If you’re an aspiring children’s author, a teacher, or just looking for something fun to do with a kid in your life, Storyjumper is something you’ll want to take a look at. I came across the web app randomly and was amazed by how easy it was to jump in and start creating. In fact, me and my two year old made a book just tonight — and she wrote it.
If you have a webcam, you can make logging in to your Windows PC super easy. Blink! lets you log into your account by simply looking into your webcam. You have to install Blink! on your system, and then it will load with Windows at startup. From there, it requires no action on your part. Sit in front of your computer, and Blink! uses facial recognition to verify your identity, and log you in.
Photo by Justin Moore.
While we had no way to test their claims, the developers of Blink! say that the app has no false positives. Still, if you place a premium on security, you may want to think twice before using it.
Blink does save your login history, so you can see a snapshot of everyone who successfully logs in to your PC. That alone makes it pretty handy.
Blink! is a free program that works on Windows 7 and Windows Vista. If you have a 64 bit system, make sure you follow the link on the Blink! site to the 64 bit version.
Would you trust a program like this?
Blink! [Luxand]
David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (GTD) has developed a cult-like following, and for good reason. GTD helps you to be more efficient, and to, well, get things done. At the same time, tech is supposed to make your life easier, but at times it seems that it only drowns you with more and more information. Twitter, RSS, Facebook . . . how to stay on top of it all? Why not use GTD concepts to help you manage your digital streams?
If you’re like me, your inbox is not exactly tidy. Gmail’s recently revealed Priority Inbox feature has helped, but getting through an email backlog can still be a chore. To make cleaning your Gmail inbox be a bit less tedious, give 0boxer a try.
OBoxer is a service, complete with extensions for Chrome and Safari, that awards points and badges to you for processing messages in your Gmail inbox. Once you install the extension, 0Boxer works automatically as you process messages. You get points for every message written, archived, or deleted. These points are displayed in a bar at the top of your browser window, as shown in the screenshot above. You can also earn badges for certain achievements, such as reaching a zero inbox. Your inbox will show a link to 0Boxer’s leaderboard, which displays the usernames of the users who have the most points for the day, and the week.
You do need to use Gmail’s authorization feature when you set up 0Boxer, to give 0Boxer access to your account. 0Boxer only accesses stats about your activity (such as messages archived), rather than the actual content of messages.
Right now, 0Boxer only has extensions for Chrome and Safari, so you’re out of luck if you’re a Firefox, Opera, or Internet Explorer user. 0Boxer does work with Google Apps email accounts.
Is 0Boxer the type of app that would help you get through your inbox? Or is it something gimmicky?
0Boxer [via Fast Company]
What Do You Want to See More Of?
We’re a bunch of “self-admitted and proud of it” Grown-up Geeks here at 40Tech – and I’m including you lot in that statement as well. We’re all here because we love tech, we love toys, and we love hanging out in a place where opinions are respectfully given and received. Sharing interesting bits of information and learning from each other is what 40Tech is all about – and that’s led me to wondering: What do you want to see more of on 40Tech?
We’ve written a fair bit on Evernote and productivity methods, as well as digital security and interesting hardware and software reviews (both mobile and desktop). What do you want to read more of? What do you guys want to talk about? Drop some suggestions in the comments, or contact us and suggest a post or two. Why do you read us? We really want to know!