BioDigital Human – I certainly wish I had this website to go to when I was taking my Anatomy classes. This amazing human body imaging software allows 3D exploration of our anatomy of each of the different systems we are all made of; skeletal, digestive, reproductive, muscular and seven other systems. All these can be easily applied to your skeleton or cleared by clicking the On/Off buttons on the left.
Each time you add or remove a body system to your skeleton, you can rotate it 360 degrees using your mouse. In addition, there are advanced view options using the toolbar under your sekeleton. That’s how I applied the X Ray View below. Amazing!
Clicking on any organ, bone, muscle or blabber will prompt a small info window to your right with some additional info. This is a terrific study aid for those interested in or learning anatomy.
The Dieline – This packaging design hub is a beautifully created website with a mission: “to define and promote the world’s best packaging design, and provide a place where the package design community can review, critique and stay informed of the latest industry trends and design projects being created in the field.”
What makes The Dieline so special is its professional know-how and community oriented approach. They’re here to inform, help and inspire. Aside from the gorgeous packages covered, The Dieline also has designated sections for job offerings for those working in the industry, The Dieline Conference (next one will take place on June 22nd), and a special Dieline page for wine packaging. Here is a package design I instantly fell in love with:
Urbio Vertical Garden, designed by Enlisted Design and Volare Studio, San Francisco
All My Faves Russia – It took us a lot of work and research, but the Russian homepage we’ve been working on is now live! As with our other non-US homepages, the allmyfaves.ru serves as the ultimate homepage for Russian users, both domestic and international.
The page includes the most popular categories Russian users look for and visit on a daily basis. These include the obvious email, video, news and entertainment categories, but also interesting categories such as Books, Finance and Travel, just to name a few. All My Faves’ homepage for Russia marks a special milestone in our country-specific homepages list and we’re very pleased to be able to offer the best of the Web to the Russian community worldwide!
Fitango – Although the name suggests fitness support and inspiration, Fitango is here to help you reach your goals, whether in health and fitness, self development, finance, even your love life. Once you’ve signed up (use Facebook connect if possible – saves you the time of registering), go the the Plan store – the program collection neatly listed by categories. There you will find tens of action plans, many of which are free (paid plans range between $1.99 to $7.99).
Once an Actionplan has been selected, the Fitango site and expert team will guide you through the different steps toward your goal. In addition, the Fitango system allows you to connect with other Fitango community members and designate motivators to help you stick to your path. I decided to get in shape and explore the 8-Week 5K Training Plan for Beginners. What’s your goal? Try Fitango and you’ll find how easy it is to pursue it.
What Movie Should I Watch Tonight? – This unique movie recommendation site is so simple and effective I’m surprised no one has done it before. Simply go to the WMSIWT homepage, pick a movie genre on the left menu and the site will start showing you relevant movie trailers. That’s how I came to find the one shown below by picking ‘Dramatics.”
Once you’re done watching the trailer, you’ll have a film summary including the name of the movie, date of release, participating actors, and the name of the Director. WMSIWT uses full screen viewing by default, and you can add some preferences such as RSS, HD videos, exit full screen mode and other settings.
Here’s the brief info view of the movie trailer I saw (picture above), Blue Valentine.
This Thursday the Top 10 focus is on cool technology sites that provide up-to-the-minute updates on the latest in tech, but without all the complicated jargon that comes along with it. In other words, these are the top mobile, computer and gadget sites (plus one oddball you’ll thank me for sharing) in plain English anyone can understand and enjoy.
1. Mashable – This comprehensive tech source offers the latest news on social media, technology and what is known as ‘Web culture.’ Mashable is the top A-list site for many tech professionals, but the beautiful part about it is you don’t necessarily have to be one to understand and enjoy the content here. Read about the latest Web & tech news, trends and website reviews in addition to tons of other related topics, all covered by Mashable.
2. Wired.com – The Website of the biggest tech magazine in the US (and other countries) is by far one of the best resources on technology in virtually every industry you can think of. From gadgets and mobile to cars, entertainment and even politics, Wired.com has a top-notch team of writers that offers well-written engaging content for both professionals and laypersons.
3. CNET Blogs – CNET.com is the technology mecca of millions of users worldwide, mostly thanks to the site’s reputation of being a reliable consumer electronics reviewer. But many users who frequent this site are oblivious to the blogs collection CNET offers. Written by the CNET staff, the tech blogs (over 40 of them!) offer a great resource on an almost exhaustive array of fields, including new and upcoming products, Apple, Android, robotics, gaming, digital media. health and many other issues. If you’re looking to explore more fields of interesting technology, the CNET Blogs are for you.
4. NY Times’ Bits Blog – This plain-English tech blog by the NY Times covers “start-ups, tech leaders like Google and Apple, enterprise technology,government policies and the way the Internet is changing how we live and work.” Although the New York Times will soon adopt a paywall (meaning paid subscriptions), The Bits blog is a rare find because it discusses sophisticated tech ideas and concepts in the form of engaging, easily understandable content form.
To listen to the Tech Talk Podcast shown above click here.
5. Motherboard – Although the Motherboard’s Video Room is what makes it special in my view, this beautifully designed tech resource is a top site in and of itself, and it’s the oddball I talked about in the beginning of the post. Motherboard focuses on technology, but from a different perspective; it’s a “celebration of the diversity and eclecticism of the culture that surrounds technology.” You will find here unique, well-written tech stories and posts you wouldn’t have expected to come across on a conventional tech site.
6. Techi – The fun site of the bunch, Techi is all about the groovy side of technology in addition to the standard tech news coverage it offers. This serious-but-laid-back website is a cool resource to visit regularly, and if you’d like to dive right in, I suggest starting with the Offbeat section. See the video below, Lego Ship in a Bottle. You see? Technology is FUNtastic!
7. All Facebook – Although it might seem a bit pretentious to list a Facebook-specific blog here on the Top 10 Tech sites list, All Facebook most certainly delivers. Get all the latest news on the world’s most famous social network ever -both good and bad- from this unofficial Facebook resource. Learn what new apps are available, what people are Liking the most and where this social giant is heading.
8. CNN.com Tech – CNN is great at delivering breaking news and covering current affairs, but their Tech section online is just as admirable and informative. Excluding too geeky tech terms, CNN Technology delivers the hottest news in computers, Internet and technological innovation for everyone to consume and understand.
9. Digital Trends – Delivering large doses of Tech news with a hint of entertainment and design, Digital Trends is an aesthetic Tech news provider that aims to help readers make the most out of their “hi-tech lifestyles” by offering updates, reviews and editorial concerning “trendsetting consumer technology products and services.” This site is a sort of a trend chaser, bringing you the hottest tech news of the day.
10. All My Faves Tech – To explore additional top technology sites and blogs, why not visit All My Faves’ Tech MiniFaves page and have it all in one place?
What Was There – If cement could talk. It’s hard to believe, but today’s streets of America’s metropolises hold countless stories and moments of history. To us the streets of major cities have always been there, but What Was There shows what the streets that are so familiar to us today looked like in the past.
Based on Google Maps technology and user-submitted data and photos, What Was There is “a virtual time machine of sorts that allows users to navigate familiar streets as they appeared in the past.” The result is nothing short of astonishing and fascinating. Here are a couple of examples:
Not only you can see photos of what the streets looked like decades, even 100 years ago, you can use the magnifying glass feature on any zoomed in photo to see more details (simply roll over the photo). It’s just like going back in time.
In front of Tiffany’s, CA 1899
If you have an old street photo of anywhere in the world, and you wish to submit it to this formidable project, sign in and upload your photos. Help in perpetuating the human experience of past places and moments.
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!
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:
Archives – Like Geni and Ancestry.com Archives, too, wishes to become a leader in the family history tracing industry. But instead of supplying merely the platform for adding, processing and viewing user-fed data, Archives already comes with “a database of over one billion fully searchable records and historical documents” which are continually updated.
With Archives, tracing family trees and ancestry is both affordable and simple. If you were considering embarking on a family roots project, Archives should be your first one to explore. Besides, there are many rewards to family history research; here’s what other people have found.
All My Faves NPO – We are excited to announce the launch of All My Faves’ brand new Non-Profit Organization page (NPO). There is nothing quite like it on the Web and our team of editors had painstakingly reviewed and filtered out the most reliable and effective NPOs out there to create this special page.
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