files

Bump is a popular app for sharing photos and contact info between smartphones. Several months ago, they added the ability to share photos with a computer as well, but you could only share photos in one direction (phone to computer). Bump's announcement yesterday revealed that you can now use the app to share any file type between devices in both directions. Here's how to use Bump to share files between your smartphone and computer:

Step 1: Install the latest version of Bump (iOS | Android) on your smartphone and enable location services.

Step 2: On your … Read more

PDFs are critical to businesses and just as important to many individuals, yet big-box PDF programs are often priced beyond reach. Fortunately, most of what you need to do with PDFs can be done just as well by individual applications, many of them freeware. For example, there's SkySof's PDF Bookmarks. It can create, edit, and delete bookmarks in PDF files. Its wizard-based operation is simple enough for the most tech-averse user. And, yes, it's free.

PDF Bookmarks opens with a simple, tabbed dialog box that basically walks new users through each step. There's nothing to memorize; … Read more

Apple's Spotlight offers a quick way to find user files and resources like applications or system preferences. However, it does not locate items in the system folder or in hidden folders, though at times you might need to access them. This limitation may be especially cumbersome to deal with if you are troubleshooting a problem in OS X or helping someone do so, meaning you may need to ask them to locate a specific hidden file and remove it or modify its contents.

For some system resources you can simply navigate through the Finder; however, in its default view … Read more

Recently, cloud-storage service Box was offering free 25GB accounts to new customers.

I meant to write it up, but other things got in the way. Good thing, too, because now Box is offering free 50GB accounts to new customers. My foot-dragging is your gain.

Before I go any further, take note that the signup page says "Dell Exclusive Offer." There's no indication you need to actually be a Dell customer or employee or anything like that, but there's always the chance Box will get flooded with unintended/unwanted sign-ups and decide to end or even rescind … Read more

For some projects, a couple of folders on your desktop is all you need to stay organized. For others, however, organization is a more complicated task that requires sophisticated tools. Tolon NoteKeeper seeks to provide users with a better way to keep multiple files and folders organized. It's not perfect, but it is an interesting option for users who need a way to keep track of text, images, and more.

Tolon NoteKeeper has a plain and fairly intuitive interface, and a Quick Start guide gave us an overview of the important features. In short, the program lets users create … Read more

Running out of space on your hard drive? Hey, even in these days of seemingly endless gigabytes, it happens.

Bitcasa is a new service that aims to supplant your hard drive with unlimited cloud storage. And by supplant I mean replace -- kind of.

I'll circle back on that in a minute. For now, consider this: a year of Bitcasa no-limit storage normally runs $99, but right now you can get a year of Bitcasa Infinite for $69. If that doesn't immediately butter your bacon, how about a 10GB Bitcasa account absolutely free?

Update: As eagle-eyed reader brotherj2k … Read more

Before it was revealed, the file URL error in OS X was a fairly obscure and benign bug, and perhaps still is for the most part; however, since learning about it, a number of people have tried it out on their systems to have some fun, only to find that in some instances the bug may stick and perpetually crash a particular program.

While it is known that the offending string that triggers the bug will be saved in crash logs, which in turn can crash the Crash Reporter and Console applications, it may also be saved in a program'… Read more

CodePanic's FileMany is a free tool that scans your hard drives for duplicate files, which you can then choose to move, delete, or ignore. It uses a variety of customizable criteria to distinguish actual duplicates from merely similar data to help you avoid the regrettable error of deleting the wrong files. Even if duplicate files aren't a big issue, running FileMany before you clean or defragment your drives can make the process faster and help reduce errors. And if you boot from an SSD, especially a smaller one, FileMany can help you keep your free space free and … Read more

Do you use more than one PC? Such as home and work PCs? Or maybe you have laptop and desktop PCs. How do you keep your data in sync between them all? It's easy with Easy2Sync for Files. This simple freeware is capable of synchronizing your files and folders between your desktop PC, laptop, or any Internet-capable device running Windows, including Windows 8. With more than 200 rules, it can safely duplicate changes to your data and file structure between your devices, keeping you current on all of them. It's a standalone app that doesn't require online … Read more