Utopic.me – If you want to know what’s going on right now in terms of new movies, cool music, viral videos and events in your area, who to better consult than your friends? Utopic is a new innovative platform that allows you to discover the important and inspiring things your friends are into, right now. Simply connect via Facebook or Twitter, and see immediately what’s buzzing around your social circle. I logged in with Facebook connect, and here’s what’s hot in movies, according to my best pals (to see your own sign up first):
Using Utopic is super easy and fun, and each category page is loaded with photos plus brief description of each entry. Give it a try and see what’s in store, thanks to your friends!
The startup Daily – Many entrepreneurs seek tips and advice from the books of experienced, successful CEOs who have alredy been there, done that. Knowledge is always one of the most powerful tools you can have before embarking on a business adventure, but reading books from start to finish can be time consuming. The Startup Daily is “a short daily email with the best tips, ideas, and advice from great books on entrepreneurship, business, marketing, management, etc.”
Get the gist of entrepreneurial wisdom with this laid-back, bite-size (yet dead-serious) email newsletter. You will find large doses of inspiration and great ideas. If a certain idea made you long for the book, you can always buy it and read it from cover to cover. As for my personal favorite idea, here it is: Stop Waiting for the Right Time, from Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky.
FitSugar – There are lots of fitness and exercise how-to sites on the Web, but this one’s especially fun and easy to follow. FitSugar is a daughter site of the Popsugar network, and the content here is both pleasant and inspiring.
All the posts here, aside from covering the vast world of fitness and well-being, offer great content on great exercise and healthy foods with lots of photos and videos for an enhanced and rewarding fitness experience. Click on the photo below to read this interesting post about yoga.
For more health & fitness resources online (only the best of course), go to our designated MiniFaves page.
Wovox – Are you curious to see the offices of Google, Facebook or other cool companies? Wovox is here to make workplaces transparent, meaning anyone can see other companies’ offices but also share their own. The idea is to be inspired by and share cool working environments. Although the big social network firms are the most popular here on Wovox, many international users have shared their offices for you to see. Here are both Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto, CA and the lesser known yet just as cool, Pearls and Caviar in Abu Dabi.
Klowdz – Remember the cloud game we used to play as kids? Imagining animals and other objects in the skies, in the form of clouds is all about that nostalgic childhood creativity. Now with Klowdz you can, for old times’ sake, tap into the cloud-form game and let your imagination run wild. Once you enter the site you’ll be asked to pick out a cloud (there are eight pages to choose from). Next you pick out your sketching tool and start drawing whatever you see ‘hiding’ in the cloud. Here’s my creation, titled Happy Worms.
Taste of Awesome – What happens when you take ordinary, boring photos and spice them up with witty commentary? Serious laughs. Taste of Awesome does just that and here below are a couple of photos to get you going. If you wish to submit your own go to the homepage and upload a photo, then add your annotation.
Mitoza – You start off with a small seed on the ground. Then you are presented with two options; a flower pot or a bird. Each selection you make prompts yet two more options and so forth. This mitosis-like game is brought to us by Gal, a young Israeli man who loves to create, travel and share his thoughts (Mitoza is the Hebrew pronunciation of the biology process).
Mitoza is a whimsical exploration of numerous possibilities, and I invite you to discover the many turns this fascinating story can take. Enjoy.
Angry Birds – Why pay for the full Angry Birds mobile game when you can play it for free on your computer? Get your crush-and-kill fix with this free, multi-level game that’s become famous for its addictive nature. If this game is new to you beware; it is undoubtedly one of the most time consuming games out there. For more must-have games visit our I ♥ GAMES page.
What’s App – This cash saving mobile application lets you send and receive messages for free as long as there is an Internet or Wi-Fi connection available. The What’s App Messenger service works on and between various mobile devices including the iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Nokia. This means you and your friends don’t need to have the same device to use this service as is the case with many other free SMS apps; it’s a cross-platform tool that gives you lots of freedom and productivity. Another cool option What’s App offers is sending images and videos as part of the chat/SMS platform (available only to iPhone, Android and Blackberry users). In short, if you haven’t downloaded this super cool app, you should. Right now.
Starting today, each Thursday we will bring you the Top 10 sites of an alternating area of interest. This time the spotlight is on style, just in time for spring! So where do you go to keep up with the latest fashion trends? Style.com? Cosmopolitan Magazine? Perhaps Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar? All these are decent choices, but if you’re looking for less obvious sources of fabulous style, here are the top 10 recommended sites and blogs.
1. Fashionista.com – This is perhaps one of the best fashion sites on the Web covering everything from runway collections and fashion weeks to model gossip, season trends and street fashion. It is beautifully written, it’s packed with great photos, and before you know it you’ll become a regular on this site.
2. The Coveted – This ‘fashion central’ blog by Jennine Jacob gives you all you could possible need to stay ahead of the style curve; large high quality photos, great fashion finds, the latest news from the catwalks, even links to other noteworthy fashion blogs. If you’re looking for an inspiring style blog that keeps on giving, The Coveted is your answer.
3. Refinery29 – What makes this site unique is its geo-location approach; Refinery29 offers local fashion news to selected US cities, namely NYC, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. In addition to their Coast-to-Coast content you will also find a comprehensive wealth of style info including fashion finds and deals, trends and relevant news. Refinery29 is filled with colorful images and engaging content which makes it a top style resources in my book.
4. The Blonde Salad – Meet the fashion obsessed blonde from Italy, Ciara Ferragni, who updates her blog on a daily basis with pictures of herself dressed in a different, super-stylish outfit each time. Each post includes large hi-res photos of Ciara, accompanied by a brief commentary and a shopping list to answer to those asking the ‘what are you wearing’ question.
5. Fashion Served – This site is brought to us by the Behance Network, a big design/creative network of sites and blogs. What makes Fashion Served unique are both its showcase presentation of the different posts, and also the unique creative fashion niches it drags into the spotlight.
6. Lookbook.nu – What a better way to learn about the latest fashion trends than by seeing what regular people are wearing? Lookbook is a place where users dress up, take a picture of themselves and submit it to the site. Once published, the Lookbook user community can vote on and share their favorite looks. This is a classic example of the fashion power of the people.
7. Street Peeper – Based on the same street style concept, Street Peeper gives us a daily dose of fashion trends from around the world. All photos are taken by the style scout Phil who, as I’m sure you’ll agree, does justice to beautifully dressed people. This a great source of style to check out.
8. The Budget Babe – Who doesn’t want to look amazing without spending ridiculous amounts of cash? Me neither. That’s why The Budget Babe is such a great blessing, making it possible to look like a million dollars without spending too much on clothes and accessories. One of the best things I like about The Budget Babe is the Dress By Numbers feature. This is where you can imitate the look of the stars by learning where to buy identical clothing at reasonable prices and still look like you just came out of a fashion spread.
9. Trendland’s fashion section – Trendland is a serious trend-forecaster website that covers the vast creative-visual world (art, design, culture and photography), but its fashion section is what makes it relevant to this Top 10 list. It’s the perfect place to stop by regularly to see what the next season will look like in terms of style and trends.
10. All My Faves Style page – This Mini Faves page on All My Faves offers a concentrated dose of the best style and fashion sites & blogs out there. You will find there -in addition to all the sites listed above- numerous additional resources all focused on great looks and inspiring fashion trends. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
Flow – Using ‘cloud’ technology, Flow is a productivity app that makes task and and team management a no-brainer. This app prides itself in offering super-organized tools to make sure you stay on top of all your projects and to-do lists, and in offering a work from everywhere approach. Since the cloud plays a central part in Flow, that means different people can access the same content in different locations using different devices, while still being able to collaborate with each other in real-time.
If you feel Flow is just the push your team or work environment needs to reach higher and better goals, I encourage you to give Flow a try; they currently offer a free 14-day trial, no credit card necessary. Sign up here.
GoPollGo – Everyone loves posts. Even when I’m not voting for or against the relevant issue, it’s always interesting to see what’s the trend among voters. Now there’s an easy and fun way to create, vote on and share polls of your choosing, thanks to GoPollGo. You can use this platform to find an honest reponse to a question you may have, or to stir a healthy discussion in the community. My personal favorite popular poll is When you have a question, where do you look first? GoPollGo is particulalry useful to researchers both novice and experienced, as much of the research in social studies is based on anonymous polls.
Creating your own poll is easy as voting. Simply sign in with either Twitter or Facebook connect and hit Create New Poll. Here’s how simple it is to get your poll on its way: