Four FREE apps that can transform how you read the news

Four FREE apps that can transform how you read the news:

With the explosion of information and news sources that is the hallmark of the internet, application developers are coming up with creative ways to browse and read the news, adding functions such as customization, Geo-mapping, and social sharing and discovery to your reading experience, just to name a few. Moreover, if you subscribe to RSS feeds to get your articles delivered then you should check out some of these services, as some are similar, though not the same.
This article will present four free apps that offer novel approaches to perusing and consuming the news. These apps are: Newsmap, News360, Hubii, and Comunitee.
The four services listed below

1. Newsmap: a bird’s eye view of the news
2. News360: a customized news stream, delivered to your PC or your device
3. Hubii: your news, pinpointed (by publisher) on a Geo-map
4. Comunitee: follow the news with a community of like-minded people

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1. Newsmap: a bird’s eye view of the News

Newsmap presents news articles as checkered boxes, magazine style, that pack a lot of information into a relatively small area. But what it really does is filter the news, which is done via tabs that you can select or deselect, as well as a handy searchbox. The top row of tabs lets you filter by country, while the bottom row filters by topic. All of the topics are color coded for easy identification, and popular articles are displayed more prominently and in larger font.
Newsmap is a great way to get your news at-a-glance. If there was something I could wish for, however, is the ability to filter out specific sources of news.

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2. News360: a customized news stream delivered to your PC or your device

News360 uses ‘semantic analysis’ in order to evaluate the impact and relevancy of news articles that it presents. It will also want to scan any or all of your Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter, Evernote and Google+ accounts in order to find out exactly the kind of topics and news sources you like, and then use this information when serving your articles.
One of the interesting things about News360 is that it will provide many sources that cover the same item, with the intent of giving alternative points of view more-or-less in the very same spot, although I wish I could have it filter out some sources so that these are never listed. Other bells and whistles include relevant videos and photos, a real time relevant Twitter feed, and highlighting of people and organizations in your articles that you can use to get extra information on these entities.
New360 is available as a web app, as an extension for all the major browsers, and as an app for your Android, iOS and other devices. One of the best features is the ability to save news items for later OFFLINE reading on your device (in a manner similar to recently mentioned app Pocket).

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3. Hubii: your news, pinpointed (by publisher) on a Geo-map

All politics, as they say, is local, and the News is not that different. Hubii identifies your IP location and displays a ‘Mapazine’; i.e. a Google style map that displays the location of publishers as well as their published news stories and articles simultaneously on the left sidebar. Note that the publishers are pinned to the map, and not the location of the news events, which is a bit counterintuitive at fist.
Hubii also allows users to subscribe to individual publishers, RSS style, and view them on a normal, non geo-tagged screen.

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4. Comunitee: follow the news with a community of like-minded people

Comunitee is a web service that wants you to share news stories and articles with your friends and other Comunitee users, to have followers and to follow people, etc. — in short, to be a social network for news.
Comunitee begins by asking you to identify your interests, which is done by selecting what you like from a wide range of tags that it will show you. The next step after that is inviting friend to the service. Lastly, you can read, star articles that you like, leave comments or questions on articles that can be seen by others on the service.
Overall, it’s an interesting concept, but I could not help but think that the service should try to piggyback more on Facebook (in the same way that Goodreads does for example) rather than reinvent so much of the (Facebook) wheel.

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We would love to hear about your experience with these. Also, if you know of other apps or websites that are similar please let us know in the comments section.

Create your own search page and a customized logo at Createfunnylogo

Create your own search page and a customized logo at Createfunnylogo:

Createfunnylogo.com is a fun little web site that allows you to create your very own search page and customize it’s look and style, for free. The resulting page is a fully-functional search page that you can use to launch all your web searches.
There’s no real way to arrive at any specific or accurate number, really, as far as how many ways there are to customize your experience on the computer in general and the web ins specific. Createfunnylogo.com is one of those ways, and if I say so myself, one of the better ones. To my way of thinking, this kind of site is measured on how much fun it is, how easy it is, and how repeatable it is. Createfunnylogo.com scores well in all those areas, in my opinion.

There are three basic steps to using the Createfunnylogo.com web site. First, you must type in your name, or the name of the search engine you wish to ‘create’ as a customized page to the Google search site. This can be anything you want, really, it doesn’t have to actually be your name, but that’s what I did for the purposes of this article and the screenshots shown here. Once you type in your name, or whatever name you have chosen, you must then choose from a list of logo styles. These styles include famous logos, from all kinds of places. For example, one of the logo styles used is a star wars style. If you pick this style, your name (or whatever you entered in the name box) will show up on the search page in the star wars style lettering. The final step to the whole process is to copy the URL for your resulting custom search page and then send it to friends or put it in your blog or on your website.

This kind of fun little tool does not really do much in the way of productivity but let’s face it, productivity is not the only important thing in the universe. It has always been my opinion, and that of others as well, that no matter where you go on your journey through life (including cyber space) you should always try to have a little fun along the way. This could make a good kind of special ‘gift’ as well, if you want to show a relative or other loved one how much you think of them or that you care about them having a good day, you can create a search page logo with their name and send them the link for it, which they can then pass on to their friends. Another way it could be used would be as a joke or just as a fun way to keep a search page looking fresh.

Google has always been interesting when it comes to their logos, as anyone who frequents the main Google search site regularly can tell you, and this particular site is a nice little addition to the history of Google as well, even if it is a footnote. One might look at the site and determine it to be worthless, but I would argue that its worth is in the ability to make someone smile, and that’s something we can all use a bit more of in our lives. As a great man once said, “A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” and I hold this to be true today as well.

So, go and make your own logo. Post the link for it on your Facebook page or on your blog. Send it to people in email and ask them to use it. Start a family league to see who can come up with the funniest logo and get the most people to use it. There’s no limit to what can be done with even a one-liner joke like this if you are really bored and exceptionally determined to waste your time and someone else’s. Personally, I am all for it. Until next time, my friends!
Make your own logo at www.Createfunnylogo.com

Buy, Trade & Giveaway Steam Games With This Awesome Network Of Sites

Buy, Trade & Giveaway Steam Games With This Awesome Network Of Sites:
Steam! You either love it for being one of the largest and most successful gaming communities online, or you absolutely hate it because you’re completely against all that hoopla over digital rights. Well, I guess there’s a middle ground. Either way, in this article we’re going to like Steam a lot.
The lifeblood of the Steam community is the constant sales, trading, exchanging, bartering, and all-around excitement over Steam users experiencing new games. The Steam platform has made it very easy to trade games, in-game items, beta keys, and more within the client. It sucks that we can’t physically sell these games, as we could with our Nintendo cartridges, but some of the efforts that Valve has come out and made really soften that blow a bit.
With that in mind, allow me to introduce you to a network of three websites that will make your Steam experience even steamier.

SteamGameSales.com

SteamGameSales.com is the place to go when you want easy access to visualizing what games are receiving the highest current discounts on Steam. Not only Steam though: Direct2Drive, GamersGate, Green Man Gaming, GOG, Impulse, Desura, Beamdog, and Get Games as well.
Right on the frontpage, all of the latest sales are being displayed to you. By clicking the headers of each column, you’re able to sort sales by those specific elements: savings, price, etc.

I’m a Steam sales addict. This really makes the process so much less painful. Pop on this website once a day, check the latest deals, and you’re all set. If you sign in through Steam, you can even check your account versus games that you already own, to make sure you’re not having your chain jerked (in case a game is on sale that you forget you own).
This is a very simple and effective service. Completely useful.

SteamTrades.com

The premise of SteamTrades.com is very simple. Trading is huge in the Steam community. SteamTrades.com offers a simple forum where users can come to look for offers and trades on games. Users post what they want and what they’re offering and patiently wait for interested others to come along.

As every site should, SteamTrades.com has a reputation system so you know what you’re getting into before you even get involved. The site is put together very well and it’s been responsible for (what I’d assume to be) thousands and thousands of successful trades.

SteamGifts.com

SteamGifts.com is the more unique and clever of the network. Generous gifters use this website to hand out their extra, giftable copies of games, DLC, and other assorted goods.
The site operates on a “points system,” as best explained by their FAQ page:

The point system is designed to prevent users from entering for every single giveaway. This lowers the overall number of entries, and provides everyone with better odds of winning games they’re interested in playing. New users start out with 25P. Every time anyone submits a game, every member of the site, excluding the giveaway creator, receives 5 percent of that gifts value (in USD) in points. For example, if a $50 gift is created, every user on the site receives 2.5 points. And, if a $20 gift is created, everyone would receive 1 point. These points can then be spent on entering giveaways.

In the above screenshot, you see a player listing a game with an entree of 30P. The game costs $30 on Steam. Entering the giveaway is as simple as clicking the button you see there. These giveaways happen often and fast. It’s the kind of website you’ll want to keep up with every day, as points are constantly being shuffled around.
These three websites do a great service to the Steam community. If you’re into Steam, check out the other recent articles we’ve done on the topic:

• Steam Gets Mobile Apps For iOS & Android [News]
• A Selection Of The Best Free-To-Play Steam Games
• Microsoft Flight Now Free To Play On Steam For Some Countries [Updates]

7 Tips & Tricks To Get The Most Out Of Google Drive

7 Tips & Tricks To Get The Most Out Of Google Drive:

Google Drive is a great service, but installing the application and synchronizing some files is just the first step. These tricks will help you take advantage of Google Drive, both on the desktop and on the web – whether you’re looking to easily synchronize other folders with your Drive or take advantage of the features only available on the website.
Many of these tricks will also work with Dropbox, Microsoft SkyDrive, and any other service that provides a magic folder that automatically synchronizes your files over the Internet. Google’s Drive integration with third-party web apps is a unique feature, though.

Use The Send To Menu

You can add Google Drive to the Windows Send To menu and easily send files to your drive from anywhere on your computer.

The Send To menu actually shows the contents of a special folder, and you can add your own shortcuts. To open the folder, launch Windows Explorer, copy the following text, and paste it into the address bar:

%APPDATA%/Microsoft/Windows/SendTo

Right-click the Google Drive folder in your favorites, hold down the right mouse button, and drag and drop it to your Send To folder. When a menu appears, select “Copy Here.”

If you click and drag with the left mouse button, Windows will move the shortcut from your favorites instead of copying it.

Encrypt Sensitive Files

Cloud storage services like Google Drive are a great way to keep copies of important documents, even if your house burns down or all your hardware fails. Still, putting this sensitive data under someone else’s control can be a concern. Before you upload important documents, consider encrypting them with a password. If your account is compromised, no one will be able to view the files without your password – Google themselves can’t even view the encrypted data.
We’ve covered a variety of ways to encrypt files, but one of the easiest is to create an encrypted archive. Be sure to use a program with strong encryption support. 7-Zip is a good, free option – when creating your archive,create a .7z file (just like a ZIP file) with AES-256 encryption.

Be sure to choose a strong password that you can remember – if you forget the password, you’ll lose access to your files.
BoxCryptor also supports Google Drive. It will create a secure, encrypted drive letter that you can drop files in. The files sync over Google Drive, but you’ll need BoxCryptor and your password to access them.
Setting up two-step authentication is another good way to boost the security of your entire Google account, including your Drive.

Move User Folders

You can move your user data folders, including the Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, and Downloads folders by right-clicking them and using the options on the Location tab. Move a folder to your online drive to synchronize it between your computers.

Do this on each computer you use and you’ll have the same files in your Documents, Downloads, and other folders on all your computers.

Customize Windows Libraries

You don’t have to move folders to easily save files onto your online drive — use the Windows libraries folders instead. From a library folder, click the “locations” link at the top of the window.

You can add folders from Google Drive to a library and even set it as your default save location. When you open the library in Windows Explorer, you’ll see files from all included folders. When you move or save a file to the library, Windows will place it in the default save location.

Empty The Trash

Files in the trash (and previous versions of files) take up storage space. After deleting files, you’ll have to empty the online drive trash to reclaim your storage space.

You can only clear the trash from the Google Drive web page. It’s a bit hidden – click the “More” link in the sidebar and you’ll see the Trash option.

Restore Previous Versions

Google Drive stores the previous versions of files for 30 days or 100 revisions – whichever comes first. You can’t view these from your desktop, though — you’ll have to visit the website, right-click a file and select “Manage Revisions.”

These previous revisions take up storage space, just like files in your Trash do – you can delete previous versions from here if they’re taking up too much space.

Installing Apps

Google Drive isn’t just a folder that synchronizes across your computers – Google clearly envisions it as a web-based hard drive for web apps. The Chrome Web Store contains a category for Google Drive apps.

You can launch files in web apps directly from Google Drive. The web app can also save files directly back to your drive. The service provides a much-needed location where you can store your files, instead of scattering them across multiple web apps.

Do you have any other tricks to share? Be sure to leave a comment and let us know about them.