Archive for the 'software' Category

GeoGraffiti on iPhone great for espionage, scavenger hunts

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

GeoGraffiti is a geolocation service that centers on little voice notes users can leave all over the world. Before having a native iPhone application it was a voice service you could call into and leave a note that would be associated with whatever ZIP code or telephone number entered through your phone’s keypad. It wasn’t [...]

Featured Freeware: PDF Download

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

The problem with opening PDF files in Firefox is that it tends to slow down your performance, especially if you open a number of them. This simple little extension gives you complete control over PDF files in a Toolbar button.

Rather than stick you all alone with a browser-jarring PDF file, the PDF Download extension provides [...]

Chandler: What went wrong

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Six years in the making, the 1.0 version of Open Source Web and desktop info organizer Chandler finally arrived on Friday. It was not met with thunderous acclaim, nor did it get the kind of press its development cost of $8 million and tens of thousands of volunteer hours was supposed to generate.
Chandler consists of [...]

First Look: Stitcher’s iPhone app beta

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Utilizing Apple’s ad hoc distribution program, Stitcher let a beta version of their iPhone app loose on 100 testers today. While the app suffers from some stability issues, due to its unfinished nature, Stitcher provides a slick solution to those looking for customized audio programming.
Stitcher is trying to be to news and information what [...]

Featured Freeware: Driver Magician Lite

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Driver Magician Lite lacks frills and showmanship, but the simple layout makes backing up your device drivers much easier than pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

A quick install and the small memory footprint would lead you to hope that the rest of the program runs the same way. That’s no sleight-of-hand: backing up every [...]

Movable Type, Wordpress becoming social platforms

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Six Apart is announcing Tuesday night the launch of Movable Type 4.2 (download from CNET) and Movable Type Pro. The 4.2 platform gives blog publishers better performance, according to Six Apart. But the really interesting thing about this launch is the new social features in MT Pro.

Movable Type Pro will enable “social publishing,” which is [...]

Kwiry puts Netflix, Amazon in your pocket

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

This morning, SMS reminder service Kwiry is adding a new tool to its repertoire called shortcuts. It goes beyond the original implementation of adding keywords and photos to look up later, and turns it into a tool that links up with various Web services you might be using.
The first implementation of that is with [...]

Comment tool Disqus launches v2.0 with automagic backup

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

On Tuesday, blog commenting add-on tool Disqus is launching version 2.0 of its free service. Many of the biggest changes are on the back end, but the user-facing elements have been given many small tweaks that should make it a faster, more approachable solution for the mass market.
I chatted with co-founder Daniel Ha about [...]

Ditch the VPN for LogMeIn?

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

A funny thing happened on the way to Boston: the CNET office disappeared. Our Cambridge office is moving to a new location, so when I arrived on the East Coast for a short stay, I found myself without a cube to call home. More importantly, I couldn’t work from a computer already inside the CNET [...]

Featured Freeware: ooVoo

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

ooVoo is an iChat-like video conferencing and chat tool for Windows, loaded with useful, powerful tools that make it a viable alternative for small work groups using conference calls and screen-sharing applications. A recording feature lets users tape video chats with other participants. Since the video and audio are being recorded to the hard drive, [...]