client posts

Filed under: Design, Web services, Commercial, Web

Haystack helps web designers and clients find each other

by Jason Clarke Nov 3rd 2009

Haystack Finding a web designer is a terrifying proposition for many people. How do you find someone qualified? It's not like there's a directory out there that lets you quickly browse and compare examples of work from various web designers to narrow down your set of choices quickly, and can help you get in touch with the one you choose.

Well, actually, now there is. And if that sounds like a good idea, consider that last week 37signals released a new site called Haystack. 37signals is a well-known web development company that is responsible for the incredibly popular online project management software Basecamp, as well as a few other web properties you might know: Campfire, Basecamp, and Highrise, to name a few.

The thing is, 37signals wasn't always an online service provider; at one time they were a web design firm creating client sites, so they know the difficulty web designers go through to attract clients. 37signals also takes pains to understand the difficulties users face, and have applied that approach to building a directory to help clients easily find web designers (and web designers easily find clients).

Early reports seem to be positive, with designers reporting they are signing new clients in short order. So if you're looking to advertise your design abilities, or if you're looking for a designer, give Haystack a look.

Tags: 37signals, basecamp, campfire, client, design abili, design-abilities, DesignAbili

Filed under: Social Software, web 2.0, Web

Twitzap: realtime Twitter updates, channels and more

by Jay Hathaway Apr 16th 2009

Twitzap is a web interface for Twitter that works like an application. It automatically refreshes your twitter stream and any channels (basically, saved searches) you subscribe to, and keeps track of how many unread messages you have in each channel. It's also got a lot of other neat little improvements over the standard web interface, some of which Twitter should probably look into adopting for itself.

Channels are the main perk of Twitzap, and it treats your @replies and direct messages as channels, too, combining your incoming and outgoing DMs into one neat list. You can also quickly add trending topics to your channels from right in the sidebar. Other features including chatting over Twitzap with other users who are logged in and a retweet button for each tweet, next to favorite and reply.

The overall interface of Twitzap looks a lot like regular Twitter -- it even uses your Twitter background when you log in -- so it should be very easy to get the hang of using. I'll be honest: I expected to be writing an "oh god, not another Twitter client" review here, but Twitzap really does have some good ideas.

Tags: auto-refresh, channels, client, search, twitter, twitzap

Filed under: Utilities, Productivity, Social Software, web 2.0

FriendFeed Notifier brings real-time updates to the desktop

by Jay Hathaway Mar 14th 2009

Sometimes it seems that we're so plugged in to Twitter here @downloadsquad -- rather, at Download Squad -- that we don't even know FriendFeed exists.

Not true! In fact, I noticed that FriendFeed just released an official desktop notifier, built on Adobe AIR. It's pretty rough so far, but a lot of users are commenting with feature requests and improvements.

The main issue people have with the notifier so far is that it's a bit overwhelming. Right now, it just displays a pop-up for every new item in your feed. Useful, sure, but that can be a lot of items. Without customization settings to narrow down what you're seeing -- or slim down the size of the pop-up -- it's very obtrusive.

You also have to click through to take certain actions (like responding to comments) in a browser window, even though it looks like you should be able to do it right in the notifier. Despite these little annoyances, the desktop notifier is a good first step, and seems likely to improve in the near future.

Tags: adobe-air, AIR, client, desktop, friendfeed, notifier

Filed under: Audio, Macintosh, Social Software

Amua: cool, minimal Last.fm player for Mac

by Jay Hathaway Mar 5th 2009

I went looking for a Last.fm client for my Mac recently, and discovered that Amua is well worth considering. It passes the basic tests for a good Last.fm app: it scrobbles tracks, it lets you skip, love and ban songs, and provides access to artist, user and tag stations. It also stays out of the way in a menubar icon, and only shows its small, discreet current track display when you tell it to.

I didn't realize it at first, but Amua uses iTunes to stream songs from Last.fm. Not a big deal to me, since I have iTunes open 90% of the time I'm on my Mac. If iTunes is a dealbreaker for you, then you might need to find yourself a different player. There are reasons to stick with Amua: it hardly uses any system resources, and it supports Growl. The main improvement I'd like to see would be hotkeys for the play/pause/skip functions. The iTunes hotkeys will stop Amua, but won't get it going again or skip to the next track on Last.fm.

Tags: amua, client, last.fm, music, os x, OsX

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Freeware

DropUpLoad Makes Short Work of FTPing

by Lee Mathews Jul 17th 2008

So you've got a new version of a file that you need to upload to an FTP server. Sure, you could fire up a full-blown client like FileZilla, but why bother? DropUpLoad offers elegantly simply uploads in a tiny, portable package. It's a 114k download and only consumes 9mb of memory, and is very different from other FTP clients.

For example, there's no directory browsing: set up your remote server info (including destination directory) and it will appear in your list of FTP servers. Setting up a new site is child's play, and you can clone settings from an existing server - useful, since you'll have to set up multiple profiles if you upload to more than one folder on your server.

Select your target from the drop down, drag a file or folder from your Windows machine into the "drop box," and you're done.

Need to give a customer upload access to your FTP but don't want to give out passwords? Created a "locked" version of DropUpLoad, which limits connections to a single server and hides and encrypts login information inside the generated executable.

Give it a shot, FTP uploads don't get much easier!

[ via Softpedia ]

Tags: client, ftp, portable, upload

Filed under: Web services, Social Software

Alert Thingy: FriendFeed on your desktop

by Jay Hathaway Apr 14th 2008

FriendFeed is a service that keeps track of the activity of your contacts across pretty much every social network. The problem with FriendFeed is that people want to view different sets of contacts in different ways. There are third party desktop clients for Twitter and Pownce, for example, that let you follow along and respond to comments more easily. But when you lump those services in with less-immediate ones like Yelp, Flickr, or the RSS feed to your friend's blog, the slower stuff starts to gum up the works.

Alert Thingy to the rescue! If you use FriendFeed, and you've been looking for a faster way to read updates, you're in luck: a desktop version is here. Alert Thingy is an Adobe Air application, which gives it the advantage of being lightweight and cross-platform. There aren't a lot of bells and whistles to it, but it will display your feed and allow you post items directly to FriendFeed.

Tags: Alert Thingy, AlertThingy, client, desktop, FriendFeed, social networking, SocialNetworking

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software

Loki: Location-based search service updates with Mac, mobile clients

by David Chartier Jun 2nd 2007

The location-based search market sure is heating up, what with our parent company AOL launching a new Local Search beta and Yahoo! putting Local Search in your car and all. Some interesting tricks not many of these services can claim, however, include being able to pinpoint your exact location based on your computer's IP address, and shaking hands with various web services such as Fnadango, Google Maps, Match.com and even gas price finders. Local search company Loki, however, does get to brag about these features and more, including a brand-spanking new Firefox extension for Mac OS X and a mobile phone client.

One problem, however, is that we can't get the shiny new Mac client to work just yet. Installing and re-installing in Firefox is yielding no results, and none of Loki's featured sites or channels are kicking into gear. Since Loki has a ton of other unique features like one-click SMSing your friends with your current location and GeoTagging your Flickr pics, we definitely tried to get it up and running for the Mac users in the crowd, but perhaps you'll have better luck.

Still, Loki's approach to local search is a unique one that we hope the larger players are paying attention to. Local search at a map site is great and all, but not having to manually tell other sites like Fandango, Match.com and the hordes of other location-specific sites where we are all the time is sweet music to our automation-tuned ears.

[via Webware]

Tags: client, clients, local search, LocalSearch, location based search, LocationBasedSearch, loki, mac, mobile, os x, OsX

Filed under: Design, Developer, Internet, Utilities, News, Productivity, Freeware, Social Software

Toggl, free web-based time-tracking

by Ryan Carter Apr 30th 2007

So you use basecamp for project management or Google's apps, or something else, but how do you track your time on a project? basecamp offers time-tracking, but you have to pay a bit for that feature. Any cheapskates out there who like to get something for nothing, even if it means remembering yet another logon to yet another website? Many of us would jump at the chance, it isn't like any of us have a problem with web accounts, how many do you have again?

Toggl is an excellent solution, offered in a completely savvy web 2.0 interface that gets you where you want to go. The site tracks time and lets you hit a toggl (whoa, go figure) button to start and stop your "billable hours" timer. I was a bit wary at first that toggl wouldn't offer a way to change the time it had recorded, leave you stranded with pushing the button every 108 minutes until you got the right amount of time, but my worries were completely unfounded. I was ready for something much harder than clicking on the box and reentering my own length of time.

If you think pie is easy, toggl is easier. Complete with a reporting feature and multiple projects, toggl's goodness clocks in (pun somewhat intended) at the right price of free. As you know, our motto here is one more happy cheapskate, or wait, I don't think we actually have a motto. I'll have to get back to you on that. meanwhile check out toggl, and you will never wonder if you charged your client enough for the hours you spent on that killer project.

Add "toggl" to your spell-checker, jack, and you won't be disappointed.

Tags: client, coder, development, management, productivity, programmer, project, task, time, toggl, tracker, web

Filed under: Design, Developer, Fun, Games, Internet, News, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Open Source, Social Software

Second Life open sources their client

by Ryan Carter Jan 8th 2007

I don't care if you dislike Second Life, think it is stupid, or whatever, the fact that they will open source their client is a bold and smart move. This means people can and will be able to create the system they want and make the kind of software they want it to be. Developers will be able to do infinitely more than they could before now that the Second Life client will be their to tinker with. If you want to breathe fire into your software, give it away and let the developer community loose on it. Second Life's creators think this move on their part will help the community grow faster than ever before. The main idea behind Second Life is a user-generated world, and now this paradigm extends to the client itself.

Tags: client, developer, open source, OpenSource, programming, SecondLife

Filed under: Audio, Macintosh, Open Source, Social Software

Last.fm OS X client updated to 1.1.0

by Ross McKillop Dec 22nd 2006

last.fm updated os x client version 1.1.0

Social music site Last.fm has recently updated their OS X client to version 1.1.0. While the site is short on details for the new version, there are some fairly obvious UI changes that include new icons, font changes and button sizes. This beta version is only compatible with Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger).

I've been using it all day today, and I'm happy to report that it hasn't crashed yet. This is good news, as the previous version (1.0) would frequently decide to stop working on my MacBook Pro. As Last.fm user sandymcc points out, the ability to play multiple tags at the same time seems to have disappeared. For those of you who have updated, what changes have you discovered?

Tags: apple, audio, beta, client, last, last.fm, music, network, osx, radio, social, stream, streaming

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

Cingular to offer MySpace client

by David Chartier Dec 18th 2006

Reuters is reporting that Cingular is set to announce a new partnership with MySpace today, offering a paid Java-based client on their phones with access to the popular social networking site. An extra $2.99/month will bring photo sharing, email checking, blogging and friend searching to about 90 percent of Cingular's handsets in the coming weeks. Video, strangely, won't be featured at the service's launch (strange because of Cingular's big push into video services as of late), but is said to be on its way some time in 2007.

Given that plenty of other social networking sites like Facebook and Vox offer mobile access and even download clients for free, this venture rubs me the wrong way. On the upside, however, MySpace is where I spend roughly .3 percent of my time (hey I have an account for the same reasons as everyone else: marketing myself), so I'll be happy to hang on to my $2.99, thankyouverymuch.

Tags: cingular, client, facebook, fee, fees, java, myspace, service, vox

Filed under: Business, Internet, Utilities, Web services, Google

Google's Platypus storage client leaked

by Chris Gilmer Oct 16th 2006

Always innovating, and recently told to focus on products that are already in development, the Googleplex has recently leaked a copy of the so-called Platypus client for Gdrive, its service for viewing and storing files on the web. Philipp Lenssen scored a copy, and reports that the product looks like it's intended for Google employees to share and store files. This tool encourages Google employees to use Platypus to store office documents, photos, and notes, virtually everything, except for sensitive data, most likely since the application is still in a testing phase, and not secure enough. Philipp could not get past the login screen, but was able to check out the Help, and the configuration files that were attached to the installer which he has published on his website. Only time will tell if this service will be released for public consumption by Google, and is additional evidence that Google is always innovating.

Do you think that Google purposely sets out to release small details about new and upcoming products, and updates when testing? Or do you think that they are just careless with their testing environment?

Tags: client, files, gdrive, google, harddrive, online, online storage, OnlineStorage, platypus, storage

Filed under: Internet, Features, Macintosh, Web services, P2P

Walkthrough: BitRocket - a killer new Mac OS X BitTorrent client

by David Chartier Sep 5th 2006

Dan Lurie over at TUAW found a review of BitTorrent clients for Mac OS X a few days ago. Apparently, this inspired Clone Software, Ltd. to stop guarding their secret and release BitRocket (which TUAW promptly found) - an OSS torrent client (in beta) for the Mac that indeed rockets past the competition (zing!).

BitRocket excels because it is refreshingly Mac OS X friendly, right down to the UI and design of the app. On the left side is a list for RSS torrent feeds, and at the bottom of that list is a master up/download panel for keeping an eye on just how much is moving in each direction.

Tags: bitrocket, bittorrent, client, download, mac, manage, os x, OsX, share, torrent, upload

Filed under: Internet, Windows

BitTorrent client review round-up

by Jordan Running Jan 23rd 2006

PC Magazine is running a solid round-up of four Windows BitTorrent clients: BitTorrent (the official client), Azureus, BitPump, and uTorrent. They all get high marks, but Azureus and my personal favorite uTorrent just barely outshow the competition. It's followed up with a (very) short Q&A with BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen. Worth a look if you're looking for a new BItTorrent client.

[Via Slashdot]

Tags: bittorrent, client, pc magazine, review, torrent

Filed under: Windows, Podcasting, Freeware

WinPodder: Another podcast app for Windows

by Jordan Running Jan 6th 2006

It's been a bit quiet on the new podcast apps front lately, but here's a new one: WinPodder is a podcast client for, yes, Windows. Details are scarce on the WinPodder web site, but it's free and supports audio, video, and, er, photo podcasts. It also supports Apple's "enhanced" podcast format.

Tags: aggregator, client, podcast, podcasting, videocast, vodcast, windows

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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