Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on September 01, 2007 by CyberNet.

Weekend Website

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could manage all your emails from your different email accounts AND all of your messages from social networks in one location? Well, now you can. Compatible with email services like AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and more, and Social Networks like Facebook and MySpace, a new service called Fuser unifies all of your inboxes into one that’s easy and convenient to access. Setting up an account is a quick and easy process, and you can register for as many email and social network accounts that you’d like, all for free!

How does Fuser work?

Fuser relies heavily on Java to work its magic. After entering in your login name and password for email accounts and social networks, Fuser will go retrieve all of your messages and consolidate them into one list. If you don’t want all of your message in one list, you can select which accounts you’d like to see.  For example, I selected “All Accounts Off” in my Fuser Inbox so that I could view the messages for each account separately. It’s definitely one of the easiest ways I know of to unify mail from multiple accounts into one online location, and the only solution I know of that also incorporates messages from social networks.

The image below shows what the “Home” page looks like when you login to Fuser.  Under the “Mail” section, you’ll see how many new and unread messages you have since your last logout, and the total number of unread messages. In the “Social Networks” section, you’ll see most recent comments, and a list of those who leave you comments the most in the “Leaderboard Spotlight.”

Features

• Spellchecker for email
• Support of accounts using POP3 and IMAP
• Auto-complete email addressing based upon your contacts
• Option to create folders to organize your messages
• Layered folder structure
• Log into multiple compose windows at once
• Single login for all accounts
• Choose which account you’re sending mail from
• Receive mail in one account and reply to it from another

Social Network incorporation

This is one of the truly unique features with Fuser because it can go and retrieve my Wall messages from Facebook, and bulletins and messages from my MySpace account. What’s even more impressive is that you’re able to reply to these messages right from Fuser.

Things to keep in mind…

One think to keep in mind before you go to Fuser is that you should log out of any of your webmail accounts. They’ll remind you of this to ensure that you won’t get locked out of your mail account.  They probably recommend this because if you’re logging in from multiple locations simultaneously, your mail service would probably get suspicious and lock you out of your account for security purposes.

When I first started using Fuser, one of the things that was really helpful was all of their tours.  There is one main tour, and a couple mini tours which are very helpful. I recommend you take advantage of them.

As with any service, I often look for their method of monetization. In this case, Fuser users Google ads, but they’re off to the side and unobtrusive. I hadn’t even noticed them until I actually looked for how they were monetizing the service, which is nice.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that Fuser isn’t intended to be used as a backup service for your email. If you delete a message in your Gmail inbox, for example, it will get deleted at Fuser as well.

Want to register?

Right now, Fuser is in a private beta stage. They expect to offer a public beta within a month, however you won’t have to wait!  We’ve gotten permission from Fuser to provide you with a code to access their private beta.

All you have to do is go to www.fuser.com and click “Register.” The registration code that you’ll need is FickleMonkey.

Thanks Fuser team!

Wrapping it up

My only complaint is that they don’t offer support for Opera, but I’m sure it’s something they could ad in the future. They also plan on incorporating other online communications in the future as well. Another minor complaint is that the text, by default, appears small and almost hard to read.

Overall, in the short time I’ve been using Fuser, I’ve found it to be an amazing service that I’ll likely continue to use.  It’s so nice to have all of my messages in one location from both different email addresses, and the two social networks I frequent the most.

Give Fuser a try with the registration code above, and let us know what you think!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryDownload WinRAR 3.51 For Free – Today Only!Writely Opens Their Doors To The PublicMicrosoft And eBay Teaming Up For Piracy Prevention40 Million Users Protected By Avast! Home

This article was written on November 07, 2006 by CyberNet.

Google is no doubt my favorite search engine because the results that it provides are always relevant to what I am looking for. For that reason all kinds of different sites use searches powered by Google and TWERQ is another one on that tally. It does, however, have a few unique features.

TWERQ’s most popular feature would probably be its tabbed interface that lets users perform multiple searches without sifting through a ton of browser tabs or windows. I found it to be very intuitive and nice to use because it would open a new “tab” for each search result. It does have some customization to it because you can close tabs as you feel necessary or drag them around to reorder them.

Something else that really struck me as interesting was the Q-Bank feature that you could activate on the configuration screen. They will supposedly pay you for searching and I assume that you earn money when you click on sponsored links but they don’t provide any details on the service. It asks for two passwords but I don’t know why, and there aren’t any instructions. I originally thought it wanted your PayPal password but I don’t think that is what they want. Still seems a little suspicious though.

The whole money thing is pretty interesting but the main concept I was looking to cover was the tabbed searches. I think it would be cool if Google let users do something similar so that you could perform multiple searches all in one single page. I’m sure it isn’t something that they would put into Google itself but SearchMash (Google’s test site) should have something like this since it is already full of JavaScript goodness.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Google Zeitgeist Has Been Released For 2005Google Shows How The World SearchesAdd Tabbed Feeds To Your Google HomepageCyberNotes: Using Keyword Searches In Firefox And OperaGoogle Making Big Bucks on iPhone Users

This article was written on November 02, 2009 by CyberNet.

If you consider your music tastes a little more adventurous than FM radio, you probably already know that the internet is a gold mine for good yet rather unknown music. It has allowed independent bands to flourish and often, they’re more than happy to put out some free MP3′s to get the word out about their songs. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at a handful of sources for free and legal MP3′s across all music genres.

eMusic’s Daily Download
Every day, this page features a new free MP3 that you can download without signing up. Since eMusic is a big name in online music, you can get some good freebies here as long as you’re into the genre that’s being featured.
Link

FlyFi’s Free Music Fridays
Formerly named Goombah, this service not only brings you fifteen new MP3s every Friday but also suggests downloads based on what’s in your iTunes library. The downside is that FlyFi’s iTunes Helper is always running in the background, whether iTunes is active or not. You can opt in to FlyFi’s New Music Friday newsletter if you’d like to receive new MP3s via e-mail.
Link

Last.fm’s Free Music Downloads
Aside from tracking your listen habits and streaming music, Last.fm also has a section of their site dedicated to free MP3s. You can filter their catalog by genre and – if you’re logged in – get personalized recommendations.
Link

we7
Do you remember Spiralfrog? They offered their users free DRM’ed downloads of mainstream music that was supported by advertising. While that service is long gone, we7 is a similar site with one big difference: their downloads are DRM-free 192kbps MP3s. There’s a big buzzkill however… it’s only available in the UK.
Link

Bandcamp
Bandcamp is a music hosting service that features bands on its homepage. And although not every song on the site can be downloaded for free, there are still more than enough freebies left to grab. If you’re excited about a band you found, know that their albums are usually available for download on a pay-what-you-want basis.
Link

Amie Street
Even though Amie Street is a paid music service, their model is entirely different than iTunes’. Much like auctions, the prices of their MP3s rise when their popularity goes up. But here’s the good part: all songs start as free downloads, so if you’re fast you can get great albums absolutely free. Currently, you’re being offered a whopping 75 free songs upon signup. The site will also recommend songs to you by importing data from services such as iTunes, Last.fm, Pandora or Facebook, but of course it’s only as good as the algorithm behind it.
Link

Insomnia Radio’s Daily Dose
This is one of many podcasts dedicated to bringing you new music every day. If you like a song you heard, you can head over to the Daily Dose website to check if there’s a free download available for that song. Similar podcasts include IndieFeed‘s genre-based podcasts and NPR’s The Current Song of the Day.
Link

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Coming Soon: DRM-Free Music Brought to You by AmazonCyberNotes: Soundpedia – Listen to Entire Albums of Songs for FreeNew Poll: How Much is DRM-Free Music Worth to You?Is DRM Finally on the Way Out?Soundflavor: Free iTunes DJ

This article was written on May 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

There is another Google Search layout available, and I have to admit it is perfect (for me at least)! It is a really small change over the last layout that Google tested, but adds fewer clicks to get to the information I’m looking for.

You’ll notice that really the only difference is the bar on the left-side which adds links to some of the items from the top navigation bar. At the top of that list you’ll see links in bold that should compliment your search quite well, such as in this example I was searching for Chicago, Illinois so it put links to Google Maps and Google Images at the top of the list in bold. Then below those links they list a lot of the other Google Services.

The reason why I like this so much is that I’m frequently doing blog searches and product searches, both of which aren’t readily available in the top navigation bar. I could click on the “More” link to get them, but that is just one additional click that really isn’t needed. This new layout makes almost all of Google’s services just one click away.

The other thing that is different with this layout is that it actually tells you how many total results there are for your search term and the time it took to perform the search. The previous layout would only say something like “Results 1 – 10” and would not actually tell you how many total results were available.

So if you’re wanting to try this out yourself the steps are pretty simple:

1. Right-click on this link and copy it.
2. Go to http://www.google.com
3. Paste the link from Step 1 in the address bar and press Enter. You should see a popup window, and once you press OK you will be all set.
4. Refresh the page or do a search to see the new layout.

Remember, to go back to the old layout just delete your browser’s cookies.

Source: Google Blogoscoped

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Try Google’s New Search Layout YourselfGoogle Video Gets Frames – Focuses on SearchGet Your Groove On With Google Music SearchGoogle Testing New Layout For Videos – Try It YourselfGoogle Changes The Modules Layout For Personalized Homepage

This article was written on February 03, 2007 by CyberNet.

Weekend Website

 First things first: as you’ll notice, our Saturday CyberNotes feature has changed from Weekend Warrior to Weekend Website.  I scrounged up lots of stuff about technology and travel over the last 7 months for the Weekend Warrior feature and figured it was time for a change.  As the name suggests, Weekend Website will highlight a website that fits into the category of being super cool, unusually useful, unique, or all of the above.  If you know of a website that fits into any of those categories that would be a good fit for the Weekend Website selection, email us and we might feature it. Okay, now onto the good stuff…

Woot! Once you make your first purchase, you certainly won’t forget it, and you’ll probably find yourself making repeated visits throughout the week. There’s one word that can sum up Woot …. Surprise! There are so many surprise elements to Woot which is why it’s half the fun that it is.

Here’s how it works:  Each day, Woot will place a single product up for sale. The quantity that they have available is never disclosed during the sale. To give potential buyers an idea of when the item is almost gone, the “I Want one” button which you’d click to purchase the item, starts bouncing around the screen when the supply is low. The sale is done when the item has sold-out, or the time reaches 11:59 PM, whichever comes first. Once it’s gone, it’s gone and you’ll have to wait until the next day for a new product and the fun to begin all over again.Woot’s explanation is much more simplified, saying that they’re “an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap.” The image above shows their Woot item for today, the BOA Portable Remote Security System.

Occasionally, they will have a Woot-Off which means that there will be a succession of products available. When one product sells out, another one will appear. It will continue until they end the Woot-off which usually lasts anywhere from 24-72 hours, maybe even longer. Sometimes items will sell out within minutes, other times it will take hours. Thankfully they have an RSS feed which really helps out on these Woot-Off days! If you leave your reader open, you’ll quickly be notified of the new item instead of returning to the site constantly throughout the day.

Shipping no matter what the item is, no matter how heavy, how small, where it’s shipping to, etc., will always be a flat $5.00. You’re limited to a quantity of 3 of each item, sometimes less depending on what it is.  This keeps greedy geeks from walking away with the entire days stock. I say geeks, only because it’s typically gadget-type, technology items that people like you probably enjoy

 Just reading through their FAQ is entertaining. For example, the response to the question “Will I receive customer support like I’m used to” is:

No. Well, not really. If you buy something you don’t end up liking or you have what marketing people call “buyer’s remorse,” sell it on eBay. It’s likely you’ll make money doing this and save everyone a hassle. If the item doesn’t work, find out what you’re doing wrong. Yes, we know you think the item is bad, but it’s probably your fault.

There’s a lot of fun and humor to the site, but of course, if something is actually wrong with the product you pruchased, unlike what their FAQ answer is to the question above, they will rectify the situation. They’re not totally ignorant to customer service.

Going back to that ‘surprise’ element, once in a while, Woot will offer the “Bag O’Crap” deal.  It’s a bag full of random stuff like dollar store items, but possibly electronics items as well. You can purchase up to three craps, and if you buy three, you’ll have better chances of getting something good. Their forum for a recent “Random Crap” will give you an idea of what people received. There’s definitely a reason it’s called “Random Crap.” Anybody want an elephant puzzle? How about a Thermos Pub Glass? Anybody?

Besides surprise, and fun, Woot also has a community, quite an active community for that matter.  Yesterday’s Woot was an HP Photosmart M517 5.2 Megapixel Digital Camera which was selling for $89.99 plus $5.00 shipping.  This item alone just for yesterday had 251 comments. Their member forums are full of excited and/or knowledgeable shoppers or admirers who share insight, Woot! stories, and other conversation.

Okay, really I could go on and on.  Woot is a fun site that you could easily get addicted to.  The last thing I’ll mention is their list of Woots in the forum.  There you can see a list of the latest Woots and view/add to the discussion.  The first post for each item displays the stats.  It’s kinda fun to go back and see how many of each item they started with, how long it took to sell out, and what percentage of buyers have previously bought a product from Woot before. The image below shows what the statistics for yesterday’s camera looked like.

Getting started is easy and simple, and before you know it, you’ll be staying up every night until Midnight to see what the next Woot will be. And from there, you’ll be addicted Enjoy your weekend, and go check out Woot!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Yahoo! Partners with Woot! for "Deal of the Day"Firefox Extension Watches Woot for you!"Secret" Woot Page Reveals 30GB Zune for $100April Fools Jokes 2007: Woot Sells $1 Million Bag of CrapSave Some Green, Get a Zune