Two Beta programs that’s Kinda Cool

It’s in beta but man it has me hooked already. Snitter is a small desktop application that allows you to post to Twitter may be sleeper for 2007. I enjoy the feel of it, the look of it, how it alerts you when a twitter entry has been placed on twitter, it’s cool for PC and Mac and I know the creators will build on it as time goes on, so what are the downsides? It’s still in beta and you can send files and add a webcam photo, but again…Snitter is still in beta.

Like tweetr, it needs ADOBE Air to run on your desktop so you have to install that first before installing Snitter. Once that is taking care of the Snitter installation is a breeze. I love the interface of Snitter…you have different templates to choose from, on the side of each of your twitter friends there are buttons for reply in timeline, direct message to your fellow twitter and a button to toggle as a favorite. you’re able to delete your twitter entry in Snitter. the option drop down menu allows you to see your friends, your archives, replies, favorites,

I know tweetr does this but one thing tweetr doesn’t have is looks. It’s good every once in a while for a application to not only be “purr-dee” but have some muscle under the hood like Mac machines.

Another app that’s desktop is in beta but is pretty cool is the the music player slacker. It’s another last.fm, pandora, but what I’m really enjoying about this is the small features like it shows your what artist or group that is next to play, when you click on the artist up next it gives you the bio on that artist(s). Another nice feature is you can right click on the past songs or current song and choose whether as a favorite, ban the song or band the artist. I like the nice cd artwork it shows of the artist. You can also install slacker radio on your desktop just like last.fm

One thing it will have that last.fm does not have will be a portable player with built-in wi-fi so it will update your player, it will have a 4inch screen to check out the reviews, cd artwork. This is left to been seen if this will take off. I can see this running into problems, even though from an earlier article it will be mp3 capable but with the iPod touch with wifi capability it run into problems because even if you do not own an iPod just about everyone knows what there are but you never know. Another downside is that its not Mac based as of yet. I hope they will come out with a player on the Mac side because I think Mac people will love this.

One thing I’m realizing as well as you the readers is that what these two products are is just another creator or creators coming along and enhancing the products. First came Twitter then Jaiku came along then Pownce. The same is going on with Snitter and Slacker. Will they be around in 6 months, time will tell. I started off with Twitter, then Jaiku and Tumblr, now I’m back using Twitter. For me all of these products has a place in the web market because it keeps each one on their toes and that’s a good thing. As I wrote a while back on twitter/jaiku/pownce, I take full advantage of them all. As my geek brother luis said,

“it’s not nice to have both you just like to join and install everything.”

Yes I have to admit, I’m a joiner. But hey by me joining I have a chance to kick the tires and let you know what’s good, what’s not, what to keep, what to pitch. (and besides, he’s a cranky geek anyhow…I know he’s going to get me for that, oh well)

Now, when will a product come along and knock the iPod and iTunes off of it’s throne…we’re waiting?

weekendTECHreview for Sept 30/Oct 7, 2007

to here podcast click here
tech stories:

• another DRM-free audio store for our choosing
• more pressure on Microsoft to extend Windows XP to the masses
• Why this vote is really important to keep abreast of
• After two years, Yahoo pulls the plug on their podcast directory

other tech stories that caught me I this week:

• Although NBC and Apple are fueding, iTunes will sale new shows from NBC
• Bugs in OpenOffice application may show up in other OS systems
• New cell phones in the T-Mobile line up.
• Just like the new show Fall line up so are new Fall gadgets
• Google searching for new bandwith
• Apple and Nokia bumping heads maybe over Apple’s iPhone?
• File system fixes for Apple’s laptops
• Apple warning for people who wishes to unlock their iPhones
• Google and Microsoft quarrel of DoubleClick
• Security patches for iPhone
• Palm Centro for Sprint gets official
• Over 200 grand of fines for sharing a little over 24 songs…whoa
• Did this man pants “really” catch on fire or is he a liar?
• Kim Jong Il…the internet…’nuff said
• Internet Explorer 7 without WGA…that’s good but I’m still not switching
• And I thought it was just me that was noticing that some of my regular mail is winding up in my spam folder
• Should Yahoo be split into different companies?

tech tips: Geek tool box
you can put it either on a thumb drive or cd

music folder
media monkey
winamp 5.5

productivity/utility folder
foxit pdf reader
abiWord
OpenOffice
winzip

A Must Have
dban
windows xp service pack 2

security folder
avg anti virus
lavasoft ad-aware
spybot
avg anti-spyware

browser folder
mozilla firefox
opera
theWorld

software picks/website picks:

better Gmail
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4866

pimp my safari
http://pimpmysafari.com/

great little plug in for recording
internet radio streams
Streamripper

Music Showcased:

Jonathan Butler….Barenese
Steely Dan….Almost Gothic
William Ackerman…Visiting

Underscore music for this week
Craig Chaquico….Arizona Daybreak(underscore for tech tips/software picks)
Peter White….The View From Your Window(underscore for tech tips/software picks)
Earl Klugh….Move(underscore for tech news)

Intro music provided by ToddKelley aka Big La (flowink.com)

Get your Web Fix Without Surfing the Web(well…kinda)

Tech Tip: Can’t surf the web at work but you saw a couple of cool articles on the web and didn’t get a chance to read them before leaving home? If you have pdf converting software on your computer at home this is a life saver to give you that “web fix”.

Save the article(s) as a PDF file or files and send them to your work email address or if you can save it on a thumb drive and get your web stories fix once you arrive at work.

This may mean you may have to get up a little early to get this done but at least you will get your quick fix for the day. ^_~

Hell is Freezing over…

StumbledUpon This By Accident…

(According to your monitor and video card/software)

When holding down the Ctrl + Alt keys and hitting the arrow keys you can change the your desktop view (try it and see what happens).

For People with a mini iPod w/the pepsi logo on back

I found this out the hard way. I called Apple Store twice and asked can they change the battery in my mini iPod with the Pepsi engraved logo on the back, the tell me “no problem” only to get there and they can not do it but they gave me the link on apple to send the ipod for battery replacement so I want to save you the trip. If you have this type of mini iPod you will have to go to this website for battery replacement for this type of mini iPod.

apple.com/support/ipod/service/battery

Hope this is helpful.

Useful (or Useless)Tech Tip#3: Keep Your Bookmarks Organized

Two ways I have found to keep my bookmarks organized. I am using del.icio.us more and more and that is great way of organizing them. The cool thing about del.icio.us is that by “tagging” them you can just type in the search bar in del.icio.us the tag name and it will pull up all the links you have saved. Another cool thing about this is that if you ever have to format your hard drive or if you buy another computer and if you did not export and save your bookmarks on a thumb drive or on your computer you just log into your del.icio.us account(and of course it’s free) and your bookmarks are there for you. You can share your bookmarks with your friends who have del.icio.us accounts as well (Firefox has an extension you can use where you will have the del.icio.us and tag button on your browser).

Another way to organized your bookmarks is by making folders and categorizing your favorite links in each folder. I find this method really helpful because this way say if you are looking for the link you saved for Apple products, instead of having to scroll down a long list of bookmarks you have saved (if you are using IE it is called “Favorites”) you just go to that folder and it will have the list of your favorites for Apple products.

One more thing…remember to save your bookmarks. You can do this by exporting and saving your bookmarks in your My Documents folder or you can use this method I just learned yesterday when I called in to the show The Tech Guy.

Be Blessed and Happy Geekin‘

Useful (or Useless)Tech Tip#2: A Tidy Desktop for us Lonely Windows Users

We Windows users do not have the perks of Mac users (I still love you all) when it comes to having a nice, clean and clear desktop but here is way have a nice, tidy desktop and to have either a few icons or no icons at all. Make short cuts the icons you use on a regular basis and place them in about 2-3 folders on your desktop or put them in the folder(s) and place them in taskbar and uncheck “show desktop icons” and you will have a nice, clean desktop and no clutter. ^_^

Some people may not want to take the extra couple of “clicks” but for me I like to have nothing on my desktop and it doesn’t bother me if I have to click a couple of extra steps. There is a dock application for windows if you wish to go that route.

before

after

Twitter, Jaiku, Tumblr: I finally get it now

Sometimes when you follow the web closely you have the tendency sometime to “over think” certain things or new tools to use on the web that are new (I know I do). Last year when Jaiku, Twitter and Tumblr hit geeks (Leo, Dvorak, Merlin) and non geeks alike everyone was asking, “If you have IM and blogs why do you need something like this?” (i.e. Twitter). I asked the same thing. I remember joining Twitter and then dropping it because

1. No friends to “twit” with
2. Jaiku made more sense to me at the time

Well here it is July and I am a “Twittin’/Jaikuin’/Tumblrin’ fool. I finally get it now. As you all know I am working non stop, full time and a part time job and about time I get home most nights now I do not really have time to do my favorite thing; surf the web, read tech news, find new software to download, test and share it with my friends (you, my web friends out there). If I go by the schedule I mapped out for myself I may be able to do it (which I never stick to, it’s always “hit and miss”). With tools like Twitter, Jaiku, Tumblr it’s like IM/blogging/texting all wrapped up in one. These three ways (and Pownce right behind it) is in a way replacing keeping in contact via email.

A month or so back while listening to MacBreak Weekly(find episode) Merlin Mann (43 Folders) was talking with Justine Ezarik on how when the MacBreak crew was together she was texting the whole time and Merlin did not mean anything mean by it (Justin apologized to Merlin) and Merlin said something that was so profound: people that are on the web in a certain age bracket are finding that emailing one another is “too slow”. The more I use Twitter, Jaiku and soon Pownce (whenever I find the time to set up my accounts…thank you Fave, Patrice, Jen) the less I email. Already having IM accounts which is cool but sometime you don’t have time to log in and see who’s online.

With Twitter, think of this as a “electronic bulletin board. You see what your friends are up to and you can jot down a “quick note” on what you are up to at that moment. Amber calls it voyeurism or “stalking” in a joking way but in all honesty you really become close with people even if you haven’t met them face to face before. With these little powerful mediums you can send links, send pictures, now send music to one another to share with everyone. The cool thing about this way of communicating you can choose who to follow, who to allow to follow you and with Pownce, you have levels (like Vox) who you wish to see your mini post.

Tumblr is a mini blog. With Tumblr you basically throw up photos, links, embed videos, photos with captions, the whole gambit. With Blogger, Vox, WordPress those are full blown blogging tools and at times a quick thought may pop in your head and you just want to share it without going through the whole “blogging” thing (I know it doesn’t make sense but just bare with me). Again, you can do that with your blogs but with Tumblr its like a “no brainer”. You come across a funny picture…throw it up on Tumblr, a Video, throw it up there…Tumblr is like watching a Simpsons episode and you are trying to explain it and have way through your explaination when people are looking at you like, “what’s so funny about that?” Tumblr is the same…you just have to try it and you see what I mean.

Jaiku and Pownce are little more powerful that Twitter. These two not only can see what your friends are up to, but like Tumblr, you can also put your rss feeds from your blogs or any blog for that matter and whenever something new is posted it will post it automatic. I use Twitter for seeing what my fellow twits are up to and Jaiku and Tumblr for sharing my new post on my blogs and again I can post what I am up to on Jaiku.

With these pretty cool tools of communication you can tweak your background to fit your personality and have it stand out. Most people now are using IM or Twitter or cell phones to keep in touch instead of emailing. Some people may say, “you know meeting people in person is a option.” This is not taking the place of physically meeting people but what this is doing is putting people together that have the same interest and cutting through sometimes time wasted thinking you may have many things in common and it turns out that you and that person do not “click” and I don’t mean “hooking up” kind of click I mean just really getting to know someone. I have heard people and read that this much “reach out and touch someone in a nanosecond” can be a overload but it hit me this morning that it is helping really slow down. What I mean is that by having these tools now, instead of having to worry about writing a long piece on something you can now just post a link and everyone can see it and you can go on about your business. For me it’s helping manage my time instead of thinking, “I have to write a post on this write away” and for me being pressed for time this is a blessing for me.

This past Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal’s Marketplace section, there was an article about how more and more corporations are beginning to utilize IM (instant messaging) instead of the emailing. Adeco was called upon to add 300 extra workers for a computer maker and within hours Senior Vice President Steve Baruch was able to reach three states to get the workers they needed. Mr. Baruch stated, “If I had relied on email and phone calls, the same process could have taken him as long as three days. ” (from the article: Instant Messaging Invades the Office by Carola Mamberto, The Wall Street Journal’s Marketplace, Tuesday, July 24, 2007).

As they(corporations) are finding out sometimes you need to be in “real time” mode instead of after the fact. Some businesses are using it when in phone conferencing, in face to face meetings. They are finding out that instant messaging is not just something people are using to gossip in the office on their time. Just like people are finding that students are using their iPods more than just music Twitter, Jaiku, IM accounts are keeping people abreast of what they really need to know and the best part of this medium is that we can control who we talk to when we want to which is pretty nice. The joy of being a geek and sharing new,cool stuff, it really brings my heart joy covering things like this.

Like I said, I get it now.

Fave’s website
Patrice website
Jen’s website

Cool Little Program: Get the Vista Look Without The Price Tag

Vista Look without the Vista Price

My geek brother sent me this cool little program that transform your Windows XP desktop to Vista, icons and all. Of course it’s not Vista but if you want the look of Vista without the headache of Vista, check this out. Luis will write more on this in the future of this nice little eye candy application(don’t know when he will post on this, getting him to post is like pulling teeth…LOL).

note:it will not give you that aero glass look or have the search bar but it’s still kinda cool.

Leo Laporte: The Tech Guy episode 363
One thing I really enjoy about Leo’s The Tech Guy is not just the callers but the very beginning of the show and the news that he shares. His views, how he makes his talk show lively and fun to listen to every Saturday and Sunday. This episodes he mentions Google Gears, how Yahoo is running far behind when it comes to Google. Whenever I listen to the Tech Guy it takes me back to when technology was really hitting it’s stride. And now Leo has guest on his show like, The GizWiz himself, Mr. Dick DeBartolo from Mad Magazine. one little gadget he talk about on The Daily Giz Wiz episode #336 was the Wind Chime Alarm Clock. Dick reminds me of my grandmother (who I truly have to thank because whether she realized it or not, she was my true geek/gadget hero) I think this little clock would be cool to wake up to every morning.

Useful (or Useless)Tech Tip:

Spice up your podcast listening by mixing podcast with some of your favorite music tracks. I have a couple of playlist I have made where I have a one podcast and two music tracks to follow and then I repeat the process. Try it, it makes the day go by quick.