Happy Valentine's Day from Webware. We don't have chocolate, flowers, or cheesy cards for you, but we do have a roundup of Valentine's Day-related Web services and specials for you to get in touch with that special someone.
>> YouTube is offering video valentines. You've got six kitschy and humorous videos to choose from, featuring a slightly overweight cupid who causes more harm than good. For quick and easy personalized Webcam videos to your sweetheart, try out Viddler or Gabmail.
>> If your honey is stuck in the office all day, cheer him or her up with a text message. Joopz is offering virtual candy hearts by text and Web. The company also is letting texters use unlimited Web-to-text service for free all day (it's normally three bucks a month).
>> Send them a virtual gift on Facebook. With icons designed by Susan Kare, there are a number of love-centric options to choose from. Your first gift is free, and gifts are $1 each after that. For the month of February, Facebook is donating all proceeds to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
>> Flirt with a someone you don't know. Jumbuck's "Fast Flirting" service (not to be confused with speed dating) hooks you up with a stranger via text messaging for 10 minutes at a time. Hopefully it doesn't take you that long to figure out how to use your phone's keypad. Luckily there are preset message templates to get the conversation going. There's also a social networking component with groups, profiles, and user avatars.
>> Wishood gives you an online greeting card with a twist--you get to add a wish to it and the sender can "grant" it. Did you get them post-it notes instead of that magenta iPod Shuffle they wanted? They'll probably let you know. For other greeting card services, check out BlueMountain and eGreetings.
>> Buy your Web site a present. Pingdom is offering users a free year of uptime monitoring service, which makes sure your site is alive and well and lets you know if there are any problems. The service normally costs $120 a year.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
You may have noticed that posting is a bit light here on Webware today, but it's not for lack of trying. Let me tell you what I've tried so far today, and why there are no good hands-on reviews.
Titanize, an online backup system that competes with Mozy and Carbonite: I installed this service on my father's PC, and it seemed to be working fine. Today I wanted to check out its advanced features (publishing, online access, and so on) so I could write up the review. Sadly, they didn't work. I can't get a backup to run on my own system, and trying to view files on another account gives me "file has been deleted" and other error messages. Update: A few hours later, everything seems to be working fine. Backups are running on my machine, and I'm not getting error messages anymore from the Web site.
PDFescape, an online PDF file viewer: An interesting idea, since it could add easy collaboration to PDF files. But the demo is limited to files under 512KB or 10 pages. That's a stopper, since the free Acrobat reader has no limitation. I tried a random assortment of six PDFs from my system. All of them busted one or both of those limits, so I gave up. Update: The developer is increasing the system's limits.
Peekamo, a potentially very interesting social network for mobile users: Claims to offer free SMS, even for people who usually have to pay for each message they send. But the interface and setup stymied me.
Mosoto, which looks like a very cool real-time accessory for Facebook: It lets you see which of your buddies are online and share music playlists. See TechCrunch's review. The founder e-mailed me to pitch it, but he didn't send a way to get access, so I can't try it.
Finally, Wishood. Good Valentine's Day angle here: This service lets you collect wishes (like an online gift registry) or give wish "grants" to other people. But, basically, it looks like a fancy online greeting card site, and it doesn't float my boat.
I am heading out to lunch now to clear my head and wish (hello, Wishood?) for some good Webware that I can actually cover. Later today I am meeting with the new CEO of Pageflakes and hope to report some interesting news from that.
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