Get 70% more dropbox storage in less than 5 minutes without referrals

Dropbox must be the web service I use the most right after Google. If you're not familiar with it, basically it gives you the possibility to access your files from anyone and sync them seamlessly cross-platform and across all your devices.

Today with my extensive use of Dropbox, I naturally start lacking space and the initial free 2GB storage just aren't enough. Unfortunately Dropbox doesn't offer smaller plans of 5 or 10 GB, the "cheapest" paid alternative you have is signing up for the pro upgrade of +50 GB for 99$/year, which is quite excessive for the average Joe . You would wonder why doesn't Dropbox offer smaller plans? This is another interest subject I will cover in my next post. I wrote this article to help people get those few extra megabytes they need to get through their everyday us of this amazing tool which is quite simple but I completely missed out on the first time I signed up or just forgot about since I always .

This is where my 5 minute technique to earn more space on Dropbox comes in  ... with these 5 simple steps, you can earn about 1.4 GB as soon at signup. :

1. Go through the getting  started section : This is an easy one, only takes 10 seconds and BAM!!! +250 MB.
2. Comment on why you love Dropbox + Post it on Twitter: This also doesn't take more than 30 seconds and gives you +250 MB again.
3. Follow Dropbox on Twitter and get +125 MB in 10 seconds.
4. Link Twitter and Facebook accounts : This step is just 30 seconds in total or less and gives you an extra +250 MB.
5. Send a referral to your work email and open a Dropbox for the office : I know some may say this is a just a friend referral but not really. I use Dropbox both personally and at the office, I don't want to mix my personal files with the professional ones and therefore have opened a free account with my work email, that I use for business purposes and share the main folder with my personal account. This way I get the +500 MB and segregate my files in a secure way (avoiding some nosy IT guy see my personal files). This takes about 3 minutes.

It may seem obvious for most of you but you'll be surprised the number of people (myself to start with after nearly 2 years of use) who miss out on this as I see so many complaining on forums that the 2 GB just aren't enough and are stuck at this level. And friends often just ignore the referral emails or you really got to insist to have them go through the whole process or are simply already using Dropbox.... So this is another quick and nice alternative.

If you need more storage space there are cheaper solutions such as Google drive where you can get 20 GB for 5$/year (which is a bargain) but Google has some strange opinion terms and conditions that don't really respect privacy.

Again if you like my post please click at least on one of these Google ads to support my blog !!!!

Pinterest: Pin it on button iPad

How to pin it for free on iPad !

I know this may seem like a stupid post, but while going through the Appstore I've noticed that some greedy programmers were taking advantage of people for ignoring this trick and sold it through Apps that go from 1.99 to 0.99 $. It may not seem much but given the 11 million members combined with the over 200 million iOS users, you can make a quick million dollar with this scheme but I'll give it out to my blog fans for free ;)

I myself got into Pinterest last week and was struggling to find a way to use the pin it bookmarklet on my iPad and iPhone like on my desktop. As usual the first thing I thought was that : "Hum ... there must be an app for that ...".  And indeed an app did exist but the one for iPad wasn't a native app and you had to use that awful x2 button (There was really no point in creating such a hideous thing, not very Apple like...). I then started digging through the Appstore and found a few third party apps that between 0.99 and 1.99$ just to be able to pin stuff through Safari : And this is when I started looking for workarounds and a pretty simple one came to mind.

Actually the only thing you need to do is make sure your bookmarks in Safari are synched in iCloud and add the Pin it button to your bookmark bar (go to the Pinterest website, about section, pin it button, and drag and drop the pin it button to your desktop browser bookmark bar) and .... That's it !

The same bookmarklet will appear in all synched iOS devices and will work the same way as on your desktop or those 1.99$ apps.

I could've gone straight to the point since the beginning but there would be no fun in that !!!!

As usual feel free to comment and click on some ads for support !!! Thanks.

PS: Forgot to mention that you do need to have a mac for this to work but nowadays who still owns a PC !?

Must Have Apps On your new iPad: Paid and free

First of all, the iPad is an amazing piece of technology. Since bought my iPad 2 3G (loving it) started enjoying reading again and it's given a break to my over exploited MacBook. I've put up a list of apps I think are a must have on your device but left games out of my selection because the AppStore top chart is full of it and it's really not the main reason why most of us bought an iPad in the first place!

I know that this subject has been discussed on several sites but I thought it would be worth sharing my experience on the iPad and the programs I enjoy using on a daily basis. With over 100,000 apps (and counting) for the iPad and 350,000 for the iPhone you just cannot afford the time and money to go through all of them, so I'll make sure you don't miss out on the best.

He are a few apps I strongly recommend and use on a daily basis:

iWork suite: Pages, Numbers and Keynotes Paid





I never thought I would find myself doing such work on my iPad but these apps give you nearly the full power of their OSX versions. I'm working on quotes, finalizing documents and making keynotes presentations through my iPad which is about 10 times lighter than my laptop. Believe me they are fully worth the $ 9.99.

Zinio: Free





If reading was one of the main reasons you purchased your iPad for and that you enjoy your magazines, then Zinio is the software for you. You have a large selection of the worlds most popular magazines (I believe it is the largest digital selection) with crisp display, subscription possibility and offline viewing. It's simple, efficient and relatively cheap.

TuneInRadio: Paid




I use this app every morning to listen to some news radio or music It has an amazing selection of radios from all around the world at a high quality bit rate as good as satellite radio, with album cover artist name and song title. The TuneIn account allows you to sync preferred stations throughout all of your apple devices.

Blogpress: Paid





This is the app I'm currently using to post this article. It's simple and rich on options. It's capable of connecting to all the popular blog platforms (Blogger, Drupal, MSN, Joomla, Wordpress, My journal, Tumblr etc..) and allows integration of Picassa, Flickr for photos. So far it is the best app I know for this.

iDiskFree




If you have a MobileMe subscription then having the iDisk app is handy if you need a free app for access to remote storage. It offers basic functions such as browsing, viewing and sharing.


Mykeepass: Paid




If like me you use keepass ( a great open source and standalone) password management software, then Mykeepass is for you: as it is the iOS version of keepass. It is simple and secure as nothing is stored online, it's all local but you can store your password file on any remote storage if you prefer having access to it online and synced.


Selbuk: Free




This is an amazing app I recently discovered and I'm sure you won't find on other blogs. As a small business owner, I needed an application that could create a client, product and supplier database, manage my stocks and follow up my accounting and invoicing. If these are your needs look no further because this little gem brought to us by some Spanish developers is very promising and so far the best of it's kind. I forgot to mention that it includes a cloud service as well. I'm really looking forward to the upgrades to make it more stable and maybe a cocao interface.


Dropbox: Free




Does not need to be introduced anymore but this app is essential if you own an account. Not only it is a great cloud storage app, but also a great document viewer for many formats. I had some ms words documents come out formatted better from dropbox than Pages (although Pages is a great app too).

Goodreader: Paid





This software is the best in the AppStore for accessing any kind of remote storage (iDisk, Dropbox, Googledocs, FTP, WebDav etc..) and can open the most common files (doc, xls, ppt, PDF, images etc...). The app even allows editing and annotations and is worth every single penny.

Evernote: Free




It is a great piece of software for taking notes and keeping them in sync throughout your apple devices. But I mainly use it for my studies and making flash cards. Really it's up to you to find out how it can help you but a must have to organize some ideas and notes.

Google: Free




Honestly I don't find this app exceptional but it's convenient as you have all google services indexed in it. Besides the photo search function, I think it's just a collection of shortcuts to google services. Nevertheless it's practical.

Instapaper: Paid




The iPad app is simple and clean. Does the job flawlessly and the navigator integration is clever.

Flipboard: Free




It's one of the most innovative apps for iPad, offering a whole different and amazing way to consult social websites. On top of that it is a powerful rss reader, bringing to life your favorite readers in a flipbook format.

Skype: Free




Although FaceTime is a great app offering high quality image and sound, it's just not cross platform and doesn't offer the possibility of sending text. Also I get to keep my current friend list. But you have to regret though that there is no native app for the iPad?

UPDATE: There's now a native Skype app !!!

Alarmed: Free




Surprisingly enough the iPad doesn't come with a clock application but there are a few on the AppStore for every need. I found this app simple with a neat interface and decent functionalities for the price ... FREE. And it does the job.

2Do: Paid




There are a few task managers out there but this one is my favorite as it just offers so much details to include in your tasks such as contact, note, voice memo, photo, location and great options as MobileMe syncing and task sorting by nearest location which can help you optimize your movements. You will also enjoy the nice and polished interface.


These are the main apps I currently use on my iPad and believe that you'll find them being useful for taking full advantage of the capabilities of your device.