Mobile Stew - services & applications

How Useful Is LinkedIn?

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 02:17:00 -0700

Over the last couple of weeks the rate at which I receive invites to link up on LinkedIn has increased, partly because lots of my ntl:Telewest colleagues are sending me invites because they are not sure who will be staying and going as part of the merger.

For those of you who don't know what LinkedIn is, it's a social networking site which allows users to build and maintain a
network of professional contacts.
Linked In allows users to register their professional contact
information and send it to their contacts, as well as keeping contact
information up to date. The company offers free, advertiser-supported
services but makes the lion's share of its money from premium services,
which run from $5 to $200 per month. Job listings cost $95.

My network ...

Skype and 3 launch 3G data card

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 00:49:00 -0700

Skype and 3 launched 3G data card, which enables subscribers to make cheaper VoIP calls.

Currently the card is priced at £ 39.99 and is bundled with the special
starter pack provided by skype which includes Skype software, a Skype
headset and a Skype starter voucher.

Users hoping to get the card at the cheapest price - £ 39.99 will have to opt
for the Web and Office 512 package priced at £45 per month. However users will
get half a Gb of data bundled in each month.

READ MORE HERE

Windows Vista - Will It Be A Resource Hog?

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 06:21:31 -0700

As regular readers will know, I built what I thought was a pretty stonking PC over Christmas. The spec was pretty good I thought, although I did try to save some cash by buying a X1600 card rather than a then top-of-the-range X1800 to save some cash, with the intention to buy a second X1600 to run in tandem when prices fell.

Well, I bought a 2nd X1600 last week on eBay at a bargain price, only to discover that when you run 2 X1600s in tandem you can't run two monitors so I've sold both the X1600s and bought a new top of the range X1900XT which came out this month. Not only have my frame-speeds hit lightspeed, but the poor TV quality I'd been experiencing with Windows Media ...

New Version Of Google Desktop

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 03:37:11 -0700

Google slowly but surely are dominating the services I use on my PC. Currently I use Gmail, Google Reader and Google Search. As soon as I can access easily access my MSN contacts I will make the switch to Google Talk.

Now, with the latest version of Google Desktop released yesterday Google have taken over my desktop search. I didn't like the previous versions as they used too much memory for my liking, but the latest version has some features I can't resist:

- Sidebar's can now be personalised and positioned anywhere on the the desktop by clicking and dragging.
- information from Sidebar panels can be shard by email, chat or directly from the Sidebar

But here's the biggie for me - now you can Search Across Computers to ...

International Gmail Users - How To Unlock New Features

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 02:50:36 -0700

Google are quite slow at rolling out new Gmail features to international users. Thanks to one of my readers, Jez,...

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Now You Can Use Google Talk From Within Gmail

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 06:27:24 -0700

Google are rolling out a new facility within Gmail that integrates it with Google Talk. Gmail users will now be...

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More Wikipedia 'Censorship'

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 17:00:50 -0700

After catching aides of US Congressman Marty Meehan repeatedly changing his biography, Wikipedia have now blocked all IP addresses that are associated with the US House and US Senate.

I'm not sure how effective this will be as all aides have to do is post from another location, so I'm guessing that Wikipedia are trying to make some sort of statement, rather than an example of the Government.

I can understand that they are quite peeved about their service being manipulated, but any surely any service that is edited by its readers is going to be abused. Singling out one body of users for punishment isn't going to defer further manipulation.

Can Someone Send Me A Newsvine Invite Please

Sat, 04 Feb 2006 13:50:54 -0700

If any readers are registered for the Newsvine beta could they please email me an invite. Newsvine sounds like it could be an interesting service, based on what cavemonkey has to say about it:

...articles are automatically managed bythe website. The website figures out how the articles should rank by anumber of factors. The freshness of the story, how many times peopleview the article, and how many people vote for the article are allfactors which go into the rating.

Did I just say vote? Yes, that�scorrect. You can vote (and report) articles just like Digg; but sincethe votes aren�t the only factor, stories are less likely to be subjectto user stupidity. This system works very well, and just because no onehas voted ...

What Do You Think Of Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview?

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 09:00:42 -0700

Microsoft released yesterday Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview. I'm not going to install it as I'm already testing some beta software at work and I don't want to run two betas at the same time.

Has anybody installed it? What do you think?

Download: Internet Explorer 7: Beta 2 Preview

Make Your Own FREE Video Screensavers

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 06:42:12 -0700

As most of my regular readers know I'm in love with Project Gotham Racing 3 on my Xbox360, and it is definitely one of my top games of all time.

I decided this morning that I wanted to use one of the in-game videos as a screensaver but couldn't find any, so I set out to try and create my own.

It took a while to find a free tool, as most were screensaver tools are shareware, but eventually I found this great tool for creating Free Video Screensavers. 'My Video Screen Saver' supports the following features:

Who Will Digg It?

Sat, 28 Jan 2006 10:17:03 -0700

More speculation that Digg will get snapped up soon. My money is on Yahoo! or Google.
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Giganews Undergoes Revamp And Retention Up To 70 Days

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 10:07:45 -0700

Just received the following in my inbox:

Giganews Subscriber,

Giganews is proud to announce a new website with a sleek and modern design. The main goal of the new website redesign is to improve the overall experience for our customers.

The new website offers:

A fresh and exciting new look
A Control Panel to modify your account settings
Speed/traceroute tools to analyze your connection
and much more!

As always, Giganews offers:

SmartFTP 2.0 Available

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 04:29:35 -0700

The latest version of SmartFTP, which out of all the FTP clients I've used is by far the best, has been released and it has a new fresh appearance. Other new features include:

-Complete new, hybrid (tabbed, mdi) and fully customizable interface
- Workspace Manager with Auto Layout
- New Local Browser (Loads much faster, Better Navigation, Thumbnail View)
- New Remote Browser (Better Navigation).
- Automatic Backup of Settings and Data.
- Native 64-bit version for Windows x64 Editions

And best of all, it's still free. Click here to learn more.

Feedlounge (finally) Open For Business

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:34:14 -0700

I just received an email from FeedLounge, which promises to be the best RSS reader on the market, saying that they have finally launched. Unfortunately, there is no free service available, with the service costing $5/month.

Seems quite steep to me, given that there is such a plethora of free RSS readers out there, so I won't be signing up. If you do give the service a go then let me know what you think. A quick warning though - it's going to take a lot to convince me to pay for a news reader.

Connect Google Talk to AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo!

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:13:08 -0700

I'm not sure why anyone would want to do this, given that there are perfectly good services like Trillian out there, but following these instructions will allow Google Talk to connect to AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo!

Out of curiosity I had a go at setting it all up but I gave up halfway through.