The best thing about mobile gadgets is that, with them, you can obtain all necessary data even when you are far away from your PC. Looking back just five years ago, all you could apply to your phone was a set of useful apps limited to a weather forecast tool, email, and an instant messenger client. By contrast, up-to-date iPhones and iPads offer their users a fully organized virtual workplace with the ability to fulfill any tasks they wish. It can be difficult to describe all of the ways in which these Smartphones and tablets are handy whenever one needs to find any sort of information via the Internet! For instance, you can use them to read about what to do in some kind of extreme situation or where to look for a decent law firm in a strange town. Our review for today will focus specifically on such useful tools.

If your occupation is somehow related to patent registration or if you are currently developing a new product, then you will definitely appreciate the application known as Banner & Witcoff’s IP Lawyer. Featuring a compact size and modest interface, this app allows you to get detailed information about any registered patent in the USA.

For quicker browsing, there is an advanced search option where a user can input any keywords related to the specific patent or a patent’s number and even fill in multiple fields about specific details concerning the type of file. As a result, the app will show all results related to the searched patent data categorized into lists with digital copies of the official documents. Since 1920, the Banner & Witcoff Organization has successfully specialized in issues related to the topic of Intellectual Property Law. So they seem to be pretty well-qualified to provide these services, especially in such a convenient and contemporary way, don’t you think?

When you have a bunch of diverse lawyers’ contacts in your iPhone’s address book ready to face even the toughest life situations, it is amazing. However, if you don’t know such people, then Lawyer Finder will help you avoid the inconvenience of searching for a specific law firm.

The application has been designed as a detailed reference book containing the contacts of all law firms in the USA, at least according to the Google search engine system. However, the key benefit of this application is not about its endless list of categories, contacts, and notes. The tool can automatically and rather quickly detect your location and mark the closest law firms of the required specialization. Such a simple option is quite useful in life situations when, for example, you get into trouble during a business trip in an unfamiliar area.

All of us have more or less gotten used to using different types of dictionaries including dictionaries for foreign languages, references, or law glossaries. The last one in this list is quite specific and will mostly come in handy for lawyers and law students. Though, even a user whose profession is not related to law will find it useful to have at a portable legal advisor at his or her fingertips. That is why the application called The Law Guide deserves your close attention.

This law glossary contains an immense database of more than 8,500 law terms and definitions, as well as a lot of instructions on how to behave in different tough life situations and the responses to the most widespread FAQs. For example, if you open the Guide tab, you will be able to find out what to do if you were involved in a car accident or if you have accidentally become a witness of a crime. The Resources section allows you to discuss delicate and tricky situations with other users and lawyers via the message boards of the hugest law-related Internet site, law.com. The best thing that all travelers will definitely appreciate is that the app can work completely as a stand-alone tool and doesn’t require an Internet connection.

The Constitution outlines the legal system of any contemporary civilized country. Surely, there is no need to know it by heart (unless you are a lawyer or a judge), but it is necessary to understand the U.S. Code in general terms. Nowadays, there is no need to buy a huge hardbound book; just install the application Constitution for iPhone to your Smartphone.

This tool is designed as a sort of eBook divided into Articles and Amendments. Most files are illustrated and contain historical references about events or participants/signers. You can highlight the most interesting paragraphs or copy and paste them using the built-in Notes tool. The application is free of charge but contains a tiny banner ad at the bottom.

Apart from its advantages, the previous app is a bit specific unlike LawLibe, which is a multi-functional and self-contained tool. Initially having been equipped with only the U.S. Constitution, LawLibe can be ungraded to the level of a legal advisor specializing in any sort of law-related information.

In addition to the simple interface and a convenient demonstration of the US Constitution, this application contains the built-in tool InApp Purchase. With this tool, you will be able to purchase and install the law codes of a specific state or federal region. Currently, the application provides access to the data of three US. states: California, New York and Texas, from the following sections:

• U.S. Code
• Code of Federal Regulations
• U.S. Constitution
• Manual of Patent Examining Procedure
• The Federalist Papers

The data you purchase will be accessible regardless of whether an Internet connection is available.

==== About the Author ====
Alexander Peters writes for SoftwareWithStyle.

I have been a big fan of note-taking software which allow me to quickly jot down notes for later. In the past  I have covered several note-taking and sticky notes software and even extensions for Google Chrome. However, Evernote has always been one of the best software I have used for my desktop and mobile devices.

One of the things I usually miss while using Evernote is the lack of ability to post sticky notes on my desktop and a desktop widget which would allow me to quickly jot down notes without having to open up the app itself.

While searching for a Sticky notes application which would work with Evernote, I came across the "Sticky Notes" app in the Evernote Trunk, where external developers create apps based on the Evernote API.

Also Check Out Some Similar Software:

• Note Taking and Sticky Notes Apps for Chrome
• 11 Useful and Free Sticky Notes Software for your Desktop
• Create a Hyperlinked Notes Database with Tomboy
• 5 Must Have Back to School Apps for Mac
• wikidPad: Wikipedia Like Note Taking Application

Sticky Notes for Evernote has looks and feels like any sticky notes app for desktop out there. However, the advantage of using this app is that it automatically synchronizes your notes to Evernote making it available on multiple devices. Additionally, you can also setup the app on multiple desktops and it will automatically synchronize notes on them, provided you link it with your Evernote account.

To many people, the DropBox file storage service was just another step in the evolution of technology. It was only a matter of time before it found its own competition. The new question being asked is: “Why get DropBox when your very own cloud is available to you?” OwnCloud offers users something more than DropBox, but is it really worth the switch? OwnCloud hasn’t been knighted by the cellular world yet, since cell phone apps are pending on both the iOS and Android platforms, but it is being touted as the latest to give DropBox a run for its money.

OwnCloud has the better Cloud

With DropBox you get 2 GB of free space to store your data, and if you manage to get others to join in the fun, then you get another 50 MB of space for each person. In that sense, OwnCloud beats DropBox, since it’s not just storage space, it’s a more complete service. Your cloud on the OwnCloud is going to be supported on a server, and there’s
no restriction in terms of space. The user gets to decide how much space he’s going to need and takes control from there.

OwnCloud offers a much larger experience to Cloud users than DropBox does. In addition to storage, you can also add in your contact details, update a calendar to keep track
of your appointments and engagements. You can even listen to all your music with the OwnCloud music player. If you ever got sick of adding bookmarks to site only to have them disappear in a pile you don’t have to worry, OwnCloud lets you add bookmarks too.

DropBox takes the Cloud cake

OwnCloud may talk a big game but the very fact that it’s still not available for smart phones will set it back a notch. There’s still a small wait in the future for OwnCloud as neither Android nor Apple have approved the app yet. Cloud technology is most often accessed by people for the storage of their pictures – pictures taken through their cell phones. DropBox is already offering these services, and OwnCloud has not yet even put them on the table. This gives DropBox somewhat of an edge for the time being.

DropBox is also fairly user friendly. It doesn’t take you for a loop or leave you wondering what’s going on when you’re trying to setup your Cloud space. OwnCloud, however, is complicated, but just about anyone can’t get their hands on it. You’d need some geekiness in your system to get around the installation.  Both the OwnCloud and DropBox are services which take Cloud technology another step forward into the future. However, they both suit a certain specific type of audience. People should take a close look at the features and their own needs before choosing. At this point, removing the technical hurdle of the installation process, OwnCloud seems like a clear choice for many, because it offers a larger and less restrictive experience to the user.

==== About the Author ====

Chris Allen has been working on cell phone security, cell phone privacy, cell phone data backup and a whole host of other things that leave many users baffled. Readers flock to his articles for the latest scoops on news, tips, tricks, and reviews of cell phone tracking software.

It was no secret that Google was working on a competitor to Dropbox and SkyDrive and the official announcement came today. Google Drive will provide users with 5GB of free online storage space to all users. This is in line with Microsoft’s recent announcement to provide 7GB of free space for SkyDrive.

Google Drive will tightly integrate with Google Docs and allow users to create and store documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDF files and more and collaborate with friends and family online.  Additionally, Google Drive will also provide users with apps for PC, Mac and Android.

Also Read: Google Drive vs Dropbox vs SkyDrive | Google Drive, Another Privacy Disaster

Google Drive will directly compete with the likes of Dropbox and SkyDrive on PCs and mobile devices. It will also be an answer to Microsoft’s SkyDrive on Windows Phone 7 and iOS devices which is not available for Android devices. Dropbox on the other end is available for all mobile devices and also supports Linux. However, their initial free space is only 2GB which might potentially go up now. Additionally, Dropbox also allows for 16GB additional space from referrals.

Also See: Get 50GB Free Space for Android from Box.net | 5 Best Ways to Keep Documents Online

Google Drive will also provide users with a search functionality which will also make use of OCR to search images and scanned documents thanks to their acquisition of reCaptcha. This is definitely a big plus for them.

You can download Google Drive for your computer or device by using the link below; an iOS app will be released soon:

• Download Google Drive for Windows or Mac
• Download Google Drive for Android

*Please note that the Android app is a rebranding of the Google Docs app for Android.

Data backup is a real pain, especially if you are someone who has a couple of Android phones, a laptop, two desktop computers, a couple of websites, half a dozen USB drives along with two external hard disk drives, packed with all kinds of important as well as useless stuff.

The real problem with data backup is that a backup is not full proof, until and unless the following conditions are met:

• The backup must be up to date. A 6 month old backup is useless in most occasions.
• The backup should be automatic in nature. It is literally impossible to manually backup data from so many devices every other weekend and keep track of the changes.
• The backup should be incremental. If you delete an old backup and start copying 352 GB of data from an external HDD to your backup location, you know it is going to take ages.

Now coming to Android, I have always taken the default KIES route. And to be honest, it sucks.

There is nothing wrong with the program but whenever I realize that I have to manually backup everything from my Android device, a strange shiver runs down my veins. I have bricked my device twice, lost all the music, photos, apps and everything just because I was reluctant on backing up data from my Android. You never know when you are going to lose your phone, do you? So how would you keep a self updating recent instance of the backup?

Fortunately, the folks at Sandisk have come up with a powerful and seamless backup option for Android – the Sandisk Memory zone. I said seamless because Sandisk’s  app allows you to backup files and apps from your phone’s SD card to a cloud storage provider (Dropbox, for example). You can choose a schedule of the backup and completely customize the backup plan according to your requirements.

Once you have installed the app, run it and it will scan your entire SD card and the internal memory of your device. Next, choose a cloud storage provider where you would want to backup all the data, an example is shown below:

I prefer Dropbox for regular files and use Box.net as a storage dump. There are ways to get enormous storage on both these services and luckily, I have managed quite a good amount of storage space on both Dropbox and Box.net. For free, of course.

For the phone backup, I would choose Dropbox over Box.net for two reasons. First, the entire backup will automatically appear on my desktop computer, the moment I run the Dropbox desktop client. Second, it is super easy to add files to my phone’s SD card from the desktop computer, all I have to do is copy the given files to my Dropbox folder and run the Dropbox app on my phone.

Once you have chosen your preferred cloud storage provider, you will be prompted to choose the items and the frequency schedule of the backup. I went ahead with “Only this time” just to make sure that all the data gets uploaded to Dropbox first. Next, I changed the setting to “Every day”, this will take care of the automatic incremental backup and I can rest in peace.

Hit the magic button once and everything is put on the upload queue. It is recommended to use a Wi-Fi connection for large backups such as videos or MP3’s.

While the upload is in progress, it makes sense to fine tune the app preferences and choose to initiate the backup only when a Wi-Fi connection is available. There is more, you can connect your Google Docs and Windows Live SkyDrive accounts and use this app to upload, download files and documents to and fro from the Android. A piece of cake!

Overall, this is certainly the best Android backup app ever built. Wake up every morning, take the first sip of coffee, run the Dropbox app on your desktop and all files from your phone are right there. Too good!

Microsoft has been focusing on Windows 8 for all of past year and the OS has definitely turned out to be great. Microsoft just released the Consumer preview of Windows 8 (Download Windows 8) to the public after the press conference at MWC 2012.

If you install the Windows 8 Consumer Preview using the installer provided by Microsoft, you will not require a product key. However, if you create a installation media and start your PC from media and then install Windows 8 consumer preview, you will require a product key.

The product key for installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview is:

NF32V-Q9P3W-7DR7Y-JGWRW-JFCK8

OR

DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J

Once again, you will only require this if you are using the ISO file and creating a bootable installer and installing Windows 8 using a USB drive or DVD.

If you install Windows 8 Consumer Preview using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview Setup program, you won’t need to enter a product key—the setup program automatically provides the product key. If you create installation media, start your PC from the media, and then install Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Also Read:

• Windows 8 Consumer Preview Has Universal Spellcheck, Microsoft Account ‘Roaming’
• Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview Wallpapers
• Windows Live Now Connects to Google Contacts: Google Talk Coming to Windows Phone and Windows 8?

I am not a big fan of IM programs and hence do not use desktop chat clients e.g Google Talk, Pidgin, Digsby or Meebo. The built in chat feature of Gmail is perfectly suitable for brief conversations but there is a small catch. During a chat conversation, you have to either stick to the Gmail tab forever or constantly oscillate between multiple tabs, which can be highly annoying at times. I am composing a blog post and here comes my friend whom I can’t ignore, I switch to the Gmail tab, send a message, fall back to the earlier tab and in comes the ding!

This cycle goes on and I have to find the Gmail tab within a sea of open browser tabs; there seems to be no possible way to get out of this situation other than sticking to the Gmail tab through the entire conversation.

If you are anything like me and want to detach Gmail chat from the browser, try this chat for Google chrome extension. This extension frees Gmail chat from Google Chrome, allowing you to reply to messages from no matter what web page you’re on at any given moment. The extension works exactly the same as the desktop Gmail client, with added support for email, video calling and Google Plus hangouts.

Once you have installed the extension, sign in to your Gmail account and you are through. Here is how the chat UI of the extension looks like:

To start a voice call or a Google Plus hangout, all you have to do is hit the respective icons on the chat window. One of the biggest advantage is the ability to send quick emails to your Gmail contacts, right from the desktop, without having to open Gmail at all. Type the name of the contact in the search pane, hit the result, compose your email and shoot! No more inbox gazing every 30 minutes.

The extension is slightly slow and IM’s might take a little longer to go through. Another downside is that it doesn’t support multiple user profiles or multiple Gmail accounts, so if you are using a shared computer, you better use the standalone desktop chat client. [via]

Also read: Ultimate list of tips and tricks for Google Chrome

We are living in a world which encourages proprietary software culture. Most of us are used to using only proprietary software on our computers. Students are being taught to use it and they are partially or completely unaware of free software and benefits it provides. However, what does the proprietary software actually provide? It adds malicious features on our computers such as spying on the users, restricting the users, imposed upgrades,  and more.

I am not forgetting the fact that sometimes proprietary software will be powerful and reliable. But it does not respect the users’ freedom. Software can be said to serve its users only if it respects their freedom.

Birth of Proprietary Software

Before starting the golden era of Information Technology, computer manufacturers aimed only for hardware innovation and didn’t consider software as a business asset. Since most of the users of computers were scientists and technicians who could modify the software themselves, hardware was distributed with software installed in it. It is funny to commemorate the words of Thomas J. Watson here:

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers”

Yes, this machine was supposed to be handled only by scientists and technicians at that time. Because there was no big standardization of hardware, computers architecture was different from each other. So, software for one machine would not be compatible with another one. Today programmers expertise in a programming language or group of languages but at that time programmers used to expertise in an architecture or family of architectures.

Later high level programming languages were introduced which were compatible for almost every kind of computers. So even less efficient hardware design could work better. This led to a decline in profit margin for the hardware manufacturers who brought innovations in design and who considered hardware as their only business assets. They treated selling software as an essential part of hardware sales which made manufacturers enforce a strict copyright on the software.

Richard Stallman once said:

“The rule made by the owners of proprietary software was, “If you share with your neighbor, you are a pirate. If you want any changes, beg us to make them.”

There starts the era of proprietary software.

Why you should uninstall Proprietary Software: a Case Study

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

In 1996, Microsoft released two versions of its operating system: Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server. Windows NT Server cost $800 more than that of Workstation. According to Microsoft, those Server and Workstation versions were “two very different products intended for two very different functions.”

The NT Workstation restricts users to use a maximum of 10 simultaneous TCP/IP connections, whereas the Server version allowed for unlimited connections. Since both versions seemed very similar, O’Reilly studied and analyzed the difference between them. He found that the kernel and every binary file included in both versions were identical, except that the Workstation was added with anti-features. An anti-feature is a function that disables certain functions in a program. In this case, anti-features restricted it to 10 connections if it was a Workstation and provided unlimited access if it was a Server. Truly, it is really harder to add an anti-feature to limit and restrict functionality rather than to leave them unrestricted.

This is not an individual and a one-off case. When closed-source software vendors release new versions and claim that they made improvements in the programs and security, users are forced to believe it, since the source code is not provided. Think about that… you are paying more money for the same program that you’ve already installed in your computers!

This is just one reason to stop the usage of proprietary software. It also provides plenty of other threats to our computers and the whole society.

Let’s put our hand together and let’s take a pledge for a better world. Support free software movement by taking small steps. Uninstall proprietary software and start to use free software. Spread the idea of freedom.

=== About the author ===

Shahzad Saeed is an open source enthusiast and has written a complete guide for those who are interested in switching from proprietary software to free software. He is also the author of the upcoming ebook Google Summer of Code guide which guides student for participating in the open source program, GSoC.

The web is not as beautiful, as it was 10 years back.

It is certainly rich in information but no longer beautiful, thanks to all those widgets, advertisements, plugins and social media buttons plastered across each and every website you come across.

Organizing information is another big, big problem. Bookmarking is so 2007, it just doesn’t work anymore. Reading and accumulating information gets really troublesome, when you are running sort of time and hurrying through the finer details of a story.

Evernote’s Clearly changes all this.

Clearly (nice name) provides a simple way to read only the text version of a webpage, right inside Google Chrome. No advertisements, no banners, no buttons just the content, you and your browser. Following is an example of how clear a webpage becomes, once you hit the magical Clearlybutton:

Clearly comes with three preset themes to choose from, so if you are fond of reading articles on dark backgrounds and green text, you can always create your customized reading environment. The advantage of turning a webpage into its text only version is that you can read a lot faster, without getting distracted by nearby ads. Furthermore, it is super easy to copy excerpts, scroll, use the real meatand be done with it.

There are tons of other distraction free reading tools out there but Clearly has a unique offering. You can clip an article directly to one of your Evernote notebooks, or assign a unique tag to it. That way, the URL of the webpage is saved to your Evernote account, which can later be synched with the desktop client. The benefit here is that you can quickly bookmark important stories without getting lost among a pile of 2 dozen news items.

If you launch Clearly on a multi-page article, it will automatically turn it into a single page, so you can read the entire story at one place without having to click, click and click ….. all the way to the 10th page.

As of now, Clearly supports only Google Chrome while extensions for other browsers is a work in progress. Clearly wont let you save images or files but it is indeed a better alternative of Readability. Watch the following video to see Clearly in action:

If you are someone like me, you might download a lot of images, music and video from the internet. However, over the course of time you might have downloaded tons of duplicates. In the past we have told you about several software which find duplicate files fast free and also allow you to find and delete duplicate files from your hard drive, however, lot of time has past since then and I had the changes to use another software specifically to find and delete duplicate images and pictures.

VisiPics is a simple duplicate image finder which works very well to find duplicate images. It allows you to scan through various folders and sub-folders to find duplicate images and delete them from a single interface. The best part is that it allows you to preview those images before you can actually delete them.

Once you have downloaded VisiPics you can launch it and select the folders you want to run duplicate checks on. Once you have selected the folders you can set the comparison filter for the images. There are three different filters available: Strict, Basic, Loose. Running the Loose filtering allows for greater comparison and a chance to find more duplicate images.

After you have changed the settings for finding duplicate images click on the play button and it will start scanning the folders and then running duplicate checks. The duplicate checks might take a while depending on how many images it has to compare and the type of filtering you chose.

Once the comparison is over VisiPics will show you the duplicate images in the left hand side container, you can hover over the images and see their preview and then mark the images by clicking on the image. Once you have scanned and marked the images which are duplicate you can either move them, rename them or delete them using the buttons in the right hand side container. You can continue browsing more duplicate images by clicking on the page links at the bottom of the left hand side container.

Overall, I have used VisiPics and have claimed over 1GB of space by deleting duplicate images, this is definitely a great software to compare and remove duplicate images from your hard drive.

Techie Buzz Ratings: 4.5/5

Download Link: Download VisiPics