New Software of Note

The 3 software apps/programs I have downloaded lately have proved to be quite useful so I will share them with you. The best part, they are free. Well, except for sleep cycle, but hey it's only 0.99 USD.

1. Sleep Cycle (iPhone) 0.99 USD
• I don't know if it was coincidence or if this thing actually works, but I woke up feeling great this morning and I'm blaming this app. Basically how it works is you put it on the corner of your mattress and roll around in bed to calibrate it. You are basically checking to see if the accelerometer inside the iPhone can detect your movement. If it does it will make a sound so you know it's calibrated properly. Once this is done, all that's left to do is plug it in, set it at the corner of your bed, set the alarm, and turn it face down (don't lock your iPhone) and fall asleep. If you set the alarm say for 0830, then starting at 0800 it will start searching for a time before 0830 to wake you up. It uses the accelerometer to tell when you are and aren't in a deep sleep and chooses the most opportune time to wake you within that half hour time frame. It seemed to work last night, and I will update this blog within a few days to let you know whether it's coincidence or in fact a miracle!


2. Dropbox (Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone) Free
• This application works wonders. Before Dropbox, I had to email myself with the attached file to pull it up on another computer. Or there was always the option of going on an endless search for one of my many USB drives. Needless to say, this application renders all of that unnecessary. Basically how it works, is you go to http://dropbox.com and download this free application for your operating system. You install the application to your hard drive and voila! You now have a folder on your hard drive titled dropbox and you can save whatever you need to take with you there. Now any time you are on another computer, all you have to do is go to Dropbox's website and log in and you have access to all your files. This will prove to be incredibly useful.
  


3. True Crypt (Windows, Mac) Free
• This may or may not prove useful to you depending on how concerned you are about being hacked but I personally find it somewhat relaxing to have your most important or confidential files encrypted. I'm not going to try to explain how this works, if you are interested, they have a wonderful help section on their website for you. You can use this program to create an encrypted volume or to encrypt an entire hard drive, USB drive, partition, etc. http://www.truecrypt.org/

Hope you guys enjoy these great applications! Until next time...adios amigos!