Online Video Converter

I have been looking for something like this for some time now. How do you convert and download video that you see in YouTube, Google videos etc? Here is the solution.. FLVIX!

The conversion is quite simple. All you have to do is paste the video URL in the text field provided and select the result format that you need. The video get converted to that format and you will have it downloaded. There are five formats: AVI, MOV, MP4, 3GP, MP3 (Audio).

So, if you have a list of favorite videos that you need downloaded.. go get IT!

Adobe AIR Application list

AIR applications have started appearing and they are coming up fast. Last week I spotted a IM Messenger built using AIR and is pretty good! Here is a list of AIR applications that I found few minutes ago. Its built in wiki and anybody can add a new application to the list. At present the list is about 78 and I am sure this will grow.

For all the Adobe AIR enthusiast, this list will give you a good collection of AIR applications!

Link to the list : http://airapps.pbwiki.com/FrontPage

Well, if you have missed the train, I suggest you check these links out:

Adobe AIR : http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air/

AIR Resource : http://www.airapps.net/ (You will get all the resource from this site!)

mxGraph - drawing diagrams in a browser

Web 2.0 has brought a lot of desktop applications and collboration technique on to net. Starting with personal file storages to online office suites and net meeting. The "quick web"a result of Ajax,Flex and other technologies like SOA, have made this possible. I have recently presented many online applications and here is another: mxGraph!

mxGraph is solution for drawing diagrams in a browser. It not a online paint application, but help in drawing flowcharts,workflows, build database schemas and create network topology diagrams. mxGraph is built using a javascript library but I was not able to identify with one. Looks like they have come up with their own library. One impressing thing about mxGraph is that it is comaritively faster than other online applications.

Like I mentioned,mxGraph provides four types of diagrams : Workflow, Diagram (flow charts, organization charts etc.),Network and Database. I tested all four options and liked Workflow and Database. Workflow is a complete tool with very detail capablities (better that Documentum workflow manger) and is worth try for whose who design workflows and work in this area.

The other tool is the Database where you can build your schema using the UI and convert all your database development into SQL statments or export it as XML. Both these features are very useful for database design.

The mxGraph look very professional and is I am sure a try will not be waste of time!

An introduction to WhoLinked!

WhoLinked is a very interesting service that I found recently [ I need more time to surf :( ] . The WhoLinked service is service that checks to see who is linking to your website and then provides you with an easy way to display this information on your website or blog. You can see my WhoLinked widget on the right side below subscribe options.

So what is it? Lets have a peep into it... WhoLinked have code/plugins for Blogger, Typepad, Moveable Type and generic blogs and websites. And the installation of this service is quite easy. All you have to do is select the type of blogging service you use, get the code and install it on your blog. WhoLinked also provides a small control panal that helps you to customize your displayed results. You can choose the number of rows,language,layout and also ban some of the entries.

So far its a small tool, but I am not sure of the spam protection of this stuff. I will watch this for the next few days and update this entry [may be!]. Till then bye!

Ajax13 - Yet another online office suite!

Everyday new web 2.0 applications appear and users have many options to choose from for any of their task! Be it blogging, photo share, social networks etc. Recently we have seen Google, Microsoft and others come up with online office solutions. These kinds of applications are here make software installations a history. Let me introduce an online office suite called Ajax13. I am not sure why "13" but, the Ajax 13 Inc. is a software development company that introduces web-based applications written using the AJAX based methodology. And their vision is software-as-a-service, which is gaining great momentum these days.

Ajax13 offers 5 online applications. They are ajaxWrite,ajaxSketch, ajaxXLS, ajaxPresents and ajaxTunes. The first four make up web-based office suite similar to Microsoft's Office. These applications have been designed to look like Microsoft Office, making it easy for anyone to start using it without needing to learn a new program.

ajaxWrite is a word processor that can read and write Microsoft Word documents. Apart from MS Word document formats it can handle Open Office format, PDF etc. Thus in a way you can convert your doc file to PDF file through a simple "Save As.." function. But when I tried it out, I couldn't even save ordinary doc file to my hard drive as the Ajax13 team promises. All I get is "java.io.IOException:Conversion failed".

ajaxSketch is a drawing tool that provides an environment for diagramming, creating flow charts, free hand drawing and more. It has been designed to look like Illustrator, but the interface is clean and very easy (except that it is slow compared to ajaxWrite). It supports the SVG format and nothing more. I tried the "Export" menu and was expecting to see a large list of possible exports, but i found only SVG format.

ajaxXLS is just a spreadsheet viewer that allows you to easily open any xls file. The Ajax13 team has a separate spreadsheet editor in Beta stage, but it is still in early stage of development. It has been designed to look like Microsoft Excel, but they promise to have compatibility with Open Office.

Now onto the last product, ajaxTunes. It's a music player that lets you play high-quality streaming music straight from the Internet on any computer. It’s a decent web based layer and they have provided the facility to add it to any website. Thus you can play a song or provide a song list to your website visitors. Apart from these features, you can make use of an AJAX based music manager to which you can upload music available on the web, called Sideloading, so you have access to your favorite songs from anywhere.

Ajax13 team have lot of work to do if you see what Google and others have come up with.Google have recently updated their Docs and Spreadsheets's looks.They have come up with a new interface that looks like windows explorer and easy to browse. But these competitive Web 2.0 applications are going to bring more and more feature rich applications online.

Microsoft SharedView : A Review

Micorsoft SharedView (Code named Tahiti ) is now a beta product available for download. It's a fast and easy way to share documents and screen views with small groups of friends or coworkers; anytime, anywhere. Use SharedView to put your heads together and collaborate. It is easy to install and all you need to get connected is an internet connection and a Windows Live ID. The main application runs in the system tray and places a toolbar at the top of your screen:

The current version can have a maximum of 15 users. To start the initiator have to sign-in (Start New Session) using in Windows Live ID. Once logged-in he can invite anyone to the collaborate through Instant Messenger, E- mail or Phone.I tried using E-mail where the invited user is given a session name and password to join the session. The next step is where all users accept the invitation and will be able to see what all application they can share from the toolbar's share button.

The user can share any application from the list and share with all the participants.

Looking at the new application I feel, Microsoft is about to throw away NetMeeting! You can install the latest SharedView application sharing software free from here. SharedView supports Windows XP, Vista Home Premium and Ultimate, and Windows Server 2003. SharedView Beta is only available in English.

Songbird : A Web Player

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a very interesting "baby" product called Songbird. Its a digital jukebox and Web browser mash-up built on Mozilla Application Framework. Even though Songbird is at version 0.2.5, its very fruitful media player and will definitely stand out in the coming days.

The main attracting features of Songbird are: Cross-platform (available for Linux,Mac and Windows), Support for "Add-ons" similar to what you have in Firefox, and its ability to connect to iPod and other USB devices. But that's not all, it has features like library, skins (called feathers), flow control and mixing, CD burning etc. Some interesting features that you will not see in other media players are XUL rules ( yet another application of Mozilla's UI toolkit ) , multi-language (around 45+ supported now) and web browser with integrated search both for web and your local library. It also features a sleek mini mode as show below:

Well, if you are still not happy with the mini mode, you also have the feature to minimize it to system tray. To do this you have an Add-on. You even have notifications when a song starts! This feature startled me because, my media player lack this functionality. Right now we have less add-ons but I am sure you will get more as Songbird becomes popular because of the "developer ease" in building add-ons.

I have started using Songbird and dumbed Windows Media Player 11 because of many reasons: Its open source, there is good a look and feel, the features that have explained above. And to end with the Songbird team is giving away T-shirts (which costs!!) but you can always get a Songbird button from your blog or web site and showoff your support to this product.

Adobe unveils its media player

Abode is keep their camp rolling! They just unveiled their new product ( the Adobe Media Player ) at National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show. NAB seem to be a happening place with Microsoft launching its Silverlight. The battle is on!

Adobe's Media player seems to be developed in Apollo and will be one of the first Apollo application from Adobe. The player's name is Philo and its download will be available only by mid 2007. It's going to support the Flash format playback for which there is no player from Adobe. It will have both online and offline playback with capabilities for demand streaming, live streaming, progressive download and protected download-and-play.

I am sure, they will provide a excellent user-friendly user interface and will have capabilities to share the media content and will have support for open standards like RSS and SMIL.