MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [March 6th]” plus 7 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [March 6th]
- Geeky Fun: Latest Hilarious Picks
- VDownloader – Really Easy Video Downloader Software (+ 20 Free PRO Accounts)
- Easily Create Awesome Charts & Graphs With Tableau Public
- 5 Best Addictive Free Multiplayer Android Games
- MakeUseOf Must-Have Mac Apps Giveaway Day #5 – Midnight Inbox
- 10 Free & Fun Online Picture Games Based On Flickr
- Mac Giveaway CleanMyMac Winners!
| Cool Websites and Tools [March 6th] Posted: 06 Mar 2010 07:31 PM PST Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory.
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers! Related posts
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| Geeky Fun: Latest Hilarious Picks Posted: 06 Mar 2010 06:31 PM PST
Check out the top picks from MakeUseOf Geeky Fun during the last week.
If you would like to keep up with all latest Geeky Fun additions, please subscribe to the Geeky Fun feed here. You can also subscribe and get the latest additions via email.
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| VDownloader – Really Easy Video Downloader Software (+ 20 Free PRO Accounts) Posted: 06 Mar 2010 05:31 PM PST
There is a paid pro version of VDownloader that costs $16 today. But we have 20 pro licenses to give away to our readers. The paid version of this video downloader software lets you perform batch downloads and conversions. It also lets you use the application to convert video files already on your machine and much more. View the details below and continue reading to see how you can win one of these licenses. 
I downloaded the free 5.2MB version from VDownloader and installed it. It was quick and painless and it didn't try to install any crap on my machine. I appreciate that. The main user interface looks like this.
You can type the URL of your video into the box provided at the top of the screen or you can browse to the video like so…
Once you get to the video, just copy the URL from the URL bar at the top of your browser like so (make sure to highlight the entire URL).
Then VDownloader will see that you copied a video URL by itself. Then it grabs the URL from the clipboard and pastes it for you automatically like this:
Your next step is to decide which format you want the video saved as. You can select the output format (or leave it as is with the original file choice) as you can see from the above screenshot. Just hit the drop-down menu and select the format you want. I would run with AVI but if you want a file that will play on your PSP, iPod, iPhone or Windows Mobile devices (MPG), you will find options for all of them. After making your selection and pasting your URL to the video file you are ready to start downloading and converting. Simply hit the download button next to the URL. There is a Download HD Videos checkbox below the URL box – keep this checked if you want the best possible quality download.
Once it retrieves the video information it will prompt you to input the path of where you want to save the newly converted video file.
Hit save and watch the magic begin.
After downloading the video, the conversion will begin (if you selected conversion. If you did not, you will be done).
Pretty nifty huh? Real easy to use and handy to keep in your toolkit. Now for the contest. Simply leave a comment on this post as to why you want the video downloader software. Each comment counts as one vote. You can also tweet your reason for wanting the license – just include #MakeUseOfContest in the tweet and add @KarlGechlik to it so I can tally them up! The contest will run for 1 week (ends on 14′th of March). Any questions or comments, let us know in the comments! Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Related posts
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| Easily Create Awesome Charts & Graphs With Tableau Public Posted: 06 Mar 2010 02:31 PM PST
Excel has a great charting engine, and perhaps the most commonly used tool to create charts. We have also shown you a number of applications and web apps that you can use for charting. Tableau is another service that takes charting to a whole new level.
The new visualization interface requires a little getting used to at first. Tableau Public is however easy to use, so to create charts and graphs is as easy as drag and drop. For instance you can use data from something as simple as a text file to an Excel spreadsheet to a database. All the major DBMS are supported. Once you connect the data source from then on, charts can can be created via simple drag and drop operations. The amount of control you get and the intuitiveness can put Excel’s charting to shame any day. You can easily edit the Axis labels, the scale, colors, shapes being used in the charts. In fact there are so many options that mentioning them here in a sentence or two won’t do justice to the application. That being said, it is just as easy to use the default options and create charts and graphs quickly.
If the interface and the host of options perturb you, have a look at some of the training resources that are available on the Tableau Public site. These are excellent to get you started with the application. Sample data sets are also available that you can try your hands on. There are walkthrough videos to help you get familiar with the software and even introduce some of its intricacies.
A downside however is that you cannot save your charts locally. All the charts are stored online within a public gallery. While this may not be a issue if you plan to share your charts anyway, it does mean that you cannot use Tableau Public to create charts using confidential data. If on the other hand you want to share the charts with the world, Tableau Public provides a number of features that have you covered. In fact as the site points out, it is being actively used by bloggers, researchers, journalists and students alike. Since you cannot save your work locally, this doesn’t mean you have to start afresh everytime. The visualizations/charts you create using Tableau Public are all stored online. While the inability to save content locally may seem like a pain, on the flip side this means that the data that has been visualized using Tableau Public can be viewed online. There is an excellent gallery that you can browse through to see content created by others.
On the whole if you need to create impressive charts or visualize/present some data and you don’t mind sharing the results with the world, then Tableau Public is one of the best solutions out there. If on the other hand you would like to keep the results to yourself, you can always go for the professional version. Do you know of any other data visualization tools that are better or as good as Tableau Public? Tell us about them in the comments. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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| 5 Best Addictive Free Multiplayer Android Games Posted: 06 Mar 2010 11:31 AM PST
That said, there are actually quite a few free multiplayer games out there for the Android that are nothing short of addictive and amazing – they’re just hard to find. In preparation for this article I was doing some research online to see if there were any multiplayer apps I hadn’t come across, and I kept seeing Cestos, Gang Wars, and Parallel Kingdom. Not that these aren’t great games, but because I’ve seen them so much in reviews, I’m only going to mention Cestos in this article (because yes, I’m addicted). Keep that in mind while reading – I’m trying to hit on a few of the best Android games that may be new to you.
Project INF BetaThis is one of the best Android shooter games I’ve seen for Android, so you can imagine my surprise that not many Android users seem to know about it. Project INF is one of the few free multiplayer games that I play on a regular basis that I feel like I should be paying for. ChickenBrickStudios has done a great job developing Project INF without making it unrealistic to play on a handheld device. So often handheld games have some of the worst, most painful control configurations known to man, but Project INF’s controls are relatively seamless and I found them very intuitive. Don’t be put off by the seemingly slow pace that the game seems to have – it’s completely different when the game is in your hands. I personally am grateful that it isn’t any more fast paced because otherwise, there would be 3-4 person games rather than 16-20 person deathmatches. Right now, Project INF lets players compete in deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag events.
You can choose to be a Scout, Marine, or Brute, each class with a distinct skill or advantage that gives it an edge in a certain area. There’s also not really a “best class” in Project INF – just pick the one that fits your style, and customize the rest. Every other time that your character levels up (from kills, flag captures, etc) you are able to pick an aspect of the character to upgrade. This means that your level 30 Scout may be specialized for something else than your friend’s level 30 Scout. In addition, as you progress you will gain money and have the ability to buy class specific items – whether they be shields that affect certain statistics, or different potions to help you out in a pinch, you’ll want to put your money to good use.
I have one last thing to mention about Project INF: it’s relatively well balanced between levels. Don’t feel intimidated if you’re a level 1 on a map full of level 30+ characters – at level 5 I was routinely killing people more than 20 levels above me. Get comfortable with your character and class, and just have some fun. Besides, you gain levels quickly up until around level 15, so you’ll get competitive pretty quickly. What are you waiting for? Get Project INF, make an awesome screenname, and enjoy one of the best multiplayer Android games you’ve ever played! CestosLearning this highly addictive game is extremely easy – if it takes you more than 30 seconds to get the hang of things, you’re trying too hard. All players on the map start out with a number of balls, and the object of the game is to knock other people’s balls into pits or hazards – the last man standing wins. The interesting thing about this game is that turns are done simultaneously; you pick a direction and magnitude for the path of each of your balls, and then double tap to wait for the other player. After both of you have made decisions on where the balls will be headed, they will simultaneously go where you told them to go, leaving mines in their previous locations. ChickenBrickStudios (yeah, the same ones that made Project INF) have a decent set of screenshots that do a good job of explaining the game.
In addition to just the game, there’s actually a community where you can add friends, chat, view your statistics – all that fun stuff you like to see in games.
The cool thing about this style of play is that it’s based on how well you can predict your opponent’s moves – it keeps things interesting and prevents Cestos from becoming another game where a single strategy dominates. In addition, as you play Cestos you will level up and gain different tweaks and mods for your balls (I’m starting to sound creepy here). Mind you, the perks you get are not quite at the level of a game like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, but hey they don’t hurt! Since Cestos is free, and everyone takes the occasional bathroom break, I would recommend you get on the Android market and download this game now. What the Doodle Lite (Also see Sketch Online)This game is nothing short of addictive. Join a room with several contestants, and take turns drawing the words that you are given. It’s essentially Pictionary for your Android device – without the paper of course. You may also have heard about Sketch Online, which is almost the exact same game. I figured I would mention WTD because I like it more – the people that play it in general are nicer in my experience. Sketch seemed to have a lot of mouthy kids that didn’t really add to the fun of the game. Even though I like What the Doodle, feel free to try Sketch Online out as well – since they’re both free what have you got to lose? (other than your self esteem, but we won’t go there…) HomeRun Battle 3D FreeGet the free version of this addictive arcade style home run derby-style game on your Android from the Android market. Home Run Battle 3D has some of the most impressive (‘Wii-like’) graphics that I’ve ever seen on an Android yet, and even utilized the accelerometer in your Android device to make gameplay more fun and engaging. The game can get repetitive just playing by yourself, so go online and battle other users on other platforms (yes, iPhone users) to see who can knock the most over the fence. Here’s a quick summary video of HomeRun Battle 3D that sums the game up better than a few sentences will. By the way; graphics like this don’t come cheap–this thing’s filesize is huge for a standard Android game (22MB). 2 Player ReactorI should warn you – this game isn’t true multiplayer, because it doesn’t play online. Rather, you and a friend share your Android for this one. The concept of the game is extremely simple – the first one to react to whatever’s in the middle of the screen gets a point. The stimuli vary – sometimes you’re waiting for three matching images in the middle, other times you are supposed to react to the first true statement, etc. As you can see on the product summary, people love this game – there’s no reason why you won’t. I have this one in my arsenal because you never know when you and a friend will be bored – and since he doesn’t have an Android phone you can’t play any of the other games mentioned! Don’t panic, just get 2 player Reactor and see who’s fastest. Although the video is of 4-player reactor, you shouldn’t have any problem envisioning 2 player. EXTRA: Quake III (Kwaak3)Quake III on an Android? Hell yeah! When I heard the news that someone had ported Q3 to the Android, I had to check it out. You already know what the game is – Quake helped make FPS’s on the PC what they are today. What you’re PROBABLY wondering is why I mentioned it in an article about multiplayer Android games. It turns out that the (blessed) developer that ported the game over to Android has actually tried it on his home network and stated that Quake III ran multiplayer with his home PC just fine! This means that (fingers crossed here) you’ll be able to do the same with your Android 1.6+ device! Say hello to Android-powered Quake III LAN parties. I don’t want to bore you with details – just check out the video. AndroidandMe has a really good summary article of the entire story, so go read that for more information. All you really need to know is that the game runs at a decent speed (around 26fps on the Droid/Milestone), has multiplayer and single player, and cannot be downloaded on the Android marketplace, so don’t bother looking. Rather, check out the developer’s page and scroll down to “installation” for the required file and a short list of easy instructions. That’s it – enjoy Quake on your device! It ran flawlessly on my Droid and multiplayer went without a hitch as well – let me know in the comments section if you get it working too! What’d you think of the list of best Android games mentioned here? My focus here was on games that are not hampered by their “Lite” status which sifted out a few games that could be extremely fun multiplayer, but don’t really offer the gamer many features in the ‘lite’ edition. Hopefully you hadn’t heard of one or two of the games I mentioned in this article, and found a game that you really enjoyed (and for such a good price, too!). So, what’d I miss? Let me know which multiplayer games you play the most on your Android phone! Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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| MakeUseOf Must-Have Mac Apps Giveaway Day #5 – Midnight Inbox Posted: 06 Mar 2010 10:00 AM PST
However, like all GTD applications, the steep learning curve is almost always worth your while. If you’re interested in organising your life, Midnight Inbox is the perfect tool — and we have 10 licenses worth $350 to give away to 10 lucky winners!
The Collect tab automatically collects files, documents, events, tasks and bookmarks from specific folders or apps such as iCal, Mail and Safari. The items shown can be limited to new files and events anywhere from the past hour to the past year.
The Process tab allows you to go through your collections, determining what needs to be done for each item. Will it take less than 2 minutes to complete? Does it require further action from you in the future? Or are you done with it and can it be filed? Think of it as a virtual filing cabinet.
Under the Organize tab you can create projects, assign tasks or actions, and mark these actions as done as you complete them. You can determine how long an action should take, when it's due, and assign a context to it – such as work, home, errands etc.
The Review tab gives you an overview of what your actions are and what has been accomplished, and is divided into daily and weekly reviews.
Under the Work tab, you can look at your actions organized by context.
An interesting feature is the little prompt that appears every now and then, asking if you are being productive, or as they put it “Are you shaving a yak?" For people with a short attention span, this will serve as a great reminder to get back to work!
Midnight Inbox is highly customizable and when used correctly, you won’t be able to remember how you ever got anything done without it before. Download the unrestricted 14-day trial and give it a whirl. How do I win a copy?All you need to do is; Join our Facebook page by clicking on the Become a fan button below.
If you can’t see the fanbox above, click on this link. To seal the deal, click on the Facebook Share button below the article to spread the news to your friends. Then in comments section of this article, post a link to your Facebook profile (be sure to enter your real email address so that we can contact you if you win!). Existing fans only need to share the article and post a link to their Facebook profile in the comments section below. This giveaway ends tomorrow, just before the next one starts. Between now and then, you can share this post or comment as many times as you want! The more you interact, the higher your chances of winning. Let the giveaway begin! Have fun! Want to know what else we’re giving away? Check out this post 15 Must-Have Free Apps For Your Mac & Giveaway. MakeUseOf would like to thank Midnight Beep Softworks for their generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interesting in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via email. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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| 10 Free & Fun Online Picture Games Based On Flickr Posted: 06 Mar 2010 09:31 AM PST
Photos, images, or pictures have always helped to tie in the loose associations of what we see around us, with what we are trying to learn. Maybe, not as much for us adults, but for children, an image based practical teaching approach is often recommended. One of the more recommended places to search out images is Flickr. The large number of images that are hosted by Flickr are a virtual visual treasure.
Some of it has been turned into better ways to browse for images. And some into games. Call them picture games, photo puzzles or time-wasters, Flickr-based games are brief enough to be played in a trice and easy enough for kids and grandparents. The fact that they are very easy to play is what makes them appealing as teaching aids too. Here are 10 Flickr based games that are wholesome fun. Stretch it a bit, and you could get a lot of visual learning out of it too. NoticingsDo you notice things around you? Noticings asks you to upload interesting photos to Flickr tagged with the word 'noticings'. Users and their photos are given points on the basis of these uploads. The photos are imported from Flickr and geotagged. The rules of the picture game are very simple – for instance, you get points for being the first person to notice something in your neighborhood. Or for spotting a lost object somewhere.
Noticings is about noticing interesting things around us and having a bit of fun in the process. It's almost as if the game tells us to pause in our every day and smell the roses. Flickr SudokuSome of Sudoku's popularity should rub off on this Flickr inspired avatar. Just like the original Sudoku game, you get a 9×9 grid. Instead of numbers, you get to use 9 unique images from a column on the left. The rules of Sudoku still apply.
You can get new images from a particular user’s photo stream or from pictures with particular tags, or a combination of both. Also customizable is the image size, and also the difficulty level of the puzzles. But Sudoku sometimes takes time; so hit the save my game button to come back to it later using a bookmarked link. And if you miss the numbers, check out its namesake – Flickr Sudoku which uses number pictures instead of digits. PhotoMunchrsThirty photos arranged in a grid in this picture game and you have to munch your way through the ones which are matched with the keyword on the top. Navigation is using the arrow keys on the keyboard. Get seven right and you move up a level. Munch one wrong and you use up a life.
The site says that your fun play adds to the visual relevance ranking system which contributes to image searching algorithms on the web. Question PileQuestion Pile includes a collection of games based on Flickr but hosted on Facebook. Of particular note is Where Is This (You see a geo-tagged Flickr picture and you answer where the picture is from) and One Doesn’t Belong (Pick the dissimilar Flickr image from a set of four, based on tags).
Another is the Sliding Puzzle where you have to solve a photo puzzle which is very similar to the Sliding Tiles toy puzzle. Flickr TagmanInspired from the classic Hangman game, here you have to guess four letters of the tag at a time and get the four Flickr photos.
Each time you put in an incorrect letter, a part will be added to the hangman. When you guess a correct letter, that blank will be filled in. The picture game ends when the Hangman is complete or you manage to get the four letters of the tag. FastrA player is shown ten successive images and the whole point is to guess a common tag that ties all these images together. The game gets its name from the pace set by the game – the faster you guess the correct tag, the more points you get.
Choose to play it as a guest or register with a nickname. Registered players can save their games and their high scores. You can also choose to play it alone or within a group. MemryQuite simply, Memry is a memory game that uses Flickr pictures as cards. Enter a tag in the field box and Memry loads the images in a 4×4 or 6×6 grid (as selected by you). The images are face down and you have to show them using mouse clicks. The objective is to match each photo with its identical counterpart.
When you match all the photos, you can choose to see the originals at Flickr. Using some parameters, you can play using a particular photostream and in an advanced mode. PhrasrFrom the same guys comes this Flickr based picture game which takes a phrase that you type in and gives you images that go with it. The entire phrase is depicted is a series of images.
It's basically a matching algorithm that treats each word in the phrase as a keyword and extracts corresponding images from Flickr. But the end result can be eye catching. Guess The TitleThis game is from Big Huge Labs which has quite a lot of Flickr tools in its repertory. What you have is a Flickr photo, a hint of a few letters and a timer that’s on the run. Your job is to guess the title and enter it as fast as you can.
This game is fast paced and also lets you play against others that are online at that point in time. Spell with FlickrThis is more for teaching your little one, how to spell and having some fun in the process. Spell out a word in the field box and the Spell with Flickr spouts out the spelling with picture letters from Flickr.
You can click on each letter to get a new letter picture in its place. AlphaLearnr is another similar Flickr mashup that can be used to teach children alphabets in a very easy way. Click on the alphabets and you get Flickr photos for that letter. Are there other neat Flickr based picture games out there? We would love it if you could add a few more to this list. Drop some names in the comments and let us know which ones you really like. em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers! Related posts
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| Mac Giveaway CleanMyMac Winners! Posted: 06 Mar 2010 09:00 AM PST
Go ahead, clean away and trim that fat! License information will be sent via email. Thank you for participating. Catch the next giveaway in a hour’s time! MakeUseOf would like to thank Sofia and the MacPaw team for their generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interesting in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via email. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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There are plenty of times when you watch a video on YouTube and you want to save the video as a certain file type, so you can watch it on the go or just save it to watch on your computer or home DVD player. The market is saturated with pay video downloader software apps that do this easily. There are a few that do it for free but VDownloader does it for free and does it well!
Data visualization and analysis is extremely important in today’s information driven world. Such feats have given insights into various aspects of human life and, if utilized properly, can help to make the world a better place. 
The Android gaming market is still growing and evolving in many ways, but as an Android user myself, I fully realize that it’s still nowhere near the Apple store in many respects. Specifically, multiplayer games seem to be lagging behind on the Android especially given the rapid pace with which the Android market is growing.
I have always believed that pictures are great instructional tools. Put a picture in place of a word and what you get is an instant mental connection.
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