Google Calendar is amazing. I’ve always seen it and have heard about it, but I never took the time to try it out. When I tried it out, I was really surprised to see what all it had to offer.

You have to have an account with Google to use it, but don’t worry, it’s easy to set up and it’s free as well.

Once you set up your account and logon to the Google Calendar page, it has a calendar waiting for you to use.  You can set up multiple calendars for multiple uses, like a private calendar and a public calendar, or a calendar for each member of the family.

You can set it up to receive notifications by e-mail, or text/SMS on your cell phone, when an event is added to the calendar, when changes/cancellations/responses to invitations are made, and daily notifications to update you on your schedule.  You can also get reminders by text/SMS or e-mail a certain ammount of time before the event is supposed to happen.  This is great, not only can you have your whole schedule on your cell phone, but you can be notified event by event right on your cell!

If you have GoogleDesktop with the Google Sidebar, you can add the Calendar Gadget that will retrieve information from your calendar straight to your desktop.  I tried this out, and the only downside to it is, in expanded view, the calendar is still too small to see all days of the week.  Every time you use the calendar you have to manually expand it to show all the dates.  To avoid this hassle however, you can make it show a list of the events/appointments you have scheduled on your calendar – rather than the actual calendar itself.

Another cool feature is the embed option.  You can embed your calendar into your own website or blog easily.  You can adjust the size, features, some colors, etc., and it will automatically generate a code that you can copy and paste into your web page/blog.

There are other ways to share your calendar if you choose to make it public, like RSS, iCAL, and a public accessable HTML code so people can embed YOUR calendar into THEIR webpage/blog.

There are more features to this neat calendar.  So if you want a calendar that notifies you by text/SMS and/or e-mail of your upcoming events, that you can embed into your web page/blog, that does so many things I can’t even list it, then you should head on over to the Google Calendar webpage and create your calendar.

What Do You Think?
Do you like Google Calendar?  Do you know of any cool, free calendar apps, or just cool, free apps in general?  Got a question on how to use the Google Calendar?  Let me know!!!  Send your thoughts to david@funkytower.com

Take it easy,
David Crandall

GoAnimate is free and easy to use.  They have a pretty decent selection of premade characters settings, props, sounds, special effects, and actions to choose from.  You can even import some images and sounds of your owns to use if you want to do your own voice overs or add your own background music, or use the stuff other people have imported!

When you’re done editing your cartoon, you can embed it to your blog/myspace/webpage, or get a URL to send to all of your friends.

It’s hard for me to describe everything that you can do with GoAnimate, so here’s a cartoon made with GoAnimate:

Pretty neat, huh?  And what’s great is you don’t have to do all the hard drawing and work involved in animating.  So if you’ve got a storyline and want to put some life to it….for free….then head your creative self over to www.goanimate.com and create a free account

What Do You Think?
Do you enjoy GoAnimate as much as I do?  What are some of the cartoons you made?  Do you know of any other cool websites/web-apps?  Let me know!  My e-mail is david@funkytower.com and I would love to hear from you

Take it easy,
David

AVG Free:  AVG is a free antivirus protection software that frequently updates their systems.  I have used AVG before, and it has always been up to date with the latest threats out there.  If you are a windows user and just can’t afford good antivirus protection, AVG Free is the way to go.  (You can also buy AVG Internet Security which includes antivirus AND antispam protection, firewall, and phishing and email scam protection for about $55 for 1 year, or about $80 for 2 yeaers.)

SpyBot Search&Destroy:  Tired of pop ups, the ones that come up even when you’re not browsing the internet?  Well, it’s time to get rid of it using SpyBot Search&Destroy.  This is a great, free spyware/adware removal tool who’s systems are also frequently updated to fight against the latest threats.

IExplorer 7 or FireFox:  Did I just mention a web browser?  Yes I did, 2 infact.  Firefox is great for ridding of ads on pages that could potentially expose pop ups and feed you spyware/adware by using the built in pop-up blocker and the No-Script add on.  IExplorer 7 has some neat new features that help improve your security as well, such as a customizable pop-up blocker and phishing filter.   These are essential to protect you from spyware and adware that could potentially steal your information and identity. 

What’s cool about the customizeable pop-up blocker built into IExplorer is you can choose when you want IExplorer to block pop-ups.  This is great, because sometimes, we click things that we need to access that appear in pop-up windows.  With IExplorer 7, you can choose to allow pop-ups from websites you choose, and block all others.  You can customize the popup blocker in FireFox as well.

Google Toolbar:  If you don’t want to go through the hassle of downloading and installing a new web browser, snag the google toolbar for IExplorer or Firefox.  It has a built in pop-up blocker as well as Google search built right into it. 

There you have it, some great tools to help you have a safer experience on the world wide web in the best way possible – for free!

What do you think?
Know of any cool software, programs, or different ways to stay safe from spyware, adware, phishing, and viruses on the internet for free?  What do you do to stay safe online?  Was this a big help to you?  Whatever you have on your mind, please share it with me!  Feel free to respond via the comment form below, or send me an e-mail at david@funkytower.com.  I hope to hear from you soon

Take it easy,
David

I have to admit, this app is really cool.  Originally for the MAC, this free software was made to give users the top of the line, beautiful desktop backgrounds for their desktop.  The desktop backgrounds are made by top of the line designers from various design fields.

You’re free to create an account with Desktoptopia (optional) so that you can design and upload your very own desktop background.  However, not all desktop designs will be submitted because Desktoptopia demands high quality.  If you don’t believe me, visit the Desktoptopia Gallery to preview the wide range of desktop backgrounds they have.

After downloading and installing, you can choose to have Desktoptopia to run when you login to your operating system (on startup), you can choose what categories you would like your desktop backgorund pictures to be from, and how often they change.

It’s really cool.  They even have backgrounds for the iPhone.  How that works: I’m not really sure – I don’t have an iPhone.  I would guess this is a feature for the Mac Version, as the Windows version is still undergoing BETA testing.  I’m using it right now, and it works great on my Vista machine.  The only issue I have is when running, you have to open it from the task bar, you can’t use the shortcuts in your start menu, your desktop, or anywhere else you may have a shortcut.  Otherwise, this product works great and I haven’t had an issue with it.

Overall I really enjoy this app.  I’m the kind of person who leaves his computer on most of the day, so the beautiful graphics on my desktop is a really nice touch.

So swing on over to www.desktoptopia.com and download your copy of Desktoptopia!

What Do You Think?
Do you use, enjoy, or dislike Desktoptopia?  Know of any other cool apps you’d like to share?  Have you created some cool desktop backgrounds that are featured on Desktoptopia and want to share how you did it?  Whatever the case may be, I want to know about it.  So, send me an e-mail at david@funkytower.com

Take it easy
David Crandall

That’s right, now there are websites where you can edit and save your photos without having to download any software at all, and best of all, it’s free.  Ah, yes, our favorite word – “Free.”

It’s called FotoFlexer.  With FotoFlexer, all you do is upload a picture, and get started.  It’s really easy to use and there are alot of things you can do with your photos.

You can crop them, rotate them, adjust the color, add a plethora of effects, add text, layer photos on top of photos, blur and sharpen them, distort them in various ways, and more! 

Don’t worry if you make any mitakes, because you can undo anything as you go along.  If you undo too much, you can redo anything you’ve undone.

Once finished editing your photo, click save.  When you do this, it will ask you to log in or create an account, so if you don’t already have one, create one.  Don’t worry, all it asks for is your name and e-mail, so it’s really short and simple.  After that, it will ask you where you want to save it.  On the left hand side, you can select “My Computer” to save it to your computer, “FotoFlexer” to save your photo and work on it later, or the various other options to add it to a webpage like Myspace.

That’s it!  It’s a really handy tool and very well made.  Best of all, it’s free and easy to use.
So if you can’t afford high end photo editing software and don’t want to go through all the hussle and bussle of figuring out where find free software and installing it, do yourself a favor and visit www.fotoflexer.com

What do you think?

Do you think FotoFlexer is a great tool for editing photos online?  Do you know of any other cool, free online apps that could come in handy?  Whatever you have to say, I want to hear it.  Let me know by writing me at david@funkytower.com

Take it easy,
David