Cloud services needs to be managed well, which lays the importance of backing up and managing cloud services data from a centralized place. Joukuu is a service which brings all your favorite cloud services together and displays them in a single easy to use User Interface (UI).

Joukuu basically helps users of Google Docs, Drobox, Box.net to manage their files on a single platform, hop from one service to the other, share one’s files with the other and manage all services together without having to separately manage each one of them. Moreover, Joukuu also lets users backup their files, edit documents from desktop and upload files and folders from Windows right-click context menu.

After Joukuu has been downloaded and installed, the first time all your cloud services account must be added to Joukuu. Once this step has been added, Jokuu will automatically populate and categorize files in the main window. Similarly, new files and folders can also be synched. This option is available just underneath the navigation bar.

Files can be moved around from one service to the other by simply dragging and dropping files from one account to the other. For example, if you want to move a file from Box.net to Drobox, just drag the Box.net file and drop it into the Drobox file which will add the file to the Drobox root file location. Every change made to the files must be synched to record the changes made.

Joukuu also adds context menus to backup and upload files directly. Files are backed up to any e-mail address which you specify.

Currently, Joukuu is in beta testing phase and there are problems which exist with working with Google Docs. However, this is expected to be resolved once the service matures as time passes on. The native Windows XP, 7 and Vista application can be downloaded from this link. Also you can try Droppub a similar service for Dropbox only.

Get Jouku, It Manages And Simplifies File Upload To Dropbox, GDocs, Box.net originally published on Ampercent

WebReader is an Adobe Air based desktop utility which allows users to read their Google Readers subscribed feeds on their desktop. WebReader has a neat and clean interface which allows the reading experience as close to Google Reader as it can get.

WebReader provides a pane navigation view with several options for categorizing your reading material. Material can be prioritized and added to the Starred Items list if the reader deems it important. Also, based on the preferences set by the user, articles are also categorized in the Recommended list and the normal Unread list is also available for the articles from the feed which you haven’t read as yet. WebReader allows users to search their feeds and find the articles or content which they need. Also there is a zoom option available to aid in the viewing navigation.

Also, WebReader provides users the ability to share the material they read or follow via social networks to their peers and friends. WebReader comes with full support for Facebook and Twitter and all articles can be shared to these social networks with a single click.

WebReader is a great desktop application for Google Reader and with its nice set of features, easy to user interface and a great reading pane, it comes in the top lists for recommended desktop readers. WebReader is completely free to download and use but requires Adobe Air to be installed on your PC.

Download WebReader

Bring Google Reader Feeds To Your Desktop And Read Them Offline originally published on Ampercent

MiniTube is just the right kind of utility that you should have if you are a big fan of YouTube videos and want to stream them seamlessly to your PC.

MiniTube is a popular desktop based YouTube Player initially released for Linux and Mac OS, but now after a lot of anticipation, the developers of MiniTube utility have released a Windows version.

What is MiniTube?

For all the users that don’t have any clue about MiniTube, it is a dedicated YouTube utility that allows users to download and stream YouTube videos in any of the available video formats. Users can also search for multitude of YouTube channels, switch between various video qualities, filter videos and even download YouTube video playlists in any of the quality they desire.

So what makes MiniTube better than the other players available on the internet is that it enables users to stream videos without having Adobe Flash player on their PC.

This means that all the users that use their netbooks and laptops to stream YouTube videos will be able to save battery power while streaming videos through MiniTube. Moreover you can also get rid of using memory hog internet browser that has an integrated Flash player to stream YouTube videos. Plus MiniTube provides options like ability to switch between video qualities real-time and the provision of downloading videos in the format of your choice.

How To use MiniTube Player?

It has a very simple user interface and the Windows version have the same options base as you would find on a Mac OS or a Linux version. On MiniTube homescreen, users have the option to search YouTube videos or channels.

All you need to do is choose the channel or put in the search keyword and hit ‘Watch’ button. Hitting the watch button will list down all the results matching to your query.

All the search results are displayed in a dedicated sidebar, the Top most search result automatically starts getting streamed and played. The main toolbar of the MiniTube holds options like playback modes and download settings. Users can play/pause or skip the video streaming, turn on/off the full-screen mode and download any video in a quality they like.

The video playback quality can be changed from within the main user interface by clicking on a button residing in the right corner. All the videos that you will download will go directly to the Videos folder but you can change download location as per your desire.

On the whole, MiniTube is an amazing YouTube video player utilizing minimal resources and giving maximum control to users. MiniTube runs on all the Windows versions including XP/Vista and Windows Vista. You can download MiniTube for free from their website.

Watch YouTube Videos On Your Desktop With MiniTube originally published on Ampercent

Download FlickrEdit and install it. Since the application uses Java web start, you’ll need to have Java platform installed on your PC. Although you can also download Windows executable files from here. Once the installation is finished, start the application.

Use the login button to the top right corner of the window to log into your Flickr account. Use the button “New User” and you will be instructed to provide access to your account. Act as instructed.

NOTE: While clicking the New User button, make sure the “write” option is selected under “Permissions”.

Now that you have successfully provided FlickrEdit access to your account, you will get to see all the images you had uploaded till date. You can then download all of them (or selected) for creating a backup. To create a backup select the images and use the “Backup Selected” button that can be located in the bottom right corner.

Using FlickrEdit you can also upload images to your Flickr account.

You can also edit selected image to add description, title and many other parameters.

Removing Flickr Access:

If at any point of time, you wish to remove FlickrEdit authentication from your account, follow these steps:

1. Login to Flickr.

2. Go to You > Your Apps > Apps You Are Using.

3. Now use the option Remove Permissions and then finally revoke access.

The tool is a good way to access multiple Flickr accounts at one place. Creating backups is also a nice way to be safe. However the tool fails to keep the promise to edit the images. Some image editing options (other than rotating the images) if provided, would have made the tool a better tool.

FlickrEdit: Backup, Upload Flickr Photos From Your Desktop originally published on Ampercent

1. Open Google Earth and type “Lilienthal” in the “Fly To” box to the top left of the GE window. Hit Return.

2. Once you are taken to Lilienthal, Germany, the flight simulator is active. You can open it form Tools > Enter Flight Simulator. Alternatively you can try the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + Alt + A.

3. In the flight simulator window, you can choose the aircraft (presently 2 choices) and the position for initiating the flight. You can start the flight mid-air from Lilienthal or take off from a chosen airport (in my case Kathmandu Airport, Nepal is chosen). To find more about the controls head over here.

Here is how the view appears from the cockpit

Google Flight Simulator Online

GE Flight Simulator is a fun way to fly around the world. But if you are hoping to try it online, lemme me introduce to GE Flight Simulator Online. The online app takes the advantage of Google Earth plugin (that needs to be installed on your system if its not already) and the Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File data to route you to any desired location (airports).

The tool offers lot of options to customize your flight experience,

1. There is a list of 30,000 airports (all over the world) that you can choose from.

2. You can also select the aircraft from 4 models which are Evektor Sportstar ultralight, Piper J-3 Cub, Douglas DC-3 and Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jet.

3. You can use your mouse or keyboard to control the aircraft. If you own a joystick, you can also use it.

4. The camera view can also be selected from 4 modes.

5. The map option can be used to locate the airport you wish to fly to or take off from.

The web app is still in its beta stage and has many bugs that will frustrate you during your flight time. A fast internet connection is necessary for smooth control of the aircraft. The memory consumed is pretty high and it crashed my Firefox quite many times while trying it. Google Maps has been used a many times before for fun applications and this is a nice way to explore around the world enjoying the view below. I’m not a skilled aviator or even a gamer, so once I improve my flying skills I’ll try and make a video demo for this app. On an ending note, I must say that even if the tool is not stable with its performance, it is definitely something you may try for pure gaming fun.

Ever Wished To Try Your Flying Skills? Try Google Earth Flight Simulator originally published on Ampercent

Download T3Desk and install it. Once the application starts all you need to do is right-click the minimize button of the window or hold SHIFT, CTRL and ALT key while clicking the minimize button. This will 3Dmize (minimize in a 3D) instead of simply minimizing it. To open the window again, double click the 3Dmized window. Double click the notification area icon to customize the tool to suit your needs.

It brings a nice soothing desktop experience staying minimal with its memory requirements. It can really help people used to work on a desktop overpopulated with windows and applications. The tool works on Windows 2000/NT/XP/VISTA/WIN7.

I really missed it on my dual screen. The 3Dmizing only happens to work on the main window. So if you use dual screen try 3Dmizing windows after bringing them into the primary display. Let us know how it worked for you.

Get 3D Computing On Your Windows Desktop originally published on Ampercent

Download Mikogo for Windows or Mac. Once you install the application and you will find a  icon in the system tray.

How to Use Mikogo

Go to the website and register for a free account. Right click on the system tray icon and click on the “Start Session”. This will open up the Mikogo settings window. You will need to enter username and password which you had used to register with the service.

Your session will initiate immediately and you will get your unique 9-digit session id. For more details about how to use the tool you can try reading the usage guide.

TIP : Record Live Video Conferences And Video Chats And Share Online

Features of Mikogo

1. Ideal for online meetings, web conferences, product demonstrations, web presentations, remote support, webinars and more.

2. Upto 10 participants are allowed to participate simultaneously.

3. The tool is free for personal as well as professional purposes.

The tool has proved to be very useful for me and I hope you will like it too. Feel free to share similar tools if you know one.

Start Online Meeting Using Mikogo originally published on Ampercent

Some people think that they are exactly the same thing with different names. Let me tell you that the sleep mode and hibernate mode in Windows are two different processes with different functions. There are situations when you should use Sleep mode to temporarily turn off your computer while there are times when the hibernate mode comes handy.

Difference Between Sleep And Hibernate In Windows

There are quite a good number of differences between sleep mode and hibernate mode in Windows7. Here are some key points to remember:

• Sleep made puts your work data, settings and current instance on the memory (RAM) while Hibernate mode writes the same on a portion of your hard drive. So Sleep mode in Volatile while hibernate mode in non volatile in nature.
• When your computer is put to sleep mode, the system draws little power but the point is that it still needs power to remember your application settings and the current state of your operating system. However, on hibernating a system – the entire data is written on the hard disk so you can safely turn off the power after your computer has been hibernated.
• Sleep mode resumes the computer faster while hibernate mode takes a minute or two to load all the settings and application data from the hard drive.
• Sleep mode is ideal for desktop computers where the power is drawn from an AC supply. Hibernate mode is ideal for laptops and netbooks where the power is obtained from portable batteries, usually on DC power.

There is another power saving mode knows as “Hybrid Sleep” which is a combination of Hibernate and sleep modes in Windows. The Hybrid sleep mode is not available in Windows XP and earlier versions and only available in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Activating Hybrid sleep in Windows will cache your documents and open applications on the memory while putting all the data on the hard drive. That way, you can resume the system faster and never lose important data or files, in case of a power failure or when the battery fails to respond.

Now that you have learned the differences between Hybrid sleep, Hibernate and sleep modes in Windows, it’s time to learn a couple of ways to use these modes more wisely.

Hibernate Windows With A Desktop Shortcut

Some users want an instant way to hibernate Windows and don’t want to click Windows start menu again and again, find the hibernate option and click on it. If you’re in the same group, the following steps will let you create a one click desktop shortcut to hibernate Windows.

1. Right click an empty area of the desktop and choose New > Shortcut.

2. Paste the following in the location of the shortcut

C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll, SetSuspendState 0,1,0

3. Hit Next and enter a name for the shortcut – Hibernate Windows or something of your choice. Hit Finish and you are done.

A good idea would be to change the shortcut icon to a preferred one so that you can recognize the hibernate shortcut quickly on your desktop. Whenever  you want to hibernate windows, just double click the shortcut and it’s done. No more hunting down the hibernate button from the start menu. A similar trick which we have discussed earlier is to open any folder with a keyboard shortcut; which works the same way as above. Simply hit the shortcut key once and Windows is put to Hibernation automatically.

This method works with all version of Windows – Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows7.

Put Windows To Sleep With A Desktop Shortcut

The same method is also true for creating a desktop shortcut for the sleep button. Here are the steps

1. Create the desktop shortcut as usual and in the description field, enter this code:

Rundll32.exe Powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Sleep

2. After creating the shortcut, rename it to “Sleep” or associate a preferred icon of your choice. That’s it, your sleep shortcut is now ready and works like a charm

Preventing Windows To Automatically Hibernate or Sleep After A Specific Time

Do you often find that your computer has automatically been hibernated or put into sleep mode while you were busy elsewhere? There are two ways to turn off automatic hibernation or sleep of Windows.

The first method involves changing your “Power Options” settings from Windows Control panel > Power Options> change plan settings. When you have reached the Power Options panel, select “never” for all the options and it should work out just fine. The following screenshot will clear the idea:

Alternatively, you might want to use Insomnia which is a freeware utility to prevent automatic hibernation and sleep of Windows. The program runs in the background and causes the screen to flickr after every 10 seconds, which stops Windows from automatically hibernating, shutting down or logging off after a specific time interval.

Hibernate And Sleep Modes In Windows – Differences And Using Desktop Shortcuts originally published on Ampercent

You can create flow charts in Ms-paint or Microsoft Powerpoint but one of the disadvantages of using them is the output. You have to manually draw the shapes, add text and often, the output is not uniform – some shapes are larger while some are smaller. Another disadvantage of using MS-paint is that the flow charts have to be saved as an image and if you want to modify the items later on, you have to start over from scratch.

MeeSoft’s Diagram Designer is one of the best software programs to create flowcharts and network diagrams in Windows. Once the program is installed, just drag and drop the elements in the workspace and connect them using the desired connectors. You can add different shapes e.g decision box, rhombus, rectangle, process, user input etc.

Diagram Designer

Once the flow chart is complete, you can save the project and export the flow chart as an image. The best part about Diagram designer is that the program lets you add your images in the flowchart. The program also supports multiple pages – so you can save several charts inside one .DDD file.

Diagram designer works in Windows XP, WIndows Vista and Windows7. Thanks DownloadSquad.

Tip: Use Google Docs to create Charts and graphs

Diagram Designer Lets you Create Flowcharts and Network Diagrams from Windows originally published on Ampercent

LogMeIn is a free tool that lets you access your computer even from a distant place just using a browser. All you need is a good internet connection on both the computers. Let me show how.

Download LogMeIn and install it. You have to register for a account to use the application. Now during the installation process you will get to see that which account this computer is getting added to.

Well now that you are done installing the tool you are all set for using the PC from any other PC that has got a fast internet connection and a browser.

How to Connect to your PC Using LogMeIn

This part is pretty simple. Open the browser and go to the LogMeIn webpage and login using your account details that you used to register. Now once you log in you will be shown a list of computers that you have added to use from this account.

Now you can choose the computer you want to use and press the “Remote Control” button just beside it. That’s all you are live now. One thing to note is that your home PC should be up and running with a fast internet connection. And it should have LogMeIn installed on it. The LogMeIn need to be running.

Windows Login

If you are trying to connect to a computer that has a password protected Windows account then you will get a screen where you have to log in using the account details to connect to that computer.

What Can You do with LogMeIn

Once you are successfully logged in (your LogMeIn account) and remotely connected one of your PC’s you can use the tool for the following purposes. All of them are listed on the left side of the screen.

Dashboard : You will get to see an overview of the computer you are currently connected to.

Remote Control : This will let you connect to the computer.

File Manager : This is similar to “My Computer” and works like the Windows Explorer.

File Sharing : This part actually contains the steps about how you can send a file using LogMeIn.

Desktop Sharing : This part also tells how to use desktop sharing. You can use this to collaborate, conference, online demonstration or request support.

Chat : Use Chat to chat with the user on the remotely connected computer (if any).

Computer management : You can get access to user manager, event viewer, services, running processes, drivers, registry editor, command prompt, reboot, monitor host screen.

Computer Settings : Get to see the Environment Variables, Virtual Memory, Time, Shared Resources and Automatic Priorities.

Scheduling And Alerts : Manage LogMeIn Alerts, Windows tasks.

Performance Info : Get all the necessary information about CPU and Memory load, disk space, drive and partition info, TCP/IP ports, network load, registry keys in use, DLLs in use, LMI connections, installed applications, loaded device drivers etc.

Disconnect : When done use this to disconnect from the current remote session.

Other than these you can use your iPhone or iPad to control your computers remotely using LogMeIn Ignition. The LogMeIn Pro2 is a paid version (that has a trial period of 30 days). However, LogMeIn Free is the free version. If you know any such tool please let us know. And if are facing any problems while using the service, feel free to ask via comments.

Remotely Control Your PC Using Just A Browser originally published on Ampercent