One of the frustrating things about having multiple Gmail accounts is managing them all at the same time. Until recently, I’d been using the Firefox Gmail Manager Plugin but it’s an absolute pain because having two different Gmail accounts open in separate tabs automatically logs you out of both accounts after a few seconds. This is even more annoying if you’ve got other Google apps open at the same time because it logs you out of those too. The best answer I’ve found to this problem is Mailplane.

Mailplane was actually created back in the days when you needed access to your Gmail account from your desktop but IMAP support wasn’t yet available. Nowadays you can consult Gmail from any mail client like Mail.app or Thunderbird but unlike Mailplane, none of them are made specifically for the use of Gmail or make managing multiple accounts so easy.

Like a mail client, Mailplane works outside of your browser. Along the top of the interface, you have buttons for replying, sending, printing, forwarding etc much like any other mail client. There are also buttons for quickly adding photos (with special integration for iPhoto) and managing downloaded items. Alternatively, you can drag and drop attachments such as photos and documents onto mail while you’re composing it which is another very nice feature of Mailplane. A similar feature also works for taking screenshots and sending them instantly via Gmail.

You can add as many accounts as you want using the Accounts button. When new mail arrives, a Mailplane icon in your Menu bar will indicate how many are waiting to be read and each account features a number next to it indicating the amount of mail in that particular inbox. I like the fact that by clicking on the Menu bar icon, a drop down menu shows you the subject heading of unread mail in each inbox. The big advantage I’ve found though is that managing multiple inboxes with Mailplane is so much easier than doing it in your browser.

Although you can’t have more than one Gmail inbox at the same time, Mailplane makes switching between them much quicker and less hassle that in Firefox. In future, it would be nice to see a simultaneous open inboxes feature in the app but until then, it’s the best way of managing multiple Gmail inboxes I’ve found.

One of the most widespread problems people had with Snow Leopard when it launched was a compatibility issue in Mail.app (aka Apple Mail) which prevented messages being sent and even crashed the program in some cases. Nick wrote a guide to fixing these issues, so this obvious failing in Apple’s QA testing needn’t be too much of a hindrance.

That said, my first thought when I read about people having problems with Mail.app was: why are these people even using Mail.app? I’ve had my current iMac for around two years and I’ve never even run the Mail program. Not once. That’s because I use Gmail, a mail application that renders Mail.app and all other desktop email clients more or less obsolete.

For those of you still toiling in the dark with an email client, I know there is sometimes a good reason for that. If you’re trying to handle lots of different accounts, or if you need to connect to an Exchange server, it’s difficult to live without a mail client. But for the average home user and even for most home office users, webmail solutions will always be a better idea than clients. Here’s why:

Security and stability

Desktop email clients are inherently less stable than Gmail or other equivalent webmail services. Storing your data on a local disk (even if you backup) will never be as safe as trusting Google’s datacenters (which are, themselves never 100% safe: nothing is).

But perhaps more importantly, email clients generally rely on downloading message files (and often attachments) to your computer before you filter out content you don’t want. This means that the potential for spam and even malware finding its way onto your computer is significantly higher if you use a mail client application. Read the rest of this entry »

Windows 7 is a fast, stable operating system that already includes high quality software by default. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to enjoy the advantages of  third-party apps.

Common tasks such as downloading files, chatting with your friends, creating documents or editing photos require tools that you won’t find built into Windows 7. Also, some of the tools you used before may not be compatible with Microsoft’s new operating system. This is why we’ve put together this list of 20 top free apps that work with Windows 7, with which you’ll be able to take full advantage of your brand new system.

Security comes first. There are many antivirus apps that work with Windows 7, but Microsoft Security Essentials is the one that best integrates with the system. Plus it also protects you from spyware!

Stability is another key issue. While we wait for the new Windows 7 compatible version of TuneUp Utilities, CCleaner can also do a great job cleaning, tweaking and optimizing your system.

Don’t be ashamed: we all have deleted files by mistake at some point in our lives. Fortunately we can count on this great tool called Recuva to get them back - and it works like a breeze on Windows 7 as well.

Need a password manager to deal with all your usernames, passwords, secret numbers and personal codes? Keepass is a great choice, and is also perfectly embedded in Microsoft’s new operating system.

Browsing the Web is the main activity for most computer users. Windows 7 already features the new Internet Explorer 8, but I’m sure most of you will only use it to download Firefox. Another excellent alternative is Opera. Read the rest of this entry »

The web’s great, but it’s pretty distracting. Between glancing at incoming email, news feeds, Twitter updates and so on it’s a wonder there’s time for work at all. It’s hard to be disciplined enough to not check these things every few minutes, but it’s not a very efficient way of working. It’s rare to find something totally urgent, after all.

Freedom is a neat little app for Macs that allows you to set a time, e.g. an hour, and from then on your network access will be cut. Harsh, but I tried it and it certainly does the trick! The first few minutes may get a little anxious as you worry about all the emergency humorous tweets you’re missing, but once the cold turkey is over it’s surprisingly liberating. Great for anyone writing (after web research is done!), as it’s really easy to concentrate when all your desktop distractions have gone*.

You can set Freedom to cut your net from ten minutes to eight hours - can you imagine eight hours without the web - and as your productivity during that time will be greater, you’ll have made more time to update Facebook for the rest of the day! It really is a win-win application.

Impressively, there seems to be no way of stopping Freedom unless you actually reboot your system - I tried force quit, but apparently still had no web access! Mac users can download Freedom here.

*Smart phone users are doomed, I’m afraid.

We’ve been talking about different types of literacy over the last month, taking a look at the best software to help you maximize your skills. There’s more to literacy than just reading and mathematics, however: knowing how to manage your money is just as important.

Most of us have made silly mistakes with our money from time to time. Maybe you’ve spent all of your salary (or pocket money!) before the month is out, or forgot to factor in interest when thinking about a loan. For some people though, these problems aren’t a once-off, they’re a fact of life. If you think this might apply to you, then keep reading.

The key to money management is planning, planning, planning. Everyone should keep a journal of their spending and record absolutely anything that comes in or goes out of their account. Nothing can escape, not even a sneaky latte or newspaper. Presuming that you’ve been keeping up with our series, your math skills should be steadily improving, and in conjunction with the free, reliable advice offered by many governments (Australia, Ireland, Singapore, UK and the US, just for starters), you’ll be well on your way to becoming the next Warren Buffet.

Luckily, the Internet abounds with programs that keep a track on your spending and I’m going to take a look at some of our most popular. There’s no way we could talk about personal finances without mentioning Buddi. This tool bills itself as ’software for the rest of us’ and since its main aim is to make money management as easy as possible for people without financial experience, it sounds like the perfect program. One of the main things that beginners need to keep in mind is to keep your software simple, and Buddi certainly delivers.

I’ve noticed that some developers get over-excited and try to squash enough features into their programs to easily set up a gold trading company on the stock market. Exciting as that might be, if you’re still having problems making your paycheck last long enough to pay the electricity bill…well, you might be overreaching. HomeBank is a good option, a program that will give you the simplicity you need by offering only the most basic functions, without any complicated frills.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes all those numbers are just plain BORING. I can’t make them any more fun, but I can suggest a program that will inject a bit of color - Personal Finances. This brightly colored application has all the features you’ll need, accompanied by jazzy colors and some cute illustrations. Hey, it won’t make you any richer, but it might just brighten up your number-crunching!

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Math

Part 3: Reading

Windows: Are you the kind of person who has a shortcut-ridden Windows desktop? Then you need an app like Stardock Fences. This handy icon organizer creates customizable areas on your desktop to store and categorize folders, files and icons. The program just hit version 1.0, so it’s time for you to try it out!

Mac: CoverFlow is great for browsing and playing back music in iTunes, but CoverSutra might just change your musical habits. First of all, it serves as a player for your iTunes library, with your list appearing in a sleek dark interface and playback buttons present in a floating dark window. Secondly, every time you play a track from a new album, the cover will discreetly appear on your desktop, with its rating.

iPhone: Reckon you’ve got a steady hand? Well you’re about to find out if you install Marine Sharpshooter on your iPhone. This popular game sees you assume the role of a sniper who is part of an elite American military force. Your objective is to abate a global war of terror by going in behind enemy lines and taking down terrorists from a distance.

Windows: Forget about spending two hours in front of your computer to rename a hundred files. Batch File Rename Utility can do the job for you in a much faster, more comfortable way. All you have to do is select the files and folders you want to rename, apply as many custom renaming rules as you need and you’re good to go!

iPhone: Looking at the screenshots you’re probably thinking that Parachute Panic Lite is an 11-year-old’s homework assignment. In actual fact, it’s an entertaining and engrossing iPhone game. The object of Parachute Panic Lite is to guide the falling stickmen parachutists onto the boats. You do this by tapping on them as they fall in order to open their chutes.

Mac: Not satisfied with your download manager? Then try Folx which can handle any file size and will download via HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. It supports auto-resuming and most importantly, offers high-speed downloads thanks to ‘multi-threading’, which seeks more than one source for a file. Even better though is that Folx allows you to manage torrents too.

iPhone: In my experience, if there’s anything worth than an invasion of aliens, it’s an invasion of paper aliens. And that’s exactly what happens in Inkvaders, an original and fun side-scrolling, Martian-blasting adventure game. The object of Inkvaders is to rid the World of aliens by blasting them with your gun. In order to help you, you also have a jet pack which lets you fly over the Martians.

Mac: If you’ve got more than one Gmail account and can’t keep up with each one individually, then Notify is a handy menu bar extension. Notify allows you to keep track of several accounts at once within an elegant tabbed user interface. It allows easy access of your mail accounts - in a single click of the account you will be taken straight to your inbox and you’ll receive a Growl alert for newly received mail.

Windows: Massive graphic suites are not always the best option. Lighter, smaller image editors are the most adequate tool for quick image optimization and retouch. One of them is Paint.NET, a free photo editor with support for layers and a bunch of special filters and effects that includes all the key features you’ll need for quick image editing.

Windows: If you missed the opportunity to download Windows 7 RC, don’t worry: Microsoft has launched a 90-day trial version of Windows 7 Enterprise, a special version for IT professionals that you can also download and try out if you like. Hurry up because download is only available for a limited period of time!

Mac: Every productivity geek’s dream, Quicksilver (now updated to version 1.0 b56) has become one of the essential applications on Mac. For those of you not familiar with it, it’s an application that lets you reach any program, folder or file in a few keystrokes. You don’t have to go searching through your files and you don’t have to worry about how your folders are arranged.

iPhone: Skype for iPhone successfully carries the principles of quick and easy communication across from the desktop to the mobile, allowing users to make free or cheap calls anywhere in the World. You can use it to make free calls over Skype only over WiFi, and SkypeOut calls on 3G to cellphones and landlines using Skype.

Ask any English learner who’s just realized that ‘rough’ and ‘gruff’ rhyme but are actually written like words from different planets: English is a hard language to spell. It’s no wonder then that even native speakers need a little help from time to time, and if it’s a little help you’re looking for, then you’ve come to the right place!

The rules of English spelling are so varied that learning them off by heart is a difficult task. Rather than sitting down with the dictionary and a very strong cup of coffee, it might be a good idea to learn while doing something else and there’s no better way than reading. If you’re looking for an occasional alternative to the books, however, you’re in luck, because spelling games are some of the most widely available, both on and off the computer. Watch out for crosswords, word searches and hangman games and play them whenever possible. Even if you find them hard at first, keep trying; they get easier with repetition, especially if you concentrate on just one, such as doing the crossword in a particular newspaper every day.

When you’re surfing the web, make sure you have a spell-check/dictionary add-on so that you can learn as you browse. DictionarySearch is one that you can customize with whatever online dictionaries you like best, while Firefox Add-Ons have a selection of spellcheckers that will check text while you write. Don’t get too dependent on spellcheckers though, because although they will catch any incorrect spellings, they won’t realize when you have used the wrong word in a sentence or accidentally crossed paths with a homophone (words that sound the same but are spelled differently, like here and hear).

There area also plenty of games that will make the task more fun. It has to be said that as a category, spelling programs are not the slickest in cyberspace, but that doesn’t mean they won’t keep you entertained. If you think that that traditional is best, there are plenty of crosswords and word searches out there. There are also lots of games that manage to combine spelling with a variety of other methods to keep you busy. One of my favorites is Find A Word, while Speak N Spell is also a bit of fun. If you’re looking for something more flashy, you could take a look at WordGrid, Letter Rack 3D or Word Up, but bear in mind that some of the more colorful games are clearly aimed at children. This doesn’t really matter for practice, but after a while you might find yourself wishing uncharitable thoughts towards the singing worms and dancing books they usually contain!

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Math

Part 3: Reading

For the next installment in our series on improving math, reading, spelling and money skills with the help of software, we’re going to take a look at reading. I love reading and would easily say it’s my favorite pastime. The more you read, the more you find out about the world and the easier spelling becomes, so it’s not just an (excellent) form of entertainment. I know that not everybody feels the same way though, which is why I’m going suggest a few tips to make reading easier, quicker, and less intimidating.

The first thing to do is get a book or download a text and start practicing. The benefit of reading online is that you can use a program like Language Reader to help you on your way. You find a text, upload it to the program, and either read along with the speaking Windows characters, or listen to a specific word if you get stuck.

While you are practicing your reading, WikSpeak is a good application to have on hand. If you ever need to look an word up in a traditional dictionary, you’ll notice the weird-looking phonetic pronunciation underneath. Unless you’re a professional linguist, this ‘helpful’ pronunciation guide will probably leave you even more confused then when you started, so put the word in question into WikSpeak for both a phonetic ‘translation’, audio pronunciation and, even better, sound-by-sound guide to phonemes (the sounds that make up words), so you can learn to pronounce them yourself without opening the program the next time you need to look something up.

To get the most out of this practice though, you’ll need a few guidelines. In general terms, pick books suitable for your level, not your age, and make sure you have a private place to practice - somewhere that you won’t mind reading out loud if necessary. Again, the BBC is a great place to look for tips, while there are literally hundreds of reading exercises with questions and comprehension tests sprinkled across the Internet - look here, here and here for inspiration.

Once you have nailed the basics, it will be time to speed things up. AceReader Pro is a trial program, but even so, it provides really valuable help to speed up your reading and test your progress. As all of these resources keep reminding, the key to being a great reader is short, frequent periods of practice, a positive attitude and a determination to learn. Once you’ve got them, you’re definitely on the path to success!

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Math

A few days ago Microsoft started rolling out a Technical Preview of Office Web Apps, the long-awaited online version of the new Office 2010 suite. However the event was so successful that invites quickly ran out and the Preview was closed. As one of the hundred users who were left out, I started looking for alternative ways to try Web Apps, until I finally stumbled upon this simple trick on Cecilia’s blog.

All you have to do is login to Live SkyDrive, the free online storage service provided by Microsoft. If you don’t have an account in SkyDrive, you can easily create one with your Live user (that is, your old Hotmail address or Messenger user). Once, you’re inside SkyDrive, you need to upload at least one Office document to any of your folders.

As soon as there’s an Office document in your SkyDrive account, you’ll see a link to join the Preview program to test Web apps. Click the link, accept the terms and you’re in!

Note that Office Web Apps are still under development and have some serious limitations. To begin with, online Word is not available yet. Also, you’ll need to convert old Office files to the newest format (that is, PPT to PPTX, for example), though this seems to be done automatically by the suite itself, while keeping a backup copy of the old document. Read the rest of this entry »

Mathematics. The subject everybody loves to hate. You can only ignore it for so long though, because soon enough, it will raise its ugly head. Paying for the groceries, splitting restaurant bills and helping kids with their homework are all things that you’ll have to do at some point. Will you be ready?

As I mentioned yesterday, it was a request from a reader who had problems with math that sparked off this series. Math is a particularly nasty problem area. You can hide your lack of ability pretty easily, and you don’t have to feel to bad about it, because most people agree with you. Math sucks! At some point though, you’ll have to tackle it. It will happen some day when you are least expecting it, when there’s no one around to ask for help, and no calculator for miles. Don’t get caught out. Start working on those skills now!

As with most things in life, it’s best to start with the basics - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Grey Olltwit’s Times Tables is a sweet British-made program that will take you from the beginning right to the very end. It tests you along the way and you even get a certificate of achievement when you complete it. Why the program has an elderly man standing around in his Union Jack boxer shorts is a bit of a mystery, but at least it will take your mind off the multiplication.

Math Ninja is a bit cheesy, but that doesn’t mean it won’t help you learn. It covers all the basics - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division - and lets you play at 8 different levels. The program’s pearls of ninja wisdom will keep you motivated, and by the time you are able for level 8’s calculations, you’ll have number skills to be proud of.

Math-A-Maze is definitely one to try AFTER you have revised the basics. It isn’t crazy difficult, but does require concentration and logical thinking. You are given a maze of numbers and mathematical signs and a goal. You then have to arrow key through the maze so that by the time you get to the other side, the number you are left with equals your goal. For a small program, there are actually a lot of options and, best of all, it comes with plenty of tips and solutions. Read the rest of this entry »

Here at OnSoftware we get lots of emails asking about software. Most of the time they are complicated questions, like how to partition your disc while dual booting on an external drive… or something along those lines. Sometimes, however, we get questions with more human interest.

A while ago a reader emailed asking for help with her math skills. She wanted to know if there were any programs or applications that could help her become more comfortable with numbers and less embarrassed by her lack of math skills. The good news is that there are - lots of them! Even better news is that our reader is not alone, and there are many people who have similar problems. Lucky that our reader was brave enough to ask, right?

That got us thinking here at the office - always a dangerous thing - but this time, we’ve come up with a great idea! We’re going to produce a short series of posts with advice and software tips for people who have problems with numeracy, reading, spelling or money skills. They’ll be of use to lots of people, and best of all, you’ll be able to brush up on your skills without even leaving the house. Whatever your level, you’ll find something useful, so stay tuned and don’t forget to spread the word. You never know who might need the extra help…

Part 2: Math

Part 3: Reading

We briefly mentioned a few keyboard shortcuts for Firefox a while ago, but there are many others I’m sure you already know - and which usually work across all main browsers, like Ctrl+T to open a new tab or clicking the mouse’s wheel on a link to open it in the background.

However today we won’t focus on keyboard-only shortcuts; we’ll talk about mouse and keyboard combinations, which enable you to perform different tasks by pressing a given key while clicking with your mouse.

Firefox

Ctrl + Click: Opens the link a new tab in the background
Ctrl + Shift + Click: Opens the link in a new tab in the foreground
Shift + Click: Opens the link in a new window
Shift + Alt + Click: Forces the link to open in the current tab
Alt + Click: Saves link as…

Internet Explorer

Ctrl + Click: Opens the link a new tab in the background
Ctrl + Shift + Click: Opens the link in a new tab in the foreground
Shift + Click: Opens the link in a new window
Ctrl + Alt + Click: Saves page as…

Opera

Ctrl + Shift + Click: Opens the link a new tab in the background
Shift + Click: Opens the link in a new tab in the foreground
Ctrl + Click: Saves image as…

Google Chrome

Ctrl + Click: Opens the link a new tab in the background
Ctrl + Shift + Click: Opens the link in a new tab in the foreground
Shift + Click: Opens the link in a new window
Alt + Click: Saves page as…

Safari

Ctrl + Click: Opens the link a new tab in the background
Ctrl + Shift + Click: Opens the link in a new tab in the foreground
Ctrl + Alt + Click: Opens the link in a new window

[Via: OnSoftware Spain]