Faster: 100 Ways to Improve your Digital Life Page 2
If you know how to use a mobile phone or surf the Internet, consider yourself ‘qualified’ enough to be able to understand, use and benefit from this book. The language is simple and there are plenty of screenshots. The book is divided into four main sections—Functionality, Look and Feel, Security and Fun Stuff—feel free to read them in any sequence, based on your own preferences and interests.
You will find that there is a slant towards the Apple and Google-based platforms. That is merely a reflection of the market reality today, where the iOS and Android platforms are dominating the mobile space.
Just like most of you, I love free stuff as well, and almost everything discussed in this book is available completely free of cost. The rest are available for a very nominal fee that is well worth the price.
I have not been financially compensated by any application developer for any of the apps, tools, software or techniques that have been featured in this book. All the things covered in this book are things that I have personally used, loved and found useful enough to share with all of you. Not only have I thoroughly tested everything discussed in this book under various conditions, situations and platforms, I have also made sure that everything can be used equally effectively in both Indian and global scenarios.
The best thing about technology is the fact that it is dynamic and constantly changing, with new stuff coming out all the time. Based on the developments in the technology world, I intend to keep updating this book on a regular basis with the latest tricks and tweaks. If there are things that have helped you improve your digital life, and you’d like to share them with the rest of the world, do feel free to send them in. Keep reading, keep tweaking and let’s make our digital lives better, cooler and faster!
FUNCTIONALITY
1. How to send a secret message that will self-destruct in the recipient’s inbox
< 120 Seconds
Sometimes you need to share private information (password, credit card details or bank account information) with a family member, friend or colleague. It is possible to simply send the personal information via email or a chat message to the recipient. However, there is a risk that they might forget to delete the message and your private information may still remain in their inbox or computer. This means that a malicious user, who manages to illegally access the recipient’s computer or account in the future, could potentially access your private information and misuse it. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to be able to share your private message with the recipient via a self-destructing message which automatically gets deleted once it has been read?
Burn Note and the Burn Note logo are registered trademarks of Burn Note Inc., used with permission.
This is where a very useful website known as Burn Note (www.burnnote.com) comes into the picture. It allows a user to send a message to someone else in such a manner that the message will be automatically deleted immediately or after a predefined number of seconds after it has been read. This ensures that your message remains truly private and cannot be accessed by anyone after it has been conveyed to the intended recipient.
In this example, let us assume that a family member needs your credit card number for an urgent purchase and you wish to share in the form of a secure self-destructing message.
All you need to do is to simply start your browser and connect to www.burnnote.com and type the private message of your choice in the space provided.
Burn Note and the Burn Note logo are registered trademarks of Burn Note Inc., used with permission.
For added security, it is not only possible to prevent the recipient from being able to copy your private message, but also to put a password on the self-destructing message. This gives you double protection against unauthorized access to your private information. Moreover, Burn Note also allows you to specify the number of seconds after which the private message will automatically self-destruct.
Click on the Options button to access all the various options available to you while creating the private message.
Burn Note and the Burn Note logo are registered trademarks of Burn Note Inc., used with permission.
Once you are done writing the private message and selecting the various options related to it, click on the Send button. Burn Note will now create a URL or link to a special temporary web page where your private message will be stored.
Burn Note and the Burn Note logo are registered trademarks of Burn Note Inc., used with permission.
To share the message with your friend, you simply need to send this link to your friend via email, chat or mobile application.
When the recipient opens the link, they will be taken to the special temporary web page where your private message has been stored. However, they won’t be allowed to view the private message without entering the password (if you chose to set one).
Burn Note and the Burn Note logo are registered trademarks of Burn Note Inc., used with permission.
Only once the correct password is entered will the recipient be allowed to view your private message (in this case, your credit card number). The best part is that the private message can be viewed only once and will be automatically deleted after the predefined number of seconds (in this case 180 seconds).
The recipient of your private message also has the option to reply to your message with another self-destructing Burn Note private message from right within your message.
Some other popular websites that allow you to send similar self-destructing messages are:
Privnote (www.privnote.com)
One Share (www.oneshar.es)
2. How to send huge file attachments via email
< 270 Seconds
Gmail has a 25 MB size limit while sending attachments. This isn’t enough when one wants to send a large file (video, presentation, high-resolution ad campaign etc). Usually, such a size restriction forces people to split the file attachments into multiple emails or use third-party file transfer websites like Dropbox. Unfortunately, third-party file transfer websites come with their own share of problems—most of them are not free, have annoying advertisements and can have security issues.
Google Drive is your own hard drive on the Google Cloud. If you have a Gmail account, Google by default gives you 5 GB of free storage space on Google Drive. In case 5 GB is not enough, it is possible to buy even more storage space. Using Google Drive, you can not only back up all your important files in case of loss, but also transfer them to your friends or colleagues. Google Drive allows you to upload specific files or even complete folders from your computer. It can be accessed at http://drive.google.com and is one of the easiest and most secure methods of transferring files and folders on the Internet. Compared to third-party file-sharing websites, the advantage of Google Drive is that it is completely integrated with all other Google products, including Gmail, and does not require a separate sign-up.
Google Drive and the Google Drive logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.
Once you log in to your Google Drive, you can immediately start uploading files or folders to your Google Cloud by clicking on the Upload button.
There is almost no limit on the number of files you can upload or the size of the files you can upload to your Google Drive, as long as you have space available in it.
You can monitor the status of an upload in the upload status window in the bottom right corner of the screen. You don’t need to wait for a file to be completely uploaded before you start uploading another file. It is possible to simultaneously upload as many files as you wish.
Google Drive and the Google Drive logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.
Once a particular file or folder has been successfully uploaded to your Google Drive, you can click on the Share link to manage the sharing settings for that file. You can choose to keep the file private, public, or share it with specific people by simply clicking on the Change link under Who Can Access.
Google Drive and the Google Drive logo are registered trademarks
of Google Inc., used with permission.
There are four different ways to share the file uploaded to your Google Drive:
1. Publish the file on the Internet, so that anyone with an Internet connection can access the file without any permission or authentication, just like a public blog or website
Google Drive and the Google Drive logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.
2. Keep the file completely private, so that only you can access it
3. Share it with specific Gmail accounts. This setting requires the recipient to sign into their Gmail account to verify their identity
4. Send a direct link (full URL) to the file to specific users. These users do not need to have a Gmail account
It is also possible for you to use Google Drive to control what people can do with the shared files. You can either allow them to only view your files, view and comment on them or even edit them. In other words, Google Drive is also very useful if you wish to collaborate with team members or friends and work together on the same files. In this example, I’ve chosen to share the uploaded file by sending a link to a specific set of people and would like to only assign viewing rights.
Google Drive and the Google Drive logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.
Google Drive and the Google Drive logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.
Google Drive will now create a direct link or URL which can be used to access the shared file. You can share this link or URL with friends or colleagues via email, chat or text message.
Even if you are using your work email account, you can still use Google Drive to transfer large files. Some other popular websites that allow you to easily transfer large files are:
Dropbox (www.dropbox.com)
Sky Drive Live (www.skydrive.live.com)
It is also possible to download mobile apps of Google Drive, Dropbox and Sky Drive to your Android or iOS device, so that you can easily share files from your mobile devices with your friends and colleagues.
3. How to e-sign a document
< 120 Seconds
There was a time when, each time you needed to sign an agreement and send it to a client, customer or partner, you would have to print out the agreement, sign all the pages and then courier the documents. However, in today’s Internet age, many agreements can be executed digitally as well, by simply printing out the agreement, signing it, scanning it and then emailing it out. There is a faster and easier method of executing digital agreements—using online digital signing websites.
One of my favourite online e-signing websites is DocuSign (www.docusign.com), which makes electronically signing and executing agreements extremely easy, fast and convenient. DocuSign allows users to sign any document with a single click of the mouse and send it out to the respective parties. Moreover, if you wish to request a signature from somebody, you can use DocuSign to send the document or agreement out for signing. Finally, DocuSign will also securely store all your digitally executed agreements on their cloud servers in one place for easy access in the future.
To start using DocuSign, you need to first create an account for yourself. Depending upon your needs, you can choose a relevant pricing plan. For home users, DocuSign is completely free.
Once you have created your account, you need to log in to be able to start digitally signing and sharing agreements and documents. The first time you log in to your DocuSign account, you will need to create a digital signature for yourself by clicking on the Edit button in the DocuSign ID Card box.
This will open up the Manage Identity page, which allows you to manage all the details related to your digital identity and digital signature for your DocuSign account. Now click on the Manage Your Signature link.
You can now create or manage the digital signature of your DocuSign account. You have the option to either upload a scanned copy of your digital signature (in the form of an image), draw your own signature using your mouse, or use one of the standard styles of signature on the DocuSign website. This page will allow you to set up not only your complete signature, but also a separate initials signature for your digital identity. Moreover, you can use this same page for setting up different digital signatures for different people in your organization or team. And, depending on the document that needs to be signed, the relevant person’s digital signature can be applied to it using DocuSign.
Once you have set up the digital signature associated with your account, to sign a document that you have received, you simply need to click on the Sign a Document Now button in your DocuSign account. You can either upload the document that needs to be signed from your computer or from any of the popular online cloud services (like Google Drive, Sky Drive, DropBox and others). DocuSign supports most popular file formats, including but not limited to .doc, .pdf, .xls and .txt.
Once you have added the document that needs to be signed to your DocuSign account, simply click on the Sign button. DocuSign will now allow you to choose the type of signature you wish to put on the document (complete or initial), the portion of the document you wish to sign (drag and drop) and also size of the signature you want. Not only that, DocuSign also allows you to add other details of your digital identity (first name, last name, full name, date of signing, email address etc.) to any part of the document.
Finally, once the document has been signed, simply click on the Finish button and DocuSign will allow you to email the signed document to recipients of your choice. You can also choose to download the signed document as a PDF file or a ZIP file to your computer by clicking on the PDF icon at the top menu.
Some other popular digital signature websites that you could also use are:
Right Signature (https://rightsignature.com)
Echo Sign (http://www.echosign.com)
4. How to stop wasting time online
< 60 Seconds
Are you an expert procrastinator? Do you spend a lot of time in front of your computer aimlessly staring at the screen instead of studying or working? Are you addicted to Facebook and do you spend too much time stalking people you don’t even know? Have you ever started watching videos online, lost track of time and then suddenly realized that several hours have passed? If these questions sound familiar, then welcome to the procrastinators’ club that no one wants to be in, yet has millions of members. Research reveals that taking short breaks from work helps you remain more focused and efficient. However, for most of us, a short break invariably turns into a long sabbatical from work. Here, we are going to discuss strategies and tools that will help you win the time battle against that technological black hole called the Internet.
It is impractical to completely stop using popular websites like Facebook, Twitter, Sports Portals, YouTube, and gaming and other sites. However, wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to restrict the amount of time per day you are allowed to spend on each of these websites? There is a very popular Google Chrome browser extension called StayFocusd that helps you with just that. You can download it free of cost from the Google Chrome Web Store (http://bit.ly/ricj4s).
StayFocusd and the StayFocusd logo are registered trademarks of Transfusion Media, used with permission.
Once you have installed StayFocusd, there will be a new icon or button that will be added to the URL bar in Google Chrome. Clicking on this icon will allow you complete control over the amount of time you can spend on each website every day. Once you exceed the allotted daily time of a specific website, it will no longer allow you to access it until the next day!
StayFocusd and the StayFocusd logo are registered trademarks of Transfusion Media, used with permission.
This is how you can use the StayFocusd browser extension to manage the amount of time you are allowed to spend on Facebook:
StayFocusd and the StayFocusd logo are registered trademarks of Transfusion Media, used with permission.
Open your browser to the Facebook homepage and click on the StayFocusd button in your br
owser. This will open the StayFocusd settings page for Facebook.
If you wish to restrict access to Facebook, click on the Block this entire site link or you can click on Advanced options to enter custom URLs to block only specific pages within Facebook.
StayFocusd and the StayFocusd logo are registered trademarks of Transfusion Media, used with permission.
Once you have enabled restricted access to websites, click on the Settings link to specify the amount of time per day you are allowed to spend on all the restricted websites put together. If you want to completely block access to a particular website, then you set the number of minutes to 0. It is important to note that this time restriction is not website-specific but applies to all the blocked websites.
StayFocusd and the StayFocusd logo are registered trademarks of Transfusion Media, used with permission.
Not only is this tool very useful to restrict access to certain websites, but it also works for parents who are worried about their kids accessing adult websites on the Internet and want to block access to them. StayFocusd works only on the Google Chrome browser, but there are similar extensions/add-ons available on other popular browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer as well.