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Communicate with your friends and family with Nimbuzz

By Chris Spera on June 13, 2013

Voice over IP is a huge deal now-a-days. Thanks to applications like AIM, Windows Messenger and of course, Skype, using your computer to make PC to PC calls is second nature today. Some even allow you to make PC to landline calls. One application which I’m using lately is Nimbuzz. A free call and messaging app for the connected generation.

Nimbuzz combines the flexibility of the Internet and mobile communications into a single, accessible platform. With it, you can make calls, send messages and share files, on any mobile device, for free.

Nimbuzz is one of the best free instant messengers for your Windows PC, Mac or mobile phone. Once you download the free client, you can communicate with anyone on the network, regardless of the other person’s platform. If you have friends and family in a different country, you can also use Nimbuzz to make free PC to mobile phone international VoIP calls, anywhere in the world.

You can also use Nimbuzz to connect with your Nimbuzz friends via instant messaging. Nimbuzz supports a simple ‘drag n’ drop’ function that allows you to share music, movies and photos with your friends. Nimbuzz also supports many popular IM clients, including Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk. You can connect to all of your contacts through a single client.

Nimbuzz is a decent IM and audio calling client. The one thing clearly missing here though is video chat. With this one, extremely huge hole, there’s little compelling reason to switch to it from any other network unless you have friends and family that are already using it elsewhere. Honestly, the other networks that Nimbuzz supports have the same feature set, likely have the same price points and also supports video chat. It’s good for what it does, but other apps are better.

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Browse the web in a totally new and fun way with RockMelt

By Chris Spera on February 18, 2013

Browsing the web is by far the most popular and most predictable internet past time. Everybody does it all the time, every day, out loud. The problem with surfing is that its predictable. Browser to browser, computer to computer, the web is always the web, and it’s always the same. That’s why I like RockMelt. It’s a new kind of web browser for Windows.

RockMelt provides a fundamentally better Web experience by re-imagining the browser around how you use the internet. It has a built in chat client so you can talk to your friends whenever you want. It’s got social networking built into it, so you can update a status, tweet links and easily post on Facebook Walls.

RM-02

RockMelt has an interesting feature called Social Reading that is sort of like RSS for your social networking sites. It gathers news from all of your friends and puts it in one place. RockMelt supports sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Social Reading syncs automatically, so you don’t ever have to manually refresh it unless you want to.

RockMelt concentrates on pictures and videos. Its display is visually pleasing, and the app brings you the best of these as soon as they’re published. Its big tiles support swiping – to the right saves a story for later, to the left removes it from the stream. You get to interact with the internet the way you want to.

RockMelt is a different browsing experience and one that you may just fall in love with, provided you can get used to it. It’s got just about every social network built into it, so you can interact with them at your leisure. Its multimedia-centric and built for speed. The only downside is that the rest of the web is formatted a bit differently and RockMelt attempts to present the web in its own image. I like it, but it doesn’t quite fit everywhere…

download RockMelt

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TweetDeck – Take complete command of your Twitter account

By Chris Spera on January 25, 2013

Take complete command of your Twitter account with this easy to use Windows app.

Social networking is huge and hot right now. If you active on any major social network, you’re likely active on more than one. Part of being social requires that you broadcast to as wide an audience as possible. This is why I like tools like TweetDeck. It’s a social networking tool for Windows.
TweetDeck is a social networking tool for both Facebook and Twitter. It shows you everything you want to see, all at once, so you can stay on top of the happenings within your social networks. Its social media dashboard helps you manage all of your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Like other Twitter apps, it interfaces with the Twitter API to allow users to send and receive tweets, view profiles as well as update and view your FB Status and Timeline.

TweetDeck changed from an Adobe AIR application to native apps for both Windows and Mac OS X. there’s a web version of TweetDeck for WebKit-based browsers. The app’s most drastic update dropped support for other social networks like LinkedIn, Google Buzz, Foursquare, and MySpace. Clearly missing still is support for Google+. TweetDeck is a decent app, and you can’t beat its price. However, earlier versions were clearly more popular with users; and it would be nice if it included support for a few other networks.

Download TweetDeck

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Chat with all of your Facebook friends with this handy Windows app

By Chris Spera on January 14, 2013

Keeping in touch with your friends isn’t always easy. Some use this tool. Others frequent that site. Getting to everyone on a common platform isn’t always possible; however, Facebook is one place where most everyone goes. This is one of the reasons why I really like Facebook Messenger. It’s a chat tool for Windows.

Facebook is great for catching up with old friends. Its chat features are pretty nice and very useful. You can chat with just about anyone, anytime, anywhere. The big problem with FB chat is that it requires you to have a browser open, and be logged into their site for it to work. Facebook Messenger solves this problem.

You can do almost everything with Facebook Messenger that you can with FB chat on their website. The app makes use of Java to provide universality from platform to platform, and this is both good and bad. Java may be the great programmatic equalizer – code once, execute on many platforms – but it can be problematic as well. Each platform performs differently and Java may not behave the same way from platform to platform. I had some problems getting the app to behave and function as I had hoped it would. It offered similar experiences on all the Windows machines I tried to run it on.

The app’s interface can be somewhat confusing. It’s not always clear where incoming messages and their alerts will appear. Sometimes they show up in your active chat window, other times in your inbox. It makes for a confusing conversation. It also doesn’t do a lot for the app’s usability, either. Facebook Messenger is an ok app, but nothing really to get excited about.

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Keep in touch with all of your Facebook friends with fTalk

By Chris Spera on April 24, 2012

Let’s face it. You use Facebook to keep up with your friends and family. You share pictures, stories, and stuff, and it’s a lot of fun. When it comes to connecting with friends, sometimes, getting the cute fluff out of the way so you can chat with yo’ peeps is just what is needed. This is the reason why I really like fTalk. It’s a multiplatform chat client, specifically designed to work with Facebook.

fTalk enhances your social media experience by taking Facebook to the next level. With fTalk, you can chat with your Facebook friends directly from your desktop, without having to run a browser and surf to Facebook. fTalk enables you to chat with your friends even when you’re at work or in a public environment where you don’t necessarily want to; or can’t open Facebook. You can see which of your friends have logged in, you can change your status, use emoticons and even video chat! fTalk offers a fun and light Facebook chat experience; and its free.

fTalk is a decent app. It allows you to chat with your FB friends even without having an active FB session going in your browser. It’s very much like Skype for Facebook; or something similar. The app is great. I like it. However its only real value is that it automatically integrates with your FB account and pulls in all your FB Friends. You could manually do that with Skype Windows Live Messenger, AIM or any other chat client that also supported video. While this doesn’t kill the application’s usefulness, it does limit you to just chatting or video calling to only your FB friends, and if someone does want to chat or video chat with you, they have to be your Facebook friend first.

download fTalk

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Create web banners for your websites with Banner Maker Pro

By Chris Spera on April 5, 2012

I love websites. Information is the key to getting specific points across to people and communicating that message in the right way, can be very important. That’s why I really like Banner Maker Pro. It’s a website banner tool for Windows; and its really easy to use.

Banner Maker Pro is software that allows you to create web-based banner ads, Facebook banners, web buttons, web headers, animated gifs, logos, image ads and other web graphics. Its wizard-like interface makes the process very simple and easy to complete. Simply follow the tabs at the top of the program to go step-by-step in the image making process. When you’ve completed the banner, you can slice it, if needed or just save it as a GIF, JPEG, or PNG and add it to your website.

Creating a banner with Banner Maker Pro is really just that easy. You don’t need any graphics expertise. With it, you can create banners for Facebook Timeline and then quickly upload it to Facebook. The application contains over 20 new animated background and 100 new background images in a variety of sizes.

Banner Maker Pro is good at what it does. It allows you to quickly and easily make banners for your websites and then upload them where they need to be. The process is easy to complete and the software, equally as easy to use. The biggest problem with the application is not what it can or can’t do, however. At nearly $40USD, the application is expensive for what it does. Getting value from the software is going to depend on the number of banners you create and the revenue, if applicable, they generate.

read full review | download Banner Maker Pro

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My Facebook Account is MINE, not Yours

By Chris Spera on April 3, 2012

Employers and Facebook

The House of Representatives crushes the FCC’s ability to protect end user privacy; and now the public is paying for it…

Last week, the House of Representatives in the US, struck down an FCC legislation amendment that would have protected end user privacy by forbidding employers or prospective employers from demanding Facebook credentials. I find this problematic, as there have been a couple different examples (1, 2) in the media recently. Unfortunately, a couple different EASY internet searches can quickly get you a dozen or more similar results, where students have been sent to detention or suspended for exercising what amounts to, free speech. Additionally, as noted in example number 1, above, one person has lost their job, also for exercising their US Constitutionally granted and protected rights of free speech.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to go on some freakin’ tirade here about first or fourth amendment rights. However, I am going to make a pretty harsh statement here:

Attention ALL US school districts, school board members, superintendents, principals, assistant principals, deans, councilors, teachers, etc. – Grow up!

As a tax payer, I spend a lot of time as well as money funding your activities. Let’s not go into how many Americans feel that their tax dollars are misused, abused or misappropriated when school district after school district contend that they simply don’t have enough money to fund <pick a program or curriculum>. That’s another rant for another time. However, just because a student has taken you to task or has made a “I don’t like <school employee> because of <event that happened to me>” statement on Facebook doesn’t mean that you automatically have the right to 1) demand they take it down, or 2) demand their Facebook (or any other social network) credentials so you can delete the comment/Fan page yourself or see what ELSE they may have said.

Who the HELL do you think you are?!?

The LAST time I checked, this was still America. The last time I checked, I was afforded the right to speak my mind (First Amendment). The last time I checked, I was protected from unlawful search and seizure or demands on my privacy (Fourth Amendment). I’m confused and, understandably, very concerned.

Reading between the lines, it appears that in both of the cases that I’ve cited, someone got embarrassed either because they behaved badly (example 2) or because something was brought to their attention that may have seemed harmless and/or funny to some (example 1), and the embarrassed persons complained to someone they work for.

Continue reading…

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Pinnacle Studio HD the Homemade Hollywood

By Flaviu on December 9, 2011

Choice is a good thing. With the 2011 Holiday Season fast approaching, I know that many are going to be taking a lot of video and digital pictures, and are going to be struggling with the best way to share the memories. Yes, online services like Facebook, Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, are nice; but not everyone has or wants to create an online media account. This is why I like applications like Pinnacle Studio HD. It’s a media editing and sharing application for Windows.

Pinnacle Studio HD makes it easy to edit your movies and digital photos like a pro. With it, you can quickly import videos and photos from a wide range of devices, and then edit scenes and create professional-looking HD movies with over 1,800 included effects, titles, and other content. When you’re done, you can export complete projects to today’s most popular formats or burn them to DVD, and share them with the world. If you make a mistake or your PC crashes, don’t worry. Pinnacle studio HD has a unique new Archive and Restore tool that conveniently backs up projects to preserve your work.

After you have your video and pictures imported and have created a project, you can access over 1,000 unique, professional-level transitions and effects with themes from Pinnacle’s Hollywood FX Volumes 1–3. The app also includes HFX Editor for creating custom effects. Best of all, the app includes the ability to edit HD video on your computer-with ultra-fast performance when using AVCHD and H.264-based formats.

read full review | download Pinnacle Studio HD

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