Two free and easy ways to share big files

Sending big files can be a big pain, but in this week’s video tip you’ll learn two simple ways to do the job at no cost.

Most of us are used to emailing files back and forth with friends and colleagues. But when it comes to big files, you might end up feeling like you’re trying to stuff a package through a mail slot. If your attachment is too big—Gmail’s limit, for example, is 25MB—you’ll receive errors and alerts, saying that your message exceeds the mail server’s limits. So what then?

Here are two easy—and free—ways to share big files.

In the past, transferring a big file from one computer to another could be a big pain, even if the computers were sitting next to each other. Apple built the answer for that kind of problem into OS X Lion. But if you haven’t needed AirDrop, you’ve probably overlooked this great OS X feature.

What do you need to make it work? OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later and a Mac made in the past few years. (Apple keeps a list of acceptable models online.) Any Macs that are located within about 30 feet of each other and have Wi-Fi turned on should be able to share files via AirDrop. And by turned on, I mean turned on. You don’t need to be connected to a Wi-Fi network. AirDrop uses special Wi-Fi hardware to initiate a direct connection between the computers.

Here’s how it works: Open a Finder window and click on the AirDrop header. (Or in the Finder, press Command-Shift-R.) You’ll see your computer represented by an icon. Ask the intended recipient of the file to open his or her AirDrop window, too. When that happens, the other person’s Mac will appear in your AirDrop window. Drag and drop the file onto the person’s icon. AirDrop will ask if you really want to send the file. If you really do, click Send. On the other person’s computer, a notification will appear that asks whether to Decline, Save and Open, or simply Save the file. When the person answers in the affirmative, the file will download into the receiving computer’s Downloads folder. That’s it!

AirDrop is great if you’re trying to move a big file to a Mac that’s close by. But what if you want to send a big file farther afield or to a person who doesn’t use a Mac? My choice in such situations is Dropbox. This free file synchronization service is so useful in so many ways that it’s a favorite of Macworld editors, including me.

If you need to send just one file, use a Dropbox link. In your Web browser, navigate to the file in Dropbox and hover your cursor to the right of the Modified field. The words Share link will appear. Click this, add email addresses and a note, and then send. The recipients won’t have to sign up for a Dropbox account to download the file.

If you’ve downloaded Dropbox’s desktop software to your Mac, you can navigate to the file in the Finder and control- or right-click on it. Select Share Dropbox link from the contextual menu. Nothing will seem to happen, but a link has been copied to your clipboard. Go to your email program, paste the link into the message, and send it out.

If you need to share a group of files and receive corrections and new versions, your best bet is to share a Dropbox folder. In the Finder, create a folder within your Dropbox folder, control-click on it, and select Share this folder. This opens your Web browser to a window where you can enter people’s names and write a brief message describing the contents of the folder. Click Share folder to email instructions on how to view the folder.

Each person must sign up for a free Dropbox account, which means giving a name and email address to the service, and creating a password. Once they’ve done that, however, people can see and edit the folder’s contents, add items, and download as they wish. Dropbox works with Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Kindle Fire, so you can share big files with just about anyone. 

Apple's smartphone market share drops to three-year low

Apple's share of the smartphone market dropped in the second quarter to its lowest level in three years, research firm Strategy Analytics said.

The share of the iPhone slipped to 13.6 percent in the quarter from 16.6 percent in the same quarter last year. The largest vendor Samsung Electronics, however, saw its share soar to over 33 percent from over 31 percent in the same period. Samsung shipped over two times the number of smartphones Apple did in the quarter, Strategy Analytics said.

Apple is at risk of being trapped between 3-inch Android smartphone models at the low end and 5-inch Android models at the high end, the research firm said Thursday. The market share of the iPhone in the second quarter was the lowest since the second quarter of 2010, it added. In contrast, Samsung saw strong demand in China and other countries for its flagship Galaxy S4 device, which helped increase volumes.

Sales of the iPhone hit 31.2 million in the April to June quarter, a record for the period, Apple said earlier this week. It had sold 26 million phones in the same quarter last year.

Overall, smartphone shipments grew 47 percent year-on-year to reach a record of 230 million units in the second quarter of 2013, Strategy Analytics said. LG had a share of 5.3 percent, while ZTE had 5 percent and Huawei Technologies had 4.8 percent of the smartphone market. The research firm listed other vendors as together having a share of 38.2 percent in the quarter.

IDC reported Thursday a 52.3 percent growth in the smartphone market with 238 million units shipped in the second quarter. Buyers may have postponed iPhone purchases expecting the launch of a next-generation device in the fall, it added. Apple's sales could accelerate globally if it launches a lower-cost iPhone and continues to penetrate prepaid markets in the quarters to come, IDC said.

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 6 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2013 to over 432 million units, according to IDC. Strategy Analytics said shipments reached 386 million units, an increase of 4 percent year-on-year.

The research firms did not immediately comment on the reason for the variations in their estimates.

Nokia's share dropped in the handset market to 15.8 percent as its shipments fell 27 percent to about 61 million in the second quarter, said Strategy Analytics. The Finnish vendor was hit by "fading Symbian smartphone volumes and lackluster feature phone demand," as it continued to struggle in the big three markets of China, U.S. and India, the research firm said.

Gadgetwise Blog: Listen Alone or Share With Friends

The Flips Audio headphones from Idea Village.
When it comes to a company like Idea Village, you expect to see some unusual concepts.

The company, which develops and markets “as seen on TV” products, like Stompeez children’s slippers and the Shoe Dini shoe horn, recently created a new technology division to market Flips Audio, a hybrid gadget that combines headphones and external speakers.

Placed on your head, Flips Audio delivers music directly to your ears as a pair of on-ear headphones. But when Flips is slipped around your neck, the ear cups can be turned outward for sharing with friends (or strangers on a subway train).

As headphones, Flips delivers decent sound, although a bit muddy, especially at higher volumes. The audio improves when the headphones are transformed into external speakers. Flips will not rock your next party, but the speakers are loud enough to let others nearby hear your music. When you’re done sharing, a quick flip turns them back into headphones.

The external speakers run on an internal lithium-polymer battery that Idea Village says will last two to three hours on a full charge. That’s not very long, but enough time to share your favorite songs. A USB cable is included for charging.

The biggest drawback is the lack of external controls. Flips Audio costs $120, and for that amount of money, you would expect at least an in-line remote control. As it stands, you have to keep your music player handy to change the volume or play or pause a track.

Flips Audio comes in black or white and is available on the company’s e-commerce Web site and at Walmart stores. It may not have the best sound system, but it is a fun novelty. You could easily find better headphones and a better speaker, but you’d be hard-pressed to find them both in the same gadget.

Four British-Based Artists Share More Than $200,000 For Moving-Image Projects

LONDON -- Four new moving-image projects from London-based artists will take a share of more than $200,000 (£135,000) from Film London's Artists' Moving Image Network (FLAMIN).

The British capital's movie agency has picked Mark Leckey, Simon Martin, Gail Pickering and Grace Schwindt to benefit from commissions via FLAMIN Productions, which provides artists with the opportunity to produce “ambitious and original moving image works."

FLAMIN is supported by the Arts Council England and dedicated to funding large-scale, single-screen works which represent "a significant step forward in an artist’s practice."

STORY: Mayor of London Pumps $3 Million into Film London Agency

To date the program has produced a range of pieces, including Ben Rivers’ feature-length project Two Years at Sea, which was released theatrically and acquired by Channel 4, Elizabeth Price’s West Hinder, which was part of an exhibition for which she won the Turner Prize in 2012, and Hilary Koob-Sassen’s Transcalar Investment Vehicles, which won the European Media Arts Festival Award in 2012.

Among this round of recipients is Leckey, who won the Turner Prize in 2008 and whose work has recently been exhibited at this year’s Venice Biennale.

His project On Pleasures Bent has been greenlighted by FLAMIN.

STORY: Film London Creates Department for Artists Looking to Make Movies

Martin, whose recent work was featured in solo shows in London, New York, Toronto and Amsterdam will make UR Feeling.

Pickering, who has exhibited her recent moving-image work across the U.K. and Europe, will mount a project named Dirty Pictures Mirror Speech.

And Schwindt, whose recent work was featured in solo shows in various cities including New York, Edinburgh and London, will make Only a Free Individual Can Create a Free Society.

Film London and the British Film Commission CEO Adrian Wootton said, "Central to Film London’s strategy is to ensure we continue to discover and nurture London’s filmmaking talent. Through FLAMIN, with crucial funding from Arts Council England, we support artist filmmakers to develop and produce interesting works which also progresses them in their careers."

Four British-Based Artists Share More Than $200,000 For Moving-Image Projects

LONDON -- Four new moving-image projects from London-based artists will take a share of more than $200,000 (£135,000) from Film London's Artists' Moving Image Network (FLAMIN).

The British capital's movie agency has picked Mark Leckey, Simon Martin, Gail Pickering and Grace Schwindt to benefit from commissions via FLAMIN Productions, which provides artists with the opportunity to produce “ambitious and original moving image works."

FLAMIN is supported by the Arts Council England and dedicated to funding large-scale, single-screen works which represent "a significant step forward in an artist’s practice."

STORY: Mayor of London Pumps $3 Million into Film London Agency

To date the program has produced a range of pieces, including Ben Rivers’ movie-length project Two Years at Sea, which was released theatrically and acquired by Channel 4 and Elizabeth Price’s West Hinder, which was part of an exhibition for which she won the Turner Prize in 2012, and Hilary Koob-Sassen’s Transcalar Investment Vehicles, which won the European Media Arts Festival Award in 2012.

Among this round of recipients is Leckey, who won the Turner Prize in 2008 and whose work has recently been exhibited at this year’s Venice Biennale.

His project On Pleasures Bent has been greenlit by FLAMIN.

STORY: Film London Creates Department for Artists Looking to Make Movies

Martin, whose recent work was featured in solo shows in London, New York, Toronto and Amsterdam will make UR Feeling.

Pickering, who has exhibited her recent moving image work across the U.K. and Europe, will mount a project named Dirty Pictures Mirror Speech.

And Schwindt, whose recent work was featured in solo shows in various cities including New York, Edinburgh and London, will make Only a Free Individual Can Create a Free Society.

Film London and the British Film Commission CEO Adrian Wootton said, "Central to Film London’s strategy is to ensure we continue to discover and nurture London’s film-making talent. Through FLAMIN, with crucial funding from Arts Council England, we support artist film-makers to develop and produce interesting works which also progresses them in their careers."

Thanks, But No: Social Media Refuses To Share With Turkey

An anti-government protester wearing a gas mask uses a cellphone to read the news on social media as demonstrators gather at midnight in Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park on June 13.

Turkey's battle with the Internet took a new twist on Wednesday.

A Turkish government minister said Twitter has refused to cooperate with the government, but that Facebook had responded "positively" and was "in cooperation with the state."

Turkish Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister Binali Yilderim, quoted in Turkish media, did not elaborate on what this cooperation entails. But Turkish officials have complained that social media outlets aren't sharing user access information with prosecutors and law enforcement agencies.

The story took an additional turn later in the day, when Facebook issued a statement denying that it was cooperating with the government:

"Facebook has not provided user data to Turkish authorities in response to government requests relating to the protests. More generally, we reject all government data requests from Turkish authorities and push them to formal legal channels unless it appears that there is an immediate threat to life or a child, which has been the case in only a small fraction of the requests we have received."

Turkey has stepped back from earlier calls to ban social media, which Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called "a menace." A few years back, Turkey did ban YouTube after videos considered insulting to modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, were posted, but the ban was largely ineffectual and was eventually lifted.

Still, the recent protests have the government searching for new restrictions. An official from Erdogan's AK Party recently said, "A false tweet is more dangerous than a bomb. Social media regulation is a must."

Turkey isn't the first country to try to rein in social media sites, which have figured in various protests and civil disobedience around the world. During the 2011 riots in Britain, lawmakers called for social networking sites to be shut down during time of unrest, and China blocked Facebook during 2009 riots.

Facebook was also blocked after Iran's elections that same year, and Egypt briefly closed it during the Arab Spring demonstrations in Cairo.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have forced Research in Motion, the makers of BlackBerrys, to comply with local regulations regarding its encrypted content that had left authorities unable to monitor communications.

And as our colleague Deborah Amos reported earlier today on Morning Edition,
the Jordanian government has blocked hundreds of news websites across the kingdom amid rising dissent.
What Turkey intends to do next remains something of a mystery.

Ozgur Uckan, a new-media expert at Istanbul's Bilgi University, tells NPR that censoring social media sites presents a technical challenge, and that may be why officials are talking about criminalizing certain content, in an effort to intimidate users and encourage self-censorship.

But some microbloggers have already been targeted: Several arrests in Ankara during the protests there were of young people who had tweeted about the developing protest. In some cases, the tweets simply warned people to avoid certain parts of the city for their own safety.

 

TV Pilot Production Increases as California Loses Market Share: Study

More TV pilots than ever are being made, while production continues to spread to more places,  according to an annual survey by Film L.A.

There were 186 pilots shot for broadcast and cable TV during the 2012-13 development cycle (January-April) -- the most ever.

PHOTOS: The Faces of Pilot Season 2013

Of those, 96 were shot in L.A., the second-largest tally in history. From Jan. 1-June 10, permitted production days for pilots were up almost 40 percent compared to last year.

The bad news, however, is that L.A.’s share of the market fell to 52 percent, the second-lowest on record, down from 82 percent in 2006-07.

“The scary thing for the Los Angeles region,” says Paul Audley, president of Film L.A., ”is we continue to lose ground in our share of work to other states and countries.”

Drama pilots in particular went elsewhere. L.A. had 83 percent of comedy pilots (down from 91 percent last year) but only 22 percent of drama pilots (down from 28 percent last year and 63 percent in 2006-07).

“Comedy has traditionally stuck around Los Angeles,” says Audley, “because the turnaround time on writing for comedy is so short. They are writing up to the time of filming frequently, while dramas have a greater lead time. Comedies are also less expensive to shoot, so the incentives don’t have as much impact.”

The average cost for a half-hour comedy pilot is $2 million, according to the study, while a drama costs $5.5 million for an hour.

Film L.A. estimates that about $277.8 million was spent on TV pilot production in Los Angeles during the most recent development cycle, up from $262 million last year. That is about 39 percent of the total spent by all producers in all locations. In the same period last year, L.A. had about 40 percent of the spend.

“Drama producers use incentives to offset the increased cost of long-distance production,” says the study, “while affording higher-end production values. Often this means financial concerns trump creative concerns when deciding where to shoot.”

During the past three pilot seasons, drama pilots were filmed outside L.A. by a ratio of more than 2-to-1. In the 2012-13 cycle, the ratio was closer to 4-to-1.

“Dramas are highly lucrative,” adds Audley. “States are fighting to get those television dramas and keep them. We continue to lose ground substantially in that area.”

After L.A. (96 pilots) the top production locations were New York (19), Vancouver (15), Atlanta (nine) and Toronto (six), followed by Chicago and New Orleans (five each). All offer greater production incentives than California.

This marks a surge for Atlanta, which passed Toronto for the first time thanks to Georgia’s generous tax incentives, new studio facilities, efforts to train crews and the growing activity of Tyler Perry.

PHOTOS: Summer TV Preview: 51 New and Returning Series

“Atlanta sees itself as a future production center and is really working hard to entice (productions) with money and new facilities,” says Audley. “They have been successful this year.”

One consideration, says the study, is where the comedy or drama is supposed to be set. While L.A. often subs for other places, New York and Chicago mostly play themselves. New York is often used in place of Washington, D.C.

Digital distributors like Netflix and Amazon represent a small but growing part of the total. One difference is that like many cable TV networks, the emerging digital players create pilots throughout the year.

There are real consequences to these location shifts as shown by an additional study done by Film L.A., which analyzed new and continuing pickups of series on broadcast networks during primetime for 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14.

At the beginning of the 2012-13 season, there were 47 L.A.-based shows on broadcast (18 dramas, 29 comedies). There also were 24 shows shot elsewhere (23 dramas, one comedy). “Last year,” says the study, “marked the first time during Film L.A.’s ongoing study in which L.A. accounted for less than 50 percent of network screen time devoted to primetime scripted drama.”

Audley is frustrated by the California incentive plan, which serves up $100 million annually but does not come close to meeting the demand. That law, he notes, does not even include incentives for broadcast network or premium cable series – unless they are returning to the state after shooting elsewhere for at least one full season.

He says California is shortsighted and as a result is losing one of its most important industries.

“If the pilots go, that means the shows will also go elsewhere,” says Audley, “and that’s tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars being spent outside of California.”

Film L.A. is a nonprofit organization that coordinates permits for filmed entertainment shot on location in Los Angeles and L.A. County.