Tuesday, February 8, 2011

MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [February 7th]” plus 9 more

MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [February 7th]” plus 9 more

Link to MakeUseOf.com

Cool Websites and Tools [February 7th]

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 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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Parrotfish – Twitter lets you preview tweeted media that belongs to YouTube, Twitpic, and a few other sites. But for most other shared media, you end up having to click on the tweeted links and open up many tabs. Parrotfish is here to help you with that, a browser extension for Google Chrome. With it installed, your Twitter page will be able to recognize media links from a wide variety of websites. Read more: Parrotfish: Preview Media Tweets Within Twitter

 

Google Body Browser – Which part of the body is called 'pectoralis major'? That and other similar questions about the human anatomy can now be quickly answered thanks to Google Body Browser, Google's latest educational tool. It is a completely detailed outline of the human body. On the left you will find a slider that lets you select different layers of the body. Read more: Google Body Browser: Learn About The Human Body By Viewing Its Different Layers In Detail

 

 

Word Lens – When travelling abroad, you will come across countless signs in foreign languages. Understanding them is important because they might contain vital information. Here to easily translate those signs is Word Lens. Sized at only 3.1 MB, Word Lens is an iOS application compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPod Touch. The app recognizes text in an image and then translates it for you. Read more: Word Lens: Instantly Translate Text With Your iPhone Camera

 

 

Amplify – is a nice tool that helps you share content you come across while browsing the web on multiple social sites, and also to your Amplify blog which gets created during your sign up process. It provides options to clip text and images off a page for sharing, writing a post on your Amplify blog, writing a status update that can extend beyond 140 characters, and sharing simultaneously. Read more: Amplify: Clip, Blog & Share Content On Multiple Sites

 

 

Free Online OCR – If you have an image that contains text, FreeOnlineOCR is one of the quickest tools to convert it into text. It works with several image formats including JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF and even PDF files. Simply upload your image, select the desired output format, click convert and the tool will convert your document into text. Read more: FreeOnlineOCR: Convert PDF Files & Images To Text

 

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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2 Ways To Easily Navigate Through (Long) Articles In FireFox

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 05:30 PM PST

navigate web pageThe Internet and the search engines made it so easy to find plenty of information about anyone or anything. In fact we can now find and go through so much content that we barely have time to read. We rather scan through the articles to get the main idea or to get to the place which is really important to us.

Today’s post will make the task of “scanning” webpage content easier, smarter and more efficient: both the addons listed here create a short outline of the current page and let you quickly jump to the part of the page that seems to be most relevant.

Navigate the Page Using Subheadings

HeadingsMap is a handy FireFox addon that generates the page map based on its headings and subheadings.

Headings and subheadings are the elements of the page marked-up using <h1> – <h6> tags. Website content creators use the tags to structure the page based on topics and subtopics. Here’s an easy way to describe what page headings are about:

Back in school when you were taught how to write papers, you had your main idea with the main heading (H1) and then supporting facts with subheadings (H2) and often those supporting facts had their own supporting facts (H3).

Website content creators are guided by the same principle when creating a web page content – therefore extracting those subheadings is a great way to generate the outline of the current article. The HeadingsMap addon makes this outline and it also makes it clickable.

The heading map is triggered in the sidebar once you click the <h/> icon in the status bar:

navigate web page

Here’s the heading map of one of the recent MUO articles, for example:

firefox navigate

Notice that the addon highlights the places where the structure is somewhat broken: in our case, that’s h4 tag coming above h3 tag.

Notice also that it brings you to the subheading on the page and highlights it in yellow once you click it in the heading map.

Note: website owners are not always really consistent when it comes to using the h1-h6 tags, so the outline won’t always be correct (but it will still represent the contests of the page):

  • Some subheadings get omitted and missed;
  • Some elements of the page are marked-up with h1-h3 tags for “search engines” (as these are believed to be good places to put your keywords).

Navigate the Page Using the Tag Cloud

While the above addon relies on website owners and how they use the heading tags, this tool uses its own built-in algorithm to do the text analysis of any page and to generate a tag cloud representing its most frequent words and pages.

Once you have the addon installed, use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Shift+U to generate a tag cloud for the current web page (Note: the same shortcut generates the tag cloud for a part of the page as well: just select the area you want the tag cloud for and use the shortcut – this is very handy when you, for example, want to omit readers’ comments, navigation, etc).

Here’s a tag cloud for the exact same MUO article:

firefox navigate

Now just click any tag that you want more context for and you’ll be taken to its first occurrence on the web page; click again and you’ll be taken to its next occurrence (the type of behavior you have with the addons that allow to highlight Google search terms on the target page):

navigate web page

Are there any other addons that offer some alternative and interesting ways to navigate the current page? Please share them in the comments!


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Navigate The Unsorted Text Files On Your Hard Drive with KeepNote [Cross-Platform]

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 03:30 PM PST

organize text notesMicrosoft OneNote is a great note-taking application that saves your notes in different folders for you, but you usually packages the files into the proprietary format that you can’t see in say, the mobile app for Dropbox, or your web browser. I’ve talked about several other open-source note-taking alternatives, RedNotebook, which suits users looking for locally-stored journal entries in a chronological view, and PNotes, a sticky notes program for Windows that I feel, packs more features than most other sticky notes programs.


I have found the cross-platform and open-source KeepNote project to be a very good OneNote alternative in that it integrates all notes in an Explorer-like shell so you can see and navigate through your notes more efficiently. So if you’re, say, reviewing notes for a class, you can easily view and switch back and forth between notes using the explorer. It, however, takes the word processor approach to notes, and doesn’t create free-form notes like OneNote. For free-form notes, the open-source Jarnal does a really good job, and it lets you annotate PDF files as well! Here are the two major reasons you should check out KeepNote.

Saves In Easily-Readable HTML

Having notes in HTML format means you can view them in any browser, and have lots of ways you can format the text with indentations, fonts, pictures, and there will be no loss of those features in the end files. As soon as you create a notebook, which turns out to be folders in the main location you choose (which you can set in the Preferences), you can create pages for notes.

organize text notes

As you can see, the titles for pages are on the top right panel, as well as on the left panel. You can start typing away in the bottom panel, which is the word processor area.

manage notes

What’s also enticing about KeepNote is that you don’t have to rely on a third-party application to jot down your notes as everything is kept in your hard drive. Backing up isn’t hard from the application either.

manage notes

You get the options to export a single notebook or everything in a zipped tarball (.tar.gz) file, and restore your backups easily.

manage notes

Use It As An Outliner

One feature I really wish Evernote had (besides better synchronization since I sometimes had issues syncing notes), is a way to organize folders or tags. I had to use names like “recipes/asian” and “recipes/pastas” in order to see the folders sorted. So then, I decided Evernote was a great idea, but it wasn’t for me. I’d just have to use Wordpad to create rich-text files and folders in Windows Explorer to see an outline, which became cumbersome when I wanted to see where I had talked about such term and search through my older files. KeepNote allows for instant organization as there is a built-in file browser with user-designated folder and note hierarchy.

manage text notes

You can link notes together just like you do in a wiki, insert images, take and insert screenshots. Taking screenshots is always more efficient if you have keyboard shortcuts, which KeepNote aces as it provides shortcuts for nearly all the editing options.

organize text notes

Now, for the things I wish this app had would be to facilitate the copying and pasting of text. Most online apps have bookmarklets to immediately transfer over selected text and images, and the only desktop applications I have seen that do this are CintaNotes and QuotePad. If you’re looking for more note-taking applications, check out this post on multi-platform notebooks.

What’s your favorite note-taking application? Also do you know of any other alternatives to OneNote?

Photo credit: Dvortygirl


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Fight Twitter Noise With The Proxlet Extension For Google Chrome

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 01:30 PM PST

twitter noise ratioEver wished you could clean up your Twitter timeline without pruning back on who you follow? Notice too many uninteresting or automated tweets cluttering up your feed?

If you answered ‘yes’ to either of the above questions then it’s time to take control of your account with Proxlet, an extension that puts Twitter on steroids for Google Chrome.

By the time you’re set-up and ready to go, you’ll wonder why Twitter didn’t come up with it themselves.

Twitter Twaddle

With the growing number of Twitter-enabled applications, clients and third-party websites it’s not unsurprising to find a large amount of automated (and quite frankly dull) updates in your feed.

twitter noise ratio

I’m talking about Xbox Live achievements and PSN trophies (who cares?), Foursquare updates from thousands of miles away (can’t do lunch, sorry) – that sort of thing. Problem is, I often still want to follow these people, and that’s where Proxlet comes in.

The extension (which currently only works in Chrome) integrates with a select number of clients, and then allows you to set up rules and filters in order to hide Tweets you don’t want to see. You can choose to mute any applications you’ve noticed causing a nuisance of themselves – whilst still receiving the user’s other updates.

If you’re not interested in personal updates and simply use Twitter for news then why not set a twitter noise filter to block all Tweets without links? You can even completely mute a user for a pre-determined amount of time, without unfollowing his or her profile.

Proxlet is essentially a Twitter API proxy. It sits between your client and Twitter’s servers, removing the bits that you don’t want to see. Sound good? Let’s have a look.

Installing & Configuring Proxlet

Proxlet works with Twitter’s main website, TweetDeck Desktop, Twitter for iPhone, Seesmic for Android, and Twidroyd. Unfortunately there is no support for the TweetDeck Chrome Web App at the moment, though it’s bound to be on the way.

I’ll be focusing simply on the main Twitter homepage here, as it’s easily accessible and works a treat. Instructions for configuring other clients can be found here.

twitter noise to signal

Visit the Proxlet homepage in Chrome and click on the big Install extension now button in the top right corner of the screen. Your browser will warn you that you’re downloading potentially dangerous files, click Continue and ignore the warning.

twitter noise to signal

Once the application has downloaded, it’ll take mere seconds for you to be redirected to Twitter’s authentication page, where you’ll need to allow Proxlet access to your account.

twitter noise to signal

Once you’ve clicked Allow you’ll be redirected to Twitter.com where a new, small "P" button awaits you near the search box.

twitter noise filter

Click it and you’ll be presented with a menu, from which you can establish some rules for a tidier Twitter.

twitter noise filter

There are two main commands for use with Proxlet – mute and blockapp. You can actually input any of these commands directly into your Proxlet-enabled client using the "d proxlet" prefix.

So, if you wanted to mute me for a week from a Proxlet-enabled client (or site) you’d type: "d proxlet mute @timbrookes 1 week". Alternatively you can put "mute @timbrookes 1 week" straight into the Proxlet filter box.

To block TweetDeck (not that you’d want to) the command would be "blockapp TweetDeck". You’ll then notice a distinct lack of updates sent from TweetDeck (or any application you block).

Also keep your eyes peeled for the “Proxlet” label underneath individual Tweets. Clicking this link will bring up a small window, with different options available depending on the contents of the update.

twitter noise ratio

Proxlet Commands

Visting the Proxlet homepage after installing will list the other commands available to you. At the time of writing, the full list of commands are as follows:

caps – Usage: d proxlet caps

Capitalises the content of all Tweets, exists as a test to see if Proxlet is working. Don’t leave it on too long as it ruins some shortlinks.

block4sq – Usage: d proxlet block4sq

Seeks out and removes all automated Foursquare tweets from the timeline. Probably the best Proxlet command yet.

blockscvngr – Usage: d proxlet blockscvngr

Removes all automated SCVNGR updates from the timeline.

justlinks – Usage: d proxlet justlinks @username

Displays only updates containing links from @username. Updates without links are disregarded.

blockapp – Usage d proxlet blockapp appname

As mentioned, this command blocks individual Twitter clients.

rssmode – Usage: d proxlet rssmode

Only displays Tweets with links, essentially turning Twitter into an RSS reader.

mute – Usage: d proxlet mute @username <time>

Mutes a selected user or hashtag (use: mute #hashtag <time>) for a chosen period of time. Use "forever" to mute for good.

Conclusion

If you’ve been searching for a way to clean up Twitter, something to make your time spent Tweeting a little more pleasant or you’re a power user who demands the ability to tinker, tweak and customize then Proxlet is for you.

Restore some order, sanity and personality to Twitter by installing this right now. Finally a way to block all Foursquare updates! Happy days.

Is your timeline full of automated Twitter noise? Any particular Tweets that annoy you? Have you tried Proxlet? Let us know in the comments!


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Hot Tech Deals [Feb 7th]

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 12:30 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.

  1. Sharp LC-52D78UN 52 inch LCD HDTV (1080p, 120Hz) $929.99 Free Shipping
  2. Dual Power Source Automatic Watch Winder by Swiss Watch International $36 via code Techbargains3
  3. Philips 40PFL3705D/F7 40in LCD HDTV (1080p, 120Hz) $449.99 Free Shipping
  4. EXPIRING Toshiba 40UL605U 40in LED-Edgelit LCD HDTV (1080p, 120Hz, Netflix) $629 Free Ship via code EMCKHKJ65 (Exp 2/7)
  5. Asus BR-04B2T Blu-ray Reader Internal SATA Drive $29.99AR Free Shipping
  6. TODAY ONLY Dell ST2310 23in Widescreen LCD Monitor (1920×1080) $149.99 Free Shipping
  7. TODAY ONLY Norton Internet Security 2011 Software (1-User/3 PCs) $27.99 Free Shipping

Image credit: Modified from Svengraph’s icon set


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How to Make Free Phone Calls to the US From Your iPad

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 11:30 AM PST

free ipad callingThe portability of the iPad makes it a great communication device, whether it’s keeping up with your friends via chat, email, Twitter or Facebook. With the free iPad app, Whistle Phone, you can also turn your iPad into a telephone.

Your iPad is never going to replace your mobile phone, but for people who live outside of the US, Whistle Phone [iTunes link] gives you an easy, and best of all, free way to get your own US number allowing you to both make and receive calls. Whistle Phone’s service isn’t restricted to iPad users only. It is also available as a free download for iPhone users, as well as desktop versions for both Mac OS X users and Windows users.


When you first launch the app, you will be prompted to create an account, use an existing Whistle account or use a generic SIP account.

free ipad calling

Signing up is quick with entering just your name, email address and password.

ipad phone calls

After you’ve logged in, you can select the area code of your choice. When first signing up, the common area code for the state of my choice was not available. That said, a few weeks later, I received an email notifying me that the area code was now available and I was able to change my number. Whistle permits users one free number change after signing up.

To make outbound phone calls, you have to listen to a 20 second recording, which is a tiny price to pay for free iPad calling. When it comes to receiving phone calls, anyone who calls your Whistle number will also hear a short message, saying “Please hold while I connect to your party.”

ipad phone calls

The app description states that push notifications should work, so that if the app is running in the background you should continue to receive phone calls. That said, testing with several inbound calls, we were unable to get push notifications to work at all.

Whistle not only allows you to make and receive phone calls for free, but with two lines in the app, you won’t miss any calls if you’re on the phone, and can even conference call with two friends.

The app also allows you to access your iPad/iPhone contacts list, or your computer address book, making it conveniently easy to call your contacts.

Other features you can use when you’re on the phone is place the caller on hold, and mute the mic, redial the latest number, and access a list of your most recent phone calls.

Whistle’s Follow Me feature allows you to easily connect Whistle to your other numbers – a feature only useful to US residents. With this feature, Whistle can automatically call up to 5 phone numbers if your Whistle phone is unavailable, or alternatively, you can forward your unanswered calls to a voicemail service. This, however, requires an in-app purchase in order to benefit from this feature.

ipad phone calls

It’s also worth mentioning that if you do not use Whistle for more than 4 weeks, your phone number will be reclaimed.

For the great service that it provides, the app is not without some glitches. Aside from the unreliable push notifications, in order to access the app’s settings, you are forced to log in every time. It would be nice to have an option to save your login settings if you’d rather not have to do this every time.

From there, you can add funds to your balance if you would like to make international phone calls, or enable ad-free calling to the US, as well as set up your Follow Me service.

ipad calling app

The Mac version [Mac App Store link] is available for download from the Mac App store, and is almost identical to the iPad/iPhone version.

free ipad calling

Have you used Whistle? What do you think of the service? Let us know in the comments.

 

 

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5 Different Ways to Generate Ideas with These Brainstorming Apps

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 09:30 AM PST

brainstorming softwareYou don't need to hit a problem wall to start brainstorming. Brainstorming is a way to generate creative solutions by hitting a problem with as many ideas a group can think of. But the free-wheeling exercise is also a great way to see a topic from hidden angles.

Physical brainstorming may sound like a carefree slam-bang talk session, effective brainstorming hardly is. One way to notch up effectiveness is to take it online.


Online brainstorming can be done using anything from email to chat meeting rooms, and even Twitter. But why keep it that simple when you have a galaxy of brainstorming software apps out there. Way back we covered quite a few of them in 6 Excellent Brainstorming and Mindmapping Sites.

Since then, there have been quite a few of them that have featured in our directory. Let's dig some of them out and see the different ways they can help us to pick our own brains.

Text2 Mind Map

brainstorming software

Text2 Mind Map saves you a lot of the plotting and drawing work by taking a list of structured ideas and converting it all into a linked mindmap. But does it take a shortcut through the right brain stirring creative process by saving you the line drawing work? That you have to find out for yourself; but yes, Text 2 Mind Map is a fast way to see interlinks between the items in your list. On the mindmap, you can change color, font, line color, and line width. You can download the generated map as a JPEG. (See Directory mention)

Wridea

brainstorming app

Great ideas need to be managed and Wridea provides you an online place to do just that. You can create ideas and then categorize them. As ideas need to be spread around, you can collaborate on them by sharing your ideas with your friends. The feature of idea sharing with groups or the Wridea community makes this app a useful brainstorming tool as participants can give feedback and ideas of their own. Once you have your ideas stocked up, you can find an inspiring one with the application's 'Idea Rain' feature. (See Directory mention)

Scribblar

brainstorming app

Whiteboards are great for chalking out ideas on virtual drawing surface. If you are a designer, an engineer, or someone who just likes to explain things with a doodle, you can try any of the gazillion whiteboard apps out there. Scribblar is a free whiteboard app that gives you active collaboration features like live chat, live audio, a whiteboard, image sharing, and multi-language support. You can upload and save snapshots and external image files. The whiteboard supports all major browsers and multiple users can brainstorm using tools like a shared pointer and other tools.

Think

brainstorming app

If individual brainstorming is what you are looking for, then this simple online mindmapping app is worth a try. You can start off without a log-in if you don't want to save the mindmap. The mindmap features spheres as nodes and you can drag them around to give shape to your thoughts. You can make the mindmaps public and also export them as an image file. (See Directory mention)

Solvr

brainstorming software

Solvr has the interface of a simple search engine but it is actually a unique problem solving app. The next step involves adding a comment, an idea, or another problem to the original statement. After defining your problem, you can send the cryptic URL to your group who can add a comment, an idea, or another query to expand the original topic. The usefulness of this simple brainstorming tool is that with the cryptic URL, you can really spread it around on Skype, email, Twitter, or any social network. Solvr also has a Chrome browser app. (See Directory mention)

Thanks to digital tools, collaborative brainstorming and side-by-side researching has become faster than the speed of thought. You can take any social communication tool and use it to brainstorm an idea.

There's Twitter for you as a good enough real time brainstorming tool.  Or you can use Google Search with a few keywords to get some insight into a problem. An app like Jagimo can also be treated as a brainstorming game with its free iPhone app.

How do you brainstorm online? Let us know about your favorite brainstorming software.

Image: Shutterstock


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Password Manager Battle Royale: Who Will End Up On Top?

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 08:30 AM PST

best password managerIf you are anything like me you need to remember tons of passwords to a multitude of websites. They range from one-time drive-by creations to ones you use all of the time. What is the best way to securely keep track of passwords and other confidential information that you use in your daily web browsing routine? Password managers are a very good solution to this problem, but how do you pick which one to use?

The best password managers roughly fall into 2 categories. Either you must be online to retrieve them from the cloud, or they are stored offline in your own storage area. Also in this review, I am setting some ground rules to narrow down the field a bit.


These password managers must:

  • Store passwords in a secure manner;
  • Include browser plugin so that your passwords can be ‘easily’ retrieved;
  • Have been around long enough that trust in their software/services and security practices is high;
  • Be free!

There are many password managers to choose from and I am not digging at any of the other ones; I simply want to keep this list limited to the ‘big players.’ If you have a password manager (or method) you would like to share with us; please do so in the comments below. We have featured a number of the best password managers below, and others, here on MakeUseOf. Without further ado, the final list of our contenders:

Clipperz

best password manager

Clipperz, reviewed by us here, is “much more than a password manager” as stated on its website. Clipperz will store all kinds of information about a website including any form information and passwords all on their web service.

Being open source means that the code running behind the scenes is open for community inspection, ostensibly meaning that the security of the site is better than if it was closed-source. As an added benefit, it allows Clipperz to offer a Community Edition that enables you to host a version of their service on your own website. This would be a good option if you are paranoid about the software and people running the service behind the scenes.

The only thing I found to really complain about is the lack of tight browser integration. Firefox (and Opera) have the ability to run a stripped down version of the site in the sidebar; allowing you to login directly to the site and retrieve passwords from there. Otherwise, Clipperz is a solid service; and runs on donations.

Keepass/KeepassX

free password managers

Keepass (Windows, only; and its bretheren KeepassX, For Linux and MacOS X) is an offline password manager which encrypts and stores your passwords in a file which adheres to a common standard; and is readable by a number of programs based off the Keepass code. That means that there are readers available for just about every platform under the sun. While it is “offline” there are some cool hacks that allow you to access your store in many locations.

For the browser component, there are a number of plugins which allow direct access to your passwords within your web windows without having to use an external program.

Keepass is time-tested and secure; I used to carry around a portable edition on my USB key chain. While I like the independence of it, I did find it a hassle to use at times and found myself more often than not leaving it in my pocket rather than dragging it out and loading it up (lazy, I know!).

Lastpass

free password managers

LastPass is an online password manager available for free. While it is not open source, they say that they often review their code for security implications and haven’t had any breaches that that community knows of. They also have a professional account which will give you mobile access to your passwords, and I like that they have a clear revenue stream which will (hopefully) mean that they will be around for the long run. They also give you the ability to import and export your passwords.

Another cool feature is the security challenge. This will analyze your existing passwords and give you a score based on how strong and how unique your passwords are. This gives you something to test yourself and to make your passwords more secure.

best password manager

Browser integration is awesome and I think the winning feature of Lastpass. It is extremely easy to use their password manager within any browser you wish – it even works on the latest beta versions. They keep on top of their plugins and it shows.

I thought I would be remiss without going over some of the pay options quickly. These options meet the critieria above but do have a fee associated with them. Both solutions have a 30-day free demo.

Roboform

Roboform started off as a form field remembering app but is now a full-on password manager. It stores your password encrypted and is very similar to LastPass above.

1Password

1Password has especially tight integration with MacOS X and if you are on that platform I would seriously take a look at them. They include many of the features above but is also tightly integrated with the OS and browser. They have versions for other operating systems but really shine on the Mac end. It costs $39 for a single user license and stores them offline. An online version is available so that you can access your passwords anywhere.

The Winner

LastPass! LastPass has the best overall features and its price point (free) is very reasonable for any user. The only reason I would not recommend it is if you ever need to access your passwords offline; otherwise it is just about perfect. If you do wish to access your passwords offline you might want to try out Keepass which is also a very good password manager. Let us know if you have any other favorite password managers for keeping your passwords secure!

Image courtesy Shutterstock.


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Read “The Daily” For Free Online Without An iPad [News]

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 08:03 AM PST

There’s been a lot of hype surrounding Rupert Murdoch’s latest news outlet, an iPad-only “newspaper” called The Daily, and now you can see for yourself what all the fuss is about without spending a cent.

The Daily puts all content from the application on the web just in case someone spots something they want to share with their non-iPad mates. This then takes you to a page with the shared news items and a big advert for The Daily, instructing you to get an iPad and subscription for a full edition. The service has purposefully made it difficult to find these shared items, but Andy Balo of Waxy.org has intervened with The Daily: Indexed.

Andy explains: “I love journalism dearly and want to see new models emerge, and charging for content is a great way to align a media organization’s interests with those of its readership. That said, if you do charge for access, you can’t publish free versions to the web and hope that people don’t find them.

The project provides a completely unofficial table of contents for each edition of The Daily by scouring the web and posting the findings, daily (of course).

As this content is already available online, there is nothing illegal about what Andy’s doing: “I’m also very curious about their reaction. This isn’t illegal or a copyright violation — all I’m doing is linking to the versions they’re publishing on their site.”

“The ability to link to any webpage without permission is part of what makes the web great, and it should never be discouraged. It’s also worth noting that Google’s slowly indexing all the articles too, and search engines aren’t blocked in their robots.txt file.

Check out The Daily: Indexed. Have you read The Daily yet? Will you? Is this the saving grace that journalism needs, or a fad that’s on the way out? Let us know in the comments.


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Get Divvy and Pixo for $12, Support Queensland

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 07:30 AM PST

For the next 48 hours only, Divvy for Windows and Pixo will be available as a bundle for $12 from bundlelytic. Divvy is a fantastic windows management application that makes resizing and rearranging multiple windows a breeze. We’ve covered Pixo on MakeUseOf before and it’s a great app to add some pizzaz to your photos.

Buy now from bundlelytic: fire sale.

This mini bundle, along with the bundlelytic charity bundle was initiated by MakeUseOf in an effort to raise funds and awareness towards the victims of the recent natural disasters in Queensland, Australia. 50% of the proceeds will be donated to the Queensland Disaster Relief fund.

Although no longer featured, you may still purchase previous fire sale bundles:
Paragon Partition Manager 11 Personal and novaPDF Professional Edition for $15
EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard v.5.0.1 and Altaro Oops!Backup for $20
360Amigo System Speedup PRO and Returnil System Safe 2011 for $20


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