Category: internet

Cool free app: Jing

I’ve just been lead to a great new app called Jing… it’s a free application that makes image capturing and screen videos a snap to make. Coolest part? It’s cross platform and includes free hosting for all of your images and screencasts. Now if you need to show your mom how to do something on the computer, make a simple 5 minute video on Jing and send her the link. She can play it like any other video. No more typing out instructions! Also, since it’s cross platform there are no worries if you’re a PC owner sending to a Mac person, or vice versa. There’s even a Linux version in the works… very cool.

Check out the overview video here… it explains it better than I can in a paragraph, which is kind of the whole point of Jing, isn’t it?

WWDC keytnote a yawner?

Maybe Apple is getting too good at building excitement… the reviews on the Steve Jobs keynote yesterday are a bit mixed. I think there were a few interesting things (the iPhone info and the fact that Apple is releasing a version of its Safari web browser in Windows) but overall it was a little flat.

With that ringing endorsement… check it out here.

Apple: Don’t Buy Audiobooks from iTunes

Ok, file this one under, “weird.” Apparently a bunch of recent audiobooks sold in the iTunes Music Store play just great in iTunes, but refuse to play on iPods. It’s come to the point that Apple has reportedly recommended that iPod owners not purchase any additional audiobooks from Apple’s own iTunes Music Store! If only Microsoft would say the same thing about not buying the Zune, then maybe we’d all sleep better…

Apparently the snafu is a result of something that Apple’s audiobook partner Audible has in these new versions. One of the books is Al Gore’s newest, The Assault on Reason. Since we know Steve Jobs is a big Al Gore fan, we know he can’t be behind the sabotage. Maybe the culprit is a pro-Obama coder over at Audible? Hmmmm… stranger things have happened…

Upgrade your passwords

Not sure how many of you are Linkin Park fans, but a member of the band just had a nasty run-in with someone who figured out his too-easy-to-figure-out password. Read more about it here. Word to the wise… make your passwords extra tricky to figure out. Forget birthdays and names of kids… forget using your middle name… use a combination of letters and numbers, upper and lower case.

If you want to test out the relative strength of a prospective password, a lot of companies have integrated in tools to help you out when you sign up for their services (Gmail comes to mind). You can also try online helpers like securitystats.com’s password strength meter. Whatever you do, make your sensative data and email accounts a little safer!