Archive for the ‘reviews’ Category

Google Earth 6 now has enhanced features that you just can’t afford to miss. Get the up to minute temperature in any region in the world with a quick zoom. See conditions, precipitation and weather patterns around the entire planet. Google Earth is a great way to explore your world without having to leave the comfort of your computer chair.

You can search the entire world with and locate just about any landmark or location on the planet with ease. Become a world traveler and have access to cities across the globe with Google Earth. Dive into the depths of the ocean, explore remote islands and even fly away to faraway galaxies.

With Google Earth you can locate any businesses such as restaurants, hotels, airports and other attractions by name, address or city with one click. View roads, buildings, oceans and even weather from street view or from up above. With a 360 degree street view, Google Earth makes you feel like you’re right there standing on the road with the ability to look in any direction.

Recently Google Earth had added some long awaited updates to their software. These updates allow the user to experience Google Earth in a way like never before such as a “drive around” ground level view where you can literally tour cities by moving your mouse roller forward and backward. These same software updates allow the user to go back in time on map views as far back as 1995.

Now you’re not limited to just exploring the Earth. Without a download you can use Google Moon to see the moon’s surface and Google Sky to view the many stars and planets of our solar system up close.

Keep posted on my blog and website for internet related news, tips and advice, or contact me for details on a small business web design by phone or email!

Ever wanted to be able to download all the MP3 music you wanted but couldn’t find a website you could trust? Well now the solution to that problem is beind you with the DVD Videosoft Youtube to MP3 converter.

Not only have the ability to convert your favorite Youtube songs to MP3, but also, practically anything that is on Youtube is now yours to download for free. Standup comedy, television shows, documentaries and even movie clips can now be on your iPod, MP3 player or iPhone.

Simply install the software, choose “Free Youtube to MP3″, paste the Youtube links then click “download”. The files appear in a folder you can open after the downloading is complete. The program even has a Youtube to iPod converter to convert videos to your devices such as PSP, iPhone or iPad.

The recent update to the software has given the program easier navigation, a softer look and a simplified setup divided into 8 tabs: YouTube, MP3 & sound, CD, DVD, DVD & video, photos, mobiles, apple devices and 3D. Due to copyright reasons, some videos may not be downloadable from YouTube.

Contact me today for web design related tips and advice and bookmark my blog for the latest on internet related topics.

You can use Tinychat for video, text and microphone conferencing whether for business or with friends. With no download necessary, Tinychat is a great alternative to Skype, allowing up to 12 broadcasts. Just make a room then send the link to those you want to invite to video conference.

Although the interface is simple, there are a couple steps in order to get started with your video conference room. Name a chatroom and click create, make a screen name, password, enter your email, check the over 18 box and enter the captcha. The “Start Broadcasting” button at the top left gives the option of video camera, microphone or both. You can even import other camera options with an application from manycam.com to change lens options or add a tropical background to yourself.

Tinychat, by allowing multiple broadcasts at once makes communication in real time easy. Change your text color with the command /color= or change your nickname by double clicking on your name. Tinychat supports multiple browsers, but perhaps not the new beta version of IE9. Try out Tinychat to talk to clients or friends and get your video on today!

Some tinychat commands:
/color (changes the color of your chat)
/topic this is the room topic (changes the room topic, if you are a room operator)
/msg nickname this is private (sends a private message to another user in the room)
/ignore nickname (blocks their chat messages from appearing on your screen)
/ban nickname (kicks and bans the user from the room, if you are a room operator)
/banlist (displays the ban/forgive list, if you are a room operator)
/oper nickname (makes that user a room operator like you)
/broadcast nickname (allows that user to broadcast)
/close nickname (closes that user’s broadcast if you had allowed them)

Google Instant Results is a new feature automatically integrated with Google now to make our lives easier. Perhaps you noticed on your last Google website search that results began showing up as you typed your query. The news of this added feature has made web design related research much smoother for me.

Google Instant search is changing search engines with faster, more accurate search results. Your website search streams results in real time as you type each letter, therefore giving you the power to scan matches as you complete the search. Google has stated this predictive search could increase productivity at work by saving an average of 2 to 5 seconds per query.

The Google search engine even gives you the option to turn Instant off if you’re uncomfortable with it. If you don’t have Google Instant Results yet it should be available to you soon being Google intends to make the feature available to users across the globe.

How would you like to add your likeness on a building or a movie theater screen? Perhaps put your image on a billboard or in the clouds. Now you can with LoonaPix Photo Editor. Try this photo graphics website to have some fun and turn your photos into works of art.

Once you finish with one photo effect, the links to change the effect or upload another photo are close by, so navigation on this website is simple. When you are done editing one photo, you can either add a different effect or just upload another one. Rather than using a photoshop program, LoonaPix Photo Editor could prove to be a good option for a photo editing website.

I also found that Photomontage Generator from WriteOnIt had a variety of excellent photograph effects as well, with the main difference being that you choose the photo effect first, then upload a photo.

Cell phones have evolved from huge, heavy, bulky, awkward mobile devices into the slim, light, handheld touchscreen smartphones we see today. They are thought of as handheld computers integrated within a mobile phone that are capable of using literally thousands of online applications. Such applications allow the user to watch movies, check email, Skype, connect on Twitter and Facebook, enable GPS, check weather conditions, access music, and so much more.

These handheld devices come in many varieties, shapes and sizes. Some of the most popular handheld devices include the iPhone, Blackberry PDA and Motorola Droid, and often come equipped with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, spanning varieties such as handheld PC’s, palmtops and PDA’s. Some of the most popular brands include Nokia, Motorola, Sony, Dell, Sharp, Verizon, LG, the Apple iPhone, and T-Mobile Sidekick. From the smaller palmtops and handheld PC’s, these electronic devices bridge the gap between notebooks, netbooks and tablets.

Many people get Android and Droid confused. Droid is a phone created by Motorola sold by Verizon and Android is a cell phone operating system created by Google. The Droid has Android 2.0 installed on it.

One of the newest versatile Android tablets is the Dell Streak. This versatile Android tablet comes in a 5, 7 and 10 inch. This handheld device sits between smartphones and larger notebooks and tablets commonly used today.

To justify it’s existence, the Streak needed to excel over other smartphones and provide a rich multi-media experience. Staying a step ahead of cutting edge technology is the only way for a mobile device to survive. Keeping current and informed about how high tech devices can simplify your life may be advantageous to you.

Coderepair went from a 16 to a 95 grade score in under a year according to Website Grader. How did I do it, you might ask. Natural methods of search engine optimization helped my website to gain popularity online.

Writing articles gave me backlinks, or inbound links to my website. A website’s grade is partially based on how many inbound links point to it. Also by subscribing to websites that offer inbound links, I also raised my grade.

Another measure that is used to calculate a website’s score is the number of pages that a site has. By adding a blog post twice a week and adding pages to my resources section, I managed to get my site from 10 pages to over 400 in this last year.

Having an aged domain certainly didn’t count against me. Being this website started in April 2003 gives it a bit of authority according to search engines. So when faced with the decision of whether to build your website on an aged domain or to come up with a new one, I would build on the aged domain.

Build an online presence with a good reputation to promote your business. Use natural methods of SEO, write articles and blog posts often to get some inbound links to your website, and an aged domain never hurts.

There was a need for a new custom CMS website design template for my site and a cleaner layout for easier navigation.  I decided to do an entirely new design and change a few things around for the desired look.  Compare the old home page at the left of this blog post and the new one to the right.  By moving the sidebar from the left to the right, using a lighter scheme of colors and changing the fonts, button styles and background, this is a look that I can be proud of to represent my business.

In order to solve the situation with having a clean, easy to navigate website, moving the Custom Google Search Box to the top of the sidebar seemed like a good idea.  Also now it’s easy to add different items into the sidebar exclusive to certain sections of my website.  This clean layout with lighter colors gives my website visitors a more pleasant browsing experience.

As a result, by using a new custom CMS design template for my website, navigation is easier and an improved browsing experience is attained.  Customizing the sidebar for each section is the next step, but for now, enjoy exploring my site for more tips and advice on small business website design.

Finding the distance between cities is rather easy with the resources that are online now. Free distance calculator websites can be used anytime you would like to plan long trips or just calculate the distance between cities.

Simply choose a starting city and destination city and these distance calculator websites estimate the distance between the two either in kilometers or miles. In some cases these sites can even calculate the distance between cities either driving or as a straight line.

Most of these distance calculators now support locations worldwide, not just within the US. These services are provided for free with unlimited access. TravelMath Flight Distance Calculator also offers other options such as flight time, closest airport, driving or flight distance, drive time, hotels in the area, major cities, time difference, fuel costs of driving, flight emissions and latitude/longitude.

Here are a few popular distance calculator websites:

ConvertIt Driving Distance Calculator
Infoplease Distance Calculator
GeoBytes City Distance Tool
MapCrow
Symsys Mileage Calculator
TravelMath Flight Distance Calculator
World Atlas Travel Distance Calculator

Sometimes translating a language online could be difficult if you don’t know what language you are trying to translate. These language detecting tools make the task much easier by telling you the name of that foreign language. Then once you identify what language you are trying to translate from, you could use these tools to translate text and website pages.

Simply copy and paste the text into the search box of these language identifiers in order to be on your way to translating unidentified foreign languages. Some of the most popular tools I have found online include Google Translate, Whatlanguageisthis.com, and Polyglot 3000.

Of these three tools for translating text, Polyglot 3000 can recognize the most languages overall, about 400. This is the only downloadable desktop tool of the three, so you don’t need to be online to use it. All three of these foreign language detectors are free to use for an unlimited amount of time.