MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [May 29th]” plus 4 more

Cool Websites and Tools [May 29th]
MeeGo OS – A (Faster) Alternative to Windows on Your Netbook
How To Protect Yourself From Facebook Video Virus, Scams & Pranks
Hot Tech Deals [May 29th]
12 More Websites To Show You the Hottest Twitter Topics

Posted: 29 May 2010 08:31 PM PDT

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.

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Sportypal – If you are into running, jogging, cycling or any similar exercise, you'll really like how SportyPal can keep track of your workout and help you improve your performance. SportyPal is a free app that can be installed on any GPS enabled phone. Just start the app when you start working out and stop it once you are done. Read more: SportyPal: Keep Track Of Your Workouts With Mobile.

		SubMate – There are many people who spend a considerable amount of time each day travelling on a subway, getting from home to work and back. What if there was a way for each of them to connect with one another, find people with matching tastes, and form friendships? SubMate aims to make that possible. Read more: SubMate: Make New Friends Who Can Travel With You On Subways.

		MakeADare – Daring our friends to do stuff they would not normally is a recipe to embarrass them and make us laugh. Whether it is our own friends that are put into the 'dare' situation or somebody else's, watching people embarrass themselves is mostly amusing. That is why Make A Dare is such an interesting website. Read more: MakeADare: Watch People Doing Dares & Do Some Daring Stuff Too.

		FamilySearch – On television you may have seen a family tree of a celebrity or an election candidate that goes back a long distance in time. Hiring a professional to create such tree is quite expensive; our personal curiosity can quickly be satisfied with a free service called Family Search. Read more: FamilySearch: Search Historical Family Records & Find Ancestors.

		thredUP – Children grow; clothes don't. Taken together these two things can become quite expensive. Enter thredUP. This website helps co-ordinate an action families all over the world have been doing for centuries: trading clothes with other families when it is outgrown. Read more: thredUP: Trade Children's Clothes With Other Parents.

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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.

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MeeGo OS – A (Faster) Alternative to Windows on Your Netbook

Posted: 29 May 2010 06:30 PM PDT

Steve Jobs may disagree but I think netbooks are fantastic. They’re more functional than a phone and more portable than a laptop, and feature a full keyboard to boot.

Netbooks are capable of running regular operating systems, but I’ve recommended time and time again that users find a netbook-centric operating system to get the most they can out of their systems.

To that end, I reviewed Moblin in November. I was impressed, but stated it’s not quite ready for prime time. More recently I wrote about four netbook operating systems worth checking out, and mentioned that Moblin had merged with Maemo and been rebranded “MeeGo.”

Well, MeeGo 1.0 is now available for download, and while the merger has slowed development a little, I must say I’m impressed with this operating system (although I’m still not sure it’s ready for prime time.)

First Impression

Boot up MeeGo and you’ll be impressed with the boot time, a very similar experience to Moblin. In fact, if you used Moblin, you’ll find almost everything about Moblin familiar, even if the branding is a touch different. The taskbar is the same and features most of the same buttons (albeit with more colours) and the first thing you see when the operating system starts is the “MyZone” which combines your calendar with your recent documents and posts from your friends on Twitter.

Unlike last time, however, it’s now possible to set up Google Calendar to work here. Joy!

Browser: Google Chrome

I mentioned in my Moblin review that the system came with a Mozilla-compatible Moblin-branded browser, and that it was amazingly fast. Since that time Google’s Chrome has made tremendous strides on Linux, and is also blazing fast. It’s probably for these reasons that Chrome is the default browser in MeeGo.

If you don’t like Google-branded products in your Linux operating system you can opt to download the open-source Chromium version of MeeGo when you download the operating system.

Music Player: Banshee

The Moblin media player was a weak point of the system, in my opinion. It’s gone in MeeGo, replaced with the fantastic Banshee media player. Capable of becoming a library for your music and video, Banshee fits into the MeeGo operating system perfectly.

The down side, of course, is that MeeGo does not at this time support proprietary media formats, so my MP3 collection don’t play back at all. And as far as I can tell I need to compile these codecs myself in order to use them (though if someone can correct me on this in the comments I’d be really grateful.)

Other Changes

There are a few other changes to Moblin worth mentioning here. My favorite is the new page that comes up when you click the clock:

As you can see this screen is split into three columns: the time in other time zone, my schedule for the day and my current tasks. This is a really efficient use of the space.

Another key change is the “devices” button on the main bar. It features information about all the storage devices connected to the drive. If I click “Import Data” Banshee will import all music and video from that device. Neat, huh?

Get MeeGo

You can download MeeGo for yourself right here, with or without Chrome. You can find instructions for copying it to a flash drive here.

Conclusion

MeeGo’s really coming together as a netbook operating system. Sure, there are quirks—I couldn’t get the Twitter integration working for the life of me—but overall the system is very polished and, most importantly, fast. If you’re finding other netbook system disappoint you try this one out just to see what’s possible. Even if you don’t find the system ready for you it will give you something to be excited about.

What do you think? Is MeeGo an improvement over Moblin, or is it pretty much the same? Do you think this system has potential for netbooks, or are you happy with another system? Sharing in the comments below won’t necessarily help you impress the opposite sex, but it might.

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How To Protect Yourself From Facebook Video Virus, Scams & Pranks

Posted: 29 May 2010 03:30 PM PDT

Facebook being the most popular social network attracts many users and continues to grow in popularity. Not all Facebook users are computer savvy. This fact is often exploited by unscrupulous people.

There have been many a scam, pranks and even malicious links and software that spread through Facebook. A lot of them are difficult to spot for the trained eye let along the innocent Facebook user who has logged in to see what her friends have been up to.

Here are some of the tips you can use to stay safe on Facebook.

Examine carefully and ask yourself

The most recent of such scams was a video called – ‘this is without doubt the sexiest video ever!‘.

This case in point serves as an excellent example of how being a little vigilant goes a long way in saving you a lot of embarrassment and worse – harm to your computer. The sexiest video scam appeared as a video on your Facebook wall if any of your friends fell victim to it.

Here are some of the questions you should ask yourself, whenever in doubt (note how these easily help you identify the video in question as a scam):

Has the video, link or the post been posted by someone you know? If not, stay away from it.
Did one your friends posted the video? Is it a surprise that "this" friend posted such a video? (Now, I don’t mean to pick on your choice of friends, but generally, you can get an idea if such posts coming from your friend makes sense or not) If you are surprised, most likely your friend has fallen victim to one of these scams, sostay away!
Does the link, post or video behave suspiciously? If you clicked on the video in our example — it will take you to an application page, that requests you to allow access to your profile and friend list before you are allowed view the video. That right there is a big, “NO, NO!” Should you really be required to give access to your profile just to view a video? Absolutely not.

Knowledge is Power

Yes, it really is. Even on Facebook! Having information about what is happening on Facebook can help you stay away from scams and pranks like these. An excellent way to do so is by visiting Facebook Security. You can also click on the Like button, which should let you view the updates in your stream. The Facebook Security page has excellent content on the recent threats, scams and pranks going about on Facebook. It also from time to time lists external resources on online safety and privacy that can prove helpful and add to your knowledge as well.

Also, do check out some of our posts about Facebook security, privacy and general tips and tricks! Not forgetting, the other resources you can go through to find out more about Facebook: Top 10 Resources and Articles To Know Everything About Facebook.

Keep Your Computer Safe

A vigilant and trained eye can save you a lot of trouble when dealing with pranks and scams on Facebook. However, even the pros make mistakes but that is how they learn. So be prepared for the worst.

As always, you should keep your operating system, browser and antivirus program (here are some of the best free ones) updated. Many antivirus programs and browsers can detect rogue links and websites and warn you to stay away from them.

Don’t blindly trust anyone

This may seem a little too far fetched, but if you think about it, it makes real sense. You can never be sure that it is really your friend who sent you a message or posted on your wall. Of course, I don’t mean to be critical of each and every message or post; but if something seems out of the ordinary, you better be alert, think and make sure you ask yourself some of the above mentioned questions before proceeding further.

Recently, there has been a lot of hype about Facebook privacy controls and the way Facebook shares your personal information with other sites. While that might be a topic of discussion for another day, it goes to show how important each and every update that you make, each friend request you accept or each link that you click on Facebook is.

The cliched “With great powers, come great responsibilities” could never fit Facebook better than now. The present situation and tremendous popularity also requires you to keep an eye out for scams, pranks and malicious intents.

Hope these tips make your Facebook experience a little more safe. If you have other similar tips to share, we would be more than happy to hear them in comments!

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Hot Tech Deals [May 29th]

Posted: 29 May 2010 01:30 PM PDT

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 tech deals and unifying them into a single post for your convenience.

For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.

Dell Home Memorial Day Sale: Up to 29% off select desktops and laptops
Sony VAIO FW Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz 16″ Laptop w/ Blu-ray for $800 MRSP $1170, that’s $370 off
Unlocked Nokia Nuron Cell Phone for $115 with coupon code “W?WVFGR5Z8GCW3″
Panasonic VIERA 42″ 600Hz 720p Plasma HDTV for $469
Unlocked Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Phone for $160 after rebate

Image credit: Modified from Svengraph’s icon set

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12 More Websites To Show You the Hottest Twitter Topics

Posted: 29 May 2010 10:30 AM PDT

In the past two articles, 9 Websites To Show You The Hottest Stuff on Twitter Now and 10 More Websites To Show You The Hottest Twitter Topics we’ve taken a look at just how much information can be found when you dig a little deeper on Twitter. Going beyond the list of people that you follow, there is no limit to the amount of realtime information that you can find.

In the third and final part of this article we’re going to take a look at how to use Twitter on the go when you’re travelling in a foreign country, how to find content that is personalised just for you, how to find the authoritative voices on Twitter, and a few other specialised sites that use Twitter to find information on specific topics or hobbies.

Authoritative Voices

Twittorati

Twittorati takes a slightly different approach to most Twitter related sites. Rather than plug straight into Twitter to establish what is popular, the site makes use of Technorati’s resources to determine who to follow on Twitter. The site tracks the tweets coming from the most popular and influential bloggers according to Technorati’s stats. It specifically features the Top 100 blogs, but there are plans to expand to include more influential voices from around the web. Tweets on Twittorati can be browsed by categories such as Technology, Business, Parenting and more.

The Twitter accounts include both the blogs’ official Twitter accounts, as well as the personal accounts of the people behind the scenes. You can also browse the most popular links being tweeted from these blogs, and their latest photos. Tweets are accompanied by additional information about the user, including real name and job title, as well as their Technorati authority rating. Logging in with your Twitter account allows you to reply or retweet directly from within Twittorati.

Travel

Twaller

One of the great things about Twitter is how easy it is to access it when you’re on the go, which makes it a great resource to use when you’re travelling. Twaller allows users to share tips and information when you’re on the road, and accessing that information couldn’t be easier. Using the site, you can either search for specific information, or can browse by region or city, with major cities in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, Australia and South America included on the list. Each city’s tweets is divided into several sections, including where to eat, entertainment, things to see, weather and shopping. Twaller relies on hashtags to provide it’s service so the website is only as good as each city’s residents choose to make it. Signing in with your Twitter account allows you to submit tweets about the city you’re in directly from Twaller, as well as reply and retweet.

A great travel Twitter resource to take a look at before you hit the road is Travel Note’s directory of all things travel related – from airlines, to travel agencies, to travel writers, if it’s on Twitter, it’s probably listed here.

Personalised

If you’re looking for a more personalised experience to avoid information overload on Twitter, there are several options available.

Feedera

After both signing up for a Feedera account and connecting to your Twitter account, Feedera will proceed to create a personalised digest to be delivered to your inbox on a daily basis. The process can take several hours to complete. The digest consists of what is considered the best content shared by the accounts you follow, divided into photos, links, videos and music.

Popular content is determined by how often the link has been shared on Twitter, as well as on Digg, Facebook, Delicious, and a few others. Each link is accompanied by the number of your friends who have tweeted that story.

ChatterBox

Signing up for an account with Chatterbox gives you a little bit more control over the kind of content that you will get to see. You can create as many “ChatterBoxes” as you like, each of which can consist of specific keywords mentioned on Twitter, and can even be further narrowed down to keywords mentioned by specific users.

ChatterBox takes it one step further, allowing you to share your results with other users of your choice. ChatterBox can come in handy when a company or team needs to be aware of specific information being shared on Twitter. For example, all Tweets about a specific brand can be listed in one ChatterBox, and shared amongst the staff. The members of the ChatterBox can then assign the response to a specific user, add categories, statuses, and priorities to these tweets, and even respond to users directly from within ChatterBox. ChatterBox is the perfect accompaniment to any corporate or company Twitter account.

Also be sure to take a look at Mahendra’s article, 3 Little Known Ways to Use Twitter Without Information Overload, which includes another great site for creating personalised feeds – Cadmus.

Search

Twitter’s search feature leaves a lot to be desired, but luckily there are a few websites that make up for its shortcomings.

Topsy

Topsy is a Twitter search engine that uses Twitter as a basis for the ranking of its search results. They are based on how popular a link is, as well as the influence of the Tweeple sharing it. You can search the web as a whole, can search specifically within Twitter, and can also do an image search. Results can come from within the last month, week, day or hour, and can be sorted by relevance or date.

Signing in with Twitter allows you to retweet directly from within the website, and you can also subscribe to the RSS feed of any given search, or even create an email alert. Opening a link will show you who has tweeted it, what’s been said, and influential Tweeters are distinguished from the rest, with the ability to filter the tweets down to only influential users. Topsy also overcomes one of Twitter search’s main drawback – the inability to search beyond the past 10 days.

Bing

Microsoft search engine Bing has decided to get in on a little bit of the Twitter action with their dedicated Twitter search engine. The home page features some of the trending topics and popular links. Search results consist of the most recent tweets containing the search term and the most shared links on Twitter.