3 Fast, Clean, & Efficient Online Image Optimizers To Shrink Your Images

3 Fast, Clean, & Efficient Online Image Optimizers To Shrink Your Images:
As a blogger and a normal guy who is running out of space on his hard drive, I am always on the lookout for a good image compression program. My software of choice for all image editing needs is of course, the Big Daddy of them all – Adobe Photoshop. If I have to plonk down my money, I would go for a nice little piece of freeware called RIOT (Radical Image Optimization Tool).
Sometimes, I am loathe to fire up Photoshop for a simple image compression job. Then sometimes, I am mobile and away from RIOT too. Thanks to the plethora of image editing apps available on the web, I am spoilt for choice.
What I am looking for are fast, clean (i.e. uncluttered), and efficient image optimizers that are dead simple to use. I have found three so far…

JPEGmini

JPEGmini welcomes you with a very attractive homepage that instantly says something about its potential quality. Not surprisingly, it is also available as a Mac application. But we will be looking at the web version here. JPEGmini can reduce the size of any JPEG file by as much as 80% without affecting image quality. JPEGmini uses its image quality detector and its unique JPEG encoder to achieve optimum image recompression rations without any visible image artifacts to spoil the quality of the image.

Here are some key features:

• Single photos do not require any sign-ups, though batch uploading of full photo albums requires free registration.
• On JPEGmini each album that you upload can contain up to 1000 photos, and can be up to 200 MB in size.
• You can upload as many albums as you want.

Yahoo!Smush.it

Smush.it is also a lossless tool like JPEGmini. It compresses images and photos without any noticeable difference in their visual quality. The optimization method of Smush.It strips unnecessary bytes from image files and then gives you a downloadable ZIP file with the optimized image. Smush.it also tells you the savings you can achieve with the image compression. Privacy of your uploaded images is assured to degree because the files are only temporarily cached on the site. They are removed after a certain time. We have taken a deeper look at Smush.it when we saw how to Optimize and Compress Pictures Online with SmushIt.

Here are some key features:

• Smush.it works on JPG, GIF, and PNG images that are up to one megabyte in size.
• Smush.it converts GIF files to PNG files when the resulting PNG files are smaller.
• Smush.it preserves the meta-data of the photos during the compression process.
• Smush.it handles individual image files. It still does not have the feature to compress a folder of images in one go.

Kraken

Kraken is that terrible but mythical sea monster that you probably last heard about in the Pirates of The Caribbean. Here, Kraken serves a very useful purpose as a neat free and online image optimization tool. Kraken is actually a set of tools, where the image optimizer is one part of the set. The image optimizer also gives you browser extensions you can use with Firefox and Chrome. You can browse to the images on your hard drive and attach them, or drag and drop them to the Kraken interface. You can also use the URL paster option to enter multiple URLs and process them all as a batch. Kraken comes with two optimization levels – Advanced and Extreme. In the end, you can download each file individually or collect them all in a ZIP file.

Here are some key features:

• Kraken supports JPEG, PNG and GIF files.
• Kraken Image Optimizer allows for 1 MB file size limits. You can process 20 files in one single batch.
• Kraken also gives you PDF optimization report that shows the level of compression and other data.

Conclusion

I used the same single image originally sized at 515 KB and passed it through the three compression programs. Without any discernible difference in visual quality, JPEGmini gave me the best compressed image. But do try it out with your own set of images too and tell us the result.
Do you use a desktop tool like Photoshop or an online web app to compress your images? If you bother about image optimization, tell us about the tool of your choice? Is it anything like the three simple ones we have covered here?
Image Credit: Hand compresses a colour sphere via Shutterstock

Get Someone Else To Do Your Odd Jobs With Airtasker

Get Someone Else To Do Your Odd Jobs With Airtasker:
You know something like this has happened to you before. You’re stuck trying to work out the supposedly obvious IKEA manual for something you just bought; you’re staring at your miserable garden wondering if you’ll ever get the time to cut it; you’re looking for a new flat, but too busy working to find the good listings. So, where do you go to find someone who can get those odd jobs done for a small fee? Airtasker is the new answer.
Airtasker is an Australian site designed to put willing workers in touch with people who need a small job done. It’s intended to be for one-off, fairly simple tasks – many of which can be fulfilled online. In some ways, it could be considered a market for ad-hoc virtual assistants, except that it extends into the real world too. There’s plenty of people who are asking for help with plumbing, gardening and poster distribution. You could too!

How Does Airtasker Work?

Airtasker works by allowing people to post and complete small jobs either locally or online. Senders post a task with an appropriate wage listed and Runners will offer to do the work for them, similar to the way Fiverr works but the other way around. Senders view Runner profiles and choose which Runner will complete the job. Once a Runner is selected the Sender can’t back out of the transaction and will pay the Runner either by PayPal or Cash On Delivery (COD), although a Sender can opt to choose no-one for the job.

Posting A Job

For starters, your task needs to be legal and not of a sexual nature. There’s a list of marketplace rules you should read before you post anything. But within these limits you’re able to be as inventive as you like. What work do you need done that someone else can conceivably help you with? Okay, maybe don’t get as weird as the people on Fiverr!

As described above, the basic process of posting a job on Airtasker is fairly straight-forward. It’s also free! Once your job is in the system, the main thing for you to do is to check the Runner profiles to ensure you’re getting the right person. Runner profiles will show reviews from previous jobs they’ve completed so that you can see they are reliable.

Local work can only be posted for Australian cities at this stage. However, if you have an online job you need done, you can list it in Australian dollars.

Senders can also browse the Runners and decide to hire someone directly. This will ensure that the Runners get notified directly when you post a job and are therefore more likely to apply for it.

Become A Runner

If you want to earn a little bit of extra money, sign up to be a Runner. You can specify your city (which is currently just Australian cities), but there’s no need to. International users are accepted and can easily work on the online tasks. Just remember that the site is still in the early stages and will be discussing payment in Australian dollars for now.

If you like the sound of a job but you think the price is too low, you can always make an offer. If the Sender doesn’t get a lot of interest in their posting they might consider your offer seriously.

Runners pay a fee to Airtasker on completion of the task of $2 + 5% of the fee. To collect fees, Airtasker obtain credit card details or bank details when you bid on a task. However, they won’t take funds until you win the bid.

Trust

Airtasker have a number of tools to establish trust between Senders and Runners. Reviews and references are the start, but they also check PayPal details are exact and ensure phone numbers are correct with SMS verification.

Meanwhile, social connections to Facebook and Twitter help to establish a person’s real-life identity. A user who has completed these checks is given a verification badge to make it easier to spot them.

Give It A Go!

Airtasker have a free iPhone application available for both Runner and Senders to make use of. It looks as though Airtasker intend to become more international in the future, but as you can see there is still room for a global market within the current framework. Sign up and let them know via feedback where you’d like to see Airtasker appear locally next!

3 Free Voice Chat Programs For PC Gamers

3 Free Voice Chat Programs For PC Gamers:
Voice chat is an important part of the online gaming experience, yet PC gamers are left behind the consoles in this respect. It’s the one (big) disadvantage of gaming on the computer. Yes, we get to install whatever we want – but we also don’t have mandated, centralized services for things like free voice chat.
Of course, there are a number of companies that try to rectify this by offering simple, free voice chat for players. Let’s have a look at three of the best.

Vivox C3

Recently I was tasked with finding a simple, client-to-client voice communication solution to use with a friend while gaming. Since it was only going to be two of us, a server-client offering seemed like overkill. But we also had no intention to participate in a larger community.
Vivox C3 is the software we settled on. A relative newcomer, it’s a very simple client-to-client offering that showcases Vivox’s voice communication technology. It’s built to use few resources while also providing excellent voice quality. From our experience, that’s exactly what it does.
Voice chat programs are not known for being easy to use. C3 isn’t as intuitive as it could be, either – but compared to the competition it looks like it was designed by Steve Jobs. The interface is attractive, navigation is quick and stability proved rock-solid. There’s also Facebook and phone integration, though it uses a separate service called Bobsled.

Xfire

The Xfire service started in 2003 as a gaming instant messenger and community. At the time of its introduction, gaming messengers were popular because they also served as game launchers. You could talk with friends, form groups for multi-player, then launch the game to play.
Steam and other online stores with built-in communities featured have infringed on this traditional territory, so Xfire now offers free client-to-client voice chat to keep relevant. This service is accessed using the “chat rooms” section of the messenger. Anyone can create a chat room with voice chat.
The application is quick, but it also feels a bit outdated. It looks a bit like an application designed in 2003 that has been slightly remodeled but never properly updated. The voice chat quality also seems inferior to C3, though it’s still quite usable.
Of course, the benefit of Xfire is that it’s, well, Xfire. You can launch games, you can message (with voice or without), you can find servers, you can download files and you can manage in-game screenshots. There are arguably better solutions for each individual task, but Xfire combines it all into one package.

Mumble

Although the client-to-client model is the easiest to set up, there aren’t as many features for managing the chat and they tend to incorporate features unrelated to voice chat that you may not need. The main advantage of client-to-client is its ease of setup and use, but for larger groups of people, the server-client model makes more sense.
There are a number of client-server options available, but the one that I find the easiest to use is Mumble. It’s an open source project, and such software is often intimidating, but that’s not the case here. Installing the client and using it is easy as pie and there’s even a detailed audio setup wizard that can be used to precisely calibrate your microphone and speakers for the clearest voice communication possible.
The only disadvantage with Mumble is the same found with all server-client setups – you need a server, and the strain placed on the server can be a problem if a lot of people are connected. You’ll need a good network adapter and a connection with plenty of bandwidth if you want to host large groups. If you don’t have both you can have someone else to host the server for you – but that, of course, isn’t free.

Conclusion

Which voice chat solution is the best? There’s no easy answer.
I use C3 because I play with a few friends and we need a simple, easy to install, easy to use option. If you like to play with friends and you’d also like to have some integrated gaming related features, like a launcher, Xfire is a good option. If you want to host large groups of gamers, Mumble is ideal.
There are of course many other options, like Ventrillo, TeamSpeak and more. If you’ve used another free voice chat service that you think is a good, free alternative, let us know about it in the comments.
Image Credit: Plantronics Germany

Bookmark & Save YouTube Videos For Later With Video History for YouTube [Chrome]

Bookmark & Save YouTube Videos For Later With Video History for YouTube [Chrome]:
You can think of this Chrome extension as the “Read-It-Later” for YouTube videos. It performs nearly the same job for YouTube videos as does the so named browser add-on does for webpages. Online video bookmarking services exist. We have taken brief looks at video bookmarking tools like Radbox. Then there are cool tools like Zootool, and YouTube’s own Watch it Later feature. Watch It Later has a little limitation of only allowing videos that follow YouTube’s new embed style.
So, where does the Chrome extension called Video History for YouTube fit in? On the high table surely, because the YouTube Chrome extension has a few more tricks up its sleeve which makes managing all the YouTube videos you watch (or intend to) a little easier.

View YouTube Videos Later

Video History for YouTube works straight out of the box. After you install the Chrome extension, the icon resides in the browser’s address bar and monitors videos on webpages you visit. Any YouTube video on the webpage you land on is automatically added to the extension’s Browsed Videos list.

The extension does not selectively pick up the embedded videos…it lists them all. But you can selectively watch them later and delete the ones you aren’t interested in. A little numeric on the extension’s icon tells you the number of unwatched YouTube videos on the Browsed Videos list.

You watch the video within the extension interface itself instead of on YouTube. Certain age restricted videos will need to be played on YouTube itself. The video list is stored locally on the browser side and can be cleared easily.

Subscribe To Your Favorite YouTube Channels and Get Notifications

Video History for YouTube is a manager for the channels you subscribe to. Video History for YouTube monitors your account and the channels you follow on YouTube. You can setup the extension with your YouTube username and it will notify you when there is new content in any of your favorite channels. As you can see from the screen below, the Subscriptions page is divided into three sections –

New content that’s uploaded to a channel is collated under New Items. These are the ones which you haven’t watched so far. The watched videos go into the Old Items list. Your own uploads occupies the third section. You can treat the New Items and Old Items as an ‘inbox’ and ‘archive’ respectively. When you are done watching the fresh videos, you can archive them under Old Items. You can go back and watch them later too.

Catch What’s Going Viral

A few days ago, I had published a post on 7 Best Viral Video Websites To Watch What’s Buzzing Now. Video History for YouTube gets its data from YouTube and gives you a dekko at what’s trending on the online video website. You can browse the most popular videos on YouTube over the course of the week, month, and all time. You can click on I am done watching this after you play the video.

Video History for YouTube also allows you to search for YouTube videos from within the extension.
Video History for YouTube is a neat YouTube related Chrome extension. If you have a gargantuan appetite for YouTube videos, then this is the one for you. Beware of a few quirks though. For instance, the Google Suggest aided search didn’t work for me. I typed in my own keywords. I haven’t tried it out on many sites, but the comments suggest that it might not work with some YouTube embeds. Leaving these little quirks aside, Video History for YouTube still sounds like an efficient bookmarking ‘watch-it-later’ service for YouTube.
Also Follow: The 101 Best Chrome Extensions
Take it for a spin and let us know in the comments if you liked the Chrome extension.