Web2024

Speakers and presenters at conferences are increasingly finding their audience live tweeting during their presentation. In most cases, the presenter has no clue about what the audience is saying on Twitter. This leads to a disconnect between the true thoughts of the audience in contrast with that of the presenter. In order to avoid such [...]

Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory. (1) Docshaker -The world of web working is expanding rapidly and, as such, the need for a quick [...]

Throughout our careers we freelancers experience alternating seasons of high and low activity. While we may still have projects during seasons of low activity, they may not be as demanding or as regular. During high-activity months, however, we have several leads and potential clients sending queries to our inbox. To some freelancers, keeping track of these [...]

Well, never forget the power of the incumbent. Even with the endless furor over the internet-darling Bing, the Google gorilla still eats 72% of the US search market pie. According to data received by SearchEngineLand from Hitwise, search market share ramps out as follows: You know that if Ask is the only engine gaining on Google, the [...]

As if AT&T hasn’t given us enough reasons lately to bash them, they throw another onto the list. Ralph De la Vega, head of consumer services, stated today at a UBS conference in New York that data hogs would be put on a tighter, spiked leash. Ok, maybe not in those words. Basically, most Americans know [...]

Windows only: The new Picasa lets users designate who can collaborate on albums while they're uploading pictures. It's a huge time-saver over the old method and more efficient for granting friends and family access to individual photo albums. Click the image for a larger view. Granting permissions to others is a snap with the new feature. When you're ready to put your photos online, Picasa's upload tool asks who you want to share the albums with and who's allowed to have access so you can tweak those settings before uploading. The old way required you to jump around to different screens to assign permissions after you uploaded your pics, so this new feature makes a lot more sense. Conversely, if you have access to your friends' albums, you can upload photos directly from your computer and into their user account. The new version of Google's popular photo management app for Windows has a few other tricks up its sleeve, too. Users can save custom crop sizes, pre-set image compression...

Reader karmat's Windows 7 desktop uses WindowBlinds to skin the entire interface with matching wallpaper and Rainmeter configurations for an impressive overall desktop effect. The desktop is a combination of: Vintage Deco WindowBlind by Boltzfan Cubist Realities Wallpaper by Andrew Lahman Win7prem CursorFX by B2R Token Icons by Brsev Packaged by Naymlezwun Dark Rainmeter Time|Date by JSMorley Century Gothic Notes by TaipanSnake Tabmeter Rainmeter Icons by PS2 Bonus points for a color scheme that reminds me of the old Lifehacker site themes. Great job, karmat! This desktop not your style? Why waste time complaining? Instead, get started creating your own killer desktop with the easy-install Rainmeter 1.1 package and show the world what you can do. If you get stuck and need some help, join up with the Lifehacker Desktop Customization Google Group to collaborate on new ideas for desktop configurations. Once you've created your own beautifully tweaked (and hopefully productive) desktop,...

If you're not traveling to Paris anytime soon to visit The Louvre, then grab the art museum's free iPhone app. It's packed with enough info about its famous paintings to make you feel like you're there on a private tour. This amazingly slick free app provides a virtual tour of its galleries and lets users check out the works of everyone from DaVinci to Michelangelo. The app gets you up close and personal with paintings, drawings, prints,sculptures, and even the French Crown Jewels. Each image comes with its own set of data including the history of the piece, a zoomable photo, technical info like when it arrived at the museum, and even the exact location where it's housed at the Louvre. Some images even include in-depth videos about the piece. The Louvre app is more than just a way to look at pretty pictures, though. You can also whip through a tour of the building, check out a formal royal palace located on museum grounds, and get visitor information if you plan to go there in person....

Last summer’s iPhone 3.0 software update brought integrated (and underrated) voice recording to the device via the Voice Memos feature, enabling users to record audio clips and share them via MMS or email. With the rise of services such as AudioBoo, voice memos and voice notes are increasingly becoming a useful mobile productivity and publishing tool [...]

Whenever one thinks of Microsoft, they tend to think of expensive crap and bloatware that hogs up their PC.   But every now and then, the Windows Wonders come out with a really nice free piece of software, and suddenly you feel a bit guilty for that Bill Gates voodoo doll you made the previous evening [...]

Have you ever thought to yourself, while watching a movie, how awesome it would be to actually own some of the clothes, gadgets, and accessories you see your favorite actors wearing and using on the big screen? Maybe you were a big fan of the beanie Will Smith wore in Hancock, or the sunglasses Angelina Jolie’s character “Fox” [...]

You don't have time tether yourself to a wall while your cellphone, PSP, DS, or other gadget charges. Next time your portable gear starts running low on juice, strap on gadget manufacturer Brando's clever wristband battery recharger and keep on keepin' on. The wristband charger itself charges up via USB, and can use it to charge virtually any USB device. (It comes with connectors for a few speciailized gadgets.) And yeah, you may look a little silly with this Chewbacca-esque package around your wrist, but it won't slow you down. Seems like a snazzy stocking stuffer for the gadget lover in your life. The USB wristband battery will set you back $35 from Brando. USB Wrist Band Battery [Brando via Gizmodo]

Chrome: In their continued pledge to speed up the web, Google's launched a new Chrome extension called Speed Tracer designed to help developers diagnose what's slowing down page loads. Web developers have likely seen similar tools in the past—like the popular YSlow Firefox extension or Google's own Page Speed, but Speed Tracer offers a slightly different take, focusing on JavaScript execution in a way that the others don't. This isn't the kind of tool that regular old users would use, but it looks like a solid new tool for web developers. Speed Tracer is a free download, currently works on Windows and Linux versions of Chrome. Speed Tracer [Google Code via Official Google Blog]

Firefox only: (Win/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension KwiClick opens a dedicated search dialog that finds results from Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter, and more without having to leave the page. It's a search box on steroids. Once you've installed the extension, you can access KwiClick from the new button on the toolbar, which will open up the dedicated search dialog. You can drag this window around your screen anywhere you want, choose the providers you want to search with, and load the results directly in your browser window without having to close the dialog. The search box has autocomplete, the next and previous buttons page through results, and you can easily pick the search providers you'd like to use. Where the extension really shines is searching YouTube, Wikipedia, or Twitter—just type in your search terms and pick from the results, and you can watch a video directly in the standalone window, read the Wikipedia article, or access a twitter stream just by typing in a keyword....

The new version of Jing now allows you to send whatever you capture on screen (either a screen grab or screencast movie) directly to your Twitter stream. I think adding this option is a good thing, even though sharing Jing captures wasn’t hard to do previously, as it provides a handy shortened URL for the capture [...]

In the word of IT, social buzz words can be a real way to kill any interest in adopting applications that give the enterprise access to the consumer web. You have to speak their language. Social media? No way. Social middleware? Oh, yeah - now we are talking! Socialware talks in language that IT can understand. The company is offering social middleware products that help companies integrate social networks with a level of control that makes them comfortable that the access is compliant with government regulations and IT policies. Sponsor In may ways, companies have set up their own iron curtains to keep social interaction to a minimum. It's also fair to say that many companies are eager to let their employees engage with the social web. But they want the risk managed, especially when it comes to interacting with social networks. Socialware believes the missing component for the enterprise is a bridge layer that helps companies connect its people, processes and systems with the open,...

The Apocalypse must be fast approaching, that's the only explanation that can help me wrap my mind around this. A health insurance lobbying group is reportedly paying Facebook users in virtual, "in-game" currency to send a letter opposing health-care reform legislation to their Congressional representative. This according to the blog Business Insider today, in a report that's frustratingly short on details but remains plausible. Sponsor TechCrunch did an in-depth investigative series on the sleaziness of the in-game advertising industry this Fall. Market leader Zynga, maker of the home-wrecking game that turns Facebook users into zombified farmers of imaginary crops (Farmville), was the primary target of that report. Advertisers pay users in virtual goods, like fertilizer for their imaginary crops, for signing up for offers to purchase real goods for real cash (with a credit card). Other offers include market research surveys and apparently political action. The games are...