iCloud is a new addition to the roster of cloud-based operating systems, tools that allow you to store not just your files online but the applications you access them with.
Friendpaste is a web-based clipboard tool that can quickly shares snippets of plain text and computer code with friends or co-workers. Friendpaste supports simple text sharing for revision, or you can lock your pastes against viewing and editing with a password. You can use formatting for dozens of different kinds of code, and it has a revision and annotation system so the friends you share your code with can leave smarter comments. One of the great code-centric features is the ability to leave a comment based on the line number of the code you are reviewing making it easier to reference comments to their appropriate place. If you have a trick or service up your sleeve for sharing your clipboard contents with friends and colleagues, sound off in the comments below.Thanks Steve!
FriendpasteThe Obamicon.Me webapp turns your uploaded images into stylised pictures, modeled after the the distinct four-colour campaign posters used by President Obama. You can upload a picture or grab an instant capture from your webcam for the base of your HOPE-ish pictorial. Once it’s loaded into Obamicon.Me, you can adjust the saturation of each of the four colours, zoom and rotate the image. Then you select from several preset slogans, or insert your own. If you like the results, you can right-click and save them or keep them on the site for linking. For more random picture fun, make sure to check out MorphThing and blend your face with a (non-elected) celebrity’s. Obamicon.Me
Adobe has posted an alpha version of AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) for Linux on its website.
The PC and Mac OS X versions of AIR, a program which lets developers build web apps which also run on the desktop, are already out.
According to the Wired writeup, the alpha release which Adobe’s made available has a few glitches still. “There are still a few kinks to be worked out, like printing support and support for coding in DRM technologies — something unwanted by most programmers you know, but a requirement for many of the media companies wanting to build specialized media players for music and video.”
Adobe Release AIR for Linux , Sees Better Linux Apps on Horizon [Wired]
reCAPTCHA an anti-spam tool for obscuring your email address on the web. And by using it, you’re helping to ‘proofread’ for a project which is digitising books for the Internet Archive (I’m a big fan of IA because it hosts the Wayback Machine).
reCAPTCHA Mailhide helps protect your inbox from spambots by asking people to solve a reCAPTCHA before viewing your email address. It displays two words, and the user needs to type both words in to display your email address.
To put the reCAPTCHA tool on your website you can use an application plugin, a library for your programming language or an API – browse their list of resources for further info. It has plugins for Movable Type, WordPress and many other popular publishing apps.
[via Problogger]
DigitURL is a web service that allows mobile phone users to access internet sites using numeric addresses, rather than traditional URLs. It was launched last month by Melbourner Andrew Gray. Andrew told me he created DigitURL because wanted to make URLs easier to access from mobile phones. “Numeric addresses can be much easier to enter on phone keypads, particularly if the URL is long and complicated (as they so often are these days).”You can find some more information at DigitlURL’s blog:
“A unique aspect of DigitURL is the Java client software for mobile phones. This forms the interface between the phone and the web, accepting numeric DigitURL address input. In case a user has not installed this application, a ‘web-based’ version is readily accessible at DigitURL.com.”
The site is in beta, and it’s simple to use. I entered the URL http://www.lifehacker.com.au via the web form and it emailed me the resulting numeric DigitlURL in the following formats: 76639246294 or http://digiturl.com/76639246294 or the protocol address: digiturl://76639246294. Once you’ve entered these into your phone, obviously you can bookmark them for future use too.
Thanks for the tip, Andrew!
The creator of early webmail success Hotmail (which was acquired by Microsoft) has unveiled a free suite of Office apps which he hopes will be a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Office suite. Called Live Documents, you can sign up to request an invitation to the private beta of this web-and-desktop suite here. There are a lot of good, free Office alternatives these days – from Google Docs to Open Office, so it will be interesting to see how Live goes.
Online productivity suite Zoho has rolled out a mobile version of its Creator webapp , which can make both basic databases and help forge customised interfaces and applications to use them. As the somewhat (intentionally?) cheesy promotional video shows, It could be useful for adding to office or personal projects and websites on the go, or for pulling up and presenting information from a non-sensitive database. Like other Zoho applications, Creator is free to use but requires an account sign-up.
Zoho Creator Mobile [via Office Tweaks]Track your perishable food’s expiration dates and receive reminders days before the food goes bad with web site Best When Used By. If you’re in a pinch to put those edible treats to good use while you still can, the site also features a recipe search to help you make the most of what’s left before the food spoils. On a related note, learn more about food expiration dates to determine which foods you really must toss once the date has passed.
Best When Used ByEasily generate web site screenshots and thumbnails with web application Thumbalizr. Just submit the URL into the search box and wait about a minute until the screenshot becomes available. Thumbalizr is quite similar to screenshot generator WebSnapr with two benefits: it offers multiple resized screenshots (150px, 320px, 640px, 800px, 1024px, and 1280px), and it doesn’t add a watermark to the bottom of the generated images. This sure beats having to manually resize images with an image editor, and it saves time, too.
Thumbalizr
