The Netlog behaviour made me think if I should use these kind of systems any further. We all know that whatever you write in the open is also there to stay. It can be to your advantage or disadvantage, especially when writing something negative and/or special.
I am not sure yet if I will quit most of the newest tools, but it is for sure a lesson not to have a company/website/tool takeover your agenda like Netlog did.
The service I rely on heavily now got it's domain, dropbox.com. In the past it used getdropbox.com.
I am using the service to backup all my docs, but also to run several databases from like with Pagico. By putting it also at Dropbox it is automatically synched, so at home or wherever I connect, also from the laptop I have a synched database.
Pagico
Just got a mail that Pagico 4 is available as a beta. If you do not know Pagico, read about it at pagico.com. In short ...... Pagico keeps track of all your tasks, projects, and contacts. It is available for Apple, Windows, and Ubuntu.
I translated all versions including this one into Dutch. BTW I do not have any commercial interest, I just happen to like the software. You can download the beta now.
Prospects 1.0.1
Prospects is a personal finance application that allows users to manage their finances via extensive account monitoring capabilities and budgeting.
Prospects provides up to three ViewPoints that provide instantaneous information about an account. It allows users to group accounts into Binders which provide immediate feedback on assets, liabilities, and overall growth. Prospects contains many other features as well, such as a Budget Advisor, rules, memorized payees, attachments, categories, split transactions and QIF, OFX, and QFX importing.
Blogged with Flock
If you do not use RSS, this is your free chance.
Hans
Checking Web sites by typing in the URL feels like firing up a rickety 56k baud modem and logging on to CompuServe. It gets the job done, but really should only be used under extreme duress or nostalgia. Syndicated feeds bring the Web site to you, and when NewsGator made all its RSS clients free on Wednesday, they suddenly made a top-notch suite with tools for Windows,
Mac,
mobile,
the Web,
a podcast manager,
and a Microsoft Outlook extension incredibly appealing. And by appealing, I mean you might not be able to imagine feeds the same way afterwards. It's that good.
The Windows interface for NewsGator includes an optional Most Popular list of your feeds on the right.
(Credit: NewsGator)I've been using Google Reader, and even Mozilla Thunderbird's strong RSS tools couldn't pull me away from the appeal of having my e-mail and feeds coming from the same place. Throw in the some of the recent Google Reader changes, such as faster loading, being able to share items, and marking a previously read item as unread, and I was looking very skeptically at all other feed clients.
NewsGator makes a great pitch. Whatever operating system you want to use, it offers up a top-notch client. Throw in synchronization to its mobile client and Web-based tool and you've got one heckuva sweet suite.
In addition to a standard view, the Mac-based NetNewsWire offers an appealing wide-screen view.
(Credit: NewsGator)I tested the Windows, Mac, Webware client, and podcast manager today, and the differences were not substantial. Installation on both doesn't require a free NewsGator account, but during the setup process it asks you if you'd like to register for one. The account gives you access to the NewsGator Web client, which has a similarly intuitive interface to the software versions.
Both the Windows and Mac version come with the podcast manager bundled, although you can opt out of installing it. The layout is uncluttered, with major tools living in the customizable toolbars at the top. The keyboard shortcuts are also customizable, and you can have a second set specifically for newspaper reading. There are also search boxes, report generators so you can obsess over what you read, and a plethora of tools that make it easy to fine-tune your reading habits.
The built-in reports tools are worthwhile, with Dinosaurs showing you old unread items, and Attention indicating what you spend the most time reading.
NewsGator Web features most of the key features of its downloadable cousins.
(Credit: NewsGator)Other features include formatting for newspapers, simple font-size changes, items with images or video will have the media aggregated at the top of the feed, you can prefetch items for offline reading, and there's even a panic button that will go through unread items and decimate their numbers. There's also a built-in browser, complete with tabs, if you don't want to use your default browser to open links. If you don't want to get a particular feed, but don't want to delete it, changing the settings to Do Not Update is just as easy as setting up a brand-new feed.
The Windows version has two toolbar skins and six feed-view skins, while the Mac features two dozen options for spicing up feeds. However, Windows users can preset different ones to each feed, and it's much easier in the Windows version to tweak settings as you read a post. Helpful links right at the top of the post change sorting and reading methods, and marking and sharing tools.
FeedStation is a podcast manager integrated with both the software and Webware versions of the NewsGator clients.
(Credit: NewsGator)Syncing worked less like an old modem and more like a T3 line: I changed settings in the Windows version, hit the sync button, hit refresh on the Mac version, and the changes were instantly downloaded. I then checked the NewsGator Web-based version, and the changes were already implemented there, too. Surprisingly, you can also manage your podcasts from the Web version.
Without a doubt, this is the most powerful, comprehensive, and responsive RSS manager I've ever used, so it shouldn't surprise you that I strongly recommend whichever of the NewsGator apps best suits your needs.
Blogged with Flock
This is a great product. I did the Dutch translation for it. Due to many new interesting functionalities it is a product to watch. Check some out at their website.
Filemaker has introduced a new personal database application for Mac OS X called Bento.
Bento
organizes all your important information in one place. So you can
manage your contacts, coordinate events, track projects, prioritize
tasks, and more -- faster and easier than ever before.
Bento is described as being designed exclusively for Mac OS X Leopard
and takes advantage of many Leopard-specific features, such as live
linking to iCal, Core Animation, Advanced Find, Time Machine Backups
and Multimedia features.
A free preview download is available. Filemaker, Inc. is a subsidiary of Apple and publishes FileMaker Pro for Windows and Mac OS X. Macworld provides a brief first look at Bento. Bento is expected to be released at Macworld San Francisco 2008 for $49 for a single license.
Flickr plans to expand from photo sharing to photo editing through a deal with start-up Picnik, a major change in the nature of the Yahoo site.
"We are working on a relationship with Picnik, which will be available in the coming months," a Flickr representative said Friday, declining to share further details.
Picnik lets users perform a variety of basic editing tasks, including some color correction.
(Credit: Picnik)
News of the deal was reported Friday by TechCrunch from the Web 2.0 Summit. The site said Flickr will let users add edited photos to their accounts or, for pro account holders, they can use them to replace the online originals.
Picnik, based in Seattle, lets users perform a variety of basic editing tasks. Among them: users can crop and resize photos; change exposure, saturation, color temperature; sharpen edges; remove red-eye; and rotate pictures by 90-degrees or finer increments. It's got multiple undo levels, and edited photos already can be saved to a local computer or to Flickr, Facebook, Photobucket and Google's Picasa.
While that feature list is pretty feeble compared with what's possible with full-fledged desktop programs such as Adobe Photoshop, it does cover the basics of image editing. Picnik isn't alone, though; Adobe is working on an online Photoshop version and other competitors include Phixr, Snipshot, Pixenate, FotoFlexer, Wiredness, Pikifx and Fauxto.
Photo editing is a significant change in scope for Flickr. The option spotlights not only the increasingly sophisticated tasks that can happen in Web browsers--a technology generally called rich Internet applications--but also the gradual migration of features from desktop computers to online services.
It's been a newsy week for Flickr at the Web 2.0 Summit. The company also said it's planning to revamp its printing feature to make it easier to print a batch of photos and add new abilities to display geographically organized photos to take better advantage of pictures that have been geotagged with location information.
Flock 1.0 beta has been released for public download and is available here (at the time of writing it’s not shown on the front page).
The new version of Flock, the first full release was first demonstrated at the TechCrunch 40 conference in September. The new version builds on previous Flock versions by offering a variety of social networking tie-ins.
I’ve been hard on Flock in the past, believing it to be nothing more than Firefox with a couple of fancy plugins. In some respects that was true (it’s based on Firefox code) but the new Flock offers something completely unique that for me at least makes it surprisingly very good.
Facebook Comes To The Sidebar
The big change to Flock is the introduction of sidebar social networking integration. Flock now comes standard with support for Facebook, Flickr (more so than previously), Twitter and YouTube.
Facebook addicts will love the new Flock. Sidebar Facebook access is not dissimilar to the Facebook iPhone interface, but with better options including the ability to upload photos directly to Facebook. Some options do take you directly to Facebook itself, but it’s still very handy having them at your command in an easy to use sidebar.
The Twitter app does a reasonable job and is not unlike the TwitBin Firebox plugin we have previously review, but like the Facebook app it comes with a better feature set, including action buttons allowing for direct messaging, profiles and nudging.
My only gripe with the Twitter client is that it doesn’t update as frequently as Twitterrific and there was no obvious way of changing the update frequency that I could find.
Account support is also available for Photobucket, Piczo, Del.icio.us and Magnolia.
flock1.jpg
Media Bar
The media bar is not new to Flock, but where as the service was previously focused on Flickr, Facebook support is now integrated, providing drag and drop uploads. Another feature Facebook addicts will love.
Web Clipboard
Flock now comes with what they call a “web clipboard” that allows users to drag and drop anything they see into it via the sidebar, including urls, text and images. The idea is that they can then be used when needed on other sites by drag and drop again, or via image upload as required. We’ve seen Firefox plugins before that do a similar job, but the way this is built into Flock does make it a more appealing offering. It also helps that it works well.
Blogging client
The blogging client has long been one of Flocks selling points but I’m afraid that it was really my only major disappointment with the 1.0 release. It’s a solid blog client (always has been) in doing the basics, but it fails miserably with image management. Flock doesn’t support the uploading of images to a blog and provides users with only two alternatives: upload the image to Facebook or Flickr for displaying in the post, or worst of all display the picture sourced from another web site; basically stealing someone else’s bandwidth. It really isn’t that hard to build in image uploading to WordPress or similar blog platforms, here’s hoping it’s something that Flock might address in future releases
Other features
Flock offers a browser based RSS reader which does a decent enough job for those who prefer their feeds served locally as opposed to a service like Google Reader. The media bar has expanded from simply being a photo management tool to a browsing tool that includes YouTube videos. In the case of YouTube, user accounts of videos you view are added to the YouTube sidebar. I’m not sure exactly what the appeal of this feature is, but some will like it.
Overall
Flock launched 2 years ago tomorrow so they’ve been around long enough to get their product right. It’s been a difficult two years for the startup as they’ve had to battle against a marketplace that wasn’t that receptive to new browsers. The new Flock isn’t for everyone, but it will win new fans.
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Fotoflexer may be my personal favorite among the many online photo editing tools, but Flickr has chosen Seattle-based Picnik (profile) to handle the long requested photo editing feature for Flickr users.
Currently, you can rotate photos on Flickr, but the editing stops there. When the new tools launch, users will be able to edit photos more extensively using the Picnik Flash based tools (see our review here).
The deal has been signed and implementation will occur sometime in the next few months, Flickr told me yesterday. Users will be presented with an edit option on the photo page. Clicking it takes the user to a new Flickr photo edit page, with the Picnik tools integrated via an iframe. After editing, users can add the edited photo to their Flickr account or, if they are a Flickr pro user, overwrite the original.
Business terms around the deal are not being disclosed at this time. Picnik is self funded to date.
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Blogged with Flock
From the developers ... I am listed as a hero :-)
There has been many people lending their hands to me for this project. And now it's time for me to say "thank you".
Well, those hidden heros are: ...
