By Amit Agarwal on hacks
digg-logoLike to know a secret way to browse Digg during office hours with letting your boss know about it. You can apply the same trick to access Digg when the site has been blocked by your school authorities.
OK, the secret sauce lies here - evercleancanada.com and tmpnetwork.com – these are like Digg mirrors on the same web server that hosts the actual Digg.com websites.
Now if you cannot access Digg stories from a computer or would like to secretly access them without letting the IT department know about it, just replace the word digg in the URL with evercleancanada or tmpnetwork. Here’s an example:
A: http://digg.com/tech_news/Google_Microsoft_Bidding_For_Digg
B: http://evercleancanada.com/tech_news/Google_Microsoft_Bidding_For_Digg
C: http://tmpnetwork.com/tech_news/Google_Microsoft_Bidding_For_Digg
These web pages are exact copies of each other but in the last two cases, the images, javascript and css files are served from evercleancanada.com or tmpnetwork.com instead of digg.com so the server logs in your office won’t know what you did on Digg.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Google Media Server Streams Content from Computer to the TV
Google Media Center is a free Windows-only software that lets you stream photos, videos and music from the computer on to your TV.
This requires a Universal Plug and Play compatible device like an Xbox or Playstation gaming console, set-top box or a photo frame like the Kodak EasyShare.
xbox-connected-computer
Google Media Server will auto-discover any UPnP device that’s connected to your computer. You can also pick content (like desktop folders, Picasa photo galleries, etc) that should become available to that device.
Here’s a screenshot of Google Media Center admin panel that is available as a Google Desktop gadget. (You therefore need Google Desktop to install Google Media Server.)
google-media-server-screenshot
New: Export Your Blogger Blogs or Merge Multiple Blogs into One
Q1: Do you have two or more blogs on Blogger and need to merge them into a single blog ?
Q2: Are you looking for a more simple option to backup all your blogger blogs including comments ?
Q3: Do you need to migrate your blog from Blogger to WordPress or another blogging platform ?
Q4: Do you want to move certain stories from your current blog into a new blog ?
If the answer to any of these question is yes, here’s something for you.
Blogger has added an Import / Export feature in Blogger that lets you backup your blogger blogs to the local hard drive as an XML file.
export-blogger-blog
The XML file will have all the articles that you have written plus the reader comments. Now WordPress too has an Import Blogger feature but it ignores the comments so this latest Blogger feature will prove very useful.
To export your blogger blog, go to http://draft.blogger.com, login with your Google Account and use the Export link from the Settings | Basic tab. This would just save your blog to a text file, the blog would still remain on Blogger as it is. Full instructions here.
If you chose to import this XML file into a new (or existing) Blogger blog, the new posts remain unpublished by default though you can also republish them as soon as Blogger is done importing the file.
Friday, June 20, 2008
The best deals for sending faxes online
By Becky Waring
Online fax services let you ditch your landline and fax machine and fax from anywhere via e-mail or the Web.
The paperless office is not quite here, but three services in particular offer low-cost solutions that save a forest full of trees.
Free fax service is severely limited
I recall the day several years ago when my fax freedom started: My fax machine had run out of expensive toner for the umpteenth time, largely thanks to junk faxes offering me low, low prices on that very same toner.
I signed up with eFax, the biggest online fax provider, because the service lets you receive faxes for free via e-mail. Receive-only works for me, because I transmit most of my documents via e-mail, so I rarely need to send a fax.
On those rare occasions when I do need to fax something, I simply plug in my ancient fax machine, which has been tonerless since that fateful day.
(The fact that I still have a landline for the fax machine at all is another story. I've retained the landline because it is used by my DSL link, TiVo service, and burglar alarm. The total cost for all three of these services is cheaper than the price of cable service alone. Essentially, faxing doesn't cost me anything, and that suits me just fine.)
If you're like me and still have a landline for sending faxes, eFax's free Limited Account is a perfect fit. Signing up for the free service is quick and easy. Once you receive your number, you can start faxing to it right away.
The service has several limitations, however. Notably, you don't receive a local phone number and can't transfer your existing fax number. Also, faxes are delivered as .efx attachments and require the eFax Messenger software to read or print. The program works with Windows 2000, XP, and Vista.
I find that there's usually a delay in receiving faxes via eFax's free service, but the wait time is not significant. Another disadvantage of eFax's free service is that faxes are not saved in your online account. If your ISP's spam filter traps the faxes or they should otherwise go astray, you'll have no way of retrieving them. I've never missed a fax that I was expecting, but your mileage may vary.
If faxing is critical to your business, or you don't have a landline for sending faxes, you can sign up for eFax's paid service. eFax Plus prices start at $17 per month, which is far more than competing fax services cost.
After testing several fax services, I've found the best for low-, medium-, and high-volume faxing: TrustFax, MyFax, and OneFax, respectively.
Note that all the services I looked at charge about 10 cents per page for usage that exceeds your rate plan. They may also apply per-page charges for international faxes, depending on the country.
Most of the fax services define a "page" as any data that takes less than 60 seconds to transmit. If you're faxing a lot of graphics, each page you receive will likely count as several pages toward your monthly total.
None of my three favorite fax services charge setup fees. All three also offer free trials, so you can try them out before you spend any money, although TrustFax is especially stingy in allowing you to fax only five watermarked pages for free.
Unlike eFax, none of the three services require installing any software, an activity I avoid whenever possible. You send faxes via the Web or e-mail and receive them as standard PDF attachments, which you can save to disk and make searchable with various tools (the topic of my next column).
The top choice for low-volume faxing
The economy-fax winner is Comodo's TrustFax, whose plans start at just $29.95 per year for sending as many as 50 pages and receiving up to 150 pages. By contrast, MyFax's $10-a-month service lets you send up to 100 pages and receive as many as 200 pages to and from locations in the U.S. and many foreign countries each month. OneFax's $8.95-per-month plan offers unlimited faxing in the U.S. but costs more internationally and is not as easy to use as either TrustFax or MyFax.
TrustFax offers several other low-cost fax plans, including a $4.95-per-month option that lets you receive up to 100 fax pages per month and send as many as 50 pages. The service's reasonable international rates are drawn from a prepaid credit balance that never expires.
Signing up for TrustFax is easy. You can choose either a local or toll-free number, or transfer a toll-free number you already have. TrustFax's Web control panel is laid out well, although the TrustFax interface is not as foolproof as MyFax's.
On my first try at sending a fax via TrustFax's Web interface, I uploaded my attachment and clicked the Send button, but only the cover sheet came through — not the attachment. It turns out you need to check separately, from a list at the bottom of the screen, each of the files you want to attach AFTER they are uploaded.
TrustFax has many handy features, such as the ability to copy faxes from your inbox and resend them. You can also send faxes to a combination of fax and e-mail recipients at the same time.
Sending a fax via TrustFax's e-mail option uses a process similar to MyFax's e-mail transmissions, but TrustFax requires that you label certain elements in the body of the e-mail — such as your account name, code, and cover letter — and put them in a particular order.
While not quite as well designed as MyFax, TrustFax comes reasonably close and has by far the most economical fax plans.
The quick and simple way to fax online
MyFax is the winner on the usability front, hands-down. The service features a polished interface, a setup wizard, and a deep feature set.
I took advantage of a 30-day free trial that was not advertised on the main MyFax site. To find it, enter "MyFax trial" in your favorite Web search engine and click to the next page of results, if necessary, until the free trial appears.
Security alert: Be sure you are clicking a link that goes to MyFax.com. There is also a MyFaxTrial.com site that took me through the whole sign-up and credit-card-entry process with an interface exactly like that on MyFax.com. Suddenly, the session timed out. MyFax confirms that the MyFaxTrial domain is a phishing site.
MyFax offers both toll-free and local numbers, the latter using many different exchanges around the U.S. If you currently have a fax number, you may be able to transfer it to the service.
After you sign up, the MyFax setup wizard lets you designate your send and confirmation e-mail addresses. Up to five addresses can be associated with a fax number, so your whole family or small office can share a single account.
You also determine whether you want incoming faxes sent as e-mail attachments or notifications, a handy option if you normally check your e-mail from a cell phone.
MyFax's process for sending faxes via the Web is streamlined yet full-featured (see Figure 1). Just log in and click Send Fax. This opens a form you use to select up to 50 recipients from an address book, attach as many as nine documents, and add a cover page if you wish. You can even schedule when you want your fax to be sent, and you can include a billing code, which is useful for accounting and tax purposes.
MyFax Web interface for sending faxes
Figure 1. MyFax Central lets you send, receive, and monitor your faxes from any Web browser.
To send a fax via e-mail, just enter faxnumber@myfax.com as the recipient, attach your documents (178 different file types are supported, according to a MyFax listing), and enter your cover letter in the subject and body of the message.
You get an e-mail confirmation once the fax has been sent. All my test e-mail faxes were received within 10 minutes of clicking the Send button, even those with multipage attachments.
MyFax integrates with Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007, so you can send faxes directly via the Send To command from within Office apps. Also, all of your received faxes are stored online for a full year.
The one MyFax feature that will seal the deal for many people is the ability to fax for free (within your regular page allotment) to a huge number of foreign countries, including most of Europe and Asia and a sprinkling of South America (but, notably, not Mexico).
The all-you-can-fax alternative
If you send a ton of faxes, consider OneFax, the only truly unlimited Internet fax service I know of. You can send and receive as many faxes as you like within the continental U.S. for just $8.95 per month for a local number or $12.95 for a toll-free number.
This is an incredible value. By comparison, MyFax costs $40 a month for up to 400 inbound and 400 outbound pages, while TrustFax charges $18.95 per month for up to 800 inbound and 250 outbound faxes.
OneFax's international rates are steeper than those of the other services, but if you don't fax much to countries other than America, the service's unlimited U.S. faxing is hard to resist.
While there's no catch to the unlimited faxing (you can even receive incoming faxes to unlimited e-mail addresses), OneFax's interface is simply not as polished or feature-filled as that of MyFax. Also, customer support from OneFax is limited to its business hours rather than the 24/7 support offered by MyFax and TrustFax.
On the plus side, when I tried OneFax's live chat support, I got a prompt response to my questions.
Sending from OneFax's Web interface is simple: Enter your recipient(s), attach a file (either uploaded from your PC or chosen from your OneFax storage area), and include comments for your cover letter. You won't find any of MyFax's fancy cover letter templates, however, and only 12 common file formats are supported for attachments.
Still, the OneFax service worked just fine when I tested it: All faxes sent from the Web were received promptly, and e-mails confirmed their receipt.
Using OneFax to send a single attachment via e-mail is similar to the easy MyFax procedure, although you have to click a separate authorization message before the fax will actually be sent — a big hindrance if you send a lot of faxes.
This is probably OneFax's way of making sure that its unlimited system is not abused by spammers, but the extra step is an inconvenience for regular users. If you're not certain you'll be around to authorize your fax via e-mail, be sure to use the Web interface to send it instead, because that method requires no extra authorization.
OneFax's Web control panel offers the essentials, such as an address book, a fax log, a fax inbox, and the ability to store the files you upload for future faxing. However, you can't review the contents of sent faxes, as you can when you use MyFax.
While OneFax is definitely a bare-bones service, it works well and can be a huge money-saver if you send a lot of faxes.
Online fax services let you ditch your landline and fax machine and fax from anywhere via e-mail or the Web.
The paperless office is not quite here, but three services in particular offer low-cost solutions that save a forest full of trees.
Free fax service is severely limited
I recall the day several years ago when my fax freedom started: My fax machine had run out of expensive toner for the umpteenth time, largely thanks to junk faxes offering me low, low prices on that very same toner.
I signed up with eFax, the biggest online fax provider, because the service lets you receive faxes for free via e-mail. Receive-only works for me, because I transmit most of my documents via e-mail, so I rarely need to send a fax.
On those rare occasions when I do need to fax something, I simply plug in my ancient fax machine, which has been tonerless since that fateful day.
(The fact that I still have a landline for the fax machine at all is another story. I've retained the landline because it is used by my DSL link, TiVo service, and burglar alarm. The total cost for all three of these services is cheaper than the price of cable service alone. Essentially, faxing doesn't cost me anything, and that suits me just fine.)
If you're like me and still have a landline for sending faxes, eFax's free Limited Account is a perfect fit. Signing up for the free service is quick and easy. Once you receive your number, you can start faxing to it right away.
The service has several limitations, however. Notably, you don't receive a local phone number and can't transfer your existing fax number. Also, faxes are delivered as .efx attachments and require the eFax Messenger software to read or print. The program works with Windows 2000, XP, and Vista.
I find that there's usually a delay in receiving faxes via eFax's free service, but the wait time is not significant. Another disadvantage of eFax's free service is that faxes are not saved in your online account. If your ISP's spam filter traps the faxes or they should otherwise go astray, you'll have no way of retrieving them. I've never missed a fax that I was expecting, but your mileage may vary.
If faxing is critical to your business, or you don't have a landline for sending faxes, you can sign up for eFax's paid service. eFax Plus prices start at $17 per month, which is far more than competing fax services cost.
After testing several fax services, I've found the best for low-, medium-, and high-volume faxing: TrustFax, MyFax, and OneFax, respectively.
Note that all the services I looked at charge about 10 cents per page for usage that exceeds your rate plan. They may also apply per-page charges for international faxes, depending on the country.
Most of the fax services define a "page" as any data that takes less than 60 seconds to transmit. If you're faxing a lot of graphics, each page you receive will likely count as several pages toward your monthly total.
None of my three favorite fax services charge setup fees. All three also offer free trials, so you can try them out before you spend any money, although TrustFax is especially stingy in allowing you to fax only five watermarked pages for free.
Unlike eFax, none of the three services require installing any software, an activity I avoid whenever possible. You send faxes via the Web or e-mail and receive them as standard PDF attachments, which you can save to disk and make searchable with various tools (the topic of my next column).
The top choice for low-volume faxing
The economy-fax winner is Comodo's TrustFax, whose plans start at just $29.95 per year for sending as many as 50 pages and receiving up to 150 pages. By contrast, MyFax's $10-a-month service lets you send up to 100 pages and receive as many as 200 pages to and from locations in the U.S. and many foreign countries each month. OneFax's $8.95-per-month plan offers unlimited faxing in the U.S. but costs more internationally and is not as easy to use as either TrustFax or MyFax.
TrustFax offers several other low-cost fax plans, including a $4.95-per-month option that lets you receive up to 100 fax pages per month and send as many as 50 pages. The service's reasonable international rates are drawn from a prepaid credit balance that never expires.
Signing up for TrustFax is easy. You can choose either a local or toll-free number, or transfer a toll-free number you already have. TrustFax's Web control panel is laid out well, although the TrustFax interface is not as foolproof as MyFax's.
On my first try at sending a fax via TrustFax's Web interface, I uploaded my attachment and clicked the Send button, but only the cover sheet came through — not the attachment. It turns out you need to check separately, from a list at the bottom of the screen, each of the files you want to attach AFTER they are uploaded.
TrustFax has many handy features, such as the ability to copy faxes from your inbox and resend them. You can also send faxes to a combination of fax and e-mail recipients at the same time.
Sending a fax via TrustFax's e-mail option uses a process similar to MyFax's e-mail transmissions, but TrustFax requires that you label certain elements in the body of the e-mail — such as your account name, code, and cover letter — and put them in a particular order.
While not quite as well designed as MyFax, TrustFax comes reasonably close and has by far the most economical fax plans.
The quick and simple way to fax online
MyFax is the winner on the usability front, hands-down. The service features a polished interface, a setup wizard, and a deep feature set.
I took advantage of a 30-day free trial that was not advertised on the main MyFax site. To find it, enter "MyFax trial" in your favorite Web search engine and click to the next page of results, if necessary, until the free trial appears.
Security alert: Be sure you are clicking a link that goes to MyFax.com. There is also a MyFaxTrial.com site that took me through the whole sign-up and credit-card-entry process with an interface exactly like that on MyFax.com. Suddenly, the session timed out. MyFax confirms that the MyFaxTrial domain is a phishing site.
MyFax offers both toll-free and local numbers, the latter using many different exchanges around the U.S. If you currently have a fax number, you may be able to transfer it to the service.
After you sign up, the MyFax setup wizard lets you designate your send and confirmation e-mail addresses. Up to five addresses can be associated with a fax number, so your whole family or small office can share a single account.
You also determine whether you want incoming faxes sent as e-mail attachments or notifications, a handy option if you normally check your e-mail from a cell phone.
MyFax's process for sending faxes via the Web is streamlined yet full-featured (see Figure 1). Just log in and click Send Fax. This opens a form you use to select up to 50 recipients from an address book, attach as many as nine documents, and add a cover page if you wish. You can even schedule when you want your fax to be sent, and you can include a billing code, which is useful for accounting and tax purposes.
MyFax Web interface for sending faxes
Figure 1. MyFax Central lets you send, receive, and monitor your faxes from any Web browser.
To send a fax via e-mail, just enter faxnumber@myfax.com as the recipient, attach your documents (178 different file types are supported, according to a MyFax listing), and enter your cover letter in the subject and body of the message.
You get an e-mail confirmation once the fax has been sent. All my test e-mail faxes were received within 10 minutes of clicking the Send button, even those with multipage attachments.
MyFax integrates with Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007, so you can send faxes directly via the Send To command from within Office apps. Also, all of your received faxes are stored online for a full year.
The one MyFax feature that will seal the deal for many people is the ability to fax for free (within your regular page allotment) to a huge number of foreign countries, including most of Europe and Asia and a sprinkling of South America (but, notably, not Mexico).
The all-you-can-fax alternative
If you send a ton of faxes, consider OneFax, the only truly unlimited Internet fax service I know of. You can send and receive as many faxes as you like within the continental U.S. for just $8.95 per month for a local number or $12.95 for a toll-free number.
This is an incredible value. By comparison, MyFax costs $40 a month for up to 400 inbound and 400 outbound pages, while TrustFax charges $18.95 per month for up to 800 inbound and 250 outbound faxes.
OneFax's international rates are steeper than those of the other services, but if you don't fax much to countries other than America, the service's unlimited U.S. faxing is hard to resist.
While there's no catch to the unlimited faxing (you can even receive incoming faxes to unlimited e-mail addresses), OneFax's interface is simply not as polished or feature-filled as that of MyFax. Also, customer support from OneFax is limited to its business hours rather than the 24/7 support offered by MyFax and TrustFax.
On the plus side, when I tried OneFax's live chat support, I got a prompt response to my questions.
Sending from OneFax's Web interface is simple: Enter your recipient(s), attach a file (either uploaded from your PC or chosen from your OneFax storage area), and include comments for your cover letter. You won't find any of MyFax's fancy cover letter templates, however, and only 12 common file formats are supported for attachments.
Still, the OneFax service worked just fine when I tested it: All faxes sent from the Web were received promptly, and e-mails confirmed their receipt.
Using OneFax to send a single attachment via e-mail is similar to the easy MyFax procedure, although you have to click a separate authorization message before the fax will actually be sent — a big hindrance if you send a lot of faxes.
This is probably OneFax's way of making sure that its unlimited system is not abused by spammers, but the extra step is an inconvenience for regular users. If you're not certain you'll be around to authorize your fax via e-mail, be sure to use the Web interface to send it instead, because that method requires no extra authorization.
OneFax's Web control panel offers the essentials, such as an address book, a fax log, a fax inbox, and the ability to store the files you upload for future faxing. However, you can't review the contents of sent faxes, as you can when you use MyFax.
While OneFax is definitely a bare-bones service, it works well and can be a huge money-saver if you send a lot of faxes.
There's more than one way to transfer big files
More ways to get files from Point A to Point B
After reading Becky Waring's Best Software column from the June 5, 2008, issue, several people wrote in to tell us about their favorite techniques for handling huge file transfers. Among them was Philip Daniels, who uses the $29 WinRAR program from Alexander Roshal and RARLAB:
* "Why does a media file have to be moved in one chunk? We've been moving large files around the 'net for decades using multi-volume RARs (infamously, I once did this with CICS when the IBM network was being recalcitrant). WinRAR is probably the simplest means of creating such things; most unzippers, WinZip, 7Zip, etc., can reassemble the original file from a multiple-volume RAR.
"All one does is upload the RARs to one of the many free file-sharing services with the level of protection required (encryption, passwords, etc.)
"Typically, the providers delete the files once they know the receiver has successfully downloaded them."
Freeware cuts big file transfers down to size
As reader Gary Vellenzer points out, there's a free way to make quick work of massive file transfers.
* "I'm sure that your new contributor, Becky Waring, is familiar with QuickPar (parity file generator/file splitter on the send side, parity checker and corrector/file joiner on the receive side). It's free and very easy to use. It is useful not just for file transfer. I generate PAR 2 files every time I write a DVD, so that a single point of failure doesn't render the DVD useless.
"When you use QuickPar, the file size limits for individual files are irrelevant, as is the time needed to upload the entire file in one piece, because the file can be uploaded in segments. The benefits are obvious — a failure of the transfer affects only one piece, so that you have to redo only that piece. It's also comforting to be able to check that you got the entire file contents exactly as intended.
"Since QuickPar makes the max file size irrelevant, it's worth looking at the major file-storage systems. People who actively share files use Swoopshare, RapidShare, Megaupload, and GigaSize. They generally don't use any of the services you mention. I've never run across any use of AOL's file share system — it's probably crippled by restricting its use to AOLers."
A free, open-source Web file-transfer service
Yet another file-transfer alternative is the free HTTP File Server (HFS) utility from Massimo Melina. Reader Bruce Schau describes the program:
* "HFS allows you to easily share files between friends and family using your normal browser (usually, Internet Explorer or Firefox). HFS is so small that it fits on a floppy disk and can even run from your USB!
"Best of all, it's free and free of adware, spyware, and trojans. It works well and has many control options.
"Check it out!"
After reading Becky Waring's Best Software column from the June 5, 2008, issue, several people wrote in to tell us about their favorite techniques for handling huge file transfers. Among them was Philip Daniels, who uses the $29 WinRAR program from Alexander Roshal and RARLAB:
* "Why does a media file have to be moved in one chunk? We've been moving large files around the 'net for decades using multi-volume RARs (infamously, I once did this with CICS when the IBM network was being recalcitrant). WinRAR is probably the simplest means of creating such things; most unzippers, WinZip, 7Zip, etc., can reassemble the original file from a multiple-volume RAR.
"All one does is upload the RARs to one of the many free file-sharing services with the level of protection required (encryption, passwords, etc.)
"Typically, the providers delete the files once they know the receiver has successfully downloaded them."
Freeware cuts big file transfers down to size
As reader Gary Vellenzer points out, there's a free way to make quick work of massive file transfers.
* "I'm sure that your new contributor, Becky Waring, is familiar with QuickPar (parity file generator/file splitter on the send side, parity checker and corrector/file joiner on the receive side). It's free and very easy to use. It is useful not just for file transfer. I generate PAR 2 files every time I write a DVD, so that a single point of failure doesn't render the DVD useless.
"When you use QuickPar, the file size limits for individual files are irrelevant, as is the time needed to upload the entire file in one piece, because the file can be uploaded in segments. The benefits are obvious — a failure of the transfer affects only one piece, so that you have to redo only that piece. It's also comforting to be able to check that you got the entire file contents exactly as intended.
"Since QuickPar makes the max file size irrelevant, it's worth looking at the major file-storage systems. People who actively share files use Swoopshare, RapidShare, Megaupload, and GigaSize. They generally don't use any of the services you mention. I've never run across any use of AOL's file share system — it's probably crippled by restricting its use to AOLers."
A free, open-source Web file-transfer service
Yet another file-transfer alternative is the free HTTP File Server (HFS) utility from Massimo Melina. Reader Bruce Schau describes the program:
* "HFS allows you to easily share files between friends and family using your normal browser (usually, Internet Explorer or Firefox). HFS is so small that it fits on a floppy disk and can even run from your USB!
"Best of all, it's free and free of adware, spyware, and trojans. It works well and has many control options.
"Check it out!"
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Printer Makes a New Kind of Polaroid Magic
Polaroid's $150 PoGo is an inkless printer that churns out 2x3-inch photos sent to it via Bluetooth-enabled devices or from plugged-in digital cameras
Shots From Phones,
Cameras Created
Without Any Ink
When I was a child, trips to my grandmother's house meant playing with a magical toy: her Polaroid camera. Grammy was confined to a wheelchair at a time when most people drove to the drugstore to get film developed, so this instant camera worked as her portable darkroom. She lined her "Polaroids" up on the kitchen table for us to see, and encouraged us to snap photos to add to the collection. I was fascinated by the white sheets churned out by each press of the camera's shutter button and the images that slowly appeared on these prints moments later.
Just this year, Polaroid Corp. said it would cease production of its "magical" cameras. But this week, I had the chance to test the company's latest attempt at relevance in our digital world: the $150 Polaroid PoGo (thenewinstant.com). The PoGo, which stands for Polaroid-on-the-Go, is an inkless printer that churns out 2x3-inch photos sent to it via Bluetooth devices like cellphones or from plugged-in digital cameras. It uses technology created by ZINK (Zero Ink) Imaging Inc. to activate paper-embedded dye crystals, creating a new kind of photo magic. The PoGo will be in stores on July 6.
Cool Factor
This device's ZINK Technology gives it a cool factor that will leave friends scratching their heads over how such a small device can print without ink (technical details about the 100 billion heat-activated dye crystals on each sheet of paper can be found at zink.com/technology). Photos that I printed from a 10-megapixel digital camera looked sharp and colorful. And some people may use this Polaroid gadget as a solution for freeing images that would otherwise likely remain stuck in a mobile device's memory.
But four major problems with the PoGo make it a no-go: It isn't quite small and light enough to be truly portable; its battery life is poor; its prints are half the size of normal photos; and image quality when printing from mobile devices is unimpressive -- though this can be attributed to the low-resolution images taken with and stored on these devices rather than the printer itself. For roughly the same price, you could buy a photo printer that produces better quality 4x6-inch or larger prints.
The PoGo works only with ZINK Photo Paper, which costs between 30 cents and 40 cents a page, depending on whether you buy a 10-sheet pack for $3.99 or a 30-sheet pack for $9.99. (Later this year, a 100-sheet pack of ZINK photo paper will be available for $29.99.) The PoGo comes with 10 pieces of this paper, which is coated with a waterproof, tear-proof, smudge-proof, semi-gloss finish. You can peel the backs of these 2x3 prints to stick them to things, though not in the same way Post-its can be stuck and removed (they leave a gooey film -- I learned the hard way).
A Device With Weight
Surprisingly, Polaroid is touting the PoGo's portability; it arrived in a custom-made jeans pocket to demonstrate the device's pocket-sized shape. But at over 8 ounces, this thing was heavier and measured larger than the biggest 160-gigabyte iPod Classic. It even weighed more than a bulky point-and-shoot Kodak camera I recently tested, discouraging me from bringing it along when I went out.
A chart on polaroid.com/pogo/us/comp.html tells whether or not your mobile device is Bluetooth-compatible with the PoGo. Two out of the three devices that I tried worked: A new Motorola Z6C and a BlackBerry Curve were compatible, though an almost-two-year-old Motorola Razr V3 wasn't.
Each mobile device needed only one initial "pairing," or setup, with the PoGo before it sent photos. The device used a simple method of sending photos via Bluetooth that generally involved selecting a photo and telling the mobile device to send it to the PoGo. It usually took a few seconds for the send to go through.
The PoGo doesn't have a display to tell users when images are received, when to load more paper or if the battery is running low. Instead, it uses two indicator lights that glow or pulse in green, orange or red colors. Each light means something different, such as whether or not the PoGo is ready to print or if it has a paper jam, but I usually had to refer to the user's manual to figure out what each light meant.
Quiet Printer
The PoGo is rather quiet while printing, making a soft whirring sound as its thermal print head turns on and zaps dye crystals, which are embedded in the ZINK photo paper. These small pieces of paper are stored in and printed from a holding space inside the device, which saves users from opening a tray and loading paper before each print-out. However, the PoGo can hold a maximum of only 10 sheets at once. Some images printed in 45 seconds and a few took about twice that long, but most were done in about one minute -- counting from when I pressed Send on a mobile device to when the print finished.
I hooked a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W170 to the PoGo via a USB cord and used the camera's built-in PictBridge technology to print from the camera, following directions on the camera's display screen. I even printed four of the same photo at once after adjusting the quantity category in a menu, though this seemed to slow the printing process a bit.
While prints from my grandmother's Polaroid camera couldn't be touched until about a minute after printing, the small PoGo prints come out dry to the touch. I held one under the kitchen faucet to test its waterproof claim, and the colors held up without running. These prints are borderless, which looks good but seems like the only sensible option with such small paper. Images from the digital camera looked dramatically better than those taken by mobile devices' 1.3-megapixel or two-megapixel cameras.
Short Battery Life
The PoGo's battery life wore out quickly, especially for a device that is advertised as portable. In one test, after I unplugged my fully charged PoGo and used it for about 40 minutes to print 16 photos -- half from a Bluetooth-connected cellphone and the other half from a USB-connected digital camera -- its battery indicator glowed a steady orange, meaning the PoGo was running low on power. This is about right, considering Polaroid claims that a fully charged battery will last for 15 prints. (It takes about 2.5 hours to fully charge the PoGo.)
I really liked the quality of the photos that PoGo printed from my digital camera -- in fact, I'm planning to enclose a few small PoGo photos in cards that I send to friends and family members. But the PoGo's awkward size, bad battery life and small prints make it a tough sell. I'm afraid the PoGo falls short in too many categories to be a practical gadget. Teens might like this device for printing photos from their cellphones that they can stick on lockers or books. And who knows -- maybe a grandmother somewhere will buy one of these gadgets to create a little Polaroid magic for her grandchild.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Power User's Guide to Firefox 3
You already know about Firefox 3's marquee new features, but now it's time to dig deep and unearth the shortcuts, tweaks, and even Easter eggs that Mozilla marketing doesn't mention. In honor of today's official release of Firefox 3—at 10AM Pacific Time—let's dive in past Firefox 3's most talked-about feature-set into its lesser-known power uses, tricks, and customizations.
Shrink the Super-sized Back Button
The very first thing you notice in Firefox 3 is its extra large Back button. While it's actually quite handy—less chance of missing your target!—if the Back button's just too big for your tastes, it's as easy as pie to reduce. Just right-click on Firefox's toolbar, and choose Customize. In the dialog box, select "Use small icons."
Adjust the Smart Location Bar's Number of Suggestions
adjustsuggestion.pngThe Firefox 3 feature that you'll get to know and love the most is the new smart location bar's as-you-type suggestions that learn where you probably want to go as you browse. But if you're feeling like the number of suggestions is too high or too low? Adjust it to your liking in Firefox's configuration area. Here's how.
1. Enter about:config into the address bar and hit Enter.
2. Press the "I''ll be carefull. I promise!" button. (Because you will be.)
3. Enter browser.urlbar.maxRichResults in the Filter field to reach this preference.
4. Set it to your desired number of suggestions. Three shown here.
Here's another way to adjust the location bar behavior with an about:config tweak.
Shift+Delete Mistyped URL Suggestions
shiftdelete.pngWhile the Smart Location bar is quite intelligent, if you enter an incorrect URL—say, to a page that doesn't exist—Firefox 3 will still remember it and suggest it again later. (Garbage in, garbage out, as they say.) To remove a mistyped URL from your suggestion list forever, key down to the suggestion and type Shift+Delete.
Ditch Obselete Extensions
Firefox's philosophy seems to be "stay lean and mean and leave the extras to add-ons." Nevertheless, Firefox 3 does bake in some functionality that makes some extensions you might love unnecessary. Here are five extensions you won't need with Firefox 3.
Revert the "AwesomeBar" with Oldbar
oldbar.png Firefox's smart location bar (a.k.a. "AwesomeBar")—which drops down a suggestion list of destinations as you type into it—is extra verbose and extra-tall, since it includes both web site titles and URLs. If you're missing Firefox 2's classic one-line drop-down look, the Oldbar extension can revert the "AwesomeBar" to something less awesome—or at least something that looks less awesome.
Trick Out Your Smart Bookmarks
smartbookmarks1.png Like iTunes Smart Playlists and saved search folders in OS X and Vista, Firefox 3's Smart Bookmarks are dynamic lists of URLs generated by certain search criteria. Here's how to create your own collections of Smart Bookmarks using search parameters. Hint: Add the most frequent pages you visit on Lifehacker.com by bookmarking place:queryType=0&sort=8&maxResults=5&domain=lifehacker.com.
Set Gmail as Your Default Email client—Without an Add-on
gmailfx3.png Firefox 3's filetype handling mechanism can now associate web applications as well as desktop applications with certain files. This opens the door to possibilities like automatically launching links to ical files in your web-based calendar app, or opening your webmail when you click on email links. While most webapps have to catch up to Firefox 3 to enable this functionality, one we already know and love is already there. Here's how to launch Gmail when you click mailto: links on web pages.
Say Hello to the Firefox Robots
You already know about the age-old Firefox about:mozilla Easter egg. Well, Firefox 3 has a new Easter egg that pays homage to its robot mascot. Type about:robots into the Firefox 3 address bar to get a fun page with a list of robot pop culture references, from I, Robot to Blade Runner to Battlestar Galactica to Futurama.
Enable Spellchecking in One-line Input Fields
typo.png This tweak goes back to Firefox 2, but is still just as useful and functional in Firefox 3, especially if you're a web writer. In about:config, set layout.spellcheckDefault value equal to 2 to enable spell-checking in single line input fields as well as textareas. (Less typos in your email subject lines and blog post titles!) Here are a few more Firefox about:config tweaks.
Mac Users: Add Favicons to Your Bookmark Toolbar
Mac users who are rockin' Firefox 3's new slick Mac-like theme—but who miss their bookmarks' favicons—can easily add web site icons to their toolbar with a little tweak.
For a bird's-eye view of Firefox's evolution over the last four years, see the history of Firefox 1.0 to 3.0 in screenshots. Then, see how Firefox 3 stacks up in performance tests in comparison to Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer.
How are you tweaking Firefox 3 today when you install it? Give it up in the comments.
Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, looks forward to allocating memory to applications other than Firefox with version 3.0. Her weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Monday on Lifehacker—except today, Tuesday. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
Shrink the Super-sized Back Button
The very first thing you notice in Firefox 3 is its extra large Back button. While it's actually quite handy—less chance of missing your target!—if the Back button's just too big for your tastes, it's as easy as pie to reduce. Just right-click on Firefox's toolbar, and choose Customize. In the dialog box, select "Use small icons."
Adjust the Smart Location Bar's Number of Suggestions
adjustsuggestion.pngThe Firefox 3 feature that you'll get to know and love the most is the new smart location bar's as-you-type suggestions that learn where you probably want to go as you browse. But if you're feeling like the number of suggestions is too high or too low? Adjust it to your liking in Firefox's configuration area. Here's how.
1. Enter about:config into the address bar and hit Enter.
2. Press the "I''ll be carefull. I promise!" button. (Because you will be.)
3. Enter browser.urlbar.maxRichResults in the Filter field to reach this preference.
4. Set it to your desired number of suggestions. Three shown here.
Here's another way to adjust the location bar behavior with an about:config tweak.
Shift+Delete Mistyped URL Suggestions
shiftdelete.pngWhile the Smart Location bar is quite intelligent, if you enter an incorrect URL—say, to a page that doesn't exist—Firefox 3 will still remember it and suggest it again later. (Garbage in, garbage out, as they say.) To remove a mistyped URL from your suggestion list forever, key down to the suggestion and type Shift+Delete.
Ditch Obselete Extensions
Firefox's philosophy seems to be "stay lean and mean and leave the extras to add-ons." Nevertheless, Firefox 3 does bake in some functionality that makes some extensions you might love unnecessary. Here are five extensions you won't need with Firefox 3.
Revert the "AwesomeBar" with Oldbar
oldbar.png Firefox's smart location bar (a.k.a. "AwesomeBar")—which drops down a suggestion list of destinations as you type into it—is extra verbose and extra-tall, since it includes both web site titles and URLs. If you're missing Firefox 2's classic one-line drop-down look, the Oldbar extension can revert the "AwesomeBar" to something less awesome—or at least something that looks less awesome.
Trick Out Your Smart Bookmarks
smartbookmarks1.png Like iTunes Smart Playlists and saved search folders in OS X and Vista, Firefox 3's Smart Bookmarks are dynamic lists of URLs generated by certain search criteria. Here's how to create your own collections of Smart Bookmarks using search parameters. Hint: Add the most frequent pages you visit on Lifehacker.com by bookmarking place:queryType=0&sort=8&maxResults=5&domain=lifehacker.com.
Set Gmail as Your Default Email client—Without an Add-on
gmailfx3.png Firefox 3's filetype handling mechanism can now associate web applications as well as desktop applications with certain files. This opens the door to possibilities like automatically launching links to ical files in your web-based calendar app, or opening your webmail when you click on email links. While most webapps have to catch up to Firefox 3 to enable this functionality, one we already know and love is already there. Here's how to launch Gmail when you click mailto: links on web pages.
Say Hello to the Firefox Robots
You already know about the age-old Firefox about:mozilla Easter egg. Well, Firefox 3 has a new Easter egg that pays homage to its robot mascot. Type about:robots into the Firefox 3 address bar to get a fun page with a list of robot pop culture references, from I, Robot to Blade Runner to Battlestar Galactica to Futurama.
Enable Spellchecking in One-line Input Fields
typo.png This tweak goes back to Firefox 2, but is still just as useful and functional in Firefox 3, especially if you're a web writer. In about:config, set layout.spellcheckDefault value equal to 2 to enable spell-checking in single line input fields as well as textareas. (Less typos in your email subject lines and blog post titles!) Here are a few more Firefox about:config tweaks.
Mac Users: Add Favicons to Your Bookmark Toolbar
Mac users who are rockin' Firefox 3's new slick Mac-like theme—but who miss their bookmarks' favicons—can easily add web site icons to their toolbar with a little tweak.
For a bird's-eye view of Firefox's evolution over the last four years, see the history of Firefox 1.0 to 3.0 in screenshots. Then, see how Firefox 3 stacks up in performance tests in comparison to Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer.
How are you tweaking Firefox 3 today when you install it? Give it up in the comments.
Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, looks forward to allocating memory to applications other than Firefox with version 3.0. Her weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Monday on Lifehacker—except today, Tuesday. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Manually Enable Gmail Labs in Your Account [Gmail]
f the 13 new experimental features in Gmail Labs have you salivating for new Gmail functionality, but your account still hasn't been enabled, here's a quick solution: Just copy and paste https://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=1#settings in your address box when you're logged into Gmail to enable it manually. Once you do, you'll have access to the new Quick Links, Superstars, Custom keyboard shortcuts, and yes, even Snakey. Note that this trick doesn't work for Gmail for your domain.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Ghost venture between Israel and Palestine
A new internet startup called G.ho.st (pronounced like the spook, and an acronym for “Global Hosted Operating System”) offering “free web-based virtual computing for every human being” wants to give users a free,way to access their desktop and files from any computer with an Internet connection. To do so, g.ho.st uses services like Google Docs, Zoho and Flickr.
It has a Palestinian office in Ramallah, with about 35 software developers, and a smaller Israeli team in the Israeli town of Modiin. The CEO, Dr. Zvi Schreiber, said “he wanted to create G.ho.st after seeing the power of software running on the Web. He said he thought it was time to merge his technological and commercial ambitions with his social ones and create a business with Palestinians.”
G.ho.st also has a philanthropic component: a foundation that aims to establish community computer centers in Ramallah and in mixed Jewish-Arab towns in Israel. The foundation is headed by Noa Rothman, the granddaughter of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister slain in 1995.
“It’s the first time I met Palestinians of my generation face to face,” said Ms. Rothman, 31, of her work with G.ho.st. She said she was moved by how easily everyone got along. “It shows how on the people-to-people level you can really get things done.”
Investors have put $2.5 million into the company so far, a modest amount. Employing Palestinians means the money goes farther; salaries for Palestinian programmers are about a third of what they are in Israel.
But Dr. Schreiber, who initially teamed up with Tareq Maayah, a Palestinian businessman, to start the Ramallah office, insists this is not just another example of outsourcing.
“We are one team, employed by the same company, and everyone has shares in the company,” he said.
It has a Palestinian office in Ramallah, with about 35 software developers, and a smaller Israeli team in the Israeli town of Modiin. The CEO, Dr. Zvi Schreiber, said “he wanted to create G.ho.st after seeing the power of software running on the Web. He said he thought it was time to merge his technological and commercial ambitions with his social ones and create a business with Palestinians.”
G.ho.st also has a philanthropic component: a foundation that aims to establish community computer centers in Ramallah and in mixed Jewish-Arab towns in Israel. The foundation is headed by Noa Rothman, the granddaughter of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister slain in 1995.
“It’s the first time I met Palestinians of my generation face to face,” said Ms. Rothman, 31, of her work with G.ho.st. She said she was moved by how easily everyone got along. “It shows how on the people-to-people level you can really get things done.”
Investors have put $2.5 million into the company so far, a modest amount. Employing Palestinians means the money goes farther; salaries for Palestinian programmers are about a third of what they are in Israel.
But Dr. Schreiber, who initially teamed up with Tareq Maayah, a Palestinian businessman, to start the Ramallah office, insists this is not just another example of outsourcing.
“We are one team, employed by the same company, and everyone has shares in the company,” he said.
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