Have you been looking for a way to share pictures, links, and notes quickly and beautifully from your iPhone or iPod Touch? We recently reviewed windroplr, the free app that brings Droplr to Windows. Now we’ll look at Droplr’s beautiful iOS app that lets you share and access your content from Droplr no matter where you are.
Droplr is a popular service that lets you share small files, notes, and links online easily and quickly. Whether you’re using the default app on a Mac or windroplr on a PC, you can upload files by simply dragging and dropping them to the icon. Seconds later, you’ll have a short d.pr address to share on Twitter or other networks. The Droplr iOS app brings this functionality to your iPhone or iPod Touch with a stylish and functional app, and even if you’ve never used it on your computer, you can share content from your iPhone easier than before.
The Droplr App Experience
When you first run the app, you’ll see the Droplr splash screen for a few seconds, then you’ll be prompted to sign in with your Twitter account.
Once you’re signed in, you’ll be ready to start sharing content. If you’ve already used Droplr on your Mac or PC, then you’ll see all of the items you’ve currently uploaded, along with their link, number of views, and the time they were uploaded.
Tap an item, and the background separates to reveal option buttons. You can quickly view, copy the link, email, Tweet, or delete an item. One neat effect is that the selection bar reveals a bit of the Droplr logo background, so it’ll look a bit different depending on where you select an item.
If you choose to preview an item, you’ll see it quickly in the app, or tap the Safari icon in the top right corner to open it in your device’s browser.
Sharing Content via Droplr
Droplr isn’t just nice to see your content you’ve already added; it’s also a great way to share a note, link, or picture online. Tap the plus button in the top right corner, and then select the item you want to add from the menu at the bottom.
Seconds after you add an item, it’ll automatically copy the link for the item to your clipboard. There’s no second step; it’s just uploaded and copied to your clipboard in a flash. Now you can paste it in any document, email, or site you visit from your iOS device. Alternately, tap the item to access your in-app sharing options.
By default, tweeting from the app will open Twitter in your browser. If you’d like to change this, open the settings pane and select the iPhone Twitter client of your choice. Plus, since many of the other apps let you share content on multiple networks, this is a great way to quickly share your thoughts, links, and pictures with everyone. Want to tweet something longer than 140 characters? Just create a new note, share it via Droplr, then tap the Tweet button and your message is shared!
Conclusion
Droplr is a great service no matter if you using it from you Mac, PC, or iPhone. The Droplr app is highly polished and beautiful to use, and it offers one of the easiest ways to share content publically that I’ve seen. If you find yourself frequently needing to share small files online on the go, you’ll quickly find it worthwhile. If you’ve tried it out, let us know what your think about it in the comments.
Would you like to be able to manage your projects and team from your iOS device? We’ve previously looked at Satchel, an iOS app that lets you keep your 37signals Backpack account synced on your iPhone or iPod Touch, so today we’ll look at the latest mobile Basecamp app that lets you manage projects on the go.
37signals Basecamp is one of the most popular project management webapps, and as such there are a multitude of apps and services that work with it. Unfortunately, even though 37signals products are usually very streamlined and simple to use, most of the Basecamp apps for iPhone feel confusing and scattered. If you’ve been frustrated with older Basecamp apps, there’s now a new app for you to try: Summit. Summit is a beautifully designed app for Basecamp that is simple, uncluttered, and works great. Let’s dig in and see how it works.
Preparing Your Basecamp Account
Before you get started, though, you need to prepare your Basecamp account to work with 3rd party apps. Login to your dashboard, select the Settings tab, then select SSL, API, Export. Scroll down, and review the Basecamp terms of service for API usage, then check the box and click Yes, please enable the Basecamp API for this account.
Once the API is enabled, you’ll see a message like the one below. Now you’re ready to use any 3rd party app with Basecamp, including Summit.
Using Summit with Basecamp
Now that your account’s ready, let’s dig into Summit and see what it offers. I was first impressed with the classy style of the app; it’s both elegant and functional, and feels great on iOS. When you first run the app, you’ll need to enter your Basecamp URL, username, and password, or enter your Open ID info for your account. Press Save when you’re done to add your account.
You can add as many accounts as you need, or just tap your account’s name to access your Basecamp.
You may have to wait a few moments as it accesses your account. One unfortunate thing we found is that Summit doesn’t work offline, so you’ll need to always be connected to the internet to access your info. We hope they add offline support in the near future, as that would be very useful for iPod Touch owners especially since they won’t have always-on internet.
Once your data’s loaded, though, Summit lets you quickly access your data. The main tab shows your dashboard. Here you’ll see all the info from your projects on the main tab, including messages and Writeboards, just like you would in Basecamp. You can’t view or edit Writeboards, unfortunately, but you can quickly access all the other data.
Todo lists can be accessed by tapping a to-do list in the Dashboard or from the to-do list tab on the bottom. It’s easy to know how many to-do items are left with the indicator; the blue indicator shows how many tasks are left, while the grey right side shows the total number of items in the list.
Need an easy way to message your team? The messages tab makes Basecamp messages as easy to manage as emails. Tap the button on the top right to compose a new message, or reply in-line to existing messages.
Milestones are easy to review and mark as finished, though we didn’t find an option to add new milestones to a project. In all, though, the app is quick and easy to use, and while it is missing some features, the ones it includes are implemented very nicely.
Conclusion
Summit makes it easy to keep up with your projects on the go, and with its streamlined interface, you may even find it easier to manage Basecamp from your iOS device than from the web interface. I was disappointed it didn’t cache your content for offline use, and this makes it less useful to me on an iPod Touch. Still, it’s a beautifully designed app that overall works very good, and we’re hoping that it’ll be quickly updated to iron out the quirks and perhaps bring extra features we’d like! Even as is, I still would recommend Summit, and will be watching for updates and perhaps more apps from the developer in the future.
Do you already use a Basecamp app on your mobile device? Let us know in the comments what your favorite Basecamp app is.
One of the best things about Apple’s iOS devices is that once you purchase an app, you can always re-download it and install it again for free if you ever remove it. But what happens to In App purchases you make inside an app?
Recently I purchase an In App upgrade for the first time in one of my favorite apps, PlainText. This app is a great free text editing app, but its ad supported and I purchased the In App upgrade to remove the ads. Minutes later, I managed to remove PlainText from my device when I was trying to clean up other note taking apps I’d tried out. So, I quickly reinstalled PlainText via the App Store, only to see that the ads were back in the app. Thankfully, I found that it’s fairly easy to get your In App purchases back just like App Store Purchases, even if it’s not obvious at first.
When you press the gear icon to open settings, you’ll see the option to purchase the In App option to remove ads. This is what I’d previously purchased, so I didn’t want to purchase it again. But, as it turns out, you won’t need to. Simply tap the option and press Buy just like you’re going to purchase the In App upgrade again.
You’ll be asked to enter your iTunes account info, and then you’ll be notified that you’ve already purchased the upgrade. Phew! Simply press Ok, and you’ll get your In App purchase back just like it was before you removed the app. Do note that this will only work with purchases that you can’t use up; some games include subscription upgrades or let you pay for more lives, ammo, or other things, and these can’t be restored after you’ve used them. But for most upgrades, it’ll work fine just like it did for me in the PlainText app.
Speaking of which, If you aren’t already using the PlainText app on your iOS device, you should definitely try it. It’s one of the nicest text editing app available with a beautiful, clean UI and Dropbox syncing. It’s a free, ad-supported app, too, but if you’d like to get rid of the ads, you can purchase the In App upgrade to remove ads as I did above for only $0.99 in November. If you enjoy writing or keeping text snippets always available, this is an app I’m sure you’ll enjoy.
If you’d like more info about In App purchases, here’s an Apple Care article with more info about them: iTunes Store: About in app purchases. If you do have more trouble with them, feel free to contact Apple Support; they were amazingly helpful and prompt when I contacted them over this issue. At any rate, you can feel safe that your iOS purchases will always be usable, no matter if they’re apps or in app purchases.
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!
Would you like to make it easier to save files directly to your Dropbox folder so you’re sure to not lose them? Here’s how you can fully integrate Dropbox with Windows 7 with Libraries.
Dropbox is a great way to keep your most important files synced between your computers, mobile devices, and the cloud. This lets you keep the latest version of all your files everywhere, easily share folders with friends and coworkers, and be almost certain you’ll never lose any files. The only problem is, you have to save your files in the Dropbox folder, which is usually located at:
C:\Users\your_username\Documents\My Dropbox
It’d be much easier to keep your files in Dropbox if it was just the default place that came up whenever you wanted to save a file. Windows 7 makes this easy, so let’s see how to do it.
Add Dropbox to Your Libraries
First, if you aren’t already using Dropbox, signup and install it on your computer. Open your Dropbox folder otherwise, and add folders for things you’d like to sync. The default Windows 7 libraries are Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos, so you’ll want a similar folder in your Dropbox for the appropriate content. I wanted to keep my Documents, Pictures, and Music synced, as well as some specalized Dropbox folders and those I’m sharing with friends and coworkers, but I didn’t make a video folder since I didn’t want to fill up my Dropbox with them.
Now, right-click on the folders you want to add to your Windows 7 Libraries, select Include in Library, then select the Library you want to add the folder to. Here I’m adding my Dropbox Documents folder to my Documents library. Repeat this with each folder you want to add.
Once you’re finished, you’ll be able to easily browse your folder from Dropbox in your Library and add files. But if you want to make Dropbox the primary place you save new files, you’ll want to make one more change. Right-click on any of your Libraries on the left side of Explorer, and select Properties.
Your new folder from Dropbox should be on the bottom of the list of folders. Right-click it, and select Set as default save location. Now anything you save to the Documents Library will be saved in the Dropbox Documents folder by default. The folder closest to the top will also be the one you see first when you open the Documents Library, so you may wish to select Move Up as well and have the Dropbox Documents folder be at the top.
Here’s my new Documents Library, with all of my files synced via Dropbox. If you’re using a free account, you’ll likely be able to fit most of your most commonly used files in Dropbox, and then you can keep the rest in your normal folders. Alternately, if you have a pro account, you should be able to fit anything you’d like in Dropbox.
Conclusion
Now, no matter what program you’re using, you’re only one click away from your Dropbox folder. I use Dropbox as my primary way to save files to make sure I’ll have them everywhere, and this trick makes it work so much better.
Do you have any unique Dropbox tips you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments!
eBooks are one of the hottest topics this year, with eReaders, tablets, netbooks, and even smartphones making it easier than ever to read your favorite books wherever you are. Unfortunately, it’s not just as simple as deciding to purchase an eTextbook and then getting it. The system right now is somewhat a mess, but we’ll help you wade through it and see what’s best for you.
What’s Available?
eTextbooks are just digital copies of the normal paper textbooks students have carried around on campuses for decades. Unlike dead-tree books, however, eTextbooks are often only available from one store, and then can only be used on certain programs and devices. Additionally, many eTextbook systems only rent their eBooks; you’ll pay for the book, but only be able to access it for 180 days or so.
Some of the most popular eTextbook systems with the most books available are Amazon Kindle, B&N’s NOOKstudy, CourseCompass, and CourseSmart. Between these, you can find almost any standard textbook you need. I’ve personally used textbooks from all of these systems for classes I’ve taken, and here’s what I’ve found with each:
CourseCompass:
CourseCompass is an online course system from Pearson education. It’s designed to offer extra study aids to go along with your courses, which you’ll usually access via an access code from the back of a book (a trick publishers invented to try to curb the used textbook market … another frustration I have with textbook publishers). Alternately, you can also purchase a CourseCompass subscription directly for your class. These usually include an eTextbook, and since it was cheaper than other options, I chose this for my Accounting textbook this past year since I was required to use the CourseCompass extra study aids for the class.
Unfortunately, CourseCompass eBooks are almost unusable. They are only available online, and are powered by Adobe Flash. You first have to jump through several clicks just to open the online textbook.
Once it’s open, you’ll be hard pressed to make the book comfortable to read. The fonts are somewhat blurry, and it’s hard to get the reader window the size that works best for you since the reader is Flash based.
Switching to another section of the book can be difficult, and there’s no built in search or links in the index to help you quickly jump to the section you want.
Simply switching to the next page takes several seconds. You can’t easily keep the book offline, either, since you’re only allowed to print one page at a time.
Since CourseCompass books are tied to your class, you’ll only have access to them while the class is active. Once the class is finished, you won’t be able to access the book again. I personally recommend staying away from CourseCompass eBooks as much as possible, and even if you need to use their online course companion resources, I would not recommend using it for textbook access.
CourseSmart:
CourseSmart is currently the leader in eTextbooks, as they offer over 90% of the standard textbooks used in colleges across America. CourseSmart eBooks look just like they would on paper, including images, sidebars, indexes, and more. All of their eTextbooks are available for an 180 day rental period, and you can choose to either purchase on online subscription or download a special app and have your book offline. The online reader is all HTML based, so you can read the book easily, copy text, highlight, and more.
One great advantage is that you’re allowed to print up to 10 pages at a time, and up to a total of 150% of the total number of pages in the book, so if you need a hard copy of the book or want to keep it offline, CourseSmart lets you have it.
If you purchase an online subscription to a CourseSmart book, you can access it on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad with their free CourseSmart eTextbooks for the iPhone app. Unfortunately, the books are very difficult to read on iPhone or iPod Touch since they render the entire page of a textbook just like it would appear on paper, making it hard to read on a small screen. Additionally, you have to be online to access CourseSmart books from your device.
While CourseSmart is still not perfect, it’s my second choice after Kindle, and with the amount of textbooks they currently have available, you’re almost guaranteed to find some of your textbooks there.
Kindle:
Amazon Kindle is my personal favorite eBook platform, and it currently offers more books and runs on more devices than any other eBook system. They now offer an increasing number of eTextbooks, and would be my first choice when purchasing an eTextbook for a number of reasons. First, all books are sold, not rented, so you can keep them forever. Second, they work great on a multitude of devices, and the new Kindle for PC lets you search, highlight, and bookmark content in books.
The only problem I’ve had with Kindle eBooks is that they reflow to fit your screen, so you don’t know what the current page number is. This generally is not a problem with reading books, but makes it difficult to cite books. If this does become the standard, though, I expect that citation rules will change to accommodate this.
Kindle’s best advantage is that you can read your textbooks anywhere. They’ll work on a Kindle device, in the Kindle for PC reader, or your mobile device such as an iPod Touch or iPhone. Since Kindle books reflow to fit your screen, it’ll be easy to read your book no matter where you are, even without an internet connection. This is one case where having a book locked to a platform doesn’t limit you at all!
NOOKstudy:
Barnes & Noble has been ramping up their eBook offerings with their NOOK eReader device, and they’re also a leader in eTextbooks. They offer a very nice eBook reader for Mac and PC, the NOOKstudy, which lets you read full-quality textbooks offline on up to 2 computers. You can search for content in books, highlight and copy text, and even print a portion of the book, depending on publisher restrictions. Textbooks look very much like they do on CourseSmart, and many popular ones are avilable.
The only problem is, most of their textbooks are rentals just like CourseSmart, so you’ll only be able to use your book for 180 days. Additionally, one very odd thing is that NOOKstudy books do not work on the NOOK device or on B&N’s mobile apps, so they’re only accessible on a Mac or PC. For more info about NOOKstudy, check out my review on HowtoGeek.com.
Other Options
Thankfully, in addition to these eTextbook publishers, there are some other options becoming available. Some publishers are selling eBooks directly in more open formats such as ePub or PDF, or via an online reader. O’Reilly Press offers almost all of their books in open PDF and ePub formats, while MIT Press offers many of their books via an online flash-based reader. Many tech, design, and business eBooks are also available through Safari Books Online, a subscription-based online library. Then, some newer publishers such as Flat World Knowledge are perusing even more adventurous publishing models, offering eBooks that are free to read online but cost to download or get the audio version. Hopefully we’ll se even more innovation in this area over the coming years, and maybe we’ll start seeing textbooks that are easier to obtain and cheaper for everyone.
Conclusion
No matter what subject you’re studying, the chances that you’ll find the textbook you need in digital format is better now than ever before. Unfortunately, varied formats, platforms, and eBook features make what would be an ideal situation into a confusing mess. And if there’s one eTextbook system to stay away from, it’s CourseCompass. Their eBooks are almost unusable, especially if your internet connection is any bit slow, and it’s painful to move through their books and find what you’re looking for. All of the other eTextbook systems are much better, so whenever possible, pick them.
Have you used an eTextbook? Please share your experiences below! We’re looking forward to the future of eBooks, and hope to see it get easier and cheaper to get the eTextbook you need.
Would you like to be able to post Tumblr-style image, link, quote posts, and more from your blog? Here’s how you can give your WordPress blog a makeover and give it the Tumblog power and simplicity you need.
Tumblr is a popular hosted blogging service that helped popularize Tumblogs, a type of blogs typically filled with short posts. Tumblr makes it dead simple to post images, videos, quotes, or links on your blog, and many users prefer this to full blog posts. Whether you’ve wanted to switch to a simpler blogging style or simply wanted to add some Tumblog-style posts to your existing blog, there’s now a way to do this without leaving WordPress behind. WooThemes recently released a free plugin, WooTumblog, that makes it easy to transform your WordPress blog into a perfect Tumblog. It’s slightly complicated to integrate with your site, so let’s see how it works.
Installing WooTumblog on Your WordPress Site
First, you’ll need to add the WooTumblog plugin to your site. Simply open the Add new Plugins page on your WordPress dashboard, search for WooTumblog, then install and activate it.
Now, open your Permalinks settings page under Settings on your WordPress Dashboard. Click Save on the bottom of the page without making any changes to register the custom taxonomies that WooTumblr added to your site.
You can also tweak your Tumblog settings from the Tumblog Options link under Post on your Dashboard.
There’s one more thing you’ll need to do … you need to add some code to your theme files to get WooTumblog fully integrated in your site. Here’s how to do it.
Editing your Theme Files
You’ll need to edit two of your theme’s PHP files to get the Tumblr functionality working on your site. Depending on your theme, you’ll need edit your index.php or loop.php file, as well as single.php. Open the Editor page under your WordPress Appearance menu, then select the appropriate file and make the following changes, or edit the files in your favorite offline text/code editor and upload the files once you’ve added the new content.
Editing loop.php
First, you’ll need to change your title style. Find the line that contains <?php the_title(); ?>, and replace that line with:
<?php woo_tumblog_the_title("entry-title"); ?>
You can do this easily by searching for the_title on the editor page; now just replace that whole line with the code above. Do note on some themes, including most themes from Elegant Themes, you’ll need to edit entry.php instead of index or loop.php, so you may need to look through your theme a bit to be sure. Alternately, if you’re using the WordPress 3.0 default theme, TwentyTen, just replace line 126 with that.
Now, scroll down a bit, and add the following code in a new line above both <?php the_excerpt(); ?> and <?php the_content:
<?php woo_tumblog_content(); ?>
These are located on lines 134 and 139, respectively, in the TwentyTen theme.
Once you’ve made the changes, be sure to save your file with the button on the bottom of the editor, or in your code editor program.
Editing single.php
Switch over to single.php, and add the same code as before. Replace the title line the same as above, then add <?php woo_tumblog_content(); ?> above the line containing <?php the_content(); ?>. These will be located on lines 23 and 30, respectively, on the TwentyTen theme.
Save your changes again, and if you’ve been editing your theme offline, go ahead and upload the changes.
If you need more help adding the Tumblog support to your theme, click the Help tab in your WordPress Dashboard Tumblog Options page.
Adding Tumblog Posts
Your site won’t look any different until you start adding new Tumblog style posts. The good thing is, WooTumblog makes it easy to do that. Directly from your Dashboard, you can start adding new Quote, Image, Video, or other Tumblog-style posts via the new Tumblog widget. Simply select the article type you want, start adding your new content, and click Submit when you’re ready to publish your content.
If you’re adding a picture post, you can upload the picture directly from the Tumblog widget. Quick and simple!
Alternately, if you have an iOS device, including an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, you can purchase the Express for WordPress app, which lets you post Tumblog posts with images, links, quotes, and more directly from your device. Since Tumblog posts are generally shorter than full blog posts, this is a great way to keep your blog updated on the go. We plan to review the app soon, but if you try it out, let us know what you think!
Once you’ve got some Tumblog-style posts up and running, visit your site’s homepage to see how the new posts look. With those few changes, you’ve just added a ton of functionality to your site!
My favorite Tumblr feature is the Link posts, which let the title of your article link directly to the site or article you’re mentioning. And this works the exact same on your WordPress blog with WooTumblog.
See it in action
Want to see WooTumblog in action? Here’s the official video showing how to add it to your site and create tumblog posts:
Use a Theme With WooTumblog Built In
Although it’s not too hard to get WooTumblog integrated with your existing theme, sometimes it’s easier to just get a pre-existing theme that’s ready to use out of the box and go with it. WooThemes already offers 5 themes that include tumblog functionality already, so you won’t have to do anything extra to get it working. These include Retreat, Slanted, Cinch, and Crisp, my personal favorite. Canvas, WooTheme’s popular theme that lets you tweak it to no end, now also includes tumblog support. If you’d like to see how any of these themes work before you purchase one, be sure to test them out for free on the WooThemes Playground.
Conclusion
There’s a great reason WordPress is such a popular option for building blogs and websites of all shapes and sizes. The WooTumblr lets you keep using WordPress’ power while taking advantage of the simplicity of Tumblr. There’s a ton of uses for Tumblog themes, so let us know in the comments how you end up using your WordPress Tumblog … feel free to leave a link to your Tumblog site so we all can see it.
Would you like to keep up with your Backpack notes, to-do lists, and more, no matter where you are? Let’s take a look at Satchel, a great iOS app that lets you keep your Backpack with you, even if you’re offline.
We’ve covered many ways you can use 37signals Backpack to make your life simpler. It’s a great way to work together with a team or throw together a quick free website. It’s also one of the best to-do list apps, since you can create lists, move them between pages, rearrange them, and add notes to notes. I use Backpack to keep up with my college class info, coordinate team projects, and keep track of article ideas for my blogs, and more.
The only problem is, Backpack is only available when you’re online. Even if you’re online on a mobile device, the webapp doesn’t scale well to small screens. That’s where Satchel comes in. This app lets you keep your full Backpack account with you at all times on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. You can view and edit your pages, to-do lists, calendar, and journal, and even create new pages. If you don’t have an internet connection, Satchel will save your edits and new content and then sync the next time you’re online. In fact, it just might be one of the best iOS to-do list apps available since it’s so full featured.
Getting Started
When you first run Satchel, you’ll need to enter your Backpack account info or create a new account. Satchel works great with free or paid Backpack accounts, and for most personal uses, the free account will be plenty.
Enter your username, password, and the name of your Backpack account (yourname.backpackit.com), or enter your OpenID to sign in if you’ve added one to your account. Satchel may take a few moments to login as it’s downloading the content from your Backpack pages.
As soon as it’s finished, you’ll see your pages listed in alphabetical order. You can also browse pages by tag, or search the contents of the pages from the search bar. Press Edit to delete pages if you wish. From the bottom toolbar, you can access your Backpack alerts, calendar, and journal, or add a new page via the plus button.
Journal seems infinitely more useful on a mobile device, since you can quickly update what you’re working on within seconds without opening your browser.
The Accounts button on the top left takes you to your accounts list. Here you can add or remove your Backpack accounts so you can keep up with everything all together. This page also lets you access your Satchel settings, where you can choose how much data is saved on your device and more.
Putting Satchel to Use
Satchel makes it quick to get to what’s most important in your Backpack pages. Press a page name to see everything included on the page. Notes and to-do list sections on a page will be identified with different icons, so you can quickly jump to that section. The only thing that’s missing is Writeboards; unfortunately, you can’t view or edit Writeboards from Satchel.
Alternately, press one of the buttons on the bottom to view all lists, notes, or images together. Here in the Notes tab you see all of the notes from the page together; press the title of a section to edit the note section, or press the blue arrow to access any links in the section.
Editing a note works just like you’d expect, and you can even include Textile markup to format text like you would in Backpack online.
To-do lists are where Satchel truly shines. You can quickly browse through all of your to-dos on the Lists page, or simply browse to one to-do section from the first page. Press the blue arrow to browse to links in the to-do item. Once you’ve done a task, just press the circle to check it off, and it’ll fall to the completed section of your list. Adding new lists and tasks is quick and simple, and you may find yourself storing more data on one Backpack page than you ever imagined since it’s so easy to organize in Satchel. The only thing that’s missing is to-do item notes; you can’t view or edit any notes attached to a to-do item.
Backpack makes it easier than most service to organize your tasks and notes like you want by dragging and dropping them around on a page. Satchel supports this, too. Just press Edit on the top of a page, and then you can remove sections or drag and drop items to the order you want. Most to-do list apps only let you keep items in the order you added them, but I find it very helpful to rearrange items to their current priority, and this works great in Satchel.
Satchel worked great in our tests on iPod touch running iOS 4, and didn’t lag even when syncing online. We weren’t able to test it on an iPad, but if you’ve got one you can use Satchel to keep up with your Backpack, tasks, and notes on it, too.
Conclusion
Satchel is a great app that makes one of the best webapps feel at home on your iOS device, both online and off. If you’re already a heavy Backpack user, Satchel is an app you’re sure to want. If you’ve already been using Backpack but not too seriously, you may find yourself using it more than ever with the great notes and lists support on your iOS device. It’s still missing a few features, such as notes attached to to-do list items, sharing pages, and Writeboards. All in all, though, it works great and is fast and fluid.
Satchel is available in the App store for iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads running iOS 3.0 or newer, and costs $9.99. If you’re not sure you’re ready to spend that much on an app, you can try out Satchel View for free, which works the exact same as Satchel but doesn’t let you edit any items, check off to-dos, or add pages, but is still a great way to keep your Backpack data with your all the time. If you want fully editing, though, and want to use it as an advanced to-do list and note manager, Satchel is the way to go. Along with the official Campfire and Highrise apps, it’ll be easy to keep your all of your 37signals apps on your iOS device!
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.
Have you ever wanted to quickly access an app in your Windows system tray but didn’t want to grab your mouse? Here’s how you can use anything in your system tray directly from your keyboard.
There are keyboard shortcuts for almost anything you want to do on your computer. Most of use know the shortcuts for copy, paste, and other common tasks, but there’s tons of useful ones that are slightly less known. Recently I was wanting a way to quickly access apps in my system tray directly from my keyboard. Low and behold, there is an easy shortcut to access your system tray from the keyboard. Here it is:
Simply press Win + B on your keyboard (the Windows key and B at the same time) to select your system tray.
Please Note: This trick only works in newer editions of Windows, including Windows Vista and 7, so it won’t work in Windows XP.
Here’s how it works. On Windows 7, I pressed Win + B, and it automatically selected the Show hidden icons button in the system tray.
Press enter to see your hidden icons. Then, move between your tray icons with your up and down arrows. When you’ve selected the icon for the app you want to open, just press the Enter key on your keyboard.
Pressing Enter on a system item, such as the Network icon, will open the preview window just like it would when you left-click it normally.
Or, to see the options for an item like you’d usually see by right-clicking, press the menu button on your keyboard (usually located beside the right Ctrl button, or press Shift + F10.
This works with the Windows tray elements such as the expand button and clock as well. Here we’ve pressed Win + B, then pressed the menu button to get the system tray menu, all without leaving the keyboard. Just press the up and down arrows to access the various options, and press Enter to select the highlighted option.
And, as mentioned before, it works in Windows Vista as well. Here, though, it’ll just expand your tray since Vista doesn’t include the nice hidden icons popup.
Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to make your tech life simpler, and there’s tons of useful keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7. This shortcut is a welcome addition to our keyboard shortcut arsenal, and I regularly use it to view the time in other time zones or view my to-dos in GeeTeeDee without leaving the keyboard.
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Thankfully, in addition to these eTextbook publishers, there are some other options becoming available. Some publishers are selling eBooks directly in more open formats such as ePub or PDF, or via an online reader. 
You’ll need to edit two of your theme’s PHP files to get the Tumblr functionality working on your site. Depending on your theme, you’ll need edit your index.php or loop.php file, as well as single.php. Open the Editor page under your WordPress Appearance menu, then select the appropriate file and make the following changes, or edit the files in your favorite offline text/code editor and upload the files once you’ve added the new content.
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