Most of you should have known Fluid by now. With Fluid app, you can create “Site Specific Browsers (SSB)”, basically turning any web apps into a desktop app. Essentially what Fluid does is create a browser that is dedicated to a single application. To read more about Fluid, read my previous review.

The best thing about Fluid in my opinion, is the ability to let you add another app using the Browsa plugin so that both the main web app and the “browsa plugin app” runs side by side.

This is incredibly useful when you mash-up two web apps that compliments each other – with the “browsa plugin app” being an iPhone web app.

To get what I mean, here’s a couple of examples:

Gmail + Google Calendar

I created a Gmail SSB using Fluid, thereafter adding the iPhone’s version of Google Calendar as a browsa plugin that runs on the right side of Gmail. There you have it, Gmail and Google Calendar running side by side! You can send emails and check schedules at the same time.

SUBERNOVA + Google Calendar

SUBERNOVA gives you an iCal link in which you can subscribe to your projects and milestones calendar using Google Calendar or any calendar of your choice. Here’s an SSB that runs SUBERNOVA and Google Calendar side by side.

Gmail + Remember The Milk

If you are a Gmail + RememberTheMilk user, you’ll like this.

Threadsy + Hahlo

Threadsy is my new favourite web application. I can check my MobileMe email, work email (hosted on Google Apps), Twitter and Facebook all in one interface. Sparing me from opening too many browser tabs or desktop apps. This, really simplifies my life, moreover the UI is delicious! If web apps are edible, this surely leaves a sweet after taste.

The only problem I have is that Threadsy doesn’t support Twitter Lists. Hence, running Hahlo beside Theadsy may be a good choice for stranded Twitter users like me.

Seesmic Web + Facebook

The good thing about Seesmic as a Twitter web app is that it lets you split different tweet categories into horizontal panels, eg. mentions, dms, lists etc. This makes it easy to scan through tweets. If you’re a Twitter user but don’t want to miss out on Facebook updates, pop an iPhone optimized version of Facebook to the right of Seesmic!

Google Wave + Google Buzz

Doesn’t mean some people don’t get Google Wave and talks rot about Google Buzz, it makes them any less useful. If you like both of Google’s latest innovation, this is a good match.

I hope you find these tips useful and your imagination running wild by a little. :)

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I still remember the old days when I got my first Nokia symbian based phone where I can assign photos to my contacts. The idea was great, but the process was painful.
With the advancement of technology and thoughtful people, this problem was solved by Dan Auclair who made this simple but useful app that takes the pain away from assigning pictures to your contacts using your Facebook’s contacts. Did I mention you can also sync birthdays?

Download AddressBookSync to feed your contacts with pictures now!

Just click “Sync to Address Book”


You can even crop and resize your contact’s picture before syncing

Missing Feature

One thing I find missing from this app is that it doesn’t let you match names by using my contact’s “First Name” although it gives you the option of matching by “Last Name”.

Other than that, a quick and useful app!

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Flock 2.0 (Mac & PC) is not only a web browser but it is optimized for your social needs. You can pack all your social services into the browser’s sidebar also known as the “Friend Activity Widget”, tracking them every second while you browse.

RSS feeds are also browsable through the sidebar just by switching tabs.

Social Networking

Social and other services supported by Flock includes MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Digg, Pownce, Delicious, Gmail, YouTube, Wordpress, Photobucket, Blogger, Yahoo Mail, Magnolia, Blogsome, Livejournal, Xanga, Typepad, AOL mail, Picasa and Piczo.

Adding Facebook to the Friend Activity Widget for instance, will enable you to track your Facebook friend’s updates.

Tracking your friend’s updates couldn’t be easier, think of it as a great way to keep your friends close to you at all times.

One of the perks of this concept is the ease in which you share content with your friends, eg. to share a link, image or video that you’ve found while surfing, just drag and drop the media or link into your friends on the left.

Blogging

Not only can you track your friend’s updates and all your RSS feeds (which you can sort them into different folders) on the left side bar, you can also post blog entries using the browser itself, no I don’t mean visiting the blogging site to post entries, Flock features it’s own dedicated blogging editor for your blogging needs.

Posting pictures can also be done via a dedicated photo upload interface, just drag and drop!

Browsing media

Browing photos and videos with Flock is one of the best experience I’ve seen. Just click on the media icon on the sidebar and you’ll be able to search for Flickr photos at the top of the browser. Thumbnails are layed out neatly in a horizontal format, Flickr page will be fetched upon clicking. If you’re a heavy “Flickr searcher” this browser is it!

You can also search Facebook, Photobucket, Picasa, YouTube, just to name a few. Very neat and useful integration.

My World

To view all your friend’s updates, RSS feeds, your favourite media (photos & videos) all at once, just click the My World icon on the sidebar. The fastest way to get an all round update of what you’re interested in.

My experience using Flock 2.0

Flock is a promising web browser if you’re a social networking addict. Having Facebook, Twitter and Flickr etc on the sidebar enabling me to check updates in real time is more than I can ask for.

Not mentioning being able to access Delicious bookmarks on the sidebar and dragging links into my Delicious folders directly, which is a plus.

The downside of the browser is that I can’t seem to click on any links on the sidebar that my friends posted, be it Facebook or Twitter. There is also no way to post new tweets or Facebook statuses right from the sidebar itself.

New updates does not invoke Growl notifications unlike Eventbox, though this might not be an issue for some people.

Finally, the browser seems to keep crashing frequently which I suspect is a result of bloating up the browser with too many RSS feeds. That might not be the cause of the crashes but whatever cause it is, it wasn’t a good experience for me at all.

Nevertheless, keep in mind that this issue might just be a one off, and I am sure the developers are still working hard on stabilizing Flock.

A great app in general, Try it for yourself!

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Here’s 20 great iPhone apps you can use in a day from 8am to 12midnight. To make it more interesting, let’s create a character to use these nifty apps and call him Suberman!

Here goes (click on icon for direct iTunes link, click on link for developer’s website):

		Friday Morning
		08:00am: Alarm clock goes off on a beautiful Friday morning, Suberman wakes up, launches Tweetsville on his iPhone and tweet “Good Morning world”.
		08:30am: All washed up and off he went, to the nearby Starbucks to have some breakfast. Grabs a Grande Cafe Latte and some muffins. Records his breakfast spends on Money Trackin.
		08:38am: While having breakfast, he decides to update himself with some RSS feeds on NewsStand.
		08:45am: While reading RSS feeds, he heard a great song Starbucks is playing, but didn’t know the name of the song, Shazam came to the rescue.
		09:15am: Finishing up his last bits, he quickly catches up with his friends via Facebook and updated his status.
		09:20am: Also checked out his buddy’s Flickr via Exposure for last night’s crazy party!
		09:30am: Before getting too late for work, Suberman left Starbucks and checks his email on the way to work. Replies to an important thread using Wide Email for easy typing in landscape mode.
		10:30am: Upon reaching his workplace, he syncs his iMac with all his to-dos for the day which he compiled last night on Things.
		Lunch Time
		12:00pm: After a very productive half of the day, completing all his to-dos, he did lunch while checking out Digg on Scoop for some latest juicy articles.
		12:15pm: He discovered that his favourite gadget is available today! He converted the price to local currency with Measures. Not a bad price!
		01:00pm: Finished lunch, back at his workdesk, he eagerly launched Safari browser for the online gadget store. Entered his credit card number stored in his E-Wallet to buy the gadget he saw earlier. Shopping is done.
		Dinner Time
		06:00pm: Time to knock off! Headed straight to the famous Italian restaurant in town to meet her fiance for dinner. But she’s not there yet! Suberman settles down on his reserved table, logs on to MSN via Fring and saw her fiance online. “I’m finishing my blog post and will be there soon!”, she says.
		06:10pm: While waiting for her fiance, he started racing with Black Mamba on the very addictive Black Mamba Racer game to kill some time.
		06:30pm: Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he looks up and saw his fiance. They started by ordering steak and a bottle of red wine recommended by the restaurant. The wine is here, he took a sip and says wow! Great tasting wine! He takes a picture of the wine label with Evernote and stores it in the cloud.
		07:30pm: They continued having great conversations over dinner. While on a music topic, her fiance couldn’t remember the name of the frontman from this band she was gossiping about. Suberman launched Wikipanion to search for the band, and impressed her fiance with the name.
		08:30pm: What awesome dinner! Suberman calls for check. Paid the bill and not forgetting the tips calculated with Tipulator.
		After Dinner
		08:40pm: Grocery shopping for the week is next! Suberman checks off the grocery list on Grocery IQ in the supermart. The couple left happily after buying all the much needed items.
		10:00pm: With lots of groceries, the love birds finally reaches home, kicks back and enjoys music from their favourite station on Last.fm app with the iPhone docked onto the music player.
		10:15pm: Suberman heard his favourite tune, decided to play it on guitar to serenade his fiance. Took out his classic Fender acoustic guitar and starts tuning it with Guitar Toolkit before starting to play. What a romantic way to end a lovely Friday evening.
		Turning In
		11:30pm: It’s time to turn in after a long fulfilling day. Suberman reads a classic story book via Classics in bed.
		11:40pm: Saw a word he don’t understand and checks out the meaning with Wordbook. New word learnt!
		12:00pm: They fell asleep shortly after.
		12:01am: Good night.

Stay tuned as Suberman will return!

Check out SUBERNOVA online project management tool:

So you use many social services and you visit each site frequently to check for updates? If so, you might end up wasting too much time keeping up with all your online social life.

Eventbox, from The Cosmic Machine solves this problem by packing all your social services into one box!
So now you can track, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Digg, Pownce, your RSS, Reddit all in a single app.

What I love about the app is that it actually fetches new updates for you, not the other way round. Eventbox works with Growl notifications, notifying you of new updates to any social services, so you don’t have to visit the social sites for updates yourself. This not only saves you time, it also gives you up to the minute updates.

If you use lots of social services, would like to spend less time on them while still keeping ahead of them, have US$20 US$15 spare change, this is the app for you.

*Update (14 Nov 08): Price has been slashed to US$15 as the app is still in beta. Existing users of the app will get a refund of US$5 which may take about 3-5 days to take effect.

Check out SUBERNOVA online project management tool: