7 posts tagged “reviews”
BLOG ROVER
Well I've been using Blog Rover for more than a week now. I really wanted to "test drive" it really well before I recommended or panned it. What is Blog Rover? Think of it as a value added "side car" plug in for Firefox which helps deliver chosen related value added content from other blogs you like to read as you surf.
For instance, if I am reading a post on a digital scrapbook blog about using the pen tool, it will search all the other blogs I've chosen/read on digital scrapbooking (or any other blogs I've chosen) for similar topics and a small sliding pop out (which can be disabled at any time) will show me links to other related blog posts. You can add or delete blogs on the fly or import an OPML or XML file of all your current feeds from any reader. It will also allow you to select pre-packed suggested blogs based on topics and if you so chose, it will suggest blogs based on your reading habbits if you enable that option.
Don't worry, despite the functionality of it, it's not constantly "talking" while you surf every web page. Still, although it's easily slid back in or disabled, some might be annoyed by it. I personally think it's pretty sweet, although once or twice I was like, "not that again", even if it takes up minimal real estate. All in all, I'm keeping it enabled and I have to give it the javajane 4 stars out of 5 rating. The thing rocks!
Download the Blog Rovr Plug In for Firefox
Are you still not using CoolIris? I've previously reviewed this plug-in that I've been using since it debuted, but if you are not using it, you're missing out. It just keeps getting better with added functionality with each update. Need ringtones in a jiffy? Tired of using Audacity, to edit your MP3's into ringtones? Yeah, Audacity is a great freeware audio editing program, but you still have to labor to figure out which part of the song can be sliced down to make the best ringtone. CoolRinger uses an algorithm which calculates that for you, and it does so flawlessly. I use it to make tones for both my Moto RAZR V3m and my Moto Q. I just updated my Q with 4 ringtones today in less than 2 minutes. Now that is TOTALLY sweet!
Stay tuned for more secrets...
There are plenty of reviews out already for the Motorola Q Smartphone, so I don't want to "reinvent" the wheel. Here are some in depth reviews (not necessarily my opinion):
I bought one on Monday afternoon, as I was eligible for my Verizon new every two once again. After mail in rebate, I was able to get the $300+ phone for $79. Of course, that was before I added in a Bluetooth headset, stereo mini jack earbuds, a 512 mini SD card and a BodyGlove cover, which I felt essential, since it was one of the only covers to also cover the screen, which is essential as the Moto Q, although sharp and clear is prone to smudging and this prevents that.
Now that I've had a couple days to use it, I couldn't be happier. I need Verizon for service coverage, as where I live, most other carriers tend to be spotty. The other half has T-Mobile, which has been good, but still not quite the performance of Verizon, especially on our travels out of the country. Yeah, people gripe about the cost of Verizon's data plan, but when you compare apples to apples, the $80 (before surcharges, etc.) is really no more than anyone else's unlimited data plan (with phone minutes) when you add in all the extras Verizon bundles in with the plan.
I read all the reviews, and for my non-business purposes, this phone was "it". There was one BlackBerry in contention, but there was no camera, and I wanted to use the phone for moblogging, so that ruled it out. T-Mobile had a few BlackBerry smart phones that would have worked, but having to change my longstanding cell # for lesser service for a phone didn't seem worth it and I'm glad I didn't. That being said, a lot of folks like Cingular's Blackjack, but service coverage where I use my phone is horrible.
Anyway, for me, blogging, email, SMS, phone usage, web surfing, listening to music and watching video clips, including my own while I'm out and about made this the perfect smartphone device for me. I love, love, love it. Since Verizon doesn't partner with Yahoo!, I downloaded Y! Go Beta for my phone and now I can push email from gmail, my broadband provider and Yahoo! without subscribing to Yahoo's premium service. It also allows for maps, easy Flickr uploads and viewing and other nice Yahoo! features.
I love that I don't have to carry a phone (formerly a Moto Razr V3m, pink) and my iPod now unless I want to listen to or watch larger file size items. I can just put my music on my Moto Q, along with video clips and listen to them through the onboard stereo speakers using Windows Media Player, or I can put my headphones on and listen, take a phone call and go back to listening again. Schweeeeeeeeeeet.
This phone should help me be more consistent about blogging, even when I am untethered to my computer, as there are times as of late, I've had extended absences, but have been places I wish I had internet and keyboard access as I had time to answer mail or post.
Anyway, my Moto Q is my new toy and making me a very, very happy camper!
I love to soup things up. My computer, my cell phone, my iPod, my coffee. I like to get every bit of milage out of one device that I can, and I like a little bling too. I am personally not a huge fan of the iTunes software for iPod, but do open it from time to time to when I create smart playlists. All my thousands of music files, many which I use daily on my internet radio broadcast Generation 80s Retro Radio, are well tagged making it easy to sort and filter to create those
I pretty much have taken to using Winamp for playlists at times as well as Ephpod (a wonderful program when I used my iPod mini, unfortunately doesn't currently support newer iPod video, so I've had to scrub this one for now) or Yamipod (Yet Another iPod Manager). There are a lot of other iPod managers, but I really think these two are the best of the bunch. What do you think?
Want to change the fonts, graphics or text link names on your iPod? Then you need the free, opensource program called iPod Wizard. Follow this link to get the full scoop and the latest stable download. iPod Wizard even allows volume uncapping of certain models. iPodulator Pro is another nifty must have if you like to play games (full catalogue of text based games free), write or read notes and text docs, edit and delete easily with no text limitation or read web pages along with their subsequent embedded links or RSS on your gizmo. Now you can catch up on your web based reading in the doctors office, on the train or by the pool. Basically, like the site states, "iPodulator Pro 2 puts any website or RSS feed you name on your iPod in a text-only version. And it gets better. iPodulator Pro 2 can copy most of the links on webpages to your iPod, so when your reading a page on your iPod you have all the links there, ready for clicking".
If you are into e-books, iPod Library is a nice little open source tool for importing books in multiple formats, remembering your place in the book and easily managing or deleting them. I just downloaded Soundcrank tonight to try out on my iPod. It functions something like Last.fm's scrobbling function (I'm a Scrobbler) and supposedly enables you to discover new music, easily find and tweak album art and lyrics and share lists of what you've been listening to among friends. Of course, this is a Beta release, so if you are leary of Beta testing or Beta releases, tinker at your own risk. I'll follow up my impressions on Soundcrank in comments in the next few days.
If you need some worthy free video conversion tools the one I recommend is the very popular, tried and true Vidora iPod Video Converter freestanding program, or even better, if you have Yahoo! Widget engine installed on your computer, formerly Konfabulator, you can use the Yahoo "Widgitized" converter, where you can simply drag and drop your videos onto the cool looking iPod widget and they will seamlessly convert without any adoo. I mostly use Nero 7 since I own it, but if you just need a good free program, this is your go to app. Handbrake is the equivalent for Mac users. Now if you are in love with YouTube, boy, do I have a treat for you! You have to run and snag Ares Tube which will allow you to enter in the YouTube page URL in AT and it will automatically download the file, convert it, and then import it directly into iTunes, waiting for you to update your iPod. How cool is that?
Lastly, if you want to make your iPod into a mini PDA, it's worth the $15 for iGadget (formerly PodPlus) as you can download local movie times, weather, driving directions, rss, transfer files all types of files between iPod and computer, sync your iPod with Outlook plus a whole host of other things with a nice GUI and a nominal price tag.
What are you using to soup up your Pod and how do you like to create your playlists? Have any tips? Feel free to share, even if it's via email and I can post your comments manually if you are not a fellow Voxer. Rock on...
My style has changed over the years. I used to be a pack rat. I still like my stuff, but I'm aggressive about weeding out now, and if I keep something, it's in functional storage. While my overall style still could be classified as somewhat eclectic, I've become an ever increasing fan of clean, minimalist design. IKEA type style. Swedish country home. Danish design. Modern masters. Form, function. strong lines, little bling and no clutter, easy maintenance. I still love Crate and Barrel or Martha Stewart furniture, but pared down. Soothing color palettes. What does this have to do with gtd, the internet, or better emailing and rss subscription reading? In as much as I like clean, soothing, minimalist functionality in my "real" surroundings, so I too gravitate toward that in the online world as well, leading me to today's recommended Firefox add ons.
I absolutely LOVE the updated Gmail Super Clean Greasemonkey extension for Firefox. It's gorgeous and highly functional. Along with that Greasemonkey extension, I have included several others that integrate with Gmail (and other services) and Google Reader "like butta". These extensions only work with the Firefox browser (I assume you are using Firefox if you are reading this) with the Greasemonkey extension installed, except for Greased Lightbox which also works with Opera. If you don't have Greasemonkey yet, the link is included below.
- Greasemonkey for Firefox - allows for 3rd party scripts to be installed for increased browser functionality and site mods.
- Gmail Super Clean - Clean, minimalist script that makes Gmail so much nicer to look at, plus interface tweaks.
- text area backup - stop losing your typed text when your browser crashes, auto backs up your work, no more frustration!
- Gmail + reader integrator - adds a "feeds" tab on the left of Gmail that allow you to access all of your feeds without having to open up a new tab.
- Greased Lightbox - enhances browsing on websites that link to images such as Google Image Search, Flickr, Wikipedia, Facebook, MySpace, and deviantART by opening up an overlay to view the full sized image.
- Secure-em-All - Secure the Connection on: Excite, Yahoo, Gmail, Microsoft Passport. (Add any site to the Included pages list for it to be automatically switch to secure mode as well).
One of many comprehensive lists, this one is easy to read/compare. I use many of these programs. Good stuff!
Mohawke's Best of the Best Free and Open Source Software Collection: Mac OS X and Windows software Collection
also another list with similar apps, with more comprehensive descriptions:
46 Best Freeware Utilities Ever
Alright, so to the wild stinky monkey love... My friends have raved to me about the Ojon hair line and the restorative treatment and I've seen and heard other rave reviews. I've even sampled the stuff at Sephora (I know how to work those girls for major deluxe samples and the like) and it seemed worthy. I was just waiting for a good deal on QVC to spring for it. Voila, like magic, yesterday's "Today's Special Value" was a full size 5 piece Ojon value pack on easy pay for two payments of like $29 with tax and shipping. It even came on 90 day auto delivery, which I took. Included was the infamous restorative treatment, the ultra hydrating shampoo and conditioner, a styling cream and some "miracle" break through hair spray (I never use hairspray, but the whole kit was cheaper than two products alone) that isn't based on resin, but rather some rain forest elastic fiber. I should get the whole shebang on Tuesday, March 27th.
Well, just went to MakeupAlley.com once again to read the reviews on all the products again, so I can get psyched about how this stuff is going to transform my dry, colored and highlighted, blown dry, flat ironed coarse curly hair. This is one of the newest Ojon restorative reviews courtesy of user jamejame:
Okay - are we sure the translation for that tribe's name is really "people of the beautiful hair"? Because I'm thinking "those stinky headed people from across the river" might be what they were trying to say. I tried it in both the ways described on the package, it smelled like total s&*t (on burrito night), and did absolutely nothing great for my hair at all. Oh, and it cost a gajillion dollars. For that money, I could have flown myself to the natives, had them smear my head with s&*t, come out with the same hair I went in with, and maybe even had some wild stinky-headed native monkey love while I was there. Hindsight, ya know?
Of course, after I near peed myself with laughter, I though, "Oh crap", I hope the auto delivery wasn't a mistake! LOL Eh, I can cancel it, so we'll see. My deluxe sample tells me this will be a winner for me, but I don't know about the other products. I'll be sure to drop a review in a few weeks. It may be my holy grail, or I may have been duped into buying a bunch of worthless products without Amazon experience and the wild, stinky-headed monkey love! Oh my!
Her makeup is very high quality, amazing colors and the packaging is out of this world. All brushed aluminum metal cases with near indestructible hinges full size mirrors and beautiful leatherette cases with a metallic finish or snake skin print. The brushes/application tools are well built too. They are all for sale on QVC.com which is probably the best source for high end makeup for the lines they do carry (which is many of them), as they have packages and discounts that department stores and sights like Sephora can't touch due to fact that they move amazing quantity of product, allowing them to negotiate better pricing, special offerings, deals and easy pay.
Although I own a variety of Mally's makeup, all purchased from QVC on line (TV shopping is not just for cheese-sters and old ladies anymore!) I think her "smoky eye" eyeshadow kits are her real claim to fame. I own several smoky eye kits, they come in browns, navy, black/gray, plum, mauve and green. The milling, blendability and color coordination of the kits is superior. You don't have to be a makeup artist or even good at applying makeup to get it right. The stuff scores high reviews on Makeup Alley, a makeup junkie's nirvana for reviews, swaps and recommendations. I've posted reviews there myself and check reviews before throwing down money on a pricey new on line purchase to see if it's worth the hype.
I have the kit below which is based on the City Chick Smokey Eye Kit in Skyscraper (black/grays) but doesn't contain the black, eye shadow base (which I already have via other kits) and black eye liner crayon. It gives an amazingly beautiful smoky eye in a palette many are not daring enough to try. It can be softened or made dramatic by layering the color. The lipstick is very sheer and gives a gorgeous nude lip by day. At night you can vamp the look up with a highly pigmented red or other dramatic lip color to give you real standout impact. It all fits great in the tiniest of purses for touching up while you're out. How cool is that?
 clipped from www.qvc.com |
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