Request Friends Send Files Directly to Your Dropbox

Nearly all email providers place a limit on the size and type of files users can send and receive. So, when sharing big files with friends, most users look to cloud-based file storage and sharing services, like Dropbox.

If your friends are not Dropbox users, you can send them a request to send a file to your Dropbox with no need for them to sign up for an account. FileStork gives them a direct, secure upload link to your Dropbox.

If you are not sure what Dropbox is please refer to my earlier post.

Make a Thumbnail

Most digital cameras can take very large pictures. Sometimes you dont need them to be as large well an internet service has popped up that can take your large picture and cam generate a thumbnail. The site is called Make a Thumbnail.

Take control of your Inbox.

Over the last few years I have created a number of email addresses I have ended up collecting addresses. The problem with this is you need to monitor all these addresses and it can be time consuming. So how do you take back a bit of control?  I have been a heavy Gmail user having my own Google Apps account. Recently I decided to setup my Gmail account to access, download and sort my email from all my other email accounts.

After doing this I then set up filters to sort the new incoming email. With Gmail you create labels to sort your email instead of folders but the object is the same. Allowing Gmail to poll my other email accounts also ment I could use Gmail's powerful Spam filters to deal with the avalanche of spam.

If you have a Gmail account either via a Google Apps account or a generic Gmail account go to settings then accounts and "get mail from other accounts" then follow the setup screen. Once you have done this your Gmail account will start polling your other accounts and will download any new email. If you don't already have a Gmail account just type Gmail into the Google search engine and you will be directed to the Gmail setup page. Gmail is free and Google provide you with a generous storage amount. Do you have problems with your email? let me know how you deal with it.

Update on Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 5:43PM by Daryl Hunt

Just to add to my previous post I have found a little utility to backup your Gmail account. The program is called Gmail Backup It is important to backup your email.

This is a free application for Mac, PC and Linux.  I gave it a try and it’s easy to use. After a quick download, you just give it your credentials and it begins downloading all your e-mails, backing them up securely 

Download Gmail Backup

Downloading videos from Youtube

Do you watch videos on Youtube and wish thats you could watch your favourite video off line. Well there is a website which will do that for you. All you need to do is copy the direct URL that links to your favourite video and paste it into the website and it will do the rest for you. I recently was asked to download a video for a friend so it could be used in a presentation they did not have access to the internet.

The website is called KeepVid. Please remember before downloading any Youtube videos to check with the author that they are happy for you to do this and as always make sure you attribute who the video was created by. KeepVid will also support other video websites for example Dailymotion.

http://keepvid.com/

In my next post I will show you a very nice (free) program that you can use to covert your recently downloaded video or any video for that matter into another Video format.

New Skype Beta

If you a Skype user you may be interested to know that Skype has just released a new beta for version 5. If you don't mind playing with a beta version the most important new feature is a 10 way group video call function. As always before you download a beta you should check out what stability issues may effect it's performance.

Update on Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 6:50PM by Daryl Hunt

Skye has now released Version 5 as a gold release. I have downloaded and started using it and have so far had no problems. I will shortly create a new post on using Skype. Click the link below to download this version.

http://www.skype.com/intl/en/get-skype/on-your-computer/windows/

There are also other versions for OSX, Linux and mobile platforms.

Here is a little promotional video from Skype about the new version.

Gmail Priority Inbox

Google continues to add things to it's Gmail service. Over the next week if you have a Gmail account you will see an option called Priority Email. Google has created this to try and help you sort through your email and sort out which mail is important to you.  Gina Trapani has written a nice article on her blog about this new Gmail tool.

 If you don't have a Gmail account this is another good reason to create an account. I will add some more posts with more tips and tricks about Gmail. Do you use Gmail? Tell me what you think about it.

If you don't have account I have created this link to the sign up page. Gmail Sign Up