Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Windows Mobile, Productivity, Web services, Social Software, iPhone

If you're not one of the 125,000 people who got a chance to try out the cross-platform note capture app Evernote during its private beta, don't despair. Evernote has launched an open beta, so now everyone can give it a try. If you were already in the beta, does this change anything for you? Yes, indeed it does: there are now two types of Evernote accounts, free and premium.

Free users keep all the features of the closed beta, with the caveat that you're now limited to 40mb a month of uploaded notes. If you're a power-user, or someone who's really sold on the Evernote lifestyle, go premium for 5 bucks a month or $45/year and get rid of that cap. Premium also comes with the option of SSL for all your uploads (for all those pictures of the enemy base, we guess) and priority access to the queue for Evernote's text-recognition features.

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Filed under: Text, Social Software, web 2.0

A mind map is a graphical representation of words or ideas that are linked around a central theme. Putting down your ideas on a mind map really helps to concentrate your efforts to ensure you stay focus. But while mind maps are generally helpful, assembling one on your computer may require a map of its own.

Instead of figuring out how to put one together yourself, text2mindmap has developed a site where you can enter in your ideas in an outline format and Text2mindmap will generate a fully interactive map. You can move the segments of the map around to see how each word or idea is connected to another.

The site is in beta and configuration options are limited to font, color and sizing. What would be nice for future updates, is the ability to download your map to some sort of self contained application that will allow you to retain all the interactive aspects of the map instead of the static image download option currently available.

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Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0, Browsers

Social web browsing plugin Yoono has emerged from private beta. The new version still wears a beta label, but it's available to the public. Yoono is basically a utility that hangs out in the Firefox sidebar and gives you quick access to instant messenging services, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, and Piczo.

The public beta adds support for Firefox. It also packs a few new features:

• Filter your friends activity by network, group, or names
• Add FriendFeed and Flickr comments
  
• Send Twitter direct messages and replies
• Upload pictures to Facebook or poke friends
• Browse Digg video

Yoono will also be adding Google Talk and MySpace soon. There does appear to be a bug that prevents Yoono from working properly on Firefox 3 in some cases. The problem seems to show up if you've installed some other browser plugins. Yoono is expected to release an updated version addressing this problem within the next few days.

[via Mashable]

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, web 2.0

If you ever had the dream of being the editor of your own magazine but lacked the experience, network and the monetary investments to get it off the ground don't give up yet. MagCloud hopes that with its services you can be the next publishing mogul.

While currently in beta, MagCloud claims that the process is easy enough.

• Create your magazine according to their specifications and upload it to their servers.
• Order a proof to verify that the magazine is how you want it.
• Set your price and publish it.

The concept is similar to that of CafePress which allows you to set the price for your own custom printed t-shirt with no investment on your part. While we haven't seen an actual physical copy of MagCloud's work, the ability to print your own magazine is tempting.

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Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Productivity

If you're like us, you have to read long blocks of text on a monitor all the time, and it's kind of a pain for your eyes. E-books and long PDF articles would be great if they could somehow get diced into neat, readable columns. Hey, it works for newspapers. Well, Tofu brings that pleasant reading experience to the Mac.

In a nutshell, Tofu cuts up what you're reading -- whether it's a PDF, a doc, or a chunk of text you've selected -- into columns. This is a good, because monitors are wider than the human eye is really comfortable with, and columns fit the text into your optimal scanning area for easy reading. Tofu's full screen mode and adjustable text size and colors are crucial, too. This app is good enough that we'll think twice before printing out something we can just read in Tofu.

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Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Linux, Microsoft, Freeware

Installing or reinstalling Windows can be a real hassle. Although Windows XP comes with a basic set of drivers, there's a good chance you'll have to dig out the driver disc for some of your hardware, or scour the Internet for the appropriate files. And many power users apply hundreds of tweaks to Windows for increased performance and stability. Indeed, a simple reinstall can become a full fledged weekend project.

With Tiny XP, cumbersome installs are a thing of the past. This powerful custom install disk contains hundreds of the drivers, both new and obscure, meaning no more hunting. The supercharged version of the Windows installer properly configured devices on our test machine, a Latitude 640, that even Dell didn't mention, such as an infrared port. In addition, Tiny XP installs thousands of registry hacks, that improve the system so much you'll never want to go back to the standard version. As if that's not enough, it even includes a bunch of cool options at boot time for trouble shooting, and even a fully functional copy of the Damn Small Linux live CD!

Downloading TinyXP is very illegal since it's basically pirated version of Windows. The argument between fair use and IP law isn't going to end any time soon, so use at your own risk. Don't worry though, although it might not be as easy, there are legal ways to get similar results.

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Filed under: OS Updates, Symbian, Open Source, Mobile Minute

Nokia has announced that it is buying out the 52 percent of Symbian that it didn't already own and opening up the platform. Nokia and a number of other companies including AT&T, LG, and Samsung have also announced the creation of the Symbian Foundation.

Now, open source software is great for developers because it mean that anyone can easily look at the code, tweak it, and write applications designed to run well on the platform. But ther's also a huge benefit for telecom companies. Nokia will provide access to the Symbian OS royalty-free to members of the Symbian Foundation. And anyone can join the foundation for a nominal $1500 annual fee.

Symbian currently has about 60 percent of the mobile browser market share. The move to make the platform open source should help Nokia and Symbian maintain that lead in the face of challenges from the LiMo Foundation and Google's Linux-based Android platform.

[via OStatic]

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Filed under: Internet, Video, Web services, Search, web 2.0

Visual search engine SearchMe is out of private beta and now has two nifty new features: Media search and stacks. Stacks is a fancy way of saying bookmarks, while Media Search lets you interact with online videos and images all from the SearchMe interface.

While traditional search engines like Google and Yahoo! present you with a list of text-based results, SearchMe shows screenshots of web pages matching your query. For example, searching for "Download Squad" would bring up a screenshort of our home page. When you click on the image you can visit the original page.

Now you can also click the video or images tabs and pull up screenshots of YouTube videos or Flickr images. When you click the play button you can even watch a video without leaving the SearchMe page. So you can flip through videos much like you would using the PicLens browser plugin, but without installing anyting.

The Stacks feature lets you organize collections of bookmarked pages. For example, you could create a list of your favorite tech news sites with thumbnails for easy reference. You can also share your stacks via email or social networking sites.

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Filed under: Internet, Productivity, Web services, Google, Googleholic, web 2.0

Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix for everything Google!

In this edition:

• Google Finance gets more real-time quotes
• Google Map Maker
• Google Doc creation shortcuts
• Customize Google forms
• Personalized YouTube homepage

Continue reading Googleholic for June 24, 2008

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Filed under: Internet, VoIP

Internet telephony service Jaxtr lets you add a widget to your web site that lets visitors contact you over the phone. Now the company is launching a new service that routes telephone calls over the internet whether you're taking the time to click a button on a web site or not.

Here's how it works. When someone views your Jaxtr profile, they can click a "Call Me" button. Jaxtr will then bring up a local phone number they can call. So if you're in the US and the person who wants to call you is in China, they'll get a Chinese phone number. Jaxtr makes the connection over the internet, but once you've got a number, you can use it any time you like. No computer necessary.

You can call other Jaxtr users for free, or purchase credits (called "Jax") which you can use to make cheap long distance calls.

[via VentureBeat]

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