Digital image effects web application BeFunky adds seriously impressive effects to any photograph—turning boring pictures into digital art in a couple of mouse clicks. Using BeFunky to add digital effects couldn’t be easier—simply upload your files (or grab them from flickr, MySpace or Facebook), select your preferred effect from the list, and tweak the options to your liking. Once completed you can download your transformed photos without an account—a watermark is added, but it’s below the image and could be easily removed with a quick crop. This application is similar to previously mentioned Dumpr, but the effects are impressive enough to make this worth a look for anybody interested in DIY photography tools. BeFunky is a free web application, no signup required. For more full featured image editing in your browser, check out previously mentioned Sumo Paint.
BeFunky [via Of Zen and Computing]Gmail Labs’ new Offline Gmail feature now allows users to specify a maximum attachment size that should be downloaded for offline access. Your options range from 10KB to 5MB in size. Alternately, you can choose not to download any attachments if you want to save on disk space or all attachments if you’ve got plenty of space. (Keep in mind that the maximum attachment size in Gmail is currently 20MB.) We’re not seeing the 0.2 options in our Gmail accounts yet, which means this is likely one of Google’s slow rollouts. Still, Google Operating System suggests that disabling offline access and then re-enabling it may do the trick, so if you’re really eager, you might want to give it a try.
Offline 0.2 Launched![Google Groups via Google Operating System]Mac OS X only: Disk for iPhone is a free application that mounts your iPhone or iPod touch as a drive on your Mac, turning your device into a portable hard drive. Disk for iPhone requires that you’ve already installed the very cool, previously mentioned MacFUSE—which, among other things, allows you to mount any file system on your Mac over SSH. Assuming you’ve done that, just plug in your iPhone or iPod touch, run Disk for iPhone, and get browsing. The app runs in your menu bar, and your iPhone should show up as a drive on your desktop the same way a USB drive does when you plug it in. Disk for iPhone is a free download, Mac OS X only. For full read/write access, you’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone. It’s a good option for Mac users, but if you’re on Windows or don’t want to jailbreak, previously mentioned DiskAid does the job nicely. Then again, with native iPhone apps like the Air Sharing (original post), these desktop-based apps may no longer seem all that necessary. If you’re using your iPhone as a portable disk, let’s hear what method you’re using in the comments.
Disk for iPhone [Google Code via Hackszine]Windows Vista only: System tweaking application WinBubble is one of those gems with a killer feature you wouldn’t expect—you can add items to context menus and customise certain system icons. WinBubble is very similar to most tweaking applications—including previously mentioned Ultimate Windows Tweaker—but the best features can be found on the Icons and Miscellaneous tabs, where you can customise certain system icons and add your own custom menu entries to the system context menus. Ever wanted to quickly add a new tool to the desktop context menu? No problem! This feature alone makes this no-installation-required software a great addition to your flash drive toolkit, and worth a look for anybody looking to customise their desktop. WinBubble is a free download for Windows Vista. Thanks, austin316gb!
WinBubbleWindows Mobile/Symbian only: A new version of Skyfire, the speedy, Flash-playing mobile browser we reviewed last year, gets a new release today with support for RSS, Facebook, and Twitter Now in version 0.9, Skyfire has added a host of new features since we last looked at it. The newest features are better integration with Facebook and Twitter, but support for RSS feeds is the truly productive upgrade here. Version 0.9 also introduces enhanced text display, so the size of text is automatically adjusted to read articles without horizontal scrolling. Some of the features that aren’t brand-spanking-new—but you might have missed with the 0.8.5 update—include enhanced inline text entry, integration with your Windows Mobile Today Screen, SMS URL sharing with tiny URL creation, and contextual zoom similar to the tap and zoom feature in Opera Mobile. Skyfire is freeware for Windows Mobile and Symbian based phones only. Skyfire
Nothing says “check me out” to your office crush like these quick and simple heart-shaped paperclips. All it takes is a standard paperclip and one simple bend and you’ve turned the ubiquitous office supply into a cheesy but fun V-Day accessory. [via Curbly]
If you’re planning to upgrade your current PC to Windows 7 when Microsoft releases their new OS, there’s good and bad news for XP and Vista users. Here’s a closer look at your upgrade options.
Linux users running into the web’s brick walls of “This site requires Microsoft Silverlight,” rejoice. The Moonlight team has brought Silverlight compatibility to Firefox browsers on Linux systems. Moonlight installs like any other Firefox extension. Once it’s installed, you should be ready to use any site or webapp that requires Silverlight 1.0; 2.0 access is, hopefully, coming up soon. You should also be able to work inside Silverlight apps with traditionally Windows-based media codecs, another compatibility bonus. Tell us how Moonlight works for your Linux systems in the world of Windows in the comments. Moonlight Downloads
YouTube has made it easy for anyone to easily download clips as MP4 video files, if a creator allows it, as well as purchase the videos you want to bring with you. At the moment, the offerings are slim for official downloads—Google Operating System points to Creative Commons material like Standford University’s channel—but more should be on the way. If you’re charged for a video download, you’ll pay with Google Checkout and be able to track all your purchases from youtube.com/my_purchases. Of course, there are plenty of work-arounds for downloading YouTube videos, but it's great to see YouTube giving users a bit more mobility and access to their favourite material. Find a channel with great free and download-ready offerings? Share it in the comments. Learn More: Video downloads [via Google Operating System]
Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Blank Canvas is a handy little signature manager that automatically inserts HTML signatures into your Gmail messages based on which email address you’re sending from. The extension supports up to four unique signatures for each address you’ve designated. Signatures are automatically inserted in both new messages and in replies and forwards. If you’d prefer to use a Greasemonkey script to manage your signatures instead of an extension, make sure to check out Gmail Multiple Signatures If you have another technique for managing signatures—Gmail or otherwise—we’d love to hear about it in the comments. Blank Canvas Gmail Signatures
