Computer and Web Articles

I use Google Maps regularly—not only for mapping and directions, but also when looking up various businesses, attractions, and restaurants. In addition to driving routes, Google Maps provides bus, walking and bike routes—all super helpful when traveling. One of the standout features of Google Maps is their Street View feature (admit it: you’ve zoomed in your house, haven’t you?). Now, Street View just got better—way better.

Originally, Street View imagery was captured by cars and vans with cameras attached, driving around cities and towns, down highways and streets. Now, in addition to the cars, Google has created specially designed tricycles—complete with cameras—that can venture onto hiking trails, into amusement parks and around gardens. Google often hires athletes to power the heavy trikes and capture images where cars can’t go.

Try it out.  Use Street view to explore the gardens at the San Diego Art Institute or have a look around the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin, Ireland. The images are impressively crisp and colorful—it’s almost as good as being there. (Almost.)

You can learn more about using Google Street View here: http://tinyurl.com/yuvrlk

Struggling to keep your inbox neat and tidy? Often finding yourself missing action items buried in your inbox? The Producteev team (along with their various Business Angels and Entrepreneur funders) think they have just the tool for you.

Producteev helps you manage your tasks by sending you timely alerts and generating on-the-fly To-Do lists based on the emails you forward to them.

Filters, reports, daily and weekly digests, an intelligent “Hot Tasks” algorithm that automatically prioritizes your tasks and makes suggestions about what to do first –Producteev’s got it all. Sound interesting? Could this be a good fit for your workflow? Take Producteev for a test drive by using their simple, free plan. A two-person account runs $5/month and an unlimited-person account with 500MB of storage runs $20/month. Learn more at www.producteev.com.

1. http://mugtug.com/sketchpad/ - Perfect for all the closet graphic designers out there, Mugtug’s “Sketchpad” is a free drawing and illustration program you can begin using the moment the page loads. No registration, no sign-in, no membership. Just visit the page and start drawing, painting, making shapes, and playing around with colors to your heart’s content.
2. http://sitescanga.com – Sites get updated. They change and grow over time. Files get moved around. And all the while it’s important that Google Analytics continues to accurately track your site’s usage. SiteScan is a simple diagnostic tool that scans your website and lets you know if Google Analytics tracking code is properly installed on all your pages (free up to 100 pages).
3. http://tinyurl.com/38yzmcu - A clean, beautifully designed desk accessory that minimizes clutter and provides additional USB ports for my computer? Sounds hot. Tell me more…
4. http://tinyurl.com/4zo4vgv - A short, sweet, and totally free PDF download reviewing “Common Rookie Mistakes” made by businesses dipping their toes into the world of email marketing/email newsletters. Examples of mistakes reviewed include: a) purchasing email lists, b) assuming people remember who you are, and c) assuming people want to hear from you in the first place.
5. http://tinyurl.com/ygd6psn - The complete guide to video blogging, courtesy of Mashable.com.

I’d say we’ve found a keeper.

www.ManyBooks.net is a genuine treasure trove for eBook lovers (and avid readers in general). The site offers a whopping 29,000 eBooks for download, is easy to browse, and is filled with reviews by fellow readers.

“Yeah, sure.” you’re thinking. “That’s lovely. But why would I use ManyBooks.net instead of Amazon?”

My response: You might consider an occasional visit because you can download every single book from ManyBooks.net for free. Every single one.

When downloading a book, simply choose the file format you prefer: .pdf, .pdf for large print, .epub, .pdb, iPod notes (in a .zip file), .rb, .prc, .azw (yep, for your Kindle!), etc. That’s all there is to it—really.

Enjoy…

Upload Robots works just like your favorite Flash drive/Thumb drive—it lets you easily and quickly share files and photos with friends, co-workers, clients, and family. The big differences is that while your Flash Drive likely likes in your desk drawer or laptop bag (and can be quite easy to lose), Upload Robots lives on the web.

The service is straightforward, simple, and intuitive. Pick a file you wish to share. Upload Robots will upload it. (For the less tech-savvy: just imagine the program is grabbing a copy of the file from your computer and storing it out there on the web.) Then Upload Robots hands you a link.

And that link is yours. You can give it to anyone with whom you’d like to share your file, or you can keep it to yourself and use it at a later time when you need access to that file.

A lightning fast video on the Upload Robots “Feature Tour” page zooms through just about everything there is to know in 30 seconds. I’m guessing that, unfortunately, the video flies through everything so quickly that it likely makes the service look more complicated than it actually is to the not-so-technically-inclined. So perhaps skip the video … and just give the service a shot straight from the homepage; it’s free. (Premium services are available for low monthly costs.)

Here’s the link: www.uploadrobots.com

Dear iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users: have you heard of the 1Password Pro app?  Priced at $14.99, 1PasswordPro looks to be worth far more than its weight in gold.

It can save you oodles of time (and prevent many a headache) by enabling you to log in to password-protected websites with nothing more than a single tap.

Can’t remember your username? Forgot your password again? Doesn’t matter. 1PasswordPro has got you covered.

Learn more here: http://tinyurl.com/yeubl78. (Special thanks to “long time fan and loyal reader” Jeff Cospolich of Breckenridge for the tip!)

Wouldn’t it be lovely if Facebook allowed you to reorder your Photo Albums as easily as it allows you to reorder the photos inside your albums? Poking around account options and scouring through settings proves fruitless. Upon first glance it looks like there’s no way to circumvent the problem; it appears there’s no way we can order our Photo Albums exactly as we’d like.

But as always, appearances can be deceiving.

It’s doable. Honestly.

The first option you can look into is an app called Photo Album Strip. Some people love it. Some people don’t. Some can’t get it to work. (Note: it doesn’t offer support for Business pages.)

If the Photo Album Strip app doesn’t take care of your needs, it might be time to consider a manual-labor workaround. This solution is neither elegant nor straight-forward, and if you have lots of albums it definitely won’t be quick. But it’s doable.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Facebook sorts your Photo Albums based on which ones have been most recently updated with new photos.
2. Therefore, if you’d like a specific Album to show up first, you’ll simply need to upload a photo to that Album. The Album will instantly zip straight to the first spot in front of all your other Albums.
3. If you’d like a specific Album to show up first yet you don’t wish to add a new photo to that album, go ahead and upload any photo at all to that Album, confirm that it’s been bumped into the first position, then delete that photo.

Yes indeed it’s quite tedious if you have more than ten or so albums. But it does work.

Good luck!

You want a free website for your business, right? Of course you do.

I’ve mentioned a few options in the past (such as www.Wix.com), but if my previous suggestions haven’t tickled your fancy, consider heading over to www.Yola.com.

Great looking websites.
Easy to use tools.
Free with optional paid upgrades.

Check it out.

Just about all major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) allow you to drop a UPS tracking number into their search boxes. Hit enter and the search results will give you a direct link to your tracking page. I’ve always found this functionality rather convenient.