Written on 21st May 2009
31 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
If there’s one type of web application we continue to see various takes on, it’s the Project Management tool. Each company has their own idea of exactly what works, but often the individuals have their own opinions and it can often lead to project turbulence and occasionally failure.
I am personally a big fan of outliner based project management tools. Unfortunately, there aren’t many or any that include the functionality I’m looking for – think OmniOutliner with sharing functionality. Anyhow, that’s for a separate discussion – what we’d like to know is what your favorite project management app is? What’s been proven to work project after project, day in, day out? What are you major considerations? Is there anything, like me, you’re still waiting to see?
Because it’s all about Twitter these days I’m presenting you another application using Twitter API: CheapTweet.
What this application does is to scour the Twitter conversations and find the best sales, discounts and coupons people are talking about on Twitter and collects them so visitors can search for, vote on and save these deals. CheapTweet currently has more than 150,000 deals from thousands of stores, from the very large to the very small.
The companies have now another medium to promote their products (hopefully, not spamming) and users have yet another way to find more info about the products they want (without too much noise).
Hope it will help you too. If yes, let us know your experience in the comments.
This service is the brainchild of Appozite, a company based in Austin, Texas (USA) founded by Hayes Davis and Jenn Deering Davis. They build tools integrating ecommerce and social software.
If you are using Truphone iPhone/iPod Touch application (it’s free, by the way) then you know that this software lets you place an international or local call by using the Internet as a carrier rather than using your regular carrier. In other words, Truphone for iPhone/iPod Touch is a VoIP application.
The iPhone application is useful especially when you travel abroad and you don’t want to pay your carrier’s sometime outrageous roaming fees (Truphone fees are much lower).
To use it you need to have Wi-fi access for you iPhone. If you don’t have Wi-fi access you can still use it using the carrier’s network but with Truphone prices (routing the call using Truphone Anywhere).
The application doesn’t run only on iPhone/iPod Touch devices but also on some other devices like Nokia, Blackberry, HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola.
What’s the news here?
Well, Truphone will upgrade its application for the iPhone in the next 24 hours (automatically) by adding some requested features like:
1. Instant Messaging (IM)
IM will be added, meaning that you can have two-way IM conversations with MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk users.
2. Google Talk Calls
You can now make and receive calls using Google Talk.
3. Twitter Integration
Recently launched, if you have a Twitter account you can tweet to your heart’s content, and see your friend’s latest tweets.
The company also plans for Skype integration (calling and IM) in a next upgrade.
How to use the new features?
These are the steps according to Truphone:
a) Tap the ‘IM’ or ‘IM/More’ screen in the Truphone menu bar
b) Select ‘Setup’
c) Select the type of IM account you want to setup (GTalk, MSN and Yahoo!)
d) Enter your account details and sign in
e) Press the ‘Back’ button on the top left of the screen
f) Select ‘Friends List’ and then tap the required IM tab
g) Check that the friend you wish to chat to is online (their icon will show as green in the display), and start chatting away
You only have to do steps A to E once for each type of IM account. Entering the ‘IM’ or ‘IM/More’ screen after this will sign you in automatically.
To make Google Talk calls, select Google Talk, select your Friend from the Friend List, and then select the call icon.
Instructions on using Twitter can be found by selecting the Twitter ‘t’ icon in the ‘Tru Friends’ screen.
I used their application for placing calls from US to Romania (cellphone to cellphone) and I must say that their prices are near the international calling card I was using before (Truphone is a bit more expensive but not with much). The connection was quite good – only once I had a bad connection solved by calling again.
I’m looking forward to test their new software additions.
Do you use Truphone? What is your experience with it?
Written on 24th October 2008
1 COMMENT Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
pic via spacedive on flickr
Poladroid is a really classy little desktop app which lets you convert pictures instantaneously into awesome Polaroid style shots like the ones you can see to the right. The program is currently Mac only with a Windows version in the works so it’s worth keeping an eye on.
All you need to do is download the app, launch it, drag n drop your photos into the Polaroid icon and let the app work it’s magic. The beauty of the tool is sitting back and watching the app “develop” your photos, you’ll see what I mean once you’ve given it a shot. The application is completely free although they are accepting donations.
There’s a flickr group with a great selection of Polaroids that people have uploaded which is worth checking out. Here’s a video giving you a run through of the app, really cool stuff.
Thanks to Matthew Packer for the heads up and the both interesting & entertaining video! :)
A few years ago it was fashionable to make fancy Flash sites that had high impact upon visiting them, fancy graphics, cartoonish displays with an arty feel. But personally speaking I don’t go back to see these sites ever again, do you?
I’m the same with movies, once I’ve seen one, I generally won’t watch it again until I have forgotten it’s plot. Thankfully that fashion seems to have passed, albeit for a few corporates who haven’t quite caught up yet.
Today we have Web 2.0 fashion. Most of us upstarts competing in this arena have aspirations for either a sellout or to grow viral traffic into the millions so that advertising can fuel growth. This time around the fashion is very sleek and polished offerings, plenty of Ajax, lovely curvy corners, with as much javascript thrown in as possible.
For all the classy styles with the fancy drop-downs, the clean looks, Ajax signup pages, there is a distant lack of ‘retention content’, but that is not the point.
The point I want to make is about proving a concept before wasting thousands on classy designs that in many cases will never be seen by more than a handful of beta testers or the developers themselves.
Written on 21st May 2009
31 COMMENTS 
If there’s one type of web application we continue to see various takes on, it’s the Project Management tool. Each company has their own idea of exactly what works, but often the individuals have their own opinions and it can often lead to project turbulence and occasionally failure.
Written on 17th March 2009
If you are using 
Written on 30th May 2008
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
