Here we are again my lovely DemoGirl readers. It’s Friday and you’re ready to punch that time card and head out for the weekend. I know that attention spans can be minimized in the afternoon on one of the greatest days of the week, so I’ve decided to profile three applications in just three minutes that may help you out this weekend. One to help you keep track of new episodes of your favorite TV shows, one that may help you find a great deal while shopping online, and one to help you find your lost cell phone.

MyTvRSS allows you to create an RSS feed that will update you every time one of your favorite TV shows has a new episode. All you need to do is select the shows you like, and MyTvRSS will create the feed that you can add to your reader of choice. This is especially useful for people like me who never turn on the TV, but probably would if they knew a that a new episode of House was going to be on.

PriceAdvance is a Firefox Extension and Internet Explorer plugin that gives you instant price comparisons of items you’re shopping for. It doesn’t necessarily only give you better prices, it just lets you see what everyone else is charging for something you’re thinking about purchasing. The affiliate merchant sites are somewhat limited so you may not see results if you’re looking for something like sneakers or a set of white wall tires, but if you’re looking for electronics or DVDs, I’d definitely give PriceAdvance a try.

PhoneMyPhone needs minimal explanation - it will ring your phone for you at any time you tell it to. There’s no voicemail task reminder service, no free text messaging, and it won’t tell you how to get anywhere. It will, however, help to get you out of a boring meeting, help you to flee an excruciating blind date, or ring your phone if you’ve lost it somewhere. Done, done, and done.

Here’s my Friday Quickcast Special:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 3m

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[via downloadsquad, CenterNetworks, and MakeUseOf]

Readbag is a link bookmarking site that runs on Google Apps. It has quite an attractive interface and since it runs on Google Apps, you can log in using your Google account. It’s very simplistic in that it’s really just a place to store links to read later. It’s not really supposed to do the job of a regular bookmarking service because there’s no way to really organize the links or archive them into different folders. There are a couple of different ways you can add links - using their bookmarklet, by downloading the Firefox extension, or manually. You can also send links to your Google Reader but you need to have Greasemonkey installed. You can share your links on the list of popular social networking sites, post them to Twitter, and have a daily digest of links sent to your email every day at a specified time. Here’s my screencast tour of readbag:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 2m6s

Want this screencast on your site? Click here to get the code for this and other DemoGirl screencasts!

Do you ever wander around your neighborhood coffee shop and wonder, “Now where did I put my laptop? They all look the same!”? Of course you don’t. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tag your laptop so it stands out from the crowd. That’s where the website of the day, Schtickers comes in. Schtickers is a company that sells pre-designed or custom laptop skins that can be removed and reapplied at will. They have hundreds of designs to choose from in a variety of categories — anything from animal inspired to pop and retro. But I think the best part about Schtickers is that you can completely design your own laptop skin. You can add background images, choose from their graphics or upload your own, and add text. It’s noted that soon you’ll be able to create customized skins out of photos. It’s really easy to use and it costs just $24.95. (Pre-designed skins are $19.95) I think these would be great for promoting your company or even your own personal blog. Just think how cool it would be if all your friends had your URL plastered all over their MacBook Pros.

[via Digital Inspiration]

I’ve noticed that over the past few weeks Twitter has been receiving a lot of attention.  Seriously, it’s being talked about at dinner parties, at happy hour, and all over the Internet.  It could be that my friends and I just don’t have anything better to talk about or it could be that Twitter is spreading like a Southern California wild fire.  Since Twitter is becoming more and more popular, Twitter applications and Twitter Bots are popping up all over the place as well.  I wrote a post a few weeks ago showcasing some of the “Twitter Courtiers” that I had come across and since then, many more have surfaced.  So, without further adu, I present to you “Some Of The Many Twitter Courtiers, Part Deux”:

TwitterSnooze allows you to put a virtual snooze button on some of your overzealous Twitter followers.  You just need to enter in your Twitter username and password and then the name of the person you want to keep quiet.  You can tell TwitterSnooze how long you want to keep them quiet and, the most humiliating part, you can announce to all of your followers that you are shutting @whoever off and they can too.  It will say something like this, “Hitting snooze on @whoever.  You can hit snooze too at TwitterSnooze.com”.  You don’t need to select that option, but I think it’s pretty neat if you want to let someone know that their tweets are really getting on your nerves.

Twistori isn’t really a useful Twitter application, but it is an interesting one.  It shows you tweets containing one of six emotional words:  Love, Hate, Think, Believe, Feel, or Wish.  It streams the tweets continuously and you can select to switch to a different emotion to view.  It’s really amazing how many people hate ticks, going to work, and Toshiba.  It’s almost like viewing overheard tweets, in that it’s really amusing.  The best “Wish” I just read was, “I wish I was naked in a warm bath with a bottle of vodka”.  I wish I could have Twistori as my screensaver.

TrackThis allows you to track your packages over Twitter.  You need to follow TrackThis first, and then send them a direct message that contains the tracking number and brief description of what you’re tracking.  You’ll then receive a direct message whenever your package changes locations.  You can follow TrackThis here, but make sure you send your tracking code in a direct message and not an @reply.

Roll.The.Dice will provide you with results from random events like flipping a coin, dealing cards, and generating random numbers.  You need to follow rollthedice here and then just send it a direct message telling it what you want it to do.  For example, you could dm rollthedice with the command “roll” and it will roll a six sided die and send you the result.  You can do the same to flip a virtual coin — just dm “flip” to get your result.

Hopefully those will keep you busy for the week.  I’ll be back next Monday with “Some Of The Many Twitter Courtiers, Part Trois”.

Presdo is an online scheduling application that helps you to quickly, and attractively, schedule events with a group of people.  It’s very minimalistic from the get go, only requiring you to type in what you want to do with your guests before bringing you to another page where you can add locations and more event details.  It understands basic commands like “dinner with Jerry next week at 8pm” and remembers contacts you’ve added in the past.  You can add a location by entering in the exact address or you can do a search based on the type of place you’re looking for and the location.  Your guests can suggest different times and you can message back and forth from your event page, all without them having to sign up.  All of your events are listed on one page and you’ll be notified any time someone has made a change.

I really, really hate using the word “sexy” when referring to Web applications, but I’ll make an exception for Presdo.  It’s especially weird to refer to it in that way because it’s an online scheduling application — who knew scheduling dinner with friends could be so hot?  Here’s my screencast tour of Presdo:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 3m3s

Want this screencast on your site?  Click here to get the code for this and other DemoGirl screencasts!

[via TechCrunch]

Wakerupper is a free wake-up call service that also doubles as a reminder service. You can try it out from the homepage without signing up for anything by entering in your call details. If you sign up for an account you can add multiple phones to receive calls on, keep track of your calls, and set up ongoing calls. You can also record audio and Wakerupper will call you and play your message whenever you need it. It’s extremely straightforward and easy to use — no fancy features to get in the way of what the service is supposed to be used for.

One thing I was surprised about when trying it out, was that there’s no initial phone number verification call so I could schedule a call to anyones phone as long as I know their number. I do like the fact that I don’t have to worry about receiving and replying to annoying verification text messages, but I wonder if it would actually be useful to avoid wake-up call spam. There is an option at the end of the call to let Wakerupper know if you didn’t schedule the call, so that could be how they’re planning on policing the service. Here’s my screencast tour of Wakerupper:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 3m32s

Want this screencast on your site? Click here to get the code for this and other DemoGirl screencasts!

[via AppScout]

Brightkite allows you to share where you are, at any given moment, through the Web or SMS.  Like Twitter, you can also post a note sharing what you’re currently doing.  Unlike Twitter, your friends will be able to see where you are when you’re doing these very important things.  Besides just posting your location and notes, you can also post photos, see other Brightkite users around you, and you can update to Twitter at the same time.  All of this can be done from the Web or from your mobile phone.  You can customize your privacy settings so you’ll only receive posts and “check ins” (where you are) from your friends or, more importantly, trusted friends.  Trusted friends is a feature I think Twitter should add because it allows you to let certain people see certain information.  For example, if I wanted to only let my close friends know where I was going to get drinks after work without having to send them all a direct message.  All around, I’m really loving Brightkite.

I will say that while Brightkite is nice to look at, it’s a little cluttered for my taste right now.  There is a lot going on and it’s going on all over the place.  Also, giving people a way to “check in” to a location right from the main page would be nice. As it is, you need to either go to your saved locations and select check in or search for a location and then check in.  Since a main focus of the site is checking in, I think that button should be more prominent.  Giving people a way to check out of a location would be nice as well (what if they leave a bar and don’t want to check in when they get to the next one?).  It is in private beta so I’m more than willing to see where Brightkite goes.  Here’s my screencast tour of Brightkite:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 5m8s

Want this screencast on your site?  Click here to get the code for this and other DemoGirl screencasts!

Update Scanner is a Firefox Extension that will alert you whenever a Website has been updated.  It installs an arrow icon in the lower right hand corner of your browser window.  When a site you’ve added to Update Scanner has changes, it will turn purple and you’ll see a small toaster notification.  You can add a site to be alerted about with a right mouse click or you can add sites manually.  You decide how often you want Update Scanner to check for updates - anywhere from every five minutes (not recommended) to once a day.

Now I know that most Websites have an RSS Feed, but that’s really not all Update Scanner can be used for.  If there’s an interesting comment thread you want to keep your eye on but don’t really want to subscribe to it in your Feed Reader, you could have Update Scanner notify you every hour with changes.  You could do the same for threads in a forum.  If you have a friend (or Mother) who doesn’t really understand the whole RSS thing, you could install Update Scanner for them and add the few sites they may frequent.  Then just show them how they’ll know when there’s new content “because the cute little arrow will turn purple, Mom!”.  Here’s my screencast tour of Update Scanner:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 2m48s

Want this screencast on your site?  Click here to get the code for this and other DemoGirl screencasts!

[via MakeUseOf]

Chilirec is a service that records music from various Internet radio stations and allows you to create playlists to listen to from the Chilirec player. When you first get started, you need to select what Internet stations you want Chilirec to record from - there are currently 351 available. Chilirec will then begin to add music to your account from these stations. Music is added quickly and you can begin listening by dragging and dropping songs onto the Chilirec player. You can also do a search for music by artist, song, or genre. You can create playlists and download songs as MP3 files.

It would be nice if the Internet radio stations could be broken down by genre because browsing through 351 stations is a bit tedious. Other than that, I can’t really complain. I’ve been using Chilirec for about 2 hours and it’s already recorded almost 8,000 songs that I can listen to whenever I want. Here’s my screencast tour of Chilirec:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 3m31s

Want this screencast on your site?  Click here to get the code for this and other DemoGirl screencasts!

[via GO2WEB20]

Last weekend I went to a great dinner with a bunch of fancy pants.  When the bill came (I didn’t realize we’d ordered the platinum cheese plate) some credit cards were thrown down for credit card roulette.  What this means is that the owner of the card that the server picks out of the pile, has to pay the entire bill.  I did not throw my credit card in because, frankly, I didn’t even have enough money in my account to cover the bill.  Out of 12 people, only 5 put in their cards.  What I later learned, is that if you didn’t put your card in, you need to give the loser your share of the bill.  Seems reasonable, right?  Wrong.  I still owe the poor guy 40 bucks and I don’t know if he ever got money from the rest of the people who didn’t put their card in.  Enter Buxfer:

Buxfer helps you track your money and keep track of who owes you what.  You can sync it with your credit card and bank accounts so you can see exactly where your money is being spent.  It allows you to send and receive payments using Amazon Payments so your friends can’t use the excuse that “they don’t have the cash on them right now”.  The most useful part of Buxfer is that you can do all this from the Web, SMS, Twitter, and your iPhone.

So, to my friend who got screwed at dinner last weekend, these screencasts of how to use Buxfer on the Web and with the iPhone, are for you:

Buxfer for the iPhone

Buxfer on the Web