Creately, Free Diagram Tool

At Leading Hands, we are constantly scouring the web to find tools that will improve your digital lifestyle. In the past we have recommended Gliffy as the alternative to Microsoft’s Visio, software that lets you make diagrams. Creately is another free diagram tool worth checking out.

Creately lets you create beautiful flowcharts, diagrams and drawings. Build software projects for web mockups, business diagrams for work flows and educational templates for chemistry labs.

The app features dragging and dropping objects, connecting objects and sharing them with other contributors. When you sign-up your are automatically given a free plan with limited functionality and all your diagrams are public. Pricing plans are available and even more special pricing for educators. The app is available in the Google Marketplace.

What do you think of Creately?
http://creately.com/

Dropbox is Sharing and Storage

What is Dropbox?
Drop box is similar to You Send It where you can share files back and forth to each other. However the energized file sharing site also has a built in feature like Mozy where you can back up files from your system. With the initial sign-up, you get two gig free of space but of course you can upgrade for more. I also discovered there is a new iPhone app for Dropbox too!

Stephen Herron who introduced me to Dropbox said he is using it primarily for storage of his writing projects. He is also impressed with how everything automatically syncs up between his laptops and PCs. He proclaims that, “it’s very handy.”

Give drop box a try.
http://www.dropbox.com

Zamzar Online File Converter

The internet is truly powerful and if used the right way, you can produce powerful results. Remember that line from Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Exhibit A is a recent find called Zamzar which is an online file converter that works great.

Do you have a video in mpg format you need convert to avi? Do you have a word document you need converted to a PDF? Whatever file format you need to covert from audio, video, doc or image, Zamzar can do it! The free account does the basic conversion, if you want to store all your files online, rename, increase maximum size limits or establish a secure connection, then you’ll need to upgrade to a paid account.

Free Zamzar account:

• Up to 100 mega-bytes (mb)
• No contract
• No sign-up
• File conversion of image, doc, video and audio

http://www.zamzar.com/

Need that old program back?

I was recently talking with a friend and he reminded me of a great website that often gets overlooked called Old Apps. Let’s say you were a big fan of the defunct program MusicMatch, an audio player that Yahoo discontinued, but you still wanted to get it. At Old Apps, you can download outdated software for free.

Search through thousands of oldies but goodies apps and party like it’s 1999.
http://www.oldapps.com

Need Software, No Cash?

Before making the next big software purchase, check out Source Forge.

You just might be surprised what you don’t have to pay for.

My Home Computers run Win XP, at work its Mac OSX. I even run Ubuntu at times. Sourceforge has software for everybody.

I needed to convert some video files and then make a DVD. At Work the Mac has built in options. At Home I needed solutions. I was able to find open source software at http://sourceforge.net/ for converting my video files and make the DVD with menus.

Everything was found, installed and going within a half hour.

George Jetson here I come.

The Next Generation of Chat

If you don’t have a web cam, then you are in a growing minority of computer owners. Now web cameras are built standard into most computers and if not they can be cheaply purchased. With the increase of broadband and the decline of dial-up Internet service, the ability to easily communicate via video on the web has increased two fold. With this new found speed of data, the quote from Spiderman, “With great power, comes great responsibility” seems relevant.  Webcams create a new reality and safety measures should be considered.

For example, I stumbled upon Paltalk while I was searching for instant messaging programs. Paltalk is an all-in-one instant messaging, group video calls & chat room program. With this Swiss army knife program, now you are not only chatting with others online, you are utilizing your web camera to take it to the next level.

Teen Webcam Safety Tips:

• Keep your computer in an open area
• Check what new programs have been installed on computer
• Establish what is appropriate to do and say online

Are you concerned about the impact of web cams and your teen? What steps do you take to ensure children are using them appropriately?

PBWiki – Online Collaboration Tool

A friend of mine just told me about a great writing collaboration tool called PBWiki. She was using this free online web application to work on a group research paper project and had great success. Google Docs has been pioneering the concept of group document collaboration, so this really isn’t a new idea, but PBWiki has just made it easier.

What can you do with PBWiki?

• Collaborate as a group on the same document(s)
• See changes made by others
• Rollback to prior versions

Try PBWiki
http://pbwiki.com

Power Achiver the alternative to ZIP

The other day I tried opening a “zip” file and my trial WinZip program had expired. I then found out about “Power Achiver” from a friend which is a free file extraction tool. The software will not only open up ZIP files, but works on many other file formats.

I have added this program to Leading Hands’ list of open source programs.

Download Power Archiver
http://www.powerarchiver.com/download/

JaJah

Remember those really annoying John Stamos, Uncle Jessie from Full House, commercials that told you to call 1-7-7-7-6 before you make a call to save on long distance? Guess what… the concept it back with JaJah.

This time you can make call with JaJah on your mobile or landline phone to save money and keep in touch with friends and family. If you make a bunch of international phone calls, you can save some dough. The website says, “It connects you using your existing phone. No contract, no software, no headset. Easy to use, so start saving right now.” I haven’t tried it, but a friend of mine uses it and loves it.

http://jajah.com

iPhone 2.1 software update

On Friday, the latest iPhone software was released. This updates all iPhones, both the original models and the newer 3G models to the 2.1 version of the software.

Previously, there had been a number of complaints regarding software crashes when using 3rd party applications, and many users had been having problems with 3G reception in some areas. The new software also speeds up access to contacts and is meant to improve battery life.

It’s interesting to think that when you purchase a product like the iPhone, you aren’t really going to end up with the same product you bought. With continuous software updates and improvements, the device keeps evolving as you own it.

Imagine purchasing a TV or car that came with ongoing upgrades. Would you pay extra for such a device knowing that every few months there would be a new “software” patch to fix bugs or improve performance?