PriceAdvance makes online comparison shopping very easy. Download the extension (available for both Firefox and IE) and then visit one of the partner sites to find an item including, Amazon, Abt.com, Best Buy, Buy.com, Circuit City, Computers4Sure, eBooks.com, JR.com, Kmart, mwave.com, nothingbutsoftware.com, Sears, Target, TechDepot.com, TigerDirect and Walmart. Once you find something you like, click on the product description. At the bottom right of your window, you'll see PriceAdvance and a listing of how many comparison prices were found. If the window does not pop-up automatically, click the icon and you'll see a window listing alternative retailers and their price for the same item. Click on the price you like and be taken to that website. Not all items will have comparisons, but the majority of what we tested did. It's a nice add-on that can save you time and money!
Photoshop Express launched to much fanfare recently, and for good reason. It's a free image editor from the leader of all things images. You can find the
original announcement here.
Now Photoshop has added
Flickr support. It's a natural marriage of the two leading online photo resources. With Flickr support, you can use Photoshop Express to edit images directly from your Flickr account, then upload them right back to Flickr without any downloads or extra hassles.
It's official, the
Opera Mini 4.1 browser is now fully open to the public. The mobile browser has won wide acclaim for its ease of browsing, fast download speeds and intuitive mobile experience, as evidenced by its more than 44 million users. Opera Mini will compress and fit Web pages to your screen even if the website is not fully optimized for mobile.
The new version has features like URL completion for faster navigation, the ability to save Web pages offline for later viewing, intuitive search that highlights areas of a Web page relevant to your search query, bookmark syncing with your PC and claims to be 50% faster than older versions. Advanced functions let you download and upload files without routing through your phone's native browser - update blogs, upload photos and add attachments to emails seamlessly. Other nice features carried over from previous versions include the ability to turn a page into landscape mode and giving your phone a virtual mouse for easier scrolling.
A new mashup for YouTube,
TimeTube creates a timeline of videos that match your query based on when they were submitted to YouTube. For example, search Barack OBama and get a view of thumbnails and and data points of videos and when they were submitted. Click on any of the results and watch the video on the same page, without needing to navigate over to YouTube. The default setting is for a one-year timeline, but you can toggle between longer spans.
You can also view in the default setting, a vertical list setting, flipbook-style (like an iTunes flip display) or Map View if any of the videos have been geo-tagged. The scroll wheel on your mouse will move the timeline left or right so you don't have to use the scroll bar at the bottom of your window.
Google's
Vidnik is an application that lets you shoot video using your Mac iSight camera then upload that directly to YouTube. Using Vidnik and your YouTube ID, simply shoot some video, edit, crop, add descriptions and tags and upload. The videos are stored in an automatically created file so you can upload them elsewhere.
It appears to be a nice application for video bloggers, or for the increasing capability of many sites to leave video responses to comments. Could be nice for instructional video as well.
As 80's hair band Loverboy sang, "Everybody's working for the weekend." But a few more hours to go. Here are few websites to help you get there. This week's them is Science. I guess we might as well learn something while killing time.
British Museum: The British Museum recently updated their website. Now you can take virtual tours and explore one of the most worldly collections of antiquities in existence. Take online tours of Africa, Egypt, Europe, Greece and much more. If you ever find your way across the pond, go to the real thing - it's quite impressive.
BBC Science and Nature Games: Another installment from the U.K., this site features several games to entertain and educate (don't worry, some just entertain and you won't learn a thing.) A couple of personal favorites are Skeleton Jigsaws, Termites Game and Supervolcano.
Top 10 Amazing Chemical Reactions: The List Universe brings us 10 crowd-pleasing chemical reactions. Everything from Potassium Chlorate turning a gummy bear into a flaming rocket to the mind-boggling Briggs-Rauscher Reaction.
Flash Forward is coming to San Francisco August 20-22. As you can guess, it honors the best Flash work by developers. Works are nominated by the public in several categories including Application, Cartoon/Story/Narrative, Code, Experimental/Art, Game, Motion Graphics, Navigation/Experience, Sound, Typography and Video. The deadline for entries is June 15.
Check out the
past winners, then get busy creating your masterpiece!
Sure, you can show your photos to friends using Flickr, Picasa or even through an email. But how about displaying them as if you had your own art gallery? That's the idea behind
Photo! 3D Album. Choose from different venues such as a showroom, art gallery, cathedral or Egyptian pyramids and let your viewers stroll around the virtual gallery viewing your masterpieces. It's free and a really unique way to share photos or other graphic creations (any aspiring artists out there?)
Start by downloading the software, launch it and then select "create photo gallery" to get started. Choose your gallery type then drag and drop your images from your photo albums. Crop, rotate and leave comments as a guide for your visitors. The "preview" button lets you take a look at your gallery once you're done adding images. The "free move" mode will let you move through the gallery at your own pace.
Finally, you can choose six different ways to share your gallery with friends, including hosting it on your website or through a .exe format.
"Finally, an amazing touch-screen phone with a network to back it up."
That's the greeting you get when visiting the new
website promoting Instinct, Sprint's hopeful iPhone competitor. Check out the video of Instinct vs. iPhone, showing a faster connection to the Internet, promoting live TV, GPS, video recording capabilities (rumored to be included on the next generation of iPhones), and music downloading away from WiFi.
It's shaping up to be a nice battle between Instinct and the soon-to-be released iPhone upgrade. Sprint is obviously relying on a better network,while Apple will surely have some snappy new features to brag about. The one advantage iPhone already has is a larger screen size. Instinct will be available in June, at the website you can sign up to be notified when it is ready for public release.
A few weeks ago, we
wrote about
Quamut, "the go to how to" published by Barnes & Noble that provides how-to guides on a wealth of topics. Now, in partnership with Video Jug, they are offering video tutorials. From guitar to gardening, becoming a regular Cliff Claven just got easier.
It doesn't appear that gas prices are going to drop anytime soon. And complaining about it isn't going to make it any better. What you can do is get proactive in finding the best solutions to the crisis.
FuelMeUp.com offers one such solution. Enter your City, State and ZIP code to find listings of gas stations in your immediate area, complete with their prices. The site updates included gas stations three times a day, claiming data on 82,000 locations. The site features updates on the current fuel industry as well as partner programs for auto insurance and the ability to sign up to be a "gas price spotter" that offers special deals. The mobile version of the site is also handy.
AltFuelPrices.com is the solution if you really want to get off our oil addiction. This site uses Google Maps to display alternative fuel stations and prices. Included are locations for Ethanol, electirc, hydrogen, LNG and LPG. If you're planning a road trip with your alternative fuel vehicle, you can find stations along your route. You can also contribute to the site if you know of a station not listed.
Finally, MSN Money
pubilshed an article dissecting some of the top-rated gas rebate credit cards. If you do a lot of traveling, one of these options could prove to be a real money-saver.
Microsoft's iPod competitor has added TV shows to their downoad choices on the
Zune website. Some of the shows now available include The Office, 30 Rock, Spongebob Squarepants, South Park, UFC's Ultimate Fighter and Robot Chicken.
In addition, the Zune site is also working to upgrade community features for users. According to the website, “Consumers want more than the traditional transactional model of an online music
store plus portable device,” said Chris Stephenson, general manager of Global
Marketing for Zune at Microsoft. “Zune is putting the strong combination of an
online music community together with subscription to deliver a new experience
centered on music discovery that’s good for consumers, artists and the industry."
Parts of the community feature include syncing Zune cards - users drag and drop their friends' Zune cards to get updates on what friends are listening to, while subscribers to Zune ($14.99 per month) then have full access to those tracks. Non-subscribers can choose to purchase the tracks. Deeper user profiles allow for better friend search and customization, consumer ratings and reviews can be viewed, and other community features are included. The building of a Zune community is certainly a nice feature. Something that has found huge success in the MySpace crowd and yet to be a part of their competition's iPod crowd.
In our May issue of Website Magazine, we explore the Mobile Web - it's usefulness, hopes and hypes. One application that typifies the brilliance and struggle of the mobile space is Google Maps for Mobile.
One of the most widely used applications on the Mobile Web is local search. Searching for local businesses, hours of operation, maps, telephone numbers are all good resources for the mobile browser. So, it only makes sense that an application that puts it all in one place would be an ideal use for a Web-enabled mobile device. Google Maps for Mobile features and outstanding set of resources for the mobile browser but also some limitations.
It's true that as the Mobile Web evolves, 3G connectivity sets in and devices get more advanced, many of the frustrations of mobile browsing will subside. But for those who want to explore now, Google Maps for Mobile offers an excellent testing ground.*
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The Good
Google Maps for Mobile is impressive. One of the first steps is to find "my location." The screen says "my approximate location within 500 meters," but the icon was placed just outside my front door. Once you have your location set, you have some options to play with.
- Search for addresses. You can find just about any location by entering an address. Type it in and the map will shift to show the new location. If you don't know the address, enter the intersection. But it helps to be precise - a search for "Michigan and Monroe" brought me somewhere near
Valparaiso, Indiana. After entering "Michigan and Monroe, Chicago, IL" I was taken directly to the downtown Chicago intersection. From this menu, get turn-by-turn driving directions, mileage and estimated travel time too.
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Search nearby. After finding the location you want, "search nearby" for hotels, restaurants, gas stations ... whatever. You will get a list of businesses, complete with addresses and telephone numbers. Another click maps all locations. Click on a particular location and get detailed information including clickable phone numbers. A nearby hotel search can deliver details such as check-in times, star ratings, activities, amenities and much more. In the same menu, get directions to the hotel based on your current location. Once the hotel is selected, search for nearby restaurants (or pizza, Italian, etc.) and get mapped locations and details including hours of operation, price levels, parking info and even ratings from Zagat.com, WineSpectator.com and others.
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Traffic info. After any search, request for driving directions or any map view, you can choose to show traffic conditions. Click another button to hide traffic info. You can search for specific highways or set a "favorite" in a particular view of several highways to get a nice snapshot of overall traffic.
- Favorites. Save searches, map locations and driving directions in your "favorites." This saves time by eliminating the need to repeat the same search again and again when you have some locations where you may return, or want to keep a listing of nearby businesses.
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The Visuals. The default setting is the "map view," familiar to most when using Google Maps from a PC. It's clear, precise and street names are easily visible. You can also switch to satellite view. Zoom in or out using buttons on your keypad. The detail is truly amazing. I was able to zoom in and see the outline of home plate at Wrigley Field, even two groundskeepers watering the infield - so close that you can see water streaming from the hose. I also checked out the famous flying buttresses of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Google Maps for mobile is a perfect example of the utility of the Mobile Web. Finding local businesses and locations, mapping it all out, providing the ability to get directions, place a telephone call or read about a place before I make the trip is exactly what mobile users are looking for while on the go. It's also just plain fun to get detailed views of famous landmarks around the globe.
The Bad
Of course with any mobile application, there are bound to be some drawbacks. Google Maps for Mobile is not immune.
- Memory. It's an absolute memory hog. On my device, I spent about 30 minutes playing around with Google Maps and started running into problems. My mobile will start deleting "non-essential" items from its memory when it starts to run low. This includes text messages (sent and received) and call logs. Granted, I have many photos on my phone and some downloaded applications, but my available memory was quickly filled. Make sure you clean your browser cache after using.
- It's Sluggish. Even after a fresh memory cleaning, the service is fairly slow. Scrolling around the map and zooming in and out can be problematic. Even scrolling through listings and details of a particular location is slow, causing frustration and some misfires when trying to select an option or a particular location. Slow and sluggish is not what keeps mobile users coming back for more.
- Locations and Other Details. Not all locations you might want are displayed. Of course, the limited space of a mobile screen is one cause, it could be problematic listing every pizza joint in Chicago. But for the mobile browser, limited locations might be desired anyway. After saving a "favorite" the map stays in it's current form. If you happened to zoom in tight on a favorite location, it will stay that way next time you pull it up. In order to see what surrounds that favorite location, you'll need to go through the slow process of zooming out again. Finally, the more details, the better. As noted previously, if you don't enter some specifics, you may find yourself in a completely different location than you intended. Searching for vague terms can dot the maps with so many locations it's hard to see where they are. Then you have to either know approximate addresses, or slowly move around the map to find what you're looking for.
Google Maps for Mobile is a highly-advanced and very useful mobile utility. It delivers some essentails (and much more) to the mobile user and does it all accurately and fairly quickly. But slow movement on the map, massive memory usage and the limits set forth by any small screen highlight typical shortcomings of the Mobile Web in general. In the end, it's still early for mobile applications but if Google Maps is any indication, there's a bright future ahead.
*
testing was conducted using a BlackBerry Pearl
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I love browser add-ons. And Firefox is loaded with them, even though some don't work properly or just aren't that useful. But
Hyperwords is worth its weight in gold. It's simple to use: just highlight and righ-click any word on a Web page and you will be presented with many options including, a wikipedia lookup, dictionary or thesaurus lookup, search images and video or perform a Google search. Look up a word in another language, convert currency and temperatures and even choose blocks of text to tag, blog or email to others. The number of options available is stunning. This extension is truly a time saver, bringing several important tools of the Web right to your mouse.
Watch a
short demo of Hyperwords.
AP News has optimized the websites of more than 100 of its member newspapers for the iPhone and iPod Touch, including The Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The angle is presenting easier access to local news content, categorized and delivered by users entering their ZIP codes.
Six major pubilshers helped set up the service including Advance Publications Inc. and Hearst Corp. So far, the two largest newspaper companies in the U.S., Gannett Co. and Tribune Co. have not yet decided to join the program.