Web developers continuously customize webpage elements to keep them fresh and exciting. An example of this is modern dropdown menus that you can see on many sites. Many of these menus offer text summaries and images as options instead of simple text options. Here to help you create such menus with ease is a tool called ddSlick.

ddSlick is a free to use coding tool for web developers. It is basically a jQuery plugin that helps you create customize dropdown menus for your site. The plugin offers numerous useful features to better dropdowns menus. You can add images with each menu option and you can add a text summary. The plugin lets you control whether or not to enable these features. Other features such as default option selection are also supported by the plugin.

Features:

• A user-friendly jQuery tool for web developers.
• Lets you create customized dropdown menus.
• Lets you add images and text with each menu option.
• Supports default option selection.

Check out ddSlick @ http://designwithpc.com/Plugins/ddSlick (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

Have you ever wanted to have your very own travel blog?  Have you ever wanted to share your experience of travel, how the flight and food was in different restaurants, etc.? Well, Travelog allows users to do exactly that and more.

Travelog is an application that gives travel-loving users the chance to log their journey memories – the reviews, the moments, the taste of the food, the exciting things they saw, etc. – and share them with the world. Not only that, but it also gives users the chance to follow other people on their journey.

Maybe, if you like their journey and their review about the destination, you yourself might pay the location a visit later on and blog about it.

Just open up the Travelog application on your iOS device and jot down notes and journals while you are traveling. Once done, you easily share them with your friends and family on Facebook or Twitter. The app also allows users to find the hottest cities in the world and search for travelers who are always on the go.

Features

• Free and easy to use.
• Have your own travel blog – share your experience with others.
• Follow and subscribe to other travelogues.
• Have your memories shared and saved in one place.

Check out Travelog @ http://www.cultstory.com/apps/travelog

If you have ever had your wallet stolen or lost, you will know that your wallet contains some of your most valuable information. When you lose your wallet, you lose your credit card numbers, club membership information, and information of every other card you keep in your wallet. Here to help keep a virtual backup of that information is a tool called LastPass Wallet.

LastPass Wallet is a free to use smartphone application for iOS devices. The app is sized at nearly 10 MB and compatible with iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad devices that are running iOS version 4.3 or later. The app lets you store your credit card and membership card information through notes. You can also use the app to save your PINs. Photos and audio clips can also be attached to notes.

A total of 50 MB storage space is provided to each user and information can be copied from within the app to other apps. All of your information is encrypted with a key that not even LastPass has. Additionally, LastPass Wallet offers browser apps for your Mac / Windows / Linux computers to access the information you store in the phone app.

Features:

• A user-friendly phone app.
• Compatible with iOS devices.
• Lets you store your credit card and membership card information as notes.
• You can attach photos and audio with notes.
• Encrypts your information with a secure key.
• Similar tools: Reward Card Wallet, WalletGarden and Pocketmod.

Check out LastPass Wallet @ itunes.apple.com/us/app/lastpass-wallet/id522512459?mt=8 (by MOin from Thumb Press)

We live in a world where we share everything. We post what we are doing with Twitter, where we are with Foursquare and what is entertaining us with Glue. This is fine, if you want everyone to know every detail of your life, but what if you want a way to take control over what you share with certain people? That is where Hmmm comes in.

It is an app that allows you to create different “avatars” that only share things with certain groups of people on Facebook.

Before you can make use of this app, you will need to set up friend groups on Facebook. This is how the app is able to control who sees what you share. Once you have those all set, you will need to create an avatar for the group. The app recommends using a name that reflects the way that group knows you, such as a nickname or a shortened version of your full name.

Sharing in the app is done in a simple and elegant way. You pick from one of the five types of things you want to share and follow the provided steps to fill in the information. The categories are activity, emotions, place, music and photo. It is a very clean way to control who you share your personal matters with.

Features:

• Share with certain groups of people based on your avatar.
• Makes sharing quick and easy with structured posts.
• Share photos, music, places, emotions and activities.
• Free application.
• Share with friends in app or on Facebook.
• Works with Facebook groups to categorize friends.

Find Hmmm on the iTunes App Store

One of the hardest things about planning an event with large of group of people is getting everyone to agree on a time and date. Everyone has their own schedules, and it can prove challenging to get everyone to find a time they can all agree with. SelectTheDate is designed with this in mind. It allows you to create an event and invite up to 50 people. Then, each of them suggests a date and time that works for them.

You will need to register for a free account to use the website. It’s an easy sign up process, and once you go through it, you will be ready to create your event and start inviting people. When you create an event you can choose the category, give it a name, choose the location and write a description so the invitees know what to expect.

Once you have your event all set, it is time to invite people to attend. Invitations are sent via email, and once a person get’s invited they can log in and suggest a date for the event. Others can vote on whether they like the date, and in the end the event creator chooses the final date and time that most people agree with.

Features:

• Easy to use event creation.
• Allow potential attendees to vote on a date and time that works for them.
• Maximize your attendance by choosing a date and time most people like.
• Invite people via email quickly and easily.
• Similar sites: GiddyUp, SynkMonkey, NeedtoMeet, MeetWithAgenda and TimeBridge.

Find SelectTheDate @ www.selectthedate.com

Tabbed browsing lets you keep multiple webpages open without opening multiple browser windows. But having many tabs open often slows down the performance of the browser and makes surfing the web sluggish. Here to help solve this problem on Firefox is a tool called Suspend Background Tabs.

Suspend Background Tabs is a browser add-on for Mozilla Firefox. The add-on helps users by boosting their browser performance. With the add-on installed, you are able to deactivate the auto-updating feature of background tabs. For example, if you have Facebook opened in a background tab, new Facebook notifications will appear on it only when you refresh that tab. This works for all webpages apart from Flash content. Not only does this better the browser performance, but it also speeds up the Internet.

Features:

• A user-friendly browser add-on.
• Compatible with Mozilla Firefox.
• Makes background tabs inactive.
• Betters browsing experience by speeding up surfing.
• Similar tool: BarTab.
• Also read: 5 Speedy Tips For Faster Browsing In Firefox.

Check out Suspend Background Tabs @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/suspend-background-tabs (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

When you post a job on a website, you get countless CVs which you have to manually screen to find the best candidate. You need a collection of online tools that helps you find suitable candidates for the job in an easier way. Offering this service is a site called Unrabble.

Unrabble is a web service that helps you post jobs and find ideal candidates for them. According to your needs, you can opt for the site’s free or premium accounts. When you post a job and are looking through candidates, you can view their facts and qualifications right away, without having to look for them on a CV. You can compare candidates on skills, education, preferences, etc. To verify a candidate’s claims and history you can use the site’s built-in micro-referencing.

The candidate comparison features, along with collaboration tools and productivity tools make Unrabble an excellent site to find suitable job candidates.

Features:

• A user-friendly web service.
• Helps you find suitable job candidates.
• Lets you compare candidates on different criteria.
• Offers micro-referencing for verification of candidate history.
• Offers collaboration and productivity tools.
• Similar sites: Resfly, HireRoom and LinkUp.
• Also read related articles:
  • 4 Tips To Get Better Results From Job Search Engines
  • Top 10 Most Effective Job Search Websites

Check out Unrabble @ www.unrabble.com (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

Every day, we come across numerous interesting sounds and images. It would be quite fun to be able to share these interesting sounds and pictures with other people. Here to help you do precisely that is a smartphone app called Talpic.

Talpic is a free to use smartphone application for iOS and Android devices. The app requires iOS version 4.0 and Android 1.6 or later. You can use the app to quickly record sounds and images from your smartdevice and optionally share them with other Talpic users. You can check out what others have shared as well. The material on the network ranges from interesting to funny – you will find it all.

The content you find on Talpic can easily be shared on Facebook and Sina Weibo.

Features:

• A user-friendly smartphone app.
• Compatible with Android and iOS devices.
• Lets you share interesting sounds.
• Lets you share interesting images.
• Similar tools: JamCloud and Outloud.
• Also read related article: 3 Social Music Networks To Discover & Share New Tunes.

Check out Talpic @ www.talpic.com (by MOin from Thumb Press)

Windows users have numerous software options to convert video formats. But for Mac users the options are not as many, particularly when it comes to apps that support simultaneous video conversions. Among the options for Mac users is a tool called Video Converter Master.

Video Converter Master is a free to use desktop application, sized at nearly 6 MB and compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 or later. You can use it to perform multiple video conversions simultaneously on your Mac computer. The app supports numerous video formats, including high definition ones, for input and output; you can simultaneously convert videos to different video formats.

Features:

• A user-friendly desktop app.
• Compatible with Mac computers.
• Lets you convert video formats.
• Can carry out multiple video conversions simultaneously.
• Supports many video formats, including HD.
• Similar tools: Anjo.to, Smart Converter and WonTube.
• Also read related articles: 5 Easy-to-use Freeware Video Converters, Convert Videos & Export Them To iTunes Easily With Evom [Mac] and 4 Awesome Free Digital Video Converter and Streaming Apps For Mac.

Check out Video Convert Master @ http://itunes.apple.com/pk/app/video-converter-master/id477665061?mt=12 (by Addictive Tips) (by MOin from Thumb Press)

Linux users have numerous text editors at their disposal. Therefore if you are going to choose a programming text editor for Linux, it must be one that packs a rich set of features. Kate is precisely what you need.

Kate is a free text editor for Linux computers and can be used to edit programming code. The app supports syntax highlighting for more than 180 programming languages. Code folding and collapsing is also supported. Window splitting lets you view multiple code documents. Argument hints and code autocompletion are offered by the program.

The app offers a bookmarking system along with scroll bar marks. A spelling check feature is built into the program. Session support is another important feature of this text editor.

Overall, Kate is a robust and competent programming text editor that Linux programmers can definitely use.

Features:

• A user-friendly desktop app.
• Compatible with Linux computers.
• Lets you edit programming text.
• Supports syntax highlighting 180 programming languages.
• Similar tool: PlainText.
• Also read related article: 3 Windows Text Editors For Programmers.

Check out Kate @ www.kate-editor.org (via Life Hacker) (by MOin from Thumb Press)

Startups founders have challenging choices to make, sometimes these choices can determine whether the outcome of their venture is a success or a failure. There are crucial mistakes that entrepreneurs should avoid in order to succeed and they are:

1. Bad Location

Startups prosper in some places and not others. Silicon Valley dominates, then Boston, then Seattle, Austin, Denver, and New York. After that there’s not much. Even in New York the number of startups per capita is probably a 20th of what it is in Silicon Valley. In towns like Houston and Chicago and Detroit it’s too small to measure.

Why is the falloff so sharp? Probably for the same reason it is in other industries. What’s the sixth largest fashion center in the US? The sixth largest center for oil, or finance, or publishing? Whatever they are they’re probably so far from the top that it would be misleading even to call them centers.

It’s an interesting question why cities become startup hubs, but the reason startups prosper in them is probably the same as it is for any industry: that’s where the experts are. Standards are higher; people are more sympathetic to what you’re doing; the kind of people you want to hire want to live there; supporting industries are there; the people you run into in chance meetings are in the same business. Who knows exactly how these factors combine to boost startups in Silicon Valley and squish them in Detroit, but it’s clear they do from the number of startups per capita in each.

2. Marginal Niche

Most of the groups that apply to Y Combinator suffer from a common problem: choosing a small, obscure niche in the hope of avoiding competition.

If you watch little kids playing sports, you notice that below a certain age they’re afraid of the ball. When the ball comes near them their instinct is to avoid it. I didn’t make a lot of catches as an eight year old outfielder, because whenever a fly ball came my way, I used to close my eyes and hold my glove up more for protection than in the hope of catching it.

Choosing a marginal project is the startup equivalent of my eight year old strategy for dealing with fly balls. If you make anything good, you’re going to have competitors, so you may as well face that. You can only avoid competition by avoiding good ideas.

I think this shrinking from big problems is mostly unconscious. It’s not that people think of grand ideas but decide to pursue smaller ones because they seem safer. Your unconscious won’t even let you think of grand ideas. So the solution may be to think about ideas without involving yourself. What would be a great idea for someone else to do as a startup?

3. Derivative Idea

Many of the applications we get are imitations of some existing company. That’s one source of ideas, but not the best. If you look at the origins of successful startups, few were started in imitation of some other startup. Where did they get their ideas? Usually from some specific, unsolved problem the founders identified.

Our startup made software for making online stores. When we started it, there wasn’t any; the few sites you could order from were hand-made at great expense by web consultants. We knew that if online shopping ever took off, these sites would have to be generated by software, so we wrote some. Pretty straightforward.

It seems like the best problems to solve are ones that affect you personally. Apple happened because Steve Wozniak wanted a computer, Google because Larry and Sergey couldn’t find stuff online, Hotmail because Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith couldn’t exchange email at work.

So instead of copying the Facebook, with some variation that the Facebook rightly ignored, look for ideas from the other direction. Instead of starting from companies and working back to the problems they solved, look for problems and imagine the company that might solve them. [2] What do people complain about? What do you wish there was?

4. Obstinacy

In some fields the way to succeed is to have a vision of what you want to achieve, and to hold true to it no matter what setbacks you encounter. Starting startups is not one of them. The stick-to-your-vision approach works for something like winning an Olympic gold medal, where the problem is well-defined. Startups are more like science, where you need to follow the trail wherever it leads.

So don’t get too attached to your original plan, because it’s probably wrong. Most successful startups end up doing something different than they originally intended—often so different that it doesn’t even seem like the same company. You have to be prepared to see the better idea when it arrives. And the hardest part of that is often discarding your old idea.

But openness to new ideas has to be tuned just right. Switching to a new idea every week will be equally fatal. Is there some kind of external test you can use? One is to ask whether the ideas represent some kind of progression. If in each new idea you’re able to re-use most of what you built for the previous ones, then you’re probably in a process that converges. Whereas if you keep restarting from scratch, that’s a bad sign.

Fortunately there’s someone you can ask for advice: your users. If you’re thinking about turning in some new direction and your users seem excited about it, it’s probably a good bet.

5. Hiring Bad Programmers

I forgot to include this in the early versions of the list, because nearly all the founders I know are programmers. This is not a serious problem for them. They might accidentally hire someone bad, but it’s not going to kill the company. In a pinch they can do whatever’s required themselves.

But when I think about what killed most of the startups in the e-commerce business back in the 90s, it was bad programmers. A lot of those companies were started by business guys who thought the way startups worked was that you had some clever idea and then hired programmers to implement it. That’s actually much harder than it sounds—almost impossibly hard in fact—because business guys can’t tell which are the good programmers. They don’t even get a shot at the best ones, because no one really good wants a job implementing the vision of a business guy.

In practice what happens is that the business guys choose people they think are good programmers (it says here on his resume that he’s a Microsoft Certified Developer) but who aren’t. Then they’re mystified to find that their startup lumbers along like a World War II bomber while their competitors scream past like jet fighters. This kind of startup is in the same position as a big company, but without the advantages.

So how do you pick good programmers if you’re not a programmer? I don’t think there’s an answer. I was about to say you’d have to find a good programmer to help you hire people. But if you can’t recognize good programmers, how would you even do that?

6. Choosing the Wrong Platform

A related problem (since it tends to be done by bad programmers) is choosing the wrong platform. For example, I think a lot of startups during the Bubble killed themselves by deciding to build server-based applications on Windows. Hotmail was still running on FreeBSD for years after Microsoft bought it, presumably because Windows couldn’t handle the load. If Hotmail’s founders had chosen to use Windows, they would have been swamped.

PayPal only just dodged this bullet. After they merged with X.com, the new CEO wanted to switch to Windows—even after PayPal cofounder Max Levchin showed that their software scaled only 1% as well on Windows as Unix. Fortunately for PayPal they switched CEOs instead.

Platform is a vague word. It could mean an operating system, or a programming language, or a “framework” built on top of a programming language. It implies something that both supports and limits, like the foundation of a house.

The scary thing about platforms is that there are always some that seem to outsiders to be fine, responsible choices and yet, like Windows in the 90s, will destroy you if you choose them. Java applets were probably the most spectacular example. This was supposed to be the new way of delivering applications. Presumably it killed just about 100% of the startups who believed that.

How do you pick the right platforms? The usual way is to hire good programmers and let them choose. But there is a trick you could use if you’re not a programmer: visit a top computer science department and see what they use in research projects.

Of course there are other mistakes and factors that can kill startups. Some of those factors can be out of the control of the starups founders such as bad luck. It is a wise choice to post your startup with us for review and to determine its weakness and strength and it is also a great way to exchange ideas with our readers.