Blancer.com Tutorials and projects

We get invited to events and parties all the time. In most cases, the organizers would be friends or peers and an invite would land via email. But what if there are some awesome events that are happening close to your crib and you don’t know about it at all. Say for example, an app bloggers convention happening two blocks down the road that’s open to all.

Plancast helps you find out about events and other social activities ahead of time so you don’t miss out on them. So are you ready to discover and crash parties?

Overview

Overview

Plancast lets you know about the events your friends plan to attend as well as other cool events coming up in your area. The web app allows you work in two ways – browse some of the plans existing members have shared or connect with your friends and interests by signing in to the app. Plancast is free to use and allows everyone one click sign in using their existing Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Finding an Event

Plancast users share the most interesting things on their calendars, making this the best place to find out about things to do, straight from the people doing them. You can discover such events right from the homepage, without having to login at all. By default the web app uses your IP address to filter events around the location you are currently in. And for those accessing the web app from their laptops or smartphones, the geo location feature will further fine tune the results.

Changing a Location

It’s not necessary that you will have to check out only the events from the current location. Use the location drop down to find another one or just start a new search. As soon as you find something of interest, it’s easy to tell your friends about it by hitting “Count Me In“. Now at this juncture you will have to sign up or sign in to the app. And once you sign in, information that you are participating in an event will be shared on Facebook or Twitter.

Finding Friends

Once you have pledged your presence to the event, Plancast will offer to find and connect with your friends. If the contacts from the account you have signed in are already having a profile at Plancast, you can start following them right away to get updates of their plans.

Suggested Users

Feeling lonely or have no friends at all? Fret not! Plancast also suggests some pretty famous people to follow. Among apps that offer similar suggestions, I found Plancast and Twitter to be the only two that do an incredible job. The suggestions included some of the well known names in the Internetverse.

Event Categories

Then comes the interesting part, subscribing to categories. It’s a huge feature but a very useful one. Subscribing to categorywise events means that you will get to attend events that your friends might not like.

Discovering Events

Dashboard View

The Plancast dashboard view is a thing of beauty. It’s not only beautiful, but also extremely functional and productive. Events are listed in their chronological order and you have the option to filter them out by categories or friends. Once you click “Count me In”, you can see your profile pic showing up alongside other attendees.

Uninvite Yourself

To see all the events you have committed to attend, hit the My Plans section of the dashboard. From here you will have access to the jam packed scheduled of yours. Found an event clashing with another much more important one? Uninviting yourself is just one click away.

Creating an Event

Now that you have discovered some cool events and rubbed shoulders with like minded people, it’s totally uncool if you don’t let people know of an event that has not been listed at Plancast.

Creating a Plan

Creating a plan is simple. Just start searching for the event based on the title, description or the event organizer. If no results are displayed, start filling out the new event form to let the world know.

Creating Buzz

Plancast will offer you single click options to promote the event on all major social networks and create some buzz.

Adding a Map

To add a map views, head over to the event page and hit Map. Type the address or location and you will now have a full featured Google Map charting out the location of the event.

Social Sharing

Event Details

Some events are fun to attend with company. Each event page has options to share the details via Twitter or Facebook. Share your plans to see which of your friends want to join you. At the very least, others will appreciate the tip and get a chance to check out what you’re up to. If your friends are not in any social networking services, use their email addresses to send an invite the good old fashioned way.

Final Thoughts

I can hear you all asking the same question – Why should I use this when I have Facebook Events, Evite among a million other similar apps? While these other services are good for inviting particular people to particular events, they aren’t designed to help you discover a broader array of events and social activities that take place all the time. Plancast keeps you informed about the things your friends are planning, as well as events that match your location and interests, thereby helping you discover things to do that you’d ordinarily miss from these other services. Besides, the location based event suggestions of Plancast are a great way to discover events while on the go.

Share Your Thoughts!

What’s your take on Plancast? Is this the best way to discover events or what?

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting ProtoShare. The developer describes ProtoShare 5 as an online website wireframe and application prototyping tool with a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG interface. It’s different from other tools because it combines the power of desktop speed with the flexibility of a SaaS app. Users can access ProtoShare from any Internet connection around the globe. Its collaboration engine also allows users to work together unlike any of its competitors.

Read on for more information and screenshots!

Screenshots

Drag and Drop Simple

Start Topic

About the App

Here are the top five features you can expect to see in the latest version:

1. Real-time collaboration with stakeholders
2. Export specs to HTML, web URL, or Word document
3. Re-use work by creating templates & masters
4. Built in latest CSS, HTML & Javascript for speed
5. Parallel Prototyping – enable users to prototype different platforms (such as mobile or iPad) & languages, then allow reviewers to browse within these same design types

Requirements: Chrome, Safari 5, and Firefox 4 for developers, Chrome, Safari 5, Firefox 4, and IE 7 & 8 for reviewers
Price: $29+ per month
Developer: Site9, Inc.

There are tons of online storage options out there: Dropbox is my personal favorite, but there’s also Windows Skydrive, Mozy and more. Last week, Amazon entered the game with their new service, Amazon Cloud Drive. I’ll tell you why Amazon is making a strong case for file storage in the Cloud and giving other services a run for their money.

Last time you saw me, I was talking about Amazon Cloud Player, a web app that allows you to upload, download, and play your music all from an online interface through Amazon and through an Android app. The underlying technology for Cloud Player is Cloud Drive, which lets you store not only music, but any files you choose to upload. All the files count towards your storage quota, which as I mentioned in the last post, is 5GB for free, then $1/GB/year after that, with plans for 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1,000 GB.

Amazon Cloud Drive Plans

So, how does Amazon Cloud Drive measure up for this loyal Dropbox use? Let’s find out.

The Interface

The Cloud Drive interface, much like Cloud Player, is very intuitive. There are default folders for Documents, Photos, Music, and Videos, and there is no limitations (as far as I’ve seen) on the type of files you can upload.

Amazon Cloud Drive

As you can see there is the main file browser front and center, and to the left, there is the file structure, so you can easily access nested folders without having to reload the page. On the bottom is a meter keeping track of how close you are to reaching your quota.

You upload files via their flash uploader (sorry, iPad users), which seems to be much faster than the desktop app for uploading mp3s. This button is easily accessible, and prominently placed in the top left area of the app.

Handling Files

The way Cloud Drive handles files is pretty much the same way Dropbox does. When you click on a file’s name, the file is opened up in your browser instead of being downloaded. This means however your browser handles that file type is what happens when you click on it. The exception of course is with music files, which automatically open up Amazon’s Cloud Player.

This is something I did not mention in my Cloud Player review, but any music you purchase through Amazon MP3 does not count against your quota!

To download a file, you much check off a file and use the download button. However, Cloud Drive does nto currently support more than one file download at a time. I found this strange because Cloud Player does support multiple song downloads; however this also launches the Amazon MP3 Downloader app on your desktop.

The way Dropbox currently supports multiple file downloads is by creating a .zip file of all of them, though I can see the delay in support for Cloud Drive if Amazon wants to integrate Amazon MP3 Downloader into the download process for all files, not just mp3s.

No Support for Multiple Downloads

The last thing I’ll mention here is for the tech nerds (myself included): Amazon Cloud Drive uses Amazon’s own S3 (Simple Storage Service). This gives you a fast, secure, and reliable service. It also gives me hope that in a year or so, the prices for plans will come down a little bit because S3 makes file storage pretty easily scalable.

Deleting Files

Deleting files is two step process in Cloud Drive, which makes sense to me; it’s a lot like moving a file to your Recycling Bin. When you delete a file for the first time, it goes into “Delete Items” area. From this area, you can only view the title, file type, size, and when it was deleted; you cannot open the file. In order to do that, you much check it off and choose to “Restore” it.

The Deleted Items Area

To do a full delete, from your Deleted Items area, check off the files you want to delete and click on the button labeled, “Delete Permenantly.” Now, you will no longer have any access to the files.

In order for you to get space back, you’ll have to delete a file permenentally. Keeping a file in your Deleted Items area counts against your quota.

Overall Thoughts

Amazon Cloud Drive is off to a great start, especially with the integration of Cloud Player, which is what got me using the service in the first place. I like that it’s easy to use, and it’s more competatively priced than Dropbox (which goes for about $2/GB/year), plus it offers more space for free. The interface is intuitive and easy to use, and more often than not, I don’t need to download a file if I only want to view it thanks to the way I have Chrome set up.

However, the experience on mobile devices is pretty much non-existent, nor is tighter desktop integration. The best part about Dropbox is that it takes no effort on my part to upload or sync files, and I can get those files on my iPad and my Android phone. While you can view files on the iPad (since the uploader is flash, you can’t upload), the user experience isn’t very good on it, and there is no mobile phone interface for smart phones. I think in order for Amazon Cloud Drive to be truly great, we’ll need to see tighter integration on personal devices, with native apps for Mac, PC, iOS, and Android.

Like I said though, for a web app that’s only in its infancy, it’s a great solution for backing up files, and it’s an even better solution for backing up and playing music on the go.

Our lives are increasingly dependent on the cloud to get things done, collaborate, communicate, share stuff with peers and much more. Internet in fast becoming an operating system by itself with all the web apps replacing the desktop counterparts. One major thing missing out of this pretty picture is the absence of a comprehensive search feature.

Am not referring to web in general – the ability to search our own data stored in the cloud, distributed across a lot of third party datacenters. Greplin is a personal search engine that allows you to search all your online data from one easy place. Curious as to how Greplin can help autocomplete your life?

Overview

Greplin indexes the information you create on different websites (like Gmail, Twitter and Facebook) and provides lightning fast search of all your information. Add as many indexes of your favorite websites as you like. Start searching all your data in one place. Immediately!

Overview

Greplin is in public beta and is free for everyone at the moment. Head over to their homepage to get yourself an account after a blazing fast sign up process that just requires an email address and password to get going.

Ease of Use

You will land on an overlay that showcases the list of apps that can be indexed. To the credit of the Greplin team, they have got quiet a few and a lot of them are uber popular services like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Evernote among others.

Index Ready Services

I started the process with my Dropbox account. As soon as I clicked on the Dropbox icon, I was redirected to the Dropbox login page. Since the login happens at the Dropbox page, Greplin is not storing any of your credentials.

Permission Page

When the Permission Page shows up, approve the app access to the Dropbox account. Measures like these would definitely help convincing the privacy conscious crowd. Once your approval is recorded, you will be seeing the same overlay with the list of services for you to add for further indexing.

I chose to add my Twitter account and as before I was taken to the Twitter page that allows Greplin access to your account via OAuth (meaning Greplin still has no access to your username and password). When I was brought back to the services page again, I chose to skip it and start searching.

Accessing the Search Index

Indexed File Count

Greplin informs that it might take sometime to index the entire content of the apps you have chosen. What could have been better is a page indicating the status of each indexing process. The search bar indicates the number of files available in the index for search. But that does not inform us if an entire app has been indexed or not.

Filtering Results

Before initiating a search, you have access to a whole lot of filters to fine tune the search. From options to select a particular web app to search to the type of the content, Greplin has got all the filters to maximize the performance of the search results.

Streams

I executed a search for the keyword Web.AppStorm and found that results were shown in two different sections — Streams and Files. The results in the stream were from the Twitter timeline and contained tweets from Web.AppStorm (whom I follow).

Perfect Results

To know how perfect the results were, check out the image I have attached above. As you can see, there are tweets that were from Web.AppStorm and tweets that I have mentioned Web.AppStorm. In short, nothing escapes Greplin’s algorithm. The short URLs associated with tweets below the profile pic of the user is a nice touch.

Files View

Files

The files view displayed both files and folders that match the search keyword. Like in the case of Stream results, file results are also limited but more of them can be accessed by selecting Get more files. If you choose to access a file or a folder, you will be taken to the respective URL of the web app in a new window.

Updating Indexes

Deleting an Index

To add, edit or delete an index, got to the Settings page. From here, you can also rebuild an index from scratch, if you feel that newer files or updates are not showing in the search.

Pricing

Pricing Plans

At the beginning of this review, I mentioned that Greplin is totally free for everyone. That’s true. But they do have a well thought pricing structure.

Free Plan Limits

All plans comes with the same set of features and the only thing that differentiates them is the number of items indexed per category. The categories available are – Messages, People, Files, Streams and Events. The awesome thing is each category has its own limit and hence you can be assured that content from one heavily used category doesn’t clog the rest of them. The prices seem reasonable but I wonder why they have hidden it way inside the app.

Final Thoughts

Greplin could well become the next Google. The ease with which the service crawls and indexes data from a bunch of different databases and web servers is simply mind blowing. What goes against Greplin is that they have access to all the data stored in your cloud – both personal and professional. It might not be a service for people who are very conscious about their privacy. Given the fact that they are a small startup that is virtually unknown, it might take awhile to get people to use the app. But one day not so long ago, Google was a tiny startup too!

Share Your Thoughts!

How concerned of your privacy are you? Will you be trying out Greplin to see how useful it could be or just shy away from it?

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Wordfaire. The developer describes Wordfaire as a liveblogging platform that lets you quickly and easily get information out to your readers in real-time. It lets you write updates and share photos in a neat and minimalist interface. People are already using it for live journalism, as a public address system, and simply as a regular blog.

Read on for more information and screenshots!

Screenshots

Wordfaire

Wordfaire

About the App

Here are the top features you can expect to see in the latest version:

1. Live / Real-time blogging
2. Photo uploads
3. Embed your live blog on your own site (paid feature)

Requirements: Modern Browser
Price: Free
Developer: Runway 7

I’ve seen many of my friends collecting clippings from newspapers and magazines for future reference. None of those clippings have ever seen the light of the day again. Of late, am seeing a similar pattern emerge with bookmarks. Folks are just bookmarking away links and pages that they hardly ever find the time to revisit. Too many free bookmarking services encourage this behavior.

If these bookmarking apps make users leave the plugin and visit the web app for something other than viewing the bookmarks, there’s a great chance those URLs suffering from damnation will get their salvation. Personally, I think Zeadoo is one such bookmarking app with a twist.

Overview

Overview

Zeadoo is your personal start page for searching, bookmarking and sharing websites with friends. The app is targeted at anyone who wants a simple, customizable page that they can access with one click from anywhere in the world. Zeadoo is absolutely free and anyone can start using the app after a quick and simple sign up process.

Getting Started

Just a quick visit to your email inbox to confirm the registration and off you go to create a personal homepage. You can begin your Zeadoo experience by searching for stuff from the dashboard. That’s right, you can perform searches at your favorite websites without having to leave the web app. Type in the keywords and select the website where you want the search to be executed. From Google, Wikipedia to Twitter and eBay, almost all popular and happening online destinations are on the list.

Dashboard Search

Once you click the name of the website to search, the results will open in a new window. It’s not very revolutionary, but saves a bit of time as you don’t have to type the website address every time. A lot of browser plugins offer similar functionality, but with Zeadoo you don’t have to install a plugin to get going.

Importing Bookmarks

Importing Bookmarks

If you plan to take advantage of storing your bookmarks in the cloud, install the Zeadoo plugin for Firefox. There is a toolbar for Internet Explorer users but surprisingly there isn’t even a bookmarklet for Chrome and Safari. Bookmarks stored in the browser locally can be imported to your account. To do that, export the bookmarks from your browser to the desktop.

Organizing Bookmarks

Head over to the Import Bookmarks section to import/upload the file. As soon as the upload is complete, you will find all your bookmarks under the Bookmarks tab of the app. From the Edit Bookmarks tab, you can delete or edit the imported bookmarks. A brilliant drag and drop feature allows you to move around the entire folders or individual bookmarks for easy organization.

Saving Bookmarks

Creating a Bookmark

Using the Zeadoo Firefox plugin is like using any other bookmarking plugin, but it does come with a couple of interesting features. First up is the option to move the bookmark straight to personal homepage. The bookmarked URL and its title automatically populated however, if you wish, you can edit them too. A lot of other bookmarking apps don’t allow the users to do this. Options to assign the bookmark to an existing block and the option to create a new block altogether are available as well.

Sharing a Bookmark

By default, all bookmarks are kept private, but use the Share check box to facilitate sharing with your peers. Type in the email address (or addresses) and a quick comment to pass the link for your contacts to see. All the shared links can be accessed at the Shared tab of the web app.

Finding Friends

Finding Friends

It’s almost criminal for a modern day app to not have a social layer. Zeadoo has a social layer too. You can connect with existing users by searching for names. When the list is displayed, pick the ones you want to connect with and send a request. If they accept your request you can share bookmarks with each other.

Inviting Friends

Alternatively, you can invite friends from your contact list at popular services like Gmail, Yahoo, Plaxo, AOL, Outlook etc. Not comfortable to import the entire contacts database? Manually type a few address and send an invite in your own words.

Customization

Zeadoo offers two important customization options. The first one is the option to open a bookmark in a new tab or in the same window itself. A lot of apps by default open links in new tabs, but it’s always nice to have choices.

Themes

Second one is something that might attract the attention of many — themes and background images. Why use the same old color schemes and plain background? Zeadoo allows you to choose the colors and theme that suits your taste and there’s a design for everyone’s taste.

Customized Dashboard

Use Zeadoo’s tools to customize your page to suit your taste. Personalize your page with a unique background design from their graphic artists and rearrange your page whenever you want. Can you see the difference? My dashboard is more fun to use now than ever!

Final Thoughts

Zeadoo isn’t a ground breaking idea but it’s a really useful idea implemented right. I have seen some web apps and plugins that offer similar functionality, but Zeadoo nails the user experience right. It’s intuitive, clutter free and is very light weight. For those who can’t make up their minds over which bookmarking app to try and those looking for a better alternative, I would strongly recommend Zeadoo.

Share Your Thoughts!

Impressed with the features of Zeadoo? Are you using a similar or better app?

We’ve collected the top four reviews, roundups and how-to articles from across the AppStorm network in March. Whether you’re interested in Mac, iPhone, iPad, Web, or Android apps, there’s bound to be something you didn’t spot over the course of the month.

Don’t forget that we also launched a brand new site last week – iPad.AppStorm. As part of the launch, we’re giving away a free iPad 2 – you only have until tomorrow to get your entry in!

Thanks for reading AppStorm, and I hope you enjoy looking over some of our favourite posts from last month.

Best of iPad.AppStorm

Best of Android.AppStorm

Best of iPhone.AppStorm

Best of Web.AppStorm

Best of Mac.AppStorm

Share Your Ideas

Is there something in particular you’d like to see on the site next month? We’d absolutely love to hear your suggestions for articles, topics and giveaways. Just let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading AppStorm!