Web Services and Tools

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Finding a tool that let’s you polish up your photos for the web is not an easy task. Some photo editing tools are so feature packed, they become a little too difficult to use for the average computer user. So we went searching for online photo editing tools to see what was available and we’ve found three products that we think meet the needs of most.

The tools are Picnik, Splashup and Snipshot. All three allow you to upload a photo from your computer or from the Internet. Both Picnik and Snipshot also have a Premium upgrade that gives you far more photo enhancing effects to choose from than just the standard freebie package. Here is our brief take on each of the tools.

Picnik

Registration for a free account was extremely easy and didn’t take you through the email validation process that is common today. There are more photo effects available to the free user than with Snipshot, and the premium upgrade is the least expensive of the tools at $24.95 for one year, or about $2 per month.

Splashup

This was our favorite because it opened up a familiar application window when we were ready to get started with our photo editing. Registration was very simple with no email verification. And all of the effects are available with your free registration, but there are not as many effects as Picnik offers to premium subscribers. There was no Premium membership option available for this tool.

Snipshot

There was no registration required for us to upload a photo and add some effects. However, the effects available to the free user are very limited. The good news is the premium membership is the most expensive at $9 per month, the good news being that you only needed to buy a month premium membership at a time instead of a full year.

We recommend you to try out all three and make the choice for yourself.

Happy photo editing!

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We’ve just run across this wonderful new tool from COLOURlovers.

Getting the perfect color or color scheme for your web site, or graphic can be difficult. The most difficult part is remembering those cryptic hex codes or RGB codes for your favorite color.

So the folks at COLOURlovers created a color picker tool. But the best part is this tool is free, and they’re making the code available to put on your website.

As we are always scouring the web looking for useful Web Tools for our visitors, we will be putting this on our site. But we thought we should let our visitors know they have the option to get a hold of this tool as well to benefit their web design efforts.

You can get the code here.

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What the heck is fring?!

First, the boring description … fring is a VoIP application that allows you to make calls, chat with your friend and view real-time presence of your contact, and that works anywhere in the world.

I know, “so what” you say. “I already have an application that does that”.

You’re probably right. But what if I said that fring is a mobile VoIP application for your mobile phone? What if I told you it uses your mobile phones wi-fi or mobile data plan to allow you to make VoIP calls and live chat? Interested yet?

What if I also told you that in addition to being able to perform all of these functions among fring users, you could also seamlessly integrate fring with your Skype, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Twitter, AIM and Yahoo! accounts? Ahhh, now I have your attention! For the more advanced technology crowd, you can even setup your own SIP account and use it through Fring.

We have been using fring for about 6 months now and we are well impressed with it’s features and performance. Initially, we had some issues with connectivity, but the latest version of fring uses Wispr technology to manage your access points and allow you to experience near seamless Wi-Fi roaming between access points and 3G networks. This was the deciding factor in making this a standard application on all of our corporate handsets. The roaming still isn’t as seamless as roaming between mobile cell sites, but once you setup the connections settings for the wi-fi access points you use, you won’t be able to notice the difference.

How does it work? The website has a good section on how fring works? There are also videos on the different fring features, fring ringtones (fringtones), and a fringME widget that web site owners can put on their website to let others see when they are online with quick “click to chat” and “click to find me” options. Unfortunately, the widget only works with a limited number of handsets that support GPS positioning.

We hope you enjoy this new web tool as much as we have.

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Running a successful business means that I am in a lot of meetings during the day, socializing in the evenings and rarely in front of my computer. When I am in front of the computer, it is usually spent catching up on the news items I’ve missed and clearing out the Inbox. But my biggest problem, is when I am in a meeting, it never fails, I need access to a file or “that email” so I have a reference point for discussion. Well, I found a solution …

This little application allows me to access the files and folders on my PC in the office (and at home), my Outlook folders (Inbox, calendar, etc.) , my Desktop search application (currently Google Desktop), and Skype remotely. And when I’m using a method of remote access, it is a secure method as well. It is available for both the PC and Mac platforms.

To get started, you need to go to the Soonr website, register and download the Soonr Desktop application. This application is a resident application that stays active on your PC and controls the access to the selected content on your PC.

Once you have the Soonr Desktop installed, configure the folders you want remote access to, and active the programs that you want to access as well with a user name and password. You can also configure your mobile device for remote access.

That’s it!

Now, as for remote access, I personally use a Nokia E65 equipped with Wi-Fi. I have activated access to my Outlook folders, a few folders where I store attachments, my folder for all of my pictures, and my MP3 files, and I have activated Google Desktop and Skype for remote access. So next time I am in a meeting and I need that attachment or email, I simply access my PC using my mobile phone. I have also been in a situation where I needed to access files or my calendar from another PC, and this works fine from the Soonr Web Login panel.

I actually have this installed on my Work PC, Home PC and my Laptop, so I can access files from any of my machines. Best of all, I can make Skype calls from my mobile phone. While this isn’t the only option for making free calls, it is a quick solution for contacting people that are online when I really need something.

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