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By now, most web users will have seen a promotional message on a bar at the top of some sites that you frequent — they’re a great way to draw your attention to new content, special offers, events and announcements. It doesn’t hurt that they’re easy to implement and update whenever necessary, and that’s what has made this bar a tool of choice for modern webmasters.
We’ve already looked at a very popular option for this called Hello Bar, and today we’re going to check out what the competition has to offer. ThreeBar is another app that lets you create promotion bars, analyze the impact of your messages and engage your site visitors — but is it the best option for you? Let’s create a bar of our own to find out. (more…)
About two weeks ago, Google dropped the bomb on many of us who use Google Reader by declaring that they are going to shut it down this summer. Many of you have been looking at different alternatives to see what will work for you. I have been doing the same as well and although I am not convinced there is something that will replace it just yet, I was able to test out a web app that I thought had some similar qualities to Google Reader and could be a decent replacement.
Taptu has gone under the radar for a lot of people, but it’s an RSS app that’s actually been around since 2010. I played around with the app back then, but stopped because I knew that it couldn’t come close to what I was doing with Google Reader and not only that, I was used to what I was already using and it was working fine. Like the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” So that is what I had decided at the time, well now, Google Reader is not broke, but it definitely will get there. That is why I decided to revisit this app and give it another try.
Plex Media Server is a rare kind of app. It is desktop software, but is completely controlled by your web browser. Because of this, it works no matter which browser you choose to use, but more importantly it also works on any operating system platform — be it Windows, Mac, or Linux — and even NAS devices can run this software.
Plex will serve up media to virtually any device, from DLNA boxes like a Google TV and Roku to Blu-Ray players, DVR’s and even mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. I personally stumbled onto this great free service after replacing our HTPC with a Vizio Co-Star Google TV box. It will play almost any format and you can use it to push video, pictures and music around your home. Let’s take a look and see how it works.
If you’re a creative professional, you probably have enough to do between working on projects, managing clients and keeping track of finances — so where’s the time to set up and maintain an online portfolio? There are several apps out there for this very purpose, but many users might find the current crop of portfolio builders a bit too demanding — wouldn’t it be nice if you could throw together a site by simply uploading a few images, without the hassle of a CMS?
That’s the thinking behind RetinaFolio, a new app that creates portfolio sites using images and video from your Dropbox folder. With RetinaFolio, you can update your content by simply adding and removing images in Dropbox, without even having to fire up your web browser. Easy peasy indeed, but is it enough to impress your clients? Let’s build a portfolio for ourselves and find out.
It seems so quaint to remember the days before YouTube. How on earth did we fill our time? The Google-owned video clip phenomenon has all but monopolized the business of online entertainment, and one billion of us now use the service every month. But I, for one, wish that YouTube was a bit less about flicking through clips of cats doing random things, and a bit more like watching a TV channel filled with quality programming.
This avenue of thinking was clearly the catalyst behind the making of Moziy. This brand new service, still in invite beta, turns YouTube and Vimeo channels into streams, and mixes them up to create a personalized, full-screen, video-watching experience. Additionally, Moziy provides its own video watchers’ network, creating something far more social than YouTube has ever been.
But is Moziy‘s video stream-based system really worth ditching the browsability of YouTube for? And is it a real improvement on Vimeo’s Couch Mode? Let’s find out…
I admire app developers that are willing to take a fresh look at what they have developed after releasing something for a while. It shows that they are passionate and believe in what they are building, not only for themselves, but for the general population as a whole. In my opinion, it takes a lot to be able to swallow your pride a little, take in user feedback and be willing to tweak a product or app so that it can better meet the demand for the user.
The reason why I am reflecting on this is that I have been using Kippt for the past couple of days and have been really impressed by what they have done to their app. They haven’t necessarily done a full facelift to it, but they were able to analyze how well the app worked and took user feedback to produce an even better product than before. If you are unfamilar with Kippt, we did a review on their old version a couple of years ago.
I’ve been on a crusade this past week to find the best solution for my weather dilemma. I’ve been looking for something functional, that would tell me about the changes in condition, but most importantly, an app that was accurate. Plus, it shouldn’t be cluttered with ads, with a design that looks like it was made in the early ’90′s, as most weather web apps are. I’ve had many false starts in my search; I heard Dark Sky, loved it, and found out it wasn’t available for my country.
A few days later, Forecast.io was announced. It is a web application created by the same guys who brought Dark Sky to iOS, and it offers worldwide coverage and a few more tricks up its sleeve. Suddenly, most of my problems were solved like magic.
The year’s 1981. A newly incorporated computer company in Washington State decides to make a word processor to give people a reason to use computers. Launched for DOS in 1983 and the original Macintosh two years later, Word became the #1 way most people around the world write on their computers for over 30 years, and counting.
Word’s nice, in its own ways, but it’s designed for the world of the 1980′s, and the most important way to share documents of that day: paper. It’s designed to format documents for print, not digital sharing. Word has even made the transition to the web, but it’s still focused on print documents laid out on a virtual piece of Letter or A4 paper. Google Docs and other online word processors are no better suited for today, centering still around publishing on paper.
The year’s 2013. We need a word processor, one designed for online publishing that lets you write anywhere, save your files online, and collaborate with others.
That app is here, and it’s called Draft.
In an era where the web has invaded into all dimensions of life, understanding the language of the web has become important for people to actively participate in shaping the digital world, to change from passive viewers to “webmakers”. This idea led Mozilla to develop three different tools, The Popcorn Maker to “supercharge web video” (read our review), Thimble to “Make and share your own web page” and X-Ray Goggles to “Explore and remix any web page”.
Of these the tools, Thimble and X – Ray Goggles were developed with the purpose of helping aspiring “webmakers” familiarize themselves with the language of the web. Let’s take a look
As an educator who is obsessed with technology, I am always looking for ways in which my class and I can use technology to help enhance their learning. I am also looking for ways to utilize the web with students as much as I can because it usually offers two things that are great for education. One, with the web, apps are usually accessible where ever there is a browser available, and that means students have no excuse to be able to access it. Two, most times, web apps are low cost or even free, which with education, is a huge thing being that budgets are always tight.
So, when I got to play around with Padlet for a couple of days, I really got excited for how I could use this both in my personal life as well as with my students. Padlet takes the concept of a blank piece of paper, and lets you put whatever you want on it and share it with people. With the web, this takes this “blank piece of paper” concept and lets you do even more. Let me show you more about what I am talking about.
