My Web Daily

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Card Cloud

Card Cloud is a free business card app for Android & iOS that lets you share contacts instantly with other Card Cloud users, or through email from the mobile site. It's not particularly sophisticated, but set up & linking your social accounts is super-easy, and then you’re ready to share. If the person you’re trying to connect with doesn’t have the app you can email them a card there and then. And it gives your contacts context, saving a GPS marker with the business card to remind you where you met. All this information is also stored in your Card Cloud dashboard, along with any notes, tags or ratings you want to add. I can’t tell you how handy that’s proving with the terrible memory I have. 

.@MyWebDaily reviews: QR Pal

How many of you have ever used a QR code?… I’m willing to bet it’s a fairly small number, which is kind of a shame as they really are an excellent way to tag & access digital content on the go. QR Pal hopes to fill this gaping chasm by bringing a fun social twist to the technology, as well as providing a rather handy cloud-based storage locker for anything you may have scanned on your travels. Creating your own QR codes on this site requires no prior knowledge as it’s just a few simple drop down menus.. You can create one for a number of purposes, such as the guest wifi login details at your offices. Scanned codes are auto categorised for convenience, but you can tweak those settings through the browser dashboard for more control. The app is free for android & iPhone, with blackberry & windows phone 7 apps in development.

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Wikitude

If Wikipedia where a book it would take over a century for one person to read it. Luckily it’s been wrapped up onto a location aware augmented reality app instead. Wikitude is free to download for android, blackberry & idevices. Just look through your camera view and anything local with a Wikipedia entry will be flagged on the screen. Think Layar with the might of Wikipedia’s information database behind it – and remember to sit down if your head starts spinning. As well as flagging up restaurants & night life hotspots, there’s information about local services, such as police stations & cash machines. It’s also the first AR app to integrate with Blackberry Messenger 6, helping you locate nearby contacts. Use the route feature to switch to google maps for turn by turn directions to get where you want to go. 

UPDATE: I recieved this email from the Wikitude team after they saw my review here & it details some great developments for the company.

Thanks for your recent review of Wikitude!

With our launch of Wikitude 7.0 in conjunction with launch partners like TripAdvisor, Hotels.com and Yelp last week we have been transitioning from our previous focus on location based services to a broader proposition of AR content. Wikitude ARchitect, our new technology platform, allows us to open up to a much bigger developer audience, now also including game developers. Working with former Rockstar staff at Team Vienna Game Studios (MMO 7million, Facebook Zombiees!), we have already 3 great AR games launched today! 

We have just put our blogpost on our Augmented Reality Games Release live here: http://www.wikitude.com/games-release

 

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Dress Size Chart

If you like shopping for clothes it can be frustratating getting the size right, since all the high street retailers seem to label things based on their own set of rules. This is especially maddening when shopping online as you can't try stuff on first. Enter Dress Size Chart, a free website (and iOS app for £1.49 if you want it) that was created by a guy who wanted to ease his girlfriend's experience of shopping by collecting all the sizing information & making it searchable by measurement - how cool a boyfriend is that?! Just dial in your measurements & the site will tell you the best fit in pretty much all the UK clothes retailers you can think of. The website also has tabs for international & shoe size conversions, which is perfect for an online fashion shopper like me.

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Worms Golf HD

Remember Worms? That seminal turned based combat game that had everyone shouting “leave me alone!”? Worms Golf HD is a modern re-enactment that takes the form of a mini golf tournament, complete with cute little wiggles to explode in various ways - and is now available for Android, iPhone & iPad.It’s not free, but it’s not massively expensive either for such a well-produced game – and definitely worth the investment if you’re Worms fan. For the full retro experience there are 2010 updates of the original game also available for a small purse of coins on iPhone & iPad. Now, leave me alone!

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Google Translate

Google translate works in real time on 57 different languages and will speak the translation back to you – or the person you’re trying to communicate with. The free mobile apps for android & iphone use voice recognition so you can use them anywhere as long as it’s quiet. As an essential travel tool & in this world of cross-border social relationships, this free service should be on everyone's essential kit list.

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Qik

Ever been at a family event, like a wedding or birthday party, and thought to yourself, I wish so-and-so could be here? Well now thanks to qik.com, they can be – as long as you have a mobile videophone. Signing up is really easy – just pop your mobile number in and everything you need to stream live video to the net will be sent to your phone. The list of supported phones is modest but growing. Check the FAQ for more information. If you DO have a phone that works you can start streaming video straight away, to the qik site, or even direct to your twitter account if you have one. Capture all those magical moments and send them out to your loved ones around the world, live & online - the quality isn't that great, but it's free & really easy, which makes up for it I think. Streams are recorded & stored in your profile section so you can look at them time and again. But do remember that others can watch them too unless you choose to make them private.

.@MyWebDaily reviews: WorldMate

WorldMate is a free app for Blackberry, Android & iPhone that should be on every traveller’s essential packing list. As well as being able to store all your flight itinerary & appointments, it can tell you what the weather is going to be like where you're going, so you know what clothes to pack. It also helps you keep track of your time zone & there is a currency converter based on real-time exchange-rate data. The most useful travel companion I've found!

 

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Zapaday

Crystal balls are all very well, but if you want an accurate picture of what the future holds, you’d be better off signing up to Zapaday.com. This is an open news agenda and a global public calendar that lets you see the future with day-by-day events, news stories, facts and trivia. You can even post details of your own upcoming event so that it’s listed in the global calendar. The website has bots that scan over 4000 news and government websites looking for any reference about the future and then the site’s editors sort it all out into calendars… so you can see what’s going to be in the news next week. If you’re an iPhone user there’s a free app called Tomorrow, and according to their Facebook page an android version is coming soon. 

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Free App Magic

There are hundreds of thousands of apps for your iPhone, some are free, some you have to pay for – and some you can find under the counter for a limited time with Free App Magic. This app showcases 3 new paid apps a day that are being offered free for a limited period by the developers to help create a buzz in the app store. You have 24 hours to download each selection of 3 free apps. You might not always find something you want, but with zero outlay and the chance of coming across the odd gem offered free for a limited time, this is definitely one app I will be checking in with daily.