Archive for the ‘Web Apps’ Category
Cell phones, credit cards and car costs are among the top most expensive bills that we get through our letter box. Stupid tariffs, outrageous interest rates and an ever growing cost per gallon can leave your wallet worn out at the end of the month.
Bill Shrink won’t make the bad bills go away – but it helps to shrink them, sometimes by more than you’d expect. It saves you the hassle of running around shopping for the best deal.
You go onto the homepage and select one of the following options ‘Cell Phone’, ‘Credit Card’ and ‘Gas Prices’. Then, you simply put in some basic information about how you use the particular service such as how often, for what and where.
The next screen asks you for your e-mail address and then the results are sent out in an e-mail for your critique.
The main thing that I like about Bill Shrink is that it’s extremely easy to use. Within two minutes I had results waiting for me in my inbox. They ask for basic information such as ‘how many texts do you send per day?’ and ‘do you use mobile internet?’.
This service could potentially save you $50 per month or more and I think its well worth a go. It is even mentioned in a T-mobile advertisement. Well, what have you got to loose?
Creating a podcast can seem like a fun idea at first. But then many amateur podcasters get put off when they discover all the feeds, tech know-how and fees that are involved. Uploading to iTunes requires a credit card and trying to host it all yourself can be like redesigning the space shuttle.
Podcast generator is different from your average podcast service. It’s this cool piece of software that is 100% free and really easy to use. First for all you download it from their website. Then, you can use it to upload almost any media file whatsoever such as mp3, WMA or Mp4.
You can add a title, description and tags so people can find it. As your episodes build up you’ll be able to see them in a
nice list format ready to be edited or deleted. You can also use the feed link to add the podcast to many download services like Feed Burner or Yahoo!.
One bad thing that I will say is that it’s all very basic. Your page is not very eye pleasing and promoting the podcast is difficult. None the less it’s a free podcast creator and is well worth a look if anyone is thinking of making their own podcast.
All the Mac and Linux users out there from time to time wish they had a Windows PC right? The games, the start menu, the sidebar. There all great. Well now Windows4All.com can allow them to have a little taste of what they’re missing. There is no sign up and it only takes around fifteen seconds after putting in the URL before you have a PC in your browser.
Basically, it’s an online Windows OS that acts as a mini computer for you. It uses Microsoft Silverlight to do this and is basically all the basic features of Windows Vista, changed slightly in appearance and put into an online version.
As seen from the screenshots, you can browse the internet, view your documents, play games, play media, use the word processor and loads more.
Furthermore, this isn’t just a front for a crappy online program. You can actually save documents and pictures so you can come back to them later. You can also download and install programs on your online PC. Very impressive.
Obviously it has all been tones down a little. The resolution isn’t great and all the options are basic. Also, I can’t see this one getting a lot of repeat users. It’s a good idea but why would people log into their PC just to use another PC that’s slower and worse?
This program is good if you want to test out programs, see what Windows is like or just have a lunchtime laugh.
Jumplists are part of the new Windows 7 taskbar. The jumplists basically provide access to program related options.
The latest dev version of Google Chrome is now offering jumplist support in Windows 7. The jumplist can be opened by right-clicking the Google Chrome icon in the Windows taskbar. The Google Chrome jumplist is divided into four areas of which three are always visible and one only if the user has added at least one item to it.
The Google Browser will display the most visited websites, the recently closed websites and tasks in the jumplist. The most visited and recent websites are directly taken from the web browser’s history while the task allow the user to open a new window (either normal or in incognito mode).
The fourth group only becomes available if the user pins an element in the jumplist. This is for example excellent for quickly accessing favorite websites from the Windows 7 jumplist. The latest developer build of Google Chrome can be downloaded from the dev channel page. It is interesting to see that the Google Chrome development team has added jumplist support while the Mozilla Firefox team has not shown any signs that they intend to support that feature in the near future.
Many people prefer to listen to articles instead of reading them. There are some of them who may have a weak eye sight vision or probably it gets really boring when you have to read all those long essays and stuff.
Fortunately, there are tons of websites out there which can convert text into voice within a matter of seconds. Here’s a list of some of the best you can use right away.
iSpeech is a free web service that allows you to convert your text to voice and gives you an option to preview/download it. You can even put an embedded code on your website so that whenever anybody comes on your website on a specific post, their widget will automatically start reading the post for the visitor.
Voz Me is another text to speech free online utility. Voz Me allows the user to save the text as an mp3 file. All you have to do is enter your text in the content box and click “create mp3″. It will create mp3 of the text and give you an option to listen or download it.
SpokenText is a Firefox add on that not only allows you to covert your text to voice but it also gives you an option to record English, French and German PDF, Word, Txt files, Powerpoint files, Rss Feed, emails and websites automatically. Spoken Text is a great service if your always on the go and have have little time to read and catch up with your favorite sites
Like any other web serivce Yakitome also allows you to easily convert text files into downloadable Mp3/Wav files. Using this free web service you can listen to work documents, homework, PowerPoint presentations, emails, RSS feeds, blogs and novels. It can speak multiple languages like English, Spanish, French, German.
If you are tired of reading RSS feed content, then BlogBard is what you need. With BlogBard you can turn any news/feed to a personalized radio. You can even integrate it with your blog using a widget. You can listen to your favorite blogs on your iPod and your phone or listen to blogs in your Google Reader, or Bloglines account, by logging in through our website.
Our friends over at DailySeoBlog have put together a great list of the Top 20 SEO blog feeds you should follow. We have decided to show you our top 10 SEO blogs worth subscribing to.
Just a few days after being spotted in Chrome’s new tab page, the official Google Theme Gallery is now open for business. Currently there are 29 new themes in which you can add to Chrome.
Remember, you’ll need to be running the Chrome 3 beta or developer channel or be using a recent build of Chromium to get in on the fun. If that includes you, check ‘em out then tell us which one you’re switching to in the comments. Unless you’re not impressed with the selection, in which case – sound off!
Donating to charity or even volunteering can be tough. You either don’t have the time, the cash or simply don’t want to. However, most of us will want to help a good cause in some way or another. Intel, Facebook, and Grid Republic have teamed up to allow Facebook users to do exactly that with their new app ‘Progress Thru Processors’.
This app, which was launched yesterday and is available to all Facebook users will utilize extra processing power from their computers when it is not in use and use that power on a huge network of other donators to run many different programs on central computers in labs and research facilities. The reason why these labs such as Africa@home and Climateprediction.net can’t simply do it themselves is because the amount of power needed to examine protine particles or predict theretical weather simulations is huge and extremely expensive.
The whole operation could not have been done without Grid Republic who had the technology to link up the PCs with extra processing power and use them properly giving each one a small crumb of the huge task, which will hopefully all come together to solve sciences big questions.
“By simply running an application on your computer, which uses very little incremental resources, you can expand computing resources to researchers,” Deborah Conrad, Intel vice president and general manager of corporate marketing, said in a statement.
Intel says that the application will not affect performance and thus will not be noticed by the user. Progress Thru Processors is available to download right here.
Even though there is a global recession closing businesses, putting people out of work and somehow still giving top bankers big bonuses, companies still have bills to pay. The most widely used way to pay bills is via the tried and tested paper way. A bill comes in, it’s circulated and approved by all those necessary before being shipped down to accounting where it can sit for weeks before it is paid.
That’s assuming that it makes it that far. Anyone who ever worked in a big company will tell you that invoices and bills seem to grow their own legs and go walkies quite a lot, often unnoticed until an angry supplier calls up.
Bill.com looks to change all that. The company, which has just raised 17 million dollars, takes the whole thing digital. When a paper bill comes into a company, they fax it to a special number and when an e-mail bill comes in they e-mail it to a special address. Then, when they log into Bill.com they will all be there in digitised form. Then all the managers who need to sign off on the bill can simply click ‘Approve’. The bill is then set to a status where by accounting will take control. They can then pay the bill via transfer and all is done and dusted.
Many companies report that Bill.com has halved the amount of man time it used to take in paying bills. This is because everything is all in one place where everyone can approve or pay the bill at a time that suites them. This way, a bill doesn’t become stuck at a managers desk for days because he/she is busy, leaving others waiting around to sign. It also dramatically reduced the chances of the bill getting lost or misconstrued.
This is a great web tool for any medium or large business where bills seem to eat up too much company time.
There are dozens and dozens of these applications, scripts and widgets available, but one of my favorites it is definitely is Ptwix. Simple script that you can use it on your website or blog, that shows your Twitter timeline with a very cool design.
The installation process it’s quite simple, just uploaded to your current server and modify the configuration files with your Twitter account. Since the code is based in PHP and AJAX you will be able to use it in almost any platform, including WordPress of course.
The configuration file is named PtwiX_reader.php and you’ll only need to edit these lines:
$username=”yourtwitterusername”;
$password=”yourtwitterpassword”;
$url_path=”http://www.mysite.com/ptwix/”;
$cache_folder=”/var/www/examplesite/ptwix/cache/”;
You also have three different themes to choose or even design one of your own. Here’s a demo of the script working and a simple procedure about how to install it.
There is something true about open-source developing projects, it’s really hard to find some developer platforms that are user friendly, that could actually motivate young developers to start working with these environments. But there’s always an exception: SUSE Studio was launched recently, bringing dev guys a fresh new interface where they can build their open source applications.
Of course that the building platform will be mainly for SUSE Linux Enterprise or openSUSE, but has several features and possibilities available:
- Includes applications templates, including: JeOS, minimal X11, KDE and GNOME (the last one is the preferred for SUSE platforms).
- You don’t need to install anything in particular, you just need a web browser to start working with SUSE Studio.
- You can generate ISO CDs for you appliances or even LiveCDs.
- You can add third party repositories that you can include to your applications.
- Written in Ruby on Rails. Never heard of it? Here’s a list of the most common web apps built in this platform: Ruby in Rails applications.
You can find more resources about this platform, like reviews or even screencasts.
Right, those of you who read my twitter will know that I’ve decided it’s time to get into shape. I’m by no means obese. However I would like to be able to jog for five minutes without needing to stop ten times for ten-minute breaks.
I put some good play lists on my Mp3, dug the tracky bottoms out of the wardrobe (oh, the shame) and put on the stopwatch. Then it dawned on me – I don’t know the first thing about getting fit. Therefore, I did what anyone in their right mind would do – I Googled.
After sifting through dozens of brutal websites, I came across a few military style sites when it clicked – surely, armies across the world must have SOMETHING! This article is a list of the top three Army websites of real world militaries about getting fit. These cool web apps and videos will hopefully have me in ship shape in no time.
1. The Royal Commandos: This section of their website is dedicated to getting you fit in a short space of time in order to gain entry to them. There are tons of videos showing you how to do the exercises properly, what you should eat and what makes a good schedule. Because it’s from one of the world best fighting forces where physical fitness is of top priority during training, you know you’re not getting the wimpy approach. Easy to use and tones of information on there.
2. 62nd Infantry .com – This is an unofficial website run by the 62nd Infantry Battalion of the Irish Reserve Defense Forces. It focuses less on interactive features and more on the training side of things, which I liked. There are charts to figure out your BMI, motivation techniques, goals and targets. Although this is aimed at meeting fitness levels to gain entry for training, it can be used by the average Joe to shed the pounds.
3. Canadian Army. This site doesn’t go into to much detail like the previous two sites, but it does give you some good step-by-step instructions and some goals for joining which you can use as personal targets.
Now, I’m off for a jog.
