If you missed our review of SimplyFile from way back when, the following is a snippet from that article as well as a brief overview of the software itself:

SimplyFile is designed to help you, well, simply file messages that are in your Outlook inbox into the appropriate folder. By using “an advanced algorithm to learn and adapt to your filing habits,” SimplyFile gives you a recommended folder destination as soon as you select a message in your inbox. By clicking on the SimplyFile button, the message immediately goes to that destination; thus saving you from dragging/scrolling through your folder structure and dropping it into the necessary folder once you’ve found it.

In addition to the all-powerful SimplyFile button mentioned above, the software also adds some much-needed Gmail-esque keyboard shortcuts for message management and for navigating complex folder structures – shortcuts that literally save me hours every single week. (Yeah, that’s no dramatization – it will literally save you hours of time every week if you’re an Outlook power user.)

Like I mentioned before, there’s a 30-day trial of SimplyFile available for download. If you download it, I’d be genuinely surprised if you didn’t purchase it.

The new release not only adds support for Outlook 2010 but also options to quickly file away all messages within a particular thread as well as messages from a particular sender – both great ways to achieve inbox:zero. Additional new features include batch filing and some interesting usage statistics.

SimplyFile runs $49 but, again, if you’re a serious Outlook user, it’s well worth it.

Well, I’m inclined to say that price would be the biggest difference. That’s right, SquareSpace will cost you $8/mo after its two-week trial whereas you’ll never have to open that wallet (or purse) after two weeks of hosting your site on WordPress.com.

I’ll more-than-willingly admit that I’m one of WordPress’ most fervent proponents. That said, SquareSpace is… well, it’s just plain slick. 

Now, both the free version of WordPress and the $8/mo SquareSpace plan offer any introductory blogger exactly what they need:

• site stats,
• a plethora of designs from which to choose (and subsequently customize),
• comment spam prevention,
• easy WYSIWYG post authoring capabilities,
• support for multiple authors/editors/users,
• import/export options,
• social integration (hey it’s all the rage these days),
• ability to post from your phone, email, etc.,
• RSS,
• very good built-in search functionality,
• and much, much (much) more.

So, what about the differences? Well, like I said, one of the main differences comes down to CHC. (That’s “cold hard cash” for those of you that aren’t as completely obsessed with abbreviations as I am.)

Right off the bat, for what any beginnier – or even intermediate – blogger needs, you’re shelling out $8/mo to SquareSpace when you could be paying nothing at all with WordPress. Even with the SS plan, you won’t have access to a custom domain name. So, at this point, you’re either going to be hosting your blog on something.wordpress.com or something.squarespace.com.

Custom domain names are extra with both providers.

From then on, it’s still all about cost differences. 

SQUARESPACE ADVANCED OPTIONS

SquareSpace offers FIVE different monthly plans ranging from that $8/mo plan all the way up to a $50/mo plan. Besides for the ability to have a custom domain name with the latter four plans, the main things for which you’ll be paying with each of the plans include the ability to handle more incoming traffic, handle more members, more editors and more storage space. 

A few other interesting features that start to pop up with the $20/mo and $30/mo plans include:

• DropBox modules,
• form builders,
• FAQ builders,
• email template control,
• SSL and a few others.

WORDPRESS ADVANCED OPTIONS (a.k.a., “Premium Features”)

WordPress offers a different perspective when it comes to advanced functionality – in the form of yearly add-ons. For instance, for $15/year you can have your own domain name. For “VideoPress” (an excellent video/podcast publishing option), tack on about $60/year. For additional storage space, count on at least $20/year, unlimited users: $30/year, the option to go ad-free (or have your own ads): another $30/year.

Yikes… those look like some scary costs. Well, yeah, but if you add ‘em up and calculuate them, instead, as monthly fees, you’ll find that $15 + $60 + $20 + $30 + $30 = $155 per year. So, if you were to divide that by 12 months, you’d be looking at a whopping $12.92 per month.

That’s not so bad in comparison to SquareSpace’s “Advanced” or “Business” plans at $20 and $30 per month, respectively.

Then again, SS throws in a couple of unique features like those FAQ & form builders… and even that DropBox module – features that are nowhere to be found on WordPress.com.

One other thing in SquareSpace’s corner: beautification. Seriously, SS has, in my humble opinion, much better templates/themes than the ones offered by my beloved WordPress. Just take a peek at the release of SquareSpace’s Social Widgets to get a feel for the crisp, clean look of the interface in which you’ll be working.

(The comparison of WordPress to SquareSpace makes me think of the the comparison of Mac vs. Windows. One looks nice and doesn’t give you many hassles but the other one just plain gets the job done at the end of the day. I’ll let you decipher which is which.)

THE CONCLUSION

In the arena of hosted blogs, I’m going to ever-so-carefully wrap things up by stating the following: if you don’t mind shelling the amount of money per month equivalent to that of 2.5 fast food meals, I might sign up for SquareSpace’s 2nd plan (the “Pro” plan at $14/mo.) and be on my merry way. 

Odds are, for most bloggers, you’ll appreciate the expansive flexibility and it’ll be a long way before you have to worry about “yearly add-ons” or upgrading.

If, however, you just want to hop on that thing we call the Information Superhighway and blog ’till your heart’s content, all without sacrificing this month’s groceries (or this month’s Starbucks Venti Soy Lattes), please, by all means, sign up on WordPress.com today. Don’t even hesitate. 

It’s ridiculously flexible and despite what I’ve said about SquareSpace being “slick,” the WordPress interface has been in development for over seven years now and certainly feels like it. It’s fine-tuned, to say the absolute least.

THE THIRD AND INFINITELY BETTER OPTION

“What? A third option? You didn’t tell me you were gonna have a third option! I’m outta here, man!”

Hey, guess what. WordPress has something else you might be interested in. It’s a “self-hosted,” open-source version that you can install on your own space out there on the Interwebz. A version in which you have complete control over ads, design, accessibility, search engine optimization, statistics, backups, images/videos/pictures and just about anything else you could possibly want from your blog. 

If you do happen to find a certain type of functionality missing from your version of WordPress, just check out the Extend section of WordPress.org for thousands of themes and plugins – all free.

Speaking of free, what exactly does this magical version of WordPress cost? 

Nada.

That’s right, you can download every wonderful element of WordPress in a ridiculously easy-to-install .zip file (at http://wordpress.org) for the low cost of zero dollars and zero cents. Then, just find a host on which to install it. 

As a freelance web designer, I manage each and every one of my clients’ WordPress sites throughMediaTemple (which I HIGHLY recommend) but you can find plenty of other companies that offer hosting and 1-click installations of WordPress sites. Even GoDaddy does a pretty good job at WP hosting.

Overall, the self-hosted version of WordPress is, by far, the best option out there if you plan on taking your participation in the blogosphere seriously.

Let your fellow readers know what you think is the better service. Post in the comments below.

There are a great number of sophisticated VOIP solutions out there. You can go the Microsoft route and implement a “unified communications” suite like Microsoft Office Communications Server. Similarly, you can go with a richly-complex Windows Server-based solution like ShoreTel. If you’re a true rogue, you can alternatively go the open-source route and opt for a Linux-based phone system like Asterisk.

Of course, there’s always an online solution that’ll save you from investing in either hardware or software. (For the most part, at least.) Enter Zaplee. Zaplee integrates with your existing Skype account(s) to provide you with an easy way to manage departments, extensions, greetings, forwarding, complex routing, etc.

Getting everything setup, at least according to the site, is a pretty straight-forward, 4 or 5-step process: download the software, setup the extensions, setup departments, record greetings and then, well, go live. Check out the Zaplee feature tour to get an overview of how the system looks and works.

As a side note, there are two flavors of Zaplee: the $5-a-month (for unlimited users) solution that you can manage from your desktop, alongside the Skype software. The other option, Zaplee On-Demand, at $10-a-month (also for unlimited users) is entirely Web-based.

Overall, it’s a pretty impressive, quick and easy way to get a phone system setup in your office. Sure, you might very well outgrow it eventually and you might decide that you’re better off with one of the aforementioned paths I mentioned above (OCS/ShoreTel/Asterisk) but, then again, Zaplee might just do everything you need… and at a ridiculously-low price.

What say you? What voice system have you decided upon/deployed for your office?

Well, it turns out that add-on synchronization isn’t isn’t here yet and keeps getting bumped from the official Weave roadmap. So, our plans for a completely synchronized Firefox experience among our PCs were somewhat dashed… until now.

(Still, Weave will synchronize just about everything else: browsing history, passwords, bookmarks, open tabs, etc. For those of you not wearing tin-foil hats, I highly recommend you check it out.)

Like I said, my hopes for that Holy Grail of browser synchronization, add-on sync, were unfilfilled until I discovered an entirely separate Firefox add-on designed to fulfill that purpose: Siphon.

Siphon’s purpose as of right now is to fill that missing link and ensure that your favorite browser add-ons are available on whatever computer you’re on: at home, at work, on-the-go, etc.

Simply install Siphon through the Firefox add-ons interface (go to Tools > Add-Ons and search for Siphon) and create an account through siphon-fx.com. Then, specify what add-ons you want to synchronize. Once you’re done, set Siphon up on your other computers running Firefox and let the beautiful act of synchronization occur.

The developer of Siphon, Ian Halpern, has big plans and doesn’t intend on stopping at add-on synchronization. Future features of Siphon include the following:

• Support for syncing themes and enabled/disabled properties
• Automatic Add-on download and install
• Configurable user specified server support
• Easier Add-on management
• Different user profiles
• Support for syncing extension settings
• Support for other mozilla applications

So, g’head and give Siphon a try… and then let us know what you think in the comments. If you like it, make use of the Mozilla Add-Ons “Contribute” function and donate a whopping $3 USD to assist with further development of what could potentially be a VERY useful add-on.

As if these weren’t enough, the open-source/freeware product Snarl exists solely to double your notification pleasure.

While providing you with some of the same notifications you already receive (battery is low, audio is muted, etc.), Snarl also enables even more notifications for those that either have OCD or just need to always be “in-the-know.”  Examples include notifications for: hourly time updates, timer countdowns, more-specific power/battery notifications and more. Plus, like any truly-great application, Snarl supports extendability. For those that like the concept of this application, this is where it really gets interesting. Developers (or even you) can even write their own Snarl applications so that you can be visually notified for every event imaginable.

Want to be notified of a recent Tweet? New emails (even Exchange emails)? New Google Wave messages? New weather alerts? Snarl has you covered.

Plus, if you’re a true nerd, you’ll certainly appreciate how much granular control over what you’re notified about and how exactly you’re notified.

G’head and check it out: http://www.fullphat.net.

[Source: downloadsquad.com]

That said, we typically opt for installer-free apps that we can just drop in a single directory to be synced on all of our machines. (I personally currently use SugarSync now.)

A standalone app to burn CDs or DVDs is just one example of what I’m talking about. No clunky installs of Nero (which I think weighs in at about 400mb now) or Sonic or anything similar… just double-click the portable app’s EXE and start burnin’. There are more than a few portable burning suites that we’ve encountered in the past but the following titles are some of the more solid entries.

First up is daBurner. Sure, it’s the youngest of the bunch but you shouldn’t let that fool ya… as it does exactly what you need it to do: burn stuff. Here’s the official description: “No advanced burning options and complicated configuration. No integrated backup-mediacenter-slideshow-virtual drive stuff. It’s just a stupid burner. For smart people.” This one is aces in my book if not only for that beautiful description but also for the fact that the software is genuinely insanely-easy to use… unlike many burning apps.

Next up is Infrarecorder. It’s definitely more feature-packed than DaBurner and offers up dual-layer DVD recording, CD/DVD-RW erasing, ISO & BIN/CUE burning, disc copying, audio track burning and more. Infrarecorder’s been around for a while so there’s definitely something to be gained from its experience.

Finally, we come to DeepBurner. This one isn’t as feature-packed as Infrarecorder but it’s got a pretty polished interface and it provides you with the basic functionality you need: burn audio discs, data discs, ISOs and bootable discs. The premium version of DeepBurner adds a few more options but there’s no portable version available for it.

There are some more (potentially more powerful) standalone burning apps listed on PortableFreeware.com but some of these require a little bit of manipulation to make them “portable.”

If, however, you do prefer the old-school method of running apps like these, i.e., by installing them, you’ll want to check out CDBurnerXP: a great, lightweight burning suite from the makers of Ketarin. In addition, the latest release of IMGBurn added a plethora of new features (no, seriously, go look at the changelog for ImgBurn 2.5) and it could potentially take my title for best free burning app available… period. It is, without a doubt, definitely worth the measly $2 donation that the author is kindly asking for on the app’s homepage. Do it. Be a hero. Donate that $2.

Did we miss any? (I can guarantee we did.) Let us know what your favorite portable burning app is in the comments below.

I’ve found many MySQL backup solutions but none of them seem to be perfect in my eyes. (Hey, what is perfect these days?)

DESKTOP APPS

There’s Backup Watcher for MySQL but a) it costs $$ and b) you have to “activate” the software in order to use it. For someone like myself – who is constantly reformatting the various machines on which I work – that’s far too annoying given that you have to wait for a new activation code from the company. Of course, if you’re just gonna set this up on a server or desktop that you touch maybe once every three years – it may very well be worth it. Setting up automated backups is fool-proof and the interface isn’t too archaic. Plus, support usually responds within one business day – even if they aren’t that fluent in the English language.

One benefit to the above app is that it runs on Windows. For me, at least, that makes administration much easier. Another such app is Auto Backup for MySQL. (I’ll try and download and install this to post a review here soon.) This one also costs money (still less than $100) but the fact that it appears to be continually updated – it’s now Windows 7 and Server 2008 compatible – puts my mind at ease.

For more advanced MySQL DB management, you might also look at Navicat for MySQL – an all-in-one mgmt app that not only enables scheduled database backups but also provides you with options to interact with the data itself as well as the overall structure of the database. Pricing is much better than I remember. You can probably stay close to the price-range of the apps mentioned above and wind up with many more features at the same time. Plus, the interface is quite a bit more polished than the other apps.

WEB-BASED SCRIPTS

A more universal option (for those on different platforms beyond Windows) is a self-install script like Backup2Mail… which costs absolutely nothing. (The song “Born Free” from the last episode of the first season of Dexter is now running through my mind.)

Scripts like this one reside on your server, alongside your MySQL install, and regularly emails you backups of your database(s). The company recommends that you use a secure email environment given the risk involved in sending potentially-confidential data through email.

AutoMySQLBackup is a free script that’s been around for a while. Much like Backup2Mail, this script enables scheduled backups via the web but, with this one, you can not only send backups by email but also dump them to a directory on your web server. That way, if you’ve got the available space, you never need worry about the size of your DB backups.

What backup solution are you using/do you recommend? Let other readers know in the comments below.

For the latter and the former, one of the best ways to keep up is to follow the employees of your favorite news-makers… to get an insight into what’s currently happening at the companies for which they work.

Take Microsoft for example. As you might expect, there are a ridiculous number of Microsoft employees currently tweeting their thoughts and insights relating to their daily work. I stumbled upon a compiled listing of Microsoft Twitter users a while back on RedmondPie.com but that site has since gone inactive. Fortunately, I discovered a cached version of the page. So, here’s a listing (incomplete, I’m sure) of MS Twitter-users:

• @liveframework
• @livemesh
• @zunemarketplace
• @ch9
• @ch10
• @ch8
• @adCenterBlog
• @asktechnetuk
• @bing
• @bingcashback
• @bizspark
• @codeplex
• @continuumshow
• @fixit4me
• @ie
• @live_at_edu
• @microsoft_green
• @microsoft_xbox
• @microsoftpress
• @microsoftstore
• @microsofttag
• @microsoftup
• @micrsfttech4all
• @mixonline
• @msaccess
• @msadvertising
• @msdn
• @msexpression
• @msftresearch
• @mslearning
• @msmyphone
• @msofficereskit
• @mspartner
• @msrobotics
• @mssurface
• @mswindows
• @mvpawardprogram
• @officelabs
• @office_live
• @projectrosetta
• @sharepoint
• @silverlightnews
• @sitenameddesire
• @tnedge
• @windowsblog
• @windowslive
• @wlmessenger
• @wmdev
• @xamlevents
• @xnacommunity
• @zuneinsider

I’ll try to be compiling similar lists in the near future.

Recently added to the CodePlex (Microsoft’s version of SourceForge.net) is a little app by the name of TweetCraft. As you’d expect from the title, TweetCraft enables you to both read and compose “tweets” while within WoW. The app is currently on a stable release and can be downloaded from tweetcraft.codeplex.com… and it actually looks pretty cool. Plus, like with any above-average Twitter client, you can schedule your tweets and even send screenshots of your current game using the built-in TwitPic integration.

Plus, if you’re a WoW fan/Visual Studio expert, you can easily enhance the application and create your own TweetCraft addons. If you’re not big into programming but might be interested in learning and are still a student, you can grab a full version of Visual Studio 2008 (plus alot more) via Microsoft’s DreamSpark program.

Check out the insanely-awesome overview video below or just start playing with the app now.

(Seriously, that has to be one of the most well-made promo videos I’ve ever seen.)

Now, I think OL2K7 was a significant improvement over 2K3 but that’s not really saying much. I am, however, stunned to see (with the Office 2010 technical preview released this week) that Outlook 2010 has not made the leaps and bounds it truly needs to make in order to remain both relevant and competitive.

What has improved?

Well, the Outlook interface is finally in sync with the rest of the Office platform. Meaning, of course, that the infamous “Ribbon” is now all throughout the application instead of just within new message windows as it was in 2K7. (I read an article on BetaNews.com by one Carmi Levy stating that they wish Microsoft would do away with the Ribbon altogether. I wholeheartedly disagree and think that the Ribbon is a great way – especially for touch displays now and in the future – to quickly find what you’re looking for.) In addition, the overall appearance is very bright and refreshing. There are still some theme options in place but the default is great in my humble opinion.

Conversation view has, at long last, been added to Outlook. It’s still a tiny bit quirky but it acts pretty much the way you’d expect it to. If a message comes in that’s a reply to an existing message, any related messages to that particular subject line are displayed with it.

The startup process, while unfortunately lengthy (see next section), is a bit less annoying. The improvement comes with the new animated launch screen – it stays up until Outlook is fully ready to be used. Previous versions of Outlook were a bit of a tease in that the window would launch but you’d be waiting about 5 seconds for each element of the application to appear: 5 seconds for add-in toolbar A, another 5 seconds for add-in toolbar B, 5 seconds for the To-Do bar to appear, etc. I find I have more patience with the animated splash screen… and patience is a rare commodity these days.

Message clean-up is ever-so-slightly enhanced. You’ll notice in the first screenshot above that Microsoft has finally embraced the concept of “tagging” in Outlook but only barely. In the screenshot above, there’s an area of the first Ribbon section called “Tags.” However, all that area presents is a drop-down allowing you to use the previously-existing “Categories” functionality of Outlook to file a message to categories of your choice. This is exactly what the previously-reviewed Outlook add-in Taglocity does but Taglocity still does it alot better. The aforementioned add-in allows you to jump to a tagging toolbar, begin typing tag/category names (it finds as you type), hit enter and your message is tagged. Hit the escape key and you’re back to your message. The process with the now-slightly-more-visible button is still very much mouse-driven and just doesn’t make sense with frequent Outlook power users.

In addition, there’s a new “Clean-Up” drop-down button in that same section of the Ribbon that allows you to quickly get rid of insignificant, older messages in either the conversation that’s highlighted or all of the conversations currently in your inbox… or even all of your subfolders.

Quick Steps represent a fantastic new feature in Outlook 2010. As you might guess from the name, Quick Steps allow you to create shortcuts for various actions like forwarding to a specific person or department or automatically reply to a selected message and delete the original – all in one action. You can even assign a keyboard shortcut to your quick step. A number of Quick Steps are included by default but it’s insanely-easy to create your own.

Forwarding a message as an attachment now has a designated button in the primary tab of the ribbon. Hit the button and, as you’d expect, a new email comes up with the selected message already as an attachment. This also works with multiple messages… very cool.

What hasn’t improved?

Filing and organizing messages. To my knowledge, there’s still no easy and fast, find-as-you-type way to move a message to a specific folder without a 3rd-party Outlook add-in like SimplyFile. We reviewed TechHit’s SimplyFile (from the makers of QuickJump and TWinbox) way back when and it offers a very Gmail-esque way of moving messages using the keyboard while remaining in your inbox. It’s a beautiful process and while I’d hate for TechHit to lose a revenue stream (still plenty of other great features in SimplyFile), this is functionality that should already be in Outlook… especially when this sucker is released in the year two-thousand and ten. C’mon, Microsoft. Seriously. Gmail also has this with the new “Move To” (keyboard shortcut “V”) and “Label” (keyboard shortcut “L”) features.

It’s most likely due to the fact that it’s a technical preview but Outlook’s performance over that of Outlook 2K7 w/SP2 has TANKED. The migration process was a lengthy 10-20 minute process… and I’m on a dual-core with 4gb of RAM so resources aren’t scarce by any means. Any subsequent, routine launches also take more time than 2007 required.

The reply process still inserts your own email address when clicking reply on an email you sent. Technically, that makes sense since you’re replying to an email that you sent. Intuitively, it makes absolutely no sense at all. In 99.9% of all cases, I’m just going to want to follow-up with someone on an email I already sent them – I’m not following up with myself. Gmail does this correctly. There, you hit reply on an email you sent and the email address of the original intended recipient is automatically inserted in the “to” field.

In addition to bare-minimal support of “tagging,” Outlook has still yet to present us with an option to add notes to an email. Sure, with the 2010 Office suite, OneNote will be included and it’s pretty easy to send a message to OneNote from within Outlook. However, that involves and entirely separate program and is entirely unintuitive… as well as a waste of time. C’mon, Microsoft… you already have a “notes” section inside Outlook… just find a way to marry messaging and notes and give us the option to add a freakin’ note to a message without having to modify the message itself.

What’s regressed?

3rd-party add-ins have taken a significant hit in Outlook 2010 as a result of the ribbon. The one solitary problem with the Ribbon is that it takes the place of loads and loads of various toolbars that previous versions of Microsoft Office required. Instead, each toolbar is replaced with a “tab” on the ribbon. The problem here is that many Outlook add-ins require visibility in order to maintain full functionality and to be as effective as possible. For instance, with the SimplyFile add-in within Outlook 2007, there remained a toolbar at the bottom of the window with a drop-down of folders and a SimplyFile button (among other items.) With a highlighted message, I could hit that button and my message would automatically be filed to the correct location. Now, there’s an extra click in the process as I have to navigate to the add-ins tab on the ribbon to get the button… which really disrupts the natural flow of that process.

Overall

Sure, the list of items under the “What has improved” section of this post is longer (mostly minor items) than the other sections but I’ve been genuinely let down by this version – as it stands now in a Technical Preview. I have absolutely no idea how Outlook will remain relevant over the next few years as Gmail & Google Apps both continue to grow exponentially while we wait for Office 15. Plus, Google has Google Wave coming down the pipeline which, according to pretty much everyone (I seriously have yet to read a non-Microsoft, negative opinion on Google Wave), will be the end-all, be-all of productivity apps. Good luck, Microsoft. You’re gonna need it.

What about you, readers? Have you had a chance to play around with Outlook 2010? What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.