Web Apps64 MAXIMUMPC OCTOBER 2007
Yapta
Don’t be just another tourist sucker
Joost
Watch what you want, when you want
ENTERTAINMENTSOCIALExpress yourself freely, one tiny tweet at a time
TRAVELThere was a time when it was simple to fi nd the best possible
price for airline tickets online, but those days are long gone.
Now every website on the planet claims to have the best
fares—and they can’t possibly all be right. Once you download
the Yapta tagger, it sits in your system tray waiting for you to
go shopping. When you do, it adds a “Tag It with Yapta” link to
the site you’re shopping on—be it Orbitz, Expedia, United, or a
number of other sites. Once you’ve tagged a fare, go to http://www.
yapta.com and tell Yapta to alert you when the price drops.Free, http://www.yapta.comThanks to Joost, PC TV tuners might soon be obsolete. With
a fast broadband connection, this free service brings you
hundreds of full-screen shows from major broadcasters (and
a few lesser-known ones, too). But instead of waiting around
for your show to start, you just click the channel you want
to watch and then browse for the show you’re interested in.
Click it, and it starts. Plus, Joost adds social networking fea-
tures, so you can chat with others and get user ratings while
you watch. We wish all TV worked this way.Free, http://www.joost.comLoved by some, reviled by others, Twitter’s bite-size blogettes can be
relentlessly addictive. The site’s insanely simple interface streamlines
microposts of no more than 140 characters (called tweets), so you
can tell the world you’re “Shopping for biscuits at Trader Joe’s!!1!”
while you’re standing in line at the checkout counter. Post updates
via the web and SMS, and get your friends’ updates slung at you on
your mobile phone so you’ll never have to wonder what they’re up to.
Twitter’s tweets
make an interest-
ing addition to
your regular blog,
so you can keep
your site updated
even when you
don’t have time
for a full-length
post. See the
sidebar on this
page for Twitter
tweaks.Free,
http://www.twitter.comTWITTER HACKS
Two easy tweaks to your Twitter
tweets1
PLAY TUNES ON TWITTER
A simple little tool called Play Twitter turns
Twitter into a music-sharing machine. Go to
http://gonze.com/playtwitter/ and drag the Play
Twitter link to your bookmarks toolbar. Then you
can use the bookmark to enter a URL for any
MP3 fi le, and Play Twitter will convert the link
into a bookmarklet you can tweet about.2
FEED YOUR BLOG TO TWITTER
Twitter was made for tiny posts, but that
doesn’t mean you have to use it that way. To
serve up your regular blog posts via Twitter, use
Twitterfeed. Once you’ve signed in to Twitterfeed.
com with your OpenID, you simply enter your
Twitter username and password, paste in the
URL for your blog’s feed, and choose the update
frequency. You can create as many feeds as you
like, and there’s no law that says it has to be your
own blog that you feed.