Unless your friend happens to carry the exact mobile phone you’re looking to buy, getting a hands-on demonstration isn’t always easy. Provider stores are often stocked with non-functioning dummies, or lack the exact model you’re eyeing. New web site TryPhone aims to help phone buyers go beyond looks and see how a phone operates when you, say, pull up recent calls or start typing a new text message. The site only carries four popular models at the moment—the iPhone, BlackBerry Pearl, Verizon Juke and Sprint Muziq—but claims it will be adding phones weekly. If you’re wavering between two phones, TryPhone’s interface preview could help make the decision.
TryPhone [via CNET News]If you’ve come to know and love your OpenOffice.org platform, new online office suite Ulteo might just pull you away from Google Docs or Zoho, or even the upcoming Microsoft Office Live. Ulteo uses Java to re-create nearly the same interfaces as the deskop software’s word processor, spreadsheet, and database applications. While obviously geared toward OpenOffice enthusiasts, Ulteo can import and export to Microsoft Office and PDF files like its desktop brother. The beta webapp is accepting 15,000 users from North America and Europe at the moment; I got in this morning after fishing the confirmation email out of the spam bin. Ulteo requires a browser have both JavaScript and Sun’s Java Runtime environment enabled—Ubuntu users in particular might have to check their packages to ensure compatability.
Ulteo [via LH Australia]Gently remind yourself and others of upcoming tasks via email with web app HassleMe. HassleMe is similar to FutureMail but is more appropriate for tasks that you know you should be doing but just keep forgetting to actually do. You can setup recurring reminders to get a haircut, go to the gym, eat your vegetables, etc. Conveniently, HassleMe wraps the registration process into your first reminder. What reminders do you need? Share in the comments.
HassleMe [via Life of an Internet Entrepreneur]Send outgoing email messages from a different email address using Acebird.com. Acebird is a web app that seems to do the impossible. You can send email that appears to come from any email address (even those that you don’t own). At first blush, Acebird seems like a very controversial application. While Acebird certainly has many practical applications, it can also be used to do heavy damage. Nevertheless, if you ever have a legitimate need to send email from someone else’s account, Acebird is a good way to go about doing so. There are two ways that I’ve been able to identify email coming from Acebird: the mailed-by server is “gator344.hostgator.co” (when it should be something more recognisable like “gmail.com”), and there is no way to customise the name of the sender. Other than that, the email sent by Acebird appears totally legit. Anyone else freaked out?
Acebird.comFree email web site Lockbin offers a software-free, no-sign-up method of keeping outsiders from reading your messages. The process is fairly simple—after clicking through an agreement and CAPTCHA page, you write your message and choose a secret word. After you tell the recipient the de-coding word (hopefully any way but email), they can read the message once on Lockbin’s site before it’s deleted forever. As the site itself notes, it’s not perfect encryption, but it’s a pretty easy way to keep email snoopers away from your message. One footnote: Two test emails I sent yesterday were delayed for more than four hours, but another message went through instantly this morning. If speed is a necessity, try encrypting your own email or using Greasemonkey to encrypt Gmail.
Lockbin [via MakeUseOf.com]We’ve previously highlighted unnecessary meetings as a workplace practice that should be over, but not all of us call the shots. For those brave enough to point out the cost of unnecessary meetings, or look at the cost of their own time, salary comparison website PayScale offers the free webapp Meeting Miser. The in-browser timer uses actual or estimated salaries of everyone in the room to tally up the cost of a meeting by the second, the minute, or in total. There are lots of personal timers with more functionality out there, but Meeting Miser’s narrow time = money focus makes for a persuasive argument. Meeting Miser is free to use, but requires a PayScale registration to save meetings for later reference.
PayScale Meeting Miser [via TechCrunch]
