If you have a website and want to easily turn any picture into a FavIcon then here is your saviour.

Chami offers a free web service to create static, and rolling animation FavIcon's.

I've used this site several times in the past, very simple and great results.

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I had heard rumor a few months ago that OpenOffice was going to be native Mac soon, without having to run X11 and then the news dried up. Today it was announced that next month the new native Mac OpenOffice would become available.

While I think this is fantastic news, I feel a bit sad for the NeoOffice group who has been doing such great work 'porting' OpenOffice to the Mac. I would sure think that most people will just use OpenOffice now that it won't require X11.

I'll certainly try out OpenOffice and run with the one I like better.

Here are many screenshots of the new OpenOffice for Mac.

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The Open Document Format, ODF, is gaining some momentum lately. The European Union, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Belgium, , Norway, and Denmark have all recent adopted ODF. Denmark officials believe that the country will save nearly $100,000,000USD by adopting Open Document Format, and OpenOffice.

The decision in Massachusetts to move to ODF was at first assumed to be a move from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice, however, Massachusetts officials have recently made it known that for now they will stay with Microsoft Office with a plugin to support ODF. It will be interesting to see to what degree OpenOffice is implemented in the near and long term.

I think it's great that an organization has developed an open set of document standards, and is now being successful in seeing it achieve some adoption. Office Suites with support for proprietary formats only are quickly going to become a thing of the past. Whether or not the free office suite solutions like OpenOffice and NeoOffice can make a dent in the Microsoft Office dominance is the question. Recent activity indicates that they will. Additionally there are more and more online office suites cropping up which put even more pressure on Microsoft Office.


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...is ".Mac" next?

Yesterday Google announced it's new Google Office aimed at small businesses. I'm sure this sort of thing gives Microsoft sweaty palms considering this is Google. I can't see where this is much of an impact for the Mac audience. However, it does make me wonder how much of a dent Google will make into the Dot Mac market. Google already offers many things that Apple charges for with .Mac. Of course there are integrated goodies with .Mac that you can't rival completely, because Apple supports .Mac and integrates features for it in it's programs.

There are people who are happy to pay the $99/year fee for .Mac for what it offers in return, and then there are more and more people opting for free offerings from Google or others. I'm in the latter group.

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I had a Plate'o'Shrimp moment today when I saw an article pointing out that Apple is much better than Microsoft at maximizing revenue per user for operating systems. Article here. (Plate'o'Shrimp explanation)

Just a couple weeks ago I was pondering how Apple probably makes a lot more money running the iTunes Music Store on it's current pay per track setup rather than my preferred option which is a subscription based model. As I was running through the music scenario it occurred to me that with updates almost each year for Mac OS X, Apple probably is able to get much more money out of our wallets than Microsoft does with paid updates multiple years apart.

Microsoft has only had new OS's every few years, longer from XP to Vista. While Apple has had new revised versions of OS X almost every year. If a person were to pay for each update of OS X along the way, they would pay for more total dollars to be able to run the newest versions of OS X than a Window user would have paid for current versions of Windows.

I don't want to get into a philosophical (or mud slinging) discussion about Windows versions the Mac. But it was pretty interesting to me as I thought about this at how much more money Apple can potentially make by doing upgrades and charge for them annually as opposed to revamping the OS every few years.

How many people upgrade with each new release of OS X, how many people run the version that came with their computer, and "upgrade" when they buy a new computer? I've got no idea, but I'm pretty certain a high percentage of Mac users don't upgrade their OS as frequently as Apple releases new versions. If you are here on this site reading this article, I'm pretty sure that you update the moment the new version is available.

One thing for sure, I'll be running Leopard, whether I upgrade my current Intel iMac, or upgrade to a newer faster Intel Mac which would come with Leopard installed.

I don't hear people complaining about the cost of upgrading to the newest OS X, I think the people who pay to keep current find the upgrades worth the cost while others who don't find it worth the cost just wait.

Gene Munsters's analysis assumed that everybody upgrades at each opportunity, I don't think that is what happens for a large percentage of users. Regardless, it would seem to me that Apple has a more lucrative approach for generating OS revenue dollars. Without some hard facts it's almost impossible to know how much more money Apple is generating.

Please join in the forums and voice your thoughts on the topic.
You will only receive an activation email, unrequested emails are never sent out.

You can discuss this topic here.
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Backing up data is a pain in the butt, you forget to do it, it's not automated, that's why we never seen to have a good backup when we need it.

That was a devils advocate statement, reality couldn't be further from the truth, and it's only going to get even better. Listen to the PodCast on Backing up your data for the full scoop.

I've put together a PodCast on this topic, included in the PodCast are my thoughts on why Time Machine is a breakthrough implementation. (Time Machine is a new backup system coming out in Mac OS X Leopard.)

Give a listen to the PodCast here:

PodCast: Backing up is hard to do...


MP3, 5.6MB, 12 Minutes

Please join in the forums and voice your thoughts on the topic. No emails will go to you with registering, just an activation email.

You can discuss this topic here.
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Occasionally I'll run an application or something from the web, usually something with both Audio and Video, and after playing it I no longer have audio on my Mac. I've heard others grumbling about this too.

What happens is that the 'offending' application is setting your Audio Output frequency to a higher frequency that other apps can playback with. In my case my frequency gets set to 96,000.0 Hz on occasion.

To reset your Audio settings so that you hear system and other audio events again you just need to open the app: Audio Mini Setup, make sure you're on the Audio Devices tab, and in the bottom right corner, set the Audio Output Format to 44100.0 Hz.

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Here we are, MacBook Pro's are rumored to be upgraded to Core 2 Duo cpu's this coming week. What does this mean? 20% increased cpu horsepower at the same energy requirements. Nice! Price is my question, will this nice upgrade cost more money, will it be an option, or will it just replace the older model?

iMac's would seem a likely candidate for the same upgrade to a Core 2 Duo. I'm very happy with my iMac and it's performance, sure I'd love to have it running faster, but not sure I'd go through the hassle involved in changing computers for a 20% upgrade. Though it would be great for those who haven't upgraded to the new Intel Mac's yet.

Join the community in the Forums, speak out about your thoughts on the topic. Your input is most welcome.

COMMENTS
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I have tried various RSS readers on my previous system, a Windows XP box, before without taking to it. I just didn't find it any more convenient than surfing the website myself.

Recently, however, I gave Vienna a try and am really enjoying it. Vienna is a freeware RSS/Atom reader for the Mac; and it is very nice and a delight to use.

I am finding that an RSS reader is a very efficient way to track blog type sites. My only wish is that there were a WinXP version of Vienna that I could run on my PC at work - AND have the two installed copies sync with each other so if an entry is read on one machine, it would also be marked as read on the other machine. Sort of like IMAP functionality for RSS readers. (If this is available somehow, please let me know.)

Are you an RSS user? Let us know your experiences and how you use it.
Thanks,

You can discuss this topic here.
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I've now had the opportunity to spend some time on the newly released NeoOffice 2 Aqua Beta. FANTASTIC. I'm really impressed.

If you're not familiar with NeoOffice, it's basically OpenOffice at the heart, but 'Made for Mac' so it looks great and it doesn't need X11 to run on your Mac, PPC or Intel.

The only drawback for me with NeoOffice is that it doesn't support macros in Excel. NeoOffice does have Macro ability, it just can't run Excel macros. This has to do with VBA and it's restrictions, it seems that other software would have to license it or something in order to run VBA code. This isn't a deal breaker for me, it would be nice though.

Here is a partial screenshot of the new Aqua interface for NeoOffice, this is with stock icons - which can be changed.

I don't have Microsoft Office installed on my Mac, and with NeoOffice at my disposal I don't miss it either.

Oh, in case you weren't aware. NeoOffice is freeware. Donations always accepted. This is a great Office Suite, give it consideration.

Which Office Suite, installed or online, are you using - likes dislikes?

You can discuss this topic here.
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Not long ago I blogged about a couple easy ways to create cool Java slideshows from iPhoto. One solution uses a small applet which accesses your iPhoto photos to create the slideshows. CustomHTMLExport, however, was a slicker design in that it creates the slideshows from within iPhoto. This is nice because you can select specific photos to be included in the slideshow, with the external solution you pretty much have to select an album.

CustomHTMLExport has been shelved, and Dan has done some great work in upgrading it to the new version, WebExport.

In less than 5 minutes I downloaded WebExport, installed it (with a new install, previously you had to copy files to the correct location), I installed the included sample templates (also now automated for ease), and from within iPhoto selected some photos of my recent trip to Cannon Beach, and created a slideshow using AirTight's Simpleviewer.

Here is the link to the slideshow I just created (you can use the right and left arrows to navigate through the photos, or click on the thumbnails.) I ran with the stock settings but you can easily customize, add comments, etc.

This is a really slick way to create nice java slideshows from within iPhoto. I hope Dan or somebody else puts together a template for AirTight's AutoViewer.

Join on the forum and tell about your experience with it or other solutions.

You can discuss this topic here.
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I saw a post mentioning the new release of the Personal Finance software, Moneydance. Quite honestly I'd never heard of Moneydance before, but interestingly it is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. I had looked briefly at iBank before, and while visually it looks very nice, it doesn't have the ability to directly download your bank and other information straight from the internet, you first have to logon to your account and download a file, then import that into iBank - I have over 15 various accounts and have zero interest in taking on this task manually.

I've been using Quicken for over 15 years now, and while I am overall pretty happy with the product, I have a love / hate relationship with Quicken. I love it because it handles all that I need it to do and it greatly automates and simplifies the tracking of my household personal financial management. I hate it because I think it should be more elegant and (pun intended) more intuitive. I also hate that since switching back to the Mac in February 2006 I've had to keep running Quicken for Windows because the Mac version of Quicken is a complete joke.

The marketing that you will find on Intuit's website for Quicken don't give you any indication at how inferior Quicken for Mac is compared to it's Windows counterpart. I imported my Windows data into the Mac version of Quicken and was seriously disappointed as I tried it out. I would estimate that the Mac version is more comparable to Quicken for Windows 1996, not 2006. To make sure I wasn't missing something, I checked user reviews at both Amazon and MacUpdate, and unfortunately confirmed my discovery that Quicken for Mac is pretty lame.

Side note: Oddly enough, while the Windows and Mac versions of Quicken bear no resemblance in features or interface, TurboTax on both platforms is virtually identical. Kudos to the TurboTax team for giving the Mac a decent product. I'm not sure, but maybe TurboTax is done in Java and easier to port across platforms?

When I saw the notice about Moneydance and read that it could import from banks etc. I decided to try it out but after a brief foray realized that it's not full featured enough for me to give it serious consideration. Great job in getting it to import data from the net, but for my relatively modest financial management needs Moneydance isn't the ticket for me.

I would love to see somebody come up with a serious program. I'm beginning to think that Apple may have to play hardball to make this happen. Either somehow get Intuit to bring Quicken for Mac up to speed, or develop their own product. Apple obviously has some great software engineering talents and a knack for fantastic user interfaces. Apple would have the clout to hook into the financial institutions for downloading data. Personally, I'd rather pay Apple $75 for a decent product than Intuit but either way I just want something that I can run on my Mac that will give me the same experience, or better, than Quicken for Windows currently provides.

Which product to you use?

Do you agree or disagree with my sentiments? Tell all on the forums, the link is below.

You can discuss this topic here.
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Spaces was announced to be a new feature in the upcoming version OS X, Leopard. Spaces is a virutal desktop utility which allows you do have multiple desktops concurrently on your Mac. Virtual desktops are nothing new, you can find a virtual desktop application for any popular OS out there. Spaces represents the first time a virtual desktop application will be bundled with the Mac.

It was interesting timing, the announcement of Spaces, because I just recently started using a virtual desktop utility on my iMac. I made the decision to go this route because I often have too many apps/program windows to deal with on just one desktop. After using a virtual desktop program for a little while, I'm finding it very helpful to keep more oranized as I work on my computer. My MO is to keep Mail and Camino in my first desktop, then I group things logically in other desktops as needed. For my purposes 3 desktops is a good number, some times 4 if I am using remote desktop to access my Windows Media Center Edition computer which powers my Audio Video system.

I chose to go with Desktop Manager instead VirtueDesktops, largely because of two things, first Virtue Desktops at that time needed tweaking to run on an Intel Mac and I really didn't want to mess with this, and secondly because I really like how Desktop Manager has a menubar access option to access your destktops - you can also use Key combinations.

Spaces, what I saw of it in the WWDC Keynote speech video, is already in it's pre-release state a far more polished looking virtual desktop implentation than either Desktop Manager or VirtueDesktop. I especially like how if you click on an application icon in dock, Spaces will bring the desktop which that application is displayed into focus. What a great feature, this was most certainly a feature implemented by somebody who uses virtual desktops themselves. The other feature of Spaces which is compelling is how you can drag and drop apps from one desktop to another. There are times when I want to have Camino display in a different desktop so I need to go to the desktop it is currently displayed, minimize it, go to the desktop where I want it, and reveal it. Not the most elegant way to get this job done.

A feature that I would love to see Spaces implement is the ability to "pin" a program. Say you want for example, iChat, to be visible in all windows, or Safari, or Camino, it would be nice to tell Spaces to show that application in all desktops not just one. I have no idea if this is currently a feature of Spaces or not, but I would love to see it happen.

You can discuss this topic here.
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One last item before I take off.

I saw that ArsTechnica has posted their review of the new MacPro. I think that ArsTechnica's reviews are tops, if you are considering a new MacPro or are just interested in it, give this review a read.

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I'm spending several days at Cannon Beach Oregon, USA (see picture below.) This will be a welcomed brief break from the heat of Phoenix, Arizona. (see the Phoenix link for a good laugh.)

You can look forward to MacSeven.com updates on August 17.

In the mean time, don't be shy, sign up for the forums and lets get some good Q&A and commentary going.

Thanks.

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MineSweeper is a game many of us have played at one time or another.

When I ran across Mine Swept I had a nostalgic moment, give me a second to compose myself please...

No, this isn't as exciting as new Leopard features, or a MacPro, but hey it's free and fun.

Check it out at Malarkey Software.

What classic games have you recently rediscovered?

You can discuss this topic here.
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iPhotoToGoogleEarth is a utility from Stanton Software, freeware, donations happily accepted.

From Craig's website: iPhotoToGoogleEarth is a plugin for iPhoto 6 that will export photos for viewing in Google Earth. To make the most of iPhotoToGoogleEarth you'll need to have GPS infomation stored in the Exif tags. If you don't know what that means this plugin probably isn't for you.

The best GPS tagger out there is GPSPhotoLinker, check it out. Once you have photos tagged correctly, select your images in iPhoto and then Export. If you have a track log (in NMEA format) you can include it with the images and configure the line thickness and colour. If the track is very long you may wish to lower the detail (it skips points) so that Google Earth runs smoothly, this will depend on how fast your computer is.

The file it produces is a KMZ. Open it with Google Earth or share it with friends to show off where you have been.


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QuickSilver may have that Google Buzz about it, but I prefer LaunchBar. LaunchBar feels like a part of OS X to me, QuickSilver feels like a definite addon. They both operate lightning fast, LaunchBar in my tests is far faster to update its indexes than QuickSilver. LaunchBar has a very extensive list of things it can do in addition to simply launching programs, however, QuickSilver does have an edge here with it's more extensible architecture. The fact that LaunchBar can't do everything out of the box that QuickSilver could potentially do doesn't bother me too much, LaunchBar does so much great stuff, if it did any more I'd probably start forgetting everything it is capable of.

Whether you are a fan of LaunchBar or QuickSilver you may have heard that during the WWDC Keynote Speech, it was announced that Spotlight is getting a major overhaul for Leopard, and one of it's new features will be the ability to launch programs much more efficiently. Without my seeing Leopard, my pure guess is that Spotlight will have a very effective and slick launcher feature. But I wonder about the other things that I use LaunchBar for, will Spotlight take on some of these tasks too?

I use LaunchBar for the following tasks:
● Launch Applications
● Fire up specific files and have them open in the appropriate application
● Launch websites from my Favorites
● Launch any URL (not from favorites, but free-form)
● Start an email to people in my address book
● Search Wikipedia, Google, Froogle Google, Buy.com, Amazon, MacUpdate and other sites,
● Dial phone numbers from my Address Book (needs Jon's Phone Tool for this)
● Look up contact info my my address book
● Navigate to a drive/folder on my computer
● Start an email and auto-attach a file to that email
● Spotlight searches via LaunchBar
● For control in iTunes

LaunchBar can do other things too, but this is how I use it.

It would be a terrible thing for the guys who bust their butt to make great software like LaunchBar and QuickSilver, but wouldn't it be better for the mass audience if something similar to them were integrated into the OS? I tend to think so, but I doubt the new Spotlight will be as full featured as either LaunchBar or QuickSilver. Time will tell.

You can discuss this topic here.
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I've updated the story "How to get big files to people"

I had recommended the service YouSendIt, but they have changed their offering and I now recommend SendThisFile instead.

You can discuss this topic here.
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Caps Warn is a great little utility that I've started using. The developer says that this program is designed for the following use:

"CAPS Warn is designed for people who type with one hand using Sticky Keys, or for anyone who presses the Caps Lock key frequently by mistake."

But that's not why I use it. My Keyboard & Mouse is the Logitech S530 wireless keyboard & Laser wireless mouse set. In order to conserve battery life, the wireless keyboard had no indicator for the Caps Lock. Since my keyboard doesn't tell me if my Caps Lock is on or not, this utility is really handy.

Caps Warn can be configured to do more than just Caps Lock notification, but I'll focus on that since it's how I use it. The default setting is to display a red outline of an Up Arrow if Caps Lock are turned off, and a filled in red arrow if Caps Lock are enabled.



This is with Caps Lock turned OFF:

This is with Caps Lock turned ON:

I prefer another setting which is more discrete, and doesn't use up precious menu bar space, and that is to have nothing show when Caps Lock are off, and it will display a small red box at the very top left of your screen, left and above the Apple Menu.

This is what it looks like:

By the way, regardless of which display option you choose, the notifications also light up if you engage the Shift key.

John Woodward developed this utility, you can find it at his website.

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Wow, there is a lot of great stuff that they go over for Leopard in the WWDC Keynote Speech. And there is more to come that was not previewed. I'm really excited to see some of this in action. Time Machine, Spaces, and the Mail enhancements with Notes and system wide ToDo's are three things that all by themselves will make upgrade to Leopard a must do for me. And that just scratches the surface. The Keynote also covers all the information about the new Mac Pro and XServe computers. If you don't have an hour and a half to spare to watch the video, then be sure to check out the Leopard Sneak Peek which can be viewed very quickly.

You can click on the images below to go to the WWDC Keynote Speech, and to see the Leopard Sneak Peek information.

You can discuss this topic here.
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WWDC 2006 kicks off today hopefully there will be a lot of exciting news for the Mac faithful. I'm not going to play the guessing game about what Apple is going to announce, I can wait a day, or over the next week, to find out. Instead of speculating on what Leopard may or may not have and which computer or iPod products may be announced, I've decided talk a bit about memory for the Mac.

Many people talk about the 'dot Mac' tax and how much of what Apple displays on the Mac and iLife require a .Mac account for full usefulness and features. I for one don't pay for .Mac, I find that I'm very happy with my AIM Mail (formerly MailBlocks), I get great inexpensive web & ftp hosting elsewhere - so I don't see why I would need .Mac. I think the syncing feature between several Mac's is really cool; but I only have 1 Mac and even if I had multiple Mac's I'd probably be inclined to use a LAN sync option rather than .Mac.

Enough of that, this commentary wasn't intended to focus on .Mac it just fell into the fray. I mentioned the .Mac tax because it is a widely accepted argument that .Mac is a quasi tax to Mac users who want the simplicity and ease that .Mac and it's integration to the Mac offers.

Instead of talking more about .Mac I want to point out is the Mac Memory Tax. I think it's a disservice that Apple sells new Mac's with only 512MB of memory. Mac's are always being compared to the PC's in terms of features and price, the new Mac's compare very well to the current name brand PC's. But a big difference is in the memory, most of the machines I see have 1GB of RAM, double the amount that the Mac's come with. The price of RAM from Apple is terribly expensive also. I think the new Mac's are wonderful, and need to ship with 1GB of RAM to keep people happy with their machines, and to prevent the end user from having to spend around $300 per GB of ram.

Mac's are wonderfully designed computers, they are a wonderful computers for novices and professionals alike. Mac's need and the customer deserves to have 1GB included with these machines as the base memory.

Stop taxing us by making us purchase additional RAM, include 1GB in the base configuration.

Until Apple gets more liberal in dolling out the memory. Check elsewhere for memory, you'll find it much less expensive than buying directly from Apple. When I received my new Intel powered iMac I bought 1GB to add to the factory 512MB for a much better amount of 1.5GB.

I bought my memory from MemoryToGo and I've previously bought memory from Crucial. Do yourself a favor when it's time for more money and shop around for a better deal than Apple offers.

You can discuss this topic here.
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Have you ever been working away on your Mac Notebook then take off somewhere only to realize that your battery is almost dead, because it wasn't actually plugged in and charging when you thought it was? Unplugged is a cool little, growl aware, application that helps you to realize if your notebook is plugged into the wall and charging.

UnPlugged. Fast, Simple, Invisible
UnPlugged is an application to notify when the power cord of the Mac is unplugged or plugged in. Notifications are done using Growl, or with a Alertwindow, when Growl is not installed. This App is done with Cocoa and doesn't use as much RAM and CPU usage as the other tools available.
If you're running a Mac Notebook this may be a good idea for you. Free, donation requested. Download here.

You can discuss this topic here.
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NOTE: There is an update to this post, please see the new post for futher details. New Post.


Please note that CustomHTMLExport has been replaced with WebExport, and it's much improved!

Airtight's SimpleViewer and AutoViewer are two slick Java slideshows.

Here are two ways that you can create slideshows from iPhoto without having to have any other Dreamwork type applications.



iPhoto Export from Haugus.net is a free standing application which reads pictures from iPhoto. It has had many revisions and is very stable with good features.

CustomHTMLExport is a plugin for iPhoto, so you export right from iPhoto. This is newer and will probably have a few revisions before it's as easy to use as Haugus.net's slideshow tool. CustomHTMLExport has the nice feature of being built right into iPhoto.

Check them out and get cracking on some great slideshows.

Put links to your pix in the discussion forum.


You can discuss this topic here.
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Use your Mac to upload photos!

Now there are two ways to upload your photos to Picasa Web Albums -- from directly within iPhoto or using drag-and-drop from a standalone application.
For iPhoto users
The Picasa Web Albums Exporter lives right inside iPhoto. Select photos, choose Export in the File or Share menu, and upload them directly to your web album.
For a standalone application
Use the Picasa Web Albums uploader -- just drag photos from the Finder and click the Upload button.

Requirements:

• Picasa Web Albums account to use the Exporter or uploader.

  -  You must have a

• OS X 10.4 or later.

  -  Requires

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This great tip was submitted by reader K | A | H

I use my MacBook Pro sometimes here at work and up to this point I've just reached over to use the mousepad and keyboard. One of my co-workers asked if I had ever used an called Synergy so long story short is you install it on both machines and presto now I can control my MBP with my desktop keyboard and mouse just as if it was a dual-mon machine. It's pretty tight.

It's a bit of a hassle to setup (made by geeks for geeks must be their motto), but it's a pretty awesome setup. I could see it coming in handy given the multiple computers I have at home and work.

MacSeven.com - What makes this different than say VNC or Remote Desktop?

K | A | H - It's like having dual mon except when you move off screen to your left (or whatever side you set it to) it goes directly to your other computer. Keyboard and clipboard are fully functional though it's a bit odd to be on a Mac and hit Alt+C to copy then move to the screen on the right and hit Ctrl+V to paste.




Description from Synergy:

Introduction

synergy: [noun] a mutually advantageous conjunction of distinct elements

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all. Learn more about how it works.

You can discuss this topic here.
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More and more people are discovering that they have files to send to somebody, but the files are too large for email. You may have a video clip, some music you've been working on, or what something else that you need to get to somebody but you can't email it. There are other options available to deliver your data. Of course if you have your own website or FTP you can set up something to deliver with those, but those options are a bit cumbersome and aren't meant for quick easy use.

If you do have web or FTP space FileChute is a great option, it facilitates the process and makes it very easy and very slick, for a price of $15. Pando is another method, this is free and Pando stores the files on their servers for you, they allow up to 1GB files for about a week. The only drawback to Pando is that both the sender and receiver need to install Client software. The software is free, but it's just a hassle/acceptance factor that many don't want to deal with.

Update - FileChute has lowered the file size to only 100MB which isn't enough for me. I've switched over now to SendThisFile. Their service seems to work very well, and in fact has unlimited file sizes. There are paid accounts with more features, but the free service is pretty nice.

OLD NEWS >>The option that I find myself using more frequently is YouSendIt.<< This is similar to Pando in that they host the file, up to a 1GB file can be stored on YouSendIt. for up to a week, and it may be downloaded up to 100 times - all this for free. The main difference is that YouSendIt is a web interface which has a benefit in that the receiver of a file doesn't need to install any software for retrieval. They also offer paid accounts with better benefits. Check them out, it's a great service. My only wish is that there were a Widget to facilitate the uploading and the sending of notification, this would be a little easier than their website, but the website uploading isn't bad at all.