DemoGirl

Last night I was pleasantly surprised to see that I finally had Twitter Lists enabled in my Twitter account. Of course, 5 minutes later I realized that Twitter had opened up Lists to everyone and I was quickly reminded that I’m really not all that special.

If you haven’t given Twitter Lists a try, this screencast should give you a quick overview of what they’re all about and how to use them properly. On an unrelated note, Happy Halloween!

I’d like to get rid of an extra five pounds that have been stalking me lately so I went in search of some free help.  My search led me to SparkPeople — a diet-management site that has apparently been around for a while.

The first thing I noticed when I went to the site was the word “free” — not just a  trial and I didn’t have to enter my credit card information anywhere.  After entering a few tidbits about my weight and goals I was welcomed into a community  of people who are trying to do the same thing as me.

There are loads of tools that help you track what you are eating and what your caloric and fitness goals should be.  You can contact other SparkPeople members through SparkMail, or set up appointments with their calendar. SparkPeople also offers various teams and message boards to help you stay motivated, and you can set up a blog to write about your progress.

I apologize if all this is old news to you… but for those of you who haven’t seen SparkPeople yet, check out the screencast below:

Linkli.st allows you to quickly and easily create lists out of links that you find on the Web.  You can share these lists with friends and allow others to add links to your list, which is great for collaboration.  It’s free to use and only requires a sign-up if you wish to use all of the handy features.

You begin by giving your list a name – I called my first list, “Recipe Ideas for Thanksgiving,” which I filled with links to online recipes that I’m thinking of making for Thanksgiving.  I made my list public and allowed others to add to the list.  When you enable these features, other people can see your list and add relevant links to it.  People can also reply to a list, which really just creates a new list which will be linked to the original list.  The “reply” feature had me a bit confused at first, so hopefully when you see it in the screencast you’ll get my drift. There’s also a bookmarklet which enables you to add links to your lists, wherever you are on the Web.

You can share the URL of your Linklist with friends and grab the embed code for your own blog or Website.  People can also subscribe to your different lists so they’ll know when you add something new.

Linklist doesn’t have set rules for how you should use it, and that’s one of the reasons I like it so much.  Planning a vacation?  Create an ideas Linklist and share it with your traveling companion.  Want to show off a list of your favorite blogs?  Create a favorites Linklist and share it with your Twitter followers.  Check it out and if you create a Linklist, share it in the comments!

To see Linklist in action, watch the screencast below:

[via Larry Ferlazzo]

Redbeacon is a service that connects service providers (anything from a handyman to an accountant) to consumers who need such services.

On the requesting end, all you need to do is select the service that you need, enter in the date(s) and time that you’d like it done, and add any important information that will help the person give you an accurate quote.  You can then choose how long you would like your request to appear – anywhere from 4 hours to 48 hours.  Redbeacon will then send out your request to relevant service providers and they can bid on whatever you need done and also ask you questions.  If you decide on a provider you can set up the appointment right from Redbeacon.

As a service provider you can use Redbeacon to post your services.  You can add a logo, contact information (only available when you win a bid) and you can opt to receive text messages so you never miss out on a job.  There’s also a handy map so you can display how far you’re willing to travel.

I created some test jobs for a personal trainer and a housekeeper and within 20 minutes I had 5 bids total.  Pretty impressive considering they just launched in the Bay area a couple of days ago.

To see Redbeacon in action, watch the screencast below:

InvisibleHand is a Firefox Add-on that will alert you if a product you’re viewing can be purchased on another Website at a lower price.

The way it works is simple:  Browse for products on sites like Best Buy, Amazon, OverStock, Borders, etc. and if a lower price is available somewhere else, InvisibleHand will slide open (almost unnoticeably) and show you how much you can save and give you a link to the product page.  It works for many items like electronics, beauty products, books, toys, and video games.  A full list of supported Websites and products can be found here.

I forgot that I had installed InvisibleHand yesterday afternoon – I was planning on taking it for a spin but got sidetracked.  This morning, when I was briefly browsing OverStock for a new comforter, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the item I was thinking of purchasing was $10.00 cheaper on Amazon.  That’s how invisible InvisibleHand is.  I completely forgot it was installed until there was a good reason for it to make an appearance.

To see InvisibleHand in action, watch the screencast below (best viewed in HD in full screen):

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HotPrints gives its users an easy and inexpensive way to create photo books from your Facebook or Bebo pictures.  And now the company is offering you one free HotBook per month.

The free books are ad-supported, but the ads will be inserts that you can remove — they wont be printed next to your photos.  But if you don’t like the idea of ads included with your book, you can pay $2.99 plus shipping.

A Facebook app will allow you to drag and drop photos from your own albums or from albums of your Facebook friends.  You can play around with themes, backgrounds, covers and borders.  I was able to put together a book in just a few minutes.  I’m not sure if I’ll go for the free version or skip the ads and pay a few bucks.  But either way, the books seem like a good deal to me.

To see HotPrints in action, click on the screencast below (best viewed in HD in full screen):

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[via: techcrunch]

TinyGrab is an application that works with your Mac OS X or Windows screenshot tool to help you quickly share the screenshots you take.

After you install TinyGrab simply take a screenshot as you normally would (you can change the hot-keys in your preferences if needed).  TinyGrab will almost instantly copy a short URL to your clipboard which links to your image.  You can share this URL wherever you like – Twitter, IM, email, you name it.  These URL’s will also be stored in your system tray or dock so you can access them again.

You also have the option of uploading your own images from your computer and TinyGrab will give you the same short URL to share with others.  TinyGrab works fast.  Really fast.  If you want a way to almost instantly share screenshots with all of your Twitter followers, I highly recommend checking out TinyGrab.  Currently the free version supports 10 free uploads a day but you can upgrade to a premium version for a minimal one time payment.

To see TinyGrab in action, watch the screencast below (best viewed in HD in full screen):

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I stumbled onto a cool Web site called iCyte.  The site offers a nifty little browser add-on (for firefox and IE) that allows you to grab Web pages and save them to projects in your iCyte account.  You can also highlight portions of a site if you find something particularly interesting.

After you’ve created some “cytes”, as they are called, you then have access to those pages even if the original Web sites no longer exist.  You can group your cytes under different projects, and you can share those projects with friends or colleagues.  If you want a quick view of all of the cytes you’ve saved, you can enable the sidebar in your browser.

As the holiday season gets closer, I could see myself using iCyte for projects like gift ideas and holiday recipes.   Or I might use it to quickly share multiple sites with colleagues.  Either way, I think iCyte will make its way to my toolbox.

To see iCyte in action, click on the screencast below (best viewed in HD in full screen):  [wpvideo p3WIoJOy]

[via:  Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day]