MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [August 15th]” plus 7 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [August 15th]
- Thank You To MakeUseOf Friends!
- When Was The Last Time You Printed Something? [MakeUseOf Poll]
- MakeUseOf Team Spotlight [August 15th 2010]
- Bolt Browser – Yet Another Cross-Platform Mobile Browser with Video Support
- Hot Tech Deals [Aug 15th]
- 10 Free MP3 Albums To Download [Sound Sunday]
- Epic – An Indian Mozilla Browser, Ready for the World
| Cool Websites and Tools [August 15th] Posted: 15 Aug 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. Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
    
Similar MakeUseOf Articles
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thank You To MakeUseOf Friends! Posted: 15 Aug 2010 07:31 PM PDT It's time to say thanks to MakeUseOf’s friends who, once in a while, tip us great story ideas, help out on different projects and in some cases offer their services at discounted prices. Thank you, guys! ShrinkTheWeb – Website Screenshot Thumbnail Service
Walyou – Cool Gadgets for Geeks
PXLEyes – Photoshop Contests and Tutorials
rade | eccles – iPhone Application Development
TrueKolor – Affordable Quality Logo and Banner Design
Thank you, guys! NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE!
Similar MakeUseOf Articles
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| When Was The Last Time You Printed Something? [MakeUseOf Poll] Posted: 15 Aug 2010 06:31 PM PDT
It seems most people (30%) still use a multi-purpose handheld device (eg: iPad, iPhone or Android phone) or a computer (29%) to read eBooks, despite the popularity of handheld eBook reader devices, leaving just 41% of readers using a dedicated eBook device. Full results and this week's poll after the jump.
This week, we’d like to find out how green our readers’ offices and homes are. The poll question is: When was the last time you printed something? When was it? 5 minutes ago? Earlier today? This week? Months ago? How paperless are you really? Out of curiosity, what did you print? Was it work stuff? Papers for bureaucracy? Something for home? For your kids? Let us know in the comments! Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
Similar MakeUseOf Articles
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MakeUseOf Team Spotlight [August 15th 2010] Posted: 15 Aug 2010 04:30 PM PDT
In this edition of Spotlight, we will be profiling the work of Steve, Angela, Jack and Ryan. But don’t forget, our team loves feedback and conversation from the readers. If you would like to take part in that conversation, subscribe to their Twitter streams today.
If you would like to follow the MUO staff yourself on Twitter, check out this Twitter list, which is updated on a regular basis, as staff are hired or fired. From there, you can click through to each writer’s Twitter profile where you can subscribe to them for all their latest updates. Image Credit: Visualogist Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
Similar MakeUseOf Articles
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bolt Browser – Yet Another Cross-Platform Mobile Browser with Video Support Posted: 15 Aug 2010 03:30 PM PDT
If you've had no joy with either of those, or simply love to have your phone loaded with every possible browser available then you may want to try Bolt, yet another mobile web browser for your Blackberry, Symbian or other Java-friendly handset.
If you already want it, then head over to boltbrowser.com on your mobile device now. You will be able to download a one-for-all Java archive as well as a dedicated Blackberry version of the application. If you're still not convinced, then take a look at what Bolt offers. Utilising Flash and HTML5, YouTube is fully useable, despite a slightly small video window to peer at. You are given the option to run Bolt's in-built video configuration the first time you try and watch anything, meaning there's no fiddly set-up. As an aside, if you’ve recently configured Bolt for video and are having issues then restarting the browser should sort it out.
Video quality is lacking, especially compared to Skyfire (which fully implements Flash) but it beats Opera Mobile which can't do video at all. It's not the richest of YouTube experiences, but if you have an older and less-fancy Blackberry it might be as good as it gets. Then there's the speed. On my Sony Ericsson Satio running the Symbian S60v5 OS, I noticed it was considerably faster to render pages than Skyfire, with a nicer UI to boot. The start page is quick and responsive, and beneath the address bar and search field the page is split into three sections covering History, Favourites and Feeds.
History is grouped by day, making it that little bit easier to find what you're looking for. Bundled favourites include YouTube, MySpace and CNN which should give you a pretty good idea of what the developers think their creation is capable of. You can add favourites and feeds using the context menu, though on a touch-screen device this can be fiddly. Bolt also includes the ability to save webpages for offline viewing when your Wi-Fi or mobile signal disappears, which is nice. One feature that makes Bolt slightly different to other mobile web browsers is the ability to install what it simply describes as "web-apps". The browser attempts to integrate services such as YouTube into a separate tab, specifically engineered to provide you with a cut-down mobile version of the web-page.
At the moment it feels like somewhat of an after-thought, with YouTube's main site working better than the dedicated web-app. There is certainly potential here however, as the developers are already keen to advertise Bolt's compatibility with intensive services like Google Documents and the (oh-so-essential) Mafia Wars Facebook application. Web apps are installed via an online gallery so you won't need to update the browser itself to add new apps. Those of you glued to Opera Mobile, Safari or Skyfire might not raise an eyebrow, but Bolt is the five-years-in-the-making application that may just breathe life into your older Blackberry or basic Java phone. It's not as pretty as Opera, and not as video-friendly as Skyfire but Bolt gets the job done and provides yet another fully-usable alternative to those horrendous in-built browsers. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
Similar MakeUseOf Articles
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 15 Aug 2010 01:30 PM PDT
For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated. Keep reading to find out today’s Hot Tech Deals.
Image credit: Modified from Svengraph’s icon set Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
Similar MakeUseOf Articles
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 Free MP3 Albums To Download [Sound Sunday] Posted: 15 Aug 2010 12:31 PM PDT
Today, one of the most effective ways for a musician to gain some attention and eventually make a living from their passion, is to offer their work for free. Think about this for a second. Imagine you had to work for free to be noticed by an employer and eventually get a paid job. How much would you value every little bit of support? Vanguard Villains – selftitledGenre: alternative, indie, rock, hard rock
Vanguard Villains MySpace and Homepage. Zed – The InvitationGenre: rock, hard rock, metal, punk
The Alpha Theory – RAWGenre: rock, soul, hip hop, funk, reggae
The Alpha Theory MySpace and Homepage. Jairo Mendez – Puta RumbaGenre: house, mash up, rave, urban
Jairo Mendez on Generation Bass and Soundcloud. Standing Small – Asleep at the Oars, Dreaming of FreedomGenre: rock, indie, christian
Standing Small MySpace and Homepage. Bei Maejor – ǝpısdn uʍopGenre: rhythm and soul, hip hop,
Bei Maejor MySpace and Homepage. Cult of Zir with Ogo Eion – Shortwave Ministry For Theatre NoirGenre: experimental, electronica, ambient
Cult of Zir MySpace and Homepage. Feed The Feeble – 2009 EPGenre: indie, pop, jazz, rock
Feed The Feeble MySpace and Facebook. Ill Mondo – Be BadGenre: experimental, classical, instrumental
Ill Mondo MySpace and Homepage. A Common Year – Between CitiesGenre: alternative, indie, rock
A Common Year MySpace and Homepage. Past editions of Sound Sunday are available here. To have your free download featured in an upcoming article, please get in touch with me (tina at makeuseof dot com). Feel free to use the comments to make requests or share your opinion. Your feedback is very much appreciated! What is your favorite album this Sunday?
Similar MakeUseOf Articles
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Epic – An Indian Mozilla Browser, Ready for the World Posted: 15 Aug 2010 10:30 AM PDT
While the other major players are now finishing up their next browser release, a new player has entered the field. A new browser from Indian soil. Epic BrowserThe Epic Browser – never shy in their nomenclature – is based off the Mozilla codebase. This doesn’t mean that it’s made by the Firefox guys, but rather shares the same open-source back-end; the same foundation. As such, it’s an incredibly powerful browser by default, but made into an even more versatile tool by the Epic team – as will be seen below.
The title and the next paragraph highlight an important aspect of the browser; it’s made by and for Indians users. That means that some of the features will be rather useless to the rest of us, but Epic is far from useless to the rest of the world. Ignoring these specific features, it’s a strong candidate on the international browser market as well. Fitted to Indian UsersIf you’re Indian, as we know many of our readers (and actually a fair share of our in-house writers) to be, the Epic Browser will sound even more enticing to you, as it comes packed with a number of India-specific features. On the left hand side of the screen, you’ll find the India sidebar. This is constantly updated with the latest local news from a number of online sources, but also allows you to view flight information, stocks, and much more.
The standard theme of Epic isn’t all that, but you can choose from over 1500 alternative themes and wallpapers, all based on India. You can expect themes of nature, architecture, and even famous cricket players. Last but not least is an Indian usability improvement. The browser recognizes romanized Indian, on any given website, and converts in to Indian. Sidebar Applications and Add-onsWe already told you that Epic was a powerhouse browser. Most of the extra functionality will be found in the left sidebar. This comes packed with over 1500 different applications. Think Gmail, Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, but also Google Maps, To-do lists, Snippets and Write, an actual word processor. A couple of applications, like Write, also work in compliance with your Windows desktop. Most prominently are the Explorer-alternative and full-fledged back-up solution.
Because it’s based on the Mozilla codebase, you can install any existing Firefox add-ons as well. Separate from the versatile and numerous sidebar applications, that’s over 10.000 additional extensions! Privacy and SecurityThe Epic team is heavyset on your computer’s and personal security. Amongst the sidebar apps, the browser includes a free antivirus application powered by ESET. This allows you to not only scan your downloads, but your entire system as well. With new threats rising every day, you can’t be too safe.
With a single click, you can delete personal browsing information, similar to Firefox. It’s one of the first browser able to kill the worrisome Flash cookies. Similar to Google Chrome, there’s also a private browsing mode, where all history, cookies and cached pages are disabled. Finally, Epic has vowed to never store your browsing or search data. Ever. Although the design sometimes tends to look premature, the Epic Browser has shown it a strong contestant in the everlasting browser battle. This browser is deemed ready for not just India, but the whole world. Have you had a chance to download this new Mozilla browser and try it yet? Let us know what you think in the comments. Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
Similar MakeUseOf Articles
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 
In last week’s poll, we asked you 
MakeUseOf Team Spotlight is our occasional feature where we profile the work of our writers outside of MakeUseOf. We have some very talented employees who like to spread their talents all around the web and it’s only right that we should recognise and showcase those talents.
So you've all heard of 
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.
When I started this column I thought it would certainly be tough to find enough material to keep Sound Sunday going week after week. Meanwhile, I have a backlog and could probably produce two or three Sound Sunday posts each week. Yes, I am struggling to fit in everything I find!
A considerable amount of internet users are of Indian origin, almost half as much as the ever-present U.S. of A. On 
| You are subscribed to email updates from MakeUseOf.com To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment