The Great Geek Manual

Utilities and Resources

• AdBlock – a Firefox extension that completely blocks ads and delays on popular streaming sites, including: Hulu, CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox
• Adobe Muse – a cross-platform Adobe Air application designed to simplify the task of creating a website without writing HTML code. It provides a number of handy tools and step-by-step management options to let you plan, design, preview and publish your website. (Is Adobe Muse the new Frontpage?)
• All Comics (Beta) – a web service which allows you to upload, save and view your comic book collection online. All you need is to sign up with an All Comics account and upload. Comics can then be accessed from any platform with Javascript.
• Gtalklet – an extension for Chrome that lets Google Talk users chat while surfing.

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Blackberry Messenger is one of RIM’s biggest success stories. Some smartphone users are so devoted to the instant messaging service that they own Blackberry handsets for only that reason. As a way of expanding upon the success of BBM, it’s rumoured that Blackberry is working on a music app that uses BBM’s engine to share music between friends. There are many different applications for music for most smart phone devices. BlackBerry would be intuitive to make their new music application a free BlackBerry apps download for device owners.

The app, rumoured to be called BBM Music, is thought to be released shortly after the launch of Blackberry App World 3.0. It will come loaded on new devices, and may be downloadable to some older Blackberry handsets. For a subscription of an estimated £3 a month, BBM users will be able to share their songs and music with their contacts and browse and download songs directly to their handset from RIM’s own music library.

BBM Music will pay a major part in Blackberry roll out of 7 new handsets later in the year. RIM are hoping that the service will make Blackberry phones a more attractive proposition since Apple announced their iMessage that will appear on iPhone handsets with September’s iOS5 update.

Like Blackberry Messenger, iMessage will allow Apple uses to send free, instant messages to one another over Wi-Fi or 3G. Users will be able to share text, photos videos locations and contacts, start group messages and even continue conversation on different iOS devices.

It’s widely though that this could be the push that encourages Blackberry users to switch to iPhone. Because of this, Blackberry will want to do all they can to encourage users to stick with, and adopt, their handsets. Although it is only in the rumour stages, Blackberry take on the Cloud music storage trend, BBM Music, could be the innovation to discourage their devoted fans from defecting to Apple.

If you want to view the latest mobile phones visit www.dialaphone.co.uk

Utilities and Resources

• Cameyo – a free program virtualization app that can create portable executables from any application. A useful tool for people who often switch computers.
• Hide Folders – hide files And folders in Mac, just Drag & Drop
• Metro Sidebar – tack a Windows 8 Style sidebar onto your Windows 7 desktop
• Startino – a simple web service that combines a to-do list and task manager. You can start using it immediately with just a Google account. You can share tasks with just about anyone, categorize and edit them any time however you want.
• TinyChat – a free app available for iPhone users as well as iPad users that allows you to chat with up to 12 Facebook friends at once.

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Utilities and Resources

• DesktopOK – a small utility that saves and restores the position of all your desktop icons during screen resolution changes.
• Doro PDF – a robust PDF writer which allows creating encrypted and password protected PDF documents from any application with a printer option. You can configure advanced settings to manage the quality and color management of the converted document.
• GrooveWalrus – this stand-alone music player integrates Last.fm and Grooveshark into your desktop.
• Loudtalks – a free cross-platform push-to-talk (PTT) app for Android that turns your device into a walkie-talkie and allows you to talk with others in private or over public channels.

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Plenty of robots can fly — but none can fly like a real bird. That is, until Markus Fischer and his team at Festo built SmartBird, a large, lightweight robot, modeled on a seagull, that flies by flapping its wings. A soaring demo fresh from TEDGlobal 2011.
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A Jedi robot that can duel with humans — what could go wrong? Students at Stanford University have created a “JediBot” that can fight a duel against a human opponent. It uses a Microsoft Kinect sensor to track its opponent’s lightsaber, and then counterattacks whenever it makes contact.

The JediBot isn’t the fastest sparring partner you can find, delivering one swing every two to three seconds, but it does mean you don’t need to have any friends to practice your lightsaber skills.

I’m just waiting for someone to cross the JediBot’s sensor and software with a quadrocopter to create the lightsaber practice droid from Star Wars.

Utilities and Resources

• 35+ Desktop Utilities To Manage Your Code Snippets
• 4space – this utility transforms your computer into a HTTP file server with multiple password-protected directories. Very convenient for sharing regularly updated files.
• The Best Free Web Apps of 2011
• Ditch PayPal and Use These Other Services to Send People Money
• Vizualize.Me – allows you to visualize your resume in one click by turning your LinkedIn profile into an infographic. (In Beta)
• Zip2Fix – a portable utility for extracting the undamaged files from a ZIP file when some of the files inside the archive are damaged.

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Utilities and Resources

• Calibre – a good free program for managing books on devices (iPad or Kindle)
• Cantio – this web app allows users to stream YouTube in a Grooveshark interface.
• Codeita – a powerful, easy to use, cloud-based, web development environment. It’s a powerful code editor, an advanced svg image editor, and an out of this world project management and collaboration tool.
• loads.in – lets users see how fast your (or any) website loads in a real browser from over 50 locations worldwide. An absolute must for web developers.
• MP3 Skype Recorder – need to do an interview via Skype for your blog? Here’s the easy way to record it. The name pretty much says it all.
• MyCube Vault – a free utility that will back up your Facebook data, your Google Contacts, and your Picasa photos and albums at regular intervals that you select.

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