Posts Tagged ‘Reviews’
Dropbox Revisited
Almost an entire year ago I wrote a post on Dropbox. This amazing service is just something I need to touch on again, because I was reminded on how stupidly simple this program and service actually is.
I use Dropbox on a daily basis. I have it installed on my home computer, work computer and parent’s computer. It’s my main place to store files. I think the only files I store locally on my Mac are my music files and desktop wallpaper file. Everything else gets sent up to the cloud in a very easy manner. Those new to Dropbox, or if you have never heard of it…let me explain it.
Signup for a free account over at Dropbox.com and you get 2GB of storage automatically. They have paid plans, but for home users, the 2GB should be enough. You start by installing the program on your Windows, Mac or Linux box and just simply upload files. Instantly they are uploaded to the cloud and are always being backed up. Every time you open a file from your Dropbox folder, it uploads its self to the site once you close it, instantly. What could be more simple than this?!
If you don’t want to pitch the money to upgrade your storage, you can always refer a friend and earn extra storage. They do have a limit, but hey, any additional free storage is totally worth it. Get family, friends and coworkers involved for some free storage.
Speaking of friends, family and coworkers, you can use Dropbox to share files amongst people. Privacy settings on the web side of things allow you to share links and allow users other than you to upload and download files. You are in complete control of your data, but allow others to collaborate.
I sit here now, as I just organized my folders under Dropbox and I just can’t be happier. Right now, I don’t use too much of the storage, but it certainly comes in handy, knowing that my data is always safe and I can get it anywhere. I forgot to mention you can access your files from any Internet connection using their web front end. You can upload, download and edit files while on the go through the main page.
This service is amazing, and I challenge you to try it out. And hey, while you’re at it, use my referral link so I can get extra storage! http://db.tt/6XaHeie
SellMyMobile.com Review
SellMyMobile.com is a site and service based out of the United Kingdom. They are promising a like service coming to the United States in the coming year. So, this is going to be something to watch.
They currently are comparing prices on 21, 845 phones in the UK and have almost 4000 different varieties to choose from.
The site states:
Mobile phone recycling is still a brand new concept of earning yourself money and individuals across the world are still very much unaware of the potential behind this new money earning scheme.
If you have any old mobile phones lying around the house then now is a great time to trade them in for a cash return, and the process couldn’t be any simpler. Sell My Mobile compares all the UK’s leading phone recycle companies to give you the best price possible on your unused phone, saving you time and money from having to manual note down each company’s quoted price.
The process of selling your phones for cash is straightforward and will literally only take you a matter of minutes to complete. Using the following four steps can see you receive your money within a couple of days and with payout of up to £350 ($522.41 USD) your phone could be worth more than you think.
- Search for your mobile phones model in the search box provided
- A list of results will be displayed giving you a range of prices with the best price displayed at the top with the phone recycling company that will offer it you.
- Visit the company website that offers you the best price and fill in your details. You will then receive an email with instructions on how to send your phone away (freepost)
- You will receive a cheque in the post within 1 – 3 days on average.
So, again the service currently compares over 21,000 phone prices on about 4000 model types. They receive 127,068 visits per month on their website. They offer a comprehensive comparison table identifying phone recycler payment methods, best prices offered and freepost options. On average 650 phones are sold per day on Sell My Mobile. 68 million phones are lying around in people’s homes, unused. And their most valuable phone to recycle/sell is the Apple iPhone 3G S 32GB, which can be sold for £302 or $451.24 USD.
Be sure to keep an eye out for this company coming to the United States, but for now they operate from the United Kingdom. They were gracious enough to begin a sponsorship deal with tylersmiller.com, so click their banner ad at the top of this page, or check out http://www.sellmymobile.com for more details.
Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu Review
Here goes another WordPress Plugin review. This is one that I use daily, and it is a backend plugin. This plugin doesn’t get a flashy graphic or text on the homepage, but rather assists the WordPress admin keep their blog in check and save screen space.
If you have ever used WordPress, you know that all the admin options are on the left side of the page, and go from top to bottom. When doing this, you have to do a lot of scrolling to get to the Appearances tab or Settings tab if you have everything else expanded….which I always do, because I do a lot of tweaking on WordPress and need easy access to multiple pages from one location.
This is where Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu comes into play. Let’s take a look at it, then I will discuss what it does.
Click for full view
Alright, looking at the above image, you see all your previous WordPress links and admin settings are moved to the top of the page. No longer are the links on the left, which saves a crap ton of screen real estate on netbooks, like the one I have. I am constantly scrolling left and right to get to certain spots on the page, but not anymore. This plugin is great. It only shows you the main topics, and when you hover over one of the topics, it drops down the rest into a neat little menu. Let’s take a look at that:
Click for full view
As you can see, there is the large drop down of the different plugin settings that I use, and it saves a bunch of screen real estate.
So, have a WordPress blog? Try out this plugin. It can be downloaded and found here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ozh-admin-drop-down-menu/
More WordPress Plugin reviews to come!
View Thru: Chrome Plugin
FINALLY! There is a Chrome plugin that reveals the full URL for that pesky bit.ly or other URL shortener. I am all for the bit.ly and competitors services, but I hate when you don’t know where that link follows. I see links like that all over on Twitter….do you trust them? Now you can find out with a free Chrome plugin called View Thru.
How to use the plugin once it is installed is very straightforward and simple…which is something I usually love. ”Once installed, View Thru requires no interaction from you. Add it to Chrome and from there out any time you come across a shrunken URL a simple mouse-over will reveal the source URL in a simple white pop-up.” Says Lifehacker.
As seen in the following screenshot, is the service in use. In my Twitter feed, I hovered over the first bit.ly link I could find, and I automatically see where it points to. Take a look.
So, wanting to know where those shortened links lead to, install View Thru for Google Chome today!
Have any Chrome plugin suggestions?
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Chrome Extension: Speed Dial
I am a Google Chrome addict. I use no other Internet browser…ever. I have Chrome on all my machines and run it in portable mode on my flash drive when traveling to other computers. One thing I like about Chrome is the great extensions. Note, some extensions are only available in the beta version of Google Chrome, and I suggest getting it. Even the beta version is very stable, and is worth checking out.
In this post, I want to touch on an extension called Speed Dial. Located at https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/dgpdioedihjhncjafcpgbbjdpbbkikmi, Speed Dial allows you to change the Tabs page and make it your own. The developers state the following on the extension: “Speed Dial for Chrome – replace Chrome new tab with your predefined visual bookmarks.”
Their statement does just that. Take a look at my current setup of Speed Dial.
Click the image for a full screen viewingTyler S. Miller
This extension comes natively into the Opera browser, but if you are a Chrome addict, give this bugger a try. It’s very customizable and worth a try if you use Chrome. And, if you don’t use Chrome yet, start using it. The browser is FAR superior to Firefox and Internet Explorer. More browser extension reviews to come in future weeks. Any specific extensions you use or love on Chrome or Firefox?
BugMeNot
Ever needed a quick username and password for a website, but you don’t want to go through the hassle of creating a brand new account for that one visit? This website has been around for quite sometime, but it flew across my radar today, and I wanted to give it a little plug. BugMeNot.com is a free website that allows you to type in a website address and you are prompted with credentials to use on that website. These credentials are for community use all over the world and can be used to read that quick story on the New York Times website or on The Washington Post. There are also accounts for a vast amount of sites, including youtube.com, imdb.com and megaupload.com. Head on over and give it a try if you need quick access to a website that you don’t normally visit.
Above is the main screen on the website, depicting the most popular logins to websites.
Below, a sample login to YouTube that’s been highly rated within the community.
So, need a quick login, go on over to BugMeNot.com and give it a try.
Mozy Online Backup Review
In this video, I talk about Mozy Backup. A free or paid service to get your data backed up securely and on the Internet for easy access and easy restoration. If you have a computer with valuable data, some kind of backup is a must, so why not give Mozy a try and backup online.
Website Security
A new program came across my wandering eyes today that tests the security of a website. The name: Websecurify. It resides on the Google Code servers and is for webmasters of any kind to keep tabs on their website security. Along with keeping blog content up to date, chiming in on community discussion and tweaking things behind the scenes, website security can sometimes be overlooked. For me, security is a big priority. I have several WordPress plugins that scan my servers for any vulnerabilities in my website and with WordPress. This is another tool to assist you in the process, and it is fairly simple to operate.
Websecurify is a powerful web application security testing environment designed from the ground up to provide the best combination of automatic and manual vulnerability testing technologies.
Upon installation, you are greeted with this simple welcome screen and logo:
Clicking the Launch Test text will direct you to another screen, prompting you for a website and a name to call the report. See, simple. Once all that info is collected, hit next a few times, and the scan begins: Note that the scan does take 30-45 minutes or longer.
When the scan is complete, a big report is displayed:
So, you got a website? Test its security with this new freeware tool! Download here.
AVG Rescue CD Review
Ever had a virus infected computer? If so, then you probably know that when you try to run your antivirus program, the virus will automatically close or crash the program. We have all run into this….including me fixing client machines. Here is a simple fix to getting rid of a virus without having to reformat.
It’s called AVG Rescue CD and is a linux operating system you boot from a CD or flash drive that allows you to remove viruses from the disk.
Directly from the AVG Website:
The AVG Rescue CD is a powerful must-have toolkit for the rescue and repair of infected machines. It provides essential utilities for system administrators and other IT professionals and includes the following features:
- Comprehensive administration toolkit
- System recovery from virus and spyware infections
- Suitable for recovering MS Windows and Linux operating systems (FAT32 and NTFS file systems)
- Ability to perform a clean boot from CD or USB stick
Key technologies
- Anti-virus: protection against viruses, worms and Trojans
- Anti-spyware: protection against spyware, adware and identity theft
- Administration toolkit: system recovery tools
With this program you can edit your hard drive’s files, edit the registry and do system checks. Its not a full all-in-one boot disk but it definitely will do the job to get rid of viruses and spyware.
Credit: Lifehacker
Apart from the usual AVG functions (malware detection and removal, updates from internet or external device, etc.), the AVG Rescue CD also contains the following set of administration tools:
- Midnight Commander – a two-panel file manager
- Windows Registry Editor– simple registry editor for more experienced users
- TestDisk – powerful hard drive recovery tool
- Ping – to test the availability of network resources (servers, domains, IP addresses)
- Common Linux programs and services– vi text editor, OpenSSH daemon, ntfsprogs etc.
If you have a virus infected computer, check out AVG Rescue CD.
Quotes taken from AVG.com
Social Buttons for WordPress
I stated a few days ago that I would begin reviewing plugins I use on my WordPress blog. And here it begins. One of my favorite plugins is Fixed Social Icons.
As you are reading this post, you see icons on the right side of the window. They go up and down and feature a lot of sites icons. If you click one of these, you are redirected to the appropriate site and then prompted to share the website name and url with that service. Then the top three icons are links to my personal RSS feed, Twitter and Facebook profile so you can become friends with me in different ways. This plugin is great and has a great back-end that is simple and easy to use. Check it out:
As you can see, very simple options and pretty customizable. If you have a WordPress blog or website and want an easy way to allow visitors to connect and share your site, install this plugin. Again, its called Fixed Social Buttons and is found here.
Thanks for visiting. Do you have any favorite WordPress plugins?
Hulu Review
If you miss out on watching a TV show on the actual TV…chances are that the show is on Hulu. Hulu is a free service in the United States that allows you to watch ad supported TV shows and movies. I watch Hulu, sadly, every single day. It is a great service to get caught up on shows as well. Say you miss three episodes of LOST and there is absolutely NO way to watch the current episode without getting confused or lost, so you should choose Hulu to watch all back episodes.
TV shows are usually released one day after the air date on networks except in some few cases where there are different copyright restrictions.
My favorite shows that I watch on Hulu are as follows: LOST, House, Family Guy, Castle, The Office, 30 Rock, The Biggest Loser, and many more. I also frequent their movie section, although movies are not updated as often as TV shows and are usually pretty old. Most movies are ones from before 2000, again, for copyright reasons.
Hulu…try it out. More reviews coming soon.