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Google Wave Desktop Client Match-Up: Waver vs WaveBoard for Mac

Arnold Zafra — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:19:01 +0000

Hopefully by now, most of you have already received your Google Wave invite. And chances are you are either enjoying Google Wave or still trying to figure out how it works. If you’re enjoying Google Wave right now, you might want to check out two available desktop client for Google Wave – Waver and Waveboard. These desktop clients allow you to use Google Wave without needing to open a new browser window. And for a real-time communication tool, this is very important.

I’ve downloaded both clients on my MacBook Pro and come up with the following comparisons. Take note, Waveboard is currently for Mac OS only, while Waver runs on Linux, Windows and Mac.

Waver Google Wave Desktop Client

Waver is an Adobe AIR application that gets your Google Wave account and lets you create waves, updates existing waves as well as reply to existing ones. It’s a single column interface that renders Google Wave using WebKit. Being a single column that it is, it also allows you to navigate through the various components of your Google Wave account including your Wave Inbox, Contacts, and existing Waves. It doesn’t open another windows though.

Good thing about Waver since it is using Adobe’s Javascript implementation is the fact that it renders Waves quickly. For a real-time communication that supposedly updates as fast as it could, this is very important. And Waver succeeds on this department.

Waver also works with bots and gadgets. Meaning you can use bots to automate tasks that you would normally do on Google Wave.

Remember, to run Waver you need to install Adobe AIR. Doing so will take some valuable space of your machine, so that’s just the low-down of using it.

Waveboard Google Wave Desktop Client for Mac

While Waver is as simple desktop solution for Google Wave, Waveboard takes it a little farther by introducing more features and functionality that will surely make your Google Wave experience a more pleasant one.

Waveboard presents you with four windows – Navigation, Contacts, Inbox and the Wave windows. These are the main components of Google Wave actually. It works like your usual email client, where you can have access to each of the menus quickly and easily.

Three features of Waveboard that makes it superior with Waver are – file drag and drop, keyboard shortcuts and notifications.

To enable “drag and drop” you need to run Google Gears first. Once this is setup you can upload files from your desktop into a Wave that you are currently editing. Participants of that Wave can immediately see the files you’ve dragged into the wave.

As with other Mac applications, there are several keyboard shortcuts that you can use on Waveboard. Most of these Waveboard keyboard shortcuts are similar to the Mac Command + key functions.

Finally, Waveboard sends notifications when a new Wave you created or in which you are a participant has changed since the last time you logged in to your Wave account. If you’ve participated in many Waves or created several of them, you can easily monitor which have changed. But to make the notifications disappear you need to read the Waves or use the SPACE key if you don’t want to read the Waves.

Which is Better Waver or Waveboard

Much as I would like to say that Wabeboard is better, I could not because both desktop client for Google Wave serve their individual purposes and will cater to the preferences of different people. If you want a lightweight client you’d prefer Waver. But if Waver is too simple for you, you’d use Waveboard instead.

5 Google Wave Gadgets that You Will Most Likely Use

Arnold Zafra — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:37:22 +0000

I’ve been playing around with Google Wave for the past couple of weeks. And to be honest, I still couldn’t dig its merit. It’s supposed to be an online communication tool. And yet you can communicate only with friends in your contact list. And right now it is currently in exclusive beta mode, with probably more than 100,000 users if Google really sent out those invites as they say so. Now what if none of you contacts got into the Wave beta?

To make my Google Wave exploration useful, I decided to look around for Wave gadgets that I can use, and actually found a handful of them. So here goes, 5 Google Wave Gadgets that you will most likely use.

Twitter

You knew this is will be my first useful gadget right? It should be, well at least for me. This gadget gives you your Twitter’s public timeline as a wavelet. Unfortunately, it does not allow you to post tweets, reply to conversation directly on Twitter. To activate this gadget just add tweety-wave@appspot.com to your contact list. It will authenticate your Twitter account the first time you use it.

Amazon

This gadget lets you search for products on Amazon’s various product category. It’s the best looking Google Wave gadgets I’ve seen so far. And the Amazon bot works fast t00. To add this gadget, just add amazon-withwaves-com@appspot.com to your contact list.

Eliza

If got bored while exploring Google Wave or you’re contacts are not sending you waves, you might find Eliza useful. Yup, it’s the auto-chat bot who is also an auto-shrink. Common, talk to her if you must. Just don’t ask too many complicated questions. To add Eliza to Google Wave, just add elisarobot@appspot.com. Have fun!

Starify

This gadget lets you bookmark Waves which you can then later on list or delete. It uses the following commands – /star’, /list’, and /delete’. To add this gadget to Google Wave, just add starifybot@appspot.com. It could be useful if you’ve created many waves already.

Calcbot

This Wave gadget will come in handy whenever you need to do some simple calculations while in the middle of a conversation inside a wave. Just add calcbot@appspot.com to your contact list and you’re good to go.

These are just some of the Google Wave gadgets currently available. Using these gadgets on your Google Wave account adds some excitement to Google Wave, especially if you don’t have too many contacts who are in the exclusive circle of early Google Wave users. If you’re not one of them and you want an invite, just shoot me an email with your gmail account and I’ll include you in my invitation list. I still have a couple of invites to throw out.

11 Cool Halloween Facebook Apps to Scare Your Friends Away

Arnold Zafra — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:41:31 +0000

If you liked our list of cool iPhone Halloween apps, we’re pretty sure you’d enjoy these 11 Facebook Halloween apps as well. All Facebooks here will surely make your Halloween celebration spooky in a funny kind of way. Have fun!

Halloween Haunting

Haunt your friends with this Halloween app. Select any Halloween gifts that you think would scare your friend. Everytime you login you will be awarded with Freaky Funds which you can later on use to purchase other Halloween treats.

What should you be for Halloween?

If you haven’t decided yet what costume you wil be hearing during Halloween, this app will help you by asking several questions that will determine its final suggestion for what you should be.

Halloween Countdown

Want to have a Halloween countdown clock on your profile, this is the Facebook app to to use. It allows you to select background for your Halloween countdown clock as well.

Halloween Pumpkins

This app lets you carve a pumpkin and put it on your profile or carve another one and send it to your friends.

Halloween Wars

If you like Mafia wars, this app is a simple taken on yet another war game. But this your objective is to terrorize Halloween night.

Halloween Eating Contest

Challenge your friends into a virtual eating contest featuring some yummy halloween-inspired treats.

Halloween Hatchlings

Kill the new breed of monster hatchlings before the evil Count starts creating a new of monsters and release them to the world.

Halloween Quotes

Pepper your Facebook profile with cool Halloween quotes complete with nice looking background. The app lets you display a single or random quotes.

Halloween Treats

This app lets you send Halloween Treats to your Facebook friends. You can select various treats such as scary, spooky or funny pictures and animated GIFs. You will be able to unlock more treats eavery day.

Halloween Name Generator

Still don’t know what name to call your self, use this app to get your Halloween Name. Just type in your name, select your sex and select a background to use in your Facebook profile.

Which sexy Halloween costume is right for me?

So you want to join the Halloween fun but could not decide what costume to use that will make you still look sexy? Take the quiz and find the perfect sexy costume that will suit you.

10 Mobile Apps That Promote Safety

Andrew G.R. — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:10:12 +0000

Recently Rotorblog posted about Social Media Tools that Save Lives.

Because cell phones have become equipped to do so much more than simply call or text, we’re exploring some of the various ways cell phone users can maximize the potential of their phones. An often overlooked category is safety because vigilance tends to happen *after* an event, so take a moment and look into these 10 apps and find new ways to use your phone…

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
The Life360 Google Android app was born from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and is an emergency preparedness tool for families that “in less than five minutes, families can have access to a tool that does everything from family GPS tracking, to document warehousing, disaster planning, and emergency messaging.”

Rave Alert calls themselves the “next generation alerting system” for mass emergencies and is employed in places like colleges or apartment communities to alert a large group at one time via text messaging, email, PA system, Facebook and even via Twitter. It is being adopted most quickly by colleges and high schools in this post-Virginia Tech era.

DRIVING
Cell phone app MotoRiety monitors driver distractions from text messages to phone calls and reports all phone activity, even tweeting about driver behavior while driving. Aggressive acceleration, miles and idle time is logged and provided in periodic email reports making this tool perfect for parents of teen drivers.

Playsafe is an iPhone app that makes scrolling for music safer and less distracting. The app turns the iPhone into a large button so users don’t have to scroll through small icons while driving and tapping the screen will play or pause music while swiping to the left or right will change the track.

SAFETY ALERTS
Safety Button is a simple iPhone app that allows users to start the program, push the big red button and it begins tracing the user’s step and reporting to a server. If the red button is pressed again (in case of distress), the server will send your emergency contact person a panic message containing your position.

Android application SafetyNet is activated when the phone is shaken and can function in panic mode or medical mode even if the app isn’t running which will immediately alert everyone in your “SafetyNet” sending them your position and a distress call. SafetyNet is ideal for people with medical issues or lone joggers.

FIRST AID
iPhone offers two applications for your iPhone- First Aid for Infants and First Aid for Children, both containing easy to read instructions on topics from protection to blocked airways to CPR and other emergencies. This app is ideal for parent, babysitters, teachers and more.

MEDICINAL USES
AT&T developed app, MedNet allows heart patients to send data from their heart monitors to Bluetooth enabled phones (on AT&T) and then on to their cardiologist making heart care more interactive. Heart monitor data interactivity is a great preventative measure.

Although not available on the market yet, we wanted to share a glimpse of the future with you. U.C. Berkeley is developing and testing a program called Cellscope which is a microscope connected to a cell phone for diagnostics (think doctors in remote areas like a desert, mountaintop or even space). It can be used “for bright field microscopy, which uses simple white light–such as from a bulb or sunlight–to illuminate samples. The latest development adds to the repertoire fluorescent microscopy, in which a special dye emits a specific fluorescent wavelength to tag a target–such as a parasite, bacteria or cell–in the sample.” It’s powerful enough to detect malaria, tuberculosis or even sickle cells. Wow.

Are you currently using any mobile apps that promote safety? Which of these work with your phone and will you be downloading any of the above? Let us know in comments!

7 Hot Portable Fitness Tracking Devices

Andrew G.R. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:20:04 +0000

For the fitness minded or those that need that extra push in motivation, the team at RotorBlog has sought out numerous portable fitness tracking devices and we’ve found seven unique devices to help you track and improve your workout routine:

1. Fitbit- featured in the 2008 Tech Crunch 50, FitBit makes us want to start working out- it acts as a pedometer, measures calories burned and distance travel and even measures sleep quality. Fitbit has a 3D motion sensor like a Wii and is one of the smaller devices on the market that can be worn in a variety of places, and all of your fitness information is uploaded to your Fitbit.com page to track online from anywhere. Fitbit is only $99.

2. Nike Plus- Nike + iPod helps you rock out at the gym while tracking your progress. Hook up your iPhone or iPod to record your running, noting distance, time and pace or connect your Nike+ shoes with built in sensor to track your running progress while the Nike+ voice tells you your progress. Nike+ syncs with your computer so you can track your goals and connect with others focused on their fitness goals also. The basic sport kit starts at $29.

3. Run Keeper- this iPhone app is among the most simple ways to track your fitness activities, not just running but cycling, hiking and skiing. All you do is press start when you begin your activity and Run Keeper will track your distance, speed and duration, syncing to you web dashboard to keep tabs on your fitness progress. One of the cool features of Run Keeper is that it will map your route and email you a link to share with others. Run Keeper is $9.99.

4. Garmin FR60- one of Garmin’s newest products is a wristwatch style gadget that logs time, heart rate and calories from jogging or even syncs with linked fitness equipment to log your fitness regimen. The FR60 is wireless and syncs to your computer automatically when in close enough proximity. It comes in various colors and can track up to 15 straight hours of activity. It’s swim friendly and has a bike mount for cyclists. The FR60 is $199.

5. Vetta RT277- this heavy duty cyclometer tracks current, maximum, and average speed as well as cadence and offers a cumulative odometer, trip distance, ride timer and a simple auto start and stop function. The RT277 has a replacable front cover, easy handle bar mounting and is one of the few on the market that is truly water resistant. The RT277 is $37.99.

6. Timex Ironman Tracker- stay fit with this wristwatch that tracks calories, pace, steps, distance and has the iconic Timex indigo night light which is great for night running. The Ironman has two interval timers, users claim to be one of the most comfortable options on the market. It’s water resistant and is used by triathletes, swimmers and skiers because it is waterproof. The Ironman Tracker is $90.

7. Garmin Forerunner- is a wrist mounted lap tracker measuring distance, time and calories and features integrated GPS displays that show progress on your favorite routes and saves up to 100 of your locations. The Forerunner is pretty cool because it has a virtual partner mode that lets you race against a digital competitor and set goals for distance, pace and time. The Forerunner has a history function that breaks down and graphs your stats and is $121.95.

Are you a runner, swimmer or cyclist? Which tracking device above do you use or plan on checking out? Let us know in the comments what your routine is and how you use or plan on using a fitness tracking device

Inexpensive HD Camcorders: 6 Alternatives to the Flip

Andrew G.R. — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:51:07 +0000

As technology advances, cameras become smaller, sleeker, faster and the images become more high def while the technology becomes easier to use. The Flip video camera revolutionized camcorders by being simple to use with no software to download, only a simple USB connection to a computer allowing users to instantly download web-ready video. While the Flip cam is amazingly simple to use, there are now many viable alternatives:

1. RCA Small Wonder- hailed as a less expensive competitor to the Flip, it offers a swivel screen so users can view the video as it is being shot, it has an SD card slot for expanded memory and now allows users to post directly to YouTube. A DVD recorder doubles as a Small Wonder Direct Dock with one-touch functionality.

2. Kodak Zx1- is great for outdoors because it is water-resistant and has a major advantage over a Flip cam in that it is still photography ready rather than exclusively video. The Kodak Zx1 also comes in colors such as blue, pink, black, red and yellow and has well protected USB, SD Card slot, AV-out and HDMI output features. The cam runs off AA batteries and is NOT Mac compatible.

3. Sony Webbie- feels more like a traditional camcorder which may be more comfortable to some. The Webbie offers a large swivel screen and shoots in high resolution, backed up by an insertable memory stick. The Webbie offers still photography (5MP) and video and has a better battery life than many of its competitors. Media is saved on Memory Stick PRO Duo media, a proprietary drive for Sony products.

4. Samsung HMX-R10- easily has the most unique designs and looks more like a rounded Jetsons gadget than a camcorder. (You’ll either live it or hate it). It has a tilted lens, fits in a pocket, has expandable memory with an SD card and can record in full HD. The HMX also allows still shots along with video and offers superior color and noise accuracy over many of its competitors.

5. Creative Vado- offers 8GB of memory and a removable, rechargeable battery. The Vado has a HDMI cable to connect with and has a larger screen than a Flip although they share the USB flip feature. The Vado is one of the least expensive options on the market yet is frequently compared to a Flip cam. Built-in software allows you to edit videos on the fly.

6. Sanyo Xacti- is among the best camcorders for sports or action because it is fully waterproof (designed for underwater filming/accessory purchase necessary) and films in horizontal or vertical mode depending on how a user holds it. Some models offer 1080p filming, the highest resolution available in handheld camcorders on the market. As an owner of this cam I can tell you that the video quality is best outdoors with low to moderate motion. Also still shots are shaky and on a massive delay. The 3.0-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD monitor gives the cam the feel of a more expensive video camera.

With thousands of options on the market, tell us what HD camcorder you are using and why? What features are most important to you- social sharing, quality, durability, battery life? Tell us in the comments!

8 Things To Consider While Building a Quality Network

Ching Ya — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:30:17 +0000

Do you believe in the power of social networking?

Social media is not just a fad but a vessel to reach a wider audience. A site without readers is powerless, which is why bloggers and internet marketers are advised to build quality network to ensure quality traffic. Quality connections assure your well-written posts be heard and spread – a vital rule for a site to grow and be known.

8 Things To Consider While Building a Quality Network

1. Determined and Clear About Your Goals

- One has to be clear about the purpose of the network. There’s a huge crowd in every social media site: some joining it for fun, some as an outlet while some are looking for business ventures. Be clear of your objectives before reaching out so you’ll have a clear idea on the ample time and effort spent in network building.

2. Research on The Power Users

- Do you know how power users utilize social networks in their area of expertise? How they started? What social media they’re using to reach the desired crowd? You don’t have to be a copycat but by learning how they did it, you’ll have a lead where to start and modify your strategy from there. Same trick may not give you the same result, so always be prepared for trials and initiate a better one to fit your needs.

3. Identify Your Potential Audiences

- A simple question: Now why do we see promoters loitering around the mall capturing potential customers? Apart from traffic, it’s the place where consumers most likely to spend on something. You don’t see shopaholic hanging out in the clinic, do you? Identify your potential audiences within a social network, whether it’s a forum or a particular chatroom. Gain access and start contributing in frequency and quality.

4. Be Distinctive & Noticeable

- The idea of being you, and no one else! Representing your own, unique brand and your site, be outspoken but with respect; share an experience or an insightful comment on a post you just came across. Initiate a conversation or ask a question if you’re not sure about the answer. Don’t be quiet in a network unless you wish to be buried and never be found.

5. Patience & Forget About Number’s Game

Taking part in all of the social media sites might not give you the results you hope for. Here’s why:

A) 10 social media sites (1 hour/day) = 6 minutes per site

A quick drop of ‘visit my blog’, ‘I’m updating my post’ or ‘Just got back from work’ won’t excite people. Not to mention sometimes you tend to spend longer at a site and lost track of time. What if it affects your work quality, or causes procrastinations?

B) 3 social media sites (1 hour/day) = 20 minutes per site

Have in depth conversations with your peers. Do you know a person better by following their updates and respond accordingly? Definitely.

No network can be built without even willing to spend time and listen to someone. Unless you’re super connective and humorous to grab people’s attention. In that case, it’s a gift, use it wisely.

Spend ample time and care about others, only then people will care about what you’re sharing. Be patient as quality network takes time. Forget about ‘number’s game’ and focusing on quality network building.

6. Be Helpful & Sincere

We all love kind and sincere individuals. When I was just a new blogger, I remembered clearly who helped me and encouraged me along the way. Their names are vivid in my mind even till today. To help someone is a great experience. While you get to make some new friends, you can learn something in return. Do not expect repayments but be sincere. I never see prestigious bloggers urging people to thank them or hold a grudge at someone for unwilling to promote their products. Humility is a wonderful virtue and shall be prolonged in any social networks.

7. Quality Posts & Return Favors

If you’re a blogger, writing killer blog posts is the best way to grab attention. Learn to be the authority within your niche. Providing quality presentations while active in replying comments. Continue the blog networking elsewhere by repaying visits or supporting your commentators on other social networks. A healthy network is all about mutual support and encouragement, but not until someone uses it to manipulate the intention of this good will. For example, don’t reward link droppers or spammers with your favors.

8. Enjoy the Process

Most of all, enjoy the process and have fun with it. In my experience, quality network building is what ensures the satisfaction and friendships I have today, which I valued more than just a popular post. The supports are on-going and mutual trusts are built from within. There’s no popular contest on the run here so take your time! Unless you’re looking for fast traffic, then I’m afraid it’s the quantity game you’re aftering.

It’s Your Turn
What do you value most in a social network? Do you have anything else to add besides what mentioned above? Kindly share it in the comments.

Guest post:

Ching Ya is a social media addict & freelance writer/designer. She’s the author of Social @ Blogging Tracker where she talks about ideas & apps related to social networking. You can reach her at @wchingya (Twitter), Facebook and LinkedIn.

10 Facebook Apps that Lets You Do Fun Stuff with your Photos

Arnold Zafra — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:02:06 +0000

There are many applications in Facebook that lets you enhance, add effects, edit and possibly do anything with your photos. These apps gives your otherwise boring Facebook photos the boost they need to make them exciting and enticing for your friends to look at. Here are 10 of the best Facebook photo applications that lets you do fun stuff with your photos. Enjoy!

Photoeffects

As it name’s suggest, this Facebook photo app lets you apply various effects to your Facebook photos and then share it with your friends and family. Choose from around 81 photo effects that you want to add to your photos using an easy-to-use interface.

Photo Tag

This Facebook app lets you add custom speech bubbles and other items to your photos. It allows you to use as many photos as you want. What’s good about this app is the fact that it automatically tags your friends when you’ve taken their photo and decided to share it with other people on Facebook.

Blast Your Photo

This is a pretty straightforward photo app that lets you do one thing with your photo – add an effect that will make you appear as if you’re gargling with Listerine. It’s a simple app and yet could be fond, especially if you’ll apply it to the photos of your friends.

Your Baby Photo

Again another simple Facebook photo app that lets you do one thing, “babify” your own photo to make it appears as if it was taken when you were actually a baby. Another fun and cool Facebook app worth trying, if only for some laugh that you’re going to give once you see how the app will turn your old photo into your baby photo.

Lunapic

This app is a cool way of editing your Facebook photos using a single click. Choose from various effects such as cut, crop, rotate, sharpen, blend and other cool animation effects. Even more fun is the fact that you can edit your friends’ photos as well.

Phixr Photo Editor

Phixr lets you edit your photos from simple cropping to resizing, removing red eye, adding speech bubbles, removing photo noise as well as other effects and tools. It’s actually a web browser plug-in which is ported to Facebook.

BW Photo

Although this Facebook photo app’s main purpose is to turn your photos into black and white it also allows to add other fun effects such as Sepia, Shadow, Saturate and more.

FotoFlexer

Now here’s a powerful photo editing toos for your Facebook photos. And perhaps one of the most used as well by Facebook members. It lets you create fun greeting cards, enlarge, crop, rotate, cartoonify, distory, and many other things that you can possibly do with your photos and with your friends’ photos as well.

Funny Photo Widget

Just by the example funny photo above, i’ll let you decide whether you’ll find this Facebook photo app funny or not. Alright, of course it’s a funny and cool photo editing tools. You can use the edited photo as your Facebook profile pic and what’s so good about it is the fact that the effects randomly changes.

PhotoMagic

This Facebook photo app provides cool configurable image processing effects that you can apply to your photos. It’s easy to use as well. All you need to do is to select a photo from your Facebook photo albums, select the effects you want added and automatically upload it to your album. The effects include blur, sharpen, threshhold, sepia, pencial sketch, paint draw, speckle. Yeah, it kind of reminds you of the various Photoshop effects, right. The app is pretty cool, try it.

8 eBookstores Where You Can Purchase eBooks Online

Arnold Zafra — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:02:58 +0000

Whether you agree or not, ebooks are here to stay. It is bound to replace the old printed books as we know it today. The proof? There are now several online ebook stores where you can purchase and download commercially published books. Here are some of them.

Barnes & Noble

B&N’s online bookstore has been around for quite some time now, but it only started offering ebook version of commercially published books recently. What’s so good about B&N’s online ebookstore is its tie-up with Apple and RIM for their respective Barnes&Noble mobile phone apps. If you still prefer to read on your PC or Windows machine, you can download B&N’s desktop reader instead. B&N also offers discount coupons from time to time if you register and agrees to receive updates via email.

Amazon Kindle Books

Amazon’s Kindle Books online store may be the reasonw why the likes of Barnes and Noble and Sony decide to come up with their own ebookstore. The Amazon Kindle Book store supports downloading of ebooks directly to the Amazon Kindle. So, it is a must that you purchase the Amazon Kindle ebook reader. While this is an innovative idea, it may also be the cause of Amazon’s Kindle Book Store downfall. Not everybody have a Kindle Reader and definitely not everyone will want to buy it.

Sony eBook Store

Sony was lucky enough to snag a deal to give access to free public domain books on Google’s Book Service. But apart from public domain books, the Sony eBook Store also lets you purchase books which you can read on your desktop PC or Mac or from your a Sony eBook Reader. The Sony eBook Reader is Amazon Kindle’s fiercest rival to day. So with the launch of the Sony eBook Store, it has finally seal a official rivalry with Amazon.

Taylor & Francis

Features a collection of titles that you can buy in the current popular formats including DX Portable. It also supports ebook formats that can be read through Mobipocket, Microsoft Reader, and Adobe Reader. Taylor & Francis’ ebook collection consists of ebooks from Routledge, Routledge-Cavendish, Garland, CRC Press, Psychology Press and Taylor and Francis.

Cambridge eBookstore

Cambridge University Press’ eBookstore is fairly new so don’t expect the same depth on their ebooks collection as with their catalog of printed books. The ebookstore supports both Microsoft and Adobe Reader formats. You can also download purchased books on your handheld devices provided that it is supported by the ebookstore. This includes the Sony eBook Reader, Iliad ebook reader and more.

Harlequin eBookstore

Harlequin eBookstore also offers ebooks in various formats readable through Adobe Digital Editions, Microsoft Reader and Mobipocket Reader. It allows re-downloading of ebooks you’ve purchased in case you’ve deleted it already on your PC or Mac. What the site didn’t say is whether it supports downloading on a portable ebook reader.

RandomHouse eBookstore

Random House eBookstore sells books online in various ebook formats including – Adobe PDF, Microsoft Reader LIT, Mobipocket PRC, eReader formats for pocket PC, and eBookWise device.

Powell eBookstore

Powell eBookstores supports downloading of their ebooks on various popular ebook readers including the Sony Reader, Astak EZ Reader, BeBook, COOL-ER and more. It supports four formats of ebooks supported by the following readers – Adobe Digital Editions, Microsoft Reader, and Palm Device Reader. It also has DRM-free ebooks in PDF format.

Books on Board

Aside from supporting your usual ebook formats readable in Sony eBook Reader, Cybook/Opus and AzTak EZReader, Books on Board also supports mobile phone devices such as the iPhone, Palm and Blackberry handsets. This is in addition to allowing you to download and read their ebooks on a PC or Mac. Books on Board carry popular bestsellers in their ebook collection.

Deal of the Day: 12 Great Discount Websites

Andrew G.R. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:49:27 +0000

Everyone loves a good deal. Thanks to rabid competition on the Internet, the Web is often the place to get the best prices.

A popular feature that has sprouted up all over the place is The Deal of the Day. There are dedicated sites that are devoted to a single product within a 24-hour period. There are also major retailers who have adopted the strategy for their Websites. It’s a win-win proposition. Consumers win because they can save serious money and retailers win because they increase their Web traffic (or RSS feed subscribers) by having people check in on a regular basis.

If you’re looking to save, these are the sites you’ll want to visit.

WOOT. The first and arguable the best, Woot offers a variety of products, flat $5 shipping and holds occasional Woot-Offs that feature products a new product immediately after the sellout of the previous one.

JOMA DEALS. Concentrating on luxury items, mostly in the timepiece category, JomaDeals launches a new deal every day at 9AM. These products are available on a first-come / first-serve basis. We’ve been monitoring this one for several weeks and have seen some serious discounts – as high as 80% off.

BIG LOTS. The discount retailer, which normally offers great prices on home items, slashes prices even deeper on their Deal of the Day. Users can leave comments and partake in several side deals.

TARGET DAILY DEALS. Pull the trigger before the countdown clock runs out and enjoy free shipping. Deals end at midnight (PST) and are 100% exclusive – meaning you will not see such a low price on the item again.

MIDNIGHT STEAL. From a Reverse Osmosis Water Filter System to a Foldable Picnic Table, you never know what you’ll find on Midnight Steal…which makes checking in all the more fun! All products are first-quality (no refurbs) and items ship for $5 via UPS.

DEADLY DEAL. A color bar indicates inventory, so the site makes it easy to gauge if an item is close to selling out. A geo-map will indicate where most of the shopping is taking place. There are ocassional freebies, so you’ll want to check in daily.

DAILY STEALS. It should come as no surprise that the site who has a mischievous burglar as its mascot is Brooklyn, NY based. Good prices and regular raffles make the free registration well worth your time.

ONE SALE A DAY. Even if the daily discounted product does not float your boat, the site offers a joke, word, stat, history and buzz of the day. There are also two other item categories that are refreshed daily: wireless and watch.

AMAZON GOLDBOX. Daily deals are unveiled everyday, staggered every few hours. Choose between daily emails or text alert reminders. Personalized deals can be retrieved by logging in to your Amazon account.

GRAVEYARD MALL. Offering liquidation and closeout deals, Graveyard Mall is “where high prices come to die.” There are some funky deals to be had. For instance, 5lbs. of metal pens. And even though they offer a Deal a Day, many of the items are available after they expire.

DEALKO. With limited stock available, shopping on DEALKO is a lot like playing the lottery. Every 20th item is FREE (you only pay shipping!) You can also guess the sellout time and win a prize.

EBAY. The Daily Deal ships of free and sneak peek is made available so you can line up for tomorrow’s deal.

There are plenty of other Deal a Day sites out there. If you like to watch them all at once, check out the DODTRACKER.

Free Web-Based Widget Tools for Website Owners

Andrew G.R. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:24:24 +0000

Everyone already knows that when it comes to building a successful blog or Website, content is king. Thanks in part to a growing number of easy-to-install widgets, you can populate your online home with a variety of interesting material that isn’t necessarily created by you. Or better yet, create your own XML feed and present your information in a fresh and exciting way. Here are several free Websites that allow you to create or pull widgets.

Widgetbox

All you need to create a widget is a feed of content. This can be pulled from your blog, YouTube, Flickr, twitter and others.

A Blidget allows you to turn your blog into an instant widget that can be installed by other Website owners. For example, if you have a blog on career advice, you can create a Blidget and hope that other employment-related Websites will display your content.

There are thousands of widgets available for installation. These can be found via search or by Tab.

A Pro account, which costs only a few cents a day, gives the widget creator greater control. You can add logos, incorporate tabs and remove the WidgetBox identifier from the bottom of the widget.

Wowzio

Gallery Widget finds photos on your blog and places thumbnails into a widget; the Panoramic Slideshow does the same as above but in a one-at-a-time format; the Live Activity Widget will show you your blog’s latest visitors, including where they are from (i.e. – U.S., United Kingdom, etc.); the Tag Cloud Widget will extract tags from your blog and display them for visitors.

There is also a Feed Content Widget which will show the 50 most recent blog posts.

Wowzio is getting close to over 2 million widgets served.

The site hands out 25 invites every 24 hours by email, so if you are interested, click here.

Dijit

A Dijit is a Web-based widget that lets you share, post and broadcast videos, music, and pictures across any social network. That means you can create a Dijit with your own original videos, music, and pictures and post it on your MySpace, Facebook, MyYearBook or Livejournal page or any social page you like. Dijit gives you the option to view your pictures as a slideshow as well as allow people to download your videos, music, and picture files to their mobile phone.

Produle

Flash-based and sexy! This Web-based visual tool allows you to create promotional widgets for your brand or Website. This is a great way to incorporate Flash on your blog/site – even if you are a clueless coder. Authoring tools include a drag-n-drop workspace and a visual WYSIWYG editor. Live data can be integrated and the site makes it painless to distribute your creations virally.

A free account gives you five widgets without tracking. You’ll pay $29+ a month for extra storage, support and additional features.

Widgets are fully-hosted, meaning you cannot download them.

Grazr

Billing itself as “the original feed widget,” Grazr is about as simple as it gets. No registration. No login. Just enter the URL of any feed, choose your customizations and go!

Uses include viewing pictures from Flickr, playing podcasts and MP3 files within the widget and watching videos from YouTube within the widget.

The widget runs in a Web browser, so there is no download or installation required. All you need is a browser with Javascript enabled. Feeds must be less than 512K in size.

Widgets are a wonderful way to allow people who are not technologically-inclined to add an extra layer of content to their Website. They can not only make your site look better, but they can increase the amount of time visitors spend on your site, and that’s a number that potential advertisers will want to know.

Top Movie Review and Rating Sites

Maris Dagis — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:18:35 +0000

Have you ever went to some random movie on a date? I hope everything went fine – it would be a shame to spoil all evening because of a crappy movie. To avoid such situations check out this article for most popular movie review and rating sites and read this piece of useful tips to avoid watching a crappy movie.

There are many ways to get more information on movies and movie review sites are probably one of the best ways to do that. You can get instant idea whether specific movie is great just by looking at it’s ratings and if you are interested in more detail information you can read movie reviews done by users. Below you can find top movie review and rating sites and share your movie taste with others.

Rotten Tomatoes

One of the largest communities of people sharing their passion for movies. You can find there not only user reviews but also what critics say about new movies. Movie trailers, pictures, news – they got everything!

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

This site is considered as the most respectable source to get ratings on movies. Many of my friends don’t say if the movie they saw was good or bad, just the number – IMDb rating. Can you trust it’s rating – I’m sure you can – its source is the largest movie lovers community online.

Blippr Movies

“Good reviews come in small packages” it’s their slogan. You and everyone else are able to write your review in less than 160 characters, which means you get short, compact summaries of movies from your friends and people your trust.

Yahoo Movies

At Yahoo movies you can get not only reviews and ratings, but also a bunch of different materials on movies, actors and the movie making process. Really fun site to hang out and get more information on your favorite movies.

Criticker

This site is probably one of the most underrated – I really love its rating system! It is very easy to find similar movies thanks to collections, check out collections also to find movies you may want to watch based on your specifications.

Flixster

Really great site to search for movie reviews because here you can find not only user reviews, but also it gathers together critics reviews from other sources.

MovieTimes

What I low about this site is that besides movie reviews, it allow you to make list of your favorite cinemas to quickly access them and see what movies you are able to see there.

Movie Review Query Engine (MRQE)

MRQE (god, I hate it’s name) is an aggregator that gathers together movie reviews, different news, interviews with people involved in the movie creation process. It is really helpful to quickly find information about some movie from different sources.

Flickchart

Flickchart seams to be most promising movie review site in the future. It will select movies you may like based on your taste. More detail review on the project you can read at ReadWriteWeb.

I hope this article will help you to find interesting and funny movies. If you know more sites that may be useful to find movie ratings and reviews feel free to share them at comments.

List of Best Facebook Games

Maris Dagis — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:04:39 +0000

Facebook isn’t just a best communication tool for you, your friends and colleagues, it is great platform for excitement and fun. Since Facebook created possibility for developers to make their own apps they have created really creative and funny games to play together with your friends.

This post is dedicated to give you an insight on most interesting and exciting games available on Facebook today.

YoVille

YoVille is somewhere similar to SIMS, you create your character and his virtual home. Then you need to develop him, go to job and make money. Besides this game offers many interesting mini-games and events that you can experience together with your friends.

Farm Town

Currently one of the most popular farming games on Facebook with millions of regular players. In this game your goal is to create a farm and earn money from it. You will need to plant crops and take care of animals together with other things. Try to play together with your friends!

Restaurant City

This game allows you to create and manage your own restaurant. The best part is that you can employ your friends to make them do different jobs at your restaurant. Trade, manage and try to create your virtual business.

MindJolt games

MindJolt actually offers you many games – you can play Arcade, Puzzle, Strategy and Sports games together with your friends or just by your self. As you can choose to play different games each time you will not get bored soon.

Mafia Wars

Number one crime game on Facebook – are you sure you want to do this? Game allows you to create your own mafia gang along with your friends as members of your crew. Fight for your survival!

Bejeweled Blitz

Facebook version of classic gem-swapping puzzle game which tends to be very addictive and many people love it. You can see this by application stats – it is one of the most popular games on Facebook currently.

Friends For Sale

Friends for sale is interesting game where you can buy and sell your friends as pets, make them do different jobs and earn money.

Know-It-All Trivia

Simple test game that will test your knowledge in different areas like spots, science, geography and others. You can challenge your friends to see which one of you is smarter.

Pet Society

Very attractive game where you take care of your virtual pet. Feel free to develop his character, play funny and interesting games and do a lot more. You can visit also your friend pets and even challenge them.

Never Forget With Warranty Elephant

Andrew G.R. — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:01:46 +0000

It happened out of nowhere; everything I own seems to be on the fritz. First the air conditioner, than the dishwasher – even the mattress is sagging.

You know the drill, when something breaks, you head out to the store to buy a new one – praying that you have enough money to cover the expense. The thing of it is, many of today’s items are covered under lengthy warranties. Enter Warranty Elephant.

There’s an old adage that claims that elephants never forget. Thanks to this new Web site, you’ll never forget if that big-ticket item your purchased is covered under a warranty.

After a free registration you create an item list that is stored on a secured server. Items are selected by using a series of drop-down menus. By inputting the model number, serial number and the store of purchase, you’re guaranteed never to forget the important information again. (Even if you think you’ll remember basic information down the road, you likely won’t!)

As an added safety measure, you can upload the physical paperwork. Warranty Elephant will send you reminders 6 months, 1 month and 1 week before a warranty is set to expire. These free e-mails could save you a ton of money. By remembering to check that your items are working properly BEFORE the warranty expires, could save you from having to open your wallet. Or, worse yet, you KNOW that the warranty is about to expire but you can’t locate the necessary paperwork.

Do Stuff. Get Money. Thanks Paypal!

Andrew G.R. — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:57:51 +0000

Paypal. They might charge exorbitant fees that piss people off, but the reality is, they provide a service that 26 million people a month keep coming back for.

Looking to capitalize on some fun, the send-money-to-anyone service has rolled out a new Website, Do Stuff For Money.

It’s a concept you are probably familiar with.

“Hey dude. I’ll give you $20 to moon the principal.”

“I don’t feel like ironing. What if I give you $10?”

Now Paypal has built an interface where you can get people to do the things you want them to – with a price attached.

Simply enter your name, the name of the person you are offering money, the amount, and sit back and wait for the person to either accept or decline. Requests are sent via e-mail or Facebook Connect. Integrating the social network is a fun way to see who your friends are offering money to and who is accepting.

You might be wondering why Paypal would want to add a ‘fun’ element to money exchange. The answer is simple. The more transactions the site generates, the more Paypal can laugh all the way to the bank. Wait. They are the bank. Kinda.

Your offer could make the homepage. Here are several examples of current offers.

Robert offered Roman $250.00 to “clean up my Flat! =)”

Joel offered J Monte $10.00 to “Dress up with snorkling equipement and dive into a pond in a square in london”

Joel offered Michael $50.00 to “Running around the canteen screaming like a duck”

Adam offered Stephanie $1.00 to “Listen to me.”

If I had the money I would offer you some cash to read this blog post. But let’s be honest. I’m a blogger without much disposable cash at the ready. However, if you’d like to offer me money, you might be surprised at the lengths I will go to in order to earn it.

6 Twitter Bulk Follow/Unfollow tools

Maris Dagis — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:27:43 +0000

For those of you who are wondering how to manage growing number friends and followers on twitter these tools can offer a solution. If you want to follow back people who are following you or opposite – unfollow people who don’t follow you back check out these amazing tools.

Friend or follow

Besides displaying lists of your twiter friends, followers and people you follow you can get most followed user list, user growth chart and other information.

Huitter Mutuality

This tool is really simple and that’s why many people love it – just enter your twitter user data and select operatin and everything will happen.

Your Twitter Karma

This tool is very popular because of its rich functionality and many function it offers. If you can’t find the operation you look for check out Twitter Karma – I bet they have it.

Untweeps

This tool offers to unfollow twitter users who have not posted any tweets recently. It is very usefull to get rid of these users who don’t use twitter anymore.

FlashTweet

Also a great alternative of bulk follow/unfollow tools who offere pretty much the same functionality and if you like thsi one better give it a try.

Buzzom

I really like this one – it is really simple, but works great. It have all main functions and also works pretty fast.

Create Free Screencasts With ScreenToaster

Andrew G.R. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:20:40 +0000

One of my favorite basic computer functions is the “Print Screen” button. I can’t even begin to count how many times a day I rely on the button to work in Photoshop, illustrate existing ideas to friends and colleagues, and keep an archive of sites/functionality that I like.

I’ve often wished there was an additional button on my keyboard that would allow me not just to take an image – but to record the screen.

While there is no single key command for this, there is an amazing – and free – Website that does the task, and does it well.

ScreenToaster can be used to record what is on your screen, anywhere, anytime. There is no download and it is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It’s a great way to record screencasts, tutorials, demos, training, lectures and more.

Once your video is complete, they can be shared online, embedded on Websites or sent by e-mail. There’s an option to save as either a .mov or .swf file and upload to either the ScreenToaster servers or YouTube.

You’ll need to give a Java applet permission to access your screen. You’ll then have to decide if you want to record the full desktop and whether or not you want the audio on or off. As a general rule, I have found it better to keep the audio off and add that layer after the video has been recorded.

Videos can be set to private, accessible only by a unique URL.

A simple keyboard command of ALT+S will start/pause recording. A dialogue box indicating the length and size of your video runs in the background.

There are “Geek settings” that allow you to adjust the playback speed of the video and change the bitrate (coming soon).

At only eight months old, ScreenToaster has just been purchased by Veodia, an enterprise video solution aimed towards businesses.

You can read more about the acquisition at TechCrunch.

New Gene Tool From Princeton U

Andrew G.R. — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:10:39 +0000

What if you could find out if you had a predisposition to a diseased or condition early on in life? That could be the difference between life and death.

Well if you have an understanding of basic genetics, there is a new tool developed by Princeton University that will likely impress you.

Dubbed HEFalMp (Human Experimental/FunctionAL MaPper) and pronounced “heff-ah-lump,” the site looks at 229 biological processes and 147 genetic disorders in order to make predictions.

By mashing up genetic data from disparate sources and interpreting it with the help of computer algorithms informed by biological principles, the online system allows scientists to predict which genes might be involved in ailments such as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and cancer.

According to Olga Troyanskaya, the Princeton professor who led the project:

“The scientific community has produced millions of points of genetic data in recent years, but has not achieved an equivalent understanding of how genes work…We need to translate this into knowledge about disease.”

The foundation of the tool is build around “functional mapping,” a method that combines the mathematical information with genetic mapping.

Whether or not the tool will lead to the development of cures or treatments remains to be seen, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

With so much disparate data floating around in Cyberspace from thousands of separate experiments, the Human Experimental/Functional Mapper pulls them all together.

Repair Broken Links As They Happen

Andrew G.R. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:17:30 +0000

Most Website owners are not evil, therefore they don’t have too many enemies. However there is a common nemesis: Broken links.

A bad URL can easily ruin the day of any blogger or Webmaster. No matter how closely you pay attention to every last colon and slash, there will be links that slip through the cracks. The real danger is when these links are not caught at the beginning. They linger and fester, resulting in the potential loss of serious traffic.

Cue the superhero music…and meet LinkPatch – the Website that promises to save the day from bad URLs.

Features include:

* Broken link reporting

* Broken image reporting

* Option to ignore directories on the site that you don’t want to track

* Option to ignore errors that do not have an originating page (a typo, for example)

* Customize who gets notified of errors on a site-by-site basis

* You are only notified once every 24-hours of each broken link (no duplicates)

Unlike Superman, LinkPatch does charge for the service. You can expect to pay anywhere from $10 to $75 a month depending on how many Websites you would like to monitor.

All paid accounts come along with a 30-day free trial

For every site that you are tracking you will receive a unique tracking code. This snippet is placed into your Website’s error page. When a user is directed to your error page, the tracking code will record all the information needed to find and fix the problem, and email it to you.

Among the data you will receive: Time stamp, error type, site URL, referring page, what the problem is, the IP address, platform, browser, and more.

Google Squared Offers New Way to Display Search Results

Andrew G.R. — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:22:38 +0000

If you don’t regularly check out the Google Labs page, you could be missing out on being an early adopter of the Next Big Thing. A new testing product called Google Squared displays results in a format similar to MS Excel.

For example a search of “Yankees” pulls up several former Yankee players and people associated with the team. I didn’t care what side of the plate each person batted from so I deleted that column. I then added a “batting average” column. In under a second it populated the search results. Columns can be deleted and added. We’d love to see a click and drag option to reposition info on the page.

If you search for an item that is not yet indexed, you will be told there is not enough information to build a square.

Another search of “Angelina Jolie” turned up a grid of her movies – with columns for images, descriptions, director, language and author. Wow! I can see where a comprehensive search like this could actually take away Web traffic from certain Websites. If we get all of our answers in the search, why even bother going to the original source?

Google does offer input on recommended additional columns. In Angelina’s case, you can add “Awards,” “Producers” and “Running time” to the the square.

If you sign in you can save your Squares.

You can start your search from scratch with an empty square. Rather than an elaborate filter, Google Squared is simply a different way to gather and display data.

I love it!

As someone who loves to compare and contrast, and is also a huge fan of well-organized tables, I will be using Google Squared from here on in.

It’s this type of forward thinking that, in this author’s opinion, that will keep Google way ahead of competitors like the recently launched Bing.