10 of the Best WordPress 2.7 Compatible Themes

digg_url = ‘http://mashable.com/2009/01/07/wordpress-2-7-themes/’;

digg_title = ‘10 of the Best WordPress 2.7 Compatible Themes’;

digg_bodytext = ‘WordPress 2.7 completely overhauled the admin area of your blog, so isn\’t it time you treated yourself with an overhaul of the front end also? \n\nWhy not pick something radically different than the usual blog look? Not only can you have a blog that stands out, you can completely change the function of WordPress to be a photoblog or a CMS, the po’;

WordPress 2.7 completely overhauled the admin area of your blog, so isn’t it time you treated yourself with an overhaul of the front end also?

Why not pick something radically different than the usual blog look? Not only can you have a blog that stands out, you can completely change the function of WordPress to be a photoblog or a CMS, the possibilities are pretty much limitless with this powerful program. Here are 10 of the best themes to choose from.

What are some of your favorite non-traditional themes?

Album

Album - The perfect theme for any artist, photographer or designer that wants to display their work. Has seven different color schemes to better match your work. Cost for an individual license is $59.95.

Blue Grace

Blue Grace - A 3-column theme that has the unusual distinction of not making you feel crowded as you read it. Colors can be customized by playing around with a PSD file, and it is released under the GPL license.

Celebrity Gossip

Celebrity Gossip - Despite the name, Celebrity Gossip can be used for just about anything. Thumbnails of images are auto generated from the first image in a post, but you can also override the selection manually. Has 3 different color styles, widgets, 125×125 ads and more. Cost for an individual license is $35.00.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome - Can’t get enough of Google Chrome? Well, you can now carry it over to your blog in a surprisingly effective translation. Very open and clean, but we would warn to be wary of adding too many widgets as they would be very noticeable. Released under the GPL license.

iQ2

iQ2 - A photoblog theme built around the PhotoQ Photoblog Plugin which gives you choice of colors for the theme, the ability to batch upload photos and a whole lot more. No license is listed on the page, but seeing as there is an easy download link handy and donate button, one assumes it is free.

Over Easy

Over Easy - A CMS theme that features lots of highlighting for various articles with a really interesting sliding header to feature multiple pages. Also has a blog hidden away in it so you can do normal blogging if you choose. Cost for an individual license is $70.00.

THiCK

THiCK - A highly customizable theme built with the social media minded individual in mind. Shows your latest Tweets, your social profiles, a LifeStream section for all of your latest activities, and has over 20 styles and colors available. Cost for an individual license is $70.00.

TimesCafe News

TimeCafe News - This mixture of magazine style and CMS comes in three colors and caters heavily to those that use a lot of pages on their site. Has lots of ad slots, video coding ready, FeedBurner options and more. Cost for an individual license is $79.95.

Vigilance

Vigilance - A highly customizable theme that allows you to make all sorts of changes to the top image. Highlight box in posts, Google Analytics ready, multiple sidebar configurations and numerous changes allowed to the design. Best of all it’s small in size and free to use.

WP Remix

WP Remix - A theme built around the idea of your WordPress site being used as a CMS, WP Remix comes bundled with 50 different page layouts allowing you to quickly change the look of your site, or even of a single page. They also offer a magazine module separately. Cost for an individual license is $75.00.

Interested in more WordPress resources? Check these out:

WordPress Themes: “Top 12 Stunning WordPress Themes“, “30+ WordPress 3 Column Themes,” “20 WordPress 4-Column Themes,” “30+ WordPress 1-Column Themes,” “10 Unusual & Original WordPress Themes”

Plugins: “20+ Great WordPress 2.7 Compatible Plugins,” “50+ WordPress Plugins for Multimedia,” “30+ WordPress Plugins for Statistics,” “30+ WordPress Plugins for Comments,” “30+ WordPress Plugins to Get More Blog Readers.”

Miscellaneous: “WordPress God: 300+ Tools for Running Your WordPress Blog,” “The 7 Weirdest and Wackiest Uses for WordPress“

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Jan

15 Free Tools to Turn Your BlackBerry into a Communications Powerhouse

Posted by: Sean P. Aune

in Mobile 2.0, Lists

When people think of the BlackBerry, they tend to think of it only in terms of enterprise users. Over the past few years it has become much more than that; a device that is easily accessible to anyone for any number of uses. One of the biggest trends on the device has been easing communication.

Be it in the form of Instant messaging or social networking, there are plenty of free tools out there for you to use to stay in touch with anyone from anywhere. Use these 15 free tools to turn your BlackBerry into a communications powerhouse.

What are some of your favorite ways to communicate on the BlackBerry?

Instant Messengers

AIM - The old guard instant messenger of AIM is available for various models of BlackBerry and includes picture messaging inside of chat, avatars, emoticons, instant login and more.

Google Talk - Google brings their popular instant messenger to the BlackBerry with features such as changing your status, chat logging just like the desktop version, buddy pictures and everything else you could hope for.

ICQ - A favorite of the technical elite for years, ICQ for the BlackBerry gives you the ability to run several chats at once, near real-time updates on which friends are online auto-login and several other features.

Windows Live Messenger - Windows Live Messenger for the BlackBerry allows you to add, delete and block contacts, customize your status message, participate in multiple chats and a bevy of other features.

Yahoo Messenger - Yahoo’s entry into the BlackBerry instant messaging market allows you to view your current contacts list, add avatars, use emoticons and the usual line-up of features.

Social Networking

Facebook - Facebook for the BlackBerry gives you easy photo sharing for models of the phone with a camera, updates on your mail and wall messages. Also send pokes and a heck of a lot more.

Flickr - The perfect application for models of the BlackBerry with a camera, Flickr will allow you to directly upload your photos, resize, tag and even geotag the image if your unit has GPS.

MySpace - The BlackBerry MySpace application allows you to read email and bulletins, change your mood, add comments, post photos and an assortment of other features.

Miscellaneous

Cellity - Cellity is an app that allows you to make calls at cheaper rates, offers reduced fees for text messages, microblogging and more.

iSkoot - iSkoot is a third-party application that gives you full control over your Skype account. You can chat with your contacts, make Skype-to-Skype calls, and even use Skype Out to call international phone numbers, all via your BlackBerry.

LogicMail - LogicMail bring IMAP and POP email support to the BlackBerry. You can also send email via SMTP and view images in mail. Provides support for IMAP folders and a whole lot more.

ShoZu - ShoZu allows you to interact with numerous sites such as Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, LiveJournal, Blogger and a whole slew more. Available features vary by service.

Twitterberry - How could you talk about communications on any device without bringing up the ubiquitous Twitter? Enter new messages, get replies, send direct messages, check the timeline and more.

Vlingo - While not a communication app in and of itself, Vlingo is a voice command app that will allow you to speak your text messages instead of having to type them off. Also allows you to voice control other selected applications.

YouMail - While not exactly an application, YouMail is a third-party service that allows you to get new services in your voicemail such as the ability to download, forward, look up missed calls and several other features.

Interested in more BlackBerry Resources?

- “20 BlackBerry Mobile Apps for Organization and Productivity”

- “7 Great Resources for BlackBerry Applications”

- “BlackBerry Toolbox: Themes for Your BlackBerry“

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Jan

10 Free Music Based Games for the iPhone & iPod Touch

Posted by: Sean P. Aune

in iPhone, Lists

Music-based games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have become wildly popular, so it only makes sense that similar games are being created for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Both devices have a plethora of gaming apps, but only a handful of those are free and based around music. Here are 10 - perfect for long hours stuck in airports, commuter trains, and so on.

What are some of your favorite music-based games for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and which do you wish existed?

Aero Drum Free

While it may not be as exciting as beating the skins of an actual drum kit, Aero Drum Free will still help you work out some of your frustrations by beating out a sick rhythm. Just follow the dots to play snare, cymbal and bass drum and try to beat the scores.

As with all of the “X Game Free” versions, this is a trial version, and there are more features in the paid app. (App Store Rating: 2 stars)

Aero Guitar Free

At some point or another, everyone has “played” air guitar, but with the help of Aero Guitar Free, now you can actually feel like you are accomplishing something! This free version of the app will allow you to sample the game before you buy the full one, and will teach you the basic of up strokes, down strokes and basic tapping.

Another rhythm action game, but at least it makes you feel like you are doing more than just tapping. (App Store Rating: 2 stars)

Aero Synth Free

Ever wish you had the mad skills of a club DJ? Well, more than likely you never will, but Aero Synth Free will at least help you live out that fantasy a bit more. Tap along as the electronic music plays and keep the beat going, but if you miss one of the bubbles in the four streams, the music goes back to its original intro until you are on track again.

The side scrolling nature of this game is a bit prohibitive as your hand can hide the lower streams. (App Store Rating: 2.5 stars)

Chrimbell

There is nothing quite like the sound of bells playing along with a Christmas carol, and with Chrimbell you can reproduce that sound to go along with some old time hits. Choose from Christmas carols like “Away In A Manger” or “Jingle Bells” and then choose your bell and get to playing.

It appears it does need the built-in speaker of the iPhone or iPod Touch version 2 to work as I couldn’t get any sound on my iPod Touch 1. (App Store Rating: 2.5 stars)

Mardo’s Music Trivia - Lite Version

Who doesn’t love to test their knowledge of trivial facts? With Mardo’s Ultimate Music Trivia you can see how well you do across a whole range of musical genres from punk to country.

The lite version is very lite, but it will give you a feeling for how the full version plays and if it will even interest you. (App Store Rating: 2 stars)

rePete Lite

Harking back to the days of the Simon electronic game, rePete Lite allows you to choose a playing grid of 4, 6 or 9 light boxes and then uses lights and sound to show you the pattern you need to remember.

As with most memory games out there, watch out for the addictive factor. (App Store Rating: 2.5 stars)

synthPond Lite

A fairly complex app, synthPond Lite allows you to place different types of nodes around the screen to create synthetic music. You can change their pitch, speed and a whole lot more.

While most lite versions of games really scale back on their features, this one seems to be complete in all the right places. (App Store Rating: 2.5 stars)

Tap Tap Revenge

Have a desire to tap your iPhone or iPod Touch screen to a rhythm? Then Tap Tap Revenge is your answer. With a name obviously inspired by Japan’s mega-popular Dance Dance Revolution, the actual game play takes its cues from the addictive Guitar Hero.

While the music is generic in this version, that is what allows them to keep it being released for free. I personally find the game a bit frustrating, but then I have huge fingers and am not exactly known for my ability to keep a beat. (App Store Rating: 3 stars)

ThumbStruck Free

Compared to other rhythm-based games, ThumbStruck Live has you hitting the musical elemental balls on three bars instead of the usual one. Your thumbs will be dancing all over the board to keep up with this one.

This game definitely steps up the rhythm-based genre by requiring you to be a lot more agile and coordinated to hit all three sections of the board. (App Store Rating: 2.5 stars)

Xmas In Space: Play-a-Long Christmas Carols

Who knew they had Christmas on other planets? Well, according to Xmas In Space:Play-a-Long Christmas Carols, they do, and they have sent you a music app that allows you to play along with bells or harps to some of your favorite Christmas carols.

Though the game has no way to measure how well you did, the song mixes are cute, and the fire crackling sound is oddly comforting. (App Store Rating: 2.5 stars)

Interested in more resources? Check these out:

- “100+ iPhone Games That Use the Accelerometer”

- “12 Great Free Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch”

- “40+ Free iPhone Music Apps”

- “Top 10 Free iPhone Apps to Lose Weight”

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto, rustycloud

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Dec

20 BlackBerry Mobile Apps for Organization and Productivity

Posted by: Sean P. Aune

in Mobile 2.0, Lists

iPhone this, G1 that, where is all of the love for the BlackBerry? Like the forgotten child in the orphanage, it seems no one talks about the still popular RIM smartphone anymore. Well, it’s still out there going strong, and long before the iPhone and G1, BlackBerry had apps before apps were cool.

From better instant messaging to full Office document editing, there is something for all business-minded BlackBerry owners in this list of 20 great organization and productivity applications.

What are some of your favorite BlackBerry organization and productivity apps?

Communication

BBSmart - Allows you to see your emails as HTML so no more annoying links in place of pictures. Costs $29.95.

Google Talk - A full version of the popular Google Talk IM client for your BlackBerry. Can do everything with your desktop client, even save chats to your account.

IM+ All-in-One Mobile Messenger - Allows you to IM with your contacts on AIM, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, MySpace IM and Yahoo. Cost is a rather hefty $49.95.

IM+ for Skype - Gives you the ability to chat with your Skype contacts, see who is online and use your Skype Out account all from your mobile phone with no need for a computer or Wi-Fi. Costs $29.95.

TwitterBerry - While it is arguable if this will actually increase your productivity, it is still nice to have access to your full Twitter account while away from the office or on the road.

Document Productivity

BlackBerry Database Viewer Plus - Allows you to view MS Access, Excel, FoxPro, Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL databases directly on your BlackBerry. Costs $19.95.

eOffice - A Microsoft Office compatible suite of applications that allows you to view and edit documents, spreadsheets, PDFs and everything else you could hope for an office application to do. Costs $29.95.

eSpell - eSpell is a spell checker that works on documents, emails and SMS text messages on your BlackBerry. Costs $19.95.

MSDict Concise Oxford American Dictionary and Thesaurus - The Oxford dictionary and thesaurus comes to the BlackBerry with over 180,000 entries in the dictionary and more than 350,000 synonyms and antonyms in the Thesaurus. Costs $39.95.

Miscellaneous

Berry Locator - While not exactly about productivity, Berry Locator is an essential app for anyone on the go. If you lose your beloved phone, you can send an email to this app that will be displayed on the screen telling whoever finds it how to get it back to you, and if you have GPS enabled, you will see a map showing you where it is. Costs $6.95.

Personal Productivity Assistant - Allows you to keep an eye on all sorts of accounts while you are on the go. You can keep an eye on your credit card statements, stock broking accounts, cell phone minutes and even monitor your Netflix account from this handy app. Costs $4.95 a month or a one time fee of $29.95.

Pocket Express - Pocket Express gives you flight status, weather, stock reports, a mobile concierge service and more. Costs $9.99 a month, or $99 a year.

RDM+: Remote Desktop for Mobiles - A remote desktop access system for your phone that will give you full control of your chosen computer. Costs $49.95.

Organization

Agendus - A Personal Information Manager that doesn’t overwrite your existing built-in applications, but instead stores its data in the same locations as your phone so all information is available to both apps. Aims to cut the number of button clicks needed to do tasks. Costs $39.95.

e-Mobile Today Professional Edition - Significantly overhauls your homepage so it shows more information such as appointments for the day, missed calls, quick access to contacts and a whole lot more. Costs $29.95.

Google Sync - This free app will synchronize your Google Calendar and contacts with the built-in applications in your BlackBerry.

Remember The Milk - MilkSync is a bi-directional synchronization tool for the built-in Tasks app in your phone. They offer a free 15-day trial, but after that it is only available to Pro account subscribers.

Travel Planning & Booking

Travel+ USA - Gives you information on bus, flights and train schedules, ability to look up hotels, sort results by price and more. Costs $19.95.

Travel Mate For BlackBerry - This app allows you to save all of the information about your trip, track expenses, convert currency, look up facts on your destination and more. Costs $25.99.

WorldMate Live - WorldMate Live is the perfect travel companion. It allows you to book hotels on the go, check weather, convert currencies and more. If you pay for the paid version, you also receive real time flight status and alerts.

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Dec

30+ Great Adobe AIR Apps for Designers and Developers

Posted by: Sean P. Aune

in Lists

Many people think of Twitter apps when they think of Adobe AIR, but there is a whole other world of useful applications out there beyond microblogging.

Designers and developers in particular get a lot of love from the AIR community with tools to help them with just about every aspect of their jobs. Here are over 30 great Adobe AIR apps for designers and developers that can help you do everything from tracking your time to measuring pixels, and more.

What are some of your favorite AIR applications as a designer or developer? Tell us in the comments!

Billing & Invoicing Tools

Klok - Klok allows you to not only track time by clients and projects, but what kind of work you do for each. You can also manage contact information for clients, edit time spent and a slew of other features.

Ora Time and Expense - Ora will help you generate timesheets, expense reports and invoices.

Timeloc - Does everything you could ask of a time keeper such as manage multiple clients and jobs, edit the billing so you see a running tally of how much a job has earned you, add notes to a billing period and a whole lot more.

Vertabase Timer - Allows you to track time by clients or by project.

Color & Pattern Tools

Color Browser - Allows you to import color palettes you have created elsewhere, create new ones locally, and put as many colors as you like into any you create.

COLOURlovers Desktop Color Finder - This app will let you search the COLOURlovers database for an astonishing 1 million named colors and more than 300,000 user created color palettes.

Kuler Desktop - This app allows you to browse and choose color palettes for any project you’re working on. When you’ve picked one you like, you can then import it to Creative Suite 3 Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop.

Random Patter - Allows you to render patterns based on set parameters and then save as an XML document, and images can be saved as an SVG document.

Design Tools

Alcon - A debugging tool for users of ActionScript 2 and ActionScript 3.

BetaDesigns Caliper - This tool floats above your other applications so that you can measure any item on your screen.

designview - Gives you the ability to use Flex Builder Design View.

Dojo Toolbox - A toolbox to work along with the open source Dojo JavaScript tools. Allows you to view your work, cross-reference, use the build tool and a whole lot more.

e2vector illustration app. - Allows you to create new images and export them to SVG, or you can import existing ones to work on.

htmlText Editor - A WYSIWYG editor for htmlText that allows you to design visually for Flex.

Icon Generator - Allows you to generate icons in three steps for CS3 or Web 2.0 style. All icons are generated as 128×128, 48×48, 32×32 and 16×16.

pixDIF - Allows you to measure pixel differences easily between comps and design implementations.

Pixus - Allows you to easily measure the size of a screen object, set size presets, preview your design and more.

Shrink O’ Matic - Drag your JPGs, GIFs and PNGs into the app and then resize them as one batch.

Miscellaneous Tools

.merlin - A manager for fonts that will make sure they are named correctly, sort them into folders by letter, allow you to delete duplicates and more.

Balsamiq Mockups For Desktop Demo - An application for designing mockups of software before going to coding. Teams can work in real time on a project and it also integrates with Atlassian Confluence, Atlassian JIRA and XWiki.

ConceptShare Desktop Companion - A web tool that allows you to create workspaces for a project and then share it with others so you can collaborate on the project.

LibraryManager - Allows you to dump SWF files, see the class information, create information and compare versions.

QR Code generator for mobile tagging - Helps you generate QR codes for your sites and projects.

QuickLoader - Allows for quick uploading and downloading of files from any PHP enabled server. You can define multiple users with different folders, as well as browse & modify files on your server. Has several other features such as an image editor.

Simple Flash Filter Generator - Allows you to generate flashfilters and code in real time.

SlideRocket Player - Allows you to make offline presentations of your work and set up a marketplace to sell more services. Also will allow you to sync with your desktop to make offline presentations, but this requires a paid account.

Snippely - Allows you to store, label and organize various snippets of code in one centralized location on your system.

SQLFury - Aids you in testing an SQL database for possible injection vulnerabilities.

Screencapture Tools

Snapshooter - Enter a valid URL and this app will take a snapshot of the web page to save to your system locally.

SWFShot - Allows you to capture Flash images as JPGs or PNGs in huge screen sizes.

WebKut - A website screen capture tool that allows you to capture the entire page, the viewable area or just a selection.

Websnapshot - Simply enter or drag the URL of that page you want to snapshot from your browser. Select thumbnail, browser size or full page, and it is saved to your gallery.

Interested in more resources? Check these out:

- “Web Design Toolbox: 130+ New Tools to Make You a Better and Faster Designer”

- “10 Video Tutorials for Learning Basic Web Design Skills”

- “20 Free eBooks and Whitepapers for Better Web Design”

- “Web Development Toolbox: 120+ Tools for Web Development“

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Dec

20+ Great Greasemonkey Scripts for Improving Your Facebook Experience

Posted by: Sean P. Aune

in social networking, facebook, Lists

digg_url = ‘http://mashable.com/2008/12/25/facebook-greasemonkey-scripts/’;

digg_title = ‘20+ Great Greasemonkey Scripts for Improving Your Facebook Experience’;

digg_bodytext = ‘Facebook is the social network of choice for millions of people, but like any site out there, we all have our own list of improvements we\’d like to see. Luckily the Greasemonkey script community feels the same way and has come up with hundreds of scripts to improve your user experience. \n\nThe scripts allow you to change colors, remove ads, aut’;

Facebook is the social network of choice for millions of people, but like any site out there, we all have our own list of improvements we’d like to see. Luckily the Greasemonkey script community feels the same way and has come up with hundreds of scripts to improve your user experience.

The scripts allow you to change colors, remove ads, automate repetitive tasks in applications and a whole slew of other improvements. Try out these more than 20 great scripts to use Facebook the way you want to.

What are some of your favorite Greasemonkey based Facebook enhancements?

Auto-Colorizer - An interesting script that analyzes the default image for any profile you visit and adjusts the color scheme of the page to match it. Also works on photos, events & group pages.

Autopoke - Allows you to automatically poke those users that have poked you.

Customize Word “Friend” - While probably not a burning problem for most people, this script will allow you to change every instance of the word “friend” to whatever your heart desires.

Facebook: Cleaner - Unlike other ad removal scripts that remove everything, Facebook: Cleaner will let you pick and choose areas you want left untouched.

Facebook App Faviconizer - If you open your apps in separate tabs, this will replace the Facebook favicon with the one used by each application so you can more quickly identify what is in each window.

Facebook Colour Changer - Not only can you set the Facebook colors to anything you desire, but you may also change the logo image in the top left corner to whatever you want.

Facebook Fixer - Instead of loading several scripts, you can load Facebook Fixer and get larger profile images, video download links, Google Calendar integration and several other features.

Facebook Highlight Birthdays - With all of the info on your homepage, it can be easy to overlook the birthday notices. This script will highlight them for easier spotting.

Facebook Image Download Helper - This script will allow you to use a Firefox extension like DownThemAll! to download all of the images on a page in Facebook.

Facebook News Feed Sanitiser - Cleans up your news feed by removing application stories, sponsored stories, sponsored polls, and social ads.

Facebook Refresh 2 - Still in Alpha, Facebook Refresh 2 will automatically reload your news feed, home sidebar status updates and number of messages in the navigation bar every 30 seconds. Eventually it will also do this for wall posts and messages.

Facebook to Google Calendar - Allows you to add Facebook events to whatever Google Calendar you happen to be logged into at the time.

Facebook Remaker - Allows you to do things such as remove ads, take out the “People You May Know” section, remove the “Home” link, add a “Reload” link, and several other tweaks.

Facebook Video - This script will not only give you the ability to download videos hosted on Facebook and convert them, but it will also provide you with the option of embedding the videos on other sites. It is also available as a stand-alone Firefox extension.

Facebook View All Photos - Since the redesign of the Facebook profiles, it seems the only function left for this script is viewing photos from private profiles.

Facebook View Photo in Album - A powerful script that allows you to view the photo albums of people you aren’t friends with, and it also gives you the ability to see a person’s pictures no matter who took them.

Friend Quick Remove - Streamlines the usual three steps to remove a friend down to just one easy step.

inYOf4ceBook - Tired of squinting at thumbnail images of people in search, thinking they kinda look like the person you meant to find? inYOf4ceBook will let you place your mouse over the image and see a large view of it so you can actually tell who you are looking at.

MobWars Helper - The popular game of MobWars gets some help in the form of a script that will automate tasks such as depositing money in the bank, healing you at the hospital, giving you investment advice and more.

New Facebook Layout Adjuster - Allows you to remove ads, sidebar and more to make a smoother looking version of the new Facebook.

Remove All Facebook Ads - As the name implies, this script removes all of the various ads that show up around Facebook such as banner ads, sponsored news items and so on.

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Dec

40+ Free iPhone Music Apps

Posted by: Sean P. Aune

in iPhone, Lists

There are now thousands and thousands of applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and sorting through all of them can be an absolute nightmare.

Did you know about all of the wonderful free music out there that’s just waiting for you? Ever wondered what the top pop song currently is in Turkey? Now you can hear it for yourself. With these 40+ free iPhone music applications you can also identify songs you don’t know the name of, play well-known stations, and a whole lot more.

What’s your favorite iPhone and iPod Touch music application?

International Music Applications

95.8 Capital Radio - Hit music station broadcasting out of London, England.

Ö3 iRadio - Austrian radio streamed directly to your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Classical Philippines Radio - Plays an endless stream of classical Philippines musical styles.

iBZH - Five radio stations serving all of the Brittany territory and surrounding area.

Mx3.ch Mobile - A Switzerland based application that has a streaming archive of over 30,000 songs and information on concerts and festivals in and around Switzerland.

Radio 24 Mobile - Full-time terrestrial radio station broadcasting from Switzerland.

RadyoD - Listen to Turkey’s best pop music.

RMC2 - Radio Monte Carlo is broadcast in Italy and features portions in English and Italian.

Rock Antenne - Rock N’ Roll radio broadcasting from Germany.

SlowTurk - SlowTurk is a Turkish radio station specializing in slow and romantic love songs from yesterday and today.

Music Identification Tools

ClickonRadio - Want to know what that song was you just heard on the radio? This app will tell you what songs the station of your choice has played over the past hour. Will also direct you to more on the Web about the band, links to videos for them and more.

Midomi - Got a song stuck in your head, but no clue what it is? Sing or hum the tune into your iPhone for at least 10 seconds, and Midomi will try to give you the answer. Also has browsable selections and links to musicians on iTunes and YouTube.

Shazam - Shazam is directed mainly at the iPhone as it needs a microphone to work. For those of you who can use it, you can say goodbye to the age old problem of “What song was that?” You simply hold your iPhone up to any music source, tag the song as you see fit and you can learn more about the music, share it with friends, buy the song and more.

Streaming Music

106.3 Joe FM WVBB - Joe FM has no DJ interruptions and a never ending stream of music from the 1980s and 1990s.

Finetune - Build your own streaming station, hear the ones others have built, or even tune in to professionally managed stations.

FlyCast - FlyCast provides you with over 1,000 channels of listening with unique features such as “StreamAhead,” which enables you to listen to music even when you are offline. Also helps you catch up on talk radio shows you come into late, skip songs on some channels, and more.

HardRadio - Based on HardRadio.com, this app streams hard rock music 24 hours a day.

Kujo 99 - Mixes music from multiple decades and genres into one continuously streaming music application.

Last.fm - The popular social networking/music discovery site is alive and kicking with their application. All of your favorite features are here, so get to listening and tagging.

OurStage Radio - A music discovery service for independent artists that allows you to vote acts you like up, improving their chances of more people listening to them.

Pandora - Almost everyone loves Pandora on their computers, so it’s no big surprise that people are taking to it on their iPhones and iPod Touches also. Log into your account, play your stations, build new ones and keep exploring for even more new music.

Radio Javan - A streaming music app dedicated to nothing but Persian music 24/7.

Radio Paradise - A streaming music tool where all the music is actually chosen and mixed by two human beings.

Streaming Local Radio Stations

89.7 WTMD Radio For Music People - Towson University in Baltimore, MD streams their station to your device, providing you with local bands, and underexposed national acts.

101 WRIF Radio - A radio station coming out of Detroit, MI, WRIF offers up two separate streams.

CSF Radio - Classical South Florida is a public radio station from Miami, FL broadcasting classical music all the time.

Hot 107.9 WJFX - Dedicated application for WJFX hip hop radio station.

KUT 90.5 Music, News & NPR From Austin, Texas - Provides three streaming channels of music, news and jazz from central Texas.

Milwaukee’s 102.9 WHQG - Milwaukee’s rock station, 102.9 WHQG, comes to the iPhone and iPod Touch.

MPR Radio - A dedicated application for the well known Minnesota Public Radio station from Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Philadelphia’s 93.3 WMMR Rocks - An app just for WMMR, 93.3 FM, in Philadelphia, PA.

Radio 92.9 WBOS - Radio 929 comes out of Boston, MA, specializing in alternative music.

The Coast 95.3/95.9 KOZT - Mendocino County, CA’s locally owned, operated and staffed radio station.

The Rock 106.9 WCCC - A 24/7 rock station that is not corporately owned and gives you access to whomever is on the air at the time via their request line.

WBNJ Player - Broadcasting from Barnegat, NJ, WBNJ plays music from various golden ages in musical history.

WRAT 95.9 - A local New Jersey station that plays over 40 years of hard rock hits.

Streaming Mixed Radio Stations

AOL Radio - Get your choice of 25 genres of music, or select from over 150 CBS radio stations from around the United States.

FStream - Enter audio streams from various sources and make your own web radio player made up of the stations that match your tastes better.

IHeart Radio - Listen to popular radio stations such as Z100, KIIS, KFAn and more. When using this app on the iPhone, you can geo-locate yourself and select just from radio stations local to where you are.

MDR Sputnik Web Radio - Live streaming channels or predetermined playlists based on different themes.

Public Radio Tuner - Over 150 of the national public radio stations in the United States have added their audio streams to this application so you can listen to stations from all over the country.

Radiolicious - Allows you to play various styles of radio streams, play actual AM and FM stations, local stations with a radius picker, and more.

Interested in more resources? Check these out:

- “100+ iPhone Games That Use the Accelerometer”

- “Beyond YouTube: 10 Top iPhone Video Apps”

- “11 iPhone Apps That Will Clean Out Your Junk Drawer”

- “11 Great Tools for Making VoIP Calls on the iPhone”

- “HOW TO: Convert Videos for Your iPhone”

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, cobalt

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Dec

30+ Great Resources for Blogger Templates

Posted by: Sean P. Aune

in blogger, Lists

Blogger is one of the most popular hosted blogging platforms out there, but many people are still surprised when they learn you can customize the look of your blog well beyond the pre-built options the site offers.

Finding these other templates can be a bit of a task, so we’ve come up with over 30 resources to help you find brand new designs, converted WordPress themes, people who will build unique custom templates, and more. What are you waiting for? Get out there and freshen up your blog!

What is your favorite resource for Blogger templates? Tell us in the comments.

Free Templates

5ColumnTemplate.Blogspot.com - This site only offers one template with five variations, but it isn’t every day you see a five column theme for any blogging platform, and it is actually pretty clean in presentation.

AllBlogTools.com - A collection of over 100 templates from an assortment of a lot of smaller designers. You can look them up by layout, color, subject matter and so on.

Blogger-Templates.Blogspot.com - Keeps a small selection of top-notch Blogger themes up and running.

Blogger-Templates.Deceblog.net - A small selection of unique themes for Blogger accounts.

Blogger-Templates-Directory.Blogspot.com - A large directory of Blogger templates, links to resources for further development and a whole lot more.

BloggerTemplates.org - Doesn’t seem to have been updated since it originally launched, but all of the templates still work, and have a lot of resemblance to WordPress themes.

BlogspotTemplates.Blogspot.com - Several pages of Blogger templates with tips on how to use them.

BlogspotTemplate.com - Right around 100 templates for Blogger of varying styles and colors.

BlogTemplates.Noipo.org - A small selection of graphical and text based templates for your blog.

BTemplates.com - Features a wide assortment of over 600 free Blogger templates that can be browsed by category, tag, number of downloads and so on.

Carl Galloway’s Blogger Templates - A small selection of some fairly unique templates that haven’t been updated in some time, but are still fully functional.

FinalSense.com - Offers over 300 templates for your Blogger account. Have just about every theme and color combination that you can think of.

FreeBlogger-Templates.Blogspot.com - Focuses heavily on simplified Blogger templates that make for the easiest reading possible.

FreeTemplates.Blogspot.coms - A blog dedicated to bringing you nothing but free Blogger templates. Nicely categorized, and easy to browse.

FreshBloggerTemplates.Blogspot.com - It has been a while since this site released any new templates, but their designs are very clean and still in working order.

Gecko & Fly Blogger Templates - Offers many Blogger templates, most of which are in a more “classic” style, as well as tutorials on how to tweak your blog even further.

GoSuBlogger.com - A large selection of free templates that mix original work with converted WordPress themes.

Isnaini.com - A large and varied collection of templates for use on Blogger, along with a detailed tutorial on how to properly insert them into your account.

JackBook.com - Besides offering a large selection of free templates, with a heavy saturation of video game inspired themes, JackBook also offers tips and pointers on better SEO for your blog.

OurBlogTemplates.com - An odd mix of nearly 200 free templates for you to use and with a dash of reviews of DSLR cameras.

PannaSmontana Templates - Numerous free templates for Blogger, but the site is entirely in Italian. Thankfully it is well designed and you can find your way around.

Public-Template.Blogspot.com - Features a mixture of free templates for you to download, tutorials on how to make your own, and admiration for templates they enjoy.

Simple-Blogskins.Blogspot.com - Offers a handful of free skins for your Blogger account.

Template-Godown.com - A site specializing in converting WordPress themes to the Blogger friendly XML format.

WP-Themes.us - Yes, the name points to them being all about WordPress themes, but they also provide a nice selection of free templates for Blogger.

Yanku-Template.Blogspot.com - Offers some very slick looking, free, Blogger templates of the 2 and 3-column varieties.

Premium Templates

ChicSassyDesigns.Blogspot.com - Offers up pre-built templates you can buy, will design unique themes and offers background images for sale that you can build your own template around.

PaperbackDesigns.Blogspot.com - Offers free themes and sidebar badges in addition to doing custom designed templates for a fee.

SuckMyLolly.com - A mixture of free and premium themes for your Blogger account. Very colorful in design and lacking the traditional Blogger look.

Tips & Tricks for Template Design

Firdamatic Template Generator - Allows you to generate 2 or 3-column templates by just filling in the blanks with your answers.

PsycHorm.org - A nicely implemented free Blogger template generator.

PhotoshopSupport.com - Tips for designing your own Blogger template, using Photoshop.

Interested in more Blogger resources? Check these out:

- “70 Fresh and Modern Blogger Templates”

- “10 Unique Blogger Templates”

- “50 More Beautiful Blogger Templates”

- “80+ Online Communities for Bloggers”

- “Blogging Toolbox: 120+ Resources for Bloggers”

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Dec

24 Most Underrated Websites of 2008

Posted by: Sean P. Aune

in Web 2.0, web, Startups, Lists

Over the past year we’ve reviewed sites from just about every cross-section of the web. And yet, so many ground breaking new services haven’t received the recognition they deserve: we aim to set that straight.

From niche social networks to job sites and alternative search engines, each of the following excited us in 2008, and we’re intrigued to see where they take us in 2009.

What do you think are some of 2008’s most underrated websites? Tell us in the comments.

CarZen - Taking the tedium out of car shopping is an understatement. After you set your budget range, which features you want and your preferred make, CarZen will present you with choices and details about the automobiles that match your criteria.

AudioMicro - With more and more people doing podcasts, there is a bigger demand than ever for stock music that you can legally use. AudioMicro provides a user-made stock music market that takes care of all your stock music needs.

Cmypitch - Cmypitch.com is a one stop shop for entrepreneurs that allows you to network your UK-based companies with videos, and look for sources of funding, advice and information.

CoNotes - CoNotes matches job seekers with cool startups by allowing people to find startups looking for employees and vice versa. Each company on the site has a section for comments and questions so you can learn about the company before you even apply.

Coolspotters - Ever seen a celebrity carrying a bag and just had to know who made it? Coolspotters puts celebrity fashion on display by taking images of celebrities from various events and helping you figure out not only who made the bag, but where you can get one for yourself. Coolspotters is also a winner of the Blogger’s Choice Open Web Awards.

findingDulcinea - Sometimes you just don’t have the time to go out and find the stories you want on the web, and that is why findingDulcinea gives you a curated view. Using the tagline “Librarian of the Internet,” the site breaks stories from around the web into categories, making your reading time of popular stories much less intrusive.

JobBite - JobBite can help you find out if competitors pay more. The service has entered into the employer payment and corporate environment review space, but has shown that a minimalist approach, with a straightforward search ability, can be the most valuable element when you’re looking for new employment.

Just Leap In - One of the factors keeping some people from trying virtual worlds is the fact that you have to run a totally separate program, eating up resources. Just leap In puts a virtual world in your browser and lets you share images, videos and social network with your friends.

Forvo - “Forvo: Pronounce “Nuclear” in Any Language” couldn’t be a truer headline as the service is aiming to eventually have every word in the world pronounced in every language by native speakers. The perfect service for anyone straining to learn a new language.

Lymabean - Despite the oddness of its name, Lymabean brings sexy back to college networking. Directed at college students only, Lymabean tries to bring local businesses, events and students together so that they can share information.

Nofouls - Ever had trouble getting your friends together for a basketball game? Nofouls places local courts on a Google Maps mashup so you can locate them and organize games.

PingMyCompany - Rate your employer with PingMyCompany or any company you have worked for. This is a great way to lure new co-workers or tell them to avoid your place of employment like the plague.

Playfish - Playfish is in the social gaming space, with a handful of games like “Who Has the Biggest Brain?” and “Bowling Buddies” available for Facebook, and inching their way onto other sites like Bebo, MySpace, and Yahoo. The games are fun and colorful, but the startup often gets overlooked in the crowded social gaming market.

Twittertise -Twitter may not seem to have any idea how to make money with their own product, but there is nothing stopping the rest of us. Twittertise allows you to schedule advertising via Twitter for up to a year in advance.

Rudder - Mint seems to get all of the love in the personal finance sector, but there are other solutions out there such as Rudder. While it’s less detail-oriented, it does its job well and is worth checking out.

Zenbe - Zenbe is a new email service that aims to change how we email by bringing together social services like Facebook, sharing documents & calendars with others, and building simple web pages so that people can see shared items.

PostaCrime - PostaCrime is YouTube for Surveillance Tapes. It allows businesses to put up copies of their security tapes in the hopes that people can identify the individuals involved with the crimes.

UEatCheap - UEatCheap matches food with frugality by using a Google Maps mashup that will let you find food in a $10 price range based on your location and what type of food you are looking for.

SocialMinder - SocialMinder helps you see which people you converse with via Gmail and LinkedIn, and tells you how strong your relationships are with them, and how you might improve them. As noted in the post, the service will become even more usable if it expands to other email and social networking services.

Twitturly - Many of us share website addresses on Twitter every day, and with Twitturly, tracking popular URLs has never been easier. This is all accomplished by monitoring the public timeline, and as a URL gets discussed more, it moves up in the rankings, making it especially effective for breaking news stories.

Zhiing - Zhiing enables people to send their location to others’ phones, desktops, laptops, and dash devices, and not only learn where the person wants them to go, but give them turn-by-turn directions on how to get there.

E.Factor - The main focus of E.Factor is to connect entrepreneurs with investors, but the site also offers members health insurance and 401(k) plans. The idea that a social network is offering such perks is hard to ignore.

Unigo - Unigo allows users to review universities and colleges from a student’s perspective so future students can get an idea of what to expect before they even apply.

Where The Locals Eat - We’ve all experienced that problem while traveling where all you can find is some overpriced restaurant totally geared towards gouging the tourists. This is why it is always beneficial to find out where the locals eat. The service lists the top 100 spots to grab some grub in the 50 largest cities in the USA.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Rellas

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Dec

20+ Great Greasemonkey Scripts for Improving Your Twitter Experience

Posted by: Sean P. Aune

in Web 2.0, twitter, web, Lists

It’s easy to love Twitter, but sometimes you just wish you could get more out of its limited Web interface. That’s where Greasemonkey scripts come in. Using Greasemonkey scripts you can nest replies, silence noisy twits, retweet to other services, and more. Here are over 20 that are sure to vastly improve your Twitter experience.

What are some of your favorite Greasemonkey based Twitter enhancements?

Nested Twitter Replies - Provides you with nested replies so that you can better follow conversations as they happen. The only flaw is that all replies are attached to the last post by the original poster, so if they tweet quickly, you could end up with some odd conversations.

Endless Tweets - While this script will do a few things for you like show members on Google Maps if they have entered coordinates, the most exciting aspect is the pre-loading of extra pages. As you reach the bottom of a page of a person’s tweets, instead of clicking to go to the next page, this script will add them to the bottom of the page for continuous scrolling.

Intercepter 1.2 - This replaces all TinyURLs with the actual URLs of the site they direct to so you will no longer need to guess what sort of site you are heading for.

Keyboard Shortcuts Enhancement - Gives you keyboard shortcuts in several different services, and with Twitter it will let you focus on the text area, advance pages and more.

Now Shoosh! - Ever follow someone because you felt you had to, but don’t want to be stuck reading their updates? “Now Shoosh!” will hide their tweets from your view, and if you wish to restore them someday, you can.

Reverse Tweet Order - Reverse the order of tweets on a page so you see the oldest first. A great way to catch up if you’re behind on reading your timelines.

Summize Replies - For those times when you can’t see your replies on Twitter, this will take you to replies directed at you on Twitter Search.

Twitter Friend Name Helper - Working like most contact lists, name suggestions appear as you type, eventually allowing you to click on the name of the person to complete your “@” or “D” communication with them.

TwitPic Previewer - Get a preview of a pic stored on TwitPic before you click on the link and head over to the site.

Twitter @Reply To A Specific Message - Places a link in your reply to the post you’re replying to so people can see what your message is about.

Twitter Emoticons from Yahoo! - Replaces the plain old text emoticons with images from Yahoo.

Twitter Enhancements: Retweet This - Adds a retweet option to the end of all posts for easier sharing of messages.

Twitter Enhancements: Retweet This to Plurk - Another retweet option that this time will copy a tweet over to the Plurk site.

Twitter Follower Sorter - Allows you to sort your followers to see which of them you are already following and which you may have missed.

Twitter Profile Popup - Hover your mouse over a person’s avatar and see a popup of their user profile.

Twitter Live Updater - Auto updates for home, replies and the public timeline without a need to refresh the entire browser.

Twitter Mod - Twitter Mod does several things all from one handy script such as TinyURL preview, contacts list, profile popup and several more features.

Twitter Sidebar Replies - Ever curious about what people say to a user that you are considering following or are just looking up? This script adds “@” replies to them in the sidebar so you can get an idea of how they communicate with others.

Twitter User Classify - Shows you with just a glance how a Twitter user rates on Evan Prodromou’s scale of TwitterCaster to TwitterSpammer.

Twitter_Lite - A Twitter client you can open up anytime, anywhere on the Web by hitting shift-T. Gives you some abilities such as searching Twitter, looking up related items on Flickr, switching timelines and more.

Twitter Upgrade - Combines numerous scripts that do things like convert latitude and longitude to everyday locations, offline conversations, hashtags support and more.

Interested in more Twitter resources? Check these out:

- “HOW TO: Quiet the Twitter Noise”

- “HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter”

- “How Not To Build Your Twitter Community”

- “Twitterspeak: 66 Twitter Terms You Don’t Need to Know”

- “Twittermania: 140+ More Twitter Tools“