Technology Reviews | Internet Startups | Social Media

TechSplode Your Summer! is a series of posts about how to maximize your summer activities through the usage of technology.

Getting away from the daily grind is always a blast, but when the daily grind includes a healthy dose of twitter it maybe a bit easier said than done.

Pre-Tweet. If you would prefer to spend your vacation twitter-free, but still keep up appearances there to let your followers know that you haven’t dropped off of the face of the earth, then a couple of twitter apps named FutureTweets, TweetLater, and [click to continue...]

TechSplode Your Summer! is a series of posts about how to maximize your summer activities through the usage of technology.

There are few things more refreshing than leaving the old day-jog and taking a much needed vacation.  However, it seems that work always finds a way to invade vacation and really hinder

Google Voice. Google’s Grand Central program, now called Google Voice, provides an excellent way for telephone users to accomplish more by doing less.  Google Voice provides all members with one telephone number.  Calls can be forwarded to land lines or mobile phones based on your schedule or personal preferences.  Beyond that Google Voice enables contains a voicemail feature which [click to continue...]

…Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) that is.  What were you expecting anyway?

Alice.com officially launched to the public in it’s beta stage earlier this week on June 22nd.  Since then the CPG retailer has managed to grab the attention of KillerStartups and startup superblog TechCrunch.  The main idea behind alice.com is to allow people to conveniently shop for their household goods (kitchen, bathroom, office, cleaning, hygiene, etc.) on the internet.

While alice.com is perhaps one of the most innovative and new concepts to grace the internet this year, it is perhaps also one of the riskiest.  While most of the world shows no aversion to [click to continue...]

Aplia is an excellent online education platform developed by Stanford professor and economist Paul Romer.  Professor Romer’s intentions were simple in the year 2000.  He desired to build an educational technology company that would educate and engage college students at a deeper level.  Aplia currently business courses which are used and accessed by over 950 institutions. If I were to take a guess, I would say that many professors turn to Aplia to host their online offering of the course rather than a classroom style course.

First the Good. Aplia does in fact increase engagement and education for the student who is driven by self-discipline and personal success.  When a student buys their aplia course [click to continue...]

It was a busy week in cyberspace, and because I am just one person I cannot possibly talk about everything that happened on here.  Luckily, the blog and news-o-sphere are filled with informative and opinionated people focused on imparting the news and their views onto you, the reader.  In case you had your head in the sand or were to engrossed in the TV tribute specials to MJ and Ms. Farrah and completely missed to boat on some technological commentary, I am here to get you all caught up.  Check ‘em.

I am Willing to Try Bing, But so far it Sucks! – Daniel Scocco over at DailyBlogTips.com details (with screenshots) his rather unfruitful bing experience.

Youtube Mobie Uploads up 400%, Thanks to iPhone 3GS. Xavier Lur of TechXav.com takes a peek into some stats and metrics and draws a few conclusions based on recent iPhone technology and iPhone app activity.

Twitter: The Fastest Way to Get Informed. Or Misinformed. This one is from the popular Technologizer and explores how the recent celebrity news spread, and how some fake and rather distasteful news about other celebrities was spread during the twitter and news frenzy.

Facebook Vanity URLs are Cool, but they can also Ruin the Fun. If something cool and new comes along at it is meant for good, chances are people will abuse it.  Check out the story via Mashable.com.

Register .MX Domain Names of Mexico. This, from QuickOnlineTips.com, relates the most recent news pertaining to top-level-domains in Mexico.  Some restrictions apply for pre-registration.  Check it.

In a move the surprised almost no one and wowed few more Mashable announced the release of MashDeck – a branded version of TweetDeck allowing users access top new custom MashDeck skins and an easier way to find, read, and share Mashable tweets and content.  Many commentators, twitter enthusiasts, and internet users-at-large have voiced their support or have rolled their eyes at the recent news.  Many were quick to download out of loyalty and love for Mashable, or because they have yet to be introduced to tweeting from a desktop application.  The other side was eager to point out that such customizations (with the exception of the skins) are completely possible to accomplish with [click to continue...]

It has been about 5-6 weeks since tidy dino, Ben Kaufman, and his team launched their crowd-sourced product development platform in the firm of the quirkiest website on the internet.  In this short amount of time the quirky community has managed to turn out 3 full products to pre-sale (shop ‘em), and has two more currently in development.  Quirky is an especially convenient platform for those who lack the resources or contacts to turn their inventor’s dreams into reality.  For just $99 you could have your idea voted on and considered for development by the quirky community.  However, before you let your idea run wild through the minds of the quirky community, I would suggest you take the following things under consideration and advisement.

Do Your Homework. Make sure that the product you decide to submit is a relatively new idea, a significant improvement on an existing product, or has the potential to squash any other inferior products in the market.  There are a few people in the quirky-sphere dedicated to [click to continue...]

User generated content website Qassia was released amidst a rather mediocre buzz about their services.  Users can write intel, gain an anchored backlink, and keep 100% of the AdSense revenue generated by their content.  For most internet writers and users it went in one ear and out the other.  Many were content to stick with HubPages and Squidoo.  What these two sites lacked in complete revenue surrender, they made up for in autority and search engine ranking.  Qassia was not to be deterred.  Many users have latched onto the website as a way to continue building quality links and earning a few dollars each month via AdSense.

However, only the short-sited member and internet user would have thought that Qassia (parented by Qondio) would remain strictly a content driven website.  For Qassia, the real product was the innovative advertising platform/software under development.  From Qassia’s inception users were protected from committing click fraud as Qassia shielded users own AdSense ads from themselves.  This concept would prove to be a vital part of the uniQlicks platform.  Earlier on in the spring [click to continue...]

A number of websites make use of incentive programs to entice members to join and participate.  Gather.com shells out points redeemable for giftcards, as do MyPoints, Scour.com, KiwiBox and FreeRide.com.  Websites like BigCrumbs, FatWallet, bing.com/cashback, and Dubli Shopping all offer percentage rebates and cash back for shopping, and still other websites bring in members by allowing them to earn entries into daily and monthly jackpot drawings (i.e. iWon.com).  It is no secret that people love to get something for nothing as this is the primary motivating factor in bringing in new membership, but one has to wonder why websites offer incentives in the first place.  Surely they wouldn’t do it just as a kind service.  These websites primary goal is to make money, so why give it away?

Differentiation. Each business strives to have a point of [click to continue...]