I'm not an IT person but I have a reasonable interest in technology and especially the Internet.
There are a few tools which has made my computing and browsing experience very pleasant. I wanted to share it with you all.
App: Evernote
Imagine you're sitting in front of your desktop at work and are getting bored. (You don't need to imagine that. It's a fact! Hehehe) Your mind wanders off and you get a great idea for a party or an idea for your blog or remember the things you have to do when you go home or the grocery list for the weekend. What do you do? You use Evernote. It's a fantastic note taking tool for people who use multiple PCs and own a Smart Phone. When I say note taking, I mean things ranging from your personal to do list to office to do list. When you are surfing the web, you find something interesting that you might want to read in the future, or maybe a photograph that you liked, etc. etc.
How is it different from a Post-It Note?
You can sync it to your free account. All you have to do is visit the website, download and install the application on your work PC/Laptop and home PC/Laptop, register and you're done. If you're traveling and don't have the application, you can check your data online on Evernote's website.
You can tag the notes to sort them. You can print notes directly or email them! You can attach files, pictures, tables, hyperlinks, etc. And if you own a BB, iPhone or an Android phone, you can sync it too!
This helps me a lot as I blog and I can write ideas ASAP and don't need to worry about 'idea retrieval'. Also all of us find great links which we write somewhere because it could be useful, but when the time comes, we fail to find it!
Most of us have practically stopped using pen and paper. This is a fantastic tool for anything. People have composed novels and business plans using this app! Try it. Watch a 2 minute introductory video below.
(Also see, Evernote widget below)
Browser: Google Chrome
We all started with Internet Explorer but gradually moved to open source browsers like Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. I have used all the mentioned browsers. Google Chrome beats Mozilla Firefox by a considerable margin. The most important aspect of Chrome is its speed. It is light and loads lightning fast as compared to a reasonable Firefox. (I'm not comparing with Safari as it is an Apple browser. Even though it is awesome, the usage of Safari is relatively low compared to Chrome in this part of the world.)
Incognito mode in Chrome: Do you know that everytime you browse, you leave behind a history in the browser. Many a times we manually delete our browsing history but Chrome can take care of this. All you have to do is open the window in the Incognito mode (Ctrl+Shift+N) or in the Tool function on the Right Hand Side of the browser, click to open the drop down menu and click Incognito Window.
When you browse in this mode and close the window, the history isn't saved. It's deleted automatically! It's advisable to use this at computers at public places and work. (If you have a collegues or seniors poking their noses)
I'm assuming that most of us use the bookmarks functions so I'm not going to say, how it helps me in my browsing. Its the extensions which has made me a fanboy of Google Chrome.
Extensions are widgets (mini - applications) in the browser that a user needs to install.
Below are the widgets that are extremely helpful for anyone.
It happens with most of us that we don't know the meaning of a particular word while reading something interesting in the mail or general browsing. Install this and all you have to do is double click the word and the meaning pops up!
2. X Marks
People who have the habit of bookmarking, this is the best tool to sync your bookmarks. So that you can access it from anywhere.
3. Last Pass
We all have multiple accounts and passwords like Facebook, Twitter, GMail (or any email), blogs, communities, etc. Just install Last Pass and save the login information of all your sites. You have to create a master password for Last Pass. Just key in the master password once when you start. Done. You dont have to fill all the other details. When you open facebook (or any other site), it automatically logs you in! I have over 12 different websites where my log in has become hassle free!
The only catch is, do not use it on your work PC. You don't want the colleagues to access your information ;) And if you have multiple users at home,don't worry, there can be multiple accounts.
Once you install this all you have to do is just click and download ;) There will be a download option just below the video window which is usually not there. (It's not developed by Google but works well)
You're browsing your favourite website or blog and you like something you see. Just highlight the text or photo and click on the Evernote widget icon on the top right hand side of your Chrome browser. It will save and sync it to your Evernote. Simple.
You can't login everytime to facebook but yet want to receive updates and share status updates. Install this.
7. Chromed Bird (Twitter)
You are regular Tweet-er and passionate about following your favourite celebs or your friends. Just install this and let this be a small window to the Twitter world.
8. Remind Me
If you're addicted to browsing, this is for you! RemindMe allows you to setup reminders while browsing and sync them between computers.
We all have have a print screen facility in our PCs, but this takes the clipping experience to a higher level. There is a multitude of options to share too.
10. Add This
This is for the browsing butterflies who want to share interesting links with the world ASAP!
There are thousands of productivity apps/widgets on the official Google Chrome Extension site along with some fun apps too (if you really have the time for whiling away time!) This is the Official Google Chrome Extension home page.
Internet and technology can assist us, if we use it in that way. Hope you found this useful.
Leave a comment if you use any. Or if there are some awesome extensions you already use and is noteworthy to be shared.
Woww!! Very informative!!!
ReplyDelete@Nupur: Thanks...That was the objective :)
ReplyDelete