“Cool Non-Mac Apps” - Not Necessarily an Oxymoron
Posted on 07.28.06 in Tech Stuff and there are 4 comments.
So in my last post, commenter Sam Ward asked me so share some cool non-mac apps. Here’s the short list:
Picasa - A photo organizing and quick edit tool. In all honesty, I think Picasa is far better than iPhoto. It’s the one thing I miss about my PC.
Thunderbird - The sister program to Mozilla’s highly popular Firefox browser. Thunderbird is a robust email client that also incorporates a newgroup reader. I used it for many years and really liked it’s reliability and robust feature set.
Firefox - Need I explain? Tabbed browsing - how did I live without it?
Yahoo Widgets - If you like having lots of fun mini apps at your fingertips, Yahoo Widgets is for you. It’s a lot like Apple’s Dashboard. Our own Kat French (not me) created a Yahoo Widget that has been downloaded over 850 times in the last three days!
Backpack - On of my favorite companies (you know you’re a geek when you have a favorite company) is 37 Signals. Perhaps a bit hyped, but they do churn out good looking, easy to use web apps. Backpack is a web app where you can make to-do lists, jot down notes, share files, upload photos. There is a free version and there are paid versions - depending on the feature set you want. There are also widgets that you can download to make editing your BackPack Page easier.
Okay, so that wasn’t such a short list. Have fun and let me know what you think or if there are some apps that you love that I haven’t listed.
There are 4 comments.
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The Comments:
Hey, thanks for the shout-out, Kat. You have no idea how much hair I lost getting both the functions to work. You can only have one action that is triggered by OnLoad--which is why you have to Mouseover the widget to start the countdown.
I have about 90 quotes that I collected from IMDB, and I only used about 25 in the version 1.0. I’ll probably add another 25-50 this weekend for v. 2.0.
And Backpackit rocks! :D
Jul 28, 06 at 02:04 pm
I’m seriously impressed with you Kat. (Do you find it weird to say your own name?) I’m not much of a programmer outside of XHTML and CSS.
How long did it take to you create the widget - from conception to launch?
When I grow up I want to make widgets. 
Jul 28, 06 at 05:40 pm
Yes, it does feel a bit odd to address someone else as “Kat,” but since I often talk to myself, not as odd as it might be for you, LOL.
I started the widget on Saturday, worked on it a few hours Saturday and Sunday, and had it working Monday evening, if I recall right.
Yahoo’s Widgets are all XML and Javascript, so you’re probably closer to Widgetdom than you think: if you’ve managed to make a DHTML menu work you can probably make a widget work.
If you’re interested, I could write a quick ‘n dirty “How to Widget” article on my blog. :D
Aug 01, 06 at 09:04 am
Thank you - I am quite pleased now! I’m already a big Picasa fan. And already use Mozilla (tabbed browsing finally helped me switch) when I can. Now I have a few other things to look into.
Via the Feed
Kat French
Jul 28, 06 at 01:55 pm