MakeUseOf Directory » Other

TimelineMovieMaker: A Simple Tool To Create Movies From Facebook Timeline

Hammad — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:01:03 +0000

If you have activated your Timeline layout on Facebook and want to get something interesting done from it, check out Timeline Movie Maker. This website takes out those special moments from your timeline and makes them into a sort of a movie.

It gets difficult to buzz through your timeline to find all those precious moments – Timeline Movie Maker makes it easier by finding them for you and then displaying them in a very creative manner.

Just authorize Timeline Movie Maker to access your Facebook account and then wait as it scouts through your Facebook Timeline and grasps all the important events and memories. The Movie Maker then displays those events, automatically adds music and amazes you!

Features

Simple and easy to use.
Save time searching for important events.
Displayed in an amazing way – amazes the person and brings back memories.

Check out Timeline Movie Maker @ http://www.timelinemoviemaker.com (via Mashable)

AudioBook Cutter: Split Podcast & Audiobook Files Automatically [Windows]

Israel Nicolas — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:01:32 +0000

Podcast and audiobook listeners are used to dealing with large audio files. However, listening through an hour-long file or switching through chapters makes it a clunky experience especially if you want to backtrack or skip a chapter. Fortunately, AudioBook Cutter splits your file into different segments automatically so that you can pass through and navigate your podcast topics or audiobook chapters easily.

AudioBook Cutter does not include any bells and whistles than what it is supposed to do. You just have to load the file, set the track length and then click to split the files automatically. The paid version of the app also lets you split files based on silent pauses rather than at a time interval.

AudioBook Cutter is available only as a Windows download.

Features:

Cut music files, audiobooks and podcasts into time intervals (free version).
Cut files based on silent gaps (paid version).
Windows only.
Easy and simple interface.

Check out AudioBookCutter @ www.audiobookcutter.com

Notes To Friends: Print & Mail Letters Online

Hammad — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:01:05 +0000

The days are long gone when you had to walk to the post office to post a letter to your pen pal or your family/relatives living away from you. The concept of emails, phones and fax took over.

However, Notes to Friends is a website that intends to keep the concept of letters alive in a different way, still using the Internet. But instead of sending an e-mail, you send a letter. Notes to Friends make this possible by asking the user the “Return Address” and the “Delivery Address”. Once you give those, you can write your letter and then pay through PayPal the cost of sending the envelope, which is $1.49.

This saves you the time and hassle of going to the post office, while at the same time keeps the concept of letters alive. However, the website will place its logo on the envelope. If you want to remove the logo, it will cost you an additional 10 cents.

Features

Free and easy to use.
Send letters without going to post office.
Similar tools: PostalShout, 1HRMail, MailWriter, SnailMailr, Zumbox and TheMailMonster.

Check out Notes To Friends @ www.notestofriends.com

Audiobooks.com: Listen To Unlimited Audio Books For A Monthly Free

Dave LeClair — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:07:11 +0000

Offering a digital product for a monthly fee is all the rage now. You have Netflix and Hulu killing it in the video space. Spotify and Rhapsody are doing their thing in the music space, and now you have Audiobooks.com looking to capitalize on that model in the audio book space. They offer a service for $24.99 per month, that allows users to listen to as many audiobooks as they please. It’s a novel idea (no pun intended), that could see great success. People enjoy paying one flat amount and using it as much as they like, and for the business, it means a steady stream of income.

Currently, Audiobooks.com has around 11,000 books available. This number is substantially smaller than Amazon owned Audible, which has over 100,000 books on their service. Of course, with Audible you don’t have unlimited access to the books, so it’s a trade-off. Personally, I’d prefer a little less choice and not having to pay for each book.

In addition to listening in your browser, they also offer an HTML 5 application for use on your mobile device. This way, you can take your books on the road, which is where most people listen to audiobooks. You can seamlessly switch between your computer and your mobile device.

Features

Listen to unlimited audio books for a monthly fee
Free 7 day trial, $24.99 a month thereafter
Listen on your computer or mobile device with HTML5
Over 11,000 books available
All cloud based.
Similar tools: AudiobooksApp, AudioOwl and Librophile.
Also read related article: How To Convert Audio CD’s To Audiobooks In iTunes [Mac].

Find Audiobooks.com @ Audiobooks.com

Conduit Mobile: Quickly & Easily Create A Mobile Application

Dave LeClair — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:01:06 +0000

If you have a website, having it appear on popular mobile application stores can be a great way to boost your traffic. However, many bloggers and web developers do not have the skills necessarily to create an application from scratch. Conduit Mobile offers a quick and easy solution. They give you the ability to create an application right from your web browser, with no coding skills necessary.

Creating a site is as simple as importing the URL for your website, and entering in the RSS feed for your site. The application will fill in the content automatically. You can also add a Twitter feed, YouTube channel, Facebook account and many other things into your application easily. They also allow you to customize the look and feel of the app. You can use the options in the web app, or upload your own images to personalize the app.

They also help with submitting the app to iTunes, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry and other mobile platforms. They also give you a URL for a mobile web app, so users can get access to it without downloading anything, if you should so choose.

Features:

Create a mobile application right from your browser.
No coding skills required.
Works with RSS, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other popular feed platforms.
Submits to popular app stores for you.
Provides link to web app for users to access without downloading anything.
Can have multiple apps on one account.

Find Conduit Mobile @ mobilecp.conduit.com

TheRestartPage: Have Fun With Computer Restarts Of Yore

Dave LeClair — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:01:07 +0000

This is some good, clean geeky fun. No matter how far back you go in computing history, one thing that has always been around is shutting down and restarting. Whether you owned an old Apple, PC or Amiga, you still needed to shut down or restart your hardware from time to time. This is where The Restart Page comes in. It allows you to relive the way these old computers ran through their restart process.

When you launch the site, you will see the restart buttons for all the different operating systems. As if that was not cool enough, the buttons actually work. If you click one of them, the web page will run through the restart process exactly as it appeared back in the day. Who would have thought sitting through a computer restart could be so much fun?

Features:

Features restart buttons from all kinds of computers.
Apple, Amiga and Windows are well represented.
Buttons actually function in your browser.
Will run through the entire restart process as it was in its time.
Plays exact sounds.

Find The Restart Page @ therestartpage.com

What’s Outt: Check Out The Latest Movie, Music, Books & Game Releases

Umar — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:01:09 +0000

When you have to check the latest media that has been released lately, you normally have to jump from one site to the other. For example, you will visit one site for movies, another for music, another for books, and a different one for games. Here to provide all such releases in the same place is a site called “What’s Outt”.

What’s Outt is a user-friendly website that shows its visitors the latest releases in movies, music, books, and games. You need not create any account on the site; simply visit its homepage and check out the latest releases that are sorted categorically. You can use further filters to find releases over the previous week, previous two weeks, or just the current week. Placing your mouse pointer over the thumbnail image of a release reveals its Amazon link where it can be purchased.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Shows you the latest releases.
Covers movies, books, games, and music.
Provides purchasing links.
Similar services: TrackNewBook, and Music2Mail,

Check out What’s Outt @ www.whatsoutt.com (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

ReportATaxi: Report Bad Cab Drivers Instantly To The Taxi & Limousine Commission [iOS]

Umar — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:01:30 +0000

We all have experienced bad cab drivers – some talk on the phone while driving, some take the longer route to your destination, and some simply refuse to take you to a specific place. Normally we ignore such drivers because lodging a complaint through the proper channels would take up a lot of our time. But thanks to a tool called ReportATaxi you can now easily lodge complaints against bad taxi drivers to the Taxi & Limousine Commission.

ReportATaxi is a free to use phone app for iOS devices. The app is sized at 1.6 MB and compatible with iPod touch, iPad, and iPhone running iOS version 4.2 or later. The app is quite simple to use. You begin lodging your complaint by entering the taxi medallion number or using your camera to shoot a picture of the taxi.

In the end you select your complaint type from the available options.

Currently the ReportATaxi app works only for New York City.

Features:

A user-friendly phone app.
Compatible with iOS devices.
Lets you report bad taxi drivers to the Taxi & Limousine Commission.
Works for people within New York City.
Similar tools: DriveMeCrazy, Carpong, Zapatag and EMAILACAR.

Check out ReportATaxi @ http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reportataxi/id442928026?mt=8&affId=1503186 (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

AppGreen: Easily Create A Mobile Device Optimized Product Catalog

abhijeet — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:01:35 +0000

Considering the way smartphones and iPads are penetrating the world, a day will soon come when you’ll be showing your product catalogs to prospective clients on those devices instead of carrying a paper catalog. Therefore creating a great looking catalog on these devices is essential and AppGreen helps you do that. It offers a free and beautiful solution to building mobile catalogs with customizable templates, an easy to use catalog builder, unlimited products and images and much more.

The site is beautifully designed too, and the service is being offered completely for free while in beta. There are likely to be charges when the beta period ends so you should hop onto the site and create a nice mobile product catalog for free while you can.

Features

Create beautiful mobile product catalogs.
Huge number of templates available to choose from.
Unlimited products and images supported.
Free while in beta.

Check out AppGreen @ www.appgreen.com (By Abhijeet from GT Mobiles)

BidMyBill: Find Your Perfect Phone Contract

Hammad — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:01:27 +0000

Here is a good little website that will save you a good chunk of money that you would probably otherwise end up wasting on your phone contract. With BidMyBill you can find the perfect little phone contract, and a handset for yourself saving you money and time.

BidMyBill analyzes your previous tariff and bill, and takes out the needed requirements and displays them online. Companies outbid one other to give you the perfect tariff plan and handset according to your requirements set by BidMyBill.

The process is very simple. You just need to make an account and upload your bill after which BidMyBill automatically analyzes the bill and takes out the required details and opens up a public bid for it. The companies who take an interest, or meet your requirements, make a bid for your tariff plan, giving you in the end, a custom tariff plan catered to your requirements.

Features:

Saves time and money.
Allows you to find better tariff plans, with better handsets (in some cases).
No need to spend hours and days searching for the perfect tariff plan.
Secure system keeps your private details, and tariff details secure.
For UK residents only.

Check out BidMyBill @ www.bidmybill.com (By Hammad from TechnicallyDigital)