There’s two ways to delete TextEdit documents from iCloud. The first one is as simple as opening TextEdit, clicking the iCloud button in the top left corner, right-clicking a file, and selecting the ‘Move to Trash’ option. Though do make sure first that the file is not in the process of syncing or uploading.

The alternate method is slightly longer, but works for TextEdit as well as other apps that have saved files to iCloud, and works quicker if you want to delete multiple files. Open System Preferences and click ‘iCloud’, followed by the ‘Manage’ button next to the bar indicating how much storage space you have left, and wait for it to load all the data it’s saved from each app. This might take time, especially if you have iPhoto installed and it regularly backs up your photostream. Once the data has been loaded, find and select TextEdit, and all files saved by the app to iCloud will be listed. Now simply select the one(s) you want to remove, and click the delete button at the bottom.

Neither of these methods are overly complicated but they aren’t obvious to everyone. To the ordinary user, it might seem that there is no way to access files in the iCloud outside of an app, and that’s mostly true. OS X should really integrate iCloud with Finder, or make it so that it can work more like Dropbox, though the chances of Apple doing that are slim. If you’re still interested in using iCloud like Dropbox, you can always give iCloudrive a try; it’s a free Mac app that is made for precisely that.

Read How To Easily Access Or Delete Any TextEdit Document Saved To iCloud by Fatima Wahab on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

You’ll need to have Java installed on your computer in order to use Pically. It’s a portable app and requires no installation, so just launch the downloaded file to begin creating your calendar. The user interface is pretty self-explanatory. To add an image, all you need to do is drag and drop it in the specific month. Alternatively, you can use the ‘Select Picture’ button for each month to browse your computer for stored images.

Under the ‘Events’ tab, you can use the available options to create special occasions and pin them to your calendar. Simply select the type of event, specify the date, and hit ‘Add Event’. You can also specify what the event is about in the text field; if this becomes your go-to calendar for the year ahead, you’ll always remain apprised of incoming anniversaries with this feature.

You can edit an event directly from the list window. If you want to delete an unwanted event, select it and hit the ‘Delete Event’ button. The little button tucked above the scrollbar enables you to toggle certain categories on and off. If you don’t want to keep the event type drop-down menu or the text field, for example, you can get rid of them from here. Under the ‘Actions’ tab, you can select which year you want your calendar for, anywhere from 2011 till 2015. Click ‘Generate’ to create your calendar as a PDF document. If you’re using a Mac, you can upload iCalendar files containing appointments and engagements via the ‘Import iCal’ button. Th resulting calendar will then act as a physical counterpart to your online iCalendar.

Pically is a straightforward and unpretentious application, and the calendar’s clean layout reflects that. There’s ample room to write little reminders for yourself and reflect on the days ahead. The calendar above is for 2014, but let’s agree 2013 is still important. After all, it’s not that almost half the year is over; it’s that over half a canvas is still empty and waiting.

Download Pically

Read Design Your Own Photo Calendar In Windows, Mac & Linux With Pically by Moaaz Bukhari on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

The app can snap windows to the top, bottom, left, right, or one of the four quadrants of the screen, and even center an app or maximize it. You can set exceptions i.e. apps that Arranger will ignore, and define margins that the app should leave on each side when windows are snapped to it. Lastly, the app has an ‘Arrange Windows’ option that will position all windows on your screen as best as it can, to make them all easier to work with. The feature isn’t all that impressive though, and the productivity value of the arrangement can be considered inversely proportional to the number of windows you have open.

Arranger supports shortcuts for snapping and arranging windows, but none of them are configured by default. You can start using Arranger from its Menu Bar if you don’t want to use or record keyboard shortcuts. From the Menu Bar icon, select what you want to arrange. You will see that Finder windows can be arranged in many more ways than app windows.

To enter margins, define exceptions, and record shortcuts, go to the app’s preferences. The ‘General’ tab lets you define margins,  though they are relative to the scale and cannot be defined in units like pixels or inches. It additionally lets you define the width of a ‘centered’ window.

The ‘Hotkeys’ tab is wholly dedicated to shortcuts. There are quite a number of them that you can record, and it’s likely going to be hard to remember them all. Just like the menu options, there are different sections here for Finder and app windows.

Lastly, the ‘Applications’ tab lets you add apps to Arranger that it should ignore when arranging apps. To add one, just click the plus sign and double-click the selected line that’s added to enter the app’s name.

That’s all there is to fully setting up Arranger. It requires Mountain Lion, works well and comes without a price tag, though the developer asks you make a donation if you like it. The shortcuts take a little time to respond to when you first record them but, work smoothly after awhile.

Download Arranger For Mac

Read Easily Arrange Mac App & Finder Windows In Multiple Ways Via Hotkeys by Fatima Wahab on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

The service allows you to store your current session as a ‘Cup’. When you cup a session, information regarding the supported programs is automatically synced to the cloud. Having done that, you can restore this session on another computer by doing an ‘Uncup’ from it. You can even share your cups with your friends, family and other users.

To get started, you will need to sign up for an early beta (link provided at the end of the post) using your email address, and then download the provided Windows or Mac OS X version depending on your operating system. If you use Google Chrome, make sure you install Cupcloud extension as well, when prompted upon launching the program.

Next, enter your credentials (email and password) that you used during beta sign up and click the Submit button in the app to get started.

You will be presented with the main application window, from where you can easily start to cup and uncup your sessions. The software doesn’t come with a lot of features but the ones that are there work absolutely as they should. This also helps keep it simple enough for everyone to use. To kick off, click the Cup button at the top and you will see your content in the right menu, including URLs of websites, files and folders, document files and so on. Now to resume your session, download and run Cupcloud on the other PC and hit Uncup – simple as that. That application also automatically syncs your current session with its corresponding existing cup, though you may manually do it as well, by hitting Sync.

Cupcloud allows creating private and shared cups. The latter comes in handy should you want to share the same sessions with others around you. In addition, you can create folders in each category to keep your cups separately sorted based on parameters like date, name, title, time etc. Folders can be created under both private and shared sections. To share a cup, simply right-click a folder under the Shared section and click ‘Send Invitation’ from the context menu, followed by typing the email address of your intended recipient. They will simply need to download the app to be able to uncup and resume that shared session.

Cupcloud works on Windows and Mac OS X. Testing was carried out on Windows 8 Pro, 64-bit.

Download Cupcloud

[via Lifehacker]

Read Sync Folders, Document States & Browser Tabs Across PCs With Cupcloud by Waqas Ahmed on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

You can open and sign in to the first instance of Skype like you normally would but for all subsequent instances, run Multi Skype Launcher. You will be asked to authorize the app to make changes to your system by entering your password. For each instance you run, you will have to give the app permission again.

It might take a few minutes for the  second or any subsequent instance to start but once running, another Skype icon will be added for the instance to both the Dock and the Menu Bar. Needless to say, you can sign in to separate accounts in each instance.

Multi Skype Launcher is only an app launcher made specifically for Skype, and it won’t help you manage your audio input and output between multiple instances, nor will it mute one instance when you’re on a call in the other. Therefore, managing the different Skype instances is entirely up to you. We tested two instances of Skype side-by-side and were able to send and receive messages normally. For Windows users who need something similar, give Seaside a try; not only does it run multiple instances of Skype, but it also lets you save the accounts that you sign in to.

For some users, the very thought of running two instances of Skype might be ridiculous, but for those who use the app at both work and home, running two instances is the easiest way to make sure you remain in touch with your contacts on both your accounts without having to sign in and out with them again and again.

Download Multi Skype Launcher For Mac

Read Log In To Multiple Skype User Accounts Simultaneously On Mac by Fatima Wahab on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Open Chrome and browse a few pages in the same tab. You will find (if you haven’t already done so by accident) that left-to-right or right-to-left two-finger swipes takes you backward or forward to the pages in your browser’s history. An on-screen animation appears to show whether you’re going back or forward.

To fix this, run the following command in Terminal:

defaults write com.google.Chrome.plist AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool FALSE

Wait for the reponse to appear, as shown in the screenshot below, and then quit Chrome and open it again. If you try the two-finger swipe gesture now, you’ll see that it no longer works.

Note that these commands should work not just for Chrome, but for just about any app, since it modifies the app’s respective plist file. You can substitute the file name ‘google.chrome.plist’ with that of any other app.

If you’re reconsidering the change and want to bring the same old functionality back, run the following command in terminal:

defaults write com.google.Chrome.plist AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool TRUE

Now quit and relaunch Chrome, and the gesture will work again. You will still be able to scroll up and down in a tab using the vertical two-finger swipe gesture, and the pinch-to-zoom gesture will continue to work as well.

Apple probably will not allow this feature to be fully customizable in the foreseeable future and rightly so; it’s a feature that the majority of OS X users love, especially for the reason that it works system wide, and they would prefer not to have to manage it themselves. So, it’s really a matter of personal preference. You might not have a problem with the gesture in Chrome, but it might prove to be a nuisance in some other app you’ve installed, in which case, this is a simple solution to the problem.

[via OS X Hints]

Read Disable Two-Finger Horizontal Swipe Gesture For Chrome Or Any Other Mac App by Fatima Wahab on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

MiniPlayer

The UI of the player hasn’t changed a great deal on the surface, but there are a few subtle changes that are sure to improve the listening experience for iTunes users. In the album info view of the player, a volume button has been added, which brings up a slider. When it comes to control view, the change might not be perceivable immediately, but the newly added seek bar is something that a lot of people have been craving to see in the iTunes MiniPlayer for a long time. You can easily skip to any part of the song using this bar, and there is no need to switch to the full view just because you don’t like the starting part of a track.

Song View

Clicking the album art takes you to the Song View, but it is not the view you might be used to. Previously, Song View had an interface that was a bit different compared to other areas of the music player, as you can see in the screenshot above. The UI looked a bit old-fashioned, and there was no integration for the new ‘Up Next’ feature. All this has changed now though, and Song View is much neater than before.

In iTunes 11.0.3, this view has volume controls in a new place, right next to the playlist icon and the search button. This search button lets you quickly find a song from your library without having to revert to the maximized view. You can also manage the Up Next list by using the arrow located in the top-right corner.

Albums With Multiple Disks

Previously, it was not possible for iTunes to distinguish between separate albums, and music on separate disks belonging to the same album. This small yet annoying quirk has finally been addressed in the 11.0.3 update, and the music player now keeps you library much neater than it did before.

As is the case with almost any update, iTunes 11.0.3 also carries some minor bug fixes and performance improvements. You can give it a go by heading to the link provided below.

Download iTunes

Read iTunes 11.0.3 Brings Revamped MiniPlayer & Better Album Management by Hamza Khalid on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

The app available in four different languages and comes with a long list of websites that you can follow. Interface-wise, the news items in a feed are sorted by source and the only way to view news items from another source is to scroll up/down. Favoriteer won’t add the suggested websites to your feed by default, so when you first start using the app, you can either go to its preferences to select a feed from the suggestions, or click the RSS icon at the bottom-left to add a feed from its link.

The news items appear with ads. You can refresh the feed by clicking the refresh icon at the bottom. The button with an upward pointing arrow lets you scroll directly to the top, while the one resembling two stacked windows will snap the Favoriteer window to the top-right corner of your screen.

To view the list of websites that Favoriteer recommends, click the heart button to go to its preferences and check the website you want to read feeds from. The general tab in Favoriteer’s preferences allows you to select the language, your default RSS reader, the frequency of checking for new items, and the time to keep your timeline’s content i.e. the received news items for, before cleaning them up. You can also set Favoriteer to run when your system starts up.

Favoriteer is not very rich in features and with no way to organize feeds, it isn’t likely going to replace your default reader. It is best suited for users who need to follow very few feeds, given those feeds do not receive a lot of news items.

Download Favoriteer For Mac

Read Favoriteer Is A Standalone, Lightweight RSS News Reader For Mac by Fatima Wahab on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Once installed, drag & drop an app icon on to the app window, or select it by clicking the ‘Choose Application (s)’ option. If you select multiple apps to check, SandboxInfo will open a separate window for each one.

SandboxInfo reports four types of permissions that an app might be using: File access, Devices, Exceptions, and Raw Data. Stock apps are not sandboxed and have full access to all features of the OS. Third party apps downloaded from the Mac App Store or from the developer’s own website may or may not be sandboxed.

Apps that are  sandboxed are indicated by showing what level of access they have under each permission head. File Access tells you which files on your system the app can read and write to, the Devices section lists the devices it can connect with, Exceptions lists any exceptions that you might have granted the app, and Raw Data shows files that have been created by the app and that the app can write to. You will find the app’s plist file listed here.

To check the signing authority of an app, click the Signing Authority button at the top, and a popup will appear with the details. For apps downloaded from the Mac App Store, Apple will be the signing authority. For most other apps, the signing authority is the developer itself, or in cases, a publisher.

SandboxInfo also indicates when an app is not sandboxed and when it has not been signed. Although it is pretty good for checking the Sandbox status of any app, it isn’t easy for an end user to understand what the permissions mean. The app could do with either a simple explanation of the permissions, or add an indication if any of the permissions that app has might be potentially dangerous.

Download SandboxInfo From Mac App Store

Read Easily Check Sandbox Status, Permissions & Code Signing Certificate Of Mac Apps by Fatima Wahab on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Note: MacKeeper is a paid OS X app that costs $39.95 for the lite version, $59.95 for the Standard version, and $89.95 for the Premium version. We’re giving away 5 licenses to our readers. You’ll find additional information on taking part in the giveaway at the end of this post.

MacKeeper can be tried out for five days before purchase. Once installed, it will give you an overview of your system, showing you when was the last time you cleaned, optimized, recovered, shredded, or backed up your files. Broadly, its features are divided into four categories: Security, Data Control, Cleaning, and Optimization.

The anti-theft and internet security features have to be activated. Anti-theft lets you track your Mac in the event that it’s stolen. Like ‘Find My Mac’ which is tied to your Apple ID, the anti-theft feature is tied to your MacKeeper account. You can track where your Mac is, and also have the app take snapshots of whoever stole it using the camera.

The Internet security feature acts as both an anti-virus and protection against malicious and phising sites. It’s compatible with Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, and runs in the background.

The Data Control features lets you encrypt folders and files, recover deleted files, shred files, backup files, or use MacKeeper’s online cloud storage service to sync them across multiple Macs. MacKeeper provides dual protection to your encrypted files; once they’ve been encrypted, you can hide them, and when opening the file, you have to first enter your encryption password into MacKeeper’s encryption tool, and then open the file/folder using the password you set specifically for it. MacKeeper can encrypt files using both AES-128 and AES-256 standards. If you don’t feel like encrypting files, you can choose to just hide them as well.

File recovery lets you recover any files that you may have accidentally deleted. It can scan any drive connected to your Mac for recoverable files. You can view a consolidated list of files, or view them by type. The Shredder allows you to securely delete files so that they bypass the Trash altogether and cannot be recovered.

File Backup lets you selectively backup your files. You can define a destination for backing up particular folders from the Backup tab in MacKeeper’s preferences.

The ‘Cleaning’ features let you remove junk files, find and remove duplicates, search for files, view how space is used on your drive, and uninstall apps. Both the ‘Fast Clean up’ and ‘Duplicate Finder’ features work fairly fast, though the layout could use some improvement since it’s not very easy to tell which group of files are duplicates of each other.

The Disk Usage feature allows you to scan your entire disk and find out how much space each folder is using up. MacKeeper also color codes them to show how much space is being used relative to each other. You can browse folders and get a space usage breakdown for the contents of each one. Folders can be deleted, filtered, or previewed to take a quick look at their contents.

The Smart Uninstaller deletes apps, which is easy enough to do the default way, but MacKeeper also removes the files these apps create and leave behind when they’ve been uninstalled. Apart from saving space, the feature also keeps you safe in case any of the apps you deleted saved sensitive data on your Mac.

Lastly, there is the Optimization section that’s great for people who are a bit lazy about keeping their Mac and all installed apps up to date with the ‘Update Tracker’ feature. It also lets you manage your login items and default apps. You can add or remove apps to your list of login items.

You can modify the default apps for different file types. MacKeeper scans you system for all file types and the apps installed. It lists file extensions along with the respective apps that open them, and you can choose to modify them. Although an excellent feature, the layout might be confusing or even intimidating for the average user who is accustomed to visually appealing apps.

MacKeeper’s preferences allow you to tweak how some of its features work. If you want to select how securely the app shreds files, head over to the ‘Shred’ tab in its preferences and choose one of three shredding algorithms.

If you want to backup your data to a specific drive or location using MacKeeper, the Backup tab allows you to specify multiple backup destinations, as well as a default one. Your backup destinations can include any connected drive, FTP, FTPS and WebDAV servers, or ZeroDisk drives.

Under the Binaries Cutter and Duplicates tabs, you can specify which folders the app should search in for universal binaries when searching for apps, and which extensions or file types it should ignore when looking for duplicates, respectively.

Under Disk Usage, you can specify a minimum size for files that should show up when you run the disk usage check, and limit the results to a specific number. You can also choose to include packaged content in the results.

As far as apps for managing your Mac go, MacKeeper has a very rich offering. It will cost you to own this app but considering how much you might have to pay for individual apps that collectively perform all these functions or perhaps only some of them, it’s not a bad investment.

Download MacKeeper For Mac

Giveaway

We’re giving away 5 MacKeeper licenses to five lucky readers. The giveaway will last for the next 48 hours. Participation is simple.

1. Follow @addtips on Twitter.
2. Tweet/retweet the giveaway.
3. In the comments below, provide a link to your tweet. To do so, right-click the timestamp below your tweet and copy its URL.

Alternatively, you may comment on our Facebook or Google+ page, where the comment should be under the shared post and not on the page itself. Our editors will pick the 5 winners randomly. Good luck!

Update: The giveaway has been closed now. The winners will be contacted soon with their licenses.

Update 2: License keys have been sent to the winners. If you entered for the giveaway, please check your Twitter Direct Messages, Facebook Messages or Google+ Wall.

Read [Giveaway] MacKeeper Is An All-In-One System Maintenance & Security Tool For OS X by Fatima Wahab on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

When used on your iOS or Android device, the apps can automatically backup all photos in your camera roll. The Windows app not only uploads images, but also lets you choose the image size to upload. All apps let you copy the direct link to an image; however, the Windows app will let you choose different types of links to generate i.e. you can get links for posting in forums or embedding the image on the web. Images can be uploaded either by dragging & dropping them on to the app’s uploader or pasting them in the SkyPath folder. If you’re using a Mac, you will only be able to upload images by copying them to the SkyPath folder.

You will have to sign up for a SkyPath account to use the apps. Log into your SkyPath account, or sign up for a new one if you don’t have one already. Next, select the destination for your SkyPath folder. You can also change it at any time after logging in.

On Windows, you will see an uploader window that you can drag & drop files on in order to upload them to ImageShack. An image size selection bar allows you to select what size of the images should be uploaded. The app will first resize the images accordingly, and then upload them. Once the upload process is complete, the app will give you direct links to the images. You can change the type of link you get by pulling down the ‘LIN’ drop-down and select the type of link you need. SkyPath runs in the taskbar and you can access its settings from there.

The ‘Bandwidth’ tab allows you to limit the upload and download rate, while the ‘Advanced’ tab lets you select how often the app checks for files to upload, and specify the location of the SkyPath folder.

The Mac app is quite different from its Windows counterpart. The most obvious difference is the absence of an uploader window. Images are uploaded by pasting them in the SkyPath folder. You can copy a link to the image from the file’s right-click context menu. SkyPath runs in the Menu Bar and you can manually force it to sync files any time.

The iOS app lets you selectively upload files from your camera roll, or sync your entire picture library to your ImageShack account. Using SkyPath on your mobile device will upgrade your ImageShare account to Premium for a whole year for free. Tap the plus button to select images for uploading, or the check mark to select them for renaming or moving to different folders. You can also search for files in your SkyPath account from here.

SkyPath allows you to open images in other apps like Dropbox, set an image as favorite, save it to your photo library, tweet it, email it, or copy its link for manual sharing or posting anywhere.

Users who share a lot of photos, or iOS users who don’t want to use up their iCloud storage space by backing up their photo library there can use SkyPath and ImageShack to much the same effect. The apps take a while to sync images if you have a lot of them, so hang tight and be patient.

Download SkyPath For Mac And Windows

Download SkyPath For Android

Download SkyPath For iOS

Read Sync ImageShack Photos Across Windows, Mac, Android & iOS With SkyPath by Fatima Wahab on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

To use Viber on your desktop, you must first have it installed on your phone. To set up Viber on your PC, enter your phone number (with the country code), and you will receive an activation code in the Viber app, which you have to enter in the desktop app to verify it.

Once you’re connected, Viber will load your contacts. You can select any one of them to send them a message, or start an audio or video call. The ‘History’ tab display messages sent and received on both your phone and desktop. However, it does not support audio clips, stickers or the newly introduced video messages yet. You will therefore only be able to view images or text messages that have been exchanged.

You can manage your audio and video input & output devices from the app’s settings and control both the input and output volume.

Viber runs in the taskbar and gives you on-screen notifications when you receive an incoming call. These notifications can be managed from the app’s settings as well. You can toggle on-screen notifications, sounds for calls and messages, and choose your preferred position for the notification pop-up.

You can even transfer a call from Viber on your desktop to your phone, or vice versa. To do this from desktop, simply click the phone icon next to the end call button.

The app gives you notifications for both incoming calls, with the option to accept or decline them, and for any new messages.

To transfer a call from your phone to your desktop, tap the newly added transfer call button, and you will receive a notification on your desktop screen for the incoming transferred call. To send a video message from your phone, follow the same process that you normally do for an image or a voice recording. There seems to be no time limit on how long your video can be, and the time needed to send the message depends on its length.

The Android app has been updated with the Holo UI that makes it look much better and feel considerably smoother than the previous version. The user experience also feels more simplified compared to the previous version, with all the useful features accessible from the right areas.

The in-app banners in the iOS app notify you when you receive a new message. In addition, when you visit a particular contact’s card in the app, you can see if they are online or not.

The online or last seen status information is also displayed under the contact name in the conversation window during text conversations. This can be toggled from the app’s settings, but you can’t change this setting more than once every 24 hours. You can also set the app to download photos or videos automatically when on 3G. If disabled, they will be downloaded automatically only while on Wi-Fi.

All in all, the updates are great and the desktop apps will be welcomed by existing users of the service who want to take calls and send messages from their PCs. It is odd that the desktop apps don’t support video messages despite supporting video chat, but we can expect missing support for audio and video messages as well as stickers on desktop, and video chat on mobile in future releases.

Download Viber For Windows & Mac

Haroon Q. Raja contributed to this post

Read Viber Brings Free Messaging, Voice & Video Calling To Windows & Mac by Fatima Wahab on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter