Download Squad http://www.downloadsquad.com Download Squad http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/%SiteURL%/media/feedlogo.gif Download Squad http://www.downloadsquad.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[Textflow parallel word processing app now in public beta]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/12/01/textflow-parallel-word-processing-app-now-in-public-beta/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/12/01/textflow-parallel-word-processing-app-now-in-public-beta/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/12/01/textflow-parallel-word-processing-app-now-in-public-beta/#commentsFiled under: , ,


Textflow is an Adobe AIR-based collaboration app that allows you to incorporate changes from several different people into one Word document. Sending your draft to everyone you're working with, and then manually combining all of their versions is a pain. With Textflow, you can just drop in each person's document and see a side-by-side view of the changes, and then put everything in order with a little bit of dragging. The app is now in public beta.

If you've used track changes in Word, Textflow's "choose or refuse" interface will be familiar to you. But textflow is like track changes on steroids, if you'll pardon a cliché. Besides the ability to handle several sets of changes from several separate Word files at once, it's also a lot easier to tell at a glance who's changed what, and decide which version to use. There's even a scrapboard to store ideas you're not sure about yet. The best part is that your collaborators don't even have to know what Textflow is for you to use it effectively.


[via Go2Web20 Blog]

Textflow parallel word processing app now in public beta originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>collaborationdocumentstext-editingtextflowwordMon, 01 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST<![CDATA[PhraseExpress is so much more than an autotext app]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/30/phraseexpress-is-so-much-more-than-an-autotext-app/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/30/phraseexpress-is-so-much-more-than-an-autotext-app/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/30/phraseexpress-is-so-much-more-than-an-autotext-app/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

A good snippet manager or autotext tool can save just about anyone a little time and effort. For those who do a lot of typing, it can even help prevent repetitive stress injuries. If you're looking for an application like this, take a look at PhraseExpress.

Apart from point and click insertion of pre-defined text and auto-completion of recognized words and phrases, Phrase Express packs a clipboard monitor, macro support, and system-wide spell check.

Though the settings window presents only two buttons - new folder and new phrase - you're able to do a whole lot more than add commonly used text. PhraseExpress' included macros provide a wide array of powerful functions, including:
  • launching external applications
  • changing window focus
  • opening files, folders, and web pages
  • trimming, formatting, and replacing text
  • embedding autotext suggestions
  • time and date stamping
  • inserting Windows environment variables
Since hotkeys are also supported, you PhraseExpress makes a very capable launcher application as well. Unlike some other launcher/hotkey apps, you're able to utilize the Windows key. Despite its numerous features, resource usage is very light - about 10mb of memory on my Vista install.

PhraseExpress can be installed, or you can download the portable version and extract it to your USB flash drive. It's free for personal use and $49.95 to register for commercial use. There's also a network edition that allows groups to access a shared library that runs $44.95 (or less, based on volume) per seat.

If you're already using PhraseExpress, share your experience. If you don't, what apps do you use (if anything) to handle these tasks?

PhraseExpress is so much more than an autotext app originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>autotextclipboardlaunchermacroportablesnippetSun, 30 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Give the gift of music, e-books and more]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/27/give-the-gift-of-music-e-books-and-more/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/27/give-the-gift-of-music-e-books-and-more/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/27/give-the-gift-of-music-e-books-and-more/#commentsFiled under: , , ,


Wondering what to get your less-than-tech-savvy friends? On a tight budget and can't buy them a PS3 or even a single Blu-ray title? Worry slightly less courtesy this cheapskates' guide to gifting content from the internet. Not everything is budget-friendly, but almost everything on the list is a terrific value.

MUSIC

Lee wrote up a lovely list of 35 places to download free, legal MP3's back in August. If you're still intent on forking over cash for tunes (and I don't blame you), here are a few other ideas:

Rhapsody
Possibly one of the best music-subscription services on the planet. Featuring a gigantic catalog (over 4 million tracks) and awesome search, Rhapsody is a full-featured subscription service. You can also shop for MP3's. There is a free trial account which limits you to 25 tracks per month, but you'll probably want to gift Unlimited (all music, browser-based playback only, $12.99/mo.) or To Go (all music, including portable music players, $14.99/mo.).

Other subscription contenders: eMusic and Lala
Streaming awesomeness: AOL Radio and Pandora
Downloadable win: Amazon music, offering songs and albums cheaper than iTunes and higher-quality tracks free of DRM restrictions.

Continue reading Give the gift of music, e-books and more

Give the gift of music, e-books and more originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>ebookhggholidayholiday gift guideHolidayGiftGuidemusicvideoThu, 27 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Flip Title lets you type uʍop ǝpısdn!]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/24/flip-title-lets-you-type-u-op-p-sdn/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/24/flip-title-lets-you-type-u-op-p-sdn/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/24/flip-title-lets-you-type-u-op-p-sdn/#commentsFiled under: ,

I always thought typing upside down was an obnoxious novelty trick, but I admit it can be pretty fun. Flip Title, a site that flips over any text you input, showed me that it can also be useful. Upside-down characters can be part of URLs or passwords for a little bit of extra security. They can also be part of usernames on some services, which makes it a pain in the butt for anyone to add you without using copy and paste.

Using the magic of Unicode, Flip Title totally flips your words, upside down and backward. If you want text that's upside-down and forward, you'll have to look elsewhere (or type everything backward into Flip Title). Despite the practical uses I described above, I'm still against anyone using upside-down text to annoy me in instant messages.

If you're looking for a text-flipping alternative to Flip Title, you might want to check out our earlier review of Reverse Fad's upside-down text tool.

Flip Title lets you type uʍop ǝpısdn! originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>flip-titletextunicodeupside-downMon, 24 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Doc Scrubber removes hidden data from your documents]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/20/doc-scrubber-removes-hidden-data-from-your-documents/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/20/doc-scrubber-removes-hidden-data-from-your-documents/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/20/doc-scrubber-removes-hidden-data-from-your-documents/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Every Word file can contain a fairly large amount of metadata. This is stuff like the revision logs (for tracking changes), name of the author, last time edited, and last time printed. All that information is there for a reason, but embarrassing incidents have been known to occur when people don't realize what they're sending in their metadata. If you want to avoid that, you could delete it all by hand, or you could get Doc Scrubber, a free metadata-removal app.

Doc Scrubber can quickly tell you what all the "hidden info" on your docs says, or just delete it for you. It'll handle multiple docs at once, and is compatible with Word 97, 2000 and XP files. It doesn't do DOCX files, but those also don't handle metadata the same way, so they're less likely to expose your info.

Doc Scrubber removes hidden data from your documents originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>Doc-Scrubbermetadatamicrosoft-wordprivacywordThu, 20 Nov 2008 14:00:00 EST<![CDATA[EtherPad: worth giving up Google Docs for?]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/20/etherpad-worth-giving-up-google-docs-for/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/20/etherpad-worth-giving-up-google-docs-for/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/20/etherpad-worth-giving-up-google-docs-for/#commentsFiled under: , , ,


Hosting documents online is nothing new, and neither is sharing them for collaboration. Right off the bat, you're probably thinking of Google Docs. I was too, until I found EtherPad. It doesn't beat Google Docs at everything, but it does have advantages, like editing in real time, and using highlighting to distinguish who wrote which text. EtherPad is also faster to set up, since it doesn't require an account to use.

Just pass the URL to your collaborators, and everyone is set to start editing. There are stylistic limitations, with no fancy fonts and formatting, but edits happen in real time. There's also a handy chat box in the sidebar, in case you need to discuss your changes. Where you might want to use Google Docs instead is if you're writing something long that needs to be exported to Word or another file format. EtherPad does saving -- and infinite undos for all users, which is quite handy -- but it doesn't do exporting. You'll have to plug your document's URL in to pick up where you left off.

Complaints? Not many. The aforementioned exporting would be nice, and although it's great that you can quick-start with no accounts, they should at least be an option for privacy. And, speaking of privacy, users can see each other's IP addresses in the sidebar. I'm not sure what that adds. A built-in spellchecker would also be a perk, but it's not necessary. What EtherPad has so far is quite impressive, and I hope it continues to improve, while staying fast and easy to use.

EtherPad: worth giving up Google Docs for? originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>collaborationetherpadgoogle-docstextThu, 20 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Lorem2: for the discerning lorem ipsum aficionado]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/18/lorem2-for-the-discerning-lorem-ipsum-aficionado/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/18/lorem2-for-the-discerning-lorem-ipsum-aficionado/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/18/lorem2-for-the-discerning-lorem-ipsum-aficionado/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Designers know the words "lorem ipsum" all too well. If you've mocked up a layout for anything with chunks of text in it, you've probably run across the infamous Latin paragraphs that commonly show up as filler. Where do you get your lorem ipsum, though, and how do you make sure it's the right fit for your design? Lorem2 is one great way to do it.

Lorem2 is a nicely laid-out collection of lorem ipsum paragraphs and bullet points, both short and long. If you're the kind of person who keeps a text file full of this stuff, you might be better off filling it up with the whole contents of Lorem2. You'll never have to give a second thought to avoiding repeated text that detracts from your layouts, because the solution will be close at hand.

Lorem2: for the discerning lorem ipsum aficionado originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>designlayoutlorem-ipsumlorem2texttypetypographyTue, 18 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Mobile voice, IM app Fring announces embedded ad trials]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/18/mobile-voice-im-app-fring-announces-embedded-ad-trials/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/18/mobile-voice-im-app-fring-announces-embedded-ad-trials/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/18/mobile-voice-im-app-fring-announces-embedded-ad-trials/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Fring is a fantastic mobile application, allowing mobile users access to voice and text chat via Skype, MSN, GTalk, and more on their mobile handset or iPod Touch.

On their official blog yesterday, they announced the introduction of embedded ads on a trial basis. No specifics were given, only the reassurance that revenues would be used to sustain development and bring even more great features to Fring.

Ads will appear only for "a small number of randomly selected Fringsters each day." They continue, reassuring users that their Fring experience won't be affected.

While I don't own a device capable of running the app, I have used it on a friend's iPod touch. I'm not generally a fan of adware, Fring is certainly a good enough app to deal with the minor annoyance of a few banners - provided they're kept to a reasonable level.

If you're a Fring user, what do you think about this news?

[ via Symbian Freak ]

Mobile voice, IM app Fring announces embedded ad trials originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>fringimmobileTue, 18 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST<![CDATA[To-Do Desklist is a simple, free GTD app with nice visuals]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/18/to-do-desklist-is-a-simple-free-gtd-app-with-nice-visuals/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/18/to-do-desklist-is-a-simple-free-gtd-app-with-nice-visuals/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/18/to-do-desklist-is-a-simple-free-gtd-app-with-nice-visuals/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,


Jay recently reviewed MiniTask, an ultra- simple to-do list application built on the Adobe Air platform. If you're like me and would prefer to avoid installing yet another oversized Adobe product on your Windows PC, take a look at To-Do Desklist.

Like MiniTask, you can add an alarm to an item and hotkeys are supported for adding new tasks and showing your to-do items. Desklist also allows you to assign priority and add extended notes to tasks.

Alerts can be displayed in any corner of your screen, and they're fully skinnable. The program comes with light, dark, and sky themes built in, but you're free to set your own background color or image and change the display font. You can also tweak opacity settings for the alerts.

The full task window allows you to filter items by priority. When your list gets lengthy, it's a helpful way to make sure you're focusing on critical tasks.

I'd like to have option to hide alerts (like MiniTask) or collapse task items, but for simple lists, Desklist is still a good option. It's freeware for Windows only.

To-Do Desklist is a simple, free GTD app with nice visuals originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>gtdliststaskstodoTue, 18 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Create bulleted notes and get things done with Notable]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/07/create-bulleted-notes-and-get-things-done-with-notable/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/07/create-bulleted-notes-and-get-things-done-with-notable/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/07/create-bulleted-notes-and-get-things-done-with-notable/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



I've been looking for a good, small note taking / gtd application for a while, and hadn't found anything that suited my needs until I came across Notable. To me, it's like a better, digital version of the $1 spiral bound notebooks I've always used.

It's design is simple, yet perfectly suited to the way I take notes. The top of the application window contains a list of your notes and the bottom allows you to view and edit them.

One thing I love about Notable's interface is the lack of, well, everything. It's about as minimal as it can be. It's designed for the way I work: with the keyboard and right-click context menu.

The first line of your note will automatically appear in bold and become its title in the list view. To bullet a line, press the tab key before you start typing (use multiple tabs to indent). Text can be formatted as bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, and fixed width.

Notes can be saved as rich text, and the archive function will both save a note and remove it from your list.

Notable is freeware for Windows only, and requires the .NET 2.0 framework - sometimes an annoyance, but it's worth overlooking in this case.

Create bulleted notes and get things done with Notable originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>gtdnotenote-takingnotesFri, 07 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Bullitt: one NetNewsWire style to rule them all]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/21/bullitt-one-netnewswire-style-to-rule-them-all/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/21/bullitt-one-netnewswire-style-to-rule-them-all/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/21/bullitt-one-netnewswire-style-to-rule-them-all/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

It hasn't been all that long since I wrote about 10 excellent themes for my favorite Mac newsreader, NetNewsWire. In that time, though, I've discovered a new style that I think is the best yet. It's Bullitt, designed by Cameron Hunt of cameron.io. Cameron is also responsible for some of the most popular (and best-designed) Tumblr themes in the universe.

The main selling points of Bullitt all have to do with readability. Column widths are optimised for your viewing pleasure, and images up to 700px should fit comfortably into the layout. Titles are handled with a neat, elegant slab-serif, and each site's favicon is displayed in the heading. The overall look is extremely easy on the eyes; this is definitely my favorite style for reading long articles. Even more attractive, Bullitt uses css ad-blocking (as if it weren't clean enough already!)

I still endorse the 10 styles I covered before, and this sort of thing is definitely a matter of taste. If none of those really struck your fancy, though, give Bullitt a try. After using it for a few weeks, I can't imagine going back to anything else.

Bullitt: one NetNewsWire style to rule them all originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bullittcameron huntcameron.ioCameronHuntcssnetnewswirethemeTue, 21 Oct 2008 11:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Lee's Favorite Apps: Notepad++]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/09/lees-favorite-apps-notepad/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/09/lees-favorite-apps-notepad/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/09/lees-favorite-apps-notepad/#commentsFiled under: , ,

For the longest time, I thought I needed to use Dreamweaver to edit my web code. That bothered me. I didn't like the way it handled saving files to my remote server, and it was just too damn bulky for my taste. And there's the price tag. I wasn't really a fan of that either.

Fortunately, I discovered Notepad++. It's totally free, extremely powerful, and does everything I need an editor to do (and a whole lot more). It's based on Scintilla, which is a fantastic foundation for source code editing.

What makes it so great? For starters, it's portable, it supports tabs, syntax highlighting,drag and drop, macro recording, regular expression search and replace, and auto-completion. That's barely the tip of the iceberg.

Multiview editing lets you two documents at once - or two views of the same document. Collapse regions of your code that you don't need visible while editing. Zooming makes code easy to read even on small screens (like my MSI Wind). Bookmarking important or troublesome locations in your files makes navigating them snap.

Plugins add another dimension to N++, and I've got a few favorites. Light explorer adds a small but very useful file browser pane, FTP Synchronize automatically updates your server with changes saved to a local copy, Quick Text offers powerful snippet management, and Secure Pad adds encrypt/decrypt functions.

There are several other great add-ons, and Notepad++ has an enthusiastic, supportive community. They have also contributed tons of autocompletes, translations, themes, and language additions - everything from Smarty to UnrealScript.

Notepad++ is simply a great application.

Lee's Favorite Apps: Notepad++ originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>codeeditorsfavorite-appstext editorTextEditorThu, 09 Oct 2008 13:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Shadow: network-enabled Mac clipboard manager]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/08/shadow-network-enabled-mac-clipboard-manager/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/08/shadow-network-enabled-mac-clipboard-manager/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/08/shadow-network-enabled-mac-clipboard-manager/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Shadow is a clipboard utility for OS X. Nothing special about that, right? I mean, we covered a whole slew of good ones back in January. Hold on a minute, though, because Shadow puts a new twist on the classic clipboard-enhancement app: it lets you copy and paste across your network.

That's right: Shadow uses Bonjour to let you use your clipboard across all your networked Macs. It has a lot of other useful features that any modern clipboard app needs, too. Multiple clipboards come in handy for organizing or keeping things private. A nice, bezel-style UI keeps the interface from being too obtrusive.

Although it's in public beta, Shadow is already highly usable. It records your clipboard history automatically, and you can summon it with a hotkey or the menu icon. Navigating your saved items is easy, and you can do an easy one-button paste with the spacebar. If you already have a clipboard manager, Shadow might be good enough replace it. If you don't, it's a good place to start.

Shadow: network-enabled Mac clipboard manager originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>betaclipboardclipboardapplicationscopycopy pasteCopyPastepasteShadowWed, 08 Oct 2008 18:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Jason's Favorite Windows apps: Evernote]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/07/jasons-favorite-windows-apps-evernote/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/07/jasons-favorite-windows-apps-evernote/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/07/jasons-favorite-windows-apps-evernote/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , ,

Evernote for WindowsRecently our sister publication, TUAW, did a series of posts about each blogger's favorite iPhone and iPod Touch apps. We thought here at Download Squad that we'd take that same approach and apply it to our favourite Windows applications. This first post is my first of three in this vein that will cover Evernote, FeedDemon, and MindManager.

Evernote

It seems you can't go very far online these days without someone extolling the virtues of Evernote. While this note-taking application has been around for a long time, it has recently been reborn as a cross-platform powerhouse. The original concept behind Evernote was that you had one scrolling piece of note paper that you could continue to add notes to, then easily search within them both based on content and based on a timeline of when your notes were created. While this paradigm still exists, it's no longer Evernote's claim to fame.

Evernote now has a powerful web application that serves as a central nervous system for your note taking. All of your notes that are created in the local Evernote client on your Windows (or Mac) computer are synchronized to Evernote's servers, where they can apply OCR (optical character recognition) to any images that you have included in your notes. This means that you can search for a word that is visible in a photo, and Evernote will find it.

Evernote's interface has been refined over the past few years and is very easy to navigate and use. On the Windows platform most people seem to pit Evernote against OneNote from Microsoft, and in my opinion with the advent of Evernote's server-based system and reliable synchronization, it's no contest.

A free account at Evernote is enough for most users, offering up to 40 MB of file transfer per month, but if you find you are a heavy user you may need to upgrade to a Premium account, which offers 500 MB of transfer per month, plus other features.

Jason's Favorite Windows apps: Evernote originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>cross-platformEvernotefavorite-appsOCROneNoteTue, 07 Oct 2008 09:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Datapresser is d(ata)epressing]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/29/datapresser-is-d-ata-epressing/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/29/datapresser-is-d-ata-epressing/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/29/datapresser-is-d-ata-epressing/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Datapresser
As if most of the content on the web isn't crappy enough, now you can use a web service called Datapresser to automatically generate content for your blogs. I can only imagine the sort of repetitive nonsense that would come out of a program intended to generate text.

Billed as a one-of-a-kind content creation and network management system, really all I see is one big blog spam engine. While that might be a bit harsh, let's look at what's going on here. Datapresser takes some minimal amount of input, like a few links or a Flickr feed, and automatically generates text around it. From what I can see, it then ensures to cross link to your other properties to try to drive up the page rank of linked pages.

When one of the big selling features is "Datapresser can create content that can fool a human reader", it's not hard to guess that the point isn't so much about fooling human readers as it is about fooling Google. And when the lowest-priced plan includes 500 generated blog posts per day, can this be intended for anything but blog spam?

This product is probably legal, and it probably works. But that certainly doesn't mean that I have to like it, or think it is moral. I'm certain that the use of Datapresser to generate web content lowers the overall value of the web for everyone else, by filling it with mindless, thoughtless crap. What do you think?

[via thenextweb.org]

Datapresser is d(ata)epressing originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>auto-bloggingautobloggingblog-spamcontent-generationDatapressertext-generationMon, 29 Sep 2008 14:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Instapaper iPhone app]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/22/instapaper-iphone-app/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/22/instapaper-iphone-app/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/22/instapaper-iphone-app/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Instapaper for iPhoneWe first mentioned Instapaper back in January of this year. Back then it was certainly an interesting tool, but one of many. Now, with the introduction of an Instapaper iPhone application (iTunes links), this site has gone from "interesting tool" to "must-have utility".

Like other read-it-later type bookmarking tools, Instapaper lets you use a bookmarklet to flag articles that you'd like to read later, then gives you a web-based interface to go back and find those articles. The Instapaper iPhone app goes one further - it syncrhronizes offline copies of your saved articles so that you can read them even when you're not online.

Instapaper comes in both free and pro versions on the iPhone. The free version has met my needs perfectly so far, but I imagine if I was to go on a long flight, I would pony up the $10 for the full version, as the free version only synchronizes 10 or so articles at a time.

[Update] Marco, the developer of Instapaper for the iPhone, chimed in in the comments to let me know that I was mistaken about the 10 article limit. I just re-tested on my copy, and sure enough there are 24 articles in there right now. My apologies, and thanks for letting me know, Marco!

Instapaper iPhone app originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>InstapaperiPhoneiPhone-appread-it-laterMon, 22 Sep 2008 09:00:00 EST<![CDATA[New Firefox extension makes YouTube comments almost bearable]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/26/new-firefox-extension-makes-youtube-comments-almost-bearable/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/26/new-firefox-extension-makes-youtube-comments-almost-bearable/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/26/new-firefox-extension-makes-youtube-comments-almost-bearable/#commentsFiled under: , ,


To a lot of people, snobbery has negative connotations, but there are some places on the web that could use a bit more of it. The best example? YouTube comments. A lot of the commentary on YouTube videos lacks substance, proper grammar, and semblance of constructive criticism. That's where YouTube Comment Snob comes in.

YouTube Comment Snob is a Firefox extension that gets rid of a good majority of the spam and drivel by applying some simple grammatical rules. You can customize it to filter out comments by using your favorite combination of the following: too many spelling mistakes (using Firefox's spellchecker), too much capitalization, no capitalization, swearing, profanity or excessive punctuation (!!!???!). The only problem with YouTube Comment Snob is that it hasn't yet been applied to the whole Internet.

[via Daring Fireball]

New Firefox extension makes YouTube comments almost bearable originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>Commentsfilterfirefox extensionsFirefoxExtensionsYouTubeYouTube Comment SnobYoutubeCommentSnobTue, 26 Aug 2008 08:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Grunge fonts - free collection to take your design down and dirty]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/25/grunge-fonts-free-collection-to-take-your-design-down-and-dirt/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/25/grunge-fonts-free-collection-to-take-your-design-down-and-dirt/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/25/grunge-fonts-free-collection-to-take-your-design-down-and-dirt/#commentsFiled under: ,



Outlawdesignblog did a great job compiling an interesting collection of free downloadable grunge fonts to help you get that nice, dirty, raw edge you might be craving on your graphics. Of course, whether or not grunge fonts convey edgy anymore is debatable since they are all over this year's back to school fashions which school kids are wearing with the appropriate bad ass attitude.

I don't know about you but when grunge becomes the fashion statement for school kids, it might not be the edge you're looking for in your design project. In any event, whether or not grunge has become a cliche - you're still in charge of what you create and now you'll have more grunge fonts to help inspire your work or, perhaps not.

Check out some of my favorites from the collection after the jump.

Continue reading Grunge fonts - free collection to take your design down and dirty

Grunge fonts - free collection to take your design down and dirty originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>designfree grunge fontsFreeGrungeFontsMon, 25 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Self-publishing site Lulu adopts Scribd's iPaper]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/07/16/self-publishing-site-lulu-adopts-scribds-ipaper/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/07/16/self-publishing-site-lulu-adopts-scribds-ipaper/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/07/16/self-publishing-site-lulu-adopts-scribds-ipaper/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Document-sharing site Scribd and online self-publishing service Lulu have teamed up to offer Lulu's free ebooks in Scribd's iPaper format. iPaper is designed to be a versatile cross-platform means of displaying different document types online. Key draws include the ability to embed docs in any webpage, including your manuscript in Scribd's library, and adding ads to your document.

Lulu is a popular self-publishing site, handling print versions and ebook versions of manuscripts, so getting them to start rolling out iPaper is a big win for Scribd. It's not going to be available for all Lulu books at first, just the most popular free ones. If this catches on, though, the two companies will have all the publishing bases covered, from printed books to iPaper ebooks.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Self-publishing site Lulu adopts Scribd's iPaper originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>documentse-booksebooksiPaperLulupublishingScribdWed, 16 Jul 2008 07:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Meebone beta brings Meebo to your desktop]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/07/11/meebone-beta-brings-meebo-to-your-desktop/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/07/11/meebone-beta-brings-meebo-to-your-desktop/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/07/11/meebone-beta-brings-meebo-to-your-desktop/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , , ,

meebone
It may seem illogical to tie Meebo to a desktop app, but that's exactly what's going on here. Meebone uses Adobe AIR to bring Meebo's services to your desktop through a dedicated app, but it's still in beta. So if you're down to try it, keep in mind that you'll probably encounter some problems... just like we did.

When attempting to login to AIM, Meebone was confused by a space in one of our user names. Other IM clients and services -- even Meebo itself -- aren't usually bothered by spaces. But that was our only major issue with the AIR-based app. And we're hoping it will be fixed before Meebone graduates from beta.

We tested the app with Google Talk and AIM accounts. Each logged-in successfully, brought up buddy lists, etc, etc. In other words, it introduced a basic Meebo set-up to our desktop, and we liked it. Just barely, but we did like it even though it sort of defeats the purpose of Meebo itself.

[via Adobe Air Marketplace]

Meebone beta brings Meebo to your desktop originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>adobeAIRdesktopIMinstant messageInstantMessageMeeboMeeboneFri, 11 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EST