The Mobile Media Converter (MMC) is a free video and audio converter for converting between popular desktop media formats like MP3, Windows Media Audio (wma), Ogg Vorbis Audio (ogg), Wave Audio (wav), MPEG video, AVI, Windows Media Video (wmv), Flash Video (flv), QuickTime Video (mov) and commonly used mobile devices/phones formats like AMR audio (amr) and 3GP video. iPod/iPhone and PSP compatible MP4 video are also supported.

Simple UI, great functionality

One thing that I like about MMC is that it is simple in design and does not contain any extra stuffs to misled its users. Regardless you are using Windows, Linux or Mac, you will get the same interface throughout. There is a +/- button for you to add/remove file(s), a button to select the output destination, a dropdown bar to select the output format and a Convert button to start the conversion. That’s it.

Its simple design is by no mean an indication of a lack of functionality. On the contrast, it is packed with plenty of features that you will find it useful.

Supports a variety of media formats

Be it video or audio formats, MMC has covered it all. It is able to convert between the commonly used formats, such as OGG, MP3, WMA, WMV, MP4 WAV, AVI etc. Unless you are using a device that required a special codec, MMC should have you covered.

Batch conversion

MMC supports batch conversion of videos/audios. Simply add a bunch of videos/songs to the application and it will batch convert them and save them all in the same folder.

Advance setting

Most of the time, you won’t have need for this, but if you are keen to change the output bitrate, codec, channel, size etc, then this is the place to go to.

Youtube downloader

We have previously covered several Youtube downloader desktop apps. Here’s another one to add to your collection.

The best part about this is that after downloading the Youtube video, you can convert it to the format that you want, or just to extract the mp3 track in the video. This is great if you just want to get the music out of the video.

Trim/crop

If you think that is all, then you are wrong. MMC also allows you to trim/crop your video before converting. One thing though, this functionality is hidden on its interface and you have to perform extra steps to edit the video.

On the Video entry, right click your mouse. You should now see the options to Trim/Crop. The Trim function is for you to determine the start and end length of the converted video while the Crop feature allows you to change the aspect ratio of the video.

Suggestions for Improvement

One thing that I found lacking is the ability to stop the operation once the conversion start. While testing this out, I accidentally clicked the Convert button and the conversion starts without showing a prompt. Neither does it provide a Cancel button for me to stop the operation. I have two choices: wait for 30 minutes for the conversion to complete or to kill the application completely. I choose the latter. It will be great if it stop the operation in mid-way.

Another thing that is lacking is the support for subtitle files. For converting movie to iPhone format, until it supports adding of subtitle files to the video, I will still stick with my XviD4PSP . Other than that, this is one of the best media converter that I have come across so far.

What do you think?

Image credit: Houkwing

Mobile Media Converter

Mobile Media Converter: A Cross-platform No-Brainer Media Converter originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. 5 Powerful Video Converters For Mac That You Can Use For Free
2. Convert OGG to MP4 Using VLC Media Player
3. How to Install XBMC Media Center In Ubuntu Hardy
4. How to Convert .FLAC to .MP3 In Ubuntu
5. [Windows] Converting Your Videos To iPhone Format

Firefox? What is that? Browser? Browse what? …

In MakeTechEasier, we understand how you feel, because we have been teaching people to do simple stuffs on their computers day in and out and we know how frustrating it can be. Apparently, what appears simple to us is actually an arduous task for many.

In Windows 7, there is this small and simple application that could make your life much easier. Problem Steps Recorder is an useful tool that allows you to record down your steps to troubleshoot the issue. It is almost like a screencast application, except that it saves in the MHTML format.

Using Problem Steps Recorder

In your Windows 7, click on the Windows Orb (also known as the Start menu) and type in psr in the search field.

Select and run the psr.exe application.

Click on the Start Record button

Do the required action.

At any point of time, you can Add Comment button to add comments to your recording.

Once you are done, click Stop Record. You can also click Pause Record to stop recording temporary.

PSR will then prompt you to save the recording. The saved file is in zip format. When you unzip it, you will get a MHTML file where you can double click to open it in browser.

Viewing the recording

In the file, you will see the actual steps (with screenshot) recorded by the psr. For example, I recorded the way to uninstall an application in Windows 7. The following screenshots are the result generated from PSR.

1st step: Click on the Start button.

2nd step: Click on the Control Panel

3rd step: Click uninstall program

5th step: Uninstall the application

As can be seen, every single step that I did was recorded.

Uses of PSR

Here are some ways that you can make use of the Problem Steps Recorder:

• be a technical guru and provide visual technical support, especially for your old granny.
• If you are facing a problem in Windows and are seeking support, you can use PSR to record down the problem and email to the support officer. It enables them to has a better understanding of what went wrong.
• Documentation: You may have discovered a hack to solve something and you want to record it down and store it somewhere so that you can refer to it in the future.

Have you tried PSR? What do you mainly use it for?

Note: Problem Steps Recorder is only available in Windows 7.

Become A Technical Guru With Problem Steps Recorder originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. Transform Kubuntu Jaunty to Windows 7 In 3 Simple Steps
2. Extend Your Start Menu Functionality With Vista Start Menu
3. One More Way to Install Windows 7/Vista/Server 2008 From a USB drive
4. How To Easily Create A Screencast With Wink
5. [Windows]: How to Add Custom Logo to Your PC

Tonido is a free software that turns your desktop into a personal server and allows you to access and share your files, media, calendar and apps from everywhere. Be it Windows, Mac or Linux, you simply install the software and have your own personal cloud server up and running in no time. Forget all the complicated stuffs you have heard about creating your own server. There are no technical skills required to set up and run Tonido. The best thing is – all the data resides in your own computer and there is no need to worry about security or even data loss (unless your own computer crashes).

Introducing TonidoPlug

On the other hand, if all your important data resides on your external backup drive and you wish to have your own cloud server running at all times without having to turn on your computer everytime, then TonidoPlug is the one for you.

TonidoPlug is the hardware version of Tonido. It is a tiny, low power, low cost home server and NAS device powered by Tonido software. It comes with its own RAM and CPU (and preinstalled with Ubuntu). All you need to do is to plug it into the power socket and there you are, a server ready at your beckoning. It integrates nicely with all the features found in the Tonido software and allows you to access your files, music, pictures from anywhere.

Setting up TonidoPlug

Once you have connected up the respective cables (there are only 3 cables that you need to connect: the power cable, LAN cable and the USB cable), power it up. On any computer that are linked to the home network, go to the URL: http://tonidoplug.com/ip. This will detect your Tonido Plug. In some cases where it doesn’t detect, you can enter the MAC address (at the back of the plug) to get it identified by the network.

Once the plug is detected, you will have to create a new profile for the Tonido. Those who already have an existing profile can use this method to import them into the Plug.

In the dashboard, you will find the exact same interface as the Tonido. The software available in TonidoPlug is as follow:

Many of these apps should be familiar to already Tonido users, (Jukebox, Photos, Search, Thots, Workspace). The newer apps are WebsharePro, Torrent, Explorer and Plug Admin.

Here’s a quick summary of these applications.

1. WebsharePro: All the power of Tonido Webshare, plus the ability to upload, setting upload quotas for users, zip downloads, viewing currently downloading lists, change thumbnail and photo slide show image size
2. Torrent: Download Torrent files to your plug and control torrents via your web browser from anywhere
3. Explorer: Web based File manager and browser that allows common file operations like rename, delete, copy files and folders and even uploads
4. Plug Admin: Manage your TonidoPlug hardware, recover Tonido Profile passwords, Manage attached USB drives, Share USB drives over the network for access, Monitor CPU loads etc

If you are not in your own home networks, you can also connect to your TonidoPlug via the public URL: http://yourprofilename.tonido.com:10001.

In addition, TonidoPlug is also a DLNA device, which means you are able to connect to your PS3, Xbox, or even XBMC software and stream music over the cloud.

The Tonido software is free to download and use, but the TonidoPlug comes at a price of $99.

Considering that most Web servers with the same hardware spec as the TonidoPlug can easily cost you up to $40-50 per month, at a mere price of $99, TonidoPlug is really a great bargain; not to mention the unlimited amount of storage device you can attach to it and the security issue that you never have to worry about. This is really a no-brainer deal.

Note 1: Thanks to Venkat for sending in a test unit for review and providing a prompt support for all my doubts.
Note 2: MakeTechEasier is not affiliated in any way to CodeLathe, the company behind TonidoPlug, nor do we benefit from any sale of TonidoPlug generated from this article.

TonidoPlug: Your Personal Cloud Server in a Plug originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. Review of Opera Unite: Putting a Web Server In a Browser
2. 5 Reasons Why You Should Use VirtualBox Over VMware Server
3. Installing VMware Server in Hardy Heron
4. How To Install And Setup Jinzora Media Server In Ubuntu
5. Sharing Files Between Ubuntu Host and Virtual Machines

At MakeTechEasier, we don’t usually review paid software as we are great believers of free and open source software. However, the WinX DVD team decided to give away a free 1 year license (scroll down for the download link), which makes it compelling for us to give this DVD authoring software a second look. And yes, we are not disappointed. Read on for the full review.

One good feature about WinX DVD Author is that it supports a wide variety of video formats such as AVI, ASF, MPEG, MKV, MP4, MOV, RM, RMVB, XIVD, DVIX, H264, OGG, QT (quick time), FLV, etc. Being an authoring tool, you are also able to add subtitle files, create DVD menu, clip video segment and many other useful features.

On the main screen, you can find the various options to manipulate your video files.

You can either:

1. Choose the DVD Author option and run through the wizard to create a DVD from your video file.
2. Convert the Video to Vob format and store it for later use
3. Convert existing Vob to DVD
4. and finally, burn the file to DVD.

Note that the first option DVD Author is just the combination of point 2, 3 and 4 in few clicks.

Authoring DVD

At the DVD Author page, you can see a variety of options to edit your video files.

Click on the +/- button to add/remove video files.

Change the start/end timeframe of the video.

Click on the subtitle button beside the track to add subtitle files.

Change the output resolution and check if you want to include DVD menu. There is also a one-click button for you to change between DVD-5 and DVD-9 format.

DVD title & chapter menu editing

Authoring the DVD Title & chapter menu is quite cool. Select background pictures, music and add texts that you may need to customize your DVD menu.

Burning DVD

Burning your edited video file to DVD is as simple as choosing the DVD-writer as the Device name and click on the Start button.

Suggestions for improvement:

Add text/tooltips to button

Most of the buttons found in the UI are graphical and does not come with any text description. The developers might feel that the graphic icons are self-explanatory, but I have completely no idea about the functionality of each button until I clicked on it.

Specifying supported video formats

It will be great if the developers can specify the individual supported file formats rather than just listing a Supported Formatted Files in the selection dropdown.

Add support for SWF

Not sure if this is too much to ask for, but it will be great if it can support SWF file.

Ability to create ISO images

ISO format? No?

Download link

As I mentioned above, this software costs $29.95, but is free to download until 31st Oct 2009. You can grab it at this link. This is the fully functional and licensed version, not the trial copy, so grab it while it is available.

The WinX DVD Author works in Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Thanks to Viola for sharing with us this promotion.

Download WinX DVD Author

Easily Create DVD Videos With WinX DVD Author (Free Download) originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. Download EASEUS Partition Master For Free – 24 Hours Only
2. [Windows] Converting Your Videos To iPhone Format
3. 5 Powerful Video Converters For Mac That You Can Use For Free
4. Download High Definition Video With YouTube Downloader
5. Mobile Media Converter: A Cross-platform No-Brainer Media Converter

Banana is never a synonym to technology, but 3banana Inc. somehow manages to merge them together by creating an useful web-based note-taking application and call it 3banana (yes, without the ’s’).

For those who have tried and used popular note-taking apps like Evernote or Reqall, you’ll be surprised at how simple 3banana is, without losing much of the functionality. It is one of the few note-taking application that promotes usability, portability and effortless sharing.

Usability

First of all, 3bananas is free. You just have to sign up for an account to start using it. If you have a Google account (I bet most of us have at least one), you can even sign in with your Google username and password without having to create a separate account.

Once you are logged in, the first note that appears on the dashboard is the instruction on how to use 3banana. There are several useful things that you can apply to your notes:

Links – 3banana detects all URLs and turns them to hyperlinks automatically.

HTML tags - It doesn’t support all the HTML tags, but those that it supports are enough to allow you to create a rich-text formatting note. Currently, the html tags supported by 3banana are <a href>, <br>, <span>, <embed>, <object>, <img>, <u>, <b>, <i> (it does not support <strong> and <em>). You can even attach your photos or embed a YouTube video into your notes.

Twitter-like #hashtag - Twitter has make popular the #hashtag way of organizing and searching tweets. 3banana has included this feature in its app to make your notes easier to organize and search. Simply insert a #category at the end of the note to give it a label. All notes with URLs and images are automatically assigned the label URL and Image respectively.

Portability

In your browser, 3banana can be easily accessed on the site itself or via the bookmarklets. When you are on the move, you can also access 3banana on your mobile devices. Currently, 3banana app is available for iPhone/iPod Touch (iTunes Appstore link) and any Android devices. Other phones with an Internet connection can also access the mobile site as http://m.3banana.com.

One good thing that I like about the iPhone’s 3banana app is the ability to use it when you are offline. For other note-taking apps like Evernote and ReQall on iPhone, you can use it only when you are connected to the Web, but 3banana allows you to create a note at anytime and sync it to the server when your Internet connection is next available.

Effortless Sharing

In this Web 2.0 era, you seldom find an app that doesn’t come with web-sharing feature. Be it on your computer’s browser or on your iPhone, 3banana has make it easy for you to share your notes to Facebook and Twitter. Android users can even share as a QR code. There is also an email function for those who are not into social media stuffs.

Just like a blog entry, you can also leave comments on your own (or your friend’s) notes.

Conclusion

Other than the word “banana”, which I can’t find any association with the application, I am very much impressed by the application itself. It might not be the most elegant app around, but its simple user-interface, great usability and portability have definitely make it stands out from the rest.

If you have used 3bananas, I love to hear your experience in the comments.

3banana: A User-friendly Note-taking Application originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. WebNotes: Eliminating Copy and Paste Functions, One Note At A Time
2. Toodledo: The Killer Task Management Application
3. Create and Edit Your Notes Easily With Sidenote
4. How to Create a Video Channel From Different Video Sharing Sites
5. Easy Twittering and Facebook(ing) with Seesmic

WindowShade X is a small software (3.3MB) with plenty of great and useful features that allow you to manage your application windows more efficiently and quickly.

Before WindowShade X

When working with multiple windows on a Mac, you have a couple of options.

* Expose is by far, in my opinion, the most useful native application on a Mac for accessing multiple windows fast.

* Spaces groups open windows into separate work areas.

* Command + M will minimize the open window to the Dock.

While all of these can help manage several open windows, problems still remain. Viewing, quick access, locking a window on top of all others are a few.

After WindowShade X

I”ll give you three guesses what kind of problems WindowShade X solves. If it takes you more than two, your just plain slow. Get a cup of coffee and come back, I’ll wait here.

Okay, now that everyone here is a little more awake, here we go again.

Windowshade

The first solution offered is the namesake of the application. When the title bar of the window is double clicked, the body of the window disappears like a shade. This is great for things that need to be easily accessed, yet out of the way. This feature coupled with Growl notifications are great when using an instant messenger. The message can be read from the pop up notification. If I need to respond, the window is tucked away and easier to get to than if it were in the Dock.

Transparent Windows

The next feature you didn’t know you needed but will fall in love with is making a window transparent. Double clicking the title bar while holding the Ctrl button allows you to see the window(s) behind the one you are working in. The opacity is adjustable in the settings menu. At first I wasn’t sure I would use this feature a lot. Then I started to make it transparent for no reason just to try it. What I noticed is, I can watch a video playing in the background while I am typing notes. I can look at the cool desktop picture of the day or have a Seesmic open so I can monitor my Twitter feed.

Minimize-In-Place

This is probably my favorite of the features. Simply put, it minimizes the open window to the bottom of the screen with a double tap of the Ctrl button. The placement can be changed in the settings menu. I have mine go across the bottom of the screen. What makes this different than using the Command + M shortcut, is you can reopen that same window with another double tap of the Ctrl button. Minimizing a window this way is great if you want to look at something on the page directly behind the open window.

Keep Windows On Top

This last feature can be used in combination with the Windowshade and transparent window options. By double tapping the Command button, the window is locked on top of the others. It can be unlocked in the same way. I was amazed at how much time this feature saved me. Some ways you may want to use this feature would be if you are copying and pasting sections of one form to another. Having both windows accessible by clicking back and forth is a huge time saver. Another great use is, when used in combination with the “Windowshade”, the shaded windows can float on top of the windows for easy access.

The standard commands for minimizing like Command + M still work. However, when the standard methods are used in conjunction with these new features, you will be amazed at how much time you wasted toggling between windows before.

Windowshade X is free to try, but costs $13.50 to own. The demo software is fully functional and is available for trial for up to 15 days. Download it here.

How do you manage multiple open windows on your Mac?

Mac: Manage Your App Windows More Efficiently With Windowshade X originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. How to Manage Your Email More Efficiently With Postbox
2. Afloat 2.2 Adds Support For Snow Leopard and New Features
3. How To Organize Windows Folders and Applications in Multiple Tabs
4. How To Use Zimbra To Manage Your Email Accounts
5. How To Capture And Manage Your Screenshots Easily In Windows

The application that I am talking about is WinToFlash. This is a small application (only 2.1MB) that allows you to convert your Windows installer CD/DVD to a bootable USB drive. Not only is it easy to use (nearly idiot-proof and does not require you to have any technical knowledge), it is also fully portable – No installation is required and you can bring it wherever you are.

Preparation

Before you start, here are some stuffs that you need to take note of:

1) You need to have a USB drive of at least 3GB space in order to create a Windows 7 bootable USB drive.

2) The process will format and wipe off all your files in the USB drive. Remember to backup before you proceed.

3) You need to have a Windows 7 installer DVD and an optical drive to read the DVD. If you have only the ISO file (downloaded directly from Microsoft), you can use Virtual Clone Drive to mount the ISO in your computer.

Installation

Download WinToFlash

Put in your Windows 7 installer DVD and plug in your USB drive.

Unzip the folder to your desktop and run the WinToFlash.exe file

Some of you might see the “WinToFlash DLP_NotFound” error message. You can safely ignore this error message.

On the main screen, click on the Window Setup Transfer Wizard. This will bring you to the wizard mode where it automates (almost) the whole process for you.

On the next screen, there is an option for you to go into the Advanced mode and tweak some of the settings. You can ignore that (if you are not into tweaking) and click Next to proceed.

Point the Windows file path to the Windows Installer DVD directory.

Point the USB drive to the USB directory.

Click Next.

Accept the agreement.

Preparing your USB drive. Make sure you have backup all the important files before you proceed. This will erase all your data.

Transferring in progress. This might take a while. Go for your coffee break.

Once you see the following message, the whole process is done. You can now boot Windows 7 from the USB drive.

Some computers require you to change the bootup setting in the BIOS before you can boot from USB. Look into your motherboard/computer manual for more instruction.

How To Boot And Install Windows 7 From USB Flash Drive (Updated) originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. How To Boot And Install Windows 7 From USB Flash Drive
2. One More Way to Install Windows 7/Vista/Server 2008 From a USB drive
3. How To Dual Boot Windows XP And Vista
4. How to Dual Boot Windows Vista And Windows 7
5. How to Install Ubuntu in Windows

1.  NeoOffice

NeoOffice is very impressive. It is a user friendly office tool that will help you develop all the documentation, spreadsheets, and presentations for your business. If you have used other office application softwares, it has the same basic functionalities, as well as additional ones. NeoOffice Writer has everything you would need a word processing software to have. One great feature that I haven’t seen anywhere else is the Bibliography Database. If you are creating extensive documentation that has numerous references, Bibliography Database keeps track of them. NeoOffice Calc helps you create easy and robust spreadsheets that you can use. NeoOffice Impress helps you create impressive presentations that will wow your clients. NeoOffice Drawing allows you to design your own documentations, very similar to Adobe’s InDesign. Overall, it’s a great suite of office applications with the quality of expensive versions of it.

To download NeoOffice, here is the site: http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

2.GanttProject

GanttProject allows you to create a work-breakdown structure that will keep track of your project schedule, critical paths, and milestones. Additionally, it allows you to monitor your resources. It is very similar to MS Project, but without the cost. You can easily add resource information, task-related options, and link tasks that people have complained is pretty hard to do on MS Project. This can be used for any project, including blog creation, marketing schedule, or social media game plan.

To download GanttProject, here is the site: http://www.ganttproject.biz/

3. EverNote

Evernote is a way of keeping track of all your notes that you collect for a project. It is great because you can capture images, videos, and another forms of media that you are unable to get using a basic word processing tool, or scribbling notes by hand. The great thing about it is that you can sync it to the web, smartphone, and computer, so you have all your information any time. The free version gives you 40MB a month, so if you want more space, you will need to upgrade, which gives you 500MB. Overall, it’s a great capture-all software that can keep all the notes for your project.

To download EverNote, here is the site: https://www.evernote.com

4. Buddi

Buddi is a simple finance accounting software that provides you a way to keep track of your expenses. It doesn’t have a way to interface with your financial institution, like you could probably get from web-based finance accounting tools (e.g. Mint or Yodlee). However, the budget reports more than make up for it. There are reports and charts that you can use to view your budget in different formats. Overall, it does the job to keep track of your business.

To download Buddi, here is the site: http://buddi.digitalcave.ca/

5. FreeMind

FreeMind is a mind map tool that allows you to create mind maps of your project. Mindmapping is a great way to help you with planning. It’s a tool that many businesses are starting to adopt because they see the value in using this as a way to plan projects before the work begins. FreeMind has the basic functions that allows you to create a mine map. Furthermore, your maps can have images, colors, and attachments to make it come to life. Another great feature is the ability to write notes that append to a node so you can have additional formation that could not be shown mind map. You can also link to external web sites, and get to them from FreeMind.

To download FreeMind, here is the site: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

What other software do you use to manage your business?

Five Free Business Tools for Mac Users originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. Three Free RSS Readers for Mac Users
2. Two Useful Mac Tools to Help Students Track Their Assignments
3. 10 Free Mac applications You Can’t Live Without
4. FreeMind: Mind Mapping Software For All Platforms
5. Easily Create DVD Videos With WinX DVD Author (Free Download)

Some students just accepted everything as part of their life and moved on (while mumbled red-penciled words along the way), some thought that they’ve had enough and tried to make their points by protesting the authorities, but some others tried to find the way out and came up with these free applications.

Schoolhouse vs iProcrastinate

1. Schoolhouse

As the name suggest, this app is designed to help school students manage their assignments. It has the ability to add, sort and organize assignments, exams, and projects quickly and easily. Students can create notebooks (collection of notes) and notes (the place to actually write class notes). Files and links can be attached to the notes for easy references.

Beside the intuitive iTunes-like interface, other thing that I find cool about this app is the ability to easily add “partners” to each assignment. The name of the “partner” will be picked up from the Address Book. Alternatively, if your partner’s name is not in the address book, you can add new person.

Schoolhouse goes further by providing Classcast, a feature which ability is to publish assignments to the web automatically for anyone to subscribe to. And as the final touch, students can chart their scores over the course of the term to keep a general outlook of their progress.

In general, this one is a great application for students. But one important thing is missing, the ability to synchronize the task to iCal. This means no mobile alarm or reminder available when the users are away from the computer.

2. iProcrastinate

This app will allow students to prolong their slacking time and procrastinate more by giving those classroom citizens the ability to create and edit subjects and tasks and breaking them into more simple and manageable steps.

Other than all the standard features of task and assignments tracker for students, iProcrastinate has a nice feature of associating files to an assignment and burn those files to CD as backup or as a way to share the materials to peers.

If you compare this app with Schoolhouse, iProcrastinate should have an advantage of having the ability to add the tasks to iCal as to dos. But when I tried this feature, nothing happened (maybe it’s just me?). More on having task reminders on the go, iProcrastinate also comes as iPhone application which gives it an edge over Schoolhouse which only available as Mac desktop app.

As for the interface, I prefer Schoolhouse over iProcrastinate. Another downside of iProcrastinate is the “too minimalistic” help file and Preferences. It’s difficult to dig deeper as the website is also too uninformative. For example: the developer claimed that users can create quick task instantly from any application, but even after really trying, I failed to find the way to do so.

Other alternatives

There are other free task and assignment trackers which are not created by students, such as: AssignmentTracker X (an open-source project) and Task List (no longer under development and is unsupported, but still works fine under Leopard).

What about you? Do you use one of these tools or do you know other better alternatives? Share using the comment below.

Two Useful Mac Tools to Help Students Track Their Assignments originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. Five Free Business Tools for Mac Users
2. How To Perfect Your Quicktime In Mac With Two Simple Tools
3. Instantly Track Popular Software with Wakoopa
4. 8 Great Tools to Enhance Your Dock
5. 4 Tools To Make Vista’s UAC Less Annoying Without Compromising Your Security

Here are three open source free antivirus software for Windows. They have functionality that will give you the ability to protect your system and information the same way as paid antivirus software.
Note: Remember that it is very important to keep it up-to-date because there are different viruses popping up every day.

1. ClamWin

ClamWin is a standalone, open source virus scanner with a scanning scheduler. It gets the job done by scanning and removing harmful malware that could affect your system. One of the great features is that it automatically downloads updates to fight and prevent new viruses that have appeared after you initially install the software. ClamWin is the most simplest of the three antivirus software.

Another useful functionality is that it integrates with Windows Explorer; in addition, there is an add-in to Microsoft Outlook to automatically remove virus-infected attachments. It doesn’t have an online scanner, which is not good because the Internet is usually accessed when the computer is on.

Another issue is that there is no automatic way to scan a file for viruses. In order to scan for viruses, you have to manually perform this process. For this antivirus scanner to be useful, you would have to also have an additional scanner that prevents malware from being placed on your system from your internet browser.

To download or find out more information about ClamWin: http://www.clamwin.com/

2. AVG Free

AVG is another antivirus and antispyware software that protects against viruses, spyware, adware, and trojans created for Windows. Like ClamWin, it does automatically scan for new virus definitions daily. It also has an added advantage that it is able to scan online items in a real-time capability. It has a Scheduler that can let you set and change time frames of when the virus scanner should run.

One of the major cons with AVG Free is that it does not protect against identity theft, hacker attacks, infected downloads, infected instant-messaging and spam. If you want to protect your system from these types of attacks, you will have to upgrade to the paid service. Furthermore, the free edition does not give you access to AVG technicians in case you run into a problem, which can be a major flaw because that is something that should be offered, even if you are not paying. AVG Free has useful functionality that can be sufficient in protecting your computer, but it does not fully protect the way it should.

To download or find out more information about AVG Free: http://free.avg.com/

3. AntiVir Personal 8

AntiVir Personal 8 scans both internal and external hard drives. The antivirus software has the increasingly popular “Advanced Heuristics Analysis and Detection” technology, which provides new levels of virus detection and cleaning by intelligently analyzing whether or not something is a virus. This is something that ClamWin and AVG Free do not have.

Additionally, AntiVir has the capability of allowing users to remove viruses by a one-button removal button. When it opens, AntiVir opens up to an overview of your last scan, last update, and what version you are running. The software has an internal event log that shows a detailed look of the your entire system. There are also reports that you can run to check your system and how well the software is protecting it.

Out of the three software, AntiVir seems to offer more functionality that is similar to paid antivirus software. It does not leave any needed feature out that could allow malware to infect your system.

To download or find out more information about AntiVir Personal 8: http://www.free-av.de/en/index.html

Others

Don’t forget too about the free Microsoft Security Essential that we have previously covered. While Microsoft has stop the free download, you can still find a copy at Softpedia.

3 Free and Useful AntiVirus Software for Windows originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. A Quick Look At Microsoft Security Essentials Free Antivirus Software
2. FileInspect: Learn the Truth About Windows Processes Running In Your Computer
3. Maintain Up-To-Date Software In Your PC With SUMo
4. Download EASEUS Partition Master For Free – 24 Hours Only
5. Easy Ways to Keep Your PC Running Smoothly

Although I have previously covered two useful software for encrypting USB drive: Windows 7 BitLocker and TrueCrypt, one thing that prevented me from using them on the move is that these two software require administrator privilege (or the ultimate version of Windows 7) to use, which in most Internet cafes, you don’t have access to.

There are also several others encryption software out there, but the one that worked well for me, and apparently free and does not require any administrator privileges is Rohos Mini Drive.

What Rohos Mini Drive does is to create hidden and encrypted partition on the USB flash drive memory. When you plug in your USB drive, you won’t get to see the hidden partition. Only when you run the Rohos application (within the USB drive) and enter your password, then will the hidden partition appear. Since the Rohos application does not require access (or modification) to the computer’s system, it doesn’t require any administrator privileges to run it. This is great for those who need to access their encrypted data on a public computer that they don’t have administrator access to.

Installing Rohos Mini Drive

The initial step to create an encrypted USB drive requires you to install and run the application in your own computer. This will require administrator privileges.

Download Rohos Mini Drive (Windows only).

Double click the application to install it in your computer.

Once the installation is done, insert in your USB drive. You don’t have to reformat the drive, but you have to make sure that there is enough space to create the new partition.

Open the Rohos Mini Drive application from the Start menu.

In the main window, click Setup USB Key

Rohos Mini Drive will proceed to detect your USB drive. Click Change to edit the partition configuration.

In the configuration window, you can configure the Disk letter that the hidden partition to be mounted to, the encrypted partition size (maximum 2GB), the file system type and the encryption algorithm. The last thing is to point the installation location to your USB drive. The encrypted file will come with a .rdi extension.

Click OK to proceed.

Back to the USB Key Creation window, enter your password and make sure that it is a safe one. Click Create Disk.

Encryption completed.

Now open your Windows Explorer and navigate to your USB drive. You should see only the Rohos Mini application (which was not there originally).

Double click the Rohos mini application. Enter the encryption password when prompted.

You should now see your hidden partition prompted in the drive letter that you have chosen earlier.

You can install all your portable apps or store your confidential data on the hidden partition now.

What other software do you use to encrypt your USB drive?

How to Password Protect Your USB Drive Without Administrator Privilege originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. TrueCrypt: Encrypt Your Data The Easy Way
2. Safe Guard Your Password With KeePassX
3. How To Store Thousands Of Password With Password Manager
4. How to Easily Encrypt Your USB Drive in Windows 7
5. How To Resize And Create Partitions With Gnome Partition Editor (GParted)

Desktop blog editors provide bloggers additional functionalities that are missing in your blog’s default editor (e.g. WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, etc.). Additionally, you are able to write and edit your blog posts offline, which provides a way to save your work on your computer’s hard drive while also not having to be connected to the Internet. One of the best desktop-based blog editors is Qumana.

What is Qumana?

Qumana is a desktop-based blog editor that allows you to create and modify blog posts for more than one blog. Additionally, it provides you access to blog posts offline and without a need of a browser. It eases editing and insertion of various types of media that is usually a headache in your default blog editor. One unique function is the integration with its own keyword-drive ad system, which is very much like Google AdSense. It also allows you to add basic Technorati tag that is usually only able to work with other blog editors if you install a plugin. Furthermore, it rivals fee-based blog editors that have the same or less functions that Qumana has to offer. It can be installed on Mac, Windows, or Linux.

What Blog Platforms does Qumana Work With?

Qumana works with a variety of blog platforms. They are the following:

• Angelfire
• Blogger/Blogspot
• BlogHarbor
• Blogware
• Bryght
• DiaryLand
• Drupal
• LiveJournal
• MovableType
• MSN Spaces
• Tripod
• TypePad
• Roller
• SquareSpace
• Wordpress.com
• Wordpress.org
• Plus most platforms that support the Blogger, MovableType or MetaWeblog API’s

Can I edit blog entries that I didn’t create using Qumana?

Yes, you are able to import your blog entries you created outside of Qumana. You can also import your blog categories. Tags are the only items that you are unable to reuse. You have to continue retyping them for each new blog post.

Can I ping services to know that I updated my blog?

Yes, Qumana provides you the ability of adding different ping services, so you can alert them after you publish a new blog post.

Does it support plugins?

At this moment, they do not support plugins.

Can I reuse what I write?

Yes, with Qumana’s DropPad. You are able to drag and drop images, texts, and links to your posts. The DropPad allows you to copy+paste information you find while browsing without having to open another program to contain what you collect.

Can I insert ads in my blog posts?

Q Ads is an advertising network that works within Qumana to insert keyword-driven ads into your blog posts. It provides an easy way to make money on your blogs without having to create an affiliate or Google Adsense account. Q Ads is easy to sign up for and use within Qumana.

Qumana provides a blog editor for all systems.  It still lacks some functions that other blog editors have.  However, it makes up with it by being user friendly and low maintenance.

What blog editor do you use to write your posts?

Qumana: An Easy-to-Use Alternative to Desktop Blogging originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. Amaya: A Simple, Yet Useful Alternative to Dreamweaver
2. Understanding WordPress (Self Hosted WordPress vs WordPress.com)
3. 5 Great Alternative To Photoshop
4. How To Create A ‘Maintenance’ Holding Page When Upgrading Your WordPress Blog
5. Get Your Desktop Organized With Stardock Fences

If you’re like me, you cheat a little. You probably use your e-mail address as a username whenever you can (or recycle the same username), re-use the same password depending on the sensitivity of whatever you’re logging into, and save certain passwords on the sites you visit frequently. Let’s not kid ourselves- we know in the back of our minds that this isn’t the best way to do it, but everybody does it anyways. But is there a better way? Can we keep our really sensitive information safe with the same kind of convenience given by saved passwords, recycled usernames, and re-used passwords?

Well in a word, “no,” but we can come close. Password management applications offer a compromise between convenience and security by storing an encrypted database of your usernames and passwords behind one master password.

Enter KeePassX, a cross-platform password manager based on the old Windows Keepass Password Safe. While not as polished as the commercial alternatives like 1Password, KeePassX is no less functional and comes without the rather hefty $39.95 price tag.

The main window of KeyPassX is simple and intuitive- 3 different panes containing the list of password groups, the list of passwords within the active group, and a sort of “card” showing the basic information for each password entry. I’m partial to the 3-column layout of Apple’s Address Book and the various Apple Mail plugins that do the same thing, but that’s a minor issue. Passwords and usernames are blocked out with asterisks, which you can view by opening the entry.

Creating a new entry brings up a window in which you enter a Title, Username, URL, password, and a comment. You can get to the highly customizable password generator from here; which allows you to select the type of characters to include, the length, and various options for character selection. As you can see from the screen shot, nobody is ever going to guess “~pE2%*dp=*K=?W7$J1,Kmo@;|“. You can set a password to expire after a certain amount of time, as well as choose an icon for each entry.

Worried about security?

KeePassX’s databases are stored locally and protected by 256-bit AES or Twofish encryption. Even 128-bit encryption like that used by 1Password would take millions of years to crack via brute-force, so you’ve really got nothing to worry about on that front.

Other nice features of KeePassX are cross-platform database formats and my personal favorite- the ability to use a key file to unlock the database. So if you wanted you could only unlock your database by inserting a USB stick containing the key file.

There are some issues I have with KeePassX.  First of all it’s still in beta (version 0.4.0 as of this writing). While I have not experienced any crashes after a couple days of use, stability is something I consider of paramount importance for a program that handles such sensitive information. While the main screen has a “New Entry” button, a “New Group” button would be nice also. Safari or FireFox integration would be nice, but since it’s open source maybe someone much smarter than I am will create a plugin.  The Settings are a little sparse- for example, it would be nice to be able to make the username visible in the Entry list. Lastly, the program could be a little more robust by offering different categories of entries such as Credit Card numbers and software license information, both of which have fields not necessarily applicable to logins and passwords.

Minor quibbles aside, KeePassX is a promising alternative to storing a text file in an encrypted disk image or shelling out $40 for commercial software. I am very impressed with the program so far, and plan to use it extensively.

Do you know of any other password managers?  Leave a note in the comments.

Safe Guard Your Password With KeePassX originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. How To Store Thousands Of Password With Password Manager
2. How to Password Protect Your USB Drive Without Administrator Privilege
3. Retrieve And Change Your Windows Product Key With RockXP
4. How to Manage Your Email More Efficiently With Postbox
5. TrueCrypt: Encrypt Your Data The Easy Way

What is Zemanta?

Zemanta provides a way to enhance your blog posts by searching for keywords within your posts and suggesting related content. Additionally, Zemanta suggests post tags that you can use, so that it’s easier for search engines to index your posts, or readers to find content within your site.

Zemanta helps alleviate plagiarism because all of the material is free to use or links back to the original.  Zemanta also works with Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. If you are writing e-newsletters, this provides a way to enrich your newsletters, so that your readers want to continue their subscriptions. It’s point-and-click approach is a timesaver that gives you more time to think up more blog posts or e-newsletter items. According to their site, they have access to over 5-million pictures, 5-million articles, and 10-million related content. Therefore, there are plenty of items to use.

What does Zemanta work with?

Below is a diagram of what apps work with Zemanta, and what kind of content Zemanta brings in:

You can also register with Zemanta, so that you are able to bring in user-defined content from different sites (e.g. Twitter, Mashable, Facebook, etc.). Zemanta allows you to input your Amazon Associates ID, so you can link to books, cds, and any other product on the Amazon affiliate system. If you click on the “My Stuff” image, you will only search through this content. When you unclick it, you are able to search the entire Zemanta database.

How can I use Zemanta?

There are four ways to use Zemanta:

1. Browser Add-On – Zemanta can be added on Firefox or Internet Explorer.  Whenever you open your blogging platform, regardless of which one it is, Zemanta will open up and allow you to add related content to your blog. If you use the add-on and use Gmail or Yahoo! Mail, Zemanta adds an “Add Zemanta” button in your Compose box, so you can also enhance your emails or e-newsletters.
2. Bookmarklet – If you are using one of the other browsers or don’t feel like using the add-on, you can add the bookmarklet instead. When you press it, it will provide the same interface, like the add-on.
3. Live Writer Plugin – For Live Writer users, the Zemanta plugin enhances the application to better help you write your blog posts.
4. Server-Side Plugin – You can download plugins for either WordPress, MovableType, or Drupal. It works just like the browser add-on and bookmarklet.  However, you are not able to use it within your email.

I am still not convinced.  Can I test it out?

Zemanta has an interactive demo that allows you to input text, and see how Zemanta can work for you.

Enhance Your Blog Posts and E-Newsletter With Zemanta originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. How To Create A ‘Maintenance’ Holding Page When Upgrading Your WordPress Blog
2. Scribefire: A Full Featured Blog Editor For Firefox Users
3. 10 Social Media Plugins for Windows Live Writer
4. Qumana: An Easy-to-Use Alternative to Desktop Blogging
5. 25 Time Saving Bookmarklets You Will Want to Have in Your Browser

Poor application programming is usually the cause of these apps retaining system resources and the usual fix is to perform a soft reset of the device – although a Task Manager is included on Windows Mobile 5 and later, it usually only assists in closing difficult to exit programs.

CleanRAM therefore is a vital tool in managing memory resources on Windows Mobile devices, and is available free from FreewarePocketPC.net. We’re going to look now at how to use CleanRAM in different ways to control allocated memory.

Getting Started

Once installed, cleanRAM displays two icons in your Windows Mobile programs view – the basic launch/clean app and the cleanRAM Config app.

cleanRAM Config determines the type of clean up that will be performed when the cleanRAM app is launched, with three cleaning “depths”:

Level 1 is a “Basic Purge”, best for closing non-responding tasks without resorting to Task Manager. Some versions of Task Manager – particularly that found in Windows Mobile 5 and 6 – are slow to respond when instructed to close the application in question, and fail to fully end all related processes. Basic Purge is quick and is the default setting on cleanRAM.

Level 2 is known as the “Quality Purge”. This option is recommended for best performance – in reality it cleans deeper than the basic option, but in around the same sort of time frame. Quality Purge is a good option to choose to save you performing a soft-reset. It will exit virtually all Windows Mobile apps and non-required processes, leaving your device to run as if it had just been switched on.

Level 3 is the maximum clean up option, “Fundamental Purge”. This option is vital for cutting ties with bad applications, perhaps online services that are hanging due to a poor data connection or those that the Quality Purge option failed to end. Fundamental Purge can take a bit of time to complete and as such should only be used in the most extreme cases.

These three options provide the best memory cleaning available to a Windows Mobile user free of charge, and using cleanRAM is a simple case of selecting the purge option, setting it as default and launching the clean up via the cleanRAM app button.

Advanced Customization and Scheduling Options

Along with these three options, cleanRAM offers a variety of options for customizing and scheduling your Windows Mobile system clean up.

The Customized Processes List allows you to select the running processes you wish to clean up (or end) whenever the cleanRAM tool is used. These processes can be added to the Customized Processes List, which means they will be the only ones cleaned when cleanRAM is run. The Customized Processes List is disabled by default, and must be enabled via the check box.

Conversely, the Exceptions List allows you to select processes that are never cleaned. The Exceptions List is activated via the check box.

Scheduling is accessed via the cleanRAM config menu and must also be enabled via the check box.  Using scheduling you can choose your purge level, set a time (hourly, every 4 hours, etc) and choose which days of the week of the cleanRAM runs.

Finally, it’s a simple task to backup your cleanRAM settings. This means rather than resorting to careful reselection of exceptions and scheduling following an uninstall of the tool or a hard device reset (restoring the factory settings of your Windows Mobile device) you simply restore your cleanRAM configuration settings from a backup stored on your Windows Mobile device memory card.

cleanRAM is one of the best utilities available for the Windows Mobile platform. If you do use it and gain benefit from it, remember to consider contributing a donation to the developers at www.htcaddicts.com.

Clean Up Your Windows Mobile Easily With CleanRAM originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. Windows Mobile: Installing Viigo And Managing Your RSS feeds
2. Things You Need to Check Before Installing Software on the Windows Mobile
3. How to Tether Your Windows Mobile
4. How to Configure Spb Mobile Shell 3 For Windows Mobile
5. Guide to Using a Software Keyboard in Windows Mobile

To download the beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials, you need to first login to your Windows Live account and complete a survey. Once that is done, you will be able to download the respective software for your Windows version (Win XP or Vista/7).

At MakeTechEasier, we will take you through the software and show you what to expect from this yet another Microsoft product.

Simple Interface

One thing that anyone will notice immediately after the installation is that it is simple in design and user interface. You don’t find plenty of fanciful icons or even several levels deep of tab menu. All you find is only a simple window with some simple, but important options.

There are four main tabs on the window: Home, Update, History and Settings.

Home is where you view the current status while the Update tab show you the last virus definition update time. The History tab shows a list of all the virus detected on your computer and the actions taken to combat the virus. Lastly, the Settings tab contains the common configuration options found in almost every anti-virus software, including scheduling regular scan, actions to take when viruses are detected, scan files and attachments as they are downloaded etc.

Low on Memory Resources

I have tried several anti-virus software, both paid and free, on my Windows over the years and there is always one thing in common: The CPU and memory usage spike up whenever I run a full scan of the computer. When I test-drive with Microsoft Security Essentials on Windows 7, I was surprised that while scanning my hard disk, it didn’t cause my other applications to hang. I am pretty impressed by the low memory usage and how it can get things done without causing the whole system to hang.

Screenshots tour:

After Thoughts

With the bitDefender firewal, User Account Controll and now the anti-virus software, it seems that Microsoft is making a serious attempt to combat the all securities issues that are troubling them all this while. While this won’t stop hackers from developing new viruses, it does make the system slightly harder to crack.

What other anti-virus software do you think is worth the mention here? Shout it out in the comments.

A Quick Look At Microsoft Security Essentials Free Antivirus Software originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. 3 Free and Useful AntiVirus Software for Windows
2. Maintain Up-To-Date Software In Your PC With SUMo
3. 4 Tools To Make Vista’s UAC Less Annoying Without Compromising Your Security
4. Easy Ways to Keep Your PC Running Smoothly
5. Calq: A Quick Calculator At Your Fingertips

This free open-source mail client (available for Mac and Windows) combines few great features that can help users manage their emails better.

The developer’s site have a comprehensive list of Postbox’s features and abilities, but here are few that I personally find useful.

1. Create new accounts

The first time Postbox is opened, it will offer you to create a new account. You can also create another account later by going to File -> New -> Account menu. Compared to other email client that I’ve used so far, Postbox’s new account creation is the easiest. It supports major web mail services like GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo and even MobileMe.

2. Browse mails with tabs

Each time you select a mail, it will be shown on one of the window’s pane. There are two pane’s layout that you can choose: Classic View and Vertical View. You can toggle between these two views from the View -> Layout menu.

If you double click on one of the messages, it will be opened in a new tab instead of window. I think the idea is nice and produces less cluttered workspace.

3. Organize messages with topics

In Postbox, you can organize messages by topics. You can set and add any topics that you can think of according to your preferences.

The easiest way to add topic is by right clicking on the favorite topic pane and choose “Create New Favorit Topic” on the popup window. Then you can to assign messages to the topic by clicking the Plus (+) sign next to the “Topic” option in each message.

But if you need to assign topic(s) to many messages automatically, use filtering option for the fastest result. Go to “Message -> Create Filter From Message” menu.

4. To Dos

Postbox comes with the ability to create to do list easily. Not as elaborate as Outlook, but most people – like me – do not need advance organizing capability.

You can create a to do entry manually by clicking “New To Do” icon, or you can ‘tag’ a to do entry to a message by selecting a message and clicking the ‘To Do” button in the message view.

After that, if you go to “View -> Pin To Dos” menu, all the message with the ‘To Do’ tag will be listed above other message.

5. Attachment (and other) List

This app also has a attachment list feature that will show all the attachments from all of the messages in one page. Just click on the Attachment button under the search field. There are 3 other list buttons that you can choose: Images, Links, and Contacts.

The list will open up in a new tab. From here on you can choose to Save (to your hard drive), Send (to others via email), Upload (to Google Docs, but I don’t think this service is compatible with every filetype), or just to have a Quick Look.

This list is based on my short encounter with Postbox for Mac, but the feel for Windows version should not be far off. As time goes by, I’m sure I’ll add more to the “what I like about Postbox” list.

Have you tried Postbox? Whether you will like it or not, this nice app deserves at least a try.

And as always, share your thoughts and experiences in the comment below.

How to Manage Your Email More Efficiently With Postbox originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. How To Use Zimbra To Manage Your Email Accounts
2. Mac: Manage Your App Windows More Efficiently With Windowshade X
3. How to Receive Yahoo Mails From Desktop Email Client in Mac
4. Download Webmail to POP & RSS Reader Tool
5. Manage Your Ebook Library with Calibre

Getting Started

Getting started with Kdenlive depends on your distribution. Precompiled packages are available for Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, Mandriva, OpenSUSE, FreeBSD, Fedora, and possibly others.  Their web site also includes a builder wizard that builds the dependencies and main packages automatically for you. Once it is installed, you should be able to start editing videos right away, but you will want to go through the Config Wizard to make sure you have all of the components you will need.

The Config Wizard will show you which video codecs are supported.  If, for example, you intend to make portable web videos in an mpeg4 format, you must have the right encoder. Ubuntu includes a guide for installing most of the standard codecs, and other distributions provide similar methods.

Importing Videos

If your recorded video is on a DV camera, you must import it using a firewire cable.  Click View in the menu and check the Record Monitor button. If it is already checked, click on the appropriate tab to bring up the window. It will ask you to plug in your camcorder and press the connect button. Ideally, this should work automatically. My experience, however, has never been ideal.

If it does not immediately detect your camera, you may need to adjust the permissions for your device.  Run this simple command as root or with sudo:

chmod 777 /dev/raw1394

The default setting in Ubuntu is for /dev/raw1394 to be read-only, so you will most likely need to execute the above command with it and similar distributions. You should now be able to view both recorded and live video from your camera in the Record Monitor window. Kdenlive relies on dvgrab, a product of the Kino project, to capture video. You should have it installed if you made it through the Config Wizard successfully.

At this point, you can begin recording.  Kdenlive can be configured to detect clips. Whenever it thinks a scene has been stopped, it will start a new clip. If this will not work for your video, you can setup time intervals for your clips or manually start and stop recording for each one.

In addition to importing from a DV camcorder, you can also record from a webcam or record your desktop with Screen grab. Additionally, you can import all supported video formats as clips.

Adding Photos

There are two ways to add photos to Kdenlive: individually or as a slideshow. To add a single image, click on Project –>Add clip. If you want to create an entire timed slideshow in a single clip, click Add Slideshow Clip and follow the onscreen instructions. Because of the KDE integration, you can also drag a photo from your file manager directly into the Project Tree. By default, each photo will display for 5 seconds. You can change this and the picture size in clip properties.

Editing your video

At this stage, you are ready to create a timeline. Once all of your clips are in the Project Tree, begin dragging them to the timeline in whichever order you prefer. It is really that easy. Clips can even be shortened simply by dragging the end of the clip to the left, just like resizing a window.

You can also add effects by simply dragging items from the Effect List onto your video clips.  The Effect Stack will show you which effects are enabled on your clips. At any time, you can use the Project Monitor to see how  your finished video will look. Kdenlive also has an Undo History so that you can see every step that you have made if you need to go back and undo something.

To add a title, click on Project –> Add Title Clip. You can add background images and shapes in addition to just text, or you can have the text overlay video.

To add audio clips, click Add Clip and then insert your Mp3 or other file as you would a video clip. There are special tracks on the default timeline just for video. You can also add audio effects.

The Finished Product

When you have your video edited exactly the way you want it, all that remains is creating the finished product.  Kdenlive has a DVD wizard built into it, but it requires DVDAuthor, an external program. Simply click on File and DVD Wizard to begin making a DVD.

If you intend to make any other type of file format, click the Render button. There are numerous file formats to choose from, as long as you have those codecs installed. For this example, we will choose Theora and then choose 720×480 format. Select Full project to export the entire timeline that you created.

When you have all of the settings you want, click Render to File. It will start creating your video and show you the progress. Depending on the size of your video and the speed of your computer, rendering can take minutes to hours.

This is only a brief introduction to a powerful video editing tool. While it is still under heavy development and far from perfect, it looks like a very promising video editing application. The Kdenlive site has documentation, video tutorials and an active forum if you want to learn more. I have found that nothing beats hands-on experience. Make a few test videos and learn all of the features, and after you have mastered them, you can begin creating your future award-winning productions.

Editing Videos With Kdenlive originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. Easily Create DVD Videos With WinX DVD Author (Free Download)
2. Download YouTube Videos For Offline Viewing On Linux
3. [Windows] Converting Your Videos To iPhone Format
4. Miro: Watch Internet TV On Your Desktop
5. Download High Definition Video With YouTube Downloader

Virtual CloneDrive

Virtual CloneDrive is a third party software that works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, except that it exists virtually. Once you have installed VCD, it will mount itself as an empty CD ROM drive in your Windows Explorer. You can then use it to mount your ISO images (just like the action of putting CD into your CD-ROM).

1. Download and install Virtual Clone Drive. (If you are using Windows 2000 or XP, you must be an administrator to install it, else it won’t work). You will be prompted to restart your computer.

2. Open up your Windows Explorer. You should now see a new BD-ROM drive.

3. Right click on the BD-ROM and select Virtual CloneDrive->Mount

4. Navigate to the directory where you store your ISO file and select it.

5. Virtual CloneDrive will magically mount the ISO as a CD in the system. You will be able to run the application or view the content directly from the ISO file.

Virtual CloneDrive works across most version of Windows, including Windows 7 RC1.

Alternative method

If you are not the administrator of your Windows XP machine or you can’t get Virtual CloneDrive to work, the alternative software that you can use is Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel.

1. Download Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel package.

2. Double click the .exe file to extract the package. When prompted, remember to select Desktop as the directory to unzip the folder to.

3. You should now have three files on your desktop: VcdControlTool.exe, VCdRom.sys and a readme.txt file.

4. Copy the VCdRom.sys to your C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers folder.

5. Double click the VCdControlTool.exe to run it.

6. Click “Driver Control”

7. Click on the Install Driver and point the directory to the VcdRom.sys file in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers folder.

8. Click on Start follow by OK.

9. Back to the main window, click “Add Drive“. You should see a new drive mounted on your system.

10. Click on Mount and navigate to the directory where you save the ISO file. Select the ISO file. It will prompt you for special mount option. Ignore that and click OK.

11. You can now access your ISO file within your Windows Explorer. When you are done, unmount, stop, and remove the driver from the Virtual CD-Rom Control Panel.

What other ways do you use to mount ISO files in Windows?

How to Mount ISO Images In Windows originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. How to Upgrade Windows 7 Beta To Windows 7 RC1 Without Formatting Your Hard Disk
2. How to Create a Virtual Machine of Your Existing Windows Operating System
3. Customize Windows Installation with nlite
4. Accessing Linux Volumes From Windows
5. How To Boot And Install Windows 7 From USB Flash Drive (Updated)

Picaboo allows you to create a complete photo album – with page flipping features, to give you that real and physical feel of viewing your photos. It also comes with images editing features and the ability to share your photo albums with your friends and families.

Let’s see how we can create an album with Picaboo.

Creating a photo album with Picaboo.

1. Download and install Picaboo.

2. On the first run, Picaboo will prompt you to sign up for a free account.

3. Once that is done, click on “Create Book” option button to create a new photo album.

4. Select the suitable theme for your photos. There are some beautiful themes included in the package: baby, birthday, bold and beautiful, catalog, collage, cook book, portfolio, holiday, wedding, travel and year book. In this example, we will use the “collage” theme. If none of the default themes caught your eyes, you can also find and download more themes online.

5. Browse and locate the folder containing the photos, then select the necessary photos for adding to photo album and click next to proceed with editing.

6. Picaboo will prompt on how to create the photo book. You can select “Auto Create album” or build the album page by page from “scratch”. In this tutorial I have used “Auto Create” to illustrate. You can also use the story telling option to explain each and every page with description about the photos.

7. Picaboo allows you to edit your album, like changing the background of the page, add corner style, photo tool to adjust positions and including the soundtrack in photo album. The editing tools are illustrated in the below screen shot.

8. At any point of time, you can scroll to any page of the album and make the necessary changes to that page.

9. Once you have finished compiling the album, you can click on the “Share” button on the menu bar to share the album with your friends.

Conclusion

Picaboo is friendly to use and offers wide range of themes which fills many occasions of our life. Apart from creating photo album, you can also create photo cards which can be used creatively as “birthday party invitation”. You can print the photos in the album to your local printer or place an order of photo to Picaboo (at a fee).

Have you tried Picaboo?  Share your experience with us in the comments.

Create And Share Your Photo Album Instantly With Picaboo originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Related posts:

1. Mindmeister: Easily Create And Share Your Mindmap Online
2. Share Your Virtualbox VM Across Different OS
3. Syncplicity – More Than Just A File Storage Solution
4. The New Facebook Desktop Client By Adobe And Why Should You Use it
5. How to Share Files Securely with OneSwarm