Recently I started using Nozbe, the getting things done software. I use the web interface, the Nozbe iPad app and Nozbe iPhone app to keep all things in sync which provides a quick way of capturing tasks I need to do with what ever device I have with me at the time.

One of the features of the web based version is the ability to connect up to an Evernote account, but this integration wasn’t available on the iPad or the iPhone. Thankfully there’s good news as a new Nozbe update was released a few days ago that brings Evernote integration to the iPad. We also hear that the iPhone update should also be ready any time soon bringing support to the iPhone version.

The integration is simple and works well. We’ll give you a quick run-down after the image below.

To get Evernote documents in to Nozbe you simply need to tag any Evernote documents you want to include with the same name as the project file. Once done, you just hit the evernote button in the middle at the bottom of the screen and Nozbe checks with Evernote and grabs any documents that are tagged correctly.

This is all assuming that you have already configured Nozbe and Evernote to work with each other. If so, you are good to go.

Having Evernote docs available in Nozbe is very handy. Lets hope the iPhone Nozbe update is due out any time now. From out understanding it has been submitted to the app store and is just awaiting approval.

When Apple first announced iOS 4 a few months back, one of the apps demonstrated was Skype that was seen running in the background on iOS 4. Now that iOS 4 has been released we were left waiting a few weeks without the ability to keep Skype running in the background. That has now changed as Skype launched Skype 2.0.1 in to the app store last night that brings multitasking to the mix.

The new version works on the 3GS and iPhone 4 where multitasking is concerned and lets users receive calls while the using the phone for other things. Previously you had to be running the Skype application and have it active to receive calls.

When a call comes in from Skype a popup box appears asking if you want to accept or decline the call making it a very handy application to have on the iPhone.

What else makes it handy to have is that the previous version that launched also brings VoIP calling over 3G networks rather than being restricted to WiFi only. The only thing we are really waiting for now is the option to do video calling which Skype as of yet has included in the Skype iPhone app.

Other information shows that Skype is also dropping a monthly subscription cost to use Skype over 3G on the iPhone. Prior to the new release, Skype were planning on charging a small fee per month to use the service over 3G networks.

A final change that has been made in this version shows that it now has optimised graphics for the new iPhone 4 retina display which makes the whole experience a little more crisp.

If you already have Skype installed on your iPhone you can load up the App Store and check for updates now to install it. Alternatively you can download/upgrade it via iTunes for when you next sync up your device.

Over the past couple of months I have been using Evernote to keep track of notes and documents that I handle each day. I use the software on my laptop as well as on the iPhone and iPad to capture notes throughout the day.

An update to the PC version of Evernote was launched last week that brings Evernote Trunk to the software. What Trunk does is lists all apps that integrate with the software. While scanning through these I came across an app called JotNot for the iPhone. The JotNot app allows you to use the iPhone camera to capture images of documents such as bank statements, legal letters and any other sort of document. When you have captured the image with JotNot you can keep it filed in JotNot or send it to a number of services such as Google Docs, DropBox and of course, Evernote.

Once the JotNot app is authorised to access your Evernote account you can simply give the document a name, put it in a category and tag it if necessary. Once done you hit send where it lands direct in to your account which in turn, can be accessed via the iPhone, iPad or PC as well as any other device that runs the software.

The quality of the document can be enhanced within JotNot with a number of options depending on what type of print you are capturing. Although using a smartphone camera isn’t the best way to scan a clear image, the quality is still good enough to use and is also good enough that Evernote can OCR the document allowing you to search for text within the image if needed. For example, I bank with Barclays and can easily search for Barclays which then lists all my captured bank statements.

If you just want to capture a couple of documents a day that land in the post then JotNot Pro is an app worth looking at. However, if you intend to scan a lot of documents and want a paperless office using an app such as Evernote then check out scanners such as the Fujitsu ScanSnap that can scan several pages per minute.

Using Evernote as a paperless office works well for what I need it to do. The JotNote Pro app has worked well for me so far although I wish they would let me set a default to send to Evernote rather than having to tap through the menus each time on the app. Other than that it works well for a handful of documents each day and allows me to shred and recycle my statements as needed. By using Evernote on the iPad and iPhone, it also allows me full access to my paperless office filing cabinet on the go.

What I am not sure of at the moment is the best way to organise the documents. Right now I have created folders for each type of document such as personal bank statements, business bank statements etc… What I am tempted to try do before I capture too many documents is to start using tags more which can also more easily integrate with Nozbe for example. Either way, the search functions allow quick access to the documentation and OCR in search also makes it easy to find what you are looking for quickly.

Quick Edit: Evernote for the iPhone can easily make use of the camera. However, it only captures images as the camera sees them. With JotNot you can easily crop, enhance and make the document better for storing it.

Office² HD for the iPad has received an update bringing it up to version 3.4. The app allows you to open Google Docs spreadsheets and Word documents and edit them on the iPad. Files can be in the .DOC and .XLS format.

Integration with Google Docs, DropBox and MobileMe iDisk is included allowing you to easily load up spreadsheets or documents whilst on the move from the cloud. Any changes made to the files on the iPad are saved on the cloud on the respective service.

The Office HD update for iPad brings a bunch of new features which includes…

- Added full Bluetooth keyboard support for the document and spreadsheet editors, including cursor key support.
- Office² HD Can now open and save password protected document and workbook files.
- Office² HD can now be protected with a 4-digit passcode.
- Documents and spreadsheets can now be converted to PDF format.
- Files can now be transferred both ways using iTunes.
- Office² HD now has word count functionality.
- The following new spreadsheet functions have been added: DEC2HEX, HEX2DEC, DEC2OCT, OCT2DEC, OCT2HEX, HEX2OCT, DEC2BIN, BIN2DEC, OCT2BIN, BIN2OCT, HEX2BIN, BIN2HEX, ERROR.TYPE.
- Error values are now supported in the spreadsheet editor.
- When a cell is formatted as text, the text keyboard is now shown when the cell is edited.
- Save As functionality has now been added.
- iCloud has now been added as a cloud service.
- Office² HD may now be started in any orientation.
- Now handles Hiragino Mincho Pro font.
- The correct keyboard is now displayed depending on the cell type in the spreadsheet editor.

As well as adding a number of new features, a large number of bugs have been fixed as listed below…

- An issue is now fixed where dates in Google spreadsheets were showing as day or month only.
- Moving files no longer ends up showing the destination folder.
- The spreadsheet and document editor toolbars can no longer be scrolled to an invalid position.
- The currency symbol and position are now persisted correctly.
- Text can now be entered into documents with just an image in.
- Merged cells containing formulas now save properly.
- Text files now have correct line breaks when saved.
- References to cells in other worksheets are now updated when rows are inserted before the target of the reference.
- VLOOKUP() is no longer case sensitive.
- Files containing the ‘.’ character are now seen correctly.
- A crash has been fixed when opening large spreadsheets with lots of non-ASCII text in.
- A major problem has been fixed where no more than 100 files could be shown in a Google Docs account.
- An issue where the INDEX() function was not working correctly has now been resolved.
- Non-standard Google Docs font names are now handled correctly.
- Attempting to save files to read-only folders (e.g Inbox folder) is now handled properly.
- Chinese handwriting text input now works correctly.
- Movie files can now be viewed.
- The spreadsheet editor now shows background colour correctly for XLS files created by Excel 2007.
- Now works with the IIS WebDAV server.
- Improved non-US currency support.
- The formatting for empty columns and rows is now saved properly.
- Smart quotes and ellipsis are now recognized correctly by the document editor.
- When a file fails to save (in a cloud service for example) the file is no longer closed, giving the user the opportunity to save the file locally.
- Cell type of numbers shown as text now saved correctly.
- Custom text highlight colors are now saved correctly by the document editor.
- Google Docs files with invalid characters in the filenames can now be opened.
- The ‘Don’t Save’ button now shows correctly when closing a file while the keyboard is showing.
- The font selector selection band now displays correctly.
- Data is no longer lost when ’1 2′ is typed into a cell.
- The last line of text is no longer distributed in the document editor when center justification is used.
- Spreadsheet files with unsupported functions now open in the spreadsheet editor. The unsupported functions will simply give an error.
- A crash has been fixed opening some DOC files.
- A problem where borders were occasionally not showing has been fixed.
- A problem where the US date format was interpreted incorrectly has now been fixed.
- Unicode text files (UTF-8 and UTF-16) can now be opened, edited and saved correctly.
- Other bug fixes

You can grab the update now from iTunes or from the App store on your iPad in the updates section if you already have the previous version installed.

I recently came across a “getting things done” service called Nozbe that allows you to manage projects and your time with an online interface. As well as being able to work with the service online, there’s also a handy iPhone and iPad app that can sync up to the web service allowing you to keep a task list whilst on the move.

When I was looking in to subscribing to the service* I couldn’t find any mention of integrating the scheduled task list with a standard Outlook calendar. The good news is that it is possible to do a Nozbe Outlook sync by using the iCal output that Nozbe provides.

To pull tasks down from Nozbe in to your calendar in Outlook, you first need to load up Outlook and then click on the Calendar option.

In the left sidebar you should see a list of calendars that you are using under a check box called “My Calendars”. Right click on My Calendars and click “From Internet”. At this point you will be presented with a box that indicates you should paste a URL in to it. The URL you need to use can be found in your Nozbe admin interface.

To get access to the iCal feed on Nozbe you first need to make sure you have a Nickname and PIN configured in the settings menu of the Nozbe admin interface. To do that you simply login to Nozbe, hit settings and select a username and PIN. This combination forms part of the URL you use to access the iCal feed.

When you have your Nickname and PIN configured you need to go back to the main interface in Nozbe, click Calendar in the right sidebar and then click the Info dropdown link in the top middle of the page. You will then see a few links with the last one being iCal. Click on iCal and a URL will show up that will be already populated with your Nickname and PIN you configured earlier. Copy the URL to the clipboard and head back to Outlook.

When in Outlook you should still have the box open that says “Enter the location of the internet calendar you want to add to Outlook:”. Paste the iCal URL from Nozbe in to this box and hit OK.

At this point you will have the option to hit OK again, or hit Advanced. The advanced features aren’t too advanced, so I personally wouldn’t bother hitting Advanced.

When you hit OK the final time your tasks should be set up at the top of the calendar of Outlook on the days that you specified certain tasks need to be completed by. Remember that if you do not set a date for a task in Nozbe, it won’t appear in the Outlook Calendar.

Please feel free to comment if you have any questions regarding the integration. The feed is read-only, so you cannot delete or edit in Outlook. The Outlook calender merely lets you know what Nozbe wants you to do on a specific day.

Note: Nozbe is a web based and iOS based app that allows you to Get Things Done. You can subscribe over here.

Google announced a couple of days ago that they are about to expand the services that Google Docs currently offers by allowing other files to be uloaded to the internet other than Spreadsheets, Presentations and Word Documents. The new service will give up to 1GB of free storage space to upload and share any of your files. If you go over that limit then it costs just 25 cents/year for an extra GB of storage space.

The service could be used for those times when you need to email large files to friends or clients, but instead of relying on email you could simply upload the file to Google Docs and send an invite to all those who need access to the file.

When files have been uploaded to the service they can be sorted in to folders just like regular documents can and searched as documents also. If you upload a common file type then Google are also allowing you to open some formats to read the files online saving the need to download them.

The service is set to roll out in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out when you log in to Docs to see what it’s all about.

I recently came across the need to download a YouTube video for a presentation in a building where no internet connection was available. In order to play the video it needed to be downloaded from YouTube. A quick search on Google helped me to track down a program called YouTube Downloader that looked like a decent option to attempt to download the video. This “how to” tutorial will give the full run-down on how to download youtube videos.

YouTube Downloader is a free program that you can download here.

To download the video the first step you need to find the video you want to download on YouTube by loading Youtube.com and navigating to the video. Once loaded you need to highlight the content of the URL box found on the right of the page as shown below, then copy the URL to the clipboard (right click/copy).

Now that the URL is copied to the clipboard you then need to load up the new YouTube Downloader software you just installed and paste the URL in to the top box out of the two.

Once pasted click OK and then OK again. After that you will be asked for a location to save the downloaded file to. I normally select the desktop or my documents. Once selected hit OK and the video will download.

Please post any comments if you run in to problems with the conversion.

A cool little hack has recently been found that allows you to control all aspects of Windows 7 from within one control panel. The hack is called GodMode and is very simple to implement.

To access GodMode on your Windows 7 install (works on Vista too but apparently crashes the 64-bit version of Vista) all you need to do is create a new folder anywhere on your computer (the desktop can be used too) and either name or rename the folder GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Once done the icon of the folder will change from the default yellow colour to a screen and name that says GodMode. Double click it to access the folder and you’ll have access to everything you need to config your PC in one location. Just go careful though and don’t change anything you are unsure about.

Via: CNET

If you have some video clips you want to share with friends, family or even the world then this guide will show you how to upload to YouTube your videos.

The steps to achieve this are quite simple in that all you need is a video to upload (which I assume you have if you are wanting to upload to youtube), a YouTube account and some spare time to upload the video.

The first step here is to visit the YouTube site and if you already have an account hit the login button at the top right of the page. If you don’t have an account then click the Create Account button also at the top right of the page.

Creating an account is relatively simple in that you just need to select a username, fill in some details and then submit the form. Once you have an account log in to the YouTube site and hit the yellow Upload button found at the top left of the screen. A page showing what can be uploaded is then presented which basically says you can upload a 2GB video file that is up to 10 minutes in length. At this point, click the Upload Video button where a file manager will open for you to select the video you want to upload.

A status bar will then be seen along with a form to fill out to provide details of what the video is about. Once the upload to youtube is complete you will be able to save the settings and at this point a URL will be provided allowing you to email it to friends and family or those who you want to see your newly uploaded video.

If you are running Microsoft Office and need to convert a PowerPoint Presentation to a PDF file then you can use the built in functionality of Powerpoint to achieve this. Reasons for doing this include the ability to share the file more easily with others if you know the recipients don’t have PowerPoint or the PowerPoint viewer installed.

We are currently running Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Beta, so screen shots here are geared towards that version of the software although the same principles apply on other versions such as PowerPoint 2007.

To get started you first need to load up or create the PowerPoint presentation. When the presentation is ready click on the File option in the top menu and click the Save As button shown below.

Once done you are presented with the file manager where you need to select a location, filename and file type for the presentation. In the drop down box towards the bottom of the screen select PDF and once selected a few options will appear below which include “Standard (publishing online and printing)” and “Minimum Size (publishing online)”. Select the option you want (with minimum creating a smaller file size and standard creating a normal file size).

When you hit save Adobe Acrobat should open to display your newly created PDF file of your presentation with the same amount of pages as slides that you created.

Although this function might not be a life changing feature, it certainly can come in handy when someone doesn’t have a PowerPoint Viewer or software installed on their PC as chances are a lot more people have Adobe Reader installed.