5 Ways To Free Up, Increase Your DropBox Disk Space

If you’ve been using DropBox since its inception back in 2008, chances are your FREE DropBox account now is either full or about to run out of space. That’s especially true if you’ve been using the platform as your go-to repository to store your personal and work-related files. That’s a massive 12 years of backup files to date.

While there are a handful of newcomers offering the same DropBox-like functionality + FREE disk space, nothing beats the niftiness and simplicity of DropBox. Not to mention the fact that DropBox has been used by well-known digital companies so we can be sure our data is well-protected.

DropBox’s Basic Plan gives you 2GB of disk space. Sure it’s not enough. And if you’re a freelancer who isn’t ready yet to upgrade, then, read along as I’ll show you how you can get as much as 20GB of disk space from DropBox at no additional cost.

(Note: 2TB starts at $9.99/month, if things aren’t tight please consider upgrading to paid plans)

Here are 5 legal ways to increase your DropBox disk space for FREE

1. Delete unused files

   Digital assets such as images, PSD, XD, and other Adobe files can easily eat up our DropBox disk space. Visit each and every single folder and see if you can safely remove those files. If it’s already a one-year-old project or so, better delete them.

   Removing those unused files and folders can quickly regain the extra DropBox disk space you need.

2. ZIP/compress folders

   If you have a large folder on your DropBox you want to keep but don’t constantly use, try archiving it and zip it. You can save as much as half of its size. You can even further reduce it by using the most optimized compression method or use GZIP format to shrink its size.

   How To Unzip Archived Files in DropBox without Downloading them Offline

   Of course, you don’t want to archive those folders you’ll likely access in the next few months. Just archive those 1-2 years old project folders that you don’t have reasons to access again.

3. Take Advantage of DropBox Referral System

   DropBox has an existing referral system that rewards you with 500MB bonus space for each successful referral installs. Just go to https://www.dropbox.com/referrals page to get your unique link and you can start inviting friends to signup.

   Get A List of All Google Drive Files & Folders in Google Sheet

   A lot of people have been gaming this system and was able to snatch as much as 16GB of bonus disk space. The popular method includes using virtual machines and doing fake installations using their own referral link. DropBox requires each referred account to install its Windows or Mac app before rewarding the extra 500MB bonus disk space.

4. Move your backup files to other cloud services

   Again, DropBox has attracted tens of competitors trying to get a slice of the pie. Popular cloud storage platforms include Google Drive, OneDrive, Otixo, Mover.io, ZeroPC, etc. What these guys have in common is that they have free plans that give you as much as 30GB of FREE cloud storage space.

   You now have multiple options to choose from to unload some of your files and free up your DropBox disk space. You can go classic by downloading your DropBox files and upload them to your cloud storage of choice or you can use cloud storage management platforms such as Otixo to move files between multiple cloud storage providers. Doing so guarantees to free up your DropBox disk space.

6. Upgrade your DropBox plan

   If you want to skip the headaches of increasing your DropBox disk space, then, this would be your last option. DropBox Plus tier sets you back $9.99 a month which gives you 2 TB storage space. That should already be enough storage space for your digital life.

Wrapping it up

Our work-related stuff can easily eat up our DropBox 2 GB storage space. While there are other cloud storage platforms we can check out, it’s the security & simplicity of DropBox that makes it hard to depart. And if you’re unprepared to upgrade to a much higher storage plan, you can try the above suggestions to free up and increase your DropBox storage space.

Quickly Create Printable Wifi Signs and Scan-to-Connect QR Codes

Found this cool website that lets you generate a WiFi sign and QR code so people can easily connect on your network. The service is called My WiFi Sign, which comes in handy when you want to skip the headache of sharing your WiFi credentials at home or office.

All you need to do is head to My WiFi Sign, supply your network credentials and in seconds you get a nice-looking PDF complete with your WiFi info which you can quickly print. Additionally, you get a unique QR code which your visitors can scan to quickly connect on your network without typing anything.

How awesome is that?

So, when a visitor or your child’s friends come in, you can just quickly point them to the printed My WiFi Sign rather than awkwardly reach to your access point and find the credentials.

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Not everyone will probably appreciate this but if you host an event or you own a shop, having a scan-to-connect QR code will do you a favor.

Go, check it out!

How To: Automatically Capture Web Page Screenshots At Regular Intervals

Previously on this blog we’ve talked about how we can use Google Sheet as Wayback Machine Internet Archive alternative to automatically capture web page screenshots. In that post, we’ve demonstrated how we can use screenshotmachine.com’s free API to generate a screenshot of website using Google Sheet script and store them in a dedicated Google Drive folder Web page captures.

It worked hitherto of course. The bad news is: the script suddenly stopped working, probably because of Google’s API changes or similar. But the good news is: there’s a good alternative to do just that for a minimal fee.

PageCapture: Automatically Capture Website Screenshots Daily, Weekly or Monthly

PageCapture is a nifty web app we discovered few days ago and we thought you’ll love it too. In a nutshell, PageCapture automatically creates a screenshot of any web page URL on schedule. There are a handful of capture frequencies to choose from: hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and even custom hourly intervals. You choose.

All screenshots are securely stored on PageCapture website. However, you have the option to sync it with your DropBox or Google Drive account. And if you’re a regular Slack user, PageCapture can automatically push all web page screenshots to your Slack account.

When is it useful?

Web masters and internet marketers will surely benefit such an automated screenshot-capturing tool. Web page screenshots act as visual backup which you can turn to when you want to recover something or just want to look back how your client’s sites look like in the past.

5 Handy Google Sheet Tricks To Help You Work Fast & Save Time

Or if you’re an internet marketer, you can use it to spy on your competitor’s website and monitor SERP positions on Google search results on daily or weekly basis.

While massively popular Wayback Machine is awesome, it only crawls public pages at unknown intervals; no daily or weekly snapshots. So it’s not that totally reliable if you want a simple visual snapshot of a web page daily.

Why PageCapture is awesome

Aside from the fact that you can automatically capture web page screenshot on schedule, there are also other advance options you can explore such as the ability to choose device screen size (e.g. desktop, iPhone, iPad) and user-agents. So, web masters will definitely find this useful too especially if you’re maintaining highly critical sites that requires constant monitoring.

Go check out PageCapture and don’t forget to share this to your friends who might need this.

Finally, An AI-Powered App That Transforms Sketches Into Interactive Digital Prototypes in Realtime

The latest advancement of AI continues to offer us a whole new way to experience our digital lives. We’ve seen how Google predicts traffic delays & bus crowdedness, well, thanks to AI. We’ve also seen how YouTube enables you to virtually try on makeup and help you with your purchases decisions, thanks to its immersive AR Beauty Try-On.

With millions of power users’ growing appetite for anything automated, it’s not difficult to imagine a future where mundane, routinary tasks are being kept to a minimum. And fact is : it has already begun.

One of the coolest finds we’ve come across is Artyline, a free iOS & time-saver app that converts hand-drawn sketches into digital equivalent in realtime. All you have to do is to give a good scan on your sketches and you’re done.

Not everyone will appreciate this app, but such an app comes in handy if you’re an app developer or designer who wants to skip NinjaMock or any online mockup tools to quickly visualize your ideas.

Why Artyline is such a great app

The trouble with hand-drawn sketches is that it can potentially be misunderstood by most clients who normally aren’t adept in UX design elements. So whether it’s a simple app or not, the best way to present your idea and get their approval is to give prototypes as realistic as possible.

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With Artyline, generating prototypes is as simple as scanning your sketches and you immediately get an interactive version of our mockup. Think of it as an additional team member in your UX / design department where design sketches drawn from whiteboard or paper are quickly converted to digital formats. So you’d come well-prepared when meeting your client to discuss the next big app.

Artyline limitations

Because Artyline is powered by AI, it has a limited set of training to recognize basic shapes and transform them into design elements. Good thing is Artyline has this easy-to-follow guideline to make your sketches more recognizable by their AI.

Pro Tip: Use markers instead of writing pens. Don’t use pencils as they’re too illegible to recognize by Artyline scanner.

Artyline is still in its infancy and got tons of areas to improve especially in the execution side. However, I can’t easily denigrate an app idea this good just because of those hiccups. So, we are still impressed.

Give your app designs workflows an upgrade. Get this iOS app while it’s free. Thank me later!

Download: Artyline [Apple App Store]

Twitter Gets Multiple Accounts Switching Support, Lets You Switch Between Accounts with Ease

For those of you who maintain multiple Twitter accounts, you probably are familiar with that pain of signing in and signing out if you wish to switch to another Twitter account. One may switch between multiple Twitter accounts by having more than one browser opened — one for personal Twitter account and the other is for work-related stuff.

And for Twitter power users, there's Hootsuite to the rescue being the de facto Twitter multiple account manager, which lets you manage multiple social media accounts including Twitter in one, centralised dashboard.

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Twitter's lack of native multiple account switching support is just dead annoying. It's a feature long requested by millions of social media managers who take advantage of their platform for virality and growth.

Thankfully, Twitter finally heeded the call. Now, you can add multiple Twitter accounts and switch between multiple Twitter handles with ease.

Twitter Adds New Account Switching Option

For now, Twitter's multiple account switching feature is available for the web version (both mobile and desktop), Twitter Lite, and Twitter for Windows. Jack Dorsey's team must be brewing multiple accounts support for Android and iOS version too (I hope so).

Skip the sign in, sign out hassle. Now you can switch back and forth between handles faster on https://t.co/AIUgyCj4rs, Twitter Lite, and Twitter for Windows. Just tap the drop down from your profile photo.

Your stan account thanks you.

— Twitter (@Twitter) June 3, 2019

How To Add, Switch Between Multiple Accounts on Twitter

As mentioned, the new feature is available only on web version and Twitter Lite. Here's how to get started:

1. Login to your Twitter account and ensure you're using the new Twitter web version UI.

2. In top right section, click on your name to bring the Account info panel

   

3. Now, click on that Add an existing account. You'll be asked to login for that new Twitter handle.

   

You're done!

Your newly added Twitter account should sit nicely beside your main account. Just click your profile or name to switch to another Twitter account without having to log out and log in again.

Twitter may be late to the party, but this new Twitter multiple accounts switching option is sure a welcome update that power users would surely appreciate.

New Web App Efemr Lets You Send Self-Destructing Tweets

5 Handy Google Sheet Tricks To Help You Work Fast & Save Time

Just like Microsoft's Excel, Google Sheet has equally powerful functions hidden up its sleeve. It can help you do routinary, mundane tasks fast and perform time-saving complex operations.

With Google Sheet, being an open-source software and with its collaboration support, it's likely that you'll end up using the app more often than not. It's one indispensable tool every web master and virtual assistant can't live without.

While you may not use below's list of useful Google Sheet functions everyday, it pays to be familiar and well-verse with these shortcuts. We hand-picked this shortlist of five essential Google Sheets hacks to help you save time in dealing with spreadsheets.

1. Use SPLIT function and obtain the first word from a phrase

Suppose you want to extract the first word from a string in a Google Sheet column. You can use SPLIT() function to split a string and obtain first word , as follows:

=index(SPLIT(A2, " "), 0, 1)

With the above function, a string “10042 Ferrara” yields “10042”.

To obtain the n word, just replace 1 with n accordingly.

2. Use REGEXEXTRACT to retrieve number from a string

Suppose you have this data in a column and you wish to obtain the price

<p>Lined Linen Tunic with Silk Hem</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>RRP    $99.95</strong></p>

You can do so with REGEXEXTRACT function to extract the price, as follows:

=REGEXEXTRACT(C2, "[0-9]*\.[0-9]+[0-9]+")

3. Using CONTACT to combine multiple values

Suppose in Column A you want to get the first word and combine it with the value in Column J, you can achieve it using CONCAT function.

=concat( index(SPLIT(A2, " "), 0, 1), concat("-", J2) )

Or use ampersand to combine multiple values:

="RRP "&value(REGEXEXTRACT(E12, "[0-9]*\.[0-9]+[0-9]+"))

4. Use SUBSTITUTE() & RegexReplace() to search and replace

Say you have a column of data that contains HTML ASCII codes and you want to get rid of them. Here's how you do it:

=SUBSTITUTE(B2," ", "")

Or you can go creative, do a nested SUBSTITUTE

=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(B2, "</p>", ""),"<p>", "")

Or you can go use RegExReplace to get rid all HTML tags

=RegexReplace( B2, "<\/\w+>|<\w+.*?>", "" )

Or a combination of Substitute and RegexReplace

=SUBSTITUTE(RegexReplace( B3, "<\/\w+>|<\w+.*?>", "" ),"&nbsp;", " " )

3 Things You Didn't Know Google Spreadsheet Can Do For You (Part 1)

5. Use VLOOKUP to search by keyword and return a specified cell from another sheet

Google Sheet's vertical lookup is a powerful function you need to master. It lets you search down the first column of a range for a key and returns the value of a specified cell in the row found.

If that doesn't make sense, imagine you have Sheet14 containing sku and color columns

Sheet14

And wanted to append the color initial found inside a separate table from Sheet15

Sheet15

You can do a quick search using VLOOKUP and return the color initial (from Sheet15) by providing color from Sheet14.

The full formula:

=VLOOKUP(I2, Sheet15!A1:B7,2, false)

Where I2 is the keyword, Sheet15!A1:B7 is the range, and 2 is column position from Sheet15 we want to retrieve.

Excel Gets OCR Support, Lets You Snap Tables and Convert Into Editable Spreadsheet

So next time you are asked to update a Google Sheet and do dead boring, repetitive tasks, try to look around inside Google Sheet list of functions and see if you can automate stuff and save huge amount of time in the process.

Long Commute? Get Power Naps and Get A Phone Call When You Arrive At Your Destination

The older we get, the less time is spent on quality slumber. Blame it to the corporate life' stress, household responsibilities, or maybe that's just how adulthood simply works?

That's why we always try to snatch that much-needed naps whenever we can, whether on a bus or a train.

So, if you're among those millions of nine-to-five warriors who commute your way to work, or you're a backpacker with long trips to the countryside, here's a neat trick how to sleep off your commute without worrying about missing your stop. Let your phone automatically alerts you when you're about to enter your destination just in time.

What you need

• IFTTT app (available on Android, iOS)
• Mobile data connection

For the uninitiated, IFTTT (short for If This, Then That) is a powerful web-based service that lets you perform actions based on user-defined triggers. We call these actions as “applets”. IFTTT works like Zapier but much easier to use.

Let Your Phone Alerts You When You Arrive At Your Destination

The goal here is to create an IFTTT applet that notifies you when you arrive at your destination. To do this, we'll use both Location and VoIP Calls services. Here's how to get started:

1. Install IFTTT app (iOS, Android), and sign-up.
2. Create your first applet by going to My Applets tab and click on + icon top right.
3. Now, you'll be asked to define the trigger and action, like this:

   

4. Tap on this and search for Location > You enter an area and specify the area you want to be notified.

   

5. Once done you'll be taken back to step 3 where you create an action. Just tap that and search for VoIP Calls service where you can fire Call my device action, as seen below:

   

6. Save your applet and ensure your IFTTT is running in the background. You're done.

   Use IFTTT As A Spy App: Secretly Copy, Collect iOS Photos on iPhone, iPad (No Jailbreak)

While Google Maps' previous update already has a push notification that alerts you when you're approaching your stop, I find it too unreliable to be honest. A VoIP call works better, ensuring you get off the bus or train just in time.

LOOK: Upcoming Google Chrome Feature Lets You Organize Active Tabs into Groups

The Google Chromium team is currently brewing a new feature to its beloved Google Chrome browser that lets you mitigate tab overload, or at least that's what they try to solve.

Judging from the above screenshot, the upcoming release of Google Chrome enables users to declutter and organize multiple active tabs into one or more groups.

Add Chrome-Like Multiple Tabbing Support To Windows File Explorer With Clover

Such a feature is sure a relief for those power user who constantly juggles between multiple tabs. You can simply move your work-related active tabs into one group and separate the others, creating a less messy working environment.

Google Chrome is not the first browser that implements such Tab Groups feature. In fact, Firefox used to incorporate it first but later discontinued because only a small number of Firefox users were actually using the feature and that maintaining such unpopular feature turned out to be costly for the Firefox team.

5 Best Memory-Saving Chrome Add-ons to Help You Manage Tab Overload

Tab Group is one of the biggest updates of Google Chrome so it might take a couple of months to finally hit the online shore. For the meantime, check out these third-party Chrome extensions that help you manage tab overload.

Vont: Canva for Video Alternative that Lets You Easily Add Custom Text to Videos (iOS)

Not everyone has the time and skill to generate a simple 2-3 minutes social video for Facebook or Instagram. Stitching your video clips and adding music can be all easy to achieve on iOS, but adding styled, custom text? It can be bloody difficult feat especially for a non-techie person who easily gets intimidated by video editing apps.

iOS' built-in video editing app iMovie doesn't make the cut either. Their “Add Text” overlay functionality is just plain boring, unusable. iMovie is decent enough in combining your clips with nice transitions and custom audio background but not in adding custom styled text.

The hunt for Canva for video

I had this interesting challenge last week where I needed to add a few texts to my travel videos. And me being a non-multimedia person, I'd rather do it straight on my iPhone and totally skip the headache of editing them with Adobe Premier or Quik, which for me are all complicated to use.

With that said, I had to check out and try nearly almost all video editing apps on iOS that allow me to add a text overlay for my videos. Some are very promising but one app that really stood out: Vont.

What is Vont?

Vont, currently available on iOS, lets you add highly customizable text overlays to videos. You have the flexibility to choose your own font or use Vont's font collections, change font sizes and colors. And the best part? It lets you insert multiple text overlays to any given video timeframe.

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And the fun doesn't stop there. Vont also lets you add transitions to each text overlay, giving you full control how you want your text enters the viewport.

Here's Vont in action:

It's easy to imagine Vont as Canva for videos. First off, Vont interface is so neat and it's a delight to use, almost similar to Canva.

For the uninitiated, Canva is a must-have app that lets you create professional-looking photos and banners for all your social media needs. Its suite of pre-made layouts makes it easy to create graphics, cards, flyers, invitations, and posters straight from your iPhone or iPad.

How To: Watch YouTube, Netflix on Sticky, Floating Window While Keeping Other Apps Opened

The true strength of Canva lies in its ability to let anyone — with or without design experience — generate professional-looking visuals for their marketing needs.

Now, if you're looking for Canva for video alternative offering the same editing experience, then, you've got to check out Vont.

How To: Browse, Extract Contents Inside Zipped Files in Google Drive

You probably have noticed that while inside Google Drive, one cannot easily extract nor preview zipped files straight from Drive's interface. Google Drive is still deprived of that native functionality and one has to manually download the entire archived file to obtain its contents.

I've been using Google Drive since its initial rollout. Although not my main virtual drive for backups, I use it primarily to store personal documents and some work-related files. And Google Drive being developed by Google gives you tight integrations with other G Apps.

And for occasions when you need to recover a file inside a large compressed ZIP file hosted on Google Drive, you better skip the hassle of manually downloading it yourself and just browse it on-the-fly.

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Here we will show you a smarter way to unzip archived files and browse extracted straight from Google Drive.

Browse Contents Inside Zipped Files On Google Drive

The trick is easy. While you're on your Drive's folder, just right-click any zipped file and click on Connect more apps. Just search for “Zip Extractor”.

Once installed, refresh your Drive's page. You can right-click again the zip file and Google Drive now gives you the option to open it with Zip Extractor.

Zip Extractor will prompt you a one-time authorization request so it can do its thing. After that, you can unzip and browse zipped files with its neat interface. You can also selectively extract specific files inside a zipped file. Just uncheck

Another decent Drive app is Zip, Unzip App. Just like Zip Extractor, it lets you preview and browse zip files straight from Google Drive. What I like about Zip, Unzip App is that it quickly gives you a unique URL for each file found inside your zip file. The UI may need attention though but for a simple task of obtaining a specific file inside a ZIP file on Google Drive? I would go for Zip, Unzip App.

Conclusion

There you go! Google Drive definitely needs a lot of catching up when it comes to dealing with common file types like ZIP files. Being able to preview what's inside a zipped file is already a built-in feature in DropBox, but not in Google Drive.

WhatsApp Web Now Lets You Watch Shared YouTube, Facebook Videos Within the App

If you've been a long time user of WhatsApp for Android or iPhone, you probably have noticed that nice floating video player that pops up right within the app every time you click on a shared video from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Streamable. That feature is called Picture-in-Picture (PiP) launched back in December last year.

Now in what seems to be an attempt to inflate the amount of time you spend on WhatsApp, the same PiP feature is now available in WhatsApp Web. Which means you can now chat with your friends and watch shared videos from YouTube or Facebook WITHOUT leaving the app. Sweet.

New Chrome Add-on Lets You Watch YouTube Videos While You Search, Browse — Similar to YouTube Mobile App

The update comes from WhatsApp Web version 0.3.2041, which is expected to be followed by a few more enhancements later this year like dark mode, face recognition and more.

How to open shared YouTube/Facebook videos within WhatsApp Web

1. Ensure you have the most recent version of WhatsApp Web. WhatsApp normally auto-downloads whatever updates available. If you think you're not getting the update, you may need to hard-refresh your browser or clear cache/cookies.
2. Now, on your computer head to https://web.whatsapp.com/ and follow on-screen instruction.

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Support for PiP for WhatsApp Web may not be a big update for some but it's a welcome addition to those heavy WhatsApp Web users.

Musi.sh: The Best Apple Music Web Player Alternative - Access Apple Music on Web Browser

Unlike Apple's streaming app rival Spotify, Apple Music still lacks the option to play your audio collections in web browser.

In case you find Apple's iTunes music player straight up complicated to use or you want to save some precious memory by skipping the iTunes player, there's now a web player alternative for your Apple Music listening needs.

Musi.sh Lets You Play Apple Music in Web Browser

Musi.sh is a new web app that lets you access Apple Music in a web browser. It basically is just another way to access your Apple Music on a website instead of launching the official app.

The Good:

Neat UI almost feels like a native app from Apple and works surprisingly fast. We were impressed.

How To: Quickly Move, Import Your Spotify Playlists To Apple Music

Being a web app, you can play your Apple Music collections straight from Google Chrome, Firefox or any web browser of your choice. All you need to do is to authorize the app to access your Apple Music library and you're good to go.

Go, check out Musi.sh

Drag Declutters Your Inbox, Turns Gmail Into Manageable, Organised Lists Similar to Trello's Boards

No matter how sophisticated online project management tools have become, chances are you still have this inseparable dependence on this classic, antiquated messaging platform ever created: emails.

Juggling through tens to hundreds of emails a day is the new normal nowadays, all the more if you work online. As a web developer myself, I constantly get batted with emails coming from sources like Basecamp, Asana, Project Turf and Trello. Add to that are the random newsletters, pesky marketing, and social media alerts.

And I tell you, sifting through unread emails is ain't fun.

Thankfully, Nick Timms has come up with a clever idea. And it's no clichéd idea, as the way you engage in emails is now about to change.

His recently launched app Drag, currently available as a Chrome extension, seeks to allay your email fatigue (or at least makes emails a lot less boring).

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What is Drag?

Drag is a browser add-on that transforms your Gmail messages into a manageable, much-organized list just like Trello. If you're familiar with the simplicity and intuitiveness of Trello, you'll surely love Drag.

Once you install Drag, you no longer get to see this boring list of email messages:



Instead, your inbox gets upgraded into this neat, intuitive layout:



And the fun doesn't end there. You can drag items from one column to another. Sweet.

Installation

Getting up & running is no rocket science. All you need to do is to install the Chrome add-on and connect your Gmail account. It's that easy. See Drag in action below:

The Good

Being able to organize your inbox messages into a Trello-like, draggable Boards is a welcome and refreshing take. And I think Nick's team must have hit the sweet spot for doing it first.

The Bad

As with the rest of the apps in the wild, there will always be some limitations. Drag currently supports Google Chrome and you can only use it on a single Gmail account. Multi-Gmail accounts support is in the works and Drag team hopes to roll this out within this month.

How To: Automatically Send Email Messages At Later Time

Rummaging through emails is the first thing I do in the morning. And I admit it, it's the same thing I do before I hit the bed. That chronic habit stems not from wanting to do and meet those tasks head-on, but because I want to know the size of my tasks in a given day, set priorities, flag those that need immediate attention, and see if I can spend more time on Facebook ranting by dropping the others in my procrastination basket. And Drag is sure going to alter that.

How To: Make Any Wired Speaker Into Wireless Bluetooth Speaker for Less than $7

As what ultra-minimalist Steve Jobs famously once said, we “improve by removing more”. That's one of the guiding maxims of Apple that helped propel its way to greatness in the techno-wizardry scene.

Now, if you're convinced with that guiding principle of Apple, why not apply that same ethos into how you consume your music and movies?

I'm talking about those classic wired surround speakers & subwoofer systems sitting on your desk right now and all its tangled wires glory. While this wired speaker system works just fine, why not free yourself from all these clutter and get that simple joy of wireless you deserve?

How To: Remotely Control Apple Music on Computer, Mac Using iPhone, iPad

If you have a good old non-wireless loudspeaker lying around in the corner, don't throw that just yet. The truth is you can make it "cool" again by repurposing and turning it into a wireless Bluetooth speaker so you can wirelessly fire up your favorite Spotify playlist from the comfort of your fingertips.

Play Music On Your Wired Speaker System Wirelessly from Your iPhone, Android

Step 1 Get your preferred Bluetooth Audio Receiver from your favorite shop like Amazon. I scored a decent Bluetooth Receiver from Lazada for only Php 330.00 ($7). Sweet.

Step 2 Do the one-time setup. These Bluetooth Stereo Receivers usually have this simple setup:

1. Plug in your speaker's 3.5mm stereo jack into the Bluetooth device
2. Pair your Bluetooth Audio Receiver with your iPhone, Android or any Bluetooth-enabled devices

You're done!

You can now listen to your favourite music from iTunes or Spotify while you can freely move around.

Image source: nerdtechy.com

How To: Download Blocked Email Attachment in Gmail — Bypass Gmail Virus Scanner

Ever ran into a problem trying to download an email attachment in Gmail but you can’t because Gmail's virus scanner says it's a virus and unsafe to download?

Well, you’re not alone.

Few days ago, I ran into the same problem trying to retrieve my old email attachment in Gmail I sent five years ago. The file contains an executable file I wrapped in a zip file. But Gmail deems it as a malware and they cannot allow me to download the file at all cost (see screenshot below).

Gmail's Addon Streak Lets You Monitor, Track If Emails Are Read, Viewed By Recipients

Here's an explanation I got from their support page:

As a security measure to prevent potential viruses, Gmail doesn’t allow you to send or receive executable files (such as files ending in .exe). Executable files can contain harmful code that might cause malicious software to download to your computer. In addition, Gmail doesn’t allow you to send or receive corrupted files, files that don’t work properly.

It does makes sense, and it's a proactive step imposed by Google to prevent malicious programs to get inside and contaminate our computers.

But in case you need to access blocked email attachment and you're certain it's just false positive, then, here's a neat trick on how to circumvent this restriction and download blocked attachment in Gmail.

Bypass Gmail's Virus Scanner and Download Blocked Gmail Attachments

The trick is easy. Just launch your Gmail account in a third party desktop app like Outlook for Windows or Mail for Mac.

For Mac Just launch Mail app. Be sure to add your Gmail account in your Mac and navigate to that account to get all your emails.

Once you get there, rummage through your inbox and search for the email attachment you want to download.

How To: Automatically Send Email Messages At Later Time

For Windows Be sure you have your Outlook or Windows Mail correctly setup. If you're on Windows 10, the setup should be pretty straight-forward.

Once your Outlook is up, just search for that particular email attachment and you should be able to download it without any problems.

If you find this tip helpful, would appreciate if you can share it to your friends :)

Ballloon: Directly Save Large Files To DropBox & Other Cloud Accounts In Seconds

Previously on this blog we have talked about Cloud Save, a nifty Google Chrome extension that lets you right-click any in-page links & files and save them straight to the clouds.

We've also talked about Mover.io, a much advanced cloud files manager that consolidates all your virtual drives so you can manage all your cloud files in one centralised dashboard.

And now I am thrilled to introduce you yet another rare gem on the web that you'll gladly welcome in your productivity arsenal: Ballloon.

New Web App Ballloon Tranfers Files to the Clouds in Seconds

Ballloon is a brand new web service that lets you save files directly to your cloud storage accounts like Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, etc. It eliminates the need for you to manually download files from the web, whether it's a 1MB audio file or 800MB zip file. Use Ballloon' web app instead to automatically save them to your DropBox or any cloud storage accounts of your choice. You just have to provide a direct link and you're done.

All it takes is your Google account to get started and you can start connecting all your cloud storage account and start Ballloon transfer in seconds. You can also assign a default remote directory every time you initiate a transfer for each cloud storage account.

There's also an official Google Chrome extension you can use, but that's optional. So for those who don't want to bloat their browser with add-ons, the web-based version is already pretty much functional and it works like a charm.

The Good

Ballloon is FREE, and the guys behind it promised that there will always be a free plan should this app matures into a full-blown premium web app.

User interface is also a delight to use, notably modern and straight-forward to navigate; from signing up all the way to connecting your cloud storage accounts, the whole process is seamless.

Access, Manage All Files Stored Across Multiple Cloud Accounts All At Once

What really makes Ballloon stand out is the fact that it moves your files amazingly fast (and I mean it). A 4MB audio file for instance takes only five seconds to arrive in my Google Drive. A 150 MB backup file from my other blog only takes 50 seconds to arrive on my Google Drive.



Think of server-to-server communication; no more delays regardless of your internet speed. And transfers take place in the background; you can close your browser's tab once you've initiated the transfer and your files should arrive in its destination shortly.

The Bad

Apparently only the following cloud storage accounts are supported:

• DropBox
• Google Drive
• Copy
• SugarSync
• One Drive

I hope they can add support for other cloud storage providers like Amazon, Rackspace and even FTP. If they can bring this integration while maintaining the same level of speed I used to enjoy today, I'm happy to fork out a few bucks and be one of their premium users.

Check out the FAQ page for more information.



LINK: Ballloon

Must-Have: PushBullet Makes Your iOS, Android and Computer "Work" Together

Remember the Software Data Cable for Android I mentioned before? That was really a clever tiny piece of  app that every Android user should install. Why? Well, you better see my previous post about it here: How To: Transfer Files From PC To Android Phone Via Wi-Fi (And Vice Versa).

If you ever wished you could do almost the same thing on your iPhone or iPad and make your life a LOT easier, well, then, you've got to check out PushBullet.

PushBullet is your Swiss Army Knife for anything wireless

As a long-time Android user who just switched to iOS, I hate it when moving files & information from my computer to iPhone is such a difficult feat. The same frustration you get when you copy contents from your iPhone to your Mac or Windows PC. And that's the problem that PushBullet is trying to solve.

What is PushBullet

In a nutshell, PushBullet makes it really easy to send files, ebooks, links, and virtually any  media files from one device to another. Whether you're pushing files from your Windows computer to your iPhone, iPad or Android, the process is absolutely painless. All you have to do is to right-click the file or link and select the destination device and voila, you can instantly go right to that file/link by tapping on the notification you get on your Android or iDevice. And no, you don't have to be in the same wireless network to make PushBullet works.

Browse, Access Your Photos From Your iPhone, iPad To Your Computer Over Wi-Fi

And if you have an Android device, you can even automatically “push” all your calls and SMS alerts to your computer so you  won't miss important calls and text messages even if your phone is on silent mode or in another room. Unfortunately for iOS, PushBullet doesn't have this feature yet. But given the more open iOS8.0+ architecture, I believe this feature is currently in the works (check out the paid app Notifyr for iOS, it works almost the same).

Why is it useful?

PushBullet's homepage already has a detailed information on how it works and how it becomes so handy, but allow me to point it out here.

With PushBullet, you can easily:

• Send files from your mobile device to your computer with one click (or the other way around)
• Receive calls, SMS and other phone notifications straight on your computer

And if you're on Android, there are whole lot more you can do with PushBullet like being able to reply text messages straight from your computer.

Final Verdict:

PushBullet is a simple yet powerful push notification service designed to make all your internet-connected devices “work” together. It's a godsend  web service that you will surely appreciate especially if you're dealing with multiple devices. PushBullet is currently available for iOS, Android and as a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Opera. There's also an unofficial paid app PushPal for Mac users.

Transfer Large Files Between iPhone and Other iDevices Over Existing Wi-Fi Network

LINK: PushBullet

Use Google Spreadsheet As Website's Time-Machine (Web Archive alternative)

This is the second and the last part of our tutorial on how to get the most out of Google Docs to get things done the clever way. In case you missed it, here's the first part: 3 Things You Didn't Know Google Spreadsheet Can Do For You (Part 1)

LICEcap Is The Best Alternative To Recordit To Screencast & Create High Quality GIFs

Web Archive is everyone's go-to place when they want to see how a specific website looks in the past. It's a wayback-machine that randomly creates snapshots of your site as reference so you can anytime check back when your site's gone awry in the future.

While Web Archive is one reliable tool to do just that, you cannot however specify how frequent a snapshot should be created. If you want to automatically create a site snapshop daily or weekly, then, Google Spreadsheet can do you a favor.

Using Google Sheet as Archive.org Alternative

Here's how:

1 Go to Screenshotmachine.com and create a FREE account. After sign up you will get an account key necessary for the API request.

2 Sign-in to your Google account and make a copy of this Google sheet (File > Make a copy).

3 Provide the required parameters as required like Account Key, URL to Capture and Capture Frequency.

4 Click Verify Now button to see if the API works or not. If it works, a new folder called Web page captures should be automatically created on your Google Drive account. This is where all screenshots will be saved.

Note: you’ll get a pop-up asking for authorization. Grant the necessary access.

5 Click Start Capturing button. You're done.

Depending on the capture frequency you specify, Google Sheet should automatically instructs Screenshotmachine.com to create a site snapshot and send it back to Google Drive.

mHotspot Is A FREE Alternative To Connectify That Turns Your Computer Into Wifi Hotspot

(3/3) Use Google Spreadsheet to Scrape Web Contents Online

One of my favorite features of Google Sheet is the importXML function which basically allows you to grab contents from another site. It's one pretty useful feature of Google Sheet as it saves you time especially if you're asked to web scrape or copy the entire contents of a site.

Watch this video below and see how web scraping can be done so easily using Google Documents Spreadsheets:



The information you get can then be imported to your website using the right apps and tools like WP All Import (if you're using WordPress as your site platform).

How To: Extract All Images Embedded In .DOC Word Documents All At Once

So next time you're asked to export the existing content of a website, then, importXML of Google Sheet is one nice function you can exploit.

3 Things You Didn't Know Google Spreadsheet Can Do For You (Part 1)

There's no denying that we are all slowly becoming too dependent on Google apps. From a simple task of digging the world's information down to locating the nearby coffee shop, we always turn to Google and get the information we want in the blink of an eye.

One of the best web services that Google has ever made for everyone is the Google Docs suite. Its powerful, cloud-centric features along with its ever-improving mobile app makes it really a mature and capable platform.

Open and View Online Documents of Any Format Directly On Your Browser without Downloading Them

But just as every finest web app available in the wild, there are things that you might have missed & didn't realized you could do with Google Sheet app. And in this post, we are going to explore some of the lesser-known Google Sheet hacks and tricks to make your digital life a lot easier.

3 Clever Uses of Google Sheets You Might Not Know Yet (Part 1)

(1/3) Use Google Spreadsheet to monitor website downtime and uptime

If you have a blog or website, you know exactly how important web monitoring apps like Pingdom and Uptime Party can be. These are apps designed to monitor your website's uptime that should alert you in real-time when your site is down or inaccessible. These website monitoring apps work great, but they often come with a price.

In case you need a FREE Pingdom alternative, you can turn to Google Spreadsheet and use it as a website monitoring tool to track your site's downtime and uptime. As with premium apps like Pingdom, you get instant email or SMS notification delivered straight to your inbox once your site is down.

The process should only take about a minute or so to setup, and you're good to go.

Here's how to get started:

1 Sign-in to your Google account and make a copy of this Google sheet (File > Make a copy)

2 Put your website URLs in cell B2 (comma separated) and your email address in cell B3. If you wish to receive alerts by text messages, put Yes in cell B4.

3 You’ll find a new Website Monitor menu in your Google Sheets toolbar. Click Initialize and you’ll get a pop-up asking for authorization. Grant the necessary access.

4 Go to the Website Monitor menu again and choose “Start Website Monitor” to begin the monitoring process. Close the Google Sheet.

That's it. Google Sheet should now monitor and alert you in real-time when your site goes down, as seen below:

Get Notified When A Collaborator Made Some Changes On A Shared Google Spreadsheet

CONTINUE: 3 Things You Didn't Know Google Spreadsheet Can Do For You (Part 2)

How To: Upload, Edit Files Without FTP — Use WP-Admin Access To Manage Web Files (WordPress)

Few days ago, I ran into a problem trying to access and update some of the web files inside a WordPress site.

The problem: I needed to access and update htaccess file but I only have /wp-admin/ account and there's no FTP or cPanel account given. Getting back to client and asking for FTP credential was not even an option, as he was already out during that time.

Normally, managing and editing files on a web server requires an FTP or cPanel account. Without a valid FTP or cPanel account, file management is impossible. But with WordPress, that's not the case.

How To Access Remote Web Files Without Using FTP Client

In this post, I'm going to show you a simple workaround on how to get an FTP-level type of access to your WordPress files so you can quickly manage and edit web files from your root directory using only a WP administrator account. This is rather a “dirty” trick and I discourage everyone to do this unless you've got an FTP account in hand.

Using WP-Admin Access To Upload, Edit Files Without FTP Account in WordPress

As you might already know, the real gem of WordPress comes from the thousands of ready-made plugins freely available for everyone. And here we're going to explore yet another awesome plugin called WP-FileManager.

WP-FileManager is a tiny WP plugin that gives you the ability to access and update files on your web server without an FTP account. Sounds like impossible but yes, you can use your wp-admin account to update and manage web files without FTP account.

Getting started with WP-FileManager

Just download and activate WP-FileManager from WordPress plugin repository. Once activated, you'll find a new tab called FileManager. Under this tab comes File Manager and Configuration. The plugins' default home directory is /wp-admin/ and it comes with all options disabled so you may need to go to Configuration first and set the default home directory and tick all the boxes, as shown below:



Once you've done this you can navigate back to FileManager and browse through files and folders.

How To: Automatically Generate Thumbnails, Screenshots For Any Website

WP-FileManager works almost like cPanel's file management system; you can browse through folders and root directory files, create new file or directory and upload files. The only downside: it won't let you edit files on the fly — you've got to download the file first, edit it on your computer, then re-upload it back to the server.

You're done!

As a final note, you only need to install WP-FileManager if and only if that's the last resort and you absolutely need it. Having WP-FileManager installed on your WP site gives everyone with admin account a full access to your web files, including wp-config.php file and htaccess.