Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Upload Anything to Flickr's New 1TB of Space With a Simple Hack

Source: http://lifehacker.com/upload-anything-to-flickrs-new-1tb-of-space-with-a-sim-510138485

Upload Anything to Flickr's New 1TB of Space With a Simple Hack

Recently, Flickr gave all of its users 1 terabyte of free space. Reddit user rlaw68 shows how to utilize that space for more than just photos and videos.

The process involves combining the file you want to upload with a gif. Flickr checks the headers of the file and sees a picture and grabs the whole thing. Unbeknownst to the server, though, your file is tagging along in a makeshift zip package. As per rlaw68's instructions:

So, how to do this:

1) Put the two files you want to combine into a single folder, preferably off the root of your drive, say c:\combos

2) Hit the Windows key + R, type in CMD and hit Enter

3) Change the directory to the root:

C:\users\Bill>cd \

4) And then to the folder where your files are:

C:>cd combos

5) Now, to combine the files type:

C:\combos>copy /B project1.zip+cat.gif project1.gif

6) That’s it! Now you’ll see a file called project1.gif in your \combos folder that you can upload and store on Flickr – it’ll appear as just whatever the .gif file was that you combined with your archive.

When you want to access it again, you just download the file, rename it with a .zip extension and open it like normal. If you're using a Mac, WonderHowTo also has a primer on how to accomplish this task.

This may not be useful for most situations. Flickr has an upload limit on photos of 200MB, and this process means that it's somewhat cumbersome for daily use instead of a service like Dropbox, but in a pinch, it never hurts to have a backup plan. While it won't work for uploading to Flickr, you can also hide files in a JPEG to keep certain data out of sight.

How to use that 1TB of free Flickr space to store stuff other than images | Reddit via WonderHowTo

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Most Popular External Battery Pack: Anker Astro Series (3E/E4/Pro)

Source: http://lifehacker.com/most-popular-external-battery-pack-anker-astro-series-510076495

Most Popular External Battery Pack: Anker Astro Series (3E/E4/Pro)

If you need to keep your gadgets powered up on the go, you'll need batteries—or better yet, an external battery pack. There are tons to choose from, but last week we asked you for the best. Then we looked at the five best external battery packs based on your nominations. Now we're back to highlight your favorite.

Most Popular External Battery Pack: Anker Astro Series (3E/E4/Pro)

The Anker Astro Series were your clear favorite, and they took the top spot with over 40% of the overall vote. The affordable, slim, and power-packed 3E, E4, and Astro Pro were just a few of your favorites, and a number of you called out other Astro models in the call for contenders that were just as powerful and just as portable.

In second place with 22% of the vote was the Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation, a metal-bodied, sturdy power pack with a ton of juice for its size. Right behind it in third were MonoPrice's external battery packs, which brought in close to 16% of the vote and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Their universal qualifier however is that they're generally cheap and get the job done. In fourth place were the New Trent iCarrier and iGeek external battery packs, both of which are affordable, portable, and offer easy-to-read displays to show you how much juice is left. Bringing up the rear in fifth place was a big name in battery technology: Energizer's XP Series brought home just shy of 8% of the votes cast, and offer a wide array of battery packs from the super-affordable and portable (but low on power) to the power-packed and pricey models that can power netbooks and laptops if need be.

The bright spot here is that any of these external battery packs will serve you well on the go, and they're all portable enough to fit into either your pocket or a small laptop bag or backpack, so you can't really go wrong here. There were some other nominations in the call for contenders thread and the full post, so if these don't strike your fancy, make sure to check there for more suggestions.

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!

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Connected Data to merge with Drobo, bring Transporter features to Drobo products

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/28/connected-data-to-merge-with-drobo-bring-transporter-features-t/

Connected Data to merge with Drobo, bring Transporter features to Drobo products

Connected Data, makers of Transporter, just announced that it's entered into a merger agreement with Drobo. As a refresher, Transporter is a cloud-based file sharing appliance that provides Dropbox-like functionality without the recurring subscription costs. Drobo's best known for its Ethernet, Thunderbolt, FireWire and USB-based multi-drive storage devices which offer seamless expandability. Presumably we'll start seeing some of Connected Data's file sharing features on upcoming Drobo products. The two companies have 30 days to finalize the merger process -- and perhaps even come up with a clever new brand. We vote for DroboPorter ourselves. PR after the break.

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Vizio begins shipping 2013 M-Series Smart TVs, prices start at $400

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/28/vizio-m-series-smart-tvs-shipping/

Vizio begins shipping 2013 M-Series Smart TVs, prices start at $400

Back at this year's CES, all Vizio said about its brand new M-Series lineup of HDTVs was that they'd be hitting shelves at some point "later this year." Fast forward to today, and the company's announcing its 2013 M-Series Smart TVs are now shipping to retailers such as Best Buy, Amazon and Walmart, with interested folks being able to grab one starting at $400 for a 32-inch LED model. Speaking of which, Vizio also went ahead and modified the M-Series pricing scheme a bit, making some models a little more expensive and others slightly cheaper. For example, the Theater 3D-ready 80-inch Razor LED Smart TV (say that five times fast) is now $4,000, as opposed to the $5,000 price tag that it was announced with originally. You'll find the full MSRP list in the PR after the break, and do let us know in the comments below if you plan on snagging one of these for yourself.

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Source: Vizio

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Make Facebook More Searchable with Email Notifications

Source: http://lifehacker.com/make-facebook-more-searchable-with-email-notifications-509958135

Make Facebook More Searchable with Email Notifications

Facebook's email notifications are usually just annoying, and we often recommend turning them off. Weblog MakeUseOf discovers a good reason to keep them on: it makes your entire Facebook archive searchable.

All you need to do is turn on Facebook's email notifications, then set up a Gmail filter that automatically marks them as read, archives them, and labels them. That way, you never have to deal with them cluttering up your inbox, but if you ever want to find an old post, you can just search your email inbox for a direct link. It isn't for everyone, but if you find that you get annoyed at not being able to find old Facebook posts, it's a pretty clever solution. Hit the link for the step-by-step.

Facebook Search Sucks - Use Facebook Email Notifications as a Workaround | MakeUseOf

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