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A mobile photo blog is a great way to keep friends and family updated with a steady stream of photos from your day to day life.  There are some specialized photo blogging services out there, but since Tumblr is such a good micro blogging platform… it also makes for a perfect mobile photo blog as well.  All the features such as RSS feeds and user comments are built right in.

Its also one of the cleanest looking platforms out there, which is why I personally like it so much. One of the easiest way to get photos from your iPhone to your Tumblr blog is using the Rotzy iPhone app.  This little photo sharing app is great because you can also simultaneously upload your public photos to Twitter, Facebook, Rotzy itself, and even your own website via their widget so even more people can follow your photo stream…

Step 1 - Install Rotzy for free from the App Store

There are many iPhone photo blogging and photo sharing apps out there, but an up and coming app called Rotzy is trying to expand on the simple idea of uploading photos from your mobile device. Its not simply about uploading photos, but more about the interaction that occurs after you upload a cool or intersting photo. In fact, almost every photo that is uploaded seems to spawn a conversation topic with a life of its own…

How does it work?

You can add friends and follow people much like Twitter, and their photos will appear in your live feed.  This lets you see what your friends are up to and never miss a photo.  Comments on your own photos will also appear in your feed. There are of course privacy settings for your photos and you can add easily turn geo tagging on and off.

What else?

One of the best features is that you can auto-post all your public photos to 3rd party services such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and even your own blog via their widget.  Even more services are coming soon too.  This makes it easy to turn your Tumblr or Twitter account into your own personal photo blog if thats your preferred medium… plus non-iPhone and non-Rotzy users will be able to see everything you upload as well.

So, check out Rotzy if you are looking for a cool way to share your mobile photos from your iPhone…  use it to interact with the vibrant Rotzy community, use it post your photos to all your other social networking services, create your own photo blog on Tumblr, or just use it to save a copy of your photos online for easy linking later on.

Its free at the app store… enjoy!

What is OpenTape?

When muxtape closed up shop due to pressure from the RIAA, they left behind a great open source software package called OpenTape… This beautiful piece of software lets you to create your own muxtape clone instantly. Some think this is muxtape’s way of sticking it to the RIAA, since its virtually impossible to police the thousands of individual sites that will pop up because of this.

However, besides the obvious usage scenario… are there actually some legitimate and potentially profitable ways that people can use this software? Let’s take a look at 5 ideas:

1. Podcast Sharing Site

Imagine a web app where you can upload (or simply subscribe to) your favorite podcasts and listen to them from anywhere. Assuming these podcasts are freely distributable, there should be no legal issues here. Throw in some social networking aspects to this site, and you have a full fledged social podcast sharing site. Not only can you listen to your own subscriptions from any computer at any time… but you can also listen in on what your friends are interested in at any time as well. OpenTape should be able to handle the core functionality easily… just add your own web 2.0 code and you are done!

2. Youtube for Music

Muxtape is working on a way to help bands introduce their music to the world… but it would be cool if someone created a full-fledged Youtube-like service for music and audio files. Sure, video is more interesting… but with the OpenTape code you can stream user-uploaded music to anyone easily. This would be useful for individual bands and artists just starting out, people who want to show off their mixing talents, or just random audio clips that people find interesting. It will be hard to monitor all the uploads and look for questionable content (as it was on Youtube), but it could be a cool concept if done right.

3. Children’s Music / Public Domain Music Site

I recently had a baby boy… and have spent lots of time looking for random children’s music to play for him (think, “twinkle twinkle little star”, “itsy bitsy spider”, etc.). I did end up picking up a couple CDs from the store, but I also found tons of public domain music online. They are scattered all over the place, and it would be great if someone created a searchable site with all this music in one spot. This could extend to different niches, besides just children’s music… but that’s the first thing that came to mind. I could then leave a browser open and play music while watching the baby, allowing me to work peacefully.

4. Voice Over and Sound Byte Marketplace

Someone could use OpenTape to create a marketplace for voice over talents and sound byte creators to sell their products and advertise their services. It could be similar to getty images, where you can easily buy stock images and photos within the self-serve marketplace… however, this site would be even better since anyone could upload and promote their own voice samples or stock sound bytes.The database would then be easily searchable for streaming audio samples, and the actual ful quality audio files could be downloaded instantly after payment is received.

5. Personal Playlist Sharing

Imagine listening to your home music collection from any computer (like at work or traveling with your laptop)… or better yet, sharing your music with just your family and buddies. All you need to do is install OpenTape on your personal computer instead of a public web server and use software like Remobo to give yourself and your friends direct access from any other computer. Remobo will bypass your firewall and NAT settings, so there’s no need for a static IP or special network configurations, making it even easier. But more importantly, it will also encrypt all the data coming to and from your computer (so not even your ISP can see what you are doing). In fact, the network traffic will ust look like you are working from home via a corporate VPN! Here’s a full tutorial on setting this all up easily.

Resources:

Muxtape

OpenTape

Remobo

Setting Up OpenTape over Remobo

Let’s take a look at how easy it is to create your own private BitTorrent file sharing network using Remobo. With popular services like AllPeers now gone, we see it as an opportunity for this app to step in and fill the void.

The best thing about this method is that Remobo is actually a platform, leaving you free to use any BT client you prefer. Of course, like any other app that runs on top of this platform, it requires no configuration nor networking knowledge to get up and running. This method below works on both Windows and Mac OS X.

Getting Started

Say you want to share the latest and greatest movie trailer, tv show, music video or whatever else you can imagine, with all your buddies. These media files might not contain anything copyrighted or even questionable, but you value your privacy and freedom and want to make sure not even your ISP can see that you are sharing this file. This is where Remobo’s instant private BT sharing comes in.

Step 1: Login to Remobo and Add Your Buddies

If you don’t already have Remobo installed, you can grab it here. After that just create a new account instantly or login with your existing one. Then, have your buddies do the same and add them to your buddy list. At its core, this app will create an instant VPN between you and your buddies so everything you send and receive from each other over Remobo is encrypted and secure. This is what keeps everything “private”.

Step 2: Choose the Files and/or Folders to Share

This is where the magic happens. From the Remobo app, you can slick on “My Shared Files” and start adding a bunch of files and folders that you want to share. Its best to add each bundle of files separately, though it is also OK to add just one huge parent folder and let your buddies decide what they want exactly. The choice depends on how many files you have and how easy you want your buddies to be able to find stuff.

After choosing the files and folders, Remobo will automatically create torrent files for these in the background and even start seeding them up via a built-in BT process that is used for seeding and tracker purposes only. Its important to note that only people in your Remobo buddy list can connect and download these torrent files from you, so its not as if you are seeding or tracking these files publicly.

Step 3: Your Buddies can Now Browse, Search and Download Your Shared Files Privately

After that initial setup, your buddies will be able to see all your shared files by clicking on you in their buddy list and selecting “View Shared Files”. This will bring up a familiar web interface listing all the torrent files that have been created for you. Remember, Remobo created these files when you decided to share them and is also seeding them for you… so there’s no extra work or BitTorrent knowledge required on your end.

Your buddies can click on any of these torrent files to launch their preferred BT client. It works like any of the public torrent tracker sites out there, except that all data between you and your buddy is securely encrypted by Remobo and no one besides your own buddies can ever see this list of shared files.

Wrapping Up

Now that you know how to create a private BitTorrent file sharing network… go round up a bunch of your trusted buddies and start sharing those files with each other privately and securely! In fact, ISPs can’t even throttle your bandwidth because it doesn’t look like BT traffic at all… just a bunch of encrypted data packets… kinda like what it would look like if you were working from home via your corporate VPN

via Remobo.com

Prixtag Instant Price Check - This little app is indispensible on Black Friday. Use it to quickly check online prices while you are out shopping for gifts, so you’ll know if you should buy that gift in-store or save money by getting it online. More advanced than those Amazon search apps… Prixtag will search amazon, shopping.com, all yahoo! stores, buy.com, ebay and more all at once.

OneTrip Shopping List - This app has a very simple interface but is a huge lifesaver if you are forgetful like me. Instead of forgetting uncle Larry’s gift again this year… just add everyone’s name or gift idea to this list and check them off as you pick up gifts. You can also use it for daily grocery shopping, etc.

101Cookbooks - Not sure what to cook for all those distant relatives who will be visiting you this year? Install this app, and you will have more recipes than you need while you are scanning the aisles at your local supermarket. Turkey all sold out? No worries, you can look up a quick chicken or duck dish in an instant.

iPling - If you are out on your own and don’t plan on travelling or having any relatives over, then check out this app. A self-proclaimed ’social expansion engine’, iPling allows users to find others who share similar interests. Once you find that special someone, they also help you meet up in real-life after sending anonymous text messages.

Expense View - This little app isn’t as fun as the others, but after a long few weeks of spending and splurging… you’ll need this handy iPhone app to see how much money you have left over in case you wanted to get something for yourself. You even get a nice pie chart to analyze where all that money actually went.

Know of some more that I left out? Let me know or add them to the comments below!

Scrapblog lets you make super fancy slideshows (text, pictures and videos), think of it as a great way to showcase your photos, commemorate a special event (vacation, birthday). The Flash interface is pretty advanced, full screen with lots of drag and drop and preloaded options.

At the moment, you can upload your own pictures or import them from a number of services (Flickr, PhotoBucket, Yahoo! Photos, Webshots), videos only from YouTube.

I am really liking the transitions (you can even add music). It’s a bit slow to load and definitely time consuming but Scrapblog is a rather unique product. You can add notes on each page of a slideshow like the popular feature on Flickr and finally you can even embed slideshows directly into your blog or webpage.
Here is a Scrapblog slideshow I created for the best dishes I’ve had in 2007.

Scrapblog is free!

I wanted to get some tickets to see ‘Wicked’ in LA and noticed that it is awfully expensive to get tickets to these kinds of sold out shows. However, this new web site makes it a bit easier to find the best deal if you are intent on getting tix. Besides listing all the current shows, concerts and sporting events, it also lets you compare prices and actual seats available from a few of the online ticket brokers pretty easily. With Valentine’s day coming up… getting show tickets for the 14th might be a nice surprise instead of the usual flowers (or in addition to it, I suppose)

Compare prices to find the lowest ticket price at TixPage.com

Overstock.com is known for having some great deals… and during their holiday O-Day sale, it gets even better. For a limited time (now until 12/14/2006), you can get an ADDITIONAL 12% OFF + Free Shipping! Check it out for some last minute holiday gifts

Save 12% + Get Free Shipping

Looking for some extra range on your 802.11b/g network?  I hate having to nudge my laptop ever so slightly just to get a WiFi signal from my kitchen… If you have similar problems, this antenna by D-Link may be the solution for you.  Instead of setting up another AP, just use this antenna for increased range on your existing one

On sale for $14.99 after rebate! (originally $49.99)

Here’s a cool, new online shopping site with a twist. Instead of browsing and searching through boring listings and ads and looking at product images one-by-one, why not load up a page of a few hundred thumbnails? PicItOut.com does just that… just enter a search for something like “halloween costumes”, “gucci sunglasses”, or “crocs” and you will see up to 500 product image thumbnails appear. You can even zoom in and out on the pictures and compare prices by mousing over each one. Then, just click a thumbnail for details and to visit the online store that sells it. There is also a wish list feature, so your friends can see at a glance what you really want for your birthday. Pretty cool if you ask me.

I found lots of costumes for 50% off using this site… now I just have to choose between being Superman or Spiderman this Halloween

Have you ever wondered how they make those cool webpages? Well here’s your chance to find out. This book will explain in detail every step of the process, focusing on a hands-on approach. The book contains easy to follow instructions and full codes for an existing webpage that is viewable. There is also a webpage supporting the book that has all the steps of building a page in seperate files to download, activites and other cool stuff. Plus, it was written by one of our featured Stuffiti writers A must have!

Buy the book for $14.50 or save 42% by downloading it for $8.45

Nothing brightens up a plain wall like a nice colorful painting.  I actually have a few homemade paintings up on my walls.  They aren’t the best quality, but at least they were fun to make!  However, if you are not someone who enjoys hanging up crappy art like me, then take a look at these fine reproductions of old masterpieces and also modern art.  What’s the big deal?  These are not just prints… they are actually hand painted oil on canvas so they have a very authentic look and texture.  The one pictured here is one of my favorites, called “A Path in Monet’s Garden”.  Its not cheap, but if you want to get as close as you can to the real thing, without stealing from a museum… then check out these fine pieces of artwork.

Save 10% on your first order at BrushstrokesDirect.com! Use coupon code: BFA1010 (originally $495)

Whoa, irregular (and slightly biased) post coming up! Do you love the way Outlook works but don’t really want to fork out the cash for it? Do you want a better solution for way less? Try Essential PIM. The software allows you to customize your schedule, todo’s, contacts and notes and does it with surprising efficiency. On the basic version you save unlimited money, because it’s free and gives you almost all of the functions. If you want Outlook and SmartPhone synchronization and a few additional extras it costs $49.95, if you don’t need the SmartPhone part it’s only $29.95. Portable versions are available for $39.95 and $59.95 respectively. If you are still a student they will give you a 30% discount on any price, just send them you student card photocopy, they even give Europeans the same discount (like me). Oh and they did give me a discount and their customer-service was great.

Save 30% if you are a student on Essentialpim.com

Save 10% if you buy portable and full versions together

This gadget is pretty cool, it is designed to keep a tab on DSL or Dialup internet times. I’m not a fond supporter of controlling your children with this, although I gather most people who buy this will use it for that. The more useful side is that the WebGuard can block out and inbound calls at specific times, this could be very useful for protecting a small office system at night for example. It can be programmed for the weekdays and weekends separately and easily so it gives you some flexibility as well.

Save 26% at Pcmall.com - $60 (Originally $80.80)

Now here’s a cool idea… get cash back rebates on all your inkjet cartridge and laser toner purchases.  I’m sure you all hate replacing those expensive color inkjet cartridges or laser toner in your printer.  I even jot down Google maps directions using a pen rather than wasting ink by printing out the page.  Well, if you use InkBates.com, you can get up to 23% cash back every time you buy something using their site.  Its free to join and it works like this… they list a bunch of stores where you can buy what you need (with tips on deals, free shipping and coupon codes), then you simply click to the store from InkBates and you will be eligible for rebates.  So, you can still shop around for the best prices and get cash back on top of that! 

Get up to 23% cash back on printer inkjet cartridges & laser toner at InkBates.