Cyber Monday Shopping at Amazon!

As most Doc's Tech Notes readers know, today is when everyone shops on their bosses dime (not recommended...I'm just pointing out the obvious). As a companion to my previous Black Friday post, I now present the link to all of the wonderful Amazon Cyber Monday deals. Today's Gold Box offer is also a deal that should appeal to readers; an Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation) for only $158.00.

{Update...Amazon sold out the iPod Touch! You missed it.}

Ok, now back to work with ya and be on the look out for your boss who is making sure you are working, not shopping. Alt-Tab is your buddy today!

Did you snag any Black Friday or Cyber Monday tech deals? Drop me a comment and "do tell!"

Happy Thanksgiving!!! -- Black Friday Tip

I, and my family, are huge fans of Amazon and especially Amazon Prime. You may have guessed as much from the ads I regularly update on my page. So what’s the Tech Tip for Doc’s Tech Notes readers on this most festive of Turkey Days? Simple. Save time and money on your Christmas shopping this year by browsing Amazon’s Black Friday deals. How does Amazon save you time and money (and quite possibly your sanity)? Check my listings of Amazon and Amazon Prime advantages after the click:

Learn all you need to know about Chrome OS -- with video

Check out Google’s wonderful and descriptive video below:

Review another video and learn more about Doc’s experiences with ChromeOS after the click below.

Get more out of Google Voice with Voice Mac

I’ve been using Google Voice now for quite some time and have a great software recommendation for the Mac users who are also Google Voice users. If you want to make calls, review your voicemail messages and send SMS messages from your Mac without visiting the Google Voice site, fire up your browser and head on over to the Voice Mac web site and get to downloading.

Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way up front. This post references Voice Mac version Beta 5.1. And the beta tag is warranted as there are several quirks. But if you can overlook the quirks, you'll find a useful tool to manage and utilize your Google Voice account at the beta price of FREE.

Once you have a copy downloaded and installed, hit the link to learn how to setup and use Voice Mac.

More DropBox Ideas

I’ve been having a blast trying to figure out fun and productive ways to use DropBox beyond simple file syncing. A few of them have saved me a ton of time and I thought I would share them with you. All of these tips involve using the symbolic link tip I shared in a previous post and are designed to work between two or more Macs. With a few simple modifications, these tips can be used on other OSs as well. Here’s my short list:

• Sync my LDRAW library – AFOLs using MLCAD or Bricksmith will really appreciate this tip as it ensures your LDRAW library is the same across computers!
• Sync my Desktop – sym link: /Users/username/Desktop – ensures the same files are on my Desktop from computer to computer
• Wallpaper/Screen Saver image syncing – create a Wallpaper folder in your Dropbox/Photos folder and set up the screen saver to use images from this directory – I further add additional wallpaper folders by theme: Halloween, Christmas, Fall, Family, etc
• Syncing 1Password data – sym link: /Users/username/Library/Application Support/1Password
• Sync Safari extensions to emulate Chromes ability to sync across computers – sym link: HD/User/Library/Safari
• Sync SketchUp plugins. I use SketchUp regularly and there is nothing more frustrating than looking for a tool and finding it is not installed – sym link: HD/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8
• TextMate bundles are another good target for syncing since the ability is not native to the software – sym link: HD/User/Library/Application Support/TextMate
• I’ve created a single folder in Dropbox called MacSyncing. In that folder are additional subfolders that contain sync’d settings from many of the ideas presented above.

All of this syncing and I only have the free 2Gb service! So what cool and useful ways have you found to use Dropbox to keep data in sync and make your transition smoother from computer-to-computer? Leave a comment and add to this listing. As I discover more uses, I’ll add them to this post so check back occasionally to view more of my own personal tips or how Doc’s Tech Notes readers are using Dropbox.

Doc salutes all who serve – Happy Veteran’s Day

Export (download) multiple files from Google Docs

In a previous post, I shared the process used to upload multiple files (.doc, pdf, odt, etc) to Google Docs. Next, let’s learn how to download (export) one, a series, or all documents. Why would we want to do this? Backup, backup, backup. Even though most of us trust Google’s cloud, there is still no reason you shouldn’t download these files on a regular basis for those “just in case” moments. Learn how after the click...

Upload multiple files to Google Docs

Since blogging about how to use gdocsuploader to upload multiple documents to the Google Docs, there have been two new features added to Google Docs that I have been remiss in sharing; multiple uploads and multiple downloads (export). Let’s learn how to first upload multiple files. In a later post, I’ll show you how go the opposite direction and download multiple files.

Apple replaced my almost three year-old iPhone!

Doc has a little story to share and a moral. For the past couple of months I have been fighting with a first generation iPhone with a section of the touch screen that would not work. It was about a .5 inch strip across the top of the screen. While the phone was still usable for normal functions, it involved knowing when to rotate the phone 90˚ so that options were accessible. Again, usable for most applications, but annoying for others and forget gaming.