Would you like to secure your Internet connection when you’re using a public wireless network at a hotel, coffee shop or airport? If so, you should consider using a personal VPN service like Cloak or TunnelBear.

In a previous tech tip, I talked about reasons why you might want to sign-up for a personal VPN service such as securing all of the data that goes to or from your laptop while you’re using a public wireless network.

In this article we’ll briefly compare two personal VPN services including Cloak and TunnelBear. I’ve used both of these services over the past few months. Both are affordable, easy to setup and capable, but I prefer Cloak for its unobtrusiveness and helpfulness.

You can try both services for free. Tunnelbear offers a service plan which lets you send up to 500 MB of data over your Tunnelbear VPN connection for free. If 500 MB isn’t adequate then they offer two paid plans that permit you to send unlimited data. You can either pay $5/month or $50/year. Cloak offers a 30-day free trial. After that, you have to choose from one of 3 monthly data plans: 5 GB for $2/month, 25 GB for $8/month or 60 GB for $15/month. In my experience, a 5 GB monthly cap is sufficient, so I would pay $24/year for a year’s worth of service from Cloak.

Both applications have very simple interfaces. Tunnelbear is an application. When you open it you see two buttons. One is the on/off button used to start or stop your VPN connection. The other button lets you indicate if you’re in the US or the UK. Additionally, the application displays the amount of data remaining if you’re using the free account. Cloak installs a menu bar icon whose menu provides a Connect/Disconnect command, a status indicator, preferences and a way to quit Cloak. I prefer Cloak’s interface since its menu bar icon is out of the way while Tunnelbear’s application seems much larger than it needs to be. Additionally, Cloak displays information notifications when it has connected or disconnected as well as when the public wireless network requires you to sign-in using your web browser.

Both applications reportedly work in many countries, but Cloak’s coverage might be more wide-spread. Cloak claims to work in most countries since they piggyback on data centers around the globe. While I don’t travel internationally much, I know many of my clients do, so this is an important feature. It’s unclear how wide-spread Tunnelbear’s coverage is. I assume they only have servers in the US and the UK and thus, I presume it’ll work in North American and European countries and maybe others. Both applications indicate that they don’t work in China.

Both services support Mac OS X and Windows-based computers as well as iOS devices like iPhones and iPads and Android-based phones and tablets.

It’s important to be aware that using a VPN connection will slow down the speed of your Internet connection. VPN connections encrypt all network traffic that is transmitted across them. This encrypting and decrypting of data takes time and thus slows down your connection. Cloak estimates that you’ll see a loss of about 20% of your network throughput.

I hope you find this comparison helpful. Security is increasingly important. Both Tunnelbear and Cloak offer affordable, user-friendly ways to secure your network traffic when you’re on public networks, so try these services and start to use one.

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Hard drives are the component of a computer that fail most often. Every hard drive will eventually fail. This is why it’s so important to backup your Mac’s hard drive. It’s also prudent to periodically check the health of your Mac’s internal hard drive. I recommend two applications for this purpose: Onyx (free) and SMARTUtility (free trial, then $25).

For about the past decade, most internal hard drives have been equipped with a system that lets them monitor their own health and tries to predict failures. This technology is called S.M.A.R.T., which stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology. Onyx and SMARTUtility rely on this monitoring system to help you to check on your hard drive’s health. It’s important to note that external hard drives do not include SMART technology.

Using Onyx is easy. Download the appropriate version of Onyx for your Mac. There is a different version for each version of Mac OS X from version 10.2 to the current version, 10.8. After downloading Onyx, open it and enter an administrative user name and password. This is typically your user name and password.

Onyx will then automatically present a window indicating that it will check your Mac’s internal hard drive if you click Continue. See the picture below.

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Have you noticed how dirty the screen of your iPhone or iPad gets? Finger smudges and other stuff accumulates quickly. Even though we don’t touch our Macintosh laptop screens as much as an iPhone, the screen still gets dirty. I recommend using a microfiber cleaning cloth for quick cleanings. Additionally, use a cleaning spray like OmniCleanz or iKlear for more thorough cleanings.

iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch screens have an oleophobic (oil-resistant) coating on them. This is supposed to make it easy to wipe off smudges. Thus a quick rub with a microfiber cloth can make the screen look pretty good. I clean my iPhone and iPad screens this way a couple of times each week. For a more thorough cleaning I use cleaning spray on a microfiber cloth. Apple Stores currently sell a Bausch + Lomb Cleaning Kit. iKlear is one of the most widely sold cleaning sprays. I tend to use OmniCleanz.

Product descriptions for these cleaners tend to tell you more about what the product doesn’t contain rather than what it does. None of the products list their ingredients, so I can’t compare them. Product descriptions tend to indicate that they are alcohol-free, ammonia-free and detergent-free. Based on this dearth of information, I tend to buy OmniCleanz because it’s the least expensive and works well for me. If you’d like to clean the screen on your Mac laptop, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, try one of these products. Also, please follow the cleaning guidelines Apple provides. Their most important guidelines are to turn off your device and unplug all peripherals. Then avoid getting any moisture into any openings and don’t use detergents, alcohol or harsh cleaners.

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While viruses are not  a major risk for Mac users, it’s still prudent to have an anti-virus application installed on your Mac. Sophos offers a free Macintosh anti-virus application for use on home computers. Give it a try.

Why would you need an anti-virus application on your Mac? I can think of a couple of reasons.

1. While there aren’t many Mac viruses, there are some Mac OS X Trojan Horse viruses. I still occasionally come across some Word Macro viruses also, which were common on Macs in the late 1990s.

2. You might receive an email attachment which contains a PC virus. While this virus can’t do any harm to your Mac, would you want to pass this virus on to a friend or family member who has a PC? Sure, that person should have their own anti-virus protection, but it still doesn’t look good that you’re passing on viruses.

If you have business computers you can also use Sophos, but you’d have to buy an initial license. Sophos requires the purchase of a minimum of 3 licenses for about $34 per license. Volume discounts kick in at 10 licenses.

Check out Sophos Anti-Virus. It’s free for home users. It can detect if your Mac already has any infected files and can prevent you from getting infected in the future.

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Do you store thousands and thousands of email messages? Do you infrequently access many of these messages? If so, you could archive these email messages using EagleFiler. Once the messages have been archived you can delete them from Mail. Depending upon how many total messages you store in Mail, this might improve Mail’s performance.

Because email is so central to my business, I like to hold onto just about every message I send or receive. This means I have mail messages that I sent between the late 1990s and the present. Rather than storing years of these email messages in Mail, I archive them and store them in EagleFiler. In EagleFiler I can view the individual email messages including all of the header (to, from, date and subject) information and the message itself. I can also search for words contained in the messages. EagleFiler stores both the email message and the attachment. You can open the attachments by simply double-clicking them in EagleFiler. This triggers Mail to display the email message and the attachment.

You can download a trial version of EagleFiler if you’d like to test it. If you continue to use the program after the trial period has expired you’ll need to buy it for $40. Archiving messages into EagleFiler couldn’t be easier. Select one or more email messages in Mail and then press EagleFiler’s Capture Key, which is F1 by default. That’s it. Just sit back and wait for the messages to be copied into EagleFiler which happens pretty quickly. Once you’ve confirmed that the messages are in EagleFiler then you can delete them from Mail.

EagleFiler can actually do a lot more than store your email messages. You could think of it as a digital filing cabinet. EagleFiler can import too many file types to list here, but it includes web pages, PDF files, Word files and jpeg images. You can read the entire list. EagleFiler has a very user-friendly interface and many more features listed here. There are other mail archiving products on the market. Adam Engst of Tidbits wrote brief descriptions of  some of the better known mail archiving products, Mail Steward, Mail Archiver and DevonThink Pro Office. Since I already was using EagleFiler to store, tag and organize other documents, it made sense for me to start to use it to archive my infrequently used mail messages also. I hope you check out EagleFiler.

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Do you use your Macintosh computer for hours at a time without taking a break? Do you end up with sore muscles or headaches? If so, you might want to consider taking rest breaks more often. Time Out is a free application that can automatically remind you to take breaks, even dim your screen to force you to take a break.

Time Out is easy to configure and every situation seems to have been taken into consideration. Time Out’s default settings will prompt you to take 15 second Micro Breaks every 15 minutes and a 10 minute Normal Break every hour. You can adjust the duration and frequency of both types of breaks or time outs. You also have the choice to postpone or skip a break. When a break occurs, your screen will begin to fade and become darker. If you take a break on your own, by not using your computer, then Time Out‘s built-in timer will reset itself. You can also configure Time Out to never initiate time outs when you’re using a specified application. For example, by default, Time Out will not perform time outs if you’re using DVD Player or Face Time. This makes sense since you wouldn’t want to interrupt your movie or a video conference. Lastly, you can manually start a Micro Break or a Normal Break using keyboard shortcuts.

If you decide to check out Time Out be aware that there are two versions. The older version requires Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or 10.6 (Snow Leopard). The current version requires Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later. Dejal Systems, the developer, indicates that they are working on a new version, Time Out 2, which will add more features and will require OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion). There will be both free and paid versions. Currently Time Out is distributed as freeware, and donations are welcomed and appreciated.

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Do you dislike the keyboard that came with your Mac? For the past few years, Apple’s primary keyboard has been the Apple Wireless Keyboard. It’s a good keyboard, but it’s not perfect for everybody. Some people lament the lack of a keypad. Others dislike having to replace the batteries that power the keyboard. Some folks don’t like the very flat nature of the keyboard and limited up-down movement of the keys. Last week’s tip listed ways to add a keypad. This week I describe some alternative keyboards.

Solar-powered – Logitech makes the Wireless Solar K750 keyboard. Indoor or outdoor lighting will keep this keyboard charged, so you won’t have to replace batteries. This keyboard is very thin, just like Apple’s current models. A couple of my clients bought it and like it.

Wired, backlit keyboard – Logitech makes the Illuminated Keyboard. It’s also a very thin keyboard but is not wireless. Its distinctive feature is backlit keys. A sensor measures the ambient light and illuminates the keys in low light situations. If you like to type in the dark or have a keyboard shoved in a dark closet, this is for you. I use this one in my office. It’s great for early morning work when I only turn on the desk lamp that is pointed at my monitor.

Wired keyboard with big keys – Matias’ Tactile Pro 3 Keyboard appeals to people who prefer a wired keyboard with more key motion than Apple’s current flat keyboards. The Tactile Pro is based on Apple’s design of their Apple Extended Keyboard. The Extended keyboard was beloved by many Mac users during its reign in the late 80s and early 90s. The Tactile Pro keyboard is a solidly built keyboard with large keys, large key motion, space between the keys and curved tops of some keys to help keep your fingers on the home row. Another keyboard which has some similarities in its design is the Das Keyboard Professional.

Wired ergonomic keyboards – If you’re looking for a more ergonomic keyboard then check out Kinesis’ 3 ergonomic keyboards, the Contoured, Maxim and Freestyle 2. I have one client who uses the Maxim and likes it. The change in arm and wrist angle or motion reduced the pain he used to feel in his arm.

Wireless mini keyboard with touchpad – SMK Link’s Wireless Ultra-Mini Touchpad Keyboard is a very compact keyboard that could be used to remotely control a Mac from across the room. It has an integrated trackpad (aka touchpad) which can be used to move the cursor on your Mac. If you give PowerPoint or Keynote presentations you might find it useful to manipulate your Mac from afar. Maybe you’re at the front of the room and your Mac is not within arm’s reach. Similarly, if you have a Mac mini setup in a your living room as a media center, this keyboard would let you control your Mac from a comfortable seat across the room.

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Would you like your iPhone to give you audible driving directions? If so, you should check out MapQuest. It is a free, turn-by-turn GPS navigation app for the iPhone and iPad. MacWorld wrote an extensive review of GPS apps in 2011. After reading the article, I purchased Navigon for $40. (It price has now risen to $60.) I used Navigon for a few months and liked it, but found the interface cumbersome. After a client praised it for its easy-to-use design, I tried MapQuest. It had also been highly rated in MacWorld’s review of GPS apps. While MapQuest doesn’t have all of the features offered by Navigon, I prefer it for its relative ease of use.

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Create a great first impression with unique business cards made by Moo. Moo lets you design your own business card on their web site. That’s not so unusual. What is unusual is that you can place a unique image, photo, quote, math question or coupon code on each card. This flexibility is a great way for a photographer to highlight their portfolio, or a great way for a math tutor to highlight what she can teach you or a great way for a company to promote a product at a trade show then track the response based on the cards they hand out. You have to watch Moo’s video about their Printfinity service to fully understand.

Moo offers standard size business cards, half size cards which they call MiniCards. You can also order postcards, greeting cards, stickers and labels. You can order small batches such as 50 business cards, 100 MiniCards or 20 postcards. Think of the customized marketing that you could do. You can print QR (QuickResponse) codes on the cards if you’d like.

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Do you send links to web pages in emails? Are you surprised at the length of some web page addresses? If so, you can use TinyURL to create shorter web page addresses. The technical term for a web page address is URL (Uniform Resource Locator). I’ll use this term throughout the remainder of this article. TinyURL is a free service that lets you enter a long URL and get a shorter URL that you can use in its place.

For example, the following URL (web page address) should take you to a Amazon web page for a Netgear ethernet switch.

http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-ProSafe-Ethernet-Switch-GS116NA/dp/B00023DRLO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339453773&sr=8-1&keywords=gs116

TinyURL shortened this URL from 131 characters to 26.

http://tinyurl.com/6qrc5ek

Using TinyURL is easy.

• Go to the TinyURL web site and paste a long URL in the field labeled, “Enter a long URL to make tiny”.
• Then click the button named “Make TinyURL”.
• A moment later you’ll see the shorter URL listed on the screen. Copy this shorter URL and then paste it into an email or any place else that you’d like to use it.

Tip – When you put a URL into an email message, I always recommend putting angle brackets at the beginning and end. For example, here I’ve put angled brackets around a URL for Apple’s web site: <http://www.apple.com>  Using these brackets will eliminate problems at line breaks. To elaborate, if you put a long URL in an email, there is a chance that the URL might be split onto two different lines. Many email applications get confused if this happens and won’t see the part of the URL that appears on the second line. Putting brackets around the URL helps the email application to find the entire URL. Tidbits has an article that gives a bit more detail about this topic if you’re interested.

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Do you have duplicate or triplicate photos in your iPhoto Library? I recommend using Duplicate Annihilator to remove them.  The developer’s web site has a short movie that shows you how to use the program. It is reasonably priced at $8 for a single license or $13 if you want a Family Pack which lets you install it on as many as 5 Macs. While I trust Duplicate Annihilator, you should always make sure that you have a complete backup of your iPhoto Library before you use Duplicate Annihilator. Its default settings will not delete any photos from your iPhoto Library. Instead, it assigns the word duplicate as a comment for each duplicate photo that it identifies. By default, it uses an MD5 checksum to compare photos. This is a very effective and accurate way to compare digital fingerprints of two files to see if they are the same. Duplicate Annihilator can take several hours to scan a library with tens of thousands of photos, so be prepared for this. It displays some status indicators such as a running total of duplicates found, how many photos it has scanned, how many photos remain to be scanned and estimates how much longer the scan will take. Once the scan is complete, you can enter the word duplicate in iPhoto’s search field to locate all of the duplicates. Then you can go to the Edit menu and choose Select All to select the duplicate photos, then press the Delete key on your keyboard to put these photos into iPhotos’ Trash. Then you would need to empty iPhoto’s trash to completely delete the photos.

Important Note: Before I delete the duplicates, I like to do some random double-checking. After I’ve used iPhoto’s search feature to locate the duplicates, I write down the date of a handful of the photos. Then I clear out the search field so I can see all of my photos. After that I locate these selected photos by date to verify the photos are, indeed, duplicated. Finally, I repeat the search to locate all duplicates and delete them.

Check out Duplicate Annihilator. It can save you a lot of time when you need to eliminate duplicates in iPhoto on your Mac.

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Do you want to create a network in your home or office without having to pull wires through the walls? Do you want to improve the coverage of your wireless network easily? Then you should know about Netgear’s Powerline Network Adapters.

Power line adapters let you create an network using the electrical wiring in the walls of your home or office. Yes, this may sound odd. I was skeptical at first, but this technology has been through several generations and works well now. You can read about the history and how this works in this Wikipedia article. Netgear is not the only company that makes such products. A bunch of companies make products that are, supposedly, interoperable and all comply with the HomePlug standards.

I use power line adapters most commonly in large homes where I need to extend the coverage of the wireless network. If the home has ethernet wiring in the walls then I can simply plug a wireless access point into one of the ethernet jacks in an appropriate part of the house. However, if the home does not have ethernet wiring, I’ll use a pair of power line adapters. One connected to the wireless router, the other to a wireless access point in an appropriate part of the house. Here’s a bit more detail.

To get started, you just need to buy a pair of power line adapters, like the ones found in this XAVB2501 kit. Take one of the adapters and connect it to your existing network router using the included ethernet cable. Then plug the adapter into a wall outlet — avoid plugging it into a power strip since this will greatly diminish performance. Plug the second adapter into an electrical outlet elsewhere in your home and then run an ethernet cable from it to your computer, printer or wireless access point. That’s it. The two adapters will find each other and setup communication. Various LEDs on the adapters will tell you if they are connected and at approximately what speed. These adapters can communicate at speeds up to 200 Mbps. You can setup more than two adapters if you’d like. You can read about the maximum number of adapters and other details at the Netgear FAQ page. Reviewing the Troubleshooting page could also be helpful. If you’d like to setup encryption or rename the adapters, use the Netgear Powerline Utility for Mac or PCs.

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Do you have boxes of papers that you’d like to scan so you can empty your closet or storage area then easily access them on your Mac laptop when you travel?

Do you have some large blueprints or drawings that don’t fit on your office scanner? Do you want to convert microfilm to be read on your Mac?

In any of these cases, you should check out US Archive and Imaging Services (USArchive). They are an Issaquah-based company that can help you with your scanning, document management and shredding needs while using their standard and large-format, high-speed scanners to scan any documents. They prep your documents first by removing staples, sticky notes and even paperclips, then they turn your documents into searchable PDFs or any other file type you desire. US Archive offers cloud-based and on-premise document access as well as storage solutions.  Once the scanning is finished you have some choices. They will return your documents in the exact order that you gave them to them, or if you’d like they can securely destroy (shred) the documents.

There are several factors that affect the cost of your job, but in general a rough cost would be around 9 cents per page (this including prep, scanning and indexing.) Note, a standard records box holds about 2,200 sheets of paper. I recently had them scan a box of my records and found them to be very responsive and friendly. If you’d like to learn more about US Archive and their services, check out their Frequently Asked Questions web page.  Another interesting note is that US Archive has partnered with AtWork. AtWork is a 50 year old local non-profit which focuses on finding work for people with disabilities. Hiring US Archive supports AtWork’s efforts to help teach new skills to these individuals and help them to get meaningful employment.

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Here are instructions on how to share a file or folder inside your Dropbox folder with another person. In previous Tech Tips, I gave an overview of Dropbox and give instructions on how to share files that are too large to send as an email attachment, even with people who don’t have Dropbox accounts, using the Public folder in your Dropbox folder. This week, I cover two more features of Dropbox:

Feature 1. How to share any file, in any folder, inside your Dropbox folder, with another person even if that person doesn’t have their own Dropbox account.

Feature 2. How to setup a shared folder with another person so the two of you can easily exchange files on an on-going basis.

The instructions below assume that you’ve already signed up for your Dropbox account and have installed the Dropbox application on your Mac.

Feature 1 – If you have a one-time need to share a file with a person who doesn’t have their own Dropbox account then you can use Dropbox’s Copy Public Link feature. Here’s how:

• Click once on a file in your Dropbox folder to select it. Then right-click (or control-click) on this file. A menu will appear, select Dropbox and then select Copy Public Link from the sub-menu. (See photo below as a reference.)
• Your web browser will open and a preview of your document will appear. Copy the address which appears in the address field, (https://www.dropbox.com/….)
• Go to your email application, compose a new email message and then paste this address (aka link) into the email message and send the message.
• The recipient can click on the link to be taken to a web page which will let them download the file. Here’s a sample link to one of my files in my Dropbox folder. https://www.dropbox.com/s/skifcwwnajlzn77/Darts-Practice.rtf

I want to emphasize that the recipient is able to download and then edit the file, but this feature doesn’t give them a way to easily send the file back to you. So, this is more of a file distribution capability. It doesn’t offer two-way file exchange. This feature is very similar to sharing a file using the Public folder. In fact, I see only one primary difference. This Copy Public Link feature allows you to leave a file inside of a shared folder while also sharing it with a person who typically can’t access files in that shared folder. Additionally, the

Dropbox has their own article about using this feature.

Feature 2 – If you regularly want to be able to do two-way file exchanges with another person then you’ll want to setup a dedicated shared folder with that person in your Dropbox account. Here’s how:

• Create a folder in your Dropbox folder. For this example, I want to share a folder with a friend named Tom so I created a new folder named Tim-Tom
• Right-click (or control-click) on this folder. A menu will appear, select Dropbox and then Share This Folder… from the sub-menu. (See photo below as a reference.)
• Your web browser will open and you’ll be taken to the Dropbox web site. Login to your Dropbox account if you aren’t already logged in.
• In the field named “Invite collaborators to this folder” type in the email address of another person. I entered Tom’s email address.
• Type in an optional personal invitation message and then click the “Share Folder” button. This will send an email that includes the invite.
• The email recipient can click on a link in the invite email to accept the invitation which grants them access to this folder. If the recipient doesn’t already have their own Dropbox account then they’ll be prompted to create a free account.
• If your invitee accepts your invite then you’re notified via email.

At this point, you’re ready to easily share files with your invitee via this folder. Every time a file is adding, edited or deleted then a notification will pop-up on your screen. This invitee can’t see any other folders that you have in your Dropbox account. Happy file sharing.

Dropbox has their own article about this feature.

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about this folder sharing feature. This information is taken from Dropbox’s help article.

• You can’t share a folder from within your Public folder. You can share a folder within the Photos folder
• You can’t share a folder inside another shared folder. Attempting to share a folder within a shared folder will automatically send you to the sharing options of the top level shared folder
• Anyone you’ve invited to a folder can then add, delete or change files within that folder
• Anyone you’ve invited to a folder can also invite others to join the folder
• Only the creator of the shared folder can remove people from the folder
• If two people both open and edit a file in a shared folder at the same time, Dropbox will save both of their changes, but in separate files. It does not try to automatically combine or merge changes. Read our help article on conflicting copies to learn more about how this works

If you chose to sign-up for Dropbox please consider using this link to do so, since I’ll earn a referral bonus. Thanks.

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Do you receive a lot of packages in the mail and want to have one place where you can easily monitor their status? Then you need Delivery Status by JuneCloud.

I frequently order products on behalf of my clients and I want to be notified of their shipping progress and when they are delivered. Delivery Status lets me do this easily. Initially, I used the free Delivery Status widget. When I received a vendor’s email with a tracking number, I’d add this item to the Delivery Status widget. It can track packages from USPS, DHL, Fedex, OnTrac and many other shippers. Delivery Status would then send me status updates via Growl every time the package made progress towards my door. This was great, but I realized I only got updates when my Mac laptop was awake and connected to the Internet. Sometimes I wanted to be notified in the middle of the day as I was moving between client appointments. Consequently, I decided to buy the iPhone/iPad Delivery Status app ($5). Now I get notifications on my iPhone since this app can sync with the widget if one sets up a free account at the JuneCloud web site.

I’ve been using DeliveryStatus for about a year and have been very pleased with its performance. Check it out.

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Would you like to free up some desk space by retiring either your stand-alone fax machine or multi-fuction printer which has faxing capabilities? Or, if you’re paying for a dedicated fax line, would you like to reduce you phone bill by dropping that line? If so, here are a few alternatives you could consider. I’m surprised that faxes haven’t faded away completely. I’m convinced that it’s because many people don’t know how easy scanning can be. Personally, I find that I only need to receive or send at most a handful of faxes each year, but in some fields, especially healthcare, faxes seem to be going strong. One reason faxing is so strong in the healthcare field is the need to comply with HIPAA or other laws. I highlight HIPAA-compliant Internet fax options below. Whether your faxing needs are light or heavy, here are some alternatives for you to consider.

Option 1 – This is the easiest option to setup but not necessarily the most cost-effective or convenient. You could out-source your faxing needs and use a FedEx Office store or, if you live in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, a business like Sip and Ship. Both of these businesses will let you send or receive faxes and charge you a fee per page.

Option 2 – Sign up for an Internet fax service like Faxaway or RingCentral. I have experience using both of these services. When you sign-up for a Faxaway account you’re assigned a fax number in the 206 (Seattle-area) area code. For a monthly fee of $1 you can receive unlimited incoming faxes and send faxes at a cost of about 10 cents per page. Faxes sent to your fax number are forwarded to you as email attachments. You can then save the attachment and open it on your Mac. Print a copy if you’d like. I like to receive my faxes via email since I can then save them or forward them easily. You also send faxes via email by using the fax number as part of  the email address, for example, 12065551212@faxaway.com. Faxaway is a good option if you’re a one person business with very light faxing needs.

If your business has a few employees or you have heavier faxing needs, then one of RingCentral’s plans might be a better fit. You can sign-up for a free trial account to test RingCentral. Their entry-level plan costs $8/month which gives you a local or toll-free fax number and 500 pages of inbound or out bound faxes. RingCentral provides a Macintosh application which you install on your Mac. You use this app to both send and receive faxes. This application also makes it easy to send documents as part of your fax, but it unfortunately doesn’t tie into your Mac’s Address Book application. Therefore, you’ll need to either enter your fax numbers by hand or by using “copy and paste”. Your RingCentral fax service can easily be shared by several people. In a future Tech Tip I’ll write about how you could use RingCentral to replace your existing phone system.

If you’re in a business that needs to comply with HIPAA regulations or other security or privacy regulations then you could check out Sfax, InterFAX or FaxSolutions. These companies fax services cost more then the previous Internet fax services I mentioned. I haven’t personally worked with this companies to know how user-friendly they are.

Option 3 – This is my favorite and most commonly used solution. When a person asks me to sign a document and fax it back to them, I simply ask if I could scan it and return it to them as an email attachment. With rare exception, the person is perfectly happy to receive the document as an email attachment. In a previous Tech Tip, I talked about how I much I love my Fujitsu ScanSnap document scanner. It turns a pile of pages into a PDF which I can then easily attach and send via email. I like this method since I then have a digital copy of the document on my computer if I need to refer to it later on. Also, I have a more detailed paper trail than if I’d sent a fax since my sent mail folder will have a record of when I sent a document and to whom.

Hopefully, one of these options will be a good fit for your faxing needs.

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Here are some products which can make it easier to sync your iPhone or connect it to other accessories.

iStubz are short iPhone syncing cables - The white sync cable which Apple includes with all iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches is about 3.5 feet long. I find it too long and cumbersome at times. Instead of using this long cable, I now carry an iStubz cable which doesn’t get tangled. iStubz are available in two sizes 7cm and 22 cm which are about 3 inches and 9 inches, respectively.

Apple iPhone Dock –  I like to have my phone standing upright when my phone is sitting on my desk so I can easily see and read the screen. One way to keep the phone upright, while also charging and syncing the phone is to use an iPhone Dock. Apple sells the Universal Dock which works with all iPhones and iPods, but they also only sell the iPhone 3G/3GS dock and an iPhone 4/4S dock.

If you want to learn more about the features and capabilities of these Docks, please read this Universal Dock review and this iPhone 4 Dock review from iLounge.

dockStubz and dockXtender – If you keep your iPhone in a case, you may find that the case makes the phone too thick to fit into a Dock. Alternatively, the iPhone’s 30-pin Dock connector might be too recessed inside the case for some iPhone accessories, like a car charger, to be able to reach it. dockStubz is a short extender which would let you connect the car charger or other accessory. The dockXtender is a short cable which would let you connect your thick iPhone to connect to an Apple Dock or other accessories.

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GT Recording, HomeDVD and iMemories are three companies that clients have used to convert VHS tapes to DVD. All companies also convert audio tapes and film and will scan 35mm slides.

GT Recording is located on Aurora Avenue in Seattle. They offer quick and friendly service. Turn-around time is typically just a few days. You can drop off a variety of types of video tapes and they’ll convert them to DVD. They support VHS, SVHS, VHS-C, Super 8, Beta Max, Mini DV and a number of other types of video tapes. Alternatively, they can convert your video tape to a digital video (.dv) file that you can import into iMovie. If you choose this option then you’ll be able to edit the video using iMovie.

GT Recording can also handle 35mm slides, audio tapes and a variety of film formats including 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm. They’ll convert your slides to digital files such as jpegs or TIFFs. They’ll convert your audio tapes to CD or audio files, like mp3s which can be edited.

Cost varies based on the length of the recording. It cost $25 to convert an hour-long VHS tape to a .dv video.

HomeDVD is based in Canada but that didn’t pose any problems for my clients who have used their services. They charge $19.95 per hour of video or a minium of $19.95 per cassette. There is a minimum of $45 per transfer job. You can have your tape converted to a DVD movie or an editable digital video file, just like GT Recording offers. HomeDVD make it easy to get started. All you have to do is click the “Request a Shipping Kit” button on their web site. Fill-out the form and then they’ll send you a box with explicit instructions for mailing in your collection of tapes. They cover these shipping costs, but you pay to get the finished product and your original tapes sent back. You’ll receive an email confirming their receipt of your box as well as a summary of the work to be done. They’ll call you when your conversion is completed and will confirm the return shipping address. From beginning to end then entire project will take about 3 weeks.

iMemories is located in Arizona. They offer direct transfer services in which they’ll transfer your tape to a DVD. However, they also offer a fancier service which lets you review the digitized movies online and edit and re-arrange the  video clips to build your own custom DVD. Here’s how they explain their process:  http://www.imemories.com/howitworks/

With this fancier service they give you 30 days of free access to the online version of your converted video. During this time you can edit your video and share it with others. At the end of the thirty days you should order a DVD copy of your video. If you want to continue to be able to view and share your video (or slides) via your online account you can pay about $5/month.

iMemories has a very well-organized and user-friendly web site. You can ship your tapes to them using your own box. However, if you’re worried about sending your precious memories on tape through the mail, they’ll send you a high quality, crush-proof box and using a shipping service that’ll let you track your package so you can be reassured that it arrives safely.

iMemories prices are clearly listed here. You can convert a videotape to DVD for $19.99. Turn-around time varies based on the size of the project and time of the year but a project typically takes a few weeks. If you choose the option which gives you 30 days to edit your project then you’ll need to add more time to the overall duration.

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In previous tech tips, I’ve talked about ways to donate your computer and peripherals to groups that will reuse or recycle them. In some instances your used electronics may still have some value. Here’s an overview of options you have to resell your used electronics to a company, which, in turn, will refurbish and resell or recycle them.

Recently, there has been a proliferation of companies that will buy your used electronics, including Gazelle, FlipSwap and BuyMyTronics, to name a few. These companies tend to claim to offer the best price, but they can’t all be right. Enter uSell, which offers to find the best price by comparing quotes from numerous companies. uSell may not include quotes from every company, but they offer a guarantee if you find a lower price.

I recently sold some of my used electronics to Gazelle and FlipSwap. In each case, the process was quite easy. I typed the name of my product into a search field on the company’s web site. The search results let me pick my particular model. I then answered a few questions about the product’s condition and accessories. After that, I accepted the price that was offered. Finally, there was a short check out-like process. Gazelle offered to send me a box and return shipping label or I could ship it in my own box. FlipSwap provided me with a shipping label and instructed me how to securely wrap and ship my item. Once the company received my product, they assessed the item and sent my payment. In Gazelle’s case, I chose to receive an Amazon gift card instead of a check since Gazelle would add an additional 5%.

The New York Times’s Gadgetwise Blog has articles about uSell and Gazelle if you’d like to get their take on this subject.

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Do you use Apple’s Mail application on your Mac? It’s a capable email application. One of its best features the ability to extended its functionality using plug-ins. These plug-ins let you customize Mail so it can better meet your preferences and needs. Here’s a list of 10 plug-ins for Mail that’ll let you increase your productivity.

MsgFiler lets you quickly file email messages into one of your existing Mailboxes (aka folders). Using either a menu command or a keyboard shortcut you can file a message into a folder. Simply type the first few characters of the mailbox’s name and select the desired mailbox from the list of matches.

GrowlMail temporarily displays a small notification window on your screen every time a new email message arrives. By glancing at this notification you can monitor your Inbox while you’re working in another application. [Update March 2013: This functionality has now been included in Mountain Lion, OS X version 10.8, as a part of the Notifications feature.]

SpamSieve offers better spam protection than Mail’s built-in junk mail filter. It accomplishes this by using Bayesian filtering methods. It requires some initial training, but it’s very effective.

MailAct-On is an incredibly robust plug-in which lets you use keyboard shortcuts to quickly file, label or flag incoming or outgoing mail messages. That is an over-simplified description of its capabilities. This video introduction and video review will give you a more complete understanding of it’s capabilities.

MailTags let’s you assign keywords, priorities, categories and due dates to actions mentioned in an email. It lets you escape the constraints of folders by allowing you to organize and find your messages by keyword or other metadata that you’ve assigned. Made by the same developers, Mail Act-On and MailTags can be used together or separately.

WideMail reconfigures Mail’s layout. It moves the message preview area from below the list of messages to the right of it. This layout uses your screen’s space more efficiently. Apple realized this layout was very popular, so they made it the standard layout in Mail 5.0, which comes with Lion, Mac OS X 10.7.

Attachment Tamer gives you control over Mail’s handling of attachments that you send. Be default, Mail will display an attachment, such as an image, in the body of the email that you’re composing. Attachment Tamer lets you change this behavior and send the image as a regular attachment instead.

MessageFont lets you set Mail’s default font when you reply to or compose a new email message. Mail’s preferences appears to let you set the default font, but this affects only what you see, not what the recipient sees. MessageFont changes which font is seen by the recipient.

MissingAttachments scans an email message and notifies you if you have referred to an attachment, but forgotten to attach a file. Unfortunately this plug in hasn’t been updated to work with recent versions of Mail.

MailUnreadStatusBar displays an icon to the upper right corner of your screen which lists the number of unread email messages you have. You can customize it to track multiple folders. Its icon then displays a menu listing the unread message count for each selected folder and lets you go directly to any of the listed folders.

In my opinion, these are some of the best plug-ins for Mail, but you can read about many more in this Macworld article.

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Do you send out annual updates about your family around the holiday season? If so, MacWorld has written a good article about how to create a newsletter using Pages. Pages is Apple’s word processor which competes with Microsoft Word. It comes bundled with some Macs, so you may already have a copy. If not, you can buy it as part of iWork. Or, if you have Mac OS X 10.6.6 or higher on your Mac, you can use the App Store to buy it stand-alone for about $20. I used the MacWorld article as a guide to design our holiday newsletter this year. Here’s a brief overview.

Start by opening iPhoto and identifying which photos you want to include in your newsletter. I found it easiest to put my photos into an album so I would be able to find them again easily when using Pages.

Next, I opened Pages and selected the “Informal Newsletter” template. I clicked on the Media button in Pages’ toolbar. I clicked on Photos and selected the iPhoto Album containing my selected photos. I then dragged the images on top of the placeholder images that appear in the template.

I clicked on the text box on the first page, selected all of the text and deleted it. Then I typed in our content.

We wanted to add a second page so I went to the Insert menu, selected Pages and added a “Back Page” since it has pre-defined locations for text and photos. I linked the text boxes on page 1 and page 2 so the text would automatically flow between them. I replaced the placeholder photos, of course, as well.

Finally, I realized that I needed more room to fit all of the text so I had to adjust the template’s layout some. I removed one of the photos on page 1 and added a new text box then linked it to the other box on page 1. After that, I changed the font and font size a bit to get everything to fit. Finally, I was satisfied with the layout. Pages is a pretty elegant program to use for tasks like this and the templates are really professional, so it made this task easy to do.

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Do you ever want to do any of the following tasks?

• View two Word documents side-by-side so you can compare them or more content between them.
• View two Finder windows side-by-side so you can move files from one folder to another
• Make a window fill your entire screen

If so, Cinch ($7) is an easy to use application that lets you accomplish these tasks. I regularly need to file documents that have accumulated either in my Downloads folder or on my Desktop into a folder elsewhere on my Mac. In order to do this easily, I’ll open two Finder windows, then move them to one of the edges of my screen which triggers Cinch to automatically resizes them to fill half of my screen. With the two windows sitting side-by-side, I can easily file my documents. If my description isn’t sufficient, please check out the brief but excellent video demonstration.

You can download Cinch from the Irradiated Software web site and try it for free. Irradiated Software also makes a slightly fancier window management utility named SizeUp ($13) that lets you accomplish the same tasks using keyboard shortcuts, along with additional features.

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Do you use multiple web browsers on your Mac? Do you use only one browser but multiple Macs? Do you want all of your browsers to have the same set of bookmarks? If so, you should checkout Xmarks, a free bookmark syncing tool that works with the most common web browsers on both Macs and PCs.

Setting up Xmarks is fairly straight-forward. Specific setup is beyond the scope of this article, as there are many combinations to consider since Xmarks works on both Macs and PCs and supports Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer. In general, the setup process includes creating a free Xmarks account and then installing the Xmarks plug-in for each web browser you use on each computer you use. When you next open your web browser, you’ll typically be greeted by the Xmarks setup assistant which will give you guidance in configuring and using this tool.

Before you start the install process, it’s always prudent to have a backup copy of the bookmarks from each of your web browsers since it’s possible to over-write your bookmarks if you click the wrong button. If you use Time Machine to backup your Mac then the Time Machine backup will contain backup copies of all of your web browser bookmarks, but they aren’t readily accessible since they are tucked in the ~/Library folder.

Once Xmarks is installed, it can be setup to automatically sync your bookmarks. You can view your bookmarks via the Xmarks web site. There you have access to tools that will help you find and delete duplicate bookmarks as well as empty bookmark folders. By default, Xmarks only encrypts the login process, so your bookmark data is being sent in an unencrypted manner to and from Xmarks’ servers. Thus, in theory, somebody could capture and view your bookmark data. This likely isn’t a big security threat, but it’s something to be aware of. You can change Xmarks’ configuration to have it encrypt the transmission of your bookmark data. The basic version of Xmarks is free, but the developers offer paid versions that offer more features.

I looked at other bookmark sync tools including BookIt, URL ManagerPro and BookMacSter, but found that I liked Xmarks the best. URLManagerPro and BookIt have not been updated to work with current web browsers. BookMacSter is current, but I found the interface un-intuitive and jargon laden. It’s definitely powerful, but I don’t need all of it’s features and I don’t want to learn a lot just to use the basic features. I also didn’t want to use a separate application to manage my bookmark syncing. I just want the syncing to happen automatically in the background. Thus, Xmarks was the best choice for my needs.

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I strongly recommend the AppleCare Protection Plan (APP) for all MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac and MacPro purchases under most circumstances. I know that extended warranties have a poor reputation in general, but I think AppleCare is a good value for most Mac models. For the rest of this article I’ll simply refer to the AppleCare Protection Plan as AppleCare.

Every Mac computer comes with 90 days of free telephone tech support and a 1 year hardware warranty. By purchasing AppleCare, both the telephone support and hardware warranty are extended to 3 years. AppleCare covers the cost of parts as well as labor in the event of a repair.

It’s very useful to know that you can buy AppleCare as long as the original 1 year hardware warranty is still in place. Additionally, AppleCare is transferrable. If you sell your Mac within 3 years of initial purchase, AppleCare coverage transfers with the computer. This can slightly increase your Mac’s resale value, but it also gives the buyer some reassurance should they detect a hardware issue after they purchase it. AppleCare is available for all new Macs or refurbished Macs bought from Apple. It does not cover accidental damage.

MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs – The price for AppleCare is currently $249 for every laptop model except the 17″ MacBook Pro. For this model the price is $349. Apple has tiered flat-rate pricing for all laptop repairs. The last time I checked the lowest price was about $300. If your laptop is outside of it’s one-year hardware warranty and it breaks, one repair would have paid for the cost of AppleCare. Since laptops are typically carried around, they can sustain a lot of wear and tear. One repair within 3 years is not at all uncommon, thus I think it’s worthwhile to purchase AppleCare for MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. Over a dozen years, I have owned 4 Mac laptops. I know that I’ve bought AppleCare for at least the last 3 and used it on each of them. One had the CD/DVD drive and a fan replaced. On two of them the motherboard was replaced. All of these repairs were fully covered by AppleCare.

iMacs and MacPros – AppleCare for iMacs costs $169. AppleCare for MacPros costs $249. iMacs and MacPros repairs are not tied to tiered, flat-rate pricing. Each replacement part is priced individually. While fans and other small components may be inexpensive, Apple’s labor rate is around $90-100 per hour. So again, AppleCare quickly pays for itself. AppleCare covers the monitor built-into the iMac. In addition to the computer itself, AppleCare also covers an external monitor purchased at the same time as the Mac.

Since AppleCare can be purchased at any time within the first year of initial purchase, I have some clients who don’t purchase AppleCare initially for their iMacs or Mac Pros. Instead, they wait 6 to 9 months to see how the Mac performs and then make a decision. The first 6 months of a computer’s life is not necessarily a good indication of how it’ll perform after 2.5 years of use, but if the Mac has problems in the first 6 months then it seems prudent to buy the insurance of AppleCare in case other problems develop.

I typically don’t recommend AppleCare protection for Mac minis as strongly since AppleCare costs $149 but the price of the mini might be as little as $600. If a business were buying a Mac mini server or if a person were purchasing an Apple laptop at the same time as the Mac mini, then I would recommend it more strongly.

I don’t recommend AppleCare for iPhones, iPods, iPads or AppleTV either due to the relatively low price or the fact that the devices are more likely to be dropped or stolen than require a repair due to a part defect.

[Update March 2013: AppleCare for iPhones and iPads is now AppleCare+. These plans now cover up to two incidents of accidental damage for a service fee of $49 each incident. Coverage may be purchased within the first 30 days of ownership, but purchased at a different time than the device, the device will require a Genius Bar appointment prior to AppleCare purchase to verify that it is in undamaged condition before being covered. For more details you can visit the AppleCare page for iPhone or iPad.]

Another option for iPhone and iPad repair in the Seattle area is JCD Repair. They let you schedule an appointment and tell you the full repair price up front.

If you buy your Mac using a major credit card, the credit card company might double the manufacturer’s warranty. Please call your credit card company to verify and get the details. One client was able to get their iMac’s replacement motherboard covered by their credit card company due to this coverage. The client had to pay for the repair up front, then they were subsequently reimbursed after submitting the requisite paperwork. Utilizing this coverage is not as quick and easy as AppleCare, but this protection could help you if you didn’t buy AppleCare within the first year.

Some homeowners insurance policies or specific riders might be a reason to not buy AppleCare. Some insurance policies even cover accidental cover that is not covered by AppleCare.

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Are you looking for an iPhone holder which will move with you between cars and work with various iPhone models? If so, you should take a look at Tetrax’s XWAY.

This holder clips to the louvers on one of your car’s vents by spinning the knob at the center of the XWAY. At the center of this x-shaped knob is a strong magnet with a concave center. The XWAY comes with several thin magnetic discs which each have a central bulge. After affixing one of these disks to the back of your iPhone or its case, you can easily connect it to the magnet at the center of the XWAY. The bulge on the back of your iPhone will fit snugly into the concave center of the magnet on the XWAY. When you want to detach your iPhone it’s best to slide the phone to the left or right. If you attempt to pull it straight off the XWAY, you run the risk of pulling the XWAY off the vent’s louvre.

I like this clip because you can unscrew it and easily move it from one car to another. Additionally, since it holds an iPhone in place via magnets, it can work with any model. In fact, it could be used to hold other small electronic devices like GPS units too.

In my car, I attached the XWAY to a vent that is near the middle of the steering wheel. This way, I can easily glance down to see the caller ID information displayed on the iPhone’s screen. Additionally, the vent is within reach of my car’s cigarette lighter and the Belkin iPhone charger which I keep plugged into the cigarette lighter. This way, I can recharge my iPhone as needed. The magnets on the iPhone are strong, so they hold the it firmly in place, which I appreciate. I don’t want a loose iPhone to sliding around on me.

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Zamzar, an online file conversion service, is an easy way to save a copy of a YouTube video on your Mac. To do this you enter the YouTube video’s address at Zamzar’s web site and it will convert the YouTube video into a file type which you choose, then send you an email containing a link to download the  converted file.

Zamzar is actually a very versatile file conversion service. I’ve used it to convert Microsoft Visio drawings, Microsoft Works files and Microsoft Publisher files. To read Zamzar’s huge list of supported file types visit this web page.  Zamzar offers several levels of service. Their free accounts are ad-supported. Free accounts are limited to processing upto 20 files per day which add up to not more than 500 MB. Paid accounts let you overcome these limitations as well as offering additional features.

Update: Here’s another possible option. Jaksta is a commercial application which claims to let you save a copy of any audio or video file that you stream in your web browser.

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You can use Apple’s infrared (IR) remote control to control slideshows in PowePoint 2004, PowerPoint 2008 and PowerPoint 2011. Here are some instructions for getting this setup. PowerPoint 2008 and PowerPoint 2011 both include support for Apple’s remote. PowerPoint 2004 does not natively have this capability. Instead, you need to use one of the third party applications described in this other article. Personally, I’ve used the free iRed Lite.

First, here’s a little background. Starting in 2005, Apple started to ship remote controls with their iMac G5 computers. They then included it with MacBooks and MacBook Pros as well as the Mac mini. Apple’s intended users to use them to control FrontRow which lets user view movies (DVDs), photos and music. I think Apple must have realized that few people actually used the remote controls so they stopped including them with new Macs but they continue to sell the remotely separately for about $20. In 2009 they replaced the original white plastic remote and with a taller, thinner aluminum version. The remotes do have some uses beyond controlling FrontRow. Most commonly, I see them used to control PowerPoint slideshows. For a more thorough history of the Apple Remote check out this Wikipedia article. To learn about third-party products that allow the remote to control more applications and extend its capabilities in other ways, check out this article.

Here are instructions on how to setup the Apple Remote to control PowerPoint 2008:

• Hold your remote control a few inches from your Mac.
• Simultaneously, press the Menu and Next (right-point arrow) buttons for 5-10 seconds.
• Open your PowerPoint presentation and click the Slideshow button to put it into slideshow mode.
• Press the Forward and Back buttons to move through the slideshow. Pressing the Pause/Play button will also advance to the next slide.

If you ever want to unpair your Mac from a given remote you can go to the Apple menu, select System Preferences and then Security and click the Unpair button.

I should also mention that the IR receiver is on by default in all Macs. This means that other people could walk up to your Mac, pair a remote with it and start to control it. This isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it could cause confusion. What really causes confusion is when there are multiple Macs in the same room and one person suddenly starts to use one of Apple’s IR remotes. The remote starts to control all of the Macs simultaneously. I assume this only happens if the Macs have previously been paired with another Apple remote. In these situations it’s useful to know that the Security System Preference pane mentioned above lets you check a box to disable the IR receiver in your Mac.

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Do you need to recover files that were deleted from a Mac’s hard drive? Here’s a quick overview of three options.

Option 1 – By far the easiest way to recover a file is to restore it from the most recent backup. This is why I’m such a strong proponent of setting up a comprehensive backup system including automated TimeMachine or CrashPlan backups. By default, TimeMachine runs every hour and CrashPlan runs every 15 minutes. Here are the tech tips I wrote about how to restore files from Time Machine and CrashPlan backups.

This option is appropriate for a wide range of situations including: accidentally deleting a file and realizing it a minute or a month later, suffering from a malfunctioning hard drive, losing your computer or having it stolen. Assuming that you make multiple and frequent backup copies of your data, this option has a very high recovery success rate.

This is the last of the good options. The two remaining options are either expensive, time consuming or have a much lower chance of success — or some combination thereof.

Option 2 – Use data recovery software such as ProSoft Engineering’s Data Rescue. Data Rescue and comparable applications can search a hard drive for deleted files and it can try to search a malfunctioning hard drive for files. Both of these processes can take hours to run and their success is far from guaranteed. When a file has is deleted it’s not really removed from the hard drive. Instead, the entry for that file is removed from an invisible list of all files and the space where the file resides on the hard drive is marked as available for re-use. Depending upon how much time has elapsed since the file was deleted, it may or may not have been over-written. If a hard drive is failing who knows if you’ll be able to recovery any files from it.

Option 3 – Use a professional data recovery company like DriveSavers. DriveSavers has been around since the mid 1980s. They have a stellar reputation and success rate. In the rare cases that I’ve had a client who needed professional data recovery, I’ve often used DriveSavers. They have fortunately been able to recover most of the needed data. The downside of professional data recovery companies is the relatively high cost.

In the past decade, I’ve only sent two hard drives to DriveSavers. One hard drive was from an Mac made in the mid-1990s. It hadn’t been used in years and my client suddenly realized that she needed some data from it. The hard drive no longer worked properly. She spent about $2500 to recover a few dozen files which she needed.

In the other instance, a woman phoned me after most of her iPhoto Library suddenly vanished before her eyes. She didn’t have any backup of the hard drive so we sent the hard drive to DriveSavers. She paid about $1500 for the recovery work. DriveSavers recovered thousands of jpeg photos, but some of them were random clip art files so my client then had to spend countless hours weeding through the recovered files.

In my opinion, options 2 and 3 aren’t really attractive options. They are expensive, time-consuming and the odds of getting all of the files needed are not as high as I’d like. In comparison the cost to buy a couple of backup hard drives or to pay for CrashPlan’s online backup storage system is much less. Please setup an automated, redundant and reliable backup system for your Mac.

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Do you want to clean up your Mac hard drive? Is your hard drive nearly full and you don’t know why? OmniDiskSweeper (free) can help with both of these situations. OmniDiskSweeper will scan all files and folders on your Mac and list them by size, starting with the folders taking up the most space. This helps you to focus your clean-up efforts on the folders that are taking up the most room on your Mac’s hard drive.

People often erroneously think that their Mac is running slowly because the Mac’s internal hard drive has so much stuff on it. This is rarely the case. Unless the hard drive is over 90% full, the computer’s performance is not affected by the amount of information stored there. I should be clear to mention that when the hard drive is nearly full, typically starting around 90%, the computer’s performance is significantly affected. If your hard drive is this full, please download and use OmniDiskSweeper to help you clean it up.

OmniDiskSweeper conveniently shows all the invisible files and folders on your Mac. Over the years, I’ve seen several hard drives that were filled with spurious log files or errant backup copies of data — all of which happened to be invisible. These invisible files and folders are part of the Mac operating system, Mac OS X. Some of them are critical files, so don’t throw away any invisible file without being sure that you have a full, bootable backup of your Mac and you know what you’re doing. If you’re unsure check with a Mac expert or hire a Mac consultant.

Using OmniDiskSweeper is easy.

• Download OmniDiskSweeper and install it in your Applications folder. Double-click it to open.
• From the list, select the hard drive you want to scan. OmniDiskSweeper uses the term sweep to imply scan. The scan can take 10-15 minutes or longer, depending upon how much data you have.
• When the scan is complete you’ll see a columned window (see below) listing all folders sorted by size.
• If you’ve identified a file that you want to delete, you can select it in the column browser window then click the “Delete” button in the lower left corner.
• If you want to look at a file or folder, select it in the column browser and double-click the icon in the lower-right corner. This will reveal the file or folder in the Finder so you can look at it more closely.

Happy hunting. I use OmniDiskSweeper regularly and find it an indispensable tool for cleaning hard drives.

OmniDiskSweeper File Browser

If your friends who own a Windows-PC would like to clean-up their hard drive you could direct them to Extensoft’s free Disk Analyzer.

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Update May 2012: If you need to open win mail.dat files on your iOS device (iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch) try Winmail File Viewer which currently costs 99 cents in the iTunes Store.

Did you receive an email attachment named winmail.dat or winmail? Here’s a brief explanation of what this file is and instructions for opening it.

Winmail.dat files are sent by people using Microsoft Outlook as their email application. Under certain circumstances Outlook will encode attached files, like Word or PDF files, in this winmail.dat format.

Mac users can open the winmail.dat file using a free application (donations accepted) and extract the files hiding inside. Unfortunately, this application has a goofy name which is TNEF’s Enough. I won’t bore you with an explanation of this name, but if you are interested you can read about it on the developer’s web site.

Here are instructions on how to open the winmail.dat file:

• Save your winmail.dat file on your Desktop.
• If you use Mac OS X 10.7 or 10.6 then download the most current update of TNEF’s Enough version 3. If you use Mac OS X 10.5 then download TNEF’s Enough ver 2.2. If you use OS X 10.4 or earlier then download TNEF’s Enough ver 2.0
• By clicking on one of these links, you’ll download a .zip file which contains TNEF’s Enough inside. Your Mac should automatically open the .zip file so you should see TNEF’s Enough sitting in your Downloads folder.
• Move TNEF Enough into your Applications folder.
• Double-click it to open, then go to the File menu and select Open…
• Select the winmail.dat file which you previously put on the Desktop.
• You’ll then see a window listing the embedded files which are the files that you actually want.
• Click on each file, one at a time, and click the Save button.
• Save these files to your Desktop or any other desired location.
• Quit TNEF’s Enough.

You’re done. You can now throw away the winmail.dat file since you’ve extracted all of the files from inside it.

If you’d like to read more about how and why this happens please read this Microsoft Support article or this other article. These articles also provide instructions that you can pass on to the Outlook user who sent you the winmail.dat file so he or she can make changes to no longer send you winmail.dat files. Essentially, they have to edit their record for you in their Contact list to indicate that you should only receive plain-text emails.

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Are you looking for an easy way to share files with your colleagues who use a mix of Macs and PCs? There are many online file sharing and storage systems, but I use and recommend Dropbox. I’ve tried a handful of systems including MobileMe’s iDisk, SugarSync, Windows LiveMesh, Box.net and GoogleDocs. While I use several of these services on an on-going basis, I think Dropbox is the most versatile and has the best mix of features that I use and care about.

Here’s a list of some of my needs:

• I want a fast, affordable, easy-to-use and secure system. I want to keep the files locally on my computer and have them get copied (synced) to my colleagues Mac or PC.
• I want to be able to share different folders with different people.
• I want to be able to access the shared folders and some of the files from my iPhone and iPad.

Dropbox meets all of these needs and has many other handy features. Here are some highlights:

• It provides status indicators when files are getting synced and optional on-screen notification messages when files have been added, deleted or edited.
• It saves older versions of files so you can retrieve a previous version.
• It lets you view your shared folders and files from their web site, so you can access any file from any computer which has an Internet connection.
• If two people simultaneously edit the same file, it’s smart enough to save both copies and point out this conflict.
• Files stored in Dropbox can be accessed on iPhones, iPads, Blackberries, Android-based phones and tablets.
• There is a special Public folder which can be used to share a file with the entire world, if you want. Any file in the public folder has a “public link” which can be put in an email or on a web site to provide an easy way for others to download this file. This is a handy way to share a file that is too large to send as an email attachment.

Dropbox is capable and versatile, but it’s not as robust as a full-fledged file server to which you might be accustomed. In particular it’s important to know that you can’t share a folder inside another shared folder. Instead you would need to create a separate shared folder outside of the shared folder. Anyone you’ve invited to a folder can then add, delete or change files within that folder. Anyone you’ve invited to a folder can then invite others to join the folder. As the owner of the folder you can see the list of people who have access and you can revoke somebody’s access privileges at any time.

You can try Dropbox for free. A free account includes 2 GB of storage space. If or when you outgrow that 2 GB of storage space you can buy more storage space. 50 GB of storage space costs $100 per year or 100 GB of storage space costs $200 per year. Give Dropbox a try. I think you’ll like it.

If you chose to sign-up for Dropbox, please consider using this link to do so since I’ll earn a referral bonus. Thanks.

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Did you know that Apple’s Preview lets you easily annotate and merge PDFs as well as delete and re-order pages within a PDF? Preview is a free application which comes bundled with Mac OS X. Apple has been quietly updating over the years and it has become quite capable and user-friendly. Just a few years ago one would have needed to buy the relatively expensive Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional PDF Editor to do many of these tasks.

Note: There are slight differences in how certain tasks are done if you’re using OS X 10.5′s version of Preview. All of these demonstrations are done using OS X 10.6′s version of Preview.

It’s also important to know that the following techniques may not work on all PDFs. It’s possible for a person who creates a PDF to lock the file which prevent others from manipulating it. Typically, locking a PDF like this requires use of an application like Adobe’s Acrobat.

I’ve created short video tutorials on how to do the following tasks. Read the brief text description and then click the link to watch the video.

If you need more extensive editing capabilities then what is offered by Preview you should check out the relatively affordable PDFPen.

1. Reorder pages in a PDF – Open a PDF file then click the Sidebar button to view the thumbnail icons for each page. Click on one of the thumbnails and drag the page up or down. Look for the horizontal blue line that appears indicating the new location of the page. To remove a page you can simply click on the thumbnail icon for a page to select it and the press the Delete key on your keyboard.

2. Extract pages from a PDF – Open a PDF file then click the Sidebar button to view the thumbnail icons for each page. Click on the first page you want to extract. If you want to extract additional pages then hold down the Command key and click on additional thumbnail icons. Release the Command key and drag the thumbnail icons to the Desktop. A new PDF file will be created on the Desktop. Rename the file as desired. Open this new file by double-clicking to verify that it contains the pages that you want. You can re-order the pages by following the tip listed above.

3. Move pages between PDFs (Merge PDFs) – Open a PDF file then click the Sidebar button to view the thumbnail icons for each page. Open a second PDF and click its Sidebar button too. Position the two PDFs so you can view both file’s Sidebars at the same time. Select one or more pages from one file’s Sidebar and drag them into the other file’s Sidebar. Look for the horizontal blue line that appears in the receiving file’s Sidebar. This blue line indicates where the new page appear. You can re-order the pages by following the tip listed above. Go to the File menu and select Save to save the changes.

4. Annotate text in a PDF -  Open a PDF file, click the Annotate button to review a row of tools at the bottom of the window. Use these tools to highlight text in a variety of colors, draw a line through the text, enclose text inside a rectangle or oval, or add a note in the margin of the PDF.

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I love my Victorinox Swiss Army computer briefcase. It is very durable and comes with a great warranty. I tend to carry about 20 pounds of gear, including my laptop, in my briefcase on a daily basis. Consequently, when I went shopping for a briefcase, I knew that I’d need one that was well made and durable. Victorinox Swiss Army offers a large product line of  business gear. In January 2006 I settled on a Victorinox WT Standard Brief EXP. This briefcase has handled daily wear and tear as well as being over-stuffed on many occasions.

I’ve had two parts break and both repairs were covered for free under the warranty. After 2 years, part of the metal clip that holds the shoulder strap in place broke. The strap would then slide to its full length. I contacted the manufacturer via email and they mailed me a replacement strap. Then, just shy of the bag’s fifth birthday, the front pocket zipper broke. I’m sure that stuffing too many cables into the pocket contributed to this. The good news is that I didn’t actually tear any of the cloth or tear the zipper off of the cloth. I didn’t even break any of the teeth on the zipper. Instead, one half of the zipper track popped out of the zipper. Again, I sent an email to Victorinox’s customer service department. They sent me a file listing all of their warranty repair centers around the country. I visited TW Carrol, the only repair center in Washington State. As I dropped off my bag, I asked the clerk if this repair would be covered under warranty. He replied, “With Swiss Army, they’re all covered under warranty.” The zipper was repaired and works perfectly now. I’m very pleased with my briefcase selection and look forward to using it for many years to come.

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If you ever struggle to find your Mac’s cursor then I recommend that you use MouseLocator. This free application puts a halo around the cursor to help your eyes locate it. You can configure how long the halo is displayed. It can be displayed for as little as half of a second, permanently or somewhere in between. You can also control how long the cursor must be idle before the halo will re-appear.

I find that MouseLocator is popular with people who use very large monitors or whose eyes are tired. I do a lot of computer-based presentations and I consider MouseLocator to be an indispensable tool. When I’m projecting my laptop’s display onto a large wall, MouseLocator helps audience locate and track the cursor as I move it around the computer screen.

Check out MouseLocator.

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Update January 2012: CrashPlan no longer offers the Pro Hosted Client Subscription Service. This has been supplanted by CrashPlanPro. This is a great development since CrashPlan Pro is much easier to setup and use. Please ignore the old tech tip below.

In this Tech Tip article, I’ll tell you how to setup CrashPlan’s Pro Hosted Client Subscription Service to perform automated, off-site versioned backups. I use this service to backup my work laptop. In my previous Tech Tip on setting up a comprehensive backup system, I mention how CrashPlan can be a nice supplement to backing up your Mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner since CrashPlan’s backup data can be stored off-site on CrashPlan’s servers. Thus, it can provide automated, off-site backups of your business data.

In another recent Tech Tip I talk about how to use CrashPlan+ to backup personal data so if you’re not backing up business data you’ll probably prefer to sign-up for the less-expensive CrashPlan+ service which offers the same set of features. That article includes definitions of CrashPlan, CrashPlan+ and CrashPlan Central so if you’re not familiar with the differences between these terms please read this part of the article now.

One important detail to know is that CrashPlan’s does not mention this Pro Hosted Client Subscription Service by name and barely mentions that a hosted service is available. In fact, I was confused after reading the CrashPlan web site and trying to understand the proper way to use CrashPlan+ to backup business data. I only learned about the Pro Hosted Client Subscription Service by exchanging emails with Code42′s tech support team. I was informed that CrashPlan will be revising their web site to offer a better explanation of the range of services that they offer. In the meantime, here’s my abbreviated explanation.

CrashPlan, the application, can be used to backup either personal or business data to local hard drives, hard drives connected to your friend’s computer at their home or office, or hard drives connected to other computers on your own network. However, neither CrashPlan nor CrashPlan+ allow you to backup business data to CrashPlan Central, Code42′s servers kept in a secure data center. I value having a reliable, redundant backup system and I want my data to be secure so I really like the idea of storing my backup data on the CrashPlan Central servers. So, if you’re a business owner and you want to backup your business data to the CrashPlan Central servers then you need to sign up for either CrashPlan Pro or the Hosted Pro Client Subscription Service (contact info listed below). CrashPlan Pro is advertised as supporting 10-10,000 computers, but technically it could be used for any number of business computers. It just isn’t cost-effective until you have about 10 computers. It seems that Code42 setup their Hosted Pro Client Subscription Service as a bit of an after thought to plug the gap in their service offerings and to give business owners with 1-5 computers a way to more affordably store their data on the CrashPlan Central servers.

If the Pro Hosted Client Subscription Service is a good fit for your small business then here’s some guidance on how to set it up.

Contact Code42′s sales team at sales@crashplanpro.com and ask them about the Pro Hosted Client Subscription Service.

Fill-in and return the Pro Hosted Order form that is sent to you by the sales team. Read the pricing examples that I provide at the bottom of this article.

You’ll be notified of your login information once your account has been setup.

Download and install the CrashPlan Pro application. It works on PowerPC and Intel-based Macs running OS X 10.4.11 or higher.

Open CrashPlan Pro. When you’re prompted to login do so using the account information you were given.

On the left-hand side click on the Backup button. Look at the section labeled “File to  Back Up”. By default it’s set to backup your Home folder. This folder is the default location for all of your music, pictures, documents, local email messages and files on your Desktop. This is typically what I recommend you back up. However, if you want to make changes to add or remove folders click the button which should be labeled Change or Change File Section.

Once you’ve selected the files you want to backup then again click on Backup on the left-hand side. Then, in the Backup Destinations section locate “CrashPlan Central” and click the Start Backup button. The backup will start. That’s it. You’re up and running!

Remember this initial back up could take days or weeks to complete depending upon how much data you’ve selected and the speed of your Internet connection. Until this initial backup is complete you don’t have much protection. So, I’ll reiterate that I think CrashPlan is a nice supplemental backup to local backups performed by Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. CrashPlan offers some redundant protection and off-site protection which is very important to have if you only backup to one hard drive using Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. CrashPlan is also very useful if you travel and take your laptop with you since CrashPlan will run anytime your Mac has an Internet connection.

You can quit the CrashPlan application and the backups will continue since CrashPlan is made up of two parts. There is the CrashPlan application which you use to configure the backups. The other part is the CrashPlan Engine, which runs quietly, unseen, in the back-ground. CrashPlan’s Engine automatically adjusts how much of your computer’s processing power and your network’s capacity it uses based on whether or not you’re using your computer. You can view and adjust these values in the Settings section of CrashPlan. Also in Settings you can adjust how long versions of files are retained and your can setup files or folders to exclude from your backup data using file names or regular expressions. You can also adjust the frequency and types of email notifications which you receive.
By default, CrashPlan will send you email notices when it hasn’t been able to backup your Mac in XX days and it’ll also send you a weekly summary of when the last backup occurred. You can change these email notification schedules in the Settings section.

As with any backup application. I recommend that you perform test file restorations regularly to ensure that the backup system is working properly and so that you’re comfortable performing restores so you can do it with confidence with disaster strikes.

On the left-hand side click on the Backup button. Look at the section labeled “File to  Back Up”. By default it’s set to backup your Home folder. This folder is the default location for all of your music, pictures, documents, local email messages and files on your Desktop. This is typically what I recommend you back up. However, if you want to make changes to add or remove folders click the button which should be labeled Change or Change File Section.

Once you’ve selected the files you want to backup then again click on Backup on the left-hand side and click the Start Backup button. The backup will start. That’s it. You’re up and running!

Remember this initial back up could take days or weeks to complete depending upon how much data you’ve selected and the speed of your Internet connection. Until this initial backup is complete you don’t have much protection. So, I’ll reiterate that I think CrashPlan Pro is a nice supplemental backup to local backups performed by Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. CrashPlan Pro offers some redundant protection and off-site protection which is very important to have if you only backup to one hard drive using Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. CrashPlan Pro is also very useful if you travel and take your laptop with you since CrashPlan Pro will run anytime your Mac has an Internet connection.

You can quit the CrashPlan Pro application and the backups will continue since CrashPlan Pro is made up of two parts. There is the CrashPlan Pro application which you use to configure the backups. The other part is the CrashPlan Engine, which runs quietly, unseen, in the back-ground. CrashPlan’s Engine automatically adjusts how much of your computer’s processing power and your network’s capacity it uses based on whether or not you’re using your computer. You can view and adjust these values in the Settings section of CrashPlan Pro. Also in Settings you can adjust how long versions of files are retained and your can setup files or folders to exclude from your backup data using file names or regular expressions. You can also adjust the frequency and types of email notifications which you receive.

By default, CrashPlan Pro will send you email notices when it hasn’t been able to backup your Mac in XX days and it’ll also send you a weekly summary of when the last backup occurred. You can change these email notification schedules in the Settings section.

As with any backup application. I recommend that you perform test file restorations regularly to ensure that the backup system is working properly and so that you’re comfortable performing restores so you can do it with confidence with disaster strikes.

Pricing Example – As of the November 2010 the cost is $5/computer/month plus 30 cents per gigabyte per month with a minimum of 50 GB. Thus, for one computer the cost would be $20/month ($5 for the computer and $15 for upto 50 GB of storage).

The cost for 4 computers would be a minimum of $35/month ($20 for 4 computers and $15 for upto 50 GB of storage). $35/month x 12 mns = $420 per year each year.

Here’s a cost example in case you need more then 50 GB of storage space.

4 computers = $20/month

initial 50 GB of storage space = $15/month

additional 20 GB of storage space = $6/month

Total is $20 + $15 + $6 = $41/month    12 months x $41 = $492/year

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Update Jan 2011: In December 2010, CrashPlan released CrashPlan version 3 which added new features like the ability to backup different files to different destinations. More importantly, it rolled the CrashPlan+ features of backups running every 15 minutes and storing multiple versions of files into the standard CrashPlan application. Thus, these two features are now standard for all users of CrashPlan.

Update March 2013: Pricing and product structure updates from CrashPlan are now correct in this article.

In my Tech Tip on how to setup a comprehensive backup system I mention that CrashPlan can be a nice supplement to an external hard drive using Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner for backing up your Mac since CrashPlan’s backup data can be stored off-site on CrashPlan’s servers. Thus, it can provide automated, off-site backups of your personal data. In this article, I provide instructions on how to setup CrashPlan to perform automated, off-site, versioned backups.

I need to start by introducing and defining a few terms.

CrashPlan is the name of a backup application made by Code42 Software. It’s free for personal use and can be used to backup data to a locally connected hard drive, to another computer in your home or to another computer at your friend’s home. CrashPlan+ comes in three sizes: 10GB, Unlimited and Family Unlimited. It allows off-site backup to the CrashPlan Central servers in addition to other computers. With CrashPlan+, backups occur continuously as files change and you can configure CrashPlan to hold onto previous versions of files for a while or forever.

It’s important to know that CrashPlan is free for personal use by residential customers. That is, you’re allowed to use it to backup only personal data, not business data. If you’re a business customer then you should buy CrashPlanPro. This allows you to backup your business data to local hard drives or other computers owned by you or your friends as well as CrashPlan Central.

Setup Instructions

Start by going to CrashPlan’s web store and purchasing a license for CrashPlan+ as either an Individual Unlimited Plan ($60) or a Family Unlimited Plan ($150). The individual plan provides unlimited storage for one computer online. The family plan provides unlimited storage for all computers in one household online. When you finish the checkout procedure you’ll receive an email which contains your license code for CrashPlan+.

Download the free CrashPlan application. It works on PowerPC Macs as well as Intel Macs running Mac OS X 10.5 or higher. These requirements may change over time to be sure to check CrashPlan’s web site for current requirements.

Open CrashPlan. You’ll be prompted to enter your user account information. You don’t have an account yet so follow the instructions to setup an account.

Once you’ve setup your account then the CrashPlan application will open.

On the left-hand side click on the Backup button. Look at the section labeled “File to Back Up.” By default it’s set to backup your Home folder. This folder is the default location for all of your music, pictures, documents, local email messages and files on your Desktop. This is typically what I recommend you back up. However, if you want to make changes to add or remove folders, click the button which should be labeled Change or Change File Section.

Once you’ve selected the files you want to backup then click on Backup on the left-hand side. In the Backup Destinations section locate “CrashPlan Central” and click the Start Backup button. The backup will start. That’s it. You’re up and running!

Remember, this initial back up could take days or weeks to complete depending upon how much data you’ve selected and the speed of your Internet connection. Until this initial backup is complete you don’t have much protection, so I’ll reiterate that I think CrashPlan is a nice supplemental backup to local backups performed by Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. CrashPlan offers some redundant protection and off-site protection, which is very important to have if you only backup to one hard drive using Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. CrashPlan is also very useful if you travel and take your laptop with you since CrashPlan will run anytime your Mac has an Internet connection.

You can quit the CrashPlan application and backups will continue since CrashPlan is made up of two parts. There is the CrashPlan application, which you use to configure the backups, and CrashPlan Engine, which runs quietly, unseen, in the background. CrashPlan’s Engine automatically adjusts how much of your computer’s processing power and your network’s capacity it uses based on whether or not you’re using your computer. You can view and adjust these values in the Settings section of CrashPlan. Also in Settings, you can adjust how long versions of files are retained and your can setup files or folders to exclude from your backup data using file names or regular expressions. You can also adjust the frequency and types of email notifications which you receive.

By default, CrashPlan will send you email notices when it hasn’t been able to backup your Mac in 3 days and it’ll also send you a weekly summary of when the last backup occurred. You can change these email notification schedules in the Settings section.

As with any backup application, I recommend that you perform test file restorations regularly to ensure that the backup system is working properly and so that you’re comfortable performing restores so you can do it with confidence with disaster strikes.

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All batteries will eventually experience diminished efficiency, storage capacity and will need to be replaced. However, regularly recalibrating your Lithium-ion battery will help to prolong your battery’s life and health, which will help reduce the frequency with which you’ll have to buy a new battery.

Apple recommends recalibrating your battery at time of purchase and then every few months after that. Battery University recommends recalibrating your battery every 30 charge/discharge cycles. Apple provides written instructions on how to recalibrate your battery. For years, I had a repeating event on my iCal calendar that sent me an email reminder which included a copy of Apple’s instructions. Recently, I started using Watts (30-day free trial, then $6.95) which lets me monitor the health of my battery, reminds me to calibrate my battery, then guides me through it.

Apple indicates that one should expect current Mac laptop batteries to retain 80% of their charge capacity after 1000 full charge/discharge cycles. Watts lets you keep an eye on this and alerts you if your battery is unhealthy and needs to be replaced. If you have the Growl notification application installed, Watts can be configured to display useful notifications and reminders to recalibrate your battery. I recommend Watts. Check it out, you might find it helpful.

Here’s a copy of Apple’s current instructions for recalibrating your battery if you own a MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or PowerBook G4 with a dual-layer DVD drive.

• Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook’s battery until the light ring or LED on the power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
• Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
• Disconnect the power adapter while the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, the low battery warning dialog appears on the screen.
• At this point, save your work.  Continue to use your computer; when the battery gets very low, the computer will automatically go to sleep.
• Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
• Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

Personally, I find it inconvenient to try to incorporate the above recalibration process into my day-to-day use of my laptop. Thus, I tend to do this on a Friday evening, when I’m done using the computer for the night. I save all of my documents and quit all applications on the laptop. Then, I open a QuickTime movie and set it to loop continuously. I then disconnect the power cord so the laptop is running on battery. Sometime during the night, the laptop’s battery will be depleted and the laptop will automatically go to sleep. Then it can sit there for a number of hours. On Saturday morning, I”ll connect the charger to charge it up, which can take a couple of hours. When I’m ready to use the laptop the battery is fully charged and ready to go.

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The Fujitsu ScanSnap is a compact, easy-to-use scanner which will scan a stack of two-sided pages and turn them into a searchable PDF with the press of just one button. I use my ScanSnap several times throughout the week to scan documents as well as receipts of various sizes. I highly recommend the ScanSnap.

I bought my first ScanSnap, the S510M, in January 2007 and it’s still going strong after 2900 scans. Fujitsu has replaced this model with the S1500M and the S1300.

I was fortunate enough to win an S1300 in a recent give-away by a Fujitsu representative. The S1300 can be powered by either a power cord or via a USB port on your computer. (It needs a second, separate USB port for transmitting the scanning data.) The software bundled with the S1300 includes some new features and is compatible with my three year-old S510M. If you own an older ScanSnap you can download the current ScanSnap software which is compatible with Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard.

The bundled Macintosh software includes Fujitsu’s own ScanSnap Manager as well as two third-party applications — Abby FineReader 4.1 for ScanSnap and ReadIRIS’ CardIRIS 3.6 for ScanSnap. FineReader is an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) application that let’s you turn your PDFs into searchable PDFs, editable Word or Excel documents. CardIRIS also does OCR, but is intended for business cards. It lets you scan a business card and turn it into a record in Apple’s Address Book.

The S1300 is also the first fully cross-platform ScanSnap model. In the past, ScanSnap scanners have been bundled with either Mac-compatible software or Windows-compatible software though the scanner hardware itself works with either Macs or PCs. The S1300 comes with one DVD which contains both Mac and Windows software.

Fujitsu has added a host of other appealing features over the past few years. Here are a few highlights.

• Right-clicking on the Dock icon let’s one select either Simplex (one-sided) or Duplex (two-sided) scans in case you don’t want to scan the back-side of a document such as a store receipt.

• ScanSnap Manager’s Application section lets you scan a document directly to a number of destinations such as iPhoto, your printer or an attachment in a new email message.

• Marking text with a highlighter pen will turn that text into a keyword in your searchable PDF.

The paperless office that has been prophesied has not appeared, but my ScanSnap lets me reduce the amount of paper records that I have in my filing cabinets. I scan most documents so they are always available on my laptop. Of course, a robust backup system is important if you’re going to entrust all of these documents to your computer.
Note: ScanSnaps do not conform to TWAIN, ISIS and WIA standards.

Update 03-2011: I recently learned that Fujitsu has created a number of ScanSnap Tips and Tricks including one on how to clean your ScanSnap and how to replace the consumables.

Update: 01-2013: MacWorld recently published a comparison between ScanSnap’s current high-end scanner, the ScanSnap iX500 and Neat’s NeatDesk.  Read the comparison yourself, but I’m glad that I have a ScanSnap. I might check out Neat’s software for Mac. If I like it, I can configure it to use my ScanSnap.

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Do you often want to get driving directions from Google Maps for somebody’s address which is stored in Address Book? If so, then you should use Brian Toth’s Google Maps Address Book Plugin. I’ve used this great little utility for several years and rely on it regularly to get driving directions either from my office to a client’s office or from one of my client’s office to another client’s office. You can try the plugin for free. If you like it then please send a donation to Brian Toth, the developer.

Installation is easy. Click the download button on the developer’s web site. You’ll start to download the compressed zip file. Your Mac you automatically unzip this file, if not you can double-click it to get your Mac to unzip this file. You’ll then see the Google Maps Plugin installer application. Double-click it to install it.

It’s easy to use as well.

1. Open Address Book and hover your cursor over the “work” or “home” address label.
2. Click on the address label and select Google Directions.
3. To change the starting address click on the pop-up list near the top of the window to select your starting address. Then click the “Map” button.

Your default web browser will open and you’ll be shown Google Directions for the selected addresses.

Here are images to illustrate these instructions.

Google Maps Plugin Instructions

Extra Tip – I also use Brian Toth’s PostCheck plugin for Apple’s Address Book. PostCheck will fill-in an address’ missing zip code or verify that you have the correct zip code. You’ll notice that once you’ve downloaded and installed it that you can select it from the pop-up menu. Just look for PostCheck.

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Last week Apple released an update to their Backup application which is available to all MobileMe subscribers. This new version, Backup version 3.2, is recommended for everybody but adds some new features. Apple describes the new features in this technical article.

The most important, and in my opinion, useful enhancement is that backup data stored on one’s iDisk gets recycled automatically. There are, however, some important details that one needs to understand. Recycling means that old copies of backup data will be removed automatically from one’s iDisk. I think this is a positive development since in the past Backup would simply fill up one’s iDisk storage space and then fail to complete successive backups. Worse yet, it would hardly notify you. This was a big problem in my book. Therefore, I’m pleased that data recycling will occur. However, it’s important to know the following details.

Data recycling can not be turned off. Data recycling occurs only for backup data stored on an iDisk, not for data stored on a local hard drive or CD/DVD. Data recycling apparently does NOT occur if one’s backup schedule is for monthly or quarterly backups to iDisk. Data recycling occurs after 30 days for daily iDisk backups and after 12 weeks for weekly iDisk backups. It’s unknown if Backup notifies you when data recycling occurs. If you store your backup data on your own external hard drive then you can choose from the following recycle schedules: every 4 weeks, 12 weeks, 6 months, 12 months, 2 years or only when the drive is full.

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Dealing with spam or junk email in your Inbox is a waste of time. If you run a small business, the time wasted identifying and deleting email can add up over weeks or months. This is true whether you are one person or a multi-person team. Here are a couple of ways to reduce the amount of spam that you receive in your email Inbox.

First, make sure that your email provider’s email filtering feature is turned on. Almost every email provider has such a feature so let’s take advantage of it if it’s offered. Many of them, however, are not very capable and thus I often recommend an additional layer of spam filtering such as SpamSieve or Big Mountain’s spam filtering service. Both of these services are described below.

For the general Mac user I recommend SpamSieve. SpamSieve is an application which gets installed on your Mac and it has plug-ins to let it work in conjunction with your email application. You can try SpamSieve for free and, if you find it effective, then buy it for $30. SpamSieve works with the most common email client applications including Mail, Entourage, Eudora and Thunderbird. This is a good solution for individuals. SpamSieve is a good option if you don’t have your own custom domain name. In other words, SpamSieve is a good choice if you have an email account provided by AOL, Comcast, Earthlink or other major email service providers.

If you own your own domain name then you have additional options to consider. You could sign up for a email filtering service such as Big Mountain Hosting’s MailFoundry spam filtering service. In order to set this up you need to modify the MX (mail exchange) record within your DNS (domain name system) records. Specifically, you set your MX record to deliver all incoming email to the email filtering server. The server then scans all email messages and delivers legitimate email messages to your Inbox. All email messages that were identified as spam or contain a virus are put into a quarantine. You then receive one email that lists all quarantined messages. If a legitimate email was quarantined then you can  click a button to release the message from its quarantine and have it delivered to your Inbox. I use Big Mountain’s spam filerting server and find it highly effective. Their plans start at $2 per month per mailbox. They have tiered pricing for larger groups of users.

If you own your own domain name but only want to filter some of your email accounts then you could consider GFI’s MaxMail Protection. This is also a robust spam and virus filtering tool. The setup and day-to-day operation is very similar to Big Moutain’s MailFoundry, but GFI MaxMail Protection offers a unique feature of allowing you to filter only some of your email accounts. Thus, you also only get charged for each email account that you filter. The cost is about $2 per month per mailbox (aka email address).

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Did you know that you can remotely find and/or erase your iPhone? You can if you have a MobileMe subscription and have the Find My iPhone feature turned on.

[Update February 2013: Apple has now made Find My iPhone a part of the free iCloud service. The rest of this tip has been updated with the correct terminology and directions.]

First, let’s enable this feature on your iPhone. Turn on your iPhone and go to Settings. Go to the iCloud section, then turn on the Find My iPhone feature using the slider button.

Now, let’s test this feature. Go to http://www.icloud.com and login to your iCloud account. Click the green Find My iPhone button on the second row of icons. You’ll be asked to enter your iCloud password a second time. Apple is just being extra secure by asking for this information.

Wait a minute or so while your iPhone is located. I should mention that this service relies on the GPS chip in your iPhone so if the iPhone is off then this won’t work. A map showing the approximate location of your iPhone will appear. This can help you determine if your iPhone is around the house, at your office or if you forgot it at the restaurant last night.

Below the map you’ll see three buttons: Display a Message, Remote Lock and Remote Wipe.

Display a Message lets you display a short text message on the screen and play an optional alert sound. This sound will play even if the phone is in silent mode. This sound can help you find the phone if it is under a couch cushion. Or it could help a waiter find it if the phone is under a restaurant table.

The Remote Lock feature lets you enable the lock so nobody can view your data or run-up your phone bill. In my last blog article I recommended that you enable the lock feature on your phone  all the time.

The Remote Wipe feature allows you to remotely remove all data from the phone. As long as you have synced your iPhone recently, then go ahead and do this. If you locate your phone eventually then you can restore all of the data by syncing it to your Mac.

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Have you ever wanted to print just part of a web page or some other document? If so, you should consider installing the free Print Selection Service.

Using Print Selection is easy. One just needs to select text in any document such as a web page, a word processing document or a PDF file. Then go to the application menu, select Services and select Print Selection. A preview window will appear. Simply click the Print button. The only tricky thing is being able to find the application menu. The application menu is the menu named after the application you are using. For example, if you’re using Safari, then its application menu is the menu named Safari. If you’re using Pages, then the application menu is named Pages.

Print Selection requires Mac OS X 10.4 or newer. It also requires that the Mac application supports the use of Services. While most applications do support Services, not all developers take the time to build this into their product. The most notable example of this is Microsoft. Neither Office 2004 nor Office 2008 applications support Services.

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Have you ever found yourself flipping back and forth between a web page and an email message, copying and pasting mulitple pieces of information from the web page into your email message? If so, then you should use a clipboard manager application to access multiple clipboards.

Another common use that I have is that I copy a some text and then get distracted. I forget to paste it immediately and end up copying other text. With Mac OS X’s clipboard, which can only hold one piece of data at a time, the first string of text would be overwritten and lost. Clipboard managers store dozens of items. These items can then be restored from a list of items or sometimes by using a keyboard shortcut. I like to use keyboard-based methods since I find them faster.

My clipboard manager of choice is LaunchBar because it’s also a great application launcher. Here are some other clipboard managers that you should consider: CopyPaste Pro ($30), PTHPasteboard Pro ($25), JumpCut (free) and Clips (20 Euros).

JumpCut is a one-trick pony that I’ve used in the past. It’s simple to use, and you can’t beat the price. I used PTHPasteboard many years ago when they offered a free version, and I liked it very much. I haven’t tried CopyPastePro or Clips. Clips is a relatively new clipboard manager but it has a lot of features and capabilities. It could be worth checking out.

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Apple’s search tool, Spotlight, does not search every folder on your Mac’s hard drive. Apple configures it to skip some folders that it thinks you won’t want to search. For example, Spotlight doesn’t search inside the various Library folders on your Mac. If you’re looking for a font, such as Helvetica, Spotlight won’t find it for you.

I supplement Spotlight with a handy application named Find Any File which truly does search inside of all folders on your Mac. It’s not a fast as Spotlight, but that’s a worthwhile trade-off in my mind. Find Any File’s interface is based on Apple’s Find File which was part of older versions of the Mac operating system from the mid-90s, so FindAnyFile’s interface might look familar to long-time Mac users. It’s interface is easy to use, regardless.

It’s important to know that due to Mac OS X’s permission structure when you first open Find Any File it’s only able to search files that you own. If you want to search all files on the hard drive then hold down the Option key while clicking on its Find button. You’ll be asked for an administrator password and then Find Any File will restart with root permissions. This means that it’ll then be able to really find any file on your Mac’s hard drive.

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MsgFiler (read “Message Filer”) is critical to me. Recently, I held off on upgrading my Mac to Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) until MsgFiler had been updated to be compatible with the new version of Mail in Snow Leopard. I should note that Mail uses the term Mailbox instead of mail folder, but in this context they are synonymous.

MsgFiler is a plug-in for Apple’s Mail application. It lets me quickly file email messages into mail folders which I have already created using only keystrokes.  This way I don’t have to waste time moving my hand onto the mouse to open a folder or sub-folder. Here’s how it works: I select one or more messages in my Inbox. I then press Command-9 which brings up the MsgFiler window. Next, I type the first few characters of a folder name. MsgFiler displays a list of folders whose names match the characters I’ve typed. I can either type a couple more characters until the list of matches is only one folder or I can use the arrow key to select the folder from the matches. Pressing the Return key then moves the email message into the selected folder. MsgFiler gives me the option of copying the message if I prefer that instead of moving it.

MsgFiler can also be used to quickly open a mail folder using only keystrokes. This is a fast way to open a folder that is buried inside several levels of folders.

You can watch a short video on the developer’s web site to see how MsgFiler works. You can download and give it a try before you pay ($8) for it.

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Is your Dock over-crowded with icons? If so, then maybe you would benefit from using an application launcher. An application launcher allows you to open any application installed on your Mac using your keyboard. This page at Pure-Mac lists a number of application launchers. I’ve tried a few of them and prefer LaunchBar. This feature list gives you an indication of the myriad of things that LaunchBar can do.

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It’s now possible to have your iPhone transcribe your speech. Last week, Dragon Dictate, a temporarily free application, was added to the iTunes App Store. This application records your voice, transcribes it, and lets you paste the text into a new email message, text message or any other iPhone application. I tested it last week. It’s not perfect but works surprisingly well. The transcription is accomplished by sending the audio recording to Dragon’s servers which quickly do their best to recognize what you spoke and convert it into text. This recognition process is not always 100% accurate, but one has the chance to edit and correct mistakes. Another problem that I encountered was the recording sometimes stopped abruptly and inexplicably. This wasn’t a big deal since I could resume recording easily enough. Dictating emails was faster then typing a message on the iPhone’s keyboard, so this is a significant time saver. I’m sure that Dragon will charge for this application in the future. I’m also confident that I’ll continue to use this application.

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