MakeUseOf Directory » friends

CanvasDropr: Get An Online Canvas To Collaboratively Share Photos With Friends

Umar — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:01:35 +0000

Today people usually share photographs of events through their Facebook photo albums. But only you can upload photographs to your Facebook photo album; if your friends have pictures of the event, you first need to get them and then upload yourself. Here to offer a convenient alternative is a wonderful web service called CanvasDropr.

CanvasDropr is a free to use web service that lets you easily share photographs with friends by letting them collaborate on the albums you create. You start by creating an account on the site after which you can create a ‘canvas’ where you simply drop photographs from your computer. You can give your canvas a relevant title and share its URL with friends. Friends visit your canvas, request to be added to it, you accept their request, and they are able to add photographs too. It’s that simple.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Lets you upload photos.
Lets you give access to others to add photos to your albums.
Lets you create multiple canvases.
Similar tools: ZangZing, Photomemo, Troovi and Strobox.
Also read related article: 4 Sites for Groups to Easily Share Photos from One Event.

Check out CanvasDropr @ www.canvasdropr.com (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

GrubWithUs: Have Dinner With Strangers & Make New Friends

Dave LeClair — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 19:01:06 +0000

Going out to dinner is great. You get to have some delicious food and you don’t have to deal with the stress of cooking and cleaning. GrubWithUs believe going out to dinner is great too, but they also believe it is much more interesting to go out to dinner with a group of strangers and possibly make some new friends.

Basically, if you live in one of the supported cities you can go to their website, pre-register for a meal and then go out to with some cool people you have never met. They give you a restaurant, date and time and you pay for a seat. After that, you just show up and enjoy the meal with all the other people who pre-paid to go. It is a very novel concept, and one that just might be crazy enough to work.

Features:

Meet new people over a nice meal.
Easy pre-paid system. All you do is show up, eat and socialize.
Plans to roll out in other metropolitan areas.
Profiles to find out more about the people you will eat with before you go.

Find GrubWithUs @ www.grubwithus.com

CuteOn.me: Find Out If Your Friends Think An Item Would Look Good On You

Dave LeClair — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:01:21 +0000

Shopping for clothes can be a painful process. If you are shopping online, it can be even harder. It’s hard to tell if an item will look good on you, or if maybe it’s not right for your style. This is where CuteOn.me comes in. They allow you to find a product on Amazon, and then ping your friends on Twitter with a direct message asking the crucial question – will this look cute on me?

It’s easy to use, you just have to link the application with your Twitter account and then enter a link to an item on Amazon. The application will show your friends who can be direct messaged and you can choose to ping all of them, or select the ones you think have the best taste.

For easier sharing, they also have a Google Chrome application. It is a simple extension that basically shows the page you use on the site for sharing. It is a little easier to get access to than typing in the URL, and if this is an application you use often it is worth checking out.

Features:

Easily share items from Amazon with friends to get their advice.
Users direct messaging on Twitter to ping your friends.
Answers the age-old question – will this look cute on me?
Free Google Chrome extension.

Find CuteOn.me @ www.cuteon.me and the Google Chrome Web Store

ShopWithIt: A Phone App For Shoppers To Consult Item Purchases With Friends

Umar — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 03:03:34 +0000

While going out to buy something, shoppers usually take a friend along to get friends’ opinions on things they are about to buy. Here to offer you this function along with prices across various online retailers is a tool called ShopWithIt.

ShopWithIt is a free smartphone application for Android devices. The app is sized at 1.9 MB and compatible with Android version 2.1 or later. The app can be used to browse items you like. With each item you browse through the app you are provided prices of it across various online retailers such as Amazon, ShoeMall, Nordstrom, etc. To get your friends’ opinions you can post the item to your Facebook wall from within the app.

Your friends can then comment on share. You can read the feedback within the application and then decide whether or not to buy the item.

Features:

A user-friendly phone app.
Compatible with Android devices.
Lets you browse items available for purchase online.
Lets you get opinions of friends while buying things.
iPhone version coming soon.

Check out ShopWithIt @ http://shopwith.it/ (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

Crosswalk: Discover What Applications Your Friends Are Using

Hammad — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:01:58 +0000

Have you ever wondered what applications your friends are using on their iPhones? Who knows, you might like one of them. Alternatively, maybe you liked one of those applications and just can’t remember the name of it. Well, Crosswalk will help you figure it out easily.

Crosswalk is a website which allows you to follow your friends as they buy, rate and review new applications and then provide you with a list of recommendations and of applications that you might love. You may also follow other people too.

Using Crosswalk is really simple. All a user has to do is sign in from their Facebook account and start using the service. However, there is a catch – the user needs to have at least one Facebook friend using Crosswalk. Otherwise, you have to wait till they send you an invitation code.

However, once you are inside, you can check out apps, see how many times people downloaded it and how people have rated it. You can also publicly display your own applications. This allows you and your friends to keep a track of the applications being downloaded or used by each other.

Features

User needs to have at least 1 Facebook friend using service.
Allows users to display applications being used, downloaded publicly (updated at intervals).
Find recommended apps.

Check out Crosswalk @ http://crosswa.lk (via TNW)

RetroGifts: Find The Best ‘Retro’ Present For Your Friend’s Birthday

Umar — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:01:36 +0000

Buying presents is usually a challenging task. One gift type that is always successful includes gifts that bring back memories of the old days. But you cannot always know what items belong to those ‘old days’. To help you out, a web service called RetroGifts was created.

RetroGifts is a free to use website that lets you find nostalgia-inducing gifts for your friends. The site basically lets you type in a year and then discover gifts from around that period. You can use the site to find a suitable gift for your friends by typing in their birth year and then choosing a gift from the search results. The results are sorted categorically and include descriptions. Popular keywords are provided to you to achieve better search results. You are also provided with Amazon and/or eBay links for the gifts to purchase them.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Helps find ‘retro’ gifts for friends.
Lets you search gifts by typing in a year.
Sorts results categorically.
Provides descriptions and purchasing links for items.

Check out RetroGifts @ http://retrogiftsco.com (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

Banjo: A Social Discovery Application That Notifies You When Friends Are Nearby [iOS & Android]

MOin — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:01:45 +0000

Social networks today let you easily connect with anybody from anywhere in the world. But what if you want to connect with nearby friends? What if you want to hold a poll of local opinion? To let you do this and also notify you when your friends are nearby is an iOS and Android phone app called Banjo.

The app monitors Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Gowalla accounts to gather opinions, news, and updates. You can filter the app’s content based on your interests and location. Each location has markers shown on a map where the updates are originating from. If you have a friend in your Banjo account and they happen to be nearby where you are, the app sends you a push notification and vice versa. These features along with others such as messaging and gathering opinions through comments make Banjo an excellent social discovery service.

Features:

A user-friendly phone app.
Compatible with iOS and Android devices.
Lets you discover friends who are nearby.
Lets you gather local opinions through comments.
Also read related article: 5 Best Location-Based Alternatives to Foursquare.

Check out Banjo @ www.ban.jo (via TechCrunch) (by MOin from Thumb Press)

TheLateJar: Make Coworkers & Friends Pay For Being Late

azim — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 01:01:40 +0000

Almost in any office there are people who come late to work. If you work in a big office or in a small group of several people, now there is a way make the employees more punctual thanks to The Late Jar. It is a web based app, which tracks times when employees come to work and punishes latecomers with late fees. Everyone is required to log in and check in to the service before a specified time. If a person checks in late, he will be asked to contribute an amount (set by account owner) to the jar.

To set is up for your office or group, sign up for an account (companyname.thelatejar.com), specify the amount late comers should contribute, the latest time they should show up at work, your working days (e.g.Mon-Fri) and start inviting employees by email.

When you show up early, you get to punch Rajiv, the guy who sits at the office desk. If you are late, though, Rajiv gets the last laugh and you are asked to pay.
Once your jar is full, you can empty it and buy everyone a pizza, throw a party on Friday night or distribute to the most punctual employees.

Features:

Make office workers or members of a group to contribute money every time they are late
Set up for any number of people
Specify contribution amount for being late
Specify days and latest time to check in for employees
Free, web based app

Check out The Late Jar @ www.thelatejar.com

Uwemi: Get A Map With Locations Of Your Online Friends Pinned

MOin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 01:01:42 +0000

A map marking the locations of your friends around the world would surely be a nifty tool to plan your next vacation. But building such a map by manually marking your friends’ location would be terribly time-consuming. Here to help you with it is a web service called Uwemi.

Uwemi is a free to use web service that lets you create a map with your friends’ locations marked on it. After creating an account and entering details for your profile, you can connect with your other online networking accounts. Currently you can connect with your Facebook account easily and support for other networks – LinkedIn, Flickr, etc. – will be added later. The site also lets you add friends’ locations manually.

With the locations inputted the global map is then generated with your friends’ locations marked. You can zoom into the map or view it by city or region. You can also print the map or share it with friends via email.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Creates a map marking your friends’ locations.
Connects with your Facebook account.
Lets you print the map and share it online with friends.
Similar tools: MapMyFollowers and Twalaba,

Check Uwemi @ www.uwemi.com (by MOin from Urban Savior)

ZangZing: Easy Way To Share Photos With A Group Of Friends

MOin — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:01:56 +0000

When it comes to photo sharing options, the Internet offers a lot. But not all sites let you share photos selectively, via uploading, as well as importing them from other photo sharing sites. For these features, you will need to visit a site called ZangZing.

ZangZing is a free to use photo sharing website that lets you create various photos albums. Each of these photos albums can have one of three privacy settings: ‘public’ for everybody to see; ‘hidden’ for only people with the album URL to see and ‘password’ for people to have a password to access the album.

In each album you can either upload photographs or connect with other photo sharing websites to import photos from there. These websites include Picasa, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Shutterfly, Kodak, SmugMug, Photobucket, and ZangZing. Visitors to your photo album can view the images as a slideshow; you can also choose to have visitors add pictures into the albums and let people download full resolution images.

Features:

A user-friendly web service.
Lets you share photographs.
Lets you upload photos and import from various sites.
Supports importing from Picasa, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Shutterfly, Kodak, SmugMug, Photobucket, and ZangZing.
Lets album visitors upload photos and download full resolution ones.
Offers 3 different privacy settings for photo albums.
Similar tools: Photomemo, Troovi and Strobox.
Also read related article: 4 Sites for Groups to Easily Share Photos from One Event.

Check out ZangZing @ www.zangzing.com (by MOin from Urban Savior)