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SUBERAPPS Ask: Amber Weinberg

Leslie A Joy — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 23:05:03 +0000

Welcome to a new SUBERAPPS feature-SUBERAPPS Asks, where we ask people what their must use Desktop, Web, and iPhone apps are, then report the answers back to you.

Today, we’re featuring Amber Weinberg, creator of Codesnipp.it, a front-end developer, specializing in XHTML, CSS, and WordPress, along with being a frequent blogger at both Freelance Folder and Think Vitamin. Fancy!

So What Are Amber’s Favorite and Most-Often Used Apps?

Coda

Coda’s been the best IDE I’ve found so far. It’s all-in-one so I don’t have to use different programs for different languages or an FTP. It’s also great for managing multiple sites, is super fast and unbloated and has a great interface.

For More on Coda:

WordPress

Almost all of my sites are now built in WordPress. It’s been the easiest CMS to use for both me as a developer and my clients. There’s no functionality I haven’t been able to add ot it, and it also works well on really, really large sites.

For more on WordPress:

Codesnipp.it

As the creator of Codesnipp.it, I’m a bit biased, but I really believe it’s a great app for developers. You’re able to share your code, while following your favorite developers to see what they’re working on. You can also post coding questions and find great help.

For More on Codesnipp.it:

Twitterrific

Twitterrific is the best desktop app (although a bit resource intesive) I’ve found. The interface is simple and clean, I can update different platforms and manage several accounts.

For More on Twitterific:

VMware

VMware is the newest addition to my desktop apps and quickly becoming one of my favorites. It allow me to quickly and seamlessly integrate Windows 7 with OSX so I can stop stealing my finace’s computer in the middle of Starcraft to test sites in IE.

For More On VMWare:

Budget

Budget app is great for both the desktop and iPhone. It allows me to keep track of all my finances and keep them synced across several different computers (with the help of Dropbox) and helps save money by using the envelope method.

For More on Budget:

Ok, I couldn’t find any top-notch reviews on Budget. Don’t worry-we’ll write one.

Billings

Billings is the perfect desktop/iphone app for freelancers. It allows you to quickly make invoices, quotes and statements and integrates with Apple Mail to send them to the client. Also stores client info, alerts you when payments are late and has an awesome reports section.

For More on Billings:

GoodReads

I love reading so I use this web/phone app everyday. It keeps tracks of all the books I’ve read, am reading and want to read. I can share page updates and reviews with friends and see what they’re reading as well.

For More on GoodReads:

Plants vs Zombies

I don’t really play any games on my iPad, but everyone insisted I try PvZ and it’s the most fun game I’ve ever played. You absolutely MUST buy it.

DropBox

I didn’t think I needed this much since I’m a lonely freelancer, but Dropbox has been since there are 3 developers working on Codesnipp.it (it’s easy source control) and to share Budget files and other projects across our many computers :)

For More on Dropbox:

USAA mobile

I bank with USAA and I use their mobile app for one thing only – to cash checks. They were the first bank ever to introduce deposit by scanner and deposit by mobile. Super awesome considering the closest USAA bank to me is a couple of thousand miles.

Interested in more apps that Amber recommends? Check out her Freelance Folder post, “8 Great Apps Every Freelance Developer Needs.”

Or You Can Follow Her:

On Twitter: @amberweinberg
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/amberweinbergdev
On LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/amberweinberg
On GoodReads: http://www.linkedin.com/in/amberweinberg
On Dribble: http://dribbble.com/players/amberweinberg
On Codesnipp.it: http://codesnipp.it/index.php?m=profile&userId=167
Read Her Blog: AmberWeinberg Development: The Blog

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Flock – The Social Web Browser

benhomie — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:45:39 +0000

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!