Flowgram - PowerPoint and Web Hybrid

I hate PowerPoint, but I cannot live without it. With our increasing digital media consumption, I was stuck with the limitation of PowerPoint and wanted something dynamic where I can add Web pages, add images from Facebook, Flickr, add my voice commentary for guided tour. And the answer is Flowgram.

Flowgram

Flowgram is free web based tool and it uses the timeline like interface like movie editor. It helps you to create timed online presentation of live web pages, documents, photos, RSS Feeds, videos etc. Or you may say it is interactive screencast which you have created by adding different pieces from web and gluing it together with voiceover. The interface is neat and interactive. You can highlight the web pages add your commentary. Viewers can click on the links in the presentation and see the videos on the YouTube, Flowgram automatically pauses an let the viewer see the video within the presentation.

So, if you are are a blogger then you can create a Flowgram of your best post and put that in your blog or you can create interactive posts. Its uses are immense and depends on your creativity. Watch few Flowgrams an you will understand how to put your all creative juices togather.

Technorati Tags: Flowgram,Interactive PowerPoint,Interactive Screencast,Interactive Video,Interactive Multimedia

 

 

Howcast - Your How-to video destination

Let me confess, I am a procrastinator and trying to get rid of this habit. My brother who was aware of my this habit sent me a mail yesterday with a small note "hope this may help you" and the link of Howcast. The link was of video How to Stop Procrastinating on Howcast. I saw the small but impressive video and I am charged up to at least give it a try.

This site is founded by veterans of Google and YouTube and believe me the site has huge collection of engaging and informative high quality videos. This site has collection of great videos categorized in Careers & Education, Mind & Body, Health & Nutrition, Business & Finance etc. The quality of video is so impressive. What more, you can download its free iPhone app and watch the videos in your iPhone.

I also watched the video of How to cook popcorn and tried it at home, believe me the the popcorn turn out as compared to the commercial one :).

Technorati Tags: How to,How To Video,Howcast,YouTube

Xobni - Take control of your Outlook Emails

If you are like me who struggles most of the time finding "some specific" attachment sent by someone. Or searching the conversation related to specific email, extracting emails from emails and more. I was searching through net few months back and then I stumbled upon Xobni. It was in beta stage that time and I requested for the trial. I received invitation from then. So far I am quite satisfied with his and in fact it has simplified my work so much. SOME of the salient feature are

1. Fast email search

2. Statistics related to your email.

3. Navigate your contact social contacts

4. Schedule appointment with a click of the button

5. Email conversation at one place

6. Quick attachment discovery

7. Automatic extraction of phone number from mail - See them in sidebar

8. Integration with facebook, Linkedin etc.

 

Watch Xobni in action.

 

Download Here

Technorati Tags: Xobni,Microsoft Outlook

 

Now widescreen videos on YouTube

Finally Google give in to the popular public demand of widescreen format on YouTube. The site is also experimenting with high definition videos. Yesterday YouTube posted the news in their blog quoting "Over the years we've heard a lot of feedback from you about what you'd like to change about YouTube, and the size of our video player is always top of mind." "We're expanding the width of the page to 960 pixels to better reflect the quality of the videos you create and the screens that you use to watch them," it added.

We tested it for some old videos which were in not shot in widescreen format and we noticed two dark colored bar at the side of the image. A good move from YouTube however it is still nowhere close to Hulu.

Technorati Tags: YouTube,Widescreen

How to link YouTube Video into PowerPoint, MS Word, MS Excel & MS Outlook - The geek way

At some point of time we do think that how to insert the YouTube videos in PowerPoint to make it more dynamic and impressive. You must have read the ways to do it using some software. However, if you are ready to follow few geek steps then it can be done without any software. And not only this, you can insert in any of the MS Office application. If you want to create some sort of document and need to insert the YouTube in MS Word then you can follow the same steps.

Note: For this to work you will need to be connected to the Internet, and have access to YouTube.

1. Find a YouTube video that you want to use in PowerPoint

2. Find the URL from the URL box to the side of the video

It should look something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GidBsTAep3k

3. Delete the “watch?” part, and change the equals sign into a forward slash. So it should now look like this:

http://www.youtube.com/v/GidBsTAep3k

4. Highlight and copy this address to the clipboard.

5. Open PowerPoint

6. From the View menu select Toolbars and check the Control Toolbox

7. Click on “More Controls” and select Shockwave Flash Object from the menu

8. Click and Drag to draw out a box on the page, the video will play in this box so make it as big as you can

9. Right click on this box and choose Properties

 

10. A properties box will appear

11. Find the box that says “Movie” and paste the edited URL that you made for step 3, then hit enter.

12. When you now run the sideshow, the video should now play as part of the page.

For this to work you will need to be connected to the Internet, and have access to YouTube.

You can follow the same procedure for MS Word, MS Excel and MS Outlook as well.

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OpenCandy - Get ready to see Ads during software installs.

Wherever you go, advertisements pop up everywhere. While watching TV, reading magazines and while surfing internet. And now be ready to see advertisements during software installations as well.

OpenCandy, the company who have come up with technology to put the modules in the installer package, which recommends softwares which the developer feels that it would be great fit for the user. Software creators can choose any number of applications to recommend to their users. When a user installs their software, it queries the OpenCandy servers. OpenCandy technology evaluates the available offers and targets the best offer for that user. Because the entire process is dynamic, creators can alter their recommendations at anytime – without the need for any re-building of installers or bundling.

Example of installation screen

The GIMP installer is launched

The user is offered a recommendation, Inkscape

My opinion is that as an end user I get recommendation about other software which I would like to try and from Developer's perspective I am monetizing the the installer screen and earn good bucks if anybody purchase the software I have recommended.

Technorati Tags: OpenCandy,Software,Downloads

FREE Web Conferencing - Right from your browser

I am writing to introduce a next-generation Internet meeting platform -- MeToShow. In MeToShow meeting rooms, you can meet, collaborate and share information with anyone around the world. What's more, it is a FREE service unlike similar products in the market nowadays.

MeToShow is an on-demand service that requires no additional hardware or software, just your computer, your Internet Explorer, and your Internet connection. Added with its easy-to-use user interface, MeToShow provides users with the truly fast and smooth document collaboration experience.

MeToShow is designed to include features that correspond to a real life meeting, including but not limited to meeting minutes generation, voice communications (integrated with Skype and MSN), real-time voting, etc. See the list of features online at

http://metoshow.com/home.htm

We tested it for TechCorrespondent team and our verdict is Good product, its integration with Skype and MSN makes it distinct and this is where we saved cost of long distance calling. The one limitation we noticed is that you can upload and share only doc and pdf files. Support for Microsoft Excel should have been included. However, you can overcome it by sharing your desktop. And please run it in Internet Explorer (IE) as it was pretty buggy when I run this in Firefox.

Technorati Tags: MeToShow,WebConferencing,Webinar,Online Collaboration,Skype

Note: Received communication from MeToShow will undergo a server maintenance on 21-22 Nov, 2008. And the service will not be available on thse two days.

How to access your Hotmail or Office Live from Microsoft Outlook

One of the most useful applications developed by Microsoft is the Microsoft Outlook Connector. With this application, users can access Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live Mail accounts from their Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Outlook 2007 software.

Using the connector, the emails messages, contacts and calendars are accessible directly from the client software. Best of all, it’s free!

Outlook Connector enables you to use your Live Hotmail accounts within Outlook. Some of the features are as follow:

* Read and send your Office Live Mail/Windows Live Hotmail e-mail messages.
* Manage your contacts in Windows Live Hotmail.
* Use advanced options for blocking junk e-mail messages.
* Manage multiple e-mail accounts in one place.
*Manage, and synchronize multiple calendars, including shared calendars to Windows Live Calendar from Outlook.

Only Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and 2007 are supported with this Connector.

Download Here

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Outlook,Microsoft Outlook Connector,Hotmail,Microsoft Office Live Mail

How to remove advertisement on Yahoo Messenger?

No doubt that Yahoo Messenger is one of the greatest instant messaging (IM) client around. No other IM service match the features of Yahoo Messenger. Even if you love it, however I am sure that you hate the advertisement displayed at the bottom of Yahoo Messenger window. Though the advertisements are non obtrusive, however the screen space it occupies and precious bandwidth it uses bothers me. And there is no built in way to hide the ads. My Fellow blogger Askar of DemoGeek has illustrated a way to remove the ads from Yahoo Messenger.

 

There is a tiny little program that you can download that will remove the ads from Yahoo Messenger. “Yahoo Messenger Ad Destroy” is a 326 KB executable that patches your local installation of Yahoo Messenger to not display those annoying ads. Follow these steps to remove advertisements from Yahoo Messenger.

Step-1:

Download the “Yahoo Messenger Ad Destroy” program.

Step-2:

Unzip the downloaded file and launch the program.

Step-3:

 

You’ll get a similar window like above. Click on the “Browse” button and locate the Yahoo Messenger folder on your local hard drive. Alert: There might be a Yahoo folder on your C: drive if you have multiple drives. Make sure to locate the “Yahoo” folder that has a “Messenger” folder underneath.

Step-4:

Once the folder is located Ad Destroy will display some meta information like above. As you can see, you would need .NET Framework 2.0 installed on your local machine. Click on the “Patch” button.

Step-5:

Ad Destroy will display a confirmation that “YIM Restarted!”. Once you see the message your Yahoo Messenger will restart and there are no advertisements anymore.

Happy chatting!!!

Technorati Tags: Yahoo,Yahoo Messenger,Yahoo Messenger Patch,Remove Ads from Yahoo,YIM,Yahoo Instant Messenger,How To,Tip

Courtesy: DemoGeek.com

Update Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and more at once - HelloTXT

Social Networking sites have creeped into our life to such an extent that it has changed our communication habits. I remember, it was enough to check your email once or twice in day. Slowly we got paranoid with the access to unlimited internet, we started checking emails every now and then. And top of it frequently updating our status on Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Twitter etc.

I am no exception, however I have simplified it using the service HelloTxt. And if you have Facebook account, MySpace account, Twitter Blog, Linkedin account etc. and want to update all in one go, then HelloTxt  is the answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can update your status to the social networking site by logging from the HelloTxt dashboard or else at signup, you can save your credentials of each social networking site and Bingo!! you can update the status in one shot or by selecting the sites. Also, update your status through SMS, email, instant messenger and also from Nintendo Wii.

I can understand that everyone is not comfortable saving their credentials on a website due to potential threat. The service's privacy policy promises it won't misuse, sell, or otherwise share your account information, whether you use it once or sign up for a HelloTXT account. Of course, if that puts your fears to rest, and if this service appeals to you, you might be trying to keep up with too many social messaging services.

Technorati Tags: Social Network,Web Apps,HelloTxt,Twitter

Alter your mood, behavior and consciousness by music -I-Dose

Today, I was discussing with my friends that how certain sounds can alter your mood, improve your concentration level and even consciousness. And they could not believe that this is possible. These sounds are Binaural Beats  and used by doctors to assist their patient to attain relaxation. Binaural Beats affects the brainwaves and that alter our mood etc.

 

Sound too technical. The good news is that the site I-dose  has collection of free sounds that can help you to achieve deep relaxation, ease PMS pain etc. Some of the tracks available on the site is Antidepressent, Super Brain, Relaxation, Lucid Dreams etc. So record the sounds and load in your mp3 player and enjoy the sound and see its profound impact. Be assured about the result. in your eyes

Technorati Tags: Concentration,Dgital Audio,Distraction,Focus,Binaural Beats

 

End Your PowerPoint Slide Show Without A Black Screen

I'm sure that you have probably noticed at the end of your presentation that PowerPoint displays a black screen with the words "End of slide show, click to exit" at the top. Not everyone is enamored of the black screen.

Follow the steps below to rid yourself of the black screen at the end of your presentation:

PowerPoint 2002 and 2003:

1. Choose Tools | Options.

2. Choose the View tab.

3. Uncheck the box for the option End with black slide.

PowerPoint 2007:

1. Click on the Office button.

2. Choose the PowerPoint Options button (at the bottom of the window).

3. Choose Advanced from the left side of the next panel.

4. On the right. side find the Slide Show section.

5. Uncheck the box for the option End with black slide.

This setting is only applicable to the PowerPoint application running on your system. It is not a setting that is saved with the presentation file itself.

So if you create a presentation and take it to a remote location and use a different computer, you’ll have to check the option on that computer.

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Technorati Tags: Microsoft Power Point,Power Point,Presentation

Blazing Fast Experimental Browser Minefield from Mozilla - The heat is on

The scene is going to be hot and let's see who is going to crowned as the best browser around. Chrome and Opera set a benchmark of the speed of the browser. But their punchline of "Fastest browser" is in danger.

The new entrant is Minefield, from Mozilla. It is a beta version of upcoming Firefox. It is blazing fast and believe me it is 10% faster than Chrome. One of the most impressive features in Google's open source Chrome web browser is V8, a high-performance JavaScript virtual machine that was developed by a team of specialists in Denmark. Although Chrome's performance beats the current stable version of Firefox, benchmarks show that Mozilla's next-generation JavaScript engine TraceMonkey actually outperforms V8. Mozilla is using tracing optimization techniques and Adobe's open source nanojit to increase the execution speed of SpiderMonkey, the JavaScript runtime engine in the Firefox web browser.

Give it a try, the browser is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Happy browsing....

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Technorati Tags: Minefield,Browser,Firefox,Chrome,V8,Tracemonkey

Your Personal Telescope - Microsoft World Wide Telescope (WWT)

Image via Wikipedia

I always wanted to probe the deep space, I remember I used to sleep outside in the summer night to see the stars constellations and the planets. If you also like watching stars then there is a good news for you.

Microsoft has launched a new site World Wide Telescope. Using this service you can explore the deep space from your desktop. WorldWide Telescope (WWT) enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world. Experience narrated guided tours from astronomers and educators featuring interesting places in the sky.

WWT is an application that runs in Windows that utilizes images and data stored on remote servers enabling you to explore some of the highest resolution imagery of the universe available in multiple wavelengths.

You need to install a small software to enjoy the service and it can be downloaded from here.

http://content.worldwidetelescope.org/equinox/wwtequinoxsetup.msi

Before you venture out to the deep space exploration, have a look at the short video. It is really astonishing and entice you to find more and more in space.

Technorati Tags: World Wide Telescope,Telescope,Space,Planet,Galaxy

What the Font - Find the name of font used

Ever wanted to find a font just like any advertisement or the template you got from somewhere. You like the font, however you do not know the name. And that's make really difficult to find out the exact font from the tons of font available in internet. It is now possible that you can find out the font using the site WhatTheFont site. Upload the scanned image of the font or submit the URL. In few seconds you ill find the closest matches.

Please note WhatTheFont supports most common image formats, for example GIF, JPEG, TIFF, BMP. The maximum image size is around 360 x 275 pixels.

Technorati Tags: Font,Font Name,Advertisement,Ad campaigns