Infographics are everywhere these days. There are Tumblrs and blogs full of them, countless articles discussing and collecting them and we can certainly all conjure up a mental image of a memorable infographic. And of course this array of infographics is quite discursive, covering everything from timelines to business data to mixing cocktails.
If you want to hop on the infographic bandwagon, you can always try creating an infographic in any old graphic design program you might have. Unfortunately, without a lot of font and image downloads, you won’t be able to capture the characteristic look of the infographics we all know and love. That’s where Piktochart comes in, a web app which allows you to create and customize infographics for personal and professional use. I took the time to explore what it’s like to make an infographic in this dedicated program, so stick with me after the jump to find out whether Piktochart is worth your time and money.
As a freelance writer, it seems like I’m always sending my resume out. Sometimes this causes some issues, usually with file compatability. I try to send a PDF, but this doesn’t always eradicate the problems and my resume isn’t always viewed the way it’s meant to be. Due to these issues, I’ve been searching for different ways to put my resume online. Simply hosting and displaying the PDF online is an obvious option, but I’ve also discovered a number of services which allow you to place your resume information online in unique ways.
Vizualize.me is one of these services, an app which allows you to produce an infographic style resume. You start by filling in the sections present in the app (things like education and skills), then choose a theme and save. It’s a simple and straightforward service with some fun customization options and pretty cool results. Stick with me after the jump to see the kind of things you can create with Visualize.me.
We’re always seeking out new ways to learn what other people think – whether you need an opinion on which app you should choose or have questions concerning a small business you want to start. Large companies and other major organizations have teams at their disposal to accomplish this. They’re able to question and analyze the results of asking their questions of large groups of people relevant to their organization or cause. Obviously the majority of us can’t afford such teams, so we’re left to our own devices. We can try asking groups like our Facebook friends, but those groups can be fairly homogenous. Yacket is a cool new web app which aims to provide a way for the majority of us to ask questions and get answers from a variety of people.
Yacket is a new survey/polling site powered by user’s questions. Ask any question you can think of, and it’s placed on the site. Visitors to Yacket can then answer the poll, and any data that Yacket knows about them is utilized in the analysis and breakdown of the answers. You can view anonymous results of how users answer based upon various factors, including gender, age, religion and much more. It’s an interesting premise and I got into it pretty quickly. Stick with me after the jump to learn more about Yacket and see what I really thought of it.
Craigslist started out as a list of items for sale, and over its lifetime it has really stayed just a list of items. If you have ever tried posting a number of Craigslist ads before, you know how annoying it can be. There is little available with which to format your ads, and the few tools Craigslist provides are difficult to use, at best. Some posters have nicer looking graphics that are inserted into the post, but those are a challenge to make on your own. So how does the everyday Craigslist user make nice-looking postings? A new service called PostMaven just might be the answer.
PostMaven is a beta service which, for the time being, allows users to make official looking Craigslist ads from templates. After using the easy service to make an ad that meets your specifications, you can then export the code from the template and use it for your final posting on Craigslist. You can make ads for an array of goods and services, so stick with me to learn more about PostMaven.
There’s many times you might need to make some sort of chart or diagram. Lots of people really like to mind map, web and app designers have to make wireframe layouts of design and interface ideas, and business workers might need to make charts to explain facts and figures to clients and co-workers. There are plenty of full-featured and affordable desktop options for making such charts, so why look for an alternative web app?
Social features and sharing are where diagram-making web apps really start to show some unique innovations and Cacoo, the app I’ll be reviewing today is no exception. Cacoo is an online chart/diagram/wireframing tool. Within the app you can use templates or create your own project from scratch using a number of advanced features. You can then collaborate on the project with some co-workers or share and export it to show clients. It’s a handy app with a mile-long feature list, so stick with me to learn more about Cacoo and whether it’s worth using or not.
If you listen to music enough, eventually the music you have in your library gets old. Luckily, there are tons of apps out there to help you find new music. You can try unlimited streaming with Spotify or discover new artists with custom stations on Pandora. These services are great, and widely used. Unfortunately, services like these don’t really benefit independent artists.
Thesixtyone is a web app that turns indie music discovery into a game. Users listen to full songs from up and coming artists and have the opportunity to interact with the song and artist in various ways. On top of these interactions, users can complete quests and earn points just for listening to songs and accomplishing various tasks. It’s quite an interesting idea for music discovery, so stick with me after the jump to learn more about how thesixtyone works and if it’s worth checking out.
I have a to-do list system that works really well for me, and I’m quite content to stick with it. The only downside is that it’s not digital, so I have to have the to-do list with me at all times or I don’t know what I should be working on. It’s fine most of the time, but it can get annoying. Knowing this, I’m always glad to give a digital to-do list a shot – especially when it’s got a twist.
LazyMeter is a cool online to-do list that takes your tasks and organizes them into a playlist. Your main focus is the list of tasks you have just for the day, so you’re just focusing on what you need to do in the present. There are ways to add and keep track of scheduled and unscheduled future tasks as well – the scheduled tasks will appear on the day’s playlist as appropriate. That sure sounds like a unique twist on task management!
Qvivo is a name already known for their beautifully designed desktop app. The Mac/Windows app has been out for a while and allows users to compile all of their media into impeccably designed libraries. The app makes for simple and attractive media consumption. Qvivo has capitalized on the success of their desktop software over the past year, releasing a web app, iOS apps and a cloud syncing service.
In this article I’ll take a much closer look at the features of their web app. I’ll also investigate their cloud service and try out their other apps to see how well they all integrate. It seems like a pretty interesting app/service so stick with me after the jump to learn more about Qvivo and how well it works.
It’s been over a year since we last took a look at Springpad here at Appstorm. To refresh your memory (or for those of you who are new to Springpad), the app is, at heart, a note-taking/bookmarking app. It’s kind of similar to Evernote, or at least it used to be last year. Within Springpad you can save a variety of note types to peruse at your leisure.
This is old news, however, covered in last year’s review. Springpad has since added and improved many features offered within the app. They’ve added a lot of social aspects, done a complete design overhaul and much more. Stick with me to review some Springpad basics, check out what’s new and learn how well the app really works.
Social bookmarking is still quite popular, even as Delicious and other original bookmarking sites struggle to find their way. There are sites dedicated to bookmarking images, videos, items on your wishlist, and even good old fashioned websites. One thing you don’t typically see being bookmarked is text. We read and share articles on social networks all the time, but sharing special quotes from online articles isn’t something that is typically seen.
Findings is a new social bookmarking site that hopes to change this fact. With Findings, you’re able to highlight, save, and share all of your favorite quotes from whatever you happen to be reading online. After you bookmark a quote, it shows up in the Findings feed where other users can check it out, comment, and add the quote to their personal collections. Keep reading after the jump to learn more about how Findings works and what I thought about it.
