Sometimes it amazes me how I miss reviewing some of the best web 2.0 tools and services. FriendFeed is one such web 2.0 service that launched this year and has created a lot of buzz around the web 2.0 world. The service basically lets you keep a track of your friends’ activity around various social networks like YouTube, Flickr, Twitter etc.

Here what we have is probably the first ever web app created for FriendFeed. Alert Thingy is a web app for FriendFeed, built on the Adobe AIR platform, which brings all of your friends’ activity to your desktop. Just like FriendFeed itself, Alert Thingy will give you alerts and notifications about what your friends are doing around different social networks.

Webware thinks that application might not be that much powerful like the online service itself but can serve as a better desktop tool for users who want to track their friends’ activity around Twitter only. The application good chances of making it to the 10 most useful Adobe AIR applications.

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I have always wanted Google to allow users to download YouTube videos on their phones, mobile etc but perhaps due to some unexplained issues Google did not allow it until now. Other ways like downloading the FLV file and then converting it to a mobile compatible format is just too complicated and does not always prove to be successful.

The good news is that now you are able to download YouTube videos as MP4 files which work smoothly on any mobile device or even on your iPhone. The trick was discovered by GoogleOS and follows the recent code change at YouTube which allows users to watch High quality YouTube videos.

To download YouTube Videos as MP4, add a bookmarklet of the link below by clicking on it and then dragging it to your bookmarks toolbar (in Firefox)

YouTube MP4 Videos

Now whenever you want to download a YouTube Video as MP4, simply go to the video page and click the bookmarklet in your bookmarks toolbar. You will see a link popup in the right information box saying “Download as MP4″.

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You know Twitter is great for sharing articles and links with your friends and followers. Thats exactly what top tech twitter users do, they read and discover some articles from web and then share the best of them on Twitter through their tweets. Now we have a service that will do the same but in a much more organized manner.

Twitlinks is a Twitter related service that claims to bring you the latest links from the worlds top tech twitter users. The service is created by @garazy and by the looks of it seems very useful and informative.

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The countdown for Ubuntu 8.04 finally begins today as now there are only 9 days to go for the official launch of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. But before Ubuntu lovers get their hands on Hardy, their biggest anticipation is about the new features and applications coming in Ubuntu 8.04.

Compiled below is a list of the top 10 new features to expect in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. Some of these features have already been introduced in Hardy beta while some are still to be introduced in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron stable.

1. Boot change – In the early version of Ubuntu, in the boot menu screen we have only one option to chose if we want give it a try or install it. It was called “Start or install Ubuntu”. Now when Live CD is booted automatically offers to chose your language, and you have two new options “Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer” and Install Ubuntu.

2. Xorg 7.3 – The new Xorg 7.3 is coming with Hardy Heron. This ability brings a new Screen Resolution utility that allows users to dynamically configure the resolution, refresh rate, and rotation of a second monitor. This will be particularly handy for laptop users that connect to a projector or external monitor.

3. Kernel– Ubuntu 8.04 also brings a new kernel 2.6.24.3 which comes packed with the “Completely Fair Scheduler” for improved interactive performance and dynticks support for power saving on the both desktop and laptop computers, and new fixes that have been merged in the last few months into the mainline kernel.

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Google Notebook is a quick-note taking service by Google which was launched back in 2006 but still very few people seem to know about it. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if its is the first time ever you use this service after reading this post. I am going to share 5 ways of making good use of Google Notebook that can help you with your daily life productivity.

1. Manage To-Do Lists

If you think that RememberTheMilk is a little too advance for you to handle and manage your daily To-Do lists then Google Notebook may serve as the best alternative in this case. You can create, edit and manage your daily To-Do and tasks list on Google Notebook just like you would do on your diary.

2. Make List of Upcoming Blog Posts

This is what I personally use Google Notebook the most for i.e. managing blog posts. I make lists of posts with their titles, short description and links. The list always refreshes my mind of the new posts that I have to write. This way I never forget posting about news alerts, old tips and tricks and miscellaneous chunks of knowledge. Perfect for bloggers and publishers.

3. Clip and Collect Information

Google Notebook also has a Firefox extension which makes it easy for Firefox users to clip and collect information from websites. You can collect recipes, gift ideas, and interesting articles from the web on the fly (thanks to Ajax) and can even organize all your collected information in a proper order. The best thing is that you won’t ever have to leave your browser window.

4. Read, Write and Edit notes from Mobile

Unlike other quick-note services, Google Notebook has a special version which is optimized for working on a mobile or smartphone. Works like a charm with Nokia N95, iPod Touch, iPhone and other smartphone devices. The special version can be accessed at:

http://www.google.com/notebook/m

You can access other notes you made while you were on your PC and can even create new notes which are labeled as “Mobile Notes”.

5. Share and Collaborate

With Google Notebook not only can you create notes and collect information for yourself but you can also invite users to help you manage your notes. These notes can even be exported as HTML or shared with your friends/family. Moreover you have even got an option to print these notes or export all of them to Google Docs.

Google Notebook is indeed a great tool but not many users understand how productive this little service can be. Give it a try and you will feel the difference.

I always thought about how wonderful Wikipedia is. Where else can you find faceless, nameless humans sharing their knowledge for someone they don’t know in some distant land. Internet makes ideas that seems weird bring to reality. Now coming back from philosophy to reality: Wikipedia is cool and none of us can think without living it anymore.

There are many tools out there that will help you keep updated with latest happening around the world and today I want to share you with Wikirage which is one such similar tool. I assume that name didn’t get a clue of what it is. So here we go:

Wikirage is a service that will tell you about the latest updated pages from Wikipedia. It lists the pages in Wikipedia which are receiving the most edits per unique editor over various periods of time. Popular people in the news, the latest fads, and the hottest video games can be quickly identified by monitoring this social phenomenon.

You can sort the pages by many criteria including Quality Edits, Unique Editors Total Edits, Vandalism Reversions, Undos etc.

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