Make Gmail your email home

Gmail is your one stop shop when it comes to email. With its free 6GB of storage and their excellent spam filtering, you can't go wrong. What also makes Gmail pop is the Firefox Browser. If you're not using it, you should be. It's more secure than IE and it has a ton of add-ons which is what really makes it the best browser out there. With Gmail you can receive all your other email accounts in one location. You can set up folders to distribute those emails and keep them separate from your Gmail inbox. You can also set up Gmail to send emails from all your external accounts. So if you want to send an email from your Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL account you can do all of it from Gmail by simply clicking on the from tab when composing a new message.

If you're not familiar with POP Forwarding you will have to go to the setting page of your other email account and enable it. (Instructions for Forwarding Yahoo, AOL,)

To email from another account, setup is easy. All you have to do is enter the email account you want to add and Gmail will send you a verification email to that account. Click on the link or simply enter the code to that account and you're done. Now you can control all your email in one centralized location. No more going all over the place. Another great thing is that you can set up your work account and email from it at home.
Another advantage to Gmail is the versatility of the email address. Let's say you have a folder in your Gmail account that's labeled Work Stuff and your address is myexample@gmail.com . To make items go directly into that folder just email it to myexample+workstuff@gmail.com. Also it doesn't matter if your email address is first.last@gmail.com or firstlast@gmail.com it still will go to your account. One more tip that saves some time.

Scan Life

Just when you thought cell gadgets had run it's course Scan Life breaths new life into your camera phone. This is accomplished by taking an image of a 2D barcode. The barcode will take you to the website or provide information to whatever it is associated with. So let's say your in the mall and you see a movie poster with the barcode. Scan it and find out show times or additional movie information. Here is a video were the Air Force used this technology to give people additional information about there exhibit.



As you can see the possibilities are limitless when it comes to uses for this commercially and privately. The Madden Corner got in the beta test and I created a barcode for this blog.








My thanks to all the new feedburner subscribes.

G.ho.st

Update- Unfortunately Ghost has been discontinued as of June 2010.

I've been reviewing a few online Virtual Desktops for a while now, and I think Ghost (Global Hosted Operating SysTem) may have the most potential. Ghost gives you 5GB of free storage, and 3GB for your Ghost email account. You also can get 1 more gigabyte for inviting a friend. 9 free gigabytes is pretty impressive. With your Virtual Desktop you get all the bells and whistles.

They have integrated Zoho Docs to take care of your office needs along with just about everything you come to expect when you sit down at your computer. You can also upload files via FTP. The Ghost browser gives you the option of surfing the web directly or anonymously. What really surprised me is the speed and how smooth it is for a web based system. I tried Ulteo and it was has good qualities, but a little slow. Plus Ulteo is limited and if you want more time and storage you have to get a paid account.

Use Ghost's virtual MP3 player to listen to all your tunes. Change your desktop background with a Ghost provided image or upload your own. Ghost has also added a few widgets to use on your virtual computer with more to come.

This system is hosted on Amazon Web Services. I think right off the back this gives them credibility. Using a trusted merchant like Amazon to store your personal data is a good move. Ghost could benefit those who still can't afford a computer but have access to one. It allows you to leave your thumb drive at home, without losing the ability to access your pictures, music and video's from anywhere on the internet. I've created a short video below to give you a quick look at the Ghost Desktop. It may appear to be a little slower, but that's because of the recording program. Watch in full screen for best viewing. Give Ghost a try. Until next time peace!

Drop.IO (Upadate 8-20-10)

*Drop has a new Firefox Extension that makes moving files easy. Check it out at their website. Drop 
*Set Drop to expire up to one year.
*Web conferencing and chat



DropIO is a simple, but pretty cool site. It allows you to share pictures, audio, video and documents securely. Drops are not searchable via the internet. This great for individual exchanges or with a group. With the free account you get 100MB of storage ($10 gets you 1GB for a year). You don't have to sign up, and you can make the drop last anywhere from a week to a year. You can create an Admin password if you want continued access to your Drop. Drop allows you to set up free conference calls and receive free faxes (you must have an Admin log in for this feature). With your drop number and pin access you can also get messages and they will be saved to your account as a MP3 file.



You can send files to Drop via email or MMS text messaging, and with the admin feature you can give out a password to share with your friends. So how can this help you? Most email services put at 20MB limit on attachments so this is a great way to move a file to someone. Next having a way to receive faxes without a fax machine is another cool item. Need to leave a number, but don't want to give out your own. Use your Drop number to receive messages. I've been using this for about two weeks now and I really like it. Until next time peace.

Waker Upper

If you love that hotel morning wake up call then try Waker Upper. Just register and add your telephone number and your on your way. You can set a voice message or a text to speak message.






You can set the phone call to repeat daily, weekly, or weekends. It's straight forward and you can add more than one phone number also. I used it to give my wife a wake up Happy Mother's Day call and she loved it. As always with most of the themes here at the Madden Corner it's free!

Waker Upper Sign Up