roundup posts

Filed under: Fun

Happy Halloween! Help yourself to these moldy old posts

by Download Squad Staff Oct 31st 2009

	Halloween costumes from the Internet: happy Hallo-meme! Stepping away from the computer for a few hours to trick or treat or go to a costume party doesn't mean you have to leave the internet behind.		Six classic horror-iffic games for Halloween Turn out the lights and turn up the volume, it's time to scare yourself silly with some good, old Halloween-y games. Enjoy!
	Use your Mac to detect supernatural activity this Halloween! You knew your Mac could detect wireless networks and Bluetooth devices, but did you know it can also detect spirits? If you want to scan for supernatural activity, download an app called EMF6742,...	Also of interest: More Halloween Time Wasters Halloween Screensavers, the good, the bad, and the ugly Halloween goodies on the web, hold the candy corn

Tags: halloween, holiday, roundup

Fugly Friday returns next week, until then enjoy this lazy roundup

by Grant Robertson Oct 16th 2009

	Fugly Friday: Cybertown Do you tire of your humdrum, meatspace world? Does Sony's PlayStation Home look too real? Are there too many flying penises in Second Life for your taste? Well, strap on your hippie goggles and...		Fugly Friday : Yvette's Bridal My optometrist was insistent that I not remove the bandages for another 24 hours. He also said I might have done less damage to myself if, instead of searching for today's Fugly Friday, I'd tried...
	Fugly Friday: Old school website atrocities from Microsoft Back when I graduated high school, most websites hadn't begun thinking about design terms like glossy, grungy, or even "not a complete trainwreck." Heck, plenty of them didn't give aesthetics a...	Other Fugly we liked Fugly Friday : MSY Technology Fugly Friday : Bannock County Bluegrass Festival Fugly Friday - Twitter design disasters

The doctors all say my cornea are healing nicely, and I should be back to cursing and screaming at poor design within the week, although my insurance company did ask that I take our a new rider for something they call "Ocular Occupational Hazards."

Whatevs. They's just a bunch of haters, yo.

Fugly Friday returns next week with new highs about all the lows out there in the dark dusty corners of the web. Until then, enjoy this look back at a few of our favorite Fugly Friday finds so far.

Tags: fuglyfriday, roundup, why yes maam I would like to stick that fork in my eye, WhyYesMaamIWouldLikeToStickThatForkInMyEye

Filed under: Design, Features, Blogging, Productivity, Social Software

A primer for WordPress themes, plug-ins and tips

by David Chartier May 29th 2007

WordPress is a powerful and very extensible blogging engine that is gaining more CMS (Content Management System) features with each release. As anyone who has downloaded a copy can probably tell, the directory structure is pretty friendly to hacks and plug-ins, but unless you are your own WordPress coding ninja, you might be asking yourself: where exactly can all these themes, plug-ins and hacks be found? Thus the idea for a short roundup of WordPress download sites and communities was born. Following is a starter list of sites for themes, plug-ins, tips and tricks of all kinds, ripe for helping you take your WordPress-powered site as far as you need to go. Since we're sure we haven't found every site for WordPress goodness, feel free to add your favorites in the comments and we'll update this post with the good ones.

Tags: blogging, community, discussion, plug-ins, plugins, primer, roundup, templates, themes, tips, tricks, wordpress

Filed under: Fun

What are your software predictions for 2007?

by Ryan Carter Dec 31st 2006

What will happen in 2007? Who knows what the future holds, right? I am willing to bet that you already have a good idea what will happen next year. Care to share? I want to hear what you are most looking forward to this year, are there any apps that you think will go critical and be the next big thing? Also, what was your favorite app of 2006? Let me know. In case you can't remember your favorite app, you can consult LifeHacker's roundup of the best apps of 2006. It is a good chance that their favorites were some of yours. Many of mine are on the list. Let me know what your favorites are!

Tags: 2006, 2007, Lifehacker, new year, NewYear, predictions, roundup, software

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

America's Next Top Web Browser

by Jordan Running Oct 26th 2006

Seeing a bunch of lean code jockeys building the next generation of web browsers is a reality TV show I'd watch. Since that's probably not happening any time soon, I'll take the next best thing: Read/WriteWeb's Web Browser Faceoff, by Alex Iskold. Iskold reviews six of the latest crop of web bowsers: Firefox 2, Internet Explorer 7, Safari, Opera 9, Flock, and Maxthon. I highly recommend reading his entire round-up, but in case your attention span ain't what it used to be, here's what he concludes about our trusty browsers:

IE7: "Solid release, which is going to help Microsoft maintain the market leadership in the near future"
Firefox: "We think that Firefox is going to continue narrowing IE's lead, but await with interest the next major version!"
Safari: "It's a clean and simple web 1.0 browser, but needs a major feature boost in order to be a contender even on the Mac."
Opera: "We can see why fans like this browser, but a bigger future depends on spicing it up and poring in the marketing dollars."
Flock: "Great productivity browser for web 2.0"
Maxthon: "Need to apply Occam's Razor (i.e. make it simpler), but definitely could be a contender because of solid service integration."

"Even though IE and Firefox are far ahead today," Iskold concludes, "we see that other browser like Flock and Maxthon are ramping up support for the latest web 2.0 services - making themselves stand out and attracting early adopters. ... Faceoff bottom line: This round of browser competition is going to be at least as interesting as the Netscape vs. IE ten years ago. And hopefully less one-sided!" Hear, hear!

Tags: faceoff, firefox, firefox 2, Firefox2, flock, ie7, internet explorer, InternetExplorer, maxthon, opera, opera 9, review, roundup, safari, web, web 2.0, web browser, Web2.0, web20, WebBrowser

Filed under: Video, Web services, Social Software

Online image editors compared

by Jordan Running Aug 1st 2006

Blogger and web designer Christian Watson has posted a round-up and comparison of ten web-based image editing suites along with a very informative comparison table. The editors in question are Cellsea, ImageAuthor, LookWow, NetImager, nexImage, Phixr, Picture2Life, PXN8, Snipshot (formerly Pixoh), and VicImager. His ultimate choice is Cellsea, though in the comments Beau Hartshorne points out that Cellsea began its life as a ripoff of Snipshot's JavaScript code.

Tags: cellsea, Christian Watson, ChristianWatson, editor, graphics, imageauthor, lookwow, netimager, neximage, phixr, photos, picture2life, pixoh, pxn8, review, roundup, snipshot, vicimager

Filed under: Internet

Firefox 2 vs. Opera 9 vs. Internet Explorer 7

by Jordan Running Jul 19th 2006

Internet Explorer 7 vs. Firefox 2 vs. Opera 9

ExtremeTech is running the sort of round-up article I've been waiting to see: Opera 9 vs. Firefox 2 vs. Internet Explorer 7. While the latter two are both in beta, ExtremeTech gives them all a thorough go-'round. The review also includes some revealing benchmarks, testing their memory usage with and without a bunch of open tabs (spoiler: IE wins with one tab, Opera wins with a bunch) as well as their start-up time (Opera is the best, and Firefox is the worst by a wide margin) and Acid2 standards test performance (Opera). ExtremeTech gives all three browsers high marks and doesn't declare a "winner": Firefox wins points for security and extensibility, Opera impresses with its mature tab implementation, and IE7 seems to have done quite a lot of catching up.

Tags: firefox, ie, internetexplorer, opera, review, roundup

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Windows

The 3D web browsers reviewed

by Jordan Running Jun 13th 2006

Is 3D the future of the web? Well, if VRML is any indication... no. Still, there are a few web browsers out there that attempt to bring 3D worlds to the browsing experience, or vice versa, and ExtremeTech has a nice round-up review of three of them: 3B, Browse3D, and SphereXPlorer. 3B facilitates web browsing with an "airport" metaphor, which lets you travel to different "cities," or themed areas where you have access to different web sites. Browse3D is a bit more straightforward, offering a "three-walled room" design with the center wall showing the current site, the wall to your left showing the last page you visited, and the right wall showing outgoing links from the current page or pages you've "stickied." Lastly, SphereXPlorer lets you have multiple web pages open simultaneously, a la tabs, except scattered around a 3D environment. So, what's the verdict? None of the programs get high marks-3B comes out with a 6/10, Browse3D with a 4, and SphereXPlorer with a 5. Head over to ExtremeTech to read the full reviews.

Tags: 3b, 3d, browse3d, browser, extremetech, review, roundup, spherexplorer

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Blogging, Web services

The best of the feed readers

by Jordan Running Jun 9th 2006

Just counting all the feed readers out there would be a daunting task, much less actually choosing one. Fortunately we have people like Ryan Stewart and Richard MacManus, who've written a round-up of their picks for best-of-breed RSS readers over at Read/WriteWeb. Stewart and MacManus split the task into three categories: Web-based, desktop, and "rich internet application." The latter category is a bit hard to pin down. Stewart and MacManus' idea of an "RIA" is an app that takes the best from both the desktop and the web, i.e. the power of a desktop app with the locationless (and install-less) and social aspects of a web app. For web-based readers, MacManus chooses Rojo (which I recently praised here) and Bloglines, and for the desktop NewsGator and BlogBridge. For the RIA category they don't have any definitive picks, but MacManus tentatively taps Google Reader, FeedLounge, and Goowy. Head over to Read/WriteWeb to read the full article, or post your own picks in the comments.

Tags: feedreaders, feeds, readers, readwriteweb, roundup, rss

Filed under: Adobe, Apple, Google, Microsoft

PC World's 100 Best Products of the Year

by Jordan Running May 31st 2006

Now that we've got the worst products ever out of the way, how about the best? PC World is running an article with the past year's 100 best tech products, and I'm tempted to copy-and-paste the whole thing into my wishlist. It's an even mix of hardware, software, and web sites, but since this is a software blog I'll give you a sampling of the latter two (spoiler warning): Adobe Premiere Elements 2, Apple's Boot Camp, Craigslist, Google Earth, and YouTube make up the software half of the top 10, with Firefox and Google following not far behind. The heavy hitters Adobe, Mozilla, Google, Apple, and even Microsoft make a few more appearances, but there's also plenty of one-off products from small vendors holding their own. Oh, and I should mention that Download Squad's sister site Engadget makes the list at #13, right between Firefox and Toshiba's HD-A1 HD DVD player. Congrats!

Tags: 100, adobe, apple, best, firefox, google, hardware, list, microsoft, mozilla, pcworld, roundup, software, tech

Filed under: Audio, Web services

Music recommendation round-up

by Jordan Running May 26th 2006

Awhile back we linked to a head-to-head comparison of music recommendation sites Pandora and Last.fm (to refresh your memory, Last.fm came out on top) . Of course, Pandora and Last.fm aren't the only fish in the sea, and ExtremeTech is running a round-up review of eight similar services: MusicStrands, Liveplasma, UpTo11.net, Audiri, Pandora, Mercora, Yahoo! LAUNCHcast Radio, and Last.fm. They ranked the services not only on the quality of their recommendations, but also on usability, diversity of their libraries, and community features. I'll admit that I haven't even heard of a couple of those services (though UpTo11.net gets points for the cheeky name), but ExtremeTech is nothing but thorough. In the end most of the services get high marks (excepting LAUNCHcast, that comes out with a score of 5/10 for ads and low sound quality), but in the end Last.fm beats out the others with a score of 9 and high praise: "by far the best out there, possessing a huge library of music, a great community, and a recommendation feature that will blow you away." Pandora comes in second, also with a score of 9, but falls short due to the lack of community and the songs-per-hour limit.

[Via Waxy.org]

Tags: audiri, extremetech, last.fm, lastfm, launcast, liveplasma, mercora, music, musicstrands, pandora, recommendations, review, roundup, social, upto11, yahoo

Filed under: Web services

Office 2.0 Database: Web-based office app directory

by Jordan Running Apr 24th 2006

Having trouble keeping track of all the companies that are building the current crop of web-based office apps? The Office 2.0 Database is a handy directory of all of 'em, broken down into categories. Need a web-based word processor? You've got eight to choose from. PowerPoint replacement? Five of 'em, and so on. There's even quite a few on the list that I hadn't heard of, like Calcoolate, a simple web-based calculator that stays out of your way but has some nice features like keeping track of all of your previous solutions and letting you give them names for easy access later on. The Office 2.0 Database has lots of columns of metadata and even links to TechCrunch's reviews of almost every single one.

Tags: ajax, directory, roundup, web20, weboffice

Filed under: Security, Utilities, Macintosh, Apple, Shareware

Mac backup software round-up

by Jordan Running Apr 24th 2006

A blog called Plasticsfuture has tests 17 different programs for making backups on a Mac and written up the results in an article called Mac Backup Software Harmful. Why harmful? It turns out that most Mac backup software will save your files but nuke some of the associated metadata. Of the 17 apps, only one gets a "Highly recommended" rating, and four get "Avoid at all cost." In the end, the choice is SuperDuper, a shareware app that's free for basic use or $27.95 if you need some extra features.

Tags: apple, backup, harddrive, harmful, mac, osx, review, roundup

Filed under: Web services, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!

Online mapping services compared

by Jordan Running Apr 24th 2006

A lot flew beneath my radar last week, including, unfortunately, a great post by TechCrunch's Frank Gruber called Comparing the Mapping Services, in which he compares, with some nice screenshots and tables, the big five online map services: Ask.com, Google, Yahoo!, Windows Live, and MapQuest. Gruber praises all of the services, but in the end he says (spoiler alert!), "Overall, Yahoo Maps was by far the best application tested. Its fast Flash interface, multipoint directions, live traffic information, and easy send-to-mobile feature make it the hands down winner. It also features the most robust API options." What's the best online map service for your money?

Tags: ask, ask.com, comparison, Frank Gruber, google, live, local, mapping, mapquest, maps, microsoft, roundup, techcrunch, windows, yahoo

Featured Time Waster

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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roundup posts

Happy Halloween! Help yourself to these moldy old posts

Fugly Friday returns next week, until then enjoy this lazy roundup

A primer for WordPress themes, plug-ins and tips

What are your software predictions for 2007?

America's Next Top Web Browser

Top 10 video sharing sites reviewed

Online image editors compared

Firefox 2 vs. Opera 9 vs. Internet Explorer 7

The 3D web browsers reviewed

The best of the feed readers

PC World's 100 Best Products of the Year

Music recommendation round-up

Office 2.0 Database: Web-based office app directory

Mac backup software round-up

Online mapping services compared

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