Message posts

Filed under: Video, Social Software, Mobile

12seconds.tv introduces 12Mail video messaging app

by Jay Hathaway Sep 22nd 2009

12seconds.tv is extending its bite-sized video service - 12 seconds per video, as the name implies - into the mobile universe, with a nice-looking video messaging app for the iPhone. 12mail [app store link] lets you send short video messages to your contacts, which it can pull from your Facebook or Twitter accounts, if you like. Recording a new video (if you have an iPhone 3GS) and sending a saved video are both supported. You can even take a still picture and record an audio track instead of going for a full video.

If your friends have 12mail, they'll get push notifications when they receive your messages, and they'll be able to watch them using the iPhone's built-in video app. If they don't, the messages can be posted on their Facebook walls or sent privately via Twitter direct message. The 12-second time limit really works in 12mail's favor on the iPhone, considering the limited upload speeds on 3G and EDGE. 12Mail is also free, in case you needed another reason to give it a shot.

Tags: 12mail, 12seconds.tv, facebook, iphone, message, mobile, video

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Office, Productivity, Apple, Microsoft

MailRaider - open Outlook .msg files on your Mac

by Jason Clarke Sep 17th 2009

One of the more frustrating things I found when moving from Windows to a Mac in a business environment was receiving email messages that contained other messages as attachments. This is a fairly common thing for Outlook users to do, and it doesn't usually cause problems because Outlook can happily open those messages. It's not very good email etiquette and you should avoided doing it if possible (forwarding the message makes it possible for the receiver's email program to index and search the contents), but there are times when it makes sense -- such as when forwarding a batch of messages at once.

The problem is that the Mail app that comes with all Macs unfortunately isn't capable of opening Outlook's .msg files. If you use a Mac and regularly receive messages from Outlook users, it's likely you've run into this problem at some point.

45RPM Software created MailRaider to solve just this problem. It's a free app that does one thing, and one thing well: makes .msg files created with Microsoft Outlook viewable on a Mac, including any included attachments. Formatting may be lost, but typically that's not a huge issue.

One interesting aspect of MailRaider is that the developer has pulled out the code that he uses to read the mail messages, and has turned it into a framework he calls MOLE. MOLE is a free framework for developers to use that need to read Microsoft OLE documents on a Mac.

There are other ways to read Outlook messages on a Mac, but MailRaider's price (free) and simplicity are definitely compelling.

[via Lifehacker]

Tags: attachments, business environment, business-environment, BusinessEnvironment, developers, mac, mail messages, mail-messages, MailMessages, message, microsoft outlook, microsoft-outlook, MicrosoftOutlook, mole, outlook, outlook messages, outlook-messages, OutlookMessages

Filed under: Fun, Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware

Torment (or help) your users with MsgBoxToy's Windows alert boxes

by Lee Mathews Nov 5th 2008

While there are certainly some good ways to put MsgBoxToy to use - say, prompting users to save their work or take a computing break - it's also a lot of fun to create dialog boxes simply to mess with your co-workers.

The program's interface is incredibly simple: choose a title, enter up to four lines of text, and enter button labels. You can also select the type of icon to display: stop, alert, question, or information. Click the make button to preview your work, and then save it to a file.

Running [the path to MsgBoxToy]\msgboxtoy.exe /text.txt launches your message. Make sure to give your message a test run, as Windows' security may ask you to confirm the run command. Just untick the always ask box and that will be the end of that.

Because MsgBox uses a command line switch to display alerts, it plays well with the Windows Task Scheduler. With Vista and Windows 7's support for on event tasks, MsgBoxToy can actually be put to very good use in a workplace setting.

It's a quick, easy way to create Windows message boxes. Whether you use your new software powers for good or evil is entirely up to you.

Tags: alert, alerts, error, message, message box, MessageBox

Filed under: Productivity, Web services, Social Software, Web

Notifu: group messaging to help you make plans

by Jay Hathaway Nov 3rd 2008

If you've ever been in the situation of trying to make plans with a group of people who are all communicating via different methods (SMS, IM, email), then you know how much of a pain it is to keep track of what everyone is doing. Notifu tries to make it easier, with a web app that can send messages to your friends via email, IM or text message, and let you know when they've received them.

On Notifu, you can set up a contact list, complete with groups. You can also set up polls, so your friends can text back a single number to indicate what they prefer to do, and Notifu will count them up for you. Notifu's developers are also very savvy about web platforms, with an iPhone web app available and an OpenSocial app in the works.

Tags: im, meeting, message, messaging, Notifu, sms

Filed under: Internet, E-mail, AOL

Homer Simpson impersonator attacks fans' computers

by Danny Mendez Jul 14th 2008

Earlier this week, a Homer Simpson impersonator began instant messaging fans with a link to an "internet-only exclusive Simpsons episode." This -- like many things spawned in the dark corners of 'net -- turned out to be a PC virus. But how did this impostor gain Homer's identity?

It turns out Mr. Simpson has a legitimate, real-world e-mail address: chunkylover53@aol.com, which appeared in the episode, "The Dad Who Knew Too Little." Before airing the episode back in 2002 for the first time, Simpsons writer-producer Matt Selman registered the address with AOL. As soon as the episode finished airing, Selman's inbox filled-up instantly. Selman began replying to emails under the guise of Homer, and fans got to enjoy a short conversation with the cartoon star

Six years later, the email account is no longer active, but fans begin receiving AIM messages from Chunkylover53. Fans forgot that an AIM screen-name can be tied to an email other than its AOL email counterpart, and Selman never registered it or abandoned it at a later time -- leaving it open for hijack.

[via TECH.BLORGE.com]

Tags: AIM, aol, email, homer, impersonator, imposter, impostor, instant, instant message, InstantMessage, message, messaging, simpson

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Mozilla, Freeware, Open Source

Thunderbird: auto delete duplicate messages

by Danny Mendez Dec 18th 2007

It's a problem we've all faced before: We venture away from web based email programs to try those cool-looking desktop email clients everyone's raving about. After getting through the hassle of making sure everything syncs properly, one of the problems many seem to face is duplicate messages. Well, open source Thunderbird users don't stand around letting problems be; They face them with Thunderbird customizations like the Remove Duplicate Messages add-on.

Released by Thorsten W. Schmidt on the Mozilla site, the add-on searches a given folder for duplicate messages and automatically deletes them by tagging all duplicates with a delete flag and one message with the keep flag. To use it, first install it from the Mozilla site. Once installed, open Thunderbird and right click on a folder. Click "Remove Duplicate Messages" and that's it.

The add-on also lets you configure what fields you want to compare such as sender, message, etc. It also checks sub-folders, and can analyze about 1000 messages per second. Finally, you can choose to keep the the bigger, smaller, unread, first found, or last found Message if you have a preference.

[via ghacks]

Tags: auto, automatically, duplicate, duplicate message, duplicate messages, DuplicateMessage, DuplicateMessages, e-mail, e-mail client, E-mailClient, email, email client, EmailClient, message, messages, mozilla, third party, ThirdParty, thunderbird

Filed under: Business, Developer, Social Software

Facebook "is" updating status messages

by Chris Gilmer Nov 20th 2007

Quick, name the most annoying thing about your Facebook profile? The status message!

Trying to contort your status to fit the "is" from updates using the proper English language often proves extremely challenging. How many times have you ignored the "is" altogether and just inserted whatever you wanted, whether it made sense or not? Fear not, Facebook has listened to their users. Over 164,000 members in a Facebook group lobbied to get rid of the clunky "is" verb and succeeded. Currently the developer platform is the only code that has been updated with the change.

However, there's no word on when you'll see the "is" disappear from your user accounts.

Tags: facebook, is, message, social-network, status

Filed under: Audio, Internet, E-mail, Web services

Text message your voice with Pinger

by Chris Gilmer Oct 30th 2007

Text messages are normally easy to send, but what about when you're driving or occupied and want to get something complex across? Pinger is a service that lets users call into a service and leave a voicemail to a contact, that will in turn send a text message instead of a ring. Recipients then press a button and listen to your voice message and can reply or forward the message. It's a quick alternative service that makes voice messages easy without actually ringing up and interrupting a person. Recipients are presented with a message that shows who the message is from, how long it is, and when it was sent before they listen.

The Pinger service is free to use, but is only currently open to US residents. Instead of calling a number, Pinger has a special application for Blackberry and Treo that speeds up the process and allows for a visual preview of messages, list of last 10 Pinger messages and sharing between other Blackberry or Treo users.

Tags: email, message, pinger, sms, text, txt, voice

Filed under: Internet, Web services, P2P

Meebo moves to the Firefox sidebar

by Chris Gilmer Oct 18th 2007

Meebo, the web-based instant messaging application that runs across all major IM networks has released a Firefox add-on giving users a browser sidebar for easy chatting.

The Meebo Firefox add-on makes it much easier to chat with friends while browsing online. No more switching from application to application or from the Meebo homepage to the page browsing. The sidebar gives users a visual notification, the side pane pops open, when contacts send you an instant message. No more pasting links and uploading and sending images either, the add-on allows for dragging and dropping links and images right onto contacts you wish to send them to.

It would be nice to have all actions take place in the sidebar, but one drawback with the new add-on is that when IMs are sent and received you are instantly booted to a Meebo Firefox tab that must keep open at all times in order to remain signed in. Meebo's line of web based IM tools include Meebo; a web based IM for all networks and MeeboMe; a way to chat with people directly from a website.

Tags: addon, chat, firefox, im, instant-message, meebo, message, p2p, sidebar

Filed under: Business, Internet, Text, P2P, Social Software, web 2.0

Another Twitter launches, this time it's called Yappd

by Chris Gilmer Aug 14th 2007

Does Twitter really need competition? I suppose it's healthy, but why not try a new type of model that gets people pumped about your service?

Twitter has a good thing going on, their text updating service is easy to use, effective, and it was first to market. Pownce, although a Twitter-esk clone, does provide a few exciting features like that ability to send files besides just text updates. This new release to market called Yappd, although cleanly built, really doesnt offer anything new or special besides picture messages.

With successful products, you are always going to get clones, and blatant rip offs. Check out this site that lists Twitter clones from Germany to China to Hungary.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: images, message, pownce, twitter, web2, web2.0, yappd

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google

Send Google Calendar updates via SMS

by Chris Gilmer Jul 12th 2007

Google has now made it possible to send updates to Calendars using SMS. The request to do so came in on the Google tip lines. People wanted a way in which to send text messages to add events, or a way to find out which events they had coming up.

The SMS updates work by sending a text message to 'GVENT' (48368) , with some details about the event, (ie. Starbucks meeting at 2pm). The GVENT will them be added to the users calendar immediately, and a text message confirming the details will get sent. If the word "day" is sent to 'GVENT', a text message will get sent back that contains all of the day's events. "nday" can also be used to get a list of all schedules for the next day.

Way to go Google, always innovating. Just let me pull out my cheat sheet so I can take a look at all the other shortcuts like this I can use.

Tags: calendar, events, google, message, mobile, phone, schedule, sms, text

Filed under: Design, Fun, Internet, Photo, Text, Utilities, Video, E-mail, Web services, Social Software

Emailing junk with CuBee

by Chris Gilmer Apr 19th 2007

CuBee takes the clutter out of your email inbox. It's a rich content email and messaging system which allows users to send out emails containing large files like video, pictures, animation, and notes.To add a little bit of Web 2.0 cuteness, messages can be sent inside a digital envelope with an emoticon to express feelings.

CuBee is integrated into ZCubes, a website where users can seamlessly browse, search, edit, paint, draw, watch, listen, print, network, work, and just about everything else you would care to do online.

Check out a demo of what ZCubes can do.

Tags: cubee, draw, email, files, images, inbox, mail, message, paint, video, web, web 2, Web2, zcubes

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google, Social Software

Twitter with Google Talk

by Chris Gilmer Mar 1st 2007

Twitter, built by Obvious Corp., is a great way to constantly update people on what you are doing, think simplified blog. Short messages (under 140 characters) are posted by IM or web interface.

One cool thing about Twitter, is that you can update your Twitter feed using your Google Talk account. Simply add twitter@twitter.com to your contact list in Google Talk, and send it a short message. Using Google Talk to feed your Twitter opens doors to Twittering on your Blackberry device through the Blackberry Google Talk Client.

If you feel the need to constantly let friends know what doing, this is one easy app to try out.

Tags: google, im, instant message, InstantMessage, message, obvious corp, ObviousCorp, talk, twitter

Filed under: Audio, Fun, Internet, News, Blogging, Web services, Social Software

RAZZ wants bloggers to mouth off, audibly

by Ryan Carter Nov 5th 2006

RAZZ is a simple way to record and post web audio to your blog, MySpace, or other social networking site. Creating a RAZZ is a way to make a short sound clip (up to a minute long) and put it on your site. RAZZ wants to be the audio for your blog like many of the photo, video, or slideshow sharing sites. Audio has in fact been largely ignored, but is it really the next phase in the socio-digital revolution? I think it could be, but don't know if we really have a good idea of who and how many people would use audio so religiously as something like, YouTube for example. RAZZ is a good way to make this whole audio invasion thing happen, since the process is deceptively simple and even fun. See what you think of RAZZ, and while you are at it, let me know what you think about audio being the next video on social networking sites. Do you think audio snippets are a viable and viral communications tool online, or just a pipe-dream for companies who just had the idea to do it? Would you participate in audio-messaging on a site or blog? Do you already? I'm curious what the verdict here will be.

Tags: audio, blog, message, mixer, MySpace, online, RAZZ

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Productivity, Web services

Leave a message on your Backpack with voiceNote

by David Chartier Jul 26th 2006

Ever wish you could call your Backpack account and leave a voicemail? Me neither, but now that someone thought of the idea and cranked out voiceNote for Backpack (beta, of course) - I can't wait to start dialing! To sign up, you simply have to enter your name, email, Backpack URL, the email address of the Backpack page you want these voice messages sent to and up to three phone numbers from which you'll be calling. You then simply dial a specific number to make your call and leave your message. celltell, this service's provider, lists about 7 U.S. numbers in major cities you can call to use this service, but I would imagine that if you have long distance dialing, it shouldn't be a problem no matter where you are in the country. The voiceNotes are added to your specified Backpack page "a few minutes" after your call as small Flash players, complete with export-ability to an MP3 file.

This looks like a fantastic (and unexpected) addition to an already stellar online PIM. If you try it out, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

Tags: 37signals, account, backpack, celltell, flash, message, messages, mp3, voice, voicemail, voicenote

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures

Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party

Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Download Squad bloggers (30 days)

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Jay Hathaway	100	5
2	Lee Mathews	76	21
3	Sebastian Anthony	67	220
4	Brad Linder	32	2
5	Jason Clarke	28	0
6	Paul O'Brien	8	0
7	Grant Robertson	6	3
8	Dolores Parker	6	2
9	Victor Agreda, Jr.	6	1
10	Nik Fletcher	5	0
11	Matt Heerema	3	0
12	Download Squad Staff	1	0
13	John Burke	1	0

More Tech Coverage

Control Shift It's all about the experience
Somewhat Frank Perspectives on tech as it fuses in everyday life
Switched Gadgets, web news and commentary
Urlesque Exposing bits of the web

Download Squad