Windows Live Writer

Have you ever wanted to blog offline?

Like many other people I am not always connected to the internet, but sometimes I just quickly want to add something to my blog. The last few months I checked the internet to watch for any free apps which would allow me to blog on my desktop (while offline) and then upload the blog later.

I saw an article on Blog.gears, but the fact that it didn’t have the featured I wanted was not appealing. In the one blog on Blog.gears I read about Windows Live Writer.

I had a look at their site here and saw that it is easy to share photos, videos and LOTS more. The nice thing for me is that it supports blogs to many services including: Windows Live, Word Press, Blogger and many more.

I am pleased to say that this is my first blog from Windows Live Writer and so far my experience is very positive. It is feature rich and makes it very easy to blog. It also has an inline preview and you can add extra plug-ins. This is a great app.

Well, have a BLESSED Christmas and a happy new year.

Digsby

I am signed up at a lot of online services, instant messages, social networks, email accounts, etc...

Often to make sure you know what is going on in all your accounts take SO long. It's also such a mission to install all the different clients to chat to all your friends on different IMs. Now you can chat to all of them from the same client.

Introducing Digsby. It handles all your instant messaging (gtalk, msn, facebook, etc), Email notifications (gmail, msn live, yahoo, pop, etc) and Social Networking (facebook, myspace, twitter, etc). The other nice thing is you can send new twitter messanges directly from Digsby.

I've been using it now for about a week and like it a LOT. I have not yet seen group invitation functionality (but I dont use it a lot) and it can't yet connect to Skype (which I don't use too often). But all in all its a VERY nice product. Try it here.

Synchronize your Facebook and Outlook

I am one of those people who always want everything synchronized. I don't want some info on outlook and some on facebook and some in gmail.

In my quest for zero defect :) I found this app. It doesn't sync ALL the info on facebook, but it syncs the photos, birthdates, etc. I find it to be VERY handy. It's also nice if you have a phone which can active sync with outlook, then if someone calls you their photo form facebook shows up.

I like it. Check it out here:
http://ross.dargan.googlepages.com/

Screen Capturing

I was reading one of my newsletters when I saw Bug Shooting.

This is an amazing little application you can run to capture screen-shots. I sometimes have to make a screen-shot for work or even just for myself and this application really helps me to make very nice ones. Some of the features you will get when you right click on the icon is Capture
Screen, Delayed Capture and Capture Area. I like to use capture area since you can define exactly which part of an image you want to capture. Once you have captures an image it pops up in it's own little editor which allows you to edit it. This is especially nice if you have captured a map and want to show directions on it.

You can download it from www.bugshooting.com

Google Calendar Alerts by SMS (text-message)

You can send yourself reminders of your Google Calendar alerts (if you use Google Calendar). Once signed up with and logged in to Google (http://www.google.com/ig) you can add your activities online.

To receive calendar event alerts via your cell phone do the following. You need to set alerts for events. Click on Settings (top right). Choose Notifications. Go to the bottom of the page. Select your country, phone number and provider. You will now receive a verification code from Google. Enter the Code. Check the event reminder boxes (top of page). After placing events in your Google Calendar, Google will SMS (text-message) you a reminder for upcoming events. You can also ask to receive a daily agenda (which includes all the day's events).

Use your phone to take photo memories

Most cell phones now have built-in cameras. Most of us only use this function to take pics of our buddies or places we've been, but you can use it for more. Use it to keep track of where you parked, a meal you want to try, a label of something you want to buy, etc. There is a new web service which can turn digital photos of almost anything into searchable PDF documents. On the site they will also tell you what your specific phone is good for. The good news is that even if your phone's quality is not that good, you can use photos you took on a normal digital camera. You just email your shot to Qipit. This web service will then recognize the text and email you the searchable PDF. (I got this idea from www.computerworld.com)

More: Six Things You Never Knew Your Cell Phone Could Do

moreUse: The Reason

moreUse is about getting more use out of the things you already have:

* your laptop
* your cell phone
* things around your home
* the internet
* and whatever else you can think about

Often I find myself thinking: "I'm sure I didn't pay all this money for my laptop to only upload photos and surf the web". When thoughts like these rise up in my mind I would surf the web and find more use for my laptop, mobile, etc. So I decided to start blogging about it.

So please feel free to share with me what you have found... so that we can have more use for what we already have.