Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google

Ever wonder how long it takes to get from here to there? About 7 hours and 51 minutes according to Google Maps. It turns out both here and there are in France. If you’re still confused, there are two cities in France with the convenient names of H

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Filed under: Web services, AOL, Beta

This blog’s parent company AOL is planning some major updates to two of its cooler web services, Xdrive and BlueString. Xdrive is an online file storage service that gives you 5GB of space for free. But right now the service is hampered by a somewhat clunky interface. BlueSting is a recently launched service that lets users upload and arrange digital media to create personalized timelines.

This week AOL launched a series of BlueString Facebook applications under the My Memory Gallery label. The company also plans to create standalone widgets that you can use to embed timelines on blogs and other web sites.

We’re much more excited about the forthcoming desktop versions of BlueString and Xdrive. AOL is using Adobe Flex and AIR to create desktop interfaces for these web apps that will let users upload and arrange files simply by dragging and dropping them from their desktops. No need to upload files before you can start arranging your timelines.

The new version of Xdrive will be called Xdrive Oxygen and is set for a February release. The desktop version of BlueString is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2008.

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Filed under: Web services, AOL, Beta

This blog’s parent company AOL is planning some major updates to two of its cooler web services, Xdrive and BlueString. Xdrive is an online file storage service that gives you 5GB of space for free. But right now the service is hampered by a somewhat clunky interface. BlueSting is a recently launched service that lets users upload and arrange digital media to create personalized timelines.

This week AOL launched a series of BlueString Facebook applications under the My Memory Gallery label. The company also plans to create standalone widgets that you can use to embed timelines on blogs and other web sites.

We’re much more excited about the forthcoming desktop versions of BlueString and Xdrive. AOL is using Adobe Flex and AIR to create desktop interfaces for these web apps that will let users upload and arrange files simply by dragging and dropping them from their desktops. No need to upload files before you can start arranging your timelines.

The new version of Xdrive will be called Xdrive Oxygen and is set for a February release. The desktop version of BlueString is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2008.

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Filed under: Fun, Internet, Text, Features, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Productivity, Web services, Google, Commercial, Freeware, Open Source, BlackBerry, Mobile Minute, iPhone, Search, web 2.0

Life’s getting mobile, and it seems that’s the way it’s always going to be. Humans don’t come off as the traveling type, yet we do. From horse carriages to cell phones, we’re always looking for ways to do more on the move, so what’s missing from your mobile life in 2008 and how can you fix it? The following list may help.

1. Full access to YouTube in Windows Mobile: Everyone’s got a solution for playing YouTube Mobile videos on a Windows Mobile phone, but it seems no one’s giving Windows Mobile users a way to access YouTube.com’s full, flash video library. Oh wait, there is a solution. It only requires users to install a specific version of TCPMP and the Flash Video Bundle, an add-on to TCPMP to give it the ability to play flash video. Use Pocket IE to navigate to YouTube (a few other flash video sites are also supported). Clicking on a video will open TCPMP to play it. Easy, right?

You could also install Orb on your PC and use the Orb mobile client to find YouTube videos on the go, but that solution requires you to leave your home PC on all the time.

Continue reading 5 things missing from your mobile life in 2008: Google Mobile and more

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Filed under: Fun, Internet, Text, Features, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Productivity, Web services, Google, Commercial, Freeware, Open Source, BlackBerry, Mobile Minute, iPhone, Search, web 2.0

Life’s getting mobile, and it seems that’s the way it’s always going to be. Humans don’t come off as the traveling type, yet we do. From horse carriages to cell phones, we’re always looking for ways to do more on the move, so what’s missing from your mobile life in 2008 and how can you fix it? The following list may help.

1. Full access to YouTube in Windows Mobile: Everyone’s got a solution for playing YouTube Mobile videos on a Windows Mobile phone, but it seems no one’s giving Windows Mobile users a way to access YouTube.com’s full, flash video library. Oh wait, there is a solution. It only requires users to install a specific version of TCPMP and the Flash Video Bundle, an add-on to TCPMP to give it the ability to play flash video. Use Pocket IE to navigate to YouTube (a few other flash video sites are also supported). Clicking on a video will open TCPMP to play it. Easy, right?

You could also install Orb on your PC and use the Orb mobile client to find YouTube videos on the go, but that solution requires you to leave your home PC on all the time.

Continue reading 5 things missing from your mobile life in 2008: Google Mobile and more

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Filed under: Internet, Utilities, E-mail, Web services

If you’ve ever wanted to sign up for a website just to check it out, but were hesitant to surrender your e-mail address for the fear of worthless e-mails filling your inbox to the brim, there is a solution as elegant as disposable tissues - and it’s called Guerrilla Mail.

Now you may have already done something smart like create an e-mail account for the specific purpose of receiving confirmation e-mails and other internet formalities. A good solution, but cumbersome because you still have to login to “confirm” the address and all that other jazz.

This is where Guerrilla Mail shines. Go to the site, click on “give me temporary e-mail,” and you have an e-mail address that is all yours for the next fifteen minutes. Receive the e-mails you need to confirm at the address, and voila, forget about it. The beauty of disposable e-mail. No login, no password, just a quick way to deal with the trash. And if you find that you need a little more time, you can always get an extra fifteen minutes.

Obviously, as cool as it is, not too good for important stuff like bank accounts or online transactions - not everything in life is disposable.

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Filed under: Internet, Utilities, E-mail, Web services

If you’ve ever wanted to sign up for a website just to check it out, but were hesitant to surrender your e-mail address for the fear of worthless e-mails filling your inbox to the brim, there is a solution as elegant as disposable tissues - and it’s called Guerrilla Mail.

Now you may have already done something smart like create an e-mail account for the specific purpose of receiving confirmation e-mails and other internet formalities. A good solution, but cumbersome because you still have to login to “confirm” the address and all that other jazz.

This is where Guerrilla Mail shines. Go to the site, click on “give me temporary e-mail,” and you have an e-mail address that is all yours for the next fifteen minutes. Receive the e-mails you need to confirm at the address, and voila, forget about it. The beauty of disposable e-mail. No login, no password, just a quick way to deal with the trash. And if you find that you need a little more time, you can always get an extra fifteen minutes.

Obviously, as cool as it is, not too good for important stuff like bank accounts or online transactions - not everything in life is disposable.

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, web 2.0

Ever with there was a way to track popular news/blog posts by following Google Reader shared item feeds without, you know, subscribing to dozens of feeds? The big problem with link blogs and shared item feeds is that if you subscribe to a bunch, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to wind up seeing the same articles over and over. ReadBurner makes it possible to track shared items from some of the blogosphere’s opinion leaders without subscribing directly to their blogs.

Here’s how it works. Developer Alexander Marktl has taken the shared item feeds from a number of well known bloggers.. ReadBurner examines those feeds and determines which items are being shared the most often. You can sort the list by Currently Popular, Popular This Week, Most Popular All Time, or Most Recent.

ReadBurner is still in pretty early Alpha testing. Up until yesterday the site didn’t even have a registered domain. But if you’re the sort of person that can’t get enough of Techmeme and other news tracking sites, ReadBurner might be worth keeping an eye on.

[via Mashable]

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, web 2.0

Ever with there was a way to track popular news/blog posts by following Google Reader shared item feeds without, you know, subscribing to dozens of feeds? The big problem with link blogs and shared item feeds is that if you subscribe to a bunch, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to wind up seeing the same articles over and over. ReadBurner makes it possible to track shared items from some of the blogosphere’s opinion leaders without subscribing directly to their blogs.

Here’s how it works. Developer Alexander Marktl has taken the shared item feeds from a number of well known bloggers.. ReadBurner examines those feeds and determines which items are being shared the most often. You can sort the list by Currently Popular, Popular This Week, Most Popular All Time, or Most Recent.

ReadBurner is still in pretty early Alpha testing. Up until yesterday the site didn’t even have a registered domain. But if you’re the sort of person that can’t get enough of Techmeme and other news tracking sites, ReadBurner might be worth keeping an eye on.

[via Mashable]

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Filed under: Internet, Web services

When we first looked at DigitalBucket last year, we told you that the service was about to emerge from beta. We were wrong. The online file storage service is still in beta, but that’s a good thing. It means you can continue to use DigitalBucket for free. Eventually the company will start charging for service with plans ranging from $15 per year for 1GB of online storage space to $149 per year for 25GB.

In the meantime, DigitalBucket has continued adding features that make the web-based file storage site a lot more Windows-like. For instance, you can now open multiple documents in multiple windows. And you can use more online services to edit those documents. So if you’ve uploaded an image, you can edit it using Snipshot or Picnik and save it to your DigitalBucket account. You can also edit Office documents using Zoho.

There’s also a new uploader that lets you upload multiple files while tracking their progress. And you can upload files from the internet just by entering a URL. For developers, DigitalBucket has released an API, so we may see even more features coming soon.

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