Entries Tagged 'Tools' ↓

ATTENTION: If Your Subscribers Use Gmail Read This – Online Marketing, Visibility and Business Blogging Tips from Denise Wakeman: “Essentially, any URL that has a capital letter after the http:// is not an active, clickable link in Gmail.”

Denise learned about this from Alex Mandossian’s Productivity Strategies Facebook page.

Essentially if immediately after the ‘http://’ the first character is a capital letter the URL becomes just text. Click through to Denise’s article to see some examples.

Andrew Baron originally found and shared the video above. It’s well worth the watch. It’s a pseudo demonstration of Penguin Books’ plans for the iPad.  This of course could be applied to any similar tablet device. Just watch. It’s cool.

Thank you Andrew for sharing this.

The picture doesn’t do it justice, it really is a cool looking lens.

Lensbaby description says this:

High refractive index, low dispersion, coated glass doublet allows tack sharp sweet spot

Um yeah. What that means in people speak is the lens gives you a window of in focus picture and the rest out of focus. It’s surprisingly flexible. Literally.

The lens body bends and gives. It can be compressed and bent in any direction. Area of focus moves accordingly. In case you’re still confused, the lens comes with an instruction book. I might add a rather upbeat sounding booklet at that.

Notice how the Guinness text is clear yet even the cap is slightly out of focus. Radiating out from that center, the photo becomes increasingly blurred.  Caps aside, this allows for some interesting portraits.

Spot on! by Tojosan, on Flickr

Notice the blur effect out from the center. Distance and angles play an important part in crafting the shot with this lens.

Click on the lens picture above, affiliate link, to buy yours today. Why get one now? Drastic price cut on Amazon for the Lensbaby 2.0 Canon EF Mount SLR Camera Lens (LB2C). Today it’s less than half the normal retail price.

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• Lensbaby turns 6 and you get the presents (crunchgear.com)

Disqus is currently installed here on The Broad Brush and other blogs I run. I settled on it a good while back and it’s generally been good to the blog and the commenters.

Their team has released a new version in beta. I’m a fool, so I’ve installed it in place of the current release. So far it appears it didn’t eat the old comments. Let’s let it rip.

What do I want from you? Even the smallest comment you feel up to leaving. It’s easy. There is no registration required or you can sign in with  your Twitter or Facebook or other IDs.

Say anything, leave a cryptic code, include a link or three. Try to break it if you’re up to it. Oh, and leave a video comment if you’re brave.

Cheers to Disqus.

DeWitt Clinton wants you to finger your gmail friends.  Webfinger that is.

They’ve published a service, much like the old finger protocol, for you to ping your friends. Webfinger is not yet as much funs as the older finger command.  It used to be you could post a message or bio or whatever in to your .project or .plan file.

Webfinger gives you something different:

WebFinger client screenshot

It’s basically your Google profile information. What I’d like to see is it to strip off and display your bio from the profile. Heck, why not even encourage Google to implement a .plan file setup?

I’d like you to do something, finger yourself -> Webfinger. Feel free to post your results in the comments below. I’d love to hear what you would like to see in this new tool as well.

Cool video created by The Wonderfactory and Time, Inc. Consider it the Sports Illustrated view of tablet PC meets the Times Inc magazine.

There’s even a glimpse of what the Swimsuit Issue would look like on a tablet. Makes me want to run out and buy an Apple iPad.

Movies by Flixster Main Screen Screenshot

Movies, a rather plain name for an iPhone application, Flixster prefers it.  Movies app provides a portal for viewing information about movies. Sounds simple right? This app is comprehensive in spite of its name.

Movies divides movie information up into sections: Box Office, Theaters, Upcoming, DVD, My Movies.

Box office is what it sounds like, movies currently at the box office.  Movies are organized by Opening and Top Box Office.  These can be sorted by popularity, rating, or title.  This section, as all sections and screens, is searchable.

Box office is also the default screen.  It has the standard set of movie options you’ll see on the other choices, Theater, Upcoming, etc.

Those choices include viewing the trailer, if available, and viewing more information about the movie.

Movies by Flixster Movie Information Screenshot

The next image shows what you get when a movie s selected.  Flixster users’ rating, critics’ rating, and what your friends think.  Typically run time and rating are also show at the top.

The trailer option is listed her if available as well as showtimes, your rating and photos from the movie.  This is only the top portion of this long scrolling screen though.

Movies by Flixster Movie Information Screen 2 Screenshot

The next section of the Movie information screen, scrolled down to, is a synopsis (hit and miss here), a small selection of photos, and then the cast. The cast listings are clickable.

Beyond this section are reviews by your friends, and by other Flixster users in general.  Movie reviews include the beginning of each comment with the ability to select a specific comment to see in full detail.

Again, you get to this Movie information screen from any of the options: Box Office, Theater, etc..

Movies by Flixster Movie Information Screen 3 Screenshot

The bottom of the Movie information screen rounds up the reviews from Flixster users but also gives you some other movie website links.

Special bonus here is that these don’t leave the Movies application. They open up a special in-line browser window to the site selected. This allows you to jump to say IMDb (my personal favorite) and not have to restart the Movies app.  You simply click the DONE button and poof, back to Movies.

That’s a feature more applications should be taking advantage of.

Movies by Flixster Theaters Screen Screenshot

The Theaters screen is the last one I’d like to share.  Theaters are shown by favorites then by distance by default. Users can mark any theater a favorite.

Selecting a theater provides the showtimes of course, but there’s more. Phone number, address (which jumps out to Google Maps and allows you to come back), Yelp connection (which goes to the Yelp app with a search for nearby restaurants), and a selector for showtimes date.

It’s a load of features for a movies information application. There are a few other applications going after the same market but in my opinion, this is not only a well rounded application for movies but it’s one of the best built iPhone Touch apps I’ve used so far.

For the record, there is a Flixster website.

Movies app link.

Have you used this app or another in the same vein? Please comment below and tell me what’s better or best.

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• Flixster to Acquire Rotten Tomatoes (mashable.com)

Have you heard? There’s a place to send your prayers on Twitter, @TheKotel. Direct message your prayer to @TheKotel, from there the prayer is printed on a note, hand rolled and then placed in the The Kotel, the actual wall in Jerusalem.

The Tweet Your Prayers site provides a well done instructional video on tweeting your prayer.

This is something I’m going to sing up for. How about you?

Watch and enjoy learning how to use your Poken. I’m sure wine is a required element of proper use.

iPad Nano from Creighton on Vimeo.

The real news out of Apple today was the iPad Nano!

(it’s humor, laugh a little)