Upgrade Your Life (by Lifehacker)

Lifehacker's Upgrade Your Life is the ultimate compilation of the best Lifehacker tips and tricks. It's a book version of the best Lifehacker has to offer. While you'll have to shell out dollars to get the book, the online version is absolutely free. There are lots of great tips you can use. Here are the most useful for me...

• Outlook tip: Color code messages addressed only to you - This is extremely useful since I get a lot of email advisories that I don't necessarily have to read asap. This makes the most important emails (the ones addressed directly to me) stand out of the numerous unread messages in my inbox.
• Generate unlimited email addresses with Gmail - I hate, hate, hate spam. Who doesn't? With this tip, you can create "disposable" email addresses for use with websites that require the submission of an email address.
• Future-proof your email address - Email addresses used to be novelties. Not anymore. Now, they are a cruicial part of your social life. That's why it's important to choose an email address that will grow with you.
• Create and customize your own planner with D*I*Y Planner - Electronic PDAs aren't always the best choices in organizing your life. Sometimes, the good old planner is the way to go.
• Power Texting Tips - Text messaging may not just be for kids and teenagers anymore. These tips take you from novice to power texter.
• Create your own virtual private network with Hamachi - If you've got multiple computers at home, creating your own VPN makes it a whole lot easier finding and accessing files from other machines.

Check out Lifehacker's Upgrade Your Life for many other useful tips.

Great Ways to Use Your Domain

So you bought your own domain. What now? Building your own website from scratch and getting it hosted can be too much trouble for some people. Instead, why not take advantage of the numerous great services out there and create your own web site complete with your very own email accounts, blog, etc.? Lifehacker shows us the many great ways to set up a "complete domain name backend for free."

Here are my top 3 "domain-friendly" free services:

Blogger.com - This is a very very very popular blogging tool hosted by our very own Google. It's very easy to set a blog using your own domain here instead of the generic blogspot.com domain. I'm using this service and I'm quite happy with it so far.

Tumblr.com - Instead of the usual textey and imagey blogs littering the nets, Tumblr features blogs that are short and simple. Got a link you want to share? Post it! Got a picture? Upload it! With Tumblr, there's no need for lengthy dissertations or introductions. Just post and go.

Google Apps For Your Domain - Google has done it again. They have released an amazing service that's sure to be a hit with the tech savvy people. With this service, you can host your very own versions of Google Apps right on your own domain. You could set-up your homepage to display your Google start page, and set-up up to 50 e-mail addresses that you can access using the Gmail interface.

Tired of Your Usual Mostly Text Blogs? Scrapblog!

I've just discovered a great web app. Check out Scrapblog.com and I'm sure you guys will like it too. This isn't an endorsement and I'm not being paid to say this, but I really like Scrapblog's concept.

Instead of the usual text-based blog apps, Scrapblog allows you to create scrapbook-like flash blogs that almost literally pops out of the page. You can post pictures and text like you would on a scrapbook using an very intuitive interface.

They also have loads of templates to choose from. Or if you're really creative, you can create your own designs from scratch. You can even post your creations to your flickr accounts.

The only problem I have with it is that it's a tad slow on my dsl connection. I expected the web-based app to be a bit quicker that it actually is. I really don't know if it's their server or my internet connection but it seemed like I was staring at the screen waiting for it to render more often than I would have liked.

Despite this, I would still recommend this service. Try it!

My Mashable.com Top 5

I love lists and compilations. That's why I totally get Mashable.com. I could probably spend all day reading and just absorbing post after Mashable post. Although I haven't done that yet, I have already compiled a personal Mashable Top 5. These aren't in any particular order and subject to change at any time (haha)... enjoy.

1. 80+ Free 2-Column Website Templates - I'm a web designer and this is a great source for inspiration. Yup, I admit it, I've been to the point where I just can't get a move on a project due to the lack of a mind spark. Scrolling through this post gets my creative juices flowing in no time.

2. Download YouTube Videos - Let's face it, YouTube rocks. It's not just a repository of corny home videos and hilarious Japanese tv shows. Everyone is using it nowadays and it's virtually an unlimited resource for informative videos including gadget reviews, tutorials, even podcasts. However, it's biggest limitation for me is the lack of a built-in download feature. To the rescue are more than a handful of third party apps that do just that. Stan Schroeder from Mashable has made things easier for us by compiling a list of YouTube downloaders. Handy.

3. 50 Great Widgets For Your Blog - These are all great widgets for your blog. Keep it in mind though, it's great to have a few widgets on your blog, but don't overdo it. Choose the most relevant ones for your sites content and practice moderation.

4. 30+ Tools to Turn Wordpress into a Personal Hub - Although I'm using Blogger, I won't deny that Wordpress is a great blogging platform. It's very flexible and easy to use. These tools allow you to make your Wordpress blog into a virtual souped-up social network profile page. In this case, contrary to my advice for #3, I'd say go all out with the add-ons and have fun.

5. TWITTER TOOLBOX: 60+ Twitter Tools - By itself, Twitter is a simple microblogging tool. With these add-ons and tools however, Twitter becomes a messenging powerhouse. I personally didn't get Twitter when it first came out but as these tools slowly trickled out I realized that you control how powerful it can become.

GadgetMuse Has A New look!

As some of you might have noticed, GadgetMuse has a new look! I've decided to change the look of this site mainly because I wanted to be able to feature the new iPod Touch blog as a part of GadgetMuse.com. Before, it looked like a link to another site. This new design integrates the two blogs in a better way. Plus as an added bonus, I love this color scheme and layout so much more.

Stuff I love about this new design:

• The lovely pink rollovers
• The built-in search box
• The site menu
• The merged upper side-bar

Enjoy the site!

iPod Touch Goodness

I am officially crazy about the iPod Touch. I just love it. That's why I'm creating a new blog all about the iPod Touch. Yup, it's iPod Touch goodness all in one place! So if you're as crazy about it as me, bookmark this... [ipodtouch.gadgetmuse.com] and get your dose of iPod Touch news and reviews all in one place. See you there!

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Cnet's Top 100 Blogs

I've always been a huge blog reader. One of the things I love about blogs is that the internet can't seem to run out of them and there are great blogs to discover everyday. Of course, I havemy own list of favorite blogs but apparently, Cnet was able to compile a list of their Top 100 Blogs. I'm not sure how they were able to decide on which of the millions of blogs out there to include in the list but it's worth taking a look at anyway.

Here's the actual list in alphabetical order: (The entries link to the blog's Cnet page and not the blog itself.)

1080Eye
Alice Hill's Real Tech
News
Apple
Matters
AppleInsider
Ars Technica
Between the Lines
Beyond VC
Boing Boing
Burnham's Beat
BusinessWeek's
Blogspotting
BusinessWeek's The Tech
Beat
BuzzMachine
C:\PIRILLO.EXE
Channel 9
Cleantech Investing
Cyberjournalist.net
Dan Bricklin's Log
Daring Fireball
Declan McCullagh's
Politech
digg
Doc Searls Weblog
Engadget
Fixyourthinking.com
Freedom to Tinker
Geek Culture
Geek News Central
Gizmodo
GPS Review
Groklaw
Hypebot
IEBlog
iLounge
Jeremy Zawodny's blog
JKOnTheRun
John Battelle's Searchblog
Joi Ito's Web
Jon's Radio
Jonathan's Blog
Justin's Guide
Kim Cameron's Identity
Weblog
Kotaku
Kottke.org
Kuro5hin.org
Lawrence Lessig
Lifehacker
Linux-Watch
LonghornBlogs.com
MacMinute
Matt McAlister
Micro Persuasion
Microsoft Security Response
Center
Microsoft
Watch from Mary Jo Foley
Mini-Microsoft
Molly
MozillaZine
Neowin.net
New Media Musings
O'Reilly Radar
Om Malik on Broadband
Ongoing
PaidContent.org
PCS Intel
PhysOrg Weblog
PressThink
PVRblog
Responsible
Nanotechnology
RFID Weblog
Romenesko
Schneier on Security
Science Blog
Scobleizer
Scott Rosenberg's Links &
Comment
Scripting
News
Search
Engine Watch
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Microsoft Blog
Security Fix
Seth Godin's Blog
Silicon Valley Watcher
Slashdot
Spamroll
Sunbeltblog
SunMink
TaoSecurity
Tech Confidential Blog
TechCrunch
Techdirt
Tecosystems
Terra Nova
The Blog Herald
The Gadgeteer
The Internet Stock Blog
The Mac Observer
Things That ... Make
You Go Hmm
Threadwatch.org
TiVoBlog.com
TVOver.net
Venture Chronicles
Vitalsecurity.org
whatsnextblog
XplanaZine

I must admit I haven't heard of more than half of these blogs. It just shows that no matter how well-read I am when it comes to blogs, there will always be more out there. That's why I love the web. The resources are endless, the possibilities virtually unlimited.

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Create Your Own Facebook

These days, everyone's crazy about the online social network Facebook. However, if you're tech-savvy (and even if you're not), you'd probably want to have your very own profile page or site that doesn't limit you to the boundaries of Facebook or other social networking sites. This article from Wired How-To's shows you exactly how to do that. I'm free to share the article under their Creative Commons Licence so I'll do exactly that. Here's the full article...

With a little savvy, anyone can create a page that hosts all of the essential stuff one would find on a Facebook profile that can be set up with the same plug-and-play ease. You'll have to store all of your photos, videos, and contacts elsewhere, but at least you'll be able to get to your stuff.

Start by setting up a blog. Say what's on your mind. Unlike your blog on Facebook or MySpace, everyone will be able to read it. From there, you can pull in your photos from Flickr--> or Zooomr -->, show off your impeccible musical tastes hosted at iLike --> or Last.fm -->, share your favorite web bookmarks from del.icio.us --> or Ma.gnolia --> and put up a list of your most recent reads using Shelfari --> or LibraryThing -->.

All of these services have open APIs, making it easy for third-party developers to build widgets for displaying public data stored there. As a result, many such tools exist.

Need to keep up to date with your friend's activities? Pull in a feed from their blog
or from their Twitter page. The Upcoming --> event notification service has a dead simple code generator that will create a widget listing all of the events you plan to attend, as well as those your friends are interested in. Like to chat? Meebo -->
offers an embeddable widget for AIM chatting, and Jaxtr --> does the same for SMS. You can even drop in a Skype --> button that lets your friends call you with
one click.

One of Facebook's unique features is the "everything in one place" feed service (Mini-feeds and News Feeds), but you can build such a thing yourself. Just create an account at one of the many feed re-mixing sites like Yahoo Pipes -->, FeedShake --> or FeedBlendr -->. Plug in all the feeds from the various sources you want to track and paste the resulting URL into a widget on your site. Voilà.

The free blogging software from WordPress --> has all of the functionality to let you embed these widgets and RSS streams. WordPress also has a thriving plug-in ecosystem, so it's likely a developer somewhere has done much of the dirty work for you.

An even easier option is to use a sharable and customizable start page from Pageflakes --> or Protopage -->. Pageflakes in particular allows you to build a customized chunk of cyberspace that aggregates all of your desired content just like Facebook, which you can then publish publicly (Pageflakes calls this a "Pagecast"). And beyond a simple user registration, Pageflakes doesn't lock in any of your personal data.

Although it looks complicated, with all these Web2.0 services popping up, it couldn't be any easier. It's really a piece of cake if you think about it... the possibilites are virtually endless. So go ahead and create your own profile page. Have fun while you're at it too.

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