Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Keep your Google Contacts Up to Date!

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Keep your Google Contacts Up to Date! Dec 26th 2012, 20:17 You have several incomplete entries in your Google Contacts. Some entries are missing phone numbers, others don’t have any mailing address associated with them while in the case of close friends and family members, you don’t even have a record of their birthdays. → How do you get this missing information from contacts and complete your address book? You can always send them an email or make a phone call and fill-in the missing details manually or there’s a new and better alternative – you can ask your contacts to directly update their own records in your Google Contacts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMxvZgK4BMg Ask Friends to Update your Google Contacts It works something like this. Your selected contacts are sent a unique URL that points to a web form. They can fill-in the missing data, press the Submit button and all that information is directly added to your Google Contacts. Simple. To get started, go to your Google Contacts and create a new group (let’s call it Personal). Now put one or more contacts into this new group – all these group members will get an automatic email from you requesting them to update their own records in Google Contacts. Next open this Google Script and follow these steps: Choose File -> Make a Copy to create a copy of the script into your own Google Drive. Update the values of NAME and GROUP variables with the actual values. Go to File -> Manage Versions and Save a new version. Go to Publish -> Deploy as Web App, choose “Anyone, even Anonymous” under “Who can access the app” and click the Deploy button. Go to Run -> Initialize to authorize the script. Choose Run -> Initialize to run the script. That’s it. All your contacts who are part of that particular Google Contacts group will now receive an email from you (screenshot A). When any of these contacts update their details through the form (screenshot B), you will be notified of the change via email. Screenshot A: Your friend gets an email requesting them to update their contact information. Screenshot B: They can fill the form and their details are added directly into your Google Contacts. The project is created using Google Scripts and the entire source code is available online. If you ever wish to disable the Google Contacts form, open the same Google Script in your Google Drive and unpublish the web app (under Publish -> Deploy as web app). Also, this version of the project request essential contact details like Mailing Address, Mobile Number, Skype ID, etc. but you can easily extend the script /web form to include additional fields like Anniversary date, Company name and so on. This story, Keep your Google Contacts Up to Date!, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 26/12/2012 under Google Contacts, Internet.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Embed Links to External Website in your YouTube Videos

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Embed Links to External Website in your YouTube Videos Dec 25th 2012, 07:30 Some good news for YouTube publishers. You can now embed links in your YouTube videos using the annotations feature of YouTube. These hyperlinks may either point to your website’s homepage or to any other internal webpage of a site that is associated with your YouTube account or channel. → Thus, if your YouTube video explains how to boil an egg, you can insert an annotation linking to your blog post where the steps are described in greater detail. Or if your video contains a news footage, the annotation may point to the text version of the new story hosted on your own website. The links are clickable and work even if the YouTube video is embedded on to another website. Here are some YouTube videos where I have enabled URL annotations. Create Custom Facebook Pages Reveal the Hidden Passwords in Browsers How to Add Links in your YouTube Videos Before you can embed links in your YouTube videos, you need to associate your websites with your YouTube channel (in case you haven’t done it before). Sign-in to your Google Webmasters account and click the site name that you would like to associate with YouTube. Then go to Configuration -> Associates -> Add New User and enter the email address that is associate with your YouTube channel. Now your website is linked to your YouTube account. Link your website(s) with your YouTube channel. Next, go to youtube.com/verify and associate your phone number with your YouTube channel. Phone verification is essential for YouTube to enable extra features in your account which includes videos URL annotations and the ability to upload videos of unlimited length to YouTube. Related: Add Logos to your YouTube Videos Once the account is verified, open any of YouTube videos and click the “Annotations” link to create and edit annotations for that video. Here you’ll see a banner that says “Enable your account for external annotation links” – click the “Enable” button and you are all set to create annotations to external websites now. While you are inside the Annotations edition, click the Add annotation button to create a new annotation and choose between Speech Bubbles, Notes, Spotlight or Label. Select the “Link” checkbox, choose “Associated Website” from the drop-down and paste the URL. Publish and you’re done. One more thing. While you can place annotations anywhere in the video player, it may be a good idea to avoid the lower third as the area is often used to display ads. Also see: Best Chrome Extensions for YouTube This story, Embed Links to External Website in your YouTube Videos, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 25/12/2012 under Embed, YouTube, Internet.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Remotely Send Web Pages to your Mobile Device

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Remotely Send Web Pages to your Mobile Device Dec 21st 2012, 07:28 → Framote is new tool that helps you share “live” URLs that can be controlled remotely. To get started, you can specify any website – say cnn.com – and Framote will create a unique URL for that site. You can share that URL with a group of people and everyone will see the same website on their screens. If you update the underlying website at your end, all the other screens are refreshed automatically. The service is especially useful for testing responsive designs. You can have the main website on your desktop computer and load the corresponding Framote URLs on your tablets and mobile phones. If you open a different page on your desktop, the mobile screens are updated automatically. Internally, Framote embeds the source website into an IFRAME and makes an AJAX request to check the actual URL every few seconds. If the source URL has been modified, the IFRAME’s source attribute on the client’s screen is updated almost instantly. The Framote dashboard will also show list of IP address and devices that are accessing your unique URL. This story, Remotely Send Web Pages to your Mobile Device, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 21/12/2012 under Web Design, Internet.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Find the Top Tourist Attractions of a City with Google

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Find the Top Tourist Attractions of a City with Google Dec 20th 2012, 11:13 If you are travelling to a new city, you can use Google to quickly discover all the tourist attractions and other interesting places to visit in and around that city. This includes historical monuments, museums, gardens, and other places popular among tourists. → The syntax for your Google query should be Things to do in City. You may also use this query with a country – like Things to do in India – and Google will offer you a visual list of the top places to see in that country. It works for continents too. You may try a search for Agra, Zurich, Australia and Asia. Thanks John Mueller for the tip. This story, Find the Top Tourist Attractions of a City with Google, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 20/12/2012 under Google, Internet.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Make Free International Calls for a Month with Skype

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Make Free International Calls for a Month with Skype Dec 17th 2012, 19:52 This holiday season, you can talk to your far-away relatives and friends to your heart’s content without having to worry about the phone bills. The @Skype team has just tweeted an offer that is too good to ignore. → Skype to Skype calls have always been free but you can now also use Skype to make free and unlimited voice calls to mobile phones and landlines for 30 days. In addition to phone calls, you can also have video calls with a group of 3-10 friends during the same offer period. To get started, use this special link to sign-in to your Skype account, enter your credit card or PayPal details (you won’t be charged) and complete the sign-up process. Once your Skype Premium service is activated, you can cancel your recurring subscription immediately while the premium services will continue to work for the entire 30-day period. The fine print says that you can make free calls to landlines and mobile phones in Canada, Guam, Hong Kong S.A.R., Puerto Rico, Singapore, Thailand and United States. The countries where you can call landline numbers for free include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and Venezuela. This story, Make Free International Calls for a Month with Skype, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 17/12/2012 under Skype, Internet.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Preview or Pro – Which Office 2013 Edition should you Download?

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Preview or Pro – Which Office 2013 Edition should you Download? Dec 17th 2012, 18:10 Microsoft is expected to release a new version of Office, called Microsoft Office 2013 (or Office 15) early next year. The new Office, the release version of which is already available for download to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, sports a minimalist interface and, among other features, is very tightly integrated with SkyDrive. → If you aren’t an MSDN/Technet subscriber, you can still download and install Microsoft Office 2013 as long as your computer is running Windows 7 or Windows 8. Where can I download Microsoft Office 2013 Option A: You can go to office.com/preview and download the full-featured edition of Office 2013 that includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Microsoft Access (no Visio here). You can install this version on up to 5 PCs using your Microsoft account. This is actually Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium Preview and what’s unique here is that you can get Office running on your computer within minutes of hitting the install button. This uses Microsoft’s Click-To-Run installation technology – you just have to download a 500KB installer and it “streams” the Microsoft Office applications to your computer. The downside is that you have to install the entire Office package and second, this isn’t the final release of Office but a “preview” edition (version 15.0.4128.1025). Option B: The other option is that you download the Microsoft Office 2013 installer from the Technet website (all you need is a Windows Live ID). Unlike the preview edition of Office, this one is the “final” Office Professional Plus 2013 release (version 15.0.4433.1506) that will continue to work for 60 days from the date of installation. In order to install this version of Office, you’ll be required to download the full MSI installer (666 MB, OfficeProfessionalPlus_x86_en-us.img) but the advantage is that you can choose which Office programs should be installed on the computer. Which Microsoft Office 2013 edition should I download? Microsoft Office 2013 Pro is available as a 60-day trial while there’s no exact expiry date fixed for Office 365 Preview. Microsoft says that Office Preview will expire approximately 60 days after Office 2013 becomes available in that market. You will thus have more time to play with Office 2013 with the preview release. Office 365 Preview can be installed alongside an older copy of Microsoft Office whereas in the case of Office 2013 Professional, it will override your existing installation. One more thing. The Office 2013 preview release streams very quickly (click to run) and you don’t even have to be an administrator of your computer to install it. That’s not the case with Office 2013 Pro. Microsoft hasn’t specified an exact release date for Microsoft Office 2013 but if you buy a licence of Microsoft Office 2010 now, you will get a free upgrade to Office 2013. This story, Preview or Pro – Which Office 2013 Edition should you Download?, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 17/12/2012 under Microsoft Office, Software.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: A New Way to Publish your Shared Folders on the Web

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

A New Way to Publish your Shared Folders on the Web Dec 17th 2012, 13:52 File hosting services like Dropbox and Google Drive have made it easy for anyone to distribute files through Shared Folders. You can upload a file to your shared folder and that file is instantly available to all other people with whom you have shared that folder. In the case of Google Drive, you can even create “public” shared folders where your files can be viewed by anyone on the web. → The problem is how do you keep people in the loop when you add new files to a shared folders. Also, the less tech-savvy crowd may still prefer to receive these shared files as email attachments instead of using Dropbox or Google Drive. iBeam.it, a new web service from Wappolf, is trying to solve this problem in an interesting way. Here you can put your files on Google Drive or Dropbox as before and the files are instantly “beamed” to other users who are watching your shared folder. To get started, you just have to connect any of your Dropbox or Google Drive folder with iBeam.it (it uses OAuth). The folder get a unique URL that others can use to follow your folder (see this sample folder). The “followers” are unaware of the service that you are using to host your files and they may choose to “receive” them inside Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, SkyDrive, Box and other popular services. Alternatively, they may choose to follow your Shared Folder through email and in that case, they will get your files as email attachments. The service is free though you are only allowed to beam files up to 25 MB in size. Most email programs won’t handle attachments that large anyway. Also, sharing is one way – if you delete a file from the shared folder, it won’t be deleted from the folders of other users. Similar things can possibly be done through IFTTT but iBeam.it is super-easy and doesn’t even require you to create an account. This story, A New Way to Publish your Shared Folders on the Web, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 17/12/2012 under Dropbox, Google Drive, Internet.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Easily Install Bookmarklets on your iOS Device

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Easily Install Bookmarklets on your iOS Device Dec 15th 2012, 10:39 → You can go to ctrlq.org/ios to quickly and easily install all the essential and popular iOS bookmarklets for your iPad and iPhone from one place. A video tutorial for installing bookmarklets in mobile Safari is also included. This story, Easily Install Bookmarklets on your iOS Device, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 15/12/2012 under Internet.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Send a Free Fax to Anywhere in the World

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Send a Free Fax to Anywhere in the World Dec 13th 2012, 18:20 If you don’t have a fax machine at hand, or if the cost of sending an international fax seems prohibitive, this should interest you. → Send an online fax for free to any fax machine in the world HelloFax, the online fax company, has recently partnered with Microsoft and now lets you send up to 50 pages per month to any fax machine in the world for free. All your need is a web browser and a Microsoft account (your Hotmail or Windows Live ID should also work). To get started, go to hellofax.com/skydrive and click the “Sign-up with Microsoft” link. Once your are signed in, just upload any document and put in a fax number (with country code) to send your first online fax. Once your fax has been successfully delivered, a copy of the outbound fax document will be automatically saved in your SkyDrive. You can use HelloFax to send Word documents, PDFs, text files, images and several other popular formats. You can also pull in documents directly from your SkyDrive, Box, Dropbox, Evernote and Google Drive accounts for faxing. Also see: Comparison on Online Fax Services Your free account will only help you send faxes to other numbers but in order to receive faxes, you’ll have to buy an incoming fax number that costs around $7.99 per month. Update – If you don’t have a Microsoft account, go to hellofax.com/googledrive and use your Google Account to sign-up for HelloFax.  You will still get credit for sending up to  50 faxes per month for free for a maximum of 6 months. This story, Send a Free Fax to Anywhere in the World, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 13/12/2012 under Fax, Internet.

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