Twiddla: Get Your Virtual Meeting On

With companies and personnel being dispersed across the globe, it's a miracle anything gets done...ever. In order to communicate certain points, often one needs to be able to physically show someone with a pen and paper what an idea looks like. However, it can often be horrifically difficult to get the right people in the right room at the same time. Twiddla provides a space for detailed meetings and brainstorms to happen regardless of location.

Twiddla is a virtual whiteboard and meeting room that allows you to draw, load web pages for others to view, and voice chat- all asynchronously and in real-time. If used right, you can almost accomplish everything you normally would in a meeting that's face-to-face.

Check out the walkthrough (direct link to video):

How functional is the app?	8
How intuitive is it to use?	8
How simple is the design?	8
How innovative is the app?	8
Overall	8

I feel like this app is only three-quarters of the way there. Excellent idea, however, the execution is somewhat half-baked. The chat system could be more robust, the drawing portion should be vastly improved and be easier to illustrate points, they should have a large number of stock images on hand, and a user should be able to download the full whiteboard that you have spent time creating to your own machine, not just to your Twiddla dashboard.

I think they've added some nice functionality since launch, but haven't cleaned up and debugged fully. I had some problems just adding in a simple text box. Also, as popular as AJAX and DHTML is, support should be provided for this while viewing a loaded website.

But, I don't know of many other sites out there that supply this sort of functionality, so for what it's worth, this app is damn good.

Do you think this would be a viable replacement for a face-to-face meeting?

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Hulu: Stop Paying for TV

TiVo spoiled everyone, and officially killed television commercials. However, it's those ads that are solely responsible for bringing free TV shows (and current ones at that) to the world. If you haven't heard of Hulu yet, you will. Hulu launched last October and is the result of a joint venture between News Corp. and NBC.

Hulu isn't so much of an app as it's the next generation of entertainment media distribution hubs. Streaming free TV shows and movies has been around on the Internet for years now, however, it all has been an "off the books" sort of thing, and entirely illegal. To top off the shadyness, most shows you were able to find online might as well have been filmed with a cell phone camera from 1999.

A streaming TV show and movie savior has been delivered unto Internet, and it's name is Hulu. What ABC and NBC is doing with their shows on their respective sites, Hulu is doing with every show regardless of network. With no subscription required, Hulu brings you entire seasons of tons of current and popular shows for your viewing pleasure at a decent 320p, with the option to play at 480p.

The only downside is that about every 5-10 minutes a :15 second to :30 second ad will play, then normal programming resumes. But the site is exploding, check out the Compete stats:

So relax marketers, the :30 spot isn't dead yet, it's just changed locations. People don't mind sitting through a quick ad if it means they get to watch free TV. It really makes sense though, why would I pay $120 a month for TV shows that are full of ads? Someone is getting screwed in that deal. Hulu's business model puts the power back into the consumers' hands and provides a more balanced way of distributing premium content like TV shows.

While Hulu's movie selection is relatively sparse, it's growing wildly, so give it some time, and you'll have more than enough sweet films to keep you glued to your computer screen for an unhealthy amount of time. Oh, and for anyone who's seen the light, Hulu already has the entire series of Arrested Development.

So stop playing outside in the fresh air, and come watch some free TV on the interwebs.

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A New Rating System, Normal Programming Resumes Tomorrow

After slight deliberation and a Saturday afternoon's worth of time on my hands I was able to slightly revise the way I rate a app. See below for the new ranking system:

How functional is the app?	10
How intuitive is it to use?	10
How simple is the design?	10
How innovative is the app?	10
Overall	10

I dropped the repeat use thing because I felt like it was rather arbitrary, and also it varies greatly from person to person, as well as app to app based on one's needs. Also, I changed the wording of each of them to not be "yes" or "no" questions, to better accommodate the 1-10 scale.

Hopefully this will allow me to be a bit harder on these apps.

Regular programming resumes tomorrow night to the chime of an online meeting center and whiteboard tool.

Flikr Related Tag Browser: Does What It Says

Recently, Friday's have been for data display apps that are more for aesthetic purposes than practical ones. Keeping with that trend, today Appify brings you a review and visual walkthrough of an app simply called "Flickr Related Tag Browser". The entirely flash based app coded by Felix Turner at Air Tight Interactive is phenominal.

It parses images that are the result of Flickr tag searches and displays them in a really simply way. The interface is quick, agile and ridiculously easy to navigate. Since this app is less about data visualization and more about image visualization, there isn't much display about a pictures relationship to another picture. However, it does display a ring of related tags that one can click through to other tags.

This video is best viewed full-screen, to the sounds of Saru "Waking Up":

I decided to stop rating data visualizers the same way as other apps because it's like comparing ninjas to pirates, two different realms entirely. However, with this app, I would like to see visual cues of how each of the tags relate to each other.

What's your favorite Flickr visualizer?

Stay tuned for a new app rating system, a five-part series on the best free project management utilities, and monthly recaps. Subscribe to the Appify RSS feed so you don't miss it.

HitMeLater: A Head-Smackingly Great Idea for Reminders

Ever forgotten something that you had to do, even though you had every reminder in the world set up so you wouldn't forget? Or how about forgetting to set up reminders in the first place? If you have trouble finding time to urinate during the days you work, odds are, both of these things has happened to you.

HitMeLater is a "snooze button for your email". This is an app with absolutely no web-based functionality: it's entirely email based. Simply forward your email that you know you're going to forget about, or need a reminder set for, to 10@hitmelater.com, where "10" is the number of hours later you would like the email resent to you at the email address that you send it from. To go one step further, you can send an email to friday@hitmelater.com and you'll get the email resent to you "first thing" Friday morning.

Like most terrific apps that I admire, this has no sign-up feature, so you can try it out right now if you'd like.

Check out the fabulous walkthrough (direct link to video):

Does the app fulfill its intended purpose?	10
How clean and simplistic is the UI?	10
Is the app forward thinking and innovative?	9
How re-usable is the app?	9
Overall	9.5

My only critisism with HitMeLater is that I think they could add more functionality to it. For instance, if they added a unit of time to the email address it would allow users to get more precise reminders. So if I wanted to be reminded in 10 minutes, I should be able to email 10min@hitmelater.com. A specific time would be great as well, such as 8pm@hitmelater.com.

But the big picture is that an app like this should have been made a long time ago. Its simplistic and highly useful functionality is so wonderful, I can tell you I will certainly be using this at work tomorrow.

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UPDATE // 8.20.08 @ 5:29pm: HitMeLater creator Philip "Pud" Kaplan commented stating that certain features such as including units like minutes, weeks, and months is accepted in the email address, so 10min@hitmelater.com works, thus upping the awesome level of this app to "ninja". Hm, I think I just got my idea for a new ranking system. Thanks Pud!

Carbonmade: The Online Portfolio App you Should be Using

Several months back, I was called in for a job interview in New York City, but the night before the interview, I was asked to be able to show an online portfolio the very next day at 10am. The position wasn't design oriented, but I do have plenty of design experience, and my resume stated accordingly.

Needless to say, I was a little bit worried about pulling something together, considering my hosting contract with GoDaddy had just expired and I was unable to throw anything online in that short amount of time and have it still look professional, and devoid of any other brands other than the brand name that is "me".

I had remembered that a few months before that, I had recommended a certain app by the name of Carbonmade to my girlfriend, in case she ever needed to put a portfolio online; little did I know that I would be using it to save my own ass in the near future.

In short, for artists needing a portfolio, Carbonmade is an absolute life saver. After a fabulously short registration page, a self-designated Carbonmade URL, and a few quick clicks on the admin page, I had my portfolio customized to the look and feel I wanted. Fortunately, there's only a few customizable options. I say "fortunately" because when an app has a plethora of options for customization, it causes unnecessary stress on the user and lowers the ease of use.

Here's the walkthrough:

Does the app fulfill its intended purpose?	10
How clean and simplistic is the UI?	10
Is the app forward thinking and innovative?	9
How re-usable is the app?	9
Overall	9.5

This app saved the day for me, but because a lot of my design work was web-based, I had to take screen shots and upload them. What would have been better was if they offered an iframe to display your web page in. However, they have since began offering video, and Flash hosting services, and for anyone whose work is primarily in Flash, this is a god-send.

But to end my story, I banged out my portfolio, and the next day had a job offer...thanks Carbonmade! If you're in a jam, and need to get out of it fast and free, Carbonmade is made of win.