Orangeinks

Photoshop: Give your Photos that Retro Comic Book Effect

Remember those old comic books which uses dots to generate a color? Those dots are called ben-day dots. This tutorial shows us how to produce that kind of retro effect for our photos.

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iSpeech: Convert Text To Audio

There are several software/applications that you can use to convert text to audio and iSpeech is one of them. With iSpeech, you can convert text based content and listen to the audio version of that content, download the audio content or podcast it all for free without requiring you to download or install anything.

In order to convert text to audio, all you need to do is copy the text you want to convert and paste it on iSpeech. It will create an audible version of that content which will be played back to you. An embed code for the player will be given to you to paste on you blogs/sites. This is all done in just a few seconds. The service also allows you to upload an entire document file and convert it to audio. The engine will extract the text from your document and transform it to an audible file.

iSpeech is a very interesting service. It will allow content publishers to reach out in a different form. Text and audio can be available side by side. It will give users more options on how they will take in the content. Even though that the audio version that it produces sounds like the Terminator, it’s still fun to hear your written content spoken out loud by the iSpeech robot.

Note: I did not place a sample here because of the auto-play.

Google Chrome: New Updates, Steady Growth

Since the release of Google’s very own browser (Chrome), there were mixed reactions about the search engine giant’s attempt to take a market share in the browser business. Some thought that it’s just a copycat of the best features of its competitions and some thought that the browser is an improvement to the browser that they are currently using. If you’re using IE, any browser is an improvement if you ask me.

Now, Google seems to be speeding up the development of the browser. As of last week, Google released a bookmark manager for Chrome and improvements on its other features.

The bookmark manager appeared in Chrome 0.4.154.18, a less tested developer-oriented version released less than two weeks ago. Other new features include consolidated settings for privacy options, a rejiggered pop-up blocker, and security features, according to Program Manager Mark Larson in an e-mail announcement.

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Hohli: Online Chart Creator

Looking for a simple chart creator for your online needs? Hohli helps you to produce beautifully designed charts of different types and sizes that you can embed, share through a link or copy as an image file. The site runs on Google’s chart API, CSS and Javascript. You can produce your chart without going from page to page for each step.

Just select a chart type that you want to use. Aside from the normal types that we are accustomed to using, like bar, line and pie charts, you can also use venn diagrams, scatter plots and radar charts. Different sizes can be selected to fit your design layout. The chart data and design option features are very easy to understand and implement. If you run to any trouble with your chart data, just delete it and create a new one. There is also a multiple axis label feature for your line charts, bar charts and scatter plots. A very useful preview feature which follows you around the whole page works in real time as you edit your chart. No need to press a preview button to see what your chart looks like.

If you are ever in need of a chart generator, better check this one out. It’s simple, easy to handle, free and most of all works great.

PiccDrop: A quick Image Sharing Tool

PiccDrop is one of those image hosting sites that lets you upload images in a flash with no questions asked. No questions, meaning that no signing up, no create an account whatsoever. All you need is an image to upload, and then you’ll get your image URL from PiccDrop.

Unlike other quick image hosts, PicDrop made it clear that as long as you’re not uploading images with adult content, they are guaranteed to last forever, well, as long as PiccDrop lasts anyway. You also get to upload large images (up to 6MB in size). That’s a pretty sweet deal for a free service if you ask me. Oh, another great thing about the service is that it accepts almost all image format known to man.

(note: if piccdrop ever stops allowing users to upload images – we don’t plan to – we will continue to keep your images hosted on the site and will still allow direct hotlinking.)

If ever you are in need of a photo/image host with no bandwidth limit, does not require logging in, supports all formats, no image size restrictions, you might want to check this baby out. It’s great for quick image sharing on forums, websites, IM’s and Twitter.

TweetStalk: Stalk Twitter Peeps

TweetStalk is a Firefox add-on that you can use to stalk follow people on Twitter without them knowing that you are following their updates. Why would people want to do that? – I don’t know. For people who want to TweetStalk Twitterers, here it is.

Just install the add-on and you can begin stalking Twitterers. It will ask to confirm the Twitter account of the person that you about to TweetStalk. You can manage groups of stalkees and follow their Twitter feeds. It also provides you an RSS feed, so you can stalk them using your RSS aggregator.

TweetStalk’s Plans for the future:

We actually have a three phase roadmap for TweetStalk, but that may change with user feedback. I won’t tell you exactly what we plan, but it does involve better integration with the Twitter UI and creating other ways to make TweetStalk work (instead of having to use a Firefox addon). Other than that, we don’t have any plans to rule the world with this app. It’s just for fun. Enjoy!