In the world of Windows PCs, one popular thing to do â instead of lugging around a laptop on your travels â is to load up a USB flash drive with what are called portable apps. These are applications that can easily run from a flash drive, and there are some real advantages to using them. For example, using a portable web browser like the open source Chromium browser is actually much more secure than launching the native browser on a hotel or Internet cafe PC since it doesnât store cached data on the PC, nor does it leave cookies on the machine. For Macs, however, thereâs a solution that can be even more handy than portable apps, and that is using cloud apps. Downloading garageband for mac.
While there are still some security issues with using cloud apps on a âborrowedâ Mac or PC, these apps make it possible to continue to do much of your work without the need to take along a MacBook, an iPad or even an iPhone. In todayâs Tech Tip, Iâll describe some common cloud-based apps that can âgo where you goâ without a need for any hardware.
Portable Apps For Macbook Air
OS X portable applications are packaged so you can carry around on any portable device, USB thumb drive, iPod, portable hard drive, memory card, other portable device (or also on your internal hard disk), taking your preferences with you. Cloud Apps are the New âPortable Appsâ for Mac In the world of Windows PCs, one popular thing to do â instead of lugging around a laptop on your travels â is to load up a USB flash drive with what are called portable apps. These are applications that can easily run from a flash drive, and there are some real advantages to using them. OS X portable applications are packaged so you can carry around on any portable device, USB thumb drive, iPod, portable hard drive, memory card, other portable device (or also on your internal hard disk), taking your preferences with you. Portable apps free download - Portable VLC, RAR Expander, Apple iTunes, and many more programs. https://mirrornew872.weebly.com/blog/war-games-for-mac. Manage your music and movie libraries on your Mac, iPod, iPhone or iPad. Free Editors' rating. Cloud Apps are the New âPortable Appsâ for Mac Tuesday, February 5th, 2019 Author: Steve Sande. In the world of Windows PCs, one popular thing to do â instead of lugging around a laptop on your travels â is to load up a USB flash drive with what are called portable apps.
The Secret Sauce: Private Browsing Mode
What I often do when Iâm forced to use a borrowed PC or Mac to get my work done is launch the browser (usually either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox), and then open a private browsing window. Private browsing (AKA privacy mode or incognito mode) disables browsing history and the web cache, so that you can browse the web without storing local data that could be retrieved by someone else at a later date. https://mirrornew872.weebly.com/blog/drawing-pads-for-mac.
Once that window is open, then I launch one of these favorite cloud apps to get my work done.
iCloud (iCloud.com in a private browsing session gives you secure access to many familiar Apple apps)
If you have an iCloud account, you have access to web-based versions of most of the apps you already use on your Mac. Just point that web browser to icloud.com, log in with your Apple ID, and immediately you have access to iCloud Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Photos, iCloud Drive, Notes, Reminders, and more. Perhaps the most important apps if youâre trying to get work done are Pages, Numbers and Keynote â Appleâs iWork suite.
While the online versions of the Apple apps may look slightly different than their native macOS or iOS counterparts, theyâre functionally identical and can even be used to collaborate with others. Have you created a Keynote presentation that you need to show to someone, but you donât have a MacBook, iPad or iPhone with you? Fire up a PC, get that private browsing session going, and use your iCloud version of Keynote to make the presentation.
About my only complaint with iCloud is the Mail app. Rather than providing access to all of your email accounts (like Gmail, ISP-provided mail, and so on), it only gives you a view of the iCloud.com/Me.com/Mac.com mailbox. If thatâs your sole email account, youâll be fine. If not, youâll need to sign into the web versions of those email accounts separately.
Google GSuite or Google Docs (Google GSuite. Image via Google)
Another cloud solution that provides access to a lot of different capabilities is Google GSuite. It has a little bit of everything in it, providing cloud access to online versions of Gmail, Calendar, Google+, Hangouts, Docs, Sheets, Forms, Slides, Sites (a simple website builder), Apps (a way to create apps), Keep (an online organizer), Jamboard (a collaborative whiteboard), Google Drive, Cloud Search (search tool for GSuite), and even administrative and device management tools.
More of a business toolkit than a Swiss Army knife for individuals, GSuite does not include access to Google Photos, although it can also be accessed online from any browser as well. For those individuals who are tied more closely to the Google world than Appleâs cloud solutions, GSuite is a good choice.
If you donât need all of the tools available in GSuite, Google Docs is still free and still 100 percent cloud-based. Docs includes online versions of the word processor, spreadsheet (Sheets), and presentation tool (Slides), as well as access to Google Drive.
Microsoft Office Online
Do you think that Microsoft Office still comes on big, expensive DVDs? Well, thereâs a completely cloud version of Microsoft Office available, and you donât need to install any apps on any device. Instead, just point your web browser on any desktop or laptop platform to Office.com where you can find online versions of all of Microsoftâs Office products. Outlook is there for email, OneDrive (cloud drive), Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Skype, Calendar, People, and Sway (a tool for creating online presentations).
If youâre not familiar with Office Online, itâs a completely free service thatâs meant to compete with the likes of iCloud and GSuite. I find myself recommending it to friends who donât want to buy Microsoft Office 365 subscriptions but have an occasional need to use Word or Excel.
Photo Editing Tools
There are other cloud-based âportable appsâ that can be very useful. If Iâm without a laptop or desktop Mac (or my handy iPad Pro and iPhone) and need to do some quick touchups on photos, I can always count on the online versions of a few apps.
While itâs not a fully-featured photo editor, Canva Photo Editor is free and has all the basics you need. It can crop, resize, rotate or flip images, apply a bunch of pre-set filters, or let you adjust brightness, contrast and saturation of photos that you drag and drop onto the online editor.
(Canva Photo Editor is a basic, but useful online photo editing tool)
My new favorite is Pixlr X. Itâs a much more powerful free online photo editor that adds layering, crop tools for most common photo aspect ratios, a ton of fine adjustments for color, light, focus, ad infinitum. Itâs extremely useful when you need to do more detailed work on your images. Be sure to use Pixlr X, not the original Pixlr â the original cloud app uses Adobe Flash.
(Pixlr X is an extremely powerful online photo editor)
While Iâve just provided âportableâ apps in the realm of productivity and photo editing, there are more online apps that can be used anywhere you may find yourself without a Mac. Whatâs your favorite online app, and what is it used for? Leave your comments below.
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