Social sharing widgets, like the Tweet button of Twitter or the Like button of Facebook, increase the overall byte size of your web pages. You can load these widgets conditionally on mobile devices and improve your site's performance.
13 March 2013
How to Load Social Widgets Conditionally to Improve your Site’s Performance
Download Fotor App For Windows 8
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There is a wealth of free photo editing tools out there for Windows. But most of them offer basic functionality and sport a dull interface. Another downside is that these tools aren’t designed for touchscreen devices. Because of this, using these picture editing applications on touchscreen devices is a tedious job. If you own a [...]
How To Print Email From Windows 8 Mail App
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The native Mail app that ships with Windows 8 is a pretty good one with decent set of features. Though it lacks many features available in popular desktop mail clients, it’s the best mail client app out there for Windows 8. The Mail app supports all popular webmail services including Outlook.com, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail [...]
12 March 2013
7 Email Efficiency Tips To Get More Email Done, Faster
But email can also be a significant time sink. This typically happens when it is used in the wrong way. Many people send you emails you don’t need, with subject lines that don’t reflect the content, and in more words than necessary. But it can also be your own fault, for example if you don’t process emails right or abuse your inbox as a To Do or reading list. Fact is, you can get through your emails faster by improving your habits and rigorously adopting a few key email efficiency tips.
Schedule Email Time
If you dread tending to your emails or if you regularly spend way too much time clearing your inbox, try committing to a schedule. Some people recommend doing emails for a set time twice a day. Scheduling time is smart because it creates the time frame and space of mind to concentrate on getting the task done. Besides, you will figure out how much time you really spend with emails.
Checking emails only twice a day doesn’t work for everyone. If you need to stay on top of things and check your emails several times throughout the day, give yourself a few minutes every hour in addition to checking and processing emails in the morning and evening. Those short email sprints are an opportunity to respond to urgent emails or respond to an email that you first needed to fetch information for.
The idea is to…
- create a time limit by scheduling email time,
- have the ambition to stay within that limit,
- become quicker, and
- gradually free up time on your schedule.
This mindset helps you focus and become more efficient. Combine that with all the other email efficiency tips in this article and you will soon speed through your emails like never before.
Process Each Email You Open
Every email you open requires you to act in one way or the other. Doing this immediately saves time because you won’t have to deal with that email again. You will also clear your inbox at least once a day, which is a liberating feeling.
For each email you open, act immediately if possible or schedule a task if necessary, then archive or delete the email. Acting immediately can mean that you respond quickly, make a brief phone call, transfer dates to your calendar, add tasks to your To Do list, file emails or any content to read later. Whenever you are not able to respond or act immediately, draft a response and schedule a task to address whatever it is that you need to do. In any case, get all emails out of your inbox.
Note that in Gmail, every email has a unique URL. Now don’t use that to bookmark your emails! Instead, add the link to the respective task on your To Do list or calendar entry. It’s much better than keeping track of those emails in your inbox.
To make the most of your time…
- act on every email you open,
- transfer tasks and dates to your To Do list or calendar and
- add email URLs for reference,
- repond immediately if possible,
- draft a response if needed,
- archive or delete every email you opened and,
- process Drafts folder and Task list once a day.
Filter & Label Emails
Many people keep emails in their inbox because they don’t know of a better way to keep track of them. It contributes to clutter and with time actually makes it harder to find things. In Gmail, you can easily find any email using the powerful search feature. Alternatively, you can label emails to quickly find them if you must keep them in your inbox or sort them into folders to retrieve them later.
Rather than manually sorting emails, you can set up filters to automatically process emails you receive regularly, including notifications, subscriptions, digests, but also emails from specific people. Instead of setting up a new filter for each individual source, create an email alias for types of emails (e.g. forum notifications or newsletter subscriptions) and filter emails based on what email address they are sent to. By directing those emails to their own dedicated folder, they will never clog up your inbox, you won’t waste time processing them, and you can still read them whenever you have time.
The best way to manage your emails is to…
- learn how to search your email,
- label and
- sort emails,
- ideally with automatized filters where possible, and
- make them bypass your inbox if you never need to deal with them immediately.
Reduce Incoming Email
As you start clearing your inbox on a daily basis, you will notice which emails you don’t need. Instead of setting up filters for emails you don’t really want to receive or will never have the time to read, act. This can mean that you unsubscribe from a newsletter you never read, tell a friend not to forward you cartoons anymore, or ask a colleague to only CC you on important emails.
In short, address unnecessary emails, unsubscribe rigorously, and filter to the trash if necessary.
Set An Example: Keep Your Own Emails Clear & Brief
It takes time to compose an elaborate email. And it takes time to read and process it. Save yourself and others time and learn to keep your emails clear and brief.
This starts with a good subject line. Make sure it clearly reflects the content of your email. This becomes easier if you stick to a single subject per email. Finally, keep your email brief. I wouldn’t recommend a one sentence policy, but everyday work emails should be brief. Do the thinking and extract the essence of what you want to communicate before you send.
Your recipients will love your emails if they contain…
- a clear subject line,
- one subject per email,
- key ideas expressed clearly in
- no more than 1-5 sentences.
Use Canned Responses
If you receive a lot of emails that more or less require one and the same response, create a template and set up a canned response. This can save a lot of time and is very easy to do with Gmail. We have dedicated an entire article on how to Email Faster & Better With Canned Responses.
Use Keyboard Shortcuts
Most email programs offer keyboard shortcuts. Gmail for example has shortcuts for responding (a), deleting (SHIFT + 3), or archiving an email (a). We have compiled a PDF summary of useful Gmail Shortcuts here. Note that you might have to enable keyboard shortcuts. Spend a few minutes to learn keyboard shortcuts for your email client of choice, and you will process your emails much faster every day.
Here are some more email efficiency tips to help you use email more effectively.
Conclusion
Email is a communication tool that should serve you, not control your life. Be clear what you want to achieve with this communication tool, how you want to spend your time, and automate or eliminate anything that stands in between you and processing your email quickly. If done right, clearing your inbox doesn’t need to take a lot of time. And once you have a good routine, you will not worry about not checking your emails for a few hours or a day as you do more important work. You will know your routine will let you plow through a flooded inbox in no time.
Do you have any email processing tips that I have missed?
Image credits: Email Logo via Shutterstock, Clock & Email via Shutterstock, Inbox via Shutterstock, Incoming Email via Shutterstock, Speech Bubbles via Shutterstock
The post 7 Email Efficiency Tips To Get More Email Done, Faster appeared first on MakeUseOf.
10 Differences Between Gmail's iOS App and the Mobile Gmail Site
Now that Gmail's iOS app and the mobile Gmail site look almost the same, you may wonder which one is better. Why install the Gmail app when you can use Gmail from Safari, Chrome or any other browser? Here are 10 differences I found:
1. The native app is faster. Almost everything is faster, from transitions to scrolling and loading messages. This is especially noticeable if you have an old iPhone (I've tested the native app and the web app on an iPhone 3GS: the web app was a lot slower).
2. The native app supports push notifications. If you buy a new iPhone or iPad right now, the Gmail app is the only way to receive notifications almost instantly. The Exchange-powered Google Sync is no longer available for new devices (it still works for existing devices and Google Apps for Business/Education).
3. Gmail's iOS app opens links inside the app, while the web app opens links in a new tab. The first approach is better because it's much easier to go back to the message. You can open pages in Chrome from the Gmail app and Chrome adds a new button that sends you back to the Gmail app, replicating an Android feature.
4. You can preview photos before attaching them to a message in the native app, but this feature is not available in the web app. Photos sent using the native app are a lot more compressed: I've sent a screenshot using both apps and the native app attached a 91KB JPG file, while the mobile Gmail site attached a 239KB JPG image.
5. The native app doesn't show Google's navigation menu and doesn't include browser controls, so there's more space for displaying messages.
6. Gmail's iOS app has a different navigation interface borrowed from the YouTube and Google+ apps. It supports gestures, it's faster and it doesn't replace the current view.
7. The native app integrates with your phone contacts. That means you can open the system contact picker when composing a new message.
8. The web app shows status messages at the bottom of the window, while the native app doesn't.
9. The web app asks for permission to increase local storage to 10MB or more, while the native app doesn't.
10. Both apps let you switch between multiple accounts, but the native app has a nicer interface with profile photos and unread mail counter.
Share Movies, Photos, And Documents From Windows Phone With SkyDrive
Windows Phone 7 had limited support for the service; the first app for cloud drive was only released in 2012. For Windows Phone 8 users, however, access to the storage is available through the Office Hub and through this official free app, available from the Windows Phone Store.
Up against competition from cloud storage services such as Box, Dropbox and Google Drive (although of these, only Box has an official app), how does SkyDrive for Windows Phone stand up?
Cloud Sync Features
One of the main uses for the SkyDrive app on a Windows Phone is to automatically sync images that you have snapped on your phone’s camera. This can be easily set up in the background and upload is remarkably fast (depending on your connection, of course).
The SkyDrive app also offers full browsing of your cloud storage account, offering a choice of views (list and thumbnail), the ability to create folders and move files and even share content with your email contacts.
Checking your remaining storage is also possible, as is the ability to manage photo upload and download sizes.
For users with an interest in Office documents, the SkyDrive app enables you to browse and open documents in the appropriate Microsoft Office application on your Windows Phone.
Ease of Use
What is most striking about this app is how easy it is to use. From the moment of launching SkyDrive, you will notice that it throws you straight into your collection of files and folders, offering instant access to photos, videos and whatever other documents you might have stored in your personal Microsoft cloud.
Recent files can also be viewed, as can those that have been shared with you, while the ability to search, switch views, create a new folder, select files and alter your settings is available by dragging the ellipses menu (which is contextual, changing depending on the screen you are currently viewing).
Auto-Syncing to SkyDrive
Syncing newly snapped photos to your SkyDrive is simple – and vital for making sure you don’t lose them should anything happen to your phone!
On Windows Phone you can select the native sync tool via Settings > Applications > Photo+Camera and enabling SkyDrive to upload photos and videos. (Note that Facebook can also be selected for manual uploads on a photo-by-photo basis directly from the camera app.)
Meanwhile any documents and spreadsheets that you create on your phone can be saved to your SkyDrive storage using the Save as… option. Once saved to the cloud, SkyDrive will continue to be the default location for opening the file in question unless no Internet connection is possible.
Browsing and Opening Files from SkyDrive
To browse the files on SkyDrive, all you need to do is open the app and select the appropriate folder. The Files list shows the full contents of your SkyDrive, from videos to music and documents and images. Everything is sorted alphabetically – there is no changing this – and a single tap will launch the chosen file with the correct application.
For instance, Word documents will open in Word mobile; MP3s will open with the built-in media player, etc.
There are additional settings available for managing SkyDrive, but these can only be accessed through the browser. By opening Settings > Account > Manage Storage you can increase your SkyDrive storage size, although this requires a subscription to be paid to Microsoft. You can also manage Office File Formats, determining whether your Word, PowerPoint and Excel files will be saved as Microsoft Office Open XML Format documents (.DOCX, .PPTX and .XLSX) or OpenDocument Format (.ODT, .ODP, .ODS) – quite a good option for Microsoft to provide!
Conclusion
The lack of official DropBox and Google Drive apps for Windows Phone pretty much limits the competition to SkyDrive to Box. Although the latter offers more storage (I previously owned a HP TouchPad and therefore have 50 GB of Box storage) SkyDrive is to Windows Phone what iCloud is to iOS. It is the perfect accompaniment, like gravy on chicken or Parmesan and black pepper on spaghetti Bolognese, and should therefore be the very first app you install on a Windows Phone.
The post Share Movies, Photos, And Documents From Windows Phone With SkyDrive appeared first on MakeUseOf.
EA Finally Apologizes For SimCity Fiasco With A Free Game [Updates]
In case you’ve missed it, the anticipated SimCity launch was marred by recurring server errors, which caused users to be thrown off the game unexpectedly, or prevented them from playing altogether. The new SimCity requires an Internet connection and many aspects of the game depend on a this connection to the server. When EA’s servers collapsed on launch, the game stopped working for many who bought it.
Lucy Bradshaw, General Manager of EA’s Maxis label, has made an honest and refreshing statement, attempting to clean up the mess caused by SimCity’s failures: “a lot more people logged on than we expected.”, she says. “That was dumb.”
As a consolation, EA is offering all players a free game from EA’s PC portfolio. On March 18, EA will send an email to players informing them of how to download a free game. Bradshaw acknowledges that this move is “a little contrived – kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy.”, but it’s bound to leave a sweeter taste in your mouth if you bought SimCity and couldn’t play. EA is also hoping that the community “won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent.”
EA promises that the game will be at 100% soon, and at the very least, the company is doing something to soften the blow for gamers, even if it still refuses to issue refunds to people who purchased the game through EA’s Origin.
Did you buy the game and couldn’t play? Do you feel a free game is a good consolation?
Source: EA
The post EA Finally Apologizes For SimCity Fiasco With A Free Game [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.
A Bright Future For Your Kids Once You Spy iPhone Text Messages Of Theirs
Texting texting texting; this habit of children is indeed a headache for all parents. The tic tac sound coming from your child’s room at all times is not their wall clock but the sound of their keypad buttons pressing while texting. Too much texting by kids from their iPhone is an irritating thing for parents and it’s not so good for your child’s health even. Excessive texting results in less sleep and creates plenty of problems for children. If parents decide to spy iPhone text messages of their kids with StealthGenie, then they can definitely change this irritating habit of their kids.
From anywhere in the world and at any time you want to, you may monitor the activities of your kids with the help of StealthGenie. This app is really small in size and it runs quietly inside your kid’s cell phone. StealthGenie is really user-friendly and extremely easy to use. This app does not even disrupt any feature of your kid’s cell phone while it is being installed in it.
Suitable Phones:
iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 are the latest iPhone models that are perfectly compatible with this app. You simply need to connect to the internet and use your log-in details to gain complete access to all the data that is stored inside the cell phone of your kids.
SMS Messages:
SMS messages present in the Inbox and Drafts of your child’s cell phone are shown to you by StealthGenie. Parents may even access all the SMS messages sent by children from their iPhone and may even retrieve any deleted SMS messages by them.
Phone Data And imessages:
All the photos and videos stored inside your kid’s iPhone are provided to you with the help of this app. Parents even get to view all the photos and videos shared by their children through imessages. Even all the text messages sent and received by kids through imessage are shown to parents.
Child Monitoring:
Teenage is one such time where all the habits of children tend to get attached with them for life. If you wish to make a good man of your kid, then you need to make sure that they mend their ways as early as possible. Spy iPhone text messages of your kids with StealthGenie and make sure that they don’t get on the wrong path.
How To Reset Windows 8 Password [The Easy Way]
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About a week ago, we first covered about a free tool named Recover My Password to recover or reset Windows admin password. Recover My Password can reset Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 passwords with a few mouse clicks. While using Recover My Password software to reset forgotten password is fairly simple, novice [...]
New Mobile Gmail Interface
Gmail's mobile site now looks like the hybrid Gmail app for iPhone and iPad. There are some differences: the app has a sidebar, a different interface for changing accounts and support for push notifications.
Unlike Gmail's app for Android, the iPhone app is just a wrapper for the mobile site with a few extra features. Until now, Gmail's app for iPhone used a different interface than the mobile site. Mobile Gmail had an old interface that predated the Google-wide redesign efforts.
New interface (iPhone 4S) vs the old interface (iPhone 3GS):
Unfortunately, the new mobile site lacks the previous/next buttons, just like the iPhone app. The good news is that you can now upload photos from the mobile site if you have an iPhone or iPod. Until now, the feature was only available in the Android interface and the "native" iOS app.
11 March 2013
How to Send Out of Office Replies in Twitter
Are you travelling for business or going on a vacation? You can create out-of-office automatic replies for people who are trying to reach you via Twitter and they won't expect a response from you right away!
Twitter Archive is now available in multiple languages
Twitter has just announced via tweet that now twitter archive is available in multiple languages including Dutch, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish & Spanish.
Twitter archive is twitter latest feature that allows you to browse every tweet you’ve ever sent.
The post Twitter Archive is now available in multiple languages appeared first on Hack Illusion.
ModernStart: Free Tool To Run Windows 8 Apps In Desktop Mode
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On Wednesday of last week, Stardock released a new software to run modern or metro-style Windows 8 apps on the desktop. The program not only adds close button to Windows 8 apps but also lets you pin apps to the taskbar. Stardock’s ModernMix is an excellent piece of software for PC users who don’t like [...]
10 March 2013
How To Change Height And Width Of Start Screen
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Ever since the release of first Developer Preview build of Windows 8, PC users have been complaining about the newly introduced Start screen. There are even users who just don’t like to upgrade to Windows 8 just because of the Start screen! As many of you know, there are tens of brilliant software available to [...]
PWGen – A Very Advanced Password Generator [Windows]
A few years ago, I went through a phase where I spent several hours in a single day revising all of my passwords and changing them on every site that I regularly use. Today, not a single one of my important accounts on the Internet have a password under 16 characters. Length isn’t the only strength of a solid password, and I’d like to show you a tool that will make sure you’re able to generate a secure one.
PWGen
It’s my opinion that PWGen is the best password-generation tool out there not only because of the methodology, but it provides us with freedom. A lot of password generators are a point-and-click tool that generate a randomized string of characters and numbers. Maybe it’ll let you pick how long the password is, but that’s it. Passwords are more than that to you and I.
On the face of the application, you’re immediately able to see how specific the generation can get. You can generate both passwords and passphrases.
With passwords, you’re able to set a length and determine the set of characters that can be used. This will allow you to create passwords of just one casing (upper or lower) or a password without numbers in it, for example. To the right of the field, you are able to see two icons which, from left to right, allow you to see the details of your current character set or access a small help menu.
This menu gives you all of the information you need to set up proper formatting for your passwords. Here are a few examples of types of passwords that you can randomly generate:
- Prc8nB2d06kU (alphanumeric)
- 4oC0f803ikiqF5 (base64)
- 91978b65f2d8d576 (hex)
- K9JUsvupzVkn9ezn (easy to read, no ambiguous characters)
- *;@}^%>}}?,& (symbols only)
Passphrases are totally different and are definitely a more uncommon form of security. Generating a passphrase is as simple as loading a word list and clicking a button. You can find word lists all over the Internet, and these are basically just text files with newlines between each word in a list (hence the name).
The icon of the magnifying glass, on the interface, allows you to browse for a word list. Otherwise, you can use the default list that ships with PWGen. It’s a list of 8,192 words. Here are a few examples of some generated phrases from the default list:
- leery grad bobbin rater payne
- neil trash wont 2u oasis
- quad boggy lr stingy gunny
You’re also able to generate a large list of passwords at a single time for display or to immediately save to a text file.
The application’s advanced options really allow you to refine the password generator methods so that everything is exactly the way you want it.
Being able to immediately exclude ambiguous characters is the type of extensiveness that a lot of simple generators would leave out. If the included ambiguous characters aren’t enough, you’re able to redefine the entire set.
Another option that stands out is the ability to prevent words in a passphrase from being separated by a space. This will essentially allow you to create passwords that are actually just a phrase strung together. Perhaps not the most secure option, but an interesting one nonetheless.
The last feature I want to highlight, and maybe one of the most interesting and unique, is the ability to create profiles for individual configurations.
How this can be useful is as limited to what your purposes may be. However, let’s say you wanted to consistently generate passwords or passphrases for one specific website that does not allow special characters and symbols to be included in the password. Knowing that, you can configure each field and option in the application, bring up the profile editor, and save this profile so that you can load it later. That way, you can easily play with PWGen without having to constantly redo old configurations over again.
PWGen takes password generation seriously and really picks up where other password generator alternatives may fall short. For some, PWGen may seem a little intimidating and too deep, but it’s incredibly easy to use and puts you in complete control of its options.
What do you guys think of PWGen and its features? Let me know in the comments!
The post PWGen – A Very Advanced Password Generator [Windows] appeared first on MakeUseOf.
Google Now Topics
Google Now has a cool feature that shows useful results for the topics you've recently explored using Google Search. Now you can find all the topics if you visit this page. Unfortunately, the links to the topic pages only work from a mobile device.
It's likely that Google notices when you're clicking a lot of search results and refine your query multiple times and creates a new topic. Google automatically classifies topics and it lets you filter the topics by time. Google Now Topics could be a modern version of Google Alerts if Google added more notification options.
{ Thanks, Florian. }
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