When it Drops – Where do you go to find out about the newest releases? Sure, there are great movie sites and blogs giving you the right heads up, even trailers, but what about the newest game or music releases? Instead of going to different places for each, When it Drops has all of these conveniently showcased in one pretty place.
As you can see, you can browse new releases of last week, this week, expected releases of next week and those to be released in two weeks time. The concept of When it Drops is so simple, and the site’s so beautifully designed that it would be silly to go anywhere else for finding what new cool movies, DVDs, music albums and video games are out. Each movie’s entry offers a link to its trailer and to buying tickets to see it at the cinema. Music and game entries offer direct store link to Amazon.
Here’s a sneak peak of the music albums that will be released on the week of July 11:
All My Faves Argentina – We’re psyched about our most recent country homepage for Argentina! This, along with All My Faves’ country pages for Brazil and Mexico pushes the visual search concept deeper into Latin America. Argentina, a country well known for its meat, its yummy Alfajores cookies and the FC Barcelona soccer legend Lionel Messi, is the newest addition to the All My Faves family.
The Argentinian homepage includes a visual showcase of the top online resources for Argentinian citizens, and as always, our team of human editors worked very hard to make sure only the best websites are listed for easy web navigation. So please give a big warm welcome to allmyfaves.com.ar – Vamos!
TuneIn – Everybody has a favorite radio station. Some of us like to listen to it while driving to or from work, others enjoy tuning in while at the office. Regardless of your favorite radio station, TuneIn offers better station finding and listening, whether online or on the go.
Aside from finding you the local radio stations by your physical location (via computer IP address), TuneIn introduces you to over 50,000 stations from all over the world, based on your chosen genre and favorite artists. I’m a huge blues and Muddy Waters fan, and here’s what TuneIn found me based on my music preferences:
The sound quality TuneIn offers is superb compared to the average radio station online, and the discovery aspect of this cool site is priceless. The TuneIn mobile app is a must-have if you like listening to radio, and you can use it while you’re driving, as long as you keep your two hands on the wheel -simply set your radio station’s play when you get into your car and you’re all set for the entire drive.
The TuneIn mobile app also invites you to follow favorite DJs and find new music based on favorite songs and artists. The best part about the app however, is the cross-device station preset option which means guaranteed good listening. The app is available for the iPhone, Android, Palm, Blackberry, Samsung Bada, Windows Phone, and for these home devices: Google TV, Yahoo TV, Roku and WDTV.
Fiverr – Simply put, Fiverr is the place where people show what they’re willing to do, buy or sell for $5. Sound weird, doesn’t it? That’s what I thought at first, but when you really think about it, Fiverr is a genius concept, and the large number of active users attests to this.
It turns out a lot of people are willing to do quite a bit for just $5, from personal greeting card creation to sending you hi-res photo of any text you want, just to name a few. Here’s a cool, high-rated offer for just $5: SOS Elite Media will create an impressive kinetic typography moving text video for you for, yes, just five bucks. How does Fiverr work, exactly? Here’s how:
Wanderfly – This comprehensive customized travel planner is “a personalized recommendation engine that helps you discover new and exciting experiences, based on your budget and interests.” Simply specify your departure city and travel destination, the amount you’d like to spend, desired time of year and the nature of your vacation (romantic, adventure, beach, etc.). Wanderfly will then build a travel plan based on your submitted parameters.
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OpenStudy – I wish I had this community available to me back when I was a student. OpenStudy is a well-intentioned network of students seeking live online help from other students. Alternatively, OpenStudy is also a place where experienced students can offer their knowledge to novice peers struggling with a certain study topic.
As you can see from the screenshot above, you can find help in math, finance, physics, biology, writing & English, comp. sci and history. If you’re looking for help, simply select the topic in question and type in your question in the twitter feed-like list on the left. Someone from the OpenStudy community will reply soon. If you know the answer to someone else’s inquiry, go ahead and submit your explanation. See the example below for OpenStudy’s Math page.
OpenStudy is a terrific study tool that involves the online community in a positive and fruitful way. I relish in witnessing Education take a digital and innovative turn by such collaborations online.
Well – As with most of the NYTimes.com blogs, this one about health & wellness is also a superb source of content. Well offers engaging posts on a number of relevant topics including food, pets, exercise and personal achievement, the science of fitness, and “Patient Voices.” Well has a commendable size of active, responsive readership that likes to comment on the blog’s interesting posts and further elaborate the discussion.
One particular post I found intriguing on Well is Tara Parker-Pope’s A Dual Portrait of American Fatherhood, discussing the radical changes in the paternal role of today’s America, compared to pops’ levels of engagement a few decades ago (just in time for Father’s Day). Well is a last week’s Weekly Blog winner and a personal favorite for both my mind and soul. Enjoy.
Newspaper Map – In today’s age of influx of people, communities and nationalities to and from every location, physical borders are now becoming more obsolete than ever before. The result, as NY Times columnist and best-selling author Thomas Friedman so eloquently explained, is that “The World is Flat.” Newspaper Map brings a whole new meaning to this very concept through the World Wide Web by offering an online reading room for every possible newspaper from virtually every possible country.
Using pinned locations on Google Maps, Newspaper Map offers a visual interactive interface by which you can search, browse and select newspapers from different locations worldwide in different languages. Each newspaper’s language can be translated (using Google Translate of course). This means you can virtually read any newspaper the world has to offer. Once you pick a pinned location, the site will offer a list of translation options so you can read the newspaper regardless of its language of origin. See an example below.
Friedman had it right. The world is flat alright, and we might as well benefit from its ever-increasing connectivity and flow of information. Newspaper Map is a great productive concept we should use to learn better what’s going on in different parts of the world, places and communities hidden to us until now.
Flvrd – This Photo-based social community is the spot where “flavors meet visuals.” As opposed to the photo sharing app Trover, the Weekly App we featured last week, Flvrd (pronounced “flavored”) is about sharing photos of online points of interest, not locations.
The basic idea behind Flvrd is to introduce users to interesting and entertaining videos, photos, posts and other online memes while inviting them to share their own online flavors with the rest of the Flvrd community. Here’s one Flvrd entry I wanted to share: Anti-Theft Lunch Bags by Andy91 via Tumblr. It’s genius!
Fooducate – Eating better and healthier is now easier than ever. No more excuses! Fooducate, a free iPhone and Android app is here to help you make smarter choices at the supermarket. The app’s barcode scanning feature facilitates deciphering those long and complicated ingredients lists, and it tells you straight up what the product you’re holding in your hand is made of (both good and bad ingredients).
The Fooducate team is made up of parents, dietitians and “techies,” which means you can trust the app’s health recommendations and product information. Use Fooducate to scan products, compare and seek alternative choices, or learn more about healthy nutrition. All you have to do is download the free app and scan products. Fooducate will do the rest.
Fooducate, especially considering the fact that it’s free, is a must-have health app you’ll appreciate and benefit from for the long term. Its interface is easy to follow and interact with, and the barcode feature works like a charm. I have already added this app to my iPhone and I use it every week. Highly recommended!
Listgeeks – List sites online are anything but a novelty, and many sites have taken a shot at being THE best list site out there. Listgeeks is yet another list spot that has threw in the social factor into the mix, making it super easy to create, share and follow lists online.
As for the types of lists you will see on Listgeeks, that ranges from the trivial ‘best actors’ and such to favorite movie soundtracks, and many others in-between. To create your own lists and start following other users, sign up and create your profile. Here’s a particular list I found entertaining and felt like sharing: Trends that Freak Me Out (spoiler: clogs, little kids on Facebook/Twitter and other hilarious things you will agree with).
TestQ – This well of knowledge and career quiz site is brought to us by Monster, the job search company. TestQ is packed with various quizzes that help you make better decisions, see what career fields suit you best, and it can even help you decide what to major in at college.
Although the idea of having a website dedicated to quizzes might constitute a huge turnoff to some, scratching beneath TestQ’s surface reveals a most valuable job and career resource worth exploring every now and then. I actually found that I liked taking quizzes… My personal favorite here was What Motivates You?