This is something I came across last week and felt worth mentioning. BCL Technologies PDF Online can create PDFs from the following formats: MS Word (DOC | RTF), MS PowerPoint (PPT), MS Publisher (PUB), MS Excel (XLS), HTML (MHT), Text (TXT), JPG , GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG, EMF, and WMF. You upload your file via the online form, supply your E-Mail address, and in a few minutes, you’ll receive the converted file in your inbox.

PDF Online has an iPhone PDF utility that is currently in beta. This service is amazingly simple, yet has the potential to be very useful. To take your office documents with you on your iPhone or iTouch, simply follow the instructions listed on the website:

1. Send an email to iPhone@pdfonline.com with document(s) attached.
2. PDF Online receives your email and immediately convert the attachment(s) to PDF.
3. Once the PDF is ready, PDF Online replies your email with the PDF attached. If you send multiple attachments, PDF Online will send back multiple emails.
4. Retrieve your email from your iPhone, laptop, or any other handheld devices.

I have tested both variations on this service and it really works well.  The mobile version of the service offers fewer conversion options, though.  The supported file formats are:  Word (.doc and .docx), Excel (.xls), PowerPoint (.ppt), Publisher (.pub), Visio (.vsd), and Rich Text Format (.rtf).  The nice thing about the mobile version is that you can still use it regardless of whether or not you want the document sent to a mobile device.

As a bonus, you can download BCL easyPDF SDK, our PDF Programming Toolkit.  A free copy is available for download so that you can implement PDF conversion functionality on your own personal or company website.

So far, the best application I’ve found for accessing music and videos from your iPod Touch or iPhone, without using iTunes, is iPod Access by Findley Designs. It includes support for both Intel and PowerPC Macs.

From iPod Access website:

“Pod Access is the leading iPod/iPhone music and video transfer application for the Mac. With iPod Access you have instant access to all the songs on your iPod and iPhone. Your songs can be be displayed and sorted in almost any fashion so you can find the songs you need right when you need them. With the new instant search feature in v4 you can find songs just as quickly as you would in iTunes. And once you have found the songs, movies and playlists that you want, iPod Access will copy them right back into iTunes or to an external drive for backup. If you need music from your iPod or iPhone back on your computer then you need iPod Access.”

I had it running and figured out in just a few minutes. Just select the songs you want to copy & press the copy button in the top of the window. You’re presented with a save window, select where you want the songs to be saved, and bam, they’re there. Screenshot below.

I’m very impressed with this little app, and for $19.99, I don’t think you can go wrong.

Requirements: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher, iPod software v1.2 or higher . There is also a Win XP/Vista version of iPod Access.

Adobe’s Photoshop Express is a very good tool for users with little or no Photoshop experience. It isn’t rich in features, but what is there is perfect for those who have no way to edit photos they’d like to post online. Plus with the free storage, how can you go wrong.

I uploaded a test photo to see what I could do. Some of the available features are Crop, Auto Correct, Exposure, Red Eye Removal, Touch Up and Saturation. You can also convert to black and white, apply a nifty Sketch filter, sharpen, and adjust hue.

From what I can tell, you can’t change resolution or link to your photo from an outside source like you can with Photobucket or other image hosting services.

All in all, I think this is a great start for Adobe’s online service. It is well worth checking out!

Original Photo:

Photoshop Expressed Photo:

Yesterday Adobe announced a free online version of Photoshop, called Photoshop Express. The speculation is that this is in response to other free online services like ones provided by Google and Microsoft. I am impressed by this move from Adobe. Not only are they offering a free tool, but you also get 2GB of online storage for your photos as well as gallery capability. I haven’t tested this yet, but I’m assuming we’ll see features like those in early versions of Photoshop Lite. Review to come!