Archive for the ‘Web Apps’ Category
It seems like having an App store is the new thing! Wordpress has now released a new application directory which highlights the best applications for Wordpress and also other services.
Whether you’re blogging from your desktop, browser or on the go, make sure to check out these other ways to post to your WordPress blog.
You can find some of the most popular applications for WordPress like HootSuite, ScribeFire, WordPress for iPhone and etc…
So your wallet’s feeling a little light after Christmas? We’ve all got to save where we can in this dismal financial climate, and freeshipping.org is intended to help do just what it says in the URL: save you money on buying consumer goods by finding offers that save you the shipping and other costs when you make a purchase. They seem essentially to be ferreting out links and deals as they are announced online and posting them on their homepage – there’s no rhyme or reason to who is making offers at any given moment, but they have the coupons and deals organised by store, so if you’re considering a purchase from a particular shop or band you might do well to click over there and check if there’s a deal on.
They are also running a price comparison program, but it’s a little clunky and hard to navigate, and doesn’t give you a lot of information about the sources they’re searching to bring you the They do have a lot of products listed by category, from iPhones to Plasma TV’s by the way of glow-in-the-dark paintballs, but I certainly wouldn’t reccomend making a purchase based solely on what you find here – instead click around the other big sites and use them as a benchmark (yes, I know I’m teaching my granny to suck eggs here). If you happen to be based in the UK, another useful website that holds a lot of consumer information, particularly on financial products, and that mails out lists of deals and freebies from time to time is moneysavingexpert.com, from the same team that put together music price comparison site http://tunechecker.com/, a site designed to save you money on buying .mp3’s.
The Twitter homepage, while useful, is left in the dust when compared to the other alternative desktop applications out there and even some of the mobile apps. While it has the core functions it lacks in terms of productivity and extra features which could be so easily added.
A great ad-on for Chrome and Firefox called FlyMonkey pretty much fixes all of that. Below, you can see a screenshot of my Twitter with three columns, each serving it own purpose. This is done by adding features to your Twitter page (via a red ‘+’ sign above your screen). You can add extra columns for DMs, replies, mentions and an arsenal of different options.
They also integrated the Bit.ly URL shortener and Twitpic into Twitter. As you are typing a tweet, two options appear below called ‘Photo’ and ‘URL Shortener’. I found these very handy indeed.
So if you want to change your Twitter experience but don’t fancy moving to a third-party alternative, get FlyMonkey.
With the new year having just rolled around it’s that time of year again when gym memberships are at an all-time high as people promise themselves they’ll loose weight and get in shape for the new year. No better time then to join a new fitness community called Phitter which claims to have “given phittness a phacelife”.
The service is similar to Twitter in that users are encouraged to post their daily exercise news, tips, advice and benchmarks. Also, you can post to your stream via the traditional web route or from mobile services such as SMS.
In a press release, the company said Phitter.com is a “phitness phocused community that encourages members to talk, or “Phit,” about fitness, weight loss, working out, dieting, exercising, and healthy living while making new “Phriends” and having “Phun!”
I think this is a great idea. Twitter has proven itself to be one of the most engaging of the social networks. Furthermore, lack of companionship and encouragement is the number one reason why people quit exercise programs. Phitter overcomes that problem by creating a real-time community for those getting fit, something forums and networks have failed to do in the past.
If you post “Feeling down, not in the mood for a run” you’ll be bombarded with inspiration and encouragement to get out there and get Phit!
Everyone love a good theme right? A little something to jazz up your profile, browser, PC or mobile. Twitter has been in on the game in one form or another for quite some time with third-party web apps offering Twitter Backgrounds. Now, Tweety Got Back have launched and allow you to customize your entire Twitter profile with the touch of a button.
Here are a few sample themes:
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Strikes Midnight
New Year’s in New York
Most of the themes are based around artistic subjects and the likes.However there are quite a few holiday ones such as Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving so you can dress up your profile when the time is right. A great, and easy-to-use service. Apply a theme to your Twitter profile by clicking here.
Are My Sites Up is a new website monitoring service which lets you know when your blog or website is down. Currently the free version of this software allows you to track 5 websites and monitored in 60 minute or less intervals. Are My Sites Up has also released a desktop application based on Adobe Air which helps you check the status right from your desktop. This application will sync with your Are My Sites Up account and retrieve all the accounts.
This is a popular web app which aims to get any person of any fitness level doing one hundred push ups in just six short weeks. Having spoke to several friends who did the course (couldn’t even do ten when they started) they were able to do over one hundred in under six weeks and were much stronger.
Basically, it works like this. You first do an initial test to gauge your current fitness level. Then, you’re assigned a category depending on how well you did. You then progress up through the number of push-ups you must do three days a week for the next six weeks. If you followed the course exactly then you should be easily able to accomplish one hundred push-ups by the end. You also log your results as you go along.
This is a great web app that also has an iPhone app to go along with it. They also run similar programs such as Two Hundred Sit-Ups and Two Hundred Squats.
Since Twitter got really popular thanks to all the celebs who made it famous, the only way to tweet has been either directly on the website or using an app such as Tweetie. Now however, Comufy, a London based tech company brings us TweetSwitch.
Basically, it enables you to set up your account to send certain tweets to your IM. You can then in turn respond to these tweets from the IM service. Selecting what kind of tweets you want to receive is threefold. You can receive all tweets, tweets where you’re mentioned or replied to (such as @Crenk) or the most important ones, direct messages.
At the moment, some main IM clients such as AOL, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger are supported and it’s said to be coming to the ever growing Skype. This is a really cool new feature, effectively creating a switchboard for your Twitter account!
Ever watched a movie clip around two years prior then needed it for a project or something? Me too.
Things like documentaries, famous speeches and old fashioned shows are hard to find on sites like YouTube and Vreel – especially when all you have to go on is a quote or extract.
ReelSurfer however aims to change all that. They take a huge volume of content from the Internet and break each video up into thirty second segments. Then, they index all spoken words on the video as though they were text. Thus, when you search for your quote the thirty second segment pops up. You may be asking, why do they bother splitting up the video at all? Well this is purely so you’ll hear your keywords right away. Imagine watching an entire movie whilst praying it’s the right one!
This is similar to AnyClip, however there is one core difference. ReelSurfer will allow you to create your own account for your company or college thus allowing you to upload meeting, lectures etc… This would come in very handy for students looking for information on a chosen topic while revising or an employee quickly catching up on the conference call he missed.
WP Wall is a “Wall” widget that appears in your blog’s side bar. Readers can add a quick comment about the blog as a whole, and the comment will appear in the sidebar immediately (without reloading the page).
All comments are internally handled by WordPress so that means you have normal comment moderation, SPAM protection and new comment notification. WP Wall is fully customizable with a CSS file and included graphics.
We received a very interesting email about a new service just launching, Tweexchange. Tweexchange is a very basic and ugly website that lets users search for both domain names and twitter username’s at the same time. I thought this was a great idea but execution seems to be very limited.
The domain search is provided by Godaddy which provides very accurate results. However, Im really disappointed with the sites design. It seems like a good idea because branding is very important when purchasing a domain name and it is a lot more attractive if you can get a domain name and twitter name exactly the same. I would have liked to see the option to search for a Facebook page option in the same search and maybe a few other site. Im keen to hit all the major sites at once and not just a domain and twitter.
Seesmic acquires Ping.fm
One million posts a day you say? Very possible now that Seesmic has acquired Ping.fm. Personally it was a shock, I’m not privy to Silicon Valley chatter, but I think for most Seesmic Desktop users, this will offer a bevy of updating options. At last count there were over 50 sites that Ping.fm updated, and now Seesmic Desktop will harness this power. But this is just the top of iceberg. With some further API development and plug-in updates, this positions Seesmic closer to their goal of one million posts a day for 2010.
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