MakeUseOf.com: “Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun]” plus 6 more |  |
- Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun]
- Cool Websites and Tools [February 5th]
- 3 Fun & Useful Google News Mashups
- Hot Tech Deals [Feb 5th]
- Use “Later” Buttons To Avoid Being Distracted & Get More Work Done
- 48-hour Fire Sale: 360Amigo System Speedup PRO and Returnil System Safe 2011 for $15
- 5 iPad Games You Won’t Believe Are Free
| Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun] Posted: 06 Feb 2011 12:41 AM PST
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| Cool Websites and Tools [February 5th] Posted: 05 Feb 2011 07:31 PM PST
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. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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| 3 Fun & Useful Google News Mashups Posted: 05 Feb 2011 05:31 PM PST
This post shares 3 Google News mashups that offer you somewhat different user experiences. Let’s see if you want to swap the suggested interfaces with the regular Google News dashboard you may be using now. 1. News Timeline: Create News SummariesCreated by Google engineer Andy Hertzfeld, News Timeline (see our directory listing of Google News Timeline) is a Google Labs projects, that structures news stories and other information by date. It lets you view news (as well as other information sources) on a graphical timeline (the look reminds me of the New York Times Article Skimmer). Note: The tool features English language results only and is only available for Google News users in the US. There are quite a few available data sources and sets including recent and historical news, scanned newspapers and magazines, blog posts, as well as information about music, sport, movies and even artworks and buildings.
Essentially, Google News Timeline provides two ways to navigate through time:
The navigation menus allow you to:
Another great (yet not really explained in the official guide) thing is that the tool supports Google advanced search operators which means you can restrict results to pages mentioning your word in the page title or force the exact match, etc. I found the tool particularly useful for generating the summary of all events (and news coverage) associated to any name or business throughout the years (you should select the “year” mode for that). For example, here’s what has been happening to “Google” from 2001 to, say, 2004:
2. Newsmap: Google News VisualizedNewsmap (we have a detailed review of Newsmap here) was already mentioned by David in his post listing ways to read the news a little differently. Newsmap is considered to be one of the most aesthetic information visualizations existing on the Web. The tool visualizes Google News results using a treemap visualization algorithm that helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator. The most obvious benefit of the tool is that it does a great job allowing you to quickly see and grasp some really hot news:
Besides, you can also read the summary by hovering over the item:
The tool is easy to filter by:
The “Customize” button gives you more options to change the look and functionality (this requires registration so that your settings could be also saved). 3. Google News On A MapSaikat did once a great job listing some aggregators to catch the news on a world map – not all of them use Google News as a data source. The following three allow you to browse Google News on a map (all three tools are searched and navigated by pointing your mouse at a spot on the map):
Are you aware of any other interesting ways to organize and browse through Google News? Please share them in the comments! Image credit: Spencer E Holtaway Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| Posted: 05 Feb 2011 12:30 PM PST
For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.
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| Use “Later” Buttons To Avoid Being Distracted & Get More Work Done Posted: 05 Feb 2011 11:31 AM PST
Services like Instapaper and Boxee offer free bookmarklets for saving articles and videos, respectively. It doesn’t matter what browser you use; all you need to do is click a bookmark and would-be distractions are sent to a place where you can access them later. Heck, even if those two services don’t work for you, a simple bookmark can do the same job.
Read It LaterInstapaper is a simple web app, but a good one. All it does is take articles you find from around the web, remove the various formatting/advertisements that surround them, and save them in an playlist for you to read later. Find the “Read It Later” bookmarket on Instapaper’s extras page. Drag it to your desktop, and you’re ready to save articles for later.
Instapaper is an ideal place to save articles for reading later for a variety of reasons. There are iPhone and iPad apps for reading on the go, and it’s even possible to read Instapaper on any e-book reader. Try it out and see if it improves your workflow! Watch It LaterArticles are somewhat distracting, but videos are an even bigger problem. Capable of eating enormous amounts of time, online video is definitely best left for after work hours. Boxee can help with this. Boxee is among the best media center applications on the planet, but it can also help with your workflow. Sign up for a Boxee account, head to the services page and you’ll find a bookmarklet to drag to your bookmarks toolbar. Click this when you find a video and it will be sent to your Boxee queue.
This is not only a great way to save your videos for later; it’s also a great way to share videos you find online with friends and family. Since Boxee is best on a television, sending videos to Boxee is a great way to watch them in a group. Try this out; you’ll probably love it.
BookmarksLike the idea of saving distractions for later, but don’t have any interest in using Boxee or Instapaper? Don’t worry. Simply set aside a folder in your browsers bookmarks for reading and watching stuff later. It may not be as snazzy as the above options, but the end-game is just as successful: your distractions are put aside but not forgotten. Combine this strategy with a good bookmarking service, such as the (not dead!) XMarks, and you’re ready to send your distractions home where they belong. ConclusionThis list is by no means definitive; it’s just meant to point out that distractions are best left until after work is done, and that there are tools out there that can help. Do you know of any other ways to achieve this? Share them in the comments below. Also feel free to share amazingly distracting videos and articles; I’ll take a look at them after work. Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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| 48-hour Fire Sale: 360Amigo System Speedup PRO and Returnil System Safe 2011 for $15 Posted: 05 Feb 2011 09:50 AM PST
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: Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| 5 iPad Games You Won’t Believe Are Free Posted: 05 Feb 2011 09:31 AM PST
While some of them are ad supported, or require paid upgrades to unlock extra features and levels, the free versions are definitely worth downloading. And whether you have some time to kill by yourself, or want to play a game with your friends, there’s a little something in here for everyone. NinJump HDNinJump HD [iTunes link] is one of those addictive games where you’ll find yourself constantly trying to better your high score. The impressive graphics and sound effects would make you think it would be a paid app, but there is a paid version where for $1.99, you get two additional levels.
The aim of the game is to scale a building, jumping from one side to the other by tapping the screen, while avoiding obstacles that will send you falling into the emptiness below. The higher you jump, the higher your score. You can also get your score up by using your ninja sword to slash the obstacles out of your way. Slashing three obstacles of the same kind will also give you a short boost up the building, without having to jump to avoid obstacles.
Spades HDSpades HD [iTunes link] is the ideal app for fans of the strategic four player card game.
Great graphics that take advantage of the iPad’s big screen, and adjustable settings from the maximum total score, total time, difficulty and toggling the nil bid on and off. If you’re not familiar with the game, check out the instructions on how to play.
If you’re more of a Hearts fan, we would also recommend their game, Hearts Multiplayer HD, with the choice to play against the computer or players from all over the world. Cliffed: Norm’s World XLWhile the free version of the game is limited to one character, one location and one speed, Cliffed: Norm’s World XL [iTunes link] is an addictive and fast-paced game which will appeal to Ninjump’s fans.
The aim of the game is to keep Norm racing down the cliff, looking for openings and avoiding big obstacles that make it impossible to get past. To keep Norm moving, use the two large arrows on either side of the screen. The free version of the game also features multiplayer mode where you can play against other iPad owners online, but if they have the paid version of the app, you’ll be hard-pressed to win since the other characters in the game are faster than Norm.
Escape – Norm’s World XLIf you want a more strategic game, Escape – Norm’s World XL will keep you busy for hours with 33 stages with two levels of difficulty – Intro and Easy. The Medium and Hard levels are available as a paid upgrade, as well as two player mode.
While the graphics are simple, the strategy behind the game is anything but. The aim of the game is to remove all of the circles from the screen. Move the character by swiping him from one circle to the next and it will disappear. If you find yourself stuck, you can easily reset the level and try again.
Air Hockey GoldAir Hockey was probably one of the more popular genre of games when the iTunes app store launched, and with the iPad’s screen, the game is a hundred times better. Air Hockey Gold [iTunes link] is probably one of the best versions available, and it’s surprisingly free.
With 1 and 2 Player modes, either using one iPad or through Bluetooth, the latter of which works regardless of what kind of iOS device your friend has. There are 6 levels of play from Kiddie to Insane, and if you really want to make things complicated you can choose to play with two pucks rather than just one. If you want to pause or reset the game – just doubletap the screen.
While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out this list 10 Great Free Games for your iPad. What are your favourite free iPad games? Let us know in the comments. Image credit: Rego – d4u.hu Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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Check out the top picks from MakeUseOf 
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 
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.
It happens all the time. You mean to get some work done, and then find an article or video that ends up taking a half hour of your time. This is the peril of the Internet age: computers, the machines most of us use to do our jobs, are also connected to an endless source of entertainment. Save those distractions for later so you can get back to work without missing out on anything.
For the next 48 hours only, 360Amigo System Speedup PRO and Returnil System Safe 2011 (worth $60 together) are available as a bundle for only $15. Purchasing this bundle automatically enters you into the lucky draws to win a 250 GB ioSafe Rugged Portable and a license for Nitro PDF Professional worth $99.99.
While the iTunes App Store is packed with great games, most of them are paid. If you want to kick back and relax with some free games that won’t cost you a cent, we’ve put together a list of five awesome 
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