Download Squad

Cory Bohon

Filed under: Design, Photo, Web services, web 2.0

RoundPic makes rectangles jealous

by Cory Bohon May 29th 2008

Have you seen those fancy avatars with the rounded edges, and wondered "why don't my avatars look that cool?" Well, RoundPic.com hopes to help by letting you round off the corners of any image in just a few seconds. No messing with Photoshop!

All you have to do is upload your favorite image (in either JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG file type) and RoundPic.com will round off those pesky edges. You can select which corners to round, the quality of the rounded image, the round size, background color for rounded corners, and even if you want it exported as a transparent PNG image. We should note, however, that RoundPic.com doesn't actually host the image file, you will be required to download the saved image when you finish.

So, there is only one question remaining that we should all ask ourselves: in a world with rounded corners, will other shapes get jealous?

[via Mashable!]

Tags: edges, pictures, round, RoundPic

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

AOL completes take-over of Bebo

by Cory Bohon May 19th 2008

AOL completed its acquisition of social networking site Bebo today. You may remember that AOL announced it would buy Bebo for $850 million back in March. According to InformationWeek Bebo will be the center of AOL's new People Network business unit. Heading up this business unit is Joanna Shields who will serve as president. This "People Network" will consist of three AOL services: AIM, ICQ, and now Bebo.

While Bebo is most popular in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand, AOL is hoping grow this upcoming social network in the US. Silicon Alley Insider seems to think AOL will layoff employees working in the AIM/ICQ division due to the restructuring process.

What do you think? Did AOL make a good decision? Do you think this acquisition puts AIM at risk? Be sure to voice your opinion in the comments!

Disclaimer: AOL is the parent company of Weblogs, Inc. which owns DownloadSquad.

[via InformationWeek]

Tags: AOL, Bebo, social network, SocialNetwork

Filed under: Design, Internet

mooColorFinder finds web colors

by Cory Bohon May 19th 2008

If you're in the business of pirating colors from websites, then mooColorFinder is here to help you. Just type in a web address (say, your favorite blog) and mooColorFinder will return the colors used on that website. The colors are display as little tiles of color; which you can then mouse over to get the hex color.

Now, we should note that this web service doesn't seem to always work correctly on certain websites. We believe it has to do with the way in which the site was coded.

If you prefer desktop applications to web apps, you could always use DigitalColor Meter.app (Mac; found in /Applications/Utilities/) or Instant Eyedropper for Windows.

Tags: colors, design, DigitalColor Meter, DigitalcolorMeter, Instant Eyedropper, InstantEyedropper, Mac, mooColorFinder, web, websites, Win

Filed under: Internet, web 2.0

MyGads remembers your wife's birthday

by Cory Bohon May 19th 2008

Besides having a funny name, MyGads allows you to remember things that you might not always have the answer to. This web 2.0 service allows you to input information that you want to remember later, then when you need the information, you can either send the service an instant message or text message from your phone with a keyword to retrieve the information.

For instance, if you want to remember "My Birthday," then you could create a statement similar to "My Birthday - 12/06." You could then text or IM MyGads to retrieve the birthday. This service has unlimited uses and might just get you out of a sticky situation, say, remembering your anniversary or wife's birthday.

Tags: instant messaging, InstantMessaging, MyGads, service, text messages, TextMessages, web 2.0, Web2.0

Filed under: Internet, Web services

Twitter to kill spammy accounts

by Cory Bohon May 8th 2008

Twitter may seem nice and innocent to a nonchalant user, but they may soon start killing spammy accounts with one stone. According to a recent News.com article, accounts flagged as spam will be removed. Employees of Twitter have been chirping up a storm about the new policy in their Google group forum.

Previously, blacklisted accounts were simply frozen to adding new followers, but as the amount of users on the service has increased, so have the spammers -- therefore, new policies had to be put into place. Users will be notified prior to their accounts being removed and have a chance to plead their case to the big bird in Twitterville.

Tags: accounts, CNET, News.com, Twitter

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

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