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Monday, March 29, 2010

Five Best Online File Sharing Services [Hive Five]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5503770/five-best-online-file-sharing-services

Five Best Online File Sharing Services When you want to share a file with a friend but don't want to hassle with email attachment limits or running a home server, very little beats a fast online file sharing service. Here's a look at five of your best options.

Photo by WebWizzard.

Earlier this week we asked you share your favorite tool for online file sharing to update our treatment of the topic from two years prior. (A lot has changed.) Now we're back to highlight the top five contenders. The following five services take your files to the cloud so you can easily share files with anyone.

Running a home server is a nifty way to share files, but it's not for everyone; it puts the burden of maintenance, uptime, and speed on your shoulders. In fact, How-To Geek recently walked through how to easily share large files and media with friends by running a dead simple home server using Opera Unite, and while it's a great solution, online file sharing services are perfect when you want to let someone else handle the logistics.

Drop.io (Web-based, Basic: Free/Premium: From $19/Month)

Five Best Online File Sharing Services
The drop.io service is available in two primary flavors. The free service supports "file drops" which can consume up to 100MB of storage. Premium services start at $19 a month and expand the available storage from 100MB to 10GB and up, depending on how much storage and how many drops you'd like. Drop.io's "file drops" are where it really stands out compared to other file-sharing services. File drops are active pools of files to which you can add batches of files, share with others, allow other people to add files and collaborate, and view the media directly from the drop.io's media viewer.

MediaFire (Web-Based, Basic: Free, Premium: From $7/Month)

Five Best Online File Sharing Services
MediaFire offers multiple tiers of file sharing. At the most basic you can upload as many files as you want, limited by a 200MB cap per file. Free accounts will hold files for 30 day from the last time they were downloaded. Premium accounts start at $7 a month and boost the file cap to 2GB per file, enable site-to-site transfer to your MediaFire account, enable embeddable Dropbox folders, and offer direct file linking—no MediaFire splashpage when you share a link to a file. The folder-based organization of MediaFire makes it simple to share entire batches of files with others, like vacation photos or project files.

Dropbox (Web-Based/Windows/Mac/Linux, Basic: Free, Premium: From $10/Month)

Five Best Online File Sharing Services
Dropbox has won over many users by combining online file sharing with local storage and syncing. You can use Dropbox exclusively as a web-based file sharing tool to upload and organize files in folders, easily sharing them with yourself or friends. Grabbing the Dropbox client, however, allows you to share any file from a folder on your computer. Files stored in a local Dropbox folder are automatically synced to Dropbox on the web—useful for all sorts of tricks like syncing your OnteNote notebooks among computers or keeping your password keyrings up to date.

RapidShare (Web-Based, Basic: Free, Premium: From $9/Month)

Five Best Online File Sharing Services
The RapidShare service has multiple layers of user accounts which, at first glance, can be quite confusing to a new user. Without signing up you can upload a single file of 200MB, and your file can then be downloaded up to 10 times—perfect for just sharing a file with a few friends. When you upload files, you're offered the chance to set up a free "collector's" account which gives you further options to store and organize your files. Collector's accounts accumulate points, which you can convert into a premium account—but no clear explanation of the process is anywhere to be found on the RapidShare site. Purchasing a premium account boosts your storage to 20GB and raises your per-file-cap to 2GB.

Megaupload (Web-Based, Basic: Free, Premium: From $10/Month)

Five Best Online File Sharing Services
Megaupload, like other popular fire-and-forget file sharing tools, has three tiers of service. You can share files with no sign up at all—they'll be limited to 500MB in size, have a 45 second splash page when downloaded, and be given lower priority in the server queue. Signing up for a free account boosts your priority in the queue, raises your maximum file size limit to 2GB, and gives you 200GB of online storage—not bad for a free account. Premium accounts give you unlimited storage, unlimited file size, remove the wait time for downloading, and enable a host of features like batch downloading, password protection for files, and support for FTP and direct HTTP linking.

Now that you've had a chance to look over the top contenders, it's time to cast your vote in the poll below:

Which Online File Sharing Service Is Best?survey

Have a favorite file sharing service that wasn't highlighted here? Know a trick or two to share about a service we did highlight? Let's hear about it in the comments. Have a great idea for the next Hive Five? Shoot us an email at tips@lifehacker.com with "Hive Five" in the subject line and we'll see if we can give it the lime light it deserves.

NumberQuotes Gives Perspective to Your Statistics, Is Great for Presentations [Statistics]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5504620/numberquotes-gives-perspective-to-your-statistics-is-great-for-presentations

NumberQuotes Gives Perspective to Your Statistics, Is Great for Presentations Numbers—especially big ones—can seem pretty abstract. One way to help people better understand them: Provide context based on numbers they do understand. Free web service NumberQuotes spits out related statistics containing any number you throw at it.

For example, if you wanted to give context to a number like "50 billion", punching it into NumberQuotes returns things like "the 2008 GDP for Bulgaria," or "50 billion dollars would buy a 2010 Cadillac Escalade for everyone living in Indianapolis City, Indiana." Similarly, punching in "15" returns "the population of Friendship town, Oklahoma," "15 iPhones would buy 1.49 MacBooks," and, strangest of all, "15 hot dogs laid next to each other would reach as far as 1.18 dollar bills." All you do to get a quote for your number is type it in on NumberQuotes' home page—you'll be instantly greeted with a bunch of other statistics pertaining to that number (or one close to it). Some of them make a lot of sense, and some are just downright random.

It's clear the database contains a few choice statistics like city populations, GDPs, the prices of a few popular consumer items, and apparently the width of a hot dog. It then uses these things to calculate statistics, which aren't always useful if they're not whole numbers (or something that doesn't mean anything, like hot dogs sitting next to each other)—but darn it if it won't give you at least 10 statistics related to whatever number you put in. So if you're giving a presentation and you need to put something in perspective, NumberQuotes will give you some fast ideas, and possibly some actual interesting facts, if you're lucky. Hit the link to try it out for yourself.

NumberQuotes [via Download Squad]

Apple posts up iPad Guided Tours... lots of Guided Tours

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/29/apple-posts-up-ipad-guided-tours-lots-of-guided-tours/

iPad pre-orders are just starting to ship out and Best Buy is getting prepped, but Apple's just posted up a whole slew of its Guided Tours to hold you over until April 3. Sadly, we're not seeing any entries for "How Do You Type While Standing Up" or "Why Do I Need A $30 Dongle To Get A USB Port On This Thing," but the entries for Mail, Safari, iBooks, and the rest do include some revealing new information -- and it certainly seems that tap-and-hold will be a big part of the UI paradigm. We're still watching them all -- let us know if you see anything interesting in comments.

Update: Okay, here's the new stuff we've seen so far:

iBooks has an integrated search feature, a built-in brightness control, and a dictionary that can pull up any word just by tapping on it. The same dictionary is in Pages, too -- we're assuming it's a system-wide feature available to any app, just like on Mac OS X. We've been told in the past that it supports user dictionaries and spellcheck, but we'll see what actually ends up shipping.
There's a quick mention of connecting the iPad to your home stereo in the iPod video, but no mention of streaming to the Airport Express or an Apple TV. There's a big missed opportunity.
Typing with one hand on the portrait keyboard in Pages looks just as silly as you'd expect.
Numbers has a special formula keyboard.
Tap and hold is everywhere, and unlike the iPhone, the UI has "windows," which are detailed info panes that float above the main app interface. The iWork apps also all have a "menu bar" area in the upper right that contain several options. You can see how interacting with an iPad will be familiar but still quite different than using an iPhone -- depending on the apps, of course.

[Thanks, John]

Apple posts up iPad Guided Tours... lots of Guided Tours originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Innoband HomePlug AV+802.11n AP Starter Kit review

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/29/innoband-homeplug-av-802-11n-ap-starter-kit-review/

HomePlug has been around for years now, nearly as long as mobile broadband, Windows Mobile and sliced bread... combined. Unlike any of those three, however HomePlug hasn't exactly caught fire in the industry. For those unaware, the general principle with these devices is to send network signals (or other signals, we suppose) over a home's existing power network. In theory, this would prevent someone from being forced to run a 50 foot Ethernet drop, instead using the 50 feet (or more) or power wiring that already resides within the walls of a given abode to transmit the same signals. For whatever reason, early models were plagued with flaky performance and speeds that were far less than advertised. Granted, things have progressed quite aways since the HomePlugs of old, but has the tech finally reached a place where it could be adopted en masse?

We recently had the chance to test out Innoband's HomePlug AV+802.11n AP Starter Kit, which is a two-piece solution that consists of a transmitting unit (which connects to your router or modem via Ethernet and plugs into a nearby wall outlet) and a 802.11b/g/n WiFi transceiver, which is designed to be plugged into a different wall socket where you need an Ethernet connection or extended wireless coverage. Curious as to how things stacked up? Tap that 'Read More' link for the rest of our review.

Gallery: Innoband HomePlug AV+802.11n AP Starter Kit

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Innoband HomePlug AV+802.11n AP Starter Kit review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MEDL Technology's 'The Panel' hands-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/29/medl-technologys-the-panel-hands-on/

MEDL Technology's portable LCD display "The Panel" sounded like the perfect laptop sidekick, but would you really want to slip the 13.3-inch screen into your messenger bag? We invited company co-founder Eric Liao -- and his prototype Panel -- to a local Starbucks to find out. The verdict? Lightweight and incredibly easy to use, but at this point most features (including those all-important analog video inputs) aren't quite ready for primetime. Housed in a silvery frame that perfectly matched the brushed aluminum finish of our Mac and Dell laptops, the screen was equally easy to hook up to either one. Using a DisplayLink USB graphics chip, we only had to plug in an USB cable to instantly connect the external screen, once the driver was installed. The Panel was nice and bright, even eclipsing our LED-backlit XPS M1330 on maximum settings -- though the screen looked washed out, viewed from off-angles -- and featured smooth action and no perceptible audio sync issues when playing a DVD-quality movie. Basic functionality's all we got to test, sadly, but Liao made a number of intriguing promises for The Panel's future.

At 80 percent brightness, Liao says the device's 4200mAh rechargeable battery gives it 4 to 5 hours of spreadsheet slinging bliss, and those buttons on the right side might be used to control more than brightness and contrast -- should the company adopt wireless USB as originally planned, Liao intends to have them double as arrow controls, allowing you to cut the cables and still have basic e-reader functionality. A headphone jack is still in the works, which should allow audio passthrough from HDMI and possibly USB. Last but not least, there's a reason The Panel looks so good lying prone next to that Macbook: should cost decrease, future revisions may include a tablet-style touchscreen. Shame most of these ideas are still on the drawing board, but even the primary product is shaping up nicely. Hit up our gallery for the visual scoop.

P.S. Those blotches on the LCD screen? Liao says that's a manufacturing defect, and that MEDL is testing LCD panels from a variety of manufacturers to avoid such mishaps in the final product.

Gallery: MEDL Technology's The Panel hands-on