Archive for April, 2008

Make it seem like you’re sending email when you’re really playing hooky with Outlook’s built-in “defer delivery” rule. Tech blogger Dennis O’Reilly runs down how to set up Outlook to delay sending messages for a certain amount of time (like half an hour) automatically. You can also set individual messages to be sent on certain days at certain times in Outlook—good for scheduling future messages ahead of time.

Read more….

Defer Email Delivery in Microsoft Outlook -lifehacker

Delay the messages you send from Microsoft Outlook | Workers’ Edge – a productivity blog from Dennis O’Reilly – CNET Blogs

If you’re like me, you’re constantly changing your background, perusing through a folder filled with potential wallpapers and then selecting a new one only to find, an hour later, that you want to change it again. (Or maybe I’m just a bit too into customization!)

For customizers like myself, there’s some great free software called John’s Background Switcher, which will automatically change your wallpaper on whatever schedule you desire (yes, even every hour!).

You can choose to have the pictures come from a folder on your computer like "My Pictures," a set of individual photos, or even from the web via photo-sharing sites like flickr, Phanfare, smugmug, picasa, or even Yahoo image search!

Of course, you can also fine-tune the settings as much as you want – specifying whether images should be full-screened, tiles, montages, always in sephia tones, etc. If there’s a setting you don’t see, the software’s creator even invites you to tell me what you want via his contact form.

The software is available for free (donations accepted) and works on all versions of Windows – 93-Vista (but did not state if it works on 64-bit or not). The download link is here.

No More Boring Wallpaper! | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

It’s spring: Time to clean out the junk. I’m not talking about old photos and Word documents, but rather the system-sapping stuff that Windows accumulates over time: temporary system files, unnecessary Registry entries, unwanted Web histories, and the like. Freeware favorite CCleaner promises to kick all that crapola to the curb, leaving your system cleaner and, theoretically, faster.

CCleaner scans your machine for temp files and other clutter, then shows you what it found and gives you the option of deleting it all. (Alas, there’s no undelete option, so proceed at your own risk.) You can then run a scan of the Registry and let CCleaner wipe out the detritus (this time with a backup, thankfully). The software also includes a rudimentary uninstaller and startup-program manager.

The only thing I don’t like about CCleaner is the Yahoo toolbar it wants to add to your browser upon installation. You can uncheck that option, but it seems counterintuitive for a gunk-cleaner to add its own gunk to your system. In all other respects, CCleaner works as advertised and can really help fine-tune your PC.

Download it right here.

Clean your PC with free CCleaner 2.0 | The Cheapskate – CNET Blogs

Searching forums for specific posts can seriously suck. Most have proprietary search tools that can be unfamiliar or downright difficult to use. Some even require you to fill out a captcha to avoid getting attacked by bots or having its forums infested with spam. Twing is a new service that’s attempting to solve these problems with a search tool that scours hundreds of user forums and lets you search by individual posts or topic thread all in one place.

I found it to do a pretty good job giving me some basic results with simple queries. You can also filter down your results with a myriad of tweaks, right down to what type of forum content you’re looking for, be it audio, video, or images. These filters and special terms can be stacked on top of one another, letting you hone your search a little or a lot depending on how much effort you put in. I found I was able to get a general list of posts that had something to do with what I was searching for with a fairly minimal amount of effort–which is a good thing.

In addition to a search there’s an entire directory of forums listed alphabetically or by interest. This is actually one of the coolest facets of the site, as it will tell you how many posts and users a forum has, along with its growth (presumably within the past 30 days). It’s a great way to see what’s hot, regardless of what forum platform it’s on.

What wasn’t working when I tried out Twing earlier today was a neat little info button that expands below each search result. I’m assuming it gives you a quick overview about the forum the post is in, but it was coming up blank. Presumably when it’s working you can see whether the forum you’re about the view the post on is populated with a large audience and a lot of topics, or just small with good SEO.

Competing forum search tools include: Boardreader, Omgili, and BoardTracker.

Related: Meetro team launches Lefora, free hosted forums

 

Twing offers deep search for forums | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Have you heard of i’m? The i’m initiative lets Windows Live Messenger users give money to selected charitable organizations just by using IM. The money comes from Microsoft’s advertising revenues and goes to support organizations like the Red Cross, Unicef, Boys and Girls Club, Sierra Club, the Humane Society, and more. The program, now a year old, has now donated $1.3 million to the ten participating organizations so far, according to the Windows Live Messenger blog.

If you want to participate, it’s easy – just open up Windows Live Messenger and go into the Options from the Tools menu (it’s on the last button on the right). Look for your name in the box where it says "Display Name" under the personal section. After your name, just type in the code (see below) for the organization you want to support.

Here are the codes:

• American Red Cross code = *red+u
  Boys & Girls Clubs of America code = *bgca
• The Humane Society of the United States code = *hsus
• National AIDS Fund code = *naf
• National MS Society code = *mssoc
• ninemillion.org code = *9mil
• Sierra Club code = *sierra
• StopGlobalWarming.org code = *help
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure code = *komen
• UNICEF code = *unicef

"I’m" Still Making a Difference | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

 Windows only: Freeware application bitRipper provides no-hassle, one-click conversions from DVDs straight to AVI video files. Until recently a commercial program, bitRipper handles the decryption and encoding of the DVD video in one fell swoop, emphasizing a very simple one-click process (though you can set more advanced options if you like). The on-the-fly encryption and encoding means bitRipper also works very quickly. The downside: bitRipper does not support filetypes other than AVI, which means you’ll want to stick with previously mentioned HandBrake when you’re ready to rip a DVD for your iPod. If you give it a try, let’s hear how you like it in the comments. While you’re beefing up your DVD-ripping toolbet, check out the five best DVD ripping tools.

Download

Featured Windows Download: BitRipper Converts DVDs to AVIs in One Click

Taking an old-school tack to an ages-old computer problem, the PortableApps Suite approach to mobile computing feels more Web 0.5 than 2.0. Instead of hosting programs online, PortableApps is a comprehensive application suite that fits onto and runs from almost any thumbdrive with at least 512MB of space, and can be shrunk down even further if need be.

The suite’s flexibility is impressive. It manages some of the best freeware applications from a taskbar menu that runs instantly when clicked on. User-favorites Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are here, as well as the entire OpenOffice.org office suite, a calendar and day planner app, instant-messenger manager Pidgin, an antivirus program, and even a Sudoku game. If you want additional portable goodness, you can download even more stripped-down but fully-functional programs from the PortableApps Web site, including a media player, a Web page editor, and an FTP client. Support is also provided for all your ancillary settings, plug-ins, buddy lists, and document and media files, making this the easiest way to take your work with you, but without an Internet connection.

Featured Freeware: PortableApps | Software news, tips, and opinions from Download.com editors – Download.com

Last we saw the Uno electric unicycle it was looking very much like the prototype it was, but as you can see above, it seems that the teenage engineers behind it have been doing anything but slacking in the ensuing months. As Motorcycle Mojo reports, the third incarnation of the vehicle recently made its debut at the 2008 National Motorcycle Show in Toronto, with it sporting some custom-made wheels, a stylin’ new body, and a few changes under the hood as well. That latter bit apparently even included a trip to a robotics and gyro expert in California, who helped to fine tune the two gyros the Uno uses for turning and forward and backward motion (something you probably want to get right). There’s still no word as to when or if the vehicle might actually enter production, however, but you can at least now get a great look at it courtesy of the generous batch of pics Motorcycle Mojo has provided at the link below.

Uno electric unicycle gets spiffy new body, still terrifying – Engadget

For those running Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, you’ll be happy to know that there are two more Ultimate Extras now available. The first is a new Windows Sound Schemes pack. In the pack are two new schemes, one is called “Glass” and the other is “Pearl.” The second Extra is a new DreamScene content pack. (DreamScenes are the special videos that can be used as desktop backgrounds in Vista Ultimate.) This new pack features DreamScenes from nature, like my favorite – a water droplet falling off the tip of a leaf. The Extras will show up as optional updates in Windows Update for Vista Ultimate users. (Via Windows Vista Team Blog)

Two New Ultimate Extras | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

Encyclopedia Britannica often is used in case studies as a definitive example of how new technology can disrupt a business. Everything was great for the nearly 250 year old privately held company until the Internet came around and a Category Five hurricaned on their parade. According to Comscore, for every page viewed on Brittanica.com, 184 pages are viewed on Wikipedia (3.8 billion v. 21 million pave views per month). In short, they are a classic example of the Innovator’s Dilemma (see also the Music Industry).

You can purchase the 32 volume Britannica, which has 65,000 articles and 44 million words, for just $1,400. Or you can access it on the web for $70 per year.

And now, you can get access to the online version for free through a new program called Britannica Webshare – provided that you are a “web publisher.” The definition of a web publisher is rather squishy: “This program is intended for people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters, or writers. We reserve the right to deny participation to anyone who in our judgment doesn’t qualify.” Basically, you sign up, tell them about your site URL and a description, and they review it and decide if you’ll get in. I wonder if Facebook, MySpace and Twitter users are eligible? They all certainly “publish with some regularity on the Internet.”

Once you’re in, you get to link to the full version of articles – people clicking the link can read that article but they can’t go and read other parts of the Britannica site. Participants can also embed widgets like the following:

Half Pregnant

Britannica is doing a lot of things right – a relatively small staff of a hundred or so editors manages 4,000 unpaid (I believe) contributors who are recognized experts in their field. But, like the music labels, they still somehow feel as though people should pay to consume their content. And that means search engines can’t index their content. And that means they don’t exist.

Instead of going free and opening up to all, they’re using the new program to simply price discriminate. Give people who may link to the site free access. Everyone else has to pay. So in effect they’re aiming to be half pregnant – they want the benefits of web linking but don’t want to give up the subscription fees from the fools who continue to pay them.

As an outsider, Britannica’s future is clear. Eventually, and if they don’t go out of business first, they’ll be forced to make all their content freely available on the Internet, and will probably create a wiki-like format that allows user editing. Their differentiating factor from Wikipedia will be that they have experts guiding articles, so they’ll have a claim to be more authoritative. This is, by the way, the business model of Citizendium, created by Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger in 2006.

The sooner they do that the more likely they’ll be around for the long term. Perhaps they can even continue to sell those 32 volume sets to a few libraries. But it’s hard to give up that online subscription revenue. When this fails, they’ll try something else.

Encyclopedia Britannica Now Free For Bloggers

AVG Technologies, formerly Grisoft, has updated AVG Free to Version 8.0. The other antivirus programs the company publishes updated in March, following AVG’s pattern of updating the free version about a month after the paid editions get their new coats of paint.

The new interface follows the trend of left-nav tabs. Compared with the old one, this is a much-appreciated change.

As before, AVG Free 8.0 features all the essential functions of AVG Internet Security, but none of the bells and whistles. So the new engine is intact, with combined antivirus, antispyware, and the formerly independent LinkScanner technologies rolled into one. However, there’s no antirootkit protection and no e-mail scanning, and other features included in AVG Anti-Virus such as instant message and download protections are also missing.

Some of these features, such as the e-mail scanning, are available for the first 30 days but then get disabled unless you purchase AVG Anti-Virus. This follows on AVG’s clear push to try to convert some of the millions of users who’ve downloaded the free version into paying customers, since both AVG Anti-Virus and AVG Internet Security include those features. They also include free tech support, and AVG Internet Security comes with antispam defenses and a firewall.

Formerly independent LinkScanner gives AVG Free users a measure of protection against Web sites.

The main features of virus, spyware, and link protection remain intact after the trial.

Overall, the new AVG Free runs better than the older versions. As we noted in our review of the product, the new engine’s real-time shield works better than before, and besides the new interface, that’s the most noticeable difference. The change to tabbed navigation from the horrible floating boxes of earlier editions is a long-overdue improvement that makes it much easier to focus on what you need out of the program. If you like version 7.5, there’s no reason not to upgrade.

However, I’m not overly fond of AVG’s habit of not being particularly forthcoming about including features and then disabling them without a more direct warning about what the program does and doesn’t do. It’s more than a tad bit deceptive–not the best way to treat the multimillions of people who’ve downloaded the free version of the program.

AVG Free joins its siblings in the land of 8.0 | Software news, tips, and opinions from Download.com editors – Download.com

Have you ever had to email yourself a file or found that you had four different versions of the same document on four different PC’s? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you had a synchronized copy of all your important files on each of your devices and access to them at any time via nothing more than a web browser?
Live Mesh is a new piece of technology from Microsoft that allows you to do all this and more including a 5GB Live Desktop ‘in the cloud’.
George Moromisato and Noah Edelstein from the Live Mesh team came into the Channel 10 studios and gave us a demo of the Live Mesh Technical Preview that goes live today at www.mesh.com
Watch the video to see Live Mesh in action and then let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Hands on with Live Mesh | Nic Fillingham | Channel 10

Windows only: Anyone who’s edited their system path entries—the places where you tell Windows to look for programs you type into the command line—knows how awkwardly small the space given is to edit a huge string of text, and one misplaced character can nuke the whole thing. Redmond Path, a free download for Windows systems, offers a graphical multi-line interface, roll-back points for experimental changes, and verification that you’re pointing Windows to a valid location. Now it shouldn’t be so hard to have append to text files, use Unix commands from the command prompt, or give yourself easy access to oft-launched programs. Redmond Path is a free download for Windows systems only.

Redmond Path

Redmond Path – Artical via LifeHacker.com

Paul Thurrott of Microsoft loving fame got a confirmation email from Zune tech support that says Audible compatibility is coming soon. Hurray for people who love listening to words. Here’s what the email said:

I understand that you have contacted us today in regards to whether or not the Microsoft Zune is compatible with our service. We have great news! After much anticipation, Audible and Microsoft have completed negotiations on making the Zune AudibleReady! While we do not have an exact date as to when the device will be officially AudibleReady, we expect to make the Zune compatible before years end. Our Device Center on our website will be updated upon the Zune becoming compatible, so please be sure to check there periodically.

Huzzah! No launch date, but it is coming soon. As in, 2008. Perhaps around the same time as new Zune models hit the market

Zune: Zune Getting Audible Audio Book Support As Literacy Sheds Another Tear

 

Microsoft may be putting together an "entertainment marketplace" tentatively named Zune VideoX, ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reported Wednesday. In other words, it’s yet another digital content store trying to take a bite out of Apple’s iTunes.

Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Devices and Entertainment eHome division, is reportedly spearheading the project. But it goes without saying that as with any of these "iTunes killers" that seem to pop up like mushrooms after rain, well, it’s going to be an uphill battle even for Redmond.

Creating a solid digital download store is something that Microsoft has tried repeatedly, and hasn’t gotten right yet. Its Zune Marketplace hasn’t exactly been a resounding success. There has also been chatter about something called "eLive," a marketplace of digital download content–music, video, games–for Zune digital media players, Windows-based PCs, Xbox gaming consoles, and Windows Mobile smartphones.

"eLive was renamed and recrafted to Zune VideoX," a source told Foley, "and the eLive vision scaled down to focus on Zune." Really? That’s too bad. The Xbox has been a much more resounding success than the Zune, and it already has the successful Xbox Live Marketplace as a starting point.

That said, there’s reportedly a third-generation Zune coming next year. And on another note, can somebody please outlaw the term "iTunes killer?"

Microsoft planning a Zune-centric entertainment store? | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Can you say Zune Phone?

Microsoft’s just announced that its $500M buyout of Sidekick maker Danger is complete, and that it’s rolling the new team into its own unit, the Premium Mobile Experiences division. Ready to follow the chain of corporate command? PMX is under the Mobile Communications Business unit at MS, which itself falls under the Entertainment and Devices Division responsible for the Xbox and Zune. Got all that? Good. Danger’s management team won’t be directly calling the shots at PMX, though — they’ll be reporting to Roz Ho, who you might remember as the former head of the Mac Business Unit. Ho says the goal of PMX is to have people "smile every time they look at their phone," which hopefully means we’ll be seeing a lot more Danger influence on Windows Mobile than the other way around. Still, "Premium Mobile Experiences" is an interesting choice of name, especially in the same division as the 360 and Zune — dare we dream of a Microsoft-branded consumer phone?
[Via MocoNews]

Microsoft completes Danger acquisition, creates new Premium Mobile Experiences division – Engadget

For quick retouches, Photoshop is more than overkill–it’s like going rabbit hunting with a nuke. All that bloat can take much longer than is necessary. Paint.NET, on the other hand, is an open-source editor with all the essentials, including tools to crop, rotate, resize images, adjust colors, and create collages. Unlike many free image editors, Paint.NET supports layers and has an actions manager. The pleasing interface boasts semitransparent windows for ease of use.

Paint.NET supports common image formats–JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and others–but not high-resolution RAW files. There are enough basic and intermediate effects and features to keep image-tweakers happy, though the red-eye removal tool is notably weak; those images may require manual attention. Way more advanced than Microsoft Paint, this is a must-have for even experienced digital image demigods.

 Main Site: GetPaint.Net

Downloads

Paint NET – Reviews and free Paint NET downloads at Download.com

Belarc Advisor is one of those tools for Windows users that you didn’t know you were missing until you started using it. It’s hard to understate how important this program can be, as it provides a free analysis of your machine’s security weak points.

By looking at elements such as whether antivirus software and definitions are up to date, or whether all the security flaws in Windows have been patched, Belarc works quickly to inform you of what you’re missing and provide links to how you can fix it. It uses the Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmark test to give the computer a score showing its overall security level and produces a report that can be viewed in a Web browser.

Not only does it analyze software and operating system components and tell you where problems are, but in its comprehensive report it tells you what your computer’s physical components are: not just how much RAM you have, for example, but what kind of RAM and which slots are occupied. Simply put, the clear advice given on how to address each issue is invaluable.

Belarc Advisor – Reviews and free Belarc Advisor downloads at Download.com

(Credit: Rick Broida)

Tired of waiting an eternity for your computer to boot? Malware could be the culprit, so make sure to run anti-spyware software. But another cause of slow booting is all the software that’s trying to run the moment Windows starts. Startup Delayer takes a clever approach to this by letting you delay selected programs.

For example, I need my anti-virus and desktop-search programs to run right away, but Adobe Reader Speed Launcher? iTunesHelper? LightScribe Control Panel? They can wait. Using Startup Delayer, I can configure programs like those to run at, say, 2-minute intervals, starting a full 15 minutes after I’ve booted my system. Genius!

The program also acts as a startup manager, allowing you to uncheck programs you don’t want to run at all. Startup Delayer a free tool, and absolutely essential for anyone with a PC that’s slow to start. It’s made a huge difference on my system.

Make your PC boot faster with Startup Delayer | Software news, tips, and opinions from Download.com editors – Download.com

Today Microsoft announced a new feature on its Live Search Maps service: Clearflow, an option that will alter driving directions based on traffic, not just on the usually metered major freeways, but on adjoining connector ramps and streets as well. See news story.

Microsoft now considers surface street traffic as well as freeway speeds in its routing.

I find the Clearflow product of only marginal usefulness on a PC, since traffic patterns change quickly. I’d trust it to get me on to a freeway in the most efficient way, but if my route takes more than 20 minutes, I’d worry about its accuracy at the other end. If this technology can be applied to Microsoft’s Live Search Mobile, and if it can update the route in real-time when conditions change, then it will be killer.

But I digress. The technology development effort to predict traffic flow on unmetered roadways was led by Microsoft’s Eric Horvitz. What’s interesting is that Horvitz et al. also developed another traffic prediction system, which was spun out to the company Inrix (previous story), which in turn sells its data back to Microsoft.

Inrix collects traffic-flow data directly from vehicles (mostly the GPS units in trucks and other commercial vehicles, but also some mobile phones and Dash Navigation units). Based on the historical data it collects, it can predict traffic on the routes it has coverage for.

Inrix does not do the routing itself, but it supplies its data to Microsoft (and other mapping companies, auto manufacturers, and GPS device makers) who then can incorporate it into their routing algorithms. Microsoft’s new Clearflow prediction system doesn’t overlap much with Inrix’s prediction algorithm, since Clearflow predicts what the traffic of the moment will be on unmetered streets, while Inrix provides data for all highways, and predicts traffic flow in the future.

Since Inrix collects data from actual moving vehicles, not just road sensors, it can report on traffic speeds on any road where there are drivers. Today, the company announced that it’s now providing coverage on all U.S. freeways, for instance–over 100,000 miles of roads. Mapquest will be the first of Inrix’s customers to use that data in its direction-finding service.

What’s next in traffic routing? Inrix CEO Bryan Mistele says the "Holy Grail" is routing based on the routes real drivers take, not just observed speeds. For example, a navigation service could record the actual paths people take between points, and use this data as well speed information to generate directions. Of course, there are privacy implications when you’re recording users’ driving in this way, but there’s all that data to be got from commercial vehicles. So in the future, the wisdom of taxi drivers may end up popping up on our in-car GPS gizmos.

Beyond Microsoft’s new traffic-avoidance feature | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Jason points out that some mobile operators ship Windows Mobile with the full version of Windows Live, which includes Windows Live Messenger, others ship with a partner-developed Windows Live Messenger client instead.

If you’re in that last half, you might be missing out on all the features of a full Windows Live install, which includes push Hotmail, Windows Live Contacts synchronization, a Live Search bar for your homescreen, and one-click photo upload to Windows Live Spaces. But now, there’s a special version of Windows Mobile just for you, available now from http://wl.windowsmobile.com.

Windows Live for Windows Mobile Sans Messenger | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

This is simply the coolest virtual desktop out there.  Here is a great post from the folks at on10.net. Please note that this is not free, but it is worth the money.

Here’s a twist on multiple desktops: software from Cubedesktop increases your working space by offering you a 3D virtual desktop environment. With Cubedesktop, you will have 6 virtual desktops which you can move between in different ways, one of which is a 3D cube. As you move from desktop to desktop, you will see a live preview of what’s happening. All the windows update in real time, so you can find just the one you are looking for. Each desktop can be named (like "work," "school," or "fun") and can have its own wallpapers and icon arrangement.

Besides the 3D cube, you can also use features like the "Window Exposer," which tiles the open windows on to your screen, or a simpler Desktop Explorer. The software is available as a free trial for both XP and Vista (does not specify if x64 supported). (via Go2web20)

Here is a clip to give you a taste

Cubedesktop | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

Modern Feed is a smart product, taking hosted video programming from a variety of sources and consolidating it into a single directory that’s curated by human beings. The entire experience revolves around a small navigator that sits atop your browser in its own frame. It lets you browse around playlists, search for your favorite shows, and jump around to various content providers without getting lost.

What makes the product noteworthy is that it’s taken some of the annoyances out of viewing professionally produced content on the Web. For example, if there are several places to get the same piece of content, the human curators, known as "feeders" go through and pick out the best one to send you to based on video quality, stream speed, and ease of use. It will also tell you how to get at the video if there are steps you need to take to get the video to start playing. Each time you click to play a video you can preview this information before being jettisoned off-site. It’s a really nice touch.

Modern Feed programming listings contain multiple streams, so if you want to view a certain format you can go straight to the source.

Playlist management is also well thought out. You can subscribe to shows on a season pass, just as you would on a DVR. The newest shows end up in your queue and can be reordered. There’s also a designation between a regular playlist and one for iPhones, which contains any H.264 files that can be played on the device if you don’t feel like viewing on your PC. Viewing and browsing these clips requires the use of the specially designed iPhone site (i.modernfeed.com) and a Wi-Fi connection, but the implementation is quite beautiful. Heilprin says the designers took a page or two from Facebook’s iPhone app, and that they plan to make other device-optimized versions in the future.

At launch there are more than 25,000 programs in the directory. There’s a built-in search tool that does a great job at getting you to various shows. The real hook, however are the feeder-created categories, which are far more enjoyable to explore than simply browsing alphabetically. The feeders have created picks the like of iTunes with staff choices and hot lists of what users are watching the most. It makes the site very human and keeps you watching tons of videos from all over the place.

While Hulu may have gotten some real buzz for its convergence of video resources, Modern Feed is doing something far bigger. It’s lassoing content from everywhere. It’s doing what social aggregators like FriendFeed and SocialThing have done so well, which is putting all this information into one centralized location. The added benefit is that Modern Feed has made it exceptionally easy to use and incredibly useful if you’re thinking about ditching your cable provider.

check it out at: Modern Feed 

Modern Feed serves up the ultimate Web TV surfing tool | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

CellSpin is the easiest multimedia blogging platform for smartphones I’ve seen to date. Similar to Utterz and Trutap, CellSpin lets people post photos, videos, text, and audio clips to various online profiles–in CellSpin’s case, Picasa Web photos, Flickr, LiveJournal, Blogger, eBay, YouTube, and Windows Live Spaces. Of course, you can’t post text to YouTube or video to Facebook, but CellSpin keeps it clear in a convenient chart.

Posting is fairly simple from the downloadable app. You click one of four large icons corresponding to the type of media you’d like to post, and then begin composing. CallSpin launches the cell phone’s camera, video camera, or audio recorder, but you can also import media from your device memory or storage card. In addition to uploading to one or more of the sites you’ve already selected online, each post is also recorded on your CellSpin account, in a "clog" (community blog.) People can follow a clog or create their own; though it’s just as easy to ignore this aspect if your prefer to keep to yourself.

(Credit: CellSpin)

I mentioned that I thought CellSpin is currently the easiest to use, but perhaps what I really mean is that it’s the most conventional. Utterz and Trutap also post to quality sites, with some overlap, but each effectively targets a different user set. Utterz is the most open setup, since it relies on users to e-mail or call in their media, something they can do from nearly every phone. However, there’s no app client for generating a cohesive feel; all the software is on Utterz’s server end. Like CellSpin, Trutap uploads media posts from an application interface, but it’s not yet compatible with all U.S. carriers, so if you’re on AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile, you’re out of luck. (The service is in beta, however, so this could change in the near future.)

In rare instances, CellSpin suffers installation woes. On a T-Mobile BlackBerry, for instance, the carrier and device had failed to communicate. With a few manual changes to the TCP settings, all was dandy.

CellSpin is free, but ad-supported, with a current campaign focusing on social awareness. You can download CellSpin for BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile phones or sign up online from your desktop or mobile browser.

CellSpin posts multimedia tidbits online | Software news, tips, and opinions from Download.com editors – Download.com

Dexpot allows you to create multiple, virtual desktops to increase the work area of your screen by up to 20 times. Each virtual desktop is independent from the others and can have its individual wallpaper, resolution, and icons (or no icons at all). You can easily switch between desktops from the tray icon, or via hotkey, or even use an automatic desktop slideshow that rotates all virtual desktops. In addition, you can move and copy windows from one desktop to another among the desktops, set up rules to automatically move, copy or close windows and more. Dexpot is one of the most advanced desktop managers out there, that is easy enough for beginners, but offers some great flexibility for more demanding users.

Download free version here

Dexpot virtual desktop Manager