part of a Word Document for Easy Reference (13)

A rather interesting justification for developing this project is available on the website and for the first time in a long time, I can actually relate to what they’re talking about:

We feel that just like you don’t use a different browser for every web site you visit (Firefox to read the NY Times, IE to stream Hulu, Chrome to browse YouTube, etc) you shouldn’t have to use iTunes for Apple products, Nokia software for Nokia phones, Sony software for Sony products, etc. The typical household today has many such devices and there is a need for a simple and powerful software that connects them.

Indeed, everything these days comes with some sort of social networking features – but doubleTwist actually puts them to good use. After you invite friends to install doubleTwist on their computer, they will appear on the left side sidebar.

After that, sending files to them is just a click away. They instantly receive the file in their doubleTwist feed and it’s downloaded to the computer.

doubleTwist plays all the major audio formats (AAC, MP3 and WMA) as long as the files aren’t digitally protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management). If you have a large library of media files bought from iTunes Store using the old protected format, you’re out of luck – the same goes for Rhapsody or Napster fans. (Thous you may try reading MakeUseOf article on how to remove DRM protcetion from music files.)

The music player is not as developed as iTunes – no EQ, no Sound Check, only two viewing modes. They will surely add more features like this in future releases – after all it’s in beta.

It also plays videos – with upload support for Flickr and YouTube – as well as integrating a barebones photo viewer.

doubleTwists’ strength isn’t in the integrated playback functions, yet. It vastly compensates with the ability to sync with all the iPods, a large number of Blackberry devices, the Sony PSP, Nokia phones and the list goes on. They estimate that the application is compatible with hundreds of devices. I invite you to watch this short video explaining most of the functionality offered by doubleTwist, then grab the beta while it’s fresh from here.

Don’t forget to come back and post your comments and thoughts about the product. You can also check out some other posts related to music here.

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Synchronize MP3s To Non-Apple Devices with doubleTwist [Mac] (0)
• Sync iTunes Library to iPod and your Music Folder (Windows) (10)
• Two Free Apps To Sync ANY MP3 Player with iTunes (19)
• Top 5 Free Media Players For Windows (57)
• The BIG Book of iTunes [Free PDF Download] (49)

Unlike Mozy, Carbonite or Jungle Disk, Pure Sync is aimed more at local backups and operations. It’s a useful tool if, for example, you use an external hard drive or a NAS (Network Attached Storage) for backup. Using Pure Sync, you can backup just the files that have changed, instead of manually copying everything over. Windows Vista and 7 have a built-in backup (Windows Backup) and synchronization function (Sync Center) but they’re not as easy to use and have a more limited feature set. Pure Sync is a timesaver and replaces two separate programs.

Pure Sync is a versatile tool – supporting local drives, server volumes such as MyServerfolder, MTP devices and WebDAV. If you are willing to fork out 14,90 € for the Pro version, you’ll get some additional features like copying open/locked files, backing up to a FTP server and synchronization/backup with another user.

Using the wizard, virtually any user, no matter how tech-savvy they are, can set up either a backup, synchronize a folder or automatically download photos from a camera. All the settings are presented in the wizard and are easy to understand.

How to use Pure Sync

1. The first step in setting up a profile is choosing a name for the profile.
2. The second step requires you to select an operation mode for the profile: Synchronization, Backup or Photo mode.
3. The third step is selecting the folders of the origin and destination.
4. You can select criteria for discriminating between files: date, size, file type.
5. Set up synchronization based on a schedule, when a connection is found, when a file is modified or manually.

Pure Sync is available for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and also works with Windows 7. During testing, I did not encounter any bugs.

As always, I’d like to hear what you have to say. What backup or file synchronization tool do you use? Have you tried Pure Sync? You can also check out other articles related to backup here.

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How to Keep your Backups Current with FreeFileSync (Win) (11)
• Windows Live Mesh: Get your Data on any PC from any Device (16)
• The Best free Backup Software for your PC (28)
• Sync Yourself with Syncplicity… With a Gift For MakeUseOf Readers! (8)
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In this article, I will point out 6 other ways that you can transfer music to your iPhone without iTunes.

(Note: When I refer to “iPhone” in the article, it includes the iPod Touch as well)

1. Media Monkey (Windows)

MediaMonkey is a heavy-duty, fully-featured media player for Windows. It is just like iTunes in Mac, allowing you to manage your music, video, podcast, rip CD, organize album art etc. In their latest version 3 release, they implemented iPhone/iPod Touch support and you can now transfer/sync your music easily.

In order to use Media Monkey to manage your iPhone music, you have to first install iTunes (version 8.1.0.52 and before). That could be ironical since the purpose of it all is to do without iTunes completely. However, iTunes comes with the device driver for iPhone/iPod Touch that is required by many third-party media players to detect and access the database of the iPhone. As soon as you install iTunes, you will be able to use Media Monkey to sync your music.

For those who don’t want to install iTunes, there is a hack:

1. Download the iTunes.exe file
2. Rename the .exe to .zip
3. Open up the zipped file and extract AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi and QuickTime.msi
4. Install these two files.

You can then sync your iPhone with Media Monkey without iTunes.

2) Winamp and the ml_ipod plugin (Windows)

For those who have been using Winamp since the first day it was launched, there is no need to migrate all your music library to iTunes just because you bought a iPhone. With the ml_ipod plugin, you will be able to sync your music.

Firstly, you have to install iTunes (ml_ipod was tested with iTunes 7.4.2 and 8.0.2. If you are using a later version of iTunes, might not work), or use the above hack to install the driver without installing iTunes.

Secondly, install Winamp (recommended version 5 and above), follow by ml_ipod (version 3.08 or later). Plug in your iPhone and start Winamp. You should be able to see the device appear on the left side of the panel (see above screenshot).

One good thing about using this combination is, unlike iTunes, this is a bidirectional sync – you can download the songs back to your computer.

3) SharePod (Windows)

If you are looking for a simple and lightweight software to get the synchronization done quickly and easily, then Sharepod would be a good choice.

Sharepod is nothing more than a software for you to sync your iPod and iPhone. While you can play music directly from your iPhone within Sharepod, the music player is only minimal and does not offer much options.

SharePod also offers bidirectional synchronization between your iPhone and computer. Did I also mention that there is no installation required for Sharepod? It just works!

Just like the above two softwares, you’ll need to install iTunes (or perform the hack) for SharePod to recognize your iPhone.

4) CopyTransManager (Windows)

If you are still using firmware 1.x on your iPhone, CopyTrans Manager will work out of the box to sync your iPhone. However, if you are using firmware 2.x, it will prompt you to apply a fix to downgrade the iPhone database so that it can be read by the software. If you are not comfortable with it modifying the internal structure of your iPhone, this software might not be for you.

Editor’s note: Downgrading your iPhone firmware may render your iPhone incapable of using newer applications which require firmwares 2.2 and higher.

Unlike all other software listed above, you don’t need to install iTunes to use CopyTrans Manager. It claims to be the alternative to iTunes. Perhaps in the field of syncing your music library, it can be a good alternative. Other than that, it is clearly lacking in features and does not offer as many features as iTunes.

5) PwnPlayer (any platform)

Pwnplayer is an iPhone music player app that acts as an alternative to the default ipod.app in your iPhone. Its user interface is almost similar to the iPod.app, allowing you to view your songs in Artists, Albums, Songs, Genre list etc. It also supports album art display.

To use Pwnplayer, you have to first jailbreak your iPhone, then install the PwnPlayer application from Cydia. Once you have jailbroken your iPhone, you can then transfer your songs (over SSH) to any folder in your iPhone (for more information about transferring files over to the iPhone, refer to my older article: 6 Ways To Use iPhone As An External Hard Drive). Pwnplayer will scan the whole iPhone hard disk and add the songs to its library. You don’t have to worry about any compatibility with OS platform since it works regardless which OS you are using. As long as you can perform SSH in your computer, you can get Pwnplayer to work.

6) GtkPod (Linux)

Gtkpod seems to be the only solution to sync music to your iPhone in Linux (The older version of Amarok will work too, but Amarok 2.x doesn’t support iPhone syncing yet), but getting it to work is not as easy.

Image source: Gtkpod screenshot page

For those who are geeky and advantageous enough, here are the full instructions to hack your iPhone to get it to sync in Linux with gtkpod.

Enjoyed this article? Maybe you’ll be interested to know that you may also sync any MP3 player with iTunes. Also, find out how you can easily make ringtones for your iPhone.

What other ways do you use to sync your music to iPhone without iTunes? Let us know in the comments.

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Synchronize MP3s To Non-Apple Devices with doubleTwist [Mac] (0)
• Two Free Apps To Sync ANY MP3 Player with iTunes (19)
• Sync iTunes Library to iPod and your Music Folder (Windows) (10)
• Sync All of Your Media Files in One Place with doubleTwist (12)
• Liberate, Sync and Share Your Media With DoubleTwist (6)

Disclaimer:

1) This is not a full feature comparison between SugarSync and Dropbox as that will take up several pages. I have only listed some of the most commonly used features and users’ concern

2) All the points listed below are factual at this instance when the article is published. Things might change in the future and all the points stated here might not be valid any more.

3) I have tried my best to be unbiased and impartial in making judgement. You may not agree with some of the points below and are encouraged to share your opinions in the comments.

OS Support

At the moment, SugarSync only supports Windows and Mac (I will go into the mobile platform later) whereas Dropbox supports Windows, Mac and Linux.

Clearly the winner for this round: Dropbox.

File Management

SugarSync makes use of a sync client (SugarSync Manager) to manage all your file synchronization.

After you have installed the client, it automatically creates a Magic Briefcase folder in your Documents folder and everything you add to the Magic Briefcase will be synced to the cloud and across all other computers that have SugarSync linked. In addition, you may select any folders outside of the Magic Briefcase folder to be backed up to the cloud. These folders won’t be synced across other computers unless you specificy it in the SugarSync Manager. It gives you a certain degree of control and flexibility in backing up your files and syncing across computers but require much repetitive work.

Dropbox, on the other hand, works very differently from SugarSync. Instead of a file management client, it integrates itself into the file manager (Windows explorer for Windows, Nautilus for linux and Finder in Mac) so that you can handle your files like you have always done.

There is no learning curve at all and you can use it immediately after you have installed it. Everything you place in the Dropbox folder will automatically be synced to the cloud and across all other computers.

You won’t be able to sync any other folders outside of the Dropbox folder unless you move/copy them into the Dropbox folder. Also, you can’t choose which files you want/don’t want to sync across computers. In this aspect, Dropbox gives you lesser flexibility and control but it makes it extremely easy to use. (While you can create symlinks to sync folders outside of the Dropbox folder, this is more of a workaround rather than the core feature in Dropbox, so I will not take it into consideration here.)

Winner: Draw. One gives you the flexibility of managing your files while the other gives you the ease of use. No clear winner here.

Sharing Options

To share files in SugarSync, you have to do it via the Web interface. Even if you click on the Share option in the SugarSync Manager, it will still direct you to your Web account. In your Web account, you can enter the email addresses of the persons you want to share the files with.

In Dropbox, there are two ways you can share a file/folder. You can share your folders with your friends (by sending them an email in the Web interface), or place them in the Public folder (within the Dropbox folder) and have them accessible by everyone. Public sharing can be done within the file manager and you can quickly grab the Public link and broadcast them on your site. This is a great way to share large files without having to worry about the storage space and bandwidth.

Winner: Dropbox, for the additional public sharing feature.

Mobile support

Sugarsync comes with native iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile apps where the users can access their files directly from the handset dashboard. Dropbox users who want access to their files can only do so via the Mobile web interface. Not to complaint about the Dropbox mobile Web interface but somehow, a native app is able to integrate with the handset better and provide better viewing and features.

Winner: Sugarsync

Storage space (and pricing)

Dropbox gives you 2GB after signup and another 3GB after referring a friend. Sugarsync comes with a 2GB of storage space when you sign up a free account with them (see below for the limitations of the free account).

When it comes to premium account, Sugarsync offers more choices than Dropbox. Sugarsync comes with 4 upgrade options, ranging from $4.99 (30GB) to $24.99 (250GB) whereas Dropbox only have a $9.99/month (50GB) upgrade option. Editor’s note: Dropbox has now added a 100GB package for $19.99/month.

In terms of choices, flexibility and value for money (price per GB), SugarSync offers better value and choices.

Winner: Sugarsync

Limitations of Free Account

While SugarSync comes with a 2GB free account, it also comes with certain limitations:

• You can only backup & sync up to two computers.
• You can only maintain up to 2 past versions of each document.
• The upload time on the 2 GB free plan isn’t as speedy as with the paid.

In Dropbox, there are no limitations on the free account and you can use it on multiple computers.

Winner: Needless to say, Dropbox is the clear winner here.

Conclusion

Dropbox 3 – Sugarsync 2, Draw 1

It is quite obvious (at least to me) that Dropbox is the triumphant winner in this clash of the titans. Personally, I prefer Dropbox as it supports Linux, integrates fully into my Nautilus and allows me to host and share large files with all the readers of my blog. Perhaps you have a different reason for choosing Dropbox (or SugarSync)? Do share with us in the comments.

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Windows Live Mesh: Get your Data on any PC from any Device (16)
• Sync Yourself with Syncplicity… With a Gift For MakeUseOf Readers! (8)
• Reviewing Dropbox For iPhone – Is It Up To Expectations? (9)
• DropBox : Review, Invites, and 7 Questions with the Founder (82)
• A tryst with Syncplicity (Backup and Sync Tool) (19)

DirSync Pro is an open source portable application that can help you to quickly set up, synchronize and manage synced folders. A mere 670 KB download, you just need to extract the ZIP file and it’s ready to rock!

DirSync Pro is a Java application, this means that it can run on Windows, Linux and Mac. What this also means is that you need to have Java runtime on your machine to run DirSync Pro (which is generally installed on most systems or else you can download it here).

Once DirSync Pro is up and running you need to set up the directories you want to sync. You can specify a directory label (something descriptive that you will use to identify your sync setup) and then the directories, of course. You can setup a one way sync from A to B or B to A or a two-way sync between A and B.

DirSync Pro also gives you full control over what you want to copy and what not to. You can specifically include or exclude files and folders within the directories you are syncing. You can specify which files you want to sync – newly created, larger, modified or all. You can optionally keep backups of changed or deleted files, specify how sync conflicts should be handled and how to handle file deletions.

In addition, you can create a set of default settings according to your needs. These default settings are used, unless you override them with custom settings for a directory pair.

One feature that I truly adore is the ability to create lists (which are somewhat like profiles). You can setup directories just like above for each list. When you are done just hit save and DirSync Pro will generate a config file. This allows you to have separate directories synced according to your current need. If, for example, you have connected your laptop, you can load the laptop list and then synchronize all your file between laptop and desktop computer. No need to run those syncs everytime you try to sync a directory or two when you don’t even have a laptop connected.

DirSync Pro can be used to sync files across different file systems and over a network. It can handle symbolic links and time stamps very well and has worked flawlessly for me for quite sometime now. I use synced directories to back up my USB pen drives, backup my files to an external hard disk, set up automatic syncing of project files or important configuration files (vimrc’s, bookmarks etc) between work and home using a combination of DirSync Pro and Dropbox.

Do you sync directories? What clever hacks have you come up with in terms of syncing? Are you a devout Dropbox user? How do you think this compares? Mention them in comments!

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Windows Live Mesh: Get your Data on any PC from any Device (16)
• Sync Yourself with Syncplicity… With a Gift For MakeUseOf Readers! (8)
• Sugarsync vs Dropbox: The Battle Of The Cloud Storage Titans (60)
• Reviewing Dropbox For iPhone – Is It Up To Expectations? (9)
• Pure Sync: Free Backup and File Synchronization Tool (16)

There are a lot of times that I’ve wished Google Reader was available on the desktop, and available offline. Google Gears has helped with both of those things, but I still find that there’s some usability that’s lost when reading on the Web versus on the desktop – not to mention Gears has failed me more than a few times. Being able to save up feeds, and read them all when I’m on a plane or train, is a great feature – one that’s driven me away from Google Reader before.

The application I always wanted to use instead of Google Reader was FeedDemon, a great desktop- and web-based RSS reader from NewsGator. The desktop version is great, the Web application is awful. I hated having to choose, and always ended up going back to Google Reader.

Now, with the brand-new FeedDemon 3.0, we all get to have the best of both worlds. FeedDemon now syncs seamlessly with your Google Reader account, essentially making it a desktop version of Reader – and an awfully good one at that.

FeedDemon is a great application in its own right, and one that was featured on MakeUseOf by Laurence back in August. Even if you’re not a Google Reader user, FeedDemon’s worth a look – this new update, though, makes it worth revisiting again for everyone.

When you download FeedDemon, you’re walked through a short setup process. One of the questions you’ll be asked is which service you want to sync FeedDemon with – make sure you pick Google Reader! FeedDemon will ask for your Google account info, and once you’re logged in, it syncs up for you.

From then on, FeedDemon pulls all your feeds from Google Reader instead of its own NewsGator service. That means anything you read in FeedDemon will be marked read in Google Reader, and vice-versa. If you’re reading RSS feeds offline, your FeedDemon items will be available, and as soon as you connect to the Web, everything will get synced again.

You can organize your feeds, add or delete them, and all changes will be mirrored across both applications. It won’t matter any more which one you use, because the functionality and content will be the same – it’s just a question of taste at this point.

FeedDemon 3.0 is still in beta, and it has it bugs, but I have yet to encounter a deal-breaker issue. NewsGator is updating it frequently, and the application keeps getting better and more stable. FeedDemon is Windows-only, a fact that I know Mac users are hoping changes in the very near future. NewsGator does have an application for Mac OS, called NetNewsWire, and it’s a great application, but doesn’t work with Google Reader like FeedDemon does.

Though I’m still primarily a Google Reader user, having FeedDemon around for offline and desktop reading is a welcome development – my train rides just got a whole lot more interesting.

What’s your RSS reader of choice?

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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For those of you who doesn’t have an iPod but use iTunes as their main music player we found two free apps which can be used to sync iTunes with almost any non-Apple MP3 player.

iTunes Agent

iTunes Agent, a project released under the GPL license by Jaran Nilsen and Justin Katz, is available from Sourceforge. The developers say it allows users to sync any MP3 player with iTunes as long as it has the ability to be connected to computer as a USB drive. It can be and MP3 player or even mobile phone.

Configuring iTunes Agent is simple. All the necessary settings are presented in one window and are obvious even to a non-tech savvy person. You can associate the MP3 player with one playlist from iTunes, either normal or smart. Choosing a smart playlist will enable you to refresh songs automatically every time you plug the device in. For instance, associating your MP3 player with some smart “Shuffle” playlist will always put new song collection on your player.

After choosing the device, music folder and associating that with a playlist you’re ready to right click on the notification area icon and select ‘Syncronize devices’. A dialog box will appear with information about the file operations being conducted. iTunes Agent recreates the iTunes folder structure on the MP3 player; Music>Artist>Album. Be careful, because some older MP3 players don’t support going more than 2 levels deep. While testing the current version of iTunes Agent, I never encountered a crash or hang, and the file transfer completed successfully in a short time.

iTunes Sync

iTunes Sync, a program from John Tackabury of Binary Fortress Software, isn’t licensed under the GPL but provides a simpler configuration panel, automatic updates, translations into Spanish and German and a slightly better looking notification area icon.

Both programs tested are free, work with iTunes 8 and require .NET Framework 2.0, which is available for free from Microsoft Update.

Do you know other solutions for syncing MP3 players (other than iPod) directly with iTunes? Have you used one of these programs? Let us know in the comments.

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

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• Synchronize MP3s To Non-Apple Devices with doubleTwist [Mac] (0)
• Sync iTunes Library to iPod and your Music Folder (Windows) (10)
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Check the specs: Two 2.8Ghz processors, 4GB(!) of RAM, and 320GB hard-drive space. I don’t know who the fudge needs three hundred and twenty gigs (unless you’re Google), but I’ve got it anyway. This thing, ladies and gentlemen, is a roaring, snarling beast, thus we’ve named it “Big Daddy”. Our older PC is still alive and kicking, and has been dubbed “Little Sister”.

While on the subject of gaming, I would like to advise you that the power of your new rig will not make you suck any less when playing Quake Live. Incidentally, my username there is TimDub, if any MUO readers want free target practice.

The inevitable subject came up of moving our files from Lil’ Sis to Big D. These PCs have multiple users, so we must have an easy way to open our files, no matter which PC we’re using. Also, file transfers between the two should be ridiculously simple.

Anyone who has ever set up a home network knows just how much of a pain it is. I’m not A+ certified, so personally, I seem to only get network shares to be accessible 1/3 of the time.

In the end, I decided not to move the files at all to the new PC. I would sync them.

It’s chic, when a geek, to talk trash about Microsoft, but not I. Not today. As I write this on Windows Live Writer, our personal files are effortlessly hopping back and forth between Big Daddy and Little Sister, courtesy of Windows Live Sync.

WLS is one of the nicest tools I’ve used in a long time. Simple, too: I was able to explain what it does to my admitted-n00b wife in less than a minute. Her Quake Live name, BTW, is “FragMeRunnin.”

I’ll walk you through the setup, but first, you’ll need a Windows Live ID. This was formerly known as Microsoft Passport, so you may already have one. If not, set up an account at Live.com with any email address.

Once you’ve signed in with your WLID, head for Sync.Live.com and download the client to all the computers you’re going to sync. WLS supports Windows and Mac OS. All the setup is done within the browser on the Sync site. You’ll select a computer and then pick a folder on the file system to sync with the other PC.

A good place to start is linking your Windows “My Documents” folders on each PC. They’re located at C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents. In this example, I’m linking my stepson DJ’s folders. I tried to sync the entire Documents and Settings folder, but for some reason you cannot sync Desktop folders, except for the All Users’ shared Desktop. Weird.

Once you’ve reached your folder and click “Sync folder here,” that folder will appear under your Personal folders list. If you’re going to sync up multiple folders with similar names, you may want to click on the folder and re-name it on the next screen to avoid confusion.

On the other PC, your Personal folders list will show up with a right-click on the Sync icon in your System Tray. Gold folders have been linked, but not gray folders. Click a gray folder to open a browser window and link that folder to a local folder. Repeat for any other folders you wish to link.

We’ve had this setup for several days now, and the synchronizing process is hardly noticeable. The only hiccup seems to occur when users on both PCs have the same file open, but this is common with any network. A general rule is to make sure that any shared files are not being accessed by another party. For those of you with privacy concerns, the file transfers are directly between PCs, and are also encrypted. Nothing is stored on a Microsoft server.

WLS may be the easiest and best backup tool I’ve used. We love to give you options, so please leave alternative suggestions in the comments below. I’m gonna go get my Quake on.

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

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Needless to say, my iTunes collection can easily get unwieldy. I delete songs from multiple different places, constantly download new songs, change the tags and titles of songs, and so on and so forth. I’m tough for any piece of software to keep up with when it comes to music organization.

Luckily for me (and all of us), there’s a small, free utility called the iTunes Library Updater out there that’s designed for those like me – serially adding, removing, and changing their iTunes library.

A quick note: before you do any kind of major editing to your iTunes library, it’s a good idea to back it up (the library, not just the songs). To do that, find the files called “iTunes Music Library.xml” and “iTunes Library.itl” in your “My Music\iTunes\” folder, and copy them somewhere else. If something goes wrong, just copy them back, and no harm done.

Once you download the iTunes Library Updater (Windows only), run it. It’s a small utility, and opens up a single window like this one:

Within the window, you have several options. The first thing you’ll want to do is point it to where all your music actually is. Personally, I hated having everything in an “iTunes” folder (I’m rebellious or something), so I had created my own folder called “Media.” Wherever your music is (one location or several), point iTLU there.

Then iTLU starts to really shine. You have several options of what to do with your music, each useful in its own way. The first, “Add new music,” does just what it sounds like – scans the files and folders you added to iTLU, and adds new songs to iTunes that weren’t already there. It’s so much easier than manually dragging every song into iTunes.

The next option, and my personal favorite, is to “clean orphaned files.” When I delete music, I rarely do it from directly within iTunes; if you don’t store all your music in the iTunes folder, it has trouble deleting songs from both your library and your hard drive. iTLU will scan your iTunes library, and if it sees that you’ve deleted a song from your hard drive but not iTunes, it removes the empty listing from iTunes. On my first pass doing this, I cleared something like 800 songs.

iTunes Library Updater can also sync track data (artist, album, etc.) between iTunes and your music folder, as well as update your iPod. It will open and close iTunes for you, should you so desire.

Once you’ve run a particular task with a particular folder set, you can click “Save Profile,” to easily run the same one again next time. I use the same few folders all the time, and find running iTLU a lot easier than always manually adding songs to iTunes, so I run that particular profile once a week or so.

The most popular use for the iTunes Library Updater is to keep your library in sync with a folder outside of the default iTunes folder (which I recommend, because the iTunes folder can easily get deleted if you delete iTunes). Just pick a folder, tell iTLU to add new files and delete empty ones, and you’re back in sync!

What music player do you use? How do you manage all your music files? What do you like about iTunes Library Updater most?

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

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• Synchronize MP3s To Non-Apple Devices with doubleTwist [Mac] (0)
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I sync my Windows Mobile device with my machine and now I can also have a quick overview of my upcoming events and tasks on my desktop. I found this neat little application called DeskTask.

DeskTask is compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Vista. It also needs Microsoft Outlook 2000 / XP / 2003 / or 2007 Beta 2 to function.

DeskTask reads your Calendar and Task information and puts it where it is the most useful. You can think of this as a desk blotter calendar for your computer’s desktop! Are you with me?

So how do you make it show Outlook calendar on your desktop?

After you install it you will see that your Outlook items are now on your desktop like you can see below. Depending on the options you configure – you can click on an item and go directly to it in Outlook, for me this is a HUGE time saver!

You simply install the 570KB file from here (direct download link). When you are finished installing you will have a new system tray icon that you can see in the shot below. By right clicking on this icon you can also hide it, lock its position, restore its last position or open your Outlook, calendar or tasks windows with a single click.

By this time your  Outlook data is already on the desktop. It appears by default in the upper left hand corner of your desktop. But you can customize it and move it around. We will get to that in a minute. Let’s first take a look at the control panel options for our new little app.

Most of the options are pretty self explanatory. But I unchecked the “Do not refresh data if a full screen application is detected”. I always want my tasks/item updated on my desktop. This will obviously use more memory – but if you have it to spare… Why the heck not!

As you make any changes to the font, size, transparency or any of the other options you can see them reflected immediately on the right hand preview pane. I like this feature and think more programs should incorporate a preview like this.

In this next section as you can see above you get to pick what is displayed. So if you use your tasks for personal things and you don’t want “Buy Tampons” or  “Grab Magnum Wraps” to appear on your desktop uncheck the appropriate box!

You also get to choose if you want past items displayed and how many days in the future you want DeskTask to look at.

When you get everything the way you like it and return to your desktop, you will probably want to relocate your new desktop module. It is as simple as dragging and dropping. You just need to catch the calendar icon with a left click and hold it as you move it where you want it to go.

Then let go! And it has a new home. That’s it, now you have your Tasks Outlook calendar on the desktop! Do you a have a creative use for your desktop that you want to share with other MakeUseOf readers? If you do put us on in the comments!

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Many different companies have come up with many different ways for accessing each of these systems in different ways. Some of these include GoToMyPC, LogMeIn, Windows Remote Desktop, VNC and several other remote access tools that we have profiled on MakeUseOf.

However most of these require some type of firewall configuration, or cost money or are just incredibly insecure. One virtually unknown product, GBridge, provides remote access, file sharing, file syncing and backup capabilities, all only requiring a Google account.

GBridge uses what they call a ‘Revolutionary VPN Infrastructure’ to extend Google’s GTalk into a secure collaboration tool. Once the product is installed (Windows Only), it simply asks for your Google Talk account and automatically displays the rest of your GTalk friends that may or may not have the product installed. If they do have it installed, you may collaborate with them, using each of the tools I am going to describe below. This is all done with a simple install, and no firewall configuration.

Desktop Sharing

GBridge utilizes VNC to not only access your own computer, but also any of your friends or family PC’s to access them remotely and control their desktop. Again this only requires that they have GBridge installed and that they have a Google Talk account.

SecureShare

The SecureShare portion of GBridge allows for quick and easy access to any files on your additional computers with extreme VPN-like security. You can then again allow only certain friends to access these shares as well. Very handy for quickly transferring files without e-mail or FTP-like transferring.

AutoSync

Keep folders in synchronization across the globe. Removes the need to manually transfer and update files on a regular basis. With no size limitations, auto scheduling and even incremental transfers.

EasyBackup

Set up automatic scheduled backups to local or remote locations. Gives you peace of mind having your critical data stored off site somewhere.

GBridge is a very slick application that is very easy to setup on any Windows 2000, XP or Vista machine and gives you all the big capabilities of the remote access tools, plus much more.

Do you have any similar secure solutions like GBridge?

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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It’s nice to have a picture of the person who is calling or whom you’re dialing. It adds a more personal touch. But it’s quite a lot of work to manually search for pictures of your friends and adding them to their contact information. The easier method would be to let your Mac do the work for you.

Who doesn’t have a Facebook account? I’m guessing that you would surely have added most of your friends on Facebook by now. Provided that your contacts’ information in Address Book are accurate (First name, Last name), I will show you how you can sync Facebook profile pictures to your mobile contacts – the easier way to manage contacts’ pictures.

Using AddressBookSync, you can search through all of your Facebook friends and find those who you have in Address Book and sync their profile pictures over. Here’s how to do it.

Firstly, download and copy AddressBookSync over to your Application folder and launch it. On initial launch, it will ask you to log in to your Facebook account and approve the application.

Once you’ve done that, it will search through your friends in Facebook and generate a list of matches i.e. the same contacts you have in Address Book. Here’s why you need to properly fill in the contacts’ first and last name. AddressBookSync depends solely on the names to find matches. That said, it is actually pretty smart. Names like Richard and Robert are also matched to Dick and Bob. It will match common short names automatically.

To further narrow or in this case, expand the matches – you can choose to match using only the last name. Now, the application will go through the friends you have in Facebook and it will ask you if the last names between a match corresponds with each other.

After the list of matches is generated, you can go through them individually to check if the profile picture is properly aligned. If it isn’t, all you need to do is double-click the picture to bring up the picture editor. With that, you can pan and zoom the picture until it is corrected. It’s worth noting that AddressBookSync grabs the highest resolution profile picture from Facebook. This is very useful for iPhone users.

If you’re an iPhone user, you will cringe when I tell you that if Address Book manages/edits the contact picture, only a thumbnail will appear when that contact calls you. But because AddressBookSync grabbed the highest resolution picture and synced it over to your iPhone, all you need to do is to ‘Edit Photo’ in your contact information to expand that picture to full-screen and save. There’s no workaround for this, unfortunately.

Besides profile pictures, this application will also sync your friend’s birthdays if they added it in Facebook. After syncing them into Address Book, you can use this workflow I created a while back which will send you weekly notifications if a birthday is coming up and automatically set alarms for them using iCal.

AddressBookSync will only work on Mac OS X 10.4 and higher. And as all things on MakeUseOf, it’s free. Let me know how it works out for you. Lastly, remember that in order to make the best out of this application, you will need to organize your contact information so that it matches your friends’ names on Facebook properly.

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Macnifying OS X: Backup your Mobile Contacts & More with Address Book (3)
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So after you’ve registered at your bank, your three credit cards, your Facebook, your Digg and your blog, you’re so exhausted with usernames and passwords, you begin using your browser’s built-in “Remember This Password” feature. The problem with using this handy feature is that you’re never required to enter another password again. Remembering all those passwords can be quite hard, unless of course you have a method to create strong passwords that are easy to remember.

Now you go home for Christmas, hop on your parents computer to check your latest stock portfolio, and you spend the next hour trying to recall your password. This is where a program like LastPass saves the day.

LastPass is a Firefox or Internet Explorer browser add-on that stores all of your passwords locally and synchronizes all of them to any other browser (with the same add-on) using 256-bit AES encryption. The only two requirements is one strong password and one of the previously mentioned browsers.

After going through the incredibly easy flash-based installation tutorial, the application asks for a strong password as protection and then offers the option to import passwords from Firefox, IE, RoboForm, KeePass, Sxipper and a few others.

Once you have all of your passwords imported, they’ll fill all of your identifiable username and password boxes appropriately.

If a site isn’t stored in the database, it will simply ask you to remember the password, as your current browsers already do.

Again, all of these passwords are stored locally. LastPass uses highly sophisticated code to allow this to happen, so nothing sits out in the cloud.

Once stored, the database is easily accessible to view form information if it needs to be modified in any way.

Along with its great password capabilities, LastPass also includes:

Form Filling

Whether it be for credit card payments or simple site registration, once the they have all the correct information, LastPass takes care of all of the typing.

Password Generation

Generate incredibly strong passwords if you can’t come up with your own.

Site Sharing

Share a site with another member of your family.

Site Logging

Monitor what sites are being logged into, when and where.

As you can see, LastPass has what many of the commercial form fillers, like RoboForm have, plus the added sync capability. The form filling also separates it from password managers, such as PassPack and Clipperz.

If you are already willing to locally store all of your passwords through your browser, you really can’t go wrong with LastPass. It does the exact same thing, in a much more secure fashion.

Again LastPass works in both Firefox and Internet Explorer, on Mac, Linux and Windows.

What are your thoughts? Do you have any better sync solutions? Concerns?

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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As internet users gain more and more ways to communicate, they are looking for ways to centralize and bring things together. Fuser is one service that can help you keep your communications organized.

I first used Fuser about a year ago, and I must say I wasn’t impressed. I liked the concept, but the interface was frankly ugly and clunky, and I kept getting messages about my Java being out of date. In short, it was more trouble than it was worth. Recently, I decided to check back and see if anything had changed. It had, and it was definitely for the better. Fuser has a brand new interface that is far better than the old one, as well as some new features.

First, it should be understood that Fuser isn’t an email service, and it doesn’t provide you with a Fuser email address. For those of us overloaded with email accounts already, this is good news. Fuser is instead a communications dashboard that combines all your existing email addresses and social networking accounts together in one place. Signing up is extremely easy, as is adding all your accounts.

On your first login, you are greeted with a wizard that helps you add all your email and social networking accounts. It’s really easy, and you don’t have to worry about adding POP or IMAP settings for the most common email providers—Fuser does it for you. And for those of you who use email providers that don’t provide free POP or IMAP access, such as Yahoo or Hotmail, don’t worry about having to get a premium account; Fuser magically syncs them both ways with no problems.

Another interesting feature of Fuser is that it can synchronize folders across your email accounts. For example, if you create a folder in Fuser called “Family,” and you drag an email from Gmail and Yahoo into it, Fuser will automatically create a label called “Family” in Gmail and a “Family” folder in Yahoo and keep them in sync with each other. This feature might not appeal to everyone, but it is really useful for those who are serious about keeping everything centralized and in sync.

Also, Fuser has a built in conversation view, so if you’re a Gmail user, you won’t have to give up that feature if you start using Fuser.

In addition to your email accounts, you can also add your Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter accounts. The Twitter integration is one of my favorite Fuser features, and it has all the functions of the Twitter website. From Myspace and Facebook, Fuser syncs private messages and notifications. Unfortunately, you can’t see your news feed or post status updates—at least not yet.

In short, Fuser is a great way to bring all your email and social networking accounts together. It does just what it says it does, and does it well. While there are a few features I’d like to see and some small bugs here and there, Fuser shows a lot of promise. The Fuser team is very helpful and responsive, and they assure me many more great features are coming soon.

What about you? What features would you like to see? What services would you like to centralize?

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

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Jing, as an alternative to iShowU ($20)

Jing is a screen-casting program which has come a long way since it first started. Their current version is pretty impressive because it integrates sharing to Screencast.com, Flickr and uploads to any FTP; you’ll automatically get a download link which you can share with your friends (something like Skitch). It does everything iShowU does and it even records from the microphone. The one thing it doesn’t allow me to do is adjust the video output quality. But hey, it’s pretty decent for a free app.

Burn, as an alternative to Roxio’s Toast Titanium ($79.99)

Burn extends Mac’s native burning abilities by adding various options such as creating the regular Data as well as Video and Music disks. It can burn from cue and bin images. It’s not as fully equipped as Toast Titanium with Blu-Ray Disc burning but it does the good ol’ fashion burning job very well.

Cyberduck, as an alternative to Transmit ($29.95)

Both programs are pretty much the same, supporting Quicklook, WebDAV, Secure FTP, Amazon S3, synchronization and Growl notifications. So what’s the difference? Um, the price?

macam, as an alternative to IOExperts Webcam Drivers ($20)

My first Mac was a Mini and like all new Switchers, I was excited about Photo Booth and got myself a USB webcam. Little did I know that Mac has limited drivers for webcams. After extensive research, I was ready to fork out 20 bucks for IOExperts Webcam Drivers just to make my webcam work. Luckily, I managed to find macam in time. macam is basically driver for USB webcams on Mac OS X. The name doesn’t instill a lot of confidence but trust me, it works. And it saved me $20.

Handbrake and MacTheRipper* and VisualHub, as alternatives to Roxio’s Popcorn 3 ($49.99)

Handbrake is a DVD to MPEG4 convertor. Everything is handled with a single-click. It’s a very simple, free program for those without high expectations. For others who require more control, there is MacTheRipper which performs a complete backup of your DVD. With the resulting Video_TS folder, you could use VisualHub to convert it to H.264 which provides high-quality encoding. And since VisualHub is no longer in development, I suspect you could just use it for free.

*MacTheRipper 3.0 is available only to those who donated. Check their forum for more details. You can also find the 3.0 version if you do a Google search.

Switch, as an alternative to EasyWMA ($10)

The thing about Windows Media Audio is it’s a proprietary codec unlike MP3. Hence, converting songs to and from WMA on a Mac isn’t free. For Switchers, this presents as a problem because when using Windows, iTunes recognizes WMA files and plays them without a hiccup. After transferring the iTunes library over to Mac, the songs can’t be played unless they’re converted. If you read my previous article about Migrating iTunes over to Mac, I basically teach you how to avoid this problem. If it’s too late for you and all you want is a WMA to MP3 convertor, there are EasyWMA and Switch. One is free, the other isn’t.

iGTD, as an alternative to Things ($49)

The fast-paced lifestyle most of us lead nowadays has driven notepads and To-Do lists to a whole new level. Getting Things Done (GTD) is now a zen-like teaching. iGTD is apparently the guru of all GTD applications. I’ve covered Things before when I first started writing for MakeUseOf. I would still recommend it but it isn’t free, however there is a free preview available now. So, you might want to get your hands on that while you still can.

My colleague Daniel listed five other GTD applications. Check it out.

WhatSize 10.3.91, as an alternative to WhatSize 4.3.1 ($12.99)

Yes, I realize that they’re both the same application but truthfully, I haven’t found a program which does what WhatSize can do. I’ve tried GrandPerspective but it doesn’t quite tickle my fancy. WhatSize is still easier to use and more pleasant on the eyes. I got pretty upset when it went from freeware to shareware without even a hint of an announcement. So, I did some searching and managed to find the older but more importantly, free version. DiskInventoryX is also worth a try, as an alternative to the alternative.

Dictionary Plugins, as an alternative to TranslateIt! (17€ for a 1-year license)

TranslateIt is a very popular multilingual translator for Mac. Mac’s Dictionary application comes with every Mac OS X. It’s pretty expandable too, because you can add more dictionaries to it if you can find them. Rather than paying close to $25 for a dictionary, you can just spend a little bit of time to download a free dictionary database (which I may have already found for you) and add it to your Mac’s Dictionary.

fruux, as an alternative to Spanning Sync ($65)

Spanning Sync is a very well-known commercial app which allows synchronization of Google Calendar with iCal and Google Contacts with Address Book. It can also sync calendars and contacts between several Macs. Fruux is a very fresh and free preference pane which will also allow you to sync your iCal, Address Book, Bookmarks and Task between Macs. It lacks the Google Calendar and Contact syncing, though. It’s possible to set that up yourself, with a bit of manual labour. I ain’t spendin’ $65 for that.

That concludes the second part of my Free Alternatives to 10 (now 20) Commercial Mac Applications. I hope you enjoyed it and managed to save the money you would’ve spent if you hadn’t read this post.

Are there any other applications you paid for? Share with us in the comments, maybe we’re able to find a free alternative for it!

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Should you struggle with these tasks, don’t worry, most of us are. Fortunately, you are free to change things and make your life a little easier. Here is what you can do to organize your life and reduce the amount of things you have to remember:

Routine

The first and most difficult task is to adopt a couple of key habits. This is crucial since no tool will ever help you if you don’t communicate with it. Whether you’re using a file-o-fax or an online calendar system, none of these tools were built to read your mind.

1. Write everything down – immediately!
If you’re lucky, you already own a portable device that will synchronize with your computer. If not, get used to carrying pen and paper.

2. Integrate the tools into your daily routine.
Both checking and updating them needs to become a routine task. The good thing is you get to choose when and how often you’ll communicate with your tools! And you don’t have to use them all at once. It all depends what works best for you. Just start – now!

3. Hang in there!
This is a pretty universal habit. In the context at hand it means the following:

• give the tools time to work, invest some time and effort to make them work for you
• resist your inner temptation to slack off
• develop a genuine interest in the tools you are using, learn about them, improve your usage of them or find out about different tools that may work better for you

Tools

If you are able to get into the routine described above, you will soon have a lot of free time to fill. However, I have to warn you: relying on any of the following tools means you will depend on technology like never before.

1. Evernote

With Evernote you can collect, sync, search, archive, and share information. The main interface is a website. The desktop client is available for Mac and Windows, further clients support the iPhone, the iPod Touch, Windows Mobile devices, and there is a bookmarklet for your browser.

One of the coolest features is Evernote’s ability to search for words inside of pictures. This makes it a very valuable tool for efficient archiving. On top of that it offers a free option and it’s independent of Google – so far.

Back in April Shankar wrote a thorough review of Evernote.

2. Stickies
If you are the type of person who works best with visual reminders, I recommend Stickies. It works a little like Post-It® notes, but stickies sit on your PC desktop.

Stickies can be fully customized and they can adopt many functions other than holding notes. For example, they may be attached to a website or document, so they will only show in connection with these; network support allows for transfer of notes between machines, for example between computers within a TCP/IP network; and alarms may be set for each note.

I should mention that 3M, the creator of the original Post-It® notes, offers a similar desktop application, however the free version is very limited!

3. I Want Sandy
Sandy is an assistant that you communicate with by eMail. No software, easy to access and easy to program. Sandy relies on keywords in your eMail to her. When you CC someone in your eMail to Sandy, she will get in touch with them for the specific tasks contained in that eMail. Sandy promises she will synchronize with your calendar. At this point she supports Google Calendar. If you like, you can also chat with Sandy through Twitter.

Earlier this year Mark wrote a review about I Want Sandy. For him she didn’t work with Google Calendar, but it looks like the plugin was updated and it worked fine for me.

4. Google Calendar
I already mentioned it in connection with Sandy. As a calendar it does a great job, but I found that it works much better for me when I can access it from my desktop. If you’re already using Thunderbird, see how you can integrate Google Calendar into Thunderbird.

And with GooSync, which is listed in our directory, you can sync Google Calendar with your mobile phone, the Blackberry or the iPhone.

5. Google Mail
While we’re talking about Google, Google Mail can not be missed. Great tool to archive and search mail or documents. If you are actually using the web interface of GMail you should find out about all the plugins and tools that are available for it. If you’re using Firefox, you can integrate Google Calendar with GMail.

6. Remember The Milk
Remember The Milk is a very efficient task manager. First of all it is compatible with a wide range of applications and devices, including Google Calendar, GMail, Twitter, Blackberry and the iPhone or iPod touch. It can send reminders to your eMail, your mobile phone, and many different instant messengers. While for example I Want Sandy is very basic, Remember The Milk offers some great extra features. Create lists or task clouds; integrate maps to make tasks that require you to leave the house more efficient; publish your tasks and lists, share them with your contacts or send out reminders.

A worthy rival to Remember The Milk may be TODOIST, which was tested and reviewed by Daniel.

It goes without saying that there are only two essential tools you need: a calendar and a reminder tool in case the calendar’s reminders aren’t sufficient. I would also recommend a good archiving system.

My personal combination is Google Calendar with Thunderbird because I do not need to rely on mobile devices and usually have instant access to my laptop.

Which ones do you choose and how are you combining them? Tell us in the comments.

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Why do you need to use this? Well if you need to use contacts in more than one program or service (like email, IM, Skype, or others) or use a desktop app and need it on more than one computer, it’s difficult or even impossible to automatically keep everything in sync. The solution that iContact proposes is to have Gmail contacts as your central repository for everything having to do with people you know. When you need to look up one of them, instead of opening a full browser you open this small stand-alone contact manager to find or search for the person you want. It keeps everything in the cloud in your Gmail contacts, so they’ll still be available on any device with internet access and a decent web browser.

To get iContact, you can download it as a zip file with a portable executable and accompanying files, or an msi installer package (although the msi doesn’t seem to do anything special except extract the files and create a shortcut…um, I guess it’s good for people who don’t have unzip software?) and then run the executable.

Enter your Gmail credentials (if you’re using an @gmail.com account, you can just enter your username; if you’re a Google Apps user, enter the full email address, i.e. your_name@your_domain.com), and then watch as it loads your contacts. Certainly a lot faster than opening a web browser, signing into Gmail and navigating to the contacts!

You can edit your contacts by selecting one and clicking ‘edit’ at the bottom, add or remove contacts by clicking the (+) or (X) buttons, and all changes you make are made directly to your online Gmail contacts. I noticed, however, that if you modify your contacts in iContact, it won’t show up in Gmail until you refresh the page. The reverse is true for anything you do in Gmail, you have to sign out and sign back in to iContact in order to show the changes.

When you click a contact, you can then do a few things. If you have their email address stored, you can click the email category next to the address (Home, Work or Other) and click ‘Send Mail’ to open your default mail program and begin a new message to that address. For phone number, click the category (Home, Work, Mobile, Other, etc.) and you can choose ‘Call with Skype’ or display in large text. For addresses you can drop down the category and choose ‘Show Map’ to map it on Google Maps, and for any piece of information you can click ‘Copy’ to copy it to your clipboard. This solves the problem of having a separate contacts list in every program!

iContact currently doesn’t work with contact groups (in Gmail/Google Apps you can add contacts to a group, enter the name of the group in the To: field when writing an email, and send to all addresses in the group at once).

Also, unlike the Gmail contacts manager, there are no “actual contacts” and “suggested contacts” for people who you’ve communicated with but haven’t explicitly added as contacts. They all just show up in the same list.

These limitations aside, iContact does its job well. It’s certainly a convenience for people who use a desktop mail or chat client (especially Skype) and who wants all their contact information in one place without having to sync.

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Naturally, there is a vast amount of addons and tools to sync, integrate and simply work more efficiently with Google Calendar. For example you can sync it with mobile devices like the Blackberry or iPhone using GoogleSync. Then you can add Google Calendar to Gmail with several different Greasemonkey scripts. Now I will explain how to add it to Thunderbird.

For this you will need two Thunderbird addons:
1. Lightning adds a Sunbird type calendar to Thunderbird.
2. Provider for Google Calendar connects Lightning with Google Calendar.

After installing both of these plugins, you will notice several changes in Thunderbird. First of all there is a new sidebar holding the calendar. At the bottom of the old sidebar that is hosting the folders and address book, you should see three new buttons: Mail, Calendar and Tasks.

To integrate an existing Google Calendar, you first need to fetch your calendar’s address. Head over to the web interface, click the little arrow next to one of your calendars, and select >Calendar settings from the menu.

In the Details window you’re looking for the Calendar / Private Address section at the bottom. I found that both XML and ICAL URLs work, but XML is recommended. Whether you pick the calendar or the private address depends on whether your calendar is set to public or private.

Back in Thunderbird the first thing you have to do is click the Calendar symbol to switch from Mail to Calendar view.
Then click >File >New >Calendar… If the Calendar option is not available, you probably forgot to switch to the Calendar view.

From the Create New Calendar window select >On the Network, click >Next, select >Google Calendar as the format and insert the URL into the >Location field, click >Next, eventually enter your Google >User Name and >Password and click >OK, >Name your calendar, give it a >Color, click >Next and finally >Finish to complete the procedure.

And there you go, you have integrated your Google Calendar into Thunderbird. Editing the calendar works bidirectional, meaning you can add and edit events via the website or in Thunderbird and they will be synced automatically.

The Mozilla Wiki has a thorough page covering Provider of Google Calendar, including a section about bugs and limitations. There also is a Google Group discussing further questions.

(By) Tina is a regular MUO author. In her offline life she’s a PhD student interested in unraveling signaling events that determine cartilage and bone development.

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These desktop clients make uploading and sharing files so much easier without having to leave your browser open for the transfer to finish. Browsers are notoriously unpredictable because they can freeze or hang and then you’ll have to start uploading all over again. You know what I’m talking about, right? You’re uploading a file and you leave that browser window alone and open another one. Then you stumble onto a site that crashes your browser or renders it unresponsive. You have no choice but to press the magical keys Ctrl-Alt-Del to kill the browser. And start all over again.

I’m not saying never to use them, just like everything else – I’d like an alternative method. The clients just go on doing their thing in the background. When it’s done, some even automatically copy the public URL onto your clipboard. Talk about being efficient!

So in a randomized fashion, here they are:

1. Pando

Pando is not a new service, they started back in 2006. Mark wrote an article explaining how to use it so I won’t really venture deeply into it. I do have to mention its main features, though:

• 1GB File Limit (for free account)
• Hosted for 7 days
• Share via email, IM or Web
• Instant start – No need to wait until the upload is complete in order to download it
• Files are uploaded to Pando’s server

Let me elaborate on the third feature: Pando’s desktop client can send an email to your recipient containing the packaged download trigger file (.pando). It can also do the same for your IM clients, doesn’t matter which instant messenger client you’re using because it’s a simple copy and paste of the download link. Although, if you’re using Skype or Yahoo Messenger with Voice there is a little extra for you. Lastly, your file can also be shared via the web. Pando will package the whole download as a web widget for you. All you have to do is copy the code and embed it into your website.

If you’re a geek and would like to find out more about how the Pando client works, check this page out. Pando is one of the clients available for Windows and Mac. Great start wasn’t it?

2. DropBox

We’ve covered DropBox before. This client is so good that Dave took the time to interview its developer and got us 100 free invites!

DropBox is neatly integrated into the operating system. In Mac, we automatically get a DropBox shortcut in the sidebar. Everything that we throw in it gets shared. We also get a menubar icon which shows our usage and when it’s uploading files, it shows the progress.

DropBox syncs the files in my “DropBox” folder with my account in the cloud. So, if I change something within the folder, it is automatically detected and the change is then reflected online. You can also track the changes you made in your DropBox Web Interface once you log in. But because of this syncing feature, you can’t really use DropBox to purely store your files online because once you delete the files from the “DropBox” folder on your computer, the files are also deleted from the server. But then again, the function of DropBox is file-sharing not online backup. Karl did write about a method where you could technically use DropBox to backup your files from one computer to another on a multi-computer setup.

Its main features are:

• Neatly integrated into the OS
• Automatic synchronization of the shared folder
• 5GB storage without any bandwidth limitation
• Automatic photo album creation

Any folder of pictures that you drop into the ‘Photos’ shared folder in DropBox will immediately be created into a beautiful photo album which you can share with your friends. Who needs Flickr and their 200MB limit?

DropBox is available for both Mac and Windows however, they’re still in beta and you’ll need an invite to get started. I have 10 personal invites which I’m more than willing to give away so that you can try and see how great DropBox is. Just let me know in the comments if you want one.

3. Civil Netizen

Civil Netizen doesn’t technically fall into “online” file-sharing because it doesn’t upload to servers online. Remember Podmailing? Civil Netizen is a similar application used to send large files to friends. The only drawback is that you’ll need to be online while the transfer is taking place. But this client has the upper hand when you’re trying to send a file which is larger than 100MB or 1GB which is the file limit for most online file-sharing services.

With Civil Netizen:

• You can send files up to 4GB
• Tracking the file download progress is possible
• No account is necessary

Files which are about to be sent are packaged in a parcel. Like Pando, the recipient will receive a download trigger in their email called a pickup slip. Once the recipient starts to download the file, you can track the status in the client. All very reminiscent of DHL or Fed-Ex.

Civil Netizen is available for both Windows and Mac.

4. DropSend

DropSend is one of those services which gets ignored because of its limitations. It’s only capable of sending 5 files per month, of which they can be up to 1GB in size; and an online storage of 250MB. But with a desktop client, there’s a sparkle of hope for this forgotten service.

Since you only get 5 sends a month, you really should maximize your file limitation. Make sure that the files that you’re sending are packed to the brim. Zip up all the files you want to send and push them out at once.

Features of DropSend include:

• Uploads to server
• 5GB bandwidth limit per month on free account
• 1GB file limit
• 250MB online file-storage

The free account doesn’t sound that attractive but again, with a desktop client to make life easier, why not give it a go? I’m trying to take a slightly negative product and putting a positive spin on it because, let’s face it: life isn’t always a bed of roses.

Again, DropSend can be used on both Windows and Mac.

5. steekR

Bet you haven’t heard of this guy before. SteekR provides an online storage of up to 1GB with no file or bandwidth limitations. The cool part is, steekR is a clone of the popular online backup service Mozy. You can use steekR to select certain folders on your computer and schedule it to backup to the steekR server at any time you find most convenient.

You can then browse through your backup online after logging into their website or if you’re a Windows user, here’s a little treat for you. You can use steekR DriveDrive (don’t ask me why it’s called that) to browse your online backup directly on your computer as though it’s mounted as a physical drive, much like Gmail Drive

SteekR is made by the French (I’m guessing because the installation process was entirely in French) and so you’ll see some funny, nonsensical sentences in the application, which adds to the fun if I may say so. SteekR is available for Mac and Windows, with a little extra lovin’ for Windows users.

6. Dockdrop

Ahh finally, an application just for Mac. Dockdrop supports multiple protocols i.e. Flickr, WebDAV, SCP and FTP so you can easily “drop” your files and send them away. Dockdrop resides on the dock and uploading files is as easy as dragging them and letting go on top of the icon. If you have several protocols subscribed, it will ask you where you’d like to send the files. I suppose just reading about it won’t do it justice, watch this screencast.

So in a nutshell, Dockdrop is a FTP client, Flickr uploader and a desktop client for WebDAV and SCP. Uploading to Flickr has never been easier. Transferring files to an FTP server is as painless as a drag-and-drop.

Which services have you been using? Any other preferred desktop clients? Also, if you want one of the 10 invites to DropBox, holler out in the comments.

(By) Jackson Chung is a full-time medical student attempting to perform a juggling act with relationships, studies and his future.

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If you look underneath the links from the show on this page, you will see a little media player where you can listen to the podcast right here on the site. Or if you prefer, you can right-click on the “audio MP3″ logo and save the MP3 file to your computer for listening on your MP3 player or iPod.

The podcast is available through iTunes so don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast if you have an iPod, or in another podcatcher if you have a different MP3 player.

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