Google Image Search Lets You Filter Results with Specific Color

The Google Operating Systems Blog is running a post on a little tweak to Google Image Search that lets you filter your results based on a specific color. You won’t see the option to filter image results by color in the main Google Image Search though. But GOS was kind enough to share this trick to get the option running.

Say for example your use the keyword “blue lagoon” on Google Image Search, this will give around 1,2500,000 hits according to the Image Search results. Now this is all well and good, but the results could actually contain other irrelevant items.











Now how about using the URL given by the Google Operating Systems Blog:

http://images.google.com/images?q=bird&imgcolor=red

replace bird with the word “lagoon” and the color red to “blue” and compare your results with the previous image search using “blue lagoon”. They are definitely different. You’ll get lesser results using the URL right?










It’s really a pretty simple search filtering option but could save you a lot of time scrolling through numerous search results when conducting image search. No words yet though as to whether this will be rolled out as a full-blown feature of Google Image Search.

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Twitter Hashtags guides

What is a Twitter hashtag?
A hashtag is a way to unite global Tweets around some particular topic. Basically, these are tags that that help those who seek similar content discover your Tweets. According to the official source:

"Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They’re like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag."

Hashtags are getting more and more popular (despite the fact some people are against them wishing their Twitter stream to be metadata-free and “as human a form of communication as possible”).

Anyway, I do use hashtags and find them fun, so I am sharing a few tips and resources below.
Where can I find what hashtags people are using?
#hashtags.org is the first place to find most recent and hot hashtags. It also shows each hashtag popularity trend when you hover over:













Twemes.com is another useful resource for discovering new hashtags and tracking those you are interested in. It has a hashtag cloud and also offers RSS subscription to any hashtag stream:










Wthashtag.com is a user generated wiki of hashtags. If you don’t know what any hashtag means or how to use it, you can use the site search and get a well-compiled entry explaining the meaning of the hashtag:

* When it was first discovered;
* Description;
* External links;
* Live stream using the hashtag:













How are hashtags used?

Generally, a hashtag is a great way to increase your Tweet visibility. However they should only be used if your Tweet adds value to the topic (so don’t insert # sign before each word).

Remember, that hashtags are tracked by people, so don’t waste their time by [I #eat #ice-cream #now] type of messages (this is also likely to rip off your followers). As an example, here are a couple of cases when using a hashtag makes sense:

* To categorize your Tweets based on a particular topic or for a particular purpose - e.g. #followfriday is a fun tradition to recommend your friends (and the whole universe) new people to follow:










* Hashtags are widely used to live-blog an event. This makes following an event much easier (check our recent post on how hashtags help Shane Jones to follow SEO conferences). It is recommended to set your hashtags before starting to live-blog;

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Facebook Connect for iPhone

Facebook has announced Facebook Connect for the iPhone, which enables users to take their Facebook friends, identity and privacy with them wherever they go. Facebook Connect for the iPhone provides the first live social experience for iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as users can now connect with their Facebook friends to play games -- whether their friends are at home on a computer or on their iPhone.


Facebook has announced Facebook Connect for the iPhone, which enables users to take their Facebook friends, identity and privacy with them wherever they go.

Facebook announced the new capability on March 14 at the South by Southwest (SXSW) 2009 conference, noting that there are nine applications currently live in the iTunes app store, with more to launch in the coming days.

Developers can get started taking advantage of Facebook Platform APIs to add social context to all kinds of iPhone applications.

Facebook Connect for the iPhone provides the first live social experience for iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as users can now connect with their Facebook friends to play games—whether their friends are at home on a computer, or on their iPhone—and share restaurant reviews on the go, location-based status updates, and more.
Users can go to the iTunes app store to see the first nine applications:

* Who Has the Biggest Brain by Playfish
* Movies by Flixster
* iBowl and Agency Wars by SGN
* Urbanspoon
* Tap Tap Revenge 2 by Tapulous
* Whrrl by Pelago
* Live Poker by Zynga
* Binary Game by SayEight

In a March 14 blog post, Joe Hewitt, the engineer who built Facebook for iPhone, said:

"A few months ago, we announced Facebook Connect, an extension of Facebook Platform that makes it easy for you to bring your friends with you all over the Web. We're now expanding this to Apple’s revolutionary iPhone and iPod touch, making it easy to connect with your Facebook friends in your favorite applications from Apple’s App Store.

"If you've used Facebook Connect on the Web, this will seem pretty familiar. You can now use Facebook Connect on your iPhone in the same way you can for a website. Simply download any application featuring Facebook Connect and log in using your Facebook account from your iPhone. Then, you'll be able to easily find your Facebook friends. They will be able to see the same profile information as they can on the site, controlled by your privacy settings. You can also share what you’re doing with your iPhone applications with all of your Facebook friends by publishing stories back to your profile."

Facebook officials said several developers are working on Facebook Connect for iPhone applications that will begin to be released shortly.

"In the coming days, many more applications will be available in Apple's App Store so keep checking back," Hewitt said. "If you don't see your favorite iPhone application soon, ask the developer to implement Facebook Connect -- together we can make your application experience on the iPhone truly social."

Meanwhile, according to Gareth Davis, another Facebook engineer who wrote a March 14 blog post, "Facebook Connect easily lets developers make their websites and desktop applications more social. And with the explosion of iPhone apps over the last year, we want iPhone developers to reap all the benefits Facebook provides."

Added Gareth:

"If you develop apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, you can now start making those apps more social. With just a few lines of Objective-C code, your users can log in to Facebook from within your app, find their friends, then share what they do in your app back on Facebook, which opens up exciting new opportunities for your users."

In addition, he said that now your iPhone apps can enjoy the benefits that Facebook Connect sites and Facebook Platform apps already enjoy, including:

* Making API calls so your app can access users' profiles and share information on Facebook.

* Publishing to Facebook via Feed forms.

* Asking users for extended permissions, like offline access, so you can still interact with their data when they're offline.

Meanwhile, Limbo, one of the largest mobile social networks in the United States, today announced that Limbo for iPhone and iPod touch now features Facebook Connect for iPhone. iPhone and iPod touch users can link their Limbo and Facebook accounts, enabling automatic status and activity updates that are shared between the two accounts.

With Facebook Connect, Limbo members can see their Facebook friends on Limbo without their friends having to be Limbo members. They can also view the status of their friends on Limbo based on their Facebook status message, or automatically set an “On Facebook” status for members who are logged on and active on Facebook.

“Our members want a new way to share their experiences from their iPhone or iPod touch with friends who may not yet be Limbo members,” said Jonathon Linner, Limbo’s CEO, in a statement. “Now that Limbo features Facebook Connect for iPhone, they can easily share and distribute information and experiences with their friends via Facebook status updates, requests and notifications. The location-aware emphasis of the Limbo application enables users to find and meet up with their friends to increase face time and real world experiences. This makes it even easier to connect with friends in the real world, not just online.”

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Mozilla Fennec Browser Is Firefox for Mobile Devices

The new Mozilla mobile Web browser called Fennec is similar to Mozilla's open-source Firefox browser for laptops and desktops. The early beta version of Fennec, launched on March 17, is intended as a way of collecting feedback and raising interest in the mobile browser. Mozilla says the Nokia N810 Internet tablet is the best mobile and wireless device for experiencing Fennec 1.0, but users can also download Fennec to computers running Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Mozilla's Firefox Web browser has a new mobile sibling—Fennec.

Mozilla released the first beta version of Fennec on March 17. Mozilla describes it as being for testing purposes only, to get feedback and to encourage developers to port existing add-ons and invent new ones for mobile use.

"One of the main themes of Fennec was to try to minimize the amount of typing you have to do as you make your way around the Web," Madhava Enros, the lead user interface designer for Fennec, says in an introductory video on the blog of Mozilla developer Stuart Parmenter.

With Fennec, Parmenter wrote, Mozilla increased zooming speed, improved start-up performance, enabled plug-ins that let users watch videos, and "improved bookmark management and support for bookmark folders."

Fennec also makes it easier to search the Web, remembers pages where users have been, optimizes screen space for mobile content and remembers passwords, reducing typing and doing more work so the user doesn't have to.

Fennec 1.0 was designed for the OS2008 Maemo software platform running on the Nokia N810 Internet tablet. Everyone, however, with a computer running Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X or Linux is encouraged to download Fennec and get it running.

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iTunes 8.1 Adds AutoFill to All iPod Models

iTunes has always filled the iPod shuffle with music to capacity without asking for much intervention from you, but Apple snuck the same very handy functionality for all iPod models in the recent iTunes 8.1 release.

If you'd like to enable AutoFill with your iPod or iPhone, Ars has the details:

Visit the Summary tab and make sure you're set up to "Manually manage music and videos." Once you've done that, use the triangle to reveal the contents of your iPod or iPhone, and click on Music, at which point you'll see the source selector, Autofill settings, and Autofill button at the bottom of the screen.

We did mention this in the bullet-list of features that were added to 8.1, but if you missed this useful addition, it's worth highlighting. In fact, while iTunes DJ and Genius for TV and movies were the marquee features in the latest release, we'd argue that in terms of actually useful functionality, AutoFill is probably the best addition to iTunes 8.1 for iPod owners.

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iPhone 3.0 Adds Copy and Paste, MMS, Search, Notes Sync, and Tons More [IPhone 3.0]

The iPhone event just ended, and the upcoming iPhone 3.0 software update adds a ton of new functionality to the iPhone—claiming over 100 new features, including long-awaited copy and paste, MMS messaging, and more.

Photos by Gizmodo. Huge thanks to Gizmodo for their up-to-the-minute coverage. We've only highlighted a few of our favorite features, so be sure to check out Gizmodo's iPhone 3.0 OS guide for everything you could ever want to know about the updates.

Copy and Paste
This one was no surprise. Copy and paste is finally available on the iPhone through a double-tap and a little dragging of the paste boarders. Any text can be copied, but you can also now copy and paste photos—which means that you can also send more than one photo at a time. Developers can also integrate copy and paste into their apps.

MMS Messaging
The iPhone's terrible multimedia messaging always seemed like us to be just as bad as the lack of copy and paste on the iPhone, requiring you to jump through absurd hoops to view photos that someone shared via MMS (you couldn't even do it from the iPhone). Not only can you send pictures via MMS, but you can also share contact vCards and audio files using the new voice notes application.The one catch: MMS will be iPhone 3G only.

Spotlight Search

3.0 adds Spotlight to your home screen (and search to many different apps), allowing you to launch an application or find a contact or note through one central application and document launcher.

File Sharing Between iPhones
iPhones will now be able to connect directly over a Wi-Fi network for sharing files directly between phones. The first thing we'd consider sharing is music, but it seems unlikely that that's the kind of functionality Apple will enable for this. Still, sharing a document, vCard, or photo with a direct peer-to-peer connection is pretty cool.

Turn-by-Turn Directions
Though not enabled in anything provided by Apple in this release, the 3.0 update will enable developers to create turn-by-turn apps.

Push Notification (For Real This Time?)
Apple promised this one last year—a feature that allows developers to send push notifications of updates without the cost of running the app in the background. We'll believe it when we see it.

VoIP
It's not clear if this means we can expect to see Skype or something like Google Voice on our iPhones or iPod touches any time soon, but Gizmodo is reporting that voice communication will be available in applications. They point out that this means users could chat with people they're playing a game with, but we'd be much happier to see a simple VoIP application for talking with people when you're on a Wi-Fi network without wasting your minutes.

Notes Sync
Gizmodo didn't mention much about this one, but Notes sync is clearly listed as a new feature. Guess that doesn't mean all that much to the guys at Giz, but we've been dying for this one forever.

Much More
We cherry picked some of our favorite new features, but head over to the Gizmodo Liveblog for a look at their play-by-play, or just check out their exhaustive iPhone 3.0 guide.

When Can I Get It?
According to the Apple, the public release will be sometime this summer. However, it looks like eager early adopters may be able to join the Apple Developer Connection to start testing it today. We'll let you know when we find out more.

What's Missing?
We're sort of reeling at the thought of all the new features, leaving us at a bit of a loss for what's missing. Was there a feature you were hoping for in the iPhone 3.0 update that it doesn't look like we'll be seeing? Let's hear about it in the comments.

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Acrobat.com Sends Large Files Through Outlook for Free [Downloads]

Windows only: Adobe's Acrobat.com web site gives you 5GB of online file hosting for free, and their new Office add-in lets you easily upload and share your documents directly within Outlook 2007.

Once you've installed the add-on and signed up for an account, attaching files to email messages is easy—just use the Upload File buttons on the Ribbon and the file link will be added inline to your message, taking the recipient to the Acrobat.com site where they can preview the file contents before downloading. Files that you've already uploaded can be easily added to a new message with the Insert Link button, which opens up a pane on the right-hand side listing your previously uploaded files—making this a great utility anytime you want to send a large file through email.

The Acrobat.com Outlook Add-on is a free download, only works in Windows with Outlook 2007. The Acrobat.com document hosting service is free up to 5GB, works with any browser.
File Sharing from Microsoft Outlook® 2007 [Acrobat.com]

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How Do You Store FTP Login Information For Your Clients?

A common way to store FTP access information is in your FTP client. After all, that is where you use it, so that’s where it should be. But what happens if the FTP application crashes or your configuration file becomes corrupt? Is an FTP program secure enough to be your sole place for storing client logins?

Before making the permanent switch to a Mac last year, I had three PC crashes in a period of 18 months. I know all about data failure and did just about everything Craig Buckler listed in his “8 Tips for Surviving PC Failure” post. It worked; I saved almost all of my data. But even with dual backups and exporting my FTP configuration files to my backup data (which was a manual process with the FTP client I was using at the time), I wasn’t able to recreate all of my logins automatically. Either a password had changed or a new site was added to the mix since the last time the data was backed up, and I was left digging through thousands of e-mails trying to find the information I needed.

I’ve also stored passwords and logins in my address book as notes for each client. But that wasn’t foolproof either; some of the notes were lost when data was backed up, and more were lost when I moved to a new contact management system.

Some of the other options I’ve used or considered include:
* Password management utility, like KeePass
* Web-based FTP program that saves your data online, like AnyClient
* Excel spreadsheet
* Online (or even paper) notebook

Currently, I store all of my client data — including FTP logins — in a web-based project management system (Intervals), which is secure and accessible by my subcontractors, clients and anyone else who needs to access the data. Having it in one central place also eliminates the problem of dealing with outdated passwords, provided everyone uses the data in the system.

But I pay a steep monthly fee for the project management service that has an SSL, and it’s probably much more robust than what’s needed for this type of issue by itself. Luckily, I need many of the extra features the service offers to run my business efficiently, but it’s probably not an option for everyone who needs to store a limited amount of information, like FTP logins.

Is there a best way to store this information? How do you manage FTP logins for multiple clients so they’re easy to access and secure?

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YouTube to Block UK Music Video Users

YouTube, the popular Google-owned video sharing site, has announced it will block access to UK residents wanting to watch online music videos. The statement was issued after the company failed to agree new licensing terms with the Performing Right Society (PRS).

The PRS collects royalties on behalf of 50,000 composers and artists. The organisation was negotiating a new deal with YouTube that is rumoured to be many times more than the previously agreed terms which expired recently.

Both parties blame each other for the breakdown.

YouTube’s Director, Patrick Walker, stated that the move was regrettable:
We feel we are so far apart that we have to remove content while we continue to negotiate with the PRS. We are making the message public because it will be noticeable to users on the site.

The company’s blog also stated:
The costs are simply prohibitive for us - under PRS’s proposed terms we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback.

Whatever the outcome, the only clear losers at this time are the UK public.

Is this a last desperate attempt from the ‘old’ economy to hold on to power? Or can we expect increased litigation from the traditional distribution channels against new media companies? The web is a worldwide network; can organisations realistically dictate what individual territories are permitted to view when it is technically possible to bypass those restrictions?

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Use your monitor as a light source with White

Overview:
Fill the screen with white color to use it as a lightbox.

Review:
The next Donation Coder app of today is White, all this program does is to display a white screen in your monitor to use as a source of light (press ESC to exit). White is probably more useful when used in conjunction with a Notebook or Netbook since those deviced probably have more chances of being placed in obscure places without any outside light sources, of course you could also use it in your desktop PC but i don't see the point unless you don't have any lightbulbs in the house. Available for all Windows versions.


Get it at http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index.html#White

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Prevent your desktop icons from being moved with DeskLock

Overview:

Prevents the moving of desktop icons.

Review:

My Donation Coder app of today is DeskLock, this small and portable utility can lock down your desktop icons in their place so that they can't be moved. You can also disable right clicking on the desktop icons if for some reason you need to tough i can't think of why.
Disabling or enabling DeskLock can be easily done by double clickling on it's system tray icon, there's is also a hotkey but unfortunately it can only be used to disable DeskLock which makes it less useful. The program used between 4 to 5Mb of memory on my PC which is good so you can use DeskLock constantly if you want.
In conclusion if you want to glue your desktop icons in their place then DeskLock is a pretty good way of accomplishing just that. Available for all Windows versions.

Get it at http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index.html#DeskLock

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VoIP-Pal Terminates Big Apple Agreement, Hints About New Product

VoIP-PAL.com, a telecommunications products, announced the termination of an agreement between it and Big Apple Consulting USA.

“We have had many inquiries asking us if we have an investor relations firm working with us,” said Richard Kipping, chief executive officer of VoIP-PAL.com. “So to clarify, we thought we should announce that VoIP-PAL.com, Inc. suspended its agreement with BigApple Consulting USA on October 17, 2007 for a three-month period pending clarification on certain matters relating to the agreement. After an internal review we decided to terminate the agreement.”

VoIP-PAL and WorldTel Xchange Inc. announced an alliance in April. The two companies will be jointly marketing an “exciting new product” through VoIP-PAL’s Niche Sales Channel, according to a news release.

Steve Lipman, pesident of WorldTel Xchange, Inc., said, “The combination of VoIP-PAL’s relationship with the Airline Points Program and WorldTel’s new ‘1ButtontoWiFi’ patented cellular/VoIP 1-touch technology will have a tremendous impact with consumers that have accumulated thousands of unused miles.”

The new product aims to capture the “untapped market of 3.2 billion cell phones worldwide,” and is purported to turn any cell phone, PDA or Smartphone—including the iPhone—into a WiFi phone.

VoIP-PAL.com offers local and long distance voice over IP phone services for both retail and business customers, as well as turnkey solutions through its Partners for the Loyalty Transactional platform, according to officials.

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Another Free VoIP Calling Web Application

Goober Networks, recently launched CallingAmerica.com, which offers web-based free VoIP calls to any landline or mobile phone in the U.S. or Canada. The Web-based offering uses Flash for the audio output & microphone input. As for the business model for "free calls" CallingAmerica.com uses advertisements on their website that you must watch before the call is initiated.


I decided to test it for myself to see how well it works. I simply went to their website, entered a phone number, and clicked the FreeCall now button, as seen here:

You'll be presented with a captcha code which you must enter to prove you are human, as seen by this clipped browser screenshot here:

 Then, you'll see an ad and a short countdown (15s or less) before you can initiate the call as seen by this clipped browser screenshot here:

 The countdown was pretty short, so surprisingly it wasn't annoying. After the countdown, the Flash application confirms your microphone source. Simply by talking into it, it detects the audio signal and then initiates the call. The call quality was pretty good - certainly on par with other web-based VoIP offerings.

I should point out that if you don't register, the calls are limited up to two minutes in duration each. Pretty useful if travelling and just want to make a quick free call. By registering for free at CallingAmerica.com, users can make an unlimited number of calls for a duration of up to 15 minutes. All in all CallingAmerica.com is worth keeping bookmarked for when you need to make a quick free call.

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Magic Formation is a Circular Dock Launcher

Windows only: Application launcher Magic Formation adds a circular dock that can be triggered by hotkeys or mouse gestures—just draw a circle on the desktop to make it show up.

Using the application is fairly simple—just invoke it with your mouse gesture; adjusting the mouse gesture sensitivity through the options dialog is probably necessary to trigger the dock more easily. There are plenty of other advanced options in the preferences, from using a hotkey to trigger the dock to assigning a mouse key instead—making this interesting application worth a look for anybody in the market for a better application launcher.

Magic Formation is a free download for Windows only. For more ways to quickly access your programs, check out the five best application launchers, or get full-featured mouse gestures with previously mentioned gMote.

download : Magic Formation [via Shell Extension City]

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