UPception

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY69-AgUmDQ

Wed Sep 01 20:20:38 +0000 2010

by Ralph Averbuch

Yet another by-product of our powerful PCs and broadband links is the relative ease with which we can now take promotional materials, such as up-coming movie trailers, and create high quality mashups. For the uninitiated a mashup is literally the juxtaposition of different sounds and pictures to create something entirely novel. This is well trodden ground in the music scene but it's also becoming popular, for those with the time and inclination, in mashup movie trailers. One particularly good example is Frank Ireland's 'UPception' trailer. If you've seen UP or Inception (ideally both) you can't fail to enjoy this 2 minute masterpiece. But if that's not enough check out these other mashups of Inception and well-known movies. The Avatar/Inception mashup deserves an honorable mention.

Geocaching.com

http://www.geocaching.com/

Wed Aug 25 20:13:52 +0000 2010

by Ralph Averbuch

One of the downsides with all this digital wizardry at our fingertips is that, as a rule, it's a fairly sedentary experience. We can sit working away at our desks for hours and, come home time, end up doing even more of the same. That's beginning to change as smartphones gain in popularity, allowing the web to become an altogether more mobile experience. So what better way for couch potatoes to combine the use of computers with a need to get off their backsides than Geocaching.com. This service provides a form of 21st century orienteering. Sign up and you can search for a cache, basically a box of goodies that's been stashed out of sight, somewhere in town or countryside. Download the map coordinates to your GPS enabled phone and you're ready to go. Unlike so many games which keep you online, this is a collaborative experience which demands that you go outside. It's also a perfect way to use your latest gadget whilst taking friends and family out for a walk. It's either a vision of bliss or a picture of purgatory. Get the full video pitch here.

Crowdmap

http://crowdmap.com/mhi/

Wed Aug 18 17:46:03 +0000 2010

by Ralph Averbuch

The power of maps to illustrate a situation has become a de facto part of the digital landscape. Yet despite incredible developments from Google, Microsoft and Yahoo with their own mapping services, it's only in recent years that we have begun to see just how powerful online maps can be when mashed up with services which reach out to people via mobile and SMS. The pedigree of Crowdmap has its origins in a service called Ushahidi. It means "testimony" in Swahili, and was a site initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the start of 2008. Ushahidi's roots are in the collaboration of Kenyan citizen journalists during that time of crisis. The website was used to map incidents of violence and peace efforts throughout the country based on reports submitted via the web and mobile phone. Later the same platform was used at other crisis points including Haiti. Just a week into launch, Crowdmap builds on the last two years of learning, creating a version which anyone can use to create crowd-powered maps.

Digital Planet Podcast

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/digitalp

Wed Aug 11 15:07:33 +0000 2010

by Ralph Averbuch

The emergence of broadband has had a profound effect on the way in which we can use the web. It's gone from static web pages, to dynamic content with loads of audio and video. Broadcasters are increasingly taking their output to the masses through catch-up services or as time-shifting podcasts. As nearly all of the latest mobiles can now play these downloads, it's now possible to never miss a favourite show. One particularly good example of this is the BBC's podcasts page which offers a huge selection of quality audio entertainment. There are no shortage of tech and science based shows including our current favourite Digital Planet. If you are looking for new material to fill those hours on the bus, train or whilst fighting your way around city bypasses, this will help the time flow that little easier.

Bulkr

http://clipyourphotos.com/bulkr

Wed Aug 04 20:30:12 +0000 2010

by Ralph Averbuch

If you are already a fan of sites which let you upload and share your digital snaps with friends and family, you may have discovered the downside to relying on the cloud to store your memories. In order to show your pictures you have to be connected to the net. On top of that, you are also leaving all your precious pictures in the hands of a third party. If it’s a site like Flickr then the chances are you’re going to be pretty safe, but you can never be too careful. That’s where the beta bulk downloader for Flickr comes in. There are a few programs which will download your pictures en masse but Bulkr, now at beta version 0.5 and very stable, is one of the slickest so far developed for Flickr. Running in conjunction with Adobe Air, Bulkr will work on Macs, Windows PCs and Linux. If you’ve a burgeoning backlog of online photos with Flickr, you’ll love this application.

Springpad

http://springpadit.com/home

Wed Jul 28 19:53:21 +0000 2010

by Ralph Averbuch

If you're familiar with Evernote but find it a bit difficult to use, you might be interested in another free note taking solution from Springpad. Much like the former, it allows you to make collections of notes, links and pictures via a web browser or apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android OS. You can create to do lists and set alarms. Best of all it's quick to learn and thus use productively. Whether you're a mobile or PC user, this is a great contender for space on you platform of choice as a tool that, "helps you remember stuff today so you can make better decisions tomorrow".

AndroidPIT

http://www.androidpit.com/

Wed Jul 14 16:28:09 +0000 2010

by Ralph Averbuch

If you're the lucky owner of an iPhone you already enjoy the advantage of a much more comprehensive Market place for discovering new apps for your phone. Not so for Android owners. Unfortunately one area where Google's Android clearly trails is its own market which does not make the job of discovering new apps very easy at all. Step up AndroidPIT. With short reviews covering a range of newly released Android apps this site is a refreshing opportunity to read authoritative views on the latest gadgets for your phone. There are quite a few games reviews but you can get to more categories such as News or Communications via the site's navigation. A very welcome addition for any Android users and you can simply follow new updates with the site's RSS feed.

Nurph

http://nur.ph

Wed Jul 07 17:14:00 +0000 2010

by Ralph Averbuch

If you're a Facebook user you have probably noticed how you can instantly chat to friends whilst on any of the site's pages. It's a handy little tool which doesn't require any special downloads to work. Google's chat tool does a similar job inside Gmail. If you run a site of your own it might be useful to be able to offer your own real time chat channels too in order to give instant feedback to clients or customers. Nurph aims to provide the perfect solution with its own take on the web based chat client. A free service, the UK developers have made it as simple as possible to set up. Just register or use your Twitter account and give your channel a title. That's it. You can then embed the channel on your preferred page of your website in a manner that will look very familiar to Facebook users. Simple to set up, simple to use and it doesn't require any technical know-how to be up and running in a few easy steps.

AddToAny

http://www.addtoany.com/

Wed Jun 30 20:38:18 +0000 2010

by Ralph Averbuch

Whether you have a blog, a website or an email newsletter, one of the hassles you have to face is how you're going to easily integrate links to all the latest social sites out there. The idea is that by providing links to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and many more, you'll encourage your readers or subscribers to promote your content to their own networks. There are a number of companies and enthusiastic developers who have come up with a range of simple and free plug-in solutions, but here's one you may not have discovered. Called AddToAny it provides a share button to a wide range of social sites, as well as the option to email or bookmark a page link. It works on a broad array of CMS services including WordPress, Blogger, Drupal and Joomla, plus options for adding directly to web pages or even email newsletters. If you feel it's important to have your content be part of the social web you should check it out.

AppMakr

http://www.appmakr.com/

Wed Jun 23 14:21:33 +0000 2010

by Ralph Averbuch

You may already have a website but have you optimised it for smartphones? In some cases it's easy to adapt existing sites, driven by software such as WordPress and a ready-made mobile plug-in, to serve up a decent looking result to a smartphone's browser. But you could go one step further and make use of a service called AppMakr. This service lets you sign up and produce an iPhone app in a matter of minutes. Provided you have an Apple developer key costing USD99 (or can borrow someone else's) you can then submit it to Apple for approval. You can customise your app to include your own logo on startup and any number of content tabs which imports via the RSS feeds you specify. It's a great solution for those companies that would like to offer a branded experience to their customers and at the moment you can produce the app at no cost. An alternative is iSites. This offers the option of producing both Android and iPhone apps to give a similar result to AppMakr, though no free option is available at the moment.