work smarter.

For those of you that love sending raw HD photos with no compression, or 8 page scanned documents as pdf’s.  Email isn’t always the best option.  Time delays and capacity quotas can cause unwanted issues you can’t afford, especially in the work world.  

While some are attached to the old favorites like dropbox, box.net and yousendit, there are some newer, free-er, higher capacity storage sharing options that have hit the net recently. 

I think it’s important to note that if a site is billed purely as a file sharing service, it will probably have a short timespan of the life of your file on their servers. (Average seems to be 60-90 days.)  If a site is advertised as a file archive service, that lifespan can go on indefinitely (or at least as long as you’re paying a subscription.) 

The New Kids on The Block

LargeDocument  just hit the scene with a whopping 2GB file size limit if uploaded on a 32-bit machine. Up to 8 Gigabytes can be uploaded using a 64-bit machine. It’s free for now, and that’s just ridiculous.

Kicksend is a brand new service that lets you send files via their web app, phone or desktop client. Very easy and simple to use, and free.  Limitations are 150mb size limit, and the file will only stay on their servers for 2 weeks. Check out a more detailed review here.

Ge.tt is a free service that just launched in beta.  Publish and share your files for 90 days. No limitations that I could see other than each individual file can’t be more than 2GB.

Droplr is a free file sharing service limited to Mac users. ;) That may stop people in their tracks right there, especially when you’re unsure of the operating system you’re trying to share a file with.  The features seem tailored to web devs and designers. Completely free, gives you 1GB of storage, and has an iphone app. It may be great for specific uses, but definitely not your all-in-one solution to sharing files.

OfficeDrop - Digital archive, storage and sharing with features like scanning and recognizing the text in your digital files. Free version includes 1GB of storage with a 250mb individual file limit.  Read a review here.

Doxo - Calls itself “A Cabinet in the Clouds”. It will store all sorts of document types, but it’s primarily designed to help you store things like bills, statements, receipts and invoices. Whole thing is free.  Some cool dashboard reporting features. Read a review here.

Splarchive is an archive service that boasts eternal life to your files is.  This is another service that stores and organizes your files, scanning them and turning your stash into a searchable database of info.  It archive your files in pdf, and gives you access to them from anywhere you can access the net.  No app download needed.  Free for individual use.

While I will continue to try these services out when I need to share massive files, I doubt I will convert from my tried and true champions. At the end of the day, I still use Dropbox and Evernote more than anything else for file sharing and document management.  They are cross-browser, cross platform and very accessible to everyone.

MetroFax. Email Fax Service. Solid Reliability and Service. US Tech Support. $12.95/mo.

5 Free Tools That will Change the Way You Work

I was recently interviewed by an online radio show regarding productivity tools.  Check out the episode here: http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/1901 or get the podcast from iTunes.

List of tools mentioned in this episode:

Evernote – Document management that will organize everything , any way you want.

Google Apps, Google Voice, Gmail – Powerful suite of tools that can empower collaboration in all new ways.

AwayFind – Stop checking your email constantly, get alerted for just the emails that matter.

Efax – free fax number that sends faxes to your email.

Pixelpipe – Automatically route media and text to almost any online service.

LastPass – Secure password manager and form filler – integrates with all major browsers.

PageOnce – Personal Finance Manager for your mobile phone – bill alerts, balance updates, utility statuses, etc.

Dropbox – Cloud based storage, synced with your computer and smartphone.

Rescue Time – Track the time your spend on your computer, organized by what you find productive