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Top 5 sites to watch TV online

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:18:40 +0000

Watching TV shows has never been more on-demand then it is right now. New sites pop up everyday to satisfy your TV watching needs. This is my list of the top five places to watch tv shows online.

5. Boxee – This desktop application is a great source for watching TV shows. This application has a wide variety of sources which it gets videos from, and you can always add your own. Boxee doesn’t just do TV well, they also have integration with NetFlix, Pandora, and several other online services.

Boxee

4. Fancast – Operated by Comcast, Fancast provides a great online video service. They offer some shows that aren’t available on Hulu or other sites. Also, if you are a comcast subscriber, then you get access to even more on-demand media.

Fancast

3. Blinkx – If you are in the mood for some older shows then the mainstream popular sites might not be the best way to go. Want to flashback to the 90s and watch “The Wonder Years”, well you’re not going to find that on Hulu. The best site to search and watch these shows is Blinkx. They are basically a front-end for megavideo, youtube, and other video sources.

Blinkx

2. Hulu – Possibly the most known video streaming site. Hulu offers a wide variety of TV shows and movies in HD. They have a great buffer, quality, and overall experience. Hulu is quite possibly the reason most people crave for Flash on the iPhone/iPad.

Hulu

1. TVGorge – Want the latest and greatest TV shows without waiting for Hulu or Fancast to release them? Want to watch TV without the ads interrupting you? Then TVGorge is what you’re looking for. TV Gorge offers great video quality, and offers a great selection of TV Shows.

TV Gorge

gmailto for Os X

admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:21:45 +0000

Having trouble using gmail as your main client on OS X due to lack of support for the mailto: protocol? In case you are not sure what the mailto protocol is, it’s simply a tag used in HTML that tells your default mail client to open, compose a new message and inserts the email address to. gmailto is a new application that intercepts these requests and uses gmail as the default mail client.

This build requires Snow Leopard to work correctly. If you need more information click here.

New free Mac Os X (Snow) Leopard Skiing Game

admin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:37:44 +0000

Want to try out your skis on the slop this December? Why pay for skis, poles, or even a lift ticket when you can now ski on the mac for free. That’s right this game is free, and it doesn’t look anything like SkiFree for Windows. For this price and the system, this is an excellent game. You can ski against other players online or race a ghost of yourself for a single player challenge.

Main Features:

Free
Detailed 3D environments that not only look realistic, but make you feel a little cold playing.
Very simple controls, it uses 4 keys (Up, Down, Left, Right).

Downside:

Limited features, don’t expect the feature set of a $50 game.
First boot, durning what they call their benchmark mode, take a while… a little to long.

This game is a must download for any mac gammer. It’s free and challenging to play against online competitors.

Download Here.

MacHeist is back: nanoBundle reviled, free!

admin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:09:35 +0000

It’s that time of year again. The macHeist bundle is back. After they closed down their “Early Detection System” they have now released their nanoBundle. These are “6 Top Mac Apps for Free” . Now most of these apps aren’t the top mac apps, but they are free non-the-less.

So what are you waiting for, go download the nanoBundle now. This set include ShoveBox, WriteRoom, Twitterrific, TinyGrab, Hordes of Orcs, and Mariner Write. Twitterrific and WriteRoom are definitely my favorite two of these six apps and Mariner Write really seems promising.

Bookmarklets the whole family can enjoy.

rmclain — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:53:49 +0000

Bookmarklets are little links that you drag into the toolbar of your favorite browser to provide new functionality to your browser. Here are a few of the best ones that I have found.

Readability

Want to read the web like a kindle book. Well then get a kindle, but if you want to get a better reading experience on most websites then get readability. It’s removes the junk from webpages and provides a nice customizable look. (1) is the before and (2) is the after.

Check it out here.

Printliminator

Want to print a article on the web but don’t want the ads? You could use, previously mentioned, readibility but if you want the article pictures you need Printliminator by Chris Coyier at css-tricks. A few clicks and yo can turn any webpage into a better one. Try it for yourself.

Check it out here.

Twitlet

Update your twitter status with just a click. When you click the bookmarklet, you get a window to enter your status and click ok and your done. Very fast and easy way to update on the go.

Share on Facebook

Similar to Twitlet is the share this on facebook. You can find more details here.

Stumbleupon with out the toolbar

This bookmarklet is useful if you don’t have Firefox installed. It lets you stumble and rate without the toolbar. Find out more information here.

Show password.

So you have some saved forms and don’t really know what the password is? Well then you need show password, with one click your password will be revealed.

Check it out here.

Google Trends and Delicious Talk

Check them out here.

It’s Time For Some Tunes – Free Online

rmclain — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:46:59 +0000

Get frustrated with paying $0.89 – $1.29 per song? If you are buying from most online retailers that’s what it will cost you. To second that, you only get a 30 second preview of the song before you make your purchase. This list goes over some of the best places to check out music online and of course for free.

The main distinction in this list are those sites that let you listen to the songs you want to hear or listen to the songs they want you to hear. Also, there are even some sites/services that you download those songs for free. Enough talk, let’s get to the list.

10. Last.fm – Streaming

Last.fm recommends music based on what you enter as a seed for the site. Their site is pretty easy to surf around and find music, and in most cases you can choose what you want to listen to, you can add songs to your library and some other nice options. They do offer some free music downloads but it’s very limited and probably not the songs you really want.

9. Songbeat 360 – Download

Songbeat 360 is a very strange to me. They don’t charge you for music but they do charge you to search. So if you use their application, you can download any number of songs you find on your search. The first 25 credits are free and then very cheap after that. If you don’t want to pay for anything you can try the trail and use the 25 credits. It’s a very interesting concept.

8. Moof – Streaming

Moof.com is a new music site that allows listeners to search for music, add music to their library and listen to this music for free. It semes they are just streaming YouTube videos, but the service is fairly decent. The only issue I had was that some of the sound quality wasn’t up-to par. Also, when searching for a new song as one is playing stops the current song. This is kind of a deal breaker for me, but if it’s not for you then check it out.

7. Tun3r – Streaming

Tun3r, If you are looking for live radio stations then Tun3r is the place for you. This site searches stations all over the place to find something you’d be interested in listening to. It’s a pretty nice service if you have that one station you want to listen to for free online. They don’t offer downloads or much of selecting the actual song to play, but they do provide you with a wide variety of stations to listen to.

6. Spool.fm – Streaming

Spool.fm provides a very nice way to search and share songs. You can skim songs, which some services don’t let you do. It’s a very nice online player that really takes out some of the negatives that other sites have. However, like with most all of these sites you can’t download the music, but overall it’s a nice free player.

5. AOL Radio – Streaming

AOL Radio is a simple online radio station. Not so simple in the user interface though. It’s pretty complicated, but to make up for that they do have a wide variety of things to listen to. Give it a shot if you’re into listening to the radio. It’s is filled with advertisements though, which is a major drawback for me.

4. SkeemR MP3 Search – Download

SkeemR allows you to search for musc and listen to that music, which is DRM free, but also it provides you the direct link to download the .mp3 file to your computer. It also ranks the files quality and lets you listen to it before you download it. Everything on the site is free so I recommend you checking here before turning to limewire or kazaa.

3. GrooveShark – Streaming

Gooveshark is a great site for music streaming. They allow you to search their library for a song, add it to the play list and start playing. You can search for new songs while your music is playing or you can enable auto-play which will play similar songs to what was put in your play list. Overall a great site for listening to music for free. They have a very nice interface as well, but my favorite feature is browsing poplar songs. This keeps me in the loop of what’s hot.

2. Pandora – Streaming

Pandora is one of those services that evolves as you use it. It basically streams songs that it thinks you will like based on songs you have either thumbed up or down. When I first started their matching (what I actuallyed liked instead of what they thought I liked) wasn’t very good, but it gets better and better as you use it. Now most songs that it picks out are pretty accurate. Great service and easy to use. Free of course.

1. MP3 Search Music – Download

MP3 search allows anyone to search for a song or artist and then download it. Simple and easy. If you are interested in more online music sites, check out the list here.

If you have any suggestions for listening to or downloading music online please comment below to let me know.

Online Photo Editing – The Free Way

rmclain — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:50:50 +0000

The web has come a long way in terms of capability. Now there are Photoshop-like applications that are purely web based. Some of these applications are actually quite decent. Here are just a few that are out there.

1. Pixlr

Easy to just get started playing around. Totally free and has the added bonus of a Firefox addon [link] that enables you to grab images from around the web and open them in Pixlr. Very nice app so check it out here.

2. Splashup

Splahup is a very similar application to Pixlr. It’s a Adobe Flex or now FlashBuilder application that has a very Photoshop interface. It allows you to share your photos or creations to Google Picasa, flickr, and Facebook. Check it out here.

3. Aviary

Aviary.com hosts a wide varity of different applications. They range from the Image Editor to a new Audio editor. All of thse applications are web based. The image editor is fairly good, but my favorite of their applications is Peacock. Peacock an Effects Editor. Check out all of their online applications here.

4. Picnik

If you are looking for a easier simple photo editor, then Picnik, is a good choice. It doesn’t have as many options as some of the other apps listed here, but it does do the basic editing very well. It’s free for basic editing and you can share to the usual places: twitter, flickr, facebook, myspace, photobucket, etc…

5. FotoFlexer

Self proclaimed as the word’s most advanced photo editor, FotoFlexer is a really nice photo editor and certainly has numerous effects that you can add to your photos. Overall, it’s a great little online app for photo editing.

6. TiltShift Generator

With the release of their new iPhone app, TiltShift Generator is a fun and easy way to make real photos look fake. I took the photo above on the campus of Auburn University and I think it turned out looking pretty good. They have a free online vesion of this app and you can find it here.

So there you have it, if you can’t afford Photoshop or just don’t want to spend the money there are several free alternatives online that can give you some of the power for zero of the cost. If you have any more online photo editors that you like then please share them below.

New CCIE Rack Rental Widget

rmclain — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:01:40 +0000

I have just finished programming a new OSX Dashboard Widget. It checks the current pricing and availability for CCIE Routing and Switching, CCIE Security, CCIE Voice and CCIE Security racks. The process for creating a widget is pretty straight forward. The only part that wasn’t support out of the box was making AJAX calls to the server to get the dynamic pricing and availability. However, just ripping the Ajax function from the jQuery library worked like a charm.

The widget is completely free.

If you want to see the widget, check out Graded Labs. Also there are some screenshots posted below. If anyone has any questions just leave a comment.

Download Now

Support CCIE Rack Availability on iusethis

The Real Top 10 Free iPhone Applications

rmclain — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:41:12 +0000

So, you have your iPhone 3g or you are keeping it old school and decided to keep your old iPhone and upgrade to 2.0. Either way, hopefully you have visited the App Store on your iPhone or through iTunes. On either your computer or phone you have probably seen the top 25 free applications for the phone. However, these applications are just the top 25 downloaded but not the 25 best applications. First, here is a list of Apple’s top ten downloaded free applications for the iPhone (this list changes pretty often, so the accuracy may be slightly off.)

Apple’s #10: Facebook – 3/5 Stars – 1108 Reviews

Apple’s #9: Urbanspoon – 3.5/5 Stars – 186 Reviews

Apple’s #8: AIM – 2.5/5 Stars – 1134 Reviews

Apple’s #7: iPint – 4/5 Stars – 249 Reviews

Apple’s #6: Shazam – 4.5/5 Stars – 999 Reviews

Apple’s #5: Break – 4/5 Stars – 189 Reviews

Apple’s #4: PhoneSaber – 4/5 Stars – 658 Reviews

Apple’s #3: Remote – 4.5/5 Stars – 1438 Reviews

Apple’s #2: Pandora Radio – 4.5/5 Stars – 1038 Reviews

Apple’s #1 Tap Tap Revenge – 4.5/5 Stars – 917 Reviews

Now the top ten best free iPhone applications:

#10: WritingPad – 3.5/5 Stars – 131 Reviews

When using WritingPad it really makes note taking easy. At first, I was skeptical about the accuracy of application where you draw the word you are trying to spell. Once you get the hang of it though, it’s a huge time saver. You can quickly draw out the sequence of characters using your finger and it actually works. For similar words it brings up a quick list of the most common and you simply tap the correct one.

#9: Google Mobile App – 3/5 Stars – 220 Reviews

Overall, most of the services it provides can be found with another application or the built in features of the iPhone itself. But it does provide a very nice interface for accessing your data in one place. It gives you a one-stop-shop for gMail, Photos, Contacts, Reader and provides location aware results. It’s a very nice application.

#8: vSNAX Videos – 4/5 Stars – 93 Reviews

This application is underrated, plan and simple. It provides up-to-date- content from CBS News, CNET News, VH1, Ford Models, Ripe TV and a host of others are on the way. I know that YouTube is already on the phone, but this provides some relevant content to keep you updated during the day.

#7: Tap Tap Revenge – 4.5/5 Stars – 917 Reviews

This is currently Apple’s #1 downloaded free application, but it falls way short. Why? Well if you have ever played Tap Tap Revolution on a jailbroken phone then you know the answer. In the original TTR, you could play along with songs from your library that other users have created beats to. Along with that, you could create your own beats to songs and upload them to the net.

The new App Store version does have a much better interface as well as the newly added combo system. This application is would be ranked a lot higher on this list if it had a star power or energy system that could be activated by the accelerometer.

#6: Mocha VNC Lite – 4/5 Stars – 169 Reviews

This is a great application. It lets you remote desktop into your Windows or Mac OS X computer. Provides a nice keyboard for input as well as a mouse and a scroll mode. One of the nicest features is the ability to zoom in and out using the pinch touchscreen command. Works in portrait and landscape mode on screens up to 1680×1200.

#5: Remote – 4.5/5 Stars – 1438 Reviews

Remote is a good application with some limitations. I found the application worked great for the iTunes controller, but for my use it wasn’t very practical. However, when using it as a remote for the AppleTv it worked amazingly better than the default AppleTv remote. The limitations with using it as a AppleTv remote was not being able to browse the rentals or movies for sale in the iTunes store.

#4: Myspace/Facebook – 4/5 & 3/5 Stars – 577 / 1108 Reviews

While these social networking applications aren’t perfect, they are a huge upgrade from the previous web versions. Both applications allow you to send and receive messages and Facebook allows you to chat live with online friends. Also, you can upload and share photos.

#3: Pandora Radio – 4.5/5 Stars – 1038 Reviews

With Pandora on the iPhone, you no longer need to even add any music. Why? Pandora is your personal DJ that utilizes a vast music genome database to select songs that it thinks you would like. After some fine tuning by rating songs, thumbs up or thumbs down it gets pretty accurate. Just start with a artist, song, or music category of your choice and let the music begin.

#2: Jamd – 4/5 Stars – 17 Reviews

Reading news can be fun with Jamd. Jamd brings the world around you to the tips of your fingers, literally. When a news article has multiple photos is lets you interact with the photos in Jason Bourne style. Rotating photos, expanding photos and pushing them around the stack is fun and a practical use of the iPhone’s touch screen.

#1: Shazam – 4.5/5 Stars – 999 Reviews

Shazam is a great application that I have been wanting for years. You click Tag Now and it begins listening. Then after it’s done listening it sends the sound bite up to the net and it returns with the song. It’s amazing. I knew this application would be #1 when I was eating lunch and this song came on, but was playing really low. It was able to detect the exact song and provided a link to the youtube video and links to buy the song in the iTunes store. It’s simply the best free application on the iPhone.

#5 Leopard application of the day (Free)

rmclain — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:40:45 +0000

#5. MindNode

After a short hiatius I am back with the number 5 free Mac application. I’ve always had a problem with writing down ideas and when I do actually write them down, say in OmniOutliner, I usually forget what the goal is. What problem I’m trying to solve and how this is idea relates to the main problem. Therefore, I decided to try out MindNode, mainly since it’s free. However, I’ve really found it useful to easily map ideas onto the canvas. So give it a try, and why not it’s free.

Notes from the developer’s site:

Features

Node Well. New nodes are created by simply dragging them out of the node wells. There is no need to access the toolbar or the application menu.

Clean Interface. The very simple and intutive user interface let’s the user focus on finding and developing ideas. Nearly no time is required to learn the interface.