MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [December 25th]” plus 4 more

Cool Websites and Tools [December 25th]
MiniTunes: An Attractive, Lightweight Mac & Linux Music Player
Hot Tech Deals [Dec 25th]
Access Flickr On Your iPad With Flickpad For Free
Merry Christmas From Everyone At MakeUseOf!

Posted: 25 Dec 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. You can make use of them without spending a dime. If you want to have similar cool websites round-ups delivered to your email daily email subscribe here.

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Subtitle Horse – Most online videos nowadays include subtitles. However, if you don't have access to the original subtitle file it becomes very difficult to edit it. SubtitleHorse solves that problem by letting you edit subtitles online. All you have to do is provide a link to the FLV/MP4 file that you want to edit subtitles in. The tool will then let you insert subtitles at specific points. Read more: SubtitleHorse: Edit Subtitle Files Online

		Workflowy – Today numerous online services are offering list creation features. They let you create lists and access them remotely through any computer. Usually however these sites overcomplicate the interface with features or provide only a few basic features; the user is inconvenienced in both cases. Workflowy is a simple organizational tool that presents the perfect blend of functionality and features when it comes to online list creation. Read more: Workflowy: Simple Organizational Tool To Create & Store Lists Online

		Streampad – If you own a blog that hosts music files, then your site visitors will appreciate a tool that helps them stream that music just like in an online audio player. Normally to build such a player on your blog you have to extensively code up a widget. But thanks to Streampad, adding an audio player to your site requires no programming knowledge at all. Read more: Streampad: An Audio Toolbar To Stream Music On Your Blog

		Invoicera – is a web based billing and invoicing tool that can help freelancers and small business owners create and manage invoices for multiple clients effortlessly. The tool is feature-rich and lets you create invoices in multiple languages and currencies, add clients and staff members, customize your invoice templates, use different payment gateways, track expenses and much more. Read more: Invoicera: Web Based Billing & Invoicing Tool

		Call Confirm – Do you often find call logs on your phone bill that you're pretty sure you never dialed? You may be accidentally calling on your phone when it is in your pocket. Call Confirm is a simple and effective Android app that will help you avoid these annoying instances. What it does is it puts a dialog box on your phone screen that asks you if you really want to call the number that was dialed. Read more: Call Confirm: Prevent Accidental Calls (Android App)

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MiniTunes: An Attractive, Lightweight Mac & Linux Music Player

Posted: 25 Dec 2010 05:31 PM PST

Focusing on being lightweight without compromising on aesthetics, MiniTunes is a basic music player done right. If you want to browse your music quickly, create playlists and occasionally look up the lyrics of the currently playing song, this is the music player for you.

You won’t find a built-in music store or network sharing, but that’s kind of the point. Music players have got out of hand in their complexity, so it can be very refreshing to find a fast-loading piece of software focused first and foremost on one primary function: playing your music. But just because a program is basic doesn’t mean it needs to be ugly, and that’s what makes MiniTunes great.

MiniTunes currently works on Linux and Mac OS X, although a Windows version is also in the works.

Using Minitunes

Fire up MiniTunes and you’ll be presented with your artists, displayed with pictures:

linux music player

This reminds me of the music browser in Boxee, but with a desktop interface instead of a remote-based one. Hover over any of these artists and a “play” icon will show up; click it to add all of their music to your playlist. You can do the same thing with albums, of course.

This is cool, but I like to browse my music by folder. MiniTunes also allows for this, through the folder mode:

linux music

It’s nice to be able to browse things that aren’t necessarily music – like podcasts or ebooks – on my own terms, through my folder hierarchy.

One other nice thing about this player: it’s really quick to look up information about the current song, artist and album:

linux music

Particularly nice is the lyrics search, because this is a great way to hear lyrics you can’t necessarily make out (excellent for those who don’t speak English natively).

Installing MiniTunes

Want to give MiniTunes a spin? You can download it here. Mac users need to have Snow Leopard to use it, meaning older Macs (including any PPC ones) miss out on the fun.

Linux users will find a download there, although they might need some help getting everything working. Here are instructions for installing MiniTunes on Linux. That site will also feature packages for various distributions, as they become available.

Want to try out MiniTunes without following complex instructions? Find an easy download at Portable Linux Apps. Just make the download executable and run it; these portable applications work on any Linux distro.

Windows users can’t use the program for now, but don’t worry: support is on the way. Be patient!

The first time you use the program you’ll be asked where your music is:

linux music player

Give MiniTunes this information and it will get to work indexing everything. You’ll be ready to listen to and browse your music in no time!

Conclusion

MiniTunes may not be for everyone, but I really like it. It’s taking a different approach to playing and browsing music, and it’s one that fits in nicely with the way I use my netbook. Kudos to Flavio Tordini for a well-made program!

Do you like MiniTunes, or do you prefer a different lightweight music player? Let us know in the comments below. Also feel free to ask for help getting everything working; I live to help and you’re all pretty cool people.

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Hot Tech Deals [Dec 25th]

Posted: 25 Dec 2010 12:15 PM PST

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.

Keep reading to find out today’s Hot Tech Deals.

Onecall Weekend Sale on Electronics

Seagate Expansion 2TB USB External Hard Drive $89.99 Free Shipping

EVGA Geforce 210 512MB HDCP PCI-E Low-Profile Video Card w/ HDMI $5.99AR Free Ship

Vizio E322VL 32in LCD HDTV (1080p, 802.11n Wifi) $397.99 Free Shipping

Fuji FinePix S2550 12MP 18X Long Zoom Digital Camera with HD Video $159.99 Free Ship

Dell Inspiron 15 Intel Core Dual-Core T4500 2.3GHz 15.6in Laptop (2GB/250GB/Win7) $399.99

Dell Inspiron 15R Intel Core i3-370M 2.4GHz 15.6in Laptop (4GB/500GB/Win7) $549.99

Dell Inspiron 17R Intel Core i3-370M 2.4GHz 17.3in Laptop (4GB/500GB/Win7) $599.99

Image credit: Modified from Svengraph’s icon set

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Access Flickr On Your iPad With Flickpad For Free

Posted: 25 Dec 2010 11:31 AM PST

ipad flickr app With all of its potential to be used by photographers as a portfolio on the go, the iPad still doesn’t have an official Flickr app. While it’s possible to use the free iPhone app, the experience is not ideal, particularly where resolution and clarity are a must. Flickpad For Free [iTunes link] is the ideal replacement for the official Flickr app. Not only is it optimised for the iPad’s screen, it pretty much blows the official Flickr iPhone app out of the water with its features.

With Flickpad for Free you can keep all of your Flickr photos with you on the go, while also following your contacts latest uploads on the photo sharing website. Flickpad for Free comes with a few interesting features that sets it apart from other apps, but navigating the app may take some getting used to.

All of the features of the app are also available for your Facebook photos, in addition to features specific to the social network – with the ability to ‘like’ photos as an example.

The app loads to a page showing the latest photos from your contacts, randomly strewn across the screen. Flick photos away to load more new images from your contacts. If you have added your Facebook account as well, your friend’s photos will be displayed here as well.

ipad flickr app

Opening any given photo allows you to add or view comments, add it to your Flickr favourites, email it, open it in Safari or save it to your photo library.

flickr ipad upload

Flickpad for Free is a little less than intuitive when it comes to the navigation. Three buttons are featured at the top right hand corner of the screen. The first button, Explore, takes you beyond your contacts, and allows you to take a look at some of the more popular work that is being shared on Flickr.

flickr ipad upload

The second button takes you to a menu from which you can view your own Flickr sets or favourites, your Facebook photos, and photos you have already seen or added to your favourites on Flickpad.

flickr ipad upload

Your own sets and photographs, as well as those of other users, are displayed in a grid.

flickr ipad

The last button, the search button, allows you to search for friends or for keywords on Flickr, as well as for friends on Facebook. This is probably one of Flickpad’s most obvious weaknesses – there is no easy or intuitive way to navigate to your Flickr contacts’ or Facebook friends’ photos, other than by performing a search.

Having access to a list of your contacts, or even a link on any given photo leading to the user’s profile page would be a more ideal way to navigate your way around the app. That said, under Settings, you can access a list of your Flickr and Facebook contacts – not to navigate to their profiles or photos – but decide whether or not you want their photos to appear on your homepage.

ipad flickr app

Flickpad supports multiple Flickr accounts, allowing you to quickly switch between different accounts, aside from being able to access your Facebook photos.

If we could suggest another small change to Flickpad, aside from the navigation, it would be a few choices other than the faux-wood background. Personally, I would prefer a plain, dark background, particularly when you open up photos.

There is a paid version of the app currently available for $4.99, but after the latest update, the only difference is that the free version is ad-supported – which is a very small price to pay for all the features you’re going to get in return.

How do you access Flickr on your iPad? Let us know in the comments.

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