it

Take note! A virtual sticky notes roundup

Like their real-world counterpart, a quickly jotted digital sticky note placed prominently on the desktop can be just the reminder or inspirational message you need. And it won't bulk up the landfill when you trash it.

Software sticky notes are simply movable widgets that contain text, and even the simplest possess some font, color, and formatting customization. Most of the apps I looked at let you add alarms, sounds, and hot key shortcuts. The more advanced programs are surprisingly powerful, adding sophisticated synchronizing features and management platforms to track notes and reduce desktop clutter.

Not all the sticky notes products are free (NoteZilla) , and not all the paid products are good (StickyNote). Here are six popular studs and duds you should take note of.… Read more

New Tech Meetup: From Talking Llamas to Taming Teamwork

I'm sitting on the exquisitely uncomfortable benches in the San Francisco Metreon, listening to companies at the New Tech Meetup give their pitches. Two of them we've covered recently: AdPerk and Truemors. The news about Truemors: a Facebook port is forthcoming. The other three companies are also worth some bits:

Blabberize is a freaky little product that makes Monty Python-like animated graphics of faces from photos you upload. Then you upload a recording of your (or someone else's) voice. It syncs the audio or recorded speech to the moving mouth. Good for a laugh. Likewise the pitch. … Read more

What Is The Digital Home and What Does It Mean to You?

As it's Saturday here on The Digital Home and not too much is going on except sun bathing and lemonade sipping, I thought I would ask you, the loyal electronics lover, what you believe the Digital Home really is and what it means to you.

So, without further ado, fire away in the comments and let's try to get a discussion going. My favorite comments will be posted tomorrow.

Thanks!

Make Internet images good

I'd put money on the probability that most Internet users have had to grab and optimize screenshots for cyber use. While some of us are lucky enough to have professional graphic artists on our side, it's important to know how to quickly create and touch up an image for the Web. For example, you might want to create your own avatar from a real-life photo or digital graphic.

Editing images for the Web is a different process than editing for print, and it therefore calls for its own approach. That's primarily because screen resolution can affect how easily the eye can interpret graphics. Ever noticed that faint flicker on the screen? Eyes have to work harder to overcome that subtle interference and process a clear image.… Read more

YouSendIt

Category: Data

YouSendIt is a file-sharing service. It allows receivers to get files by clicking standard URL links. Since YouSendIt stores files on its own servers, you have to upload what you want to share, but then you don't have to leave your PC on to allow people to pick it up. The hosted transfer model isn't as flexible as peer-to-peer sharing, but it is easier to use for both senders and receivers.

In addition to a free service, YouSentIt also offers three premium subscription plans for users who want to send larger files to more users. It … Read more

Former greenskeeper now about to become the Masters champion

Unlike Carl Spackler's fantasy in Caddyshack, the Golf Launchpad is almost too real. I hit a lot of bad shots in golf, and I hit a lot of bad shots in Tiger Woods golf using the Golf Launchpad. This USB controller from a company called Electric-Spin is not new (see my awful swing in this old product video), and its new feature won't be ready until sometime this summer, but that didn't stop Crave from taking some hacks with it now that spring has sprung.

The Golf Launchpad lets you use your own clubs to hit a … Read more

Yoono jumps into group-annotation fray

Yoono is soon to release a new annotation tool for their recommendation-and-bookmarking service. Called Buzz It, the new functionality will be part of Yoono's installable toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Buzz It closely rivals the usefulness and functionality of Clipmarks, and Grouptivity--giving users a way to archive and share content they find on the Web. The company was showing it off in the exhibition floor at this week's Web 2.0 Expo.

Clicking the new Buzz It button displays a dialogue box that lets you pull in various pieces of media, from whichever page you're viewing, into what Yoono calls a "memo." You can share each memo with others either by posting the memo to your blog or by sending it via e-mail. If you don't already have a blog, Yoono provides all its users with their own pages, complete with an RSS feed, to keep track of all bookmarked and noted items

Users also get a contextual menu option on any Web page to add a link or entire story to one of their memos. This eliminates the need to use bookmarkets or the Yoono toolbar itself.

This new feature reminds me a lot of Grouptivity, which I looked at yesterday. What Yoono has done very well, however, is to give people the option to bookmark several items at once and send those all in a single e-mail. I was pleased to find that instead of having to dig up e-mail addresses, Yoono had integrated Plaxo-like functionality to let you grab your contact lists from a number of e-mail providers. There's also a neat "save to my computer" option, which will export your selections into an HTML file you can open in any browser.

There are a ton of these personal annotation and recommendation tools cropping up, including del.icio.us', StumbleUpon,, and share2me, to name a few. While it's unfair to say there can only be one, Yoono's effort is very user friendly. To get notified of the public launch of the Buzz It-enabled Yoono, there's a sign-up on Yoono's blog.

More shots after the jump.

Voicemail for the family, on the fridge

Let it be known that Crave is always looking out for your communication needs. Last week, you may recall, we offered up the "Memo Motion Sensor," which automatically plays a message to anyone who walks into your office at work. But as fond as we are of this idea, it's not the most practical for most households.

So to leave messages for your loved ones at home, we suggest something like the "Message Magnet," a simple but effective way to leave the equivalent of a 10-second voicemail for up to six individual recipients (or all … Read more

Latest: Cell phones help reduce traffic accidents!

We've heard plenty of stories recently about how cell phones can visit all manner of disasters on the human race, from rendering us infertile to burning our houses down, not to mention the death and destruction that they wreak on the roads.

So it's about time we got a good-news story about the world's favorite gadget. Nissan announced today that it is working on a program that will enable cell phones to communicate with its cars to reduce the risk of pedestrians being knocked down. Nissan's Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) uses 3G cellular communications networks to … Read more

News roundup: Google, Congoo, RateItAll + MuseStorm, Mashtracker

Google rolls out pay-per-action. Google's got a new advertising scheme, and it's set up to help small-time advertisers avoid the dangers of click fraud. Instead of just paying by the click, advertisers can set up predetermined actions the user must go through, such as purchasing an item or browsing a certain section of the site. The new system has sparked controversy in the blogosphere as a potential destroyer of smaller affiliate marketing services.

Congoo launches News Portals. Premium news content distributor Congoo ( previous coverage) has rolled out a customizable single-page-aggregation service that pulls stories from user-selected topics. Users … Read more