DemoGirl

Here are three sites that have absolutely nothing to do with each other, other than the fact that they all require you to type in some text in order to use them.  Happy Friday…

Soungle is a search engine for sound effects.  It’s pretty straightforward – Enter in the sound you want to hear, like a cat yell, and, if available, Soungle will give you a page of sound effects that you can download for free.  I’ve actually been looking for something like this for a while, so expect to hear some of Soungle’s effects in my screencasts in the future.  [via MakeUseOf]

Wordle allows you to make stunning word clouds out of any text you enter into the site or out of a del.icio.us users tags.  You can customize the font, layout, and colors and save it to the Wordle gallery.  Another idea I had was that you could make a word cloud out of a poem, print out the word cloud, and write the poem on the inside like a card.  Cheesy?  Probably.  I turned my word cloud into my desktop background and it looks pretty neat, if I do say so myself.  [via Lifehacker]

Tinypaste gives anyone a simple way to get around Twitter’s 140 character rule by shortening your text.  So, instead of creating a tinyURL to link to your blog post, I suppose you could write out a blog post on tinypaste and create a link that way.  Tinypaste doesn’t specify that its sole purpose is for Twitter so you can use it for anything you like.  The most useful part of tinypaste is the Firefox Extension that allows you to create a link to any text you select on a web page. [via Download Squad]

To see all of these awesome “word related” applications in action, watch the screencast below:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 4m46s

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

Have you ever wanted to add a nice reflection to your photo but thought that it would be impossible to do without photoshop? The thing is, you don’t really need photoshop to do basic editing because of all of the new web based applications. You can edit and add effects to your photos today with services like Picnik, Aviary, and even Photoshop Express. But what about for the really simple task of just adding a reflection? I found two services today, that do just that, and only that.

Picreflect allows you to first choose the settings for your reflection, like transparency, size, and background color. Then you just need to upload an image or enter in a URL and it automatically generates your image with a lovely reflection, which you can download. The only downside to Picreflect is that every time you want to adjust the settings for your reflection, you need to go back and re-set everything and upload the image again. Real-time reflection image editing would be very cool, but it’s so easy to use that I’ll take it anyway.

WaveMyPic instantly adds a reflection to your image but it also turns it into an animated GIF, so it looks like a pool of water. WaveMyPic is even easier to use than Picreflect because you can’t really customize it at all. You just need to upload an image and WaveMyPic does the rest. If you like looking all psychedelic and tripped out then you can share it on your social networking site or email it to friends.

Both Picreflect and WaveMyPic are featured in the screencast below:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 2m5s

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

[via simplespark]

Friday has arrived, and not a moment too soon. I don’t want to bore you with complicated applications that will help you work better – I want to show you some tools that require very little brain function that you can use over the weekend. In this quickcast, I’ll show you 4 applications that do just that.

SuperLame gives you a super cool way to add caption balloons to your photos. The entire process is fast and really enjoyable. You can even choose to have the balloon outside of the original image.

SensibleUnits is a ridiculous application that shows you random items that are the same size of whatever measurement you type into the search box. For example, if you type in 25 feet, you may get results such as, 1.7 London buses stacked one on top of the other. Another interesting fact is that 500 lbs is also the same weight as 45 average domestic cats. Good to know.

Epicurious has a new “Seasonal Ingredient Map” that shows you exactly what’s currently in season in whatever state you live in. I just learned why lemons are so darn expensive in California right now – they’re in season in December. That just doesn’t seem right for some reason. What about all the poor kiddies and their summer jobs as lemonade stand owners?

Bradicon needs very little explanation because it only does one thing. It turns almost any image into an icon. The entire process is quick and the only thing you need to do is select the image from your computer. From there, Bradicon instantly turns it into an icon that you can download. [via Lifehacker]

To see these 4 applications in action, watch the screencast below:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 3m45s

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

Cubescape is a site designed to make you the least productive person at work today. Seriously, it will. That is unless you have my job, in which case playing with sites like Cubescape is required. In a nutshell,  Cubescape lets you create 3-D art by simply dropping cubes onto a canvas. You can even blow cubes up, which can be more fun than dropping them. You can replay the entire construction of your masterpiece and save it in the Cubescape gallery. In all seriousness, Cubescape would be a great tool for anyone in the creative field that needs help getting those creative juices flowing. Here’s my screencast tour of Cubescape:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 2m46s

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

[via Lifehacker]

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]

Stylish is a Firefox Extension that allows you to easily edit the way a website looks.  After you install it you can browse through styles that have already been created for popular sites like Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia.  Once you find a style that you like you just need to load it into Stylish and when you go to that page, you’ll see the changes.  If you’re familiar with CSS then you can also create your own style to be loaded into Stylish.  You can also edit existing styles with the advanced options.  Here’s my screencast tour of Stylish:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 2m42s

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

I sign up and navigate through a lot of different Websites and services every single day so I can create screencasts to help my readers decide if they want to try them out or not. In doing this, I notice every little detail from arriving to the site, to locating my account settings, to signing out. It’s my job to know where the help pages are, how to change a password, and how to generally navigate through whatever site I’m currently creating a screencast for. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ditched a service that I actually thought was kind of cool, but navigation was so horrible that I didn’t want to share it with you here – And that’s the topic of the screencast today.

I want to know if I’m crazy or if the very minor issues I’m showing you really do matter. I don’t think enough start-ups realize that it’s not only important to have a functioning site, but a functional site as well. What do you think? Let me know what issues bother you in the comments after you watch the screencast below:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 3m19s

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

Viscosity is a super cool abstract art creator that won the Best Art award at SXSW. It allows anyone to create beautiful pieces of abstract art in a matter of minutes or hours, depending on how much time you spend on the details. You can choose from a preset block of colors, which can be completely customized, and then you simply drag various brushes through the lines to create your art. If you’re into detail, you can also drag each point of color into a specific location on your virtual canvas. Besides creating art, Viscosity is a great place to just browse through other peoples art. There are some really amazing pieces to check out.

I realize that winning the Best Art award at SXSW was probably a really proud moment for Jeff Weir (creator) but I would like to present him with “The Tool I Will Most Likely Use To Slack Off At Work” award. I highly recommend you do the same. Here’s my screencast tour of Viscosity:

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 5m4s

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

[via Webware]

Pixton is the most amazing thing I have ever come across on the Internet. Ok, maybe not the most amazing, but it is so freaking awesome that I couldn’t help but share it. What is this amazing thing I’m talking about? Well, I’ll tell you what it’s not – It’s not something that will help you get any work done, plan events with friends, or get a date. In fact, it will keep you from doing all of those things. Pixton helps you make the coolest comic strips ever. That’s right. All this ranting and raving is about a user generated comic strip maker. The best part is that there isn’t really any actual drawing involved. There are pre-sets for everything and you can manipulate each body part into lots of different positions. I was going to make a screencast showing you just how cool Pixton is but thankfully they’ve already done it for me. Here are three screencasts that will show you how to use Pixton and help you see why I am totally freaking out. I suppose I could also be freaking out because I just chased a pint of ice cream with a pot of coffee. In any case, Pixton is a great way to end a long work week. Happy Friday!

If you’ve ever wanted to create your own website, but feel it’s too difficult a task, Jimdo may be just what you’re looking for.  Jimdo gives you the tools to create a custom website, and it’s as easy as clicking anywhere on your page and adding text.  That’s not all though.  You can add YouTube videos, a photo gallery, forms, files, etc.  They have numerous layouts and templates to choose from but you can customize your own.  The entire time you’re creating your site, you’ll see it as your visitors will see it, and it’s updated automatically.  The free account allows you to add as many pages as you want, gives you basic statistics, 500 MB of storage, and total customization of your site.  The pro account, for six dollars a month, lets you use your own domain, removes ads, gives you 5 GB of storage, and provides you with an email account.  Here’s my screencast tour of Jimdo:

Flash Demo2m43s