MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [May 2nd]” plus 5 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [May 2nd]
- Thank You To MakeUseOf Friends!
- How Do You Access The Internet When You Travel? [Poll]
- 5 Free MP3 Downloads Of Demo Songs
- Hot Tech Deals [May 2nd]
- 4 Add Ons That Can Make Songbird Worth Your While
| Cool Websites and Tools [May 2nd] Posted: 02 May 2010 08:31 PM PDT
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. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| Thank You To MakeUseOf Friends! Posted: 02 May 2010 07:31 PM PDT ShrinkTheWeb – Website Screenshot Thumbnail Service
Walyou – Cool Gadgets for Geeks
PXLEyes – Photoshop Contests and Tutorials
Pair – Reliable Web Hosting
rade | eccles – iPhone Application Development
Thank you, guys! Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| How Do You Access The Internet When You Travel? [Poll] Posted: 02 May 2010 06:31 PM PDT  Last week we looked at the question: Is it OK to use your neighbor's WiFi?. We received 817 responses from our readers. I figured this was going to be a hot topic that would be split between users that feel this is stealing and others that feel that if they can connect to it then they can use it freely! We touched on the fact that you can have your identity or data stolen from you by using "an open access point" or you can be infected and turned into a zombie computer as part of a botnet! I do not connect to open access points anymore as a precaution to my well being. You can see all the responses below:
This week’s poll looks at how you get online when you are away from home. I personally tether my laptop or netbook to my Tilt2 Windows Mobile device. I occasionally use a built in mobile broadband card for work when I am on the road as well. We want to know if you are jumping onto paid Wi-Fi networks or maybe you have some tethering going on yourself. And maybe – just maybe, you don't want to take the net with you when you go on vacation. I know it's hard but we all deserve a break from the daily grind right? I haven't been on a trip yet without a laptop but maybe you are different. Please answer the poll below and we’d love to hear your comments as well!
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| 5 Free MP3 Downloads Of Demo Songs Posted: 02 May 2010 03:31 PM PDT
I ended up with 5 free MP3 demo downloads covering a wide range of genres. Hopefully everyone will find something they like. Feel free to point me to genres of your liking and I’ll see what I can find. Please follow the respective links to preview or download the songs from their original source. If you enjoy the free MP3 downloads, please support the artists by following their social streams.
Stephen Speaks – She Said NoGenres: rock/pop, acoustic rock
Founded in 2000, the band project allowed him to work with countless musicians. Rippberger also runs an independent record company called Rippley Records Inc., which comes in handy for releasing his own music. While he is working on new material, he is sharing his latest adventures on his blog The Speakeasy. You will find many more free MP3 tracks to download besides the lovely acoustic version of She Said No on his blog. Stephen Speaks Twitter, MySpace, and Homepage. Cast Iron Crow – BrotherGenres: rock, grunge, alternative metal, hard rock
The band draws primary influences from Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Tool, Corrosion of Conformity, and Led Zeppelin. C.I.C. fuses the vocal style of 90's grunge, the driving bass lines of hip hop and the heavy chugging riffs of sludge/stoner metal, all held together with progressive drum beats and a punk rock attitude. Their page on Reverbnation features four songs, of which Brother was my favorite. You can preview and download all tracks. Cast Iron Crow Twitter and MySpace. Life Tree – From The Inside OutGenre: Christian rock
While the live recording may not be accessible for most of you, their music is. You can find From The Inside Out and several more free MP3 downloads within their “Box” in the top right section on their homepage. Life Tree Twitter and Homepage. 2Junxion – DemoGenres: acid, techno
Being an innovative band, they use Numark iDJ2's rather than regular decks and CD players. In addition, they have a live vocalist working with a vocal machine for their performances. This Demo track is almost 50 minutes long and makes perfect material for a long and dull car ride. 2Junxion MySpace and Homepage. Playground Beatdown – Poisonous Predator & The DominionGenre: pop punk
Playground Beatdown are a very young band from New Jersey. They were founded just last year and have already won the “Jersey Shows Get Heard Fest” battle of the bands. The lads are currently recording their debut EP, of which all songs will be put out for free. There are a couple more demos that you can download from their iLike page. Do you love their music? They are touring New Jersey in May and you can book them anywhere in the US for June 21st. Check out their MySpace page for details. Playground Beatdown MySpace and Twitter. Did you love any of the above demos? What would you like to hear next time? Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Do share our articles with others! It’s really important to us. Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| Posted: 02 May 2010 01:30 PM PDT
For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.
Image credit: Modified from Svengraph’s icon set Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras. Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| 4 Add Ons That Can Make Songbird Worth Your While Posted: 02 May 2010 10:31 AM PDT
Sadly, the critiques were largely true. Songbird was riddled with bugs and sure didn’t mind crashing once in a while. Since then, Songbird has come a long way. Further than most iTunes fans care to admit. Not only is the little birdie far more stable – about as stable as an application gets – the Songbird addons have greatly matured as well.
Back in 2008, Laurence reviewed Eight Great Songbird Extensions Worth A Test Drive. There are some interesting mentions so check it out, but they’re largely still gimmicks. Yeah, just like a big part of iPhone applications. The Songbird addons discussed below are serious. They can add a lot of extra value to your Songbird experience. With a bit of luck, it might just be enough to convert you to a new music player. mashTapeBefore the internet, being interested in something was a rather disappointing experience. Now, with the Google-Wikipedia combo, you can get extra information on pretty much everything. MashTape takes this quest for knowledge – also dubbed, ‘being interested’ – to your music player and fills in the impersonal blanks between that bulk of artist names.
In a number of tabs, appearing at the bottom of your screen (see the very first screenshot), mashTape fetches additional data on the ‘now playing’ song. In Artist Info, you can read more about the group, with snippets pulled from Last.fm, MusicBrainz, Freebase, or Wikipedia. Additionally, the News tab gives you an RSS-like experience, with the latest news items from a number of sources, including Google News, Hype Machine, and MTV Music News. Finally you have the Photos and Videos tabs. These will show pictures and videos from the current artist, from YouTube, Flickr and SmugMug. LyricMasterLyricMaster isn’t a Songbird addon you’ll use every single day (or actually, you might), but it can prove invaluable at happy or heavily populated moments. Although a lot of music players allow you to add lyrics to a song, Songbird’s LyricMaster pulls them in automatically and displays them in the sidebar.
The sidebar will automatically adjust itself to your theme (as seen above), and can be collapsed when you don’t need it. For the diehards, or those regularly offline, LyricMaster also allows you to save the lyrics of a particular, or even all songs, to your hard disk. Last.fmLast.fm, in case you’ve been living under a digital rock, is a music website that can learn your tastes. From there on, you can either play music that’s recommended to you, or that’s similar to an artist, album, or tag of your choice. It’s not as accurate as just using your own music, but it makes for some great new music recommendations. And there’s seamless integration with Songbird.
The experience with Songbird’s Last.fm add-on is twofold. In terms of scrobbling, the plug-in keeps track of what you’re listening to, and stays in constant communication with Last.fm’s servers. Even tracks listened while offline will be submitted later on. As you can see above, Last.fm’s radio stations seamlessly play in Songbird. Even the album art keeps up. But probably best of all, you can rate, hate, or tag songs that are playing. And not just the radio stations, but your library music as well. 7digitalA lot of people use iTunes because of the music store integration. Guess what. Songbird now features 7digital integration. 7digital is one of the most popular online music stores. Their prices are considerably lower, and on par with the iTunes music store. Perhaps best of all, you don’t need a credit card to access it.
The 7digital Songbird add-on allows you to log into the 7digital store from your music player. From there on, you can purchase or download previously purchased songs to your computer. Song downloads are immediately added to your music Library. If you’ve been using Songbird long enough, the 7digital add-on also features music recommendations, by scrobbling your music Last.fm-style. What do you personally think of Songbird? Do you know any other noteworthy extensions? Let’s take a look in the comments section below! Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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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 
For this Sunday’s MP3 download post I decided to hunt down some demos of new bands or artists working on an upcoming album.
Stephen Speaks is the band of Rockwell Ryan Rippberger.
C.I.C. is a band of four guys from Hayward, California. The boys are barely out of their teenage years, but sound very mature already.
Life Tree is a band from Indonesia dedicated to spreading the Christian message. Currently, they are inviting fans to join them for a Live Recording on May 18th at Gereja Mawar Sharon, Surabaya, Indonesia. Up to 1,000 passionate fans can register starting May 2nd.
2Junxion is a team of 5 DJ’s, who frequently appear at the great electro and techno festivals around Europe. They were just confirmed to play the 
I found this track from Playground Beatdown on 
If you’re in the market for a new computer, laptop, mobile phone, games and other accessories; don’t waste your time searching online. We’ve taken the liberty of locating the best deals tech deals and unifying them into a single post for your convenience.
Back when 
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