Have you ever come across websites which seem to take…for..e..ver….to load? They can be an annoyance, right? And with the way the Internet highway is designed, slow websites with smashing artwork and attractive bling often drive away more people than simple, and clean websites attract.

1. How to Optimize Style: Use CSS as often as you can, and tone down on Javascript

Javascript can add a lot of flair to your website, but more often than not we tend to borrow lines of code from other fellow developers rather than reinvent the wheel. Sounds logical, right? Well, the problem with using other people’s JS is that they usually contain lots of code which we ourselves don’t need. Borrowing CSS, however, doesn’t present that problem as much. So if you want your website to display smoothly on dial-up lines, try switching styles a little.

Also check out this excellent post on 53 CSS-Techniques You Couldn’t Live Without

2. How to Optimize Images: Focus your Format

GIF? PNG? JPG? …JPEG? One drawback of the widespread availability of the Internet is that practically anybody can contribute to its development. This leads to overchoice, which consequently is good, but not so good at the same time, and image optimization is no exception. Knowing what type of format to use for your digital images can save you a lot of hard drive estate. Use GIF for flat-tone colors, JPG for bright snazzy photographs with millions of colors, and alternate between either GIF and JPG for PNG when you feel it’ll give you better quality. Basically, different formats handle different images better, so you can expect a sizable difference in image size when you use the correct type. Also, be sure to use the “Save for Web” options in image editors.

Also check out this excellent post on 4 free tools to optimize and compress PNG images without losing quality

3. How to Minimize Latency: Group Files Together – United We Stand

When you write your website, do you write it page by page starting from the bottom up, or with a bird’s eye view? In most cases, the latter method is better, as you’ll get to save time and space when you code. For instance, CSS and JavaScript both allow you the option to save standalone files for reference by your other pages. This allows you to write a single CSS batch file and share it two to a million webpages, instead of having to rewrite the code every time you start a new page. Can you imagine how much space Google saves by having just one CSS reference file?

4. How to Squeeze the Sponge Dry: Extra Tips to counter Time-Lag

There are a certain number of things you can do to reduce the waiting time your website’s visitors have to endure; some which still not many may know of. Make sure to add a slash to the end of your links: “www.myname.com/about/”, as opposed to “www.myname.com/about”. This tells the server that it’s reached the end of the road, so it doesn’t have to waste (milli)seconds detouring when you click on a link. It may not be landing on the moon, but well, you take what you can get.

5. How to optimize your cache for Wordpress sites: Use super-cache

SuperCache is a free Wordpress plugin that caches your page as a static html file. When your visitors arrive at your site, they will be served the static page instead of the actual page.  This usually makes it much faster for your visitors, and more importantly it creates less strain and burden for your servers.

This article was written by Aaron Pek & James Yeang.  Contact me if you wish to become a writer for this blog.

Those were 5 simple tips to get started.  What other tips do you have for speeding up websites?  Tell us in the comments!

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I got this in my Google Wave mailbox today:

“Invite others to Google Wave

Google Wave is more fun when you have others to wave with, so please nominate people you would like to add. Keep in mind that this is a preview so it could be a bit rocky at times.  Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick.

Happy waving!”

So what is Google Wave?

Currently an exclusive invite-only service, Google wave is a whole new way of communicating online!

“Google Wave is an online communication and collaboration tool that makes real-time interactions more seamless — in one place, you can communicate and collaborate using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is a conversation with multiple participants — participants are people added to a wave to discuss and collaborate on its content. Participants can reply any time and anywhere within a wave, and they can edit content and add more participants as a wave develops. It’s also possible to rewind waves with the playback functionality, to see what happened, and when.”

via Google Wave Support

Here’s a video do you get a better idea of this cool service:

Anyhow, Google Wave is currently under development, and they’ve released a limited number of private invites to their fully usable preview edition.

Want a free super exclusive private invite to Google Wave?  (CLOSED)

Just drop a comment on what your favorite Google Wave feature is, and how you would use it, and I’ll pick 10 lucky winners by the end of this week!

Update: here are our 10 lucky winners, and why they want to use Google Wave!:

1. Rebecca

I am a math coach at an elementary school, and I am really intrigued by the real-time communication tool, especially with the translator robot. I spend a lot of time discussing solution strategies with my students. Instead of watching me solve a problem, they collaborate with each other about how to solve problems. This practice helps them build real-life problem solving skills. There is a lot of talk in education today (especially in math) about comparisons between US students and students from other countries. I would love to be able to bring my students into this conversation by allowing them to share their solution strategies with students from other countries! I think this would be a powerful use of the technology, and one that would really drive home an important social concept to my math students.

2. byflipper

Due to multinational projects I am leading, i often need to communicate with people speaking other languages than my own. So, that instantly translating service of Wave amazed me with one word! I’d be pleased to be invited and be a part of this revolution!

3. cho

i really love the fact that it will enable better communication within members of group projects. I have been apart of multiple group assignments where there was a mess of the emails passed back and forth whilst certain members missed out on important information altogether. That’s why I’m really excited about Google wave since it changes the way we collectively communicate and recieve information ( and real-time adds a factor of cool) and that was my mini essay…

4. Jessie

I’m a student journalist, and my college newspaper is working on developing its online presence. As a leader within the newspaper, I would like to be able to collaborate with other students at my paper, along with other journalists, to discuss the future of journalism and how the web plays into it. However, none of the people using Wave at my newspaper received any invitations, so I can’t join their conversation. :( It would be beneficial to me and our newspaper if I could join in the discussion!

5. Ron

As a pastor, I’m always sending emails, documents and spreadsheets to others for worship planning. With input from several staff people, our Admin. Assistant cobbles together the Sunday worship bulletin. I think Wave will make our lives easier and our communication better.

6. Claes

I want to get a head start on using Wave to help edit stories. I would post a document and have all the people who need to comment it or edit it to do it without having to send different versions back and forth in an average of 10 emails for one story! It is very frustrating and confusing and wastes lots of time.

7. Daniel Coopsammy

I would like a chance to start using Google wave because i have a lot of team project for college that require team members to share information, a lot of the times requiring us to edit the same document multiply times. Google wave seems like a perfect fit in terms of giving us the ability to share information real time and without the need of sending 30 different emails for the same project.

8. Mrs Banka

As a math teacher, I think Google Wave could revolutionize group projects by lowering the classroom walls so that students can converse with students all over the world. The real-time display of typing will only be pertinent for those students in relatively close time zones, but think about a group of students set up to solve a common, real-life problem. I’d also like to see how the Wave would boost the digital PLN. I just graduated in May with my B.S. in Math Ed and am currently in graduate school for Curriculum and Instruction… but I can already tell, I want to be a change agent in the schools. And what better way than to already be armed with the technology experience to incorporate in my classroom. I want to make math real, meaningful and understandable and I think group projects with students outside of the classroom would be phenomenal!

9. John Lombaerde

I think that education and training is one of the greatest applications for Google Wave. I deal with complex technology subjects on a regular basis, and I always try to use layman’s terms in my explanation, but sometimes the written or spoken word is just not enough. The Multimedia drag and drop capabilities of Google Wave seem to have great potential, as well as the playback feature. These would both be very valuable in a technology training session. The asset Google Wave could bring to online education is very significant, and one for which I would have an immediate use

10. Patrick

I’m currently getting my masters in multimedia and am looking at using Google Wave heavily within my graduate project. I plan on incorporating it into an online educational model aimed towards kids with learning disabilities. It is such a cool and useful tool.

For all those who didn’t win, thanks for participating – and if I do get another bunch of invites, I’ll post them up online again!

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Ever wondered how some people manage to take beautiful pictures of their desktops or games and post it on the Facebook or LinkedIn profile? Well, it isn’t that hard actually, and with a few handy tools in mind, you’ll be able to do the same. Here are some nifty and interesting ways to capture screenshots of your desktop.

1. How to screen capture in free-form

Snipping Tool is Window’s very own answer to the legions of Microsoft fans (and critics) who have long been demanding for a way to capture custom screenshots. There are a few options for you to choose from when you make a snip: you can make a rectangular screenshot, dictate the shape and area of your capture by using the free-form snip, or just capture a regular full-screen one. One drawback is that Snipping Tool is only available on Windows Vista and 7, so XP users might feel a little left behind.

2. How to get a portable screencapture tool

FSCapture, otherwise known as FastStone Capture, is one of the most versatile screenshot capture tools on the block. At 1.5 Megabytes, it’s small enough to fit on even the smallest of portable flash drives. Plus, it comes as a standalone program, or an executable, so you can use it straight out of the box, without having to go through the hassle of installing it first. Take note that FSCapture is only freeware from versions 5.3 and below, as the producers have started charging for the higher updates. However, I’ve been using version 5.2 for awhile now, and it seems to be good enough.

3. How to capture multiple screenshots in-game without having to minimize

Ever saw pictures of other players performing Monster Kills posted online, and wanted to do the same? Tired of having to hit the PrtScn button and minimizing your full screen game just to paste the photo in Paint? If you’ve answered yes to any of that, Gadwin Printscreen is a freeware version of Snipping Tool that will cause you to salivate over. It’s pretty much like Snipping Tool, but if you run it in the background, you can customize it to take multiple screenshots while you are in-game, and worry about saving the screenshots later. Just remember turn off the notifications before you start playing.

4. How to capture screenshots, screencasts, and webcam photos and store them all online

Jing has to be one of the gaudiest looking screenshot capture programs available. Unlike its many counterparts, Jing tries to make things look awesome at the same time by providing a really nice-looking interface. And while you can use Jing only for its screen capture abilities, you may enjoy the other functions which Jing provides, namely the screencasting and webcam capture options. In addition, Jing automatically synchronizes with Screencast.com, so you can store your captures online immediately.

5. How to Screencapture effectively in Linux

Shutter is a feature-rich screenshot program. You can take a screenshot of a specific area, window, your whole screen, or even of a website – apply different effects to it, draw on it to highlight points, and then upload to an image hosting site, all within one window (Only for Linux). 

Bonus Link: 5 Alternative Screen Capture Tools For Your Mac

This post was written by Aaron Pek & James Yeang

What screencapture tools do you use?  Tell us in the comments!

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In conjunction with Blog Action Day, here are 3 tech-savvy ways to help with one of the most serious issues of our generation – Climate Change.

1. How to have fun while saving the world

Carbon Rally is a eco-community where people can discover and commit to small, positive actions over time. People on the site could propose great ideas for saving energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and the community would choose the best ideas to pursue as a team.

The collective impacts are tracked, and it can show the power of many people getting the job done together.  You can ‘compete’ with friends or people from around the world to take up these small challenges and see how you can make a difference.

2. How to easily find green products

Ecoseek is a search engine for eco friendly and green products. Their mission is to connect consumers with eco-friendly products, manufacturers and local earth-conscious retailers.  Here you’ll find everything from baby products to furniture. 

All items listed are tagged to show how it’s eco friendly.  For example, you’ll be able to gauge whether it’s recycled, manufactured in a sustainable process, organic etc.  All so it’s much easier for you can make an environmentally conscious purchase.

3. How to easily find carpool buddies on facebook

Carpool is a facebook app which allows you to cut down your carbon emissions by sharing rides.  It’s quite robust in functionality and allows you to:

• view rides in your network
• search them
• manage your frequent locations using Google Maps
• determine how far a detour you need to drive to pick someone up
• Track all the rides you’ve shared, and the miles you’ve traveled and calculate your reduction in CO2 emissions

Always a useful green app if you want to help cut down your carbon footprint when you travel.

Remember, green vanity apps are important, but they don’t mean anything until you do something about it.  Go out, and change the world, and Happy Blog Action Day!

Are you participating in Blog Action Day?  Tell us your blog post in the comments!

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Say what you will about the up-to-date twitters and chat away on your instant messengers, but web users will always come back to their email. With many types to choose from, including various webmails and POP3 emails, it’s no wonder that most users will have more than one email account.

Checking each and every account regularly just to see if there’s any new mail becomes tedious very fast, which is why email notifiers have become such a big hit with many users.  Here are 5 of the best email notifiers for your perusal.

1. How to effectively manage 16 email accounts

ePrompter is a free service that allows you to easily handle up to 16 email accounts at one time.  ePrompter lets you read, delete and respond to any of your messages with a simple click on the account of your choice – without ever having to launch your email program or go to your webmail’s site. Importantly, when ePrompter retrieves messages, it leaves the original messages on your various email accounts’ servers and/or webmail sites.

2. Where to get an email notifier which is portable

POP Peeper is free another system tray app that offers visual and audio alerts for when a new email arrives in your inbox. Working with POP3 and IMAP servers, it also responds well to Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail along with other major webmail services.  One key feature is that it is able to run directly off your portable storage device so you can take it anywhere and use it on any machine.

3. How to use email notifiers on Firefox

WebMail Notifier is a Firefox add-on that checks your webmail accounts and tells you the number of unread emails.  It handles most of the major webmail services and also allows you to set up user scripts for the webmail services that it doesn’t come preloaded with. It is however tied to Mozilla Firefox browsers only, so IE and Chrome users won’t be able to benefit from it. 

4. How to get notified about your webmail via Outlook

Released under the GNU GPL license, FreePOPs allows checking and downloading of e-mail from webmails from any conventional POP3 client program. This means it works in tandem with your normal POP3 email client like Outlook Express, allowing it to handle any POP3 email along with most webmail services.

While it isn’t exactly an email notifier per se, it does offer email checking services along with plenty of extra functions and plugins that allow it to be expanded for even more uses. FreePOPs is cross-platform and should work anywhere. It also works in the background, reducing system slowdown.

5. How to fight spam and get notified of email at the same time

The Chrysanth Email Notifier can handle POP3, IMAP4 and Gmail. More than just a notifier, it offers audio and visual alerts along with an internal email viewer. It can handle multiple email accounts and supports extra features like blacklists, whitelists and various customizable filters. For the most part, Chrysanth is quite easy to use with its most notable feature being its filters, minimizing the occurrence of spam to once in a blue moon. The app is freeware and runs in the background as a system tray icon.

This article written by Aaron Pek & James Yeang

Do you use email notifiers?  Tell us in the comments!

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People are increasingly turning to flash drives, little pen-sized blocks which somehow manage to store a briefcase full of information, to carry their work or personal details around. While they’re satisfyingly convenient, their petite dimensions ironically contribute to the worst thing about them: flash drives are frustratingly easy to misplace.

Whether it’s your favourite playlist or sensitive information, here are a few auto-backup solutions to ensure that you never find yourself hanging in unexpected circumstances.

1. How to Auto-Backup with Windows

SyncToy is a native Microsoft Tool that allows you to backup information located on your storage mediums with a single click. It works by “pairing” two folders in different locations and updating the files in each so that they have the same content inside.

It even comes with three options: updating the files from Left to Right without overwriting them, updating and overwriting them, or updating bi-directionally. By itself, SyncToy doesn’t automatically backup your files, but it comes with a handy tutorial which teaches you how to use Window’s very own Task Scheduler to do exactly that.

2. How to Schedule your Auto-Backups

As far as freeware comes, GoodSync is among the best you can get. It makes an effort to be classy (has a nice interface), is user-friendly, and does exactly what it says it will do. Like SyncToy, it makes use of the Left and Right concept to simplify the learning process.

Unlike SyncToy, GoodSync has a built-in synchronization setting which allows you to schedule when you’d like your backups to happen. This means that it backs-up your flash drive automatically as long as it’s plugged into your computer at the specified time (set it to whenever you frequent your computer).

3. How to Easily Customize your Auto-Backups

If you’re prefer a more classic touch or just want to keep things simple, DSynchronize is a great tool with a clean interface which flattens the learning curve. All the appropriate checkboxes and buttons are where they’re supposed to be, and its simplicity stands out so much that you get the hang of it simply by “muddling” through, or experimenting by yourself.

Like GoodSync, it has a built-in timer, and even makes useful options like Autostart and Shutdown at the end available on the front page so you don’t need to dig into the “Preferences” folder every time you want to tweak your…well, preferences.

This post was written by Aaron Pek.  Contact us to join our writing staff!

Do you back up your flash drives?  Tell us in the comments!

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People say Twitter is a time waster. I think it depends on how you use it. One awesome opportunity to turn this "time waster" into something really useful is to learn to save money on Twitter.

3 Ways to Find the Most Tweeted Deals

The following services work the way we are used to by now: the fresher the deal is and the more votes it gets, the more popular it becomes. Most popular deals end up hitting the front page – that’s the way Digg and Reddit as well as smaller social voting sites work.

CheapTweet, CouponTweet and TweetMeSavings work this way. People submit and up-vote the deals by Tweeting them. Deals are grouped by category and seller name. You can tweet any of them right from the service page.

2 Ways to Take Advantage of Twitter Money-Saving Bots

There are two Twitter bots I am aware of that allow to search and compare prices without even leaving Twitter. TinyMassive works like this: you tweet your product name and include @TinyMassive into the message. In a few seconds you get a public reply containing:

1. Your @Twitter-username;
2. The requested product name;
3. The minimum price found;
4. The link to product search results for more options.

Retrevoq is another similar twitter bot to consider.

3 Money-Saving Accounts You Should Follow

Many of coupon code directories and aggregators are on Twitter already, so keeping track of deals and coupons may be done the Twitter-way. I for one do it the following way:

1. I use Seesmic desktop Twitter app that allows to add and aggregate several Twitter accounts;
2. I create a separate account to follow all my money-saving accounts, and whenever there’s an update, I get a pop-up update: never miss a deal!

Here are a couple of recommended Twitter accounts that daily tweet coupons and deals:

• @CheapStingy (by CheapStingyBargains)
• @WiseBread (by WiseBread.com)
• @BabyCheapskate (by BabyCheapSkate.com)

5 Money-Saving Twitter Hashtags Your Should Track

A Twitter hashtag is the way to organize Tweets by topic. To monitor a hashtag, you can either use a desktop app (like Tweetdeck or Seesmic) or use web-based tools like "What the Hashtag?". The best money-saving hashtags to keep track of are:

• #bargains;
• #coupon;
• #coupons;
• #freebie;
• #freebie

What other interesting ways do you Twitter?  Tell us in the comments!

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Google, in its venture to expand its empire beyond search has a project that allows users to try experimental applications known as Google Labs. This revolutionary, hi-tech virtual playground for exploratory users feature some of the most creative and useful applications around. Here are some of my personal Google Lab favorites.

1. How to find out what people are searching for

The Google Trends tool, with its recent enhancements has been developed to provide an insight into extensive search patterns of what people are presently searching for, such as what they’ve searched for in the past. The interface of this tool is exceptionally simple, and enables you to compare up to five multiple search terms.

In today’s fast paced and changing world this tool may be valuable for advertisers and search engine optimizers looking for ways to judge how best to position their ads and websites, and to track buzz in general.

2. How to find similar images

Google Similar Images is an experimental service consists of the ability to upload an image and then search for similarities. Now this is truly something that can appeal to users who may not quite fancy searching up for things the conventional way using keywords, as sometimes using keywords can be a little tedious when many other links unrelated to what you are searching for pop up.

What makes this cool is you can just click on the link of an image you like and it narrows down the image search results to exactly what you’re looking for. So for those in the creative industry like arts, designs or even those who just want to have fun with images, this may stand out as an awesome search tool.

3. How to track a news topic over time

Google News Timeline is a handy research tool for online scribes. It presents Google news information in a graphical and chronological timeline. This timeline incorporates a number of different sources, including new and archived news, blog posts, and media.

It is a great search and sorting tool that gives you the ability to sort results by day, week, month, year or even decade.  The snapshot of this tool is constructive and gives one the access to easily see how a story or event has been progressing in the news.

4. How to create a set of items from a few examples

We often use keywords on typical search engines, so how does Google Sets differentiate itself from the rest of the crowd? Well, instead of looking for related links, the tool focuses on related words. It takes your initial keywords and suggests others that are related in meaning.

If you are looking for synonyms or new alternatives in campaigns, Google Sets is a brilliant tool that will bring much success and difference.

5. How to search for audio using Android

With Android appearing on the scene as Google’s new mobile platform, it was inevitable that Google Labs would try to break ground on it. Its prototype software is Google Listen. It’s fundamentally a way of searching and organizing pod casts and other online audio content.

If you happen to be a music junkie who owns an Android handset, you can look up for your favorite shows and stream it immediately or add it to your listening queue for later utilization.

6. How to turn your Android phone into a Sky Map

“Awesome” is an understatement for this amazing application. You don’t need to be an astrologer to download this application and have some serious fun. What’s so great about this tool? It’s a star map that uses Android’s GPS capabilities to display planets, constellations and other celestial objects in an area of the sky.

Once you have this application installed on your Android hand phone, just face the phone towards the sky and be amazed by the mesmerizing display on your screen. With Sky Map, the sky is not the limit anymore.

7. How to Index the Audio WITHIN Video Files

I used to see stuff like this on CSI and always wondered if it was possible to get my hands on it. After seeing Google Labs’ revolutionary product – Google Audio Indexing, I guess its close enough. Google has started indexing what is being spoken in its video and YouTube clips to enhance search results for video.

Using speech recognition technology to convert audio into words, they are then indexed into Google search so that you can look for a particular video clip by merely entering keywords into the search engine.

8. How to Turn Your Android Phone in to a Places Directory

Places Directory is a handy tool that runs on the Android platform and is Google’s version of a help mobile. If you are on the road and want to know what’s hot and what’s not, download this application on your Android phone and follow the link. Based on your phone’s current location you will be able to obtain a directory of nearby places.

You can then browse through the various categories to look for hotels, banks, shops, etc, see their distance from you and even pull up their locations on Google Maps. For backpackers and active travelers or even for those who just hate to stop and ask for directions, this may be the application for you.

9. How to Track Routes on Your Android Phone

If you love the outdoors, then this is one application you might want to try. It pretty much depends on how it works for you. My Tracks is an application that is available to Android users everywhere. It empowers users by recording precise route using GPS tracks and visualizing live statistics while you are running, biking or hiking.

These include aspects such as speed, distance and elevation, essential pivotal information to any outdoor activity. Once you are done, just stop the recording and you can quickly and easily review your route map, elevation, profile, and workout stats.

This post was written by Aaron Pek.  Join our writing crew to share your knowledge too!

Do you use Google labs, or any of the apps above?  Tell us about it in the comments!

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Manage the Internet via Instant Messaging (IMified.com)

As I’ve been pretty lazy to carry my laptop around, but I like being in touch with my online contacts, I thought it might be a better idea to install a chat client in my mobile phone.

Once only possible for people with smartphones and the likes, the availability of Java apps has made “normal” phones pretty smart. I’ve scoured the net for Java chat apps which work on my Sony Ericsson K750i (yes, I’m still using that) – it’s old but still does everything well. If the apps work on my phone, it’ll work better on your newer, fancier phone (but I can’t guarantee that, of course).

1. How to Skype on Your (Apparently Outdated) Phone

Skype Lite is a free Skype App,  took a few seconds to log in but the interface is very handy for mobile. You can chat with multiple contacts in different windows by scrolling right or left including group chat. The phone vibrates and a “missed call” icon is displayed when new message arrives. Skype calls are also possible if you have skypeout credit.

2. How to Keep Your eBuddies in Your Palm

eBuddy mobile is a multi-network messenger. Just like its web-based counterpart, eBuddy connect you to AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, Myspace, Facebook, Gtalk. Overall very easy to set up and fast to use, especially with tabbed interface, scrolling through your chats is a breeze. You can even choose your own theme for the app. This app is good if you’re not into meeting new people and joining online communities etc.

3. How to Stalk Your Friends While Chatting on Your Mobile

Palringo – what a name, I thought. This mobile messenger turned out to be the one with the nicest looking interface and most features. Although sluggish and unintuitive upon launch, it worked flawlessly once set up. It connects you to more networks than you can handle – MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AOL, Jabber, Gadu-gadu, Gtalk, iChat/Mobile Me, QQ and best of all, Facebook chat!

Depending on phone model, it can support voice and picture messaging. You can even share your location with the rest of the world or selected some (depending on your privacy settings) – if you like being stalked or like stalking others. Palringo automatically discovers your location based on network towers, Wi-Fi, or GPS and you have an option to update your status automatically. I feel that the chat responses are the fastest among all the apps I tested.

4. How to Chat, Share Photos and Make Cheap IDD Calls from Your Mobile

Mig33 connects you not only to Yahoo, MSN, GTalk and AOL but also to millions of other mig33 users worldwide. This is especially cool if you like meeting other people besides chatting to your own contacts. Overall this app is pretty easy to set up and fast to use. I also like the clean and minimalist interface.

If you’re not sensitive towards heavier data use, you may also check out mig33 plus, the graphically enhanced version. The cheap IDD call rates are not really cheap in my opinion but that is always subjective on the current rates offered by your mobile operator but it is still a cool feature nevertheless. The only feature I don’t quite understand is the ability to send SMS via the app, can’t we already do that without the app?

5. How to Send Your Voice and Pictures to Anyone, Anywhere

Rocketalk boasts to be the only application that lets me do video chat (as in not like a 3G video call but record a video and send it to someone), and it does support MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo, AOL and ICQ. Although quite slow to sign in to my messenger accounts but I’m pretty impressed with how many features they packed into one user-friendly main page.

Besides using messengers, RockeTalk, like mig33 also is a community by itself, where you can have you own page, gallery and add other people as your “friends”.

This post was written by Jenny Kok who also writes about her Mac experiences on Made On Mac

Do you IM on your phone?  Tell us about your experience in the comments!

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There are however, people who embrace hardware limitations, make up for it with incredible composition, and tactful editing, resulting in some incredible shots which put many high end cameras to shame.  Here are 12 awesome iPhone photography resources.

Photo Blogs

These are blogs which take extremely good shots, and are the best examples of what a competent photographer can accomplish on the iPhone.  Check them out to get inspired.

1. iPhone as Art

2. The Mobile Frame

Lomography

These are sites dedicated to the shoot from the hip philosophy of lomography, which encourages lighthearted approaches to candid photography to document everyday life.

3. iPhoneLomo

4. LomoPhone

Awards

5. iPhone Photography Awards

The IPPA is an annual contest which aims to celebrate the creativity of the iPhone users.

6. Photocritic’s 100 Amazing iPhone Photos

This collection of the 100 photos remain one of the best testaments of the iPhone’s capability of producing first class photos.

Flickr Groups

7. Flickr: Photos Taken with an Apple iPhone

With the iPhone now the #1 most widely used device on Flickr, it’s not a surprise iPhone photos have a very strong following, with the aptly named ‘Photos taken with an Apple iPhone’ being the biggest group.

Interviews

The best way to understand iPhone photography is to talk to the people behind the lens, learn about their passion, and what makes them tick.

8. Interview with Ugur Kaner, from "Apple iPhone Photography – Street photography”

9. Interview with Gabriel Sucho from "Microbians – Dreams To Not Forget"

Free Apps

10. 30 Best Free iPhone 3G Photo & Video Applications

This is probably the definitive list of free iPhone photo and video apps currently on the web.

Photo Taking Tips

11. How to squeeze decent photos out of an iPhone by Meg Pickard

Everything from proper techniques to hold your iPhone to composition tips in a single post.

12. Taking fantastic photos with an iPhone : An conversation with Sion Fullana

Sion Fullana is a recognized iPhone photographer who loves street photography, and shoots mostly in New York, all taken by iPhone.

Shameless plug: Do also check out my own iPhone photo blog :)

What do you think of the iPhone camera?  Do you have more sites and tips to share?  Tell us in the comments!

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Even if you’re not a boy scout, learning a few basic knots can be very helpful in everyday life.  Whether it may be securing a load, or tying a tie, here are 4 very valuable resources to help you tie knots better.

1. How to tie a tie

2tie a tie is a comprehensive guide to all things tie tying.  From traditional bow ties to office friendly Windsor knots, it provides you a step by step guide to wearing them properly.  It also comes with related guides like preventing wrinkles in ties, and cleaning them as well.

2. How to tie shoelaces in different stylish ways

Ian’s shoelace site helps you learn 33 different ways of tying your shoelaces so you can break out of the traditional methods of stringing up your shoes.  It also has an interesting tutorial on what it bills as the ‘fastest way to tie your shoelaces’.  It also has interesting tips on how to prevent shoelaces from slipping, preventing crooked shoe lace bows, and much more.

3. How to learn how to tie all kinds of useful knots

Aptly named ‘I Will Knot’ is one of the best resources online on knot tying.  It gives you animated images which show you how exactly to tie the knot, and makes for much easier reference than typical diagrams.  For further reference, you can also check out Mother Earth News’s guide on how to tie the 10 most useful knots.

4. How to carry about a guide about useful knots in your pocket

Infocard is an interesting project which sets out to collecting a few useful knots and putting them on wallet card for easy reference.  If you want to keep them handy, you can visit the page and print your own.

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If you’re one of over 100 million people around the world who has had a delightful taste of the wonderful, magical world of Anime, you’d know it can be rather difficult to find legit media to satisfy our insatiable appetite for cute, cuddly characters with unrealistically large eyes.  This fact has been compounded with the legal clampdowns on previously reliable websites like AnimeSuki and Crunchyroll. As an avid otaku, yours truly has found some totally free ways to find manga (Japanese comics) for your reading pleasure.

1. How to Read Free Manga Online

The easiest way to get a hold of your favourite manga is to read it straight from the Web. There are tons of sites which host manga pages, but only a handful of them provide reliable loading times during rush hours and a diverse library of enjoyable reads. My personal favourite is OneManga.com, which has a simple interface for short loading times and boasts high quality scans. On the off chance that it somehow fails your expectations, you can try MangaFox.com too. These two sites should be more than enough.

2. How to Download Manga to your Computer

If you desire to store an entire collection of manga, and have the disk space to do so, then you can download manga straight into your computer. You’ll want to look for sites which don’t require a registration to download, as you may want to flick back and forth to determine which has the better quality scan. Some useful places to keep in mind are NarutoChuushin.com, MangaShare.com and Bleach7.com. Their interface may take some getting used to, but be patient, it’s worth it.

3. How to Read Untranslated Manga Scans

RAW scans are original manga scans which haven’t been translated yet. If you know Japanese, you can consider these scans as they have the advantage of appearing sooner than translated copies.  Some places you can find RAW manga scans are MangaShare.com and VeryManga.com. Bleach7.com offers RAWs too, but only for Bleach.

4. How to Read Manga in Different Languages

Not a native speaker of English? Don’t understand Japanese? Well, don’t worry, as there is manga in just about any language you can think of! I’ve seen Bleach and Naruto in Spanish, German, Chinese and even Bahasa Malaysia, and who knows how many other languages there might be out there! Click here to see for yourself!

5. How to Use Youtube to Read Manga

Who knew that Youtube could be used for reading manga? The tremendously popular video-sharing site has even evolved to accommodate us manga fans! The quality for most of the scans is readable, and the loading time is pretty fast too considering they’re static pages. If you can’t keep up with the playing speed, just pause the video and drag the play bar to whatever page you want to read. For some unknown reason, these scans can sometimes appear earlier than their counterparts on well-known manga sites! Go figure!  Here are a few good channels to start you off with.

This post was written by Aaron Pek.  Want to write for this blog?  Just contact me!

How do you get your manga fix?  Tell us in the comments!

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Have you sometimes wondered how much longer conventional TV would be useful to us? It just dawned upon me 3 days ago that was the first time I switched on the TV in 2 months! Don’t get me wrong but I do watch TV shows and movies, it’s just that not on TV. In this era of media streaming and user created content, TV pales in comparison because of:

1. Fixed airtime. We don’t like missing any episodes or rushing somewhere where there is a TV just to watch a programme (although that can be fun but very impractical most of the time)
2. Loads of advertisements, regardless paid or free TV
3. Can’t watch on demand (we like freedom to watch anything anytime, don’t we? Anyone without Tivo or the likes will share this notion)
4. Fixed programming. We only get to watch what is being broadcasted.

I have been using the internet for my “TV watching” pleasure for a while now and I’d like to share with you where I go to watch and discover new shows.

1. How to watch South Park Online

SouthPark Studios has the best collection of Southpark on the web. The whole 13 seasons in full episodes are there. The episodes are uploaded promptly, a day after it’s official airtime in the US, if I’m not mistaken. There might be ads in the episodes but other times not.

The quality is overall very good although not HD. What makes this site special are the bonus materials, songs and clips downloads, as well as news and materials not available elsewhere.

2. How to watch Family Guy online

Familyguyx.net has the entire series online – season 1-7. The site doesn’t host any videos but is rather like a very nice directory of all the episodes of the show including the synopsis. Every episode has at least one working link so the streaming speed and quality depends heavily on where the video is hosted. If one is slow, try the other. I find the full collection of episodes very nice but it’s just that pop-ups and ads are hard to miss when visiting this site.

3. How to watch full-length shows on Youtube

Has made moves to tap into Hulu.com’s market, providing full-length episodes of professionally made TV shows. CBS has joined youtube in this direction. The drawback is that only old TV shows (which still have its charms) are available for viewing.

If you’re a big fan of Star Trek, Beverly Hill 90210 (the original) or MacGuyver, you’re in luck. It’s bummer that viewers from certain countries are unable to view the channel due to “copyright restrictions”. Fret not, simply download and install hotspotshield and you’ll see the channel in its full glory.

4. How to make a catalog of 2 million shows at your disposal

This is one of my favourites. It’s a big catalogue with links to good quality streaming hosts. SurfTheChannel doesn’t host any content but rather serves as a link to numerous hosts. Some videos even have links to purchase on iTunes. This site has almost 2 million links in its database. It’ll keep one busy for a while.

5. How to watch MTV productions online

If you’re a music fan, you’ve got to love this site. Loads of music videos, photos, mobile downloads. What is interesting is also the fact that full episodes of MTV productions are also available online for viewing. You can even watch the 2009 Movie Awards including behind the scenes. I used to watch MTV on satellite, now I watch it free :)

6. How to watch Warner Bros TV series online

If you’re a fan of One Tree Hill, Friends, Gilmore Girls, Buffy, Angel among many others, this site is definitely for you. Full episodes are available for viewing but the episodes might be shuffled depending on series.  TheWB.com is currently only available for U.S. viewers (surprise!) but with Hotspot Shield , you’re good to go ;)

7. How to watch any random show when you feel like having a “lucky dip”

Once in a while, we get bored of our usual series and feel like something totally different but not quite sure what to watch.  Google videos claims to contain millions of videos and they’re all uncategorized. So you’ll never know what you’ll find (in a good way).

Unlike youtube, google videos has anything from short clips up to full length shows of longer than 1 hour. On top of that, it also features and recommends similar videos hosted by external sites – aha! I have watched video short clips up to full-length documentaries on that site. I also find the video quality better than youtube. Try your luck!

8. How to turn your computer into your PVR

If you are an internet and TV addict but don’t have a TiVo or any PVR (like me), you’d love what I’m going to tell you. Introducing Ted, which can be your PVR, utilizing Bit Torrent technology. It doesn’t download but rather works as a scheduler and a torrent hunter for your torrent client

You can even schedule download prior to an episode’s airtime, and Ted will search numerous sites to look for healthy torrents, checks out the information and airtime of new episodes or shows, then ask your torrent client to download it – automatically.

9. How to expand your knowledge without reading and still appears flawlessly knowledgeable

In case you’re into documentaries, also check out topdocumentaryfilms.com. This site contains commercially produced documentaries hosted mainly on google videos. What I like about this site is that it has properly-written introduction and synopsis about every film like an article, just to get your interest to grow. When you’re convinced to watch, he video plays in the middle of the article, which is kind of cool.

10. How to grow your love for conspiracy theories online

Freedocumentaries.org on the other hand, contains more controversial types of documentaries. The site has a good-sized catalog of various interests and well-written short description for every show. If you like the film well enough, there is also a link to buy the original DVD.  Unlike topdocumentaries.com, the videos are hosted on youtube, so they are broken in parts for every show, which I find very annoying. Well, we can’t have it all, can we?

This post was written by Jenny Kok who blogs about Mac related matters at Made On Mac.  Want to write for this blog?  Become a paid writer for Friedbeef’s Tech today!

What sites do you use to get your online TV fix?  Tell us in the comments!

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There’s much more to file compression than simply zipping and extracting files using WinZip.  Here are 7 extra useful tools to make you even more productive when dealing with zipped files.

1. How to preview zip files before downloading them

ArchView is a Firefox extension which can open zip files online without downloading the whole archive. 

Not only can you see what’s in the zip file before you download it, you can even choose which individual files to grab.  This is extremely useful when you only want a few files not the whole zip archive.

This extension is also very fast since it merely fetches a small portion of the archive file from server. 

2. How to zip your files online

Just need  to zip up a few files without installing anything?  Simply upload your files to FileStomp, and it will create a zip file for you on the fly which you can download.

3. How to unzip your files online

While Filestomp creates zip files, WobZip is a way to unzip files online without the need of external software.  You can either upload the file, or point WobZip to the URL online, and it will be uncompressed and ready for download. 

Wobzip has a zipped filesize limit of 100MB, will also scan your zipped file for viruses, and even supports password protected zip files. 

4. How to create a full installer with a Zip file

ZipInstaller is a free tool which installs and uninstalls applications and utilities that do not provide an internal installation program.

It automatically extracts all files from the Zip file, copies them to the destination folder you select, creates shortcuts in the start menu and in your desktop, and adds an uninstall module to allow you to automatically remove the software in the future.

5. Where to get a free WinZip alternative

 7-Zip is perhaps one of the best known free alternatives to WinZip.  Capable of handling most popular file compression formats like Zip and RAR, you can either install it on your system, or carry it around with you on a thumbdrive with the portable version.

6. How to repair corrupted zip files

Zipped files are pretty sensitive where even a minor corruption of the file will cause it to fail an integrity check.  What DiskInternals Zip Repair will do is extract and move all the intact files to a new archive so you gain access to it.

7. How to hide zip files inside a JPG image

This is a really cool hack which allows you to hide zip files within a JPG image.  If you click on the file, the picture will display normally, but you can unzip the picture itself to reveal hidden contents!  Check out the video for more details.

What do you use to zip files?  Tell us in the comments!

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Twitter is already a social networking phenomena in its own right and every other person who has an active online presence also seems to be tweeting.  Rather than posting directly on twitter.com’s default web interface, here are 6 ways to become a quicker and more effective tweeter, just by tweaking your web browser.

1. How to tweet URLs and post to del.icio.us with one click

 Bigtweet allows you to share websites you visit by clicking a bookmarklet which automatically puts the URL which you’re currently browsing into your tweet and shortens it for you.  It also posts to del.icio.us and/or Ping.fm so you can even share the URL easily across other social networks.

2. How to tweet URLs and enter contests at the same time

Much like BigTweet, TwitThis also automatically puts the URL which you’re currently browsing into your tweet and shortens it for you.  The unique spin here is that you’re able to enter contests as well, which allow you to tweet and win cool prizes at the same time like iPhones and Kindles.

3. How to tweet even faster

With Twitlet, one can tweet just by hitting a bookmarklet on your browser.  No installation, no browser extensions, just a simple bookmark, and a window pops up where you put in your dose of 140 characters without having to load twitter.  It’s really one of the quickest ways to tweet from a browser.  No sign-up required.

4. How to tweet directly from the Firefox address bar

Twitterbar is a Firefox add-on that allows anyone to post tweets fright from the address bar! Just type in any text you want and press the tweet button. Also convenient for tweeting URLs, in which you just have to press the tweet button.

5. How to integrate Twitter into your Firefox sidebar

Self-proclaimed ‘best twitter addon for Firefox’, Twitbin allows users to do anything Twitter-related (send/receive updates, messages etc.) right from the Firefox sidebar. Pretty handy if you are sidebar junkie.

6. How to share links and track them on Twitter

If you use the Bit.ly sidebar to post links to Twitter, Facebook, and Gmail, you’ll also be able to see how popular the link is on bit.ly by being able to track the clicks it gets.  You’ll also be able to read all existing twitter and friendfeed conversations surrounding the link you’re sharing.

This post was jointly written by Chan Huey Hoong and James Yeang

What tips do you have for Twitter productivity? Tell us in the comments!

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