Cool Websites and Tools [February 8th]
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.
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AudioOwl – Online repository of free audio books for iPod or any other Mp3 player. The audio books are neatly categorized under genres like children, adventure, fiction, comedy, fantasy and many more. You could either browse books by genre or search for them by title, author or keyword. Read more: AudioOwl: Get Free Audio Books For iPod. |
Movers & Shakers – Top Free Downloads
Today we are featuring a new section called Movers & Shakers where we will be showing you the top ten downloads from CNET.
Today in first place with 256,284,221 total downloads is AVG Anti-Virus Edition.
AVG was picked as the top choice of freeware anti-virus in our poll here. Seeing security is always on freeware downloaders minds, the second place is Avast Free Antivirus, which we covered here, and third place is Avira Antivirus, covered here.
The Top 7 Apple iPhone Complaints & Some Simple Solutions
While we all love our iPhones, there’s probably a few things we wish we could tweak or change about them. This is a list of common iPhone complaints, which luckily have a solution. Most of these solutions, however, require that you have a jailbroken phone.
If you’re not sure how to jailbreak your phone, the instructions can be found in MakeUseOf’s Unofficial Guide to the iPhone.
So here are 7 common iPhone complaints and how to solve them.
6 Online Time Clock Websites For Fun & Accuracy
Okay, I admit it. I’m a time freak. I hate to be late, and I usually carry backup means to tell the time. Sometimes though, it’s not the devices in my pockets, but the websites.
We’ve discussed all sorts of things about time before. Simon posted a great list of alarm clock applications for various platforms, Karl let us know all about an online alarm clock, and Ryan helped out your efficiency with Qlock.
Clock sites can be both fun and useful. Here are some of the most interesting online time clock websites.
How to Create Your Own Software License Agreement
Anyone who creates something, be it art, writing or products is entitled to have full control over how their creation is used. The same goes for software and its developers. If you develop a cutting edge program tomorrow, wouldn’t you like to know that its users are legally bound to use it the way you intended?
You can do this by creating a software license agreement which the users must agree to before installing the software. You’ll find these during the installation process on practically all software today.
By creating a software license agreement between you and the software user, you are guaranteeing yourself security. Your program can’t be stolen, modified or used in a way which it wasn’t intended if you say so. And in the event that your rules for using the program aren’t upheld, you have a legally binding contract to back you up in legal proceedings.
ReadPal Reader – A Tool That Helps You Focus For Better Reading [Windows]
It’s very likely you don’t have an attention deficit disorder or suffer from reading disabilities. It’s very likely that you might dismiss a reading aid software out of hand. But take ReadPal out for a run through a few blocks of text and you will be pleasantly surprised. ReadPal is about a better reading experience.
ReadPal works with a few Microsoft applications like Notepad, IE, MS Office, Outlook and Outlook Express.
It presents text in a clutter-free easy to read format that helps you focus. The clearer approach is helpful for those with poor eyesight and also those who have poor concentration. With the clutter-free way of ReadPal comes a better reading experience. When there are no distractions between the words on the screen and the reader, the job of going over text is faster. As ReadPal says, reading becomes 42 percent faster.
Get Organized On Your Android Phone With Astrid
One of the issues that I deal with often, and have yet to find a good solution for, is personal organization while I’m on-the-go. I’ve used Google Calendar, iDailyDiary and even Excel. However, one problem that I always have is that when I have to travel a lot, or I’m racing from place to place, I lose track of those items that I needed to get done for that day.
Keeping up to date on a daily to-do list stored on a desktop or even an online application isn’t always possible when you don’t have constant access to a computer or to the Internet. Thankfully, once I got a new Motorola Droid and started exploring the Android Market, I stumbled upon one of the best mobile personal organization application that I’ve ever used – Astrid.
5 Apps To Optimize Images For Use On The Web
Images form an integral part of the web these days. And as it turns out, images are one of the most common reasons of slow page load times. With loads of mobile devices accessing the Internet and the recent hints that the loading speed of your site would effect its rank on Google, you would definitely want to remove this bottleneck.
One of the ways to optimize photos for the web is to use CSS sprites. Sprites work best for images that are used inside navigation or other site elements, that are going to remain the same more or less. The other option is to optimize the image size by altering the amount of information contained in images, compressing them and removing any unnecessary metadata.
Here are some of the options you can use to optimize images for the web.
5 Websites To Make You A GIMP Ninja
Are you into photo editing and image manipulation? If that’s a ‘yes’ then I’m sure you’ve heard of the GNU Image Manipulation Program, codename GIMP. The GIMP photo editor is a free and light alternative to Adobe Photoshop and is very capable of handling all of your image processing needs. If you’ve mastered MS Paint and don’t have deep enough pockets for Photoshop, GIMP is for you.
So you want to learn the GIMP photo editor? You see, that’s the thing with image editing programs, they’re extensive. You can literally do so much with them that it’s hard to figure out what all the buttons and settings actually do.
Luckily there are websites to handle this dilemma. We’ve covered one such resource previously here at MUO called VunkySearch. We’ve also taught you ‘How To Use Scripts & Plugins in GIMP’ and how to ‘Batch Edit Your Images with GIMP’. Additionally, the following is a list of 5 of the best websites to help you learn the GIMP photo editor.
Cool Websites and Tools [February 7th]
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.
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Team-Maker – is a simple and handy random team generator that lets you create teams quickly and easily. Creating diverse groups can be tedious and time-consuming, not to mention worrying about the problem of bias or favouritism. This online tool solves these problems. Read more: Team-Maker: An Easy Random Team Generator. |
