Customize Classic Stories Online With MeeGenius!

02Jul10

Are your kids getting enough reading time this summer?  Maybe your children would read more if they were featured in the stories.  MeeGenius! gives parents the chance to customize some classic stories — like Goldilocks and the Three Bears or Jack and the Beanstalk — and then read them online or on your iPhone.

You can add your child’s name or even change the story.  The classic tales have been modernized quite a bit — in Hansel and Gretel the witch is merely locked in a closet and there is no mean stepmother — but they might be nice for very small children.

The audio playback feature is what I like.  My kids love audio books, and on MeeGenius! the words are highlighted as the narrator reads them.    MeeGenius! might be great in the car if you have an iPod Touch or iPhone and you download the app.

Watch the screencast to see MeeGenius! in action.

[via:  go2web20.net]

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  3 Comments

Tweets Turned into Daily News via Paper.li

01Jul10

The news you create at Paper.li won’t stain your fingers with ink and it might prove more interesting than what you find on your doorstep in the morning.   Plus, the newspaper can even be named after you!

Paper.li allows you to take all the recent links from a twitter user and their followers and turn those links into an easy to read newspaper.  The paper is divided into sections like articles, media, and photos.  You can easily share your daily paper — which is updated every 24 hours — or just retweet certain links from it.

The site also allows you to search for other papers — you can do a search on #oilspill and find papers that have been created related to that tag.

To see Paper.li in action, watch the screencast below:

[via: lifehacker]

Filed under: social networking, twitter   |  Closed

Share your Favorite Places with Share My Map

01Jul10

ShareMyMap is a fun tool that allows you to create maps of customized neighborhoods.  It’s free to use and you can have your first map up and running in just minutes.

To create your first map you’ll just need to enter in a general location, like San Francisco, and then you can zoom in as needed to get the default zoom point set.  You can then add a title for your map, like ‘Dive Bars’, add a photo, a description, and you can add custom fields that you can fill in for each point of interest.

Once your map is created you can begin adding points to the map with an address, description, tags, and Flickr photos and YouTube videos. Other members can add media too and comment on your points.  People can choose to follow your map so they can keep up with new content.  You can also choose to sign in with your Facebook or Twitter account and share across those sites as well.

I really like ShareMyMap for the most part but I found myself wanting a little bit more.  Here’s my wishlist:

• I’d like a way to share my map with anyone with a link or embed code and/or via email
• The ability to search for a locations address from within a map – as of now you need to know its exact location
• Suggested images from Flickr based on the points name would help eliminate the step of me having to leave the site to do a Flickr search for photos
• Collaboration with a private group of people to create a group map for things like reunions and weddings
• Revision history so I can find places I may have removed from a map. This would also be helpful when used with my comment above (collaboration).

To see ShareMyMap in action, watch the screencast below:

Filed under: maps, screencast, social networking, Tools   |  2 Comments
Tags: ShareMyMap

App Happy Episode 6: MobileRSS

30Jun10

MobileRSS syncs with your Google Reader so you can keep up with all of your favorite blogs and websites at all times.  There’s a free version and a pro for $2.99 (iTunes links) which I’ll show you in the screencast.

After you install it and sign in with your Google account it will automatically sync up.  All of your folders, tags, shared and stared items will be in place along with people who you follow.  MobileRSS works a lot like Google Reader and you can also share items via email, Twitter, Facebook, Instapaper, and more.

I installed both the free and paid-for versions and am happy with both.  If you’re unsure about spending the money then install the free version, it works great and will give you a feel of what you get for your money.

To see MobileRSS in action, watch the screencast below:

Filed under: App Happy, blog, bookmarking, feed reader, Google, iPhone Apps, mobile, organization, RSS, screencast, Tools   |  1 Comment
Tags: iPhone App, mobile, MobileRSS, RSS

Create Virtual Idea Boards on Pinterest

11Jun10

I finally got my invite for Pinterest this week and I’ve been having so much fun exploring all of the beautiful pinboards that early users have created.  It’s easy to create your own boards — when you come across something that strikes your fancy simply use the bookmarklet to “pin” it to your board.

If you find something you like on another person’s board (there is plenty to like) you can let them know by “liking” the item or “repinning” it to your own board.

I’m thinking Pinterest is going to be a great help for me in planning Molly’s upcoming bridal shower:)

I do have 10 invites — so let me know if you want one.

View the screencast here: 

Filed under: bookmarking, demo, fun, organization, photos, Uncategorized   |  4 Comments

Flavors.me Gives you a Personal Website for your Online Life

03Jun10

Flavors.me is a great service for anyone who wants to build their own Website  to share all of their profiles on the Web.  It allows just about anyone to design a personal site, even those of us without design skills.  You can test out Flavors.me for free but for $20.00 a year you can have access to even more design customization, use your own domain and get informative stats on who is visiting your site.

To learn more about Flavors.me, check out the screencast below:

Filed under: blog, design, screencast, social networking, start page, Tools   |  2 Comments
Tags: design, Flavors.me, screencast, Website

Moderator Helps You Get in Touch With Your YouTube Subscribers

27May10

TechCrunch posted a story today about Google Moderator being available on YouTube and I decided to test it out.   The learning curve is not very steep — just go to your channel modules, enable moderator, post a request for ideas or suggestions and then wait for your subscribers to respond.

DemoGirl gets a lot of screencast suggestions every day, but we don’t usually see the same request from two different people.  Molly is often busy with custom work and weeding through all these suggestions can be time-consuming.  This is where I think Moderator on YouTube might be useful  — by providing us with a way to have our readers help us determine what people want to see covered here.

Check out the screencast here: 

If you have a suggestions, check out our Moderator series on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/demogirlmo

Filed under: cool, Google, Uncategorized, YouTube   |  Closed

Great for On-The-Fly Design: Adobe Ideas iPhone App

13May10

Adobe Ideas (iTunes link) is an app for the iPhone and iPad that helps you quickly sketch out design ideas on a blank canvas or a photo.  There’s also a handy color palette generator for use on a new photo or an existing one. It’s completely free so even if you’re not very creative (you’ll see my level of creativity in this screencast ) it’s still fun to use and can be useful for sharing simple design ideas with others.

To see the Adobe Ideas app in action, watch the screencast below:

Filed under: App Happy, cool, design, iPhone Apps, mobile, photos, screencast, Tools   |  2 Comments
Tags: Adobe, design, iPhone App

2 iPhone Apps to Help you Celebrate Earth Day Every Day

22Apr10

I love that there’s one day a year dedicated to celebrating our wonderful Mother Earth.  One day a year when people will remember to bring their reusable grocery bags to the supermarket, think twice before buying that ginormous bottle of water imported from Fiji and one day when people will remember to put down the lid on the toilet.  Do you know how much water can evaporate out of the toilet when the lid is left open? Do you?? And thank goodness there are a ton of “green” iPhone apps to help us do our part. (Yes, I’m being snarky but I really am a hippy vegetarian so it’s OK   )

Here are my two favorites that I stumbled upon today:

Cruelty Free (iTunes link) is a helpful app for people who want to be sure that they are buying products that are NOT tested on animals. 

Find Green (iTunes link) is an app that helps you to find green businesses in your area.

Check out the screencast to learn more about the Cruelty Free and Find Green iPhone apps:

Filed under: App Happy, iPhone Apps, Nutrition, screencast, Uncategorized   |  Closed
Tags: Cruelty Free, Earth Day, Find Green, iPhone App

3 Fun Photo Editing iPhone Apps

20Apr10

Photoshop.com Mobile iPhone App is a free and easy to use photo editor.  You can use it with new photos you take or on photos already in your camera roll.  Use it to quickly add effects, crop images and more.

Check out the screencast to see more:

CameraBag ( iTunes link) isn’t free, but it’s so fun to use that I  think it’s worth the $1.99 price tag.  It allows you to add awesome filters to your pictures almost instantly.

Check out the screencast to see more:

TiltShift helps you take any scenic photo and make it appear as if it’s a miniature scale model.  At just $0.99, I couldn’t pass it up.

Check out the screencast to see more:

Filed under: App Happy, fun, iPhone Apps, photos, screencast, Tools   |  1 Comment
Tags: CameraBag, editing, iPhone App, Photoshop iPhone App, TiltShift