8hands: Desktop Client for Social Networks

8hands is a new desktop client that lets you keep up with your friends on social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, and flickr. With 8hands, you can get the updates from all of those sites from the convenience of a desktop client. If you want to visit one of the social network’s websites, you just have to click the icon for that service and 8hands will launch your preferred web browser. If you already use a desktop client for Twitter, 8hands can replace that, but it does not have an easy way to reply to tweets or tinyurl integration, so you would have to give those features up. If your friends also download and use 8hands, you can launch IM chat sessions with them.

8hands is currently Windows only, but Mac support is coming soon. Also, expect to see more supported networks in the future, including Friendster, Bebo, Last.fm, and Xango. (Via Download Squad)

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Mp3Realm is a search engine just for mp3’s. You can search for songs by artist, title, genre, or album and you can filter out results by file duration, so you don’t end up with a clip when you were looking for the whole song. The site also indexes lyrics, so you can not only listen, but also sing along with the tunes you find. You have the option to search just audio or lyrics, too. Registered users can create a profile, save their searches, and create playlists which are saved under their login. The search service tracks other websites and blogs by crawling the web, so they don’t actually host any mp3’s on their servers. Since that is the case, they don’t mind also offering Mp3Realm users the ability to quickly download the files via a “download” link underneath the search result. This sounds like something that the RIAA will try to shut down, so enjoy it while it lasts!

Frequent fliers will be interested in the identity-verification service provided by the startup, Clear. Launched in 2003, travelers can pay $99 per year to receive a pre-screened ID card which lets them zip through airport security at one of the participating airports. Members receive a high-tech card which is inserted into a Clear kiosk, which also verifies the fingerprint or iris image that you selected during enrollment. A Clear attendant also checks your boarding pass, Clear card, and ID, but this only takes a few seconds. After that, you still have to go through the metal detectors and x-rays, but the Clear attendants assist you with speeding up that process as well. According to the Clear website, their members get through security 30% faster! (Via somewhatfrank)

  Social.im is a new instant messaging client that lets you chat with your Facebook contacts over a variety of IM networks.  Even though your friends are spread across several different IM networks like Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Google, etc., Social.im is betting on the fact that most of them are on Facebook. What makes Social.im different than other Facebook apps is that you don’t run it in the browser - it’s actually a standalone application that logs into Facebook, whether or not your browser window is open. Your friends on Facebook also have to download and install Social.im in order for you to chat with them, which may be a drawback. Not everyone wants to install additional software on their PC…even if you do! It would be nice if your friends had the option to either chat with you via a web browser window or the standalone app. As far as IM apps go, Social.im is pretty basic - no video, no file sharing, no voice. However, its Facebook integration lets you check your new Facebook messages, pokes, friend requests, and wall posts via buttons at the bottom of the IM client. Clicking the buttons opens up a web browser window and takes you to the requested page. Currently, Social.im only works on Windows, but a Mac version is supposed to be arriving soon.

Things have been a little busy for me lately, but just because I’m not posting here, doesn’t mean I’m not blogging! Check out my latest on RWW:

Postalz & Scrapblog - Doing More With Digital Photos

When
you go on vacation, you no longer pack canisters of film for taking
vacation photos - you just pack a digital camera and a handful of
batteries. If the hotel has wi-fi, you might even upload photos from
the day’s activities to flickr in
the evening. However, when it comes time to send postcards back home,
you still have to browse through the assorted offerings from the gift
shop, emblazoned with hokey “wish you were here” sentiments overtop
images that look nothing like the place you’re visiting.

In this post we look at web 2.0 services that give you more options with digital photos - postalz and scrapblog.

Continue reading »

Here’s another Firefox extension that bloggers are sure to love: the AutoCopy Firefox extension lets you select text and have it automatically copied to your clipboard, no Ctrl + C necessary. The option to “Paste on Middle Click” bypasses the Ctrl + V option, too. If you left-click on the Autocopy statusbar button, you can quickly enable and disable it, or you can just hold down the Ctrl key to do the same. There are also options that let you undo a copy, view the clipboard history of up to 10 items, paste to the search or location box with a click, open text-only URL in a new window when selected, and a URL to clipboard feature that is especially helpful to keep track of the site you are quoting from. You can configure the extension to make the statusbar button blink whenever something is copied to the clipboard, too. If you are also using my favorite Copy Plain Text extension, AutoCopy will work with that as well, making AutoCopy a must-have for any web writers. (via LifeHacker)

Just a reminder, I post on other blogs, too! Check out some of my latest posts on Channel 10:

10 Useful Plugins for Windows Live Writer

Online Scrapbooking

Zune Hack - Zune Contact Cards

Witty for Vista

Anagram for Outlook

And see my latest contributions to ReadWriteWeb:

Share Your Travels with Driftr

Hoosgot Revives the Lazy Web

If you have a favorite RSS feed (or two or three!) that you want to stay on top of, a service from Web-Alerts.com can help. Similar to SendMeRSS, Web-Alerts is also a way to be immediately notified when a particular feed is updated, except Web-Alerts offers these updates via text message as opposed to email. The service is simple to use - you just type in a site’s URL or its RSS feed URL and click “go.” On the next screen, you enter your mobile number and, optionally, you can enter a keyword to go along with the feed. By entering a keyword, you will only be alerted when the new items contain your keyword. When the SMS text message arrives on your phone, you can preview the content and decide whether you really need to go online and visit the site. Now you can always stay on top of breaking news - no matter where you are!

UPDATE: I just found another service that does the same thing: Pingie!

MintEmail is a useful service that gives you a four-hour temporary email address, perfect for filling out forms on websites where you aren’t comfortable giving out your real email address. When you visit the MintEmail website, you’ll see a temporary email address has been generated for you. You can choose to either use that address or click the link provided to create a custom address of your own. The address is conveniently added to your clipboard, so you don’t have to hit Ctrl + C to copy it - you can just paste it into whatever form you are filling out at the time. When new emails to that address arrive, they will automatically display on the MintEmail homepage. New email notifications will display on the title bar, so if you navigate away from the page, you will know when to return and check your messages. MintEmail also offers an email forwarding service which allows you to create a mintemail.com email address for a period of time that lasts longer than 4 hours. The address forwards all emails to your real email address for a time frame of your choosing, which can be anywhere from 12 hours to 3 months. You can also check all your MintEmails from the URL http://mintemail.com/username. Although there are many other temporary email services available, the speed with which you can generate a disposable MintEmail email address makes the service extremely handy.