rapportive – Review March 17, 2010
Posted by Chaim Gartenberg in : First Look/Reviews, Misc., web , add a comment
Some math: Gmail – ads + contact social info = ?
Ok – so browser plugins aren’t really something I usually write about here – but this one here’s an exception. To jump right in, I love rapportive. Love it. It’s just cool.
Backing up just a bit. Gmail users – you guys all know the ads on the right side of emails you read, right? Well, rapportive is a Firefox and Chrome plugin, that simply replaces them. Now that’s nice, but not only does it get rid of the ads, it replaces them with something pretty useful: a contact profile of the person who sent the email you’re reading, based on public profiles. And for the most part, it installs and runs very smoothly – just go to the site, install, and a few painless seconds later, you’re ready to roll – just go to Gmail, read an email, and rapportive’ll do the rest – showing info pulled from their Google Profile, links to Facebook, Twitter, flickr etc, if they have that info publicly available, so it’s pretty neat for connecting with the people you talk to. Also, a nice feature exists of being able to jot down a private note about the person for yourself for the next time you talk with the person.
It’s not perfect – not everyone I talk to has a profile – but overall, its pretty nice. rapportive is available for my favorite price of “free” – as a plugin for Firefox and Google Chrome, with IE support on the way. Check it out here.
Meebo – Review February 26, 2010
Posted by Chaim Gartenberg in : Cell Phones, First Look/Reviews, Mp3 players and iPods , add a comment
Meebo – it’s fun to say! Meebo. Meebo.
A while back, I wrote a review of Beejive IM, for the iPhone – an IM app that did nearly everything. It’s a great app, but somewhat pricey for IM, ($10) – although it was the best way to IM everyone on all your networks.
But, recently, after showing the app off at the original iPhone 3.0 announcement, Meebo has finally been released, and joined the IM fray. And for most of you – the presumably cheap especially – Meebo might be the solution you’ve been looking for for using AIM, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, Yahoo Chat, and Windows Live simultaneously. (Although you might want to look at consolidating some of those networks…). And unlike the still-fantastic Beejive, Meebo comes at that lovely, lovely price of free.
Also, Meebo has the usual features of a great iPhone IM app: push support for getting IMs outside of the app, speed, and full chat history. It also has the ability to connect to the Meebo website – which allows a pretty sweet seamless transition from iPod/iPhone to computer. One minor qualm I had was related to my use of an iPod Touch – it takes a few seconds to reconnect/load your accounts when returning to the app from a notification – something that is due to the use of WiFi over 3G or EDGE.
But, for delivering almost all functionality of Beejive for free makes Meebo at least worth checking out. Link’s right here.
Doubletwist – iTunes for Your Phone February 24, 2010
Posted by Chaim Gartenberg in : Apple, Cell Phones, Computers, First Look/Reviews, Mp3 players and iPods, Music , add a comment
Doubletwist – like iTunes, for non-Apple stuff
The age-old issue: you, like nearly everyone else, uses an iPod for music – be it Touch, Nano, Shuffle, or Classic — and you are very happy with using iTunes for syncing and so on. But unfortunately, unless you have an iPhone, the iTunes program is quite unhelpful when it comes to your phone. Unlike your iPod, you can’t just plug in to your computer and sync your music, and while phones have separate applications for syncing media, lets face it – getting everything to work, getting your music from iTunes…its annoying– especially every time you get a new phone.
Enter Doubletwist. iTunes for everything else- literally. Able to recognize and import your iTunes library (even playlists), Doubletwist is compatible with a whole slew of companies and devices – PSP, Zune, Nokia’s, LG’s, Motorola’s, etc. True, it’s not compatible with everything – but it’s certainly more then an iPod and it does a great job syncing. The interface is simple, and familiar to iTunes’, and features the drag/drop method we all know and love. Videos – provided they aren’t purchased (and therefore, DRMed) from iTunes – are converted into a suitable format and synced. Photos – same deal. (Note: iTunes Plus songs, without DRM, are fine)
Best of all – it’s not only a Mac application – Doubletwist is for Windows as well. It also has features for sharing – or “twisting” as they call it – media with friends and family, as well as integration with the Amazon MP3 store.
If you’d like Doubletwist, check it out on the site here to see if they support your phone or device. Also, you might want to check that you have a USB cable to connect your phone to your PC. Finally, if you’re looking to keep a fair amount of songs, look into getting a MicroSD card, so you have memory to store ‘em.
And next time your iPhone toting friend is bragging about having his music on his phone – you’ll have the last laugh.
Colorix—Review January 29, 2010
Posted by Eli Blumenthal in : Apple, First Look/Reviews , 2comments
There are a lot of great puzzle-like games available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. We recently had a chance to test out a new one called Colorix, a kind of Tetris-Bejeweled mix, and it actually plays pretty well, a great quick game for the bus or killing time.
Made by Mobo Studio, the goal of Colorix is simple— take the sets of 3 colored marbles falling down and try to get match 3 colors together in a row. You can make a row in any direction—horizontally, vertically, and diagonally– and can also get matches in different combos, like having one match lead directly to another. The more matches and combos you get, the more points you accumulate, with the goal to get as many points as you can while avoiding the marbles reaching the top of the screen. Simple, right?
As the marbles fall, you have the power to place the sets of 3 where you want (though they only fall vertically), and while it falls you can either speed up the fall by 2x tapping on the spot you want them to fall (getting you more points), or use swipes to change the order of the marbles. When we first started playing we thought this was way too easy (we picked up the controls pretty easily after playing it a little), but after playing for a little bit, we started to realize a whole bunch of different combinations to get even more points using special marbles (such as Rainbow ones that change after they’re placed—as seen above in the pic). As you get more points and move up to higher levels, the game does also get tougher, with more color combinations and black marbles that stay on the board for a certain amount of turns and block spaces and combinations (as seen in the number 4 marble above).
Gameplay in Colorix is also very smooth, with quick load times and no stuttering during gameplay. The graphics are also surprisingly good for a game like this, with everything looking slick and colorful.
While it isn’t as feature-packed as say a Bejewled or Tetris, Colorix is a solid game for those look for a cheap, fun puzzle game that while not intense, is still very addictive and we’re gonna give Colorix a very good 4 out 5.
Colorix is available now in the App Store for a not too bad price of $1.99 (with a free Colorix Lite version also available now). You can check it out in the App Store here (link opens iTunes)
TeuxDeux Reveuxw! January 19, 2010
Posted by Chaim Gartenberg in : Computers, First Look/Reviews , 2comments
How Deux Yoeux Keep Together?
This one’s a new one, but it’s real good. I promise.
Those of you who follow the site know that I’m a big fan of online stuff that lets me stay sane and together across multiple computers and devices (especially in school). So… here’s my new favorite tool for doing that: TeuxDeux (pronounced “ToDo” – you can probably guess where this is going…)
TeuxDeux is an online ToDo list. (Yup. You guessed it.) As if happens, a very, very, very, nice one. As you can see above – it looks fantastic. The interface is clean, simple, and easy to understand. It’s broken down into two groups – stuff that has a date, and stuff that doesn’t. You just type into the text box, either for a specific date or as a “Someday” item, and it adds it. Once there, it’s there until you cross it off or delete it.
Need more time for something? Items are easily dragged and dropped across days. And since everything is online, you can get to your list anytime, anywhere. Which is an obvious plus.
Finally, TeuxDeux comes at the finest of prices – it’s completely free. Not free-but-you-have-to-pay-subscription-fees-if-you-want-more-features free, not free-but-has-annoying-ads-every-5-seconds, just free. And in its current state – it’ll stay that way (they are considering a paid version in the future). They also have an iPhone app being worked on as well.
So – wrap up. There are plenty of great ToDo applications out there – but TeuxDeux isn’t reinventing the wheel. It’s taking the idea and doing it in the best possible way. Which is perfect. For students looking to organize themselves a week at a time, in what is a beautiful and simple manner, from anywhere – try TeuxDeux.
So far, it’s helping me keep track of myself and my crazy amount of work for midterm week, and it’s doing it well. Check it out here.
Review: Motorola Debut i856 (Boost Mobile) November 30, 2009
Posted by Eli Blumenthal in : Cell Phones, First Look/Reviews, Giveaways , 6comments
The Motorola Debut i856
Looking for a solid phone with a great plan that doesn’t make you sign your wireless soul away for 2 years? If so, then listen up as we got something you’ll definitely want to check out (trust me, you do). It’s called the Motorola Debut i856 for Boost Mobile (the carrier with the TV ads going “where you at?”), and for the past few weeks we have been putting it through its paces, and we came away pretty impressed with both the phone and Boost Mobile as a carrier. (more…)
SyncMate for Mac – Review November 24, 2009
Posted by Chaim Gartenberg in : Computers, First Look/Reviews , 1 comment so far
Sync is a wonderful thing….
Recently, I was given the opportunity to try out a rather nice application called Syncmate for Mac, which, as the name implies – does Sync. From a Mac. But seriously, this program is incredibly useful – at least, to me, and I suspect most of you other teens out there, at least, those of you with Macs.
Windows 7 Ultimate– Our Review November 24, 2009
Posted by Eli Blumenthal in : Computers, First Look/Reviews , 2comments
Windows 7 is here, and boy is it awesome
Ok, we know it’s a little late, but without further ado, here it is, our review of Windows 7.
So in a couple of words how are we liking the new Microsoft OS after using it in it’s final form for over a month? We love it, and just keeping it short—it’s a thousand times better than Vista (yes that much better).
Want some more details on why we like it so much and what things about it we don’t like? Read on.