Best Ever Program To Speed Up Windows

No matter what version of Windows you've had, have or will have in the future, chances are it becomes slow as time passes. It gets old and so is it's reflexes. This is usually the never ending frustration that home windows users experience. And as a home user, this is more frustrating as we do not know what's causing it. Online helps tell you to defrag, de clutter, look for malwares, clean registry and so on, but this do not make sense to a clueless typical owner.

But this doesn't mean you should switch to another operating system  specially when budget is an issue. There is still a way to speed up the snail paced performance without dipping very dip into your pocket.

The Advance Syatem Care 7 Free

This is a computer optimisation program that is designed to speed up your system. It cleans the registry, junks, looks for malware and so on in one single click. My computer does suffer from slow startup and hard to wake up browsers. Using it made these problems a thing in the past.

Installation

You can download it from http://www.iobit.com/products.html.

To get the free version, click on the products tab(1) and choose the free version(2).

How to use it

Under the first tab, Care(3), are the optimization functions that it can execute in one click. You just need to tick(4) the features you want to add before clicking the scan(5).

The scanning will take sometime depending on the features you have ticked and how many problems (6) it will identify. You can tick(7), automatically repair while the scan is going to automatically repair problems, or you can choose to manually repair it later if you want to know the details of the errors first.

The turbo boost (8) works on the RAM. It has three levels of  optimization. The work mode terminates unnecessary services and applications not related to what you are working on to give you a better speed. The gaming mode terminates non windows systems and services to give a boost to gaming experience. There is also the economy mode that helps to extend battery life specially when your laptop is away from the mains.

The application also tells you the amount of RAM it frees up. The applications and services terminated can be seen when you click details(9).

What's Up With Whatsapp?

Download here!

The rise of mobile phone ownership and the necessity to communicate has brought about the increase of applications coded for message handling. It is no longer enough that mobiles can make calls, but also to take advantage with the existing internet infrastructure to communicate freely. Truly, these apps and software coders are bringing the cost of communicating down in most cases, but can be a source of shocking bills in some cases. Before you get the later, read on!

Whatsapp is one of these apps taking the spotlight as one of the best messaging services for mobiles. It is an alternative for sending SMS, photos, videos and voice messages (not voice calls). The difference is it does not use the usual 2G cellular network to do this, but through 3G, 4G or over wifi. Here's the list of the highlight features, what you can do and tips in using the application.

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Very Easy To Use.

This app is no brainer to use. Once installed, it gets hold of mobile numbers in your phone directory and compares this list to its data base. Once one of your contact is located in it's database, it updates your account of a new contact. 

This means you can not add manually any contact you want to add. They need to install  the application to be your whatsapp contact. Although this is a multiflatform for any mobile operating system, the supported form factor is limited to mobile devices. You can not use this application using a desktop device yet, and do need a mobile phone number that doubles as your user identity. 

Send SMS and Multimedia for Free

If you communicate mostly by text, then using this application could be virtually free. Although you have to pay for the application a tiny amount after a year. The cost is negligible compared to a cellular network's (2G) subscription to send text messages. 

The application can save you more when you use it with contacts worldwide.

Sending of multimedia can also be free. This depends on how much data allowance you are subscribed to. If you are sending and receiving much of this, then remember that you will be using the internet provided by your network when you're out and about. Multimedias, specially videos are huge files and if you ran out of data, excess allowance is expensive. You need to have at least 1GB or even better with unlimited. 

Remember that it can cost you more money when you go beyond your data limits, so home and free wi-fi's are recommended as connection when using or receiving this kinds of messages.

Always on

The application  is always on. This means it is playing in the background and could be using your data allowance whilst it is updating your location, your status, and your contacts. Though the updates could just incur small data allowance, the temptation to hear and answer voice messages or see video messages can use large data. 

Can I Make A Voice Call?

Unfortunately you can not make a voice call, but you can make a voice message instead. A voice message is a recording of sound you can send through whatsapp instead of typing a message. The communication when using voice message is not instantaneous as a voice call, but need to wait until the recipient goes online and hear the message and has the option to answer it or not.

The voice call button when you open up a contact's details is actually the shortcut to your phone directory and has nothing to do with what's up. When you tap(1) a contact from there, whatsapp will transfer the call to your network cellular signal and you will be charged accordingly. The second button(2) is the whatsapp messaging icon.

Could It Be A Permanent Substitute To Cellular Network?

As a substitute to messaging service to contacts with whatsapp installed on their devices, yes. But like any other internet messaging applications, this can not work on it's own. You need to have an internet connection to use it and and also requires a cellular network number to operate. 

Watch TV and Movies on Smartphones and PC's Part 2

Here's the second part of how to watch live TV on your PC and smartphone. If you've done the instructions on part 1 and already running XBMC media center, then install this add on. This will give you a tidier interface of watching contents like Movies, Television Shows, HD Content, 3D Content, International TV's, Live Streams, Sports and Events, Documentaries, Adventure and Children’s Content.  It is not native within the application so point your browser to 

http://superrepo.org/plugin.video.movie25/

You can use this link to use with laptop and smartphone. The key to no sweat installation is you know where the downloaded file is.

PC's and Laptops

 Download the zip file and remember the download destination. Don't do anything yet at this point. Open up XBMC and go to systems menu. Click the systems menu (encircled) or settings submenu, to get you into the add on browser, 

Click add-ons, install from zip file, C:(Systems) then navigate to where the downloaded file is. If you have not changed the default destination folder for downloads, go to this path, C:(system), users, click your user name, downloads, then look for this folder repository.superrepo.org.frodo.all-0.2.1

Once installed, go back to systems and click the settings menu, get add ons(1) then choose Super Repo(2). This will add mash up in the list of video add ons. Now go to Videos and hit add ons(3), click get more(4) and click mash up(5) and Install it. Mash up will then be ready to use. Click on it(6) to get into the interface.

Watch Live TV

Click live, then my country, choose which country to watch TV from. Existing channels will be shown. 

With mash up, you can now watch live TV. OFW's like me can now watch GMA 7 and ABS-CBN without subscription. The only downside is, you need to watch programs at the same time they are aired. Time difference might be a problem because you'll be up awake at midnight watching a show for a morning breakfast. For the OFW's this is for you.

Watch Video

Generous Cloud Free Storage

Smartphone users are growing each day, in fact there are 1 billion smartphones in use all over the globe since the end of 2012. That's just 5 years since apple opened the door with the first iPhone. As these gadgets are getting smarter everyday, with millions of possibilities of what they could become, thanks to apps, one of the real problem of having one is shortage of storage. Android users are lucky enough to have expandable and removable storage, but the likes of apple fans are limited and fixed to what the manufacturer gives them. This is a not so good news to generations of digital data users, either your device is a smartphone, computer, game console or smart TV.

Storage Shortage

To add more storage, apple offers it's users 5GB of free storage in icloud. Online storage is a practical solution to frequently accessed and shared files, like applications, photos, music, videos, and even documents. It is very useful for writers who do their work from different locations and use multiple device flat forms. As long as they have internet connection, any file is ready to be accessed, edited, and saved. 

But free 5 GB is not enough. This just translates into at least 1190 photos in 12 mega pixel camera with a file size of 3.6MB. What if you have videos, music and other files you want to access anywhere? The convenience that a cloud storage offers has a price.  Additional icloud storage from apple starts from $20 a year from for an additional 10GB, and if that is still not enough, be prepared to shell out $100 for a 50GB yearly storage!

Free Storage

If you are not ready to pay for a cloud storage then the solution is to look for freebies, like dropbox, googledrive, skydrive and others. The only problem is, they can only provide a little amount of digital space of at least 2GB to 7GB. The good news is you can sign up to any freebie space providers as many as you want but the bad news is, the inconvenience of signing on and off between these providers  that would become a nightmare when you could not remember where you have stored a specific file and on which provider.  

Generous Free Storage

To prevent confusion and headache of multiple accounts, and if you are not really prepared to dip into your pocket but is really desperate of having an online storage, then these freebie from these companies can provide your digital data, an abundant storage solution. The amount of free storage might change in the future, as well as their terms and conditions.

• Adrive

Personal basic plan from adrive gives the user 50GB of free storage and 2GB file size upload. This is a real generous solution to Android and Apple users. As this is a free account, the web interface is loaded with mandatory banner adverts and emails.

• BT Cloud Storage(free limit= 50GB, file size= unlimited)

If you are a BT broadband customer, then you could be eligible for a free 50GB of storage. See how much storage you get by logging in to your BT account here.

• Mega

Although it is still in it's Beta state, this one from New Zealand is my favourite, it has a clean interface and very easy to create an account. I made one for myself in less than 5 minutes. It offers 50GB of free space and you need not to worry if you have a large file. It has an unlimited size file upload.

• MediaFire

Here's another favourite, it offers 50GB of free storage and 500mb of file size upload. It has a downloadable program to upload files from your computer without the need of a browser. It also has a mobile application.

There you go, free storage that offers premium capacity!

Edit Mobile Videos With FreeMake

Download Freemake Video Converter

Do you take videos with your phone? I usually do, because mobiles are more handy to bring along than a proper video camera. But most of the time I am not aware that it is up-side-down or tilted to the left or to the right when I use it. Who cares, specially when I only play it back with the phone I took the video with. I am confident that it will be corrected automatically with the auto rotate function of the phone later during playback.

The problem arises when I try to upload it online. The resulting video will be tilted to the right and there's nothing the viewers can do than to tilt their heads inline with the video's orientation. There is a basic built in video editor in my phone that can do the job of correctly reorienting the video, but there is a free program that can do this and can do more. It is a free program that can be downloaded for windows or apple. It is easy to use and can output the edited video into popular formats and has a button to upload it into social networks straight away.

Editing Videos with Freemake Video Converter

The most common problem when you are shooting a video with your mobile is the orientation of the resulting clip. Most often, the video is tilting sideways when you shoot a clip with the phone upright. Freemake can help you easily reorient the movie correctly.

1. After download of the software(just click the logo above ) the first step is to transfer the mobile phone movie to your computer where the Freemake Video Converter software is installed. 

2.Then open up the software, click Video+, go to the directory of the movie and select it from there. It should register in the software's interface.

3. The next step is to trim the movie by clicking on the editing room button(1).This will get you into the editing mode where you can cut the part of the movie you do not want. To cut or discard a part of the movie, slide the button of the time line to the part you want to discard and click the first scissors button(2). This will mark the beginning of the part you do not like. Then move the timeline button up to the part that you do not like, then click the last scissors icon(3). This will mark the end of the cut. Then click the third scissors button to delete the selected scenes(4).

Do it again on the parts you want to discard.

4. After trimming and discarding the parts you did not want, re-orient your video by rotating it into 90%  clockwise by clicking the CW button, or CCW if the video is rotated the other way. Do not forget to click OK to save the changes.

5. Now you are ready to convert the video. Click on the convert button and choose which format you want. If you want to play your video into a another portable devices like PSP, iPhone, iPad, iPod,  and others,  choose MP4. After conversion, you can load the converted file and upload it to youtube, or transfer it to any device. 

There is also an option to upload your videos straight away to youtube. Personally I prefer to convert it first  into mp4 before uploading because I find it faster.

Why convert? 

Raw videos taken from a HD or high frame rate smart phones are much larger in size and if you upload these videos without converting first could take sometime, as the website you upload to will still do the conversion  into smaller package. 

Converting them into smaller sizes can reduce the upload time significantly and reduce the time before your videos become live or ready to view.

6. If the cutting of your videos resulted in creating many clips, or you want to join other clips in one continuous video, just open them all in the freemake's interface and turn on join clips, click convert and choose your conversion parameters!

The resulting clip edited with Freemake showing some clips during the launch of the Windows 8 phone in London with my "borrowed" identity!

Advance IP Scanner

Have you secured your wifi network yet?

I am still surprised that some friends have not  secured their wifi settings. Their reason is they do not know how to get into their router settings. Others are afraid to fiddle with their wi-fi settings that they thought they  might mess up and cause interruption to their internet service. Others do not know their default router address and default router log in and password. They even say that using the existing default gateway when typing ipconfig on a command prompt does not bring up the router's log in page. I find this comment rather weird as I have not experienced before.  I always arrive at my router's log in page using my default gateway address. So it might be a technical problem with their device, or my friend's lacking in technical ability.

Not getting into the router's innards means not knowing which devices are attached to it wirelessly. And if an unknown device is attached without you knowing, then that device is stealing some of your traffic and causing slowdown on your connection. This is the reason why you need to get into your router's wireless settings and secure it as much as possible.

But if you can not really get into your router's wireless setting for some reasons and want to know whose or what devices are connected into your wireless router without logging into your router's setting, then this application is recommendable.

Advance IP Scanner

This application can help determine, which devices are connected into your wi-fi without logging into the router's home page. Download the application from

http://www.advancedipscanner.com

The interface is very simple and easy to follow.

Once launched, you can just start scanning by pressing the green arrow. The IP addresses to be scanned are already pre configured.

What does it do?

1. Shows the connected devices.

The program scans your network and shows all the connected devices, whether it is yours or your neighbours.

2. Determines the default gateway address

 It even identifies the router's gateway ip address and translate in into a readable address instead of numbers. This means you can type in www.routerlogin.com instead of the usual http://192.168.0.1.  This time the scanner has seen six active devices connected into the wi-fi.

3. Shows the MAC addresses of each the connected devices

You can identify the devices that are not yours by simply checking their names and if the name looks suspicious, by their Mac Addresses. To know how to get your MAC address of your devices please see previous post at

http://prakticality.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/why-you-need-to-know-your-mac-address.html

If you recognise them all, then there is no device leeching on your wifi.

4. File sharing medium

The shared folders on a connected computer can also be shown and browsed using the application.

5. Shutdown connected devices.

On connected computers, you can also remotely shut them down, wake them up or do a file transfer as long as you have radmin running on both of the computers. Video on how to do this at the end of this post.

This application is very useful indeed, and can be a great help to the faint heart to determine if they are sharing their wifi connection without their knowledge.

Vipre!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of GFI for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Viruses, malwares, and other threats has been the sources of unpleasant experiences online. In fact they make us  limit our online activity. I know some friends that lost money whilst banking online, and others that were victimised by hackers and lost their email accounts. Others experienced a slowdown in their computer's performance, owing most of this from viruses, malwares and other threats.

Did my friends have antiviruses? Yes they do, a copy of an internet security suite provided when they purchased their machines, which I suspect as trials only and might have been expired and no longer update the important  definitions.

They might have thought that what they have is enough until it's a little bit late.  It is very important to have antivirus, whether a premium one or not, as long as it continue to update the things it is protecting it from. It is  like wearing a helmet before riding  a bike.

Antivirus needs definitions updating to become immune or effective to known threats. Like our own immune system, we need to be exposed to the virus to form antibody against it. Or we need to have a shot or immunisation. Immunisation sometimes causes discomfort in our body as a consequence. In computers, whilst antivirus is updating its definitions, a "discomfort" may also occur, like performance slowdown, caused by high resource usage of the updating antivirus.

 In my experience, I encountered the same problem like sluggishness in my system when the antivirus updates and also when it do the sceduled scan. This means that whilst the antivirus is doing it's things, productivity is affected, and there's nothing more sensible to do  than make a coffee for myself and wait until the update is finished. And further delay happens when it starts scanning, this time I can make a coffee for myself and for my wife, and chocolate for the kids, with a little chitchat before I can use the computer again!

 Did you also experience this? I guess you did at some point.

The Vipre

http://www.facebook.com/GFIVIPREAntivirus

Vipre antivirus is very different from the others I have used before. Although I can say that the previous antiviruses has done their job in protecting my computer, this antivirus stealthily does its things. Vipre scan your computer without slowing down your system. This means you can continue what you are doing online whilst it is searching for malwares and viruses in your system. The program also silently fetches or updates virus definitions without you noticing. Another good thing is the update can be set to every hour to refresh and look for new definitions for optimum protection. This boost my confidence of doing things online  because I know my computer is protected from the newest possible viruses or threats.

 If you regularly import or access files from other computers with USB sticks or other memory cards, or you allow your friends to use your computer to see their files on a USB stick, chances are there might be hidden threats in those storages that can create havoc in your system and you don't notice it before it's too late. With the Vipre, you will feel more secure and confident that threats from portable storages will be screened and blocked before they can enter your system. An option to automatically scan any attached USB device on your computer is built in. You just need to tick to perform automatic scanning.

The scan can be scheduled any time and any day without complicated settings. Just choose the day and tick the time and it does this automatically.

There are also other built in tools to play with that can give further online security, like secure file eraser, history cleaner and pc explorer.

And not only these extras, Vipre is also designed to protect and look for rootkits, trojans, worms, keyloggers, dialers, adwares, and malicious scripts. A true all in one protection indeed. 

Don't just take it from my experience, you can try it yourself. It is very easy to download the 28.2MB installation files and the installation is quite quick. It is recommended to disable or uninstall the existing antivirus before installing Vipre.

And just in case you run into trouble using the software, a US based customer service is free and always available. For further information about this product, go to their site at vipreantivirus.com.

Convert Youtube Videos Into MP3's

Video hosting websites like  youtube has a lot of resources which are free to watch and free to download.  We can also change the format of the download for our mobile devices to read and play. Like the music videos we watch online, can be converted  into mp3's for our mp3 players or mobile phones. This is quick and easy when you know how. Even when you have the idea of conversion, the availability of free softwares to convert files can be difficult task. Using which software to use is just another hit and miss thing in terms of the outcome the software produces . Free softwares that can do this like the premium ones but in return you need to do something for the developer or  publisher like signing upto something you do not want, participating in a long survey and at the end you give up because it's lengthy. Sometimes you are forced to install other softwares not related to what the software does. And in other situations, the user does not even know other softwares are bundled with it.  The worst thing is the stealth softwares can hijack your browser and redirect you from rogue sites. 

The software I use to convert youtube videos into mp3 is from freemake, you can get this at www.freemake.com. I have been using this and do not have a problem with it. This free software is bundled with other programs, but you  do have the option to decline. So just be careful during installation, if you do not want to get additional programs, which can change the way you use your browser. How not to get this extras and how to convert youtube videos into mp3's using the software? The processes below.

1. Go to www.freemake.com and download the video converter.

2. During the installation, choose Costum Installation and untick all the 3 items below it.

3. Go to you tube and search for the music video you want to convert into mp3. Highlight and copy the url typed at the address window.

4. Open up freemake video converter and choose paste URL, then choose mp3 as the resulting file type.

5. Choose a destination folder and click convert

6. Convertion process begins

With this tool, you can download and convert all of your favourite music found in youtube. As this is a free software, other bundled applications with the free converter might change but always remember to take a closer look at what the installation process is saying  and refuse to install what other softwares is bundled with the product if you only want the converter.

Siri on iPhone, Evi on Android

Your wish is it's command. That's Siri's tagline for the iPhone 4S users. Siri can make them use their voice to get a brilliant and sensible response from their phone, and can even command their device to do messaging or as an operator to dial numbers without doing it themselves. The user's input interface for such devices have been improved through the years. From the keyboard to the touch screen, screen gestures and swipe touch, and now the voice "touch". 

This particular artificial intelligence is interesting and became addictive to users. And according to some friends I have spoken to who has the latest apple phone model, they bought the device to try out the new feature. It is indeed a big selling point! And they do like it.

They can do almost anything with the voice command. The virtual personal assistant has an access to the telephony function like writing a text and sending it and making a call from it without the usual touch input. It can  tell you anything you ask for by accessing the apple's dedicated data center for information. This means as long as your query is in it's data base, Siri can tell you about it. As the information is retrieved in apple's data servers and does not really resides within the device, internet connection is needed to use Siri, either by 3G or Wi-Fi. If you use Siri away from your home Wi-Fi most of the time, just be careful not to finish all the data allowance you have, or to be safe choose an unlimited data allowance contract. There are also contracts out there that offer unlimited network Wi-Fi hotspots (Wi-Fi away from home, provided by the network operator), but the availability of the hotspots depends on the device's location. Unlimited 3G is still a better option over Wi-Fi hotspot at this time for reliability and availability.

Below is the list of applications that Siri has an access into.

Watch Siri in Action

iPhone 4S Deals




Evi on Android

There are several artificial intelligence apps that do a "Siri" in android devices. One of which is Evi. Powered by True Knowledge Limited, this application is designed to give phone users other than iPhone, a personal assistance with human touch. Unlike Siri which is exclusive only to iPhone 4S at the moment, Evi has a version on both apple and android users. Aside from voice input, you can also input your command by typing it. This is specially useful when silence needs to be observed. The best thing is it's free.  To get this just go to the apps market and search for Evi!

See Evi in action.

Other superb Siri alternatives you can find over the apps home for your android devices are Iris and Vlingo. Try them out and decide which one to keep as your virtual assistant!

Virtual Favourites In Just A "Clip"

Imagine this, you wanted to buy something for your friend and you turned the computer on. You went to your favorite price comparison site then started to search and compare the prices of the thing you are looking for. There are individual products that fancied your attention and you started to jot down the details, you did added the items into your browser's favorites as well. You did that several times until your little piece of note has no more space left to write down details.

After a  few days, you went into your friend's home with your little note. You've shown her the content  and delightfully decided to look for it online. The problem is, you've forgotten to write down the website where you have seen the item. And you have not emailed the link to your friend. The comparison site no longer shows the same search results. Shame!

How you wished you have the capability to export or email your bookmark favorites so that you can access the links easily anywhere. How you wished you could easily email or share these links and how you wished you can let your friends see the exact link and image of the item that you have found!

Thanks to Clipix, these wishes will come true!

This browser's "favourites" add on can do these things for you. It is very straightforward and easy to use, it sits there silently waiting along with the other web favourite tools. It is more practical and accurate in remembering things online than writing web pages on a note. Sharing  links to a friend is also no sweat and one of  the beauty of Clipix is you can access it anywhere as long as there is an internet connectivity! This means no more note taking manually and carrying your list around.

Clipix is a great tool in creating virtual clipboards of products you want to compare or sites you want to go back to at some point. All you need to do to get started is to go to their website, http://www.clipix.com/, like the application, and create an account. You can even log in with your facebook or twitter account. Installation is just a few clicks and the whole instruction is available at the site. You can start clipping what you fancy straight away once you're done.

When you get into a site or an item that you want to save, just click the clipix tab at the favourite's tab, select a category, then click the clip button.

The resulting clippings will be available when you go to your Clipix account. And the fun does not end there, you can share your virtual clipboard to your social network friends or email it.

The application is a great help for me as a blogger. Instead of going into the blogger's login interface first to access the post editor, or see my stats for the day, I can go straight away into any pages of the blogger flat form bypassing the  log in page, by making a clipping of the different pages of the blogger interface. I did made a description of the  pages based on it's contents so that I will have an idea on what I can see when I open up that  page. This technique simplifies and makes my editing faster as I just know where things are because of the page descriptions. 

So what can Clipix do for you? Get the application at http://www.clipix.com/ and start your own Clipix clippings gallery! You can also share about your experience with the application and things you think that should be improved by writing it here as a comment!

See Clipix in action.

clipix

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Smart Phone, Smart Shop, Smart Price

Comparing the market before you buy is one of the ways of making the most of your smartphone's capabilities. Not long ago, we need a computer to do this stuff but thanks to mobiles and the apps coders, it can be accessed easily with just a press of a button and from almost anywhere. Virtual shopping is indeed a plus and a helpful tool for both the shoppers and the store owners. Now the saying money when you sleep clearly makes sense and defined. 

The question now is, which site are you going to use to get you the most savings? Which apps can get you the search you really need and can show you the best deal? And which comparison site can give you more than just comparing prices and giving you cheaper alternative. Here's something worth to try.

IDEALO

The application has the search box conviniently located at the top. The resulting earch result for an item is impressively more than similar applications I have tried. The result comes from many sitez and online bidding sites included, and can be sorted by the cheapest product. QR code reader is also included at the top. Just tap it and you can scan "quick response codes" and decodes it for you without the sweat of typing web addresses. Voice search is also available as long as your device supports voice search function.

There is also a price reminder function where you can set the amount you want to spend on a certain item and when the set price is met in the future, an email reminder will be dispatched to you. This function will surely help you save something but you might need to wait for sometime depending on the price you set.

You can start setting the reminder by tapping the reverse triangle at the top right.

Recommended products and deals are neatly placed at the center of the home screen for the latest bargain hard to resist price to grab.  If you want to get back from your previous searches, just tab the search button.


Tapping the cup ike logo at the top right while the result search is shown will give you an option to refine your search according to price, relevance, ratings and so on.

Tapping on the categories tab can also help you find alternative or similar items based on what you are looking for. The sale category is my favourite. It shows you on sale and price drop items and on how much you save compared to the original price. This is useful for the bargain seekers like me!

This application is available for iPhone and Android devices. Just search IDEALO when you get to the Apps Store. It is also available for PC's and Mac's at

http://www.idealo.co.uk/

Craigslist Tip

Is anyone familiar with Craigslist? This is a classified site that caters to community activity listings, personal listings, discussions, house renting and buying, buy and sale of any items, offered services, job sites, and gigs. The big difference from other buy and sell and job listing sites is  it's free.

The Interface

The looks and feel is not that classy, but to the job hunter and bargain seeker, this is not important. It is more like a simple menu from a restaurant with a general description initially. Then as you click on from the general descriptions into more specific listings, it will become interesting. What I like with this format is it is neat to look at and what I do not like is you need to spend at least 3 clicks to see the whole of the post. This might be a turn off to those who are in a hurry.

The Listings

When you vgoogle the page, you will be redirected to the nearest Craigslist listing according to your location. You do not need to register for you to browse unless you will be posting an ad. There are listings that are mismatched to the categories they are in. The photos in the listings are only accessible when the link  is clicked, and they do not necessarily represent the description of the ad.

Ezeelooker

To help save time, and browse Craigslist with ease is to use Ezeeloker. What it does, is it gives the user more control on what he wants to see at the website, particularly in showing photos of the post or side by side with the listing. This is very helpful and saves time for those looking for a certain item. This is a great tool especially when the user wants a straight decision to see the advert.. A picture, indeed, worths more than a thousand words and a time saver as well..

Ezeelooker is a good and useful add on to buyers and sellers, but it does not seem to work on other categories like Community, Personals, Housing Ads and the rest. It would be very helpful when a prospective buyer has a glimpse of the house before deciding to see it more intimate. A nice preview of an apartment is also very helpful and the decision is much quicker for those who are looking for a place to rent.

There is a  feature where you can twit it or can show to your facebook friends what you have seen at the site but I think it is not really relevant to regular users unless you own the post and want to advertise it to facebook and twitter. The favourite tag is I think,  clever!

This ad on maybe incomplete but still useful. It is better to have it rather than not. I just hope in the future, that it will work on all categories.

You can download this add on at the link below, compatible with Mac and Windows operating systems, and   on Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari browsers.

http://www.ezlooker.com/home3.aspx