Online Music: 8Tracks

It's summer and an awesome time to spend with family and friends on the road! Yet, I quit my satellite radio subbie and we will be stuck with state-to-state radio stations. :( So, one productive Sunday afternoon, I chanced upon 8tracks to build a roadtrip playlist. 

On another note, I deleted my free version workout radio app. And besides Pandora and Tunein, 8tracks is the next best thing (might evict the two) while on my walking trail.

The site reminds me of Hype Machine where you can like and build your faves list, but in playlist format. It helps that the popular lists have already been filtered. iCoz, it's gonna eat your data plan after all!

So, I opened an account and you have two things to do: check the genre list and search your cup of tea. How hard can it get!

Online Photo Editor: PicMonkey

Found this awesome photo editor that doesn't require registering. Sometimes, this is a sigh of relief. I'm pretty much twitching whenever I give out my email address, no matter how many I own, to any web login. You always fear the marketing companies/phishers' whiffing to hound your email down. Evidently, Picmonkey's no-strings-attached-just-edit-photos philosophy hits the right note. And oh boy, am I glad to find it!

Anyway, grieving over the demise of Picnik is officially over (before it merged with Picasa). Lo and behold, Picmonkey was born! (At least, when I finally discovered it.) It has the looks and feel of Picnik, and the technical ease is a welcome treat.

Picmonkey's tools aren't just eye-candy. Features to edit photos are not just the usual basic edits, cross process or posterize. It comes cutesy fonts and overlays plus no-frills touch up options that made editing fun again. Pretty much, I'm very impressed of how robust the tools are and easy it is to manipulate and save photos. I might even say, Picmonkey can replace my watermarking software anytime! This site would truly be a big hit to kids, teens, and not surprisingly to photoshop novices and advanced users.

The only downside that I could think of--and I really dread stating--is the lack of having an account. It would somehow personalize and may even perhaps provide some limited photo storing to backup creations. BUT, it's not a big deal, since I love how portable and practical Picmonkey is.

Mind you, Picmonkey is not a GIMP or Photoshop alternative, but this is definitely a keeper!

Android App: Lightbox

Recently discovered a new online photo storage site that is free. And, Lightbox is a wonderful free Android photo app too, which makes smartphone photography more interesting. Since it is looong wait for the Android version of Instagram, it was sheer delight to test my thumbs with this little app wonder.

Clean lines. No-fuss shooting plus photo sharing. It has its own social networking community as well. Lightbox's cool feature is just having your own online site to stock up on photos. I have yet to dig deeper for memory limits, but I'm sure this is one fun alternative to Flickr and Photobucket. The more the merrier!

Online Photo Editor: Photovisi

It's too cute to resist. Tonight, the kids have been getting into photography and videography, With that, the easiest model is the mom. :) So, for a profile pic, I had a preference over a pic and they both voted for another. Quick fix: make a collage.

I didn't like the thought of downloading Picasa for quick edits and I'm getting impatient with using my ever-fave Picnik. Lo and behold, Photovisi came into the picture. No pun intended.

Fun, fun, fun with lotsa choices for layouts. I found another goldmine! Everybody was happy with the end result.