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OmmWriter Dana for Windows | Writing at its best on a PC

By Matthew Guay on March 15, 2011 in Featured, PC Software, Reviews

Computers are supposed to help us be more productive. That’s how we justify huge investments into computers, office software, desks, and more. Yet all too often we find ourselves frittering time away, checking the latest RSS feeds, social network updates, Google Analytics stats … oh, and someone just popped up on IM to say Hi.

That’s not exactly a productive environment.

OmmWriter is an app that seeks to bring concentration back to computing, or at least to writing on a computer. It’s been a popular app on Macs for the past year, and now it’s finally been released for Windows 7. PC users can now write in one of the few distraction free writing apps available on Windows.

In the tradition of WriteRoom and the many plain text editors on iOS such as iA Writer, OmmWriter offers a full-screen, distraction free environment to help you concentrate on your writing. Unlike these other writing apps, however, OmmWriter also includes calm background wallpapers, soundtracks, and typing sounds to accompany your writing. As its splash-screen says, OmmWriter is best enjoyed with headphones.

For the most part, OmmWriter doesn’t have a traditional program interface. There are some tools on the side, and an iOS style scroll bar on the right. You can change the font, chosing from a serif, sans-serif, script, or monospaced font, as well as choose from 3 font sizes. On the bottom, you’ll be able to save your file in plain text format or open a new document.

The main thing is the rectangle where you can type in text. As you start typing, the rectangle itself will fade away, leaving you only with your text, the background you’ve selected, and the soundtrack keeping you motivated in your headphones. Elegance, meet writing. Move your mouse, and the box and tools reappear, along with a word count on the bottom. Again, simple and easy; all you need to think about is your text.

But wait … wouldn’t the background sounds make it distracting? Actually, I’ve personally always found that I write the best with an instrumental soundtrack playing in the background. OmmWriter’s soundtracks are great background music to write with, and the keyboard sounds help keep you focused on writing. It’s the best possible combination in my opinion, but if you’re not a fan, you can always turn them off or select another sound combination that suites your tastes best on the side options that appear when you move your mouse. And, the included backgrounds range from a paper-like texture to plain white, so you can choose one that works best for your writing style, too.

Of all things, OmmWriter does actually still include a file menu, though you’ll almost never need to use it. If you’d like to reset the interface to the defaults, or export your document as a PDF, just hover over the top right edge of the program and the file menu will appear. Alternately, all standard keyboard shortcuts work as normal; press Ctrl+S to save the file, Ctrl+N to start a new document, etc.

Best of all, OmmWriter is yet another new Mac app that’s now available for Windows, joining the ranks of CloudApp, 1Password, Droplr, Backblaze, and more. It can be frustrating as a PC user to see most of the innovative and creative new apps coming out only on Macs, and is very refreshing to see some coming now to Windows. OmmWriter Dana is available in 2 editions for Windows and Mac: a free version with 3 backgrounds and soundtracks, or a paid version with 8 backgrounds and 7 soundtracks. I’d suggest trying the free version, and if you like it, strongly consider buying the pro version to let the developers know you appreciate their effort. The app starts at $4.11, though you can pay more if you’d like. Once you’ve purchased a pro copy, you’ll need to uninstall your free version and install the new OmmWriter Dana II and activate it with your key.

OmmWriter is a truly impressive and immersive app. Its my new favorite writing app on Windows, and I’m sure many of my upcoming essays, articles, and book chapters will be typed in it. It’s forcing me to concentrate on what I’m writing, and only what I’m writing, and that’s a refreshing experience. The only thing I need now is a way to disable Alt-Tab so I don’t switch away to other programs!

After all, the world won’t end if you miss that next tweet.

Written in OmmWriter Dana II for Windows with background #3, soundtrack #4, and keyboard sound #1.

Download OmmWriter Dana for Windows or Mac OS X

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Wunderlist | To-do List Awesomeness on Every Platform

By Matthew Guay on March 11, 2011 in Featured, iOS Apps, PC Software

There’s so many to-do list apps today for all of the major computing platforms that you can quickly get overwhelmed trying to choose one. Most to-do list apps on Windows are old and clunky, while many iOS to-do list apps are an island to themselves and don’t let you sync or share tasks. It’s enough sometimes to make you just want to go back to just using a pad of paper. But wait: that surely can’t be the best solution. It’s the 21st century; can’t we have our tasks on any platform, synced, and shared with anyone we need? Can it really be that hard?

Enter Wunderlist. Wunderlist is an awesome new to-do list app that’s beautiful, feature filled, and amazingly, free! Actually, it’s is as much of a platform as it is an individual app. With to-do list apps for Windows, OS X, Android, iPad, iPhone, Android, and the web, you can keep up with everything you need to do no matter where you are or what device you’re using. While there are many beautiful and functional to-do list apps on OS X and iOS, Windows typically hasn’t had many modern to-do list apps that are both easy to use and stylish. Wunderlist’s Windows app alone makes it a winner, but add in the apps for other platforms, and it’s even better.

It contains all the features you’ll need to keep up with your tasks. You can add lists to organize to-dos, add a star to prioritize them, add a date to make sure you don’t forget when your task is due, and add notes to remember more about the task. Need to rearrange tasks? Simply drag and drop them to get them in the correct order. Then, find your tasks with the integrated search box, or reorder them based on priority or due date from the bottom buttons. You can even customize the app with a number of high quality background images. Best of all, you can share lists with others so your family, team, or business can stay connected in a simple Wunderlist to-do list. I’ve used this to share ideas with coworkers and editors over the past month, and it’s worked amazingly flawlessly.

Wunderlist works almost the exact same on every platform, but contains the small touches it takes to integrate great with particular platforms as well. On Windows, it uses a standard window and tray icon; on iPad, you’ll see iOS style pop-overs and inertia scrolling. You can enter tasks with keyboard shortcuts in Windows, OS X, and the webapp, while the mobile apps let you swipe to delete tasks and pull down to refresh a page. The same great features are there in each of the apps, though: contact syncing, sharing, organization, and a beautiful, easy to use experience. Best of all, if you’ve signed in with the same account on all of your devices, your tasks will automatically stay in sync. No more manually syncing or copying tasks between apps; you’ll just stay connected to what you need to do.

The iPhone app is especially handy since you can view and add tasks on the go. Wunderlist can even notify you when your tasks are due with standard iOS alerts and icon indicators. If you have an Android device, you can use the new Wunderlist Android app as well. Or, if you want, you can add new tasks by emailing them to me@wunderlist.com from your account email address, and can choose to be alerted via email when tasks are due. This way, even if you don’t have the latest mobile device, you can still keep up with your Wunderlist account on the go.

And, now, Wunderlist is equally at home in your browser! The newly released Wunderlist webapp brings all of Wunderlist’s features to any browser, so now you can use it from your Ubuntu computer or Chrome netbook. Or, if you don’t want to install a new program without knowing if you’ll like it, you could just give it a try in your browser. If you like it, then install it on your Mac, PC, or mobile device. Everything works almost the same as it does in Wunderlist’s Mac and PC apps; you can create new lists, drag and drop tasks to rearrange them, search across all of your tasks, and more. You can even change the background just like you can in any of the other apps. Whether on the web, an iOS device, your PC, or almost any other device, the Wunderlist experience is the same. This is easily one of the best cross-platform apps we’ve seen that merges your mobile device, PC, and browser experience.

But, hey, we could talk all day about getting organized with awesome to-do list apps, but that doesn’t help us get everything we need to do, done. Usually it’s a tough decision whether or not you should spend money on yet another productivity app. You have to decide if you need your tasks on your smartphone, PC, or online, and whether you can live without everything in sync or not. Today, Wunderlist has made these decisions obsolete. Wunderlist gives you synced, shared, and scheduled to-dos on almost any platform, for free. The only problem I’ve had is that the Wunderlist apps are somewhat slower than fully native apps that are built specifically for one platform. That said, recent updates have really improved the performance, and the iOS app now runs just as fast as Things or other similar apps. Plus, it lets me share and sync tasks, something few other apps even offered. There’s no reason not to give it a try on your browser, PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet today. So go download it today, quit saying you’re going to find the perfect to-do list app, and just give it a try.

At least that’s one thing off your to-do list!

Checkout Wunderlist’s Awesome website and download it for your platform

Or, just Get started directly online with the Wunderlist Web App

Download Wunderlist for iPhone or Wunderlist HD for iPad

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FluffyApp | CloudApp Goodness for Windows

By Matthew Guay on February 1, 2011 in Featured, PC Software

Lately it seems like all the cool new apps are Mac only. After years of Windows having more programs than Macs, the tables are now turned. Thankfully, though, there are still some developers bringing some of the neatest new apps from OS X to Windows. We recently looked at windroplr, which brings Droplr’s goodness to Windows 7. Today we’re going to look at FluffyApp, a similar app that incorporates the popular CloudApp service into your Windows 7 taskbar beautifully.

What is CloudApp?

CloudApp is an increasingly popular tool for quick file sharing on Macs. You’ve likely seen http://cl.ly/something links on Twitter recently; CloudApp’s where they came from. It’s drop-dead simple to use: just drag and drop a file onto the cloud icon, and seconds later you’ll have a short URL to share your file with the world. The only problem is, CloudApp’s official app is only for Mac OS X.

And then there’s FluffyApp…

FluffyApp is a great app for Windows that brings all of CloudApp’s features and makes it just as easy to upload files from your PC. Head over to FluffyApp’s site to download the app, the install it as normal.

Once it’s installed, you’ll be prompted to sign in to your CloudApp account. If you’ve already used CloudApp on a Mac, then just sign in with the account you already have. Otherwise, click the link in the app to signup for a new account for free.

Once you’ve activated your account, you’ll be ready to start uploading pictures or other small files to share online. CloudApp lets you upload up to 10 files per day that are each up to 25 Mb with a free account; if that ends up not being enough for your needs, you can upgrade your account for unlimited uploads from your online CloudApp account.

To upload a file, just drag and drop it to the cloud icon you’ll see in your system taskbar. If it’s not there, just click the arrow button to open the hidden icons and drag it to your taskbar. You’ll then see the upload progress as the cloud icon fills up with white.

Once the file is uploaded, you’ll see a notification in your taskbar and a short link to the file will automatically be added to your clipboard. Just paste it into your social network status updates to share files without taking up too many characters! Here’s an example CloudApp upload … the one uploaded in these screenshots: http://cl.ly/4Jke.

CloudApp’s not only good for files. You can also use it to bookmark sites you don’t want to forget. When you visit a site that you want to bookmark, just select the address and drag it to your FluffyApp icon. Seconds later, it’ll be bookmarked so you’ll never lose it.

You can always find your uploads, bookmarks, and more from your online CloudApp account, and can even upload files or shorten URLs directly from the webapp. No matter where you are, you’ll have an easy way to share the files and links you want.

CloudApp versus Droplr

Now that there’s two great ways to share files easily on Windows and Macs from your system tray, which one’s better? On Windows, I personally find CloudApp (or rather FluffyApp since that’s the Windows version) to be easier to use. That’s only because of one thing: I like having the icon only in the system tray. With windroplr, you have to have a drop target open to upload files, which makes your desktop a bit more cluttered. Additionally, CloudApp seems to have a more stable business plan with free and pro accounts, and it’s always nice to know that your favorite service is more likely to stay around.

That said, I overall like Droplr’s service better, and find their webapp to be more aesthetically pleasing. It also doesn’t have a daily upload limit, so you can share more pictures per day for free. Plus, Droplr’s iPhone app is great, so if you’re sharing files from an iOS device, that’s definitely an advantage. In the end, it comes down to your preference. They’re both free, so give them each a try and let us know what you think about them both in the comments!

Download FluffyApp – CloudApp for Windows

Signup for CloudApp

Learn more about windroplr – Droplr for Windows

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Window Clippings 3 | Aero Screenshots the Way They’re Meant to be

By Matthew Guay on November 29, 2010 in Featured, PC Software

So you want to show off the latest app on your blog or help your sibling figure out what menu they’re supposed to be opening on a program. The handy Prt Scr key should be your answer, but unfortunately, it doesn’t take very good shots of the Aero interface in Windows 7 or Vista. Today let’s look at the latest version of Window Clippings that was just released today and see how easy it can be to make your screenshots look professional and modern.

Window Clippings was one of the first screenshot apps that was designed to capture the full Aero glass and shadows interface in screenshots. You can use it to capture shots of windows, menus, or even a free-form selection quickly and easily.

Getting Started

Window Clippings is simple to install and use. Just run the installer and accept the license as normal.

Launch Window Clippings after it’s installed, select the About tab, then enter your license key. If you don’t have a license yet, you can run it as a trial but all of your shots will include a watermark on the bottom.

Now you can tweak your settings to make Window Clippings work just like you like. The UI has been fully updated in Window Clippings 3, so if you’ve already used a previous version you’ll be pleased how nice and easy to use the new settings dialog is. From the Actions window, you can choose what you want Window Clippings to do after you take a screenshot. It can automatically save shots to disk, copy them to the clipboard, send them to OneNote or Paint.NET or more.

You can also choose from capture options that let you include your mouse pointer, remove font smoothing, and more.

Taking Great Screenshots

To take a screenshot with Window Clippings, just press your Prt Scr key or click the Create Screenshot button in the Window Clippings window. Your desktop will fade out similar to the way it did when opening the Shutdown dialog in XP. Now click on the windows you want to capture, or just click and drag to draw a rectangle selection. To capture multiple windows, hold down the Ctrl key while selecting windows.

Or, if you want to capture a free-form area, hold down the Alt key while drawing with your mouse. Once you’ve satisfied with your selection, press Enter to save your capture.

If you already know which window you need to capture, you can simply select its name from the Window Clippings app and snap it directly.

For the truly geeky, you can even capture screenshots directly from the command prompt with a variety of parameters. Check out the Window Clippings blog post on Command line capture for more info.

The Results:

No matter what you need to capture, Window Clippings makes your shots look just like they did on your screen when you shot them. This shot was taken with a background image set and windows right against the taskbar, but Window Clippings still captured the full transparency and shadows of the aero preview and tooltip.

Just to demonstrate how flexible these screenshots are, here’s the same shot on top of two background images in Paint.NET. Notice the beautiful transparency makes it look like the preview was running on this background!

No need to layer your screenshots in an image editor afterwards, though; Window Clippings can capture all the windows you select at once if you wish.

It works great for freeform screenshot too. Notice that freeform and rectangle clips won’t include drop shadows, as Window Clippings only includes the Aero shadows on windows and menus. No matter what shape you capture, it’ll look great with PNG transparency and smoothing on the curved areas.

Window Clippings works great for capturing menus; just hold the Ctrl key down while selecting all the elements you want to appear in your shots. However, we did have some trouble with menus closing after pressing Enter but before the shot was saved. To alleviate this problem, you may want to enable delayed capture. Then, if your menu closes, re-open it before the time’s up and your screenshot is fully captured.

If you ever need to change your settings again, just right-click the tray icon and select Open Window Clippings. Alternately, double-click on the tray icon to take a quick screenshot.

Conclusion

Window Clippings runs on Windows 7 and Vista, and is available for download for $35 per user. If you still need to take screenshots in XP, you’ll also receive a license for Window Clippings 2.1 which works similar but will also run on Windows XP. Also, if you’ve bought a Window Clippings 2 license previously, you’ll be receiving a free upgrade key for Window Clippings 3 soon.

This app is cheaper than many competing screenshot tools such as SnagIt, and captures screenshots of modern apps better than most other apps we’ve tried. I did experience a few issues in testing, such as screenshots that included the edge of another app on the bottom, but in general it did this less than most alternate screenshot tools. It’s also extremely lightweight, using less than 2Mb of ram when running in the taskbar, so you won’t need to worry about keeping it running.

Window Clippings 3 is definitely one of the best screenshot tools in my opinion, and the only thing that SnagIt still does better is that you can edit and catalog your screenshots directly in the app. But when you can auto-save and directly edit screenshots in Paint.NET with Window Clippings, there’s not much to miss. Give the trial a shot, and then get a license if you’re needing a great way to take high quality Aero screenshots.

Our Rating: 9/10

Download and Purchase Window Clippings 3

Get Started with Window Clippings 3 Tutorials

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Use Droplr on Your PC with windroplr

By Matthew Guay on November 4, 2010 in PC Software, Techinch

If you’re a PC users but have friends or collegues that use Macs, you may have envied Droplr, the cool Mac file sharing service. Thanks to a new app, windroplr, PCs can now get in on the action. Let’s take a look at windroplr and the Droplr service, and see you can use it to quickly share files, links, and text with anyone.

What is Droplr?

Droplr is a dead simple way to share files, images, notes, code, or almost anything you can think of on the internet. Simply drag your content to the Droplr icon, and it’ll be uploaded and ready for you to share in seconds, no second step required. Until now it was only available on Mac OS X and iOS devices via Droplr for iPhone. Today PC users can get the same great service thanks to the brand new app windroplr, which gives you all of Droplr’s features on your Windows PC.

Getting Started

Head over to the windroplr site and download the installer, then install it as normal. Windroplr requires .NET 4.0, so if you’re still using XP you’ll need to install it first. Once it’s done installing, run windroplr and click Next to start setting it up. Droplr uses your Twitter account, so enter your username and password, then click Go!.

windroplr will verify your settings, then within seconds you’ll be ready to start sharing files and more. Once it’s done, you’ll see a Droplr drop target on the bottom right corner of your screen, as well as a new windroplr icon in your tray. You can press Win+Shift+W to show or hide the Droplr drop target.

Using windroplr

To start sharing files, just drag and drop any file you’d like to the drop target in the corner of your screen.

If the file you’ve selected is large, you’ll notice the windroplr tray icon filling up with purple to show the upload progress. Do note that you cannot upload any over 32Mb, so this works best for sharing smaller images and documents.

Seconds later, you’ll see a link for your file. Click the notification bubble to copy the link to your clipboard so you can share it in a tweet, email, or any way you want.

Here’s how our image looks online once it’s been uploaded. Droplr’s web interface gives you a very stylish way to share content.

Droplr also makes it easy to send a screenshot to someone. Right-click the tray icon and select Grab screenshot or press Win+Shift+S to capture and upload a screenshot automatically.

When capturing a screenshot, your screen will darken and you’ll be able to select any area to capture and upload.

You can also upload plain text in a drop. Simply right-click the tray icon and select Compose Note, and you’ll see a small text editor open. Alternately, just select some text in any application you’re currently using, and drag it to the drop and it’ll automatically open the text editor with the text you’re uploading. Now, type or paste any text and edit it as you want in the box, select whether it’s plain text, formatted with Markdown markup, or code, and click Upload.

Here’s how a text Drop looks:

Update: After using Droplr for a while, I discovered you can upload more than one file at a time, too. Simply select all the files you want, or a whole folder, and drag it to the windroplr drop button. Your files will be uploaded as a zip archive, ready to share just like any other files. This is a great way to send everything you need from a project to your coworkers or friends quickly and easily.

Viewing your Droplr Files Online

Once you’ve got some files uploaded to Droplr, you may want to manage them online. Simply head to the Droplr site and click Sign in in the top right corner to get started.

You’ll need to verify your account with your Twitter account before you’ll be able to see your files.

Once this is done, you’ll see your online Droplr dashboard with all of your uploads. You can view all of your uploads by type from the buttons on the top, or select a file to delete it. You can even see the number of times each file has been viewed and get its link again, or search for a certain file from the top bar. This gives you a great way to manage all the files you’ve shared as easily as you’d manage files on your computer.

Select the Gear icon to view the Droplr preferences. You can even add your own custom domain to Droplr if you redirect it to Droplr!

Conclusion

Droplr is a Mac app we’ve envied for a long time, and we’re excited to get to use it in Windows 7. Droplr is truly an easy way to share small files, and makes a great alternative to simply adding shared Dropbox folders will everyone you need to share files with. Since Drop.io is closing down this year, Droplr is a great alternate service that works similarly but looks much nicer. Plus, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can get the Droplr app to add files to your account and view your old drops on the go. Give it a try and let us know your thoughts on Droplr below!

Download windroplr and get started sharing today! – Update: http://windroplr.com/ now works as well

Check out Droplr’s site

Hat tip to AddictiveTips for the link!

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Backup All Your Files Online Automatically with Backblaze

By Matthew Guay on October 26, 2010 in PC Software

Computers are amazing machines. What started out as crude scientific instruments turned into the main way we store most of our memories, important documents, to-dos, and more. For years, people have been telling us we need to keep our computers backed up, but it’s usually something we put on a to-do list and then forget about it. That’s often because it’s difficult to keep your backups up to date, plus it requires you to keep up with DVDs, portable hard drives, or other media.

The good news is, there are some easier ways to backup your computer. There are many popular online backup services today that can automatically backup all your important files to the cloud. No DVDs to mess with, and even if you lost everything, your files would still be ready for you to download and start using again quickly. We’ve been evaluating many online backup solutions, and have found several that work great, are economical, and protect all your most important files without much effort on your part. Today we’re going to look at one of our favorites, Backblaze.

Backup Your Computer With Backblaze

Backblaze is an online backup service that makes it amazingly simple to backup your computer. It finds all the important files, pictures, music, and more on your computer, then encrypts it to protect your privacy and uploads it to their secure servers. Whenever you need to restore your files, they’ll be waiting for you to download and restore them within minutes. Let’s see how it works.

First, download the Backblaze installer from their site, and run the installer on your computer. It’s available for Windows and Mac OS X, so download the correct version for your computer. Then, enter your email address and a password of your choice to create a new account, and click Install Now to get started.

Backblaze will now install and scan your computer for files to backup. This may take a few minutes, but you’ll only need to do it this first time.

Once it’s done, Backblaze will show you how much data it found to backup. Click Ok to finish installing Backblaze and let it get to work protecting your data.

And that’s it! Within seconds, Backblaze will start backing up your files to their secure servers. It’ll backup all files under 9Gb on your computer other than program files, virtual machines, and other files that would be installed by your operating system and programs. All of you data files, documents, music, and more will be automatically backed up, and you don’t need to do anything else. If you’d like, you can open the settings and select specific folders to backup or skip, but for most users, the default settings will work great. Just note that the first backup can take a long time to complete, but you don’t need to worry about it. Just use your computer as you normally would, and it’ll do its backups in the background whenever the computer’s running.

Whenever you open the Backblaze window to check on your backup or change settings, you may see a small tip on the bottom. But for the most part, Backblaze should live quietly in your system tray, happily keeping your files safe as you’re saving memories, meeting, memos, and more on your computer.

Encrypting Your Backup Files

By default, all of your files are encrypted on your computer, uploaded over SSL, and then secured on a protected and encrypted server. The backup key used, however, is accessible by Backblaze, so if you’d like an extra layer of security, you can add your own private encryption key. Simply open the Backblaze preferences, select the Security tab, and click Enter your private encryption key.

Here you can add and confirm a second password for your Backblaze account that is not stored on Backblaze’s servers. This encryption key is required to access your data, and you’re the only one who knows it, so make sure to remember it. If for some reason you can’t remember the key, your backup data will be lost as even Backblaze can’t access it.

Now your files are as secure as the can possibly be. Just make sure to never lose the encryption key you set, as otherwise you won’t be able to access your backups in the future.

Getting Your Files Back

If disaster strikes and you’ve lost all your files, or if you just accidently deleted the PowerPoint you were supposed to present today, Backblaze is ready to help you get your content back. Just head over to the Backblaze account page on their site, and login with your account info.

Alternately, open the Backblaze app and click and click Restore Options, then click Sign in in the popup window that opens.

Here, you can select to download a zip file of your backed up files for free, or order a DVD or USB hard drive with your full backup for a fee. Select the option that’ll work best for you.

Underneath this, you’ll see a file browser to let you select your files to restore. If you added an encryption key, enter it first to unlock your files.

You can now browse through your files and folders online, just like they appeared on your computer. Select any files, folders, or even the data from whole drives you want to download.

If you happened to make a change to a file, and want to download the older version, you can easily do that too. Click the Files backed up till menu, and select the time you want to view. Then select your files from that time snapshot.

Once you’re finished selecting the files you needed, click Continue with Restore to download your backup files or order a backup disk.

If you selected the download option and chose to download a large amount of files, you may be asked if you’re sure. Do note that it can take a very large time to download a full backup, so you may be better to download data from individual folders and restore them individually.

Once you’ve selected the files you wish to download, Backblaze will generate zip files for you to download. This may take some time, so Backblaze will email you when the files are ready. Just click the link in the email you’ll receive to go get your files.

Now just download the zip, extract your files, restore them to where you want them saved, and get back to work. Easy! Alternately, of course, if you selected to order a DVD or USB drive, you’ll need to wait for them to get to you, and then you’ll be able to quickly restore your computer.

Conclusion

Backblaze takes the guesswork out of backing up your computer, and lets you keep your data secure. It ran great in our tests, and unlike many backup programs, it used very few system resources. It also didn’t slow down our internet usage much even when creating the initial backup, as it automatically throttles its internet use based on current internet speeds and traffic. Most importantly, it made it easy to get our files back, even offering previous versions of files we’d edited.

Backblaze runs on recent versions of Windows and Mac OS X, and costs $5/month or $50/year per computer for full, unlimited backup. If you’d like to give it a try first and see what you think before installing it, feel free to download the free 15 day trial and give it a spin. Let us know how you like Backblaze, or if you have another favorite online backup service.

Download Backblaze and start protecting your data today!

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Keep Your Tasks Organized With GeeTeeDee

By Matthew Guay on October 12, 2010 in PC Software

Need a lightweight, easy to use tool to keep up with all the things you need to do each day? Although dozens of apps we use daily can be great for storing tasks we need to do, sometimes a dedicated app that just shows what you need to do is best. One app that does this really well is GeeTeeDee, a new to-do list app for Windows. Let’s take a look at how you can use GeeTeeDee to stay on top of what you need to do.

Getting Started

First, you’ll need to setup GeeTeeDee on your computer. You can download it either as an installable app or a portable app. If you want to only use it on one computer, simply select the Desktop Installer and install as normal. Otherwise, if you’d like to keep up with your tasks on multiple Windows computers, download GeeTeeDee Portable. Then, extract the files and save them to your flash drive or in your Dropbox so your tasks will automatically sync between your computer. I actually have an Apps folder in Dropbox just to save portable applications so they can sync between my desktop and netbook.

When you first start GeeTeeDee, you’ll be presented with a blank Inbox to store your tasks. You can click the link on the front page to add some default tasks, or just click New at the bottom to start adding a new task.

You can add a name, notes, and a due date to tasks. Once you’re done adding a task, click elsewhere and it will be condensed to just the title. Double-click a task to view or edit the due date or notes, or double-click in any blank area to add a new task.

If you’d like an even more streamlined interface, click the Compact button on the bottom. This will give you just a list of your tasks without the sidebar on the left. As you finish tasks, just check them off to show their completed. You can then click Cleanup to remove finished tasks from the list.

Organizing Tasks

Whether you’re trying to follow a plan such as Getting Things Done or you’re simply wanting to keep up with your tasks in an orderly manner, you’ll want to organize your tasks into groups. GeeTeeDee starts with a default Inbox, but you can double-click or right-click and select Add group on the left sidebar to add a new group to organize your tasks.

Select an icon for your group, then enter a name and click Ok to add the new group..

Now you can create new tasks in the group, or move existing tasks from your inbox into your new group. And, of course, you can make as many groups as you need to keep up with everything you need to do.

One complaint I’ve had with many to-do list programs is that you can’t move your task around easily. GeeTeeDee makes it very simple to move your tasks; simply click and drag a task to reorder them. You can drag them to the position you want in your task list, or drag them to a different group. This makes it easy to simply create all your new tasks in the Inbox, then sort them later when you have time. Now you can easily keep track of all your tasks in an orderly, efficient, and elegant manner.

Pros and Cons

Does GeeTeeDee include all the features you need right now? Here’s a quick overview of where it’s great and where it still needs work, though hopefully we’ll see new features added soon in upcoming updates:

[one_half]

Pros:

Elegant and clean interface
Easily manage your tasks
Works similar to Things for Mac OS
Portable
Lightweight – low system resource consumption

[/one_half]

[one_half_last]

Cons:

No keyboard shortcut support
Doesn’t support tags
No webapp or mobile device support (though mobile apps are planned)

[/one_half_last]

Conclusion

Could you just use your favorite note app like Evernote, or the task list built into Outlook or Gmail? Sure you could. But with a dedicated task management tool, you’ll be sure to not miss anything important, while keeping yourself focused on what needs done. GeeTeeDee lets you do this in an elegant and simple way, and we’re excited to see such a solid competitor to Things or OmniFocus on Windows. Sometimes an app comes along, and you wonder how you got along without it before: for me, GeeTeeDee was one of those apps. It’s my favorite new Windows app, and has helped me stay on top of all of my work and college tasks. Hopefully future updates and mobile apps will fill in the current gaps, but until then, it’s still a great simple way to manage the things you need to do from your PCs.

Find Out More and Download GeeTeeDee

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Backup Your Computer to Amazon S3 With Cloudberry

By Matthew Guay on August 25, 2010 in PC Software, Techinch

Would you like to backup your computer to make sure your data is always available no matter what happens? There are many ways to backup your computer, but the only way to make sure your data won’t get lost or destroyed is to store it in the cloud. Cloudberry makes it easy to backup your whole computer to a variety of online storage services, so let’s see how you can use it to backup your computer to Amazon S3.

Cloudberry Backup is a great application that makes backing up your data online as easy as backing it up to a DVD or external hard drive. We’ve previous covered how you can use Cloudberry to Backup Your Data to Windows Azure. We’re now going to look at backing up your computer to Amazon S3, which previously required a different version of Cloudberry Backup. The new 1.7 update, however, added all the backup options to all versions of Cloudberry backup, so you won’t have to worry about which version to buy. If you’re just getting started, you can get this version today, or if you’ve already purchased Cloudberry, you’ll have access to the new features for free once you’ve updated.

Setting Up Cloudberry Backup

Of course you’ll first need to install Cloudberry backup on your computer. Once you’ve purchased it or downloaded a trial, install it as normal.

Then, when you first run it, enter your email address and license key, and click Activate. Alternately, if you’re installing it as a trial, click Request Trial at the bottom instead of entering your license key.

After a few moments, you’ll be notified that your copy of Cloudberry is activated. Click Ok to get started.

You’ll be greeted with the launch screen as it loads. Note that now it doesn’t say what storage service it’s designed for, as the new 1.7 version includes support for all of the available storage options.

Now you’ll see the Cloudberry interface, where you can start your backup and keep your data secure.

Start Your Backup on Amazon S3

Now you can start backing up your computer online. Click Setup Backup Plan to get started.

Click Next to start setting up your backup plan.

Select the backup plan you’d like to use. Advanced Mode offers many special Cloudberry features, such as backing up files larger than 5Gb, resuming failed uploads, and encrypting data. The Simple mode, on the other hand, offers less features, but you may find it preferable since you can access your files on S3 with any S3 tools.

Once you’ve chosen the plan you want, select the Cloud Storage service you’d like to use. We’re selecting Amazon S3 in this test, but again, you can now use the same version to backup to Azure and several other services as well. Select Create a new account if you haven’t added your Cloud Storage info to Cloudberry yet.

For you S3 account, you’ll need to enter your Display name, Access key, and Secret key. If you don’t know where to find this info, or still need to setup your Amazon S3 account, checkout our article about How to Setup Your Amazon S3 Account.

Now, select the files and folders you’d like to backup. Most of the files you’ll want to backup will be in your Users folder, though feel free to select any folder that’s mission-critical for you!

You can then select to backup all the files in the folders, or to skip certain files. If you already have an existing backup and only want to backup new files, the new 1.7 version now lets you choose to only backup files created after a certain time.

Next you can choose to compress your files to save storage space, and if you chose Advanced mode previously, you can choose to encrypt your files as well. You can also select to use Reduced Redundancy Storage on Amazon S3 from this page. This lets you store files for only $0.10/Gb/month, versus the standard $0.15/Gb/month, though your files will not be stored as redundantly on S3. This is generally a fine option for standard personal backups, and I personally use it.

The next page is one of the most interesting. You can choose to keep multiple versions of files so you can access previous versions and revert changes, and you can also select to have files that were deleted locally deleted online after a certain amount of time. This is a new option to the 1.7 version, and is a great help at keeping your backups manageable while still letting you recover accidently changed or deleted files.

Now choose the schedule you want your backup to run on, and you can specify the time down to the minute. This is another new feature in the 1.7 version, and it’s very nice to be able to plan your online backups this much.

Cloudberry can automatically send you an email when you backups are complete or fail. Enter your info if you’d like to activate this feature.

You’re almost finished now. Enter a name for your backup plan, and click Next.

CloudBerry will now present you with an overview of your backup plan. If everything looks correct, click Next to finish.

You’ll now see your new Backup plan listed under the Backup Plans tab. Click Run Backup Now to start backing up your data immediately.

You’ll be able to see CloudBerry’s progress as it uploads and backups your files to Amazon S3 or other cloud storage accounts you may have chosen. You can pause or stop backups as well if you realize something is wrong. Do note that uploading your entire backup may take a fair amount of time, especially if you have a lot of data on your computer. It may be a good idea to start your backup at night or another time you don’t need your computer, and let it run unattended as it will take several hours to upload the files.

You can also follow the backup progress from your taskbar. Simply hover over the CloudBerry icon to see how the backup is going.

Once your files are backed up, you can browse them from the Backup Storage tab. Here you can see each individual file and folder stored in your Amazon S3 account.

If you realize later you don’t need some of the files on your backup, simply select them, right-click and select Delete Selected Items so they’ll stop taking up space in your online storage. You can also restore individual files this way, so if you accidently delete a file you can always quickly restore it.

For the most part though, you shouldn’t need to worry too much about your data taking up too much space. Amazon S3 storage costs $0.15/Gb/month, and an equal amount for uploading and downloading data. And, if you chose the reduced redundancy option, you’ll only pay $0.10/Gb/month for data storage. This means you’ll spend the most the first month, but after that you’ll likely spend at most a couple dollars a month on S3. You can store 20Gb for $2/month on the reduced redundancy plan, or $3/month on the standard plan. Not too bad, considering you’ll be almost absolutely certain you’ll never lose your backups!

Conclusion

No matter how wired your home and office are, today most of us keep some of our most valuable documents and memories in digital form. There’s no reason to risk your computer dying and losing all of your important files; with cloud computing, you can make sure you can still get your important files even if you lost all of your backup files since you can never lose the cloud. CloudBerry makes it affordable and simple to get started backing up your files online. Amazon S3 generally works out the cheapest right now, but Windows Azure is very similarly priced and is easy to setup for backup as well. Now you can backup to either service you want, or even both, from the same version of CloudBerry, so you don’t have to worry about making the wrong choice. The only wrong choice now is to not backup your files!

CloudBerry Backup costs $29.99, and updates are free, so if you’ve already purchased CloudBerry you’ll be able to get the latest 1.7 version absolutely for free! Amazon S3 and Azure are both free to setup, and will only cost once you have data stored in them.

Purchase CloudBerry Backup And Start Backing Up Your Computer Online Today

AutoCAD LT 2011 | Activation and Registration

By Matthew Guay on August 19, 2010 in PC Software

AutoCAD LT 2011 nicely offers a 30 day trial that’s full-featured, and even if you already own a full copy of AutoCAD LT 2011 it may be a good idea to run on the trial for a bit to make sure everything is set up perfectly. As mentioned in the article on Installing AutoCAD, you’ll be prompted to activate or continue in trial mode each time you open the program. You’ll be able to see how many days you have left until you’ll have to activate your copy.

You can click Try to continue in Trial mode, but you’ll see the prompt the next time you launch the program. Once you’re ready to activate, simply click the Activate button on the bottom right of this dialog. AutoCAD will immediately start the activation process over the internet.

Fill out the form with your personal information, and select a User ID and Password. Near the bottom, you can choose if you’d like to receive news and updates from Autodesk. Click Next to continue.

You may have to wait a few moments while AutoCAD activation contacts the servers and makes sure your user ID is available.

Next, select whether this copy of AutoCAD is being registered to an individual or a company, and enter the correct information.

Autodesk may send back a corrected version of your address with a full, extended zip code or corrected street names. Accept the corrections if they’re ok, or go back to edit your info.

Now that your account is setup, select it and click Next to activate your software to this account.

Moments later, you’ll see this screen letting you know that your product has been successfully licensed. If you’d like to see your registration information, click the html link on the left; otherwise, click Finish to close the window.

You’ll now notice that AutoCAD now says NOT FOR RESALE on the top of the window, instead of Unregistered.

Now that your copy of AutoCAD is fully licensed, you can use it as long as you want without restrictions. This copy is now registered to the computer it’s installed on, but you can move your license temporarily or permanently to another computer if you need. We’ll show you how to do this with the License Transfer Utility in an upcoming article.

If you haven’t already read our other AutoCAD article, be sure to check them out, and check back for more soon!

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AutoCAD LT 2011 | Installation and Setup

By Matthew Guay on August 10, 2010 in PC Software

Now that you’ve got AutoCAD LT 2011 out of the box, let’s get it installed on your computer. AutoCAD LT is a rather large program, so it may take several minutes to get it installed, but you can easily start it installing and work on other projects while it finished. Here’s how the setup process goes.

Getting AutoCAD Setup

First, you’ll need to know which edition to install. As mentioned in the unboxing article, you’ll find 2 DVDs containing the 32-bit and 64-bit editions, respectively, in the box. The 64 bit version is the best option if you’re running a 64 bit version of Windows, but if you’re running a 32 bit version, make sure to use the 32 bit installer. If you don’t know what edition of Windows you’re running, here’s how you can find out.

Quick Tip: If you’re running Windows in a virtualization program such as Parallels or VMware Fusion on a Mac, or VMware Player or Workstation on Linux, then you’re most likely running a 32 bit edition of Windows in it. Still, you may want to check to be on the safe side. AutoCAD is an intensive application, but AutoDesk does support it on Parallels for Mac.

Once you’ve decided which edition to run, insert the correct DVD into your computer. If the installer doesn’t automatically open, run the Setup.exe file on the disk.

Setup may take a few moments to initialize.

If you’re just wanting to install AutoCAD LT 2011 normally on your computer, click the Install Products link on the left side. You can also create specialized deployments for enterprise and network use, but for standard individual use you’ll just want to select Install.

Now, select the language and products to install. Your AutoCAD LT installer should additionally include Autodesk Design Review 2011, a program that can display files from other Autodesk products so you can review and mark them up. It will not be checked by default, but we recommend that you go ahead and check the box to install it.

If you’d like more info about the installation or Design Review, click the links on the left to open the appropriate help topics. Otherwise, click Next at the bottom to continue.

You may notice a progress bar on the bottom left as the remainder of the installer opens.

Once its loaded, accept the license agreement and click Next.

Enter your name, organization or business, and your AutoCAD LT Serial number and Product key. Alternately you can select I want to try this product for 30 days to install with a full-featured trial.

Note that you must enter a name for your organization, so if you’re installing it for personal or educational use or a self-employed job, you could enter your personal website or even your name in the organization field.

Now review your installation settings, and if everything looks correct, click Install on the bottom.

If you simply accept the defaults and don’t change anything, you may be prompted for confirmation. Click Yes to go ahead and install it.

That’s all! Now you can sit back and wait, and AutoCAD LT will install. The installer is very beautiful, and inspired us to want to go design a bicycle as soon as we got done installing it! If only we had a clue where to start…

You can follow the installation progress from the left side, which shows which components have been installed as they are installed. Do note that Autodesk Design Review is a 32 bit application, so you’ll notice that it installs both 32 bit and 64 bit components on 64 bit systems, but this is fine and will work the exact same.

If you want, you can even check out the installation progress from the window preview on your Windows 7 taskbar.

After a few minutes, the installer will inform you that the installation is finished. It took about 15 minutes in our test to install, though this may vary depending on your computer. Click Finish to exit the installer.

Running AutoCAD LT 2011 the first time

Once the installation is finished, you’ll be able to easily find your new AutoCAD products installed under Autodesk in your start menu.

Here’s the splash screen that displays while AutoCAD LT is loading.

You’ll need to activate AutoCAD LT 2011 within 30 days of installation, so you’ll be prompted to go ahead and activate it when it first loads. Click Activate Now to go ahead and activate it, or click Try to activate it later.

Then, you’ll be asked to submit data about your computer and product usage to help improve the product. You can choose to enter your email address as well if you like.

On the bottom of the dialog, you can select to see what data will be transmitted for the customer improvement program. If you select to preview your CIP Data, you’ll be directed to a page online that will show your system stats compared to those of other users around the world. This can be interesting even if you don’t want to participate in the program.

Finally you’ll see the welcome screen. This gives you several options to preview some of AutoCAD LT’s newest features.

Mouse over the entries to view more information, or click the play button that appears to open a screencast in your browser explaining the feature in detail.

Now you’re ready to start designing in AutoCAD LT 2011. This version features a slick and functional ribbon interface that takes great advantage of the Aero interface in Windows 7 and Vista. We’ll explore more features and how it integrates with the latest Windows features in the next article. Stay turned for more soon!

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