Lifehack has posted a list of their favorite new Web Apps of 2007. I’ve been playing around with a few of them and they are brilliant and most are either totally free or have a free version. Bubbl.us is an online mindmapping tool that is too cool for words and Buzzword is a thing of beauty and an incredibly powerful word processing application. For the whole list visit the Lifehacks post…
If you’re interested in the evolution of the web — and really; who isn’t? — check out the YouTube video posted by Layla on her Thread Bare Gypsy Soul blog.
If Web 2.0 can be characterized by the use of AJAX (the software architecture that lets you drag google maps around) and larger fonts then Web 3.0 is going to be the application as widget – not purchased but downloaded or obtained through your social network. Kind of like Wordpress plugins, Yahoo Widgets or Google Gadgets – it’s the process of adding functionality not with full blown, store bought code but by assembling snippets of code to carry out very specific tasks. Functionality on demand, kinda cool.
I love these guys, don’t you?
You can watch Mac and PC and their gentle sparring on TV and the Web. Apple’s Get a Mac campaign ads are funny and biting at the same time. PC’s so clueless and Mac is so cool. PC is the nerd and Mac is the cool guy that all nerd’s aspire to be (unless you’re Bill Gates himself who’s so rich that cool is irrelevant!).
The beauty of these ads is that they play up the strengths of the Mac while displaying the flaws in the PC but in a humorous, not a mocking manner. They don’t rile up us PC owners; getting us all righteous – and defensive - with indignation. Instead we just shake our heads and laugh along, somewhat abashedly and deep in our heart-of-hearts we kinda wish that we had a cool Mac instead of this screen freezing, blue screening, error spewing, pile of plastic and silicon (sorry, lost what little cool I had for a sec!).
Anyway, kudos to Apple for a great campaign, and thanks for being nice to PC – he needs friends like Mac who accept him for who he is, flaws and all!
Time magazine (October 23, 2006), on the heels of the $1.65 billion buyout of YouTube.com by Google, identified the web sites they felt stood a good chance of being the next big things. Here’s their list although if you want to know why Time thinks their the NEXT BIG THING you’ll have to buy the mag or hit their site.
Farecast.com – trends airline ticket prices to advise you whether or not to buy that ticket home to Grandma’s for X-mas now or if you should wait. Kayak.com has something similar (and simpler). Don’t know if it’s theirs’ or they’re licensing it. Turns out that I should have bought my daughter’s X-mas ticket 2 months ago. Oh well!
Zillow.com – I think this site is cool. Enter your address and it will not only map it but overlay what it believes to be the current market price for not only your place but all of your neighbors as well. Don’t know if it’s accurate or not but nice to know that – at least according to Zillow – I’m not upside down on my mortgage … yet!
Yelp.com – here’s another great idea that I actually thought of and never did anything about. Yelp makes it easy for local folks to write reviews on local businesses. Seems to do a good job with restaurants but my search for orthodontists (my son needs one, ouch) while turning up several yielded none with reviews. Once these guys hit critical mass — and they’ve built enough viral sharing features into the site to make this a real possibility — they might really have something.
30Boxes.com – a web calendar for Generation Y is the focus of 30Boxes. Live life transparently. Invite your buddies to tie their calendars to yours so you always know who actually has a life while you’re home voting for tonight’s Dancing with the Stars contestants. hokey
Other Cool Sites:
Have you fled the dark side and switched to Firefox? Even though Internet Explorer 7.0 is stealing some of the Firefox thunder by incorporating notable FF features like tabbed browsing there’s sitll plenty of reasons to make the switch. First and foremost, in my view, are the literally thousands, of extensions available. From determining the color of a single pixel to incorporating a weather feed in your status bar, Firefox extensions are incredibly useful tools (and some not some useful but fun anyway!).
To learn more about Extensions and begin exploring the wonderful world of same, visit https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/extensions/. If this seems overwhelming to you, the good folks (or folk) at econsultant.com have created a list of the 200 (+) extensions they feel are most useful broken out in 32 categories. Give it a look. Very cool stuff.
Or worse yet, your computer was backed up … to an onsite storage device and your office burned down!!! (This happened to a friend of mine…)
All I can tell you is been there … done that … got the t-shirt. Oh, and I also got smarter. I now use an online back up service called Mozy. This nifty remote backup service is free for storing up to 2 gigabytes of data and dirt cheap if you need more space. I’m paying about $55 bucks for 30 gigs of backup space for a year. You can’t beat that. Plus, if you’re a security freak they offer encryption for your files to give you that extra level of peace o’ mind.
Check out Mozy and don’t get caught with your pants down (critical-pc-file-wise).
Oh, but if you don’t like them, here’s a great list of 90 online back up solutions offered by the brilliant folks at LifeHack.org.
Here’s a site that will give Skype a run for it’s money. Jajah.com is a new voice over IP (VoIP) service that uses the internet to place cheap long distant phone calls — domestic & international. 
The difference is that unlike Skype where you’re tethered to your PC you enter your number in jajah.com along with the number you want to call. Click dial and Jajah rings your number connecting you to the call and then rings the party you’re calling. Other than initiating the call, the computer is no longer part of the equation so, if you used your cell phone, you can be out the door and on your way chatting with your mate in Merry Olde England while on your way to the dry cleaners. They offer a 5 minute free trial which I used to chat up a buddy in Adelaide ($0.0232/minute otherwise) and then I called my sister in Houston at $0.0174/minute. The only confusing part is that, while you can pay for the service by credit card, it’s a ‘post-paid’ system – you pay after the fact.
Hey, look a dollar! Guess I’ll call my buddy in Australia back and chat for 43 minutes!
If you’re a Harley fan, and many of my friends and clients are, then you’ll love these custom motorcycle tank PC renditions from ThinkTankPC.com.
Leathers sold separately…
Mfuel provides the ultimate power source for road warriors tired of their 3 hour laptop battery crapping out in 2 hours right in the middle of prepping their next day’s sales presentation on their 4 hour flight; Or realizing that they’ve got to get back to their irate customer ASAP but only have a single, anemic bar left on their cell phone.
So how does Mfuel help? With the slightly pricey (at about $400) Universal Power Bank. It allows you to recharge virtually any battery powered portable device. It even allows you to recharge two at once; a high powered notebook computer and your low-power cell phone or PDA.
According to Mfuel the Universal Power Bank Provides Up to 12 Hours of Additional Notebook Run Time and 100 Hours of Additional Cell Phone Talk Time. Plus it comes with 27 different power cable tips so it’s (almost) sure to fit your devices.
Take a peek:
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