TechJournal

Musicovery.com , i haven't seen anything like it before. This web app lets users browse music not only by genre but also by style, era and mood. This makes Musicovery totally different from other music websites that searches for music by artist's name or the title of the songs. The web app discovers music based on the parameters that you choose.

The web app has a number of filters. The idea is to mix and match filters and see what the results will be. I chose rock music that came out in the 80s with a + Tempo and an energetic mood. The results that came out were a from Pretenders, Joe Jackson, O.M.D., Clash, Matt Bianco, and Talking Heads just to name a few. Every time you change the parameters on the player, the Flash generated image on the right will jump into a new interface which now includes the songs that belong to the category you have chosen.

And because genres are color coded, choosing more than one will result to your Flash image resembling a kaleidoscope toy. The aesthetics are simply great. Plus the Flash image can be dragged using your mouse so you can choose songs manually. If you let the songs play, once one has ended the Flash image will select automatically the next song from the uploaded music map.

The selection of music is not bad as well. Musicovery has rap, R&B, classical, electro, latino, reggae, soundtracks, soul, pop, metal, rock, blues, gospel and some more. There's no lag noticeable in the songs, well at least at my end since I do have a fast internet connection. ...more

Read full story

When YouBackItUp.com went live, the site probably became the simplest way to share files online. The Norway based company responsible for the web app was founded by Magnus Andersen who is also the main developer of YouBackItUP.

The great thing about the site is it eliminates any registration or verifications. The java based interface allows users to drag and drop files enabling them to quickly upload the files for storage. Users can upload files that are not more than 200mb. Although users can store their files for as long as they want, inactive files for 20 days will be deleted.

Nothing more can be said about the website. Like I said it's really very simple. Magnus Andersen might want to give the site's design some perk to make it more interesting but aside from that, YouBackItUp have pretty much what users need. It seems Andersen is not new in this kind of web app. It has been reported that Andersen was also a co-founder of minkoffert.no, a file storage provider that specifically caters for companies in Norway. The website appears to be having a very successful run since it started two years ago which, according to StartUp Booster.com's blog entry, prompted Andersen to give the concept a try with YouBackItUp.

Other file sharing websites might rethink the way they do things with the advent of these kinds of websites. Although, there are already a lot of file sharing sites that have simplified the way files are uploaded, sites like Mediafire , DivShare , and even YouSendIt . A major disadvantage with YouBackItUp is the 200mb ceiling file size. It is now the trend among file sharing sites to have an unlimited upload and download feature not to mention no waiting lines for files. Some file sharing web apps offer more than just sharing files such as auto image galleries, co-branding options and all that. ...more

Read full story

Web-based presentation makers are either made in Ajax or Flash or Laszlo. Toufee is another online presentation creator that uses Flash technology and successfully integrates the interactive stage seamlessly. Unlike video editing web applications, Toufee buillds presentations just like those in Powerpoint without any additional software.

Toufee is a browser based slideshow slash flash presentation maker. It's functions are nearly as complete as Flash or Swish but with some limitations of course. Anyway, the user interface is great, easy-to-use and straightforward. Actually, when creating or editing a presentation there is no need to leave the current page. The Flash technology allows everything to flow smoothly with pop-ups for options.

Adding the elements on the stage of evcry Toufee presentations is very easy. Images, text and media each have their own tabs where they can be individually added and adjusted. For images and other media files including audio and video, an upload pop up appears to facilitae the transfer of the file from the local hard drive onto the Toufee server. Text can be inputted in the presentation via text boxes.

Each element in Toufee is considered a single object and has options on appearing, disappearing, emphasizing. Size of objects can be adjusted by pulling handles. When all objects are in place in a frame, the user can create another frame and select transition effects for each frame. ...more

Read full story

Online photo editor s are already in the mainstream with applications like Snipshot, Picture2Life, and Fauxto taking the lead. These online Photoshops allow users to edit images just as they would in Adobe Photoshop or MS Paint or whichever image editor. Phixr is another entry in this list of online image editors.

What sets Phixr apart is its ability to save its resulting pictures in other formats aside from JPG namely, PNG, PDF, GIF, and OCR (text). Aside from that feature, Phixr does not really present much. It's editng tools are limited. There is no pencils or brush for free hand drawings. there are however, transformations tools (resize, crop, and rotate), color tools (B&W, sepia, negative and colorize), and fill, text and bubble options. The last set of tools are photo tools including blur, despeckle, red-eye reduction, animated effects, and collage options. Composite pictures are also allowed so there's no problem with making a collage in Phixr.

Phixr's interface is also no the best. Nevertheless, it's tools are fully functional, take not of the undo button that worksone step back or reverts the whole picture to its original format.

Furthermore, Phixr has tied up with a couple of photo sites to draw in a crowd. They have ties with Flickr, Fotopic,Smugmug and Webshots for importing purposes. On the other hand for exporting, Phixr has settings for those above and the following, Buzznet, Costco, Fotolog, Imageshack, Livejournal, Nakama, and Photobucket. ...more

Read full story

That's read “my e-penis dot com.” History has shown that men with bigger genitals have more bragging rights. The penis is the object of measure, not only for western cultures but all around the world.

I don't want to get this wrong for purposes of sensitivity, according to them, “An epenis is something that defines your online existence. It is the ruler by which everything on the internet is measured. It is often associated with bragging rights and one's eagerness to show-off to an anonymous fan-base of admirers that exist only in the parallel world known as the internet.”

Myepenis is basically a photo comparing and sharing website. The photos will be of interests or hobbies and they will be rated on the coolness of that. For example, I have a bunch of Star Wars life-size-die-cast-metal statues that only George Lucas should have. I show that to the world and my epenis is surely to beat everybody else's (except George Lucas maybe). Something like that.

So far it's still an idea and a work in progress. Interested participants and users can sign up at the site to get updates and details when exactly this goes live. Personally, I'll be waiting to show off my collection of Ferraris. ...more

Read full story

Speed dating is now online. Flirtfrenzy.com has just gone live. This mostly AJAX web application was patterned after the speed dating phenomenon that quickly caught the interest of the single population across the country. However, there are certain differences. In Flirtfrenzy, there's no need to complete a registration form. All the website requires is to enter a screen name, sex, age and place of origin. Afterwards, you just need to agree with the rules and regulations of the site and you're ready to go.

Once you're in, you can select from a choice of four rooms (so far). The rooms contain a possible Flirting partner. You enter a room and look for or wait for a flirting partner. If by good faith that someone agreed to chat with you, you only have 10 minutes to talk with your partner. It's your and your partner's discretion if you wan to reveal personal information, exchange emails and other contact information. The website emphasizes that everything you divulge during those 10 minutes is your own responsibility.

The level of anonymity does have some benefits. Because you no longer need to fill up forms you can log-in and log-out as quickly anytime. The threat, however, is the lack of security and screening of people who chats in the site. On the other hand, creating a website that requires you to open a personal account will not be different from the thousands of dating websites on the Web.

Flirtfrenzy requires browser to have the cookies enabled as well as the Javascript. The browser need to be W3C compatible as well. ...more

Read full story

RememberTheMilk.com is not related to any milk products nor does it has something to do with the “Got Milk” campaign. The website is actually a place where you can manage your to-do lists. It is in the same league as Stikkit.com , Wallnote.com and Zirr.us which are online to-do lists websites. I just recently discovered the website although it seems that it has been up since 2005. At present the website is still in Beta form though. Their online to-do list management services is free and according to them, they have no intention of creating premium accounts in site memberships.

The RememberTheMilk.com is not just a to-do list organizer. It allows you to categorize duties according to Personal, Study, and Work. You can re-delegate the various tasks to and from each folder whenever you you see fit. You can easily manage to do lists and use features like iCalendar. I really like how you can add tasks. You can add task entries on a folder directly, there's no submenu that opens up or a subfolder that you need to fill out before you upload your tasks. It's straightforward, easy and fast.

One of the best features of the side is the “Reminder” tool option. When you go to the “Settings” you can set the “Reminder” and allow the site to send you an email, an IM, or even an SMS reminding you of an upcoming deadline for a certain task.

The whole site is very user friendly. I wouldn't transferring my to-do lists from another provider to this one. Recent updates or upgrades RememberTheMilk has incorporated include the capability to create a RememberTheMilk module and post it in Netvibes. ...more

Read full story

When fast Internet connections were made available to most of the public, file-sharing services became an instant hit. Everyone has their own favorites nowadays. News about file-sharing providers are pretty slim lately, even the legal issues that hound such websites are no longer that prominent. I personally don't have any favorites but I became interested with a file sharing plug-in called Nakido Flag , maybe because of its Japanese sounding name. So I did some research and found out the following.

As you have read earlier, Nakido Flag is a plug-in that can be downloaded at Nakido.com. Nakido's objective is give users a new and easy way to share files thus the creation of the Nakido Flag. This plug-in allows users to share any file in any size to as many people as the user wants over the internet. You read it right, there's no limits on the size of the files that you want to share or is there any limit on the number of times you upload and download files. All the uploaded files are shared within the Nakido community and all you need is the Nakido Flag plug-in to download the files.

After checking the site, I went to Alexa to view some traffic stats. Alexa rated Nakido.com a traffic rank of 4,109. Not bad. However, when you view statistical history, it will show that the website's ranking is slowly going down. Compared to relatively new comer MediaFire, Nakido is being left behind. Went live in October last year, file sharing site MediaFire has already gained a traffic rank of 586. The very simple Ajax file upload and download interface of MediaFire might have drawn the attention of users of file sharing web apps. MediaFire also offers unlimited uploads and downloads, plus you don't need to install anything.

We have seen these kinds of scenarios time and time again. As long as new innovations are being adapted on a great idea, people will switch and shift to the better websites. Nakido might want to rethink its strategy before it gets completely driven down by emerging players in the field of file sharing. ...more

Read full story